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New Years Letter (Plans for 2008)

Happy New Year!

I wanted to start a new tradition of writing a letter every year. I want to mostly touch on where I was and where I'm going.

I spent last year (2007) getting ramped up on coding PainlessSVN. I also released two free utilities, SVN Backup Widget and Text File Splitter, that I created myself, and a third one, WinTivoDecode, from a friend. I've also been working with AdWords and several bloggers to spread the word about PainlessSVN. I had combined downloads of over 25K for all products. And this is not counting the two open sourced projects that I started and maintain.

I learned a lot from other micro ISV bloggers. There are so many of you out there! I'm heartened by your successes and hope to join your ranks in 2008.

Roadmap for 2008

Roadmaps are something that are fairly hard to predict when you are a one man company, especially with software. One thing that I know for certain, is that I will be changing the current tag line from "Where the command-line meets the GUI" to "Taming IT Operations." I worked in IT Operation during the first 6 years of my career, and I always enjoyed creating utilities to automate things. I want to focus my energies this year in helping IT people tame IT Operations with software.

PainlessSVN

The very first thing I want to do is release PainlessSVN Professional version 1.0. As some of you have noticed, I have pulled the beta download. I haven't received any problem reports in more than 3 weeks. I didn't see the point of having an open beta anymore.

I had a couple things holding back the release of PainlessSVN; payment system (ecommerce) and licensing. I got my payment system working just last week. I'm using a DotNetNuke (DNN) module called ActivePurchase, from Active Modules. This lets me integrate payments with the DNN framework and other useful modules for CRM and help desk. I will support PayPal when I first launch. So payment is now officially taken care of.

The second thing is licensing. I'm using Infralution for this. The actual holdup is that I want to automatically issue keys as soon as the payment is confirmed. ActivePurchase has something called Custom Actions that lets me add a custom business logic to the purchasing funnel by creating an assembly in .NET. The author is supposed to release the API docs for this tomorrow (Monday Jan 14th).

I will be releasing an extra couple editions of PainlessSVN shortly after the release of the Professional editions. These will be:

  • Standard - This will have just the basics for server and repository maintenance. It will also be cheaper than the Pro edition.
  • Portable - This will allow you to run PainlessSVN from your favorite USB flash drive.

Free Utilities

I also want to release at least two new free utilities. One of them will be a text file joiner to compliment my text file splitter. The second utility is a program that I created when I needed to monitor data integrations at a contract. Its current name is NSQLAudit. It is already coded. I just need to polish for release. I might create a professional version depending on demand. I'm also open to other ideas that you will like to see implemented.

I really appreciate the feedback that I have received. My hope is that you feel that you are getting good service and that my utilities help your work be less tedious. I also hope that these are helping you deal with some unpleasant tasks faster, so that you can get to the fun stuff quicker.

Here's to the new year!

posted @ Sunday, January 13, 2008 6:43 PM by Hector Sosa, Jr

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COMMENTS

Comments from the following blog entry: New Years Letter (2008), located at: http://www.systemwidgets.com/News/tabid/53/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/108/New-Years-Letter-2008.aspx

posted @ Sunday, January 13, 2008 7:04 PM by SystemWidgets - Where the command-line meets the GUI

Any idea on pricing for PainlessSVN?

posted @ Wednesday, January 16, 2008 6:06 PM by flipdoubt

For now the breakdown will be:

PSVN Standard: $29.99
PSVN Pro: $49.99
PSVN Portable: $49.99

These prices are not firm, and may change by the time I release them to the public.

posted @ Wednesday, January 16, 2008 8:26 PM by Hector Sosa, Jr

Thanks for the quick info, Hector. Any idea on the timing? I've got an itchy trigger finger for things like this.

Also, I would love to hear further comments on what you think of the Infralution tool.

By the way, the comment form required my email address and I checked "Notify Me", but I recieved no notification of your response.

posted @ Thursday, January 17, 2008 5:59 AM by flipdoubt

"Thanks for the quick info, Hector. Any idea on the timing? I've got an itchy trigger finger for things like this."

You know, I tried estimating when this would be done before, but I totally suck at estimating. So, I'll just leave it at "When it's ready."

It's mostly a combination of my free time and how fast I can get the licensing done in that free time.

"Also, I would love to hear further comments on what you think of the Infralution tool."

Tell you what... Since I'm working with it in the current phase of development, I'll blog about it by Saturday (maybe sooner).

"By the way, the comment form required my email address and I checked "Notify Me", but I received no notification of your response."

That's because you have to actually have an account with the portal software. I'll contact the author of this module, and see if he can hide the "Notify Me" checkbox from people who do not have an account or are not signed in.

posted @ Thursday, January 17, 2008 7:47 AM by Hector Sosa, Jr

Another thing that might help you make more sales is a proper comparison grid across the features. Right now, I only use the command line tools to create new repositories. I guess I edit text files to readers and writers on a per repository basis, but that it is about it. Does this sound like a Standard or Professional usage? Also, which version would allow me to grant read/write access on a more granular level?

Thanks for the clarification on the notification.

posted @ Thursday, January 17, 2008 8:13 AM by flipdoubt

"Another thing that might help you make more sales is a proper comparison grid across the features."

Yes, it's on my to-do list.

"Right now, I only use the command line tools to create new repositories. I guess I edit text files to readers and writers on a per repository basis, but that it is about it. Does this sound like a Standard or Professional usage?"

Definitely Standard edition.

"Also, which version would allow me to grant read/write access on a more granular level?"

That would be a Professional feature. Unfortunately, this has not been coded yet.

posted @ Thursday, January 17, 2008 9:08 AM by Hector Sosa, Jr

TextFileSplitter issue. I have a text file (without headers or trailer, as we add our own to each of the split files - sent to different locations based on email address in each header). I don't use the -h option. The 1st record from the original file is not being copied into the 1st split file.
Also there are issues with both the email address on the web-site and in the TextFileSplitter README file eg
The following addresses had delivery problems
Reply from 74-92-244-161-Utah.hfc.comcastbusiness.net[74.92.244.161]: 550 The host name specified in HELO does not match IP address.

posted @ Monday, June 16, 2008 9:37 PM by Bill

Bill,

I'll take a look at the issue with the header and the missing first record.

As for the email problem, that message means that your email server is not configured correctly. I just sent emails from my gmail account, and it came through. I can put your email address in my whitelist, if can send it to hectorsosajr AT gmail DOT com.

posted @ Monday, June 16, 2008 10:28 PM by Hector Sosa, Jr

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