Home / valleywag.com rss archive / September-11-2007


Scams: Marry your daughter off online
Meet Kyra A. She's 14-1/2, lives in the Southeast, and her hand in marriage can be won for the low, low price of $27,995. Psych! The giant-killer Brad Stone, who unmasked FakeSteveJobs , has discovered that Marryourdaughter.com is a hoax, designed to provoke discussion of the inconsistency of laws on underage marriage and sex in our great country. And to think that I nearly listed my six-year-old there...

Google: Details on the internal Google video leak
There are two words in the English language that, when placed together, deliver a blissfully melodious sound to every Valleywagger's ear. Those words? "Google" and "leak." As in "An internal Google video was leaked today." Sweet, sweet joy! (Side note, if you can help us repeat that joy let us know.) Sadly, it's been taken off line now, but Philipp Lenssen over at Google Blogoscoped has the rundown of the accidentally-made-public video, which details insider information about Google Reader. (Including the eyebrow-raising fact that 2/3 of all feeds have only one subscriber. Oh, the huge vanity!) And, our condolences go out to Google employee Ben Darnell, whose name is on the leaked materials. Perhaps this link might be helpful for you?

Digital Music: Universal Music considers forcing internet users to pay for music
Not everyone thinks Rick Rubin's proclamation of a music subscription future is crazy. Universal Music is currently exploring the subscriber space, according to Digital Music News's sources. The initiative known as TotalMusic would tie digital music to internet service providers -- forcing all internet users to pay for music, regardless of whether they'll actually use it. Apparently this idea isn't too popular with internet providers because it would bump rates (ESPN 360 has suffered similar problems because it passed costs onto ISPs instead of the end user). No doubt Universal Music views TotalMusic as a brilliant solution to piracy woes -- if everyone is forced to pay for music, none would pirate. Of course that logic posits that everybody pirates...

Microsoft: Microsoft thinks Google Apps is a bad idea, natch
Google has finally bundled a premier edition of its Web-based applications: consulting/outsourcing/jack-of-all-trades firm Capgemini is partnering to offer an enterprise edition that will compete directly with Microsoft's Office. Despite Capgemini's proclamation that Google Apps and Office are complimentary, Microsoft isn't taking kindly to this. In petty retaliation, the company sent out a list of questions "to ask when considering the switch to [Google Apps Premier Edition]," like whether Google actually has enterprise users. It also claims that Google releases incomplete products, and is only marginally invested in productivity suites. We can't wait for Google and Capgemini to respond. (Photo by Mahalie)

Terrorism: Just in time for September 11th... the EU ...
Just in time for September 11th... the EU is considering legislation to ban posting bomb-making instructions on the web. Sadly, the horse is out of the barn on that one. [Ars Technica]

Gideon Yu: Target this man if you want a piece of Facebook
So, Facebook may be raising money for a $1B valuation, according to Kara Swisher at AllThingsD. You want in? Look to the finance and executive team, and start kissing major ass. Specifically, get to know Gideon Yu, Facebook's CFO. You know, the ex-YouTube CFO who was at Sequoia for one hot minute. Odds are, he's in charge of evaluating any potential investors, so make nice with him. Haven't met him yet? No worries! His Facebook profile is protected, from us, at least, but you can still send him a Facebook message to inquire about your potential participation. Or, if you're feeling saucy, give him a poke. It might be a good way to express your creativity and willingness to be flexible when hammering out that term sheet.

Myspace: Peter Chernin puts the kibosh on a MySpace/Yahoo swap
Despite rumors to the contrary, New Corp president Peter Chernin says there are no talks and no deal. Rupe was allegedly thinking about trading MySpace for a 25 percent stake in Yahoo.

IPhone: The iPhone price cut produced more than pissed ...
The iPhone price cut produced more than pissed off customers. It bumped sales 200 percent, according to one report. [Apple 2.0]

Geek News: Hey, look, they're making a remake of Tron, ...
Hey, look, they're making a remake of Tron, the 1982 sci-fi movie where the guy gets dipped in neon and stuck in a computer, or something. Yay for nerd movies! All we ask is that the next generation of die-hard fans be in a bit better shape than this guy. Please? [Hollywood Reporter]

Ilike: Facebook still has a long way to go before ...
Facebook still has a long way to go before overtaking MySpace as the number one social network, but the popular Facebook music application, iLike, has rapidly gained ground on MySpace with music fans. [VentureBeat]

Drew Curtis: Fark.com founder tells how to distinguish news from crap
If you've ever wondered what life is like as a new media mogul, watch this interview with Fark.com founder Drew Curtis. In addition to running the essential news aggregater and catching Fox News reporters in the midst of hacking his site, Curtis is also the author of It's Not News it's Fark, the closest thing we have to a textbook on how the media works in the internet age. The interview embedded above is a few weeks old, but it's informative, funny, and a good way to spy on the backyard of someone whose site is a daily read for newsmakers and journalists. He even keeps his pants on!

Gideon Yu: Target this man if you want your hand in Facebook
So, Facebook may be raising money for a $1B valuation, according to Kara Swisher at AllThingsD. You want in? Look to the finance and executive team, and start kissing major ass. Specifically, get to know Gideon Yu, Facebook's CFO. You know, the ex-YouTube CFO who was at Sequoia for one hot minute. Odds are, he's in charge of evaluating any potential investors, so make nice with him. Haven't met him yet? No worries! His Facebook profile is protected, from us, at least, but you can still send him a Facebook message to inquire about your potential participation. Or, if you're feeling saucy, give him a poke. It might be a good way to express your creativity and willingness to be flexible with term deals.

Facebook: Stanford joins the Facebook application frenzy
Stanford has hopped aboard the Facebook application bandwagon with a new class: noted developer BJ Fogg and Facebook fanboy Dave McClure (who may not be employed by for Facebook but is awfully busy flacking the company) will be teaching Create Engaging Web Applications Using Metrics and Learning on Facebook. Although offered through the computer science department, the course appears more geared to business students. Pupils will be graded based on the number of users they can garner rather than quality of code, and there will be an event at the end of the course to pitch the applications to investors. Is it any surprise Facebook moved to the west coast and that Stanford leads Harvard in incubating technology companies? As VentureBeat notes, while Stanford jumps on the latest tech fad and offers students a chance to strike it rich, Harvard ironically had admonished Facebook's creator Mark Zuckerberg and shut down a precursor to the popular Facebook for privacy violations and...

Feuds: The great iTunes revolt
If it's not a feud, it's a very strange friendship. News Corp.'s president Peter Chernin says, "We're the ones who should determine what the fair price for our product is, not Apple." As in, "we're staying put for now, but watch your a**, Jobs." While Apple has sold 1 million iPhones and over 100 million iPods, its store front is replaceable (Amazon Unbox, Microsoft's Xbox 360 Marketplace, Joost, etc.). Content partners like NBC are not. Apple best do what it can to quell this proletariat uprising before things get out of hand. What exactly would Apple do for its video iPods and iPhones if studios went on "strike?"

Porn: The porn industry is hard up for solutions to the piracy problem
This may be the best headline ever written. In the history of the world. Enough said. [Ars Technica]