"The CrunchPad is now in the DeadPool," writes TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington. "The entire project self destructed over nothing more than greed, jealousy and miscommunication... I'm enraged, embarrassed, and just…sad. "

It seems Arrington's supplier on the project, Fusion Garage, decided to cut TechCrunch out of the project, save for an "evangelism" role, and just sell the tablet itself. Arrington now says "multiple lawsuits" are a near-certainty. There's a lesson here for all the media companies looking to jump onto the tablet computing bandwagon: When you yourself know nothing about tech manufacturing, you will tend to get pushed into the backseat on any tech manufacturing project. Also: Never accept an award from Popular Mechanics.

(Image via)

A redesign of MSN.com to contain "significantly less blue." Arrington, who loathes embargoed tech "news" (so do we), used to make an exception for Microsoft, and sat on this one until midnight last night. But a dastardly marketing blogger spoiled his exclusive by running the story an hour early, due to some kind of WordPress error. The startup information chieftan tells us:

They came in and briefed me, took an hour. Then I rearranged my evening to write the post, took more time. the embargo broke by at least 45 minutes and they [Waggener] didn't bother to let me know.

So now Google is the last big name in tech allowed to supply Arrington with embargoed news. Until one of their orchestrated PR news releases blows up in his face, too. And so Arrington's worthwhile, if ignoble, war on Valley flacks continues.

(Pic: Arrington, by Randy Stewart)

VentureBeat's Paul Boutin wonders what the deal is with "Mike No-Show Arrington... punting" on events. Isn't it obvious? Arrington knows he's the "top draw;" how better to prove it to the rest of the world than by strategically withholding himself now and again? That's just Diva 101, right there. And TechCrunch's feudy publisher is nothing if not a diva.

(Pic: Arrington with fellow diva Megan Asha, by Robert Scoble.)

TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington has been working on his "CrunchPad" for more than a year now. TechCrunch posted a mockup of the "near-final industrial design" in June and Arrington predicted a July ship date, now three months come and gone. To become Product of the Year, shouldn't CrunchPad at least exist in the form of a demo unit that circulates to a reasonable number of journalists? Or be actually, err, shipping?

Not that the product isn't under development, or won't come out. If anything, Arrington, who has posted sporadic prototype photos to TechCrunch, deserves kudos for whipping up such absurdly enthusiastic press interest. He's helped along by one simple truth: Journalists have always loved the idea that one of their own can strike it rich. With the industry in its present shape, who can blame them for clinging to that hope especially tightly?

Calacanis had proclaimed on Twitter and in a YouTube interview the end of the TechCrunch 50, the Web startup conference the Mahalo founder hosts with Arrington. Calacanis had told others at this year's conference about a fight with TechCrunch.com publisher Arrington, VentureBeat reported. Arrington played the blasé diva when we called him for comment, saying, "I'm not going to say I didn't have words with him because I have words with people all the time... life will go on without Jason Calacanis."

Now, Calacanis tells VentureBeat, the conference is back on. The short celebrity gladhander has a vested interest in reprising his odd couple conference routine with Arrington, the tall, beefy self-styled don of the Valley's hopelessly geeky startup scene: In an economic environment where other conferences are struggling, TechCrunch 50 remains a financial success for Calacanis and Arrington and, more to the point, a fantastically powerful vehicle for publicity and influence. And, besides, with the name tied to Arrington's trademark, what's to keep him from doing it without Calacanis?

It must be a bit embarrassing for Calacanis to crawl back to Arrington after so loudly storming off. To salvage his dignity, he's now claiming, to VentureBeat, that he was only kidding around, in part because the YouTube interview was conducted by a puppet:

[16:05] jasoncalacanis: I'm just shocked folks are taking this seriously. I mean… a puppet. It was in fact, a puppet.

[16:05] jasoncalacanis: then again, i guess if you hear mike and i fighting it isn't pleasant.

[16:06] paulboutin@mac.com: You were all too convincing. I think you really were Done With This Baloney when you talked to the puppet.

[16:06] paulboutin@mac.com: The makeup video is cute. I'm running it with your quotes.

[16:06] jasoncalacanis: Truth = we fight like rabid dogs and neither of us have to compromise in any other parts of our business.

[16:07] jasoncalacanis: False = we would throw an amazing event like this out the window.

(Top pic: Andrew Mager)

No one is saying precisely what happened. But Calacanis, a Hollywood internet entrepreneur who tools around in a Tesla Roadster and is buddy-buddy with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, has tweeted that TechCrunch 50, which the men co-host, is over after its third iteration. He also "openly talked about a fight" with Arrington to others at the conference, Paul Boutin reports on VentureBeat.com.

Calacanis seemed to confirm all this to, of all people, a puppet controlled by New York humorist Loren Feldman (see left).

