The UK’s Digital Economy Bill is designed to give the government the power to control access to the Internet with the aim of protecting the interests of big business.

The music industry is of course very happy with the bill, but a leaked memo showed that they are fully aware that the only way this will get on to the statute books is if it gets rushed through Parliament without proper scrutiny.

As a micro ISVer, I have to think about software piracy, but this bill is fundamentally flawed from the ground up. Please spare 5 minutes to help block it.

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/speakout/extremeinternetl

It’s been about 10 months since Home Document Manager made the transition from project to product. Looking back on those 10 months I can level a couple of criticisms at myself; the main one is that I haven’t iterated aggressively enough. The other is that I’ve ignored some customer feedback because it didn’t gel with my vision of where I wanted Home Document Manager to go.

Something happened in the last month that has injected a bit of pace into my development. I started considering a closely related, although entirely seperate product. Where HDM is a desktop document management tool, the new product was an advanced PDF Viewer/Editor/Annotator.

Part of the dance that micro ISV‘ers do when conceiving a new product is to evaluate competition, see what they do, see what they don’t do, see if they alleviate the particular pain that you’re trying address, and why, or why not. In short, we try to find our Unique Selling Proposition. I looked closely at a number of big names in the document imaging and PDF worlds, products like Acrobat Professional, Abbyy Finereader and the like. Not only did I find my USP within minutes, I’ve found a wealth of new user interface ideas and major bits of functionality that would slot right in to Home Document Manager.

I’m already a decent way through coding for the new product and have had so many a-ha moments for version 2 of HDM too.

Choosing WPF was a mistake. I love WPF. I work for Microsoft writing WPF. But for this particular project, it was the wrong call. The new project I’m writing uses Windows Forms. It’s been a while since I did WinForms, but my WPF experience is illuminating my UI architecting in new ways. I also really don’t miss the WPF cold start times. I’m certainly more productive using WPF, but let’s face it, in the B2C world, your customers really don’t care about that. Version 2 of HDM will use WinForms.

I haven’t paid enough attention to minimising the clicks my users have to go through in order to perform common tasks. This was immediately apparent when reviewing the competition for my new product, so version 2 of  HDM will have a much improved UI.

The deployment mechanism I use for HDM (ClickOnce) has its advantages. I can update end user installs easily, but serious B2B is a struggle because of the lack of Proxy support in ClickOnce. I also fell into the self signed ClickOnce bootstrapper trap, which effectively brought iterations of version 1 of HDM to a premature end. Bog standard installers from hereon-in.

One of the things I have to consider is whether or not to bring two such closely related products under the same umbrella on the same website. This has obvious advantages for marketing and SEO, they are both paperless/PDF/document related products.

A lot to mull over, but for me, speccing and developing a second complimentary/related product seems to be a good thing so far. I know the arguments about laser-like focus for micro ISVs, and I’m hoping that I’m not stumbling into a heffalump trap. But having two related products, particularly on the same website, should add credibility, and the 2 products can also have a beneficial effect on each other. Time will tell.

p.s. I’m writing this on Christmas day only because I’m standing in the kitchen with our latest edition (Eli Benjamin, 6 weeks old) strapped to my chest while I wait for the turkey to cook. Happy Christmas everyone.

A year or two ago, trusted Micro ISV‘er Andy Brice posted an article entitled The Great Digital Certificate Ripoff? It’s well worth a read as it underlines some of the apparent anticompetitive aspects of this particular market.

I’m very happy to say that the ground is shifting – something interesting is happening. Internet Explorer is pretty much universally despised by tech-savvy users, but its sheer market slice means that only a fool would ignore it. As of now, Internet Explorer (and by extension, Windows) will have a new root certificate installed. The root certificate will be that of StartCom Ltd. Why is this important?

StartCom is the only public certification authority providing digital certificates for free!

The implications for security on Windows are profound. No longer will SSL and code signing certificates be expensive commodities for the little guy. Firefox and Apple have supported StartCom for some time, but thankfully us Windows developers can now get in on it.

