What are the cost components that make up the retail price of a typical video game? Put another way, how much does each participant in the video-game development / distribution chain get?

I get this question all the time.

In this presentation to Columbia University students, Steve Perlman, OnLive’s founder, both demos the OnLive system and discusses their business model. At the end of part 3 and the beginning of part 4, Perlman discusses the graphic to the left (click for larger view) which shows the cost breakdown for a typical video game.

As you can see, for a typical console-based video game that costs U.S. $60:

• $15 goes to Retailers: eg: GameStop, Electronic Boutique, Walmart, Amazon
• $7 goes to Returns/PP/MDF: Returns are money paid-out to retailers for product returns. PP stands for “price-protection” which is money paid back through the chain if/when the publisher reduces the video game’s price. MDF stands for  ‘Marketing Development Funds” which are paid to retailers for promotions such as TV ads, local flyers, and in-store marketing displays.
• $4 goes to Distribution/COGs: Distribution = shipping and warehousing. COGs = Cost of goods sale. ie: the cost of the physical DVD, manufacturing, the instruction manual and the case.
• $7  Platform Royalty Fee: For every game sold approximately $7 goes to Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo, as applicable, for whatever platform the game plays on – eg: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii.
• $27 goes to the Publisher. Unfortunately this $27 is not further broken down to show how much of the $27 typically goes to independent developers. The amount paid to independant video game developers can be anywhere from 10% to 70% of the amount paid to the publisher – but often only after the publisher has first recouped any advances paid to such third party developers.

The above graphic is used by OnLive to convince publishers to use their system. Interestingly, you can see that they suggest that for every retail game sold, $12 is typically lost to piracy and another $12 is lost from used-games sales. Publishers and developers hate used game sales. Gamers, of course, enjoy them. Whether these lost revenue figures are accurate is debatable. I won’t delve into that debate here.

Perlman then goes on, of course, to point out that all the red and brown square costs go away when publishing through the OnLive System. They can be split by the publisher and OnLive. In other words, more money to the publisher (and hopefully developers), no money to wholesalers and retailers, no piracy and no ‘losses’ due to used game sales.

Whether publishers will consider lowering prices given that their costs are dramatically reduced was not discussed. However, as you can see in my ‘OnLive Video Game System & Business Model Presentation to Columbia University’ post, publishers will be free to price games in any way they choose.

Part 1 – OnLive Company & System Background

In part 1, Perlman gives a basic introduction to the OnLive system, discusses his history with Apple and the technical limitations (compression/latency) that OnLive had to overcome to make their system work.

Part 2 – The OnLive Video Gaming System Demo’d

The system is demo’d on an Apple Laptop. You get a sense of the interface. Spectator mode is particularly compelling. Users will be able to watch whatever games their friends are currently playing. Users will also be able to watch the best players in the world playing each game. Gamers will also see how may people are watching their play.

Part 3 – Demo Continued on Micro-console and iPhone + Business Model

The demo moves to the micro-console and the iPhone. Members of the audience start playing. Perlman shows how you can watch what the other players are playing on their devices. He also demos how the compression algorithms work, with particular emphasis on graphics that are typically hard to do with video compression.

Perlman then discusses how and why the data centers are distributed throughout the U.S. and the need to be within 1,000 miles of the server.

He starts discussing the ‘Retail vs OnLive Economics’ slide that I discuss separately in my ‘Cost Components that Make up a Typical Video Game’s Retail Price’ post.

Part 4 – Business/Economic Model Followed by Q&A

The business/economics model discussion continue in part 4. This is one of the most interesting parts of the talk. The presentation formally ends and a Q&A begins. Questions get into a more technical discussion of how the system works. Of particular interest is a discussion of how OnLive’s compression algorithm works – how it is different from, say, TiVo’s or Apple TV’s compression algorithm. Less information needs to be transmitted because a video-game will never be ‘paused’.

Part 5 – Q&A Continues – Technology & Pricing is Discussed

More questions are answered. Perlman says there will be a base subscription fee to access the system (like the Xbox Live fee). Demos will be free. Publishers will be free to rent games for a limited time, allow users to play them a-la-carte, buy them outright or subscribe to them like WoW. Pricing will be up to each publisher on a game-by-game basis. The system support any pricing/revenue model.

All-in-all, a terrific, informative presentation.

See Also:

• OnLive Fully Detailed in Columbia University Presentation (the escapist)

As was the case in my earlier post, I still only follow a relatively small, but terrific, group of people (currently 64). When I follow someone new, I try to cull another. All with the view to reading (or at least scanning) most every tweet they make.

Twitter has changed the way I use the Internet. These exceptional 60+ sources feed me almost all of my daily tech news. I rarely surf from blog to blog the way I used to. I have also abandoned RSS feeds altogether. Twitter-sourced news is superior.

I have also abandoned Friendfeed. Despite some strong lobbying by Davis Freeberg, I just didn’t see the point. Everyone is on Twitter. And, since Facebook purchased Friendfeed back in August, its future is uncertain.

It took me some 1700 Tweets to reach 200 followers. I have to laugh at all my new spamy followers who have 60,000 followers and are following 61,000 people – yet they have only tweeted 3 times. Fortunately these spam-bot jokers are continually culled by Twitter. I used to actively block them when they followed me, but with the constant Twitter purges, I don’t bother any more. They rarely last a week.

With the many ways of searching Twitter these days, I have abandoned the use of hash tags. They seem irrelevant now.

My primary Twitter apps are Tweetie 2 and twhirl on the desktop.

I very much dislike the new Retweet feature. My preference would be for Twitter apps to have both the old and the new Retweet functions, but that seems unlikely.  It appears we are stuck with it.

Otherwise, everything I wrote in my July 4 post still applies today.

If the warning above annoys you as much as it does me whenever you open an attachment in Office 2007, here’s how to get rid of it.

The Problem

Microsoft has understandably made security a cornerstone of its recent software releases. Each time you attempt to open a possibly malicious attachment in Outlook 2007, a warning dialogue box like the one above appears. It presents an always-checked, always-grayed-out box that reads: ‘Always ask before opening this type of file’.

Because Word, Excel, PDF and other document types can contain malicious code, you should, as the box warns, only open attachments from trustworthy sources. But, if you have a modern Anti-Virus program such as AVG or Microsoft’s Security Essentials (both of which are free), attachments in your emails should already be checked for malicious code. When this is the case, this warning dialogue box is an unnecessary interruption that becomes increasingly annoying if, like me, you receive emails with attachments many times a day.

The Solution in  Windows 7

Warning: You should only do this if you have anti-virus software installed on your computer that checks for, and quarantines, all emails that contain attachments with malicious code. And, as the warning says, you should never open attachments from anyone that you don’t know and trust! 

