Scripting News for 12/31/2006

Tomorrow begins the year we decide who won the Long Bet between weblogs and the NY Times.  

The Rolling Stones sang Time Waits for No One.  

EngadgetHD: “The ‘plug and play’ approach that has become quite common on today’s electronics didn’t work out so well with HDTVs, leaving customers baffled that their TV wouldn’t magically display the clean, crisp imagery they viewed on the in-store displays when making their purchase.” 

Mike Arrington asks what is a weblog? 

I wrote a piece on this subject in May 2003. 

I tripped over two new (to me) NY Times podcasts today. One of my favorite columns in the Sunday Times is The Ethicist. Now it’s available in a podcast. And they have a podcast of a selected op-ed piece from behind the for-pay wall.  

Al Jazeera report on Saddam Hussein execution. 

Doc Searls, wordsmith 

Is “wordsmith” a word? Not sure, but if anyone qualifies as one, it’s Papa Doc. (Postscript: It is a word.)

This piece, about DRM, is exquisite in its imagery, in its wordsmithery, and accurate.

However, I don’t agree with Doc’s recommendation for technology.

Any software whose purpose is to copy-protect data, will fail. This is a simple corollary of Murphy’s Law, which isn’t just a joke, it’s a law of nature. Engineers have to learn this in designing systems. It’s one reason users get so pissed off when copy protection schemes interfere with their ability to use products in the way they were intended to be used.

For example, I bought a copy of Windows XP to install over some bits that had gone bad on an IBM ThinkPad. As I was installing the software, it told me I would have to first uninstall it on another system it believed I had already installed it on. Now, I couldn’t do this, of course, because the software was wrong, I hadn’t installed it anywhere else. So here I am, almost $200 poorer, hoping to have a good user experience, and getting ready to call for help, a misadventure all of its own. Never did get the software working on the laptop. Microsoft has my money, I have nothing. If I want satisfaction I’m going to have to put more than $200 of my own time into getting it. Never mind. Lesson learned. No more copy protected operating systems for this user. I don’t care how much of my rights they’ve taken into consideration. I don’t trust schemes whose purpose is to lock me out of things I have a right to get into.

So Doc, if you’re going to draft a set of rules by which customer-aware companies live, put NO DRM pretty near the top of the list.

Imho.

United Airlines almost didn’t blow it 

But they did.

When I was checking in on the web before going to NY, they offered the option of upgrading to first class for $250. Now that was too good to pass up. Only $250 to be treated better, to get a bigger seat, to be smiled at and cared for? It’s a deal! On the way back, I expected to get the same offer, and take it, but they made it really difficult. Here’s how.

First, I had to change the flight. Of course there’s no way to do it via the web, I wish there were. I call the 800 number, and navigate through their automated system, knowing all the time that it wouldn’t be able to handle it either. I pressed 0 for Operator a number of times, but that trick, which often works, was disabled. Remember that I was prepared to pay more to be treated better. Finally, I navigated to the place where it routes you to a person. They put me on hold, listening to recorded messages, but the connection had gotten really bad and I could only hear every third word. I wasn’t sure if they were saying things I needed to hear, or if it was the usual idiotic advertisments. I stayed on the line. Finally, after waiting ten minutes, an Indian voice came on. Her name is “Annie.” I could only hear every third word. I tried speaking loudly slowly and clearly. After repeating myself a few times I got off the phone, and checked my email. She had made the change, charged me $100, and I went ahead to the web site and spent the $250 to upgrade to first class.

But I realized, sheez, I wanted to pay more to be treated better, and in the end I paid more and wasn’t. My time was treated as valueless. Second, not only did they save money by hiring a cheaper person in India, but they also cheaped out on the phone line! Even Skype would have been better than the system they were using. India may be far away, but don’t they have good phones? They must be losing business this way. It sure didn’t feel good.

Otherwise, the service was great, and I would say What A Deal were it not for this little bit of mess.

The Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel 

I promised the desk clerk at the Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel that I would blog this and I am a man of my word.

When I checked in there, they asked for a photo ID. He said he was going to make a photocopy. I said I didn’t want him to do that. He said it was a requirement, since the hotel was part of the UN. Not sure why or if this is true, but I’ve been asked for a photo ID going into office buildings in NY, and generally let them have it, but I was concerned in this case because they had also taken an imprint of my credit card. With these two piece of information, there are some delicate places they can get into.

If you’re not worried about this, I think you should be. When you hear about schools and businesses losing hundreds of thousands of credit card numbers, it could be yours. I once had all my mail stolen. They eventually caught the people, and it was identity theft. I don’t think they ever got access to any of my accounts, but they got banking records and credit card numbers. Since most places don’t ask for driver’s licenses, it’s still thought of as a fairly good way to identify people. But not if you routinely give it to hotels and they enter it into their systems. Next time they lose a few hundred thousand identities, it may include drivers license numbers. If it’s the Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel that loses them, it will be include mine, because I let them photocopy my license.

If I hadn’t, I would have lost the money I pre-paid for my room. The desk clerk promised that I would get the copy back when I checked out. However when I asked for it when I checked out they said I couldn’t have it. I said that’s the last time I stay at your hotel, he said fine. I said I’m going to blog it (I felt stupid at this point) and he said okay.

In my humble opinion, the Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel in New York plays pretty loose with customer’s identity information. I won’t be staying there again — a shame, because otherwise it’s a nice hotel, reasonably priced, at a good location.

Scripting News for 12/30/2006

Releaselog says that the HD-DVD protection scheme has been cracked.  

NY Times photo of Saddam Hussein just before his death. 

When did Google become evil? 

Matt Cutts, who works at Google, on the “tips” issue.

I stopped believing in Google fairplay when they added a Blog-This feature to their toolbar, and didn’t use open APIs so users could post with any blogging tool, not just Google’s. To be clear, I wouldn’t have objected if they had set the default to work with their tool, as long as users could change a preference to use it with other tools. Long-term it would have made their tool more useful to more people, following the principle of sending people away to get them to come back. In other words, giving people choice would have made it possible for their competitors to recommend their product.

Do you trust Google to be fair to all, or do you think they tilt the table in favor of their own tools and content? Perhaps the two issues are not related?

Is Google something special, or just another tech company?

PS: I chose this headline, deliberately, to be provocative. Maybe you think Google never became evil, and never will.

Scripting News for 12/29/2006

Like Blake Ross, I noticed, with distaste, that Google is inserting “tips” linking to Blogger when you search for things in blogs. Much better to call them ads, which is what they are.  

Red Sweater Blog has what appears to be a private document explaining a partnership between Apple and Nintendo to the employees of both companies. (May be an elaborate joke.) 

NY Times: “Apple said that its chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, did not benefit financially from any questionable stock awards.” 

CNN: “Saddam Hussein could be hanged as early as Saturday.” 

Joshua Marshall: “Hanging Saddam is easy. It’s a job, for once, that these folks can actually see through to completion.” 

GigaOm: “Looks like the much vaunted deal between Edelman PR and Technorati is all but done.” 

Marc Canter is an original thinker.  

Thanks to Sanford Dickert for hosting last night’s meetup at Cooper Union. The discussion was lively, lots of people with lots of ideas; the room was ideal for a 1.5 hour discussion. I had a great time, as usual, in NY.  

Valleywag is looking for the worst marketing idea of 2006. When Nick asked me, I immediately thought of Microsoft’s laptop giveaway, but I’m sure there was worse marketing. Post your ideas here or send them to Valleywag. 

I am Iron Man 

Your results:
You are Iron Man

Iron Man

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85%

Spider-Man

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80%

Hulk

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75%

Superman

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70%

Green Lantern

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70%

Catwoman

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60%

The Flash

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55%

Batman

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55%

Supergirl

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50%

Robin

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42%

Wonder Woman

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30%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Scripting News for 12/28/2006

I’ve arrived at Wollman Hall, took some pictures, logged on the wifi. The school’s wifi requires that you register with the school, but there’s a Starbucks next door, and I’m able to use their wifi with no trouble (I have a Tmobile account).  

I had lunch today with Nick Denton, founder of Gawker, pictured at their offices, working on Valleywag. I’m blogging from their headquarters in Soho.  

