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Author Alpha, Beta, Release ready?
Posted Monday, May 30, 2016 - Post #37106
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GenoPro version: 3.0.0.7

Last Login: Sunday, June 12, 2016
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What is the status of GenoProXUpdates have been non-existent.
When will we see at least a Beta version to test?


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Posted Saturday, December 17, 2016 - Post #37586
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GenoPro version: 3.0.0.5

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any news regarding GenoProX??
More than one year ago I paid for GenoProX... and still nothing... Did I give money for nothing? 
Update, please!
Posted Tuesday, December 20, 2016 - Post #37587
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GenoPro version: 3.0.0.2

Last Login: Tuesday, December 20, 2016
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Also came here looking for a status update re: GenoProX; the last email I got was December 2015. That email said "see you next month!"
Posted Thursday, December 22, 2016 - Post #37593
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GenoPro version: 3.1.0.1

Last Login: Thursday, April 11, 2024
Posts: 4,881, Visits: 22,753
The guy responsible of the newsletter is no longer working with us.  I prefer to spend my time with other developers writing code than sending emails.  The problem with sending emails is we get a lot more questions and it takes time away from developers.

Here is a summary of GenoProX as of December 2016:

  • Text chat (working)
  • File transfers (working)
  • Audio chat (working)
  • Screen sharing (working)
  • Collaboration module (under development)
What took so long?

One of our developers wrote some code to include audio (like Skype) and screen sharing so users may communicate with GenoProX.  This is a great feature from many facets, one of which is technical support.  GenoPro used to have a toll free telephone number and I would spend most of my days on the phone, sometimes not having time to write a single line of code.  With voice and screen sharing, we can provide efficient support to our users, as opposed to have to guess over the phone what is the problem with the family tree.  The integration of the audio and screen sharing into the master product took a good 6 months.  This includes error recovery, disconnects and re-connections, and encryption using X.509 certificates with AES-256 keys.  With this feature, GenoProX will have a directory where people may contact some of our support team.  Instead of having a bunch of people crowded in a room, the technical support will be done with our existing GenoPro users willing to help others.  GenoPro will pay those people for their time.  Just look at the most active members on this forum and you will have an idea who might be on our support directory.  During the past decade, many have contributed to the project however never received the financial reward they deserve for their work.

The other big task has been a huge refactoring.  GenoProX uses the XMPP protocol for its base communication (chat, file transfer, and even the collaboration module).  The original architecture was based on XMPP accounts and had no concept of Profile.  With the current version of GenoProX, you may create multiple profiles, say a personal profile and a business profile.  Also, all the internal data structure was in XML which was changed to JSON.  The biggest load was not to convert from XML to JSON, but while doing it, to "do the right thing".  For instance, each profile may have multiple devices, such as a notebook, device and tablet.  Therefore the data must be synchronized between the devices and this required extra work.  While at it, we added a system of service discovery so the user (you) will never have to enter an IP address and port number to connect to another GenoPro server, whatever it is for voice, video or collaborating with other users.

The collaboration is a difficult task. I am still defining the protocol for the collaboration.

Next we need to merge the websocket code for the screen sharing and the collaboration.  At the moment, GenoProX uses two sockets, one for each, however we want all communication of GenoProX to pass through a single TCP/IP socket and have GenoProX do the multiplexing internally.
Posted Wednesday, December 13, 2017 - Post #38419
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GenoPro version: 3.0.0.5

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Almost one year later, I have to ask the same question... What's going on? 
I paid for GenoproX a few years ago, I thought on that way I will support its development.
Now, I feel deceived...

Can you please give us some update and some screenshot??
Posted Saturday, December 23, 2017 - Post #38431
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GenoPro version: 3.0.1.0

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I remember hearing about this a while ago but wasn't sure of the option I wanted since I'm not sure if there is an easy way for family to view my tree and sign up themselves to pay to use the features or if I'd be expected to pay for it, goal would be to have everyone just like a facebook.




Anyways, the videos of the plan for it say 2017 yet its about to be 2018, so is there a delay? Why is there no update to give everyone an estimated time, if it's money have you tried Kickstarter? Is there no money left because its been spent for this long of development?


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Posted Monday, January 22, 2018 - Post #38479
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GenoPro version: 3.1.0.1

Last Login: Thursday, April 11, 2024
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For those wondering what is going on, during the holidays I got a new computer replacing my 8.5 years old development machine which started to literally fall apart. Since I have not moved my emails to my new development  machine, I have been spending less time on my older computer and more time writing code on this new computer.  This turned to be also a "vacation" from emails and the support forum.  It has been 20 years since I started doing the GenoPro support and I am a bit tired of answering the same questions over and over again.  Frequent questions are related to printing problems, unable to open .gno file because the file was corrupted (typically saved on a removable storage which failed due to a hardware problem), unable to install GenoPro because of some anti-virus preventing the installation, or a security policy at work, or because it is a Mac computer.  Other frequent questions are from people unable to get their free registration key for whatever reason (typically a firewall issue), unable to find old .gno files on a computer, or how to transfer files from one computer to another.

Arturo and I have been working full time on GenoProX, literally around the clock.  Since we are not looking for investors, we are spending our time writing new code and testing it.  The only time I take away from coding is taking care of customer support.

During the past months I have been working mostly on a grid widget for a Table Layout similar as GenoPro 2016.  Since we are using Qt and want our code to be portable to other platforms such as Mac, Linux and tablets/smartphones we cannot reuse the old code of the Table Layout of GenoPro 2016 which was specific for Windows.  After thinking for nearly two decades about improvements to the grid, we took this opportunity to make multiples improvements to it.  At the moment, we have a functional grid widget in GenoProX and used by at least 10 plugins, including listing the family trees available, list of contacts, groups, friends of friends, private lists, picture albums, phone directory, address book and more.

What we have at the moment:
  • Grid header with text and with icons. Icons are new because GenoPro 2016 was unable to draw icons in the header.
  • The user can also change the order of the columns, and show/hide them, and those settings are remembered even in the case of new columns after an upgrade.  Currently GenoPro 2016 does a very poor job with this because if new columns are added after an upgrade, chances all the columns settings are screwed up.
  • The name of the columns are always localized.  Unlike GenoPro 2016, there won't be any  grid column which will have hardcoded English text because it was too complicated to localize them.
  • Inheritance of one grid from another grid, to save code and simplify common localization.
  • Large number of rows:  the new grid can handle million of rows with proper scrolling.  The built-in scrolling of Qt was limited to 29,126 rows.
  • Low memory use:  Each row takes only 8 bytes of RAM.  This represents one third of the memory requirement of GenoPro 2016 for doing the same thing.
  • Fast populate: A single memory allocation and moving a pointer to populate the entire grid.  The speed gain ranges from 10 to 1000 times faster compared to GenoPro 2016.
  • It is possible to have multiples dynamic icons in each cell, each with a distinct tooltip when the mouse is hovering to them.  GenoPro 2016 cannot draw dynamic icons, only a single static icon per cell at best.
  • Smart understanding of data types (numbers, text, binary data, objects) to display, sort and/or edit the data in the cell.
  • Two-level sorting to maximize code reuse and maximize spacial locality of the CPU cache to enhance speed.  I have not benchmarked the new grid sorting however my intuition is the new sort is at least twice faster than GenoPro 2016, and in some cases 10 times or more.
  • Direct data access to methods of data objects.  GenoPro 2016 was using virtual methods with a huge switch() statement to fetch the data of each cell.  GenoProX has a new mechanism which is simpler, less prone to errors (bugs) and much more efficient in terms of speed.
  • The new grid supports smart hyperlinks which means supporting hyperlinks is done with a single line of code.
  • Smart context menus for known data types.
  • Context menus on a per-cell basis, compared to GenoPro 2016 which was for an entire row. This allows better customization of context menus for specific cells.
  • Copy cell, column or table to clipboard.  You can also paste the entire grid to a spreadsheet such as Excel.
  • Multiples 'zones' to display different data.  Although this feature is not fully implemented, the design is capable to display multiples zones such as individuals, families, pictures together on the same grid, each with their own set of columns.  This will be very useful when searching for something and have all the search results visible in a single table.
  • Can handle huge amount of data.  We have been populating our grid with several million of cells without problems.  Since GenoProX will also be available in 64 bits, this means there will be virtually no limit on the size of a table.
What remains to be done on the grid:
  • Full Text Search. At the moment the user can start typing (or paste from the clipboard) and GenoProX will find the next row matching the text, however the built-in search to find any text anywhere within any cell.
For those still reading, we have a surprise feature in GenoProX.  Arturo is including a blockchain based loyalty point system for our users.  We have been thinking about such a feature for at least two years and we started writing code for it in November.  Arturo has been working full time on it, and myself about one third of my time on it.  I spent most of my time on the grid, other coding and also on administrative tasks such as technical support.

For a long time the technical support has been my biggest burden.  After the launch of GenoPro 2007, I was spending most of my days on the phone for technical support.  Some days were so busy I would not had time to write a single line of code.  The phone would ring before sunrise and very often after midnight.  If I wanted to sleep I had to turn off my phone otherwise there was no way I could get any rest because GenoPro has users in every time zones around the globe.  Also, I was eating most of my meals cold because a typical call was about 20 minutes it was almost impossible to hang up on them.  After doing this for two years I decided to remove the toll free number from our website www.GenoPro.com.  This was the best decision I made for GenoPro (and maybe prevented me to have a brain tumor from the radiations of the mobile phone).  Besides, most of our calls were from students who never purchased GenoPro anyway, so this decision did not impact the sales much.

I am writing this because it has been a decade of neglected support and GenoPro still get too much technical support.  We tried having someone handling the support by email however it was a mess.  Most of the time the same user/customer would receive either multiples replies from different people in our staff, or none at all because everyone in our staff thought someone else would answer to that user.  We considered the option of having a call center, however there are too many issues, from training a competent staff to the cost of having a call center.

Arturo has been the Swiss Army Knife of our team.  He possesses a wide range of very useful skills.  With Arturo we have been able to integrate high quality secure audio and screen sharing to GenoProX.  This is important because from now on, we can provide our technical support directly within GenoProX.  This will also save costs in two ways: no need to pay per minute for the toll free number, and more importantly, GenoProX can instantly pull the customer file history as the call is being made.  Therefore someone contacting our customer service via GenoProX does not have to repeat his/her story each time, as it is the case with big call centers.  Try calling the technical support for your phone or Internet provider and you get a new support representative each time and have to repeat your entire story every time.  Also, with GenoProX screen sharing it is even better because the support representative can see your family tree while doing the support.  Imagine how challenging it is to fix someone's family tree over the phone.  Well I did it too many times, at the cost of time and money.  If I had access to the screen of the user, the time to resolve the issue could have been reduced from 20 minutes to only 2 minutes.

Having built-in audio and screen sharing in GenoProX, there is no need for a third party application such as Skype or TeamViewer, thus enabling our users to support each other.  With GenoProX audio and screen sharing, there is no need to train staff and spend money on a call center.  We are currently integrating a mechanism for users to compensate each other for their help.  Likewise, GenoPro will use this facility to pay those who are handling support tickets and/or helping other GenoPro users.  So far we have been giving free licenses to people who contributed to GenoPro and sometimes some PayPal money, however many never received a compensation which they deserved for helping GenoPro.

Our solution will be the following: when a user purchases GenoProX, he/she will be given support tickets.  If the user does not use his/her support ticket(s), then he/she gets an additional 6 months of VIP subscription per unused ticket.  This gives the user an incentive to find a solution by her/himself, however if technical help is really needed, it is available.  The person resolving the technical issue then receive an additional 6 months of subscription.  This way anyone may offer technical support to GenoProX users.  If you want to offer technical support on GenoProX, you enable your profile to be listed to our technical support directory and specify which languages you may offer technical support (English, French, Spanish, Italian, etc).  When someone uses a support ticket, you will receive a message to your inbox.  You will also be able to view if someone else is handling this ticket.  If the user is happy (thumbs up) your answer then you get the support ticket.  If we receive too many complaints from a support representative, we will remove this person from our directory.  This does not mean that support person cannot handle tickets, but we will no longer list him/her in our directory.  By keeping track of the reputation of each support representatives, the ones giving poor customer support will eventually be removed.

If a support ticket is too complicated, GenoPro will subsidize it by boost its reward to increase the incentive to have someone handling it.  In the worst case, someone from our staff will answer it.  People listed in our support directory will also be able to exchange their extra months of subscriptions for cash, or give it to other GenoProX users.

Another thing is we want to give an upgrade discount to GenoProX, as it is customary in the software industry to give a discount for those wishing to upgrade a product they purchased an older version of the software.  Determining the discount is quite difficult because people have purchased GenoPro at different prices, ranging from $10 (in year 1999) to $49, some in different currencies USD, EUR and GBP.  Sometimes people purchased GenoPro on a promotion and other times people purchased multiples licenses and received a volume discount.  The challenge is having a fair upgrade discount for everyone.

