It's Hell Night! Wait, you all have no idea what that means. OK, so tonight I'm headed into Boston for the East Coast Grille's Hell Night of super-spicy food made for the singular purpose of seeing how hot I can go. It's gunna be epic. Until then, I'm warming my taste buds up with a dash of cayenne in my mac and cheese ... and a healthy dose of headlines:

-In honor of one of my favorite holidays, Earth Day, I challenge all you coffee-loving geeks: Step up and do your part. I did.

-I loves me some Michael J. Fox. Did you know he's a high-school dropout? I don't care, I still think he's awesome.

-The US is essentially grounding the space program, and that makes me really sad. And angry.

-AT&T is hanging up the sword in the wireless war with Verizon. Does this mean no more Luke Wilson? (Fingers crossed.)

-I'm feeling science-y today apparently: The deepest undersea volcanic vent has been found -- I can't wait for the show on it!

-Twitter-roonie has a business model -- oh, our little social network is all growed up! But,what do all those ads mean to you?

-So, you have an iPad. Now what? I'll share some cool apps ... as long as you promise to never, ever say you 'pimped your Pad' like this story does. Shudder.

-Google Street View has been blamed for a burglary. I'm just surprised it's taken this long.

-I kinda want one of these phones. Not sure why, but I am totally feeling them.

-This story on digital parenting actually strikes a chord with me. Cute kids are one thing, attention-seeking parents is quite another.

OK, blame it on the capsaicin in my breakfast making my mouth all spicy ... but you're all going to have to bare with me for a minute for a rant I probably shouldn't do. No scratch that -- I'm a smart girl and I *know* I shouldn't be saying this about my big sister/cousin over at USAToday's stellar website ... But would someone please take Pop Candy's Whitney aside and tell her that the 'Pop Five' feature is duuuumb? 'Pop Five episodes of Columbo'? Really? I hesitate to even link there lest I accidentally kill a few of your brain cells. Granted, I can't get you all to write in to me with ideas unless I'm giving something away, so kudos to her on the awesome fan base, but there has to be more interesting topics out there than one random person's 'Pop Five Concert Experiences.' But even when they're good topics, the lists are unreasonably obscure and mundane -- which, correct me if I'm wrong, flies directly in the face and idea of 'pop culture.' Alas, maybe the feature is going through a stale period (maybe? psh), but let's rev the engine and move on! Oh, and if anyone does mention this to Whit, please also mention that I think she's adorable and I love Tattoo Tuesdays. K, thanks.

Wish me fun tonight at Hell Night! We'll be taking Friday off here at Byte-Sized for a much-deserved vacay .. see you back here Monday!

--am

Labels: apple ipad, NASA space program, pop candy, Starbucks

Yay! It's the weekend! Well, almost ... A few more hours until you're out for a few days -- this is what makes Fridays so awesome! Let me add to it by offering up so cool stories for you to read and enjoy while you wait for quittin' time!

--Google and Amazon are all over the iPad situation by planning competitors right out of the gate.

--OK, I'm a geek, but I loves my football. Here is a list of some fun gadgets that will help spice up your Super Bowl experience! I'll be honest, most of them are no-brainers, but what can ya do?

--Bethesda's fallow-up video game 'Fallout: New Vegas' was announced and set for this fall. Word. Something tells me I may be short one husband for a few weeks.

-The Large Hadron Collider (and still my best on-screen typo EVER) is about to be powered up for it's longest ever run -- 18 months! It goes over my head after the first few sentences of explanation exactly what it is being geared up to do, but whatever it is, I'm sure it's *awesome*!

--What color were the dinosaurs? Who knows, right? Scientists have figured it out -- for real.

--Word to the wise: Pay attention and do your research when you're giving to charity. The FBI is tracking so many Haiti scams right now that it breaks my heart.

--Just because it's on Facebook (which is sporting a new design today! I like ...) doesn't mean that it's safe. And, I don't want my company getting fed up and blocking it from the office, so I'm extra careful. You should be too.

Catch you all back here on Monday!

Labels: apple ipad, Captivate on Facebook, Dinosaurs

I had a long, sickly weekend, so it's going to be a short post for me today, my friends, while I work to shrug the blahs.

Cheering me up, as always, is being able to give cute things away to you! For those new to Byte-Sized (shocker, I know), let's do a recap:

For the last few weeks, I've been giving away ONE Hello Kitty USB flash drive with 2 gigs of storage capacity, courtesy of Mimoco, home of the cutest USB drives on the planet. All you have to do is enter once by emailing me at bytesized@captivate.com and your name will go in a pool for every week of the Hello Kitty giveaway.

This week's special friend is merrily frolicking through fields of green and tulips while she teases and tempts you to win her!

Please visit http://www.mimoco.com/ to see the latest designs the company has commissioned for their 'bots, and join me back here on Wednesday when I announce the winner!

Until then, I think I need some Vitamin B12 or something ... :) Here are a few tasty headlines to tickle your fancy:

-- The Olympics are coming up, and I can't get enough. So, here's some interesting coverage from CNet on how the event coordinators are using bales of hay to augment not enough snow.

--It's becoming the most retold story of our age -- and no, I'm not talking about 'Romeo and Juliet finally have a happy ending' that is 'Twilight,' I'm talking about which system is more secure, PC or Mac. And, as it turns out, you shouldn't take your security knowledge from Drew Barrymore's boyfriend.

--Honey, if you're reading, I posted this story for you: Dell has a new netbook out.

--I'm all about e-readers, and I say to you, iPad, bring it ON.

--Yay, best for last! Here is a great list of some amazing projects from NASA and beyond! Wooo!

Labels: apple ipad, dell netbook, ereaders, Hello Kitty, plympics

I'm not one to jump on a bandwagon, but in this case, do I really need to say more?

OK, moving on, here are the pebbles that made the biggest ripples this week:

--CNet.com is all over this Apple iPad story. Here's the editor's take. And here is a story answering your questions about the tablet. Is it for you? Find out here. Wait, is the iPad even a computer??

--But, you just got that awesome netbook for Christmas! Don't fret your geeky heads, here's why you're still better off than having an iPad.

--If Apple even thinks this silly tablet is going to kill my ereader, then we might have to throw down.

--Oh MAN I would love to do this ... PS- 'LOST' is next week!

--Here's a list of the 10 most anticipated games of 2010. Some of them are definitely on my list!

Catch you all back here Monday for the fourth week of our Hello Kitty giveaway series. Until then, I hope you have a blast reading all about the iPad -- yeah, still the worst name ever -- and have a great weekend!

Labels: apple ipad, lost