Plain Brown Power product news

News about Plain Brown Power software

	Mar 20, 2006: Source only available from this date forward I have removed compiled, ready-to-run applications from all packages. Uncompiled Delphi (Object Pascal) source code is still available, but the installation packages previously offered here are no longer available. The risk of offering these programs without the protection of liability insurance and commercial representation in the event of end-user litigation is too high to justify offering these programs as ready-to-use free or shareware software. To my knowledge, "nuisance suits" over free source code have been dramatically less frequent than suits over compiled applications, so I've decided to keep source available rather than remove this section of the site altogether.
	Dec 3, 2002: New manager's note After taking the time to fully acquaint myself with the state of the product on this site, I realize now that it doesn't meet the standards that The Feature Creeps had hoped to achieve, and doesn't fully live up to some promises and implied performance. I have several projects on the go at the moment, but I will be doing what I can, when I can, to bring existing software up to the level where the original team would have wanted it before releasing any new software packages. Please be patient, as I am not as capable a programmer as the previous lead developer.
	Dec 1, 2002 The Feature Creeps' assets are currently being managed and maintained by former partner Cub Lea in the absence of a new owner. The current revenue model is now voluntary-pay rather than pure shareware, and updates and software maintenance will be provided as and when Lea is able with new products only at his discretion.
	May 4, 2002 Mirror site established; all products are now available from the primary featurecreeps.com site or our new, fast Interland mirror. If downloads weren't fast enough for you before, they're now even faster. PAD files produced and posted for all existing products. This news will likely be of interest only to shareware archive hosts.
	May 1, 2002 A series of illnesses, equipment failures and urgent personal responsibilities have prevented both our lead and second developers from doing more than occasional maintenance work over the last couple of weeks. We hope to resume our normal impossibly-overworked development and release schedule by the second week of May.
	Apr. 20, 2002 Icon Dock version 0.96b released. This beta of the most complex and versatile tool in our collection is very near release rediness. The $30.00 introductory full-package price is being extended to the end of May due to reorientation of our development toward the all-in-one utility Efficiency Suite. This is absolutely the last extension on this introductory price.
	Apr. 18, 2002 We're starting to get noticed! Perhaps not in the way we might want, but when you're a small company, you take what publicity you can get. We learned earlier this week that a pirate group called Cracked.On.Arrival released the first known "crack" of an Everyday Miracles product. UPX Shell 1.42 is officially our first pirated release. How will this affect our development and software protection? It won't, and here's why.
	Apr. 14, 2002 Icon Dock is currently our primary development target; we have added several unplanned accessories as we use this application as a testbed for several new utilities to be included with Efficiency Suite. This promises to be our best-value release yet, and it's now more fully featured and heavily tested its 0.95 beta release version. We were skeptical of the value of this tool as a serious productivity aid...try it for an hour or two and you'll quickly understand why we're not only not skeptical any more...we're positively addicted to this utility on our own desktops. Release of Efficiency Suite is at least two weeks behind schedule due to unforeseen personal commitments by the development team. This project currently stands at approximately 18 of a projected 56 tools coded and documented. Point/minor fix updates for Color Tools/Pixel Tools and Note Stack.
	Apr. 11, 2002 We're back at work as of midnight April 11; all pending orders and e-mails were processed by 2 a.m. Apologies to all visitors and registrants who may have been inconvenienced by our sudden absence.
	Apr. 5, 2002 Bug board posted...track the progress of your favorite tools, feature requests or new products online. Efficiency Suite announced as our next tool, an all-in-one interface to 50-plus utilities and applets included in the Everyday Miracles collection. All feature development on hold while we meet our licensees' most frequent request. Point updates for Icon Dock, Ticklist, Note Stack, Password Bank; Eudora Extender upgraded to version 1.70.
	Apr. 1, 2002 Icon Dock version 0.90b becomes our first public beta. This beta version is fully-enabled, will never time out, and does not require registration. However, as a beta version, it is likely to contain bugs, and not all advertised features may be available just yet. That's why we're giving this version away for free...we want your help in finding and fixing the bugs in what turns out to be a finicky but immensely useful little utility set before we release a robust, reliable version 1.00. $30.00 introductory full-package price extended through April as we continue to improve our existing products.
	Mar. 26, 2002 Color Tools 1.10 released; adds a number of new features and fixes including the screen rulers and stand-alone loupe in Pixel Tools, and greatly reduced resource consumption.
	Mar. 25, 2002 Major policy change: All products will now be accompanied by links pages connecting to comparable or better products in the same category. We study our competition carefully, and we know there are better, more full-featured (and typically much costlier) products in the same category. From now on, as time permits we'll be updating every product with a list of links to the best products we've been able to find in every category we support. Why undercut our own business this way? Because we don't sell software...we sell efficiency Password Recovery Tools gets a major overhaul to version 1.10, adding four new password decode/reveal features and a list of links to sites with far more wide-ranging password recovery features. We're a long way from being done with this tool.
	Mar. 24, 2002 Pixel Tools 1.10 released; this is the new product name for Color Tweeze, and it now includes improved screen capture, a full-featured screen loupe, and over 40 fixes and minor enhancements over Color Tweeze 1.0 with almost no increase in resource usage.
