Kennedy said Podcaster takes as long as 3 to 5 minutes to load some menus, that he had to dismiss a confirmation sheet each time he added a new podcast, and that Podcaster's interface is crowded and ugly.

Remember, ugly is an unforgivable sin in the eyes of Apple, which warns developers on its Developer Connection site:

Apple human interface engineers labored painstakingly over every pixel in Aqua, so it’s important that you pay close attention to the details of your application’s Aqua user interface.

Beyond Podcaster's three fatal flaws, writes Kennedy, "there are a few obvious reasons why a platform such as iPhone might choose not to carry an application in its storefront:"

• Chargebacks. Buyers frequently return your product for reasons including buyer's remorse or just receiving a different product than they expected. The "I Am Rich" $1000 iPhone app carries a heavy chargeback risk.
• Insufficient differentiation. App authors should be able to submit an application to App Store and expect there won't be a knock-off product sold directly alongside. Open-source applications can swap out an application title and submit the app as their own without adding new functionality.
• Misleading marketing, including trademarks. Don't misrepresent yourself or your product or cause obvious confusion.
• Horrible customer experience. Apple will recommend interface designers who can assist you with visual aspects of your application. Long load times or heavy resource utilization might will make both you and the platform look bad.

• Dealmaker Media's Business of APIs conference debuts today at 1 p.m. at the San Francisco City Club. Cocktail reception begins at 6. [APIConference.com]
• 
  
• blogger Niall Kennedy is hosting a conference on widgets at UCSF's Mission Bay campus. Netvibes is hosting a cocktail reception at 6:30 in the banquet room. [Widget Summit]
• 
  
• Hey, it's Blog Action Day! We don't know what that means either. [Blog Action Day]

• Got a to-do that's a must-do? Send it to calendar@valleywag.com. Check out more events on our Google Calendar:
  
  

Valleywag: Wanna do an exit interview?

Niall: Want to do it now, before I have Vietnamese noodles?

Wag: Yes.
You left Microsoft after starting in April. You say in your blog that your ability to, well, DO anything was frozen soon after you arrived. Is there any way you could have foreseen that?

Niall: Not really. Everything looked pretty good as I joined. Brand new initiative with Windows Live, the sleeping giant waking up and ready to define a few new spaces on the Internet. In the case of the feed syndication platform, it was a chance for Microsoft to establish a market leader position where many other Live properties such as Search and AdCenter were playing catch-up.

Wag: Were you part of a larger movement of hires for the Live division? How long had your team been at Microsoft?

The answer to that and more, after the jump.

Niall: When I joined my team was newly formed. My group unit manager rejoined the company in March after having left the company for a few years to work with a startup.

My group was part of a larger movement for defining new products within the Live division — I was part of Live platforms, powering multiple webapps at once — and part of the creation of new groups and products includes staffing those efforts, yes.

Wag: Microsoft seems friendly toward people returning after leaving for their own startups. I've seen a few people leave for other companies and return with no problem. Do you see yourself ever doing that?

Niall: Not really, but perhaps if the company was split up first and there was some new project I was excited about that could only be done at a company such as Microsoft.

Wag: Split up?

Niall: Splitting the company into desktop, server, online, and possibly gaming divisions. It's just too big.

Wag: Is that likely to happen?

Niall: I'm not sure. it was certainly the direction the DOJ and European Union have explored in the past

Wag: A quick question about your future ventures before you go. You said you have some startup ideas, but you can't share much while your contract with Microsoft is still winding down. Any little hint?

Are pastel boxes with rounded corners involved? Will you present at a Stirr Mixer by the year's end?

Niall: I suck at visual design. I'll have lots of outside input on that one. Although VRML in Ajax does look tempting, I'll be doing something new.

Anything else before I go eat some Vietnamese noodles?

Not one to deny a man his lunch, I let Niall go.

Leaving Microsoft [Niall Kennedy's weblog; photo by Scott Beale]

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]

Digg partner Stamen Design won Best Costume by dressing as a team of dapper carpet salesmen.

Upcoming.org founder Andy Baio just licks the salt off these things and puts them back on the bar.

Diggers Daniel Burka and David Prager celebrated the launch with a day lying sideways on the beach. They do not regret getting these bizarre sunburns.

