The February newsletter is online now. There’s a review of the old methods of screen captures, the NEW Windows 10 and Windows 11 screen capture options, the Snipping Tool, and what errors tell you. And what they don’t. View the February 2023 newsletter here free, or subscribe here for free.

The post February 2023 PC Updater News: Capturing Errors appeared first on Startupware.com. Visit to read more about software design, malware, and computer security.

Original article: February 2023 PC Updater News: Capturing Errors.

Twice a year, test your backups. Make sure that every category of your computer technology is actually backing up in a way that it will be where you need it, when you need it.
Oh, and move your clocks one hour forward on the morning of Sunday, November 5th, 2017.

Time to Test Backups

Jerry Stern
Chief Technology Officer, PC410.com

The post It’s Time to Test Backups appeared first on Startupware.com. Visit to read more about software design, malware, and computer security.

Original article: It’s Time to Test Backups.

Definition: By hacker I mean someone who for the most part, cannot create something from scratch. However they are very good at morphing code that others have written.

Well, I learned a lot of programming by hacking, in the old definition, as in someone who takes stuff apart and tries to make it do more stuff. In my case, I reverse-engineered file formats for program code for a programming language that no longer exists–that was Texas Instruments Extended BASIC for the TI/994a Home Computer, back in the 1980’s. Pulling that information apart and understanding the proprietary format allowed me to write programs that modified programs, mostly to make them easier to edit; there are still online copies of that around, if you search online for ‘MICROpendium Magazine’ and the program called ‘SubIndex’. It was great training.

Now, most companies specifically prohibit reverse-engineering of their products, so when it’s done, it doesn’t get published. What’s evolved since then has been more along the lines of code sample collections on the various crowd-sourced programming language how-to sites. There are work-arounds of just about any problem you can think of, and many, many of these cover topics that the official sites for the products involved won’t cover at all because they don’t want to endorse a solution that they haven’t tested in-house.

As a programming approach, I’ve always saved every chunk of code as a function or a subprogram. And then reuse code, over and over. And I pull code out of my web sites to use on my other sites just about every month. It saves time.

Yes, I’ve gone your way, and written elegant recursive code that did the impossible in one page. But that’s too much like work for most quick tasks. A quick assembly of saved parts and my prior projects is the preferred approach for me.

Jerry Stern
Chief Technology Officer, PC410.com

The post Learning from Existing Code appeared first on Startupware.com. Visit to read more about software design, malware, and computer security.

Original article: Learning from Existing Code.

I’m wondering if the term Hacker means different things to different people. When most people hear the word hacker what are the first things that come to mind?

Hacker, back in the early days of PCs, originally meant someone who climbed into the internals of technology to make it do more stuff. In hardware, we would take an IBM diskette drive, test what happened with every jumper setting, maybe add a DIPP switch to make testing easier, and then hook up the result to a Texas Instruments 99/4a computer, where it was never designed to go. Or read program files from diskettes in pure binary format and match up numbered commands with programming symbols to make programs that could modify programs, usually to add formatting and fix line numbering. Then, it was all positive, and “no reverse engineering allowed” statements hadn’t evolved yet.

NOW, hacker is used more in the negative sense, like cracker, which generally includes creation of cheat codes, bypassing sections of code for various reasons, and so on.

The way technology words enter the mainstream vocabulary is mostly through television and movies, and Hollywood is nearly as sloppy with tech words as the evening news, so ‘hacker’ is mostly used in the negative sense by most of the mainstream media. But a hacker isn’t inherently evil.

Jerry Stern
Chief Technology Officer, PC410.com

The post Definition: Hacker appeared first on Startupware.com. Visit to read more about software design, malware, and computer security.

Original article: Definition: Hacker.

As a one-person independent software developer, what are the major challenges you faced? How did you
overcome these challenges?

There was a time before the internet, yes, even before it was still ‘The Internet’, when being a one-person development company meant you worked alone. Wrote code, wrote letters to customers, on actual paper and snail mail, did your own artwork, everything. The result was a very real reluctance to allow ANY part of a project to be done elsewhere.

