By Kelly Faircloth 4/01 8:46am

Linkages

(Photo: Reddit)

Booting Up: The Cat Video Festival is Coming to Brooklyn

This year’s Cat Video Festival will come to Brooklyn, because dreams do come true. [BBC]

“At some point, if it seems appropriate, I would like to explore the possibility of being reinstated.” Henry Blodget is profiled in the New Yorker this week. [AllThingsD]

Bad news for the boy king Zuck: These days the kids are loving mobile messaging apps like Kik and Whatsapp. [Reuters]

The Pirate Bay is the world’s largest file-sharing site, after Megaupload’s shutdown upended the market. [TorrentFreak]

How are automakers supposed to integrate apps without causing a spike in distracted driving? [New York Times]

Roadrunner, which was the world’s fastest supercomputer circa 2008, is now obsolete and headed for the scrap pile. [Ars Technica]

By Kelly Faircloth 12/05/12 8:30am

Crazies

Your move! (Photos: Instagram/Kim_Dotcom; Vice)

Which Techie Ex-Pat Is the Bigger Pain in the Neck: John McAfee or Kim Dotcom?

It’s confirmed: Antivirus pioneer John McAfee has made it out of Belize (his 20-year-old girlfriend and a couple of Vice yahoos in tow) and into Guatemala, where he is now petitioning for asylum. What’s more, according to the latest post to his blog, he would like to please meet the prime minister of Belize on neutral ground to work through their supposed “mutual issues.”

Which inspires us to wonder which techie ex-patriot is the bigger pain in the butt: McAfee, or Megaupload mastermind Kim Dotcom. If you were an immigration official required to admit one of these loudmouthed, trouble-making characters, who would you choose?

Let’s break it down: Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 8/08/12 10:25am

SOPA Opera

Someone called the cops. (Screencap)

Video Demonstrates How Bonkers the Raid on Kim Dotcom’s Mansion Really Was

No wonder Kim Dotcom spends so much time taunting the authorities from his Twitter account. A New Zealand news outfit has released the first footage of the January raid on the Megaupload mogul’s mansion, and sounds like Mr. Dotcom’s dealings with the authorities have been aggravating, to say the least.

The video opens with a helicopter landing and the deployment of the officers participating in the raid. The disgorging of black-clad SWAT-type officers and unfriendly-looking police dogs is pretty much the extent of the spectacle, and there’s no footage from the goings-on inside the house. However, the video also includes radio communications exchanged during the raid, and Channel 3 has spliced that with testimony from Mr. Dotcom himself to create a pretty good play-by-play: Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 6/22/12 10:00am

DotNuts

9 Photos

This'll play well at sentencing.

Kim Dotcom’s New Twitter Is Basically A Big Old ‘Screw You’ To the Authorities

Anyone who’s ever been stopped for speeding or busted for drinking at a city beach has wanted to give the law the finger. But most of us, were we ever to find ourselves indicted, would likely chose to keep a low profile.

Kim Dotcom, however, is not like the rest of us. He wouldn’t know how to make himself inconspicuous if someone pirated a how-to video and uploaded it to MegaUpload for him. And so it’s no surprise that, as he waits in New Zealand for a court decision on whether he’ll be extradited to the U.S. and tried for criminal copyright infringement, Mr. Dotcom is using his brand-new Twitter account as a distribution channel for Instagram pics and sly wisecracks about his present legal difficulties. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 6/21/12 7:59am

Linkages

220px-Larry_Elllison_on_stage

Booting Up: The Eligible Bachelor Now Comes With Island Edition

New York Times notable tech bachelor Larry Ellison has purchased 98 percent of Lanai, Hawaii’s largest island. Hawaii’s governor cited Mr. Ellison’s “passion for nature,” as a motivating factor in island ownership. [Guardian]

Peter Thiel’s plan is already paying off! James Proud, one of the fellows from Mr. Thiel’s recently-announced class, sold his company GigLocator to Peter Shapiro, the owner of Williamsburg’s Brooklyn Bowl. [TechCrunch]

LinkedIn faces class action lawsuit demanding $5 million in damages for not safeguarding users’ (terrible, insecure) passwords. [The Inquirer]

Steve Wozniak showed his support for Megaupload by dropping by Kim Dotcom’s New Zealand manse. [CNET]