So, today I’ve decided to release what I’m calling the “FarmVille Ultimate Spreadsheet & Calculator.”

I’ll warn you, this spreadsheet has tons of stats. If you’re into numbers, this spreadsheet is definitely for you. I’ve got 20 columns with different calculations based on seed cost, time to ripen, and XP gained, so that you can pick crops that are the most efficient in terms of profit, ROI, XP gain, and so on. If you want to know how much longer a crop is going to take to mature based on a percentage, there’s a column for that too. Input your farm’s width and height and get statistics for your whole farm, including cost, XP, and net coin gain. I created this spreadsheet because I hadn’t found a better one at the time. It’s definitely one of the most comprehensive spreadsheets for FarmVille out there. A screenshot:

FVUSC v1.1

Of course, it’s completely free, and released under a Creative Commons License.

UPDATE (12/19/11): I’ve released a minor update. Read the Release Notes in the README file included in this zip package for details.

Download: FVUSC v1.1.

FarmVille Ultimate Spreadsheet & Calculator by Robert Sanek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. Based on work from www.farmville.com.

First off, I registered RobertSanek.com as my main domain to present a little background about myself as well as describe projects that are currently active. As you can tell, it’s a pretty simple layout with just a bit of text, and I’m probably going to keep it that way. I mainly wanted to register it so someone else wouldn’t (like they did with rsanek.com).

I’ve started another blog over at ProatLife.com (no link between that and anything to do with abortion). I decided to just start a place where I try to improve on various areas in my life. From the About section:

I (Robert Sanek) started this blog as a freshman in college because I wanted to become a ‘pro’ in a bunch of different areas that I felt like my life was deficient in (hence the name, Pro at Life). Basically, my aim with all of my posts is to identify an area that can be improved upon in a serious way in most people’s lives. Usually, my inspiration comes from my own shortcomings and my struggle to improve myself.

In this sense, ProatLife is a self-help blog, but you might not think of it that way from the form of my posts. I try to do extensive research before I make my posts public, so I’m hoping my articles read more like mini research papers than simply the opinionated, fluffy kind of traditional self-improvement articles that are so abundant (and yet so useless) other places online.

So that’s a thing now. So far, I’ve posted one article, but I feel like I’ll be updating it pretty frequently. I’m not overly concerned about who sees it; I’m mainly doing it so that I have a record of my own research and so that I have a standard to adhere to (I wouldn’t post something before I thought I had researched it well enough, whereas I might skimp if I researched this stuff just for personal use).

Then there’s another project that is related to Auburn but that I don’t want to reveal right now. I’m still working hard on the coding; it’s taking a little longer than expected because I’m using some APIs and languages that I have no prior experience in. Hopefully I can get it done in time and have it become popular!

In the mean time, I’ve shut down services petaIMG, petaUPLOAD, and prHuge. I’m still developing Super Team and z1lc services.

In any case, exams in my school are finally over and I can focus more on what I want to do. Recently (as a matter of fact, just about a month ago), I started a selling a few things onine on eBay for fun. eBay is a great place, btw, even if they do disadvantage smaller sellers and favor powersellers like crazy. So I guess that’s coming along well, it seems like I’m always moving from one thing to the next.

In other news, I bought my first Apple product. I’m a bit ashamed, because I’ve been a long-standing opponent of Apple and basically one of those few people defending Microsoft. Anyway, my iPhone should come in very soon, I’m expecting it next week. So I wanted to ask whoever is reading this if they have unlocked and jailbroken their iPhone. I don’t have warranty on it anyway, but I wanted to know if it’s really as easy as it seems and it’s just something you can get done in 10 minutes. We’ll have to see.

I guess that’s all I wanted to say right now. Talk to you in another few months!

Anyway, I started playing on facebook with the zynga application, and I’ve progressed up a little. I find poker fun, and I don’t have the feeling that I’m completely wasting time since poker is a game that takes skill. I then downloaded the PokerStars app to my pc, and I’ve been playing with their “play money”, and got 1000 to 1425 in a day. I’m hesitant to go to real money, however, since it’s essentially gambling and not really a good income stream (even though I bet any PokerStars Pro would differ).  Does anybody have experience in real money games that could help me? Comment below.

Oh, and I really enjoy this poker-related song. It’s called Bing Blang Blaow, and is available here.

