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Who Is Talking?
Discovery?
How does it work?
How do I use it?
To download
Before you start
Phonics vs Whole Language
Why a Patent?
Is RTR an invention?
Just an experiment?
Plans and Hopes
Shareware Agreement
Final Words
References
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The Shareware Agreement
In the install files that you can download from the downloads page,
there is no annoying box full of fine print legalese with 'accept' and 'don't accept' boxes at the bottom. Mainly there is just verbiage similar to what you'll find on this page, with a request that you read it. Anyone using this method, or the software implementation of it that is provided here, should read this section carefully, understand it, and agree to it. Otherwise, you are using the material without permission and will have even fewer rights than this agreement gives you, if that is possible, because you will have stolen the material rather than accepting it under the conditions that are offered.
This software, and anything else you might find at this site, is provided on an "as is" basis, to be used at your own risk, with no warranty, express or implied, that it will serve your purpose or any purpose at all. I've done my best to make it good, but you accept any and all risks and consequences of using it as your own problem, not mine, in exchange for obtaining it so cheaply here. In fact if it erases all the pornography on your hard drive and causes your youngster to grow into a rebellious teenager with spiky hair, or if any other thing happens that you may find distasteful or disastrous, whether due to my negligence or even my purposeful action, I hereby disclaim all liability and you accept my disclaimer.
Furthermore, you recognize that anything that appears here, whether verbiage or software, is protected by US copyright law and international copyright conventions, and the method here described and implemented is protected by the Patent Laws of the United States of America.
You are NOT free to reproduce this software or anything you find here, except for your personal use. Further distribution or use of any part for profit is explicitly prohibited, except that this entire package may be mirrored elsewhere as long as nothing is altered and no fee charged. If you want somebody else to know about this, send them here for the latest implementation.
I would like to see derivative work, so send it to me and we can talk about what to do with it. This site could be a good place for you to showcase your art and children's books, or your programming skills*. But do not produce derivative work and distribute it yourself, or you will be in violation of copyright and patent laws and you may be liable for damages.
The material here presented is shareware, not freeware. By making it available, I do not relinquish any copyright or patent rights of any sort, nor do any others whose work may be displayed here, and we may find it necessary to assert those rights at any time.
I have not built in any shareware nag screens, because I dislike them, myself. Likewise, I have not suggested any dollar amounts for a contribution. Any amount – five, fifty or five hundred dollars - means very different things to different people, and I do not want any parent to feel put off by a request that might seem too high (or too low!). I well know that parents of newborns are suddenly experiencing a range of surprising expenses at a time when their earning power may have declined. Make your own decision here. I would much rather have parents using this material than not, even if they cannot afford to contribute any cash at all.
If you find this program and this method useful, shareware contributions can be made with a click through Paypal. Just click on the button and fill in whatever amount seems right, and many thanks to you. 
Tom Parsons
PO Box 253
Whangaparaoa
New Zealand 1463
Also, I will happily consider it an adequate shareware contribution if you fill out a participation form [coming soon] and email me your logfiles and comments, and most especially when we can include your baby in the roster of those who read comfortably by age three.
Send Logfiles, Please!
The reader program RTR will create a logfile in the folder of each book, and add to it each time the program is used. The logfile records the date, time, and duration of use of each book. It also records any comments you might have after each session. This is how I hope to gather quantitative data on the effectiveness of the Right Time Reader program. The logfiles should just keep on recording the data, so you don't have to send them on any set schedule, but about once a month might be right.
It will be very useful to know how many times each baby is shown each book. I would like to build a spreadsheet data file that can display the amount of exposure that any baby, or all of them, receives, and relate this to the first reading behavior that is observed. I would like to build this information into my PhD research, and also use it to improve the program. Also, your comments are important to me. I hope that you will email me your logfiles from time to time
Emailing them is easy, and should get easier with improvements in the RTR program. All you have to do is pull up an email form to send to me
parsonst@ihug.co.nz then click on the "send attachment" or "attach file" choice and click through the directory until you can select the logfile in the folder of each book that you use. Each email can carry as many attachments as necessary; you just go through the same 'add attachment' process for each one.
Before emailing, you can look at the logfile to verify that it is a simple text file that contains only the information I just mentioned above (not your passwords and credit card numbers!). While you have the logfile open in your text editor program (like Notepad), you can also edit any comments that were recorded, or add additional comments at the end.
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* If you would like to display your children's books in a format that the RTR program can handle, I'll be happy to help with the mechanics, and to make your work available here. You can see that the implementation of RTR is in its infancy (heh), and we can use all the help we can get. You have nothing to lose but a small amount of work, since you retain all rights and can withdraw your work at any time. If you have not been published yet, but your work gets lots of use, and lots of favorable comments here, that seems likely to carry weight with conventional publishers. Or if you are already published, you might like to make your work available in this new format, and your publisher is likely to be pleased with the free publicity.
If you want to write a progam to implement the RTR method, and that improves on RTR, that is also worth talking about. Working out the business angles will be more complicated than in the case of literary/artistic contributions, since your work will be less visible (might merit a box ad?), and if it is quite good the whole project could become dependent on it (so I would want to keep the free use of at least the version used here). The possibility of mutual benefit seems worth investigating.
Back up to where you were in this page.
The current URL is http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~parsonst/sharewlogf.html
This file was last modified 15-Sept-2002
To get in touch, email me:
 parsonst@ihug.co.nz
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