I finallly released the first version of my second product. It is a limited version and is available free to anyone who registers on the website. I'm only a couple of months late..
The next step is to create a paid version. That will be the real test. It will be the first time I am attempting to sell my software to users. Although I've gotten funding for this project, I need to be able to sell it to develop a viable business. I figure I'm a couple of months from that release, assuming no more child care snafus.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Error code 2869
I was about to release my second free product last week when a new version of the 3rd party application my product runs on came out. So I am in the process of creating a new install for the new version of that application. I am planning to release two versions of my product, one compatible with the older version of the 3rd party application, and one compatible withe the brand new version.
So I'm testing the installer today and I keep getting this error message:
The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing the package. This may indicated a problem with this package. The error code is 2869.
It sounds vaguely familiar like I ran into this when I did the original install. I do a google search and see that it is related to running installers on Windows Vista. That figures. When I got my new laptop, choices for new laptops running Windows XP were limited, so I got a Windows 64-bit Vista operating system. Maybe someday when the software programs I use take advantage of the 64-bit-ness, I will appreciate it, but mostly it just seems to cause me problems like this. The install ran fine the first time I ran it on my old Windows XP machine.
Misha Shneerson's article makes me think the problem has to do with the custom action I'm calling during the installation to edit an INI file. But I don't know what to do about that. Then I found Paulo Reichert's blog where a user's comment suggests calling msiexec /a "path-to-package.msi", which runs the setup program as an Administrator, and that solves the problem. But I hate for my users to have to go to that trouble. Hopefully they have Windows XP.
So I'm testing the installer today and I keep getting this error message:
The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing the package. This may indicated a problem with this package. The error code is 2869.
It sounds vaguely familiar like I ran into this when I did the original install. I do a google search and see that it is related to running installers on Windows Vista. That figures. When I got my new laptop, choices for new laptops running Windows XP were limited, so I got a Windows 64-bit Vista operating system. Maybe someday when the software programs I use take advantage of the 64-bit-ness, I will appreciate it, but mostly it just seems to cause me problems like this. The install ran fine the first time I ran it on my old Windows XP machine.
Misha Shneerson's article makes me think the problem has to do with the custom action I'm calling during the installation to edit an INI file. But I don't know what to do about that. Then I found Paulo Reichert's blog where a user's comment suggests calling msiexec /a "path-to-package.msi", which runs the setup program as an Administrator, and that solves the problem. But I hate for my users to have to go to that trouble. Hopefully they have Windows XP.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Corporate Use
I had a woman at a large firm yesterday contact me about using the free tool I have for download on my website in a corporate setting. My click-wrap license agreement only allows for individuals to install the program on one computer, and for a large company, it would certainly be a hassle for each user to register on my site and download it separately.
I was so excited that they wanted to use it on so many computers in their office. When I went to their website today, I realized they actually have over 150 locations in 41 states and a few international locations!
But as excited as I was, I also feel totally clueless! At first she asked for documentation on our corporate use policy, which I don't have. I didn't exactly want to say this was the first request I've had for corporate use, so I just wrote back and said she had my permission to distribute the software within the company, but that the x months of free support I (actually I think I said "we" since that sounds more like a real company) offer would be counted from when she downloaded the product. I also offered to give them a more specific site license software agreement if she wanted.
So she wrote back to confirm that after the x months were up, they would have to compensate my company for further support, which I confirmed. And was even more excited that they might actually purchase a maintenance agreement at some point.
At that point, I thought we were good, being as clueless as I am. But then she wrote back and indicated that so-and-so would contact me about corporate use. And when so-and-so did contact me, he explained that as a large company, they like to keep copious records on their software license agreements, so he asked me to please send them a site license.
And that was when I opened my book on software contracts (the current version is called Legal Guide to Web & Software Development but I have an older copy) to find a sample site license. I saw a sample that gave license to a business at a specific address, so I went to the company's website and saw how many offices they had, and realized I would have to do something else.
I just told my husband how big this firm is and he said it isn't a site license, it is an enterprise license and thinks I could charge them for it. But I've already indicated that I wouldn't charge them. He commented that support could get out of control, but I pointed out that they had told me that they would funnel all support through their in-house software support team.
This is when it would really help to have a partner who knows business. I may have just lost an opportunity to make some recurring revenue from this company. Live and learn, I guess.
I was so excited that they wanted to use it on so many computers in their office. When I went to their website today, I realized they actually have over 150 locations in 41 states and a few international locations!
But as excited as I was, I also feel totally clueless! At first she asked for documentation on our corporate use policy, which I don't have. I didn't exactly want to say this was the first request I've had for corporate use, so I just wrote back and said she had my permission to distribute the software within the company, but that the x months of free support I (actually I think I said "we" since that sounds more like a real company) offer would be counted from when she downloaded the product. I also offered to give them a more specific site license software agreement if she wanted.
So she wrote back to confirm that after the x months were up, they would have to compensate my company for further support, which I confirmed. And was even more excited that they might actually purchase a maintenance agreement at some point.
At that point, I thought we were good, being as clueless as I am. But then she wrote back and indicated that so-and-so would contact me about corporate use. And when so-and-so did contact me, he explained that as a large company, they like to keep copious records on their software license agreements, so he asked me to please send them a site license.
And that was when I opened my book on software contracts (the current version is called Legal Guide to Web & Software Development but I have an older copy) to find a sample site license. I saw a sample that gave license to a business at a specific address, so I went to the company's website and saw how many offices they had, and realized I would have to do something else.
I just told my husband how big this firm is and he said it isn't a site license, it is an enterprise license and thinks I could charge them for it. But I've already indicated that I wouldn't charge them. He commented that support could get out of control, but I pointed out that they had told me that they would funnel all support through their in-house software support team.
This is when it would really help to have a partner who knows business. I may have just lost an opportunity to make some recurring revenue from this company. Live and learn, I guess.
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