When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a strain as well. The ability to cruise along on flat inland water, surveying the sights, is another advantage. Finally, it’s a good core workout. If you’re sold on the idea, schedule an intro SUP lesson, free with board and paddle rental, and you may find yourself riding the waves like a Polynesian king.More
Many of us remember coming home from our elementary schools with freshly glazed pinchpots, cups, or whatever else our young imaginations could conjure up. Saturday mornings at the Randall Museum can bring that memory back, or create a new one for the youngsters. Ceramics make great gifts — especially on Mothers' and Fathers' Day. Hop on board for the Randall's once-weekly class, and for $6 and two weeks to have your work fired and glazed, you'll have all the materials you need.More
December is almost over - the New Year is coming up and everyone is busy drying off from the rain or holiday shopping. Let's take a look at what's happened this month.
In a business sector known for cutthroat, amoral maneuvering, social-game developer Zynga stands out as, well, particularly cutthroat and amoral. At least that's the view of many of its competitors and former employees, some of whom we interviewed for a…
Social-gaming company Zynga, along with a handful of other large tech businesses, was successful earlier this year in getting the city of San Francisco to forgo its share of tax revenue on the firm's stock options. Now it appears that…
Zynga has always been the target of various allegations of pirating other companies' ideas, but in the last week, tech-world buzz on the twin topics of Zynga and copyright infringement has risen to a deafening level. Last Thursday, Zynga filed…
Zynga's latest Facebook game, Empires and Allies, is being closely watched. Tech-industry observers see the combat and city-building game as a gambit by the successful social-game developer to expand its offerings beyond the breathtakingly inane set of "'Ville"-style games --…
Zynga is launching its new online game today on Facebook, and it promises to have, well, a little more game. What that means is you can expect Empires and Allies to involve combat, which is straying from Zynga's typical nonviolent…
This week, Lady Gaga proved she could take any old rotten lemons thrown at her and make delicious lemonade out of them, by appearing on American Idol as a guest mentor. Which, frankly, we thought was a tad beneath her.…
Stefani Germanotta just killed us a little. Germanotta, aka Lady Gaga, plans to release streams of songs off her new album, Born This Way, via a new online game, GagaVille, made by S.F. firm Zynga, of FarmVille fame. You…
One projects a cartoonish bird into a rickety castle in order to destroy villainous green pigs. Somehow, that synopsis survived a pitch meeting -- and any subsequent analysis -- to become Angry Birds. And if you haven't heard of Angry…
A federal judge has found that Zynga could be responsible for allegedly misleading business offers marketed to players of its popular Facebook games, setting the stage for a class-action lawsuit against the San Francisco-based company to move ahead.The plaintiff in…
No matter what they do, some companies seem chronically incapable of playing peacefully in the sandbox of American capitalism with others. San Francisco-based game developer Zynga -- the wildly successful firm behind such popular Facebook applications as FarmVille and Mafia Wars…
One of the issues raised in our September cover story on social-gaming company Zynga was the long-term viability of a business based on copying and aggressively marketing inane but addictive game concepts. The Facebook applications that are making Zynga around…
Eucalyptus: Friend or Foe? The exotic weeds need to be cut: I get that the eucalyptus are pretty . But you just can't make an ecosystem something it's not. If they're exotics, then they'll do…
It ain't been a great week in the press for Zynga, the San Francisco-based creator of popular online games such as FarmVille. Last Wednesday we published a cover story in which ex-employees dished on Zynga's allegedly "evil" practice of copying…
One of the Internet's greatest success stories in 2010 can be found in a former potato chip factory on Vermont Street in Potrero Hill. This is the original office of Zynga, the S.F.-based creator of online "social" games — FarmVille,…
Zynga's cutthroat business practices have long been a subject of speculation in the social-gaming industry. The company behind such hit Facebook applications as FarmVille and Mafia Wars has, in the words of a recent trademark-infringement lawsuit, "garnered a reputation for…
Dear Jamie, Before I ask my question, let me preface it by saying this: I support gay marriage. I have lots of gay and lesbian friends. The problem, at least when it comes to Facebook, is that lots of my…
