GeekSugar

Website of the Day: How to Clean Stuff

GeekSugar — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:00:19 -0700

If you use your gadgets half as much as me, you probably know how easy it is to get food in your keyboard, get finger smudges on your iPhone, or splash your laptop screen with tea or coffee. We've posted a few tips here and there for getting the goods off your gadgets, but for all your cleaning needs, you must head on over to How to Clean Stuff. This site not only tells you the tricks of the trade when it comes to getting your gadgets gleaming again, but you can find tips for things like stain removal on clothes or the best way to wash fruit. Helpful and handy indeed!

Do you have a favorite website you want to share with us? Submit your faves to our Website of the Day group! To learn how, just read more.

I know that this long list looks scary, but trust me, once you get the hang of it, it'll be a snap the second time around.

First of all, join the Website of the Day group.
Click the pink "Share" menu on the top left side of the page.
Choose "Blog" and “Regular Post.”
Give your story a “Title.”
Fill in the “Body” with a link to your favorite website and the reasons why you love it.
Click “Next."
Choose the audience for your story to “Website of the Day” in the drop-down menu
Add keyword(s) (for example mine for this photo was "Website of the Day").
Change channel to “Technology and Gadgets.”
Fill in tag field with relevant tags.
Click “I’m done” to submit content.

Website of the Day: The Printliminator

GeekSugar — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:15:35 -0700

Do you ever find yourself printing up maps, recipes, or articles from the Internet, but rather than just getting the doc you want, you end up with a page filled with advertisements and graphics? A new site called The Printliminator, which I spotted on makeuseof, is a bookmarklet tool that will help you remove all of the "junk" on webpages before you click print - helping you save ink and paper.

To get started, just drag the bookmarklet into your bookmarks toolbar, and then go to the website you want to print from and click the button. From there you'll be able to select the stuff you don't want included on your page. Be careful what you remove because there isn't a back button (you can always just go back to the site if you want to make changes). If you like this site, another website to help you print clean and easy to read webpages is PrintFriendly.

Have an interesting website you want to share? To learn how to post your favorite websites to our Website of the Day group, read more.

First of all, join the Website of the Day group.
Click "New Post" under the website of the day tab at the top of the page.
Give your story a "Title."
Fill in the "Body" with a link to your favorite website and the reasons why you love it.
Type "Technology and Gadgets" in the Categories box
Add keyword(s) in the tag field with relevant tags (for example mine for this story was "Website of the Day").
Choose whether you want the post to be private or public.
Click "Create Post" to submit content.

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.

Geeks We Love: Mike Fahey of Kotaku

GeekSugar — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:05:00 -0800

A man after my own heart, Mike Fahey is a game addict. Currently helping to hold down the East Coast office of Kotaku, and ripping through game after game so you don't have to, Mike is a man of many hats. He's been everything from an arcade attendant (totally expected) to a vinyl sign cutter (huh?), but still, his love for games made him who he is today. But besides being multi-talented, Mike is one seriously good catch, and why we included him in the Geeks We Love series: he loves to game (but doesn't demand that you do), he's a good listener, and he even loves to cuddle. Score!

GS: For our readers who don't know you, tell us a little about yourself.

MF: Hello there, readers of geeksugar! It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is Michael Fahey, and I'm the East Coast Associate Editor for Kotaku, a website about video games and video game-related cakes. I am a six foot, six inches tall fellow who is much less intimidating once you realize that I am writing this with one of my two cats laying belly-up on my desk, desperately trying to finish typing without succumbing to the lure of tummy rubs.

In my 35 years of existence I've been a shoe salesman, an arcade attendant, a tech support specialist, a gas station manager, a web developer, a vinyl sign cutter, a dishwasher, a graphic artist, and several different flavors of customer service representative, all following a brief period following my birth during which I was too stunned to speak. Now I spend my days writing about video games in my pajamas. How the video games got into my pajamas is another story entirely.

Find out how gaming accidentally introduced Mike to Playboy, why he'd spend the rest of his days with just a Nintendo 64 and a coconut tree, and discover a softer, more tender side of Mike when you read more.

GS: Do your earliest memories involve a game controller, or did you develop a love for gaming later on in life?

MF: My entire life seems to be punctuated by video games. They're how I organize important milestones. My first kiss was given to me by a girl who was trying to tear my attention away from a Speak and Math game she had in her bedroom - the start of a long tradition of women trying to tear my attention away from whatever I was playing at the time. I first discovered sex while trying to get the Atari 5200 in my father's den working late one night and accidentally switching to the Playboy channel. My first real sexual experience took place in the hallways behind the video game arcade at the mall I used to hang out at - her name was Sula and the amount of hairspray in her bangs was the stuff of legends. I guess it isn't so much my earliest memories, but really all of my memories.

GS: What's your all-time favorite game EVER?

MF: This is a terribly unfair question. Would you ask a mother which of her children was her favorite? Would you demand that she single out one of the tiny humans that sprang from her loins into the world as the end-all, be-all? Yes, you would, and she'd look around to make sure no one else was looking and then quietly whisper Final Fantasy III (U.S. version), which is a terribly odd name for a child.

GS: Are you down with girls that don't know how to game, or is holding their own on Gears a prerequisite?

MF: I've found over the years that the perfect woman for a gamer is one who is game curious - she enjoys watching them, and every once in awhile grabs the controller from you when something strikes her fancy, but on the whole just enjoys knowing that she has a man who she can leave alone for a week knowing that when she returns he'll be in the exact same spot, in front of the television. I've been with women who are nearly as passionate about video games as I am, and it isn't really a good combination. Any relationship needs some sort of anchor to the real world. . . a person who can pull the other one away from the controller long enough to eat, bathe, clean the house, and have sex. You put together two rabid gamers and soon you are getting horror stories about folks leaving their babies out in the car after returning home late for a guild raid. I'd like to think I would remember a little person that I helped make, but man those guild raids can be intense.

GS: You're stranded on an island. It's just you, a coconut tree, and a gaming console. Which console would you want to spend your days with?

MF: At first I thought this was a trick question, so I began to research which console had the ability to draw power from a coconut tree. Then I realized the true extent of your trickery: I have no television, and no games. Just me, the console, and Dr. Treeheart (I would have named the tree after the first day). Having finally come to realize the full extent of the question, I'd have to say the Nintendo 64, because if you turn it around and look at it just right, it could pass for a face. Not a very pleasant face, but when you are stranded on a island with only Dr. Treeheart to keep you company you take what you can get.

GS: Is there a game you just can't live without?

MF:It's not that there is one game that I cannot live without - I just couldn't live without some sort of gaming. I constantly have at least two devices on me that could run a video game of some sort, and if hard-pressed I can build a chess board from sticks and rocks. . . which I've actually done. It's just comforting to me to know that I have some sort of game available to me should the need arise. Otherwise I am stuck alone with my own thoughts, and my own thoughts are kind of odd.

GS: We're so close to Valentine's Day! Tell us what your perfect date would be like.

MF: The perfect date isn't about a place or an activity. The perfect date involves getting to know someone. The best dates are the ones where you can sit an talk with the person you are with, sharing stories, telling secrets, and basically basking in this new person you've just discovered, immersing yourself in them while sharing yourself. In this day and age, where you can find pornography with a few keyboard strokes, learning about a person is so much more intimate than having sex with them. That having been said, the perfect date for me involves a great deal of talking and perhaps a bit of cuddling, an activity of which I am a huge fan.

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.

Start Fresh and Purge Those Old Gadgets!

GeekSugar — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:30:49 -0700

I know serious cleaning is usually reserved for Spring, but why not get an early start and clear out your old gadget clutter now? There's bound to be some old cell phones, MP3 players, or even a laptop or two that you aren't using anymore, so why not do the green thing and resale them and get some greenbacks in the process?! But just snapping some photos of your stuff isn't going to fetch buyers on Ebay or Craigslist. You have to take a few essential steps to ensure you have everything in order, so you're not passing along information (or dirty goods) onto the next owner. Check out my slideshow round up on how to properly resale your stuff online. Trust me, it will be worth your time when you get a good offer on that old cellphone!

View Slideshow ›

Trials of the Dead Mighty Mouse Scroll Wheel

GeekSugar — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:00:38 -0700

If you've gotten used to the joys of the Mighty Mouse scroll wheel, then you know how utterly annoying it is to go to scroll down a page and not have it work. I mean, where am I without a scroll wheel?! Back to the early '00s with the whole point, click, and drag thing, that's where. Since you can't get in there to find the cause for the breakdown or blockage, you'll probably assume it's time to replace it - but don't give up hope just yet. You might be able to save yourself a few bucks and try to bring the little guy back to life yourself.

I've done some legwork and attempted a number of cleaning methods to see which one worked the best. Test methods included pressing down on the wheel and scrolling, wiping down the wheel with cleaner, trying to smack whatever might be lodged in there loose by tapping the mouse on my desk, and spraying it with canned air. To see my verdicts, read more.

Unfortunately, pressing down on the scroll wheel and scrolling only works for so long. I even thought I might be at risk for pushing the little wheel down into the mouse, never to be heard from again if I pressed any harder!
No dice for wiping down the wheel with alcohol swabs. Unfortunately cleaning the wheel does not clear whatever is inside.
Smacking the mouse on my desk to dislodge whatever might have been stuck in the mouse proved more annoying to my officemates than effective.
The last and winner of the test was the canned air. I use this stuff to clean my keyboard, and it works wonders with the mouse as well.

It's been a number of days since I cleaned my Mighty with the canned air – having sprayed in all visible cracks to ensure my mouse was fresh and clean – and it's still scrolling along like the first day we met. If you don't keep canned air around, it will set you back at least five bucks, but you'll end up saving $45 to $65 in replacement costs!

Source

Geeky Girl We Love: Peggy of BuzzFeed

GeekSugar — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 10:35:58 -0700

As much as I like to think I know what the buzz is on the net everyday, it's virtually impossible to always know what's hot and what's not. That's why I rely on BuzzFeed, a NY-based site that posts 10 "Buzz Detected" topics per day, so you don't get bombarded with content.

With a clean, fresh layout and categories ranging from science and celebrity to food and tech, you're guaranteed to find the most talked about stories on the net at any given moment. Have you read up on the Stephen Colbert Backlash, did you know James Lipton used to be a pimp and have you ever considered adding scrabble fashion to your wardrobe? Buzzfeed claims they use "technology and human editors to find the hottest buzz" on hot topics and they aren't kidding.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing one of the site's "professional trend detectors," senior editor Peggy Wang. Peggy has been working in the tech industry for the past five years is the total tech-savvy geek chic package so I had to put her on the spot and test out her geek cred. To check out the full interview, read more

Geeksugar: Tell us a bit about yourself...
Peggy: When I started working at BuzzFeed, it was almost a total 180 degree career change for me, moving from computer programming to creating content. Basically, I went from being a code monkey to a "tastemaker," which is awesome because now I get to incorporate my obsession with pop culture, music, fashion, etc. At BuzzFeed, I've always had the opportunity to delve back into the back end, but honestly, it's been a year and I haven't quite had the desire yet!

Geeksugar: With so much content on the Internet, how do you determine what is Buzzfeed worthy?
Peggy: Usually, I'll just spot something I think is interesting either in my RSS reader or in our trend detector, and then I do some research to see if the "buzz" is thought-provoking in some way, especially if bloggers seem to have vehement opinions or even just something clever or funny to say. Also, if I hear about some obscure movie or band or website that is getting some attention from respected resources (early adopters, if you will), then there's a good chance it could take off.

Geeksugar: What is your main goal for Buzzfeed? What are you hoping readers get when they visit?
Peggy: Well, I really love that the trends we choose to cover are a hodgepodge of interesting things that you might have a conversation about at a party. When I was a computer programmer, I didn't have time to read a lot of blogs or newspapers or magazines, and I always felt a little out of the loop and a step behind. So basically, I would hope that BuzzFeed helps our readers feel less awkward at parties. Also, we help make good things popular by giving bloggers ideas to write about. Truly "good" things don't need marketing dollars and huge advertising campaigns to gain steam - word of mouth is so much more powerful. If you've got a friend with great taste who recommends something to you, that means a lot more than seeing some flashy ad. That's why I think having human editors is so important. We use lots of technology to find features on BuzzFeed but in the end everything is written in a human voice by an editor with good taste.

