We've always known Natali Del Conte, the host of Podshow's TeXtra, was destined for a bigger stage. And she's found one in a new gig at CNET — in New York City. In addition to online video for CNET, she'll be making the rounds of television shows like Good Morning America to explain gadgets and websites to the masses. Broadcast television viewed by millions, not a podcast downloaded by hundreds, is still the proper ambition of anyone with killer looks and a telegenic personality. We doubt Del Conte's stay at CNET will be any longer than Soledad O"Brien's stint on The Site. Give Natali a year and she'll have pushed out notorious nobody Julia Allison as Fox TV's token brunette. Sucks for us, Natali, but hurray for you.

• Her sister Linzi's nickname for Natali: "Factoid." After lunch with her yesterday, we totally get that.

The dirty secret behind last night's book-tour party for Dan Lyons, the man behind the Fake Steve Jobs blog? Rumor is it almost didn't happen, thanks to a little tiff over who was going to rep him. Flack fight! After the jump, the real battle over Fake Steve.

What is more appealing to the predominantly male tech audience than a hot girl talking tech in a video podcast? A hot girl making silly mistakes, of course. Grown men love to ogle hot girls making silly mistakes. "Oops, she's so cute." We're not saying it's good, or right, or proper. We're just saying that at the request of her Web admirers, former TechCrunch writer Natali Del Conte, host of PodShow's Textra, took a break from her vacation to satisfy their prepubescent desires with the above blooper reel. While Del Conte has failed to catch on like other vlog hotties, this video, devoid of useful content, will surely provide a minor bump to her usual traffic. As well as producing other minor bumps.

Now let's get into the serious stuff of nerdy fap-dreams — the geek girls. Or at least the girls who appear in video blogs on tech-friendly subjects. In this round, choose from Natali Del Conte, Iria Gallardo, Erin McNamara, Kristin Reilly, Irina Slutsky, and Karina Stenquist. Vote after the jump, minions.






If you can't see the voting mechanism below, we can't help you. We don't know how it works either. You might try turning off firewalls and turning on cookies. Note that you can now vote more than once! And why not? You should be able to vote once per day in any of these polls, showing true devotion to your favorite vlogger by suborning the more casual, ephemeral love showered on her or his opponents. Again, if you have technical problems with that, don't call us. For amusement only, far as you're concerned.

Former MTV VJ Adam Curry has pulled down some serious money for his podcast network, PodShow. And he's spending the dough on talent: 500 podcasters are receiving "upfront money" to produce audio and video for the network, Curry said earlier this week on Leo LaPorte's podcast, This Week in Tech. "Upfront money" is apparently Curry's term for "paycheck," a novel concept in the notoriously unprofitable world of podcasting. Curry's hires include former TechCrunch reporter and Cranky Geeks commentator Natali del Conte. Natali's video show, called Tech Check, will start in a few weeks. Because what the world really needs is another female tech commentator known for her looks. An all-star Natali del Conte photo gallery, after the jump.