September 2007

All entries and daily links from September 2007.

Halloween Looms Large Over the Castro

Saturday, September 29, 2007 at 9:09am 0 comments

There is more about last weekend's community meeting about Halloween preparations, or lack thereof, in this week's Bay Area Reporter. San Francisco Sherif and Fire Department officials were on hand, but the SF Police Department wasn't and has yet to release plans for handling the tens of thousands of people likely to show up despite the event having been officially cancelled.

Because Halloween has drawn hundred thousand plus crowds in years past, I wanted to know what the plan was for the DPT (Dept. of Parking and Traffic) and Muni (our transit agency) service and put it on the agenda for my MTA planning and marketing committee. No one at the MTA, which operates both Muni and the DPT, couldn't answer that question though. They are in the same position as the Fire and Sherifs Departments who can't make any arrangements until the SFPD releases a plan for them to work with.

With just a month to go, time is getting short for all these agencies to prepare.

Meanwhile, many businesses have agreed to close early on Halloween, despite the huge loss of revenue they'll be taking, to reinforce the official cancellation. Several of the major bars and cafes will be closing early including the Cafe, Cafe Flore, the Edge, the Mix while a few other including 440 (formerly Daddy's) and Moby Dick's will not be closing, but will be holding private, ticked parties instead.

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Harry Potter and the Finally Read Book

Friday, September 28, 2007 at 7:09am -10 comments

I finally finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows late last night. Just after the book was released, I ran across, and a major spoiler alert here, an interview with J.K. Rowling in which she goes into more detail about what happened in the wizarding world after the fight ended.

I bookmarked without looking to read once Id finished the novel.

I'm probably the last person to finish the book and of all the events (I won't spoil anything in case I'm not last) the most shocking thing read was the word "bitch". The woman being called a bitch really is one, but I was still surprised Rowling got away with it.

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Setlist for Arcade Fire at Shoreline Amphitheater, 21 September 2007

Monday, September 24, 2007 at 9:09am 0 comments

After seeing Arcade Fire friday I looked for the setlist online. I expected someone would have posted it to one of the popular social networks of the moment, but didn't find anything until this morning through a good old fashion blog.

1. Black Mirror
2. Keep The Car Running
3. Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)
4. No Cars Go
5. Haïti
6. I'm Sleeping In A Submarine
7. Cold Wind
8. Guns Of Brixton (intro)
9. My Body Is A Cage
10. Intervention
11. (Antichrist Television Blues)
12. The Well And The Lighthouse
13. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
14. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
15. Rebellion (Lies)

Encore:

1. Headlights Look Like Diamonds
2. Wake Up

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Arcade Fire, Rain or Shine

Sunday, September 23, 2007 at 8:09am 0 comments

I hadn't been to concert in years and I was so amazingly excited to see Arcade Fire in concert friday. I was so excited I wasn't even going to let the predicted rain ruin it for me, despite the fact we had lawn seats where there would be no cover. Chris, Casey, Michael and I where in luck though because the concert hadn't sold out and a guy was walking around the lawn giving free upgrades to assigned seating.

At first I was hesitant about the seating, because I've always had more fun on the lawn (where there are giant screens the show is projected on) than spending more for nearly the same view of the stage (minus the big screens) but the upgrades were free and we moved as soon as the rain started.

And it started with a bang too. We have about one thunderstorm a year, though in the san francisco bay area that meant just two thunder strikes. The first strike as the rain started and another right as LCD Soundsystem was coming on stage. The rain ended a few minutes after they began playing for the most part held off so we could enjoy the show.

It turned out Michael and had heard more of LCD Soundsystem than the couple songs we knew and Arcade Fire was amazing live on stage.

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Transbay Terminal: We Have a Winner!

Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 1:09pm 0 comments

Last week an expert jury recommended the design by architectural firm Pelli Clarke Pelli as their choice to win the design competition for the grand new Transbay Terminal located in Downtown San Francisco.

Today it was made official and the design featuring a 1,200 foot skyscraper beside a three story terminal topped with a 5.4 acre park will become a reality. Brian was so excited, he called me with the news.

The park has been a centerpiece of the design and I got to thinking yesterday about the potential for the park to grow in the future if developers of surrounding properties built onto it with connecting roof gardens or just their own private entrance onto the new park.

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Free the Net

Saturday, September 15, 2007 at 9:09am 4 comments

Last month I volunteered with to help "Free the Net", sharing a little of my internet bandwidth with neighbors over a free citywide wifi network being built here in San Francisco by internet startup Meraki.

I came home from a bike ride last weekend to discover my Meraki Mini wifi repeater had arrived in the mail and for the last week I've been providing internet access for about a half dozen of my neighbors over the Meraki network.

It's a bit slow compared to my new Airport Extreme wifi network, but that uses the new (and not yet final) 802.11n wireless so I don't have much reason to switch over except to make sure its working right. Meraki also ads a small toolbar when I browse the web over their network, which I thought would be a distraction at first, but its not just annoying ads and mixes local ads (which link to reviews, not just the local shops and restaurants) and news headlines.

If I have a complaint, it's that I seem to see the same few ads over and over. I hope though they are able to cover the cost of keeping the network running and providing free repeaters to volunteers, because I like having this as a backup option if I need to access a wireless hotspot somewhere or my own DSL ever goes down and I need to get online.

You can sign up with Meraki to get a free repeater and either share a bit of your internet or just help boost the signal by putting a repeater in your window, but to just use the network is free. All you have to do is look for the "Free the Net" wifi network with your computer.

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Transbay Jury Picks a Favorite Design for Tower and Terminal Buildings

Monday, September 10, 2007 at 2:09pm 0 comments

The panel of experts assembled to recommend a design for the new Transbay Terminal has made it's choice for the design of the new landmark tower and replacement of the original terminal building, an outdated and dilapidated concrete box from the 1930's.

The jury selected the Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects proposal, with a tower that gently tapers inward as it goes up, and tops the long, low terminal building in downtown with a 5.4 acre park. I was partial to the Rogers Stirk Harbour from what I'd seen and read, but not in any way disappointed by the recommendation, which will now go to the Transbay Joint Power Authority for their decision.

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iPod Touch is Missing an E-mail App

Wednesday, September 5, 2007 at 9:09pm 15 comments

After Steve Jobs finished his big speech introducing the iPod Touch, there was some talk around Six Apart Headquarters about it lacking in storage (my three year old iPod stores 40GB) capacity, bluetooth, phone capability, etc.

Not to say it isn't still cool, that iPhone screen is beautiful and in just the few months since then, they have crafted a new dock with visual depth, clearer text and icons which are so much more distinct. And then there is the fact you can browse the web because it has both wi-fi and Safari built right in. How cool is that?

Well, that is cool and all, but when you think of the iPod Touch as a PDA or a mobile internet device, with access to the web, your address book, and calendar, one of the four pillars of the internets becomes noticeable for the fact it isn't there. Yep, e-mail.

Since it uses wi-fi it won't always be connected to the internet, but reading and composing e-mail off line isn't exactly a foreign concept. If any company can make the outbox as invisible as possible it would be Apple.

iPod Touch could probably be the killer PDA, and not just a killer iPod, if Apple adds a mail application. For now though, I think I'm going to hang onto my black and white, 40GB iPod for a while yet.

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The Sound of Silence

Tuesday, September 4, 2007 at 10:09am 0 comments

It was quite at the Ferry Building yesterday. Not just because it was Labor Day and many of the stalls were closed down, the Emperor Norton Bay Bridge had been shut down for the entire weekend in order to replace a section of roadway.

Without 12 lanes of honking traffic echoing overhead, it was quite enough to hear all the other ambient noise like the water splashing on the piers, boats in the water and just all the people around laughing and talking.

It's too bad the Bay Bridge doesn't get shut down more often.

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Upgrades

Monday, September 3, 2007 at 8:09am 0 comments

Last night I upgraded to Movable Type 4.0. That's the software which runs this site and I've been eager for it since even the earliest, and still rough, of betas because of the new features it offered.

The upgrade itself took no time, and it didn't take very long to add links to my site as well. This is something I've been wanting to do for a while since, while I only write about one entry a week, I come across at least one link a day worth posting, but which doesn't need more than maybe a sentence or two written about it. Under the new Movable Type user interface, it took maybe 30-45 minutes to set the whole thing up and now you'll find links mixed in on the home page with my normal entries.

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