And Arrington, who publishes the influential Silicon Valley blog TechCrunch, isn't quite denying it either. Arrington cautioned in a phone interview that he wasn't familiar with all of Calacanis' public statements today. But he added, "I'm not going to say I didn't have words with him because I have words with people all the time." Besides, he added, things are crazy at the end of a long conference.

He wouldn't get into details, but did point us, in response to questions about the incident, to a blog post he recently wrote called Let's Not Let Silicon Valley Become Just Like Hollywood, in which he argues that the powers-that-be in the Northern California tech scene should avoid becoming as pompous and hierarchical as the folks in Hollywood, i.e. the people Calacanis likes to hang out with. Cryptic. But Arrington wouldn't be much more specific: "I'm not too concerned Jason is telling people he doesnt want to talk to me. I'm sure life will go on without Jason Calacanis and the drama he creates by talking to puppets."

Sure, life will go on, and in the meantime the rest of us have another tech feud to keep us entertained. It's been too long since one of these flared up.

(Speaking of which, we've logged several emails and instant messages to Calacanis and have yet to hear back. If you have any insights into what happened, please email us.)

(Top pic: Calacanis, left, and Arrington in happier days, by Frank Gruber.)

TechCrunch this week published internal Twitter documents obtained by a computer hacker. Twitter wasn't thrilled, but entered talks with the influential business website.

Then, today, TechCrunch claimed it had received a "green light" from the company to publish some internal business discussions. Twitter has now vehemently disputed that, first via its CEO's Twitter stream, then on its blog, where co-founder Biz Stone (pictured) wrote, "we absolutely did not give permission for these documents to be shared."

Several hours later, TechCrunch had not changed its posting or addressed Twitter's contradictory version of events. We called TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington to clear up the confusion, but he cryptically said he wouldn't comment on the matter for at least 24 hours. We asked if this meant no new statements would be posted to TechCrunch, and he wouldn't comment on that, either.

Twitter, meanwhile, sounds like it's rattling a saber. From Stone's blog post:

Out of context, rudimentary notes of internal discussions will be misinterpreted by current and future partners jeopardizing our business relationships. We are pursuing a path to address the harm caused by these actions and as noted yesterday, we've already reached out to the partners and individuals affected.

And so it begins. Who would have thought that blogs vs. microblogs would be one of the fiercest media wars of 2009? It's enough to make you long for a good old fashioned Google-newspaper fight.

TechCrunch has issued its final post based on hacker-obtained Twitter documents; the post reveals internal Twitter strategy discussions, including talks about the company's relationships with celebrities and tech giants Google and Microsoft.

But there was plenty missing:

There are some details about partner discussions, particularly around
Google and Microsoft, that we are just not going to publish. Twitter
has been in negotiations with both companies around a broad set of
transactions for months. But we aren't going to go into great detail
about exactly what has been discussed, or Twitter's strategies toward
those negotiations. So while it looks like there is a lot of detail
around those discussions below, the most sensitive stuff has been
removed.

Information about Twitter's negotiations with Google and Microsoft is undeniably newsworthy; most business journalists would rush to publish exclusive information on such matters. Not all would accept documents obtained from a hacker as valid sourcing, mind you, but then TechCrunch has already crossed that particular Rubicon.

Witholding the juiciest Twitter leaks isn't going to appease TechCrunch's haters, who have called publisher Mike Arrington "a very sad excuse for a man" and worse for his use of hacker-tainted documents. What it will do is highlight how the publication is negotiating story content with the subjects of said stories, an absurd situation; if Arrington believes the documents are usable sources, and accurate, there's nothing left to negotiate.

Leakers should come to us instead; if and when we use your stuff, we won't go half-assed about it.

(Pic: Arrington by Thomas Hawk)

In short, I follow TechCrunch on Twitter, so it does not show up in my list of suggested users. I did do some digging prior to my post to find out if everyone was presented with the same Suggested User List, and even confirmed with someone else that the user was not on that person's list, but obviously should have dug deeper in fact checking.

Original, now retracted story here:

Twitter's Suggested User List has been controversial lately, since it's tremendously valuable yet tremendously mysterious. Well, the microblogging startup just cleared up one thing: Cross Twitter, and you're off the list.

As of just yesterday, TechCrunch was on the so-called SUL, and founder Mike Arrington has blogged that the list position can generate 10,000 new signups a day. Fellow entrepreneur Jason Calacanis has even offered Twitter $250,000 for a slot.

TechCrunch is now off the list, one day after very controversially publishing internal Twitter documents it obtained from a computer hacker. Twitter originally said its list was determined by factors like whether an account has "fairly wide or mainstream appeal," but yesterday the startup hinted in a blog post that TechCrunch, whose appeal is well documented, might have made itself an exception:

...publishing these documents publicly could jeopardize relationships with Twitter's ongoing and potential partners.

