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TipTracer™ system for the Techno Tip Cube

This is an optional feature made available to you in the Techno Tip Cube's options dialog (Admin | TipTracer). In it's default state, your new Techno Tip Cube will not be registered with TipTracer.

What is TipTracer?

The TipTracer™ system is similar to the Transaction History in your SecondLife.com web account. A record of tips paid to each Techno Tip Cube can, with your approval, be stored on Zappowappy's TipTracer system for web-based viewing. But it goes much further than just listing your data in tabular form...

View tip data in both tabular listings and plotted charts.
View data associated with each of your jars and regions, either in tabular listings or pie charts. If you have multiple tip jars, then the pie chart provides effective feedback on your tip cube locations.
Sort every column in ascending/descending order.
View data for each avatar. You can know at a glance who your highest and most consistent tippers are, how many tips they've given you, and the average of all their tips.
Plot a moving average line to show if your tips are -- on average -- trending up, down, or staying even on course.
Plot the L$ axis against a logarithm ("log") scale or a linear scale. Log scales are helpful in spreading out the plotted points so they are easier to see in the plot chart.
Export tip data to Excel for your own offline viewing and/or archival purposes.

TipTracer can be an invaluable tool for serious club owners and performers to monitor and analyze their tip income.

What comprises TipTracer?

The TipTracer system is a Client | Server system:

The client side is your Techno Tip Cube. Using your Techno Tip Cube, you can enable the TipTracer system through a simple button-click operation referred to as "registering" the cube.
The server side is the interface that resides outside of SecondLife® on a web server. Accessing your TipTracer data for viewing and analysis is done by logging into a user account using your web browser.

Generally, when I speak of "TipTracer", I am referring to the server-side part of the system. See a Flash demo of TipTracer in action by clicking here.

Prior to 20-June-2013, two years's worth of transactions were stored. Effective 20-June-2013, that duration has been increased to THREE years (36 months). The TipTracer system will always hold significantly more than the 30 days (or 500 transactions, whichever is greater) that Linden's Transaction History provides you.

Web-based TipTracer Window ( tabulated tip data shown)

Other views:

Q: Do I need the TipTracer service for my Techno Tip Cube to function?
A: Absolutely not. TipTracer is an optional feature that was built into the Techno Tip Cube. It's geared for club owners or performers who want a convenient resource for analyzing their tip income. If you are satisfied with using Linden's generic transaction history list (presuming you're even interested in knowing who tipped you), then TipTracer can remain disabled with no adverse functionality to your Techno Tip Cube.

Tip data plotted versus time

Q: Do I need special software?
A: The TipTracer system runs inside your web browser, using the Adobe Flash Player. So you need a Flash-enabled web browser. Most browsers already have the correct version of Flash installed, so you probably don't need to install anything. As a test, go to the TipTracer login page. If you see a login prompt, then your browser will work just fine with it. If you don't have Flash installed, it is a quick and easy process. The Flash player is only about 1MB in size and can be downloaded from the Adobe website. On a sidenote, if you do have to download using this link, you might see the presence of a checkbox for installing something extra (such as a McAfee demo or a Google toolbar) Don't you just hate it when unsolicited options are enabled by default? (I certainly do). You can uncheck those boxes!

Q: Is there a cost for this service?
A: Yes, this is a fee-based service that charges 1.25% of all tips. That means 1L will be charged for every 80L you receive. This applies only to Techno Tip Cubes that are registered with the TipTracer system. More Q&A's regarding this topic are discussed here.

DECEMBER 2020 NOTICE

Because all browsers will be discontinuing Adobe Flash at the end of 2020, viewing of your tip data at tiptracer.com using our Flash-based charting utility will no longer be possible. (There may be some backdoor method of viewing flash applications in 2021, perhaps by using old browsers that won’t disable their Flash plugin. So, for that remote possibility, the charting software will still be up on the server.)

Until a NEW charting system is put into place, the 1.25% tip tracer fee will be waived until further notice. You can keep all of your MHS Donation Jars and Techno Tip Cubes registered with the tip tracer system, and all tips will still be recorded on our server AT NO COST. Eventually, when a new charting system is put into place, you can then view your tip income history. The 1.25% TipTracer fee will resume at that time.

QUESTION: Does that mean when your new charting system is implemented someday, a 1.25% fee will be applied to all of my tips that were recorded prior to the new charting system?

ANSWER: No. That 1.25% fee was always applied at the time the tip was paid. So we’re waiving that fee. The system will never (nor is it able to) "back-charge" for past tips recorded.

Q: I am a performer and will be rezzing my cube all around SecondLife^®. Can TipTracer provide statistics for each region?
A: Yes, and for Avatars too. After logging into the TipTracer viewer, you will see three tabs: My Jars, Regions and Avatars. Each tab provides a tabular and graphical piechart presentation (except for the Avatars tab, which is tabular only). In your case, as a single cube owner, you will see a single line item in the My Jars panel which will report an overall summary off all the tips you've received in your cube (multiple cube owners would see a separate line item for each cube). Then, in the Regions and Avatars panel, the information will be broken down on a per-region and per-avatar basis, respectively. This is the most powerful feature of the TipTracer system, and why you will love it so much!

Q: Can I export my data to my computer?
A: Yes. Beneath the tabular list, you will see an "Export to Excel" button. A Download/Save dialog will pop up when the '.XLS' data file has been generated. Oh, and in case you're wondering... the file you download has NO malicious or spyware-related code. There is absolutely no risk in saving/opening this file to your computer.

Note: For recent versions of Excel, you'll get a popup warning that states the file's extension (XLS) doesn't match the internal format of the file. It will ask you if you are sure you want to load the file. Click 'Yes'. Why do you see this message? Internally, the downloaded file is structured as plain HTML (you can see for yourself by opening up the file with a text viewer such as NotePad).

Q: What guarantees do you have?
A: I offer no guarantees because much of the infrastructure behind TipTracer is in the hands of others. For instance, the web server that hosts TipTracer is a shared server, and thus rebooted once each day that's not under my control. This means the server will be down for a minute or two. Tips made at that time won't get stored on the TipTracer system (you won't be charged either).

TipTracer functions on your Techno Tip Cube:

Click your Techno Tip Cube to pull down the options dialog. Then click Admin | TipTracer. The following buttons are available:

Password: retrieve your TipTracer password if you forgot it.
Import: transfers TipTracer history from another cube. Click here for info.
Report: reports back information over via owner-only chat regarding all your TipTracer-registered jars.
Admin: returns to the Admin panel
More Info: provides up-to-date info on TipTracer
Register or Unregister: register/unregister this cube from TipTracer. Click here for info.