That’s over. Now, our programs & apps have to run alongside other programs, share data with other users of the same apps, check for updates, sell upgrades (and power-ups), and be visually stunning and immediately obvious to use without a bound instruction manual. It’s too much. You can’t do that alone; you can’t even visualize it without loads of feedback from experts in each area.

We can outsource graphics. Or web sites, animation, speech recording, writing, even blocks of code, if it gets the project done. Now, it’s a management job, rather than doing every little piece of the project in-house. You don’t need employees, but you do need trusted partners to do the tasks you will (reluctantly) admit that you can’t do yourself in a reasonable time. Or just don’t wanna.

So does that mean hire outsource help? You could. Or if you work with other programmers, or know programmers from the ASP, you can offer to trade technical expertise for help in other areas.

Jerry Stern
Chief Technology Officer, PC410.com

The post What are the major challenges you face as a micro-ISV? appeared first on Startupware.com. Visit to read more about software design, malware, and computer security.

Original article: What are the major challenges you face as a micro-ISV?.

I have a good product in my mind and want to invest more time and money in it.
So far whatever small software I have created are for few people and with only me developing that software. Now I have some software in mind that will be for more users and big enough to include other people, and I will be the first customer of it (manufacturing is my prime business). How & where should I start ? ( people, office, location, software developing, release, sales ) ?
Any first hand experience is also welcome.

First, understand the difference between a program and a product. A program works for you. A product makes sense to other people. So you have to add error trapping, fix all possible input errors automatically and give a non-techie error message on anything else. That requires testers who don’t know anything about your product, and the best type are the ones who you can watch trying out the product. (While you don’t help, but do take notes.)

You have to make it look good. It has to be visually striking, while immediately understandable. You have to write documentation, and that, depending on the product, could be an old-fashioned instruction manual, or a video demo, or a set of slideshow tutorials.

People, office, location? There’s no short answer. Like any other business, your staff will have to be able to communicate skillfully with your potential customers. Being near those customers, or some of them, will give them a big advantage in learning what’s needed, and in beta testing, and perhaps give you leads for hiring sales staff.

Sales used to be all web downloads, and before that, mail order. Now, unless this product will be highly specialized within the manufacturing industry, your choices are web sales of a downloadable and installable product, or SAAS/software as a service/cloud. The difference will be the answer to this question: Where will it be used? On the manufacturing floor, where network access is likely to be internal only? Or in the manufacturer’s offices, which will have outside access? IOW, there’s a big difference in how you sell manufacturing control software, versus purchasing department software, because one needs tight security and the other needs access to outside product specifications and availability in real time.

Jerry Stern
Chief Technology Officer, PC410.com

The post How to start a software company? appeared first on Startupware.com. Visit to read more about software design, malware, and computer security.

Original article: How to start a software company?.

I assigned copyright to a client for an mobile app, can I develop a new similar app to sell?

That question comes down to what’s in your original agreement, and in particular whether (and how) ‘derivative works’ were included or excluded. You might want a lawyer to look it over.

Here’s my non-lawyer view: In the most restrictive case, where you sold everything as a “work for hire” and agreed not to create derivative works, you still have the right to create a new similar app to sell, but only if you use none of the code and images and development work used for the original app. Start entirely from scratch. That’s basically how the Compaq computer was created as a clone for the IBM PC, but Compaq took an extra step: One team created a set of requirements for a clone of the IBM BIOS software, and another team, with no overlap, wrote the new BIOS.

Put another way, if i write an article for a magazine (remember those?), on any given topic, and I’m paid for it, I can still write another article on a similar topic for some other magazine, and get paid for it. And I’ve done exactly that. The results changed dramatically because the audience changed, but the initial topic was the same. Your knowledge gained during the first project is yours. You’ve only sold the product of that knowledge.

Jerry Stern
Chief Technology Officer, PC410.com

The post I assigned copyright to a client, can I develop a new similar app? appeared first on Startupware.com. Visit to read more about software design, malware, and computer security.

Original article: I assigned copyright to a client, can I develop a new similar app?.

Telecommutes and remote control for business computers require software. Several types exist; not all of them work for telecommuting.

