British writer and analyst Charles Leadbeater, and researcher Annika Wong, have put together a report called Cloud Culture to be published by the British Council next year. Their statistical study, provided to me by Leadbeater, is based on figures from the social media analytics company Sysomos. It shows that such a tiny proportion of Iranians are on Twitter that any stories about a new movement based on the social network are meaningless. The figure they provide, by they way, includes the thousands of foreigners who changed their Twitter location to Tehran when the 'Iranian internet revolution' story struck after the elections in June and Facebook and Twitter were afire with Iran sentiment. So the likely figure is even lower.

The report adds that only one third of Iranians have internet access at all. And because opposition supporters are young, and on the internet, and Ahmadinejad supporters tend to be older and rural, the picture on the ground is likely skewed by any analysis that relies on tweets.

Leadbeater and Wong also compile a series of hyperbolic quotes from a variety of media sources at the time of the protests:

• "Twitter has become a key information conduit as the authorities in Tehran have cracked down on reporting by traditional media." Chris Nuttall and Daniel Dombey, Financial Times.
• "After disputed election results and massive street demonstrations in Tehran, Iran, information is flooding out of the country – on Twitter." Ashley Terry, Global News.
• "This is it. The big one." Clay Shirky of NYU.
• "We've been struck by the amount of video and eyewitness testimony... The days when regimes can control the flow of information are over." Jon Williams, BBC World News editor.

The meme was just too tempting, it seems, for anyone to dig into its veracity. The media — this site included — loves to write about Twitter, and loved doing so even more in summer when it was even newer and shiner. The storyline also fit the fact that Iran is a young country, and chimed with the heartbreaking YouTube video of the shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan.

The solidarity that thousands, even millions of Americans showed with the people of Iran during June's elections and the subsequent protests was admirable. It was also potentially dangerous. I was at the UN protests against President Ahmadinejad earlier this fall. Several young men were wearing dust masks they had purchased from hardware stores. I asked one why. "I am wearing it because I have to go back to Iran," said a softly-spoken and shy 28-year-old student who gave his name only as Mohammed. "I return next year and this is for safety, in case they are watching," he added, pointing to his mask. "It could be the best $3 I ever spend."

If Mohammed is picked up despite his dust mask, the fact that the protests in Tehran were partly fomented by Western support based on a false story about Twitter will be of no consolation. It's probably not much comfort to these people either.

Blame this altogether more sinister portrait of Decker as narcotized, philandering spy on her increasingly messy divorce, which involves a custody battle over her children. The accusations are mentioned in a September 29 letter we've obtained, sent to Decker's legal team from the San Francisco attorneys representing her husband (Click here to read the eight-page letter) .

Notice of the breakup first surfaced nearly two years ago. There didn't seem much reason to believe the parting was especially bitter. Though Decker led a series of power grabs at Yahoo, elevating herself from CFO to president and would-be CEO, her divorce generated little such noise. Divorcing couples tend to fight over money, but in April 2008 it emerged that Decker's husband Michael Dovey was not seeking alimony; he told people he was independently wealthy.

But an increasingly contentious court battle has nevertheless erupted, judging from the September 29 letter. The attorney for Dovey references hearings and letters attempting to resolve how to handle discovery, the early legal phase in which evidence is collected.

Dovey's legal team is using discovery, in part, to collect evidence concerning Decker's purported and unspecified "accusations about" her husband — including personal emails Decker may have sent referencing his conduct, "state of mind and/or mental or physical well being," according to the letter.

Some of this material may reside on old Yahoo computers, and Decker's legal team is trying to win the ability to selectively block the disclosure to Dovey's legal team of evidence as it emerges, according to the letter. Dovey's team wants much more: all potential evidence not protected by attorney-client privilege or "attorney work product protection," with particularly sensitive material handed over and protected by a confidentiality agreement.

Near the conclusion of the letter, Dovey's attorneys hint at what else they might be looking for in discovery — and what else Decker's attorneys might be trying to keep a lid on:

These sorts of allegations are relatively common in nasty divorces and custody battles and Decker, for many years a fixture of Yahoo's quarterly conference calls with stock analysts, knows how to mount a strong defense in the bright glare of the public spotlight. Still, a woman who quit Yahoo in January and just bought a waterfront home in the San Francisco Bay Area's quiet Marin County can't be happy to be caught in such a maelstrom of mudslinging. Nor, one would venture, can her former colleagues.

