Bloggasm

Many tech geeks would like to pride themselves on being liberal environmentalists, but with a recent Energy Saving Trust’s report, studies show that the use of consumer electronics will actually double within the next couple of years. With this new surge of electronics, a surge in energy will be soon to follow. So the popularity of gadgets might contribute to global warming:

Fear of the catastrophic consequences of global warming is finally prompting Britons to start changing their lifestyles, a survey said on Monday.

It is not before time, said the Energy Saving Trust’s report “The Rise of the Machines” which predicts that energy used by consumer electronics will double in the next four years.

What people really want to know is the environmental properties of the array of gadgets they are buying so they can make the most appropriate decisions, said the EST, an independent, non-profit organisation.

So if tech geeks are going to continue to be environmentally aware, they should start putting pressure on the tech companies to create more energy-efficient gadgets.

For instance, in the linked article:

The report said large plasma television screens consumed up to four times as much power as normal cathode ray tubes.

Hopefully, gadget blogs will start paying attention to this issue and will highlight energy-efficiency when talking about specific gadgets.

Related blogs: Interview with Video Game Media Watch, Interview with PSP Hacks, Plant seeds being stored in bomb shelter in case of nuclear holocaust

Well, I don’t have a pool, but if I did, the first thing I’d buy is a remote control drink caddy:

Features: It holds up to five drinks with a snack dish in the center. The dish can also be used to hold a cell phone, suntan lotion, or sunglasses.

How It Works: Operates via a remote control that works up to 100 feet away. The caddy moves at a speed of 3 mph. The remote uses a 9-volt battery and the caddy uses 4 D-batteries, which aren’t included.

Related interviews: Liewcf, The Gadget Blog, PSP Hacks

LiewCF.com is a personal tech site on latest technology, gadgets, softwares, computing tips and tricks, product reviews and some interesting stuffs. The author, Liew Cheon Fong, is a full time blogger, one of the first few Malaysians who blog for a living.

Simon Owens: Do you get a lot of feedback from your readers in regards to technology news? How active is your readership in communicating through your comments section?

Liew Cheon Fong: Generally, my readers are reading my blog for tech news but they will take part in discussion for some interesting topics. Basically, I get less than 10 comments for each post.

Simon Owens: What are some of your main sources for the latest gadget and technology news? Do receive a lot of press releases and tips from techology companies?

Liew Cheon Fong: News feeds. I subscribe to a lot of website feeds as my news sources. I seldom receive press releases from technology companies.

Simon Owens: Would you say that your blog is mainly geared towards a tech-geek audience or do you have a lot of readers from a more mainstream audience?

Liew Cheon Fong: My target readers are general computer users, not tech geek. The initial purpose of the blog is telling some interesting tech news and some useful computing tips to computer home users. That’s why I usually write blog posts in simple language and complete with screenshots.

Simon Owens: I’ve noticed you’re part of the Gadget Blog Network. How did you become part of that network and do you find that it’s good at directing advertisers towards your site?

Liew Cheon Fong: I was invited by the BlogAds’ Gadget Blog Network founder, methodshop because I am one of the gadget blog in BlogAds. Joining the network has increased the BlogAds sales on my blog.

Simon Owens: I’ve noticed that your blog partly focuses on making money through blogging. How successful have you been at this and which niches do you think are the most profitable?

Liew Cheon Fong: I am now a full time blogger (a.k.a problogger). All of my income is generated from my blog. In my opinion, tech related niches are still the most profitable but the competition is very high. You need to do some research for low competition tech niches.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs everyone should be reading (besides your own)?

Liew Cheon Fong: It is difficult to suggest a blog for everyone. Personally, I recommend the following blogs:
- http://www.performancing.com/
- http://www.problogger.net/
- http://www.lifehacker.com/
- http://adsense.blogspot.com/
- http://www.engadget.com

Colbert Low: My name is Colbert Low

I am the first Malaysian blogger to join an international blog network at Weblog Empire and we are now part of b5media as of 31 Oct 2005.

I am the editor for The Gadget Blog and I do reviews on cool new gadgets and related stuff. I also guest blog at Realtechnews.com and ohGizmo.com when I have the time.

The b5media.com Blogging Network that my Gadget Blog is a part of, was founded by the 3 greatest blogger right now. And we are growing like MAD….With over 150 blogs now!

