GeekSugar

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

Spotted: Steve and Laurene Jobs at Apple!

GeekSugar — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:01:54 -0700

Yes, after the new MacBook Pros, new MacBook Airs, and new MacBooks were announced at the Apple Event in Cupertino yesterday, who else, but none other than Laurene Powell Jobs, decided to sit down on a bench right next to me. As she chatted away on her sleek white iPhone, I instantly knew it was her - especially after our "Geek Love: Tech Giants and Their Ladies" story which featured her and her hubby looking oh-so-adorable. Within a few minutes, Steve decided to join his blond beauty for some one-on-one time, which I'm guessing turned into a lunch date or a ride home together. All together now, ahhhh!

To see more pics of Laurene chatting on her iPhone before Steve joined her, just read more.

Geek Love: Tech Giants and Their Ladies

GeekSugar — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:13:34 -0700

Last week I asked if you like young Bill or young Steve more (71 percent of you are like me and think Steve is the bigger catch), and it got me thinking about tech giants and the love in their lives. We all know about Bill and his wife Melinda Gates because of their Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, but who do the other big men in tech snuggle up to at night? Check out my slideshow to find out! Source

View Slideshow ›

IM Gives Shy Guys a Chance

GeekSugar — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:55:15 -0700

Do you know many guys who are socially awkward in person, but once they're in front of a computer they transform into confident ladies' men? Well for Roger Hobbs, a total nerd away from the computer, the Internet became his alter ego. This past weekend, the New York Times showcased the story of Roger, from the trials and tribulations of his Love 2.0 experiences, to the power of online conversation in allowing him to "escape his loser identity and become the super-cool cyber Casanova he thought he deserved to be."

With technology giving him the confidence boost he needed, Roger felt that he had mastered his love life, and knew the secret recipe for getting girls to like him - online that is. As soon as he got a girl's IM name, the words and seduction poured out on the screen.

He says: "Nothing was too challenging. I first seduced my best friend’s girlfriend and, when they broke up, I seduced his new girlfriend. I had a girlfriend in New York and one in Philadelphia. I had a girl I met on a train and a girl I met in a nightclub. I had a Republican and a Democrat, an artist and an engineer, a Christian and an atheist."

Have you heard of this happening very often? Are these the same guys who think it's OK to break up via email?

Source

Love 2.0: Anil Dash and Alaina Browne

GeekSugar — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:10:19 -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.

There are plenty of couples that both blog, but Anil Dash and Alaina Browne are in an elite club of longtime bloggers that have been around the blogosphere for years, but are still humble about their success, influence and accomplishments. Anil, is Vice President at Six Apart, a blogging software used by millions of people across the world, but he describes his occupation by saying "I help people start blogging." Alaina is the general manager at Serious Eats, a website filled with video, blogs, photos and feature stories all geared toward the foods people love. What geeky things do these two love about life online and each other? read more.

Geeksugar: So, let's lay it all on the table. What do you think is the "geekiest" thing about yourself?
Anil: I'm probably a little bit obsessive over weird little technical things, like the order of icons on my desktop, or the way my songs are tagged in iTunes. I've even gotten hundreds of people to tell me how they use Excel to organize their personal lives. So probably the most geeky thing about me is that I really, really love software and consider myself a student of software culture.
Alaina: I won my school’s Computer Science Student of the Year award in 7th grade.

