In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

DEFINITE READS

• Geekadelphia launches its new Geek of the Week department with the co-founder of food blog Unbreaded, Ben Kessler, a freshly graduated Drexel University marketing major with brains, drive, personality and a total social media obsession. But here’s where it gets juicy. As Kessler implies in the interview, his hunt for work in Philly has proven unsuccessful. The word we’ve heard? That the first Geek of the Week interview from Philly’s premier geek blog is considering a move to the 67th ward. Guys, if we can’t retain someone like Kessler, we have a real problem here. Can someone do something about this?

• Philly Tech News reports that rumors have put Google CEO Eric Schmidt‘s recent interest in acquisitions directly in Center City, namely in online advertising startup Invite Media, yeah the company whose offices were caught up in a fire scare in February.

• The Business Journal’s Peter Key, who, we’re telling you, in any other city would have a cult following, regales us with an admittedly strange story about how he was almost killed by Leap Wireless 20 years ago. The next time someone criticizes social media, just mention to them that blogging brought you the chance to read a Peter Key story in which he mentions Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

After the jump , video of a South Jersey Apple store robbery and more than 10 other Philly tech reads that you just might need to know about, including our best read story of the week.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

• paidContent reports that San Diego-based digital video firm DivX has acquired Malvern-based AnySource Media in a deal that could be worth $15 million. We spoke to AnySource’s CEO Mike Harris back in May. The Business Journal’s Peter Key reports that, for now, AnySource is staying in Malvern.

• The Wilmington News-Journal reports that HostmySite.com is moving its headquarters from Newark, Del. to Denver, but will retain a presence in the Delaware college town, likely increasing its staff size.

• Government Technology runs a profile of Philadelphia CIO Allan Frank, prompted by his Digital Philadephia vision, which we thoroughly covered last month. H/T Philly Tech News

GIVE A GLANCE

• The Business Journal reports that Conshocken-based Web business intelligence company ClickEquations secured $3 million in venture capital investment from eight investors, including Naval Yard-based firms BFTP and Emerald Stage2 Ventures and University City’s MentorTech Ventures. Web Analytics World had an interview with a company spokesman on the move.

• Old City magazine The Scientist covers cheerleading science literacy from Society Hill’s Darlene Cavalier, with whom we chatted for the700level and enough to run our own Q&A on Science Cheerleader. Oh, and hey, a Newsweek blog also featured Cavalier’s Science Cheerleader site.

• The Inquirer reports that a new CEO has been named for University City-based business-organization software company Neat Co.

• Geekadelphia now has a Mac OS widget that allows you to visit Philly’s premier tech blog without launching your browser. Geek’s Dan Tabor is behind its creation, we’re told.

• An Apple Store in Marlton, N.J. was hit by five masked robberies who stole 23 MacBooks, 14 iPhones and 9 iPod Touches in 31 seconds. Watch 6ABC coverage below.

• Our Most Trafficked Story of the Week: TNT: The state of hyperlocal online news in Philadelphia

Every Friday morning, we make sure you didn’t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

"Is that a trident," asks Bianca Cevoli, the Geekadelphia contributor who snagged this photo of a portion of Wednesday night's crowd at Tattooed Mom for our Section 8 release party.

Above a relatively sleepy Wednesday night bar crowd on the first floor of Tattooed Mom was the noise of our first co-hosted event with culture blog Geekadelphia, held earlier this week.

The eclectic hipster grunge South Street institution played host to the Philadelphia release party for Section 8, the soon-to-debut  Timegate first person science-fiction shooter for XBox and PCs. A decidedly more 20-something crowd of 60 scenesters and geeks came for the party, sharing the bar’s tagged and multicolored upstairs with two dozen others who trickled in and out throughout the night.

At the evening’s peak, crowded around the upstairs bar, copies of the game, Tattooed Mom merchandise, gift certificates and posters were raffled off — according to XBox video game names given to guests at the door — and three dozen signature tasty treats from the Open Source Cupcake girls were cleared from tin pans.

See more photos from the bash here.

Two pool tables buzzed, and, inexplicably, the “Blue Robot” mixed drink specials seemed to carry more vodka as the night went on.

“Everyone here had a great time and really enjoyed the event and the crowd — what a crowd — that showed up for it,” said Tattooed Mom owner Robert Perry.

The event saw a healthy slice of the region’s video game scene, like Chris Grant, editor-in-chief of gaming-mega-blog Joystiq, members of the Videogame Growth Initiative crew and a locally-based Timegate developer who worked on the Section 8 game.

Other members of Philadelphia’s Web 2.0 and social media communities made appearances, including Ben Kessler of popular food blog Unbreaded and IndyHall co-founder Alex Hillman, among others.

The staff of Geekadelphia.com and the night's co-hosts, including the site's co-founder and editor Eric Smith, third from left.

Special thanks are owed to Perry and the entire staff of Tattooed Mom, Eric Smith, the co-founder and editor of Geekadelphia,  his entire crew, our Timegate sponsor, and, of course, everyone who attended. We hope this to be just the first of many events thrown for and with the community.

So what didya think? How can we do better? How good were those Blue Robot specials?

Daniel Delaney is sorry.

He just finished a bit of a rant about how zoning laws that govern where street vendors can do business are putting a stranglehold on Philadelphia’s food cart culture, and seemed startled when I said I assumed he was now based in New York.

“I didn’t mean that as an insult,” he says. “I just look at this stuff a bit scientifically.”

Indeed, Delaney, 23, is taking his food very seriously since launching in February Vendr.TV, a weekly podcast devoted to finding the best-tasting street food in the world. It was just picked up by a network funder, Delaney says, though he can’t yet disclose who.

While the University of the Arts alumnus has made that not uncommon trek up the Jersey Turnpike and his podcast’s stock is on the rise, he might have reason to remember where he first got his taste for food entertainment.

Read what goes into Vendr.TV and how he says our great food city could become a great street food city, too, after the jump.

“I had interest in food, but when I went to school in Philadelphia, my interest exploded,” says Delaney, who graduated with a multimedia BFA from UArts in May 2008. “Really, Philadelphia has my favorite food scene. It’s originally a blue collar city, and I like unpretentious food. With Pennsylvania and its liquor laws, the BYOBs that have developed in Philly are my favorite food scene of all, of anything, I think.”

He noted South Street mainstay Pumpkin and Little Fish, the celebrated Queen Village haunt, as among his favorites.

But food ain’t Delaney’s only thang.

THE TECHNOLOGY AND PROFIT

He’s making a self-financed food podcast look and feel clean cut and professional.

The food geek with bushy black hair and matching rimmed glasses has a rotating crew of three cameramen and a traditional boom operator — after finding wireless microphones unreliable in the wind and noise of street food. He lucks out by having talented friends — all of whom are currently working for free.

His team films in HD, mostly on a Panasonic HVX. Vendr’s hot film look comes from shooting at 24 frames per second in 720 p — the actual size of HD — and also swinging a wide-angle lens.

Delaney proves his diversity of skill by adding to his on-camera work by handling most of the editing, doing so in Final Cut Pro, though his operation is expanding. The show’s pre-roll graphics were created by motion designer Eden Soto, who has done work for Diggnation and Yahoo.

Justifying its professional look and crew, Delaney says he’s confident in bringing Vendr.TV to profitability.

Delaney, who will apparently always be known as that guy who started a Rittenhouse Square Twitter account, declined to give specifics, but says he’s in talks for long-term sponsorships, content-sharing and other monetization excitement. There are licensing agreements in the works for distribution online with MySpace and others. He also points to plans for advertising, merchandise sales, micro-donations and even long-term hopes for publishing the best recipes he finds.

