Hey, We're at South by Southwest

It’s SXSW time and Motherboarders Alex Pasternack, Sean Yeaton, and Don Caldwell (who is presenting) are all in Austin, Texas to cover the weekend’s coolest party. Sean does his best to make us all jealous.

What the hell is SXSW? If I were to summarize everything my friends and co-workers have told me about what SXSW is it would read something like: "A networking extravaganza where you're getting rained on by free crap and everyone is always checking in (Gowalla and Foursquare), doing drugs in hallways and going hog shit over the best BBQ on the planet. Meanwhile, all of your favorite bands are playing shows that you may well miss because of the crowds, you got too intoxicated at a website's party, or you were paralyzed by choices."

Stay tuned as these guys let us know what’s up at tech’s chillest celebration.

• Have you heard? WikiLeaks got its own song. Julian Assange finally has a reason to smile. Not that he will.

• Dropping out of college isn’t recommended. But if you’re going to do it, do it like this guy. Daniel Gross is making Google feel the heat.

• As geeks converge in Austin this weekend, one the world’s biggest tech advocates, Japan, finds itself underwater after suffering the worst earthquake in its history. During this time of terrible tragedy, Google has stepped up to help, creating a person finder page to help connect victims with their families. Meanwhile, check out what the earthquake sounds like.

• This dad setup his home with cameras and microphones so that every moment of his child’s first year of life was captured. While this sounds like the pilot for a new hit reality TV show, it’s more MIT than MTV as Deb Roy tries to study how humans learn language.

• When an MIT geek videotapes his firstborn to help unlock the secrets of humanity it’s cool. When a country videotapes its citizens with half a million closed circuit cameras, it’s completely fucked up.

• Turns out best friends are dangerous for childhood development because of the potential emotional risks. In fact, it’s much safer to have superficial online buddies.

• Except your online buddy could be fake. And works for the government.

• Hey guy, you don’t use Kickstarter to fund your Charlie Sheen habit because it doesn’t take $20,000 to make your shitty album.

• The Week of Charlie Sheen