After the jump: "They call me....Mister Digg!"

One Tic Tac watch, Tic Tac iPod case, and Tic Tac flashlight later, gadget geek Philip Torrone's mouth smells like a mint factory.

Digg founder Kevin Rose can't run a site and shave at the same time.

Fucked Company founder Philip "Pud" Kaplan shows his no-nonsense version of "the shocker."

Diggnation podcaster Alex Albrecht: "We're hoping to get Mark Wahlberg to play me in the film, but I'm willing to do his stunts."

And that's how star power gets you written onto a guest list.

Digg co-founder Jay Adelson just thought of the perfect joke about midget sex, but he struggles against the inappropriate urge to blurt it out on stage.

OMG screenshot!

SF Chronicle writer Dan Fost to Microsoft manager Niall Kennedy: "Look, I'd like to make you the next Robert Scoble, but I don't have that kind of power."

Tier 1 founder Andy Shroepfer about gigablogger Om Malik: "Om said I could make fun of his John Travolta hair if I funded his next blog."

Digg v3 party photos [Laughing Squid]

This week we'll feature five candidates for the position of Top Microsoft Blogger. The first: Niall Kennedy.

• Candidate: Niall Kennedy
• Current position: Feed syndication developer for Microsoft's Windows Live
• Background: Recently left blog search startup Technorati, where he was Community Manager and Guy Who Doesn't Get Along With Jason DeFillippo
• Major qualifications: Already works for Microsoft, already blogs, already well-fed white male

Next: RoboScoble, the as-yet undelivered not-as-cool-as-it-sounded Scoble bot engineered by Niall.

Earlier: Who's the next Robert Scoble? [Valleywag]
Photo: Niall Kennedy [Early Sound on Flickr]

Oh, that's okay, no one else has heard of Podtech either. Right now, despite a recent ill-advised VC investment of millions, Podtech's biggest asset is Scoble himself.

Anyway, the Internet abhors a vacuum, so Scoble needs a successor — an heir who can schmooze at conferences, feed Internet trolls, sell a book about open conversation, and run a blog with closed conversation.

We'll run an election this week, so here are the nominees for the ballot:

• Niall Kennedy, recently emigrated from Technorati to Microsoft, who brings his own healthy little blog following.
• RoboScoble, an automated Scoble built by Niall (which'll be a blast once the URL starts working).
• Chris Coulter, the dark horse candidate best known for insulting Scoble in the comments for each of his blog posts.
• Dave Winer, a blogger with little to no relevant expertise, but that's never stopped him before.
• Clippy.

Earlier: Emergency weekend post: OMG Scoble dumped Microsoft [Valleywag]

Wag: So the Blogger Dinner. Who did we know there? Dave Winer, of course...
Nicole: Yeah. There was also Marc Canter of Broadband Mechanics...
Toni Schneider from Automattic [hired away from Yahoo — ed.]
Wag: Marc came with chocolate! [Picked up from the airport and marked "Happy Father's Day!"]
Nicole: which he said was a "bribe"
Wag: for reading his site or what?
Nicole: for us to generate site traffic i guess
Wag: All I could tell was Winer kept protesting. "This is a non-commercial dinner!"
Nicole: ... while everyone was trying to engage in commercial deals?
Wag: right, right
Nicole: Granted, most everyone was just sitting around eating. But there were definitely some talking about "enterprises" and "social networking"
I swear I heard Marc Canter toss out the words "people aggregator"

After the jump, we rag on Henry's Hunan.

