Nag, nag, nag
I decided that I needed a Mac OS X-compatible slide show program, to replace the old Kai slide utility, I went on a shareware hunt.
The site chezmark's MacPicks was one of the places I looked. It's a handy place -- new capsule reviews and screenshots of freeware shareware refreshed weekly. It helps in sorting thru some of the cruft. (And lets' face it, some of it is pretty bad, but that's true of commercial software too.)
The worst of the bunch I looked at was Archer Lite. With any software the "first time experience" is critical. In the case of Archer Lite, it's nothing but nag, nag, nag. "Please register this free software". In other words, tell me who you are so I can pester you even more to buy the full version of Archer. No thanks. Before I had a chance to do a single thing with the product, the very first time I opened it, it was in my face with this annoying stuff.
Into the Trash went Archer Lite.
What I settled on was JPEGDuex. It works quickly and has many useful features. Well worth checking out.
A tale of two programs, pretty much identical in terms of functionality, and both provided at no cost. One quietly gets out of your way, allowing you to decide how well it works and if you like it. The other won't shut up about itself and its publishers other products. There's a simple marketing/business/usability lesson to be had here, and it's not exactly a stunning insight, is it?
8:21:41 AM 
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