Geeksugar: Tell us a bit about your background.
Alaina: I’ve been a web geek pretty much since the beginning, working with MindSpring (later Earthlink) and puttering around with websites and later blogs for about ten years. I had a personal site for a long time, and then when I moved to New York City in 2002, I started NYC Eats, which later became A Full Belly. It was one of the first food blogs, and I was very lucky and happy to meet a lot of people and discover a lot of new things through the site, though I don’t update it much anymore. After we moved to San Francisco in 2004, I started working for Mule Design, a great web design shop run by some friends of ours. While there I got to work on a diverse mix projects for Six Apart, CNET’s Chowhound, and a lot of other great clients. Then late last year I got the chance to help get Serious Eats off the ground. Combined with the chance to come back to New York, it was an irresistible opportunity and one that I’m very excited about. The community on Serious Eats is already something really special.
Anil: I work at Six Apart because I've been a blogger since 1999 (at dashes.com) and I wanted to help people get started blogging. I was the first employee, so I've been at it for about four years. These days, I get to go everywhere talking about Movable Type, TypePad, LiveJournal and Vox, and it's the best job I've ever had. You could say I got into it because I couldn't not do it.

Geeksugar: What about the geekiest thing about your significant other?
Anil: Hmm, that's a tough one. Alaina is very adept at masking her geekiness around others, so that I am the only one who gets to see how funny and clever she really is. It's like being married to a geeky J. Frog.
Alaina: His blortal.

Geeksugar: How and when did you meet eachother?
Anil: We were introduced by a couple whom I had met through my blog. In late 2001, they set us up, and 5 years later, we're married!
Alaina: We met in December 2001 thanks to an introduction from a college roommate, dear friend, and master matchmaker. Before we met, she sent me the link to his blog which I’d seen before. Its tagline at the time was “New York, New Media, New Funk,” which made me go “blech” but I trust Shannon so I kept an open mind.

Geeksugar: What are your top 5 favorite gadgets?
Anil: I really love my Nintendo Wii and covet Alaina's DS Lite. (I have a regular DS, so I can't complain.) I have an iPod Nano, which works well enough, but I love the form factor more than the device itself.
Alaina: iPod Nano and accompanying Nike+ sport kit, white DS lite, Macbook, Fuji F11 digital camera, my pink Gameboy Advanced SP.

Geeksugar: Top 5 luxury gadgets you really want?
Anil: Oddly, I don't covet very many gadgets. I got a chance to see the new Nokia NSeries phones because they work with Vox, and the video camera in the N93i looks awesome.

Geeksugar: Your first computer was a...
Anil: A Commodore VIC-20. I had pretty much every Commodore but the Amiga, including a VIC-20, a C-64, a C-128, and even a Commodore Colt, which was a PC clone.
Alaina: Commodore 64.

Geeksugar: What are your favorite websites?
Anil: Well, seriouseats.com, of course. And I am pretty proud of what I've done with dashes.com over the past several years. I think the web page I visit the most is my Vox neighborhood at anil.vox.com. But I'm inspired by some of the really great blogs I read - Overheard in New York, Ftrain, Rebecca's Pocket.
Alaina: Seriouseats.com, Flickr.com, Vox.com, Kottke.org

Geeksugar: What are your Valentine's Day plan?
Anil: Well, we like to eat well, so I think a nice dinner somewhere and then returning home for a date to play Wii Sports and Wario Ware might be pretty nice.
Alaina: Not to have a Valentine’s Day plan.

Geeksugar: Who makes the final decision when it comes to gadgets for the home?
Anil: Actually, we almost never even have discussions about this. We're fairly moderate in our gadget purchases, so we can each pretty much get whatever we want. It's always a nice surprise to come home and find that the other person has something shiny to show off.
Alaina: We’re pretty in sync when it comes to gadgets and our finances and trust each other to make these kinds of decisions. If it’s a big ticket item, like the flat panel tv we just bought, we’ll discuss it together first so there are no surprises when it comes time to balance the checkbook.

Geeksugar: Who solves tech problems at home?
Anil: I think it depends on the nature of the tech problem. I tend to do most of the CSS troubleshooting and wifi wrangling. Alaina is more adept with hacking blog templates and making DVD/TV/web video go. It's a pretty balanced relationship.
Alaina: I try to solve tech problems myself and if I get stuck, I call in Anil.

Geeksugar: Are you going to buy an iPhone?
Anil: Probably not. I love the idea of a common platform for portable hackery, but I hate phones and phone carriers, especially. I tend to be a late adopter with iPods anyway, which is fine by me.
Alaina: No. No. No.

