Digg this photo-op we stumbled upon!

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)

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Torrential rains wracked Austin today, sending many festivalgoers scurrying for cover in movie screenings or at the SXSW Interactive Conference. At the very least, the wet weather persuaded a lot of people here to reluctantly accept free plastic rain ponchos being handed out by Zappos.com emissaries who savvily anticipated the rainfall as a branding opportunity.

Temporarily gone with the rain are thousands of black birds who blot out the sky, swooping and bombing in unison from tree to light post to telephone wire around dusk in Texas' capital city. For some inexplicable reason, these starlings and grackles travel in hordes. A bunch of them came at your humble correspondent the other evening, casting a pall of Hitchcockian fear over him that wasn't soon shaken.

Austinites will tell you this aggressive bird behavior comes about in part because of the competition with legions of local bats - both are looking to eat 10,000 pounds of insects every day.

And now another potentially contentious battle -- over intellectual property, not bugs -- has threatened to rear its head at the festival.

Although it didn't get as much buzz in the Twitter circles as the Facebook fiasco, the Gossip panel at SXSW was lively, fascinating, funny and fun. And it all started with one simple "boo."

Seconds after the hilarious Heather Gold introduced the panel she was moderating, she heard someone boo the intro of Valleywag editor Owen Thomas. The heckler was none other than Star magazine reporter Julia Allison, who was almost immediately invited on the stage, and when it became obvious that there were no empty chairs, Gold offered a lap, which Allison playfully accepted (pictured).

After that, the discussions were heated, revealing, intense and hilarious as industry leaders, panelists (from the N.Y. Times to TMZ), and attendees tried to figure out why we are interested in celebrity and Internet gossip and what is appropriate and what is juvenile and wrong. Strangely the entire spectrum played out right in front of us.

Where Are They Now: Friendster Edition

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Torrential rains wracked Austin today, sending many festivalgoers scurrying for cover in movie screenings or at the SXSW Interactive Conference. At the very least, the wet weather persuaded a lot of people here to reluctantly accept free plastic rain ponchos being handed out by Zappos.com emissaries who savvily anticipated the rainfall as a branding opportunity.

Temporarily gone with the rain are thousands of black birds who blot out the sky, swooping and bombing in unison from tree to light post to telephone wire around dusk in Texas' capital city. For some inexplicable reason, these starlings and grackles travel in hordes. A bunch of them came at your humble correspondent the other evening, casting a pall of Hitchcockian fear over him that wasn't soon shaken.

Austinites will tell you this aggressive bird behavior comes about in part because of the competition with legions of local bats - both are looking to eat 10,000 pounds of insects every day.

And now another potentially contentious battle -- over intellectual property, not bugs -- has threatened to rear its head at the festival.

Although it didn't get as much buzz in the Twitter circles as the Facebook fiasco, the Gossip panel at SXSW was lively, fascinating, funny and fun. And it all started with one simple "boo."

Seconds after the hilarious Heather Gold introduced the panel she was moderating, she heard someone boo the intro of Valleywag editor Owen Thomas. The heckler was none other than Star magazine reporter Julia Allison, who was almost immediately invited on the stage, and when it became obvious that there were no empty chairs, Gold offered a lap, which Allison playfully accepted (pictured).

After that, the discussions were heated, revealing, intense and hilarious as industry leaders, panelists (from the N.Y. Times to TMZ), and attendees tried to figure out why we are interested in celebrity and Internet gossip and what is appropriate and what is juvenile and wrong. Strangely the entire spectrum played out right in front of us.

The RVIP Lounge - The Funnest (and Weirdest) Way to Get Around SXSW

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Torrential rains wracked Austin today, sending many festivalgoers scurrying for cover in movie screenings or at the SXSW Interactive Conference. At the very least, the wet weather persuaded a lot of people here to reluctantly accept free plastic rain ponchos being handed out by Zappos.com emissaries who savvily anticipated the rainfall as a branding opportunity.

Temporarily gone with the rain are thousands of black birds who blot out the sky, swooping and bombing in unison from tree to light post to telephone wire around dusk in Texas' capital city. For some inexplicable reason, these starlings and grackles travel in hordes. A bunch of them came at your humble correspondent the other evening, casting a pall of Hitchcockian fear over him that wasn't soon shaken.

