silicon

Silicon Valley vs. Silicon Alley: The cheat sheet

Yeah, yeah, we know. Tech's natural home is the Bay Area. New York is for everything else. But as TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington and Silicon Alley Insider founder Henry Blodget blog their way into a full-on catfight over which one has the authority to predict the future of the dot-com industry, we figured it was time to give our readers around the world an understanding of two very different cities' very different tech scenes. From hot babes to tasty food, here's what you need to know about the fundamental differences between the Bay Area and the Boroughs.

Valley … Read more

Tech worker dies in vat of sulfuric acid

A worker at a circuit board factory in Redwood City, Calif., was found dead in a waist-high vat of sulfuric acid over the weekend.

Even more disturbing, the man's body was discovered by his father.

If this hadn't been reported by respectable news agencies, it would have "urban myth" or "bad mafia movie" written all over it.

The news, however, was reported early Sunday by the San Mateo Daily Journal and later expanded by the San Jose Mercury News.

According to the Mercury News, Fernando Jimenez Gonzalez, 18, was working at the Coastal Circuits … Read more

More food and football with Mark Shuttleworth

Back in April I was fortunate to host Mark Shuttleworth at an Arsenal game and then dinner. Today, we repeated the day with an amazingly fun day at the Arsenal vs. Tottenham match, coupled with an exceptional dinner at Asia de Cuba (fantastic food). This time the day was made even better by the addition of my good friend, Bryce Roberts, of O'Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures.

We had a great conversation in the Tube and over dinner, which I'll report below. But it's first worth mentioning the match.

It was INTENSE. We were seated right on the fault line between Arsenal and Tottenham supporters (in the Tottenham seats), and the energy there was negative and wild. You get a slight taste for it in this video that I took with my camera after Arsenal's first goal:… Read more

Solar City: Solar to get more expensive before it gets cheaper

If you are thinking of installing solar panels, don't wait.

Lyndon Rive, CEO of solar installer Solar City, says that prices for residential solar systems are climbing. Over time, they will decline. In five to seven years, he predicts solar energy will be on par with regular grid power. (Dick Swanson of SunPower has made the same prediction.)

Unfortunately, buyers right now are caught in a bind. The lingering shortage of silicon continues to keep panel prices high. Meanwhile, the subsidies are going down. Last year, California offered a rebate of $2.80 per watt, he said. This year, … Read more

While solar gets vertical, Q-Cells succeeds by staying put

In the solar industry, many are rapidly trying to expand their real estate in the manufacturing process. China's SunTech Power Holdings has moved from primarily making solar cells, the piece of silicon that harvests electricity from sunlight, to making solar cells and panels, the frame in which the cells sit. Equipment maker Schott Solar recently announced it will enter a joint venture for wafer manufacturing.

Not Q-Cells. Founded in 1999, the German company has continued to focus exclusively on solar cells. So far, it has worked. The company ranks second in the world, behind Sharp, in solar cell production, … Read more

Hynix chooses dense Z-RAM tech for future memory

Hynix is shaking things up in the memory market with its decision to license Innovative Silicon's Z-RAM technology.

The two companies jointly announced the agreement on Monday.

Z-RAM is a twist on the traditional makeup of a memory cell. Almost all PCs use DRAM to temporarily store information while the system is running, to avoid delays accessing that data from the hard drive every time it is needed. And each DRAM cell needs a transistor and a capacitor, which stores electrical charge, to represent a bit of data. But Innovative Silicon figured out a way to take advantage of … Read more

Apparently, it's easy to make a million dollars

Or so says Guy Kawasaki,

as long as you have a good idea. You don't even have to work hard: a couple of hours a day in your underwear should be enough.

Wow! Who knew? I used to joke that I was the only one in Silicon Valley in 1998 to not make a billion dollars (I worked for a large Japanese company - Mitsui - at the time. Japanese firms aren't in the habit of making billionaires out of anyone). But now Guy tells us it's easy.

So here's my new plan:… Read more

The insecurity of Silicon Valley

I'm with Dave on this one: I feel bad for Tony and Hal. I can only think they have a good PR firm that gave them access to the New York Times (who wouldn't want that?), only to be completely overrun by unintentional self-mockery.

I'm referring, of course, to the much-discussed and, at least outside the Valley, much ridiculed New York Times article about the struggles of Silicon Valley millionaires. (The excellent Gary Rivlin has touched on this theme before.) As it turns out, it's very hard to live on a million dollars in the bank.

Well, not really. What turns out to be hard is competing with the Jones who have $10 million in the bank. What complete buffoonery. Surely a reality TV show is in the works.… Read more

The psychology of Silicon Valley wealth

Millionaires who don't feel rich? While this proposition will sound absurd to many people, anyone who has lived in Silicon Valley will recognize the never-ending quest for more success and riches reported in The New York Times.

One survivor of the tech bubble burst describes it well: "Here, the top 1 percent chases the top one-tenth of 1 percent, and the top one-tenth of 1 percent chases the top one-one-hundredth of 1 percent," he said.

The Times piece explores the psychology of relative riches in great detail, but gives short shrift to an important option: moving away.… Read more