When you download a trial version of a product you do not have any obligation to use or even install the product. The only your investment so far is time and traffic to download. If you do not have time to test drive the product today or tomorrow, no problem - you can download it again. If you installed it and do not like it, not a big deal - uninstall and go search for an alternative. Like it? Enter activation code and there you go!

Now you've bought a product with money back guarantee. You think "I need to try it. The more time I test it the more chance I'll catch the problem and get my money back." You do not have a single day to postpone this, you've already invested money into it. The positive case is simple - you simply continue using the product.

The negative case is way more difficult. One day you decide "This piece of software isn't worth the money I spent. Lets get them back." You start looking for the instructions how to apply for money back. You know what? No one even bothered with providing you such instructions! Developers did not want to think or probably even did not know about such feature of their product. You end up writing to sales with a claim for money back. I would imagine they reply with something like "We can offer you new updated version of our product. We are sure that if you try it you will reconsider!".

I bet you will not reconsider, they just ask for additional investment of time from you. And the money back begins! But technically and legally that is not an easy process. And I mean it. The situation is even more tricky if you bought the product from reseller, not the original vendor which offers the money back guarantee. But you go through it and get your money back.

Now you get an e-mail "It is unfortunate that our product failed to meet you expectations. Blah-blah-blah. Please help us improve by telling what was wrong." Are they serious!? They've just wasted your time and probably money (shipping is not refunded) and made you go to competitor and now ask you to invest more time in helping them become better! Well, they ask for to much.

You see, this whole money back guarantee thing is not at all about you. It is all about the vendor.

Want to attract customers and make sure their bad stories do not get even worse? Offer trial versions to let users test drive your product with as less effort from their side as possible.

Don't take me wrong, but I'm convinced that software engineering is not about fixing bugs. Well, you have to fix bugs sometimes, but you do not have to that always. If you have product with no bugs, you do not have to fix them. All you have to do is build a product in a right way from the very beginning. From the time you've got the "Aha!" idea for a new piece of software. Think it's impossible? Have you ever seen civil engineers fix skyscraper after they've built it? I'm really surprised to see a press-release from INTSPEI entitled "Fix Bugs Early with INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework". If we are doomed to have defects in our software, then, of course, it is better to fix them early. But if we are not?

All my past experience shows that quality is not about rigorous procedures, extensive trainings or punishments for poor results. Quality is a mindset. Quality is orientation of mental energy.

You can not simply declare quality like "From now on we will built only high-quality products". Quality needs to be cultivated. Day in and day out. Quality should be your way of living. In everything you do set high quality bar and reach it. If even if nobody will see and appreciate it. You will appreciate your well done job.

Paul Stovell puts it just right about writing program code. But generally it is true for everything we do.

What I want you to do is

1. Watch these cartoons.
2. Listen to the words.
3. Think.
4. Repeat step 3 over and over again.

PS Do not forget to check out Alan Watts site.

This is actually a post by Seth Godin, which I will link to from my in Projections of life series: The marine iguana.

Blogging for me is not simply writing, but writing in English. So I seek every possibility to improve my English writing.

During recent times I twice came across 50 Tools that can Improve your Writing Skills from different sources (here and here). Still going through that list and trying to make use of these tools.

English punctuation rules is something I never could get right. Hopefully, I'll fix that with How to Use English Punctuation Correctly.

And last but not least take a look at Improving your technical writing skills.

The point is how you decide what is better for you. Good list of items to consider is given in a post on Jeitosa Group's blog:

• Workforce Quality/Skill
• Workforce Availability
• Workforce Costs
• Workforce Flexibility
• Government Support
• Tax Considerations
• Communications Costs
• Communications Infrastructure
• Real Estate Costs
• Statutory/Legal Requirements
• External Infrastructure
• Travel Accessibility
• Political/Economic Stability
• Multi-Language Abilities

As usual with list of comparison items like this you need to clearly understand relative importance of different items for your case. Sometimes workforce qualification and availability will be more important than cost. Sometimes travel accessibility will not be an issue. You want to know what matters to you and what does not.

When you will be looking for an offshore partner you should be aware that a company can address some general deficiencies found in peculiar to the country or region. For example, at SoftServe we have communications infrastructure much better than throughout the country which makes nearly any means of communication available to our clients and employees. Also we run a language school to make sure that "language barrier" is not an issue for our people.

Probably, you have heard about Google shares drop on July 20 shortly after they announced Y2007 Q2.

One of the reasons for such "poor" quarter results was aggressive hiring (read "investment in human capital"). This affected the bottom line and the bottom line in turn raised concerns among investors and analysts.

You agree that for hi-tech company like Google humans are most valuable capital. Not technologies, not patents, not buildings or computers.

And to me it is a good sign that a company is investing in its most valuable asset. Or may be I do not get this "Wall Street" thing with shares and stuff?

There will be two conferences in October that have almost identical name but are hardly the same by nature and content:

• Software Business 2007
• Business of Software 2007

Given that the first conference is for "owners, chief executives, presidents, vice presidents and division or department directors of leading and fast-growing software companies" and has this list of speakers. And the second is for "managers, CXOs, directors or founders of software companies" and has such speakers on the list. Which one would you attend?

I wish our president (president of Ukraine) and other folks in the government have read this wonderful piece by Paul Graham: Why Startups Condense in America. I wish they got the message and understood what is in there for Ukraine. I wish they run the country as business that must be effective and profitable to survive in the world marketplace.

One of the advantages that we should make use of is unique number and quality of hi-tech professionals we have in Ukraine. We must build on and develop this and other our strengths to be competitive in the world marketplace.