Later this month, the WordPress-based site will see a complete redesign.

IS IT PHILADELPHIA?

Delaney says he fully intends on Vendr to become a national brand that finds street food around the world, but his academic and culinary ties to Philadelphia make it hard not to call him one of our own.

Two of his first nine episodes were in Philly — others being in New York, Washington D.C. and at Rutgers University — including his most recent on Jamaican D’s near the Community College of Philadelphia, seen below.

It’s perhaps important he remember the country’s fourth largest media market because it’s city is one that takes its food very seriously. But it is important Delaney brand himself separately because the food media market is certainly a saturated one (see sidebar at right)

Delaney thought it important enough to personally welcome the cluster’s new entrant, Salt.Pepper.Ketchup, which quickly received love from WHYY and uwishunu after launching.

But Vendr seems simply the most professional product of them all. So it just so happens that the best Philadelphia food podcast isn’t in Philadelphia at all.

An old head of mine once told me, as we walked on Pine Street near 15th, that there are only two kinds of kids who go to UArts.

“Those who want to be in Philly,” he said, looking toward Broad Street and the school’s landmark Hamilton Hall on the Avenue of the Arts. “And those who want to be in New York.”

After graduating, Delaney found himself going to New York more often and staying in Philly less. He decided to leave.

FOOD PASSION

But his street vendor obsession came with a senior thesis he did on how design affected business of Philadelphia’s mobile vendors. That said, the New Jersey-native says he has always had an eye for entrepreneurship, starting with his dog-walking business at 12-years-old — “complete with business cards and contracts,” he says.

“I particularly believe in low-level entrepreneurship,” he says, “And I don’t think you can get much lower level than a guy chucking hot dogs out of a cart to people on a sidewalk.”

He promises more Philadelphia-based episodes, including spots on roast pork carts and a cheesesteak crawl, partnering with Ben Kessler of Unbreaded, whom we have covered. In mid-March, Delaney was shooting at University City’s vegetarian cart Magic Carpet.

But because city street vending licenses are tied to specific locations, Delaney says, many cart owners sit on a single corner for decades, relying on the cheapest, most common fare and not taking any chances. Licenses without guaranteed locations, like they are in New York, he says, breed competition and bring more diverse choice.

It’s here when Delaney seems most excited and passionate — food legislation.

That enthusiasm and the glut of other food blogs are all possible because of an increasingly better-versed public, he says, which is in thanks to the Food Network.

“It has built a new vernacular for food and entertainment,” Delaney says. “And then in just the last three years, there has been a complete change of how entertainment is being created. The Internet is democratic, and the tools to use it are cheaper than ever.”

He’s leveraging that trend of online communities. Vendr.TV will begin to give away merchandise, like T-shirts, to viewers and will soon launch regular “Five Dollar Dinner” meet ups.

He hopes it all will help him get further faster in the development of his product, he says. And for that, he isn’t apologizing.

Every Wednesday, Shop Talk shows you what goes into a tech product, organization or business in the Philadelphia region. See others here.

Ignite Philly 3 packed Johnny Brenda's to near-capacity.

Edit: Added and edited links.

On a beautiful clear night in May, listening to a lecture is the last place many people would want to be.

Tell that to the 250 people crammed into Fishtown bar Johnny Brenda’s for the third Ignite Philly. The kinda-sorta biannual event featured sixteen presenters lecturing on topics ranging from making our power grid smarter to music made by laptops to a camp that teaches young women how to form a rock band. And that’s without mentioning Viddler’s proposed cure for male-pattern baldness.

The Ignite format gives speakers five minute slots where their twenty PowerPoint slides must rotate every fifteen seconds. The result makes it hard for any presenter to belabor a single point, and audience members get a taste of a vast array of topics in a short time span.

After the jump we hand out some awards, give a small hint of the 45,276 pictures we took and tell you how comedian Mitch Hedberg was involved.