OK, you’ve been duly warned. Here’s how to do it:

• Close Outlook 2007 before you start
• Click the Windows ‘Start’ Button
• Click ‘All Programs’
• Right Click on ‘Microsoft Office Outlook 2007’ in the “Microsoft Office’ folder (as shown below)
• Click on the Properties option

• Click the ‘Compatibility’ Tab (shown below)
• Check the ‘Run this program as an administrator’ box
• Click the ‘Apply’ button

• Restart Outlook 2007
• You will get the following ‘User Account Control Warning’

• Click ‘Yes’  -  Don’t worry, you won’t have to do this every time you start Outlook
• Open an email with the attachment type (eg: .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pdf) you want to open in the future without this warning
• Click on the attachment
• You’ll get the same warning message as before, but, as you can see below, this time the ‘Always ask before opening this type of file‘ checkbox will not be grayed out
• Uncheck the box and open the attachment

• Open other emails with each of the attachment types that you do not wish to receive this message for in the future (eg: xls, xlsx, doc, docx, pdf, ppt)
• Similarly uncheck the ‘Always ask before opening this type of file‘ check box for each document type and open them.

From then on, you will no longer get the warning message when opening each of these types of attachments from within Outlook 2007 emails.

But, we are not quite finished. If you stopped here, you’d get the User Account Control Warning above every time you started Outlook 2007. To stop this from happening :

• Close Office 2007 once again
• Redo the first six steps above, but this time
• Uncheck the ‘Run this program as an administrator’ box under the Compatibility Tab in the Office 2007 Properties box.
• Click ‘Apply’

From then on Office will remember your attachment-type warning preferences without giving you the UAC warning every time you start Office 2007.

Enjoy!

The Solution in Vista

I found the answer below in this MSOutlook.info post. I have not tested this answer personally, but this post twigged me onto finding the solution in Windows 7 (above) so I’m pretty certain it will work:

1. Close Outlook
2. Right click on the shortcut you use to launch Outlook 2007
3. Choose Run as Administrator
4. Press Continue or provide the logon credentials for an Administrator
5. Restart Outlook
6. Open an email with the attachment of the type you want to be able to access without the annoying warning message
7. Deselect the option “Always ask before opening this type of file”
8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 with emails containing each of the various attachment types you wish to be able to access without the warning message
9. Close Outlook
10. Restart Outlook as normal (not in administrator mode)

From then on, you will no longer get the warning message when opening each of these types of attachments from within Outlook 2007 emails.

Bell offered me a one year promotional deal for their Internet Max 16 service where I would receive (in theory*) download speeds of up to 16 Mbps and 1 Mbps upload for $41.90 a month. At the time, my theoretical 10 Mbps down service from Rogers (with a 95 GB cap) was costing me $59.95 a month.

As with Rogers, all of Bell’s plans have data caps – much smaller than comparable U.S. ISPs I might add. The data cap for the service under the Internet Max 16 promotional offer is 100 GB. 

Periodically during each month, I check my Bell Internet usage meter** (shown below, after the jump) to make sure I’m staying within the 100 GB cap. This becomes particularly important towards the end of the month where I am always running up against the cap.

As you can see in the picture below (circled in red after the jump), Bell’s ‘My Internet usage’ meter contains fine print which reads:

Note: Current total Internet usage activity shown may be delayed by up to 60 hours.

Despite assiduously checking the meter each month, making sure I stayed within the cap, I have twice received invoices from Bell saying I went over the 100 GB cap. How is this possible when I personally verify that I stay under the cap each month?

Until today, I hadn’t noticed this fine print warning – I’m not even sure it was there before.

Now, of course, I know why. Turns out it’s the fault of Bell’s Internet usage reporting tool. The tool shows data that is up to 60 hours (two and a half days) old!

Clicking on the record for Apr-May*** of 2009 the tool now shows an overage for the that period:

As you can see, it shows I used 102.74 GB. 

However, I know I looked at the tool during the last couple days of that period and I purposely lowered my usage during those days to stay under the limit. On the last day it showed me at somewhere around the 98 or 99 GB usage. The 4 GB difference between what it showed me then, and what it shows now, and what I was billed extra for, can only be accounted for by the meter’s delay.

This isn’t right. What good is an Internet usage meter, when the meter isn’t accurately reporting usage on the very days I need it to be accurate the most?

* 16 Mbps Theoretical Download Speeds

I say that the 16 Mbps download is theoretical because I have tested it using SpeedTest.net (among others) several times since March and only once**** did it show I was getting more than 10 Mbps.

**My Internet Usage Page Buried

<Mini Rant Start>

On a related note, I’d like to point out that, just like Rogers, Bell makes it very difficult to use their ‘My Internet Usage’ meter. It is buried a half dozen pages deep on their site. You cannot link directly to it and save it in your browser’s favorites/bookmarks. If you do, the link just pulls you back to a main sign on page that forces you to navigate your way back through their maze to get to it. It also signs you off just minutes after you login. During the course of writing this post, Bell signed me out of the meter three times. I had to log back in, and navigate back through their maze three times to complete this post. Grrrr!

</Mini Rant Stop>

*** Note, for whatever reason my period runs from the 4th day of one month to the 3rd day of the next.

**** It showed 11.94 Mbps once – at about 2 O’clock in the afternoon.

Evernote is the latest of several cloud-based service that I have been experimenting with. See my prior posts on  Google Apps Gmail with iMap, xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) and Dropbox.

The new cloud-based Evernote blows both the old Evernote and OneNote out of the water.

Evernote Benefits

• It’s free. Free accounts permit up to 40 Megabytes of new notes to be added / synced per month. I haven’t come close to using my monthly capacity in the two months I’ve used it (I have used, perhaps 1/4 of that).
• More than Text Notes: With the free version you can keep text, photo, audio clip and handwritten notes (in my case, written with a stylus on my tablet laptop). You can also import PDF files into notes in the free version.
• Multiplatform Syncing: These notes are continuously synced, accessible and editable across my three primary PCs (Thinkpad tablet, Dell XPS desktop and my iMac) and my iPhone.
• Accessible from the Cloud: I can access and edit these notes through my Evernote account in the cloud.
• Notes Backed Up: By virtue of its syncing across multiple platforms and a copy of all notes residing in the cloud, my notes are continuously backed-up across my systems and off-site.
• Tagging & Search: You can tag notes, structure the tags in a hierarchy (if you like – see the picture of part of my tag hierarchy on the right) and sort them how you chose. Or don’t. Instead, you can rely on its formidable search engine to find your notes. Either way, notes I wrote years ago (imported from OneNote) are as easy to find as notes I wrote yesterday.
• Indexes Text in Images: Surprisingly, Evernote can index text in images. If I take a picture of a bottle of wine, a business card, a plane ticket, or even hand written notes on my tablet, it will scan and index that text. That text then becomes searchable when looking for the note containing the image at a later date.
• Clip From Anywhere: Evernote adds toolbar icons in Firefox and IE that allow you to clip webpage contents, text, columns or images into a note. You can clip entire pages or just a few paragraphs. Additionally, pressing Print-Screen on a PC (Control-Command-C on the iMac ) fires up a screen ‘Clipper’ app that can grab a screen shot of any running app or the entire desktop (or portion thereof). You can cut and paste from any app on an iPhone into the Evernote app.

See this ‘What is Evernote’ page for more details on what it does.

Evernote Overview Demo

You can see a slew of other Evernote video demos here.

