Nowadays, there are Tough Mudders, and marathons, and all sorts of other types of races out there—from 1Ks to 5Ks to 10Ks and more.

I say screw ‘em all: I’m a Bay2Breakers kind of guy.

You’ll be hard pressed to argue my point. I mean, the race has been around for 101 years. Also, it was named by ESPN as one of the top things every sports fan must do before they die.

Those are two pretty strong points, but here’s the best: this race attracts all sorts of participants, from runners to walkers to some of the most outrageously dressed — and undressed — runners this side of the West Coast.

Simply put: San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers race is more than another fun run — it’s a party in motion.

The Bay to Breakers race will be held this Sunday, May20th from 7am – 12:00pm. There’s a wave start based on how fast you think you can finish the 12K race (7.46 miles). If you can’t keep up with the pack, join a lower one. Seriously, this isn’t the event to try and see if you can keep up with others. There are some runners here who won’t think twice about shoulder checking your turkey trotting behind out of the way:

• Corral A – Estimated finishing time: under 59:00 minutes (8-minute mile)
• Volkswagen Corral B – Estimate finishing time: under 1:15:00 minutes (10-minute mile)
• Hyatt Regency San Francisco Corral C – Estimated finishing time: under 1:30:00 minutes (12-minute mile)
• Corral D – Estimated finishing time: under 2:00:00 minutes (walk/run 16-minute mile)
• Corral E – Estimated finishing time: over 2 hours (walk/run)

Corral A and B are already sold out, so if you’re reading this now and debating on joining, might I suggest one of the other “You Snooze, You Lose” packs?

If you plan on walking or jogging the race, for the love of Nike, stay to the right. Runners go to the left. It’s typical rules of the road here, which means if you get in the way, you’ll probably hear some unkind words, maybe get a finger or two, or otherwise have a roll of quarters thrown at your head.

There’s no alcohol allowed at the race. WINK WINK. Here’s the dealio: the race almost didn’t happen this year because residents along the route are frustrated having to always deal with drunken douchebags in front of their home. As a result, there will be an alcohol patrol going around this year. So the rule’s simple — if you’re gonna drink, don’t be a douche.

Don’t use wheels. That means no strollers, shopping carts, roller blades, unicycles, bikes, wheelbarrows, mopeds, Hummers . . . it’s cheating.

Keep your dog at home. Leave your cat behind. Put your bird in its cage. There are no animals allowed here. No need for the barking, the leashes, the poop. Especially the poop. Nobody wants to step in poop.

Don’t wear a diaper when running the race (yes, there is documented proof that people have done this before). There are going to be over 1000 porta johns on site. 1000! Use them. Don’t pee on trees. Don’t pee on buildings. And definitely don’t pee on your fellow racers.

The last thing is probably the biggest – LEAVE ONLY YOUR FOOTPRINTS. If you have trash, throw it out in the garbage. Don’t leave your costumes and signs in front of someone’s home. And make sure to clean up your empty beer soda bottles.

Going away advice: Don’t be a douche. Bring a wearable portable speaker so you can bring the party with you wherever you go. And whatever you do, have an awesome time. It’s hard not to when you’re here.

More often than not, casinos don’t have a problem getting people to come to them. One casino, though, does have a problem, and they’ve decided to do something about it, something almost as drastic-look-at-me as Time’s choice to put a mother breast feeding on the cover of their magazine.

The Casino Campione D’Italia is a pretty fun casino in Europe.

The problem they’re having, though, is their location. You see, they’re located in the small Italian enclave of Campion, Switzerland, and are separated from the rest of Italy by Lake Lugano and, well, mountains.

So, to convince deep-pocketed Italians to make the trek out to their digs which, by the way, is an approximate 17-mile / 30-minute long schlep, they’ve struck a deal with a local taxi company for a promotion that’s so flipping awesome, the blog for the universe’s best portable speakers is actually covering it.

They’re offering casino taxi service out of the nearby city Como, and all vehicles will be equipped with a “Play on the Way” game.

On the way gambling rather than online gambling? I’m intrigued . . .

