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Free used vintage latimes.com desk clock to whomever can spot the gag (and comment on it) first!
UPDATE: Sadly, there was no winner. The one comment this post received was adjudged inscrutable, so the clock will stay in the possession of the L.A. Times' vintage 90's latimes.com clock museum on my desk. The answer, btw, was that all the videos on the Australian YouTube's front page redirected, temporarily, to "Never Gonna Give You Up." YouTube was perpetrating a mass April Fool's Day RickRoll.
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 Sony Pictures Television officially launched C-Spot today, a new web TV channel that will be home to a 13-week season of online comedy. There will be six new scripted shows, one "airing" each day of the week. Going along with the conventional wisdom about online audience-building, C-Spot will play on a variety of platforms, including Sony's Crackle, YouTube and Hulu, with revenue-sharing deals so Sony can get a piece of the advertising pie no matter where the shows get watched.
The shows represent, if not a giant leap forward for online television, at least a step in the right direction. They avoid the id-riddled blue humor that many Web comedy portals can't seem to get away from. In fact, there are so few curse words and blatant sexual references that even this blog can get away with embedding episodes. Check one out below.
There's a definite gamut here of funny to absurd. But all the shows are well-produced -- with budgets of about $10k/episode, according to Sony -- and they're all at least somewhat amusing, with the best managing to be downright chuckleworthy.
The Writers Room is one of the more dynamic and character-driven programs. It's a Larry Sanders-esque look at a group of writers putting together a late-night talk show, in this case "Super Late with Kevin Pollock." Except for a once-an-episode conference call cameo, Pollock never actually appears on the show. One of the in-jokes is that the cast is made up of real TV writers, including Bruce Kirschbaum ("Seinfeld," "Everybody Loves Raymond"), Jeff Kahn ("The Ben Stiller Show") and Frank Conniff (MST3000). More than that, the show's 10 short episodes were shot in five days, so in a way it's not inaccurate to say it's really just a camera pointed at a room full of writers riffing all day. Which turns out to be worth watching.
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 According to FishBowlNY, the NYT's piece on the Rickrolling of an Eastern Washington University hoops game a few weeks ago was apparently based on, er, some dubious evidence. In other words, some guy made it all up. I cited the NYT's story in my RickRoll piece from yesterday, and even watched the video, so no fair playing the neener game, but ...
If the video was really the only source for the story, that might be classified as a bit of an oopsie, not just because everything on the Internet is a hoax until proven otherwise, but because the video indeed looks like it was heavily edited, set to music, etc -- not a document but a piece of entertainment.
And so it was ...
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I have to share of few of the comments on the Digg entry for yesterday's Rickrolling story. (Ethical spidey sense says it's no good to link to a Digg of my own story, so I'll just excerpt.) For whatever reason, though, this story seemed to bring out the funny in people:
- If I were Rick Astley, I would run up behind random people in the street and rickroll them live........You could use it in so many different ways!!!
- I spent about 5 minutes just debating if I was going to click the link [to the interview] or not. I finally went for it - with my wife watching me like I was trying to defuse a grenade.
-- I wish i could defuse a grenade....
--- i wish i had a wife......
---- Lets start with a girlfriend first.
---- Or goldfish.
-- The only time I'll digg this up is for this article.
- The absolute end-all be-all RickRoll.... Have Mr Astley himself stop the SuperBowl halftime show with an authentic performance of the song. That would be it. No one could ever top it. It would be the best ever.
-- What if everyone tries to raise enough money to buy ad time for the Super Bowl to rick roll millions of people at the same time.It could be the biggest waste of money ever!
--- Jesus Christ...we need to make this happen!
-- Someone register a website for donations!
--- I'm not even kidding, we need to get on this.
--- I'm totally down for it. Get 30 million people to donate $1 or 15 million $2 or 6 million $5. I think it could happen! Super Bowl commercial was about what 29.5 million? Although an actual Rick Roll during the half time would top a commercial.
--- Dear god, we should start a movement!
-- That is quite possibly the most epic idea I've ever heard.
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Astley talks about discovering the "Rickroll" Astley in London last November. (Photo courtesy of TD Promotions)
On a frosty Canadian morning, a masked crusader tromps across a parking lot, over a snow bank and onto the sidewalk. He has a loudspeaker strapped ominously to his chest.
He halts, aiming the speaker toward the building across the street. “This is a song by some dead guy,” he says. And then, music booms forth:
“Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you.”
It’s an anti-Scientology protest, and across the street, a dozen or so warmly dressed young people begin to dance and sing along, waving their picket signs in rhythm to the familiar tune.
“It’s a bit spooky, innit?” said Rick Astley, the singer who made the song famous in 1987 and who is not dead. With considerable help, including assists from RCA Records, the webmaster of Astley’s U.K. fan site, and his manager at Sony BMG, I tracked down Astley at his home in London last weekend. He spoke for the first time about the phenomenon called Rickrolling, best described by example: You are reading your favorite Hollywood gossip blog and arrive at a link urging you to “Click here for exclusive video of Britney’s latest freakout!!” Click you do, but instead of Britney, it’s a dashing 21-year-old Briton that pops onto the screen. You, sir, have been Rickroll’d.
Over the last year or so, Astley has watched with puzzled amazement as “Never Gonna Give You Up” has been mocked, celebrated, remixed and reprised, its original music video viewed millions of times on YouTube, all by a generation that could barely swallow its Gerber carrots when the song first topped the pop charts.
“I think it’s just one of those odd things where something gets picked up and people run with it,” Astley said. “But that’s what's brilliant about the Internet.” Saying he thought "Anonymous" Rickrolling Scientology was "hilarious"
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Craig Bierko scored a heck of a "get" when John Malkovich agreed to appear on the first episode of his bathtime talk show "Bathing with Bierko" (below, from SuperDeluxe). Bierko grills Malkovich (as he shampoos the actor's scalp) on such tough topics as John's childhood pudginess and the way the word "Portugal" loses its meaning if you keep repeating it over and over. The pair finish up the interview with a bit of drive-through improv, in which they do an accurate and convincing rendition of someone ordering from a McDonald's drive-through.
Give Malkovich a standing O for being ego-less enough to do this, and Bierko deserves a nice back-washing for coming up with the idea. The more A-listers who deign to get wet in the Internet bathwater, the more those waters will seem safe and hygienic.
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The entire South Park oeuvre, all 12 seasons of it, is now online -- and legally so. Now you can watch Mecha-Streisand at your leisure. With all its young fans and its net-friendly themes, South Park seems like a good place to prove either that a) putting tons of free, sought-after content online is a good way to make money, or b) that it isn't. (via NewTeeVee)
Robert Scoble says the secret to Twitter is not being popular. Rather, it's being a good listener. While it may feed the ego to be 'followed' by 12,000 people, it's even better to actually follow 12,000--that way you get more good dirt and hear more voices. Scoble doesn't, of course, address the practical limitations of monitoring the minute-to-minute musings of a stadium full of tech geeks--that's for you to figure out.
Yesterday, Chris Lee detailed the viral marketing campaign for "The Dark Knight"--which includes a phony district attorney run--complete with phony defacings of phony campaign posters--for candidate/bad guy Harvey Dent. You sort of spot the baloney sandwich when you realize the guy's running for D.A. of Gotham City, but still and all, it's more creative than these things, which have been plastered all over L.A.
Missed this last Friday, but Kara Swisher of BoomTown noted that in the Web traffic race, the lefty Huffington Post may have overtaken the more rightward-facing Drudge Report.
And not leastly, last week Stanford professor and Free Culturist Lawrence Lessig launched Change Congress, an online initiative aimed at ending PAC contributions and increasing congressional transparency. The site includes a Google mashup showing how much cash incumbent congresspeople take from PACs. Tsk, tsk!
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Since the good people at YouTube didn't bother to declare an overall cross-category winner in this year's Tubies, I'll do it myself. We had a really excellent field of candidates this year--but as you know, there can be only one best. While Laughing Baby was truly nonpareil, it would be a disservice to online video to say it was the best one of the millions produced in 2007. The same goes for guys skateboarding among balloons, Rubik's cube solver, Human Tetris, and Harry Potter suicide bomber.
