My Name is Kate

Take Control of Your Technology - Christina Tynan-Wood Tells Women How To Be a Geek Goddess

I have a hard time reviewing books that are aimed at "the novice".  Because I'm a total geek and have gravitated towards anything techie since I was in 7th grade, I usually read these books with the mental soundtrack "Well, what about .." and "omg, I can't believe they didn't mention THAT" and "I just can't take this book seriously".

However, I didn't really experience that with Christina Tynan-Wood's new book How to Be a Geek Goddess: Practical Advice for Using Computers with Smarts and Style.  Yes, there were a couple of times at the beginning of the book where Tynan-Wood was discussing computer setup, file structures or other software that I bit my tongue (plus, I'm a Mac girl now and she favours PC's) - but once I got to Chapter 5, my noisy brain stopped chattering and I settled in for the ride.

My favourite chapters were the ones on safe surfing and geek parenting.  Now, I don't have kids (which may make it surprising that these were my fav chapters), but if I needed to learn about kid safety in the Internet quickly and have a really good sense of my options, I would definitely read this book.  In fact, these two chapters alone are worth the price of the whole book.  Tynan-Wood writes from a great combo of experiences with her own kids and her friends' kids, plus a love of technology.  She tempers what could easily turn into paranoia for some parents with the realisation that the Internet and technology are essential to a child's education and wants to help you be smart about it.  Really great stuff!

The chapters on social networking and online dating were fun to read and full of great content.  I'm glad that Tynan-Wood included the chapter on online dating; she evaluated a number of sites and it's this experience, tempered with her general common sense approach, that will give single women the confidence to go online and explore some of these sites.

Oh, and if you know that digital cameras, plasma TVs or a new mp3 player are in your future, the chapter on gadgets offers some easy-to-understand descriptions of the technology plus some questions to ask yourself before you buy!

How To Be a Geek Goddess covers a wide variety of topics for the woman who wants to be a thoroughly modern (techno) Millie.  They include:

Chapter 1: Get a Smooth Ride, New or Used
Chapter 2: Housebreaking
Chapter 3: Getting In Touch With Your Software Side
Chapter 4: Hook It Up
Chapter 5: Shopping!
Chapter 6: Hello, Operator
Chapter 7: The Wireless Home
Chapter 8: Keeping It Safe
Chapter 9: Geek Parenting
Chapter 10: Groovy Gear and Gadgets
Chapter 11: Social Networking
Chapter 12: The Sexy Geek

Check out the full TOC plus a sample chapter over at the publisher's site.

Tynan-Wood's companion blog. Geek Girlfriends, is a great resource for ongoing practical tech advice and some delightful giveaways :)  How To Be a Geek Goddess is available on amazon.ca and amazon.com.  Thanks to the folks at No Starch Press for sending me a review copy!

To Live Tweet or Not to Live Tweet (or, Dramarama in the Twittersphere)

I have a love/hate relationship with Twitter.  Twitter, for me, is like that crush I had in middle school.  I love him.  Ugh, how could he say that.  OMG, he's walking to class with her?  Swooon, he let me cut in line to sharpen my pencil.  He is sooooooo dreamy.

In reality, Twitter is like Soylent Green.  It's made up of people.  And that means there is a little awesome, a little jerkiness and a lot of filler.  Apparently, of late, one of the things that has created filler and jerkiness is the issue of live-tweeting.

I'm not going to re-hash the issue - you can read the background yourself:

• Joe said some stuff
• Then Joe wrote some more stuff
• And now Ira has written some stuff

As someone who has really paid not very much attention to this debate/debacle, I said some stuff which I stand by - that both sides took a couple of cheap shots and both sides were raising some interesting social more issues (similar to the kinds of issues I wrote about several weeks ago).

Now for some, the crux of the issue comes down to whether or not to live tweet.  Judy Gombita asked me if I was for or against live tweeting.  I responded that I needed more than 140 characters to answer.  To me, that question is like asking if I am for or against hammers.  Hammers are a great tool - handy for hanging a picture.  But you can also kill someone with a hammer.

Anti-Valentine's Day Trends (and why I like Environics)

The content of this post is about 98% due to a fabulous consultant at Environics Communications, Nazia.  The pitch and follow-up response I received from her was interesting, fun and pretty relevant to what I write about.  Other PRs take note!  Also, did you know that Environics has a blog?  I didn't.  Nice.

A lot of people have pretty strong feelings about Valentine's Day.  Personally, I'm pretty ambivalent.  I didn't HATE it when I was single and I don't LOVE it now that I'm in a relationship.  It's nice that people acknowledge the significant-other in their lives, however, I do think it is extremely commercial and, in these economic and environmentally-aware times, a little wasteful.

Apparently, the tide of public sentiment - especially the sentiment of single folks and jilted lovers - is flowing more towards the practical than the romantic. eBay – an oft-used barometer of pop culture – expects to see a number of interesting trends this year and offers some useful tips for those without a sweetheart.  (Confession - it never occurred to me to use eBay as a trend barometer - very smart.)

One of the trends eBay expects is a spike in typical Valentines Day junk paraphernalia listed AFTER the Big Day. Which goes to show that if given a choice, no one really wants another plush bear. Canadians feeling the economic crunch are re-selling their Valentines Day gifts online for the sweetest gift of all – cash.   Nazia is going to get back to me after V-Day with some stats, but she was able to tell me a few Valentine's related tidbits about what's up there now:

• Total number of listings with “Valentine” as keyword in either title or description: 129,318
• Most popular Valentine category:  Jewellery and Watches with 16,750 listings
• Number of listings for Valentine lingerie: 2,931
• Priciest item suggested for Valentines Day gift: Hermes Crocodile Birkin “ROSY” at $116,867.76
• Total number of “love spells” for sale: 991 listings
• Oldest valentine: 1862 Lacey (sic) Victorian Valentine
• Tallest valentine plush toy: 8 Ft Tall Valentine Teddy Bear
• Number of heart-shaped food items: 11 (frosted flake, potato, soy chip, clementine, Lays BBQ- and regular-flavoured chips)

“Love’s Hangover” sales are another trend eBay expects this year in which jilted lovers re-sell keepsakes from relationships gone sour to men and women who are more deserving. Have you left personal items at an ex’s? Watch out – it might find its way on to eBay.

"If You Voted for Me Change is on the Way, Know it!" - AlphaCat video on YouTube

I am obsessed with this video and song from Iman Crosson (aka AlphaCat) - YouTube Obama impersonator.

Obsessed.

I got hope on my lips
Blackberry on my hip
Secret service we rollin deep!
In the white house
Take the bowling alley out
I can care less what you think.
I need no permission
Did I mention
I am the first black president
I want a b-ball court
With a little bling to sport,
How's that for 'change you can believe'?

It's actually a spoof of a Beyoncé song which I'm now also a little obsessed with. But not nearly as much as the spoof.

You can follow AlphaCat on Twitter too :) Oh, and if you go directly to the video there is a link to download the MP3.

links for 2009-02-08

• globeandmail.com: Blue boosts creativity, red makes you careful
  If you're having trouble focusing on a finicky task at work, you might consider changing the background colour on your computer screen instead of downing yet another cup of coffee. The colour red can boost the brain's attention to detail, according to new research from the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business published yesterday in the journal Science. Blue, on the other hand, is the colour to choose when creativity is a priority, says Juliet Zhu, an assistant professor of marketing, who led the study.
  (tags: desktop colour creativity)

Ins and Outs of Social Media Outreach - Welcome CEC Network

I had the delightful opportunity to be a guest speaker at a workshop that Darren Barefoot of Capulet Communications led for the good folks at the CEC Network.  My talk was on blogger relations - both from my perspective as a blogger (how I like to be reached out to whether here on MNIK, OneDegree.ca or Funchico) as well as on how I find and evaluate bloggers for blogger outreach programs for LintBucket's clients.

