Startup Launch As Celebrity Bonanza: Airtime?s Ritzy, Glitzy, Glitchy Debut

Once upon a time, a humble click of a button could send a web service live. A couple of e-mails out or a post on a message board might be sufficient to draw the interest of a few early adopters. No longer. Somehow, somewhere along the line, certain startup launches and demo days have become more like celebrity-studded movie premieres or gallery openings. We all go and gawk. We might stay. We might leave. But we're all there for a show. And nowhere is the shift of technology industry from mainstream culture's periphery to its center more evident than in the story of Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning -- who are debuting their much-anticipated (and more family-friendly!) version of ChatRoulette today. More than 15 years ago, Fanning and Parker were just teenagers trolling chat rooms. "We were both hackers," Parker said in New York today. "We were interested in computer security. The goal was some sort of miscreant behavior.... We were basically cyber criminals."

slither slither chris christie naacp glen campbell jerusalem artichoke bud shootout