McNelly SoftWorks, LLC

McNelly SoftWorks Launches A World Without Apps

Posted August 1, 2016

Today, McNelly SoftWorks launched a new web site called A World Without Apps. Many years ago, too many to count, I was fascinated with the Apple Newton and something that John Scully called the Knowledge Navigator. Essentially the idea was that you would have a device you could interact with and would act as your personal digital assistant. I bought a used Newton and, while I loved it, it wasn’t enough for me. Later, I played with a pre-release version of the Palm Pilot and later purchased one of the very first Compaq iPaq devices (remember them?). I really thought these devices would change my life, and they did, to a certain degree, but no matter what device I picked up, I always wanted more. Eventually I came to the conclusion that all of my solution envy would end when voice interaction with an intelligent system was a viable option.

Since then, voice recognition and playback became core features on Android, BlackBerry, iOS and Windows devices. Google Now, Siri and Cortana came around and started answering your questions. Next, Google Now and later iOS started actually inferring things about your life, automatically letting me know where my car is parked or how long I will need to get to my next appointment (without me asking). The move to a world without apps (WWA) was happening and I had to write about it as I watched it unfold.

Check out the site when you get a chance; my plan it to post there whenever I see something interesting or related to WWA. Enjoy!

Discontinued Book

Posted December 27, 2015

What Now? The Essential Guide for New Soccer Referees has been discontinued effective January 1, 2016. Since the book was published, dramatic changes have occurred in US Soccer Referee Training program which made large parts of the book obsolete. I wrote the book immediately after retiring as a Soccer Referee; so many years have passed since then that I don’t have the experience I’d need to update the book for the current state of Soccer officiating in the US.

For those who purchased the book, I hope that you found it useful. It was my first book and a lot of fun to write. It made me into a writer, I’ve since written 5 more books plus a series of magazine articles that were published into an anthology.

Password Generator

Posted October 12, 2015

Over the years, McNelly SoftWorks, LLC has created many software utilities to automate processes or procedures for our clients.We thought it might be useful if we made some of these utilities available to interested users. So, today we published the first utility, a password generator app that we found to be useful whenever we're setting up a new database user.  You'll find the app's download information in the site's Utilities section.

These utilities are provided as-is, with no warranty, guaranty or expectation that these utilities will work for any purpose.