Below are the resources I discussed in the session:

My Stuff:

• Slides from my presentation
• Link to my pitch policy

Higher Education Links:

• Educational Institutions that Twitter
• Social Media and College Admissions: The First Longitudinal Study
• Wiki of Social Media case studies - you can sort by category, including Gov't/Public Sector for some education examples
• Educational Uses of Second Life
• Collection of articles on Web 2.0 in Higher Education
• Twitter account that tries to follow ONLY higher education institutions on Twitter

Things we discussed in class:

• QR Codes:Wikipedia article on QR Codes and Marketer's Perspective on QR Codes (from OneDegree)
• Town of Banff YouTube Channel; in particular - Dying to Visit Banff video

Photo Credit: CaptPiper

Show you my WHAT?!!? AdHack wants you to finish the ad.

I have a confession - I didn't watch the SuperBowl this year.  And I haven't seen the commercials.  I haven't even sought them out online.  I'm kind of over the whole SuperBowl ad thing.  A stupid amount of money for generally lacklustre creative.  Meh.

But then, a silver lining to my SuperBowl ad cloud.  I got an email from AdHack that they partnered with Giant Ant Media to create an ad for a yet-to-be-determined product.  They released part 1 during the SuperBowl on Sunday and they want you to write the script for the second half.

(If you're not familiar with AdHack - it's a cool startup by James Sherret here in Vancouver that connects ad buyers directly to ad creators.  Like an ebay for ads.)

This latest program from AdHack is called "Show Us Your Balls".  They've written and filmed the first half of the commercial.  And they want the second half of the script to come from one of us (One of Us. One of Us.)

The ad itself is pretty cute.  Giant Ant does a great job with video!  (Check out their other awesome work).

One way that AdHack is promoting the commercial is through themed avatars.  They've created a template for a tennis avatar and written a great tutorial on how to make your own using Pixlr (essentially, an online PhotoShop). You can see Emmy Lou, our junkyard sharpei, here as a tennis star. 

Custom avatars is a pretty hot trend right now.  I've seen these balls ones all over Twitter.  Plus Twitter collectively went through a manga my avatar phase a few months ago.  Want to get your message out? Make something that people want to avatarize.  Another case in point - Simpsonize Me.

So, check out the whole "Show Us Your Balls" program.  They've got the soundtrack up for remixing as well.  And if you're feeling inspired, write a script for the second half.  Ad Hack and Giant Ant Media will film the best one.

Thinking about the economy, black swans and becoming a belletrist

One of my must-read blogs these days is Boing Boing.  It's this perfect mix of quirk, geek and thought-provocation.  A recent post about an interview with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan, is a case in point.  Cory Doctorow points us to an interview between Taleb and Bryan Appleyard that appeared in June 2008 in the Times Online.

Taleb is nothing if not provocative.  I saw him at TED last year.  His talk wasn't one of my favourite because I felt he didn't quite focus what he was trying to say.  He's definitely gotten better at making his point, especially for a lay audience (or maybe I've just gotten to a point where I can hear what he is trying to say).

TED hasn't posted his talk yet, but there is a great video of him on FORA.tv - giving an overview, at the Long Now Foundation, of the concept of the black swan and then being interviewed by Stewart Brand.  It's comprehensive and understandable and informative.  And now, almost a year later, provides an interesting lens onto our current economic climate. (Side note - that FORA.tv has it going on.  They provide a transcript that runs alongside the video - plus you can download it on its own.  And lots of great socializing tools.  Well done, FORA!)

Taleb's talk on FORA.tv is 90 minutes, so here is a 4 minute snippet which includes the definition of a black swan.

In the interview with Appleyard, Taleb gives his top 10 tips for living a life of dignity. As most good "top 10 lists" are, Taleb's is controversial - the comments are BoingBoing are definitely worth a scan.