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.

"And as long as I've got my suit and tie, I'm-a leave it all on the floor tonight..." Yup, I've got JT's new single (with Jay-Z) stuck in my head. "Suit & Tie," that's how I roll ;).

Heard about the NYC Schools Gap App Challenge? The New York City Deptartment of Education is challenging software developers to submit apps and games that enhance math teaching and engagement for our middle schools. A worthy cause, indeed! The deadline for submission is April 10.

Greylock's Josh Elman (who's worked at both Facebook and Twitter) is putting together a conference on How To Build Great Products next month (April 12) in San Francisco. It's by-invitation-only and limited to top product managers. Fit the bill? Apply here!

My buddy Jonathan Askin and a team of his students at the Brooklyn Law Incubator and Policy Clinic are launching first-to-disclose. As you likely know, the U.S. just moved from a “first-to-invent” to a “first-to-file” regarding patents. It'll probably make it more difficult for small inventors to fend off larger enterprises in the rush to the patent office, and the aim of first-to-disclose is to help counterbalance the new rules. Check it out.

The 2013 UX Awards (celebrating great digital UX created by outstanding professionals) is now accepting submissions. Deadline is April 15.

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

The Future of 3D Manufacturing - Brooklyn Style
With Robert Steiner (director of product development, Makerbot), Duann Scott (designer evangelist, Shapeways) and Brian Jepson (editor, Make Magazine). Moderated by Jim Kohlenberger, recently chief of staff for the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy.
Monday (Mar. 18), 7 p.m. @ Brooklyn Law School Moot Court Room, 250 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn

Business Development Pre/Post-Acquisition: How my job changed?
With Chris Watson (Groupon), Tanuj Parikh (GroupMe), Scott Britton (SinglePlatform), Drew Stern (BuddyMedia), Andrew Ferenci (Spinback) and Alex Taub (Dwolla). Moderated by Eric Batscha (AppNexus).
Monday (Mar. 18), 7 p.m. @ AppNexus HQ, 28 West 23rd Street, 4th Fl.

NYC Data Business Meetup #14
With DJ Patil (Greylock), Jeff Hammerbacher (Cloudera), Ben Werther (Platfora) and Ron Bodkin (Think Big Analytics).
Tuesday (Mar. 19), 6:30 p.m. @ WeWork, 154 Grand Street

March NY Tech Meetup
You know the drill. Five-minute cutting-edge tech demos. 850 fellow New York tech startuppers. One amazing event.
Tuesday (Mar. 19), 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center For Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place

NYEdTech Meetups Startup Showcase: Spring 2013 Edition
Learn about Lessonwriter, Intellidemia, Parlor, Neverware, ImagiLabs and BiblioNasium.
Tuesday (Mar. 19), 7 p.m. @ Knewton, 100 5th Avenue

Structure:Data 2013 by GigaOM
Speakers include Michael Abbott (Kleiner Perkins), Tamara Budec (Goldman Sachs), Gaurav Dhillon (SnapLogic), Michael Driscoll (Metamarkets), Bhaskar Ghosh (LinkedIn) and others.
Wednesday (Mar. 20), 8 a.m. @ The Chelsea Piers, Pier 60

New Work City Member Show & Tell!
With presentations by Jonny Goldstein (Envizualize), Avishai Weiss (Apartable), Eytan Daniyalzade (Stylr), Matt Hanley (Let Sister) and Harry Raymond (Shindig).
Wednesday (Mar. 20), 6 p.m. @ New Work City, 412 Broadway

Working Together on Your Startup: Co-Founders and Co-Working
Demos by Trello, Psych, Mani Diaries and Uprise Art.
Wednesday (Mar. 20), 7 p.m. @ CultureFix, 9 Clinton Street

Design for Manufacturing Summit #3
With Matt Burnett (Makers Row), Frank Russo (Fabricating), Matthew Bolton (SparkFun), Haytham Elhawary (Zahn Center for Entrepreneurship) and others.
Thursday (Mar. 21), 3 p.m. @ Dumbo Spot, 160 Water Street, Brooklyn

