Home / valleywag.com rss archive / September-10-2007


Modern And Awkward: Why I won't digg your lame story
I would do plenty of things for you. I'd drive you to the airport. I'd be the gunner while you drive the Warthog on Halo. I'd pretend you really can play the guitar. But I won't vote for your lame story on Digg.It's gonna get buried immediately.The headline is "Pictures of towers [PIC]" and the article has three pictures of towers. One of them is clearly just a Lego tower with some perspective tricks. Digg has replaced the "Ok, this is lame" option with "This is worse than temporary death" just for your article. Your story will get buried, and the undertaker will whack it with the shovel just to be sure.It's the seventh story you sent me this week.You asked me to digg "My brother falls in the shower" and I did. It got buried. You asked me to digg "RUMOR: Apple to add GPS to iPhone" just because you had a hunch, and I did. It got buried. So did the other four. Give up, man.You clearly just want to get traffic on your blog.But why? It's a freaking Blogspot with the default template....

East Vs. West: Boston VC who passed on Facebook trashes the Valley
Would Cambridge-founded social network Facebook have grown into its current role as tech media darling if it had stayed back east instead of seeking its fortune in California, wonders Boston.com? Answer, as supplied by Facebook investor Jim Breyer from Accel Partners: No. As in N-O. No effing way. Nada, etc. Why? Breyer elaborates: ""So many of the Facebook employees have come from top Internet companies like Yahoo, eBay, and Google that the culture that has been built at Facebook is fundamentally more consumer/Internet savvy than if it would've been built anywhere else on the planet." Sounds plausible to us! But bitterly jealous Battery Ventures partner Scott Tobin--who passed when Zuckerberg came to him for startup money-- has a different take. "Folks in the Valley are incredibly ego-centric to a point of snobbery" he blithely claims. True enough. But, he goes on to say, passing on Facebook "may turn out to have been a mistake."

Videogames: GAMING: With over World of Warcraft surpassing ...
GAMING: With over World of Warcraft surpassing 9 million subscribers and media conglomerates dropping millions left and right to acquire online worlds, it's little surprise that online games have been proclaimed the hottest thing since Pong. They're also one of the key topics of the Austin Game Developers Conference, where developers warn that brands need to do more than make virtual shopping plazas. [News.com]

Clips: Wikipedia, a fact checker's worst nightmare
FCU with Bill MurrayIf you've never had the pleasure of fact checking at a magazine, congratulate yourself. And stay far, far away. Writers (and editors) have a tendency to pull facts out of thin air. That means the poor fact check department is often sent scavenging for ridiculous facts like the number of fish in the ocean. Worse, it has to verify information gathered from the Web's most trusted source, Wikipedia. In the above clip from comedian Will Ferrell's Funnyordie.com, Peter Karinen and Brian Sacca of the "Fact Check Unit" must verify that Bill Murray's sleeping aid is a warm glass of milk. The source is Wikipedia."That's a user-generated site," exclaims the duo, "that could have been written by a 7-year-old." Hilarity ensues. The moral: Don't use Wikipedia as a source. (And don't become a fact checker).

Yahoo: Read all about it -- Yahoo's doing ... nothing!
Remember Jerry Yang's 100 Day Plan? The one that promised a new game plan with "no sacred cows?" We're almost to the halfway mark (Day 56, counting weekends, but isn't that what fast-track executives do?) and so far, there's precious little going on. Check out Kevin Delaney's WSJ piece today, which points to barn-burners like adding social networking features to its email and hiring Stone Yamashita partners to help them refocus (disclosure: I have a brilliant relative who works there). Delaney quotes Glen Kacher of Integral Capital partners, who dumped his Yahoo! holdings after meeting with top executives there in August, saying we "decided that the management isn't considering the kind of transformational changes that would be required to improve their position in the market." Ouch.

Housekeeping: Who am I and why am I here?
I'm Evelyn Nussenbaum. It's not an existential question. But in case you're wondering where the lovely and talented Owen Thomas has gone, the answer is Hawaii. With his spouse. Leaving me to fill his extremely large (but stylish) shoes. So who am I? The short answer is that I am a refugee from the late, great Business 2.0 Magazine--ok the October issue is coming out, but it's the last one. This is a collector's item, people! But my stint at the New York Post is probably the most relevant to Valleywag. OK, I was a business reporter, but I sat next to Keith Kelly and across from the King of All Gossip Columnists Richard Johnson--something must have rubbed off. I'll report, you decide. And you don't need to see a picture of me--I look fabulous, especially sitting here in my pj's.

