At first I was loath to even join in what Uncov calls the "A-list rub and tug" on Ooma, the telecom startup launched by Andrew Frame, the entrepreneur who looks like a model, and Ashton Kutcher, the Hollywood star who actually was a model. Like its founders, Ooma is all looks, no substance. Launched late, Ooma's product, a piece of hardware that lets you place free phone calls over the Internet, looks set to flop, as insiders predicted, because its creators fundamentally misunderstand both consumers and technology. But at least the box, like Frame and Kutcher, is pretty. Read on to learn why looks don't matter in telecom — and why we're putting Ooma on immediate deathwatch.

For Earth2Tech, the new green blog from GigaOm, founder Om Malik has hired Adena DeMonte away from the Red Herring, the struggling publication we've put on a deathwatch. That's got to be the last straw for Herring editor Joel Dreyfuss (pictured, right). Rumor has it that Dreyfuss at one point told Malik to stop poaching the Herring's best writers. Malik, of course, is a former Herring writer, but the publication in its current form and under current management bears no relationship, aside from the name, to the storied tech magazine Malik worked for earlier in this decade. Why Dreyfuss feels Malik's not entitled to fish in his pond is a mystery to me — unless it's just a sign of his general frustration with trying to bail out a sinking ship.

Last week, as we continued Red Herring's deathwatch, we got a particularly vivid tale of one salesman's departure from the troubled tech publication. But now, another eyewitness tells us we missed the salesman's best line, as he and Herring owner Alex Vieux nearly came to blows over a withheld commission check. "Go ahead, put your hands on me," the salesman reportedly told Vieux. "It will be the best business decision you ever made." Vieux, of course, kept his record of achievement intact: the pair never actually came to blows.

That emergency Friday-night meeting at Red Herring, the once-storied tech publisher we've had on deathwatch for what seems like endless months? The agenda was to discuss, an informant tells us, an eviction notice, giving the greatly diminished Herring three days to pay rent or vacate its Belmont, Calif. premises. All employees packed up their personal belongings — presumably out of a fear that, come Monday, they wouldn't be able to get back in to fetch them. And where was owner Alex Vieux? In meetings, most of the day, with Herring editor Joel Dreyfuss — who, we imagine, like most of the staff, is curious when he'll next be paid. Or if.

We now hear that the remaining sales and finance employees of Red Herring are locked in a meeting in the company's Belmont, Calif. headquarters. A meeting, one should note, that only got started at 5:30 p.m. On a week that most of the Valley took as a holiday. Well, that should boost the spirits of workers at the troubled publication. Also, we understand that Adecco, a staffing company, has pulled out all of its contractors working at the Herring. Could that have anything to do with Alex Vieux's reputation as a tardy payer?

Red Herring, the print magazine, no longer publishes. RedHerring.com, the website, is on its last legs, running Reuters wire copy and the occasional blog post. Red Herring's conference business, too, is in disarray, with cut-rate tickets being issued for last month's Red Herring East to fill seats, and the host hotel cancelling next month's Red Herring Japan. So what does owner Alex Vieux do? Why, launch a social network, of course. (Even that idea's not original: The old Herring had ambitions, pre-bubble, for a similar site called Herringtown.) Valleywag has an exclusive screenshot of the not-ready-for-primetime site, called RH27, after the jump.

Outside its Belmont, Calif. headquarters, the Red Herring's standard flaps stolidly in the breeze. All seems quiet. There's no sign of the fireworks that went off Thursday afternoon in the dying publication's offices. That's when a salesman, realizing he'd been stiffed on his commission, nearly got into fisticuffs with Alex Vieux, the diminutive owner of a diminishing media empire. The inside story, from an informant, after the jump.Four Herring salespeople, including the one who was quitting that day, met with Vieux at 4 p.m. on Thursday to discuss the unpaid commissions. Vieux told them he couldn't pay the commissions then, but he promised to pay them personally. When? "Soon," said Vieux — but he wouldn't commit to a date. The departing salesman demanded a check that day. He and Vieux started shouting, Vieux asked him to leave, and then pushed aside an employee to get face to face with his antagonist. "I'll kick your ass if you don't get the hell out of my office," he told him. The salesman, sizing up his opponent, mercifully withdrew. Vieux is well known for demanding that his male employees wear ties. In a gesture of defiance, the salesman took off his tie and wrapped it around his forehead as he gathered his things. Vieux walked by later and said, "It's 5 o'clock, get the hell out." The employee asked, "Do you have a paycheck for me?" Vieux had no answer. The salesman's parting shot: "Goodbye, everyone ... good luck getting your paychecks." That prompted Vieux to rant that his ex-employee was "fucking unprofessional" and that he was "going to kick [his] ass." Reporters in the newsroom cheered the salesman as he left. Witnessed any other messy scenes from the Herring's flameout? Do tell.

