That’s why it’s fun to come across a startup like Firefly, the creation of four University of Pennsylvania undergraduates who want to make it drop-dead easy for companies to guide customers through their websites by co-browsing or sharing screens without plugins or downloads.

So if you’re perusing your a healthcare provider’s web site and get stuck on a form, the customer service agent can with a button click,  get in and share that screen — without seeing any of the user’s other tabs or screens — to walk the user through the process. To facilitate this, the company just adds a few lines of JavaScript code to the URL header.

The product has gotten some ink  and it is cool. But what impressed me was the co-founders. I met two of the three – Wharton undergrads Patrick Leahy and Justin Meltzer  – at Boston AngelHack last spring, when Leahy was in in the midst of a hackathon road trip.

Just coming off the 48-hour Penn Apps hackathon, Leahy Bolt-bused up to Cambridge for the 30-hour Boston AngelHack, before jumping aboard StartupBus, a 70-hour hackathon-on-wheels to South By Southwest, where he was going to participate in — wait for it — another hackathon. Code means a lot to this guy…

Firefly co-founder Patrick Leahy

Foresaking Wall Street for code

So much, in fact, that Leahy turned down an investment banking internship with a New York financial services giant to focus on programming. “I did one internship on derivatives trading last year and liked it and was going to go back for investment banking, but I want to build the company,” Leahy told me by phone last week.

Leahy and another Firefly co-founder Dan Shipper are startup veterans, having already launched Airtime for Email, which gives companies a way to brand their marketing messages in email and track how those emails are treated. Were they read? Nuked? Forwarded? Never opened?

Leahy speaks about code as someone who is knowledgeable but still eager to learn. “We wrote the first version of Firefly at Penn Apps using Ruby on Rails but we couldn’t get to the level of complexity we needed so we rewrote it at AngelHack in Node.js. We learned that language at AngelHack and it’s perfect for what we needed,” Leahy said.

Picking the right tools

“Programming languages are like different sized kitchen knives — they suit different jobs,” he said. Ruby on Rails is a great framework for building “CRUD”  or Create, Read, Update, Delete — applications, he said. ”If you have a big table you want to edit — a customer information page, your sales rep page, Ruby on Rails if fine,” he said.

But for Firefly, which needs to handle fast browser-to-browser communication, Node.js was better. “We have to pass messages back and forth so our server sits in the middle and we wrote code to connect all those browsers. This is an evented pattern where you’re having a conversation, listening for things to be said and holding till you hear them. Ruby on Rails is not good for that but a functional programming language like JavaScript makes it easy to call a function to handle an event,” he added.

The Firefly foursome used to work out of dorms and apartments but is moving into the offices of First Round Capital, although there are no plans to take venture funding yet.

To be sure, Firefly isn’t entering an empty stage. LogMeIn offers a popular screen charing application and Salesforce.com bought GoInstant a screen-sharing company in July for $70 million. But Salesforce is attacking big companies with a full array of analytics and other perks while Firefly focuses on customer service and might be more attractive to smaller companies. Whatever the competitive landscape,  I wouldn’t sell this team short. They show a remarkable maturity that complements their youthful exuberance. Asked if Firefly was seeking venture capital, Leahy was cautious.

“We want to get to free cash flow and get stable before thinking about raising money from outside. We want to make sure we can manage our own money first,” Leahy said.

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“One of the things that we’re most proud of is we’re now finally beating BitTorrent,” Hastings told AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher. Thanks to services like Netflix, Hastings said most Internet video is now paid for in the U.S. The hard part for content providers, he said, was coming up with a service good enough that people were willing to pay for, rather than just searching for free content on the Internet. Netflix has been able to provide that service by making its streaming videos available across a vast number of devices, and giving subscribers access to a wide range of library content for a relatively low price.

Netflix has also enabled content owners to make money on shows they previously weren’t monetizing. Hastings offered up Joss Whedon’s Firefly as one example of a series that had a rabid fan base that couldn’t find it under legal means prior to appearing on Netflix. At the same time, he quelled any rumors that the company could bring Firefly back from the dead.

