skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
>Can I make money with shareware?

In short - hell, yes.

>In 2008, is it too late to start writing software, actual installable software, and sell it on the internet?

Hahahaha .. funny. Of course, not. Here's some anecdotal and motivational evidence for you:

# Project 1 - a software to deal with file transfers - feeds about 10 people for past 10 years. 3-4 major competitors of the same level and in the same niche. End-user oriented, effectively outdated at the moment, but still selling well due to a market inertia. The program itself is about 3-5 months of work to write from scratch (e.g. by just looking at the screenshots and a feature list).

# Project 2 - network sniffer application - brings about 800k a year in sales. Oriented on professional market, sales cycle is outsourced to a dedicated company and so it the support.

# Project 3 - a remote computer/desktop access app. I don't know exact numbers, but they are in the range of #2.

These are not, of course, very typical, but they all are single-developer projects. Moreover their success is a result of persistent focused effort rather than a fad or a blind luck. On the other hand if you work on a project in your spare time, it's not unreasonable to expect 10-30k a year. Assuming you are catering to a general home user crowd and your app in fact works and doesn't look like crap.

Also, if you investigate shareware development a bit you will see that there's an established and mature "shareware support" ecosystem. In a simple case you just write an app and other people will gladly do the rest - anything from creating a website and producing boxed version of the app (i.e. "publishing") to payment processing and a front-line support (i.e. "e-com"). Some care is needed dealing with these guys though, because frequently they rely on ignorance of the developer to milk him out of disproportionate % of a revenue.

Good luck, dude. You asked a great question and the answer is that the shareware is very much doable and it is in fact less delusional get-rich scheme compared to web-2.0 craze.
It's not that they like risk the are just more willing to invest at high risk than most people. Would you drop 10 Million for a 1 in 500 chance of 10 Billion dollars? It's a good bet bet but it can take a while before your first hit.
I wonder if this includes FilmBaby?
Is real-estate your core business?
Why the heck would you ever buy your office if it isn't?
Ask YC: How can I license a web app library extension (dll)
I have been writing a web app library extension library (dll). What will be the best way to license it?
Should I license by the domain (URL), server processor, IP ?
FUSION 1GB MP3 MP4 PLAYER
FUSION MP3 MP4 PLAYER 1.8" TFT LCD with FM & SPEAKER, 1.8" LCD, TFT color display FM Radio Speaker And Video, mini earphone, CD drive for 98, USB cable, charger, user manual and service card.
I just checked it out. Its still there.
> Yeah he was about as useful as tits on a fish.

I've always wanted a port of chicken breasts to other platforms.
Super Angel Ron Conway On Angel Investing (Part Deux)
My $0.02

The Good:

A non trivial part of the market freeze was due to the uncertainty about the bailout. Will it pass and if so at exactly what price will the Feds buy the toxic junk.
Rather then sell, people were waiting. Perhaps now things can start moving again.

So this may be better then doing nothing.

The Bad:

The may be worse then doing nothing. We may spend a whole lot of money and not make a profit on it. Steal (by inflation) from all the people who save, to give to the bankers, and the bankers could still fail.

Many experts argue a better alternative would have been to pick a few winners re-capitalize them and then let everyone else fail. The core issue here is solvency not liquidity, the bailout addresses liquidity, which many consider just a symptom, not the disease.

More may have to be done, like re-capitalization, yet more may not be done because while this time there are no pitch forks in DC, there may well be next time. And thus, this could be worse the doing nothing.

'Ain't economics fun.
Can you recall any instances when you saw a pattern that wasn’t really there?
You may have missed the parent's winning mix of ironic self-awareness and black Slavic bile.
If I may paraphrase a Redditor...

"So is this good or bad for the economy?

Bubble: bigger
Collapse: inevitable
Distance to fall: farther
Dollar: worthless"
Software is software. Monetization is monetization. Distribution is distribution.

Whether your app is installable or web-based is immaterial. The questions you need to ask are "is there a need?", "can I reach an audience?", and "will they pay for it?".

