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I know at least four people who are waiting on the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros to be announced and released.

They're not in a rush - they just don't want to buy a computer and have it replaced by a better computer at the same or even a lower price a week or two later… so the old adage about "if you always wait, you'll never buy" doesn't really apply to them.

I've checked their life cycle. The MacBook is over 240 days old when the average is 195 and the MacBook Pro is at nearly 280 when the average is 208.

My last post on this was November 14.

It's somewhat more relevant to me now because we'll be shipping Analyzr soon and Pros will be switching to Macs. I would hope they aren't put in the same position of feeling screwed by a better, cheaper replacement a week after buying.

Since this post - the comments on which were tremendously helpful, both public and private, so thank you to those who helped - Dave and I have narrowed down the ideas we like for Analyzr's demo mode.

Regardless of the option we choose, we'll have a watermark across the screen. It's fairly annoying, and looks like this:

We may adjust the opacity somewhat - I might have gone a bit light with this version (25%) but not by much.

At any rate, the watermark is the first line of defense, and for the Pro version of our software, the best if a pro is considering buying it. We also have to be careful not to harm sales of our Home version by potential Home customers saying "the watermark isn't too bad, so I'll just use the Pro demo."

So, we're currently at these three options (there's a poll in the extended entry). Note: in the case of 1 and 3, these options "reset" when you re-launch the application.

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I've spent a few hours now banging my head against my desk and I'm no closer to figuring this out than I was at the beginning of the day.

FastSpring's documentation (both versions) is horrible, but it's not outdone by AquaticPrime's documentation.

FastSpring can run a version of AquaticPrime on its developer site. Unfortunately, I doubt it can do two things which I'd like to do:

1. I'd like to encode the AquaticPrime license file as a data stream and link to it in the email with analyzr://<bytestream> so that users can click on it to apply the license to their application. I've heard that several email apps don't handle the AquaticPrime license files very well.
2. I want to include Name, Email, # Licenses, Version, Created, Expires (for expiring licenses), and a specific randomly generated string in the file.

I'm fairly certain that I can't do those on the FastSpring-operated AquaticPrime. Which means I'll have to do HTTP Post, which means I'll have to figure out all of this stuff on my own.

And this is where the incredibly weak documentation walks up to you and delivers a swift kick to the groin.

Anyone who has done either of these things before care to lend a hand? Share some tips?

I probably knew about Internet¹-to-cell-phone spam before this article from David Pogue - or maybe I read it in 2008 - but after getting my second text message spam in about seven weeks², I did some research.

On AT&T, http://mymessages.wireless.att.com/ will do it for you. One note though - your regular AT&T Wireless login information won't work here. Create a new account (I set mine to the same password).

Then change this setting:

You can also set up your alias, which I've done should I ever need to subscribe to text messages for flights or something.

In a few weeks, Analyzr will ship. It will come in two versions, eventually priced at $49.95 (Home) and $495 (Pro).

As I see it, there are roughly four options for handling "demo" versions of an application like this. I hope to get some insight from some other Cocoa/Mac developers and even users as far as what's feasible, reasonable, etc.

This is not a post about registration codes, but about enforcing the "demo mode." We're happy with our registration code and aren't looking to tweak that.

If you'd like to talk to me confidentially, send me an email or an IM. If you can say something publicly, please feel free to use the comments.

1. Time-Limited per Version - The application runs fully unlocked for x days (5, 7, 15, 30, whatever), x launches, or a combination of both. If a new version is released, the time period starts over, allowing users to check back with the app to see if it meets their needs down the road.
2. Time-Limited per Launch - The application runs for a set length of time, often measured in minutes, before quitting and/or becoming severely crippled.
3. Feature Limited - Not every feature works or is fully functioning. These features "unlock" when you register.
4. Trial Code Registration - A trial license gives the user x days to try the software. The software thus has two registration states: registered with a trial license or registered with a purchased license.

There are others (like making a separate downloadable file that's only capable of being a demo), but they're too silly to discuss here¹.

