Where has this software been since 2002?
	What is "plain brown power"?
	About the Feature Creeps
	Copyright policy
	Privacy policy

The 26 programs and packages previously offered here are now available only as source code (see news update).

In 2002, I hit a personal wall in the development and management of this software which, unfortunately, I never got past. This software represents the absolute best I was able to accomplish with what is, sadly, a limited talent for programming and perhaps even less savvy at marketing. And as good as some of this stuff is, I wasn't able to elevate it to "great", where software has to be in order to produce anything close to a reasonable income for its author in this day and age.

With nuisance lawsuits against shareware publishers hitting the news, and a bad case of burnout lurking just over the horizon, I decided that I could no longer afford the risk and expense of offering this software, even as freeware, without liability insurance, and so I took the entire site offline. A personal epiphany in mid-2004 led me to conclude that I had to put it back online...there was just too much in this collection which is still unique enough to be of significant value to a lot of people.

But this software won't be updated or maintained, bugs won't be fixed (or even documented), feature requests will be ignored (at this time I hope to die having never written another line of code in my life) and all software is now offered fully enabled and entirely at your risk.

Plain Brown Power software was originally conceived to meet a vast and growing demand for robust, high-quality utility and day-to-day accessory software that meets the needs of professional Windows users...power without the cost of feature lack, system resource consumption, high cost, steep learning curve or needless bloat. Software that does what you need in a simple package...plain, brown power.

Each tool in the collection blends a rich featureset with high configurability, an exceptionally low learning curve, and an attention to convenience and efficiency that turns very simple application ideas into real power tools that get the job done fast and never interfere with productivity. Common freeware and low-cost shareware might be fine for the casual Windows user, but when your time is money, you need a lot more than just a pretty interface.

None of these applications is unique in its class or equal in quality to its costliest competitors, but the featuresets and attention to detail are typically miles beyond the competition in each product's price class. We've found that most professional Windows users require a large number of utilities and accessories every day that simply don't merit a $20-$50 cost per tool. These are tools designed to precisely fill this vast niche.

The only real miracle I promise is that if you don't need a top-of-the-line implementation of one of these tools, you shouldn't need to spend a second looking elsewhere for something that does the job better. And if you do, I've even provided recommendations of the best-in-class competitors for most of these tools to save you time and money.

All Plain Brown Power software packages share the following features:

Pick your own price: This software is now full-on donationware. You determine how much you think the software is worth to you (if you think it's worth anything at all), and pay the price you feel is fair...or pay nothing. You can do this because all software is....
Fully-enabled and nag-free: Since transfer of management and maintenance of the software in late 2002, all software has been made nag-free and fully-enabled in its downloadable form. No more serial numbers to deal with, no time-outs, no expiring software, no unwanted request screens. You decide when - or if - you feel the software is worth paying for, and you pay only what you feel is fair.
Source code available for every package: As of mid-2004, all packages are now available with complete source code with no restrictions on use. This software will never be supported or updated, so why shouldn't source be available...assuming, of course, that I'm not placing myself in legal peril by offering it?
Most-requested comfort features including trim dialogs supported with right-click (context) menus, optional close-on-Escape, custom fonts for faultless appearance on unusual display or desktop configurations, instance management, custom application titling, incredibly low system resource usage, prompts and warnings that truly inform, and much, much more. These tools offer an average of 40-plus user-configurable options and settings.
Most-requested productivity features including saving of last-used directories, full restore of last-used program settings for almost every tool, minimize-to-tray and run-on-startup options for every tool suited to this type of use, internal backup management and "safe" Recycle Bin file-delete support.
Thorough yet simple documentation using extensive control-level "balloon help" for all dialogs and detailed, printer-friendly helpfiles that really help. I provide WinHelp helpfiles exclusively to get you to the help you need faster and with less hassle and system overhead on the slowest systems to the fastest.
Non-intrusive configuration and installation. All Plain Brown Power utilities save their settings to copyable, manually-editable, cleanly-removable INI files rather than the Windows Registry. I use lean, fast, highly reliable Wise installation software. All applications are file-size-optimized to start faster and conserve space on "legacy" hardware.
Efficient design and engineering. Every tool uses standard Windows controls with an absolute minimum of graphical flash, and pays careful attention to memory and resource consumption at every turn. Every feature of every tool has a real, practical purpose.

