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April 29, 2005
Software PR
I've been running across lots of references to PR lately, both in the world of small ISVs and out. Here's a good definition of PR as it relates to selling software.
http://oped.macketplace.com/pages/2005/04/a_simple_defini.php
We've had virtually no PR for Swoosh and we've just got our first review of Envelopes Easy on download.com (a very favorable one). I'd lump regular word-of-mouth under PR since the definition of PR is basically a third party recommending your software. Seems to me like more PR and less advertising is the way to go.
Posted by mikel at 05:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 26, 2005
Smartphone Mosquito Repellant
This can't be real, but it sure looks like it's an actual product.
http://www.smartphone.net/software_detail.asp?id=832
Mellow Mosquito turns your Smartphone into a Personal Mosquito Repeller. Entomology ecology proves that only female mosquitoes bite humans, and that is in their breeding period. During that time they try to avoid male mosquitoes, and Mellow Mosquito emulates the sound of the male to chase away the female. Perfect for walkers, campers, anglers, holidaymakers, travellers, gardeners, children & adults. A Great Alternative To Messy Lotions Or Sprays.
Posted by mikel at 06:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Nullable types in C#
More info on nulls for Kyle
http://davidkean.net/archive/2005/04/25/393.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/ericgu/archive/2004/05/27/143221.aspx
Posted by mikel at 08:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 25, 2005
.NET CF at DePaul
Looks like DePaul has a course that's similiar to CPT 355 at Purdue.
http://ipd.cti.depaul.edu/Prog_mobile.htm
via Chris Tacke
Posted by mikel at 03:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Windows Mobile and Windows CE
A good explaination of how Windows Mobile (the Pocket PC OS) and Windows CE relate.
http://blogs.msdn.com/marcpe/archive/2005/04/22/410778.aspx
A good reading assignment for CPT 355
Posted by mikel at 07:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 21, 2005
Declining female teacher quality
An interesting article about the lower number of top quality females going into teaching. Interesting because my wife was valedictorian at our high school, graduated from what I would classify as a top tier college - Purdue, and is now a teacher. Guess she's pretty rare. Lots of other interesting quotes that don't just apply to female teachers though.
http://www.educationnext.org/20052/50.html
Yet a decline in female teacher quality is just what the evidence—most notably a recent study by three University of Maryland economists—indisputably shows (see Figure 1). According to their findings, the likelihood that a highly talented female (one ranked among the top 10 percent of all high schoolers) will become a teacher fell from roughly 20 percent in 1964 to just over 11 percent in 2000.
In 1998, Eugene Hickok, then Pennsylvania’s secretary of education, revealed that his state’s teacher preparation system provided “limited assurances of competence and quality,” leaving “the doors…open for C-plus students (or worse) to become teachers.”
While there could be other explanations outside our investigation, conventional wisdom has long pointed to new opportunities for college-educated women as the primary explanation for the change in teacher quality that many have sensed. We were inclined to accept the conventional wisdom when we began this project, but, after systematically comparing the relative importance of the two factors, we found, surprisingly enough, that pay compression within the teaching profession, induced by the introduction of collective bargaining, has had by far the greater effect.On further reflection, we were not quite so surprised by the results. For one thing, the overall timing of the decline in teacher quality corresponds to the rise of collective bargaining within education. Teacher unions won collective bargaining rights in key cities and states during the 1960s. Over the next 20 years, collective bargaining spread from state to state across the country.
As a result of union action, the average salary for teachers increased modestly. But as the average was edging upward, the range of the scale narrowed sharply, so much so that able young women were bound to take notice. Moreover, collectively bargained contracts placed a premium on characteristics such as seniority and credentials rather than performance, further depressing the opportunities for the high-aptitude teacher.
These results are striking: union-driven pay compression alone accounts for more than three-quarters of the decline in teacher quality. ... Put another way, we cannot expect high-performing college graduates to continue to enter teaching if that is the one profession in which pay is decoupled from performance.
To attract high-aptitude women back into teaching, school districts need to reward teachers in the same way that college graduates are paid in other professions—that is, according to their performance. In all probability, such a strategy would attract male teachers of higher aptitude as well.
What a novel idea, pay someone based on the value they provide.
So basically my take is that women have better opportunities outside of education. The smartest women can take advantage of those opportunities but all that the not so smart women qualify to do is teach. And it looks like the number one reason that teaching doesn't provide better opportunities is because the unions bargain for the wrong things.
Posted by mikel at 02:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Alice for 4H
Last year for the Tippecanoe County 4H computer project, I used C# and SharpDevelop to get the kids started with programming. It went OK. The kids were able to do a few things with graphics after the workshop. We focused on that because most of the kids were interested in making games.
This Saturday we're going to try something different. It is called Alice. It is a teaching environment developed at Carnegie Mellon. The best parts are that it is very graphical since most of the kids want to make games or do 3D animations but it teaches the basic concepts of programming. Supposedly, college students who learn Alice first do better with professional languages later than those thrown directly into Java or VB. There are quite a few learning languages and environemnts, but I was always hesitant to use them because I didn't want to limit the kids that really get into it.
The Alice environemnt has been pretty easy to learn so far, at least for the basics. Which is good. If I can't pick it up quick, then I can't really expect the kids to do it either. The only problem has been finding learning resources. The download comes with several tutorials that are good. But beyond that there isn't much of anything. Since this is used at several universities and community colleges, I expected to find a resource of lesson plans. If anyone knows where these are at, please email me. After Saturday, I'll post the tutorial I'm creating.
[Update] I didn't end up creating a tutorial. I used the first 3 tutorials that come with Alice. Overall, it went really well. The kids seemed to really get into it and figured out how to do a lot of things on their own. In fact, we skipped the fourth tutorial because I didn't want to interrupt them.
Posted by mikel at 09:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 15, 2005
download.com
We used Google AdWords with very limited success to advertise Swoosh. It was great for getting downloads but the actual number of those that turned into sales was extermely low. Overall, I still like the AdWords system (it's easy to use and customize) but we need to spend more time to make it really work effectively.
So for our next product, DelMar Envelopes Easy, we decided to try something different. Based on a comment on the Joel on Software forum, we decided to give CNet's download.com a try. The signup process was pretty easy. They accept a PAD file but I still had to tweak and add a few fields. We're now listed, so we'll see how many downloads and, more importantly, sales are generated.
Posted by mikel at 07:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 10, 2005
DelMar Envelopes Easy
DelMar Envelopes Easy is now available. This is our second product we're releasing since we started last May. Again, the actual development of the software has been a smaller part then I would ever image. The good part is that we were able to reuse a lot of the experiences from releasing Swoosh. One major change (at least on my part) technology wise was the use of the Nullsoft installer.
DelMar Envelopes Easy is a simple program for printing addresses on envelopes and labels. The idea is that Word and other word processors can do the same thing but are to much hassle or to expensive when you just need to print a quick envelope.
Posted by mikel at 06:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack