Valleywag

Kinderplex crisis reveals Google founder's fumbling and fibbing [Sergey Brin]

Owen Thomas — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:20:00 PDT

Joe Nocera of the New York Times has taken note of Google's childcare crisis. A brief recap: After taking its childcare programs in-house, at the behest of Google executive Susan Wojcicki, the sister-in-law of founder Sergey Brin, Google hiked its rates 70 percent. Parents were infuriated not just at the price hike but, accustomed to Google's culture of analysis-driven consensus, at the imperious way the decision was handed down. Nocera's reporting reveals more numbers showing just how incompetent Google is at daycare — and how comfortable Brin's PR handlers are at lying on his behalf. How, in other words, Google has become just like any other company in corporate America.

Nocera reveals that, at Wojcicki's behest, Google decided to upgrade its childcare to a hyperluxurious standard, including adopting the Reggio Emilia approach to pedagogy. The result: At tuition rates of roughly $14,000 to $19,000 a year, the subsidy paid by Google ballooned to $37,000 a year. From that followed a tuition hike to as much as $29,000 a year, at which price Google still loses money.

At no point, it seems, did Wojcicki or any of the others she involved in planning Google daycare do a market-rate analysis. They simply built the childcare facilities as they saw fit, and then priced it based on cost, not the going rates — even for the kind of quality care they professed to seek.

The Scandinavian School in San Francisco, for example, offers full-time Reggio Emilia daycare for $16,000 a year for infants, and less for toddlers and preschoolers. If Google ran its daycare as efficently as the Scandinavian school. If it charged Google's rates, it would run a nearly 50 percent profit margin. Google, by contrast, is losing money by the fistful on its childcare.

So Google has on its hands a disaster: A disaster for parents, a disaster for children, and a disaster for Google shareholders. How does Google respond?

Not by fixing the problem, but instead by lying to a New York Times columnist. Nocera, a famed reporter, quotes Brin twice. Google PR repeatedly denied that Brin made these comments — an unbelievably brazen act, considering the remarks were made before large groups of Google employees. A sampler:

At a T.G.I.F. in June, the Google co-founder Sergey Brin said he had no sympathy for the parents, and that he was tired of “Googlers” who felt entitled to perks like “bottled water and M&Ms,” according to several people in the meeting. (A Google spokesman denies that Mr. Brin made that comment.)

But parents who talked to me said that several times during the six-week-long day care brouhaha, Mr. Brin made comments indicating that he viewed the whole thing as a giant economics experiment. “This is a supply-and-demand issue,” he told one group of parents — adding that Google needed to charge what the market would bear. (Through a Google spokesman, Mr. Brin denies making such a statement.) Given that Google has lots of pre-I.P.O. millionaires, it can clearly charge a lot.

Of course, Google PR would deny that Brin made these statements. They are damning; they suggest the founder is out of touch with rank-and-file employees, and callous in his treatment of them. He surely is, but it is unseemly to admit as much.

Wojcicki, with Brin's permission — what an indulgent brother-in-law! — is conducting an experiment on her fellow Googlers, and their children. But Googlers did not sign up for this experiment. Any parent knows how difficult it is to find good, affordable childcare, and how wrenching for children it can be to change providers. The real test going on here isn't some kind of supply-and-demand economics experiment. It's how arrogant Brin and his clique can get before his employees revolt.

A week in which we sang the body electric [Recap]

Jackson West — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:00:00 PDT

Sure, the English may have invented the national founding document, parliamentary democracy, the bicameral legislature and baited their bears to extinction with bulldogs. But who taught those bulldogs how to ride skateboards? Yanks from California. We just took one of the ten best fireworks displays from IAC's Vimeo and used Apple's genius Final Cut Pro to luma-key the footage over clips of skateboarding bulldogs found with Google search on YouTube. The audio quality isn't as good as it could be, but at least we're having more fun than evil foreigners — if not the olds.

