I was the one who came forward about the Macbook Air

http://sam.bluwiki.com/blog/2010/03/confession-i-was-one-who-came-forward.php

by aston • 16 years ago

310 138 16 years ago

sam.bluwiki.com

cmelbye• 16 years ago

I have to say, he handled it very well considering the circumstances. I don't think Divvyshot was at fault here either, his responses to Daniel were perfectly understandable.

staunch• 16 years ago

It almost sounds like what happens in sexual harassment cases. The victim will often not give a straightforward refusal, because they're trying to avoid the consequences confrontation may lead to. It's not particularly admirable, but it is totally understandable.

acangiano• 16 years ago

Spot on comparison.

drtse4• 16 years ago

Maybe i'm underestimating these "consequences", but reading the interview i just cant' understand why he didn't simply said to the kid to get lost...

mattm2• 16 years ago

I've lived in a few different countries and cultures and one thing I've learned is that the reply "Maybe later" is a polite way of saying "I will definitely not do it but I want to avoid any confrontation." It's actually quite surprising how universal this is.

doug_m• 16 years ago

Actually does he not admit he doesn't give a straightforward refusal because the idea of the coverage actually makes him think its worth it? rather than the consequences of the confrontation.

The consequences feature in his thinking about if and when to report it to techcrunch a bit later on

Not meaning this as criticism of Daniel though who comes across fine - massive, massive difference between considering doing something unethical and actually doing it.

ryanwaggoner• 16 years ago

Yeah, you made some mistakes, but don't be too hard on yourself. That kind of situation is unexpected and when you're in the moment, it's hard to know how to respond. Good on you for doing the right thing in the end, and for coming clean about everything publicly now. In the end, a person's character is less about never making mistakes than how you handle the mistakes you do make.

mediaman• 16 years ago

Calacanis does not seem worth trusting based on this.

richcollins3• 16 years ago

or this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1074168

or this: http://www.seobook.com/black-hat-seo-case-study

...

travisjeffery• 16 years ago

When did Calacanis ever seem to be worth trusting? He'll do anything to get attention.

onewland• 16 years ago

I think he's worth trusting as much as it's worth it to trust anybody else in business; that is, not that much. Jason Calacanis is not your friend, unless he's actually your friend. If you have a juicy story you want kept secret, why would you tell one of the most loud people in your industry?

jasonmcalacanis9• 16 years ago

1. I did forward the note to Loren, but I didn't think Loren would use it this way.

2. Loren shouldn't have and that was not cool.

3. Daniel has problems and needs to get help. I feel bad for him because doing something so extreme at a young age so publicly is, well, not good.

4. Good on the company who turned Daniel in and who confessed--that's brave. It was also really stupid and desperate to even consider, let alone promise, giving a laptop in return for a blog post. Honestly, if you're company doesn't get attention don't get desperate... just keep trying!

5. Bad on me for sending this to Loren. I honestly didn't even read the whole thing... I was like "oh here is an email from the dude who got extorted cool... " I actually didn't think it was that big of deal.

6. If you can do a story about Open Angel Forum on Thursday and get it to the top slot on HN I will gladly give you an Apple Tablet.

Anyway, I've got more important things to attend to at 1AM than Daniel extortion plot fall out.

peace and love,

jcal

romland• 16 years ago

If you wanted to sway me into disagreeing with parent's post, then you pretty much failed. Your post came across as pretty insincere. Sorry to say.

And this: If you can do a story about Open Angel Forum on Thursday and get it to the top slot on HN I will gladly give you an Apple Tablet.

Always an agenda, eh. Even if the event is news-worthy (and organization good), together with the rest of your post it certainly made me sneer.

jwr• 16 years ago

Why do people downmod Jason's post? Disagreeing is not a reason for downmodding. I was interested in his response, whatever it might be. I want to judge for myself.

andrewtj• 16 years ago

Bad on me for sending this to Loren. I honestly didn't even read the whole thing... I was like "oh here is an email from the dude who got extorted cool... " I actually didn't think it was that big of deal.

