Cutting the Ribbon at MakerBot's new Sunset Park facility

New Tech City gets new managing editor WNYC announced yesterday that Manoush Zomorodi will become managing editor of New Tech City, the weekly tech podcast and segment on Morning Edition. According to the press release, Ms. Zomorodi—who co-created and currently hosts the program—“will oversee a new phase of New Tech City, in which WNYC plans to expand the weekly segment into…a digital media enterprise with videos, live events and other components that break from traditional radio programming.”  Keep your eyes and ears peeled, folks!

Google Glass gets Fancy Oh you fancy, huh? This week saw the release of Fancy, a new shopping app for Google Glass. Users can take a photo of whatever they’re looking at, and Fancy will connect them with “the coolest stuff” that matches their snapshot. Take a photo of your kitchen cabinets, and Fancy will match you with the sweetest new silverware set. Grab a shot of your Real Housewives DVD collection, and Fancy will hook you up with a life. Just kidding. But you get the idea.

Brooklyn techies prepare for battle Watch out, Silicon Valley. This week, the Brooklyn Tech Triangle announced plans to make New York the new “global epicenter of the innovation economy.” Next week, leaders of the initiative will propose changes to workforce development, real estate, transportation and public environs that will hopefully “help New York surpass Silicon Valley as the nation’s top tech hub,” according to a statement. Maybe New York should just equip all its tech offices with two-story slides—that might help.

MakerBot makes moves Last week, 3D printing powerhouse MakerBot announced the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The 55,000 square foot factory will house the manufacturing of various 3D printing, replicating, and scanning technologies, as well as a “Bot Farm,” where 3D prints are produced for MakerBot’s Manhattan store. They might be high-tech, but MakerBot would like to specify that skilled humans—not robots—are responsible for manufacturing their futuristic products.

NYCResistor hosts a high-tech drinkfest This Saturday, party it up ‘till two in the morn with NYCResistor at their 4^th Annual Interactive Show. At 8p.m., head on down to the NYCResistor’s headquarters at 87 Third Avenue in Brooklyn, where “hackers from around the region [will] show off their cool interactive projects with beats and beers provided.” This year’s theme is “Digital Archaeology”—in other words, see if you can put a new spin on an old piece of technology. Let me just dig up my old Tamagotchi…

Learn to fundraise like a pro Have a startup idea, but no cash? No problem—check out General Assembly’s Assembled Capital workshop this Saturday from 10:30a.m. to 6p.m., where a team of industry pros will turn you into the next fundraising aficionado. Learn “fundraising strategies for early-stage startups, common misconceptions and best practices in fundraising, the future of crowdfunding, honest stories from entrepreneurs on successful (and less than successful) capital raises, and more,” according to the event page. Tickets are $299, but who knows? Maybe you’ll run into Zosia Mamet. 

Gym, Tan, Laundry with NJ Tech Meetup Heading to the Jersey Shore this weekend? Check out Friday night's Summer Social at the Berkeley Hotel in Asbury Park, hosted by NJ Tech Meetup and Jersey Shore Tech Meetup. Show off your Google Glass or chat about your latest startup idea over cheap drinks and live music. "This meetup is to welcome summer, have a drink, and meet some new people. Bring biz cards and a smile," the event page says. Spray tans not included.

(Screencap: YouTube)

Brooklyn's own Makerbot Industries, the buzzy startup that produces 3D printers and recently opened a storefront in Nolita to display its printed plastic wares, is reportedly looking to raise a round totaling $25 million. Or maybe they're in acquisition talks. It's definitely one of those things, so says the Wall Street Journal.

Sources told the Journal that Makerbot was courting VCs to raise around $25 million at a $300 million valuation, but that the talks abruptly stalled when acquisition offers began heating up. An actual acquisition is probably a long way off, the sources said, but comes at a time when we've already reached Peak 3D Printing.

Makerbot was founded just over 3 years ago, and the Journal reports that it made about $10 million in revenue last year, and is expecting to bump that up to $50 million this year.

No word on how much of that valuation hinged on the success of that Will.i.am/Britney Spears 3D printing music video.

Justin Bieber's manager Scooter Braun, singer/songwriter Tori Kelly, IRL Productions' Emily Gannett and billionaire / Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban at Conduit Corner @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

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.

This was my sophomore outing at SXSW ('Spring Break for Nerds!') and it was every bit as epic and intense as the first one. Five days of non-stop boozing 'n schmoozing 'n pool partying 'n BBQing 'n celeb meeting  'n concerts with little-to-no sleep can take its toll. I feel like a HERD of elephants ran over me! Now that I've put that mental picture in your head, let's dive in.

