In this, our final (for now) "rich people snubbing charities" post, a reader sends a letter about his own getting-ignored-by-Valley-people story. Over the past few years, Michael Birdsong asked VCs or tech company leaders, all employing him at the time, to match funds he was raising to fight cancer. Give ya two guesses whether they even responded.
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.
The Mercury News chimes in on that up-and-coming idea: "Silicon Valley is taking over Hollywood." Nevermind, for the moment, that it isn't. Pay attention to this excerpt, 'cause there's a quiz after.
The Mercury News opens a real estate story with a rude awakening:
BusinessWeek gives writer Roben Farzad a special exception to the "don't cover what you have stocks in" rule to write that Paul Allen (pictured grinning like a Bond Villain) has become great at losing money. This isn't about the Microsoft co-founder's basketball team losing $100 million a year. Think big leagues, baby — Farzad's writing about Charter Communications. "Its $19.5 billion in debt dwarfs its market cap of $510 million. Its interest expense alone devours a third of its revenue," writes Farzad. That's after Allen sunk $8 billion into the company and became its chairman.
Here's what happened this weekend, while you were out in San Fran, running Bay to Breakers:
Quick thoughts for this morning:
A reader sends an update on the whereabouts of Sun Microsystems CEO Jon Schwartz, the man John Markoff treated in the New York Times as a non-conformist indie-rock kind of guy.
Zach Nelson doesn't hide his hero worship, does he? The Netsuite CEO pulls off the kingly pose of his company's founder, the CEO of Oracle, just right. And a reader says Zach's riding dad's wheels too:
This guest report comes from a Google tourist — not the boring kind surfing Google Earth, but the lucky folks who drop in on the Plex. A reader comes back from Mountain View glowing with the Glory of the Presence. No photos, sadly — "And dang it my cell phone was dead (i'm surprised it wasn't detected and then dynamically charged)."
Attention, VCs, engineers, and product managers of the Valley: You are now using the same phone as Paris Hilton.
Reason #78 that it's awesome to be Oracle CEO Larry Ellison: Every now and then, for no apparent reason, the Mercury News will help you sell your house.
It's like Christmas and Boat Porn Day rolled into one: the SF Chron's Technology Chronicles splatters a whole gallery of photos from Larry Ellison's emergency backup yacht. Last night Netsuite (Larry Ellison's Salesforce.com killer) threw a yacht party — to generally celebrate being rich — on the richly furnished boat.
No, not "fueled by the blood of those he has devoured." Bill Gates shows Fortune Magazine how he gets stuff done. Some highlights about the elder statesman of the software world:
He built another boat — Oracle founder Larry Ellison and his Oracle BMW racing team brought 500 guests to a "naming ceremony" for their new boat. It's unclear whether "USA 87" was the chosen name or the replaced placeholder, but I desperately hope it's the latter.
