Check out Actor beats CNN in race to milestone, pledges $100,000 in malaria fight to learn what Ashton Kutcher has been doing on Twitter. Oprah will be talking about it today as well.

10 Ideas for Earth Day Celebrations with Kids has some great tips for next week!

While I have never received any comments about my appearance, apparently some do in Sure she’s a good tech blogger, but what does she look like?

The saying “nothing in life is free” simply isn’t true. As a young PR professional, I love giving away awesome swag and promotional materials away for Alienware – as much as I love getting it from other companies. During my lunch break at events like PAX and GDC, I like to go “shopping” to see what kind of swag I can pick up and give away back at the office. It’s hard to turn down free stuff, no matter how useless it might be.

EA recently made some headlines when it shipped out genuine brass knuckles as part of their Godfather II press kits, aimed at getting the attention of influential game reviewers and Web sites. Well, it certainly got some attention and was even featured on the homepage of Yahoo – although I’m sure the content wasn’t what EA’s PR team had in mind. Brass knuckles are illegal in most states and shipping them across state lines is an even bigger no-no.

But I’m not here to regurgitate the news or speculate on how this will play out in the California court system. What I find fascinating is how much press one bad idea can get a company. Before the EA recall was picked up by the gaming press, I wasn’t even aware that the Godfather II was being released in April – and I would bet that neither did the average Yahoo reader. I’ve always been mixed on the cliché “no press is bad press” – but in this case, this decision seems to have paid off (at least in the number of people now aware of the game’s launch). I’m not in the advertising department, so I don’t have any real numbers to show off – but think about it, a front page ad on the homepage of Yahoo would costs a pretty penny.

Because of the recent media coverage, I now know that the Godfather II has been released, that it’s currently ranked #13 on the Top 100 games this week and critics say that beating the game on single-player mode isn’t difficult enough. The reviews on the game are mixed, but EA unknowingly (albeit illegally) hit a home run when it came to getting press coverage. This however, is not a chance that I will personally take with my career – so whenever plasma rifles are invented, I’ll make sure to double-check with Dell’s legal team before suggesting them for Alienware’s press kits.

DRM is an issue near and dear to many gamers’ hearts. Many gamers will refuse to buy titles based solely upon the method of copy protection the publisher decides to use for that particular game. I fall into that category. There are several games I’ve refused to even install a preview copy on my machines due to DRM on the disk. Spore comes to mind, as does the latest Riddick title, Assault on Dark Athena. It was my decision that the DRM employed in these titles was too obtrusive for my comfort, so I simply didn’t pick them up. I’m sure they’re great games. That’s not my point.

It isn’t a matter of me being pro-piracy. I’m not. I’ve seen comments all over the Web insinuating that if I don’t like certain methods of DRM, I’m a filthy software pirate. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only time you’ll be able to slap the pirate moniker on me is if you see me in EVE Online.

Most comment threads on the issue mirror the one here found on ShackNews. The PC gaming community is usually very vocal about what they find unacceptable from publishers with regards to DRM . That list includes, but isn’t limited to:

· Activation schemes that limit the number of times a game can be installed

· Third party programs which interfere with other software installed on the user’s system

· Software which reports hardware/software information to the game publisher or distributor

· Software that installs itself without full disclosure

· Software that runs in the background using system resources without user’s permission

If you’ve taken the time to check out the comments to the article I linked, you’ll notice that the discussions surrounding DRM get pretty heated. It’s a hot button for sure. Are gaming publishers and distributors listening?

For a while, the common response from gaming companies was to brush the complaints aside. If anyone complained about the DRM a game used, the official responses ranged from “they represent a vast minority of gamers” to “people who complain about anti-piracy measures must be software pirates.” Though most game companies are very tight lipped about the issue, there is hope that things are changing. EA, for instance, recently announced that Sims 3 will be DRM free upon release. I think this shows that things are progressing.

Fallout 3 is another title that points towards progress. While it does use DRM to protect itself against theft, the DRM amounts to a good old-fashioned “disc check.” I didn’t mind installing the game on every machine I use.

While progress is being made, I feel that DRM as it has been employed has singled out the PC platform and has done it a disservice. In today’s cross-platform market, many titles published for console are also being published for PC, though the console versions don’t limit gamer behavior as much as their PC counterparts. The effect this (among other things) has had on PC gaming has been pretty remarkable. PC game software sales have plummeted in the past few years, while console game sales have soared.

While DRM isn’t the only thing contributing to this trend, it certainly isn’t helping. If you buy a game for your console, for instance, you can bring the game over to a friend’s house to share. You don’t have to worry about installing the game, or that the game won’t work if you have to buy a new console. When you’re done with the game, you can sell it to a used game shop. You can even rent the game before you buy it. None of these are things you can do currently with PC titles, largely due to DRM restrictions. Normal gamer behavior is being discouraged.

It isn’t just being discouraged on a few PC titles. The list is huge and growing.

With the future of PC games in question, I personally feel it’s time that gaming publishers and distributors take a long hard look at the ways they’re limiting their customers with DRM. Public outcries like the one mentioned in ShackNews should be relegated to history. What do you think?

I recently met several of the Wal-Mart Eleven Moms at a discussion in Austin. They shared some great thoughts on the purchasing power of moms. Their readers are often moms who make the decisions on what to buy for themselves, children and their homes. Let’s not forget all the kid birthday parties, too! Yesterday, I shared another takeaway from that discussion — about the term “Mommy Blogger.” Check out Mommy Blogging - The Way I Understand It on Direct2Dell and share your thoughts on the subject.

