What do you want?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom
  • Start date Start date
T

Tom

Hi, all
I am intending to develop some software to both sell and give away
(see below) and wanted some ideas.
i.e. What software do people want?

have you ever thought, if only such-and-such a piece of software was
available? Or if only this program could do ...?

I want to sell the program by providing a free cripple-ware + ad ware
version and a modest-priced 'pro' upgrade.
So the free version will have limited capabilities (e.g a maximum file
size) and also a banner ad on it. But no time-limit, or forced
registration.

Here are some ideas for you to comment on if there is nothing
particular you want:

1. an outliner
This will be different from the others out there in that when you add
an item to it it will automatically put it in the correct place in the
outline. It will also let you organise documents/files

2. a text editor (yet another!)
This will have features to deal with very large files / projects that
would make it suitable for professional writers e.g. automatically
creating indexes + tables of contents, built in revision control and
differencing, word auto-completion, readability stats.

3.a search applet
An applet people can put on their web-sites to let users search the
site

4. file utilities
e.g. a duplicate file finder, and an indexer that will let people find
files on their CD collection

comments?

Thanks in advance

Tom K.
 
Tom said:
I am intending to develop some software to both sell and give away
(see below) and wanted some ideas.
i.e. What software do people want?
have you ever thought, if only such-and-such a piece of software was
available? Or if only this program could do ...?

I want to sell the program by providing a free cripple-ware + ad ware
version and a modest-priced 'pro' upgrade.
So the free version will have limited capabilities (e.g a maximum file
size) and also a banner ad on it. But no time-limit, or forced
registration.
Click to expand...

Adware is off-topic in this newsgroup.
 
Tom said:
Hi, all
I am intending to develop some software to both sell and give away
(see below) and wanted some ideas.
i.e. What software do people want?

have you ever thought, if only such-and-such a piece of software was
available? Or if only this program could do ...?
Click to expand...

I'm sure you could get a lot of ideas for new programs in this group, if it
was'nt for the next lines.
We hate cripple- and addware.
I want to sell the program by providing a free cripple-ware + ad ware
version and a modest-priced 'pro' upgrade.
So the free version will have limited capabilities (e.g a maximum file
size) and also a banner ad on it. But no time-limit, or forced
registration.
Click to expand...

My 1$ advice - don't wast you time writing Cripple- or addware.
Make some good freeware and some good payware.
Use the freeware to get people to your site and sell the payware.

You have to have thousind of users to earn money from addware and
crippleware is simply out of the question.
So if you deside to make som disent freeware, lets talk.!

Jan Langholm
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Search and Find the needed freeware at
Freeware World Team International database
Presents more than 10.300 freeware from around the World.
http://www.all4you.dk/FreewareWorld/links.php
 
Tom said:
I want to sell the program by providing a free cripple-ware + ad ware
version and a modest-priced 'pro' upgrade.
So the free version will have limited capabilities (e.g a maximum file
size) and also a banner ad on it. But no time-limit, or forced
registration.
Click to expand...

Well, then, since adware isn't freeware, what *I'd* like (since you
asked) is that you go pitch an appropriate group.
 
Tom said:
(clipped)
I want to sell the program by providing a free cripple-ware + ad ware
version and a modest-priced 'pro' upgrade.
So the free version will have limited capabilities (e.g a maximum file
size) and also a banner ad on it. But no time-limit, or forced
registration.
(cliped)
comments?
Click to expand...

Only comment I have is a question: are you trolling or what? This
group is for the discussion of freeware only. Crippleware, adware and
commercial software are all non-freeware types, so please take your
question to a more appropriate newsgroup.
 
Neowulf said:
I looked at the Freeware Wish List and noticed two things:

Although it's not exactly what's described, I use KeyNote (which is on
Pricelessware.org and SourceForge.net) to outline & write my stories, keep
records of research, make to-do lists, document conceptual game designs,
plan my website...actually, I pretty much use it for everything! Except for
NoteTab Light, KeyNote is probably my most-used app.

Perhaps more importantly, the Wish List includes a request for a free speech
recognition program. Well, there is one! If I recall (an I'll double check),
the Microsoft SAPI 5.1 runs on pretty much all Win32 OS's; it includes a
dictation pad (that crashes a lot). Even so, I used it quite a lot on my
Athelon before it gave up the ghost.



Aaron
Click to expand...

http://www.microsoft.com/speech/
Microsoft Speech - Home

http://www.microsoft.com/speech/download/old/sapi5.asp
Microsoft Speech - Speech SDK 5.1 for Windows® applications

Is this what you meant? Isn't it only for developers?
Will it recognize others languages than english?

What is your experience with it?

Thank you.
dM
 
<snip>

Thank you for your replies

before i posted here i did as i always do before posting to a new
group, i looked at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/ and
ftp://ftp.isc.org/usenet/control/alt/ for an faq.

