Gawker
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pownce
Temptress of Silicon Valley shuts down useless site
Earlier this year, Leah Culver appeared on the cover of a tech magazine blowing an enormous pink bubble. But the shrill-voiced San Francisco programmer no longer desires fame — even the modest sort afforded Silicon Valley's microcelebrities. The turnabout seems odd, considering how aggressively she once courted notoriety.
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By Owen ThomasComment by jpontin: "Is it sexist to point this out?" Ah, yeah, Owen - it kind of is. People date in their own... 10 Responses | Other threads
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we read twitter so you don't have to
Leah Culver has been wronged, totally wronged!
Pownce cutie-in-chief Leah Culver gets a lot of hate from Valley boys. Guys, don't hate her because she's beautiful. Love her because she suffers, just like you. First at the hands of a cheating man, second at the hands of the Valleywag scumbucket who posts her unpublished 2 A.M. tweet about it: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by SFJoe: Beautiful? She's girl-next-door cute, no doubt. 'Beautiful' seems to be a stretch. But then, I seem to be the only... 8 Responses | Other threads
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geek love
VentureBeat blogger writes about girlfriend's company
Leah Culver, the ever-romantic founder of file-sharing site Pownce, does not think anything should keep two lovers apart, least of all work. True! And if she wants to date MG Siegler, the handsome VentureBeat blogger, more power to her. Brian Solis's lens captured the two sticking quite close to each other at a party for MySpace Music last night. But shouldn't Siegler, rather than Valleywag, disclose the relationship to his readers before he writes flatteringly about Pownce and quotes Culver in an article? (Photo by Brian Solis/Bub.blicio.us)
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By Owen ThomasComment by Figaro: What is she doing? IS she trying to fuck her way to the bottom? At least in the past she... 2 Responses | Other threads
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great moments in pr
Kevin Rose runs from the crowd
Why is Kevin Rose on a publicity binge? In the past two months, the founder of headline-voting site Digg has garnered two magazine covers. There he is, with a smoldering leer on local San Francisco magazine 7x7. The look reminds everyone why Diggnation cohost Alex Albrecht once said that Rose, a prolific dater, has "plowed through everyone in town." For Inc., Rose participated in a wacky crowd shoot which echoed the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night." It's obvious why Rose is a hot commodity: Write about him, and traffic to your magazine's website will soar. (Will he sell print copies? I doubt Digg users visit newsstands.) More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by D IS FOR DENTATA: Owen, I love how you parse this one back down to earth. :-) more » | Other threads
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spy photos
Yahoo Hack Day restores API access between ex-lovers Cal Henderson and Leah Culver
For quippy superstar engineer Cal Henderson, the fellow who has kept Flickr from crashing all these years, attendance at Yahoo's Hack Day developer event was all but mandatory, since he works there. But what attracted Pownce cofounder Leah Culver, Henderson's ex-girlfriend? A Valleywag tipster's spy camera caught the two of them hard at work, laptops side by side. All business, clearly — until it came time for the awkward parting hug, and perhaps more. "Looked like they were kissing in the pic with him holding her, but can't say it looked very enthusiastic or romantic," our tipster analyzes. Full photos below, so you, too, can interpret the body language in the comments. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Lizstless: This is why I keep telling my SF tech friends to move to NY. No one cares about them and... 3 Responses | Other threads
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we read twitter so you don't have to
Ariel Waldman is totes single
Our apologies to Ms. Ariel Waldman — she is not dating Cal Henderson: "I need dates — stop ruining my game, yo," she Twitters. Good, because that would make for some awkward meetings at Pownce, where she spends time as a community manager working with cofounder Leah Culver, a former Henderson paramour. This also means that polytalented Flickr code jock Cal Henderson is probably available. Probably. "How did Valleywag miss the girl I was actually there with?" he later asked us.
