"The slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts," said George Orwell in "Politics and the English Language." Thank God the man never worked in tech. Starting with the recently abused "conversation," here are five words that signal bullshit in corpspeak.

The man CNET called the "most hated blogger" is suing his detractors and allegedly hiding in Australia, according to CNET's new report. Who is this real estate blogger, why's he so hated, and why do I recognize the bitter taste in my mouth?

NICK DOUGLAS — Okay, okay, you're sick of hearing about Kevin Burton, but this is hilarious. Kevin commented on Valleywag and denied peeping at women's AIM conversations at wifi cafes, saying he was "joking" to the Wired writer who wrote this as fact in 2004. "If I'm guilty of anything here, it's trust," he told Valleywag. "I expect you to correct your article and update the story." Ahaha, not so fast. Kevin's a long-time chatter on an IRC channel named #joiito. And in 2004, he sounded honestly proud of the "alleged" spying tactic. In fact, he said it was how he wanted to be remembered. Here's a chat log.

NICK DOUGLAS — One in four high schoolers would drop $500 on an iPhone, according to a poll by banking firm Piper Jaffray. Ahem. As a recovering ex-teen (on the wagon for three years as of Tuesday), let me channel the psychology of a high schooler. I am told about a hip product that will elevate you among my peers. I am asked to speculate, in a consequence-free context, whether I would spend my next two McDonald's paychecks on this product. I will tell you "sure." And I'll probably tell you my plan to get my own car, man. Yeah, and an apartment, cause I'm sick of Mom and Dad. Totally, man, totally. (Photo: duncandavidson)

Aw, thanks, Michael Crook! The Craigslist-baiting blogger who sent around a round of fake DMCA take-down notices to everyone who showed the Fox News screenshot photo here (a photo he does not own). We had to post that photo five times to get Crook to send us the notice too. Wanna see?

BREAKING NEWS! SEVERAL STUDENTS AT FALLS CHURCH HIGH SCHOOL AREN'T ON MYSPACE AS MUCH AS THEY USED TO BE!

• Business 2.0 Magazine tells entrepreneurs to "sign up customers, then deliver." Which here means "Fake it, then take it" — their poster boy for this idea launches blogs full of rehashed info (okay, we all do that), then takes inquiring readers and refers them to real pros or gets a quick and dirty certification in the area of fake expertise. Sure, it's legal, until the malpractice lawsuits begin. [Business 2.0]

The highlight of yesterday's Congressional hearing over a sketchy Hewlett-Packard investigation came when Congressman Greg Walden asked HP ex-chair Patricia Dunn, if she didn't know investigators were lying to phone companies to get targets' phone records, how she thought they got them.

"Now serving 1,000,000," says del.icio.us. That user count sounds solid — and Yahoo's social bookmarking service has usage data to back it up — but sketchier companies have wildly inflated their numbers before. User counts, just like page counts, get inflated as companies fight for the PR limelight. Let's take a look at some of the worst offenders.

After seeing Apple CEO Steve Jobs present the iTV, a box that wirelessly connects a computer to a TV. (And to think that before this, we used cords — how primitive!) Google VP Marissa Mayer told the press, "It's what I always wanted."

Pop quiz: What does a once-popular startup, top-heavy with philosophy and lacking direction, do when the one guy who started the whole thing quits?

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.

Chief Privacy Officer of Hewlett-Packard, to a committee of U.S. Representatives this summer:

With Mountain View blanketed in wifi from Google and San Jose more wired than Too Much Coffee Man, how did Silicon Valley's towns get sidelined from Forbes's "America's Most Wired Cities" list? Only San Francisco made it in (fourth place, baby). Well, Forbes explains their methodology (emphasis ours):

Now, if you were the Sales and Marketing VP of a tiny startup, and Sony was going to buy your little piece of flipmeat in a week, wouldn't you know about it?

AOL, whose research department recently released search records to the public (much like the records they showed the government earlier this year), issued an apology today for the gross violation of its users' privacy.

As part of his duties running Technorati, Dave Sifry writes a seasonal "State of the Blogosphere" report. One purpose is to demonstrate the blog search engine's growing importance as the blog world explodes. Sure, it's exploding, but Dave can't decide how quickly. Watch him magically change the past:

The Wall Street Journal opens a story with:

When a hot startup CEO goes to a retreat searching for a buyout and fails to bring one home, how does he spin it? Well, when YouTube's Chad Hurley didn't get a sweet enough offer from the heads of NBC, News Corp, and other guests at media mogul summer camp, he spun it by hinting that his company might go public.

Step right up, folks! Get yer palm read and your cards taroted by the Web 2.0 psychic! What's your sign? Is Omnidrive ascendant in the house of TechCrunch? Dion Hinchcliffe (OMG perfect name) has the answer!