Basically, we want to hear your holiday-themed tales of gadget horror and technology disasters. As incentive to open up and share, we've got some free pizza for the very best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) story. What we'll do is post that story along with some of our favorite runner-ups so you'll become Internet-famous and a part of Gizmodo history.

Sounds good, no? I know it might be scary to share a traumatizing tale, but you're safe here and we won't laugh too much. So, email me your stories with the subject line "Holiday Horror" and make me want to give you pizza and a post on Gizmodo.

The first person account over at Business Insider is an interesting one, because it shows that everyone at Google is subject to some high standards. One sample question is "how much money you think Google makes daily from Gmail ads?" To which she blurted out the answer "$70,000," before quickly asking if they could ignore it while she figures out a better one.

Of course there are caveats to her story: She should have prepared more, she's kinda naive about the type of questions they're asking and maybe she's just not really right for the Google culture. Still, it's something worth checking out just for curiosity's sake. [Business Insider]

In our original post, we speculated that using a gun stock for shooting a camera seemed like a good way for a photographer to get shot. And we wondered how common these stocks could be. Duran wrote back with a short, informed response, but I was able to twist his arm into telling us a bit more.

Pointing a long lens mounted on a stock is indeed a recipe for getting shot if you're not careful. In fact in training at Fort McCoy, Wi., I was "shot" by Soldiers on practice missions.

I was not where they expected me to be... i.e. mixed in with the opposition who happened to be shooting at them at the time. Thus, I was "shot" at with blanks during the training even though I was in uniform. They *saw* what they assumed was a rifle in an area where bad guys were shooting at them..

This, of course, is why we train. Even as military media, we need to train in realistic conditions. It was a learning event for both myself and the Soldiers in training.

At Kajaki Dam in Afghanistan, I was there to get some on the ground coverage for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the Afghan National Army. The Afghan National Army troops there are "spot on" as the Brits say and the dam has great strategic importance. There are lots of bad guys.
I took my Bushhawk stock along for the ride out to Kajaki. The stock is of limited use as in remote regions such as this, the local population has never seen a DSLR so they limited trust when you're pointing a long lens at them. In operations where we were going patrols or at night with night vision I'd use it a lot. However, when going where the bad guys are, there is little worry as I was with some of the best Soldiers in the world.

Okay, so why risk losing your life. Good question. Lemme see if I can figure it out.

Ok. It is an extremely stable platform to shoot pictures with (i.e. that's why rifles are designed that way). It is very natural and comfortable which results in good images. When using long lenses, holding the camera steady is damn important.

Plus, you can sling the camera stock while walking. This is very important when trying to keep up with Soldiers that are in *much* better shape than you (lost 20 pounds during the tour). Although I'm a Reservist, there's only one standard... so I have the keep up with Olympic-grade athletes when on Active duty.

Monopods work very well but are a pain in the ass when on the move. You have to open them, then close them when you're going to roll out. Which happens unexpectedly at times :)

Handholding with two hands is about the only way and how most of the world gets it done. I would not advise *any* media in a war zone to use a stock. In my case, I'm a member of the armed forces and I'm with the guys with the guns. We used to joke about it in that the Taliban would wonder if we bought some some secret weapon since we were the only Americans at Kajaki. Either way, the bad guys would shoot at me anyway on any patrols with little regard if I had a camera or a rifle.

My main thing was not to make the local population feel threatened...
I have to say that there is something inherently fun about shooting a camera like a rifle. It is really more fun than I should admit. I found myself grinning every time I used the darn thing.

I guess there's just something obsessive with me and rifle stocks for cameras. I actually designed one in drafting class in high-school but it wasn't until this last tour that I ponied up the cheese to buy one. It's just a lot of fun.

- Jeff Duran

or Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Duran one weekend a month, two weeks a year (unless called to go to far away places and meet new people... and take their picture).

A special thanks to Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Duran for writing in and sharing his experiences. You can see more of his photos here and here.

The Tag Junior pal is built for kids as young as two years old. The cute little guy is picked up and held on any page of a Tag Junior book, which it then reads aloud, emitting fun sound effects and music too, all using infrared cameras to follow along, and embedded memory to hold the book data. Parents also can download audio for each book in the Tag Junior library, and manage the MP3s and photo files using a Mac or PC.

The Tag Junior library will include titles such as Curious George: Color Fun, Disney Pooh Loves To... and Dora the Explorer: 1-2-3 Dora!. The whole system will be available later this summer. Heh, and to think the highlight of my childhood was staring in front of the old boobtube watching Reading Rainbow.

[Leapfrog at Gizmodo]

You see, while I thought that I'd arrived at the right spot for the 3DHD demo, I'd really been waiting in a sort of backstage area, where engineers, CEOs and Titanic producer Jon Landau were gearing up to pitch me and 30 other members of the press about their low power 3D plasmas.

I thought it was strange enough to see Panasonic corporate types posing with Landau's Oscar that he'd brought out for the occasion, handing off their cellphones to grab proud shots with the statue. Then a man in a gray suit and glasses walked up to one of the engineers standing to the side. He had an aura of overconfidence.

"Do you handle demonstrations of the 3DHD display technology," he asked the Panasonic engineer.
"Yes," the engineer responded after a moment.
"And you have prototypes in the US?"
"Yes, why?" asked the engineer, growing a bit uncomfortable at the man's forward nature.

The suited man paused for an intentional beat.

"I'm with the CIA, and we'd like to include your product in a presentation at the White House for the President." This was said nonchalantly, in that way people present grand pieces of information in a euphemistic tone meant to draw the listener in.

But it backfired when applied to the Japanese engineer whose English wasn't so fluent. So the engineer's following "what?" wasn't one of "holy cow, how is this possible?" but more just an earnest "what are you talking about?"

"The President of the United States," the CIA guy repeated, this time using full ceremonial emphasis.

"Uhhh..." the engineer responded nervously, completely confused now as to what was going on.

"I'm with the CIA. We're giving a presentation in two months to the President on eco technologies that will reduce our nation's dependence on oil. You know, oil?"

"...OK."

We'd like to include your display if you have one available in the States."

"...OK."

"Can I take a look?" Mr. CIA asked, motioning to the demo room.

"...OK."

And with that, another international technological concordance was made. [Image]

When we realized who it was and turned around, he was already whisked away by his comely entourage, but we wonder what he thinks about his baby whenever he sees a Vertu or a Goldstriker gold-plated cellphone. Anger? Amusement? Shame? Maybe a mixture of all three.

"Like grandpa has," she explains.
"Oh, an iPhone!" I realize, pulling my own iPhone out for her to confirm.
"Yes, like that one. But in white."

It was an interesting revelation, especially when I later found out that my sister actually uses a pink RAZR. Note to self: get sis a better phone next Christmas and never trust my niece again.

"We knew from the device we were heading north. We just assumed this could be a quicker route to another highway, but then it came up that it was 90km till the next turn."

That's right, the restaurant in the guidebook is just there past all the 6-foot high and 3-foot wide illuminated signs that say: Road Closed. The funny thing is, that GPS was probably still better than Mapquest.

GPS leads tourists into wilderness [Stuff]