The game is a mobile form of roulette. 50 taxis are outfitted with a roulette board and ball on the wheel of the car. Before they embark on their journey through the mountains and woods, the riders tell the driver their bet. Upon arriving at the casino, if the ball lands on their winning number, they win a free dinner at the casino. If, however, they don’t pick the right number, the riders walk away with free admission to the casino.

How flipping awesome is that? It’s a win-win all around – the riders are ecstatic with their giveaways, and the taxi driver / casino is happy with the fact that they have customers to a part of Europe that no one wants to travel to.

What’s really cool is that so far the promo is working: the casino has seen a double digit (14%) increase in traffic, with 9% increase in traffic from people who’ve never visited the casino before.

Giving stuff away for free – now where have I heard that before?

We at BoomBotix live for biking, and as summer rolls around and we bust out the mountain bikes more often, we decided to put together our dream bike and dream ride and see what you think of it. We’ve compiled a list of our dream frame and components, plus some of the best trails in the area that we would shred. Of course, with a BoomBot bumping over every roller, berm, and drop.

Frame:

Specialized Stumpy FSR Carbon Tried and true. It’s what I ride now and I love every second of every ride. Rugged and with enough travel to handle the gnar, yet light and agile to rip the flowy Marin singletrack.

Fork:

Fox 32 Float Drop it for that long climb, and plush it up for the descent. You’ll never get closer to floating than on this fork.

Rear Shock:

Fox Float RL

Front Derailleur/REAR DERAILLEUR:

SRAM X0/SRAM XO Crisp, clean, efficient shifting at its finest.

Crank:

Race Face Next SL Triple Light, stiff, strong. I gotta admit, I like having that third chainring for ripping descents or the road on the way to the trail.

Brakes:

Avid Elixir Power. Lots of it.

Seatpost/SEAT:

Race Face Next SL/Bontrager Evoke RXL Light n comfy.

Pedals:

Shimano SPD M980 Best of the best. Quick in, quick out, adjustable tension, never clogged. Nuff said.

Shoes:

Specialized Mountain S-Works The turn-tighten system is awesome. Stiff for unreal power on the pedals, but it’s no road shoe so it’s soft enough to stay comfy on an all-day ride.

Tunes:

Purple BoomBotix BB2 clipped onto the backpack. Nothing better than enjoying beats with your friends on the trail. Riding with headphones can be crazy dangerous if you can’t hear someone coming around the corner or your buddy behind you. Plus, who wants to listen to music by themselves? Enjoy it with your crew, on the go.

Where:

Tamarancho. The Golden Standard of Bay Area riding, and I would go straight here with my dream bike. Flowy and rippin’ singletrack, a little techy with roots and rocks; it always keeps you on your toes. Leg-burning climbs through cool redwood forests, and fast sections with fresh Bay air in your face.

The Bamboozle Festival is celebrating its 10th year of kicking ass and taking names and boy oh boy, do they have the band lineup to celebrate. Headliners range from Skrillex to Foo Fighters to Jon Bon Jovi and believe it or not, their undercard performers are ten times more impressive than the three listed here.

Festival gates open this Friday, May 18th at 5:00 pm and on Saturday and Sunday, the gates open at 2:00 pm.

But that’s the basic stuff. Here’s everything you need to know on how to survive this weekend of kick-ass awesomeness, from what you should bring to Bamboozle to how to get there and more.

There will be seven stages total. It’ll be hard, but try and stay focused because you’re going to want to stage hop left and right. Plan ahead to get to a stage early for a show you want to see so that you get a good view, especially the headliners — they will be performing full sets. If you’re there early, bring a portable speaker like, oh I don’t know, a Dr. X Black BB1 or Gunmetal Gray BB2, to keep you company in the meantime.

Bring sunglasses. Bring hats. Bring sunscreens. Forecasts show it’s going to be bitching sunny the entire weekend and the event doesn’t sell any of that stuff. They also won’t have a mist tent so make sure you get plenty of your own H20.

As you can tell by the gate open times, there’s no camping. Seriously. If you’re looking to do this last second and have some coin to drop, the Festival is offering hotel bundles. If you want to learn more, go to the Bamboozle website and check the hotel section.