My 2013 SXSW actually began right here at La Guardia airport, where I ran into bunch of local tech peeps en route to Austin, including Newscred CEO Shafqat Islam. There was a storm coming, but luckily we got out before it hit. In fact, my flight left half an hour EARLY, if you can believe that, so thank you, United. (Of course, the return flight was delayed by an hour, so there went all the hard-earned goodwill. Oh well.)

As I landed in Austin, the good folks @ my buddy Greg Tseng's startup Tagged had a warm welcome party with gift bags, photo ops and a chauffeured ride into the city. I could get used to this!

To the uninitiated, most of the action at South By happens within a ten-block radius of downtown Austin, where around 30,000 attendees descend for Interactive. It's like a college campus really. As I walked around, I spotted many familiar faces: "Great to see you again!" "Where you staying?" "You sticking around for music?" and the most common - "You coming to my party?!" I wish I could go to everyone's parties!

Picking up my credentials at the convention center, I noticed the girl prepping my badge had a Hack 'n Jill card. "You're into coding?" I asked. "Yes! I'm starting to learn!" Noticing I was from New York, she added, "I'm a big fan of Girl Develop It and Sara Chipps! I follow her on Twitter!" Her enthusiasm was infectious and I promised to introduce her. That's what SXSW is all about, people.

The Keynotes

There was the much-anticipated fireside chat between Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Wired's Chris Anderson. Musk spoke of his hope that humans will someday be able to make it to Mars and admitted he'd like to take the journey himself: "I would like to die on Mars, just not on impact." Well, I don't think I wanna die on Mars, period, but I'd definitely fancy a weekend getaway!

There was Al Gore's insightful chat with the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg. Mr. Gore's coming out with a new book, The Future, and he talked about how the luddite fallacy (that technology destroys more jobs than it creates) could actually come true, the emergence of the global mind, an unfortunate focus on growth instead of progress and a dramatic shift in global power. Tongue-in-cheek, Mr. Gore confessed: "I had a business partner called David Blood. We wanted to call our company Blood and Gore but our investors wouldn't let us!" On a more serious note, he said, "The future of democracy may well depend on the continued freedom and independence of the Internet."

Al Gore with Walt Mossberg @ SXSW 2013

Elon Musk with Chris Anderson @ SXSW 2013

Hardware replaced social as the star of the show, and several 3D-printing companies had a strong presence at the festival. My buddy Bre Prettis, CEO of Makerbot, gave the opening keynote introducing their newest product, the Digitizer, which will scan real-world objects into 3D-printable digital files. Very cool!

Another device getting attention was the Leap Motion 3D motion-control, which, using a USB connection, creates four cubic feet of space to interact with a computer. The controls are similar to using a touch screen computer in the air. Sweet!

But the biggest star of SXSW though wasn't Mr. Musk, Mr. Gore or Mr. Pettis. It was Grumpy Cat! The cat (whose real name is Tardar Sauce a.k.a. Tard) drew long lines (and I mean realllly long) snaking around the block and beyond to get a picture taken with his famously grumpy face. And he didn't disappoint. (Apparently he had a lot of demands, too.)

Grumpy Cat with Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley @ SXSW 2013

The Marketing & PR Stunts

SXSW has never been short on marketing gimmicks and stunts, and this year was no different.

Ride-sharing startup Lyft offered free piggyback rides with men wearing pink mustaches. Uber brought back its pedicabs and Sidecar also offered free rides around town. Payments startup Dwolla put golden tickets inside chocolate "Dwolla bars" and hid them around Austin.

There were tacocopters, a hologram of a saleswoman, and even Cap'n Crunch got in on the action! Taskrabbit had a rabbit-y van, Hootsuite had an owl-y bus and Highlight had ice-cream trucks. There was even a Game of Thrones pedicab which proved very popular with my friends. (Season 3 will be here in two weeks!)

Lyft Piggyback Rides @ SXSW 2013

Craig Newmark in the Game of Thrones Pedicab @ SXSW 2013

Hook-up site Bang With Friends (you know the one I'm talking about!) promoted its one-off site, Bang With SXSW, a way for attendees to meet and mate. As if that wasn't servicey enough, they also distributed thousands of condoms all over town. Yes, VCs, they are looking for funding.

My friend Adam Ludwig of RRE has a new app coming out, called Albumatic. To promote it, they decided to sponsor a popular local Korean+Mexican fusion truck called Chi'lantro. Anyone who downloaded the app got free food! That's where a whole bunch of us went after the Foursquare party. FYI, their Kimchi Fries are killer! (Feeling FOMO yet?)

RRE's Adam Ludwig with Box Group's David Tisch @ SXSW 2013

Scumbag Steve with Startup Bus' Jon Gottfried @ SXSW 2013

In one of this year's better stunts, journalists and companies received packages purportedly from a mysterious startup calling itself YamTrader.com (an online marketplace for yam enthusiasts and traders). Each both contained a set of instructions and ... a YAM, with the promise that if you brought your yam to SXSW, you could trade it in for a $50 Amex gift card. Apparently it was all on behalf of TriNet, an HR and payroll cloud services company. Hey, $50 is $50!

