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The Commissioner of Baseball on Monday announced a new committee devoted to determining the viability of baseball in the East Bay. In his statements Commissioner Bud Selig said that the A's owners have exhausted their efforts in Oakland. But really, they have not. Here's an example in this plan for a new Coliseum baseball stadium on the parking lot land of the facility. The plan, created by architect Frank Dobson and Retail Leasing expert Bob Leste with Oaklander Steve Lowe was first introduced in 2004 and while it was presented to the then-new ownership group and A's Managing Partner Lew Wolff, it went largely ignored by them. Wolff was known to be in love with a concept called a baseball village and needed a lot of land to make that work, hence the Fremont land chase. But the idea called for hundreds of acres of land, more than the A's organization could afford given the economy and so needing public money turned to Fremont, which turned a deaf ear to their request. W

No sooner after San Francisco Chronicle Columnist Chip Johnson wrote that California Senator Don Perata's running for Mayor of Oakland  , did the written attacks start and right on SF Gate's website.  Here's what's been written in the comment section of Carla Marinucci's column : georgedb 3/31/2009 7:37:49 AM Great. One more 'career' politician as mayor of Oakland. The residents should be just thrilled. Recommend:     ( 10 ) ( 1 ) [Report Abuse] moto1 3/31/2009 8:15:11 AM Sweet! Another criminal in office. Recommend:     ( 5 ) ( 1 ) [Report Abuse] moto1 3/31/2009 8:17:48 AM Isn't that the guy who's wheels were stolen after he stole them from taxpayers? Recommend:     ( 7 ) ( 1 ) [Report Abuse] historybuff 3/31/2009 8:23:03 AM Don Perata has been investigated but never charged; a person is presumed innocent until found guilty by a jury. While not perfect, Perata is at least highly competent and would be a vast improvement over Dell

I had to post this because it's a classic example of not taking responsibility for something you did wrong.  The online backup company Carbonite r eportedly lost a lot of client information  : the data of over 7,500 of its customers who trusted it (past tense now) to keep their information in a protected area of cyberspace: a cloud they developed and around which their company is built. Now as long as I've been at this I've always got an earful about "backing up your data" so I would think a company like Carbonite, which is entrusted with protecting data, would be backing up the data they're charged with protecting.  Right? Right? No.  They lost the only data copies they had online, and so now are -- get this -- suing the hardware makers!  If you think that's funny (strange), so do many in the blogsphere, who think as I do.  Take a look at these comments over at TechCrunch  : 1) What happens when you get burgled? We got burgled last week and they t

I just spotted the " Don Perata For Mayor " Facebook Group, which as of this writing has just 23 members.  With time it may ramp-up, but just how much and how long is a gauge of Perata's popularity assuming of course the creator knows what he's doing in promoting the site. If another Facebook Group pops up with someone running for Mayor and it has more members, that's a reflection on what could happen should Perata run for Mayor of Oakland. Ok.  Who's in it?  A lot of folks I know.  Here's a sample... Russ Giuntini John Protopappas Robert Harmala Cynthia Lee Phillip Tagami Dan Rush Richard Tamor Now what's interesting is who's not on it.  I don't see John Russo or Aimee Aillson for example.  And the people listed already know each other.  OK, why am I not on it?  I'm not yet sold on Perata as Mayor of Oakland.  Love Don personally, but can he be the change agent Oakland needs?  I talked to one activist

According to SFist -- I didn't feel a thing because I was sleeping after working until just about 4:30 in the morning -- there was a 4.4 Richter Scale Earthquake today.  Here's the details: Magnitude 4.4 - duration magnitude (Md) Time Monday, March 30, 2009 at 10:40:29 AM (PDT) Monday, March 30, 2009 at 17:40:29 (UTC) Distance from Morgan Hill, CA - 18 km (11 miles) N (7 degrees) Seven Trees, CA - 19 km (12 miles) E (91 degrees) Alum Rock, CA - 20 km (13 miles) ESE (117 degrees) San Jose City Hall, CA - 25 km (16 miles) ESE (104 degrees) Coordinates 37 deg. 17.1 min. N (37.285N), 121 deg. 37.2 min. W (121.620W) Depth 6.2 km (3.9 miles)

Come out April 21st from 6 PM to 9 PM at the Jewish Community Center for "A Night With The Stars" at 3200 California, Street, San Francisco. Call 415-929-2470 x 304 for more information.

I went to the San Francisco Game Developer Conference with my friend Sierra Choi (who did some executive producing work of the whole event) and after the end, I met her to talk about the GDC and -- my idea -- to enjoy a nice day outside at Cafe Americano on the Embarcadero. As we were in the cab we talked about the GDC, Alternernative Reality Games, and Sierra's ego (LOL!) Sierra sees ARG's as not games, which is where we disagree. The point is that any game is designed to get you the player to do something. That's the case with ARG's. Sierra thinks that's more social psychology but my explaination is that concern is central to game making. Again, getting a person to "do a thing" is a central tenant of game making.

This Chicago Police Department car was spotted in San Francisco  after the Oakland funeral for the four murdered Oakland Police officers. According to the blogger "AVCR8TEUR": Many of you might have read about the tragic shooting death of four Oakland police officers last week. This past Friday, police department representatives from all over the world attended the memorial service held at Oakland's Oracle Arena. Eight representatives from the Chicago Police Department drove 38 hours through a snowstorm in Wyoming to Oakland to show their support. The spotting of police from around the country happened to this blogger, too.  While at a new sports bar called "Players" in San Francisco, I met six members of the Boston Police Department who, while they didn't want to be on video, did give me an honorary badge!   Thanks BPD!

More at Oakland Tribune : “Retaliation for a shooting two days earlier appears to be the motive for a shooting Friday in West Oakland in which one woman was killed and another wounded by someone who shot at them from a pickup truck, police said. The dead woman was identified as Giovanna Warren, 24, of Oakland. The name of the other woman, who was in critical but stable condition Saturday, was not released. Police said she was a 22-year-old Oakland resident.”

From KCRATV - "Taps" was played and a prayer was offered Friday at a funeral for four slain Oakland police officers at Oracle Arena.

From KCRATV - California Attorney General Jerry Brown on Friday praised Oakland police during a funeral for four slain officers at Oracle Arena.

From KCRATV - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday spoke at a funeral for four slain Oakland police officers at Oracle Arena.

From KCRATV - Lt. Anthony Banks honors his friend, Sgt. Mark Dunakin, at a funeral Friday for Dunakin and three other Oakland police officers killed in the line of duty last weekend.