Cash Pours in for Student with $1 Million Web Idea

Quantum Logic writes "Alex Tew, a 21-year-old student from a small town in England, earned a cool million dollars in four months on the Internet. Selling porn? Dealing prescription drugs? Nope. All he sells are pixels. The idea: turn his home page into a billboard made up of a million dots, and sell them for a dollar a dot to anyone who wants to put up their logo. A 10 by 10 dot square, roughly the size of a letter of type, costs $100. He sold a few to his brothers and some friends, and when he had made $1,000, he issued a press release. That was picked up by the news media, spread around the Internet, and soon advertisers for everything from dating sites to casinos to real estate agents to The Times of London were putting up real cash for pixels, with links to their own sites."

Comments

rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

since the submitter copied half the article, here's the rest:

So far they have bought up 911,800 pixels. Tew's home page now looks like an online Times Square, festooned with a multi-colored confetti of ads.

"All the money's kind of sitting in a bank account," Tew told Reuters from his home in Wiltshire, southwest England. "I've treated myself to a car. I've only just passed my driving test so I've bought myself a little black mini."

The site features testimonials from advertisers, some of whom bought spots as a lark, only to discover that they were receiving actual valuable Web hits for a fraction of the cost of traditional Internet advertising.

Meanwhile Tew has had to juggle running the site with his first term at university, where he is studying business.

"It's been quite a difficulty trying to balance going to lectures and doing the site," he said.

But he may not have to study for long. Job offers have been coming in from Internet companies impressed by a young man who managed to figure out an original way to make money online.

"I didn't expect it to happen like that," Tew said. "To have the job offers and approaches from investors -- the whole thing is kind of surreal. I'm still in a state of disbelief."

Re:rest of the article

[aprilsound]

Job offers have been coming in from Internet companies impressed by a young man who managed to figure out an original way to make money online.

This is the trouble with business. This kid isn't a genius, after all:

...I've only just passed my driving test...

This is just a flash in the pan, he'll get some publicity, sell some ad space, and then what?

Yes, he made a significant amount of money in a short time, which seems to be the model the new economy is adopting, but it's not sustainable business. In 2 months, who is going to care about a site full of ads with no content?

The kid had a good idea, and got lucky, but that doesn't make him anything special, and given the nature of the money (i.e. accrued with very little effort on his part), I don't think he gained any experience that will make him an asset to any of these companies offering him a job. This is winning the lottery, not entrepreneurial success (not to say there isn't a lot of luck in entrepreneurship).

This is not news, it's barely human interest, and its not anything anyone will care about even next week (except the people seeing the dupe for the first time).

Nothing to see here, please move along.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

Boy, talk about sour grapes. The kid did have a good idea that earned him a million bucks, which is one more million dollar ideas than you've had. He probably will never do it again, but he'll still be a million dollars richer than he was. Good for him, and I hope he's smart enough to invest the money instead of blowing it.

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[Anonymous Coward]

well I think you're missing the point of what they see in him

and quite the opposite argument can be made, look at nobel laureates, how many of them did any significant work after the work that won them the prize, some do, but in proportion to the expectations you have?

coming up with one good idea unfortunately isn't a sure fire predictor of future good ideas

rather what they see in him I think is that he has what it takes to transform an idea into real world action

there's a lot more people out there with grandiose "good" ideas than there are people with the skills to take one of them and turn it into real world profit

griping that there's nothing special about this kid just makes you look petty and jealous

Re:rest of the article

[aprilsound]

My comment was directly less at the kid and more at the current economic disease of short sighted gains. This site is just a good case study. I'm happy for the kid, and wish I had thought of it first. But it wont last.

This is not something that anyone should care about; if not this kid then someone else would have made a similar cute site for a few businesses to throw money at and the media to use as filler for a few months.

A year from now, this site wont exist, but the kid is set for life. Why? He didn't demonstrate a knack for business or marketing or anything like that, much less a unique talent.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

There's some similarity to this

The "Klondike Big Inch" was a promotional campaign by Quaker Harvest Oats in the 1950's. The deeds, for one square inch of Yukon land, were included in cereal boxes. Although it was a very successful marketing enterprise, the deeds were strictly promotional and never entitled holders to any actual land.

Also see ownapieceofamerica dot com.

Re:rest of the article

[B3ryllium]

I own an acre on the moon.

Re:rest of the article

[Drakonite]

This kid isn't a genius, after all:

...I've only just passed my driving test...

This may surprise you, but not everyone in the world has a driver's license at age 16. Hell, in a lot of countries the minimum age is 17, 18, or even higher. And believe it or not, in large portions of the world a substantial (majority?) of people don't have a driver's license and depend on public transit systems like rails, subways, and busses. It's a shame that most US citizens can't comprehend the benefits to society of having a good solid public transit system over a crappy (or non existant) public transist with everyone having their own vehicle and thus treat public transit like a disease they want nothing to do with; some even going as far as to redicule anyone who would even think of using public transit. You'd think after 20 or 30 minutes of rush hour traffic just about anyone would be converted..

Maybe that wasn't his reason... maybe he just didn't need a car and thus didn't care, maybe he couldn't afford one, or maybe he is a horrible driver. Doesn't really matter, because I don't care about the original topic anymore.. My point still stands in general.

Re:rest of the article

[glomph]

I own an acre on the moon.

Yeah! Tell me about it... keep your damn dog from crapping on my front yard!

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet the kid is crying in his cornflakes becacuse people won't care about the webpage in a year.

Newsflash buddy, he made $1 million doing fuckall. He can put that million in a high interest earning account and continue to do fuck all for the rest of his life.

Oh but shit.... nobody will care about his website next year. It's just not worth it in the end....

Fucking idiot.

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[kubis]

You are right, sir. I can't imagine to drive daily almost an hour there and back by car in rainy / stormy weather or sitting like a duck in a traffic jam. Daily commuting with train and bus takes the same time, is usually cheaper and besides that i can have a quite good breakfast with newspaper in the train. Or i can read some websites or e-mails on my ntbk before i get to work. So why should i buy a car...

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[mdfst13]

"It's a shame that most US citizens can't comprehend the benefits to society of having a good solid public transit system"

In most of the US, a public transportation system would be more expensive than cars. Buses are great and all, but if they always run less than a quarter full, they're actually less efficient than cars (because they are so much bigger). Further, there are only six cities in the US with the population density to support light rail (in the rest, buses would actually be more efficient).

The only way public transit would work in the US would be if people stopped moving out of cities and started moving back. Good public transit requires that kind of clumpiness. The subway systems in New York, Boston, and DC are incredible. However, they simply wouldn't work in other cities. Who wants to wait an hour for a train? Heck, I don't like waiting fifteen minutes for a bus!

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[jdigriz]

>A year from now, this site wont exist, but the kid is set for life. Why? He didn't demonstrate a knack for business or marketing or anything like that, much less a unique talent.

Oh, I seriously disagree. This guy figured out a way to sell something that there's an infinite supply of, pixels, for lots of money, *and* to get people talking about him doing it. If that's not a knack for marketing, I don't know what is. Marketing is demand creation, pure and simple.

Did he create something of actual value? No, of course not. Did he create the perception of value? Definitely, for people who purchased his "wares". And creating the perception of value is the most valuable thing of all in today's "service economy".

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[TapeCutter]

The kid got people to throw money at him with an idea NOBODY else thought of and all you can do is whine about how he is not a genius, can barely drive and basically doesn't deserve it because it was "easy" money. What a fucking wet blanket, in ten years you will probably be working for him.

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[Anonymous Coward]

"This is just a flash in the pan, he'll get some publicity, sell some ad space, and then what?"

And then he has a million bucks.
Man, some people are really need to rub it in them to get it...

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[redfood]

This is the trouble with business. This kid isn't a genius, after all:

He may not be a genius but he is very good at (self) promotion. That is important for business.

Nothing to see here, please move along.

And yet we are all looking...

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[SEWilco]

I own an acre on the moon.

I'll pay you $1 for it if you can change it to be a specific color.

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[Imsdal]

Did he create something of actual value? No, of course not.

How do you know this? If people actually click on the ads on his page and generate business for the advertisers, he certainly did create actual value. Now, I will grant you that I agree that he probably didn't create much value, but it would be foolish to say for sure that he didn't.

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[rjshields]

Buses are great and all, but if they always run less than a quarter full, they're actually less efficient than cars (because they are so much bigger).

No, even 15 people on a bus is far more efficient than 15 people driving 15 cars in terms of space and fuel economy.

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[Anonymous Coward]

This is the trouble with business. This kid isn't a genius, after all: ...I've only just passed my driving test...

This has to be the stupidiest thing I've read in quite some time. How on earth is his driving skills or lack thereof relevant to how good a businessman or programmer he is, assuming that his driving skills even had anything to do with his acquiring his license so late (believe it or not, but there are other reasons for not getting a license)?

I take it you're a) American, b) live in the middle of nowhere. In my experience, those are the only people who think having a driver's licenses is somehow a necessary condition for anything other that just that -- driving a fucking car. Sheesh.

Re:rest of the article

[Mr. Deleted]

Awesome story, although I don't know how this will work for others, I got some traffic cause of this to my "pixel directory", I can't convert any of that traffic to cash it seems.

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[number11]

In most of the US, a public transportation system would be more expensive than cars.

Not if we ever stop subsidizing cars (highways, roads, runoff, military expense of securing oil supplies, pollution, injuries). Even in a country like the US that is laid out in an energy-inefficient way. Yes, we subsidize transit too, but nowhere near as much as automobiles.

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[Anonymous Coward]

agreed - in SF the population density puts about 3/4 of a million people in a space smaller than Boulder Colorado, and is nicely served by mass-transit better than cars. Pheonix Arizona on the other hand (where I just moved back from) is so spread out, the cost of SF style transportation would be staggering, and in the US there's tons of communties that are low-population but very spread out.

Europe had the luxury of a couple of dozen centuries to bulk up the populations over small areas. They have little idea how large the US really is. I'm always amused at their reactions when I encounter new comers who have driven from NY to California, taken Amtrak or Greyhound.

Re:rest of the article

[Godwin O'Hitler]

I hope you'll excuse me for saying that sounds like jealousy.

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[dr_d_19]

It's a shame that most US citizens can't comprehend the benefits to society of having a good solid public transit system over a crappy (or non existant) public transist with everyone having their own vehicle and thus treat public transit like a disease they want nothing to do with; some even going as far as to redicule anyone who would even think of using public transit.

I agree. I live in Stockholm, Sweden and I have never needed my drivers license. The public transit system here is excellent. I can get anywhere I want using low pollution, CHEAP public transit (it approx. $80 per month, and I can go anywhere I want within 30 miles from the city center). My trip to work (15 minutes by subway) would take at least 45 minutes in rush hour, maybe even more. Also, I'd have to pay road tolls to enter the city (and it's there to reduce cars in the city, and we have a lots of streets now dedicated to walking only). The income from the road tolls are used to enhance the public transportation system. All in all: less pollution, less cars in the city, easy to get everywhere.

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[jcr]

No, even 15 people on a bus is far more efficient than 15 people driving 15 cars in terms of space and fuel economy.

You're not paying attention. There are a lot of bus routes where you rarely have even 15 people on the bus in California.

-jcr

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[feyhunde]

Sigh.

In Da USA not everyone lives in cities, or within 20 miles of one.

Right now I live 100 miles from a city over 30,000. The closest Metro is 500. I need a car for work. I need a car because population density in my location means that on average I live a decent distance from either my work or stores. If I want a good electronics store, I have to drive 100 miles on back roads.

It's not always an issue of mass transit. Sometimes it's because I choose to be a farmer. Or I choose to be a gravity researcher and live at Ligo. Or google moved to a small town. Or I don't want to live in a rat box metro.

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[jdigriz]

If he generated business for other people, then he *received* something of actual value, money, but did not create it. At most, an ad on his page is a pointer to an actual business which may or may not create something of value. Gambling for instance is a business which creates nothing. It merely redistributes wealth in interesting ways. As do trial lawyers. Slicing up the pie in different ways is not the same thing at all as baking more pies, and what this gentleman did was invented a new way to slice up the pie.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

That's right. I'm 28 years old and still don't have a driver's licence. I can afford it, but I haven't got the need for it yet

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[Imsdal]

This is not even remotely true, but a very common misconception.

The gambling industry creates entertainment. Creating entertainment is creating value to those who appreciate that particular form of entertainment. As with all forms of entertainment, it may be of a kind that you do not particularily enjoy. Fortunately, you are free to abstain from participating in it if you don't like it. Great, huh!

What is your take on the movie industry? Don't they create anything of value either? Artists? Writers of fiction?

Lawyers add value by helping make sure that everyone follows agreements on how to behave in society. Not all lawyers create value while doing so, for different reasons. In fact, one may argue that the current situation in the US is such that most lawyers don't create value to anyone except themselves. But blanket statements about slicing pies instead of baking them are confused and incorrect.

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[rolfwind]

ENVY wasn't the grandparent's poster's complete motivation, it was pointing out that the element of luck was largely involved in this. The idea of the page itself wasn't novel (ads on the net have been around 4ever, there are other 'pixel pages') but the way he executed it (press released after selling a $1,000 worth) was neat and all those factors coming together for him was a neat fluke.

In fact, in a way, this slashdot article is pushing it into a self-fulfilling prophecy zone.

In any case, a spawn of imitators will pop up (most/all failing) and the guy will move on with his life. If he is some type of advertising genius, we'll hear of him (or what he's pushing) again. And if not, he's a $1M richer in any case.

I wouldn't envy him, I wouldn't have done what he did in the first place so that's a moot point, and the road to success isn't a overly severely limited or perhaps even finite resource doled out to only a set number of people unless you approach life with a bad attitude. There's enough fads left to exploit in the human race to be cynical and enough problems to solve (and business to be made) in the world to be optimistic.

Re:rest of the article

[rjshields]

A bus takes up the same space as 2 people in 2 cars...

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[jcr]

A bus takes up the same space as 2 people in 2 cars...

But a great deal more fuel.

-jcr

Re:rest of the article

[jcaren]

Comment "A year from now, this site wont exist, but the kid is set for life. Why?"
Reply "Oh, I seriously disagree"

Let's say he patents the idea, then use his funds to sue the ass off each and every company doing anything remotely similar. Given his funds, the first one will likely cave in and that will "start the ball rolling". Investors will see that he is on to a winner and the money will roll in. He will then sell out and live off the tens of millions he has made in less than a year.

Of course, he comes from blighty, so the idea of patents and related extortion
are not bred in at a young age - but I have no doubt he will learn quick :-)

Re:rest of the article

[bxbaser]

"He can put that million in a high interest earning account and continue to do fuck all for the rest of his life."

where is that high intrest that can let you do fuck all for the rest of your life with a million ?

a mill dont go that far nowadays its still more than i have
and sure im a bit jealous that he made a mill so easy.
but break it down a bit.

safe investments certificate of deposit yielding what nowadya 2%

2% interest per year $20,000 per year before taxes.
cant really do fuck all with that.

Kudos to the kid for making the cash but in reality he will probably have less that 20% left in a few years then kick himself in the ass for not going to college cause he had a mill in the bank.

job paying 150,000 a year make a mill in less than 7 years and can make the second mill in less than 14 years and the third in less than 21.

of course i will have made my second million in in less than 181 years, im still working on my first million will be in year 91 (walmart sucks)

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[gavD]

>This kid isn't a genius, after all: >...I've only just passed my driving test... Driving? That's kind of irrelevant, don't you think? I've been involved with this project since a few weeks after it started - I wrote the PHP/MySQL image manipulation and link generation code (it caches the grid of links out to a static text file, which I plan to optimise when I get back to my own development platform by using target=_BLANK globally rather than per link - can't believe I didn't think of that!) as well as the Javascript zoom/negative/cursor tracker and have been managing some the pixel orders alongside Ean and Alex, and from working with Alex I can tell you that he's a very astute, switched on, yet humble guy. Alex (AKA A-Plus) also set up humanbeatbox.com, which I (AKA BeatMuppet) now help to administrate, and that site has many thousands of users and is a hub of the global beatbox community, and continues to inspire and teach thousands of young people a portable form of musical expression. That's two pretty significant acheivement by the age of twenty-one. I wouldn't write off the chances of him doing it again - he's something of a Leonard de Quirm character, who is struck by sleeting particles of raw inspiration at a somewhat alarming rate...

Re:rest of the article

[Zork the Almighty]

Further, there are only six cities in the US with the population density to support light rail (in the rest, buses would actually be more efficient).

In my experience (Vancouver BC) building mass transit creates demand for high density housing. We built our first rapid transit line in 1986, and ten years later you could see residential towers around most of the stations - wherever the municipal governments allowed it. In 2001 we opened a second line and the towers are there already. These are 20-30 story residential towers, in groups of 3-10 around most stations, where previously there were just some old houses. The towers being built now have integrated commercial development, ie: a good grocery store and basic services are less than a 5 minute walk from your apartment. Provided there is demand for real-estate, why not build this way ? People don't want to drive an hour or more to work, and then drive again to the grocery store, and again to the mall, etc. You can waste your entire life sitting in traffic. Rapid transit has network effects. The system becomes more valuable as you build it, and if cities aren't building it now because their density is low then they are completely backwards.

Re:rest of the article

[Drakonite]

Buses are great and all, but if they always run less than a quarter full, they're actually less efficient than cars (because they are so much bigger).

The only way public transit would work in the US would be if people stopped moving out of cities and started moving back. Good public transit requires that kind of clumpiness.

I assure you the town I live in is plenty 'clumpy' enough to support a good public transit system, however I doubt any of the bus routes here have more than a quarter full for more than a couple hours a day. It's not that people aren't here to support it, but because everyone seems to be taught to treat public transit like a disease they want nothing to do with and that they need to have their own car.

To make matters worse the bus system here was designed around a busy downtown, which is now nearly desolate (save for bars, bars, and more bars), so they are shut down an hour too early to take a bus home if you work a 'normal' 9-5 job... If the bus system can't support people working 9-5 jobs, it's lost out on a huge part of it's potention passengers.

Oh yeah... shouldn't be hard to see I think the politicians here are among the ones that think public transit is a disease.

Re:rest of the article

[bxbaser]

"A year from now, this site wont exist, but the kid is set for life."

More than likely a few years from now the site wont exist the kid definatly wont be set for life he will probably be somewhat broke from sinking his million into 5 or 6 halfbaked idea that wont get lucky like this one did, and will be kicking himself in the ass for not going to college.

Failure is a great learning tool and you can potenionaly learn more than you did in 4 years of college, you certainly wont make the same mistake twice when you lose you shirt on something.
The problem this kids gonna have is he tasted success and it was easy success he will figure his next million is just another idea away.

And now he has a 1 million dollar shirt to lose trying for more.

Re:rest of the article

[shintaro]

You're not sweet, salty or sour so you must be.........

Bitter.

Re:rest of the article

[Nuskrad]

Actually, the guy was doing this to raise money for uni. He was hoping for a few thousand to cover accomodation and fees, but he has a nice little nest egg. He's planning on doing a masters in Business or Management or something, I'm sure he knows that this won't last him for life. And it looks great on applications.

Re:rest of the article

[rjshields]

Not much more than 4 cars.

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[Anonymous Coward]

This is the trouble with business. This kid isn't a genius, after all: ...I've only just passed my driving test...

What the heck does that have to do with anything? He's not a genius because he only recently passed his driving test???!?!? What are you on? I know that in the US you can get a driving license at 15, but over here you have to be 17 and the test is stringent enough that it typically takes 30 or 40 hours of lessons (on average more if you're older) to pass. Since lessons are about £20 or £25 (that's $35 - $45) an hour, maybe he just didn't have the funds to take his test whilst he was taking his school exams, back-packing around the world and whatever else he's been doing in the last 4 years. Maybe it just wasn't a priority for him?

Blimey!

I think in some places they may give you a driving license just for turning up & driving 100 yards down the road, but the UK is a pretty crowded country & there's more to crash into here. Unfortunately the roads are still full of idiots.

As for your comments about entrepreneurship - you're right that it's 50% luck. The other 50% are thinking up that crazy idea & have the balls to follow through with it. Maybe the companies who are offering this kid a job like the idea of people who can think outside the box. I reckon I wouldn't mind going back inside the cubicle farm if he were my boss.

Posted anonymously because for some weird reason you got +5 insightful, and today I have the mod points to add an "over-rated" to that. :D

Stroller

Re:rest of the article

[Otto]

The problem with that theory is that it's an "if you build it, they will come" sort of theory, and it rarely works out that way.

In other words, it only works when a city experiences rapid population growth. Vancouver's population (your example) has grown by something like 25% in the last 25 years. Whereas most cities in the US are shrinking in size, rapidly.

People tend to move away from cities into the surrounding suburbs because they don't want to be packed in like sardines in the cities proper. Building efficent mass transit won't change that fact.

Re:rest of the article

[Lehk228]

in ten years he will have spent all his million dollars rying to get his internet ad firm off the ground and realize after it's gone that his idea was just randomly lucky, like the first person to sell a ghost in a jar on ebay or the first hundred or so people to sign up for a free ipod/plasma tv/ mac mini

Re:rest of the article

[Lehk228]

patent what exactly? putting ads on a web page? adversisers choosing the exact location of their ad?

Re:rest of the article

[bxbaser]

good deal for him he doesnt need to worry about paying tution as he can afford any school now.

Re:rest of the article

[ttldkns]

bitter or umami...
But I dont think they're that either ;)

Re:rest of the article

[raju1kabir]

Further, there are only six cities in the US with the population density to support light rail (in the rest, buses would actually be more efficient)... The subway systems in New York, Boston, and DC are incredible.

That's a very authoritative-sounding declaration, and a very specific number, still warm from the aromatic sphincter whence it was plucked. However, you don't even seem to know what light rail is.

Hint: It ain't what they're running on the DC subway tracks.

Re:rest of the article

[raju1kabir]

ING Direct is paying 3.75% right now.

That's $37,500 per year for sitting on his ass.

That's a bit of pocket change short of the median family income in the USA, and similar in the UK.

He can easily sit back on that if he wants to.

Re:rest of the article

[Conor Turton]

This kid isn't a genius, after all: ...I've only just passed my driving test...

Hey stupid fuckwit Yank, you can't even apply for a learners licence here until you're 17. And we HAVE to have this little thing called insurance which costs a fortune when you're a young driver.

And another thing...we're not all obsessed with owning a car like you lot. Unlike you lot, we don't have this hell bent desire to fuck up the planet as quickly as possible.

Re:rest of the article

[Conor Turton]

ING Direct is paying 3.75% right now.

Jesus Christ, is your economy in that bad a state? Christ, ING Direct in the UK is paying 4.5% and that's considered not that good with some current accounts offering 6% and the average online savings account being in the mid 5% range.

Re:rest of the article

[nra1871]

It's not that people aren't here to support it, but because everyone seems to be taught to treat public transit like a disease they want nothing to do with and that they need to have their own car.

The reason we treat it like a disease is because the busses are freaking disgusting. I park in a lot outside the city where I work, and take a bus in. The bus always smells like pee. There are days when the stink is so thick that it feels like I am sitting in a urinal. It's freaking vile, and if there was any parking in the city I wouldn't take this bus. Then there's the joy of bus drivers who are completely incapable of reading a schedule, who sometimes don't show up at scheduled pick up times. When I leave work early for an appointment, I make sure to leave two pickups earlier than I need to. I've missed doctor's visits so many times because the bus driver just couldn't be bothered to show up. Yeah, can't see why no one wants to take the bus.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

The United Kingdom is without question one of the hardest places on earth to receive a drivers license. Many Americans who have driven for decades have difficulty getting a UK licence. They probably don't teach that at Baylor, I mean you guys are to busy attending school sanctioned dances.

Re:rest of the article

[nietsch]

Utility vehicles are bought with cost efficiency in mind, personal cars are not (or how could you explaing anything other then a small compact?).

Smart and dumb people are equally impervious to reason. Smarter people only make up more complex arguments/fallacies to explain away their bad habits, like smoking or driving cars. I am not too impressed by your argument either.

Re:rest of the article

[Skye16]

Well, if you ever move to rural America for any reason, you might find the fact that there is no public transportation a huge reason to own your own car and have a driver's license...

I've never been on a bus before (sans a school bus). Or a taxi. Or a train. Or a ferry.

In the "city" I live in now, we have a few busses, but they don't go anywhere near where I work, so that idea is right out. The only trains we have are freight trains that blow through - there is a train station for Amtrak, but the nearest other stop is about an hour car drive away, so that's hardly fucking effective, is it?

So, in conclusion; if you live in a city and can get by without a car, rock on! ( Serious question, though, as the idea of public transportation is foreign to me: how do you do your grocery shopping? What if you want to buy something large from a store, like a bookshelf or something? Do you just carry everything everywhere? How does that work? )

But if you live in the middle of fucking nowhere, it's what you require to survive. And, when you can hit the highway and do 65 (legal) to 85 (not so much) the entire way to work with your music blasting and see maybe... 5 other cars on the highway, you'd actually come to love your car.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

>if you live in a city and can get by without a car, rock on! ( Serious question, though, as the idea of public >transportation is foreign to me: how do you do your grocery shopping? What if you want to buy something large from a >store, like a bookshelf or something? Do you just carry everything everywhere? How does that work? ) Grocery shopping uses fewer, larger, stronger bags without a car and it is generally either carried home (I live about 1 mile from the supermarket and prefer this), or you just hop on a bus and put it on the seat next to you, or in the bus's luggage compartment if the bus is busy. The majority of stores around here (South London, UK) that sell bookshelves, beds and other large things will offer free or cheap delivery to your door, so you can buy something of any size and in most cases have it delivered the next day. In the worst case, if there is a one-off where you can not get by without a car, you can just get a taxi. I get taxis often (as I am lazy), use trains a lot and buses every now and then and spend considerably less than I would on fuel, road tax, a vehicle, insurance, etc. I am sure some people will leap on this with counter-examples, but I am in my mid twenties and have never needed a car here, and have never had any problems with getting large purchases or groceries home.

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[HD Webdev]

The kid got people to throw money at him with an idea NOBODY else thought of and all you can do is whine about how he is not a genius, can barely drive and basically doesn't deserve it because it was "easy" money. What a fucking wet blanket, in ten years you will probably be working for him.

There are "wet blankets" commenting on every article here. And, lately, they often get modded up.

Someone kid could build a working nuclear reactor at home and more than a handful of people would say things like "I could have built one using coconuts + some particular distro of Linux", "What an idiot, he showed how he did it using PowerPoint. He's not too bright.", and my personal favorite type of reply "So what? They've been built in lots of countries. This is nothing new. *YAWN*".

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[donscarletti]

and quite the opposite argument can be made, look at nobel laureates, how many of them did any significant work after the work that won them the prize, some do, but in proportion to the expectations you have?

Ever wonder why the nobel prize isn't awarded until years after the work has been done? Because they want to know if the work that was done will lead to anything major. If it is discovered that nothing can come of a discovery, no prize will be considered, that's the way it works. A brilliant discovery can cause other brilliant discoveries whether the discoverer spends the rest of their life discovering, or sitting on a couch smoking weed. This however was useful only because it is novel, thus it cannot be reused or built on. The other difference is science is a great and nobel persuit that has brought us from caves to great civilizations, advertising is merely the art of making someone change their behaviour in a way that is more profitable to your client. Sweeping dung off the road is honourable because when it is finished, there will be no dung on the road, when advertising is finished people will spend more money on frivilous things that they are suddenly told that they want, hardly a lofty aspiration.

Mr Tew has succeeded in paying for his education and has generated wealth for himself. There is nothing wrong with that of cause, but nobody owes him any admiration for what he has done, the world as a whole today and generations in the future will not benifit from this discovery and thus he should NOT be compared with nobel laureates.

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[Junior J. Junior III]

Add in the taxes that go to pay for the construction and maintenance of roads, and public transportation via light rail is not so expensive anymore. Roads and automobiles have indeed opened the countryside as a viable living space, but it's not sustainable and as soon as cheap oil runs out, the trend toward consolidated population centers is going to reverse (once the massive die-off subsides, assuming civil order re-emerges out of the chaos that event will cause). It was a good idea to get out of the city at the time, when cities were crowded, filthy, polluted, and crime-ridden, but as it turns out the massive suburban sprawl that the automobile has created will not last much beyond a century.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Broad generalizations about a country of nearly 300 million people don't really work all that well, so your emotional outburst at the end isn't as applicable as you think.

Aside from that, driver administration is left up to the states, so there are 50 different sets of rules here, which means your outburst about the rules isn't as applicable as you think, either.

I suppose your inferiority complex about being a Euro probably makes you do this quite often? I'll check your history - yeah, a quick check shows you spend a lot of time spewing your psychological deformities all over this site.

Hey, I wonder - does Euron sound like a good name for your type? I mean, Eurotrash is old, Euroweenie is... bleh, Eurofag is a little intolerant, but Euron. I like it. It carries all of the right connotations without needlessly offending real people.

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[Scruffeh]

Cars are definitely less viable in the UK than they are in the USA. Petrol is really expensive here (a litre of petrol was 87p/1.5 USD in 2005). The motorways are very overcrowded at peak times and they only connect up the major cities which means that if you are travelling a long distance you have to use slower A roads. Parking is a nightmare in most city centres here and you're also likely have to struggle through an incomprehensible one way system. I'm at university in a city which has a very good tram system and my home city is flat enough to cycle almost anywhere. I use the train to travel home and the bus to go into the city centre. As for transporting large loads (I can drive but do not own a car) I would probably ask a friend with a car for help or get it delivered. All the supermarkets here do on-line ordering and cheap/free delivery. It's probably tricky for a family of 4 to cope without a car, but for an individual or couple it's pretty easy.

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[Phantom Zmoove]

Out of all the bad things I've done in my life, driving to work never really occurred to me as one of them.

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[GigsVT]

The same could be said of someone running a pryamid scheme.

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[Politburo]

Serious question, though...

Grocery shopping.. you either live within walking distance and/or you don't buy as much when you go. It's a pain if you're used to buying $100 worth of groceries.. but it makes it a lot easier to cut back on soda. A lot of stores also offer vans that will take you home if you have a lot of stuff.. and you can always take a cab, of course.

Buying large items: Have it delivered, or use Zipcar/Flexcar.. these are car-sharing companies where you can rent vehicles for small amounts of time.. or you can rent the small U-Haul for ~$20.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, you sound really envious of the money he made with "so little effort". I'd concentrate my angry energies at the big evil corporations, not a smart kid that got something back from some of them.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Further, there are only six cities in the US with the population density to support light rail

You only have six cities with a million or more people? I thought the US was a little larger than that. I have lived in cities with light rail transit that was successful and profitable with approximately a population of one million. the stops for the light rail transit were every 7 minutes, not exactly a long wait.

and as for a bus only being a quarter full, i would love to see a bus with only that many people on it, but even so a quarter full bus is at least 10 cars off the road. you got to have some pretty bad buses for that to be inefficient.

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[Phaid]

Smart and dumb people are equally impervious to reason. Smarter people only make up more complex arguments/fallacies to explain away their bad habits, like smoking or driving cars. I am not too impressed by your argument either.

So the dumber ones just resort to ad hominem attacks then?

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[ronanbear]

Google should just hire him and make a few more billion. Improving their auction process and integrating it would allow for relevant collages to be inserted into websites. His idea was a one off because people won't keep coming to other sites. The idea can't be repeated as successfully. But instead adapt it to banner adds that allow a single banner ad to contain multiple relevant ads in a unique (and probably less irritating than flash) manner. Incidentally, I wonder how much the /. effect is boosting his advertisers and helping him to sell the remaining pixels.

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[Xaositecte]

*Ahem*

Old News

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[Overzeetop]

Though I agree that the number, 6, has probably been pulled from OPs nether regions, population is not necessarily the driving factor - density is. Good dense residential and commercial districts is what you need. Usually that either means constrained land, or very good planning. Since the latter almost never happens, land constraint is usually required. In most of the US, there's just so freakin' much of it, it's hard to get people to squish together voluntarily. Add a bit of cash, and they all go out and build McMansions or Starter Castles on "estate" lots in the 'burbs. What's an hour and a half on the freeway if you're comfy in your new Benz?

Now, I happen live in a town of 30,000, which has excellent bus service (you can get anywhere, practically, and stops are very frequent). The catch? Its a college town, and for nine months of the year, the population swells to about 50,000. Of that 50,000, fully half are required to pay a fee which keeps the busses running. They get to ride for free, of course. Also, the housing is dense (apartments/condos students account for 60-65% of housing units), and there are just a couple of business centers, also relatively dense. Just to prove I'm a filthy American, I drive everywhere (except when I walk or bike to work or the library, when the weather is nice). What do I do with all the minutes I saved (not) waiting for the bus? I post on /., of course!

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[Anonymous Coward]

People tend to move away from cities into the surrounding suburbs because they don't want to be packed in like sardines in the cities proper. Building efficent mass transit won't change that fact.

...in part because they're packed in like sardines AND they have no simple way of getting around. Thus, if you have to regularly use a car anyway, because there's no good public transit to get you around, why not move somewhere that you don't have tiny, packed streets and very limited parking?

You can argue the chicken and the egg in both directions, but eventually you just keep arguing the same things over and over. And then development never happens. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and at least give it a try.

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[HD Webdev]

*Ahem*

That's what I had in mind but he wasn't anywhere close to actually having a functioning reactor although it was hyped up by the media to encourage people to think so.

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[F452]

No, the U.S. economy is currently in pretty good shape. Keeping in mind that I don't really know how money works, isn't it true that savings accounts like ING's are based on prevailing interest rates, and lower interest rates indicate a healthier economy?

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[Jeff DeMaagd]

The kid got people to throw money at him with an idea NOBODY else thought of and all you can do is whine about how he is not a genius,

I won't say nobody thought of before, but rather nobody tried to do before. The other people that came up with the same idea probably came up with it a joke or didn't try to promote it for other reasons. The fact that people will pay by the single pixel simply shows that there's a sucker born every minute.

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[dotnetNihat]

Look at it from an economical / socilogical point of view:

You must know about inequal distribution of income within a population. Money is concentrated on people who are owners of corporations...etc. In other words, money is not homogenously distributed in the society, think about the rich and the poor. By coming up with such an idea, this guy made the rich corporate owner pay him -- a regular middle class person , thus helping the money permeate homogenously inside society so that money goes towards the poor. Congratulations to him!

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[John Courtland]

Jesus christ. He's saying that there's not enough population density to support the system that's in place because there just aren't enough people to make the bus transit efficient. Goddamn...

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[cthrall]

It's a shame that most US citizens can't comprehend the benefits to society of having a good solid public transit system over a crappy (or non existant) public transist

Oh, I comprehend it. I even ride it every day.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Its fine that you like to live your life arround someone elses schedule, but not everyone does.
Its fine that you dont mind spending thirty or forty minutes potentially packed very tightly into a smelly can, but not everyone else does.
Its fine if you like to live in a dense uban environment, but not everyone does. (This especially iritates me some day I want to have a yard and to not have neighbours on both sides behind paper thin walls)
Driving already costs a lot, sometimes its not worth it but most of the time in my experiance it is, see even as a student my time isnt free, e.g. outside of metropolitan areas it usually takes a very long time to get anywhere on public transit pretty much not worth it for instance if I takes the bus to school it takes 2 hours a day, if I drive my car it takes me 30 minutes a day, I make ten dollars an hour at my job so that $15 that I wouldnt be able to make if I used public transit that amounts to gas for 4 days of going back and forth to school this has been my real world experiance over the last year, since I got the car I have been able to work more, and I even have more time to study on nights that I dont work since doing so on the bus was nearly impossible, with the noise and people bumping into me even reading was sometimes difficult.

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[hattig]

What is your point about just passing his driving test? In England many people don't bother to learn to drive until after university, they don't need to. We have a reasonable (if not European standard) public transport system for a start. Secondly petrol costs a lot, which is a lot if you are a student, never mind the car, insurance, tax, MOTs ... Thirdly we're a small country, no need to drive 30 miles to the superstore.

This guy in my opinion got lucky, but he made his own luck. The idea is quite silly, a one-off zero-product media-driven website, but all it has proved is that a press release or two, a gimmick and so on will sell to the media, and hence make him money. It won't last forever, but he has got a million which should net him a nice house, a hot girlfriend and a better car along the line - if he manages it well. He was in the right place at the right time and at the right age too. Git! :)

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[iamhassi]

"This kid isn't a genius, after all: ...I've only just passed my driving test..."

Isn't he in england? Their public transit system is far better over there, perhaps he just hasnt needed a license all these years because he can walk, take the bus or subway everywhere.

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[jandrese]

Your bus stops running at 4 in the afternoon? I think it's time to fire your public transportation committee.

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[Anonymous Coward]

15 people is a quarter full on most busses. It's 2/3 full on mini busses.

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[DGregory]

Families need more space in a car than a small compact. If you are a family of 4 with 2 adults and 2 kids, and if one kid is in a rear facing carseat, if it's even possible to fit the car seat into the backseat of a compact car, the passenger seat has to be so far forward that no one can sit in it. I also could never fit my double stroller in our sedan's trunk (kids are 21 months apart and the older one was never much of a walker, she's only now getting better now that she's 3). And trying to fit our 70 lb dog in the sedan (an Accord) with the whole family inside, makes you look at the poor squished dog and feel a bit of pity for him.

THe idea of riding my bike to work is a nifty one until I try to think about the logistics of hauling the kids too. (that is, if we didn't live 15 miles from my work, crosstown, so riding the bus would take 2 hours).

So, we have a minivan and a sedan. My husband takes the bus into work (he works downtown, 1 bus ride, and parking is expensive downtown), but I am the one to wrangle the kids to daycare. I usually take the sedan to work because of the better gas mileage but any family outings, and especially if we take the dog, we go in the minivan. I can't imagine having only a compact car. If we had 3 kids, we'd really have to take the minivan everywhere.

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[Thomas Miconi]

Did he create something of actual value? No, of course not. Did he create the perception of value? Definitely

Sometimes I wonder if there is a fundamental law of nature which prevents geeks from even touching an economics textbook.

Of course he created value. He created a way for his customers to make their products known to a wide audience. Some people purchased said products, thereby increasing both their and the companies' utility. Apparently you are falling for the delusion that because the "thing" he created is entirely immaterial, it doesn't exist.

That's up there with "information wants to be free" and "artists can make money on touring and merchandising, why should I pay just to listen to their songs ?" (cos you know, it's not like Lee Hazlewood or Francis Lai ever created any value at all, since they hardly ever performed their own songs !).

Thomas-

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

A low interest rate does not indicate a weak economy.

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[jandrese]

If the DC Metro isn't light rail than WTF is it?

Interesting tidbit: it's the second largest metro system in the US. Only NY beats it.

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[iamhassi]

"Yes, he made a significant amount of money in a short time..."

my question is, why do people believe these stories at face value?

Reminds me of that one chick that said she needed 20 grand to pay off expensive shopping sprees and then claimed the money poured in, that savekaryn website a few years back.

Somehow I doubt her (or this million dollar webpage) made any money until they claimed they made a bunch of money and then told newspapers who then spread the word and then sites started paying for advertising (or in karyn's case, just sending money).

And for those of you thinking "naw, internet hoaxs dont happen, the newspapers are surely checking their bank accounts, etc", think again: this guy claimed this christmas lights were being turned off and on by visitors to his website and it turned out to be a hoax. Dozens of major online news sites reported the lights as real, it wasnt until a reporter showed up unannounced and called a friend online and told them to turned the lights off & on and it didnt work that they finally figured out the hoax.

You'd think lights being turned on & off over the internet would be the easiest to verify, but it didnt stop everyone and their mother from reporting it as 100% true. Makes you wonder how much of the news is true and how much is a hoax?

So there you have it, there are internet hoaxes and fakes and the online news media reports every little story as 100% true without doing any fact-checking to verify it's true. Therefore I call this million dollar homepage mythbusted!

my theory: about half the pixels are stuff he just threw up there for nothing, linking to mom-and-pop shops who will be happy to get any hits at all. Now that he's getting a ~750 million hits a day he's able to charge real money.

Re:rest of the article

[Cruciform]

As the cost of fuel rises, and people in the suburbs discover they can no longer afford to live there, the suburbs will become the slums and high density housing will once again rule in the cities.

This might not be the case if telecommuting catches on in a big way, but I imagine the price of gas will go up much faster than the acceptance of telecommuting by business.

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[rcamera]

Well, if you ever move to rural America for any reason...

IS there any reason to move to rural america?

Serious question, though, as the idea of public transportation is foreign to me: how do you do your grocery shopping? What if you want to buy something large from a store, like a bookshelf or something? Do you just carry everything everywhere? How does that work?

serious question - have you ever heard of 'delivery'? besides, if there's a grocery store every few blocks, how hard is it to walk there a few times a week? this is why rural america is fat - no walking, all driving.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

so I've bought myself a little black mini

Ah, there are so many better ideas that spring from that phrase than some kid's first car!

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[KarmaMB84]

You only have to get a bit more specific and then it will be patentable.

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[raju1kabir]

If the DC Metro isn't light rail than WTF is it?

It's heavy rail. Light rail would be modern tram systems and the like.

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[rjshields]

And I'm saying you only need a few people on a bus to make it more efficient than everybody driving cars... especially with the gaz-guzzling monsters some people drive. If people agreed on everything there'd be no interesting debate. Get over it.

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[Haydn Fenton]

Who isn't jealous of him?

Every time I see a story about someone getting rich from a pretty crappy (imo) idea, it makes me jealous to the point of anger and frustration. Like most of us (I'm assuming), we've had great ideas for a website (looking back not all of them are really that great, but some are excellent), we take our time making something visually pleasing, original, useful, entertaining, up-to-date, etc. and put it on the web, get some advertising... and flop like an epileptic fish.
Then we hear about some "genious" who invents a 1-page website full of junk and gets millions, or someone who decides they're gonna sell their forehead for advertising space and ends up getting huge offers, or whatever else. Talent means nothing most of the time, luck or blind obedience is what gets the cash rolling in.

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[brontus3927]

IS there any reason to move to rural america?

Yes there is. People who want to get away from traffic, noise, and pollution. I have a buddy who sold his car and moved to New York. More power to him. The town I've spent most of my life in has a population of 6,000 now, and I want out, way too many people for my taste. Five years ago, we only had "bad" traffic on the weekends when the farmers came into town to do their shopping. Now the traffic's bad everyday. No thank you.

In rural areas, there aren't grocery stores every few blocks. Have you ever BEEN to a true rural area? You know the places were the population per square mile is in the double digits or less.

And even if there was this perponderance of gorccery stores in rural America, how do you carry $100 worth of grocceries back to your house? And how do keep the milk, meat, and other perishables from going bad walking back in the 90 degree August heat (and that's in NJ!)

serious question - have you ever heard of 'delivery'?

Many people enjoy self-reliance. From car-repair to furniture building to growing vegetables, if I can do it myself, I'm not going to pay someone to do it for me. I'm not going to have someone deliver something to me unless I can't do it myself. And with good reason. Around here, when you have something like a gas stove deliveried, Sears gives you a 6 hour time-table for when they will arive, will not belive you when you tell them it won't fit through the front door, they have to go around to the back, and leave trash all over the driveway when they leave. Why would anyone pay another person to treat them with contempt?

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[rjshields]

No-one *needs* a mini-van for 2 adults and two children. What would happen if you didn't have it? Would someone die? If you really wanted to you could get everyone in a small car. I think what you mean is it's more *convenient* to own a mini-van.

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[Anonymous Coward]

I can't speak as an authority, however, I do think I have a response to the wails of "people aren't saving! why oh why?" of numerous organizations.

The inflation rate, from what I've read and heard over the years, sits at about 3%.

Do you know what a savings account at a credit union in PA amounts to? 0.75% on savings, 0.25% on checking, and currently 2.5% in a money market account where you get 0% on less than $500 (although I'd argue actual return was far lower, having made only 80 cents in 5 months which, while better than a savings account, was not worth locking up those funds). As an aside, that's completely eaten up several times over the first time you get hit with a 10% fee ($2+ on $20) for taking your own money out of a non-member bank. CDs (again, minimum $500) are a little better, but the difference between 3-months and 5-years isn't even 2% (4.65% vs 2.96%). Even US savings bonds, with a 12 month holding restriction, are barely over 3% right now.

On the other hand, 8% was the best car loan I, with excellent credit, could get and I had been quoted as high as 20%. Credit card applications (from the same banks with the miniscule dividens) routinely come in the mail offering between 10% and 25% (hence extremely rare usage of my one and only credit card, whereas I might have a PowerMac now otherwise). While those rates are outright terrible, it appears to me that leaving money in a bank account is just as stupid.

And our "leaders" think giving every child a $500 savings account at birth to teach them how to save would do anything but cost the rest of us $500 per child? Anybody with half a brain would conclude buying material goods is more appealing than letting your funds shrink in value while somebody else makes money off it. That, my friends in Europe, is what drives American consumerism.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

rjshields (719665) on Friday December 30, @05:26AM said:

A bus takes up the same space as 2 people in 2 cars.

Rode the short bus to school did you?

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[LaCosaNostradamus]

Who isn't jealous of him?

I'm not. I don't spend my time longing to be one of the guys who concoct no-value business schemes designed to take a little money from a lot of people. A million-dollar webpage? What rational man expects such a thing? And more to the point: who really wants to spend their time planning such a thing?

You may as well be jealous of lottery winners. (Again ... I'm not. I don't play the lottery since it's a Voluntary Stupidity Tax.)

Re:rest of the article

[pnewhook]

However lots of people still work in the city and it ends up being a tradeoff of bigger properties and long commutes vs. smaller properties or condos and a short commute.

Here in Toronto, if you work downtown and live in a suburb, you are probably dealing with a 1.5 hour average commute each way if you try and drive in. I also know people who live and work downtown their entire lives and have never bothered to get a drivers license because they've never needed one.

I'm actually in the opposite situation, and part of a growing trend (in Canada at least). I live downtown (in a detached house, ~3000 sqft) so I can take advantage of the amenities the city has to offer, but I commute to work in the suburbs. The commute for me is a lot shorter than someone trying to get into the city because the traffic is a lot lighter going out.

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[DGregory]

And a big dog.
Well I guess you don't 'need' a car at all if you don't want to ever go anywhere. It is impossible to fit 2 adults and 2 kids if one is in a rear facing seat, in a COMPACT car. Even in a mid-size sedan, the passenger is fairly close to the dashboard.

Maybe you don't /need/ a minivan for sheer survival, but I can't fit a double stroller in the trunk, and I couldn't take both kids places by myself without the double stroller. And since we usually took the dog and the double stroller along with bags of gear to go out of town to visit family, it's pretty hard to fit everything into the mid-size sedan (even if we leave the stroller at home). So I guess we don't /need/ to visit family, but it sure is convenient to visit Grandma once in awhile. If we only had a compact car, we'd never leave the house as a family.

Re:rest of the article

[Jack9]

It's more likely that he (and the site mostly) is a fraud.

Re:rest of the article

[ilovepolymorphism]

You also have to pay the bus driver...

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[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I agree, who in the hell would want to spend a few months of their time doing something they enjoy doing in exchange for a million bucks.
Not me, thats for sure! I'd much rather spend my life putting little stickers on cardboard boxes for $2 an hour.

Voluntary Stupidity Tax. I'm sure that the thousands of people who have become millionaires agree with you too. So you don't fancy risking $1 in exchange for $,$$$,$$$, fair enough, the odds are stacked against you. Your choice. But it's hardly stupid. Slagging off these things, OTOH, is pretty stupid and narrow minded.

And of course nobody EXPECTS to get millions of dollars for their website (unless they're an egotistical wankstain, yunno the type *cough* bloggers *cough*), but when you see people getting millions for their crap, and you get a mere few hundred bucks revenue for your website of awesomeness, you sure don't say "Oh, gee! I sure am happy for that guy!".

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[Kjella]

Did he create something of actual value? No, of course not. Did he create the perception of value? Definitely, for people who purchased his "wares". And creating the perception of value is the most valuable thing of all in today's "service economy".

No, he did manage to create something of actual value, that is page hits. His customers got value for their money. What he managed to do is to get the press interested in a page full of nothing but ads. It's a small miracle of press manipulation, but the value is very real.

It's like having an online webshop (which is trivial and also in infinite supply), but you manage to find a way to make everyone visit your webshop. If you can't see the value of that, your sense of business must be near zero.

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[rjshields]

This is the trouble with business. This kid isn't a genius, after all:

...I've only just passed my driving test...

Now that's conclusive proof if ever I heard it! What do you do for an encore, prove Newton's laws of motion by jumpimg off a building? Just for the record here are some facts about the UK and its culture:

* The legal age of driving is 17
* People are not considered morons if they don't own a car, on the contrary

Perhaps you can remove your head from your arse before posting in the future and also try not to sound so jealous.

Re:rest of the article

[zardo]

what're you talking about? some people could retire on that kind of money. He probably bought himself a nice house, that's all I want is a nice house, and a yacht, maybe a submarine...

See I'm shooting for a cool BILLION in maybe a year...

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[Anonymous Coward]

If you removed your head from your ignorant redneck ass for just a minute you'd see that the only ones who believe in your bullshit country are yourselves. The rest of the world is laughing at you... Inferiority complex? Fuck off you inbred twat.

Re:rest of the article

[jandrese]

Narrow gauge track with low loading limits is heavy rail? What do you call Freight Trains and Amtrak?

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

"...treat public transit like a disease they want nothing to do with and that they need to have their own car."

And that's a perfectly sound view. If you have a car, you are the one who picks when to do what. If you depend on mass transit, you are at the whim of the system. You're the one who has to wait.

Plus there's all those damn PEOPLE. Interacting with that many people is almost as bad as working retail. And if its a busy system you might not get a seat. When was the last time you couldn't find a seat in your own car?

Re:rest of the article

[John Courtland]

Get over what? And, interesting debate? Sorry bud, but you answered one of his responses with a one sentence response. Then he did the same thing, and finally you did it again and I felt compelled to respond. That's about as interesting as watching paint dry and looks arrogant and annoying.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

A bus will take a fixed route through several points. The distance between any two points within the route may not be the shortest possible distance. If someone on a bus has to travel to six points not on the optimal route from where he originates to where he intends to go, then he is dead weight on these routes. If the bus cannot obtain adequate density in order to compensate for the path inefficiency introduced by this, then it is less efficient than if the people on the bus all took the optimal paths with their own cars. Optimizing this system is not easy by any stretch of the imagination, without making a lot of simplifications of the model that will make the rationalization of using the results tenuous.

There are public busses here (rural environment) that are operated through Federal and State subsidies and to a miniscule extent private donations, and last but not least fees. They are small busses, basically about the size of vans. They travel whether anyone is on them or not several fifty mile trips per day, and if it wasn't for the Feds just giving them money to operate these busses, they would be gone. Completely.

Re:rest of the article

[raju1kabir]

Narrow gauge track with low loading limits is heavy rail? What do you call Freight Trains and Amtrak?

DC Metro uses identical track gauge to Amtrak (1.435m). Have you ever seen the trains? They are not toys.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

No, some people just don't like living in densely packed cities. It has nothing to do with public transportation.

Private parties in a lush yard
Space for your children to play safely
Space for a barbecue pit
Not having to see your neighbors
Not having to hear your neighbors fucking, fighting, smashing things, or anything else
Not having your neighbors hear about your personal life
Being able to have a garden
Having clean drinking water that hasn't been chlorinated to ass
Lower crime rates
Aesthetics ...

Cities are disgusting, obnoxious, loud, dirty shitholes. And some people just go there to work and shop, and want to leave when they're done to a nice, pleasant environment that sucks for working and shopping but is relaxing, clean, and pretty.

Re:rest of the article

[orgelspieler]

I doubt he's "set for life." After taxes, this isn't enough to make one "independently wealthy" or anything. Depending on how aggressively he invests, he'll probably be looking at around $70k a year. Considering it's just "sitting in a bank account" I doubt it will be more than $35k. That's *if* he doesn't blow it all on luxury items like a black Mini Cooper. (Though he could have meant an old used Mini, who knows).

If you look at many of the sites that have advertised on his page, I'm not surprised they are "short sighted." These aren't the kinds of advertisers with a real sense of history. You're probably right; the only thing that made this work was that it was news filler. Had the media not picked up on it, people would never have found the site in the first place, then advertisers would not have been interested.

Re:rest of the article

[evil agent]

Hey, I love it when I'm the only one on there. Less passengers = less stops. Now that is efficient. For me, anyway...

Re:rest of the article

[LaCosaNostradamus]

Yeah, I agree, who in the hell would want to spend a few months of their time doing something they enjoy doing in exchange for a million bucks.

But's that's NOT what happens in 999999/1000000 of the cases. To be correct, your statement SHOULD be:

"I want to spend a few months of my time in exchange for a microscopic chance of 1 million dollars."

Voluntary Stupidity Tax. I'm sure that the thousands of people who have become millionaires agree with you too.

You're ignoring the many, many MILLIONS who didn't win, who financed the few THOUSANDS of the winners. Do the fortunes of the tiny minority trump the misfortuntate losses of the vast majority?

The mathematical ROI (return on investment) for a lottery ticket is so low that you're better off eating the dollar bill for the intestinal roughage it gains you. It's a Stupidity Tax because of attitudes like yours. You are stupid for not realizing the mathematical truth of lotteries.

There's a reason why people don't pick up pennies from the ground. One cent is just not a worthwhile ROI for bending over, picking it up, perhaps wiping it off, and then carrying it around. The same value system applies to lotteries ... except that stupid people like you ignore the mathematical truth and instead concentrate on valueless hopes.

Slagging off these things, OTOH, is pretty stupid and narrow minded.

No, it's mathematically correct. The ROI on a lottery ticket is so low that it's a terrible investment. Stupid people like you will probably never realize this, which is why your poor neighborhoods are filled with shops selling lottery tickets, cigarettes, and alcohol.

Dumbass.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

Do my eyes deceive me, or is a British person referring to people from the U.S. as inbred? Europeans are absurdly inbred, and this is especially true of the peoples of the British isles. Would you really care to compare your own genetic diversity with mine? Your family graph will have more cycles than mine, I assure you. You epitomize inbred, cracker.

And for the record, if you don't believe in the US you should lay off of the pipe. It's predominately that land mass between Canada (you should be able to find Canada) and Mexico. Maybe you recognize it from your own stint as imperialist assholes. Thanks for fucking up Africa and Asia, by the way.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

Fads create boring value. They don't revolutionize anything. They don't create anything that lasts. There's no evidence that his site has created more of this limited value than a weekend's worth of banner ads on Slashdot. With the visual noise of the page if anyone clicks on anything it's likely to be at random for novelty. I found it visually interesting, but I can't recall a single advertisement and I couldn't even discern most of the advertisements because they were of much too low-resolution. In fact the only thing I thought of when I was looking at it was, "If he had created a 'Where is Waldo?' game with this, he would have created more ROI for his advertisers." Then I closed the page and I'll never look at it ever again.

The point is that creating that fad (Was it one? I had never even heard of it before, despite its age. It looks like a warez website without the warez, really.) and profiting from it isn't respectable to the audience. Few people respect get-rich-quick schemes. And without any data about the ROI for the advertisers, it's easy to assume that few if any advertisers received one. In which case he managed to convince a bunch of people to waste their money on ineffective advertising. Which is probably the majority of advertising anyway, but the tactic is up there with companies that sell schemes on TV to people that wish to WORK FROM HOME FOR $8K A MONTH.

Re:rest of the article

[burning-toast]

Are you in reference to the Taxi 2000 system? My father was involved with that organization so I am just wondering...

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

Genius? And neither are you or you would have taken into consideration that it's way more expensive to drive in the UK, the test is harder, you have to be older to take the test and this kid is on his way to having a million...

Whats you're excuse?

Re:rest of the article

[cptgrudge]

(once the massive die-off subsides, assuming civil order re-emerges out of the chaos that event will cause)

Don't be so morbid.

Market forces will make alternative fuel systems available in plenty of time before oil runs out. They already are. Real progress is being made on hybrid systems, electric, hydrogen, biodiesel, and other Flexible Fuel Vehicles. Toss in the current and coming progress on fusion for eventual cheap energy, and the situation becomes a lot less bleak.

Perhaps we won't be able to have black tires on our cars anymore, but I don't think that's a definite cause for civil unrest.

Re:rest of the article

[Inthewire]

Doubt it.
I sent in my hundred bucks, and my image and link are there.
Company I work for bought a 500x500 block, and their image and link are there.

Re:rest of the article

[jcr]

No-one *needs* a mini-van for 2 adults and two children

Fortunately, for the safety of the children in question, that's not your decision to make. If I ever have kids to move around, I'll do so in whatever size vehicle I deem appropriate.

-jcr

Re:rest of the article

[cayenne8]

"good deal for him he doesn't need to worry about paying tution as he can afford any school now."

If he really IS smart...he kept quiet about this money, and will still get his parents to pay for his school!!

:-)

Re:rest of the article

[Reziac]

To restate what you said in the fewest possible words...

If you build it, they will come!

Happens everywhere. Provide access, and housing magically sprouts.

Re:rest of the article

[Cirvam]

Sounds like State College, PA...I know that is another example of a college town that has good bus service.

Re:rest of the article

[hurfy]

You forgot one.

Most states make you pass driver's ed if you're under 18. Cant take the test until classes are done. In my case, I was legal to FLY by myself (solo at 16) before i could drive myself to the airport cause Driver's Ed classes didnt end until a few months after my birthday :) If school does not offer a cheap class (that has room) you have to pay for a private one, not always a high priority, at least until you have the $ :)

Anyways, great idea for him. The uniqueness was the catch tho, not a repeatable business model. ALthough after the 1st $911k i doubt i would care :) Like the lottery a few get lucky in business that really has no justification, Pet Rocks anyone? ;)

Re:rest of the article

[soupdevil]

That's only true, assuming you can find two people in two cars driving the same 5 mile loop for 24 hours a day, going below the speed limit, and making sudden, frequent stops.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

"In 2 months, who is going to care about a site full of ads with no content?"

HAHAHAAHAH!!! That's really funny. Why? Because that guy's site went up about 2 months ago. Here we are "2 months later" and he's still getting press attention.

Answer your question?

Besides, let's see you drum up a million bucks in so litle time? Who cares if it's a one-time thing for him. He DID it. How much have YOU made in the last two months?

Re:rest of the article

[rjshields]

Get over the double blasphemy thing. It sounds like you're *really* annoyed by the whole debate.

That's about as interesting as watching paint dry and looks arrogant and annoying.

No-one is forcing you to read! If you're not interested, why bother to respond?

Re:rest of the article

[Drakonite]

Your bus stops running at 4 in the afternoon? I think it's time to fire your public transportation committee.

They stop running around 5, or shortly after. The problem is, if you get off at 5, you can at most grab one bus, assuming you are close enough to a stop to get there before the bus would go by for the last time. But you have to transfer to get anywhere in town, so unfortunatly the best you can do is to get somewhere between the bus stop closest to where you work (if there is one close at all) and the downtown loop... Which essentially means unless you live in the same area as your job or in one of the college dorms downtown, you can't do it.

And yes... they should be fired... from a cannon. I kid you not, a bond to do unneccisary road work (that should have been taken care of in their budget anyways) that was pitched as "to improve traffic problems in downtown" (despite being entirely on a far edge of town, and I'll let you guess as to the income level of people in that area..) was voted down, then suddenly the timing on the traffic lights downtown were changed, causing traffic jams at numerous times of the day and slowing traffic in general way down (you can get across downtown faster on 25mph limit side roads than taking the 40mph limit main roads...) Some people here see a connection.

Re:rest of the article

[Zork the Almighty]

No, I'm referring to SkyTrain.

Re:rest of the article

[maxpublic]

It's a shame that most US citizens can't comprehend the benefits to society of having a good solid public transit system over a crappy (or non existant) public transist

If you want to argue the value of public transport, you'll have to do it from some other viewpoint than a 'greater good' one. Apart from a few liberal whiners, the 'greater good' argument doesn't mean dick here.

Max

Re:rest of the article

[maxpublic]

No-one *needs* a mini-van for 2 adults and two children.

So what? This is America, not some socialist shit-hole. Saying that people shouldn't have minivans because they don't 'need' them is fucking ludicrous.

Max

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

Repeatedly calling him "kid" is ridiculous. You're barely his age yourself, wanker.

Re:rest of the article

[maxpublic]

basically doesn't deserve it because it was "easy" money

Who elected you to decide whether or not the kid "deserves" the money? Or is this a self-appointed position?

Max

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

Done. My Moon land is now 'Moon Dust Grey'. Dollar please?

Re:rest of the article

[rjshields]

Fortunately, for the safety of the children in question, that's not your decision to make.

Watch out, flying point!
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need

"The concept of Needs is often used to refer to things that people "must" have. They are often contrasted with wants, which are more discretionary."

The minivan example is a case in point.

If I ever have kids to move around, I'll do so in whatever size vehicle I deem appropriate.

That's nice. I'm going to have a cup of tea later and probably doing some DIY on my house tomorrow, and I might go shopping ;)

Re:rest of the article

[jp10558]

Yeah, he could also get 4.25% from HSBC online savings accounts.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

That's just bs. If you know anything about marketing you will know this is called guerilla marketing. It's a buzz topic and its big in the marketing industry. Anyone who knows marketing and advertising knows that the biggest most effective type of advertising is word of mouth followed by press coverage and media infatuation. It's like when people hear a secret and then all try to find out if it's true or not, its like gossip, it's buzz and tabloids. This kinda shit sells. Movies try to create sites that build intrigue and involve the audiences before they are even in the theatres. This kid thought of an idea and made it happen. And his cost model and profit margins were well thought out. There are plenty of more seemingly functional sites that don't present as good a cost model. This kid is smart and he deserves every penny.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

Saying that people shouldn't have minivans because they don't 'need' them is fucking ludicrous.

Reading sh1t that isn't there is even more fscking ludicrous.

Re:rest of the article

[rjshields]

"Apart from a few liberal whiners, the 'greater good' argument doesn't mean dick here."

Yes because you're too far up your own asshole to see beyond your own colon. Hopefully you'll shoot someone in a redneck rage and get bumfucked to oblivion in prison. Now get back to polishing cock.

Re:rest of the article

[maxpublic]

Yes because you're too far up your own asshole to see beyond your own colon.

Typical liberal whiner. Anyone who disagrees with your "greater good" bullshit is obviously one of the low-brows that make your life such a trial. It's a damn good thing you and your ilk don't run the country and never will.

Max

Re:rest of the article

[iamhassi]

" I own an acre on the moon." u sell off advertising space on each sq ft, companies can paint their logos or whatever else they want to put on it. Sure u wont make a million bucks but you'll make $435,600, and retarded news sites would actually believe you're doing it too and give you free publicity.

Re:rest of the article

[tomhudson]

To restate what you said in the fewest possible words...

If you build it, they will come!

Happens everywhere. Provide access, and housing magically sprouts.

It works in Sim City - that's proof enough for the average slashdotter :-)

Re:rest of the article

[tomhudson]

That's not the way it works here ...

Buses run on a posted schedule, to within a minute or so, between stops. If you want to know when the next bus is at a stop, there's a chart with the whole bus route, and a list of times it will stop where you're standing.

You can also get on the net and see the whole schedule.

You can also call up, punch in the right number, and they'll TELL you when the next bus will be passing by.

The buses are cleaned every night. If they're not clean, they don't leave the terminus.

The interconnects with the subway work very well.

The interconnects with other buses also work - none of this waiting at a stop for 10-20 minutes between most buses.

It can be done - your city just has to WANT to do it.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

Look at Melbourne's tram system. That is light rail.

Re:rest of the article

[mcvos]

This may surprise you, but not everyone in the world has a driver's license at age 16.

Correct. I'm 31 and still don't need a driver's license. Living in a city helps a lot, though.

Re:rest of the article

[Reziac]

LOL!! oh, man... I'll never look at Sim City the same again....

(Tho as it is, I try to avoid looking at it altogether :)

Re:rest of the article

[jdigriz]

Aha, I suspected as much. We disagree on the concept of value. You seem to believe in relative value, aka, if someone is willing to part with their money for something, then it has value, if only to that person. By this definition Pet Rocks have value because some people are stupid enough to purchase a generic rock in a box. Swords +5 in the online roleplaying game of your choice have value, because fools are willing to pay large sums for them on ebay. I believe in absolute value, which is a function of a) the reality of the object (is it real, does it exist only in the fevered imagination of true believers, or is it composed of bits?), b) The amount of work put into that object, c) the quality of an object, either via the physical materials it is composed of, or the fitness for a particular use and possibly d) Supply and demand factors surrounding that object. A combination of these factors determines actual value in my worldview. Our difference of opinion is apparently a common argument between classical and neoclassical economists, at least according to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value article in wikipedia. Since neoclassical economists assert that value is only the price an item would fetch, then people could not be ripped off from that viewpoint if entering into a legitimate purchase in a non-coerced fashion. However, believers in absolute value, innate worth, or "natural prices", to use Adam Smith's phrase, know that people can and do get ripped off frequently because they are paying far more than something is actually worth. This is often due to information asymmetries between the buyer and the seller. Our stock market is based on this concept.

In response to your specific questions: The movie industry does create something of value, unique arrangements of bits. These creations are labor intensive, and prior to reproduction, singular in all the world. Some of them are even composed of quality writing, acting, visual effects or music. However, not all movies are created equal and it's quite possible for a moviegoer to be cheated out of his 8 bucks because he is unaware that the movie he is going to will suck. The studio may be quite aware, and merely foists the steaming pile on the public to recoup their expenditures.

By the same token, artists and writers can and do sometimes create absolute value. Often, they don't and the product is sold anyway. That's what I was getting at with the perception of value versus actual value. Perceived value will get someone to buy. Actual value gives the purchaser something worthwhile in return.

I disagree that lawyers add value by making people follow agreements. At most, making people follow agreements can prevent or ameliorate losses due to noncooperative individual action. No new value is created through enforcement that voluntary cooperation wouldn't create. That assumes that the agreements being enforced are not deleterious to one or more parties in the first place. It's entirely possible to have agreements that screw both parties. Look at the AOL/TW merger as an example, and their resultant 100 billion dollar restatement of earnings.

Re:rest of the article

[newpath4comVersion2]

How exactly right you are! In 2 month's time
we could be living in Armageddon's all over th' place!
http://www.newpath4.com/skyisfallingendoftheworldp rocessexplainedindetail06062006.htm
and some guy could be selling space engines like HOTCAKES
to get off this rock and beginning a new life as a full
flight-capable member of the cosmic community!
http://www.newpath4.com/millenialdawnpowerandlight secure21.htm

A lot of things can go down in 2 months... or 2 year's time.

How interesting tho that offers of employment flood in to a KID while none come my way at all. I guess I'm not PLIABLE ENOUGH. Perhaps I should spend more time in MALLEABILITY CLASS. hahahaha Maybe some religion classes, learn how to fold my hands & nod a lot like a bobbing shishkabob. Maybe learn to sit quietly while being whipped with canes. hehehehe Then to GRADUATE I CAN CARRY A RED HOT PALE OF COALS BETWEEN MY ARMPITS. Gee, I'm getting all hot and bothered at the prospect of GRADUATING EVEN NOW. Bring the whips and chains, bring on the lather er leather, whip it on me. I am ready master. When I graduate master will you give me a little car too? Expense account? Company car? Oh whippy, whippy real good. hahahaha I'll have to cram in a lot of living before Armageddom comes I guess. Lots of whips & chains, lots of leather, fast women & motorcycles. Don't know this old bod can stand all that "LIVING" or not. Hhmm, I guess that covers religion so I can get my Certificate of Minister Diploma now. I passed by reaching the "Master Black Belt Minister Conclusion": Living is Dying. Wow. Somebody around here smoking POT or what? Not me? I thought so.

Re:rest of the article

[instarx]

Ever wonder why the nobel prize isn't awarded until years after the work has been done? Because they want to know if the work that was done will lead to anything major.

No, no, no. The reason it is awarded years later is to make sure the research holds up over time, and is neither a fluke nor being misinterpreted (as in cold fusion). The value of the discovery stands on its own merit, not on the value of subsequent work.

Re:rest of the article

[instarx]

Talent means nothing most of the time, luck or blind obedience is what gets the cash rolling in.

I don't agree. If it were just luck then money would be falling out of the sky randomly to any of us. What is involved is ORIGINAL THINKING, and whether we agree that pixel-selling or forehead-renting are brilliant or not, they ARE original ideas. Although clearly not of the same scale, these ideas are the same as Sears' idea of selling by catalog, and Ford's idea of an assembly line. All of these people deserve our respect, not for being great people, philanthropists or geniuses, but for simply being original thinkers.

I don't get the "blind obedience" part of your post at all.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

"rather what they see in him I think is that he has what it takes to transform an idea into real world action"

What they see in him is a marketing gimmick, if they hire him then they will get a bit of free press out of it. An engineer from MIT has what it takes to transform an idea into real world action, this kid has a one time use gimmick. He had no power to turn his idea into anything. He didn't, the media did. Nobody bought pixels on his site because his idea was creative, original or the next big thing in advertising. They bought pixels because it was an oddball story the press loves to pick up on, and the more press that it gets the more his gimmick pays off which makes it more of an oddball story which gets it more press.

This has been done hundreds of times already. "Whacko sells [insert outrageous item] to advertisers for [insert insane dollar amount]. Film at 11" You could sell the puss from an ass pimple on ebay for 1 million dollars and some company would buy it just for the press they would get out of it. Imagine what people like you would say about it...

That guy is a genius, what an original idea. He's a real go getter too. Most people just dream of selling their ass pimple puss on ebay, this guy actually gets the job done.

Re:rest of the article

[@madeus]

This kid isn't a genius, after all: ...I've only just passed my driving test...

Because only rocket scientists have driving licences!

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

Every website I have put onto the internet HAS MADE ME A PROFIT. Whether it's a few bucks, to hundreds, I always get a profit. What I'm trying to say is that people ENJOY doing it and would like it if their ideas EARNED THEM SOME MONEY when you compare it to the DUMBASSES WHO GET MILLIONS FOR THEIR SHIT.

And just so you know, I don't play the lottery because I don't think its worth it, like you said. The difference is, I'm not a loser who can't stand the fact that people actually play the lottery. They play because THEY WANT TO and they might just win some cash. You don't play because YOU DONT WANT TO. They don't slag you off for not playing. But you sure as hell slag them off for playing. You're the dumbass, you're the idiot, you're the narrow minded big headed egotistical elitist faggot who thinks he's so much better than the rest of us because his pocket calculator says so.

And just so you know, I know 3 people IN REAL LIFE who have won thousands on the lottery. Sure as hell paid off for them. My uncle's brother also became very rich from "stupid things that don't pay off".

And my neighbourhood ain't filled with any of that junk, I live in a big house in the country.

You sir, are truly an asshat. There isn't even aint point in me trying to get you to see my point because you're egotistical brain won't let you see past the fact that you are wrong and that I'm not even talking about getting rich. PEOPLE DO THIS SHIT BECAUSE THEY FUCKING WANT TO.

Now go off and rant about this on your livejournal, myspace, faceparty, blogspot, and other 28 blogs. I'm sure that'll feed your ego till it's feeling better again.

Re:rest of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll agree with you that he had an original idea and it paid off for him.

I say "blind obedience" because (I don't mean to sound big headed.. but how else can I say this...) of the education system and jobs in general. I'm creative and smarter than most people were in my classes at school (even a few teachers). I can't get a decent job until I trudge through years and years and years of doing boring tedious crap I could do when I was 13 years old. I can't show what I'm capable of because I get given predefined assignments (which are the teachers idea of fun, which frankly bore me to tears) despite the fact I know we could pick any project we wanted to so long as it meets the exam boards criteria. If I am inspired to do something I will, if I have to do something I see as futile, restrictive and pointless then chances are I won't do it, or won't do it very well. Finally, when that's all said and done, you go out and get a job, and do exactly as they tell you to... or get fired. Any of this sound like it requires talent or original thinking?
Maybe to get through the exams you'd think, but the amount of dumbasses surrounding me is unbelievable, and it makes me wonder why the hell I've spent years of my life doing this if retards like them can get just as far as me.

Many times I just want to quit, and probably will in the end, so I can make it on my own. But that brings us back to the fact that even if my ideas are great, it's mostly down to luck whether it'll actually get heard of and bring in enough money to keep me going.

Maybe I'll just resort to freelance work, or a different career completely.

Re:rest of the article

[masgrada]

Yea, just like the guy who put the squrriel on the water skis. He had a real nack for marketing. Just look at how many times they played that one on TV. Everyone was talking about that for years!

Re:rest of the article

[Otto]

As the cost of fuel rises, and people in the suburbs discover they can no longer afford to live there, the suburbs will become the slums and high density housing will once again rule in the cities.

This might not be the case if telecommuting catches on in a big way, but I imagine the price of gas will go up much faster than the acceptance of telecommuting by business.

You're overestimating the importance of the price of gas. The main thing that the price of gas affects is the price of goods and services. The cost increase to the commuter is minimal, at best. Yes, it's something he notices and grumbles about, but if you actually do the math, then it's not really impacting his bottom line all that much. At least, not directly.

People move to the suburbs because they want *SPACE* in which to live. That's something you don't get downtown.

FWIW, I do live downtown. And I'm thinking of moving. :)

Re:rest of the article

[qvek]

I hate when submission whores do that!! plus this idea is the stupidest thing iv'e ever heard!

It makes me angry...

[Kickboy12]

...cause I didn't think of it first. :(

It's so simple! *bangs head on table*

Re:It makes me angry...

[yog]

That's OK, here's an idea you can take and run with. Sell 5 second sound bites to advertisers, so that when you bring up your web page you will hear this cacophony of voices clamoring for your money.

I mean, if that guy can make hundreds of thousands of $'s with his idea, then this ought to work too.

Good luck!

Re:It makes me angry...

[TubeSteak]

It's so simple...

that someone else copied the idea
www.mymilliondollaradpage.com/

And advertised for it on the orignal guy's site.
Is that sneaky or what?

Re:It makes me angry...

[Urusai]

Other bright ideas:

- Beg for money on your website (with a handy PayPal link)
- Sell square inches of lunar real estate
- Sell naming rights to various stars in the galaxy
- Sell prayers (or better yet, indulgences)
- Sell "homeopathic" remedies (tap water)
- Start a "blog" (really a BBS), charge subscriptions for people to entertain themselves
- Make lots of toast, sell on Ebay as "Virgin Mary and/or Jesus and/or Elvis Toast"
- Declare yourself an independent country and sell people citizenship
- Pose as an ousted Nigerian dignitary, promise people a cut of your ill gotten gains, take their money and run (possibly illegal in some jurisdictions)
- Make a bunch of finger paintings, fake your own death, sell your work as high art
- Make some lame Flash cartoons, create an Internet meme ("Badger..", "Trogdor...", etc), sell T-shirts
- Create a blog, sift through a couple of common sites and "aggregate" articles, then post to other people's blogs citing your blog as a news source
- Threaten to kill some cute animal if people don't buy something from you
- Stop bathing, acquire some army-surplus accoutrement, stand on street corners looking dazed with a cup in your hand
- Do something stupid, get humiliated on national TV, do the talk show circuit, become a regular guest on some low-budget game show
- Get a job. But only if you're desperate.

Re:It makes me angry...

[rjshields]

- Create a blog, sift through a couple of common sites and "aggregate" articles, then post to other people's blogs citing your blog as a news source

You just reinvented Slashdot!

Re:It makes me angry...

[superyooser]

The competitive response is even simpler.

www.twomilliondollarhomepage.com

Now with twice the pixels!

Re:It makes me angry...

[Phil1]

And they're not the only one.

Re:It makes me angry...

[wheany]

Naaaah... Really?

Re:It makes me angry...

[fendragon]

other bright ideas...

Yes, but the ideas in your list are mostly dishonest. The people and businesses that bought space on the million dollar page knew exactly what they were getting and are presumably happy with what they paid for.

Re:It makes me angry...

[Anonymous Coward]

Those who do not understand Slashdot are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.

Re:It makes me angry...

[Surt]

No response, this huge financial opportunity is still available to the right buyer!

Re:It makes me angry...

[Anonymous Coward]

Those who have no sense of humour are comdemned to miss the point, regularly.

Re:It makes me angry...

[Thuktun]

Now with twice the pixels!

Then you can charge more for the ones in prime locations that don't need scrolling to view.

Re:It makes me angry...

[Anonymous Coward]

Naaaah... Really?

Naaaah... O'Reilly.
No sorry, you were right. Wait a minute...

no..
..yes
no.
As you were.





Are you sure?

Re:It makes me angry...

[Anonymous Coward]

he he he ! excellent !

Re:It makes me angry...

[gbrayut]

My favorite was raising money for breast implants (Warning... has adult banners on website)

web address?

[Anonymous Coward]

What is the web address to this site?

Re:web address?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com

Motivation to invest in this sort of advertising?

[the_instigator]

Geek cool? I never worked out why people what to advertise on a site like this. There's no draw to the site other than to see the (ridiculous) sight of all these little squares, and then damn the guy for getting away with it to the tune of 1million! Gotta hand out the props for that.

The Million Dollar homepage

[mge]

The Million Dollar homepage
oops forgot the obligatory WOOOT!!! FP

Re:The Million Dollar homepage

[Unknown_monkey]

No, woot is a different page than this one. Anyone else think that the bandwith costs from a slashdotting might eat into his profits?

Re:The Million Dollar homepage

[Barny]

Now to simply block that at my routers hosts file... ahhh

Anyone else see this as being a "topsite" that doesn't fairly rank the sites, just sells out to the highest bidder?

Imagine if google sold the top 10 slots for each of the top 1,000,000 words searched, i would think they would get more than $1bil, but then, no one would go there anymore :)

Re:The Million Dollar homepage

[croddy]

Anyone else see this as being a "topsite" that doesn't fairly rank the sites, just sells out to the highest bidder?

I'd call it a square deal.

Re:The Million Dollar homepage

[Tablizer]

Ghaaaah! It is a visual representation of all the spam I have received for the last 2 years. Is this what flashes before the eyes of a spammer before they kiss the big truck after making a wrong-way turn?

I am selling space in my sig

[MillionthMonkey]

$1 buys you a character. I hope to collect a cool $120 by the time this is all over.

Re:I am selling space in my sig

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow! Apple already paid you $22? I need to get in on this!

Re:I am selling space in my sig

[Fazlazen]

I'm sitting here wondering if it's worth $20 to have you spend the rest of eternity with "I blow dead donkeys." in your sig.

Re:I am selling space in my sig

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd like to buy a vowel.

If I had this same idea...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd have thought "Nah, it's idiotic... who'd pay $100 for a 10x10 plug?"

Whoda thunk it?

Re:If I had this same idea...

[Anonymous Coward]

Me too, and I also wondered who the fuck would pay for an ad on a website which people would have to know the address to, know it's nothing but ads, and actively choose to go there.

Well, 80% of all people are idiots.

Just goes to show...

[PhrostyMcByte]

You can be the smartest guy on the block with many awesome ideas, but it seems to repeatedly be the simplest/dumbest ones which get you rich quick.

Re:Just goes to show...

[Profane MuthaFucka]

I once tried to sell gallons of my own cum on the Internet. The old saying that if you get paid for something you love it just becomes a lot of work really is true.

Re:Just goes to show...

[Anonymous Coward]

how long would it take to produce a gallon though?

Re:Just goes to show...

[Anonymous Coward]

Now is that because the smart guys are distracted by too many good ideas - rejecting a great half-baked one for the new flavor of the month?

Or just dumb luck?

Re:Just goes to show...

[Profane MuthaFucka]

I can tell you exactly. 1 cumshot is about a half-teaspoon for me, and it took me 1536 shots to fill a gallon milk jug. I was doing this for 12 hours a day, and on average I could shoot about 18 times if I really tried. It took almost 3 months for me to fill the milk jug up. 85 days, actually. Finished up just after noon on the 85th day.

Told you I was hardcore.

Re:Just goes to show...

[Anonymous Coward]

wow. what did you freeze it or something? seems to me a small amount would just dry up.

Re:Just goes to show...

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Yep, froze it. Funny story about that. You know how your tongue will stick to a frozen metal pipe if you lick it? Well...

Re:Just goes to show...

[Deanalator]

or.. maybe its the simple/dumb ones that manage to get the media attention? Plenty of people get rich every day with nothing more than good old fashioned greed and manipulation.

Re:Just goes to show...

[HD Webdev]

I mean, he got rich, but what a bunch of morons that *bought* a freakin rock!

Actually, they weren't morons any more than people who drive to the beach specifically to pick up some rocks are. Those people spend money on gas, suntan lotion, and often snacks just to get rocks that won't be conversation pieces any time soon. It's entertaining to them. That's all that matters.

The pet rock was stupid. That was a point that no one missed. But, it was something to talk about because it was a funny kind of stupid. What I see as much more stupid is people buying new expensive products that pretty much do the same thing as the perfectly functioning products they already have from last year except the new product looks different.

It's not like the pet rock people bought new and improved pet rocks every year to show off to their friends.

Conspicuous Consumption is much more stupid IMO than spending a little bit of money on a rock that generates some laughs.

Re:Just goes to show...

[BobCat7]

That was just way too much information about your personal life.

Re:Just goes to show...

[Zorikin]

So you actually got a 1-gallon order? How much did you get for it?

Re:Just goes to show...

[Profane MuthaFucka]

I got jack shit. heheh

The Page Itself

[RealmySG1]

Link to the page itself (gotta love the URl :-/) : http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/

Link?

[chrislees]

It would be nice if the article had a link to this site....

Re:Link?

[werewolf1031]

You can't click on any of the ads. What's the point? Or am I missing something here?

Score:-1, Legally Blind

Yes, the URL is in the article, just not as a link - you'd have to copy/paste into your address bar, but it's there. Quote:

"He had the brainstorm for his million dollar home page, called, logically enough, www.milliondollarhomepage.com..."

Now go play in the street. Follow the sound of the bouncing ball...

Re:Link?

[werewolf1031]

Crap, wrong copy-pasted quote at the top, but you get my point. I'll shuddup now... :/

Re:Link?

[shawb]

Firefox 1.5?

Re:Link?

[werewolf1031]

No, actually Firefox 1.5 has treated me quite well so far (plugin issues not withstanding). Was more a case of "I don' nee' no steenkin' Preview button!" syndrome biting me on the ass. In other words, Entirely My Own Stupid Fault.

Link

[GraffitiKnight]

Here's a link to the guy's site. The AP article didn't list one. http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/

Cool idea ....

[Anonymous Coward]

... to just sell nothing, basically. Life in the 21st century.

In a totally unreleted news

[Vivek Jishtu]

The site got unexpected high hits from slashdot :) which means more sales.

Re:In a totally unreleted news

[B3ryllium]

As I understand it, the "million dollar homepage" has an upper bound - one million dollars. And if I recall correctly, he's already earned $911,000.

So, Slashdot is too little, too late. :)

I don't get it..

[Khoa]

You can't click on any of the ads. What's the point? Or am I missing something here?

Re:I don't get it..

[Anonymous Coward]

You have too much faith in people intelligence...

Re:I don't get it..

[jdbartlett]

You're missing something, probably a 21st century browser.

Re:I don't get it..

[RandomPrecision]

Follow the later links to the site, not the imagemap link that was posted earlier.

Re:I don't get it..

[jdbartlett]

People intelligence is the best kind.

Return on investment

[quokkapox]

I clicked on multiple ads which looked vaguely appealing, loaded their pages in tabs, skimmed over some of them, and bought absolutely nothing. Net result: wasted bandwidth.

It'd be an interesting way to get your message out to some more people though, if you weren't trying to sell something.

This Internet thing is tweaking human communication in interesting ways. I like it.

Re:Return on investment

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. It's not like people make it their home page or anything. It's not targeted (unlike google ads or something). And how the fuck searches for ads and will go there for that? Very briefly some people will visit just to see what it's all about (and buy nothing) and soon nobody will visit anymore... What a waste of money.

Re:Return on investment

[quokkapox]

Very briefly some people will visit just to see what it's all about (and buy nothing) and soon nobody will visit anymore... What a waste of money.

It could be targeted. This is just the first time we've seen one of these (I think). It's a genuine new idea, and I think we'll see similar implementations on the internet and elsewhere. (Too bad|Good thing) he didn't patent it...

Re:Return on investment

[Anonymous Coward]

Pay per click per pixel? If you can pack your message into as few pixels as possible and still get clicks, you win as an advertiser. On the one hand, it could mean smaller ads for scams, but on the other hand, it could mean that the web gets covered with giant ads for Coca-Cola and such (maybe not Coke, since they already dominate fleshspace marketing, but Microsoft and large porn sites may want to buy in for big images). If animated GIFs and Flash ads were charged per pixel per frame, it might make the internet a lot more pleasant.

Re:Return on investment

[carpe_noctem]

Agreed. This page combines everything that is ugly and annoying about the internet and condenses it into a single, visual eyesore. I'm surprised that some spammer hasn't shelled out 1,000$ to have a big, pixelated cock-and-balls with "buy v14gra h3r3!" written on the shaft straight in the middle of the page...

Re:Return on investment

[flynns]

Gimmie a minute, would ya??

Re:Return on investment

[jcr]

I'm surprised that some spammer hasn't shelled out 1,000$ to have a big, pixelated cock-and-balls with "buy v14gra h3r3!" written on the shaft straight in the middle of the page...

Spammers don't pay for ad space, silly!

-jcr

Re:Return on investment

[tomstdenis]

Very few people will willingly hunt around for interesting sites on that non-descriptive pinboard.

Sorry, but it's all hype and no return. I mean a 10x10 smiley face in the middle of 950 others won't make you popular on the internet.

The fact that so many people have already paid money for it scares me. Though doesn't surprise me that bad. I mean people are stupid afterall..

Tom

Like PT Barnum said...

[Stickerboy]

...there's a sucker born every minute.

Or in this case, at least 10,000 in 4 months.

Re:Like PT Barnum said...

[Anonymous Coward]

I spent a few minutes just seeing who had the best pixels and who paid the most. 100 bux seems a drop in the bucket for advertising.

http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/pixellist.php

Re:Like PT Barnum said...

[penguinoid]

...there's a sucker born every minute.
Or in this case, at least 10,000 in 4 months.

4*30*24*60/10000 ~= 17

So, that makes a sucker born every 17 minutes...

Re:Like PT Barnum said...

[dynamo52]

...there's a sucker born every minute. Or in this case, at least 10,000 in 4 months.

But can you call them suckers? People are actually clicking through the ads. Seems like they are getting better than they paid for.

Re:Like PT Barnum said...

[jez9999]

People are?

I'm quite pro-Internet advertising and stuff like AdBlock pisses me off. I'll gladly click an ad if it interests me and/or I want to help support a site I'm visiting. But, I took a look at that page and it was a bloody mess, I didn't click anything. I could puke a more artistic picture than that.

There was a story about a similar page to this (there are quite a few knockoffs) making a load of cash for a student over here in the UK a while ago, and I thought the same thing then as I do now - WHY are people paying money to put an ad on this site? There are some ideas that, when you hear them, you think, 'damn, I wish i'd thought of that, what a good idea.' This isn't one of them. The reason I didn't think of this is because it's really stupid, and I wouldn't pay anything to get a few pixels on his webpage. Why does anyone else? People are stupid.

Re:Motivation to invest in this sort of advertisin

[TubeSteak]

Come on, wouldn't you want to click on a link that says "Even Monkeys Fall From Trees"

I think the runner up (for me at least) is "Don't Click"
because the alt text says: Fine, if you really must click, go ahead...

P.S. I found Waldo in the pic too
Just the picture (without the link overlay)

new server

[pvt_medic]

Well looks like he'll need that money for a new server...

Re:new server

[BLAG-blast]

Well looks like he'll need that money for a new server...

Not with my money, I'm asking for refund. Damn page isn't even up any more!

increased revenues?

[Bellyflop]

When did increasing the cost of ad space count as an idea? Hey I've got a revolutionary idea - I'll sell you a car for 100x the normal price. Instead of buying the car, you'll buy each individual part. Only buy the ones you need!

Re:increased revenues?

[admactanium]

When did increasing the cost of ad space count as an idea? Hey I've got a revolutionary idea - I'll sell you a car for 100x the normal price. Instead of buying the car, you'll buy each individual part. Only buy the ones you need!

ever heard of "parting out" a car? check ebay and you'll see a lot of parts from one individual vehicle (if you check a seller's other auctions). it's a viable and profitable business. do you think car junkyards just buy your old clapped out car out of benevolence?

Re:increased revenues?

[tq_at_sju]

originality maybe, trying to sell someone a car for 100x what it's worth happens everyday at every used car lot in America. Selling pixels on a web site doesn't......

Re:increased revenues?

[Bellyflop]

Sorry, my sarcasm didn't come through well there. Yeah I know, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole when it comes to most things.

Crazy

[kservik]

I just think it is crazy what he has managed to do. A lot of other people obviously agrees with me and the net suddenly pours over with copycat sites that are just garbage and that never will earn the owners a cent.

Re:Crazy

[TubeSteak]

Reminds me of the worst adverts of the 90's

While this is News For Nerds, it's also giving me eye strain.

Maybe /. should pick up on the idea and save us the trouble of slashvertisement articles.

Re:Crazy

[Saint Stephen]

Yeah, the bullshitters are back in a big way. This is the worst example of dot-com bullshit I've seen since the bubble burst. I bet he'll make a portal -- with Ajax!

While it may seem like a stupid idea...

[east coast]

I think it's a neat idea. How many people are going to scan the page looking at all the various images? You know you have looked at it longer than you've looked at any online ad for a long time.

Re:While it may seem like a stupid idea...

[TubeSteak]

You know you have looked at it longer than you've looked at any online ad for a long time.

Yea, and now my head hurts.

Thanks Slashdot

Re:While it may seem like a stupid idea...

[antifoidulus]

Look at some of the ads on that page, I mean there seems to be an ad for "Belgium"(bottom left corner of the page, picture of the Beligian flag). I'm not sure why Belgium really needs to advertise, but I guess those waffles don't sell themselves. I would click on it, but I'm at work and that site doesn't seem to be entirely "work safe"(Japan's sexiest guys and girls?!)

Re:While it may seem like a stupid idea...

[dorkygeek]

No, I haven't, because I did not visit the site. Why should I look at a webpage consisting solely of ads??

Are you guys still drunk from Christmas, or did you get a gift certificate for advanced brain damage? Hell, until today, I had at least a little bit of remaining faith in earth's population, but now I think it definitely all went down the toilet. 4000 years of advanced civilization, and all we do is voluntarily look at ads. I say goodbye to our future.

Re:While it may seem like a stupid idea...

[FnH]

It links to a copy-cat.

Re:While it may seem like a stupid idea...

[pembo13]

I looked up the page out of curiousity, but I didn't feel compleled to look at the ads long enough to pull anything from them.

Re:While it may seem like a stupid idea...

[ctid]

Are you guys still drunk from Christmas, or did you get a gift certificate for advanced brain damage?

I agree with you. I nominate dorkygeek as the first World President as he is so clearly superior to the rest of the world's population.

Please tell us what we should do with our inferior brains, dorkygeek, and we will follow unquestioningly.

Re:While it may seem like a stupid idea...

[alnjmshntr]

Hell yeah, I tried to Ad-Block the page but it doesn't seem to work :( But it's incrediably stupid.

Re:While it may seem like a stupid idea...

[east coast]

4000 years of advanced civilization, and all we do is voluntarily look at ads.

I'd give you an bit of credit until I read this. You act as if people are doing absolutly nothing but looking at this ad.

And what's worse? Looking at the add or taking the time posting your comments about the ad that you've never seen? Talk about a waste of time. It's as if all you do in life is comment about stuff you've never tried just to hear yourself talk.

Re:While it may seem like a stupid idea...

[dorkygeek]

I'd give you an bit of credit until I read this. [...] It's as if all you do in life is comment about stuff you've never tried just to hear yourself talk.

Feel free to mark me as foe then.

And what's worse? Looking at the add or taking the time posting your comments about the ad that you've never seen? Talk about a waste of time.

That's an interesting point you are taking here. According to you, to hold up the mirror to people who do stupid things is as stupid as the people who do the stupid things. I'm quite happy that history proved you wrong.

Re:While it may seem like a stupid idea...

[east coast]

Feel free to mark me as foe then.

I really don't think you matter that much.

I'm quite happy that history proved you wrong.

Neither history nor you have proven me wrong. :)

Re:While it may seem like a stupid idea...

[dorkygeek]

I really don't think you matter that much.

Well, in this case I'm happy you'll be able to continue to read my annoying comments.

Neither history nor you have proven me wrong. :)

So you are postulating that the tons of writers and philosophers who held up the mirror to society in the past were unsuccessful? C'mon, you are making yourself ridiculous here.

Brilliant

[Anonymous Coward]

The psychological effect on looking at that pages makes me WANT to click. Does anyone else feel like that after seeing the page?

Re:Brilliant

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with you, can't stop clicking the damn things... So many of them, like the "MYSTERY PIXEL-Where will you end up" or "Tyson"... Man, just can't stop, my psyche must have been fucked already.

Re:Brilliant

[Anonymous Coward]

All it makes me feel is a headache and diziness.

The Next Steve Austin...

[Anonymous Coward]

Five more million to go and Alex Tew will be the Six Million Dollar Man.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

I have adblock

[alfrin]

Why does this page appear blank to me? Where are the ads? How the hell does he make money off this?

All the advertised sites

[TubeSteak]

I'd paste all the sites... but for some reason /. doesn't like the idea of 90k worth of text.

And when I tried to paste half the list: Your comment violated the "postercomment" compression filter. Try less whitespace and/or less repetition. Comment aborted.

Oh well, they paid for their advertising, no point in giving it to them for free.

Holy old news.

[User 956]

This is seriously old news. Like, from September old. What next, are we going to get an editorial about this new phenomenon called "blogging"?

Re:Holy old news.

[Anonymous Coward]

an editorial about this new phenomenon called "blogging"?

Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Re:Holy old news.

[Lord_Dweomer]

Just to show how ridiculously old this is, there are people selling friggin scripts that will automate the whole process of creating this kind of page. In fact, there are so many clones out there that there are already directories of them. The kid got lucky, but anybody else hoping to cash in will not be so lucky. You see, this is a one time fee that people pay, and they pay for the traffic that is generated by the press. You only get the press if you're original...ie. the guy who started this. You won't get it if you're just a clone.

Re:Holy old news.

[Zork the Almighty]

No problem, wait 5 years for him to discover RSS.

Re:Holy old news.

[peterpi]

I was going to put a comment up going 'hey, check out this funny page' with a link to hampsterdance.com.

But it has been mercilessly fucked up.

Do not click on http://www.hampsterdance.com/

Re:Holy old news.

[Anonymous Coward]

"You won't get it if you're just a clone."

Like Linux?

Re:Holy old news.

[GFPerez]

Well, my opinion is that the usual business paradigms don't quite apply to the internet. You have to be the FIRST one, doesn't matters how stupid your idea is.

Re:Holy old news.

[emmetropia]

Thankfully, http://www.jesusdance.com/ is still safe & sound.

Re:Holy old news.

[whargoul]

You only get the press if you're original...ie. the guy who started this. You won't get it if you're just a clone.

Yup. Micro$oft can attest to that!

Re:Holy old news.

[kfg]

Don't be silly dude, I have just crafted an exact replica of the glorious ninth by Ludwig Van. It is identical to the original in every respect of art and craftsmanship so there's no reason I shouldn't be just as famous as Ludwig by this time next year.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to paint some rectangles. Mondrian made a bloody fortune doing that.

KFG

Re:Holy old news.

[Anonymous Coward]

The fact you typed "bet" as "bed" a mere 2 words after goatse.cx worries me. I don't want to know what was going through your head.

Re:Holy old news.

[Ractive]

Yeah really old, but what bugs me more is thet I'm started to feel that I'm not getting very fresh information at Slashdot
Specially when I submitted this:

A million (easy) bucks Wednesday October 12, @09:55AM Rejected

Seems that around here news aren't news until a news site says so.
Slashdot community can be the source of the news not just a directory!

Re:Holy old news.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's so old that there are already tons of copies of the original idea of Alex Tew.

There are even pages which list other boards selling pixels at different prices per pixels, even with rankings, e.g. thepixelswars.

Anyway, IMHO, none of these, or even none of the more complex variations, like pixelsforsale, which uses a map of the world instead of a simple board, will not win the money Alex Tex has presumably won with this idea.

Best regards

Re:Holy old news.

[Redwin]

Unless you get it posted on /. of course

Re:Holy old news.

[Anonymous Coward]

My sick fiance yelling for me causes fast typing and no spellchecking.
So no, not quite the situation you imagined :)

Re:Holy old news.

[Alpha_Traveller]

Hmmm... His ideas and the idea that you are intrigued by his ideas intrigue me. Perhaps I shall give you both a job offer or invest.

Re:Holy old news.

[honeypotslash]

Atleast the memory of the original is still preserved here although it is not quite the same: http://www.hampsterdance.com/classorig.html
--
Free PlayStation 3

Re:Holy old news.

[kjcdude]

The reason this was posted is because he is very near 1,000,000, its not a review of the site

Re:Holy old news.

[ntrfug]

It's here today because newspapers ran the story (perhaps not for the first time) today.

Re:Holy old news.

[guyjr]

Didn't everybody get the memo that /. is now in syndication?

Different Perspective

[matr0x_x]

OK - I see all these people asking "why the heck would someone pay to advertise on that?" I paid for an advertisement to my http://www.mac-poker.net/Mac Poker site early on - and it brought in TONS of traffic. Mind you the traffic was "silly traffic" (aka it was not targetted and most of it was "browsers" clicking a random pixel) but it was still worth it. Now, I got in at about 80K when the site was still hot hot hot. After about 200K there were two many pixels to click and my clicks went down, and after 500K the sites traffic dropped drastically.

Re:Different Perspective

[Anonymous Coward]

So how many clicks did your Slashdot comment with multiple links create?

Re:Different Perspective

[Anonymous Coward]

I also have a website as xenpoker.net and theres no way im going to pay for a pixel.

the site is a link farm and what chance do you have of getting your ad clicked out of the 1 million pixels ?

without the media the guy wouldnt have gotten anywhere.

$1million+

[Plocmstart]

He should throw some Google ads along the bottom or something and make some more money on the side.... and then there's always the possibility of someone copying the idea... like http://www.milliondollarwebpage.com/. Yet another bit of wasted bandwidth that somehow makes money....

The internet hulla hoop?

[drunkgoat]

Am I the only one who thinks this site has been blown way out of proportion? Sure the creator promises that your ad will be in place until 2010, but honestly, who is going to view that page more than once ? Especially since in the FAQ it states that you are not allowed to modify your images once they have been posted. This page is going to be stagnet for the next 5 years and the visitor numbers will drop substantialy after the first few months.

Re:The internet hulla hoop?

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't matter. The kid is a millionaire!

Now, I'm waiting for the 2AM infomercial where he is selling a book about how he made a million bucks selling pixels (just like those foreclosure restoration millionaires LOL).

Re:The internet hulla hoop?

[Anonymous Coward]

stagnant?

Re:The internet hulla hoop?

[EnsilZah]

The kid gets a million dollars.
The advertisers get a site that's in the news.
It's a win win, i doubt anyone cares about the future.

It's like a micro dot-com bubble where everyone gets what they want before it bursts.

Re:The internet hulla hoop?

[Blakey Rat]

Why would he care? He already got their money.

Re:The internet hulla hoop?

[Lije Baley]

Yeah, I think he meant stagnant, but stagnet has so many intriguing possibilities as a word...

Japanese copycat site

[Neo-Rio-101]

It's not doing too well though....

http://ichiokuenpage.jp/

Re:Japanese copycat site

[Inyu]

Not just one copycat... http://www.1okuenhp.com/

Re:Japanese copycat site

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually I found several pixel sites listed off the the milliondollar web page. Basically look at anything which mentions pixels - and there's lots of them. There's one that's 0.25$ a pixel and the guy says "I'm broke, need cash". He's sold 200 pixels - $50 should buy him a Mac and Coke - after the cost of the server...

Forethought?

[KRYnosemg33]

Call me a cynic, but I wonder... how successful or truthful was Alex's sale of $911k in advertising *before* national press attention (msnbc /. ap etc)?

Clearly anyone who bought advertising space is cashing in right now, but I wonder if this guy is saying hehas sold $911K so that he can REALLY sell the last 88,200$ in space and actually make money.

whatever the answer -- creative and cunning...

It looks like billiondollarhomepage.com was registered 2weeks after milliondollarhomepage.com .... DAMN :/ there goes my 1 BILLLLLLLLION dollars

Re:Forethought?

[michaeltoe]

I agree, something about the page doesn't seem right. A lot of those "ads" look like they were put together by a graphic artist, and the same artist, throughout most of the design. It's just too damn balanced for me to believe. And really, "I'm rich, your not" just seems a bit _too_ obvious, misspelling and all.

But yet, everyone seems to believe it. I don't know what to criticize people for.

Re:Forethought?

[Anonymous Coward]

The site has been getting UK national press attention for the last four months, with regular press releases for progress updates: http://browse.guardian.co.uk/search?search=million dollarhomepage

Re:Forethought?

[Baddas]

the "I'm rich your not" guy is an affiliate of a MLM scheme. They seem legit to me, just another crappy ad-infested internet backwater.

Re:Forethought?

[prockcore]

A lot of those "ads" look like they were put together by a graphic artist, and the same artist, throughout most of the design.

A lot of sites that offer advertising also offer ad design services.

Look at penny arcade.. all the ads were drawn by gabe.

At a dollar a pixel, he probably draws the ads for the clients as well.

Re:Forethought?

[balsy2001]

Well, is the trilliondollarhomepage.com still available?

Re:Forethought?

[HD Webdev]

Clearly anyone who bought advertising space is cashing in right now, but I wonder if this guy is saying hehas sold $911K so that he can REALLY sell the last 88,200$ in space and actually make money.

Why worry about it? After all, if he is lying it really doesn't matter because the Taxman will punish him quite severely.

Re:Forethought?

[rvandam]

He now claims to have only about 50K pixels remaining but if you try to find them you'll be hard pressed (except near the bottom where its a little more obvious). Apparently he let people pick exactly where they wanted their signs even if it meant wasting space, but I don't think he's gonna be able to pick up that last $50K unless he does some rearranging.

Re:Forethought?

[lionheart1327]

Nope, I've been following that site from back when it started, and I can certainly say that its for real. I know a lot of the people who bought ads on there.

Plus, this isn't the only news release about it, its just the first time its on Slashdot.

This site has been on the news for months, and people have been buy and discussing it on forums the whole time. So don't worry, its real.

Re:Forethought?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, your are right, I just tried going to http://www.billiondollarwebpage.com/ and I was thinking "No freaking way are they thinking of trying that" but luckily the page says this: This is the home of the web's (future) premier billion dollar web (home) page. Unfortunately, we are experiencing technical difficulties at the moment. Please come back soon! This is some sort of joke, right?

Press Release

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the press release and the media picking up on it (aka advertising) helped quite a bit.

Re:Press Release

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for stating the obvious.

Page Rank

[hagrin]

What I don't understand is why anyone would pay for advertising here. According to my Google Toolbar in FireFox, the site has a PR of 0. I actually considered buying an incoming link for a dollar since it could have been worth getting alink from a PR 5 or higher site, but it has basically no linked value.

Maybe after all this press though, we'll see the page's PR go up and then make it highly worth it to buy a 1 dollar block just to get a link on that page.

Re:Page Rank

[Grimster]

My google plugin for firefox says it has a PR of 7 which is pretty impressive. I had a nice text link on a PR 8 site a few years ago and it was extremely worthwhile.

Re:Page Rank

[hagrin]

Son of a ...

I just checked again and it does in fact have a PR of 7. You are correct dear sir and I eat my hat and beg for forgiveness.

Re:Page Rank

[pgrote]

I don't think the value is in the PR link, but the hits you can get from the site if you have a large enough ad.

Re:Page Rank

[jdbartlett]

I'll give you PR.

I think the minimum purchase is $100 (10x10 px)

Re:Page Rank

[damian]

shows a pagerank of 7 for me

Re:Page Rank

[hugzz]

My google plugin for firefox says it has a PR of 7 which is pretty impressive. I had a nice text link on a PR 8 site a few years ago and it was extremely worthwhile.

Yup I'm also seeing a pagerank of 7 (and for some reason i looked at the page on wikipedia which also says he has a PR of 7)

However, I remember reading somewhere that in order to get a high page rank you need to be:

• Linked to by many sites (obvious)
• Linked to on sites with high page rank (obvious)
• Linked to on sites that dont like to many other pages (impotant)

Basically I read that you share the pagerank kudos when sites link to you. So even though his site has a PR of 7, that pagerank is split up between the sites that he links to on the site. Even though his pagerank is high, it'd be being shared between hundreds of websites.

So you'd probably be better getting linked to from a website with a PR of 4 who only links to 1 or 2 other sites (ie it's better to split a PR of 4 between 2 people than splitting a PR of 7 between 200 people)

Re:Page Rank

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks, you just saved me $100 ...

Re:Page Rank

[psililisp]

Page rank means nothing (well, almost).

Take a PR-5 site with 500k daily hits of worthless traffic compared to a PR-0 site of 10k daily hits that converts. I'd take the PR-0.

In regard to this thread's website, the fact that his website is so popular is because it spread virally and because he got a ton of media attention. Who cares about PR if you have that type of exposure.

Re:Page Rank

[lionheart1327]

Actually, the site is PR 7.
And you have to buy pixels in 100 increments.

Re:Page Rank

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like one of the first clones listed earlier (http://www.milliondollarwebpage.com/) has a Page Rank of 5. Jebus! Wish I had thought of this crazy (and lame) idea.

This reminds me

[Anonymous Coward]

Of the girl who offered to sell pixel-like spaces on a grid which she planned to have tattooed on her back. The plan was to have it help pay for the child she was about to have. Anybody have the URL to this? It was really ridiculous.

What a complete ripoff!

[Anonymous Coward]

This has been done. See cockeyed.com for the original 1-pixel advertisements sold on eBay (sorry for the Slashdotting, Rob).

Traffic analysis

[complete loony]

I read his blog earlier today before it hit slashdot, he writes a fair amount about traffic hits, I wonder if /. will rate a mention...
C'mon people, visit his page at least once. Dammit there should have been a link in the summary.

Re:Traffic analysis

[Itanshi]

you know, with all the absurdity that this bleeds out onto our minds eh, thats kinda neat. really, no i'm not on drugs.

PT Barnum Lives!

[Belseth]

My cannidate for the most pointless site ever. Kind of like a prime time show that is nothing but three second commercials. The guy got lucky and a bunch of stupid people bought web space. Yes they may see some return because it hit the news but it's exactly like the casino buying a ten thousand dollar piece of toast because it looked like the Virgin Mary. The item itself is worthless and only has value because some one was stupid enough to pay good money for it.

Re:PT Barnum Lives!

[dangitman]

Yes they may see some return because it hit the news but it's exactly like the casino buying a ten thousand dollar piece of toast because it looked like the Virgin Mary.

You miss the point. the casino did not buy the toast because it looked like the Virgin Mary. They bought the toast because it was a stupid media sensation. Same thing here. As you said, they received some return because of media hype. That's the whole point. Everybody makes money because we are suckers for media hype. You are reading about it, aren't you? Even commenting on it. Shows how good an investment in stupid media hype can be.

Re:PT Barnum Lives!

[Anonymous Coward]

Incidentally, Golden Palace Casino also bought space on milliondollarhomepage (left side, halfway down).

Re:PT Barnum Lives!

[Anonymous Coward]

You're just jealous.

Yeah but who is going to visit a site...

[Tezkah]

Yeah but who is going to visit a site that is all advertisements?

You're paying thousands of dollars for space on a site that will never be visited by ANYONE besides those reading press releases about the millionare you just helped create.

Good job companies! I have some swamp land you can put billboards on!

Re:Yeah but who is going to visit a site...

[arrrrg]

Ummm... I'll guess you just did, along with a million other Slashdotters. Given that this started making the rounds a couple months ago IIRC, and has been linked from many mainstream news stories, I'm sure he's seen a lot of traffic. Who cares where the visitors came from once they're there ... there's not even any content to distract from the ads! I'm sure a year from now nobody will visit the stupid page, but I think a few hundred bucks for a few million page views is not a bad deal in the advertising business.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

the only value i can see in this site

[digable]

the only value i can see in this is really an exercise for "marketers" to evaluate what is the most effective eye catching icon.

i thought overall the site was a P.O.S. however, i found it interesting where my attention focused first and subsequently what icons i then drew to...

I call hoax

[RajivSLK]

Alex Tew, a 21-year-old student from a small town in England, earned a cool million dollars in four months on the Internet.

I don't believe it. There is no verification that anyone actually paid him anything. I think it's all an ingenious hoax to get the news media (who are known for not verifying anything) to run this story around the world. A stunt to drive traffic to his site and try to earn some money. Ingenious really.

Re:I call hoax

[jdbartlett]

I think I'll wait for Reuters to verify your claim.

Re:I call hoax

[ThoreauHD]

I agree with the hoax. And slashdot just propagated it. Dumbest shit ever.

Re:I call hoax

[aebrett]

As a friend of Alex' brother, I was initially sceptical of the idea behind this venture, but having followed the site since the fairly early days, and based on his brother's reactions as the whole thing has progressed it doesn't come across as a hoax to me. Looking at the "Press" page on that site, it's generated an unbelievable amount of coverage in the media, so it doesn't seem unreasonable that individual companies would pay a one-off fee to piggyback off some of that media interest. Sure, interest in the site will die away over the next few months, but unlike traditional advertising, in which fees are charged on a periodic basis, once the upfront sum has been paid, there are no more costs involved with advertising on the site.

In common with many others here, I think it says something very odd about the way we view the media that a site like this has become such a success, but don't knock a guy for having an original idea ;)

Re:I call hoax

[Animats]

Agreed. The going rate for banner ad impressions is about $100 per million impressions, and that's for a 486*60 pixel ad with decent placement. This guy would charge $30,000 for a standard sized banner. So he'd have to get 300 million hits to be competitive. No way.

And his is an ad-cluttered site. You probably have to derate the price by a factor of 5 or so. At which point you've reached the English-speaking population of the planet as the breakeven point.

Re:I call hoax

[Anonymous Coward]

I might not be worth a million in advertisement money, but you still can't compare it to normal ads. It has nothing in common with normal advertisement. People ignore normal advertisement, but he made a website that people willingly visit, they might even click several links to check out who would buy pixel advertisement and if they actually link to different sites.

Re:I call hoax

[trollable]

I don't know where you found your numbers but anyway they are not appropriate. What counts is the number of licks (As an advertiser, the number of visitors going to your website). And precisely, the cost-per-click. Now, you can check all the ways to advertise and compare. On Google Adwords, it is difficult to go under $0.07. On AdBrite and for english websites, $0.05 seems the minimum. So if you pay your ad $100, it means a minimum of 5,000 visitors. Now, there is also the "quality" of the visitors: how targeted they are. AdWords brings you targeted visitors (visitors potentialy interested by your website), the MDHP doesn't. All in all, this is definitively not a hoax. And I think that for the earlier advertisers, it was a very good deal.

Re:I call hoax

[markholmberg]

I have been sent a link to that site by my friends and colleagues about 10 times now I think. Every single time I have clicked on those links just for fun. I have even considered buying ad-space there myself because I know that if I would put a link there with the flag of my country on it, most people from my country going to the site would click on it. For say 200 dollars I would get a lot of traffic that I already know something of, at least that they have nothing better to do than click on funny links.

Re:I call hoax

[Anonymous Coward]

parent post is stupid and not correct. many websites earn $5/cpm ($5,000 per million impressions for banners and leaderboards). people who modded post insightful have no clue.

Re:I call hoax

[elodan]

Wrong I think.
This site's been live for months now - I spotted the first news story about it in September I think, and I've occasionally checked on it - it started off empty and now it's nearly full. The media's been aware of it since September at least.

Once again Slashdot catches on late in the game.

Re:I call hoax

[dfjghsk]

You are way off on the going rate of ads

when you are reading ad rates, CPM stands for "Cost Per Milli" or in other words "Cost per thousand" impressions. So when you see $100/CPM (which is actually a bit high -- even slashdot only costs aprox $40/CPM), you're talking about $100,000 for 1 million impressions.

Re:I call hoax

[kaboing]

The company I work for paid for 400 pixels 2005-09-21. Not a hoax.

Re:I call hoax

[ctid]

The story certainly is not a hoax. He's been all over the news media here in the UK for a long time now. Each time I have visited his page there have been more ads. He's selling ads because of the notoriety of his site. There's no reason to doubt that the story is true.

Re:I call hoax

[Peter Cooper]

You're wrong. I personally know someone who spent $4000 on an ad there.

Re:I call hoax

[xmas2003]

Wow - a rational comment. I'm sure Alex will wander over to read this thread, so tell not to get annoyed by all the jealousy that others have exhibited here. Signal-noise ratio is pretty bad, even by /. standards.

Do I wish I had thought of this idea - heck 'ya!
Is it argueably silly - yep!
It is amazing that it took off - yep!
Does Alex deserve every penny for it - YEP!

Hat's off to him for a well executed novel concept.

Re:I call hoax

[scsscs]

It's not a hoax, the Times in the UK verified it. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3223-18240 63,00.html

Re:I call hoax

[slavemowgli]

Actually, there are only about 380 million native English speakers in the world - and those who speak English as a second language won't save you, either, because even the most optimistic estimate is about 1 billion for those. So you'd still be 120 million short of the 1,5 billion required (and that's assuming that that optimistic estimate is actually realistic, which it most likely isn't). :)

But yeah, I agree - it's a pretty stupid thing. And who'd visit a web page comprised *solely* of advertising, anyway? I checked it out, and found it amusing for half a minute, but I don't have any intentions on coming back in the future...

Re:I call hoax

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

Yeah, you're right. He just whipped up those thousands of sites that the ads link to.

Re:I call hoax

[Man Eating Duck]

A wget combined with some regular expressions and importing into OpenOffice Calc (couldn't be bothered with perl) shows that your acquaintance probably is involved with The Book of Cool - Learn from the best! :)

They're the only ones that paid exactly $4000 for a single ad. They're also #17 on the list of who paid the most money.

Man, I'm bored...

Funny thing was that I noticed that ad for some reason before going through the above steps. Now they get a link from Slashdot too. Oh well. Moving on to the beer.

Re:I call hoax

[Animats]

The bottom has fallen out of banner ads. Totally untargeted banner ads from bottom-feeders are available at $100/million impressions. Those are the people who put your banner on hundreds of low-end web sites.

More popular sites with better targeting have higher rates. Most banners today are sold on a click-through basis, anyway. But there's a low tier in this business, and the site in the original ad definitely fits there.

Re:I call hoax

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed. The going rate for banner ad impressions is about $100 per million impressions, and that's for a 486*60 pixel ad with decent placement. This guy would charge $30,000 for a standard sized banner. So he'd have to get 300 million hits to be competitive. No way.

You just don't get it, do you? Instead of trying to explain to you why this site offers added value above a normal banner, let's just settle the matter of whether it's a hoax once and for all. NYT verified bank balance and Paypal accounts. If you want to whine about that he shouldn't have made money in some idealized economic fiction you inhabit, fine. But don't try to pretend that he didn't just because it doesn't fit your preconceptions of what a valuable ad is.

That your knee-jerk reaction is so natural, even to the point of denying in-your-face evidence, is probably why nobody has thought of this before. I think this guy did a great job.

Re:I call hoax

[dfjghsk]

oh please... point me to one website that is selling ads at $100/million impressions.

I own a small business, and one of my job functions is marketing.. not once have I ever seen $100/million impressions.

I think you don't know what you are talking about.. and you're posting bullshit because you got called on it.

Re:I call hoax

[Peter Cooper]

No, wrong one I'm afraid, but it wasn't /exactly/ $4k. That said, I'm totally impressed with your hack-fu.

Re:I call hoax

[Anonymous Coward]

In that case all the testimonials are fradulent, and he created all those images by himself and linked them to the places they're directed at. If it would be a hoax, it would have gotten out by now. Also, he would be facing charges for fraud and libel. That's just not very likely, is it?

But let's finally settle this: New Your Times journalists have actually seen the paypal account and his bank balance. So there.

Re:I call hoax

[Paul 03244]

Really? http://www.answers.com/topic/english-language

Re:I call hoax

[Anonymous Coward]

smells like a hoax - see:
http://www.webwordofmouth.com/milliondollarhomepag e_hoax.htm

and also:

quote:

One of our clients was able to generate over ONE MILLION DOLLARS on a five thousand dollar investment with Click Monkeys!! Not even the stock market at the height of the 90's could offer returns like this!!

http://www.clickmonkeys.com/special.shtml

And now that he has been featured on slashdot ...

[ClickOnThis]

... his cool million will be wiped out by his bandwidth bills.

Re:Motivation to invest in this sort of advertisin

[jdbartlett]

You have indeed, and I think that was the whole idea. This was a smart kid, he realized and harnessed the draw of the novelty site. This is a site people visit because it's a novelty and that companies sponsor because people visit. Now that's clever.

Can I put blinking GIFs?

[Inyu]

I think those who have reserved space, could do that. Anyway, I have a better idea.

implied # of visitors for $1M

[Anonymous Coward]

On Google you can get targeted traffic for roughly $0.20/click.
This site gets untargeted traffic - let's value it at $0.05/click.
Paying $1 million implies 20M clicks from the main page to the ads.
Let's assume that a visitor curiously clicks on 2 ads.
That works out to 10M visitors.
Anyone know how many visitors it's gotten so far?

Re:implied # of visitors for $1M

[shawb]

A lot more visitors now that it's on Slashdot. Except I have no idea how likely /.ers would be to click the ads linked. But the advertisers did pay $1 per pixel, which isn't too bad on their end, even as a lark.

benefits of the slashdotting

[Unknown_monkey]

Well, with the news reporting his latest release and the number of high page rank sites that are now linking to him in their articles, he stands to swing his page rank even higher. I just wish I had thought of it.

Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

*Meanwhile Tew has had to juggle running the site with his first term at university, where he is studying business.*

Running the site? How much time exactly does it take to put up a few ads on a site?
And after that how much maintenance time exactly does it take to... do nothing?

Note to self- think of silly idea then get it picked up by the news media.

Re:Motivation to invest in this sort of advertisin

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the runner up (for me at least) is "Don't Click"

Dammit! Now I'm trying to find the pixels that say "Don't Click", just so I can click them... But I can't find them!

I feel sorry

[Kanasta]

for the brothers and friends that got sold the initial dots. I mean, c'mon, your best friend runs a website that costs maybe $5 a month to host, and wants to charge you a dollar to set a dot color??? Last time I ever lend your my lecture notes!

Re:I feel sorry

[Anonymous Coward]

If he started giving away pixels, the whole point of the page would be gone. It would be like bragging you can get laid and go out and buy it :-)

Re:Motivation to invest in this sort of advertisin

[jacklexbox]

I found Waldo! I WIN! I didn't cheat either... ;) funfun

Copycat

[SamAdam3d]

On the page there is an ad link to a copycat site!

Check this out: http://www.pixellance.com/new/

Good creativity.

Re:Copycat

[Wisgary]

Yeah, and how about http://www.mymilliondollaradpage.com/ Good creativity as well. At least this one has a SUPER DUPER GIGANTICOMUNDO dollar in the middle which sells for $50 bucks a week as a nice centerpiece for the 1,000*1,000 grid.

Like lemmings off a cliff...

[Cap'n Steve]

Did anyone else notice that a good chunk of the ads are for copycat sites? A new concept and matching phrase, "pixel ads" coined and then run into the ground in the space of four months. I love the Internet.

I've listed my ad on that site...

[Anonymous Coward]

it links to my own page www.BILLIONdollarhomepage.com where I am selling each pixel for not 1 dollar, but 1000 dollars! So I will have not a million, but a billion dollars. Yes I will be buying sharks with lasers attached to their fricken heads.

Here's a similar site, but Mac OS X themed...

[saddino]

http://www.macsquares.com/

After this /. article, I imagine they'll be millions of pages like these now, but the real money will be the guy who turns this into a "how to make $1MM on the Internet" DVD course for sale for $49.95 on late night cable that tells you "the secret that got me out of my one bedroom apartment and into the babe-infested mansion you see here."

Re:Here's a similar site, but Mac OS X themed...

[big ben bullet]

No shit... it's already happening!

Look at this.

\The million dollar script people!\

They have a link page to a bunch of pathetical sites that are running the script.

What's wrong with these guys?! I mean, the kid had a great idea, it worked... leave it at that. Don't loose your dignity by trying to squeeze the last bit of money (you won't even get rich) out of it.

I don't even know if I should laugh or cry.

-bbb

I've said it before

[arrrrg]

and I'll say it again. Google doesn't give up-to-date PageRank figures through the toolbar (IIRC they update figures every few weeks/months), primarily to hinder the efforts of SEO types. Without instant feedback, it's more difficult to figure out how to game the system. I would imagine that the site's actual PR is quite high, since it already made the rounds in the media quite some time ago and got many links from sites with high PR.

Re:I've said it before

[Lehk228]

the site may have tripped linkfarm or spam filters due to it's nature and thus had it's PR set to 0.

Self-referential marketing

[bitspotter]

//Another blog search engine will release a list of top 100 bloggers. Every blogger on the list will blog the news in the form of: "Wow, I'm honored to have made it onto the top 100 list" with a link back to the list maintainer's blog. The list maintainer will in return blog: "I'm honored to see that the list has been covered by such a high-profile blogger" with a link back to the winner's blog. The link incest will continue for weeks until it has propelled the list maintainer himself into the top 100, at which point the list will be declared a sham and the blogosphere will erupt in outrage.//

-- http://blakeross.com/2005/12/26/my-predictions-for -the-new-year/

Magic Eye

[UpLateDrinkingCoffee]

Try this: Load up the million dollar home page, cross your eyes a little and look just past the screen. Be patient... relax! If you do it right, a 3d image of a can of spam comes into view. Seriously, it's there!

It's like someone has taken every spam email I've gotten in the last couple of years and squeezed them into a million pixels. My head hurts...

Re:Magic Eye

[mlk]

It's like someone has taken every spam email I've gotten in the last couple of years and squeezed them into a million pixels. My head hurts..

Nah, spam emails as squeezed pixels would move: http://www.millionmovingpixels.com/ (Warning: Not Safe, at all!)

Very old news

[JoseAugusto]

This is so old news... I am spechless to see so many slashdotters reading this for the first time. Check http://www.thepixelwars.com/

Piixels, land, domain names, ip addrs, etc.

[Baldrson]

Renting pixels is a clear demonstration of land value taxation's basis in economic rent. The same principle should be applied to tax domain names and IP addresses to fund ICANN and the government(s) that enforce domain name property rights. It applies also to things like spectrum and orbital slots for communications satellites.

Ultimately this principle applies to taxing net assets in general.

Since the primary function of government is the protection of non-subsistence property rights, it is sensible to charge a use fee for those rights. Note, I said "non-subsistence" property rights. The point here is that house and tools of the trade are protected from confiscation under bankruptcy law precisely because they are subsistence assets. Where government does not exist, subsistence properties are typically defended by the occupant, whose life is sustained by those assets. Government brings precisely the property rights we associate with civilization -- assets beyond home and tools of the trade.

Given the relatively liquid nature of civilization, it makes sense to define "subsistence" in some dollar value of assets. Various ways of defining the dollar value are all approximately equal:

• The median price of housing a person plus the median price of capitalizing a job.
• The threshold used by the SEC for "qualified investor".
• The level of savings insured by the FDIC.
• Or, for the historically inclined: The market price of 20 arable acres in the Confederate south, a mule, a plow and a small house on such land.

Until a citizen accumulates the subsistence net asset level, they should pay no tax and then pay tax only on the net assets they own above subsistence.

Assessment should be by the owner, thereby establishing a "fair market value" for the exercise of eminent domain. Net assets only would be taxed and would be calculated by subtracting the fair market value of debts against the estate from the self-assessment of the occupant.

Other forms of taxation could be eliminated in a revenue neutral way if net assets, in excess of subsistence levels, were taxed at the risk free interest rate (approximately the interest rate on the national debt).

Indeed, given the centralization of asset ownership that has resulted from the subsidy of non-subsistence property, a subsidy inherent in civilization, it may be the failure to use this tax base is the ultimate cause of the repeated decay of civilizations from ancient times.

Re:Piixels, land, domain names, ip addrs, etc.

[DarkKnightRadick]

Are you kidding?

I don't think it's a hoax

[dze]

He's had a lot of mainstream press coverage before today -- see his Press page.

He has a very high Alexa rank of 1480th in the world (ya, not exactly the most reliable source but better than nothing) . His reach per million users is 810, which I think means around 150,000 to 200,000 visitors a day.

Sure, anything *could* be a hoax, and I am usually pretty skeptical with these things, but I really don't think so in this case. Journalists have seen his paypal account (like from the Times Online) and verified the money.

Hoooold on here!

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, am I missing something here??? If the guy is from England, why is this being done in dollars? Did he charge his friends and brothers 5.79 pounds? If he's 21, why did he just get his license? Driving age in England is 17 - is this common?

There's just something fishy about this.

hoax?

[phriedom]

And why is a UK student selling pixels for US dollars instead of pounds?

Re:hoax?

[Anonymous Coward]

COME ON! This is the first you've heard of this site? It's been up for AGES and yes, the guy really really made the money. And what's with the comparison with banner ads, did you even look at the site?

Jeez, there were even comments from guys who THEMSELVES bought space on it months back.

Re:hoax?

[aebrett]

From the FAQ (http://milliondollarhomepage.com/faq.php#10)

10. If you're from the UK, why are you selling the pixels in dollars?

I think US dollars are the closest thing we have to a universal currency on the internet, so it made more sense to do it in dollars. 'The Million Pound Homepage' just doesn't have the same ring to it!

Also, given that the US has the largest online population in the world, more people will be able to relate to the concept than had I done it in British pounds. Plus, £1 GBP per pixel would probably be too expensive (would equate to around $1.80 US per pixel).

Goatse

[Anonymous Coward]

ok, who wants to chip in to get a goatse up on this page?

Re:Goatse

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy crap. Mytuneslive.com is awesome! but is it legal...hmmmmm...fuck it, i will use it till it gets shut down. Free music! just can't download!

Re:Goatse

[Anonymous Coward]

you're my hero :)

Are You Seroius

[ameshkin]

I cannot believe he made one million on that shitty stupid idea for a website but I can't even get a hundred users on mine. ALthough mine has been running for just a month, and is still not finished, its a lot of a better idea than milliondollarhomepage.com.

