The Power of Information

Show #127

2009-10-26T14:00:00.001-05:00

News

Military Issuing ITouch

$230 - vs. MUCH MORE for ruggedized specialized hardware
Sheathed in a rugged case for Military purposes
Soldiers = Swiss Army Knife
Translation software - word translator and gesture translation (VCommunicator)
Annotate Maps - In Dev - Take pictures of streetsigns and the Iphone will give intelligence about the location
BulletFlight (Ballistics Calculator)
Video Player
Camera
IPhone still a little too expensive for general deployment

Oracle Buys Sun

Oracle is the largest DB Vendor in the world
Sun owns MySql, OpenOffice, Java, Large portion of Unix world
Will Oracle still offer DB on Windows platform
Will OpenOffice and Java still be free?

Flash on TV's

Software already written
Announcement at the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention
Set-top boxes by end of year, embedded into TV later

TW admits defeat on Tiered Bandwidth

Retracting Pilots for tiered bandwidth that were to start in fall
Grass Roots, and Senators all went after Time Warner
Claims of "Stifling Creativity" and Monopolistic practices (inability to stream video without exhorbitant pricing) were cited
Last straw could have been when U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y got on board and threatened legislation
Competitor Frontier communications was already in the process of retiring a tiered plan
Will still provide tools so ppl can educate themselves on bandwidth
No promise that program won't go into place in future

Google 3D Plugin

How many failures before they get hint that the Internet is a commodity?
They are still in WAAAAAY exploratory phase
Mozilla and Google presented different applications, not compatible
What level will it take before 3D will be acceptable on Internet?

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

New Fallout IP game, New Vegas

Intarweb Goldmine

Reference

New Adult Swim GI JOE!!!

Show #126

2009-04-18T15:00:00.000-05:00

News

Twitter Slammed by Phishing Malware

Usually manifest by a tweet: Visit DailyStalk, better than twitter, with pictures
If you visited the profile of that person, you were infected too
You began to send the same messages
Different variations, happened twice
Twitter "claims" to have fixed the problem
shortened urls are just ripe for taking you to sites you don't want to go to.
TinyUrl has a feature called "Preview" that will ask you if you want to visit that site
Only go to links from twitterers that you trust and fit what they usually tweet (limits mass blast take-overs, can't target individuals and their prefs)

Broadband Cap from Time Warner Draws Lawmaker's Ire

U.S. Rep. Eric Massa of New York
Lawmakers looking to legislate out the ability to cap in monopoly markets
TW's response: $150 unlimited fee? (ridiculous)
"Time Warner's decision has the potential to more than triple customers' current rates, and I think most families will find this to be too taxing to afford,"

South Korean Blogger Arrested for Blogging about Failing Economy

18 Month jail sentence
falsely reporting that South Korea had barred banks from purchasing U.S. currency.

Google Losing 1.65 million a day on YouTube

Bandwidth, Servers, Support, Bandwidth
$1-2 per visit per user
Loss Leader for keeping Google on the tongue?
Investment for future. getting in early and being #1,
Cost will go down, Bandwidth only becomes cheaper
Facing more competition with places like DailyMotion, blip.tv, Hulu (diff. model but still online video entertainment), etc

DiggBar Stirs Controversy, Unveils Compromise

Diggbar acts as a URL shortener and disguises the site url in a frame
Your URL is your identity on the Internet
Companies have been writing programs for years that "break frames"
A LOT of ppl have complained so Diggbar came halfway, they made it an "opt-out" service

Talk Points

20 Twitter Apps
People are organizing politically on Twitter: #teaparty and #teabag

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/04/15/live-tea-party-twitter-feedsopen-thread/
#teaparty: Used to protest government's intervention into businesses / combat socialism
#teaparty used the hashtag to organize demonstrations across the US and even has signage
#teabag: organized in opposition to #teaparty / Basic tenet of group is that #teaparty is organized by a bunch of Obama haters and are currently happy with the changes in gov't
Freedom of speech is a good thing right?

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DoghouseSystems VS

-Performance in WoW is still great: 40 Frames / sec @ 1920 x 1280
-Don't forget their laptop which has 2 graphics card built in, the mobius, at a mid-line desktop price
-If you want all the bells and whistles, they can handcraft that too, just call them up during normal business hours, they'll talk with you, find out your needs, and recommend the system that you need (not the one that costs the most)
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Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

WoW: 3.1 hit with a thud on day 1, downloads were slow, finding the MAC patch was even harder. I personally chose to stay away for a couple days away

Just goes to show that no matter how good your infrastructure is, its really hard to get out large content pushes to 10 million ppl all at once on the Internet.

"Braid" comes to PC, Level Editor Included

Very popular puzzle game that works on a time mechanic
Unique Look-n-feel
Was on consoles, now on PC (steam, etc)
Hidden Level Editor included for PC version only
Later support for imports from Photoshop

Burnout Paradise reveals Cops and Robbers Mode

Not much is known but it but introduces a chase mechanism
There's a trailer out there, just follow the link in our shownotes
Criterion is looking to continually change the way ppl play their popular racer by download packs, instead of releasing whole new games.
I WANT A CRASH MODE (as seen in previous versions of Burnout)

Intarweb Goldmine

Show #125

2009-04-11T14:00:00.002-05:00

News

The Conficker Worm

Removal Tool

New Twitter Client for the Mac Desktop: Nambu

1 for full featured but unresponsive

Time Warner set to introduce tiered pricing for bandwidth

5GB: $29.99/month
10GB: $39.99/month
20GB: $49.99/month
40GB: $54.90/month
100GB: No information yet
Biggest argument by Cable companies: small percentage of users forcing caps
(my argument: If such a small percentage, target those users because the 98% doesn't need a cap)
Test-beds for this cap structure going into markets where no competition is available
Homework assignment for users: Find out how much you use per month and then compare it to the pricing structures

T-Mobile / HP to use Android OS for netbooks

Microsoft claims they have 98% of netbook market despite no rise in sales
Netbooks are about cost saving, why pay premium for a low feature item
Microsoft should be giving this OS away (like they did with Win95) in order to corner market

.69 songs a missing commodity on ITunes now that new Price Structure implemented

Promoters decide pricing structure, which give no incentive to lower prices
most older songs stayed put at .99 with some raising price to $1.29
(derek open up itunes and get me some supporting numbers)

MLB dumps Silverlight

War inside browser being waged, who controls the media delivery mechanism
Microsoft = Silverlight, Adobe = Flash, RealMedia = dead
Olympics dumped Silverlight, now the MLB?
last year plagued by glitches, admin needed to install, etc.
Big hit because MLBAM also streams NCAA tourney and 2009 Masters

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Don't just take our word for it...