Geeksugar: How do you feel about people calling you a "geek"?
Anil: I'm very comfortable about that. I like that, when I'm in a room full of normals, I'm the geeky one, but when I'm in a room full of geeks, I'm seen as not geeky enough.
Alaina: It’s an accurate description I don’t object to.

Geeksugar: What do think are the greatest things you guys have contributed to the blogsosphere?
Anil: I've helped promote the good work that other people do in creating the social web. I'm very proud to be friends or acquaintances with a lot of the most talented people in the world of blogging and social media. As far as Alaina's accomplishments, I think she has been phenomenally influential in the world of food blogging and in food community online in general - A Full Belly (originally NYC Eats), was a seminal food blog and informs the spirit of a lot of food communities today, including Serious Eats.
Alaina: His ability to effectively communicate about technology with the non-geek majority. No one does it better.

Geeksugar: How many hours do you spend online a day?
Anil: Roughly 24? Actually, in all seriousness, I pretty frequently spend 14+ hours a day online, and sometimes 18 hours, since I don't sleep much and you could count watching a DVD on a laptop or playing video games as "being online."
Alaina: 16.

Geeksugar: How many hours does your partner spend online a day?
Anil: Less than that. She actually does other things like running marathons and eating good dinners at nice restaurants. I should learn from her example.
Alaina: All of them.

Geeksugar: What is one geeky habit you're trying to quit?
Anil: Obsessively checking things like stats, RSS feeds, and email. Nothing that important is ever in there, but sources of stress often are.
Alaina: Reading scripting.com.

Geeksugar: Are you the "Beauty" or the "Geek" in the relationship?
Anil: I think we're both a lot of both in our marriage! Even though I'm definitely a geek, Alaina's had a personal website a lot longer than me, and really gets a lot of geek culture at a gut level. On the other hand, I dress a lot better since I've had Alaina's help, so while I can't quite come to her level of beauty, I'm at least not looking like something the cat dragged in.
Alaina: I think we’re both beautiful geeks.

Love 2.0: Lauren Smith and Derek Fagerstrom

GeekSugar — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 12:00:51 -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.

It seems a bit of geekiness comes with the territory of owning your own online business, no matter what your background. If this is true, Lauren Smith and Derek Fagerstrom, who happen to be the owners of hip online store Curiosity Shoppe, wear it well. The couple abandoned their “kinda crazy lives in New York City” and came home to the San Francisco Bay Area to start up the Shoppe for the simple reason that they are obsessed with beautiful things. What makes them so geek chic? read more

Geeksugar: So tell us how you got into the business…
Derek: We launched the Shoppe in October of last year. I’ve been a magazine editor for nearly 10 years, first in New York at magazines like Esquire and Interview, and now here in the lovely Bay Area.
Lauren: Our site just launched in October, so we're fairly new to this. We also have a blog called Smarts & Crafts. Before moving to San Francisco, I worked at a design studio in New York City for 7 years.

Geeksugar: So what’s the geekiest thing about yourself?
Derek: I own, and have actually played Settlers of Catan.
Lauren: I am obsessed with time management! I read all the self-help books and blogs, and am constantly making lists.

Geeksugar: Now what’s the geekiest thing about your significant other?
Derek: She often beats me at Settlers of Catan.
Lauren: He can recite all the dialogue from the movie Weird Science.

Geeksugar: How and when did you meet your significant other?
Derek: We actually met in the computer lab during our freshman year of college.
Lauren: We met freshman year of college, in the computer lab of all places.

Geeksugar: What Are Your Top 5 favorite gadgets?
Derek: Our iMac, iPod (when it’s actually working), our digital camera, PSP and TiVo.
Lauren: Digital Camera, iPod, TiVo, FireLite external hard drive, where we store all our music and my Wacom tablet.

