Someone on the contribute page chided us about not covering this story, so here you go, folks: Redwood City's Electronic Arts, creator of such awesomeness as SimCity, The Sims, and Rock Band -- cut 1,500 jobs today, more than 16% of its workforce. The economy, and you might have guessed, is to blame. Chin up, (former) EA ilk. more ›

We know you're totally dying to find out what happened with some of the stories we told you about from San Mateo County a week or so ago. Dying! more ›

What is it with geeks and spicy food? RSA, the computer security company, and Electronic Arts are engaged in a friendly eat-off competition at the Prince of Wales pub in San Mateo to see which local company can eat the most of the pub's signature hot pepper hamburgers, which are about a hundred times hotter than an average jalapeno (made with peppers two times as hot as the kind you buy in stores). Last year, EA won and RSA came in fourth. more ›

It warms our red hearts to see workers marching here at home and around the world on International Workers' Day, otherwise known as May Day. Protests and demonstrations happened from Berlin to Indonesia, and while most were peaceful, there were scuffles with authorities. Here in the United States, the marches were to protest changes to immigration laws, and coincided with many businesses shuttering their doors as immigrant workers walked off their jobs. Marches were also held in solidarity with immigrants across the border in Mexico, where they celebrated "Un Dia Sin Gringos." more ›

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Josh Wolf captures the one, the only Frank Chu on tape. Listen and learn, people. Harder to capture is reclusive local author Laura Albert JT LeRoy. Also at large is the motherf**ker who vandalized Farmer John's coastside teepee. more ›

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It's been a while since our last Get Ur Geek On, so we've got a lot of hottness today and will use a bullet list, power-point style, because our attention spans have begun to shrivel in inverse proportion to our abdomen's expansion:
• Dan Gillmor, the last top tech writer standing at the San Jose Mercury News, has decided to leave the Knight-Ridder corporate family to become a 'Citizen Journalist.' Is that a fancy term for unemployed blogger? [From Slashdot]
• PowerLight, of Berkeley, has installed the world's largest solar array in warm, sunny Germany. SuperaffenT****nturbogeil, naturlick! [From SFgate]
• Apple can't keep up with demand for Mac computers, so you better get your butt down to the Apple Store and grab what you can, or your relationship will founder on the rocks of the iRiver. [From Cult of Mac]

And the saga continues. Electronic Arts seems to have pissed off one too many geeks, and now that this story has gone public details are beginning to emerge that don't look good for the world's leading video game maker. San Francisco's Schubert & Reed LLP will be representing an unknown number of employees in a class action lawsuit that contends Electronic Arts had wrongly classified a large number of artists and developers as exempt from overtime when, under state and federal law, they were not. In the meantime, Kotaku points out that EA is going after label Cherry Lane Music and jokes that they're "just looking for another set of employees to exploit." more ›

Esseffist is not the biggest football fan in the world, but we definitely love video games. And while many have tried, nobody is taking John Madden Football's spot in the starting lineup. With their release of Madden 2005, Redwood City based Electronic Arts celebrates fifteen years of making the best-selling video game of all time. That's right - last year's version grossed as much sales as the movie Shrek (which was made nearby at Palo Alto's Pacific Data Images), and this year it promises to be even bigger. The Chron gave it the top rating - jumping, clapping dude. Esseffist is looking forward to putting Marcus Tuiasosopo in at quaterback and running the option behind Robert Gallery. more ›