Best Overall: Unbreaded by Ben Kessler and Jeff Vogel. For one, we respect any presenter that can enjoy a sandwich on stage and still not miss a beat. But it was the right mix of entertainment, information and charisma that makes Unbreaded our top pick. The two presenters expressed their love of sandwiches and mused over the finer points of sandwich critiquing, with such ground-breaking judgments as, yes, the burrito is a sandwich.

Kessler and Vogel also went through the history of a few of the more popular sandwich styles and even threw in a good “that’s what she said” joke for good measure. See our coverage of the growing blog.

Most interesting presentation: Pneumatic Tubes by Molly Wright Steenson. Wait, you’re telling me that before the telegraph we were way on our way to those Futurama-like tubes? Steenson blew our minds with a detailed history of the information transportation system that wasn’t. Although, Chris Jurney of Relic Games was a close second.

Johnny Bilotta and Dave Martorana of Two Guys on Beer

Funniest Moment: Two Guys on Beer by Johnny Bilotta and Dave Martorana. As Technically Philly readers probably know, Martorana and Billotta love beer so much they dedicate a weekly video podcast to the stuff. When it came to the portion of their presentation where they had to demonstrate their love for beer, the duo showed a clip of a handful of women screaming about shoes and then cut to a shot of them in a liquor aisle mimicking their high pitched yelping while jumping up and down like a Price is Right winner.

Two grown men acting like 14-year-old girls? Gold.

Robert Sandie, president of Viddler

Cleverest sales pitch: Cure male pattern baldness by Rober Sandie. The Viddler owner spent 75 percent of his presentation detailing the social harms that male pattern baldness presents. For example, according to Sandie, roughly 30 million children are not born every year because bald men have a hard time with the ladies. Sandie then went into his own personal plight about how working at Viddler has caused him so much stress that he is shedding follicles by the day.

So how to best cure Sandies “illness?” Use Viddler.com, of course. A successful Sandie is a Sandie with hair. Clever, sir.

Kendra Gaeta of Kids Money

Best performance: Kendra Gaeta of Kids Money. Gaeta’s speaking style was the best mix of hilarity and information. She had the timing  and unique speaking style of a female Mitch Hedberg, often mixing simple declarative statements with tiny fits of rage as she battled with the fifteen second timing of her slides winning over the audience along the way.

Boiling down the complex process of her KidsMoney digital allowance theory in five short minutes may have proven frustrating for Gaeta, but her chosen topic was noble, and her authentic delivery kept us watching and rooting for her.

Most academic: Pneumatic Tubes by Molly Wright Steenson. Not that there is anything wrong with good old-fashioned capitalism, but as much as Ignite is not supposed to be about selling something, most of the presentations involved … selling something. While “selling” could mean literally hawking a product or asking the audience to believe in a particular piece of research, Steenson was simply presenting about a topic that she just thought was cool.  And who would have known that the first pneumatic tube system in the U.S. started here in Philadelphia?

Of course there were notables who we failed to mention, however it was the five above that had us talking after we left. All presentations should be available online shortly for your own private award ceremony.

Tell us what you think below.

It must be said that there were a handful of presentation such as “4-D computing” and “You got your studio in my lab!” that either contained concepts too heavy for the Ignite format, or the speakers had a hard time trimming the fat of their ideas. That is not to say the topics were not worthy, however they seemed to be much more fitting for a slow-paced academic setting where statements can be elaborated on and expanded. Two hundred people crammed into a bar is a hard audience to go all metaphysical on.

Technically Philly will release all of our photos in a day or so as we battle the Flickr uploading and captioning gods.

Below is the complete list of presentations.

