Yes, this Windows 2000 thing is a bit of a pickle. There is a way forward, so to speak, but it requires some reading on my part.

Reading takes time, and I won't have it for the next little bit. Tomorrow I move from the Australian countryside to the Gold Coast. On Saturday I'm apartment-hunting. Some apartments I've been looking at on the 'net are literally next to the beach. Not that my pasty white skin and the beach go well together.

On Monday I start my new job.

All of that doesn't bode well for reading time. And this Win2000 problem doesn't bode well for the v1.0 stamp of approval.

I know this is my problem, not any of yours. I know there are companies out there with actual employees who don't need to inform you of their moving house plans. So I'll understand if you head elsewhere.

On the other hand, I hope you understand that there are always errors in any software you use. Microsoft, with all its billions of dollars and 1000's of employees at its disposal, probably produces the most error-prone software.

And regardless of who makes the software, a lot of people are accustomed to waiting for the inevitable emergency release instead of grabbing the main release as soon as it's out.

What I want to say is, there's no harm to subscribe to the current release of TS, which is v0.9.1. (Unless you use Win2000, that is :-)

Ok, there might be a bug or two. But, just like at any other time, you tell me about it and I fix it. If you want to wait until it's perfect, well, that's never going to happen. No software is ever perfect.

For that reason, from this point on there will be no further predictions as to the possible release date of v1.0. Changing the version number from v0.9.1 to v1.0 is not going to make it a magical error-free program. And we're already at Release Candidate 2, meaning there isn't going to be much of a difference, if any, between v0.9.1 and v1.0. Essentially I'm just going to change the number. (Except for the Win2000 problem). So WinXP users, get started on your "make money while sipping beers at the beach" plans.

Purchase

Theoretically TS should work on Windows 2000, but a couple of people have reported it crashing immediately whenever you try to start it.

(Before I go too far, let me point out that TS works fine on WinXP).

So I was wondering, is there anyone out there that has successfully had TS running with Win2000? If so please leave a comment. What service pack are you using?

Or, if you have had the same problem, also let us know about it. Misery loves company :-)

Actually, the more information we can get about where it works, and where it doesn't work, the easier the resolution. Theoretically. As I say, theoretically it's supposed to work with Win2000 now.

Yeah, I had to do a bit of travelling for the job interview, meaning I haven't gotten around to testing TS fully yet.

I mean, it's all there. It does everything that it should. But being a bit of an integrity freak, I can't put the v1.0 stamp of approval on it until I've given it a work out.

As mentioned in the previous post, my new job starts on Monday, January 22nd. About a week's time. I really really hope that I'll have v1.0 out before then. On the other hand, I have also hoped that I would have it out before Christmas Day 2005, Christmas Day 2006, New Years Day 2007, January 4th 2007, and January 10th 2007 :-)

But starting a job in a week may focus my efforts. I should say, too, that I set those targets to force myself to work. Watching episodes of Buffy all day is a pretty easy thing to slip in to. In essence, you guys became the manager looking over my shoulder. It's just that the estimates I gave have always been conditional on absolutely everything working perfectly the first time, and me having absolutely no distractions of any kind.

Neither of those things were ever true.

Let's see how we go this time.

January 28th would have been my 3-year anniversary of not having a job, but unfortunately I will fall 6 days short. On Monday, January 22nd, I'll start work at my new job on the Gold Coast in Australia.

TS development will slow down, but not stop. There are still some features that I want in there. If you want something new, all you have to do is let me know about it and I'll tell you how likely it is to be done.

While I have a "within 24 hours" policy of replying to emails at the moment, generally I actually reply within an hour or two. This will probably not be the case anymore, and I will have to rely on the "within 24 hours" promise.

I will continue to keep you updated here, on the goal of sipping beers on the beach while TS does the trading and makes the money for me.

Once you get on the freeware train, it's hard to get off. You keep discovering something new that you now need to have, and can't imagine how you ever did without it before.

My "Useful Free Stuff" page has now expanded to just less than 50 items, all of which I use.

I am thankful to those people who spend their free time making stuff and giving it away. And in some cases, a free product doing the same thing already exists. Two of my favourite products replace other free ones that, in my opinion, have become bloated and slow and memory-hungry.

Some people in the Oanda forums are very anti-trading signals services. I don't understand why. So when someone, for the 100th time, said something along the lines of "if you need to use a signal service, you shouldn't be trading" and "if they were any good, they wouldn't need to sell their signals", I cracked! Cracked I tell you!

Here's the original thread.

And below are my two posts merged and slightly edited:

I'm not sure why I'm going to stick up for people and businesses that I have no relation with, but here goes...

You all know the concept of capitalism, right? Where we all pursue money, and no matter how much we have it's never enough?

