Homeseer does it again.....
- Thread starter Skibum
- Start date
Skibum
Senior Member
To be fair plug-in's do not affect the base operation of Homeseer.
Stipus has a bunch of plug-in's that he offered. they can be found here:
http://board.homeseer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=797
The SIP connector was brilliant IMHO.
Stipus has a bunch of plug-in's that he offered. they can be found here:
http://board.homeseer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=797
The SIP connector was brilliant IMHO.
BraveSirRobbin
Moderator
I agree with Wayne. I appreciate the post Ski (as a HomeSeer user myself), but as there is already to much drama on the Internet (especially concerning HomeSeer) I do ponder the reasoning behind this. <_<WayneW said:
I know you use Stipus plugins (via your posts over HS land), do you have regular contact with him? Aren’t there other alternatives that he can possibly explore?
Thanks again for the info.
Skibum
Senior Member
Are you pondering my reason for posting the link or pondering why HST continues to shoot themselves in the foot?
If it is the former.... It is because I'm PISSED! The SIP plug-in was/is fantastic and it is a royal shame that it will no longer be supported. Stipus was a tremendously gifted programmer.
If it is the latter, you'll have to go with your best guess....
If it is the former.... It is because I'm PISSED! The SIP plug-in was/is fantastic and it is a royal shame that it will no longer be supported. Stipus was a tremendously gifted programmer.
If it is the latter, you'll have to go with your best guess....
BraveSirRobbin
Moderator
Actually, I'm pondering the reason why he decided on discontinuing support of his plugins.Skibum said:
Also, I'm guessing that he is to upset to explore alternatives?
Priority 1 at HS is the customer. So many (or I suspect few) complain that all we care about is $. In case you did not notice, the HA software industry is tiny. We love what we do, and if I could, I would gladly do it for FREE! However, I have bills to pay, so we are trying a business model that will keep us growing.
It pains me when I see someone post ("all HS cares about is the $"), and this tends to keep me off the boards. That is so far from the truth. There are so many projects that we have worked on that cost the user's nothing. Have you noticed? Insteon cost us a bundle (in time and $), and its free. All our thermostat plugins, including some new ones, are all free. Helpdesk support, all free. Yes, we charge for some plugins. If everything we worked on were free, we would have been out of business a long time ago. This market is not large enough to sell a single app, then continue to grow by selling to new users. It takes much more, upgrades (plugins), hardware sales, etc. We are still trying to find the right recipe. If you look at the competitors products, I think HS is WAY underpriced. Is there another package that does what HS does?
Hopefully there are only a few that think we are just $ hungry. I think many understand that we are dedicated to HA and are always looking for ways to make it better. There are many new projects at HS right now that are very exciting. I cannot give out details, but I can say they will not be free (but they will be well worth it), and they are based on feedback from YOU, our users.
So please stop posting the false information about HS being $ hungry and post something constructive like what new HA feature you want to see in the future. We save all feature requests we get and review them when we start a new release.
As for this thread, we have reached out to Stipus, ball is in his court. The issue was simply a misunderstanding by both parties, these things happen.
-Rich Helmke
Owner
HomeSeer Technologies LLC
It pains me when I see someone post ("all HS cares about is the $"), and this tends to keep me off the boards. That is so far from the truth. There are so many projects that we have worked on that cost the user's nothing. Have you noticed? Insteon cost us a bundle (in time and $), and its free. All our thermostat plugins, including some new ones, are all free. Helpdesk support, all free. Yes, we charge for some plugins. If everything we worked on were free, we would have been out of business a long time ago. This market is not large enough to sell a single app, then continue to grow by selling to new users. It takes much more, upgrades (plugins), hardware sales, etc. We are still trying to find the right recipe. If you look at the competitors products, I think HS is WAY underpriced. Is there another package that does what HS does?
Hopefully there are only a few that think we are just $ hungry. I think many understand that we are dedicated to HA and are always looking for ways to make it better. There are many new projects at HS right now that are very exciting. I cannot give out details, but I can say they will not be free (but they will be well worth it), and they are based on feedback from YOU, our users.
So please stop posting the false information about HS being $ hungry and post something constructive like what new HA feature you want to see in the future. We save all feature requests we get and review them when we start a new release.
As for this thread, we have reached out to Stipus, ball is in his court. The issue was simply a misunderstanding by both parties, these things happen.
-Rich Helmke
Owner
HomeSeer Technologies LLC
fitzpatri8
Active Member
Thanks, Rich, for stepping in and presenting your case.
For all we talk about it here, you'd think we'd have gotten the rest of the country (and the world) to adopt home automation already, but it just hasn't happened ... yet. Until it does, and your biggest problem becomes producing software CDs fast enough, you've got a responsibility (to yourself, to the people you work with, to the customers who rely on you for ongoing support) to follow a business model that keeps you solvent long enough for the market to take off.
It's a shame that someone didn't anticipate this particular issue and negotiate directly with the plugin's author, rather than just change the code to break his work. Surely there's a way to turn this into a win-win.
Tom
For all we talk about it here, you'd think we'd have gotten the rest of the country (and the world) to adopt home automation already, but it just hasn't happened ... yet. Until it does, and your biggest problem becomes producing software CDs fast enough, you've got a responsibility (to yourself, to the people you work with, to the customers who rely on you for ongoing support) to follow a business model that keeps you solvent long enough for the market to take off.
It's a shame that someone didn't anticipate this particular issue and negotiate directly with the plugin's author, rather than just change the code to break his work. Surely there's a way to turn this into a win-win.
Tom
Rich,
I sincerely HOPE HS cares about the dollars. Without them, no HA, no HS, no fun. However, the MOST sucessful people had a vision, and the money followed. All 3 of them.
I have watched the price of HS skyrocket, but funny, compared to others, still cheap.
I guess I think not everyone in your organiztion feels as you do. That seems obvious at times, hence the "misunderstandings". Why can I hear you say "I'm a programmer, not a damn manager"?
There seems to be some confusion about HS being marketed as an open platform, and after much effort by those who (I think rightly) feel they helped make HS, it is becoming a closed platform. This conflict was inevitable and began with the very concept of HS being open. At some point the viability of every enterprise revolves around IT'S cash flow, and you have, at least partially, relied on others to help create the enterprise. It's nothing that can't be solved with your personal attention.
When I worked as a CPA, I had some marketing smuck tell me once in a meeting: " Well that concerns money, so that is YOUR job." I challenged him to tell me about something in business that doesn't "concern money". I'm still waiting for an answer.
I do hope you enjoy the passion HS generates - far above any program I am aware of. I can still recommend HS above ANY other HA program - and that says something.
As an (ex) accountant I should recommend some zero based budgeting. I.E. does this portion of the organization generate enough revenue to justify it's cost? (Or does it only generate problems?)
Good luck,
GLT
I sincerely HOPE HS cares about the dollars. Without them, no HA, no HS, no fun. However, the MOST sucessful people had a vision, and the money followed. All 3 of them.
I have watched the price of HS skyrocket, but funny, compared to others, still cheap.
I guess I think not everyone in your organiztion feels as you do. That seems obvious at times, hence the "misunderstandings". Why can I hear you say "I'm a programmer, not a damn manager"?
There seems to be some confusion about HS being marketed as an open platform, and after much effort by those who (I think rightly) feel they helped make HS, it is becoming a closed platform. This conflict was inevitable and began with the very concept of HS being open. At some point the viability of every enterprise revolves around IT'S cash flow, and you have, at least partially, relied on others to help create the enterprise. It's nothing that can't be solved with your personal attention.
When I worked as a CPA, I had some marketing smuck tell me once in a meeting: " Well that concerns money, so that is YOUR job." I challenged him to tell me about something in business that doesn't "concern money". I'm still waiting for an answer.
I do hope you enjoy the passion HS generates - far above any program I am aware of. I can still recommend HS above ANY other HA program - and that says something.
As an (ex) accountant I should recommend some zero based budgeting. I.E. does this portion of the organization generate enough revenue to justify it's cost? (Or does it only generate problems?)
Good luck,
GLT
Rich-
When I first started using HS, I knew it was a work in progress. I paid the money for the program and began tinkering with HS and HS phone. Most of the time it would work, some of the times it did not. This was just the nature of the beast. I had plenty of spare time to work on my hobby. That is the way that I viewed HS as a work in progress and a hobby in the beginning.
Then HS developed the version 2.0. This was a complete rewrite of the program, and I know that many hours went into the development of this new product. But the big kicker for me is we, the users of HS, were told we had to purchase version 2.0 or stop using HS all together. The previous versions were no longer supported, the plug-ins were no longer available for purchase or down load. It was either 2.0 or nothing.
It was at this time that my attitude toward HS chanced. The entire HS group had to purchase a program that was not working 100% of the time. It worked most of the time. The new version, even to this day is not a stable platform. In my personal opinion HS switched from a hobby based company to a for profit company at this point. Now they should be treated as a for profit company and your software should be 100% stable when released, and not expect the HS forum to fix the problems.
I have HS running on a dedicated machine that is an AMD duel core machine, with 2 meg of ram. This should be more than enough for HS to run, but guess what—once a week my outside lights stop turning on and off and I know that HS has stopped. I go to this computer and can you guess what the error is? HS has stopped responding, and is being shut down due to an error!!!
So I guess I should try tech support?? I have a ticket that was started on September 13 (I think this is the correct date, but if not it is close) for a simple problem of the status of my UPB switches not being displayed correctly. After many tries I finally gave up!! I get more support from the users of the forum than I have ever had with HS. The forum members are the ones that I turn to for help, not HS. And HS is the company that I paid good $$$$ to for a program that I was forced to upgrade to.
What about the HS phone—mine has not worked since the beginning. I purchased the PCI modem—did not work. Then I purchased the way-2-call at does not work either!
So for me, I keep giving $$$$ to HS for products and support that is faulty. Why, I don’t know. I keep hoping that HS will work someday.
So if you feel that I am bashing HS, I am truly sorry for that, but I feel that for the money I have spent, I should have a system that is dependable. HS is not that program, maybe someday, but not today.
Steve
When I first started using HS, I knew it was a work in progress. I paid the money for the program and began tinkering with HS and HS phone. Most of the time it would work, some of the times it did not. This was just the nature of the beast. I had plenty of spare time to work on my hobby. That is the way that I viewed HS as a work in progress and a hobby in the beginning.
Then HS developed the version 2.0. This was a complete rewrite of the program, and I know that many hours went into the development of this new product. But the big kicker for me is we, the users of HS, were told we had to purchase version 2.0 or stop using HS all together. The previous versions were no longer supported, the plug-ins were no longer available for purchase or down load. It was either 2.0 or nothing.
It was at this time that my attitude toward HS chanced. The entire HS group had to purchase a program that was not working 100% of the time. It worked most of the time. The new version, even to this day is not a stable platform. In my personal opinion HS switched from a hobby based company to a for profit company at this point. Now they should be treated as a for profit company and your software should be 100% stable when released, and not expect the HS forum to fix the problems.
I have HS running on a dedicated machine that is an AMD duel core machine, with 2 meg of ram. This should be more than enough for HS to run, but guess what—once a week my outside lights stop turning on and off and I know that HS has stopped. I go to this computer and can you guess what the error is? HS has stopped responding, and is being shut down due to an error!!!
So I guess I should try tech support?? I have a ticket that was started on September 13 (I think this is the correct date, but if not it is close) for a simple problem of the status of my UPB switches not being displayed correctly. After many tries I finally gave up!! I get more support from the users of the forum than I have ever had with HS. The forum members are the ones that I turn to for help, not HS. And HS is the company that I paid good $$$$ to for a program that I was forced to upgrade to.
What about the HS phone—mine has not worked since the beginning. I purchased the PCI modem—did not work. Then I purchased the way-2-call at does not work either!
So for me, I keep giving $$$$ to HS for products and support that is faulty. Why, I don’t know. I keep hoping that HS will work someday.
So if you feel that I am bashing HS, I am truly sorry for that, but I feel that for the money I have spent, I should have a system that is dependable. HS is not that program, maybe someday, but not today.
Steve
Rupp
Senior Member
Steve,
That help desk ticket was handled by me and not Rich so I can take the blame on that one. I contacted Jon the developer of that plugin and he didn't have a clue as to why this would be happening nor did I. It was the only ticket that reported this behavior and so I didn't have a lot to go on. I apologize for not being able to solve this issue. We do the best we can but we occasionally do not have all the answers.
That help desk ticket was handled by me and not Rich so I can take the blame on that one. I contacted Jon the developer of that plugin and he didn't have a clue as to why this would be happening nor did I. It was the only ticket that reported this behavior and so I didn't have a lot to go on. I apologize for not being able to solve this issue. We do the best we can but we occasionally do not have all the answers.
All I can say on issues like this is that there will always be some users that have problems with a system like this that makes heavy use of OS resources. This is a niche market and we adapt available products the best we can. Most users who use the product do not have a problem, some have problems that never get resolved. Most of the PCI modem issues are PC related. A user cannot get it to work at all, they install it in another PC and its magically all OK. I believe that the modem does not like to be on the PCI bus with many other cards, and I know it does not like to share interrupts. The only issue with the Way2Call is caller ID. Way2Call has a new device that will be out shortly that has a totally new caller ID circuit (mostly thanks to us complaining). The caller ID issue will be history then. Microsoft is dropping support for VB6, so keeping up the support of an app written in that language just doesn't make sense, but we do still support VB6 plugins in HS2. HS 2.0 was more work than we anticipated, and we appreciate everyone who stuck with us, it was a bump (mountain) in the rooad. I believe those issues are behind us now.
Going forward there will be more installs where things just won't work, and sometimes I just cannot explain why (its called Windows, too many system variables). I can tell you that your results are in the minority. If they were not, we would not be selling the products. You can see why we developed the PRO-100, works perfectly every time (since every unit is identical!)
I will say that if you are stilling having problems with the PCI modem, update or reopen your ticket. I am working with at least 2 other users with odd PCI modem issues and I can create a debug build to help isolate the issue.
Going forward there will be more installs where things just won't work, and sometimes I just cannot explain why (its called Windows, too many system variables). I can tell you that your results are in the minority. If they were not, we would not be selling the products. You can see why we developed the PRO-100, works perfectly every time (since every unit is identical!)
I will say that if you are stilling having problems with the PCI modem, update or reopen your ticket. I am working with at least 2 other users with odd PCI modem issues and I can create a debug build to help isolate the issue.
Similar threads
