We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk social responsibility in a digital age, the intarwebz got broke, big brother is watching you… everywhere

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

• The iCade Now A Reality (udg)
  • I mentioned during my April Fool’s Day rundown is that the glory of ThinkGeek’s “pranks” is that they often turn into real items. Well, their iCADE from last year is now up for presale. If you didn’t quite catch it from the name- it turns your iPad into an old-school arcade cabinet. You just slide your iPad in and it uses Bluetooth to connect so no cables to hook up.
  • ThinkGeek teamed up with Atari to bring back classics like Asteroids to the market for iCADE support. And to go with your iCADE comes the “Atari Greatest Hits” app with over 100 classic Atari games. You get pong for free right off the bat. The others are available in-app where you can get 3 for $1.00 or all 100 for $14.99.
  • The iCADE uses a unique API, which it will be opening up to developers so that they can add iCADE support to their games. ThinkGeek also teamed up with ION to develop the tabletop cabinet that features full button and joystick control.
  • Available for iPad and iPad 2, the iCADE is on presale now for just under $100 and is expected to start shipping on May 20, 2011. The first shipment that went on sale sold out in a day.

• Lil Thor: Marvel Releases Lil Thor Version of Our Beloved Lil Vader VW Commercial (udg)
  • Note the car’s plate is ASG4RD *giggle*

• Unique Marketing for Samsung Galaxy S2 (SM)
  • Bloggers put to the extreme unveiling and talking about the product
  • Toyota Raps

Gold Sponsors:

Jeb Apps – Today in Geek History, Today in Movie History

• Want to wow all your friends with off-the-wall Movie Trivia?
• Want to know more about Geek History and share them with your friends?
• Today in Geek History and Today in Movie History are for you
• Both have been out on the Android Marketplace for awhile now
• After a long vetting period, Today in Movie History is now available on iTunes!!!
• (BTM) Happy BIrthday George Takei- I found this out from my newly downloaded Geek History app.
• Go check out both apps, TIGH  and TIMH, now available on both Android and IPhone

Natali’s Etsy!!!

• Need your noms????
• @UberDorkGirlie’s etsy is the way to go
• Whether it’s Woookie Cookies, Bark Maul, or Hothballs, every sweet tooth needs to try them out
• Need a present and don’t want to bake? then Natali’s Etsy store is the way to go

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• With Kinnect Sports Food Fight has a whole new meaning (btm)
  • New DLC for Kinnect sports available April 29
  • 320 Micro$oft points

• Hugo Nominees You Can Read Right Now… For Free! (udg)
  • The Hugo Awards recognize excellence in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. And because you know you don’t have enough to read, and I’m all about helping you find new stuff to add, I’ve stumbled upon a list of the nominees that are available for free online. Yup, free. And I’m not talking one or two. I’m talking 11 of the nominated Short Stories, Novellas, Novelettes and one movie. So, hope on over to our friends at TheMarySue.com and starting finding out how they earned their rank amongst the Hugo Award Nominees.

• WoW Patch 4.1 hit servers this week
  • trolls are definitely back… (Zul’Gurub, Zul’Aman, etc)
  • Guilder finder (like dungeon finder)
  • Guild Challenges

• Speaking of the Hugos, catch up on the Hugo award winning series Doctor Who (btm)
  • now 61% off on Amazon
  • Series 1 thru 4 featuring Hugo winning episodes:
    • “The Empty Child” & “The Doctor Dances” (are you my mommy?)
    • “The Girl in the Fireplace”
    • “Blink” (Weeping Angels are the single scariest thing to me)

• Dexter Ultimate Prop Giveaway (udg)
  • I hugely heart me some Dexter. And Showtime is handing out the ultimate props. 5 lucky winner will score 2nd place prize packs including one pack of Dexter Collectibles, one Baby Harrison Pack, a Debra Morgan Pack, a Trinity Killer Pack and a Dexter & Rita Wedding Pack.
  • One person will snag the Grand Prize which includes a “Bowl Till You Bleed” Bowling shirt, “Thank You for the Blood” Card, Dexter’s Kill Bag and Blood Spatter Pictures. It’s pretty damn awesome. So, head on over to the link in the show notes and… no don’t I want to win it!!