“All of those actors are 10 years older and the sets are gone,” Hastings said about the show. But he added that before Netflix brought it online, Firefly wasn’t getting monetized and now Fox is getting paid for it.

One other way Netflix can provide value is in offering up prior seasons of shows that are still on the air. “Mostly what we’d like to do is prior seasons of big shows,” Hastings said, suggesting networks like Showtime and HBO as examples of networks that it would like to have those series from. “We’re trying to be a complement to their business… We do better on catalog content than anyone else. Then that generates demand for current seasons.”

Hastings gave Dexter as one example of a show that benefited from having early seasons available on Netflix. By doing so, viewers were able to tune in to prior episodes, building buzz and interest in new episodes when they air. While Netflix has managed to get some content providers on board with this line of thinking, others are more wary. Fox, for instance, recently licensed the first season of its hit show Glee to Netflix, but at the same time it’s seeing networks like Showtime pulling back episodes of shows like Californication from the streaming catalog.

Later in the interview, Hastings said HBO’s The Wire was the one show that he’d most like to add to Netflix’s streaming library. But it’s unlikely that The Wire — or any HBO show — will come to Netflix streaming anytime soon, as the premium cable network seems committed to driving pay TV subscriptions through its TV Everywhere initiative. “Their strategy is, if you want old HBO [shows], you subscribe to HBO and you have HBO Go,” Hastings said.

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The cause, in this case, is an interview with EW last week where Fillion said:

If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.

This quote, after making the rounds, was seized upon as a call to action by the industrious group now behind Help Nathan Buy Firefly, a fan campaign soliciting pledges from other Firefly aficionados to make the series without the involvement of Fox.

But leaving aside Fillion’s ongoing commitment to the ABC series Castle, and the fact that series creator Joss Whedon is busy directing The Avengers, and the fact that the California lottery is fickle with its winnings — it’s not going to happen.

Help Nathan Buy Firefly links to a post by Henry Jenkins doing math on what it would cost to create a new Firefly series using a direct-to-viewer subscription model based on the show’s original budget. If a million fans agreed to spend $40 for a 16-episode season, that would give Whedon $40 million to work with.

But the question isn’t whether Whedon fans would get behind a web-oriented project (ahem, Dr. Horrible), the question is whether or not the rights to Firefly will ever be for sale. As Entertainment Weekly points out, the rights to Terminator were available for $30 million, not $300 million — but rights holder Halcyon was in bankruptcy and in need of cash. Fox is currently doing just fine; even if Fillion really had $300 million to hand over, there’s no strong incentive to sell on the part of Fox.

TV and social media consultant Annie Stamell, who daily works with studios and individuals, offered her analysis in a phone interview: “It seems so outside of the realm of possibility. With the financing, paperwork and red tape necessary to get a deal like that to close, there are so many logistics to prevent forward momentum from happening.”

Ask CBS right now what it would have thought about an offer to buy the rights to Hawaii 5-O. Sure, ten years ago it was a dead franchise, but today, the reboot is one of television’s most popular shows. As long as success stories like that still exist, studios will always be reluctant to sell off intellectual property.

In fact, the story that got this all started — Firefly has been picked up for syndication on the Science Channel — is proof that there is yet more money Fox can make on Firefly, thus disincentivizing them to consider an offer from another company or individual.

That isn’t to say that things are completely impossible; fans of the show, through the purchase of DVDs, got one movie made, and have also engaged in projects like an unauthorized feature-length sequel to Serenity, Browncoats: Redemption. As Stamell pointed out, “Look at the history of Firefly. If there were any fandom that could make this happen, it would be this one.”

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International Battery is designing its Lithium Ion 6TLi Battery to be the same size as currently deployed lead-acid batteries so that soldiers can swap them out on location. The Oakland, N.J.-based company says its battery has four times the energy, half the weight, a significantly longer life and enhanced combat readiness as compared to the current lead-acid battery systems.