Additionally, Analyzr employs a watermark for un-registered copies, so any sort of demo limitations we'd add would be in addition to the "hey, there's a watermark on the screen."

Let's explore each of these options in more detail…

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Over the course of a four days I received two copyright notices regarding some of the videos on my YouTube page.

One was a message telling me that if I did not respond and consider removing a few videos, they may file copyright claims against them. I responded, pointing out that I believe the videos could be considered fair use. I've not heard back, and in the meantime I removed the videos from public consumption so that I can evaluate them under the strictest sense of "fair use."

The second was a series of three messages informing me that three of my videos had been removed entirely due to a copyright claim. I also believed these videos to be "fair use" as I reviewed the 90-minute video from which these short clips came.

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http://thenounproject.com/

Symbols in the public domain, many of which could be used in software projects.

They're all monotone black, but that's how you want 'em. They're also all .svg files, which may not be how you want 'em, but tough.

When I was a kid I loved challenging myself with the Marilyn vos Savant columns. They often ran 2/3 of a page or more and contained some challenging questions.

The Marilyn vos Savant of 2010 (and now 2011) appears to cater to… well, morons or something, because I haven't read a column in months - and I may be generous in not saying a more truthful "years" - that contained anything like what she used to write.

Why the decline? It's disappointing. Are we getting that much dumber that the tripe she publishes now qualifies as an example of "intelligence"?

I haven't seen anyone point this out yet - since Mac OS X 10.6.6 double-clicking an unknown file now presents this dialog box to the user:

Hmmmmmmm.

The Mac App Store is here and I've downloaded Twitter (yay Tweetie 2.0! Boo that it doesn't do anything with the tweet: JavaScript!).

There seem to be three ways to handle the transition:

1. Here's a decent way to handle it: charge customers for the next version now at a discount. If they want to get their apps through the App Store (in turn helping you to become a higher rated developer), great.
2. Let the customers decide what they want to do, largely because you're unsure yourself, and see where things shake out.
3. Go back on your word and lie to your customers, angering them and immediately causing irreparable harm to your brand and company.

In my case, with the software we're going to be releasing towards the end of the month, we're doing nothing. We're going to use our existing channel because the software will eventually be $50 and $500, and $15 and $150 is too big a cut for what Apple's going to do, particularly given that there are no coupon codes, no customer data, etc.

When the plumber came and started the installation of our three new toilets, he left three quarter turn valves from Hodes Co with me to install later on.

I got brave, read up quickly on how to install compression fittings¹, and installed them today. Spiffy! Our old ones tended to leak very slowly when turned off, so these not only look shinier but they work really well, too, and they standardize our quarter-turn valves among the house's toilets.

Plumbing always seems like something you don't want to mess with, but if you shut the water off and don't twist your pipes too hard or something, there's very little you can't do. I'm becoming fairly well versed in basic home repairs. Our next big project may be to replace some countertops and the other matching parts on the smaller bathroom vanities…

I'm looking for a Ruby on Rails developer with some design skills to build out version 2.0 of a site, namely taking it from "something we can use" to "something others can use."

The project is a small one that shouldn't take very long and has a budget with a comma in it, but discussions will have to take place before I can say exactly how much that is. I can explain more later, and interested developers should get in touch with me via email or IM. Contact info is on the right.

I'm of a scientific mind, and I've never seen a good study that says vaccines cause autism. I've seen countless studies that say they do not, so I'm inclined to believe that vaccines do not cause autism.

But those who say autism is caused by vaccines say that big pharmaceutical companies are behind it all, and I like a good conspiracy theory as well, so while I lean one way I still think the idea is open for debate.

The indisputable facts are that autism is one the rise, and I'm curious to know what that reason is. 1 in 150 (or 100!) are simply unacceptable numbers, and the U.S. taxpayer is going to be under a significant burden if we reach a point of having millions of low-functioning autistic adults.

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One of my favorite xkcds of all time, http://xkcd.com/838/: