GeekSugar

Pack Your Knives and Download Top Chef!

GeekSugar — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:00:48 -0800

Why should the reality stars have all the fun? I'm totally exhilarated watching Top Chef; being stressed out during Quickfire and Elimination challenges, and I'm of course thinking. . . I could do that.

So OK, maybe I'm really just good at not burning toast, but the competition part I'm into, so I'm psyched about this Top Chef Download. You get to mix ingredients and flavors, and an animated Padma and Tom will judge your virtual meal.

For Macs only, it's free to try and $20 to buy, and it'll get you through the cold months when this season of TC ends!

Have You Ever Put Your Own Pic on Your Computer Desktop?

GeekSugar — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:40:57 -0800

At right is an image from this month's Harper's Bazaar featuring Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi. Beautiful home, beautiful woman, and she appears to know it: She has a portrait of herself above her bed, and to my surprise, a rather glam digital portrait of herself on her computer's desktop, seen here.

I have put photos of myself and other people on my desktop, but I don't think I would like to see a picture of myself gazing sexily at me when I'm using my computer. But maybe it's a good affirmation for some - or is it overblown narcissism?

Do you ever put pictures of just yourself on your desktop?

Trend: Top Chef Serves Up iPod With Cuisine

GeekSugar — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 12:00:18 -0700

Customers at a three-star restaurant in Britain will soon be presented with Apple iPods to listen to while they eat their meals. According to Tech.co.uk, top chef Heston Blumenthal came up with the idea to serve iPods with soothing ocean soundtracks to customers who order his new dish "Sound of the Sea."

Blumethal's Fat Duck will combine assorted seafood and edible seaweed on top of a sandy tapioca mixture to make the "Sound of the Sea" dish. In the restaurants' online philosophy it reminds us that "eating is a multi-modal process (involving all the senses). Any comments concerning food being just about taste are misguided. Try drinking a fine wine from a polystyrene cup or eating a beautifully cooked piece of fish off a paper plate with a plastic knife and fork, it is not the same." Here's more:

Sound can also play an important role in the perception of texture-a valuable part of the whole taste process. The perception of the crispness of a food can be modified by playing with volume and pitch.

In a test carried out by an experimental psychologist at Oxford University. Crisps from the same packet, eaten with the sound of the testers own crunch being fed back to them in real time changed when the volume or pitch were altered.

I'm crossing my fingers this trend comes to America. We all know restaurants use music to enhance diners' experiences, but the idea of putting on an iPod with headphones while eating dinner is too kitschy to pass up. May I have one strawberry milkshake served with a little Kelis please? Oh you're all out? How about fondue with a little Kenny G?
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Do You Use the Internet as Your Cookbook?

GeekSugar — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:00:58 -0700

Though I'm the first person to screech "Google it!" I definitely still hit the books when I need a recipe: the Joy of Cooking, anyway. But if it's not in there, I have my laptop open in the time it takes to preheat the oven.

Nothing beats the endless recipe compilation that's the Internet - in fact, if you don't have a few go-to places (mine are Yum and the Food Network's site), it can be downright overwhelming trying to find a simple recipe.

At a time when even Whole Foods has an iPhone app and it's easier than ever to geekify your kitchen, technology seems key to becoming a top chef. Of course, there are many traditionalists who don't trust the web for their recipe needs and stick, loyally, to cookbooks. Do you use the Internet for your recipe needs?

iPhone Appetit: The Apps You Need to Be a Star in the Kitchen

GeekSugar — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:00:50 -0800

Maybe it's what the NY Times said about the iPhone being the hot new kitchen gadget, but I'm suddenly finding myself wanting to get my cooking skills to Top Chef level. To that end I've found the best iPhone apps for cooking - all either free or less than a buck.

View Slideshow ›

Geeky Girl We Love: Mia Kim - Part Deux

GeekSugar — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:15:49 -0700

Last month we featured some of the cutest geeky couples and bachelors in the blogoshere, which left many of you wondering - what about the women? Fear not my fine friends, we were just saving the best for last. March is Women's History Month so I figured there was no better way to celebrate than to highlight some of the smartest, most creative and successful women on the internet.

This is part two in a series of two interviews with Mia Kim, the founder and editor-in-chief of Popgadget, a lifestyle magazine that embraces technology as a regular and essential part of women's lives. Not only do I look up to her as a leader in the geeky girls movement, but I'm inspired by her business savvy and natural chicness. For part two, read more

Yesterday, Mia shared some of her background and hobbies, which include cooking and not programming a Commodore 64.

Geeksugar: Any funny stories about being a blogger?
Mia: The funniest thing about being a blogger is that you develop real relationships with other bloggers- but you rarely meet in person even if you IM, email all the time and become good friends. At this year's CES, Popgadget had a three person team: me, Stuart Memo from Glasgow, and Evan Hosie who's in California. Our first night there, we were meeting in the hotel lobby, and despite the fact that we were colleagues who knew each other pretty well, we all walked around and around the hotel passing each other because we'd never seen each other. We kept circling each other until Evan called and said, "I think you're standing right in front of me."

Geeksugar: How many blogs are in your RSS reader?
Mia: Yikes, it's over 350. But I have to admit that there are only about 20 that I read every single day. The others get a weekly scan and yet I'm still constantly looking for new feeds.

Geeksugar: Describe a typical day at work for you.
Mia: I just can't do the 15-hour "blogger in their underwear" routine anymore. I was feeling like I wasn't a part of the human race anymore so I break up my work day, make sure I do other things like eat and walk the dogs.

Mornings are rough because I'm a terrible sleeper and have probably been up half the night but I always want to get to email straight away and check on Popgadget posts and start IM chats with the other writers. Then I'm in research mode for a few hours- reading everything in sight. Pop Life Media (the umbrella that publishes Popgadget and Babygadget) also has another side, new media consulting, so I need to set aside a few hours for working with clients and coordinating that work. We don't have a publicist so I'm on the phone a lot, talking to companies and to news people. We also don't have a full-time tech person, so I'm often doing the troubleshooting of the site. We had a server crash a few weeks ago, and after we migrated, I was working on getting the site back up for about a week straight. Never been so tired or stressed in my life.

Geeksugar: Who do you think are the top 5 sexiest male geeks in the world?
Mia:

Grant Achatz- the chef-owner of Alinea in Chicago. He'd make you dinner, 22nd century style: vaporized cocktails, lobster in the form of edible paper, and an exploding souffle for dessert.
Matt Mullenweg, founder of Wordpress. I'm surprised he's not a bigger tech celeb because who doesn't love a 22-year old genius with a hot property, but he's a soft-spoken, thoughtful guy who'd probably shy away from all that. I'd put him on the cover of Tech Teen Beat.
Masi Oka, who plays Hiro on Heroes. He may not have superpowers, but he's a real-life CGI effects artist, so he could just fake it. And maybe he'd give you some Heroes' spoilers.
Douglas Krone, the owner/founder of Dynamism.com , which imports the most amazing computers and gadgets from Japan about a million years before we'll see them here. I consider myself an early adopter but anytime I see Douglas he's got a phone that does, like, satellite communications with Mars Rover, and is also a high-def video camera and personal MRI scanner.
Ray Kurzweil, the futurist and writer of The Singularity is Near. I believe we are all spiritual beings, I do, but I have doubts and dark moments, and during those times I'd love for Kurzweil to preach to me about how in 500 years, I'll be sitting around with my family and my dogs, in our cyborg bodies, with our holographically assisted brains, and we'll still, essentially, be ourselves. And in 500 years, finally, we will really be driving flying cars. Wouldn't you want to be there too?

Geeksugar: Who do you think are the top 5 sexiest female geeks in the world?

