Under pretense of their dogs doing the talking, owners are expressing themselves in all kinds of ways that they wouldn't normally.

In fact, owners may find it easier to say things they wouldn't be able to say on dating sites. Rheingold is seeing all kinds of things — for example, one post was about a dog whose Mommy came home after something called a "date." The dog said he didn't know what a date was, but that Mommy said it didn't go very well, this date, and so the dog said he stayed by her side and tried to make her feel better.

Yeah, Dogster and companion site Catster are really dating sites for furries — you know, people who act and dress like anthropomorphized animals (not that there's anything wrong with that). That's why the satire site Something Awful explored the creepy Catster forums this spring.

Dogster raises $1M to expand — Woof! — but it's not about the dogs [VentureBeat]

Ted Rheingold: "Things are going to get harder than you think. So when you start, lie to yourself a little."

Matt Mullenweg: Check out Founder Frustrations, which tells stories of startups and equity-sharing deals gone right and wrong. (And if SXSW's wifi was running smooth, I'd be mining for stories already.)

Matt: Make sure your team can meet face-to-face.

Lynda Keeler, founder of the Delight Network: "The biggest challenge with overseas work is they start raising their rates and getting too busy for you." Ted grunts. "It's kind of like here," says Lynda.

Ted: Make some legal friends, and with their help, check the trademarks related to your company name. If someone already took your name, you're screwed.

Limor, an audience member: Law books and legal forms from Nolo give you DIY legal advice, so you can do stuff like register your own trademarks. "It can be really easy. If you can code PHP, you can do this."

How do you separate your personal identity from the identity of your company? Ted: "I was at this party, and I had a t-shirt with movable wiki letters. And my shirt eventually read, 'I heart your'...um, 'buttocks.' And it was tagged Dogster cause I'm Dogster, so on Flickr a search for Dogster showed that shirt. I'm gonna be more careful in the future."

Getting the corporate culture out there. A panelist: "You've got to make the t-shirt first." Someone points out that Wordpress finally has t-shirts after three years — they made them after users started making their own.

All done, leave any other favorite panel notes in the comments.

Everyone's famous on the Internet! And the webstars really shine in Scott Beale's Wednesday photos from O'Reilly ETech 2006. In this edition, Ted Rheingold of Dogster, 3/4 of the Boing Boing crew, and an episode of escalating violence.

Ed Batista, attention pimp.

Dogster's Ted Rheingold and ex-Technoratian Niall Kennedy give the white man's gang sign.

Simply Hired's Dave McClure, moments before shrieking "Your sun! It burns me!" and running back to his Gevil lair.

After the jump, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

"Dear team: kicking into high-gear networking mode. Send more striped shirts."

Mark, Xeni, and Cory of Boing Boing rest between glamorous international spy missions.

Geek-hobo proliferation reminds O'Reilly what they left out: "Oh damn! We always forget the CHAIRS!"

"Hmmm, I just might have a 'project' I could fit this pipe into, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN."

Ted didn't actually use his laptop — just sat there all day posing. It's tough being pretty.

"Sure, you could use these gadgets for their intended purposes, but where's the fun in that?"

Tech writer Annalee Newitz blasts away at MAKE Magazine's marshmallow shooter.

And she stood there for an hour, waiting for something to happen.

This would've been the perfect moment for Ted's "I play trumpet in a ska band" hat.

The marshmallow projectile beaned a bellhop and neatly severed the Internet connection. Only the latter got noticed.

MAKE Magazine pits Roombas in an armed fight to the death.

"House meeting, everyone. Okay, have we learned our lesson about shooting and fighting today? Now I want you all to make Annalee a nice 'Get Well' card."

ETech 2006 Photos [Laughing Squid]
Earlier: Geeking out: ETech 2006, Tuesday [Valleywag]
And: Geeking out: ETech 2006 [Valleywag]

Time to blow your kazoos. So far, I've gathered the following predictions:

Blog Herald: News aggregator Newsvine is "rumored" to be the sellout. But why would someone buy Newsvine when, well, when Digg exists?
Silicon Beat: Who knows, but is Spy Media next?
Stowe Boyd: Tagged. No, not Tagged? Damn.
Good Morning Silicon Valley: Riya? Newsvine? Goowy?

A Valleywag commenter named "Mensch" says Meetro's lackluster presentation was far below par, and the only explanation is MORE COWBELL. I mean the only explanation is that Meetro already got the deal.

And from the TechCrunch peanut gallery:
"Markus" says Eurekster.
"Ted" says Zvents.
Jason Baptiste, "noob," and Dogster's Ted Rheingold say Meetro.

But Meetro has its own picks: Eurekster, Popist, and Sphere. Come on, Meetro, if you're trying to cover your ass, just give up and admit it — you make a tasty addition to Myspace, with your geo-located IMing and your "kinda cool, kinda stalker" vibe.

Fox Announces Acquistion; Exclusive Video [TechCrunch]
Earlier: Who did Fox buy? [Valleywag]
Image: Meetro HQ [Meetro]

Irina Slutsky is unaware of the impending doom that is Jake. Her fate, after the jump.

Jake: "Well, Irina, after I defused the dirty bomb and saved a small African tribe from destruction, I took a photo of myself and hand-delivered it to TIME. Sorry, just a second, the Pulitzer people are calling."

Joshua Kinberg (developer for media aggregator FireAnt) replays his "home videos."

And from Kristie Wells:

Dogster's Ted Rheingold: "No, I'm pretty sure Ferretster is not a viable spin-off."

Meanwhile, at a pre-pre-Supernova dinner:

Macromedia co-founder Marc Canter: "My social network is THIS BIG."

Photos:
1-3: Scott Beale [Laughing Squid]
4: Kristie Wells [Flickr]
5: Geodog [Flickr]