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Dustin Adler is a computer programmer and software writer.
This true son of the dot-com generation has a story to tell about his best friend stealing a valuable software platform Adler created.
He told that story late last month to jurors in Sacramento federal court, and they awarded him more than $1.1 million in damages.
It wasn't the $2.3 million his erstwhile friend had sold the software for, but "I got the justice I deserved," said Adler, 28.
"It never really was about the money. I wanted people to know what a jerk he is. I just wish I had known it sooner.
"But he was my best friend, the best man at my wedding. I couldn't believe he would steal from me. Even now, I sometimes find myself missing him."
In a lengthy interview after the verdict, Adler described a series of covert maneuvers through which his friend commandeered control of Adler's software and the Web site it drives.
Intellectual property disputes rarely go to trial. But Michael DiCarlo, owner of RelyNet Inc. in Rancho Cordova, stubbornly refused to settle, according to Adler.
At the close of a seven-day trial, including 7 1/2 hours of deliberations, an eight-member jury found Wednesday that both DiCarlo and his company had infringed upon the copyright on Adler's software and awarded him $1,110,699 in damages.
The panel also awarded DiCarlo $3,200 on his claim that Adler had unlawfully accessed RelyNet's computers, when he fixed it so he could easily remove the software as the pair's relationship was about to run aground.
Adler's attorney, Glenn Peterson, said the jury was "not at all intimidated by the technical stuff, nor were they overwhelmed by complicated rules of law. They were all business, and their verdict reflects that."
Reached Friday by telephone, DiCarlo said, "I am definitely disappointed. We will definitely appeal. We definitely don't feel justice was done." But, he said, "I feel it is definitely ongoing, so I don't think it's appropriate to comment at this time."
Adler's career was launched when he was 9 by his grandmother, who gave him a book on programming, which he promptly devoured, and a computer.
"It was IBM's original PC. I believe it came out in 1981 (the year Adler was born). It was … a big beige box that weighed about 60 pounds."
About the same time, he met DiCarlo, a fellow second-grader at Victory Christian School in Fair Oaks. They went through their sophomore year at Capital Christian High School together.
DiCarlo, now 29, dropped out and formed RelyNet, which offered Web hosting on a single server and resold dial-up Internet accounts, but proved unprofitable.
In 2000, Adler discovered a Honda Internet bulletin board that was losing its hosting capabilities. He saw it as an opportunity to engage more fully his passion for all things Honda and employ his computer skills.
He pitched the notion that RelyNet's servers host Honda-Acura.net, and DiCarlo, who shared Adler's interest in Hondas, welcomed the idea. The site morphed into Honda-Tech.com and got so popular it was overloading the servers.
"So, I took it upon myself to write better software," Adler said in the interview. "I worked in my spare time in my bedroom in my parents' home in Folsom on my own computer." Thus was born the first version of ZeroForum.
Later in 2000, he said, "I rewrote ZeroForum from scratch to make it a commercially viable product. I set up a Web site with pricing and marketing to have a business presence."
Adler converted all data on RelyNet servers into ZeroForum 1.0 using a program he wrote. Since then Honda-Tech.com has been powered by Adler's software. A Southern California company purchased the software, the domain name and the site's posted contents from DiCarlo for $2.7 million.
Adler and DiCarlo had agreed they were equal partners in RelyNet. Adler brought the cyber know-how and DiCarlo took care of business and sales. There is little dispute that Adler's software was the catalyst for their success.
But Adler said he caught DiCarlo on three occasions paying himself twice as much salary. "He always said he was sorry and promised our salaries would be the same, and then I would catch him again," said Adler.
Things started going well and they incorporated, yet DiCarlo repeatedly put him off when he asked for his stock certificate, Adler said.
Things came to a head on Aug. 1, 2005, when Adler arrived at the company's El Dorado Hills office to find a deputy sheriff blocking his path to the door.
"Mike pokes his head out and says, 'You're being fired for malicious activity,' " Adler recalled. "He hands me my final paycheck and my personal possessions loaded into a box, and tells me to leave. I lost everything that morning."
A deeply religious person, he did not lose his faith.
"I told God if I got anything (from the jury), I would give half of it to Bayside of South Sacramento (a Covenant church). It's hurting financially, and the pastor has had some hard times. I want something good to come of all this."
Julia Goines of Pediatric Bioscience in Davis tests blood samples in her research on autism. The company grew out of breakthrough work done at UC Davis.
From biofuels to pharmaceuticals, Sacramento-area inventors have created scores of promising scientific breakthroughs, many of them in the well-funded laboratories of UC Davis.
Turning those inventions into jobs and wealth is hard, however. Starting a high-tech company in Sacramento means overcoming the region's risk-averse mind-set, a scarcity of big-money investors and the allure of the Bay Area's tech-friendly landscape.
In at least one respect, though, the climate for entrepreneurs seems to be getting better. After decades of indifference, the University of California, Davis, is laboring to convert its massive portfolio of scientific research into products that could help transform the Sacramento economy.
The university – a "real sleeper," in the words of one Davis entrepreneur – is becoming more aggressive about cooperating with the private sector. It is licensing its patented technologies and acting as midwife for new companies.
The university's commitment to commercialization, a process known as technology transfer, has taken on new urgency as the region tries to claw its way out of the recession. UC officials say they're trying to become a force for rapid-fire economic development in a region known for moving cautiously.
Both the university and the region have "a reputation of not being too open to risk, and we have to change that," said new UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who holds 16 engineering patents. She's appointed a committee to study why the university has not been more successful at tech transfer.
Nobody expects UC Davis to duplicate the success of Stanford University, which perfected the art of tech transfer decades ago and built Silicon Valley. But business leaders say UC Davis has the ability to do much more than it has so far.
"There is significant untapped potential – significant opportunity to increase the number of companies coming out of campus," said Meg Arnold, who used to work in UC Davis' tech-transfer office and now runs the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance.
UC Davis' science research budget hit $643 million in 2008, the 16th-largest in the nation, says the National Science Foundation.
Yet Davis has spawned just two-dozen or so tech companies since 2003, about a third as many as UC San Diego – a biotech powerhouse that's been spinning off companies since the late 1970s.
Davis didn't open a tech-transfer office until 1999, and the culture is changing slowly.
A few years ago, Sacramento construction executive Charles Gardner, a university donor and father of an autistic child, heard about a tantalizing breakthrough developed on campus: a blood test to determine whether a woman is at risk for conceiving a child with autism.
When he approached UC Davis about commercializing the technology, he got puzzled responses.
"I had no idea of the possibilities," said scientist Judy Van de Water, who developed the test. "As academics, we don't really think about transferring (technology) out into the public."
Van de Water warmed to the idea, though. A technology license was signed and a company was born: Pediatric Bioscience of Davis.
Van de Water is an unpaid scientific adviser to the company. She still works on campus, where she's developing a more accurate autism test.
"The research that I'm doing here feeds right into the next goals of the company," she said.
Many of UC Davis' spinoff companies are tiny; some have folded or moved away. After four years, Pediatric Bio employs three workers and has raised just $1 million – a fraction of what it will need to bring its product to market, said Gardner, its chairman.
But the very existence of companies like Pediatric Bio gives hope to investors who've been craving spinoff activity from UC Davis for years.
"A significant amount of the entrepreneurial activity has to come from the campus, from UC Davis," said Oleg Kaganovich, a partner in the Sacramento office of DFJ Frontier venture capital. "If that doesn't happen, we will never grow significantly beyond where we are now."
Some critics say the university still isn't responsive to entrepreneurs. Graduate student Kenth Pedersen wanted to work with UC Davis to perfect an electrode he'd invented. The university made "onerous" financial demands, such as a substantial ownership piece of his technology, he said. So he took the idea to Mountain View, got funding and started his new company, Hyphase Energy.
"This company could have been started in Davis," he said by e-mail.
David McGee, a former biotech executive who runs UC Davis' tech-transfer office, InnovationAccess, said the university tries to accommodate potential partners, but "we cannot always agree to every term that someone wants."
He said red tape is being slashed at every turn. Licensing contracts, which used to run 46 pages, have been cut in half.
"We have shown we can start up companies," said McGee, who has run the program since 2004. "We can start up a lot more companies than we used to."
One reason for optimism is green technology: solar energy, fuel cells and so on. Venture capitalists have fallen in love with the industry, and green companies are clustering around Sacramento to be near the lawmakers and regulators in charge of California's war on global warming.
