Archives for March, 2007
Just Don’t Call Me Steve Martin…
George wrote: I download from a PC because I have an archaic dialup no bandwidth one lane dirt road network at home in a rural spot, and this PC has a 12 lane freeway. And yes I use a MAC at home, jerk.
Ouch.
I considered replying to this friendly contact form submission directly, but I thought readers might get as much a kick out of it as I did. So let’s see if we can’t get to the bottom of what it is that makes me such a jerk…
My hosting plan allows for 30 GB of bandwidth per month. The size of Yasu, compressed in gzip format, is 2.6 MB. Multiply that by the 16,000 plus downloads this month and it comes out to 41,600 MB (or 41.6 GB) of data transferred. That doesn’t even take into account bandwidth for all other site traffic. Nope, that’s Yasu all by itself. All told, I wound up roughly 14 GB in the bandwidth hole site wide because Windows users, in their rabid quest to be able to play games without paying for them, have downloaded my application without first checking to see if it was really what they were looking for. This was the result of some script kiddie also naming his little crack Yasu.
You’ve no doubt figured out that I’ve ponied up the extra cash this month in order to keep my site online. Because I don’t want to have to pay the same expense next month, I made a very sound decision to prevent all Windows users from downloading Yasu anymore. This was simply done to prevent wasted bandwidth, since there’s no such thing as free (as in beer) bandwidth.
So, about this bandwidth I’m preserving. Well, it gets paid for using proceeds from Yasu registrations — no other way. Think about that for a second… Since I’m not getting any cash from the people who are downloading my application the most (as in it doesn’t run on Windows?), wouldn’t it make sense for me to simply not allow them to download it anymore? Yeah, I thought it did too.
Okay. Let’s get back to George. He thinks I’m a jerk because I’ve inconvenienced him since he doesn’t have a fat enough pipe (umm, this would be his own bandwidth) to download 2.6 MB at home. It would appear he thinks I’m supposed to give up 45 GB to the Windows world-at-large in order to personally save him a few minutes on his rickety dial-up connection somewhere in the middle of Podunk. Hmmm. Wow, I guess that does makes me a jerk.
Well darn George, it looks like you were right after all. All I can do is say thanks for pointing out my shortcomings. Can you ever forgive my callous behavior and selfishness? I’ll have a hard time sleeping tonight if you can’t.
All kidding aside, let’s presume for a moment you were serious. Had you simply shared your plight with me, I would have been more than accommodating to work with you (just ask anyone who knows me). But since that didn’t happen, and you resorted to name calling right out of the gate, I’ll just recommend you download one of the many other applications like mine on that 12-lane-freeway PC of yours, burn it to CD (or however it is you shuttle stuff) and go to town with it on your down-on-the-farm Mac. Thanks for getting in touch.
Are Windows Users Capable of Reading?
Yes. It’s a harsh title. But I have to wonder if Windows users are taking the time to read the fact that the Yasu available through my site is a Macintosh only application.
It turns out some hack on the Windows platform has developed a ROM utility that hides SCSI interface devices to allow gamers to play games illegally (something I don’t advocate!), and has dubbed his little creation “Yasu” as well.
Jeez, you lamer! You didn’t even check to see if the name was already used by someone else! Now it makes total sense as to why I’ve had nearly 16,000 downloads for the month, and only 42 registrations! I almost wrote a whiny, self-pitying post about selfish Mac users because of it. Thank goodness I didn’t.
Since so many lemming Windows users have downloaded my app without reading what it’s really used for, my monthly bandwidth is nearly maxed out. In fact, I may even surpass my allotment in a day or two - which may cause my site to be shut down until the beginning of next month, or cost me extra money to keep up.
So, Windows users; Please! This is not the “Y.A.S.U. (Yet Another SecuROM Utility)” you want. Go find it somewhere else. Shoo!!!
[Update] - I’m happy to share that with a little .htaccess mojo, Windows users are now denied downloading Yasu for the Mac. Mwahahaha…
Hollywood Hasn’t Changed a Bit
In fact, it’s gotten worse than it was “back in my day” of playing the clubs on the Sunset Strip. It’s sad to see that the promoters are still ripping off naive bands who don’t know any better, and giving them less stage time while doing it.
My wife and I went with my sister-in-law to go see her son (my nephew) play his first “big club gig” on Saturday night at the Key Club in Hollywood (known as Gazarri’s back in my day). It was some kind of cattle call round-up that they tried to pass off as a “showcase” event, with 10 different bands only getting to play three or four tunes apiece. At least in my day (I’m starting to sound too old…) you got to do a full set of 10 tunes using your own gear before getting kicked off the stage.
