As you may be aware, the boys from the crimson midget are back in Red Dwarf starting Friday the 10th of April at 9pm on Dave (part of the UK TV Network). But what’s going to be in the show on the Red Dwarf Easter weekend? Well, Richy has a couple of spoilers…
Richy's Random Ramblings
As you may aware, the UK’s Performing Right Society (PRS) has had a “little falling out” with YouTube. Basically, as far as I can tell from the BBC reports, YouTube is not willing to pay what the PRS is requesting (some say the PRS is asking for considerably more money the currently, some say that YouTube is offering considerable less).
Anyway, without an agreement with PRS in place to pay royalties to artists and songwriters, YouTube has no right to play their music in the UK. YouTube is, therefore, following the law and PRS’s own policies by blocking those music videos on their site: as they don’t have permission from PRS to play the music.
However, Feargal Sharkey of the UK Music industry body is saying that by following the rules YouTube is using a “blatant, cynical, manipulative” negotiating tactic. So now YouTube is in the wrong because they are following the rules? If they didn’t block the videos, they’ll be breaking the law – but by blocking the videos PRS’s artists are missing out on exposure… I think the PRS needs to think which is more worth while: having lowish quality music videos available on YouTube for potential purchasers to come across and then buy singles (and therefore let YouTube host them for free), or demand so much money from YouTube that it’s not worth them offering the music videos.
You can’t have it both ways PRS!
After a post on Twitter from Dannychoo regarding web site uptime monitoring systems, I thought I’d make a list of all the ones I know of, the services they offer and their pricing for future reference.
| Service | Found via | Highest check frequency | Monitor nodes | Features | Monthly 1 minute keyword HTTP checks | Monthly 10 minute keyword HTTP checks | Alerts | |||||||||||||
| Keyword checking | Unwanted text checking | Basic Auth | POP3 SMTP IMAP | On server monitors | 1 sites | 5 sites | 10 sites | 1 sites | 5 sites | 10 sites | SMS | Phone | HTTP RPC | ICQ/MSN/AOL/Yahoo | RSS | |||||
| Wormly | @pukupi | 1 minute | 6 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Optional, Free | $19 | $19 | $39 | $19 | $19 | $39 | 40 Free ($0.18 subsequent) | $0.40 per call | Free | Free | ICQ + MSN | No |
| Mon.Itor.Us | 5 minutes | Unknown | No | No | No | Yes | Optional Free | n/a | n/a | n/a | Free (ad supported) | Free (ad supported) | Free (ad supported) | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Pingdom | 1 minute | Unknown | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | $9.95 | $9.95 | $12.45 | $9.95 | $9.95 | $12.45 | 20 Free ($0.45 for next 20) | No | Yes | No | No | No | ||
| Pingdom Gigrib | 1 minute | Unknown | No | No | No | No | No | Free (community supported) | Free (community supported) | Free (community supported) | Free (community supported) | Free (community supported) | Free (community supported) | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Montastic | @tamir | 10 minutes | 2 | No | No | No | No | No | n/a | n/a | n/a | Free | Free | Free | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Host Tracker | 1 minute | 66 | Yes | No | No | No | No | $29.99 | $29.99 | $29.99 | $4.99 | $4.99 | $29.99 | 10 Free (additional depend on network) | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Gomez | @lennysan | 1 minute | 80 | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| Webmetrics | @lennysan | Unknown | 95 | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Optional | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| Keynote | @lennysan | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | Unknown | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | No pricing on site | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Monitis | 1 minute | 5 | Yes | No | No | Yes | Optional, Free | $2.50 | $12.50 | $25 | $1.50 | $7.50 | $15 | $0.20 | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Site24x7 | 1 minute | 14 | Yes | Yes | Yes | $14 for 15 minute checks | No | $12 | $60 | $120 | $3 | $15 | $30 | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | |
| Alertra | 1 minute | 11 | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | $144.00 | $720.00 | $1440.00 | $17.10 | $85.50 | $171.00 | $0.19 | $0.29 | Yes | No | MSN+Yahoo | No | |
| Hyperspin | 1 minute | 14 | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | $12 | $54 | $102 | $2.50 | $12.50 | $23.75 | $0.20 | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
| WebsiteHawk | Joe McDonald | 1 minute | 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Panopta | Steve | 1 minute | 20 | No | No | No | Yes | No | $15 | $15 | $15 | $15 | $15 | $15 | $0.20 (20 free) on $15 plan Unlimited free otherwise |
Yes | Yes | No | “Coming soon” | No |
| IP Patrol | 1 minute | 5 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | £50 | £250 | £500 | £7.40 | £37.00 | £74.00 | 10p | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Specto | @mrtorrent | Runs on Linux and provides monitoring of local and remote sites | ||||||||||||||||||
Sorry, I know the table isn’t exactly pretty, but it was only meant to be a 20 minute piece of work compiling the information and formatting it…
Well, within a few weeks I was going to update a new e-commerce site hoping to utilise Google Checkout and the benefits it offered (the previously discussed lower fees than Paypal and those fees could be reduced to zero by advertising on Google). But no more!
