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United States Technology

Top U.S. Tech Cities 269

Posted by Zonk from the very-scientific dept.
srizah writes "Wired.com claims to have used a 'scientific methodology' to rate the top 10 tech towns in the US. They use some very reliable indexes, like 'Craigslist postings per capita' or 'Number of attendees at local meetings of dorkbot'. The usual suspects (Seattle, San Francisco) show up on the list, but some might surprise you. From the article: 'Raleigh-Duram - The jocks here may get worked up about college hoops, but the tech set is passionate about Linux distros and Mac-PC holy wars. North Carolina's Triangle is ground zero for Red Hat, SAS Institute, and an IBM center. Bonus: The area hosts two World Beer Festivals a year.'"
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Top U.S. Tech Cities More

Top U.S. Tech Cities

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  • Nothing about Provo/Orem? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05, 2007 @06:36PM (#17482620)
    Come on, nothing about Provo/Orem? Home of SCO AND Novell? Nothing says tech like "Most mentioned on Groklaw".

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by g1zmo ( 315166 )
      Maybe if someone knew what the hell Provo/Orem means.

  • "Scientific methodology"? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sam_champion ( 1046498 ) on Friday January 05, 2007 @06:39PM (#17482648)
    'Craigslist postings per capita'. Because we all know the number of Craigslist posting is about as scientific as one can get.

  • Methodology *hiccup* (Score:3, Funny)

    by Aeiedil ( 1045712 ) <aeiedil&aeiedil,net> on Friday January 05, 2007 @06:41PM (#17482656) Homepage
    Does the scientific methodology involve personally sampling the beer festivals? Would be curious to see an equivilant evaluation in england heh :)

  • Heh, filler (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HaeMaker ( 221642 ) on Friday January 05, 2007 @06:41PM (#17482664) Homepage
    How did this filler article get on Slashdot?

    They have icons in the article that don't appear in the legend. AUSTIN has a spot for an icon without an icon. Somehow, the Bay Area doesn't have a university rating, even though it has Stanford and Cal.

    I could go on, but I wasted enough of my time, and yours.
    • "View Source" says AUSTIN icon #3 is supposed to be "geekschools" since I am sure you care.
      Which icon isn't in the legend?

      I actually liked the article, hadn't heard of dorkbot, googled, am pissed I missed the innovation in gaming talk held in seattle last month.
    • Pasaderna is near LA, and they count it in LA's score. But Berkley is near San Fransisco, and so San Fransisco deserves the rating.
    • Zonk plays WoW all day, then he suddenly relize he needs to post something to keep his jobs post the next 5 things in the list.

  • Los Alamos (Score:5, Insightful)

    by metlin ( 258108 ) * on Friday January 05, 2007 @06:41PM (#17482668) Journal
    What about places like Los Alamos (LANL), Albuquerque (SNL, LM etc.) or Batavia (FNAL).

    If by tech they only mean CS related stuff, then sure, that list makes sense.

    But Los Alamos has some of the smartest and best people and has a lot of "real" tech.

    I mean, if particle accelerators, rocket science and weapons tech. don't constitute real technology while AJAX is counted as a technology, I must be missing something.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Idbar ( 1034346 )
      What about Techny, IL? That sounds like a "tech" city to me!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by RLiegh ( 247921 ) *
      I wish I hadn't wasted the last of my mod points in another discussion. Take a virtual +5 from me...the definition of what they mean by 'tech' is seriously myopic any more. As you pointed out, it's not all just SOAP, AJAX and clusters. There's so much more.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by venicebeach ( 702856 )
      Maybe it's your definition of "city" that is different from theirs. ;)
    • Los Alamos is full of nerds. You know, smart people who actually make stuff. AS opposed to people who thing they are smart and just use or read about stuff.

      Las Alamos nerds debate what's the best chemical compound to use to power their laser.

      Geeks debate who is going to replace "The Question".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SETIGuy ( 33768 )
      But Los Alamos has some of the smartest and best people and has a lot of "real" tech.

