Will it ever be available for download?

[Slovak]

Will optimization guide 7.0 ever be available for download?

[peaz]

Well, Adrian is under negotiations with publishers to get the BOG into print. Therefore in the meantime while they the the rights right(no puns intended), we'll just have to see how if a downloadable version would eventually be available.

As for now, there's also another concern for not releasing a downloadable version.
Bandwidth woes: the last time we had it online, it almost 'killed' the server we're on And now that we're on a paid host, I dun tink we are capable to server to massive downloads

Well, Adrian would give you a better reply when he comes around again. Right now, he's around my area for a christmas gathering...

Merry X'mas

[Slovak]

Any idea why I cannot view this web site when my firewall is turned on? I have to completely shut it down or the web site just non-stop reloads every second. It still does that if I turn off add blocking, must shut off firewall or no go.

[Chai]

If you are using Norton Internet Security, go to Privacy Control, click on the Custom Level. Untick the Enable Browser Privacy.

[peaz]

I must have posted this a couple of times already ...

Our site needs to check the referring site to prevent leeching. If it detects that it's main frame is not being referred from a valid site (our default page that is) it'll reload the page. But anyhow. I'll look into the code to find out why it keeps refreshing. By right this should only happens once...

However try this following step to enable browsers to check the previously accessed site.

Open Norton Firewall and select 'Privacy Control'.
Then, click on the button 'Custom Level'.
Remove the tick from the 'Enable Browser Privacy' check box and 'OK' the screen.

That should help you to run the site properly. BTW, this would also solve problems when browsing other sites as well. There's quite some sites that uses this technique to check for leeching and as a security measure.

[Adrian Wong]

Hello Slovak,

So sorry for taking so long to reply...

I'm sorry but for now, there won't be any downloadable version of the BIOS Optimization Guide. Here are our reasons :-

Bandwidth Issues
--------------------
Just serving the online version of the BIOS Optimization Guide takes up a LOT of bandwidth. We had to upgrade our webhosting account from 20GB/month to 100GB/month! And that's just for the online version.

If you have been with us since the beginning, you would have downloaded a PDF/LIT version of the BIOS Optimization Guide before. And you would have remembered how the number of downloads actually killed our server on a number of occasions. That gave us and our kind hosts (who were sponsoring us the bandwidth) a LOT of grief.

Now that we are paying for every MB downloaded from our site, it's impossible for us to provide a downloadable version of the guide. Such a guide would consume a lot of bandwidth, maybe 300-400GB? There's no way we can afford that amount of bandwidth, since bandwidth on a Windows 2000 server is VERY expensive.

Also, we are 100% dependent on advertising to support the site. As it is, we cannot sustain our incredibly high bandwidth use for long. Sadly, while people seem to enjoy our work, our advertising reach is VERY poor.

Due to the prolific use of ad-blockers, only 11% of our readers are actually viewing banners. That translates into very little advertising income. If this continues, not only will we NOT be able to provide a downloadable version, the ONLINE version may be at risk if our funds run out.


Contract Negotiations
-------------------------
As Peaz mentioned, I'm currently negotiating with a publisher regarding the rights to publish the BIOS Optimization Guide. They actually wanted ALL RIGHTS to the guide, including online rights. If I was greedy, I would have given it all to them. But I have insisted that I retain the online rights so that I can still provide a free source of information.

However, they insist that they MUST have the e-book version as a free e-book is a direct competitor to the book. I must reluctantly agree with them. They cannot be expected to even try to sell a book when the author is actually providing a free e-book version!

But I already made sure that the e-book version will be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than the printed book. This will provide three tiers of access :-
- free online version (supported 100% by advertising)
- cheap e-book version
- full printed version (with value-added features)

Whether that happens or not remains to be seen. As I said it before, we are still under negotiations. As such, it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to start saturating the Net with an e-book version of the BIOS Optimization Guide.


Plagiarism & Leeching Concerns
-------------------------------------
As you know, we have a LOT of problems with plagiarism. We have had to issue Cease and Desist letters to many websites in countless languages who had plagiarised our BIOS Optimization Guide.

While we acknowledge that there's no fool-proof way to prevent plagiarism, that doesn't mean we are giving up the fight. One of the ways is NOT to provide an e-book version which can be easily leeched and then plagiarized.

And as you have experienced, we are also employing anti-leeching techniques to prevent people from both plagiarizing and leeching the online guide from us. In this, they NOT only plagiarize but also use up our bandwidth. Totally unacceptable.

An e-book version could very easily be leeched from us or worse, posted on another site as their own guide. We have seen MANY sites doing that before. Again, another reason NOT to post an e-book version.

--------

I understand that it's quite impossible to consult the online version while you are tweaking the BIOS but it would be worse if there wasn't even a BIOS Optimization Guide, right?

Even though we are paying from our own pockets for bandwidth, I have always maintained that there should be a FREE online version. This is even in the face of great resistance by the publisher I'm negotiating with. Understandably, anything free (even a troublesome, hard-to-use online guide) cuts into their potential sales and profits. Which, of course, translates into less revenue for me.

I hope you can understand and emphatise with us. If we are rich, we would love to provide downloadable e-books for free. Unfortunately, our advertising revenues are so low that I have to look for alternative funding (like my father!) as well as publish it as a book!

[Digger]

Hi,
I would be willing to pay for a download of your BOG 7. I would probably buy a printed copy if you can ever get one published Good Luck with it.
Digger

[Adrian Wong]

Thanks, Digger!

Appreciate your support!