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By Jackson WestComment by Web2PointOhShit: I thought Cal Henderson was a man's man... shows what I know. 1 Responses | Other threads
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breakups
Flickr's Cal Henderson dumped by Technology Review covergirl Leah Culver
We've been remiss in informing you of this: Cal Henderson, the eminently scalable Flickr engineer, and Leah Culver, the shrill-voiced cofounder of Pownce, San Francisco's favorite way to share MP3 files while evading copyright cops, broke up some time ago. (We hear it wasn't exactly his idea.) But don't feel sorry for Henderson, or Culver. She has no shortage of suitors — including, it seems, Technology Review editor-in-chief Jason Pontin, who was taken enough with Culver to put her on his magazine's latest cover. Pontin's married, but a man can dream, can't he? Sorry, Jason: We now hear Culver's hooked up with a Googler. (Photo of Henderson by magerleagues)
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By Owen ThomasComment by inkvision: Wow. Geeks here sure are surly. Methinks they all are tasting the sour grapes that comes of never getting even... more » | Other threads
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bubble 2.0
The microbubble in microblogging
If there is a Web 2.0 bubble, it is surely in microblogging, a field popularized by Twitter.. Countless startups are thriving on the myth that sharing yourself online is too hard. Pownce cofounder Leah Culver graces the cover of MIT's alumni magazine. San Francisco's most self-involved Webheads can't stop gabbing about FriendFeed, which, as our intern Alaska Miller smartly explained to his mother, is a place where people who are really obsessed with the Internet can talk to others of like mind. And then there's Plurk, the much-mocked Twitter clone, which has drawn such derision that Web hipsters made up a company and claimed it had bought Plurk. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by MichelleMMM: For there to be a bubble at all, doesn't there need to be vast numbers of adopters? more » | Other threads
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superficial
Pownce cofounder Leah Culver explains how to be beautiful and get taken seriously
Think it's hard being a woman in technology? Apparently it's even harder to be an attractive one. That's right, pretty people are rising above the prejudice that unless they look like Steve Wozniak, they can't hack it: More »
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By Jackson WestComment by frederic: ha yes.. the subject of Ted Dziuba's misogynistic obsession over at uncov. Normally children grow out of this. FAIL more » | Other threads
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web apps
Plurk, yet another microblogging platform, hailed by The 250
Not happy with updating your friends publicly via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pownce and Jaiku (and feeding all those updates into FriendFeed)? Then, um, try Plurk, a startup which declares, "We've taken the time, the complexity, and the deep introspection required out of blogging." Also, too, the irony. [The Inquisitr]
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By Jackson WestComment by mager: Plurk is addicting. Watch it take over Twitter. Or, watch Twitter buy it and use its technology. more » | Other threads
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once you're lucky, twice you're good
R is for Rose, who made Digg his toy
Kevin Rose takes up 62 out of 294 pages in Sarah Lacy's Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, her new book about Web 2.0. That's less than I expected, since Rose was the coverboy for the BusinessWeek story, co-written by Lacy, which launched her book. From the look of the index, not much time is spent on the women Rose is said to have "plowed through", as his friend Alex Albrecht once put it: -
caption contest
Leah Culver gives Kyle Shank the cupcake treatment
Former Uncov guy and Persai CEO Kyle Shank, at center, recovers from an unsolicited cupcake smearing by Pownce's Leah Culver. The attack, likely motivated by Uncov accomplice Ted Dziuba's frequent gibes directed at Culver, took place at Flickr's fourth birthday party. Flickr's Cal Henderson, right, is said to have served as Culver's accomplice. Speaking of, can anyone confirm whether Henderson and Culver are dating? The two were inseparable at SXSW. If so, snaps to Culver: We hear Henderson's website is highly scalable. (Photo by magerleagues)
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By Owen ThomasComment by eze: valleywag is full of good writers, and they also respect women. on the other hand, you misogynistic commenters suck for... more » | Other threads
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geek love
Julia Allison and Kevin Rose hanging on South Beach
A tipster emails from the Future of Web Apps conference in Miami with a Julia Allison and Kevin Rose sighting. Guess that Pownce invite worked on Julia. The conference was described by one attendee as "basically a war between PHP and Ruby on Rails." Well, it seems like some are having a good time. Check out the tipster's email and full-size pics below, enhanced slightly for clarity. More » -
valleyspeak
Leah Culver tries to coin a catchphrase
From the Future of Web Apps conference in Miami: "Leah Culver is trying to coin the term 'social messaging' as a way to describe Pownce." I suppose that's better than "social massaging."
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Comment by pepelicious: @Nicholas Carlson: Thanks to Web 2.0, the word "Social" has lost pretty much all of it's meaning. What she means... more » | Other threads
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geek love
Julia Allison ready to Pownce Kevin Rose in Miami
Julia Allison writes that she signed up for a Pownce account despite not knowing "what, exactly, Pownce is or does." (I'm with you there, Julia.) She says she signed up because "I was told to sign up, and ... I follow instructions when given by cute boys." Well Kevin, that's one way to get signups. Just be careful down there in Miami at the Future of Web Apps conference, 'kay? We hear there's a big pink target on your back.
