As a software developer I should not criticise my peers, I am only too well aware of my own shortcomings.  However after 8 years I can no longer be quiet.

My angst is over RoboSoft PAD Automation Software, and its excellent. It does exactly what I want, how I want it to and there are no modifications I want to the way it runs.  It works.

The problem comes with their payment processor, Digital River, whose ability to handle online financial transactions “outside the box” is about as effective as a dead muskrat.  If you attempt to purchase from an IP address that is not within 30ft of your billing address you are already in trouble so imagine how they react to someone whose ISP forces them to use a proxy server that spins IP addresses every 15 seconds?

Overcome their inability to understand technology and you might think you are on your way to solving the problem.  ohh no.  Absolutely not!  I am an IT contractor and that takes me around the world, often the UK, Spain, USA and South Africa.  According to Digital River that makes me a terrorist, or a financial risk (but I assume not both).

The fact that I have bank accounts that predate the Internet all in good standing, that I have had a Paypal account since January 2000 and “reputation” figure in the high thousands carries little influence with them.  Because I exercise my right as a human being to have more than one address in more than one country I am a risk to them.

This means that if I wish to buy something from an organisation that uses one of their companies exclusively then its a lost sale.  And that’s the problem I have with RoboSoft.  Although I was able to buy from them in April 2003 I have not been able to renew my subscription again except once in 2006.

It was a memorable moment.  Digital River approved payment although I was currently resident in the USA and on holiday in Spain.  The next year, while in the USA I could no longer buy from them.  A US bank registered and billed to my US address made no difference. It appears wherever I am in the world, if I am to buy from a Digital River supplier I must travel to Spain (a welcome prospect if not a touch OTT).

Its as if they “profile” their customers and judging by the number they add to the end of my email address each time I attempt to purchase I am suspicious they may be opening an account even though I have not asked for one or given them permission to retain my information (remember, I am not Digital Rivers customer, that has never, nor would ever, be my intention).

I am fed up playing email ping pong with them. I ask a question and they reply with the same answer which boils down to “We are a big company and only people we condescend to treat as humans may deal with us”.  Their phone support is even worse… if you can imagine that.

However it occurred to me this is a bitter blow for Rudenko and RoboSoft, even if he doesn’t know about it.  Because of Digital Rivers incompetence he has lost $805 in subscription fees due to the years I have not been able to purchase.  Doubtless there are many thousands of people in my business that have the same problem with Digital River, and a few of those may have been Rudenko’s customers too.

Where are you Rudenko?

At times I have complained to Rudenko over the years but he has either ignored the messages or could care less.  Perhaps he is earning enough already.  Who knows.  I’m even on his “friend list” at LinkedIn (he’ll probably remove me if he reads this) but nothing has ever been done.

Rudenko is $805 worse off and each year he continues to sell subscriptions he continues to lose more money, only he’s losing an ever increasing amount.  In that position I would do something about it, claiming the Ukraine has problems with money transfers was a weak argument 8 years ago but things have improved dramatically so won’t wash today.  Whereas DR still has not updated its software to handle VAT properly (They misunderstood the new rules in June 2004 and still do not apply them correctly, but that’s another issue).

How many more people suffer at the hands of Digital Rivers incompetence?  Search google and you will see there are 642,000 websites for digital river scam.  It maybe anecdotal evidence but overwhelming none the less.  Use Digital River exclusively and you are throwing money away, and when there are so many cheaper, more reliable alternatives and much easier to implement its surprising anyone uses them at all.

1.  CamStudio:  Taking a screen recording is not difficult or expensive anymore.  And sometimes a video recording of the screen is the only way to get your message across.  The upload to Image Shack and then provide the link in your forum post.

2. Vista Users:  Vista comes with a handy tool similar to Camtasia’s snagit.  If you are not already familiar with this tool you can get details here.

3.  Other Windows Users:  To the right of your keyboard is a Print Screen button.  This is sometimes shortened to Prt. Sc. or PrtScrn or similar.  With the windows you want displayed on your screen you are now ready to take your screen dump.

To capture a specific window click the top of it to make it the program with focus then hold down the left alt key and press the Print Screen button.  To capture the entire screen just press the Print Screen button.

Now open MS Paint (Start/Run “mspaint”) and press Ctrl-V to paste your capture image.  Use File/Save in MS Paint and save as a JPG file ready for uploading.

The question is can twitter help your business?  I’m not sure but willing to give it a try.  As mentioned in a previous post the similarities with facebook are astonishing, except it cuts out the clutter, and that is attractive.

A while ago I did have a play with their API and had planned to release something that would enable exchange owners to post interesting stats on a regular basis, such as each time their membership went up by 100 or other chosen break-point.

Traffic Bunnies then released their own communication tool and proved to be very popular at the time and I think planned a few twitter like changes (Perhaps Cindy can update us).

Since joining I have been following Google and already learned a few interesting things because of it.  Perhaps the idea of News in 140 characters or less is more suited to our lifestyle these days?

It’s straightforward. Place the cmdSendmail.exe in your path or working directory and then type something like this at the command line:-

cmdSendMail you@emailtest.com~you@somewherelse.com~The Subject~The main text of the message~you@somewherelse.com~pass123~mail.somewherelse.com

Usage

cmdSemdMail {command string delimited by tilde}

To send an email create a single string with all the paramters of your message. Use the tilde (~) to delimit the paramters of your email.

cmdSendMail Download

For example I have a batch file that downloads financial figures every day, processes them and updates a database.

vbcurl http://myfinancialfigures.com/something.php >mydatafile.htm

If you don’t have a copy of Opera handy use a statement like the following to read the source from a page that blocks right click:-

vbcurl http://annoyingwebsitesthat.com/blockrightclicks.php >secret_source.htm

Vbcurl

Click the above link to download a small tool for encrypting small chunks of HTML such as PayPal and AlertPay buttons. It doesn’t actually encrypt code it obfuscates it which is a fancy way of saying it jumbles it up a bit. It’s enough to deter the casual thief from checking out the successful return URL where he might find your goodies.

It’s a VB6 application (Google site:microsoft.com vb6 runtimes if you don’t have them already).

Free to use but usual disclaimers, use at your own risk etc..

The application is written with VB6. It’s not a commercial grade product but it does the job. I meant to add it to the System Tray but never got around to it and as VB6 is no longer supported it’s unlikely I will bother. However it’s been working well for several years and as far as I know remains bug free!

Using it is self explanatory so I won’t bother with much detail. Only to say use at your own risk, no warranty, no guarantee, blah blah blah…. but at least it’s free!

Download HomeCron.zip