Never email something you're not comfortable with sharing with the world. Aside from the security concerns, your email is not going to be read in a clean room and you never know what distraction, mood or state's caught the recipient.

jsz02• 16 years ago

If he was so concerned about keeping it private why did he e-mail you in the first place? Did the e-mail specifically ask you not to share? If not it's a valuable lesson in how the exchange of information works in the real world. Talk to your good friends about private issues in a private setting. Don't start sending e-mails to strangers(?) and expect them to understand the implied privacy concerns without an explicit privacy request attached.

lurkerperpetual• 16 years ago

Re: 3. ... 'so publicly '.. You make it sound the problem is the publicity rather the act itself :) Actually it may be better in the long run for him it happened so publicly, or he may have reached new lows later on encouraged by early success. Being caught can be a blessing in disguise.

jfarmer3• 16 years ago

Peace and love?

http://twitter.com/Jason/status/9866153749 http://twitter.com/Jason/status/9866120496

Bullshit.

I also think it's amusing that you call Sam a loser for dithering when asked to give a bribe, but here you are trying to bribe your way onto Hacker News.

shareme3• 16 years ago

JC did not out him..LF had other sources he used..as Sammy has a big damn mouth

jon_dahl3• 16 years ago

LF: No emails from Jason were in any way involved in the making of this story. Nothing was spoken about, reprinted, or transmitted by me in any way.

JC: Bad on me for sending this to Loren. I honestly didn't even read the whole thing... I was like "oh here is an email from the dude who got extorted cool... " I actually didn't think it was that big of deal.

shareme3• 16 years ago

Not only did JC not out Sam Odio but some of us smart people figured out who of Sam's friends bought Daniel the iMac..

Sam Odio was dumb enough to open his mouth even..I mean when you blab that bad over internet about what you thought you got away with why do you expect it to be secret for long?

Sam_Odio2• 16 years ago

I wasn't "blabbing" about something I got away with. I reached out to Jason because I mistakenly thought that he might be willing to help a guy in a tight spot. I've never been in a situation like this before. That was obviously a mistake.

Also, I've been careful to only reveal information about my friend that was already public. See Daniel's mixergy interview: http://mixergy.com/daniel-brusilovsky/

It's already known that Daniel received an iMac and who he received it from.

shareme3• 16 years ago

No matter whether you agree or disagree with JC, Mike Arrington or anyone else in this debacle here is what really pisses me off

As a person building a startup and startup products there is no room for behavior in which both sides of the bribe get a free pass.

S Odio is just as guilty as Daniel..

We do not need this type of fraud in our tech industry as it leads to bigger fraud crimes.

Okay back to code..rant mode off

ErrantX• 16 years ago

At what point did Sam take part in a bribe? His response seems to have been a genuine mix of confusion, shock and "I assume this is a joke right?". Ultimately he went to arrington when it was clear the idea of a bribe was serious.

How else should he have reacted?

jaxc• 16 years ago

I feel for Divvyshot, the actual event seems way beyond their control and this has brought a whole new angle. It just makes me wonder how many other eager startups may have/will/could be put in this kind of situation for 'positive coverage', when they have a lot at stake in their business.

richcollins3• 16 years ago

Daniel recognizes his mistake and is simply trying to put this issue behind him. I regret that this post might make it more difficult for Daniel to do that.

Why the hell does everyone seem to tiptoe around this guy? Asking for bribes isn't some sort of youthful indiscretion, its indicative of a fundamental personality trait that won't change as he gets older.

The more I learn about Jason and Loren, the clearer their malicious intent becomes.

Its unfortunate that he didn't do his homework on this one before contacting Calcanis.

