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Tech guru says Internet destroying middle class

05.14.13 - 2:55 pm | Tim Redmond |
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Jaron Lanier isn't a Luddite. He can't be dismissed as a crackpot, whiner critic who is jealous of the success of others. He virtually invented virtual reality; he was a tech guru when most of today's tech titans were still in diapers. So when he says that the Internet is destroying the middle class, maybe everyone ought to stop for a second and listen.Read more »

Will SF's new broadband infrastructure be controlled by the city or Google?

05.08.13 - 1:00 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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Board President David Chiu is calling for San Francisco to add to its broadband fiber network every time a contractor or utility tears up a street, joining other cities in expanding high-speed Internet capacity. But will this new network be a municipal utility or corporate-controlled? An upcoming hearing he has called for could begin to answer that question.Read more »

Beloved Shirts reads your mind, puts it on a sweatshirt

04.23.13 - 1:37 pm | Caitlin Donohue |
(1)

I should be pissed that Provo, Utah's Beloved Shirts company has raided my Internet search records, but I'll focus on just being happy that now I can buy that Goldfish crackers crewneck sweatshirt of my dreams. Read more »

Covering the Boston bombing

04.19.13 - 10:15 am | Tim Redmond |
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Ever since the horrible, awful bombing at the Boston Marathon, I've been doing what every crazy newshound does and spending far too much time on the Internet trying to get the latest scrap of information. This morning, none of us could drag ourselves away from the developing story.Read more »

The Cat Pack

Quirky felines have gone past viral status to become legitimate celebrities. Now how will they use their fame?

04.09.13 - 6:07 pm | Caitlin Donohue |
(38)

caitlin@sfbg.com

PETS Lil Bub does not do corporate endorsements.

"I prefer going to my local pet store, so why would Bub endorse Petco?" says Mike Bridavsky, owner of the angel-faced, wide-eyed, underbite-blessed cat from Bloomington, Indiana who is one of the most prominent members of the Cat Pack, a term Bridavsky coins during our phone interview for the cadre of felines currently owning the Internet.Read more »

Surfing to shoot

Federal law loophole and thousands of arms listings make it easy to buy guns online

01.22.13 - 6:16 pm | Rebecca Bowe |
(3)

rebecca@sfbg.com

Somewhere in rural Southern California, a Craigslist user is offering a Hi-Point 9mm carbine, a kind of semi-automatic rifle, for "straight trade" in exchange for a quad or dirt bike. A post from Craigslist in San Mateo screams "i NEED AMMO" — in bulk, for various kinds of rifles. And across the state, Craigslist ads for Glocks, Berettas and other handguns commonly turn up in the mix, often instructing prospective buyers to respond by text message only.Read more »

Twitter took my bots!

01.09.13 - 2:21 pm | Caitlin Donohue |
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Party's over, people. Read more »

How to buy followers and influence people

For $26, I gained 2,500 followers -- and you can, too! Adventures in being fake popular on Twitter

01.08.13 - 6:07 pm | Caitlin Donohue |
(3)

caitlin@sfbg.com

CAREERS AND ED I bought my friends. For 2,500 of them, I paid $26 — and you can do it too.

It bore reflection one day last month: Why does New York journalist-party disaster Cat Marnell have 20,000 more Twitter followers than me? Her quote about quitting her xoJane editorship to do angel dust was gold, but still.Read more »

Today's gathering of the music apps

10.09.12 - 12:22 pm | George McIntire |
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The music industry -- as we all know -- has reached the nadir of its financial situation after a dozen or so years of file sharing. The Internet, many would say, hasn’t been too kind to the business. But if the Web taketh it also giveth, as evidenced by the plethora of music apps and Internet-based services (Spotify, Turntable.FM, Shazam, etc.) that are competing to transform the industry.

One of the driving forces behind this development is Brian Zisk, the executive producer of today's SF Musictech Summit. Read more »

Temporarily blunted

Facebook saw fit to block marijuana advocacy ads -- what does this say about public discourse on the Internet?

08.28.12 - 8:11 pm | Emily Hunt |
(0)

culture@sfbg.com

We're not sure what troubles us most about this story: the suppression of marijuana imagery, a corporation impinging on our buzz, or the serious threat of private companies shaping public discourse.Read more »