• New Movies for 4th Week of April
  • Blow out -John Travolta at his best
  • Marvel “The Avengers”: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Vol 1 and 2 – Disney + Marvel = goodness!
  • The Girl Who Leapt through Time (Anime) – multiple genres, supposedly good
  • Dinoshark- (btm)(take Jurassic Park mix with Jaws and you get Dinoshark, just with a much lower budget and not as great acting but 1000% more cheese)

Movie Minute (new feature)

• Hobbit Updates
  • Ian Holms back on set for Bilbo
• WW Script Rewrite- AKA Your WW Train Wreck of the Week (udg)
  • It’s a REALLY good thing I missed the leaked pilot script for this because it included  scenes of Diana having a sleepover, and eating ice cream (“It’s been a three-scoop day!”), and teaming up with her press secretary Myndi to “scream like schoolgirls” over a Katy Perry video, and maybe even crying herself to sleep over her old flame Steve Trevor.  WHAT. THE. TRUCK. Seriously?!?!?
  • Even though they didn’t listen to us over the costume I guess the outrage over turning our beloved WW into Allie McFreakinBeal must have sunk in because, according to i09, it’s been rewritten.
  • The new script has  her lifting bad guys by the throat, gouging their eyes with her thumbs, kicking them into their air with those go-go boots and making obscene gestures at them. In a flashback, we see her pulling Steve out of a burning airplane, despite being told that doing so will be way too dangerous. Even her cat seems braver: In one scene, we discover it’s bitten her neighbor William Marston (named after the “Wonder Woman” creator), who tells Diana he thinks Wonder Woman is a fascist. And apparently, Diana’s glad the cat bit him.
  • Yup. Do you really need me to say what I think of the rewrite?

Geek Speak

• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Social Responsibility in a Highly Digital Age
  • Sadly there have been story after story in this country of people being beaten, raped, even stabbed to death in broad daylight with many onlookers witnessing the horrendous acts. Fear of getting involved has been the biggest reason that people use when stating why they did not do anything to help. When there is a madman with a gun, it’s understandable why you wouldn’t want to.  When you are outnumbered and the situation is violent and ugly, trying to break it up may get you killed. But, with the technological advances we carry with us on a day to day basis I would hope that more would be done to aid in crisis situations. And when I say more being done, I sure as Hell don’t mean put that shit up on YouTube.
  • By now I’m sure you have either heard of or seen the video of the brutal beating
  • of Chrissy Lee Polis. Chrissy is a trans woman that stopped in a Rosedale, MD to use the bathroom and was told by a male employee there that she needed to buy something first. Without warning, she is attacked by two women, one claiming that Chrissy was “talking to her man”- her man being the oh so friendly guy behind the counter that made her buy something first.
  • Employees of the restaurant not only stood around and watched as the two pummeled her, one of them also stood there video taping the incident. He was also kind enough to stop laughing long enough to warn the girls “Y’all better get the fuck up outta here before the cops come” while he’s zooming in on the poor victim who is now mid-seizure from getting dragged across the restaurant by only her hair and beaten.  Then bitches about the fact she’s having a seizure on “his” floor.
  • If you were there, what would you have done?
  • One of my twitter followers posed “Are they trained to break up fights? What about liability issues?”  My thoughts on that- there comes a time where that simply doesn’t fuckin matter. An older woman (Vicky Thom) didn’t give a crap about that and she tried but got hit. If the person video taping it plus the at least 3 employees seen standing there watching all jumped in to contain the situation, it would have ended.
  • Cyber Bullying Statistics

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

• The Intarwebs Got Broke (udg)
  • So, remember last week when we talked Cloud? Well, the sky fell last week when Amazon’s cloud network crashed, taking with it  a host of web 2.0 companies – including Reddit, Foursquare, Hootsuite  and thousands of others.  Oddly, two of Amazon’s biggest Web Services’ biggest customers- Netflix and Zynga were not affected by Crash 2.0.
  • Amazon EC2 was believed to be impossible to crash, after hacktivist group Anonymous failed to take it down in December. So what happened?
  • The company said that an early-morning “networking event” caused a cascade of problems that started with a glitch at its East Coast facility. The glitch made its servers automatically create back-ups of themselves which eventually led to crashes in that zone. After roughly 3 days, Amazon had everything under control, with one exception- about 0.07 percent of the data storage in its restored eastern cloud service isn’t fully recoverable. Needless to say this is going to shake the faith that many have in the all mighty cloud.
  • As if this weren’t enough, this rare phenomenon came on the same day as the massive PlayStation network went offline after a then unexplained outage that left 77 million users frustrated to say the least.
  • After going down several times at the end of February and outages throughout March, this is just the latest in a string of problems for the network. And it’s still down as they struggle to completely rebuild it
  • The outage wasn’t the most frustrating thing for PSN users, believe it or not. Instead it was the lack of communication from Sony. To make matters worse, after nearly a week, they finally announced to the public yesterday via the US PlayStation blog that this was indeed due to a massive breach. They stated the “illegal and unauthorized person” obtained people’s names, addresses, email address, birth dates, usernames, passwords, logins, security questions and more. With 77 million users and an estimated $500 mill in annual revenues just from this service,  this makes it one of the largest-ever Internet security break-ins.
  • Sony immediately shut down the network as soon as they learned the information had been stolen. The company said user account information for the PlayStation Network and its Qriocity service users was compromised between April 17 and April 19. Going undetected for several days is a huge red flag and probably accounts for the entire rebuild.
  • While they saw no evidence credit card numbers were stolen, Sony warned users it could not rule out the possibility.
  • “Out of an abundance of caution, we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained,” they said.
  • Sony said it has hired an “outside recognized security firm” to investigate. Of course I’m hoping that firm has no links to China.
  • The timing is also rather unfortunate for them. Monday night Sony unveiled its first two tablets. Like most Sony products they use access to its media networks as a selling point. In the case of these tablets, Qriocity, which was also highly compromised and is part of this ongoing outage.
  • The incidents involving Amazon and Sony are believed to be unrelated and Anonymous is claiming they nothing to do with it.

