Gawker
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sad
Abraham Biggs's webcam suicide note
On Wednesday, a 19-year-old young man in Florida killed himself live on the Internet, broadcasting the event by connecting a webcam in his bedroom to Justin.tv, a lifecasting site. Viewers who tuned in and egged Abraham Biggs on, presuming it was a prank, were shocked to see police arrive on the scene a few hours after Biggs stopped moving. What drives a teenager to swallow a bottle of pills on camera? "It's often rage against a loved one, turned inward," one white-smocked expert told me. Biggs's final post suggests rage against several loved ones, turned against himself in an attempt to forgive everyone. Why am I posting this? Because the kid was a good writer. He deserves the pageviews. Look how clearly and concisely he spelled out his worldview in a few sentences: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Incognito: Poor guy :( I hope the people that watched it learned a little bit more about human decency and compassion. 1 Responses | Other threads
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technologizer
OLPC repeats its mistakes with new "Give One, Get One" program
Once again, the One Laptop Per Child Foundation is offering two of its XO machines for $399. One goes to you, one goes to a third-world child. Technologizer editor Harry McCracken, the pathologically honest former head of PC World, bought into the program last year. This year, he says, he'll do it again, but he's not sure you should: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by startup_skeptic: maybe you would buy one for your child, nephew, niece? more » | Other threads
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John Roese
Nortel CTO's final blog post
"Sounds like they are preparing for a sale, not saving costs,” says the pullquoted analyst in the Wall Street Journal today. Nortel's 1,300 layoffs, at 18 percent of headcount, would seem pro forma if they didn't include CTO John Roese, whose blog documented the company's efforts to turn itself around. Roese typed up "My Final Blog Post" yesterday. As a going-away present, I've 100-worded his weepy-but-brave essay. His point becomes much more obvious: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by reddingofish: It is amazing how such a monolithic company can bleed out most of its employees and still complain that they... more » | Other threads
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richard stallman
OLPC teaches children to "smoke Windows"
Programmer Richard Stallman's 25-year crusade to banish proprietary software from planet Earth hasn't had many victories. Most recently, One Laptop Per Child stabbed RMS in the face by replacing its Stallman-approved freeware with a Windows operating system. OLPC head Nicholas Negroponte, who originally backed a free-software configuration, believes it's a necessary compromise to sell the low-price laptops in a Windows-centric world. Stallman's response compares Negroponte to a drug dealer handing out free samples at the playground. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Rachel Marsden: wow, when i looked up "hippie" in the dictionary, this guy's exact photo popped up 1 Responses | Other threads
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peter kafka
Lazy reporter crowdsources new column
Peter Kafka is Kara Swisher's latest star hire at AllThingsD. She stole him from Silicon Alley Insider, where he worked with Henry Blodget. At SAI, Kafka always seemed to do fine without invoking the wisdom of the crowd. Why is Kara pushing him to go on and on about nothing? His first post was the standard Web 2.0 "Hello, world." His second takes 400 words to restate its own headline. Peter, here's my first and last free rewrite. Give me credit for not saying "Kafka-esque." More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by ShyamalikaHespera: AllThingsD is a total sinkhole. All anybody does is spout idiotic commentary on there. Soon Peter will devolve to talking... 1 Responses | Other threads
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book review
Guy Kawasaki's new book — an excerpt from the foreword
Yesterday, as Web 2.0's bubble burst in slow motion at 30,000 feet over downtown San Francisco, I received a preview copy of Reality Check, by Guy Kawasaki. Someone had stuck a Post-it on the cover: "See inside for foreword by The Fake Steve Jobs!" Awesome. I'm never going to read Kawasaki's book, even though he's way more successful than I'll ever be. I skipped to Dan Lyons's foreword, written in his Fake Steve persona. Here's the best parts: More » -
eric schmidt
Google CEO auditions for America's CTO
The Wall Street Journal has an 800-word report this morning announcing Eric Schmdt's plans to "hit the campaign trail this week" for Barack Obama. Blah blah blah natural evolution, Google is officially neutral, "I'm doing this personally," says Schmidt, a week after self-appointed Internet Co-Founder Vint Cerf came out of his own Obama closet. What does Schmidt really want? It's buried at the end of the WSJ's report: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by macbeach: Which reminds me (haven't heard this tech czar concept mentioned lately as I guess I'm not listening to enough Obama... 2 Responses | Other threads
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search
Google gamed by small businesses
Search marketing icon Danny Sullivan recently moved back to his native Southern California after 12 years in a small English town. Yeah, we thought he was British, too. Sullivan documented several infuriating problems he hit trying to connect with local businesses through Google. One stands out, because it was caused by a local business with too much Web savvy, rather than not enough. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by dorian: Wait, how is this different from calling your company AAA Locksmith LLC to game the yellow pages? 1 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
