Ben Russell

Can't argue with that. *hands you a beer*

...being able to write C/C++ is about as useful and productive as knowing Latin. To be fair to C++, once you figure out how to get PPL and OpenAL working, you can do the same with ALSoundBuffer boo("some/file/path/boo.wav"); boo.play(); The catch is: getting PPL and OpenAL to work. PPL works fine in my IDE now, but despite devoting a whole fifteen minutes to it I can't link to OpenAL's libraries. And the end result's not cross-platform or anything good like that.

(I find it very annoying when threads are locked.)

This is highly coincidental - in the last week I changed the nag screens again. I also changed the price. No notice of this was made because it was basically just hours-days ago now. Then the Q update came out and, well, yeah.. The next nag system looks like this: It has no forced-wait timer. You can close it instantly; as many times as you like. It's a much smaller window. It appears at random locations around the screen every couple of minutes, the delay is randomly between ~10 and 180 seconds. It will come back again and again and again. The watermark stays as it was. Still fully functional, still free to try out entirely before you risk a dime. I switched to this approach after trying(and buying! $9.99) some other Mac shareware that does basically the same thing. I found it to be a nice trade off between irritation, reminder and enjoyment. You can enjoy your product "more or less" instantly. So very important these days. You get interrupted now and then at an unpredictable moment. You can get rid of the screen instantly again so you can keep on that glide-slope, but you know the darned thing will be back again. I appreciate that all you want to do is purchase a working product. Everyone likes it when batteries are included. Me, I just wanna make Gizmo better so we can have a better X-Plane... 10 bucks at a time. ( To those who bought in early, thank you for your early-adopter support! ...as you will well know by now, still trying to find the sweet spot. )

This model was attempted last year. The numbers don't add up to a sustainable business model. Users hate DRM. Users find complex DRM/license levels "too confusing". So now we have an Open Source product that anyone can pickup - in some ways it does less - in some ways more. When it was closed source, and a developers fee was imposed, there was a huge risk that the product would simply die out because the monetary return isn't realistic. I feel like I'm going around in circles.

Concerns: - Minimum bulk-discount quantity gets set at ___ users? - Delay for customers to receive their serial numbers. You(armchair/etc store) will have to process the sale -> serial -> customer step. - Increased complexity. I have to invest a bunch of time up-front to create a bulk-serial system for return-on-investment that's so far in the red it's laughable. Preferable end result is a bulk-generator that can be tied to a web-store so that the serial number gets generated within seconds of a purchase. This isn't going to happen. I'm not paying for it. You'll still need to be up-front with your customers about Gizmo licensing. It may even cause more confusion.

Let me ponder this one. Could be an interesting option here.

Here's the keys to my car. The fuel tanks full.... it takes a minute to warm up. Feel free to drive it wherever you want, do whatever you want. You can even bring it back with the fuel tank empty, doesn't bother me, I'll just fill it up again for the next person anyway.

Sub licensing arrangements come down to tracking transparency. How do I know how many they really sold? In X-A's case, the arrangement comes by way of the DRM system you all "love". These avenues were explored previously, please re-read the threads from late 2010 if you need reminding of the confusion that surrounded that affair.

You bought X-Plane, same thing. Your quarrel lies with Jack and Joe for lack of full disclosure about exactly what you were getting. There are multiple threads on this forum covering the nagware systems and their progress. I have tried multiple different types of licensing arrangements. Ultimately the person really paying for Gizmo; - so you can enjoy the products that artists and content produces publish, content that you all so dearly want - so content producers can charge $40-50+ .. instead of the $25 it'd be worth without custom systems.. ..is me. I work a 2nd job and focus a lot of free time on updating Gizmo. It receives a near-monthly update and improvement. It's completely free to download, install, evaluate/test, develop with, share, etc. I ask for "but one minute" of your time.. or a small fee for an entire year of "new" content - that will run and work forever. (You can run a Gizmo 11.x product in 2015 for all I care..) You pay so that we can take one small step at a time forward and we can all enjoy improved systems. If you don't like it, feel free to go Plugins > Plugins Admin > Gizmo > Disable. You can go back to standard X-Plane, no nags, no logos. See how far your next $10 in the real world goes.

..oh man, I haven't laughed that hard in ages, thanks for that. ;D

I'm taking a snapshot of the first post in the thread to ensure that it's not messed with.

Stars are based on forum section more than Karma, they're dumb and broken imo. If you go read my posts in the Gizmo forums you'll see I have five green stars. If you read my posts in most other places on the board I have 1 star. Broken(by design) forum feature, nothing to see here.

3 hours into the thread and you're crying like a needy child about Karma systems and changing your name as some kind of pathetically revealing protest? Really, three fucking hours. Grow up.

I personally look forward with extreme curiosity to see how many people chime in on this thread to support you and your "outing" of your allegations. Please, all who have grievances, speak now or forever hold your peace. Let this be the bitch thread of all bitch threads against X-A. Put up or shut up. We bitch about the Org enough, I look forward to an X-A picnic.

Ahhhh Mr Creosote, how you feeling? better.. better get me a bucket.

...they should fly in an extra palette of after-dinner-mints too...

Nicola; did you notice they recommend putting the webcam at the bottom of your screen? (...no, I'm not looking at the source code, or porting it. Sorry.)

The post that I replied to, as QUOTED (Pay attention UH..) .. is a bot replying to this thread. The post I replied too has been deleted, but was immediately before my last post in this thread. The post was made by a bot, and to make a seemingly "on topic" post, it took a copy the first post from the thread and re-posted it, with very minor changes. This makes it look like an on-topic, relevant, coherent, yet strangely familiar post... while embedding annoying spam tags in the users signatures. (Google bomb...) Had this been a longer thread I probably wouldn't have caught it, because we're still on the first page I could compare it to the first post, which made me look closer and spot the spam-signature. ...I now return you to your scheduled 727 thread.

now that is some sneaky spamming right there.....

Can you provide more details please..

TOBS: How about you go and test the Cirrus Jet against XSB Gizmo and Shrink Wrap instead of muddying the waters more about an issue already covered, and responded too politely in your existing threads. Thanks.

Probably a clash between Gizmo and XSquawkbox and sound. ... Shrink-Wrap is a very basic plugin and shouldn't clash with anything.

Skyhawks controlled-crashed onto carriers. Long travel or broken airplanes, pretty simple really.