Remember all those promises of a glorious, citywide wi-fi signal that would be free to one and all, which the city kind of renegged on a couple years back? Well, now the Department of Technology is taking a baby-step toward a free public wi-fi network, promising to install wireless hubs all the way up Market Street from the Embarcadero to Castro Street, making Words With Friends games far faster while riding Muni buses. more ›

Part of the plan to make San Francisco run exclusively on sunshine and eco-righteousness, the city plans on erecting 360 new Muni bus stops "that'll further the causes of both solar power and blanketed Wi-Fi at the same time." According to the September issue of Popular Mechanics, the stops will be kind of cool. Details are as follows: more ›

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced today free Wi-Fi to all the residents of a Sunnydale housing development. This is part of the city's "Network of Community Networks" plan that makes free wireless networks available to over 2,000 units at San Francisco Housing Authority developments. Or, in more vulgar terms, the projects. more ›

Hey, which would you rather have: a bus that comes on time, or a bus that comes late but has a nifty antenna on top? Well who cares what you want! You're getting the antenna. more ›

From the moment you first plugged it in, your home telephone has been waiting for the moment when its existence would be justified. And now! At last! The Gavin Newsom '08 Phone Bank is ACTIVATING! more ›

-- Bridge? Closed. (They're gone! Quick, put away the bongs, and bust out the vodka, straws, and mirrors!) [Examiner] more ›

-- Guns-for-gift card trade today at Civic Center. [Chron] more ›

So many recalls afoot these days, we're starting a new column! Today's recall news: a reader passed along these pictures of today's rather-sparsely attended Recall Peskin rally on the steps of City Hall. Looks like they got about a quarter of the 40 folks who signed the Peskin recall petition in the first place -- and it looks like we're the only people who even have news of the event up anywhere online. more ›

The Merc is reporting that starting today, Avis Rent A Car is offering Wi-Fi service with cars rented from its SFO location. At a mere $10.95 a day (which seems pricey, but we suppose is better than, say, renting by the hour at many cyber-cafes or whatnot), the enabling device can come with you into meetings, making this a pretty interesting option for the business traveller. more ›

going to reopen the Macarthur Maze by Memorial Day weekend! That construction company totally deserves their $5 million bonus. more ›

Google got a lot of press over the weekend for their big April Fools Day joke. The joke is that they're all set to announce a new Wi-Fi flan plan that "delivers online connectivity via users' plumbing systems" and the call the program Toilet ISP, or TiSP for short. Hardy, har, har, Google…the Onion has nothing on you. more ›

According to a new poll of 500 residents, everyone is feelin' alright about the city. Or at least the 56% of them who said that the city is "on the right track." That's better than the 33% who said that in 2003. The poll says it comes from people's confidence in the economy (41%) and the performance of the Gavster, who is still clocking in at a little over 70% approval ratings. Boy, considering Gavin's past few months, he's gotta be feeling pretty good about things. Like, he's gotta be thinking that at this point he could get caught having coke-infueled threesomes with Japanese midgets and still have high approval ratings. more ›

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... more ›

And so the Board of Supervisors finally sat down and weighed in on the great question of WiFi and decided....nothing. Actually, they decided to wait until they come up with a different proposal, one for a city-owned WiFi system. When that gets put together, they'll put both together, debate them, and then select one or the other. The vote came down to 6-5 with Supervisor Michaela Alioto-Pier actually siding with the progressives on this one as she said she thinks it would be better for everyone if both were debated at the same time so nobody could complain about how this thing got debated. more ›

-Man hit and killed at the Mountain View Caltrain station, delaying the trains for 45 minutes. more ›

So your Alex Tourk. Everything is fine and honky dorky until your wife, out of the blue, admits to having a fling with not only your boss but one of your best buddies. Even worse, it appears the everyone in the city (except us) knew about it but you didn't. Man, that's one hell of a bad week. Whenever we see these storylines on TV or in the movies, it always ends badly, like in people being shot and killed badly. So where are we with all of this? Well everybody is still loving the story. It's in this week's Newsweek and Time. Wonkette finally weighed in on it (says a commentor: "Oh this is SF. They love making mountains out of mole hills at every perceived ethical lapse.") and the story even made Perez Hilton. more ›

As previously reported on SFist, today is the day the official, real Question Time is supposed to happen. Sometime today, the Board of Supes will read off all the names of people who should be in attendance and add one name to the list, that being Gavin's. Gavin won't be there, of course, because he will be at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, hobnobbing with the stars, both poltical and movie. His attendance at the confab, however, isn't going over very well with some people. more ›

