geek-love

Flickr's Cal Henderson dumped by Technology Review covergirl Leah Culver

Owen Thomas · 07/24/08 06:40PM

We've been remiss in informing you of this: Cal Henderson, the eminently scalable Flickr engineer, and Leah Culver, the shrill-voiced cofounder of Pownce, San Francisco's favorite way to share MP3 files while evading copyright cops, broke up some time ago. (We hear it wasn't exactly his idea.) But don't feel sorry for Henderson, or Culver. She has no shortage of suitors — including, it seems, Technology Review editor-in-chief Jason Pontin, who was taken enough with Culver to put her on his magazine's latest cover. Pontin's married, but a man can dream, can't he? Sorry, Jason: We now hear Culver's hooked up with a Googler. (Photo of Henderson by magerleagues)

Google sales chief and his Googler lover moving to the U.K.

Owen Thomas · 07/23/08 05:20PM

Omid Kordestani, the globe-trotting head of sales for Google, is moving to the U.K. with his family. But which family? Gisel Hiscock, his Google-employed lover, has been seen at his arm at parties recently. She started a new London-based position working for Google in business development last month. Kordestani and his wife, Bita Daryabari, had long planned to move their children to Europe for a year or two, though lately they've been on the rocks. So are she and the kids coming, too? He travels so much that it barely matters where he hangs his hat. But the logistics seem so complicated! There must be some secret Google Web-based app Kordestani is beta-testing that helps him track his personal life.

Sister outs Mrs. Larry Page as ex-model

Owen Thomas · 07/21/08 02:00PM

Lucy Page, the bioinformatics-expert wife of the Google cofounder, would seem to fit the Forbes template for billionaires' wives: "Looks are great — but brains are even better." Unlike husband Larry — shown here kissing his bride at their Necker Island wedding — the former Lucy Southworth actually completed her Ph.D. at Stanford. But a revelation from sister Carrie Southworth, an actress, may mar Lucy's Valley-brainy reputation.

Grabbing some love upstairs at Google

Melissa Gira Grant · 07/18/08 03:40PM

"You asked if I was headed upstairs for a meeting and I said, "not exactly. I am here for GoogleApps." Oh, Pink Scarf Girl. We want to find your Missed Connections "Moment" Man, too. White, male, 20s, dressed casual? Who could that be? Just be sure to use protection with what you're grabbing "downstairs," too. The best in daycare is so pricey these days.

Marrying into billions still acceptable so long as you're a smart girl

Melissa Gira Grant · 07/17/08 04:00PM

Forbes lays on the Cosmo when it comes to finding wives for the rich: "Today, there are just 110 eligible 10-figure bachelors, including divorced men, in the world. So what does it take to marry one? For starters, looks are great—but brains are even better." Take Melanie Craft, the romance-novelist wife of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. A wife with her own career can stay busy and well-off. The more successful she is on her own, the more time her guy has to hire girls for rides in his Love Copter. And the less money he'll have to hand over in a future settlement. Everybody wins! (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

Man seeks woman who seeks iPhone on Craigslist

Nicholas Carlson · 07/15/08 11:00AM

Why wait in line for a 3G iPhone when a "5'10 Italian, clean no drugs no std's" "m4w" will give you one in exchange for a little creative action in bed? Interested parties need only check out the Craigslist ad for more details. We'll echo the words of this m4w: "Good luck ladies."

First guy in New York iPhone 3G line scores a date with hot Apple employee

Nicholas Carlson · 07/11/08 01:20PM

NEW YORK — I'm sitting outside the Fifth Avenue Apple Store here in New York, writing up a post about the long line for the iPhone, when a pretty girl wearing aviator sunglasses and a white blouse sits next to the guy sitting next to me. She says to her friend: "So I've got a date with Dan." "Who?" the guy asks. "The guy who was first in line — the guy who bought the first iPhone today. He's doing the documentary thing, his name is Dan."

CNBC's Becky Quick joins long line of women emailing Jimmy Wales

Owen Thomas · 07/10/08 06:40PM

Call it a strange attraction: Women whose Wikipedia entries aren't to their liking just can't seem to resist taking their case to the site's stubbly cofounder, Jimmy Wales. Even CNBC's Becky Quick struck up a correspondence, she admits in this clip. Unlike Canadian television commentator Rachel Marsden, whose call for help turned into a sexual fling, Quick is married. To a computer programmer. (I can hear you all eating your hearts out.) Why didn't she just ask her husband for help getting her entry edited? Given Wales's reputation, that seems easier.

Did TechCrunch editor unpublish his writer after a breakup?

Jackson West · 07/10/08 04:40PM

We had heard rumors that the relationship between 38-year old TechCrunch publisher Michael Arrington and 22-year old Exonerated PR founder Calley Nye might have been more than strictly professional. Thanks to a tipster's sleuthing, we found that blabby blogger Robert Scoble had confirmed that the pair had consummated their relationship on Facebook. Since unpublishing posts written by former friends-with-benefits is all the rage these days, that might explain why Nye's latest post on TechCrunch has disappeared from the site — just like Arrington removed the relationship status indicator from his Facebook profile. After the jump, the official screenshot of Arrington's profession of affection for the most recent addition to the TechCrunch contributor list.

