It has been suggested by certain people that some ISPs throttle traffic on port 6881 (the default port used by many common bittorrent clients, Azureus included). Switching to a different port would get around throttling of this nature - at least I assume that's what the poster was referring to.
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).
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;)
Slashdot Mirror
It has been suggested by certain people that some ISPs throttle traffic on port 6881 (the default port used by many common bittorrent clients, Azureus included). Switching to a different port would get around throttling of this nature - at least I assume that's what the poster was referring to.
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).
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
All I can say for certain is that it isn't a weasel, because a weasel is weasely wecognised, whereas a stoat is stoatally different ;)