And Google wasn't even close to being the 'first' internet search engine. There are many more examples. Ideas count for very little- it's the execution that matters.
always been friends with all of my cofounders on facebook. actually, facebook doesn't even need to be in that sentence, we're just friends in general :P. don't see any reason why that shouldn't be the case.
I would _never_ do something like this, but then again I'm more stubborn than most people.
So yeah if you were me, which probably isn't the best decision, I would tell her if she wants to do all this crap then that's entirely her decision, and I'm sorry I have somewhat differing opinions than her on some issues, but you know what? welcome to the real world.
It really isn't very hard to get internet access outside the house nowadays, plenty of cafes around and you can get a cheap netbook on craigslist for like $200.
Seriously if she keeps doing crap like this it's only going to ruin your relationship and then when you're old enough you'll be gone and never talk to her again. You think that's what she wants after raising you all this time? Some people are just stupid.
But yeah- even barring the issue of the blog, I would despise myself if I ever let my parents just say crap like, "ok well... if you don't do what we say we're just going to take everything away because we can." I'm my own person and I wouldn't let people just control me like that. Again I would just tell her she can do whatever she wants to make herself feel all warm and snuggly at the end of the day but I'm not just going to blindly follow crap you say because you think you own me. If _you_ want to make the choice to start going down this road and deteriorating our relationship over something ridiculous, than that's entirely your decision. There are some things that you just need to learn to accept.
you're always free to _hire_ a web developer, people are definitely willing to work if you're paying them. Most people don't have the resources to do that at least initially, though, which is why it's usually hard to find good people to work for equity.
I would _love_ to be able to do this myself. Extensive travelling is actually probably one of my highest goals in life and being able to support myself as a developer through that would be _so_ awesome. Totally down for helping you build this network if you're lookin' for it and there's interest.
The two web frameworks I would most likely look into if RoR didn't exist would probably be Lift (http://liftweb.net) which uses scala, or node.js (which uses javascript.) Node.js has actually been on a rise (relatively) in terms of popularity. Your stack might look something like: