Technology
It is easy to think of hackers as criminals. It’s intuitive, maybe because of Hollywood’s depiction of hackers as invasive, ninja-like evil geniuses, who can download all of your personal data in a few minutes and ruin your life.
The East Bay Economic Development Alliance celebrated creativity and innovation at its first annual awards ceremony Thursday. The event, held in Oakland at the Fox Theater, honored East Bay organizations that do work in the fields of clean technology, advanced manufacturing, food, information and communication technology, life sciences, engineering, design and education.
Ever find yourself frustrated with the back and forth group messaging, conference calling and group emailing that often precede decision-making in small groups? An Oakland-based startup seeks to end that with a social decision making application they say is designed to deliver “social democracy” in group decision making, based on a concept they call dynamic voting. From small-group decisions about whether to watch the Oakland Raiders or the San Francisco 49ers to more complex political decisions about whether Barack Obama…
From his dark, cramped second floor office, David Sarber looks out a narrow window to the sales floor below, surveying the final days of the business his family has run for some 50 years. A large sign outside reads: “LIQUIDATION SALE Everything Must Go.” After opening in 1961 and coming to Montclair Village in Oakland in 1964, Sarber’s Cameras will close up shop at the end of January.
Held at the Oakland History Room on Sunday, this was the first History Edit-a-thon, which is about to become a regular weekly event. The meeting was organized by Oaklandwiki.org as a way to generate more content for the fledgling site—a collaborative project that seeks to collect all things Oakland into one easily navigable website that any user can edit.
The Crucible’s second Hot Couture: A Fusion of Fashion and Fire will run on Friday and Saturday evenings, January 11 and 12. The show features works created by nine teams of fashion designers and artists who have partnered to make fashion pieces out of industrial arts materials.
A few years ago, developers Garrett Dodge and Ketu Patel were working on a mobile app called Fido Factor, which helps dog lovers find canine-friendly parks and stores. But then one night at a bar Patel realized there was a bigger problem that needed solving. “One of the things that Ketu had noticed was that when you’re using a jukebox, it’s kind of a pain in the ass to walk across the bar and go use that while your friends…
Sounds of Christmas music, cheering and motorcycles at the Oakland Parade seeped through the windows of City Hall, but didn’t stop discussions on youth and technology, the freedom of information act and the digital divide in Oakland at the first annual CityCamp, organized by the OpenOakland brigade. Over 120 people, including programmers, city officials, bloggers and community members, attended the “unconference,” or interactive forum with topics of discussion that attendees themselves choose.
California voters passed Proposition 35 by 81 percent, but there is little agreement among law enforcement agencies, legal experts and sex workers about how the initiative will affect the sex industry, especially with regard to the owners of indoor places of work like brothels, escort services and massage parlors.