Valleywag: Gallery

Justin Kan, raw and undressed, in kerfuffle at TechCrunch afterparty

Alaska Miller — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:00:00 PDT

Can't get enough of this weekend's TechCrunch party? Valleywag's camera was on the scene as Justin.tv's Justin Kan shed his shirt and got into a heated altercation with OpenHulu creator and Ustream.tv employee Matt Schlicht over accusations of content poaching.

As a nearby source explains:

Justin got introduced to some guy sitting down and quickly started yelling and waving his arms. Justin accused the guy of stealing his broadcasters, using words like "incessant" and "out of control". Justin then said something about "staying off his fucking site" or that he'll just "break the guy's face", with his fists clenched. The guy just sat there pretty calmly and simply asked Justin for more than 1 example of content poaching. After Justin stumbled to answer the guy continued to say "this is not worth my time." Stumped, Justin kind of gave up, apologized, and walked away embarrassed.

More photos of Kan, Julia Allison, Sarah Lacy, and other afterpartiers:

The incredible shrinking Apple CEO

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:00:00 PDT

Apple PR has finally come up with an unconvincing explanation for Apple CEO Steve Jobs's all-too-evident skinniness: Jobs was suffering from a "common bug" when he spoke at Apple's WWDC event, a spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal. Spin aside, there's no hiding the fact that Apple CEO Steve Jobs used to have more heft a decade ago. Some continue to worry about his brush with cancer, or an overly strict diet imposed by wife Laurene Powell-Jobs, or a case of manorexia. But it's not like Jobs slimmed down overnight. The ever-shrinking Jobs in pictures, from 1998 to 2008, below.

A healthy Steve Jobs with a bad beard in 1998.

In 2003, Jobs could have used a "bro."

Secretly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, Jobs's weight loss was evident in 2004.

By 2005, he looked healthy again.

Notice the contrast between Jobs and Nike CEO Mark Parker in 2006.

By 2007, Jobs's frame verged on I've-fallen-and-I-can't-get-up frailty.

Jobs during Monday's keynote.

(Photos by AP/Susan Ragan, Richard Lewis, Mary Altaffer, Alastair Grant, Paul Sakuma)

At OutCast CEO Dinner, Robert Scoble greeted us warmly

Owen Thomas — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:20:33 PDT

FERRY BUILDING, SAN FRANCISCO — Let's be clear: Local PR firm OutCast's CEO Dinner event Thursday night wasn't really a dinner — most people ate standing up. Nor were there many CEOs. (I counted one: Jim Louderback of Revision3.) It's a far cry from years past where the decimated post-bubble survivors of San Francisco's tech press corps would gather in a room and listen to OutCast clients like Gordon Eubanks of Oblix, a salty former submarine officer, utter zingers about the wonders of Viagra. OutCast is a sizable firm now, and it's got big clients like Facebook and Yahoo. But Mark Zuckerberg? Jerry Yang? Nowhere to be seen. Instead, you had a hall full of hacks and flacks. I wonder how many of them shook videoblogger Robert Scoble's hand? Photo gallery after the jump:

Digg meetup more like a concert in a land without women

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:00:00 PDT

The line to get into Digg's meetup and live filming of Diggnation last night in Brooklyn went around the block. Inside, the joint was packed with dudes drinking beer, waving around iPhones, and wearing T-shirts. There were maybe like 10 or 15 women. Just as rare: Microsoft Zune users. Despite Microsoft's sponsorship, when Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback tried to give away Zune T-shirts, the crowd only booed. Julia Allison's entourage, Kevin Rose, and more in our photo gallery.