Mahalo enables Freedom of Speech [America, Fuck Yeah]

Paul Boutin — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:00:00 PDT

We hold these Truths to be self-evident: Wikipedia's Tyranny of the Mob sucks. Every time I run an item about Jimmy Wales, my page gets hacked. So what about Jason Calacanis's pursuit of happiness over at Mahalo? Former Uncov blogger and army of one Ted Dziuba has posted a step-by-step pictorial guide to practicing your First Amendment rights using the search index' new open editorial system. Try this on Wikipedia, and someone from the armed and unregulated Militia of Truth will likely kill your edits on sight. But on Mahalo, only Calacanis' paid mercenaries will bother to fix pages. At $10 an hour, there's no way they'll be able to keep up. Let Freedom ring!

Iran's plan to kill "corrupt" bloggers [America, Fuck Yeah]

Paul Boutin — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:00:00 PDT

From Global Voices:

On Wednesday, Iranian members of parliament voted to discuss a draft bill that seeks to “toughen punishment for disturbing mental security in society.” The text of the bill would add, “establishing websites and weblogs promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy,” to the list of crimes punishable by death.

Hoo boy, I can hardly wait for Michael Moore's take on this one. More coverage by Iranian-American radio reporter Cyrus Farivar. (Photo by AP/Saman Aghvami)

Pamphleteers at Google promise no privacy without representation [Your Privacy Is An Illusion]

Jackson West — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:00:00 PDT

A few of the queen's subjects across the pond have taken issue with colonial incursions by Street View spies from Google. Privacy International will whinge to the United Kingdom's Information Commissioner if they don't get a prompt response from the Mountain View rebels about the company's privacy practices — all the activists have gotten so far is cheek:

We've spoken to Google in the past about this and received a snide response telling us to look more closely at their blogs.

God save the queen from getting shot walking her corgis around Westminster! To show just how committed the revolutionaries are to privacy, VP of search products Marissa Mayer replaced a mention of "Google" on the homepage with "Privacy" and a link to the company's policy declaration. The noted populist also underscored her sacrifice by pointing out the ascetic homepage's lack of corrupting excess. Put that in your tea and sip it, limeys!

Steve Westly wants Akeena Solar to cash in on Gavin Newsom giveaway [Cleantech]

Jackson West — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:00:00 PDT

Wealthy eBay co-founder Steve Westly, who campaigned for the Democratic Party's nomination to run against California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the last gubernatorial election, has kept busy by investing in startups like Akeena Solar, and he's not just helping with venture capital. He's also using his campaign's email database to promote the company to San Franciscans, urging them to participate in Mayor Gavin Newsom's solar power rebate program — by buying products from Akeena Solar:

Anita and I just installed solar panels on our home, and we couldn’t be happier. We used a firm called Akeena Solar which has been in business for several years and has offices around the state. If you’ve ever thought of putting solar on your home—there has never been a better time.

Shilling for your own company without disclosure is certainly one way to pass the baton to presumptive Governator challenger Gavin Newsom, who will undoubtedly point to this program to give wealthy San Francisco property owners taxpayer money for a handful of solar panels as an example of his stellar environmental record. Mixing business and politics and implementing costly new tax incentive programs while slashing the budget for social services? God bless America. (Photos by AP/Branimir Kvartuc and AP/Eric Risberg)

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Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:00:00 PDT

The Web's 10 best fireworks displays [Clips]

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:00:00 PDT

A full half of our usual readership came to Valleywag on Christmas day last year. Even more showed up on New Year's Eve. We figure a good percentage of you will be stuck at the office today, too. So if you can't come out to see the Fourth of July fireworks tonight, we'll bring them to you, with the Web's 10 best fireworks videos. A surprising six come from IAC's Vimeo, proving that hosting expensive high-definition content is totally worth it at least once a year. All of them are guaranteed not to maim small children or start wildfires.

More videos capture the 2008 Taipei 101 New Year fireworks display than any other on the Internet. See why.

Fireworks are best viewed at 30,000 feet.

Fireworks at 30,000 ft from Chris Bodenner on Vimeo.

Portland Rose Festival Fireworks! Click through to watch it in HD on Vimeo.