We've posted the full eight-page letter here.

Update: Richard Rados, who wrote the letter, declined to comment on the divorce because of "pending litigation" and added, "I don't want to contribute to ill will between" the parties involved. We left a message for Jennifer Wald, Decker's attorney, and will include any comment when/if she gets back to us.

(Top pic: Decker at an "All Hands" company meeting last year. From Yahoo Blog's Flickr account.)

I was driving, and swerved a little bit, even though both hands were on the wheel. Someone honked at me.

"What was that?" 

They repeated themselves.

I switched on Bluetooth and pulled over to the side of the road to hear the story. You see, earlier in the day I'd given my phone number out to someone who sent me a cryptic email wanting to talk Apple. This must have been them. (Later on I verified to a high level of certainty that they were in the position to have access to the information and after talking to them for over an hour, I believe them to the same level of certainty.)

"The device, which I've held mock ups of, is going to have a 10 inch screen, and when I saw it looked just like a giant iPhone, with a black back— although that design could change at any time" they said, "with the same black resin back, and the familiar home button." That's obvious.

"But it will come in two editions, one with a webcam and one for educational use."  

Educational use?

They continued to explain the device as something that would sit between an iPod/iPhone and a MacBook, and would cost $700 to $900—"More than twice as much as a netbook," they said.

To make up for that cost and make the device more than just a big iPod there was, this person claimed, there was talk of making the device act as a secondary screen/touchpad for iMacs and MacBooks, much like a few of the USB screens that have come out in recent months from Chinese companies. Very interesting.

They went on to say that although the project has been going on under various names between four and six years, the first prototype was built around the end of 2008. Adding, "The time to market from first prototype is generally 6-9 months." That would place the device's release date in this holiday season, at earliest. (Update: Added, at earliest in light of John Gruber and Jim Dalrymple beliefs that the date is further out, however. Dates are easy to push out.) They then said, "There was a question of what OS the device would run, too." (Other people I've talked to have implied this remains a huge secret. Update: in variation. Obviously, it'll be OS X.)

My call dropped on some windy road off Skyline Drive. Fucking AT&T.

Later, I asked, was there a code name for the project?

"Yes...[redacted]." 

I thought about it for a second, googled the term, and it all made sense. 

"Don't publish that name, please," they requested.

Don't worry, I won't.

Thiel's Clarium Capital was gutted during the financial meltdown last year. This year has been slightly kinder; Clarium fell just 1.7 percent January through May as the S&P 500 gained as much. Last month, Clarium fell 1.4 percent even as the S&P rallied, rising 4 percent. (See fund report below.)

No gain means no money for Clarium; the fund reportedly derives its fees only from earnings, rather than as a percentage of assets.

That might explain Thiel's sour comments at a recent Wall Street conference, where minutes (left) reveal the Facebook investor declared major research "to be fraud" and described the "tech boom of the late 1990s as fraud." Does this mean Thiel will refund the fortune he made selling PayPal, which made its name during said boom?

Thiel also apparently "discussed large-cap tech names in a pejorative manor [sic], stating that betting on established technology companies like Cisco, Microsoft and Intel is a bet on no innovation."

"He thinks we should be looking for companies that are truly innovating, of which there are only a handful."

Presumably, only Thiel knows who the truly innovative companies are. Too bad he's not been able to translate that knowledge into cash lately.

(Top pic: Steve Maller for TechCrunch 50)

In 2007, Facebook was the hot startup where everyone wanted to work, able to steal engineers away from the then-golden Google. Now, in 2009, it's become a company of close to 1,000 employees where more and more, people are eyeing the exits, wondering how they can escape the tyrannical whims of 24-year-old CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his tormented lieutenants. Netanel "Net" Jacobsson is just the latest to make his way out the door.

And he won't be the last: We hear that Charlie Cheever, a Facebook developer who's in Zuckerberg's inner circle, is also planning to leave soon.

