Mini Billion

Xmas 2011

2011-01-07T23:27:00.000-08:00

Today, January 7, is Christmas in my country!
In addition, it's my BIRTHDAY!

My congratulations to all of us!

My beloved woman made me an excellent gift:
A new Nokia 5250 mobile. Comparing to my previous mobile, - it's a 9 years' old Siemens, which out of phone market for recent years anyway, and which I used up to the moment (see its picture on the left), - the new one is a really excellent piece of art. Actually, it's a touch phone. What is more, - it's a touch smartphone. With a real operating system. On other words, - it's a kind of COMPUTER!
By the way, according to specifications, that Nokia phone outperforms my 12th years' old personal desktop, - my first, and the only(!) personal computer I was ever could afford in my life: With only 6G of hard disk (the Nokia can have up to 16G), and Pentium 400 MHz (vs . ARM 434 MHz processor in Nokia). Anyway, more memory and CPU power.

From now all my future web projects, - including those that are to be competing with Infospace, Inc., - will be MOBILE-OPTIMIZED! At last!!! Now I'm capable to design and test my Web ideas on mobile platform properly.

Happy Christmas!

Рождество!

2010-01-07T06:13:00.000-08:00

under updating

MY MUM IS DYING!!! - Because of InfoSpace, Inc.

2009-10-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

My mother stopped speak and walk years ago - after insultus to the brain triggered by attacks of InfoSpace against my 2D-Infospace domains. Now doctors say: "She is just DYING!"

Mini-News.com/2009/10/my_mum_is_dying

7 Thoughts About Windows 7

2009-10-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

Today is a big day for Microsoft, - the launch of its Windows 7. Should it be holiday for the rest of the world?

Practically all analysts agree that:
1. Windows 7 is not a great breakthrough. Rather, it's a polished version of its unripe and slow predecessor. Well, it works better, - for some tasks, and some PCs. But is it the thing YOU desperately need?

If you tell me it's not about personal feelings, but about making your business more competitive, think again:
What Windows 7 does the XP doesn't?
Even conceptually?

2. Yet, switching to Windows 7 is just a question of "When", rather than "If".

Here are 7 Thoughts I've just compiled in my Mini-News format (click them to see their best related citations):

But if you are interested to hear opinion on Windows 7 from the person who currently runs Windows 98 on his 10 years' old desktop, - and THAT'S ME! - keep reading.

I know, I know, my life mentality can be distorted by the need to live outside financially rich countries. But sometimes it can be useful. For example, for watching this fuss about Windows 7 from a different perspective.

It's not like the "Microsoft-free PC" initiative the company's main rival announced last year. (In that case it simply was an attempt to replace Microsoft with its own business). What I am proposing is to think about how to become not addicted to the products you can live without.

My main conclusion so far is the following:
The Windows 7 is a typical child of GREED and OVER-CONSUMPTION!
Yet, ... it's definitely a must-have thing to feel alive in our crazy world.

The sad reality is that Microsoft, and the whole industry in turn, will make belief the products they previously created do not exist, - despite the latter work quite well.

Happy 09/09/09

2009-09-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

Under Updating

Donation Of The Year!

2009-08-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

A simple idea:

Just help me to convince the
Infospace, Inc. to settle its infowar against my 2D-INFOSPACE websites!
50% OF THE SETTLEMENT I CAN DONATE TO CHARITY!
Considering almost a half of Billion value of Infospace,
- it could be $MILLIONS!!!

My idea is inspired by the recent Infospace's charity project DoGreatGood. In particular, by its desire to make some money where people usually don't. A week ago SeattleTimes titled an article about Infospace as "The Business of Giving". My mini-research on what Infospace would never tell its users resulted in publishing the Truth About DoGreatGood.com.

Why my newest charity project is going be BETTER than the one from Infospace? Because it's better in both Ethical and Financial dimensions:

1) INFOSPACE MAY NOT DONATE TO PETS, WHEN IT'S IN DEBT TO A HUMAN!
For the last SEVEN(!) YEARS, Infospace "forgot something" about me, a victim in its stupid infowar against my 2D-Infospace intellectual property.

Generally, YOU MAY NOT DONATE IF YOU ARE IN DEBT!
It's as simple as that!
Otherwise, it's unfair. It means you are a liar!
And My Dream Is To Earn A $Million FAIR!!!

2) The most tricky DoGreatGood's statement is "Do charity At No Cost". People love it! It sounds like "Do A Job Without Doing Any Job!". But even if it's true, would you expect a lot from somebody who does nothing for you?

The free job we do for DoGreatGood is a heavy exposing to its Ads. The company that earns on advertising, wants us to believe watching the ads is always a fun. No, it isn't! Please read what I wrote about it a year ago: Bye-Bye, Ads.

In my case, I ask people for some help, but it's easy:

- Just share THIS news
- Contact Infospace to remind them about my 2Infospace.com message!

The more you help me - the bigger our reward!

Hey, Charities!
You should be interested in helping me because
EVERY SECOND $MILLION GONNA BE YOURS!!!

Hey, Infospace!
When I struggle to find a mere $7 for the next month's Internet connection, you keep boasting about your multi-thousand donations to American dogs. Just pay your debts, - and I will help your featured charities better than you! It's time to SHOW HOW MUCH YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT CHARITY!

Please do the Really Great Good!
And let a guy from a poor country to donate
UNPRECEDENTED sum of money!

P.S.

By the way, I have a PayPal donation account at
http://Mini-News.com/submit/donation

Please help me to stand up FOR WHAT IS RIGHT!

My FREE donation to Infospace!

2009-08-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

On August 1st, I registered the Charity4Infospace.com domain name! I wasn't going to use it: It's my FREE gift to Infospace, Inc.

I think that company desperately needs such a name, as it clearly reflects a model of their business. My previous article "Truth about DoGreatGood.com" reveals what is wrong about the model.

Speaking about domains, my first thought was to register the DoGreatGoodForInfospace.com (by the way, this name is still available for real Infospace's fans :) But then I decided the words "charity for poor" would be more appropriate when donating something to a half of $BILLION giant called Infospace, Inc.

Let me tell you some interesting facts:

I live in a poor country, and in my 44 years I've NEVER had my own CAR or HOME!
In fact, I practically have NO PERSONAL COMPUTER!
Because simple never could afford it ...

But the point is: When three days ago I spent my LAST(!) money for purchasing a domain name for Infospace, - it's a CHARITY!

And when the rich American Infospace, Inc., a half of $BILLION giant ($39.1 million revenues for the first quarter only), boasts with raising a donation of $200,000 for the whole year; and then begs people to help its business growing, with promising to pay for that a half of the added profit,
- it's NOT CHARITY!

So, Infospace, you are fully qualified for obtaining my FREE gift, and switching your Internet presence solely to the Charity4Infospace.com

Truth about DoGreatGood.com

2009-08-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

I think a business model behind DoGreatGood.com is the following:
"People, do good for Infospace! And after Infospace becomes richer because of that, it may donate a part of its profit to other people!"

What's wrong with the model? On the surface, it looks perfectly fine. In fact, it's a dream of life for all of us. Ask any(!) business in the world: Who will NOT be glad to donate a part of his profit, -- PROVIDED the profit appears exclusively because of a promise to make the donation?!!

So, what is bad about that?
A DECEPTIVE way of Infospace for doing such a business!

Let's start with Infospace's description of its "New Philanthropic Search Engine" DoGreatGood.com (by the way, Infospace is not the first with it; rather, it's a copycat of the famous GoodSearch.com's idea launched 4 years ago):

"The more you search, the more you help. It’s that simple."
No, it's not that simple! It depends on many factors, like a number of DoGreatGood's advertisers for your topic, and/or whether you make a real click on their ads. But anyway, the transparency problem should be the first alarming sign:
YOU NEVER KNOW HOW MUCH INFOSPACE EARNS ON YOU when you deal with DoGreatGood.com!

