An experiment in funding open source software
Posted by: mhughes in Uncategorized 3 years, 3 months ago
In the past, I've blogged many times about my ObjectHandles library, and today I'm starting an experiment in generating some revenue for it.
There is now a new web page at http://object-handles-examples.appspot.com/ that has 7 example applications intended as either a training resource, or as a starting point for more complex applications. I'm charging a fee for the source code to those examples. The fee is whatever you decide to pay (with a $15 minimum)
The more revenue that this generates, the more motivation I'll have to spend time working on the core library and additional examples.
The core library will continue to remain free and under the MIT license. It can always be downloaded from http://code.google.com/p/flex-object-handles/
There were a few reasons for me to do this including:
- My motivation to work on the library has been very low lately. I don't have any current projects that are using it.
- The donations link that I have has received a total of 3 donations over 2 and a half years.
- By working on these examples, I was able to really exercise some of the core functionality. While doing this I was able to
- Completely revamp the constraints mechanism and implement things like an Aspect Ratio constraint
- Find and fix a handful of bugs
- Figure out the answers to some questions others have asked that I just didn't know the answer to
- Make several big performance improvements
Just say no to dell
Posted by: mhughes in Uncategorized 3 years, 3 months ago
I am so frustrated with the buying experience with Dell today that I'm giving up on them. Their customer service is useless. Their promises for delivery are repeatedly broken. They have crazy restocking fees.
This is for an order placed 1/18, and I have no confidence that it would have actually gotten here on the 25th so I'm canceling that. It wouldn't be so bad if the people you have to talk to on the phone had some idea about what's going on. Something like "We just can't get that video card" or "The wireless adapter is out of stock". I would have modified the order to get it sooner if possible.
But all I got was corporate-speak about how great dell was and how I'd just have to wait.
I'm buying a mac mini instead. At least apple will screw me over with a smile.
SimpleDiagrams - An ObjectHandles usage
Posted by: mhughes in Uncategorized 3 years, 4 months ago
Daniel McQuillen from www.simplediagrams.com emailed me last week to let me know about their use of ObjectHandles in the SimpleDiagrams product. It's an AIR application that lets you create chalkboard style diagrams in just a couple seconds. It's sort of Visio for people who need to get stuff done instead of diagram all day long. I gave it a quick 10 minute try, and this might be an app I add to my arsenal of tools.
Daniel has been kind enough to offer me a small percentage of their sales as a thank-you for the ObjectHandles library. It's MIT Licensed, so he didn't have to do that, but I'd like to send a big thank-you to him for that. That's a great way to support open source projects.
Archives
Posted by: mhughes 3 years, 4 months ago
Do not edit this page
Why educational software
Posted by: mhughes in Uncategorized 3 years, 5 months ago
Here's one reason why I'm in the educational software business. We're pilot-testing one of our new products (called Fraction Nation) at a local school. The teacher gave all the kids surveys to fill out, there were a lot of great responses. This response made my day.
Do you enjoy playing Fraction Nation?Or this one from another kid...I don't enjoy playing Fraction Nation. I Love it! Very Inspiring! You guys probably change my life and others! Wonderful Job!
If you could change something about the program, what would you change?Another kid, same question:The thing I would change would be nothing 'cause I really liked it!
If I were to change something, I would change the background.Oddly enough, several kids said the background thing. I say if the background is the biggest thing they want to change, that's a big win.
Universally in that class, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Making a product that teaches fractions that kids like isn't very easy to do, but I think we might have nailed this one.
And here's a doodle one of them made on the back of a survey for us.
The thing that really scares me is almost every one of these kids has better handwriting than I do now.