Foursquare is adding Visa, Mastercard and debit cards to its check-in deals program as it attempts to expand an existing revenue model. The company has let users pay for the deals—which users can access after checking in at participating locations—with American Express since 2011. [AllThingsD]

The U.S. government wasted millions of dollars in its attempts to expand broadband wireless service, according to a Republican congressman. [Bloomberg]

Thomas Pynchon's next novel is said to be set in Silicon Alley, in the period between the dot-com boom and the terrorist attacks of September 11; here are some rejected plot lines. [PandoDaily]

The Visual Effects crowd is pissed off, and rightfully, it seems, about the lack of airtime it was afforded during the Academy Awards on Sunday. Television broadcasts largely ignored demonstrators protesting the state of the VFX industry, in which many jobs have been shipped overseas; meanwhile, the Oscar winner for VFX had his speech cut short, and Ang Lee, who won Best Director for his CGI-heavy Life of Pi, forgot to thank his VFX man. [The Big Social Picture]

Uber is signing up drivers in San Francisco; no taxi license needed, but there will be a test. [Engadget]

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

So, as y’all know, SXSW (or, as I like to call it, Sundance for Geeks) is now just two weeks away. That's right, people: Time to start planning how you gonna be partying it up and taking Austin by storm! :) To make your life easier (the better to gorge on all those mouth-watering Nuclear Tacos and drool-inducing Salt Lick BBQs) I’ve put together The ULTIMATE Guide to SXSW Interactive 2012 Parties (185 and counting)! And of course, it comes with my special commentary and notes to help you make sense of all the madness. You’re welcome.

Now, of course, as any SXSW veteran can attest, the seemingly endless parade of parties, panels and people can quickly become overwhelming. So to make your life even easier, I’ve compiled a list of the 16 most-awesome-must-attend-unmissable parties that are bound to give all your friends at home a giant pile of FOMO!

Yes, I’ll be at SXSW, attending every last one of those panels ‘n parties (or well, as many as humanly possible, even for me). So if you’re interested in sponsoring my Red Tie for SXSW and putting your company logo on there, you’d best hurry up and give me a holler at gary [at] garysguide.com.

And now, without further ado, ladies ‘n gentleman, the 16 SXSW parties you really, really, reaaalllly don’t wanna miss ... ;)

CafePress SXSW Shindig
County Line BBQ and libations will abound as CafePress celebrates the launch of MyInstaCard. Participants get an exclusive T-shirt as a collector's item.
Friday (Mar. 8), 4 p.m. @ Bourbon Girl, 212 E. 6th Street

SXSW Food & Tech Cocktails
Serving up authentic Oaxacan appetizers and cocktails throughout the evening.
Friday (Mar. 8), 4:30 p.m. @ El Naranjo, 85 Rainey Street

SXspredfast Bash
Three floors of bars, networking with the biggest brands in social, bowling and a special guest DJ!
Friday (Mar. 8), 6 p.m. @ Speakeasy, 412 Congress Avenue

4th Annual Ignite Social Media Party
Tasty BBQ sandwiches, drinks, two floors, one big party--kick back downstairs or chill on the rooftop deck of Molotov!
Friday (Mar. 8), 7 p.m. @ Molotov, 719 W. 6th Street

#FEED Powered By Twitter
Five nighttime parties, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (DJ set), interactive social media art exhibits, juice cleanses, spinning, and yoga on the rooftop!
Friday (Mar. 8) to Tuesday (Mar. 12) 7 p.m. @ AMOA Arthouse @ Jones Center, 700 Congress Avenue

Carnival Fun at #ConduitCorner!
Free beer and delectable fair fare from L.A.’s famous WickedKitchen, plus carnival games, a charity dunking booth, a celebrity balloon wrangler and more!
Friday (Mar. 8) to Wednesday (Mar. 13) @ Conduit Corner, E. 7th Street and N. Congress Avenue

Beauty Bar X 2013
Free manicures + open bar (mimosas, bellinis & custom cocktails) + scrumptious light fare + tech-luxe gift bags. Whats not to like?!
Saturday (Mar. 9), 10 a.m. @ Vince Young Steakhouse, 301 San Jacinto Blvd

Salesforce Rooftop VIP Party
Memorable experiences including developer events, happy hours and a VIP party Saturday night featuring live entertainment.
Saturday (Mar. 9), 6 p.m. @ Salesforce Lounge, 5th & Brazos

Made In NY & American Express VIP Cocktails & Conversation
Join friends from American Express, NY Tech Meetup, Made In NY and others for a lively cocktail party following the days’ sessions.
Saturday (Mar. 9), 6 p.m. @ AMOA Arthouse @ Jones Center, 700 Congress Avenue

Wall Street Journal Pool Party!
The Wall Street Journal invites you to hang out pool side! Featuring live music by CC Adcock, Denny Freeman and Will Sexton. (By Invite Only)
Sunday (Mar. 10), 3 p.m. @ Ashton Austin, 101 Colorado Street

Open Bar with Aereo
Drinks and demos and find out why Aereo is the coolest thing to happen to television since the remote.
Sunday (Mar. 10), 4 p.m. @ Old School Bar & Grill, 401 E. 6th Street

Open Web SXSW Pool Party
Pool party-inspired bites, DJ Johnny Bravo, door prizes. Plus one lucky attendee will win a five-day, four-night resort package to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico!
Sunday (Mar. 10), 5 p.m.

4th Annual Wiley SXSW Author Party
Three hours of free food and drinks in appreciation of amazing authors and supportive readers.
Sunday (Mar. 10), 7 p.m. @ Hangar Lounge, 318 Colorado Street

SXSW Party Hosted by MoPub, Metamarkets, & Prolific Interactive
DJ Duo AndrewAndrew spinning on their iPads, Franklin BBQ, great cocktails and a raffle! Transit from the convention center provided on an Austin Trolley.
Sunday (Mar. 10), 8 p.m. @ Icenhaeurs, 83 Rainey Street

Mashable MashBash
A bowling alley, breathtaking rooftop view of Austin, internationally renowned DJ Mick Boogie, plenty of fun surprises and more!
Sunday (Mar. 10), 9 p.m. @ Speakeasy, 412 Congress Avenue

Rovio (Angry Birds) Pool Party
There will be music and BBQ! And no doubt the Mighty Eagle will be there. Rovio may be showcasing something new at the event! (By Invite Only)
Monday (Mar. 11), 6 p.m. @ Ashton Austin, 101 Colorado Street

And finally, don't forget - What Happens At SXSW... Is Gonna Be All Over Twitter ;)

Twitter and American Express announced a plan to turn the microblogging service into an ecommerce platform: Details are vague, but it sounds like the partnership will allow users to link their Amex to their Twitter feeds, than make a purchase by posting a message. What will you buy with your subtweets? [WSJ]

We guess Michelle Obama won't be buying a Surface Pro anytime soon. Apple CEO Tim Cook will be a guest of the FLOTUS during President Barack Obama's State of the Union address this evening. Last year, Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs joined Ms. Obama for the State of the Union. [Mercury News]

The residential real estate website Trulia crunched some numbers ahead of Valentine's Day. If you're looking for a man, try Las Vegas, Honolulu, Palm Bay, Florida, San Jose or Gary, Indiana; if you want the highest percentages of women living alone, try Bethesda, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Boston, New York or Raleigh, North Carolina. [NYT]

What do you get a tech billionaire for his birthday? Books, apparently. But of the electronic or dead tree variety? [Business Insider]

The redesigned Nestio iPhone app.

Hunting season Nestio has redesigned its iPhone app, designed to help apartment hunters stay organized and share information with friends. In addition to improved camera functionality, the 2.0 version has some new features, including an activity screen to help users see what progress their roommates have made in the search, as well as a checklist to help potential renters and buyers remember what features to look for when they’re viewing an apartment.

Guilty convenience Gilt Group just announced that they have (finally) added search capabilities to the site. Members can now search each Gilt store by category, brand and price—just like almost every other website that exists.

1000+ Zinio—which produces interactive versions of existing magazines, providing a reading platform which enables readers to easily navigate text, interactive graphics, animated illustrations, and videos—just announced the production of its 1000th interactive magazine.

Learn python Codeacademy, an interactive, user-generated platform for users to learn programming, now offers users the ability to learn python, in addition to front-end technologies like JavaScript, HTML, CSS and jQuery.

Female report American Express has released more results from its second annual State of Women-Owned Businesses report. Though the numbers report growth of women-owned businesses in 2012, AmEx concedes, predictably, that things could be better. If you don’t feel like reading the whole report, they’ve made some helpful infographics to get people talking.

