#Is Smacker Worth It?
10 messages in this thread
It _appears_ that your Smacker might be something I could use but after years
of buying software that "seemed like a solution-to-all-my-problems, can't-miss,
etc", I have now swung to the other end of computer consumerism and I'm now
very reluctant to buy anything unless I KNOW it will actually work and
reasonable sure that there will be no major surprises (e.g. "Well, of course
you'll have to reformat your hard disk" or "Well, no, it won't work if you have
a modem hooked up to your computer")
And your price of $295 seems extremely high.
I guess the purpose of this message is to ask you to convince me to buy your
Smacker. Any thoughts?
Alec Jason
Alec:
Well, let's see, I guess telling you that it's just plain awesome isn't going
to cut it, right? <grin> So what we need is a Jeff's Top Ten Reasons To Buy
Smacker List:
10) It really does what I say it does! Check out our press release to get a
feature list, and then believe it. A customer from Australia left a message on
our answering machine just to say how happy he was with the product – on his
dime!
9) Smacker is more fun to say than MPEG. For example, chant "Smack-Attack",
instead of "Shaq-Attack" during NBA playoff games.
8) Smacker comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if you don't think it's
cool, just send it back.
7) By Smacking all your flics, you create more hard disk space for games.
6) We know what we're doing. We are an Autodesk multimedia dealer and have
used Animator and 3D Studio since they were released. We have been hired to
produce both animations (for HP) and complete games (MS Golf), so we actually
use Autodesk's stuff for the same kind of work that you probably do. I wrote
Smacker as tool that I could use, so, hopefully, you will benefit from the same
features that I needed.
5) If you're a primatologist, you can use the phrase "Smacking the monkey"
without being accused of sexual harassment.
4) If you have a new feature idea or a question about Smacker, you can actually
talk to someone who can make it happen – me. I hang out here, and you can
almost always reach me at 801-322-4300 during the day. This is a big deal –
imagine the difference in the Yost products had they not been here to help
people and receive new ideas.
3) It breaks the 2 to 1 barrier – no wait, that's Stacker. Smacker breaks the
5 to 1 barrier – yeah, that's it.
2) Yup, $295.00 is a lot of money. But, if someone else sold it, I would still
buy it – it does exactly what I need a compression tool to do.
1) And the number one reason to buy Smacker is: after offending Stac,
primatologists, Dave Letterman, NBC, and the MPEG people with this list – our
legal department will need the funds!
P.S. Oh yeah, you don't have to reformat your hard drive and modems haven't
yet caused any compatibility problems. <grin>
Jeff, I don't know about your product, but you certainly seem like a pretty
cool dude! I loved your 10 best reasons list! Most people would try to sell the
product on its merits. Your so cool that your product is good, you're confident
to make jokes. I like you style and I'm sure I'd like your product. So far I
have no need as everything I do is 24/32 bit, but I'm tempted to buy it just
because anybody with a sense of humor like that, has got to be a heck of
programmer! (key ingredient in my opinion) 🙂
-JE
P.S. I trust that it will sell well. There is definitely a need and a great
solution for slow hard drives, displays etc. which all but us power users have
to deal with.
John:
Most programmers have terrific senses of humor, they're just afraid to appear
unprofessional. I don't care whether I look unprofessional or not, I only care
that Smacker sells a zillion copies and everyone likes it. <grin>
->Jeff
Jeff:
Re: Smacker
1. Is there a scripting language similar to aaplayhi?
2. Any branching capabilities?
3. Hotkeys during playback?
4. Load into RAM?
5. Still image viewing?
6. Transitions like fade in and out?
7. Speed control?
Bob
Robert:
Just a few more days on the scripter – I announce all the features then. (It
will do everything you just asked however <g>.)
->Jeff
Jeff,
I have to say that you've written one of the best responses I've ever seen!
If Smacker is half as clever as your message, it will be a great value.
I yield. You've sold me.
Alec Jason
Alec, PMJI, but it sounds like you're going to try Smacker. Let me know what
you think of it ok? I could really use a product like this but the price is
pretty steep for me right now. I tried the New Age one and it doesn't work, so
I'd like to see what others have to say about Smacker. So far the replies about
it have been very favorable. Thanks.
Dave Mennenoh
Alec: You might want to check out NEWAGE.ZIP which contains a shareware flic
compressor/player. Let me know what you think. Reza D. New Age Interactive
Reza,
I downloaded your file but I didn't try it because I noted that it will only
play flcs no larger than 4meg. I don't have any need to compress flcs that
small; I need to be able to compress huge, 20-100 meg flcs.
So is 4 megs a permanent limitation? If so, it won't be any help to me.
Alec Jason