How to blame VCs for the crash
"Venture Capitalists: Don't blame us" is the title of an 800-word essay at The Deal. This kind of headline always has an obvious, hidden meaning: Yes, VCs are to blame. Let's skip to the end and see how they did it: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Mouser_UK: I think ime with Mt buffet and lay the blame squarly of the Banks lending to shit risks more » | Other threads
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arianna huffington
Why the Huffington Post will never be Vogue
Most bloggers seem to be mentally competing with the newspaper media model of The New York Times. Were they to visit the average newspaper office, they'd quickly realize what they really want: A glamorous magazine job. That seems to be Arianna Huffington's thinking, too. Gawker writer Ryan Tate has a long, delicious post about Huffington's workplace quirks. But his kicker applies to any blogging biz: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by lottalance: stupid is as stupid blogs = the Huffington Post A nice little place to put so many self-important blow hards. ... more » | Other threads
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100-word version
Why Kleiner Perkins thinks green is the new black
The company that funded Netscape, Google and Genentech is now focusing on electric cars, solar power and biofuels. New York Times contributor Jon Gertner has been meeting with Kleiner partners since last year. His 8,000-word feature in Sunday's paper goes deep on details of a few KPCB investments such as Ausra. But it spends a lot of time framing the story for non-techies outside the Valley. Here's the Sand Hill Road edit: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by sample032: Outside of the Bay Area, people don't care how green a product makes them look as much as they care... 2 Responses | Other threads
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Nicholas Ciarelli
Apple no longer sues leakers, says Think Secret blogger
Nick dePlume, as the 13-year-old Nicholas Ciarelli dubbed himself in 1998, became more than Internet-famous as the target of an Apple lawsuit. Ciarelli had published leaked details about Apple's Mac Mini two weeks before the hush-hush product's launch. Apple strong-armed him to shut down Think Secret in February. Now, Cirarelli writes on former New Yorker editor Tina Brown's Daily Beast site, Nick's fellow Apple fanbloggers aren't getting legal threats from Apple for leaking the recent iPhone 3G and iPod Nano product updates. Why have Apple's lawyers gone silent? Ciarelli essay boils down to four reasons, bullet-listed here: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by PearlButeo: well, if everybody starts commenting then the very fun and secrecy behind the products will be lost isnt it .... more » | Other threads
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100-word version
Death of the database
PBS pundit Robert X. Cringely says he realized at last week's MIT Technology Review conference that cloud computing means, in short, "No database." Cringely sees it as the end of Oracle's dominance of information technology. I expect Oracle Cloud any day now. Here's a summary of Cringely's long article, plus the joke about Ellison's sex life, minus Cringely's references to himself: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by carlfish: Cringely needs a fact-checker who actually understands the technology he writes about, and can slap him over the head when... 2 Responses | Other threads
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Apple Users Held Hostage
Hong Kong's unlocked iPhones explained
"Hong Kong is now the one and only country in the world where you can buy an unlocked contract-free iPhone directly from the online Apple Store," writes John Gruber, aka Daring Fireball. He goes on to answer my plea for an explanation of Apple's motives. You can read his full-length post, or my 100-word edit: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by frederic: wrong link, I think for "You can read his full-length post" 1 Responses | Other threads
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silicon valley users guide
How to keep your company from looking stupid on Twitter
San Francisco-expat turned LA PR pro Jeremy Pepper wrote a long post documenting his exploration of Twitter as a company communications channel with the outside world. The advent of Twitter hasn't changed this much: I can still get paid to take a two page long, rambling essay by an expert and rewrite it to fit on a Post-It slapped to your monitor: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by TheDestructionator: Methinks being on Twitter would make one's company look stupid. 1 Responses | Other threads
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We Read the New York Times So You Don't Have To
Worried about Twitter? So was Socrates
Today in Twitter Journalism, it's our man at the Times, Damon Darlin. You've probably heard about, but haven't read, lovable IT crank Nick Carr's anti-Internet essay, "Is Google Making us Stupid?" Darlin helpfully pares Carr's 4,175-word article down to a single tweet. Then, contrary to what you'd expect from the Gray Lady's newsroom, he says there's a basic human fear over new communications technologies that goes all the way back to the original master of irony. We fed Darlin's essay into our shiny new 100-word-version machine: More »
