so easy to use which was my main interest. With four animals running around and the mess I make while cooking, I hoped for something that would be convenient enough to use frequently. It has two small tanks on kit that are very simple to fill up. One for water and one for the cleaning solution. Which is expensive, but worth it. I thought that the tanks would make it heavy, but it isn’t much different in weight from a stick vac.

You need to wear shoes while using it, because of the steam heat. You can easily burn your feet with it. I know many people mop in their socks or with bare feet to avoid the foot prints, but you are going to need to work with something substantial on your feet. The floor does get warm, so I recommend sending your dogs to their room while you are using the steam mop.

It makes quick heated steam that they say kills 99% of bacteria and germs. It was such a pleasant and rewarding feeling going over spots that had ground in dirt, and even rust. It took up things that were stuck to the floor as well. What a terrific little bot.

They claim that the Hoover® SteamPlus™ Cleaning is 100% biodegradable and non-toxic, so it’s safe to use to kill germs and bacteria while still insuring a non-toxic environment for your children and pets.

The mop seems like a steam iron and a vac hooked up. Ok Hoover, when do I get my cleaning robot that will vacuum the rugs, and steam the floors all by itself?

The writer seems baffled by the trend of wearing lounge wear outside of the home to school. Here in Mass where lounge wear is worn practically everyplace, GQ magazine dubbed the capital of the Commonwealth as the country’s worst dressed. I’ve been working online since 1993 and I don’t do it wearing heels and makeup. Even denim is binding when you need to be seated and typing for long hours.

I would argue that young people are dressing for success. PJ’s all day is a status symbol. Sitting around on the couch with a tablet or laptop, is the board room of today. In the present culture a successful internet entrepreneur, or someone unemployed and surfing for jobs online looks identical.

Are the pajama people slackers and just sloppy as the WSJ writer contends? Or are they dressing for the career that they want to have? Perhaps those attending school in their pj’s envision themselves as future content creators coding, making art, videos and articles and getting paid for it. Those of us who do that sort of thing know just how many hours it takes to geek out and produce something quality, and often the collateral damage is that our appearance suffers.

The very popular show Big Bang Theory shows intelligent and employed role models who hold advanced degrees, wearing tee shirts, and hoodies. The female main characters wear stylish lounge pants, tanks, hoodies and sweats. The characters seldom “dress up”, and there are several episodes where these geeky internet savvy characters are totally at sea when it comes time to dress for social functions.

Not that lounge wear is cheap either. As with any fashion, you could spend $20 or $200 to buy pre ripped jeans or stretchy leggings that look like pajama denims for couch wear. Designers may not be getting many bucks from the trend. Licensed clothiers are though, those Hello Kitty pj’s are going to set you back a pretty penny.

Kids do grow up, and will learn when it is important to look pulled together. But that image of the suit wearing job applicant going for an interview is becoming more antediluvian. Many interviews take place on Skype. People may even work together for years, and never actually “meet” in “real-life”.

For women working from home has become more than just a dream in some cases. Having a child and staying home to be a Mom does not necessarily mean being unemployed anymore, like it did before the internet. More women are doing work online or going to school online while they raise kids.

Cutting edge technology means warm fuzzies are needed. Everything is better when done in fleece. Let’s get our slippers and go out on the town. Ok maybe a town in Skyrim.

There are certainly legions of unpaid writers in the gaming industry. Some people are assuredly laughing all the way to the bank, as they build their websites and their own careers based on the backs of other people. It is quite common for these non paid volunteers to be driven by slave drivers, working many overtime hours and late nights. “Will Work for Video Games” is a joke folks. With the economy squeezing everyone, fewer freebies are being handed out than they were eight years ago. It’s unlikely that newcomers will ever see that happening.

What some of those younger writers don’t know about are the rights that they have over their material. When you produce an article or a review, it is yours forever. If you shop it around to various blogs or websites and they happen to print it – without paying you, then you still own the piece. It is called First Rights. You are in essence giving them permission to use your piece for a certain period of time. In fact, you could also ask them to remove the piece at your discretion, at any time, if you felt the need to do so for some reason.