Manhattan Transfers The predictive game studio PrePlay—which creates mobile and tablet games designed to enhance the experience of watching sports, reality, and other “awkward” television shows—is expanding its Manhattan operations and moving into a new Midtown headquarters at West 38th Street, following its $3.1 million series A funding.

Virtual college Yale has partnered with YouVisit to enhance virtual tour features available to prospective students on their website. Now, high schoolers, pre-frosh and curious parties all over the world can take “realistic and engaging” virtual walking tours of the campus and enjoy full-screen 360 panoramas of various Yale landmarks, which are also available for a bunch of other less prestigious institutions.

Changeup The interactive video startup Qwiki just announced that they’ve hired Sonya Penn, formerly Time.com’s Director of Business Development, as VP of Business Development.

Next big thing The Paley Center for Media is partnering with the New York Comedy Festival to put together a special “comedy-themed” edition of Next Best Thing, the Paley Center’s quarterly showcase for digital media startups, and they’re currently accepting submissions from startups to present at the November 7 event. Interested parties should send a description of their company, presenter bio, and presentation draft to paleymediacouncil(at)gmail.com; submissions are due September 14.

No wonder they went with Mastercard.

Back in June, the founder of 4G hotspot provider Karma got up on stage and announced partnerships with American Airlines and car service Uber. Only there were no final, formalized partnerships--just "talks" that might've been going well, but certainly weren't done. At the time, it looked like a pretty devastating misstep.

Fast forward to Wednesday, when one of the world's largest tech companies did some similar fudging. Google announced "a new, cloud-based version of the Google Wallet app that supports all credit and debit cards from Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. Now, you can use any card when you shop in-store or online with Google Wallet." Pretty sweet for those of you racking up the AmEx rewards.

Only, there's a little detail that Google omitted. TechCrunch reports that while it's true that you can load your card number into the app, American Express hasn't exactly given that functionality the official a-okay. A representative told TechCrunch:

"We want to make sure Google’s mobile wallet product meets the standards we set for our Cardmembers in terms of transparency and clarity about transaction detail,” AmEx social media VP Bradley Minor told me. “Right now, American Express does not have an agreement with Google for our cards to be used in the Google mobile wallet.”

Also, if they choose, says TechCrunch, they could probably block the functionality. So sure, the Wallet works like Google says it does. But it's not quite as official looking as you might assume from that blog post. No wonder it's just MasterCard and Discover appearing in the snazzy sample images!

TechCrunch explains wherein lies the rub, as far as American Express is concerned:

As it stands, in-store Wallet transactions are actually handled by a virtual MasterCard PayPass account locked up in the device’s secure storage area, and those transactions are subsequently passed along to whatever credit card account the user had actually selected. Not all of the pertinent purchase information (like the specific merchants the purchase was made it) is carried over along with purchase amount though, and American Express doesn’t like that.

In response to the accusation, Google told TechCrunch:

“For many years, we’ve accepted American Express, Visa, MasterCard and Discover for online and mobile transactions. The latest version of Google Wallet extends these same benefits to people who choose to use the Google Wallet app to make purchases in-store. We are in active discussions with American Express and look forward to working together as partners as the world embraces digital payments.”

However, unlike the Karma incident, it looks like Google's fact-fudging isn't going to end with a desperate mea culpa on Tumblr.

"American Express is a 162 year old company that has continuously reinvented itself," said Dan Schulman, Group President, Enterprise Growth, American Express. "As we enter the next chapter in our history, we recognize the need to work with emerging technology companies to inspire change, encourage innovation, and ultimately deliver the best products and services to our customers."

AmEx made a big investment in social advertiser Clickable last month. The Next Web also pointed to partnerships with early stage NYC startups like Percolate, Veri and Kohort.

The credit card company joins BMW, who earlier this year established a major presence in Silicon Alley with its iVentures, as a major corporation looking to the world of venture capital in order to stay sharp.

HandsOn Network is powering the app, which lets users access a searchable 9/11 Day database to sign up for nearby volunteering activities and share it with friends to encourage more people to volunteer. According to The Next Web, current opportunities include revitalizing schools on the Lower East Side as well as programs around the country, such as turning an abandoned airport hanger in L.A. into a community center.

Before you get that pit in your stomach (at least if you're as cynical as Betabeat) thinking about corporate co-opting of what will be a particularly emotional anniversary for the city, this issue has long been close to American Express, which lost eleven employees on 9/11 in its offices across the Trade Center site. In addition to its $10 million contribution to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, the company has supported many other initiatives to rebuild Lower Manhattan.