I mean, are you kidding me? IF you guys would like to upload your mp3 library, then listen to it from any wired computer, then visit my website. Soon, I will put out a press release...maybe thats what i need! And I will sell audio as well as graphic ads, so if anyone is ihnterested...let me know!

Re:Are You Seroius

[UTPinky]

ALthough mine has been running for just a month, and is still not finished, its a lot of a better idea than milliondollarhomepage.com.

Is it a billiondollarhomepage.com? Because I would say, that does sound like a much better idea than a measly milliondollarhomepage.com

Good to know some things on the net are still free

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.zerodollarhomepage.com/

Re:It makes me more angry...

[arnott]

as I had my credit cards accessible and I ended up buying www.milliondollarzhome.com ! $15 gone in 1 minute of weakness.
should never read slashdot or shop after 12:00am.

Site viewing tips

[themadplasterer]

First of all, consume large amounts of acid (just not the brown ones) then proceed to webpage. http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/ and then see what catches your eye. In my case it was the pixels that said "jesus" which you can see here: http://www.pixel4jesus.com/en/. It would seem that everyone that bought from http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/ was ripped off. Twice the profit margin. Oh, BTW jesus says "hi, and has the sage advice to not pour bleach into your eyes", even though it seems like a good idea when on acid.... I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW THE RAIN HAS GONE!!!!!!!!!!

Noone gets it

[Stan Vassilev]

People still don't get it. There's like 20 ads on his own page linking to copycat sites selling or renting pixels... This is retarded.

Pixels have no value, cloning his site a million times has no value. It's the original idea that matters, and he thought of it first and implemented it first.

The rest is internet history.

Re:Noone gets it

[Talinom]

Pixels have no value

Yup, just like tulips.

Re:Noone gets it

[Jack9]

Your last statement is false and false. /kneejerk

Re:Noone gets it

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but you have to appreciate the irony that some of his best customers are copycats. It's like the guy with the get-rich-quick scheme of selling "teach your own get-rich-quick scheme course" courses.

helps to get paid from friends and family

[MikeFM]

Once again proving that it isn't how smart you are or how hard you work but who you know. It sounds like he got his start by knowing friends and family that could pour a little money into his idea and help get him started. THAT is what is needed more than a really clever idea.

Not saying that this kid isn't smart but just that this doesn't really prove anything. It's more luck and connections working in his favor. Charging per pixel is a reasonable idea but is it really so much better than any other pricing scheme?

If you're smart then worry less about school and your job and more about meeting people in other areas of influence - business, marketing, finance, etc. With those kinds of people your ideas will be able to take seed and make you and them money. A little work if your family doesn't come from money but still very possible.

Re:helps to get paid from friends and family

[Scratch-O-Matic]

it isn't how smart you are or how hard you work but who you know...

So this guy was successful in this venture because he knew...his friends? Because he had connections to...his family? And they were able to "pour" $1000 into his business? Starting with friends and family as your first customers hardly fits the "who you know" concept.

Tell you what...try getting a business off the ground with $1000 and an idea that isn't clever. Post your results to Slashdot. Good luck.

Re:helps to get paid from friends and family

[MikeFM]

$1000 from their family is a lot more than most of us get. Friends and family are exactly 'who you know'. Having friends and family that are suportive can make a major difference.

Selling ad space online isn't much of a new idea no matter what your pricing plan. I've been doing it for more than 12 years. As I said, per pixel is a good pricing scheme but they didn't say why you'd go to his site and look at the ads - if people aren't looking at the ads they won't continue selling. Pretty easy to make a lot of money off a fad (look at the pet rock) but it isn't a real business unless you can sustain it. I hope the kid has some ideas how to keep those eyeballs.

Re:helps to get paid from friends and family

[maxpublic]

It's more luck and connections working in his favor.

That's true of any business endeavor. Connections are what get you customers, and luck applies in EVERY venture no matter what some of the self-important say. If anyone - anyone at all - says that luck isn't a factor in their success they're deluding themselves.

Max

Pagerank 7/10

[lordsilence]

The site has a pagerank 7/10 which is actually pretty good in terms of internet publicity.
Getting your own site linked on a 7/10 site will do wonders for your own Pagerank.

Thus those pixels may be worth more than they seem.

The question is how google will treat that amount of links, if it will accept them in the PR calculations.

In a way...

[Baldrson]

I'm kidding in the sense that this is not likely to be adopted and hence civilization is likely to fail. More likely is the scenario where net assets are "taxed" via clan-based protection rackets under warlords that arise from the mess. The rates will be much higher then.

Even better idea

[RedLaggedTeut]

- sell your signature space on slashdot for advertisments

Any takers? :-)

been around for sometime...

[Skal Tura]

This has been aroudn for sometime now, i remember when i first time stumbled upon milliondollarhomepage.com, it was rather empty etc.
There's been stories for sometime now about this website, nothing new here...

$100 for 10pixels... That's expensive!
I even thought about getting pixels, but the price was too much for a silly experiment... damn, i should have cashed out probably, seeing
that they get tons of traffic right now from everywhere!

Re:been around for sometime...

[taffeylewis]

$100 for a 10x10 pixel area. 1 pixel = $1.

Is this business model patentable?

[srussia]

If this guy was bright enough to come up with the idea in the first place, he should have been savvy enough to patent it.

THE BRICKWALL

[loksipan]

www.thebrickwall.com looks a hell of a lot better. This guy should be making a lot more.

I was REALLY REALLY impressed..

[torxic]

and then i realize IT WASNT EVEN HIS IDEA! He wasn't the first to create this, infact, he didnt even create it. The whole engine running this site is developed by Jamit Software PTY LTD and the script is sold at http://www.milliondollarscript.com./ If you go there and take you look, you'll see that there are a dozen of such page which were created long before his site. So it wasn't his idea technically and i'm surprised the Press didn't even check.

Re:I was REALLY REALLY impressed..

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF are you talking about, check the page again:

"The idea for the million dollar script derived from the highly successful "Million Dollar Homepage", started by Alex Tew."

Re:I was REALLY REALLY impressed..

[PostFutura]

You should read the page a bit better. There is a text saying: "The idea for the million dollar script derived from the highly successful "Million Dollar Homepage", started by Alex Tew. We thank Alex for the wonderful idea and hope that he makes a million! Please support his website and visit it here. (We are not affiliated with Alex)".

That script came up over a month later.
Stop trolling or buy you a pair of new eyes.

Re:I was REALLY REALLY impressed..

[kahei]

Impressive, even for /. -- if you actually read the link you posted, you'll find:


The idea for the million dollar script derived from the highly successful "Million Dollar Homepage", started by Alex Tew.

As Ender Wiggin would say....

[TrevorB]

"It could only work once."

This guy was the first to come up with the idea. No-one is going to be able to repeat it.

Sure it's not a business model, but a quick way to tap a cool million off the planet.

I don't get it. I mean how does this work?

[SmallFurryCreature]

There was a program, if you could call it that, that aired late at night and was just an endless stream of commercials. It was ages ago but I think it was a way to distribute new ads to those who have to watch them for some reason. Like those late night education shows that you are supposed to record if intrested and then watch later during more normal hours. The BBC still has these.

This is a bit like that. Most "real" ads are carefully placed in an enviroment/surrounding were you already would be looking and hopefully attract your attention. So for instance the huge blank space between the slashdot dupe and the comments, eh I mean the nice blinking ad that I did not filter out because I do not steal from cowboyneal is placed there because hopefully as you scroll down you will see the ad and become intrested.

This guys adsite however has no content apart from the ads. So why should people visit it apart from pure curiousity. Surely this would not result in any hits?

TV regulators at least do not seem to think so. The programs that show the funniest ads are usually not regulated as a half hour advertisement blok would be. The BBC and most european channels could not show them if anyone thought that a commercial shown during such a program would result in extra sales.

I can understand that people might want to pay X amuunt of money to have their face plasterd on times square or something, but to pay money to get your image on a guys homepage with no other content? I truly just don't get it. Either all the "advertisers" see it as a joke OR advertisers are stupid OR and this is worse. This guys site actually works. People really will visit a site with nothing but ads and generate sales.

This could be bad. If this continues slashvertisements will soon be the only content. TV channels will be nothing but ads with the occasional break for the station logo. And it will work. ARGH!

You smarmy jack assed troll

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you that stupid? Or are you just intentionally lying?

We don't subsidize cars, we tax the living S*** out of them!! Cars put money in the government's pocket. Gas would be between $1-$1.50 per gallon if the government didn't tax it!! Federal taxes alone are 21% of the cost of gas. Now add state and local taxes to that. And that is just end user taxes. Nothing about the taxes and regulations on the businesses that make, transport, or sell gas.
Then we have car license fees, title fees, driver fees, insurance fees, toll roads. The cost of driving is well passed on to the consumer.

Building roads is a primary government function. Has been since Sumer. Police, Military, Roads, and now Education (which you apparently missed) are the 4 primary functions of government.

"runoff"
Do you even know what a subsidy is? Look junior, if you are going to use big words you may want to look them up in the dictionary.

Yeah, yeah, my comments are a bit aggressive, but they are not flamebait or a troll (although modding down political opinion seems Salshdot's pastime) I just don't see why I should tolerate your intolerable bullshit.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[Anonymous Coward]

Free highways to the suburbs are a primary function of government? Fuel taxes that end up paying for a small portion of this system are basically unfair? Calling a spade a spade is "intolerable bullshit"??? This is hilariously nonsensical.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose in your country they put up a little basket and everyone donates a dollar when they want a road to be built?

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[Anonymous Coward]

We don't subsidize cars, we tax the living S*** out of them!! Cars put money in the government's pocket.

Hee hee hee. Has it ever occured to you that something can be subsidized and taxed at the same time?

Did you realize when you started posting that motor vehicles and the petroleum products that run them are, in fact, different things?

Go back to bed, pal.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[AvitarX]

Gasoline tax and tolls should pay for the highway system, and yet it falls real real short. The roads are massivly subsidized, part of that is covered by the tax on gasoline, the rest is covered by the tax on income.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[ArmpitWit]

I highly doubt gas would be cheaper if the government didn't tax it. The truth is that the government places high taxes on the motor vehicles so that they can help the people pay for the gas. It's the government that actuall makes the gas cheaper for us. Have you noticed how the price of gas has risen about 20 cents for the United States versus the high price of gas for Europeans where they pay about the same much we do per gallon, where they pay the same price per liter instead.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[aaronl]

That can be explained trivially: Europe taxes gasoline much more heavily than the US. You'll occasionally see the EU-nuts on here spout off on how Americans wouldn't waste gas so much if the US would tax it as much as the EU. They accept the government taxing the crap out of them as not only normal, but perfectly reasonable, and sometimes desired. Some of those gas taxes are on the order of 3 euros per liter.

Also, the government taxes cars because they can, and no other reason. There are subsidies for oil companies, but car taxes are not where they are. Your subsidies come in the form of tax breaks, military actions, political pressure, cuts in import tariff, etc. They are not so obvious as "here is ten billion dollars so that gas is cheaper".

As far as roads, public money builds them, and often gas tax and toll are offered up as paying to maintain them. Regardless of how they're paid for, they are necessary infrastructure, so we have to pay for them somehow. Even if we didn't drive cars around all the time, we'd still require the roads. Or are you suggesting that public transit is so good in Europe, that they don't have and maintain roads?

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree ... cars are a huge tax burden.

Taxes need to be collected to:
1. Build roads and bridges
2. Maintain roads and bridges
3. Protect the oil economy
4. Provide financial incentives to the oil industry

These are the largest expenses the world has ever seen, costing hundreds of billions of dollars per year. The use tax on gasoline does cover a percentage of those expenses, but certainly not all.

The primary tax source for the highway system is the income tax. I don't know about you, but about 30% of my wages go to federal taxes, and the majority of those taxes go to highway-related expenses.... ever hear of those multi-billion dollar "highway bills"? Taxes have risen over the past 100 years in direct correlation with the number of miles put on the highways - this isn't a coincidence, just a fact of where our elected officials put our money.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[Anonymous Coward]

I think US highway subsidy was around 250 billion last year, which was after the government tried real hard to cut costs.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[czei]

I hardly think the situation calls for insults, as its not at all clear. Yes, petroleum vehicles are taxed, but governments also lose large amounts of revenue on tax subsidies for the oil industry (in the case off federal), as well as hundreds of billions of dollars spent each year on highway and road maintenance (federal, state, and local), not to mention the costs of pollution.

If you can point to a study that measures the total cost spent on car-based transportation, including pollution, and compares that the amount collected in taxes I'd love to read it.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[welcher]

Some of those gas taxes are on the order of 3 euros per liter

What a load of rubbish - the highest price in europe for petrol is about 1.50 per litre. Certainly much of that is tax (probably about 75%) but nothing like 3

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[ivan256]

He was using the word "subsidy" in the same way that polititians use the words "spending cut". (You know... only an 8% increase when you expected a 12% increase is a 33% cut). He's got this big nebulous number that nobody can actually calculate drilled into his head by European governments and environmental groups that is supposedly the cost of cars environmental impact. Conveniently left out of the equation are the economic benefits, so when people like the parent poster do their voodoo math, the cost on society of driving is higher than the taxes regardless of how conservative number they pull out of their asses. They use that reasoning to justify their belief that taxes should be used to discourage driving. In reality, the cost of discouraging personal transportation in an effective way is probably signifigantly higher than the costs of dealing with it.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[geekoid]

He probablt meant per gallon.

But your post does make his point. 75% tax!

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[aaronl]

Yeah, I did mean gallon, sorry about that. :) The other poster did point out that when you take into account my unit error, it's 3-4 euros per gallon in tax.

1 gallon of 87* gas in my part of the US is $2.15. The same gallon in Europe would be $5.61 USD. 75% of that is $4.21 USD, which is 3.55 euros.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, we provide tax subsidies that offset what normally would be taxed (see DaimlerChrysler v. Cuno). Yes, it isn't a direct cash grant (though those are offered). But it does increase profitability where a tax would normally be due.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[Anonymous Coward]

You probably wouldn't be able to get 87 in Europe - certainly not in the UK. The lowest commonly available fuel here is 95, and the premium is 98 or 99. So, it's not an entirly fair comparison, as the petrol will go further, but nonetheless I loved being in the US recently for the cheap fuel prices there... ;)

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[syukton]

Costco Gas @ $1.99/gal FTW!

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[aaronl]

Hmm, that's interesting... the best you'll usually find in the US is 93*. Right now that's around $2.40USD/gal in my area, which equates to $0.634USD/L, or 0.535 euros per liter.

Most of the engines available in the US are designed with the idea you're going to be running 87* fuel in them. You'll get slightly better fuel economy out of them by running higher octane, as well as slighly better engine life and performance. Very few cars in the US have high enough compression to require higher octane than the 87*.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[aaronl]

The closest Costco to me is around 40mi. The cheapest gas I've found is a BJs for 2.09, though.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[Anonymous Coward]

The tiny fuel taxes in the US don't even cover the environmental costs of petrol use, let alone the costs of police, roads, road maintenance, etc.

Road use is heavily funded by all taxpayers in the US, so it is no wonder that mass transit is not viable.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[Anonymous Coward]

I assure you that even without cars we would still have roads.
Or did they not have roads in the 1800s?

Only-user pays raods are a nice ideal, but no government in history has ever acheived that ideal.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[ivan256]

If you can point to a study that measures the total cost spent on car-based transportation, including pollution, and compares that the amount collected in taxes I'd love to read it.

You'll never find one because studies are only done if the result will benefit somebody.

Such a study would be inconclusive at best, because you can't put a price on the economic benefits provided by cars and the trucking industry (which, as far as I can tell, get lumped into the numbers when people discuss the polution caused by cars) aren't measureable due to the fact that they've been so far integrated into our economy for nearly 100 years. There's nothing to compare against. An inconclusive study wouldn't benefit any activists for either side of any argument, so nobody will fund it.

Re:You smarmy jack assed troll

[ArmpitWit]

I've also read somewhere that having an octane too high above what your car should have is bad. Is this true?

You know what I bet?

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet he hasn't made a million dollars on this at all, but he plans to, by convincing you that this is a done deal, and "a piece of internet history". Piece of crock marketing homework is more like it.

My imitation is sincere flattery!

[ChrisKnight]

Over a year ago I registered TampaBayAds.com when I got pissed off with the local indipendant classifide paper, and I wanted to set up a free site to help tear them down. I never got around to it, and the domain sat fallow. Now, I have an idea of what to do with it. I don't aspire to a million dollar website, given that this is Tampa... Still, this guy had a slick idea and I don't feel bad in the least for copying it! :)

TampaBayAds.com

-Chris

Value

[Hobart]

Did he create something of actual value? No, of course not.

I disagree. He created a stream of ad-views by popularizing the site that resulted in real word-of-mouth advertising by the pleased purchasers. Only a pity it can't be done reproducibly, as it's a sort of one-off novelty thing.

--
Slashcode bug # 497457 - unfixed since December 2001 - Go look it up!

nope... still *his* idea

[big ben bullet]

no it's not... i was *his* idea

to quote the milliondollarscript page:
"The idea for the million dollar script derived from the highly successful "Million Dollar Homepage", started by Alex Tew."

the milliondollarscript page team? created a script that does the same
and they try to sell it for $50

some braindead numbnuts actually bought the damned thing too *figures*

i think Alex should have pattented the idea, then he would have made way more than a million

A sad day to read /.

[master_p]

Almost every post is about "why didn't I think about it first", either directly or indirectly. So all that is left from 5000 years of human history is the desire to ...get rich? if the /. crowd, that is supposed to be geeks and interested in a varied set of interests primarily around science, reacts in that way in the mention of 1 million dollars, then our sociery is really doomed. In a few years, nobody will be left to care about values, about science, about humanity, and those that will do so will be in for the money. It is a very sad day to read Slashdot...

Re:A sad day to read /.

[akepa]

The desire to get rich & powerful is what has driven most of human history, for better and for worse.

Re:A sad day to read /.

[Wombat]

For me, money isn't an end, but a means to an end.

I'm a theatre artist. I can expect to make poverty level wages for the next couple years as I build my design portfolio. I'll have to take whatever projects come my way, even if they're of questionable quality, so I can make enough money to, say, buy food. Pay rent. All those little things.

If I were able to uncover an investment scheme of some kind to ensure that I'll have a living wage no matter how "uncommercial" I am in my work, I would jump at it.

With a million dollars, I would be able to fund new plays, new works, bring theatre to nontraditional audiences.

I could use proceeds from a million dollar windfall to fund (in small part) scientific research that interests me, even though I've gone a different way in my professional life.

The nature of capitalism dictates that most pursuits are tied to funding, for better or worse.

Re:A sad day to read /.

[sloth jr]

Of course! Who gives two shits about a million dollars? It's what could be done with that money that's exciting. Money makes the world go round.

Another Copycat...in Japanese

[DeepDarkSky]

http://www.1okuenhp.com/ (the one hundred million yen homepage - 100 yen per pixel)

Is this money well spent?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can think of a few people more deserving this money than that!

Help me out here...

[MC Negro]

I am quite confused by this. I've read the article. I've browsed the webpage and I've read the FAQ. I don't get it.

Not to be a wet blanket or anything, but I'm completely missing the brilliance here. It seems like he's essentially selling rather overpriced banner-ad space, without any content to drive traffic or visitor click-throughs (I guess relying entirely on the notoriety of the site in the press?)

I'm having trouble understanding how firms would really think it's a wise investment to spend $x dollars advertising on a website that has zero draw. Who cares if the banner will be up there for 5 years if no one has incentive to visit the hosting website? I skimmed the FAQ, looking for promises of content or incentive for traffic, and here's all I found --

7. Why should I buy your pixels? Because you will have an image and a link to your site on the homepage of a site that could potentially be seen by millions of people over the coming years. The site will be online for at least 5 years, that's guaranteed, but the idea is to keep it online forever. So you really could own a piece of 'internet history'!

Um, "Why would millions of people visit this website?" would be a good follow-up question. I imagine that neither I nor many other people stay up in the wee hours of the night to watch collections of paid programming advertisements or flip straight to the adverstising section of a magazine. Why would I go to a website that is just a big billboard?

I checked out the "Testimonials", which I'm skeptical of, to say the least. Lots of references to making "Internet history". Maybe I'm just completely out of it, but I really don't see how pooling a shitload of static banner-ads onto one page constitutes "Internet history".

With all this in mind, I once again raise the question how this is "genius". Clever? Sure. Exploiting of ignorance and gimmicky? Possibly. Genius? No. At best, I would say this is a lucky flash-in-the-pan bit that will never work twice, unless browsing websites devoted entirely to advertising space becomes profoundly interesting in the future.

However, if I've overlooked some massive details, or I'm not making the appropriate connections, please tell me, because I'm still in disbelief that this works on any level. An MBA I am not, so if there's some sort of defined principles for what constitutes genius in the business world, it's lost on me. Or maybe this is genius of the P.T Barnum ilk? Regardless, if this site really is riding on the coattails of its own notoriety, I guess he deserves kudos for creating such a buzz (no matter how gimmicky and seemingly undeserving such buzz is), and at least he's using the money for college (or so it is stated), and not on a new mansion or something completely materialistic in value.

Re:Help me out here...

[ctid]

What he did was:

1. Think up the idea.
   
2. Make it happen.
   
3. Generate enough success to sell 1000 pixels.
   
4. (Very important) Attract the attention of the national media.
   
5. (Very important) He was the first person to make a success of this idea.
   

