The annual shareholder meeting of the Times Co. is just next Tuesday, and in preparation we're all reading the company's annual report. What delicious secrets lurked within, we wondered? Well we enjoy the "Risk Factors" section, where we learned the following: The New York Times does not like that the odd idea that blogs are taking away their business. (They are? News to us.) Also, all those layoffs might result in an inferior product!

NICK DOUGLAS — Look, I can dig old people. Just because I'm young, energetic and oversexed doesn't mean I'm not aware that some day I'll reach the doddering age of 25. But I know there's a way to keep my inner child, or at least my inner arrogant college junior, by watching the example of still-cool graybeards like Steve Jobs. Guys like Yahoo's awkward CEO Terry Semel, though, show that you can't earn cool just by trying hard. While some of the following lords of tech have kept their cool past age 50, some have turned into embarrassing old men.

While we were trolling Craigslist earlier, we looked up to see none other than Craig himself lounging about in the front of the office. It was kind of like listening to Tiny Dancer and then looking up to see Elton John in a denim onesy banging on an old 88. Newmark himself is in fact something of a tiny dancer, a small man but full of brio. We grabbed videographer Richard Blakeley and scurried over to grill him on his legacy and on whether there was a whole generation of bastard children who have his Casual Encounters to thank for their conception.

Someday a lot of dot-commers will wish they were Craig Newmark. Why? Reuters says:

There's an ulterior motive to opening an official backchannel at a tech conference. It pulls all the dissenters into a virtual room, where they disseminate their snide remarks safely away from the real discussion.

Written while Craig Newmark spoke at Supernova 2006 ten minutes ago. Not published 'til now because our blog database is slow.

Craig Newmark's favorite lifestyle quirk is the full-time job he chose at Craigslist. He works as a customer service rep — a respite from the cliched controversies (prostitutes! dying newspapers! fraud!) that take up his time as founder and chairman of the classifieds site.

Marketer and pro-blogger advocate Curt Hopkins is a good and reasonable man. Good because he's running the Blogswana project, in which students will help those affected by AIDS in Africa tell the world about their plight. Reasonable because when he asked the following Valley people — people known as good souls with a passion for world-changing technology — for financial support, he expected a few yeses and a few nos.

While you were sleeping,

One of Craig Newmark's endearing habits is his continual reference to "the girlfriend." But at last night's Wired Rave Awards, Craig Newmark broke form and said "my girlfriend." When I ribbed him about it, he pointed out this recent story from the London Times:

Craig (you know, Craigslist Craig) just posted the first known photo of Shawn Fanning and Bram Cohen together. As Craig says on his blog, the Napster founder and BitTorrent founder had never met until last night's Wired Rave Awards. Craig captured the historic meeting on his Treo.

• Craig "Lemme guess, you got your couch through Craigslist. You're welcome" Newmark cryptically thanks Bank of America for the two CDs worth $22 mil. Is this some clever West Wing allusion, or did Craig just deposit, like, two days' wages? [Craigblog]

The SF Chronicle's Alan Saracevic interviewed Craig Newmark this week about Craigslist. Skip the prelude — "this digital media revolution we're in," "changing landscape" — and the intro — you know Craig's story, right? — and dive into the real conversation. Here's the short version, and here's the half-hour interview.

Backfence, the community journo site where every writer's a "neighbor" — I think that translates as "comrade" — broke out of its Maryland and Virginia circuit to buy the Bay Area's news-by-the-people site, Bayosphere.

A six-man panel redesigned Craigslist for SXSW. The new design is gorgeous, slick, and almost as small as the original. Until the panel posts it at Design Eye, you can see it at panel-member site Just Watch the Sky. Right now, they're taking questions about the design at their panel. And of course Craigslist founder Craig Newmark was invited onstage to share his reaction.

Craigslist founder (and customer service rep) Craig Newmark gets more media savvy daily. One minute into his SXSW keynote speech (interviewed by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales), he's already pulled out a grand declaration: "History has always been written by the victors. And the victors lied to us. Not any more."

In case you didn't catch it earlier (we didn't), Lot 49 built a thorough Google Evil Scale. Includes the wise corporate maxim, "Don't be an accessory to evil." [Google Corporate Information: Making Money]
A petition tells AOL to drop its new certified mail system (where users pay to get whitelisted and free e-mails end up getting spam-filtered away). Signers include the Democratic National Committee, Craig Newmark of Craigslist, the AFL-CIO, and others. Better plan: let AOL carry on, thus ensuring that the last poor fools using AOL mail will finally leave. [Dear AOL]
Blogger Michael Arrington, running from the hordes of TechCrunch party guests, may flee to London so his sixth party can actually fit inside the venue. [CrunchNotes]
A little groaning about Apple's less-than-fun Tuesday announcement. Bloggers can't decide whether to hate Apple for not changing the world again this month, or to hate each other for posting fake photos of an iPod Video. [Good Morning Silicon Valley]
Michael Arrington can't be as positive as he always sounds on TechCrunch, can he? Today's "Mike's true feelings" meter: How much distance is between him and the entrepreneurs he's always photographed with? For instance, Mike's keeping some distance from the Israeli businessmen pictured above (that's him on the far right). But that one overlapped arm is just enough to say "I won't run away. These guys have a chance." [TechCrunch]

Man, everything's gotta be superlative in British journalism. It's not a surprise that London's Observer says Craig Newmark's Craigslist will kill the newspapers — every newspaper says that. What's shocking is this line: "Newmark, a man so nerdish he makes Gates look like a flamboyant playboy..."

While we're picking stars to play the Valleywag hotties, check out this photo of Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and hunky CEO Jim Buckmaster:

Is the Bay Guardian feeling threatened? Editor Tim Redmond challenged lovable geek Craig Newmark about opening Craigslist sites outside San Francisco.