Appular's Haley Hammerling with Yam Trader @ SXSW 2013

All-in-all, nothing groundbreaking but thank God there was none of those controversial homeless hotspots from last year.

About Town

Like last year, there was no break-out app. Seems everyone was worn out from trying too many apps with no clear value proposition. (Not to mention a lot of them tend to be battery hogs!)

But I will give an honorable mention to GroupMe, an old SXSW favorite. I joined a bunch of groups for SXSW and they were definitely helpful.

A bunch of my friends--Tal Flanchraych, Erica Swallow, Jamie Roth and Jason Kende--participated in Startup Bus (a seven-hour hackathon on wheels) from New York and San Francisco to Austin, where participants teamed up to pitch ideas and build startups.  Congrats to CareerMob (Startup Bus NY) for winning the competition! They help Army vets translate their war experience into a resume.

Tal Flanchraych, Jamie Roth & others in Startup Bus @ SXSW 2013

NBA legend Shaq is a big guy. And apparently, he's a big nerd, too, because he was all over South By and (in his own words) "like a kid in a candy store!" Fun facts: Did you know Shaq has a masters degree in business administration? And that he bought a lucrative stake in Google before its IPO in 2004? Interested in having Shaq as an investor? He's taking video pitches via one of his startup investments, Tout.

Shaq with Brian Solis @ SXSW 2013

The housing situation at SXSW gets crazier and crazier every year. The hotels are long gone, as are the motels and even the Airbnbs. I had friends who were seriously considering either renting an RV or driving down from Round Rock every day. One startup helping ease the pain was my buddy Diego Saez-Gil's WeHostels, which rented out a block of rooms at the Firehouse Hostel at affordable rates, right in the heart of downtown. It seemed like every other New York City tech person I met was staying there, including Amicus' Seth Bannon, The Daily Muse's Kathryn Minshew and many of the Startup Bus folks.

My friend Polina (cofounder of travel startup Wanderu) had hired a monkey (yes) named Miki to endure a bunch of gawking strangers in exchange for some top-notch compensation (bananas?). I agreed to a photo shoot. Miki sat on my shoulder and posed as planned. That's when things started going a little crazy. First he became fascinated with my hair, then he discovered my business cards in my suit pocket and proceeded to take them out one at a time and lick them and hand them around. He's a natural!

Gary and Miki @ SXSW 2013

On monday morning, Conduit Corner played host to the Change The Ratio / TheLi.st Mimosa Brunch. It was TheLi.st's SXSW debut and it seemed like everybody was there. Along with TheLi.st cofounders Rachel Sklar and Glynnis MacNicol, there was Travel Channel's Nisha Chittal, Digital Undivided's Kathryn Finney, Marie Claire's Lea Goldman, AARP's Tammy Goldman, The Daily Muse's Melissa McCreery, Tech Lady Mafia's Erie Meyer, Startup Institute's Christina Wallace, Google's Anthea Watson-Strong, Dot Complicated's Randi Zuckerberg, Make Love Not Porn's Cindy Gallop, NASA Mohawk Guy Bobak Ferdowsi, Gui.de's Leslie Bradshaw, Fashism's Brooke Moreland and Ashely Granata, SXSW's Rebecca Feferman, Mediabistro's Laurel Touby, Tumblr's Rick Webb and Microsoft East Coast Startup Evangelist Tereza Nemessanyi (who was also the co-host).

TheLi.st's Rachel Sklar and Microsoft's Tereza Nemessanyi at the Change The Ratio / The Li.st Mimosa Brunch at Conduit Corner @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

MakeLoveNotPorn's Cindy Gallop and Dot Complicated's Randi Zuckerberg at the Change The Ratio / The Li.st Mimosa Brunch at Conduit Corner @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

On my way to one of the (many) pool parties, I bumped into Airbnb founder Brian Chesky and his entourage. They were fascinated to see the stickers all over me and wanted to know what the deal was. So I told them what the deal was. "Wait, so you get paid for that?" "Yup." I elaborated on my grand plans to have a real-time, geo-targeted, visual ad network on the tie. Minds blown ;) The Airbnb founders had famously bootstrapped their startup selling Obama O's and Capn McCain cereal boxes. I was learning from the best.

The Parties

Finally, as even a SXSW virgin knows, it's really all about the parties. The partying starts early and continues 'til the wee hours (when everyone makes a mad scramble for one of Austin's 270 cabs).

There was the Verizon / Mobi rooftop barbecue party. I was about to ask third-generation pitmaster and mercurial BBQ legend J. Mueller "Why no sauce?" but then thought better of it.