	Mar. 23, 2002 Significant point updates for over a dozen products. Check the home pages of your favorites for news. We're burning the midnight oil to clear up reported bugs and flesh out featuresets.
	Mar. 21, 2002 ASCII Chart & Character Picker just keeps on getting better, now at version 2.20. We've added a six-way screen capture utility and optimized the code, decreased its screen space, improved a number of ergonomic features and topped up the helpfile. Our most popular tool just became that much more indispensible.
	Mar. 20, 2002 Ask and ye may just receive. We get a lot of compliments on the quality of our helpfiles, thanks to a proven design from Cub Lea and some studious text treatment from Rae Telcher, but enough of you wanted keywords that we postponed Batch Decompress/Archive Optimizer yet again to update all of our helpfiles with full keywording. We aim to please; we hope more of you will aim to register.
	Mar. 19, 2002 Help Decompiler Shell gets the royal treatment with the addition of not one, not two, but three complete personal helpfile utilities in addition to the decompiler interface for a total of five discrete utilities in one compact program. Major upgrade to version 2.00, and a price increase to $10.00 for new licensees, but that's just more incentive to license the whole collection.
	Mar. 17, 2002 UPX Shell gets its early Spring upgrade to version 1.40 with the addition of shell extension support and improvements to logging functions.
	Mar. 16, 2002 Eudora Extender version 1.60 extends Eudora even further with a flexible built-in POP checker with auto-launch to the first Eudora account with new mail. Not content with that, we found a way to enable pages of new options in Eudora with a single click, and included more than a dozen significant usability enhancements over version 1.50. ASP Overdrive becomes our first 100% freeware release. After polling our users, we decided to halt development of this tool and offer a fully functional legacy version of this utility with source code at no cost or obligation.
	Mar. 12, 2002 Ticklist released as the 22nd package in the collection and our latest $5.00 tool. Once we got serious about the implementation, this became a far more versatile tool than we had expected. Block Replace Light/Block Replace Heavy updated to versions 1.40. Several minor bug fixes, numerous "invisible" interface enhancements, and the addition of even more "history list" flexibility. This is far from the end of what we have planned for these tools. Trial limitations modified. You asked for it...we did it. All packages now come with a 14-day nag-free trial period, so you won't be seeing the registration reminders for a full two weeks now. Batch Decompressor/Archive Optimizer pulled from distribution for re-engineering. This program relies more heavily on third-party components than any product in our collection, and several significant usability problems have been reported. Next scheduled releases: Note Spike and ASP/SSI Optimizer.
	Mar. 7, 2002 ASCII Chart and Character Picker gets a feature upgrade to version 2.10. The world's premier CHARMAP.EXE replacement now includes optional full-character-set display and a drag-and-drop uninstalled-font preview option.
	Mar. 3, 2002 Disk Cataloguer added to the current product line as a new $10.00 tool. Minor updates and usability fixes made to all releases; official launch postponed another week as we fine-tune our existing releases. Next scheduled releases: Batch Decompress/Archive Optimizer (now one tool) and Note Stack. Site officially launched.
	Feb. 20, 2002 Note Stack added to the current product line as a new $10.00 tool. Minor updates and usability fixes made to all releases; official launch postponed another week as we fine-tune our existing releases. Next scheduled releases: Disk Cataloguer and Batch Decompress. Official website launch now scheduled for March 1.
	Feb. 4, 2002 Eudora Extender added to the current product line as a new $5.00 tool. Minor updates and usability fixes made to several releases; keep those bughunter reports coming! Next scheduled releases: Disk Cataloguer and Note Stack. Official website launch scheduled for Feb. 15.
	Jan. 22, 2002 The Jargonizer added to the current product line as a new $5.00 tool. Several tools are in simultaneous development; next release is not yet determined.
	Jan. 19, 2002 Help Decompiler Shell added to the current product line as a new $5.00 tool. Jargonizer scheduled as the next release.
	Jan. 17, 2002 Shortcut Recorder added to the current product line as a new $5.00 tool. Help Decompiler Shell scheduled as the next release.
	Jan. 15, 2002 The new Feature Creeps website is unofficially launched; all new products are now available for download. Fifteen products are available at launch date with another fifteen in the development pipeline slated for release before June. The Feature Creeps select PayPal as their exclusive online transaction agents; orders can now be taken for Everyday Miracles software.
	Dec. 30, 2001 First branded Everyday Miracles software packages released; initial releases include over a dozen brand-new or fully re-engineered Feature Creeps software packages. New pricing structure; all packages current and future can now be licensed for a single price of just US$30. First set of new releases include Password Bank, Password Generator, Password Recovery Tools, Color Tools, Pixel Tools, Quick Text Tools, HTML Gradient Designer and Body Tag Builder. Re-engineered packages, all with substantial feature upgrades, interface redesigns and efficiency improvements include ASCII Chart & Character Picker, Block Replace Heavy, Block Replace Light, Font Reviewer, Font Viewer, The I Ching, UPX Shell.
	Sept. 1, 2001 The Feature Creeps company mission is redefined; the Everyday Miracles brand is introduced as a collection of effective, budget-priced, feature-packed utilities designed for Windows professionals. Work begins on development of the new product line for a tentative December launch.