I actually interviewed her months ago, but the questions and answers got lost between our inboxes. I hope you enjoy the interview below:

Social media is overwhelming these days. Which sites do you check most?

It is so unoriginal but Facebook, Twitter, and my Google Reader.

For so long, I tried to get you on Twitter, and recently, you gave in. How do you like it? Do you find it useful, or is it spammy?

A little of both. I go through really cyclical addictions with Twitter. I really enjoy the conversation but sometimes I feel so much pressure to follow people for political reasons and then I get overwhelmed when they are overly prolific and then I feel so much pressure to be interesting AND prolific.

It can be stressful. So I try to be casual. The way I feel about Twitter changes everyday. What can you do?

Being on a daily video on the Internet, you are likely to have more viewers than a daily TV show. Plus people can go back in time and watch all your episodes. Are you ever nervous in front of the camera?

No. I never get nervous. I guess I am missing that gene. Probably not a good thing actually.

Video: ‘Angels and Demons’ digs into science, religion conflict

Working in new media is a lot of fun, but what is your favorite part?

I just like being on the verge of a new medium. It is scary and sometimes I feel like I stand in between broadcast TV news and broadcast online news and I wonder if I’ll fall through the cracks because I straddle the mediums but I try not to think like that.

You can tell from my recent blog post that I get overwhelmed if I think too macro about it all but I really want to be the pioneer of this transition. Read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. You’ll understand why we have to take advantage of such an important time!!

Besides Loaded, what else do you do at CNET?

Buzz Out Loud of course! And occasionally the 404.

How do you come up with the stories on Loaded?

I am a super Web crawler!

You guys get up pretty early to make Loaded. I hope they let you out early in the afternoon.

Ha!

You are native to the bay area, but now reside in the big apple. What do you love about New York, and what do you hate about it?

Oh well that is the subject of an ENTIRELY different interview. I like to think of myself of bicoastal but I’m really not.

I have only just adjusted to New York in the last few months and really come to terms with the fact that I live here. Lets not jinx it by talking about it too much!

Thankfully I’m going “home” to San Francisco on Saturday so I’ll get my fix. Someone emailed me a photo of the sunset from their backyard in Cow Hollow last night and I nearly broke into tears!

What is your favorite part about working for CBS Interactive?

Working for the same network that produces 60 Minutes. Even though I have nothing to do with the show, it still feels like I’m playing in the big leagues. I walk by Andy Rooney’s office at least once a week and think, “So darn cool!”

Follow Natali on Twitter or check out her blog (I coded it).

MC Lars. Photo by Andrzej Liguz.

Congratulations, you sexy geek!!!!

I like to kill time at the SFMOMA store from time to time. Mostly I browse the art books and look at interesting gadgets nobody should really own but look really damn cool, but on this last visit I checked out music videos and plastic cameras. They had Cyanish colored Diana F+ cameras and Holgas. I caved and bought a Diana.

The unboxing was awesome. They put a lot of thought and care into their packaging. It is fun and inspiring. I wanted to start shooting right away, but I didn’t know what kind of film to buy or where to buy it.

You see, I’m one of those unfortunate people that doesn’t read instructions until I’ve failed miserably. I like to bang away at things and figure them out by mashing buttons and trying different things. If something takes instructions to figure out, I usually think it isn’t worth using because the designers couldn’t make it consumer friendly enough.

I headed to Walgreens and bought some film, but it was the wrong kind of film unless you modified the camera for it to fit. I don’t have a film background with either motion pictures or still photography. My mother and father are photographers, but I never picked that up until the invention of digital photography. So, I know absolutely nothing about dark rooms, film and all of that stuff that most people my age know about. I had a Polaroid camera for many years, because I loved the instant gratification of a photo spitting out moments after taking it, but never a film camera of any sort.

My pal Morgan told me how to modify the camera to make my film fit and then told me what film I needed to buy. You see, I could have looked this all up online or read the instruction manual that came with the camera, but no, wandering around town and brute forcing was part of the fun. So, I jumped on Amazon and discovered that the Diana had a whole suite of add-ons. I picked up some ISO 400 film, a ring flash, another flash, a wide angle lens, a splitzer (allows you to cut up pictures over multiple exposures), and a cool bag to carry it all in.

My coworker James helped me load my first roll of film, because I didn’t know how to do that either, so I immediately began shooting.

After shooting, I noticed that I had no idea how far to turn the knob to advance to the next picture. Something I could have learned by paying attention to the 100’s of YouTube videos, the Diana site itself or reading the damn manual, but no, I had to be thick-headed and do it my way.

About halfway through the roll, I noticed that when I advanced the film there were little numbers and dots. The dots started out large and moved to smaller dots and then counted up to the next number. Ahah! Bells went off! That’s how you advance to the next photo.

I played with every knob and every setting and took photos all about town.

Well, only three out of 16 photos turned out and they did not turn out well. I mean, they are ok, but they were not what I intended at all.

So, I finally relented and sat down to read the manual and I learned so much. I watched dozens of YouTube videos, learned how to load my film properly and how to play with all of the settings appropriately. Maybe this is just how I learn and really retain information, but it sure is a painful way to do it. I took 12 photos this time and just turned in my roll of film today.

You know what is cool about all of this? The mystery of not knowing how your photos are going to turn out. There’s no instant gratification. It is a slow and patient process and the imperfections of the photos are all part of the magic. I’m really getting into this.

More after second roll is processed….

When I first met Dan, I immediately thought he was uber-cool. He was a DEFCON Goon (event coordinator/volunteer/tech operations) and that instantly filled me with envy. I’ve been going to DEFCON for 12 years and I’ve always secretly wanted to be a Goon. Among Dan’s many talents, he’s also an awesome photographer.

What finally threw me over the edge for a SGA nomination was Dan’s role in the YouTube Live event that took place November 22nd. I was in England and was having a down night, so I decided to cheer myself up by watching the show from my hotel room. I sent out a tweet that I was sad that I wasn’t there in person and got a response from Dan that made me realize he really is one of the coolest guys in the world. Dan was at the event, but not near the stage. Dan was in the network operations center keeping the network up for all of the live-streaming that people were doing and the event itself streaming to YouTube. I mean, the event was super cool and all, but what he was doing was bad ass and he was part of making that history. Dan made it all happen and for that, I crown him one of the Sexiest Geeks Alive.

