Published on 12/12/2010

Mime Čuvalo's FireFPT was downloaded 17,845,269 times by the end of 2010! To see the trend, the number of downloads until September 2004 was 4.5 million. Just in the course of the last month and a half the number of downolads was more than half a million. Half of all proceeds go towards helping various orphanages in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina and in Vukovar, Croatia.

Half of all proceeds go to orphanages in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina and in Vukovar, Croatia

Mime Čuvalo, creator of the FireFPT Charity Project.
His FireFPT was downloaded 17,845,269 times by Dec 12, 2010!
To see the trend, it was downloaded 4.5 million times by September 2004.
Just in the course of the preceding month and a half the number of downolads was more than half a million.
To see the number of downloads at this moment, go to FireFTP.

FireFTP Charity Project

Where does this money go?

Half of all proceeds go towards helping various orphanages in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina and in Vukovar, Croatia. I spend my summers with these little guys and they are seriously the best kids in the world. (My family and I have even been fortunate enough to adopt one as well. He's the cute little kid in the photo to the right.) Your donation goes towards making this world that these little brothers and sisters of mine are living in a better place. The other half of the donation goes to helping put bread on my table for me and my family and funding the future development of FireFTP.

What's a reasonable donation?

Even $1 is enough to show your appreciation - give what you can. Most FTP programs run about $40 US dollars, so you are getting quite a bargain here... :-) If you are a business, using FireFTP for professional endeavors, you should consider donating at least $20. If you are using several copies of the program in your company you should perhaps pay an additional $5 for each copy. In the end, pay what you feel is fair.

I have no money right now - what else can I do?

I help kids in Sarajevo because I know them personally - but you, yes you, can be just as much a positive influence, if not more. How, you ask? Right where you are, in your local community.

Mime Čuvalo and young Stipo from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Suggestions on different ways of being awesome:

Volunteer. Somewhere. Anywhere.
Take what you're passionate about and see how you can also make it beneficial to your community.
If you own a business, donate proceeds to green energy or charity or something beneficial.
Support local businesses and encourage them to do the above.
Buy locally grown food and get a reusable bag.
Ride your bike instead of taking your car.
Go hang out with your kids more.
Go hang out with your parents more.
Take only what you need, not what you can get.

So, in conclusion, as Ze Frank would say: just be awesome.

Source fireftp.mozdev.org

What's the story behind FireFTP?

Back in 2004, I had heard about this crazy, newfangled browser that was coming out soon called Firebird (today known as Firefox). It was my summer vacation, I was bored out of my mind - I had just graduated with my brand spanking new computer science degree in hand and I felt like doing something useful with it. Et voila! FireFTP is the result. It's been no cake walk - developing for Mozilla is tough stuff, there's like a jazillion languages to learn to do it and I realized just how little school had prepared me for real world programming (thanks a freakin' lot, alma mater!) Anyway, I released my first version after a couple months of tinkering (0.82 - "Sir Prize" - by the way if you haven't noticed the pattern by now - I name each version after the name of a song with a person in its title from bands that I love). It worked, kinda. To be honest, back then, I thought I was pretty much done with thing right then and there - it's fine the way it is, right? Good enough, right? Hah, oh, how wrong I was.

Four years later (off and on) of development though, FireFTP has grown as a program, I've grown as a programmer and I think it's safe to say FireFTP is pretty decent now :) I'll be the first one to admit it, really - FireFTP didn't honestly even start being a good program until mid-2006 - that's just how long it's taken. There were just so many obstacles and so much I had to learn about Mozilla and programming in general (p.s. thanks Assaf! thanks MDG!) that it ended up taking two years. But hey, you have to rely on patience and the whole "Try, try again" thing. Plus, once I start something I just can't stop until I'm absolutely finished with it or as my dad would say "Kad radiš nešto, radi da valja" which is Croatian for "When you do something, do it right." Thanks, Pops! Good advice. It's both a great joy and great frustration programming FireFTP but I love doin' it and I love that it's useful for so many people.

My sincere thanks to everyone who's helped over the years, especially: Devin Pohly, Scott Bentley, Tyler Sticka, all the translators, Simon Tatham, Patrick Brunschwig, my supportive family (Tata i Mama, Andja, Stipo), all others who submitted bugs, gave feedback, and/or sent encouraging emails. Special thanks to everyone who has donated!

Source fireftp.mozdev.org

Mime Čuvalo web pages: www.nightlight.ws

Mime Čuvalo is a son of dr. Ante Čuvalo, Croatian historian, and collaborator of the CROWN.

Formated for CROWN by prof.dr. Darko Žubrinić
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