Geeksugar: What are some popular tech and/or gadget trends on Buzzfeed?
Peggy: One of my favorite tech trends we did is The Mullet Strategy because it's a concept that we coined, and bloggers responded by writing about it and sending us their posts to link to. Some other popular ones were Hand-Drawn Video Games, Lifecasting, and Lolsecretz.

Geeksugar: Other than the iPhone, what gadget has created a lot of buzz on Buzzfeed?
Peggy: The Verizon Voyager is doing really well. And, um, stylish sex toys got lots of clicks.

Geeksugar: What websites do you love visiting and why?
Peggy: I love gossip sites that are clever and funny, like Best Week Ever and Jossip. The blogs for Wired and Vice Magazine always have really interesting posts. As far as personal blogs go, I love Momus' blog and this girl Jessica Hopper's blog (she's a writer for the Chicago Tribune, and I love her taste in music and writing style). I'm also addicted to eBay. And the Sugar sites are all interesting and really well designed.

Geeksugar: How many blog feeds are in your RSS reader?
Peggy: I have about 300 blog feeds that I read every day, but they get backed up pretty quickly. They are organized by category and I have a very methodical procedure for going through them. But sometimes if I'm feeling impractical, I'll spend a bunch of time going through my fashion feeds because I need an outfit idea for an event, or my food feeds because I want to make dinner that night. Two birds, one stone! Also, the BuzzFeed trend detector automatically "reads" and filters about 50,000 sites for me so I can see what is bubbling to the top. And I get dozens of tips and suggested links from BuzzFeed readers. All this information comes together in what we call the "BuzzFeed Terminal." It is like our own Bloomberg Terminal for web buzz and all the editors use it to find stuff and publish features.

Geeksugar: How many hours do you spend online a day?
Peggy: I'd say between 8 and 10. It's hard staying away from the internet before bed, but I try to keep an active social life to keep me away from the computer.

Geeksugar: Are you a PC or Mac user?
Peggy: I'm pretty exclusively a Mac user.

Geeksugar: Which do you prefer and why? BlackBerry, iPhone, neither.
Peggy: I was an iPhone pessimist at first, jaded by all the hype. Then, my friend Scott had one at this wedding I went to, and he was able to surf the internet during all the boring parts. Needless to say, I was jealous of his iPhone, even though he looked like kind of a tool. It's probably not the best etiquette to write an email while your friends are exchanging vows, but that's just the sort of power you've got in the palm of your hand with the iPhone. I personally use the LG enV, because I like having a QWERTY keypad for texting. Honestly, I don't really get enough email to justify having a BlackBerry. I wish I got more email. More people should write me.

How To Roundup - Get Your Own Gold Statue

GeekSugar — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 07:00:29 -0800

...okay, so maybe there isn't a gold statue in store for you, but you'll earn brownie points from me if you take advantage of your free time today by cleaning your desktop and techie life. In case you haven't been reading geeksugar every minute of this week, you might have missed some of the great 'how to' guides I put together for everyone. And the Oscar goes to...

How To Celebrate 'Embrace Your Geekiness Day'

GeekSugar — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:00:58 -0700

Little known fact, today is national Embrace Your Geekiness Day. That's right people, it's one day of the year we geeks are told to embrace all the character traits that make us so special. I'm talking about those gadget-loving, internet-sleuthing, all knowing qualities. Here is my list of things you must do today in honor of the holiday.

Egosurf: In case you don't know, egosurfing is the act of searching for one's own name, or online nickname, using any search engine. This helps you keep track of your online identity and will undoubtedly produce a couple of laughs. Look for images, news articles and whatever web junk you can find.
Clean Your Inbox: It's not fun, but cleansing improves everyone's mood. Archive all the good stuff and dump the junk.
Harry Potter: If you haven't seen Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix you better direct your Nimbus 2000 to the theater. Don't forget to take some Butterbeer with you. (If you're over 21 try the cold recipe!)

For the rest of the list, read more

IM: Instant messenger has been keeping computer-minded types in contact for a good decade. If you've outgrown your instant messenger log on just for today and say hello to your real and virtual friends.
Use Office Slang: If you haven't already it's time to introduce a little Office Slang into your vocabulary. You have to make the Cubicle Farm entertaining some how.

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