oakland

Telerobotics helps sick teen toss a baseball 1,800 miles

There are some baseball players known for their strong arms, but a lot of people probably stood up and took notice when 13-year-old Nick LeGrande threw a baseball 1,800 miles today.

Before you scoff at the physical impossibility of such a notion, take solace in the fact that technology was very much behind LeGrande's feat, telerobotics to be precise. The Kansas City, Mo., teen, who suffers from severe aplastic anemia, a rare blood disease, threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Oakland A's-New York Yankees game in Oakland, Calif., tonight. … Read more

AT&T cuts frequency on cell towers that jammed police radios

AT&T has temporarily disabled a frequency emitted by 16 towers that were found to be interfering with police and firefighter radio communications in Oakland, Calif., the San Francisco Chronicle reported today.

The towers were causing radio failures, particularly when a police car was within a quarter to half a mile of one of them, said David Cruise, Oakland's public safety systems adviser.

After the U.S. Federal Communications Commission confirmed the interference, AT&T shut down the 850MHz frequency for 2G customers on the towers last Friday, but the carrier left the 1,900MHz and 700MHz … Read more

Anonymous targets Oakland city officials

Oakland city officials, meet Anonymous.

In response to what it claims is a series of community-busting moves by the California city's leaders and police, such as Occupy Oakland-related arrests and crackdowns, budget cutting and school, park, and library closings unaccompanied by City Hall salary cuts, the hacktivist group today released a document containing personal data on a number of officials.

"Anonymous has been watching," the group wrote on Facebook. "Since the inception of Occupy Oakland, we have been actively monitoring your behavior and exposing the identities and sensitive information of Officers of the Oakland Police Department; … Read more

Is Bleacher Report ready for some football?

SAN FRANCISCO--The Super Bowl takes place in just over 72 hours, and Brian Grey and his lieutenants are trying to plan what is by far their most important day of the year.

Grey is the CEO of Bleacher Report, one of the largest sports Web sites in the U.S., and a place nearly 26 million people visited in January for the latest insights into their favorite teams.

Unlike many sports publications, Bleacher Report doesn't concentrate on breaking news with a team of paid writers. Instead, it relies on sports enthusiasts around the country and the world who are … Read more

Zipcar launches San Francisco van program

Zipcar just launched Zipvan, a pilot cargo-van program, in San Francisco. Now, Bay Area Zipcar members can use a Ford E-150 cargo van for $14.75 per hour, or $99 per day.

Behind the driver and front passenger seats, the cargo vans offer 230 cubic feet of space--enough room for a queen-size mattress, band equipment, or a few pieces of furniture from IKEA.

The new Zipvan service will launch in January 2012 with 15 vehicles, at locations in San Francisco and Oakland. Initial Zipcar locations offering cargo-van service include: Market Street at 15th Street, 14th Street at Stevenson Street, and … Read more

Hackers target Oakland police after Occupy protest

As Occupy Wall Street protesters continued to rally in Oakland, Calif., hackers today targeted the Web site for the city's police department and offered a $1,000 reward for information on police action that appears to have left a protester injured.

Contact information, schedules, badge numbers, and other information about Oakland Police Department officers was posted to a public Pastebin page. Meanwhile, the department's Web site also was down temporarily this morning, according to SC Magazine.

"The time has come to retaliate against Oakland police via all non-violent means, beginning with doxing (releasing of documents and data) … Read more

The 404 675: Where we watch Katy Perry on COED Magazine (podcast)

COED Magazine produces sexy (but SFW!) content that makes a perfect match for CNET's The 404 Podcast, so we're excited to have Editor-in-Chief Stephen Gebhardt in the guest chair today to chat about the genesis of COED Mag, a scourge of suggestive Katy Perry GIFs, 15 signs you're an Internet weirdo, and "Back to the Future" returning to movie theaters! As you might've guessed, Wilson spends the entire episode shaking his head and fielding calls from the FCC.

COED Magazine is a comprehensive Web publication that caters to a lot of different interests like MMA, sports, tech news, and media, but you can guess the main focus of a Web site with "COED" in the name (queue Wilson scrambling to remove screenshots from the video recording).

Stephen tells us that Katy Perry is driving a ton of traffic to the site, thanks to her appearance on SNL and her cleavage-filled appearance on "Sesame Street." To cash in on her fame, COED presents the 15 most suggestive Katy Perry animated GIFs. If you're like us, these are sure to end your workday productivity, so don't say we didn't warn you.

We also enjoyed this article on the 15 signs you're an Internet weirdo, but mostly because almost all of them apply to The 404 in one host or another. For example, #10: You can't go five minutes without checking your e-mail obviously applies to Wilson, while #1 You play games more hours per week than you work at an actual job sounds like Jeff, and me? Well, it might be easier to read the list and guess which don't sound like something I'd do in the privacy of my own browser.

There's plenty more fun on today's episode with Stephen Gebhardt, including a list of 10 movies about video games that don't suck and some news about "Back to the Future," so enjoy the episode and follow along at COED Magazine!

Episode 675 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS VideoRead more

Billy Beane's video game pitch: You, too, can be a baseball GM

OAKLAND, Calif.--For the countless of devotees of rotisserie and fantasy baseball, there's a whole new game in town.

On Tuesday, 2K Sports will release its MLB Front Office Manager, and for those addicted to the stat-heavy pastime of running fantasy leagues, being a Major League Baseball general manager may never get closer.

The new game--which is unlike any baseball video game I've ever seen--has perhaps the perfect pitchman, Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane. For those not familiar with him, the game probably won't mean much, since as the main subject of Michael Lewis' hit … Read more

Web videos of Oakland shooting fuel protests

More than 100 people were arrested in downtown Oakland on Wednesday night when a protest turned violent, fueled at least in part by videos that quickly spread online of a subway policeman fatally shooting an unarmed man while he was lying on the ground restrained by another officer.

The case--and the overall intense community response to it--highlights the impact technology can have on news events. The devices people carry in their pockets give them the ability to turn what would normally be a case played out in the courtroom into one in which anyone with an Internet connection can serve … Read more

Mark Cuban should remember he's a geek and welcome back bloggers

Technology and new media made Mark Cuban a billionaire.

Why would the founder of Broadcast.com and the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks force bloggers into a digital ghetto by limiting their access to his basketball team? Isn't he a card-carrying member of the digerati?

By banning bloggers from the Maverick's locker room, that's what he's doing, according to several journalism poobahs, including the Society of Professional Journalists.

The kerfuffle allegedly began when Tim MacMahon, who blogs for the Dallas Morning News, wrote something to the effect that the Mavs needed a new coach. … Read more