I send my picks to 140,000 subscribers every day – join them by sending an email to picks@lockergnome.com. If you blog and encourage others to subscribe to the list, your site will be placed in the queue to be featured in an upcoming Pirillo’s Picks!

• Make the most of that family reunion with a little genealogy research.
  (tags: genealogy, family, history, crest, reunion, familyreunion, familyhistory)
• What does Spybot S&D have against nearly naked dancing girls?
  (tags: spybot, spyware, threat, trojan)
• Did you know Word 2003 lets you add watermarks to documents? Here’s how!
  (tags: word, word2003, microsoftoffice, document, doc)
• Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0 keeps it simple (but don’t call me stupid)!
  (tags: antivirus, anti-virus, security, virus, scan)
• Gnomie "M" wants to start a computer repair business; Matt Hartley has some advice.
  (tags: pcrepair, business, computerrepair, techrepair, it, gotomeeting, selfemployment, selfemployed)
• Did you know that Google can help you de-stalker-fy?
  (tags: google, googlemaps, phone, phonenumber, business, listing, removal, privacy, security, stalker)
• You! Back away from the blog! You know who you are! Or do you?
  (tags: ezine, email, publish, write, promote, market, business, sales)
• Brandon Watts invites you to touch his Leopard! Does it bite? I promise nothing.
  (tags: leopard, brandonwatts, weatherbug, programming, education, school, student, teacher)
• Mother doesn’t need an e-card this year. Or any year.
  (tags: mothersday, security, hacker, malware, e-card, ecard, virus, greeting)
• Sometimes, love really is all you need.
  (tags: technology, friend, disability, husband, blessing)
• Vikings get unhinged about iBook defects.
  (tags: apple, g4, ibook, defect, consumer, complaint)
• A visit to the library does not always lead to reasonable conclusions.
  (tags: intelligentdesign, creationism, astrology, darwin, evolution, michaelshermer, probability, pseudoscience)
• Could goats be Hollywood’s surefire cure?
  (tags: fire, disaster, firesafety, firefighter, fireman, emergency, preparedness, crisis, prevention)
• A widget, by any other name… would still make most people say: "What’s a widget?"
  (tags: widget, development, web2.0, desktop, widgets, sidebar, dashboard)

• R.E.M. Debuts Song on YouTube
• Gnomedex Goes Hollywood

I was a late-blooming R.E.M. fan (attatching myself to their style not long after Yankovic parodied “Stand”). Now, I can’t imagine my life with out ‘em. I blasted Ethan Kaplan a quick IM to suggest a few things they could do with their YouTube account, and he told me that R.E.M. just debuted a song there a few days ago. How cool is that? No, I mean… the song is great, as you would come to expect – but the bigger story is that it debuted outside of traditional media boundaries. Weird Al did the same thing a few months ago (albeit, on a different video network – an “exclusive” that was quickly circumvented).

Music, movies, television, radio, etc. – EVERYTHING IS MOVING IN THIS DIRECTION, AND THERE AIN’T A DAMN THING ANYBODY CAN DO TO STOP IT. ARE YOU LISTEENING, HOLLYWOOD?! IT MAY NOT HAPPEN THIS YEAR OR NEXT YEAR, BUT IT WON’T BE LONG NOW. Sorry, my Caps Lock key got stuck there (I blame Vista).

It’s funny and sad at the same time. With all of these lawsuits and DRM schemes and levies flying around… it’s like they think “control” actually exists. My suggestion? Stop fighting the current and figure out how to ride it – and if you need help, all you have to do is ask. If you can’t figure out a business model in this new world – you won’t be here for very long. Until then, I remain white and nerdy…

• Hollywood, Vikings, and Viruses
• Gnomedex Goes Hollywood

It hasn’t been but a week since Gnomedex 6.0 activities came to a close, but Ponzi and I have already been thinking about the next Gnomedex conference. We’ve received feedback from countless Gnomedexers, including positive reinforcement and constructive suggestions. I’ve dropped hints as to the location of Gnomedex 7, and I believe it’s safe to tell you that we’re thinking about bringing ‘er to… Hollywood. Thanks in large part to our active participants, Gnomedex has reveled in “new” media constructs for several years – so now it’s time to jump start that conversation with “traditional” media. With Dave Dederer and blackrimglasses.com“>Ethan Kaplan leading two of our more popular sessions, and with several videobloggers asking “where’s the beef,” we’re going to take our tech roots to where they could matter most to lifestyles outside the echo chamber. We don’t have a venue (yet), we don’t have any sponsors (yet), and we don’t have a date (yet), but we do have a vision that we’d like you to share with us. As always, we’ll set the stage for a damn good time.

• Mark Glaser and Jim Ray – Hacker Journalists at Gnomedex
• Todd Friesen – Confessions of a Reformed Spammer
• Gnomedex 9 Photo Awards with Kris Krug
• Chris Brogan and Julien Smith – Rise of the Trust Agents
• Phil Plait – Active Skepticism Online
• The Business of Social Media
• Christine Peterson – Life Extension for Geeks
• Firas Khatib – FoldIt
• Jay Grandin and Leah Nelson – 20,000,000 versus 20: Audience vs. Impact
• Warren Etheredge – The Art of the Interview (Or How to Grill a Star)