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Source:Valleywag

The New York Post likes to run “blind items” — a gossip-column tradition where just enough details are given to help readers guess who’s being talked about. Here’s the latest:

WHICH wild child daughter of an Internet billionaire has major problems? The lady-loving gal has been to rehab twice and still doesn’t show any sign of slowing down.

Well, we’re pretty sure the Post is talking about Courtenay Semel, daughter of Terry Semel, the Yahoo CEO. Courtenay was recently seen palling it up with Lindsay Lohan. Forget that: Here in Silicon Valley, money is the new sex, so it’s the “Internet billionaire” part that intrigues us.

Sure, Semel made a ton of money prior to Yahoo as CEO of Warner Bros. But to be an Internet billionaire, Semel would have had to made a billion dollars off Internet stocks, right? Not even close: In 2004 and 2005, while Yahoo shares were rallying, Semel sold $403 million worth of Yahoo stock. Since then, he’s made about $60 million by exercising options and selling shares. He now owns 1.6 million shares in the company, whose shares are trading at $24. Forbes doesn’t even include him on its list of billionaires. Our conclusion? When we run blind items about him, we’re going to call Semel the “non-Internet nonbillionaire.”

Source:Valleywag

New York Times tech writers are confused, or at least a little bit lazy. Over Christmas Eve they posted to the Bits blog a post titled, “Questions We Thought, But Didn’t Ask, in 2007.” Then, “A Few More Questions” And then, “More Questions.” Reading them, it’s clear that coming up with questions required no reporting, little research and maybe five minutes. Why didn’t we think of that? One very special correspondent could have actually seen his wife over Christmas. Here are their top three questions — and our helpfully provided answers.

If you know someone obsessively checks his email on his iPhone, should you be insulted when he fails to answer your email in a timely manner? — Brad Stone

For mere mortals, the answer would be “no,” but Brad, you should take offense. After all, you’re Brad “Brad to the Stone” Stone, the Timesman who outed frigging Fake Steve Jobs. Has your email correspondent heard of you?

Are we about to enter 2008: “The year of the in-flight fistfight caused when the person next to you spends four hours from San Francisco to New York talking loudly on the cell phone about his/her dating habits/pet’s grooming needs/excitement over the availability of airplane Wi-Fi?” — Matt Richtel

Yes, Matt, we’re about to enter 2008.

If the theoretical limit of a social network is about 150 people, does an online social network decline due to the sheer weight of its popularity. Or is decline still tied to too many grandpas signing on making a network un-cool? — Damon Darlin

Actually, Damon, it’s when people prone to tossing the Dunbar Number into casual conversation start signing on that a social network becomes uncool.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 12:57 pm and is filed under media, New York Times, Gawker, blogging for dollars, brad stone, damon darlin, Matt Richtel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.