"DoGreatGood makes money when you search the Web on our site."
Good for DoGreatGood! But what about poor charities :)? Well, sometimes DoGreatGood is able to support them, sometimes it doesn't.

Remarkably, Infospace gets a guaranteed piece of "good" from the system, - no matter earns DoGreatGood money or not! It's in the form of raising public AWARENESS about Infospace's main businesses, e.g., Dogpile. The promotion is so deeply integrated into web design of DoGreatGood that we may call the latter a free advertising platform for InfoSpace, Inc.

So, is the DoGreatGood just a good interface to the bad Infospace?

The actual logo for DoGreatGood.com should sound like this:

"Please, help Infospace to grow its business!
We are not very popular on the search market.
In fact, we are outsiders
(less than 1 percent, according to comScore).
But by adding to description of our business such a catchy word as "charity", we gonna have a lot of you - as free "clickers" on the sponsored ads, who are a main source of Infospace's income.
We will love you,
- provided you do the job for
enriching our Infospace, Inc.
for FREE!"

Hijacked SEX-Infospace

2009-07-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

This morning I found that content for my website SEX-INFOSPACE.COM has been replaced with the strange picture:

Enlarge screenshot

I simply must react to it somehow! As you can see, somebody's added to the above picture a text with absolutely FALSE meaning. In particular, "This is a 100% sex site".
No, this is NOT! And NEVER was!!!

"You must be a minimum of 18 years of age to enter this site."
No, you must NOT! And it's not about sex at all:

I'd created the SEX-INFOSPACE.COM for searching common features for the two real life stories:
(1) The famous hijack of the Sex.com domain name - probably the biggest domain theft in the history of Internet! - and
(2) Attempts of the Infospace, Inc. to STEAL my 2D-InfoSpace domains!
It may sound weird, but finally, current screenshots of the sites SEX.COM and SEX-INFOPSACE.COM look very similar indeed :-)

OK, the recent story with hijacking of Sex-Infospace.com is not very mysterious:
My domain name SEX-INFOSPACE.COM had expired on 12-Jul-2009, and since then its status is ON HOLD (check any WhoIs service for details).

This means that I'm currently not in a full control over the website. And because of that, the hosting company has placed there a sexually explicit content. Obviously, - WITHOUT asking my permission! (Please accept my apologies for the current view of the Sex-Infospace.com. I'm really sorry about that).

This also means my right for the SEX-INFOSPACE.COM is still RESERVED:

1. Under the law, I can return ownership for the domain during next several weeks, if required!!!

Will I renew the domain? It depends ...
I'm still not sure whether to continue my SEX-INFOSPACE.COM project or not.

At some point, I even was going to make a small gift for InfoSpace, Inc. and refuse from my SEX-INFOSPACE.COM ownership. I know, I know, - it might look very stupid:
Since the moment my Sex-Infospace.com officially expired, the InfoSpace didn't make any move even for a simple "Thank you, Sergey".

Is Infospace able to appreciate any gift(s)? I have no idea.
Obviously, now the SEX-INFOSPACE.COM is moving towards becoming a popular business in the sex industry. But should I care?

It seems INFOSPACE'S CEOs DON'T MIND IF THEIR MAIN TRADEMARKED WORD "INFOSPACE" BECOMES DEEPLY ASSOCIATED WITH PORNOGRAPHY!!!

2. I've just placed an exact copy of the genuine SEX-INFOSPACE.COM (as it had been available on the Internet during last two years!) on another my website - 2Infospace.com:

http://SEX-INFOSPACE.2infospace.com

Google to Buy Mini-News

2008-08-21T15:00:00.000-07:00

Why Google, Yahoo, MSN, and even such outsider among the biggest search businesses as Infospace, would be interested to buy my Mini-News.com:
http://mini-news.com/2008/08/google_to_buy_mini-news

AllTop Mini-News

2008-07-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

My Mini-News.com launches newest FREE web service, - the FASTEST AllTop.com's alternative!
It displays only main content, - and with No ADS!
http://mini-news.com/2008/07/all_top_mini-news

Deal Of 2007

2007-12-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

"The Luck Of Infospace" on Sale
- for TEN MILLION DOLLARS!
Earn a HALF of it as Affiliate!

Yes! I'm selling the luck of InfoSpace, Inc., - a famous American IT corporation, market value of which exceeds $BILLION!

Luck is one of those intangible things that's almost impossible to sell. To be a "trendsetter", I simply need to set a precedent.
A kind of selling new land on the Moon:
First who claimed the ownership for the newest property, - got it!
In THIS case, I am the FIRST in the world to sell out "The Luck Of Infospace".

For beginning, I am proposing it as a whole thing. For example, to major search businesses: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc., - starting from INFOSPACE.
Initial price is only 10$M - exactly 1% of the sum of 1$B Infospace evaluates itself.
Do you think a share of luck should be less then 1% of business assets?

Nearly forgot:
Additional incentive for buyers is attaching to the package my EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS for describing the story, now and in the FUTURE, both in printed form and discussing it in media!

Practically, it should be done in a very SIMPLE form. For example, issuing a special certificate (even online), or signing a special contract - with exclusive transfer of all my rights.

Unless competitors of InfoSpace buy it, in the nearest future the LUCK OF INFOSPACE could be sold out "piece by piece", e.g., measured in percents.
Obvioulsy, if at a later time Infospace, Inc. decides to buy it back, it should cost more!
Just think for a second:
What is Infospace Without Luck?!!

Why I'm doing this? I have all reasons to believe that Infospace actually "stole" my luck, practically shutting down my web business. In fact, "wiped" me out of LIFE! For years! Even today, it does not take me seriously: I do NOT EXIST for Infospace as a human, - only as a part of their product!
Obviously, it's impossible to return those years. But I believe I have all rights to demand my luck back!

PLEASE READ MORE DETAILS HERE:
http://2Infospace.com

The proposed Sale of "The Luck Of Infospace" is not about weakening position of the leading company on the highly competetive search and mobile market. According to what I see, Infospace doesn't care about its public image. Let alone the luck..

Fortunately, the proposed luck is not a property of Infospace. Infospace's luck may not belong exclusively to Infospace! Rather, life shifts it from one entity to another.
Besides, Infospace has never claimed it wanted to possess such property.
What is more: Legally, there is no such business entity as "luck"!!!

But at this stage, I don't think that simply placing it on eBay would be effective.
The whole idea needs a really powerful Web-based PR campaign, - which I cannot afford (many thanks to Infospace).

Obviously, I would send a special offer to big businesses, investors, 100+ mass-media, etc. But I feel it's not enough. To succeed, this project must be a real SENSATION!
This is where you can help. And Today Is Your Lucky Day:

I'm going to spend up to 50% of the requested 10$M for promotion!
Call it Affiliationship Program. The main rule is simple:
If you arrange the final deal, there will be two equal checks,
- one for me, one for YOU!

Just one more word. Couple days ago I contacted CEO of a reputable mobile corporation in sunny California. I asked about his opinion about this idea. As he hasn't responded, I assume that most likely he thought I was crazy :-)
Indeed, for people in countries with "endless business opportunities", this idea may sound crazy. But for me, there is simply no option! I have to invent some crazy things!
For me, - it's the ONLY way to earn a million FAIR!

Still hesitate to be a part of it? Simply help me to promote this "crazy" idea, and got your REAL $MONEY!
I'm proposing to YOU a HALF of my share, - FIVE MILLION DOLLARS!!!

Contact Me Now!
Good Luck!

