Three weeks ago we launched the new IconBuffet. It's been a pretty incredible experience to end the year on. Over 10,000 people are trading icons at IconBuffet, and the community that has developed out of the 'Buffet is pretty amazing to us. We're extremely grateful to everyone who has signed up for a free IconBuffet account, and if you haven't done so yet you should probably give it try. With an IconBuffet account you'll receive free icons every month that you can use in both personal and commercial products.

In January, we have at least four new Free Deliveries on track (maybe more), and you're bound to love what's coming. Rumor has it that the Taipei Monkey may be making a very large splash in 2006. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the project. We couldn't have asked for a more exciting launch.

"So when you heard Microsoft and Sony marketoids blathering on about super technology and cool things you can do with the convergence of all media, you are right to dismiss it as hot air. They are simply filling time until a developer creates a great product that uses their platform." So says a fascinating editorial regarding the industry's mutant monstrosities. Fascinating, that is, to who a guy who enjoys the occasional well written consumer tirade and who plugs Sony headphones into an iPod.

It's been interesting to watch the traditional design community in the last few years. My background is in traditional print design, but about five years ago I started migrating to more and more digital, web, and interactive design. A few years we stopped doing print design here at Firewheel except for very special exceptions. All the same, all this time, I've kept some loose ties to that traditional design world. Until now.

As 2005 comes to an end and we're closing out our books, I've taken a look back to see if there are expenses that we laid out this year that offered little in return. While the findings were in some ways shocking, you could really see this train coming a long time ago. It's time to clean house.

Gone are our subscriptions to many traditional print magazines, namely HOW and Step. I simply don't look at them anymore. They arrive in the mail and go on the shelf. It's not that they're bad publications, I'm just not interested in the subject matter anymore. I don't need paper samples, I don't design business cards, and frankly I get most of my design related news on the web now. And as you can see, neither HOW or Step are doing a whole lot to keep you coming to their websites. Why would I read about Coudal in a magazine, when I can get the daily dose for free at coudal.com?

I am, however, still keeping CommArts. It has less ads, and is a justifiable decoration expense as the white cover stock always looks wonderful on the shelf. It reflects bad on the designer if you're missing a numbered issue. Kinda like National Geographic. For design geeks. But I digress.

Also gone is my membership to AIGA (gasp!). Don't get me wrong. I think AIGA is a great organization. One that benefits many designers. While I'll miss the Design Annual, I don't have much time to enjoy it these days, and I haven't been to an AIGA meeting in uh, I don't know how long. Gone also is my subscription to Creative Business, another great publication that I simply no longer need. In another life I'd heartily recommend any of these publications and organizations.

But times have changed. We're a digital design firm the specializes in a lot of services that you'll never ever hear about in traditional design circles. The most you'll ever see about icon design in a publication like HOW is a brief interview with Susan Kare, who is still discussing the work for Apple she did 20 years ago. Articles about interactive design focus on huge Flash-based projects that mean nothing to a design studio focused on web standards. And any mention of blogs comes in the form of a token page or three with an "aren't these quaint?" sort of tone.

My trade publications are now online in the form of sites like Authentic Boredom, SimpleBits, and Signal vs Noise. My design community is now online as well, and groups like Refresh Dallas are filling in where AIGA left off. It would be interesting to know how many subscriptions traditional design publications have lost now due to the web, or if AIGA is taking a hit with the lines between technology, development, and design blurring ever more on the web.

Things just keep getting worse for Sony BMG. By now, most of you hopefully know about the rootkit debacle -- CDs infected with a certain Sony software package would take over core parts of a customer's system, take steps to prevent detection, destablize the computer and open it to attack by viruses. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Sony recalled the CDs, but not before infuriating its customer base and inviting several lawsuits.

But wait, ladies and gentlemen -- that was just the first Sony malware package. There's another, quite different bit of nastiness still in the wild; and it, too, can do some bad things to your computer. And it's going from bad to worse with real speed.

This other piece of software, designed for Sony by SunnComm, is actual spyware -- it "phones home" to Sony with information about what you're listening to, when. At the same time, it introduces a security vulnerability into users' computers. Easy fix, right? Well, Sony issued a patch on Tuesday which appears to merely make the problem worse. They've since put out another patch, which we've heard fixes the first and second vulnerabilities but can lead to hair loss and indigestion. Oh, and it's still spyware, of course.

A few days ago I was chatting with a friend about cell phones and whatnot, and I mentioned how I was impressed with Firefly Mobile, a mobile phone company that makes simple mobile phones for children. It's just a really great idea.

My friend remarked how he thought Firefly was really great too, and how it must be part of some really large company, and how they've probably been working on the thing for five years, because small companies just can't move that fast. Incidentally, my friend works for another popular phone manufacturer. He knows about this stuff.

But that's just not the case. Firefly isn't big. They haven't been around for five years. They're a private company in Chicago that just raised a second round of financing earlier this year. They're small, lean, and have moved quickly to occupy a space that no other phone manufacturer has toyed with. With most large companies, if somebody had the idea for a children's mobile phone, there's no telling how much red tape would need to be cut in order to flip a project like that. Firefly has done it fast, and they seem to have done it well.