Online Video: Warner Bros. joins the digital age with "Studio 2.0"
Warner Brothers has realized the Internet waits for no studio. Like its fellow television conglomerates, WB has been hesitant to jump onto the Web -- until today's announcement that it will open the Web-dedicated Studio 2.0. The new venture will be busy creating a combination of 24 original games, mini movies, and television shows. As The New York Times reports, Warner Bros. was originally waiting for its advertisers to foot the bill but realized it was better off getting the business off the ground. (Or it was sick of being shown up by that upstart Michael Eisner). Warner execs claim the company is spending less than $3 million on the current crop of Studio 2.0 content. More shocking than WB's foray into Web programming? Its launch was hung up on a mere $3 million.

This Startup Life: Wellsphere's slam-dunk
Our bratty little brothers over at Uncov got their hands on a priceless picture of Silicon Valley office life. Pictured, above (and beyond), is a scene from entrepreneur Ron Gutman's health startup Wellsphere. Apparently the founders really really wanted a hoop in their offices, so much so that they rearrainged roof tiles for it. Hope the landlord's okay with that. Next time you're decorating your office, think of this. Why settle for a mere foosball table? After all, you don't get much exercise twirling those little plastic men, do you?

Venture Capital: The battle to plunk bucks in Splunk
The Valley's venture capitalists fall into and out of love with enterprise software. Today, with Facebook and other social networks the talk of the town, it's hard for the makers of boring IT products to get attention. But not, it seems, money. Splunk, in a lightning-fast fundraising effort, has pulled in $25 million in a third round of financing, bringing the company's valuation up to $120 million. Splunk's software analyzes server logs, and in a nod to the collaborative aspects of Web 2.0, lets sysadmins share and discuss the results to figure out if odd patterns are signs of system failures or security breaches. Think of it as a Google for hardcore nerds, but one they're actually willing to pay for. And that, in turn, made Ignition Venture Partners, a Seattle-area venture-capital firm, willing to pay for a stake in the San Francisco company. In every investment, there are winners and losers, though.The obvious winner is Splunk, which has commanded one of the highest valuations...

Digital Music: Allow me to introduce you to the "ringle"
It's, like, the chirping of crickets meets Rihanna's hit song "Umbrella." Who (or what?) could come up with such a stupid combination? The recording industry, of course!. So here it is, folks: The Ringle. Get it! It's a ringtone and a single, slammed together. Obviously, since consumers enjoy downloading singles from iTunes and purchasing ringtones for their cell phones, they'd like that one-two punch bundled onto a single CD. Who wouldn't want to travel to your local Best Buy to buy something you can safely acquire in your living room? An estimated $5.98 will get you a ringle, plus a remix and, maybe, an older track.

Google: Big media cringed when it heard Google News ...
Big media cringed when it heard Google News was launching a comment system open only to sources and subjects. But Google's managed to alleviate fears -- a mere 104 comments were filed in the last 30 days. [Compiler]

Virtual Worlds: Second Life is just an amplified rat race
Ever wonder why Second Life residents shell out cash for virtual booze and the latest slouchy boots trends? So do we. Shira Boss of The New York Times looks into the consumer culture and increasing commercialization of Linden Lab's virtual world. Unfortunately, her research comes up a bit short -- although there is extensive documentation of residents spending gobs of money on property and fashion accessories, and picking up part-time Second Life jobs to finance the habit. It just begs the question, as stated by Nick Yee who studies virtual worlds, "What does Second Life say about us, that we trade our consumerist-oriented culture for one that's even worse?" Eliminating the need for shelter or hunger has amplified our basest desires -- material possessions.

Internet: Future US has discovered Web 2.0
Newly launched FileRadar.net --the new website from Magazine publisher Future, the media conglomerate responsible for magazines like PC Gamer, Mac|Life, and Maximum PC--puts some extreme Digg-styled social media into the already saturated PC downloads market. Organizing files by Blips (i.e. popularity) won't be the easiest way for file seekers to find what they're looking for. (Isn't searching by topic simpler?) FileRadar's debut follows last month's launch of video sharing with Gloob.TV, an edited list of popular Internet videos. Future has been grasping at straws to compete with sites like CNET's GameSpot and Ziff Davis's 1UP Network by implementing all sorts of Web 2.0 tomfoolery. Future's thinking, apparently, is someone will love it if it's coated in enough Ajax, right? If this launch rate continues, some idea is bound to stick.(Full disclosure: I write for several of Future's competitors).