Like many others, I’ve just received the email (below) from Google (yes, I’ve authenticated it: it came to a specific Google Checkout email address I’ve got setup, through Google’s servers and checked with SPF: it’s even on the Google Checkout blog) which basically state “We’re hiking up fees and cancelling the advertising discount”. What rate are they hiking up to? Well, their website shows the following fees and I’ve included Paypal’s Fees for comparison:
| Sales volume per month | Google Checkout | Paypal |
|---|---|---|
| Less than £1,500 | 3.4% and 20p | 3.4% and 20p |
| Between £1,500 and £5,999.99 | 2.9% and 20p | 2.9% and 20p |
| Between £6,000 and £14,999.99 | 2.4% and 20p | 2.4% and 20p |
| Between £15,000 and £54,999.99 | 1.9% and 20p | 1.9% and 20p |
| Over £55,000 | 1.4% and 20p | 1.4% and 20p |
<sarcasm> Wow – so much difference. </sarcasm>
Yes, they are identically (ok, Paypal’s limits are “between £1,500.01 and £6,000″/”between £6,000.01 and £15,000″/”between £15,000.01 and £55,000” so there is a penny difference in 5 exact cases!). (cough)Price fixing?(/cough)
But surely Google Checkout will be cheaper than Paypal for “cross-border” transactions (i.e. where the buyer and seller are in different countries):
| Sales volume per month | Google Checkout | Paypal |
|---|---|---|
| Less than £1,500 | 4.4% and 20p | 3.9% and 20p |
| Between £1,500 and £5,999.99 | 3.9% and 20p | 2.4% and 20p |
| Between £6,000 and £14,999.99 | 3.4% and 20p | 2.9% and 20p |
| Between £15,000 and £54,999.99 | 2.9% and 20p | 2.4% and 20p |
| Over £55,000 | 1.4% and 20p | 1.9% and 20p |
So Google Checkout is actually more expensive then Paypal: and Google Checkout hasn’t got the market penetration than Paypal, hasn’t got the ease of integration of Paypal, hasn’t got the wide range of integration options than Paypal, hasn’t got the facilities of Paypal…
I’d just like to know why I should bother with Google Checkout instead of Paypal (baring in mind, the more payment methods offered the lower the theshold for discounts I’ll reach on any one of them and the more transaction fees I’ll pay). To me, it looks like Google Checkout is checking out and won’t be here this time next year…
Update:
11/Mar/09 21:46 GMT: Marketing Pilgrim isn’t sure if this is a sign of Google Checkout’s Success or Struggle (one of the commenters, James Wilton, there actually said what I first thought: “Perhaps Google is trying to kill Checkout by attrition? They certainly haven’t been investing resources into it.”
11/Mar/09 22:11 GMT: Just to confirm, it isn’t just the United Kingdom prices going up – it looks like a world-wide increase!
11/Mar/09 22:13 GMT: Explode On Twitter has already dropped Google Checkout for Paypal (as Paypal is simpler for all concerned). Has Google really sounded the death bell for Checkout?
11/Mar/09 22:22 GMT: There is a Google Support Forum Thread about this and it appears from a quick scan people are going to be dropping Checkout for Paypal after this fee increase (some are even talking about ditching Adwords!).