Austinites will tell you this aggressive bird behavior comes about in part because of the competition with legions of local bats - both are looking to eat 10,000 pounds of insects every day.

And now another potentially contentious battle -- over intellectual property, not bugs -- has threatened to rear its head at the festival.

Although it didn't get as much buzz in the Twitter circles as the Facebook fiasco, the Gossip panel at SXSW was lively, fascinating, funny and fun. And it all started with one simple "boo."

Seconds after the hilarious Heather Gold introduced the panel she was moderating, she heard someone boo the intro of Valleywag editor Owen Thomas. The heckler was none other than Star magazine reporter Julia Allison, who was almost immediately invited on the stage, and when it became obvious that there were no empty chairs, Gold offered a lap, which Allison playfully accepted (pictured).

After that, the discussions were heated, revealing, intense and hilarious as industry leaders, panelists (from the N.Y. Times to TMZ), and attendees tried to figure out why we are interested in celebrity and Internet gossip and what is appropriate and what is juvenile and wrong. Strangely the entire spectrum played out right in front of us.

T-shirt fashions of SXSW Interactive

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Torrential rains wracked Austin today, sending many festivalgoers scurrying for cover in movie screenings or at the SXSW Interactive Conference. At the very least, the wet weather persuaded a lot of people here to reluctantly accept free plastic rain ponchos being handed out by Zappos.com emissaries who savvily anticipated the rainfall as a branding opportunity.

Temporarily gone with the rain are thousands of black birds who blot out the sky, swooping and bombing in unison from tree to light post to telephone wire around dusk in Texas' capital city. For some inexplicable reason, these starlings and grackles travel in hordes. A bunch of them came at your humble correspondent the other evening, casting a pall of Hitchcockian fear over him that wasn't soon shaken.

Austinites will tell you this aggressive bird behavior comes about in part because of the competition with legions of local bats - both are looking to eat 10,000 pounds of insects every day.

And now another potentially contentious battle -- over intellectual property, not bugs -- has threatened to rear its head at the festival.

Although it didn't get as much buzz in the Twitter circles as the Facebook fiasco, the Gossip panel at SXSW was lively, fascinating, funny and fun. And it all started with one simple "boo."

Seconds after the hilarious Heather Gold introduced the panel she was moderating, she heard someone boo the intro of Valleywag editor Owen Thomas. The heckler was none other than Star magazine reporter Julia Allison, who was almost immediately invited on the stage, and when it became obvious that there were no empty chairs, Gold offered a lap, which Allison playfully accepted (pictured).

After that, the discussions were heated, revealing, intense and hilarious as industry leaders, panelists (from the N.Y. Times to TMZ), and attendees tried to figure out why we are interested in celebrity and Internet gossip and what is appropriate and what is juvenile and wrong. Strangely the entire spectrum played out right in front of us.

Jason Segel front and center

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

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.

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.

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

Torrential rains wracked Austin today, sending many festivalgoers scurrying for cover in movie screenings or at the SXSW Interactive Conference. At the very least, the wet weather persuaded a lot of people here to reluctantly accept free plastic rain ponchos being handed out by Zappos.com emissaries who savvily anticipated the rainfall as a branding opportunity.

Temporarily gone with the rain are thousands of black birds who blot out the sky, swooping and bombing in unison from tree to light post to telephone wire around dusk in Texas' capital city. For some inexplicable reason, these starlings and grackles travel in hordes. A bunch of them came at your humble correspondent the other evening, casting a pall of Hitchcockian fear over him that wasn't soon shaken.

Austinites will tell you this aggressive bird behavior comes about in part because of the competition with legions of local bats - both are looking to eat 10,000 pounds of insects every day.

And now another potentially contentious battle -- over intellectual property, not bugs -- has threatened to rear its head at the festival.

Although it didn't get as much buzz in the Twitter circles as the Facebook fiasco, the Gossip panel at SXSW was lively, fascinating, funny and fun. And it all started with one simple "boo."