Andrew Baron, who will be at tonight’s meetup, says that this will be the best-attended NYC meetup of a certain ilk. It certainly doesn’t compare with the TechCrunch party a few weeks ago, but the format here will be different. Thanks to Sanford Dickert, we have a classroom-style space: “Wollmann Lounge at the Cooper Union Engineering Building, 51 Astor Place, next to Starbucks on corner of 3rd Ave and Astor Place,” according to Sanford. We will also be honored by the presence of newlywed Raines Cohen all the way from Berkeley. I’ll begin with five minutes or so of random podcast-style ramble, then ask what people want to talk about. I’ll pick out people at random and ask them to explain something. Likely callouts to Andrew Baron, who just announced a new venture in video podcasting, and proto-blogger Cameron Barrett, who is working on Confabb (of which I am invested). Martin Schwimmer, legal blogger, can help us understand what’s what with Internet patentry. Bobby Orbach will call me Biiiiiig Daaaave (probably). We will likely sing a song, maybe two, and then at some point head out for ethnic food. 

Michael Markman observes that Edwards is calling people to “do” now, not just vote for him, but let’s get stuff done now. Hey, that’s what I told him to do at our meeting earlier this year. I also urged Howard Dean to do the same with the $40 million he raised. People who listen are smart. That’s the hardest thing to do, judging by how few people do it.  

I love it. The lasagna wiki made Techmeme! :-) 

Mitchell Tyrell offers a reason I didn’t get a demo from Microsoft — they don’t like the coverage they get here. If that’s true, and I hope it isn’t (I have been known to praise them, read the archive) — it’s a slam on the integrity of everyone they sent a free computer to. Put it this way, if I got one, and I believed what Tyrell says, I’d have to return it immediately. I never want anyone to get the impression that my opinion is for sale. It surely can be influenced, if you have a good product. And I may well buy a Vista machine at some point. I have paid for all the hardware I use today. I did once get a freebie from Microsoft, they sent a guy to my house to install both a new computer and a high-speed Internet line, in 1996, when Bill G was still running the company. Back then I said lots of things he didn’t like, but instead of sulking and trying to pretend I don’t exist, he engaged me in debate, and we all learned something. It’s possible that some of the people at Microsoft today owe their jobs to his approach.  

Lots of interesting conversation with Steve Rubel last night. One surprise is that while his blog has much higher Technorati rank than Scripting News, we have higher readership. I always assumed that with high Technorati rank came a certain amount of flow. Apparently not so. 

Good morning from the Starbucks on 42nd St across from Grand Central Station. 

Scripting News for 12/27/2006

56 people signed up for tomorrow’s meetup, we now have a place to meet, at Cooper Union, 5:30PM, thanks to Sanford Dickert. There’s still some confusion about this. I’ll call Sanford in the morning, and post instructions here. I have a backup place in mind, a restaurant, in case this falls through.  

Looks like Mark Anderson gets a big I Told You So re Apple and their looming stock option troubles.  

Tonight’s Knicks-Pistons game was awesome. Triple overtime. A tour de force of basketball, teamwork, and lots of comraderie among Knicks fans. The hometeam won! Last time I went to a basketball game at the Garden was 1969. Big difference is there’s no smoking these days.  

Pictures: Knicks vs Pistons at Madison Square Garden. 

Disclosure: I was not offered and have not received a Ferrari laptop with Vista installed. How does it feel? Shitty. I wonder if Microsoft has considered the cost of ill-will they create among people whose opinions they don’t consider important. I know, damned if you do if, damned if you don’t. But it does feel bad, I thought that was worth saying. Everyone who got one thought it was a good idea, apparently. (Same with the Edwards announce, btw.) 

Comic of the day courtesy of Dowbrigade. 

Kirstie Milner says that iTunes hasn’t updated any podcast feeds since 12/21? 

John Edwards must be having second thoughts about announcing his run for the presidency tomorrow. It was a great idea, because the week between Christmas and New Years is always slow. But with a former president lying in state in Washington that not only sucks the attention away from his announcement, but also makes it look a bit in poor taste. Much better for he and Elizabeth to line up to pay their respect along with the Clintons, the Obamas and the Sharptons (still my favorite candidate). 

Good evening and welcome to Scripting News, Manhattan edition. Coming to you live from the Starbucks on Seventh Avenue and 55th, across from the Carnegie Deli, where theoretically, I’m having dinner tonight with Steve Rubel.  

Scripting News for 12/26/2006

BBC: Ex-US President Gerald Ford dies. 

51 people signed up for the meet in NYC on Thurs, 5:30PM, location TBD. 