1. What is your favorite gadget right now and why?

Picking just one favorite gadget is pretty hard. Being the geek I am I’ve amassed a variety of doo-dads and gizmos. Right now however it has to be my new Macbook Pro, because it goes with me everywhere and I have so much of my life both professional and personal on it. I love the new case style for the Macbook Pro and I find it gets a lot of comments from clients. More importantly, the new laptop is blazing fast and just feels rock solid.

2. Do you do any sort of life hacking? If so, what do you recommend to others as the most successful hack you’ve ever implemented that’s stuck and improved your life?

I do some life hacking, but it hasn’t really been something I’ve spent a lot of time on. Probably two of the things I find have helped me the most is to get my phone talking to my laptop for contacts and calendar dates and then synchronizing all of that with an online calendar. Apple’s iSync helps make this a lot easier then it once was and in conjunction with iSyncIt I can keep my phone synched at regular intervals. Then throw in a WebDAV link to an online calendar like Google’s and it really helps to keep my time managed and available to my associates.

3. How long have you been going to Defcon and what was your favorite year?

It’s amazing actually, but I’ve been going to Defcon since Defcon 8. The fact that Defcon has lasted this long through the hotel changes, all the growth, is really amazing. My favorite year was 2001, Defcon was at the Alexis Park that year and my friends and I wanted to do something fun, but non-destructive to the hotel. Our original idea had been to turn a spa into a giant jello mold but then we thought better of it and somehow ended up going with a plan to turn pool two into a giant lagoon. In the process of buying dry ice in Las Vegas I ended up buying three grocery stores out of all of their dry ice and then almost getting myself a Darwin Award for driving in a car full of dry ice with all the windows rolled up. A friend of ours noticed we were acting oddly over the Nextel and we realized what we had done.

4. What do you like about Defcon?

It draws a lot of people whose interests span the spectrum of possibilities and yet at the same time possess a very deep knowledge on the subjects that furl their passion. My friends would skewer me alive if I didn’t mention that the evening party scene at Defcon is a big draw also. It’s one of the few events I can go to and be assured that I will run into all matter of friends old and new, year after year. Plus there is always someone with some crazy gadget or custom-made gizmo that does something wickedly cool.

5. What do you geek out on? What sort of category of geek do you feel you fit into?

You could say that I am sort of a geek of all trades. I do a little bit of everything! Some things I get deeper into then others be it because of time, money, knowledge or access to parts. I tend to geek out on computer hardware, specifically building small form factor systems, as well as work on my photography skills. I’ve also got a passion for astronomy. I have a nice computer controlled 8” Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope that I am planning to work on building a mount for my Nikon DSLR to try my hand at night sky photography.

Other things I geek out on are data forensics, which usually involves messing around with hardware and software to find a needle in a haystack of data. Or finding the right piece of software to read some cryptic/old/never heard of file format. And when those get old I tinker on my FreeBSD server that runs my blog, forums, email, and other services. I install beta versions of OSes that I am curious about.  I mess around with Backtrack and VMware on my Macbook Pro with different USB wifi adapters keeping my skills up to date. I love reading science fiction novels. I try to mix it up and throw new things into the mix every now and again to keep it interesting.

6. You recently were involved in an event called YouTube live. Can you tell SGA readers a bit about the event from your perspective?

The company I work for as a technology & management consultant has a division called LocationConnect that does network & computer support services for the special events business. This could be anywhere from a one night event for the press, to supporting a movie shoot on location, or providing the entire network infrastructure for the pre-show setup for a concert. Every special event is different and requires a large amount of planning to make sure that they go off without a hitch because these kinds of functions only happen once, so everything has to work the first time.

In the case of the YouTube Live concert, I was working on the planning for it as early as September. I was in San Francisco the week of TechCrunch50 for a different event we were running in the Metreon and had to do some photo scouting of the location so we could finish writing up our proposal bid for the YouTube people. Typically events are in some kind of ballroom or meeting space with well know facilities but since Fort Mason was new to us we needed to know as much about it as possible. This information was critical because I had to design a network that would be fault tolerant, cover multiple buildings, and provide both wired and wireless networks to the production crew from the first day of pre-show setup to the last day of show teardown.

Because the event was going to be streamed live, network bandwidth, latency and uptime were critically important. Because of this, the YouTube event had multiple redundant WAN connections. Our biggest pipe was a 200mbps microwave link, followed by a 4 T1 multiplexed PPP link dedicated for the shows Flash video encoders, along with a 10mbps burstable landline link. On top of all of that, the show also had an onsite satellite uplink truck that was downlinked to Los Angeles where the company handling the streaming side of the show then connected to the Akamai CDN.

More importantly however was the network had to support the crew setting up the show, and this meant being onsite for full two weeks before the show was to start. We had to have pervasive wireless networking in all the buildings along with wired drops in strategic locations so the production company and various stage crews could get their work done each day. To give you an idea how much the production crew used the network, in the two weeks we had the network up and running there was just over half a terabyte of data transferred in total.

Probably one of the funniest parts of this particular job was a critical piece of fiber we had to string between two of the buildings at the Fort. Because of the sight lines for the microwave link there was only one building the 200mbps link could be situated on top of and that building had no copper or fiber infrastructure linking it back to any of the other buildings we would be in. The only problem was this building had a face along the marina and the other side couldn’t be used due to foot traffic and lack of a place to run a cable out of the way. So we waited for seasonal low tide and had people walking on rocks normally under a few feet of water on one end and another person with a weighted end of a rope trying to toss it to the person down on the rocks so we could pull this fiber to the end of the pier where it had to go. It was a bit tricky at points, but we got the fiber installed and its quite possibly one of the more interesting stories I’ll have now.

7. How do you think this event will change the landscape of user contributed content?

The fact that you had established performers from the music industry side by side with people whose primary claim to fame were their own channels popularity on YouTube is a significant event. I think it is at least the beginning of a validation for user driven content and community. But this movement is still has a long way to go to mature and blossom into a full-blown competitor to traditional media. Remember, traditional media considers a show with a 1 share to be a dismal failure whereas new media would gladly jump at the chance to have a million viewers so I think it will still be a while before new and old reach some kind of parity of audience.