There was my buddy Scott (Laughing Squid) Beale's annual Calm Before The Storm party, where I ran into pioneering videoblogger Steve Garfield and CNET-journalist-turned-Evernote-evangelist Rafe Needleman. I caught up with Charlie Todd, founder of  ImprovEverywhere. A documentary about them, We Cause Scenes, was premiering at the SXSW film festival on Sunday.

I also met Rusty Blazenhoff of Laughing Squid, Aubrey Sabala of Sailthru, actor Seth Herzog (a member of Jimmy Fallon's late night troupe) and Echo's Chris Saad, who gave me the skinny on his space Villa, which is apparently San Francisco’s newest, hottest entrepreneur mansion. We could use something like that in New York ;) I also met the folks behind the amazing short Cicada Princess, nominated at the festival (and funded through Kickstarter, of course).

There was the annual Dachis Group party at Cedar St .Courtyard, where I ran into folks from vacation rental giant Homeaway, which apparently is headquartered in Austin and employs over 1000 people. Who knew? They invited me to a Sunday breakfast, where I had the best Bloody Mary. I later bumped into a local Austinite buddy, Bijoy, who was recently anointed by CNN as the secular high priest of the Austin tech scene. And his hair is as crazy as mine!

There was the popular Made in NY / American Express party on the rooftop of FEED House, where it seemed as if the entire New York tech scene had teleported itself. Attendees included NYC Commissioner of Media & Entertainment Katherine Oliver, NY Tech Meetup's Jessica Lawrence, Gust's David Rose, Social Media Week's Toby Daniels, Box Group's David Tisch, NYC EIR Steve Rosenbaum, NY Times' Nate Silver, NYC Chief Digital Officer Rachel Haot and others. A bunch of us discovered there was a roof to the roof, where we hung out with MakeLoveNotPorn's Cindy Gallop and Gust's Justin Stanwix and got the best views of downtown.  Cindy had given an awesome talk about the future of porn which, rumor has it, was as well attended as Al Gore's talk on the future of the world.

View from the roof-to-the-roof at the Made-in-NY / American Express party @ SXSW 2013

Splash House Party w DJ Sean Glass @ SXSW 2013

There was the Awesomest Journalism party (thrown by my friend Jenny 8. Lee) which was chock-full of, you guessed it, journalists and news-focused startups. I ran into Jonathan Dube (CBS), Sandeep Ayyappan and Tom Weingarten, cofounders of Delve, Vinay Jain (Shake), Shafqat Islam (Newscred) and a bunch of others.

There was the Fast Company Grill party where I met Splash co-founder Ben Hindman. I also ran into my AlleyNYC buddies Jonathan Ende, Jason Saltzman and Michael Gold. Michael was organizing a big TechDrinkup SXSW Edition event in a couple of days.

There was the amazing Booze Cruise, organized by Macallan, where a bunch of us including WeWork Labs founders Matt Shampine & Jesse Middleton, Flybridge Capital's Dave Aronoff, TravelZoo's David Ambrose, Trinet's Jennifer Daniels and Jasmine Cortez, and several folks from DUMBO-based Prolific Interactive spent a wonderful, relaxing afternoon away from the madness of downtown Austin. Of course, when you combine amazing Macallan whisky with delicious macaroons (which we all got to take home) followed by a ride back in the party bus with lights flashing, music blaring, AND a pole, things can get a little ... uhhh ... crazy.

Macallan Booze Cruise @ SXSW 2013

Macallan Booze Cruise @ SXSW 2013

Late night walking down 6th street I ran into the "other" Gary, Gary Vaynerchuk, hanging out with Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (who had brought back his Happiness party bus). Gary did office hours in Austin and hosted his secret wine party (now an annual South By tradition). The guy sure keeps busy!

There was the popular late-night scene at the (supposedly haunted!) Driskill Hotel bar, where I ran into a ton of folks including Flavorpill cofounder Mark Mangan, Twitter investor Jeff Pulver, TechCrunch's Ryan Lawler, DFJ's Lucas Nelson, the Roku team, Business Insider CTO Pax Dickinson, SAI's Alyson Shontell, Mashery's Colin McCabe, Neuaer's Dave Mathews and many others.

Tip: While the Hilton is a better bet if you want easy access to the convention center and panels, The Driskill (if you can afford it) is THE place to stay during SXSW because of its proximity to all the parties. Walk out of The Driskill at 2am (which is when everything in Austin starts shutting down) and you will see familiar faces appear like magic everywhere on the street around you.