The “set list”

1. “Getting Happier and happier.com” (Andrew Rosenthal of Happier)
2. “Girls Rock Philly”  (Beth Warshaw-Duncan of Girls Rock Philly)
3. “Who are these Viddler Guys anyway?” (Rob Sandie, co-founder of Viddler)
4. “The Rest is Noise:  Intelligent Machines Will Transform The Music Industry” (Dr. Greg Wilder, CTO & Co-Founder of Orpheus)
5. “Pictures of every single block” (Andrea K. Gingerich & Bob Cocozza of Philadelphia Grid Project)
6. “Something juicy between two buns” (Jeff Vogel and Ben Kessler of Unbreaded)
7. “Smarter Power is better power” (Jonathan Adams & Jen Doebler)
8. “Beer. And Beer. And more Beer” (Johnny Bilotta & Dave Martorana of Two Guys on Beer)
9. “You got your studio in my lab!” (Jenny Sabin & Peter Lloyd Jones LabStudio at Penn)
10. “DIY instructions for a tool library” (Michael Froehlich of  West Philly Tool Library)
11. Intermission with performance by 8Static
12. “The original Tubes” (Molly Wright Steenson of Girl Wonder fame)
13. “We want  Braveheart, not Renfest” (Chris Jurney of Relic Games)
14. KidsMoney by Kendra Gaeta
15. “Future Weather: The Future of Independent Film” (Jenny Deller, Director of Future Weather)
16. “Better than strings and brass”  (Rebecca Fiebrink of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra)
17. “4-D Computing” (Joe Raimondo)
18. “How to Rock Karaoke” (Tony Bacigalupo of New Work City)

Two presentations that were originally announced were dropped; Gaeta and KidsMoney filled on slot.

• “Social Venture Ecosystems”  (Jacob Gray of Good Company Ventures)
• “Move to Philly” (Kendra Gaeta of Move to Philly)

Staff writer Christopher Wink contributed to this report.

In a mixed crowd of several hundred at Cavanaugh’s River Deck on Delaware Avenue last night, Mashable came to play with curious, if reserved, portions of Philadelphia’s tech community, including significant presences from our co-working scene and notable Web 2.0 players.

The event, held in conjunction with Independents Hall, the venerable Old City co-working brand, and Mashable, the social media blog founded in New York City, morphed with River Deck regulars and a crush of bar crawlers after 10 p.m. in the cool night.

The Mashable event is part of a big weekend. Tonight Ignite 3 throws down at Johnny Brenda’s in Fishtown.

Rain threatened and delayed use of the bar’s popular outdoor, deck seating, with a beautiful view of the Ben Franklin Bridge, but not longer than an hour after the 8 p.m. start, the skies cleared.

Read about who made appearances and see other photos after the jump.

We don't think Indy Hall was responsible for the beautiful fireworks display over the Ben Franklin Bridge, but you can never be quite sure with Alex Hillman. Photo by Sean Blanda.

The event was the victim of auspicious fortune — suddenly clear skies, more than 300 scheduled attendees and many other groups, including the dozens-strong bar crawl crowd. The DJ was no match for the fireworks display, one old lady doing the Robot, and, yes, an early evening Fall Out Boy concert echoing over from an adjacent pier.

A number of major players in our community came to see what the event was about, including Viddler Co-founder and president Rob Sandie, RedLasso CEO Al McGowan and President Kevin O’Kane, with whom we recently spoke.

Segments of our venture capital scene was out, including Rob Finn, an associate with Edison Ventures based in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Philadelphia’s rich blog scene was well represented, including Eric Smith and Tim Quirino of Geekadelphia; Ben Kessler of Unbreaded; Dave Martorana and Johnny Bilotta of Two Guys on Beer; Jesse Middleton, a founder of Open Chefame and many others.

There was also a New York presence, including the Mashable team, Tony Bacigalupo, chief of co-working outfit New Work City and others.

After 10 p.m., Cavanaugh’s was crowded, as Juan “Che! Digitz” Vasquez and Ryan “Dr. Kellsworthington” Kelly of GrownManTV, depicted below, made their way through the masses to interview the event-goers, including IndyHall co-founder Alex Hillman.