8. You were one of the folks (if not *the* guy) responsible for getting the wifi/internet up and running at the event to support live-streaming from the audience as well as the event itself. What challenges did you face during the event? Did everything go as planned? What did it look like from the NOC? Did you see any of the performance live? How did you feel to have that much responsibility?

The biggest challenge for this event was figuring out how to distribute network resources between multiple buildings on a campus where the primary facilities were built in 1912 and 1934. We ended up needing to run some long fibers like the one that ran along the side of the marina and between some of the buildings and other building had been retrofitted with fiber between them luckily.

Bear in mind that our responsibility was for all of the onsite networking, the streaming servers and other streaming infrastructure & coding was handled by another company that was onsite with us. However, getting enough bandwidth to the Fort took a variety of delivery methods landline and microwave being the primary methods. We also had to babysit AT&T to an extreme degree to just get them to turn up 4 working T1 circuits, a process that took them almost a whole month to figure out. Near the end of that process I think we had something like 15 different contacts at AT&T working on the issue, it was truly nuts.

One thing I’ve learned through these special events we do is that whatever plan we come up with in the comfort of the office will get revised at least once if not a few more times depending on how much conditions at the facility have changed since when we scouted it out. That being said we had some issues with two of our contractors early on in the setup that we managed to work through and get things back on track. The YouTube Live concert itself went off without any problems that I was aware of from my position at the NOC.

Probably the one aspect of working on this that was a little frustrating is being the head of the NOC my position during the show really had to be glued to our various monitoring tools to make sure we caught any problems if they happened. So I was unable to see any of the actual concert itself live, but I was watching it via the various different streaming servers onsite and offsite, so I didn’t exactly miss anything per se beyond the physical excitement of being in the concert building. On the other hand, I was able to be in the concert building a few times when the musicians were warming up and working on hitting their marks so I think that made up for missing out on the concert itself in person.

The responsibility that comes with an event of this size I think is an order of magnitude smaller then the knots it puts in your stomach and brows it makes you furrow when contemplating planning out the details of said event. There were times when it felt good to have the responsibility and times when it felt more like a ball and chain around my ankle, but the important thing was to get through the event and make sure it would be a success for everyone involved. Events of this size only work when everyone is working as a team, otherwise its too much for one person to tackle. In the run-up to the event I was nervous because this would be the biggest and most complicated event we had ever done, so I was always playing out worst-case scenarios in my head.

9. What other events have you been responsible for on this scale? Defcon is one of the most hostile networks in the world – how did this compare?

Defcon really is on a level that is so hostile its practically artificial by comparison. Sure, your average server sitting on a DSL link or in a collocation facility will get scanned, probed and prodded, but its never the kind of intense level of hostile activity that you can see on the Defcon network. So where Defcon is an open network with all manner of users allowed on, the networks we build for our events are all managed and have multiple levels of controlled access so we can be certain of what users are using the network and where so we can pinpoint & isolate problems quickly when they pop up.

Other events that we do that are pretty big, but not quite the size of YouTube Live are the evening press/analyst shows at CES we do the networking support for. At those events you typically have a massive ballroom filled with 150 different companies or more showcasing new products or in some cases lab prototypes with over 1000 of the press core there. Those events tend to really stress the wireless spectrum for wifi devices and you quickly discover which companies have spent time torture testing their equipment.

10. How much downtime did you need afterward and how did you celebrate such a huge success?

After the drive back down from the show I needed almost a full day to recombobulate, rest, and catch up on mail, bills, the usual stuff. Well, okay, two whole days. As for celebrating the success of the show, I celebrated by finally getting a decent amount of sleep and catching up on TV shows I had missed while out of town. Not as exciting as one would want, but I was just beat by the end of it all.

I had an opportunity extended to me to make it to the afterparty with MC Hammer the night of the concert, but since teardown of the show started immediately after the concert was over by the time I had reached a stopping point on Saturday night I was just too tired to go out and party when I had to be back at the site at 8AM the next day.

11. What is your dream meal?

I think my dream meal would have to be to participate as a judge on the old Iron Chef show and the secret ingredient is some crazy ass thing I’ve never heard of. I still remember an old Iron Chef episode where the secret ingredient was live squid and the defending Iron Chef made squid ink ice cream for a dessert, it was crazy!

12. What is your favorite color?

British Racing Green

13. What are your top ten favorite websites you’d like to share with others?

Schlock Mercenary – http://www.schlockmercenary.com/
Digg –  http://www.digg.com/
MacRumors – http://www.macrumors.com/
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/
Kotaku – http://www.kotaku.com/
Tech Report – http://www.techreport.com/
PriceGrabber – http://www.pricegrabber.com/
CAIDA – http://www.caida.org/
PacketStorm – http://packetstormsecurity.net/
Bastard Operator From Hell – http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh/

14. Who is your favorite geek role model?

This is a hard one to answer. I’m really a huge fan of The Doctor from Doctor Who. I got turned on to the show by one of the A/V tech at my high school library and ever since then I’ve been nutters for the show. I have always liked The Doctor. He always seemed to have an answer at hand for any situation, no matter how ridiculous or out of place. A close runner up was Scotty from the original Star Trek show. The whole miracle worker pathos, save the day, and all that kind of stuff just resonates with me.

15. Who else is a sexy geek? Who do you nominate?

Hmm, if I had to nominate someone I could toss out a name of someone already famous, sexy, geeky, or all of the above but I think that would defeat the purpose really. I’ll give you three sexy geek nominations, all good friends of mine so I could be biased of course. First is Trina of GamingAngels.com, you can find her on Twitter at @gamingangel. She is a sweetheart! Then there is my friend Genevieve who is working on her PhD in computer science at USC. She’s been published in a paper or two already discussing various aspects of networks that I always found fascinating. You can find her papers at http://is.gd/aNWL . Last but not least is Jena who has a great blog over at http://iamanenigma.wordpress.com/ and is also @Scandalous on Twitter. Any one of them is worth spending the time to get to know!

16. What do you find sexy?

Curves, knowledge, and the willingness to learn and challenge old ideas. I’m a sucker for smart people who don’t go about flaunting it. People who are nice and have a big heart. People who can disagree with you and explain why cogently. All that and a woman who knows how to be sexy.