Blizzard Game Designer User Experience

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Beatles: Rockband and Canon CD simultaneous release Sept. 9

Internal link to Games Press

Soldiers Choose Game, instead of film, to recount Fallujah

Notable because the younger generation of soldiers is choosing a medium that they are comfortable with to tell their story (not movies)
Will feature all sides of the conflict: Soldier, Villager, Insurgent
Konami promises that this will be realistic

Free Game: The Power of Paint
WoW note: 3.1 forthcoming

End-Game furthered - Ulduar: Dwarves gone wild (NE Stormpeaks)
DUAL SPEC - BIIIIIG game changer, only ooc and cast time to change your whole build
No equipment manager - got pushed
New holiday "Noble Garden" was pushed also

Jack Thompson's unconstitutional bill gets vetoed in Utah, takes fight to airwaves

Disbarred Florida Nut that really is just into grand standing and has chosen his target as gaming
Wanted law in place that forced M games to be put under lock and key and was giving stiff penalties if this didn't happen.
Stupid because rating system is voluntary and would force ppl away from rating their game
Claims on radio that Doom was a trainer for Columbine, Germany shooting was CS and Far Cry 2's fault

Intarweb Goldmine

Wii Dumbells

Show #124

2009-04-04T14:00:00.000-05:00

News

Google April Fools
GMail This Day in Tech History
Windows 7 RC Available in May 2009

Steady iterations of Beta. Now at 7068
Will Windows 7 help re-establish stranglehold on consumer market and buzz gallery?

Mobile Media (i.e. cell phone) Internet Usage on rise

50% of Mobile phone internet usage happens from IPhones
Touchscreens: The top handset on each carrier is a touchscreen. T-Mobile has the Android device, the T-Mobile G1, Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) has the BlackBerry Storm; AT&T (NYSE: T) has the iPhone and Sprint (NYSE: S) has the Samsung Instinct.
Top five smartphones: Globally they are: iPhone (above, top), Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N70 (above, left), BlackBerry 8300 (above, right), Nokia N80, and Nokia N73. In the U.S.: iPhone, BlackBerry Curve, BlackBerry Pearl, Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Centro, and HTC Dream (G1).
OS Breakdown: Symbian lost market share in February, but is still number one worldwide with 43 percent of requests; the top Windows Mobile device is the Samsung BlackJack II, but six of the top 10 Windows Mobile devices are from HTC; Android accounts for 5 percent of the US smartphone market; iPhone generated 33 percent of worldwide traffic and 50 percent of US traffic.

Recharge your electronics via movement

Scientists working on nanogenerator
Uses tiny nano wires that react to vibrations to generate electricity
Electricity can then be used to fuel electronics
Being studied and prepared for military applications but personal devices also targeted

Kitchen PCs - The wave of the future?

At about $600 to $800, kitchen PCs could be to desktops what netbooks have become to notebooks today: cheap, cheerful alternatives to overpriced, overpowered machines.
Kitchen PCs offer a stylish form factor, a touchscreen interface to get to e-mail, weather forecasts, calendars, news or recipes — all wrapped up with an attractive price tag.

The Computer Work That Played an April Fools Joke on the World

Like Y2K the Conficker virus was set to "wake up" this past Wednesday on April fools
And it did, but no commands came down -- it was a dud.

Google Ventures

Google ammasses a $100MM venture fund (news story)

Blu-hoo-hoo: Blu-ray No More: Netflix Increases Blu-ray Cost by 500% and I quit!

First Bluray and HD DVD was a free add-on to your existing Netflix service, I was in love with Netflix and was enjoying the spoils of Hi-Def -- but I knew it couldn't last forever.
Then Netflix moved with the industry and removed HD DVD and stuck only with Bluray, they even vowed to get all of the latest releases, and that they have. As far as customer service I have no complaint!
Then the first e-mail came, they were adding $1 to my subscription, a sigh of relif, no biggie, that made sense, the discs were a little more expensive than DVDs, the demand was not super high at the time, but as demand increased the $1 would make a big difference for Netflix, or at least I thought
This past week I received the e-mail that made me change my mind, Netflix (NFLX) decided to raise the Bluray cost from $1 to $5 for me added on to my already $20ish/month subscription, that's 5X the previous cost!
Now I can say that on more than one occasion my wife and I have experienced a Bluray come in with a crack in the actual disc, Netflix I assume pays to replace these -- one would assume not at full cost, but still if this occurs a lot (and I have to assume it does, because as I said, its been more than a few times) this could be part of the price increase, or it could just be inflation.
The price increase is also not the same across the board, the more expensive (or more discs you have out at a time) the higher the increase. It's $1 more than the number of DVDs out at a time, so if you have a 4-DVD plan like me, its $5 extra dollars ($28.99 instead of $23.99), if you have a 8-DVD out plan, it's $9 extra dollars ($56.99 instead of $47.99)
If you have Netflix and you have Bluray enabled and this sounds too pricey for you all you have to do is click 'Your Account' at the top right, and click 'Change Bluray Access'
About 10% of Netflix's subscriber base has Blu-ray enabled, and on average Blu-ray costs as much as 30% more in stores, but this demand for Blu-ray is new on Netflix and has risen to this level through a 60% increase over the last six months, I am curious how many people are going to jump ship.

Skype now LIVE on the IPhone App Store for Free

Sound quality reportedly pretty good
News of this going Live hit Twitter first
Will this change the face of cell phone usage? (probly not since your paying premium price for at&t service)

Talk Points

Dilbert Moment:
My boss walks in, says his boss can't use my report due to crappy pc. Not my report I say, fix his pc. "No, i can't tell him that. U need to fix report". So I'm "fixing" a non-broken report.
Will spam be the death of Email?

Easy to codify
No cost whatsoever to send en-masse(except marginal programming costs)
According to Google, 94% of all email is spam
Possible solutions:

Paid
Black Lists
Opt-In feature (i.e. Facebook and myspace)

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Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

PS2 Price Drop

Now $99, going on 9th year
2500 titles out for this console
Looking to compete with Wii, but not sexy or casual friendly enough
Where is our PS3 price drop?

Intarweb Goldmine

NASA contemplating naming toilet on Space Station after Stephen Colbert.

Stephen Colbert won Internet Voting for Rights to name latest module of space station
NASA threatens to name toilet after him, Colbert threatens succession if the whole module doesn't carry his name
Funniness abounds

The Ultimate Button Masher

Show #123

2009-03-28T16:00:00.000-05:00

News

OnLive Cloud Gaming Console

Video Demo from GDC
1 milisecond lag
VOD for gaming
Future gaming

Crysis Wars
GRID
Mirror's Edge
Burnout Paradise

Dell Having Troubles entering Phone Market

Lackluster PC sales eating into its profit
Phone OS really is the next-gen profit cow (see IPhone)

It's more likely the hardware that is the profit cow
Even Apple gives away the latest version of their OS to their users
Right now it is because it lacks features other phones take for granted
But they are setting the precident, and Android has promised even before iPhone to be the OS that is upgradable for free
So getting the hardware that works, and maintains the functions and battery life you want will be the future of phones.

Its really the hardwareOr has the boat been missed because
PocketPC not glitzy enough, despite its utilitarian roots
Will they buy Palm to get PRE?

Twitter announces Pro account
Facebook, Yahoo, Aim all jumping on Twitter craze

Facebook was one of the first there
Yahoo Updates is coming soon and will likely be integrated into Y!'s very popular e-mail service
AOL Site Social

Skype now #1 International Phone Provider

International calls via Skype grew 41% in 2008
That made Skype 8% of all of the International traffic combined last year

IPhone Hits 17 million sales Landmark

Sucker born each day
Great device but it feeds the monopoly

The devices do come locked to specific networks
That is the work of the networks, not of Apple
And lots of people have successfully unlocked their phones to use with other providers

Article on why Carriers rule the market

Talk Points

Alternatives to the Universal Remote
The New Canon Digital Rebel 500D T1i

15.1MP up from 12 in XSi
HD Video (no autofocus)

1080p @ 20fps (unusable)
720p @ 30fps

3.4fps burst shooting (170 JPEG buffer)
Thanks to Canon for letting me play with it ($899 kit/$799 body)

What would make the IPhone a perfect device? (This discussion at the top of the show during the iPhone segment)

Slideout Qwerty keyboard
Non-locked device
No Data plan option

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Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Steam counters with "Steamworks"

Intarweb Goldmine

How many Hard Drives does it take to stop a .50 caliber round?

Show #122

2009-03-21T14:00:00.000-05:00

News

Apple Catches up to Industry with IPhone 3.0

Cut and Paste
Spotlight (Search)
Support for MMS
A2DP Stereo Bluetooth
1000+ new APIs (Turn-by-turn directions... etc)
iPod Touch = $9.95 upgrade fee (bluetooth now available on the touch)

Google Voice

SMS Forwarding
Google Contact Integration
Unlimited Groups
Still Free
Integrated Calling Out

Dell Unleashes Adamo

MacBook Air Equiv

IE8 the last IE version from Microsoft?

WebKit instead?
What is WebKit?

Amazon doesn't want your Kindle to be more useful

threatened the smackdown on a site offering instructions on how to trick the Kindle into reading other types of files.
Russian guy figured it out, Amazon threatened DMCA, said he was circumventing processes
kindlepid.py, allows e-books purchased legally from other stores to play nice with the Kindle

Star Wars Live Action TV Series

casting is already in motion
Set between Revenge of the Sigh and A new Hope
Focus on minor characters and help fill in the storyline
Hopefully this is better than the cartoon movie that was released

Talk Points

Try Before you Buy is here to stay, bittorrent could boost your sales

Chris Zabriskie leaks all his albums to bittorrent before they get released
Don't let the labels tell you otherwise
Already in effect with different media
Free CD's with full ebooks leads to Webscriptions.net

Driving Tips with and without technology

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Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Pro WoW Player set to make half a million dollars

$486,500
$521,000+ is highest paid Starcraft player

Intarweb Goldmine

$1500 Dollar Headphones, the opulence of audiophilia
$11 Million Stimulus Funds Slated for Bridge on Microsoft Campus

36.5 Million dollar project

Steve Wozniak doing the Cha-Cha (MY EYES!!!)

Show #121

2009-03-14T14:00:00.000-05:00

News

Similar to services like

Steven's Twitter Feed

The tiny new iPod Shuffle: It Now Talks
Cool Things People Have Made with Twitter

Using the cool Kill-A-Watt (of which we have one in the studio) Tweet-A-Watt
Botanicalls $99 has a device that tells you when your plants need water
Pay Washing Machines that Tell You Which Are Free
Popcorn Robot That Takes Orders Via Twitter

Talk Points

Sponsor
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Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Intarweb Goldmine

Chinese Establishing Military Space Station

Don't tell the chinese that it's fatal to shoot a gun in space...
US MOL project, 1967, surveillance purposes
Chinese guy sitting at the porthole with a pair of bino's....

No Alchohol, just plenty of beef....

Show #120

2009-03-07T14:00:00.000-06:00

News

Thought Identification Through Technology (FMRI's) - User Submitted

Not Mind Reading but "Thought Identification"
FMRI's show where the activity is in the brain at a given time (think heat-map)
Computers identify these heat maps with objects, hammer, nail, boat,house
Shown to have very high accuracy when using simple objects
Already research is brisk when it comes to complex thought structure
Are your brain patterns like DNA or should they be treated more like your thoughts?

Amazon Backs off Text-to-Speech with Kindle 2

Oops, our bad. We know it's legal but we don't want any headaches
Authors and Publisher's can now "opt-out" of the robotic service
Should Accessibility experts now be up in arms because the new device is now less accessible?

On-Demand Online (Cable companies wanting their pound of flesh online)

Comcast is coming up with a service, similar to Hulu, that will deliver streaming content from their network to your computer
Will be restricted to Comcast subscribers
Trying to protect their business model where they are the content providers over the Internet and can still charge you requisite money, because they are still paying a "per-user" fee to the networks they host
34% adults watch at least 1 video a week on the Internet, up from 20%
At least they are coming along and trying to adapt (not anti-agile like RIAA)

TV.com Releases Streaming Player for Iphone, CBS shows included

Showtime and CBS shows will be on the Iphone
Works best in Wi-Fi mode but still serviceable in cell mode
Spotty coverage currently (no CSI, etc)
Direct Response to Hulu and also a shot across the Apple IStore's bow
Can create favorites and subscriptions

Nokia decides to put Skype on the N97 in the UK, the cell operators are furious

Skype is VoIP software that allows users to make free calls to other users
Carriers may refuse to stock the devices if Nokie does not remove Skype

Talk Points (pick one or two and we move the rest to next week)

Is the Kindle 2 worth Buying?

Not yet IMHO (Steven) $359, not open-source, controlled only by amazon, no color still a little slow with the page refresh

The 3D Monitor Derek is Playing With
HelloTxt

Seesmic, Friendster and Laconi.ca!
Friend Status
Facebook Application
Email Gateway
TwitterFeed Application

The All-New Skype
20 Unforgettable Case Mods

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New Laptop

Pre orders only - $50 Jinx Gift Certificate
17" display 1920 x 1200 resolution (just like your 26" displays!)
Single or dual video card (CrossFire) configuration
Single or dual hard drive options
Backlit keyboard

Excellent service - call anytime during daylight hours for order status and tech support
Performance driven
10 years experience building high end servers
48 hour burn-in process
OS comes pre-installed with WoW (not on recovery CD)
Plenty of upgrade options yet simple enough to not be confusing during checkout

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Tabula Rasa Ending with a Bang

Failed MMOG going out with a bang
Instead of closing down the servers with a whimper, giant invasion planned.
Atomic weapons will be used...

Quake Live Open Beta

Play Quake III Arena online and in your web browser
Be prepared to wait in queue currently (avg. 30 mins)
ROCKET JUMP BABY!

Intarweb Goldmine

WE HAVE ARRIVED!!!!

Gamer targetted Gillette commercial and product "The Gamer Razor"

Star Trek Cologne and Perfume

Red Shirt Cologne - Because tomorrow may never come...
(reference to the no-name landing party members who always managed to die, they always wore red shirts)

No Armed Woman Gets Pilots License
Congenital defect, Lady has no arms and functions normally
Can play the piano with her feet, and even fly an airplane (you have to watch the video)

Show #119

2009-02-28T14:00:00.002-06:00

News

Facebook Reverts back to old TOS
The future of Netflix is Streaming
Paper-thin flexible displays gain Touch-Screen Capability
Google Mail Unreachable, The Internet is Falling

2 1/2 hours downtime
2nd global outtage this month
Still unknown the root cause
Single most twittered subject during outtage

Talk Points

RIAA Against Harvard Law

Defense of Joel Tenenbaum: 7 songs at issue
Multiple tries to settle with no help: last offer $10,500 from RIAA
Law states up to $150,000 per infringement
Harvard Professor outraged (Charles Nesson) and decided to take the case Pro Bono
Students using a real court case as their Thesis through Prof. Charles Nesson
Obscure rule that student lawyers could be at trial in Massachusetts under a real lawyer
Judge Gertner who is digital savvy: "basically bankrupting people, and it's terribly critical that you stop it."
Now the case will be tried live and on the Internet
Not recompensed but gaining invaluable experience

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Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Discount on Left 4 Dead Nets 3000% Increase in Sales
Possible Price Cut for PS3

we could argue about this a bit, sales declining, reasons why, importance of price cut

Intarweb Goldmine

Star Wars WookiePedia
- My life as I know it is over...
Trillion Dollar Bailout hits Addicting Games

slap Sitty Group, RNC Financial, BoMerica, Light Rail Projects
Give money to ports of entry and smaller housing refinances, etc
Maybe our politicians should play this game before voting on an economic bill...

MMMMM. I so want ....

Pew Pew Pew...

Show #118

2009-02-21T14:00:00.002-06:00

News

Flash 10 in 2010 -- to MOST SmartPhones that is!

Apple iPhone -- not one of them
Windows Mobile, Google's Android, Nokia S60/Symbian, and the new Palm OS

Microsoft Going Retail
Siftables Shown at TED
Paid Downloads in YouTube

Already they are cracking down on download tools
Hulu catching up to them in revenue

Facebook owns you in Perpetuity
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/labels-want-13-million-from-pirate-bay-as-trial-starts.ars

Talk Points

Get 1080p Movies working on the PS3
Tools That are Killing Satellite Radio

Pandora
IHeartRadio.com
Public Radio Tuner

Safety in Social Networking

Assume that your social account is hacked
May not be as fun, but don't put your personal information on your site
Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, are all vulnerable

Sponsor
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Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Free Game: The Space Game

Intarweb Goldmine

The Church of Google
The Lego Computer (Case Mod)
Banker Gives $60million out to Past and Present Employees
Super Mario Bugs (Shows how to jump the flag - Lvl 3-3)

Worst Ad Placement Ever....

Just because....

Show #117

2009-02-14T14:00:00.005-06:00

News

M$ Confirms 6 separate Windows 7 SKU's

M$ because the separate SKU's are a pureplay for money
Why ruin your great marketing push by muddying the water with too many SKU's
People just want clarity and knowledge that they chose the right thing

Sirius-XM File for Bankruptcy

The blogs are screaming that the end is near
Filing for bankruptcy, 3.4 billion in debt
Satellite airtime is waaay expensive
reliant upon new car sales, economy tanking = less sales = less subscribers
Insider Information: Sirius XM looking to restructure and cut costs but don't plan to go out of business

Microsoft Ends Public Windows 7 Beta

Public release now closed
Microsoft mentions that they are near a "Release Candidate" but give no mention
Still available if you're an MSDN or Technet subscriber

Kindle 2 Released

3G wireless, Cloud Friendly (backups to cloud and syncing), Thinner than IPhone, 16 shades of grey, 2GB Storage, mini USB Charging, Longer battery life (2 weeks), Pleasant Text to Speech, 5-way button navigation instead of the old up-and-down wheel.

Downside: $357, Proprietary system (.AZW), Doesn't support MobiPocket or PDF's, 1 Device Forever Amen... (blech). At least Zunes and IPods can play non-proprietary .mp3's
Interesting Comparison vs. standard EBooks
Chart for Comparison's Found Here
Hacking: Reading Encrypted Mobibooks on Kindle Devices
Competitors: Cybook (supports mobipocket ebooks: specs , $325), SONY PRS-505 (all formats, new books only from sony store which is nascent, no wireless, $299)
FREE EBOOKS FOR KINDLE (maybe move this to next week on a how-to)

Install Ubuntu on your PS3

Make sure you have a usb keyboard and mouse handy
Backup your PS3 to a USB drive (save games, user preferences, etc)
Sync your Trophies with the server
Go get a version of Ubuntu 8.10 and make sure you burn the alternate install disc to DVD
Settings -> System Settings -> Install Other OS automatically installs a dual booter
Plop the DVD into the cd tray and just follow most of the defaults
Pair your Bluetooth keyboard and mouse with the system (keyboard will be problematic but MX1100 should happen automatically with the bluetooth utility)
Grab Sixaxis Bluetooth Package.tar.gz and unzip it on your Ubuntu desktop.
Double click to install the packages inside, first the "bluez-sixaxis-bin_powerpc.deb" package and then the one named "bluez-sixaxis_rc1.1_all.deb.
Applications -> Accessories -> Sixaxis-gui to enable your sixaxis.
Now you have fully working Ubuntu on your machine
Remember that all X86 packages won't work because it's a cell processor but the SNESX emulator can (see our show notes for instructions on this)

Sponsor
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Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

KillZone 2 Reviews Are Really MetaReviews for the Viability of PS3

Last 4 Paragraphs, go look at all the links, This seems to be a pattern lately and we can talk about it.

Guns'N'Roses "Chinese Democracy" coming to Rock Band in Spring
WoW Talk: Lunar Festival

What is it (Reciprocal of Chinese New Year)
Raid boss to kill
Lots of coin collecting (75 total) and marching across the map to find the NPC's that have the coins (think giant scavenger hunt)

Intarweb Goldmine

Show #116

2009-02-07T15:00:00.003-06:00

News

Google putting the Squeeze on Free Apps

less licenses available for the "free business plan" (down to 50 from 200)
$50/year/user
Not just competing with Microsoft's Exchange

Zoho
Zimbra

Google flags Entire Internet as Malware

Oops! An accident involving Google and StopBadware.org started showing all sites with a small line that read, "This site may harm your computer" including all of Google's own sites.
Google has more details on their blog here and their on-line help.

However, they release Latitude [Read this for show]

Share your location with your friends
Lie about it to your enemies

NASA offering Free Zero-G Flights - (great segue for Fusion Space Flights)
Microsoft Surface used to coordinate Super Bowl

Talk Points

Wireless Charging: Is it really close to Fruition?
Fusion Power Space Flight (maybe, Can we pull this one off?)

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Intarweb Goldmine

Texting Death Crash Woman Jailed

21 yr old jailed for 21 months after striking a person and killing them while texting
20 text messages in 2 hours plus various phone calls. Sent a text right before the crash

Rifle Stock for DSLR Stability Platform

Not the smartest thing to bring a camera stability platform that is shaped like a rifle into a war zone
this guy was a soldier and embedded with soldiers though
Valid applications for stability platform, photography of moving objects a lot easier

Google Streetview Turns up Interesting - Results

Larping and Deer strike

Wobble boobs and booties on your IPhone
Cornify

New link on our site because there's nothing that Unicorns and Rainbows can't cure...

(jacket can be found here)

(thank you ELR for digging these up and please leave Lucas frozen)

Show #115

2009-01-31T14:00:00.004-06:00

[Download Show #115 as MP3]

News

Senate Delays Digital TV Switchover
GMail Offline Support
Cracked IWorks and CS4 for Apple Infected with Trojans
Microsoft Releases IE 8 RC1

InPrivate browsing (not save to History), InPrivate Filtering
Compatibility view
improved performance.
IE8's color-coded tab system
improved address bar
add-ons manager
kill toolbars quickly

Users Backlash against Warner Music for Youtube Mutes (Something I'm passionate about, lets spend time on it)

http://www.faxzero.com (free fax from the Internet)

Contact Info:
Warner Music Group
75 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10019

Phone:212-275-2000
Fax: 212-757-3985

YouTube, LLC
901 Cherry Ave.
San Bruno, CA 94066 USA

Phone: 650-253-0000
Fax: 650-253-0001

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Same as Youtube

Talk Points

What is Microsoft doing right Marketing-wise with Windows 7?
TV Switchover Debate
Warner Music Backlash

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Intarweb Goldmine

Show #114

2009-01-24T14:00:00.001-06:00

[Download Show #114 as MP3]

News

Circuit City Blows it's last fuse
- Filed for Bankruptcy last year - 2nd largest electronics retailer - 5-10% game sales
- Could not get a re-structure on its debts or find a buyer
- Even the liquidation sales sucked (10%,20%, good luck finding 30%)
YouTube optimized for TV and YouTube experimenting with direct downloads
- TV optimization specifically targetted at PS3 and Wii, easier interface, etc
- Lots of plugins available that download files, but they are a bit cumbersome
- This allows select videos to have a "download now" link on the youtube page
- Obama speech was one of the firsts to get the feature
Google Terminates 6 Services, Jaiku one of them
- Dodgeball, Google Catalog Search, Google Mashup Editor, Google Notebook, and Jaiku
- Jaiku to become open source
- Closed some offices (Austin, Norway, Sweden)
- 100 recruitment positions gone
Twitter may have a new business model
- Jason Calacanis
- "Suggested Friends"

Talk Point

Walk Down Memory Lane: Game Patents since 1969

Let's talk about the ones we remember
Steven: Atari 2600, NES, Simon

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

WoW Patch 3.0.8 Released
- First since Wrath of the Lich King published
- World of Warcraft now supports 3-D imaging.
- Lots of crashing on release day, Revolves around Wintergrasp
- Can now create Death Knight on any server if you have lvl 70 on account

Intarweb Goldmine

Show #113

2009-01-17T14:00:00.000-06:00

[Download Show #113 as MP3]

News

Windows 7 Beta Now Public

very much like vista except apparently faster
new taskbar icons
Security alerts can be dialed back
no more side bar for gadgets, everything on desktop
quick view for desktop
quick snap
all-in-one media viewer

2 TerraByte SD Cards????
ITunes DRM-Free Music not Share Safe

email address embedded into ITunes Plus file
Must pay 30 cents if you want to unlock your old DRM music

LP's making a comeback, double sales in 2008
- Is there really a quantifiable difference between CD and LP???
- Regardless, people are still digging the Vinyl
- Not your parent's LP, The gauge is twice as thick for modern records
Obama asks Congress to delay TV Blackout

CES Stuff
3D, 3D, and more 3D
Gaming: NVidia
TV: Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony
Cherple
Also announced at CES
Computer-to-Mobile 2-way Free Texting

Talk Point
Walk Down Memory Lane: Game Patents since 1969
Let's talk about the ones we remember

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Rockband Releases SD Card for Wii

DLC for Rock Band 2 needs a place to reside
Retail = $13
You don't have to buy branded card for DLC to work, any SD card at or below 2 GB
2 GB cards go for around $10 or so on the open market

1UP Yours and 1UP Show Officially Dead
FFXIII Site officially open

Intarweb Goldmine

Threaten Suicide, Go to Jail
Watch Cell Phone 4 Real
Parking Tickets by Text Message

French Pilot Program
Will text you warnings that your meter is low on money
Sends message to police after 20 minutes alerting them that you are AFK

Show #112

2009-01-09T00:01:00.000-06:00

[Download Show #112 as MP3]

News

HUGE ITunes Change

DRM Gone, but so is the old pricing structure
$1.29 for all new stuff, $.99 for moderate, $.69 for older stuff

RIAA Fires MediaSentry

Sloppy work - Investigators would download music files from peoples computers and use that as evidence that they were file sharing, without confirming that the file had been in fact shared with anybody else other than the MediaSentry investigator.
Tactic since 2003 and has spawned many Civil Right lawsuits
RIAA quietly dropped the company and cites their winding down of "evidence collecting"
RIAA states that they will be "measuring the popularity of various online entertainment sites" instead

30 Gig Zune Meltdown on Jan. 1

National News, a certain portion of the Gen 1 Zunes stopped working on NYD
Source code subsequently leaked and here's the detail explanation
They didn't account for leap year properly when day counting.
Microsoft's fix: Wait until Jan. 2

Mars Rovers 5 Years Old

Spirit landed on Jan 3, 2004 and sister, Opportunity, was 21 days later
Only expected to function 30 days
Both have driven over 12 and a half miles
Uploaded 36 Gigabytes of data, 250 thousand photos

Consumer Electronics Show

Samsung 7mm TV
150 inch TVs of course
NBC coverage, first time a major broadcaster has been there

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

TBD if there is anything noteworthy out there to discuss, kinda quiet

Intarweb Goldmine

That's "Wheel Good" - In-Car Microwave
Man in Thor Costume Scares Away Burglar

There's a web comic out there from "PvPOnline" where one of the chars scares away a burglar by wearing a Thor costume
Life Imitates Entertainment, rather than Vice Versa
Man comes home, house being robbed, Wearing Thor costume from a halloween party, burglar sees him, gets scared, runs out of the house leaving his shoes.

Shouting at your HD can make it slower

Tiny vibrations from the soundwaves of your voice can cause latency.
Proven with a disk monitor
Punchline: "Just like a woman, whisper sweet nothings to your HD and you might actually get farther..." (working on this)

FREE Stuff

Show #111

2009-01-02T00:01:00.002-06:00

[Download Show #111 as MP3]

News

NY Times finally picks up on Text Message Scam

Derek Explains how Text Messages work (no overhead)
Europe currently doesn't charge for Text Messages
US mainstream finally questioning practice of charging

Malware sent out on Digital Picture Frames

The gift that keeps on giving....
Mercury Digital 1.5" Digital Photo Frame at Walmart
http://www.virscan.org/report/ad3a216af3ba2c3a7d9369f85d884e35.html
Trojans, Backdoors, etc. galore
Samsung SPF-85H Sold through Amazon also infected

RIAA Changing Tacks

Instead of suing consumers, forcing ISP's to track and cut off offenders
Not cheap to dig through gigs of logs and install packet sniffers
ISP's pushing back and asking RIAA to pay for costs

Joost is becoming more like Hulu, web only
Google Analytics Event Tracking

Top 5 Scary Tech of 2008

Hearing Voices at the Store

Directional Sound

Law Enforcement Takes Your Laptop

Entering the Country
Without Probable Cause

Cyberwar

Attack the nation's infrastructure
Emergency Response Services
Banks
Electrical Grid
Water

Technological Singularity

AI
Technology deciding we're irrelevant

Large Hadon Collider

Create a black hole at Earth's surface?
Material called strangelets.
Back online June 2009

Tech Predictions of 2009

Apple: Steve Jobs Step Down? / Hearing About the Next Gadget
MS: Windows 7 Uphill Battle (has to erase bad Vista blood)
MS: Web Office Launch head-to-head with Google Docs
MS: E3 announce XBox720
Google: Web Based GoogleOS
Nintendo: Quiet Year / More Peripherals + Games
Sony: PS4?
Blu-ray make-or-break year
Mobile devices will take over, Smartphones on crack
Twitter will go away or need to find money

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Intarweb Goldmine

XBox Avatars get 90's Rave Clothes

Show #110

2008-12-26T00:01:00.000-06:00

[Download Show #110 as MP3]

