Gawker: valleywag, gnomedex

Bathroom line turns ugly at Gnomedex

Jackson West — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:00:00 EDT

How do you make money in online video? For viral jigster Matt Harding, it seems motivational appearances for corporations and geek get-togethers could be quite a profitable side-business — here he convinces the crowd in Seattle to rush the stage. Care to write a better caption? Best one becomes the post's new headline. Friday's winner is jdistani for "@ev will you follow me now?" (Photo by Randy Stewart)

Viral-video dancer on the lazy way to become a star

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:20:00 EDT

Matt Harding, the guy who travels around the world taking videos of people dancing with him, knows how to work the system without doing much work. First, he got Stride gum to sponsor his video-making trip around the world. Since the result went viral, he's milked his fame on the speaking circuit. First he made yet another "dancing" video at Yahoo's Sunnyvale headquarters. Last week, he spoke at nerdy-person gathering Gnomedex in Seattle. Watch his talk and learn all about how much — or rather, how little — work went into the popular "Dancing" video. Or, skip to 4 minutes in if all you're interested in is yet another crowd of people doing Harding's funny-looking jig.

Adobe-Yahoo rumor? Confab thrower's attention grab

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:20:00 EDT

Professional linkbaiter Guy Kawasaki reports a "juicy tidbit" from the Gnomedex conference in Seattle: "Adobe is scratching their collective chins and in deep thought considering a Yahoo acquisition." We don't believe it. With a $23.61 billion market cap, Adobe isn't exactly in a position to spend $40 billion on Yahoo, even its stock price has finally sunk below where it was when Microsoft made its offer. So why the rumor? Look to its source: Chris Pirillo — the guy who puts on the Gnomedex conference, of which we admit to only a vague awareness before Pirillo sent a Twitter message about the rumor and got everyone talking about it. And him. And his conference.

Geeks navel-gaze at Gnomedex

Megan McCarthy — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:05:18 EDT

Friday:

Chris Pirillo's Gnomedex conference, which aims to "unlock the attendee's spirit" — or, in Robert Scoble's case — "inflate the attendee's ego" — is happening now in Seattle. Can't make this year's event, titled "The Blogosphere's Conference?" Check out their live stream, assuming you can get it to work.
Gawker videographer Richard Blakely is one of the artists featured at tonight's San Francisco International Festival of Short Films tonight at the Victoria Theater on 16th and Mission.
Saturday
Bring your laptop and your bathing suit for SuperHappyDevHouse 19 in beautiful Los Gatos. The working party kicks off at 2 p.m. and goes until 1 a.m.
(Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)

Geek out: Chris Pirillo pulls a Jackson at Gnomedex

Nick Douglas — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 18:51:50 EDT

Okay, since everyone asked, here's your fanservice. Now geez, Robert Scoble, stop with the booty calls.

Independence Day weekend and the no-free-pass policy may have kept you from the Seattle Gnomedex conference, but the magic of the Internets again lets you pretend you were there to hear presidential hopeful John Edwards speak and to snark the usual gang of crazy uncles in the backchannel chat room. Photos posted by Scott "no I won't shoot your wedding" Beale at Laughing Squid.

Senator Edwards sees Dick Cheney in the crowd. "Wanna mess, old man? I got two hands here and they're itching to break some neck."

Gnomedex organizer Chris Pirillo and partner-in-crime Ponzarelli try out for a ska band.

Laugh at them now, but in five years these dudes will shave and reveal that they're 16.

Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg and Microsoft manager Niall Kennedy are blown back by an off-screen explosion, caused when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and blog pundit Dave Winer accidentally bumped each other.

Submissive startupper Kris Krug points to his dominatrix, Megan Cole.

This fish wouldn't stop asking for an "angler investment," and when its pun didn't go over well, the damn thing would bite.

The performance by Dave Dederer (of the Presidents of the United States of America) lost the talent competition to an interpretive dance about dynamic web menus.

When techies Chris Heuer and Will Pate decide they've had enough of the tech bubble, they will unleash Cthulhu upon the world and all hope will be lost.

ZDNet columnist Steve Gillmor talked for half an hour before anyone realized he was reciting the Bhagavad Gita in the original Sanskrit.

Philip Kaplan performs the interpretive dance that beat Dederer.

Gnomedex 6.0 Photos [Laughing Squid]

Remainders: Ellison officially gives Harvard the finger

Nick Douglas — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 23:28:38 EDT

Apple's iPod maker says the sweatshop story isn't true, and they've vaguely threatened a lawsuit over the claim, made by the UK's Daily Mail. Can we resolve this peacefully so the slaves can crank out more toys? [Apple Insider]
Props to Gnomedex organizer Chris Pirillo for designing conference tees that we'd pay good cash for (pictured). [Pirillo.com]
I was utterly remiss not to show you this classic 1998 rant about writing for Wired Magazine. [Boing Boing]
The "Coolz0r" blog has so far catalogued 54 services using "Flickr"-style names. If anyone wants to use this as a hitlist, the blogger will not be held responsible. [Coolz0r]
AOL knew it was shady back in 2000. Then again, so did everyone else. [CNNMoney]
Larry Ellison officially admits — it's not about the sick kids, it's about his buddy at Harvard. Those expecting the Oracle founder's $115 million donation can suck it. More on this tomorrow. [SFGate]

Remainders: Dude! You got a cake!

Nick Douglas — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 23:05:11 EDT

Today's "Reason that San Francisco is cooler than San Jose" is a warning to vegetarians: In Silicon Valley, waiters forcibly stuff meat down your throat. [Metroactive]
Apparently everyone who didn't know about the Adobe/Microsoft fight over the PDF format has their heads in the sand. Yeah, they're all probably worrying about obscure news this week, like the US killing the world's leading terrorist. [Planet PDF]
Thanks again, SloshCon sponsors! To everyone else: If you want to give people money to drink, please sponsor the Gnomedex parties coming up in July. [Ponzarelli]
Is the Glam.com blog network scamming its writers? (Ha, name a blog network that isn't.) A tipster says, "Apparently their $11m in funding doesn't cover paying out a few cents to their partners." [Celebitchy]
Songwriter Billy Bragg takes his music off Myspace, saying the site's terms and conditions let Rupert Murdoch's media empire re-use all posted music without paying a cent in royalties. One wonders if News Corp would ever get away with acting on that clause, but either way, YAY FOR LEAVING MYSPACE. [Register]
Pictured: Best. Caption. Ever. The Register snarks at Dell for throwing Wall Street Journal editor Don Clark...a birthday party. [Register]