Does Trent Lapinski's exposé about MySpace (digest version here) read like a conspiracy theory? Sure. Does our boss think it's over-outraged? Sure, but you can't trust him, he believes in the lone gunman and a real moon landing. Buy the anger or not, this guest feature story is a great read for those of us who are goddamn sick of Tom, Tom, Tom.

You're still "post-modern"? Dude, that's so five ideologies ago. Don't worry, take this crash course in Silicon Valley cynicism and no one will know you're not a quasi-meta-pomo-pseudohipster just like the rest of us.

This week's tech news is all about "pretexting," the method that investigators hired by Hewlett-Packard used to get the personal phone records of reporters and HP board members. But what is it? You'd better know, because it's about to blow up the business world.

After News Corp. threatened to sue his publisher if they published his expos

Today in "Ask Valleywag," the advice column for Silicon Valley set, we help a startup kick up the funding a notch. Earlier this month, Valleywag reader Scott asked:

Now that VentureBeat, the new site from the writer of the Mercury News's SiliconBeat, is on its feet after a shaky launch, let's give it a look-see.

"When I'm talking to clients," a seemingly well-informed Google employee told me over brunch, "I want to mention Digg. I know it's something I'm supposed to know about, but I don't." No worries. For everyone who needs a refresher on Digg, we have an exhaustive cheatsheet for the popular site.

We ought to have sympathy for Wired; the monthly magazine format doesn't lend itself to the quick, first-on-the-scene style of journalism for which the tech audience hungers. Still, when we've seen half the content of the latest issue before we cracked it open, it leaves us asking, what's the point of reading Wired?

Takeaway: Several big tech bloggers recently launched job boards. Michael Arrington at TechCrunch has the best board, but his competitors rejected his partnership offers, fearing he'd take over the partnership.

Guest feature by Beth Gottfried

Google's now so rich that it might technically be a mutual fund, and everyone assumes its employees are rolling in it. But not everyone at Google is rich (yet), and it's hard to tell in this culture of inconspicuous consumption.

When the little dot-coms blow up, says marketing/PR blogger Steve Rubel, the sites funded by their advertising will go under too. Rubel names social news site Digg as one potential victim. How does it stack up against other Web-2.0-supported sites? Above the fold, we analyze Digg and tech blog GigaOM. Below, GigaOM competitor TechCrunch sets off a red alert.

Who is John Gotts?

The buzz after YouTube's CEO vacationed with media moguls like Rupert Murdoch was that the video sharing company was about to cash in by selling to an industry giant. But no word of a deal has come down the tubes. In fact, the video giant is about to go down the tubes. Here's why.

After just a few months, the new head of Netscape wants out. That's why he's fomenting controversy over his newest job offer — paying his competitors' top users to seed Netscape. When the smoke clears, the site will have a shot in the arm, and Netscape's boss will be closer to leaving for a better gig at AOL.

Valleywag feature: Chris Anderson's Lost Song Found