They've done a lot of cool things, and are very talented. However, I think that they "jumped the shark" when they charged $20... twenty dollars... for a PDF version of their book (that isn't really a book... no ISBN), and had the gall to tell Tim O'Reilly that in addition to everything else, they were going to reinvent publishing:
His links are all broken, though... and I can't find the back and forth with O'Reilly, but basically he come across as very presumptuous - something I'd be willing to accept because he's right about certain fields (web programming, for instance), but something I'd look at with a more critical eye when he's talking about something he really doesn't know 100%.
Exactly - that's why it felt like such a money grab. They raked it in for a few months, and then just let it go, free, on the web. How would you feel if you'd paid $20 for a PDF that was then let loose for free? $20 for a nice paperback might be ok, but a PDF?
(FYI, I didn't buy it, but it just didn't strike me as the most upstanding way of doing business)
http://www.loudthinking.com/arc/2006_04.html
His links are all broken, though... and I can't find the back and forth with O'Reilly, but basically he come across as very presumptuous - something I'd be willing to accept because he's right about certain fields (web programming, for instance), but something I'd look at with a more critical eye when he's talking about something he really doesn't know 100%.