See also "Lucky Space" and
"Unlucky Infospace"
below

Free AD

2007-12-11T07:50:00.000-08:00

Just found a Super Big Giveaway, - Water Resistant Laptop!
Courtesy of the RuffPC.com - "rugged computer":

The spec for this FREE laptop is absolutely fantastic: Intel Core Duo 1.73GHz processor, 512MB DDR RAM, 60GB Shock-mounted Hard Drive, CD-RW/DVD+RW, 14.1" TFT LCD, and a water resistant keyboard. Packed in a magnesium alloy casing (20-times-harder than a base plastic case!) to protect against vibration and drops. See more details here.

All you need to do is simply to write about it in your blog. Very generous!

Did I mention that the ONLY COMPUTER I EVER COULD AFFORD IN MY LIFE has been a 8 years' old Fujitsu desktop?!! The one I'm using right now to write these lines..
Like the proposed RuffPC, it had 3 years warranty (most producers can't guarantee more than one year of work).
But I simply couldn't afford to buy an "average" PC: At the moment of purchasing, my Fujitsu had the latest Pentium processor on the market, and was the smallest desktop in the world!

In result, it served me during last 8 years! Have you had only one computer during last 8 years?!
Mine allowed me to write a MSc. dissertation, learn advanced Internet technologies, and introduce interesting Web ideas. Even today, over ten my personal websites still remain online!

It's difficult even to imagine how the newest RuffPC Laptop can boost my activity, and shift the boundaries of what is possible!
Probably I should start from extending some of my ideas into the famous "Second Life" reality!
(Current hardware in my "first" life simply does not allow me to enter that virtual space).

But ... Harsh environment the RuffPC is built for, - it's not only a risk to spill coffee on a keyboard. Awarding me that Giveaway Laptop means I will need to pay customs duty and/or taxes, - in amount that exceeds cost of several new desktops in local Ukrainian shops! However, I currently can't buy there even the cheapest computer..
Therefore, they should NOT SEND ME THAT LAPTOP!
I've got no cash to afford that FREE Giveaway!!!

Thus, living in a cold country that has average month salary of several hundred dollars, and appreciating the sincere intentions of the successful business in sunny California,
I'm making them a generous present,
- ADVERTISING THE RuffPC FOR FREE!

Lucky Space

2007-11-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

What makes this text so special?
- The newest way to earn millions!
Fair!

"Everything in life is luck"
(Donald Trump)

Today, November 7, 2007 is the turning point.
And it's not because today is the 90 years' anniversary since a super state called the USSR was born.

Today I decided to test my newest idea.
The secret of becoming lucky is surprisingly simple:
Always Turn Bad Luck Into Good One!

That's what I'm doing right now -
Transforming bad luck into the good one.

I used to be very naive, like American Indians who were trying to make business by selling what they had for its face value.
This time it's different. I'm going to sell just the simple words, - but for the minimal price of $3 MILLION!

How? Easy!
I will simply ask Infospace, Inc. to write me a check for 3$ million! If they are smart, they will pay the money immediately.

Otherwise, I'm going to deeply explore just one topic, -
"UNLUCKY INFOSPACE".

Believe me, the 3$M is a fair price for exclusive rights for all my works, including my future eBook "Unlucky Infospace".

What a lucky idea!
This may be the luckiest three millions!

All I need is to start writing a lucky book, - about unlucky Infospace! Research, or even dissertation: The case study will be "Bad luck of Infospace".
The idea is a fine piece of luck indeed.
The Luck Factor: The Scientific Study of Unlucky Infospace.

The point is, my unluck will be finally returned to where it came from, - to Infospace.

As for Infospace, it's only a matter of digits:
Will it be 3$M, or the price for existence of the whole corporation!
- If they prefer to disappear, they WILL DISAPPEAR!

My aim is to earn 3$M fair!
The sum is too small for a serious business, but big enough to change life for one person.
If the only real way for earning a fair million is to tell the truth that will destroy public image of a billion dollar IT giant, - actually, killing their web business! - so be it.

Just one Ukrainian programmer, who despite having a honor University degrees, in his 42 has never had a car or home, -- and who is typing THIS text by stiff with cold fingers on the ONLY PERSONAL COMPUTER HE EVER COULD AFFORD IN HIS LIFE!, - aims to beat a rich American IT corporation?
YES!

Because now I'm going to live in Lucky Space!
The space that is reversed from the unlucky one created for me by Infospace, Inc. Today I see the only solution, - to turn that unluck into my luck. Or return it to where it came from, - to Infospace.

From the lowest dead end point, there is simply no other choice. From now on, my destiny is going to turn only in one direction, - for the better!

What cannot be said about Infospace ...
Believe me, it's not the worst catastrophe when you are not sold for a BILLION dollars.

Or may be you think that without American passport people may not have this kind of money fair?!!

P.S. Still can't believe it's for real?
Then why do you think I'm applying for a 1$M loan to one of the richest businessman of Ukraine, - billionaire Victor Pinchuk?!!
(see more about it at http://Mini-Billion.LiveJournal.com)

Unlucky Infospace

2007-11-07T10:44:00.000-08:00

Thought is the starting point

You wanna know everything about luck? That's easy.
Enter into Google the word "luck", and obtain an inclusive space for creative reading - 150,000,000 entries.
Now try the same with Infospace's Dogpile.com.
The difference is very symbolic:
Infospace has only 58 answers..

Infospace, Inc. is unlucky?
It wasn't long ago when InfoSpace's President boasted they would become a TRILLION-dollar company. And at that time, it was worth $16 billion.
Today, PetroChina became the world's first company worth more than $1 trillion.

If this comforts Infospace, some analysts say the PetroChina's share price stems from speculation and is too high. Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s recently sold off all its 2.3 billion PetroChina shares. In a plain English, - it's looks like an investing bubble.
Sounds familiar to Infospace?

Or may be that is a fair business indeed? Similar to the "fair competition" concept, which Infospace's lawyers creatively applied to me.. Oh, sorry, we will talk about it later.

At the time when Microsoft announced its plans to gobble up Seattle's aQuantive for $6 billion, Infospace was evaluated in a "humiliating" billion.
Moreover, we all want to believe it wasn't another dirty Infospace's trick: the rumors about possible purchasing InfoSpace by Spanish LaNetro Zed appeared 2 days before InfoSpace's Annual Stockholders Meeting! Happy coincidence! In result, InfoSpace's shares immediately, - what a luck!, - surged 13 percent up.
It was in May. But up to now ... nobody bought the Infospace!

By the way: I just recalled how 2 days before one of the previous Infospace's Annual Stockholders Meeting, when I informed Infospace CEOs about my intention to publish my eBook about Infospace, titled "Beyond Law Space", some anonymous person unexpectedly offered me several $MILLIONS.
Then, - exactly after ending the meeting, - the person mysteriously disappeared...
I definitely should write a special book, - "Total Recall".

Where Infospace's Unluck originates from?
From unprecedented court cases against its own founder?!!
Or from the point the highest Infospace's position was passed into the hands of current CEO? I wonder, do you know what happened with his previous company?

I'm also going to raise (and discuss on various forums) the question: Who is really interested in buying an UNLUCKY company?
For example, talk about that with LaNetro Zed.

World Wide Web, Attention:
Expect Infospace To Be Unlucky!
Just one fact: Despite all the $millions invested, Infospace has failed to become a search engine #1.

Unlucky Infospace Investors,
Unlucky Infospace Ads,
unlucky users who use the
UNLUCKY SEARCH ENGINE
(i currently don't know about the search results)

Unluck is like infectious disease, - it may affect the life of people who are around.
Of course, it's up to investors - to decide whether to invest into Infospace or not. And it's up to Infospace partners - whether to be A PART OF UNLUCKY BUSINESS or not!

My mission would be just informing them properly.
The best of all, - it's ABSOLUTELY LAWFUL!

