AFT Needs Your Help!

donutface

Ron, I recieved a payment of 10 euro from Anne Byrne. ill update the donation page soon with the last 2 or 3 payments

mcguyver

I'm going to agree with Pansy potter on this one,

My first question is why couldn't you use say Blacknight.ie 30e for the year, your spending a fortune on a dedicated server and AFT will use how much of this server?
If free web text is scraped what then the people sending you money have got nothing any you guys have a free server for yourselves and im sure you have more uses than just aft for it.
Anyhow I won’t be paying ill use a free alternative each to there own.
I just hope the operators don't decide to scrap the the free text when they see you are charging for the service, and yeah I know its only donations etc. but at the end of the day people are now paying you guys to send there free webtext.

finally just a Quote I found from donutface when reading through some old threads which says it all:

Whoever is dumb enough to actually pay for a service to give you cheaper text messages actually deserves to loose the money

Sam Vimes

mcguyver wrote:

I'm going to agree with Pansy potter on this one,

then you also have no idea what you're talking about

mcguyver wrote:

My first question is why couldn't you use say Blacknight.ie 30e for the year, your spending a fortune on a dedicated server and AFT will use how much of this server?

they're not spending a fortune. it was about ten a month in the end

mcguyver wrote:

Anyhow I won’t be paying ill use a free alternative each to there own.

good, don't. i didn't donate because i can't afford to. i still intend to use it

mcguyver wrote:

I just hope the operators don't decide to scrap the the free text when they see you are charging for the service, and yeah I know its only donations etc. but at the end of the day people are now paying you guys to send there free webtext.

they've asked people to stop donating now that the server is paid for. you people and your cynical attitudes piss me off. this bloke took a lot of time during his leaving cert year to make something that will save you money. he gave the source code out freely to anyone who wanted it.

he decided that he needed a more secure server to protect your privacy which is why it cost a bit more and this 17 year old asked people who've saved hundreds at this stage to drop him a fiver if they could.

email him and ask him for the source code. then go and make your own. see how much you save when you've to run your own server


also:

they're= a contraction of they are

their= belonging to them

there=in that place

its incorrect to say "people are now paying you guys to send there free webtext"

dal

I really shouldn't dignify your post with a response, but the notion that some people (myself included) are making money from this really makes me angry.

mcguyver wrote:

I'm going to agree with Pansy potter on this one,

My first question is why couldn't you use say Blacknight.ie 30e for the year, your spending a fortune on a dedicated server and AFT will use how much of this server?

Have you read ANY of the posts on this? Donut needs an host that supports ASP.NET. He has already explained that he is SHARING the server to reduce costs

mcguyver wrote:

If free web text is scraped what then the people sending you money have got nothing any you guys have a free server for yourselves and im sure you have more uses than just aft for it.

Why on earth would the webtexts be scrapped if we have a server to run it on?

mcguyver wrote:

Anyhow I won’t be paying ill use a free alternative each to there own.

An alternative is not to donate and continue to use AFT, which you are welcome to do.

mcguyver wrote:

I just hope the operators don't decide to scrap the the free text when they see you are charging for the service, and yeah I know its only donations etc. but at the end of the day people are now paying you guys to send there free webtext.

They won't, the number of users of AFT is insignificant when compared to the overall number of users using webtexts

Seriously, how much do you think we would be likely to make from these donations (lets PRETEND for a second that the money is actually going into our pockets)? 30 euro each? 40? 50? I am a 30 year old software engineer.
I AM NOT IN THIS FOR ANY MONEY!

mcguyver

Well when I read a quote like this I have to be suspicious after all he is one of the people getting the money.

donutface wrote:

Quote:
Whoever is dumb enough to actually pay for a service to give you cheaper text messages actually deserves to loose the money

dal wrote:

The alternative is not to donate and continue to use AFT, which you are welcome to do.
!

There are others out there that do the same thing maybe even better for free.

I'm not wasting my time saying any more on it I said my bit these boards are about free speech are they not, that is just my opinion on it so get over it.

also:

they're= a contraction of they are

their= belonging to them

there=in that place

its incorrect to say "people are now paying you guys to send there free webtext"

Do you have to get so childish big fookin deal a spelling mistake.....

Sam Vimes

mcguyver wrote:

Well when I read a quote like this I have to be suspicious after all he is one of the people getting the money.

no you don't. in fact you're completely wrong to be suspicious. he needed a few euro to set up a server. now that he has enough he's asked people to stop donating. there is nothing to be usupicious about.

mcguyver wrote:

There are others out there that do the same thing maybe even better for free.

well go and use them then

mcguyver wrote:

I'm not wasting my time saying any more on it I said my bit these boards are about free speech are they not, that is just my opinion on it so get over it.

taken from the after hours charter:

The Golden Rule:
There is no free speech!
-This is a privately owned website. You do not have the right to say whatever you want on here. You are expected to obey the rules just like anyone else. Not following the rules will get you banned. It is very simple.

mcguyver wrote:

Do you have to get so childish big fookin deal a spelling mistake.....

only to people who annoy me


also, the correct grammar in that sentence would have been:

Do you have to get so childish? Big fookin deal. A spelling mistake.....

mcguyver

Commander Vimes wrote:

Do you have to get so childish? Big fookin deal. A spelling mistake.....

Whatever!!

donutface

why do I get the feeling mcguyver is that other guy who wanted to sell his text messaging J2ME program here?

I still fully stand by that statement that I made a few months back. People never paid for AFT, people paid for the hosting of AFT. Every cent I recieved from you guys went to the hosting company, and the money thats left over will be used to pay for it in 6 months time

dubbug1971

Hi,

Havent used AFT yet, is on phone but have a bucket of free texts to use per month at mo - once they're out will definitely use AFT and esp[ecially when I gove overseas !

Hope this small contribuition helps.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers

andy0

donutface wrote:

www.voipbuster.com is a site to get free calls over the internet, and a few months back they added text messaging support, but it cost like 5c a text, now the texts are free. Basically, I have to code the VoipBuster bindings to AFT (been busy over the weekend preparing for orals and a geography project but I will soon) and then people can send text messages using VoipBuster instead of o2 or vodafone or whatever.

I see from previous posts that's it's been spotted that this is only within one's own country

Also, and unstated, there is a fair use policy of 250 a month.

Voipbuster itself has a mobile Java client, which can be used for sms or to set up callback, so perhaps your efforts would be a bit redundant ........ unless there is a way around their statement about only free from one's own country, or will this be ok anyway from a phone?

I've used it for callback abroad so far, but haven't yet had a chance to test whether sms sent home (UK) from abroad are free or charged. As it should be on an Orange or O2 UK IP address (??), I'm assuming or hoping it will be counted as sent from UK.

https://www.voipbuster.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7269

(you need a VB account to log in to the forum)

...

- you need GPRS / UMTS (to let the application initiate the call via internet)
- you need JAVA (CLDC 1.1 / MIDP 2.0) most newer phones support this

1. on your MOBILE phone go to http://gsm.voipbuster.com (on some mobiles you need to choose 'download application' on some phones you can just go to the webpage)

2. ...

Pythia

mcguyver wrote:

I'm not wasting my time saying any more on it I said my bit these boards are about free speech are they not, that is just my opinion on it so get over it.

Nope, there's no free speech here. If you want free speech, you can set up your own website and talk all you want there.

Personally, I think that asking for donations for the server is perfectly acceptable and there is nothing dodgy going on.
They have been extremely open about how AFT is run so I can't see what's not to trust.

dal

andy0 wrote:

Voipbuster itself has a mobile Java client, which can be used for sms or to set up callback, so perhaps your efforts would be a bit redundant ........ unless there is a way around their statement about only free from one's own country, or will this be ok anyway from a phone?

I've used it for callback abroad so far, but haven't yet had a chance to test whether sms sent home (UK) from abroad are free or charged. As it should be on an Orange or O2 UK IP address (??), I'm assuming or hoping it will be counted as sent from UK.

I'm definitely keen on checkin out voipbuster, sounds really good. I checked out the j2me client, but its quite basic for sending texts (maybe they will work on this area in the future). The callback thing sounds brilliant tho.

Also, is it not the country that you calling or texting TO that is significant (and not which one you are in)?

ronbyrne2005

donutface wrote:

Ron, I recieved a payment of 10 euro from Anne Byrne. ill update the donation page soon with the last 2 or 3 payments

Yeah thats the one, just making sure ya got it as the donation was'nt referred to in last donations list.

andy0

dal wrote:

Also, is it not the country that you calling or texting TO that is significant (and not which one you are in)?