Photos from Randi Zuckerberg's wedding

Owen Thomas — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:00:00 PDT

Darlings, everyone who's anyone is flying to a Caribbean island to get married. Larry Page and Lucy Southworth did the deed on some spit of sand called Necker Island. Randi Zuckerberg? The Facebooker took over something like the entire island of Jamaica to get hitched to venture-capital associate Brent Tworetzky. Or just Runaway Bay — our sources can't get that part entirely straight. But we did get a batch of photos from the wedding. A destination wedding in Jamaica? Expensive. Making your younger brother, who's ostensibly your boss and worth $4 billion on paper, dress in a turquoise vest and an ill-fitting tuxedo shirt? Priceless. The photos:

Photos from Marissa Mayer's "Sex and the City" screening

Owen Thomas — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:30:00 PDT

CENTURY SAN FRANCISCO CENTRE 9 — Where are the girls? An event producer and I both nervously paced through the lobby. Where was Marissa Mayer? The Google executive had rented a theater for the 8:50 screening of Sex and the City, but she and 300 of her closest friends were nowhere to be seen. Late, of course — have you tried to walk the block-long distance between Mayer's Four Seasons penthouse and the Westfield Centre in a pair of Manolo Blahniks? Finally, I spotted someone I knew — gorgeous Googler Brittany Bohnet, girlfriend of Facebooker Dave Morin, above. ("People are saying I look like Charlotte," said Bohnet, pictured above. "Do you think so?" Yes. Cuter than Charlotte, actually.

AllThingsD's Kara Swisher also showed up with her Googler spouse, Megan Smith. "We're dressed as lesbians," said Swisher. (How was one supposed to tell the difference? Oh, right — usually Swisher's dressed like a soccer mom.)

Somewhere in the confusion, the event's producer thrust a ticket in my hand, and I walked into the screening. No sign of Marissa, though, who I'd heard was wearing a Pucci dress. Before I could spot her, the producer walked up the aisle to my seat. "Owen?" he asked? Yep, that's right — eighty-sixed again. I spotted Orkut Buyukkokten, Marissa's best gay friend, on my way out. Not that I minded getting booted, really — I hear the movie's not all that great. I was more interested in the trailer I saw for Mamma Mia — hey, Marissa, can you throw a screening for that, and invite me?

I'll leave you with one last pic of the moviegoers:

Security ejects Valleywag from D6 conference

Owen Thomas — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:46:02 PDT

CARLSBAD, CA — I wasn't just eighty-sixed, folks. No, I was eight-D6'd. There I was, charming my way through the crowd at the Wall Street Journal's D6 conference — why hello, Sir Howard Stringer of Sony! Oh, was that Steve Case? — when a woman announced herself as "in-house security" and informed me that "the client" had asked that I be shown the door. "The client" being Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, the conference organizers, and "the door" actually just the way to the hotel bar, where I'm having a lovely fruity beverage. And Swisher and Mossberg were too late with the bum rush. I'd already been working my camera for hours. While Bill Gates bores attendees with a preview of Windows Seven, Microsoft's latest attempt to annoy the majority of computer users, you can enjoy the snapshots I took. Among the nerdspotting: Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Max Levchin of Slide.

Wired celebrates 15 years of turning a cult into a culture (and back again)

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:40:00 PDT

MIDTOWN WEST — "You're a normal person," Wired editor Chris Anderson asked me at Wired's 15th anniversary party last night in New York. "What do you make of all this?" He nodded his head toward the four corners of the roof top, crowded with the Wired set. In response, I said something about the thick-rimmed black frames and all the scarves. But for reading-comprehension points, I should have said I felt like I was in the midst of a cult. Because that's what Conde Nast's Wired is all about, Anderson and Wired cofounder Louis Rossetto told us in their speeches: turning the cult of technology into a culture, but keeping it as fervent as a cult. That and covers of a nude Jenna Fischer and LonelyGirl15 in bed, of course. Below, photos of the faithful.

(Photos by Nicholas Carlson)

Googlers in Taiwan move into new office, could open a day care

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 20 May 2008 07:00:00 PDT

Google's Taipei office used to be on floor 37 of the Taipei 101, one of the world's tallest towers. After a big move, it's now on floor 73. Flickr user tempofeng attended the move-in party and uploaded shots so the rest of us could marvel at the pace with which Google's kindergarten-themed offices march across the globe. The full gallery is embedded below.

