gender

Gender-bending Lego ad remixer mashes up ninjas, puppies

I don't mean to sound all crotchety and old, but back when I was a kid, our Legos didn't have genders. All Legos were for everybody.

My brother and I shared the same pile of bricks and Lego figures. I didn't feel slighted that our little yellow people were missing pink skirts and sassy ponytails.

Lego recently debuted a new line of toys for girls. The Lego Friends wear skirts, have puppies, play dress-up, and hang out in a candy-colored cafe. Meanwhile, the boys' Lego characters are fighting space battles, capturing dinosaurs, and sailing pirate ships.

The HTML5 Gendered Lego Advertising Remixer shines a light on the gender divide in toy advertising. There's one world for girls and an entirely different world for boys.… Read more

How to tweet like a man

Apparently, what you tweet can say a lot about who you are. It's an evolving truism that even socio-linguists are hip to. Just last month, a study was presented at a linguistics conference in Scotland that looked at possible connections between what people tweet and their gender.

The study gives word nerds like me the opportunity for all kinds of fun. Before getting down to it, check out the list of the most gender-skewed words from the study. These are the words that were determined to be the most predictive of a Tweeter's gender:

Using the above chart, the most feminine tweet possible would be something like:

omg girl! totally cute etsy dress shopping, yay! hubby miss birthday, soo sad-sigh- hate husband today, baby miss yummy dinner tomorrow lol

See? You'd never guess that Tweet was composed by a married man who never forgets his wife's birthday, has a significant respect for the treasure trove that is crafts site Etsy, and isn't afraid to admit it to the world.

Now, looking at the more ludicrous part of the chart, the most masculine tweet possible would read more like:

Googled google, Google results missing http. Mayb need http when use http://google.com? No answer at Google or http://google.com Google fail

Let's hope we're more interesting in face-to-face conversation than we are in this most algorithmically gender-predictive tweet, guys. If not, it might explain why the ladies are spending more time tweeting about Etsy and chocolate and hair than us.… Read more

The 404 873: Where we raise the debt roof (podcast)

Happy Wi-Fi Day, everyone! We're celebrating 8.02.11 with the return of Joseph Kaminski, and he's giving away free Wi-Fi refills all day to celebrate.

Joey's also teaching us how to tweet like men, even though he doesn't have a Twitter account, and telling us about Apple's new iCloud media-syncing service that rolled out to testers in the Apple Developer Programs today.

The 404 Digest for Episode 873

Learn how to tweet like a man. iCloud gets tested and priced. It's the first (and only) Wi-Fi Day! How will you celebrate 8.02.11?

Episode 873 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Google+ will let users conceal gender

The Ford Motor Company has officially decided that its gender is not male. Nor is it female. On the Google+ social networking site, Ford lists it as "other."

That may not exactly be incorrect, but the bit of corporate awkwardness was the result of Google making two interrelated design decisions: first, gender can be only male, female, or other. Second, whatever gender is selected must be public.

Until now. Google announced this evening that gender could be hidden from public profiles, a move that likely comes as a relief to ABC News Radio (other), the Austin American-Statesman (ditto), … Read more

The 404 578: Where we believe the children are the future (podcast)

Wilson's powers to predict the future must be waning because he didn't warn us about the illness keeping him bedridden during today's episode of The 404 Podcast. The universe seems to work itself out, however, because CNET News reporter Caroline McCarthy is back from her sojourn to San Francisco, and hopefully on a semi-permanent basis this time!

She joins us this morning to discuss a couple social networking stories on her CNET News blog, The Social, including Twitter's "auto-follow" bug, Facebook automatically adding profile pages, and McDonalds teaming up with Facebook!

If you could force anyone on Twitter to follow you, who would you choose? A recent bug in the Twitter platform turned that wish into a fantasy yesterday when it was discovered that members could add any follower to their account simply by tweeting "accept" and the "@" symbol with a corresponding user name. As a result, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Evan Williams both found themselves following the mundane details of random hackers around the world, although Caroline tested the bug herself with Mr. Kutcher's account with success as well.

Fortunately, an update posted on the Twitter status blog reports that engineers are working diligently to remove the bug and set the Earth back on its axis.