• Remote Repair: This is for remoting into a computer for repairs or training, and it requires a person at the computer being controlled, to click a link or run a program. The software used for the connection goes away after the connection is closed, so you can’t log back in without starting over.
• Managed Services: This is for working on computers unattended. I use a program like this, that lets me control hundreds of computers on-demand. While it can be used for working remotely, perhaps for an entire office, it’s not the economical choice for telecommuting.
• Remote Login: This is for telecommuting. Like the managed services software, it can connect to an unattended computer, but it will generally be easier to use, and add features like remote printing (print in the office, to your home printer), and remote sound (you hear the office computer’s sounds from home).

There are some other considerations before choosing to telecommute. If your office has gone to the cloud, just log into the cloud servers directly from home. Check with your MIS (management information systems) department first, to see if they have any limitations in place; some systems will only allow logins from work locations. If you run processor-intensive programs, like dictation and speech recognition, it’s better to install those locally, and then just send the completed documents to the work machine.

In Maryland, call us at 410-871-2877 for help getting up and running with telecommuting. We’ve worked with many programs, and can recommend both free and paid products for most requirements. Outside Maryland, we may still be able to help, by remote login, of course.

The post Telecommute: Preparing for Polar Vortexes, Super-Flu, and Road Closures appeared first on Startupware.com. Visit to read more about software design, malware, and computer security.

Original article: Telecommute: Preparing for Polar Vortexes, Super-Flu, and Road Closures.

It’s getting late for backups now, but you should always have these backups for each computer:

• There should be a full-image backup of the hard drive, on a removable device, usually an external drive, less than 3 months old, for restoring a burnt/crashed hard drive
• There should be a documents backup, not older than the amount of work that you can easily recreate, on a removable device. For businesses, that’s usually one day old.
• There should be another documents backup, from a week or two older than your newest backup, in case the newest backup is incomplete, lost, or zapped.
• A backup device that is removable, but still plugged into your computer when a storm arrives, doesn’t count as a backup.
• Finally, there should be an online backup of documents. Online backups should be encrypted before leaving your computer.

Overall, you’re aiming for three copies of all data, on two different types of devices, and one copy of data that is off-site. All of these backups can be automated. Ask me how, if you’re in central Maryland.

Jerry Stern is webmaster at PC410.com and Startupware.com.

The post Backing up for Hurricane Sandy appeared first on Startupware.com. Visit to read more about software design, malware, and computer security.

Original article: Backing up for Hurricane Sandy.

Atlantis Casino Resort Spa direct phone:
775-825-4700

Reno Hotel Shuttle Schedule
http://renoairport.com/sites/default/files/PDFs/110518114-march-2011-hotel-shuttle-schedule.pdf
The shuttle to Atlantis is located outside baggage door ‘D’, and pickup is at 15 minutes before and after each hour, 5:15am to 11:45pm.

Reno International Airport has free WIFI. Details here:
http://www.renoairport.com/passenger-info/free-airport-internet

RNO terminal map:
http://www.renoairport.com/sites/default/files/PDFs/HelpfulMaps/110816124-jul-aug-sep-2011-route-map.pdf

Once you’re at ISVCon at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, there is an RTC bus stop outside the hotel. Go North for downtown, get off at the Transit Center, and walk 2 blocks west (towards the Sierra Nevada mountains, frequently visible, or towards the big buildings) for the downtown area. Bus fare is $2. For the ‘Rapid’ bus to downtown (express run, fewer stops), there’s a stop just south of Atlantis, by the Convention Center.

Reno bus transportation information is here:
http://rtcwashoe.com/section-public-transportation

RTC CONNECT: map of route and downtown Reno
http://rtcwashoe.com/Schedules/BusBook/Route_RAPIDCONNECT.pdf

Map of Meadowwood Mall:
http://www.simon.com/Assets/Mall/1256/LEASING_PLAN/5255_MEADOWOOD%20MALL_CurrentWebLeasePlan-1_1.pdf

Vist Reno Tahoe (Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority (RSCVA))
http://www.visitrenotahoe.com/

Jerry Stern is webmaster at PC410.com and Startupware.com.

The post Reno Travel Notes for ISVCon 2012 appeared first on Startupware.com. Visit to read more about software design, malware, and computer security.

Original article: Reno Travel Notes for ISVCon 2012.