"This is inevitable -- Wi-Fi. It is long overdue," [mayor] Newsom told a news conference at San Francisco's City Hall. "It is to me a fundamental right to have access universally to information," he said.

I love San Francisco. Only there, could free WiFi be considered a natural right.

Wanted: A picture of a homeless person on Market Street with an Apple Powerbook, smiling at the camera.

"Fuck food and shelter, I got WiFi!!"

Reuters | Newsom sees wireless service as basic right

] Why Pirate Radio Is Currently Legal
]
] Thanks to George Bush for declaring the "War Against
] Terrorism" and U.S. Code of Federal Regulations title 47
] section 73.3542, it is now technically legal to operate a
] radio transmitter with out a formal license.

Pirate Cat Radio is a pirate station here in the bay area. 87.9 is the best thing on the airwaves. They are also streaming so folks can listen from anywhere. (The stream appears to be broken.)

--~}-Pirate Cat Radio 8.79 fm-{~-

(Do you think WebMD and Eli Lily would be willing [and able] to provide 30 days of free Prozac for an entire state? We may soon know ...)

California has been suffering ... Even good news is bad news. ... California is a famously rewarding source of drive-by anthropology. ... In truth this great freak show of a state embodies all the generalizations and defies them, depending on which valley you visit. ... Bright young techies are voting with their U-Hauls ... Optimists will tell you that Silicon Valley has always been cyclical ...

"Failure is an essential part of our ecosystem," said Paul Saffo, a Menlo Park technology forecaster. "It's like a forest fire burning space for new growth." [Saffo runs the Institute for the Future.]

[A recent opinion poll expressed] "a wish that things will be O.K. ... I don't want to call it denial, but it is not really sustainable."

In a State of Denial