There was the awesome Wall Street Journal pool party where I ran into WSJ bloggers Sarah Needleman and Rubina Fillion. "We're big fans of GarysGuide!" Why, thank you, guys! I ran into The Daily Muse's Kathryn Minshew and her cofounder Alexandra Cavoulacos lounging in the pool. Thrillist's Ben Lerer, Buzzfeed's Jon Steinberg, Barbarian Group's Benjamin Palmer, Mediabistro's Laurel Touby, Betaworks' Jonathan Basker, Morris+King's Andy Morris, Shorty Awards's Greg Galant, Wander's Jeremy Fisher, Sonar's Brett Martin, Fashism's Brooke Moreland, #DominateFund's Ben Parr and a ton of other heavy hitters were there. It was good to see Rick Webb there (after he threated to skip SXSW this year). It's just not a party without Rick! :)

WSJ Rooftop Pool Party at the Ashton Austin @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

There was the Fashion Brain Bar at the W, organized by my friends from Projective Space, James Wahba and Lauren Zapata. I caught with my West Coast buddy Gregarious Narain (founder of YCombinator startup GetChute and previous VP Product at Klout). Also ran into Internet Week's Caroline Waxler and Cheekd founder Lori Cheek (congrats on the recent engagement!). The W Austin, as I've been told many times, is the #1 place in Austin for hooking up. Good to know?

Later that afternoon, a bunch of us went to the Getty Images party, conveniently just a few floors down at the W. I caught up with my old friend Melinda Lee, who is the Deputy GM at Getty Images Music. I ran into Nathaniel McNamara & Mike Weiksner, founders of the hot social commerce startup Tip or Skip. I learned some interesting facts about the app and what makes it tick and how users earn "sway." It's all about curation, really, which I can relate to. Also had a nice chat with Alix Boulud of LVMH.

There was the Angry Birds Toons pool party which takes the prize for most SWAGGED-OUT party at SXSW. (And that's saying something.)There were giant angry birds plushies everywhere, and there was even an angry bird in a giant slingshot, aimed towards the pool. (No, it was not working. Yes, we tried.) Peter Vesterbecka (the Mighty Eagle himself) was there of course, excited about the launch of the new cartoon series, Angry Birds Toons.

Peter Vesterbeca (Mighty Eagle) at the Angry Birds Toons Pool Party @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

There was the annual GroupMe party where pretty much everyone ended up that night. I chatted with Flybridge Capital's Caitlin Strandberg, PivotDesk's Efrem Weiss and Adamant Technologies' Sam Khamis and Artem Mikhlin.  I ran into my buddy, iOS developer Pablo Quinteros, who introduced me to Dan Benjamin, founder of 5by5.tv, a popular web video and podcasting networking affectionately called 'NPR for Geeks!' :)

Later, I headed over to the SHFT party with my buddy Greg Gopman (cofounder, Angelhack) and Megan Berry (cofounder, RebelMouse). There I ran into a bunch of my West Coast pals including Altimeter Group's Brian Solis, Yammer's Maria Ogneva and The Next Web's Ken Yeung. Entourage star (and local Brooklyn boy) Adrian Grenier was in the house. Adrian (who cofounded brewery startup ChurchKey) is also the cofounder of SHFT with film producer Peter Glatzer.

I caught up with an old friend Jonathan, who told me he wanted to introduce me to the West Coast version of myself. It turned out to be Bravo reality TV star, Hermione Way. She pulled me close and whispered in my ear "I'm going to the Four Seasons. Come along?"

Adrian Grenier introducing The Skins at SHFT WreckRoom @ SXSW 2013

Shepard Fairey Wreckroom at SHFT WreckRoom @ SXSW 2013

In Conclusion

So there you have it, folks. Another amazing SXSW. I head home with literally a ton of potential deals, partnerships and followups. I'm going to cherish the new connections & friendships made, old ones re-kindled and of course the wonderful, random conversations in hotel lobbies and waiting in line for late night tacos. I love Austin. Its a wonderful, laid-back city with great weather and a penchant for keeping it weird with the friendliest people and the yummiest BBQ. I'll be back!

But as my flight started its descent into LaGuardia and I saw familiar landmarks on the horizon, I smiled. I was now in a New York state of mind.

IDK.

Recording artist Will.i.am, as you may know, is something of a self-styled technologist. Besides holding down a sweet gig as Intel's director of "creative innovation," he pops up in pro-coding propaganda and once featured a Makerbot in one of his videos, because why not. Now he's further demonstrating his devotion to technology in the title of his latest track: "#thatpower," released today. 

Justin Bieber guests on the song, contributing such lyrical gems as "I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive" and "I can fly, I can fly, I can fly."

In case you're curious about the creative process that generates this sort of magic, MTV got the goods:

He recalled, "So actually we went shopping first and we were like 'hey, let's just have a chilled day' and we went shopping for shoes, then after that we went to the studio, watched the BRITs [last month], recorded that and then trucked off to see Justin Timberlake perform. So that was a pretty full day."

It's the latest single from Mr. .am's upcoming solo album, #willpower. Perhaps he's taking some inspiration from Ben Parr's #DominateFund?

