Software

Storytelling 10110001101: Comics and Novels Evolve

Richard Stallman, Software Freedom Activist, Is Still Jerky After All These Years

Richard Stallman, leader of the "free software movement," says he has no regrets about saying mean things about Steve Jobs just after Jobs' death. After all, he told Slashdot readers in a recent discussion, "Apple is your enemy, and if you don't recognize this and fight, you're being a chump." For ... More >>

Newspapers to Google: We Don't Want Your Help

If you think American publishers are clueless when it comes to the Internet, just look abroad. This week, Brazil's National Association of Newspapers blocked Google News from aggregating its members' articles. That means that almost none of the newspaper articles published in Brazil will make it to ... More >>

Local Nerds to Hold Lock-In This Weekend for Hackathon

Don't let that headline turn you off -- this event is actually pretty cool.On Saturday, Change.org is holding its second annual hackathon, where more than 200 geeks from all over the Bay Area will spend 24 hours creating new apps for social good. The engineers and designers will head over to the Cha ... More >>

New iTriage App Feature Should Help People Living With HIV

iTriage, a mobile app that provides users with medical information, including symptom checklists, prescription information, and local doctors, has added a feature that gives users information on HIV specialists in their area.  The app company worked closely with the American Academy of HIV Medi ... More >>

Forget Traffic School, This New App Will Help You Get Out of a Speeding Ticket

You know how impossible it is to get out of a speeding ticket when it's your word against a cop's. Well, now there's an app for that. TicketDefender, a new app that tracks your speed, time of day, and GPS location, will help drivers beat the system for a change. According to creator Ralph ... More >>

Meet PuurBuy, the App Designed to Find Sustainable Meals

Yelp is just so 2010! Depending on it is reminiscent of the days when San Franciscans used to toss their orange peels and disposable forks into the garbage. But, for those of us who still need a little help from our phones when choosing dinner, PuurBuy has an app for that: A free download with list ... More >>

Google Thumbs Nose at Antitrust Regulators

​You can't say Google doesn't have balls. Despite increasingly heavy antitrust scrutiny by the federal government, the Internet behemoth is charging ahead with a deal that brings all kinds of potential for cornering a market. It will pay $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility, a leading maker of hand ... More >>

Apple Dumps DUI Checkpoint App

This is something your iPhone can't help you with ​SF Weekly readers might recall the controversy that ensued after Apple released an iPhone app that would let drivers know exactly where and when they might be crossing a DUI checkpoint. Of course, it wasn't nearly as controversial as the app that ... More >>

Kim Alter Exits Plate Shop, Oakland Gets a TacoBike, and Place Pigalle Returns

The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene. That was quick. Inside Scoop reports Kim Alter is already out as executive chef of Sausalito's Plate Shop. Opened in February, Atler took an executive role for the first time, after working in the kitchen ... More >>

Check Out and Check In with Our Best Of... App

Our brand new Best Of... issue isn't just on newsstands. It's in the App Store. Our free iPhone app takes the Best Of... issue and crams it into your pants (or purse). You can find out which Best Of... spot is closest to you, check in via Facebook to let your friends know where you're at, and vo ... More >>

Check Out and Check In with Our Best Of... App

Our brand new Best Of... issue isn't just on newsstands. It's in the App Store. Our free iPhone app takes the Best Of... issue and crams it into your pants (or purse). You can find out which Best Of... spot is closest to you, check in via Facebook to let your friends know where you're at, and vo ... More >>

Check Out and Check In with Our Best Of... App

Our brand-new Best Of... issue isn't just on newsstands. It's in the App Store. Our free iPhone app takes the Best Of... issue and crams it into your pants (or purse). You can find out which Best Of... spot is closest to you, check in via Facebook to let your friends know where you're at, and vo ... More >>

"Dog Wars" App Is Back on the Market, the Fight Continues

The fight continues​Yesterday SF Weekly reported that the controversial "Dog Wars" app was mysteriously pulled from the Android market. But a quick search for the game now shows that the virtual dogfighting app is curiously back.The national uproar over "Dog Wars" could have been the reason it was ... More >>

TurboTax Insists Users Have Middle Name -- Or You Can't E-File

​Relax! While April 15 is, traditionally, known as Tax Day, you have until Monday to get this thing done. (This, conveniently, will provide one more answer to the query "why is this night different from all other nights?").But if you're hoping to e-file -- and you have no middle name -- you may be ... More >>

Find the Best of San Francisco on Your iPhone

If you've ever been out and about and wondered where's the best place grab a good gin and tonic or get your bike fixed ― as chosen by seasoned pros like ourselves ― you're in luck. We've just launched a completely free iPhone app that takes all the goodness of our Best Of... issues and crams i ... More >>

Find the Best of San Francisco on Your iPhone

If you've ever been out and about and wondered where's the best place grab a good gin and tonic or get your bike fixed -- as chosen by seasoned pros like ourselves -- you're in luck. We've just launched a completely free iPhone app that takes all the goodness of our Best Of... issues and crams it ... More >>

Plum: Daniel Patterson's intricate and affordable cuisine

If you've ever been out and about and wondered where's the best place grab a good gin and tonic or get your bike fixed -- as chosen by seasoned pros like ourselves -- you're in luck. We've just launched a completely free iPhone app that takes all the goodness of our Best Of... issues and crams it ... More >>

Muni's 11-Year-Old Computers Conk Out, Riders Delayed

Not that old. But old. ​At Muni, computer techs can still party like it's 1999 -- because that's the vintage of the computers running the system. At 6 a.m. this morning, the central computers developed a signal problem on the K-T, M, and N lines, forcing the trains into manual mode while in the Me ... More >>

Mobile app measures cellphone radiation

Not that old. But old. ​At Muni, computer techs can still party like it's 1999 -- because that's the vintage of the computers running the system. At 6 a.m. this morning, the central computers developed a signal problem on the K-T, M, and N lines, forcing the trains into manual mode while in the Me ... More >>

Last Night: Flux Summit at Pyramind Studios

​Flux Summit April 29, 2010 Pyramind Studios Better Than: The ninth season of American Idol remixed by Moby. It's a good thing that the Flux Summit's bar was situated in the same room as its music critique contest. Nervous electronic music artists needed a stiff belt before auditioning their p ... More >>

Chron's Scoop: Jeremy Fox Says Goodbye to Ubuntu

Jeremy Fox.​At SFGate, Scoop is reporting that nationally known chef Jeremy Fox has rolled up his yoga mat and departed from Ubuntu, the boundary-pushing vegetarian restaurant (and yoga studio) in Napa. Scoop said it didn't know the reason for Fox's exit, but said it happened at 3 a.m. today, ... More >>

How 'Generous' Is San Francisco? No. 13 Nationally, According to List.

​If only San Francisco could harness the kinetic energy generated by tens of thousands of coins being shaken in thousands of pan-handlers' cups -- we could power this city and sell off the surplus and re-invest it in coins in cups. To our knowledge, there's no accurate measure of how much loose ca ... More >>

Worms in the Apple

Two rebels take on America's most beloved computer company.

Knives Out

Two rebels take on America's most beloved computer company.

iSuit: 'America's Premier Puzzlemaster' Sues Apple for Allegedly Parking In His Spot (So to Speak)

Don Rubin's original 1977 puzzle; the goal is to get the black car out of the lot in the fewest possible movesDon Rubin is "America's Premiere Puzzlemaster" -- or so his lawyers would inform you on the very first line of Rubin's suit vs. Apple. It seems Rubin has a legitimate claim to that title -- ... More >>

Goof-up allows misuse of S.F. Library's premium online resources

Don Rubin's original 1977 puzzle; the goal is to get the black car out of the lot in the fewest possible movesDon Rubin is "America's Premiere Puzzlemaster" -- or so his lawyers would inform you on the very first line of Rubin's suit vs. Apple. It seems Rubin has a legitimate claim to that title -- ... More >>

Bay Area Chefs Up For Beard Awards: A Remarkably Collegial Bunch

Jennifer SauerChef Jeremy FoxThe James Beard Awards (popularly known as the Oscars of the food world) will be awarded Monday, May 4. This year all five chefs nominated for the category of Best Chef: Pacific - an area that covers California and Hawaii -- come from the Bay Area: Jeremy Fox of Ubuntu i ... More >>

Another One Bites the Dust: Esoteric, Independent S.F. Bookstore Succumbs to Crap Economy

Small book-sellers have weathered tougher times -- but not manyDuring the height of the Philadelphia Phillies' 80 years of futility, the joke going around the City of Brotherly Love was that the local papers kept in standing type -- this was the days before laser printers -- the headline "KLEIN HITS ... More >>

