Ever wonder how much computer-book publisher Tim O'Reilly gets to flap his mouth at conferences about how everything should be free? His flack revealed it to the world last night via Twitter (of course).

Twitter users are a sorry bunch. Especially the media! Errata, excuses, and eye-rolling from today's tweets:

Vancouver-based NowPublic is ostensibly all about citizen journalism. But since Guy Kawasaki sold Truemors to it and signed up as an advisor, it's becoming better known for publishing flattering lists of "influencers," supposedly ranking them according to various social media metrics. The first "Most Public" list…

Information is sparse on some of the companies selected to attend the exclusive O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures Startup Camp (and follow-up Foo Camp), but no less than 4 of the 7 companies picked from 'an overwhelming response' have principals whose resumes include stints as O'Reilly authors or O'Reilly conference…

Make your event name too similar to O'Reilly's Web 2.0 conferences and you may hear from lawyers. Or have Google withdraw support for your organization. Or receive public scoldings from O'Reilly and Google employees, powerful pals of O'Reilly, or even Tim himself. But guess who just appropriated another's conference…

Sean Parker has had a hand in some of the Valley's biggest successes. His first company, Napster, took the world by storm, but didn't make Parker rich. His second, Plaxo, just sold to Comcast. And his third, Facebook — well, say no more. Except for the bit about him getting kicked out, according to Mark Zuckerberg's…

The city council of Sebastopol, home to tech publisher Tim O'Reilly, voted unanimously last week to cancel the city's agreement with Sonic.net allowing the company to set up a free Wi-Fi network. Why? Because a few residents complained of electromagnetic sensitivity. And by "residents" I mean "crazy nutjobs."…

In-laws can be so embarrassing. Like Tim O'Reilly, Saul Griffith's father-in-law. The book publisher and conference organizer wrote a lavish profile of Griffith, calling him a "genius" and "a scientist and engineering polymath" before disclosing that Griffith was married to his daughter Arwen. (The happy couple is…

We know TechCrunch's Michael Arrington didn't make it onto the Google jet back from Davos, but who did? Arrington claims that Lotus founder Mitch Kapor, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and tech publisher Tim O'Reilly made it onto the flight but doesn't serve us up with a passenger manifest.

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington tried and failed to score a ride from Davos back to California on the Google plane. No surprise, since the plane — owned by Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt, not the company they run — only seats 25 people.

A reader emails in response to our Web 2.0 to English series, "I fail to see the problem with Tim O'Reilly's primer. Anyone who's not an idiot needs no further explanation." As a Reader's Digest contributor, here's the condensed version of your email: Fail. For the rest of us idiots, I've whipped up a chart.

A Valleywag spy reports sighting Brad Fitzpatrick, the creator of LiveJournal and outgoing Six Apart executive, at Philz Coffee in San Francisco. Fitzpatrick was there with book publisher and geek icon Tim O'Reilly and David Recordon, a former Six Apart engineer who left to join VeriSign last year. The three were…

Tim O'Reilly has finally come "out of the VC closet," as one reader notes, with the announcement of O'Reilly Alphatech Ventures. The owner of Web 2.0 plans for his VC arm to invest in "hackers" and "disruptors" and "bionic software" and "photon torpedoes" (note: only one of those is a lie). Current investments…

PAUL BOUTIN — Engineers use Greek letters like alpha and beta to be specific. But the fuzzy logic of marketers and magazine editors (me included) has rendered them meaningless. SVUG defines proper jargon after the jump.

This past weekend, whether you know it or not, dozens of Silicon Valley socialites camped out with tech publisher Tim O'Reilly in Sebastopol for this year's Foo Camp, cookin' up ideas and impressing eager reporters, same as every year.