I Keep Missing Out...

As if missing out on the Arrovo bill wasn't enough, I'm now left wondering how I didn't come up with a brilliant idea I read about in The Washington Post today.

A 21-year-old student from Wiltshire, England, made a million bucks on the Internet in just five months, with an amazingly simple idea, says the Post:

Worried about paying his college tuition last August, Tew chanced upon one of those rare original money-making ideas. How about creating an Internet Web page out of 1 million blank pixels? And then selling those pinhead-size digital picture elements that make up a computer screen for a dollar apiece, or $100 per 10-by-10-pixel block, to advertisers who turn them into colorful tiny billboards and micro logos linked to their own Web sites?

And why not call this new marketing monstrosity "The Million Dollar Homepage" -- since Tew stood to make a million bucks?

At exactly 1:42:28 p.m. EST [Tuesday, I think -- gg], Tew can post a "sold out" sign on the Million Dollar Homepage. The spiky-haired Brit put the last thousand pixels up for auction on eBay 10 days ago with a $1 starting bid for the lot. With 24 hours to go, yesterday's bidding reached $152,300, putting him over the million-dollar mark.

The Post story says Tew's initial investment was less than $100. In addition to his million bucks, he's now sorting through a variety of job offers and business propositions.

You can visit his site here, and read the Post story here. The Post requires you to register, but it's free, and I don't think it goes much beyond a few demographics questions.