The true standout in this group is Felicia Day's "The Guild," perhaps the smartest (and definitely the funniest) webisodic series of the year. See my fawning post (and some of the funny comments) here.
"The Guild" revolves around a group of obsessive online video-game players who know each other through their characters, but not in real life. Even for the non-gamers among us (you dwindling demographic, you!), the tension between virtual relationships and real ones grows daily stronger, and "The Guild" is the first show to pick up on that theme. So congratulations to the First Annual Web Scout Best of the YouTube Video Awards Award Winner, "The Guild"!
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(Jason Calacanis streaming live via cell phone, as streamed live by Robert Scoble)
Get ready for your close-up. Because pretty soon, we're all going to have video cameras in our cellphones.
Also known as cellular video cameras. Meaning anyone will be able to broadcast from anywhere. Live.
You don't have to be a starry-eyed technophile or a surly dystopian to see what this is going to look like. Just go to Qik.com.
The Silicon Valley Web startup has created a system that lets users
send live video directly from their Nokia phones to the Web. When the
broadcast is over, the clip is auto-saved for repeat (public) viewings.
Jason
Calacanis, a New York-bred, L.A-based entrepreneur and tech-world
celebrity, now regularly broadcasts ad-hoc "shows" from his cellphone
-- and anyone watching can beam him questions through Qik's chat
feature. Calacanis' programming varies in excitement: In one episode,
viewers watched him speed down the highway in his yellow Corvette, in
hot pursuit of a Tesla Roadster, the 100 mph electric sports car. Wow!
In another, fans looked on as Calacanis diddled around on the sidewalk
while his wife was inside shopping. Still, dozens or even hundreds of
his fans tune in when Calacanis goes live, hoping for a peek into the
life of a tech idol.
"Listen, I'm a nerd who builds websites,"
he said. "The fact that anybody cares to watch me at Starbucks, let
alone 100 people . . . I should be flattered right?"
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...China released a video blacklist today that forced 25 sites to shut down and warned "dozens of others," about objectionable content, according to Reuters. The article recalls that Beijing decreed last year that "only state-owned or state-controlled companies can apply for licenses to broadcast or stream video online."
...LAist reported yesterday on the mastermind of the YouTube taco heist getting 30 days in jail. The quesadilla caper, videotaped and put online, included a lie about a bungled order. The word "salmonella" was even thrown in for good measure. All to score a free meal (including an extra large fries). Hope it was tasty.
...The Sydney Morning Herald has an interview with YouTube co-founder Steve Chen about the problem of violent clips finding their way onto the site--not just taco-stealing, but beatings, rape, and other kinds of sick behavior. Chen says at this point, there's not much they can do to filter it. The site gets 10 hours of new footage per minute. (via NewTeeVee)
...torrentfreak reports that p2p site Mininova plans to launch a feature that will allow users to stream bittorrents. English translation: Now instead of waiting hours to download large video files (of movies or TV, say), you can view them directly, the way you you would a YouTube clip. If you want to stay on the copyright side of the law, make sure everything you watch is in the public domain.
Bracketmaker's bonus:
...a statistician at Bracketscience.com says that according to his complex regression analysis, one of these four teams will probably win the NCAA championship:
- North Carolina
- Duke
- Kansas
- Tennessee
You've got a one-in-four shot to pick the winner now -- that's pretty good. There are a bunch of other ways to win your pool, too -- check it out. (via Wired)
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One thing's for sure: Web entertainment moguls should hire Barack Obama as a consultant. This guy has a knack for getting gobs of viral traction. Never mind that he's got the single most popular Facebook page with nearly 700,000 fans, and is also the No. 1 Twitterer with 16,000 followers, but take a look at this highlighted screenshot of YouTube's 12 most discussed political videos of the week. Fully seven of them are Obama-related. It's probably no coincidence that this was a week steeped in the rhetoric of racial division -- one of the nation's most outrage-inducing issues. And for better or worse, outrage makes for good video.
