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Posts Tagged “

Geek Love

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sex trade

How a women-on-demand website saved OKCupid

When OKCupid, the site where Internet users too cool to date online date online, faced a possible shutdown, founders Sam Yagan and Chris Coyne took a page from the sex business to stay afloat: dates on demand. Describing the premise of CrazyBlindDate.com, which matches users by location and a vague sense of mutual compatibility that has more to do with scheduling than anything, Yagan says:
"Men will look at this and say, 'Sweet; I can get a woman delivered to me. But for some women it'll seem creepy. This way they'll only need to bring half a canister of mace."
More »

5:00 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Melissa Gira Grant
1,790 views, 6 comments

Latest by random_play: @stinkypants: Disturbingly enough, I am now more attracted to Sarah Jessica Parker. more »

geek love

Craig Newmark angles to take Phil Bronstein's livelihood, woman

At the party for Jonathan Zittrain's new book, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop it, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark couldn't settle for destroying San Francisco Chronicle editor-at-large Phil Bronstein's profession — he may be after Bronstein's woman, too:
Craig told my wife she was out of my league. I know that! This is the guy who destroyed newspapers? Master of the obvious. But he's come a long way himself from the days when he was his own best browser in the Craigslist "Missed Connections" section.
(Photo by AP/Benjamin Sklar)

2:00 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Jackson West
531 views, 10 comments

Latest by cyc: @Wikipedophile: LOL because this is obviously another one of Rachel Marsden's accounts. Looks like a poor man's Ann Coulter to me. Got the mannish features and everything, and batshit insane to boot. more »

caption contest

You mean this isn't the Facebook prom?

Despite not making the cut for this year's Time 100, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales showed up at the magazine's party anyway. (Past honorees are reinvited to the party automatically.) Even more surprising: On his arm was Andrea Weckerle, the freelance public-relations professional long rumored to have been smitten with Wales. If this photo is an indication, her affections are less unrequited than has been said. More »

4:00 PM on Mon May 12 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,718 views, 64 comments

geek love

Slide CEO Max Levchin soon to wed Nellie Minkova

Hidden in Fortune editor Andy Serwer's stream-of-capitalism blog was this nugget: Slide CEO Max Levchin will soon wed longtime girlfriend Nellie Minkova. Minkova, pictured here with Levchin, works at Clarium Capital Management, the hedge fund of Peter Thiel, Levchin's cofounder at PayPal. For more of Minkova, see this excerpt from a New York Times video where she discussed domestic life with a boyfriend who works 18 hours a day: More »

1:00 PM on Wed May 7 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,943 views, 3 comments

art kern

Yahoo board member's secret marriage revealed by pension-fund fight

Two pension funds suing Yahoo want to get testimony from director Art Kern, a former radio entrepreneur — but his domestic bliss is getting in the way. Kern was married on March 1 Deal Journal reports, according to a document filed by lawyers in the case, and is starting a five-week honeymoon outside the country on May 4. Here's what's odd about the filing: the name of Kern's new spouse is not mentioned anywhere. A source familiar with Kern says his new wife's name is Alison. Anyone have pictures of the happy couple? Please send them in.

4:20 PM on Tue Apr 29 2008
By Owen Thomas
666 views, 4 comments

Latest by TheGunslinger: Who the hell is Art Kern and who the hell cares anyway? more »

nerdspotting

Jimmy Wales takes his Wikipedia magic show to New York City

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. More »

Feature

11:40 AM on Tue Apr 29 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,149 views, 42 comments

Latest by Rachel Marsden: @gitahne-o: Damn straight. more »

geek love

Steve Wozniak and Kathy Griffin all broken up

Speaking to an Us Magazine reporter on Saturday, comedienne Kathy Griffin declared that she and billionaire Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak have moved to Splitsville, population: Them.
"As a matter of fact," she added, "I got an email last week from him, and he is going to marry someone else... I think he might be married. I don't really know that for sure, though."
Wow, with Wozniak's marital status up in the air even while dating, it sure comes as a surprise that the two couldn't see eye-to-eye in the relationship. It couldn't have helped that rumors suggested the notoriously flaky Woz may have held up production of episodes of Griffin's reality show "My LIfe on the D List" slated to air on Bravo. Still, they'll always have Sunnyvale. (Photo AP/Danny Moloshok)

11:40 AM on Mon Apr 28 2008
By Jackson West
5,798 views, 6 comments

Latest by drinkwater: No!!!! I really wanted them to work out. If THEY could make it happen then it meant that any sassy, brassy lady with a sharp wit could maintain a relationship with a major league nerd. But I guess that was more »

geek love

After Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster flexes muscles at eBay, fan offers to rub away the soreness

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster fired back at eBay on the official Craigslist blog last night, asserting that the auction giant, the owner of a large stake in Craigslist, didn't bother to contact anyone at the company before filing suit. eBay's action, wrote Buckmaster, "hints at ulterior motives." Dozens of commenters left notes in support of the online classifieds site. My favorite is from one Genevieve McGill:
Dear Craig's List, I LOVE U VERY MUCH!!! PRETTY-PLEASE let me know if I can do ANYTHING to support you. I am a Powerful,Licensed Massage therapist in FL who will use ALL of My intellectual BICEPS & anything I've got to be your dutiful minion.
And I bet she's only one of many fans who'd be happy to help release the hunky Buckmaster's eBay-taunting tension.

3:20 PM on Wed Apr 23 2008
By Jackson West
638 views, 6 comments

Latest by raincoaster: @Bornean: I am honoured. My throwaway spam references es su throwaway spam references. more »

geeks gone wild

Details of Randi Zuckerberg's bachelorette party in Vegas

We hear that friends of Randi Zuckerberg, better known as nerd chanteuse Randi Jayne, are surprising the Facebook marketer with a bachelorette party in Las Vegas this weekend. The place: the Hard Rock Hotel, where they've secured two suites. (Zuckerberg is set to wed Brent Tworetzky, an associate at Shasta Ventures, in May.) The bacchanalia's expected to last all weekend, including a dinner at Tao and a night out at Rain. Who's going? More »

12:20 PM on Wed Apr 23 2008
By Owen Thomas
3,124 views, 4 comments

geek love

Is an Italian hottie the reason why Vista sucks?

In 2001, Brian Valentine, then a top Microsoft executive, was pumped about Windows XP, as a spoof infomercial shows. By the time Vista was getting ready for release, his enthusiasm had waned. The reason? Some believe he was pining for Gianna Puerini, a sales manager who had left Microsoft for Amazon.com in 2003. In July 2006, Valentine secretly signed an employment contract with Amazon.com. Microsoft did not reveal that he was leaving for Amazon.com until September 5, less than a week before he started his new job. The business rationale for hiding his departure was obvious: Valentine ran the team that was shipping its Windows Vista operating system. Losing their leader would have killed morale. More »

12:20 PM on Tue Apr 22 2008
By Owen Thomas
4,767 views, 10 comments

Latest by dangster: Cougars suck. more »

crash this bash

"Love 2.0" tonight, but not for girls who like boys who do girls like they're boys

Engage, the latest hookup site to spin itself as a social experience, doesn't want bisexual people. New users are prompted to decide if they want to be shown the profiles of eligible men, or women, only. Bisexuality may have gone out of style in the '70s, but what if you're just slutty? Even Facebook allows for wanting boys and girls at the same time. Maybe someone can offer the Engage crew a demo at their Love 2.0 pickup party tonight.

3:20 PM on Mon Apr 21 2008
By Melissa Gira Grant
838 views, 15 comments

Latest by LAS: Facebook, hell. Adult FriendFinder is how old? Old school, fer shure. And *they* have a more sophisticated code. more »

the sum of all human knowledge

Jimmy Wales hires bodyguard for New York event

Invited to speak about "the future of the Internet" at New York University, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales instead spent the session dwelling on his smartphone's inbox. Why was the muse for the world's most exhaustive list of Simpsons episodes so distracted? Likely for the same reason he hired a personal security guard for the event: would-be paramour Andrea Weckerle. We're told that Weckerle, a PR consultant previously linked to Wales, has such a crush on Wales — unrequited — that she flew cross-country for the event, and told friends she was sharing a hotel room with Wales for a supposed tryst. More »

