Disqus - Latest Comments for scotty

Re: Wanted: one Amstrad CPC6128

scotty — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:10:05 -0000

My first computer was a VIC-20 -- 4KB of RAM and a cassette deck to load/save programs. Started learning BASIC on it and pretty quickly graduated to a proper IBM XT-compatible :) Too bad that those old IBM-compatible aren't collectable items as the old Commodore though.

Re: Top 100 Aussie Web Startups - April 09

Bart Jellema — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:34:04 -0000

I see you conjured up the courage to remove hotdockets from the list. Nice one! Maybe we should just check the domain age and remove any site that is older than 3 years from the list. I know this is arbitrary and unfair, but so is listing just any old site. Without a clear (and unfair) rule it might turn into a free-for-all...

Would this help?

Re: Top 100 Aussie Web Startups - April 09

Geoff Evason — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:26:53 -0000

Indeed. The companies listed here are based on the wiki: http://www.startup-australia.org/startups

If you don't think a company belongs, go edit the wiki...

We *know* that 'traffic' does not equal startup success, and that for different types of startups this is even a fair comparison... But it is easy to access info and a fun/easy way to see what Aussie websites are doing.

For any who thinks other factors like revenue, should be included - we'll be happy to post your financial data if you send it us...

Re: Top 100 Aussie Web Startups - April 09

scotty — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 07:13:57 -0000

Exactly what I was trying to argue when the list was first published. Define "startup". Now let's see whether there's anyone game enough to remove companies-way-beyond-startup from the wiki...

Re: Down 2

scotty — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:29:31 -0000

HitWise there is just the Australian traffic index. Since Inquisitr is pretty much a global site, I guess the HitWise score there is a bit less useful. All top 5 spots sorted by HitWise score are Australia-specific sites (GetPrice, StartLocal, RedBubble, OzBargain and HomeBound).

Re: Australian Startup Index - Feb 09

scotty — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:08:48 -0000

Stateless Systems must have done something right here. 4 sites in the top 20. Well done!

Re: Inquisitr comes in at 7th on Australian Startup Index

scotty — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:44:37 -0000

Regard to the top 100 Australian blog index, calculating the numbers should have been automated, and the only manual work is to update the table with calculated value + rank every month, which should also be automated in the first place anyway.

But I too have been wondering where Meg has been as well...

Re: The Podcast Network Suffers Massive Technical Failure

scotty — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:19:13 -0000

Hmm. It's bad.

However, if the large media files (MP3s) are hosted from the cloud (with local backups), and WordPress installations + database gets backed up off-site daily, I can't see it taking more than a few hours to get the sites up and running again, especially when provisioning a high-end VPS is super-quick these days.

Re: Bleak Shopping Christmas

scotty — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:06:30 -0000

That also depends on how many are going there for windows shopping :)

Dunno. I went to two Westfields over here in Sydney (Hurstville & East Gardens) on Saturday, and did not end up getting anything (but our usual weekly groceries). The crowd-ness is definitely less than last year. Maybe we got hit harder than Melbourne.

Re: OzBargain.com.au are doing some Smart Decentralised Social Shopping

scotty — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 05:42:29 -0000

Hi Ben,

I've been running OzBargain since around late 2006. Yes it's built on the model of crowd sourcing. Also with voting aka Digg/Reddit style, but focus on the online/offline bargains available to Australians. I started bargain-blogging around a year prior to that, but people's contribution started flooding in -- and OzBargain pretty much evolved from that.

Re: On servers and MediaTemple

scotty — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:12:42 -0000

Wow. USD$750/month does seem quite expensive. My Drupal site does around 60k-80k page views per day and it runs perfectly fine on a $30/month self-managed VPS :)

Then again I don't get links from other popular sites nor do I have 200k page view days. I know having the capacity to handle those "fark'ed moments" can be very expensive, but hopefully it would be a worthwhile investment to build your kingdom.

Re: People powered price comparison site BeatMyPrice.com launches

scotty — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:33:31 -0000

I too have received an PR/invite last night, although I have not been able to log into the site with the password provided in the email. Anyone else tried?

Re: The Inquisitr at 6 months

scotty — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:41:44 -0000

I was a bit worried, as I was reading this on a small-screen laptop, that the top half of SitePoint screenshot appears... Then I realise that it is just to show that The Inquisitr is not for sale when I scroll down :) Great to see that it is still going strong.

Re: Australian Startup index - Oct 08

scotty — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:44:04 -0000

Hmm. A few questions:

1. What is a "start up"? My first "start up" was started back in 2001 with a few mates of mine. Well, it was sold back in 2003 to a listed company, and now the product continues to grow internationally and (most importantly) make profit! Obviously it's *not* a "start up". Not just because the original company ceased to exist, but also 8 years is bloody long time in IT! Shouldn't "start up" be some company that's maximum 2-3 years in age? I am surprised to see Atlassian, which was also started in 2001, be on the list. PureProfile.com? Site-Point.com? Gee these are ancient!

2. "Compete triangulates multiple data sources, including ISP, Panel & Toolbar to estimate *U.S. traffic*" so it's pretty much as useless as Alexa ranking. Yup. Many Australian start ups focus on international traffic but many were actually created to fill specific needs in Australia and they don't get a lot of US traffic. I'll rather look at Alexa ranking alone, than average it with Compete's ranking.

Re: What am I missing in Australia’s financials?

scotty — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:53:33 -0000

Well. Our economy is definitely not in a good shape although it's not as bad as what's been happening in US and in EU. I think one major reason for dropping AUD is that those who invested in AUD from overseas need their money back to ease the pressure there. If they need the money *right now*, they'll be less picky in how much they are selling AUD for. So lots of money flows back overseas to put off the fire. And AUD tanks...

Well. IANAE (I Am Not An Economist) so maybe someone who really qualify can explain it better.

Re: PropertyPortalWatch.com is down, the day it appears in the SMH MySmallBusiness section

dalziel — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:05:58 -0000

Yep, no idea :)

Re: PropertyPortalWatch.com is down, the day it appears in the SMH MySmallBusiness section

dalziel — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:05:12 -0000

Excellent question. I really have no good answer :)

Re: PropertyPortalWatch.com is down, the day it appears in the SMH MySmallBusiness section

scotty — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:02:12 -0000

How can there be an "accounting stuff up", when InMotion's business hosting promises "Unlimited Disk Space" and "Unlimited Monthly Transfer" ?? :)

Re: The Tyranny of Numbers

scotty — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:34:08 -0000

Re: the "Auto blog guys" -- according to Alexa, 21% of visitors to CarAdvice.com.au are from Australia, ahead of US at 14%. From what I have read the content is pretty Australia-centric and a lot of commenters are too Australians. So there you go, a successful example :)

Otherwise I completely agree with you. The market is so small and sometimes you don't feel like competitive enough -- and people get slack and don't produce good content.

Re: Google gets serious about blogging, Automattic the target?

scotty — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:13:59 -0000

Interesting. My question is -- how is Google competing with Automattic (a company who created a GPL'ed blogging platform) by buying Needlworks/TNF (a company who has also created a GPL'ed blogging platform)?

My Korean is non-existing but I downloaded the source of Textcube and had a look at its PHP code, and they look nice. In fact it already has English as a supported language (although the messages in code are mostly in Korean).

Re: New Services To Help You Get Your Twitter SMS Alerts Back

scotty — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:51:03 -0000

You can buy international SMS for as cheap as 5c per message (source: PennyTel). Twitter clients are trivial to write. Looks like there's lots of margins there :)

Re: Sydney Based PC Tools To Be Acquired By Symantec

scotty — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:46:22 -0000

Symantec bought PC Tools? Deja Vu? This is the same company that bought the PC Tools suite from Central Point Software back in the mid-90's, and then subsequently discontinued it.

Hmm. I am just old.

Re: When I run out of quota, what then?

scotty — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:32:29 -0000

I thought Time Warner has also started trialling metred downloads earlier this month so our US brethens will soon understand what we are talking about :)

I'll say feed your requirement through http://bc.whirlpool.net.au and you'll find quite a few cheaper alternatives.

Re: Fairfax Digital Acquires The Weather Company

scotty — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:06:31 -0000

Well. Duncan must has his "connections" :) Interestingly TheWeather.com.au is the company, WeatherZone.com.au is the main product/website, but TheWeatherZone.com.au is parked by the domainer...

Re: Why you should have your resume on your site

dalziel — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:33:06 -0000

Ha! Clearly I'm not asking for enough :)