On Mumbai tragedy, Twitter proves useful in its uselessness

11/28/08 2:17pm

Can't stand CNN? Don't want to keep Googling for news? Pop open a browser window and leave a Twitter search for "mumbai" running. People are posting photo links and group-sulking, rather than the usual sort of "if only they had used Twitter more in Mumbai, none of this would have happened" chatter. You can always go…

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Mahalo motormouth to launch mystery product in December

11/28/08 1:13pm

I'm taking guesses now. What's "Project A," the seekrit product being talked up by Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis on his private mailing list? A recap of recent events: He launched a human-powered news feed at a time most companies were planning layoffs. After that, he performed a layoff, then trolled for new…

Sometimes atoms are better than bits

11/28/08 1:08pm

"If you've ever tried to download a dildo, it probably didn't take you long to realize the futility of the task." — AVN blogger Tom Johansmeyer, on the resilience of sex toys and strip clubs to piracy.

Icahn buys more Yahoo shares, considers H-P exec for CEO gig

11/28/08 12:35pm

Jerry Yang's least favorite investor bought nearly seven million more shares of YHOO. BoomTown reporter Kara Swisher did my homework for me again: Todd Bradley, head of H-P's $28 billion Personal Systems group, has been added to the list of potential Yahoo CEOs. Just to keep things complicated, the board my appoint an…

Woman who hoaxed suicidal teen found guilty of three misdemeanors

11/26/08 5:02pm

Lori Drew (right), the 49-year-old Missouri mom who posed as a 16-year-old boy on MySpace, has been convicted of three misdemeanors, but no felonies, in the death of 13-year-old Megan Meier — a former "best friend" of Drew's own daughter Sarah — who committed suicide after being rejected by the fake boy. In short, the…

Which founders frolicked in Cancun while you cleaned out your desk?

11/26/08 12:53pm

Last weekend, around 60 entrepreneurs under age 35 flew to Cancun for a retreat informally dubbed Summit Series. CNET reporter Caroline McCarthy was one of the press attendees who agreed not to name names. Nice try. The list of attendees identified below includes Dave Morin from Facebook, Joe Green who roomed with…

Is the Demo conference still worth $18,500?

11/26/08 12:18pm

For nearly twenty years, the Demo conference has been considered the place to be for tech startups seeking attention for their new products. Instead of speeches, companies are required to give live demos of brand-new products, basically launching them onstage. Demo organizer Chris Shipley has a reputation for picking…

It's Wall Street Journal official: we're all gonna die

11/26/08 12:04pm

What little hope I had was crushed by the WSJ this morning. Under the non-alarmist headline, " Tech Shares May Fall Further," the lists every single reason the tech industry is screwed. If you can make it through the first fourteen stomach-churning paragraphs, there's this one ray of semi-hope:

New York Times lays off "Shifting Careers" columnist

11/26/08 11:49am

Marci Albother has written the Times' Shifting Careers column since 2007. Yesterday, the NYT allowed her to explain that . I was going to 100-word her long goodbye, but at AllThingsD is a better take on the situation at the . I'm so bummed about everything that I'm not even picking on AllThingsD today.

If only Yahoo would listen to Kara Swisher, she might stop emailing me

11/25/08 6:05pm

"Yahoo striking a Microsoft search deal first makes more sense" than closing a merger with AOL, writes overproductive BoomTown blogger Kara Swisher. Tracking the complicated, self-conflicting relationships between Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft and Google is like trying to read without a cheat sheet. Swisher's latest megapost…

It's New York Times official: e-commerce has shrunk

11/25/08 5:45pm

Brad Stone blogged the bad news: "During the first 23 days of November, according to a report to be released later on Tuesday by the research firm comScore, consumers spent $8.19 billion online, a 4 percent drop from the same period last year. That marks the first annual decline since e-commerce took off." You can…

You too can be a Crunchies Co-Host for $25,000

11/25/08 5:09pm

"Sure the economy is kicking the crap out of us," says the website for this years Crunchies awards for Web 2.0 startups, overseen by founder Mike Arrington. But don't let that stop you from spending $25,000 to be an official Co-Host for the event, a posh dress-up bash to be held at San Francisco's Herbst Theater in…

Zune-phone rumor refuses to die

11/25/08 3:43pm

The Inquirer is convinced that Microsoft will launch a Microsoft-branded Zune phone in February. Not some other brand's phone running Windows, but an actually iPhone-wannabe Microsoft Zune phone. The Inq cites a geek detail to make it real: The phone will use Nvidia's mobile CPU chip, not unlike this CNET handled.…

Technology Review editor still playing the might-be-gay angle

11/25/08 2:15pm

Jason Pontin just invited me to participate in a Facebook event called Vestival, which consists simply of everyone wearing a sweater vest on December 5th. Jason, Jason, Jason, first it was the , now a sweater vest. I know you're straight, but it's like you're in a closet — specifically, Owen Thomas's closet.

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Apple analyst gossip rollup

11/25/08 1:54pm

How to fill a slow holiday week for gossip about the Only Brand That Matters? Analyst firm Piper Jaffray has the cure: 12 unanswered questions about everything from Chinese iPhones (next year for sure) to netbooks (never, because "Apple doesn't do cheap.") Of course, the fun part about Apple predictions is they're…

eBay traffic gradually falling

11/25/08 1:34pm

I could spend all day unspinning Henry Blodget's hyperbolic headlines. " eBay Traffic Plummeting" actually means "eBay traffic gradually declining." Unique visitors for October were off 10 percent from a year ago. That's a much smaller slip than the traffic at my local Starbucks. But still, yeah, we're all gonna die.

Leah Culver has been wronged, totally wronged!

11/25/08 12:45pm

Pownce cutie-in-chief Leah Culver gets a lot of hate from Valley boys. Guys, don't hate her because she's beautiful. Love her because she suffers, just like you. First at the hands of a cheating man, second at the hands of the Valleywag scumbucket who posts her unpublished 2 A.M. tweet about it:

Henry Blodget wants you to think Eric Schmidt will quit

11/25/08 12:22pm

Two weeks after Valleywag stopped believing that President-for-Change Obama might steal Eric Schmidt from Google, Silicon Alley Insider editor Henry Blodget has weighed in with the same speculation. His bullet list of reasons Schmidt might quit isn't crazy, but here's the six-word version of Blodget's post: " " I have…

Bill Gates in Sweden for dirty old man Simonyi's wedding

11/24/08 5:06pm

Microsoft billionaire Charles Simonyi sure likes to live large. He's a space tourist! He dates ! No wait, 60-year-old Simonyi is now marrying 28-year-old Swedish socialite Lisa Persdotter! Let me guess: You don't want a photo of him. You want a photo of . Here you go...

Google to lay off 10,000?

11/24/08 3:55pm

"Up to 10,000 jobs could be on the chopping block according to sources," writes Daya Baran. Can I just say it? No. Google will not dump 10,000 of its roughly 30,000 workforce. "Sources" are wrong, although Baran's tales of Google shuffling its so-called temporary employees around to game SEC rules are true. Google's…