>-Steve Jobs might still be in a little bit of trouble. -It may not be as cold as a witch's tit, but it's still pretty damn cold. more ›

You know how Gavin said we were "seconds" away from inking a deal with Earthlink/Google over providing free WiFi to everyone in the city? Well, "seconds" might have been a slight exaggeration but late yesterday, a deal was actually reached, the i's dotted, the t's crossed, and pen was put to paper. Soon the entire city will be a "hot spot." But we knew that already. more ›

Phillyist co-editor Star C. Foster, passed away early in the week. Her wit, intelligence, and good nature shone through the site, making Phillyist an immensely fun read. She was loved by many and will be missed by all. more ›

Bear with us as SFist is experiencing technical difficulties this morning, mainly in that we're really hungover. more ›

-In a surprise to no one, battle looms over free WiFi. We'd be more surprised if this thing ever happens. more ›

A hotel that's been set up as housing for homeless people is running into a problem-- there's no internet access. And yes, this is a big problem because as we all know, being internet-less can be a hindrance in life these days and the whole point of the program the people are in is to help them become less hindered. Having the internet helps one find a job, connect with other people, and get casual encounters. Hell, how can they even know what's going on in this city without the ability to check out SFist! more ›

Okay, let's discuss the other team that's leaving, the A's. Matier & Ross has a story in yesterday's paper that despite all the wishes of most A's fans and fans of good taste, Fremont does want in on the name. The idea being banded about is the-- and we think you should be sitting for this-- "East Bay A's of Fremont." We repeat, "the East Bay A's of Fremont." We think awful is too soft of a term to describe that. We think, actually, the word, redonkulus is even too soft of a term to describe the awfulness. In fact, a whole new word should be made to describe how crappy it is. Like, how's about "horriful?" Or "superawfulcraptacular." Or, hell, how's about just plain old "Federline" as in that name is beyond awful, it's Federline. more ›

--C.W. Nevius informs us that politicians say the darndest things on camera. more ›

We've held out this long, and we're only gonna make this jokes once, but this summer, watch out for... Drinks on a plane! (We'll now run across the street and demand of the priest an appropriately harsh prescription for penance.) But don't worry, technology and, to a lesser extent, the Bush and Blair administrations, are here to protect you. With biometric terrorist detectors, other tech that's been around for generations, and the latest in arbitrary and invasive search and profiling trends. When of course, your laptop from Apple or Dell could pose just as much of a threat. All the while, organized crime may just avoid the lines at the gate by telecommuting -- we can't wait until infesting MySpace hipsters with extortionware and bullying World of Warcrafters out of their gold gets a mention on The Sopranos. more ›

Hayes Valley has turned into a friendly neighborhood. They have a perky positive attitude, with banners saying haYESvalley. See: YOU are in the neighborhood with the YES inside, thus YOU are the affirmation of what is possible. We'll put little +++ signs around you. That is instant karma shining right on you. Take that, mariNO. Plus, they did get rid of some seriously bad feng shui, with a freeway off-ramp like a wart on the nose. Once that was gone, and cute little Hayes Greens set up instead, all of a sudden you find yourself with a family friendly, almost suburban neighborhood. more ›

There's lots of politics out there this week, gentle readers, but we'll leave it to others to cover the big stories. We here at Blog Central are all about the next wave, the fringes of politics where wonk meets snark. For example, we've followed Tony (whoops -- guess we subconsciously think he's hella cool, and we promise that's the only time we'll use the word "hella." OK, we can't promise that.)Thomas Hawk's insistence on his right to take photos, but what does that do to your right to not have your photo taken? When is it surveillance? And when is surveillance bad? Violet Blue certainly would have like some surveillance at SF's original Wi-Fi decision making meetings as she covers the fallout hearings. more ›

The Associated Press reports that the City's secret-until-today five member WiFi panel has spoken, and that they have "identified the search leader and EarthLink Inc. as the best candidates" for the long-discussed plan to bring WiFi access to all of San Francisco. more ›

We were wondering why it was so easy to get a parking place in the Mission last night when we remembered that all the cool people are at SXSW. Cool people like SFist Krissy, who enjoyed the calm before the SXSW Music storm with a beer in a near-empty club, and SFist Jackson, who reveled in the fact that, apparently, all bars in Austin have free WiFi. more ›