So if some trader has a great trading system which they are making money from, I don't understand why people berate them for letting other people ride the wave as well. At a fee, of course. After all, it's the trader that's done all the hard work - the subscribers just need to follow instructions.

Because, and here's the thing, in a different thread there'll be people asking successful traders to give away their trading systems.

Further, it could be the case that a trader has no capital of their own, but have worked out a really good trading system. Let's say they start with $2000. And they make 100% interest for a year. Now they have $4000. They do it again. Now they have still only $8000 even though they consistently made 100% p.a. Why is it wrong for them to sell their signals for some extra cash?

And if it's not wrong for that kind of person to sell their signals, why is it wrong for someone who has a lot more starting capital to sell their signals?

You see, generally we still want to make more money, even if we have a lot. We don't question why movie stars continue to appear in movies and commercials. We don't question why sports stars continue to play, and then go on to coach. But bizarrely, in this trading arena where the entire point is making money, we question why people want to make money.

That's not to say that there aren't some shonks around in the trading signal arena. So if possible, test them out for a bit. The Collective2 website, as best as I can tell, is probably the easiest place to verify past results.

From memory, traders don't put the details of their alleged closed trades into Collective2 after the fact - they send real-time buy and sell signals just like a broker. And Collective2 have some kind of engine which works out how much the trade would have won/lost. So as for auditing, that seems good enough.

Another way to weed out shonks is to ask in a forum somewhere. Not this one though, obviously :-)

Now, if you know how to trade, maybe you don't need to use a signal service. Good for you.

For others, the game is all about making money. Who cares how they do it? Who cares what knowledge they have? And why do they have to learn to trade? It kind of smacks of superiority to say that people need to read all the books you did, and lose all the money you did, and do all the hard yards you did, before they are allowed to profit from the forex game. (I'm putting words in your mouth there :-)

If all you have to do is follow the signals given by someone else who has done the hard yards for you, I'd say that's a reasonable strategy. Instead of learning how to trade, you can learn how to tell who gives good signals and who doesn't.

If you can find a good signal provider, well, what's wrong with it? People pay for advice in every walk of life. When you went to buy your plasma-screen TV, and you asked the store attendant for his advice, he didn't say "well, if you have to ask, you shouldn't be buying a plasma-screen TV". He didn't say that, right?

Putting ads on your website, selling trading signals, selling software, selling plasma-screen TVs - it's all about providing a service and getting paid in return. Different skills, same goal - TO MAKE MONEY! BECAUSE WE'RE CAPITALISTS!

Download - See what changed - Purchase.

Besides the initial release, this is by far and away the release with the most changes. That led to the ever-delayed release, and the ever-diminishing of my credibility :-)

But if you get your hands on v0.9.0, or even just read the Change Log, your faith in me will be restored.

There's a couple of things you need to do, and to be aware of, if upgrading to v0.9.0. Read the KB article for further information.

I do expect an RC2 before a v1.0.

The survey asked why you might not subscribe to my software.

Available responses were:

• It's too expensive
• I couldn't work out how to use it
• I'm waiting for v1.0 to be released
• It doesn't connect to the broker I use

Whereas the only valid responses were:

• I'm waiting for v1.0 to be released
• It doesn't connect to the broker I use

:-)

Because there is unlimited email support, I couldn't really understand if someone said they couldn't work out how to use it. I can understand if they clicked around a bit and gave up. But if they were serious about it, surely they would... maybe... like... send me an email?

The other "invalid" response is that it's too expensive. As I mentioned previously, seriously, if you think software that has all these features is worth less than a daily can of softdrink, you are in some kind of fantasy land where money shouldn't matter too much to you anyway.

So here are the results. And there were actually a decent number of votes this time.

The winner was "It's too expensive", with 7 votes out of a total of 15. Second was "I'm waiting for v1.0" with 4, then "doesn't connect to my broker" with 3, and finally one person said they couldn't work out how to use it.

So I guess there was really no point to this survey, because I'm not going to act on the results. But thanks to everyone that filled it in. You're tops in my books :-)

If you are using a different broker, send me an email with the name of the broker you use. Alternatively, because this software rocks, consider switching to the ones it already connects to.

If you are waiting for v1.0, I beg your forgiveness, and thank you in advance. The testing progresses, but there are actually *a lot* of different combinations and permutations to try and test. I could even say that I've put in too many features, and now the effort required to test all of those features is becoming daunting. But once it's done, it's done.

I really want to put v0.9.0 out later today, and v1.0 is set for a week or so after that. You can also keep up-to-date by reading the KB.

If you subscribe now, your subscription will take effect immediately, but you'll be given free days until v1.0 is released. There's no downside.