How I use Evernote

I keep notes on almost everything in Evernote – from gift ideas to car rental reservation numbers. You name it. Evernote keeps notes synched between all devices all the time. As a result, these notes can be created/edited on any device (PC, mobile, web), anywhere I am and can be searched and retrieved from any device, iPhone, Blackberry or Internet-connected computer, wherever I am.

Here are a few notable things I do with Evernote:

• Client Notes: Evernote is always running on at least one of my devices. When a client calls, I can click on ‘New Note’ and type (or on my tablet, hand write) notes during the call. I tag the note by client name and project name. Later, I can access all client notes by client name or a particular project by clicking on the appropriate tag.  [Update: I am assessing whether I will use Evernote for client notes in light of the security concerns. To my mind, all notes should be encrypted on the Evernote website too – so that Evernote employees cannot access them.] 
• Blog Post Notes: I have hundreds of ideas for blog posts. As and when I think of them I fire up Evernote on the most convenient device (iPhone, PC, IMac or tablet) and jot them down. I continue to add to notes from any other device as ideas hit me. When I’m ready, I pull up the notes and write the post. (I used Evernote to plan this post)
• Family PC Support Notes: I support family and friends with their PC problems. I keep critical notes (hardware specs, passwords, tech notes) for each family member and friend tagged by the name of the person. The next time I support them, I click on the associated tag and pull up my notes from previous support calls. If I’m at their home, I can pull the notes off the cloud from my Evernote.com account or access them on my i Phone.
• System Notes: Every time I purchase a new PC, I copy and paste the full hardware specs into a note. I refer back to these constantly as the years pass, particularly when I want to upgrade RAM, hard-drives etc.
• Personal Tech Notes: I keep a long list of personal tech notes for things I frequently forget. For example, how to program the TiVo remote when using two  TiVo’s side by side. How to setup my Harmony remote, the IP addresses I assign to various devices on my network, and on and on.
• Passwords & Software Keys: I keep all software keys and important passwords in a password protected note.
• Finances: I keep all my bank account, insurance, credit card etc. information in a password protected note.
• Wine Tasting Notes:  As you can see by clicking on my wine category, I sometimes write wine reviews on The Daleisphere (usually only for wines I recommend).  I keep track of a greater number of wines by using the Evernote App on my iPhone. I click a picture of the bottle, tag the note, write a note and the note is accessible from all my systems for future reference. Pictures taken with the iPhone are even geocoded so that I can search for bottles of wine that I drank at a specific location (ie: a friends house or a restaurant). Slick!
• Software Development: I am a hobbyist web and iPhone App developer. I keep notes on development projects from code snippets, to Objective-C programming notes, to future development ideas. All tagged for quick access.
• To-Do Lists: What’s a note program without a to do list? I keep a constantly updated to-do list (several actually) – again, accessible from any device wherever I am.

Easy to Install

• Sign up for an Evernote account.
• Download the Evernote App to the devices you want to use it on.
• When installing, associate the app with your Evernote account (userid and password).
• Start taking notes.

It’s that easy.  The Evernote iPhone app is available here.

Obeys my Cloud Computing Rules (Mostly)

As with Dropbox, Evernote obeys my cloud-computing rules. Namely (i) the service uses the cloud but my notes are never left only on the cloud – I am never left at Evernote’s mercy; (ii) I don’t have to pay someone to access my data; and (iii) I am not locked into their service. In the worst case scenario, if Evernote folds, my notes won’t be synced across my devices but my notes will still be accessible and reside on my PCs.

I do have security concerns, however, that limit my ability to use Evernote over unsecured networks – see below.

Free vs. Premium Versions of Evernote

Here is a table (clipped from the Evernote website using Evernote’s screen clipper tool) comparing the free and premium versions of Evernote (as of August 31, 2009):

As you can see, the biggest differences between the two are (i) the monthly upload allowance (I haven’t used more than 10 Megs in a month); (ii) lower security on the free version; and (iii) the ability to sync any file type with the premium version. The inability to sync any type of file (eg: Word documents) as part of a note isn’t critical to me. I use Dropbox for that.

This table sets out approximately how many notes of various types the monthly upload limits permit:

Evernote Oddities and Limitations:

• Timed Sync: Unlike Dropbox, Evernote does not attempt to sync between devices in real time. Rather, it syncs every so often. I have not found this to be a problem. You can, of course, force a sync at any time if you need one.
• Only Plain Text Editable on iPhone: If you want to edit notes on the iPhone, you’ll need to keep them in plain text only. Notes with bolding, bullets, underlying etc. are not editable on the iPhone. While this was initially a bummer, once I got used to the issue, I just make sure that notes I want to edit/update on the iPhone use plane text only.
• Can’t Import from Outlook 2003: Evernote can import your OneNote 2007 notes but can’t import from OneNote 2003 (the version I own). Workaround: Microsoft provides a free 60 day trial of OneNote 2007 that you can use to import notes from OneNote 2003. From there you can then import your OneNote notes into Evernote.
• No Tag AutoComplete on PC: When I tag a note on the iPhone, it will give me auto-complete options (ie: suggest tags from previously used tags) as I start typing the tag. This is handy and ensures tag spelling consistency. Oddly, this feature is not currently part of the PC version of the software.
• Can’t Tag a Fully Open Note: If you click on a note in the Evernote app, that note will open in a separate screen for full-screen editing. Strangely, you can’t add a tag when you open it this way. You can only add a tag when the note is within the never-ending note-pad view.
• Security Concerns: I am concerned about the lack of end-to-end SSL security when using the free version of Evernote (the premium version provides SSL encryption during transmission but neither service keeps the notes encrypted on the Evernote server):

- Evernote login credentials are encrypted when traversing the Internet.

- You can also selectively secure any particular note with a password – but this becomes a pain for routine notes.

- However, all other notes are transmitted ‘in the clear’ over the Internet – like email – when using the free version of Evernote. As a result, I do not personally use Evernote when using a public hotspot such as a wifi connection at a coffee shop.

- And, like Gmail or any third party email hoster, notes are not encrypted while on Evernote’s servers. Theoretically Evernote employees could access them.

- You can create a local notebook of notes that are not sync’d and, thereby kept private.

- I note that the iPhone data network is, theoretically, secure so using Evernote on an iPhone should not create security issues on the transmission side.

- When accessing your Evernote account online be sure to include the ‘s’ after ‘http’ in the https//www.evernote.com URL to ensure an SSL connection when viewing/editing your notes online.

- For more Evernote security details, read this ‘How Secure is Evernote’ post in their knowledgebase.

See also:

• Using Free to Turn a Profit (New York Times article on Evernote)
• How I use Evernote (The Cranking Widgets Blog)
• How Evernote is Pulling My Life Together (Michael Schechter)
• Evernote for Mac, iPhone to make managing information overload easy (AppleInsider)

As usual, Americans can watch live streams of 2009 U.S. Open tennis through the US Open 2009 Website.

Also, as usual, Canadians and the rest of the world can’t.

Below, I include links to two services offering live streamed 2009 U.S. Open tennis matches. When I tested these sites on Monday August 31, I could find every match I wanted to watch in English.

