Crave

T-Mobile turned on its growing 3G network in San Francisco on Tuesday. The Bay Area is the 20th market to get 3G service, and (naturally) it's one addition that excites us. By the end of the year, the carrier has said it hopes to expand to 27 cities.

Currently, T-Mobile operates its 3G network in Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Orlando, Fla., Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. While the list continues to grow, it's imperative that T-Mobile expands its network and lineup of 3G phones more aggressively as it launches its hugely-anticipated T-Mobile G1 on October 22.

Additional cities that could get 3G by the end of the year include Birmingham, Ala., Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Memphis, Tenn., Sacramento, Calif., and Tampa, Fla.

This San Francisco native distills many of his city's eclectic musical styles into one inimitable brew. Latin melodies mingle with shifty electro-beats, a busker's spirit meets a mixmaster's tools, and the improv spirit of jazz gets funneled through an R&B/folk voicebox.

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Native ferns mark the first step toward greening the exterior walls.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

A San Francisco nightclub installed on Monday what it's promoting as the city's first vertical garden. Several plant-filled boxes turned on their sides and bolted outside near the entrance are the first step in the Zen Compound's plans to cover the facade of the building in greenery.

"The hope is to have a living building," said Mike Zuckerman, director of sustainability at the 40,000 square foot complex. He spotted a butterfly hovering near native licorice ferns on Tuesday.

Green rooftops are in vogue in cities around the country. Hanging, wall-mounted gardens, on the other hand, are few and far between--except, naturally, where ivy climbs.

Zuckerman envisions eventually shaping plants into the form of the club logo, or sculpting Styrofoam embedded with sprouts to make the facade green all over. And spray-on seeds could cover the building with plant graffiti, making it the architectural equivalent of a Chia Pet.

The existing plants, a test run, may not be ecologically perfect. They're inside of nonrecycled plastic boxes, for instance, but those last at least five times longer than bioplastic. And they will be hooked up to plumbing from the roof to be watered, though the long-term goal is to harvest rainwater.

Don't dis the plants, a sign suggests.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

Zuckerman aims to turn the compound's nightclub and restaurant, which attracts 1,000 people on a decent night, into a showcase of sustainability.

Planned for next year is a dance floor coated in piezoelectric crystals that turn the pressure from dancing feet into electrical power. He already knows someone who can handle the job for only $10,000.

"We have a mystical physicist in residence here," Zuckerman said.

Eco-chic event planning is expanding as more people seek to celebrate without expanding their carbon footprint.

A club in Rotterdam has already harnessed piezoelectrics (more at Inhabitat) to power its lights and sound system. Several other nightclubs are pushing green efforts, including the Butterfly Social Club in Chicago and even some sex clubs in Tokyo.

For now, the Zen Compound serves organic spirits with corn-based cups and straws that get composted rather than trashed. Club marketing is moving away from using paper fliers, even if recycled, to online-only promotions with Flash animation.

Zuckerman is updating the lighting with efficient fluorescent and LED bulbs, which will reap a refund from Pacific Gas & Electric. Future plans include adding an energy monitor to display the building's vital signs, such as water collected from the roof and power generated from planned solar panels. Wind power is on the wish list.

Full disclosure: CNET's holiday staff party is being held here tonight. Sorry, you won't get past our bouncers.

Plans are in the works to cover the club in a living, green skin that can be seen from the freeway nearby.

(Credit: Zen Compound )

Ticket in hand

(Credit: Elsa Wenzel)

I'm holding a ticket to Baghdad in my hand. I just booked the flight at a kiosk in a storefront travel agency in San Francisco's hipster heart, the Mission District.

From speakers in the room, a woman's soothing voice calls out some of the highlights there, like restaurants that are never crowded. Televisions spell out more urgent tips for travelers: "No skirts. No photos. No children."

No ordinary travel agency

(Credit: Elsa Wenzel)

Brochures in English, Spanish, and Arabic provide more details: "All the beautiful places that you might have read about have either been destroyed or looted."

The boarding pass will take me nowhere, however, except my imagination. The fake agency, Abidin Travels, is a political art exhibit in the culture-jamming vein celebrated by the likes of Adbusters magazine.

Stumbling across this interactive, digital exhibit brought me closer to the hard truth of a war that is remote from my daily grind, yet visceral and immediate for so many other people. The experience was both amusing and terribly unfunny.

This fall, I had the privilege of visiting Vietnam with my veteran father. He shook his head in astonishment and pleasure at seeing the vibrant, thriving culture in peacetime. During the war that ended a month after I was born, who would have dreamed of today's beach resorts, passion for gadgets, and Gucci stores?

You can book virtual trips in person or at the Abidin Web site.

(Credit: Elsa Wenzel)

"Can you imagine tourism like this in Iraq someday?" he asked. The question was already on my mind.

Abidin Travels is one piece within an eight-month Iraq-themed series of events supported by the nonprofit Montalvo Arts Center in Silicon Valley's Saratoga Hills. Its creator, Baghdad-born artist Adel Abidin, lives in Helsinki, Finland. You can visit his Web site, a replica of the art installation's kiosk screen, to book your own imaginary trip.

A few weeks ago I returned to my alma mater, the University of San Francisco, to participate in an alumni panel for current journalism students. At the end of the evening a student called Robert Lee introduced himself and told me about a story he wrote in 2005 for USF's student newspaper, the San Francisco Foghorn. With the aim to find the cell phone carrier with the best coverage on USF's campus, Lee and his colleagues conducted a study to test the reception and call quality of the five national carriers (Sprint and Nextel were still separate at that time) plus Metro PCS. Over the course of three weeks they studied 15 locations around the campus to identify the places with the best reception and the worst dead zones. Then, they compiled the results (PDF) and published them in the paper.