Geeksugar: What about the top 5 luxury gadgets you really want?
Derek: Digital projector, TO:CA 'wood' LED clock designed by Kouji Iwasak, HDtv, PlayStation 3 (just so I can play Guitar Hero) and an iPhone.
Lauren: Flat screen TV, Tivoli Audio M1CLA Henry Kloss Model One Radio, Leica D-LUX 3 10MP Digital Camera, Wireless Headphones and a Swiss Army Knife with built in USB Flash Drive.

Geeksugar: Your first computer was a…
Derek: Apple IIe
Lauren: I always used Derek's computer until we finally bought a first generation iMac together a few years back.

Geeksugar: What are your favorite websites?
Derek: Cute Overload, NY Times, Design Sponge, Library of Congress
Lauren: Technorati & Google Analytics, to see who is talking about us and visiting our sites. Designsponge, for the latest and greatest in modern product design and other must-haves for the home. 43 Folders, for all things productivity related. Make It for great resource for people with craft-related small businesses. The Purl Bee from my favorite yarn and quilt supply store in NY - it's a great source of crafty inspiration.

Geeksugar: What is your Valentine’s Day plan?
Derek: Why do you ask? Is that coming up?!
Lauren: We'll probably rent a bunch of movies and make a nice dinner at home.

Geeksugar: Who makes the final decision when it comes to gadgets for the home?
Derek: She does.
Lauren: I always think I can live without them, but Derek manages to convince me otherwise.

Geeksugar: Who solves tech problems at home?
Derek: She does.
Lauren: It's usually me!

Geeksugar: Are you going to buy an iPhone?
Derek: Ugh. Probably, though I may try to hold out until they work out the bugs. And if it performs as shoddily as my iPod, well, let’s just say I hope it comes with Applecare.
Lauren: Probably not, although I am seriously coveting one.

Geeksugar: How do you feel about people calling you a “geek”:
Derek: It’s a term of endearment, no?
Lauren: Geeks rule! I've been discovering that all my friends are closet geeks - we can talk about Photoshop tricks for hours.

Geeksugar: What has been your greatest contribution to the online community?
Derek: Well, I think our shoppe is lovely. And Smarts & Crafts (our web journal) inspires a couple of readers now and again.
Lauren: I think our online shoppe is pretty cool! People seem to be liking it so far, and it's been a lot of fun putting the site together with Derek.

Geeksugar: How many hours do you spend online a day?
Derek: Lord. 8? 9? Is that a lot?
Lauren: 8 or more hours- all our business is conducted online so I'm constantly checking on the site all day.

Geeksugar: How many hours does your partner spend online a day?
Derek: According to iChat it’s a lot of hours.
Lauren: Probably the same.

Geeksugar: What is one geeky habit you’re trying to quit?
Derek: Checking my work email the second I get home from work.
Lauren: Checking my email as soon as I get home, especially if I've been on the computer all day at work.

Geeksugar: Are you the “Beauty” or the “Geek” in the relationship?
Derek: I’m the Beek.
Lauren: I hope I'm a little of both! Although some days I definitely feel more geeky than beautiful.

Love 2.0: Peter Rojas and Jill Fehrenbacher

GeekSugar — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 10:00:47 -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 there was an award for cutest hipster bloggers with actual street cred, Peter Rojas and Jill Fehrenbacher would take the cake. He is the cofounder and editor-in-chief of Engadget, a heavily trafficked tech blog about gadgets and consumer electronics, and the cofounder of Joystiq, which covers the world of video games. She is the founder of Inhabitat, a sensible and chic blog that looks at the future of design, tracking innovations in technology and practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design toward a smarter future. Though they describe themselves as "art school geeks" rather than your "average geeks," the newly-engaged couple stands out in the Love 2.0 generation for using technology to spread their passion for life and their work. What do they love about their jobs and each other? read more

Geeksugar: How do you describe your profession?
Peter: I blog about gadgets, more or less.
Jill: I'm a designer, architecture student, publisher, blogger and all around green design evangelist.