Rumormonger: Google rains on happy hour parade
We hear that Palomino restaurant on the Embarcadero -- a favorite happy hour location for SOMA startup employees -- is having a little trouble adjusting to its new corporate neighbor. Last Friday some startup employees, enjoying after-work margaritas on the patio courtesy of their founder, got a little surprise-- a shower. The boss says he complained to the waiter, who promptly blamed Google. The search giant, which rented the floors above Palomino for its new San Francisco digs, apparently installed cooling misters on the deck overlooking the restaurant for its own employees-- ostensibly to ward off the heat generated when the SOMA sun meets the patio's slate floor. But Google placed the misting machines in just the right spot to send the moisture cascading off its deck onto Palomino's patio. The shower-ees were unhappy, to say the least, but we say "look on the bright side." Some people might pay for the pleasure of a baptism at the hands of Silicon Valley's Midas company.

New: Who am I and why am I here?
It's not an existential question. But in case you're wondering where the lovely and talented Owen Thomas has gone, the answer is Hawaii. With his spouse. Leaving me to fill his extremely large (but stylish) shoes. So who am I? The short answer is that I am a refugee from the late, great Business 2.0 Magazine--ok the October issue is coming out, but it's the last one. This is a collector's item, people! But my stint at the New York Post is probably the most relevant to Valleywag. OK, I was a business reporter, but I sat next to Keith Kelly and across from the King of All Gossip Columnists Richard Johnson--something must have rubbed off. I'll report, you decide. And you don't need to see a picture of me--I look fabulous, especially sitting here in my pj's.

: Who am I and why am I here?
It's not an existential question. But in case you're wondering where the lovely and talented Owen Thomas has gone, the answer is Hawaii. With his spouse. Leaving me to fill his extremely large (but stylish) shoes. So who am I? The short answer is that I am a refugee from the late, great Business 2.0 Magazine--ok the October issue is coming out, but it's the last one. This is a collector's item, people! But my stint at the New York Post is probably the most relevant to Valleywag. OK, I was a business reporter, but I sat next to Keith Kelly and across from the King of All Gossip Columnists Richard Johnson--something must have rubbed off. I'll report, you decide. And you don't need to see a picture of me--I look fabulous, especially sitting here in my pj's.

Myspace: Chris DeWolfe's misplaced affection
MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe may not be your friend (that's the other co-founder, Tom Anderson), but he does hold a few powerful people near-and-dear. Including, Portfolio reports, Wendi Deng, the wife of News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch. Portfolio surmises that DeWolfe's friendship with Deng might help convince her husband to meet DeWolfe and Anderson's $50M compensation demand to stick around for another year. We think that DeWolfe has the wrong target in mind. While it might be easier for him to spend time with Deng -- they're both on the board of MySpace China -- we think he should be buttering up News Corp heir apparent Peter Chernin, who recent fillings revealed to be the highest paid person at News Corp.

Online Video: The Beeb to team up with Xbox 360?
There's a new battleground for digitally ditributed content brewing in the most unlikeliest of places -- home videogame consoles. Last week there was the rather shocking announcement that Sony's PlayStation 3 would soon be home to movie and television content. Not to be outdone, Microsoft's Xbox 360, which has had video content downloads since last November, is now courting the BBC and all of its TV shows and HD programming. While the soothing tones of the BBC are not usually what we associate with xBox, the deal, which Microsoft is "working diligently on," would add some much needed gravitas to a portfolio currently dominated by South Park and UFC Fights.

IPhone: Why did the iPhone price cut blow up in Jobs' ...
Why did the iPhone price cut blow up in Jobs' face? Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics, explains consumers hate companies that look like they're dropping the price simply to make more money. Apple would have been better off disguising it as a component upgrade. [Freakonomics]

IPhone: Why did the iPhone price cut blow up in Jobs' face?
Freakonomics on why consumers hated the discount: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/should-apple-burn-its-economics-textbooks/

Yahoo: Read all about it: Yahoo's doing..nothing!
Remember Jerry Yang's 100 Day Plan? The one that promised a new game plan with "no sacred cows?" We're almost to the halfway mark (Day 56, counting weekends, but isn't that what fast-track executives do?) and so far, there's precious little going on. Check out Kevin Delaney's WSJ piece today, which points to barn-burners like adding social networking features to its email and hiring Stone Yamashita partners to help them refocus (disclosure: I have a brilliant relative who works there). Delaney quotes Glen Kacher of Integral Capital partners, who dumped his Yahoo! holdings after meeting with top executives there in August, saying we "decided that the management isn't considering the kind of transformational changes that would be required to improve their position in the market." Ouch.