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New features for newer operating systems
I've written a number of times (I think) about how long should I support an older OS. I've also said that I'm not abandoning Tiger users, quite yet, but I may have mentioned that new features are likely going to be Leopard only as required to make things easier. In the recent past, I've implemented 2 Leopard only features; the first is support for Image Capture scanners. Image Capture seems like a broken framework that might be fixed someday. In the meantime, the only way for me to reliably test and get things working is to require Leopard.
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GrandCentral Dialer
I've been using GrandCentral for awhile now and think I have finally managed to get people to start calling that number. The flexibility is great; I can pick the phone I want to use and if I travel, I can set calls to goto my cell phone. If I'm around, calls goto my VOIP line. One of the interesting features they added to GrandCentral was the ability to call a Gizmo Project number as a calling number. Combine this with click to call on GrandCentral's web site and I basically can get rid of a phone line. I currently have a BroadVoice VOIP line which costs me about $12 per month.
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Less complaining, more fixing
I, like many modern Mac developers, use Sparkle for auto-updating ReceiptWallet. This is an amazing framework that keeps getting enhanced. Many developers just shove it in and forget it. When there is an issue, they just complain about crappy code (I know I do that a lot). Today in updating ReceiptWallet, I found that my update crashed. I am using the absolute latest and greatest Sparkle code, so it always has risks. I dove into the code, found the bugs and suggested fixes. Andy Matuschak, the Sparkle guy, must not sleep (well, he is a college student), as he fixed the bugs within hours after I reported them (someone actually reported one before I did, but I identified the exact causes) and then when I was looking at the fixes, I noticed that Andy made a mistake (probably easy to do with a lack of sleep) and reported it again. Andy quickly fixed it and all is well. I really love Sparkle and it is the only way to get people to keep up-to-date on my software.
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Treating customers like garbage
I got my bill from MCI (The Neighborhood plan) the other day for our home phone service and saw that it jumped! After some research (viewing my invoice online was a nightmare because the server kept dropping my connection even when I tried from Windows), they raised my rate $10 per month. I've been a customer for a long time and wasn't notified of this change; they swore that they notified me in my online bill (I still can't find a record of that). The increase is ridiculous. This comes at a time when people are dropping landline phones to go only cellular. I still like the call quality of a landline and knowing that 911 is available. So MCI charges me $56.99 per month. If I'm a new subscriber, it would be $59.99 per month, but each year I'd get a free month of service. So basically as a long time customer, I get screwed out of $24 per year. I've looked into switching to AT&T, but their online help is kind of useless. They can't even tell me exactly how much voicemail costs. The base cost for unlimited local and long distance is $40 per month and somewhere between $6.95 and $9.00 per month for voicemail. So would it be cheaper than MCI? Possibly, but I can't quite tell. The signup page lists all the fees and stuff which seems to indicate that the total, including voicemail would be a little more than $10 per month cheaper than MCI. If I go through with the signup, there isn't an option to add voicemail, so I'd have to talk to a rep and deal with that.