G-OGRAPHY: a southeast asian lady travels...

Photo Credit: Glamour
The idea for this blog post started with an exercise ball. I spend a LOT time in front of the computer and as a result have been experiencing a lot of back pain. My company issued ergonomic chair was useless so I was searching my head for an alternative. I then randomly remembered seeing Jessica Biel in the movie Stealth sitting on an exercise ball while typing on the computer (yes my mind works in weird mysterious ways). So I thought: Why not try it for myself? At this point, I also remembered reading somewhere that people do use it in place of a work chair (read: 10 Reasons to Use an Exercise Ball as Your Chair). My co-worker conveniently had a ball stashed in her cube (don't ask me why I just work there) and instantly felt relief the first few minutes I sat on it. (Bear with me...I am almost getting to why it had prompted me to write this post)

So unable to contain my joy at this discovery, I felt the urge to share it to world through Facebook/Twitter. To make my update a little more interesting I thought of linking a photo of some famous person. One of the most sexiest geeks immediately popped into my head. Marissa Mayer- Google's VP of Search Product and User Experience. Here she is as one of Glamour's women of the year for 2009 looking elegant on top of an exercise ball. Money quote from this article: “I do code all night! I am the stereotype, but I also break the stereotype.” Among her goals: to bring more women into technology and teach them to take chances. “Get in a bit over your head,” she says. “That’s how you grow and learn and stretch yourself.”

I just love it! Women who don't look like geeks but are not afraid to be geeks. They truly rock the world by breaking stereotypes. Here are some more featured in Wired.com's 2009’s Sexiest Geeks and Kotaku's Ten Most Influential Women In Games Of The Past Decade.

Technology Predictions for 2010

Photo Cred: Dan Zen

Here they are:

Web 2.0 & Social Media
For 2010, Geolocation is the new buzzword for the online community. Last year, services such as Loopt and Google Latitude became popular applications that allowed people to share their real-time location to friends through any internet connected device. Experts think that this will continue to catch on for 2010. More businesses will offer location-based services that will allow you to identify exactly where objects and other people are. Even photos and videos can now be “geotagged”. Mashable has an excellent article that will give you a detailed account of what it would look like here.


Augmented Reality is also another technology that will rock Social Media in 2010. AR combines real images and virtual data into an interactive real-time 3d format. Layar and Yelp were the first ones to release apps for this. Now even Lonely Planet and the US Postal Service has it!


Google Wave will also become bigger. More people will be using it as a collaborative tool even small enterprises. Speaking of Google, it looks like a big year for them since they will also, possibly, release Chrome OS...that is if they are able to prepare for hacker attacks.


Devices
They will continue to be connected, portable, and smart. It would be interesting to see the Android and the iPhone battle each other out for the #1 spot for Smartphone of the Year in 2010. On the other hand, Netbooks and Ebooks will still make an appearance but sexy Tablets are going to make a big debut with Apple's iSlate looking very promising.


Electronics
Behold the coming of 3d TV! Ten years ago this was a technology that you could only see in science fiction movies, yet, we now have it in this decade. Of course, it will be very expensive but early adopters will be showcasing one of these in their homes in no time.


Gaming
Ever since Microsoft announced Project Natal in June 2009 (with no less than Legendary Hollywood mega-director/producer Steven Spielberg helping to unveil it), the world has been eagerly waiting for it. What they have is a device that could revolutionize the way people play video games. The motion-sensing, facial-recognizing, voice-controlled device could make the Xbox 360 unbeatable.


As for game titles, best bets for making it to the top are: Bioshock 2, God of War 3, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Mass Effect 2, Gran Turismo 5, Metroid Other M and Bayonetta.


Green Tech
Although investments in clean technology are supposedly cooling off clean energy innovation will still be big in 2010. Consumers and businesses will also begin to monitor their energy use in real time and take steps through home energy monitoring displays. Lastly, electric cars such as the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf will sell this year.

Related Links

Gadget and Tech Predictions for 2010 - ABC News

10 Predictions for 2010 - PC World

6 Tech Predictions That Helped Shape 2009 and 6 That Might Shape 2010 - Mashable

Tech predictions for 2010 - ZDNet

Technology predictions 2010 « Technobabble 2.0

I was fortunate enough to attend E3 since I work for an awesome company within the industry. For those of you living under a rock E3 Expo is a trade show for computer and video games and related products. E3 stands for Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Below are some of my personal highlights from the event. Today was the last day by the way so I'm glad it wasn't as crowded. There were less freebies though but the last thing I need is more clutter in my apartment.

Oh and there were a number of excellent parties along downtown LA last night =) In fact, I am still recovering from excessive intake of free alcohol. Folks better remember to eat before binge drinking and have a designated driver assigned!!!



Playstation

I liked how they built out their area to look like a mini-pod city.

Activision

They had big screens all over which was wicked. Most of the games I have on the Xbox are from Activision. Not really by choice I just know the geeks that work on these games so by default I get to mooch on their employee discount. I like Call of Duty and Guitar Hero the best!


When I got to their area I was in time to see them demo for DJ Hero. I was impressed by how clever the mechanics of the game were and how great the tracks sounded.

Disney



My peeps! I am proud to showcase our new cool game Split Second. Click here to watch a short interview about the game.

THQ

Definitely like the gaming pods.

Mini Ninjas

I have no idea what game they had but their set-up was soooo cute!

Sega

Some of the more decent booth babes.

Nintendo



Mario! Enough said.

X-box

I was very impressed and excited with what Microsoft is doing with the Xbox. I own one and I love the cool dashboard features on Live. Oh god and the avatar...I literally spend hours changing my outfit, my hair, my makeup. Totally addicting. So I sat down and actually saw the demos and all I can say is that Microsoft is gonna kick console ass. The Xbox team spent a lot of time developing some very innovative features that I only wish Microsoft can apply to their PC system. I can't wait for fall when they start releasing the awesome upgrades. Watch this video below to see how they plan to change how people play video games:



Oh and did I mention that Xbox gamers can start connecting to Facebook and Twitter? =)


Some snapshots straight from the LA Convention carpet! As you can see the interface is pweeetttyyy.

Twitter


Facebook


Oh and I almost ran off with these...except that they had this lady guarding them and she started giving me the evil eye because I was hovering over them for too long.


All in all it wasn't a bad first time to the event. I kinda still like Comic Con but that's because I didn't get to meet Chuck and Morgan from NBC's Chuck like my friend did!!!! Grrrrr so jealous! Oh the perks of living near Hollywood.