Gawker
-
wtf
Bill Gates Unleashes Mosquito Swarm
TED, the annual gathering of the most pretentious people from the fields of technology, entertainment, and design, just got punk'd. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates released a swarm of mosquitos into the crowd. More »
142,643
98
By Owen ThomasComment by Niall Lynch: Well, anyone who uses M. Gates' products already knows he has no shortage of bugs to spread around. 8 Responses | Other threads
-
unconferences
TED's Chris Anderson invites Kevin Rose, assuring his conference's irrelevance
Has TED organizer Chris Anderson lost his senses? He has invited Digg founder Kevin Rose to TED 2009 — an honor Rose announced on Twitter in hackerspeak. (If you're a regular TED attendee, you may not know that "woot" is an exclamation of excitement; spelling it with numbers is supposed to make it more impressive.) With the arrival of Rose and teenage wantrepreneur Jessica Mah, more TED oldtimers are sure to flee the annual Valley-meets-Hollywood schmoozefest. More »
1,173
By Owen ThomasComment by JaggerMyster: TED just jumped the shark! Terrible... more » | Other threads
-
quotable
Why one guy fled TED
A 10-year veteran of the TED conference just told me he's not going back next year. "I'm tired of going into rooms to get berated that I'm not doing enough," he said. "Next year I'm just going to give $6,000 to starving kids in Africa instead."
1,532
By Owen ThomasComment by smashface: @Bobberly: Wow, Obama works in mysterious ways! more » | Other threads
-
rockets
BOOM! VC Steve Jurvetson talks about "the joy of rockets"
Steve Jurvetson, the venture capitalist behind Hotmail, loves to play with his rockets. (Specifically, Nazi-era replicas.) Here's a very short talk he gave at last year's TED conference about his weekend hobby. Memo to Chris Anderson: Next year, fewer "ideas," more rockets, please. More » -
call for help
After 17-year-old gets into TED, Michael Arrington now on suicide watch
Michael, listen to me. Don't do it. It's not worth it. Yes, you weren't invited to the TED conference. Yes, 17-year-old entrepreneur Jessica Mah, a 17-year-old best known for blogging about how she "sucks at running companies," is going to TED next year. But you still have so much to give us still. If not at TechCrunch, then another startup blog.
3,994
By Owen ThomasComment by matto: @jessicam: capex kills in hosting. try again? more » | Other threads
-
breakdowns
TED website makes its source code another idea worth spreading
The TED conference is over, leaving uninvited tech journalists with 51 weeks to find something else to complain about. Its favored attendees are no doubt reminiscing about rubbing shoulders with John Cusack, Jeff Bezos, and Marissa Mayer's boyfriend. But this year's TED left another memory — its website source code. 9rules cofounder Mike Rundle says the failure exposed a database password, among other things. A suggestion for TED organizer Chris Anderson: Instead of complaining about having your attendee list published, why not make sure your website is secure? -
trendsquatting
Why TED Sucks
TED is the Bono of conferences. (Except Bono wasn't even on this year's guest list.) The Technology Entertainment Design conference is so bold-name, so visionary that you have to like it, which is why you can so easily hate it. But in 2006, the conference awarded its annual $100,000 prize to a man named Larry Brilliant who's heading up Google's non-profit arm, and how do you top that? This year, B-list tech press have rejected the conference they were never invited to. But they really do have a point: More »
4,153
By Nick DouglasComment by meh_alert: Counterpoint: Larry Brilliant = actually brilliant. Michael Arrington = colossal douche. more » | Other threads
-
conflicts of interest
Why the TED list is troubling
Chris Anderson, the organizer of the TED conference, has complained, not to me, not to my boss, but to my boss's boss about our publishing the complete list of his 1,198 attendees. Anderson — not to be confused with the Chris Anderson who edits Wired — finds it "troubling." What we find troubling is the list itself. Fine, it's daubed with Hollywood starlets; they're part of the draw. But why is Zack Bogue, an undistinguished real-estate fund manager, there? Presumably because of his connection with Google's Marissa Mayer. But come on. According to San Francisco's infamous "Googirl" profile, the two aren't even officially dating. That's right: You can get into TED as someone's plus-one. More »
5,351
By Owen ThomasComment by GOODGolly: This posting is another example of how the blog world has been more about putting people down than anything else.... more » | Other threads
-
-
nerdfight
Cameron Diaz, Arianna Huffington, and the 1,196 other TED attendees Michael Arrington hates
TED, the schmoozeathon taking place in Monterey right now, prides itself on staying exclusive and bringing together only the best of Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and Manhattan. TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington is deeply unhappy that he's not invited. So much so that he staged a falling-out with Frenchepreneur Loic Le Meur, a gloating TED attendee. But he's really going to boil when he reads this: The complete list of TED's 1,198 attendees, each of whom he is now personally committed to hate. Arrington's new enemies list includes Al Gore, Amy Tan, Arianna Huffington, Ben Affleck, Cameron Diaz, Forest Whitaker, Isaac Mizrahi, Jeff Bezos, John Cusack, Maria Bartiromo, Marissa Mayer, Max Levchin, Meg Ryan, Peter Thiel, Roger McNamee, Si Newhouse IV, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Steve Case, Steve Wozniak, Thomas Dolby, Tim O'Reilly, and Will Smith. The rest are here.