Jacobsson was a director of business development at Facebook. Was, as confirmed by his bio on Twitter ("Fmr. Facebook director") and a message on the microblogging service.
Facebook PR is said to be eager to hush up Jacobsson's departure, following a series of exits over the last half-year of vital behind-the-scenes players: the loss of Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz; the contentious firing of platform director Ben Ling; and the deeply hushed-up departure of top designer Katie Geminder, who, it's rumored, was ill-treated by Zuckerberg himself. Moskovitz has a startup, Ling has returned to Google, and Geminder, now works for another Facebook refugee, former COO Owen Van Natta, at his Project Playlist startup.

We hear that Jacobsson's nemesis was his boss, VP Dan Rose, who's already famous for his ill treatment of another underling, Tim Kendall. Our tipster reports:

Lots of wrangling with Dan Rose. The story is very ugly. Dan said lots of inappropriate things to Net and has treated him very poorly, much worse than what he said to Kendall.

Net sent mail to folks today letting people know that he's leaving. Facebook is trying to keep it hush hush given the long series of departures. Wouldn't be surprised if Facebook tries to spin it.

Can't believe the number of enemies Facebook is making!

The problem for Facebook: Like a freshly signed-up user, Facebook is in desperate need of friends. It is constantly redesigning its service in an effort to find some lucrative new way of placing ads in its users' streams of pokes, photos, and Wall posts. And to make friends with businesses, it needs plugged-in glad-handers like Jacobsson.

And it's not like Zuckerberg is doing much to lighten the mood. We hear he threatened to fire his current COO, Sheryl Sandberg, in an argument about the controversial recent revision of Facebook's terms of service. He has a habit of running through confidantes quickly, which may explain Cheever's plans to leave.

It's the ultimate irony of Facebook: The company that aspires to connect the entire world can't keep a handful of key executives linked together.

If so, Microsoft may have gotten Yahoo's search business on the cheap. Our tipster writes:

Today is the end for Yahoo Search. Sean Suchter just left for Microsoft. Everyone in the office is shocked. I've been on the Yahoo Search team for a while and he is the one key executive that it all depends on. If Microsoft has convinced him to leave and join them, they won't need to buy Yahoo Search. We will just all join Microsoft anyway. I am definitely going to send him my resume.

Rumor has it that Yahoo already lost a search executive, Qi Lu, to Microsoft; but Suchter commanded the loyalty of many within Yahoo's search group. These names may not mean much to anyone outside engineering circles in Silicon Valley, but they amount to this: If Microsoft has recruited Suchter, it has gotten the heart of Yahoo's search technology without the fuss of actually buying it.

That will please many on Wall Street who want Yahoo to get out of search; the company could save billions of dollars a year in expenses by dropping the business altogether, and serving up search results from Microsoft or Google's index of the Web instead, as sites like Facebook and AOL.com do today. Yang had an expansive vision of Yahoo as a one-stop shop for advertisers where they could buy both search and banner ads. But he dealt the image of Yahoo's search a blow when he tried to do a deal with Google to have the search giant sell some of the ads that appear on Yahoo's search results. Regulators in D.C. blocked the deal, but the damage was done.

Engineers like to be on a winning team — or at least one that's fighting the good fight. Microsoft may be an underdog in Web search, with a pitiable market share which keeps shrinking, but its top executives are obsessed with beating Google — and they seem more secure in their offices than Yang. Microsoft still has an unsavory image in Silicon Valley, but for coders who have been dealt a drubbing for years by Google, it's an adequate revenge vehicle.

Here's the memo on Suchter's departure:

From: Tuoc Luong
Date: 11/18/08 3:43 PM
To: Yahoo Search Team

Hi Everyone,

Unfortunately, I have to give some bad news to you. Sean Suchter has resigned. Sean’s last day will be December 19th.

Some of you will find this news shocking given that Sean has been a Gibraltar rock at Yahoo and in particular for the Search team. . I understand this.

I will point out that we’re on a good trajectory. We’ve released some good products and capabilities and the industry is beginning to take notice. We’ve closed the gap in Algo relevance and making great strides in building the next generation differentiated search experience and step function in relevance – not to mention infrastructure overhaul that prepares us for the future.

I came here to take on Google because I believe Yahoo above all is best positioned to take the battle to Google. I think we’re on the right path to changing the tide and would love to see everyone make the journey but I respect Sean’s personal decision. I’m committed to continue the battle against Google as long as Yahoo positions Search to be competitive (and I believe we are). I hope each and all of you feel the same way and stand with me to battle Google.

I’ve asked Arnab to step up and take over Sean’s role as head of YST. Just as Sean has been a strong arm for me, Arnab has been a strong arm for Sean. Although Sean casts a large shadow, I believe Arnab will step up to fill the hole with your support. Arnab will cast his own shadow as the new leader of YST and it’s the same YST team that has deliver great products like Search Assist, Secure Scan, SearchMonkey, BOSS, numerous MLR and QRW release to close the GAP in core relevance.

Sean and Arnab have been communicating to the YST leaders about the changes. Arnab has been thinking and discussing the new organization with people. He will send out an e-mail describing his organizational thoughts and plan for YST soon. I believe with the support of other leaders (myself, Bharat, Yongdong, Nam, ..etc), Arnab will fill the void and continue the battle with Google. I urge everyone to support Arnab in his new endeavor.

Tomorrow, I’ll be holding an all managers meeting to discuss the changes and Q&As.

Please wish Sean the best in his future endeavor and congratulate Arnab in his new role.

Thanks

Tuoc

(Image via donquijote.cc)

Ok, sad thing first: a good Samaritan reset the password and tried to alert Sarah. But he also posted the new password, causing multiple people to try to log in at once, freezing the account for 24 hours. And now, the account has been deleted! Which is, as we said, maybe destruction of evidence? So for now this is, we think, all we'll get to see from this email account (if anyone finds evidence of saved emails, let us know.)

The full timeline of events, with corroborating evidence of the legitimacy of these screengrabs, is here. Here's why it all looks convincing:

• The emails to Ivy Frye, a Palin aide who's mentioned in the earlier email stories specifically wondering how best to hide her correspondence with the governor.
• The attached contact list (below) features an email address for husband Todd Palin that is legit. As well as an apparently genuine phone number for Bristol Palin and an address for Beth Leschper, Palin's deputy communications director.
• The email from Amy McCorkell, a known associate of Palin's from Wasilla who might have the governor's personal email address.
• Emails to and from Lt Governor Sean Parnell about a local radio talk host.
• Calls to the phone number listed for Bristol Palin apparently go to her voicemail.
• The public profile for the gov.palin address dates its last update to April of this year—well before she became McCain's running mate. So if it's a hoax, it's a hoax that began long before anyone outside of Alaska cared about Palin.
• We haven't seen these family photos before. Have we?
• The previously accessible public profiles for gov.sarah@yahoo and gov.palin@yahoo were both deleted at the same time.

Here are the screenshots of the emails saved before the account went dark, along with the contact list. It's newsworthy and we will not be taking it down!

CONTACT LIST

Beth Leschper (Beth Leschper SOA) [Edit]
beth.leschper@alaska.gov
Blanche Kallstrom (Blanche) [Edit]
mbkrdk@starband.net
Bristol Palin (Bristol) [Edit]
bristol_palin@hotmail.com
Chuck Heath (Chuck) [Edit]
chckheath@yahoo.com
fek9wnr@yahoo.com (Todd) [Edit]
fek9wnr@yahoo.com
ftb907@yahoo.com (Frank) [Edit]
ftb907@yahoo.com
Heather Bruce (Heather) [Edit]
khbruce@gci.net
ivy.frye@alaska.gov (Ivy SOA) [Edit]
ivy.frye@alaska.gov
ivyfrye@yahoo.com (Ivy Personal) [Edit]
ivyfrye@yahoo.com
Judy Patrick (Judy Patrick) [Edit]
jpphoto@mtaonline.net
kris.perry@alaska.gov (Kris Perry SOA) [Edit]
kris.perry@alaska.gov
krisandclark@yahoo.com (Kris Personal) [Edit]
krisandclark@yahoo.com
paymckhea@yahoo.com (Molly) [Edit]
paymckhea@yahoo.com
Roseanne Hughes (Roseanne Hughes SOA) [Edit]
roseanne.hughes@alaska.gov
Sally Heath (Mom) [Edit]
salheath@mtaonline.net
Sean Parnell (Sean Personal) [Edit]
sparnell@alaska.com
Sharon Leighow (Sharon SOA) [Edit]
sharon.leighow@alaska.gov
Sleighow@aol.com (Sharon Leighow Personal) [Edit]
Sleighow@aol.com
Track Palin (Track) [Edit]
track_44@hotmail.com

UPDATE:

ARLINGTON, VA — Today, McCain-Palin 2008 Campaign Manager Rick Davis issued the following statement concerning reports about Governor Palin's email and an invasion of privacy:
"This is a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these emails will destroy them. We will have no further comment."

