GE owns vast rights of way for the electrical grid, which could potentially aid Google's efforts to build their own Internet backbone infrastructure — even over the transmission lines themselves. And of course, less demand for electricity combined with stable supply means cheaper juice for Google's giant datacenters. The real question is, what's in this for Immelt and GE? (Photos by AP/Phelan M. Ebenhack, Mark Lennihan)

LucasArts president Jim Ward surprised the developer on Monday with news that he was leaving the company he's been with for nearly ten years.

In a prepared statement sent to Kotaku shortly after we broke the news of his departure, Ward sang the praises of a game development company he says he's helped reboot.

"I am so proud of all people and the work we've done together at LucasArts over the last four years," he wrote. "It's been an incredible experience. Together we've rebooted the company and set LucasArts on a path to even greater success. This is a fantastic team and they are positioned for their best year ever."

Margaret Grohne, PR director for the game development arm of Lucas Films, said LucasArts found out about Ward's decision Monday evening.

"He told the company he was leaving for personal reasons and he didn't elaborate on that," she said. "He is leaving in a couple of weeks.

"We are starting a search for a new president and in the transition Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing, will be stepping in. He has been with the company for over 25 years and very intimately connected with the games business. "

Ward's departure, Grohne said, will not impact release dates or development schedules for any of LucasArts' games.

"We have a really strong line up for 08," she said. Ward "has a very strong team in place and he has set up a very strong company. He is leaving us in a very good place."

"We are sorry to see him go. He's been with the Lucas film organization for over 10 years and he has definitely contributed quite a bit to our organization."

Ward was scheduled to speak at next week's D.I.C.E. conference in a talk entitled "Breaking the Broken Model!", but LucasArts confirmed he will no longer be attending the event.

Joe Schoendorf: [Mr. Schoendorf is a venture capitalist with Accel Partners.] ...So we have to ask ourselves, 'Who's the next Intel; who's the next Apple; who's the next Google?'

John Doerr: [Mr. Doerr is a venture capitalist with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.] If you're saying a new player is going to displace Microsoft or Google in the next five years, I just don't see it. I think Google will be the next Google.

Just so you know? Doerr was one of the VCs who took Google public.

Steve Jurvetson: [Mr. Jurvetson is a venture capitalist with Draper Fisher Jurvetson.] Will there ever be a new Google?

Doerr: I hope so, but it might not be in information. It might be in entirely new fields.

Ann Winblad: [Ms. Winblad is a venture capitalist with Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.] Who's the new Sony?

Doerr: Samsung. It's already happened. Sony bought Samsung.

(Actually it didn't. Not even metaphorically.)

Winblad: So it's not Google?

Pardon, what? How does this even make...what?

After the jump, it just gets worse.

Moderator Tony Perkins speaks up:

Perkins: But Steve Jobs has been a pioneer in user interfaces. I project that in three to five years Apple's music distribution dominance via iTunes and the iPod will have faded; it will have become the fifth or sixth player.

Doerr: Uh, wait—because, because, because?

Perkins: You can make fun of me John—

Damn, I was supposed to get permission?

—but I say this because it's a closed, proprietary system, and what my kids want is to be able to download music and share it with friends. [boring stuff removed]

Doerr: But you're projecting that Steve and the team at Apple are not going to be smart enough over time to serve that market.

Perkins: Well, unless they adjust ...

Schoendorf: You're also assuming that everybody else is going to suddenly figure out that market, but there's no sign they've even started.

Perkins: Everybody's in the business.

It's then that Jurvetson requests a show of hands to counter Tony Perkins. Tony, ever the gentleman, tells his persecutors, "Okay, we'll see. We'll invite you guys back." That's right — those MC fees make all the abuse worth it, don't they, Tony?

Gluttons for punishment can hear ZDNet's podcast of the talk.

Finding the Next Google [AlwaysOn Network]

• Tonight: We'll have fun fun fun at the Wired Rave Awards (you're not invited), where winners include Steve Jobs (winner of the Steve Jobs award. I'm not making this up), local developer Jesse James Garrett (inventor of Ajax), Valleywag's big sister Lifehacker, and...drumroll...George Clooney! Granted, Clooney (pictured receiving a real award) didn't show for the TIME 100 ceremony, so Wired's chances are slim. And it may actually be boring. But we'll really have fun fun fun at the Rave Awards Afterparties (you're not invited), so I'll be at both to see how fast the Blizzard Entertaingment team (winners, Games category) get drunk.
• All this week: Wagging correspondent ConFonz will attend Sun's JavaOne Conference so you and I don't have to.
• Thursday morning: SVASE (the Silicon Valley Association of...something...Entrepreneurs) holds a VC Breakfast in a Sand Hill Road law office. Isn't this what Buck's is for?
• Thursday evening: Jeremy Pepper, Snacky or Flacky contestant (he lost), MCs a discussion of corporate blogging unplugged. Needed: photographer and gossipmonger. E-mail tips@valleywag.com.

• Friday and Saturday: TiECon 2006. From Indus Valley to Silicon Valley, the TiE Conference founders travelled to tomorrow's center of the universe to promote the entrepreneurial spirit. Hear from business heavyweights like investor John Doerr, statesman John Dean, and Japanese nicotine drink salesman Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Friday and Saturday: DCamp is another "unconference"! OH BOY.
• Friday: Chris Anderson, God's gift to Wired (source: Chris Anderson), talks about his book, The Long Tail.
• Saturday: It's like religion for smart people! There's an overflow room for the latecomers at the Singularity Summit at Stanford, where we'll all hear about the coming of the glorious millenium. Catch me there; I'll be checking my e-mail, so ping if you wanna meet up.
• Saturday: For those staying in the real world tomorrow, Meetro's holding a barbecue in Palo Alto.

Most of you should just turn away right now.

Yes, that's Tom Green crawling from his hole and, Coke bottle in hand, blinking at the largest audience he's had in years. "I used to be big," thinks Tom as he prepares to speak. "I used to be a star. Eating roadkill, filming classics like Stealing Harvard. Ah, the good old days of classy gigs..."

AOL blogging exec Jason Calacanis says something smug.

More coverage after the jump.

VC Jeff Clavier stops the conversation: "Wait, I really need to trip to some slow jams right now."

Valley flack Renee Blodgett couldn't attend, but she kindly sent a life-size cardboard cutout in her stead.

"Clearly, the reversal of the publishing paradigm forces a reanalysis of the wisdom of crowds vis-a-vis the niche market, and if we monetize...you're sleeping while standing, aren't you."

For hints of what actually went on (or at least a spin other than sour grapes), read:
Tony Perkins's insight: The 13-30 demographic is worth watching. Who knew? Tony Perkins opens the show [Down the Avenue]
Hollywood didn't tell Stowe Boyd anything new, but at least they're "clueful." OnHollywood: The Suits Are Clueful [/Message]
A VP from EMI says the industry's done suing and is now "monetizing" the Net. Good to hear that EMI is almost up to date. (According to calculations, they're now up to 1998.) Is the Web the new Hollywood? [ZDNet]
If the Web is the new Hollywood, why was Hollywood so bad at the web? A sketchy wifi setup hurt livebloggers and demoers. OnHollywood [Marketing Begins At Home]

One last blind item: Which attendee ended up passed out poolside last night?

Photos: Set: OnHollywood [Dan Farber on Flickr, CC]

Video (courtesy of David Weekly) by:
Ryanne Hodson [RyanEdit]
Jay Dedman [Momentshowing]

Earlier: Geeking out: Coding and condoms at SuperHappyDevHouse [Valleywag]

But then:

Dear Nick,

Google Press Day is an event for invited guests only and invitations are non-transferable. Thank you for your interest in Google, however, we're unable to extend you an invitation.

Best,
The Google Press Day Team

Yes, the Google Press Day Team blew me off. By name. Where's the love, guys? I thought we had something special!

So, Googlers, press contacts, anyone with Real Power, fight for Valleywag's right to party. Can anyone — John Battelle, if you're reading this, help a guy out — get Google to send Valleywag a press pass? Fake journalists are journalists too!

Last year's Press Day [Google Press Center]

This weekend, PBWiki founder and coder Dave Weekly hosted the ninth in his grand series of SuperHappyDevHouses (where guests have included the inventor of the mouse, and where each iteration is unpredictable, like a fractal and unlike a King of Queens episode).

SHDH is an irregularly scheduled weekend coding session in the Peninsula town of Hillsborough. It lasts all Saturday night, with some coders staying up til dawn. I was lucky enough to get stuck there overnight and witness the whole shebang, which everyone called the "most productive" devhouse, especially for its size.

These three hung out on the stairway for a few hours, like a very hot, female, Asian Cerberus. Actually, not like Cerberus at all.

Yes, Scott Beale and Neil Kumar heard your little "Two black guys and a white programmer walk into a bar" joke. No, the punchline was not appropriate at all.

Lest you think geeks don't have sex — that night netted not one but two condoms in the trashcan of the cramped downstairs (I think. Maybe the roomier upstairs) bathroom. Granted, only one is confirmed to have been used on a girl, but still, way to go, developers!

After the jump, things more boring than bathroom sex. But they are still good things.

Photos: SHDH 9 [Elea Chang on Flickr]
SuperHappyDevHouse [Official wiki]

Dave Weekly. Organizer. Man of mystery. Commie.

"I appreciate you trying to help, it's really cute. But let's face it, boys can't code."

Val Henson (above) whipped up a nifty app that combs SEC data for unlikely financial data. The tool compares a company's reported financial numbers to the actual distribution of normal financial data. Given enough data, the figures that skew wrong (Shell, which recently posted surprisingly low revenue after some government trouble, was the worst offender) were probably fudged.

Sunday morning, the overnighters (about a dozen guys) analyzed the night over brunch. "There weren't as many girls this time," said Technorati coder Tantek Celik. "There were more," someone replied. "You just didn't notice because they were actually coding."

• Saturday morning: Learn the 12-step plan for leaving the cubicle farm and running a startup at Startup School 2006 (Upcoming).
• Saturday night: Write the app the world needs at SuperHappyDevHouseNine (Upcoming).
• Sunday: Get some women at this weekend's taco fest (graphically coined by Min Jung Kim), Women 2.0 (Upcoming).
• Tuesday: Schmooze with the VCs at Draper Fisher Jurvetson's New Technology Meetup (Upcoming).
• Wednesday morning: ???
• Thursday: Profit!

They infested the Moscone center this week. Scuttling in sideways like lobsters, these cretins of sling were firing advertising schlock back and forth across the carpeted blue aisles. They are the all-consuming bottom feeders of the Internet. They are the advertising networks. And they blow whole fields of goats, yet leave them all strangely unsatisfied (Stolen).

The show floor was open until six, but by noon everyone was already hammered. These people are recovering from last night, and today they're just trying to forget what gauge buttplug their new best friend from DoubleClick can take. By 5, it was ugly. Boothes were being pulled down, a frenzy took place at booth 6166, where boxing tickets were being given out. None were left, and the knuckle-dragging BM's (Bachelors of Marketing) were punching each other's cocks over the final pair.

Oh dear god. It gets worse — textually NSFW, hide-it-from-the-boss worse — after the jump.

Brace yourself. This will sting a lot, and it'll leave you feeling full.

Because, everyone needs a date to the fist fest. And they were all looking to get laid tonight. If you can't find a wet hole after three days of monetizing blogs and exchanging PGP keys, you're obviously a n00b. Thursday, however, was the day of rest. The final day of drunkenness, with a smattering of parties in the alleyways.

And, finally, for anyone who couldn't get a wet hole all those other days of the show, the orgy at 111 Minna was the last chance. Admission was membership to the Ask advertising network, and the doorway was blocked off by 1000 pounds of suited, sweaty executives. Inside, it was all butter and crumpets and "How's your penis?" and "Would you like to snort coke off of my asscheeks?" The wine pourers were bare-assed naked and pissing in everyone's faces, while the VP's of marketing were shouting "I know a great bathroom stall!"

The wine wasn't bad, the schwag was shitty to non-existent (Fuck you too, Google), and the conference was iced with this overheard bit:

"I've never seen it this big before!" said the redhead as she peered inside the doorway of 111 Minna, obviously referring to the naked, fat mass of ad monkeys writhing in cooking oil.

"It was, BACK IN THE DAY BACK IN THE DAY!!!!" came the shouted response chorus from two white guys in suits, who got all black with it. These two later sucked each others cocks outside of the Thirsty Bear. Some pervert paid them $15 bucks to watch, but you could see it all for free from across the street.

Google's Santa Monica office is having an Open House monday night! Make sure you wear your best free tech company t-shirt, and sandals with white socks. Oh, did I say that out loud?
P.S. Open bar!

An open bar on Monday night? Man, why does L.A. get all the cool Googlers?

Actual quote from Mikey Sklar: "Here's the tool we used to inject the chip. I'll pass it around. PLEASE — don't — inject yourself with anything."

Then Craig Latta talked about interactive fiction meeting musical livecoding. Didn't stay for that (sorry, Craig), but I'm told it rocked. And finally, it was Open Dork time at the podium, which I also missed.

"And now I will inject this up my arm."

"No, it doesn't transform into a Corvette. I'm sorry. What do you want from me?"

After the jump, star photographer Jake Appelbaum can't stop leaving San Francisco.

Dorkbot SF [Official site]
Photos: Dorkbot SF [k0re on Flickr]

Jake Appelbaum stopped by during his final tour of San Fran. He also appeared on half the shirts in the audience.

Fleshbot's Violet Blue and Survival Research Labs' Karen Marcelo have found religion, and if you'd like to join them, they'll be recruiting at Fifth and Market every Wednesday.

After moving out of the city, the star hacker-photographer has come back twice already — not that you could pin the man to any one place, what with journalistic work in Iraq and aiding the Katrina relief effort in New Orleans. Well, every night now will be Jake's last night in town.

For a dramatic final exit, Jake ascended into the clouds as his disciples stood in awe.

Speakers include founder Bill Gates, CEO Steve Ballmer, camera-happy ad exec Donny Deutsch, and Jay-Z. Geez, to get higher bids, why not just headline Jay-Z and drop this boring Microsoft crap?

Microsoft MSN Strategic Account Summit [eBay]

In the chat after his Berkeley lecture ("The State of American Media") this week, Dan Rather talked to ZDNet journalist Steve Gillmor, who came with indie journalist (and ex-Mercury-News columnist) brother Dan Gillmor and Steve's look-alike friend, RSS czar Dave Winer. To save you from caption confusion, here's the breakdown:

Dan Rather: No longer American media. The warm voice and stern face of CBS News for over 20 years until citizen muckrakers brought him down.


Dan Gillmor: In the long tail of American media. Started citizen-journalism site Bayosphere, now part of East Coast operation Backfence. Calls Steve his older, wiser brother.


Steve Gillmor: Part of American media. Blogs for ZDNet. Calls Dan his little, smarter brother.


Dave Winer: The man behind the New American Media curtain. Invented a major form of RSS. One of the podcasting podfathers (it takes a village).


There! Now you won't be confused — unless you start reading their work.

Photos: donlbe and Dan Farber [Flickr]