If you are not a paid writer, then you are by default, a free lancer. You can take your article and pitch it to anyone whom you wish to. Use it anyplace on the internet or even sell it again to a magazine. That is called self-serialization.

Some websites go so far as to come out with lists of rules and regulations, requirements and other means of control. In fact those “rules” are worthless because you are volunteers, who are all technically free lance. It is always those who want something for nothing who are the most greedy, aren’t they?

If you aren’t aware of it some of these vapid, brainless, airheaded, twits and dyke-ish drill sergeants will work you until your eyes get boggled. And then tell you that you can’t place your article anywhere else on the web. That, they shouldn’t do, because unless they have drafted up a legal non-compete contract with you, on actual paper, and had you sign it with an actual pen, with copies for you, their el cheepo website, and both of your lawyers, then they have no legal right to tell you what you can and can not do with your work.

The legal fees, and employment costs to do a real, professional website, would put most of these pretenders out of business before they even started. There are many predators in sheep’s clothing out there, so be careful.

If nothing else you should be signing W4′s and Miscellaneous Income statements for tax time, for games, travel, shwag and anything else you receive “free”. If there isn’t any paperwork to sign when you get “hired” then you know you have encountered a fly by night operation that is set on taking advantage of you.

When they try any of this it’s a red flag, and could even be bordering on illegal labor practices. What many websites rely on is a ‘revolving door of writers’. I just made that metaphor up, it’s good isn’t it? What they count on is that young inexperienced writers will do just about anything for exposure and to have something to put on a resume, which ultimately may not impress a potential employer at all.

School internships do protect young workers to some extent, and the work that they do is graded and compensated. That is a more secure way to go.

Just because you are young, or old, it doesn’t waive the fact that you and your work have value and should not be discounted. It is one thing to ask volunteers to do something, and it is something very uncool if they insist on it. Sure, that website might not print your article, but do you really want to go there if they treat people like garbage? In the end karma will take care of them, but do look out before wasting lots of time and energy that you could put to better use elsewhere.

If a website has taken your article and reused it with out permission on another website, or is getting paid advertisers alongside your article, you should be getting a cut or a percentage of that dough. Remeber the movie Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, when Silent Bob finally talks? He sure does say a mouthful, and he’s right too.

If you need more information about writers rights look here: the National Writers Union http://www.nwu.org/node or the National Labor Department http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/lawsprog.htm If you think that you have been a victim of a scam, contact your local labor department, or attorney general’s office. They will send you a form to fill out, and look over your claim. Then you will have an impartial judgement about what has happened to you.

And blog, blog, blog, you can say whatever you like, even on Facebook, because unless they have a gag order in writing, you are still covered by free speech. Keep on writing, and even if you aren’t getting paid remember the pen will always be mightier than the sword.

I remember things like the day JFK got shot, the first moon landing on black and white TV. I remember when the first video game consoles came out. With some franchises, I was playing them since their very first iterations. The question in front of me now becomes, “Is my frame of reference still valuable?”

Eight years ago, there were only a handful of female game journalists. I was one of the first females to call myself that. PR, developers, and publishers valued the opinion of a mature woman who represented the female purse in the industry. I had the years of gaming experience that made my perspective unique among gamers, and at that time, among other women.

Not too long ago we women gamers had to convince many developers that many women actually do play video games. During that time I got hired to work for the illustrious website womengamers.com. While I was there I joined in on the conversation of the role of women in video games and was a main contributor there for reviews, and editorials on the topic of sexism in gaming. After about ten years of doing that work the site closed. But it was with a sense of accomplishment. We had made our point. The proliferation of female writers on the topic of gaming exploded.

We were no longer alone. That was what I was going for. As with any movement I’ve been part of, the peace movement of the sixties, the new age movement of the nineties, once the seeds are planted, you have no control of where or how it grows. The desire to pass down knowledge is a very strong drive. I could put up with many slights and insults to accomplish those ends. Because it has never been about games in of themselves, but the role and portrayal of women in them, and playing them. Which is a higher matter.

In a world that is increasingly youth oriented, there are new concerns cropping up for me. Are younger, newer, websites getting more games to review? At this point in my “career” I don’t have to seek out PR people, I did plenty of that in years past. Games are offered to me because of my opinion and experience still. In some ways the back end of game journalism is an old boys club, populated by young boys. It isn’t what you know but whom. Breaking into that world can be not only intimidating, but impossible for new writers.

