(Photo: Google+)

A few days ago we lamented that even the models strutting down the runway at Diane von Furstenberg's fashion week show looked vaguely dorky in Google Glasses. Now, a video compiled from the footage taken by the models has been assembled and uploaded to YouTube. It's the first official video made entirely from clips recorded by a slew of real Google Glasses prototypes.

Prior to this mini documentary, entitled "DVF: Through Glass," there was a 15 second video recorded by one set of glasses worn by someone bouncing on a trampoline. And let's not forget the exhilarating live skydiving demo at Google I/O. But this seems to be the first time a documentary has been recorded with the glasses by people outside the Google family.

Raw footage of Ms. von Furstenberg overlayed with funky music is spliced together with backstage images of employees prepping for the fashion show. The 3 minute 50 second video pulses with a voyeuristic undertone, the point-of-view shot giving it an almost otherworldly feeling, almost like you're spying on someone. At one point, a model's hair even begins to eclipse the frame. It's both fascinating and unsettling.

"All the footage you see here was filmed using only Glass, Google's latest technology that lets you capture moments from a unique, new perspective," reads the video description. "See what happens when fashion and technology come together like you've never seen before."

The best part was undoubtedly seeing through the eyes of models as they take to the runway. It was almost like we were there ourselves, minus the perilously tall and undoubtedly uncomfortable high heels.

Correction: A prior version of this article misstated that this was the first ever video shot with Google Glass. Our apologies to the Google nuts out there.

Hackers having fun, unlike Sam Yin.

Manhattan's district attorney has slapped Gucci hacker Sam Chihlung Yin with up to six years in state prison for hacking the corporate network of Gucci American, Inc. In a press release from the office of Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., the D.A. noted that Mr. Yin pleaded guilty in mid-July to one felony count of computer tampering in the first degree and 10 felony counts of "criminal possession of computer related material."

Mr. Vance's announcement regarding Mr. Yin's sentence included a quote from the D.A. that could be read as a none-too-veiled warning to anyone else tempted to follow the former Gucci network engineer's example:

Today, a computer hacker is going to state prison for attacking the network of his former employer, which is one of the more than 900 fashion companies based here in New York. As we have seen in many cybercrime cases, these so-called 'insiders' at companies have the ability to harm their employers, co-workers, and the company's clients, customers, and even products. This is but one example in the fight against cybercrime and our ongoing efforts to repel attacks and protect electronic systems.

Sam Yin was apparently the worst kind of disgruntled ex-employee. After he was fired from his job at Gucci he accessed a secret account he'd created while working there and began wreaking havoc on the fashion retailer's systems, shutting off off servers and in some cases deleting data. Mr. Yin then doubled down on his shenanigans by using a fake identity to somehow socially hack his way into the network and gain near total control via knowledge of administrator passwords. Mr. Yin ultimately deleted the company's email accounts, which the D.A. stated "cost Gucci hundreds of thousands of dollars in diminished productivity, restoration and remediation measures, and other expenses."

Sam Yin turns 36 tomorrow. With any luck could be out of prison before he turns 39. We suspect he'll have a hell of a time finding a new I.T. job once he's released.

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.

I'm a big fan of organizations and groups that encourage more women to get involved in the traditionally male-dominated worlds of tech and entrepreneurship, by creating community and providing guidance and support. And this week, we have a ton of these women-focused events.

There is the Ladies Who Code hacknight, where they encourage you to bring your brilliant self, your laptop,  and your beloved text-editor of choice! There is Celebrating Extraordinary Female Founders at Levo League (a site for Gen Y female professionals), as well as the launch party for PlumAlley (a new site supporting female-founded companies). There is the Go Connect - Ignite Your Ambition event organized by NY Tech Women and The White House Project. There is JumpStart Your Dreams, organized by She Creates Change (a community supporting women as they make their professional dreams a reality). And finally there's Women 2.0 Founder Friday, with guest hosts Alexis Tryon (cofounder, Artsicle) and Anagha Nadkarni (cofounder, AppGuppy).

