The @wavman.com email addresses proposal

Wednesday, June 4, 2008 @ 9:37PM EDT by:  Kevin

If you have not already seen the TPA Poll (and if you have not, please do so now and I'll wait...okay, did you vote? I hope so. My plan as of this writing is to open up my wavman.com email server and letting folks sigh up for their own name. So if your name is Sarah Bartles, you could be sarah@wavman.com OR sarahb@wavman.com, and so on. You get the idea I would then write a very simple program that you could use with or without WavMan to check for your WavMan mail...or if you understand smpt or pop3, you could use Outlook or some other mail reader, but you;d be on your own for making it work. I cannot support every email client out there, short of my own. At this point I'm gauging interest in such a thing to see if it will even be worth the time and energy to invest in such a program. Also, and here is the caveat, it wouldn't be free. Here is why. The amount of bandwidth that such a project would use up has to be paid for in some fashion or another. I have to request a certain block of addresses and pay for them and each box has a quota. So to recoup these costs, I would ask for a one time setup fee to start the mailbox and a monthly fee to keep the bandwidth in check. These will not be large fees I assure you. They will be at cost to me merely so I can keep the system operating. There will be very little profit, if any in it for me. When I can get an idea of how many folks want such a thing, then I will work out my business plan and we'll see what costs what, but I promise you it would be in the range of five to ten bucks a month. As I said, I am not greedy and would do this at cost to keep it running. Of course if folks want to donate extra...I won't stop them. :-) In terms of names and who gets them, it's a first come-first serve policy. If three gals all named Mary want the same name, then the first one gets it (or if any other Marys want to make a kind donation (yeah, a bribe) I might be amenable to that. But let's get our data together first. So tell all your waver friends to vote and we'll see what happens. I'll post details over the course of this process as they become available. Eventually, I'll ask for about four people to run a bunch of tests for me...and those folks won't have to pay for any of it until we go live, then regular monthly fees will start. We may even be able to come up with a discount "pay in advance" plan...but again, I'm getting ahead of myself. In terms of privacy, the only person who has access to the server is me (the admin) and the same guy who administrates my entire account. Neither one of us you need to worry about as there is an agreement that says in so many words that we won't be reading or monitoring any of your correspondence unless court ordered to do so and I have a subpoena in hand. Put another way, I could care less about what other people talk about...I have my own life to worry about and unless a judge tells me otherwise, no one else will ever have access to my server. You might think about what kind of name you would like, and then think of two other alternatives, because I am sure there will be cases several people will want the same name. Once you have picked or been assigned a name you deem acceptable then you will *not* be able to change it. To do so means a lot of work for me and I don't want to be creating and deleting accounts all day over name changes. I might do it *once* for a small fee if circumstances warrant and it's a damned good reason, but otherwise what you pick is what you get. Oh, and you'll only be able to have one account per person. Finally, at this time, I am only offering this to registered users of WavMan in good standing (which means those of you who owe me money or screwed me out of money, don't even think about applying). I thought about offering it to anyone for a higher fee, but then I thought about the abuse that could come from this (spamming, scamming, etc) and thought it would be best just to offer this service to those who have a proven relationship with either me or the company. And of course, the rules that I am subject to to use this mail server also will apply to you (a copy will be available). In short, no spamming, sending hate mail, abuse of the mail server or using it as a device to store sound files. Sending one to a friend is fine, but storing them as mail, no. Each account only gets x amount of space anyway and it would be very easy to see who would be abusing the service as such. Infractions would receive the same standard warning I would get in this situation. After a warning, the account would be terminated with no refunds. So, do the right thing and use the service for which it was intended and there won't be any problems. So, vote for the idea, have your friends who use WavMan to vote and we'll go from there.

TPA State Of The Union

Saturday, May 17, 2008 @ 12:29AM EDT by:  Kevin

It's been awhile since I've posted here and with the usual round of questions like "Did you quit?" and "Are updates available for Vista SP1" coming at me from all directions, I felt it was time to catch everyone up. When the WavMan Pro beta was stable enough for widespread testing, I embarked on a new project which will eventually phase this one out as I've decided I cannot put up with the amount of anger and perceived anger I get from what seems to be *you* folks on a daily basis. Just because one registers a program from me, which is to say "Licensed" and *not* "sold" does not mean I am to be a punching bag when things go wrong. I'm not even going to go into details, but sufficed to say the abuse I am taking from customer is approaching legendary...and I have no idea why this is happening. I am not the bad guy here. If AOL cancels your account of some silly thing, then fight to get your account back instead of taking your anger out on me. It's not my fault if there was a power hungry room manager (and for the record, being ejected from a room is *not* a TOS) who wants to kick folks out left and right for no other reason than because they can. So please, if you have an issue you'd like me to address, present it to me via the support forum with a properly filled out support form in a civilized fashion and I will be pleased to assist you. Writing me directly and using swear words will either get you no reply, or a caustic one from me, because I do not put up with people treating me badly because they are having problems unrelated to me or my software. I will tell you this now...if it doesn't stop, and I mean soon...I will shut this down and there will be no more WavMan. I made the choice to tough out Windows Vista out of loyalty for you, my customers...and in the end all I get back is nasty letters about upgrade fees, canceled accounts, accusations of fraud, you name it. This kind of activity really does not want to make me keep doing this. The loyalty obviously only went one way...and if that is truly the way it is then this will be the last year I even bother with WavMan. There has been no profit from this venture for close to four years now...yet I continue to do it because it was folks like you who supported me back when AOL was popular. It is most certainly not for the money. Hell, I have to pay for the extra bandwidth my site uses out of pocket because the masses feel they can download the program multiple times in one day. Sorry, but all that does is waste bandwidth and in the end, money. So those of you who have suggested I am just a thief looking to make as much money as I can to fatten my wallet...you're not only wrong, but out of line. No income = no website = no place to download WavMan. Okay? Okay. The current WavMan downloads are compatible with Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. The next update will contain (finally) the WavBeg feature, which I think you will find incredibly useful. :-) Plus I have some other things on the board ready to code in...so more is to come. If you are a developer who uses Visual Basic 6.0 and Windows Vista, I'll have a web site up soon for those folks to help them out with the problems that have cropped up over time...but for the most part, it's for other developers. Eventually it will replace TPA Software and WavMan. I have no idea when...so don't ask, please. :-) In the meantime, WavBeg is almost done. And I would greatly appreciate it if those of you who have or are intending to send me nasty, hateful email over something you think isn't fair. Please, don't. I'm tired of reading them and in actuality, it just brings me down and I want to say "the hell with all of this." and shut down the site for ever. Just like Powertools/BPS did. Conversely, butt-kissing letters are not necessary either. All I require is a little respect and civility. Treat me like you would want to be treated. Okay? Not a lot to ask. Folks used to say to me how awesome WavMan is and how nice Tad and I were (well, more me than Tad :P) Well, if the program is still good enough to use, then why all the anger towards me? I'm not anyone's whipping post, and will not be again from this point forward. Please, just be civil and all will be well. :) Keep an eye out for the next beta which will feature WavBeg and another article explaining how it works. Until then, I remain.