Silicon Dragon Alley 2013: Digital Media Innovators Venture Capitalist Mavericks & Dealmakers
Rockstar group of panelists including Jim Robinson (RRE Ventures), Alex Iskold (GetGlue), Jimmy Maymann (Hufftington Post), Brian Cohen (NYC Angels), Ross Goldstein (DFJ Gotham), Porter Bibb (MediaTech Capital Partners), Kamran Ansari (Greycroft Partners) & others.
Thursday (Mar. 21), 5 p.m. @ NASDAQ, 4 Times Square

#TechinMotion: Women in Tech Panel
With Anna Khan (Bessemer), Nikki Stevens (Refinery29), Merrill Ferguson (Jirafe), Cailin Nelson (Turntable.FM), Carol Mirakove (Bitly) and Lindsay Bressler (OpenSky).
Thursday (Mar. 21), 6:30 p.m. @ The Alley, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

New York Video Meetup
Presentations by Robert Green (Conde Nast Entertainment), Saul Hansell (Sii Media), Eric Feinstein (Deltatre) and Adrienne Schmoeker (Catchafire).
Thursday (Mar. 21), 6:30 p.m. @ Columbia University, Broadway and 116th Street, Uris Hall, Room 301

Hello Etsy at Pratt: Reimagine the Marketplace
With Chad Dickerson (CEO, Etsy), Chris Anderson (author, The New Industrial Revolution), Robin Chase (founder, Zipcar) and others
Friday (Mar. 22), 5 p.m. @ Pratt Institute, 200 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn

IBM Code Rally Hackathon
Teams of developers will spend a day modifying game mechanics and artifical intelligence to create a turbo-charged (virtual) racing machine!
Sunday (Mar. 24), 9:30 a.m. @ General Assembly East, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.

More events on the horizon...
Want to Be on TV? How to Get Noticed by Media on Mar. 26 @ Green Spaces
Fireside Chat with Andrew Rasiej on Mar. 27 @ Center for Social Innovation
Champagne Privacy on a Beer Budget on Mar. 27 @ Cooley at The Grace Building
Fashion Disrupted: How Tech Is Changing The Way Consumers Shop on Mar. 27 @ WeWork Lounge
Open Tech NYC on Mar. 30 @ Hunter's Point Event Space
Opening Party for F.A.T. GOLD: Five Years of Free Art & Technology on Apr. 1 @ Eyebeam
FinTech Hackathon on Apr. 6 @ AlleyNYC
Big Apple Smackdown: Silicon Alleys 1st Annual Ping-Pong Tournament! on Apr. 14 @ SPiN New York
Kingpins of Silicon Alley on Apr. 15 @ Bowlmor - Union Square
Hack'n Jill: Mastering the Technical Interview on Apr. 16 @ AppNexus
NY Tech Day on Apr. 25 @ Pier 92
Women Entrepreneurs Rock the World 2013 on May 8 @ Altman Building

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

Mr. Graham (flickr.com/pragdave)

Startup soothsayer Paul Graham penned a letter to Y Combinator's portfolio companies about withstanding the fallout from Facebook's poorly-performing IPO. [Business Insider, Hacker News]

Fred Wilson wants to put Mr. Graham's musings in perspective. [A VC]

Apple will yank Google Maps from iPhones later this year, which is just another reason why we're quite happy with our Galaxy Nexus, thankyouverymuch. [Wall Street Journal]

GigaOm rounds up what we know about Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker's video startup, Airtime, set to launch at a press event this morning. [GigaOm]

Oh good, there is an Instagram for animated GIFs. [Wired]

Mattias Swenson, one of Bloglovin's cofounders. (linkedin.com)

New York-based startup non-incubator Betaworks announced today that it's making a new investment in Bloglovin, the fashion and design lover's answer to RSS, according to GigaOm. Bloglovin is a Swedish company that curates blog posts, much like an RSS reader, but with a strong focus on aesthetics. It also can notify you via phone or email whenever one of your followed blogs updates.

GigaOm reports:

New York-based Internet company Betaworks is announcing today that it, along with former Glam CFO and Microsoft executive Bruce Jaffe, is making a “significant” investment in the startup....the companies said the funding is meant to accelerate the growth of the product, including its mobile presence. By the end of the year, they said, the company could add about five more developers and, potentially, a monetization-focused hire in New York.

Betaworks already backs several companies hinging on engagement, including stats trackers Chartbeat, Bitly and Socialflow, so Bloglovin seems like it will fold into the Betaworks family nicely.

