Valleywag
Sam Perry
-
your privacy is an illusion
Google CEO has no time for your privacy
Is Google becoming the king of the Web? Well, duh — that happened about five years ago, before anyone really noticed. But activist groups, now and again, worry about whether Google knows too much about us. Yesterday, Consumer Watchdog's John Simpson quizzes Google CEO Eric Schmidt about whether his company is doing enough to guard our privacy. More » -
clips
Mark Cuban's overclocked lifestyle -- the 60-second version
"My blog, because the press never gets it right." This 2006 Hewlett Packard ad featuring Dallas Mavs owner and dotcom bazillionaire Mark Cuban shows why it'll be fun to watch him fight with the SEC over a chump-change $750,000 windfall from what the lawmen claim is insider trading. Cuban is a crazy super-multitasker who gets 1,000 emails a day, yet still had time to do Dancing with the Stars. Halfway through this ad, he checks off The Smartest Guys in the Room, a documentary about the Enron scandal that he coproduced. My guess on this week's insider trading charge against him? He did it, not thinking through the risks. But he's going to make the SEC look like a bunch of dolts on the Internet. Pass the popcorn! -
real estate
Google's shrinking NYC office pampers the Lego-and-scooter set
The immense former Port Authority building where Google now does business in Manhattan has an impressive history. Truck drivers once drove onto elevators and motored around the building's upper floors. Today, the place has been Googlefied with snacks, ping-pong tables, and a jillion Legos. Free scooters let staffers zip one part of the supersize building to another. But the best thing about this video? Google Docs manager Jonathan Rochelle talks up his office for 2 minutes and 42 seconds without once using the word "cool." We just wish The Big Money's camera crew had shown us the 50,000 sq. ft. Google is emptying out for sublease, too. -
clips
A Chinese video to remind you how awesome your life is
60 Minutes did a segment on Chinese people who live and work among "e-waste," the recyclable-yet-toxic remains of discarded consumer electronics devices. An Engadget reader dug up this longer, more yucky Current documentary. I'm going to get a sandwich, so I can fall to my knees and thank God for it. -
-
clips
Stephen Colbert blogs about his Twitters
Whenever I read a Twitter, part of me wonders if the person who sent it has any actual work to do. Jon Stewart, cohosting Comedy Central's election-night coverage, wondered the same thing about cohost Stephen Colbert. -
-
clips
McCain's preemptive concession
Big Think, an online-video site backed in part by Facebook investor Peter Thiel, asked Republican candidate John McCain what it would mean if he lost. Here's what he said. More » -
media
Current broadcasts worst election coverage ever
Want to watch North Carolina gyrate to a hip-hop beat? Tune into Current, Al Gore's user-generated cable channel. I don't mean people dancing in the streets; I mean an outline of North Carolina pulsating. The channel is carrying, on live TV, headlines you could read on Digg and messages you could read on Twitter, along with video snippets from current viewers. Other than that, it's offering the same kind of exit-poll projections you could get on CNN, but in hot pink and cyan instead of the traditional red-blue-gold color scheme. Digg founder Kevin Rose pops up occasionally with live updates from a San Francisco night club where Current, Digg, and Twitter are hosting an election-night party. It's Web 2.0 in your living room — and it makes me wish I could Brillo-pad the "vision" out of "television." -
the sum of all human knowledge
Jimmy Wales's dishonest campaign ad
In a YouTube video, Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales opines about foreign policy. We love how the video producer added in visuals for every "err." We wonder: Is Wales stumbling over his words because he doesn't really believe what he's saying? More » -
eric schmidt
America's CTO does infomercial for Obama
In exchange for his late-to-the-party endorsement of Barack Obama, Google CEO Eric Schmidt got a spot on Obama's prime-time infomercial last night. Note how Schmidt explains his decision, made only after Obama took a substantial lead in the polls: "When I read his economic plan and saw the people endorsing it, Warren Buffett, I thought, 'This is the right plan for America.'" In other words, Schmidt didn't endorse Obama until he saw it was popular with the right people, and might help Google get its search deal with Yahoo passed under an Obama administration. Brave! We still don't think you'll get that government job, Eric.
