feature

Where to get your Christmas gifts wrapped

Paul Boutin · 12/21/07 06:33PM

You're a spaz with the ribbons and paper. And of course, as an engineer it's all about optimizing for my time, etc. Don't show up with sloppy giftwrap this year. Take your gifts to the nearest poshtastic shopping center and let someone who knows what they're doing handle it. I called ahead for you, and Gridskipper helpfully mapped out the coordinates.

In which I school Iminlikewithyou founder at his own game

Nicholas Carlson · 12/21/07 06:20PM


Here's the infamous Blockles, the Tetris clone from Iminlikewithyou founder Charles Forman. "I dont know what Tetris is," Forman told me. "Blockles is a falling block puzzle game." Right. One that I kicked your ass at, boyo. (Check out the sweet swap move I pulled about 25 seconds in. Bam.)

OC-80, the Valley's drug of choice

Owen Thomas · 12/20/07 08:30PM

Heard of OC-80? It's the Valley's next big drug, the strongest dose available of OxyContin — the same pain pills that got Rush Limbaugh hooked. A Valleywag informant who's a recovering OC-80 user himself says addicts are easy to spot: They're the ones who keep rushing to the front desk, asking if the FedEx deliveries have arrived yet. That's because the pills which get here are most frequently overnighted from L.A., where doctors are more willing to skirt the law and write prescriptions. It's expensive, and therefore deemed classy: People pay $70 a pill retail, $40 in bulk. Not that you're going to look especially swank while you scrape off the green coating, crush it, and snort it. Here's our tipster's tale of the real OC.

Think Secret's demise benefits Nick Ciarelli as much as Apple

Tim Faulkner · 12/20/07 02:00PM

As his three-year legal battle with Apple reaches a settled end, Nick Ciarelli, the writer behind Think Secret, states that shutting down the Mac rumor site while not revealing his sources is a "positive solution for both sides." Most people aren't buying it, blaming Apple for shutting down Think Secret. Which is exactly why it is a positive result for Ciarelli.

Peter Thiel is totally gay, people

Owen Thomas · 12/19/07 07:05PM

By now, you've likely heard how Peter Thiel parlayed a $500,000 investment in Facebook to a stake now worth $750 million. There's been a crush of coverage on his $220 million Founders Fund, which may well change the way entrepreneurs get paid in the Valley. We know about his mansion (he rents it — clever!), his butler, his early-morning jogs. But what no one ever says out loud: Thiel is gay.

Perez Hilton banned from YouTube

Jordan Golson · 12/19/07 12:19PM

Self-proclaimed "queen of all media" Perez Hilton no longer reigns on YouTube. Girlfriend managed to get not one but two accounts banned from the Google-owned video site after he "posted a very critical video about their practices." Naturally, Hilton reacted with calm and reason unconstrained diva fury. Here's Hilton's rant:

How to remain an anonymous critic

Paul Boutin · 12/18/07 03:00PM

Eager to blow the whistle on a bad-guy corporation or official? Or do you just have a beef with someone big and powerful, someone like Oprah, someone you'd rather go up against anonymously? Topix CEO Chris Tolles, whose online indie writers have taken on a nasty and litigious sheriff, among others, pulled together a checklist to help you cover your anonymous ass. Don't get SLAPPed with a lawsuit.

Philip Kaplan releases "greatest and best song in the world"

Owen Thomas · 12/15/07 08:15PM

Why did FuckedCompany creator Philip "Pud" Kaplan record a profane song, "Fuck," in August under the name "Farty McPoopants"? The pseudonym is easy enough to explain: His current venture is AdBrite, an online-advertising network. And selling ads is a business that's all about keeping up appearances. Given his past, you'd think Kaplan wouldn't be so sensitive. But even Kaplan knew he couldn't blow his cool. His company, an online-advertising network, was in the midst of a tense negotiation with porn-ads partner AVN, and trying to raise a new round of financing.

Bill Gates visits his therapist

Nick Douglas · 12/14/07 06:56PM


Thank you for seeing me, doctor. Right here on the couch, turned away from you? I read that doctors do that to eliminate the burden of eye contact. Ha, or in case they don't like your face, good one. Actually I don't like my face much either. That's what I'm here about.