Top 10 Consumer Apps of 2008

CoolIris
Qik
Mogulus
Meebo
Last.fm
Ning
Hulu
IntenseDebate
Firefox
Twitter

Top 10 Free Windows Apps of 2008

Firefox 3
Mojo (download from ITunes over the Internet) - OurTunes (Like Mojo but open source)
HelloPDF (PDF to Word Doc Converter)
CCleaner 2.0 (Cleans crap from your machine)
AVG Free Antivirus Clamwin
Windows Vista SP1 (A whole new operating system for free!)
HotSpot Shield (Browse US sites without being in the US)
Quick Media Converter
DExpose2
DropBox - Syncing Files across Internet
Executor (keyboarding for app opening)
Sharepod (free your Ipod from ITunes)

Top 10 Games in 2008

Grand Theft Auto IV (even TIME Magazine agrees)
Braid
Little Big Planet
Rock Band 2
Gears of War 2
Dead Space
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Hunted Forever (Flash)
Fieldrunners (iPhone)
Spore

Top 10 Comfort Foods (Google Zeitgeist)

Mac + Cheese
Potato Salad
Pot Pie
Apple Pie
Chicken Soup
Fried Chicken
Meat Loaf
Spaghetti
Chili
Ice Cream

Top 10 Most Searched Hoochie-Momma's on the Internet -- End of the show
Top Pirated Games in 2008 (TorrentFreak)

Spore -- 1,700,000
The Sims 2 -- 1,150,000
Assassins Creed -- 1,070,000
Crysis -- 940,000
Command & Conquer 3 -- 860,000
Call of Duty 4 -- 830,000
GTA San Andreas -- 740,000
Fallout 3 -- 645,000
Far Cry 2 -- 585,000
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 -- 470,000

Top 5 Recipes from my Wife

Tobascco Gravy
Mom's Meat Loaf
Lasagna
Stuffed Mannicotti
Stuffed Chicken

Top 5 Deal Sites on the Internet
Top 7 Super Villains That should Exist

(Edited for Content)
Sensitive Step-Dad
DJ MVP
Orange Guido
The Drunken Mistake
Vomitron
The Pharmacist

Seminal Moments in Gaming

Steven

Zelda - Games could be more than games. First "open world" experience

Super Star Wars - First real graphics wow

Mortal Kombat - Stepping into an arcade and seeing "realistic" graphics
Warcraft 2 - Coming off a 2 year sabatical from computers and seeing the progress in games on PC
Favorite Game of All Time? "Masters of Magic" (MoM)

Seminal Moments in Technology

Steven

EGA Monitor on a x286
Pagers with messaging
First time to see the Internet
Hacking for the first time

While perhaps not the most searched "hoochie mama" on the Internet, she does have the distinction of being Google's fastest rising search term this year: Sara Palin

http://hotlist.uk.msn.com/2007/top-100-women-2008.aspx

Show #109

2008-12-19T00:01:00.000-06:00

[Download Show #109 as MP3]

News

Scientists use Wii to Codify Learning System

(Source Behind Article)
Using the Accelerometers in the Wii-mote to measure and record movements
Charts and Graphs of peoples movements
slow learners that eventually get it, learners that don't, A-Ha people that pick up cues and "get it"
Mostly a gimmick to pick up test victims (i mean subjects)
(cheap test hardware - talk a little bit about that 3D test)

Governments Ready to Bail out DRAM Makers

Big economic impact to memory makers
Taiwan / Germany / South Korea all effected
Manufacturers were betting on strong Vista sales (oops)
Projecting a 20-25% decrease in new PC sales for Q1 2009

Papers Served in Australia via Facebook

Couple defaulted on $100,000 house loan
Couldn't be served at home and email wasn't responding
Law firm asked if they could be served on Facebook
Judge assented, profiles have since disappeared from site

Last Year for Apple Macworld in 2009

Jobs will not be giving the keynote
MacWorld will supposedly continue without Apple directly sponsoring
Apple Stores and other things seen as more effective for Apple

Apple taking a downturn

1% downturn while the PC industry as a whole goes up 2% (November)

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

FFXIII and Versus Trailer take your breath away

FFVII and FFIX (Steven's Favorites)
<>
FFXIII not exclusive to PS3 but Versus is.
Versus will be FF chars in a real world
XIII will be more traditional

EA Caught Selling Wii Game with X360 graphics

EA's excuse? "Wii graphics would not have been 'broadcast quality'"

4 mainstream games coming to IPhone

Dance Dance Revolution
Silent Hill
Frogger
Metal Gear Solid

Deadspace and Mirror's Edge Sell Poorly
Nintendo sells 2 million units in November and 1.5 million DS

X360 sells $800,000+
PS3 posts decline over quarter last year
PS2 sold 200,000 units but is finally declining month-to-month

Intarweb Goldmine

Show #108

2008-12-12T00:01:00.000-06:00

[Download Show #108 as MP3]

Charity Plug

Child's Play

News

Kristen Kreuk in Streetfighter Movie Adaptation

Steven thinks she's HOT :)
OK, what normal male does not? Plus she can act.... really well

RIAA Sues 19 Yr old Transplant Patient

Innocent, Sick, Unable to answer = Guilty as Charged
Morally Reprehensible what the RIAA is doing
They deserve this horrible press coverage

Comcast offers Bandwidth Monitor in 2009

Comcast implemented 250GB limit for a single month
Now you will be able to see your BW usage (with a 3 hr delay)
Comcast shooting for January 5th for release of tool

BD Live - (Interactive Blu-Ray - Really Worth the Hype?)

How many you us have ever played the extra content on DVD's

I do a lot (ok, your a freak but how many regular people...)
BD-Live is not all there yet, generally a tool to sell other movies at the moment, some additional features are cool

Iron Man flops for BD Live

Contrary to Popular Belief, Textese will not ruin your grammar or spelling

Although faster to type, text-speak takes twice as long to decipher for an adult (according to study on college students)
Found that people need better grammar and spelling skills to decipher faster
Rule of thumb is to never let it creep into your essays or resume's :D :D

Our Christmas/New Years Special will Air between the 26th and 28th depending on your local station, we'll be covering:

Top 10 Consumer Apps of 2008
Top 10 Games in 2008
Top 10 Most Searched Hoochie-Momma's on the Internet (ok, maybe not so much...)
Top Pirated Games in 2008 (TorrentFreak)

Spore -- 1,700,000
The Sims 2 -- 1,150,000
Assassins Creed -- 1,070,000
Crysis -- 940,000
Command & Conquer 3 -- 860,000
Call of Duty 4 -- 830,000
GTA San Andreas -- 740,000
Fallout 3 -- 645,000
Far Cry 2 -- 585,000
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 -- 470,000

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Favorite Features of 360 NXE? Netflix Instant Queue

A lot of people are using it like a pseudo DVR and / or getting acquainted with documentaries

PS3 not looking to implement

Country coming to Rock Band

Want a glowing wireless mic for Rockband 2?
Chronotrigger for DS!!! (Best RPG Eva)
- What makes a good game? Bio-Sensory Reactions to Games

Intarweb Goldmine

Obama "ZuneGate"
- Funny Quote from the Comments:
  I own a Zune and happily, especially if it keeps me from turning into one of these freak boys. I’d rather him be actually be an Islamic extremist than a member of the Church of Jobs. To listen to these guys talk, you can already picture them strapping on Mac Airs and running into a PC dealer to blow up on customer service.

Buy your Kids Ripoffs, Support Terrorists

DS Gets Ripped off in the UK

PSP RipOff = PopStation

Is Having Sex with a Robot Hooker Cheating?