Summary – not direct quotes:

Reid: What are the challenges of being an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley?

Max: Silicon Valley is still the best place to start a company in the world. Biggest challenge? Most people start companies based on products that they like, but because they live in a bubble and aren’t faced with the reality of most of the world, these ideas often fail.

Jawed: If I had to pick a place, it would definitely be here. There’s so much activity in this area. Can be difficult to stand out in all that activity. The bar here is very high.

Scott: By far the best place to start a company.

Reid: Who thinks it is not a good place?

Scott: Core competition are the other entrepreneurs. You are not competing for capital, there’s plenty of that. What you are competing for – talent. Talent with engineers and your executive team. Only so many smart people we can cram into the Bay Area.

Reid: What are the top three things to being a successful entrepreneur here?

Jawed: Difficult to pick three things, but really one thing is the value of your personal networking. Nobody can be an expert in everything. Find experts that can help. The greatest thing about Silicon Valley, is that all these talented people are concentrated in one area. People from previous companies move together into new ventures.

Reid: One thing that ties us all together is PayPal.

Scott: Figure out quickly in your career what your own strengths and weaknesses are.  Put together that Tetris puzzle when putting together that initial founding team. Most of the companies we’ve started are not four engineers in a garage or four business guys in a garage, it is a design, engineer, business and marketing guy or gal.

Max: Consistent fashion sense. (Scott and Max are both wearing a Slide t-shirt) This was completely uncoordinated. You will never see me without a Slide shirt, but other than fashion sense of course, one of the things I’ve learned over the years is that being an entrepreneur isn’t about starting a company with a vision, it is about starting and running a company. Being able to be flexible with changing your plan allows you to be an entrepreneur and change your business strategy wildly. Sometimes you are heading north when you should be heading south. This is the single most important thing I’ve learned.

Scott: Max’s company PayPal was started as a Palm Pilot app and eventually became PayPal after several iterations.

Max: That’s nothing compared to what Slide has gone through so far.

Arizona skies still take the first prize in my book. Their skies are colored like amazing flavors of sorbet. Passion fruit, mango, strawberry, blackberry and clementines.  The Arizona sunsets always brought me a sigh of relief after a long hot day.  I imagine that this is why I’m a night owl.  My brain still instinctively is full throttle from 4-7pm.  I still long to look up at those fiery skies.  When you live in SF, you dream about days with no wind or fog, which is most of the year.  A windless day is like striking gold.  I never want to work on a day without wind – those are the days I want to take a blanket to the park and nap.  They are so rare.

So, up in the sky on my way to London while being enticed by candy colored clouds, I pondered the fate of the Sexiest Geeks Alive site.  Passing over wind farms I thought about what to do.  Truth be told, I have been too busy with my start-up to write here.  Like any great entrepreneur, I am filled with boundless optimism and naivety.  I imagined great things and I still do, but now I must pace myself.

This site brings me joy.  I want to highlight people who are rarely recognized and show the world just how sexy they are.  Sexy brains, sexy projects, physicially sexy and beyond.

One of the things I have discovered though is that momentum and effort are contagious.  If I don’t write, why should any of our other writers write?  I’ve set a poor example. So, time to get off my ass and “just do it” – even if it means writing a great flop.  I just need to f’ing write.

The problem with falling out of writing is that when you start again, you are discouraged.  My muse left me and I didn’t pick up a vice to get over her.  Well, maybe I did.  I just worked harder.

I do all of my best writing on planes.  I have a romantic relationship with them. Up in the air, I am trapped, alone and there are few interruptions.  I write some of my best work on my Blackberry.  I often think it would be funny to do Nanowrimo or write a book on one of these things. I type so fast with my two thumbs that people often stop to comment. As a matter of fact, this was written on my Blackberry.

Well, I can’t fly all of the time to increase my blogging, so what I need to do is carve out some creative time out of each day to write.  I’m not in this for page views, breaking 0 day news or anything like that, so I should just focus on writing and what I love.

I do ask one favor though:  Send me tips!  Let me know what you’d like me to write about.  If you have someone you’d like for me to profile or if you have a cool event you think I should cover, do let me know!

Mmmm, candy.

It doesn’t serve any purpose other than providing me pure joy. It is my portable party that fits in my purse and some of my pockets. The Rolly is an instant rave for a tea party. Just whip that thing out on a table and you can make anyone smile. Priceless.

Now I just need two of them. More on that later.

Check out the original article here:

http://www.veraverba.com/blog/2008/10/01/sean-hannitys-voice-mail/

But after a while I was noticing how more people are restructuring the way that they think because of the (formerly geek-only) tools developed to support a mobile lifestyle and global communications in real time. Yes, this is really obvious and not new. But what became obvious for me at the Inc conference is that we are starting to move away from early adopters and possibly even the early majority* of entrepreneurs building businesses on an alternative workforce and/or workschedule. As the once-small business on the Inc list become dominant in their respective fields, their workforces are starting to normalize The New Geography.

Yes, I’m a big big fan of the mobile life. I did my first serious telecommuting gig in 1997, working on a project in California while hanging out and scuba diving in the Phliippines for a few months. (Be glad you don’t generally have to work via dial-up anymore!) My first personal URL and one of my main forum usernames are about going wireless and being mobile. I was an early user of the experimental radio modems, reveling in being able to work without having to go to a specific location or cutting down on my time outdoors. I was a beta tester of online banking. My passport is always at the ready. I have been waiting for this world where flexible schedules, itinerant behavior and global employment is a norm, and I have been wanting it to extend far outside of our circle of tech-mad Bay Area geeks.

I, like many of those who are helping to shape today’s business landscape, believe that enabling people to redefine their schedules and work settings is a key to achieving that balance between what you give to others and what gives back to you. (Note: I stay away from the thinking of “work/life balance,” because, really, it’s all life). I also do adore that businesses are extending service economy and “thought worker” jobs to other regions, some of which are in other countries and some are in non-urban centers of the U.S. Additionally, I find it endlessly cool that you can link up partners who have similar goals and similar modes of thought no matter where they’re physically located.

Having workers who participate in defining how and where they spend their time will help get us away from the culturally accepted practice of feeling that work is a drudgery, itself a key to transforming our culture into one of happy people.

