Last Day for DropShark Early Adopter

[cambler]

As mentioned in Domain Name Journal, August 31st is the last day to purchase a license to DropShark and have it be an Early Adopter license.

An Early Adopter license means that you will receive upgrades for free for the lifetime of the product. After September 1st, registered users of the 1.x versions who do not have Early Adopter licenses will need to purchase upgrades when version 2.0 is released later this year.

http://www.dropshark.com

 

[unholy1]

Been trying to purchase a license, unfortunately for me I can't use paypal from my location.

 

[cambler]

I really do sympathize with your situation, and I wish there was something I could do.

Does anyone have any suggestions? If someone from a country that PayPal doesn't like wants to pay for something, is there anything they can do?

Can you buy Amazon.com gift certificates? I shop there enough that it's as good as cash to me...

Anyone have any helpful suggestions? If we can come up with something, I'll consider your license to be Early-Adopter even if we figure it out after tomorrow. I'm not a hard-ass about that

One more issue to make sure everyone knows about - here's a response I just sent to someone who was seeing an unhandled exception at startup. This is what I send out whenever someone either has version 1.0 of .NET, or no version at all:

The problem is that Microsoft has the world's worst error reporting. The final error box shows that you have .NET version 1.0 installed without any updates. DropShark uses a single object that you don't have.

The best solution is to upgrade .NET to 1.1 (it's free) and you won't have this problem.

The reason Microsoft irks me is that it would be SO EASY for them to put a stub in .NET that would give you an error like, "Hey, this is .NET speaking, and this application needs a newer version to run. Download it here: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com"

But no...

So again, installing .NET Frameworks 1.1 should resolve this issue promptly.

 

[unholy1]

Amazon.com gift certificates,that I can definitely do as I shop there a lot. Your email address to send the certificate to is all I need.

For International buyers/merchants like myself that Paypal does not serve we usually have to use Stormpay or credit card.

_____________

 

[cambler]

Sent in PM...

 

[skylight]

I just registered few days ago. waiting for your version 1.1

 

[unholy1]

Also waiting for the next version now that I have a license.

Got to thank Chris for helping us non Paypal people.

 

[cambler]

I'm trying to stay on track for September 29th for 1.1, but it's touch-and-go right now, with eNom working me so hard (not that I'm complaining, mind you - some seriously cool stuff going on - only so many hours in a day).

At least I love what I do!

 

[cambler]

I was just taken to task by someone not in the US, pointing out that August isn't over yet when it's midnight where I live.

Fine. I won't turn off the Early Adopter license flag until 23:59:59 September 1, 2004. Nobody can claim that it's still august one second before September 2nd.

Not even on the moon!

 

[alien]

LOL..

BTW, is there a way to minimise the startup screen?

 

[cambler]

You mean the splash screen? No, once it's done initializing, authenticating and loading, just close it and it's gone for good.

 

[alien]

Yes, the problem with it is that I have to wait around 30 seconds (I've a slow connection) for that loading part and I could'nt do anything other than staring at the big shark.

 

[Jack Gordon]

maybe replace the shark graphic with dancing girls?

 

[cambler]

maybe replace the shark graphic with dancing girls?

I considered the merits of putting an Easter Egg on the splash screen that would have a different graphic, but decided against it

I know! DropShark 1.1, "Rio de Janiero Edition!" with some of the gorgeous Brasilian women I photographed while at the ICANN meeting last year arty:

The issue here is that the splash screen stays up during initialization and authentication so it can report any problems to you. Between .NET startup, a couple of round trips to the web service to determine which lists are available and then do authentication, there's a lot going on. The splash screen provides a surface to track and report progress and any errors, and let you know when things are ready to go.

And, as I hope you've noticed, it also tells you when there's a new build available for download.