IndyHall co-founder Alex Hillman is questioned by the crew at GrownManTV. Photo by Sean Blanda

Hillman did impressive work, boosting the event, working the crowd and carving out sponsors, as listed below. We’ll even forgive him that Cavanaugh’s somehow remains the only bar in Philadelphia with a meager draft stock — not even lager, really?

How did you enjoy the party? Share your photos, videos or experiences of the event!

The event sponsors. Photo by Sean Blanda.

Staff writer Sean Blanda contributed to this story.

Included are several people who should be familiar to Technically Philly readers, including Andrew Rosenthal of Happier, Ben Kessler of Unbreaded, and Johnny Bilotta & David Martorana of Two Guys on Beer. All of the speakers have five minutes to present their topic of choice, and each presentation will have 20 slides that rotate every 15 seconds. The idea is to get a sampling of all of the great things happening in our fair city.

TP’s Brian James Kirk talked with organizer Geoff DiMasi, earlier this last month.

Ignite Philly starts at 7 p.m. this Saturday at Johnny Brendas. Admission is free.

The co-founders are attracting interest from sandwich aficionados across the country, and have plans to expand to other cities. Unbreaded was featured on Philly’s Thrillist this morning, and the creators have been chatting with a national magazine editor; about what, Kessler won’t let on. But we can guess the conversation wasn’t about with-Whiz or without.

Kessler and Vogel got the idea for Unbreaded from sites like Digg, where user-submitted sandwiches that test the limits of white bread are popular, and Hamburger Today, a vegetarian’s worst nightmare. They liked what they saw—and not because they were hungry. They decided Philly’s sandwich culture needed a voice. And what better timing? As Kessler puts it, “sandwiches are the ultimate recession meal.”

This isn’t the first venture Kessler has set forth on. He recalls that when he was a young teen, he attempted to make an online video game store before there was such a thing. “When I tried to [have distributors ship] video games to me, distributors would ask ‘what’s your business tax ID number?’ I didn’t even know my social security number. I was just way too into technology.”

Kessler found himself years later still interested in tech and trying to harness his writing talent as a marketing student at Drexel, where he is currently a senior. He landed an internship with Center City-based The Neat Company handling web marketing, where he met Unbreaded’s co-founder Vogel. Both men watched the company, which produces and markets consumer scanners for things like receipts and business cards, blossom from 10 employees to more than 150. Over the summer, Kessler set forth for San Fransisco and worked at a private technology PR firm, who dished out relations for Evernote, a popular online notekeeping platform, among others.

Having been surrounded by technology for so long, hacking together a WordPress install for Unbreaded was cake for the young marketer. Cake? Maybe grilled cheese. As it turns out, people love sammies. Kessler says he was surprised by a 3-page e-mail from one fan, and the site boasts an active dialogue on Twitter. Users may not like sharing their lunch, but they don’t mind sharing details. “Sunflower seed butter on whole wheat sandwich bread,” said one user. “Museum Deli! $3.79 for ham & cheese on wheat,” another told Unbreaded.

Kessler says they’d like to keep expanding Unbreaded. What’s in store? They hope to have sandwich showdowns between restaurants (“What’s the best of the five best roast pork places in Philly,” Kessler asks), traveling correspondents, and neighborhood sandwich beat reporters. The Unbreaded crew would also like to see more user-generated content that can drive the site.

Kessler jokes that what he really wants is a deal with the Food Network. “Hopefully someone will fly me around the world like [Zane Lamprey, host of Have Fork Will Travel], to eat sandwiches.”

We’re rooting for you, Ben. But if you end up in Italy, skip the sandwich for Europe’s finest dining. Or at least grab a Panini in an outdoor cafe.

Each week, Technically Not Tech will feature people, projects, and businesses that are involved with Philly’s tech scene, but aren’t by definition “technical.” Hopefully there will be more sandwiches involved.