Point one: legitimacy confirmed! Point two: I guess we'll have to blow up the internet now?

Heavy has never been a particularly reputable company. It used to inflate its traffic with popup ads. Yet it still managed to raise $20 million in venture capital in January 2007. By last fall, investors began to clamor for more revenue. The startup's management then brought in what our source calls "C-level grownups."

The hires included CMO Eric Hadley from Microsoft; CTO Scott Penberthy from Photobucket; CFO Todd Sloan from Nielsen; and VP Richard Rocca, who spent a few months at shady ad network Glam Media after leaving the equally unsavory ad startup Gorilla Nation.

That crew now runs the company, "but the problem is there's not going to be anybody to run it with them," says our source, who calls the new leaders "ineffective."

Most C-level people, you know, they might have been able to roll their sleeves at one point in time, but now they're pretty much ineffective people. In one instance, [Hadley, who came] from Microsoft was going around asking for help with Excel. Didn't they give classes on Microsoft Excel at Microsoft? He was like, 'well, uh, I went to business school.

Heavy's problems run deeper than its executives' lack of skill with office-productivity software. Its advertising deal with MillerCoors to sponsor Heavy's "Tiny Entourage" show has the brewer in trouble with consumer advocate groups. Also, our source says the ad network that's supposed to save the company isn't making any money.

The litany of defections from Heavy is long. The VP of west coast sales left in June. The VP of east coast sales left this week for a competitor. Three sales directors on East Coast left, leaving one with the entire territory. ("He's loving it," our source says.) The entire U.K. team quit in June, and the company is trying to hire new staff there. The VP of marketing left for Ripe Digital Entertainment, an online-video studio. And Jimmy Jellinek, a VP of programming who had quit the company once but returned in February, has left again, this time for Playboy.

But the hardest loss to bear, for a company trying to attract 18-34 males, may be comely reality-TV star Jen Schefft. Scheftt, who starred in ABC's "The Bachelorette," only joined the company in June. She's gone, too, our tipster says. That's a pretty abrupt cancellation.

(Correction: Richard Rocca informs us he was not fired from Gorilla Nation, as we reported, but left on his own. "Gorilla Nation and I are still close and I forward business there way all the time.")

He's a cheapskate.

Last week we noted how Tucker scoffed at a former blogger who wondered why he only made $82 for six months of work. Other employees tell us the standard pay for Rudius bloggers is somewhere in the $80/ quarter range, with one noting "I got just a tiny bit more than that when my site was doing really well." Sweet. So Rudius must be making a lot of money.

You work hard for the money.

One Rudius employee was ordered by Tucker to move to a different, more expensive city because Tucker thought that they could better do their job elsewhere. Once the employee had gone to the trouble of packing up and moving and finding a new, more costly apartment, we hear, their pay was reduced to almost nothing. Which seems like the standard Rudius pay rate, now that we think of it.

He's not popular with publishers.

We hear that at least one book agent quit working with Tucker because he flaked out on book proposal deadlines. (Not true? Email us!)

He's not popular with the bloggers that work for him at Rudius.

The emails we've received from disgruntled bloggers alone are ample evidence of this. He attracts bloggers he's interested in with the promise of writing for a wider audience—though, as you can tell by their pay, not necessarily more money. But when bloggers tire of Rudius and leave the fold, we hear, they are bizarrely wiped from existence in Tucker Max's world:

If an author leaves the site, the circumstances are never discussed. Not even on the message boards. It's reminiscent of some 1984 thought-crime type thing. The author is simply never mentioned again, the site stays up and repeated questions about "what happened" are ignored.

He's vindictive.

Those who have worked with Tucker say he's very protective of his "image," such as it is. We hear that his failed appearance on Opie and Anthony is a very sore point. This sensitivity manifests itself in both the disappearing of his fallen disciples as mentioned above, and in an atmosphere in which Tucker Max sycophants feel that harassment of detractors is a way to win approval. One blogger, Violent Acres, wrote a Tucker Max parody a couple of years ago. This resulted in 70 harassing phone calls from a crazed Tucker fan in a single weekend—and we hear the harassment is still ongoing, though the blogger has filed a police report.