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• The Church of Scientology, in an apparent effort to defend itself against digital crusaders, has put up its own video channel. Said the church's news release: "Through 82 broadcast-quality videos, comprising almost 3 hours of content, the Scientology.org Video Channel provides an overview of the basic beliefs and practices of the religion."
• TV interviewer Charlie Rose has a black eye, but his laptop's fine. Here's what TechCrunch found out when they called Rose's producers: Rose tripped in a pothole while walking on 59th Street in Manhattan. He was carrying a newly purchased MacBook Air and made a quick (but ultimately flawed) decision while falling: sacrifice the face, protect the computer. "In doing so, he pretty much hit the pavement face first, unfortunately," they said.
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 There are two days left to vote for your favorite YouTube videos of 2007. Among the 12 categories this year are Series, Comedy, Politics, Sports, Instructional and Commentary. The Tubies are a mix of such all-time classics as "Leave Britney Alone" and "I Got a Crush ... on Obama" and lesser-known but equally good-to-watch-once entrants such as "What Song Is This?" and "How to Charge an iPod Using Electrolytes and an Onion." There's also some quality scripted content represented, including "The Guild" and "Wainy Days."
Needless to say, this is online video — none of it's going to make you cry. And little of it is going to make you think. Considering these limitations, one might be tempted to say: And this is the best they've got?
Well, yes. And why not? These clips, collectively, are a pretty good representation of the genre — its low-budget amateurishness, its profit-free pizazz, and its ability to draw outside the lines. This is only the second annual Tubies, keep in mind. Online video doesn't have 90 years of tradition and industry behind it like the movies, so there's nowhere to go but up.
Fairness sequel tomorrow: the Yahoo Video Awards.
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Today on Digg, a story is circulating about how 40% of all spam comes from one source. Its name? Srizbi. Srizbi is a thing called a botnet -- a cloaked network of parasitic spamming programs hiding inside compromised computers. If your computer gets infected by Srizbi, it becomes a "zombie" -- a member of an army of machines invisibly sending spam around the Internet, and reporting back the results -- mostly, which active e-mail addresses it has found -- back to some command center in who-knows-where.
The Srizbi report was put out by Marshall, a British e-mail security firm that has done significant research on the spam problem. After digging around, I found this pie chart from a December 2007 spam white paper [PDF here]:
Turns out almost 70% of spam is health-related -- which is a nice euphemism for male performance enhancement. Notice how scams are only about 1%, and pornography is only 2.4%. This is an interesting window into spam economics -- clearly spammers are getting their best return by advertising pharmaceuticals and voodoo sex solutions. I'm not sure exactly what "products"' means -- unless "products" is the mechanical version of "health." For anyone who hasn't looked closely at their spam in a while, here's one I just got a few moments ago:
CA N2ADI AN PH3A RMACY SP4ECIAL
V I4AG6R A - $1.47
F3EMA LE V5IA G4R A - $1.44
C I5AL5IS - $2.26
We marked p8rices dow6n(It's OK, you can click on it -- I changed the link to something innocuous.) Share your noteworthy junk e-mails below, and let's see if we can spot any spam-trends of our own.
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(Above, a plane circles overhead, towing a banner that reads: "Honk / Yell if you think Scientology is a Cult")
Along Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood today, in front of the large, blue Church of Scientology building, hundreds of masked Anonymous protesters arrived for a second major picket of the embattled religion. This time, however, the church had an answer.
Because of a permit secured by the church, multiple roads were closed, including L. Ron Hubbard Way, the street that runs alongside the main church building. Tarps had been hung on the perimeter of the church's parking lot, preventing outsiders from seeing in.
Most noticeable was a series of large metal frameworks that had been erected and decorated with large rainbows of balloons and banners bearing church messages: "Love and Help Children," "Don't be promiscuous" and perhaps most visibly, the name of a Scientology-related book for better living, "The Way to Happiness." A giant viewing screen had been set up to face out toward the protest, playing an endless series of videos -- accompanied by ear-splittingly loud audio from speakers that also pointed toward Sunset Boulevard. The videos playing on the screen espoused better living through the teachings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
 Down the closed road, the tops of tents could be made out, and a few people appeared to be walking on the street. Besides that, the nature of the Scientology event was unclear.
