Posts Tagged ‘tech’

San Francisco’s Sunset District Gets Called “Land of Misery” in National Media: “Fog – Thick, Endless, Depressive Clouds”

Friday, February 24th, 2012

Cover your eyes, avert your gaze, West Bay realtors:

“If you start at the Bay Bridge and head west along most major streets in San Francisco, you’ll eventually get to a magical land of misery known as the Sunset. The name is a joke, and perhaps even a way to trick tourists: The sun rarely visits the Sunset, not even when it sets. The primary weather element in the Sunset is fog—thick, endless, depressive clouds of it that wash up from the ocean to completely saturate the land. I lived in the Sunset for a single, terrible year. Before I moved there, I used to be one of those snobby city-dwellers who’d look down on suburbanites who couldn’t handle San Francisco’s famously capricious climate. I’d heard the Sunset’s weather wasn’t great, but hey, how bad could it be?

It was bad. Too bad for me; after our lease was up, my wife and I moved to the suburbs. Looking back, what bothered me most wasn’t the terrible climate—though I did hate it—but the vast difference between the Sunset’s weather and the weather everywhere else. Whatever meteorological patterns applied in normal parts of San Francisco didn’t seem to apply to the Sunset, which meant that forecasts for the city held no sway there. If the weatherman said it was going to be 80 and sunny, it was probably 55 and cloudy at my house.

Wow, harsh.

Of course, former Supervisor Ed Jew famously claimed to live in the Sunset, but instead of actually doing that he preferred to risk jail, which is where he’s at right now. Oh well.

What a great place for a high-cost, low-productivity photovoltaic power plant using panels costing many times more than the going market rate. Oh well: 

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But it could be worse. The writer could have started talking about the “houses” of the Sunset District. Here they are, in no particular order:

Halfway houses

Cat houses

Grow houses

Oh well.

Keep on keeping on, Sunset District.

If Mayor Ed Lee is All About Creating Tech Jobs in San Francisco, Why is His Website from a D.C. Firm?

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

Comes now TigerBeat, who asks:

“If @mayoredlee is all about creating tech jobs in SanFrancisco, why is his website by Washington DC’s bullseyeinteractive.com?”

A fair question, one might think.

Check it:

“Paid for by Ed Lee for Mayor 2011, Greg Sanborn, Treasurer, FPPC # 1340520

info (at) mayoredlee.com

Powered by Bullseye Interactive

Oh, and since I have the floor, was former Mayor Gavin Newsom a “Job Killer” when he signed the notorious and now-dead Twitter Tax into law in 2004? I think so.

I mean, didn’t we have stock options and tech companies back in 2004?

Yes we did.

OMG, “GIT” a Job! Networking Mixer with “Girls in Tech” on Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Friday, May 6th, 2011

Now I’ll tell you, I can’t vouch for Girls in Tech ’cause I don’t know much about it, but if it costs only $10 (early-boid pricing) to go to the next networking mixer, well, you don’t have much to lose…

Girls in Tech Founder Adriana Gascoigne:

All the deets:

“This unique networking mixer will connect job-seekers with hiring parties and recruiters, will get your resume directly to relevant interested parties, and will provide some keynotes with advice on the tech-related job market in the Bay Area today.  Representatives from various areas of tech and the surrounding industries will be in attendance, from Cloud Computing to PR, looking for people to fill positions from Engineering to Marketing.

Early birds get the worm with a discounted $10 ticket price, PLUS your resumes will be distributed to employers in advance of the event.  Once GIT publishes the finalized list of employer-attendees, prices WILL go up!  Please note, without advanced tickets your resume will not be distributed to employers in advance of this event.

Buy your tickets here:  http://gitajob2011.eventbrite.com/

*Note, employers still interested in participating may visit the same link for more information.”

Hot Geek-on-Geek Boxing Action in The Richmond – Employees of Yelp, Apple, Google, Saleforce, IBM Fight Nov. 11

Monday, November 8th, 2010

OMG, it’s the Tech Beat Up, brought to you by White Collar Brawler. It’s a charity deal at the Rock It Room on Clement this Thursday, November 11, 2010. (What better way can you think of to honor our military veterans?)

A few of the contenders:

Now, even though they’ll be using inflatable gloves, the techster with the most actual boxing skillz is sure to win.

All the deets:

“Ashkon and White Collar Brawler Team Up For Newest Web Sensation: “The Tech Beat Up”

Local Web Series Hosts Inflatable-Ring Boxing Tournament Between the Most Influential Tech Companies in the Bay Area

The boxing tournament portion of the night will consist of tournament-style competitions between employees from Apple, Google, IBM, Zynga, Yelp, and many more.  For each contest, the boxers will duke it out in a bouncy castle with safe, inflatable gloves for two 45-second rounds. Winners will be determined by audience applause.

Meet the fighters and the companies participating in the Tech Beat Up: http://whitecollarbrawler.com/techbeatup/thefighters/
Nate Houghteling, one of the event organizers and also a star of White Collar Brawler, said the following about the Tech Beat Up: “White Collar Brawler is a show about two friends who escape the cubicle life to pursue our dreams. With the Tech Beat Up, we’re helping people join in on that liberating experience. Plus, who doesn’t want to see a software engineer from Apple and a product manager from Google go at it (safely) for lifelong Internet glory and bragging rights?”
All proceeds from the event benefit ZeroDivide, a nonprofit organization that leverages technology to benefit disadvantaged communities in the Bay Area and beyond.
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White Collar Brawler is a documentary web series set in San Francisco that follows two lifelong friends, ivy league grads, and former white collar workers as they leave the office life behind and train to become boxers. The two will fight each other in December. New episodes of White Collar Brawler are released, in real-time, on Tuesdays and Fridays of every week at www.WhiteCollarBrawler.com.
Tech Beat Up Event Details:
When: Thursday, November 11
Where: Rock-It Room, 406 Clement St. (between 5th and 6th)

Best Buy Sends a Parade of Electric Bikes Down San Francisco’s Market Street

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

This is how outbound Market Street appeared in San Francisco this morning as Best Buy sent a parade of expensive $2500 A2B electric scooters (the Worst Consumer Products of 2009) and also inexpensive E-Zip bikes up the street. E-Zips went for $350 last year at some Wal-Marts (not that I could tell, having never set foot in one) and now $500 (and up) at Best Buy.

E-Zip in the background, A2B in the foreground. Were there a dozen or so riders in this mini, corporate Critical Mass? Something like that:

IMG_0042 copy

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What do you get for you $350? Well, you don’t get high tech batteries, that’s for sure. But that’s part of the reason why it’s cheaper than the obscenely overpriced A2B and the Trek Ride+, which is being tested out these days by some of San Francisco’s elected officials. Costco also has a few dogs in the e-bike hunt, upon occasion.

Will you say “Engine*, yes. Gas No”?

Only Time Will Tell.

*Not an actual “engine” – the marketing cookies of Best Buy mean motor, but oh well.