sure. my priorities would be different though. i have had my own experience with overspending when i was younger and at least for me the stress of waiting like a junkie for the monthly paycheck is not something i would ever want to experience again.

Once upon a time, in the early 90s, I was homeless for 3 years. I had a pregnant wife 10 years my junior, who screwed everyone but me. But I thought I loved her, so I thought I could fix it.

 We found an abandoned house and squatted in it. I kept what food I could get cold by submerging it in a creek in the backyard, held in place by a stolen grocery cart. I turn on the electricity illegally, next month, the power company took the meter. I bypassed that and got power again. Next month, they cut the lines at the street and I was under investigation for utilities fraud.

Then my son was born.  Before we left the hospital, the authorities took my first born son away from me.

I was devastated. I became a drug and alcohol addict. My wife got to the point that the only way she'd have sex with me was if I gave her drugs in trade.

I STILL thought I loved her.

It got to the point where we went door to door, begging for food. ( Because we had sold our food stamps to get drugs and alcohol.) Sometimes, we would go to Walmart and search the parking lot for money folks had dropped when they pulled the keys out of their pockets, etc. Suprising what the wind blows behind the soda machines.) Spent 2 winters in a house with no windows, no heat, sleeping under as many blankets as we could get, wearing the cleanest dirty clothes we could scrounge from the pile in the other room, after shaking out the bugs and spiders.

Finally, I found a job doing roofing, just to over hear my co workers discussing how one of them had been screwing my wife behind my back, the one who was supposed to be my best friend. Needless to say, the job didn't work out.  I devised a plan to find a gun and take them both out, then do myself. (Glad that never happened.)

Near the end of those 3 years, I had lost all pride, all will to live. I was existing. I cared about nothing. I was as low as I could be, in my soul.

The last year of that mess, I found an escape. I found an old battery operated boombox. I started recording music from the radio on cassette tapes my wife would steal for me, in trade for anything I could find that would get her high. It was a miserable life, and this is the short version, it was much worse than I can explain. Not that it's relevant, but that wife is currently serving 20 years in prison for murder.

 

It took a lot of counseling, time spent in a mental institute, and faith in a power greater than us all, to bring me to where I am today.

Reason I'm telling this story:   The only thing I looked forward to was that boombox and my recordings. Without that, life had no meaning. Seriously. It broke a few times, but due to my need for it, I learned how to repair/replace the recording head on it. ( Can't do it now, that part of my life is foggy as hell.) It was my escape from reality. As long as I had the boombox, a few batteries, and a cassette tape, I could survive. Sounds silly to you, I'm sure.

Funny thing is, I'm grateful to have lived those 3 terrible years. It helped me become who I am today.

 

 

Moral of the story, sometimes people get so low, so weary of the struggle to live day to day, that they will attach to one thing and that one thing can be their source of light, happiness, even if only for a while.

 

 

 

Thank you for listening. Love you Noah! Strive on, Brother!

Note the above rant is not to say that Po/Noah is in that kind of situation. I just felt the need to speak.

Yeah, absolutely Noah, here's hoping you and yours are safe and well and happy.... that life is looking up for you all. 

Oh, and RND, I had some hard times in my life, but none as bad as yours, thankfully... so glad you came out the other side to become a real decent bloke with a big heart

This is bad news, i was hoping i would hear something like "we are working on it" expect a beta next month.
I was holding on to my money for this years sub of OD.
Without IP its only half the fun, i know there is plenty other cool apps in the OD list, i know this since its always pointed out.
But IconPackager was one of the most important for me in the list besides MM Fences and WB.
Guess ill pass this year and wait until it becomes 10Ready... I know peanuts for you in terms of money and im only one person

Let me add this:
Imagine: the customers that did buy IP in the past, consider them as pets for a second instead of customers.Your very own Pets.
Cats or dogs choose which one you like.
Pets will ultimately grow up, i just mention this because the customers probably now have grown into another OS, be it for the reason that it was "free", or for other reason such as Gaming. Whatever the reason they did it.
Lets just say IP was their daily bowl of food on prior OS along side with a nice fresh water filled bowl called WB.
The loyal trust in Stardock products strengthened their decission that whatever they do SD would not let them down.
Now the food bowl remains empty since the last TWO OS versions, the pet scrached did tricks to tickle some info about the missing food out of you.
Yet you did not even start opening the can. The pet will ultimately starve.

Please Make Things Happen. Save them Cats and Dogs!

I was basically coming from the same direction. At the risk of repeating myself in a message I sent on the side, I always felt that IP went hand in hand with Windowblinds and CursorXP. Those were always the first things I went to for customizing and the rest was gravy. 

I'm assuming that on the developers end, they must have some reason or statistics to say that Iconpackager is not a priority. If that is the case, then it's our fault as the consumer or skinner that it is so. 

I would humbly suggest that now might be a good time to rectify that (speaking to any and all that don't want to see Iconpackager fade away) by letting them know NOW how you feel about it, before it's too late.

 

edit** I would strongly suggest that if  you want to be sure Iconpackager stays around, you voice it now, whether it is here or in another thread, or by email, or private message. When you consider that a lot of us, if not most or all, have had Windows 10 thrust down our throats, we can NOT show our support by downloads of Iconpackagers or Screenshots, since it is not compatible with Windows 10. If we allow the opportunity to have any influence on this pass us by and allow Iconpackager to be no more, we'll have only ourselves to blame.

Yeah, I just had it forced upon me when I wanted to stay with 8.1.... and I think I know how they did it. 

I had to do a factory reset to fix a few issues, and when the new installation activated at MS' HQ, I believe a download was sent to my machine that made Win 10 the prime download, which then negated all other patches and updates for Win 8 in Windows Update.  I selected the Win 8.1 updates but Win 10 downloaded and installed first, even though I did not select it.

So, for anyone on Win 7 or 8/8.1 who is considering a factory reset or clean install, and doesn't want to downgrade to Win 10, be warned that there is little you can do to prevent it... other than to turn off your modem/router and install and activate GWX Control Panel prior to turning it back on.  It's something I'm going to try when I install 8.1 on another machine, but even then I'm not sure it will prevent the 'Install Win 10' download that I got last time at the point of activation.

Sorry for going off topic, Po, but I thought it important to let folks know.

No problem as i think it actually has a lot to do with whether or not we'll be seeing updates for a lot of software, Stardock or other.

 

BTW - I did a separate download and install of Soundpackager (without using the ODN Manager). I installed it as Administrator and set it for Windows 7 compatibility and it has been working great. I also installed some packages and tried different settings and so far no issues. I would NOT recommend this to anyone who is not prepared to deal with any unwanted consequences. I'm just passing along the info, that I was able to get it to work for me on Windows 10.

wow!... do you know who you just insulted??.... you better pray you don't have a picture of yourself on your home page... 

but seriously... that's the most arrogant, insensitive, supercilious, uncalled for, wankerish comment I've read here in a loooooong time...

We love our Po'.... we know many things he's gone through over the years... if you don't know someone...don't presume to judge their decisions...

this place is a sadder place for his 'lurking'... thanks for reinforcing that...

 

Jim... what a huge strength of character you have to have come out the other end of all that and be the man you are today...

Proud to know ya & call you, friend... 

wankerish??? ..........Love that word, Syd. Not heard that one. Made me giggle like the silly little boy that I am!

I tend to listen to the boss 'cause he knows more than I do. I don't need any help breaking stuff, I can do that all by mine self. And Po the Smedley.....you da man! Be well my friend.

Indeed...Adobe almost folded.