Green tech is also a UC Davis strength; the campus operates research centers devoted to such fields as biofuels and wind power.
"We're getting a lot more interest from investors and entrepreneurs," said Andrew Hargadon, director of the university's Center for Entrepreneurship. "People are starting to want what UC Davis has always been producing."
UC Davis spinoffs could fill a void as Sacramento's first generation of tech companies retrenches.
Since the dot-com boom ended a decade ago, Intel Corp.'s Folsom research park has trimmed 2,500 jobs, leaving 5,800 workers. Hewlett-Packard in Roseville has cut half its jobs and is down to 3,200 workers, the city says. NEC Electronics' Roseville chip plant is mothballing one of its two manufacturing lines and cut payroll to 640 workers, down from 1,500.
The new wave of companies won't produce a huge number of jobs, at least not right away, but could set the stage for more growth eventually.
"I think it's a number of singles and doubles," said Chris Soderquist, who runs a startup company, Octus Energy, that develops energy-efficiency devices based on UC Davis technology.
Soderquist's late father, Charlie, was a UC regent who preached about the need for greater cooperation between the Davis campus and entrepreneurs. His son says Davis hasn't done nearly enough despite mammoth intellectual firepower.
"Here's one of the greatest research universities, and it's really a sleeper," he said.
Collaborating with business has sometimes created ill will. In 1980, UC Davis scientist Ray Valentine co-founded biotech company Calgene. He was criticized by many of his colleagues and thrust into a controversy over a possible conflict of interest.
"The blood was let," said Valentine, now retired. Calgene, creator of the world's first genetically altered food, a longer-lasting tomato, was taken over by Monsanto in 1997.
Valentine is enthusiastic about UC Davis' commitment to entrepreneurship but has yet to be convinced it will translate into results: "They've got to do something, show they're on the right track."
A weak economy doesn't help. Without funding, it's hard to commercialize inventions, UC Davis' or anyone else's. Sacramento venture capitalists did only $17 million worth of deals last year, one-seventh the volume they did in 2007, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Folsom entrepreneur John Stone, who once sold a company to Apple for $62 million, has struggled to raise money for his newest startup, software maker Freepath. After launching in 2008, he planned to raise $10 million or more in a second round of funding last year. He got only $500,000.
"While we're making progress, we're making it at a much slower pace," Stone said.
Even in good times, Sacramento's venture capital community is small. Sometimes the area's entrepreneurs have to go elsewhere for money, and sometimes out-of-town investors make the company relocate.
In 2003, UC Davis professor Bruce Hammock helped start drug-biotech company Arete Therapeutics. A year later, Bay Area venture capitalists steered the company to Fremont. It's now in South San Francisco.
"As soon as the VC's got control of the company, they moved it to the Bay Area," said Hammock, who remains an adviser to Arete. "It's their money and they like to be close to it."
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UC Davis graduate student Dan Braunschweig consults with professor Judy Van de Water last week at the campus. Van de Water's work on a blood test to determine whether a woman is at risk for conceiving a child with autism has led to a new business. "As academics, we don't really think about transferring (technology) out into the public," she said.
Clearing out closets is one thing. But the biggest clutter trap in your home or office could be sitting right in front of you: your computer.
Most of us have computers stuffed with aging e-mails, unneeded downloads and scads of file folders scattered like confetti across the computer's desktop.
"The more things you install on your computer, the more clutter it has," everything from trial software and toolbars to old programs and all that old e-mail, said PC tune-up expert J.J. Schoch of Los Angeles-based iolo technologies LLC. "There's a natural clogging that takes place, just from regular computer use."
That clutter affects everything from your computer's ability to quickly load up and search Web sites to your ability to find that family recipe you stored – somewhere.
The problem is, "Nobody ever schedules time to do a computer cleanup," said Schoch, whose company creates cleanup software. "You need to be nudged into doing it."
Well, here's the nudge you've been waiting for: Monday is national Clean Out Your Computer Day.
Where to start:
Every little icon on your computer's desktop – whether it's a PDF document, a photo or a PowerPoint – needs a home. Dennis Duffy, a computer training expert who volunteers with the Sacramento PC Users Group, says he often troubleshoots for individuals who've got a computer screen filled with dozens of icons, many of them duplicates.
"It's like going into a person's cubicle and seeing hundreds of Post-its scattered around. It's not a very practical way of doing things."
Instead, he recommends that PC users align all those loose icons alphabetically on their screen's left-hand side (right-clicking on the desktop starts the process), then renaming them with shorter names based on subject. Next, create new desktop folders based on categories: Games, Clients, Recipes, 2020Reunion, etc. Then drag the icons into the appropriate folder. Voilà: a blizzard of 100 icons is tamed down to a manageable 10 or 20.
It's all about making a decision the first time you open an e-mail. Richard Applebaum, a state worker who teaches free Apple computer classes in Sacramento, says he treats his inbox as a giant "To Do" list from which he deletes, forwards or files incoming mail.
He's so efficient that he's got it down to the bare essentials. Despite getting dozens of daily incoming e-mails, his current inbox always contains 30 or 40, he says. That's total e-mails.
The rest? He's a big believer in hitting the "delete" key to eliminate the unnecessary. The rest get filed and sorted as they're opened and read.
That's not how most of us operate. Applebaum says one of his Caltrans colleagues routinely keeps 10,000 e-mails in her inbox.
Not a wise idea. "As the number of e-mail messages grows larger, the higher the risk of irrecoverable data. Files can get corrupted," he said.
To corral all that e-mail takes practice and discipline. The essence is sending it into appropriate folders, renamed for subjects, people or projects.
Some organizers recommend creating folders for even mundane topics: "Things I Want to Read" or "Stuff I Want to Buy." That way, when a tempting e-mail arrives, you can forward to the appropriate file folder.
Chances are you'll never look at it again, but at least it's filed where you can retrieve it easily.
Think of your computer files like the paper file folders on your desk. To simplify, use the same computer file names and labels as those in your paper filing cabinet.
Duffy suggests short names, preceded by a date, such as 20100207 (that's 2010, February 7 – without the slash marks). "I always start with the date, then an underscore, then the shortest name possible. Use the least number of characters and upper- and lowercase letters because it's easier to read, like 'MyDog.' "
Whether they're organized by task, project, priority or some other pattern, use a logic that works for you. For instance, Applebaum has a "Song Lyrics" folder that's broken into subfolders by "Artist," then "Album," then "Songs." When he wants to find lyrics to "Here Comes the Sun" on the Beatles' "Abbey Road" album, he knows right where to go.
You don't want files saved with generic names. In 20 years of teaching computer classes, Applebaum says it's not uncommon to find folks who've labeled their folders "MyFolder1" and "MyFolder2," or "Untitled 1" etc.
Use a title that will mean something six months or a year from now. Otherwise you'll be searching through dozens of vague-sounding folders for that client project or kitchen remodeling file.
Seek out a computer class or users group if you need help.
While it may not sound like decluttering, backing up your computer documents is one of the single most important tasks, computer experts say. It's especially crucial for those "cute photos of your grandkids or that document you took 10 weeks to create – those can't be easily replaced," said Applebaum.
Above all, cleaning out a computer – and keeping it cleared out – requires some upfront effort to nail down some organizational skills and then build those habits, says Duffy. Otherwise, he notes, you're "wasting valuable time, whether it's yours or your company's. Look around and you'll see people who are spending lots of time on the computer but aren't getting much done because they haven't learned how to do things efficiently – the first time."
Robert Benefield, project manager for digital migration at Comcast, holds one of the boxes that some customers will need for the company's expansion of its digital channels.
The conversion to a digital world marches on.
Comcast, the largest cable TV provider in the Sacramento area, will stop providing about 50 channels in analog format by the end of March. The move lets the company increase its digital offerings, including coveted high-definition channels, but means thousands of customers will have to install new equipment to maintain their current level of service.
"The whole world has been swept along in this digital tsunami," said Comcast spokesman Bryan Byrd. "The customer continues to want faster Internet speeds and more channels."
Those who subscribe to the lowest level of cable TV service – known as limited basic – don't have to do anything; they will continue to receive the same service without new equipment. Nor is any change necessary for TVs that already receive digital service.