Portland Rose Festival Fireworks! from Andrew Curtis on Vimeo.

The Brooklyn Bridge 125th anniversary fireworks — click through to watch it in HD on Vimeo.

Brooklyn Bridge 125th Anniversary Grucci Fireworks from Craig Seeman on Vimeo.

The Fourth of July scene from The Sandlot.

Apparently the last 24 Inch Fireworks Shell exploded in the States.

Fire Works 4th Of July 2007 Washington DC — the nation's capital.

More Fireworks in HD.

Fireworks HV20 from Vedran on Vimeo.

A 36 inch shell exploded in daylight.

This is called a 625 Shot Dragon Egg Fireworks cake and its completely insane.

(Photo by Mr Magoo ICU)

Olds take back Valleywag [The Olds]

Paul Boutin — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:00:00 PDT

Now that Valleywag's Straighty McStraights are out of the closet, it's time to stand up for another oppressed demographic: The Valley's middle-agers. No, not the professionally groomed gray-haired executives who hop between million-dollar gigs. I mean the kid-raising, house-owning, middle-managing people without whom none of the snotnose Web 2.0 brats would still have a job. I've been full-time at Valleywag three days, and the elder abuse is already insufferable. So: Send me your age-discrimination stories, your defamatory tales of underage "founders," your news items of interest to techies over 40. As for you Youngs, someone needs to tell you: Your code sucks, and we only keep John C. Dvorak around because he drives you insane.

Debian death threats? Come on, send us the emails [Harassment]

Paul Boutin — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:40:00 PDT

"I was *shocked* to hear that one of our community has been the target of death threats as a thank you for her work," wrote Debian project leader Steve McIntyre, near the bottom of a long message about the results of a survey of Debian contributors. Now McIntyre tells The Register, "I have since discovered that several of our female developers and documenters were threatened. It was some kook in the U.S. who made quite a name from himself harassing women for supposedly destroying the free software movement." Valleywag would be happy to make the guy an even bigger name for himself. Got death threats? Send 'em in or just post in the comments.

Blogging Old Media KILLS! [Clay Felker]

Paul Boutin — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:20:00 PDT

Forty years before Valleywag, a middle-aged man named Clay Felker took over a newspaper supplement and turned it into New York magazine, deliberately breaking the rules in order to bring back readers who were abandoning reading to watch more TV. Felker died Tuesday at age 82. The New York Times obituary — I'm sure they've been lovingly crafting it for years — is that rare article worth reading beyond the first 100 words. You think Perez Hilton's nuts? Read up on Felker's career.

Mr. Felker’s magazine was hip and ardent, civic-minded and skeptical. It was preoccupied with the foibles of the rich and powerful, the fecklessness of government and the high jinks of wiseguys. But it never lost sight of the complicated business and cultural life of the city. Articles were often gossipy, even vicious, and some took liberties with sources and journalistic techniques.

Yahoo rents surf simulator for summer party [Caption Contest]

Jackson West — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:00:00 PDT

A faux-surfer bails on a compress-air wave at the summer party held on Yahoo's Sunnyvale campus yesterday. Have a better caption? The best one will become the new headline. Yesterday's winner: "Hotmail? Hot bride!" by sarahfu67. (Photo by Yodel Anecdotal)

Americans resign themselves to crappy Internet connections [Telcos]

Jackson West — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:40:00 PDT

If the latest study from Pew is any indication, most Americans have resigned themselves to what passes for broadband in the United States. 72 percent of cable and 62 percent of DSL subscribers are happy with their connection speeds, with only 24 percent demanding more bandwidth. Also, the digital divide is getting wider, with fewer lower-income households paying for cable or DSL plans. [GigaOm] (Photo by secretlondon123)

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Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:40:00 PDT

Q: Does Texas law now require PC repair techs to get a private investigator's license? A: Sometimes [Overreactards]

