I'm getting the distinct feeling that Feathercoin is a waste of time as far as alt-coins go. Anyone have any sort of opinions on that?
Agreed.
The only other coins (besides bitcoin, which wins by virtue of being older, proven, and noteworthy) worth the time IMHO are Litecoins, Namecoins, and Devcoins which each bring something special to the table. I see most other cryptos as cheap spinoffs doomed to fail.