Mr. Doerr, Scattergories cheater. (Photo: Edge.org)

Google Glass may be used to control wayward traders and birth the beginnings of cyborg celebrity cliques. But one thing it should decidedly not be used for? Cheating at board games you play with your family.

Still, a little board game moralizing won't stop Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr from using his face computer to look up words during family game night. According to the New York Times:

Mr. Doerr said he had been wearing the glasses and uses them especially for taking pictures and looking up words while playing Scattergories with his family, though it is questionable whether that follows the game’s rules.

Famed security researcher Bruce Schneier is understandably angered by Mr. Doerr's blatant abuse of the important rules that govern fair Scattergories play. For one, you're not allowed to look up words--even if you're doing so using computer glasses.

In response to the Times, Mr. Schneier wrote on his blog:

Questionable? Questionable? It's just like using a computer's dictionary while playing Scrabble, or a computer odds program while playing poker, or a computer chess program while playing an in-person game. There's no question at all -- it's cheating.

We're seeing the birth of a new epithet, "glasshole."

Ouch.

It probably goes without saying that Mr. Doerr should never be allowed in a strip club.

(Photo: Kleiner Perkins)

Kleiner Perkins partner Ellen Pao, who made headlines last year for suing the company in a widely publicized gender discrimination suit, is gainfully employed once more. After reportedly being fired from KPCB in October 2012, she has now taken a gig at community site Reddit, where she'll be "helping us build strategic partnerships that benefit the community."

Reddit announced the hiring in a blog post published to its site by CEO Yishan Wong. In the post, Mr. Wong states that Ms. Pao has been a "formal and informal advisor to reddit for more than a year." Reddit's general manager Erik Martin said that though Ms. Pao was an advisor, she did not formally invest in Reddit through Kleiner Perkins.

When last we heard from Ms. Pao, she wrote on the question and answer site Quora that she had been fired from KPCB:

“I have been terminated from my job at KPCB. On Monday afternoon, senior management told me to clean out my office, leave, and not come back.

Thank you, Quora community, for your support.”

It's interesting to note that Ms. Pao, who is embroiled in a gender discrimination suit, has opted to work for a community whose relationship to women is rather hostile, but Mr. Martin said Ms. Pao's current legal matters had no bearing either way on the company's decision to hire her. "Ellen is extremely qualified," he told Betabeat.

For its part, Reddit's small team employs a fair amount of women, including Jena Donlin, its senior manager of business operations, and community manager Alex Angel. Mr. Martin said that nine out of 25 of the staff are women.

(Photo: KPCB)

Mystery hacker Guccifer has been terrorizing America's political elite by hacking into their email accounts and proving that even former presidents aren't really that great at their newfound painting hobby. Now, The Smoking Gun reports that Guccifer has begun targeting Silicon Valley. Ugh, guess that means tech really is cool now.

The Smoking Gun reports that venture capitalist and Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr is the latest victim of Guccifer's exploits. The hacker was able to get into Mr. Doerr's AOL account (how are you a VC with an AOL account?) and send emails to The Smoking Gun from it. Guccifer also provided TSG with a screenshot of the inbox's contact list to further prove his successful hack.

“do you like my new face?” Guccifer wrote in an email to TSG. “i wear glasses right now an I have 2 zillion + in my bank accounts:))”

Aside from wearing glasses and being filthy rich, Mr. Doerr made headlines last year when he was named in a gender discrimination suit filed by Kleiner Perkins partner Ellen Pao. He vigorously denied the claims made in the suit.

Even Guccifer probably can't explain why a Google boardmember has an AOL account.

