Locally, the big news was the second best blog party last Friday thrown by TechCrunch down in Menlo Park. Scott Beale was commissioned to take the photos, including the one above featuring an uneasy handshake between Valleywag's Nick Douglas (left) and his favorite whipping boy, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington. Nick had been bumped off the exclusive invite list, but Michel must have relented. If he had been dis-invited, apparently crashing the party was not an......

The good news is that the first battle in the legal fight against the NSA's wiretapping program has been won by everyone who doesn't work for the NSA. The bad news is that internet-enabled vigilante mobs could be the next big fad here in the States. Eh, we're too busy applying a new Dasani-branded profile treatment to our MySpace profile and checking out some of the videos. Damnit, we were totally going to lead off......

Two weeks of tech bingeing gives folks time to reflect. Slashdot picks Make Magazine as the best coverage from Macworld. We choose the best rumor -- that Team Jobs didn't announce some products because of "supply issues." Hell, even Levi's announced a product -- iPod compatible jeans. MuniWireless finds a great blog from author Craig Settles about questions to ask regarding TechConnect's Request for Proposals. Om Malik tips us to SixApart's affiliate program, whereby......