Niches of Niches

November 7, 2007 2:58 PM

Tired of the same old gadget blogs? Try Homotron, the gay gadget blog.
posted by GuyZero (31 comments total)

Hooray! You're setting back the gay rights movement, Charlie Brown!
posted by es_de_bah at 3:05 PM on November 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

While it has a catchy name (better if they were covering Bobby Orlando albums), what's gay about gadgets beyond the 8th-grade pejorative?

Plus, the guy he links to—The Gay Gamer—should have simply called himself The Gaymer.

There, I've saved print space. When this internet fad is over and we all return to putting things on paper, he'll thank me.
posted by klangklangston at 3:08 PM on November 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

You know, I'm somewhat nervous about clicking that link at work. The only specifically gay gadgets I can think of aren't, shall we say, suitable for mixed company.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:18 PM on November 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Why yes, I am a bit tired of the same old gadget blogs. I've been meaning to ask around, actually, because honestly it's six of one to me: what's the difference between Engadget and Gizmodo? People seem to prefer one over the other, but I forget which. And why? Is one's snark smarter? Scoops scoopier? My reaction to Gizmadget is something akin to face blindness, and I've been reading them for years.

Also, meh. I was prepared to be enticed, but Homotron does not titillate me. What, exactly, is the critical differentiator here? Or is the value prop "just-another-gadget-blog but without hetero-sexist editors"? 'Cos I guess I could get behind that, if the writing were snappier.
posted by mumkin at 3:18 PM on November 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Are these gadgets items I would not be able to keep in my closet?
posted by LionIndex at 3:20 PM on November 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Be sure to also check out TowleTech at Andy Towle's Towleroad blog every Friday afternoon.
posted by ericb at 3:20 PM on November 7, 2007

...what's the difference between Engadget and Gizmodo?

This week's Fortune magazine: The Blogs of War: Engadget vs. Gizmodo

"In the consumer-technology blogosphere, the battle between Engadget and Gizmodo has become an all-out smackdown."

posted by ericb at 3:24 PM on November 7, 2007

Don't sweat it, dirtynumbangelboy. This is as risqué a post as I've found, about a camera bag with a vaguely vaginal name.
posted by mumkin at 3:25 PM on November 7, 2007

Gizhomo?
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 3:28 PM on November 7, 2007

MiltonRandKalman -- that's pronounced with a "soft G" -- right? ; )
posted by ericb at 3:29 PM on November 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

I actually was only vaguely aware of these gadget blogs - they are interesting reading.
But what exactly is the use of an incredibly powerful green laser? Who would need such a thing? Surveyors? Foresters?
posted by Flashman at 3:40 PM on November 7, 2007

I liked Homotron's review of the Gaydar 2000, especially the detailed attention paid to putting the Wankel rotary engine and Johnson rods through hard testing. Few critics can bring engineers to their knees like Homotron.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:43 PM on November 7, 2007 [3 favorites]

Blazecock Pileon you sure are bending over backwards with all those double entendres, aren't you!

Err, 'forwards?'
posted by ericb at 3:49 PM on November 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Man, I can't believe Texas instruments has been coasting on it's graphing calculator designs for 17 years. I mean they still use practically the same hardware as the original game boy while computers have gotten orders of magnitude faster. I had an '83 in high school and the hardware has hardly advanced at all since then.

(I just noticed that there was a TI-calc post on that gay gadget blog).

I mean in highschool I had a 10mhz calculator and a 75mhz PC with 4mb of ram, and now I have like a 2.0ghz PC and 1gb of ram and I still have the same calculator I had in highschool (well my second one) and it's still practically top of the line.

Students deserve better!
posted by delmoi at 4:04 PM on November 7, 2007

Finally! A site that's comfortable with PDAs AND PDAs.
posted by ColdChef at 4:15 PM on November 7, 2007 [3 favorites]

TI-Nspire Handheld Features Backwards Compatibility - y’know, for gays!

Some of these play right into stereotypes. We all know how much homosexuals enjoy carrying around huge swiss army knives, buying LCD and Plasma t.v.s and text messaging everyone, not to mention doing physics calculations. I mean, pretty much every flaming gay guy I’ve seen is sitting there graphing their algebraic...no, wait, I’m wrong, this is pretty much like every other gadget site.

I feel I’m looking at a black man in the U.S. asserting his heritage by wearing blue jeans.
Dude, everyone in the U.S. wears blue jeans. You’re not different in any way.

“forming an unassailable bulwark for gay geek culture to thrive.”

Nnnnah, pretty much every gizmo geek = pretty much every other gizmo geek if you extract the sex.

“After a long and grueling pregnancy, we announce the birth of a gleaming baby... robot? That's right, Boids and Grills, Homotron is here at last...”

Apparently Stan Lee is gay and writing for this blog.
It is, though, heartening to, once again, see affirmation that while tastes vary, we’re pretty much all the same.

(Do gay folks feel put upon that they must be creative somehow? Serious question. I find many folks are crestfallen when I fail to live up to my stereotypes (ok, I do have a hot blooded passionate temper, but I get angry so rarely and it takes so much to provoke me no one sees it))
posted by Smedleyman at 4:31 PM on November 7, 2007

Not me, Smedleyman... well, not often anyway.