After NY, I head back to Calif for a brief stop then on to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. Podtech is my host, I’ll be using their facilities at the Bellagio, hanging out with the Scobles and Furrier, and my fave, Valeriewag. 

BTW, a little bird whispered in my ear that the next time you hear from Scoble he’ll be far far away from California, doing something interesting, and surprisingly political. 

Interesting guess. :-) 

Scripting News for 12/25/2006

The future of patent laws? 

Chicago Tribune: “When the letter came from City Hall threatening punishment if he continued to serve foie gras at his Chicago restaurant, Doug Sohn framed the warning and set it beside his cash register.”

Scripting News for 12/24/2006

It would be interesting to see which individuals and companies in the RSS space would be willing to issue a disclaimer saying that if they have patents in RSS-related technology, they will never use those patents offensively. We’d have to get a good IP attorney to draft a bullet-proof release form. Any volunteers? 

39 people signed up for a NYC meetup on the 28th, possibly at the Google office or a classroom at Cooper Union. Hope it comes together. To be clear, I’m not organizing this; I just created a page on the wiki and put my name on the list.  

Good luck Jimmy 

I’m glad that Jimmy Wales is launching a search engine to rival Google. Someone should try to make the next big leap in search, there’s little incentive for Google to try.

Google is repeating the pattern of the previous generation of search engines (Alta Vista, Infoseek) were doing when Google zigged to their zag, so successfully. Today, Google is fattening up and spreading out, going after Microsoft in productivity apps, chasing the TV networks with YouTube. Etc etc. Today search is only one of the things Google is doing, and it may not be the most important thing.

Today Google’s profits come from ads, and that business gives them a reason to keep search weak. They want you to do a lot of searching to find what you’re looking for — and the stuff they find for you for free is competing with the stuff they make money on. So Google actually has a disincentive to make search better.

Even if there are reasons to believe that Wales’s effort will fail, I’m glad he’s trying. We need more people who don’t accept the hype, and are willing to try to get to the next level. With enough tries will come success, and perhaps a new search business that is based on the ideas of the 21st century.

Response to Sean Lyndersay 

Sean Lyndersay of Microsoft posted some comments. He says a lot of nice things, and of course that’s appreciated.

But patents are a legal thing, and Sean being nice isn’t material. In the blogosphere, of course it is, and Microsoft’s defenders will likely say or imply that it’s all that matters.

Cutting to the core, the only substance I can see in Sean’s comments is that their patent application is limited to things they did that they believe hadn’t been done before.

Even if that’s true, it’s not reciprocal because Microsoft received a lot of patent-free IP from the community. They made a big deal (and still do) about contributing their specs to the Creative Commons, but that is a distraction. We could have recreated those specs, if we ever needed to (there isn’t yet much uptake in their extensions), but the patents are much more serious obstacles to growth in the market.

Google and Apple, two other companies Sean mentions, have filed similar patents. Of course what they did wasn’t right or fair, but also, neither of them claimed to be helping the community as Microsoft did, and neither has been convicted of antitrust as Microsoft has. Even so, I have been critical of both Apple and Google here, for their efforts to corral RSS behind a wall of corporate ownership. In contrast, I don’t think any of the big publishing companies, notably the New York Times Company, who have made a greater and much earlier contribution to the success of RSS than the tech industry has, have tried to own it or fork it as Google, Apple and Microsoft have. There’s a lesson here, and Sean is a good teacher. Yes Sean, the tech industry is bad. But even in the tech industry, Microsoft stands head and shoulders above the rest. And yes it has been common practice in the tech industry for companies to blackmail each other, to the detriment of users and the market, but that doesn’t make it good practice.

And Sean offers no response to the crucial question I asked, the one that cuts to the core of Microsoft’s intentions. And even if he had responded, he’s not an officer of the company, and his word isn’t binding. His predecessor, a former Microsoft employee, now works at Google. Next week Sean could be working at another company, and his successor could say, when we show him or her how much Sean liked us, “Okay, now what?” And he or she would be right. There’s little if anything in Sean’s letter that we can take to court.

To those that say the patent is only defensive, note that even though Sean’s word would not be binding, he doesn’t offer that assurance himself.

I think now would be a great time to hear from Ray Ozzie. He is an officer of the company. His word, if given in writing, would be binding on the company. Microsoft isn’t taking this seriously, by sending their response back through Sean, if that’s how we’re meant to understand this.