Paul Boutin — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:20:00 PDT

Internet libertarians and Texas-haters are eagerly piling on a new Texas law that they claim requires all PC repair techs to obtain a private investigator's license. Infurating? Yes. True? Not really. The bill's author has spent the day sighing to reporters that the law amends existing occupations code by defining any vendor who performs investigate services on computer data to be a private investigator. Recovering your own hard drive data? No license required. Snooping your wife's email off her Mac? That's not tech support, it's private investigation. But don't let me stop you from railing against this Orwellian clusterfuck and its chilling effects and how goddammit, if we all carried firearms this never would have happened. The relevant section of the bill:

SECTION 4. Section 1702.104, Occupations Code, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 1702.104. INVESTIGATIONS COMPANY. (a) A person acts as an investigations company for the purposes of this chapter if the person:

(1) engages in the business of obtaining or furnishing, or accepts employment to obtain or furnish, information related to:

(A) crime or wrongs done or threatened against a state or the United States;

(B) the identity, habits, business, occupation, knowledge, efficiency, loyalty, movement, location, affiliations, associations, transactions, acts, reputation, or character of a person;

(C) the location, disposition, or recovery of lost or stolen property; or

(D) the cause or responsibility for a fire, libel, loss, accident, damage, or injury to a person or to property;

(2) engages in the business of securing, or accepts employment to secure, evidence for use before a court, board, officer, or investigating committee;

(3) engages in the business of securing, or accepts employment to secure, the electronic tracking of the location of an individual or motor vehicle other than for criminal justice purposes by or on behalf of a governmental entity; or

(4) engages in the business of protecting, or accepts employment to protect, an individual from bodily harm through the use of a personal protection officer.

(b) For purposes of Subsection (a)(1), obtaining or furnishing information includes information obtained or furnished through the review and analysis of, and the investigation into the content of, computer-based data not available to the public.

Will Ferrell promotes latest movie online with least funny clip ever [Startups]

Jackson West — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:00:00 PDT

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly made an appearance at IBeatYou, the online video competition site founded by basketball star Baron Davis and Jessica Alba baby daddy Cash Warren, to promote the comedy duo's new flick Step Brothers. Ferrell calls out Adam McKay, his production partner and cofounder of FunnyOrDie, another LA-based online video startup, to participate in the staring contest Ferrell kicks off with his costar.

One has to wonder if Ferrell isn't trying to undermine the competition, however, considering how not-funny the clip is. Neither Ferrell nor Reilly can seem to decide who's the straight man and who's the goofball. IBeatYou should probably stick to promoting itself with Jessica Alba — 758 users participated in her staring contest, compared to twelve so far for Ferrell and Reilly.

Google retrenches in Dallas and Denver [Googleplex]

Owen Thomas — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:40:00 PDT

This is not how the Google's story supposed to go: Google is closing offices in Dallas and Denver. The locations may well be duplicative — a Google Maps search shows three Dallas-area offices — but it doesn't fit the narrative of relentless, candy-colored expansion around the globe. What's next — overcharging employees for needlessly luxurious childcare? Oh, wait — that already happened.

EMI sues Hi5 and VideoEgg for listening to EMI [Copyfight]

Jackson West — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:20:00 PDT

Record label EMI may have tired of suing individual file sharers for copyright infringement. But a number of music-industry plaintiffs, all partners and subsidiaries of EMI, are suing social network Hi5 and advertising startup VideoEgg in New York Southern District Court for copyright infringement. According to the complaint [PDF]:

While each of the defendants has the right, ability and legal obligation to prevent infringement of plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, they have allowed infringement to go unchecked, content to profit handsomely from advertisements that appear side-by-side with infringing content.

What's particularly about the suit is that EMI's strategy seems to imply that because VideoEgg used technology like Audible Magic and human review to filter copyrighted content from the company's servers, it's more liable, not less.

No wonder YouTube took so long to install filtering software, which has long been demanded by rightsholder organization like the Recording Industry Association of America. In a prepared statement, VideoEgg argues the suit is without merit and asserts that it upheld the law under the DMCA:

VideoEgg has consistently worked to employ best practices to protect content owners. We took all the steps necessary to avoid copyright infringement issues, including systemwide deployment of Audible Magic, the leading provider of content identification services. Moreover, we have never received a takedown notice from EMI nor any of its affiliated companies.

