san francisco

With its hilly terrain, dense urban population, and plenty of government red tape, San Francisco already is a difficult place for cell phone carriers to build new antennas. But that process could become even more complicated if the city approves new aesthetics restrictions for antenna installation on public property.

Under the Personal Wireless Service Facility Site Permits Ordinance (PDF), introduced Tuesday by SF Supervisor John Avalos, antenna applicants would have to consider the visual impact of any new installations. The city could also reject applications based on that factor alone.

Jonas Ionin, senior planner for the San Francisco Planning Department, … Read more

The San Francisco Bay Area is set to receive $5 million to install charging stations for electric vehicles throughout the area, the Department of Energy announced Wednesday.

The $5 million will cover the installation of 50 fast-charging EV stations along highways, 2,000 public stations for public parking lots and participating company-owned parking lots, and 3,000 residential charging stations.

Approval for the funds came through last week from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board of Directors, a panel that oversees air quality concerns for the nine counties that make up the Bay Area. The funds will be … Read more

Zap's founder and director of research and development, Gary Starr says the future is here, all we have to do is plug in.

"The Zap approach is to make electric cars more cost effective and more comfortable," Starr said during a tour of the downtown Santa Rosa, Calif. showroom and factory on Monday.

If you're unfamiliar with with Zap's vehicles, don't feel bad. The car maker is right smack in the middle of Sonoma County, a Northern California region more known for its wine than its electric cars.

Truth is, Zap has been the … Read more

Industry groups naturally tend to protect their own, and after playing with San Francisco for several years the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) is now taking its ball and going home.

On Tuesday, the association said in a statement that it would no longer hold its autumn trade show in San Francisco after this year's event in October. CTIA, which represents the wireless industry in the United States, is not happy that the city's Board of Supervisors recently voted to require cell phone manufacturers (PDF) to display the specific absorption rate (SAR) for each handset sold.

"Rather than inform, the ordinance will potentially mislead consumers with point of sale requirements suggesting that some phones are 'safer' than others based on radio frequency emissions," the statement said. "In fact, all phones sold legally in the U.S. must comply with the Federal Communications Commission's safety standards for RF emissions. According to the FCC, all such compliant phones are safe phones as measured by these standards."

Though the CTIA is correct that a lower SAR phone isn't necessarily safer, it's ironic that in the process of accusing San Francisco of oversimplifying the issue, the CTIA is doing the exact same thing. Yes, all phones sold in the United States must conform to FCC standards (a SAR of 1.6 watts per kilogram or lower), but there is still no scientific consensus that cell phone radio frequency is or is not harmful. That's a fact CTIA should face, whether it likes it or not. … Read more

San Francisco appears poised to become the first city in the U.S. to require a cell phone makers to publicly display how much radiation their products emit.

On Tuesday, the city's board of supervisors voted 10-1 in favor of a new law that requires handset makers to post in stores their products' specific absorption rate (SAR), which is a measure of the amount of radio waves absorbed by the user's body. (See also: CNET's Quick Guide: Cell phone radiation levels)

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign the measure into law.

There's no … Read more

A former San Francisco network administrator was convicted Tuesday of hijacking the city's computer network and refusing to provide passwords to his superiors.

Terry Childs, who had worked at San Francisco's Department of Telecommunication Information Services for 10 years, was found guilty of a felony charge of denying computer access and faces a maximum state prison sentence of five years, according a San Francisco Chronicle report. Judge Teri Jackson is expected to factor in time already served for Childs, who has been in custody since July 2008.

Childs, 45, tampered with the city's Fiber Wide Area Network, … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Apparently, robot field goal kickers are pretty pathetic when it comes to talking trash.

That much was clear Monday morning during a placekicking face-off between San Francisco 49ers kicker Joe Nedney and Ziggy, a 340-pound combat robot. The two bitter rivals took the field at Kezar Stadium here, the original home of the 49ers, for nothing less than the victory stand in the never-ending battle between man and machine.

Ziggy arrived at Kezar first, and had already gotten in some good practice kicks when Nedney, decked out in his No. 6 Niners jersey, strode purposefully onto the perfectly manicured grass. And within minutes, the NFL kicker was already bringing it.

"It's pretty windy out here, Ziggy," Nedney taunted the robot as he booted a few practice balls through the yellow uprights about 35 yards away. "I'm expecting [Ziggy's ball] to fly over the top of the arch [far beyond the uprights] by the way you've been hyping it."

Through it all, Ziggy said nothing, seeming to prefer to let its kicking do the speaking. And that's generally the robot's style.

"You know, the robot is the strong, silent type," said Simone Davalos, one of the organizers of the RoboGames, the world's-largest robot competition, which takes place in San Mateo, Calif., this weekend. Nedney and Ziggy were on-hand here to do a little promotion for RoboGames.

'Oh, it's on' For Monday's competition, Nedney had agreed to the proposal to kick against Ziggy from CM Robotics, an Ottowa, Canada-based team of engineers. About five years ago, the team built Ziggy, not with beating pro-kickers in mind, but actually with the idea of launching 340-pound peers in the air in battle-to-the-death robot wars.

But after years of ruling the RoboGames roost, it was time for Ziggy to take on some new competition. And that's when CM Robotics came up with the idea for today's event. And for Nedney, it was an offer he couldn't refuse.

"I got challenged," Nedney said. "I can't pass up a challenge."

The format for the day's gridiron festivities was simple.… Read more

I can't decide if this is brilliant or ridiculous.

A few minutes ago, I saw a tweet go by from @sf_giants, the official fans' Twitter account of the San Francisco Giants baseball team. "The Giants want to have the largest tweet-up in history! Check out this exclusive $20 tweet-up only for Giants followers," it read.

One the one hand, if you say you're doing something like the "largest tweet-up in history," that's sure to get my attention. On the other, if you follow that up by saying that it's going to cost … Read more

A fleet of fuel-efficient taxis on the streets of San Francisco have reduced gas consumption in the city by 2.9 million gallons per year and lowered greenhouse gas emissions by 35,000 tons annually, the equivalent of taking 4,700 passenger cars off the road.

When Mayor Gavin Newsom sponsored a green taxi law in 2008 requiring San Francisco cab companies to lower their greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, many said the goal was impossible to achieve. But flanked by a collection of green cabs in front of City Hall on Monday, Newsom announced … Read more