Shareware Survey

[BOB BRODY]

I (laughingly) agree with your "fiendish" assessment of the way some non
registered shareware requires the pressing of a randomly generated key
before loading. There is a way around it, however (short of actually
hacking it out of the program) but authors are now fiendishly hip to the
way around it and have coded a more complex scheme (seems like a battle
of wits going on between shareware authors and non registrants, eh?
Actually, the method we're talking about is far less obtrusive than some
other schemes I've seen but they're all deserving of the moniker:
Annoyware). The workaround that circumvents the random key press is
simple. Use a key-stuffer, such as STACKEY, or FAKEY, or STUFFIT, or
any of the programs that let you send keystrokes from a batch file into
a loading application. Then code for the full range of what the
particular shareware program asks for. E.g.,

stackey "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
blap

in a batch file will load program BLAP and upon loading will send every
keystroke so listed. As soon as the randomly-generated key BLAP seeks
is sent via STACKEY, BLAP will load. Some programs request a function
key (randomly generated) to be pressed. Thus:

stackey f1f2f3f4f5f6f7f8f9f0
blap

et cetera. So some shareware authors got hip to that. A program I've
recently tested is a command line editor called ANARKEY 4.0. (A very
nice program, by the way.) But what the author does is he requires a
randomly generated 'two digit' number be entered, such as 23, 67, 41,
whatever, followed by a carriage return. This basically thwarts the
stuffer approach because if you enter (via Enter) the wrong number,
you're asked again. Consequently, it could take forever (literally)
before the stuffer program happened on the right choice.

The most obnoxious of them all are programs that require you to type out
and enter: I SUPPORT SHAREWARE. Of course:

stackey "I SUPPORT SHAREWARE"cr
blap

sends that tack back to the drawing board. (Stuffer programs are very
handy for more legitimate use but that's an aside that works fine where
doable. I don't fully object to Annoyware tactics but (a) they say, "I
don't trust you," and (b) some schemes are so crippling, if not outright
crippleware, they make it difficult-to-impossible to test a program full
bore. Such programs have gaul calling themselves shareware and are
plain and simple demo software taking advantage of an inexpensive means
to try to market a program commerically, notwithstanding tax free since
many of these same distrusting, uhh, "shareware" authors pocket the
money and don't report it, let alone pay self-employment taxes.)