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Comment by sample032: I don't agree that all these tools make it easier to think, but I do agree that they make it... 1 Responses | Other threads
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100-word version
Sex advice from MIT
Trust a campus reporter to get to the heart of the underloved MIT student body. The Tech's Christine Yu explains sex in a language those who need it most can relate to in a moment of crisis: introductory math and physics. You don't need to have gotten off or awkward in Cambridge's most notorious sub-basements to find a grain of truth in her advice. More »
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Comment by ThatKid: Her website: [nerdyandflirty.com] Looks like she's trying to cop the steez of that Asian sex columnist girl from Harvard. more » | Other threads
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silicon valley users guide
Instructions for coddling the antisocial genius in the next cubicle
Coders can be hard to get along with because they are geniuses with no time for people who do not help them solve the magnificent problems that occupy their magnificent minds. Or so explains one such a programmer on his blog, Learning Lisp. He writes that programmers need to be "steered" rather than "managed." They also need to be edited. Here's the post, cut from 2,200 words to just its most entertaining bits, below. More »
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Comment by ciscokidinsf: Whoa. I guess another programmer is looking for a legal argument in their defense of killing their boss. 2 Responses | Other threads
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100-word version
Mossberg's stunt double solves Windows Mobile's media problems
"A single tap on its surface instantly zooms in on images; a flicking gesture moves one photo off the screen and pulls another one on. Menus appear with clever animation, and actions like downloading and emailing photos and videos are intuitively incorporated." No, not the iPhone. It's the Kinoma player for Windows phones. WSJ contributor Katie Boehret solves all of Walt Mossberg's problems with this tidy report on using Kinoma to serve Flickr, YouTube, SHOUTcast and other services on a Windows phone. There's good news for Linux and Symbian fans too: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Tim Faulkner: "Kinoma Play is so well-designed that I wish it could entirely replace the dated Windows Mobile user interface, which still... more » | Other threads
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great moments in journalism
Reporters on reporters reporting with Twitter, the 140-character version
When there's no new story about Twitter and all of its users — this week anyway — what's left to say? Reporters, they Twitter just like us! Today's Washington Post rounds up journalists covering the Democratic National Convention with Twitter, like former Wonkette editor and Time.com blogger Ana Marie Cox and the Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar. (Who found her new boyfriend through Twitter, whee!) We boiled down the whole thing into only what's fit to Twitter itself. More » -
nerdfight
Why Ning axed a widgetmaker
Marc Andreessen's Ning is a platform for thousands of social networks. Mick Balaban and Spencer Forman's WidgetLaboratory builds and sells add-ons for operators of those social sites. Or did, until August 22. That's when Ning general counsel Robert Ghoorah wrote Forman to say that WidgetLaboratory would be booted from the site for breaking its rules. The charge: something about how their widgets "unduly degraded" the rest of Ning. Now, Forman's made that email — as well as 14 others between Forman, Ghoorah, and Ning CEO Gina Bianchini — available online. Trust us, you don't want to read them all. Here's the soap opera minus the froth: More »
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Comment by emnem: Newsflash to Kimjo: My "cock" had better be "small" - I am a woman, after all. What would you like... 1 Responses | Other threads
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100-word version
How to launch software
Fired Reddit cofounder and noted nontrepreneur Aaron Swartz says developers shouldn't roll out software with a Hollywood-style launch, as the rock-star coders at collaboration-software makers 37 Signals say. Swartz favors "the Gmail Launch," he writes on his blog, Raw Thought. The gist of his argument, below. More »
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Comment by Jeff Revesz: Regardless of the technical issues of whether or not you will receive a Slashdotting, I think he's spot on regarding... more » | Other threads
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the olds
A sneak peek at McCain's technology plan
The Wall Street Journal got an advance look at the Republican candidate's proposals for supporting U.S. technology. After picking through the article to figure out exactly where he stands on what, we gave it the 100-word treatment: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Shadowlayer: A lot of techies will end up voting for this french fries manufacturer... PS: I know he isnt the same McCain,... more » | Other threads
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techcrunch
Arrington to PR people: Please die
TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington's latest barbed-arrow barrage is aimed dead-center at the foreheads of the most annoying people in our inbox: The PR professionals who hawk startups. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by raincoaster: I just have to support this on general principles, especially since ghostblogging is very, very lucrative. more » | Other threads
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explainer
What's "follow spam" on Twitter?
