Inside ThinkGeek – Exclusive Interview

ThinkGeek

By Jimmy Rogers
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Today we have a very special presentation for you. ThinkGeek, known far and wide for their wonderful geek gear, has been extremely secretive about their inner workings.  That is… until now.

Geeks Are Sexy was given exclusive access to the ThinkGeek headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia and sat down with John Frazier, one of the men responsible for procuring everything from lightsabers to high-tech peripherals. Enough introduction, though, enjoy the show!

This video is actually the tale end of a very long and interesting story. If you’d like to know more (like how we broke through the binary curtain), I have a few reflections and recollections on my blog. Plus, there’s a bonus lightsaber video—who can resist that?
 

I would like to thank John, Shane, and all the other ThinkGeek staff who put up with us as we traipsed through their office with cameras and cables.  Oh and a special shout-out to the ThinkGeek Twitter lady!  You guys are the coolest company I’ve ever visited!

Lastly, thanks to Natalia, my awesome camera person, and all the future journalists at Connect2Mason, whose equipment we used to make the film.

Gamers Still Love Their Playstation 2

By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Nielson’s 2008 Trend Summary reveals some interesting data in its gaming top ten lists. It seems that despite the fuss over next-gen consoles these past two years, people still spend more time with Playstation 2’s than any other gaming console. Based on usage minutes, the PS2 nearly doubles the time of the runner-up, the XBox 360, followed by the Wii, and then, interestingly enough, the traditional XBox beats out the Playstation 3. Of course, the PS2’s dominance isn’t all that surprising when accounting for the number of gamers who don’t have next gen consoles either due to unavailability or price. Also, these numbers don’t account for handheld consoles like the Nintendo DS.

In other gaming news, World of Warcraft is the most-played PC game, played by nearly 1% of all gamers in the United States, at an average of 671 minutes per week. Call of Duty and Halo are also up there, though I was rather surprised to see that more people play The Sims than The Sims 2. The top mobile game in the US last year was Tetris, followed by Bejeweled.

Some other interesting results from the list: the top market for adults shopping online is Washington D.C.; the top fiction book sale was The Shack, and nonfiction, A New Earth; the top website accessed via mobile phones was Yahoo Mail; the most downloaded song was “Low” by Flo Rida; the top website all around was Google; and the most “timeshifted” television show was Heroes.


Roku Review – Bringing Netflix to your TV

My wife bought me a Roku for Christmas, which is a player that lets us instantly watch Netflix movie and television shows on our 57-inch LCD Samsung HDTV. I heard of Roku almost a year ago, but it had slipped my mind. So when I was opening the gift, my initial thought was that this was going to be some kind of Asian puzzle game or something. That would have been cool enough. However, not nearly as cool as the Roku Netflix player turned out to be.

Continue reading ›

Helpless: A New Tilt-Shift Time-Lapse Video by Keith Loutit

Remember Keith Loutit, that talented Australian photographer we featured a few times here on [GAS] for his amazing work with time-lapse videos? To our greatest joy, Keith released yet another masterpiece a few weeks ago, and as usual, we had to share it with you. This one is named “Helpless” and features the daily activity of everything happening at a nameless beach somewhere in Australia.

[Via TechEblog]

Pole Dancing Robot

By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

This robotic DJ and pole dancer were created by sculptor/designer Giles Walker. These guys, and more of his work, are being shown at MUTATE BRITAIN exhibition in London.

He says of the exotic dancing robot, “I wondered if it was possible to literally make a CCTV camera sexy using simple mechanics…and by using the imagery of a pole dancer question the roles played in voyerism. Could this pile of old windscreen wipers and odd pieces of metal become something sexual….”

I wonder where you’re supposed to put the dollar bills?

Walker’s current project is a set of animated drunks, to be placed on park benches to interact with the public using presence sensors.

[Via Underwire]

New Wii Drives Kid to Insanity

WARNING: Reduce speaker volume before playing

As a child, I don’t think I ever freaked out that much over a game console. After a few seconds of apparent indifference, this kid nearly succeeded in busting my eardrums when he started screaming. He almost tops the N64 kid’s performance that dates back a few years… almost, but not quite! I’ll let you judge for yourself:

GAS’s Most Popular Stories of 2008

With more than 4.2 million page views, 2008 has been an amazing year for us. In fact, it’s been the best one since the blog’s inauguration back in 2005. Some of our most popular stories ever have been published in the last year, and in case you weren’t around back then, here are the top 10 most viewed ones for 2008.

1- HOW TO: Cheap Wireless For Your Xbox 360 – 289857 views

2- Accused Music Pirate Turns the Tables on the RIAA – 109622 views

3- 12 Reasons Why a Geek Will Steal Your Girlfriend in 2008 – 99622 views

4- Unbelievable Google Suggestion – 92726 views

5- Cell Phone Spying: Is Your Life Being Monitored? – 91928 views

6- HOW TO: Delete an Undeletable or Locked File – 89414 views

7- The 10 Hottest New Tech Toys for Summer – 71872 views

8- World’s First Digital Camera – 62753 views

9- Amazing Geek Toy: The Van De Graaff Levitation Wand – 54889 views

10- 10 Must-Read Books for Geeks – 47238 views