GeekSugar

Internet Famous Class: A Real Class, Not Just the Name of a New Viral Video

GeekSugar — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:10:25 -0800

You don't have to cut off a body part to become "Internet Famous," but if you're desperately training your camera on your kid, pet, or friends in hope that they'll do something so compelling as to end up in the category that is viral, well, you can go to school for that. Internet Famous at Parsons New School for Design is a graduate-level class for students and declares itself the first class ever "where software will award each student a grade based on a quantitative measurement of their web fame."

To learn more about this cool class and site, read more

Sites like Digg, Del.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube, and Google will help measure each student's popularity, and grades are algorithmically determined - and they get an A through F grade, depending on their Internet popularity. People watching, commenting, and making reaction videos/responses to the class's projects add to the grade, as do people befriending them on MySpace and linking to them.

How postmodern. Although I'm guilty of enjoying and forwarding new and hilarious viral videos and posts to my friends, I can't help but think that for every Dramatic Chipmunk, there are 8,000 epic fails. And even though I still ask my boyfriend to not tase me, bro, the fame the Internet brings is more ephemeral and fleeting than the 15-minutes of fame cliche that used to exist in traditional media. Remember Tay Zonday? Me neither.

Do Celebs Get Preferential Twitter Treatment?

GeekSugar — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:50:30 -0700

A much publicized post on Slate asserts that Twitter is intentionally removing unflattering tweets to celebrities from search results. The author claims that he posted a tweet "teasing" the president of CNN (which he also describes as "as nasty an item as I thought I could write" without sounding like a complete jerk). Later, he tried to search for this "hostile" tweet, but it was nowhere to be found within Twitter search results. A few unofficial experiments later, he deduced that only positive comments directed at celebs were showing in search results.

The author references another article, speculating on the connection between celebrity publicists and Twitter. That article describes detailed processes that publicists go through to create a good image of their famous clients on Twitter.

To see what I think about the whole ordeal, just read more.

If you ask me, Twitter is still a bit like the wild west. Some celebs, like Ashton Kutcher have happily adopted the 140-characters-only platform as a means to communicate with fans. Others, like Miley Cyrus, have made very public departures from Twitter, citing privacy reasons.

So, the initial question remains: does Twitter suspend negative comments about celebrities from search results? We'll probably never know for sure, given Twitter's tight-lipped nature when it comes to revealing insider details. My question: does the Internet really need another dose of negativity?

Tech Dating 101: Is It OK to Just Give Him My Twitter Name?

GeekSugar — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:40:08 -0700

Have you heard a story like this? A good friend of mine met a great guy in a crowded bar, and barely had the chance to talk to him before the people she came with wanted to leave. As they parted ways and he hurriedly asked her, "Can I call you sometime?" she (now famously) shouted across the bar, "Direct message me on Twitter!"

While I'm happy to report that after several direct messages and dates, they're still together, her situation raises an interesting point: when you meet someone new, is it OK to give them only your Twitter name instead of phone number? Or, for that matter, is it OK to give them only your email address, Facebook name, or anything besides your phone number? While some might find it impersonal, what if that's your preferred method of communication? That's what I'll tackle in this week's edition of Tech Dating 101. To find out what I suggest doing, read more.

One of the benefits of online profiles and networking sites is that you can control how you're perceived by others. If Twitter (or Facebook, or even email) is your preferred method of communication, it's fine to give that info before your number. Plus, there's always the chance that he's going to find you on Facebook anyhow, so offering up your Twitter username or inviting him to find you on Facebook is a good way to take control of the situation! Just be sure and keep a healthy mix of communication; otherwise you may find he acts differently online than in person.

One note of caution, ask yourself why you're hesitant to give out your number. If the answer is "I'm not a phone person" that's fine, but do you really want a Twitter or Facebook message instead if you don't want a call. Asking him to find or contact you online is fine, but make sure it's not because you're hiding behind your profile.

Do you have a Love 2.0 questioned you want answered? Join the Tech Dating 101 because we understand that love and dating are stressful, and the Internet and social networking sites can just make things worse. You never know, your question could be featured on GeekSugar! Here's a detailed guide to posting questions or posts to groups if you are new to the PopSugar Community.

Be Internet Famous With U CAST Podcasting Kit!

GeekSugar — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:00:04 -0700

If you're over just getting the word out on the Internet with your blog and think you could rock the Interwebs with your voice, then check out the U CAST podcasting kit.

It includes a professional-grade USB microphone, headphones, sound editing software, and promises an easy way to get your podcast online for people to download.

What would you podcast? Would it be a talk show (more Seacrest, or more NPR?), would you mix, spin, and scratch as a DJ, or would you just use it as a personal soapbox? If you've got something to say, U CAST will let you say it. To everybody.

Yoostar Lets You Star in Your Favorite Movies From Home

GeekSugar — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:00:13 -0700

I have to admit that I was a little confused before I met with the Yoostar peeps at E3 yesterday, but after getting my hands (and face) on the product, my mind was made up: I want one of these. If you've always dreamed of playing a character in a movie - but maybe don't quite have the acting chops - then this is your game. Yoostar enables you to digitally embed your voice, picture, and action right into your favorite TV and movie scenes with the help of a powerful camera and green screen.

Coming this August, Yoostar is packed with everything you need right out of the box: the Yoostar software, a webcam with built-in mic, a remote control, and a six by six-foot green screen. From there, all you have to do is download the software to your computer (both Mac and PC friendly), set up your webcam and green screen, pick one of the fourteen bundled scenes that comes with the package, and you're ready to star in a scene with your favorite actors.

Why would you want to do this? Find out the answer, along with the price, what else you can do with the package, and a demo video when you read more.

I had a seriously good time costarring in a scene from Sesame Street with Elmo (I played Grover), and if I were a kid, I'd be all over it! Family game night just went high tech. Your kids could act out their favorite scenes and put on a show for the whole family to enjoy (don't worry, there are plenty of G-Rated scenes to choose from and download on yoostar.com), and if you want to be Internet famous, this is one way to do it. The quality of the finished product was surprisingly good, with the sound and picture being really clear. But, if I had time to practice my lines instead of reading the on-screen script, it would have looked way better. Hey, I'm a perfectionist like that.

And the good news is, the webcam and mic are high quality, so you can use this as your full-time webcam to chat with friends and family, or even use the setup to star in your own video blogs. Hitting the shelves in August, Yoostar comes in at $169.99 and with a six-foot green screen, which seems ridiculously low - these things don't come cheap!

Oh, Snap: SF Restaurant Puts Bad Yelp Reviews on Shirts

GeekSugar — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:33:29 -0800

There are a lot of business owners who've felt the sting of bad Yelp reviews, and one restaurant in San Francisco is getting even (instead of getting litigious).

Pizzeria Delfina decided to embrace its one-star reviews - by printing them on the shirts the staff wears.

They triumphantly rock t-shirts that say stuff like "This place sucks" while serving their delish dishes.

I love this idea, although, yes, I am frantically looking through my more notorious one-star reviews to see if it's possible that I might be Internet famous for a less-than-glam reason.

Love 2.0: Pete Mortensen and Kimra McPherson

GeekSugar — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:00:59 -0800

As part of our Geeks We Love series, I caught up with a few couples that, through the beauty of the internet and technology have influenced both our lives and each other.

If loving the internet, pop culture and Macs is wrong, Pete Mortensen and Kimra McPherson don’t want to be right. He’s an innovation strategy consultant, and renowned Cult of Mac blogger and she is an editor on the world famous BuzzSugar team. When the couple isn’t playing Wii sports or hiking Half Dome they can be found in their San Francisco apartment making messes while learning to cook, building up their netflix queue and keeping their two cats off their keyboards. And of course blogging, lots and lots of blogging. What geeky things do these two love about each other and life? read more

Geek-ground
Peter has spent the last two years covering Apple freelance for Wired and on the Cult of Mac blog. He also works for Jump Associates, a firm that helps clients unlock growth and create cultures of innovation. "I broke into blogging by sending Wired a blind cover letter with pitches," says Peter. "I’d been a Mac obsessive for about a decade before-hand, though, so I had a few things on my mind in advance." Kimra made her first Web site when she was 15 and has been on the Internet in various ways ever since, most recently as an editor for Buzzsugar.

Geeksugar: Let's start simple. What’s the geekiest thing about yourself:
He says: I was complaining just the other night that my experiment to learn twice as much on my morning train commute by listening to podcasts while reading books seemed to be failing, because I wasn’t retaining information from either source. Read that sentence again. Then get me some help.
She says: I’m currently chronicling the year between my 25th birthday and my 26th birthday by taking a photo every day and posting them all on flickr. If you ever wanted to know what the inside of my purse looked like on January 26, well, now you can.