The police presence today was notably larger than it was for the first mass protest staged by Anonymous on Feb. 10. LAPD Sgt. Wayne Guillary said the protests had progressed uneventfully, but noted that Scientology representatives had tried to block off an area of public sidewalk on Sunset Boulevard that would have prevented people from crossing the street in front of the church building.
"They wanted to block off the crosswalk," said Guillary. "I told them you can't do that."
Guillary also noted that in addition to the road closure permit, it appeared that the church had applied for and received a permit to film on the premises. Guillary pointed out off-duty LAPD officers who were assisting with the apparent movie shoot. Again, it wasn't clear what kind of movie was being filmed, or why the church had picked a day in which a large protest had been planned for weeks.
When I asked a Scientology official for information about the event on the premises, she declined to comment but said a written statement was forthcoming. I asked if she could arrange for a brief walk-through of the Scientology event and, after consulting with her supervisors, she said, "No. The event is for parishioners only."
Members of Anonymous said the church had attempted to close off the entire block of sidewalk running along the front of the church on Sunset. At least one road closure sign had been placed in that area, though it was not covered by the permit, authorities said. (See photo below)
Among the most peculiar sights of the day was when a small plane appeared overhead, (see photo at top) towing a banner that read, "Honk / Yell if you think Scientology is a cult." The crowd cheered when the plane came into view and began an hour of circling.
A Scientology parishioner who identified himself as Jimmy and gave his age as 25 was stationed on Catalina Street, to prevent anyone from wandering into the closed area.
When asked if he believed the protesters seemed like terrorists, a term Scientology officials have repeatedly used to describe them, Jimmy replied, "I wouldn't say they're all terrorists. A lot of them look like high school kids."
"But," he added, "Are you going to wait for them to blow up a church before you say, 'hey look, some terrorists?'"
Photos: David Sarno
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 Geek out! This morning, three of Google's 10 most searched terms had to do with Pi Day. (Today!) "Pi Day" is, as of this writing, the fourth most-searched term on the web, whereas "pie day" has enjoyed a nice juicy spike and is at No. 7 (unfortunately, these searchers are sadly off the mark--National Pie Day was almost two months ago). "Pi song" is humming at No. 9. I heartily recommend you listen to the whole thing here, it's incredibly catchy. And for good measure, "what is the circumference of a circle" is hanging out at 14.
Why is today Pi Day? Check out a brief history of the day at our Homeroom blog. The short answer is that today's date is 3/14 and pi begins with 3.14. I've got to say that it's hilarious that only the first three digits of this famously long number determine the celebration date. If we really wanted to make Pi Day special, we would retroactively celebrate its anniversary on 3/14/1592. And if we really, really really wanted to nail Pi Day down, it would've been on 3/14/1592 at 6:53:58:97:93:23 a.m.
But who's counting.
 Search "Pi Day" and you get, of course, the Wikipedia entry--which argues that instead of celebrating it in 1592, you could just celebrate Pi Day today--3/14, at 1:59:26 p.m. -- so here in L.A. we've still got a couple hours. But what oh what to do to get ready? Check out the suggestions for how to celebrate Pi day here. One of them is to just express every number you use all day in terms of Pi: My, how young you look, ma'am--mind if I ask your age? Of course not young man, I'm 15π years old!
If you're desirous of a pi-centric getaway, the Daily Deal figured out where the coordinate (Pi, Pi) is on the map of earth.
And on and on and on ... there are as many ways to distract yourself with Pi Day as there are digits in the number. If you find anything extra fun, let us know....
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Throwing a puppy off a cliff? It would be hard to invent a better
metaphor for cruelty. Small wonder then that when a video began
circulating recently showing a U.S. Marine apparently doing just that,
online communities the Web over erupted in anger and disgust.
It was a despicable and even shameful act, but the reaction was no
better. Before any of the facts were established -- the Marine's
identity, for instance, or whether the video was some kind of hoax --
the cyber mob had its torches lighted, and the auto-da-fé had begun.
Barely a day after the video surfaced, a Marine's reputation was in
tatters, his life threatened and his family terrorized.
