I can't take credit for this - I found this on a few random Google searches - but if you are sick and tired of sites that force you into a mobile version and don't provide a way out (like all of the Gawker sites - and yes, I tried to file a bug report and found it nearly impossible), you can try this trick.

In your browser, enter about:debug for the URL and hit enter.

Nothing will happen.

Click Menu, go to Settings, and you may have a new debug menu. If you do, there will be a user agent section that you can use to switch your UA to one of a few different options. On my Xoom they were: Android, Desktop, iPhone (really?), iPad (eh?), and Froyo-N1. When I set mine to desktop and hit io9.com, they did not bounce me to their stupid, useless, less practical mobile version. (Ok, sorry for the bile there. I just hate that they've done this for a while now and still don't offer a way to change it.)

I tried this on my Inspire and was not able to change the user agent. I did see additional items in the settings, but nothing related to user agent. I don't mind so much on the phone though.

Any way - I hope this helps. It's been bugging me for weeks now and I'm glad I finally found a decent solution.