Lots of people have helped me out over the years. These are just a few of them, I'm sure I'll add others later. These people and companies have helped me, so if I've helped you, then I ask you to help and support them when you can.
Kagi is the shareware payment system I use. Kee Nethery has gone way out of his way to make the system work well for me and others, and it has removed a huge amount of administrative hassles, leaving me more time to write programs.
Glenn Fleishman generously set up both an FTP and Web sites for me, as well as an FTP site and mailing address for Internet Config, an FTP site for MacPerl betas and probably other cool stuff as well. Glenn provided these sort of services commercially as part of Point of Presence Company, so it was financially silly for him to give them away, but he did anyway - I guess he's just a nice guy.
Glenn has moved on now, and so have we, but he's still a nice guy.
Dave Winer initially set up my web pages for me and got me past my original very simple home page. In fact this page was parsed using Dave's AutoWeb software. So if not for Dave, this page wouldn't even exist!
Just when things were starting to look really bleak, with Symantec abandoning THINK Pascal to a slow lingering death and me wondering if there was any gardening jobs going (I'd rather garden than write in C, and that is saying something!). Then along comes Metrowerks with their wonderful new compiler. This alone would be enough to put them on my list, but Metrowerks goes much further than this. Their tech support and customer responsiveness are unequaled in the computing industry.
How could I not thank Apple - they make the world's best operating system, the only one that is even worth using; life is too short to accept solutions that waste your time. As well as that, they gave me a PowerMac 7100 which forms the basis of my home office. I don't even want to think about what I would do if they were not around producing great systems.
Tsunami is a wonderful "sushi and other fine foods" restaurant run by a friend of mine, Brett Carboni. Not only is Brett a nice guy, but his restaurant is wonderful, and I expect will soon be noted among the best in Perth.
I owe a huge amount to my friends and family in Perth and around the world. I'm not going to list them, it is always foolish to list your friends, where do you ever draw the line? Nonetheless, they have helped me in uncountable ways, either professionally or personally. Life would be very boring without them!
Although Quinn is most definitely included in the above, he deserves special mention. Quinn has put an astounding amount of work in to my programs, our shared programs, and in to the net in general. He has the deepest insight of anyone I have ever met.
Jeremy also deserves a special mention. Jeremy joined Stairways a short while after we had started, and his influence has very strongly shaped the development of our company. His style and ability shine in this web site and in many of the programs we have released. Jeremy has moved on to try his hand at other things, but the results of his efforts will be obvious for years to come.
Matthew similarly deserves a special mention. Matthew joined Stairways a some time back, and his ability and persistence has been a major driving force for several years. Matthew has also managed to not just survive the strange working environment we have, but to thrive in it, becoming part of the family.
And of course, a special debt of gratitude goes to all the people who have payed their shareware fees. By doing so, you've allowed me to write shareware programs full time. Hopefully this will mean I can write even more cool programs.