Make Your Own Software
(Review dates from februari 2005…)
Make Your Own Software (MYOS) has been around since late August, early September 2004. It was created by Mike Chen, who’s also responsible for programs as Web Army Knife, Fly-In Ads and Instant Buzz. I got my personal copy the first week of September and created about 20 programs with MYOS within a month.
Software for Dummies
MYOS is software engineering for dummies really. I’m not a software developer myself and I know next to nothing about programming. I have a little experience in working with html since I started building my website and I know about working with text and image editors And this knowledge is apparently enough to create lots of simple software.
With MYOS almost everybody can create nifty little programs to either assist you in automating recurring tasks,< inserting style sheets and java scripts in your web pages, writing e-Books and many more things. Or make stuff you can use to promote your website. Some people have even already been quite successful in selling the programs they've created on the Net.
Here are some examples of programs people have created:
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CSS creator (CSS means Cascading Style Sheets; you use them to give your web page or your MYOS program itself a consistent look)
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Maiden Voyage Checklist for boat owners
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URL redirector
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Affiliate link cloaker
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Opt-in Generator
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Text Ad rotator
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Driving distance calculator
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Meta Tag creator
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Buying request form
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a cookbook
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a page builder for missing children
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pirate curse software (recommended!)
And the list goes on…
Click here to see my MYOS demo softwares!
Good Educational Potential
MYOS makes an excellent tool for schools and parent of children who are starting to learn programming. My dad taught me ‘basic’ back in the early ’80’s and I was just blown away with the idea that you could make a program that said “Hi, what’s your name?” and after you responded, you’d get a personal reply.
Make Your Own Software can have the same magic effect on young kids. I know for sure that one of my sons is going to create awesome things with it, once he’s learned to read and write.< Schools often make the learning process a struggle in my opinion, because adults have figured out on forehand what a child should and shouldn't learn, without taking their own unique talents and qualities into account.
But when you can ignite curiosity and imagination in a child, the learning curve will be steeper than anyone could ever dream about. Give them a tool like MYOS, which is fairly easy to comprehend, but sets imagination on fire and easily will you learn so many more things about programming.
MYOS turns learning into a fun experience
You start with making a page using a html editor like front page. Nice and user-friendly, but you don’t really learn a lot about html. Now MYOS asks you to put in a recipe using {@tags@}. So you load it and now you’re suddenly facing the HTML-text of you page, and you can’t help noticing all these ’strange’ commands like <b>bla, bla</b> or <a href=”http… etc.
Adults will sometime have been battered so much by the schooling system, that they won’t jump at these learning opportunities. But children will go; “Hey! Did you notice that? This text looks completely different from the end result on a web page. How are the two related?!”
And since MYOS gets more and more interesting as you challenge yourself to deliver a uniquely looking or operating piece of software, you are equally challenged do dig into html coding and later on JavaScript and others. It makes the learning process completely natural and efficient - though keep in mind: you still can get frustrated at times!!
So personally I would recommend Make Your Own Software for schools, educators and parents who want to liven up their learning environment and supply their children with a tool that will not only allow them to speed learn computer programming, but also put a light in their eyes as they’re given the opportunity to learn in a way that fits their minds and hearts best!
Make Your Own Software Features
Brandable Links
Once your software is created, you can also change some info inside the software with the brander program that comes with your software. This allows your affiliates for example to change links inside your software with their affiliate links. You can create as many different links as you like. They’re all user defined.
I really like MYOS a lot, but there are quite a few things that could be improved still. Especially when you want to create more advanced programs, there are a couple of things missing. Mike Chen is currently in the process of selling MYOS to new owners so it’s very unclear if and when new upgrades are going to be released. The former excellent help desk services have also gone down quite a bit. However, you can always join our forum for excellent support - both on MYOS and ISB.
Click here to see how MYOS compares to ISB and SDP/ISM
Patricia Ritsema van Eck
P.S.
Both MYOS and ISB claim you don’t need to know any programming to be able to create software with their programs and this is true. As with all new programs, you need to start working with it to understand how easy it can be. But that’s why we put this website together: to assist you in creating good programs…