Over the years I’ve made choices to avoid some of the major titles because I’ve felt that enough people are playing them, and that I can’t really add much to the conversation. I never felt that what I could say about Batman games, for instance, was necessary for people to read. Some games just aren’t a fit. It might give my regular readers a laugh, but I’m no super hero expert. I know my limits, and limitations. I don’t play as fast as I used to. My hands don’t move like they did five years ago. That’s why I love the iPad for gaming, because it bridges the age gap. Times change, technology changes, and so have I along with it. It’s been a long strange trip from the HAM radio to iPad.

Should I feel embarrassed about my age? Should I be hiding it? My answer to these is going to be no. That honesty is going to ostracize me though. There are those in the industry who don’t respect women, and older women might as well be dead to them. To some people if your appearance as a female is hot, then they might listen to you for a second.

These days I am encountering this different “ism” as time goes forward. Being passed over, forgotten, uninvited, not included, by other women. Those were things that I thought I had become used to as an awkward girl, with braces and glasses, or as a young woman with taped together glasses (for real). The bullying, though taking different forms still goes on. Turns out the scars from being treated like a geek still bleed. Feeling pushed aside is still hurtful, and being a geek for real isn’t actually chic.

I had done an interview with someone from Aerial 7 so I checked out what they had. I found this set of Aerial 7 Tank Headphones in a Hello Kitty motif. I wanted them immediately, but I forced myself to really look around first to make sure that it wasn’t just the Hello Kitty design that was drawing me in.

I had many needs to fill. I wanted a headset because I had enough with ear buds. I wanted a decent mic for recording vocals at home. Being able to plug it into an acoustic electric guitar could come in handy for tuning, or practice while the TV is on. It had to be stable enough to handle Skype and not add additional static. Whatever I chose had to be compatible with all of our Apple devices too.

The Aerial7 Tank Headphones feature a 57mm Driver which gives a fairly robust sound quality. They are very comfortable, and have a small enough setting for my size. It came in attractive packaging. The instruction manual was very brief though, and could have been an actual booklet to help explain how each attachment is used in more detail for people who don’t know. For my purpose, just a short description and picture of each cord that they had was enough.

The set Includes a soft cloth case to carry the headphones and the variety of cords all together. The whole thing is compact enough to fit inside the niche in a guitar case, or easily hold an iPod as well as the headphones and the cords, in your purse or a beach bag. It is definitely worth it having the soft feeling of the foam on the ears. The sound is more round and holistic, the stereo separation is much more effective. They cut out background noise such as an air conditioner very well too.

These Tanks, while offering a very cute addition to my collection of Hello Kitty skins and covers for my eQlectronics, are extremely multi functional and handy. There are the many applications for these. I can use them for song writing Apps on my iPad, or gaming, as well as listening to music on iPods. It has those 3.5mm iPhone® – Skype™ adapters which means I can plug the alternate cord with the red and blue ends into my netbook PC for meetings on Skype, and for podcasts. All I have to do is switch over to the cord with the built in mic, or the 3.5mm input plug and 3.5mm iPhone that were included. It also came with a very long coiled DJ cord that can be plugged into a mixer. The fatter plug 3.5mm – 6.3mm (1/4″) adapter is included too. With everything it comes with and the way it sounds, it seems reasonable for the price. I just hope they will last.

Not too long ago Mobiado a phone designer and Aston Martin a luxury car maker came up with a prototype of a transparent Android phone in March.

It doesn’t seem real does it? It is. Tokyo designer Mac Funamizu came up with the  transparent tablet concept (above)  back in 2008. More recently his latest futuristic concept is the transparent phone known as the Thru Phone. It has two sliding parts, one as home touchscreen, the other as the keyboard. Additionally every action performed by the Thru Phone becomes a game. When you get an email notification, fireworks will appear on screen, while the phone is placed near objects, the phone will turn them into on-screen animations of little goblins or spaceships attacking your items on your desk.

It looks like a trend to me. I’m predicting a transparent iPhone in the not too distant future. One star to the left..