A big-league reporter emailed us to imply that he (or was that she? I forget) has inside info on today’s Macworld product announcements, and that my hunch that there’s a MacBook with AT&T wireless built in is totally wrong. Of course, the real point of the email was nyah nyah I’m special. But thanks for the tip.

Source:Valleywag

Cabo, it’s supposed to be the West Coast’s Mexico. But here’s photographic evidence that Silicon Alley entrepreneurs (and B.J. Novak from “The Office,” back left) like to play in the Pacific, too.

We know you people prefer schadenfreude to jealousy. So while gazing at this photo of three out of four Connected Ventures founders (Ricky Van Veen, Josh Abramson and Jakob Lodwick plus entourage are present; Zach Klein spent the month in India), recall that despite his success Van Veen rents a tiny Manhattan apartment and that this trip cost the recently fired Lodwick his relationship with Julia Allison. He went with another woman. Follow the thumbnail to see the full image on Flickr. (Photo by mareen)

Amateur attention seeker and entrepreneur Jakob Lodwick may be releasing a new project soon with Scott Karp, the creator of blogging tool Tumblr. Lodwick recently cut ties with both his beau, Julia Allison, and Connected Ventures, the startup he founded, now controlled by IAC and best known for Vimeo and College Humor. Without Barry Diller’s backing or Allison’s cleavage, how will the pasty, shirtless hipster generate the buzz he’s grown to expect but rarely deserves? By mocking the homeless.

CenterNetworks observed that norbum.org, a domain recently purchased by Lodwick, briefly went live with the message:

Norbum.org is an open, crowd-sourced, web 2.0 application powered by Tumblr. Why the name “Norbum”? Simply put, Norbum is like Nordstrom for the homeless. We bring to you the latest in urban street fashion from the people who live it. Rather than relying on an elitist group of professional editors, we invite our readers to submit photos of the most stylish street people from around the world. If you spot one of these edgy trendsetters, just snap a photo and email it to 2tvazf87@tumblr.com. We’ll post the best ones to Norbum.org.

Lodwick’s fashion sense has its own affinity with the homeless. But Norbum is clearly an attempt at attention-grabbing humor. I’ll concede the attention-grabbing part — I’m writing about it, aren’t I? — but the humor, after one weak chuckle, escaped me. Without Allison, without his partners at Connected Ventures, Lodwick’s limits are becoming more easily glimpsed. And less watchable every day.

“It’s not a new thing. Two months ago, we had a party, and I beat up five cops and threw their bodies out the window.” So said freshly fired Vimeo cofounder Jakob Lodwick when police officers broke up the Connected Ventures holiday party. Unknown at this time is the aftermath of the officers’ visit or the reason why the cops were called. (Noise? One hopes there’s more to it than that.) Also unknown: the level of awkwardness created by the Lodwick’s abrupt exit from Connected Ventures, the IAC-controlled startup which runs Vimeo and CollegeHumor. Facebook sales director Kevin Colleran captured the video of Lodwick’s comments as the party got shut down.

Jakob Lodwick, the Vimeo founder allegedly fired today from the IAC-controlled online-video site loves to post racy photos of himself and his love, notorious New York nobody and Star editor-at-large Julia Allison. That fact can’t have been lost on his corporate overseers, which makes commenter brigamortis’s theory — that he’d been fired for posting a mildly salacious photo of Allison to his personal blog — seem ridiculous on its face. Still, Lodwick took the photo in question off his blog, a move which raises suspicions. We obtained the photo, above. Could Allison’s knockers really have gotten Lodwick canned?

Is it true that Jakob Lodwick, the founder of IAC-controlled online-video site Vimeo, has gone on several dates with notorious nobody Julia Allison, the TV commentator and magazine columnist whose brief visit terrorized Silicon Valley and left desperately horny TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington so heartbroken he apparently threw himself into another woman’s arms? Just think: Allison traveled thousands of miles to find a geek to love, and there were plenty of eligible nerd bachelors in New York all the while. From the shirtless photo he posted of himself, we can kind of see why Allison might go for him. Add to that IAC stock options and the ability to design a blog, and we’d say she’s got herself quite a catch. Make a serious play for Jakob, Julia, before Barry Diller does. (Photo by Jakob Lodwick)

Despite CEO Eric Schmidt’s promises during Google’s most recent earnings call, his company continues to metastasize. This time, it’s threatening to swallow up all of New York’s Chelsea neighborhood. I have an idea: Rather than lease expensive new real estate, why not boot some current Googlers to make room for new ones? Which brings us to this, the second edition of Toogle Many Googlers! Want to nominate a Googler for toogling? Send in a name and pic.

Tim Armstrong, we don’t understand what you do. We thought the whole point of Google’s AdWords was that the ads sold themselves, automatically, over this Internet thing we keep hearing about. But instead of keeping the servers running, you oversee a bunch of steak-and-martini-gulping, Glengarry Glen Ross-quoting, macho-posturing, flesh-and-blood salesmen. What’s up with that? I guess someone has to manage the goons until Larry and Sergey perfect their salesbot prototype, but on top of your Google salary and options, you’ve got a side job gaming Google’s advertising system at Associated Content. If you like that startup so much, why don’t you go run it? Tim Armstrong, you’re one Googler too many!

When it comes to privacy, Google’s name is mud. Clearly, the advice coming from global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer can’t be worth the salary his fancy title commands. On top of that, you seem to think that fat guys can’t be trusted. Or at any rate, you’re waaaay too interested in how jiggly your male colleagues’ pecs are. Here’s what you wrote to the Financial Times earlier this year: Men should lose their “business attire” and wear T-shirts to work. Wouldn’t you like to know whether your business partners are fit? Why should you trust a man in business if he abuses his own body? We think you’re spending too much time at the Google gym, and not enough worrying about your users’ privacy rights. Our counsel: Peter Fleischer, exercise in the privacy of your own home!

Has anyone not been spammed, willy-nilly, by a Google recruiter recently? If so, you have Jason Warner to blame. As head of staffing for Google’s online sales and operations, he’s overseen a department which can’t seem to recruit even for its own needs. Word is that his operation is a constantly swinging revolving door. On top of that, he’s made no measurable progress in correcting Google’s sausage-factory status by hiring more women. He has ties to troubled Seattle job board Jobster, and I’m sure his colleagues are praying for the day he just gets a job there. Jason Warner, if you really think Google’s a meritocracy, and not the boys’ club you’ve helped build, then wouldn’t you agree it’s time you made room for someone more competent?

Source:Valleywag
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IAC CEO Barry Diller tightens his grip on Connected Ventures, the IAC-controlled parent of CollegeHumor.com, by installing minion Moshe Koyfman as its COO. [CNNMoney]