The video goes like this: Two Marines are standing on a desert
precipice in full battle gear. It could be in Iraq. One is holding a
small, black-eyed puppy by the scruff of its neck.
"Cute little puppy, huh?" "Oh, so cute -- so cute!" coos the second Marine.
"Whoops, I tripped," says the first and hurls the animal off the rocky
incline. As it twirls in the air, you hear a series of heartbreaking
yips.
"That's mean," says the second Marine. "That's mean . . .," he repeats, adding the thrower's distinctive surname.
The Marines quickly began an investigation into the video and did not
deny its authenticity. (Some viewers thought the puppy, which wasn't
moving before it was thrown, might've been dead already or just a doll.)
Because the video has been reposted so many times, its origin is
hard to pinpoint. But a version posted to a Dutch website two days
before the story gained wide attention is still online and has received
nearly 500,000 views.
With no facts to fill the information vacuum, the online hordes moved
straight to conjecture. The crowd found a Marine with the same last
name who had a personal Web page on the social network Bebo.com. And
that was all they needed; the accusations, slander and intimations of
violence came like a tidal wave.
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(My photo of a photog taking a photo of interviewer Veronica Belmont being interviewed by Brian Tong)
During a panel this week on whether to quit your job and
pursue video blogging professionally, one audience member approached
the microphone to ask a question.
Or was he an audience member?
The guy had a video camera and was pointing it at himself as he spoke:
"What advice do you have for aspiring video bloggers?" he asked.
"What's your name?" asked panelist Lindsay Campbell of the online news show MobLogic.tv.
"Brian Agosta dot com," answered the questioner, Brian Agosta.
"Yeah," Campbell deadpanned, her main piece of advice nicely illustrated: "Promote yourself."
This little scene captured a broader theme of South by Southwest
Interactive, the portion of the festival here devoted to the
neck-snappingly high-growth area of new media and online culture.
In the halls of the Austin Convention Center, you couldn't take three
steps without tripping over a blogger, "vlogger," podcaster or online
TV show host of some kind. There was so much recording, photo snapping
and keyboard tapping that anyone who wasn't wielding a gadget looked
just plain weird.
"Everyone's a maker," said Veronica Belmont, the host of Mahalo Daily,
a video podcast for techies, in reference to the number of conference
attendees who were also covering the event -- or rather, the small
number who weren't.
"It happens so often where we get bloggers interviewing bloggers," she said. "It's extremely meta."
Within a few minutes of leaving the auditorium where she had moderated
her own panel, Belmont was waylaid by two different interviewers, video
cameras at the ready. One was Brian Tong of the online tech-news
network CNet TV. The second guy was . . . well, Belmont wasn't sure.
But whatever, right? The more, the merrier. In fact, Belmont explained,
the benefit of exhaustive mutual coverage makes sense if you consider
the way websites become popular on the Internet: In essence, the more
references to your site out there, the more visible it becomes.
"That whole premise kind of transfers into personal interactions," said
Belmont. "Like, 'Oh, there's so-and-so, I'm going to go interview them,
so hopefully then they'll mention me on their blog, thus elevating my
status as a blogger.' "
And status is key to success in a media environment where anyone with a
camera and a wi-fi connection can be a walking media outlet. The
problem that today's media aspirants face has less to do with getting
published than with getting noticed.
Megan Adams, a press coordinator for "South By" -- as the veterans call
it -- said last year's interactive conference had 100 registered press
members. But in a survey sent to more than 6,000 attendees, 937 people
referred to themselves as media. And, Adams said, there were twice as
many registered press members this year. We'll have to wait for the
survey to see whether the number of unofficial press doubled too. But
no one's going to be surprised if it does.
In the tech world, standing out in a sea of media makers has become a
key art form. The people that succeed are part reporter, part performer
and part networker. In other words, get the story, infuse it with your
persona and make sure everyone who's anyone knows about it when you're
done.
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UPDATE: A Church of Scientology spokeswoman has confirmed the video was produced and posted by the Church.