And that is something I’m willing to work for.

1. We’re sexy and we’re bringing it back

2. We want to interview and celebrate sexy geeks and entrepreneurs who attend TC50. It is a conference FULL of hot hotties

3. We love TechCrunch

4. We will wear *all* green.

5. Everywhere we go, we bring fun and excitement. Seriously, we’re better than a 3 ring circus

6. We write, photograph, sing, hula hoop, hula dance and have kick ass photography. We will contribute stuff and things that PWNs.

7. We already have one ticket and a one person one ring circus just isn’t as fun. You need two to have a party

8. We have gummy bears in our pockets and we *will* share them

9. If we don’t win, we will kill^H^H^H^H suffocate you .. with hugs

10. NINJAS!! We show you them.

I’m talking about a G rated nap.

Love hotels would be cool and all, but that’s another need for another time. I just want a stinking nap and I want it to be just as easy as ordering a Jamba Juice.

One nap with a music boost and blanket please.

I tried out the whole capsule thing in Osaka, Japan. They would totally work for naps here in the US. You’d just need a good set of earplugs. The walls were too thin and you could hear everything going on around you, but with some plugs, a nice blanky and some soothing tunes, off to ZzZz land you could go. For most people though, the idea of being in a room the size of two coffins is scary. Maybe they need to be the size of small shipping containers?

For the folks scared of small spaces and who don’t have issues taking naps in a more open space, a solution in NY appeared over the last two years that has you laying in a chair. I personally can’t sleep in a chair unless I’m zombie tired. Not even with a reflexology boost.

What I could get down with, is this whole energy pod business shown here below. I could probably go to sleep in a chair if a big gigantic space-aged looking dome was pulled over my head. That might be just the trick.

But seriously though, what about old fashioned bunk beds or tents?

I can’t be alone with this napping need. Is the $20 price tag too much to pay for a night of tiredless partying or work enjoyment?

Next time I’m in NY I’m trying out the pod and I’ll report back on my napping success.

Last weekend I stepped into a swirling vortex of geek. I went to my first DEFCON (Cyan’s 12th), which happened to be across the street from the Star Trek Convention.

I had no idea, really, what to expect at DEFCON 16. It is one of the largest conventions of hackers in the world, self-described as “underground.” For three days, security experts talk about real-world examples of both building and breaking the systems which operate just about everything we touch. Hacking is a pretty impersonal activity where even collaboration is done remotely, but at DEFCON hackers come together and can meet their opposition (in the form of other hackers & the Feds), can talk smack using keyboards *and* voices, can brag and be praised for their achievements. It’s a place filled with the jubilant energy of a tribe coming together — only this tribe’s primary activities brings anything but joy to their targets.

Cyan and others warned me before I left that I needed to shut off wifi, bluetooth, IR — anything at all that might provide a portal into either my MacBook Pro or my iPhone. Upon arrival, I was further warned never to hand over my gear to anyone and to avoid using the ATMs inside the conference hotel, the Riviera. I have to admit this ongoing sense of danger both scared and excited me, making me only more eager to experience the “most hostile network on the planet.”

Upon arrival, I met up with friends who I met through Twitter events, @chadscott & @tpbrown. Together with @mentalartist, they formed my main daytime posse/guard for the entire weekend. They led me to the registration counter where I gave a man some cash and he handed me a badge without saying a word. No credit cards, checks, names, or even handles are ever exchanged at any point — a mind-bending concept for an event organizer like myself. We took a quick tour around the vendor area where tshirts, network boxes and books were for sale and it became clear to me that black was the official color of the hacker universe. There was also some fetishwear available for women, but I didn’t see very many potential customers. I peeked inside the public lounge area where the “Wall of Sheep” was projected: a display of the IP addresses, usernames, and partial passwords of people who logged on carelessly, leaving their systems open and ready for attack.

We then proceeded to a talk on exposing and exploiting security flaws in social networking websites by Nathan Hamiel and Shawn Moyer. It was the start of my opening my mind to a different reality. I’m not a programmer (much less a hacker) so most of the panels this weekend were over my head, but I was struck by the mode of thinking that permeated the conversations both on- and off-stage. I began to understand that, more than anything, I was at a conference of gamers. The world in which they play was not created by some dungeonmaster using game theory and dice. They play in the world where we all live. Their gameboard consists of security systems, the internet, anything at all which is electronic. Even the mechanical world was in play as evidenced by the folks in Lockpick Village (yes, physical locks). The hackers respect people who are good at playing the game and consider them worthy opponents. When describing an attack on a well-designed system, there’s a noticable tone of joy because it’s always more fun when the two sides in a game are evenly matched. When attacks are thwarted, their targets gain points and become even more desirable. Most of the world, however, is discussed with frustration and disdain. A poorly designed security system appears to be perceived as an insult. When they talk publicly about methods for pwning vulnerable systems, the hackers position themselves as being obligated to crack things open in order to teach a lesson with an eye towards improving future security measures, but in practice they start to resemble the bullies who stuff weaker kids into trashcans in front of the rest of the school. There is an element of a nerd uprising underneath all this.

That night we headed out to the Facebook party where YTCracker, the original nerdcore rapper, was DJing and performing. His rhymes only underscored the sense of menace that formed a background buzz at DEFCON. The party was lots of fun and YT was great! If you ever get a chance to hear him perform or DJ, cancel your other plans and go.

On Day 2, I saw an amazing presentation by Ne0nRa1n & Joe “Kingpin” Grand on using biofeedback to control a video game, in this case they used the rhythm of the heartbeat to control a shooting game. It was AMAZING. I love the idea of hacking the electrical and mechanical impulses in our bodies.

Photo courtesy @chadscott

We then decided on indulging our Trekkie selves by jumping into the Star Trek Convention to have lunch at Quark’s place in the Hilton’s Star Trek Experience. We had quite the free-ranging conversation filled with allusions to various original & spin-off series species with a little Ghostbusters, Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars thrown in for good measure. @tpbrown kept trying to use his DEFCON badge’s embedded TV-b-gone to shut off the Olympics to no avail. We ooh’d and ahh’d over various fan costumes and were jealous of the two hackers who successfully snuck into the Star Trek vendor area. I think that was, by far, the nerdiest conversation I had ever been in. And, yes, I was the only female at the table, but I didn’t let that stop me! I was grinning and laughing and loving every minute!

