By Gary Sharma 1/14 8:30am

Goooood Morning Silicon Alley!

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Best Tech Events This Week (Social Retail Summit, Twitter NYC Talk, Enterprise Tech Meetup, Tech Drinkup, Bronx Tech Meetup, Music Hackathon, Hardware Startup)

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.

First off, some sad news: R.I.P. Aaron Swartz. Aaron, who was based here in Brooklyn, was a brilliant mind, hacktivist and internet folk hero who co-authored the RSS 1.0 specification at age 14, joined the Reddit team in its earliest days and was the founder of DemandProgress, playing a key role in helping win the fight against SOPA/PIPA. Many friends have weighed in including Lawrence Lessig, Cory Doctorow and danah boyd. Aaron was only 26 years old and it’s such a tragic loss for the internet community. Thoughts and condolences to his friends & family. Here’s the official statement from his family and here’s a video of Aaron on how we stopped SOPA. Read More

By Gary Sharma 12/31/12 8:30am

Goooood Morning Silicon Alley!

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Best Tech Events This Week (Happy New Year!)

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, 2013 is almost here. Time to break out the paper hats, the party glasses and the annoying air horns. How are you planning to spend your New Year’s Eve? At home with friends and family watching TV? Partying it up (a.k.a. getting your drunk on) at an overpriced club / lounge? Or smooshed together with the rest of humanity in the bowels of Times Square? Well, wherever you are, I hope you have fun and remember that 2013 will be an amazing year!

While we’re on the subject, an advisory from our friends at Uber: Surge pricing will be in effect for NYE, people. So don’t be surprised tomorrow morning when ya see the bill. In Uber’s own words, “NYE pricing is not for the faint of heart! The average surge multiple will likely be 2x normal prices, but during extreme spikes it could cost you $100 MINIMUM before time and mileage charges!” The most expensive times to take an Uber? Between 12:15am and 2:45am. There. You’ve been warned.

This Sunday is the Tesla Spirit Award Gala Benefit Reception at the New Yorker Hotel, marking the 70th anniversary of Nikola Tesla. Tesla died on January 7th, 1943 at the hotel in room #3327 on the 33rd floor, where he’d lived for the last 10 years of his life (1933-1943). Yup, he was a fan of the number three. And in case you don’t know who Tesla is (god forbid), here’s the Oatmeal comic celebrating the greatest geek who ever lived. Read More