Best of The Geek Whisperer (3 Year Blogiversary)
I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for three years (999 posts)! To celebrate, I skimmed through my archive for the first time in three years, and it brought back a lot of memories.
Join me on a brief and mildly narcissistic trip through some of my favorite blogging memories:
- Arguably my best post, at least from an academic perspective is Wonder Woman: The Super Secret & Kinky Origin of a Feminist Icon. Derived from a portion my undergraduate thesis, this post has been cited in a few academic papers, and according to my web analytics has been frequently referenced on some BDSM discussion boards. I am after-all here to educate and entertain.
- My most popular single day post dates back to April Fool’s Day 2010. I collaborated with a mystery designer to introduce the world to the iProbe; it’s still my favorite post.
- In one of TGW’s stranger episodes, guitar legend Peter Frampton stopped by to comment on a post after I berated him for a very disrespectful performance at The Stone Pony.
- When I first started The Geek Whisperer, I wanted to define the difference between geeks & nerds… But I found the task painfully difficult and subsequently spent two and a half years pondering the question before I wrote Geek vs. Nerd vs. Dork.
- And last but not least, I was (and still am) cited in a Wikipedia article on Firefly/ Serenity; my favorite scifi universe.
Never forget to practice safe computing.
Evolving as a Blogger
I’m staring down the barrel of my 1000th post (this is 997), and the three-year blogiversary of The Geek Whisperer (10/4/11), and I’ve been feeling creatively paralyzed. Hitting one thousand posts within three years while earning a masters degree; maintaining full-time employment; starting a business; and having a fulfilling social life is a serious source of pride. I started blogging simply to understand it for professional reasons, and unintentionally found myself on a very geeky journey of self-discovery.
When I started The Geek Whisperer someone close to me asked, “How are you possibly going to have enough to say to make this last more than a few weeks?” The truth is that even if I wrote all day, every day I’m not sure I’d ever run out of cool things to talk about; we live in very interesting times. This blog is about sharing my passions and interests, and I’ve never had a shortage of either. This is both a blessing and a curse.
It’s wonderful because I can’t remember the last time I was bored.
It’s painful because I will never learn all that I want to learn, or accomplish everything that I hope to accomplish.
What’s a geek to do?
The simple answer is evolve. I will not abandon this blog. I love writing it far too much to stop. Even if everyone stopped reading, I’d still keep writing.
The bigger question is how will I evolve?
I’ve got a lot of things in the works that I’m incredibly excited about, and will reveal over time. To pursue those passions, I need to post less. However my intent is to post high quality content when I do. The short, “check this out” posts that filled the gaps between substantial thought are going away because people don’t seem to read them very often.
Thank you for reading
As I’ve said many times before, I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read.
Thank you for sharing my links; buying from the Shop; commenting; and taking the time out of your day to read. I know there are a lot of other great websites out there and I’m thankful for every person who feels that mine is worth their time.
Thank you for your continued support. Here’s to the next three years.
Introducing The Geek Whisperer Shop
Howdy,
I love writing this blog, and from what I can tell a fair amount of folks enjoy reading it.
Keeping the blog going, costs some cash, and a ton of time. I’ve been looking for ways to offset those costs, and give people a useful way to support my efforts.
I don’t want to advertise because it harms from the blog’s design, and reader-experience.
My solution is a store.
Why a Store?
Anyone who has read TGW for a while knows that I often recommend music, gadgets, movies and games.
I only review products after spending a considerable amount of time with them.
The store is an extension of that mindset. If I give something a positive review, it will go in the store.
Pricing?
The Geek Whisperer Store is built in partnership with Amazon.com. When you buy from me, you are buying from Amazon, at Amazon prices. I then get a cut of the sale.
Let me repeat: When you buy from The Geek Whisperer Shop, you pay the same price that you would on Amazon.com.
Why Buy From Me?
This blog is a labor of love. I have published over 900 posts in less than three years. I spend hours every day researching, pondering, and writing to keep the blog going.
I write because I’m passionate about it. Even if I never make a dime, I will keep on doing it…
That being said, I wouldn’t mind making a bit of money.
When you buy from The Geek Whisperer Shop, you aren’t losing anything, but I will deeply appreciate your support.
A Work in Progress
The Geek Whisperer Shop is in beta at the moment.
I will continue to add products, and tweak it as time goes on. My hope is that it will become your go-to shop for finding the best laptops and gadgetry, as well as interesting books, movies and music.
I welcome your input on the experience, and product selection.
Where Can I Access This Shop?
You may find a link the top right corner of the page.
Or you can use the link at the bottom of this post.
I thank you for your continued support, and I hope you enjoy the shop.