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Comment by c0d3w12: @Alaska Miller: Jakob, Are you speaking from experience? more » | Other threads
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breakdowns
Pownce's botched launch reminds us why we miss Uncov
Last night Pownce attempted to launch live to the public, but instead launched FAIL, a tipster tells us in an email with this error message attached. No, this tipster is not Uncov's Ted Dziuba, the Leah Culver-despising hero of all real programmers. We ended all that. Nevertheless, Dziuba's definition of the site remains useful. More »
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Comment by clipless: What kind of website asks you to enter your new password only once? I might be god-like, but I've been... more » | Other threads
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By Owen ThomasComment by amyceline: geeez. why do all the girl geeks either get hated on or posted up to be rated for "girl geek... more » | Other threads
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the chart
Web 2.0's Long Fail curve
I cracked. I read Uncov's latest on Pownce. I still don't know what Pownce is. More important is the post's Alexa chart. More » -
wrapup
Top 5 FAILs of 2007
They were going to CHANGE EVERYTHING. Whoops. presenting five biggest technology disappointments of the past year. No, not Vista and the Kindle — you didn't expect anything there. More » -
party report
For LiveJournal, Six Aparting is such sweet sorrow
Users of LiveJournal call it "defriending." As terrible as it sounds, defriending's not really that bad; it just means you're bored with someone and don't want to hear about their issues anymore. Or share yours with them. That, in essence, is what Six Apart, the San Francisco-based blog-software company, has decided to do with LiveJournal, the online community it acquired from Brad Fitzpatrick in 2005. Andrew Anker, Six Apart's vice president ofchopping the company into little bits for convenient and lucrative dispositioncorporate development, orchestrated the sale of LiveJournal to Sup, a Russian media company which already runs a localized version of the site. With the sale, Anker and the rest of Six Apart's team are letting LiveJournal know, as gently as they can, that they're just not interested in its problems. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Jeremy: @Owen Thomas: I get a nice shout out, though, for my Pink shirts, right? more » | Other threads
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pownce
Pownce documents self-promotion API
I blame Twitter. It's not enough to be a website anymore. Oh no. You must be a platform. Have an API. Court developers. Build an "ecosystem." Whatever. You know what an application programming interface really is? An admission that you're too poor, cheap, or uncreative to build all the features your website needs. Pownce is the latest to 'fess up to its shortcomings. The file-sharing and messaging site has released its own API. Incomplete, naturally. Maybe they can release an API for their API and have someone else finish it for them. More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Keymaster: Having an API for a web app is the same idea as having an XML feed for your blag. ... more » | Other threads
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tumblr
A blog is a blog is a blog except when it's not
In explaining Union Square Ventures investment in Tumblr, Andrew Parker goes out of his way to distinguish the service from traditional blogs. But in explaining how Tumblr does not compete with Twitter, in which his firm has also invested, he makes it clear that, well, Tumblr is a blog — while avoiding the b-word at all costs. Tumblr is a just blog, and doesn't compete with Twitter. While services like Tumblr, Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce are lumped together as microblogging tools because of their brevity, users recognize the dramatic differences in the software behind them and the experiences they create. They are more than blogs. Brevity may be the soul of wit — but it's not the ghost in the machine.
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By Tim FaulknerComment by AndrewParker: I'm Valleywag'd twice on the same subject in the same night? I must be Jason Calacanis. more » | Other threads
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web apps
What to use instead of Evite (and five other popular but terrible websites)
Oh god, Evite. It starts with an email about a party with no information about that party, and then it gets worse. But in many cases there's no reason you have to use the most popular site. Here's what to use instead of Evite, YouTube, Blogger, Twitter, Digg, and MapQuest. More » -
leah culver
Pownce engineer picks fight with Kevin Rose
Ah, we remember a day when relations between the creators of Pownce, the online message board backed by Digg founder Kevin Rose, were, well, kinder. But now Pownce coder Leah Culver, pictured here, has started a spat with Rose, using his own Digg site to accuse Digg of copying Pownce. Digg has added more social features, it's true — and considering that Digg and Pownce share employees, is it really surprising that they'd look similar? Perhaps Culver has reconsidered the charge, having deleted the Flickr screenshot she used to illustrate it. Considering that one of the double-time workers, Daniel Burka, is Culver's ex, we suspect that there may be more to this drama than mere user-interface issues.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Owen Thomas: @Automatt: The photo was taken by Lane Hartwell for Valleywag. more » | Other threads
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social networks
Who digs Digg's new social features?