The SLL certificates are free and provide:

• Web server certificates (SSL/TLS)
• Client and mail certificates (S/MIME)
• 128/256-bit encryption
• US $ 10,000 insurance guaranteed
• Valid 365 days (1 year)

The code signing certificates require a verified account, but still cost a measley $39, and boast:

Web server certificates (SSL/TLS)

Wild cards (*.domain.com)

Multiple domains (DNS Alt Names)

128/256-bit encryption

Object Code Signing (beta)

Client and mail certificates (S/MIME)

US $ 10,000 insurance guaranteed

2 Years validity (730 days)

Well done to StartCom, and well done to Microsoft. Check out the certificates on offer here.

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Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.

Sydney Smith
English essayist (1771 – 1845)

Although it didn’t happen by conscious effort, I have managed to steer myself through a decade of software engineering whilst remaining largely ignorant of a great many areas of what many would consider my trade. Although this could be construed as self criticism, it has actually served me rather well. Although I’ve dabbled in various areas, Windows desktop applications have been my main area of focus, and in the freelancer market, this is very much a niche that I am happy to occupy. Being in this niche, and also being one of the most experience WPF freelance developers in the country has not only shielded me (thus far) from the recession, it has also led me to the Mecca of .Net developers: Microsoft itself, where I am a very, *very* happy chappy.

Whilst this laserlike focus is benefiting freelancer-Tim, it might also be hurting micro-ISVer-Tim. I am at the point where Home Document Manager is a solid 1.x product, its traffic share is increasing, as is its customer base. I’ve signed a partnership agreement with a UK startup (the founders of which are friends and ex-colleagues) to rebadge and push Home Document Manager in to document management resellers, and that is starting to get some traction too.

As my main areas of interest revolve around document management in its many forms, my attention has started to shift a little to what I could do in the web-based arena. I have no intention of going up against Google Docs or Zoho (rest easy boys), they aren’t really document management tools; certainly not in the sense that people who work in document management would understand. So when my B2B partners asked if I would develop a web based offering, I was more than a little interested.

Although I toyed briefly with the idea of taking this as an opportunity to play with Ruby on Rails, I put my business head on and decided that I would be far more productive by staying in my comfort zone, i.e. .Net.

Some fantastic things have happened to desktop apps in recent years; Adobe Air and WPF both spring to mind. The web has also seen its fair share of advancements. After considering all, some or fewer of the competition, I’m taking a tentative step towards the ASP.Net MVC framework. Its simplicity, power and convention based strengths were immediately apparent and its inherent unit-testability makes it very appealing to me.

The Model View Controller is not new, but the very mature framework that comes with the download makes for easy development. I like easy development.

Being the methodical soul that I am, I’ve scouted out the best book on the subject and am merrily plodding my way through it. I chose Professional ASP.Net MVC 1.0, by Conery et. al., and can certainly recommend it thus far. The samples and walkthroughs are well thought out and the rate of progress is just right for me and I would certainly recommend it.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Adobe AIR update to address performance, memory leak issues (infoworld.com)
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Image via Wikipedia

Required materials:

• Plain Paraffin Wax (about 1/2 pound)
• Double Boiler
• Wooden spoon
• Bowls for cold water
• Candle thermometer
• Kitchen Stove
• Wick

And the instructions:

1. Cut the wax into small pieces.
2. Bring the water gently to the boil. Place wax in the double boiler.
3. Stir until the wax is melted. Once melted, try to keep the wax at 71C / 160F.
4. Cut the wick to the desired length, then dip into the wax. Allow the wax to cool between dippings for a minute or two.
5. Continue the dipping and cooling process. After a few dippings, you can speed up the process by dipping in cold water.
6. Repeat the process until the candle reaches the desired thickness.
7. When finished and cooled, cut a flat base on the candle.

Et voila.

So what’s so interesting about candle dipping from the perspective of software development?
Well, after 1 dip, what do you have? Well, you have a piece of string
covered in wax, neither use nor ornament. But after just a few dips,
you will have the beginnings of a candle, albeit at this stage, a very
slim one. So very quickly, we have something that could function as a
working candle.

