Cthulhu Software

FAQ

It is better to lack a curious mind for the answers one finds can only serve to shatter the sanity of a more perceptive and delicate mind.

Who is H.P.Lovecraft?

He is the unspeakable influence on this web site. He was born the 20th of August, 1890 and died the 15th of March, 1937. He was an author of weird fiction and an amatuer astronomer. He was an accurate translator of forbidden works, with the most famous being the Necronomicon. After his death he worked on numerous books and helped write much of the text that appears on this site.

Why are the version numbers in a YYYY.MM.DD format?

It's important to have a versioning system in place for software. That way users can know if they are running the latest version of the software possible. It also provides a means for the developer to track bugs by attaching the reports to particular versions of the software.

This site went with a versioning system that takes the date of a release and just writes it in the format YYYY.MM.DD, where "YYYY" is the year, "MM" is the month and "DD" is the day. Such a system makes comparisons between versions trivial and hides details that would only interest the developer and not the user.

What is "shareware"?

Shareware is software that you can freely copy onto your or anyone else's computer. However, most shareware contains certain restrictions. Maybe there are delays built in so that after a certain number of days you can no longer use the application. Maybe certain features of the software are disabled. Maybe there are annoying dialogs that appear every now and then. These things are done in order to prompt the user to part with their money. This will occur with the free version of the shareware software. This is the unregistered state that functions to demonstrate how the application works (if at all) and whether it is something that the user is interested in purchasing. Once the user makes a payment by some method, the shareware becomes registered and the various "encouragements" that were in the unregistered version should disappear.

What is "abandonware"??

The various pieces of software on this has been under development for a long time. The earliest software can be traced to the mid-nineteen-nineties and was writen on MacOS 7.

As can be expected, times changes. Technology changes. Tools change. The MacOS itself has evolved amazingly over those years. But with so much change it's hard to maintain everything from the past.

A time comes when someone has to put aside the past on keep themselves focused on the future. That's what abandonware is - it's software that's grown so old that it's no longer being actively developed. There's no other way to destribe old software other than as "abandoned".

How do I install your software?

All downloads on this site come in the form of disc image (.dmg) files. After downloading these to your computer you can double-click on them to make the Finder open them as if they are like discs. Once the disc image is validated and opened you can simply navigate into the disc, and drag out the items that you want. For the software on this site, this would typically mean draging the application out of the disk and into your Applications folder.

How do I use your software?

You should at least read the manual that comes with the software. For most applications this manual can be accessed by first starting the application, clicking on the Help item in the main menu and then selecting the AppName Help menu item. This should bring up the manual for that application where AppName will depend on the software in question.

Why can't I use your software like it is described in the manual?

Some software on this web site has certain functionality disabled if you aren't registered, also they might be annoying nag dialogs that appear from time to time. You need to register to gain access to this functionality and be free of the nag dialogs.

Can I send you a payment directly?

No. All registeration goes through the servers at Kagi that generates the software function unlocking keys. The software that you are trying to register won't unlock if you try to pay the author of this site directly. There's no manual way of registering. It was set up this way so that people who do register would find themselves instantly with a registered piece of software. The alternative would have been to include the site author into the loop and that would mean that significant time could pass before could send out an unlocking key. Hopefully people will appreciate the speed and convenience of the current approach.

Can I send you food/present/gift instead of a payment?

No. This site author is a bit prone to some good food and even plenty of bad food (mostly the later), however the registeration process requires a payment through the servers at Kagi. Efforts to get around this just won't work.

I have a great image/sound/other for you to use. When can I send it?

This site author appreciates your generousity but the author possesses the pathetic and pointless fault of being completely and utterly egotistical. He wants everything on this site to be his own work. On top of that fault the site author is also a total control freak - no matter how impossible such an attitude might be in reality. It's a shameful series of things to admit to, but it's true. Thanks, but if you want people to see your own work why don't you create your own web site? Then you could be as egotistical and self-centered as the author of this web site and have your own site dedicated to your own works.

I have translated your software. Can I send it?

Thanks for being so dedicated. However I can't use your efforts. Maybe you are being sincere, but the author of this web site is illiterate in all of the languages that he doesn't know and even those he should know, so there is no way for the author of this site to assess your efforts. Maybe your efforts are a work of written genius, or maybe they consist purely of profanity. The author of this site can't tell and in order to avoid problems he prefers not to use other people's translations.

Is there anything that I can do to help?

Of course: send money! Seriously. Putting together a software site like this is expensive. It mightn't look expensive but it all adds up to a substantial amount. (Try creating a similar site if you don't believe this.) So the best thing that you can do for this site is to simply register.

Can I get a job with you?

No! This is a hobby site. It's a bunch of stuff done for fun during those idle moments. This site isn't a company. It's not a business. It's just a hobby. There's simply no staff to join. It's just some guy at home in front of a computer having fun.

I have this great idea for a software application. How much will you pay me?

Nothing! Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's trivial coming up with ideas. The real difficultly comes in trying to implement the ideas. The author of this site can come up with a great idea for a piece of software that will cure cancer, solve world hunger and still cook breakfast in the morning. That doesn't mean that this imaginary software is something that can actually be written. The author of this site appreciates well thought out suggestions, but he has so many ideas of his own that he has no need to pay others to come up with the ideas. If your ideas are so amazing why are you trying to tell someone else instead of making them a reality for yourself?

Hi. I work as a programmer and I have this project due by the end of the week. I've attached the functional specification for you to follow. I can't pay you but you'll have my gratitude. When will it be done?

Okay. This isn't a frequently asked question in that it was only asked once, but what a question! It's because of this email that the site author has set his spam filters to block anything that has attachments. The author of this site has no idea what the story about this email was, but he quickly deleted the email. Just thinking of the legal complications that would have arisen had he even peeked at the functional spec are scary.