I feel sorry for Twitter founder Ev Williams. The self-appointed A-listers who've flocked to his service are building an echo chamber worse than the blogosphere circa 1999. Today's pretend crisis: Williams has set an arbitrary limit that allows most Twitter users to follow no more than 2,000 other users' updates. The hip response is to claim that of course you need way more than that. But seriously, why would anyone try to follow 3,000 Twits? I've summarized Williams's lengthy post explaining the "follow spam" problem. He left out the part where it costs you money: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by MorvenErginus: Only in America.... they actually charge you to *receive* text messages? Gawd! That's ridiculous - no wonder you yanks always call!... more » | Other threads
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great moments in pr
Microsoft's comment on Yahoo, the 17-word version
We didn't even have to condense the latest statement Waggener Edstrom uberflack Frank Shaw sent on Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock's comments at today's shareholder meeting about Microsoft's botched negotiations to buy Yahoo: "Yahoo is attempting to rewrite history yet again with statements that are not supported by the facts.” The three-word version: "So's your mom."
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By Owen ThomasComment by Wabewalker: @aquafina: By not taking the high road. Getting involved with Yahoo was an understandable (and forgivable) mistake. When... more » | Other threads
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journalist math
Hipsters = hippies - subversion + Twitter
"Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization" is the new cover story from Adbusters. If you're not familiar, Adbusters is a fun, angry, Starbucks-hating publication whose credo states that we've all been brainwashed by advertising and mass media into an orgy of overconsumption that lets the American Empire destroy the rest of the world to feed our fat faces. I buy it at Whole Foods. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by giania: That AdBusters article was a total wank. All complaint and doom, no solutions or positive outlook even approached. It is... more » | Other threads
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eric schmidt
"We're smarter than ever" thanks to MTV, Google
Career crank Nicholas Carr's cover story for The Atlantic asks, "Is Google making us stupid?" Oh come on, Google chief Eric Schmidt told an AdAge-sponsored conference in New York. They said that about color TV forty years ago. You can watch Schmidt here, or you can pull up your pants and read Carr's 4,000-word feature. But more likely you'd prefer my 100-word excerpt: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by fishneversleep: The problem with summarizing 4000 words of bullshit into 100 words is when you're done it's still 100 words of... more » | Other threads
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geek love
Chris Messina and Tara Hunt: It's still a breakup even if no one blogs it
Web 2.0 wunderkinds Tara Hunt and Chris Messina hooked up, broke up, and now leave their company and a San Francisco magazine profile behind. Can Internet People run their relationships like their businesses?, we're meant to wonder, the tease of a question splayed out against the story's backdrop of conference-going glamor, multiblogged dates, and come-ons delivered in the form of schwag T-shirts. We 100-worded it so you can get back to Twittering about the lover you're not quite ready to leave yet: More »
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Comment by michaellamb: yeah sorry, your picture does that to people. Sorry for posting it. more » | Other threads
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jason calacanis
Your only hope is that Google will kill you last
Flaxen-locked funtrepreneur Jason Calacanis says Google has been a content company for a while now. With Knol, the Googlers plan to become the Internet's reference library rather than just its card catalog. I used the editorial equivalent of gzip to compress Calacanis's arguments down to 1/10 size. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Dror Poleg: @Dror Poleg: They only way they're (Microsoft AND Google) going to get really hurt is when a disruptive technology/model comes... more » | Other threads
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silicon valley users guide
10 questions to ask after getting a startup job offer
Twitter needs help staying up. Maybe that help is you! But before taking that job offer — or an offer from any startup — Venture Hacks has 10 questions you should ask. We've condensed their list down from 1,250 words to a version you can read comfortably on your iPhone 3G before your next interview, below. More »
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Comment by MagBas: "How much money do you have in the bank? How long will it last?" Wish I had asked that question before... more » | Other threads
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microsoft
Ballmer's reorg memo, the 100-word version
Did Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer really need 1,300 words to say the company has to do better against Apple and Google, with or without Yahoo? No, but he just can't help himself. A version you could get through before Microsoft's next reorg, below. More » -
100-word version
Why tech blogging sucks
We rarely miss a chance to pick on relentless egoblogger Robert Scoble. But today, RoboScoble is hurting, and his hurt hurts like our hurt. Only his hurt runs about 2,000 words longer. How has tech blogging failed Robert since the halcyon days of 2003? Here's the executive briefing: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by TechMeister: That's the funniest, saddest picture I've seen in a while... LOL... more » | Other threads
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100-word version
Kara Swisher on Kara Swisher (oh, and some guy named Jerry)
