Yesterday's rally for Mike Homer, the former Netscape exec who's been struck down by a rare and lethal brain disease, says a lot about the culture of Silicon Valley. It's a close-knit place: the presentation on his condition, at the Palo Alto Sheraton last night, drew tech-industry players and erstwhile colleagues including Peter Currie, formerly of Netscape, Quincy Smith from CBS, super-angel Ron Conway, Tellme's Mike McCueand Youtube founder Chad Hurley, captured here by Kara Swisher of All Things Digital. And the video shows something else, too: Creutzfeldt-Jakob, which is related to mad-cow disease, is a horrific illness for which there is no known cure. Mike Homer's friends in Silicon Valley, all believers in the power of technology to solve all human problems, don't accept that. As naive as that faith may be, it is also the closest this collection of office parks and McMansions comes to nobility. After the jump, a gallery of stills.</img>


More...