It is time to start shopping for the 2010 holiday season. If you have any Geeks on your list, this is the absolute first place to start looking. I have listed many geeky resources for awesome cool gifts. Feel free to leave a comment and suggest any resources I have missed.

The Geek Gadget Top Seventeen Killer Summer Gadgets of 2010


Summer gadgets for geeks. This article covers things like a portable solar charger, Japanese pill towel, and the George Foreman USB iGrill.

12 Weird and Creative Socks


These socks are awesome and geeky! Who doesn’t want Big Banana Socks or Converse socks?

11 Creative and Cool Bean Bag Designs


Awesome bean bags! The Sleeping Grizzly Bear Bean Bag is cool.

Angry Birds Plush Toys


Angry Bird fans will love these Angry Birds plush toys. Great for throwing!

Creative and Cool WiFi Detector Designs


Cool WiFi Detectors. There is nothing geekier than Wi-Fi Detecting Sneakers!

Crazy USB Flash Drives


Crazy Geeky USB Flash Drives. Who doesn’t need a donut or bagel USB Flash Drive?

Funky & Fun Keyboards To Brighten Your Day


Some really creative artwork on keyboards.

8 Gigantic Products From Hammacher Schlemmer (That You Totally Want)


Great Big Gifts from Hammacher Schlemmer. I want a Giant $4,000.00 Gumball Machine!

28 Crazy Backpacks


Some of these backpacks are geeky awesome. There is even a pack that turns into a bike!

15 Creative and Cool Bed Designs


I want the Burger Bed!

7 Cool Kitchen Gadgets For The Geek Chef


The Space Invader Cutting Board is on my list!

Geek gift ideas for under $20 (2010 edition)


Great gifts for under $20. The “Dismember-Me Plush Zombie” has to be a big hit.

Top 10 Geekiest Decorations for Your Home or Office


I need some of these iPhone Icon Coasters for my office!

5 Must-Have Geek Collectibles


How abot a plush Steve Jobs doll?

15 Ways to Shop for the Twitter Obsessed


Older article but still fun Twitter products.

5 Totally Edible Business Cards


Yummy Business Cards!

Bumper Stickers For Your Sneakers!
Optional Sneaker Sticker Site


Cool Bumper stickers for your sneakers!

Christmas Gifts for Movie Fans 2010: Ideas for Your Favorite Film Geek


Movie Fans . . . some cool ideas, like the ‘Star Trek’ Enterprise Pizza Cutter.

Geek Mugs and Glasses


Tons of great mugs and glasses. I will start with the “Heat Changing Pac Man Mugs”.

Harry Potter Gifts for Harry Potter Fans


Gifts for that special Harry Potter Geek!

The 2010 Star Wars Edition Adidas Shoes
Pictures
More Pictures


For some reason it seems hard to find a way to order these, but this is the site that is the supposed order site. I really want some of the StormTrooper high-tops!

50 Geek Gift Ideas (Chris Pirillo’s Wishlist)


Check out Chris Pirillo’s gift ideas for 2010!

Hot Christmas Gifts 2010


More Hot Christmas Gifts 2010!

Think Geek


** Then there is always ThinkGeek.com, for lots of other geeky choices!!

Ahhhhhhhhhh a dream come true duet: Comic/Actor Will Ferrell and Boxer Manny Pacquia.

Pacquia is a professional boxer. A seven-division world champion, the first boxer in history to win nine world titles in seven different weight divisions, and the WBO Welterweight World Champion (Super Champion).

And will Will Ferrell is . . . well Will Ferrell. Duh!?

Anyway, these 2 talented singers were on Jimmy Kimmel Live a few days ago and performed John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ live.

Check it out. It is sure to be a classic:

The new Conan  Show premieres Nov. 8, 2010 on TBS.

To get extra excited about it, Conan has released “Show Zero”.  Show Zero is a short preview or ’sample’ episode of the new Conan.

Here’s to TEAM COCO!
Check it out:

I read an article a couple of weeks ago glorifying the “Ghost Hunters” series on the SyFy Network. This crappy article goes on and on about Ghost Hunters and the briefly belittles the “rest” of the Ghost Hunter type shows.

The reality is that I used to watch Ghost Hunters all the time. I love the “paranormal” and am a breed of the X-Files watchers because “I Want To Believe”.  Then came out similar type shows and spin-offs. That is when I realized Ghost Hunters is a bit mundane, and uneventful, compared to these new shows / spin-offs.

GHOST HUNTERS

Ghost Hunters - Jason and Grant

I don’t want to rip on the Ghost Hunters as they were entertaining for a while and their show is pretty good. It is just that I have found a better show on the Travel Channel called “Ghost Adventurers“.

The Ghost Hunters use the night-vision cameras that makes it a bit exciting, however they almost never seem to catch “paranormal activity” on film.  In contrast, Ghost Adventurers spends the whole daytime setting up stationary cameras covering hallways and rooms with known activity, so when something visual happens, it is caught on camera most if the time (visual or audio).  With Ghost Hunters, It become a show of just watching the reactions of  the crew.

I recently watched an entire episode of Ghost Hunters called “attack of the Irish Elemental” where they went to Ireland and visited a haunted castle. I was actually interested in watching this one going to a haunted Irish castle, however I was disappointed. I realized that I had wasted an hour of my life. Most of the episode watching the GH crew saying they kept seeing things ( glowing lights and paranormal faces) but all they did was talk about it and show reactions. They didn’t seem organized or thourough enough. They should have cameras everywhere so we could at seen one thing.

GHOST ADVENTURES

Ghost Adventures - Nick Groff, Zak Bagans, and Aaron Goodwin

Now bring on the “Ghost Adventurers“.  The first thing that makes this show better, is the Ghost Adventures crew. All are very charismatic and engaging.

Lead man Zak Bagans has an bold and aggressive style that drives the show and makes it entertaining. Sometimes it can be over the top or a bit over-dramatic, but even then it is fun to watch as he pushes spirits to reach out and make themselves known. Investigator Nick Groff has nerves of steel. One episode he was enclosed in a morgue drawer left alone in the dark. Yikes! Then there is cameraman Aaron Goodwin, who is the best. He is easily spooked, especially when he is asked to stay alone in the basement of an abandoned insane asylum to catch any pictures or an EVP (i.e., Electronic Voice Phenomenon) from a digital recorder.

The other thing that makes Ghost Adventurers great is the amount of paranormal activity they catch on camera and digital voice recorders. They will talk to people that work around the location and setup many stationary cameras at spirit “hot spots” where the people have experienced activity. They catch “voices” on their digital recorders that record at frequencies that humans cannot hear. On these recorders, they catch all kinds of responses to questions they ask, as potential spirits. They even target spirits that may be hanging around that have died there in the past. So they catch a LOT more activity to show the audience than Ghost Hunters does.

One last difference between the shows is how they interact with “spirits”. Ghost Hunters are very mellow and usually almost whisper questions or conversations to potential spirits. Ghost Adventurers, usually Zak, pushes spirits to reach out, touch them, make noises, and sometimes asked to attack.

So whether I believe what evidence I am seeing and hearing or not, I always come back to “I want to believe”. That makes this show fun to watch.

OTHER PARANORMAL SHOWS

Here are other Paranormal investigation shows that I have not checked out. Leave a comment and tell me if you recommend any of these to check out:

• Ghost Hunters International – SyFy Network (spinn-off)
• Ghost Hunters Academy – SyFy Network (spinn-off)
• Destination Truth – SyFy Network (not paranormal, but investigates stories of the unexplained)
• Paranormal State – The A&E network
• Ghost Lab – The Discovery Channel

GHOST ADVENTURES CLIP

MORE GHOST ADVENTURES PICTURES

I got so many hits and re-tweets of this picture on Twitter I decided to share it on my blog.

It is a Lego version of M.C. Escher’s ‘Relativity’ done by Andrew Lipson. Very cool!

You can find other great Lego ”recreations” by Andrew Lipson HERE.

OK I am eating crow here as I posted an article back in May entitled “Why I Don’t Want an iPad”.

I have finally changed my mind and bought an iPad, and I haven not regretted it for 1 minute.

Sooo . . . let’s debunk the points I made in the “Why I Don’t Want an iPad” post:

• I already have an iPhone: It IS easy to use since I know how to use and navigate the iPhone. I can sync up apps or have them already available on both devices (docs,contacts,calendar info,etc.). Also, most apps look a lot better on the larger display on the iPad.

• I found it to be “clunky“: Not true. I find the size and weight to be perfect. Especially as I am using the Apple iPad case. The Apple iPad case is one of the sleekest and least bulky cases I could find.

• Where do you set it?: As I said I got the Apple iPad case. With the Apple case, it folds horizontally or vertically to hold iPad at an angle for viewing video or typing on the onscreen keyboard. Works great for using on a table or in your lap.

• The keyboard is hard to use: Not True. With the iPad size, the keyboard is fairly big. I found I can type fairly easy without fat-fingering 2 keys at once. The iPhone keyboard is hard to use because of its size. Also you can buy an external keyboard for the iPad, if the on screen keyboard is a problem.

So now I use the iPad for most things like social media (Facebook, Twitter), News (Pulse, Huffington Post, CBS Football), docs and content (Docs To Go, Instapaper, DropBox), email, and surfing the Internet. The display is excellent when viewing news apps as well as anything else. The size is great for carrying to your favorite Coffee shop and using their WiFi. Also, I don’t have to wait for it to boot up like a laptop, so it is greatly accessible and useful.

*** Post on iPad Apps I use a lot and recommend  . . . coming soon!

Disagree with my assessment? Leave a comment and tell me why. Thanks.

I get a lot of my news updates using my iPhone. I have a lot of news apps to get a variety of news links to current events, news, and politics.  For example there are some great apps for news feeds like USA Today, CNN, Fox News, Drudge, Huffingt0n Post, Business Insider, NPR, AP, etc.

With the iPhone OS 4.0 it is nice to create a News folder and keep these apps in, however I am now using an app that does this much better. That app is the  News Feed Elite app.

If you are a news junkie (like me), the News Feed Elite App has mobile links to about 200  news sources. It is quite incredible. You get access to world / US news , tech news, entertainment news, financial news, sports news, etc.

So check out the News Feed Elite app. It has many features and sources. All of them are listed below. Let me know if you have a better app similar to this one.

FEATURES

• Blocks ads
• Bookmarked news articles can be read offline
• Tilt scrolling, be able to scroll through a webpage by tilting the iPhone. We made it even better than Instapaper’s tilt scrolling
• Optimized Browsing turns non-mobile websites into iPhone-friendly sites for easier reading and faster loading times.
• RSS Feeds compatible
• Main screen icons can be sorted/deleted
• Add/delete unlimited bookmarks
• Bookmarks have a custom icons
• A button to jump to the top of the page
• Ability to share links/add bookmarks via Twitter, Facebook, Digg, del.icio.us and many other sites
• Integration with Instapaper
• Share news article by email
• Bookmarks can rearranged
• Lock orientation to prevent rotation
• Download images to your device
• Be able to open any URL in Safari
• Home button for easy access to the index
• View articles in full screen
• Set your favorite site as your homepage
• The app will go to your homepage first
• RSS feed compatible
• New ads blocked
• Optimized browsing feature allows you to load non-mobile websites at a much faster speed. It also formats the text/images to fit on your device

AVAILABLE SOURCES

World & U.S. News:

• NPR
• FOX News
• AP News
• Drudge Report
• CNN
• USA Today
• ABC News
• MSNBC
• CBS News
• Time Magazine
• Yahoo! News
• Google News
• BBC
• Reuters
• Huffington Post
• Newsweek
• AOL News
• U.S. News
• Newsday
• Agence France Presse
• Today Show
• NewsMax
• Politico
• Slate Magazine
• United Press International

Tech:

• Gizmodo
• CNET
• MacRumors
• Macworld
• TUAW
• iLounge
• Techmeme
• Engadget
• Lifehacker
• Slashdot
• ComputerWorld
• Technology Review
• iPhoneFreak
• NASA News
• Google Tech
• GigaOM
• Mashable
• Ars Technica
• TechCrunch
• CrunchGear
• MobileCrunch
• TechCrunch IT
• Coolest Gadgets
• The Inquirer
• V3
• Computing
• 9 to 5 Mac
• Silicon Alley Insider
• Stuff Magazine
• ReadWriteWeb
• Apple Insider
• Regional News:
• Arizona Republic
• Atlanta Journal Constitute
• Baltimore Sun
• Boston Globe
• Boston Herald
• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
• Chicago Tribune
• Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Dallas Morning News
• Denver Post
• Detroit Free Press
• Hartford Courant
• Houston Chronicle
• Indianapolis Star
• KTLA
• Los Angeles Times
• Los Angeles Daily News
• Miami Herald
• Minnesota Star Tribune
• The Morning Call
• New York Times
• New York Post
• Orlando Sentinel
• Philadelphia Inquirer
• Salt Lake Tribune
• San Diego Union-Tribune
• San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)
• The Seattle Times
• Sun Sentinel
• Tampa Bay Online
• The Hill
• Times Union (Albany)
• Washington Post
• Washington Times
• West Palm Beach TV

Entertainment News:

• Star Magazine
• TMZ
• OMG! News
• People Magazine
• E!
• The Onion
• WWE Daily
• Perez Hilton
• Variety Magazine
• College Humor

Financial News:

• Bloomberg
• CNBC
• Wall Street Journal
• The Economist
• CNN Money
• BusinessWeek
• Forbes
• FOX Business
• Financial Times
• Google Business
• Sports News:
• ESPN
• The Score
• CBS Sports
• Fox Sports
• Sports Illustrated
• NBA
• NHL
• NFL
• MLB
• Google Sports

