CAMBRIDGE, MA — There's still hope, future. A full half of the people behind ROFLcon, the world's largest concentration of Internet-inspired pop-culture trends in one room, are female. Or, as they might put it, IRL LULZ 50% XX! As it's now officially impossible to host a tech-related conference without asking, Where are the women?, a "commenter" posed this to the morning's first all-guy panel. "Girls just have better things to do," answered Kyle "Paperclip to House Guy" MacDonald. Other possible explanations?

So you know Kyle MacDonald, the enterprising young Canadian who set up a blog with the goal of bartering his way from a red paper clip all the way to a house and, with the help of BoingBoing, actually managed it? This weekend, thanks to Auntie Joyce Wadler at the Times, we learned that the house that is the fruit of the former layabout and girlfriend moocher-offer's bloggy efforts is actually only worth about $8,000. HA! Well, "ha." Because, of course, the dude still got a book deal and a movie deal out of the whole shebang. The book (One Red Paperclip: Or How an Ordinary Man Achieved His Dream with the Help of a Simple Office Supply) comes out in paperback original this week. ("With plenty of irreverent and insightful anecdotes and practical tips on how you can find your own paperclip and realize your dreams, he proves it's possible to succeed in life and achieve your dreams on your own terms.") Uh, why is it that this benign Canadian's success fills us with actual bloodlust? Maybe it's that he's a living embodiment of the potential of the Internet. TO SUCK.