The best advice you got from successful entrepreneur Patricia Handschiegel? "Don't spend." Good luck with that if you're living in San Francisco. Bootstrapping entrepreneurs and everyone else have to live somewhere and if its in the foggy city its getting yet more expensive for many. San Francisco rents increased…
Why should the Chinese government shouldn't worry about protests during the Olympic torch run. Local media would much rather cover low-effort displays closer to home, like these activists scaling the Golden Gate Bridge. KPIX has live coverage. [CBS 5]
Blogger Christian Lander, self-appointed arbiter of Caucasian tastes, needles San Francisco's inferiority complex when it comes to New York — as a former Toronto resident, he can certainly relate. Google's algorithm suggests Chinese mail-order brides. True enough.
Jackson West, reporting live (don't tell my boss!) from downtown San Francisco: War protesters have shut down Market Street between Sansome and Montgomery, with smug Berkeley Hills residents gleefully getting arrested. The cops expect to clear it soon. Police have shut down San Francisco's old-money corridor of…
An outrage, a crying shame: Moose's is closing on April 1. The North Beach restaurant and bar facing Washington Square Park is being replaced by some abomination called "Joey & Eddie's." Valleywag is not taking this sitting down at a bar, ordering a Juniper Breeze. We're packing up and moving Valleywag Fridays to…
My gripe about Web 2.0 invites has prickled a few PR 2.0 types who fervently believe that my career will just explode if I sign up to get spammed on Eventbrite. Look, people: In one day, Valleywag nitpicker-in-chief Owen Thomas will typically contact me through (1) email, (2) SMS, (3) IM, (4) voicemail, (5)…
Dear Web 2.0 cool kids: I'm one of those people you like to call "OLD" and whom you're sure "doesn't get it." Still, for some reason you want me to write about you for those doomed East Coast newspapers I hang out at. If you want me to attend one of your events, just put the time and place in an email. Don't send me…
In our "Googler's vent: working here sucks too" post, commenter tengallonhero does some venting of his own:
Last quarter, Google hired 889 people, bringing the total headcount to 16,805. What do all these new employees do? Stab each other in the back, apparently. A tipster writes: "The management within Google, especially AdWords and AdSense (the money making machines of the entire company ... engineering gets the glory…
The San Francisco Chronicle must be shedding readers even faster than staff. Reportedly, it was losing $1 million a week before shedding 100 employees last May. In order to maintain circulation, the Chronicle is engaging in an extensive telemarketing campaign. For the last few weeks, I've been an unwilling target.…
San Francisco is the city every manchild with a wee knowledge of Ajax and a penchant for dropping vowels from proper nouns flocks to in the hopes of striking a venture capital goldmine. It's not exactly a revelation that you're all a bunch of greedy louts, but Forbes, in what is no doubt a highly scientific study,…
An investigative reporter at the Chronicle reports that Burmese pythons could slither their way from Florida to the Bay Area in just 12 years. The 250-pound, alligator-swallowing snakes find our climate congenial, and could arrive sooner if introduced here by irresponsible pet owners. What the Chronicle missed:…
Coddled by close-hovering helicopter parents, Generation Y (of which I'm a proud member) is incapable of taking initiative. (This very post was "suggested" by Owen Thomas, yet I get to take all the credit.) We never had to struggle up multiple hills, in the snow, to get to school, so we lack any true sense of…
It's all Scoble's fault. Instead of holing up to write O'Reilly books, software developers are now wasting their time filming themselves talking — awkwardly, unclearly, and usually too fast — about their latest world-changing innovation. How convenient that keeping it real means putting yourself on camera. The…
Entrepreneurs. Engineers. Bloggers. You keep asking: Why does a writer like me hate people like you? Nick Denton's new traffic-based pay scale has backfired wonderfully, giving me a few minutes to explain it.
Gavin Newsom, San Francisco's freshly reelected god-mayor, descended into the bowels of Second Life for a quaint fireside chat with Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab. What lofty matters could a city mayor and the chieftain of a seamy virtual world possibly have to discuss? Why, the parallels between the "two…
I swear the San Francisco Chronicle updates its front page by replacing the words "Cosco Busan" with "Tatiana" and running the same damn angles again. The Chron's reports on failed systems, beleaguered bureaucrats, and oh-the-humanity handwringing are all framed by the big question: How could this have been…
Save for one very special correspondent's valiant efforts, all was quiet on the Internet at the beginning of this week. The Christians were busy celebrating the birth of Jesus, and the rest of you, your new JesusPhones. It's not grown much louder since. And some, including professional echo chamberist Jeremiah…
Our article about Peter Thiel, the Facebook investor and rare gay venture capitalist, drew much response. Many noted that gay and lesbian entrepreneurs are not the only ones shut out by the old boys' network of Sand HIll Road. One correspondent, though, captured the experience of being gay in technology's heartland.…
A San Francisco woman reported her Honda Civic stolen to the San Francisco police. A few weeks later, she got a parking citation in the mail for her stolen car. Then she got another. And another. In total, her car got ticketed 29 times while being listed as stolen. She called the police and the city's Department of…