To schedule your viewing, the U.S. Open Tennis 2009 play schedule is here.

MyP2P

You can find several matches on MyP2P. You may have to click around awhile to find one that works and/or is showing the match you want in the language of your choice. Some links require a plug-in to be downloaded. I don’t trust them. I only access those that play without a plug-in.

ATDHE.net

I have had mixed results with ATDHE.NET in the past. It is easier to use than MyP2P because it lists actual matches underway. Everything worked fine when I tested it out today (August 31, 2009) however.

Please leave links in the comments if you now of other reliable places where the matches can be watched online outside of the U.S..

I have recently been experimenting with various cloud-based services. Among the best are EverNote, Google Apps Gmail with iMap, xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) and, now, Dropbox.

As described in more detail below, among other things Dropbox: (i) allows me to securely sync office documents between my PCs and Mac at any location; (ii) unchains me from my office PC; (iii) liberates me from coding on a single PC; and (iv) allows me to draft and maintain my Windows Live Writer blog posts from any of my PCs situated anywhere.

Dropbox Benefits

• Sync: Dropbox synchronizes your key files between any number of Internet-connected PCs, laptops or Macs, effortlessly and instantaneously.
• Access Your Key Files Anywhere: Synced files are also maintained on the Dropbox servers. You can login to your account from any web-enabled computer to securely access your files (download or upload).
• Security: All file transmissions occur over an encrypted SSL channel. All files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted using AES-256 encryption accessible only by you with your account password.
• Backup: Because your files are synced across at least two PCs, your files are effectively backed-up.
• Real-Time Offsite Backup: Because your files are also copied to the Dropbox servers, they are effectively backed-up, off site, in real-time.
• Undo/File Recovery: Remarkably, Dropbox maintains a 30 day history of every change made to your files so you can undo changes or undelete accidently deleted files.
• Shared Files & Folders: You can share files and folders with other drop-box users. For example, you could set up a shared folder of photos accessible only by friends and family through their Dropbox accounts.
• iPhone App Coming Soon: You can view all your Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, etc. files  using the free Dropbox iPhone App coming soon (see iPhone, Blackberry and other Dropbox mobile details here).

Click here for a detailed list of Dropbox features.

Dropbox Demo

How I use Dropbox

• Office Document Use: As a lawyer I access, edit and annotate Word documents and pdfs all day, every day. When I move from my PC to my laptop, I save the file I’m working on and by the time I shift to my laptop, the changes made to that file are synced to my laptop. Similarly any edits made on the laptop are instantaneously synced back to the desktop. No longer do I have to email the document to myself, save it to a USB key, copy to/from network drives. I simply open and save files on whatever PC, laptop, or Mac I’m using, and the latest version is instantly available on the other synced devices.

• Remote Office (Starbucks) Use: As a sole practitioner I often want to get away from my desk. Since all Dropbox transmissions are encrypted, I have secure file access/syncing to/from my laptop from any hotspot such as at Starbucks (affectionately referred to as my remote office) or through a Wifi connections at my client’s offices.
• Coding Use: Previously, if I wanted to do coding, I was stuck on one PC. Now I can freely move amongst PCs. Code edits made on one PC are automatically synced to the others.
• Moving Files Between Mac and PC: In the past it was a pain to shuffle files between my Mac and my PCs – even on the same network. No longer. So long as I keep the files in my Dropbox directory hierarchy, all my key files and folders are synced in real-time across the Mac-PC divide.
• Blogging: I use Windows Live Writer to write blog posts. My PC and laptop are set up to save draft WLW posts to my Dropbox folder hierarchy. As a result, all draft posts written on one PC are instantly accessible from any other. I can take up where I left off on any PC knowing that the last draft was automatically synced across all the devices.
• My Current Dropbox Usage Stats: As I write this there are 34,250 files in 2,946 folders taking up 3.44 GB of space, that are continuously synced between my primary PC, my laptop and my iMac.  These are almost all Word documents, pdfs and jpeg images. At the moment I have a 3.5 5.0 Gigabyte Dropbox limit [Aug 21, 2009 Update: Thanks to 6 Daleisphere reader, using the referral link (see below) I now have 5 Megs of capacity].

I’m certain I’ll discover more uses over time. But Dropbox has already changed the way I use my computers and access my files.

Easy to Install and Use

After signing up, you download and install the Dropbox applet onto the computers you wish to sync. You tell it where you want the drop-box folder on each PC. From then on, anything you put into any of those folders, and any edit you make to any of those files, is instantaneously synced to the other systems (see the Dropbox tour here).

Dropbox constantly monitors your synced directories. If any file changes, only the changed part of the file is synced. This makes for lightning fast syncs. Frankly, I still marvel at how fast the syncs occur.

Obeys My Cloud Computing Rules

Dropbox works within my cloud-computing rules. Namely: (i) the service uses the cloud but my key files are never left only on the cloud – I am never left at Dropbox’s mercy; (ii) files are securely encrypted as they are synced between computers and as they reside on the Dropbox services; and  (iii)I am not locked into their service. I can leave it at any time.

Dropbox is not a Resource Hog

For Dropbox to function, it runs constantly in the system tray whenever your PCs/laptops are turned on. I was initially concerned that the constantly running app would be a system resource hog. I’ve used Dropbox for over a month and have not found this to be the case.

Dropbox Limitations

• 2 to 5 Gigs Free Limit: The free version limits you to 2 Gigs of capacity on signup. You can instantly increase this to 2.25 Gigs by using my, or anyone else’s,  referral link (see below). If you refer others to Dropbox, you, and the referred person, get an additional free 250 megs of capacity – up to a limit of 5 Gigs. Note: the 2 Gig limit is not an upload-download limit, rather its the cumulative file-size limit. So, as mentioned above, as I write this post my Dropbox limit is was 3.5 Gigs. Accordingly, the cumulative file sizes of all the files and folders contained in my Dropbox folder had to be less than 3.5 Gigs. There are no monthly upload/download bandwidth limits like there is with Evernote, for example.

  By way of comparison Windows Live Mesh gives you 5 Gigs of sync capacity for free right out-of-the-gate. There is no WLM referral program that I am aware of.

• Odd Freemium Pricing: Dropbox’s fermium business model relies on tiered pricing above the free 2-5 Meg capacity level (see Dropbox pricing details here). For $9.99 per month you can increase your allotted capacity to 50 Gigs. For $19.99 per month you can increase it to 100 Gigs. Those are awfully large jumps from the free level. 5 Gigs is about all I really need today, to keep my crown-jewel files synced between my devices. I would personally pay, say $10 a year, maybe $20 a year to increase that to, say, 10 Gigs. But I don’t need anywhere near 50 Gigs of synced capacity and certainly wouldn’t want to pay $120 a year for this. I think Dropbox is missing a big revenue opportunity here by not offering a smaller capacity tier between the free tier and the 50 Gig tier at a lesser monthly price.
• ‘Forced’ Dropbox Directory: By default, you must use a directory named ‘My Dropbox’ on your PC or Mac. This initially gave me heart-burn. To facilitate my nightly backup, I have some 35,000 core files stored in some 3,000 folders in my c:\files hierarchy on my primary PC – the document directory that I have set all my apps to default too. It is that directory that I want synced. When you read this Dropbox support forum post, you learn that in an earlier version, Dropbox permitted users to specify the name of their synced’ directory. Apparently this directory naming freedom caused too much user confusion so Dropbox changed the policy and force new users to use ‘My Dropbox’ for the name of their base directory.

