This Christmas I gave my niece a netbook^[1] and talked to her about how to care for it and online safety and stuff. What I forgot to mentioned was how to sit while using one. I’d completely forgotten about this post on GottaBeMobile about these 9 bad netbook postures. In fact, I think we were both doing that first one while chilling on the sofa and watching Animaniacs^[2]. I’m a bad example, just like always.

I wish this study came with 9 good postures for using netbooks, as it would be helpful to know.

Notes

1. Just as I did last year. I already told her this one had to last for two years… [↩]
2. did you know that all the episodes are on DVD now? I about died. [↩]

It’s Friday. Have a meta picture of me holding a laptop with a picture of me holding a laptop with a picture of me holding…

And no, Photoshop was not involved. Well, except for cropping.

I thought that when I left my job working for a fashion magazine behind I wouldn’t have to care about Fashion Week anymore. But given that tech companies seem to think that FW is a great time to introduce new gadgets to the world, I’m starting to fear that I’ll be covering events over at Bryant Park in the near future. The increasing partnership of fashion and mobile tech isn’t completely unwelcome, but I have little patience for the number of waify models lying around on couches wearing tons of makeup and holding netbooks like works of art. Yes, it’s pretty, but can I use it?

The idea of a netbook as an accessory to your busy or even not-so-busy life is a fine one. But the Samsung promo video I posted over on LAPTOP’s blog today has me truly mystified.

Brad Linder claims that it’s supposed to highlight the netbook’s all-day longevity. Could have fooled me. All it seems to highlight is that model’s ability to stretch her lanky body and possibly to warn young ladies from trusting that their boyfriends will pick them up at the train station as promised. Seriously, go look (and please comment there, I am eager to watch you all apply your creative minds to the plot and message).

When I compare that video to this one Nokia did for their new netbook, I find myself much more drawn to the Booklet 3G. This video tells me what this device is, what it does, what makes it special, and even includes some heart-tugging music that somehow makes me want it even more.

But if we must have models, here’s what I’d like to see: women actually using netbooks in some way that shows off what netbooks are good for while providing the eye candy that someone is convinced consumers need. That way it appeals to those of us to buy tech for what it does and those of us who buy anything because hot women are peddling it.

I was reading this piece at the Financial Times (registration might be required) about the Microsoft/Yahoo alliance. Toward the bottom the Yahoo folks explained how turning their search technology over to Microsoft would yield benefits for both companies:

For example, a search for Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez might return the standard Microsoft results but also up-to-date batting statistics from Yahoo’s leading sports site and tabloid stories from Yahoo News partners.

Personally, I would find this annoying. But then I think I do less random searching and far more targeted searching than the people this kind of thing is aimed for. I’m less likely to search for a celebrity because I want to see what’s up with them lately, I usually hunt for specific information. So if my search for George Clooney turns up a whole bunch of random stuff — the latest tabloid headline about him, reviews of his newest movie, and stats for how many women he’s slept with — I’m going to be annoyed at that search page.

This is why I think Google dominates more than anything else. Yes, the adwords ads and paid search results can be annoying (and also hilarious), but otherwise the search pages are just results, which is what I want. I don’t want a web of inter-related information.

I wonder if I’m alone?

Comparing the Google approach to the one Yahoo will offer, which do you prefer? Is one more helpful in your everyday searching than the other?

I was just obsessively checking my stats (I do this often) and saw one of my incoming links was from a surveymonkey survey.  Clicking the link, I came to a U of Florida master’s student survey on how blogs impact brands.  The brand in question?  Samsung laptops.  At one point, the survey links to this blog and asks participants to look through it.  Then participants choose answers that reveal whether what they read here impacted how they felt about Samsung laptops.

Huh.

I don’t know why I find this weird. Perhaps because this blog is not that well trafficked and doesn’t have that much to say.  Still, I guess it’s a compliment? Not sure.

Take the survey yourself.  You’re biased, yes. But it still might be fun.

Okay, not exactly new skillz. I’m just proud of myself because last night I figured out how to add a sidebar to WordPress that only shows up on static pages. I’ve been trying to get that to work for weeks. (And now I have to go back and implement it on the resume page.)

I also updated my design portfolio with the site I implemented the sidebar on: raven.fluidartist.com. Some readers have already seen today — jewelry and such. I should have updated that site with WordPress a long time ago, but I was having trouble letting go of the design. I was actually quite proud of it – my first time implementing lists as header navigation using CSS.  True this was over two years ago now, but I’m still proud.  I could have used a bare-bones theme and made it look almost exactly like the site I designed, but I had to admit that it would look better with a new design that looked a bit more 2.0.

It may not escape your notice that my portfolio is not dynamic. I don’t see a reason to shove yet another wordpress install on my server for that — it’s just a couple of pages. Plus, I am proud of that design, too! Plus., I like that there’s some evidence of my roots in “old school” web design.  Remember when most pages were plain-old HTML? I even had a Blogger blog at one point that I had publishing to my own domain and a custom template. I had mad skillz back in the day.

And I still do.

Mine kinda does. Spent part of yesterday tweaking the template for that page so I could stuff a resume in there. I’m quite proud of it, as it required me to put all of the various PHP elements in one file so I could make the sidebar do what I wanted. I also had to clean up the resume CSS a bit, so now it’s much more streamlined and probably a lot easier to change around without having to touch the HTML.

Every time I build something new I learn something new. It’s one of the things I like about web design.

All the content isn’t there (most notably my recent job and my freelance stuff.  Not quite sure where to put that right now.) but the design is mostly set.  What do you think?  Have any suggestions for tweaks or changes?

Well, perhaps just one slice of the reason why.  From my friend Eugene:

I went to Best Buy to pick up [my girlfriend's] Valentine’s Day present …but realized en route that I had left the store pick-up notification in the printer at the office. After making a point of remembering it, of course.

I didn’t want to waste time going back to work for a piece of paper, so instead I pulled out my Eee PC at the 5th Ave subway station and managed to find a public Wi-Fi network–underground. I quickly retrieved the e-mail from Best Buy and walked into the store with it.

The guy at the counter was very helpful: “Anything for a Superman fan.”  And when Eugene was all squared away, he said: “Thank you for shopping at Best Buy. And for being a nerd.”

No one at Circuit City ever thanked me for being a nerd (or knowing more than they did about the stuff they sold).

The other amazing part of this story is that there is Wi-Fi underground somewhere and I do not know about it!

Even though this is my professional blog and I mention where I work and who I write for, you will not see much talking about work.  That’s because I’m not dumb and have seen many a person lose their job for being far to cavalier about what they put in public places online.  Tech stuff is my thing, and I’ll certainly mention that which excites me about my work, or things I read, or some new toy I got to play with (if I am allowed).  But I won’t talk about my co-workers or workplace or ignite drama or anything that would jeopardize my truly awesome situation.  Just so ya know.