Difference between revisions of "Network admin"

From ProgClub
Jump to: navigation, search
(Mobile Casino Games - Portion A single)
 
(One intermediate revision by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
The Top iphone 3gs Apps - What's the Private of Their Success?
+
This is an ongoing project to provide members with network services. See the [[Administrative reference]] for information about administering the network. See [[Projects]] for other projects.
+
 
Earlier in 2010, Apple released its set of top iphone 4g apps at the one particular billion download mark. Downloads just hit two billion, making Apple's "A lot of-Time" Top Apps point even sillier than it has been at the time -- but that aside, it'ersus a very interesting list and there are a big good lessons to always be learned coming from it.  
+
== Project status ==
+
 
We understand that developers of some top apps have earned coming from $350,000 (Bank account God) to $800,000 (iShoot). Some have probably earned a lot more. It's difficult to estimate income even if the number of downloads is actually known, because app pricing bounces close to a lot. Koi Pond provides been downloaded about 900,000 times and Enigmo over 800,000. Even at, say, a dollar a time, that'ersus very good money.  
+
This is an on-going project. System administration [[#TODO|never ends]]!
+
 
Just how to get ability to access this specific large cash cow? Below are great tips, based on our review of Apple'utes twenty top paid apps:  
+
== Contributors ==
+
 
Get in early
+
Members who have contributed to this project. Newest on top.
+
 
The mobile phone 3G came out in July 2008. Almost 50 percent from the top apps had been released by August. The remainder were a lot of out through the conclusion of 2008, except the one that arrived in January 2009.  
+
* [[User:Friggles|Friggles]]
+
* [[User:Tasaio|Tasaio]]
Timing will be everything. Of course, some of this will be just some sort of physical actuality -- if you sell 5,000 apps a day for 100 days, that's 500,000 sales; if you only have 5 times, you can only reach 25,000. But there'utes far more to it than that. There are only so many apps today (over 50,000) that it's very difficult to always be seen. Apps that became available early, and earned traction, had a huge full advantage over rivalry, and that kind of plus is actually often maintained long-term.  
+
* [[User:John|John]]
+
 
Entertain the masses
+
All contributors have agreed to the terms of the [[ProgClub:Copyrights#ProgClub_projects|Contributor License Agreement]]. This excludes any upstream contributors who tend to have different administrative frameworks.
+
 
When you want to help save the planet, enlighten humanity or improve people'ersus health, you'll get your success in heaven, but you won'n have a winning apple iphone app. Every single one particular of the top paid apps is actually a toy of some kind. Fourteen are in the Games category, 4 Enjoyment and only two Music.  
+
== Copyright ==
+
 
Interestingly, it amusement is actually generally not mindless. Nearly all of the games are complex, which requires skill and concentration, and quite a handful of have many permutations or constant updates (Pocket God). Complex games include Earn God, Fieldrunners, Texas Hold'em Poker and Monopoly. The simpler games, like the memory matching game Bejeweled 2 or the skateboard app Touchgrind, still require skill and attention.  
+
Copyright 2011, [[Network administration#Contributors|Contributors]]. Licensed under the [[New BSD]] license.
+
 
Only a number of, like Koi Pond, require little mental effort, but even it one particular offers many possibilities and constant movement. Virtually almost all the apps have great graphics and plenty of movement.  
+
== Links ==
+
 
There were only 2 entirely silly and pointless apps, namely the simulated beer app, iBeer, and the self-explanatory iFart Mobile.  
+
* [http://www.linux.com/ Linux]
+
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux Linux on Wikipedia]
There's a surprise in every single package
+
* [http://www.ubuntu.org.au/ Ubuntu Australia]
+
* [http://www.ubuntu.com/ Ubuntu]
Ocarina, the historic flute simulation, is a real surprise. Who would have thought a good obscure musical instrument would have ranked so high? The app developers are just because interesting -- a high-soaring crowd of musicians and computer scientists through locations like Stanford and Princeton. Could it end up being that there is actually still a place for real quality and innovation on the Internet? Happy thought.
+
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28operating_system%29 Ubuntu on Wikipedia]
+
* [http://www.apache.org/ Apache Software Foundation]
Develop for the device
+
* [http://httpd.apache.org/ Apache HTTP server project]
+
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_HTTP_Server Apache on Wikipedia]
Using the accelerometer seems to increase a great app'ersus possibilities of success. The majority of the top paid apps are accelerometer-intensive, or use other novel or special iphone 3gs features.  
+
* [http://www.mysql.com/ MySQL]
+
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySQL MySQL on Wikipedia]
The message here is that successful app developers take full advantage in the device's novel or distinctive functionality. The i phone will be mobile, it has a touchscreen, it seems to have the accelerometer. Develop for the device! Apps that work when though these people're on a regular desktop computer are probably to be significantly less successful.
+
* [http://www.php.net/ PHP]
+
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP PHP on Wikipedia]
Have the right background
+
* [http://php.net/manual/en/book.mysql.php MySQL on PHP]
+
* [http://web.mit.edu/Kerberos/ Kerberos]
It really helps to end up being a helpful experienced computer software developer, preferably with a background in Internet games. A lot of the companies and individuals who distinguished themselves have a longer track record in this specific market. Sometimes, it was actually just just a few consuming an existing business model and making the logical leap to mobile phone apps. In others, the app were the start with the business and in other instances it could also always be the end of the road.  
+
* [http://www.kerberos.org/ Kerberos consortium]
+
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerberos_%28protocol%29 Kerberos on Wikipedia]
Don'big t be considered a a single-hit wonder
+
* [http://www.openldap.org/ OpenLDAP]
+
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLDAP OpenLDAP on Wikipedia]
4 with the top paid apps were orphans or close, with only 1 to 2 apps per developer. Much more common, though, were developers with stables of 3 to 15 apps. Only 1 developer had a lot more than 15 apps. Successful developers leveraged current products and apps, building on a single to make others - but adapting an app to make very similar spin-offs (iBeer, iMilk, iSoda, Magic Wallet), while smart, seems a little also opportunistic. The app developers that have developed several unique, compelling games are far more probably to have quite a few successes.  
+
* [http://subversion.apache.org/ Subversion]
+
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subversion Subversion on Wikipedia]
In fact, 3 companies (Freeverse, Pangea Software package, Electronic Arts) each had only two top-twenty apps. A lot of 3 are big or biggish companies, implying that it takes significant resources to product a winning app.  
+
 
+
== TODO ==
Don'big t become way too hung upward on price
+
 
+
Things to do at the moment, in rough order of priority, are:
The de facto standard i phone app price is $0.99. This particular level was actually quickly established in the App Store like the place where most buyers appeared happy. Possibly it'ersus due to the standard cost of iTunes music.  
+
 
+
* Install logcheck on each machine
In any case, nearly all of the winning apps command better prices, with 13 with the 20 priced through $1.99 upwards, and 4 of them commanding the majestic (for iphone 3gs apps) price of $4.99 on the day we did the review.  
+
* Install and configure MTAs on [[hope]] and [[honesty]]. Use [[charity]] as smarthost
+
* Get [[charity]]'s backups operational
You don'big t need Lite or Free teaser apps
+
** databases
+
** web content in /var/www
Right here'ersus a very interesting factoid. Only two in the top twenty apps (iHunt and iShoot) have a free or lite version, at least in the course of writing. Both developers are individuals somewhat than companies, and it'utes interesting that the bigger outfits don'big t begin need for teasers. The implication will be that if it'utes worth buying, people will pay for it.
+
** svn repo in /var/svn
+
** /home
The freebie iShoot Lite had only two.4 million downloads in January, and there were 320,000 paid downloads. So it's rather it can be that the free app drove sales with the paid app -- but it'utes in addition achievable that there might have been a lot more paid downloads had the free app not been available.
+
** /etc (etckeeper bzr repo?)
+
* Get DNS services installed? (Not sure if I'm going to bother with this)
You don'testosterone should be a huge company (although it helps)  
+
* Get automatic user registrations working
+
** Create user in Kerberos
Could it become that success in iphone 3gs apps depends on having amazing, sophisticated, expensive marketing strategies? Not necessarily.
+
** Create user in LDAP
+
** Create home directory
There'utes no question that it helps to end up being Internet savvy and have serious pockets, but the winning app developers were the encouraging mix of sizes and types.  
+
** Create email account
+
** Create wiki user
Six of the 17 developers are big multinational companies -- Apple itself (Texas Keep'em), Electronic Arts (TETRIS, Monopoly), Activision (Crash Bandicoot) and SEGA (Super Monkey Ball). Then there are a bunch of mid-sized companies and, happily, additionally 7 smaller groups and 4 individuals.  
+
** Create blog user
+
** Create MySQL database and user
iFart Mobile is a good interesting story. It ended up being developed by a web marketing guru who wholly understood just how to work the system and get incredible publicity by making a pointless app that he must have known would quickly build controversy, laughter and attention.
+
** Create svn user (will this be necessary?)
+
** Subscribe to list@, programming@ and admin@ as appropriate
The Internet mythology of smart guys working evenings or weekends, or out of the garage, and hitting the jackpot, lives on. The little guys in this kind of group are Bob Moffett (iHunt), Ethan Nicholas (iShoot) and, so far when we can advise, Shinya Kasatani (Bank account Guitar). These guys might not become the next Steve Jobs, nevertheless they have been successful to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, just a dollar or two at a time. Beautiful impressive.
+
 
