As mentioned before I bought the Mac Heist II bundle and what an amazing deal it was too.

Thing is, there is a huge morel debate around Mac Heist and it has hit controversy again because as it turns out Yazsoft, the makers of Speed Download have used the Mac Heist bundle to offload the last few copies of Speed Download 4 (so to speak) before releasing Speed Download 5.

There are a couple of issues here, Yazsoft, maybe innocently didn’t realise before agreeing to the bundle that the Mac Heist way is that all the licenses are supposed to be full licenses, as in, they should be as if you had bought them individually. This has hit Yazsoft because they state on their website that anyone who purchased Speed Download 4 during January/February can upgrade to version 5 for free. However, they have decided that Mac Heist customers don’t qualify.

Another mistake Yazsoft have made is that Speed Download’s “check for updates” feature let you upgrade to Speed Download 5 as if it were a simple update. It did state at the top of the update notes that it was a paid upgrade but I dunno about you but when that update software dialog pops up, I have never read the blurb before hitting the install button!

Even worse, the app has an opt-in automatic update feature, that upgraded you to version 5 without saying anything.

The people running Mac Heist have psuedo officially called Yazsoft “weasels”, as in, they are trying to weasel their way out of giving mac heist customers access to version 5. I completely agree.

Idiot’s also IMO, because the Mac Heist bundle sold 43,815 copies, and for a small Shareware company to piss that many people off could kill them.

Sure they have apologized, but only after a rather large campaign of mac heist customers emailing them *probably quite abusively* and lengthy discussions on the mac heist forum. But as the apology doesn’t include any re-assessment on their policy, it is rather shallow.

I’d like to also finish by defending mac heist. Some folk such as daring fireball have criticized the bundle for devaluing shareware and for not giving a large enough royalty to the developers. I think this is poppycock, how many of the 43,815 people who bought the bundle would have purchased the apps individually had the bundle not existed? I wager only a tiny fraction. and 43,815 x $1 is still a lot more than 100 x $25. Plus, like many customers I hadn’t even tried the trial periods of many apps and now will keep paying upgrades for years on a couple of them…. as long as the upgrade purchase isn’t in the next week before I have even had a chance to try the app out!

“The only way is UP!” oh wait, that’s Yazz.

UPDATE:  On the heist forum it was mentioned that yazsoft have started replying to complaints with a shiny new license code.  So I complained and it’s true!  I’ve now got my free upgrade to Speed Download 5.  Woohoo!  It pays to complain!

Now I feel kinda guilty. LOI

This week it’s Cliff’s Cabs. Aaah, good ol’ Cllff’s Cabs. If you’re ever stranded down in Watchet, Somerset get on the blower and give Cliff a try, he’ll whisk you off like a princess.  E-300 with Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens.

Now for some theremin action.

This song was written in Fruity Loops using some Theremin emulator plug-in that was an absolute hoot to play with. 2001 or thereabouts.

ScrapForNothing.m4a

So we all updated Mac OS X 10.5.1 to 10.5.2 the other day.

Updated both my iMac and iBook, both weighed in at 180MB. Among the fixes are a couple of UI tweaks, one of these is the ability to return the menu bar to the good ‘ol opaque days. But can you see little snag in the screenshot above? The left and behind is the iMac’s desktop property dialog and to the right is the iBooks. Both are 10.5.2. Hmm, I guess iBooks have no business having opaque menu bars.

Hope that screenshot fits in my blog theme OK, it’s a bit large.

Blessed bedtime sheets.  I love this song.

The main sample featurette you’ll find here is sourced from a beloved old game called Little Big Adventure 2.  The song was made in a mixturization of Buzz and Cool Edit Pro

My legs smell of menthol.

BedtimeSheetMayhem.m4a 

Please Steve Bellend aka Monkey Dancer, keep your grubby mits off our Flickr.

The moment I have to log in with a Passport/Windows Live password is the moment I jump ship to zoomr.  Is it zoomr?

Wonder if you can delete flickr accounts and get some money back from the pro membership?  Doubt it.

Is it thursday already master? Another somerset affair awaits you…

I like to think that this chap playing the.. um clarinet? Is probably jesus himself!

In celebration of vera’s funeral this song is about undertakers.

It was written in 2002/03 in Reason I thinkette.

Undertaking.m4a 

Forgot to post yesterday Sir.

This was one of the first test photo’s I made when I got a fast prime.  It’s of a model mini cooper in the living room.  I was pleased with the composition as it kinda looks like the mini is about to drive off, and the big low depth of field makes the mini pop out of the image quite well.

This song is about a mountain or something.

It’s got a beat sampled from an aphex twin song, which is a bit naughty.  It was created in Fast Tracker with addition editing done in cool edit pro in 1997/98 mon.

MNTFlyBy.m4a