Seconds after the hilarious Heather Gold introduced the panel she was moderating, she heard someone boo the intro of Valleywag editor Owen Thomas. The heckler was none other than Star magazine reporter Julia Allison, who was almost immediately invited on the stage, and when it became obvious that there were no empty chairs, Gold offered a lap, which Allison playfully accepted (pictured).

After that, the discussions were heated, revealing, intense and hilarious as industry leaders, panelists (from the N.Y. Times to TMZ), and attendees tried to figure out why we are interested in celebrity and Internet gossip and what is appropriate and what is juvenile and wrong. Strangely the entire spectrum played out right in front of us.

Facebook party: fun for the ladies

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.

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.

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

Torrential rains wracked Austin today, sending many festivalgoers scurrying for cover in movie screenings or at the SXSW Interactive Conference. At the very least, the wet weather persuaded a lot of people here to reluctantly accept free plastic rain ponchos being handed out by Zappos.com emissaries who savvily anticipated the rainfall as a branding opportunity.

Temporarily gone with the rain are thousands of black birds who blot out the sky, swooping and bombing in unison from tree to light post to telephone wire around dusk in Texas' capital city. For some inexplicable reason, these starlings and grackles travel in hordes. A bunch of them came at your humble correspondent the other evening, casting a pall of Hitchcockian fear over him that wasn't soon shaken.

Austinites will tell you this aggressive bird behavior comes about in part because of the competition with legions of local bats - both are looking to eat 10,000 pounds of insects every day.

And now another potentially contentious battle -- over intellectual property, not bugs -- has threatened to rear its head at the festival.

Although it didn't get as much buzz in the Twitter circles as the Facebook fiasco, the Gossip panel at SXSW was lively, fascinating, funny and fun. And it all started with one simple "boo."

Seconds after the hilarious Heather Gold introduced the panel she was moderating, she heard someone boo the intro of Valleywag editor Owen Thomas. The heckler was none other than Star magazine reporter Julia Allison, who was almost immediately invited on the stage, and when it became obvious that there were no empty chairs, Gold offered a lap, which Allison playfully accepted (pictured).

After that, the discussions were heated, revealing, intense and hilarious as industry leaders, panelists (from the N.Y. Times to TMZ), and attendees tried to figure out why we are interested in celebrity and Internet gossip and what is appropriate and what is juvenile and wrong. Strangely the entire spectrum played out right in front of us.

PostSecret's Frank Warren shares some secrets

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.

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

Torrential rains wracked Austin today, sending many festivalgoers scurrying for cover in movie screenings or at the SXSW Interactive Conference. At the very least, the wet weather persuaded a lot of people here to reluctantly accept free plastic rain ponchos being handed out by Zappos.com emissaries who savvily anticipated the rainfall as a branding opportunity.

Temporarily gone with the rain are thousands of black birds who blot out the sky, swooping and bombing in unison from tree to light post to telephone wire around dusk in Texas' capital city. For some inexplicable reason, these starlings and grackles travel in hordes. A bunch of them came at your humble correspondent the other evening, casting a pall of Hitchcockian fear over him that wasn't soon shaken.

Austinites will tell you this aggressive bird behavior comes about in part because of the competition with legions of local bats - both are looking to eat 10,000 pounds of insects every day.

And now another potentially contentious battle -- over intellectual property, not bugs -- has threatened to rear its head at the festival.

Although it didn't get as much buzz in the Twitter circles as the Facebook fiasco, the Gossip panel at SXSW was lively, fascinating, funny and fun. And it all started with one simple "boo."

Seconds after the hilarious Heather Gold introduced the panel she was moderating, she heard someone boo the intro of Valleywag editor Owen Thomas. The heckler was none other than Star magazine reporter Julia Allison, who was almost immediately invited on the stage, and when it became obvious that there were no empty chairs, Gold offered a lap, which Allison playfully accepted (pictured).

After that, the discussions were heated, revealing, intense and hilarious as industry leaders, panelists (from the N.Y. Times to TMZ), and attendees tried to figure out why we are interested in celebrity and Internet gossip and what is appropriate and what is juvenile and wrong. Strangely the entire spectrum played out right in front of us.

