A few comments on the download process
:
Ti does not validate that you purchased your ti-83+ between those dates. Anyone can download the software.

To download, you use the online store on ti's website. The items come up with the price $0.00 but you are required to enter your name/address/etc. to sign up for an account with them. (these are not validated by ti, and no credit card information is required)

The online store requires you to enter your calculator's ID, (found under MEM, about) before downloading, so you are only able to use the software on that particular calculator, and can not transfer it to your friends.

Yes, note that TI is _TRUSTING_ you, the PUBLIC, and assuming you have the honesty and integrety so as not to download the apps if you did not purchase your calculator within the aforementioned dates.

That means that all of you who signed the TI News petition betted have the dignity not to pirate these programs. It's incidents like this that convince corporations such as TI to act like they do - when a fan site encourages piracy, of course they're going to shut it down.

So, if you don't want ticalc shut down, it'd be wise not to have everyone and their mother download this when their calculator was not purchased within the specified timeframe. The serial numbers DO encode the date when the calc was manufactured, and they're obviously going to be suspicious if people with year-and-a-half old calcs claim they JUST claimed them off the shelf.

On a side note, I hear "these apps suck" anyway. I haven't used them myself, I'm just quoting several people I know who have. But I think that they're surely not so useful as to be worth pirating them and convincing TI not to try such a promotion ever again.

Hear hear
Too many people have the mindset that just because they CAN do something that they SHOULD do it or that it's right to do so. It's time people stepped up and demanded integrity from others.

You know, I was almost hoping someone would argue with me on that point and try to justify piracy. That's always fun =)

I argue against that. Did these people who bought before the time period pay less for these calcs? I think not! I think they paid more if anything. So you saying to a loyal customer who purchased it a month before the sale that it is not right. Well I suport them and I hope everyone with a working 83 + gets in on this deal.

Hello

Does anyone know a site that gives free flash apps or pirates them???

Just wondering???
Ajai

yes, ticalc.org's file archive has some free (not pirated) flash apps for 83+ users.

You still need a TI-83+ in order to download these programs. TI asks for your registration number so that the programs can only work on that particular calculator. So go ahead and try this guy's method. You'll just be disappointed to find out you can't even download the programs for use at a later date; unless, of course, you can find one of }Infused{'s illegal Roms somewhere.

Are they trying to make up for bullying fan sites?

amicek

my opinion is that they're trying to increase sales of Graphlinks

or it could be that they've found out that people don't like paying $28 just for a calculator program.

I'll bet this is an experiment to see how many people actually are interested in the software enough to download it. Then they can have a better idea of where to put the price in order to make money after this experiment is over.

I doubt that any consumers buy this stuff. Schools would be interested in the math applications. The organizer is cool, and the periodic table is worthless. If an end user wants to use these apps, they hafta buy the graphlink, so nothing is free, and they are still making money..

Joegan

<sarcasm> As opposed to getting a periodic table from ticalc.org for free, I think I'll just pay TI $28 for a copy of their version. </sarcasm>

I couldn`t believe it when I read it.. buy a Periodic Table? Jeeezuz.

The first thing a beginner programmer makes is a periodic table. The periodic Table has replaced the "Hello World" program.

hey hey, maybe I should buy the $300 SDK and make flashapps like "Periodic Table". HAHAHA!!!

> The first thing a beginner programmer makes is a periodic table.

Slightly incorrect. Usually, the first thing a beginner programmer makes is a quadratic formula program.

However, I agree that the Periodic Table doesn't require enough programming skill to cost $28.

Actually, the first program a beginner programmer makes is a Basic copy of Windows 2000.

As weird as it is, that's actually quite true. Many start with such a program. My first program was a game on the grapgh-screen. It sucked pretty bad, but I never thought to make a quadratic formula program till afterward, but then discovered that nobody wants these programs!

My quadratics solver is actually my most popular program (but only because it's included with Algebra Toolkit)

Hello World is not *entirely* dead *yet*. However, math programs are the first, followed quickly by science programs, assuming the programmer is to sufficient level of education at which these would become beneficial.

