Paris and Nicole have had a number of public spats. Clemens tossed a broken bat at Piazza and a feud began. Even Gates and McNealy took jabs at each other for many years.
And now Gnomedex has a feud to call their own: Winer vs. Calacanis. I expected the two friends to patch things up over a beer last night, but that was expecting too much. Instead Calacanis fired at Winer this morning. Winer fired back and this fight continued to get nasty into the afternoon.
I find the whole spat kind of funny yet pathetic. It’s a good thing that Chris Pirillo pulled off a touching hour with Derek Miller this afternoon or the Winer/Calacanis fight would have overwhelmed Gnomedex which is not how it’s supposed to work out.
I knew nothing of Derek until today. Because he recently underwent major cancer surgery the interview was done via video conferencing. It’s hard to explain why it worked but it did. Chris and others were graceful while asking questions. Derek seems like an amazing human being. He was funny, smart and self-effacing. He seems like a genuinely nice person. He mentioned how someone came to visit him in the hospital after the surgery and asked, “Aside from this (cancer) how are things going?” Derek replied, “There is no aside from this right now“.
At the end of the interview, every attendee gave Derek a standing ovation while Chris positioned the camera so he could see everyone. It was clear he was touched by the gesture and so were most attendees. Guy Kawasaki was the star on day one. Derek Miller was the star on day two. Huge props to Chris and Ponzi for making this happen. You created an experience those in attendance will not forget.
Something tells me that Derek would be embarrassed to hear this, but he stole the show today.
Here is a picture of Derek as it looked on the big screen today.
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