nerdspotting

Jimmy Wales takes his Wikipedia magic show to New York City

Owen Thomas · 04/29/08 01:40PM

For a province of California, Silicon Valley can be strangely puritan at times. That made it an uncomfortable locale for libertine Libertarian Jimmy Wales, the less-than-saintly founder of Wikipedia. Wales told ex-lover Rachel Marsden, the Canadian controversialist, that he wanted to move to New York to be closer to her. Their affair is over — ended, fittingly, via a posting on Wikipedia — but Wales has relocated to New York all the same. The likely reason has to do with work, or the appearance of work. Although Wikipedia's nonprofit parent, the Wikimedia Foundation, is located in San Francisco, and his ostensible employer, for-profit wiki venture Wikia, has itsheadquarters in a suburb to the south of the city, Wales is charged with running a search-engine project for Wikia which is based in New York.

Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and YouTubers party with Pussycat Dolls in Vegas

Nicholas Carlson · 04/29/08 12:40PM

YouTube cofounders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen partied in Las Vegas over weekend, taking to the VIP sections at Caesar's Palace and the Luxor, a nerdspotter tells us. At Caesar's Hurley, Chen and a crew of about 25 YouTubers — early employees, we hear — lounged around Club Pure, taking in a Pussycat Dolls show (an example in the clip below). Our tipster tells us the group partied not like rock stars, but "cool nerds." Anyone have a visual explanation of what that looks like? Send in your cameraphone spy clips of Chen & Co., or better yet, post them to YouTube.

Steve Jurvetson makes chess nerd supermodel Carmen Kass smile

Jackson West · 04/23/08 02:00PM

Draper Fisher Jurvetson general manager Steve Jurvetson was wallowing in Estonian pride on Friday at a party held by the Swedish ambassador. Sidling up to chess-playing überhottie Carmen Kass, he even managed to elicit a smile from the thin minx, who is most often pictured with the professionally dour expression demanded on the runway. But just in case the intimate moment might be misinterpreted, Jurvetson seems to be holding up his hand to make sure the photographer catches the glint from his wedding ring. (Photo from Steve Jurvetson)

What's Sergey Brin doing with Arianna Huffington in Tahiti?

Owen Thomas · 04/15/08 11:50PM

Google cofounder Sergey Brin is, two days away from his company's first-quarter earnings call, sunning himself in Tahiti. As is Greco-American blog tycoon Arianna Huffington and Wendi Deng, wife of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. Huffington is reportedly there on vacation, but it's a stretch to think Brin and Deng are also there by sheer coincidence. Anyone have a bead on what prompted the South Pacific power summit? Do let us know your theories.

Leah Culver, Cal Henderson take in "21" on movie date

Owen Thomas · 03/31/08 02:20PM

I remain utterly obsessed with ubiquinnoying Pownce cofounder Leah Culver and heterofabulous Flickr engineer Cal Henderson, not least because he tweaked my nipples the last time I saw the pair in Austin. A tipster reports spotting the besotted twosome at the Westfield mall in downtown San Francisco, going into a screening of 21, a tale of geeks who used higher math to take the house in Vegas. Could a desert debauch be in their future? (Photo by magerleagues)

Mark Zuckerberg reveals Larry Page's wife in another man's embrace

Owen Thomas · 03/27/08 05:20PM

Before Lucy Southworth met Larry, there was another man in the future Ms. Page's life: Tom Kretchmar. From a photo album on Facebook, leaked thanks to the site's privacy holes, we can see Southworth and Kretchmar were close. In one photo, she's sitting on his lap. Old college flame, or just a friendly school chum? Never mind: Southworth is too radiantly adorkable for me to pay much attention to Kretchmar.