From my interactions with Sam, he seems like a good guy trying to do right by others by making something useful for them. He shouldn't be in any way apologetic to these leeches.

khelloworld• 16 years ago

Sadly, a lot of people need to be bribed to get work done. Even if they may not ask directly, its written all over their face.

Thats the way the world works.

mattm2• 16 years ago

You mean people expect something money in return for work? That sounds like a salary.

pg• 16 years ago

I don't think it's a fundamental personality trait. Bribery is common in certain countries. Do you think it's because the people in such countries have different fundamental personality traits? Seems more likely this sort of thing is largely determined by the situation. The kid may have just gotten carried away by the power he suddenly found himself holding.

cglee2• 16 years ago

Let's say honesty is a fundamental personality trait. One can be honest and bribe in a country where bribery is accepted. That same person wouldn't in a country where bribery is illegal. It's not the act of bribing that determines one's personality trait - it's the honesty.

electromagnetic3• 16 years ago

So bribery is okay in 'certain' countries, so it's okay in this one where there's well established laws dating back centuries that outlaw it? Bullshit, the guys a criminal. He took bribes and he should be driven out of the industry like the parasite he is.

He's young, I'll give him that. He should have been working harder than anyone to maintain his integrity and an image of maturity, but he wasn't he was trying to take advantage of people. He's a rat, through and through. It's so clear by his mixergy interview that he has no intent to admit his behavior was abhorrent.

philk• 16 years ago

The fundamental personality trait is lower level; ie risk aversion. Daniel is probably not very risk averse and hence this looked like a great opportunity.

Giving people who do this a thorough and public flogging is a great thing, however, as it'll help keep future Daniels in line.

rythie• 16 years ago

In a lot of countries bribery is necessary on a daily basis, otherwise government officials can take literally hours to carry out simple requests. It seems to occur when the person carrying out gets very little pay verses the value of the service they carry out to people using the service.

For instance, it's quite common on land border crossings between developing countries to have to pay $2/3 for your passport to be checked, but that money only goes in the guy's pockets. It might not sound like a lot, but when you consider their daily wage may only be $10-15 and there are 100s of people crossing everyday, it works out quite well I'd expect. If you don't pay it might take them 30mins or more to check your passport or they find some minor problem and send you back wasting several days of your valuable time.

Mostly in the cases I've seen in developing countries, is that you just bribing someone so they will actually do their job properly.

richcollins3• 16 years ago

Violent behavior is also a fundamental personality trait. Just because someone controls their violent tendencies in one environment vs another, doesn't mean that they aren't a violent person.

It's more likely that the job attracted him because it put him in a position where he could accept bribes. This is analogous to the attraction of pedophiles to the priesthood.

gcheong• 16 years ago

Yeah, I think Sam is being far too generous in thinking Daniel has recognized his mistake. Going back to the Mixergy interview Daniel did, he claimed the suggestion of a Mac Book air was intended as a joke but it seems very clear that from Sam's point of view that it was not. Also, he uses the alleged "Birthday Present" cover story when talking about the iMac he received.

scott_s• 16 years ago

When most 17-year-olds make mistakes - even big ones - the whole internet doesn't know about it. Kids make judgment mistakes because they aren't emotionally mature yet. One mistake made at 17 is not necessarily indicative of a lifelong personality trait.

Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error

mcav• 16 years ago

Loren Feldman's threats against Divvyshot:

> "If I were ipodrip and divvyshot, Id be be starting to think about damage control. Arrington cant hide you forever."

> "Divvyshot. you have 24 hrs."

Veiled threats via Twitter? Come on. Unnecessarily dramatic and threatening, childish even.

ianbishop• 16 years ago

http://www.1938media.com/crunchgate/

A little heavier of a threat than just twitter but this Loren guy came out as the biggest scumbag out of all of them for me.

nailer4• 16 years ago

Loren's just reporting it - and says he got his info from multiple sources.

