Nothing makes a community livelier than diversity, and geek circles desperately need a woman’s touch. So how do we get more women drooling over specs and components? Here’s my five-step plan.

Release a Gaming PC With a Twilight Paint Job

Like or not, the Twilight saga is here to stay. And when you have women—including those of substance—involuntarily swooning over Stephanie Meyer’s shallow yet infatuation-inducing prose, you’ve got to use that to your advantage.

Enter the Twilight PC. With a painted Jacob and Ella emblazoned on the side of this powerful yet understated ATX tower, appeal to women is all but ensured. However they acquire one (out of their own funds or that of a loved one’s), you can bet they’ll eventually become curious about what makes it tick, introducing them to the components inside.

Make the Next Sims a Really Demanding Game

Already as a joke, enthusiasts like wondering if that new video card can handle Crysis. To attract the legions of female Sims gamers, the next installment of the Sims series should surpass Crysis’s system requirements. All for the sake of creating the most realistic soap opera simulator of course.

This will force women to become more aware of specs, and the components needed to achieve them. Heck, it will probably force them to determine, on their limited budgets, what’s the best overclocking setup possible. And guess where they’ll turn for advice?

Showcase the Attention Women Geeks Already Enjoy

Make it clear to women that there’s an appreciative audience waiting for them. Show them how the novelty of being female and into gadgets is very intriguing for your (typically) male geek. Just ask Sarah Townsend and, more recently, Adrienne Curry. The pioneer America’s Top Model winner recently posted a picture of herself, apparently playing World of Warcraft in her birthday suit:

Yes, if my five-step plan works, women geeks will become a dime a dozen, no longer able to rely on their gender to stand out. Yet this will allow female enthusiasts to distinguish themselves through real achievements, such as pushing the i7 920 past 4GHz merely on air.

Highlight the Success of Geeks

Face it: free from the superficial pecking order of high school, geeks rule more than jocks. They make more, are happier, and actually change the world. Let’s highlight those realities, and show women everywhere that geekdom is where true success happens. Women today are still attracted to successful men, not necessarily because they want good providers, but simply company who know what they’re talking about and how to get things done.

Yes, we’ve all heard stories about a homeless man wasting away his life playing World of Warcraft while living on welfare checks. So let’s make it clear that those cases are exceptions rather than the rule.

Treat the Losers Like Pariahs

Yes, every community has them, the trolls who like picking fights, to sexually-repressed infantile idiots virtually drooling even at the hint that their new online contact is a girl (even if it hasn’t been conclusively proven yet).

So what do we do with them? Treat them like the losers that they are. Show them that their antics will never get them ahead, and they’ll probably leave for dirtier pastures suitable for their immature outlook. What remains are discussions where approaching women will feel confident that they’re in discussions featuring substance, where their opinions and insights are respected.

What do you think? If you’ve got your own ways to get more women into computer hardware, feel free to share below.

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation has even said the new model is to push Facebook users to share even more personal information with the general public. Much of the information you could previously control access to, such as your list of friends and the pages you are a fan of, is now considered “publicly available information” (PAI).

Even worse, there is now no way to limit the access of Facebook app makers to your PAI. Gone is the option to “not share any information about me through the Facebook API”.

The controversy has made more people aware that, at its core, Facebook is a business that’s all about helping people share their personal data with others, and hopes to earn money off this exposure-driven activity.

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“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.” Palm CEO Ed Colligan, commenting on then-rumored Apple iPhone, 16 Nov 2006

“Apple is slated to come out with a new phone… And it will largely fail.” Michael Kanellos, CNET, 7 December 2006

“The only question remaining is if, when the iPod phone fails, it will take the iPod with it.” Bill Ray, The Register, 26 December 2006

“Apple will likely have a tough time convincing application vendors to build specialized clients for the iPhone until the volumes are there, and the volumes could be limited by the lack of third-party applications – a Catch 22.” Jack Gold, J. Gold Associates, 10 January 2007

“The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks.” Matthew Lynn, Bloomberg, 15 January 2007

“Five hundred dollars? Fully subsidized, with a plan? It is the most expensive phone in the world and it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard which makes it not a very good email machine… So, I, I kinda look at that and I say, well, I like our strategy. I like it a lot.” Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, 17 January 2007

I am not sure how it will stand against Sprint’s Wimax (when it successfully launches) and its phones, which I am looking forward much more than over-hyped Apple iPhone.” Bhaskar Chitraju, Indews Broadcast, 18 January 2007

“iPhone may well become Apple’s next Newton.” David Haskin, Computerworld, 26 February 2007

“Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone… What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong. If it’s smart it will call the iPhone a ‘reference design’ and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else’s marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures… Otherwise I’d advise people to cover their eyes. You are not going to like what you’ll see.” John C. Dvorak, 28 March 2007

Let’s take a break, and a trip down memory lane, back to January 9, 2007:

“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.” Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, 30 April 2007

“How do they deal with us?” Ed Zander, Motorola CEO/Chairman 10 May 2007

“Apple begins selling its revolutionary iPhone this summer and it will mark the end of the string of hits for the company.” Todd Sullivan, Seeking Alpha, 15 May 2007

“What does the iPhone offer that other cell phones do not already offer, or will offer soon? The answer is not very much… Apple’s stated goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008 seems ambitious.” Laura Goldman, LSG Capital, 21 May 2007

“We Predict the iPhone will bomb. Which means that when the iPhone comes, Digg will likely be full of horror stories from the poor saps who camped out at their local AT&T store, only to find their purchase was buggier than a camp cabin.” Seth Porges, The Futurist, 7 June 2007

“The forthcoming (June 29) release of the Apple iPhone is going to be a bigger marketing flop than Ishtar and Waterworld combined. Because its designers forgot Platt’s First, Last, and Only Law of User Experience Design (“Know Thy User, for He Is Not Thee”), that product is going to crash in flames. Sell your Apple stock now, while the hype’s still hot. You heard it here first.” David S. Platt, Suckbusters!, 21 June 2007

“God himself could not design a device that could live up to all the hype that the iPhone has gotten.” Harvard computer science professor David Platt, 25 June 2007

I guess it pays to make professional-sounding predictions. Those prophesies embellished with colorful metaphors made me cringe even more. Again, to be fair, this is all about hindsight, and the smugness it confers. Also, I can’t imagine Steve Ballmer cheering Apple on anyway—nor Palm actively trying to make the Pre work with Apple’s iTunes.

See Also: The iPod Dealt With a Lot of Hate During It’s Debut

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Well, it’s not really a logo, because the new AOL branding involves plastering what’s spelled out as “Aol.” (in Arial) over various objects, apparently to reflect the new company’s dynamic and ever-changing nature. I’m not totally convinced, and maybe you’ll share my sentiments once you see the sample use of this new branding below:

The marketing rationale behind the new branding:

“AOL is a 21st century media company, with an ambitious vision for the future and new focus on creativity and expression, this required the new brand identity to be open and generous, to invite conversation and collaboration, and to feel credible, but also aspirational.”

Love it or hate it, hit the comments below. Let’s see if new AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, moving in from Google, can reverse AOL’s persistent decline.

Source

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Eventually however, I realized that as long as I limit my online purchases to retailers who have made the effort to win my trust, I should be fine. These kind of companies follow industry standards regarding data privacy, principles that include not sharing the data with third parties, and not storing credit card information (or at least only the last four digits of the card number, for verification purposes).

Yes, it’s true that companies store data about our purchasing habits, the items we bought, where we go on their websites, etc. Having worked for an internet retailer however, I know that reputable websites analyze this information to see how they can make things easier for the customer—and in a way that doesn’t tie the data to a specific individual.

Adjusting the inventory to anticipate future demand, and making online catalogs a lot easier to navigate, are made possible because of such analysis. It’s a win-win thing: shopping becomes an easier, more pleasant for visitors, while the company has a chance to make more money, by removing potential obstacles that keep customers from paying.

Now I totally understand that not everyone wants this, which is why companies should always provide options. My former employer would let people buy without requiring for additional data beyond payment information. It’s the choice of the customer if they want to provide more personal information—in return for some customer-oriented benefits promised by the business.

The point is that, while concerns over data privacy are growing, we should also realize that sharing our information with businesses isn’t necessarily a bad thing. So long as businesses keep it secure, use it to better improve the customer experience, not share it with other companies, and give customers control over how much information is saved, I’m totally fine with it.

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Too Many Customers, Too Little Capacity

The problem with “rationing” OTA bandwidth is of course, pissing off a lot of customers, who pay monthly for data plans, with the expectation that their mobile internet experience will be seamless and responsive. Most probably AT&T problem isn’t unique, simply because operators throughout the world have a nasty habit of promising what they can’t deliver.

Like any other resource, OTA connectivity is limited. Stress the network with enough people, and you’ll have dropped connections, slow data transfers, and other common symptoms that have frustrated many data users. That’s because operators are under constant pressure to increase the number of subscribers, to show shareholders that they’re taking steps to grow the business. The problem is that, while snazzy marketing campaigns quickly add converts to an operator’s customer base, the same isn’t true for increasing capacity and infrastructure capability.

What’s Your Budget for Reliable Mobile Connectivity?

Thus my question: how much would you pay for reliable OTA bandwidth? How much are you willing to spend on a regular basis in return for mobile online access featuring reliability and speeds that truly rival wired services? Two times as much? Three times as much? The answer to that question is of course, subjective, but I’ve got no problems sharing my personal willingness to pay four times as much as current rates. In return however, I expect virtually no downtime, and a promise to refund for connection failures, prorated to the length of the downtime.

There are problems with my proposal: operators can simply claim users weren’t within an area with good network coverage (a traditional excuse they use to explain away network failures). And of course, you have shareholder pressure to boost the numbers.

But I still think it’s a good foundation for reforming the market, and something has to change. Operators should stop luring in customers with relatively low-priced data plans, then leave them hanging with poor service even before the ink on that two-year lock-in has dried. There a sound business reasons driving this approach, but it’s hardly a sustainable model.

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In a certain sense, that claim is valid. How many RSS readers are available on the App Store? Ranging from free to several dollars in price, these kind of apps allow users to subscribe to liberal websites like The Huffington Post, or its right-wing counterparts. iSinglePayer’s creator pushes the Drudge Report app as an example of this alleged inconsistency.

To be honest I haven’t read what Apple publicizes as criteria for getting an app approved for the App Store. What’s clear for me though is the company’s consistent stance that they exercise control over the App Store to protect the users’ experience, to keep them from using apps that may severely affect the iPhone’s operation from a user-friendliness standpoint.

So what does that have to do with refusing an app on the grounds that it’s “politically charged”? Perhaps the availability of iSinglePayer on the app store may offend some of health care reform’s opponents, but how is that related to user-friendliness? There are also Bible apps officially available for the iPhone and iPod touch; using the same logic behind iSinglePayer’s disapproval, shouldn’t these be disallowed, on the grounds that they’re “politically charged” for atheists?

Again, the App Store is Apple’s creation, and they’re free to do what they want with it. But this whole issue (or “issue”, depending on how you look at it) is another situation that has left observers scratching their heads—and future iPhone developers wary of investing time and money into the App Store ecosystem. What do you think?

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Still, the necessity that gadgets create in our lives is still very significant. We use them to work, avoid boredom, socialize with others, collaborate, and a whole lot more—in ways that are constantly changing.

That’s why these essentials also change, based on our changing sentiments. My laptop used to be a frequent companion, letting me work practically anywhere with internet access. Eventually however, I grew tired of carrying a laptop around, with my preference slowly shifting to the portability of a netbook. The recent announcement of the Booklet 3G only whets my appetite more.

Some essentials remain constant, like my mobile. The necessity it creates and fulfills—communication—will probably never fundamentally change.

So what gadgets can’t you live without? What used to be crucial to your techie-oriented existence, and what new necessities are in your life? Feel free to hit the comments below.

Inspired by

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He is known for his brief speech supporting Net Neutrality, given way before many of his colleagues found out what the term even means:

See what Senator Kennedy did there? He was able to package a core value of the net culture—free access to information, any kind of information—into a cohesive whole, understandable by any reasonable person, regardless of how frequently they’re in front of the computer screen. Most importantly, he presented the open internet as important to the future of everyone in America, regardless of career or calling.

In his 40 years in the Senate, Mr. Kennedy built a reputation as the “elder statesman” who pushed progressive and liberal causes. But, aside from that, geeks everywhere should commemorate him as one of the first people in the establishment to realize the potential of the internet and welcome it warmly.

Rest in Peace, Senator Edward Kennedy.

Image Source: Flickr
Wikipedia Article: Ted Kennedy

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As stated in your article, Kevin Duerr is not “the leader of the team behind the high-profile Google Voice iPhone app.” His company, Riverturn, developed a Google Voice-related app for the iPhone called, VoiceCentral. The VoiceCentral app was accepted, then removed from the App Store. Can you please make this correction? Thanks.

The original post with corrections is below. Apologies to Kevin Duerr.

Apple-bashing seems to be en vogue nowadays. Both Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis and Kevin Duerr, leader of the team behind an iPhone app that was approved then removed from the App Store (VoiceCentral), have weighed in on Apple’s mobile app ecosystem. They somehow mix sense and snark into a cohesive whole.

Here’s Calacanis:

The Point: Add an “experimental mode” to the iPhone OS, and let us do whatever we want with our phones!

Next you’ve got Duerr, summarized into a five-point suggestion manifesto by Maclife.com:

1. Non-binding pre-approval
2. Complete overhaul of the approval process and team
3. Better communication
4. Appeals process
5. Fix the refunds Issue

The Point: Be more transparent and helpful to those who are investing time and money into your mobile platform, Apple!

Take note Apple! Both men love you, your Steve Jobs, and all your accomplishments. Calacanis has openly admitted spending tens of thousands dollars on Apple equipment, while Duerr was passionate enough to involve himself in iPhone OS app development.

Apple’s FCC Response Infuriates Google Voice App Developer

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