Then, over time, we add layers, additional wax, additional
functionality. In time, this candle willl become an impressive church
candle, with a good 4 or 5 inches in diameter. Just as your app, with
very humble beginnings, will, with proper technique, become a very
impressive app.

The use of candle dipping as a metaphor for software development is not new in the world of Agile Software Development.
The essence is that we work in very small iterations, and we keep a
working application available at all times, just as our candle could
function as a candle at all times throughout its creation.
Functionality, business value, mojo, whatever you want to call it, is
added in vertical strips, just like in candle dipping.

If mojo is added in the order of business value, this process will,
at all times, mean that your application will yield the highest return on investment possible at any given time.

It’s been worth it. I’ve been so busy I didn’t even have time to announce a product launch on here. So, belatedly, here it is.

Convert2XPS has launched. It’s not big, and it’s not clever, but it’s launched. Convert2XPS is a .Net development library and custom XPS virtual printer driver that will, by hook or by crook, convert documents of arbitrary type to XPS.

This will not be my main product. I’m adopting a slightly different
strategy to the 100% laser beam focus of many micro ISVs, but more
about that later. For now, it’s back to the coding.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

It’s been a frustrating week. I was all keyed up to release last
Friday, everything was ready to go live except for one, rather crucial
component; namely the licensing agreement for the OCR component, without which, Home Document Manager is just a pretty face.

It’s only a short term delay, but it’s annoying.

But – I harnassed my annoyance, and turned it into motivation. And
I’m bloody glad I did, as it’s also been quite a creative week for me.

The first thing – I broke off a piece of Home Document Manager and
have packaged it as a stand alone development component. There was only
a little rework to productise it, I’ve had the logo done on 99Designs
and I’m doing the web site over the weekend. Although I swore I would
never release anything for developers, this seemed like it might be low
maintenance, so I’ll give it a whirl. I’ll announce when the last
remaining ‘issue’ slots into place.

I also had an interesting idea about providing a non software related service for micro ISVs. Can’t say any more at the minute, but should be able to in the next couple of days.

Image via Wikipedia

For the last month, it feels like I’ve done nothing but drive and
work. I get up at 5.30, leave the house at 5.45, drive 60 miles, get to
work at 7, leave at 3, drive 60 miles, eat, put the kids to bed, then
work til about 12. Then I go to sleep, and repeat ad infinitum.

This weekend, a combination of sweltering heat and chronic tiredness
finally caught up with me. I usually work Friday and Saturday nights
until the sun comes up, but this weekend it was just too much. So I had
the weekend off. And I needed it.

I’ve dragged myself to within reaching distance of the 1.0 that has thus far proved elusive. I’m 3 days past code freeze,
and the code isn’t even chilled. I’ve got three days left, and I know
that something’s got to give. So I’ve made the sensible decision to
make August 1st’s release a public beta.
This means I can bump the licensing and ecommerce stuff into next
month. It also means I will have a better RTM version come September
1st.

It’s been an odd week. I’ve received emails of encouragement from
the oddest of quarters. From the PaperPort user group, from a Supreme
Court Associate Justice, from a photographer….

The slog continues…

So, in the end, I split the index in two – a content index, and a
metadata index. This should speed up navigating as the number of
documents increases, and it also means that removing and re-adding
documents is a lot quicker, as it’s only ever the metadata that changes.

The logo contest over at 99designs is
coming to an end. Would love to hear people’s thoughts. The logo above
isn’t necessarily my favourite. It’s just that Zemanta doesn’t appear
to be there today….and I like pictures.

Image via Wikipedia

1 week til code freeze. It’s getting tight.

My car has gone into the garage today for a service, and instead of
going to the trouble of hiring a car, I’ve decided to sample a bit of
the web worker lifestyle. So I got the taxi driver to deposit me in Nottingham City Centre, found myself a Starbucks, got set up with WiFi, and am about to spend the whole day working on Home Document Manager. Bonus.

Not managed to get much code written over the last couple of days,
but yesterday I sorted the hosting at DreamHosts and got WordPress
installed.

Now back to my latte…