4 posts and columns on Castro

BoomTown as Judge Judy, Um, Judge BigApps

in News on October 13, 2010 at 2:37 am PT

With All Things Digital Global HQ located in the heart of the Castro in San Francisco, BoomTown tries hard not to judge–even that dude who likes to come into the Starbucks naked. But I made an exception to be a judge for an innovative civic geek contest that New York City is doing for the second year called BigApps 2.0, opening up a whole mess of government information and letting software developers have at it. And how much do you want to bet there will be a bed-bug app submitted this year?

Palm Pre: The Big Day …

in News on June 6, 2009 at 11:03 am PT

The Palm Pre officially went on sale this morning, and judging from initial reports–and my experience at a local northern California Sprint store–neither demand or supply was particularly overwhelming. Certainly, lines for the device were far shorter than those that extended from Apple stores for the launches of the iPhone and the iPhone 3G. Arriving outside my local Sprint store about an hour after they first opened, I found not a queue of eager Pre-buyers, but two kids making forts out of a few Pre shipping boxes left outside the store.
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Kara Visits Offbeat Guides!

in News on May 15, 2009 at 4:12 am PT

This week, I went on a trek to downtown San Francisco–from ATD HQ, located in the wilds of the Castro–to visit David Sifry, the jovial Web entrepreneur who recently launched Offbeat Guides. The San Francisco-based start-up makes “personalized, up-to-date travel guides that cover over 30,000 travel destinations, using a combination of search technology and curation by both amateur and professional travel experts.” In other words, on-demand travel books with a touch of humanity.
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Yahoo's New Marketing Push: Purple Rain! (Actually, Purple Pain.)

in News on September 16, 2008 at 12:14 am PT

First off, as Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski pointed out to me today, you have to give Yahoo props for using Gogol Bordello as the soundtrack and–more to the point–actually knowing about Gogol Bordello in the first place. “Since when does [Yahoo CEO Jerry] Yang listen to gypsy punk?” asked Paczkowski in an email to me today. Since Bill Gates started eating churros with Jerry Seinfeld and adjusting his skivvies hands-free, that’s when! Oh dear, Yahoo has succumbed to the hipster, ironic thing–an unfortunate marketing virus that has hit Microsoft of late, too–in an under-the-covers “Start Wearing Purple” online marketing campaign.