In December of 2002, management and maintenance of all Feature Creeps' products and intellectual properties reverted to Cub Lea.

The Feature Creeps was a virtual team of Windows development, documentation and usability specialists who produced highly-regarded Windows software in a variety of fields from late 1995 through to early 2002. Operations were suspended following the emergence of serious personal situations with two of the principals in May of 2002, and halted completely in 2003 when the third principal just plain flamed out.

In addition to the core team, two of whom prefer now to remain anonymous, there were at various times at least a dozen "honorary Creeps" scattered about the globe in locations ranging from Hamilton, New Zealand to Hyderabad, India. We typically used the services of these "irregulars" for only a short time on each project, usually just a few hours for any of our writers or our branding specialist, and only a day or two for graphic design or programming input. This infrequent demand made it quite easy for us to obtain the specific expertise we need in areas where we're not personally qualified, and to receive their help on very short notice.

Oh, and the name? It was a nickname given to us by accident by a former client who just shook his head and muttered "more feature creep" every time we suggested a new feature (but who never refused a feature he could use). "Feature creeps" had a certain ring to it that we liked. Besides, it's a constant reminder of what feature creep can mean: when it comes to software, no matter how well you do the job, you can still make it better.

feature creep (FEE·chur kreep) n. The innate capacity of features to multiply until they overgrow a software application or hardware device, completely obscuring its original purpose with nonfunctional accessories, superfluous peripheral utilities and pointless configuration options; the defining symptom of feat·ur·it·is. - The Geekspeak Lexicon -

I adhere to ethical licensing and redistribution policies, and I have attempted to make my work available to those of limited means whenever and wherever possible. Since 1996 I have applied the revised copyright ethics standard published at cublea.net to all of my development and insured that this standard was applied to all Plain Brown Power products. Since 1996 I have released no fewer than 75 different software packages as free software once these products' practical retail lives had expired.

I will continue to adhere to this policy and release sales-life-expired software as free software or fully-enabled voluntary-pay shareware wherever practical and feasible.

Among the sales-life-expired products currently available as fully-enabled free software or fully-enabled voluntary-pay shareware are:

• WebTrimmer: This was the premier HTML optimizer when it was first released in late 1997.
• WinHelp Sorcerer: This Jolt Award judge-nominated Help authoring extension package was the second highest-selling product ever published by Software Interphase
• PC/Internet Lexicon: For nearly a year, this was the most thorough and comprehensive desktop PC/Internet dictionary, acronym guide and general term reference available for Windows.
• First Train for the Internet: In its day, it was the bar-none best Internet training package available for Microsoft Windows and Windows 95. Now obsolete but still available.

I'm trying to be part of the solution, not part of the problem, and I encourage all software publishers to examine their own copyrighting policies and take an active role in making computers and computing the great equalizer we all hoped it would become.

For a full statement of intent, see Toward a New Standard for Software Copyright at cublea.net.

Let's make this short and sweet...or if not sweet, then at the very least painless.

I have never - and will never - sell, trade, offer, give, or otherwise divulge information about any customer or site visitor for any purpose unless ordered to do so by a court of law. The only exceptions to this rule occur when I refer customers to other publishers for special needs, and I only do this with the expressed, written permission of the customer.

I have never - and will never - monitor site visitors except for purposes of learning where and how you found the site, and I never use this information to determine the identity of a visitor, only to determine which sites send the most visitors.

I care about my privacy too, after all, and if I expect to be treated with dignity, that's how I must treat you.