  Happily there is a very easy work around to this limitation. After installing Dropbox, and before adding any files to the newly minted ‘My Dropbox’ folder, download and run the DropboxPath.exe applet referenced here on the Dropbox Support forums. This applet is run from the Windows Command Line as described in that link. You can use that applet to name the Dropbox directory anything you wish. Once the applet creates the directory,  you are good to go. Whoot! It takes 30 seconds to run.

  If, like me, you have a pre-existing directory you want to use, before running the applet:
  -  rename that directory to a temporary name (in my case I renamed c:\files to c:\files.org);
  -  run the applet;
  - set the Dropbox directory to the directory name you want to use (in my case c:\files);
  - then move the files and folders from the temporary renamed folder (in my case c:\files.org) back to the newly created folder with the old name you want to use (in my case c:\files). 

• One Root Sync Directory Limit:  Dropbox allows you to sync only one folder hierarchy – ie: the ‘My Dropbox’ folder, or the folder name you choose with the DropboxPath.exe applet, (including any folders inside of that folder). By way of comparison Windows Live Mesh allows you to sync files from any folder anywhere on your PC or Mac.

Dropbox Referral Program

[August 21, 2009 Update: As of 2:00 pm on August 21, 2009  I have reached my 5.0 Gig Dropbox limit. I do not know if the referral link will now give you 250 gigs if you use it. Please leave a comment below if using my referral link still yields 250 Megs of extra space. I’ll update this post to let others know. Thanks to Janine Haugh, Travis Moser, Charles Phillips, Dave Toerber and Troy Fulkerson for using my referral link.]

If you sign up for Dropbox using my Dropbox referral link you will get 250 Megs more capacity to start– and so do I. Instead of 2 Gigs, you’ll start with 2.25 Gigs. If you are interested in checking out Dropbox, please do us both a favor by using my referral link. (Note: You don’t have to do anything more than click through on my referral link just before you sign-up to get the additional 250 Megs of capacity.)

A Note on Windows Live Mesh

As alluded-to above, Windows Live Mesh is a very similar service. I tried it for several months before using Dropbox. While it has advantages over Dropbox (higher free capacity out of the box – multiple directory/folder sync support), I could not get it to work. Part of the problem was that the instructions for how to use it are sketchy at best.

Since de-installing it and using Dropbox, I have read a few blog-posts on it which shed light on its proper use. I think I know what I did wrong.

Given Dropbox’s 5 Gig free limit (once I max-out the free capacity through referrals that is) I’ll probably setup and use WLM concurrently with Dropbox to increase my syncing capacity.  If/when I get Windows Live Mesh working, I’ll write a follow-up post about it too.

Kim was ranked No. 1 in the world for 19 weeks in 2003. She ‘retired’ to get married and have a daughter.

Whoo hoo! Kim is one of my all-time favorite women’s players. I missed her!  Women’s tennis needs you! Henin, are you listening?

Since I connect my iPhone to iTunes every day (to update my podcasts, backup data, install new apps etc.), I had to cancel out of the IPVW every time I connected. This was a daily frustration!

Along the line I had collected up some 30ish pictures in my iPhone’s ‘camera roll’ for the following reasons:

1. Originally, I had not set the ‘delete from iPhone when importing’ option in the IPVW, so those pictures remained on the camera roll even after syncing; and
2. For some good pictures, I just wanted to keep a copy on my iPhone for viewing.

Strangely, there is no way to move  pictures from the iPhone’s ‘camera roll’ to an album in the iPhone’s native Photos app.

Most of the time I want pictures to be copied off my iPhone when I sync. As a result I had set the IPVW’s Import settings (see link in picture above) accordingly. To my mind, the iPhone should only automatically pop-up the IPVW when there are new pictures that a user might want copied over to the PC. That is not how it works.

The Solution (sort of) – Emptying out the ‘Camera Roll’

As it turns out, if you have Windows AutoPlay set to import pictures from the iPhone, the IPVW will pop-up and bug you, needing you to cancel out of it before your iPhone will otherwise connect to iTunes, day after day, for so long as their are any pictures in the Camera Roll.

I finally figured that out today. So I copied all the pictures off my iPhone’s ‘camera roll’ onto my PC, leaving the camera roll empty (as you can see from the picture on the left).

That solved it (sort of)! Thereafter, when I connected my iPhone with an empty camera roll to iTunes, it went about its business of syncing podcasts, updating, backing-up, etc. business without the IPVW popping up, annoying me and needing me to exit-out-of-it. Whoot!

The Ultimate Solution

However, this ‘solution’ resulted in their being no photos left on my iPhone. After a little further Googling and Binging I discovered that I can put pictures back onto the iPhone’s native Photos app – outside of the camera roll – with the result being that I can view them on my iPhone at any time, without IPVW popping up each time I connect my iPhone to iTunes.

Here’s how:

• Create a separate folder on your PC where you can copy the pictures that you want left on the iPhone. I created a folder called ‘iPhone Pics’
• Copy the pictures you want on your iPhone into that folder
• Connect your iPhone to iTunes
• Select your iPhone from the ‘Devices’ list on the left side of iTunes (see picture below)
• Click on the ‘Photos’ tab

• Check the ‘Sync photos from:’ checkbox
• Click on the button to its right and select ‘Choose Folder…’
• Select the folder you created (in my case ‘iPhone Pics’)
• Click ‘Apply’

ITunes will then copy the pictures in the selected folder back into the iPhone’s native Photos app (see icon to the left), and not back into the ‘camera roll’.  From then on you can view your pictures as desired through the Photos app. Any pictures you add into that directory in the future will automatically be copied onto the iPhone and if you remove pictures from that directory they will be removed from the iPhone.

Suggested Changes

I would really prefer that Apple make one of the following two changes:

1. Provide a way on the iPhone itself to directly move pictures from the camera roll to an album in the iPhone’s Photos app (and sync those pictures back to your PC behind the scenes); or
2. Allow users to keep pictures on the camera roll but pop-up the Import Pictures and Videos wizard only if there are new pictures on the iPhone since the last sync.

Either of these solutions would make managing photos on the iPhone simpler without the tedium of having to close out the IPVW every time the iPhone is connected to iTunes.

Notes

Copy and Paste Doesn’t Work: Strangely, with the iPhone OS v. 3.0, you can copy a photo out of the camera roll to, say, paste a photo into an email, but you cannot paste that photo into an album in the Photos app. My guess here is that Apple wants the Photos app to be one-way-only. Meaning, Apple wants you to manage your photos on the PC only. Perhaps they fear that if someone edits/deletes photos on the iPhone they wouldn’t realize that doing so would modify/delete them from their PC after a sync.

Pictures Above from v. 8.2.1.6, the pictures and instructions above are for iTunes version 8.2.1.6 as of July 28, 2009. The approach may be slightly different for different versions of iTunes.

