GeekSugar

Have You Ever Seen a Female Cable Technician?

GeekSugar — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 05:47:58 PDT

Yesterday morning, PetSugar had cable installed in her new digs. Afterward, she told me about her experience and disclosed that her Comcast cable technician was a woman. You know me - I'm all about sisters doin' it for themselves but for as many times as I've had Comcast employees in my apartment, I've never once had a woman install my cable. I admit that I was a bit surprised. Sure, it's a well-known fact that the number of men outnumber women in the tech industry, but I never thought twice about tech service jobs like cable installers. Did I just perpetuate a double standard by always thinking that my cable guy would be . . . well, a guy?

Tell me - have you ever had a female cable technician?

Who Was Your Favorite Female Geek of 2007?

GeekSugar — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:00:07 PST

Yesterday I kicked off my 2007 best of polls by asking you what your fave new Apple product was of 2007. Today I've put together some of the hottest and most popular female geeks of '07 including Mary Lynn Rajskub, Jenna Fischer, Tina Fey and Kristen Bell. Not only did they grace the covers of our favorite geek magazines but they proved in more ways than one that they are true geeks at heart. Who was your fave? Scroll down to leave your answer!

Daily Tech: The Story of Send

Kelly Schwarze — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:13:37 PDT

The treacherous journey of an email - Geekosystem
If Photoshop could solve our real-life problems - FWD
Joss Whedon wants more female characters in the Avengers sequel - SlashFilm
The 5 types of apologies that aren't actually apologies - Cracked
How much faith do users have in Facebook? - Newser
R2-D2 gets a job in Disneyland's new poster art - GeekTyrant
The true life of Pinsanity - Tecca

A History of Onscreen Female Archers Hitting the Bulls-Eye

Tara Block — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:30:48 PDT

In our interview with Brave producer Katherine Sarafian, we talked about how archery is having "a moment" right now. And with onscreen heroines like Katniss from The Hunger Games and Brave's Merida holding the bows, little girls are sure to be interested in the archery trend. I myself tried it for the first time at Pixar's Brave event, and I'm seriously hooked! Katherine said she loves that girls are picking up the sport, and she never would have taken an archery lesson if it weren't for the movie. "We took classes early on, and next thing you know, I'm like, this is awesome! It's a powerful feeling. And if you can imagine really just being out there the way Merida is in the movie, just shooting arrow after arrow . . . it's cool!"

At the event, I chatted with Wired's "GeekDad" Jim MacQuarrie, an archery instructor, to get an insider's perspective on the trend. He told me that archery is the sport for people who hate sports (which explains why I liked it). He also noted that, in his opinion, girls are better at it than boys. "Boys just want to chuck arrows," he said, and archery is an internal game that requires a lot of focus and patience.

And unlike some other male-dominated sports, archery has a long history of women behind the bow. Even the ancient Roman goddess of hunting Diana (and her Greek equivalent Artemis) is known for having her bow, arrows, and quiver on her and is usually portrayed with her hunting dogs and prey. And the all-female Amazon warriors of Greek mythology and Classical antiquity were believed to be named for a-mazos, or "without breast," a tradition of having your left breast cut off to make it easier to use a bow - talk about hardcore! Nowadays, there are a plethora of famous competitive and Olympic female archers, and onscreen we've seen a variety of fictional ladies take up the bow and arrow. Learn about Merida, Katniss, and 10 more female archers hitting the mark in films over the years.

American Reunion: A Yearbook of Bad Memories

Becky Kirsch — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 03:05:00 PDT

In 1999, a raunchy comedy called American Pie became an instant high school movie classic boasting the tagline "There's something about your first piece." That line feels truer than ever upon the release of American Reunion, the third sequel in the franchise. The film tries to capture the humor and spirit of the original film, but all it does is make you wish the Pie films had quit when they were ahead.

Thirteen years after graduation, we find Jim (Jason Biggs), settled down with former band geek Michelle (Alyson Hannigan). Their once-spicy sex life has dwindled following the birth of their first child, and he's mostly lost touch with his former BFFs Oz (Chris Klein), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), and Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas). To remedy the situation, the foursome vows to have a boys' weekend back in their hometown for their high school reunion. Of course, the weekend becomes a disaster complete with binge drinking, surprise sexual encounters, awkward moments with former classmates, and a relentless amount of incredibly obnoxious one-liners from Stifler (Seann William Scott).

To find out what else feels stale about American Reunion, just

Getting caught up with Jim and the gang might have been more fun if there hadn't been two more Pie movies between the original and this one; we already have a good sense of where the characters have been and how they've evolved (or haven't, in most cases). Plus, you can garner what's happened to each of them in the first ten minutes, and after that you're just trying to watch a bunch of 30-somethings relive their glory days. We already saw this movie, and it was called Grown Ups.

