Free Gmail Invites

As part of our effort to support and publicize using your Google Toolbar to run Folding@HOME and put your idle CPU cycles to work finding cures for diseases, we offered free Gmail invites and gave away 33 of 'em as shown below. We added the text below to the main page during the giveaway period.

Get a free Gmail Invite!

As outlined above, we'd like more people to consider donating their spare CPU cycles to this good cause, so we are offering FREE gmail invites. Gmail is Google's free 1GByte Email service - click here to read more. They have not opened this up to the general public, but if you have an account, you periodically get "invites" for more, so we are going to pass those on to a random surfer that views these pages.

The way this works is that the invite is actually a URL on Gmail which you click on to setup your account - you pick the username/etc. So we will periodically post an "invite URL" here and if you are the first to hit it, then have fun with your gmail account. If someone else beat you to it, check back later and try again.

The web server gets POUNDED by people hitting reloads, so I'll post at least a "5-minute" warning before the invite goes live. You REALLY want to know what your preferred gmail username is going to be, because based on the web server stats, the page is being reloaded about TEN TIMES/SECOND when things are rocking, so once I make the invite available, a LOT of folks click-thru to the gmail entry form at the same time, so it is then a race to see who can complete it first.

BTW, I got an Email from TimA who wrote: "Hey, this contest isn't fair! The other contestants aren't reading the Gmail 'Terms of Use' before they click the button!" and he's got a darn good point - be sure you do this and if you aren't sure, consult with your lawyer! ;-) Ironically, this person won an invite from us a few days later and then wrote: "I won! I can't believe it! Now I know what it's like to play 'fast fingers' on 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'"



A typical countdown for the free gmail invite

NEXT INVITE: Since we did a a late night one for the folks across the Pacific, the next one will be for the folks across the Atlantic, so check back betweeen 0800-0900 MDT (GMT-6) on Thursday, June 24th. And another one later this afternoon between 1600-1700 MDT.

0730: It's a nice sunny morning in Colorado - I think we'll pass out TWO gmail invites this hour - more details at 0800, but stay tuned!
0750: Just noticed that 168-103-229-16.ptld.qwest.net hit this page 1,235 times yesterday, so while I bet their reload button is a bit tired, hopefully they has a few more clicks left and good luck especially to them!
0800: The 0800-0900 window is open - the 5-minute warning flag is waiting to be thrown.
0815: The 5-minute warning flag has been thrown - gentlemen, start your browsers!
0821: Apply Maximum Turbo Boost to your reload button - invite will be available VERY VERY soon ...

0823: click here to get your free gmail invite - snarfed by ta.public

0823: Note that TWO gmail invites are going out this hour - that is the first one. The 5-minute warning flag will be thrown for the second gmail invite shortly ... keep your browsers going!
0830: First invite went to ta.public ... standby for that second invite which will be given out this hour.
0835: redfish.gatech.edu appears to have the fastest reloading browser with 1,139 reloads so far!
0850: The 5-minute warning flag has been thrown - gentlemen, restart your browsers!
0857: Apply Maximum Turbo Boost to your reload button - second invite will be available VERY VERY soon ...

0858: click here to get your free gmail invite - snarfed by yuddzy

NEXT INVITE: Check back this afternoon between 1600-1700 MDT (GMT-6) on Thursday, June 24th for the next free gmail invite ... and we'll do another one after that Friday morning between 0900-1000 MDT.