But new set-top boxes will be required for subscribers who want to continue receiving mid-level service – known as expanded basic – on all or some of their TVs. Those who don't add the new equipment before Comcast shuts off the analog spigot will be able to receive only the 30 or so channels offered in the limited basic package, losing such offerings as CNN, Disney Channel and Lifetime.
The new boxes – a large one for a main TV and smaller ones for additional sets – will be available starting next Friday. Comcast will hook them up for $15.99, or customers can pick them up at a Comcast office and do it on their own. Rates will not increase as part of the "digital migration," though an extra monthly charge could come if more than three TVs require boxes.
To get the word out, Comcast will mail letters, call customers and roll out TV screen crawls notifying viewers of the switch, Byrd said. Some 60,000 boxes are stowed at a Natomas warehouse ready to go, he said. If supplies run low, more shipments will arrive until the project is completed.
Comcast is confident subscribers will consider the changeover worth the trouble.
In addition to improved picture and sound quality, the company said, expanded basic customers will get 30 new channels, including Comcast SportsNet Plus, Country Music Television, MSNBC and Style. On the TV with the main box, they will gain access to on-demand and pay-per-view content, as well as digital music channels.
The conversion is unrelated to last June's nationwide Digital Broadcast Transition that switched network programming to digital.
Comcast officials said the switch can be accomplished with minimum disruption.
"We've tried to make it easy and simple for people," Byrd said.
But conversion efforts in other Comcast cities have had their share of headaches.
In Atlanta, which Comcast converted last summer, news reports quoted subscribers complaining of poor service and problems melding existing equipment with the new technology.
Atlanta-based telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan said he saw that frustration up close. One of the biggest problems is that Comcast is moving too fast, he said.
"I think it's the right move, but they should stagger it, allow customers to get used to the idea," he said.
Kagan predicts a repeat of what he saw in Georgia.
"Some customers hook up their systems easily, others don't have the ability to do that. All of a sudden, they have no TV signal and they're standing in a long line to get their boxes," he said. "When you rush it, many customers get ticked off."
Deborah Legan, a Comcast subscriber in suburban Atlanta, said getting her VCR to work with the new equipment was a "nightmare."
She said she spent 10 hours on a Sunday and two more on a Monday – much of it connected by phone to a Comcast technician – getting everything to work together. Her VCR still can't do some of the things it used to do.
"If I could get my old service back, I would be the first in line," she said.
Even with the possibility of customer backlash, the Comcast move makes sense in an evolving market increasingly focused on digital services, Kagan said.
The Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto television market has more than 1.4 million households, according to Nielsen Media Research. Cable has about 53 percent of the market. Comcast is the largest cable provider, claiming about 350,000 customers in the Sacramento area alone.
But the company is beset by competition from satellite services like DirecTV and Dish Network, Internet-based services offered by AT&T and Verizon, and other cable carriers.
The battle is focusing on capturing customers with a bundle of digital services that includes telephone, Internet access and high-definition TV. Companies routinely tout their large number of high-definition channels and fast Internet speeds in ad campaigns.
"Companies are fighting the bundle battle in major markets," Kagan said. "It's a battle that's shaping up over the next several years and more customers are going to see it."
Dropping analog channels allows Comcast to free up bandwidth to offer more digital services and high-definition options. Each analog signal dropped makes room for 12 digital channels or three high-definition channels, Byrd said.
A number of other Comcast systems will be converted by June, including those in Chico, Fresno, Grass Valley, Marysville-Yuba City, Merced, Modesto, Stockton, Tracy, Tulare and Visalia.
Some Comcast customers – mainly those with expanded basic cable – will need to get a set-up kit like this one to make the changeover. They'll be available starting Friday.
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When it comes to charitable giving via the Internet, Berkeley appears to be California's most generous larger city and has the nation's seventh highest per capita donation level, according to Convio, a Texas firm that organizes Internet-based charity drives.
Fittingly, perhaps, Convio maintains its West Coast headquarters in Berkeley, whose residents contributed $10.64 per person via the Internet in 2009.
Convio assembled data for all 273 of the nation's cities above 100,000 in population, many of which are in California. Alexandria, Va., ranked first at $20.24 per capita. Berkeley was the only California city in the top 10, but San Francisco was 12th at $9.24, Pasadena was 26th, Santa Clara 31st and San Diego 40th.