Vista SP1 incompatibilities

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 @ 4:53PM EDT by:  Kevin

Microsoft has recently released Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows Vista. If you're reading this article it's because you've probably noticed that WavMan (and Fade-It) are no longer working properly. Reinstalling either program will not fix the problem. I'll try to explain what's going on here as simple as I can. WavMan depends on a file called dwshengine80.dll. This file is what allows WavMan to communicate with the AOL software so make many of it's features work properly. The dwshengine80.dll file was written by a different company and not by me. The file is also dependent upon another file called msvcr80.dll which is part of the VC++ 2005 runtime package. You probably noticed the installation of these files during the installation of WavMan itself. What has happened with the installation of Windows Vista SP1 is that a newer version of the VC++ 2005 runtime has been installed on your computer, replacing the version installed by WavMan and used by dwshengine80.dll. As the newly installed VC++ 2005 runtime file is newer, reinstallation of WavMan has no effect as older files are disregarded. The problem is that the dwshengine80.dll file is not compatible with the new version of the VC++ runtime and does not install properly. Consequently you will see file registration errors during the WavMan installation process and messages about dwshengine80.dll missing if attempting to start WavMan on a computer with Windows Vista SP1 installed. Yes, the file is physically on your hard drive, but because it's not compatible with the newly installed VC++ 2005 runtime it does not register properly upon installation in the Windows Registry and Windows itself does not "see it" for lack of a better term. So, what do we do about this? I've already been in contact with the author of the dwshengine80.dll file and advised him of the compatibility problem. He is currently looking into this issue and I am waiting for him to issue an update to his file which will resolve this incompatibility. Until he does, my hands are tied. There isn't anything I can do to resolve this issue until I have an updated version of the dwshengine80.dll file. Don't fret however, because the author of that file has my full confidence and has always been excellent at providing updates to his software to fix such issues. At the dwshengine80.dll file is a very complicated piece of software, it will take a bit of patience on both your part and my part until an update is available. Rest assured that once I have the update, it will take nothing more on my part than repackaging the WavMan (and Fade-It) setup programs and posting them to the web site for download. Put another way, once I have the update, it will take less than a half an hour to get everything updated and uploaded. I want to say this will be done before the end of the week, but I cannot make definitive promises as I don't know how long it will take to get the new dwshengine80.dll file. But as I said before, the author of this file is very dependable and won't keep me and his other customers waiting too long. I will post back here the very day I get this file and will keep you apprised of news regarding this issue as I get it. Hang in there!

TPA Software on myspace.com

Saturday, December 15, 2007 @ 10:49PM EST by:  Kevin

Hey folks! If you have a MySpace account and would like to become part of the TPA Software MySpace family, then come on over and take a look. There isn't much to see right now...but there will be in coming weeks. The URL is: TPA Software on MySpace. Please try to keep in mind that this is *NOT* a support form. It's a users group...or a "Members helping Members" kind of thing. Support from us must always come through this web site. The MySpace idea was just so we could all have a good time. So join us and join up! :-)

WavMan Professional 1.x Beta - Now Available!

Sunday, September 23, 2007 @ 9:19PM EDT by:  Kevin

In case you missed the announcement below, the nearly 10 month wait is finally over. WavMan Professional 1.x Beta for AOL 9.0 and Windows Vista/XP/2000 is now available for download and testing. Enjoy!

WavMan Pro Update

Sunday, September 16, 2007 @ 8:49PM EDT by:  Kevin

A quick update for you folks who waited all weekend for the new WavMan...it's going to be a few more days. This is why I don't like setting time tables for releases, when I cannot make them, I feel bad. I was running some final tests on Windows Vista to discover the Import/Export wizard which would transfer settings from WavMan 11 to the new version wasn't working like it should. For those depending on this feature to move your old setting to a new Vista computer, I must have this feature working properly or your information won't be transfered properly. So give me a day or so to finalize this, plus a few other very minor things that cropped up and we'll go from there. Believe me, I want to get this to you folks just as badly as you've been asking for it. :-)

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