Geeksugar: What’s the geekiest thing about your significant other:
He says: I think Kimra has actually got every personal blog on the internet as part of her RSS roll. I like to believe I get a pretty rich survey of everything the web has to offer, but then I see what she’s reading and recognize how small my world can be.
She says: The amount of information he knows about Apple is, frankly, a little scary. He might not remember shopping lists or flight departure times, but I’m sure he could tell you the names and personal histories of every key person who worked on the original Macintosh. He also “accidentally” impulse-bought a Nintendo Wii on eBay, so that’s a close second.

Geeksugar: How and when did you meet your significant other?
She says: We met in college, when he was my editor at our weekly campus magazine. We were also both college radio DJs, which is geeky enough in itself.
He says: This is 100 percent true. Though we didn’t start dating until well after we were both out of school.

Geeksugar: What are your top 5 favorite gadgets:
He says: My iPod shuffle (clip style, of course! I really want an orange one, now). My HDTV. Its picture is great, and it’s a Westinghouse, which makes me feel like it’s 1956 in the living room. My Nintendo DS Lite. My Powerbook G4 12”. His name is Malimikigio, which is Esperanto for “You are the enemy.” I got the name from liner notes of Radiohead’s “OK Computer.” Hmm… that might actually be the geekiest thing about me. Except that my iPod shuffle is named “L’il Malky.” That could be. Kimra’s dustbuster Scorpion with the extender nozzle. It almost makes cleaning up kitty litter fun. Almost.
She says: My 80 gig iPod, my iDog, my Blackberry Pearl, Pete’s Nintendo DS Lite (Brain Age has the best Sudoku game ever) and my iMic, for transferring my old high school mix tapes to mp3.

Geeksugar: What are the top 5 luxury gadgets you really want:
He says: The iPhone. Someone else can handle the service charges. A MacBook Pro, though I probably want the next generation of processors to roll through before that. If you’re paying, though, the current version’s fine. Noise-canceling headphones. Sennheiser makes some good ones. A Toyota Prius. Though what I really want is a hybrid Mini Cooper, if they’d ever get around to making it. A USB Missile Launcher. For attacks. Stealthy ones.
She says: Some really nice earphones, the iPhone, the Nike+iPod kit. I know the kit’s cheap, but I count it as a luxury because I don’t already have a Nano. I also don’t run, but that’s beside the point, right? Clocky! I can’t really justify spending $50 on an alarm clock that doesn’t also play music, except that it would run away from me when I hit snooze. A Nabaztag rabbit. Maybe my iDog’s lonely, OK?

Geeksugar: Your first computer was a…
He says: A Kaypro II. I swear I didn’t make that name up. It had a built-in green screen and couldn’t render graphics other than letters and numbers. We had an awesome fake Donkey Kong game called Ladder for it where you were a capital P that ran away from lower-case o’s and hopped over vertical carrot characters. My brother was way better at it than me. Thanks to the internet, I can play it again now. Check it out!
She says: An Apple IIe that my family kept many, many years past its prime.

Geeksugar: What are some of your favorite websites?
He says: yourmomsbasement.com, thevhive.com, daringfireball.net, core77.com, track50.com, crooksandliars.com, www.tenbyten.org/10x10.html
She says: televisionwithoutpity.com, shelterrific.com, flickr.com, 43things.com, tomatonation.com, track50.com, catsinsinks.com, postsecret.blogspot.com

Geeksugar: What is your Valentine’s Day plan?
He says: We’ve got a reservation at one of our favorite restaurants, Sauce. They’re doing a pretty amazing price-fixed four-course menu for the occasion. It’s awesome. It’s a Wednesday. Then, on a weekend not too much later, we’ll head down on Saturday to Big Sur – site of one of our earliest really significant dates, and an area we haven’t visited in almost two years.
She says: All of that is completely true.

Geeksugar: Who makes the final decision when it comes to gadgets for the home?
She says: We pretty much decide together while braving the piles of merchandise in Best Buy.
He says:Yep.

Geeksugar: Who solves tech problems at home?
She says: Oh, he does. Definitely. He networked everything and thus must deal with my phone calls asking inane questions about how to work the VCR.
He says: It’s cute that she calls the AV set-up a network. It’s not, but the fact that I could explain why it isn’t is way too geeky to even cover here.