Remaining California cities varied widely in their Internet giving with El Monte at 269th, just four places from the bottom, at 24 cents per capita. Among the largest California cities, Sacramento was 63rd, San Jose 76th, Long Beach 154th, Los Angeles 184th ($1.72), Fresno 232nd, Santa Ana 239th and San Bernardino 268th, just ahead of El Monte.
The full list and a detail-filled spreadsheet are available here.
Jackie Bernstein, left, and "look-alike" Kelly Clarkson.
Jackie Bernstein of Natomas is Kelly Clarkson.
Kayla Moreland is Alicia Silverstone.
Michael Stockinger is Jesus – because when he was at Sacramento State he had long hair, a beard and always wore flip-flops.
Since late last week, Facebook users have been swapping their profile pictures for their celebrity look-alikes.
They've been participating in "Doppelgänger Week," the current Facebook trend, which follows last month's "What Color is Your Bra?" meme. And flows into "Urban Dictionary Week," prompting Facebook users to look up their names and post the definition.
As the social network grows – in December, according to several Web site trackers, Facebook logged 100 million-plus unique visitors – its trends, while not new, recently have taken on an expansive organized quality.
"People are endlessly fascinating, and Facebook is a platform for people," said BJ Fogg, director of Stanford's Persuasive Technology lab, who teaches courses about Facebook. "People naturally watch what other people are doing and copy it."
For Doppelgänger Week, users become someone else in cyberspace, from Angelina Jolie to Cookie Monster.
"One of my friends put up Glenn Beck's photo and I immediately burst out laughing because it's so true," said Moreland, 22, of Carmichael, who is Silverstone this week.
Last week, status updates on the site read: "It's Doppelgänger Week on Facebook; change your profile picture to someone famous (actor, musician, athlete, etc.) you have been told you look like."
Facebook participants are using the term "week" loosely. The consensus from users seems to be it ends on Sunday.
Like many viral Internet trends, Doppelgänger Week started simply with an idea that is flattering (what celebrity do you look like?), conversation-provoking (you do/ don't look like him/her) and easy (post a picture). An average Joe named Bob Patel said he was the brainchild.
Patel told the Huffington Post his co-workers teased him about being the Indian version of Tom Selleck.
"They're like, 'Hey, Tom Selleck, what are you doing?' Or, 'Yo, Tom Selleck, we're talking to you. …' In any case, that's when I decided to turn the joke around on them and came up with Doppelgänger Week," he said.
Users started changing profile pictures, prompting friends to change theirs, too.
At his friends' urging, Kevin Eastman, 28, of Sacramento posted a photo of Steve McQueen.
"Considering McQueen died in '80 and Eastman was born in '81, I would even go so far as to argue that Kevin is – in fact – the reincarnation of McQueen," said his friend, Colin Sueyres.
Eastman, a state Assembly staffer, is less sure.
"I've been hearing it for years, but I don't know if I entirely agree," he said.
Richard Crawford, 42, is a Web developer for UC Davis, and he chose Emperor Norton, a 19th-century eccentric San Franciscan. Crawford felt the connection, beyond his habit of occasionally dressing in Victorian-era clothing.
"We not only look alike because we're not very tall, have dark hair and a beard, but I think I share his idealism and optimism," said Crawford. "He was also kind of crazy."
Other sites have benefited from traffic. Ancestry Web site Myheritage.com has declared itself the "unofficial supplier." The Israel-based company has a free "Celebrity Toolbar" program that enables users to match their uploaded photos with celebrities.
The Celebrity Toolbar relies on facial recognition technology originally developed to help discover ancestors based on facial similarity.
The company's servers broke down because so many people tried to access the Celebrity Toolbar, a company spokeswoman said.
Facebook also benefits indirectly, said Fogg, the Stanford professor. "It makes Facebook more fun, and any time that happens the company becomes richer," he said.
While posting celebrity photos is technically a violation of the Facebook terms of service, the company said it won't ask users to remove any Doppelgänger Week photos unless it receives complaints.
Fogg said he suspects Doppelgänger Week took off because the idea was fresh yet did not require users to learn a new task.
"It's not asking you to record an audio snippet or anything," he said. "It's just finding a photo and uploading it, and it fits into the culture and activities that already exist on Facebook."
Richard Crawford, left, and "look-alike" Emperor Norton.
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