Big job? Not with PutPlace. We do all the heavy lifting and our client is smart about backup so you don’t have to be. Duplicate files are detected by the client so we don’t scarf up all your bandwidth uploading redundant files and on the server all those copies are linked together so you don’t pay out top dollar for storage either.

Once we’ve backed up all your stuff we watch it in real-time and backup all the changes as they happen. What about old versions? We keep ‘em all safe for you online.

Need all your bandwidth or CPU? Turn PutPlace down or turn it off. When we startup again we’ll catch up to where we were in a lickety split.

Upload as much as you want the beta is free, when we move to a paying model in the future we’ll give beta users several months to decide whether to go with PutPlace or somebody else and we’ll move your content there for free (if we can).

So get uploading and send us your feedback.

Congratulations to all the other winners as well.

Full message:

Dear Amazon SQS Developers,

We wanted to let you know about some changes we are making to Amazon SQS, based on customer feedback and watching the way customers are using the service. One thing we’ve heard consistently is that customers want to be able to use SQS along with our other services (e.g. Amazon EC2, Amazon S3), but need SQS to be less expensive for this to be more feasible. We looked at our architecture and feature set, and found a way to make a few, targeted changes, by deprecating a few infrequently used requests, which allow us to operate the service much more efficiently. Simultaneously, we are introducing a new pricing structure that replaces the previous per-messages-sent charge ($0.10/1,000 messages) with a new per-request fee ($0.01/10,000 requests, including all Amazon SQS operations). The net result is that the new pricing will result in significantly lower charges for most developers being billed for SQS.

The changes are effective as of February 6th, 2008 for new Amazon SQS customers. As an existing user of the service, you can continue to use the prior version of the service – with the prior pricing – for up to 180 days (until August 6th, 2008). However, we recommend that you use the Migration Guide to move to the updated service and pricing as soon as possible.

Below are details of the changes to Amazon SQS (also available on the Amazon SQS detail page).

Previous Pricing
(prior to February 6th, 2008)

Messages
$0.10 per 1,000 messages sent ($0.0001 per message sent)

Data Transfer
$0.10 per GB – all data transfer in

$0.18 per GB – first 10 TB / month data transfer out
$0.16 per GB – next 40 TB / month data transfer out
$0.13 per GB – data transfer out / month over 50 TB

New Pricing
(effective February 6th, 2008)

Requests
$0.01 per 10,000 Amazon SQS requests ($0.000001 per request)

Amazon SQS requests are CreateQueue, ListQueues, DeleteQueue, SendMessage, ReceiveMessage, DeleteMessage, SetQueueAttributes and GetQueueAttributes.

Data Transfer
Data transfer rates are unchanged. However, as many customers want to use Amazon SQS in conjunction with Amazon EC2, all data transferred between EC2 and SQS will be free of charge.

We examined the effect that the new pricing would have had on Amazon SQS bills greater than $1 at the end of December 2007. Under the new plan, 76% of customers would have received lower bills, saving an average of 71% each compared to their actual bill.

Discussions kicked off after Dinner with Paul laying out his vision for what the society could be in terms of representing the digital sector in Ireland, providing networking opportunities and giving the that part of the sector that is not well served by either the ISA or the IIA a voice of its own.

Much discussion followed and the general consenus was,

• The idea of an association is sound
• We need to gather a group of people together to draft a more concrete mission statement and set of goals that are well aligned with the interests of the sector
• We need a clearer definition of the constituents

Brian Caulfield made a good point about establishing a key set of “unmet needs” that the organisation should address and Conn O’ Muineachain followed up with a comment that maybe there is a business to be had in serving this sector.

We wrapped up by getting feedback for each of the atteendees. Denis Neery Deery made the best suggestion which was that we need to establish a concrete set of goals using a smaller group and then present these back to a larger gathering.

A useful night, I would suggest a few improvements for the next meeting,

1. Less food and more talking, the early part of the night was great, but it was meet and greet stuff.
2. More formal presentations to seed the dicussion, Paul ended up responding to many of the queries and a there should be more people available to cover that ground.
3. Aim to finish before the pubs close so we can retire to the Long Hall for a more informal debrief
4. Post a list of actions the next day and set a date for the next meeting

There are other reviews from Paul Campbell and MaryRose.

Doh, this is the list of best technology blogs/bloggers.  Mea Culpa. Still a worthwhile list.

• Tom Raftery’s Social Media
• Inside View from Ireland
• Michele Neylon’s Pensieri
• Karlin Lillington
• Alexia Golez
• Ken McGuire
• Robin Blandford’s ByteSurgery
• John Collins
• Michelle Gallen
• Promenade
• What I think
• Dave Northey
• James Corbett
• Ina O’Murchu
• Bill de hÓra
• Pat Phelan
• Matt Vinyl
• Niall Larkin
• Chris Horn
• Donncha O’Caoimh
• Haydn Shaughnessy

Facebook boosters, take note.