“The category is something that makes a ton of sense for us at Betaworks," Betaworks CEO John Borthwick told GigaOm. “We look for engagement at Betaworks and there’s real engagement here.”

Mr. Denton (flickr.com/scriptingnews)

Gawker overlord Nick Denton's commenting revolution is in full swing, with the first phase--revoking the illustrious "star" from each commenter, and temporarily disabling comments altogether--implemented last week. Mr. Denton has been very vocal about the fact that he wants to ditch the site's old insidery cabal of snark-obsessed commenters in favor of more thoughtful, inclusive discussion.

His approach reminds us of a little startup we know that, with the help of its Obvious Corporation connections, has been gaining major traction on both coasts. According to GigaOm, Mr. Denton is a huge fan of Branch:

The most interesting people in tech:

GigaOM: “Who do you pay attention to when it comes to tech or online media?”

Denton: “I always watch what Evan [Williams] is doing, because I’m obsessed by Internet discussions, and how bad they are, and how much better they could be. Josh [Miller] at Branch is interesting [Branch has been funded by Williams' Obvious Corp and does hosted invitation-only discussions].

A conversation regarding the merits (and lack thereof) of Mr. Denton's new vision already took place on Branch last month, with some of the media scene's most well-known players participating, but Mr. Denton himself did not chime in. "First thing I thought of when I saw Branch for the first time last week was Denton's comment push," wrote Curbed founder Lockhart Steele.

Perhaps Mr. Denton watches Branch so closely because it possesses an almost identical vision for online conversation. Do we sense a Gawker/Branch partnership--or fracas--on the horizon?

Om Malik bows before the great Arrington

Mike Arrington warned on Twitter that the New York Times was playing with fire after David Carr wrote a column castigating him for running a venture fund while acting as editor in chief of TechCrunch.

"The saddest part about the NYT drama is that I hold the nuclear card. They know it, and they know I won't use it. Unless I do.'

Today on stage he played that card, pointing out that the NY Times is an investor in True Ventures, which backs GigaOm, the tech blog founded by True Ventures partner Om Malik.

Last week Mr. Arrington issued this sly tweet: "I look forward to co-investing with the NYTimes" and linking to this page, where the NY Times discloses its investments and acquisition.

In its extensive coverage of the Crunchfund story and GigaOm's potential conflicts with True Ventures last week, the NY Times made no mention of its own investment in True.

The NY Times technology section also syndicates content from GigaOm with no special disclosure about the connection between the two companies.

Betabeat has reached out to the NY Times and Om Malik for comment.

GigaOm CEO Paul Walborsky

The average price for annual access to the research reports at Forrester or Gartner is over $100,000. Not a big deal for a coporate account, but pricey for a young start-up, angel investor or micro-VC. The typical solution has been to chase the same level of detail by following dozens of blogs, some of which rehash the material from these big firms. "We think it's time somebody went after the middle of the pyramid," says GigaOm CEO Paul Walborsky.

GigaOm Pro, which launched in May, is $299 a year for access to a thousands of detailed reports on everything from cloud computing to viral media. The writing comes from GigaOm's full time staff and a team of freelancers who are vetted by the editors. "Despite being an expert network, we are not a content farm," says Mr. Walborsky. "But not carrying the cost of a full time analyst is what allows us to offer such a low price point."

GigaOm is looking to leverage its 4 million monthly unique visitors, many of whom are tech exes and founders. "If we can get just 15% of those readers to go Pro, we would be very happy." Like many large tech blogs, GigaOm relies on events to provide an additional revenue stream, and Pro accounts will let them get even further away from the CPM model. "We think purely ad supported media is a tough play."

Bartek Ringwelski, founder of SkillSlate, used to work at Canaan Partners, and says that even at a big venture firm, the reports from Gartner and Forrester were considered an expensive luxury. "As a start-up we are always looking for the best answers on how to run our business." Recently SkillSlate was looking for a good video conferencing tool to coordinate with its remote staff. "I found a great article on GigaOm, then reached out to the freelancer who wrote it for a deeper dive by email. Totally worth the $300 bucks."

No word yet on whether GigaOm's research into pivoting has impacted SkillSlate's party plans.