Cattle software

[mnbryant2001]

SRBeef I'm with you. Bet it makes it easy for big brother to keep up with you on the cloud. Doubt it's in Timbuktu though. Unless that's where the IRS stores the rest of out life story. :hide: And like you, if I already owned cattlemax I would stick with it till the end.

I enjoy FB myself due to the fact I have out of state kin who love to give me a hard time there! :bang: But it's a great place for all of us to chat together. Yet I am amazed at what some people will post there.

You would be surprised at where a lot of these "cloud" sites are hosted. The storage usually goes to the low bidder, and that is typically overseas. Think about where your "customer service" phone call is often answered. It can be anywhere in the world.

And I am not concerned about the IRS seeing my data, nothing to hide there. It's a whole lot of other people who like to "mine" personal data for their own gain that I think we all need to be concerned about.

Why do you think the financial world just made Mark Zuckerberg a billionaire? It ain't because he is a champion of individual rights and privacy... He is more of a concern than the IRS, in my opinion.

Again jmho and bias. Jim

I agree. My IRS statement was simply intended as a joke.

 

[Terrell]

I use Cattlemax, but I'm not very pleased with it. Cows mysteriously disappear, and I spend half my time correcting it. i don't dare shut it down without backing it up...

Records shouldn't mysteriously disappear and you shouldn't be having to spend half your time to correct it. If you haven't had a chance to contact customer service, feel free to email me directly at [email protected] and I'll make sure you get a reply.

 

[Terrell]

Howdy everyone

I am Terrell Miller and my wife Penny and I are the founders of Cattlesoft. We appreciate the compliments on CattleMax and our customer service... it's good to know our software is helping you all out.

Several concerns regarding the cloud and our CattleMax Online software have been mentioned and I wanted to address these concerns and perhaps add a little clarification along the way.

• CattleMax CS updated 2 years ago - CS was last updated in March 2010. Most any desktop software always see a lot of development in the first beginning followed by less and less as the product matures.
  
• Requires Internet - Yes however we optimize for slow Internet connections including satellite and 3G/cellular.
  
• Requires power - Not needed as long as you have Internet. You can also use your smartphone's Internet connection if the power and Internet both go out.
  
• No ongoing revenue - Since we never charge for support, our ongoing revenue was historically from upgrades from new versions every 2-3 years. CattleMax Online is a different business model with a lower monthly price (starting at $9) and includes upgrades, online backup, additional computers, etc.
  
• Data stored in Timbuktu - Nope... Atlanta Georgia with a 24/7 monitored and managed hosting company. Far from cheap but I like to sleep well at night knowing things are in good hands.
  
• Whoever has the data is in charge - All of your data in CattleMax can be exported to PDF and spreadsheets. Some cattle software programs (not us) use security techniques or proprietary file formats to lock customers in to their software. Though you may have the file on your local computer, your data may only be accessible inside their software and not exportable when the software program goes away or you want to switch to a new software program.
  
• Easy for big brother to keep up - There are no government backdoors in CattleMax Online - I should know because I developed it. If law enforcement or the IRS wants access to your data, whether in the cloud, on a computer, or in a notebook, they will find a way to legally get to it.
  
• Data mining - We aren't a social network... each account is separate and not commingled. There is no sharing or interacting of data between accounts. It's your data, not ours.

Also, I have addressed some of these concerns detail in a blog post at http://www.cattlemax.com/blog/addressing-a-few-concerns-about-the-cloud-and-cattlemax-online but wanted to reply here to the original discussion.

If you have any concerns, let me know here or via email at [email protected].

 

[I luv herfrds]

:welcome: Terrell nice of you to respond to the topic.

Sorry I am still a big fan of Ranch Manager. I could not get the free download of CattleMax to do a darn thing.
mnbraynt once all your info is put in RM and saved it gets easier. Only took me around 3-4 hours to completely enter all our records starting in 1974 clear up to 2007. Freaked me out when I thought I had lost it when I switched computors. They talked me right through it.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

:welcome: to Cattle Today Terrell.

I've demo'd your product and liked it a lot.

 

[SRBeef]

Hi Terrell. I use Cattlemax and find it a great help in keeping track of a lot of information about my cattle. It is a great program. Takes some time to really learn how to use most of its features but that is true of any software. I like the idea you can now mask features that you do not use, in my case as a small commercial cow-calf/birth to plate operator that would be show and breed data etc.

My comments about the cloud computing were not directed at you specifically but more at the general trend to push users to the "cloud" that I see in my day job.

I use Cattlemax on my desktop only and download data from my scale at the end of the day on cattle working days. I have no plans to have any computer other than my Tru-test scale indicator in the corral or pastures. Your other larger customers may have different needs. The program as it is meets my needs and I have a long way to go before I even take advantage of all of its data and benefits.

So thank you and Penny for creating a good program. I hope you will continue to service your customers who stay with a local desktop installation. I see you have a blog discussing the issue but I have not as yet had a chance to read it.

Thanks for posting and addressing issues discussed here. Nice to have that.

Jim

 

[Terrell]

I luv herfrds - sorry you had trouble with the download. We are working on some great features in CMO with AHA so if your record keeping needs change, I hope you will give CattleMax Online a chance... and there's no software to worry about downloading.

TennesseeTuxedo - Thanks for checking us out and I'm glad to hear you like it.

SRBeef - The cloud is certainly an interesting area of technology now. Many software applications are heading there... sort of a client/server mainframe 2.0 but customers should really investigate their software provider to make sure they aren't using a cheap web hosting account with no redundancy.

And to everyone, I apologize for the slow response... I should have subscribed to this thread to know when it was updated.