Wag: And we saw Eric Lin of Phonescoop
Nicole: and Om!
Wag: last week my T-Mobile guy mentioned Eric.
Nicole: Phonescoop is famous
Wag: Apparently Eric Lin shops at the Mission District T-Mobile. I thought everyone delivered their phones to him on the feet of white messenger doves.
So you chatted with Niall Kennedy and Scott Beale for a while. What about?
Nicole: Well I talked to Scott about the success of Valleyschwag, and how I see that Laughing Squid sticker in almost all the packages
it's iconic! famous!
Wag: Damn, you got your schwag already?
Nicole: No no, I just browse through the Flickr tags. I'm too cheap to actually PAY for valleyschwag. Especially when I have 90% of the schwag given to me for free
Wag: So to map out the dinner for everyone — we had what, four tables at this place? Hunan? Henry's Hunan?
Nicole: yeah, Henry's Hunan. Which, I'll be honest, doesn't serve the best food. I mean, it was delicious.
Wag: I didn't wanna admit it
Nicole: But... there's better. There's a LOT better.
Wag: even for $12, there's better stuff.
Wag: So Om Malik held court in the corner table, with Marc Canter and...who else was at the Power Table?
Nicole:That was THE power table. Toni Schneider was also at that table, along with Dave I believe
Wag: I think Dave was at that middle table for a while, but he may have moved
Nicole: yeah. Him and Niall were switching tables
Wag: working the crowd
Nicole: Mingling and all that.
Wag: No fights that night, no arguments that I heard.
Nicole: No. I was half-hoping someone would lunge at you and say something like "Valleywag ruined my life" but sadly, no.
Wag: I just made sure not to get caught in the bathroom next to Winer.
Not because of Valleywag, I'm just saying, good advice.
Nicole:
um, right. NOT going there.
Anyway, I was a little disappointed. Not too many hipsters.
Wag: Mediocre guy-girl ratio.
Nicole: But it was cool to get a glimpse of the old boys crowd.
Wag: Like, 4 ladies, all very cool ones, but there's a lot of lame guyness to dilute
Nicole: You know what was missing though? Booze.
Wag: GOOD CALL.
Nicole: someone should've got some Tiger Beer going or something.
Wag:instead it was all green tea
Nicole: I think I'm spoiled by the Web 2.0 open bars.
Wag: So on a scale of 1 to awesome, what do we rate last night's dinner?
Nicole: hmn, how about we rate it ala ebay. wait, let me look for examples..
Wag: it's all "A++++++++++++" on there
Nicole: how about "omgwtfnobooze?"

• The Valley job market is booming — as long as you have an insanely strong CV and can kick butt at billiards. [Mercury News]
• The real way to make cash from MySpace: by mocking it. [Wired News]
• Meet the jerk who made the cute Google holiday logo that messed up your poorly-written search mashup. [Mirror]
• Vertical search dude Niall Kennedy's life after Technorati: joining the Live Crew at Microsoft. [Niall Kennedy]
• This week's "Who am I" at The News Show: a Hollywood schmoozer who "shattered the glass ceiling." Just Google the line the News Show quotes, and enter to win their prizes. [Who am I?]
• New bullet icons. Thanks, House of Pretty.

Recent Technorati emigrant Niall Kennedy hosted a swanky demo session last night at the Westin St. Francis. This is the second of his SF Tech Sessions. Chicago startup Blish.com bought the room, the drinks (for the record, I stuck to beer and coffee), and the pricey salmon platters.

Niall basks in the light of a thousand IPOs.

One of the less lucky presenters. This fish's business plan was deemed a menace to the economy.

Years after his lounge-piano career, Brian Sherrill still hasn't changed his clothes.

The glitz screams "dot-com bubble," but Blish founder Brian Sherrill said he'd rented the room sight unseen. "I thought it would be some normal hotel conference room. Then I came up here and went, 'Whoa.'" Still, every dot-commer there wanted Blish to sponsor their next party.

After the jump, more gilded hotel shots and some demo snarks.

Photos: the omnipresent Scott Beale [Laughing Squid]
Notes more meaningful than mine: Notes from SF Tech Session [Rajlogs]

"Pssst...I hear Kevin Burton bought someone in this room." "I'm right here, dude, and I didn't buy anyone." "See, it's so secret even Kevin doesn't know."

Skobee presenter Noam Lovinsky: "It's a consumer service, but I'm sure we can, uh, leverage your paradigmatic edge competency across the enterprise."

Skobee's the first to present. You use it to organize outings big and small with your friends. Looks handy.

The second speaker presents Vast, a topical ad search engine. For Vast's dating profile category, he says, "We had to pull a lot of results out. Thousands of Russian brides, lots of porn..." TailRank's Kevin Burton: "Can I get a disc of that data set?"

Mozes CEO Dorrian Potter: "And with enough seed money, I could afford a shirt with a collar."

Potter's mobile-bookmarking site Mozes.com has tags, of course, but not that hippie share-at-will kind: they sell tags as keywords. The peanut gallery around me is not impressed.

