Million People Page - Blog

Easter Egg Hunt

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 07:42:28 -0400

As it is Easter Sunday, we thought it would be nice to give you an Easter Egg.

So, hidden on the site is a liitle game which allows you to win additional hits for yourself or a friend's profile.

How do you find it?

Simple - just by clicking on peoples profiles. The feature activates randomly (so the more you browse, the more likely it is to appear!), and awards you a number of bonus hits depending on a number of factors.

You can then 'bank' these hits (add them to the profile) or 'gamble' by playing the game to try and win even more.

Happy Easter, and happy hunting!

Happy St Patricks Day

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 10:30:16 -0400

Happy St Patricks Day to everyone, and a special Happy Birthday to the two people on the site who kindly share their birthday with old St Patrick!

How many lightbulbs does it take to save the world?

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:42:54 -0500

Scientists confirmed the other day what most of us instinctively knew - that we humans are to blame for global warming. The United Nations panel of 2500 scientists representing 130 countries said there is a 90% certainty that our use of fossil fuels since the start of the industrial revolution in 1750 is contributing to climate change.

The problem seems so immense that it is hard to see how any one individual can make a difference. But there is a way... and it starts with the humble lightbulb.

Energy Saving Lightbulbs (or Compact Flourescent Lightbulbs as they are known in the USA) last 8-10 times longer than regular bulbs, use about 75% less energy, and produce 90% less heat while delivering more light per Watt. For example, a 25 Watt Energy Saving Lightbulb provides the same amount of light as a 100 Watt regular bulb.

Their lower energy requirements means that they reduce the amount of electricity used, which in turn reduces the amount of coal and oil burnt in power stations around the world, and therefore the amount of greenhouse gas (and mercury) pumped into the atmosphere.

Oh, and did we mention that they work out cheaper over the long run too? Around £35 ($66) savings per bulb over their lifetime!

As one influential US blogger pointed out, "If we switched all our bulbs, we could stop importing oil altogether. Without giving up one Hummer."

And yet, only 6% of Americans have even one Energy Saving lightbulb in their homes...

So what has this got to do with 6 degrees of separation and friendship networks? Nothing. Except that it is exactly these types of networks which can pass this kind of idea around the globe in days. And it is a subject that we feel pretty stongly about. And yes, our home has Energy Saving lightbulbs in pretty much every room, and has done for the last 5 years - in fact, we are still using most of our original lightbulbs!.

So please, if you are a blogger - blog about this. Or maybe send a link to this page to everyone you know so they can read about it. Or feel free to copy the text and make your own email. Just please - spread the word!

And change your lightbulbs to save the world.

Thanks for your support

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 10:35:47 -0500

Thanks very much to those of you who emailed, and others who expressed concern for our wellbeing - we are 100% functional again (though if you do find any glitches, please let us know). Hopefully this new server we are on will be able to take us boldly forward into the new year.

We are glad so many of you love the site, and look forward to seeing this project develop further in 2007. Until then, we hope you all have a very peaceful and happy finish to 2006, and wish you a very happy New Year.

Hosting issues

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 22:38:52 -0500

Sorry for the brief site wobble - our web host decided to move us to another server without warning and things didn't exactly go to plan!!! We are working with them to get everything back online asap - most of the site is working properly again, though at present it is not possible to add a profile with an image (as the new server doesn't yet have the image processing library we need installed).

Hopefully things will sort themselves out in the next few hours.

Update (14th Dec) - Looks like we can now add profiles with images again (woohoo!)

New Shout Messaging Facility

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 09:50:25 -0500

We have just added a new profile messaging facility which allows people with regular profiles to leave 'shouts', or short messages on other people's profiles, and for everybody to reply or leave a message on their own profile. Sort of a cross between instant messaging, a blog and a guestbook.

You need to confirm your profile surname and email address when leaving a message so that we know it is you, and not some nasty spambot. Your message will appear with your photo and a link to your profile. The system displays the last 10 shouts to each profile.

Have fun!

Remembering Rememberance day

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 14:00:55 -0500

Today is Rememberance Day, where we remember all those who sacrificed their lives during the two World Wars and other conflicts. The day, originally known as Armistice day, originally marked the signing of the Armistice at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, which signalled the end of World War One in 1918.

It is also the most popular day so far for birthdays - 6 people share this birthday out of the people 338 listed so far - which is almost 6 times the average expected. Perhaps people born today have a natural tendency to want to find their six degrees of separation...!

Happy Birthday and a peaceful rememberance day to all.

More countries!

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 16:58:29 -0500

Thanks to a few emails from visitors, we discovered that our country list was not as comprehensive as previously thought. So, if you couldn't add a profile before because your country was not listed - you can now!

A few people also can't seem to find the Easter Egg... ok here is a hint ...

Be sure to visit your profile regularly...

October update

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 12:55:27 -0400

The last couple of months have seen plenty of new countries joining the site - including India, Israel, Venezuela and Brazil. In fact, 26 countries are now represented, and there are over 300 people listed so far, which is over one every day - and the number of people adding profiles has been accelerating over time, which is great.

The most popular birthdays so far are 11th November, 31st May, and 23rd January, and there are some interesting degrees of separation developing.

The Easter Egg feature has also been significantly enhanced, so if you haven't found it yet, keep looking!

And be sure to keep up with your ranking by visiting your profile regularly...

Your feedback

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 16:39:13 -0400

Since the Million People Page launched 6 months ago, we have had a lot of positive feedback from people who really like the site, especially some of our newer features such as the daily movers list, site shortcut keys, and the Easter Egg (what, you mean you still haven't found it?).

We want to make the site even better, so would love to hear any suggestions or comments for features or enhancements you would like to see in the future.

Who knows, maybe your idea will be featured on the site soon!

New Shortcut Keys

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 12:08:10 -0400

We made a minor site update over the weekend, adding shortcut/accessibility keys to the main navigation. These work like windows shortcut keys, so that if you press ALT and the underlined letter in the menu item, you will be taken to that page. On a Mac, you hold down CTRL and the key.

So, for example, if you want to visit the homepage, you can press ALT-o (or CTRL-o on a Mac).

We passed the 200 profile milestone this week, and welcomed profiles from Italy and India.

Internet degrees of separation

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 08:32:27 -0400

Came across this fascinating image the other day, from the Internet Mapping Project. It shows all the major Internet Service Providers and how they are connected - sort of a six degrees of separation for the internet itself!

The Internet Mapping Project was started at Bell Labs in the summer of 1998, and it's goal is to acquire and save Internet topological data over a long period of time. This data has been used in the study of routing problems and changes, DDoS attacks, and graph theory.

The image is how I would imagine the people of the world being connected together - some well connected people linking lots of smaller groups of people together. When you contact your friends and ask them to check out your profile - and hopefully add their own - you are making the connections come alive. Who knows - perhaps you are one of the 'major ISPs' of the human population and will end up being our number one ranked person! Add a profile and find out!

Top Website Pick for June

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 00:23:21 -0400

This month I have selected Novel Twists as my website of the month. Not only is the website layout pretty cool, but so is the idea - to create a novel of 150 "pages", each written by a different author. Pages are reserved via auction to allow everyone a fair chance at the next page, and proceeds from the auction are being donated to a cancer charity.

We welcomed profiles from Singapore and South Africa this week, and after a very slow start, the number of people adding profiles is slowly starting to accelerate, as hoped. We are still way off target to get a million people, but we have had 35,000 visitors - so are well ahead of our target of one profile per 1000 unique visitors. In fact, one in 200 visitors creates a profile...

Not too bad for a website that is running almost exclusively on word of mouth, with no real advertising (it is just a bit of fun, after all). So please help to spread the word and tell your friends - there are still millions of internet users out there who have never visited!

World Cup a drag?

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 08:54:02 -0400

A recent report in the Scottish Daily Record says:

£1.2M DRAG TO FLY THE FLAG
ENGLISH motorists flying the flag of St George on their cars during the World Cup will shell out £1.2million in extra fuel costs, experts say.

Scientists say the extra drag generated by the mini-flags could reduce a car's fuel economy by three per cent during a one-hour journey.

Researcher Dr Antonio Filippone said: "Half a million cars with these flags attached will burn a total of 1.22 million litres of fuel during the World Cup."

And where can you buy your flag? Yep - your local petrol station... :0)

New Arrivals this weekend...

nospam@example.com (Rob and Heidi) — Sun, 28 May 2006 20:07:25 -0400

For those in the world who do not already know (where have you been?), last night in Namibia, Africa, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt welcomed their daughter Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt to the world. The name Shiloh, means 'peaceful' in Hebrew.

It was reported that the first picture of the baby would fetch up to $3 million (£1.6m), with the proceeds being given to Unicef, for whom Jolie acts as an ambassador, and other projects in Africa.

Congratulations to both, and good for them using the media interest to help such worthy causes.

Closer to home, we welcomed our first Chinese profile on the site this weekend, and also a new advertising partner, AdBrite.

With AdBrite, you can now book your advert on our pages online, and pay a flat rate for either a day, week or the month. Sponsored Links are shown full time across all free profile pages in prime area directly beneath the profile itself, as well as above the fold in the "Cool Sites" section of the Blog, and at the bottom of the photo display grid.

To mark this auspicious weekend, we have set special low introductory rates. For maximum exposure, only 4 advertisers are allowed at any one time, so first come, first served. Book your ad now.