4,402
By Owen ThomasComment by googoobaby: Why would you want to announce that you'd be attending anything with "Loic Le Meur"? It's like announcing that... more » | Other threads
-
leaks
The complete list of TED attendees
TED, an annual, star-studded group thumbsuck held in Monterey, Calif., bills itself as "Ideas Worth Spreading." Organizers don't think its attendee list is worth spreading. We were curious why, and got our hands on the complete list. Judge for yourself why they don't want you to see it: More »
20,888
By Owen ThomasComment by hatebook: what is this some kind of bilderberg for techno nerds? hmmm here's how we'll take over the world hhmmmmua hmmmmmmmua more » | Other threads
-
leaks
(continued from "The complete list of TED attendees")
-
nerdfight
Arrington and French pal in Twitter snit over TED
TechCrunch's Michael Arrington and Frenchman Loic Le Meur got into a 140-character Twitter war this afternoon. The topic? The TED conference and French military history. Arrington said TED is lame because he wasn't given a free pass: "I defame anything cool that ignores me, until it stops doing so. it's worked so far." Loic defended the conference: "TED is the best conference... Pay your tickets it's worth it!" Arrington and Loic then claim to "remove" each other from their friends lists and Arrington made some tired jokes about France's inability to win a war. More »
2,343
Comment by Robert Synnott: Bloody hell, Arrington just gets worse, doesn't he? more » | Other threads
-
mysteries
Philip Kaplan knows who runs TheFunded.com
The so-far anonymous creator of TheFunded.com, a message board which lets entrepreneurs rate venture capitalists, is going to unveil himself tonight at an event. New rumors continue to bubble up about who "Ted" might be, as the site's founder is known. One tipster suggested Philip "Pud" Kaplan, the founder of FuckedCompany and AdBrite. Nah — that's not Kaplan's style. When he does something, he signs his name to it. He's transparent, much like his shirt in the above picture. But we do hear that Kaplan knows the secretive entrepreneur's true identity.
744
By Owen ThomasComment by BadAdeo: It is amazing that while being paid and funded to run a company, he had the time to start and... more » | Other threads
-
conferences
Reclusive egghead conference now open to you
I hate conferences — boring masquerades whose true mission isn't collegial thinking, but business development and self-promotion. The exception is PopTech, a tiny get-together held in bucolic seaside Camden, Maine, each October at the height of the colorful autumn foliage season. Organizers Bob Metcalfe and John Sculley deliberately chose the location as the furthest possible spot from Silicon Valley's inbred excess. It's like a TED for New England-y wonks. Instead of PowerPoint or product demos, people who actually do stuff get up and present their ideas, often engaging in unscripted "gotcha" debates. This year the whole thing will be webcast live starting today at 9 a.m. Maine time. Valley snobs, wake up: Schoolkids in Maine now get free iBooks in seventh grade, thanks to former PopTech star Angus King. At this hour, they're already eating your lunch. -
venture capital
Kleiner searches for a little Google magic
VC blogger Paul Kedrosky points out that famed venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has revamped its website to highlight a search box squarely on its front page. This, of course, a mere eight years after it invested in Google. Kedrosky notes that there are no results returned for "business plan" — good luck searching your way into Kleiner's portfolio — but we noticed something else that struck us as amusing. While searching for mentions of Kleiner partner John Doerr's infamous, tear-drenched appearance at this year's TED conference, the result was topped off with a sponsored ad for Ted, United Airlines' low-cost carrier. Well, that's one way to boost the value of Kleiner's Google holdings. -
silicon valley users guide
Is TED worth $6,000?
PAUL BOUTIN — Conferences suck. They're staged, cynical events whose true goal is to separate self-important fools from their money. So why did next year's TED sell out before this year's show began? You'll hate the answer. More »
1,762
By Paul BoutinComment by diggal: If you dont have a few thousand dollars to attend the event, search for the speakers' presentations through PodZinger or... more » | Other threads
- 1
1-16 of 16 for "Valleywag, ted"