      But it's also one of the most boring places on the planet, especially for teens, as evidenced by high rates of teen suicide attempts and a very low teen pregnancy rate. It might be the one spot on the planet where a teen geek isn't even guaranteed a spot on the high school chess team.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • "Circuit City sotres per capita"?! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05, 2007 @06:42PM (#17482674)
    Surely that's a negative index. What an utterly useless franchise.

    - chad

  • Copy and paste problems? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NineNine ( 235196 ) on Friday January 05, 2007 @06:48PM (#17482726)
    It's "Durham". Jesus, Slashdot editors can't even copy and paste now? Is that a Linux problem?

    But seriously, RDU shouldn't be a surprise. We have Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and NC State all within 30 minutes or so from each other, and we have Research Triangle Park [rtp.org] here. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill was a great, cheap place to enjoy the dot-com boom. We've got IBM (10,000+ employees), Cisco, a small MS office, whatever MCI is now (worldcom?), Nortel, Ericsson, Red Hat, and tons and tons of start ups.

    Also, UNC-Chapel Hill is home to Sunsite, which became ibiblio [ibiblio.org]. So yeah, it's dork heaven, but without the SF prices.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by MadMorf ( 118601 )
      We've got IBM (10,000+ employees), Cisco, a small MS office, whatever MCI is now (worldcom?), Nortel, Ericsson, Red Hat, and tons and tons of start ups.

      Not to mention Network Appliance, EMC, Cree Semiconductor, Glaxo-Smith Kline, BASF, LabCorp, Quintiles, Bayer CropScience, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, the US Environmental Protection Agency Supercomputer Center and the Sanrio Hello Kitty Store at Crabtree Mall.
      • Not to mention Network Appliance, EMC, Cree Semiconductor, Glaxo-Smith Kline, BASF, LabCorp, Quintiles, Bayer CropScience, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, the US Environmental Protection Agency Supercomputer Center and the Sanrio Hello Kitty Store at Crabtree Mall.

        There's a Sanrio Hello Kitty Store at Crabtree Valley Mall?!?!
  • The top US tech city will be home to whomever invents a device that administers an electric shock to Zonk whenever he approves embarrassingly shitty articles.

    As for the article, what's the deal with the legend? Are they just trying to create the most confusing display of all time?

  • RDU (Score:2)

    by BCW2 ( 168187 )
    Raliegh/Durham is a good choice but don't forget Atlanta. Lots of things happening there and an overabundance of women! I mean the fast kind of women, they don't have to talk to much before the get their clothes off. At least that was true when I went there a couple of times when single.

  • Things I would use to measure techie density... (Score:5, Funny)

    by joNDoty ( 774185 ) on Friday January 05, 2007 @07:02PM (#17482872)
    Assuming we can measure these, of course:
    * PC boxes per capita
    * Bittorrent activity
    * Secured wifi networks per capita
    * Wikipedia contributors
    * Middle-aged men/women with same legal residence as parents
    * Slashdot accounts
    * Cowboyneal
    *...others?

    • * Middle-aged men/women with same legal residence as parents
      * Slashdot accounts
      Mod parent redundant/fantasy.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Xemu ( 50595 )

      Assuming we can measure these, of course:
      * PC boxes per capita

      Iceland wins this category, hands down.

      * Bittorrent activity

      Sweden (Thepiratebay.Org!)

      * Secured wifi networks per capita

      Holland (check out the global wireless mapping projects)

      * Wikipedia contributors

      Iraq? Until they got blocked.

      * Middle-aged men/women with same legal residence as parents

      Italy or Spain. Seriosly.

      *...others?

      Mars doesn't appear to have a high techie density but if water is found, all bets are off.

    • With all the bittorrent traffic though, unsecured wifi might be on purpose. Plausible deniability and all that...

    • Legal residence doesn't count. I haven't been staying at my parents' place for the last six-and-a-half years (except for quick trips every year), but I'm required to list that address for legal reasons in my country of birth.

      Besides, most folks in Asia live with their parents till they get married, so.

  • Let's save some time... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by carlivar ( 119811 ) on Friday January 05, 2007 @07:03PM (#17482888)
    What about [insert city or region here]?! It has [insert club, university, or company here]!!! Because I live here or went to school here, it MUST be in this list!

