Explainer
If Chinese viewers want to watch Disney's
Hannah Montana — no accounting for global tastes — they can do so on 56.com, an online-video site akin to YouTube. The show is pirated. But does Disney really mind? Its startup-investment arm, Steamboat Ventures,
put money into 56.com two years ago.
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Caption Contest
Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Sergey Brin, is exceedingly pregnant — and Brin himself
has been spotted at the maternity ward. What will their baby look like? Wojcicki's genetic-testing startup, 23andMe, lets you spit into a vial and get a map to your genetic future. MakeMeBabies is not nearly as scientific, but we thought we'd run the couple's photos through to get a glimpse of their future progeny. Can you suggest a caption for the billionaire baby to be? The best will become the post's new headline. Yesterday's winner: "French blue shirt, khakis shortage hits Valley hard."
(Image by MakeMeBabies)
rumormonger
What to expect when you're expecting a billionaire? A tipster reports seeing Google cofounder Sergey Brin running into a hospital, orange Crocs and all. Here's what that means: His wife, Anne Wojcicki, is nine months pregnant with the couple's first child — who will be born into a fortune still worth $10 billion or more, even with Google shares plummeting. The spot where Brin was sighted, El Camino Hospital, has one of the Bay Area's best childbirth practices, and is close to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. When we last saw Wojcicki, she was on
Oprah talking about 23andMe, her genetics-testing startup, with the TV host herself begging Wojcicki to give birth already. It's possible that Brin was just there to tour the hospital, a common practice before birth, but his haste suggested otherwise, our tipster claims:
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Aruba Networks
It's the grand irony of Wi-Fi, a remarkably useful way of connecting to the Internet which has
nevertheless proved to be a tough business to make money in. Aruba Networks, a maker of Wi-Fi equipment, is rumored to have twice spurned Cisco's advances. Its shareholders will likely regret that; the company, which went public last year, has seen its shares plummet more than 90 percent from their peak. And it is now
laying off 10 percent of its staff, we hear cutting costs by 10 percent, including some layoffs. Aruba's equipment was
designed to withstand war-zone explosions — but not market implosions.
Update: The company has
reported earnings and confirmed costs cuts of 10 percent, though not all of that will come through the elimination of jobs.
Alberto Vilar
For most of the rich, the object of charity is to make one's name known. Alberto Vilar, a founder of a once-high-flying tech-stocks fund who stiffed New York's Metropolitan Opera on a $25 million pledge, has succeeded all too well. But his name is in court documents rather than the opera halls and college buildings he had hoped for. A jury found Vilar and his partner, Gary Tanaka,
guilty of stealing $20 million from customers of Amerindo Investment Advisors, in a series of frauds dating back to the dotcom bust. He could face 20 years in prison.
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Tim the IT Guy
Sooner or later we need to slam shut the door on technical have-nots. Pew Research found that
nearly half of adults surveyed need help setting up computers and cell phones. Ars Technica
notes what follows: Kids are always fixing their parents' PCs. But they don't take these insights to the logical conclusion: It's time to fire the IT support team.
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valleywag calendar
If your office cut its holiday day party budget, don't despair! There's still ample opportunity to make out with that coworker from the 3rd floor — on someone else's dime.
iWidgets is launching version 2 of its social syndication platform at Project One from 6-9 p.m. WorkIt.com's
annual Silicon Valley Mixer for startup types is at Techmart from 6-9 p.m. Salesforce.com is hosting a
technology social networking night with food, games, and swag at the Four Seasons from 6-8 p.m. And for something low-key, Avangate is having
casual drinks with software publishers at the Tied House in Mountain View from 6-8 p.m. Drink on!
(Photo by Rick)
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Valleywag
The panic of '08
Suicide by webcam
Lifecasting, a kind of do-it-yourself reality TV broadcast on the Internet, has thousands of practitioners. Until last night, one of them was Abraham Biggs, a 19-year-old Florida resident, who used a webcam to broadcast his death, too.
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