While this sounds like a great idea, it has been discussed a few times over the last few years and nothing has ever come of it.  I had actually started down the path of creating a new site that would be fair to contributors, but after a few months I realized how much effort it truly was (and there is no guarantee of success).  I'm glad that I didn't go through with it because since then there have been dozens of sites that have come out of the woodwork and none of them have ever come close to competing with the big 5 (or 6 or 7).  I hate to be a naysayer, but I don't think that anything ever will come of this idea for a few reasons:

- First, to create a new site, someone has to create the infrastructure (both hardware and software).  There is an initial cost (both monetary and time) to setup a new site, especially one that needs to be able to handle the large workloads that stock sites can receive.  You would need high bandwidth, large hard disk capacities (on the order of multiple terabytes), redundancy (for 24x7 operability), a programming staff (to create the site and maintain it), a support staff, etc, etc.  If someone is going to put in their own time and money to start a new site, then they are going to want to get a larger slice in return.  Also, if they are going to do this, then why set up a new site for others to make a profit?  Why not just keep all of the profit for themselves?

- Second, sites already exist that offer a higher return, among them FeaturePics.  Contributors could band together and put up exclusive content on FP and support that site (or any other site that offers
better royalties), but most contributors don't support FP because of the low income that they receive.

- Third, why would contributors contribute exclusive content?  If the content was worthy of sales, most contributors would want it to be placed on the top sites, not a startup that has very little traffic and little sales.

There are other reasons as well, but these alone would probably kill any real effort.

IMHO, I believe that setting up some sort of association/union would be more likely, but it would need to be done correctly.

You might want to try GIMP.  I don't use it, but I'm pretty sure that it supports CMYK.

Anyone else?

It is correct that Easter is not the original holy day (aka holiday) given by G-d.

NOTE: Certain words such as J-e-s-u-s (without the dashes) are transformed by this forum into words that can be considered offensive to those that believe in Christianity.  As such, I have used his Jewish name - Yahshua.

Yahshua (the Messiah) was a Jew.  Almost all of the apostles and disciples were Jews as well.  At first, in order to be a "Christian", it was a requirement to be a Jew first.  Gentiles (or "pagan infidels" as you put it) did not come into the Christian fold until decades later (when Peter and Paul started ministering to them).  As such, almost all Christians celebrated the Jewish holy days.  It wasn't until hundreds of years later that Easter was substituted (instead of Passover and the Feast of First Fruits) by the church.

The original holy days (aka holidays) given by G-d were Passover (Pesach) and the Feast/Day of Firstfruits (see Leviticus 23).

Passover

The Passover has two basic meanings: a remembrance of the past (the PHYSICAL) and a prophecy (to the Old Testament Jews) for the future (the SPIRITUAL).

The first meaning of course is a remembrance of the Jews gaining freedom from PHYSICAL bondage (in Egypt).  Pharaoh released the Jews because the 10th plague (of the firstborn in Exodus 11) was killing firstborn all over Egypt.  The plague passed over the Jews because they had sacrificed an unblemished lamb and wiped its blood on the door frame to their house.

The second meaning was a prophecy (to the Jews) that the unblemished (or perfect) Lamb of G-d (aka Messiah) would be sacrificed so that we would all have the opportunity to gain freedom from SPIRITUAL bondage (to death from sin).  If we accept the blood of G-d's lamb (from Yahshua's crucifixion), and wipe it on the doorframe of our hearts/soul, then when the final judgment comes (at the end), it will pass over us and we will gain eternal life.

The "Last Supper" was a Passover Seder (see Matthew 26:17-25, Mark 14:12-31, and Luke 22:1-23) and Yahshua was crucified on Passover.  His sacrifice was the ultimate Passover sacrifice.  No other Passover sacrifice is required.  He is the Lamb of G-d (see John 1:29, John 1:36, 1 Peter 1:18-19, and Revelation) and it is His blood that atones for our sins (see Ephesians 1:7-8, and Romans 5:9).

Feast of Firstfruits

The Feast of Firstfruits also has dual meanings.  The meaning in the Old Testament was that G-d would provide PHYSICAL deliverance to the Jews (i.e., those that covered themselves by the blood of the Passover lamb) in the Promised Land.  The meaning in the New Testament is that G-d will provide SPIRITUAL deliverance to Christians (i.e., those that cover themselves by the blood from the Lamb of G-d).  The Feast of Firstfruits is celebrated on the third day after the Passover.  Yahshua rose on the third day after he was crucified (which was also on the Passover).  Yahshua is the firstfruit of G-d.  His "death" and "resurrection" were the firstfruits of many to follow (see 1 Cor 15:20-23).

In summary, Passover is the original holy day for celebrating the crucifixion of the Messiah and the Feast of Firstfruits is the original holy day for celebrating the resurrection of the Messiah.

There is of course much more to this than I can write in a post.  I have tried to the basics, and hope that I didn't oversimplify it or over complicate it.

I hope that this helps.

If accepted, the image will do not so good in the "newest" sort i guess.

Thanks.  I forgot about that.  It will probably also not do as good in the Best Match (since there haven't been any sales in the weeks or months that you are waiting on Scout).

