DISQUS

Interesting article. When I was training for my marathons I found that listening to an audiobook or podcast was actually one of the best ways to spur new ideas. Even if I was kinda zoning out I'd often come up with something new if I had something playing in the background. It was one of the things that led me to start LearnOutLoud.com because I felt there was an opportunity for more people to "learn on the run.". :)

My usage of facebook is down in the last couple of months specifically because of apps. The invites, cluttered pages, etc...a friend said it best when he said that facebook apps have led to the myspace-ization of facebook. At a minimum they need to allow people to opt out of all app requests. If that doesn't happen I wouldn't be surprised to overall facebook usage begin to drop.

Hey Vinny. Totally agree about the need to have sustainable business models. We're launching a language learning service at eduFire.com that's similar to GlobalScholar (with the addition of live interactive video) and are allowing our teachers to set their own prices. We're hoping to create a model where the students win (lower prices for private instruction) and the teachers win as well (keeping 80-90% of the fees) rather than the 20-30% they'd get working for a tutoring company.

We're launching in February so hopefully you'll write about us then. :)

Thanks for the review. Babbel looks cool. It along with other services like Mango and LiveMocha are good for learning basic pronunciation. We're hoping that what we're launching at eduFire will pick up where those services leave off by making it more affordable and convenient than ever to have a private language tutor. We'll launch soon and hopefully you'll review us then. :)

I read a really good article recently that talked about the rising inequality in income as being a bit misleading. The reason for this is that the cost of many goods and services have fallen so much in the past couple of decades. For instance, a solidly middle class couple might now be able to afford a 50 inch plasma because they're relatively cheap whereas a while back they may have struggled to purchase a 25 inch TV.

A Whole New Mind is a great read on this sort of thing and why people are increasingly seeking meaning in their life and work given how materially abundant we are.

How are these guys still alive? :)

A couple of years ago I the likelihood of music being opened up into a drm-free world where everyone could compete on largely equal footing seemed pretty remote.

Two year later it's happened/happening.

Today the possibility of a mobile world where anybody can compete on an equal footing and where service replaces distribution as the main competitive advantage might seem remote.

It'll be interesting to see where we're at in two years. :)

As a fellow boot-strapped start-up I can relate. At times it'd be nice to way a magic wand and have millions in funding but at other times I'm glad we're exactly where we are. Read 37Signals book Getting Real for some additional background on the theory of forced constraints and why it can be so helpful to an early stage venture.

We just launched our blog (our main site will launch later this year) and I think it's a pretty good resource for language learners. 100s of articles, podcasts, videos, etc. for people learning languages.

http://blog.edufire.com

Our online language learning service is set to launch soon so feel free to roll over to eduFire.com and sign up for the beta.

I'll throw in two sites I've been involved with.

www.learnoutloud.com - free audio learning resources
blog.edufire.com - hundreds of articles, podcasts and videos to learn foreign languages with

Great list here. Thanks!

Definitely extremely lame. I'm on a Mac and last I checked the regular Rhapsody client wasn't available for a Mac (and what is available sucks). What will people on Macs use to access Rhapsody. Or will they all just start doing the same thing I'm doing...contemplate dropping their beloved subscription?