I started programming shortly after i got my 83 in the middle of 8th grade (mathcounts district 3rd place). At that time, there was little point to programming very much, as algebra 1 has nothing sufficiently difficult. I got a lot of programming experience the following summer on both that and my 85, mainly doing text display programs (which is still one of my specialties). That fall, I entered high school, the pre-international baccalaureate program, where i was exposed to the power of assembly on the 86. I promptly got my parents to buy me one, and happily coded just about everything that was possible to code in geometry that fall (in TI-BASIC) (related note: I recommend against debugging code during a final). It was also about this time that I started carrying my calcs in my pockets, as a certain person who sat behind me in biology would get one of my calcs out of my backpack and start playing games on it. I started doing science programs when I started chemistry my sophomore year, about the time I got my 89. At one point, I was working on a periodic table program for each of my calcs in TI-BASIC (that would be 3 or 4, as I do not recall if I was doing separate ones for my 85 and 86). The 85 version was, to the best i remember, well over 12KB when development ceased out of then-temporary boredom. I plan to at least do a version for the 89, despite the already-blatant overredundance of these programs, in TI-BASIC most likely.

e of pi and the unimatrix's 45.59985035114 overlylongwinded cents

> However, I agree that the Periodic Table doesn't
> require enough programming skill to cost $28.

Your view on programming skill versus cost is interesting. If TI's version of the periodic table was the only one available, then you could either pay $28 for it or write one yourself. How you judge how much your time is worth is debatable, although how much you are paid for your time is a good place to start. Assumming you are paid $7 an hour, then you would need to be able to write a comparable program in 4 hours or less for it to be worth your time. For me that would be somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour and a half. I couldn't write a comparable program in z80 assembly language in an hour, even with several years of z80 experience, therefore it would be more worthwhile to purchase the program.

Consider this scenario. I am the manager of an IT department and I am paying my programmers on average $20 an hour. I require a software product, and a suitable commercial product is available at the cost of $2000. Putting aside issues such as licensing (either I will only need one, or the purchase price covers the needed number of licenses) and reselling (I am not in the business selling software, or the market is small enough not to make it feasible), consider the software's worth. It is worth 100 hours of programmer time. This means a single programmer would need to write it in two and a half, or a team of two in a week and a day. If it would take one of my programmers a month to write it, then by not purchasing the already available software I would be losing $1200.

This is one reason why many, many IT departments use Windows instead of Linux/UNIX. It is far cheaper to purchase easier to use and configure software rather than hire qualified administrators and to train employees. In many cases, the highest priced resource in an IS department is the employee.

You are a very wise person, and I like your logic.
Funny though I happen to work in an I.T. Department & we use Unix!

The programmer would be selling more than one copy. So 4 hours to produce a $28 program is not entirely accurate. It's more likely that one month will be spent making a program costing $28 that will hopefully sell hundreds to thousands of copies.

That was my reason for saying $28 is too much. Once the program is written and debugged, it's no longer necessary to pay for programming (except for updates). It TI sells thousands of copies, their profit is probably greater than the cost of the programmer's time.

Hundreds of thousands of copies of any software is an excellent sale rate. For software that has a select market and would not be sold to the average consumer, selling one thousand licenses would be good. Besides, there is a huge difference between writing software and selling it. If you don't believe that, ask anyone who has spent hundreds of hours on shareware and only made a few hundred dollars.

<snip>How you judge how much your time is worth is debatable, although how much you are paid for your time is a good place to start. Assumming you are paid $7 an hour, then you would need to be able to write a comparable program in 4 hours or less for it to be worth your time.</snip>

What about unemployed people who don't get paid anything for their time?

Then look at it from the standpoint of a job you could get. Around here (Albuquerque, NM), many grunt jobs pay minimum wage, $5.25/hr. I would say around $6/hr would be an average expected starting pay rate at a typical high school job. So if you are programming something for the sole purpose of trying to earn money (or to avoid paying money for something else), and it is averaging less that $6/hr, then you are wasting your time. You could go and get a job at McDonalds and be making more

Why all of you thinks that TI83apps costs $28?
it is $7 ! man $7 !!!
Yes, my first program -in basic- was a quadratic formula solver, for a Casio 6300, the simplest and smallest graphing calc out there.

There are 4 apps for $28. Each app is $7 each so the periodic table is not $28.

Big difference. Thanks for setting it straight.

But I still would rather get a free program than one that's $7.

Besides, most periodic tables that we make (such as some pretty good ones for the TI-89) are _much_ better than TI's version.

Wrong-o, buddy boy. The first program early programers write is "Random Number Generater 1.000000069" in basic.

Back in 199^99 B.C., cavemen were sitting around, saying..."Too high. Too low. I win. I get hit thok with club." " Ow "

Just kidding Nick D.

Really though, a random number guessing game was my first program. And it was better than ALL OF YOURS! WHY DIDNT I POST IT?! It would be featured, win POTM, #1 downloaded file of all time (Beating Zshell(Oops, VTI beat zshell. The file that started it all. Boggles my mind. That still amazes me.))

Anyway. Simple clarification turned rampant.
Sometimes my mind is like a wild tangent.

--R

> "Random Number Generater 1.000000069"
I hate to be nitpicky, but that's Numbar, not Number.