User Profile for scott.gardner

OfficeTime 1.3.3 (Mac OS X)

Exactly what I was looking for  

I was looking for an easy-to-use, minimal learning curve, non-bloatware time/billing app. I checked out several titles (somehow overlooking OfficeTime at first), but could not find the "right" app...either functionality that I felt important was missing (e.g., how to handle overtime billing on a retainer), or I discovered spotty functionality in the demo (e.g., iCal integration that didn't work as advertised). In OfficeTime I found *exactly* what I was looking for. Their marketing message "intuitive and deceptively simple" is dead-on. Features I love: 1. Easy project setup and selection. The menulet is great! 2. It syncs with iCal both ways, so you can easily tag an appointment for time billing under a specific project in OfficeTime. 3. Flexible rate management (e.g., I have different support packages that provide up to a specified number of hours per month for a flat fee, and then overtime is discounted off my regular hourly rate). OfficeTime handles the set up, use, and reporting on this need fantastically. 4. A useful little "remind me" tool. I use a separate accounting package, so I don't really use OT's invoicing capabilities, but the reporting is quite comprehensive and useful. Feature requests: 1. Direct Google Calendar integration. It syncs seamlessly with iCal (as does Google Calendar via CalDAV), so iCal is suitable middleware as long as you remember to launch it to sync updates between Google Calendar and OfficeTime. 2. iPhone app or web interface [alert admin]

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Wednesday, September 10 2008 @ 03:13 AM PDT

Mac HelpMate 2.5 (Mac OS X)

A must-have tool for remote techs  

Mac HelpMate provides a lot functionality and valuable diagnostic information to help you effectively and efficiently support your clients remotely. It also provides an easy-to-use interface for your clients to securely share their screen with you for "hands on" tech support (on-demand or automatically). Key words: easy, secure. The Auto HelpMate functionality and its accompanying portal manager are worth the price of subscription alone. You can even track a client's lost or stolen Mac, because the portal maintains a "last seen online" entry for each Auto HelpMate-enabled Mac. [alert admin]

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Wednesday, August 13 2008 @ 08:01 PM PDT

LightSpeed 2.0a (Mac OS X)

LightSpeed is an excellent solution with a solid track record and forward plan  

LightSpeed 2.0 extends its lead in POS/inventory management software with new features and enhancements including a much improved back-end interface. Not that the pre-2.x interface was bad, but that's exactly the point I want to make. *There is no perfect software.* I feel what defines the relative value of an application can be broken down into 4 simple concepts: 1. Functionality 2. Interface 3. Developer 4. Tech support Functionally, LightSpeed is highly-capable, well-organized, and stable. The interface is very handsome and Mac-like. These are justifiable reasons for downloading the free demo to try it for yourself as an A-B comparison with whatever other titles you are evaluating. That said, I can tell you from experience (I am a software consultant and have been working closely with Xsilva for over a year, and we also use LightSpeed to run our business), the people at Xsilva shine. They are genuinely interested in understanding and meeting the customer's needs (e.g., they host an active public blog), their tech support possesses a wonderful combination of expertise, patience, and courteousness, and the company's work ethic is epitomized by Dax Dasilva, the president and developer of LightSpeed. In *every* application, there is room for improvement and addition of new features. The key questions to ask are: 1. Does the application offer solid functionality that I can use effectively today to run my business? 2. Does the company behind the application have a plan and commitment to continually develop the application? In my experience, the answer to both questions of LightSpeed and Xsilva is, yes. [alert admin]

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Tuesday, May 01 2007 @ 07:07 AM PDT

iPartition 1.1.2 (Mac OS X)

Destroyed my boot partition.  

I needed to resize a partition on my PowerBook. I decided to try iPartition (no real demo, so I bought the application outright). It destroyed my boot partition (after a several-hour partition restructuring process). I contacted Coriolis, provided a detailed breakdown of what happened, and asked for my money back. I received a reply email that indicated that they probably didn't even read my initial email. I responded to re-state what happened, and they never responded back (it's been a week). [alert admin]

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Saturday, October 01 2005 @ 12:21 AM PDT

Drive Genius 1.1.5 (Mac OS X)

No partitioning in demo  

The demo does not offer the partitioning function. After several attempts to speak with a human at Prosoft (including several canned email responses that did not address my question), I finally spoke with someone who said 'unfortunately, no, you cannot demo the partitioning function...and no, we do not offer a money-back guarantee.' She went on to say that they felt that if they offered partitioning in the demo, people would just use the demo and then delete the app. I explained that I was a sincerely interested customer, and she said she'd consult management. Shortly thereafter I received the same answer (at least she followed up timely, I'll give her that). In other words, I can either choose to pay $100 for this application for the partitioning functionality (the *only* function I am interested in that TechTool Pro 4 doesn't offer), and if it doesn't work as advertised, that's my loss. Has anyone bought this software and can speak to the partitioning function? Does it work? Any problems or peculiar observations? [alert admin]

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Thursday, September 08 2005 @ 09:58 AM PDT

MarketBlast 1.05 (Mac OS X)

*IF* you could judge a book by its cover, this is a 5-star, but...  

I purchased this software recently. Warning, it DOES NOT WORK for me on a PowerBook G4 1.25Ghz/1.25GB memory, OX X Tiger. And after over an hour on the phone w/ their tech support, still couldn't get it to work. My problems: 1. Froze and then crashed on first time through setup process - on the 'enter contact info' screen, the fields were blank and did not show my typed text. I could not select a State, the Next, Back, and Cancel buttons were non-responsive, and eventually the program crashed. When I relaunched I was able to complete the 'enter contact info' screen. 2. When I followed the instructions to install the Library and Plug-in files and restarted the program, I got an error that Gecko plug-in was installed twice. The program would not load. Since the only plug-in I installed was mbHTML.bundle, I deleted that plug-in and then was able to launch the program. 3. Did not synchronize my eBay info - Not one Listing imported, under any of the tabs (e.g., All Listing, Selling, etc.). All but 1 transaction shows $0.00 and a date of 00/00/00, and then when I later re-started the program, that 1 transaction that had actual correct data showed the same $0.00 and 00/00/00 and the text string 'False' for User ID and Item ID (where the correct info appeared before). Only myself and the contact with actual data was imported to Contacts, and then when I later re-started the program, the other contact disappeared. I cannot tell if the Feedback group successfully synchronized, because there is no Date column to sort on so that I can easily cross-compare with my.ebay.com website. 4. Could not import a standard CSV file of my inventory items - I exported my TurboLister inventory (90+ items) into a standard CSV file. I get the error 'Not enough stack space to complete the current method,' and this error continually repeats. I know that this file is readable by MS Excel, but I haven't tried yet to open and covert to Excel, and then try importing that format. 5. Questions did not fully synchronize - It appears as though the some of the fields synchronized ok, but the Title field is blank. 6. The program is repeatedly popping up an error dialog 'could not send email' and to check my email settings. I am certain that I entered in the same configuration info as I did to setup this email account in Mail.app. What also concerns me is, I did not attempt to send an email, so I do not know what email the program is attempting to send from my account without my knowledge nor approval. I have a PowerBook G4 1.25 GHz with 1.25 GB memory, running OS X Tiger 10.4. I keep it running optimally. I run installations exclusively. In addition to the above problems, I generally observed MarketBlast to be unstable and slow (specifically in terms of program launch and synchronizing data). [alert admin]

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Monday, July 11 2005 @ 12:13 PM PDT

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