Is it Tucker's fault that he has a crazy fan? Not necessarily. But it is Tucker's fault that he expressed his discontent with a cast member on his movie by taking a big crap in the toilet in the guy's trailer, taking a photo of it (do not click that link), and then blogging about it.

Can't wait till the movie comes out!

[Read all previous Tucker Max coverage here. Anybody else with Tucker stories, email us.]

Yahoo acquired the 80 percent of online-advertising exchange Right Media it didn't already own for $680 million in 2007 — a jawdroppingly high sum which made former Right Media executive Brian O'Kelley giggle, since Yahoo had bought the first 20 percent at a $200 million valuation only months before.

If Yahoo executives think they overpaid, no one's holding it against Walrath. The acquisition is the centerpiece of Yahoo's strategy to turn the company into a central place for buying online advertising. Transforming Yahoo's ad-selling operations from a conventional salesforce which sold ads on Yahoo's websites to a marketplace where banners are traded like bushels of corn has been a particular obsession of Decker's.

Adman Scott Symonds, whose employer, whose AKQA agency brings clients to Yahoo's advertising, told us he hopes the rumor of Walrath's promotion is true: "Yahoo has made some integration moves, but I think Yahoo can be even more aggressive leveraging these network properties and exchanges they purchased." One Yahoo speculates that Walrath's move to headquarters could be bad news for Mark Morrissey, another SVP in charge of advertising product management. Judging by how Walrath coolly handles a dancing, singing, rapping man in a chicken suit in the video embedded below, he's well prepared for life at 701 1st Ave, Sunnyvale, Calif.:

A source familiar with the venture capitalists tell us that after Monitor110's last funding round, the company began to burn through cash faster than expected. Fortunately for Monitor110 CEO Brennan Carley, the company's primary investors at DFJ were very understanding. They promised — "truly promised," our source tells us — Monitor110 a bridge loan to get the startup through until its next funding round. Monitor110 went ahead and spent the money, "with DFW's "assurance the bridge was coming," our source says. But it never came.

Instead, DFJ killed the bridge loan and — as is being reported today — funded Monitor110's direct competitor Skygrid instead, leaving Monitor110's other investors, like Ehrenberg, with nothing better to do than write humble postmortems. Ehrenberg, reached for comments, did not deny any of the particulars of this story.

The real lesson of Monitor110, then, is this: Never trust a venture capitalist. Why isn't Ehrenberg telling us this story? He wouldn't say, but the most likely explanation is that he knows he might do business with Draper Fisher Jurvetson again, and he doesn't want to be blackballed. Far easier to play the humble martyr, and gain popularity by licking his wounds and sharing anodyne lessons learned.

1. The Dramatic Opening Scene:

2. Bar Scene One: Tucker Max Has A Way With Women And Dudes Better Not Give Him Any Shit Bro:

3. Bar Scene Two: Tucker Max Can Steal Your Sorostitute You Dumb Frat Boy So Watch Out Bro:

If we have the stomach, we'll bring you more lowlights soon bro!

A note from Karl Taro Greenfeld:

I wrote all the articles. that story was actually written for Details but they killed it and then I sold it through my friend Chris Seymour to Tokyo Journal—I had once been the editor their and so there were numerous reasons why I didn't want to use my own name. Wired saw the story in Tokyo Journal and called Chris who told them to call me. Kevin Kelly, the wired managing editor at the time bougth the story from me and understood the whole situation. Even weirder, The Face ran a version that had both my name and Chris' name on it.

Summary of what happened, as far as we can tell: Greenfeld wrote the piece for Details. It was killed. He sold it to the Tokyo Journal (which he used to edit), which ran it under a different byline. Wired saw the story, liked it, bought it, and ran it under Greenfeld's byline, knowing the entire backstory. The different names given to the hackers in the LAT Magazine piece and the Wired piece hasn't been fully explained. So while we originally wondered if this was a plagiarism issue, it turns out to just be a case of a writer reselling his own work.

