ASPects is the monthly newsletter of the Association of Software Professionals, serving both as the publication of record for reporting news, official business, and member benefits to the membership, and helping members to create and sell software using the marketing methods of try-before-you-buy and many other marketing methods. Our readers are mostly programmers, independent software publishers, web site developers marketing or distributing software, and other software industry participants.

ASPects contains confidential and proprietary information, and so is normally not available to non-members, but one issue per year is usually distributed at the annual Software Industry Conference. The most recent convention special issue is available for download in PDF format.

July 2010 Volume 23, No. 7 (495 Kb)

"Shareware is Dead--Long Live Shareware!"
by Andy Brice
Today it is relatively easy to market your software (through a web site), distribute the software (via Internet downloads) and collect payment (using an online payment provider). It wasn't so easy before the Internet existed. “Shareware” appeared in the 1980s as a way for small commercial developers to reach a large market.
Early shareware pioneers including Andrew Fluegelman, Jim Knopf (Button), Bob Wallace, and Marshall Magee proved the commercial viability of the shareware concept, reportedly making millions... (page 1)

"President's Corner"
by Michael Dulin
Since this is the ASP's annual public edition I'd like to point out to the public that we have changed our name. We are now the Association of Software Professionals instead of the Association of Shareware Professionals. We are still the same organization that has been around since 1987 with the same focus. That focus is mostly on independent software developers... (page 2)

"Failure to Launch"
by Russell Thackston
I've started more than six microISVs over the last decade and, not counting the open source projects, none of them made it to market. Why? Let me tell you. . . .
The internet is littered with the tumbleweeds and debris of startups that failed to launch. The evidence of them is right there in the blogosphere if you know what you're looking for. It usually goes something like this. .. (page 5)

"WordPress 3.0: First Impressions & Menus"
by Jerry Stern
WordPress 3.0 is out--Theolonious Monk has the honor of having this release named after him. First, all you need to know: The upgrade works, and the interface is recognizable and doesn't seem to hide any old features. Backup your site first, run the update from inside the admin panel, and that's pretty much it.
Now, on to why you should upgrade your self-hosted installations of WordPress. It's still a blog platform that works well without a blog, it's still an easy CMS to install and setup as a product website, and it's still easy to maintain... (page 8)

ASP Member News:
Software Publishers Entice Developers to the July Software Industry Conference in Dallas AutoPlay Media Studio 8 Enables Visual Software Development for Microsoft Windows 7 Manage Tasks, Projects, Schedules, and Reminders with TaskMerlin 3.0 New Software Allows up to 50 Mouse Cursors to Collaborate on One Desktop (pages 10-11)

News & Press Corner:
DoJ Joins in Launch of Intellectual Property Enforcement Initiative ifraudalert.org to Rescue Stolen Data (pages 11-12)

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