Do you like Cumulus? Use it? Have you seen the...

[peterh]

... "Donate" button?

I have to admit that I refrained from hitting the Donate button until I had tried Cumulus.
I like it. In fact, I like it a lot.

So, I decided to hit the Donate button somewhere today. Five days after I downloaded it... and a full two days after I started using it.

This post is to get you to do it, too. If you haven't done so already. If you have, stop reading now.

Why this mushy plea, you may ask?
I am a professional coder myself, as in "I design software for a living". I am on the payroll of a software company. I've been developing software professionally since the early eighties. I *know* how easy it is to come up with some program and release it as donationware.

I also know how effin' hard it is to stick to your code, to keep supporting it, and fixing bugs in it, long after you've released it. Which is exactly what Steve is doing.

I think Steve deserves all the support he can get. He's doing the labour of love.

Disclaimer:
I don't know Steve at all. I've never spoken to the guy, let alone had a beer with him.
A week ago, I didn't know his name, and I had never heard of Cumulus. I just appreciate his work enough to hit the Donate button, and to try and see how many more of you I can get to do the same.

So, to get a healthy dose of Good Karma, get into the spirit of the season. Go to http://sandaysoft.com/, hit that button, and feel the Goodness(TM).

[thekow]

I'll be donating soon. Excellent software and support.

[steve]

Thanks for the plug, Peter, it gets embarrassing doing it myself

I have to admit that I refrained from hitting the Donate button until I had tried Cumulus.
I like it. In fact, I like it a lot.

So, I decided to hit the Donate button somewhere today. Five days after I downloaded it... and a full two days after I started using it.

I'm quite happy for people to try Cumulus for a while - quite a while - before thinking about donating, so that they're sure they really want to use it. You might find after the first month that it's not as good as you think it is

[peterh]

I'm quite happy for people to try Cumulus for a while - quite a while - before thinking about donating, so that they're sure they really want to use it. You might find after the first month that it's not as good as you think it is

I can see why, but what you don't know is that I've been looking at the underlying concepts (reading the manual, reading up on the forum, seeing some of the problems, and seeing how actively you support it) before I installed it, and when I set up the station and installed it, I have been playing around with it -- continuously -- for a full day (more than a working day), trying to break it by intentionally misconfiguring it (which I succeeded in), as well as trying to get it to work properly (which I succeeded in quite well, and faster than I expected, thankyouverymuch).

Software will have bugs, by definition. A very large part of the quality of software is in how it is supported.
And that's probably a very good reason for me to like Cumulus. I'd rather have a well-supported solution that runs interactively, and uses a flat-file structure to store data, than a solution that runs as a service and uses a SQL database (which is what I would've done), but is all but abandoned by the person who wrote it (which is what I might have done).

Therefore, I decided that my donation was a day overdue. My karma and I can live with a day late (it's not going to hurt your cash flow ferociously), but I'm not afraid of admitting it.

[iceberg]

I was thinking of maybe making a (DONATE) day sometime in 2013. There are 1026 sites currently in the database. If everyone would give ($10.00) or what ever sum on that day that would give Steve lots of support to cumulus and when members of cumulus like making requests for new web tags that would help steve and cumulus members to upgrade cumulus to new heights.
We could all try to set a date when to hit the DONATE button on that day.

[peterh]

Cracking idea! Cumulus Appreciation Day... let's set a date!
I propose the first one to occur 13-02-2013*.
How about it, guys (and gals)? I don't know what the Canadian Dollar does these days... but I'm in for 10 euros.

Let's make this work -- let's show Steve how much we appreciate his work!

*) I was about to propose 31-02-2013, but three milliseconds later I realised that February never has 31 days...

[ronwright418]

Great idea! I have donated before, at a common shareware amount, but lately I've been thinking about upping the ante, so to speak. Steve does an excellent job in continued development and support, even going so far as to provide support for add on applications. One thing I did was adjust my donation so the exchange rate would not diminish the amount.

[iceberg]

Im in for that day Feb 13, 2013.

[henkg]

Donate on 13-02-2013. Nice idea.
However, I know myself, I will probably forget. So I donated today ...

[William Grimsley]

Yes, I use Cumulus v1.9.3 and I really like it. Also, I find it easy to use! Sorry, I'm under 18 so I won't be donating.

[sbuckler]

I just started using Cumulus after using Virtual Weather Station for many years. What a great piece of software. I say that not only because of it's content but I can actually use it! Cumulus is sending data to WU, WeatherBug, and my home automation program, MainLobby. Now I am using weather data to turn on lights based on light data, adjusting thermostats, turning on my fish pond pump based on outside temp, etc. So, as soon as I am able, I too will be making a donation---just have to watch the budget as I am a self employed, aging carpenter and winters can be tough. My site is up and running. Need to tweak the gauges page as the top and bottom bars go way to the left at full screen. Haven't figured that out yet.

Stan

http://www.harwichweather.com