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Lately I have been getting several emails and there have been postings around the web about the quality / coolness of this site. Mostly comments like, "His POS software is really good, just try to ignore the way his site looks.", "Once you get past the '90's look of his site...", "Just disregard the way the site looks, this is really functional software.", "If your site looks that bad your software must really suck." And there have been several offers to take the maintenance of this site out of my pathetic hands by folks who like the software but think I have the site design skills of a mushroom. Piles of thanks for the feedback. So why does this site look like this?
Answer #1 Well, I like it.
Answer #2 It makes everyone else's site look so much better in comparison. Think of this site as a public service.
Answer #3 It isn't that bad, most of the words are spelled correctly. (How many sites can say that?)
Answer #4 This is an eye test to see if I can make you go blind. Answer #5 The real reason. Folks, I am doing the best I can. First realize that I am old. When I was in grade school / high school there were NO COMPUTERS IN THE SCHOOL because outside of main frame computers that cost millions of dollars, computers did not exist. Even pocket calculators did not exist. This made computer classes sort of problematical. (However I used to be a wizard with a slide rule.) So while you have had the advantages of computer classes in school and a bunch of friends to trade computer tips with, I have not. Half of my friends cannot even use a computer which makes them sort of useless when it comes to having a nice chat about HTML or Java. Needless to say I have no teachers, instructors, or professors to help guide my hand to learn this stuff. When I need a new talent (such as HTML) I have to research it on the net, get some books, and then shove myself into a cave until I get the concept, barely. Although if the idea of "learning through your mistakes" is correct then I should know everything because not only do I have the capability of screwing up every possible feature but I can also screw up each feature in every possible way.
So why do I not just stick with it until I actually learn it completely? Well unlike some out there who get Christmas, spring, and summer vacations and weekends off, and can study this stuff during class, I have a 6 day a week job, 50 weeks a year. I have a family that I occasionally like to see. I am also writing the software, updating the manual, doing my incompetent best to update the site, and I sometimes sleep. At last count there was still only one of me. So since my computer time is limited I have two choices, either learn more about website design or add more features to the software. My guess is that adding more to the software would be a better use of my time for everyone.
So why not hire a professional service to maintain the website? Let me once again explain the concept of "FREE." Free means that you do not pay anything for my software. This means that there is no money coming in to pay for a professional service to maintain the website. I imagine that I could pay for a service out of my pocket for this but that is kind of nuts. Free is bad enough but I am not going to pay to provide folks with my software for free.
But if I have a slick site wouldn't that lead to more downloads of my software? Well, yes, but so what? Remember that FREE thing? An additional billion downloads would not put a dime in my pocket. As of 6-5-09 I have had 290,000 downloads of the POS program from just my site. How many more do I need? Just more people to complain about the website.
So how about having one of those volunteers do the site. Well there are two reasons. First I would lose control of the site. Sure, it would look great but I would not understand the code needed to create the site. If I needed to make a change in the site (which happens about weekly) I would have to dig up the volunteer to make the changes. For the volunteer this could get to be a pain in the neck quickly. Sure it would be fun to redesign this site and show off what you can do but then to have to update it every damn week would rapidly become a chore. So the volunteer quits, now what? I need to update the website for a new version of the program and I can't even change a period to a comma in this mess. Time to revert to my code that I at least can understand. I may as well just leave it as it is. Sorry. But if you have a better idea or just want to be the next person to bitch about this site daleharris@prodigy.net Here is another comment from http://smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com/message/71459 If you want a totally free POS system that is very easy to use, accepts bar code scanners, various printers and does nearly everything and very easy to set up and use, then try Cash Register By Dale Harris. I looked at the website and thought it looked a piece of junk being a small program and the tacky look of the website, but the free software works excellent and so easy to use. Its not excel is the only problem I see for you. It actually runs in Msdos , but will run from your windows main screed. Take a look it cost nothing though he does offer a donation if the person likes it, but you don’t have to pay anything. I tried many free POS programs which had too many features for a small retail business, but this is so easy even the sales girl. only took 30 minutes to understand it. This email was received from Daniel K. on Sun, 23 Aug 2009... "Also, Did you know your website Sucks?" Ah yes, another appreciative fan. From http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?p=82311#post82311 I've been using the first one in that list for the last few years. DHPOS doesn't do customer tracking, but its a reasonable system. There's good support for it via forums and online chat, and it is regularly updated with bug fixes and new features. Don't get turned off by the ugly website or the DOS interface, it works well. |