Bertolt Meyer has written a not-so-happy review of SPSS for the Mac 16.0. His general thesis is that it is the “most insulting piece of software” he has ever come across. He felt that it didn’t look nor act like an Macintosh application; it isn’t properly internationalized; and more than a dozen bugs. (more…)

…which I suppose is fine if you’re trying to run the software on Linex, or on a Macintosh, or on some other kind of platform where you only received new updates intermittently and always wished you could use the latest version.

However, if you’re on a Windows PC and are used to using a version of SPSS that is fully integrated into the Windows operating system, then the new version is a little jarring — and perhaps even a little annoying.

All of the same functionality is there as before — SPSS gets credit for that one. They must have put a lot of work into recreating every function in Java for SPSS 16. Most of the dialog boxes even look similar. All of the menus now have spiffy little icons which I’m sure will be helpful when it comes to quickly locating the option that you’re looking for.

Furthermore, all of SPSS 16 dialog boxes are resizable. All of them. Sometimes the way in which it resizes makes more sense than others, but it is especially handly to be able to resize some of the smaller dialog boxes where it was hard to see what you were doing.

Buy as a Windows user who is used to all of the Windows controls — you know, all of the standard drop down fields and the standard buttons, and the standard checkboxes — the switch to Java is a little wierd. Things in SPSS 16.0 don’t have the same feel as they used to. Things feel a little sluggish. Everything feels a bit like one of those online calculators or games that are written in Java.

But like I said before, everything seems to work. All of the buttons are in the same place they used to be. And if it speeds up the development time for new features — if it makes it possible for SPSS to meet my needs better in the future — then I’m willing to give it a shot and hope that I get used to what feels like a step backwards.

The jury is still out.

Triexa, a Toronto-based company formerly know as Sensation Designs, is presently beta testing a new web-based survey software system called AskItOnline. Although I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet (the software is in "private" beta with only some screenshots posted), what makes it fascinating is 1) it is a "Web 2.0" type program that utilizes a drag-and-drop web-based interface and a particularly reasonable pricing structure (four levels: "basic" which gives you very little functionaliy but it allows you to collect 100 surveys for free; "standard" which adds themes, some additional survey/design features and a cost of $7 a month for up to 5 surveys with 750 responses each; "professional" which gives you up to 10 surveys and 2500 responses per survey for $15 a month and "enterprise" which allows you to do an unlimited number of surveys with up to 15,000 responses each for $25 a month.

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use package that has a very low cost, this pacakge may be for you. Although each level contains different features, the enterprise version allows multi-page surveys, an unlimited number of questions per survey; "star ratings"; randomized responses; the ability to insert images and video; response validation; question piping; skipping/branch logic; and up to a terabyte of data storage. You can also review your results online, download your results, and receive e-mail notification whenever someone completes your survey.

The software is still in "private" beta, but it appears that they are still accepting new testers and it’s always fun to participate in the development of a new program.

Learn more about AskItOnline