Finally, two reps from Songbird shuffle in. They're over an hour late, but they present their product.

"Ohhh, hey, hadn't noticed that bug — er, feature — before."

Songbird is part browser, part media player. One of the demoers shows off the song display. And the sliding tracker. And the volume slider. Blogger Eran Globen: "Gee, I wonder if it does stereo."

Four companies, three of them dot-coms, and a dot-com sponsor. A posh 32nd-storey location. An audience of dot-commers and startuppers. Keep saying it: There is no bubble, there is no bubble, there is no bubble...

Diggnation 3/18 (on iTunes, not on web): Hosts Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht started sober again. What the hell, guys? Gets funny around 16 minutes in, when Kevin says about a digicam, "And it's uh...fuel-cell powered." Alex: "What?" Kevin: "Nope, made that up."

Om and Niall Podsessions 3/14: Ten seconds in, Niall Kennedy and Om Malik actually talk about the weather. Then, Web 2.0 leaves Om "wanting more" — careful what you wish for, Om! The rest of the show is VoIP and IM and mobile. It'd make decent lunch conversation, but does it make a good show? (Hint: Not this week.)

TalkCrunch 3/19: In this social-networking-centered episode, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington goes all Yellow Submarine and runs his voice through the left channel only. Some of the phone-in guests have a great alien echo-voice going on, and it's the usual slow-paced talk show vibe, but points to Michael for doing the best thing a podcast host can: get out of the way and let the experts engage each other. Caveat: by the end of this show, the voices are distorted to distracting levels. Can't Michael get some sponsored VoIP equipment?

This Week in Tech 3/20: Can Patrick Norton and crew hold it together without regular host Leo Laporte? Well, they can be meaty — if you actually want to learn about the last week of tech news, this is worth your hour — but they're just. not. funny.

This Week in Tech: A woman on the panel! And Kevin Rose! But it's still like a very watered-down Diggnation. If you need to eat your tech veggies, go ahead. You'll learn something.

Diggnation: None this week, but last week's is worth another listen. Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht moved the beer drinking to before the show — best move ever. Highlights include moving to Australia, making fun of the dead Phantom gaming system, and the hotness of Alex's mom. This is why all podcasts should be recorded in bars.

Gillmor Gang: Until that thing is ten well-trimmed minutes, forget it. In fact, a fan-edited copy of this — like by those kids who make Full Metal Jacket emo music videos — would rock. Or Steve and company could do the show drunk.

Jason DeFillippo is leaving Technorati as he planned, according to a close source. The Metroblogging co-founder (and Blogrolling inventor) is still listed as an engineer at the blogging search engine, though he announced his exit last month.

He's just one of several senior Technorati members leaving the once-hot startup. Even the receptionist is out. What caused the exodus? Were lines exchanged at the Flickr Turns 2 party? Something come to a head at Codecon? Or is everyone sick of waiting for a buyout?

Meanwhile, Niall Kennedy announced today that he's leaving too. The Technorati community manager will stay until March 1. The way Om puts it, Niall's looking for more work, but a whole crowd exiting seems to scream "new hot startup."

On V-Day, Niall Breaks up with Technorati [Om Malik]
A leap of faith and a change of pace [J.P.DeFillippo]

Well, until the Gillmor Gang takes a public speaking class, here are three better tech podcasts:

Diggnation: Digg's Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht discovered the magic ingredient to podcast excitement: alcohol. On each weekly podcast (or vidcast), Kevin and Alex drink beer and cover the week's top stories from their bookmark community.

Buzz Out Loud: It's just ten minutes. What can you screw up in ten minutes? CNet Hosts Tom Merritt and Molly Wood take phone calls and e-mail from listeners to mix things up.

Om and Niall PodSessions: Not roll-on-the-floor funny, but a decent 22 minutes and rich with insider info, not just opinions.

This Week in Tech: There's no way to oversell this show. TWiT deserves its title of "the world's most listened to podcast" thanks to John C. Dvorak's "friendly curmudgeon" attitude, great guests like Kevin Rose (yes, podcasts are as incestuous as blogs), and Leo Laporte's silliness as a ringleader.

Gillmor Gang [Gillmor.podshow.com]
Scoops of vanilla perception [Tinfinger]