AllThingsD's Kara Swisher spends an epic 1,367 words on Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang's complete personality makeover — and her pivotal role therein. The key words: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by random_play: This sounds like the desperate last recording of the previous expedition crew who have all mysteriously disappeared, leaving their ship... more » | Other threads
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search
Why you don't get what you Googled for
Have you noticed that you don't always get the exact terms you searched for anymore on Google? Instead of oh-so-literal keyword matching and filters such as +site:valleywag.com, Google lines up a team of technologies that try to guess what you're really looking for. Information retrieval specialist Amit Singhal walked through them in a Google Blog post . I edited out 80 percent of the verbiage — mostly by deleting the term world class every time it popped up — and left in the technical parts. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Spy from the Land of Rainpeople: @ScalaWag: Those who tell don't know, those who know won't tell. I didn't want to insult anyone with my reference to... more » | Other threads
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developers, developers, developers
Widgetmaker: How not to get your app suspended from Facebook
Over the past month, Facebook has shown itself to have a quicker trigger when it comes to banning applications from its site for rule violations. It's part of the reason, observers say, that venture capital for Facebook-app startups is slowing down. The punished include apps from major developers RockYou and Slide. But they also include guys like developer Dan Abelon, who saw his popular SpeedDate widget booted from the platform for a couple hours earlier this month. Abelon told Inside Facebook what other application developers should do to make sure the same doesn't happen to them. The bullet points — which paint a picture of Facebook as a fairly ruthless enforcer — are below, trimmed to give widgetmakers more time to call those VCs who suddenly all seem to be on vacation all the time. More »
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Comment by ScalaWag: @Rachel Marsden: Very impressive stats you got [www.facebook.com] 0 daily active users0% of total Congrats on your mindblowing popularity! more » | Other threads
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100-word version
How Julia made Valleywag make Julia
Snake, meet tail. The voyeuristic ouroboros that is Julia Allison's love affair with Valleywag got even more play in her coveted Wired cover story than her own startup did. Don't let us waste your time when you could be hustling us for fame; here's the 100-word version of her "secrets" to self-promotion. More » -
silicon valley users guide
LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman needs Ted Dziuba's guide to weight loss
In today's Los Angeles Times, reporter Jessica Guynn calls LinkedIn founder, Facebook investor and PayPal veteran Reid Hoffman "Silicon Valley's biggest social networker." Guynn means that just the way you'd think, reporting that Hoffman gains about 10 pounds per year, refuses to see a trainer and "doesn't step on scales." Some might deem Guynn's language rude, but since Hoffman's unhealthy-seeming weight is exactly the kind of thing everyone in the Valley won't admit they talk about, we're rather glad she called attention to it. Fortunately for Hoffman, Persai cofounder Ted Dziuba is ready with an intervention. Lately, Dziuba's been writing servicey items about coder life on TedDziuba.com instead of eviscerating TechCrunch-covered startups on Uncov. A recent post is perfect for the rotund Hoffman. But at 725 words, "An engineer's guide to weight loss," the busy Hoffman will never take the time to read it. Below, a slimmer, 100-word version Hoffman can squeeze into his schedule. More »
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Comment by walliwag: That article was such a publicity stunt it made me feel greasy just reading it. Could it be any more... more » | Other threads
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google
Google's antitrust defense — the 100-word version
Google has come under increasing fire for a lack of transparency in how it does everything — from keeping porn off YouTube to calculating advertising rates to determining which search results go where. I may personally distrust the wise benevolence of markets, but information asymmetry is a time-tested business tactic. In an article comparing the applied economics of Microsoft in the PC era and Google in the Internet era, the New York Times gets more of the same blather from the Googleplex regarding the enigma wrapped inside a puzzle wrapped inside the algorithm from Hal Varian, Google's in-house rent-a-quote economics guru: More »
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By Jackson WestComment by internetlawattorney: wish i knew how the hell my adwords rates were calculated. i have no clue why i might be charged... more » | Other threads
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100-word version
Boing Boing's unapologetic eleventh-hour apologia
Boing Boing's readers, hopped up on free-speech rhetoric, continue to find the tech-culture blog's act of unpublishing unspeakable. Hoping to put the Internet's most enduring drama llama this month to bed, the Los Angeles Times rounded up four members of Boing Boing's staff yesterday for a late-night confab. The result is transcribed here and there, but for those about to launch into a three-day weekend, we salute you with only the most wonderful bits, perfect for around-the-barbeque reblogging. It is at once brilliant and brain-numbing in its inconclusiveness. But if the answer to bad speech is more speech, why not answer an act of unpublishing with more nonwords? More »
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Comment by drinkwater: I can't help but ponder what the internet would be shaped like if it was founded in some place like... more » | Other threads
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Transformers blows up this weekend. Need to know more? io9 gets down and dirty with the superbots.
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