Yinyang:

For someone that claims to be extremely intelligent, you seem to fail the litmus test.

I never "suggested" that anyone do anything.  Maybe the problem is that you don't speak English as a primary language.

At the beginning of my post, I stated what the law says:

In the U.S., you are technically supposed to report ALL income (no matter how small).

I then stated how it normally works in real-life:

But the way it normally works in real-life is that you generally report income that the IRS knows about. 

Stating how the world works is very different from making a recommendation.

If I state that most people are jumping off bridges, that does not equate to recommending that they themselves jump off a bridge.

The word "suggest", "recommend", "propose", "advise", etc. do not appear anymore in my post.  Those words first appear in your post.  So how you can misconstrue my message is beyond me.  Unless you have an agenda and are trying to twist my words - in which case you owe me an apology.

In the U.S., you are technically supposed to report ALL income (no matter how small).

But the way it normally works in real-life is that you generally report income that the IRS knows about.  This is why people work "off the books" (to avoid having to pay taxes on the income).  Generally, you will receive a 1099-MISC form from a business if you have made over $600 from a business in income during the calendar year.   So if you receive a 1099-MISC form from a business, then it needs to be reported (since the IRS also receives this information).  Please note that the $600 is per business. 

Here is some more info:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1099msc.pdf

Legalese: I am not an accountant or an attorney, and this should not be construed as accounting or legal advice.  If the IRS puts a lien on your job and your home, then it is your own fault.  At that point, you can probably apply for the Obama bailout.

Looks like Geopappas was right.  Not worth risking your data on.  I am glad this happened right out of the box instead of waiting a week or two until I had transferred a lot of data to it and then dying.  I definitely won't be getting another one!

Lisa:

I am very sorry to hear of your problem and frustration.

In my previous posts, I wasn't trying to put down the Drobo specifically, but the pitfalls of RAID generically.  I am sure that Drobos work fine (for the most part).  I was just trying to warn about the potential issues that might arise down the road from using RAID.  You should feel blessed that this didn't happen down the road once you had loaded it with all of your data.  The worst thing is to feel as if you are completely protecting yourself, but in reality you are leaving yourself open to failure.  It is sort of like replacing your front door with a top of the line model, but leaving the back door wide open.

Most people are trying to protect against a single point of failure (their hard drive), but then their "solution" is to purchase another single point (a RAID controller)!  That doesn't make much sense to me.

As I stated before, I would recommend staying away from proprietary technologies (RAID controllers, Drobo, etc).  Once you add a proprietary technology to the mix, you are stuck with it (at least for a while) and you endanger yourself to the possibility that it isn't available when you need it the most.

I myself have two (2) 1 TB drives that are synchronized (via SyncBack SE) on a schedule.  One drive is my data drive and the other is the backup drive.  If one drive fails, I just purchase another and synchronize the new drive from the old one.  If SyncBack goes out of business, then I can purchase one of the other software products that does the same thing (e.g., Acronis True Image).  Pretty simple.

(FYI: I also have a third drive that runs the O/S and all of my applications.  I don't backup my O/S or apps (it's not worth the time and effort to me)).

If you are determined to use RAID, then I would suggest trying mirroring alone (RAID level 1).  I believe that if a RAID controller fails with RAID level 1, then you should still be able to retrieve your data (without the controller) by attaching the drives directly to the computer, but I would still suggest due diligence.

Good luck.

----

Edit:

If you (or anyone else) is looking for a good hard drive, then I would recommend checking out the Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB drive (WD1001FALS).  The Caviar Black series is Western Digital's high-end series (aka business class).  They have a 5 year warranty and you can get one for about $120.

I agree it shouldn't be your only option but the fact is, that hard drives fail, all by themselves, without a natural disaster...

Even though hard drives are very reliable, they do fail over time.  But RAID controllers also fail over time.  And the problem is that there is no standard for RAID controllers. So if a RAID controller fails, you usually have to find that exact make/model/driver version in order to recover your data.  That can be a problem a few years down the road when the manufacturer no longer makes that exact piece of hardware (or the company has gone out of business).  So I agree that a disaster recovery strategy is needed to protect data, but I don't feel that RAID is the answer (at least not at home).  I would recommend buying an additional drive and then "replicating" the data onto the second drive on a schedule with software.  You can replicate the data once a day (in the middle of the night), every hour, or any schedule that you feel meets your needs.  I use a piece of software called SyncBack SE for the "replication", but there are other software solutions out there as well.

If you are dead set on using RAID, then I would recommend running at RAID level 1 (mirroring).  This way, if the RAID controller fails, you should still be able to recover your data if you can't find a replacement RAID controller.  Any other level of RAID can cause total data loss if a RAID controller fails.

hard drives fail...this is the ONLY thing that RAID is trying to protect and it does it well.

While RAID is used to protect data, it is also used for performance (e.g., striping data).

I also received a payment today via PayPal (from a request on the 11th).

I have a payout request still pending from the 12th.

Make sure you get her to sign a model release  

And try to get some sleep  

check out vimeo

http://www.vimeo.com

as long as people have the password they can see the video without signing up.

leaf:

Thanks.  I am checking out the site now.  It looks very promising.