Iminlikewithyou founder Charles Forman needs a Ruby developer. If you already have a job, Forman writes on his blog, "You should quit." One small hitch? The job's in New York ... sorta.

The New York Times has hired a bank in order to sell About.com, Silicon Alley Insider reports. The Times bought the site — a collection of bloggers posting Google- friendly content — back in 2005 for $410 million. SAI's Peter Kafka figures the Times will ask for around $450 million. And will be happy to get it. Makes sense. How much can a company full of permalancers paid by the pageview be worth, anyway?

So you're after venture capital and you want to know as much as possible about your potential investors before making your pitch. You could try following them on Twitter. But you might learn more than you wanted to.

Early adopter and technology evangelist Julia Allison took time from a busy punditry schedule for a rare update to her personal blog "And another thing..." yesterday. And then she posted another 33 times. One post's topic? Allison's frustration with Tumblr and its CEO, David Karp. The Fox Business News contributor wants Tumblr to become a "REAL company." Her words:

During an internal conference call yesterday, Bloomberg LP management announced it would freeze hiring and cut costs, a source told Silicon Alley Insider. Sure, Bloomberg earns its money licensing terminals to Wall Street firms, and is therefore more directly connected to the mortgage meltdown than any Silicon Valley firms. But news that Silicon Alley's most successful tech firm is suddenly under the gun remains unpleasant. Especially considering yesterday's doom and gloom prognostications from Digitas Web-ad buyer Carl Fremont. (Photo by azrainman)

Portfolio blogger Sam Gustin dislikes the phrase "cloud computing," a term for Web-based software whose popularity he attributes to "desperate reporters who, for the sake of the almighty scoop, are willing to publish just about any nonsense that a public relations professional shovels at them." True. But Gustin then proceeds to publish just about any nonsense shoveled at him by the PR department of Transmedia, a little nothing of a Web-software startup, which just happens to be based, like Gustin, in New York. Gustin reveals himself here as the typical journalist of New York's mostly inconsequential tech-startup scene: Entranced by proximity, out of touch with the currents of technology — as deluded, in his own way, as the reporters he critiques.

In Silicon Valley, VCs talk about building wealth for your great-grandchildren. But for Manhattan's tech entrepreneurs, success is measured by being able to immerse yourself in bubbly water at home. Connected Ventures cofounder Ricky Van Veen — yes, one of those "silly kids" in New York I cover way too much — just bought a new pad. Paul Boutin's response: "Who?" Owen's: "Wake me when you have photos of Mark Zuckerberg's new condo at the Ritz." Whatevs. Check out the hot real estate porn.

Connected Ventures cofounder Zach Klein did fly out to California to interview for a gig at MySpace, but it wasn't the right fit for him. Or he wasn't the right fit for MySpace. Hard to tell which. So what's the designer behind BustedTees and Vimeo up to next? Think geckos and real estate.

IAC, after it spins off all its boring businesses like HSN and LendingTree, will be left with a motley collection of questionably successful startups with so-cute-you-could-pinch-them names like Vimeo and Zwinky. In an interview with the New York Observer, Diller saves special favor for Very Short List, a daily email newsletter which sells one thing a day, with just two employees. Think of it as a Woot.com, but for aging billionaires. He claims to have bought 30 items off the list. "Without Very Short List, I would be much diminished," Diller tells the Observer. But as the newspaper points out, IAC's market cap has shrunk from $22 billion in 2003, before it spun off Expedia, to $8 billion today. A bit too late for an email to stop his diminution, I think.

Here in New York's so-called Silicon Alley, we occupy ourselves by filing stories about people setting up meetings to talk about organizing events to increase awareness of necessary preconditions for entrepreneurship. This leaves us with no time to do anything as tiring and complicated as, say, actually writing software. Bricabox founder Nate Westheimer and the Silicon Alley wantrepreneur community have their answer to the old white guys on Silicon Alley Insider's top 100. It's the Silicon Alley 100: People's Choice. Problem is, because its order was decided by nominations and votes, it's full of self-promoters you've never heard of, such as tech "activist" Dana Spiegel. Yes, he's the guy who takes the top spot. Telling that there are more people on this list than there are votes for the winner.

Watch Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler lose his executive cool after former employee Nicholas Carlson — our own Alleywag in New York City — deems him "old, rich and boring."

Silicon Alley Insider decided to revive one of Jason Calacanis's oldest traditions and produce a Silicon Alley 100. In doing so, the blog run by disgraced tech stock analyst Henry Blodget just proves the thoroughgoing irrelevance of the exercise. The editors' No. 1 man in New York? Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Some other highlights among the old, the rich and the boring? AOL topper Randy Falco, IAC's Barry Diller and Jupitermedia's Alan Meckler. The closest SAI comes to someone we care about is VC blogger Fred Wilson — a moneyman, not an entrepreneur. As in Calacanis's time, New York is where ideas come to be financed, repackaged, and marketed — not invented.