He didn't ask for bribes, nor did he tell anyone he'd provide a bribe. Yes he's a dirty, agressive man, that makes puppets of his enemies to mock them, but that's just his personality - his ethics aren't being called into question here.

jeff18• 16 years ago

"On February 5th, Jason Calacanis posted some thoughts on the Techcrunch "extortion" story. I found his article insightful and well written. Wanting to reach out to someone about the issues I've been struggling with, I emailed him and confessed my involvement."

This is the first time I have actually performed a real facepalm.

ax0n2• 16 years ago

+1. Reaching out to someone? Not a horrible idea. Reaching out to Calacanis? What in the hell was he (not) thinking? He's the nosy watercooler gossip lady of the blogosphere.

nailer4• 16 years ago

He's worse than that. Mahalo is Yahoo 1994 being sold to people as if it's something else. I pity his investors.

ctingom• 16 years ago

For what it's worth, I just signed up for Divvyshot. I had to fight hard not to say "giving it a shot."

dasil003• 16 years ago

I must be missing something (I haven't followed this story), but how is this an issue at all for anyone except TC and their journalistic integrity? Am I supposed to feel morally outraged that a tiny startup even just entertained the idea of giving someone a gift in exchange for blog coverage? Is there actually something here or just self-important silicon valley pundit drama? (god I'm glad I unsubscribed from TC long ago)

ryanhuff• 16 years ago

Seems like its a small start-up founder trying to protect his baby from PR hungry wolves.

rooshdi• 16 years ago

Yes, especially since these PR hungry wolves gave him 24 hours to confess publicly before they put their own spin on what happened. I commend him for coming out in good faith and being upfront and honest about the situation. I definitely have more respect for him and Divvyshot as an organization after this.

gojomo• 16 years ago

I'm surprised the 'ask' was as blatant as it was; I thought it would have been a sort of roundabout quid pro quo, "my project needs this, friends help me with hardware, I make sure my friends get good TC coverage." But, Brusilovsky was young and unsubtle!

dwwoelfel2• 16 years ago

This account contradicts what Daniel Brusilovsky said during his Mixergy interview (http://mixergy.com/daniel-brusilovsky/).

From the interview transcript:

Interviewee: I mean, so there were conversations that I had with this company and both in jokingly in manner and that they may have perceived as the real thing.

Andrew: I see so you and I are sitting and talking and I might want you to write about Mixergy for Tech crunch and I say listen Dan. Why don’t you write for Mixergy? Why don’t you write about Mixergy on Tech crunch? No there’s nothing, there’s no loops here. I say what if I give you this Mac book pro that I’m writing? That kind of joke.

Interviewee: Exactly!

Andrew: We’re not giving you the Mac book pro but we’re kidding around.

Interviewee: Yeah

AndrewWarner2• 16 years ago

For what it's worth, Daniel told me who turned him into TC, but I agreed not to say.

And these two accounts of the conversations contradict each other. What you excerpted here is pretty much what he told me before the interview.

A few lines down from your excerpt:

Interviewee: There are IMs. They’re not made public and hopefully they won't be made public.

grinich• 16 years ago

Daniel told me who turned him into TC, but I agreed not to say.

Kudos.

hartror• 16 years ago

Good to hear Andrew, certainly the kind of behaviour you've led me to expect.

Sam_Odio2• 16 years ago

I realize this contradicts the details Daniel's story.

I'm trying to respect Daniel's wishes by not releasing transcipts of our conversations.

However if Daniel feels that I wasn't fair or accurate then i'll release transcripts. I'll leave it up to him.

dwwoelfel2• 16 years ago

I don't think that respecting his wishes is a virtuous thing to do in this situation. If what you've said is true, first he extorted you and then he lied about extorting you. In effect, he slandered you by saying that you got him fired over a misunderstanding.

Protecting him from a isolated indiscretion of youth is fine, but he's revealed his true character with a series of immoral acts.

