Browser history analyzer guesses your gender

Mike Nolet of blog Mike on Ads has put together a fun little diversion that gives your browser history a quick once over and cross-references it with sites on the Quancast top 1000. Using the gender ratio on each site (according to Quancast) it will cobble together an overall percentage of what gender it thinks you are based on those results.

Not surprisingly most of us in the office, including my colleague Erica Ogg, have come up as male, with many tech sites having higher ratios of male users. The tool will give you a complete rundown of all the sites that popped up, along with their respective ratios. It's pretty fun to go through them and see the estimated makeup of each place--you might be surprised.

In case you're worried about your browsing history being used for evil, Nolet insists he's not doing anything with the data. Many users have left their true genders and the tool's guess in the comments below Nolet's post. The general consensus is that if you visit many popular tech sites you'll be pinned under the male persuasion. Visiting some sites with higher female-to-male ratios like TMZ and Livejournal will swing your overall percentage the other direction.

Note: The tool runs a little slow in Internet Explorer, so if you're having problems switch over to Firefox or Opera.

Via Webware

A match made in heaven: Apple's MacBook Air and Iomega's eGo Helium

Earlier this year, we took a close look at Iomega's eGo line of portable hard drives. We tested both the brown leather eGo and the camo eGo, with superb results: We liked both Iomega's Drop Guard design that protects the drives from drops up to a meter above the floor, and the quick transfer speeds.

Now, Iomega is taking the drives' aesthetic value one step further by introducing the 320GB eGo Helium. The drive is just .63 inches, and its sleek exterior casing is anodized silver to match perfectly with Apple's MacBook Air. Inside the chassis, you'll find a slim 2.5-inch portable drive--the whole device weighs a svelte 7 ounces.

The eGo Helium attaches to your computer via USB 2.0 and is powered by the USB bus so there's no need for external power. It also features the Drop Guard design for extra protection from the elements of day-to-day travel, and is preformatted for use with Apple's HFS+ file system. The drive is also compatible with Windows 2000 Professional, XP, and Vista.

We're excited to take a closer look at the device and test the read and write speeds. The other eGo drives we tested before performed very well, reading data at 19.47 megabytes per second and writing at 19.5MBps. Not bad for an external hard drive, but we'll see if the eGo Helium lives up to its ruggedized siblings.

Via Crave CNET

Creative makes notebook audio go wireless

Content:

Laptop audio has come a long way. From basic beeps to high-definition sound, integrated sound cards are sufficient for most users, whether it be for gaming or entertainment.

However, there exists a class of listeners who demand more from their sound. It is for this market that has Creative targeted with its X-Fi technology. Using a proprietary algorithm, X-Fi puts in the higher and lower frequencies which are lost when a CD is compressed into MP3 or AAC formats. However, this is not the key feature of Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook card.
Read more »

VAIO design contest winners bring on the Splash

Sony has revealed the winners of its VAIO My Contest Graphic Splash PC Design Contest, and the resulting creations, titled Sound Waves, Kaleidoscope, and Colorful, are far from monochromatic.

The latter, as its name suggests, features a swirl of, well, color--vibrant green, yellow, orange, red, pink, and blue. Artist "starfantazy," who submitted the design, said she loves how colors seem to flow together: "I think they represent life and all that is so diverse in it."

"Crea8anim8" was similarly inspired by color in creating the muted, jungle-evoking "Kaleidoscopes." The way those instruments "catch the light and the way the turning motion creates the interweaving of colors always mesmerizes me," she said.

For "Sound Waves," meanwhile," Crimsonjassic, aka Transfuse," looked to waves, koi, and the description of the Vaio FW series at the center of the competition as "reminiscent of a rolling wave." His laptop shell features a graceful mermaid--wearing headphones.

Read more »

Tom Bihn TSA-approved bag a laptop-lugger's dream

In August, the TSA started allowing travelers who use laptop bags designed to certain specifications (see below or visit the site) to pass through security scanning without pulling the laptop out of their bag. I don't believe for a second that this will stop screeners from making you remove your laptop, but here's hoping.

Manufacturers, of course, took advantage of the new regulations to release bags that meet the requirements. (You probably needed a new bag anyway, right?) Computerworld rounded eight of them up to see which bag would not only zip you through security, but not leave longing for pockets, padding, and Velcro closures.

Prices ranged from US$49.95 to US$225, with its favorite being the US$220 Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer Briefcase, winning for the bag's "good looks, expert pocketry, and three hinged compartments that fold up into a compact case".
Read more »

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