Given the complexity of keeping track of upgradable licenses and their values, collaboration VIP subscriptions, support tickets, we thought we could have a loyalty point system as a uniform unit of accounting.  What we can do is give points for previous purchases and when a user wishes to buy a new GenoProX product, we subtract those points from the final amount.  We are considering each point worth a penny ($0.01).  Let's say someone has 1500 points in his/her GenoPro account and wishes to purchase something at $49, then by applying the points, the total amount billed will be $34.  Likewise, if a user to purchase 12 month VIP subscription for $1 per month, then that user would have 300 points left.

This point system also offer the flexibility for our users to change their mind on the GenoProX package purchased.  We will honor the packages we listed in our crowdfunding page, however if a user wishes to purchase something different, then he/she can use his/her points to do so.

Also, with a point system, we can have promotions, discounts, contests, bounties in addition of having a mechanism to reward users referring us new customers.  In the past we were giving free licenses of GenoPro to those doing a significant contribution, however the $49 value of a license is quite a coarse granularity for giving rewards.  With GenoPoints, we can give much more frequent rewards having very small values, such as single point.  For instance, we can offer a reward of one GenoPoint for every word someone translates in GenoProX.  Each month we could run a contest giving 10,000 GenoPoints to the best suggestion to improve the product.  Likewise, anyone reporting a bug would receive 1,000 GenoPoints.  Anyone reporting a crashing bug would receive 10,000 GenoPoints and 100,000 GenoPoints for a real security bug.  All GenoPoints could be redeemed for licenses and/or benefits from GenoPro.  For instance, a month of VIP subscription would cost 100 GenoPoints.

There are many types of databases we could store our points.  The simplest would be to use a traditional RDBMS SQL database, however with the help of Arturo, we can use a Blockchain.  Blockchain is a cool buzzword nowadays however, for several years, we have been designing an blockchain architecture specific for GenoProX.

We are not disclosing the technical details of our blockchain, however the implementation will be different than those listed at https://coinmarketcap.com/.  Arturo and I have been designing an architecture to make transfers faster and cheaper than anything seen before.  We believe it is possible to have transfer time under 300ms with a fee below $0.01.

I am fully aware GenoProX is way behind schedule.  For myself, I will be working on the core of GenoProX collaboration while Arturo is developing the blockchain.  We already have a functional plugin for Bitcoin Blockchain Explorer and we are handling 99% of transactions.  There are still a few rare types of Bitcoin transactions we need to write code.

We are trying to be as fair as possible: Those who contributed to our crowd funding of GenoProX will receive additional points at the rate of 1% per month.  For instance, if you purchased GenoProX two years for $15, you will receive 1500 GenoPoints plus 24% (360 GenoPoints).  Those who spend more than the minimum of $15 will also double their points for the difference.  Let's say you spent $45 three years ago, then you will receive the following points: (4500 + 3000) * 1.36 = 10200 GenoPoints.

Those who purchased GenoPro 2016 during or after year 2015 will receive one point per penny, typically 4900 points.  Those who purchased GenoPro between 2010 and 2014 will receive a gradient of points ranging from 50% to 100% of their value, and those who purchased before 2010 will receive 50% of points (typically 2450 points).

We will also give points to those who contributed to the support forum.  If you are reading this, you are probably one of those who will receive such points.  We do not have an exact formula, however it will be at least a few hundred of points for any genuine answer on the forum.  On the same note, those who contributed to the translation/localization of GenoPro 2016 (or earlier) will receive points.  We will also give points to those who contributed to the report generator.

Again, all those points will be redeemable for different products, services, including technical support and additional benefits.

Rest assured there has never been a more exciting time (for us).  Sometimes I am having difficult time to fall asleep because I am thinking about the code.  Since our GenoPoints will be on a blockchain, you will also be able to mine (harvest) them just by installing GenoProX.

Edited: Thursday, April 5, 2018 by GenoProSupport
Posted Saturday, February 17, 2018 - Post #38553
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Gamma
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GenoPro version: 3.0.0.8

Last Login: Tuesday, October 24, 2023
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Can i help in translating geno pro x in italian?
Posted Saturday, February 17, 2018 - Post #38555
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GenoPro version: 3.1.0.1

Last Login: Yesterday @ 6:53 AM
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Thank you for the comprehensive status report of your activities, Dan. It's much appreciated.

While I appreciate that it cuts into development time, it would be very good to receive similar progress reports periodically. It is reasssuring to those of us who have invested in GenoPro both in time and financially to know what progress is being made. 
Posted Sunday, June 3, 2018 - Post #38750
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Gamma
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GenoPro version: 3.0.0.8

Last Login: Tuesday, October 24, 2023
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any news about the development?


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