    Carl

    • Yay, Mad Libs! (Score:4, Funny)

      by mrchaotica ( 681592 ) * on Friday January 05, 2007 @07:09PM (#17482954)
      What about Atlanta, Georgia?! It has Georgia Tech!!! Because I live here or went to school here, it MUST be in this list!

      Okay, who's next?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by JoshJ ( 1009085 )
        As good of a school as GT is, the rest of atlanta is not that great of a place to live. The city seems to be going backwards, not forward.

      • Re:Yay, Mad Libs! (Score:4, Funny)

        by IdleTime ( 561841 ) on Friday January 05, 2007 @08:05PM (#17483438) Journal
        Me!

        What about Orlando, Florida?! It has UCF!!! Because I live here or went to school here, it MUST be in this list!
        Wait.... never mind...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by vought ( 160908 )
        What about Baton Rouge, Louisiana?! It has LSU!!! Because I live here or went to school here, it MUST be in this list!

        And they have a supercomputer named after a tiger!!! And refineries!!! And no DSL!!!

        Never mind...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by metlin ( 258108 ) *

        GT is great tech. school, but Atlanta is sucky.

        Lousy city (not to mention conservative icky south) and a very unfriendly place.

        Georgia Tech was wonderful, although UGA and GSU had all the chicks. :)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pluther ( 647209 )
        What about Stockton, CA?! It has University of the Pacific!!! Because I live here or went to school here, it MUST be in this list!

        Really, where else will the computer lab workers even know what the difference between a AT and ATX case is, let alone be able to point to them?

  • ...but it is nothing without Fry's!
    Please save us?
    • We do have Microcenter, off the Vienna metro. I guess it counts.
    • Amen to that brother. I'm going back to DC for the summer (internship) and possibly staying there for the fall (Georgetown transfer, cmon :)), but I will miss my Fry's in vegas so desperately. Right off the freeway, approximately 4 miles from campus, and a 300GB SATA drive for 80 bucks!!! *sigh* I'll just have to stick with Woot! and newegg while I'm up there.
    • but it is nothing without Fry's!
      Please refer to that company by its full name. It's Fry's "Does Anyone Speak English here and have a clue where anything is?" Electronics.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by vought ( 160908 )
        Please refer to that company by its full name. It's Fry's "Does Anyone Speak English here and have a clue where anything is?" Electronics.

        I think your expectations are a bit high there.

        The trick is to visit one Fry's often, figure out where everything is, and return there when you need more stuff.

        Staying on topic, I miss the old "circuits" Sunnyvale store. I try telling people here in Baton Rouge about Fry's (especially the Palo Alto store) and they don't get it. I get puzzled looks as people try to imagine

  • who sponsored the study? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by artifex2004 ( 766107 ) on Friday January 05, 2007 @07:15PM (#17483012) Journal
    Portland, Oregon, had a free wireless project downtown FIVE YEARS AGO.
    Is Circuit City really sponsoring this? I'd have thought they'd have chosen Fry's, instead, for a techie store.
    The Portland area actually has both, actually.

    And wtf is dorkbot? This seems all about promoting pet projects (or sponsors).
    • About the only reason I can see for Circuit City is that it's national. Fry's is a much better choice, but it's a pretty small chain and it's mostly out west.

      Of course, one could also make the argument that the absence of a Fry's means that it's not a good tech site. After all, if it were a good tech site, Fry's would build a store there.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by k_187 ( 61692 )
        Then why did they put one in Indianapolis? Not that I'm complaining. My wallet on the other hand...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by geekoid ( 135745 )
        OTOH, it is owned by Krogers.

        "After all, if it were a good tech site, Fry's would build a store there."
        thus making it less of a tech site.