Meanwhile, Firefly Energy is using carbon foam to make more lightweight lead-acid batteries for use in military and commercial trucks. The batteries are for the military’s “Silent Watch” program, which allows reconnaissance vehicles to turn off their noisy engines and instead power sensor and communication arrays silently with on-board batteries. This is the fourth time the DoD has provided funds to Firefly, bringing the total received $12.75 million.

Both battery makers have considerable private capital. International Battery raised $25 million of financing from Digital Power Capital in 2007 to complete its manufacturing facility in Allentown, Penn. Meanwhile, Firefly has raised over $25 million in private funding from investors including Khosla Ventures, Quercus Trust and Infield Capital.

This is International Battery’s first contract with the DoD and the company says it’s currently making batteries for testing. Firefly Energy says it plans to start delivering batteries to the military by late 2009.

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China to Adjust Gas Prices to Avoid Slump: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said China would “take advantage of good timing” to adjust gas prices to better reflect global pricing. We guess “good timing” means “while everyone is distracted by that $586 billion stimulus package we gave out” – Bloomberg.

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Boeing and Air New Zealand Set for Biofuel Flight: The aircraft maker and airline have set December 3 as the date for their test of jatropha-based jet fuel in a 747 jetliner – Green Car Congress.

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The new investment comes with the disclosure that Quercus played a part in Firefly Energy’s $15 million Series C round of financing. We had reported the round last month when Khosla Ventures and Infield Capital were announced as new investors in the lead-acid battery startup. Today Quercus Trust was added as a leading investor in the round.

Firefly is a company developing cutting-edge lead-acid battery technology that was spun out of construction and mining equipment maker Caterpillar in 2003. Firefly says on its web site that it has developed a battery that is powerful and light enough to give the hybrid vehicle market a significant boost

The second tidbit of news we found by looking in the first quarter report of Quercus’s existing battery investment, Axion Power. In the report, Axion said it expects an additional commitment of $10 million from Quercus Trust by the end of June. Quercus had already invested $8 million and agreed to invest the additional $10 million, but a timeline was not given.

Axion needs the funds. The company, which develops advanced lead-carbon batteries, reported a net loss of $3 million for the first quarter of 2008. (Although, that wasn’t so bad compared to a net loss of $6.5 million for the first quarter of 2007.) The company says it will use the money to install a first-generation automated electrode fabrication line.

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…a next-generation social networking site where members can manage multiple profiles in one account. Members can separate their social, business and family relationships and keep control over their privacy.

I don’t think the company’s own description of MOLI does the service justice. The site targets both the individual user as well as small business owners and provides the tools to create multimedia, interactive, collaborative and commerce-driven sites.

While the company touts members’ ability to use different profiles to present to the public, to keep private or to hide from everyone except for other invited MOLI members, the really interesting thing about MOLI from a Web working standpoint is that you can easily create a variety of sites for a variety purposes such as:

1. Self-promoting – promoting your work in the form of a multimedia online resume and portfolio;

2. Collaborating – create a collaborative space for you, your colleagues, your clients and vendors i.e. an intranet;

3. Selling – build an online store easily and plug in commerce capabilities including art, photographs, music and other products and services;

4. Measuring - monitor traffic to your business site(s) and gain access to aggregated demographic and behavioral statistics from MOLI members who visit your site;

5. Networking – attract new customers or clients, and find MOLI members who may be your target market or good contacts for business networking;

6. Socializing – use the same tools to create similar sites and more social and entertainment oriented sites for your personal life apart from work – that are entirely separate.

The MOLI Services page is an example of the kind of services for fee site you can build. MOLI offers a variety of packages for their services including customer service and technical support; site design services; PR support; and data load services. They also offer co-branded and white-label community building options

Some of the tools and content you can add to your MOLI sites include:

• Multimedia albums
• Blogs
• RSS Feeds
• Calendars
• Message Boards
• Blankboards (whiteboards)
• Jukebox
• Games

Okay, the last one might not fit into a business site, but games are there as an option for your personal presence.