Not releasing the transcripts also prevents people from knowing whether what you've said is really true. By protecting him, you're actually harming yourself.

electromagnetic3• 16 years ago

How do you suggest that you'd write an article about someone if they give you a laptop in a 'joking' manner. If I asked my secretary to suck my cock 'in a joking manner' it's still sexual fucking harassment, this is juvenile bullshit he's 17 and clearly displaying it.

Regardless of his intention, it was gross professional misconduct and he fully deserved being dismissed.

apgwoz• 16 years ago

While I agree with your every word, I down voted you for using vile language.

patio11• 16 years ago

This is one of those stories that I can't read without thinking "The Valley is a wacky, wacky place".

davidw• 16 years ago

A few other adjectives come to mind, but... yeah. Not sure having glanced at this story really adds anything to my life. It just looks like a big "Internet Drama" piece:-/ I'm sure it's important to those involved, but it really doesn't affect my life.

aresant• 16 years ago

Calacanis is going to love this - that man thrives on controversy, good and bad, and we keep letting him back into the spotlight.

jasonmcalacanis9• 16 years ago

voted up

minalecs• 16 years ago

I think you guys are way to easy on Daniel using the cover of youth and naivety, at 17 you are more than capable of knowing this kind of behavior is unacceptable. The only reason he would do extort someone like this is because he is fully aware of the power of his position. If what Sam is saying is true.. then there should be no excuse.

jasonmcalacanis9• 16 years ago

Correct.

Daniel wants to be treated like an adult when he is writing a story or claiming to be the stage manager at TechCrunch50 (uhhh.... no, he wasn't). Then he wants to be forgiven for a folly of youth when he extorts startups.

He's an adult, he f-ed up and he really never apologized correctly. "A line was crossed" is not an apology... he really should have said "I tried to extort thousands of dollars from companies in exchange for blogs posts and I betrayed the trust of the people who helped me most in my professional life: the TechCrunch team."

tlrobinson• 16 years ago

Honest question: why does anyone listen to anything Loren Feldman says?

pilif• 16 years ago

personally, I'm sick of this kindergarden. While I agree that journalistic integrity is very important, I fail to see the gravity in this issue to warrant it being blow out of proportions the way it is.

Who cares about some crappy MacBook Air (that whould not have been fun to work with anyways) and a startup like so many others doing what so many others do?

There are so many much bigger issues than stuff like this. Get a grip.

Sorry. I had to vent. Now mod me down into oblivion. I guess European and US cultures don't quite mix - over here, stuff like this just is no big deal.

covercash• 16 years ago

I had a long response to all of this drama typed out but in the end I decided to simplify it down to this:

What part of this, if any, is constructive to the startup community?

_delirium• 16 years ago

I wonder if there's a smallish set of keywords that one could filter to get a less valley-drama-filled HN, with a higher percentage of that excellent tech content. Maybe filter out anything involving "calacanis" and "techcrunch" and see how it goes (though this particular post would be hard to catch, since the title only alludes to it).

100k• 16 years ago

Hacker Newspaper removes all TechCrunch stories: http://hacker-newspaper.gilesb.com/

Wouldn't catch this story but it would remove a lot of drama.

gruseom• 16 years ago

Sam being brave and trying to make the make the best of this is a positive example of responding to adversity.

tdm9112• 16 years ago

Loren Feldman responds:

http://www.1938media.com/crunchgate-what-makes-sammy-run/

Me personally? I signed up for Divvyshot a few weeks ago and forgot about it. I'm about to go check it out again now. I like Sam's attitude and honesty.

eslifka• 16 years ago

The tone in that post by Feldman makes my skin crawl. I hadn't heard of him before but I don't think I could ever read anything he's written now. Is he always like that? ICK.

tdm9112• 16 years ago

sadly, yes. i used to read his blog when it was good natured poking of fun at the tech industry (arrington, scoble etc) but since he seems to have developed some issue with tech crunch, he has become vindictive, nasty and nothing more than an internet troll.

