<![CDATA[Gawker: Im]]> http://cache.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: Im]]> http://gawker.com/tag/im http://gawker.com/tag/im <![CDATA[Obama's Staff Facing Life Without IM]]> Barack Obama's top strategist, David Axelrod, uses AIM to communicate, as does most of his youthful staff. How will they survive in a government bureaucracy where everything goes down on your permanent record? More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5133976&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Cisco buys AIM-for-geeks Jabber]]> Why is a router maker buying Jabber, an open-source AIM clone? Disgruntled network admins (I'm still one in my heart) understand what Cisco's own press release doesn't spell out in English. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5052308&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA["She Fricken Blocked Me"]]> This oustandingly well-done music video is nearly a year old. But even online-TV maven Nick Douglas says he's never seen it, so it's today's mindless lunchtime entertainment. Tip for the Olds: The song is a rewrite of Puddle of Mudd's "She Fucking Hates Me." Tip for the Youngs: The graphics are from an ancient MMORPG called RuneScape that dates back to January 2001 — they didn't even have iPods then! More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5021516&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Larry Page: Microsoft's "history of doing bad stuff" makes Yahoo merger risky]]> Taking questions after a speech before the New America Foundation, Google cofounder Larry Page told the crowd the reason Microsoft and Yahoo shouldn't merge is that it would give Microsoft too much control over email and instant messaging. "90 percent of the communications all in one company, I think that's a really big risk." We totally agree! So when will Google open its search results pages to third-party advertisements? More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=392702&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Demo video of Facebook Chat reveals work-free future]]> Buried on the bottom edge of your browser, Facebook's new instant-messaging feature "is meant to be really unobtrusive and there when you need it," explains Facebook project manager Peter Deng in a video demonstrating Facebook Chat, below. We know it's unobtrusive because Mark Zuckerburg put Facebook's easily missed Beacon opt-out notifications in the same spot. More details on Facebook Chat revealed weeks ahead of schedule in the clip below. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=369699&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Internet commenters, leave Britney alone!]]> Meebo, the Web-based chat startup, is running chat rooms for the 3:30 p.m. debut of Britney Spears's latest video, the anime-inspired "Break the Ice." Great: A scalable real-time communications infrastructure allowing thousands of teenage girls to say, "OMG, Britney." Isn't that what text messages are for? [Blackout Ball] More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=367161&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Scenes From Yesterday]]> pareene: omg sheila is in JAIL More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=364760&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Microsoft to reporters: Stop blathering about a webmail monopoly]]> A Microsoft-Yahoo merger would give Microsoft control of more than 90 percent of email and instant messaging traffic worldwide. But when a reporter from AdAge asked Microsoft VP Yusuf Mehdi about it, he shushed her. "The core of the combination is around search and advertising," Mehdi said, "The other allegations are not there and not the focus of what we should be talking about in this combination." We'll ignore that advice, but agree with the sentiment. Last we checked, email use was in decline relative to other forms of online communication, such as social network messaging. (Photo by richard winchell) More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=354942&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[New Bond Film Offers Only A Modicum Of Consolation]]> "It might not have quite the innuendo of For Your Eyes Only, or even the ooh matron oomph of Octopussy, but the title of the new James Bond film has finally been made public. And it is Quantum of Solace." [Guardian] How the hell will anyone sing a brassy pop song about that? (Your bloggers discuss, below.) More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=348452&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Never Forget '23/6']]> 23/6 is the political satire website from the Huffington Post and IAC. You know, sort of an Onion for the crowd that goes to College Humor for the biting wit. Now's your chance to get the sure-to-be-valuable commemorative 23/6 t-shirt! Look how excited one recipient is: More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=346633&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA["If I Am Sitting At My Computer But Not Logged Into IM, Do I Exist?"]]> "How was work?" asked my Mom yesterday. "Urghhh," I said. Mom waited patiently. "Well, it was nice to touch base with everyone," I said. "Oh, because you have to email back and forth about who's posting about what?" "We don't email, Mom, we instant message each other, and mostly we're just talking." It was true: after a week of abstention from IM, it was nice to have some virtual conversations again! But there's something so dreadful about the IM lifestyle. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=338515&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Yahoo to launch MyM "social messaging" site]]> Yahoo has launched, in an invitation-only trial, MyM, a "social messaging" service. How many social networks does one company need? Nowhere are Yahoo's scattershot efforts more evident than in this field. On top of Yahoo Mash, Yahoo 360, Del.icio.us, Flickr, and — if you believe Yahoo president Sue Decker — Yahoo Mail, you can now add MyM to the list. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=325731&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA["Oh God. We Had A Whole Act Of Crumple Face"]]> Crazed uber-commenter Lolcait was a Theater/English double major in college, did you know that? Also when he first moved to New York he worked for Telecharge Group Sales and he got to see a lot of plays. So basically he is a theater critic. He will occasionally bring his expertise to bear on the talked-about plays of our time, sort of like that kid who really liked 'Young Frankenstein.' First up: Claire "Crumple Face Cry" Danes' Broadway debut in Pygmalion! More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=311041&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[ BalkerStalker: You still going to post comments...]]> BalkerStalker: You still going to post comments on Gawker once you leave? More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=306770&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Spurned MacArthur Genius Award Candidate Reflects]]> BALK BTW: Hey, what's up? More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=303420&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[ We remember it like it was a few minutes...]]> We remember it like it was a few minutes ago: We were breezing along, eleven windows open, chatting with all our friends about "The Hills," when suddenly, for no reason, everything went dead. The last thing we saw was "i think audrina is, literally, retarded," and then, boom, disconnected! WHAT A NIGHTMARE! We almost had to go to gchat! Then, when we got back on, we heard that like it happened to everyone else too! OMG! Where were you during the Great Seven Minute IM Outage of 2007 happened? How did you survive? We want to hear your stories. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=301102&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[ From the mailbag: "What is an acceptable...]]> From the mailbag: "What is an acceptable time for the non-observant Jew to leave the office today? 4? Is 3:30 pushing it?" Well, ONE non-observant Jew who won't be named just left here at 3:12, so we'd say you're safe to go now! More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=299222&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA['The Hills' Is The New 'Sex And The City']]> Perhaps you have noticed that I am obsessed with the MTV "reality" show The Hills. It seems like a lot of you are, too! And, like, every celebrity magazine, and even Real Newspapers, are too. At first, it sort of seemed like a joke, like a so-bad-it's-good sort of thing. We were only being ironic as we watched! But now we think there's something not at all ironic at work here. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=294716&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Old People Have Sex]]> Balk BTW: Okay, sorry about this, I don't want to bring you down or anything, but I have to ask. Whaddya think about that study that shows that the elderly are still getting it on? This one: More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=292787&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Star Jones Show Is A Train Wreck]]> We don't have the T.V. on, so we missed the just-concluded second-ever episode of the Star Jones show on Court TV. Fortunately, we are getting a barrage of horrified real-time updates via IM. It sounds really, really bad. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=291899&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Julia Allison Shatters Our Last Illusion]]> As discussed, the thing we all like least about our jobs here is the frequency and persistence with which Star Editor-at-Large Julia Allison instant messages us. Today, she dropped a bomb on us. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=288188&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Wisdom Of Julia Allison]]> We bitch and moan about the stresses of this job a lot—mediocre pay (not Observer-bad, but still!), little sleep, getting slapped around by a hot and crabby gay—but perhaps the most frightening aspect of working at Gawker occurs in those random moments when Star Editor-at-Large Julia Allison pops up on the IM to drop some knowledge. So, fine, we're spreading the agony around. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=287404&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[How Not To Sound Like An Idiot In The Hamptons]]> Or, at least, how to sound like a local idiot! As we prepare for this weekend's journey to the Hamptons, the life lessons are already piling up. First of all—did not know this!—one doesn't go "up to the Hamptons," one goes "out to" them. This is, you see, because of their geographic location! Still, whatever, you don't actually wait on a line (or even in one). And Moses didn't actually go south to the Pharoah's land— scholars agree he probably went north-northwest. Anyhoo, we still wanted some advice. We sat down with a regular Hampton-goer, who requested anonymity. We'll call him the Noam Chomsky of Amagansett. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=285828&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Howard Rubenstein Says George Steinbrenner Still Crafty And Evil]]> Sad news from Portfolio. The September issue reveals the world's worst kept secret: George Steinbrenner is unwell. The Post, writing about the piece today, describes a tragic moment from Franz Lidz' article:
Lidz recently gained entry to George Steinbrenner's home in Tampa, Fla., by tagging along with McEwen, a wheelchair-bound former Tampa Tribune sports editor.
More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=285754&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[What's the Emoticon for 'Meh'?]]> Hoping to maintain some sway with both the young and those Upper East Side parents desirous to understand their children's IM conversations (that they're surreptitiously recording), Sunday Styles this weekend featured a guide to emoticons, those signifiers of emotional life expressed with punctuation marks that are so popular with the kids. How very dotcom and youthy! Our reactions started with I:-/ then a little %-( but finally ended up :I. Emily, on the other hand, was more like :) so we ('') (chatted). More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=283883&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[My Cock For Barack]]> Rhymes With Cory: So remember last week when you were all, "Oh no, Emily's going to be gone all week, we're never gonna have enough material?" More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=279383&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA['Obama Girl' Video Destroying Hot Female Friendships]]> You've heard about that Obama girl video, right? Everyone's talking about it. But is it harmless fun or an insult to womanhood's long struggle to be considered equal to men? It's an issue driving a wedge between even the closest of friends—for instance, Huffington Post media critic Rachel Sklar and Star editor-at-large Julia Allison. We've obtained a transcript of a recent (private) clash they had on the subject, and we make it public here because, well, it's very important. Whose side are you on? The answer might surprise you! More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=279296&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Cary Tennis Leaves Us Confused, Kinda Gay]]> If you can't stomach reading through another Cary Tennis Salon advice column—and who can, they're ridiculous—we'll summarize today's. A gay writes a long-ass letter (all of Cary's correspondents write long-ass letters; the dude's audience appears to be comprised entirely of damaged hypergraphics) about a male co-worker who registers high on the gaydar but claims to be straight. BUT. He has told the gay that the gay has pretty eyes. What does it all mean? Should the gay see if the "straight" is actually bendy? Cary answers with some bizarre rambling advice that includes an imagined dialogue between "Gaydar Tower" and "tall dark handsome object," which makes us want to kill ourselves and doesn't really answer the question. So we checked in with our own (unsuspecting!) resident agony aunt. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=272364&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Must Straight Men Be Manscaped?]]> Manscaping: According to Simon Doonan, it's an epidemic amongst our city's movers and shakers. The depilatory procedure, "known among practitioners as 'back, sack and crack,' ...concerns male hetero hair removal. Yes, below the waist. Eeeeeuw!" Our feelings exactly, compounded with fear: Do we really have to go out and get our short-and-curlies tweezed away? Because, seriously, you could make wigs for every resident of Staten Island and have plenty left over for blankets and handkerchiefs. To get to the bottom (haha, get it?) of this whole sordid business, we checked in with the ladies of Jezebel. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=270571&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Angelina Jolie's Intellectual Secrets]]> You may not know it, but press-averse Oscar winner Angelina Jolie is a huge fan of quirky literary quarterlies. While some say she developed her interest in the scene during what we assume was her brief affair with n+1's Marco Roth, it's obvious that she's not beholden to any one particular title. Clearly having heard of the financial drain recently incurred by McSweeney's, the talented thespian took to the streets of Manhattan yesterday with a copy of Dave Eggers' What Is The What? as a show of solidarity. Possibly she also agreed to exchange her lifetime subscription for a pack of playing cards. Celebrities: They're just like a couple of doofuses in Williamsburg! [Ed. Note: Yes, that is a picture of Balk's computer looking at the photo of Angelina Jolie carrying the Dave Eggers book that we were not going to pay $500 to buy. It's a nice picture though! Log into the fine website Splash News and go see!] More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=268880&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA['The Sopranos' Series Finale]]> More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=267637&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Casting 'The Emperor's Children']]> Claire Messud's contemporary classic about class and family and creativity and pretension in New York City in the significance-laden summer of 2001 comes out soon in paperback! To celebrate, Emily and Doree had a long conversation about who would play what roles in their fantasy version of the movie. Casting directors should feel free to send them bouquets and thank-you notes. Also, this is much more entertaining than Balk's "ha ha, ladies have blood come out from between their legs" thing that he did that one time. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=266562&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Inside Silicon Alley! How New Media Works!]]> I was just reading the new memo from the LA Times publisher—Jim Romenesko summed it up pretty well by quoting "The old model is broken" and leaving it at that—when I realized it was the last day of the month! Oh no! Our May traffic goals! Is our little website going to make it? And who among us would help us set a new record traffic month, thereby letting us keep our jobs without shame or emotional torture? More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=264939&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Rebecca Mead Savages Your Dream Nuptials]]> Last night at the New York Public Library, amusingly Chuck Noblet-esque writer-gay Henry Alford quizzed New Yorker writer Rebecca Mead about her new book One Perfect Day. Henry wore a powder blue tuxedo, but in keeping with the theme of wedding-industry excess that the book decries, he had a different outfit for the reception afterwards. Kurt Andersen and David Remnick were there. So were Emily and Doree. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=263646&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Glamorous Life Of The Professional Blogger]]> Hopefully you're enjoying the fantastic new redesign here at Gawker. We're aware that there are still a few unresolved issues, but rest assured that our tech team is working diligently to address them. On the less diligent side, nobody is doing shit about our fucking servers, which hinders our ability to post in anything approximating a timely schedule. You might have noticed the tons of clips today? They are all we can get out! If you are actually reading this post it's some kind of bloggy Christmas miracle. Anyway, there are a couple of things we do during the twenty to thirty minutes (that is not at all an approximation) we spend waiting for a new window to open: Doree goes for a manicure. Emily pickets funerals. Stein does some sort of complicated ballet routine around the office. Balk and Choire engage in conversations like the one that follows on a daily basis. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=262572&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Understanding The 'Boston Herald' Libel Case]]> Yesterday, a Massachusetts court upheld a $2-million defamation award against the Boston Herald and some of its reporters, including David Wedge. Because we don't know anything about anything, we called in David Lat, the fine (yet deliciously shallow!) legal mind behind Above the Law, to tell us what this means for newspapers and bloggers who don't like getting sued—and what it means for those who do so enjoy suing. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=258791&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Alex Balk's Summer Fun Mint Julep Recipe]]> More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=257817&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA['How Sassy Changed My Life' Book Party]]> Lower East Side bloggerbar Lolita had a decidedly high school-ish vibe last night—a generation of ladies whose lives were so changed by Sassy magazine that they grew up to work in the media gathered there to fete the publication of Marisa Meltzer and Kara Jesella's book about that seminal teen mag. Doree and Emily were there. So was Atoosa Rubenstein. More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=255613&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Spiking The Punch At Young Adult Author Prom]]> Last night was Prom Night for Manhattan's Young Adult authors! This prom wasn't like high school prom, though. It was held on the Lower East Side, no one arrived in a limo, and you could openly purchase and drink alcohol. Also, everyone there was pretty much a grown-up. The party was a benefit for Advocates for Youth, a group that works to protect young people's right to sexual education. It also celebrated the publication of 21 Proms, a collection of young adult short stories, sales of which will also benefit the charity. Oddly enough, Deadspin editor Will Leitch and Gawker co-editor Emily Gould both found themselves at this event. What follows is their ill-advised morning-after postmortem. Will anyone sit with them in the cafeteria ever again? More »
]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=253383&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Where Seamen Meets Cumming Meets Journalism]]> How's Mara Altman faring under the new regime at the Voice? Altman, student and prot g of deposed Voice editor David Blum, has somehow survived thus far in the Tony Ortega era. We've taken issue with some of her work in the past, but maybe she's grown and changed under the tutelage of more stable hands. What kind of stuff is she turning out now?
When people ask Nick Dalton where he lives, he doesn't say "Inwood." Instead, he likes to tell people that he lives near Dyckman and the intersection of Seaman and Cumming. "It's funny, no?" he says.
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]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=253296&view=rss&microfeed=true