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SAN FRANCISCO--Sitting in the windowless basement level of a nondescript building in the shadow of the Bay Bridge, Andy Miller is doing one of his most essential -- and rewarding -- jobs: helping smart and talented, but young and inexperienced, entrepreneurs navigate the crucial steps needed to move their new company forward. After all, great technology can only get you so far. It takes great business strategy and decisions to build a truly successful company.

Miller, a general partner at Highland Capital Partners who once reported directly to Steve Jobs as Apple's vice president of mobile advertising, is seated … Read more

If you want to know where the most famous hoodie-wearer in the world will be Friday morning, he'll be ringing a bell in Hacker Square.

Hacker Square is more or less the center of Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, and features a giant "HACK" in the cement that's large enough to be seen from space. The man with the hoodie is, of course, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. At 6:30 a.m. PT tomorrow, a source told CNET, Zuck will stand by a big crane in the square and ring a ceremonial bell in time … Read more

I was talking with a former colleague a few months ago, explaining how unsure I felt about everything since my move to San Francisco -- from where to drop off my dry cleaning to navigating the dating scene. Both make me queasy.

"Oh, but you're in the best spot," my source crooned. "Think about all the companies that are going to IPO soon. You just have to know where to be. " Go find a guy. A soon-to-be rich guy.

Quelle horreurs! With my two Ivy league graduate degrees and a solid decade of working at … Read more

Dear Ross Levinsohn,

Congratulations on being named Yahoo's new interim CEO. We all wish it had come under better circumstances, but now it's your job to stabilize Yahoo and turn the company around. You have a difficult road ahead, but I hope you have better luck than your predecessors.

I know you have a lot of work to do in order to clean up the mess Yahoo is in. There is no way the company can recover, though, if you don't deal with the albatross around Yahoo's neck. I propose that you make one of your … Read more

Grabit, a spinoff from research institute SRI International, has developed a way for robots to pick up objects by using electroadhesion technology. It works by charging a flexible plastic film embedded with electrodes.

At the Future of Robotics in Silicon Valley and Beyond forum, SmartPlanet's Sumi Das recently got a look at how the technology works and learned what benefits it has over other methods.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "Sticky fingers for robots."

Robots -- they save lives, save time, and fascinate us all at once.

The Future of Robotics in Silicon Valley and Beyond, an event held last week, explores the possibilities of how we'll use robots at sea, in space, and everywhere in between. SmartPlanet's Sumi Das reports from the forum, which aims to advance the state of robotics in the Bay Area.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "Robots help sea and space exploration."

As great as the third-generation -- aka "new" -- iPad is, I've always wondered whether the design was compromised.

Of course that statement alone is enough to incur the everlasting wrath of the Apple crowd. So let me say that I use the gen 3 iPad pretty much every day and have relegated my older iPad 2 to backup duty. In other words, I like the new iPad and love the 2048x1536-pixel, 264-pixels-per-inch (ppi) Retina display. (Not to mention the 4G LTE.)

Still, the fact that the newer version is thicker and heavier than the older one … Read more

I love the noise-blocking isolation a good set of in-ear headphones provides, but the trick lies in getting the best possible seal. Sure, most headphones come with a selection of three or more silicone, foam, or Comply eartips. I recommend trying on as many tips as you can, and see which set provides the best possible fit. Once you have achieved that, you'll have the maximum isolation from environmental noise, optimum bass response, and the right tip will likely provide the most secure fit, making the earpieces less likely to accidentally fall out. The problem I'm talking about … Read more

Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife, 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki, have committed to giving $1 million to a Bay Area charity, but only if the organization can get other Silicon Valley titans to pony up another million.

In an interview with CNET last week, Tipping Point Community CEO Daniel Lurie, whose charity distributes donations to dozens of nonprofits throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, said that Brin and Wojcicki have agreed to the gift, assuming Tipping Point can find matching funds from others in the technology world.

Lurie said that Brin and Wojcicki have been long-time supporters of Tipping … Read more