Sorry for the TiVo bloops at the beginning. This is my second YouTube video. I don’t know how to edit videos yet.

Can someone point me to a free video editor that is easy to use and works with Windows 7?

The announcers were as surprised as I was when Federer reached for a replacement tennis racket during the Wimbledon 2009 final.

(click images for larger views)

See also: Brooklyn Decker Cheers for Andy Roddick at Wimbledon 2009

Sampras travelled to London (his first time back since winning in 2002) to attend the final match where his record 14 grand slam title record was  surpassed. It’s too bad they didn’t have Pete hand the trophy to Roger.

Nobody could be certain that Roger would win, however. Following on from a fantastic semi-final win over Andy Murray, Andy Roddick played a beautiful final match – perhaps the best of his career.

Impressive Match Stats

• This was Roger’s 7th consecutive Wimbledon final – a record
• This Wimbledon’s semi marked Roger’s 21st consecutive semi-final – more than doubling Lendle & Laver’s prior record tie of 10 consecutive semi-finals
• Roger hit 51 aces in the match (a career high by almost two fold) – Andy hit 27 aces at last onscreen count (the final count was probably around 30).
• Rogers’ 1st Serve percentage was 65% –Andy’s was 70%
• This was the longest men’s grand-slam championship (game-wise, not time-wise) in history. 77 games were played!

Russell Crowe, Soon-Yi Previn, Woody Allen & Ralph Lauren watch Final

Roger’s Reaction to Match Point

Roger’s New Wife, a Very Pregnant Mirka Vavrinec, Proudly Watches the Trophy Ceremony

Roger Leaves Center Court Victorious

Borg, Sampras & Laver Congratulate Roger

Federer’s Name is Added to the Wimbledon Winner’s Roster – Again

Sorry, folks, but these are the best shots I could get of Federer’s tennis shoes during Wimbledon 2009. The camera never went up close in any of the matches I watched.

As always, click the images for larger views.

Brooklyn During Semi Final Against Andy Murray

Andy Relieved After Tough Set in Andy Murray Semi Final

You go Guy!

More Fans Once Andy Murray Lost (during Federer match)

Andy Arguably Plays Best Tennis of his Life in Wimbledon 2009 Semis and Finals

Brooklyn Cheers During Federer Final

Sadness in Defeat

Gracious Speech & Trophy Ceremony

Having reached the 100-follower milestone, it’s as good a time as any to reflect on my experience to date.

On Followers and Following

Who I Follow: For the most part, the only people I follow on Twitter are those that I have an ongoing relationship with (about 15 to 20 people) and thought leaders (about 35 people). In order for me to continue following someone they must have a high wheat-to-chaff ratio. Meaning, most of their tweets must be about topics I am interested in – not what they ate for lunch.

Loyalty: I am a rather loyal sort. If I follow someone, I follow them. The reason the list of people I follow is short (by Twitter standards) is because I read/scan most every tweet that comes in.

The Kawasaki Exception: Early on I followed Guy Kawasaki. He was/is an interesting Twitter user. But this guy (pun intended) doesn’t know when to stop! He sends out torrents of tweets each day. I couldn’t take it any more. He is the only person I unfollowed because of too many interesting tweets. FYI his post: “How to Pick Up Followers on Twitter” is pretty good except for his advice to follow everyone that follows you – ugh!

How I Found those I Follow: The best way of finding interesting people is to mine the following list of the people that I already follow.

Who I do Not Follow: Anyone else. I know, this makes me an anomaly on Twitter.  I don’t have the time to follow many more people. If I follow someone new and stick with them, I’ll usually remove someone else.

I Do Not Follow to be Followed: Most people that have huge follower lists also follow a huge number of people. How can someone follow 10,000 people? 1,000 people?  Really!? I can barely keep up with the 50 people I follow.

I Do Not Use Filters: Yesterday Mashable posted: ‘20 Ways to Filter your Tweets’. I’ve said, from the first time TweetDeck (pictured to the right) became popular, that the only reason someone needs it, is to filter out people they shouldn’t be following. To me, following people for the purpose of obtaining followers in return (most people seem to follow-back anyone that follows them) smacks of mutual fraud. There is no way anyone can realistically follow more than 100 or 200 people. For me 50 is about right. Filtering software, it seems to me, is only needed to filter out those that a person follows but has no intention of actually following. To users of TweetDeck (and similar filtering software) I say, the only people you should be following are those that you add to your ‘favourites’ filter list. You are misleading everyone else. Am I missing something here?

Crowd Sourcing Exception: I do acknowledge that people like Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble and Paul Thurrott follow tens of thousands of people to use them for crowd sourcing. They say as much on their podcasts. They can ask a question on Twitter and have hundreds answer it in seconds. But these same people are the first to use Twitter filtering software the second their questions are answered. Most who are followed by these tech celebrities are fooling themselves if they think their tweets are being read in return.

Few Real World Friend Followers: None of my family (close or extended) use Twitter. Virtually none of my real-world friends use Twitter. My nephew’s good friend Jarel Villarroya follows me. On my suggestion, two close friends set up twitter accounts, followed me, but were never heard from again.  Some clients and former clients follow me. A squad of people I have never met but have become virtual friends with over the years follow me. Beyond those 20 or so people, I do not know the remaining 80 or so people who follow me.

Related Services

Friendfeed: As you can read here, I joined friendfeed in early January 2009. I dabbled there for awhile. It is a compelling service – better than Twitter in most ways. I have had an ongoing dialogue with Davis Freeberg about this. Davis has largely abandoned Twitter for friendfeed and makes compelling arguments about why I should do the same. But, most of the world uses Twitter. Most importantly, most of the people I follow use only Twitter. If most of the people I follow used friendfeed, I might make that leap. But for now, Twitter remains my primary streamed social network feed.

Found Others through Mr Tweet: On the advice of Mashable, I used Mr Tweet in December 2008 to source some of the people I followed at that point.  Taking a look at Mr Tweet today, it seems to be a very different service. It now requires that you disclose your twitter ID and password to use it. It didn’t back then. I refuse to use any service that makes this demand.

Hash Tags: At the advice of Kevin Rose (Ten Ways to Increase Your Twitter Followers) I started using hash tags on February 9, 2009 (see how hash tags work here). Using hash tags really does generate followers. I would say that most of my followers have found me through my use of hash tags. I know this because most new followers follow me within minutes of my posting a tweet with a hash tag on a topic that interested them.

Twitter Chicklet: I added a twitter chicklet link into the top right of all my web properties. I don’t know if this resulted in followers or not. It can’t hurt. Of course I also added the Twitter Widget to the middle/right column of this blog.

Bio & Customized Profile Page: I also took Kevin Rose’s advice and filled in the bio pages on Twitter and added a customized profile page. Why not? I want people to know who I am. It ads to my overall Internet ‘brand’. I made my Twitter profile page look similar to the Daleisphere branding and the branding on my primary DaleDietrich.com website.

