GMail is really cool. I mean REALLY cool. There are products you hate, and never use; there are products you hate, and use because you have to; there are products you use regardless of their shortcomings, because they have features you want; and then there are products that are so close to perfection they are no longer a product, but an extension of your work/play.

I was just thinking, and I'm sure I'm not the first to think it, and, more than likely, it's even already being done. But just in case it isn't, here's my brilliant idea.

I'm a huge Jabber fan. I love it. Decentralized, open-source IM - open source at it's finest.

How the Game Industry can Save Itself:

- Screw the publishers. Direct-download, baby. Appeal to the broadband connections of the world, use *them* to get a title off the ground, instead of letting the publishers use *you*. Publishers are middle-men. Distributors are middle-men. How much is Xbox live? Everquest? City of Heroes? Galaxies? World of Warcraft? GameSpy? How much would a gamer, who probably spends $1000 a year on computer hardware and software, pay per month to be able to down