Complaints are welcome and encouraged

January 16th, 2010

The other night while watching TV a Dominos Pizza commercial came up where they encouraged customers to complain so they can improve their pizza.  That is my attitude towards my collecting software.  If you have issues with NM Collector Software please let me know so I can improve it!

There are many ways to let me know including my public support forum.  In it are two sub forums of particular importance for improvement.  One is for reporting bugs and the other is for submitting enhancement requests.  I value both!  Please use these forums!  Don’t be afraid to post suggestions or complaints publicly so other people can read and comment on them as well.  This will help me gauge what will be of the most value in future releases.

As for bugs, no matter how hard I try to eradicate them some inevitably make it through.  NM Collector Software is not simplistic so it is very complicated code to provide the rich features that set it apart from the rest.  However, that also increases the chances that some bugs will get through.  Help me stamp them out by reporting any that you find!  Publicly reporting them is the best so that others can be easily made aware of the bugs and any workarounds to use until they can be fixed.

Enhancement requests are how I get new ideas that I might not have thought of myself!  I may not be able to incorporate all of them (for various reasons including technical and/or philosophical) but I value the suggestions.  Even though I may not be able to incorporate a suggestion directly it may lead to other improvements that I might not have thought of otherwise.  Please send your suggestions in! 

I know that my software can not be everything to everybody and there is no way that I can please everyone.  However, I do value feedback from multiple perspectives – every one has something to contribute, and, within reason, I do try to please every one who has decided to invest their time and money in my software.

Thanks in advance for your continued support in making NM Collector Software better!

Clay

longevity

January 10th, 2010

I just received the following email regarding NM Gun Collector Software which I think deserves to be shared with others:

“I have been using Penguin software in the past which is not supported on Vista so I must go through this again. I realize that you do not have a crystal ball but is it your intentions to continue to support your software with the ever changing technological world we are in today?”

This is spot on as to why I changed from a Microsoft-based software development environment to a Java-based software development environment.  My old NM Gun Collector Software was written using the latest Microsoft technology available in 1999.  Microsoft promised developers using their technology that their applications  would continue to run in future Microsoft Operating systems into perpetuity.  Well, that turned out to be only partially true.

The advent of Microsoft Windows Vista resulted in changes to the installation model for applications that broke the installation of NM Gun Collector Software.   At the time, the Microsoft solution for fixing the problem entailed purchasing the latest Microsoft Development tools (at great expense), which in trun required migrating the old applications into that new development environment (requiring a very large software re-development effort), and finally redeploying the newly redeveloped application using the new Microsoft development environment.

This was too much for me to bear.  Besides the simple fact of feeling betrayed by Microsoft (which should be no surprise to anyone but I am always an optimist and tend to believe the promises of others) if I was to go through all of that effort why would I commit once again to an environment that I could not be sure would be supported in future versions of Windows?  Since I would have to redevelop my application anyway why not take another look at the available development environments with an eye towards the future?  Well, that is exactly what I did.

As a result, I decided to create NM Collector Software JE (Java Edition) as a Java application.  This offers many advantages including the easy availability of many free or low cost software development environments, the ability to deploy NM Collector Software JE to  multiple platforms (including Windows, Mac, and Linux), and the promise of longevity.  Sure, as java grows and changes I might have to tweak my application to continue to fit within the Java environment but NEVER AGAIN will I have to recreate it from scratch as Microsoft forced me to do.

However, over the many years that it has been available,  Java has stabilized so much that I do not expect to have to make a lot of changes to my application to keep it running long into the future.  So, in conclusion, here is the email response I gave to the person who asked the question:

“No for NM Gun Collector Software (the page you contacted me from).  Because it is Microsoft based the technology has proven to be unstable over time.

“Yes for  NM Collector Software JE (Java Edition).  That is exactly why I abandoned Microsoft technology in favor of Java.  Java allows me to continue to support  NM Collector Software JE not only across multiple operating systems but into the foreseeable future as well.”

You might think that as a result I left my thousands of NM Gun Collector Software customers in the same situation this poor Penguin software customer is in.  Well, if so, you would be wrong.  One of my primary goals in writing NM Collector Software JE was to provide a path for my existing customers to migrate their data into the new system so they would not have to do it manually.  Early on in the development of NM Collector Software JE I was able to meet that goal ( please see http://www.nmcollectorsoftware.com/support/Import.htm for more details ) and several of my customers have already used it.

Why have only a few done it?  Because they love NM Gun Collector Software so much they do whatever they can to keep it working on new systems.  In fact, I have helped them to come up with work arounds so as to keep it running in Vista and Windows 7.  However, I don’t know how long we can keep that up so they now have a proven path to move their data to NM Collector Software JE when they can no longer keep NM Gun Collector working on future versions of Microsoft Windows.

Clay

How to prevent lost data – Backup!!!

