GeekSugar

Google Images Adds Millions of Historic TIME Magazine Photos

GeekSugar — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:00:45 -0800

One thing that upsets me about Google Images is the fact that it's sometimes difficult to find older photos - hey, the Internet is only 39 years old. Google is trying to change this by hosting millions of photos from the LIFE photo archive from the 1950s and onward. Search various categories like people, places, events, sports, and culture or add "source:life" to any Google image search to only search the LIFE photo archive. I did this with Marilyn Monroe and these were the results I got - magical, right?!

Wired Calls Out the Most Annoying Habits of Geeky Spouses

GeekSugar — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:05:09 -0700

Hmmm. . . am I the annoying one, or the annoyed one? Wired has a list of the most annoying habits of geeky spouses, and the very familiar list has me shaking my head in recognition. A lot of recognition.

We're both guilty of #2, using "frak" in place of real curse words, #4, dissecting movies (him being an ace at Final Cut Pro), #6, requiring extra room in the house for geeky things in gadgets (which forces me to recall the afternoon we each had a meltdown over the TiVo and the cable box not fitting inside our new credenza), and #9, needing to watch certain shows ASAP to avoid spoilers (and avoiding Twitter when those shows are on).

The one that's hands-down the most annoying, which we both do - and I know for a fact annoys our friends - but the ultimate geek habit: #8, looking up information while an argument is in progress. I mean, I paid good money for my iPhone, why shouldn't I use it to prove that River Phoenix was in fact, in Stand By Me? Some things cannot be helped.

Anything you can think of that didn't make the list?

Photo courtesy of CBS

Geeky Proposals: Awesome or Kinda Lame?

GeekSugar — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:00:09 -0800

What girl wouldn't want a memorable marriage proposal? But popping the question on a Jumbotron or hiding the ring in a dessert is so 10 years ago. In these days of love 2.0, you gotta be more creative and a lot more tech savvy. Take for example the guy who proposed by sending his now bride-to-be on a romantic scavenger hunt programmed into her iPhone! Or perhaps you could take a cue from the game-loving dude that hacked a video game to surprise his girl, or the Google employee that used Google Street View to propose to his geeky gal.

What do you think about geeky proposals? Are they totally awesome, or do you prefer something a little more subdued?

Source

Could You Give Up Print Magazines For Digital Editions?

GeekSugar — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:00:07 -0800

Digital editions of magazines are nothing new, although it feels pretty momentous to hear that prestigious magazine The New Yorker is launching its digital version, with all of the content being made free to its print subscribers.

Here's the thing - I'm a magazine junkie. I subscribe to so many magazines, I can barely get through them all in a month. I love seeing the shiny new covers in the mail, flipping through them when I get a spare moment - I've always loved them. When I hear that titles go digital, I rejoice (more ways to access the content), but I also secretly fear for the fate of the print editions. What if everyone switched to reading magazines online and my beloved magazines stopped greeting me in my mailbox? I don't know if I could deal.

Could you make the switch from paper to exclusively digital?

Source

What Mashup Site Would You Love?

GeekSugar — Thu, 24 May 2007 16:00:35 -0700

There's no doubt about it mashup sites provide a unique and pleasurable website experience by combining services of two sites into one. For example, Flickrvision is a mashup site that displays the pictures people across the world are posting on Flickr on a map, while MapsKrieg.com combines Google Maps and the housing listings on Craigslist.org.

This week, Wired Magazine's Alt Text blog put out a ploy for more innovative mashup sites that would help trim our bookmark menus by combining popular domains. The list includes:

Netflickr - Subscribe to this service and they'll mail you three photos of someone's lame party. When you're done looking at one, mail it back and they'll send you a picture of some random bridge somewhere.
Figg - This community blog throws Fark and Digg together, insuring that that 95 percent of all frat boys with laptops will be members.
Craigsbitz - Thanks to this combination of Craigslist and Orbitz, you can browse the voluminous listings for all sorts of jobs, from blow to temp, then immediately book a flight and a hotel room to the city where the offer is being made.
WiredSpace - Wired and MySpace combine to form a massive online community dedicated to discussing the latest in tech news as well as blaring MP3s at you.

I'm partial to the Netflickr and Craigsbitz ideas but I'd probably get sucked into the vortex of WiredSpace if it existed.

Do Geeks Make Better Lovers?