And if something tragic happens with my life, - the unluck will not disappear, - it will move directly to InfoSpace!
FOREVER!

Lucky 3$M

2007-11-07T07:00:00.001-08:00

Did I mention I contacted ZED when they considered a possibility for the $billion deal with Infospace?
It's not about cursing. Infospace should become unlucky since they practically destroyed my online business and forced me to spend all my LIFE SAVINGS for dealing with their lawyers!

Nevertheless, Infospace lived pretty well all those years.
In 2007, it pays a special one-time cash dividend of about $200 million!!! After that, sells its directory business for $225 million, mobile business for $135 million, etc. Revenue for the third quarter is about $50 million. Cash as of September 30, 2007 totaled $214.8 million (in March it was $412.9 million). "At the end of the quarter, the Company had no debt obligations", - boast Infospace CEOs. They really believe they have no debt obligations.

Feeling lucky? Don't! It's not for long.
Unlucky corporation practices improving its luck by making somebody unluckier?!! My guess is that they look good only against the background of poor Ukrainians' way of life. But comparing to really talented market players, - Infospace is a complete failure!

To prove this, I even agree to suspend my Internet software development, and make a kind of research on elusive luck factor. The focus will be on proving,
- Infospace is unlucky!
Then publish the eBook "Unlucky Infospace".
In my situation, it's the only real way of earning decent money fair!

This is beginning for my revolutional online experiment
- The Lucky $Millions!

2007-11-05T20:01:00.000-08:00

"Bad luck is funny -- provided it's not happening to you"

We gladly explain the reason why we ended up where we ended up in our lives almost exclusively by our luck.

For example, imagine your salary is $100 per month (that's quite decent salary in my country). Americans would say: "You're not lucky".
Imagine, you graduated with distinction prestigious Universities in the US and UK, like I did. Got an excellent job contract in America, like I did. But at the last minute the US embassy rejects to grant you a visa. And does so several times, - without any explanation.
Americans would repeat: "That's simply bad luck".
If they ever experienced such problems, of course.

Now imagine a huge corporation without any legal reason
RUINS YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS, MAKES YOU ABSOLUTELY POOR,
and for years even does not respond to your letters,
- as if you do not exist anymore!

*** I will continue this topic in other blogs ***

Fairy Land

2007-11-04T09:30:00.000-08:00

under updating ...

Here will be Letter to Chief Editor of the national newspaper
of May 2007

[About Infospace - 2DInfospace story]

Reflection

2007-10-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

under updating ...

Here will be extracts from Russian-language part
http://Mini-Billion.LiveJournal.com

The National All-Ukrainian newspaper VV (Vechernie Vesti)
STARTED publishing the above blog on October 5, 2007

TIME-LOT

2007-10-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

The TIME-LOT.COM is a part of my newest "Mini-Billion" idea.
Its technical concept is simple: Sell out time-based redirections to sponsors' websites for only $1 per second! More.

In my 42, I desperately need the money to buy
FIRST IN MY LIFE car, home, and ... replacement for my first ever PC.
Read more here: http://Mini-News.com/why.html.
Actually, it's not for myself only: I want to give people example, the HOPE that such things are possible, - to earn an online $MILLION FAIR from within such poor countries as my Ukraine!

However, like the famous Million Dollar Homepage, this unbelievable life story has a chance for happy ending only if it's in the focus of mass media. I don't have the initial $1,000 the author of MDHP had. But - I do have a REAL SENSATION for them!
Today I'm sending out my press releases with the question:

"Can poor Ukrainian earn a $million fair, - without
SHUTTING DOWN A FAMOUS
BILLION(!) DOLLAR corporation?"
Hopefully, I can.
We will talk about it at a later time...

Million Dollar Air - in Russian

2007-09-20T19:21:00.000-07:00

"Parallel" discussion in Russian
(in fact, a completely different project)
http://mini-billion.livejournal.com/

Million Dollar Air

2007-09-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

About two years ago the famous MillionDollarHomepage was started.
On its last year's birthday I published my thoughts on the matter, - Open Letter to Alex Tew. Please, don't think my intension was to hurt that guy. I repeat: Alex is a good boy! The problem was the world started calling him a genius, while the only thing he did was just picking a lucky ticket..
Then he dropped his school (a kind of it's a waste of time to study in any University if you are a Master already). It would be relatively easy to prove the success really depended on his outstanding abilities if he was the first who explained the MDHP phenomenon. Nope. The most serious analyses I heard were not from Alex. Moreover, his recent web project Pixelotto is about a lottery. It seems, creator of MDHP believes only gambling can help to become a millionaire.
I hate to disappoint Alex, but Internet is full of still undiscovered revolutional niches worth a $MILLION each!
Within next weeks
I'm going to explore just one of them.
With attempt to EXPLAIN it!

3D-infoSpace

2007-03-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

My newest project starts at
3D-infoSpace.com

St. Patrick's Day to You!

..

2007-03-01T21:46:00.000-08:00

to be continued

100 First Face Ads

2007-02-20T17:42:00.000-08:00

When Million Dollar Homepage stuffed all available space with Pixel Ads, it was announced successfuly ended. Today all available space of my MyBlogLog-News.Mini-News.com has became filled up with your Face Ads. But the project is only beginning!

It's not really important I limited the space with only 100 Face Ads. Resulting collection represents rotating pool of ads, as every(!) day I update it.
It may be arguable whether any particular news is good or bad. Like everything in this life, importance of every news item is constantly changing in time.
The resulting "Wall", as the whole, demonstrates transition of Quantity into Qualuty: Picture of 100 faces with 100 interesting news is attractive view by itself.

Another important point, my MyBlogLog.Mini-News.com is not the only place where people can find its Face Ads. It's not even the main place!
Preferred way of informing web users about updates in the "Wall Of Face Ads" is to export it's small part, - 4-10 fast loading ads, - to other websites as WIDGETs. Today's newest version is the "RANDOM" one.

More at my MyBlogLog-News.blogspot.com

MyReadLog

2007-02-15T22:19:00.000-08:00

About 10 days since I launched "Wall Of Face Ads".
In a social sense, it was like 10 years!

The concept began as my response for projects of the Million Dollar Homepage family. In particular, the 2000 Bloggers and FuelMyBlog.

Their problem #1 is a huge website size!
Use it, IF YOU CAN!

Speaking of 2,000 Bloggers, I have a feeling Tino started his site because of some lack of knowledge. He didn't know limits of the current state of technology. For example, what it takes for users to load a multi MB webpage.
He actually DID NOT CARE!!!
I wonder why he didn't launch a "MILLION bloggers!" :)

I don't know about you, but I spent several HOURS(!) only to get on his sign-in blog - at that time it has only 700 entries. And it cost me my week's(!) norm of Internet traffic.

Some analysts predict that this year Internet can collapse because of overloading. Well, with such sites as 2000 bloggers it looks quite possible.

Here I must say: I respect what Tino has done.

According to what I read about him , he IS A NICE GUY! And seems started it just for fun!

My version of the same theme is, hopefully, more manageble.
First MyBlogLog-News contained space for only 100 pictures. The final version even allows visitors to control number of loaded photos.

My initial idea was to invent a simple but cute form for recording what I read online.
A kind of MyReadLog!
Crowd of small faces saying "Hey, this is my news!" looks cool.

What is more, I've made another move: allowed distributing small pieces of my website to other websites, - in the form of WIDGET.
Web widgets are mini-programs designed to be run inside mini-windows on your site.

Yesterday I left a comment in the famous Newsweek's article
"The Year of the Widget" :

"Any widget technology by itself is not going to be a king for users. Underlying content is.

I've just created a SIMPLEST widget called MyBlogLog-News. It supports a free service of my personal website exclusively for Mybloglog users, - MyBlogLog.Mini-News.com.