A flashy new video appeared on YouTube on Tuesday that portrayed the anti-Scientology group Anonymous as hateful, violent and opposed to freedom of religion. The video, called "Anonymous - Hate Crimes & Terrorism Directed at Scientology," was created under a YouTube profile named "AnonymousFacts," which describes itself as the "Scientology Official Report on Anonymous Hate Crimes."
(Above, a screen grab from the video showing the number of alleged death threats.)
The video, which has the high production values and slick aesthetic reminiscent of other Scientology-produced footage, is a sort of timeline of alleged harassment and threat tactics against the church by Anonymous members. It concentrates heavily on the first several weeks of the conflict between Anonymous and the church--a time when Anonymous was using more inflammatory rhetoric and employing illegal tactics like hacking and cyber-attacks. The largely peaceful protests of Feb. 10 are not mentioned in the video.
(Here, an excerpt of an alleged death threat is replayed.)
The video offers multiple digital-clock-type counters to add up the number of each type of alleged harassment the church has received: "8,139 harrassing [sic] or threatening phone calls, 3.6 million malicious emails, 141 million hits against church web sites, 10 acts of vandalism, and 8 death threats."
"These are the facts," concludes the video.
Though the video unequivocally blames Anonymous for all the incidents, no supporting evidence or documentation of the incidents is made available or linked to. The FBI has said that no suspects have been named in the investigation of some of the threats -- including the white powder mailings -- and Anonymous has repeatedly denied participation in the more severe instances.
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Talk about a power summit. Tonight was the Digg party at the Pure Volume Ranch. Mark Cuban was there, bands played, free booze was served. But the most fascinating moment was when the head honchos from Reddit, StumbleUpon and Digg all got together, shook hands, and posed for a picture or two.
Here on the last night of SXSW Interactive, it was very sweet (truly) to see three young competitors, all of whom have excellent Web presences, acting civil and professional toward one another. Kevin Rose (second from the right) was a gentleman and a gracious host to Alexis Ohanian (far left), co-founder of Reddit; and Garrett Camp (second from the left), founder & chief product officer of StumbleUpon.
All three sites help funnel huge amounts of traffic throughout the Web by allowing their users to vote on the most interesting and important stories of the moment. The ultra democracy where one user gets one vote has become a revolution in the Web 2.0 era. Although Digg has become the leader in regards to numbers of users (and therefore influence), Reddit and StumbleUpon aren't far behind, which made this meeting an interesting one, indeed.
Update: (more pics from the Digg party after the jump)
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Good old Friendster! For those of us old enough to remember the first social network but young enough to have actually wanted to participate in social networks in 2003, it holds a permanent place in our hearts.
It was the first place many of us experienced the strangely ephemeral pleasure of getting a request from a long lost friend, or the more egocentric kick of methodically boosting our friend count to meaningless levels. It was the birthplace of the verb "to friend" -- which as we know was a poor development for the more senior noun.
Friendster, to borrow a piece of its PR lingo, began as an experiment which grew into a company, which became an industry. Only thing was, while the industry was exploding, Friendster was imploding. It more or less vanished from the scene in 2005.
So then: Where have all the Friendsters gone?
To get the answer, start digging a hole, and don't stop. Or just read the rest of the post.
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In a town with so many ways to get around, and during a festival where the majority of everything you want to get to you can get there by foot, it figures two youngsters from L.A. would invent a way to make commuting fun. Like most cities, Austin has cabs, buses, rental cars; you can even strap on a helmet and take a spin on a Segway. But why not hop on a rented RV and take a ride with perfect strangers as they drive you the looooong way to your destination while you drink booze, eat and sing karaoke with the cool kids?
Welcome to the RVIP Lounge & Karaoke, the most fun way to get around SXSW. Only problem: It might take you hours to get to where you want to go, but when you get there you will have a huge smile on your face, a full belly, a pretty good buzz and a story or two to tell.
Pics and video after the jump.
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As SXSW Interactive tears down today to make room for SXSW Music, I thought it would be interesting to see the differences between the two groups in regard to fashion. Namely T-shirt fashion.
The Interactive attendees are not known for their fancy duds. However, some of the kids sported some T-shirts that made me laugh. And some of the booth babes had T-shirts that really made us stop in our tracks.