Fraiche Yogurt, Palo Alto's new VC hangout

Owen Thomas · 03/24/08 05:00PM

Forget trying to get a seat, or a power outlet, at Coupa Cafe. The new spot to hang out waiting to meet an investor to fund your Facebook app? Fraiche Yogurt on Emerson Street in Palo Alto. Here's the schtick: Go there and order a $2 cup of custom-brewed Blue Bottle coffee. (The frozen yogurt's okay, but hardly Pinkberry.) Spread out your traffic-stat charts and business plan, then lie in wait to ambush Accel Partners' Jim Breyer, the Facebook board member who's reportedly a frequent Fraicher. Oh, and bring your EVDO card: There's no Wi-Fi.

Kevin Rose wants to be a millionaire

Owen Thomas · 03/21/08 02:40PM

How did we miss this in December? Kevin Rose, the cofounder of Digg, served as the answer to a question on ABC's Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and the show in which his name appeared is rerunning now on KGO. Sarah Lacy, the BusinessWeek columnist whose upcoming book prominently features Rose, spotted the mention. If you didn't tune in, YouTube has a replay:

Mark Zuckerberg eye-rolling incident roils Craigslist

Owen Thomas · 03/17/08 01:20PM

So Mark Zuckerberg walks into a bar — sorry, no punch line. According to a "missed connections" posting on Craigslist, Facebook's CEO visited Bourbon & Branch, the Tenderloin speakeasy, on Saturday, and rolled his eyes when he was recognized. The Craigslist user's unfriendly advice for Zuckerberg: "If I were you, I'd appreciate being recognized. You're not Brad Pitt. You're a computer geek (on paper). Don't become such a prick so early in your career." We have a feeling this will cause the straitlaced Zuckerberg to drink even less than he already does.

Kevin Rose wets his whistle

Owen Thomas · 03/11/08 04:20PM

AUSTIN, TX — I've seen Kevin Rose drink beer; I've heard the Digg cofounder likes to drink tea. But plain H20? Unheard of. The audience at his SXSW panel about scalable websites started whispering discontentedly when he paused to fill his cup from the watercooler.

Rolling with the RVIP Lounge at SXSW

Melissa Gira Grant · 03/10/08 06:20PM

You can't map the most off-the-chain (for you Olds, the new "off the hook") SXSW party on your shiny new iPhone. Ruby Red Labs and their {RV}IP Lounge and Karaoke Cabaret have been rolling merrily around Austin, bringing joy to geeks in need. Last night, after our second visit to the Fire Eagle party, {RV}IP driver and internet impresario Jonathan Grubb took a vanload of us back to the Hilton, blasting "These Boots Are Made for Walking." Watch this video, shot on the fly by Tim Shey of Next New Networks; it's almost as good as being there, but better if you actually were.

Spring break for Web developers

Owen Thomas · 03/09/08 03:35AM

Hey, wait a second: Why am I the only one working at SXSW? For everyone else in the Valley, the Austin conference is just a sanctioned spring break party. Clearly, I'm an idiot. I just spent three hours snapping photographs at SXSW's Bit 16 opening-night afterparty, without so much as a beer touching my hands. The Scoot Inn, a dingy dive bar east of downtown, hosted the event. I ran into Julia Allison first thing. I heard Kevin Rose was there, too, but I never spotted him. (Curious.) I chatted up Automattic's Matt Mullenweg, and Mashable's Pete Cashmore, as well as Glenda Bautista, Mullenweg's ballsy Bronx belle (pictured here with friends). It was a good time. But the ROI on SXSWi? Hard to spot, if you don't run an Austin bar, restaurant, or convention center.

How not to pitch Pete Cashmore's puppet

Melissa Gira Grant · 03/08/08 08:00PM

Mashable's adorably awkward Pete Cashmore really, really wanted to get a photo with the Valleywag crew during SXSW's opening parties. Lost in the middle-school-dance ambiance of Six, the Austin bar which served as our first stop for the night, I mistook the official Mashable hand mascot for "the shocker." But when Pete popped up again sans puppet at the way more laid-bac Gingerman, he tried again — and lightly punched my tit area . Casual approach, yes, but why not just pitch me like I really was one of the guys? That seems easier. (Photo by mashable)