It seems that every time Slashdot mentions Macromedia or Flash, it's generally in a less-than-positive light. Tonight, they've posted a brief bit about the Flash player license and how it could apparently be construed to forbid loading the player onto laptops (although, for the life of me, I don't understand how they got this from the license).

While I've been pretty vocal about wanting Macromedia to stay on the straight-and-narrow when it comes to the company's image and how their products are perceived in the IT industry, this time I'm going to have to claim I just don't get the issue: Maybe the license is ambiguous and should be reworded, but… big deal. (Unless it actually is trying to ban laptop use of the Flash Player, in which case, let's all head over to OSFlash.org and get working on an Open-Source player immediately!)

Apparently, not many other Slashdot readers are taking it seriously so far either. Check out the original post on Slashdot (and the obligatory Flash-bashing there). Or don't.

We'd like to thank our regular readers (i.e., Blake, Eugene, Lee and Gregg) for helping Turdhead.com reach the goal that so many other Web enterprises have failed to meet: In our first 13 months of operation, we've actually made a profit.

I've worked with many "This could make it big" Web sites over the years, so those who know me will understand why I'm excited about a Web site that actually pays its own bills (small as those bills might be). After years of pouring cash and nerves into creating online medical databases, technical recruitment sites, daily newspaper engines and community portals, I seem to have finally found a comfortable place of my own here on the once-wild Web.

Thanks to Google's AdSense program and steady sales of Sticky Turds, ActionScript Jabberwocky T-shirts and Li'l Johnny merchandise, we've actually managed to recoup our costs this year.

Granted, the grand total of profits comes to about 37 cents so far, but for somebody who's been placing all their eggs in online enterprise baskets since the birth of Netscape 0.9 Beta, this comes as a bit of a shock. Since 1995, I've spent more money than I'd like to count — riding the dot-com bubble with both hands tied to the wheel. And until now, I didn't even get a lousy T-shirt for it.

Which is what makes Turdhead.com's sweet, sweet 37-cent profit (and its modest success in the media this year) all the more wonderful. In this post dot-com world, this site was never supposed to make money. In fact, I figured I'd just pour a little of the money I got from my day job (It's kinda nice working for The Man now) into the site until I got bored. This one (OK, this one and its automotive sister site, Classic1800.com) is only here for the fun of it.

And a few months later, it's still fun. Not a big revenue earner, but in no way a drain, either.

Thanks again to everyone!

— VeryVito

By the way, if you're looking for a way to add T-shirts, posters or other merchandise to your own site — or want a quick-and-dirty way to make your own custom stuff, I whole-heartedly recommend CafePress for the job. I've had good luck with them, and the quality and ease-of-use is great. You won't get rich, but you you won't go broke, either!