Well, it's a point of potential semantic argument, and I remember a lot when SkypePro was launched and used the same choice of words. I think it's likely when they say within, they intend to mean both from and to, or that is the way it's been interpreted in their forum in the light of some people's experience.

But as I say, I haven't been abroad since they launched this free offer, so I'm really only guessing so far that if they do test where it comes from, it might use an IP of the network of the SIM

Like your reply to me earlier about AFT, the VB client will work using any SIM in the phone. The username and password are set in the software, and by default this will be used as the sender ID for sms. Or a (choice of) mobile caller ID can be registered to the account (by receiving an sms).

For callback, they said last year that similar mobile clients might be launched for the other Betamax clones. It hasn't happened yet though, which is a pity as many of the others have lower tariffs for mobiles, but there are other possibilities (at which point I'm too far off-topic).

Machiavellian

donutface wrote:

At the rate that AFT is growing, by next year im expecting atleast triple the usercount, so by next year when i'll need money for renewal, hopefully no one that donated this year will have to donate again or maybe someone else can provide me with a server free of charge.

I agree with Pansy Potter, although, not about the whole 'get-rich-quick' scheme, as I reckon that is just a bit too ambitious. Having tried out your application today, have to say, I find it to be amateur to say the least, but good luck with it all the same. Certainly would not merit donating a cent to keep it going.

People, do your research, there are a few other (and better!) applications much like this one out there, that are not begging for donations to be hosted.... And it's not like this is even a one-off cost, as this cost will be incurred ANNUALLY if I read your thread right there Donutface. Did you do anything about the about the value chain yet in your Business Studies class?

Random

If you can't afford to or don't want to donate to AFT then don't. Simple as. You're still welcome to use it and the lads will still support you if you have issues.

Donations are to cover the costs of running the server - not the man hours they put into it.

This is how I see it.

Sam Vimes

Machiavellian wrote:

I agDree with Pansy Potter, although, not about the whole 'get-rich-quick' scheme, as I reckon that is just a bit too ambitious. Having tried out your application today, have to say, I find it to be amateur to say the least, but good luck with it all the same. Certainly would not merit donating a cent to keep it going.

People, do your research, there are a few other (and better!) applications much like this one out there, that are not begging for donations to be hosted.... And it's not like this is even a one-off cost, as this cost will be incurred ANNUALLY if I read your thread right there Donutface. id you do anything about the about the value chain yet in your Business Studies class?

hmm a person with 1 post who agrees with two people who don't know what they're talking about. the guys 17 or 18. he's not a professional programmer and he made it in his spare time.

maybe it looks "amateur" because, wait for this, he is an amateur programmer......no?

his application sends texts for a fraction of a cent and the only time it stops working is when the networks sites go down. how are these other ones better? do they write the text for you or something?

and for the third time, he's given the source code away for free so instead of bitching about this great service he's offering you, go and make your own

quintron

Machiavellian wrote:

I agree with Pansy Potter, although, not about the whole 'get-rich-quick' scheme, as I reckon that is just a bit too ambitious. Having tried out your application today, have to say, I find it to be amateur to say the least, but good luck with it all the same. Certainly would not merit donating a cent to keep it going.

People, do your research, there are a few other (and better!) applications much like this one out there, that are not begging for donations to be hosted.... And it's not like this is even a one-off cost, as this cost will be incurred ANNUALLY if I read your thread right there Donutface. Did you do anything about the about the value chain yet in your Business Studies class?

how very.. er.. machiavellian.

Machiavellian

Commander Vimes wrote:

hmm a person with 1 post who agrees with two people who don't know what they're talking about. the guys 17 or 18. he's not a professional programmer and he made it in his spare time.

Hmmm, the pit-bull replies to every message on this board??

maybe it looks "amateur" because, wait for this, he is an amateur programmer......no?

