Vloggers

obituary

Fred Baron, father of Rocketboom, clicks "stop"

Fred Baron, a Texas trial lawyer, died last Thursday of cancer. Fellow litigators remember him for the "toxic tort" lawsuits he filed; politicos know him as the man who relocated former presidential candidate John Edwards's mistress, Rielle Hunter, to Santa Barbara, in the hopes of keeping her away from the public eye. But the Internet-obsessed crowd will inevitably think of him as the man who inflicted chesty-news videoblog Rocketboom on them; first, by fathering videoblogger Andrew Baron, then giving his son the funding for his project. Oh, and then suing him over it. Despite that, Andrew sought to have his father given an experimental cancer treatment. Blood is thicker than blogs.

2:00 PM on Tue Nov 4 2008
By Owen Thomas
294 views, 2 comments

Latest by Shadowlayer: Dude if I die try to make it sound more dramatic than it was, specially if it's a tricycle accident... more »

leo laporte

Since when do Japanese pornographers pay tech podcasters six figures?

Video-sharing site Stickam — owned and operated by a Japanese porn company — wants to pay some guy named Leo Laporte $100,000 to stream his podcast called This Week in Tech, or TWiT, exclusively for one year. Confused? So are we. And when we did the math, our bewilderment grew. More »

11:20 AM on Tue May 6 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
4,007 views, 16 comments

Latest by maccast: I am not following the math here. Leo plans to do 25 hours a week. If he gets 750 viewers more »

online video

Sarah Atwood has my vote for Mahalo Daily Idol

The clock is ticking down to Saturday's open casting call to fill the role of Mahalo Daily host. The job, formerly held by Veronica Belmont, is to serve as the pretty face for Jason Calacanis's site that's trying to cash in on top search terms. I'll go ahead and endorse Nerdtainment's Sarah Atwood. Am I just offering my recommendation because she put me in her audition video? Of course! But I do have other, less narcissistic reasons. More »

10:00 AM on Wed Apr 16 2008
By Jackson West
1,555 views, 5 comments

Latest by Fidel on the Roof: @Peteski: She's banking on it. more »

robert scoble

Live nude bloggers at Fast Company

How intimate are Robert Scoble and Shel Israel? The pair wrote Naked Conversations together and now they'll both be videoblogging for Fast Company. Also, they appear to have been nude, hairy and within close proximity of each other in at least one instance. Here's hoping it was memorable. And that they'll videoblog clothed.

2:40 PM on Tue Jan 29 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
956 views, 8 comments

Latest by Fetterman_07: idoits and people hire these people? more »

forecasts

Valleywag's 25 predictions for 2008

Valleywag is of course known for its dead-on accuracy, so our predictions for 2008 need no introduction. Inside, my 25 predictions (made without inside information) cover the futures of Facebook, Google, Digg, YouTube, Twitter, the Wall Street Journal, Apple, Yahoo, Gawker Media, AOL, Dell, LOLcats, the president, and more. More »

11:11 PM on Fri Dec 21 2007
By Nick Douglas
12,615 views, 28 comments

Latest by XOOST: My ("predictions", maybe better a humble "personal comments")for 2008. 1. Semantic Web / Search 2.0 / Collaborative Search. Yes, this tool will more »

vloggers

Y Combinator's webcam can't touch MC Hammer

MC Hammer's rap career may have been over more than a decade ago, but to the startup kids at Y Combinator, he'll always be a superstar. First, he awkwardly pitched Weebly's MySpace profile editor SnapLayout to lifecaster Justine Ezarik, better known as iJustine of Justin.tv. Now, Hammer has made an iminlikewithyou profile. The washed-out rapper hopes to extend his attempts to revive his career beyond being a hanger-on of startups by fighting Vanilla Ice. Only problem — he needs someone with a videocamera, and he's trolling the iminlikewithyou community for volunteers. So what does that tell us about the state of Hammer's career?
More »

10:32 AM on Fri Oct 12 2007
By Tim Faulkner
1,252 views, 3 comments

Latest by Whocares: Julia Allison also has an actual job of some sorts.. I'm still pondering how Justine manages to pay her bills.. more »

funny

Ze Frank's social networking ditty

Add another song to the geek karaoke repertoire. Ze Frank, best known for his year-long videoblog The Show, has released a cute little tune about romance in the age of social networks. "Let's start a social network built just for two," it starts off, and, from there, references networking cliches from hacker-speak to customizable profile pages. Fair warning, though: The chorus, with the repeating phrase "online all the time," has the potential to get locked in your brain all afternoon. Click to play after the jump. More »

2:15 PM on Thu Oct 11 2007
By Megan McCarthy
909 views, 3 comments

Latest by Jeremy: He was funny at Forrester's Consumer Forum in Chicago. He was making fun of Pud's hyper personality on the panel. more »

justin.tv

He's just a camboy. So why can't I stop watching?

NICK DOUGLAS — When I first heard that young San Franciscan Justin Kan started broadcasting his life on video 24 hours a day at Justin.tv, I thought, "so what?" Like many others, I just assumed someone had already been doing this. I was half-right; camgirls and bugged homes date back to the 90s. But by strapping the camera to Justin's head, the creators kicked this show up a notch. Still, what's so compelling about a 20-something guy in San Francisco? Why are 353 people watching Justin talk to his friends right now in his living room? After watching the show, reading the buzz, and talking to Justin in person, I've got a good idea why. More »

4:25 AM on Tue Mar 27 2007
By Nick Douglas
4,647 views, 5 comments

Latest by radiodaze: I'm a reporter with National Public Radio and I'm doing a story about Justin TV. I was hoping to more »

vloggers

The new conference elite

The variety of stars at tech conferences used to be limited to bloggers, startup innovators, designers and programmers identifiable only after a glimpse at a name badge. But a new class of celeb is rising with more recognizable star power: videobloggers, often good-looking and engaging, practiced at being entertaining, and a prime target for conference-long entourages. Other techies love hooking up with a less nerdy brand of internet celeb. At this weekend's South by Southwest conference, star vloggers included Casey and Rudy from sci-fi show Galacticast and ABC News vlogger Amanda Congdon. The biggest star by far, though, was Ze Frank, host of the one-man "The Show," who cruised a few parties, hosted the annual Web Awards, and performed a Powerpoint stand-up routine at a Buzzfeed party. Prediction: "Fun" conferences (full of the geeks who do the actual work of Web 2.0) like SXSW will have more vlogger presence than "business" conferences like the upcoming suit-heavy Video on the Net. (photo by Scott Beale)

10:29 AM on Thu Mar 15 2007
By Nick Douglas
720 views, 4 comments

Latest by Spastic Colon: cv and delirious. it's been 14 years since Interactive was added. it's no longer a music conference. quit living in more »

comedy

The 12 Funniest People On The Internet

NICK DOUGLAS — Some of them you recognize, some of them you don't. Here are the twelve funniest people on the Internet today, including Ze Frank, Brad Neely, Worker #3116, and that crazy lady at Violent Acres. More »

3:46 PM on Thu Jan 18 2007
By Nick Douglas
9,113 views, 17 comments

Valleywag team

SUBSCRIBE TO Valleywag