(Photos by tempofeng)

Bertram Capital borrows Benchmark jet for Cabo San Lucas trip

Owen Thomas — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:00:00 PDT

How awesome is the private-equity business? Private-jet awesome. That's the message that Bertram Capital vice president Michael Chang likely hoped to send to friends when he posted an album of photos to Facebook from his firm's trip to Cabo San Lucas. Slightly less awesome reality: Bertram had to borrow the jet from Benchmark Capital, and investors who put money in Bertram may not be that impressed with the firm's goofy display of extravagance. Selections from the photos, which show Bertram executives behaving like high-schoolers on a museum field trip:

Update: Michael Chang writes:

This was indeed a firm sanctioned event to express our appreciation to the top intermediaries who had been kind enough to send us investment opportunities at the start of our new fund. In fact, we just had our annual meeting to our LPs today and discussed the biathlon with them. They found it a creative way to drive increased deal flow to the firm.

There you have it: Creative!

Photos from Sarah Lacy's book party

Owen Thomas — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:00:00 PDT

Web 2.0 was hot last night. And I mean the kind of heat determined not by Technorati rank, but by the thermometer. Despite the stifling weather, San Francisco's Web stars turned out for a party Sarah Lacy threw for her new book, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good at Otis off Union Square. The hole-in-the-wall, two-story bar couldn't handle the crowd, which spilled out on Maiden Lane. Slide CEO Max Levchin, the star of the book, stopped by with fiancé Nellie Minkova to congratulate Lacy, and then immediately left. Runner-up Jay Adelson, whom Levchin beat on page count, stayed longer, as did Twitter's Ev Williams, who came with his wife, Sara Morishige. Also in the crowd: August Capital VC David Hornik, who didn't even rate a mention in the index, despite inviting Lacy to his exclusive Lobby conference. A gallery of photos, after the jump:

Photos by Randal Alan Smith

The future of Jonathan Zittrain (and how to stop it)

Owen Thomas — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:20:00 PDT

Really, I wasn't trying to be posh for the book party Arianna Huffington threw Saturday for Oxford scholar Jonathan Zittrain and his new book, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It." I pulled up to Larry Ellison's Pacific Heights manse in a black Town Car because that's the only vehicle I was able to flag down in North Beach. Huffington, the pundit turned blog mogul, greeted me at the door and extracted a promise of my best behavior before allowing me in. (One wonders what these people think my worst behavior might be, and if they realize how tempting living down to their expectations is.)

Stanlee Gatti, the former San Francisco arts commissioner, produced the event, which drew a crowd mixed with the Valley elite, San Francisco politicos, a gaggle of YouTubers, and oddball geek pals of Zittrain. Oh, and some grubby hacks like yours truly. Melanie Ellison, the romance novelist and wife of Oracle CEO Larry, went to high school with Zittrain, it turns out. That's the kind of it's-a-small-world connection the local press corps loves to make a big deal about. But even if Zittrain didn't have this chance connection to the Valley's movers and shakers, I'd think he'd be drawing attention from its inner circle anyway.

Speaking of which, the crowd included Chuck Phillips, the president of Oracle; Accel Partners' Jim Breyer; Google angel investor Ram Shiram; Gavin Newsom; former California governor Jerry Brown; Jessica Guynn of the Los Angeles TimesBarron's; AllThingsD's Kara Swisher; former Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein; MarketWatch's Therese Poletti; Craig Newmark; and renowned San Francisco socialite Denise Hale, who rather liked my tie.

Zittrain's book is about the tradeoffs between freedom and control, security and creativity. New devices like the iPhone provide a safer, smoother experience than the uncontrolled Web — but at the cost of having a gatekeeper, Apple, dictating what can and can't run on the device. That kind of chokepoint, in turn, makes it far easier for government regulators to get involved. The alternative, though, is not particularly attractive: an Internet ruled by spammers and hackers.

