RAT FILE 0002 · MONEY
In 2005 Alex Tew sold a 1000×1000 pixel grid for $1 a pixel to pay for university. Wikipedia records a gross of $1,037,100. On 2026-10-04 the homepage still answered, with the title 'Own a piece of internet history!' The body we received was basically the picture, so the rat is not scoring which ads still go where they promised.
THE RAT WILL NOT: No ransom replay, no claim that Tew still makes money from the grid, no fresh link-rot percentage.
Wikipedia describes a 1,000×1,000 pixel ad grid, launched 26 August 2005 by Alex Tew, pixels at $1, revenue listed as $1,037,100, current status 'Partly active'.
The aim of the website was to sell all the pixels in the image, thus generating a million dollars of income for the creator.
Wikipedia · Encyclopedia · retrieved 2026-10-04
The same article quotes Tew's setup cost as about €50 for the domain and basic hosting, from his own later FAQ as cited there.
Tew's setup costs were €50, which paid for the registration of the domain name and a basic web-hosting package.
Wikipedia · Encyclopedia · retrieved 2026-10-04
On 2026-10-04 a fetch of the live homepage returned the title 'The Million Dollar Homepage - Own a piece of internet history!' Body text was too thin to audit the grid.
Live homepage · Primary page · retrieved 2026-10-04
Wikipedia says that by 2017 only the main page still worked, and cites a 2017 count: 547 of 2,816 original links dead. That count is the cited report's, not a fresh rat recount.
Of the 2,816 original links, 547 (342,000 pixels, sold for $342,000) were dead.
Wikipedia · Encyclopedia · retrieved 2026-10-04
How many of those links are dead today. The rat did not click 2,816 ads.
Gap · Gap · retrieved 2026-10-04
This is the internet's amber. The joke got paid, then the links rotted, and the picture stayed. Famous for being a picture of fame. The rat will not call it an NFT ancestor. That is a metaphor other people like. It is not a fact in the file.