For each band to get to play, they had to sell 100 tickets at $15 a pop — or $1500 worth of tickets. Multiply that by the 10 “showcased” bands and you’ve got a hefty payday for the promoters of at least $10,000 after figuring for the venue rental (if that even happened) and other expenses (ticket printing & photo copies at Kinko’s). The bands were not paid in any way1 — which is appalling!
My nephew’s band — still being green — didn’t understand the whole “pay to play” concept that goes on in Hollywood, so they didn’t really hustle to sell all their tickets. Sadly, they found out about it 30 minutes before they were supposed to take the stage. The promoter basically told them “Come up with the extra $500 right now, or you don’t play tonight.” Needless to say, they didn’t play. How are five kids — 17 & 18 year olds — supposed to come up with that kind of cash at the drop of a hat? Mom & Dad? It’s sad that they had to learn such a hard lesson about “the business” in the manner they did.
What’s worse, they got no refund for the tickets they did sell2 — nearly $1,000 worth. So roughly 65 family and friends who drove more than an hour to come see them didn’t get to, and essentially got ripped off by the “promoter” as well.
There’s a lesson for young musicians in this; Trust no one in a business suit in the music industry — ever, no matter what. If you get offered a gig by a club or promoter, be sure you read the entire contract closely several times BEFORE you sign it. In fact, have a seasoned musician look at it if you can. There’s a good chance they’ve been burned the same way once (yes, I was) and they know what to look for. I guarantee that the smiling schmuck on the other side of the desk is not looking out for your best interests. They are not your friend despite what they lead you to believe. They’re simply out to make a buck, and nothing else.
Remember: There’s much more to playing music than just playing the music.
- This kind of crap doesn’t happen in other big music cities, such as Austin, Nashville or Minneapolis (New York - I’m not too sure about). Musicians in those cities can make a living playing. For some bizarre reason, clubs in Hollywood are able to get away with requiring talented musicians to provide their craft for free. Ridiculous! ↩
- Be darned sure you ALWAYS get a signed receipt for ANY cash you hand over to someone — even if you think you can trust them (this includes your “manager”). When I say always & any, I mean just that — every single time no matter how small the amount. That little piece of paper will be the only proof that you gave them the cash if you need to take some kind of legal action about it. ↩
A Life-Long Dream Come True
For as long as I can remember, I’ve dreamed of owning Fender J-Bass. Now I do. Sweet…
Is Google AdSense Really Fair?
A while back, I commented about being dismissed from Google AdSense for reasons that were never explained to me, just before I was to receive my first payment from the program. Since then, I’ve tried to get myself reinstated twice, and have been denied each time without explanation — even when I asked for it.
I bring this up because I recently began inserting a digital fingerprint on all posts in my RSS feed. It’s a totally unique value that I verified was not in existence anywhere on the web before I chose it (RSS feeders — that’s what the funky combination of letters and numbers is at the end of each post - in case you were wondering). This unique value is very easy to find using search engines. Finding it on a site other than mine means that the other site has “scraped” my RSS feed from FeedBurner, making the post (or part of it) their own with the hopes of profiting by using it as search engine “keywords” in conjunction with advertising such as Google AdSense or Yahoo Publisher Network ads on the page. The goal is to generate an ad click-thru to a site the visitor really wants which contains the keyword they were searching for. The splogger gets paid for the click without doing any work at all. Slimy, but simple — and extremely effective.
Today, I found four different sites that have scraped my content to use as their own with AdSense ads on the page. This, according to the Google AdSense Terms of Service, is a huge violation. I promptly reported the abuse with hopes the sploggers who lifted my content get their income generating plug pulled pronto. But that’s not what this post is really about.
I’ve long said that I feel the Google AdSense Team does not do a good enough job of determining legitimate sites from the sploggers and scrapers. I’m confused by the fact that my site is 100% on the up and up, I rank well in the search engines, and I provide the Mac community a good service — yet I’ve repeatedly been denied reinstatement (or an explanation of why I was even kicked out). I’m doubly confused as to why the four sites I came across today were ever allowed to join the AdSense program in the first place. It’s painfully obvious that they’re not (and never have been) legitimate in any way — yet they’re still making money using AdSense in an underhanded way. The crooks are being rewarded, while the honest man is being punished. I’m not whining, but does anyone see the point I’m trying to make here?
I don’t think this is right — so I’m going to use the forum of my own legitimate website to publicly challenge any member of the Google AdSense Team who’ll field the question: Please explain to me why I cannot be reinstated to the program, while the splogging/scraping ilk like the four sites I reported to you today are continually allowed to participate and profit?
I look forward to any response you may have, Google AdSense Team…