Valleywag

Posts Tagged “

ROFLCON

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recap

A week that saw Web 2.0 dethroned

Web 2.0 Expo this week persuaded that not only was Web 2.0 over, but saying it was over was over. To celebrate other Internet clichés, the 250 — that is to say, the 250 people on the Internet who matter to the 250 — decamped for ROFLcon in Massachusetts. Thank goodness, because some of us had actual work to do. Yahoo showed what it could do with its first-quarter earnings — which is to say, not much more than it had been doing before. Now Yahoos are bracing for more layoffs — when they're taking breaks from stealing credit and stabbing colleagues in the back. Facebookers, meanwhile, buzzed about a rumored feud between founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz. Moskovitz denied the tiff, but then displayed enough 'tude to explain why even the contentious Zuckerberg might want to stay away. Who wins the dyspeptic crown? Anyone who made it through this week. (Photo by AP/Kevin Sanders)

5:00 PM on Fri Apr 25 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,336 views, 6 comments

Latest by glycerin: @colintoal: I agree. And even worse, for a lot of these engineers there wasn't much in the results either. more »

product placement

Brawndo, the irony mutilator

ROFLcon, the Internet-in-joke gathering in Cambridge, Mass., has accepted corporate sponsorship — perhaps the most pervasive of all Internet memes. The giveaway bag all attendees received included a can of Brawndo, the faux "thirst mutilator" sports drink from Idiocracy, an obscure dystopian comedy whose popularity online far exceeded is theatrical run. Redux Beverages, whose other product is a drink called Cocaine, gave LOLcats fans a nod by informing them, "Yes, you can has caffeine." (Photo by dantekgeek)

4:20 PM on Fri Apr 25 2008
By Owen Thomas
865 views, 2 comments

Latest by wutzu: Brawndo! It's got what plants crave! more »

conferences

My young, white, and nerdy boys, let me show you them

CAMBRIDGE, MA — There's still hope, future. A full half of the people behind ROFLcon, the world's largest concentration of Internet-inspired pop-culture trends in one room, are female. Or, as they might put it, IRL LULZ 50% XX! As it's now officially impossible to host a tech-related conference without asking, Where are the women?, a "commenter" posed this to the morning's first all-guy panel. "Girls just have better things to do," answered Kyle "Paperclip to House Guy" MacDonald. Other possible explanations? More »

2:40 PM on Fri Apr 25 2008
By Melissa Gira Grant
1,627 views, 12 comments

Latest by raincoaster: @Patricia2: It's just that women are underrepresented in the circle jerks which have controlled the public perception of the internet. The idea is twenty years out of date, but damnably persistent. I got into a big argument on a British political site about why all the political bloggers are men...well, only more »