Friday, September 21, 2007

OCD Quickie and 1st Official Geek Girl Poll: Circus Ponies Notebook 2.1

Hi Blog Buds!

I was feeling lazy tonight and just HAD to tell you/ask you about this software I read about today, so I decided to do a quick video blog about it instead (I was sitting on my couch with my laptop in front of me, so forgive the background of my living room!) Check out the video here:





And then give me your feedback below in the COMMENTS section.
Or,
email me your feedback, or even video feedback, at geek.girl@earthlink.net.

To check out my YouTube Channel, click HERE.
To check out my MySpace and become my friend, click HERE.
And make sure to subscribe to my videos on iTunes...they are FREE and the quality on iTunes is way better than on YouTube. Plus, you can take me with you on your iPod. :)

Cheers!

Geek Girl

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Say Hello to my Little Friend... :-)...Happy 25th Birthday, Smiley Face!

Hey there Webbies! I just came across a factoid that made me smile :) and I felt like it was theme-appropriate for this blog ;) and I've decided to report the story to share with you all. Today is the 25th anniversary of the first official usage of the digital smiley face, :-)




Click HERE for the Carnegie Mellon University's official smiley page, with details about it's history.

Where would we be today without the wonders of emoticons and other indicators of tone within otherwise mundane, on-screen text? How on earth could we possibly otherwise bridge the digital gap between an all-out LOL or LMAO and a mere smile? Here's an article from the Associated Press, published today, September 18th, 2007, detailing today's glorious anniversary:


Digital 'smiley face' turns 25
By DANIEL LOVERING, Associated Press Writer

It was a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon.
:-) Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes — a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis — as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message.

To mark the anniversary Wednesday, Fahlman and his colleagues are starting an annual student contest for innovation in technology-assisted, person-to-person communication. The Smiley Award, sponsored by Yahoo Inc. carries a $500 cash prize.


Language experts say the smiley face and other emotional icons, known as emoticons, have given people a concise way in e-mail and other electronic messages of expressing sentiments that otherwise would be difficult to detect.


Fahlman posted the emoticon in a message to an online electronic bulletin board at 11:44 a.m. on Sept. 19, 1982, during a discussion about the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly.
"I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: :-)," wrote Fahlman. "Read it sideways." The suggestion gave computer users a way to convey humor or positive feelings with a smile — or the opposite sentiments by reversing the parenthesis to form a frown.

Carnegie Mellon said Fahlman's smileys spread from its campus to other universities, then businesses and eventually around the world as the Internet gained popularity.

Computer science and linguistics professors contacted by The Associated Press said they were unaware of who first used the symbol.


"I've never seen any hard evidence that the :-) sequence was in use before my original post, and I've never run into anyone who actually claims to have invented it before I did," Fahlman wrote on the university's Web page dedicated to the smiley face. "But it's always possible that someone else had the same idea — it's a simple and obvious idea, after all."

Variations, such as the "wink" that uses a semicolon, emerged later. And today people can hardly imagine using computer chat programs that don't translate keystrokes into colorful graphics, said Ryan Stansifer, a computer science professor at the Florida Institute of Technology.


"Now we have so much power, we don't settle for a colon-dash-paren," he said. "You want the smiley face, so all these chatting softwares have to have them."

Instant messaging programs often contain an array of faces intended to express emotions ranging from surprise to affection to embarrassment.


"It has been fascinating to watch this phenomenon grow from a little message I tossed off in 10 minutes to something that has spread all around the world," Fahlman was quoted as saying in a university statement. "I sometimes wonder how many millions of people have typed these characters, and how many have turned their heads to one side to view a smiley, in the 25 years since this all started."

Amy Weinberg, a University of Maryland linguist and computer scientist, said emoticons such as the smiley were "definitely creeping into the way, both in business and academia, people communicate."


"In terms of things that language processing does, you have to take them into account," she said. "If you're doing almost anything ... and you have a sentence that says 'I love my boss' and then there's a smiley face, you better not take that seriously."


Emoticons reflect the likely original purpose of language — to enable people to express emotion, said Clifford Nass, a professor of communications at Stanford University. The emotion behind a written sentence may be hard to discern because emotion is often conveyed through tone of voice, he said.

"What emoticons do is essentially provide a mechanism to transmit emotion when you don't have the voice," Nass said.


In some ways, he added, they also give people "the ability not to think as hard about the words they're using."


Stansifer said the emoticon was part of a natural progression in communication.
"I don't think the smiley face was the beginning and the end," he said. "All people at all times take advantage of whatever means of communication they have."

OK, so my only question is: who on earth was writing posts on message boards in 1982?! Who knew that they even existed back then? Pretty amazing stuff, folks.

Anyhow, new podcast coming soon, and lots of exciting posts coming up now that fall is well on it's way! Summer is officially ending, and that means lots of new gadgets, tv shows and other great stuff coming up for the holidays!


Remember, to email me your questions, or even video questions for a chance to be featured in a future podcast, email me at geek.girl@earthlink.net.

To check out my YouTube Channel, click HERE.
To check out my MySpace and become my friend, click HERE.
And make sure to subscribe to my videos on iTunes...they are FREE and the quality on iTunes is way better than on YouTube. Plus, you can take me with you on your iPod. :)

Cheers!

Geek Girl

Monday, August 13, 2007

Traveling Geek Girl and Murphy's Law

Hi blog buds!

I am SOOOO excited right now. First off, so many of you have sent in questions over the last 2 weeks, and I promise(!) I will personally answer each and every one of them! However, I just had to let you all know that not only am I leaving the country for a 2 week vacation today (I plan to do a special on-the-road video podcast from Italy, so keep checking back this week!), but my trusty old G4 laptop finally died on me last week, and that's why I haven't responded to you all as promptly as I usually do. Of course, it had to happen RIGHT before I left for holiday (that's Murphy's Law, right?) but at least I got a cool new MacBook out of it!


Anyhow, I did lose a few emails from you all, however I think it was only 3-5 in total...I do have the rest saved and plan on writing responses while waiting at airports and train stations in Europe. :) So if you sent me an email early last week or the week before that, can you please re-send it to me just to make sure I get to your question? And I happen to think that a special video podcast will be a nice consolation prize, given that I can get decent internet connections while on the road! The topic will be totally impromptu (I just had the idea this morning), there won't be the usual Geek Girl backdrop or glasses(!), and I think it's going to be very useful for those of you who travel!



Lastly, before I sign off this airport and go to the real kind I wanted to say how great it is to see you all posting suggestions and answering each others' questions in the comment section here on my little 'ol blog when I can't get to them soon enough. It's really great to see a little Geek and Geek-in-Training community forming here, and I hope you guys can help each other out while I am on holiday (though I promise to have something for you guys, even though I'll technically be on vacation!)


To email me your questions, or even video questions for a chance to be featured in a future podcast, email me at geek.girl@earthlink.net.

To check out my YouTube Channel, click HERE.
To check out my MySpace and become my friend, click HERE.
And make sure to subscribe to my videos on iTunes...they are FREE and the quality on iTunes is way better than on YouTube. Plus, you can take me with you on your iPod. :) See you all in Cyberspace soon!



Arrivederchi
and cheers,

Geek Girl

Saturday, August 4, 2007

You Asked, I Answer! iPod on the Radio: Transmitters

Hello web friends!!

So many of you have been emailing me over the last two days about the iPod transmitter that I recommended to Ross "the Intern" Mathews after he mentioned it on his blog (click HERE to check it out), that I decided to post a whole blog about it. Also, Episode 3 of my Video Podcast, which is coming up soon, is going to feature all of my favorite gadgets, and I will be including this transmitter in that video as well.

First things first, in case you missed it, here's Episode 2 of my Geek Girl Podcast:




Ok, now, for the piece de resitance...




Before I tell you all about this transmitter and where to find it, I have to give you all a quick brief about how these things work. Lots of people have emailed in about problems with transmitters and the static and interference and plain non-functionality of the devices that they have bought. What you need to know is that there isn't a device (yet) that is external (plugs INTO your car as opposed to having it wired inside of your car radio, which I had done and I LOVE) which will cut out ALL of the static from the airwaves. The way that these transmitters work is like this:
  • your car cigarette lighter acts as the power source for the transmitter.
  • you plug the transmitter into your iPod (which also, as a bonus, charges your iPod via the cigarette lighter)
  • you turn on your car radio and scan for a station that is nothing but static...in this case, the more static the better
  • you program this station on your car stereo, and then you turn on the transmitter and program that same station on it as well (the transmitter that I'm recommending actually has 3 channel pre-set buttons, so that's a plus, because you can have different stations for different areas you drive in)
  • you turn on your iPod and play it, and the transmitter actually transmits what your iPod is playing via the preset station you have selected, and your car radio receiver picks it up. It's like your own mini-broadcast radio station in your car!
But here's the drawback: no matter how good a transmitter you get, you are still dealing with radio waves. Radio waves, even on the best, biggest stations cut out when you are out of the area (i.e. when you go on road trips and there are long stretches of road where you can't get ANY reception). Lots of environmental factors also influence radio waves, such as weather and clouds (random fact: did you know that at night, if the cloud coverage and temperature are just right, you can pick up AM stations over the radio that you couldn't pick up normally? The radio waves actually bounce off the clouds and reflect back down to earth in places they wouldn't normally transmit. Neat, right? Actually, if anyone reading this knows more about that phenomenon, please post about it in the COMMENT section below...I'd love to hear more about it!).

Anyhow, the moral of the story is that you will never get perfect reception with a transmitter. But the one that I show you above has some advantages that help minimize the interfering factors. It's a
Kensington Digital FM Transmitter/Auto Charger, and you can buy it at the Apple store HERE. The advantages are:
  1. It is digital, which transmits a clearer signal
  2. It has 3 programmable stations, which allow you to switch stations depending on the area you are in
  3. And it has a Patented Aerielle wireless technology, which enhances noise reduction and stereo separation.
So there you go, blog buddies. Everything you wanted to know about the transmitter. I personally think it's also worth it, if you have the money and a car that will allow for this type of hook up, that you have your iPod cord installed in your car. Then you just plug in your iPod like you would to your computer, and control it via your car CD control buttons, as opposed to the radio. If you do it this way, there is absolutely no radio interference because the car stereo treats the iPod input like a CD, as opposed to a radio wave.

Lastly, a few of you have asked about an iPod cassette adapter. I've found one HERE, however can't personally vouch for it's effectiveness since I don't have a tape deck. Make sure you check out the specs, because you have to have a front loading tape deck, etc. The reviews for this one look pretty good, but make sure to always do some online investigating before you buy any electronics products. Or, check with me. :)

Ok fellow geeks and geeks-in-training...that's all for now! To email me your questions, or even video questions for a chance to be featured in a future podcast, email me at geek.girl@earthlink.net.

To check out my YouTube Channel, click HERE.
To check out my MySpace and become my friend, click HERE.
And make sure to subscribe to my videos on iTunes...they are FREE and the quality on iTunes is way better than on YouTube. Plus, you can take me with you on your iPod. :)

Cheers!

Geek Girl

Friday, July 27, 2007

Oh, What's in a Name? Ep. 2 UPDATE

Hello faithful web friends!

As a follow up to the last podcast, Episode 2, in which we discussed USB Card Readers (the video for which I will link to again and embed below), I wanted to give you all some examples of hubs/readers that you can purchase online from reputable sources. I also wanted to clarify some of the nomenclature that I used when describing the device itself.