After you’ve made your settlers and you have the CP you need, you’re ready to found a village. But where will it be? Unless this is your 2nd or 3rd village, you are pretty much free where you can place it (if this is one of your first villages, found it on a 4-4-4-6 space very close to your home village, preferably 1 or 2 spaces away).

I will give you my own advice on this, but feel free to disagree. I’ve just found this very rewarding for me. The only things that dictate where I put my villages are two things: oasis availability and distance. I usually am cautious to found villages more than 25 spaces away from a possible support village. Make it close, but not too close. If your villages are too close together, you’re not helping your raiding range and you’re not going to take any new oasis, both major drawbacks. I always make sure there is at least one open oasis in my new village’s 7×7, usually two. Three is unnecessary as you will find that upgrading a Hero’s Mansion to level 20 costs too much. Basically, an ideal spot for a village would be:

• Not many other players nearby, e.g. only 1 or 2 other villages in the new village’s 7×7.
• At least 1 and preferably 2 free oasis for the taking once your Hero’s Mansion is ready
• Relatively close to your other villages (this can vary per player, but I like to have my villages within 15 minutes of my merchants)
• If this village is farther away, go ahead and settle a 4-4-4-6. This will make it much easier to support other villages around it if you are planning to settle close to this area

If you have these specifications, you’ve got a good spot.

So you’ve decided to settle it now: You have your main building at level 1, but what now? Are there any guidelines you should follow for the upgrading of buildings? Here’s generally the actions I take in any new village. Below, buildings are described as Building (level to upgrade to)

WH, Gran (1|1)
Main (3)
Market (1)
Rally (1)
WH, Gran (6|3)
Main (5)
Barracks (1)
Main (15)
WH, Gran (12|6)
Main (20)
WH, Gran (20, 10)

Beyond this, specialization for each player makes a rigid structure of upgrading hardly useful. But this should hopefully get you started!

Also, if you’re looking for an excellent guide that will tell you how to rise to the top players in Travian, check out this guide. I was skeptical at first of buying, but have never regretted it later. It really gets you ahead of others that don’t have these resources, and you’ll be raiding and owning like crazy!

UPDATE: Even though it’s a good game, Travian is a serious time-waster and eats up more time than you’d think. After getting a free account over at RescueTime, I realized that I was spending WAY too much time on it. So long, Travian!

If you’re looking to set up your own site, then I’d advise to do the following (for first-time phpLD newbies):

1. Get a domain: Something that has “pr” in it and that distinguishes you from others. Like for any other domain, follow general rules: easy to remember, not too long, no “-” characters, and get the .com version.
2. Get a free script: If you’re not looking to invest initially into phpLD (as I wasn’t), then you can get one for free. phpLD doesn’t exactly advertise it, but it can be found here.
3. Change the theme: Just as when you look at a blog that has the default WordPress theme, a default phpLD theme will turn a experienced link submitter off. Make sure the new theme you are looking at is supported by the phpLD version above (2.2.0)
4. Link to it: If you’re a member of any forums, put a link in your signature with your chosen keywords for the site. There are tons of ways to get backlinks. (see here and here)
5. Wait for the pr update before promoting: If you’re going to promote it at all, it’s in your best interest for you to get a pr higher than 3 beforehand. People won’t pay much for pr 2 or 3 backlinks.

That’s some basic info that should get you started. If you guys have any questions, just comment.

At first I didn’t notice it, since I don’t go through random folders looking at uploads. But then one happy morning my host suspended my account on the grounds that the site was overloading one of their servers due to a violation of the ToS. I was very displeased to find out that I was suspended, but I give props to my host for getting me back online very fast. I love the people at hostmonster.

So now, I have an option: either individually go through every folder (there are 500 of them, ex | ex) and delete the files in question. Not fun, a horrible use of time. Or, I could just let the side be down and eventually sell it to someone.

Now I feel the most sorrow for users that loved the site and used it legitimately. Namely, the forum Inkscape has benefited from svg and svgz uploads. And that’s what I wanted the site to be – a nice place to upload obscure image files with large sizes. But those with bad intentions have to mess it up for all of us.

You can read the official statement over at petaIMG.com, but I want to know what the readers think: what should I do with this project? If I remove the images and restart the service, the same threat will be there, except this time the host might not be so magnanimous.

UPDATE: (December 2nd) I let the current files stay online, and I got smacked down by my host once again. I proceeded to delete all the files that have ever been uploaded to petaIMG, so that won’t be available either. If you’re still interested in the domain, site, or script, you can go ahead and email me.

http://www.rsanek.net/old/