        Really, it's not that great, and if you want a something worth a damn, it's more expensive.
        Disclosure:
        I did own Frysucks.com at one time.
      • There's also Microcenter which is not as good as Fry's, and has increased in suckitude
        over the last few years, but is still much better than Circuit City or Best Buy.
        • Actually, here in Dallas, they've gotten better over the last year, and are now sometimes the price leader.
          I bought my premium 360 there in November for $100 off. ($300 after rebate)
          OTOH, I am still waiting on that rebate...
  • This is is going to come up more than a few times, but this just makes no sense whatsoever. Berkeley and Stanford have some of the finest programs in the nation, and are generally regarded as tied with CMU and MIT for #1 PhD program in Computer Science.

    And you have BOTH of them. That seems like a considerable oversight, especially for a tech oriented rag.
  • Slashdot should be able to pull a majority of our IPs and figure out what general area we are browsing the web from. Then you could compare how many unique hits you got from a particular state/providence/country vs the entire population of that area and get a "geek index". Might want to toss something in there for volume as well for corporations/schools, etc. Would not be completely accurate but a hell of a lot closer then the "circuit city index".

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by metlin ( 258108 ) *
      Assuming geek refers to users of the Internet.

      There are other technologies and sciences out there with far geekier folks (e.g. biology, mathematics, physics, chemistry, various kinds of engineering etc.)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by geekoid ( 135745 )
        Your examples is an example of Nerds, not geeks. Nerds actually do something.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by metlin ( 258108 ) *
          Not necessarily.

          You can be a geek of biology, a geek of music, a geek of astronomy or a geek of computer science.

          Being geeky is not the sole dominion of slashdotter CS geeks. ;)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by metlin ( 258108 ) *
          Hate replying twice, but here I go.

          Wikipedia defines geek as [wikipedia.org]:

          A geek is an individual who is fascinated, perhaps obsessively, by obscure or very specific areas of knowledge and imagination, usually electronic or virtual in nature. Geek may not always have the same meaning as the term nerd. The Merriam-Webster definitions are "1: a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake 2: a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked 3: an

  • The thing about Austin (Score:5, Informative)

    by mogrify ( 828588 ) on Friday January 05, 2007 @07:38PM (#17483218) Homepage

    AUSTIN
    ...Only downside: It's surrounded by Texas.

    While it's clearly true that Austin is surrounded by Texas, that's not actually a downside. Texas has some of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen, and the close proximity of many interesting geographical features (Hamilton Pool, Enchanted Rock) is a definite plus for Austin.

    Having grown up there, I'd say the actual downside is that Austin is surrounded by Texans.

    • Central Market pwns Whole Foods, and its not even close. Technical, CM is San Antonio-based, but the first one was in Austin.

    • Re:The thing about Austin (Score:5, Insightful)

      by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 ) on Friday January 05, 2007 @07:52PM (#17483332)
      Having grown up there, I'd say the actual downside is that Austin is surrounded by Texans.

      Dude, Texans aren't worse than people anywhere else. In fact, as long as you're not killing anyone, they're probably more likely to leave you alone and not complain than "sophisticated" Easterners and Californians. Every place has its reputation, but everywhere you get cool people and sucky people. Try to find the cool ones and ignore the others. Life's too short to do otherwise.

      -b.

    • ...downside is that Austin is surrounded by Texans.

      Don't we get a few points for Tom Delay moving to Virginia?
      I'll tell you what! I mean! Boy howdy!

    • Re:The thing about Austin (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ArcherB ( 796902 ) * on Friday January 05, 2007 @08:06PM (#17483444) Journal
      I took offense to that too. "Austin is surrounded by Texas."

      In Texas is Houston. Which contains Compaq (HP, now), Woot.com and NASA. Come on, is NASA not techie enough for you? Rice U, medical center and UofH.
      San Antonio has the river walk (Beer fest!) and a slew of military bases.
      Dallas... well, it had a TV show.

      And there ain't nothin' wrong with Texans. Your average Texas redneck will give you the shirt off his back (not that you'd want it), have you over for dinner and offer you a place to stay if you needed it. Who was it that took in all those Katrina evacuees? I'll give you a hint: I didn't see Georgia or even friggin Louisiana stepping up to help out!

