The video below, which has been circulating on local tech blogs of late, highlights a beer-pouring invention from a company based in Montesano, Washington, that will have owners of Tipsy McFratterson-type college bars clamoring to place an order. Craft beer purists, however, might cringe in horror. more ›

Microsoft has caught some flak for trailing behind (far behind) Apple in producing a tablet computer that can compete with the popular iPad. However the New York Times is reporting that CEO Steve Ballmer will announce details about Microsoft's own slate-like devices next month, at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, to be precise. more ›

This week we learned Tech Crunch's outspoken, oft disliked blogging mastermind Michael Arrington has moved to Seattle - about 3 months after openly stating that Seattle pales in comparison to Silicon Valley in tech relevance. "If you don’t think you have what it takes to make it in Silicon Valley, maybe Seattle or other mini-tech hubs is the place for you." He proceeds to explain that Seattle is great ...we've got nature and culture and a wonderful lifestyle! But that those are selling points for pansies, people that don't have what it takes to commit 110% of their life to grinding at innovation. So sure, it's not shocking that we haven't exactly welcomed him with open arms. more ›

Now you can get your Seattlest fix when you're on the gogogo! We're happy to announce the launch of Istaverse, the new iPhone app from the Gothamist Network. The app is an aggregate of all the city blogs and their most recent posts. You can select Seattle (and it remembers on relaunch) and get the latest content, in addition to browsing what's new in all the ist cities across this big bad country. more ›

Anyone that has worked for, with, or anywhere near "the man" should dislike the word ping. It's too easy to immediately associate the word with a bothersome, middle aged project manager saying, "Let me look into that and I'll ping you." Why can't you just say email? Why? more ›

The Washington state Department of Information Services has chosen Binghoo! to serve as the search engine for the state's website, says TechFlash. But the DIS spokesperson claims it wasn't about snuggling up to Microsoft: "the bottom line was to get the best search engine we can get." Seriously? What were your fucking metrics? Bing is almost two months old, and Google's search dominance is unquestioned. (We're fine with them picking Binghoo!, btw--just try to be proud of it.) We note that this is the same DIS that thinks access.wa.gov is a better URL than wa.gov. That "access" makes all the difference--it's...um..."accessier." more ›

This was Google's first attempt at a public meetup (they're doing meetups in several cities), and no one really knew what to expect. It turned out to be a fairly informal happy hour--Googlers circled the room wearing nametags (see Exhibit A, right) and you'd just flag one down and say something like, "So, like, explain this API thing to me." more ›

• Playground purse snatcher on the loose! A woman reported her purse stolen today at 11:30 a.m. from West Seattle Gatewood Elementary. A young man (late teens/early 20s) jumped out of a car, ran into the park, and grabbed the purse---which was sitting on the ground near the woman.
• The next bus King County Metro purchases should come with spell check, because "Freemont" is inexcusable.

Seattle is the 24th richest city in the world, behind Madrid, Detroit, and Toronto. It is the 7th most Twittering city. We're 50th, worldwide, in terms of quality of life, outranked by Honolulu and San Francisco. And we're 5th in the list of the top 100 U.S. tech centers. But since Fast Company has called Seattle the most creative city of 2009, if you look down, you'll probably see a shark. more ›

Seattlest went to Ignite way back in '06 and loved the shit out of it: "We learned so much about happenings in and around the Seattle tech world we feel like we leveled up like twenty times." more ›

Tech Flash got curious about Microsoft's new budget-conscious laptop shopper ad and did a specs comparison with a Mac, but they didn't cover one area that people will pay lots of money for, which is quality and customer service. more ›

We can't remember now if it was on Lie to Me or The Mentalist, but on one of them, they mentioned that an indication that someone's lying (or doesn't have confidence in what they're saying) is when they repeat a question verbatim. That's why we smiled a little reading this quote from Microsoft's Gavriella Schuster on TechFlash: "One of the things customers have been asking me is, 'If I make an investment in Windows Vista today, is it a throwaway investment?' And the answer is no. It's not a throwaway investment." more ›

So is January 15, 2009, Microsoft's Black Thursday? Something called Fudzilla is claiming they have Microsoft staff tipping them to a cut of 15,000 employees (so long, MSN), which is about 17 percent of Microsoft's 90,000 total. This isn't coming from nowhere: apparently Microsoft was advised to make a 10 percent cutback in staff to show investors that people's livelihoods weren't as important as a short-term, 10 percent earnings gain. Ever since, the FUD has been swirling. Closer to home, Mini Microsoft has the complete roundup of layoff leaks, rumors, and innuendo, from "nothing's happening," to "it's a re-org," to "hey, if you work on Office, you're golden." more ›

Adobe pink slips started arriving this afternoon, says the Unofficial Apple Weblog. Back in mid-November Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said, "People call this a financial crisis a lot more on the East Coast, but Silicon Valley will emerge stronger and cash flow is not a challenge for us. We have a very strong balance sheet and very deep franchises." So far the Twitter "Black Wednesday" reports are out of California; anyone have news on how this has hit Fremont? more ›

