Brad’s Sketchpad

You’ve probably seen the salacious ads, plastered across sites like MySpace and Friendster. Dating site True.com has rediscovered the age-old notion that sex sells. However, like a Texas politician, it is also combining those sex drenched ads with a bit of piety, asking state governments to pass laws requiring that dating sites conduct background checks on their members or disclose that they fail to do so.

In today’s paper, I look at True.com, its eccentric founder Herb Vest, and why True and some of its less than honorable business tactics seems to making many of its rivals a little hot under the collar.

Today Cisco announced it is buying the technology behind eclipsed social network Tribe.net, which I first reported on the paper’s web site on Friday. It’s an odd deal, but puts the Silicon Valley equipment giant on track to help its customers, like telcos and media companies, set up their own social networks. Today, MySpace, Facebook and YouTube seem unique. But clearly a multitude of clones is on the way.

For the last five years, we’ve competed in San Francisco’s Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt, a four-hour-long scamper through the floats, crowds and firecrackers of the annual Chinese New Year parade.

In yesterday’s competition, our Year of the Pig team (”Boar to be Wild”) took second place — out of thousands of entrants. The accomplishment was particularly sweet because in previous years we have finished quickly but made minor mistakes that ruined our chances. We won a cake, champagne and a certificate.