[Dxbase] FW: DXBase - Comments on Status from my point of view

Mon Sep 6 22:52:06 EDT 2010

Nice response, Neal. You are a lot more reserved in it than I would have
been. I, too, am curious about this anonymous poster. Don't lose any
sleep.
73
Al, VE1AL

-----Original Message-----
From: dxbase-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:dxbase-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Neal Campbell
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2010 11:43 PM
To: Robert Raines
Cc: dxbase at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Dxbase] FW: DXBase - Comments on Status from my point of view
Hi Robert
I honestly do not understand the level of emotional investment you display
in this but since you have raised the points, I will respond (as much as I
think appropriate).
1. This is a software program used in the enjoyment of a wonderful hobby. I
love both the hobby (in so many aspects) as well as programming and helping
out people. I have a real company to run with business customers and in the
spare time that I have, I dedicate to (among other things) this hobby and
DXBase. The minute I feel this isn't fun and worthwhile, I will find some
way to have fun and write off the time and money I have spent as a learning
opportunity. But this is fun! I am going to make sure it remains fun for as
long as I can.
2. I am not aware of any software product that costs 59ドル which occupies a
mission-critical, guaranteed-deadline role in any business or service. I
make no claim nor do I want to participate with that type of implication.
If you need set schedules, penalties for delivery, etc. I can give you a
price for it but I really don't want to because it will start to be purely
a busiess and not fun. It will also be at least a 5 figure cost because it
will be displacing that amount of income from me (after all, this is a 1
person company at this moment). Let me be clear: I will produce version
10, actively work on it every day. But it will only go to beta when I like
it and will only ship when I like it. If your needs are greater than this,
then I have made a mistake in establishing expectations or we have a
misunderstanding. If I have made this expectation, give me some indication
of how I set that expectation (so I can correct it with others) and I can
discuss a refund. Everyone has a 30 day money back warranty so for those
who are in that time period, you do not even have to explain what I have
done to cause the misunderstanding, just ask for the refund.
3. I really do not want to come off as coming down on you, I am truly
pleased you care enough about the product and are disappointed its taking
me much longer to do things, because my business has greatly grown beyond
what I foresaw. In my last status note, I said I was actually cutting back
time on my income-producing activities to work more hours a day on it. I
paid money to Jack for the opportunity to be here and even having this
conversation. I am more invested in this than any of you could possibly be
and have much more to lose.
4. I admire, respect and value Joe's contribution and wisdom. He decided to
discontinue activities against my desires and there isn't a particle of
friction from my side to his. If he has friction from his side to me, all I
can say is I didn't intend any and would truly welcome him back in any way.
Thats all I will ever say about this because its all I feel about it. Joe
isn't a guy who wants people to do much for him to show appreciation, so
its difficult to use normal business rewards to show appreciation. Short of
me flying from Virginia to his house and camping on his yard, I just can't
be any clearer.
5. But, having said all of this, the situation is that I did spend good
money to buy DXBase and I am responsible for doing the best I can, given
these constraints, to have fun and make it an even greater program.
6. If my responses are too cute, point taken. But, they are my responses
and not given flippantly or without thought. I never worked for IBM but I
have been a professional, from programmer to designer to executive, in the
IT world for 34 years. If my style and manner upset you, its an honest
emotion and maybe you will find someone else that suits your needs better.
Not everyone is going to be your cup of tea! I personally am going to have
fun whether you are part of this or not. I honestly do not think that will
change.
7. You only signed on to this reflector this afternoon at 540PM EDT and
this is the only thing I can find you have ever sent to the internet via
Google.
Hotmail. like gmail, is considered one of those anonymous email services in
that its hard to really know who is sending something. Seeing you don't
give a callsign and are a very recent contributor to the list, I just
wonder what your history, investment or even interest in me really is. Is
there another problem here?
Come on guys, this isn't supposed to be like this. Get on the air, use DXB
2007 and enjoy it while I do the same and work on the next release. If this
doesn't suit your personal needs, I am sorry but that is for you to judge
what you should do, I am pretty certain on how I am going to proceed. Its
going to happen (unless I decide this really isn't an opportunity to have
fun) and it will happen when I decide its good enough to happen.
Neal Campbell
Abroham Neal Software
www.abrohamnealsoftware.com
(540) 645 5394 NEW PHONE NUMBER
Amateur Radio: K3NC
Blog: http://www.abrohamnealsoftware.com/blog/
DXBase bug reports: email to cases at dxbase.fogbugz.com Abroham Neal forums:
http:/www.abrohamnealsoftware.com/community/
On Mon, Sep 6, 2010 at 9:50 PM, Robert Raines <r-raines at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> You can think all you want, but we would all be dead if we were 
> holding our breath. Don't give yourself that much credit yet.....
>> *Score Card To Date*
>> Releases - Zero
>> Deadlines - None Published (and answers about dates are a little to
"cute"
> for my liking from a new owner. See the comment quoted at the end of 
> this)
>> Pre-release screen shots on the web site - Zero
>> Programming Skills - Unknown
>> Customer Service Skills - No warm and fuzzy here (See deadlines 
> comment above among other things)
>> Quality Assurance Testing - Unknown
>> Loyal DXBase Customer Following - Starting to fade from lack of 
> information (Are we riding a dark horse at this point?)
>> Bonding with Joe (WA6AXE) who has developed dozens of reports and 
> fixes for us - Seems to be a lot of friction there
>> Support of other applications such as AXETTY, DxbPSK, Realtime LOTW, 
> etc - Unknown
>> And the list goes on.........
>> *Immediate Turn Around Improvement Opportunities*
>> Publish a page on your web site dedicated to DXBase that has links to:
>> A project plan with target dates for each major part of the next 
> release, up to and including a target date for the release.
>> Screen shots of what you have done so far. Worse thing you could do 
> is go blindly down a path and discover the users hate the interface 
> you have developed on your first release. (This would be HUGE)
>> Read your comments twice before you publish them. You may think they 
> are "cute", a lot of us do not.
>> Do you have others using the product in beta testing? Your log and 
> contact volume may be a whole lot different from a contesters or true 
> heavy-duty DXer.
>> Include things like DxbPSK in the time lines so we can see if there 
> are "bolt on" applications that we are using and are not yet included.
>> *Closing Thoughts*
>> There are a lot of IT professionals in your following, so comments 
> like deadlines are hard to establish because of programming changes don't
cut it.
>> You worked for IBM - Did they ever run a project like this?????
>>> I feel the flames coming, but sometimes the truth hurts........
>>>>> Neal Campbell wrote:
> > I'm still here!
> >
> > I think the silence is everyone holding their breath for the next
> release!
>>>>______________________________________________________________
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