GeekSugar

John Mayer Talks TwitPics and Decides to Get a Kindle 2

GeekSugar — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:02:12 -0800

When PopSugar recently chatted with John Mayer about attending the Oscars with Jennifer Aniston, and he even opened up about his Twitter habits and his new found interest in TwitPic. Here's what he had to say about it:

"So the other night I was sitting up in bed because I couldn’t sleep. And I found out that if you go to a TwitPic, whatever one it is, and if you just start messing with the sequential order of the link, so if its like a1m2 go to a1m3, and it's someone else’s photograph. So we just started Twittering."

He even admitted to putting up a picture on TwitPic and claiming it was a friend:

"We were finding other peoples TwitPics. Look at TwitPic.com with a savvy eye, and you’ll see American life at its most amazing. You’ll see through a lens of people you’d never meet. This is my brother Doug. This is. . . I’m taking a bike ride with Eric Childs. It’s ridiculous. I’m trying to find a new frontier for Twitter. There’s an art form somewhere there, I don’t know what it is yet."

I love how John is becoming just as enamored with Twitter as Ashton. Yesterday John even posted a Tweet announcing that he's going to pick up a Kindle 2. "It takes something that costs 300 bucks to get me to read a 1.50 cent paper on it." I completely agree. I'm the one still hoping and wishing for a price drop.

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The 2009 Geeks We Love Roundup!

GeekSugar — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:43:46 -0800

Once again, I already feel like I had a fulfilling Valentine's Day because I got to interview some amazing folks I admire - fellow tech bloggers. Most were hilarious, but all were totally brilliant and entertaining. Check out my roundup of this years series of interviews for Geeks We Love.

View Slideshow ›

Geeks We Love: Elaine Chow of Gizmodo

GeekSugar — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:01:36 -0800

You've already seen the men of this year's Geeks We Love series, and now it's time to mix it up with a girl-crush: Elaine Chow of Gizmodo.

A gadget girl living in and writing from China, Elaine is set apart by geography and gender, as most of the Giz staff is male. Check out what she has to say about that, as well as a valuable dating/technology lesson she learned in my interview with her.

GS: You're the Gizmodo member who writes from Asia. Do you look out for what's breaking in tech while we're all sleeping on the other side of the world?

EC: Basically that's my job! Catch things that are only around the Asian websites or that would otherwise fall through the cracks during the graveyard shift. Thanks to the Internet, it's not too hard to do - though it sometimes gets lonely since very few of my coworkers are on the company chat room at two in the morning.

To see the rest of my interview with Elaine, just read more.

GS: Gadget rundown! Cell phone, computer, console?

EC: I actually have a terribly old cellphone - a Nokia model from 2005 that my dad stopped using last year. I'd lost my U.S. phone, a SE W580, on the plane ride over here. I've been hemming and hawing over what to replace it with since. A part of me wants something I can slip into tight jeans. Another part of me wants to use a smartphone already. Preferably running Android.

I've got my tablet PC, a Fujitsu Lifebook T4210, and my desktop. . . a Shuttle PC I built myself. I've been kind of lazy with my Shuttle. Back in New York, I had it hooked up to a 27-inch LCD TV. I was going to do that here, but just haven't found the time or money to go TV shopping. I got the Shuttle because it was small and easy to move around, but I wanted to be able to swap components as they got old. With the tablet - I love tablets. I like to doodle, so sometimes when I'm feeling a little strung out, I'll fire up Sketchbook Pro.

Besides that, I've got a Wii, a PS2, and my DS Lite. I've been a little obsessed with Mario Kart lately. I used to DDR a lot, but I haven't found a good mat in China yet. I'm waiting for Sony to come out with a slim PS3 (you know they're going to at SOME point in time. Come ON Sony!). . . and debating whether I really need an Xbox 360.

I waffle a lot when deciding whether to buy new stuff. I'm very stingy and I hate waste, so I'll obsess over the value to use ratio of my purchases. My TV's a big ol' 26-inch CRT my parents donated to my apartment.

