I know I should keep my big mouth. Sorry. I know there have
been more than enough posts for this thread. Sorry. But
somehow, I have to say this.
Let me start by saying that I do not want to attack anyone.
I can understand Joshuas point of view just fine. I would
probably have expressed it somewhat differently, but I
can understand it. And I think calling him names is
uncalled for.
Also, I'd like to apologize to Paul. It's always embarassing
to talk about people you know will read what you say
about them without their having a chance to interrupt or
comment what you say.
What all of you should keep in mind is that to really
understand all these mails concerning this thread, you
have to have been on this list for a veeery long time.
Which I assume Joshua has not.
But this just as a side note.
There was a time when I was a student with little money,
too. But now I'm a programmer. With little money.
When I was in the US of A the last time, a sign at a
MacDonald's caught my eye: It said "Now hiring.
$7.00 / hour".
Let's be optimistic for a second. Let's also (to make this
example easier to understand) assume for a second that
neither people selling software nor people working at
MacDonald's are supposed to pay income tax from
what they earn.
Let's assume that Paul will sell 100 copies of his
software at 50 dollars a piece. Most likely, he never
will, but let's assume it. This will make him
5000 dollars richer. For the same result someone
working at MacDonald's would have to work 714
hours. Or about 3 hours each day for a year,
assuming he doesn't work on weekends.
Having been on this list pretty much since it was
founded, I think I can bluntly state that Paul has worked
way more than that on this project. He has killed his
Newton hardware during this development.
Now please accept my deepest apologies if someone on
this list is working at MacDonald's. But my personal
opinion is that doing what Paul did is much more
sophisticated work and deserves a higher payment.
Another thing that should be kept in mind is that if you
sell software, it's not just "get the money and be off with
it". At least not if you have a conscience. You have to
support the software. This takes time. Time you'd
much rather spend
on writing other software you can sell.
I know what I'm talking about. I'm currently spending
about 25 percent of my work time supporting the 3
projects who use the software I wrote plus about another
25 percent supporting the 5 or 6 other projects who plan
to do so.
While we are at it, let's imagine Paul lowers the price
to US$ 10. This would mean he'd have to sell 500 copies
yearly to have the same income as someone working at
MacDonald's.
Or, statistically, one to every third member on this
list each year. Good joke.
Even if that was possible, the effort spent on support
would multiply by a factor of 5. Because usually people
who only pay 20 percent still expect 100 percent of
support. Rightfully.
Another thing I would like to say is that Paul is an
extremely nice and helpful person. When I wrote DotClock,
he has spent valuable time on finding out how some
things are done that I was too ignorant to find out.
DotClock
hadn't been possible without this help, and all it got him
was a bit of praise in DotClock's credit section.
Time, for me, is the most valuable thing on earth.
Priceless,
so to say. When I bought Steve Weyer's NewtDevEnv
software, I considered it a bit steep at $50.
I bought it anyway, one reason being that Steve's
support had been extraordinary even before he saw a
single buck from me. Since then, I can only say that this
software was the best purchase since I bought my
(most reliable) car. This would be true even if I hadn't
got any software in return for my money, just because
Steve's, like Paul's, patience, knowledge and time has
saved heaps of my own time.
Someone said that if Paul was such a nice person,
why not just send him cash directly?
Again, this can only be understood if you have been
here for a very long time. Paul has always flatly refused
to accept this. When his hardware died I spent nearly
a day registering as an affiliate at all Amazon's there
were and putting
book links on my site, promising that all referral fees
I'd make would go to the cause of the ATA software.
Paul flatly refused accepting this which made me a
bit disappointed although I understood it.
Sorry for the long-winded post. But I had to get this
off my chest. Even though it is nearly two in the morning.
Frank
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