      Oh, and Texas girls are some of the hottest anywhere. They qualify as Texas as well! Maybe the author doesn't like girls!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PeelBoy ( 34769 )
      I love Austin. I love Texas and I love Texans.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday January 05, 2007 @08:01PM (#17483412)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Portland OR Metro area (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sysopd ( 617656 ) on Friday January 05, 2007 @08:03PM (#17483428)
    What about Portland, OR?

    • Home of Intel
    • Home of Hewlett-Packard
    • Home of Tektronix, FLIR, Mentor Graphics
    • Linus Trovalds moved to Portland from the SF Bay Area
    • O'Reilly Open Source Convention [oreillynet.com]
    • Government Open Source Conference [goscon.org]
    • Open Source Development Labs (OSDL [osdl.org])
    • Large free Wireless project Personal Telco [personaltelco.net]
    • New PSU Open Source lab [osuosl.org]
    • 5th largest Craigslist community [lifeofananarchist.com] (2004)
    • Corporate HQ of Lattice Semiconductor, RadiSys, Planar Systems
    • Home of Sun Microsystems High-End Operations
    • Yahoo!, FEI, Credence Systems, and TriQuint Semiconductor located here

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sysopd ( 617656 )
      Oh and I almost forgot.

      Portland is home to more breweries than any other city in the country. There are over 28 breweries within the city and more in the surrounding metro area. Portland is home to the so-called "microbrew revolution". The Oregon Brewers Festival [oregonbrewfest.com] is the largest independant craft brewers gathering in North America. There's also the Portland International Beerfest [portland-beerfest.com] and the Spring Beer and Wine Festival [springbeerfest.com].

      Not to mention portland has an advanced mass transit system, Tri-Met [wikipedia.org], with Lightrail

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by gurudyne ( 126096 )
      And let's not forget, also the home of http://freegeek.org/ [freegeek.org] "Helping the needy get nerdy since the beginning of the 3rd millenium"

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by sjelkjd ( 541324 )
      Hewlett Packard is based in Silicon Valley. They may have an office in Portland, but the company's history is in California.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sysopd ( 617656 )
      Also one of Austin's reasons is listed as "Home to Whole Foods"

      Portland is home to New Seasons [newseasonsmarket.com] (8 locations) a natural/organic store similar to Whole Foods. There are two Whole Foods [wholefoods.com] stores in the Portland area as well as several Wild Oats Marketplaces [wildoats.com].

      That makes three large natural/organic grocery chains in the area!

      And if you don't want to have to leave home to get your natural foods there are at least two competing home delivery companies, Organics to You [organicstoyou.org] and Pioneer Organics [pioneerorganics.com]!

      There's also several

  • Is that like US world sports championships? You know, where all the beers are from the US, except a token beer from Canada?

  • Frigid?? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Sax Maniac ( 88550 ) on Friday January 05, 2007 @09:44PM (#17484324) Homepage Journal
    BOSTON... Winters may be frigid, but at least there are lots of single nerds to hibernate with.
    It was in the low 60s today here in Boston. Great timing, Wired.
    • Wait until tomorrow. It'll feel like Florida. I'll have to go the the White Mtns to get my dose of winter.

  • Where's the "surprise"? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by foonf ( 447461 ) on Friday January 05, 2007 @10:28PM (#17484652) Homepage
    The usual suspects (Seattle, San Francisco) show up on the list, but some might surprise you.

    I looked at the list, and in fact it was mostly the usual suspects. I mean everyone knows there is a big tech presence in Raleigh/Durham and Austin. About the only really surprising inclusion is Orlando, and it was the most poorly justified of all of them. Substitute Portland, OR for Orlando on their list and you have basically the conventional wisdom on what the major tech centers in the US are.
  • The city itself doesn't know what it has. The old-school eastern inner-city politics tries to screw Pitt and CMU every chance they get. And they can't get over one of the city's tallest buildings has "Ariba" on the top - instead of one of the bankrupt or long-gone steel companies the locals once knew.

  • Someone hire me! I am graduating in 6 months, I want a challenging development job, and none of this contract work crud!

    Lots of jobs around here, now if someone would just reply to my resume with a cool and stable position... Getting recognized in a city with this many developers in it is hard.

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