(h/t Lindsey Weber)

(Photo: theybf.com)

Real Genius Andreessen Horowitz invested $15 million in Rap Genius to help its Ivy League cofounders to annotate the Internet. But how much will they have to pay to rein in the braggadocious Mahbod Moghadam?

In a recent issue of Wakefield, a newsletter covering "tech and startup insight not captured elsewhere," Maboo was up to his old shenanigans, volunteering information about a “feud” with Mark Zuckerberg, who also happens to be backed by Andreessen Horowitz.

Apparently, Mr. Moghadam was at Ben Horowitz’s home, “chilling” with Zuck and Nas as is the new mode of Silicon Valley socializing. (Mr. Horowitz happens to be close friends with Steve Stoute, Nas’ former manager.) Despite Zuck's heightened privacy concerns (it's complicated?) Rap Genius cofounder couldn't resist Instagramming his good fortune.

Apparently Zuck never leaves his house because he’s so afraid of people photographing him, and then our investor – his house is one of the only places where Zuck feels safe – so our investor invited Zuck and Nas over. They were chilling together, and I asked if I could take a photo. He was like “Let’s hold off, let’s hold off,” and I just couldn’t resist – I was drunk, and I went paparazzi and Instagrammed it, and I didn’t even think it would be a thing.

But then the press picked it up and apparently Zuck gets home and his whole PR crew is calling him every five seconds, and he told us to take it down. We wrote a letter of apology and I feel sorry. I regret taking it, I hope this has taught me some maturity, it certainly got me in a lot of trouble. But then on the other hand, fuck that fool – that’s Nas the Don.

Asked by Wakefield if there was anything else he wanted to discuss, Mr. Moghadam again volunteered:

Alright so I told you the New York Times is Carlos Slim’s ho, I told you Zuck can suck my dick, what else is there?

When Betabeat asked Mr. Moghadam about the tenor of those comments on gChat, he said, “i am so sorry, i love zuck, i think he should've made the photo w nas his fb profile pic. I talked to nas, nas loved him and loved the photo.” It was all “tongue in cheek,” he added, “but obvi this offends mark, he got me my last girlfriend, i feel terrible!”

Later, Mr. Moghadam requested that we note that he had taken a Vyvanse to prepare for a UC Berkeley Rap Genius colloquium after the Wakefield interview and was therefore “being negative on the come up." He also noted that he was “not surprised that the ‘guy’ (pun intended) who runs [Wakefield] went to harvard since havartis (as i call them) are little bitches. Also ‘harvard = illuminati, yale = KILLuminati (princeton = chilluminati).’”

Wonder what he calls Andreessen Horowitz?

Bloglords Never Worry In Emily Nussbaum's review of "Girls" for the New Yorker this week, she defined "concern trolling," as "the Internet term for one who ices her sneer with dignified worry." Valley regulars don't seem too familiar with the term. So for a fine example, let us direct you to Sarah Lacy's comments about her former coworker Alexia Tsotsis on Jason Calacanis' This Week In Tech. Whatever happened to putting the blog first?

The Bachelor: Silicon Valley Congratulations to investor Peter Thiel, who made Out magazine's third annual list of "Most Eligible Bachelors." Local suitors, please let us know if you get an invite to his raging Upper East Side dinner parties.

Nap Time Bre Pettis is a busy guy. Between running MakerBot Industries and traveling around for meetings and conferences, he has to get his zzz's in where he can. "Parking lot nap," he wrote alongside an Instagram of his car with a bridge in the background. Perhaps MakerBot should invest in some sweet nap pods a la Google.

(Photo: Instagram)

Be Mine If you didn't get enough fill of Valentine's Day yesterday, perhaps this tool for determining your Twitter crush will come in handy. Twitamore analyzes who you follow, @-reply and favorite to figure out who your Twitter Valentine is. Our favorites? The ones who love themselves.

Belly up the bar Wired editor Ryan Tate has a bone to pick with the makers of the bourbon Maker’s Mark, who recently announced they’d be adding just a little more water to their product. Quartz took questions for the company’s COO via Twitter, and here’s what Mr. Tate demanded to know: “What will you do for a living after burning the American bourbon industry’s reputation to the ground and destroying your company?” Two words, Mr. Tate: Woodford Reserve.

Attention, please Consider this a cri de coeur from your friendly neighborhood scolds: Please, please, please stop making these Harlem Shake videos. Rumor has it that even Sheryl Sandberg is somewhere in this Facebook video. It’s nice to break up the workday with a little caper, but unfortunately, tech companies seem to have trouble rounding up employees with rhythm.