Geek Sugar has a great How-To this week on Converting Files on the Web with Media Converter. This free conversion service is an easy way to convert a YouTube video into an MP3.

Audrey at Mom Generations is sharing 365 Days of Fashion Advice that has some very realistic ideas. Yesterday’s post includes a video on How to wear a sweater wrap – very helpful!

Have you ever tried Cyber Squats? Check out 10 ways to get fit while you’re glued to the computer.

If you reside in the U.S. and haven’t completed your federal (or state) income tax, there isn’t much time left. Stress and anxiety always seem to show up right before that due date — and con artists know this.

You may have received e-mail spam promising help with taxes. But, some of these offers are scams as Trendmicro.com has identified. So, don’t pay attention to these scams, file your taxes right away. If you run out of time or are missing information, you can file for an extension with the IRS, form 4868.

Often we’re unable to distinguish what is real or fake because we tend to want to believe in what makes us feel better.

A report about Video Gamers in the Recession sites that 38 percent of gamers are women.

PopGadget has figured out why Adamo is Latin meaning to “fall in love with” in Dell Adamo Love.

Try Six tips for coping with the fact that you can’t remember a person’s name to try to avoid those awkward moments

GirlAmbition.com is a Safe Facebook For Kids and a great option for kids who are not ready for Facebook and MySpace.

I’m excited to be posting what I hope will be the first of many blogs entries. You may notice in my bio that I’m a self-described “gadget girl” – actually, my husband calls me that, too. I’m always fascinated by the latest electronic tool that helps make life easier. I’m also a newly minted photography enthusiast and I’m not alone. After years of being told we have good photographic eyes, we’ve recently made the leap from a point-and-shoot camera to a full-blown digital SLR (dSLR).

Falling dSLR prices helped me come to terms with the intimidation factor of controlling the camera settings and I decided to take my digital memories to a whole new level. Like other “mamarazzi” out there, I am on a quest to make my new son the most photographed child in history. But all of that snapping comes at a price. No, digital is still cheaper than film. The price I’m referring to is your lost sanity when you can’t find that one adorable shot in the series of thousands of images you’ve shot and kept (after all storage is cheap, too) because your filing system has failed you.

Solution? You need software to assist with image management.

My recommendation? Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.

Now before you get concerned about seeing “Photoshop” in the name, just know that you don’t have to be a professional photographer to use Lightroom. It’s very user-friendly. Plus, I’m only recommending you immediately dive into one of five modules, the Library. With this module alone, you’re just a few clicks away from the brave new world of the photography enthusiast. You’ll create a true image database so you can:

• Catalog images from multiple folders, drives or disks without changing their storage location,
• Keyword tag images at import or after the fact,
• Rate files to allow for quick viewing of only those magical moments,
• Compare similar images side by side to quickly determine which to discard,
• Feel comfortable about the camera in manual mode – Lightroom lets you teach yourself to improve your images by storing all of the camera settings that let you capture the best pictures,
• Stop shooting in any image format other than RAW. You retain the most image information with this format and Lightroom lets you export to JPG with ease.

All these features will mean less time behind the computer screen sifting through images and more time behind the camera. If learning all of this sounds a bit overwhelming, there are many Web sites and books available for tips and tutorials, but my favorite is the video training available from Lynda.com. After you’ve mastered the Library module, you can move on to the Develop module, which lets you complete many of the same affects from Adobe Photoshop with a much flatter learning curve.

ZDNet reports that researchers have discovered that the Conficker worm can be detected on a computer by simply asking for it over a network. This revelation is just in time because on April 1, Conficker is supposed to go boom!

This update is great, for servers and large networks, but it does not help personal computer users that much. What will help is the Microsoft Security Bulletin update MS08-067. This update came out last year. If there is anyone out there who has turned off auto-update in Windows, turn it back on. For those who forgot or would like to check the auto-update status, just go to Microsoft update center. There, you can find out if you’re missing anything.

If you have questions about Conficker, go to trendmicro.com — they put out a really good blog today that answers many questions.

If you haven’t heard, Conflicker is the new pain in the @#$ malware worm. It’s a bad virus that spreads itself to other computers and networks. Conflicker first showed up last November, and since then has been modified to a B and C version. The C version is what we really need to be aware of, because on April 1 that variant is expected to become active in computers that have been sitting dormant.

Conflicker.C can be a serious threat. Once a computer has been infected with it removal is difficult, as is restoring the computer back to health. An article at Maximumpc.com has more information and outlines all the bad things that Conflicker can do to your computer.

I am not trying to scare anyone, but I would recommend that you update you anti-virus software.

I know I am not the only one that was searching for my car on the wrong side of the building last week. Check out the little GPS car-finder that popgadget found. It can attach to your keychain.

A User on Shine had a great idea for a Recession Buster–Bring Back the Potluck. I’ve always enjoyed the surprise element of the potluck, even if my contribution is always the same.

CNN has an article about an interesting videogame development challenge that a two-woman team won this week. Tough task: Designing a game about your ‘first time.’

A new study finds that women need female role models, reporting that 27 percent of female students who named a woman as their career role-model said that they were inspired by the gender-related obstacles overcome by their choice.