12:20 PM on Thu Apr 17 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,301 views, 35 comments

Latest by colonelpanic: Of course, now ... ever quick to respond, Marsden's now posted specifically to about a dozen OTHER articles. Oh so savvy. more »

geek love

Yahoo millionaire Paul Graham secretly engaged to Jessica Livingston

Commenters on Hacker News, a Web discussion board, got their panties in a bunch over the weekend over whether to ban stories from Valleywag from the site. The move netted the otherwise obscure site, mostly frequented by graduates of Paul Graham's Y Combinator startup incubator, some coverage from Michael Arrington on TechCrunch. It also netted us a tipster who let us know Hacker News founder Graham, best known for flipping an e-commerce startup to Yahoo more than a decade ago, was engaged to longtime lover Jessica Livingston, author of Founders at Work. More »

1:20 PM on Mon Apr 14 2008
By Jackson West
1,574 views, 5 comments

Latest by abmw: I believe that Ms. Livingston has been the organizational and marketing brains behind the desk at Ycomb Cambridge. The pic of Graham seems dated, when I saw him, he seemed much rougher around the edges and careworn that than photo would more »

the sum of all human knowledge

Jimmy Wales edited Julia Allison's Wikipedia entry

We now know the kind of woman Jimmy Wales goes for: brunettes who appear on Fox News and have conveniently troubled Wikipedia entries. In January, the founder of the world's greatest online list of unusually shaped vegetables was courting Canadian controversialist Rachel Marsden with sex-fantasy-laden IM chats. But at the same time, Wales was also playing the gallant on Star editor-at-large and former Fox News late-night pundit Julia Allison's Wikipedia page. More »

10:00 AM on Mon Apr 14 2008
By Owen Thomas
5,523 views, 76 comments

sex trade

What geek girls want in a hookup

Say you score a genuine female technophile from the swarm of wannabes who just want to bed you for geek cred. Now the challenge is keeping her around. More »

12:00 PM on Thu Apr 10 2008
By Melissa Gira Grant
5,439 views, 28 comments

sex trade

How to bed a girl who really loves geeks

Tomorrow's TechCrunch-meets-PopSugar prom, the Geek Goes Chic bash in Hollywood, makes no pretenses: It's about hooking up socially maladapted software drones with women who view them as lottery tickets. When cosponsor PopSugar teases, "Trust me, being married to a geek is a good thing so come and meet your own," what sort of girl should these guys expect? Here's a field guide to distinguish the women who are playing you from the women who will play. More »

12:00 PM on Wed Apr 9 2008
By Melissa Gira Grant
5,530 views, 35 comments

Latest by ext212: + Watch videoOh man, I love Gawker more »

geek love

Forbes declares Peter Thiel "single," which may be news to his boyfriend

In its latest list of billionaire bachelors, Forbes lists Facebook investor and hedge fund Midas Peter Thiel as "single." Technically true, I'll give the magazine's factchecker that much, if it means "confirmed bachelor." Thanks to California's marriage laws, he doesn't have much choice in the matter. In fact, I hear Thiel is getting less single every day. One tipster close to his hedge fund, Clarium Capital, shares this rumor: that Thiel may have hired his boyfriend, Matt Danzeisen, away from BlackRock Securities, thereby discarding plans to relocate the fund's headquarters to New York. Aside from being convenient for the pair, it would seem like a good career move for Danzeisen. More »

6:00 AM on Wed Apr 9 2008
By Owen Thomas
5,145 views, 19 comments

Latest by Robert Synnott: While I find it comforting that it is possible to be a gay VC, I worry that possibly it is only possible if you have seriously deranged political views, a la Thiel. :) more »

pop quiz

How would you flirt with Julia Allison?

@juliaallison, if only I were at Balthazar's, I'd buy you a pick-me-up. Not that Julia reads this rag, but say you were going to follow my advice on how to use Twitter to pick up girls, how would you catch her attention? Give your approach a test run in the comments.

4:40 PM on Tue Apr 8 2008
By Melissa Gira Grant
1,855 views, 24 comments