The highly anticipated Silicon Valley comedy from the mind of Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge has been picked up by HBO for a full season, according to Deadline. The show doesn’t have a title yet, but we already know it opens on “the shit-brown hills of Mountainview,” and stars Martin Starr of Freaks and Geeks and Party Down fame. Read More
The Rosewood Hotel on Sand Hill Road, conveniently nestled near almost every important VC firm in the Valley, has long been a hotspot for wealthy VCs to meet potential mates. This is due in part to love concierge Amy Andersen, founder of the super stealth matchmaking company Linx Dating. She helped cultivate an unofficial “Cougar Night” at the hotel after setting up a meet-and-greet there for her wealthy clients in 2009. Read More
Provigil, the Adderall-like drug used to combat sleepiness, is experiencing a resurrgence fit for our maximum-efficiency lifestyle. Back in 2008, TechCrunch cofounder Michael Arrington penned a post about how Silicon Valley entrepreneurs were increasingly using the prescription pill to stay awake for long periods at a time and focus better. Now, New York Magazine reports Provigil is making a comeback among traders and entrepreneurs, some of whom affectionately refer to it as “Viagra for the Brain.” Read More
As HBO drums up promotion of the upcoming season of Games of Thrones, the premium cable network is trying a different approach: cozying up with the digerati. (Historically, HBO has greeted the Internet much Night’s Watch would approach a horde of White Walkers.)
Last week, the cabler held elaborate Games of Thrones-themed events in techie hotspots like Silicon Valley and Seattle–home base to Internet giants like Amazon, Google, Netflix prone to disrupting the archaic television distribution process. Read More
Get excited! Mike Judge’s much-anticipated (by Betabeat, at least) comedy about Silicon Valley has begun filming a pilot in downtown Palo Alto. So the local news hounds at KPIX San Francisco sallied forth to take in the action on University Avenue and explain the show for locals:
“It’s a comedy about six programmers trying to create software that will earn them big bucks. That’s not really a comedy, that’s what people do down here all the time.”
Oh, it’s a comedy, alright.
Naturally, it’s the moment that everyone decamps for SXSW that scandal breaks. Fortune reports that the San Francisco venture firm CMEA Capital and former chief operating partner John Haag have been slapped with allegations of sexual harassment, racial harassment and retaliation by a trio of executive assistants.
Ellen Pao’s gender discrimination lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins came as a shock largely because the prestigious firm has long had a good-guy reputation. This lawsuit, on the other hand, is jaw-dropping for its volume of allegations that are just disgusting. It reads like House of Cards meets Van Wilder. If even a handful of these claims are true, it’s enough to obliterate all our Lean In-inspired optimism. Read More
It’s not easy being a computer programmer in Silicon Valley. Even with slides, buffets, and any other number of ridiculous amenities, the tech business can be a stressful and even physically painful endeavor (you try typing for twenty hours straight). But for many of America’s best coders, the remedy to stress is manifesting in a way bosses would probably rather not know about: they gettin hiiiiiiiigh, brah! San Jose, which is home to over 100 medical marijuana dispensaries, is seeing a noticeable uptick in the number of customers who work in tech, according to a report from Businessweek. Read More
Woodside, California is a quaint, wealthy suburb in San Mateo County, situated about 20 minutes from the tech hub of Palo Alto. Because of its close proximity to big tech companies like Google and Facebook, many wealthy entrepreneurs (including Larry Ellison!) call Woodside home. And now, because of its plethora of eligible rich men, online dating startup SugarDaddie.com, which unites “wealthy, desirable and attractive people,” has offered the town $11.65 million to officially change its name to SugarDaddie.com, USA.
It’s not the worst idea we’ve ever heard. Read More
Google’s Mountain View campus is home to a beach volleyball court, a bowling alley, a climbing wall, seven fitness centers, “more than 100 micro-kitchens” and, it seems, toxic vapors.
CBS says readings of TCE, or trichloroethylene vapors, as high as eight micrograms per cubic meter were found in Google buildings. Not to get too Erin Brokovich on you, but the normal range is five per cubic meter. Read More
