When a programmer dies suddenly
For years I've used a program from a small Dutch company
to record audio from web sites, Polder Bits Sound Recorder. It is a great
little program that cost about $40. It is ideal, perfect, wonderful, for what I
need. I bought a new computer and I
thought that I could support the small company by buying a second license for
the new computer (rather than transfering the old license from the old
computer).
But the Polder Bits site was down. I found out that the
author had died in a car crash. According to one forum:
"Unfortunately Rudy Kok, developer of the Polderbits Sound Recorder and Editor, died in 2011. No new versions of his software have been produced. His company Polderbits does not exist any more."
I hope Rudy had a good life up to then. He knew how to write a good Windows program that's for sure.
And I thought about my customers. What if that happened to me? They can buy from my distributor 2Checkout. But if 2Checkout
requires my intervention, or changes how to buy/download my programs what
happens to my users then? Or maybe 2Checkout require that the author is alive to resell the
programs?
So what I’ve done is sent out copies of the programs, open
full and free copies, to three friends, who in the event of my death and the
impossibility of buying copies from 2Checkout, will put these programs online for download free of charge.
The programs are:
So if I die (drop off the twig, pop my clogs, give up the ghost, kick the bucket) my customers will not be left in
the lurch.
PS: In my opinion “pass” is the most irritating, twee, weak,
dishonest euphemism for “die” that there
is. “Pass over” is a close second.
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