Survey posted 1999-09-17 05:50 by Andy.

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1. How do you expect to keep people from distributing it to their friends calc-to-calc???

2. IT'S A FRICKING CALCULATOR!!!!! THERE IS NO ACTUAL COST IN MAKING A PROGRAM FOR IT (JUST ONE GUY TYPING!) At least on a Gameboy they can say they're charging for the cartridge and licensing.

"How do you expect to keep people from distributing it to their friends calc-to-calc???" -- Kirk Lane

There are ways. I won't discuss them in detail, but there are very effective ways of preventing such things. Yes, most methods of copy protection can be cracked, but that takes time. With a sufficiently complex routine, the crack will take longer to produce than the effective lifespan of the software being cracked. i.e. By the time the software is cracked, it's worthless. Just as an example, if King's Quest I for DOS were just cracked today, nobody would care, because the program's effective lifespan has elapsed.

Blah blah blah I go,
Tip DS

Each Ti-89 and Ti-92+ has their own unique serial number which can be used to make sure that the program only works on the calculator it was set to work on. I dont know if the Ti-8x Flash calculators have this feature or not.

Actually, this topic is nothing new. I can remember when a few programmers would charge for their games and it would be all over the net in an hour or two after one person bought it.

The only time I ever got any money for any of my games was when someone paid me $3 for KCHS Punisher II in school. To this day I don't khow why because I didn't Ask for money and I said "Keep It" but he insisted. I do know that half the school had it three hours later.

First of all, if someone did release a program that costs money, say $10, I'm sure someone would just rewrite the thing and put it up for free. But I guess if the program at hand was like a 3-D gfx editor or MS Word 2000 on a calc... I'd sure as hell pay for it, the author(s) would definately deserve their money.

Let's get real people. This is a calculator we're talking about here. Anyone who pays for programs on a calculator is a moron.

I paid £70 for my plus modude (for the TI-92)
I felt that this was justified, as it's not something I have to re-install every time my calc crashes, and TI provide ongoing customer care (updates etc.)
I wouldn't want to pay for something I had to transfer to the calc myself that might make the calc crash, and I certainly wouldn't pay for games.

I wish there were more demographic data to this vote. Just out of curiousity...

What's your age:
What is the highest level of school you have (9th, 10th, College Freshman, College Senior, etc.:
What is your class rank or GPA?
What, if any, profession are you in:

How petty can I be?,
Tip DS

What does the profession matter?
Besides being CEO of TI or something :)

--BlueCalx

"What does the profession matter?
Besides being CEO of TI or something :)" -- BlueCalx

Well, it just seems that many of the comments that protest commercial software are very juvenile. I don't mean that as an insult to anyone, but it just seems like they are comming from people that haven't had to face the "real world." I mean... Here's one of my thoughts: If I spent 4 years of my life and $60000 to get my BS in Software Engineering, there's no way I'd spend months of my life programming a top quality utility unless it were going to help me repay my student loans, etc.

Another perspective... If I were, say, a chemical engineer spending 6 out of 8 hours a day in the field, I'd want a powerful, portable tool. If paying $10, $20, even $150 for calculator software meant I didn't have to buy a $3000 laptop + $150 in specialized software, then lug it all around, you can bet your boots I'd do it. Now, if my only concern was playing video games on the calc, no, I wouldn't want to pay big bucks for it.

Does that answer your question?

Have you a good one,
Tip DS

You want demographic data? Start with me:

* I am a 17 year old high school senior.
* I rank fifth in a class of 640 students.
* I belive that all calculator programs should be free.

The best part of having a TI calculator is having many Free Games. If someone did try to sell their game, I would have to kick their ass.

I would for good quality programs like test aids in physics ap would be nice or good professional games.

hey...are you taking an acutal physics ap class or just the test? if you have the class, is it calculus-based? im just curious...there isnt an ap class, the highest is honors physics at my school, but im gonna try to tackle the physics C test this spring anyway ...im sure thatll be fun (sarcasm...and lots of it :) )

yikes...let me try this one again...
ok that was 'actual' physics ap class
and the other part "there isnt an ap class"..i meant that just for my school...we only have honors physics....i wish we had a calc-based physics course, but id be the only person in it : )

No, the AP Phys test is not Calc based, I took B last year. I wouldn't try to tackle C if I were you, especially without a class. Just go for B. And do plenty of magnetism/electricity work, becuase the test can get nasty.

Meanwhile, back on topic...There is no way I would pay more than $5 or so for a calculator progtram, and then only if it was absolutely incredible quality and power. And under NO circumstances would I pay for a calculator game.

I'm in AP Physics. Ours is calculus based, we just had our first test and it had some calculus questions on it (position, velocity, acceleration graphs, nothing heavy-duty yet).

Just to let you know, if you care. :)

Nick Chaves

the choice "no" needs some improvement
write-ins are needed like the one on www.segfault.org
like segfault.org I would like to see how long ticalc.org will keeps the write-ins clean ;)

That's exactly why we don't allow write-ins. And besides, the 4th option "are you serious?!?" is another form of no. So we have two yes's and two no's

You could call this feedback, msgboard, "whatever" a sort of write-in. Of course, it doesn't affect your own vote :)

I would pay for calc software, provided it was high quality and inexpensive. e.g. the stuff they have on www.ti.com like the periodic table, the organizer, whatever else, for $7 I might buy it. But I have a question: if somebody bought one of the "commercial" calculator APPS, couldn't they just transfer the file to anybody with a compatible calculator (in my case the 83+)? If I bought something like that, I would give it to other people, maybe for a small fee, something like that. Then the company who sold it to me doesn't get it from them. Or would they have some kind of copy protection once they were transfered to buyer's calc? If that isn't the case, i just don't get how it can work for the seller.

They are already charging for software. I've seen a pretty nice looking periodic chart with a few x-tra features. It was about $4. I think it'd be great for a teacher to use, maybe.

have you been through the archives here? there are about five tables for every calc.