Scripting News for 12/23/2006

Anatomy of a hack 

CNET says I’m the “self-described co-inventor of RSS.”

It’s hard to say they did something wrong because what they said is true, I do self-describe that way, in addition to a bunch of other ways. I’m a self-described male, native of New York, resident of Berkeley. 51 years old. 6 foot 2 inches tall. Etc. Having participated in the development of RSS is one of the things I self-describe as.

George W. Bush is the self-described President of the United States.

How arrogant of him! Who does he think he is. When will he get over himself. Glad we debunked him.

On the other hand, he did win a plurality of the electoral votes in the last election. So in addition to being the self-described President, he is also the “legally elected” President.

It’s not unusual for reporters to leave out the self-described bit, unless they’re trying to leave an impression that the person is silly, or grandiose, or deluded.

Paul Andrews: “It’s hard to believe that any self-respecting journalist who values objectivity or fairness would engage in this kind of backhanded defamation.”

Another pub that does this is Wired. And they go on to quote Nick Bradbury, saying that he’s the developer of a “popular” RSS aggregator. They could have said that I’m the developer of a popular aggregator too, but they left that out. I also wrote one of the first, if not the first aggregator, a precedent for Bradbury’s work and Microsoft’s. They could have said any or all of that and it would have been true. But they had a point to make and an argument to discredit. And to do so, they had to discredit the proponent. It’s an old trick, not logically valid, because whether Microsoft’s patent is good or not has nothing to do with my qualifications, its decidable all on its own. If I were running for office, or on trial for fraud, then they might do well to examine my personality, but I’m not. And plenty of other people thought what Microsoft did was pretty nasty. How about talking to a lawyer to find out if it’s a good idea to give them a pass on this? They didn’t do any of that.

What to do? 

9:21AM Pacific: A 3.5 earthquake, centered in the same place as the previous 2 quakes, just above the Claremont Hotel in the Berkeley hills. I hate earthquakes.

BTW, we’re really feeling these quakes in Berkeley. The first one felt like a truck hitting the house. It was quick but loud. The second two were longer and shakier, and didn’t make much sound, just the sound of household stuff rattling and the house rolling. Nothing fell down or broke, but my nerves are fraying. You never know whether you should just park your kiester in a doorway or try to make it out to the street. And then after the shaking is over, should you go back to what you were doing, or get out of the house? Oy.

Who to believe? 

One of my projects for the New Year, if I get my shit together, is to do a right-sidebar thing that accumulates “open” blog posts, items that have yet to be resolved that we should keep on the radar.

For example, there’s been no response to my acid test posted at the top of SN yesterday. Until they give us rights to use what they think of as their technology, sorry I don’t believe the people who say that it’s probably just a defensive patent.

I think it’s really weird when big publications who take ads from Microsoft attack me personally, in a way that makes it sound like I’m some kind of credit-stealing idiot. Please see this as a reflection on them, not me. So far three pubs have indulged this way: CNET, Wired and the Guardian. Perhaps others, but I haven’t seen them. Each of these pubs deserves a black eye for not bending over backwards to cover a conflict. They take ads from Microsoft. The appearance of impropriety is every bit as bad as the impropriety itself.

No doubt they don’t take cheap shots at Microsoft because to do so would cost them money, and if there’s one thing they don’t take chances with is money. So every time they say something nasty, think of the cash register ringing. Ca-ching. If you work at Microsoft, thinking you’re making a difference by making cool software, shame on you. You work for a company that promotes this kind of garbage. It’ll catch up with you sooner or later.

This is how the business press lost its credibility, and it’s why the tech blogosphere was founded in the first place, to route around their conflicts. It’s not just advertising that makes them attack, it’s also that they need to get a certain number of phone calls returned by Microsoft people to do their jobs, and if they don’t smack me for saying Microsoft did bad, they may return the other pubs calls, not theirs.

This is why if you can trust anyone you can trust a blogger who doesn’t take ads and doesn’t do interviews. Not saying you shouldn’t take what I say with a grain of salt, I have my own conflicts and perspective that color what I say. And all this mess hides the real question they should be asking. Do they think it’s good that Microsoft comes into a market that was doing pretty well without them, and before they ship a single product, are already putting up barriers to keep others out? That’s good?? Really. Why?