Gmail Invite History 

Posted              Gone By             Who Took it                        Web Traffic
2004_06_21_1633     2004_06_21_1733     sebasic (Digital Pointer)            109 hits from 12 unique HP's from 1700-1800
2004_06_23_1040     2004_06_23_1041     timreiker (Random Surfer Dude)     2,250 hits from 55 unique IP's from 1000-1100
2004_06_23_1535     2004_06_23_1536     philippet (Google Computer)        2,720 hits from 44 unique IP's from 1500-1600
2004_06_23_2107     2004_06_23_2108     scott.atkins (Slashdotter)         2,318 hits from 31 unique IP's from 2000-2200
2004_06_24_0823     2004_06_24_0824     ta.public (Random Surfer Dude)     8,565 hits from 63 unique IP's from 0730-0930
2004_06_24_0858     2004_06_24_0859     yuddzy (Google Grouper)            8,565 hits from 63 unique IP's from 0730-0930
2004_06_24_1631     2004_06_24_1632     lightcast (Slashdotter)            2,568 hits from 33 unique IP's from 1600-1700
2004_06_25_0843     2004_06_25_0844     mandernach (Slashdotter)           3,142 hits from 30 unique IP's from 0900-1000
2004_06_25_1426     2004_06_25_1427     joshmetzler (got it on 5th try!)   2,704 hits from 39 unique IP's from 0900-1000
2004_06_28_1025     2004_06_28_1026     dhaucke (SearchEngineWatch)        3,416 hits from 21 unique IP's from 1000-1100
2004_06_28_1029     2004_06_28_1030     mikelturner (646 clicks!)          3,416 hits from 21 unique IP's from 1000-1100
2004_06_28_1449     2004_06_28_1450     brucefranklin (Random Surfer Dude) 3,675 hits from 19 unique IP's from 1400-1500
2004_06_30_1001     2004_06_30_1002     vvdispute (12th contest try!)        383 hits from 20 unique IP's from 0900-1100
2004_07_01_1459     2004_07_01_1500     computester (Random Surfer Dude)   2,983 hits from 24 unique IP's from 1400-1500
2004_07_02_1448     2004_07_02_1449     computegeneral (From Germany)      3,598 hits from 16 unique IP's from 1400-1500
2004_07_05_2129     2004_07_05_2130     zapman449 (Slashdotter)            1,972 hits from 14 unique IP's from 2100-2200
2004_07_07_1033     2004_07_07_1033     thorzero (Slashdotter)             1,382 hits from 12 unique IP's from 1000-1100
2004_07_09_1033     2004_07_09_1033     willmitch (Google'r)               3,867 hits from 24 unique IP's from 1000-1100
2004_07_12_1033     2004_07_12_1033     pjweisberg (Google Grouper)        1,008 hits from 19 unique IP's from 1000-1100
2004_07_14_1033     2004_07_14_1033     dwpegues (Random Surfer Dude)      1,644 hits from 15 unique IP's from 1000-1100
2004_07_15_1542     2004_07_15_1543     curtpatton (Random Surfer Dude)    2,281 hits from 15 unique IP's from 1500-1600
2004_07_16_1144     2004_07_16_1145     mstockman (Slashdotter)            5,607 hits from 26 unique IP's from 1100-1200
2004_07_19_1144     2004_07_19_1145     sweet505 (Random Surfer Dude)        695 hits from 13 unique IP's from 1100-1200
2004_07_21_0950     2004_07_21_0951     nigel.gibbs (SearchEngine)         2,091 hits from 16 unique IP's from 0900-1000
2004_07_22_1541     2004_07_22_1542     annmarie.klein (Slashdotter)       2,802 hits from 18 unique IP's from 1500-1600
2004_07_23_1049     2004_07_23_1049     ready207 (Random Surfer Dude)      4,407 hits from 18 unique IP's from 1000-1100
2004_07_26_1049     2004_07_26_1049     nwbrown (Slashdotter)              1,739 hits from 17 unique IP's from 1000-1100
2004_07_28_1049     2004_07_28_1049     gottatinkle (cute username! ;-)      678 hits from 11 unique IP's from 1100-1200
2004_07_29_0933     2004_07_29_0933     cybersaur (Random Surfer Dude)     1,004 from 12 unique IP's from 0900-1000
2004_07_29_0933     2004_07_29_0933     sonofacoconut (Slashdotter)          833 from 16 unique IP's from 0900-1000
gottatinkle writes about winning the contest: "Holy cow. I pulled it off. it pays to have learned and can easily use keyboard shortcuts (meaning i didn't have to use the mouse which sped up time). about the username, well, i've been sitting at my desk for almost an hour, afraid to leave in case the link came up while i'm washing my hands. you ever watch the TV show sports night? i'm not gonna miss the "homerun heard around the world" because I was in the bathroom washing my hands. (ask me if you don't get the baseball reference)"