Gina Trapani, of lifehacker.com. Lifehacker is the site I wish I'd created and Gina just seems like the type of woman I'd love to be friends with. I can just imagine our PC vs Mac conversations over french fries and highly caffeinated drinks in a Brooklyn diner. Sadly, I really can.
Molly Wood, from CNET. At CES this year, I was a bit under the weather and kept complaining that we weren't seeing anything interesting. Then Stuart told me that he spotted Molly Wood at some event and I spent the rest of CES trying to find her so I could casually tell her that she's my favorite podcaster and that I get a thrill every time she mentions Popgadget.
Katherine Moriwaki, of personaldebris.com , who is an interactive artist and new media lecturer. She writes for Popgadget and is a good friend, but I'm in awe of how much she knows about technology, and she's the most uncompromising person I know. She and her husband Jonah Brucker-Cohen are THE tech geek supercouple as far as I'm concerned.
Katie Salen game designer and director of the Design Tech program at Parson's School of Design. She's one of the most engaging speakers I've ever encountered. She's so good that when she came to speak at a class I was teaching, my students had so much fun, it completely changed the chemistry of the class for the rest of the semester.
Rebecca K. Rowe, whose first novel Forbidden Cargo blends hard sci-fi about genetic engineering with politics and lots of action. It's the antithesis to the the unicorn and space princess type type book that so many people tend to associate with women science fiction/fantasy writers.

Geeksugar: Name a blogger you admire and tell us why.
Joseph Stirt of Book of Joe. Joe, unlike so many bloggers, doesn't play the blog game at all, meaning he doesn't just read blogs and link his favorite posts. His posts are about books and art and things he encounters offline. He says he reads no blogs at all and I believe him. That's what makes him a great blogger.

Geeksugar: How do you feel about being called a “geek”?
Mia: I don't mind being called a geek at all. I don't think it means what it used to-bringing to mind someone of questionable social skills and even more questionable grooming. Being a geek is just about being enthusiastic, about really loving something and needing to talk about it, write about it.

Geeksugar: What is the geekiest thing about yourself?
Mia: My friends know it drives me crazy knowing that their virus definitions are three years old and they've got porn pop-ups all over their screen from some site they "accidentally" visited, so I do a complete tech checkup whenever I go over to their houses. After that, I can relax.

Geeksugar: What is your goal for the site?
Mia: It amazes how far we've come and now we're at a point when we're talking to big media companies and investors and trying to figure out the next step to help us grow into a bigger network of sites providing innovative content for women. We are also planning a lot of things outside of the blogs- we want to be a lifestyle brand.

Geeksugar: What else is up in the Popgadget world?
Mia: We just launched our email, which is weekly, and will have all kinds of content that isn't on the site, and will have exclusive discounts and giveaways. We'll be giving away some very cool things and saving some of our best stories for the email. And it's free so people should sign up.

This Week On Geeksugar - Dyson Slim Vs. Roomba

GeekSugar — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 11:03:56 -0700

CBC news reports that internet usage among women has been ahead of male usage for some time. Apparently women like community sites while men chose videos. Study Shows More Women Than Men Online
Customers at a three-star restaurant in Britain will soon be presented with Apple iPods to listen to while they eat their meals. Trend: Top Chef Serves Up iPod With Cuisine
If you want to know the weather wherever you are, or wherever you are going, just text the message 'weather' and the ZIP code of the city to Google at 46645 (that's 'Google' without the 'e'). Geek Tip: Use Google As Your Mobile Weatherman
The BBC is reporting that a man was arrested and cautioned after neighbors reported seeing a man inside a car using a laptop while parked outside a house. British Police Caution Man After 'Wi-Fi' Theft
The Japanese have come up with a way to better beer, which of course means having it served to you by a cute, white and red robot. Asahi Beerbot Serves Up Cold Ones
Created by Korea-based DND Casa, this TV is set within a mirror and designed to be installed in bathrooms, living rooms, hotels rooms and luxury hot-spots. Is That A TV In The Mirror Or Am I Seeing Things?
A Dyson vacuum is one of those gadgets that elicits an "ohhhhh" and an "awwwww" from everyone that walks by it. The Roomba is a geeky guy magnet gadget that's cleverly disguised as a vacuum. Battle Of The Vacuums: Roomba Vs Dyson Slim

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