If you hadn’t noticed, I got married and went on a honeymoon. Did you miss me? Apparently so. Gizmodo gets banned from CES. Golson asks Calacanis for a job. Our very special correspondent pickets against the new pay system. Where’s was Denton with the “too insidery” warnings? Oh that’s right, blogging for Gawker. Here’s what really happened during the first two weeks of 2008, according to a speed-read of my feeds. On my next honeymoon, I’m bringing a laptop.

• Facebook is slower than a bunch of social networks you’ve never heard of, according to Watchmouse. Yes, Zuck’s baby is slower than RateItAll, Infield Parking, Buzznet and most especially, Consumating. Which is of course everyone’s favorite. MySpace is not on the list.

• The Pew Internet & American Life project discovered that Web video was more popular in 2007 than in 2006.
• Robert Scoble appeared on television. Twice.
• Iminlikewithyou founder Charles Forman told an audience of 450 that, despite what you’ve heard, he’s not actually an asshole.
• Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler posted seven times. 6-word version: Things are great. Ignore stock price.
• Jason Calacanis has 11,900 friends on Twitter, LinkedIn, Mahalo and Facebook. And 495 on Mahalo. By the way, he wants to have dinner with all of you.
• Yahoo’s CEO unveiled a new mobile Web platform at CES that will save the company. Just like it did last year.
• And, most notably, the Flight of the Conchords performed at CES:

(Photo by ThrasherDave)

Watch Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler lose his executive cool after former employee Nicholas Carlson — our own Alleywag in New York City — deems him “old, rich and boring.”

ValleyWag had a big put down on the list not to mention the obnoxiousness of the headline [”Silicon Alley 100 a bunch of old white guys“]. And who was the writer? None other than Nicolas Carlson who worked for Jupitermedia until recently. ValleyWag is cool but has no substance. If we ever have another bubble burst in the Internet space, ValleyWag will be one of the first sites to bite the dust. As for Carlson, is it not ironic that he blasts NYC and the very people who has been hired to cover? He went from writing quality at InternetNews.com to writing gossip and garbage at ValleyWag.

I already know Carlson’s response: “At least he could’ve spelled my name right.”

Persistent rumors are burning my ears about last week’s Thrillist SF launch party. The events newsletter reportedly attracted a very special guest — one who probably should have been burning the midnight oil in Palo Alto dealing with a company crisis. We hear he stayed up late drinking, ending up passed out on a couch, while his girlfriend lit up with friends. Were you there? Drop me a line.

Source:Valleywag

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg kept an online journal during college. Part of it has become publicly available thanks to 02138’s recent reporting on the ConnectU case. In this portion of the diary we witness the moment of Zuckerberg’s inspiration for Facebook, the social network with 57 million active users and a bubbly valuation of $15 billion. This is, most likely, the kind of thing Facebook wanted to quash with its ill-thought-out lawsuit:

[Redacted] is a bitch. I need to think of something to make to take my mind off her.
I need to think of something to occupy my mind. Easy enough now I just need an idea.

The idea, of course, was hacking into school servers to pull private photos onto a website — a project which eventually turned into Facebook. We’re sure the freshly matured Zuckerberg doesn’t talk, write or think about people like this anymore. No way. All he thinks about are his users and their privacy.

But here’s what we want to know, Harvard graduates of the Valley and beyond. Who was she? And what did she do to Zuckerberg? Tell us the tale.

Source:Valleywag

Silicon Alley Insider decided to revive one of Jason Calacanis’s oldest traditions and produce a Silicon Alley 100. In doing so, the blog run by disgraced tech stock analyst Henry Blodget just proves the thoroughgoing irrelevance of the exercise. The editors’ No. 1 man in New York? Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Some other highlights among the old, the rich and the boring? AOL topper Randy Falco, IAC’s Barry Diller and Jupitermedia’s Alan Meckler. The closest SAI comes to someone we care about is VC blogger Fred Wilson — a moneyman, not an entrepreneur. As in Calacanis’s time, New York is where ideas come to be financed, repackaged, and marketed — not invented.