My widget consists of only several lines of HTML code. It could be written even seven years ago! But appeared only after startup of another revolutional media project, - MyBlogLog (started in 2006). What I did was a simple next logical step. Ten days ago I've launched a new information service based on their open photo database of users, - the constantly rotating "Wall Of Face Ads".

So, I wrote a simple homepage and started making my records.

I can understand your possible irony: "Once upon a time, on the Web space at last appeared FIRST READER!".
Advantage of a human reader is that his or her output is not a set of random links. Nor result of manipulating with votes. Disadvantage - it's always subjective.

Obviously, the ads are what striked me most on a particulat day, - my PERSONAL VIEW!

So what? Everything in this world has a touch of personality, - from technology to love.
But before asking "Why to the hell I need to know what a guy from distant Ukraine was reading today?", please take into account the following:

The Face Ads I publish are a form of free exposing for YOUR content, - on my site AND on all the sites that installed my widget (advantages for using widgets are described at MyBlogLog-News.blogspot.com). The more often you are selected, the more attention your site gets! And the wider and more popular this network becomes, the more advantages are for being a part of it.

EVERYTHING JUST BEGINS!

Best for First 10 Days

2007-02-15T22:15:00.000-08:00

"Technorati Shuts Down 2000 Bloggers!"

by Blog Bloke

Valentine's Day!

2007-02-14T09:14:00.000-08:00

Guess who said "In a human being, everything must be perfect: FACE, clothes, thoughts, ...". Clue: it was said long before I launched my web project - more than hundred years ago.

Well, I don’t mind watching good celebrity up-skirt paparazzi pictures. But my project is different. The MyBlogLog-News gallery is my personal highlighting faces of people linked with what interesting they said on the Web at a particular point of time.

Today my news gallery consists exclusively of beautiful women's Face Ads. It's not to say the rest women in the world are not beautiful. But this is the BEST what I read today, February 14:

Mouse over the photos to see news headline! Click to see the full news.
* pictures from mybloglog.com

Unlike the constantly updating "Wall Of Face Ads", these ads will stay in this blog permanently, promoting content of their authors for a long time.

My friends, my community, my Web,
I READ YOU! I LOVE YOU ALL!
Sergiy Beloy

news scale

2007-02-10T00:33:00.000-08:00

The first UPDATE of MyBlogLog.Mini-News.com design!

In fact, all I did was adding a small switcher. But the JavaScript code behind it is rather advanced, as it controls "scale" of webpage.

The idea was to allow visitors choosing how much news they want to see on entering the page. The option is 10-100 Face Ads. Default is 30.

Thus, those of you with a poor Internet connection who complained that 100 images load slow, now are able to "scale-down" my website and load only a part of it. It will work FASTER!

Your recent scale settings are saved automatically in your browser with cookies. So, next time you visit my site, it will be shown accordingly.

Thus the whole MyBlogLog-News project has became scaleable!
The information can be scaled down with the switch. Or by exporting to other websites in the form of tiny widgets.
The scaled up version can be found in my MyBlogLog-News community message board, - in the form of a list of all news tips, - controlled by MyBlogLog.com.

"Face Ads"

2007-02-07T23:33:00.001-08:00

The HTML Ad format described in previous post is transforming into a simplified image-based version of it, - "Face Ads". I decided to focus on the latter one as all emails sent to me on the matter were from bloggers who don't know HTML. Just users of blogspot services. So I decided to focus on their demands first.

Image-based "Face Ads" are a private case of the more general HTML Ads (main idea behind Mini-News.com). The "Face Ad" is the simplest HTML minipage: just thumbnail photo with a link!

The resulting service is going to be FREE for members of my community MyBlogLog-News in the form of "Wall Of Face Ads" at MyBlogLog.Mini-News.com

MyBlogLog + Mini-News

2007-01-25T09:34:00.000-08:00

This morning I came up with idea to make the experiment, - to offer some of my iFrame space for FREE!

Not because I was impressed by the fast growing popularity of FuelMyBlog.com. Guys, your site is great indeed! But it's not about my preferences for your French-English free fun, - I simply CANNOT AFFORD launching websites as a hobby!

The reason is the following.
From very first steps, i focused my web project mostly on the needs of big media businesses. Mini-News.com is about offering them a unique life STORY, plus(!) unique technology for THEIR promotion.
What is more, i proposed THEM a way to earn a BILLION!

By the way, those of you who told me I would never earn a billion simply had NOT READ my website: Unlike Alex Tew who wanted a million for himself, aim of Mini-News.com has been to assist in earning the billion for participating sponsors. It means, potentially for YOU!

It's amazing, I spent my LAST money for lauching my website and initial promotion. That even included contacting a HUNDRED of the most famous names in the industry. All what I actually asked them was "Please earn YOUR BILLION!"
Up to the moment I've got a lot of messages from "ordinary" people, private persons like you or me, - but NONE from the media!

It's not that I'm deeply hurt by their silence, it looks like I simply
do NOT EXIST for them!

Practically each of them has website with PR8 or higher, but they haven't mentioned my story. I think it's partly a reaction to the lie in Alex's projects, - now people do NOT BELIEVE EVEN IN TRUTH!
In my case, EVERY WORD of my life story is true, but who cares?

Practically each of them is able to buy the whole my project, - many times! But hasn't bought even one iframe spot yet. Even for the fraction of its cost (see auction).

Meanwhile, projects like Million Dollar Homepage simply do not work without media! The more they write about it, the more popular it becomes. And in my case - the more money they can earn! But once again, who cares?

First time in my life I hasn't paid a rent for my housing for previous month (see why here). But even if I die of hunger, i doubt it would make a difference...

At the same time, there are successful web projects who were lucky to get noticed. For example, the American startup MyBlogLog.com, just weeks ago purchased by Yahoo (according to Forbes, - for $10M). Their idea implements the fair principle:
the more you read others, the more they read you!

With MyBlogLog i SEE the COMMUNITY that reads me!

I know it's only illusion, but a really nice one!

Hopefully, my new Billboard Of News

- exclusively from MyBlogLog.com community, -

would be interesting!
You are welcome to be on my website!

Please visit the starting page at

http://1.mini-news.com

FuelMyBlog

2007-01-18T07:18:00.000-08:00

FuelMyBlog.com became a pleasant discovery of the week. This is a creative version of the Million Dollar Homepage theme, focused on blogs promotion. First launched on December 23, - three days after my Mini-News.com, - its press release of January 3 described the venture as a paid service (roughly a half dollar per pixel). Several days later, however, it became absolutely FREE!

The attractive price of $0 seems was the main reason for the super fastly growing popularity of this REALLY VERY GOOD SERVICE!
I signed up FuelMyBlog.com with this blog yesterday, and would be glad to share my first impressions.

First, the process of ordering is a snap! Very simple, it took only a minute or two, - YOU should go for it with your blog too! Right NOW, while the space is not too croweded.

Kevin Dixie, creator of FuelMyBlog, wants to create a colorful Great Wall of Blogs! More precisely, there are four pages, each with 625 blocks of the size 40x40 pixels.

Financial side of the project is less understandable. The initial motivation to keep it as a hobby, - for me, it would be simply impossible to maintain it for free!, - smoothly moves towards perspective to find rich ads sponsors.

Well, it may have a sense. I heard TechCrunch charges $10,000 a month for a 125x125 ad. However, - attention, this is important!, - FuelMyBlog has some internal design disadvantages, which can become evident only at later stages.

1) Size of FuelMyBlog.com.
Index page, currently filled only in a half, - is over 5.5Mb already!
And loads several minutes. It's because it uses a great number of images.
Just try to be realistic, what do you think is a webpage with 625(!) images, "up to 500 KB" each!
Have you ever tried to download a 300 MB into your browser?