GS: As one of the only female writers on the Gizmodo staff, do you feel you have an edge? Do you think you handle tech stories differently?

EC: I don't know if it gives me much of an edge to be a girl writer. When I first started out, I'd get some misogynistic comments if I ever wrote about say, a kitchen or cleaning gadget. I would like to think I don't handle anything differently than my fellow writers because I have ovaries though. It helps that the Giz crew is a pretty enlightened bunch. Maybe the guys tend to make a few more boner jokes. . .No. . . No, I make a lot of boner jokes too. Never mind.

GS: Being a woman writing in tech, is it more important that you connect with a female audience and show them you're a woman so they can relate to you, or that you are seen on the same level as a male tech blogger?

EC: I think the best way for me to write is to not think about being anything other than being "Elaine, who was fascinated enough with geeky things to become a tech blogger." I think me being a woman will color my posts as often as me being an environmentalist, me being a science lover, me liking cats, etc. You know? Like, it's important. . . but it's not the most important thing. That being said, if me being a woman blogging at Gizmodo has made any girl out there think "Hey, maybe this tech stuff isn't just for guys after all," I'd be super psyched.

GS: How do you feel about the current state of dating and technology? Any funny mishaps happen to you that could be blamed on tech?

EC: I'm one of those terrible people that never write letters or calls to say hello anymore thanks to email, IM'ing and text messaging. I think the last two guys I dated, I never actually conversed with on the phone. Part of that is probably because I actually hate phone conversations. It's a weird neurosis.

Hmm . . . a mishap with technology. Well, I don't know if I can call this one funny. A former boyfriend of mine had problems controlling his jealousy. One day, I had left my MSN messenger on before leaving my house for work and he saw that I'd received an email from another ex. He went into my emails, from there got passwords to my private blog and then proceeded to read it and yell at me for things I'd written (sometimes about him) that he didn't like.

Now my laptop is password protected and there's a specific guest setting for anybody that's not me to use. Also, I try not to date psychos.

GS: What's your favorite or most memorable thing you've gotten to do as part of Gizmodo?

EC: Meeting Brando in Hong Kong was a very surreal moment and it was thrilling to know that he was a fan. I think that sometimes I forget that millions of people are reading us, and some of those people are making the things we talk about all the time. And then you meet one of them and you're kind of like "whoa, why are you even giving me the time of day? You're awesome!" I love that I got the opportunity to do that.

Geeks We Love: Adam Pash of Lifehacker

GeekSugar — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:00:46 -0800

Continuing on with our Geeks We Love interview series, I'd like to introduce you to Adam Pash, the editor of one of my all-time favorite blogs, Lifehacker. This past January, Adam took over the helm at Lifehacker when Gina Trapani stepped down from her position, and he's been doing an amazing job ever since. Aside from running a site that's filled with more productivity tips, organizational tools, and useful downloads than you can imagine, Adam has also co-authored the book How to Do Everything with Your iPhone and can be found whipping up helpful web applications of his very own.

GS: Lifehacker is one of the most popular blogs on the Internet today. How do you explain the appeal of your "Lifehacks"?

AP: It's no huge secret: Everyone likes doing things better. We cover a lot of stuff every day - often with a tech-heavy slant (everyone also has computers) - aimed at helping our readers streamline their lives. Lifehacker gets really good when we find a great trick for doing something completely banal a thousand times better or more efficiently. Them's the goods.

GS: You just created a useful, printer-friendly website called Printable Checklist. How often do you build online tools like this one that help make your life a little easier? Which ones do you regularly use that you would call favorites?

AP: It's actually a side-hobby I've just started. Over the past year I've been working in my spare time on a much more ambitious music site that I'm hoping to launch in the next few weeks, and in doing so I've significantly improved my HTML, CSS, and JavaScripting skills. So when I had the idea for Printable Checklist (or, rather, when I wished something like it existed), I realized that making it myself wouldn't take all that long. So. . . chances are I'll make more similar one-use web applications in the future. But MixTape.me (the music site) is my real baby.

To learn more about Adam, including some of his favorite gadgets and hobbies, read more

GS: What are your five "must have" gadgets that you can't seem to live without and why?

AP: Oh boy. Contrary to what one might assume, my personal gear isn't all that impressive - but here goes anyway:

iPhone: There are a lot of improvements I'd like to see from the folks at Cupertino, but I still am gaga about my iPhone. It's an awesome multi-room music remote, music player, mini-app monster, and it's not a bad phone, either.
My Hackintosh: I love Apple gear, but it is ridiculously expensive for my taste. It gets less expensive if you're willing to roll up your sleeves and built your own. I've been using the same Hackintosh for a couple of years, though, and I'm looking and updating my build (and my guide at Lifehacker) very soon.
Xbox 360: I don't do all that much gaming, but currently my 360 is the centerpiece of my home theater. I use it as a DVD player (lame, I know), Windows Media Center extender, and Netflix streamer. I only own two or three games for it, and the only one I ever play is Halo. (I suppose that's also pretty lame).
Logitech Harmony Xbox 360 Remote: It's a universal remote that works really well with the Xbox. It works with other stuff, obviously.
My Linksys Router: This router has served me oh-so-well, both at home and at Lifehacker. I've written about it twice on Lifehacker - once for a guide to installing the open-source router firmware DD-WRT, the other time for a guide to installing the also open-source router firmware Tomato. They're both awesome router upgrades, and their corresponding guides at Lifehacker remain two of our most popular posts of all time.

GS: Would you say your wife is as tech savvy as you are? Are there certain types of posts she inspires you to write?

AP: I hate to say that "the wife's not big on technology," but she's really not. I mean, she's good with computers and all that, but her main interests lie outside technology. She's a big Internet lover, though. She also casts a broader net than I do when she's doing her internetting, so I've gotten a lot of great non-tech ideas from her for Lifehacker - which is very important to the site.

GS: When you're not "geeking-out" so to speak, what are some things you like to do for play?

AP: As bad of an answer to your question as this may be, my main hobby for the last year has been working on my music site. I love music, play guitar, etc., (yeah, okay, I play Rock Band, too). I'm a regular jogger, like hanging out with friends, taking hikes. . . wait, I think I confused my geeksugar and Match.com emails.

Geeks We Love: Joshua Topolsky of Engadget

GeekSugar — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 06:01:30 -0800

You'd think that Engadget's editor in chief, NYC-based Joshua Topolsky, would be too busy doing things like manhandling the new Kindle to have time to talk to geeksugar for this year's installment of Geeks We Love. But this is a man who says if he could, he'd be called "super king" rather than simply "editor-in-chief." Do not underestimate him.

Since taking over Engadget's top spot last year, the mass of responsibility that's been heaped on Josh is matched only by his irreverent sense of humor (just listen to an Engadget podcast). And from music-industry beginnings (he was a music producer with a studio in Brooklyn) to excellent taste in eyewear, Josh is nebbishly cool - the definition of one of my favorite cliches: geek-chic.

GS: As a fan of your podcast, I know you're a funny guy - does not taking things so seriously make it easier to process all the information overload of tech news?

JT: I think our industry has a history of taking itself a little seriously. I'm not sure that having a sense of humor makes it easier to process the information overload, but it definitely helps to keep things in perspective. Ultimately, I know that if one day our technology becomes self-aware and turns against us, chases us down with a Green Goblin 18-wheeler, and forces us to sail to an island where there's no electricity - at least I'll have my sense of humor. And this iPhone I whittled from driftwood, and these apps I made from leaves.

To read more of my interview with Josh Topolsky, which includes his love for books and zombie-infused video games, read more.

GS: Favorite gadget right now that you cannot live without?

JT: It's safe to say that I would be useless without my laptop. I wish I could tell you that all I need is a notebook and a pen, but that would be a blatant, cool lie.

GS: Gadget rundown! Cell phone?

JT: I'm currently juggling three phones - the G1, iPhone 3G, and BlackBerry Bold. I'm really frustrated because each one does at least one thing that I really love, but none of them do exactly what I want. For instance, the G1 is great for Gmail (perfect, really), the iPhone has its killer app ecosystem and is really good for getting around/doing "fun" stuff, and the Bold is the ultimate serious-phone, for when I need to impress bankers and stockbrokers. Which is often.

