This is a post in response to a retweet by @deadairdennis: “RT @RyanE1984: Question. What websites do you visit every day for Tech news?-( @censey should have a good answer for that.” – I thought about a quick answer and could not come up with one that would fit in 140 characters so I decided to post about it.

First off, I am not endorsing any of these sites and buyer beware on your satisfaction with the content.  Secondly, I am going to give you the opinion of someone that does Tech stuff for a Tech company.  This doesn’t make me an expert on any of these subjects, just dangerously versed.

There are many tech blogs out there and more importantly many categories of “tech” with varying degrees of quality.   So for me the task of reading these everyday is a scan at best to pick out the most relavent articles vs the junk with tends to clog the blogosphere.

Types of Tech: Very few sites cover all bases and the ones that attempt to end up marginalizing their content.  For example, Gadget blogs are great at talking about new phones and accessories but should stay aware from bake-off’s between DSLR’s. I decided to break this down some since the problem is bigger than just Tech as a generalization.

On to the reading…
Consumer Technology:  This covers Gadgets, Photography, AV, and Automotive
- Ars Technica:  Probably the most legitimate out there right now.
- Gizmodo:  Once my favorite blog in this area, they are now the Perez Hilton of gadget expose reporting. *
- Engadget:  They self link like assholes, but they have a pretty level headed approach to the space they cover. *
- The Unofficial Apple Weblog:   News and rumor for the fanboys.  (Also read Daring Fireball, MacTipsAndTricks)
- BaltTech:  Yes some home cooking here.   As long as Gus stays true to making this a blog about Baltimore I will keep reading.

Professional Technology:  Hardcore Science, Enterprise Equipment, Military and Avionics, Datacenter Tech, Green and Energy stuff, etc.
- Slashdot.org:  The original, and still one of the very best.  Their user comments are also goddamned hysterical.
- Layer 8′s Blog:   Cool stuff on Space tech and other types of stuff that blasts off. *
- DefenseTech:  An ok blog on Military tech, I am sure there are better ones out there.
- MedGadget:  Medical technology and other healthcare information.

Lifestyle Technology: Make my life cooler, faster, more integrated
- Lifehacker:  I know some of these are super obvious but c’mon!   Avoid some of their PC optimization tips, they can be unfounded.  *
- Make:  Great tips on how to build, modify and adapt commonly found stuff into cooler stuff.
- IkeaHacker:  Take hard to pronounce products form Ikea and turn them into useful home solutions.
- Troxel:  Mostly design stuff but its still tech in nature.
- BookOfJoe:  This is a fantastic design and tech blog.   Always worth a look.

Social Tech:  Social Sites, Integrated Gadgets, Frameworks, Web Tech, Trends
- O’Reilly Radar:  Gov2.0, social media helping citizens, cool projects and more. *
- MakeUseOf:  Like Make but for social sites.
- TECH.BLORGE: On here for the name alone.   Cross over between social and consumer but sometimes they get a scoop.
- WebAppers:  Do you build for the web?  This blog is for you.  (You may also like Smashing Mag for design / typography stuff).

Malicious Technology:  Security focused, Threat analysis, Virus / Malware, Internet Horror.
- Krebs on Security:  Great Site, new and he is on a hot streak of great reporting.  Enjoying his coverage of ATM Skimmers lately.
- Threatpost:  Getting the latest on things that will screw up your computer and probably steal your identity or cash.
- Zero Day:  Oddly enough some overlap with Threatpost since they share contributors but still worth checking.
- Cryptome:  This is a weird one.   This guy blogs about Government conspiracy and spying guides.   Not for most people.

* next to the sites that should be read in RSS format only.

Want my entire list?   Here is the full OPML file that you can import into supported feed readers.  Warning! this has a few hundred feeds in it.
Update:  Here is a link to the Google Reader Bundle with the above mentioned Blogs.   OPML file for just the featured blogs is also linked from here.

After taking a break from trying to catch up on work related emails I decided to clean up my Google Reader feeds.  This is an activity I tend to probably over indulge in most of the week but I make the excuse that some of it is actually work related.   All in all the stats don’t lie though.

Over a period of 30 days I have read over 5600 articles, that would equal nearly 186 blog entries a day, or a little under 8 an hour.   Well that all could weekends right?

Not quite, the statistics show I am the most aggressively reading on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays.   The least reading happens on the weekends as I am typically off doing random acts of socializing at the local Baltimore watering holes.

But I definitely am doing the majority of the reading at night correct?  I mean, I have to be working during the day…

Findings prove that I am mostly dicking off on Google Reader during the 9am to noon time frame.   Does this mean that the inverse is true?  does the time in the white space mean that I am working more than reading? If that is the case, I am most productive from 1 to 2pm and then again from 4 to 7pm.

Over a 30 day period I would expect a consistent almost heart rate like pattern to my reading but there are anomalies…

That massive spike you see is  July 17th, my birthday.   Reading was at an all time high.  Is that sad or what?

In conclusion:   None of this means anything.  The way that Google Reader takes in these statistics is based on the ariticles I scroll over and they have no way to decide when I am actually reading or if I am just blasting thru subscription after subsciption in what professionals would call an obsessive compulsive manner, rendering the unread counts 0 on the majority of my most read areas of interest, which include:

You will notice digg.com with a whopping 4%.  This is for two reasons: 1.) Digg has started to suck since it’s popularity and audience migrated over to the tweens and nerdcore hacker wanna-bee’s and 2.) You cannot go direct to the article, they make you visit the comments page thru their rss feed.  LAME!