There’s only one exception to this blanket condemnation, and that’s the dude who appears front and center in Google’s version, thrashing about in what appear to be lederhosen. He looks like he’s on serious party drugs, and he is mesmerizing, and he is now a GIF:

For those who read and run? When Atlantic Media launched Quartz, it positioned the digital only business publication as the news source for the new global elite: the type of jet-setting professionals more likely to read a news story from a tablet while sipping complementary champagne at 30,000 feet than to hunker over a desktop PC. It stood to reason then that Quartz would be an early adopter of the smart-watch Pebble.

Quartz reporter Christopher Mims also brushed off concerns that nerdlinger arm candy might look pretty goofy once it actually hit the market.

Rappers will gold-plate their iWatches and Google Glasses, and some guy will wear a phablet on a chain around his neck. You'll see.

— Christopher Mims (@mims) February 14, 2013

We think we know just the fella.

What about a V-day date at the MakerBot store? Nerd love at its finest.

Your heart-shaped Birchbox. Tired of cellophane-wrapped boxes full of chocolate-flavored fat? On February 7, Birchbox is launching a limited edition V-day box—the "We Heart" Collection. For $36 you can have goodies like nail polish, bobby pins and some mascara product advertised as “triple action,” in case you’re not getting any this year.

Newsreels Tonight at 6 p.m. marks the premier of "MAKERS: Women Who Make America," at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. This video and broadcast initiative is a collaborative effort between AOL and PBS that aims to communicate stories of revolutionary women who help shape today’s world.

How do you hail? Former Starbucks exec Tom Barr is now on board for the expansion of Hailo, a mobile app that obviates the need to stick your bare leg into the street by hailing a cab for you, into New York City. He'll be serving as President and COO USA. “We now have the senior team, resources, and the investment and corporate partners to deliver our vision of bringing Hailo to New York City, Tokyo, and every street corner in every major city in the world. We have shifted into overdrive,” said Hailo CEO Jay Bregman.

Take your friends/kids/wives to MakerBot MakerBot is launching a series of workshops, classes and lectures for anyone eager to learn the nuances of 3D printing. The company's retail location at 298 Mulberry Street will feature lessons like “Setting Up and Maintaining Your New MakerBot” on Friday nights from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., when your OKCupid inbox looks like this. At $35 per class (this varies depending on which one you attend) space is limited, so register in advance.

America’s Got Hackers As if computer science majors weren’t already the only grads grabbing real jobs with real salaries and real benefits, Readyforce is making it even easier for them. The career network for college students has acquired Umeqo, a platform created and run by MIT students that connects said students with prospective employers. Student groups nationwide can now use Umeqo (for free) to organize career fairs, create events, track RSVPs and share resumes with companies that would generally prefer to only hire from a pool of top-tier tech school graduates.

Your couch as front row at Fashion Week. For everyone still mourning the absence of presidential debate drinking games, there is now a classier cause for belligerence. From February 7 to 14, IMG Fashion and Rightster will be delivering live streams of all Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week shows at Lincoln Center at this site and via Facebook. Title sponsor Mercedes-Benz is joined in sponsorship by companies like Maybelline New York, TRESemmé, Style Network New York Times, Women's Wear Daily and Getty Images, but the real winners here are the alcohol distributors. The official schedule can be found here.

Tapiture adds tastemakers Tapiture is growing big and strong as it leads male-oriented social discovery by helping people buy and share content from all over the web. And by strong, we mean the company is freshly flush with $825,000 in cash. New social media plans, including a mobile app, are currently in the works as part of the site’s expansion. Leo Resig, CEO of Resignation Media and Tapiture Board member said he stands “committed to supporting their effort in becoming the web’s leading male-centric social discovery and sharing site.”

(Photo: MakerBot)

After the events in Newtown, the gun control debate has taken on a new urgency. Suddenly 3D-printed firearms look a lot less like a thought-provoking experiment and more like a danger to the public--and Makerbot wants nothing to do with that.

CNET reports that just yesterday, it was possible to get the blueprints for the lower receiver of an AR15 semiautomatic rifle on Makerbot's wiki Thingiverse. Today, there's nothing but this listing where the downloads used to be. It's part of a wider crackdown across the site on 3D-printed weapon parts.

A spokesperson pointed CNET towards the site's Terms of Service:

Thingiverse's Terms of Service state that users agree not to use Thingiverse "to collect, upload, transmit, display, or distribute any User Content (ii) that...promotes illegal activities or contributes to the creation of weapons, illegal materials or is otherwise objectionable."

The company's attorney made no bones about the fact that last week's tragedy was the impetus for sweep of the site for offenders. He told CNET:

"We have always had the discretion to take action for policy violations. Recent events served as the impetus here to take immediate action (and there were several) and reiterate or emphasize the site's focus on creative empowerment for products that have a positive impact."

To his point, you can still download plans for a business card gun, space pirate cosmo gun prop or semiautomatic rubber band gun.