A tipster tells us of a rumor that Apple is moving into the old Sharper Image digs downtown, substantiated by a "We're Hiring" post on Monster that mentions a 98101 ZIP code. We've asked our iPhone for comment, but so far we've gotten nothing and we're afraid to try waterboarding. Meanwhile, TechFlash is chronicling Microsoft's Live Search Cashback debacle, in which a promised 40 percent discount on HP products failed to materialize. Live Search query volume "has actually declined 7.8% since last year." Let's see how this "Step Two: Create Thousands of Angry Customers" strategy works. more ›

Zondervan, "a world leader in Christian communications," says it's just bought Mars Hill's social-networking, community-building software The City (we prefer "Christbook"), which was the brainchild of ex-Amazonian Zack Hubert. Now Zondervan will roll the software out to online churched-up types all over, hoping to recreate the Mars Hill experience: "Mars Hill launched The City earlier this year to create a dynamic, engaging interactive online community for its more than 7,000 members. Within two months of launch more than 85% of the church's members had signed up and more than 75% visit the site every single day." That daily Bible reading plan must be a doozy. more ›

TechFlash reports that the list of downsizing Seattle start-ups--Avelle, Intrepid Learning, AdReady, PayScale, and Redfin--has a new member. Jobster, which underwent some widely blogged about shrinkage last year, is saying goodbye to another 15 staff. With terrific understatement, John Cook notes that Jobster "has tested a number of different business concepts since it was founded in 2004," and says that it now is all about "online recruiting software that helps companies manage job prospects." If only the software had a reverse switch, you know, so you could just flip that and manage layoffs instead. That would be a huge seller right now. more ›

Only Microsoft could send people fleeing from a free product. But users are abandoning Redmond's free Hotmail service, and they were leaving before the new interface that's got everyone else pissed off: says the P-I, "among the major Web-based mail providers in the United States, Windows Live Hotmail was the only one to experience a fall in traffic in September." (Gmail gained 26K unique visitors, in contrast.) Undeterred, Microsoft is playing stern dad, and forcefully upgrading laggard "classic" users to the new Hotmail interface, like it or not. Ironically, Todd Bishop over at TechFlash has been catching flack from Microsofties for his temporary Gmail address. That's Hotmail's problem! Todd Bishop! more ›

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"Mac vs. PC" by Etchasketchist, with permission. Cool! more ›

The film runs through January 17 at SIFF Cinema, and at its heart is a statement that might read something like this, from the blog Asperger Square 8:

The idea of supporting people rather than trying to force them into those behaviors the majority can more comfortably tolerate, the correctness of this seems so very self-evident, I often forget what a radical concept it is, how much we are sometimes hated for expressing it.

The only responsible note in "Billy the Kid" is that when Billy checks out multiple books on serial killers from his school library, someone has the sense to make an issue of it. You don't want to wish that the same librarian had worked at Virginia Tech, but the thought certainly crosses your mind.

We love lists. Which is why we're a little sad that we didn't know about Amazon.com's UnSpun until we read The Paper Noose's post on Georgetown's place in the Top "Hip" Neighborhoods to Live in Seattle, WA. There's nothing we love better than completely arbitrary lists with no discernible criteria beyond kneejerk personal opinion -- except maybe passing them along. According to UnSpun users, the top 10 "hip" neighborhoods are: 1. Capitol Hill (surprise,... more ›

Deep breaths, Seattlest. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Again. Good. The University of Washington isn't taking a tire iron to the knees of students over file-sharing, although it seemed that way in the Vice Provost for Student Life's email yesterday. Probably should have run that missive by a few people before hitting the spam button there, Vice Provost. Not that news of the university's compliance with the RIAA's demands wouldn't cause consternation in some circles regardless of pillowy language... more ›

Spring practice is underway (the Huskies start April 9), so here's an early look at the Pac-10 in 2007 more ›

Washington State 70, Oral Roberts 54: Oral Roberts was the trendy upset pick--nearly 25% of ESPN users expected Wazzu to Coug it (by comparison, less than 5% had #3-seed Oregon losing)--but our faith in Wazzu didn't waver. Though it was close at halftime, we predicted that Wazzu would play their typical strangling defense to open the second half, and they proved us right, holding O-Rob to one field goal in the first six minutes of period two. The Cougs won going away. Wazzu continued their terrific offensive efficiency, committing only six (!) turnovers. Only Bobby Knight's Texas Tech Red Raiders committed as few on the tourney's first day, which should give you some insight into how good a coach Tony Bennett is. more ›

This morning we noticed that someone had dumped some Ultra detergent into the fountain at Cal Anderson Park, which made a bunch of pretty foam, but which perturbed us because we weren't sure if that was getting into our drinking water. The park, as you might already know, is basically a very cool lid for the reservoir that sits underneath it. more ›

NE 52nd Street, University District, Seattle more ›

--Notable Project Runway personnel who have not yet signed a contract for the show's fourth season: Tim Gunn. more ›

In a piece last month, we called Fresno State, a team that lost to Nevada, Tulsa, and Louisana Tech last year, "not that good." Soon, the comment box was teeming with the indignation of uppity Fresno State fans, broadcasting their inferiority complexes widely by calling our piece "stupid ass" and "illogical." more ›

With the Husky football starting this weekend, we thought it would be a good time to preview the season. Helping us out are our two college football experts and die-hard Husky fans, Happy Times Carl and Deputy Downer. more ›