Parking is a bitch so take mass transit. Check with the New Jersey transportation sites for details on how to get there: njtransit.com and academybus.com. For reference, the Festival is a 10-minute walk from the Asbury Park Train and Bus Station. For those wondering where Asbury Park is, it’s about an hour away from NYC and an hour away from Philly so, basically, the belly button of New Jersey.

While there is no camping, you can bring a backpack. The only thing you’re allowed to include in it, though, is a sealed bottle of water. No beer. No vino. No liquor. If the security guards see it, they’ll take it and drink it in front of you. Or they’ll throw it out. Either way, you lose.

Make sure you can carry everything – there are NO lockers.

Don’t try and be cool and bring a skateboard. You can’t store it there and it’s a bitch to carry around. Do bring a bike, though – there will be a ton of bike racks.

Whatever you do, don’t leave the grounds. There’s no re-entry. They will take out your kneecaps if you try and re-enter the grounds.

There are ATMs but unless you’re going to bring some lube and take the surcharge like a champ, bring some cash with you.

Like most festivals, there are no flushable toilets. This needs to be addressed because you still get the people that come to these things and are shocked when they have to use porta johns. Bamboozle will be no different—that’s all that will be there. If you have a sensitive hooha that you need to keep clean, bring your own TP and baby wipes.

In short, that’s it. I mean, it’s a music festival—how could you not have a great time? The Bamboozle crowd is mad chill here and what’s unique about it, in particular, is that there’s actually a growing family segment, too, because the early goers who went the first few Bamboozles got hooked on the event, and have decided to take their yungins to experience its awesomeness for themselves.

The consumer electronics market has quickly deteriorated into a case where it is Apple and everyone else.  Everyone else includes Sony, LG, Panasonic, Toshiba, Motorola, RIM, Logitech and Samsung.  Of these major companies, all except Samsung have seen decreased sales and loss of market share.  Why are these companies failing to get me lusting for their products?

Mostly because my gadget arsenal consists of an essential list including a Macbook Air, and iPhone, and Boombot speaker.  If you tap into my audio, I have some Sennheiser headphones and a Yamaha component system.  I could live without the Yamaha system, but I couldn’t even pull $200 on Craigslist for it… so it stays.  Having said that, the essentials include a smartphone, laptop, headphones, and portable speaker.  If you are hardware company not successfully manufacturing and marketing one of these four hardware items, your company is dying.

Sony seems to be one of the saddest stories of all.  Only a decade ago, the company was a beacon of electronic innovation.  With a portfolio including historically moving products like the Walkman, it is a wonder how the company has seem to lost its’ footing in the market.  The Vaio line used to be the computers warranted salivation in the PC world.  They were sleek, sexy, and expensive.  But now if you put one next to a Mac Air, the decision has been reduced to a rhetorical question of which to invest in.

Point and shoot camera lines are dying.  Smartphone cameras are getting better and better.  Throw on an Instagram filter and your smartphone shots suddenly look WAY better than your point and shoot piece of shit.  Oh….and you can upload directly to Facbook and Twitter with hashtags.  This is basically a huge market that is getting evaporated by the do-it-all smartphone.  Remember that Kodak moment?  I hope you do, because Kodak is now a mere stamp in time with a full fledged bankruptcy.  They probably roll over in their grave when they think about Instagram.

Samsung’s growth in the last year has largely been fueled by growth in the mobile telecom segment.  During Apple’s revival period, many attribute their success to the implementation of the iPod.  The commonality in the success is all about mobile.  Right now, Apple boasts one of the most successful smartphones of all time, while Samsung has invested significantly in redefining this fascinating bridge between tablet and phone with an insanely large screen.  Their whole, “BE note-WORTHY” campaign deserves a tip of the hat.  At CES, they had artists doing sketch portraits of people just to showcase the massive screen potential.

With the impending death of a number of large hardware companies, one might think that there is a window of opportunity for entrepreneurism.  Either a very dynamic CEO with the vision to pivot these large ships will have to step in, or new competitors will be formed.  With so much technology at our fingertips, the barriers to entry to hardware are not nearly as unattainable to your regular garage startup.  The question is what will the next revolutionary piece of hardware be?  And WHO is going to make it?