Older Chronicle Employees Taking the Buyout; Depressing 'Goodbye Party' Scheduled for Friday

This cake is part of your severance packageBlindfold? Cigarette? Buyout? Perhaps 50 union employees at the San Francisco Chronicle -- most of them from the paper's editorial side -- aren't waiting for the axe to drop and have already agreed to accept a buyout, says one of the paper's guild represent ... More >>

So Right It's Wrongly Right

This cake is part of your severance packageBlindfold? Cigarette? Buyout? Perhaps 50 union employees at the San Francisco Chronicle -- most of them from the paper's editorial side -- aren't waiting for the axe to drop and have already agreed to accept a buyout, says one of the paper's guild represent ... More >>

'Economic Revitalization' Plan Pushed by Raiders, Oakland Officials Is Delusional -- And Should Not Be Reported on Uncritically

Even if your room looks like this, you've got to admit the Raiders' stadium plan is bogusIf Oakland politicos and Raiders officials earnestly reported that the sun rotates around the earth or that the world is shaped like a yam, we would expect something other than a cursory retelling in the next da ... More >>

Why Is Barry Bonds' Case Front-Page News? Because the Media 'Think We're Stupid'

Barry Bonds in his new home uniformThe sight of Barry Bonds, in uniform, performing in front of packed crowds is not a new one. These days, however, the uniform appears to be a dark suit and striped tie. And the crowds are gathered at his ongoing perjury and obstruction of justice trial.Certainly, a ... More >>

Attorney for Bonds' Trainer Sums Up Ahab-Like Prosecution of Slugger as Testosterone-Fueled 'Game of Chicken'

Paula Canny, seen here with client Greg Anderson, says the Barry Bonds case has become 'a guys' contest'When Paula Canny, the friend of and attorney for Barry Bonds' embattled former trainer Greg Anderson, is asked why the government has gone to such lengths to prosecute the former San Francisco Gia ... More >>

Local Businesses Attempt to Cash In on Inauguration

  Tuesday's momentous swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama means many things to many different people: change, unity, hope, and of course, marketing. Pepsi has set a national standard of co-optation, but smaller businesses are no less quick to piggy-back on the nation's excitement ... More >>

World Wide Telescope to Go Live Feb. 27

  Tuesday's momentous swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama means many things to many different people: change, unity, hope, and of course, marketing. Pepsi has set a national standard of co-optation, but smaller businesses are no less quick to piggy-back on the nation's excitement ... More >>

Google Web Toolkit Conference To Be Widget-licious Next Week

  Tuesday's momentous swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama means many things to many different people: change, unity, hope, and of course, marketing. Pepsi has set a national standard of co-optation, but smaller businesses are no less quick to piggy-back on the nation's excitement ... More >>

What Will Happen on Halloween in SF 2007? You Decide!

  Tuesday's momentous swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama means many things to many different people: change, unity, hope, and of course, marketing. Pepsi has set a national standard of co-optation, but smaller businesses are no less quick to piggy-back on the nation's excitement ... More >>

Agog Over Google

As a simple Internet search engine has grown into a billion-dollar tech behemoth, the question becomes: Is Google good? Take quiz, find out.

The Past and Future Fraud

Yes, punch-card voting machines are error-prone. The touch-screen systems planned to replace them may be just as bad.

Virtual Gutenberg

An Oakland company is quietly preserving our intellectual history -- with technology

Can you stop the bots?

Given that cyberspace is swarming with bots looking to snatch or destroy your data, does it make sense to install a firewall?

Reel World

The decimated S.F. International Film Festival gets a new team of programmers

Babes in Toyland

Two hackers piss off Mattel and spawn an Internet legal imbroglio

Bitter Medicine

How Naiveté, greed, and the new new thing brought Brown & Toland, San Francisco's largest doctors' group, to the verge of bankruptcy

Spy vs Spite

The Clinton administration has praised the Anti-Defamation League for helping shield kids from Internet hate. But should a group that spied on thousands of Californians be allowed to police the Web?

Misplaced Trust

An audit finds the city's public guardian shorting the treasury and misusing funds

Web Rouser

Former Lusty Lady dancer Caity McPherson struggles to make a living on the oversexed Internet

Night Crawler

Former Lusty Lady dancer Caity McPherson struggles to make a living on the oversexed Internet

Net Loss

How LatinoNet -- the poster child for Washington's attempt to empower the poor with technology -- wasted money and networked almost no one