The same issues were typical for original projects of Alex Tew. His Milion Dollar Homepage of 1.6Mb, for example, crashed my PC several times.

For comparison, my Mini-News.com page page is under 300Kb.That's because I use compact HTML text, rather than images.

2) In general, what is a value of the ad placed on the page with 625 other ads?
Surely there will be many first time visitors. But will they go to the constant collection of links year after year?

For comparison, Mini-News.com shows LIVE news!

3) The 40x40 is not suitable for reading!
What all visitors are actually doing is expanding the size to a more readable format. To see, in fact, one additional sentence.

For comparison, Mini-News.com shows its 100x100 iframe pages in full from the beginning.

What can be a Million Dollar Homepage without the Million?
Once again, I like the FuelMyBlog service. But I would simply could not afford it if it's not free.
I don't know about France, but life in poor countries has almost no space for running business for free!
It's interesting what would Bill Gates say if i advice him to give away his Windows soft? msn.com would be the best in Alexa!

Anyway, the FuelMyBlog.com is a bright rising star, great FUN to use.
THANK YOU, Kevin!

always say "always"

2007-01-17T23:38:00.000-08:00

First auction ended with no biddings. Well, although the minimal $100 i asked would be critically important for paying my bills for December, it's hard to say i did not win. Rather, YOU did not win!
It may be I found no right words to make this clear: Mini-News.com sells media and other serious content providers iFrame spots for the price of $10,000. The auction was an exception, - I was attempting to give an affordable chance, - the shockingly low price of $0.01 per pixel, - to any website! Including YOUR website!

The offer was also unique in the sense it offered one of the BEST available positions on my site, best highlighting in my future articles, - because it's the really FIRST iFrame Ad spot!

It may be I couldn't contact as many people as I wanted (by the way, the first one was Alex Tew), and couldn't communicate with them in the way I wanted, - often it was difficult just to have a reliable Internet connection!
Just believe me, - I did EVERYTHING that was possible in my situation!

Mini-News.com continues selling its Iframe space,

while the spot No. 1 is reserved for a future auction.

Just one thing is for sure, - I will never start my next auction with such a low price.

etc

2007-01-12T23:24:00.000-08:00

Today Google first ranked my Mini-News.com, and now it's PR3.

In the evening recalled that exactly 100 years ago in this day in Ukraine was born Sergiy Korolyov, - the Chief Designer of the First In The World SPACE Rockets! Having spent six years in prizon, he was lucky to survive, and then became a key figure in opening the era of space exploration. But the world learned about his real name, - and existence!, - only after his death...

auction promo

2007-01-10T23:33:00.000-08:00

Found excellent site for promotion personal websites, - MyBlogLog.com. It may be you know it very well, - this online community seems is extremely popular among bloggers and webmasters. But I was really charmed with the way they show visitors of my websites! The feeling of almost real time communication is exciting!
By the way, the Yahoo! has bought the website services recently, - for the sum they prefer not to disclose!

Another excellent site I found is SpicyPage.com. I've seen many good sites during last months, but this one is a really nice! Made in a democratic Digg style, it allows interactive rating the sites you know.
My advice is to visit the SpicyPage.com and post YOUR website, if it's not already there!

* * *

Promotion campaign for my my eBay auction moves frustratingly slow. On the other hand, how it could be faster if most of my time I need to spent on things like this:

Last night I was planning to devote for sending messages about auction to as many people and sites as possible. I came to Internet cafe (i'm not telling you the name of the company as up to the last night it was my favorite one), paid for 9 hours of working in Internet, but shortly after starting the Internet completely disappeared!
The personal could not guarantee it would be restored in the nearest time, if ever. All that they suggested was just to wait. I was waiting: 10 minutes ... half an hour .. 1 hour. After almost two hours without Internet I decided to go somewhere else and asked my money back.
However, having paid for Internet and having no Internet appeared not enough for the refund. They had internal rules not to return money no matter what. My arguments "I gave you money for your service, but if there is no service I want my money back immediately" did not work. I was advised to contact their(!) internet provider, come next day to find their chief manager, owner, etc.
The situation complicated by the fact that at the moment I had no money with me to pay the same price in another internet cafe, or even return to my home, - public transport (excepting expensive taxis) starts work hours later. I appeared locked in the useless place forced to do nothing .
Only after long and very embarrassing dispute, their manager in charge (he refused to identify himself with his last name) agreed to refund. A kind of, he makes me a favour and pays from his own pocket (he took, however, my check for his personal refund). But he did it with, - literally!, - cursing the money he returned!!!

That's Ukraine! And that's the everyday life context in which my Mini-News.com is developed!
I thank the God that during working on the project there were not many electricity blackouts! The last one, for example, caused corrupting results of my week's work on the computer I was working with...

My Birthday + Christmas

2007-01-07T21:06:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday!
I got only one present. From myself.
I've set up eBay auction:

First 3Kb of Live IFRAME Ads space of Mini-News.com

Also, I wrote the Open Letter to Alex Tew, developer of Million Dollar Homepga and Pixelotto:

mini-news.livejournal.com

It might be interesting for you, yesterday I marked this my 42nd birthday by the 42 circles (about 17 kilometers) of jogging on a stadium (usually I run 30-40 circles). Nice feeling!

Merry Christmass to you!

2007

2007-01-01T23:50:00.000-08:00

Scheduled for today the online auction for
#1 IFRAME 10,000 pixels ad spot on Mini-News.com
is to be started next week, - on January 7, 2007.

Why? You may laugh, but I did not receive a confirmation email from eBay. Simply didn't...

Besides, at the time of registering, eBay offered only USA, Canada, UK, and Australia signups: Choosing the option "See all countries" produced no changes! And by the way, my IE6 browser alarmed me of some errors detected on their webpage.

The delay may be for better: January 7 is my birthday!
It also the Christmas holiday in Ukraine. Yes! I was lucky to be born in the same day with Jesus Christ.

Meanwhile,
Happy New Year to You!

auction

2006-12-30T04:05:00.000-08:00

On January 1st, I'm going to start the online AUCTION
for my Iframe Ad spot No.1
- with initial price of only 0.01 US$ per iframe pixel!

In fact, I was trying to setup the web auction ten days ago, on my Mini-News Grand Opening. At that day I spent a lot of time for registering with the popular free auctions.yahoo.com. I went through all their procedures correctly, - and even several times! But instead of publishing, on a final stage Yahoo's website kept forwarding me back to their welcome page. Of course, with wiping out all the data I entered. And only two days later, I got the response for my requests to their support team:"We're sorry to inform you that only IP addresses and Yahoo! accounts registered within the United States are allowed to participate ..."

It appeared that only citizens of rich countries are allowed to use the FREE services! And many sites, e.g., blujay.com, simply don't have Ukraine in the list of countries on their signup pages.

Promoting from a poor country sucks!
Yesterday I left the message in the BBC feedback inbox:

BBC triggered success of British student Alex Tew last year. Several weeks ago, BBC was among the first who covered next idea of this ex-poor ex-student. However, it hasn't even mentioned a much bigger, BETTER web project started by honor graduate of the UK University at about the same time: Mini-News.com, - first in the world IFRAME Ads space worth a BILLION!!! It's absolutely original concept, technology, and even story: At his age of 42, he wants to buy his FIRST car, FIRST house ... - and replace his FIRST (now it’s 8-years-old) PC he could afford in his LIFE!

Even at the beginning, Alex had at least one THOUSAND dollars promotion budget.
Well, i don't have this cash amount. (By the way, it's nearly a year's average salary in Ukraine). And don't have friends or relatives who are capable to pay me this kind of money. Also, I'm not applicable for any bank credit: these guys provide big money only to the people who already(?!) have big money.