Mac, PC, or Linux?

JT: I use all three. I write for Engadget!

Home tech setup?

JT: My TV is a really depressing Olevia 37-inch, I really need to upgrade. I've got Time Warner's DVR, which is made by Scientific Atlanta (if you must know). We've got a huge pile of consoles here, and my favorite game is anything with zombies, and preferably so terrifying that people actually die while playing it.

GS: What do you do when you're not Engadgeting (that's my clever way of asking about spare time)?

JT: We actually don't get a lot of spare time, but I'm really a big book nerd - we have a large collection here, though I don't read nearly enough (hardly at all lately). I also enjoy video games, as previously stated, and I try to watch complete television series in a single sitting. I collect old calculators, Dune toys, and I love comic books. Oh, and I'm usually trying to get new distros of Linux and/or BeOS working on my many, many computers.

GS: You're married; is your wife also a geek?

Well, my wife and I work together (she's an editor at Engadget), so there is a lot of crossover, but she's really much more of a book person than I am. In fact, her collection of books is far more impressive, and she read something like 500 new books last year. It's staggering. Essentially, she makes me feel bad that I haven't read anything in ages.

GS: Lastly, what's your absolute favorite thing you've done with Engadget (like that open letter to Palm)?

I really loved the letter to Palm, and doing the first iPhone unboxing for the site was pretty wild - but the thing I love best about the job is all the nuts and bolts stuff that a lot of people don't see. Hunting down stories, working with the brilliant team we have, actually scooping something - it's thrilling. It's kind of impossible to pick one thing, but a friend of mine told me the other day that I have the dream job my 13-year-old-self would have wanted, and that's pretty much true. It doesn't really get better than that.

Image Courtesy of Morini & Montanari

Geeks We Love: Doug Aamoth of CrunchGear

GeekSugar — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:06:23 -0800

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, we're kicking off our third annual Geeks We Love interview series to showcase some of the most talented and loved tech writers in the industry. And who better to get things under way, than the charming Doug Aamoth, who spends most of his days reviewing high-tech gadget goods for CrunchGear? I had the pleasure of meeting Doug at the HTC Touch Diamond Event in London last year, and found him to be very much the way he comes across in his work - passionate and knowledgeable about technology, and a really great guy with an addictive sense of humor. By the end of this interview, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about - enjoy!

GS: Considering you're the king of product reviews, what types of gadgets are you most excited to take for a test drive?

DA: I'll review just about anything, but I really like to take a look at stuff that has some sort of technological slant to it instead of being a full-fledged technology product. Basically, if I think it's something that would be interesting to other geeks, I'll review it. We get some pretty good response from stuff like the Penguin Home Soda Machine and a little four dollar keychain breathalyzer that also has a built-in stopwatch and flashlight. Of course, right? Every breathalyzer should have a stopwatch just in case you want to have an emergency footrace outside the bar before you figure out if you're okay to drive home.

As far as "real" technology products go, I'm really enjoying this netbook craze right now. I think it'll get much better, too, once Intel sees some more competition from AMD, NVIDIA, and VIA. Other than that, I also really like reviewing things that make people's lives easier. The simpler the better. Oh, and energy drinks. I love taste-testing energy drinks.

To learn more about Doug, including his "ah-ha" moment and his thoughts on technology and dating, read more

GS: What's the most outrageous and hilarious gadget that's arrived on your doorstep?

DA: I think that one of the best reviews I've done was for a product that never showed up. I spent a few days waiting for the new Flip Mino to arrive, at first thinking it would be here on a Tuesday morning, then being told Wednesday instead, then getting a press release envelope but no camera on Thursday, and finally having it show up Friday morning after all our competitors had gotten theirs on Wednesday. It wasn't really that big of a deal but I thought it'd be funny to chronicle the event as though it were an episode of The Office.

Aside from that, the most outrageous review would definitely be for a product called FyreTV, which is a set-top box that streams, um, "non-traditional" video. It's weird because it's basically a review just like any other. We rarely look at the media content for set-top boxes, but more at the actual hardware and how well it handles streaming. So for the FyreTV review it was like, "Here's the box, here are the connections, here's the remote, it streams stuff really quickly, and the video quality is pretty good. Oh, whoops, sorry I had to blur everything out and block the camera with my hand at certain points but you get the idea."

GS: Describe one of the most memorable moments of your career thus far. . .

DA: I had an "a-ha" moment about six months into my career when I was at this Acer conference in Spain. It was my first real work trip and I postponed my own bachelor party to go to it. I remember getting into this big conference hall with a bunch of other reporters, and sitting down at this long table with my laptop and my voice recorder waiting for the presentation to begin. I looked around and thought to myself, "This is what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. I love this stuff." I've had over 30 jobs in my lifetime (I get kind of restless) but I finally felt pretty calm for the first time.

In retrospect, I wouldn't have moved my bachelor party for a work trip but at the time I didn't know how often an opportunity like that Acer conference would come around. Turns out, it was a lot. It was still a great experience, though. Singing White Wedding at CES this year was pretty cool, too.

Also, any time I meet someone that I used to read before I started blogging is always really cool. Every person I meet always looks at me weird when I tell them I'm a big fan of theirs or that they're like a hero to me. I used to read tech blogs and magazines and think "Man, that would be the best job." Now that I'm actually doing it, I still haven't forgotten that feeling. I consider myself to be really fortunate.

GS: How geeky is your significant other? Who makes the final decision when it comes to gadgets for the home?

DA: My wife is probably about a three out of ten on the geekiness scale. She's not into tech stuff whatsoever, but she'll think some of the things I tell her about and some of the products I show her are cool. So she's definitely not against technology and she's pretty savvy with the stuff she uses on a daily basis. She does NOT like all the boxes we have around the house, but I can't blame her for that. It gets pretty out of hand sometimes.

I handle all the IT administration and technical support in the Aamoth household. Interestingly enough, I've been terrible about picking a good cell phone for my wife. I got her the LG Chocolate a few years ago and she didn't like it. Then I recommended the Samsung Glyde and between the non-responsive touchscreen and the poor reception, it's really been a terrible device as far as our relationship goes. One of these days, though, I'm going to pick out a good phone for her. It's just tough being in the doghouse for two whole years while we wait for her contract to come up for renewal!

GS: In the new movie He's Just Not That Into You, Drew Barrymore's character has the following to say about technology and dating:

"I had this guy leave me a voice mail at work, and so I called him at home, and he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It's exhausting."

What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you think technology makes dating more complicated?

DA: Sure, I can see technology complicating things for people who don't embrace it. As someone who's into all this stuff, though, the thought of having seven different technologies that don't synchronize with one another is mortifying to me. I have a single Grand Central phone number that forwards to any other phones I might currently be using and my various e-mail addresses all funnel into a single Gmail account.

It's funny, though, because people will be like, "Give me your cell phone number, I can never get a hold of you at your work number," and I'll try to explain that my work, home, and cell phone numbers all forward to the same place. So they'll leave a voicemail on what they think is my home number saying that they'll try me on my cell, which leads to them leaving the same message in the same voicemail system two minutes later. Same thing with email: the same message three times to three different email accounts.

I think just starting to date someone would be really weird nowadays with Facebook and Twitter and everything. Do you friend this person right away or what? Is there a rule as to how many dates you go on before you can friend someone? And it'd be super weird if you were dating someone for a little bit and then they told you they were getting too busy with work or whatever, and then all of a sudden you see their status change on their profile and you see photos of them with someone else and all that. My buddy told me he watched his little brother's relationship with his girlfriend fall apart over Facebook, which seems totally surreal to me. That's what happens now, though, I guess. Everyone has access to everyone else's private lives with all the social networking stuff.

I'm really apprehensive to admit this but a former girlfriend and I actually broke up over AIM once. And we'd been seeing each other for a long time - like a couple years. We'd been living together in Seattle and I'd moved home to Minneapolis and I think we were both kind of ready to move on, so the mutuality of it made everything easier. I don't think most breakups would work that well over AIM but if you're both pretty much on the same page and it's going to be a relatively clean breakup because you both want the same thing, then it actually kinda works. Weird, huh?

GS: Now for the lightning round!
Mac or PC? DA: PC
iPhone or BlackBerry? DA: I love my T-Mobile G1 but I'd take a BlackBerry. I need a real, physical keyboard.
MySpace or Facebook? DA: Facebook (as the lesser of two evils).
iPod or Zune? DA: I really like my iPod Touch.
The Hills or Gossip Girl? DA: I've never seen Gossip Girl, but The Hills is absolutely, positively, 100 percent the bane of my existence. My wife has to watch it in our bedroom with the door closed or when I'm not around because the way the brats on that show talk is like fingernails on a chalkboard for me. So Gossip Girl.
Steve Jobs or Bill Gates? DA: Bill Gates. His acting in the Seinfeld Microsoft commercials was mesmerizing.
Picasa or Flickr? DA: Picasa. Great example of a desktop app working harmoniously "in the cloud."
Texting or Emailing? DA: Email. I like the cost better.
WiFi or Wired? DA: I'll borrow from a golf saying here and say WiFi for show, Wired for dough.
Pac Man or Space Invaders? DA: Pac Man, preferably Ms. Pac Man.
Star Wars or Star Trek? DA: Star Wars
Laptop or Desktop? DA: Ouch. That's like Sophie's Choice. I have both and could never part with either of them.
The Bachelor or the Bachelorette? DA: ABC should cut out the fluff and have them marry each other. I mean, they're both looking for the same thing, right? Set them up together and spare us all from having to sit through it.
Coffee or Tea? DA: Monster Low Carb energy drink. Coffee will do in a pinch, though.

Greg Behrendt's Tech Dating Advice Is Good Stuff

GeekSugar — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:00:20 -0800

It's fitting that we should hear about technology affecting dating from the guy who wrote the book behind the movie He's Just Not That Into You, Greg Behrendt.

Drew Barrymore admitted to being confused by the integration, while Ginnifer Goodwin seemed to know how to play the game, albeit grudgingly.

Greg's feelings about tech (who's pictured here on the left in his cameo role in the movie) are more about how it can enhance relationships - but shouldn't dictate behavior:

I think that in your life you have standards for what you will or will not tolerate, what works for you. If you’re comfortable having an entire relationship on text, that’s up to you, but you basically teach people how to treat you. If you want a phone call, ask for a phone call, and accept nothing less.

To see what else Greg said, just read more.

You want to see somebody in person? Let them know. The great thing is, it’s expanded the way we communicate so it can be part of [it] - you know, sometimes when I’m doing something like this and I can check in and shoot my wife an email or a text and say ‘Hey, I love you, just letting you know. Busy, can’t really call right now.’ But if I did that all the time, it would be problematic.

Source

What the Frack? My Interview With Ron Moore and David Eick

GeekSugar — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:00:06 -0800

If you've been slightly overwhelmed with the Christmas season like most of us around here at Sugar HQ, I've got a few things to snap you out of your holi-daze: Battlestar Galactica returns to your small screen on Friday, January 16, and is showing ten new webisodes on SciFi.com right now to tide you over until the premiere.

I couldn't be more excited to check out the last half of the final season, especially since it's been a pretty painful seven months waiting to see what will happen next. Yesterday, I sat in on a conference call to chat with BSG producers Ron D. Moore and David Eick and learned about what's in store for the last season, details about the new Caprica series, and their departing thoughts on the final frames of BSG. Check out what they had to say when you read more.

GS: How did you choose the Final Five cylons? Was it just pulling names out of a hat, or did you have them in mind from the beginning?

RM Well, David has a dart board, so . . .
DE The answer is a little of both!
RM The final four came up in a writers' room when we were struggling at the end of season three. It was all about the trial of Baltar, and we knew that's where the season would end, but it just didn't seem satisfying enough. So I got this image of four of our people walking from different areas of the ship, coming together and closing the doors and say "Ok, we're cylons." Everyone was taken aback at the moment, but we talked about it and said "Why not?" and then deciding on holding off on the final cylon. We had an idea about who the final cylon would be, but we were willing to look at other candidates, and who would make the most sense with the mythology, and eventually stuck with the original choice cause it just made the most sense.

GS: During the reveal, All Along The Watchtower was playing. Did that song have any significance to you personally, or to the story? How did you choose that as their "signal"?

RM I've personally been obsessed with the song for a while. I'm fascinated by it. I've wanted to work it into a project of mine for the last several years (in fact I wanted to do a whole Roswell episode about it), so it was always in the back of my mind. So we started talking about music as the trigger, I said, "Oh, it has to be All Along the Watchtower", and everyone laughed. . . until they realized I was very serious about it!

GS: I'm a big fan of the series and find myself just wanting to watch it all at once, one right after the other. Is there a particular reason why you split up the seasons into two parts? Does it lend to the storytelling?

It's pretty much SciFi. It's really been more about their scheduling, and when they want to air the episodes. We just sort of got used to building in a mid season cliffhanger and then left it up to them to decide how long the break would be between parts.
GS: It's definitely very painful waiting so long, I have to tell you.
RM Yes, I gathered that. People have made that very clear to me!

I learned a few other interesting tidbits as well:

A TV movie titled Battlestar Galactica: The Plan about the cylons left on the recently destroyed planets will air this year. Perhaps in June?
Episode 10 of the new webisodes has been leaked. I couldn't tell you where though.
Ron Moore is developing a pilot for Fox called Virtuality that I am totally psyched about.
The final cylon will be revealed before the last episode. Woot!
Unfortunately, Ron and David say that the door for any further episodes pretty much shuts at the end of the season, meaning that it's more than likely that the series is truly over.

Check out a clip of the upcoming episode that begins January 16 on Sci Fi!

Source

geeksugar Chats With MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe

GeekSugar — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:30:32 -0800

Just two months shy of geeking out with Samantha Ronson at the TechCrunch50/MySpace Party, I found myself at another fabulous MySpace party last night at the beautiful Old Mint building in San Francisco - hello?! Lionel Richie performed! This time, it was a MySpace 2.0 party celebrating MySpace Music and the latest partnership between Ashton Kutcher's production company, Katalyst Media, and MySpace. The second season of Kutcher's web series Blah Girls is expected to debut on MySpace early next year - in addition to all previous episodes from season one.

Last night PopSugar caught up with Ashton to chat about how his step-daughters played a role in creating his new web animation series Blah Girls, and I got the chance to talk with MySpace CEO about MySpace Music and what else we can expect from MySpace in the next year. Here's what he had to say:

On MySpace Music: "We've gotten a lot done in the last year. Obviously MySpace music is one of the biggest ventures that we've done. We have a new profile type that we're rolling out really soon where you can customize your profile and have any kind of background you want and that will be really cool. Complete redesign - and in addition to that we'll be adding nearly every mobile feature - a lot of exciting stuff."
On what the redesign will entail: "More music and then tons of videos and then more functionality around the music where you'll be able to take it with you."

View 5 Photos ›

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Geeking Out with Samantha Ronson at TechCrunch50/ MySpace Party

GeekSugar — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:30:51 -0700

The big TechCrunch50 Conference kicked off yesterday at the San Francisco Design Center Concourse, with the best new tech startups launching their companies in front of the public - yes Ashton and Demi were there! And to celebrate the day one festivities was the big MySpace party last night at Mezzanine. I not only got to chat with Sean Parker, the cofounder of Napster, and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington - who said this year's turnout was much better than last year's - but I was able to catch up with the famous Samantha Ronson, who was DJing at the event, and ask her some geeky questions!

BlackBerry or iPhone Owner? "I actually have both."
Are you a Mac or PC Fan? "Mac all the way. PCs are just hard to figure out and not user friendly whatsoever."
What software do use on your laptop for spinning tunes? "Sonar by Cakewalk."

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