Get Ur Geek On: Don't Call it a Comeback

It's been a while since we published a tech roundup. But the Internet turned 15 last Sunday, we got a new laptop from an entrepreneur and friend who'll be enabling this 'Fister's addiction to blogging, and SFist Chuck, whom we dearly miss, was kidnapped by Disney, who force him to Imagineer at gunpoint. All the while, you've been lost in the unmapped multiverse, wondering who Supr.c.ilio.us and TechCrunch are, and which is the hipper one to name drop when asking your IT department for help (Supr.c.ilio.us); anxious about the hygenic example set for the children by superstar CEOs in the valley (they're terrible); and, dude, what's up with MySpace? 'Cuz there's, you know, awesome bands and some serious hotties, which are cool, but there's also, like, ads that install viruses, and that Tom guy, who's totally creepy.

So our old column, or at least it's bitchin' title, has been thawed out after nearly a year of cryogenically induced suspended animation, and will be posted every Tuesday and Thursday. The schedule was certainly less than regular in the past, but now we have a 30Boxes calendar, which is synched to our Upcoming listings, so that email, RSS and SMS reminders for guilt trip us into meeting our deadlines instead of blowing them off for VC-funded, PR-organized, free booze mixers. Needless to say

So we present our new tech roundup, with an old title, by an even older 'Fister. Don't worry, this will be the last long-winded intro. From now on, we'll focus on posting links to as many cute geeks in their natural habitat as we can find, exploring their world, and hopefully work towards a better understanding of their mysterious ways.

MySpace, MySpace, MySpace! Big news this week was Fox Interactive's announcement that Google will be paying a minimum of $900 million to be the exclusive search and advertising provider for the next threeish years -- when Google could have bought the social network juggernaut outright for nearly half that just a few months ago. Nicholas Carr, noting that teens are fickle, cries "Fad!" Therefore, we're putting our money on KrishnaFriends.com to do to MySpace what MySpace did to Friendster.

Then we have AOL, who (oopsy-daisy!), published the search history logs of over half a million IP addresses. It doesn't even matter how or why, because the road to hell being paved with good intentions, everyone from the Alberto Gonzalez to Nigerian spammers have it now. Even after this debacle, Google declined to change their policy and stop storing individual user behavior logs, which Eric Rice finds much more troubling, despite Google's assurance that they "Do No Evil." MySpace, which has pretty shady past, gets a free pass because all their content is public and user submitted. Granted, the bad spelling and creative use of case and punctuation may ultimately foil any efforts to mine this vein of valuable psychographic data, but it sure makes you think.

But of course, where some see troubling, potentially dangerous trends, others see opportunity! For public good (DARPA is rumored to be developing tools to use MySpace and similar sites for it's Terrorism, nee Total, Information Awareness program), and for good old American financial gain. The good news is that the local job market for techies and those who wish to help them develop business and market product has gotten lucrative again, with niche content producers like TechCrunch now offering niche market job boards. We've found that the one saving grace of of corporate blogs is that they're often the first place openings are posted, such as Federated Media Publishing's call for an Account Coordinator, and honest to god writing gigs at Popgadget! As Mad Dog in the Fog so aptly quipped, "1999 called, and they want their bubble back." To bad they're not hiring for a position as the dude in the Dogster costume.

Meanwhile, Kossacks and other netroots zealots are giddy over Ned Lamont winning the Democratic primary in Connecticut, leaving Joe Lieberman griping, "Listen all y'all, it's a sabotage." (remind you of anything?). Kevin Burton points out that maybe his campaign should have spent more than $15 a month on a web host. Lamont's campaign has offered their techies to help fix Lieberman's site to keep up the Joementum during his run as an independent.

We were (rightly) reminded not to let our emotional involvement in our friend Josh Wolf's case overwhelm our pretense of objectivity. We can whine "But even the Chronicle, and now Judith Miller, think it's an injustice!" all we want, and point out that this could make every vlogger an arm of the surveillance machine. But not everyone thinks Josh is a noble martyr, and since we're fighting for free speech, we'll make a special effort to present their view. Josh's case has certainly garnered lots of high-profile coverage. Even the Party Party have voiced their support, and two local benefits are already scheduled.

You've nearly reached the the end of our magnus opus (we promise, they'll be shorter in the future), and we reward your perserverance with...tidbits! Zillow makes Dede Wilsey's life easier, offering up home prices to her mobile phone so she can know on the go if she's climbing or slumming and act appropriately superior, either way. Why do we write at such length about technology? GPS enabled fetish heels, online , competitive karaoke, dissing on shitty companies, and games you can play with Flickr.

Did we mention that we're so glad to be using our favorite, most thoroughly bitchin' title again!