I know today it's Christmas! Then it will be the New Year holidays..
But for me another, more appropriate time for this may simply not exist...
Hopefully, my future eBay auction will work out better!

Please help me to spread the news about the auction!

Christmas

2006-12-25T23:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I'm not in a Christmas mood...

pre-Christmas

2006-12-24T23:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Amanda Congdon from ABC News wrote in her super popular blog:
Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” Is Us (not YOU).
At the same day I sent her my comment:

Amanda, to become "Person of the Year" YOU need to live in rich US (or UK)!!!
Look at the last year's one, - Brit. student who set up a simple Million Dollar Homepage. Would he earn the million on supposingly open Internet from my Ukraine? Absolutely not! And it has nothing to do with creativity. Unlike that boy I'm a honor graduate from the UK University. But while during last weeks he easily earned $300,000 on his old, last year's idea, right now I'm spending my LAST money trying in a cheap Internet cafe to launch much BETTER, BILLION Dollar information project ...

The message wasn't published, so I'm sending her another one:
Amanda, as you rejected the comment I made to your post yesterday, you might ignore what I'm saying today:

All my life I've tried to create revolutional software, but without US passport there are almost zero chances for becoming YOUR Time's Person of the Year! You, rich countries' insiders, prefer not to know that people like me need apply MILLION(!) times more efforts just to ENTER your media revolution space.
Right now I'm desperately trying to launch an original Billion Dollar web project with $0 in my pockects, -- on my first and the ONLY personal computer I ever could afford in my life!
And despite what you said, - "the cover of Time should only be bestowed upon those who have actively created something - anything - online this year" - I am not allowed even to YOUR blog community...

first steps

2006-12-22T23:33:00.000-08:00

The first thing I did was informing the press. Just typed in "press" in a search engine, and sent my message to the first, - hopefully the best! - 100 media websites. See details on my PRESS page.

There may be more elegant, - and more expensive!, - ways for making people to hear you, but I just used their online ContactUs forms or emails. There are a lot of automatical submission solutions, but I did this job manually. Site by site, email by email ...

I've spent on it SEVERAL DAYS.

GRAND OPENING

2006-12-20T19:24:00.000-08:00

Today I'm launching "Web-in-Web"
- final version of the
first iframe-based website:
Welcome to the Mini-News.com

It doesn't look as the world's event of the year, - no fanfares, champagne, fireworks.. Rather, highlighting the fact of my being.

Of course, I wrote a press-release. However, as all i can afford are FREE web services, - e.g., pressbox.co.uk, - it will be published within several days only ...

Unlike the very first Mini-News version, the final one is written in JavaScript. Because of that its mini-Web files are smaller (less than 10 Kb), and the whole website is under 200 Kb.

promotion novelty
A copy of my open letter to the news businesses can be found on the press page.

Alex got his million from homepage owners. But the real driving force behind his success was mass media. Media is power. It's capable to promote any interesting idea to new heights. It actually made the Million Dollar Homepage.

There are many ways for how to attract attention of media. But the most amazing one is to ... SELL IT TO MEDIA, DIRECTLY!

Well, with a zero promotion budget it looks impossible. Nevertheless, there is a chance. It can be done if we turn the technical ideas into media project from the beginning! To create incentives to write about it, to earn on it, to buy it.

Yes, it's introduction of a new technology. But the LIFE story, a real person behind it is its the most important integral part. The whole project is a kind of the fantastic "From $0 to 10$M" internet challenge, and now I'm selling it to media!

Actually, I have a little choice.
While Brit. students may be quite happy with limiting their targets by 1 or 2 million, i've got to really "think bigger", setting my imagination free. This is how the mini-news.com was born.

Value of any Pixel Ad project, - but without Alex! - is 1 million times less than MillionDollarHomepage.com?!
The Mini-News.com allows sponsors to promote their iframe copycat(!) projects on almost UNLIMITED space at subdomain of their choice, e.g., bbc.mini-news.com.

While Alex wishes to make several millionaires per year just by permitting them to WIN, I would show people how they can EARN! More.

Once again, I wish Alex success!
I'm not a competitor to his pixelotto!
There may be people who adore a process of clicking..
In contrast, Mini-News is created for those who likes READING!

Happy birthday,
Mini-News.com

P.S.Another night spent in Internet Cafe.
$Million ... $Billion ...
The only thing I want most right now is to have couple hours to sleep!

(c)

2006-12-19T21:04:00.000-08:00

During last ten days no new line of code was added to my Next Big Thing! The time was spent mostly for its Copyright protection.

To protect interests of my future partners who join the Mini-News project, I've made several important steps. One of them is submitting my work to the US Copyright Office in Washington D.C.

If I live in Washington, I would just walk down the street and drop off my papers, together with their 2-page form and a check for $30 issued by any American bank (credit cards not accepted).
If I live in the UK, I would go to the nearest post office, and mail all the above, but with a $30 check issued by any UK bank.
But I live in Ukraine, and this means my bank checks simply are NOT accepted by the US Copyright Office!

So I needed to email my work to an intermediate US-based company whose the only business is to print out incoming papers, put them in envelope, and drop in the Copyright Office's mail box. They charged me for this $142(!), - only $30 of which was the Copyright Office fee.
But despite their guarantee they do this simple job within 48 hrs maximum, - I made my submission in the middle of last week, - up to yesterday(!) they did very little..
Only today I got confirmation from FedEx (tracking # 798566813361) that their letter was delivered to the Copyright Office.

As you see, it wasn's completely under my control, but I just could NOT skip this important stage! Tomorrow I'm officially launching the final version of Mini-News.com.
Please be patient you too.

it's coming!!!

2006-12-15T23:29:00.000-08:00

Technically, creating a new Billion Dollar technology is not difficult.
But it should be BETTER than Alex's projects.

Let's take the concept improving to another level, - CONTENT.
In fact, milliondollarhomepages themselves have no SEO or long term value. They post ads from different niches, while having no 'topic', - and content!,- on their own. Was it novelty value only?

We all should recall some forgotten truths:
Traffic itself means nothing! Real foundation of Internet are sites with original and quality content!

I would focus on creating a more educational project.The one where image ads are replaced with INFORMATION ads.

In my understanding, nowadays it's not enough to say people your site exists. More interesting is what new information on your site exists.

Collections of news links tend to be incredibly popular! Especially with customization elements. Example: Findory Inc. (Seattle, Washington).
Unfortunately, such sites are unable to read all the news. So, why not to leave forming the link content to news originators? E.g., by letting them publish in iframe windows of our browsers the content they want.
Updateable, categorized Live News!

Now, we need to be famous!

much bigger

2006-12-10T22:09:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you, but I spent this Sunday for creating a new BILLION Dollar web project!

I heard yesterday Alex had fun at a party. This ex-poor-student might be surprised to learn there are some people who cannot afford even one, minimal 10x10 micro-picture on his homepage. Although it costs a mere $200 ("only $2 per pixel" in Alex's pronunciation), it's better to set up your own multi-million website, - for just a half of that sum!

pixelotto - 2

2006-12-07T19:23:00.000-08:00

Do you know why Alex started from sending some info about his Next Big Thing only to his loyal supporters, rather then publishing it as an open press release? I, for example, subscribed for Alex's email alerts many months ago, but got my first lucky chance to see it only after some anonymous source revealed a secretly(!) made screenshot of pixelotto.com.
Alex has image of an ordinary child, but he never makes childish mistakes.

The answer is, from marketing point of view, it's much easier to trade your ideas within a closed community of your funs.
According to pixelotto sales, the army of his previous clients became a first echelon pushing Alex's ideas to masses. Free for Alex.

I don't know about end users, but among advertisers pixelotto is booming! Still not sure how they will feel after their ads are wiped out at end of the cycle.