Geeksugar: Bloggers often have the fortune/misfortune of having incredibly unorthodox schedules, what’s a typical day like for you?
Peter: I work from home, so a typical day for me involves getting up and going straight to my computer to deal with email and get a handle on what I have to do that day. I work a lot, but it's broken up by errands and meetings, with maybe an event in the evening. Then back to work before bed.
Jill: The beauty of being a blogger is that each day is different! That said, each day does involve a lot of time in front of the computer for sure.
Peter: It's funny that neither of us has a real job where we have to go an office every day. We both used to when we were younger, it's weird to have more freedom as you get older, I always thought it would be the other way around.

Geeksugar: And are you totally connected to technology all day or more focused on the concept/bigger picture of what you want on your sites?
Peter: We spend a lot of time at home on our computers, but my schedule varies a lot, so I'm often out and staying on top of things via my Treo.
Jill: We’re right next to each other but working. I work from home usually about half day, and usually spend the other half of the day online at my studio up at Columbia. And when I'm not in front of a computer, I am online with my Treo.

Geeksugar: And Peter - what's your "hours online" guess?
Peter: I suppose I'm always online in one way or another from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to bed. If I'm out I'm connected with my Treo and checking emails or monitoring things with that. Not that I can’t unplug if I need to, but I don’t see my work as this completely separate part of my life I need to escape from.

Geeksugar: To go a little bigger - what do you each think is your greatest contribution to your field? Don’t be modest.
Pete: Well, I've been blogging for a long time and I think I've had an effect on both blogging and technology journalism. How important or major that impact might be is for others to judge.
Jill: My goal is to bring the worlds of design and sustainability together, and I think I’ve been successful in this regard. I think people are finally starting to realize that sustainability is a design issue. You can see it in that most of the “green” organizations are focusing more on design and aesthetic presentation now, and most design and architecture magazines are focusing more on sustainability as well. Essentially, I'm an evangelist for thoughtful, sustainable design...
Peter: I just want Engadget to be a site that people want to read. That they feel like is a must-read.

Geeksugar: How did you two meet?
Peter: We met in San Francisco in late 1998 in the dot com boom, though neither of us worked in tech at the time. I was broke and had a job doing media planning at an ad agency. I was really bad at it - my boss thought I was incompetent. It turned out the job was lots of numbers and I was a poor fit for it.
Jill: I worked in a number of dot coms - doing things like HTML support, graphic design, and then I got a job as a web designer at a marketing agency.
Peter: I had a friend at the ad agency who was friends with someone I'd gone to high school with. We all went for drinks one day after work and my friend's friend had invited her friend Jill to come out with us.

Geeksugar: And clearly now you have found a perfect match…
Peter: You could say that!

Geeksugar: Would you describe yourselves as "geeks"?
Peter: Yes and no. In a lot of ways we're not typical geeks at all.
Jill: Yeah, I don't think we fall into the traditional definition.
Peter: I don't think "geek" is a pejorative term at all. Obviously I love gadgets and tech - I'm the kind of guy who likes to geek out by installing Ubuntu on old PCs - but we're also really into design and art and fashion and music. It’s just that we think tech is as important and as cool as all that other stuff, too.
Jill: I like being really nerdy about building materials!

Geeksugar: Why do you think the tech world is so important/interesting right now?
Peter: It seems like technology is driving a lot of cultural, social, and now even political change. It's hard to separate tech out from everything else. Some people are scared by that, but I think it's awesome how technology enables our lives – I know how cliché it sounds, but I know tons of people who are doing what they love now and that's because of the internet or because of some other technology. I thought I’d spend my life locked up in a cubicle somewhere doing a job I hated.

Geeksugar: And instead?
Peter: I more or less get to do what I want, in a sense. I have complete editorial freedom with Engadget, and because of the nature of the job I can work from wherever I want as long as I have broadband. Right now it's a good time to be creative - you can just follow your interests and build businesses around them.