Speaking of women in tech, there are two upcoming events that should be on your radar. My friend Dani, the founder of DaniWeb (a million-member-strong IT discussion community), is throwing a big party next month on October 2nd. So go check it out! :) Second is Focus100, a conference and boot camp on October 5th, organized by Kathryn Finney (founder, DigitalUndivided) and supported by BlogHer and Andreessen Horowitz. The event aims to get 100 companies founded or cofounded by black women to raise funding or get acquired by 2015.

Also: The deadline for voting on panels submitted for SXSW 2013 has been extended until midnight tonight, and so you still have a chance to help out your fellow Silicon Alley friends. Here's the list of panels we've compiled. Show some love with your votes!

And now let's see what's going down in the Alley this week...

Curators Conference
With Gia Coppola (fashion filmmaker), Susie Bubble (founder, Style Bubble), Josh Rubin (cofounder, Cool Hunting), Rodrigo Calvo (managing director, Mr. & Mrs. Smith), Chris Corrado (fashion curator, Capsule), Warren Fu (music video director), Philippe von Borries (cofounder, Refinery29), Soraya Darabi (founder, Foodspotting) and more.
Wednesday (Sept. 05), 8 a.m. @ Walter Reade Theatre, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, 165 West 65th Street

NY Games Conference
With Dan Porter (OMGPOP/Zynga), Brian Cho (Andreessen Horowitz), Perry Tam (Storm 8), Adam Boyes (Sony) and more.
Wednesday (Sept. 05), 8 a.m. @ Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place

Practical Approaches to Transhumanism
Featuring a guest from Grindhouse Wetware, whose focus is "augmenting humanity using safe, affordable, open source technology." Yes, that does sound intriguing!
Wednesday (Sept. 05), 6:30 p.m. @ Pearl Street Studios, 519 8th Avenue

Celebrating Extraordinary Female Founders
Celebrating extraordinary female founders on Fashion's Night Out and kicking off the launch of Plum Alley.
Thursday (Sept. 06), 6 p.m. @ Levo Labs, 833 Broadway, 5 Fl.

NYTechWomen and The White House Project Present: Go Connect - Ignite Your Ambition
With Tara Sophia Mohr (founder, Wise Living), Amanda A. Ebokosia (founder, The Gem Project), Layla Revis (VP digital strategy, Ogilvy), Maggie Patton (founder, Hands On America) and Jessica Lawrence (managing director, New York Tech Meetup).
Thursday (Sept. 06), 6:30 p.m. @ AOL Patch NYC, 675 6th Avenue, 3rd Floor

Discussion with LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner & New York Times Columnist Adam Bryant
A discussion between Adam Bryant (Columnist, New York Times) and Jeff Weiner (CEO, LinkedIn) before a live, interactive audience.
Thursday (Sept. 06), 7 p.m. @ Directors Guild Of America Incorporated, 110 West 57th Street, #6

#techdrinkup - Rooftop Party @ Empire Hotel
A party for NYC's brightest and savviest tech people to gather and mingle over drinks and food at exclusive NYC venues.
Thursday (Sept. 06), 7 p.m. @ Empire Hotel Rooftop, 44 W. 63 Street

CashCatsBiz Art Exhibit + Partie!
Tumblr and Forced Meme Productions will present "Cashcats.biz: How the One Purrrcent Really Live." It's a one-night popup exhibition featuring dozens of previously unseen "member photos" from Cashcats.biz and new mixed media works inspired by C$C$ aristocats.
Thursday (Sept. 06), 8 p.m. @ Dumbo Loft, 155 Water Street, Brooklyn

Tech Does Fashion Week (#TDFW): A Kickoff Party
An evening of fun, music, and dance. Drinks & hors d'oeuvres provided.
Friday (Sept. 07), 8 p.m. @ AlleyNYC, 500 7th Avenue , 17th Floor