(h/t Daily Dot)

Time for school! (Photo: flickr.com/slambert)

First Round Capital has built a brand-new platform for startups seeking press coverage: HackPR, designed to connect them with journalists. The firm is hoping to replicate the same kind of buzz that made Warby Parker an e-commerce darling after an early profile in GQ. [TechCrunch]

Kids from Cornell got a tour of the New York startup scene yesterday. [New York Daily News]

Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures are all backing a startup called LendUp, which'll make small loans (think $300) to people with poor credit. Basically, it's an alternative to the traditional payday loan, with friendlier customer service. Good luck and God bless. [AllThingsD]

No, you're not just imagining it: There are Meetups everywhere, all the time, for everything. You're going to need to be strategic in your selection. [WYNC]

Please enjoy this cri de coeur against Instagram filters, which are basically photography training wheels. [Wired]

Ms. Pao (Photo: Kleiner Perkins)

When last we left Ellen Pao's gender discrimination case against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, matters had reached the inevitable long, slow legal slog to determine whether the suit would ever see court. However, Ms. Pao was still getting up and going to what must've been the most awkward office environment since M.A.S.H, as per a June Quora answer.

However, she's now returned to the Q&A site and added an update, first spotted by AllThingsD:

"I have been terminated from my job at KPCB. On Monday afternoon, senior management told me to clean out my office, leave, and not come back.

Thank you, Quora community, for your support."

AllThingsD reached out to Kleiner Perkins for comment and were told that Ms. Pao is actually being eased inexorably out the door over issues completely and totally unrelated to the lawsuit:

"Ms. Pao’s Quora post is misleading.  She remains an employee of the firm.  Because of long standing issues having no relationship or bearing on the litigation, Kleiner approached Ms. Pao to facilitate her transition, over an extended period of time, out of the firm."

Sure, okay.

Ms. Pao's next move remains to be seen, but a Kleiner spokesperson told AllThingsD that the proposed terms of her departure "are generous, fair and intended to support Ms. Pao in a successful career transition."

Mr. Kaufman (Photo: Twitter)

There must be a whole lot of you noodling around with an inventive notion in the back of your noggin. Two major VC firms have just made a bet to that effect, investing a whopping $68 million in social product development startup Quirky. Andreessen Horowitz led the series C, with Kleiner Perkins participating. Mary Meeker will join the company's board, as will Andreessen GP Scott Weiss.

The company aims to make the process of invention more accessible to those with bright ideas--but without the requisite technical or legal know-how to get all the way to the finish line. That's achieved by building an online community where creative types can work with experts, collaborating on a final product.

That big, fat check brings the company's total raised to $97 million.

Over at Quirky's blog (in a quirkily formatted post), the delightfully unfiltered CEO Ben Kaufman outlines a few things the company hopes to achieve with the money, like getting products to market faster, investing in U.S. manufacturing and, perhaps most interestingly, "experimenting with our own space at retail." But that's a mere slice of the lengthy piece, most of which is dedicated to his ambivalence about the whole notion of raising venture capital.

Short version: Money ain't shit unless you use it to execute. A representative sample:

This experience, coupled with another 6 years of institutional financing experience after, has lead me to accumulate a comprehensive array of reasons why I hate glorifying startup financing, and why it disgusts me when fellow entrepreneurs gloat about how much money they’ve raised as part of their 60 second elevator pitch.

In the eye of the public, and specifically the tech community, funding is thought to mean much more that it actually does. The world views funding as a badge of honor. I view it as a scarlet letter.

He concludes that they'll "shut the fuck up and get to work, because none of the above matters unless we execute."

Somewhere, an office manager is wondering whether she should put this bottle of champagne back in the refrigerator.

(Photo: about.me/mathonan)

After Mat Honan's "epic hacking," an anonymous Apple employee leaked word that the company has temporarily stopped processing password changes over the phone while it figures out if its security policy needs to be altered. Amazon already updated theirs. [Wired]

Don't let Mr. Honan's loss be in vain. Time to enable "two-factor authentication" on your Gmail account. [Gawker]

Our founding fathers forgot to add Facebook "likes" as a First Amendment right, the company argued in Federal court. [Mashable]

Researchers are developing precog algorithms to predict where crimes will occur by tracking smartphones. Just as long as everyone heeds the minority report, okay? [Forbes]