Popular Sites:

• digg
• Slickdeals
• Weather.com
• FHM
• Ask Men
• Spike
• ELLE
• GameSpot
• IGN
• Maxim
• Break.com
• NBC
• MTV
• Discovery Channel
• Car and Driver
• MSN
• Yahoo!
• Fandango
• TV Guide
• Men’s Health
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• NAVTEQ’s Traffic
• GasBuddy
• Wikipedia
• Reddit
• Ebay
• Paypal
• Amazon
• Dictionary.com
• Flickr
• AccuWeather
• MapQuest
• MovieFone

I found a great blog post on getpaidtowriteonline.com discussing “10 Most Common Writing Mistakes“.

When it comes to writing blog posts, I don’t think they need to be perfect. One of the best rules of blog writing I have seen is that you shouldn’t take too much time writing a post. Don’t spend weeks perfecting a blog post.  To get posts out on your blog frequently, it doesn’t make sense to dwell on pefecting the post too much. This is especially important with time-sensitive posts (ex. writing a post on a current breaking news item or current technology release).

Having said that, check out the article (link below) that discusses these mistakes when writing. I found this to be a great checklist for posts I write.

Link to getpaidtowriteonline article: 10 Most Common Writing Mistakes

I visit many blogs, and within the first 3 to 30 seconds I decide if I am going to take more time to look around and/or if I want to bookmark the blog to visit it daily. Beyond blog content, it is important to understand what people are looking for on your website so you know where to spend your time on design, features, layout, etc.

Here are some of the main reasons I visit a blog and never come back. This assumes I have found your site and decided to look around.

1 ) Boring Design /  No Personality
If I bring up a blog and it has a common template with no effort of using different colors, adding logo or pictures, or even creating an interesting background, I will probably leave right away. Unless the blog covers information I cannot find anywhere else, I will choose a different blog that is more enjoyable.

2) Busy Design
A lot of times I will bring up a blog and there is too much going on and/or too many conflicting colors. If it gets too distracting I will not come back. When I visit your website, the posts should be the main focus, not all the stuff that surrounds it. Don’t annoy your readers.

3) Lengthly / Wordy Posts
Occasionally posts need to be longer in order to do a sufficient job of sharing information. That is understandable and usually fine, however when every post is a lenghtly post, I don’t want to be there. I like to do quick surfing of blogs each day so I don’t have time to read lots of long posts. Also, I have a short attention span. I have to be able to get in, read a post, and go away with the information you intended to share.

4) Solicitation Pop Ups
If I get any popups soliciting me to visit a sponsor, sign up for an e-mail newsletter, or get an e-book, I will most likely not return to that blog. Most of these popups are the kind that will not let you do anything unless it is closed. This is just annoying. Why should I deal with that when I can find another blog to read. Occasionally I will find a blog I really like that has a popup and keep coming back, but it is pretty rare.

5) No Easy Way To Share Your Post
If there is a blog I am going to bookmark and go to each day, it HAS to have a list of sharing tools added. I like to share via Twitter or FaceBook so I will look for links like a “ReTweet” icon on each post. There are many great tools out there to incorporate into your blog. On MKEBiz I use a WordPress plugin called SexyBookmarks to add icons at the bottom of each post so people can share my post via Twitter,  FaceBook, StumbleUpon, Digg, FriendFeed, etc.

6) Infrequent Updates / Blog Posts
I am guilty of this. Either due to time constraints or lack of post ideas, I have not made frequent updates to my blog. It is only maybe 2 or 3 times a week. If I visit a blog several times within 1 or 2 weeks and the same post is at the top that I have seen before, I won’t return to that blog. Like I said, I love looking at my “hot list” of blogs daily and enjoy frequent updates and new posts. This is what I feed on. If the same post is there for weeks, with no new posts, it is useless to me. So work on ways to create frequent posts. One way is to pull in a partner to help create posts. Another way is to evaluate how you create posts. Maybe create shorter quick info posts instead of spending a week writing a blog post.

So take some time to think about what readers are looking for in your blog. Give your website some personality with good color and design, but don’t over-do it. Make sure your posts are useful/entertaining but not too wordy. Make sure to add functionality (like sharing tools) that are useful but not annoying to your readers. Lastly, work on a plan for frequent posts.

Leave a comment below and let me know what turns you off from returning to a blog.

This is a great presentation on R.O.I (Return On Investment) of Social Media. It is educational yet quite amusing. This presentation has been around a while but has been updated / improved. Check it out and let me know what you think.

I found this presentation via: thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com