+
== Done ==
Controversy will be useful, but by no means important
+
 
+
Things that have been done. Put latest stuff on the top of the list.
iFart Mobile in particular, and a lesser extent iBeer and iHunt, are really controversial and almost certainly garnered a large amount of publicity for this reason. You can almost view the controversy in the ratings -- while the majority of the 20 top apps have a dominant rating of 5 stars, steadily dropping down, these 3 controversial apps had large numbers of ratings for both 5 stars and 1 star. So it distribution of rating might not hurt a helpful app, and might show a developer that the app offers a big potential to create buzz.
+
 
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-09-??: Installed SquirrelMail webmail client
The other top apps did not might seem built to attract controversy this also obviously didn't hurt them.  
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-09-02: Installed Roundcube webmail client
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-27: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-27_16:37|Configured]] fail2ban to block brute force attacks against POP3, IMAP, Apache and others
Five-star ratings are neither essential nor conceivable for top apps
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-21: [[2011 news#Web_server_reconfiguration|Moved]] Member Net to [[honesty]] and Mobile Net to [[hope]]
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-21: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-21_02:13|Installed]] spamassassin on [[charity]]
You can'n please every one of the people all of the time -- so the more ratings there are, the lower the odds of a 5 or even 4.5 star average. None with the top apps had 5 stars and most had 3 to 4 stars. iHunt had only only two.5 stars, because a several people hated it.  
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-19: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-19_21:41|Installed]] mailman on [[charity]] and got the [[mailing lists]] working
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-19: Configured [http://progclub.mobi Mobile Net] on [[hope]] and [[honesty]]
It takes a Wide range of downloads to build up a several ratings
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-19: Installed subversion on [[hope]] and [[honesty]]
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-19: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-19_18:34|Configured]] real certificate for SMTP, IMAP and POP3
Although possibly millions of people collectively downloaded the 20 top apps, the highest number of ratings (Fieldrunners) has been 1,479 and the lowest (Pocket God) were 226. Most customers don'capital t offer ratings, and even fewer write reviews.
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-19: Installed fail2ban on [[Hope_admin#John_2011-08-19_14:41|hope]] and [[Honesty_admin#John_2011-08-19_14:43|honesty]]
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-18: Installed Postfix Admin ([[pcmail]] project) on [[charity]]
Granted that people like to always be portion of a happy herd, it's almost certain that savvy developers actively promote positive ratings and reviews.  
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-18: Created a commit hook for pcrepo on [[charity]] that:
+
** automatically checks out tags/latest and trunk into appropriate web directories
The theme doesn'testosterone should be classic or familiar
+
** emails commit notifications
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-18: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-18_16:24|Configured]] postfix and courier on [[charity]].
Classics like Texas Keep'em, Monopoly and TETRIS (most developed by public companies) did function in the 20 top apps. The other apps were occasionally familiar, sometimes not, but none of them really adapted a big-name, well-known game. Wallet Guitar, of course, used a well-loved instrument with great success. But to balance that, Ocarina catapulted a good obscure ancient flute to fame.
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-18: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-18_06:11|Installed]] and configured awstats on [[charity]]
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-14: Got user directories' public_html working for [http://www.progclub.net/ Member Net]
Leading counts
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-14: Installed Apache, MySQL and PHP on the [[Machines#User_machines|user machines]]
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-14: Got NFS for users' home directories working. See [[Single sign-on]]
There are many, many, many iphone 4g games with themes not dissimilar to the top games. There are dozens of guitar simulations. There are 5 other iFart apps. So just having a good concept isn'n adequate.  
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-14: Got the Kerberos and LDAP servers set up and have [[hope]] and [[honesty]] authenticating against [[charity]]. See [[Single sign-on]]
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-13: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-13_15:09|Installed]] [[pcview]] on [[charity]]
The iFart apps are an interesting illustration. Almost uniformly, they will have not developed a following, and the comments are most commonly unfavorable -- not because they will're vulgar and silly, but because they will're not well executed and consumers don'testosterone like them.  
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-12: Arranged for purchase and integration of [[2011 news#progclub.com_live|progclub.com]]
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-09: Got system backups operational via slicehost for [[charity]]
