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GI Pin-Up: Gina Trapani By Annie Geek-o-vitz 10 October, 2007 Found in : pinup   Comment     Submit to Slashdot Email     Digg this Print     Add to del.icio.us External Links lifehacker.com www.ginatrapani.org www.scribbling.net

I've fallen in love with many a writer, coder, technologist and artist based solely on how their work has touched me.

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Gina Trapani is the MacGyver of the web world. Originally from New York, now based in sunny San Diego, California, she's a Sun-certified Java programmer with an eye for building Firefox extensions and sites. She's also a talented tech writer , who has become a geek superstar thanks to her enormously helpful blog Lifehacker.com.

With a million and one tips on how to make better use of your technology and your time, Lifehacker has taken the world by storm. Turbocharged Gina takes it all in stride, and, much like MacGyver, keeps on saving the day with innovative solutions to conundrums, all the while looking fabulous :)

GI: What did you want to be when you grew up? :)

GT: For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer. My Mom kept "books" that I made back when I was 5 or 6 years old -- I'd staple big sheets of paper together in the middle and fold them over for binding and try to write my story perfectly so it filled exactly as many pages
as the booklet was. So, most of the time a writer, with occasional flirtations with wanting to be a dancer (thanks to Flashdance), astronaut and gymnast (Mary Lou Retton!).

GI: What is your first memory of experiencing technology? The Internet?

GT: Fourth grade, in first computer class, I wrote my first BASIC program, which chose lottery numbers for my older brother. What a thrill when I realized the computer was executing instructions I'd written for it.

My first experience with the Internet was in 1994 in my college computer lab as a freshman. I was looking at some French guy's resume loaded up in Mosaic, and I didn't get it. "How did this guy from France's resume wind up here?" I asked. I was completely perplexed.

GI: How -- if at all -- has your relationship with technology changed over the years, as you've learned to more efficiently 'tame the beast'?

GT: The biggest change was from geeky hobby to career, which has been great in some ways -- I work at home! -- and hard in others. I remember when checking my email was like coming down the stairs to look for presents under the Christmas tree -- it was so new, and only a few of my good friends emailed me, so I would get excited about what I'd find.

Now with spam and pretty much all my serious communications coming in that way, email's lost a little of its charm. But new little technologies and services pop up, and I enjoy them the same way I used to enjoy email -- like microblogging, photo-sharing, blog feeds, etc.

Learning to 'tame the beast' has helped me keep from getting completely snowed under. For example, I empty my inbox of new messages almost every single day, which was a huge improvement to the way I work, as email drives much of my day. This way I control my email instead of my email controlling me.

One of the biggest benefits of writing about productivity is that it makes you hyper-aware of your own systems and how to avoid the pitfalls of overload, distractions and interruptions. I'm not perfect at it, but I'm much more aware of it, and that awareness helps me work at getting better at managing it all each day.

GI: Most rewarding moment thus far producing LifeHacker?

GT: The best thing that can happen on any given day at Lifehacker is hearing from a reader who says something he gleaned from the website has helped him. That, and getting additional information -- and often outright corrections! -- from readers who know much more than I do on a subject I've written about. The mutual teaching and learning experience is the best part of writing the site.

GI: What's the first thing you do when you sit in front of a computer?

GT:Launch Firefox.

GI: What do you think is the greatest misconception folks have about technology and the Internet?

GT: That it's inherently evil or bad. Most people probably wouldn't admit to feeling that way, but there's fear of the unknown, and for non-geeks, tech is a big mysterious unknown. Add that to lots of mainstream media stories about PREDATORS AFTER OUR CHILDREN ON THE INTERNET! and how your IDENTITY CAN BE STOLEN BY JUST TURNING ON THE COMPUTER! and you get a lot of distrust and misinformation. FUD, as it were.

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Also written by Annie Geek-o-vitz

GI Pin-Up: Felicia Day		27 August, 2008
GI Pin Up: Ella Morton		29 January, 2008
GI Rising Star: Tom Wood		6 January, 2008
GI Pin Up: Andy McCaskey		3 December, 2007
GI Rising Stars: Gabriel Ortiz and Paul Starr		21 November, 2007
GI Rising Star: Gino Cosme		5 October, 2007
GI Pin-Up: Jessica Corbin		12 August, 2007
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