Valleywag, Silicon Valley's Tech Gossip Rag

Mysteries

Whatever happened to Amanda Congdon?

We are growing concerned. After her career as an ABC nonjournalist fizzled, the formerly famous, generously-racked host of Rocketboom has been absent from her own blog since November 27. An "under development "show with HBO has gone nowhere. On January 23, Congdon Twittered that she was "writing monster blog post reflecting on ABC and talking about what's next." Amanda, 28 days is more time than even Scoble puts into a post. Just press Publish, ok?

5:00 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY OWEN THOMAS
298 views, 3 comments

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College Humor and MTV make like Jake and Amir (14 comments), Digg CEO cracks under Valleywag pressure (8) and Gene Simmons lawyer confirms sex tape's authenticity (7).

5:00 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008

Dirk-Willem van Gulik

Ex-Joost CTO "an arrogant, condescending jerk," like most CTOs we know

Joost fired its former CTO, Dirk-Willem van Gulik, when it found out he was looking for a new job. Or he quit. Hard to tell. But according to a new tipster, one thing is clear: Many at Joost were glad to see him depart for a new job at the BBC. more »

4:40 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY NICHOLAS CARLSON
400 views, 3 comments

Your Privacy Is An Illusion

Gmail glitch leaves embassies unlocked in Kuwait

Kuwaiti Gmail user Abdulaziz Al-Shalabi inadvertently gained access to 30 other accounts over the weekend. Courteously, Al-Shalabi quit poking around others' inboxes after he got bored looking at "keycodes for some embassy gate" and usernames and passwords, he told News.com. Google flack Jason Freidenfelds blamed a local ISP for the security glitch. eBay accounts were exposed, too, but company flack Nichola Sharpe wants you to know: "It wasn't a major problem .. .not anything on a large scale." But you might want to doublecheck before shipping your Beanie Baby collection to the Middle East, just in case. (Photo by the illustrious untitled13)

4:20 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY NICHOLAS CARLSON
139 views, 1 comment

Latest by Benoit: I worked in Kuwait for over 3 months; the internet over there is not exactly the same internet. Kind of a distant retarded cousin. more »

Ashkan Karbasfrooshan

VCs fail because they are not this guy

Mojo Supreme President Ashkan Karbasfrooshan took pity on the rest of us yesterday and explained "Why Most VC-Backed, Ad-Supported Companies Are Doomed to Fail." "Because they are not Ashkan," is the 5-word version, but here's another 100, if you want more glorious detail. (Note to readers: Most startups fail because most startups fail. Nine out of ten VC-backed companies end ingloriously, industry lore has it; Sand Hill Road makes its money on the big hits.) more »

4:00 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY NICHOLAS CARLSON
349 views, 2 comments

Stats

Facebook and MySpace see drop in British users

Both MySpace and Facebook lost five percent of their traffic from December to January. Nielsen Online says Facebook lost 400,000 U.K. site visitors after 17 straight months of growth. "Most of the leading social networks are less popular in the U.K. than they were a year ago. It was inevitable that early growth rates couldn't be sustained and the larger networks have been plateauing over the last few months." (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

3:20 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY JORDAN GOLSON
171 views, Comment

Geek Love

Meghan Asha plays with toys not named Arrington

Meghan Asha -- the SIlicon Valley heiress who keeps TechCrunch's Michael Arrington as her on-again, off-again boy toy -- found a new dog to play with at yesterday's toy fair in New York. Improvements over Arrington: He can't talk, but he can wag his tail."Do you want a date?" Asha asks. "Do you want to come home with me? I would take really good care of you." Below, in another clip, Asha in a lurid threesome. more »

3:00 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY NICHOLAS CARLSON
1,323 views, 3 comments

Latest by Alaska Miller: there should be more focus on ijustine. i like her. more »

birthday wishes

Happy birthday, Kevin Rose!

Digg founder Kevin Rose turns 31 today. Google might think you're only 30, but we can do the math. Happy 31st, Kevin! We hope you find this post even more heartfelt than the 13 birthday wishes you got on Facebook -- oh, and Julia Allison says happy birthday, too. Now Kevin, I have a rich uncle who's looking to invest some money. Can you fill me in on Digg's secrets? (Photo by AP/San Diego Zoo)

2:40 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY JORDAN GOLSON
181 views, 2 comments

Geek Love

Ladies, want to date someone who thinks he's Mark Zuckerberg?

Did you know Mark Zuckerberg is 27, not 23; went to Stanford, not Harvard; lives in San Francisco, not Palo Alto; and sold a financial research firm? That's the story that Match.com user TheDayDreamr would have you believe. He's used several pictures of the Facebook founder to decorate his profile. Since Zuckerberg's mug has been on magazine newsstands from coast to coast, it's hard to imagine what TheDayDreamr is thinking. He claims to be a "young, successful man" who "decided to retire" after selling his company. If he's so clever, wouldn't he have picked a handsomer face to borrow? The full, faked profile: more »

2:20 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY OWEN THOMAS
513 views, 3 comments

Latest by scoobydoo: He should have used John Fitzgerald Page for his mugshot. more »

One of these things is not like the other

too insidery

Valleywag finally, finally dubbed "porno" site

WebProNews writer Jason Lee Miller has no problem with Melissa Gira Grant's awesome, awesome service journalism for underserved Valley boys. But he's taken aback by that Gene Simmons video. I wondered myself: Why is it on Valleywag? "The ecosystem that the Valley, from Google on down, has built," editor Owen Thomas replied, "enabled Simmons to bypass the traditional media and promote himself directly to fans." Translation: It was on the Internet!

