Support for an independant version of SideKick 14

[mickygriff]

I thought I would start a thread to show how much support there is for either an individual, group or company, to provide a reworked/updated version of Sidekick. Someone surely possesses the skills to do this? Please just reply to give this indication.

 

[james33]

Whoops!
Yes Jimalex,
you are right about ResHacker, pardon my ignorance I used it a couple of times to get icons from Sidekick and you can re-size dialog boxes and rename them + a few other things too and then re-compile the program and it works for that but you cannot see the actual code just the resources.
I have tended to keep a low profile when it came to checking the copyright for reasons best known to myself and this forum!!!
When I first set it up I was very careful to respect the status quo, the most important thing for me was that I wanted Sidekick to remain available.
Now the same holds true, but the program needs to be fixed in the near future.
Jim

 

[jimalex]

We might have to think of new names. Starfish is another company- not the one we know. Sidekick is the name of a recent phone product.

Both suggest that Zoltan627 has a point: if it is not "abandoned" what is it? These names are trademarks and our Starfish Sidekick names must have died a death before they were reused in their new definitions.

 

[mickygriff]

I tried to 'contact' Microsoft about this as mentioned previously - my efforts have ended up as a thread in a 'Communities Discussion Zone'. Indeed, one reply has identified my question as 'This looks like one of those suggestions to microsoft that seem to be routed to who knows where'!

I will paste the long-winded link to the thread, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere - unless everybody here supports it as a thread over there, and it gets noticed?

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...226c&mid=f4093536-460a-479f-b202-dc948296c92e

 

[newsnet]

Anyone know if Frank Borland or any of his company are still around. It was they who invented Sidekick in the first place wasn't it?

 

[Andybabe]

Yes

I would put my money behind this. Thought of selling my house to buy the software. However it looks like knowbody owns it anymore.

The key to a successful relaunch of Sidekick is to get it working and syncronising with current MS mobile units. MS mobile 2003 and the new version 5.

For sales people the main benifit of Sidekick 98 is the ability to drag and drop your customers from database window straight into your diary page. You can't do this in outlook. As a sales person I can plan a months sales calls in one evening.

In reality there is perhaps not much of a business oportunity here. I dont think that sidekick is commercially viable. But with some expansion on the contact manager side it could become of interest to small businesses
However I for one would be prepared to invest in a revamp and run a concortium of investors. New updates could be charged to users for downloads purely to fund future upgrades to keep up with software updates.

Viability would depend on the demand for the software.

If you get any further with finding the access codes and gain licence control let me know.

In the meantime if anyone knowns of PIM programmes that allow drag and drop diary planning from contact listings I would be very interested.

A finally thought, can we get a 'shit hot' computer student to write a similar programme for his/her PHD project, say fund his/ her education for a year. That way you can forget about sidekick and sart with a clean sheet.

Money: get 1000 people to invest £100 and you have £100,000 would that pay for a total rewrite?

I'll put the first £100 in the bag. Anyone else want to come on board?

Andy

 

[tilltek]

I,ve used Sidekick 98 and earlier versions since way back in the dos days. Now on modern CPU's running XP, it's starting to get a bit flakey so a new version would be a good thing.
There is a site called "rent a coder" or something like that where you can ask for bids to get a bit of programming done. Most of these programmers are in India and The Philippines so are willing to work for 2 dollars an hour (40 hours a week = $80 = 4,000 pesos = one months salary in 7 days). Why not ask for bids to duplicate the look, feel and versatility of Sidekick 98. I can't see any of the "owners" of Sidekick taking anyone to court over a "look and feel" issue over something they dropped 6 years ago.
From the bids on rent a coder, I'd say you could get the job done for a thousand bucks. You would then have the source code which could be made available to all.

Aussie Ken (Philippines)

 

[mickygriff]

Count me in for a £100 contribution! Great excuse for a trip to see how the 'business opportunity' is getting on if we went with Ken's suggestion!

I've just spent part of an afternoon looking at PIMs on Tucows, I can't believe the mess that people offer as 'organisers'. Most are shareware too, but would this not also be a way of reducing cost?

Maybe time to start asking for 'new name suggestions'?!
How about Sidewise / Sidetrack / Sidetack / Sideways for a kick-off?

 

[james33]

Dear All,

If we are going to be talking money and developing a project, I am not sure of the attitude here at Tek-Tips regarding that situation.

I would suggest that we need to get something going at another location.
We are talking about 'emulating' a fairly mature program which may (with testing) become a larger project than the one we are currently discussing and while it could be linked to this thread I would suggest we continue it elsewhere.

I have no suggestion for a location, but a blog of some kind would seem the most obvious(?)

I would be interested in putting money into the project too, however, anything of this kind that involves an investment, needs either unlimited trust or some binding legal framework.

I am a very trusting person but I have discovered in my life that it creates fewer problems if the boundaries are set at the beginning.

Regards
Jim

 

[mickygriff]

Guess what I've spotted?! A company called Sonnettech are marketing a double-jointed USB adaptor called 'Sidekick' - looks like we missed the boat!

 

[ljt1]

great idea......let's do it ....Intellisync should give up the source codes and let us deal with this....

 

[Gyula]

I think we are getting carried away with this project. As a long, long time SK user I believe all that needs fixing is the '06 ToDo problem. The rest of the product is about 98% fine (I mean that is why we love it and are this concerned about it). So all that needs fixing is the ToDo problem. Thus, we are talking about a downloadable fix of probably not too many lines of code--and leaving the rest of the product and its name alone.

(Since the ToDo problem exists only with Sk98 and Sk99 [right?], actually the correct or solution code might be inside the earlier Windows or even the original DOS versions.)

Also since we are here talking about only offering a few lines of codes to fix a flaw in an old program, I would think we would have much, much less copywrite issues and/or worries. (But I'm not a lawyer.)

So, let's try to get this one flaw fixed and then continue this Forum to deal with the other much smaller problems and issues with our poor abandoned orphan.

 

[IanMcKean]

Hi all,

Has anyone got the ability or contacts to hack into SK and fix the date problem as Gyula suggests?

Alternatively, has anyone found any other PIM that is as good as SK98? I am talking desktop s/w - the post about Pocket Informant does not help me as I want a desktop PIM and hate Outlook (although I do use it for email, but anything interesting I save in SK98 because it's so much better)

Ian McKean

 

[SDK98Fan]

I too continue to use Sidekick 98 and do not want to stop using it! If anyone finds a patch for the Due Date problem that Starfish Sidekick 98 suffers from please post it here.

I also would be willing to pay for a solution to this problem (~$50) due to the great number of appointments, To Do's, Contacts, etc. that I have collected over the past 10 years (I used an older version of Sidekick before I upgraded to SDK98).

Long Live Sidekick!!!

 

[WDane]

One observation about the 2006 "To Do" date reversion to a 1998 date. I checked to see if a 2007 date would revert to 1999. It does. Thus, the problem altho' annoying, may not be a stopper for me. If that process continues I can simply remember that 98 means 06, 99 means 07, etc. and go merrily on my way (unless something more drastic breaks).

I am still in favor of an updated version of Sidekick and would buy it in a heartbeat - even contribute a reasonable amount to building it. But the comments about lack of access to the source code and a person(s) to do the rebuild seems to be a persistent problem.

 

[rahamim]

I'm running Sidekick 98 with Windows XP. I agree that solving the "2006" problem is more important -- and I would imagine more doable -- that coming up with a replacement program. For me, the date problem involves more than just making a mental adjustment -- i.e. 1998 is really 2006. I make extensive use of the "goals" function to set up to-do's that will appear at a future date, and this apparently will not work because the program thinks that the date has already passed.

My workaround, at least for the time being, will be to replace the "goals" function with a separate application that does basically the same thing. I have two candidates; both are freeware programs. "Stickies 5.1a" (

http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/)

allows me to write a note, then hide it until a particular date, at which point it will appear and I will simply pasted into the Sidekick to-do column. The second, Alarm++ 7.03 (

http://www.12noon.com/),

functions in the same manner but is more sophisticated in its repeatability and capacity to perform other functions such as opening and closing programs.

Like most of you, I've used Sidekick since back in its much earlier versions. But I'm not a very sophisticated user; my uses are personal, not business, and include the basic cardfile, calendar, to-do (with goals), and memos, as well as syncing it to my PalmPilot (version 3). My main concern would be the ability to export all my data to a new application.

It might help in discussing the development of a new program to distinguish between copyright and proprietary rights. "Sidekick" as a registered trademark either no longer exists or has now been registered by another company, in which case it could not be used unless the new product could in no way be confused with the current product bearing that name. The source code is probably still proprietary and would therefore have to be purchased from its owner (public domain is a designation based on time, not use). It is true that making a good-faith effort to locate the owner would mitigate any legal claims, but if the new product were sold, the owner of the source code would probably have a legal claim to some of the money.

 

[BowRowser]

Jeez, it had been so long since I'd been in here that I'd forgotten that I was a member and tried to re-register! And the reason I'm back is due to my having recently (foolishly, just before Christmas) attempted to install a new hard drive (in an economy Dell w/ only one HD slot), and opted to start from scratch with a freshly installed OS, etc...

