(Photo: Amazon)

Front Page Printed Pages of the Internet Just before taking stage at SXSW to talk his crowdfunded Internet 2012 tour, Alexis Ohanian emailed out a link to his new book, Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed.

Since you asked, Mr. Ohanian, we dig the cover, but "without their permission," sounds a little iffy in the context of Reddit's Creepshot scandal, no?

Last week, we wondered when Mr. Ohanian was running for office already. “Alas no,” he emailed back. “I'm not going to rule anything out but right now I'm having too much fun (and impact) from my place in the private sector.” However, as the Young Entrepreneur Council founder Scott Gerber pointed out, Mr. Ohanian does happen to own the domain name ohanian2013.com.

Just checking in 525,600 minutes. How do you measure a year in the life of a (defoundered) man? Earlier this week, on the anniversary of his abrupt departure from Foursquare, cofounder Naveen Selvadurai posted a recap of the last 12 months. Don't expect to learn much about what he's been working on, though. Think more in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights and cups of coffee.

Mr. Selvadurai lost the founder 15; he traveled; he saw his family and friends; he traveled some more; he read books; he went to Disney and rode Space Mountain many times; he learned to drive stick; he went to the Olympics. "I always kept saying 'year 30' wouldn’t be such a big deal and that it’s just like any other. it turned out to be so much more and i’m grateful for that," he reflected.

Oh, but he might have picked up a bit of a gloomy streak, too:

this is how the war will start - "ohio man charged with shooting robot" singularityhub.com/2013/03/04/ohi…

— naveen (@naveen) March 6, 2013

(Photo: Instagram/Dens)

So (proto)typical Google Glasses are now just popping up everywhere, it seems. The latest sighting comes via Digg community manager Veronica De Souza: "SPOTTED: A skater bro wearing google glass in bedstuy. Who are you?" she tweeted. Betebeat welcomes any intel as to the identity of this mystery man, so we can pester him until he lets us try his specs on.

Maybe Dennis Crowley knows the guy. The Foursquare cofounder recently, "lost my Google Glass virginity."

(Photo: Instagram/Fred Benenson)

Spotted! Our friends at Quora--the erudite agoraphobe’s answer to Yahoo! Answers--never got the memo that print was dead. Thus earlier this year, the site opted to publish a 441-page hardcover book called “The Best of Quora,” featuring 131 primers. Forbes called it a “fascinating, enchanting, exasperating book,” and wondered if the inquiring minds of Quora were “too clever” for their own good.

Author Clive Thompson and Kickstarter’s Fred Benenson got to thumb through the pages and see for themselves when they spotted a copy “in the wild” at Lil Frankie’s Pizza in the East Village. Mr. Thompson said on Instagram that he received an advanced copy this week. As Bill Couch, a front-end product engineer at Twitter explained in the comments, “[Quora] issued them as gifts to the authors of those answers at the end of last year, then provided it as a PDF online.”

Guess the question about Betabeat didn’t make the cut.

:( Guys, we think Tumblr really hurt Shelby.tv cofounder Reece Pacheco feelings. He recently published a long, sad blog post announcing, "Tumblr I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down." Nothing says heartache like LCD Soundsystem! So what set Mr. Pacheco off? He logged into Tumblr the other day, as he does regularly, and found himself subjected to a laborious, drawn-out attempt to get him to follow more blogs. Then, he was given a few hovering tool tips--on a service he's been using for years.

He did not like this!

Thing is, I wouldn’t be so frustrated with you, Tumblr, if I didn’t love the platform so much. If you were just some other social network, I’d say “Do whatever you want. I don’t care. Your only value is your scale.”

But that’s not you, so don’t treat me like some number. You know I’m active. You know I’m a creator more than a reblogger. Treat me that way and show me some added benefit, rather than just trying to get more mindless engagement out of me.

Sorry, Reece--those revenue targets aren't gonna hit themselves.

Mmm, cake Happy birthday to GroupMe cofounder Steve Martocci, who got quite the gift in celebration. There's a Vine of the festivities, but here's a teaser:

Looks like a party, alright!

High fashion Huffpo cofounder Kenny Lerer is well known around Silicon Alley as an investor. But did anyone know he is, as his son Ben Lerer put it on Twitter, "fcking fashionable"? Mr. Lerer the Elder recently appeared in a New York Times profile of Laurent DeLouya, "the amiable proprietor of a hair salon that over 50 years has amassed a following that is kind of a cultural Core Club." Papa Lerer told the Times he'd "walk over hot coals for Laurent,” and apparently Mr. DeLouya performed baby Ben's first haircut at age 3.

We yearn to someday achieve that kind of rapport with a stylist.

User #279 Your user number can be a figure of pride among the tech set. If it's low enough it signals that you're an early adopter, and makes you feel cool, which is kinda sad if you think about it cuz like, look at your life.

"I'm User No. 279," humblebragged New York Times tech writer Nick Bilton in a recent Twitter back and forth. "I got @dens drunk and [sic] Nick Denton's house and made him give me a beta account."

Whatever works.

(Photo: Terry Irwin, Art Flakes. Prints available here.)

Astronauts may be the closest thing we'll ever get to super heroes, but even they get a little down sometimes. One curious Quora user decided to take to the platform to ask a terribly depressing question: Can you cry in space?

Turns out that you can, but not the way you'd think. A NASA engineer popped into the thread to say that because there's no gravity in space, tears don't fall downward. You have to continually wipe them from your eyes, because "they just pool, obscuring vision." Another user pointed out that it can even be painful to cry in space. So sad :(

Our favorite answer is a little more philosophical:

Conversely, it is impossible to not cry in space. The magnificent splendour of the universe consumes you and leaves you in permanent visible awe. You are tiny. You are insignificant. You are dust. And so you cry.

Nothing like some galactic real talk to make you feel like a weepy astronaut.

Startup singlet?

Do We Really Need More Blogs? For the last three years, Quora has been the site for headsdown homebodies to ask their fellow coding brethren about what it's like to go outside. But the company has recently announced two new developments that show a shift of attention to writers. The question site now has plans to include blogs. Quora has also announced the release of a rich text editor for their mobile app which should help Quora users ask bolded crazy questions while they're on the go.

Haute Hack Fashion and tech don't usually speak the same language, which is why all eyes are on Conde Nast's Decoded Hackathon this weekend. Designers and developers will be heads down at the Alley NYC in Midtown February 2-3 to create an app that lines up with the Council of Fashion Designers of America's mission to grow the fashion industry. The prizes are pretty sweet. The winning teams get $10,000 in API and product prizes and the chance to get their app launched by the CFDA. The top three finalists will get an introduction on stage at the NY Tech Meetup and a chance to present on the runway at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week after a keynote Dennis Crowley. Maybe the Fuelband will make its first runway appearance?

The New Flash Mob Proposals This is the first job offer we've heard of delivered via GitHub pull request, but we suspect it won't be the last. After honing his coding chops at the Flatiron School, Adam Jonas created a fan site for Carrot Creative, a Dumbo marketing agency, to show off his skills with Facebook open graph. Carrot responded by forking his project and turning it into an offer site, complete with an embarrassing photo of Mr. Jonas in a singlet. That's so Startup!™

Give Us More Specials Please Foursquare just released a companion app to its ever-changing mobile app for business owners. The company explained in a blog post that with the app's capabilities, "managers can create a Foursquare update and easily cross-post it to Facebook and Twitter at the same time. They can also use the app to see recent check-ins, turn specials on and off, and look at business data." Seems like a really good timesaver for a small group of people. Servicey!

Get Free Tickets Now FinTech Hackathon will be hosting its first hackathon aimed at the global community. The focus of the competition will be financial technology. It's going to be held in New York on the weekend of April 6th. 10gen, Betterment, Bloomberg, Caplin, Dwolla, are all among the list of sponsors. The first 20 developers to sign up at www.fintechhack.com will receive free tickets to the event.

Brooklyn Girls Dreams GOOD Ada Ng, a Brooklyn resident, is one of three finalists in GOOD's quest to add a member to their tech team through a contest called "Coding For Good." Her project was a hack of the Google Maps API and the Instagram API to create an interface where the user's travel time counts down to reveal an Instragram photo from the destination. All of Brooklyn is rooting for you Ms. Ng!

Always Be Closing (on Mobile) Online design shop Fab just released a new mobile app.  Not that they need the help, the company says 30 percent of sales already come from its iPhone, iPad and Android apps, compared to 10 percent for most ecommerce companies. Fab’s mobile customers also purchase 20 percent more items per order than its web customers and have a higher lifetime value. "It is not an understatement to say that Fab is a breakout mobile retailer," founder and CEO Jason Goldberg enthuses. Stop it, you're making Zuck jealous.

Primetime Ponies Back in November we introduced you to your new addiction: Derby Jackpot. The site, which lets you bet real money on live horse races, was like a fever dream Mark Pincus once had about updating off-track-betting for the casual gaming set, except it was launched by three brothers working out of General Assembly. Today the site is open to the public and includes enhanced chat features and a Facebook connection. Along with the grand opening, Derby Jackpot is also now accepting all major credit cards, but you'll still have to provide the cigarette smoke and pitchers of beer yourself.

RIDDLE ME THIS, Quora users! (Photo: Wikipedia)

Quora, beloved source of information both practical and profound, has added a new feature that should boost users' chances of getting answers to their most pressing questions. It's already possible to ping recommended experts, using Ask to Answer. But starting today, you'll be able to see which of those brains are currently online and therefore more likely to respond in a timely fashion. 

The usefulness for us ink-stained wretches is pretty obvious. But for those of you who don't live on deadline, Quora provides a couple of use cases. Perhaps you are trying to decide whether Skyfall is worth your American dollars, but you don't trust Rotten Tomatoes. Or, more urgently: What do you do if you smell gas outside your home?

Says Quora:

Today we are pleased to announce an exciting new feature -- Online Now, a significant improvement to Quora's Ask to Answer experience. In Ask to Answer suggestions, Online Now shows you when people with knowledge about your question are online and available to answer, and shows others when you are available to answer.

For those of you who'd prefer to browse the site's extensive catalog of human experiences in peace, however, you can fiddle with your settings to remain invisible. But really, where's the fun in that?

Brian Wong and Quora Friends (Photo: twitter.com)

Quora is the site where headsdown homebodies ask other sheltered types questions like, “What are some things I’d be shocked to learn about the outside world?” But now that Quora is over three years old, it seems as if they’re finally going into the real heavy stuff.

A question posed under the topic "Murder," asked, "What does it feel like to murder someone?" Some inmates from San Quentin State Prison opened themselves up, providing deeply personal answers that offered up something rare on Quora: a glimpse of life far, far away from the tech bubble.

Tommy Winfrey, an San Quentin inmate currently serving a sentence of 25 years to life for second degree murder with gun enhancement described his feelings about his crime:

Without a doubt this is probably the most personal question I think I could ever answer. This is a question I have been asking myself for a very long time now, and just coming to grips with the answers I have found. To say my answer is complex, and that I am going to have difficulties expressing exactly how I have felt, and still feel about murdering someone is an understatement.

I guess the beginning would be the best place to start. When I took another man’s life I was just nineteen years old. Looking back now, I can honestly say I felt immense peer pressure to go through with the murder. I felt like I would be seen as a weak punk if I let another man get over on me. I was a drug dealer, and I felt I had a reputation to uphold. I can see all this now, but at the time I could see none of this. I realize now I was in a very bad place in life back then. I was in the midst of a serious drug addiction. I felt worthless and unworthy of love, so in return I placed little value on my life or on the life of anyone else. All of these feelings combined, made feel so powerless in life, I lashed out....

Of course, inmates are not allowed to use the Internet. But a select few of the prisoners at San Quentin are enrolled in a program called The Last Mile, which trains them with the goal of eventual placement in a paid internship somewhere in Silicon Valley, and as part of the program, they've been answering questions on the Q&A site. (Earlier this year, Betabeat introduced you to Phil, one of the most popular prisoners on Quora.) The've gathered somewhat of a following--VC darling, former Digger, and the current CEO of rewards site Kiip, Brian Wong visited with the group last December (picture is above).

We look forward to Quora finding the right experts to explore other terrifying and fascinating questions that keep us up at night. Looks like they've already tackled "what it feels like to die."

Not, as it turns out, an accurate representation.

Good news, everyone. Quora, the Q&A site where tech types go to talk about their feelings, has finally addressed the all-American experience that is accumulating a great big pile of filthy lucre. The answer, it turns out, might surprise you.

Someone posed the question, "Is Getting Rich Worth It?" And one answer in particular is currently bubbling up on tech blogs and Twitter. Rather than simply replying "duh, of course," and burning Lambo rubber into the Palo Alto twilight for a delightful night of strippers and cocaine, an anonymous user took the time to get introspective, confessing that "sometimes I think wealth is really a burden," adding that "A slower path to wealth might be a lot healthier to my career and to my life in general."

Pray tell!

The poster has outlined four reasons that being rich--or richish, as he's making do with a mere $20 million and change--is really kind of the pits:

Sloth Work is no longer necessary. I can do anything I feel like but I end up doingmostly nothing and spend the days browsing internet and write as Anon User on Quora. Plus, the fact that I can just pay to get out of most of the situations makes me lazy and un-resourceful.

Greed I have a lot of money but I crave for more. I want to be a centi-millionaire now. But in the mean time, I don't feel like working.

Entitlement I feel I deserve the BEST of everything because I paid $1000 a night for a hotel suite, $500 for a Michelin 3 star meal and $1000 for a bottle of wine. I grow really angry if I don't feel I am treated like a royalty.

Loss of Purpose I feel my life/career has peaked. I don't know what I am supposed to do. What's the purpose? I can go do some charity work but they are not intellectually stimulating and most non-profits are run by a bunch of bozos anyway.

He ends with a pitiful lament: "But it's impossible to give up the money. Being wealthy is probably not worth it. But once you get there, you want to stay there forever." As expressions of regret go, it's not exactly "Rosebud!" but perhaps every boom gets the Citizen Kane it deserves.

This answer now has 340 upvotes.

Hey Anon, Warren Buffett's on line two. He'd like to arrange a sit-down at a Dairy Queen in rural Nebraska so he can bitch-slap you.

Map-maker, Map-maker, Build Me a Map! If Tim Cook's mea culpa wasn't enough to demonstrate how hard Apple is scrambling to fix its iOS 6 mapocalypse, then how about its last ditch recruiting techniques to find Ruby developers? Mojo Talantikite, a cluster engineer at Engine Yard in New York City, said he (and a number of his technically talented friends) have been hit up by Apple recruiters recently.

The recruiter's LinkedIn inquiry mentions "Maps" specifically:

"We are looking for a passionate Ruby coder to have a HUGE impact our Maps, Flyover, Geo and Siri teams in iOS. I've read about your work on Heroku's infrastructure. Is it a good time for you to chat?"

My, What Colorful Balls You Have Startup perks tend to veer toward the infantile. Between the snacks, slides, and nap pods, managers might as well try to wipe your nose when you sneeze. But newly-married Elepath founder Jakob Lodwick actually committed, procuring the ball pool of your childhood dreams for Elepath's San Francisco "studio." At least that's what we thought based on his recent Instagram offering. However, on closer inspection, an antimated gif from Elepath's blog reveals the ball pool is less Chuck E. Cheese and more kiddie pool. Things on the Internet, it seems, may be smaller than they appear.

Cussing For a Cause Last week Tech4Obama hosted an evening in New York with serial entrepreneur and current CTO for Obama for America Harper Reed. Next to the guest list--heavily studded with Silicon Alley stalwarts like Soraya Darabi, Rachel Sklar, and Betaworks' Andrew McLaughlin and investor Pedro Torres Picon--the invitation loudly warned "THIS EVENT IS CLOSED TO PRESS." Now we know why. Apparently the bearded Mr. Reed has quite the mouth on him. But doesn't he know reporters love that shit?

Colorblind We're still not really sure what Color was launched to do, but it got $40 million in funding to do it. The app subsequently became the archetypal overfunded startup representing tech's hype bubble (even inspiring a fake pitch deck!). Color treaded in the wave pool for a bit before pivoting to a new idea altogether.

Now, TechCrunch reports that Color may be experiencing an executive level shakeup, with sources saying CEO Bill Nguyen will be taking a step back from from day-to-day operations at the flailing company. In his stead, an "executive committee" has been assembled to take over his responsibilities.

Mr. Nguyen apparently hasn't shown up to the office in two months, leading sources to conjecture that he's "probably either in Tahoe or Hawaii.” (Ugh.) An ominous Quora post from January of this year wondered why Color had shuttered its Palo Alto office, but CNET journalist Casey Newton responded that the company said they'd "hung some paper up to cover its windows while they do some work inside." Hmm, engineers do have some weird working habits.

Of course, a question about why Mr. Nguyen left Color immediately cropped up on Quora and was quickly answered with a cringe-worthy response. "After the disastrous pivot from the initial (fairly brilliant, but poorly implemented) photo sharing concept, it was really only a matter of 'Nguyen, not if'."

Sigh.

Digging K-Pop Looks like Digg cofounder Kevin Rose is officially a fan of the "Gangnam Style" hype. Mr. Rose posted a photo on his Instagram of a little bobble head Psy doing the infamous horse dance, sharing a photo of his Psy laptop decal shortly after. Try to ignore the awkward comment about "open condom style," below.

(Photo: Instagram)

Business Tattler Henry Blodget proudly outed Verge's editor-in-chief today, tweeting, "Josh Topolsky reads Business Insider!" But the real question is: does he hate read it?

As always: Overheard a juicy tidbit about impending departures or imminent acquisitions? Dying to dish about startup blunders or frothy financing? Holler at your girls: tips@betabeat.com

Dave Morin's modest marriage proposal in the Maldives (Photo: Gawker)

Over the weekend, Nick Bilton gave lie to the feel-good myth propagated by Mark Zuckerberg's founder letter--namely that Silicon Valley entrepreneurs aren't in it for the face-melting wealth. (Apparently, some people truly believe startups decide to sell 25 percent more stock three days before an IPO to make the world a better place.) In The New York Times, however, Mr. Bilton argues that while some moguls, like the rare Mr. Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs, genuinely weigh product over profit, many are just faking it until they make it (very, very big).

As one example of the tenor of conversation that happens behind modest Menlo Park doors, Mr. Bilton points to a clandestine group of early Facebook employees who prefer to compare spending habits with like-minded multi-millionaires:

"At Facebook, the first 250 employees are on a highly secret list called TNR250, for The Nouveau Riche 250. They discuss things they plan to buy when they sell their hundreds of millions of dollars in stock: boats, planes, artwork, even an island. (To be fair, philanthropy is also discussed.)"

Naturally, inquiring minds inside the bubble turned to Quora, the Q&A platform cofounded by Facebook alums, to ask about the group, referencing Mr. Bilton's article. Although the user who posted the question merely wondered if the list really existed, one savvy anonymous responder, claiming to be a Facebook employee, anticipated Quora's favorite query: how does X feel?

Wrote the respondent:

"Yeah, I'm an early FB employee and on that list.  It's pretty spammy and often filled with solicitations for angel investing, philanthropy, etc, which is sort of exactly what you'd expect.  Not quite the yacht lounge we were told it would be."

Pobrecito early Facebookers, can't even get some good yacht talk going. Times like this, really makes you appreciate the candor of one Captain Larry Ellison.

Mr. Cheever (Photo: Quora)

Following the recent announcement that Quora cofounder Charlie Cheever will be taking a backseat role at the company, something of a revolution has begun to foment at the question and answer site so popular among the Valley's elite. For a platform which purports to embrace openness and honesty as its core ethos, its own staff has not been particularly forthcoming about Mr. Cheever's departure.

Social Times points out that a question about Mr. Cheever's status at the company was answered by Quora's other founder, Adam D'Angelo. Users immediately called Mr. D'Angelo out for his disingenuous reply, which was bathed in a thick coat of PR BS. One such indictment--posted by another startup founder--even garnered more upvotes than the original response.

Could Mr. Cheever's departure and the subsequent user backlash be a signal for what's ahead at Quora? Social Times kicks around a variety of theories about what's up at the startup, from a potentially imminent acquisition to flailing user adoption due to the site's inability to scale.

If you've spent any amount of time on Quora, the mean girling and cattiness becomes evident pretty quickly, and nothing turns off new users more than a powerful cabal of close-minded insiders. Doesn't anyone remember why Gawker initiated that whole commenting overhaul? Writes the Times:

Quora still exists primarily in its Silicon Valley echo chamber. The users who wield the most power seem intent on keeping it that way. Too often, once users outside that inner circle begin to make a mark — such as garnering deserved up votes too easily, or by questioning methodology and moderation — a backlash quickly ensues.  The less powerful users find themselves down voted to the point of having their answers collapsed into oblivion.  Then, they are aggressively pursued and forced to defend their subsequent contributions.

Social Times makes a convincing argument that Quora can't scale because it doesn't want to change the platform's negative dynamics, and in fact is working against the best interests of its own site. Upvotes to that.

Billing itself as the “first transparent marketplace for recruitment,” the site lets qualified engineers submit a profile, then startups bid against each other for the tech talent. Cofounder Matt Mickiewicz told TechCrunch, "We’re flipping the traditional model on its head, by having employers submit offers first, and interview later.”

DeveloperAuction's first auction attempt ended last month, with 88 engineers submitting profiles and $30 million in job offers from 142 startups, including Quora and Dropbox.

Engineers don't have to accept the highest bid. (Because who signs up for an auction if they like money, right?) But if subsequent interviews are a success and the startup wants to make an offer, the company is required to stick to the amount specified.

If you want to apply for the next auction later this month, here's what your resume should look like:

DeveloperAuction says it is accepting applications from developers with “notable GitHub profiles,” CS degrees from Stanford or MIT or currently employed at Google, Zynga, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Yelp and Square for upcoming auctions.

The service is only available in the Bay Area and Boston right now, but has plans to launch in New York City. Considering we saw an ad encouraging riders to apply for Made in NYC ™ tech jobs in the back of our taxi last night--get 'em when they land!--we're sure the site won't have a problem getting startups to sign up.