Facebook is also moving forward with its location-based technology platform, starting with a partnership with McDonald's that lets fast food patrons check-in at any of the golden arches restaurants. The app also posts exactly which menu items you order so your friends will know exactly how much you hate your body.

The female presence on The 404 is seriously lacking, so we're taking this rare opportunity to get Caroline's perspective on six gender stereotypes that science proves are true. Most of them smell like bull, but there seems to be some truth in the idea that women apparently can't navigate directions.

Now before you start sending in hate mail, we should mention that these are all statements do not reflect the personal beliefs of the hosts of The 404 or CNET or CBS or anyone but Cracked, who wrote the article. In it they cite one study that found boys carry an innate ability to see a third dimension which contributes to increase spatial ability compared to girls by a radio of 4:1.

In a supposedly unrelated story, Caroline tells us she failed her first time at the DMV on her driver's test, although she claims that it had more to do with her lack of practice than her gender...apparently this list of stereotypes isn't the only thing that smells of bull!

We love having Caroline on the show, but she won't come back unless you call 1-866-404-CNET and beg her to do so! You can also e-mail us at the404(at)cnet(dot)com and we'll forward your grovel to her, so get to work! With any hope, Wilson will be out for the rest of the week so we can have her back again!

Just kidding Wilson, get well soon!

EPISODE 578 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

That 'P' in PHP stands for 'pink': It's Nerd Barbie!

You don't even have to ask: Of course she has a pink laptop.

Earlier on Friday, toymaker Mattel announced the results of an online contest to name the profession that the latest edition of Barbie dolls would have, and ultimately two were named: alongside "News Anchor" was the popular-vote winner, "Computer Engineer Barbie." Yes, she has a Bluetooth headset, a pink laptop, a smartphone, and hot-pink glasses. Oh, and she wears sparkly black leggings and a neon green shirt patterned with binary code, the sort of outfit that was probably only acceptable among Burning Man attendees in the late 1990s who liked to talk about "cyberspace." Actually, judging by that outfit, a Pets.com sock puppet would make a great accessory for the new doll.

According to a release from Mattel, the unveiling of Computer Engineer Barbie--she'll hit stores this fall--coincides with "a year-long, global brand initiative to inspire girls of all ages." The social-media-centric "I Can Be" poll that pitted Computer Engineer and News Anchor alongside Surgeon, Architect, and Environmentalist (over half a million votes were cast) is a big part of some image repair for the iconic doll, which has often been decked by feminists for promoting unhealthy body image, materialism, conformity, and the pigeonholing of women into traditional roles.

Some of the other options in the "I Can Be" series that were already in stores at the time of the contest are "Ballerina," "Bride," and "Babysitter." Enough said. But, to be fair, the two newest entries are the 125th and 126th careers for Barbie throughout her five-decade history, so there have been some more interesting ones in the mix over the years: numerous U.S. military officers, astronauts, chefs, diplomats, and um, wedding stylists.

The fact that there is a "Computer Engineer Barbie" is notable not only because it's a legitimate new "professional" entry into the series, but especially because computer science is a field in which women continue to be dramatically underrepresented--way more so than among, say, news anchors or architects.

There are, obviously, two sides to this.… Read more

Gadgettes 154: The Kitchen Sink Episode

Most of the time, you get everything BUT the kitchen sink. But being that we're the Gadgettes, we've decided you deserve a little something extra. So we decided to give you a kitchen sink too.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 154

Misting kitchen sink

Water Lounge Offers Relaxing Stink Control

Gorenje unveils new generation of kitchen appliances at IFA 2009 (thanks Karl!)

Rhapsody approved for iphone

USB Posture Alert Reminder will set you on the straight and narrow

Fug Hoof shoes (thanks Sparkman!)

Why Didn’t … Read more

Soon, billboards that know male from female

Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*Star) has developed a gender recognition system that could change the way advertising works in the future.

The technology uses sophisticated algorithms to differentiate facial features of males and females. However, unlike Face Detection 3.0, which is employed in point-and-shoots such as the Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR, the gender recognition system can only detect faces that are facing the camera.

The A*Star-developed system is bring displayed at CommunicAsia 2009 held at the Singapore Expo. A representative at the agency's booth told us the technology is focused on advertising, so … Read more

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 … Read more