Spiffy. (Photo: screencap)

This made the rounds back in August on design blogs, but it seems us techies missed it: Realität, a Mexico City-based design firm, has devised a way to translate music into a snazzy physical form. They've mapped the soundwaves and printed the models using a Makerbot. 

The site dedicated to the project explains that these "microsonic landscapes" are:

An alogorithmic exploration of the music we love. Each album's soundwave proposes a new spatial and unique journey by transforming sounding into matter/space: the hidden into something visible.

It all sounds very mystical and trippy, even though they come out looking a little spiky and ominous. Do "Night on Bald Mountain" next!

(h/t Make)

(Screencap: YouTube)

When one mulls over the future of manufacturing, naturally the first question that comes to mind is: How we can we as a nation effectively mass produce cornerstone products, like a plastic bust of performer Will.i.am?

Luckily, Mr. Am--who last we heard was hurtling our planet towards a Martian attack--has ushered 3D printing into the mainstream by including it in his newest video, "Scream and Shout," also featuring the eminently GIF-able Britney Spears. At around 1:38 in the video, a 3D printer sitting on a platform displaying the Makerbot logo is seen printing thin layers of plastic to create a bust of that vital American commodity: Mr. Am's head.

As VH1 notes, the entire video is really a holiday gift guide for gadget lovers. For the smug hipster in your life, there's an iPad plugged into a typewriter; for the person who has literally everything they could possibly want, there's a "scuba" case that lets you submerge your iPhone in water, which makes for a really neat party trick that won't make people think you're an asshole at all.

And of course, because Mr. Am is no stranger to the tech world, "Scream and Shout" also prominently features his new line of cell phone accessories, which Gizmodo notes are "worse than his band." High praise!

Meanwhile, YouTube commenters offered similar accolades for his new song. Wrote one, “This video gave me cancer.”

Valley must-haves!

As Betabeat stood surveying the whimsical offerings of Montalvo Historical Fabrications and Souvenirs, a colleague reached out and, from among the Steve Jobs prayer candles and spontaneous marriage proposal packets, grabbed a bottle of “Dot-Com Bubbles” for a closer look. She quickly returned it with a rueful expression, remembering this was an art exhibit and not, despite all the price tags and other signs screaming “retail,” an actual novelty shop.

“As Real as It Gets,” a new exhibition at Tribeca’s apexart, is about fictional brands made flesh, as it were, and we weren’t alone in our confusion. Shortly thereafter, we saw curator Rob Walker, former “Consumed” columnist at the Times Magazine and author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are (Random House 2010), wave a couple away from one of the installations—a baby blue “bathtub synthesizer,” for making music while bathing, explaining that it wasn’t actually functional.

“In the context of a gallery, I think you know you’re not supposed to touch things,” Mr. Walker told Betabeat from his station in front of several illustrations by futurist Steven M. Johnson depicting unlikely innovations (a desk that’s also a hideaway bed!). “On the other hand, in the context of retail, it’s all about grabbing something and going and paying for it. A lot of what this show is about is ambiguity and uncertainty about what’s going on there, and it’s kind of maybe making people think twice.”

“You have to make a decision,” he added.

For the discerning breather.

The brands on display were all invented. Then again, they weren’t necessarily any less real than what you’d see in the supermarket. Take Respirer, a brand of luxury air dreamed up for the show. A ludicrous idea, right? But the packaging, created by a real design firm, turned a nonsensical notion into something that wouldn’t look out of place at Sephora.

Jammed into a back corner was a Makerbot churning out another absurd product called a RemoverInstaller. (The crowd seemed disinterested in the 3D printer, though every time the Transom looked up, there seemed to be another bespectacled man drifting over to inspect its innards.)

But mixed in, and amping up the double-take factor, were products that started out fictional but are now available in any mall in America. There was a table full of T-shirts made by Last Exit to Nowhere, a company that specializes in clothing decorated with the logos of nefarious-but-fictional organizations. Think Blade Runner’s Tyrell Corporation.

Also included were several items from Omni Consumer Products—“a leader in de-fictionalization,” according to Mr. Walker—including, most notably, an IRL version of Idiocracy’s Brawndo energy drink.

The whole scene gave off a faint whiff of Urban Outfitters. In assembling the show, Mr. Walker wasn’t looking for a straightforwardly anti-consumerist perspective. He wanted artists “approaching the subject in a way that wasn’t preachy, wasn’t like, ‘Oh, shopping sucks and you’re stupid if you shop,’” he explained. The goal was to find people “seizing the language of branding and the marketplace and using that language for their own ends.”

“I want people to have a double-take reaction,” Mr. Walker concluded.

As we shouldered through the crowd on our way toward the door, we saw a man lurch into Montalvo Historical Fabrications and Souvenirs, iPhone at the ready for a snapshot. “I love this. This is so good,” he gushed.