Now  prerequisites for a website to make our list were primarily two: -

1. It had to be either useful or about something that is ridiculous enough to make someone laugh(you know the maniacal laughter that comes with in(s)anity…), no matter what, and
2. It had to meet a certain standard, one that we’ve set ourselves. (You’ll understand as you see our list.)

A lot of them haven’t made the list, for them better luck next time! Anyway, to begin with, in the spirit of Web 2.0, Youtube.
Youtube very appropriately meets both conditions in point one of our requisites.

What Web 2.0 discussion does not mention Youtube? And as far as internet humour is concerned, Youtube videos have pioneered the art of making people laugh. Though other videos are available too, if you need a good, hearty laugh, heading out to Youtube is a solid idea.

I was surprised, almost shocked to hear that some of my friends haven’t heard of Youtube. I mean come on, one might not be a geek, but we don’t live under rocks do we? (I moved out last week…)
If you have a phone, it’d have an Youtube application, if you watch movies or TV, they often mention Youtube.

What we’re emphasizing is that given you have the time on hand, Youtube is a good place to spend some time, even if it’s just for entertainment.

Oh and by the way, Youtube is a website where people can host videos and share them with the world, just so you know.

As an example (volume needed) here’s a take on the evolution of Dance .. 

To most people it might seem like it’s an updated version or something of the World Wide Web, and you know what, most people would be right

There wasn’t any technical update or such, and neither did the entire process happen overnight.
Tthe term in fact refers to the cumulative changes that the web went through, especially in 2004. So much so, that web 2.0 supposedly exists since 2004.

To a non-geek  the term can be explained as such: -
Think of all that has happened to the web in the recent times, all the progress that the web has made, (If you have a good memory, think of all things post 2004) and you’ll begin to get an idea about what we’re talking about. (We’ll be talking examples shortly.)

Tim O’Reilly is called the father of Web 2.0.
The father of the Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee didn’t think all was rosy when this term came along. He called it jargon and said he had all this planned out anyway as far as the web was concerned. Uh-huh

If you haven’t a decent idea about what we’re talking about, the following examples should help you,

a)      Web Apps : Applications that can be run using a web browser. For example Google Docs, Google calendar etc. Web Apps were not as common as they are now, before 2004.

b)      Video Hosting and Sharing sites: Heard of Youtube? Well, who hasn’t?! That’s Web 2.0 for you.

c)       Wikis: If you haven’t heard of Youtube, you still might know what Wikipedia is. If you don’t look up ‘Wikipedia’ on Wikipedia.org. Wikis are interlinked pages that anyone, even you and me, can edit.

d)      Blogs: You’re reading one, need I say more?

To follow up, just so you know, there’s a Web 3.0 as well.
Web 3.0 focuses on the semantics (meaning) of all content on the web. This makes the web ’smarter’ and makes it easier for it to understand what a person on the internet needs exactly – more intuative, if you like.
Also personalization is possible now, something that Google has already pioneered with My Google and personalized web searches.

For next week, I’m thinking about doing a take on piracy
Do watch this space!

For this we have a solution. And guess what? It’s a gadget. You never would have guessed that, would you now? This one’s called Game Dr. Game Timer. Hook it up with any device of your choice and the device switches itself off after exactly the amount of time you specify.

It’s totally safe and kid-proof, a locking mechanism ensures your kids don’t tamper with it!

Buy this for about £15.00 on Thinkgeek.

Link? Here. http://www.thinkgeek.com/geek-kids/1-3-years/c31f/

I like the caption the Thinkgeek page has.
It goes like, “When you want your kids to build character, not characters”. Relevant, no? 

Be safe xx

The NES is a gaming console of the 1980’s and for geeks who aren’t  teenagers, the word NES brings back fond memories. If you’ve spent time on the NES you’d know what I mean! Times have changed, but thoughts of playing vintage video games on a NES brings tears to one’s eyes. (At least to an emotional geek like me… *sniffle*)

It’s very hard to find a NES emulator let alone a NES today. If you’ve searched and been disappointed, don’t fret you’re one of many, many people. But we’ve done it, yes, found an emulator for the NES! And to think it was on Thinkgeek!

Costs about £30.00 and comes included with a wireless light pen and batteries and cables! Wicked.

Here’s the link.

If I was supposed to talk about COD 6, I could ramble on for hours, but that’s not what we do here. (At least, not yet!)
Infinity Ward released a special edition of COD 6 called the Prestige Edition, one that comes included with a cool pair of working Night Vision Goggles! So you see where we’re going with this now?

For a (considerable) price you can buy the prestige edition and own a pair of brand new Night Vision Goggles.

There’s a small hitch though. Because the number of prestige editions released was quite limited and it has been a few months since COD 6 came out, you might have some difficulty laying your hands on one of these. And what does a geek do when she wants something? One word. Ebay!

Here’s an active link.
Otherwise search for modern warfare goggles on ebay. Bound to be something always!