Some premium tools offered by MOLI include E-commerce functionality that can be added to member websites for $3.99 per month and ad-free sites for a monthly fee of $2.49.

Not every Web worker is a whiz at site building so having options for easy-to-use tools to get a quick presence or communications hub online for one’s projects can’t hurt. Like Webon, MOLI can even be a good starting point for low-budget clients who want a presence online but can’t pay you to set it up for them from scratch.

Never underestimate the power of DIY tools, especially those that incorporate the features that a site these days should no longer be without. I think MOLI is worth a look. If you find a great use for it in your day-to-day work, feel free to share that with us here.

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The Peoria, Ill.-based startup was spun out of construction and mining equipment maker Caterpillar in 2003 to develop better lead-acid battery technology for commercial and military use. The company previously raised $10 million from Caterpillar, Stark Capital, KB Partners, the Illinois Finance Authority and Tri-County Venture Capital Fund.

Firefly says on its web site that it has developed a battery that is powerful and light enough to give the hybrid vehicle market a significant boost. Given that Vinod Khosla has referred to hybrid vehicles as toys (OK, specifically parallel hybrids), this investment seems to represent a newer series of investments into electrified vehicles.

Firefly representative David Reiners tells us that the company is first focusing “on military and commercial trucking markets. So a discussion of applications of the company’s battery technology in the EV market would be premature.” Reiner was more eager to point out Firefly’s contribution to potentially “huge diesel fuel savings and cleaner air that next-generation batteries will produce as more states adopt strict anti-truck-engine-idling regulations.”

On that front, this summer, Firefly is launching its Oasis battery, which is designed to power the sleeper cab electronics of semis when the truck is idling. Currently these systems are usually powered by the diesel engine but new idling restrictions will tighten regulations on the emissions of parked big rigs.

But beyond big rigs, Firefly’s batteries, which the company says are lighter, cheaper, more rugged and more powerful than traditional lead acid batteries, could certainly find applications in the growing electric and hybrid world sometime soon. So, while Firefly seems a little coy about its passenger vehicle plans, the company is definitely a strong contender for upcoming battery contracts as car makers all over the world start putting more battery-powered vehicles on the road.

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Sakti3: Khosla’s web site calls Sakti3 a thin-film battery company (we hope that’s a placeholder name.) According to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation Sakti3 is developing “high-power batteries that will withstand the rigors of automotive use.” The technology for this process stemmed from research performed at the University of Michigan by the company’s CEO, Professor Ann Marie Sastry, says the MEDC article. MEDC cares because Sakti3 is spending $1 million on manufacturing the batteries in Ann Arbor, where Michigan hopes it will create 230 new jobs.

Firefly Energy: Not as under the radar as the other three, given the company was spun out of the R&D labs of Caterpillar in 2003. According to Firefly’s web site, CTO Kurt Kelley was in charge of trying to improve the life and efficiency of lead-acid batteries at Caterpillar when he came across a corrosive-resistant, more efficient “composite foam material” to replace the lead. Caterpillar spun out the startup and seeded it with money, and several years later it has landed in Khosla’s portfolio.

The company says it has “the first battery powerful and light enough to finally give the hybrid auto the power to take off with a huge share of the market.” Didn’t Khosla contend hybrids are toys? Firefly says their battery is better because it can be lighter, has a better energy density than the standard, works well in cold temperatures, and is a lower-cost option than other hybrid batteries like lithium ion and nickel metal hydride.

Ramu and Tula: OK, so we know very little about these two companies, only that Khosla’s portfolio describes Ramu as “a new design for electric motors” and Tula as “a digital processsor chip to improve mileage.” Vinod Khosla also briefly mentioned Tula at the Fortune Green conference a few weeks ago, citing it as an example of a new startup in the transportation space. Anyone know more about these ventures?

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To virtualize a computer means to section off an area of the hard drive and put a second, fully-functional operating system on it, essentially turning one computer into two.

OStatic looks at the various virtualization options.

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