really like it. i've wanted to do something like this myself for quite a while. one suggestion: your default avatars are going to alienate many non-techies ("what does that weird green and white pattern mean?"). IMHO, you'd be much better off going with a single default avatar that resembles a human (as facebook did).

i can promise you that if i showed your interface to my non-techie friends getting non-techie PhDs (a small but good market), they'd be freaked out by them. They are also distracting given the color palette of your interface.

i guess one final piece of feedback... perhaps lose the idea of a "strip" and call it something else. people don't like to learn new concepts :-)

don't mean to nitpick -- it really is a great launch product. congratulations on your beta!