December 28th, 2009

Your data is very important to me.  I write my software to protect it and it’s integrity as best as I can.  However, there is only so much I can do.  It is also important to note that your data is your responsibility and it is up to you to protect it.   One of the fundamental rules for the use of any computer system is to backup your data.

Unfortunately, I recently received the following message from a user of NM Collector JE after he “applied” the latest upgrade.

Great Stuff.  I now have the new software but not my database.  I am getting to the stage where I will give up on your product if I can’t get my data back.  It will be more trouble than it is worth.

My guess is, despite all of my warnings on the downloads page, he installed the full application (which includes the default database) and not the upgrade.  This would have replaced his data with the default data.  Please don’t do that!

I asked a few questions to better understand the situation – it’s always possible he really did not lose his data – but he just responded with more vitriol towards me.  From his perspective it is entirely my fault that he lost his data.   He would not accept responsibility for his own data.

Of course he could have been nicer but the point is something went wrong and it seems he lost his data.    I can certainly sympathize with him as the whole point of the software is to gather data in a usable form and retain it for future reference.  Gathering quality data takes work and it is a tragedy to lose the fruits of your labor.

I hope that is not true of you.  Please, if you value your work and your efforts then protect your data.  There are many ways to backup and recover your data.  I am posting some of them in a new topic entitled “How to backup and recover your data” in my new “Best Practices” forum which is one of the NM Collector Software forums.

Please read it and be prepared.  I hope you never lose your data like this poor soul did but, if for some unexpected reason you do, please be ready to recover it with a backup plan!!!

Happy computing.

Clay

Version 2.0 of NM Collector Software Java Edition (JE) Now Available

December 27th, 2009

I am uploading the new installation / upgrade files now.  Please download and extract the upgrade as soon as you can.  Detailed upgrade instructions are available at:

http://www.nmcollectorsoftware.com/downloads/Subscr/index.htm

The following changes were made in this release:

Enhancements – Features

  • Added Maintenance, Events, and Data Sheet tabs
  • Allow import of existing collection type by automatically renaming new one

Enhancements – New Reports

  • Maintenance, Events, and Data Sheet reports
  • Various Insurance Reporting Formats
  • Inventory with Pictures and Notes
  • General Acquisition and Disposition for any collection type
  • Firearms A&D for all firearms
  • Blank Firearms A&D
  • Compressed Firearms A&D Reports

Enhancements – Usability

  • Reworked confirmation messages for clarity
  • Sped up initial load
  • Suppressed unnecessary data refreshes
  • Simplified process of making a new collection type based on existing collection
  • Added paste to ease activation of subscription for those who do not know how to use standard paste key sequence for their operating system

Bugs Fixed

  • Fixed “disappearing” picture problem – not really disappearing from the database but not loading properly when no longer in the original file location
  • Fixed missing “Demote” button on Mac
  • Fixed all A&D reports to properly handle multiple acquisitions and dispositions
  • Changes after initial Add of Pictures, Receipts, and Dispositions now save properly every time
  • All Reports except A&D no longer include dis-positioned items
  • ID 10 field now properly stores values
  • Can now rename an existing Collection Type without items getting orphaned
  • Can now hide an existing Collection Type and associated items will be hidden as well
  • Deleting a Collection Type will now also delete associated items.
  • Properly shuts down attempt to start when already running
  • NM Collector Data Import window no longer too small to see important fields
  • Renamed “status/Activate” menu item to “Status/Activate”
  • Fixed “Cancel” Image add results in crash
  • Improve “Image too large” error and provide guidance as to acceptable image size
  • Statistics Print is now readable – breaks up table across multiple pages
  • Resolved some problems when dealing with multiple Receipts, Dispositions, and Pictures

Welcome

December 24th, 2009

Welcome to the NM Collector Software blog. This blog will hopefully provide useful information on NM Collector Software products. Currently I offer two products:

1. NM Gun Collector Software – my landmark Windows Software for Gun Collectors

2. NM Collector JE – my next generation collecting software for any collection on any platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux)

My support for NM Gun Collector Software is withering as I have not updated it in years and have no plans to update it in the future. It is a robust product though and, with a few tweaks, can still be run on Windows Vista and Windows 7 even though it was designed and released in the days of Windows 98!

Instead, I plan to continue to develop and actively support NM Collector JE software. This software is java based so it can operate on any system that supports Java 6. I also made it more flexible than NM Gun Collector. It can be extensively customized and, more importantly, it can be used for any collection.

Since my intent is never to leave any of my customers stranded, and so far, I have been successful in never stranding a customer with an upgrade, I provide a migration path from NM Gun Collector to NM Collector JE.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me with purchasing these products. Hopefully they will continue to be useful to you.

Sincerely,

Clay Pryor

Albuquerque, New Mexico