Here's Where Your Brick Phone, Gameboy and Walkman Go To Die

Wow, remember these things? It seems so long, long ago. (In the case of that typewriter, it was indeed long, long ago.) Someone at Sunday's Atwater Village Farmers Market was collecting E-Waste, and some of the finds ought to be museum pieces.

Paying Tribute to Steve Jobs at Glendale's Americana

It had already been a few days since Steve Jobs' passing when we stopped by Glendale's Americana at Brand shopping center on Saturday. But the shrine in front of the outdoor mall's gigantic Apple Store was still going strong -- including what must be a busted iPod inscribed with a message. (Nonetheless, I'm surprised no one swiped that iPod, "just in case.")

Speaking of Jobs, I still remember the one time Maria and I saw him in person. It was the early 2000s, and we were on a weekend trip to San Francisco. The flagship Old Navy store on Market Street had a restaurant in the basement back then (sort of like an IKEA eatery) -- and who did we spy eating the cheap food but Jobs (in jeans and black mock turtleneck, of course) sitting down with a few other folks. It was kind of surreal seeing him down there, but then again, for all we know he was meeting with key Gap/Old Navy folks about some sort of marketing initiative.

I've been an Apple/Mac guy ever since my high school paper got its first Macintosh SE in 1988. We moved our paper quickly into the desktop publishing era -- and I was hooked. As a kid in the early 1980s, I used to cut and paste my own newspaper; just imagine had I been born 10 years later. I used Macs all through college, and bought my own first one in 1995 (dismissing naysayers who believed Apple was dead -- it was "almost dead," but boy, did Jobs revive it a few years later).

Retro Friday: Our Televised Future, Circa 1992

It's always fascinating to watch these news stories from 20 years (or more) ago, predicting our telecommunications future. Some things they get sorta right (check out the primitive DVR usage) while others, not so much (not a single mention of the coming Internet?). This CBS News piece from 1992 takes us back to a time when paying bills on a TV screen seemed exotic and VCRs repped the only control you really had in TV viewing.

The report centers on trials for a new TV device being tested in Cerritos. It all seems so primitive now.

Also: Check out the young, pre-VP Al Gore. And watch a National Cable TV Assn. exec predict the death of newspapers -- but blame it on the telcos. (Again, the idea of the Internet is not yet in anyone's mind.)

Some things, though, don't change: Our hatred for the cable companies and their price gouging. Watch above.

When Is That Free Citywide WiFi Coming?

Not so fast -- it won't be happening any time soon, the L.A. Times reports.

And L.A. isn't the only place that may see its WiFi dreams put on hold:

The catalyst for the sudden retrenchment came last month when Internet service provider EarthLink Inc., the nation's largest builder of municipal Wi-Fi networks, said it was halting work on such projects and bailing out of some contracts as part of a massive corporate restructuring.

The Atlanta company plans to complete construction in Anaheim and Philadelphia, the nation's first major city to embrace broadband wireless, and operate those and a few other existing locations.

But EarthLink is stopping all new projects until it figures out a way to make money.

In San Francisco recently, I took advantage of the free WiFi in Union Square to update this blog. (It was at night, and crazy screaming guy walking around the park was definitely a little scary, but I got it done). It made me wonder whether L.A. at least had drips and drabs of a WiFi network.

The answer? It does, but it's extremely limited: "Its 72 public libraries contain about 2,000 computers with Internet access as well as Wi-Fi hot spots for people with their own laptops. It also has free Wi-Fi service in Pershing Square downtown, Little Tokyo and the Van Nuys Civic Center," the LAT writes.

Rather than focus too much time on the way too ambitious -- and seemingly impossible -- all-city WiFi plan (this is a big city, afterall), L.A. ought to first look at ways to get WiFi to more heavily trafficked areas. That's a little more manageable.

Franklin Avenue Has A Tech Question for You

I've got some old videos I want to load onto YouTube. I've already dubbed the clips onto DVD. What next? What program do you like to use? I tried MacTheRipper -- but couldn't get it to work. Another program I tried, I managed to get the video to work, but the audio cut in and out. Other suggestions?