Kleiner Perkins is still trying to keep its dirty laundry out of the courts. The company filed an appeal to keep Ellen Pao's sexual discrimination case in arbitration. Kleiner's attorney is arguing that an arbitration will be more efficient, but of course the VC firm's appeal could take months to decide. [Mercury News]

Facebook launches its first non-social ad on mobile devices. Developers can now pay for an ad that sends users to Apple's App Store or Google Play to buy their app—that is, if anyone has the patience to wait for Facebook's painfully slow app to load. [TechCrunch]

Ms. Pao (Photo: Kleiner Perkins)

Ellen Pao's gender discrimination case: Still headed for the courtroom. Eventually. Maybe.

When last we checked in with the legal wrangling over Ellen Pao's gender discrimination suit against Kleiner Perkins, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn had rejected the storied VC firm's arguments for arbitration but invited the firm to ask again in a hearing scheduled for today.

But it sounds like Kleiner's legal representatives couldn't quite close the deal. Reuters reports that, rather than ruling, Judge Kahn told Kleiner Perkins he didn't buy their arguments and added that they had the option of appealing if they wanted.

It sounds like the firm has every intention of taking him up on that other. A Kleiner Perkins spokesperson provided the following statement, declaring its intention to appeal the case:

KPCB is disappointed in Judge Kahn’s decision and intends to file an appeal believing it has strong arguments and precedent to move the matter to arbitration.  Ms. Pao, like other partners, signed a variety of standard agreements and it is these agreements with the managing LLCs that govern her claims and  require, among other things, that disputes be resolved through arbitration.  We expect arbitration to be a more efficient and speedier dispute resolution process than trying a matter before a jury years down the line in the San Francisco Superior Court.

It's starting to sound like this case could drag on for years--unless, of course, the warring parties reach an out-of-court settlement.

Ms. Pao (Photo: Kleiner Perkins)

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn kept his word today and ruled against Kleiner Perkins' motion for arbitration in Ellen Pao's gender discrimination suit.

However, he did rule that the storied VC firm may ask again for arbitration at an upcoming hearing scheduled for July 20th, meaning that the case could still be arbitrated by a third party.

A Kleiner Perkins spokesperson sent the following statement to Betabeat:

KPCB is encouraged by Judge Kahn’s willingness to hear our arguments on third party beneficiary and equitable estoppel claims.  The firm will file its motions by July 13th to be heard in a supplementary hearing on July 20th.   KPCB continues to believe it has strong arguments and precedent to move the matter to arbitration.  Ms. Pao, like other partners, signed a variety of standard agreements requiring, among other things, that all disputes be resolved through arbitration.  We expect arbitration to be a more efficient and speedier dispute resolution process than trying a matter before a jury years down the line in the San Francisco Superior Court.

We assume the "na na na poo poo" was cut from the above statement.

Ms. Pao (kpcb.com)

When VC firm Kleiner Perkins filed its response to partner Ellen Pao's gender discrimination suit (nearly a month ago now), included in the flurry of legal documents were requests to require Ms. Pao to submit to binding arbitration.

Now the Mercury News reports that the presiding judge has spoken--tentatively, at least--and she'll be required to do no such thing. Kleiner argued that partners signed arbitration agreements with each of the firm's new funds; Ms. Pao's lawyer rejoined that only an umbrella agreement would do, and his logic apparently carried the day.

Of course, we should also note that lawyers for both sides are still due at a hearing today, where Kleiner has a chance to try talking the judge into reversing his ruling. Maybe somebody's got an ace up his sleeve?

It wasn't all bad news for Kleiner Perkins, however, as the judge did grant the firm's request to keep partner compensation information--which is, of course, crucial to Ms. Pao's allegations--quiet. And here we were getting so excited about poring over those spreadsheets and figuring out who had the most pocket money.

Anyone hoping for courtroom dramatics may still be disappointed, though, as this makes an out-of-court settlement a distinct possibility. And if the VC firm has any inclination to keep things quiet, that might be its last option.