No, the study was not completely scientific but I love the idea. Cell phone users relish such useful information and I think Lee showed some great foresight in planning and conducting the test. He even got responses (PDF) from some of the carriers. I only wish I could organize enough people to do a similar test across the whole country. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the study found that Verizon Wireless had the best coverage at USF followed by (in order) Nextel, Sprint, Metro PCS, AT&T (then Cingular), and T-Mobile.

Ronn Owens

(Credit: San Jose Magazine)

Hi, I'm Ronn Owens. For more than 30 years, I've been on KGO-AM, San Francisco's No. 1 radio station. (For a full bio, just check out www.ronn.com.)

What you're reading now shows the fun part of me. I've been into cell phones since they were the bricks we lugged around to impress people. Now we're far more advanced. New styles and features are introduced daily. My hobby is learning what's new and trying out the more interesting ones.

What you'll see on this blog is not your classic review. Kent German, Bonnie Cha, and the CNET.com staff are the pros at that. Then again, sometimes I'm obsessed enough to find phones even they haven't seen! Here you'll get my take on the newest ones. Do they feel good in your hand? Does using them get easier and better each day, or does the novelty fade? And yeah, ok, are people impressed when they see it?

This blog attempts to show the practical and fun side of the latest and best.

If you're lucky, as I have been in several cities, you might occasionally flag down a rare taxicab bedecked by its driver with disco balls, mood lighting, tinfoil hearts, or even a menagerie of stuffed animals. This week, San Franciscans got the option to hitch a ride in a novelty taxi of a different sort, as start-up Green Cab's single hybrid Honda Civic hit the road. Next month the fleet could total five gas-electric taxis painted in low-toxic green paint.

"It's not only environmentally friendly, it's good financially for the driver," said Green Cab co-founder Thomas George-Williams. Fuel for the hybrid Civic costs $8 per shift, a fraction of the $45 to quench a gas-guzzling Crown Victoria, he said.

Mark Gruberg and Thomas George-Williams high-five their launch of Green Cab.

(Credit: Green Cab San Francisco)

Eight taxi drivers who wanted to improve their working environment while providing an ecofriendly service launched Green Cab, which provides them workers' compensation and will soon offer health insurance. Thirty drivers have joined the hiring wait list. George-Williams said he hopes to establish a model for other cities.

Green Cab is the latest sign of the growing greening of taxi, limousine, and rental-car services around the country. Some 180 hybrid and natural gas taxis currently roll the streets of San Francisco, where Mayor Gavin Newsom wants all cabs to have alternative fuel systems by 2010. Yellow Cab and Luxor Cab introduced hybrid Ford Escape SUVs to their fleets here in 2005. And since New York City taxi companies followed suit later that year, Treehugger.com has reported that hybrid riders tend to tip better.

But George-Williams isn't worried about competition from larger cab services. "They can't call themselves green because they're yellow," he joked.

For those who like to ride in style, ecofriendly chauffeur services are also on the rise. Bauer's corporate limo services are expanding nationally from their core green service, shuffling around Google employees in luxury electric and natural gas limousines. The Eco Limo operates in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C.; Vail, Colorado, visitors can sip organic beer and wine inside a posh, biodiesel Ford Excursion airport ride from Green Limousine.

Travelers looking to get behind the wheel while lessening their carbon footprint might pick a gas-electric Civic, Toyota Prius, or Highlander from EV Rental in six California cities and Phoenix, Arizona. Fox has hybrids in most of those cities as well as in Florida and Colorado. Tourists can zip around Maui or Los Angeles in a biodiesel Volkswagen rented from Bio-Beetle. The ever-expanding car-sharing companies Zipcar and Flexcar offer hybrid models that members can rent by the hour in more than a dozen cities.

Large car-rental corporations are slowly going green as well. Enterprise offered biodiesel options last year to customers in Portland, Oregon, and is introducing Saturn hybrids to three California cities. Avis and Hertz have focused on adding tens of thousands of vehicles that achieve at least 28mpg, about half the touted urban efficiency of a Prius.

And for when that rental car--green or not--breaks down, the Better World Club pitches itself as an ecofriendly foil to AAA and offers help for those stranded with an auto or a bicycle.

Were I in San Francisco, I would proudly share a roof with these deranged nerds. In what is possibly the greatest listing Craigslist has ever seen, three roommates are looking for one more to share their rent by inviting gamers to join "World of Housecraft." $738 per month in SOMA is a pretty good price, and the apartment description makes it even harder to pass up:

"Descend into the World of Housecraft and join three mighty heroes in a world of myth, magic, and limitless adventure. Four rooms of wireless cable Internet, Xbox 360, and an epic supply of fresh beverages and condiments await."

The extreme, colorful nerding of this ad isn't too surprising once you realize exactly who put it up. The three roommates run a small SF-based design company called Hyperprism. Well, when you get three graphic-design geeks under one roof, this is what you get. Good show!

Unless the San Francisco Bay Area gets hit by an uncharacteristic chill this winter, we on the Left Coast will be locked out of enjoying this portable ice rink sold at Hammacher Schlemmer. But that doesn't mean our compatriots in colder climes can't get in on the fun of ice skating and hockey in the backyard.

The rink, which we spotted on Luxist, can be used when temperatures dip below 32 F and stay at freezing for two to three consecutive days. In case of a thaw or rain, the frame's locking system keeps water inside the rink, and rigid plastic at the bottom protects it from skate damage if the ice gets too thin.

A 37-foot rink sells for $700, with other sizes available as well. Blue and red lines mark hockey zones just like professional ice hockey rinks. Cutesy skating costumes and Tonya Harding-style drama, however, are not included.

(Photo: Luxist)