Gawker: valleywag, tom foremski

Wait, Foremski found her?

Nick Douglas — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 11:21:38 EDT

The Times credits the local tech columnist who (as we said) first identified YouTube star LonelyGirl15:

Matt Foremski, the 18-year-old son of Tom Foremski, a reporter for the blog Silicon Valley Watcher, was the first to disinter a trove of photographs of the familiar-looking actress, who portrayed the character named Bree in the videos.

Way to go, Foremski boys! We knew Tom (a well-known Valley dude and a former Financial Times reporter) was due for a scoop, but this was a shocker. (And since we assume the discovery involved poring over photos of cute teenage actresses, we're relieved Tom's 18-year-old-son did the legwork.)

Well, It Turns Out That Lonelygirl Really Wasn't [NY Times]
SVW Exclusive: The identity of LonelyGirl15 [Silicon Valley Watcher]

Bloggers ID famous fake YouTuber: LonelyGirl15 is actress Jessica Rose

Nick Douglas — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:06:42 EDT

LonelyGirl15 has a name. The YouTube video blogger who acted in a fictional show about a homeschooled religious girl, her daily life, and her boy friend (and got on CNN in the process) was outed as a fake last week when bloggers traced messages and video blog posts back to a Beverly Hills talent agency. This weekend, the still-unnamed creators of the vlog saga posted a forum message admitting that the show was scripted.

Today, three sources turned up info about LonelyGirl15 — now known as 19-year-old L.A. actress Jessica Rose. First, YouTube user mgpapas posted the following photo montage of Rose as herself and as LG15. (Mute it; the soundtrack is "You Are So Beautiful to Me.")

A blog called "Top of the Tube" spread the video and added Rose's resume. Meanwhile, tech blogger Tom Foremski wrote that he found Rose too.

lonelygirl15 revealed : jessica rose aspiring actress [Top of the Tube]

Foremski proven right (kinda): Sun only fires 122 workers

Nick Douglas — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 21:19:40 EDT

Every journalist knows, some tips are too juicy to be true. Despite ZDNet columnist Tom Foremski's dire prediction of thousands of Sun layoffs today, Jon Schwartz's company only cut 400 jobs today. BusinessWeek says that 122 are in Colorado, 113 in Menlo Park, according to a Colorado Department of Labor official. A pain for those who got fired, but more Boston Massacre than Nanjing Massacre.

Sun Microsystems lays off workers [BusinessWeek]
Earlier: "Ponytail" Schwartz chops off thousands of jobs this week (He didn't.) [Valleywag]

Why the Valley's not getting laid

Nick Douglas — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 17:46:36 EDT

As the President of the Colonies said in Battlestar Galactica, if the human race is going to survive after the ~~Googlers~~ Cylons attack, we're gonna have to start making babies. So why does all of Silicon Valley have such a hard time getting it on?

Sun CEO Jon Schwartz's ponytail (pictured) has a 40-mile-radius aura of unsexiness.
As Tom Foremski found, Cox Interactive keeps blocking Craigslist. Granted, if I wanted to see Cox on Craigslist, I'd just go to m4m. But seriously, the Internet provider is keeping geeks from the only way they know how to hook up. [Silicon Valley Watcher]
They write jokes like Wife 1.0 OS. "Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0 , Cook It 1.5 and Do Bills 4.2." Har har. [Craigslist]
When they actually do post ads, geeks write shit like: "I'm looking for someone who doesn't want to be a wife right now, but misses some of the aspects of being a wife. That is, taking care of a man. I'm a 35 year old bachelor, a software professional, and I'm in the middle of a project right now." Come on now, Michael Arrington — you're not really a software professional. [Craigslist]

After the jump, the "keep the damn bars open" theory.

And who are the suave, snappily-dressed men to offset the nerds? Venture capitalists. Oh, perfect, because as admin assistant Sand Hill Slave can attest, nothing's hotter than a coked-out stripey-wearing VC associate who keeps bragging about his job. [Sand Hill Slave]
And the women of the Valley? "Hot for Silicon Valley" isn't a slam on real looks — it's a slam on every woman who insists on wearing a pantsuit from the 90s.
Closing time in San Francisco: 2 AM. Closing time in San Jose: 2 AM. Closing time in Cupertino: 2 AM. Come on, California lawmakers — bar-going geeks need at least another hour to loosen up.
The bedroom's out of wifi range.

Then again, it could be worse — we could all be in Washington, with all the romance of Silicon Valley and all the intelligence of Miami.

Tom Foremski's ingenious plan to fight censorship

ndouglas — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 23:52:31 EST

Silicon Valley Watcher's Tom Foremski has a brilliant solution to Google's censored China search: censor other sites too.

Web site owners could choose to unilaterally block the traffic coming from a country that practices forms of censorship, or forms of government, that the web site owner disagrees with.

Yeah. Foremski's plan for web site owners is to protest censorship by censoring their own sites. Come back next week, when Foremski solves literacy by burning books.

China risks reverse censorship [Tom Foremski, ZDNet]