I highly recommend the following blogs:

SFist – Local San Francisco news and happenings
CurbedSF – San Francisco real estate
BoingBoing – Techie news for nerds, you know who you are
Gawker – Gossip and news for Manhattan, Silicon Valley (Valleywag) and beyond
Going Concern – Gossip for the accounting industry
Deal Breaker – Gossip for the banking industry

Thank you to all my readers and supporters over the years–your clicking the ads have helped keep the lights on.

“The potential intrusion on informational privacy involved in a police search of a person‟s mobile phone, smartphone or handheld computer is unique among searches of an arrestee’s person and effects.”

I have to agree with the fact that a cell phone can contain as much information as a full filing cabinet that you would keep in your home. If you need a warrant to open a filing cabinet, then I would argue that you need a warrant to see the contents of the cell phone. And you just know that cops will abuse this and search cell phones before making the decision to arrest you.

The best protection is to turn on encryption and the auto lock timer feature so that your phone locks automatically when not in use. Sure, it’s a pain in the ass to put in your password every single time, but your privacy is worth it in the long run should you ever be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

According to this article, the House of Shields bar reopened last night and I will be stopping by there later today to check it out for myself. The big rumor is that there are no televisions there, which is a throwback to the days when the bar was established back in 1908. That means that you should be able to hear your friends speak.

The House of Shields is a San Francisco institution that you have to check out. It’s located at 39 New Montgomery, just South of Market Street.

Meg Whitman has a bunch of ads that claim that she came to California 30 years ago because it was so effing awesome back then. Well, someone at the Jerry Brown campaign remembered that Jerry Brown was the governor 30 years ago (see awesome ad below). Zing! Thank you, Meg Whitman, you just helped your opponent make his best argument: “I have been governor and you have not.” Game. Set. Match. Adios.

An old man decided to climb the Millennium Tower and cause all kinds of traffic ruckus yesterday. The reason for all this craziness? “To dramatize the vulnerability of skyscrapers to terrorism and his own fight against cancer.” Uh, so now we are all informed: skyscrapers are vulnerable. Oh wait, that’s right, there was this small event called 9/11 which really dramatized the vulnerability of skyscrapers a few years back.

Have you heard of that old man?! We don’t need you to tell us skyscrapers are vulnerable. Other ways people learn skyscrapers are vulnerable: getting stuck in elevators and spitting (or being hit by spit) from the top of buildings. We really don’t need your assistance to understand the effects of gravity. And cancer. Almost everyone knows someone that has died from cancer. Unless you have a new rare Ostrich Ass Crack virus that you picked up and needs attention, please keep your feet firmly planed on the ground.

Also, if you want to impress us, you need to free climb the building like Alain Robert. You used suction cups. Suction cups!? How are we supposed to take you seriously buddy? I mean c’mon!! Needless to say, most people in The City didn’t appreciate the street closure, extra traffic and emergency vehicles. You are just plain lucky the residents in the building gave you water out of their windows instead of trying to take you out Crazy Climber style with a flower pot. Thanks for nothing and enjoy jail.

You should know the one day a month when Critical Mass is taking place (last Friday of every month). You should know when parades (Folsom Street, Haight Street Festival, Gay Pride), races (Bay to Breakers, SF Marathon, AIDS Walk), and street closures (JFK in Golden Gate Park on Sundays, filming downtown) are happening to avoid being stuck in traffic. The days when these events are happening are walking days, period. Only advanced drivers should attempt to drive around major events while they are taking place.

Send your friends a link to Derek’s tips next time they come into The City and check the event schedule while you are at it. If there is a parade or major event that day, just tell them to take BART or MUNI coming in. Good luck drivers!

Via xkcd.

However, Wired failed to account for the growth of Internet traffic during the same period. There millions of web pages created every single day. Just because the size of these web pages is small in comparison to video doesn’t take away the fact that more web pages are created than videos posted every single day. Also, the idea that video is *not* part of web traffic is a bit silly, since YouTube is alas a website on the web and responsible for majority of the video traffic on the Internet.

Taking into account the growth in traffic, the graph should look like this:

Yeah, I don’t think we need to worry about the death of the web any time soon. The growth isn’t even slowing down yet. Perhaps in an alternate universe where publishing to the Internet is limited to a select group of people the Web is dead, but not here.

Via BoingBoing.

Update: Here’s a link to SFGate’s great photos of the event as well.