Encourage users to pay
I will probably start differencing the functionality for registered and unregistered users of jsiPodFetch. Since it doesn’t do much there is not many functions to take out. I will start by directing unregistered users to a downloading page when there are upgrades instead of downloading the new installer automatically. Nag screens are also a viable solution, but I will give that a second thought. Nag screens has converted me from a free rider to a paying customer some times. I have on the other hand completely abandoned software that was a bit too intrusive.
jsiPodFetch is a utility for getting podcasts to your phone or ipod clone. It will create a well ordered playlist and keep track of what shows can be deleted from the media player.
jsiPodFetch 7.37
I just did a new release of jsiPodFetch.
Unless I get distracted by user reported errors the next release will include support for downloading media via BitTorrent.
CHANGE LOG
7.37
- Fixed an error because of mismatch between the meta data and the file system that could happen if a user for some reason killed the process in the wrong millisecond.
- Added call in uninstaller to remove jsiPodFetch related data
- Added -uninstall as a commandline argument to remove all jsiPodFetch related data. (To be used by the uninstaller.)
- Fixed a bug that left done files on the player.
- Now detects when a USB device is added or removed and does a refresh automatically.
FreeMind and the current job
The current job is about defining/refining and documenting a system that is a couple of years old. I was a big part in building it initially but it has grown without much control since then.
As I see it, the main reason it is hard to get a grasp of it now is because there is (or has never been) a central role to consolidate the development. For each little project there has been a new project manager who only wanted to do his part at the lowest cost or him. No one has taken, or gotten, responsibility for all of it. This has led to more than one ugly hack to solve the same issue in different sub projects.
Now they have taken the opportunity to try to figure out what functionality there actually is, and what should be reused or refactored.
This is the first time my deliverables aren’t code. Starting with a blank sheet is always hard, but I remembered FreeMind, a free mind mapping tool. It helps a lot with the blank sheet syndrome since one can start dumping information in it and organize it later. Of course that is possible in any other text editor, but the graphical metaphor of FreeMind helps, at least me, get over the writers block.
I haven’t run FreeMind in Vista before so it was not very pleasant to discover that all file operations on new files failed. I solved it by copying one of the document that came with the install. When I double click it in my favorite file manager it starts FreeMind and I can save changes to ‘old’ documents. It is apparently a known bug so I will keep recommending FreeMind to any one who wants to listen.
I used to build my documentation for logview4net in a commercial competitor called Mind Manager. I think I will start using FreeMind for both logveiw4net and jsiPodFetch in the future.
New release of jsiPodFetch
I encountered a couple of severe errors in jsiPodFetch this week so there was a new release yesterday.
Changes in 7.36
- When adding new feed it didn’t show up in the list.
- Don’t download items marked as done.
- Woops; If a feed was deleted while one of its files were on the player; the app couldn’t display any items.
- Added a content menu to the tray icon.
- Added a play button when an item is selected so that one can listen to the media on the PC
- Extended tooltip on ‘blue light’ when downloading content.
First service release of jsiPodFetch
Today I did the first service release of my podcast downloader; jsiPodFetch.
The new version is 7.35 (I use year and week for version numbering) and this is what i have fixed since 7.33:
- App disappears when minimizing.
- Blue ‘light’ turned of after first downloaded item. Even if there were more.
- It takes to long to open the initial window.
- Items in new feed wasn’t downloaded until restart of application.
- The free space calculation fails when copying files.
- Add a license dialog to installer.
- Removed the question for folder on start when the player is not connected.
- Send user to website on F1
- Missing data in feeds causes internal exceptions. (Changed exception text. Errors on per item, not per feed.)
- Lowering the size limit on the player while having ‘to much’ data on the player will create internal errors. (The app works OK though.)
jsiPodFetch is an application that helps when listening to podcasts in phones or other media players. It downloads media to your PC, creates a playlist and copies the media to your player.
Describing the itch
Now that I have released jsiPodFetch I have some marketing to do. It is definitively a task I am not comfortable with. I even find it hard to explain what the program does in an understandable way.
In reality the application doesn’t do very much and that is what I like the most about it. I think (hope) that people will be able to use it without much explanation.
…anyway; the itch I had was that I had trouble copying podcasts to my phone and keep track of what I had listened to. I also wanted to have a playlist every time I copied the media to the phone so that I would get a decent listening order. My Sony Ericsson sorts tracks by filename if there is no playlist. jsiPodFetch will also do wonders with my (very) old MP3 player because it writes the files to the player in the order they should be played.
Official release of jsiPodFetch
At last I have released a beta of jsiPodFetch:
Make it easier to listen to podcasts with your phone or media player.
jsiPodFetch will download the audio files from your podcast RSS feeds and create a playlist for optimal listening order.
Downloaded media is stored on your PC until you mark them as done.
jsiPodFetch is in beta and can be downloaded here.
More information and documentation will be provided shortly.
jsiPodFetch is freeware now, but please take a look at my advertisers to support the future development.
Shareware licensing
My upcoming shareware application is almost ready. There is some more testing to be done in Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I am also going to try to run it in Ubuntu using Mono, but that will come after the initial release. I’m arguing with myself about whether I should implement the GUI in WPF in a future release or if I should stay with WinForms so that I can run with Mono.
Apart from testing I still have to implement some sort of licensing system. I would prefer having the keys generated by the PayPal manager I have in PHP so that the sales process can be fully automated. It will take some extra care since an issued key has to work in the future. I can’t upgrade that part of the code without invalidating all issued keys.
My first attempt created a key based on the customers email address. The big flaw with it was that it was only possible to do one check so if someone figured out the algorithm for creating the key I would have free keys online forever. I need to create a license key that I can do several different checks on in different versions of my program.
At the moment I’m thinking of using hashes of GUID’s. That way I can incorporate different GUID’s in different compiles of the program. It will also be possible to include lists of invalid GUID’s both in the application and as part of the automatic upgrade manifest.
The next problem will be to inline the validity checks in my c# code so that the potential cracker has more than one place to shortcut. I don’t believe it will be cracker proof. It just has to be hard enough to stand the first attempt at cracking it.
Hopefully I will make the release early September.
Hobby project part 3
Since I’m going to release the software as shareware I have to come up with a good incentive for the users to pay for it.
At the moment I’m trying to decide if I should start showing ads when the trial period is over or if I should just make it obvious that they are using unpaid software. Ads could create som revenue, but it might equally well make people sick of the application.
If I stop the application from working then the trial period is over it will probably be cracked in an afternoon even if the user base is small so I think I’ll let people use it even if they don’t pay. Perhaps conscience will win eventually.
Hobby project part 2
I’ve got a couple of ideas for other programs so I registered a domain
(jsisoft.com) where I can host them instead of one domain per application which probably would be better from a marketing perspective. I will prefix all the program names with ‘jsi’ to (hopefully) avoid other peoples trademarks.
It’s probably a couple of weeks of development time left before I make it public, but I have got the plumbing with paypal from jsisoft.com done and there is a forum here.
It is possible to make a donation for logview4net from the site.
I was thinking about submitting the software to as many shareware/download portals as I can find without spending any money.