Duncan Riley
Darren Rowse
Jeremy Wright

We’ve even been featured by big gadget websites like Realtechnews.com, Gizmodo.com, OhGizmo.com, theGadgetizer.com, Treehugger.net and Engadget.com, etc since June 2005.

Simon Owens: Whenever companies are working on new forms of technological gadgets, how much time do you think they focus on the look and style of an object compared to the technological aspects of it? Have you ever purchased a cell-phone or other technological device almost soley based on its look?

Colbert Low: Look and style does play an important factor. I guess they probably come out with it first and only then add in the functions. They probably spend the same amount of time designing it and adding features to it.

Simon Owens: As a gadget blog do you get a lot of press releases from technology companies? What do you think of blogs that simply print press releases without original content?

Colbert Low: I do get swarms of emails from PR agencies and newsletters every week. I try to sort them out every Friday as I do have a full time job as a Linux System Engineer too. I guess it’s important to add some comments to those press releases as some of them are quite bland and blogs are supposed to be more human-like and not regurgitate out the same old press release. If blogs do that, then we are moving backwards to the dinosaur age of text browsers.

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Kyle Orland got his start writing about video games when he started Super Mario Bros. HQ, a fansite devoted to the famous Nintendo mascot, in 1997. Since then he’s written as a freelancer for publications including Electronic Gaming Monthly, GameSpot, Next Generation, GameCritics and more. His blog, Video Game Media Watch, takes a highly opinionated look at the way video games are covered in the specialist and mass media.

Simon Owens: There’s been some somewhat recent lawsuits against video-game makers about video games promoting violence amongst teens. My best guess is that you wouldn’t agree with these accusations (if I’m wrong, please correct me), but do you think there will ever be a real conservative backlash against violent video games?

Kyle Orland: Well, I don’t know about a conservative backlash — Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman are among those out in front on this one. Every art form goes though these kinds of growing pains when they’re new, when the older generation in power is scared and confused by the younger generation’s unfamiliar new hobby. As time passes, the older generation will die out and the generation that grew up with games will realize that games didn’t cause them to become a generation of anti-social murderers and everyone will calm down. The key is to not let the older generation set the medium back with restrictions in the mean time.

Simon Owens: As video games become more technologically advanced, we’re seeing a division of players. On the one side we see the frat-boy types floating towards first-person shooter and sports games, while the more nerdy of video game players drifting towards role-playing or strategy games. Are there are a lot of games that bridge the gap between these two and offer both a lot of action and a lot of strategy at the same time?

Kyle Orland: This is a little simplistic division, but in general there are many splits in game preference. Western vs. Eastern. Hardcore vs. Casual. Console vs. PC. The best games can bridge the gaps between these groups, but they are few and far between. Tetris is probably the most universal, historically, but games like The Sims, the Mario and Zelda series, and even simple Windows games like Solitaire and Minesweeper all have incredibly wide reach. People who play these games might not consider themselves “gamers,” but they are. We need more games like this that expand the somewhat narrow definition of what video gaming is.

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I recently got a chance to sit down (figuratively, it was an email interview) with PSP Hacks and discuss the dangerous world of hacking.

Simon Owens: How has Sony reacted to the concept of PSP hacks? Is this something they generally encourage?

PSP Hacks: I don’t believe Sony encourages people to hack their device however, I think when Sony issues a firmware update this will encourage the hackers to circumvent the latest security attempts made by Sony.

Simon Owens: How would you summarize your blog’s audience? Are they mostly tech geeks or do you get a lot of hard-core gamers who aren’t necessarily schooled on the tech side of PSPs?

PSP Hacks: I think it’s a combination of both. People who are interested in hacking their unit for the first time and have no clue – there are ‘newbies’ visiting on a daily basis, and then there are the technical ones who just want to see what’s new in the community and have a general understanding on how to accomplish the basics.

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I found this to be pretty cool: The Top 10 weirdest keyboards ever:

Keyboards come in many shapes – from the simplest computer grey $9.99 standard 102-key keyboard to variants that seem to come straight out of a Star Trek episode. Here’s our Top 10 list of the weirdest keyboards ever.

My favorite is the Virtual Laser Keyboard.