Moreover, the company's deal to provide Hi5 with video uploading services for the social network's users ended in April, so it can not be accused of continuing to enable new cases of infringement. What's worrisome is that EMI is going after a company for doing exactly what the RIAA asked — pro-actively policing its network for infringement. And where's ostensibly tech-savvy former Googler Douglas Merrill in all of this? Somebody needs to explain to EMI's legal team how bad it looks trying to punish one of the companies actually doing their bidding.

Boing Boing's unapologetic eleventh-hour apologia [100-word Version]

Melissa Gira Grant — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:00:00 PDT

Boing Boing's readers, hopped up on free-speech rhetoric, continue to find the tech-culture blog's act of unpublishing unspeakable. Hoping to put the Internet's most enduring drama llama this month to bed, the Los Angeles Times rounded up four members of Boing Boing's staff yesterday for a late-night confab. The result is transcribed here and there, but for those about to launch into a three-day weekend, we salute you with only the most wonderful bits, perfect for around-the-barbeque reblogging. It is at once brilliant and brain-numbing in its inconclusiveness. But if the answer to bad speech is more speech, why not answer an act of unpublishing with more nonwords?

Xeni Jardin: There wasn't some kind of sinister plot here. It's just kind of how we did things. But at the time, I did that for personal reasons, and for a back story that will always remain private.

John Battelle: What's made it so good is that it's kind of an asynchronous jam between four musicians, without being in the same place or looking each other in the eye. Anything that we might change that affects that magic, we really have to think about.

Joel Johnson: The community expected us to react with the speed that they reacted.

David Pescovitz: I'm not going to say — I haven't determined — whether I agree or disagree that Xeni should've unpublished the posts.

John Battelle: Isn't it also the right of the person who put it up to take it down? If you were truly the owner, I think one could argue unequivocally that you had that right. The question is: Do you damage the community in doing so?

And a bonus dance remix:

Xeni Jardin: This is my work, this is my blog. This is not the same thing as Wikipedia or the paper of record. It’s Boing Boing.

(Photo by Bart Nagel)

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Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:00:00 PDT

The real secret of Steve Jobs's success [Apple]

Owen Thomas — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:40:00 PDT

Everyone likes to talk up Apple's innovative design. It's a much more attractive story than the real reason why Apple has come to dominate first the MP3 player market, and soon, the smartphone market: Ruthless haggling with suppliers to lock up crucial components, shutting out rivals. Apple is buying 50 million 8-gigabyte memory chips from Samsung — the kind used in its entry-level iPhone 3G — and Samsung is cutting off other customers as a result of tight supplies. [DigiTimes]

IBM's new antitrust muddle [Politics]

Owen Thomas — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:20:00 PDT

European regulators are looking into whether IBM is unfairly dominating the mainframe market. What, is this 1968? IBM's purchase of Platform Solutions, a 36-person rival which made cheaper versions of IBM's mainframes, would normally be too small to rouse antitrust inquiries. But, amid accusations that IBM bought the firm to quash a rival, regulators are looking into it nonetheless. I'm actually disinclined to believe the conspiracy theories. IBM, under official antitrust oversight for decades, surely doesn't want to invite government officials back in.

More likely: IBM was the only likely buyer for Platform Solutions, which may have been running into financial trouble. One former contractor for the startup tells Valleywag that his work for Platform Solutions went unpaid for months before his contact there dropped out of sight altogether in January.

Dell and Sony discover gold in the old [Feature]

Owen Thomas — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:00:00 PDT

A relentless neophilia is Silicon Valley's signature characteristic. One must have a new iPhone, a new Twitter, a new electric car. You're either in beta or in the grave. That's why I'm intrigued by two decisions by Dell and Sony. Dell has figured out a way to wriggle around Microsoft's licensing rules and still sell its discontinued Windows XP operating system. Sony, meanwhile, is profitably selling its nine-year-old PlayStation 2 videogame console in markets like India. This just isn't done.

And yet it is done, and profitably so. Sony's PlayStation 3 is expensive precisely because it uses new chips and optical drives whose manufacturing processes have yet to be refined. Moore's law has made the old silicon parts in a PS2 dirt-cheap; meanwhile, videogame studios continue to churn out games for it, making it an entertainment bargain.

Windows XP, meanwhile, has been relentlessly tested by consumers, businesses, and hackers; it is now reasonably bug-proof, reasonably easy to use, and ubiquitous. Windows Vista, by contrast, is slow, unpredictable, and uncertainly secure. (Microsoft claims Vista is safer, but any security expert will tell you that security holes only reveal themselves over time.) Microsoft perhaps recognizes this, since it's continuing to sell Windows XP in some poorer countries.

So far, Sony and Microsoft are focusing their selling of the old in developing markets. But why not sell the old stuff everywhere, instead of forcing the likes of Dell to jump through hoops to offer it to willing customers? That's exactly what Nintendo has done with the Wii. Essentially a repackaged GameCube with a motion-sensitive controller, the Wii has eviscerated Sony's overexpensive PlayStation 3. It's a classic triumph of the old.

The chief lesson Silicon Valley has taken from Moore's law is that new technology will always be better. Hence the relentless pursuit of the new. But Moore equally tells us that old technology will always be cheaper. Someone's going to figure out how to sell the old stuff at a profit. Why not have it be you?

Good help is so hard to find [Startups]

Owen Thomas — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:40:00 PDT

Web entrepreneuse Patricia Handschiegel, shown here with Valleywag editor Jackson West posing as her personal shopper, is looking for someone to serve as shrink, chef, personal assistant, filling-station attendant, agent, booker, and cheerleader. In other words, a boyfriend. [Patricia Handschiegel]

I Can Has Cheezburger CEO allergic to cats [Catenfreude]

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:20:00 PDT

Consider this: Ben Huh runs a site that takes submissions of stupid cat pictures with pidgin English captions written across them. That site, I Can Has Cheezburger, pulls about 2.2 million pageviews a day. Like the HotOrNot guys — who sold their site for $10 million earlier this year — Huh is a lucky guy who's making bank off an obnoxiously simple idea. The delicious irony: According to the above excerpt from an interview Huh gave with Internet Superstar, he's completely allergic to cats. "If I pet a cat, which I can't resist, I immediately start crying. I get itchy in the face. I look like a diseased cheeseburger guy." Ben, we're oh so sorry to hear that. The full interview is embedded below.

Yes, there's sex online after 50 [Sex Trade]

Melissa Gira Grant — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:00:00 PDT

The 50-and-up set form one of the fastest growing demographics of those looking for love online. That nugget of hope, care of former Match.com CEO Jim Safka, comes tucked into Newsweek's Sex & the Single Boomer. While the Youngs, who've been barely weaned off of cruising Facebook for casual sex, may eyeroll at Web 1.0 matchmaking, and the Olds themselves scoff at the profitability of Web-based matchmaking, it looks they're going at it as sure as the kids today, with their Twitter hookups and their 150-mile-radius locally sourced organic condoms. The real difference? Baby boomers got over talking about it decades ago. (Photo via foundphotos)

Now we can breathe: Sarah Lacy has found a personal assistant [We Read Twitter So You Don't Have To]

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:40:00 PDT

So you know how in Sex and the City: The Movie, Carrie Bradshaw interviews, like, a bazillion young women trying to find a personal assistant before finally deciding on the sassy, "urban," but safe Jennifer Hudson? No? OK, well, if you saw the movie it was you'd know it was such an ordeal. And then you'd have sympathy for famous reporter and author Sarah Lacy — who, like Bradshaw, just found herself a personal assistant and sent a Twitter message about it last night. She writes:

tentatively happy times....i *might* have found the perfect personal assistant! SANITY MAY BE IN REACH!

We're happy for her! The tipster who spotted the message is not and even suggested a headline: "Sarah Lacy wants you to know she's important." But we already knew that!