portman• 16 years ago

Ugh. The growing lack of civility online makes me sad. I want to undo the traffic I just sent to that blog, so I've reproduced the contents here in the hopes that other people can avoid clicking on the link:

Crunchgate - What Makes Sammy Run? By Loren Feldman, on March 2nd, 2010

Well it seems we have yet more about Crunchgate to discuss. I thought we were all done with this. It really is the gift that keeps giving. It seems our newest character in this pathetic tale is some guy named Sam Odio. Seems Sam owns Divvyshot. Sam’s also an idiot, see he’s the guy who Dainel Brusivlosky wanted the McAir from for reviews on Techcrunch. He says he never got it for him though. Good for you Sam. HIS FRIEND DID GET DANIEL AN IMAC though for coverage. Right Sam? Anyway, Sam wrote a big woe is me blog post about how I outed his crimes with Jason Calacanis. Only problem is it never happened. A lot of people knew that Sam was dirty and weak. Many people know of his story with Daniel Bru. I had 3 different people tell me in fact. Amateurs like these guys tend to have big mouths. Especially dopey ones with shitty iphone apps.

Knowing how weak and stupid someone must be to be in this situation to begin with I knew I could scare this guy into confessing his evil ways. I tweeted. “You have 24hrs.” That’s it. That’s all I said. Well, when you are guilty and stupid that’s all it takes to make you cave, because that’s exactly what Sam did. Sam, you are a weak dishonest dope. You were played by Daniel Bru, and now you were just played by your own guilt.

All I needed to do was give the mere suggestion that Sam might get caught and he confessed, and that’s what happened here. Social engineering FTW!! Sam you need to stop crying. You are weak, dishonest and stupid. I can’t imagine these traits help you with building quality iphone apps.

The real story Sammy boy is not you, but which one of your friends BOUGHT DANIEL BRUSIVLOVSKY AN IMAC FOR COVERAGE ON TECHCRUNCH?

C’mon Sammy the truth will set you free. WHO BOUGHT DANIEL BRUSIVLOVSKY AN IMAC FOR COVERAGE ON TECHCRUNCH?

starkfist• 16 years ago

The worst part of this story is that it exposed me to the 1938media website. A 45 year old man making youtube puppet shows about bloggers? yikes.

smokinn• 16 years ago

I find it ironic that by going around and routinely downvoting anything jasonmcalacanis posts in these comments it makes them much easier to spot; I simply scrolled down and read everything in light grey.

jackowayed• 16 years ago

Irony: extorting someone into talking about how they were extorted.

Also, Loren just posted another piece on the matter. But I won't link to it because it's total trash. It's one giant attack on Sam's character without saying anything at all interesting.

And if you do go look at the post, be a good citizen and use adblock =]

AdamN2• 16 years ago

Now I know not to trust Jason Calcanis. He always seemed like a good guy, if a bit of a megalomaniac.

Anybody who forwards private emails is way beyond the pale of somebody who offers a MacBook Air for good coverage. The latter is an ethical lapse, the former is evidence of a deep character flaw.

Jason Calcanis owes the community a large, unequivocal apology through his newsletter - without ads and hyperbole.

yardie• 16 years ago

Funny how when the FCC demanded that bloggers disclose any gifts they receive while covering something they were all in arms about it. It was mandated to avoid situations like this. If they want to be accepted as serious journalism they have to expect to be treated as such. If you fuck up, lie, take bribes or violate journalism ethics then expect to fired and hung out to dry.

sumeetjain• 16 years ago

Regardless of whose story is correct (http://www.1938media.com/crunchgate-what-makes-sammy-run vs. http://sam.bluwiki.com/blog/2010/03/confession-i-was-one-who...), a real lesson for young people in this community emerged: Your character and personality can be more powerful than your fame.