In short, I don't understand what you don't understand.

Re:Help me out here...

[Barny]

My guess would be, either he is hoaxing the "$1 per pixel" bit, and just routing the lookers from /. and other media to sites that pay for referals, or this is the first stage of a setup involving an 0-day exploit, a few carefully placed images, and again pay per click referals.

I went there, was very carefull not to click any of the images, tried to find any content that wasn't makeing the guy money, and left.

Re:Help me out here...

[Inthewire]

Well, your guess is wrong.
I've had an image and link there since 11/23/2005.

Re:Help me out here...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've read the article. I've browsed the webpage and I've read the FAQ. I don't get it.

Sound liek YOU are the reason. I know I read the FAq and looked at the image. Heck I even showed about a dozen other people about it.

Re:Help me out here...

[EnglishDude]

Not to be a wet blanket or anything, but I'm completely missing the brilliance here. It seems like he's essentially selling rather overpriced banner-ad space, without any content to drive traffic or visitor click-throughs (I guess relying entirely on the notoriety of the site in the press?)

Exactly, that's the point. He's selling rather overpriced banner-ad space and making a load of money out of it. Of course, the idea won't work again. The website will be forgotten in a week and no-one'll click through it, but who cares, he made a million dollars and a few websites saw a large but short jump in number of visitors. He's brilliant in the term of actually thinking up of the idea, implementing it and making it work and run laughing to the bank with the cash. Yes it's a flash in the pan. Yes, it's pooling a shitload of ads onto the web.

Damn, can't express my thoughts well enough here, but oh well, I hope you get my gist ;)

simply a gift from GOD

[sixpacker]

I still don't understand why that idea works! Who's visiting his website and why?

Re:simply a gift from GOD

[wheany]

Nobody has to VISIT his site. More people visiting his site just increases his bandwidth costs and lowers his profits. The idea behind the site is to sell ad space, and apparently THAT has worked. I'm pretty sure he couldn't care less if nobody visited the site after he sells his last pixel.

Cities are crime havens

[Anonymous Coward]

Also remember that most US cities have been run by Democrats for years (read decades).
Oddly enough, they are now overun by crime, businesses have moved out, and the school systems are a total and complete mess.

It is not just being packed in like sardines. It is also about getting out of a failed system.

Re:Cities are crime havens

[pnewhook]

Sure, blame the only party that isn't driving the country to hell.

In the U.S.

[Anonymous Coward]

"believe it or not, in large portions of the world a substantial (majority?) of people don't have a driver's license and depend on public transit systems like rails, subways, and busses."

I'll skip the obvious "In the U.S. only old people take public transportation" and stick with the trusty, more accurate:

    "this is why we think the rest of the world is bunch of losers"

Re:Motivation to invest in this sort of advertisin

[Anonymous Coward]

I like the one that says "rent pixels cheaper!"

That's awfully expensive, no wonder he got $1mil

[Junior J. Junior III]

In an era where the cost per gigabyte of storage is well under a dollar, he's charging a dollar for a single pixel's worth of data, no wonder he made a million. The only mystery is why were people so eager to pay such an exhorbitant price for hosting.

Why should you buy space?

[Propaganda13]

Cause Manboobs says so.

"MillionDollarHomePage.com has proved to be a fantastic investment for manboobs.co.uk. For a relatively small outlay our hits have increased 10 fold in 2 days. Great idea which really works. Thanks Alex !"

Ian Whitcombe
www.manboobs.co.uk
Pixels purchased: 100

how in the hell did this make money?

[deadweight]

Selling ad space on a web page might have been original in 1995. Why would ANYONE be interested in this? Reminds me of the "patent" on email via radio that BLackberry is fighting. I have sent emails by radio in the fsking 1980s!!!!!

Good for this kid

[Johnny Sailor]

You know, when I read the article I thought to myself, "Oh great, another way for advertisers to start cramming ads down our throats, thanks a lot kid."

I just completely had it figured that ever blank space in a website was going to start throwing ads like these up at you, but after reading the article, and then actually looking at his site, I see that it's just a gimmick that he came up with.

Like it's been said above, it's a one time deal with the press really making his site sell. Plus the site doesn't try to claim to do anything else. Good job kid. Invest that million bucks wisely, maybe college... mutual funds... yeah right ;P

Sucker born every minute

[IntelliAdmin]

And our friend here has capitalized on it.

Reuters Oddly Enough Plagiarism

[fiendy]

This is the second story in two days that has come from the Reuters 'Oddly Enough' column.

The technics behind it

[houghi]

All nice about the money making. I am more interested if he does it all by hand or does it with a script or program. Placing the stuff must be a hell of a job considering not all sqares are the same size.

http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/img-pix/image -map.png is the image you see.

Who cares about the money? I want to know how it works.

I'll take that bet, you ham-and-egger.

[FatSean]

What the hell? Is all the negativity toward some marketing asshole making you sad? Did you really forget how Slashdot despises turds who lie and misrepresent their wares? Like this kid did. You know he did...how else did he sell the first few dots!? Whatever.

What the! It happened again!

[fury88]

AGAIN I submitted this article yesterday afternoon. It may have been old news in certain parts of the world but Reuters just picked it up yesterday. C'mon, my writing is not THAT bad!

Advertisers beware: site has low traffic!

[Anonymous Coward]

Look at the traffic stats. Not counting this slashdot effect, this site typically has very low traffic. That's why buying a 10x10 square isn't profitable: you won't get a ROI on your link. And maybe your site will end up a few places up on Google's RankPage, but that's all. This site is just for stupid people who have an urge to let go of their money.

The site didn't take off on its own...

[Anonymous Coward]

The site which detailed all this information is down, probably due to traffic, but the basic facts are thus:

The contact page for milliondollarhomepage.com listed Imal as the person to contact about the site. Imal is an internet marketing agent hired by Alex at a cost of $7,000 per month. Alex since put a small thankyou on his blog page: "Big thanks to Imal for making all this happen" - but never mentioned what she did. She advertised the site for him, as you'd expect a $7k marketing agent to do.

THAT is why the site took off. THAT is why the Alexa graph went flying.

NOT because it took off by its own accord as Alex claimed. He lied.

Still, it worked well and my site gets lots of traffic through it, so what do I care (and who knows if the above info is even true, this is the intarweb afterall) :)

I don't understand

[Anonymous Coward]

Could someone please tell me how selling adspace on a web page is original? You need traffic to interest anywone in buying ad space. If all your page has is ads.... ?? I'm trying to find the orignial idea here. I'm not achieving it.

This is the online version...

[enigma.obscura]

...of blipverts.

umm?

[spacemky]

A link to the actual page the article is talking about would be helpful. Can anyone find the picture of CowboyNeal?

automobiles are more heavily subsidized

[bigtrike]

In most of the US, a public transportation system would be more expensive than cars. Buses are great and all, but if they always run less than a quarter full, they're actually less efficient than cars (because they are so much bigger).

Automobiles are only cheaper because they are more heavily subsidized than public transit. Gas taxes, vehicle registration, and other fees do not come anywhere close to paying for roads and other direct costs. In addition, they don't do a thing to pay for things such as policing of motor vehicles, paying for hospital care for people who get sick from smog and don't have insurance, wars and covert ops in the middle east to keep OPEC weak, etc.

You're right that America doesn't have the population density needed to make public transit work well, but only because of poor urban planning which worshipped the automobile. Most midsize US cities are locked in a never ending cycle of sprawl.

Re:automobiles are more heavily subsidized

[maxpublic]

but only because of poor urban planning

Urban planning has little to do with it. In most places in the U.S. people don't want to live packed together into tiny areas. The exceptions, like NYC, are notable for being *exceptions*.

In this case, the government is doing our bidding - as it's supposed to. We want an infrastructure that supports decentralized living, and that's exactly what we're getting. If certain tiny segments of the population don't approve of our choices, that's just too bad for them.

Max

"A Thousand Points of Sites"

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone did this years ago and called it "A Thousand Points of Sites". Except instead of a pixel, you got a 5x5 red dot. It's a lark, but congratulations to him!

No Page Rank

[Slashdoc Beta]

Matt Cutts (from Google) said it will have no effect on your page rank.

I hate this kid...

[Retired Replicant]

...because he thought of this before I did :-) Talk about the easiest job in the world.

Ugh, one of THOSE stories

[SnappingTurtle]

These gold rush stories drive me crazy. They make me whack the side of my head and think "why didn't I think of that???" I'm such a sucker for gold rush stories. They keep me awake at night trying to think of The Next Big Thing, or at least The Thing That Will Let Me Retire.

Re: dumbest idea ever

[shambalagoon]

You think this is a good idea? This is the dumbest thing I ever heard. A web site that's all ad space, selling by the pixel? THIS gets into the news? THIS stupid idea makes a million dollars?

It just goes to show, the quality of an idea doesnt matter at all. What matters is the media coverage you get. I could put a web site up that's a picture of a dog turd and people have to pay $10 to see it. If CNN and the other news sites post a story on it, I'll be rich!

And here I am, spending years working on artificial intelligence. I must be an idiot.

The contract behind it

[lostboy2]

I'm curious about the terms of the contract (if any) between the website owner and the advertisers. I wonder how long the owner guarantees that the site and the advertisements will be functional and if he put any disclaimers in the contract?

The FAQ says he guarantees it'll be around for 5 years. But what happens if it crashes for a few days? Or what if the site gets hacked and someone alters the graphic file? Could the advertisers sue the website owner for breach of contract?

If the kid hasn't protected himself, the next five years could be interesting (as in "may you live in interesting times").

Just my 2 cents

[Thomas DM]

He's a genius. He took a very simple idea, pulled in a huge amount of media attention and within a couple of hours I'm sure he will have reached the magical $1 million mark.

I'm still amazed that he got this idea to work. I think I thought about creating a similar site about 2 years ago but I thought it would be impossible, I believed noone would be interested in paying a lot for a link/image/pixel/...

Probably the most amazing thing are his marketing skills. He managed to gain the attention of lots of huge websites, newspapers, TV shows and other media. That was the hardest part and it's also why imitators won't succeed. The original version from Alex Tew gets it, and the copycats will barely get any media attention.

I believe if Alex handles smart now he'll be set for life. One million dollar at his age should be more than enough for the rest of his life, if he spends and invests it the right way.

Anyway, I think he should try to milk out the idea as much as possible. Maybe he should create a second page, or another 1,000,000 at the same page, for only 75 cents a pixel or something like that ;-) When he reaches the 1 million mark he'll get a huge amount of media attention, it would be a shame if he didn't do anything with it.

Only on Slashdot.....

[achesterase]

would a post like this be modded "Interesting".

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Not a new idea

[kuzb]

This is not a new idea, we came up with this about 10 months ago at the corporation I work for, and abandoned it because it was a bad idea.

Who wants to visit a page that is so covered with ads there is no room for any real content? It'll end up looking like one of those horrid portal pages where everything is an ad. This fad will eventually die out. Real advertising (2 - 3 ads per page) can already make you that much money in 4 months if you have the userbase.

David Hannum

[citizenr]

"By the way, the only phrase that he is currently famous for is A sucker is born every minute. Strangely enough, he never said this. It was actually stated by his competitor - a banker named David Hannum, owner of the Cardiff Giant (which later turned out to be a hoax). "

Re:David Hannum

[njh]

Except that this is wrong too:
There's a sucker born every minute.

Excuses, excuses.

[jotaeleemeese]

Use smaller buses....

Re:Motivation to invest in this sort of advertisin

[autophile]

P.S. I found Waldo in the pic too

I found Che Guevara. At least I think it's Che Guevara.

--Rob

OT: random luck

[MustardMan]

The free stuff websites are still relatively easy to game and get a freebie. Not quite as easy as they were when they first came out, mind you, but still pretty easy - if you're patient. I've done little for my free stuff other than put a link in my /. sig and have gotten two freebies already and am one completed referral away from a 30gb ipod video. If you're clever and work at it - it's relatively easy to talk people into signing up for the free trial services if you'll cover them for dinner one night - so for 3 10 dollar nights at a burger joint you can have an ipod shuffle. I have a couple of friends who've exploited this method quite heavily.

My point? Just because YOU assume something is a flash in the plan one-shot deal, doesn't mean it is. This kid MIGHT blow his million bucks and never have another good idea, or he might form the next google. You sure as hell don't know enough about him to tell the difference and are just being cynical for the sake of being cynical.

Dear God, why!?

[Chelloveck]

For the love of God, why? Why would anyone pay real money for a thumbnail-sized ad on some random, content-free page? I see a couple 100x100 pixel ads there. $10,000? Just to be part of the freak show? Does anyone really expect to make that back in revenue?

sigh I guess that's why he has a million dollars and I don't. I don't understand why anyone would pay five bucks for a ring-tone, either, yet they do...

Re:Dear God, why!?

[myz24]

Why wouldn't you take advantage of something like this? It's one of a kind, anything that comes after it will be a clone. I'm not sure what came first but the million dollar screenshot isn't doing as hot and I'm really surprised.

Anyway, my point is something like this because it's original will get passed around, make news. Because it's new and interesting people are more likely to look around on it.

Excuses.

[jotaeleemeese]

Many towns around the world run clean, efficient bus systems.

Somebody where you live is chosing not to do so, but buses are not inherently vile as you put it.

A Bug

[RavenChild]

The last column of ads don't get the special mouseover text. You have to wait for your browser to display it. I think those people deserve a refund on their ads.

pixel advertising and pixel ads

[SpaceKow]

Pixel advertising is fraud-free and cheaper than CPM. also see: http://www.threadwatch.org/node/5156

btw, we will soon be offering hosted pixel advertising on http://targetedpixels.com/

Marcel http://pressrelease.cc/

the guy's a showman, all this has to be

[swschrad]

is a resume entry, complete with a hires printout of the home page. One million bucks in promotion, and it's worth ten times that in self-promotion when he needs a gig.

this guy is a natural for promotion, advertising, product placement... he'll have a grand job someplace when he graduates, and could run an empire if his head stays on straight.

doesn't matter if it's the first instance of the art or not, he's PT Barnum's ghost's third clone reincarnated.

in fact, all of the severely handicapped companies you folks can think of, outfits that fit the legendary GM quote, if they sold sushi they'd call it "old stone-dead cold fish in weeds".... all of those outfits could use this kid.

congratulations, pard, make moral choices and be good to people, and you will have a long and wonderful life, and not want for anything.

Re: dumbest idea ever

[Anonymous Coward]

shambalagoon (714768) on Friday December 30, @10:58AM (#14364928)

You think this is a good idea? This is the dumbest thing I ever heard. A web site that's all ad space, selling by the pixel? THIS gets into the news? THIS stupid idea makes a million dollars?

It just goes to show, the quality of an idea doesnt matter at all. What matters is the media coverage you get. I could put a web site up that's a picture of a dog turd and people have to pay $10 to see it. If CNN and the other news sites post a story on it, I'll be rich!

And here I am, spending years working on artificial intelligence. I must be an idiot.

Yes. You are an idiot. If actual artificial intelligence is ever developed it will not have been done in any part by a lackwit like yourself.

Have a nice day realizing that you are a waste of space and of breath.

Re: dumbest idea ever

[Anonymous Coward]

And here I am, spending years working on artificial intelligence. I must be an idiot.

You said it.

Have you looked at the ads?

[Anonymous Coward]

I clicked on five of the pixel ads. 3 of them linked to...another page, where someone else is trying to sell 1,000,000 pixels.

I call bullshit on this whole deal. This is nothing more than link farming in a new form.

One lucky fellow...

[RoscBottle]

...but who cares? Given current practises it won't be long before he is hit with a patent lawsuit anyway...

It's simple, really

[yoey]

Because it's easier to get a million people to pay a dollar for something than to get one person to pay a million dollars.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Patent Violation

[Nom du Keyboard]

And no doubt he'll lose all of it to someone who sues him for some 1989 patent filing (finally granted in 1998) for using pixels with links attached to them for advertising purposes.

In other news

[Hard_Code]

Andy Warhol's corpse has risen and is rampaging through the streets.

Art

[a gash]

I'm sure this is the wrong crowd, but that image would make some awesome LSD blotter art. (It actually is great art form, and many people collect the virgin sheets.)

What is the time table before he loses all his $$

[Anonymous Coward]

He has no new income coming into the site, but he is obligated to keep hosting this page for life.

Is the time line before he has to pay 1 million in bandwidth costs > his life span?

Someone who knows some of the values needed to make such a equation please post here!

Sour grapes?

[jotaeleemeese]

Just venturing a guess.

Looks Like Cover of Radiohead's Hail to the Thief

[jck2000]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f7/Radi ohead.hailtothetheif.albumart.jpg

I wonder if he will publish a poster of it.

Re:Motivation to invest in this sort of advertisin

[Anonymous Coward]

I found Waldo in the pic too

Right of black-on-green "Absinthe"
Left of black-on-yellow "Coupons"

The lower-left corner of the upper-right quadrant.

Even worse tha porn...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why? Less value. :-))))

Interesting, but begs the question?

[soundproofing.noise]

How does this help the pixel buyers?

I still don't understand how some of the search engines work?, but don't they rank sites based on anchor links?. The entire site is coded in javascript using map area links, does this mean that sites advertising gain no pagerank increase by their adverts?.

The advertising is not targeted or relevant to any narrow area so will not help drive useful traffic to the sites?.

Only useful for gaining better pagerank by being on a high ranking or relevant site, but does it really help?

This is a brilliant idea if and only if:
1)it helps the advertiser or
2)helps the site owner

If the advertisers gain no sales (the bottom line) then the advert is wasted expense.

If the site owner has really sold advertising space (the bottom line) then he has succeeded but maybe he is just building hype in the hope he will sell pixels?

Good luck to the site owner, but I have to say I would not buy pixels.

Though his skill at generating hype is admirable.

Nothing new

[Ice Wewe]

This is nothing new. For years now people have being doing advertising online, this guy just invented a new way of doing advertising. No that anyone would see the ad's themselves, they're only one freaking pixel. I've got a great idea, sell one square millimeter of your body for $10. The advertiser's can pay to have their ad tatooed on your body, and then you can stand half naked in Time Square while people try to figure out what the hell you're supposed to be. Or, better yet, train your dog to shit letters and graphics. Now that's a good money maker... for the cop giving you the ticket.

In 2 months, who is going to care ...

[Anonymous Coward]

" ...about a site full of ads with no content? "

Two months? I was finished in will under two minutes.

Thank you. (Mod parent up)

[xigxag]

That's "THE TIMES", a UK paper, not the NY Times, but otherwise a very informative post which shows that the press for once did a little research. Thank you.

ActiveDesktop?

[marciot]

But nobody will actually look at this page once the media blitz wears off.

A more sustainable idea might be a a site that pays you a few bucks a week to turn on ActiveDesktop and make this into your desktop. Then advertizers are able to buy pixels on *your* desktop. It would be less annoying than popup boxes, methinks.

Or, on a more sinister note, maybe a worm will come out which will set peoples desktops to this web site, using one of the recently announced exploits.

- Marcio

Where's the fucking APPLE Logo?

[throatmonster]

If it ain't got an Apple logo on it, it ain't shit. Steve Jobs Rules!

better buy some here

[Anonymous Coward]

This guy will chop off his penis if people buy advertising pixels in the bottom half of the hourglass. So far it looks like the top half is winning. Someone buy up some stuff on the bottom :)
http://www.savemypenis.com/ SFW

The Real Scoop...Alex Tew not totally honest!

[rebump]

http://www.webwordofmouth.com/milliondollarhomepag e_hoax.htm Not all nicey, cutesy word-of-mouth naive little college student but a outright business venture. Still give him kudos for pulling it off. Good investment but still it lacks in integrity.

Why this is a legitimate business model...

[Ryosen]

There is a sucker born every minute
Each time the second hand sweeps to the top
Like dandelions up they pop,
Their ears so big, their eyes so wide.
And though I feed 'em bonafide baloney
With no truth in it
Why you can bet I'll find some rube to buy my corn.
'Cause there's a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute,
And I'm referrin' to the minute you were born.

Each blessed hour brings sixty of 'em
Each time the wooden cuckoo shows his face
Another sucker takes his place,
And plunks his quarter on the line
To buy my brand of genuine malarkey.
God bless and love 'em!
But don't feel sad or hoppin' mad or cause a scene
'Cause there's a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute,
But Ma'am you mighta been the minute in between.

If I allow that right here in my hands
The smallest living human man
The sight of that is surely worth a dime
If I present an educated pooch
Who's trained to dance the hoochie cooch
What better way to waste a bit of time
If I imported monumental cost
A lady, fair, who's head was lost
While crossing railroad tracks to pick some zinnias
Who eats farina through a hose
And wares pink tights instead of clothes
If that ain't worth a buck my name ain't Phineas

Aw you say that's hog wash well who cares
You'll buy my hog was long as

There's a sucker born every minute
Each time the second hand sweeps to the top
Like dandelions up they pop,
Their ears so big, their eyes so wide.
And though my tale is bonafide baloney,
Just let me spin it,
And ain't no man who can resist me wait and see
'Cause there's a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute,
And friends the biggest one excluding none is me!

This makes me remember

[Anonymous Coward]

This makes me remember sites like Give me a dollar

The Actual Site

[SandManMattSH]

So where is the actual site?
Does anyone have a link?

Spanish Million Dollar Homepage

[juan.vellido]

A new Million Page... Spanish Million Dollar Home page