Abundantly clear... Just stating a fact.

his application sends texts for a fraction of a cent and the only time it stops working is when the networks sites go down. how are these other ones better? do they write the text for you or something?

and for the third time, he's given the source code away for free so instead of bitching about this great service he's offering you, go and make your own

And as for the last, have found a better one... Just offering my feed-back on the service. Surely you (or however it is you are associated with the project apart from "smart' replies...) or the rest of them appreciate what the public really think of the service

donutface

could you please point us to the better one, we'd really like to check it out and if theres any improvements that can be made we'd be more than happy to work on it.

As far as the donations go, im hoping to set up a basic hosting service for £1 or whatever, and get enough people interested to keep the server running so that this donation thing wont have to happen again.

Obviously the hosting wouldnt be a priority, and just be used as a tool to keep AFT running.


In other news, the dedicated server came through today, and I will be moving everything over within the next day or so. People who donated (anyone) can send me a private message or an email donut at donutsoft dot net if you want some free hosting with ASP.net/MySQL. Please just no high bandwidth stuff

Sam Vimes

Machiavellian wrote:

Hmmm, the pit-bull replies to every message on this board??

i'm not a pit bull and i don't reply to every message on this board. i do however reply to people who sign up just to tell a 17 year old how his program is amateurish, there's better ones out there (although you didn't mention which ones or how they're better because that would've been constructive) and we should all be suspicious of him not wanting to fund a dedicated server for our use out of his pocket money.

Machiavellian wrote:

Abundantly clear... Just stating a fact.

i want it to send texts cheaply. it does that with great proficiency. in what way is it amateurish?

Machiavellian wrote:

And as for the last, have found a better one... Just offering my feed-back on the service. Surely you (or however it is you are associated with the project apart from "smart' replies...) or the rest of them appreciate what the public really think of the service

feedback is something along the lines of "a delivery report would be nice". what you gave was not feedback

flodis79

Returning to the Voipbuster j2me client, it seems to work, and transferred very little data when I tried it for one sms: 521 byte sent, 317 byte received.

flodis79

andy0 wrote:

Also, and unstated, there is a fair use policy of 250 a month.

Where did you get this information?

donutface

just to clarify, dal made the client so do not give me credit for this. All I handle is the backend, ie the part that tries to make sure that the networks actually send your message

donutface

the new server is now live, just gotta wait for DNS to propagate and ill install php tommorow to activate the wiki again.

Enjoy, sending texts appears to be faster now too but I could be wrong

Random

donutface wrote:

the new server is now live, just gotta wait for DNS to propagate and ill install php tommorow to activate the wiki again.

Enjoy, sending texts appears to be faster now too but I could be wrong

Excellent - nice one mate

andy0

flodis79 wrote:

Where did you get this information?

Voipbuster forum

reduced to 12 countries yesterday, still incl Ireland, but given the free ones from the Irish networks I wouldn't have thought it so attractive except for people who already have an account

Jonathan

Lads I just wanna give u the support you deserve. Sorry I couldn't donate, doing the leaving and got no source of income!!

BomberBuckley

Congratulations to all involved in AFT and its progression. Not much of a comp buff but hope ye won't be put off by all those fannys sayin rubbish bout AFT. Never donated, don't have paypal acc but, am tempted to get one now. Great idea!

I am a Mac user, you no of any app that mimics yer multitext??? Any plans to develop mac version - prob unlikely i know.

Keep up d good work,

fbradyirl

Just had a quick browse of this thread. Congrats to AFT on a great service. To those people who like to slag it, get a life, create something that comes close in functionality and then come back and let us know about your brilliant project. Then we will listen to you. Some people don't realise that it takes a lot of time to code together something like this in our spare time.

BomberBuckley wrote:

Congratulations to all involved in AFT and its progression. Not much of a comp buff but hope ye won't be put off by all those fannys sayin rubbish bout AFT. Never donated, don't have paypal acc but, am tempted to get one now. Great idea!

I am a Mac user, you no of any app that mimics yer multitext??? Any plans to develop mac version - prob unlikely i know.

Keep up d good work,

Bomber, I have a program called JSMS (which, by the way, uses AFT for Vodafone / O2 server side stuff) which runs on Mac, Windows & linux... I am porting it to sourceforge.net at the minute (if any developers want to join in get in touch!) as I am going traveling soon and won't have time to design/maintain it for 12 months! To download jsms (free) go to:

http://jsmsirl.sourceforge.net/Home.html