Greetings!

For those who were asking for a link to show people about the Tech Support Spheres (yes, there were people asking! ), you can now send them to a very primitive, basic but vaguely functional web site. Thanks!

Cool! Now linked from www.geekhackfilk.com . Should I send the link in to Blue's in case he wants to link it again? For those who didn't get in on the ebay auction.

Wow!!! Thanks! I will have to post your site on the links page!!!

You can submit it, but I do not know if they do repeats like that. In a way, I am kind of nervous about that - if it gets picked up by one of the big sites, I might not have enough spheres to go around!!! [current inventory ~650]

Then again, if you are making any kind of a profit on it, you might drum up enough business for another run. Is that something you want to do?

Anyway, Blue sometimes does follow-ups, so if you want me to have him link it, it's worth a shot. You'll get a lot of hits very quickly for a couple of days.

Greetings!

Valid point. It might be enough for another run - as long as I am able to stop ordering (easy enough at my side) when I get near selling out. The lead times for another run would be significant.

Go for it!!! Thanks!

When trying that your site, I get the message
------
Locked
The requested resource is currently locked. The lock must be released or proper identification given before the method can be applied.
--------

Due to too many traffic? Or are you currently reorganizing the site?

Jelle

me, too....

Thomas

Greetings!

Hm... I am not doing anything. The ISP might be, though. I have not received any kind of notice from them about bandwidth or any other limitations.

works now, the ISPs joking at you...

Thomas

works now, the ISPs joking at you...

Either that or they looked up the offending page, saw the item, laughed their ass off, ordered three, then unlocked the restriction on the page.

Hahahahhaha! Hm. Haven't seen any verizon.net orders yet... I did see a comcast.net though...

Do you send them overseas too? (Sweden)

// Jonathan

Greetings!

Certainly. But I may ask for a bit more if the shipping cost gets too high.

You got a link Saturday at Blue's, by the way.

I did??? <click> <type> <type> <click> <scroll> Cool! Thanks!!!

Jonathan,

I've bought loads of balls from Paul from the UK. Shipping from the UK might be cheaper than from the US. The ball would be £8 and shipping would be about £3-4 according to the post office web site. If you're interested let me know and I'll find out the exact postage cost.

Mmm... Good point. I don't think I state anything at all about international sales on that page (other than shipping costs cover US Priority Mail). I completely forgot. Would you want me to post an email for you so that people outside North America can contact you? If so, let me know (and give me an address that I can send them to that you do not mind having posted). Thanks!

That would be great, I'll send you a mail as per the email address posted.

// Jonathan

i just wanted to know... what is the history on the "42" answer? can't find any background on it.

From Douglas Adams' "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"... Essentially the answer to Life, universe, everything. Unfortunately, while waiting for the answer, the exact question was forgotten....

3 of the 4 first hits on google for "42" touches on Douglas Adams or his work, here's the Wikipedia

/Michael

Yay - mine arrived on Monday while I was away on business so I have them today. I have baffled my non-technical workmates, but the geeks love 'em.

Edit - do you have any more Some interest already!
Cheers

*bump*

Aw, at least tell us how they're selling, or mention the URL again or something

Hahahahaha... Okay. I guess the generic bump was a bit terse...

So far, they are selling very well. I have about 570 left. Granted, a lot of the "sales" were bulk or discounted or given away. Current sales prices on the website are $15 each, but if someone from the board contacts me directly (don't use the site - the pricing there is automatic), I will give you a discount.

So far, I still have a way to go before I break even. I am still down a bit over $4k. But that's okay - I think I will still break even or come out a little on the positive side when they are all sold.

If anyone sees any links or mentions of the spheres on various sites, please drop me an email and let me know about it. This way, I can add a link on the sales page.

I am also hoping to get an ad published / link / reference on a handful of sites. That is still in the works. I am also going to send a few samples to ThinkGeek and a few other sites - but only at the very end. These places can probably get them faster and cheaper than I can, so I want to make sure I get rid of the bulk of mine before passing the idea over to a competitor that can certainly outprice / outstock / outsell me.

But that is just a summary. For my next project... (I already have something in the works, but it is significantly more surreal and far less volume.)

hmmm everytime I attempt to go to the site, it's down for me..
from home and work different ISP's. Cant get to members.verizon.net,
route dies after....

17 218 ms 218 ms 217 ms gigchannel9-1--12-1.core1.dfw-tx.vzlink.com [206.46.128.85]

Hmmm... Probably my ISP playing games again...

Just got mine this evening...

I don't think that either my brother (an illustrator) or my father (retired primary school teacher) quite 'get it', but I wouldn't really have expected them to... I'll see later what reaction it gets at work

Big thanks to Paul for taking the financial risk to make these things happen, and to Andy (skibum) for taking on the role of UK distributor

Cool!!! It was never really developed for the non-tech folks, so many of the responses probably do not make sense to them. Enjoy!

And, if anyone missed out, there are still plenty left.

In reply to:

---

It was never really developed for the non-tech folks

---

Oh I knew that, and it's not as if I'm not used to blank confused stares from my family...
...come to think of it, I get blank confused stares from most of the people at work too!

...come to think of it, I get blank confused stares from most of the people at work too!



Heck, I get that just looking in a mirror...

tanstaafl.

Greetings!

I have been UFied!!!

I get the joke, but I don't see what you mean by "being UF'ied" ?

(I kept looking for a tech support sphere in that comic somewhere, but I couldn't seem to find one)

I have been mentioned in the "backfeed" section, where the author posts news articles and such. He links back to the sale site.

Ah! I see now! Thanks!

Dude, that's soo cool. User Friendly is the bee's knees.

Ur famous! 133t!

Seriously, pretty cool.

-Zeke

Ahh well it's been two months since your bump, so...

btw I have to use anonymous proxy to get to your site from NZ, this also goes for pcats tuner site...

Greetings!

Anonymous proxy? Hmmm... I am on a (relatively) big ISP, but I am not aware of any browser or location blocks. I know that they are forever denying image downloads - it gets really annoying.

Anywho... I still have about 300 of the spheres left. JD Frazer mentioned me on the UserFriendly site, and that sold a lot of them. I am deciding how I want to advertise to clear the last of them. Something really big would be overpowering - selling too many of them at the same time for me to ship. Meanwhile something really small will not help much. Still thinking about that one.

drakino is at Quakecon...

300 left should put you about even, no?

Close, but not quite yet. Keep in mind that the first sales were both bulk and to board members - both at discounted prices. Close, though.

I got mine yesterday, thanks!

RTFM is my fav next is Blame the Vendor?

Thanks,
Robert Michael