A fictional character on The L Word, Megan Swisher, was named after power-lesbian couple Kara Swisher, the AllThingsD blogger, and Megan Smith, a vice president at Google, Mombian readers note. Not mentioned: That Swisher serves on the board of OurChart.com, a lesbian social network tied to the show, a fact she prominently discloses. [Mombian]

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Was there a single stereotype of this fogbound city missed in last night’s party for the Electronic Frontier Foundation? Full-arm sleeve tattoos, white people with dreadlocks, Web poseurs, old guys in tie-dye shirts. Hands off the Internet — and off me, you dirty zippies! Capping off the party’s self-congratulations, the world’s most pretentious new chocolatier, Louis Rossetto, founder of Wired, catered the event. These aren’t just chocolates, people — they’re a Bengali typhoon of flavor.

Photos by Randal Alan Smith

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Source:Valleywag

This week’s Valleywag Friday at Moose’s in North Beach doubles as a going-away party for CNET’s new TV star Natali Del Conte. She moves to New York next week. Be sure to dress rock-star, because StyleDiary.net entrepreneuse Patricia Handschiegel will roll in from Los Angeles with her posse. Natali has to leave at 7 p.m. sharp, so don’t be late. Drinking and crying will carry on until closing time. Gossip and handbag advice for all!

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Before the holidays, AOL products chief Kevin Conroy urged employees to send a form letter to their friends, family members, and business contacts talking up AOL’s new products. “Team, excitement about the work we are doing … starts with each one of us,” Conroy emailed. His topdown directive did not spark any bottom-up fervor, it seems, as he had to forward the message again on Friday, asking employees for examples of get-out-the-users emails they’d sent. The full memo:

Source:Valleywag
TeXtra videoblogger Natali Del Conte leaves San Francisco for New York City next week. She’ll become a regular TV face for CNET, appearing on mainstream TV as a tech expert not afraid to say Amazon’s Kindle looks like a 1980’s PC. Valleywag’s weekly happy hour at Moose’s — it’s been a hit since we started in December — will double as Natali’s going-away party next Friday the 18th. Drinking and crying starts at 4 pm and carries on until the place closes. Dress code is “rockstar,” whatever that means to you.

It’s the calm after one storm (CES) and before another (Macworld). Where better to hole up from the rain than at Moose’s in North Beach at 4 p.m., where drunkblogging will ensue? Tomorrow night, visit the 20 GOTO 10 gallery in downtown San Francisco for the opening of an ANSI art show. It’s guaranteed to make you nostalgic for your old BBS days. Also, The Onion is hosting its 2nd Annual Celebration of Broken Resolutions at Mighty for those of us breaking our “drink less” resolution at today’s happy hour. Bands Why? and Kid Beyond are headlining the Onion party.

Got something to add to the calendar? Send it to calendar@valleywag.com.

First free software, now free love, thanks to a free personal ad. Richard Stallman, the cantankerous founder of the Free Software Foundation, is looking for a “sweetie,” according to an ad placed on Craigslist. He’s interested in a woman who “values joy, truth, beauty and justice more than ’success,’” so I guess that rules out geek-seeking missile Julia Allison. If you’re interested in hearing every single day of the rest of your life why it’s “GNU/Linux,” not “Linux,” read on for Stallman’s ad.

I’m a single atheist white man, 54, reputedly intelligent, with unusual interests in politics, science, music and dance.

I’d like to meet a woman with varied interests, curious about the world, comfortable expressing her likes and dislikes (I hate struggling to guess), delighting in her ability to fascinate a man and in being loved tenderly, who values joy, truth, beauty and justice more than “success”–so we can share bouts of intense, passionately kind awareness of each other, alternating with tolerant warmth while we’re absorbed in other aspects of life.

My 23-year-old child, the Free Software Movement, occupies most of my life, leaving no room for more children, but I still have room to love a sweetheart if she doesn’t need to spend time with me every day. I spend a lot of my time traveling to give speeches, often to Europe, Asia and Latin America; it would be nice if you were free to travel with me some of the time.

Reply and we’ll see where it leads.

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If you aren’t already at OpenEco EnergyCamp, telling everyone how your hippie tech will save the world, head over to the SF Sketchfest Opening Night over at Mezzanine at 8. Kurt Braunohler and Kristen Schaal from Flight of the Conchords are hosting.

Got something to add to the calendar? Send it to calendar@valleywag.com.