The Pie movies have always relied on objectifying women for laughs, but American Reunion takes it to a new level. The guys ogle teenage girls at the lake, where they're wearing thong bikinis and making out with each other in front of their friends, because according to the movie, that's what all high school girls are like now. It's not just the teens either: there's a full-on catfight between two of the female leads, and the weight gain of one of Stifler's former hookups is played for gross-out laughs that's not just unfunny; it's downright mean.

The best part about American Reunion is that it incorporates some awesome '90s hits like "My Own Worst Enemy" and "The Freshman," but even that only happens in the final 20 minutes of the film, when you're already so burned out on sight gags that you barely have enough attention span to notice the soundtrack.

The same goes for all the cameos: it's fun to point out the throwbacks to the original, and I appreciated that John Cho (aka "the MILF guy") has a much bigger role this time around, but it's not enough to justify a film that's overlong and over the top. It made me realize that when it comes to the Pie franchise, I've had my fill.

Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures

Girls Who Wear Glasses

Tara Block — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:45:04 PDT

No longer must bookish broads face name-calling and ridicule for pulling out their reading glasses. Hot stars like Zooey Deschanel and Tina Fey have turned the smart spec look into a trend with their iconic TV characters. And we think a lady in spectacles is a brainy, sexy sight to behold. After all, some of our favorite female celebs don geek-chic glasses both onscreen and off. Here are some of Hollywood's most talented and colorful women, from all walks in life, getting in touch with their inner librarians!

Honoring Some of Our Favorite Geeks For Black History Month

Michele Foley — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:01:38 PST

We may have Valentine's Day on the brain, but February also marks an important time of the year - Black History Month. In honor of Black History Month, let's take a look at some of our favorite geeks, both past and present. Everyone on this list has made vast contributions to furthering tech as we know it.

Dwayne McDuffie - The recently passed McDuffie wrote comic books for both Marvel and DC (including Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, the Fantastic Four and the Justice League of America) before founding his own company, Milestone Media, which helped pioneer the use of multicultural characters as its heroes.
Mark Dean - Nerd alert! Without Dean, there may not have been a PC - he holds three of IBM's original nine PC patents, leading the teams that developed the ISA bus and the first one-gigahertz chip.
Mae Carol Jemison - It doesn't get much geekier than space travel; Jemison was the first black woman to travel in space.
Philip Emeagwali - We can all blame Emeagwali for our Internet addiction. He developed the fastest supercomputer software in the world. His IQ is too high to be measured by conventional standards, and he's won a Gordon Bell Prize, which is like the Nobel Prize for computer science.

See the rest of the notables when you read more.

Daily Tech: Mobile Gaming on Buses

GeekSugar — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:04:13 PST

Please let the public-transit video-game handrails concept happen - Dvice
Airline to let you use social networks to pick seatmates - Newser
Six things movies get wrong about the workplace - Cracked
Awesome Kinect hacks - Tecca
Female superheroes are the spokeswomen for breast cancer awareness - GeekTyrant
Sign us up for this panoramic ball camera! - SlashGear

A Conversation About Android

Kristy Korcz — Tue, 10 May 2011 03:07:20 PDT

With the love of the Infuse 4G still swirling in my head, I struck up an IM conversation with a friend of mine about the Android operating system yesterday. I didn't know exactly what I was getting into when I asked, but my friend brought up some really good points about Android that even I didn't consider.

Recently there was a debate as to why more women aren't using Android devices. Some say there's no "emotional attachment" between the female geek population and Android like there is on Apple, but these points my friend and I discussed could be more reason why women (or a large population as a whole) don't "get" Android: it's totally confusing! I've compressed our conversation into three points below. Read through, and tell me what you think in the comments.

It's Insanely Fragmented
Right now, you can find four different versions of Android floating around on several different devices. There's no regulation given that the hardware and software are from different origins. Android 2.2 is on most phones, while only the newer phones can support 2.3. Obviously, 3.0 is for tablets.

Read the rest of our discussion after the break.

Link Time - Female Comics Who Deserve Their Own TV Shows

TresSugar — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:30:15 PDT

Lady comics who deserve their own TV shows - Nerve
8 signs you're a horrible roommate - College Candy
How to celebrate being unattached during National Singles Week - YourTango
Hilarious female TV writers to watch this Fall - The Frisky
Does more equality mean more sex? - Huffington Post
Leaving a bra on during sex: yay or nay? - Em & Lo
Unrealistic pop culture geeks - Flavorwire
Real inspirational women - Betty Confidential