It wasn't the interview with now-former CIO Douglas Merrill, which served to convince me that the Canadian-nice Merrill will get eaten alive by the music industry. It wasn't the moment when Jim Killeen of Cobe, Ireland, a Catholic priest, argues the Pope's position on human sexuality with Jim Killeen of Denver, Colorado, the swinger and self-described "tranny chaser."

It was a few minutes into the film when noted Scientologist and Earthlink founder Sky Dayton makes an incongruous appearance to muse on the business of moving bits. Later on, the filmmaker Killeen intereviews his schizophrenic brother and sister about their experiences with psychiatrists and the medications they're currently taking, proclaiming that he feels they'd be better off without psychiatric care. Finally he declares on camera that he's a Scientologist, confirming my suspicions based on Dayton's appearance and the anti-psychiatry agitprop.

But that's just a side note in a watchable and somewhat entertaining but otherwise forgettable documentary. The best moments are the man-on-the-street interviews where people from around the world describe their own experiences running a vanity search for their name on Google. But it doesn't succeed on the same, earnest level that 24 Hours on Craigslist did, probably because what it has in geographic scope it lacks in range of characters as subjects.

Yet the cost of dial-up continues to shrink, which means EarthLink can continue to squeeze its current customers for healthy profits, possibly for some time to come. It's not innovative, not sexy. It's not why founder Sky Dayton started the company; it's not a business plan anyone from the Valley would propose, or a job an engineer here would sign up for. SoMa Web designers are offended by the notion that anyone's still accessing their sites through a 56-Kbps modem. EarthLink is not following the set pattern: Set the world on fire, or flame out fast. For the Valley's groupthinkers, the fact that EarthLink still exists, collecting monthly checks, is an idea that must burn.

A company spokesperson says EarthLink remains behind Helio. But it only makes sense that EarthLink, having just laid off 900 employees of its own, might be looking to cash out its stake in Helio by finding a buyer. That would give EarthLink some immediate cash to shore up its operations, and spare it from making further investments in Helio; having put $220 million into Helio, its expected to sink another $100 million into the wireless carrier this year.

The only problem with this rumor: Having cut back on its municipal Wi-Fi efforts, if EarthLink pulls out of Helio, too, it will have precious few growth businesses with which to tantalize investors. Dayton, of course, will have a much more pressing problem: 600 mouths to feed.

Just heard that Tom Cruise just showed up at Helio (Sky Dayton's new wireless gig in LA) This was about 30 minutes ago.

As gleefully reported earlier, Earthlink founder Sky Dayton's been a longtime supper of the Scientology Kool-aid. When two high-level Church followers get this close, does the building become a conduit for Gozer the Destructor to unleash hell upon the world?

Earlier: Yahoo goes crazy for Cruise [Valleywag]
And: Auditing Sky Dayton [Valleywag]

dgdn knows a name like "Sky" should have been enough warning:

Its no secret that sky is a scientologist. I was an early employee at earthlink, and the entire company was scientologist and even freakier, they ran the company based on L Ron Hubbard's "Management Technology". Yes, we had to use scientologist phrases and frameworks to manage employees. They used to come around our desks once a week and we would have to show them our inboxes. Luckily, these days all of the email snooping can be done without employee involvement, so we don't have to be inconvenienced!

eknirb thought the first big browser disappeared with Marc Andreesen:

Netscape's still online?

Elton wants Sergey to take him shopping:

Well at least SOMEONE uses his credit card as Brin is so tight with money his butt squeaks. Hasnt he heard of the trickle down theory?

No love lost between Jason DeFilippo and Calacanis or Pirillo:

Why would anyone take Jason's challenge seriously when he failed to ever pay up on his last great challenge? As far as Pirillo goes he's just trying to pimp his latest scam to make money off the searches provided by the hard work of others without paying them a dime.

You want in? Jot pithy responses to Valleywag items and send to tips@valleywag.com with "Comments" as the subject.

Scientologists run a number of boarding schools around the country, including the prestigious Delphian School, in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, which counts Earthlink founder Sky Dayton among its graduates.

And, our reader gleefully points out, Sky has an incriminating L. Ron Hubbard quote on his Earthlink homepage. Looks like he's still in the church. Meanwhile, San Fran is looking to his ISP for its wifi blanket. Says the source, "Wonder if Gavin Newsom has met the guy through his new Thetan girlfriend?"

This is run-of-the-mill in Sky's home down in L.A. But you just don't find that in the Valley. At, say, Google, a Scientology habit wouldn't fly — it would conflict with the daily Est sessions.

Inside Scientology [Rolling Stone]
Sky Dayton [Earthlink]