The SF New Tech Meetup is showing mercifully short 5-minute demos from startups. Just think of all the BlackBerry messages you can catch up on in five minutes! If that doesn’t sound like fun, join a discussion on viral Facebook apps in Palo Alto.

Got something to add to the calendar? Send it to calendar@valleywag.com.

Two aspiring moguls are about to be struck rich by the system. But is there something else to life? Speed-the-Plow is set in a Hollywood studio, but it could be a SoMa startup. The American Conservatory Theater’s three-person cast of this 90-minute play — click the Artist Bios tab — are familiar faces from TV. David Mamet’s rapid-fire dialogue is witty, yet lifelike. At the A.C.T. on Geary Street, conveniently next to the Clift or Grand Cafe, through February 23. I recommend the $14 balcony seats.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money, dropped his predictions for 2008 in New York magazine this week. Along with some safe bets like “oil goes up” and “Goldman Sachs makes a lot of money,” Cramer throws out some unlikely but not off-the-wall predictions about Verizon and Apple. But then when he gets to Google, he goes off the deep end.

Google continues its dominance and becomes one of the top three companies in the U.S. in market capitalization. It doubles its advertising share, at the expense of television and print. It also successfully challenges Microsoft for operating-system dominance. Microsoft calls for a government investigation of Google’s power, but no one cares because Microsoft is just too hated for anyone in Washington to champion. The stock roars to $1,000.

Market cap? Sure. But Google doubling its ad share? Not likely. However you want to measure “ad share,” Google would have to double its revenue, at least. Last year, the company made $10 billion in revenue, a 72 percent increase over the year before. Now, with higher sales, you expect them to jump that high again? Mathematically unlikely. Check out Google’s quarterly results: Theyr’e adding $200 million to $500 million in revenue a quarter, which is spectactular on its own, but not a recipe for doubling market share in a year.

And devoting so much space to Microsoft and operating systems just shows that Cramer doesn’t really understand Google at all. Sure, Microsoft made a half-hearted effort to complain about the DoubleClick deal, but didn’t have much to stand on. Google is far from an advertising monopoly. And what does any of this have to do with operating systems?

Cramer missed the one area where Google is actually competing with Microsoft: In Google Apps, which is trying to take down Microsoft Office, and mostly failing. Jim, you should have stopped at “GOOG goes up.” It’s not much of a prediction, but at least it makes sense.

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Nicholas Carlson’s, Valleywag’s geographically handicapped New York reporter, is getting married this Sunday to college sweetheart Anna Brew. Awwww! Aren’t they adorable? And he’s webcasting the event on Justin.tv. Ewwww. Isn’t that horrible? One way or another, our last experiment with drunkblogging was so successful — the drunk part, anyway — that we’re repeating it this afternoon at 4 p.m., at Moose’s in North Beach.

Got something to add to the calendar? Send it to calendar@valleywag.com. Valleywag’s looking for a calendar intern. If you’re interested, apply to jobs@valleywag.com.

Many Starbucks sites are open today. Tully’s is hopping. Most of the cafes on Valencia Street are online. But the traitors at Ritual Roasters have locked up and gone home. Same for the Peet’s in Pac Heights. Worst offender: Whole Foods is closed, and I’m out of organic nutmeg for the veg-nog. Given the contempt and/or twittering condescension the NPR bluestaters in these places usually express for America’s Christian demographic, I doubt they’re staying home today because it’s the baby Jesus’ birthday. Clearly, the secularization of Christmas is worse than anyone thought.

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Do you think the Internet runs itself today? Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. Here’s to the sysadmins. And while we’re at it, the unthanked people at your local electric utility, for whom five-nines uptime isn’t just a marketing slogan. Central Maine Power, take a bow!

(Photo by Deycom IT Solutions)

Source:Valleywag

Goldmine! SF Station’s list of restaurants open today. Besides all of Chinatown, that is. Scroll halfway down the page.

Many Starbucks sites are open today. Tully’s is hopping. Most of the cafes on Valencia Street are online. But the traitors at Ritual Roasters have locked up and gone home. Same for the Peet’s in Pac Heights. Worst offender: Whole Foods is closed, and I’m out of organic nutmeg for the veg-nog. Given the contempt and/or twittering condescension the NPR bluestaters in these places usually express for America’s Christian demographic, I doubt they’re staying home today because it’s the baby Jesus’ birthday. Clearly, the secularization of Christmas is worse than anyone thought.