Sunday we took it pretty easy, hanging out in the lounge and getting USB ports soldered onto our badges so we could hack them before we skipped out to spend a little time sipping drinks poolside. There came a point when it was necessary to take a mental break from the intensity.

Overall, this was an amazing conference. I am definitely planning to come back next year. Maybe by then I’ll have figured out a new way to hack my brain.

My life sure has changed since my first DEFCON. I was 18 years old and didn’t have a credit card. In Vegas, that’s the kiss of death. You can’t rent a room, drink or gamble. I remember walking into the Luxor hotel with a wad of cash and putting it on the counter. I tried to buy a room with money, but they wouldn’t take it. I eventually found a room off the strip, but that’s a story for another time.

So, what’s with the title you ask? One of my best friends in the world is named Tom and every year without fail, I’ve seen him at DEFCON. One of his favorite places to go is the Hofbrauhaus over near the Hard Rock Casino. So, what happens when you put a big German beer in Tom and ask him about privacy? Well, a hilarious rant about Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems ensues. I honestly think Tom would have a future in stand up comedy if he gave it an honest try.

Beware: Strong Language

“Los Angeles is no Silicon Valley, but they do have a valley and a lot of silicone.”

That’s what Calley Nye says.

She started off modeling in NY, but soon realized that she had learned more about marketing than anything. Calley lives in LA now as a viral marketing expert, social media marketing consultant, and marketing strategist for several very successful online campaigns. I stole that right from her website.

She had a brief stint with TechCrunch, but decided she wanted to write on her own blog. She doesn’t write short blog posts either.

Calley will also be writing for Sexiest Geeks Alive. I look forward to her posts because I know they will be full of inspiration.

Calley really fascinates me because she is the same age as me, and she loves social media. She is always online, and always willing to chat about stuff. When Cyan asked me to write a post about Calley on SGA, I was really excited. I put off the interview forever but once I started writing the questions, it was easy.

How old are you, and where did you grow up?

I am 22 and I grew up in Manchester, CT.

What was your first memory of using the Internet?

Hmm…that’s a tough one. My dad works with computers so we first got the internet when I was like 5 or 6. So I never really had a “Wow, this is the internet” moment. It has always been kind of integrated into my life. My most vivid memory though, was when I was working on a report on the White House in the library in 6th grade and went to whitehouse.com.

Who is your current Internet idol? Who do you respect on the web?

Another good question. I have respect for anyone who takes a chance and does something that hasn’t been done before, or has the balls to come up with a better solution to an existing application. But to be specific, one of my idols is Diane Greene, the founder of VMware. Another one of my idols is Mike Arrington, who I had the great opportunity of working with at TechCrunch. He’s extremely smart and passionate about startups, and I think it shows. He really took a chance by giving me the opportunity of writing for TechCrunch, and I will always be incredibly grateful for that.

As you know, blogging has made publishing basically free. Do you think the quality of content in the blogosphere will be better or worse in the future?

I think that the quality will improve because it gives a wider array of people access to the platform. Up until this point, we had to read about news through journalists. Those journalists may have been expert journalists in their specific subject matter, but it does not change the fact that they probably had never done what they’re writing about.

So through blogs, we can get news from a wider net of writers, all with different voices and (usually) no agendas. So you can hear about venture capital news from a venture capitalist, and an entrepreneur, and have a better understanding of what that means for both.

Of course there are thousands of crappy blogs out there, but we can always depend on readers and subscribers to prove which blogs are good and have staying power.

What sites do you check first thing in the morning?

First thing I do is check my email, and I usually just let that take me wherever I need to go. But I always check Twitter, Facebook, and Techmeme.

You are like me; a coder and a writer. Why mess with the codes?

Ha, I don’t feel quite comfortable calling myself a coder yet. When I come across a problem I don’t know how to solve, I have to figure out the answer myself. If I don’t I feel like a failure. I also have very specific images in my head, and for some reason I can’t find anyone who understands them, so I have to figure out how to do it myself.

I am learning for the sole purpose of understanding what I am dealing with. I am working on a couple startups, and I don’t feel comfortable not understanding what I am telling other people to do. If the startup has my name on it, I want to understand every last bit of code that it uses. I guess I’m kind of a control freak.

Just like every other girl I know, they love food. What is your favorite thing to cook? And will you make me some Italian food sometime?

Of course! As long as you don’t say anything like “I’m on a diet” or “I don’t eat carbs.” I hate guys like that.

My favorite thing to cook is pizza. There are so many ways you can do it, so it’s really fun to experiment. My favorite pizza invention so far is a thin crust pizza with mozzarella, asiago, tri-color tortellini and BBQ chicken. Sounds really weird, but its so good! I also like making things vegan. I’m not vegan, but it makes cooking kind of a challenge, and I love a good challenge. I made vegan mac & cheese once and it was amazing!

Tell me about the future of the web. What will it be like in 5 or 10 years? Will MySpace still be around?

Wow, that’s a hard question. I think that the technology of the Internet is changing very soon, and I think that will change the way we use the web. CERN is developing a system called The Grid that is a 10,000 times faster than the average broadband connection. When you think about it, it’s kind of stupid that this technology that runs everything in our lives is still piggybacking on telephone and cable connections. I think it’s about time it has its own. I won’t talk too much about it (because I want to write a post about it), but it’s going to lead to some major changes like the inclusion of more HD and holographic technologies.

Finally, do you use the web more for browsing information, creating content, or communicating?

I use it for all three, probably all equally, but I love browsing for information. I didn’t go to college, because I want to know everything. I didn’t want someone to limit what I could learn. Sometimes I wake up and think “I want to learn how to fix my roommate’s motorcycle today” or “I want to learn more about data structures and algorithms.” And then I do it. I use MIT’s Open Courseware a lot and take random courses, and I have over 1,300 ebooks on my hard drive. My goal is to read them all and I’ve never had a goal that I didn’t achieve, so it will be done. Might take a couple of years though

You can follow Calley on her blog and on Twitter

Also, it’s dang fun to take a trip down the memory lane tube of the internets!

