Source:Valleywag

We love a challenge. Supposedly Digg, Kevin Rose’s news-discussion site, is having a party in San Francisco tonight. But we haven’t pinned down the location. What is this, some top-secret rave? If you find out where it is, or just want to send in a report from the scene afterwards, drop us a line.

Source:Valleywag

Yelp, the local-reviews site, is as infamous in San Francisco as it is nonfamous anywhere else in the country. Its parties, always hedonistic rampages of drunken conversations, burlesque troops, and makeout sessions in the photobooth, helped establish its local reputation and cement the loyalty of hardcore users. (Even the founders get in on the action!) Last night, Yelp held its holiday party at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Upon entering, I was greeted by a mass of San Francisco Yelptards, each louder than the next, all laughing, cajoling, flirting, and hugging each other. Self-congratulations were clearly in order.

The insular crowd, however, all but ensured I’d meet up with Ghosts of Valleywag Past. No, not a spectral Nick Douglas or a scary Nick Denton — but other people I’ve read about, or written about. That vaguely familiar girl chatting with Jeremy Stoppelman? Oh! It’s his ex-girlfriend Liza, reportedly the center of love triangle involving Valley good-time-guy Sean Parker. There’s Steve Chen, the YouTube founder, with spiky hair and glasses, holding hands with his girlfriend while bidding Stoppelman adieu. Over there, by the bar, is Ooma CEO Andrew Frame, wearing a form-fitting leather jacket and sporting bangs. Bangs? Really? And Keith Rabois, the ex-PayPaler now at Slide, with the controversial Stanford history.

Then I met Snocap founder Jordan Mendelson, whose appearance with a bevy of beauties at last year’s Yelp party lead us to crown him the Valley’s newest bad boy. Boy did we peg him wrong. My first thought, after taking in his supreme untallness, was that he seemed like such a nice guy. And so unassuming. The expression of smug self-satisfaction in last year’s pictures was missing. As was, apparently, his job.

I asked about Snocap, the troubled music startup he founded with Shawn Fanning, whom he worked with at Napster. Mendelson confirmed our rumor that he had left for another project. So, was he going to indulge his Valleywag-created persona and party hearty all night? Sadly, no. Mendelson begged off early during the afterparty at Mr. Smith’s, in order to prepare for a venture meeting today. The bad boys are growing up — or at least learning when they need to put on appearances.

Estimates pegged TD Ameritrade’s initial security breach to, approximately, October 2006. Well, they were wrong. Network World got ahold of emails from a security expert to Ameritrade dating back to January 9, 2006. Valleywag commenter Snarkosaurus claims to have evidence that the online stock broker was hacked as early as December 2005. Not only does this mean Ameritrade was hacked almost two years ago, but the company has known about it for an equal span of time. The reason the company offered for not notifying the 6 million or so affected accounts sooner? It didn’t know how the information was getting out, so there was nothing it could have done. If you work for Ameritrade security, apparently ignorance is bliss.

Source:Valleywag

Ooma, the voice-over-Internet gadget maker founded by entrepreneur and celebrity doppelganger Andrew Frame, finally makes its official debut. Starting today, the $399 box, which routes calls from regular phones over the Internet, goes on sale to the general public. Now you won’t have to rely on blog giveaways to get your hands on the device. Assuming you want to.

To entice potential customers, Ooma created the commercial above to get viral attention about its product. Ooma “creative director” Ashton Kutcher — Mr. Demi Moore himself — produced the clip, which features an unfortunately dressed creepy kid actor and more quick cuts than an anime cartoon. We already had our doubts about the viability of the service. This doesn’t help.