DISQUS

I would disagree to a point. Yes, anyone can open a blog and attract a small crowd, but I think Weblogs proved resoundingly that micropublishing can be profitable -- you just have to realize the business realities of chasing the long tail.

I have this exact comic. Robin has a mini-mullet.

Sadly most Americans aren't capable of seeing the nuances you see. So the populist message is "get the King!"... but we all know how dull the guillotines were by the end of the Revolution, don't we?

I head people disparaging Berkeley last time I was in SF (Macworld, of course). Perhaps I'll visit when I'm out that way for WWDC. You make it sound so awesome and your pics certainly make it look quite homey and relaxed.

I had thought about using them, as part of my Twitter personality involves (almost daily) changing my avatar. I do see one guy on my list that has some animation... and it is a little annoying. So I'm not gonna do it. Too "MySpace"-ish, heaven help us all.

I swear I spotted one of these in Target one day and my wife was like, "yeah, right"

I think a lot of businesses are afraid of really competing, which is why you see the lock-in. That, or they don't see the value in being "open" (or are ignorant of the concept to begin with).

congrats! (don't leave us)

I'm hard-pressed to understand what the resistance to this could be. Aside from a few monopolists wanting to keep their customers, this can only make the country more connected, competitive and empowered.

Oh, and the word is spelled "teat" not "teet." Unless we're using Web 2.0 spelling ;)

You've heard the Steve Martin bit about this, right? Philosophy major (Martin was one but dropped out, then got an honorary degree somewhere between "The Jerk" and "Father of the Bride") dies and goes to heaven. When he gets there he says, "oh man, in college they told me this was all bullshit!"

Welcome aboard the crazy train!

oh man, I nearly did a spit-take reading this. Dave, you are a funny, funny man. Ever consider doing stand-up? Limited audience (who would get jokes about recursion?), but still-- long tail comedy FTW.

Can't wait to see/hear/read about this... whatever it is :) Hey, that'll get awfully close to Apple's iPhone SDK deadline too... hm.

I love to hear about small teams or even an evangelist within one large co. making amazing things. I love it more when those things are productized without the sould being ripped away from them (ala Golden Compass).

Try living in the South. As I sit in a coffee shop in Knoxville, TN, just a stone's throw from Oak Ridge (home to some of the best and brightest on the planet), I'm managing some very high-profile blogs about tech. Miracle!

But Google, Yahoo and the rest would have me move to Cali, displace my family (all our relatives and roots are here) because they apparently haven't learned the wonders of iChat AV.

Kudos to groups who really grok having a distributed team and allowing them to live their lives free of the antiquated notion that we all have to live in the same geographic location to get things done.

Glad to hear it Robert (although you told us earlier today :)
Best of luck, and we'll see you on the intertubes!

And About.com has become a powerhouse. I use it frequently. I think Mahalo fits a slightly different space-- and let's face it, competition is good. There's plenty of Coke and Pepsi drinkers out there.

The folks who pan Mahalo tend to know how to use DOS. The people who use Mahalo (I'm guessing) are what we call "normal human beings."

Funny you should mention this. Right now I'm watching "Kitchen Nightmares"... Gordon Ramsey is a passionate guy, but it is tempered with the anchor of knowledge. In contrast, the owner of this restaurant is "passionate" but really he's just a hothead-- he knows nothing of the business or craft.

As a person who speaks in a very animated way, and as a person who is VERY passionate about what we do, I love that you captured that essence in this series of photos. Barak indeed has "the fire" (as we say of the kindergartners).

It shows in the product too.

I also love that these guys are from Sillicon Valley, but of course, we all know Ireland has a very powerful tech base (and it was really cool how they built it!).

The old saw about your friends being right about what is "good" follows with what Peter Lynch used to say about the market: if you see people really love a product, good bet it is a great company behind it. Makes sense.

THANK you. I've been trying to explain this to people for weeks now. Problem is, they ARE geeks. My analogy has been DOS. Sure, if you know the commands, life is easy. If you don't, you have to really work at it. A GUI might not be as powerful (at first, and this is arguable I guess), but you *trust* the designer to expose the commands you are *most likely* going to need. That is precisely what Mahalo brings to the table.

It's like going from MS-DOS to MacOS. I've been there. It's a totally different experience and really irks the geeks who are beholden to the more difficult way of doing things.

My how we put our blind faith in these miraculous machines we've created. Did everyone forget who built those machines? Peoples! I have yet to see a robot help me at a store. Sure, self-checkout is da bomb, but who helps you when there's no code for what you're trying to check out?

Our thermodynamic-defying, self-replicating DNA factory, ugly-bag-of-water nomadic selves aren't quite obsolete yet... Pity some don't realize that.

So what can Download Squad be doing better so we're hitting your radars more? While this may not be "the" A-list, I think it's a good litmus test to say what is worth your time, and your time is quite valuable!

They need to jump on the "users aren't just in college any more" lickety-split. It took me MONTHS to figure out how to join my alma mater (my graduating class of several thousand is poorly represented), and since the film school I attended doesn't do alum email I'll never be able to join that network. To me, that is their core functionality and they've borked it. Granted, it's a catch-22 because you also don't want just anyone to join these things. Like on Myspace, where you can pretend to be 16 when you're 45.

I'm starting to hate Facebook less and less every day. That's saying something for this stubborn old mule.