Updated 1-19-17
Now on Facebook.

Text messages?

Why does this site look so crappy?
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 insane. Free is bad enough but I am not going to pay to provide folks with my software for nothing.


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 1-19-17 I have had 800,000 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 quickly become a pain in the neck. 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 excellently 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 screen. Take a look it, it costs 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.


From http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=94741

dhpos dot com . It's free and actually rather good despite the terrible website.


Now they are even picking on the program itself. I have a "form" on my page that asks folks how they found my software and here is one I just received, "Google search pos system free download in Malaysia..do u have any pos system interface more nicer?


This is now on Facebook.

THIS IS MY ORIGINAL POSITION ON FACEBOOK
(Reprinted for historical purposes.)

I generally do not join things, especially things that I cannot check out first. I cannot look at Facebook until I sign up for it, I will not join Facebook until I can view it and see what the deal is. Sort of a "Catch 22" there. After all I do not know if I can un-join if I do not like what I see there.

This may be a pretty pathetic reason for my not signing up for something that apparently 100.2% of the population of the Earth is participating in, but there it is.

I do not expect Facebook to change their policy to allow me to poke around there for a while to just look, and they seem so far to be fairly fine with the idea of me not joining their club. I, on the other hand, find it very easy to resist the lure of something I know little about. So we are both good with the idea of me being a non-member.

However I do receive requests from folks to be their "friend" on Facebook. This "invite" gives me two options; 1. Become their friend (is a beer involved?), 2. Tell them to "kiss-off." I do not understand the first option and the second option seems to be pretty rude. So I do nothing. I would like to explain that I do not know what being their Facebook friend means, but that is not an option. So I just delete the email and get on with my life.

Then I get about 7 more emails from the same person asking me to be their friend. They get pretty needy after the first 4 or 5 but eventually they give up, or die of despair. I never find out which since the invite never gives me their email address so I can check. And I can't check their Facebook page to see if they are OK, because Facebook will not let me in.

So you can send an invite to me to become your Facebook friend but please do not take it hard when you do not hear back from me. I am sorry but I have no way to send you an email to tell you that I do not belong to facebook. I am probably the last living human on the internet that is not a member. Well it had to be someone, why not me?

However if you are Facebook and do have some way for me to look around without my touching anything for a short while then send an email to daleharris@prodigy.net to tell me how. But don't do anything special, I am fine without joining.


Breaking news: All life on Earth to end:

Dale Harris Cash Register is now on Facebook

Due to threats of physical violence upon my person by many DHPOS users, but mostly my daughter, I have reluctantly done something I am exquisitely unqualified to do, which is to create a Facebook page for this software. With great apprehension (but only a moderate amount of pain) I have somewhat comprehended what many of you reading this apparently live for. At least enough to create this Facebook page.

As of 1-19-17 it has been up there for 10 days and with quite a bit of effort I have made some posts and even uploaded a few graphics. As my daughter has pointed out I even have 4 "likes", I will have to take her word on that, where they came from is a mystery to me.

However so far no one else has posted anything. So if you wish to try to convince me that this is not a huge waste of time, or have a question or comment, go post something. You don't have to "like" me, I will understand, or probably not. I will eventually figure out how to respond to a post and answer. My daughter will be so proud.


Text messages?

I just received a very irate phone call from a new user. She tells me that she has been sending text messages to me for two days about the POS program and that I have, for some unknown reason (possibly involving drugs), refused to text back with the answers to her problem or even to reply that I have received her text messages.

This is something that I have not even considered before her call. And I have to confess that it is true that I have never, ever replied to a text message about DHPOS. She seemed to calm down a bit when I told her that it was not personal but she still wanted to know why I never reply to a text message.

The answer is pretty simple, if you call 773-763-2076 this is the phone on my desk that rings...

Slimline phone

As you can see, this phone has a slight difficulty in receiving text messages in that it is totally impossible for it to do so. I can not even begin to figure out how I would reply to text message on this thing even if it could receive one.

After I told her about the phone there was silence on her end for quite a while until she finally said, "What?" Never one to hesitate in coming up with a witty reply I said, "Huh?" Things went downhill from there.

After a short rant which contained the word "idiot" a couple of times, she wanted to know why I did not post the phone number for my smart-phone. I knew then that I was in trouble. As calmly as possible I explained that I do not have a smart phone but I do have a flip phone (yea me) but at the current moment I did not know if it was charged or even exactly where it was, but I could probably find it if I looked for it.

After a few more moments of silence she stated, "How are you even alive?", and then hung up on me. I never did find out what her DHPOS problem was.

So here is the deal. If you send the above phone number a text message I will never get it, so a poor communications choice on your part. I am not going to post my cell phone number because I rarely have my cell phone with me. It is kind of weird when I do find it and charge it and then find something (missed call / text) on it from more than a week ago. Even if a miracle happened and I did have a live cell phone on me when you text, I have never sent a text and do not know how to do so. I could probably figure it out eventually, but the two times this unlikely event did happen I just called back. In both cases the person I called back was very uncomfortable that anyone would call back on a text and did not know what to do. Talk maybe?

So am I an idiot? I do not think so, I could figure it out if I wanted too, I just don't want to. However as I have pointed out above I am old, and not texting works just fine for me. I do actually get to occasionally have something called a conversation, how strange.

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