Comedy Hack Day
Twilio and Cultivated Wit are organizing Comedy Hack Day, an awesome 36-hour hackathon where developers and comedians come together to build the most hilarious apps imaginable.
Saturday (Sept. 08), 9 a.m. @ Pivotal Labs NYC, 841 Broadway, 8th Floor

Cool Cravings | Hot Startups
Insanely delicious desserts from innovative food startups around the city. Get an hour of unlimited access to the newest creations from brands like Brewla Bars, Krumville Bake Shop, SkyIce, Purely Elizabeth, NibMor, The Soft Serve Fruit Co. and Stogo.
Saturday (Sept. 08), 12 p.m. @ OpenHouse, 379 Broome Street

More events on the horizon...
Digital Money Unconference-- From NYPAY and Consult Hyperion on Sept. 11 @ Google
September 2012 NY Tech Meetup on Sept. 11 @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts
Dating Tactics for the Business World on Sept. 11 @ General Assembly West
Investor Feedback Forum on Sept. 13 @ Columbia University - Schapiro Center
From Wall Street to Silicon Alley on Sept. 19 @ General Assembly
Design for Manufacturing Summit on Sept. 20 @ Dumbo Spot
Startup Weekend NYC on Sept. 21 @ AlleyNYC
Daniweb Presents: Advertising, Marketing and Media Mayhem! on Oct. 02 @ Slate Lounge
FOCUS100 Symposium and Pitch Bootcamp on Oct. 05 @ Ogilvy & Mather

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

Mr. Tong (Photo: LinkedIn)

When last we heard from Richard Tong, Tumblr's beleaguered fashion director was exiting his role as an ambassador to fashion brands for something much more "entrepreneurial." A source pointed us to Mr. Tong's LinkedIn page, which he updated this month, listing himself as the founder of a startup called Fohr Card. The company's website is password-protected, noting only that it's "A Stairbear Production by Rich Tong, James Nord and Holly Star."

Mr. Nord, whose Twitter bio touts his interest in fashion photography, lists his current role as a senior account director at Product of the Year, a consumer award for product innovation based in New York. Holly Stair (whose name is spelled differently on Mr. Tong's Pinterest page) lists herself as social media manager at the fashion brand Foley + Corinna on LinkedIn.

We have reached out to Mr. Tong for comment and will update the post when we hear back.  In the meantime, you can check out his "Fohr Card Inspiration" board on Pinterest.

Just before Mr. Tong's departure from Tumblr last winter, sources told Betabeat that the director's presence in the office had diminished after blowback from fashion brands, digital advertising reps, and designers over Tumblr's unofficial pay-for-play strategy for New York Fashion Week.

The leaked proposal asked fashion brands to pay for coverage from Tumblr bloggers, who had no idea Tumblr was charging for their (previously free) services. The proposal also promised ad placement on the Tumblr "fashion" page during NYFW without offering even basic analytics. Brands who adopted Tumblr early on bemoaned the lack of response and infrastructure in place to cater to labels who wanted to use the platform. "Realize that brands pay the bills when VCs stop," wrote Ann Taylor's digital and social media representative.

That may be something for Mr. Tong, a friend of David Karp's, to keep in mind at his new startup. A little runway redemption when Fashion Week hits New York next month, perhaps?

via the Instagram Tumblr

The editorial set at Fashion Week may be irked with Tumblr right now, but Instagram is apparently still this season. The lightweight photo-tinkering and sharing app gives drab smartphone images a dreamy, glossy edge--no professional photog necessary. Which might be why editrix, bloggers, and publicists have been uploading images by the thousands.

As the Wall Street Journal notes:

"There are Instagram images of runway shots, backstage peeks, and plenty of more mundane objects. Oscar de la Renta's Instagram account posted a photo of a pin cushion. Leandra Medine, who runs the fashion blog The Man Repeller, has been snapping her own outfits and accessories. 'I Instagram everything from newborn babies to pizza pies to new Alexander Wang shoes,' Ms. Medine says. 'My life is significantly more attractive in X-Pro.'"

What me worry?