2:00 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY PAUL BOUTIN
1,520 views, 5 comments

Great Moments In Pr

Dean Valentine introduces hilarious comedy site with even hilariouser press release

Nothing guarantees Web video viral success like a carefully worded press release. So look out for Comedy.com, people. Because -- hey now, hey now, cut it out -- founder and CEO Dean Valentine, the former president of defunct on-air laffs network UPN, has certainly got himself one of those. Wonka. Wonka. Wonka. Here's a zany video. more »

1:40 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY NICHOLAS CARLSON
467 views, 1 comment

MySpace to browbeat users with yet more music

The four major labels are now talking to News Corp. about its plans to launch a MySpace music service which would make music available via free digital streams, MP3 downloads and through subscription plans. What I want to know: How much do I pay to stop MySpace from playing music every time I land on a page? [Sydney Morning Herald]

Comment

Patricia Handschiegel

VentureBeat snags StyleDiary founder

Valleywag commentrix patricia2, aka StyleDiary founder Patricia Handschiegel, sent a long email to advisors that included this news: "I've started to work with VentureBeat as a contributing writer covering the convergence of media, entertainment and the web once a week." How about a few founder fashion makeovers? You could call it Any Eye, Any Eye at All for the Straight Guy.

1:20 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY PAUL BOUTIN
287 views, 4 comments

Attorneys Gone Wild

Gene Simmons lawyer confirms sex tape's authenticity

When GenesSecret.com burst upon the scene on Tuesday, we questioned whether it really featured Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, or just a lookalike. The revolution of the gossip culture wrought by the Web has transformed the consumption of celebrity lives. Since Paris Hilton went exposed, we're awash in fake sex-tape videos. But Simmons's own lawyers have now confirmed that the video on GenesSecret.com is the real deal. The pantsless, T-shirt-wearing man in the video is in fact Simmons, in a cease-and-desist letter they sent to Valleywag. more »

1:00 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY OWEN THOMAS
25,946 views, 8 comments

Latest by smashface: I think the chick in the video is porn star Shawna Lenee. Not sure how I know that. more »

webtards

Parents Fight For 13-Year-Old's Right To Call Principal A Student-Raping Hitler Worshipper

FROM GAWKER.COM: Parodying a high school principal? Weak but understandable. Making a MySpace profile for him which reads "I like to give anal to the little boys at my school"? Less defensible and possibly libelous! more »

12:53 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY NICK DOUGLAS
3,548 views, 81 comments

Open Source

Microsoft buries programmers in 30,000 pages of documentation

To fend off European regulators, Microsoft has released 30,000 pages of documentation about its development practices. Company spokespeople insist the online reference library will make Microsoft more "open" -- a word used 17 times in the press release today as Microsoft complies with a ruling it fought tooth and nail. Amateurs. The White House would have cranked up the pagecount to at least 3 million. (Photo by AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

12:40 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY JORDAN GOLSON
581 views, 1 comment

Exclusive

Gaming Digg costs $300 million, or at least an offer

Acquiring Digg costs $300 million, we hear. Learning how to game the social new site, however, only costs the time to write an offer. At last night's Founders Club party in New York -- well-attended by executives from CBS, NBC, Disney, and IAC -- one media suit inadvertently confessed as much. "Digg traffic is crucial for us," this exec said. So his team called Digg to ask how it all works. What can they do to get more items on the front page? "And they just started giving us all this really detailed information we never expected," this exec was overhead saying. Like how to avoid triggering the algorithm's ire by not having everyone in the company Digg a story until after a certain amount of Diggs, he said. "Only later we realized -- oh yeah -- it's cause we're talking about buying them."

12:20 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY NICHOLAS CARLSON
878 views, 2 comments

Latest by godospoons: Once rotated 180 degrees, it would be clear that the once-predicted successor--"Digg with a third 'g'"--would be proudly funded by Mephistopheles Venture Partners LLC, with offices on Sand Hill Road and Winter Street. more »

Brazil, where hearts were something something June...