Web software has clear advantages-- lower support costs, no platform issues, easy to push updates, easy to charge recurring revenue, etc. All this means that you can build and operate your business with less cash.

The killer problem with software (aside from building something people want) is distribution. Assume that you can't/don't build something so freaking earth-shattering that people can't stop talking about it. How do you reach your buyer?

The iPhone phenomenon is so amazing because it solves that problem for app developers. The web can solve that problem (for web software or installable software) if a lot of people are searching for what you offer (and you're good/lucky with SEO).

I guess (in short), Shareware and "freemium" aren't that different. Installable / web apps aren't that different. If you can find a need/niche, go for it.

(note: our software has an installable and web component and we see very little drop-off when people realize they have to install something)
And I thought the democrats were the good guys... Now I really don't know whom to vote for. Wall St will get rich, but the political system has gone bankrupt.
I think this article uses flowery language that makes it difficult to understand what the author really means, but if I understand correctly (and that's a big if) I agree completely.

I think the core difference is this: jQuery is seen to be a 'JavaScript framework' when in actuality it's a library to make DOM manipulation easier. Of course, there's a few helper functions thrown in to do common things that are otherwise difficult to do due to browser bugs or poor vendor support, but that's incidental to its true goal which is DOM manipulation. The thing is, it just so happens to be that the clunky DOM manipulation is probably the biggest single weakness of in-browser JavaScript and jQuery addresses this problem extremely well - which is what has caused jQuery to be a runaway success.

That brings us to what jQuery is not - it's not designed to be an all-encompassing framework designed to hide particular problems of the JavaScript language away from you. It's not really about encouraging programming 'patterns' - even if you're writing all your DOM work in jQuery, you still need to write plain JavaScript. This is different from Prototype or Mootools who try and add features to the JavaScript language itself. Any criticism of jQuery should bear these goals in mind.

Looking at the success of jQuery, perhaps a single all-encompassing JavaScript framework which tries to do everything is a bad idea. Perhaps the correct answer should be to have (at least) two distinct frameworks with distinct goals: one for extending JavaScript the language and one for manipulating the DOM. Too many of the frameworks attempt both yet perfect neither - perhaps if extending JavaScript is a worthy goal then perhaps library developers should accept that jQuery now dominates the DOM domain and let people use that and work on a new library that can work hand-in-hand with it.

Disclaimer: I'm as biased as hell. I like jQuery, I don't know that much about Mootools, I know enough about JavaScript. Take what I say with a huge pinch of salt.

N.B. I think, but not certain, that the author misunderstands the jQuery plugin architecture. I don't see why you'd write anything that was called anything via 'jQuery(domId).pluginName("methodName", [arg1, arg2]);' unless you explicitly chose to - it is a bit ugly and I wouldn't recommend it. You call a plugin just like a native object - jQuery(elem).pluginName(args). Writing a plugin for jQuery is the same as writing a function in native JavaScript - you can use jQuery.fn.pluginName = function(params) { } to write a plugin that doesn't access anything internally - jQuery.fn however is simply an alias for jQuery.prototype. I /think/ jQuery.extend is used to add an element to the object so it can also access privately accessible functions (I'm really not certain though). http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/Authoring has more info but is a bit ambiguous in places.
Slate launches iPhone App: Track Political Polling
I signed the wrong social contract.

(but it's not like anywhere else is preferable)
Some sample experiments being recorded currently:

Weight lifting and Swimming - Does swimming a few laps in the pool at high intensity immediately after weight lifting help build and maintain muscle mass?

Food & Alcohol - Which foods hold alcohol the best?

We've been curious about these and many other things. We started bricolagelabs as a place to record your observations and perform "experiments". these could be anything - productivity when you wake up early/late/ pickup lines/ whatever.

It's related to Seth Roberts' (Shangri La diet) self-experimentation with the goal of aiding discovery through trial and error.

Would love to get news.yc feedback on this. Thanks!
Well, like you said, getting out of the atmosphere gives you the option of using a rail-gun (electronic catapult), but you could launch satellites from the roof a tall building, the same way. A 100-mile wide, 100-mile tall cylindrical building could have a circular track on top, or spiraling up to the top, that could perhaps be long enough to accelerate objects to orbital velocity.
Did you keep your receipt?

Maybe you could take it back and get another one.
Every technical car guy aspires to making the fastest, most respected car in town, and every technically savvy gaming geek aspires to "learn how to program computers and make a game", because that would be "awesome".

I'm the geekiest geek in my meatspace circle, so I've been asked questions like this a few times, especially by older kids / young adults that have been introduced to me by their parents who believe that I'm "good with computers" (ugh). Perhaps I'm jaded about it, but I don't have a lot nice to say about this type of question.

Asking the naive question "How do I start a gaming company?" is intellectually lazy. If you don't already understand the foundations of business (i.e. "How do I start a company?") the pieces of wisdom that a gaming mogul would be able to give you would be lost on you while you're thinking "Oh, I have to go to college? I hate math! I don't care about accounting, I just want to draw levels!"
On the Daily Show, Jon Stewart reported that the main difference was an additional $150 billion in tax breaks.
It may be correcting an accidentally applied tax, but do you _really_ want to start talking about how the tax code is broken. I mean gee, that conversation could go on for a long time.

They are not attempting to deceive anybody. The issue is the bank bailout, not arrows, not AMT, not anything else stuck in there to sweeten the pot. The fact that people are pointing out how much CRAP has to go into a bill to get it passed into law is germane and important to know.
Does anyone care to guess what the critical level is?

Presumably at some point OS X stops being a niche market, and producing cross platform software becomes almost mandatory.

I'd guess 30%.
I see the Russians have gotten to it already...

edit: if you hold Ctrl (on windows), you can draw curves. Cool!
The server's down.
You can draw curves without holding anything. Just has to be curvy enough for it to detect it's a curve and not a straight line.
http://publicmarkup.org/bill/emergency-economic-stabilizatio...

thank you, Sunlight Foundation.
Indeed. I used to work for these guys (http://www.fullshot.com) and I can tell you they make plenty of money servicing a niche that small businesses need. They certain made more money per employee than my current internet (web-based) startup!

1.5k a month in sales is nothing. Plenty of people and small businesses make a living off of "shareware". The key when you get into this market is more about usability, marketing, and distribution as opposed to coolness, technology, or complex feature-sets (though the latter three can't hurt)
What HR Should Do With All the Tech Resumes
Nice logo.

Get rid of the b&w stock image on the homepage.

Keep wording consistent: change "Complete our simple registration" to "Complete our simple sign-up form". On the registration page, change the "register" button to "Sign Up!"

Keep your logo in the top left corner of all your pages. It's nice that it gets out of the user's way after moving off of the homepage, but it's confusing.

Use a feedback form like the one on slacker.com (i.e. omnipresent) -- you'll be much more likely to get good feedback that way.

I really like the homepage design, but the content in the center of the page should be simpler and draw in users' attention (e.g. http://pixtures.s3.amazonaws.com/misc/mingle-process.jpg). You can offer a detailed explanation of your service after the user signs up -- or on the "see how it works" page... Or even just a little lower on the homepage.

Your homepage actually convinced me to sign up, but the "On your way to the MingleWeek" page is just plain daunting. So much text. No images. No simple instructions. Too much work before I'm able to see a reward. After I confirm my email address I should be taken to a page titled "Upload Your Photo" (i.e. no "Create Some Portraits") and there should be a big "upload" button in the center of my field of vision. While the homepage is really inviting, the pages after sign-up are less than inspiring.

The "Make a First Impression" page is cool. Make it easier to submit content. Don't even bother having multiple fields under the "Music" tab (i.e. Song, Musician, Album). Keep it simple: "Song Name" is enough. People will write "Song Name - Artist Name" in a single text field if they're so inclined. I would also suggest making all of the tabs omnipresent (e.g. http://pixtures.s3.amazonaws.com/misc/getting-to-know-you.jp...).