By Christopher Seymour, Tokyo Journal:

By Karl Taro Greenfeld, Wired:

Karl Taro Greenfeld's description of a hacker named "Kojack" in Wired:

Karl Taro Greenfeld's description of a hacker named "Snix" in the LA Times Magazine:

How did Ng get them? Here are his instructions, which involve no real hacking or unauthorized access — just typing in Web addresses. They work because Yahoo allows its users to add their MySpace profiles to their cell phones without checking their credentials; it requires a login, but accepts any login, not the specific user's login.

This points to a flaw in the notion of data portability, a movement which seeks to have personal information shared between social networks and other websites. Data portability was borne out of a wrongheaded assumption: That data needs to be shared. Most consumers, I believe, aren't particularly interested in the concept; they belong to a few social networks at most, and don't find managing their online personas to be a particular challenge. The technophiles of Silicon Valley, however, join every network they hear about, and find retyping their personal information and manually adding friends maddeningly inefficient.

It's all well and good to speed things up, but how far, how fast? The example discovered by Ng just demonstrates the tendency of Web companies to take shortcuts with security. With data portability, we won't just have to worry about how well a particular social network guards their personal data; we'll now have to worry about every partner website it connects with.

Technical experts — every engineer in the Valley considers himself one — will no doubt weigh in with elaborate approaches to assuring security. I'm skeptical that any of them will work. It's a combinatorial problem; not only will the protocols have to be designed to be airtight, but we'll have to trust that each website implements them flawlessly. It only takes one weak link to break the chain. Already, Facebook has cut off Google's connectivity to its profiles in a dispute over whether Google's software is secure enough. Even the fame-seeking likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan deserve better.

Her YouTube username's "x" prefix and suffix have traditionally denoted a member of or sympathizer with the "straight edge" movement, which eschews inebriants like alcohol. "I don't even drink beer," Hanner confirmed. So what were her instructions? "Do whatever you want to do with the video, have fun, you're known as being sexy," according to Hanner. Don't worry, you can still catch the sexy ode to the time-honored tradition of selling beer with cleavage on pretty much every other online video outlet because Hanner distributed the clip to a handful of sites using TubeMogul's own technology.

As for the takedown, she did set the video permissions to private, so it's still on YouTube, technically. And that was enough for the sponsor, because "Coors Light only knows about YouTube." The one bit of information I couldn't pry from her was what the going rate for a beer commercial response video is. But controversy or no controversy, it won't deter Hanner. "There's millions of people making videos, so it's great to have one recognized."

I'll spare Levesque and Bonthron a thorough critique, as picking on a movie shot on weekends for a grand total of $30,000 would be cruel. I will say that it was well written, and the performers entertaining — Levesque, particularly, showing his chops as a veteran stage player with a taste for physical comedy. Most importantly, the characters were believable as Valley archetypes, from the multimillionaire schlub Rupert (K.S. Haddock) who buys a small town in Utah to an aloof VC played by producer Bonthron.

While the two men suggested that ultimately it's a human story, and not strictly a tale of the Valley, it's strongest moments came when making personal points about living through the dot-bomb — jokes like "I think the only sex that happens in the Valley is between MBAs and engineers who are trying to leverage their dual mortgage payment" might not make sense to those outside the bubble.

Similarly, Levesque's character, Tom, lamented that his lost net worth as his options fell under water felt like someone was taking the money away from him, personally. Irrational? Yes. Understandable? Also yes. "At that time, people just lost sight of what money meant," Levesque pointed out over coffee.

Rupert's character provided a stark example of that. Like Slide's Max Levchin, who has already earned millions in selling PayPal, it's actually his dream to continue doing just that — going to the office and building a company. For the thousands of Valley denizens who have interests outside of term sheets and liquidity events, the money never seems to arrive. In the movie, Tom sums it up: "How come everyone else who made money in the bubble don't have anything else going on?"

It's not necessarily a spectacular film, but it's an ambitious accomplishment for first time feature filmmakers and it's an astute take on the Valley from those who've lived inside it for years — unlike, say, Hollywood fare like The Pirates of Silicon Valley and August. Twenty minutes excised by a professional editor would make it a lock for an audience award at the Cinequest, Indiefest or Marin film festivals. As for plans to distribute it online? Levesque and Bonthron haven't made any. Yet.