The city's much-ballyhooed switch to Google for official city business two years ago — for e-mail, documents and other Google apps — has been an utter failure for the Los Angeles Police Department, according to documents obtained by the consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog. more ›

So let's say you've already looked at the new Netflix pricing plans, and, while they don't kick in until September, you're ready to break up with the disc-by-mail plan and stick to streaming. Great. A click here, a click there, and you are now a subscriber at a new rate with a new plan. And that DVD you had out? You pop it in the mail and wipe your hands of the whole disc-at-home service. Done. But wait: What's that in your mailbox? The next disc in your queue? more ›

Things are so tough at the United States Post Office that not only does it seem certain that Saturday mail delivery will end soon, but the Postmaster General himself fears that in 15 years "we'll be talking about delivering mail three days a week," reports USA Today. more ›

Orange County GOP leader Marilyn Davenport has made a more official and contrite apology for being the mastermind behind the "joke" e-mail she sent out containing a doctored family portrait of chimpanzees with President Obama as the baby. Though Davenport initially balked at criticism of her attempt at political humor, she told the OC Weekly yesterday that she needed to say sorry "with different words." more ›

Students are being asked to watch for suspicious activity after police at Loyola Marymount University received an email threat last Thursday about a "Virginia Tech style" mass shooting on the campus, reports KTLA. School operations are proceeding as usual, however the university is taking the threat seriously, alerting students and faculty and adding extra LAPD patrols on campus. more ›

Thousands of Gmail users found themselves without much of an email account recently, and now Google is stepping up with an explanation, though not all is fixed, says the HuffPo. At fault is "a software bug" that chewed up some account info and emails for 0.02% of their customer, which is "about 40,000 of the service's 200 million accounts," according to CNET. more ›

41 years ago today at UCLA, the first ever e-mail was sent. The message landed at Stanford University in Silicon Valley where decades later Google made home with the slogan "Don't Be Evil." The man behind phrase, and behind Adsense and Gmail, is Paul Buchheit. more ›

RIP Google Wave. It's time to say farewell, though many of us hardly knew ye. Google has announced they're pulling the plug onthe internet giant's attempt to turn your inbox into something as loud and theoretically interactive as a college dorm's bulletin board. more ›

More information is coming to light about the suspect in a grisly stabbing that took place in Van Nuys last night. Adult industry worker and performer Stephen Hill, aka "Steve Driver," has a violent past, according to LA Now, including a 1998 assault conviction in Maryland following an incident in which he "threatened a teaching assistant [at a college campus] with a handgun," and demanded he be assigned an A for the course. more ›

First she was secretly videotaped in the nude, now ESPN's Erin Andrews has been the target of death threats sent via e-mail, according to an AP report published on cbs2. Andrews' attorney, Marshall Grossman, reveals the blonde sports reporter and current "Dancing With the Stars" contestant has been getting sexually explicit and threatening e-mails since September. The e-mails reference Andrews' convicted secret video-taper, Michael David Barrett, and include details about where and how the author would commit murder. Grossman says the FBI has been made aware of the threats; Andrews does not plan to leave DWTS, but "has asked ABC to beef up its security" for the show. more ›

Google is starting to experiment with broadband services and L.A. wants in, according to USC's NeonTommy. "They've opened this up to everyone, but we're actively pursuing a deal," said Kevin Crawford, the deputy director of L.A.'s Information Tech... more ›

On the agenda today for the City Council is consideration of a proposal that will "replace the city government's crash-prone e-mail system with a Google-based application," according to the Daily News. The impetus behind what some view as a costly or belated upgrade is the fact that the system they currently use, GroupWise, is often down and unreliable. more ›

The City of Los Angeles is one step closer to four years ago after yesterday's City Council meeting, when a study concerning the possible adoption of a Google-based e-mail system was approved, reports the Daily News. more ›

Let's face it. The city of Los Angeles is truly in the stone ages when it comes to technology. City workers may be addicted to their crackberries and the City Council File Management System may be pretty sweet, but other than that, our tax dollars are disappearing into a non-efficient system. Now enter the idea of partnering with Google's e-mail and apps program. From the LA Times: more ›

If you are seeing what we're seeing when you log into your Google Mail account, you're not alone, and no, the "errors" aren't your fault. What to do? Well, you can go to the beach, take a nap, follow the grumbling session on Twitter and throughout the blogosphere, or take a chance on the GMail HTML interface, which is still functioning for some users. more ›