Digg celebrates UPS's polluting trucks as green

Owen Thomas · 12/13/07 02:40PM

The wonderful thing about Digg? Critical thinking is not required. You can vote for stories based on your personal belief system, not whether they're, say, true. Take, for example, a brief New York Times story about UPS's cost-saving route software. Digg users translated this into a tall tale about UPS saving 3 million gallons of gas by elminating left-hand turns. Computers save the environment! It's a tale that comforts geeks who believe software will fix everything.

Google tries search design AOL discarded

Jordan Golson · 12/12/07 05:43PM

Here are the dangers of imitation: Google has rolled out a new search results page. When I search for vitamin water, I get video and products results in the right-hand sidebar. This is a variation on AOL's old FullView search results — a design AOL labored over and then discarded in favor of blindly copying Google. The design is moderately helpful for me, as I was trying to find an online distributor for Vitaminwater. Not all of my colleagues see the new results, so Google may be slowly rolling this out from datacenter to datacenter. As for AOL? Having abandoned the idea of innovation in search, it now finds itself needing to copy Google just to get back to where it started. Full screenshot is below the jump.

Here comes another takedown

Owen Thomas · 12/11/07 04:07PM



"Here Comes Another Bubble," the charmingly derivative video by the Richter Scales which satirizes Web 2.0 in the style (and to the tune) of Bill Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire," is gone from YouTube. The reason? A copyright claim by an unspecified third party. One possibility: Sony BMG, the record company which owns Columbia, Joel's label; lawyers there might take issue with the use of Joel's composition. YouTube and Sony BMG struck a deal last year, though, so that seems unlikely. Another possibility: Lane Hartwell, the photographer whose photo of yours truly was used, uncredited, by the Richter Scales. Hartwell posted about the incident on Flickr. I sort of wonder if this was all my fault — and not just because I was in the video.

Snappy answers to stupid hippies

Paul Boutin · 12/11/07 09:54AM

Biodiesel. Hemp. Local sustainable farms. Hippie tech is infuriating. You know in your engineer's heart it won't work, but because it's outside your field of study you lack the handy stats to rebut the moonbat ideas evangelized by modern-day hippies and their shiny shiny cousins, the ravers. Before Burning Man starts up again in earnest, I've prepared canned comebacks and bookmarkable URLs from hippie-approved sources like Wikipedia and GreenBiz.

The kiss

Owen Thomas · 12/11/07 07:38AM

From a helpful tipster, the first-ever photo from the wedding ceremony of Larry Page and Lucy Southworth. The groom wore a white buttondown shirt, untucked; the bride, a cream strapless number, with her hair loose. Pics or it didn't happen, eh? After the jump, visual confirmation that Sir Richard Branson was the Google cofounder's best man.

Blog entries by One Laptop Per Child kids

Nick Douglas · 12/10/07 08:00PM

Google and the OLPC project have teamed up to show stories of children who received the little green laptops. Since these stories come from the developing world, they've turned out a bit different than Gawker or your cousin's LiveJournal. Our first blog entry comes from Darfur.

Mark Zuckerberg cashes out?

Owen Thomas · 12/08/07 01:58AM

Venture capital's ancien régime is on the verge of being overturned. We hear Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, may have cashed out — before an IPO, before a sale, and before his investors. In the company's recent financing round, insiders believe, he sold about $40 million worth of stock. A tiny portion of his $5 billion stake, but in cash rather than on paper, and "enough that he never has to think about money for the rest of his life," says a person made privy to details of the sale. On the Sand Hill Road of old, this is simply not how things are done.

"Don't tase me bro" goes commercial

Jordan Golson · 12/07/07 07:35PM

Andrew Meyer, a student at the University of Florida who was tasered after trying to ask John Kerry questions at a forum, got his 15 minutes of fame when millions saw video of him saying, "Don't tase me, bro!" on YouTube. If you thought it was the funniest thing you've ever seen, and you're a Verizon Wireless customer, you're in luck! You can purchase "Don't Tase Me Bro!" as your ringback tone. (A ringback tone is a short song or audio clip that plays when someone calls you. So, instead of hearing a boring "ring ring," your debt collectors and babydaddies will hear "DON'T TASE ME, BRO! ARGHH!" repeatedly. Who doesn't want that?) OK, seriously, this must be a sign of the coming apocalypse. For those who missed it, the full video of the arrest and tasing is after the jump.