David
The Geek Whisperer Shop
Must Use Social Applications
Recently I’ve been asked by many people who work in communications what social sites they should be using. I decided to put together a short list of must-use sites. The only way to truly understand any of these sites is to actually use them. If you don’t use them, you don’t understand them. End of story.
Love it or hate it, this is one of the places where the action is. If you are looking to interact with people online, this is a great place to do it. If you’re a professional communicator or a web professional, you need to understand Facebook, how it’s used and why it’s so damn popular.
It’s ugly, clunky and I find it annoying. That being said, professionally it’s fairly ubiquitous. If you are looking to network, or think you might be in the future, LinkedIn is the site to use. This is in large part because all of the professionals who aren’t on Facebook are on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is also useful for determining ways to meet people you don’t know but want to because it shows you how to network through your existing connections.
If you haven’t tried Twitter yet, you probably believe the stereotype that it’s just a ton of people announcing the mundane BS of their lives.
The truth about Twitter is that it is whatever you make it. There are many brilliant people who tweet very interesting things. It’s a great place to share ideas, learn new things, meet people from around the world, and pose questions to a large volume of people. It’s all about who you follow, and what you tweet. If you follow boring people, and tweet boring stuff then Twitter is going to be boring.
WordPress (Blogging)
If you have any passion for writing, blogging is a very fulfilling activity. The power to publish your ideas to the world is something that was impossible for all but the a small number of people for centuries.
If you write for a living, the ability to write about any topic of your choosing, in any style is especially liberating.
You don’t have to use WordPress, Tumblr and Blogger are suitable alternatives. That being said, I greatly prefer WordPress. The point is that there is a lot you can learn about yourself, through blogging. It also helps to understand the mentality of bloggers in general.
Wrap Up
There are plenty of other social sites that are worth using, these are the four must-use sites at the moment.
If you take anything away from this, it should be:
If you don’t actually use these social sites on a regular basis for a prolonged period of time, you do not understand them. It doesn’t matter how many articles you’ve read on social media, if you don’t live it, you don’t get it.
If You’re Not Using RSS, You’re Using the Internet Wrong
Any regularly updated website that is worth its bandwidth has an RSS feed.
What is RSS?
An RSS feed is a stream of page headlines and either a description of the content contained within, or the full page content. It basically makes strips out the design of a website, and delivers the content in an easily organized fashion.
The RSS logo typically looks something like this:
What do you do with an RSS feed?
If you follow multiple websites, RSS lets you do it quickly, and easily without much fuss.
All you have to do is pick an RSS reader such as:
- FeedDemon (Software)
- Simple RSS Reader (Firefox Extension)
- Google Reader (In browser)
They come in a lot of different flavors, the trick is finding one that meets your needs. I like Google Reader because I can access it from any computer, and my mobile phone.
Once you’ve selected a reader, all you have to do it populate it with the RSS feeds of the websites that you follow.
Why use RSS?
I’m a glutton for knowledge. On any given day, I skim a ton of web content. I could never take in the volume of information that I do without using RSS.
RSS is great because you can skip a day but the content is still saved. It’s there when you want to read it.
It allows me to keep up on technology, politics, blogs, deals, and many other topics. Without it the Internet would much less useful.
Risks?
There aren’t any inherent risks other than information overload. If you follow too many websites, your RSS reader can become a bit of a burden, or even useless.
Be picky, and only include websites that really matter to you.
If things get out of hand, just “mark all as read.”
Shout-out
A thank you to my friend and fellow blogger Hollie at Rascal Design. Her post on blogs (which included a very nice TGW shout-out) inadvertently reminded me that I hadn’t written a post on the virtues of RSS.
Bloggers Bill of Rights
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is constantly fighting court battles to maintain and expand our freedoms on the Internet. They compiled a list of rights for bloggers that are based on established legal precedent.
- Bloggers can be journalists (and journalists can be bloggers).
- Bloggers are entitled to free speech.
- Bloggers have the right to political speech.
- Bloggers have the right to stay anonymous.
- Bloggers have freedom from liability for hosting speech the same way other web hosts do.
They further explain each right, as well as provide the precedents that establish them in the Bloggers’ Rights.
Uppity About Language?
I love writing.
That being said, I have never felt particularly comfortable with the idea that English must be written in accordance with strict rules.
English changes. The rules that were, are no longer the rules that are. If you don’t believe me, here’s a reading list:
- Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
- Anything by Shakespeare
- Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer
They are all written in English, yet they are astonishingly different in style, syntax, and verbiage.
Language evolves.
The idea that a sentence can never end in a preposition is preposterous and pretentious.
Write. Express your thoughts. Make your points clear. Have fun. Screw the rules.
If you don’t believe me, listen to Stephen Fry.
(Nerdist)