Right now you realize some in the secrets. Happy programming!
+
** [[hope]] and [[honesty]] aren't going to be backed up at that level, there's no need
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-09: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-09_20:05|Configured]] [[pcldap]] on [[charity]]
Findanapp is a simple, searchable databases of all the iphone 3gs apps we can lay our hands on. Our site offers details of over 59,690 apps, and counting.
+
* [[USer:John|JE]] 2011-08-08: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-08_16:43|Updated]] robots.txt file for [[pcwiki]]
+
* [[USer:John|JE]] 2011-08-06: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-06_15:30|Installed]] OpenLDAP on [[charity]]
http://www.blam.bombsquadkittens.com/index.php/notice/4420153
+
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-06: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-06_05:35|Enabled]] mod_rewrite in Apache on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-05: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-05_23:15|Installed]] php5-mcrypt on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-05: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-05_22:24|Created]] pcblog database and user on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-05: Disabled [[IPSec]] on [[Hope_admin#John_2011-08-05_16:59|hope]], [[Honesty_admin#John_2011-08-05_16:59|honesty]] and [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-05_16:59|charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-05: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-05_00:26|Kerberized]] Apache on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-04: Configured [[Kerberos#DNS_configuration|Kerberos DNS]] for ProgClub domains
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-04: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-04_21:21|Installed]] [[Kerberos]] on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-08-01: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-08-01_00:12|Configured]] /wiki URLs on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-07-30: Configured [[IPSec]] on [[Charity_admin#John_2011-07-30_17:15|charity]], [[Hope_admin#John_2011-07-30_18:05|hope]] and [[Honesty_admin#John_2011-07-30_19:30|honesty]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-07-27: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-07-27_12:01|Configured]] public read-only svn access via [https://www.progclub.org/svnro/pcrepo/ HTTPS] and [http://www.progclub.org/svnro/pcrepo/ HTTP]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-07-27: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-07-27_04:09|Installed]] Fail2ban on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-07-27: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-07-27_03:41|Configured]] IPTables on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-07-27: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-07-27_01:20|Configured]] [http://www.google.com/search?q=favicon.ico favicon.ico] file on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-07-27: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-07-27_01:01|Configured]] [http://www.google.com/search?q=robots.txt robots.txt] file on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-07-26: [[Charity_admin#Tasaio_2011-07-26_21:39|Installed]] [http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/etckeeper/ etckeeper] on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-07-26: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-07-26_06:20|Configured]] HTTPS on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-07-25: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-07-25_17:53|Installed]] MediaWiki on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-07-25: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-07-25_17:12|Configured]] web-hosting for [http://www.progclub.org/ www.progclub.org] on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-07-25: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-07-25_17:11|Installed]] PHP on [[charity]]
 +
* [[User:John|JE]] 2011-07-25: [[Charity_admin#John_2011-07-25_16:40|Installed]] MySQL and Apache on [[charity]]

Latest revision as of 15:15, 11 December 2017

This is an ongoing project to provide members with network services. See the Administrative reference for information about administering the network. See Projects for other projects.

Project status

This is an on-going project. System administration never ends!

Contributors

Members who have contributed to this project. Newest on top.

All contributors have agreed to the terms of the Contributor License Agreement. This excludes any upstream contributors who tend to have different administrative frameworks.

Copyright

Copyright 2011, Contributors. Licensed under the New BSD license.

Links

TODO

Things to do at the moment, in rough order of priority, are:

  • Install logcheck on each machine
  • Install and configure MTAs on hope and honesty. Use charity as smarthost
  • Get charity's backups operational
    • databases
    • web content in /var/www
    • svn repo in /var/svn
    • /home
    • /etc (etckeeper bzr repo?)
  • Get DNS services installed? (Not sure if I'm going to bother with this)
  • Get automatic user registrations working
    • Create user in Kerberos
    • Create user in LDAP
    • Create home directory
    • Create email account
    • Create wiki user
    • Create blog user
    • Create MySQL database and user
    • Create svn user (will this be necessary?)
    • Subscribe to list@, programming@ and admin@ as appropriate

Done

Things that have been done. Put latest stuff on the top of the list.