Like his counterparts in politics, Zittrain is seeking a third way. I couldn't help but think this impulse is driven by an early experience he related at the party: Getting beaten up in high school. (He thanked the hostess, Melanie, "for not beating up on me.") Having been bullied, Zittrain doesn't want revenge: He just doesn't want anyone to bully, or be bullied. This moderating impulse is seen in a passage where he discusses how neither governments nor citizens ought to be able to wholly circumvent the law through technology:

Perhaps it is best to say that neither the governor nor the governed should be able to monopolize technological tricks. We are better off without flat-out trumps that make the world the way either regulator or target wants it to be without the need for the expenditure of some effort and
cooperation from others to make it so.

If Zittrain seems like the next Lawrence Lessig, that's no coincidence. Zittrain was Lessig's teaching assistant at his first class on cyberlaw at Harvard. Stanford, Lessig's current employer, is mounting a full-court press to hire Zittrain away from Oxford and reunite the two.

And yet Zittrain's career could well exceed Lessig's. That he was able to fill a room — an impeccably furnished, tastefully modern room in one of San Francisco's wealthiest enclaves, at that — speaks to his draw. Liberal San Francisco politicans, self-made entrepreneurs, and the Web's wacky fringe can all find things they agree on in his work.

The danger for Zittrain is that his work might be nothing more than a justification for compromise and tradeoffs. Will he find a third way for the Web — or just point out the middle of the road? His calls for a "generosity of spirit" are reminiscent of the assumptions that turned eBay, a marketplace of strangers, into a very profitable community of traders. Hoping for the best really can pan out, as it happens. But the answers Zittrain will have to find, or inspire, are far more complicated than asking someone to be on their best behavior.

The 10 worst workspaces in tech

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:00:00 PDT

We've toured the top 10 workspaces in tech. Now, we've gone back to Office Snapshots to find the 10 worst. What makes them so bad? Some offend with exposed fluorescent lights, gray cubicles and a dystopian corporate sheen. But others, with their pseudo-hip graffiti, kindergarten toys and plastic decorations — all in a desperate attempt to seem "Internet-y" — come off even worse. We'll start with Yahoo's New York digs.

Tech's top 10 workspaces

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:00:00 PDT

What makes for an appealing workspace? The envelopes they leave in your mailbox every two weeks. But after that, it comes down to design and amenities. Also, we like windows and brick. Lots and lots of brick. After spending some time on Office Snapshots, we present the ten best-looking offices in tech, below.

Mark Zuckerberg Adidas memorial slideshow

Nick Douglas — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:41:12 PDT

If Mark Zuckerberg is the new Steve Jobs (hint: yes), then the Facebook creator's Adidas flip-flops are the heir to the Apple founder's black turtleneck. Nearly every news item about the 23-year-old fratrepreneur mentions (among other signs of youth) the black and white sandals, which Mark wears with every outfit. The Globe and Mail barely avoided predicting he'd wear them to the mogul summer camp soon taking place in Sun Valley. (Answer: he's not going.) But we've heard bad news about Mark's favorite sandals: they're getting discontinued. Here's a photographic retrospective on the love between a boy and his flip-flops.

Top ten tech must-haves of the past

Nick Douglas — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:03:38 PDT

You didn't get the latest must-have on iDay? That's okay, neither did I. And frankly, that's fine. There are still some left in the store, and Apple always does better on the second try anyway. Why not wait til Christmas for iPhone 2? And why not check out ten highly anticipated, highly-sought must-haves of the past? Most of them look pretty stupid now, no? Some of them (like Windows Vista) built buzz beforehand but bombed on launch day. Some are even sexier as retro toys than they were when brand new. They're all reminders that the iPhone isn't the first, or the last, geek toy you'll want on Day 1.

Unless otherwise noted, photos are licensed from Getty Images. You'll also dig PC World's "50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years."