Remember Gordon Freeman, the physicist from MIT?
Of course you do.
Remember in the game how he’s attacked by headcrabs?
Er..almost every two minutes? Yeah so the point here is, that on shelling out a small amount of cash, you get to own these headcrabs too!
And no they aren’t real…(What were you thinking?! You don’t have guns and stuff to kill them, do you now?) These are in fact replicas, which you can wear about as hats.
How cool is that?
Just think of how much fun you’ll have scaring your geek friends. And they’re nice and comfy to wear too.(We think)

Unlike headcrabs which’re said to add little ‘buddies’ to your head, there’s no such scare with a head crab hat, so you’re perfectly safe !
Go ahead and order yourself one of these from Amazon for about £13.00.
Come on!
You know you want to!

My work here today is done.

I’m going to be beginning things here in a very conventional manner, by  defining Open Source.
Generically speaking, open source is anything for  which the source code is made available free of cost to whoever might want to access it. Applied to say for example a brewery, the concept of open  source would be like the recipe of the most popular drink it makes.

For now, we’ll be talking about open source software exclusively. There are quite a few benefits to using open source.
For example: -

1. A large community, in other words a massive fan following. People get to  meet each other in forums, talk stuff out and discuss various issues (technical issues, to be more precise). Good open source software usually has the  backing of much more than just a few people.
2. Open source provides a golden opportunity to developers to interact with other developers. They can easily seek help on issues regarding the software in question, a pool of experts if you like, at one place.
3. It’s free. Once you provide the source code, there’s hardly anything left to ask to be paid for. Free software is downloaded everyday by millions of  people around the world. Generally very good substitutes to paid software. For example, Firefox, open source, is the 2nd most widely used browser today.

But then come to think of it, why doesn’t everybody go for open source software? Let’s have a look at a few potential cons.

• Could be unreliable. Could cause crashes and stuff that you might not want to happen to your computer.
• Lack of proper support. You’re dependent on the open  source community for support, you might not get the help you need.
• Nobody’s answerable. Who do you think you could hols responsible for free software.
• Compatibility issues. How many games do you think are Linux  compatible?

To summarize, even though open source can have a few  disadvantages, there’s hardly any harm in trying it out.
A major reason being  that it’s free, if you have trouble you can always switch to a paid alternative, if not well and good.
Open source also helps you get acclimatised to whatever it is that you’re trying to do and is a very good place to start learning  something new.

What kind of movies does a geek like me watch?
Let’s see,

- Star Wars,
- Star Trek (pretty much everything with a star in its name, well maybe not Stardust ),
- Back to the Future,
- The Lord of the Rings,

just to name a few.
Since we have just the one post left for the week, (tomorrow’s Opinion Day, yay! (Hey! That rhymes…)) I’ve got to choose one and after a draw of lots, I’ve decided on The Lord of the Rings.(Nah, I’m just a big fan of Tolkien)

The first thing that comes to mind when we talk about Lord of the Rings  memorabilia are .. rings… but hell, everyone has covered off that!

So, what’s next – swords (Yippee! , and if you think I’m high today because of so many exclamations, you’re wrong).

True, whatever we’ve done this week so far just looks like stuff in movies, but hell, these swords are real. ( Be  careful with them..we refuse to take any responsibility for whatever you  might do with these)

These swords are built from stainless steel and come with a corrosion resistance warranty. Available are longswords like Isildur’s Narsil, and Aragorn’s Anduril(something technically not possible, both being the same), and daggers like Sam’s or Frodo’s Sting.

A tad expensive at about £ 170 for the sword, these are available from Entertainment Earth. Link? Here

Well, we’ve been focusing on gadgets from movies for the past couple days,  (something that you’d have noticed, we’re sure…) and we came upon this.
And the fact that we’re as geeky as it gets and no reference to movies is complete without a tribute to the Star Wars movies, is something that make this all the more mandatory to put up… (Like we need to justify ourselves.. )

Here’s the deal. Simply put, a trash can in the form of…R2D2! (An incredible way to geekify trash no?) Comes in two models, office size and desktop. The  office size is a lifelike replica of R2D2. You press R2’s foot and his dome opens up. A removable interior can with handle makes trash removal easy.

A word of caution though, this looks so cool, you just might find yourself generating extra trash to put in it. Not necessarily a very good thing…

This is priced at about £ 24 – £ 40 and is available from cutie gadgets.

Here, the link is. 
(Can hardly resist that whenever a reference to Star Wars is made! )

A fitting tribute to vintage horror movies, this pair of a shower curtain and a bath mat should really appeal to you. Especially if you’ve seen slasher  movies with shower scenes (what comes to mind almost immediately is Hitchcock’s Psycho).

The curtain has blood stains that looks like somebody’s dragged their bloody (literally) hand across it. The bath mat too has its own share of impressive looking blood stains. (Look at the picture, could be a tad disturbing, not for the faint of heart!) For people who’re into technicalities, the curtain’s made of 100% polyester and the bath mat from acrylic fibres. Also included are a set of shower curtain hooks.

Think of the possibilities, this could be a decent accessory for a practical joke or even a fun gift. For example a friend comes to stay over and goes to take a shower, this could really spook him/her out!

What if he doesn’t say anything? That would be a bit more than a little  scary….

This is priced at about £12.00 and is available from Thinkgeek.com.