GeekSugar

Do You Trust Wikis?

GeekSugar — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:00:55 -0700

Today John McCain announced he has picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. In its morning broadcast, NPR reported that McCain's choice showed up on Wikipedia (and the AP) before it had been officially confirmed as fact.

This isn't exactly an irregular event in wiki world, considering the content is created by millions of users, but it says a great deal about the power of the Internet. In the hours following the official announcement, Wikipedia users frantically updated and edited Palin's entry, adding nasty descriptive words after her name (I took a screenshot of one, but it's honestly so lowbrow I don't want to share it).

I use wikis as one of my first stop spots to learn about people and random topics, but I can't say I take anything I read as verifiable fact. How and when do you trust wikis?

Website of the Day: WikiDumper

GeekSugar — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:25:15 -0700

With over three million entries, Wikipedia is the ultimate online encyclopedia. Most of you said that you regularly use it, but that you don't ever contribute or edit articles. But what happens to all of the entries that are considered for deletion by the Wikipedia gods? A website called WikiDumper pools together some of the Wiki articles that get flagged as inappropriate submissions or ones that have been nominated to be deleted. I'd have to say "The Purple Diet" entry that Mariah Carey supposedly followed - which involves eating only purple foods like plums and beetroot - is pretty hilarious.

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.

Sex and the City Inspired wikiHow's!

GeekSugar — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:01:16 -0700

With the Sex and the City movie hitting theaters nationwide today, it's kinda exciting that my iGoogle page has SATC themed "How-To's" in my wikiHow's "How to of the Day" desktop gadget. Things like how to make a Cosmopolitan and how to fall out of love. . . the basics, right?!

Anywhoo, I'm loving the fact that they're in on the fun, and I'm sure Carrie Bradshaw would be loving it as well.

Daily Tech: The Second-Gen iPod Touch Is Faster Than the iPhone 3G

GeekSugar — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:12:31 -0800

This is news to me. The second-generation iPod Touch runs at 532 MHz, whereas the first Touch and both iPhones only run at 412 MHz. - The Boy Genius Report
With Google's new SearchWiki, you can now reorder search preferences when you are logged into your Google account. - Switched
Looks like Amazon is kicking off their Black Friday sale early, with gadgets drastically dropping in price. - Gizmodo
Napsounds is a neat site that offers free 20-minute-long relaxation tunes for you to listen to when you need to take a quick power nap. - Lifehacker
It's giveaway time on geeksugar! Be sure to log in and enter our laptop giveaway for your chances to win a Windows Vista powered Sony VAIO CS laptop or a Windows Vista powered Acer Aspire Gemstone Blue Notebook. - geeksugar

Wikipedia Recruiting Community Managers to Monitor Content

GeekSugar — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:47:14 -0700

Although I reference Wiki on a regular basis for fun facts and trivia, I know that anyone can contribute information, which leaves me at a high risk of quoting inaccuracies. But yesterday, Wikipedia announced that they will be rounding up trusted users to create a pool of volunteer community managers, who will approve data before it's published.

But Wiki won't be covering all its bases - the rule will only apply to submissions on living people. So you can still offer up your insider knowledge on the subplots of BSG (if you are so inclined), but you can't just start publishing deets on Ashton Kutcher without getting it approved. Wiki is hoping that this will curb the amount of false data and keep the site clean, while others think that the extra step shouldn't be necessary. What do you think of the new Wiki rules?

World of Warcraft Climbs to Over 11 Million Users

GeekSugar — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:00:20 -0800

Forget gambling addiction, the multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft has just reached 11.5 million subscribers worldwide.

The game, by Blizzard Entertainment, released its second expansion of the game called Wrath of the Lich King this past November, which sold 2.8 copies in just 24 hours. I'm not a huge WoW fan, but actress Mila Kunis claims to be obsessed with it, and we've heard that its on-going gameplay nature has a tendency to tear couples apart.

All I can say is you know it's bad when there's a wikiHow on how to break a WoW addiction.

Geek Tip: Get Wikipedia Access From Mac's Dictionary Application!

GeekSugar — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:42:16 -0700

Say what you will about Wikipedia, but it's become an utter must-have site. Whether I'm at home or at work, if I'm at my computer, I visit Wikipedia a few times a day, at least, to look up a person, thing, whatever. Now, Apple has made it more convenient to get to - you can access it from the Dictionary application!

If you have Leopard in OS X, you'll notice that there's now a Wikipedia tab. It gets even faster - access the Dictionary from Spotlight, or, in an email or other text document, Control click or right click on the word and select "Look Up in Dictionary." Wiki away!

Geek Tip: Turn Old CDs Into Your Own Disco Ball

GeekSugar — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:00:31 -0700

These days, there's really no reason to have CDs lying around since we get our music fix on Napster and Pandora, and download our music over at iTunes. And now even with Amazon's music service.

Thankfully for Mother Earth, this reduces our need for less than eco friendly packaging and waste to pile up in landfills. So what do we do with all the old CDs whose music we now have stored in our digital libraries but are still taking up precious storage space? If you don't want to lug them down to Rasputin to trade in, make them into a killer disco ball! Although you could officially recycle them, this DIY project I caught on wikiHow is pretty simple and totally cool if you have a party pad and want to add that little extra oomph to your next soiree. All you need is a glue gun, a Styrofoam ball, (size depending on how many CDs you have), some craft scissors, a bamboo stick or skewer, some string and a little patience. To see how to construct your CD Disco Ball, just read more

Gather up all your old or unwanted CDs. Using a pair of craft or kitchen shears, cut up the CDs into little squares. Careful! This can get a little tricky and you may end up with some cuts. Wear some protective gloves just to be safe. Make sure all the squares are about the same size. This will ensure your disco ball is evenly covered. There will be some odd shaped pieces left, but it's cool, we can use some of those too, so don't toss anything yet!
Once all the CDs are cut up, grab your Styrofoam ball and run your bamboo stick or skewer through the center of the ball to accommodate a string (or fishing wire) to hang the ball from. Knot up one end of the string to anchor, or you can tie the string onto a small paperclip to keep the string anchored at one end. Since we'll be gluing the CDs on next, the paperclip will end up being covered anyway.
Start gluing the squares onto the Styrofoam ball working from the center out. This is to make sure all your squares fit nice and snug. Plus, the top and bottom will be a good place to use the irregular pieces from the edges of the CDs. Make sure you are gluing the shiny side out!
Obviously, you gotta let it dry! Take this time to wipe off any excess glue before it dries.
Once dry, hang your new disco ball in a corner, or above your entertainment center. You can even pick up an inexpensive accent light from Ikea to angle at the ball when you're ready to party!

Not only can you infuse some fun into your apartment, but help save the planet from some trash, too!

Source

Geek Tip: How to Block Facebook Beacon

GeekSugar — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:00:29 -0800

If you love Facebook, but hate their new Beacon feature that collects your online purchasing info, wikiHow has just posted step-by-step instructions that show you how to block Beacon and prevent it from collecting your browsing and buying activities. By installing a Firefox extension called Blocksite and following a few simple steps, your data will remain private, so you don't have to worry about Facebook spying on your every online move.Source

Suspicious Wikipedia Edits Get Noticed

GeekSugar — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:00:02 -0700

With 7.9 million articles in 253 languages and a tag-line that reads "the free encyclopedia that anyone can change," it is pretty much guaranteed that all Wikipedia edits and content changes cannot be monitored.

According to The New York Times, there were unexplained edits to a Wikipedia entry including the SeaWorld theme parks to change the word “orcas” to “killer whales," which was considered more accurate. These changes were found to originate from the computer of Anheuser-Busch, SeaWorld’s owner. Dozens of other similar edits have been found through WikiScanner, a website that is used to trace the digital fingerprints left behind from Wikipedia edits and find out where they originated.