The Cobram Cup

If you aren't Italian, it is very improbable that you know what is the real Cobram Cup.
It is from a cult movie Fantozzi contro tutti (1980) and this year, for the first time, my friends at Parma's University decided to organize the first Cobram Cup for all of us.

We started from Parma last Sunday (just behind the campus) and we went by bike to a local agriturismo Longarola into the Parma's hills after about 50 Km (about 31 miles).

Ferro and me @ Longarola

Just arrived @ Longarola

Eating...

Torrechiara's Castle just behind Longarola

My bike and my number :-)

Books in the bath (I really like this place)

My experience with MacZot

My marketing experiment with MacZot is just finished, it was a very good 24 hours experiment and I am satisfy with the results.
Special offer price for SQLiteManager OSX was $15 (a 62% discount) that I have to share with the guy at MacZot.

The process has been very friendly and fast... after an email sent to Brian (well, after two emails because I didn't received a reply from the first one :-)) and a quick ichat we reached a verbal agreement and the experiment is started the day after.

SQLiteManager isn't a consumer product, it's more a developer or professional tool, so maybe it isn't the right product to offer through MacZot, but for me it was a marketing experiment so I knew the risks in advance...

Final result was that in a day I sold 32 copies of SQLiteManager for MacOSX, our prediction was about 15 copies for a developer tool not proposed at $5.

In conclusion I think I can be more than happy with MacZot and I think it could be a very good marketing vehicle for every shareware developer. I highly recommend it.

SQLiteManager on MacZot

Just for today, SQLiteManager for OSX is on MacZot.
It is a marketing experiment for me ... but for some hours it will be available with a 62% discount.
Retail price is $39, on MacZot it is now at $15.



If you need an additional license or a new one ... I think it definitely worth a try.
Offer will terminate in about 10 hours.

Books arrived

The books I ordered at Amazon are just arrived.
They are:
Programming in Lua, Second Edition and
Game Development With LUA



I really like LUA because its philosophy is very similar to sqlite... I like projects that are small, fast, extensible and multiplatform.

I plan to make extensive use of LUA in my next "killer app" project, I have to admin that Adobe Lightroom really inspired me about how to use LUA.

Killer Application ... now what?

I really don't know how to explain you my creative process ... I have tons of new ideas every day but I know that I just need to focus on one of them in order to have success.

A quick summary of my creative process could be that I discovered to be a lot more creative if I do something totally different from the problem I am trying to solve, so for example if I have to find out a way to solve a software issue then the best way for me is start doing some gardening or playing soccer... the important thing is to stay away from my computer.



I think to have discovered what can really be the next killer application for me and for SQLabs ... so, now what is the best way to proceed?
I plan to need from 6 to 12 months of development in order to have a working version of this new application ... so I am searching a partner for this project. Well, I am searching a Venture Capitalist or someone willing to invest in SQLabs because now it is the right time to grow for my company and because I need money in order to pay others developer for the Windows and XXX version (I'll develop the MacOS X version). I really think that this could be a very good investment and this is an exciting time for me.
I have to take some important decision about my life and I think that the summer time can really help me to take the right one.

SQLiteConverter

I just received the new icon from Eugen, I plan to release the new product within a month.



It should be very useful because it automates and makes very easy migration from/to other database engines.
I think it could be the perfect SQLiteManager's companion.

One month later

SQLiteManager was launched exactly one month ago, so it's time now for a little balance.

I know that settings goals is a good thing so I try to set some realistic numbers about what I can expect from sales. It was not an easy task to set up realistic goals, I know that I could be happy with 1 million USD per month, but this is not very realistic :-)

So I tried a simple approach, for me failure or very small success means X copies per month, success instead means Y copies per month, so my realistic goal is (X+Y)/2. This is a very simple way and maybe it isn't the optimal one, but is it a starting point...

These are SQLiteManager's results:
(blue are my initial goals, red are real numbers)

Number of copies (first month)

USD generated (first month)

As you can see I am more than happy with sales, results are nearly three times my initial goal.

But was the goal right?
Can I expect a similar trend sales for the next month?

Well ... I really can't know now, I can have a response only observing how sales are going in the next month. What is interesting is that about 80% of my initial month goal was achived in the first two days!

Number of copies (first two days of sales)

USD generated (first two days of sales)

As you can see the first two days was stellars ... mainly due to the fact that SQLiteManager 2.0 was a very attended product and because a lot of 1.x users was waiting for the upgrade.

So, what happens to my goal if I delete the first two days from charts?
Well ... even deleting them my sales is nearly two times what I have previously set as my realistic goal.

Maybe the goal was too low, or the first month is just a period too short in order to get some decent statistics ... but I think this is a good starting point and a good way to analyze my sales. Next month I'll try to obtain better conclusions from my numbers...

Keep it simple

Life can't be so complicated, I think that most of the problems are due to the fact that we tend to take ourself too seriously.
We tend to think that what we are doing is the most important thing out there, this is expecially true for engineers, mathematicians and scientists in general...
Sometimes we should just contemplate what is around us instead of just see it.



This is a photo I just taken behind my house.
Well, the tree, alone in the country, will be there even if Windows Vista will never be released or even if the iPod success will terminate roughly.
Maybe today I am just too poetical, but sometimes I fell the need to just contemplate...

CD cover beta 1

So it seems that SQLiteManager will became a boxed product ... I am now experimenting some CD covers, this is the first draft:



I am not completely satisfy with this first result, I'll spend some more time in this task over the next days.
I write software since I was a child ( since I was 12 years old) and there isn't something better than the possibility to touch with hand the result of your hard work.

Most of the time my job doesn't enable me to touch what I do ... but not this time :-) not with SQLiteManager ;-)