11/Mar/09 22:28 GMT: @jessicamerritt says she’s going to stick with Checkout because of their chargeback policy (in particular the fair treatment section on their fraud/chargeback page). I’ve not handled a chargeback through Checkout so I don’t know how good it is, but I’ve found Paypal a lot more “friendly” and accommodating than dealing with Lloyds TSB Cardnet chargebacks. Yes, Paypal (and others) do “freeze the funds”, but you do get the money back after the dispute (and from their point of view, it stops bad merchants “doing a runner” with the funds).
11/Mar/09 22:43 GMT: For comparison, here is the Paypal UK Discount Fee structure and the US one is here.
11/Mar/09 22:59 GMT: KingJ is no longer recommending Google Checkout as he(?) handles a large number of cross-border transactions and hence the transaction fee increase will cost him more than Paypal. Stanstech is also saying Goodbye to Google Checkout. I’ve also just checked and Paypal’s Chargeback fee of £7 is identical to Google’s new fee for chargebacks.. Hmm…
12/Mar/09 00:20 GMT: There is now also (as there always is) a Facebook group against the price rises. I’m personally not against the price rises on their own, I’m just against them it takes away the only benefits of using Google Checkout there was and the fact the prices match Paypal’s point for point: do they really both have identical operating costs?
12/Mar/09 11:59 GMT: ValleyWag chimes in asking whether this is the start of Google introducing higher fees for all their services.
12/Mar/09 12:01 GMT: EdSF nicely sums up the advantages Paypal has and the poor customer service he’s had from Google.
12/Mar/09 15:56 GMT:The Register now has an article of the Google Checkout fee increases. It’s getting wide publicity, but will Google realise how much they’ve annoyed merchants and that there are now no advantages to accepting Checkout?
News Commentary: Proposed Minimum Alcohol Prices
The UK’s “top medical adviser”, Sir Liam Donaldson, has drawn up plans for a minimum price for alcohol of 50pence per unit of alcohol they contain for the purpose of “tackling alcohol misuse” – although it isn’t clear from the BBC’s article how this figure was arrived at (it could be a figure Donaldson just “plucked out the air”).
So how does this affect Richy’s house hold? Well, there’s just the two of us and we like the occasional drink (maybe 2 or 3 a week): sometimes, we have a glass or two of wine at night with our evening meals, occasionally I’d have a “nightcap” of Whisky and very very very occasionally (like once every 6 months), I might have a very small amount of Absinthe. Katy quite likes Port and Sherry. So which items would go up in price – here’s the current contents of our drinks cupboard:
(we do normally have a bottle of champagne in the house as well as that’s Katy’s preferred drink of choice, but we appear to have ran out).
As you can see, we’ll be looking at a £5.30 increase without the Absinthe (which, to be honest, I first of all doubt I’ll finish drinking before I’m 50 and secondly, I probably wouldn’t buy another bottle – it’s just too strong: it’ll be a total increase of £10.33 if we were to include it).
The more pricery drinks, since as the whisky and the Sancerre, seem to avoid the price increase: and those are the sort of drinks I would imagine members of the government quite liking (coincidence maybe?).
I can’t see having a minimum price would actually help avoiding alcohol misuse, as the “easy to drink”/”easy to abuse” stuff, such as Carlsberg Larger which Sainsbury’s are currently selling at £17.49 for 24 cans of 440ml: that’s 3.8%/1056cl=40 units would only go up to a minimum of £20 (a £2.51 increase) and “Alchopop” Bacardi Breezers wouldn’t actually change price from £3.78 for 4x275ml bottles: 4%/110cl= 4.4units as the minimum proposed would be £2.20.
How can we stop or reduce alcohol misuse? Education – encourage adults to teach their children that one glass of wine at a meal is ok (say, start when they are 8-12) and hence they should learn that it is nice in moderation: and they shouldn’t learn to abuse it. Also if they have alcohol “reasonably available” at home (regulated by the parents), then they won’t “sneak down the shop”, illegally buy bottles and drink it unsupervised. The government could also introduce labelling on alcohol such as “Do you think you are drinking too much? Do you feel somebody is abusing alcohol? Then call Drinkline free on 0800 917 82 82 or contact DownYourDrink.org.uk“: along with making it clearer how much alcohol is in a single bottle/can, what a “serving is” (i.e. a glass of wine, a shot of whisky) and how much alcohol is in a serving.