It's true, even before official launching, Alex raised rather impressive amount of $$$. My guess is it's only because he did it BEFORE going public. If all those people had opportunity to discuss it on forums, it may be the figures could be different.

Or may be not...
The intersting thing is, majority of serious experts think the pixelotto idea has no future. Nevertheless, as I mentioned yesterday at the digg.com forum:
"While we are discussing this, Alex's Prize Fund rises ($110,300 at the moment). He does not read digg.com, or what?!!!"

It may be his clients do visit the forums. For example, to create a wave of artificial buzz, which is a must for similar projects. I can be wrong, but huge overnight success for related articles looks suspicious.

It's not to say Alex hired all those people. Rather, there is a common financial interest. There might have been some kind of coordination from Alex's PR advisers too.

A great number of people started clicking it like crazy!
Did They Read What They Click?

Is it the only possible way to become millionaire nowadays?
"I don't know anyone who doesn't want to win $1m dollars" said Alex to BBC. Right, but what's the price?

Price? "Pixelotto is a 100% free-to-play lottery", says Alex.
I would add: Ideally, you should play his free game from the place on our planet where Internet access is 100% free. For the time I spent for writing these words Internet cafe charged me more than Alex's minimal $2.

But I must admit, announcing a free access to the game is a genius move. For Alex personally! Some people say this is how he bypasses UK's law restrictions and additional tax burden for gambling businesses.

Don't get me wrong, I wish good luck to Alex!
And even devoted to his pixelotto a special news webpage:
1.mini-news.com

I just feel that sometimes criticism is a more valuable input than unconditional support. Although it's quite legal, overloading Internet with tons of useless requests doesn't look good.

If previous Alex's project could be called a Thing for Viewing, this one is a
Thing for Clicking!

pixelotto

2006-12-05T23:29:00.000-08:00

Today Alex Tew has launched his new pixelotto.com project!

At last!

See my first coverage of the *pixelotto* news

in my original format:

1.mini-news.com

My first impression, pixelotto is a Big Disappointment!
In many senses. I expected more from Alex. Some really new concept, technology, or PR move.
We all expected more..

At the same time, I have no doubth the project will work!
Actually, it is successfully working already!
Just because of the Alex's name behind it.

I just opened the BBC website, and what do you think? The Pixelotto is already there!
Here is a fragment of my comment I immediately sent to BBC about that article:

Fool us again, please

"How Alex could create his MDH for just 20 minutes, if his next, - practically identical!, - project took almost a year, and included hiring at least one professional programmer?

How the idea "Give me MILLIONS, and i will give somebody a HALF of that" could get such a storm of sympathy? Does his 100% free-to-entry game cover a cost of internet connection, - and your personal TIME? Do you prefer clicking to jogging? By the way, how often you personally win big jackpots?

Fooling sponsors with tons of useless traffic that never converts is a separate topic."

Up to now, BBC has not published my comment.

But can you tell me how I can compete with Alex, if even that particular BBC review appeared online BEFORE Alex officially launched his pixelotto.com!!!

Nevertheless, I sincerely wish Alex success.
I just worry about Internet users.

I heard the press announced last year the Year Of Spamming. Well, chances are the next one can become the
Year Of Clicking!

maxi pictures

2006-12-03T23:54:00.000-08:00

I just learned first details of Alex's Next Big Thing. In search of some "big, really big" examples, as well as to have a balanced "rich-poor" view, for beginning I decided to ... visit the New Space exchibition in the Pinchuk Art Centre.

For those who don't know, it's one of the biggest in the Eastern Europe centre for contemporary art, founded by and named after one of the richest man in Ukraine, billionaire Viktor Pinchuk.
This businessman owns a tabloid newspaper, four television channels, and a steel company, although is better known as a son-in-law of former President of Ukraine L. Kuchma.

The recent creative project of Pinchuk is very ambitious, and defenetely NOT CHEAP! Located in the middle of expensive Kiev downtown, the three storey centre has 2500 sq m of floor space, just above the Bentley cars showroom on the first floor. Security, granite floors installed by a French architect, and a bar on the centre's sixth floor.
"I do this," says Pinchuk, "for the sake of the new country. It is a brand-making thing for us, here in the middle of nowhere."

You might ask me how all the above relates to the new Alex's pixelotto.com?
Well, obviously I'm not an art expert. I'm just trying to find some fresh ideas and inspiration for my future web development. Today it's my first visit to such a big con collection in one place.
To my humble opinion, at least one work in the centre is worth of your attention: the giant painting "Art or (M)art?" by Navin Rawanchaikul of XXL size, - nearly 10 by 10 METERS(!). It shows portraits of all the most significant artistic personas of the 20th century, in one picture:

See Pinchuk Art Centre website

To tell you the truth, what really impressed me was the sum of the money invested in this, without any doubt interesting project.

Millionaires and their art
Alex is about to launch his "big, really big" thing. He already has enough money to eat what he wants, to live where he wants, and to drive a car he wants.

So this time, his brilliant idea is to give away a check for one million dollars.
Wow! What a guy!
He only asks us to support his fantastical generosity and ... give him two million dollars right now! He needs the money badly to pay himself for renting some virtual space on his own website.

Who said we live in the world of open competition?
The web abounds with copycats, and even predecessors, of his previous project. Many of them offer almost the same service for lower prices, - even for FREE!

I would be glad to donate a small part of the financial fortune for charity too. Who wouldn't? But it's not about digits.

Recalling his super expensive media promotion, - a main driving force behind Alex's success! - for which he paid $0, no wonder in his next project Alex is not going to pay anything from his own pocket!

Meanwhile, today's main problem for me is to find some money for paying my apartment bills for this month..

mini pictures

2006-12-01T23:55:00.000-08:00

My Mini-News.com Idea:

Replicate success of the famous Million Dollar Homepage's Pixel Ads with my own invention, - IFRAME Ads!

Start of this project is described in my previous blog
"Billion Dollar Website in 5 Days":
http://bdhp.blogspot.com

If you read that blog, you have an idea about the life context in which I'm doing this project. To put it mildly, the conditions around are far from being creative. During last five days since I wrote my last post, I was fighting with my depression mood because of that, hesitating whether to continue the whole thing or not.

And you know what was a decisive turning push? Discovering the beautiful collection of paintings by local artist Yevgenia Gapchinska. Some space for the bits of sunny and sincere Mini World Of Childhood she creates in her pictures is always reserved in our souls. Despite everything.

It appeared that her recent exhibition is located just in an empty apartment, in the street I'm walking through almost every day. A cute funny plate on the entry door leaves no doubt the Gapchinska Happinness Lives Here!
The very first words painted on the wall informed me about the news I wanted to hear most:

"HAPPINESS EXISTS!"

It's pity we often tend to forget this simple truth. During all the time of being in this gallery, I was the only its visitor. Although the press has placed Gapchinska in the list of the Ten Most Successful Women in Ukraine, I learned about her existence only now, from today's TimeOut magazine.

So, what is success in Ukraine?
According to the mini pictures, the simplest way to be happy is to have a ton of chocolate :) Imagine the world of unlimited chocolate and fancy cakes. The girl that opened me the door said that could be a main id for Gapchinska works. The mini cakes are almost everywhere!

Only hours later I found on the Internet an interview with Gapchinska where she says this motif comes from the times she really was hungry. When she simply wanted to eat... Wanted painfully. But often could not afford it.

Well, it may be the Gapchinska's pictures have very little with a real life. Although her recent online auction bid was $700 per picture, she thinks that her current popularity is a kind of miracle. What strikes me, she WANTS to BELIEVE IN MIRACLES!

Sometimes, however, it's the ONLY Way To Make Your Best Wishes True...

Here is the pictures she loves most:

"It's easier to forget a hundred kisses than only one"

* The photos are from Gapchinska website