Geeksugar: So for the fluffy part - tell me what you love about one another...
Peter: Jill is really driven and ambitious and smart. It'd be hard to for me date someone who wasn't always working on amazing projects.
Jill: Peter is witty and very funny - he is fabulous at making me crack up - even when I am in a foul mood. He is the only person in the world able to make me laugh when I am upset.

Geeksugar: So what are your Valentine's Day plans?
Jill: Peter? Do we have any?
Peter: Not yet... depends on how busy Jill is with school!
Jill: I'm sure Peter will come up with something fabulous, right Pete?
Peter: Perhaps I just want to lull you into thinking I have nothing planned. I did blow it out for your birthday, remember?
Jill: He did indeed - he's good like that. He rented one of those double decker tourist buses and gave all of my friends a tour of Manhattan - with vegan cupcakes. How’s that for geeky & sweet?

Geeksugar: This one is probably harder for Peter given the nature of his daily duties, but what are a few gadgets you both want right now?
Peter: I want a Vista Media Center with CableCARD support so I can throw out this awful Time Warner Cable DVR. Plus I'd like Palm to improve the Treo.
Jill: My stuff is all more blue sky. I want a sunlight transport device so I can brighten up my dim Manhattan apartment and an electric car!

Geeksugar: What about favorite websites other than your own, or each other's?
Peter: Fimoculous, PSFK, waxy, lifeiscarbon, BuzzFeed, TheSimpleMission, and Mashable.
Jill: I can never get enough of cute overload and Overheard in New York. Of course I read a lot of design websites everyday: archinect, bldgblog, core77, treehugger, mocoloco, etc..

Geeksugar: Who makes the final decisions about big ticket gadgets at home?
Jill: Peter because mostly - I just don't care except when it comes to lighting or home décor.
Peter: I did just buy a 37-inch TV and I think Jill found out when she saw it in the apartment.
Jill: Pete and I endlessly debate HDTV, because I don't really see the point of the technology.
Peter: Even HD isn't enough for me. I want Ultra HD
Jill: I care about the REAL WORLD, Peter, not TV.
Peter: Cool, you can just go for a walk while I watch Lost in HD.
Jill: Well, if we're talking about Lost, then I'll stay in and watch it with you - HD or no.

Love 2.0: Heather Champ and Derek Powazek

GeekSugar — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 10:00:40 -0800

If we’re to believe pop culture, a Beauty and a Geek can fall in love in six episodes, teach each other to dress and balance their checkbooks and combine to make the perfect pair. It may not be that easy in the real world, but there are plenty of beautifully geeky couples that continue to inspire us with their innovative ideas and contributions to the technology and resources we use everyday. 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 in a wonderful way.

Heather Champ is the Community Manager at flickr and co-founder of JPG Magazine. Her husband, Derek Powazek is the founder and CCO of 8020 Publishing and Editor-in-Chief of JPG Magazine. A life-long camera junkie, Heather never leaves home without a camera, hoping to capture the small moments that catch her eye. Derek was an early blogger - even though he never liked calling it that. He also used to run fray.com, the original digital storytelling magazine, which Heather calls a “wonderful gift to the web in a time when self-publishing wasn't as ubiquitous as it is today.” What geeky things do these two love about each other and life? read more

Geeksugar: Tell me a little about yourselves!
Derek: I graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 1995 with a degree in Photojournalism. When every paper I talked to said they just weren't hiring photographers anymore, I fell into the web. I never really realized it would become my life, but here I am. Of course, now I'm running a photo magazine, so I guess I've come full circle. I invented the magazine I wanted to work for 10 years ago.
Heather: I built a home page in August of '94 while working at Princeton and immediately fell in love with life online. I developed websites professionally for 10 years and then joined Flickr as Community Manager in 2005.