Reuters social media editor Anthony "SoupSoup" DeRosa is an avid Tumblr user who recently walked away from the platform in frustration after one too many problems with the service. He published a long piece today about the ways in which Tumblr is working to manage its massive growth and got an interview with Tumblr founder David Karp.

As has been the case in Tumblr's dealing with fallout from Rich Tong's fashion week proposal and conflicts with the developer behind the popular extension Missing e, Mr. Karp offered no apologies for the way his company was coping with its growing pains. A few choice quotes:

I’m generally really proud of how we communicate as a company. It’s not particularly easy when there are so many subsets of the community with dramatically different interests and questions.

Although we’ve had the occasional communication breakdown that we work hard not to repeat, I think we’ve done a good job of being honest, accessible, and thoughtful over the last 4 years.

I also love that everyone on our team contributes to our Staff blog — a blog we’re not afraid to curse on — and that we’re quite disciplined in staying out of the fray when incendiary people lie about us.

Mr. DeRosa ends his piece by noting that, "I walked away from my conversation with Karp feeling like they want to operate similar to the way Apple does, protecting their vision for how their product looks and choosing who gets to appear "in their store." Apple has managed to make that aspect part of what makes their products great; it remains to be seen if this approach will work for Tumblr as well."

It's a fair comparison, save that one is the richest company in the world famous for its high-quality products and the other is a blogging platform with little revenue infamous for it instability.

As for Mr. Karp's comments that he was proud of how they communicated with their partners, Mr. DeRosa got on the record a story Betabeat also heard about Mr. Tong, Tumblr's fashion director, in which he ignores and then insults AOL's StyeList blog. While Tumblr had early success partnering with fashion companies, Mr. Tong soured many of those relationships when he arrived by failing to return emails, showing up to meetings unaware of who the client was, snubbing former partners during fashion week and replying to their hurt feelings with, "You can do business the way you see fit, and we’ll do the same."

It's hard to imagine Steve Jobs defending an Apple employee who publicly bungled business and insulted valuable clients and partners. In fact, one of Mr. Jobs's great strengths was his ability to tell the truth, even when it hurt. During his legendary keynote at WWDC in 1997, when Apple was being slammed in the press and pummeled by the stock market, Mr. Jobs was brutally honest about the company's own failings. He realized that the only way to break with internal problems and chart a new course was to face the reality of what Apple had become.

Mr. Karp, by contrast, seems obstinate and paranoid. He may think Tumblr is "staying above the fray when people lie about us," but the stories about Rich Tong have now come from three reporters working with sources across the fashion industry. That is not an "occasional communication breakdown," but a pattern of behavior with serious consequences for Tumblr's business.

The same is true for the ongoing issues with Jeremy Cutler, the developer behind the popular Missing e extension, which found fans by providing simple features that Tumblr, with its large staff and millions in venture funding, failed to create. Rather than support Missing e, Tumblr has tried to shut it down, even threatening to go after Mr. Cutler's personal blog when he stopped using their API in order to comply with their rules. Tumblr has communicated almost nothing about this situation before today's piece in Reuters, which left it looking like a bully.

Tumblr clearly has tons of potential and seems poised to raise yet another round of funding which will help it to scale on both the front and back end, meaning, hopefully, less stability issues and more new features. But if their response to the problems that arise continues to be silence, snubs and threats, they will find themselves with few allies as they seek to make the difficult journey from a popular platform to a profitable business.

Rich Tong

Yesterday Betabeat broke the news that Tumblr fashion director Rich Tong was hoping to get big brands to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for product placement and branded content from Tumblr's "select bloggers".

In essence, Tumblr was acting like a talent agency, promising work from a group of writers who use their platform. The proposal offered 15 posts with the "content to be agreed upon prior to the start of the week". For $10,000 the brands could get some face time with the bloggers at a private party and for a negotiable price brands could get product placement from all 20 select bloggers.

Betabeat has learned however, that Tumblr had no formal contract with any of these bloggers. In fact, the bloggers Betabeat spoke with had no idea their services were being promised, no clue about the terms of the proposal and were blissfully ignorant that Tumblr was asking to be paid hefty sums for their work.