Geeksugar: Are you going to buy an iPhone?
He says: If I start making a lot more money, I’d love one. HINT. I also would need to leave T-Mobile, which I’m not actually eager to do.
She says: If I can ever get out of my Sprint contract, I would; they own my soul for several more years.

Geeksugar: How do you feel about people calling you a “geek”?
He says: It’s fine. I think I bristle a little bit at nerd, though. I could be wrong. I have a close friend who thinks geek is more insulting than nerd. But then, he’s not really a geek. I think the only reason he uses a computer instead of a typewriter is that I tricked him into it.
She says: I definitely embrace it. Life just wouldn’t be the same without my Dashboard widgets and my Wired magazine subscription.

Geeksugar: What has been your better half's greatest contribution to the tech/blog industry – don’t be modest
He says: “She helped bring the BuzzReel into the world.”
She says: He, his Cult of Mac readers and Claire Danes raised $15,000 through Donors Choose so teachers could fund Mac-related classroom projects. He also put his body on the line to taste-test the Jones Soda Holiday Collection so we don’t have to.

Geeksugar: How many hours do you spend online a day?
He says: I’m not even sure how to measure this anymore. Even when I’m not online, I have GMail open, and I read each message as it comes in. Let’s call it a good 10 hours and not probe too much more.
She says: All of my working hours, and a large number of my leisure hours. Probably 12? Wow, I feel kind of dirty now.

Geeksugar: How many hours does your partner spend online a day?
He says: As much as I do. Possibly more. My day job sometimes requires me to put the computer down, which is both a blessing and a curse.
She says: He uses the computer as much as I do at home but slightly less at work. So 10 hours sounds about right, I suppose.

Geeksugar: What is one geeky habit you’re trying to quit?
He says: Hitting refresh on sites I like that are just not actually going to update in the next five seconds. I probably waste a good hour a day just revisiting sites and message boards I’ve already skimmed in hopes they’ll offer me something new. It’s sad.
She says: I’m way too easily distracted on the Internet. For example, I started answering this question 15 minutes ago, but then I decided I needed to go see if some of my old favorite Web sites that I hadn’t visited in a while had RSS feeds, and then I started following the links on their blogrolls, and suddenly I was reading the entire archives of a blog I’d never heard of before. So yeah, that.

Geeksugar: Are you the “Beauty” or the “Geek” in the relationship?
He says: I’m totally the geek. Kimra’s really beautiful, and, crucially, is nowhere near as dorky as I am when it comes to understanding how technology works, not just what it can do for her. Plus, I know the name of the woman who created all the icons for the original Mac. (Susan Kare! She’s great!) Um…yeah.
She says: Not that Pete’s not attractive, but I’m going to have to claim the title of Beauty here – I can only dream of someday reaching his level of Geekiness.

PC World Exposes The Top 25 Web Hoaxes and Pranks

GeekSugar — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:02:19 -0700

Ever get the e-mail about that lost relative that's died and left you a fortune, only you have to share your banking number with someone in West Africa? What about the e-mail promising a cash payout from Bill Gates if you forward an e-mail to a bagillion of your friends? Online pranks and shams are all too familiar to those of us that live on the web, but that doesn't mean they aren't delightfully funny or painfully jarring. This month's PC World has put together a list of the The Top 25 Web Hoaxes and Pranks and I for one, took a little trip down memory lane. Highlights include:

The Accidental Tourist (2001) - Quite possibly the most famous hoax picture ever, this gruesome idea of a joke traveled around the Web and made a grand tour of e-mail inboxes everywhere soon after the tragedy of September 11. It depicts a tourist standing on the observation deck of one of the World Trade Center towers, unknowingly posing for a picture as an American Airlines plane approaches in the background.
Sick Kid Needs Your Help (1989) - This gem had its roots in reality. It all began in 1989, when nine-year-old cancer patient Craig Shergold thought of a way to achieve his dream of getting into the Guinness Book of World Records. Craig asked people to send greeting cards, and boy, did they. By 1991, 33 million greeting cards had been sent, far surpassing the prior record.
Bill Gates Money Giveaway (1997) - "Dear Internet Subscriber," the e-mail starts. "The Government of the United States is quietly pushing through legislation that will affect your use of the Internet." It goes on to reveal that "Bill 602P" will authorize the U.S. Postal Service to assess a charge of five cents for every e-mail sent.

For the complete list of web Tom Foolery, check out PC World.