"Terms and Conditions, coming soon!" heh :)

P.S. Try to find a way to encourage a friendly atmosphere and community. That's why people visit social websites: the community. I would invite some of my friends to your service if there was a more compelling reason than "As the FlowMingle community grows, so do the number of people you can choose from." It seems like what you're trying to do is make a site geared more towards friends casually hanging out, having fun, and getting to know each other -- and I think that's great. Formal dating is overrated.

Cool concept. Good luck.
Anyone know any good URL sales firms
We have a very good URL currently in use, but we are about to change the business so it might become available.
yep. Screwed the pooch on that one.

Humor is a tough thing to do online. There's always some idiot who completely misses the joke.
Why Google App Engine is broken and what Google must do to fix it.
Why did he partner up with Goldman Suchs, then?

I know [who he is] and besides this he is almost a financial saint. Still, he backs this bailout and will make huge profit on it. Oh, and the bailout favors his other investments.

Being foreign, the bailout favors me as it helps my savings indirectly. But it is the largest scam in history.
We are a bunch of malcontents, being under foreign rule for 5 centuries, and then being humiliated by the west after a bloody war for freedom, and then being used by the great powers(Germany, USSR,USA) for their agendas can really mess you up and make you bitter and depressed. Good thing im willing to make fun of my origin and not take this stuff seriously, i love my shithole of a country, at least Bulgarians don't have an image of fat retards, who confuse Australia with North Korea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE

:D :D :D
and yeah, some parts of Bulgaria look kind of like Africa or Cuba:

http://news24.bg/userfiles/thumbnails/I20080512175245cigani_...

http://www.capital.bg/shimg/zx350_324031.jpg

http://evropa.dnevnik.bg/shimg/zx490_370026.jpg

http://images.ibox.bg/2007/08/15/cig/430x320.jpg

You don't want to be alone at night(or day for that matter) in a gypsy ghetto. Then again, some parts look like this:

http://www.bgvakancia.com/docs/sunny_beach/photos/view1.jpg

http://www.dnevnik.bg/shimg/zx500_464381.jpg

http://nbta.ida.bg/images/2/83.jpg

http://i.actualno.com/club.bg/files/2006/06/19/3acd515c8f.jp...
You're right. Awesome!
CERN Officially Unveils Its Grid: 100,000 Processors, 15 Petabytes a Year
Yes. The guy used work to make life bearable. Bad idea. Something I know I could easily lapse into myself.

Also, the guy made his mom a partner in his business. This also seems like a bad idea.
Ruby Tools Roundup, reviewing 10 tools that can make your project better
Oh from Introversion? (introversion.co.uk)?

Who are Introversion? Am I supposed to know them?

Apparently they're an games company. They made Uplink, which I've played, and I specifically remember because seemed more like a bad tech demo than a piece of entertainment.

If you're going to trade off a name for karma, it better be a good one.
Only with standard corporate solutions.

a Website (httpd etc)
+ Web Application server (CMS/CMF)
+ Application Container (J2EE and all that)
+ RDBMS (Oracle, MySQL...)

And multiply that to development, QA, and production environments.

Yes, that way you need millions just in licenses and hosting to run even a lol-site and hundreds of employees to keep the beast working.
Privacy on the Web? No, Thank You.
Revolution Health Gets A Mercy Sale
This is a great example of what I hate about java. There is a framework which does x, y, and z but it's extremely generic. So you add a wrapper that works for you and does x and y.

And then you call your wrapper 5 - 10 times.

IMO, the framework should also handle the simple case and let you overload their logic when you want.
I made more than my day-job salary for quite a while with shareware. I wrote a pop-up blocker and privacy suite.

If I were doing desktop apps again now, I would go after a niche business market and not use the word shareware per se. I would also take any idea, and hold it against the "should it be a web app" lens.

There are expensive specialized pieces of software in various niches that are not well suited to the web due to data privacy, the UI required, or other reasons.
These niches can be tougher to see as an outsider, but great to target and build for--customers with budgets and IT departments that don't allow piracy can also be a great thing.

edit: Also, check out the Association of Shareware professionals. http://www.asp-shareware.org/
They typically do an end of year thread where members post their revenues--very eye-opening.
Microsoft ditched the shit that was Classic ASP (basically MS PHP), broke clean and went with ASP.NET which is 1000% infinitely better instead.