The biggest problem with becoming an extremely popular website with extremely vocal and loyal users, like the social news site Digg, is ... being extremely popular and having extremely vocal and loyal users. Your audience can never be pleased: Some want new features, others want old features refined, and others want no changes at all. While the newly introduced social-network features seem unobtrusive, and in keeping with Digg's headline-rating focus, most Diggers simply want commenting improved and a promised images section added. And they're enraged that the new features were revealed in an old-media BusinessWeek exclusive prior to appearing on Digg's own blog. More » -
feuds
Jason Calacanis-Kevin Rose catfight devolves into pussyfest
Jason Calacanis and Kevin Rose, interviewed together on the second episode of the GigaOm Show? Of course, the "fur would fly" — or so hosts Om Malik and Joyce Kim promised. Despite recent photographic evidence of a peace accord, Calacanis did, after all, try to undercut Kevin Rose's Digg social-news site with a revamped Netscape during his short tenure at AOL. So, did the claws come out? More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Michael J Lambie: i was waiting for Kevin to POWNCE Jason. but he never did. more » | Other threads
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your privacy is an illusion
Chris Pirillo gets pwned on Pownce
Chris Pirillo, the tech pundit and conference organizer, doesn't mind being exposed. But he does object to people stealing his identity, as some unknown user has done on Pownce, Kevin Rose's file-sharing service. Pirillo says he hasn't signed up on Pownce, and doesn't know who's using the username "chrispirillo" on the service. Among the people the faux Pirillo appears to have taken in, if you can trust any username on Pownce: Digg cofounder Jay Adelson, spokesblogger Robert Scoble, and Internet-TV personality Veronica Belmont. One thing Pirillo might want to look into: Someone has also signed up for Pownce with the login "lockergnome," the name of Pirillo's popular tech website.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Owen Thomas: @Atunu: By "gay," I hope you mean "extremely awesome." Sort of like Valleywag's editor. more » | Other threads
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lazy valleywag
Who did Ryan Carson dump DropSend on?
These days, Web startups are easier than ever to start — and harder than ever to sell. Carson Systems has apparently found a buyer for DropSend — eight long months after founder Ryan Carson first put the file-sharing Web application up for sale. DropSend has gotten good reviews, but it's in a hotly competitive space, facing rivals as diverse as Pando, Pownce, and YouSendIt, and Carson's conference business appears more promising. (Why bother actually writing Web apps when you can just get people to pay to talk about them?) Anyone know the name of the buyer, and the purchase price?
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By Owen ThomasComment by Figaro: Those who can, do, and those who can't teach. Carson reminds me of those people who sell books on how to... more » | Other threads
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fads
Why Pownce is so popular
Since Friday, I've been going around telling friends that "Pownce is the new pink," which is really my way of avoiding the burden of explaining Digg founder Kevin Rose's new startup toy. But since I've been mocked by my staff at and misheard by my friends, I might as well explain myself — and Pownce, while I'm at it. Here's what Pownce is — and isn't: More » -
party report
Pownce founders party in pot-laden pleasure palace
MEGAN MCCARTHY — "Pownce is the new pink," declared Valleywag's capricious new editor Owen Thomas in assigning me to go cover a party thrown by Leah Culver and Kevin Rose, cofounders of Digg. The new pink? More like the new pot. The microblogging site, which people use to send around URLs, MP3s, and updates on their lives, is just as coveted — invitations are still up for sale on eBay — and seems to leave its users just as unproductive. So what better place to hold a party than a pink castle of a house in the Castro owned by Dennis Peron, one of the heads of California's medical marijuana movement? A list of Internet-glamorous attendees, a crime scene, and a photo gallery, after the jump. More »
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Comment by Megan McCarthy: Oh, also, my phone was in that bag they swiped. Any new iPhone purchaser have an extra PDA they... more » | Other threads
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pownce
"Pownce is competing with 37 Signals."
Every new Web app gets compared to its predecessors. Pownce, the new messaging, sharing, and microblogging service from Digg founder Kevin Rose, is no good because it's just a poor man's Twitter, right? No, says startup expert Lane Becker, because Pownce isn't a messaging service — it's a productivity app, and it's competing with development boutique 37 Signals, the makers of Basecamp, Web-based software for group collaboration. To which 37 Signals says, "First of all, it's named after a cat treat." [Satisfaction: Pownce]
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By Nick DouglasComment by Mike Schinkel: So I guess 37signals had more longevity than Pounce! On the other hand there are a still tons of other solutions... more » | Other threads
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kevin rose
Third time's (not) the charm
Kevin Rose, the web wunderkind, has revealed his new project, Pownce, which apparently allows us to "share stuff." Maybe the community is partially to blame for the hype surrounding the creator of Digg and Revision3 (the former is popular and influential, the latter just received funding), but Kevin does his fair share of self-promoting, and he doesn't have to believe his own hype. He is not Superman — something he may not yet be aware of. This third project could finally expose the young entrepreneur to a little failure and humility. More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by ZiggyJay: Okay, my initial reaction is that Pownce is just another IM client and I can do it all with what... more » | Other threads
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