Here at LAist, we get hundreds of e-mails a day, sometimes at the rate of one e-mail per minute. Press releases, invites, statements and tips all flood our boxes. Many of these e-mails are from bands. Whether they are local or traveling through, there are lots and lots of shows every single night in this town and that adds up in the inbox (and sometimes it's coming at you from multiple sources at the same time: the manager, a publicst, a tour rep/venue, the band themselves). more ›

Sure, we get the voting guides in the mail (not to mention the endless stream of postcards and pamphlets telling us who is endorsing who or what proposition) but in the digital age it should be easier to keep track of your intended votes. (Not to mention a great way to save paper!) more ›

Coming next Tuesday, Los Angeles is gonna get bitten by the green bug -- not that it already is eco-minded, except for dumb politicians. Ideal Bite, a daily weekday e-mail that provides one simple green environmentally hip tip to around 170,000 people, has been doing a national version for a couple years. Now, concentrating on Metro areas, Los Angeles gets its own local version (you can sign up here). more ›

We've all seen phishing e-mails before (thank you eBay, PayPal) but it's a bit trickier when the e-mail deliberately asking you to pony up your e-mail username and password comes from a sender purporting to be USCTEAM. more ›

On News Year's Eve, Belinda Carlisle and Rufus Wainwright will sing classic French cabaret songs and more accompanied by a Parisian band and dancers. You could be with them in Los Angeles' living room, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, as we are giving away a pair of tickets to the 10:30 p.m. show, which will take you into 2008. To enter, leave a comment telling us about your favorite New Year's Eve in the past.... more ›

Did you know that residents of Los Angeles County use 6 billion plastic bags a year, and only 5% of bags in the US are recycled? In the state of California the average person uses 552 bags, according to the environmental organization Heal the Bay. These bags are then left to choke up our waterways, landfills, streets, and urban landscapes, causing harm to animal life and our ecosystem. This is why Heal the Bay, along... more ›

photo by gotomattex via flickr more ›

We are giving away a pair or tickets to Friday night's 8:00 p.m. concert of Joanna Newsom. This Friday, she will be playing at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with 28-piece orchestra conducted by Sean O'Loughlin, featuring arrangements by Van Dyke Parks. more ›

Foothill Ranch, Orange County, CA. Santiago Canyon Fire. Canyon hills behind homes on Viaggio Ln. Alex Miroshnichenko is a freelance photojournalist who shared his neighborhood with some nasty wildfires this past week. As a photographer, he naturally snapped shots of the fire in and around his house and community. But he didn't want to try to profit off these photos. "This wasn't just another photojournalism job," he wrote in an essay he posted online.... more ›

Out of taverns and streetcorners in poor sections of Lisbon, the mournful music, that tells emotional tales of longing and loss, was born. Since then, fado has become Portugal's most famous music. With a Mozambican background and a love for the Portuguese fado singing, Mariza has become one of the world's most famous singers. Her first album went quadruple platinum. After a 2002 visit to Lisbon, famed architect and creator of the Walt Disney Concert... more ›

Here's a theme for City Council: they publish e-mail addresses on their websites so the public can contact them, but you e-mail them and get a bounced e-mail in return. You've seen this before. 1. The city's Webmaster (see the LaBonge story link) 2. Councilman Tom LaBonge 3. Councilman Greig Smith The next victim in the city's published e-mail address shenanigans is Councilman Tony Cárdenas, representing Council District 6 in The Valley. "No such recipient."... more ›

A quarter million people are evacuating areas of San Diego County. We knew it was coming and now, one of the worst-case wildfire scenarios imaginable is spreading through parts of Southern California. While the rest of us stare at blue skies from cubicles at air-conditioned workspaces, here's a shortlist of media, official, and citizen coverage to keep us posted: CBS2/KCAL9 has multiple live video feeds available here, ABC7 is live here. KNX 1070 is... more ›

Good thing the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) put out a Red Flat Alert (move your car if you live in the hills or you could be towed) last night for today -- a major brush fire began this morning around 5:50 a.m. near Tampa Ave and Sesnon Bl (yo, Valley, people, this is Porter Ranch) in Los Angeles County territory according to alerts from the LAFD. In the name of mutual aid, the... more ›

Here's a Music Medley of some tunes from bands reviewed or highlighted here over the last couple months (some lyrics NSFW BTW): No Age - Every Artist Needs a Tragedy Caribou - Irene Five O' Clock Heroes - Head Games Bitter:sweet - Dirty Laundry (Skeewiff Remix) CINEMATIC: Classic Film Music Remixed - The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3 Main Title (Phillip Charles' Signs in Mallorca Rewerk) Shocking Pinks - Victims Sunset Rubdown - Colt... more ›

An interview with Souther Salazar about his upcoming show 'Make It Real', opening Saturday October 13th at GR2. more ›