GeekSugar — Sat, 12 May 2007 09:16:12 -0700

Wired Magazine's in-house sex drive expert Regina Lynn has come up with a hilarious The 10 Real Reasons Why Geeks Make Better Lovers post which kills the "geeks make better lovers because they're worried they'll never get anyone else" stereotype. It's NSFW, which is why I figured Saturday was the perfect day to share. My favorite highlights include:

Geeks get personal with tech - All engineers may be geeks, but not all geeks are engineers. Doesn't matter. You don't need to know how to build a platform in order to do a half-gainer in full pike with a twist into the river of love.

Geeks get things done - Geeks know all the shortcuts. They research your interests, send you surprise gifts, plan your perfect vacation, get the bills and grocery shopping out of the way, write to their mothers, and tease you mercilessly, all while pretending to work. And when you ask them to set up your home Wi-Fi or install a home theater, it's done quickly, expertly and without complaint.

Best Geek Bars In US, According to Wired

GeekSugar — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:00:47 -0800

This month's Wired Magazine features a list of the top six geek bars in the US that can't be missed if you're a bar-going geek. While the concept of a geek bar excites me to no end, I do worry the crowd at such places is slightly more likely to use pick up lines like "you make me want to upgrade my Tivo" and "by looking at you I can tell you're 36-25-36, which by the way are all perfect squares." Just a guess. I must admit, their pick for Edinburgh Castle in my hometown of San Francisco is spot on. The A-listers include:

Miracle of Science
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
The giant menu on the wall is in the form of the periodic table of the elements, and it’s just a short unicycle ride from MIT.

Barcade
BROOKLYN
The large selection of beers on tap is outdone by 25 mint-condition, 1980s arcade games lining the walls.

Quark’s Bar
LAS VEGAS
Only at the Las Vegas Hilton can you drink Romulan ale and be amused by roaming Klingons.

For the rest of the Best Geek Bars visit Wired.

Publish Your Own Magazine on the Cheap With MagCloud

GeekSugar — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:02:38 -0700

Now that you've published your novel online for free, why not bring to life that idea for a magazine you've had swirling around in your head? Now you can on the cheap with MagCloud.

Just recently fresh out of beta, MagCloud allows you to create your own magazine, edit, tweak, add photography, and then with just a few clicks, publish your work online and have it printed for your adoring public.

Remember back when music was being made without record labels? It's kinda like that, but now you can unhinge your ideas on your own, without the backing of a megacorporation - just create your mag from your computer! But printing your magazine isn't all that MagCloud will do. Find out about the other services they take care of, and how much all of this costs when you read more.

MagCloud makes it easy to run your own magazine - they take care of printing, shipping, and subscription services, and printing costs only 20 cents a page!

Paris Hilton Gets a New Cell Phone Every Two Weeks

GeekSugar — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:14:35 -0700

During a pretrial hearing for failing to promote the movie Pledge This!, US Magazine goes into how Paris Hilton (who we already know is no stranger to technology), pulled out all of the tech excuses, which included saying she used Google as a way to keep track of business meetings.

Paris also went on to blame missed calls from producers on her lost cell phones. She says:

With my phone I never know, because I lose it all the time. I probably get a new cellphone, like, every two weeks.

And when the lawyers showed her a copy of her cell phone bill, she admitted that she's "never seen a phone bill in her life."

I can honestly say, that she's probably telling the truth, I mean, this would explain the constant device changes and endless supply of cell phones!

Source

The Kindle DX Has Landed

GeekSugar — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:55:57 -0700

This morning in NYC, Amazon's founder and CEO Jeff Bezos officially announced the Kindle DX, the larger-screened (9.7 inches large) wireless reading device. Unlike the Kindle 2 (which holds up to 1,500 books), this bad boy can be filled with 3,500 books with its 3.3 GB of memory. It also features an auto-rotating screen, a built-in PDF reader, and the battery life is said to last four days with wireless on and two weeks when it's off.

As you can probably guess, the bigger screen makes it easier to read books, newspapers, and magazines. And so far, five universities have already agreed to test it out, and three major newspapers will pilot the Kindle DX for a reduced price (the New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe), so that subscribers will sign up for longer time periods. Bezos also revealed that Amazon has signed a partnership with three of the top textbook publishers that account for 60 percent of textbook sales.

You can preorder the device now (which is said to have a Summer release date) for $489.

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