Asylum

Show #107

2008-12-05T00:01:00.002-06:00

[Download Show #107 as MP3]

Charity Plug

Child's Play

News

New Version of Java comes with MSN Toolbar...

Google Calendar Now Supports Apple ICal

Google Calendar has supported Outlook for awhile now

There's a setup program and it allows you to sync your iCal with Google calendar

Having a web calendar is handy in case you don't have your laptop or desktop with you

CBS Hacked, Malware Distributed

Sub-Domain hacked (i.e. yoursite.cbs.com)
IFrame was serving up the domain and subsequent malware
Russian hackers were responsible
Vulnerability for users really dependent upon a number of factors including the type of security used on a PC, the operating system, and possibly the browser version.
Ben-Itzak, who found the hack, "It also highlights the fact that no web portal, no matter how high ranking, can be totally secure against a system hack and consequent infection of its visitors. Web users need to exercise caution at all times."

Study confirms mobile phones distract drivers

*Husband distracted by phone call of wife giving birth here*
Passenger conversation fared better than mobiles because they were in the car

Windows Drops Below 90% Market Share

89.6% Windows (.84 % drop) (20.45% vista and growing)
Mac OSX - 8.9%
Linux - .9%
Caution - this was a poll done by servers monitored by Net Applications and not the whole internet

APPLE QUIETL Y RECOMMENDS VIRUS SOFTWARE

For the longest time Apple has sold their PC on it's "invincibility", marketing campaigns, etc.
Quietly released a post on their support forums
'Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult.'

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Wii Turns $6 profit for each console sold

Nintendo continues to outsell all the competitors

Nintendo can't patent term "Wii Remote"

Remote is the sticky point
already a product out there called a "Wee-mote" (spell it) for kids

New Games Releases December

Not the deluge that was available in October - November (Resistance 2, Gears of War 2, Far Cry 2, Banjo Kazooie, Left4Dead, Little Big Planet,
Prince of Persia
Persona 4
SingStar Abba - Hyuck, Hyuck (PS3 and PS2)

Free Game:

http://www.playauditorium.com/

Bio-Sensory Reactions to Games

Half Life 2, Halo 2, Gears of War, F.E.A.R, Call of Duty 3
Emsense uses brainwaves, heart activity, and even blinking to estimate engagement.
First 90 Minutes of the games measured of each
Games do affect emotions. FEAR used adrenaline most effective, Call of Duty 3 used honor, etc.
Tutorials came with mixed reviews - People don't like to be told what to do. They do like to be engaged and taught subtlely how to operate the game mechanics (cover systems, buddy calls, weapon changes, weapon reloads).
Tutorials were likely to be skipped by Males (40% more likely)
Highs and Lows important (brief lulls, puzzles, etc)
Close Combat is good - Halo 2's energy sword showed a high level of engagement
Cut Scenes were dicey - Entertainment and action were better than informational - Gears of War does well by relaying information through radio chatter
Novel vs. Gimmick Weapons -

Intarweb Goldmine

Black Friday Mishaps

No Wii's available
Stack of 360's cause a brawl
Employee trampled to death in NY Mall
Gun Fight and resulting death at Toys R Us in California

Show #106

2008-11-28T00:01:00.000-06:00

[Download Show #106 as MP3]

News

Geek Alert: Full Star Trek Trailer for new movie available on their official site
Ok, Finally saw the second trailer and although I was TOTALLY blown away, did it really feel like the old Star Trek?
Discussion on Reboots: Good or Bad?
Android G-1 Selling better than expected
1 million G-1's sold (600,000 projected)
$148.00 - T-Mobile Exclusive, Wal-Mart Price
Youtube expands to Widescreen format
Power your Ipod with Gatorade and an Onion
Not so fast on this one, watch out for hoaxes
Derek briefly explains the lemon experiment, only powers an led with a weak current
Onion and Gatorade with no dual metals = no electrode
BUSTED
Brief Mention: Space X tested their 9-engine rocket successfully

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Xbox 360 Outsells Predecessor in only 2 years

25 million+ sold
only 17 million PS3's sold to date

Harmonix and MTV Games Sued over Rockband flimsy kick pedal

Specifically concerning the change in warranty coverage which requires a receipt for purchase in the last couple months

WOTLK Sells 2.8 Million copies during International Release

Holiday Gift Guide (bfads.net)

Terry White's Holiday Gift Guide

Do's and Don'ts are to live by
Women = Don't purchase a cleaning accessory, Don't buy them a universale remote, no cookbooks or cookbook organizers, surge protectors, or rechargeable batteries, digital bathroom scale
Men = CLOTHES (underwear, socks, ties), etc., Anything bathroom related, Memory card holder, generic camera or computer bags, Talking treasures (talking fish anyone?)
Electronic gadgets are always a good bet for both men and women

Walmart seems to be the big winner of the advertising wars so far

$199 XBox 360 Arcade with GH III wireless controller and bevy of games
Sam's Club XBox 60 GB Bundle for $350 - GH III controller and 3 other games

Gift Guides
Gamespot 2008 Holiday Gift Guide - CNET's 2008 Holiday Gift Guide

No IPhone for Christmas - $50 data plan / month is the gift that keeps on giving
USB re-chargeable AA batteries
IPOD Shuffle ($49.99)
Flip Video Mino ($159.00)

Straight to web video recorder
Small, easy to pocket, easy to use
60 min recording, 2 GB, VGA Resolution
No SD Slot

Popular Games: Fallout 3, Gears of Wars 2 (XBox 360 only), LittleBigPlanet (PS3 only), Farcry 2, Fable 2,
World of Warcraft 60 Day Prepaid Time Card ($25.00 at Walmart)
1600 Microsoft Points Timecard ($20.00)

400 - 1600 pts per title with the average of 800
Points can be used at Xbox Live, Zune MarketPlace, and soon to be released Game For Windows Live

No Playstation Cards

Amazon Customer Vote

Already over by the time you hear this but look for this annual event next year
6 Rounds - 18 Products
You vote on which deal you want, Random emails on Thanksgiving to voters
Race to purchase
PS3 Bundles at $199, Laptop at $129, 1080P LCD TV at $699, etc

Show #105

2008-11-21T00:01:00.000-06:00

[Download Show #105 as MP3]

News
Yahoo Exec to Step Down
Jerry Yang, CEO at Yahoo, plans to step down when replacement found
Tumultuous times as of late with Yahoo rejecting a 47.5 billion dollar offer of purchase from M$
Failed to gain an advertising partnership with Google
Could M$ be interested in an acquisition again with Jerry Yang gone??? (win-win for M$)
USB 3.0 Ready!
Only took them 8 years to go from 2.0 to 3.0
USB 2.0 = 480 Mb/s
USB 3.0 = 5 Gb/s
Specification 1.0 finished, sent to governing body
Competing Firewire (1394-2008) has recently been approved for 3.2 Gb/s
Analogy that explains how fast 5 Gb/s is:
USB 2.0 = 60 MB/sec or about 2.6 minutes for a full DVD
USB 3.0 = 640 MB/sec or about 15 seconds for a full DVD
USB 3.0 is about 1000X faster than your broadband internet connection, 100X faster than most people's network connections, and 5X faster than the highest end local area network connections
Freedom of Information Act shows that the feds can lojack your cell phone without the Telco's help
Geek Alert: Full Star Trek Trailer for new movie available on their official site
JJ Abrams will be directing the new movie
Opinions on whether they can upright the sinking ship...