Geeksugar: What’s the geekiest thing about yourself?
Derek: The other day I was on the subway going to work, listening to a NPR podcast on my iPod and checking my email and surfing the web on my Hiptop, and I thought, when did it become the future?
Heather: I've geotagged over 3,000 of my photos on Flickr. I became absolutely obsessed with adding the geo location information a few weeks before we launched the photos on Flickr. Given that I shoot mostly film, I find myself making mental notes of where I am when I'm out and about.

Geeksugar: How about the geekiest thing about your significant other?
Derek: Heather's pretty oldschool. She loves her Polaroid SX-70 and shoots mostly film. But come between her and her Treo and there'll be trouble. She's also the only person I know who can actually watch the low budget Saturday movies on the Sci Fi channel.
Heather: He gave me a dual tuner DirecTV TiVo a couple of year's ago for Valentine's Day. Given that our viewing preferences fall into two buckets ("hand drawn", ie cartoons: him, accents and/or costume drama: me), a dual tuner device is a must.

Geeksugar: How and when did you two meet?
Derek: We met at SXSW in 2000, which I guess is pretty geeky, too. That was the same year Kottke and Meg met, and a few other couples, too. Love was in the air.

Geeksugar: What are your top three favorite gadgets:
Derek: Number one has to be the gadget I use most, which is my 15" Powerbook. I still have the pre-Intel version, which I'm sticking to until CS3 comes out. But it's just a marvelous machine. Two is Danger Hiptop, aka T-Mobile Sidekick I've had every version of this device, and each gets better. I love the flip-out display, qwerty keyboard, and mobile email, web, and chat. I wish the hardware design was better, but I guess the iPhone will be here soon enough. Three is the Apple iPod (video, 30gig). I know, so pedestrian. But it's a nearly perfect device. I love that I can use the click wheel through it's case. And the videos and games are a nice addition for boring Muni rides. I do wish the batter lasted longer, though.
Heather: My Treo 680 (red), Sony DSC-T5 (the wet suit accessory is most excellent for the beach and rafting) and our dual tuner DirecTV TiVo (a Valentine's Day present a few years ago).

What about the top three luxury gadgets you really want?
Derek: The Leica M8. It's the digital version of the M6 I mentioned earlier, and it's expensive as hell, but I'd love to give it a whirl. If they could finally make a digital Leica as sweet as the film Rangefinders, it'd be a dream come true. Does a car count as a luxury gadget? If so, bring on my Mini Cooper. Silver and black with moon roof, please. A stylish car that you can actually park in San Francisco. Bliss. Also a big ass HDTV. When I picked up a plasma display last year, the actual HD models were just too pricey.
Heather: Leica M8, Slingbox, Sony GPS tracker (oh, and a more current version of my point and shoot to go with it), that set of 128 tea mugs designed by Onkar Singh Kular - "Each of the 128 tea mugs is a Pantone shade of brown, which allows people to pick out the mug that matches the way they take their tea. Depending on which one they pick, the host with the most can judge how much milk to put in." And a My5 Power Plate (very weird jiggly, anti-fat thing).

Geeksugar: Your first computer was a…
Derek: Commodore 64. I was bootlegging video games on 5" floppies in grade school. Yeah, I was THAT cool.
Heather: Mac Iici with a whopping 8 MB of ram, baby!

Geeksugar: What are your favorite websites?
Derek: Heather's site, of course! Daring Fireball is a must-read and Ze Frank has
put a smile on my face nearly every day since he started the show. And, of course, the flickr addiction must be fed daily.
Heather: Flickr.com (natch), jpgmag.com, cuteoverload.com, mightygoods.com, dooce.com to name a few.

Geeksugar: What is your Valentine's Day plan?
Derek: I'm not saying! Surprise is the spice of life.
Heather: I don't know. We alternate and last year I made the plans: we went to EOS, a lovely restaurant in Cole Valley where we had our wedding reception. Derek's on deck this year. No pressure. Nope. None at all.