Quitter: In March 2009, I joined Quitter. Quitter emails you when someone stops following you on Twitter. It tells you what tweet you wrote just before you were dropped. I soon quit, Quitter. It was kind of a downer. I’m not about to arbitrarily tailor my tweets to maximize followers. If people aren’t interested in my tweets, I understand why they would stop following me. After all, I stop following people for lots of reasons. I’d guess 30 or so people have stopped following me so far.

Blocking Spam/Fake Followers: Part of the reason my follower numbers are low is that I actively block followers that seem to be spamming. I look at the profile of each person that follows me and block them if they appear to be following me for some nefarious reason. I can’t understand ‘followers’ that follow 50,000 people and are being followed by 50,000 others. When I see those kinds of ridiculous numbers I block them (I’ve blocked dozens like this). Other times you find followers with a single tweet that is some kind of marketing scam or sales pitch. Alternatively, these folks have an unending stream of sales pitch tweets and nothing else. They get blocked. Those with no image (ie: the brown image with blue circles pictured above) tend to get blocked. Most of these folks have no tweets. I’m not sure what to make of them.

Update: The fakefollowers service uses interesting criteria to determine what percentage of twitter followers are fake. A follower is considered ‘fake’ if:

• they have less than 2 followers
• they follow more than 1,000 others and don’t use TweetDeck
• they follow less than 2 others
• over 99% of their tweets contain hyperlinks
• they have never tweeted; or
• they have no real name

Sounds like a pretty good list. As of June 6, 2009 it says that 20% of my followers are fake, and 80% are true. Check your (or someone else’s) followers out here.

What Twitter Means to Me

Twitter Changed How I Use the Internet: When I joined Twitter, I simply didn’t ‘get it’. I had low expectations. Today it is an indispensible service. Much of the blog surfing and RSS-feed subscribing I did a year ago has been replaced by my Twitter feed. Those I follow are so good that news and blog posts on most every topic I care about now flow in to me effortlessly.

Tweeting Comes Naturally: Like blogging, tweeting comes naturally to me. If it felt like work, I wouldn’t do it. I am the kind of person that sends links in emails to friends and family if I find something on a topic that I know a friend or family member is interested in. Twitter is an efficient means of doing the same thing, with the added advantage that every recipient has chosen to receive my tweets – unlike friends and family members that may have felt spammed when receiving more of such emails than they would have liked.

A Means of Connecting with Like-Minded People: Virtual friendships have started and old one’s have become stronger because I tweet on topics my followers are interested in and I follow the tweets of those that have common interests with me. The symbiotic relationships that flow out of Twitter are terrific.

A Constant Companion: Thanks to my iPhone, PC and laptop, no matter where I am, I can check in and see ‘what’s happening’. I am rarely bored. Twitter provides a never ending stream of thought provoking information on the topics I care about.

Thought Leader: I want to be a thought leader. I work hard at providing interesting, relevant and original tweets to those that follow me. Thought leaders rightly earn high follower to following ratios. If they haven’t, they are not thought leaders.

The Next 100 Followers: I’m hoping it takes less than 13 months to garner my next 100 followers. To those that follow me, I’ll continue to try to post interesting and thought provoking tweets with links to articles on the topics I am, and hopefully you are, passionate about. Thanks so much!

All went well. The total download/install time was about 4 minutes on my iMac – 2 minutes on Windows 7 RC.

This isn’t a particularly important release for me. I was happy with Firefox 3.0.1. But they promised more speed so I gave it a whirl.

• Snappier: With its new JavaScript engine – TraceMonkey, it does appear to be snappier, but not a whole lot more snappier as some had suggested.
• New Tab Icon: I like the new tab ‘+’ icon. They are imitated  an IE feature here.  This is useful, especially for news.
• Moving Tabs Between Windows: Now you can drag a tab out of the browser and a new window will open with that page. Or drag a tab from one window to another. For multi-monitor users like myself, this is a terrific new feature.
• Addons – Extensions: All my extensions except 1 migrated nicely. I needed to do a manual update to my Tab Extensions 1 extension (discussed here and available here) but that was to be expected.
• Open in Tabs’ Overwrite Bug: This ‘bug’ still persists in Firefox 3.5 (discussed here ). Alas, as long as the Tab Extensions add-on is available, this is not a problem for me.

See also:

• Firefox 3.5: The Technologizer Review (Harry McCracken)
• Top 5 Killer Features in Firefox 3.5 (Mashable) Me: a bit of hyperbole in the title!
• First Look: Firefox 3.5 released, ready to “upgrade” the Web (ars technica)

On Monday June 29, 2009, during a fourth-round match between Amelie Mauresmo and Dinara Safina, at 6-4, 1-4. the new Wimbledon Centre Court roof was closed for the first time during a match. (Safina won) The subsequent match between Andy Murray and Stanislas Wawrinka was the first full Wimbledon match to be played under the new roof (Murray won).

The video above was shot by me off broadcast TV while I watched the match.

Click the roof-closing images below for larger views.

Below are tables showing the preorder and retail pricing available to Canadian and American consumers with links to Amazon.com and Amazon.ca where Windows 7 can be pre-ordered at the discounted price until July 11, 2009.

Note: See Paul Thurrott’s ‘Windows 7 Product Editions – A Comparison’ to see a detailed chart comparing the features of each. While I purchased the Vista ‘Ultimate’ edition in 2007, this time I will be purchasing the Home Premium edition for my PCs and laptops. I’ve been loving the Windows 7 beta and release candidate and heartily recommend it.

U.S. Windows 7 Upgrade Pricing (with links to Amazon.com)

Canadian Windows 7 Upgrade Pricing (with links to Amazon.ca)

There is no pre-order discount available for the Ultimate Edition.

Understand that these are ‘upgrade’ versions only. They can be used to upgrade Vista or an XP machines only. There are no pre-order discounts available for the full, non-upgrade, versions.

By way of full disclosure, if you pre-order through the links above, as an Amazon affiliate I get a small percentage referral fee. Alternatively, Microsoft provides a list of other online retailers that you can pre-order from: American’s click here – Canadian click here.

If you know of any better deals, particularly if there is any multi-unit licensing for the home deals, please let me know in the comments section.

See also:

• Microsoft Holds the Line on Windows 7 Pricing, Launches Limited-Time Promotions (Paul Thurrott)
• Microsoft’s Windows 7 Editions Comparison Chart

[Note: Rogers is somehow still blocking Pandora and Skype even when I removed the SIM  card. Grrr! Here’s a Skype iPhone App workaround for Canadians – I haven’t tried it yet.]

Setup is a breeze. It took me about two minutes. You essentially set up a VPN connection to the U.S. through the HotSpot Shield servers. This, of course, would also be useful for safe surfing at coffee shops and other wifi locations.

Once you have set up your account, configured and activated the VPN (see instructions below), navigate to the App Store on your iPhone. Search for the app you want and (if its there) download it. It’s that simple.

Survives Desktop Sync

I was concerned that if I downloaded apps this way, they would be wiped out after I synced my iPhone with iTunes to my desktop. Not so. The sync went fine and the apps remained on the iPhone.

No Need to Keep VPN Turned On

You only need to activate the VPN to download the app. Once downloaded, you can use the app with the VPN shut off.