For most folks, Friday is payday. Not so at the Red Herring. Last week, we're told, the swiftly sinking tech publisher barely made payroll. Alex Vieux, the publication's owner, has a long history of paying vendors late, or never. But now he's resorted to shorting his management team, too. No surprise: Since it's no longer bothering to print an actual magazine, labor is the only major cost left for Vieux to cut. But Vieux's minions, for once, are in revolt over the move.Last Friday, a tipster reports, Herring editor Joel Dreyfuss got paid nothing, and other top managers only got paid half their usual amount. As a result, we're told, the VP of biz dev, chief marketing officer, and chief financial officer quit. With top execs getting stiffed, how long before the rank and file also start missing paychecks — and walking out? More on this later today.

DO NOT WANT indeed. Troubled blog search engine Technorati has suffered another blow with today's triple resignations of key personnel, a surprising move so quickly after the completion of its long-awaited update. Outgoing CEO Dave Sifry announced the departures of Chief Technologist Tantek Celik (pictured above) and Vice President of Engineering Adam Hertz, but snubbed Product Manager Liz Dunn in the official post and left her to blog about her own resignation. Director of Product Development Dorian Carroll will be promoted to Engineering head, but no replacement for either Celik or Dunn has yet been announced. It remains to be seen if the niche site, bolstered by a $1M influx of capital just six weeks ago, will be able to overcome this talent vacuum and attract high-enough caliber replacements to satisfy investors. Photo (CC) Adactio (And, yes, stolen from Nick's previous post, but quite appropriate, don't you agree?)

NICK DOUGLAS — PodTech.net, one of Silicon Valley's most-hyped video networks, is fake. How do you spot a fake company? First observe a real one. A media network needs content, an audience, deals, a plan, and momentum. In all of these, PodTech is deficient.

1938 Media notes that the Blogging Times, a well-intentioned weak sister of blog news, has apparently vanished. Nothing there but a Wordpress default page; archives gone too. With founder Minic Rivera now ensconced in the carapace of the Blog Herald, one assumes that BT owner Howard Lindzon is focusing on his more successful Wallstrip vlog. Not much breathable atmosphere in the blog-news space, and there are a lot of throats gasping for the little available air.

Perhaps disturbed by the collective yawn that greeted the beta launch of their video-sharesite Soapbox, Microsoft is manifesting an interest in buying out an established site — such as Revver. The MSN goons were reportedly sniffing around Revver's office last month to see what they could stripe-mine in terms of tech and personnel. But the takeover amour must have cooled, as nothing further occured. For his part, Revver CEO Steven Starr declared:

Though video sharing site Veoh would desperately love to get some Youtube-level attention, they can't even get it via copyright infringement. CNET darkly titles this Veoh article "A new copyright battlefield," based primarily on Veoh's offer to host long-form video (like whole TV shows and movies!). All they can find is a straight-to-video Disney movie (since removed) and a soccer match. However, searching on "daily show" or "colbert report" reveals a few dozen clips, all undisturbed on Veoh for months. But even the most popular of these clips has been viewed less than 50,000 times — a pittance in Youtube views. A telling remark from Viacom spokesman: "We allocate our resources based on where we think the most harm is being done ... We haven't focused on Veoh at this point." Veoh isn't doing any harm, but that means they're also not doing much doog.

E-mail mobilizer Visto suddenly goes ahead with a formal announcement of Altitude Capital's (previously secret-ish) $35 million investment in the company. A reader asks:

Dan Primack over at Private Equity Hub takes issue with our deathwatching of Visto, claiming that the company raised an undisclosed $35 million round from new investor Altitude Capital Partners at the end of December. Certainly within the realm of possibility, but as pointed out on VentureBeat, it's odd that the cash injection was kept secret. Seems like exactly the kind of news that would cheer up Visto's investors, if they knew about it. VentureBeat also reports rumors that "a 2007 acquisition is better than 50-50 odds." Hey, it's only February, after all.

We've been hearing dark rumblings about e-mail mobility corp Visto, despite the company's securing $51 million in further investment this past September, plus another $7.7 million in a patent infringement case in December. Unfortunately, Visto's litigious nature — the December victory was only the latest in history of lawsuits — may have alienated a raft of potential acquirers and/or investors (the September round is said to have come mostly from insiders). Otherwise, a high burn rate has eaten up more than $250 million, and a financial come-to-Jesus moment could manifest as soon as early spring.

Slideshow startup Filmloop — recently in the news for enduring the ostensibly "Golden Touch" of Guy Kawasaki and subsequently canning most of its staff — will be euthanized and dismembered. Comventures (among others) had invested in Filmloop, and supposedly the site's remaining cash will go to storage company Fabrik (another Comventures investment) to assist with Fabrik's acquisition of storage device maker SimpleTech. A tipster says the Filmloop founders "were forced to sell the company to Fabrik by one or more unknown investors." Guessing they're not rolling around in Youtube-level money, either — try nothing or close to nothing, per extensive Techcrunch dissection.

Video aggregator site Revver made news principally through their revenue-sharing plan, "acquiring" the Lonleygirl15 franchise, and losing two of three founders. Now, it appears cash flow may be an issue, as irate Revver content creators saw their "first week of the month" payments pushed back to February 7, then February 8, then ... silence. If you're a Revverite and you've been paid (or not) or heard a reason why not (or why), let us know.

UPDATE: Micki from Revver responds in the comments, says payments went out Friday.

"Aw man, I had like forty cents left in that account!"