Sometimes I wonder if PHP users will ever get that lucky. They just wont give up on this crap ;)
You have this pretty much backwards.
This clip (20 mins or so) shows how the authors of Arc feel about it all. It is probably a bit biased, but it looks like Katz really hurt some people.

http://www.esva.net/~thom/arczip.wmv
This is better. You can of course disagree, but the opening line of your previous comment was quite childish and inflammatory, don't you agree?
I really appreciate you taking the time to create/post the visuals of your ideas, and they are good ones. Many thanks!
Facebook exec Dustin Moskowitz quits
Umm, yea that's what I call freaking huge but it could probably work.
He's saying it has been done.
Too bad it's a fake *nix. Not compatible out of the box with 95% of linux applications.
Are they saying that we are supposed to buy books in Sony or Amazon specific formats that don't work anywhere else? No thanks.
Why Deferred Salaries Don’t Work for Startup Founders
Introversion are my heroes. They make AAA games, dripping with gameplay, originality and style. The company consists of a handful of people and they have no publisher. If it wasn't for Introversion I would have given up hope for the whole industry.

It's OK you think Uplink was a bad tech demo. Their games aren't aimed at everyone. That's why they're so fucking AWESOME!!!111 :)
Thanks for your considered reply. I'll check those references, when I have access to a copy of the book.

Why would you think that a book called "The g Factor: The Science of Mental Ability" would only be about heritability?

Because I read all the reviews on the amazon page, and that is all they talked about. Not having a copy, that's the best I could do - and that is why I said it "doesn't seem to". You're putting words in my mouth.

Perhaps the greatest source of survival ability in human beings is the ability to co-operate. General capability, in the sense of "g", of course contributes not only to individual capability, but also to this ability to cooperate. It seems though, that a preoccupation with "g" itself can become an instrument of division between people (and peoples), and ironically this preoccupation therefore reduces its possessor's survival ability.

.

Yes. Why do you ask?

Because I find that my life is better, and I make a better contribution to the people around me, when I am aware of the things that we do have influence over, instead of the things we don't. Some aspects of mental ability seem to fall into the first category. I asked you, because you seemed to know something about it.

.

When found by the auothorities, at age six,

I said "that the speech centers do not develop unless exposed to speech within the window (closes at around 7yo )."
There have been only few documented cases of severely neglected children. In those cases where child was rescued before age 7, they recover; but in those cases where the child was rescued after ago 7, they did not recover. With so few cases (thankfully), it's hard to be accurate - but the window seems to be about 7yo, from the data. This was from Psych 101, and sorry I don't have references on hand - it was almost 20 years ago - but any first year text should have it. Note that the opposite story of Isabelle ("neglected child/adult found with retarded mental abilities; never recovers") will be much less reported in the mainstream press and have a lower pagerank. Quite possibly, new data has been uncovered since then (though hopefully not), which could well invalidate the above hypothesis - but the particular case of Isabelle does not. Again, you have not taken into account what I have written - in this case "closes at around 7yo".

Incidentally, Isabelle demonstrates that before stimulus was available, the mental abilities were not present - only the potential for those abilities. Without appropriate mental stimulation, our potential is not realized.

.

You seem pretty arrogant in your rhetorical questions, so I'm going to leave you to it at this point. Thanks for the references, and good luck to you. :-)
When you compare all the ebook readers out there, the kindle is the fugliest of all.
This is totally off topic so I'll probably get modded down. Please don't be too harsh...

Thinking the Democrats were the good guys is your first mistake. The sooner we all realize neither side is good, the better. They are both equally bad in only slightly different ways. The Democrats are mostly impotent. They do nothing. They talk a great game and have some good ideas, but they almost invariably fail to execute. The Republicans know how to get things done. The only problem is it's often in the interests of a very small, elite minority.

Thinking one side is the 'good guys' is a big part of the problem we have right now. Fifty one percent of the population thinks the Republicans are the 'good guys' and continue to vote party lines, despite 8 years of bad policies and low approval ratings, instead of voting based on qualifications and track records.