True story: my mother never once asked me anything about clothes or decorating until I came out. Within a week after I did, however, she started asking me about what she should wear... ugh.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 4:43 PM on November 7, 2007

I really pick up a gay slant (at least not on the front page, I didn't go diggin').
posted by solipsophistocracy at 5:07 PM on November 7, 2007

err, I mean I don't really pick up a gay slant.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 5:09 PM on November 7, 2007

"True story: my mother never once asked me anything about clothes or decorating until I came out. Within a week after I did, however, she started asking me about what she should wear... ugh."

Reminds me of a kid I went to high school with who was ostensibly straight but dressed in fluorescent plether at every opportunity, until he came out and suddenly wore cardigans and loafers.

(He was also the one who seemed really disappointed that he didn't get to have a flamboyant coming out, because aside from a few feeble protestations of heterosexual interest—"That girl has wonderful eyebrows, I'd love to have intercourse with her" sort of stuff—everyone assumed that he was out. In fact, the only two broad categories of kids who came out after I knew them in high school were the kids who were gayer than John Waters sodomizing Lance Bass and who were disappointed by the lack of surprise that greeted them, and the virulently and sadistically homophobic jocks who quietly came out after their football scholarships were up. Somehow, they all ended up in loafers and preppy sweaters though. What's up with that?)
posted by klangklangston at 5:10 PM on November 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

True story: my mother never once asked me anything about clothes or decorating until I came out.

Wait, you're gay?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:15 PM on November 7, 2007

Nnnnah, pretty much every gizmo geek = pretty much every other gizmo geek if you extract the sex.

What sex?
posted by enn at 6:17 PM on November 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

We all know how much homosexuals enjoy carrying around huge swiss army knives

I get gasps and laughs for carrying around a Leatherman.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:57 PM on November 7, 2007

Wait, you're gay?

It would appear so.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 7:04 PM on November 7, 2007

“Within a week after I did, however, she started asking me about what she should wear... ugh.”

That’s funny. Buddy of mine came out just after high school. I remember meeting him at the keg at a party and smirking because he’d been dodging me for a while (I pretty much fit the nightmare jock stereotype outwardly) I said “So you’re gay, huh?” he said yeah. I said “I can still give you shit about things without you flipping out, right?” Few years later he said I was the only friend he had (who he wasn’t, y’know fucking) that didn’t change attitude towards him after he came out.
Always struck me watching other people’s parents, friends, etc. either walking on eggshells like it’s an affliction or yeah, playing to stereotype. I grew up with the guy now I’m going to treat him differently? What, so we don’t like the same movies anymore? I suppose we couldn’t really have gone out to pick up chicks together (although we never did really, he wasn’t a big hit with the ladies...obvious in retrospect), but I dunno, having a gay guy as your wing man might be almost better than having a girl.
(I wonder what would happen if people suddenly “came out” as black or something. Mom, dad, I’m....black. Oh, no! Son, you’re not black, you can’t be black. I am, I like rap, I’ve got an afro and look - my skin is dark...say, so is yours dad. Don’t you start with me! (etc.))

*set* and...
“What sex?” - spike by enn
posted by Smedleyman at 8:06 PM on November 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

See, that's the best response, Smedleyman. I had one response just like yours.. told a friend of mine (a guy, back in high school) that I was gay. he said "So? I'm hungry. Let's eat."

I really liked that.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 8:25 PM on November 7, 2007

I can understand the need for Gay Gamer—the OMG BooBs gaming culture is pretty noxious—but I'm not sure what the point is with this expansion. Are they trying to queer the few segments of the blogosphere that Gawker already hasn't?

Somewhat tangentially, I remember that Gawker snapped up Flynn De Marco, Gay Gamer's founder, for their gaming blog. Unfortunately, that hasn't done much for Kotaku's heterosexist culture, or the quality of their writing for that matter.

now that I think about it, Kotaku has always been the most boring of the gawker blogs
posted by Weebot at 10:49 PM on November 7, 2007

Homotron? Finally, Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner get it ON.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:35 PM on November 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

A gay gadget blog? I don't know... in most respects, at least for me, "being homosexual" as an attribute is roughly equivalent in the amount of what it says about a person as "wearing glasses".
Not that you can't infer certain things from a fact like that (she probably carries around a clean cloth to wipe the glasses, she might own a spare pair of glasses, her poor eyesight could be a result of certain genetic factors etc.), but it hardly says anything about people as persons in any meaningful way. So starting up a gadget blog "by people who wear glasses" doesn't seem to add anything of value to the basic premise.
Not to insult the idea (stranger things have thrived on the internet), it just seems kind of pointless, except as a gimmick.
posted by PontifexPrimus at 3:00 AM on November 8, 2007

There are gay gadgets?

What do their genitals look like?
posted by lodurr at 6:07 AM on November 8, 2007

That smartphone, it vibrates?
posted by Skeptic at 7:05 AM on November 8, 2007