There is none there, so i searched on google for an faq. The frst one
which comes up is:
http://groups.google.com/[email protected]
which clearly claims that adware *is* freeware.

"4) WHAT IS COMPUTER FREEWARE ? ... If a program has
advertisements (adware), ... then it should be clearly stated
that this is the case."

I also lurked for a week, and read nothing which contradicted the
common-sense idea in the faq that adware is freeware.


I have now read another faq
(http://geocities.com/SiliconValley/Circuit/9810/FrameSet1.html) ...
which i assume is the official one which does indeed say that adware
is off-topic.
of course, the question i asked about what kind of software people
want seems to be applicable to any type of software.

So you see i did everything reasonable to make sure i was posting
on-topic first, which is why I wonder about the tone of some of the
replies i got.

If off-topic posts are a problem, might i suggest the regulars follow
normal practice of posting an faq at regular intervals (e.g. once a
month) and putting it on a site such as www.faqs.org.


regards
Tom K.
 
(e-mail address removed) (Tom) wrote in
If off-topic posts are a problem, might i suggest the
regulars follow normal practice of posting an faq at
regular intervals (e.g. once a month) and putting it on a
site such as www.faqs.org.
Click to expand...

A fine suggestion imo.
 
On 31 Jul 2003 13:16:15 -0700, (e-mail address removed) (Tom) wrote:

So you see i did everything reasonable to make sure i was posting
on-topic first, which is why I wonder about the tone of some of the
replies i got.
Click to expand...

< snip >

To know how a newly visited newsgroup operates "everything reasonable"
IMO would be to read the posts there for a number of days (weeks ?)
before posting. If you had done that you would have had a good idea of
what many people think of adware. Added to that a link to my version
of the ACF FAQ is posted pretty well daily. In my sig.


Regards, John.

--
****************************************************
,-._|\ (A.C.F FAQ) http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/faq.html
/ Oz \ John Fitzsimons - Melbourne, Australia.
\_,--.x/ http://www.aspects.org.au/index.htm
v http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/
 
(e-mail address removed) (Tom) wrote in
So you see i did everything reasonable to make sure i was posting
on-topic first, which is why I wonder about the tone of some of the
replies i got.
Click to expand...

I am sorry if you have been offended by the answers you have got here. This
freeware/adware/spyware debate is such a sore subject with the regulars
here. It's a constant, running battle that has got very bitter at times.
Apart from this, it's a very friendly, helpful newsgroup.

I hope you haven't been put off and that you will consider developing pure
freeware, or at least stick around.

:o)
 
This freeware/adware/spyware debate is such a sore subject with
the regulars here. It's a constant, running battle that has got
very bitter at times. Apart from this, it's a very friendly,
helpful newsgroup.
Click to expand...

What's needed is an A.C.F Acrimony Alert indicator. It should
monitor the newsfeed and show the user an icon which changes color
to indicate the current level. Probably the best way to do it would
be with Bayesian techniques, at least until the user had trained it
enough. After that, it could detect flamewar outbreaks and raise
the level or detect an increase in friendly posts and decrease the
acrimony level accordingly.

People who dislike the wars could use it to indicate when they
might take a break from the newsgroup. Or they could redouble their
efforts to post friendly, helpful messages. And people who love the
wars would immediately know when to drop what they're doing and rush
in to fan the flames and increase the level.

This could turn out to have wide application across Usenet, and turn
its authors into net.gods.
 
What's needed is an A.C.F Acrimony Alert indicator.
[snip]

This could turn out to have wide application across Usenet, and turn
its authors into net.gods.
Click to expand...

Now this is what is what we *really* want. I would install this even if it
were spyware for the RIAA, CIA, KGB, SS, SMERSH and Beelzebub himself -
Bill Gates.
 
»Q« said:
What's needed is an A.C.F Acrimony Alert indicator. It should
monitor the newsfeed and show the user an icon which changes color
to indicate the current level. Probably the best way to do it would
be with Bayesian techniques, at least until the user had trained it
enough. After that, it could detect flamewar outbreaks and raise
the level or detect an increase in friendly posts and decrease the
acrimony level accordingly.
Click to expand...
This could turn out to have wide application across Usenet, and turn
its authors into net.gods.
Click to expand...

Yes indeed. Are you going to write it? May I say I knew you when?

I have found that a surge in the numbers of posts is a pretty good
indicator. 50 percent increase -> rough weather ahead, 200 percent ->
the hurricane has landed. Perhaps this simple test could be used during
development of the alpha version.

Susan
 
Yes indeed. Are you going to write it? May I say I knew you when?
Click to expand...

Sorry, not I. The last time I wrote any code it was assembly language
for an 8-bit Motorola CPU, and I'm pretty sure that's not the right
platform for this.
I have found that a surge in the numbers of posts is a pretty good
indicator. 50 percent increase -> rough weather ahead,
200 percent-> the hurricane has landed. Perhaps this simple test
could be used during development of the alpha version.
Click to expand...

That sounds about right to me.
 
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