• Apple secretly tracking your Location (SM)
  • Lets not get hysterical now, It’s pretty muddy data
    • precision is lacking, aggregates by week, no personal info really
  • Why you should care that Apple tracks you
    • Its not that they are tracking, its that there’s a unencrypted history on your handset
    • I.E. a beacon for hackers
  • Guess What? Android is a Much Bigger Offender (udg)
    • Haters always gotta be hatin’. According to industry expert Christopher Soghoian, the iPhone reports your location data to Apple twice a day, but Android reports your location data back to Google several times per hour.
  • App to dump your android location information (SM)
  • Yep, they all do it … and that’s the big dirty secret
  • Most apps cache data and then re-use to help speed things up
  • When you connect to their backend db, guaranteed there is logging
  • Not something to declare armegeddon on but why the huge history on the local phone?
  • Don’t forget the file is also located unencrypted on whichever computer you back up your iPhone. Of course you could put a password on your phone and your computer, but that’s kinda complicated to do, right?(btm)

• AT&T Admits it can’t handle the iPhone (btm)
  • (SM)Thats like the pope admitting he’s Catholic… everyone already knew
  • Explains they need to buy T-Mobile to expand their network
  • iPhone produces 24 times the mobile network traffic than a conventional phone
  • Between 2007 (iPhone introduction) and 2010 mobile network volume jumped 8000%
  • They expect the first 5-7 weeks of 2015 will see more traffic than all of 2010
  • (btm) I wonder if putting iPhones on multiple carriers will help reduce the load or will all carriers see this kind of increase as people who avoided AT&T sign up?

• Valve Probably Done With Single Player Games (udg)
  • According to journalist Geoff Keighley’s Final Hours of Portal 2 iTunes app, Valve may be leaving its single player days behind.
  • “Portal 2 will probably be Valve’s last game with an isolated single-player experience. What this all means is something Newell is still trying to figure out,” wrote Keighly, relating a comment made by Valve founder Gabe Newell.
  • Valve’s Portal 2 introduced multiplayer to the Portal games through a two-player co-op mode. Most of their major games now feature some form of multiplayer mode. In fact, the company’s primary single-player-only experience Half-Life hasn’t seen anything new since 2007.
  • Even outside of Valve, single-player-only modes seem to be on their way out. Even Super Mario now includes second-player support. Series like Uncharted or BioShock that launched as solo-only have added multiplayer modes in their second installments. Capcom has been slowly but surely pushing it’s once single-player only series, Resident Evil into a vehicle for multiplayer.
  • The comment from Valve is striking, though, in that it doesn’t sound like Newell and Johnson said they’d probably never ship a game that didn’t have a multiplayer mode somewhere in it. Rather, they told Keighley they “probably” wouldn’t make a game “with an isolated single-player experience.” That would mean no more modes that couldn’t connect in some fashion to other people.

• Samsung / Apple Rivalry Heating Up (SM)
  • Apple slapped a lawsuit on Samsung for their Galaxy S and copyright violations
  • Funny thing, Samsung (South Korean) manufactures a lot of the IPhone parts
  • (SM) I own one and it DOES look like an IPhone plus the interface is pretty slick
  • Lets say they win… and have to pay a “licensing” fee, what does that mean for the rest of the industry?
  • Samsung has since fired back their own set of lawsuits on copyright infringement
  • Can their partnership last through all this litigation?

• Latest update makes Color Nook more tablet like than ever (btm)
  • Android 2.2 support
  • Flash
  • App Store
    • Angry Birds (SM) – this is a must… #srslyaddicted
  • built in email
  • Ability for authors to sign books?