Now, I knew in my little geek brain that when I created the last podcast that the word HUB actually technically describes a USB port that allows you to plug in many USB devices (cameras, printers, card readers, etc.) into your computer via one USB plug in in the back. A HUB is also generally a dictionary term for the main center for any sort of activity. I always refer to my card reader as a HUB, because I think I cross purposes in my brain when thinking about its function. For those of you who are curious, here is a picture and a link to what an actual, technical USB hub is:



Now, here is a link to the type of hub, or USB Card Reader, that I so highly praised in my last podcast:

I actually have this exact reader for my other camera that has an xD card, and though it does have a cord, it doesn't need an external power source and works just like the reader I showed you in the podcast. San Disk is a great company for these types of products.

There are also multi card readers, which are great if, like me, you have a ton of different cameras and memory card types. These multi card readers are totally affordable, and have lots of slots for your different kinds of memory cards on one nifty little device. Here's a link to one from Staples: MULTI CARD READER

So I just had to clarify for all of you that the more correct term for the device that I hope you will all run out and buy is a USB Card Reader, which I mentioned in the video. But c'mon, how can you make a cute title like "Hubba, Hubba, Hubba" out of "USB Card Reader?!" You can't, is the answer. :) I just had to get that off my chest.

Ok fellow geeks and geeks-in-training...that's all for now! To email me your questions, or even video questions for a chance to be featured in a future podcast, email me at geek.girl@earthlink.net.

To check out my YouTube Channel, click HERE.
To check out my MySpace and become my friend, click HERE.
And make sure to subscribe to my videos on iTunes...they are FREE and the quality on iTunes is way better than on YouTube. Plus, you can take me with you on your iPod. :)

Oh, and here's the episode again, just in case you missed it!



Ok peeps, Happy Friday, and keep those questions and comments coming!!

Cheers,

Geek Girl

Monday, July 16, 2007

Episode 2: Hubba, Hubba, Hubba!

Hello Web-People! Episode 2 is here, and if you take and download digital pictures to your computer, then this one is a must-see!

In this episode, I talk about the importance, benefits and inner-workings (without getting too technical!) of USB hubs, or card readers. These nifty little devices allow you to -- get this -- download pics from your camera to any computer without using software, or your camera, or even a cable!

To check out the Quicktime version of the Podcast online, Click on the image below:


Or, you can check out the YouTube version right here on this page:



The next episode is going to be really exciting! I'm going to talk about all of my favorite new gadgets, and even have a few of them to show all of my faithful Geek Girl fans. So, if you have a gadget you'd like me to talk about and feature, send me an email to geek.girl@earthlink.net, or leave a comment in the COMMENT section below. You can even send me a video message to my email, and you just might be featured in my next podcast! I'd love to showcase some of my fans on this podcast. Oh, and don't forget that you can go to iTunes and subscribe to this podcast, all for the low price of FREE!!

OK people, until next time,
Cheers!

Geek Girl

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Episode 1: PodWhat?

Hello cyber-friends and fellow Geeks!

Guess what this is a picture of-just guess! C'mon....



Ok, give up?

It's a screen-grab of the title animation in the first episode of the long-awaited Geek Girl Podcast!

And naturally, the very first episode is about...what else? PODCASTS! There are so many people who think that a Podcast refers to just one specific type of media file for an iPod, and there are people who just plain have no idea what they are. Either way, it's ok, because I've chosen to focus the entire first episode on defining Podcasts and showing you what goes into them. To see the Episode 1: PodWhat? click below:

PodWhat?

or, you can click here to see the embedded YouTube version:



The feed is also available on iTunes in the Music Store.

Let the fun begin!

Remember to send me all of your feedback and questions to geek.girl@earthlink.net.
I'm looking for video questions as well (and pics, if you want). As long as you don't clog up my email with huge files. :)

Keep checking back for more soon, and send me your ideas for future "Blogger's Choice" podcasts!

Cheers,

GeekGirl