You know you’re a geek if you make a weekly comedy show about geekdom in your apartment.

This geek isn’t worried about being categorized as being a geek. Oh, and she’s dead sexy too.

I had a chance to sit down with Casey for an interview in the calm chambers of Gmail.

You studied communication in school, but what made you want to work with online media?

Though I studied communications in school, my life had taken a turn towards working in international affairs. Three years ago my boyfriend Rudy Jahchan told me all about a feature in Wired about something called “Podcasting”. I asked him if technically we could do this with video instead of audio (thinking we were the first to do so ) and we launched our first video podcast for fun in October 2005. Thanks to the adjacent launch of the video iPod and interest in the subject matter, our numbers spiked instantly and we became the top subscribed podcast on iTunes within a month. That, and all the attention that followed from traditional and online media, motivated us to invest in better equipment and spend more time producing new content.

Tell me about Galacticast, A Comicbook Orange, and Kitkast

Kitkast was our first production, a 10-15 minute weekly sex news and interviews show. The series caused a lot of controversy amongst the video blogging world since it was not a personal vlog and was modeled after television.

I was very proud of the show, but was getting tired of the subject matter and dressing so publicly in my lingerie and felt that after six months I needed to go on haitus to try something new and reassess whether I wanted to continue producing Kitkast in the long run.

Being huge geeks, my boyfriend and I launched Galacticast in May 2006. Originally, we had the vision of creating a network of shows, and we initially started producing four segments in three shows a week: News of the Worlds (sci-fi/entertainment news); A Comicbook Orange (a comic book review show hosted by Rudy); Attack of the 50ft. [Celebrity] (interviews conducted by remote correspondents with comic creators, actors and directors); and Sci-Fi Night Live (skit comedy show).

After a month of struggling to balance our growing network with our day jobs, we decided to concentrate on one segment only, the skits. The show went on to win five Vloggies and gained a lot of attention in the mainstream media, and by November of that year I made the decision to quit my day job as a diplomat’s assistant and follow my long lost dream of working in media.

We soon got into talks with Next New Networks, where one of the founders was a big comic book fan who missed A Comicbook Orange, and in June 2007 we relaunched the show with me hosting. Though we only produced the weekly show with NNN’s funding for six months, I still get emails from fans who are hungry for more. I would definitely continue to produce the show with new partners if we got the offer… I, too, miss the series. We’ll see what happens

What is the one website you check as soon as you wake up in the morning and why?

I have four web sites that are always open in Safari on my iPhone. The moment I wake up, I roll over and check: Twitter, to find out what my friends have been up to and if I had any replies to something I said the previous night; Flickr, because I post a daily self portrait and I’m always excited to see if anyone’s commented; Facebook, I’m obsessed with the Friends For Sale app; and I Can Has Cheezburger?, which I enjoy checking out while cuddling with my boyfriend… although I must admit, I’m getting sick of all the Ceiling/Basement Cat jokes. Lame.

Would you rather never be able to use the Internet again, or never sleep in a bed ever again?

Yikes! Tough question, but I can’t live without the Internet… I can live, but it would be a rather dismal existence. I’d rather be roughing it like a character in a Brian Wood graphic novel than be cut off from my tubes.

Rock Band or Guitar Hero?

Rock Band. Better guitar, more instruments, public performance possibilities

Do you like living in Canada? Are they “Internet-saavy” up there?

I was raised watching American television and only live 30 minutes from the borders to New York and Vermont, so I feel a stronger connection to America than my own country. However, I mostly love Canada where I feel America falls short: a nation that accepts and really celebrates its’ multicultural diversity. I believe that the American dream has been swept aside in times of fear-mongering, but I have every confidence that the xenophobia will pass once Barack Obama becomes president.

As for technology, Canada unfortunately falls behind. There are certainly many Canadians who are internet-savvy and who hunger for the latest technology, but less companies interested in investing in this future. It is for this reason that we felt the need to purchase our iPhones from the US and unlock them ourselves. The same thing goes for the development of new media. We’ve met many wonderful Canadians producing successful web shows (ex. Tiki Bar TV & CommandN), but to develop those shows, we all need to look south for funding.

Oh yea, do you consider yourself geeky? And what is a geek to you?

I am absolutely, without a doubt a geek, although my tastes have changed over the years. When Rudy and I first started Galacticast, I was much more into science fiction. Now I find myself much more interested in playing video games, reading graphic novels and being involved in the latest internet memes.

Above all else, though, I am abnormal. And I feel that being a geek involves the outcast feeling for being passionate about something outside of the norm. Extra geek cred should be given to unique creators and those who’ve embraced their individuality against all odds (bullying, name-calling, etc.)

Finally, if you could work anywhere, where would it be?

I would love to team up with a great blog and host/produce a new web show with them. Off the top of my head, some great matches for me would be sites like Kotaku, Joystiq, io9, Ain’t It Cool News, Newsarama, and Comic Book Resources.

Aside from hosting, I would also die to be cast in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and the new Dune adaptation coming out in 2010. Die.

Follow Casey on the web:
http://www.caseymckinnon.com
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace

Photo credits in order:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kk/1436581578/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/caseymckinnon/868344128/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vubui/523563601/

I first heard about the film when I was trolling the Rhyme Torrents boards. This was while I was getting ready to direct the video for an MC Chris song, Nrrrd Grrrl. I confess I was unfamiliar with “nerdcore” (aka “geeksta rap”). For those of you who are as lost as I was, nerdcore is rapping that’s by and for nerds, about topics like WoW, programming, comic books, etc. There’s a huge range of sounds and people out there making it. As soon as I heard about it, I was curious. As soon as I heard it, I was hooked.

The movie “Nerdcore for Life” is a documentary about this music and it is fantastic. The director, Dan Lamoureux, gives us a good picture of a new field as it’s emerging, introducing not just music but the people as well. The film features so many of my new faves, Optimus Rhyme, YTCracker, MC Chris, MC Hawking (”what if Stephen Hawking was a rapper?”), Lords of the Rhymes (who rap about Tolkein), and so many more. It gets into the history and politics of nerdcore, including the ongoing battles between Monzy and MC Plus +, and between MC Router and Nurshella, two of a rare breed: female nerdcore rappers. The film’s title comes from a great laid-back track by Beefy.

