I’m a reporter for VentureBeat. I report on business and technology with a special focus on and web development and design. I spend a lot of time covering Google, Facebook, and Twitter — not just their consumer-facing web products, but their inner workings as large and rapidly growing tech companies.

If you email me a pitch about your company, please copy tips@venturebeat.com. I get a lot of email and don’t have time to reply to every message I receive.

Before coming to VentureBeat, I worked at Mashable. Before that, I was a daily reporter at ReadWriteWeb. And before that, I did print journalism at magazines and newspapers.

I wholeheartedly support VentureBeat’s ethics statement. I don’t own shares of any company in the tech sector or any company that I’d have occasion to write about. Aside from one small stuffed fox from Mozilla, I don’t generally accept gifts, including trips or other such experiences, from the companies I cover. I have done only a few gadget reviews in my career, and I do not keep the hardware that is sent to me for review.

When I’m not doing journalism about technology, I’m either riding my bike around Golden Gate Park or baking something.

stories by Jolie O'Dell

Salesforce buys (and shutters) Pinterest clone Clipboard

Explaining the shutter-slamming, Clipboard said, "We came to the conclusion that it was essential to focus on a singular platform for building new capabilities within Salesforce, which is not something that we could do while keeping Clipboard operating."

Facebook creates new tech scholarship for moms

Hacker bootcamp school Hackbright will take 10 weeks to train the moms accepted into the program. During this time, old skills will get a refresh and new skills will be taught.

After 1M downloads, Facebook’s Home is getting big updates starting today

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Today at Facebook HQ, the company is announcing that one month after its launch, Facebook Home has seen 1 million downloads, and those early users — mostly male early-adopter types — have shown some interesting usage …

Facebook’s highest-growth markets are the Middle East, Africa, & India

Facebook has seen its rapid assimilation of Earth's population start to cool in recent years. The areas where it's still exploding are, interestingly enough, some of the areas with the least access to technology: Africa, the Middle East, and India.

Google Glass hands-on: This isn’t and never will be a good device for consumers

This post was supposed to be my big hands-on review. Instead, all I have to offer is this: Unless your employer tells you otherwise, don't even think about getting Google Glass.

NASA will turn astronauts into farmers for long-term Mars missions

To make it worth the substantial cost of shipping greenhouses, lighting, and other necessary equipment to the red planet, the missions need to be very long in duration -- as long as 15 or even 20 years.

The Facebook phone from HTC now on sale for 99 cents from AT&T

The First interface itself is Facebook's way of making a mobile operating system without actually making a mobile operating system. The result is pretty awesome, and for 99 cents (with a contract, natch), it's a steal.

Midcentury madness: Google celebrates Saul Bass in interactive Doodle

"My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film's story, to express the story in some metaphorical way," Bass once said.

NetSuite buys OrderMotion to handle orders better and faster

“We focus on the order at NetSuite,” said NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson in a recent VentureBeat interview. “Order management is at the heart of our transactions.”

NowThisNews raises $4.8M to be the Buzzfeed of video journalism

Its front page is a step up from the nip slips and cat clips you see elsewhere. But all the clips are short -- even the Queen merits a mere 91 seconds -- so don't expect powerful journalism with ample context.

78K people have signed up for a one-way trip to Mars

"This is turning out to be the most desired job in history," said Mars One founder Bas Lansdorp. “Mars One is a mission representing all humanity will be justified only if people from the entire world are represented. I’m proud that this is exactly what we see happening."

Chute raises $7M and gets its first dose of user-generated advertising

As for Chute Ads, the company promises potential advertisers quite a bag of tricks: real-time content, user-generated aggregation, voting and moderation, social sharing, and customized displays. End users can upload their content directly to a campaign, comment on it, upvote it, or share it across other networks:

Adobe is killing Creative Suite; here’s why

This is the last stop for the Creative Suite train; all passengers must deboard. But the next train is so much better. And for Adobe, it's even more lucrative than $700 bi-annual installments.