While we're no Firefly, we realize the benefits of being small on a daily basis. Decisions are made quickly and efficiently. We're all in tune with the inner workings of our company, and we have a great feel for what's going on. Last month we redesigned our corporate website (the one you're on right now) in under three days. It's not quite finished yet, but you get the gist.

Two days ago we changed our corporate logotype to reflect a bit fresher look than our previous (classy, serif) font. These kinds of changes would take weeks, if not months, to accomplish in a larger company. You might pay a design agency tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to contemplate decisions like that. And then, after all that, if you wanted to change back (or change again), you'd be wary of it due to the time and money spent on previous change. Big ships take a lot of effort to move.

Is your company small and efficient? If so, what benefits do you derive because of this?

Gone are the days of eWhatever, MyWackyProduct.com, and iYounameit. This is Web 2.0 baby, and your quintessential Web 1.0 brand isn't going to cut it. You've got to be hip, trendy, cutting-edge. In short, you've got to come up with a word that makes no sense to anybody, anywhere. Like Jookster, Meebo, or Squidoo.

Okay, so there are some Web 2.0 brands out there with more sensible names, but really, we all know the good domains have been gone for at least five or six years now. So what are you to do? You've got your great new Web 2.0 idea, a little angel investment in your pocket, but you need a name. Let's take a look at the Four Concentric Circles of a Web 2.0 Brand Name.

Circle One: The Literal Name

Imagine this: Actually name your product after what it does. What a novel idea. A few Web 2.0 brands have done just this, but its tough to pull off. Mainly because some squatter picked up your domain half a decade ago. But rising to the top of this category are a few highlights that more-or-less say what they do: DropSend (sends electronic files), CityFeeds (RSS feeds from your hometown), MapBuilder (Build your own Google map), TimeTracker, and Meetup.

Really, you have to give Meetup some props. They have a winner there. Honorary mention goes to 43things, but they lose points for having to throw an arbitrary number at the front of the name. All in all, this is a tough one to pull off, but if you do, millions of people will flock to your site simply because they could remember what the heck you do. Or something.

Circle Two: The Metaphor

In some ways, this is my personal favorite. Mystery and intrigue are always good, especially when you're throwing up a teaser page asking for email addresses. Some of the best examples here are obvious: Basecamp and Backpack, Mint, Digg, Flock, and Feedburner.

It's a simple concept: Take your idea and find real-world metaphor. We even did this with our own IconBuffet (all you can eat icons). It's a shame more folks don't give The Metaphor more consideration. It many ways, its hard to go wrong here. The deeper you dive into the these circles, the more difficult it becomes to salvage a good name.

Circle Three: The Pseudo Abstract

Circle Three is where you can win the naming lottery of life, or doom yourself to eternal mockery. If you came this far, chances are that you were looking for a domain name with less than eight letters. And if you didn't have an extra $20k laying around to snipe that domain from Pool.com, you could be in trouble.

If you plan well (or get lucky) you can walk away with something brilliant, like Odeo, Writely, del.icio.us, or Flickr. I mean really, Odeo is completely brilliant. Get it? Odeo? Audio? Okay, I'll stop. These are great names folks. Sadly, there are some that may have gone to far.

Furl and Spurl (rhymes with?), Num Sum (huh?), Plurn (what the?), Vimeo (I get it, but...), and the list goes on. The verdict is out still on Rollyo, Riffs, and reddit. I think these all have potential, but it will be the product itself that makes the name stick. Which raises an important point: The name sure isn't everything. You can have a great name and a crap product. Or, you can risk it all and dive with us to the final Concentric Circle of Web 2.0 Brand Names...

Circle Four: The Cab Calloway

So named for the Jazz great from a time gone by, these names might work well in a singalong, but are sure to be a one-way ticket to branding purgatory unless you have a really great product.

Our candidates include such scat as Meebo, Squidoo, Zimbra, and Trumba. And let's not forget Swicki, Django, Atiki, and Kiko. Or Mologogo, Trulia, Rojo, and Ojos.

But while these names may all seem random, there's a secret here: They all have high values in Scrabble. And you get bonus points for double-vowels, or multiple uses of the letter "O". This is primetime. The inner circle. Where your Web 2.0 brand will be proven, or will fall by the wayside. The Sock Monkey cannot save you here.

But remember, with great risk comes great reward. Just ask the fellows at Google, Yahoo, or Skype.

We were up until 3am this morning packing and labeling the last of the I Heart Rootkit tee pre-orders. And we're happy to say that they're out the door this morning. If you pre-ordered a shirt it should arrive within a week. Let us know if it doesn't. If you're outside the U.S., it should still arrive within a week, but you might give us a day or two's grace if it doesn't.

I could not have imagined how many of these things we were going to unload. The pre-orders emptied about 2/3rds of our first shipment, so if you're thinking of picking one up, now is the time. Makes the perfect stocking stuffer for the music-lover-cum-technology-geek in your life. Yeah, if you're reading this, you probably know one.