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

7-11 Releasing Games Early

Yes, you heard right. 7-11 now distributes game titles behind the counter
Wrath of the Lich King AND Gears of War 2 both released early

World of Warcraft Expansion Released

Northrend 70-80 grind = more of the same
Death Knights was the funnest 3 hours I've played since launch
Turn your graphics to high and watch the beauty unfold

National Geographic Gets into Gaming

Opening new gaming division
2 games already out: National Geographic: Panda on DS and Herod's Lost Tomb for Iphone
Decent reviews for Panda: Similar to NintenDogs but with a little more education in mind, care for panda cubs or full grown panda's. toys, food, washing, all that you expect.

Interview
First Commercialized Fully submersed Liquid Cooled PC

Hardcore Computers
Custom Parts made from off-the-shelf pieces (custom = propietary but for engineering reasons, not money like MAC)
Pull-out, push-in motherboard on rails (make sure it drains)
LED lights make the fully submersed internals glow mad crazy
Mode to allow the liquid to bubble and look cooler
Liquid is an oil that is biodegradable and fully non-conductive
SSD's, Motherboard, RAM, GPU, CPU all fully in the tank that is full of liquid
Full 64 MB X-Fi integrated on custom Motherboard (power routed far away from it)
three overclocked GeForce GTX280
Dual Power-Supply for redundancy
3 SSD's (solid state drives) fully immersed in the most expensive mode
2 non-immersed 3.5 server-style HD spaces available by default
How much? 10k min? nope, 4.5 - 11k for a full machine (9 grand I would consider my optimal plaything)

A25REM-SI7PCJ-MS5Y6K-KHR7SI-4XWB3N-VORYVR-G52A2M-T4KOXL

Intarweb Gold Mine

Steve Jobs Flicks off IBM

Hahah, this happened in the late 80's with pictures to prove it
Steve has probably matured since then but after IBM sued them because of their recent exec hire, he is probably doing this in his bedroom right now. (Mark PaperMaster = IBM Exec hired at Apple)

Urine Passes Nasa Taste Test

$250 million dollar recycling plant sent to the space station
The new system distils, filters, ionizes and oxidizes wastewater - including urine -- into fresh water for drinking.
spins to create artificial gravity that separates the water from the brine, iodine then added
Turns yesterday's coffee into today's coffee or yesterdays urine into today's drinking water
After exhaustive taste test, anonymous comment, "I've got some in my fridge. It tastes fine to me."

Show #104

2008-11-14T00:01:00.000-06:00

[Download Show #104 as MP3]

News

G1 Security Flaw Found

affects G1 Web Browser
Could allow malicious code to run and install software including keyloggers
"I can basically do anything the web browser has permission to do," said Mr Miller. "I can read text messages, read their cookies, see their passwords, watch them surf the web and watch what they type."
the "how" is not public, just the knowledge of the vulnerability

Vista has Failed, Long live Windows 7 AND 7 Coolest Features of Windows 7

New Windows Taskbar (thumbnail - mouseover blows up a bigger thumbnail)
Jump Lists - commonly used tasks within the programs
New Aero - Instant Desktop
Device Stage - All in one browser for devices

Windows Office Web

Tech Tidbits

GMail will feature SMS messaging

Tried to launch it as part of GMail Labs, there were some issues
Expecting about two more weeks
We'll talk about it again on the show when we get to see it

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Little Big Planet doesn't even notify you that they are taking them off the list
(still unclear if LBP deletes them from your HD)
Guitar Hero: World Tour does the same, although they warned us earlier that this would happen.

Criterion Announces "Legendary Car" Pack

Jansen 88 (back to the future car), Cavalry Bootlegger, Manhattan Spirit and the GT Nighthawk

Intarweb Gold Mine

Next Week: Interview
Daren Klum - President of Hardcore PC

Show #103

2008-11-07T00:01:00.002-06:00

[Download Show #103 as MP3]

News

First Commercialized Fully submersed Liquid Cooled PC

Hardcore Computers
Custom Parts made from off-the-shelf pieces (custom = propietary but for engineering reasons, not money like MAC)0
Pull-out, push-in motherboard on rails (make sure it drains)
LED lights make the fully submersed internals glow mad crazy
Mode to allow the liquid to bubble and look cooler
Liquid is an oil that is biodegradable and fully non-conductive
SSD's, Motherboard, RAM, GPU, CPU all fully in the tank that is full of liquid
Full 64 MB X-Fi integrated on custom Motherboard (power routed far away from it)
three overclocked GeForce GTX280
Dual Power-Supply for redundancy
3 SSD's (solid state drives) fully immersed in the most expensive mode
2 non-immersed 3.5 server-style HD spaces available by default
How much? 10k min? nope, 4.5 - 11k for a full machine (9 grand I would consider my optimal plaything)

MTV smacks YouTube and Releases Music Library to Web

API included
Looks like a place for older music videos (16,000 of them)
Funny that MTV has to put the word "Music" after it's moniker...
Lots of errors right now and laggy as hell.
Why oh Why do they feel the need to create another source????

EPA Bangs on Game Industry

One more thing that the government can make more expensive
Consoles are starting to use more and more power these days

PS3: 193.6 watts (gameplay) 182.7 (Blu-ray) 173.2 watts (movie)
XBox 360: 185.1 watts (gameplay) 125.6 (movie)
Wii: 17.8 watts

Derek's Yearly Power Meter

Amazon.com buys Reflexive Entertainment

Popcap.com Knock-off: Download and purchase casual puzzle games, online offering available
Google "Lively" - cross between Second Life and IRC
Kongregate.com - more interactive web-only games with achievements and chat

Netflix "Watch Instantly" coming to Macs by end of year

Brought to you by Microsoft's "Silverlight"... lol

Windows Azure Announced

Full Cloud Oriented OS
Email, SQL, Web, File Sharing
Deploy and forget where it's deployed
Virtualization in Microsoft's space instead of local
Alerts through Live Messenger, Email, Text Messages for errors
CTP (Community Technology Preview) now available

Harnessing the power of the Brain

Featured on CBS's 60 minutes
A monkey that they mapped the brain of while walking, and moving things now can use a bionic arm to eat just using brain waves.
Scott uses a brain computer interface (BCI) to think of one letter at a time so he can communicate

Gamer's Corner (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)

Xbox 360 Bundle for $350

60GB HD
Guitar Hero III (with wireless guitar controller)
Kung Fu Panda
Lego's Indiana Jones
Only at Sam's Club, starts in Nov.

New Games last week:

LBP Released, Fallout 3 (PS3 buggy), GH:WT, Penny Arcade Ep. 2

Valve implements "Steam Cloud"

Save Games, Keyboard setup, Mouse sensitivity will all be stored in "Cloud"
Allows a person to log on anywhere and once they install, to play as normal
Nov. 6 launch with Left 4 Dead demo (for those that pre-ordered)
Will be patching previous games and offering code at no cost to developers

Wii Implements Silent Patch to stop Homebrew Channel

Developers of HomeBrew fire back

Intarweb Gold Mine

$250 Logitech Guitar Controller for Guitar Hero
US Army Sees Twitter as Possible Terrorist Tool
Car in works to go 1000 MPH

Remember that Darwin Award about that guy who straps a rocket to his car?