Above we have a gentleman wearing an anti-MySpace T-shirt that reads "Tom Is Not My Friend." Below a member of Opera (a search engine of Ron Paul-like cult status) wears a shirt parodying Metallica's "Ride the Lightning." Of all the new ways to brand, Opera's use of a generic metal font reeked of irony and nostalgia.
After the jump are some more styles that you missed out on.
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Judging by reactions at the SXSW world premiere of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," the new Judd Apatow-produced heartbreak comedy, the film's star is certainly not the person listed on its marquee. That is, protagonist, Jason Segel (of "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared" fame).
The real star of the movie is what a Harlequin romance novel might refer to as Segel's "manhood."
"Sarah Marshall" showcases the comedian in his full frontal glory -- four times, he is shown completely naked, to be exact. And here at SXSW, every time Segel was presented unsheathed, he nearly brought the house down with laughter.
Contrary to conventional comedy wisdom, Segel is nude and sobbing in three of the four naked moments after getting dumped by his girlfriend of five years (Kristen Bell as the titular Sarah).
The guy's clearly comfortable with his body, even though his absence of gym-toned abs brings to mind what Vince Vaughn probably looks like au naturel after a weekend of binge drinking.
Encountered at a jam-packed party for Facebook, one of the film's supporting cast, the British comedian Russell Brand (who plays the English rock star whom Sarah cuckolds Segel's character for), admitted certain regrets about the film's beefcake quotient.
"If I had known there was going to be so much male [genitalia]," the flamboyantly bouffanted Brand said, "I probably never would have agreed to be in it."
-- Chris Lee
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Facebook's party last night at the chichi Austin hot spot Pangaea was the swingingest SXSW party I've been to. I'm guessing it was better than Google's, at least according to the dispatch from L.A. Times blog czar Tony Pierce, who didn't give it the thumbs up.
Even though there was no sign of famous, and now slightly more infamous, FB founder Mark Zuckerberg, there were plenty of interesting folks there, an endless fountain of Red Bull-based drinks, and some pretty great bass-booming music supplied by DJ BT and company.
I was certainly grooving to it. And I wasn't the only one:
Honestly, I did not cherry-pick this photo -- pan left or right and you'd see the same. Semi-surprised at the dancing crowd's demography, I looked around to see if there were any females who might help me figure out what was up with the dude-o-rama.
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It's no secret that Frank Warren is one of the trailblazers of the Internet. His hugely successful PostSecret website, blog and books are the perfect blend of user-generated content and the power of the anonymous voice.
The PostSecret blog, often not safe for work, features postcards mailed to Warren that reveal some of the darkest thoughts and feelings of the human condition. Some of the secrets are painful, some are beautiful. Warren receives thousands of cards a week and chooses a few for the blog. From those postcards, he has compiled four books. Meanwhile, the blog is ranked No. 14 in the world, just two slots behind TMZ.com.
Yesterday, Warren delivered a keynote speech during the South by Southwest Interactive Festival here in Austin. Definitely living up to being interactive, a random gentleman politely interrupted the speech to propose to his loved one. Why would someone do something like that in the middle of a Frank Warren speech? Maybe it's because Warren has a peaceful, easy, vibe about him that makes it easy to open up.
Below we have three short video interviews with Warren, who talks about the phenomenon of PostSecret and the dramatic wedding proposal during his keynote address.
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Mitch Altman, the genius behind the universal remote control (which can be hilarious when put in the wrong hands), has developed a new product meant to help you trip out and hallucinate in the comfort of your own home.
Here in the upper level of the Austin Convention Center inside the Make booth, Mitch explains how to put together the Brain Machine, a contraption that didn't really give me any hallucinations, but I'm sure I looked wacky to passersby. Unfortunately, all I experienced were flashing red lights and an annoying drone in my ears. Sort of like what a fly stuck in the punch bowl might have experienced at the Google party.
Regardless, of all of the booths in the trade show area, the attendees in the Make booth seemed to be sporting the widest smiles. Maybe they had come prepared for the Brain Machine. -- Tony Pierce
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