Well, it's hardly been a "fresh" experience, lost some data, blah-geek,blah; but the mere fact that I still had my old Win98 machine (in the living room as an MP3 jukebox) meant that I could have all my nicely saved data, license keys, etc, tucked away in their proper Sidekick cards, at hand as I went thru the process of refitting my XP machine. I loaded up my Sidekick backup on the old clunker (which is more what the program was designed for anyway!). But when it came to getting my Sidekick data back onto XP, ran into probs, went hunting on Goog, and came back full circle to you guys.

Sorry for the meander, but I am making a point here.

The last time I came thru, I was delighted to find an active source of help and discussion for a piece of software that I'd become so thoroughly attached to. Like many others, I'd originally assumed that things had moved on, and so should I: there was of course some even better application out there to replace it, so catch up with times, Mr. Me!

The truth --in this oddly particular case-- however, is exactly the inverse! There is NOTHING out there REMOTELY as good as Sidekick. And that still continues to confound and amaze me.

So I would most definitely be willing to pay $100 to see that program broght back to the masses, and more particularly, me! I will not be so long in checking back in here as before, therefor; and would like to take the moment to thank all of you geeks for providing such cynosure for so elegant a carcass as Sidekick, and of course, to wish one and all a Merry Christmas, retroactive a day.

 

[Zoltan627]

I think I mentioned in a prior posting that I believe the date problem with SK98 is being caused by something as simple as a dll. I am not a programmer, but I have worked them enough to know if it is this, a fix would be something simple that could be done in an hour or two. The key is finding someone to do it, and getting the source code so this person can find the problem.

I am going to speak to a friend who programs and see if he has any ideas; I will post again when I have more.

Merry Christmas

 

[tilltek]

It's not just a question of date problems. The fact is, Sidekick 98 is becoming decidedly flaky on XP and may be even more problematic under Longhorn.
What we need is a re write from the ground up with the "look and feel" of Sidekick 98 (plus any sensible additions)
Ausie Ken
"Far, Far Away"
CAMIGUIN

 

[mickygriff]

Happy New Year to you all! Working a night shift on one of the wards, and thought I would spend the moment of Sidekick's demise writing this in my break.

I would make the following points:

1.There is no support/development forthcoming from Starfish (bought out), Intellisync (no reply), Microsoft (sidelined query into an obscure forum).
2. It makes sense to attempt to patch the ToDo problem as Gyula suggested, considering the difficulty of copyright/ownership
3. There are people who read this forum who can access others, or are prepared to attempt to fix the source code.

Having made these points, can I suggest a simple series of questions to direct any effort?

(A) Can we obtain the source code from the exe file using a specialist programme, if so, what with?
(B) Having obtained it, who has the necessary skills to work on the patch, and is prepared to do so?
(C) How does the patch get tested - considering Sidekick in all its various formats?
(D) How would the patch (or patches, if needed, for the various incarnations) be distributed?

That’s it then - simple as A, B, C, D. Please respond to this series of questions, add to them if absolutely necessary, but this has to be our (ToDo!) challenge for 2006, c'mon guys, let's DO IT!

 

[mickygriff]

I guess I’m kinda talking to myself at the moment, being New Year’s Day and all that! However, I think I may have managed to devise a slightly long-winded way of moving items through the To Do or Calls feature.

1. Enter a numbered and dated item into either the To Do or Calls lists.
e.g. “01 – text description of item – 10th January 2006” or date it American style (mm.dd.yy) “01.10.06 – text description of item”
You must keep to this numbering/date format as Sidekick will sort the number 13 before the number 2, but after 02, or datewise, the 11.01.06 will come before 6.01.06. These items will then forward in the usual way.

2. Right click to edit the item, highlight and copy the text from the task or call entry.

3. Paste into the relevant date that you want to complete the item by.

4. The To Do and Calls lists roll-over each day, and can be checked against the diary entries for each day.

5. Mark off completed items as required.

6. There are 97 entries each in category – total 194. If you need more, you can create a new series from ‘File – New Calendar’, and name it appropriately.

I have tested this method by advancing the computer’s internal date to the 10th January, to the first entries I had made this way and it worked! My preference would be to number rather than date entries, as it is immediately clear to me – I have difficulty with the American style. The only problem I had was that when I changed the date back, all of the entries I had made were left on that first date. I tried to cut and paste these items back – not recommended as Sidekick generates an error code and then terminates.

Do try the above and see if it works for you –

Hey Jim - I also noticed some dialogue between you and ronriche, back in May 2004 – what happened to him and his work? He hasn’t logged on since then.

Finally, I found some programmer forum discussions which indicated that you can’t decompile exe files to track the source code – something to do with it changing the original data once compiled, making it impossible to work on. It would seem to have come full circle, to coding Sidekick from scratch.

Time for bed!