People here have commented on how thoughtful and helpful Sam is. Yet Loren's tone of voice alone has made it probably impossible for his words to be taken seriously. Imagine his above response written calmly - or even just respectfully: He would stand a much better chance of being listened to.

And Jason's approach to the matter appears equally immature. I've never met any of these players, but Sam sounds like he's much older than Jason or Loren. This doesn't mean you have to sound like a "boring old guy" - but it does mean that you give yourself an uphill battle when you speak like a child.

lotharbot• 16 years ago

My only exposure to this has been this thread and the links posted in it. This has allowed me to see Sam, Jason, and Loren in action. I have no chips in this game, so to speak; having never heard of any of these people before today, I'm as neutral an observer as they come.

Sam comes across as thoughtful, tempted to do something foolish and immoral, but ultimately a guy who did the right thing.

Daniel (via secondhand sources) comes across as a fool who may have sacrificed his career over a macbook, but who seems to have learned from his foolishness. It remains to be seen how he'll weather this.

Loren and Jason don't come across as reasonable or trustworthy to me. None of what they've said here or in the linked stories has made me think "these are people I want to go to for information". Jason seems to have trouble taking things seriously and he's made a lot of excuses for himself. Loren just comes across as mean and vindictive. So I guess my contribution to this thread is to say, Loren and Jason, you've created some image problems for yourselves. I know I'll be taking anything I see your names attached to with a grain of salt from here on out.

1938media• 16 years ago

The only problem with all this nonsense is that Jason Calacanis wasn't the only one who knew. In fact I probably knew before him. He was just the one who Sam confessed to. Did that ever occur to any of you? In terms of this flaming email so what? So Jason sent me an email that I can't even remember which is probably due to the fact that it contained nothing I didn't already know. I don't get this whole thing. No emails of any kind were printed, talked about nothing. Here's my more theatrical response.

http://www.1938media.com/crunchgate-the-blame-game/#respond

almost2• 16 years ago

You sir appear to be one seriously creepy fellow. What's up with you?

nailer4• 16 years ago

I imagine he's pissed off that people are trying to act like he's in the wrong, when he didn't ask for a bribe (like the TechCrunch reporter), nor state he'd provide a bribe (like the poster).

I've never met Loren but in general he is refreshingly honest and enjoys raining on the parade of anyone that thinks blogging, parties, and thinly-transparent self-promoting charity events matter more than products do - generally using puppets as a preferred form of expression.

We desperately need him to come to London sometime.

johnmcdonald2• 16 years ago

Dude, you are seriously unbalanced. Do you have any talents other than yelling into a video camera? Who appointed you the watchdog of tech industry ethics?

The worst you can say about Sam Odio is that he wasn't more timely and direct with his refusal. As others have pointed out, saying maybe is often an easier way of saying no. In the end he didn't provide the kick back and he did the right thing by going to Techcrunch.

I'm sure you've got your own skeletons and as you so ominously warned Odio, 'you will get what's coming to you'.

Karma's a bitch.

petercooper2• 16 years ago

If you came in blind to Loren on this particular episode, sure, he comes off as a bit of a tool, but he's playing this as theater. I don't know 100%, but I think he's playing a great "angry man" persona (in a similar way to how Zed Shaw did for a while - just in video form).

I rarely agree with anything Loren says, but he makes for compelling, funny watching. Take his recent review of ChatRoulette, for example: http://youtu.be/nMlTuS39zC0 - watching Loren is like visiting one of those theme restaurants that have deliberately bad service.

He also looks like my plumber, so that makes him pretty cool in my book.

petercooper2• 16 years ago

I love Scoble's response to this:

I'm more likely to check out Divvyshot because of this post. Thanks, off to check it out!

Any publicity is good publicity, it seems..

wheatthinz• 16 years ago

http://www.inquisitr.com/64659/like-meatloaf-through-a-straw...

I was the one who came forward about the Macbook Air

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