Checking out the Brain Machine

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

Torrential rains wracked Austin today, sending many festivalgoers scurrying for cover in movie screenings or at the SXSW Interactive Conference. At the very least, the wet weather persuaded a lot of people here to reluctantly accept free plastic rain ponchos being handed out by Zappos.com emissaries who savvily anticipated the rainfall as a branding opportunity.

Temporarily gone with the rain are thousands of black birds who blot out the sky, swooping and bombing in unison from tree to light post to telephone wire around dusk in Texas' capital city. For some inexplicable reason, these starlings and grackles travel in hordes. A bunch of them came at your humble correspondent the other evening, casting a pall of Hitchcockian fear over him that wasn't soon shaken.

Austinites will tell you this aggressive bird behavior comes about in part because of the competition with legions of local bats - both are looking to eat 10,000 pounds of insects every day.

And now another potentially contentious battle -- over intellectual property, not bugs -- has threatened to rear its head at the festival.

Although it didn't get as much buzz in the Twitter circles as the Facebook fiasco, the Gossip panel at SXSW was lively, fascinating, funny and fun. And it all started with one simple "boo."

Seconds after the hilarious Heather Gold introduced the panel she was moderating, she heard someone boo the intro of Valleywag editor Owen Thomas. The heckler was none other than Star magazine reporter Julia Allison, who was almost immediately invited on the stage, and when it became obvious that there were no empty chairs, Gold offered a lap, which Allison playfully accepted (pictured).

After that, the discussions were heated, revealing, intense and hilarious as industry leaders, panelists (from the N.Y. Times to TMZ), and attendees tried to figure out why we are interested in celebrity and Internet gossip and what is appropriate and what is juvenile and wrong. Strangely the entire spectrum played out right in front of us.

Hitchcock, Rain and "Super High"

Torrential rains wracked Austin today, sending many festivalgoers scurrying for cover in movie screenings or at the SXSW Interactive Conference. At the very least, the wet weather persuaded a lot of people here to reluctantly accept free plastic rain ponchos being handed out by Zappos.com emissaries who savvily anticipated the rainfall as a branding opportunity.

Temporarily gone with the rain are thousands of black birds who blot out the sky, swooping and bombing in unison from tree to light post to telephone wire around dusk in Texas' capital city. For some inexplicable reason, these starlings and grackles travel in hordes. A bunch of them came at your humble correspondent the other evening, casting a pall of Hitchcockian fear over him that wasn't soon shaken.

Austinites will tell you this aggressive bird behavior comes about in part because of the competition with legions of local bats - both are looking to eat 10,000 pounds of insects every day.

And now another potentially contentious battle -- over intellectual property, not bugs -- has threatened to rear its head at the festival.

Although it didn't get as much buzz in the Twitter circles as the Facebook fiasco, the Gossip panel at SXSW was lively, fascinating, funny and fun. And it all started with one simple "boo."

Seconds after the hilarious Heather Gold introduced the panel she was moderating, she heard someone boo the intro of Valleywag editor Owen Thomas. The heckler was none other than Star magazine reporter Julia Allison, who was almost immediately invited on the stage, and when it became obvious that there were no empty chairs, Gold offered a lap, which Allison playfully accepted (pictured).

After that, the discussions were heated, revealing, intense and hilarious as industry leaders, panelists (from the N.Y. Times to TMZ), and attendees tried to figure out why we are interested in celebrity and Internet gossip and what is appropriate and what is juvenile and wrong. Strangely the entire spectrum played out right in front of us.

Gossip panel deemed 'best SXSW panel ever'

Although it didn't get as much buzz in the Twitter circles as the Facebook fiasco, the Gossip panel at SXSW was lively, fascinating, funny and fun. And it all started with one simple "boo."

Seconds after the hilarious Heather Gold introduced the panel she was moderating, she heard someone boo the intro of Valleywag editor Owen Thomas. The heckler was none other than Star magazine reporter Julia Allison, who was almost immediately invited on the stage, and when it became obvious that there were no empty chairs, Gold offered a lap, which Allison playfully accepted (pictured).

After that, the discussions were heated, revealing, intense and hilarious as industry leaders, panelists (from the N.Y. Times to TMZ), and attendees tried to figure out why we are interested in celebrity and Internet gossip and what is appropriate and what is juvenile and wrong. Strangely the entire spectrum played out right in front of us.