Now, I have nothing against pink as a color. I own some pink shirts, some books, some pens. It's fine, one of the many colors I enjoy looking at.

What I hate are pink technology pimps, those marketers/salespeople that assume that since I am walking around in the possession of a uterus, everything I touch must be coated in pink and/or rhinestones.

And I am not alone.

Writing for Wired's Gadget Lab, Priya Ganapati breaks it down:

[G]adget companies seem to find it difficult to design, produce and market products to women without resorting to stereotypes. The current strategy among most gadget makers is that if it is for women, it must be pink or sparkly.

And worse still is the insult that normally comes with the assumption that I'm a pink sparkly princess. It's not enough that they want us to fit in with their pre-existing color palette, but then they have the nerve to think we will be so blinded by the rhinestone bling that we'd forget to check for important things. Like, you know, cost and functionality. Ganapati made me put my fist in the air when she wrote:

If you think pink and sparkly strategy is lazy, so is slapping a designer label on a product for women and pricing it much higher than similar products. HP Vivienne Tam netbook, I am looking at you. The netbook hit some of the right notes. It's a pleasant red, has a stylish exterior and comes with a matching Vivienne Tam designed clutch. But for those perks, women have to shell out $700, much more than the $350 for a comparable HP black or blue netbook.

Now, I'll just put it out there. I'm a slut for pretty. And so this was actually the first netbook I looked at when I was in the market to purchase one. While I loved the color (ooh!), the design left me a bit cold. I was planning to cover it with a skin. But then I realized:

I may be a slut for pretty, but this whore has standards.

So, away I went to give Samsung $400 for sleek, white machine with the battery life, keyboard size, and RAM I wanted that also manages to fit into the tiniest of totes. And for some reason, men go crazy when they see it, eagerly inquiring about the experience and specs. Man, if I was single, this thing would be better than a cute puppy.

Slapping pink paint on some basic ass technology isn't going to help you move units - tailoring it to a woman's needs will.

So marketers/product developers/entrepreneurs, please do me a favor: stop and think before you make it pink.

Official Site [South by Southwest Interactive]
What Real Women Want in Their Gadgets [Wired]
Vivienne Tam Netbook [Amazon]

Natasha Sajé's's essay deals with the struggles of interracial marriage, the tragedy of losing a partner to cancer, the realities of living in Baltimore - all seen through the lens of The Wire. Plenty of people love the show - many describe it as the best TV they've ever seen, life-changing, even. But to this couple, it's a lot more than that - it becomes a cathartic means of dealing with their life's struggles - and, more immediately, his dying - writ large on the small screen.

Sitting together on our couch in Salt Lake City during those months, Tyrone and I couldn't help reveling in "The Wire." There was so much that we recognized as true. Tyrone was black - born in Jamaica, raised in London. And I am white - born in Germany and raised mostly in New Jersey. As an interracial couple from such different backgrounds, we loved the show's painfully accurate take on race and class.

The essay charts the the couple's meeting, and her family's prejudice, as well as the myriad indignities he and they suffer through on a daily basis. The Wire's gritty setting reminds them of the time they spent living in Baltimore, and the show's realism, funnily enough, becomes an escape from the reality of Tyrone's death.

Every morning and every night - up until the last 36 hours, when he couldn't speak - Tyrone would say to me: "Another day. I'm glad to see it." We celebrated his ability to read the newspaper, to eat the flan I made, to sit with me in the den and watch yet another episode of The Wire.

There's a lot going on in the essay, and the story's a specific and personal one. if there's a thesis, maybe it's this:

I once read an article about interracial marriage that told me what I already knew: interracial couples are more likely to stay together. After you've faced the wrath of family, the stares, the cold shoulders, the stupid comments, you create a bond and other people become irrelevant.

But, without trivializing this, the essay's also an eloquent testament to the power of entertainment. The Wire, as the author points out, addresses issues of race and class and flat-out humanity with unprecedented honesty. That the show can move and support people at this basic a level is more than mere escapism, it's art in the true sense. And it's encouraging and moving; this is the point. The culture still has good things in it and the capacity to make amazing work out of pain. Can more people take the example and run with it, and see that people can handle intelligence and depth? If it did nothing else, this essay should show that they can. And the point of this feature, at its best.

Down To 'The Wire' [NY Times]

The magazine chose 33 things to gripe about — the nine-song playlists of commercial radio, how flying always seems to end up taking longer than driving would have and how driving the average car these days wastes more gas per mile than the Model T Ford — and fuck if I don't agree with every single one.

Even the things I don't have any firsthand hate experience with — the ineffectiveness of fertility treatments and hearing aids — are the sort of shit that bother me as I lie awake in the morning, listening to some jackhammer make way for more hedge fund analysts on Rivington Street, or when I lie awake at night, thinking how much it will suck when I finally find a husband and realize I'm barren.

But here's the bit that won our subscription dollars:

Subscription CardsYou know all those subscription cards cluttering up this issue of Wired? Well, um ... sorry. We understand you detest the deforesting paper rectangles — "bind-in" or "blow-in" cards, to use industry parlance. Honestly, we do, too. But they're part of our business model. It's not just about money, really — it's about your eyeballs. See, advertisers pay based on audience size. And blow-in cards are a cheap way to snag subscribers and boost numbers: It costs a glossy monthly about $10 to acquire a new reader through one of those cards. But using direct mail? $25 — or more.
We'd be happy to get your business through the Internet, which we hear is the wave of the future. But for now, just 10 percent of new subs come via the Net. And 12 percent come from those damn blow-in cards. The worst part about 'em? They cover up some really good stories.

Now go do your part to change that motherfucking ratio. Come on! It's not like I'm asking you to give up bottled water for chrissakes.

Haha, not even their wives? Anyway, the real issue here is the culture we're living in: Not all women think guys with gas-guzzling sports cars are hot, but in the United States, do we take the global-warming issue personally enough?

In a recent issue of BusinessWeek, senior correspondent David Kiley writes:

Ford and Chrysler do not make a single vehicle for the U.S. that tops 35 mpg. But two things to keep in perspective about this new fuel-economy standard: The European vehicle fleet today already achieves more than 40 mpg. Remember the words of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when France and Germany would not assist in the Iraq War? He called those countries "Old Europe." Which part of the world looks old now?

Women Who Find Ferrari Drivers Sexy Contribute to Global Warming? [Wired]
Related: Energy Bill Has Only Half a Tank [BusinessWeek]
Sports Cars More Dangerous Than SUVs [New Scientist]

Many of Anderson's emails with Rossmiller were full of chatty banter, the kind people use when they're thrilled with a new online friend — except that every once in a while, he would throw in riffs about killing Americans or Arabs. But he would also offer upbeat raves about his fellow soldiers. In one email he cheerfully describes his commanding officer as "a really cool guy, and a vet of a couple of other deployments including Gulf War I." Later he flattered Khadija by describing how tough terrorists are and how they are "a real Alliance of Evil like our C in C says... (yes, I still like George Bush, even though he's sending us there, he's the guy I voted for, and I'll probably vote for him again... )."

Behind Enemy Lines With A Suburban Counterterrorist [Wired]