"It makes total sense," said one select blogger who spoke to Betabeat by phone. "They need to start earning money, and writing about brands, product placement, that is a good way to do it."

Didn't it bother her that Tumblr was making money off this arrangment, asked Betabeat. "No, they get paid, but I get to attend the events and break interesting stories on my blog."

Betabeat explained that, according to Mr. Tong's proposal, the bloggers would be submitting 15 posts per week, not to their own blogs, but to the Tumblr's owned by the brands paying the fees. "Oh, wait really?" the blogger asked. "In that case, I would definitely want to be paid, because I would no longer own the content."

A further wrinkle is the possible legal issues surrounding paid blogging. If Tumblr is accepting money from brands and assigning writers to produce advertorial content with product placement, that needs to be disclosed. Otherwise, its a violation of the FTC rules governing paid blogging.

As one angry designer told Betabeat yesterday, "They are trying to have us pay for Tumblr bloggers to come to our shows, which is ridiculous. We would never pay a journalist to come cover us, so why would we pay Tumblr?”

Betabeat reached out to Tumblr with the specifics of this post, but they declined to comment.

Tumblr Fashion Director Rich Tong

Earlier this year Tumblr was the toast of fashion week. The company's fashion director, Rich Tong, negotiated access for influential Tumblr users to cover swanky events. The bloggers, once the red headed step children of Fashion Week, got access beyond their wildest dreams. The brands and designers got their shows covered on a hip social network that drove a ton of traffic and engagement. It was a win-win.

Things are playing out a little differently this time. It started with the proposal Mr. Tong circulated to fashion brands and agencies. Unlike last year, Tumblr is now asking to be paid.

The proposal asked for $100,000 to have 4 of Tumblr's "select bloggers" produce 15 posts for the brand's Tumblr during the week, with the "exact nature of the content to be agreed upon prior to the start of the week."

For $150,000 brands could get ad placement on the official NY Fashion week Tumblr. For $350,000 they could get ad placement on the Tumblr tagged "fashion" page.

For $10,000 big fashion brands could spend a little quality time with the 20 select bloggers at a private event. Product placement was also offered "At cost", with the "influential tastemakers" being promised at a group rate.

It was an attempt to find a revenue stream for a company that thus far has focused little on making money. But the execution left something to be desired.

"They clearly don't understand the first thing about ad buying," said an agency rep with more than a decade in digital sales who received Mr. Tong's proposal. "They didn't explain how these ads would be served or offer us any way to track them, even through a third party. How am I supposed to present that to a client?"

Prior to becoming Fashion Director at Tumblr, Mr. Tong co-founded two fashion startups, Weardrobe and Index F. He also worked as a front end developer at UNICEF. None of these positions involved client services or ad sales, which he now handles as fashion director at Tumblr.

"He is David Karp's friend and that seems to be his main qualification for this job," said one very angry designer. "Now they are trying to have us pay for Tumblr bloggers to come to our shows, which is ridiculous. We would never pay a journalist to come cover us, so why would we pay Tumblr?"

No one Betabeat spoke with thought that Tumblr was a bad platform for fashion, quite the opposite. The ease of posting images and re-blogging items makes it a terrific platform which has driven a lot of eyeballs to brands and designers. "But they need an experienced ad sales team and someone who knows how to be diplomatic when they are turning people down," said one brand manager.

Numerous sources bemoaned the lack of basic analytical tools. Tumblr's inability to deliver these features made their requests for paid blogger placement and big name ad sales particularly galling.

"When I go into a meeting with a client to talk about Tumblr, I have to sit there and count out the number of notes on each post by hand, literally," said one frustrated agency rep. "We would pay to not have to do that."

Betabeat reached out to Tumblr for comment and will update with their response.

Update: This is perhaps a response....

Update 2: Nope, not a response, just a quirk of Tumblr. These two didn't like my post, but a post by Mike Hudack in defense of Tumblr, which was a response to a Tumblr post by Elizabeth Spiers.