There's no question that Arrington's ethics — and TechCrunch's integrity, by extension — were widely attacked outside of Twitter yesterday. Posts calling him "a very sad excuse for a man" and "SCUM" set the tone.

But by apparently wielding its star-making list as a weapon, Twitter just makes it a bigger point of discussion. Disaffected early adopters have been grumbling for months; one, blogging pioneer Dave Winer, predicted the Arrington situation back in March:

I do think the company should have done this much more carefully... And the people who got the push have a problem if they are members of the press, because this gift they got from Twitter is worth money... What if a reporter were critical of Twitter in a piece she wrote, would Twitter revoke her status?

For all its technical deficiencies, Twitter ended up scoring a PR victory from its hack attack, because it looked to many like the victim of an overeager publisher. Now it risks snatching defeat from the jaws of that victory, by looking like a bully. It's apparently a risk the company is willing to take; Arrington does have a remarkable talent for infuriating people like that.

Business Insider's Dan Frommer asked the smartest follow-up question about TechCrunch and Twitter.

Web entrepreneur Jeff Atwood isn't saying people should spit in Mike Arrington's face for publishing internal Twitter documents, just that the TechCrunch publisher deserves to have people spit in his face. Is this what the high road looks like?

The New York Times' Patrick LaForge, meanwhile, wondered if Arrington might be confined to his home by the authorities. Actually, it was the authorities who forced him to leave his house.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, meanwhile, discovered Paul McCartney playing outside the Ed Sullivan Theater and spent at least an hour livetweeting the performance (almost like a real broadcast journalist!).

Berkeley food mecca Chez Panisse joined Twitter, in a way that maximized the glory of France. Naturally.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets - or send us more Twitter usernames.

MSNBC's David Shuster lamented the lack of a spectacular and public end to a high-speed car chase.

After chatting with actor Ben Stiller, cyclist Lane Armstrong confirmed to a grateful public the existence of Dodgeball 2.

Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis explained to TechCrunch's Mike Arrington exactly how grating Arrington is; the positively scientific observation included a citation.

Business Insider's John Carney discovered financial politics had made heiress Lydia Hearst his strange bedfellow. He didn't seem particularly annoyed.

Time's James Poniewozik spent basically all day trying to pronounce the name of Dan Abrams' blog, Mediaite.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets - or send us more Twitter usernames.

Arrington headlined his own post about the news "GigaOm ignores my advice," linking to a long, telling post from earlier this year in which he attempted to explain why blogs should remain financially independent. What he really means is: GigaOm shouldn't take VC because TechCrunch is the only blog that's supposed to get VC, so Arrington can buy his competitors.

Arrington has said publicly that he wants to be the one to consolidate the blogging sector into one big Voltron-like online publishing empire. When he wrote this morning that "we are one of the last large blog networks to remain independent," he probably wasn't intentionally lying. But his Web-2.0-centric worldview ignores bigger non-tech networks such as the local Sugar Publishing and the British Shiny Media.

By taking on five million dollars in further investments, Malik hasn't just picked up capital to expand his staff and marketing. Like a pufferfish circled by sharks, he's made GigaOm a much bigger ball for Arrington or anyone else to try to swallow. (Photo by Brian Solis)

Rich and powerful people live everywhere in the Bay Area, but Atherton is the select address for tech power brokers. There's no there here — for those who deal in dreamers and telephone screamers all day, it's a place to come home to peace and quiet.

Town zoning laws passed in the 1920's prohibit Atherton real estate from being subdivided into parcels smaller than one acre — about 200 feet x 200 feet — with few exceptions. Hillside areas are limited even further, as little as one home every five acres. Structures higher than 34 feet are banned outright. The town's general plan still aims "to preserve the Town's character as a scenic, rural, thickly-wooded, residential area with abundant open space."

[Above: Green Acres, yours for only $16M.]

Eighty years later, the results are in:

• Population: 7,914
• Average home price: Over $3 million.
• Median household income: $240,000
• Schools with top ratings in science.
• Police protection to weep for. Check out the online form to have your house watched while you're on vacation.
• Restaurants and shopping: You drive to Menlo for that stuff.

An Atherton address says you're successful, yet low-profile about it. But how do you get in before you hit the big time? A Chronicle reporter who made the pilgrimage to Web 2.0 overlord Mike Arrington stumbled onto the formula:

Oddly enough, while the house is in affluent and leafy Atherton, it's a fairly nondescript one-story place with barely any artwork on the walls, Ikea furniture, tables cluttered with tech gear he is reviewing and an inefficient heating system that leaves it freezing. Even space heaters and a Duraflame log in the fireplace have no discernible effect.