Meet a geek: Neha Tiwari
April 23, 2008
“Meet a Geek” is a pilot project of series of Interviews with cool geeks of the Interwebs. In the first interview (which I’m planning to do every month), I have the pleasure of talking with Neha Tiwari. Neha is San Francisco based geek,blogger, producer and host at Revision 3.
Davor: When did you first start working with computers and technology in general?
Neha: Well, my first computer was a hand me down from my uncle–I remember it running DOS and having the lovely yellow & black color interface color scheme. The only game on there was a Pro Golf game–which I played even though, honestly, I am not into golf!
Davor: Your first paid job was for CNET News.com, how did you like working there and what exactly was your job?
Neha:I loved working at CNET . My manager, Harry Fuller, was supportive and an inspiration for what I would hope to end up as in my career. The team at CNET News.com was smart, savvy and very friendly. While there, I was an Associate Producer that basically reported on a vast array of tech–from videogames to green innovations. I couldn’t ask for a better first paying gig!
Davor: I couldn’t help but notice that some really cool people left CNET in a really short period of time and continued their careers elsewhere. What motived you to quit your job at CNET and continue at Revision 3?
Neha: Well, I actually did not quit, but my department was closed. I know that a lot of people left, but I think that this media space is so small that everyone cycles through different companies. It’s good to keep it fresh and challenging.
Davor: Do you only do video editing at Revision 3, or are you also producing?
Neha: It’s actually reversed! I do mostly segment producing, but also edit some of my stuff as well.
Davor: What other geeky stuff do you like?
Neha: Oh man…what don’t I like! For starters, I have loved comic books since I was a child…and comic book conventions. Marvel has to be my favorite, but I was a DC fan growing up. Favorite hero? Spiderman, hands down! I also love learning about technology and how it all comes together. Plus, social networking is something that I love to research and experiment with.
Davor: … and non-geeky?
Neha: Hmm…non-geeky. Maybe socializing [offline], snowboarding, and reading the latest and greatest on the NY Times bestseller list.
Davor: What do you think about girls in the new media these days, do they really know their onions, or they are just there because they look attractive? (I am referring to female hosts of various new media shows).
Neha: Great question. The representation of women in media is a topic that I am very passionate about. Sure, women will always be judged on looks in media [look at CNN, for example], but that’s not to say that there is much more to them. It truly is just an exterior—honestly, come walk into Revision 3, and you will see that most of us “on-air” ladies don’t even wear makeup or do our hair when we aren’t on set. With personality, I really do think there is a fine balance between being likable on camera and a so-called “ditz.” I have met people who don’t seem to be genuine, or not really into what they are talking about. Luckily, I don’t work with anyone like that; from Sarah Lane to Veronica Belmont, these girls know and love the stuff they cover. My style is to always make sure that I truly believe in what I am producing. I won’t do it otherwise.
Davor: Can you tell me about the future projects you’ll be working on at Revision 3 or maybe some place else?
Neha: There are some things in the pipes, that are releasing very, very soon. I am pretty excited about them and can’t wait till they launch!
Davor: Star Wars or Star Trek?
Neha: This question isn’t fair. It’s like Sophie’s choice, and I can’t choose! I will tell you that I am a Star Trek TNG/DS9 girl, and that I love the “old” Star Wars films. I also think that Episode III isn’t as bad as people make it out to be.
Davor: In the end, I just have to ask you, are you single? (wait, someone is knocking on the window… oh, it’s Spiderman… :laughs
Neha: Ha. Well I like to keep my dating life pretty private…there is a reason it isn’t on my Facebook! But yes, I am pretty much single. Thanks for making this g33k squirm!
Davor: Neha, thank you very much for the Interview
Neha: You are very welcome. Thanks for asking such thoughtful questions!!
More about Neha Tiwari at: http://nehatiwari.com
All material published with exclusive permission.
Posted by Davor


It’s a well known fact that teenagers have always wanted to learn how to play an instrument, drums, guitar or bass. They are doing that for many different reasons. While some really want to master their instruments and play like their idol musicians, others just want to be popular or impress girls. Girls always liked guys who could play say guitar. Nowadays, we have video games of sorts that simulate guitar or drums playing and it’s quite realistic. Video games such as “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” are ultimate hits on most of the gaming consoles and it’s not only for teenagers. People at Karaoke bars are enjoying it, and also there are competitions held around the world.
I got my 16GB iPod touch last Thursday as I already reported in my previous post. When I first opened it, I was quite surprised to see that the iPod was already jailbroken straight from the box! The box was sealed and it was a brand new although it was not bought directly from Apple. It came with 1.1.4 firmware but I did not have apple apps on it (mail,weather and google maps). I only had YouTube and a few third-party apps on it. People recommend that I restore my iPod and jailbreak it again and I did so. 
Not so long ago this little guy was the most popular geek toy. The intelligent wi-fi rabbit that can be programmed using very basic API to read the news, e-mail messages, stream mp3 music, online radio and tell the weather, turned out to be a waste of money. Here is the deal. Violet company that makes nabaztag bunnies had a false flash demonstration on their website. If you visited nabaztag.com around June last year (or earlier), you would see the bunny happily streaming Internet radio, reading e-mails and sending messages to other nabaztag owners by voice. Also, one could see nabazatag reading children books, recognizing objects and much more cool stuff all thanks to RFID support which never became available. I got my bunny (led by on-site demo) last year (see earlier posts for details).
It has been months now since youtube announced that they will increase video bit rate but that hasn’t yet happened. I was just browsing some videos on youtube (movie trailers mostly) to see if the videos are now in better quality. I haven’t noticed much of a difference. I am sure that Internet nowadays is capable of streaming higher quality video material so I don’t quite understand as for why YouTube is hesitating on improving the system? I was really looking forward to streaming high quality videos on my computer, the Wii and on iPod, but it does not look promising so far? Other youtube type websites like Daily Motion are much more advanced when it comes to the video quality but they are still less popular with users. YouTube, what the heck are you waiting for?
Europe and Australia are so behind Japan and America when it comes to the new game releases, but I am really looking forward to playing “Super Smash Brothers Brawl”. European release is expected to come out by May 2008. SSBB is already available in Japan and the U.S and it already has the highest ratings on the gaming sites. As far as I was able to see, gameplay is great and multiplayer support makes it even more interesting. Players that prefer classic Game Cube controller will be happy to hear that they will be able to use it in this game.Another great thing about SSBB is that it utilizes Wi-Fi connection which enables online gaming. I haven’t played SSBB yet but from what I’ve seen online, it looks really good.
It seems that we have entered the final years of using our PC computers the way we used to. Now, in the web 2.0 era things are changing. Advanced web technologies will enable full migration of the software from our hard drives on the Internet. As the Internet speed increases every month, soon we’ll be able to use complex software packages from the remote location online without needing to download and install it on our computers. That way users will be able to easily choose which software they want to use and probably will pay a monthly fee instead of buying a whole package.Another thing is the storage space. The usage of multimedia features(music,photos and video) has increased so now we need terabytes of hard drive space to store all of our favourite photographs, music collection or some hilarious holiday home videos. Services like Flickr and YouTube are making things easier for us by allowing users to upload their photographs and video on their own servers. By doing that, we don’t need as much storage space available locally but also we can share our media with family and friends easily and quickly. 