Jon Udell, you haven’t started at Microsoft yet. Are you sure you want to?

Antony Mayfield: “Microsoft may be giving high fives round the boardroom table for this move, but how much will it cost them in goodwill and reputation lost?”

Scripting News for 12/22/2006

Here’s an acid test for Microsoft re their patent of RSS technology, and whether or not it’s intended for defensive use only. I have no patents on RSS technology, and therefore have imposed no limits on what Microsoft can do with the technology. Will Microsoft reciprocate, and grant me a non-exclusive, perpetual license to use any of their RSS technology in my own products? If it’s defensive, they should be willing to grant those rights to anyone who disclaims any patents in this area.  

11PM Pacific: Another earthquake in Berkeley. 

Ian Douglas of the Telegraph on the situation with Microsoft’s RSS patent. Nice piece, except he claims that “Really Simple Syndication” was a joke. I don’t know where he got that idea; it was not a joke.  

Steve Gillmor: “Now we live in an RSS world. What to do next?” 

Re Microsoft’s patent on RSS applications, apparently it’s not a grant of a patent, but a patent application. Nick Bradbury suggests it’s a defensive patent, but we have no way of knowing that, and I assume neither does Nick (he doesn’t say, but I doubt if he has a channel into the mind of Microsoft’s board of directors, today’s and future). I’ve been asked to do a number of press interviews on this, but I don’t see what would be accomplished. Basically I’m coming to believe that if it isn’t nailed down, someone is going to try to take it. Why shouldn’t Microsoft try to take the work of others as its own? All this is going to do is breed more contempt for “intellectual property,” a concept that Microsoft depends on for its existence. The Guardian says that Apple has applied for patents in the same area. So software developers of the future will be like people who run BitTorrent aggregators today. When the law is wrong, as it is in this area, it breeds contempt for the law, and disobedience. 

BTW, if you want an idea why I generally don’t do interviews with professonal reporters, look at the Guardian piece and see if you can spot the unprofessionalism. They can’t seem to leave their arrogance out of it. Why don’t they attack Microsoft that way? Maybe they take ads from them, or hope to? :-) 

Another theory on why the Guardian is so prickly on this subject — why didn’t they break the story? Their ire hides the fact that despite what the pros would have you believe, quite often they’re the ones commenting on the news you get first in blogs.  

This morning we have 32 signups for a meetup in NYC next week. I think it’s got to be on the 28th, say 5:30PM (so people can come after work). A 2 hour discussion, followed by dinner at a nearby restaurant. People have suggested having it at the Google offices in NYC, that’s fine with me, if it’s okay with them. Using the wiki has turned out real well. Keep up the good work! :-) 

Here’s the first article I’ve seen in Al Jazeera (I’m subscribed to their feed) that you wouldn’t see in American news. Yes, it’s ridiculous, but I’m sure many of the things Bush says about Iraq appear just as ridiculous from the Arab perspective. It’s a lot more relevant than the news you actually do see on American cable news, today they’re focused on a rape case in North Carolina. Yesterday it was Rosie O’Donnell and they day before that it was whether or not Miss USA was going to get dethroned. Donald Trump decided to give her a second chance, so she could stay the queen for another few months, assuming she went into rehab. All this is going on, supposedly pressing stuff, simultaneously shown on all the cable channels, while dozens of Americans are getting killed and wounded in Iraq, and billions of money we don’t have is being flushed down the drain, and of course hundreds of Iraqis are dying while the country disintegrates into chaos. 

Baron and Pulver, Inc. 

Andrew Baron and Jeff Pulver have started a “new studio network” called Abbey Corps. Andrew believes it’s a “much better business than Podshow or Podtech.” I’ve talked with him about this, at length, and I’m not a believer, as I wasn’t a believer in either of the other ventures he mentions. But the video blogs they’re going to aggregate are presumably going to be funded, and the people involved need some help (probably Zadi Diaz, Amber Dawn MacArthur and Steve Garfield, definitely not Amanda Congdon) so that’s a good thing.

In an environment where YouTube sold to Google for $1.6 billion, it’s not surprising that Andrew and Jeff feel there’s money to be made from bringing a bunch of talent under one roof.

PS: What about Rocketboom?

PPS: Is Ze Frank in this thing?