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• Ars Book Review: "Patent Failure" - Interesting book review about the effect of patents on an industry. Apparently cost more money than they make in anything but chemical and pharmaceuticals.
• Lucky to be a Programmer - I don't program as much as I used to but this explains why I love to when I get the chance.
• WordPress 2.6 - Usual drill. I've upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress, the underlying software of ZX81.org.uk. If you see anything wrong please let me know!
• 20 Amazing Facts About  Voting in the USA - Still in any doubt that computerised voting machines are a bad idea for free and fair elections?

• Senator to ISPs: "Think twice" about 'Net neutrality… or else - It's encouraging that some politicians understand the issues of net neutrality. Let's hope that there are also tech-savvy MPs here in the UK.
• Peep Show for free! - If you're in the UK this is a must-have download: the first episode of the new series of Peep Show. It's perhaps the best comedy show on British TV at the moment. Highly recommended.
• The Free Web: 15 Years Old Today - The subject line says it all! Where would we be without the web?

• London teen orders 'cab, innit' - Barely believable but very funny!
• Billy Bragg: Why should songwriters starve so others get rich? - "I never bought that Home Taping Is Killing Music shit in the 1980s that the record companies tried to lay on us. In fact I printed on the front of my fourth album that Capitalism is Killing Music. And that's what's happening now. The powerful start-ups a
• What Idiot Wrote These Ten Commandments? - "Where's the stuff we can use? Where's 'No pushing'? Or 'Bag your leaves so they don't blow around in your neighbor's yard?' And don't even get me started on right-of-way. Didn't they have real problems back in Bible days?"

• Spam blights e-mail 15 years on - The thing that I'll never understand is that some people must read spam otherwise it wouldn't be a profitable business. Why?! My domain received over 40000 spam messages last month, none of which I've read so please stop sending them!
• WordPress 2.5 - I just upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress. I don't think I've managed to break anything but please do let me know if you know differently.
• Adobe Photoshop Express Now Live - A neat, on-line mini-Photoshop is now available in beta at least. Clearly some way short even of Elements but it's probably sophisticated enough for a lot of people.

Daniel Jalkut in his recent blog discusses a generally positive review of a useful Mac utility that closes with the suggestion that it “should be free.” The crux of his piece seems to be:

In short, if the product were free as in charity, would the product even exist, and be good enough to mention on MacBreak Weekly, where Leo could wish that it was free?

People have different motivations for making good software¹ but I think it’s fair to say that the most polished software usually has some form of income stream, whether that’s a licence fee, banner adverts or something less direct.

Of course one problem about selling software is piracy, but fortunately Brad Wardell wrote a great blog entry about just that and the effect that it has on his games company:

It’s irrelevant how many people will play your game (if you’re in the business of selling games that is). It’s only relevant how many people are likely to buy your game.

How, you might ask, is this connected with Jalkut’s argument? Well, the simple truth is that reviewers of your software are not paying customers. Their needs and desires and value judgements are not the same as yours². Of course reviewers can raise the profile of your program but unless it results in more sales and not just more usage of your software then adding features or lowering the price only to please them is a waste of time.

If you want to sell software, your first priority should be keeping your customers happy, not reviewers.

1. Jesper notes his reasons for offering his software for free. His argument makes complete sense but does not invalidate Jalkut’s complaint.↩
2. I’m reminded of the comparative reviews of word processors that you got before there was little alternative to Microsoft Word. No matter how fully featured the program was, disregarding how user-friendly it was and regardless of the quirky or unique innovations it had, no word processor would ever get an unreserved recommendation without a decent word count feature. How many people even use a word count?↩

• Afghan Student Sentenced to Death After Downloading Report - Good to see that the invasion of Afghanistan has resulted in more freedom for the locals…
• Forget passports - teachers and kids are the new ID card targets - Despite the loss of personal data and despite the fact that they will not (and cannot) do what the Government says they will, the ID Card scheme is still not completely dead.
• The True Cost of SMS Messages - “How come technology, communication, and infrastructure is getting cheaper while the costs of SMS messages are increasing exponentially? My theory: SMS messages are transfered over air made of solid gold.”