After the screening, the producers organized a free show up the street where Nomad showed he’s not your everyday black geek rapper and Doc Popular wowed us both with his rhymes and his amazing yoyo skills (be still my heart!). A special shout out goes to MC Lars, who won me over by rapping about Moby Dick and introducing me to his oh-so-cute parents at the afterparty – they are his roadies and biggest fans!

I highly recommend catching the film if it comes to your town – or maybe you should sponsor a screening to get it there!

Along with his amazing looks, Shermer has one heck of a sexy brain. He’s the author of several books, has appeared on Penn & Teller’s Bullshit, talked at TED, has biked across the US five times and that’s just the short list! We hope you’ll enjoy his SGA interview as much as we did.

You recently went on a tour for your latest book “The Mind of the Market”. What was that like? Highlights and cool stories?

The 9/11 “truthers” put out an all-points bulletin to show up at every one of my book events and ask questions and make statements about how 9/11 was an “inside job” by the Bush administration. My response to them was this: “Do you know how we know that the Bush administration did not orchestrate 9/11? Because it worked!”

What is your newest book about?

The Mind of the Market is about why people believe weird things about money and markets, and thus follows from what I’ve been doing for the past 15 years as a professional skeptic. There’s no reason to believe that people, who are so irrational in all other areas of life, would suddenly become rational when they go to Wall Street or Wal-Mart.

You describe skepticism as an approach and don’t self-identify as “a skeptic”. You use a similar distinction for science. Can you explain the distinction?

Science and skepticism is something you do, not something to be.

What do you geek out on?

Brain scans, evolution, the expanding cosmos, black holes, the beginning of time, the mind, the brain (oh, wait, those last two are the same), consciousness (okay, throw that into the previous two as well), what happens when we die, and the newest cycling technology for my bike.

You’ve made a profession out of a favorite geek pastime: asking questions and thinking about the answers. How’d you pull that off?

Beats me. I just do my thing. I guess its one of those Joseph Campbell deals where you “follow your bliss and the money will follow”.

Much of science fiction is based on things which aren’t in existence now, but which are theoretically possible. Do you think there’s any contradiction in being a skeptic who likes Battlestar Galactica or the X-Men?

A science fiction author once explained to me that the further into the future that a story is set the more willing we are to suspend disbelief. Thus, skeptics were pretty hard on X-Files because it was set in the present, but we love Star Trek, because it is set centuries hence. I suppose it is because such powers might be possible, given enough time.

You’re called in frequently to debate creationists. It seems like such a Sisyphean battle. Why is it important for you and other scientists to divert time away from other work and expend spend so much energy on that?

I do it so that professional working scientists don’t have to bother with the creationists, and instead can keep on doing real science.

We started SGA in great part to bring attention to people who are often overlooked or dismissed. You were doing the same things when you wrote about Darwin’s partner, Alfred Russel Wallace in “Darwin’s Shadow.” Do you want to highlight anything about him to our readers?

Wallace was one sexy geek, that’s for sure, and July 1, 2008 marks the 150th anniversary of the announcement at the Linnean Society of London the discovery of natural selection, one of the half dozen most important discoveries in the history of science, and Wallace got equal credit with Darwin for that, so he’s an Important Sexy Geek (ISG).

What was it like being at TED among all those big thinkers? Did it spark new ideas for you?

It was more than a little intimidating to be there, but once I started talking my brain sort of forgot that they were out there in the audience and I just went on autopilot and did my thing. But afterwards was pretty incredible talking to such interesting people. Rick Warren turned out to be the world’s nicest guy, and Al Gore turned out to be the world’s funniest guy, so you never know what is going to happen at a place like that

What technology do you use often? What tech do you depend on? (button holes count )

iPhone, the greatest invention since the bicycle (and would be even better if we could use carriers other than AT&T, whose service sucks where I live: Pasadena.)

Who do you think is a sexy geek?

Neil deGrasse Tyson

What do you think is sexy – in general terms?

Self-confidence, poise, fitness, strength, naturalness, intelligence.

I hear you bicycle a lot. What do you think about on your rides?

I think about what I’m going to do when I’m done riding, like go to Starbucks for an iced Venti Latte. When I ride alone I usually listen to audio books. I’ve listened to about 400 books since I started doing that in the early 1990s (starting with a Sony Walkman–ancient technology indeed!)

What’s the longest bicycle ride you’ve been on? What was it like to finish the ride?

3,180 miles from Los Angeles to New York, nonstop in the Race Across America. One races RAAM because it feels so good to stop! (And sleep, and eat…). I did that race five times. The most memorable one was in 1982 when we finished at the Empire State Building (starting at the Santa Monica Pier). I had no idea if I could even finish the race, so when I crossed over the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan after a very long night in New Jersey, on an early Sunday morning with no traffic, I was so happy and relieved and emotional that I could hardly talk at the end. Diana Nyad was there to interview me with the camera crew from ABC’s Wide World of Sports, who covered the entire race (and won an Emmy award for sports programming for their two-hour documentary special they did on the race). My comments were really lame and afterward I felt like an idiot for not coming up with something clever and funny to say, but I had a serious case of what I call “train brain,” where all your blood is in your legs and your brain doesn’t think too clearly. Add to that 10 days of sleep deprivation and extreme fatigue, and you get what I mean. I rode the 3000 miles in 10 days, 19 hours.

You are in a skeptic pinup calendar looking quite sexy. How did that come about? Tell us more!

That was for the Skepchicks calendar for skepchicks, which means they needed skepdudes. Apparently there aren’t that many sexy skeptics because I made the first cut, and I don’t think of myself as very sexy at all. In any case, we were suppose to do something unique to our hobbies or interests, and since I like riding bikes the photographer asked me to ride my bike up this really steep climb, over and over, while he photographed me sweating and straining. But in those apparently I wasn’t sweating and straining in a very sexy manner, because he had me take off my shirt and then just photographed in focus my hand on the brake handle of my bike. Woo woo, nothin sexier than a bare-knuckled hand on a brake handle!

What is your favorite thing to eat?

Granola with fruit. Or a fine New York cut steak (they balance each other).

In 10 words or less, can you describe Richard Dawkins?? We think he’s quite sexy too.

The most intellectually courageous person I have ever met.