Off-topic, but perhaps some might be interested.

Scott McCloud, I knew that name rang a bell.

What was going through my mind was some debate he had with Clay Shirky. Shirky said micropayments were doomed to failure (the mental energy deciding whether to spend $0.00138 costs more than the $0.00138) or The Wave Of The Future (Shirky's talking about crufty OLD micropayment systems, not spiffy modr'n NEW micropayment systems).

My recollection was that he'd personally launched one such system himself with, IIRC, webcomic access for a tiny sum as the killer app. On a few Google clicks, I refreshed that recollection and find yes, it was called BitPass, it was started in 2003, the reasons why it will succeed are explained in "Misunderstanding Micropayments: BitPass, Shirky and The Good Idea that Refuses to Die,"

http://www.scottmccloud.com/home/essays/2003-09-micros/micros.html

and my idle question, "So whatever happened?" is described at everyone's favorite reference site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitPass

Apparently it just expired recently.