Is Barack Obama's online campaigning truly interactive, or just an ATM? [Politics]

Jackson West — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:20:00 PDT

While political pundits gasp with awe at the amount of money Barack Obama has been able to raise online, the leftist wonks at Alternet are ringing the alarm bell over the candidate's support of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act amendments pending in Congress. The bill would broadly expand executive powers to conduct warrantless wiretaps, as well as grant immunity to telcos which voluntarily participated in the illegal surveillance of American citizens at the current administration's request.

A group of supporters are lobbying the Democratic senator to change his position on the bill on his campaign social network, MyBO. The question is, will Obama actually take serious policy suggestions from supporters using the same website he's already using to mobilize volunteers and, more importantly, raise more cash than any presidential candidate in history? The Magic 8-Ball says "very doubtful." (Photo by AP/Jae C. Hong)

It’s all fun and games until someone starts a wildfire [Valleywag Calendar]

Adriana Nunez — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:00:00 PDT

Tonight comedian and Phd Tim Lee’s will be performing his PowerPoint comedy routine, “Off the Charts” at the San Jose IMPROV. It’s like watching a YouTube video only live and you can laugh out loud without the guilt. Comedy, Darling and IFC.Com are also set to tickle your funny bone with the premiere of Mary Van Note’s ten episode series, “Gavin Really Wants Me,” at the Purple Onion Comedy Club. Join host Van Note on her quest to woo the ever coiffed and dreamy Mayor of San Francisco, Mr. Gavin Newsom. Tomorrow, scrap the flag football and celebrate your independence day with a throwback to tech’s early days with a TRON and Brainstorm double feature at the Castro! “Excuse me, did she just say a seminal dose of espionage, gaming, and a young Christopher Walken? Count me in!” Exactly. If none these events have the cultural cache of a Linux Users’ Group, do not fret. Your friends over at SF-LUG have you covered. Their monthly meeting is Sunday, July 6 from 11:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m at Javacat cafe. Now go play.

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

The Yahoo board members we'd most like to see fired [Yahoo Raid]

Owen Thomas — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:40:00 PDT

Corporate greenmailer Carl Icahn, some old dude who was stupid enough to buy a lot of shares of Yahoo on the premise that Microsoft would buy the company after it said it wouldn't, wants four seats on Yahoo's board. Yahoo only prepared to reward his intelligence by offering him two, Kara Swisher reports. Why so stingy? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to clear the dead wood out of the boardroom. Make room! Our nominees for the axe:

Roy Bostock: This guy is chairman of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Can you imagine anyone more out of touch with Yahoo's workforce?
Art Kern: On the board since January 1996. Used to own some radio stations. Gives a lot of money to good causes. Great — how about you do that full-time, Art?
Ron Burkle: Politically connected former grocery-store owner.
Gary Wilson: Used to run Northwest Airlines. Shouldn't that be a disqualifier to do anything?

Memo to the rest of Yahoo's board: Hey, you're okay in our book! Let's do lunch!

Google Street View goes to Paris -- vive la France! [Google]

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:20:00 PDT

Google has expanded its Street View feature, which shows roadside photos taken from vehicles driven by underpaid workers, to include Paris, just in time for us to celebrate the independence we wouldn't have if some French guy named Charles Gravier wasn't still sore about getting slapped around by the English during the Seven Years War.

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Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:20:00 PDT

Insidious exodus dynamic grips Yahoo [Exits]

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:00:00 PDT

When Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang became CEO last year, BusinessWeek found a senior executive to anonymously sing his praises. "I was so wrong," that source now tells the magazine. "This thing can be saved, but not by the current management team." That executive is now gone from the company — our money is on BusinessWeek's source being the ever-chatty Brad Garlinghouse. Plenty of Yahoos are trying to join him. One tech recruiter said he gets several Yahoo resumes a day. Even if Yahoo turned itself around, the appearance that Yahoo is a sinking ship likely already outweighs reality, said Stanford behavioralist Roderick Kramer: "Once there is even a perception of an exodus, the dynamic becomes insidious and takes on a life of its own." (Photo by Misserion)