Geeksugar: Who makes the final decision when it comes to gadgets for the home?
Derek: We both do! We had dinner with a couple of friends not long ago, and she said something about not being able to buy a camera because he wouldn't let her. Heather and I just looked blankly at them. If I ever came between Heather and a camera, well, let's just say it wouldn't be pretty.
Heather: We both follow our bliss when it comes to gadgets. Derek definitely plots out the big ticket items while I gift him gaming devices for Hanukkah.

Geeksugar: Who solves tech problems at home?
Derek: Judging solely by who cusses the most when the airport network goes out, it'd have to be me.
Heather: Derek. Period. I once almost had a nervous breakdown when presented with a TiVo green screen of death while he was away at a conference.

Geeksugar: Are you going to buy an iPhone?
Derek: Are you kidding? I may buy two: one to use and one to keep pristine in its box to save for future generations to admire. "This was the moment, children, when computers went mobile," we'll say. And they'll respond in some sort of future kid lingo that we cannot begin to imagine now.
Heather: Will my super secret de-coder ring be taken away if I say no? I'm a big fan of a qwerty keyboard and a die hard Treo fan.

Geeksugar: How do you feel about people calling you a “geek”?
Derek: Amen! To me, "geek" just means "someone who's just a little too into something." I was a guitar geek before becoming a camera geek before becoming a web geek before graduating to being a coffee geek. I can't wait to see what I geek out on next. It's better than being a nerd, anyway.
Heather: That they're misguided.

Geeksugar: What has been your partner’s greatest contribution to the tech/blog?
Derek: As a prominent woman in tech, Heather's been a real inspiration to a lot of girls out there. She's also inspired a lot of people to pick up their cameras again. I know she inspires me to want to be a better photographer.
Heather: If you've seen the Blogger "B", then you've seen Derek's work, but I think that Fray (fray.com) was a wonderful gift to the web in a time when self-publishing wasn't as ubiquitous as it is today.

Geeksugar: How many hours do you spend online a day?
Derek: Pretty much all of them.
Heather: Too many.

Geeksugar: How many hours does your partner spend online a day?
Derek: Same. We try to get out of the house and away from the computers on the weekends. But, otherwise, the net is just part of the fabric of our lives. It's never far away.
Heather: Too many.

Geeksugar: What is one geeky habit you’re trying to quit?
Derek: I think I've already done it: After 10 years, I just recently killed my blog. It was one of my new years resolutions: There's enough pressure already, don't put more on yourself. It was stressing me out whenever the top post got more than a couple days old. I decided to just take it down until I have the time to enjoy it again.
Heather: I think I'm a great multi-tasker, though Derek would disagree. Less SMSing while out and about together would be greeted with enthusiasm.

Are you the “Beauty or the “Geek” in the relationship?
Derek: Oh please tell me I'm the geek.
Heather: While Derek's wardrobe is far more beautiful than mine, I would crown him alpha geek at Casa Chawazek.

Want to know more about Heather? Check out HChamp.com. For more about Derek, check out Powazek.com.

Web 2.0 Tee: Love It or Leave It?

GeekSugar — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:00:13 -0800

I can understand being obsessed with all the new social networking sites, but are you that much of a fan that you would wear an entire list of them on a t-shirt? Adam Bartholl and Markus Angermeier have teamed up to create this "Are You Social" tee that lists the best-known social web services with their icons and colors. Discussed on Neatorama, the Web 2.0 shirt lets you mark off what services you use with a pen. Interesting... Talk about making a geek statement without saying a word! What do you think? Love or leave?

Web 2.Oh Yeeeah! Love It or Leave It?

GeekSugar — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:17:37 -0700

I guess loving this Web 2.Oh Yeeeah! T-shirt depends on how you feel about Web 2.0. Do you really, really love Web 2.0? What would you do for it? Would you bust through a brick wall?

Do you even remember the Kool-Aid commercials? Do people even drink Kool-Aid anymore (ew)?

So many questions. So one last one for you: