"You could say I was too lazy to calculate, so I invented the computer." The whole documentary is a lot of fun to watch — famed British thespian David Jacobi even makes an appearance in a dramatization as the legendary Alan Turing. Zuse and Turing were on opposite sides of World War II, with Zuse's machine mostly used to crunch numbers for the Nazis' rocket projects. Helping to keep track of the undesirables intended for slaughter in the concentration camps? That was IBM's job.

Why didn't the premise of the panel sit right with me? Because venture capitalists laughing at bad startup ideas isn't subversive; it's the status quo. Sure, the crowd was rolling in the aisles. Merlin Mann killed them with his prize-winning social network for thought leaders, Flockdup, which promised to "leveragate your friends."

But in retrospect, it would have been much funnier if the comics had come up with bad pitches for really good businesses, under other names. Would Hornik have funded YouTube if it had been pitched as a way to put videos in auction listings, or Twitter as a podcasting service? (That's how each of those startups got their start, by the way.) Venture capitalists like to think they're so smart — Hornik is just a prime example of the type. If Baio had sent up the likes of Hornik, rather than his fellow entrepreneurs, the laugh might have been on the investors. For a change.

In Forumwarz, you don't play something stupid like a dwarf. You play something stupid like an Internet user, who goes to forums, wreaks havoc, gets points for lowering the quality of discourse to nil, and repeats. This gives the satisfaction of acting like a moron without the repercussions of actually screwing around on the web. Your constant raiding of Internet forums like YouBoob ("You'll spend hours searching for pornography at YouBoob - but you'll never find any!") and Fanfiction Freaks builds you "cred" and helps the secret plans of a shadowy Illuminati figure who gives you new quests.

Forumwarz knows its stuff. The game references 4chan, Fark, emo kids, camwhores, Ron Paul, and everything else that makes the Internet beautifully stupid. Blogger Andy Baio, who interviewed the game's creator, says there's even a minigame riffing off R. Kelly's "Trapped In The Closet."

The gameplay is actually simple and well thought-out. The copy is clever. And because users can create new levels, the jokes don't run out. If Kingdom of Loathing wasn't witty enough for you, and you'd rather be caught watching porn than playing World of Warcraft, give it a little try.

Forumwarz! Interact with the web's greatest intelligences and wits!

• Andy Baio, creator of Yahoo-owned social planning network Upcoming, is hosting a goodbye party for himself for his last day on the job. At the Latin American Club on 22nd St. [Upcoming]
• Laughing Squid holds a last-minute 12th anniversary party at Varnish in SoMa tonight at 7. [Laughing Squid]
• Sunday night, show up at the Dark Room theater on Mission Street for one of their Bad Movie Nights. The flick this week is the hacker classic War Games. Would you like to play thermonuclear war? [Upcoming]

(Photo by Scott Beale/Laughing Squid)

Paul Levine, the GM of Yahoo Local, the group in which Upcoming found a home, left earlier this year for AdBrite. Cameron Marlow, a much-respected thinker in Yahoo Research, is also leaving, we hear. And Flickr cofounder Stewart Butterfield, who played a large role in Upcoming's acquisition, is not leaving Yahoo, as we previously reported. Sources familiar with Butterfield's thinking now say he doesn't plan to go back to running Flickr after his current paternity leave, instead finding another role within Yahoo.

(Photo by Scott Beale/Laughing Squid)

• Lawrence Lessig: The highest-profile email bankruptcy to date. The copyright attorney (who fought a Supreme Court case against a 20-year extension of all U.S. copyrights) sent a mass e-mail in 2004 asking anyone with important unanswered e-mail to reply, which would flag their mail as important. He carried off the task with aplomb, apologizing for failing to maintain "cyber decency." But rumor has it that Lessig still went through much of his "bankrupt" e-mail.
• Andrew Baron: The producer of the Rocketboom show reportedly declared an e-mail reboot in 2006.
• Michael Arrington: In October 2006, the publisher of the TechCrunch blog came back from vacation and deleted months of e-mails. He also turned off instant messaging.
• The better fix: Sean Bonner: Instead of dropping all his current e-mails, Sean Bonner put a throttle on future mail. The founder of the Metroblogging city-blog network started autoresponding to e-mail this month, saying he only checks e-mail once a day.
• Tim Ferriss: Sean's following what Ferriss recommends in his book The 4-Hour Workweek. Ferriss follows his own plan (and apparently truly works four hours a week).
• Andy Baio: Upcoming's founder says he built a 10,000-e-mail backlog in 2006. He spent six weeks fixing it.

Before you try this at home, remember that the people above can get hundreds of e-mails a day. Try autoresponders before you try bankruptcy; everyone appreciates some sort of response. Consider hiring an assistant, even part-time, for less than you could make by saving your e-mail time. If these measures seem like too much, you're not that bad off. You just need to get quicker at managing your e-mail.

(Photo: Midnight Beep)

Digg partner Stamen Design won Best Costume by dressing as a team of dapper carpet salesmen.

Upcoming.org founder Andy Baio just licks the salt off these things and puts them back on the bar.

Diggers Daniel Burka and David Prager celebrated the launch with a day lying sideways on the beach. They do not regret getting these bizarre sunburns.

After the jump: "They call me....Mister Digg!"

One Tic Tac watch, Tic Tac iPod case, and Tic Tac flashlight later, gadget geek Philip Torrone's mouth smells like a mint factory.

Digg founder Kevin Rose can't run a site and shave at the same time.

Fucked Company founder Philip "Pud" Kaplan shows his no-nonsense version of "the shocker."

Diggnation podcaster Alex Albrecht: "We're hoping to get Mark Wahlberg to play me in the film, but I'm willing to do his stunts."

And that's how star power gets you written onto a guest list.

Digg co-founder Jay Adelson just thought of the perfect joke about midget sex, but he struggles against the inappropriate urge to blurt it out on stage.

OMG screenshot!

SF Chronicle writer Dan Fost to Microsoft manager Niall Kennedy: "Look, I'd like to make you the next Robert Scoble, but I don't have that kind of power."

Tier 1 founder Andy Shroepfer about gigablogger Om Malik: "Om said I could make fun of his John Travolta hair if I funded his next blog."

Digg v3 party photos [Laughing Squid]