SETUP INSTRUCTIONS

These instructions were cribbed from the Hotspot Shield site here. See that site for pictures and any updated instructions. You’ll need to go there anyway to get an account (with only one mouse click) as described below.

Configure iPhone

Make sure that Wi-Fi is marked "OFF" in: 
Settings -> Wi-Fi

Then find the VPN settings in:
Settings -> General -> Network -> VPN -> Add VPN Configuration:

• Select the L2TP tab/pane
• Description: HotspotShield
• Server: 64.55.144.10
• Account: [insert account number – see below]
• RSA SecurID: OFF
• Password: [insert password – see below]
• Secret: password
• Send all traffic: ON

Get Account & Password

Getting an account is easy. Click on the GetAccountID button on this page. With one click you’ll have your account and password. You’ll need to fill them into the appropriate place as indicated above.

Save Settings

You are now done. Save the settings and hit the "HOME" button to quit. Make sure to turn Wi-Fi back "ON".

Activate

To activate Hotspot Shield on your iPhone, the VPN setting needs to be turned on. From "HOME" menu, go to Settings and click the "On" tab for VPN. Your Status will change to "CONNECTED" and the VPN icon will appear on top in the iPhone Tray when complete. If you cannot connect to the VPN immediately, power down your iPhone, turn it back on, and turn the VPN to "ON".

If you cannot connect to VPN immediately, power down your iPhone, turn it back on, and turn VPN to "ON" in "Settings".

Unfortunately, Wimbledon’s 2009 licensing regime makes it so that honest viewers from many countries, including Canada and the U.S. (see complete list below) can no longer access the service for any fee.

Amercian’s can watch online through NBCSports or ESPN360.com. Unfortunately NBCSports must be using the same proxy-shield blocking technology as hulu because Hotspot Shield users can’t access the site outside of the U.S.

Below, I include links to several bootleg services offering 2009 Wimbledon matches live streamed. Some are fantastic. Some less so. When I clicked around I could usually find the match I wanted to watch in English.

Of course, these only work when Wimbledon matches are underway. To schedule your viewing, the play schedule is here.

Channelsurfing.net

As far as I know there is no legal way for me to watch streamed Wimbledon matches in Canada. Fortunately there is at least one bootleg service available where Canadians, and anyone else, can view live matches – Channelsurfing.net.

Once on Channelsurfing.net scroll down to the Wimbledon logos and click on one of the several available streams – available in different languages. As I’m watching now (June 24, 2009 at 3:00 pm Eastern) there are 7 available live streams. I am watching the ESPN stream on both my iMac and PC and both are working fine.  [Update: The ESPN stream cut out midway through a Roddick match and hasn’t returned as 11:30.am Eastern June 25]

MyP2P

MyP2P is another place to find dozens of online streams. You may have to click around awhile to find one that works and/or is showing the match you want in the language of your choice. Some links require a plug-in to be downloaded. I don’t trust them so I only accessed those that played through without a plugin.

ATDHE.net

I had very mixed results with ATDHE.NET. It looks easier than MyP2P because it lists actual matches underway. Unfortunately I could only get a few of the listed streams to work from Canada. [Update: Hum… now all the streams are working. For awhile I just got a red X in a big box. Maybe it takes awhile for it to start?]

Justin.tv:

If you click here, there is a constant stream of major matches.  Though there is a scoring system onscreen that makes no sense at all to me.

If you know of any other place where Wimbledon matches can be viewed online in Canada, the U.S. or any of the other blacklisted countries below, please let me know in the comments and I’ll update this post.

Countries No Longer Eligible for Wimbledon Live Service

Live streams are NOT available in the following Countries:

• United States
• Canada
• Germany
• Japan
• Hong Kong
• Spain
• Mongolia
• Bangladesh
• Nepal
• Bhutan
• New Caledonia
• North Korea
• Pakistan
• Papua New Guinea
• South Korea
• East Timor
• Singapore
• Sri Lanka
• India
• Taiwan
• Laos
• Maldives

Once again, content creators and broadcasters have screwed honest users who are willing to pay for their content!

See also: 2009 Wimbledon Live Streaming Sources

Windows has not provided .iso file burning functionality before. Rather than use a specialized tool, I have, until now, used my iMac to burn iso files. This morning I discovered that with a couple clicks of the mouse, Windows 7 users can now burn .iso files. 

Here’s how:

• In Windows Explorer double click the .iso file you wish to burn
• Windows 7 opens the following dialogue

• Choose the DVD burner you wish to use (in my case Drive F:)
• Select whether or not you wish to verify the disk after burning
• Click the ‘Burn’ button and you are off:

That’s it. I’m surprised it took Redmond this long to finally include this functionality.

As I described in my ‘Analyzing My First $100 from Google AdSense’ post, for this last three month period I dropped footer ads in lieu of what I hoped to be a more lucrative ad type – inline text ads. I was right. Some how I also benefited from higher per-click revenues (see details below) for the second $100 than I did for the first $100.

Ad Structure

For the last three months each of my sites used the following three primary ad types (channels in AdSense parlance) – each as depicted in the image below:

• tower ads (120 x 600 down the right column);
• cube ads (250 x 250 in the middle column); and
• inline text ads (468 x 60 in-post text ads – below the title, categories and tags fields and above each post entry).

Below is the AdSense report showing exactly how much was earned from each such ad/channel type on each of my three blogs:

When I aggregate the totals for the three ad/channel types across my three sites, the results for the second $100 earned, were are as follows:

For the first $100, cube ads generated 51% of my revenue. This time, its down to 25% with tower and inline ads taking up the slack. Last time tower ads paid the most, with an average per-click revenue of 17.5 cents. This time all of the ads have a higher per-click average. But, as you can see, tower ads are still the highest paying at an average 31.8 cents per click through.

Other 2nd $100 Statistics

Aside from the in-line text ads more than taking up the slack for dropped footer ads, my average per-click revenue inexplicably jumped up by 48% from 16.5 cents to 24.4 cents per click. This resulted in the number of pages served to generate $100 falling from 1,100 to 631 pages. My traffic has also risen month over month, but has stabilized around 800 to 1,000 page views per day.

Amazon Ads

In the first 10 months of The Daleisphere I generated about $50 in Amazon.com affiliate ads. In the last three months The Daleisphere generated approximately $71.11 in referral fees, once again, mostly from the iPhone App books I recommend in my ‘iPhone App Development – Where to Start’ post – by far the most popular post on The Daleisphere. My generic Amazon ads generate revenue from a hodge-podge of other sold items. I might break that down at some point if I can find a way of making a sensible blog post out of the data.

Moving Forward

As you can see I make almost nothing from home-page ads – $2.11 in three months (see bottom three rows in ads/channel table above). I’m thinking I’ll drop the under achieving cube ad there and add another inline-text ad on that page.

I want to look into the other advertising options that Dave Zatz mentioned in the comments section of my original $100 AdSense post. If my site qualifies for any of them I may give them a try.

short of new advertising possibilities, I’m not expecting similar revenue acceleration for the next $100 period because my average daily revenue seems to have leveled off some, in tandem with my average daily page views.