Kevin Rose's latest romance splashed across the Web

Nicholas Carlson · 07/07/08 04:20PM

Kevin Rose has a new girlfriend, a slightly-more-than-slightly stalkerish tipster tells us. Who's the reported belle? Current TV's manager of online content, Melody McCloskey. The Digg founder and famed online Romeo disputes this, telling us: "I've known Melody for awhile, we're good friends." But we don't buy the "just friends" routine, not after seeing our tipster's evidence: A highly convincing series of Twitter messages, Vimeo videos and Flickr photos featuring the pair.

Yes, there's sex online after 50

Melissa Gira Grant · 07/03/08 02:00PM

The 50-and-up set form one of the fastest growing demographics of those looking for love online. That nugget of hope, care of former Match.com CEO Jim Safka, comes tucked into Newsweek's Sex & the Single Boomer. While the Youngs, who've been barely weaned off of cruising Facebook for casual sex, may eyeroll at Web 1.0 matchmaking, and the Olds themselves scoff at the profitability of Web-based matchmaking, it looks they're going at it as sure as the kids today, with their Twitter hookups and their 150-mile-radius locally sourced organic condoms. The real difference? Baby boomers got over talking about it decades ago. (Photo via foundphotos)

How Xeni and Violet's Boing Boing affair went sour

Owen Thomas · 07/02/08 11:40AM

What turned culture-jamming tech blog Boing Boing into the kind of censorious monster it normally ridicules? Beyond its initial statement that the reasons are "personal," Boing Boing hasn't elaborated, but all signs point to the foundering of a once-romantic friendship between Boing Boing editor Xeni Jardin and Violet Blue, the sex blogger whose many links from Boing Boing were erased last year. (Full disclosure: Jardin is Valleywag's favorite gendertastic sex-robot space princess from the future, while Violet Blue has contributed to Fleshbot, a porn blog published by Valleywag owner Gawker Media. Blue once approached Valleywag contributor Melissa Gira Grant for sex, but was rebuffed.) In an email to Valleywag, pasted below, Blue continues to profess ignorance of what she did wrong; she also dismisses her entanglement with Jardin as a friendship laced with casual sex. Blue's own photo of the two at Kink.com party, shown here, suggests, in its entangled limbs, that the relationship was more serious than that.

How Jimmy Wales gets the ladies

Owen Thomas · 06/30/08 07:00PM

We've always wondered how a schlubby guy like Jimmy Wales sees so much action. It can't be the I-founded-Wikipedia-can-I-edit-your-page pickup lines — for every Rachel Marsden he lands with those, one thinks Wales would get 10 drinks in the face. At last, we've gotten a scientific explanation: It's the stubble. A recent study found women prefer mates with stubbly cheeks to smooth faces or full beards. (Thank you, Don Johnson.) And according to Wales's comprehensive compendium of facial hair stylings, Wales himself is the iconic paragon of stubble. (Photo by EvgenyGenkin)

Valleywag fetishist seeks same on Craigslist

Melissa Gira Grant · 06/26/08 01:40PM

Our secret girl admirer writes, "The perfect, shared Sunday for me would consist of..." among other things, fighting over the Sunday Times and fondling iPhones. After an art flick, "[w]e could catch up on blogs like Valleywag and TechCrunch." Ooh, dreamy! As the only one on the masthead with a scant few degrees of sexual separation from both blogs' founding editors, I have some words of — well — we have not even begun to overshare.

Kathy Griffin denies having bumped uglies with Steve Wozniak

Nicholas Carlson · 06/24/08 01:40PM

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak never rounded third with former girlfriend and D-list celebrity Kathy Griffin. "We were dating, but were just friendly," Griffin told US Magazine. "I never fucked him or anything!" Griffin said that after she and Woz broke up, he quickly moved on — and for the better. "I have had dinner with them, and she’s a thousand times more appropriate!" Griffin said. "I hate to say it, but in the Bruce, Demi, Ashton [scheme of things], I’m the Bruce!" Does that means the new lady can play Segway Polo? (Photo by AP/Moloshok)

Julia Allison and Dave Winer share love of un-conferences

Jackson West · 06/23/08 06:40PM

A reader writes to us concerned that the apocalypse is nigh. Why so scared? Because wantrepreneur Julia Allison (who was not fired from Star magazine) and cranky RSS guru Dave Winer are now link lovers. What sparked this show of mutual affection? Winer's treatise on how he created the first, true "un-conference" back in 2003, where instead of panels, it was a discussion — because "the eloquence and intelligence in the room are distributed not concentrated." This apparently reminded Allison of class discussions at her alma mater, Georgetown, "except this time you care." (Photos by Brian Solis, bub.licio.us and Doc Searls)

Bill Gates reveals his tricks for getting chicks

Jackson West · 06/20/08 05:20PM

While a young student at Seattle's snootiest private prep school, Lakeside, dweebish Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was asked to write the computer program that arranged students' class schedules. Having just absorbed the student bodies from a private girl's school, Gates gamed the system to make sure all his classes had nothing but the hotties, even though males outnumbered females 3-1. He may not be the sexiest CEO out there, but points for trying.