“I have seen the future, and it’s in Alameda”

An earlier post mentioned an Alameda company (Squid Labs) that was involved in the “one laptop per child” program. Turns out that one of the founders of Squid Labs (Saul Griffith) has just won a MacArthur Fellowship which is also referred to as “genius grant” by the press.

Interesting profile on Saul Griffith and Squid Labs:

The workshop at Squid Labs is a window into a world that will soon be available to the rest of us. Saul and his Squid Labs colleagues can, in the words of MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld, “make (almost) anything”. They have assembled state of the art equipment for rapid prototyping as well as a more traditional machine shop. Much as a programmer assumes the malleability of bits, the unlimited potential of the computer to reshape itself to the maker’s vision, this new generation of hacker assumes that the world itself is malleable, and if Saul’s thesis work is correct, ultimately programmable.

…

I have seen the future, and it’s in Alameda.

It is very encouraging to see such innovative work being done literally in your backyard! Congratulations to Saul and his team at Squid.

Alameda Coffee Shops

Here’s a listing of the independent coffee shops (ok, Peet’s is an exception) and dessert places in Alameda.

delocator.net is a good source to find independent coffee shops.

Alameda restaurants

I’ve created a map showing most of the restaurants in town. Will periodically revisit for accuracy.