Valley Sex Legends

So I married a Stanford-brained escort

Stanford's new financial aid policy, had it gone into effect a bit sooner, might have killed the Valley's own Pretty Woman story: David Warthen, cofounder of Ask.com, married alleged Stanford Law escort Cristina "Brazil" Shultz just four months after Schultz's assets -- $61,000 in cash -- were seized by the government. From her postings on escort's clients' review boards, bragging of paying off student loans with her new night job, the IRS deduced she must have a lot of unpaid taxes: At $1,300 per two-hour "modeling" appointment, $5,000 for "overnight," and over 80 men claiming they'd been her clients -- hey, do the math. After becoming her husband, Warthen was able to convince the Feds that the money was a gift from him, meant as "a benefit for the both of them". Talk trash if you must, but since they likely met on the job, Warthen is telling the truth. Carry on, Jeeves! (Photo by RM Studios)

12:00 PM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY MELISSA GIRA GRANT
1,505 views, 7 comments

Latest by Alaska Miller: @Patricia2: have you met me? let's go out. more »

Jackpot

Jeff Bezos no longer owns 100 million shares of Amazon.com -- but then again, you never did

For the first time since 2004, Jeff Bezos has sold shares of Amazon.com. His $135 million sale brings his holdings down to a mere 99 million. In total, Bezos and other insiders have sold nearly 2 million shares of Amazon.com in just a few weeks. Profit-taking, since the stock is riding high? Or do they know something about Kindle sales that they haven't told us yet?

11:40 AM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY OWEN THOMAS
586 views, 1 comment

Distractions

Cthulhu Cthursday rises from the dead

I miss John Brownlee's deliciously twisted Table of Malcontents blog at Wired, with its weekly Cthulhu Cthursday post. So I was happy to find a Cthulhu reference in the enigmatic Perry Bible Fellowship comic strip this morning. It's not the funniest of the series, but hit the Random button on PBF's website a few dozen times and I promise you'll get no work done today. Ok, back to Owen's posts about Yahoo vice presidents you've never heard of, but now they're fired.

11:20 AM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY PAUL BOUTIN
436 views, 2 comments

Latest by Paul Boutin: John Brownlee now blogs at Ectoplasmosis. VUFW -- vaguely uncomfortable for work more »

Your Privacy Is An Illusion

Google Health trials finally launching

If you were worried about your privacy when Google read your Gmail to show relevant ads, you're really going to hate Google Health. The pilot program for Google Health will store the health records of 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic, a not-for-profit medical center. Each profile will include information about prescriptions, allergies and medical histories and will be accessed with a Google Account -- the same login used for all of Google's services, including Gmail. There's no word on when the project will open to a wider audience, but Marissa Mayer -- who replaced previous Google Health head Adam Bosworth -- says the project will launch in 2008. more »

11:20 AM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY JORDAN GOLSON
377 views, 5 comments

Latest by pseudonym: @scalawag: Not directly to your point, but still... + Watch video more »

valleywag calendar

GDC and Web 2.0 ... discuss!

The parties are sparse tonight, but the conversations are flowing at our other events. Vanity Fair is hosting a discussion of online activism followed by a screening of Chicago 10 at Sundance Kabuki Theaters. Snap Chat is talking social platforms at MySpace's new San Francisco office. Microsoft in Mountain View -- yes, Microsoft has offices here -- is hosting "Crossing the Chasm: Web 2.0 with Geoffrey Moore." The Game Developers Conference is hosting a last few parties at the W Hotel with GDC 2008 Suite Night.

Got something to add to the calendar? Send it to calendar@valleywag.com.

11:00 AM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY DIANNE DE GUZMAN
63 views, Comment

100-word version

Fake Larry Ellison to Steve Ballmer: The 100-word version

A MarketWatch reporter pens a faux-advice letter from sailing-obsessed takeover king Larry Ellison to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. It's far too long to read the whole thing, so I'll do the work for you. Here's the 100-word version:

I have to tell you Steve, I frankly think you show too much. Have you ever seen me jumping up and down in a monkey-dance, red-faced, out of breath, screaming, "I ... LOVE ... THIS ... COMPANY?" You need to be more Zen, cool, calm and collected, like ageless me.

10:40 AM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY JORDAN GOLSON
482 views, 1 comment

Latest by fishnec: Good choice of words. Now I want to know who did Larry's plastic surgery? more »

Apple

Linkin Park plays at SoHo Apple Store

So much for a "special event".Linkin Park played a short set at the SoHo Apple store last night. The show was taped for an exclusive iTunes release next month. It's possible that Apple bumped them from an actual secret event because of the leak, but unlikely. [Billboard]

10:23 AM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY JORDAN GOLSON
185 views, 1 comment

Digg

Jay Adelson actually a very nice guy

Digg CEO Jay Adelson just called to let Valleywag know that its recent Digg submission of our admittedly risqué Gene Simmons sex tape post got yanked because of complaints from Digg users, not the nefarious plottings of a secret Digg moderator. A veritable gentleman!

10:11 AM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY OWEN THOMAS
315 views, 1 comment

Jay Adelson

Digg CEO cracks under Valleywag pressure

At last night's Founders Club party in New York -- an event for the self-important and those of us who fight for invitations to honor them -- Digg CEO Jay Adelson finally cracked. "I remember when Valleywag and Digg used to have a good relationship," he told me. "What's happened?" Here's an idea, Jay. more »

10:02 AM ON THU FEB 21 2008
BY NICHOLAS CARLSON
2,506 views, 8 comments

Google finally announced AdSense for Video today. It's like all those text ads you see around the margins of your favorite blogs and typo-squatters' domain names, but instead of little boxes full of text, Google will use pop-up overlays on the bottom edge of YouTube videos, which you will promptly ignore while watching a squirrel catapult. [NewTeeVee]

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Valleywag team