• WikiLeaks at it Again (udg)
  • WikiLeaks has done another dump of confidential government and military documents. This time they focused on the Prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay. In all 779 classified dossiers on current and former detainees were released.
  • New York Times, Washington Post, NPR and a number of other media outlets have published, either in whole or in part, these classified files. So, will the government pursue them for espionage charges like they are pursuing WikiLeaks?
  • The Obama administration condemned the leaks in a statement: “These documents contain classified information about current and former GTMO detainees, and we strongly condemn the leaking of this sensitive information.”
  • In addition to shedding light on the actions of Al-Qaeda’s leadership before and after the 9/11 attacks, the documents pertain to the treatment of the detainees: While the Times reports that the documents “are largely silent about the use of the harsh interrogation tactics at Guantánamo — including sleep deprivation, shackling in stress positions and prolonged exposure to cold temperatures — that drew global condemnation,” it also notes that many prisoners appear to have been held for long periods without cause.

• Old Republic Expected to turn a profit, But will it? (SM)
  • Old Republic is a Star Wars MMO done by the Bioware folks
  • These were the same folks who did BG and KOTOR
  • EA expects to draw 500,000 subs in the first year and make a profit
  • Investment firms expect a million from the company
  • Puts 12 million (wow) into perspective, right?
  • One big hitch… Free to play MMO’s are here (LOTRO,  DDO, etc)
  • Can a new sub without current user base survive?

• Look Out Groupon, Here Comes FaceBook (udg)
  • When FB launched “places,” first thought was they were trying to compete with 4sqr.
  • Now they’ve launched Deals. And, again, first glance may seem like 4sqr. But, FB’s Deals are actually like Groupon.  See, with 4sqr, checking in to a place may get you a free app or 10% off. With Deals, like Groupon, FB users will be able to buy a certificate for some goods or services at an extremely discounted rate (typically 50% off) for future use. And you’ll be able to use FB credits to buy them.
  • Facebook is starting with 5 cities- SF, Austin, Dallas, Atlanta and San Diego. Any FB user can sign up for Deals notifications and the users in these 5 test cities will be able to see and use Deals now.
  • We suspected Facebook had plans to bring Credits to the real world since around the time of f8, the company’s developer conference, when Facebook announced its ambitious Open Graph. Looks like this is the start.

• Open home Wi-Fi leads to FBI raid on wrong houses(btm)
  • FBI raided homes of those suspected of downloading child porn
  • After its investigation, FBI finds that neighbors using open Wi-Fi were the actual culprit
  • Wi-Fi Alliance says router security is like seat belts, it only works if you use it
  • Set a password on your router, seriously.

• Xbox to Have Streaming TV Service (udg)
  • Streaming TV may not seem like a new concept for the 360. Microsoft already allows it via AT&T’s U-verse service. But, it looks like they are in talks with major TV networks and could be branching out.  Right now they are reportedly working with Australian TV Network, Foxtel, in bringing a wallet-friendly cable package to the 360.
  • Reports also indicate there is quite a heated battle internally at Microsoft over this with many employees believing that the Xbox franchise should remain as a strictly gaming platform. Others argue it already does video streaming and should evolve into more than just games.
  • In a recent interview Ross Honey, head of content acquisition for Xbox, stated “Microsoft Xbox is very interested in delivering great entertainment to consumers, entertainment in the broadest sense. From our perspective, gaming and TV are going to coexist.”
  • Just recently, Microsoft brought Kinect support to the 360 for the Netflix app now allowing for voice or gesture control of the Netflix interface to select any content.
  • Perhaps the days of a console being used simply for gaming will be over. I think we started to see that already before this announcement came.

Intarweb Goldmine

• Tweeting election results in Canada will get you fined (btm)
  • 73 year old Canadian law makes it illegal to announce or send messages about election results until all polls are closed.
  • Carries a $25,000 fine and up to 5 years in jail.
  • Election officials won’t be actively monitoring the Twitter but if there are complaints they will investigate
  • Law originally intended to prevent radio stations from announcing East Coast results and potentially affecting West Coast elections where the polls were still open.

• Kid Not Guilty til he opens mouth on Facebook (SM)
  • Guy stops up sink in library at closing
  • Ppl don’t find the stopped sink until the next day
  • 200,000 dollars of damage later…
  • Kid gets on Facebook and brags about it and subsequently gets caught

• And the Stupid Tattoo of the Week Goes to… (udg)
  • L.A. County Sheriff homicide investigator Kevin Lloyd was flipping through tattooed gang members when he notice Anthony Garcia. Why? Well his tattoo depicted, in great detail, a 2004 liquor store murder scene.

• • Yup, every key detail was there: the Christmas lights that lined the roof of the liquor store where 23 yo John Juarez was gunned down, the direction his body fell, the bowed street lamp across the way and the street sign- all under a huge banner that said “RIVERA KILLS.” Yeah, as in the gang Rivera-13.
  • It even gets creative with some screaming symbolism-  the helicopter shooting down what seems to be Mr. Peanut is a reference to the gang member’s alias, “Chopper,” while the lovable peanut mascot symbolizes a rival gang member, as the term “peanut” is a gang slang term for a rival gang member.
  • Apparently, the tattooed mural on the chest of Chopper–real name Anthony Garcia–evolved over time, with pictures of him taken at various points since the liquor store murder having new additions inked onto the scene. I’m guessing Chopper is now probably regretting his cockiness just a bit.

• Rules of Golfing During A German Bombing (udg)

• Computer opens grocery store, without employees (btm)
  • Grocery store was closed for Good Friday but computerized security system opened the doors on time at 8AM
  • 3 minutes later customers began shopping
  • Many honest customers used the self check-out lanes to pay.
  • Some realized there was no staff and left without paying
  • Owner is asking those that didn’t pay to fess up and pay. All money received will be donated to the Christchurch recovery effort.
  • Owner isn’t pressing charges yet, even though CCTV cameras recorded it all.

• Christ is Coming, get Tweeting (udg)
  • Could Facebook and Twitter be the salvation of man?
  • Rev. Franklin Graham, son of Christian evangelist Billy Graham thinks so according to the “prophecy” he gave ABC’s “This Week” host Christiane Amanpour.
  • “The Bible says that every eye is going to see [the Second Coming of Jesus],” Graham told Ammanpour. “How is the whole world going to see [him] all at one time? I don’t know, unless all of a sudden everybody’s taking pictures and it’s on the media worldwide. I don’t know. Social media could have a big part in that.”
  • The 58-year-old cited a verse that says Jesus will be coming on “a cloud and the whole world will moan.”
  • Graham was quick to point out that he is not saying Jesus will come back on Facebook or Twitter himself but instead he could make his announcement on the Silicon Valley social networks, or his arrival could quickly become a trending topic of the likes that no one has seen.

Extra Links

• Your IP address can be tracked to a half a mile
• Good reviews for latest version of MK
• The Little Guy Schools MTV
• Fukushima Reactor Battle Plan

• The original flying car for sale (btm)

• Last flight of the Endeavour (btm)
• Tesla CEO, Elon Musk will put a man on Mars in 10 years(btm)
• Who are you really talking to online? (btm)
  • Los Angeles woman met a Firefighter from Colorado in a message board for fans of HBO’s Deadwood
  • Began exchanging emails, letters, postcards, photos and talking everyday on the phone
  • Woman left her unhappy marriage but as she was preparing to move to Colorado was told that the Firefighter had died from Liver Cancer.
  • 7 months later her friends discovered the truth, the Firefighter, his son and 20 other family members were all characters created by a woman from the Chicago suburbs.
  • Chicago woman allegedly used a voice-altering device to disguise her voice and plotted out entire coordinating shorelines for her characters interacting with the LA woman.
  • Chicago woman had posed as a friend of the firefighter and introduced him to the LA woman becoming her friend
  • LA woman learned the truth while watching TV with the Chicago woman, who was visiting.
  • LA woman is now suing the Chicago woman.

• Hotel linens may have more bugs than you think (btm)
  • Hotels are now using specially designed RFID tags to prevent theft
  • tags can be sewn directly into towels, linens and bathrobes
  • Hotel in Hawaii has already saved $15,000 using the system
  • So far only the Hawaiian hotel and 2 others are using system
    • The hotels are remaining anonymous for security reasons

• Jersey Shore gone Wilde (btm)
  • Takes Jersey Shore transcripts adds Broadway actors and gives us re-enactments in the style of Oscar Wilde
  • Series of videos produced by Playbill.com
  • More entertaining than actual Jersey Shore

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Ben is @realityamuck , Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
• email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and uberdorkgirlie@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
• And Become a Fan
• http://racomics.com

Sponsors

Shiny Lines

• What: Shiny Geek Jewelry, clothing and other bits & bytes, made by Geeks for Geeks.
• Why: Geeks, Nerds & Gamers alike deserve to shine at their very best, on and offline.
• 10% off power rings
• Who: @aDigitalAngel & fellow nerds at ShinyLines.com

We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk Verizon Iphone, Government conspiracies, Chinese devils 4 real, and HAN SOLO in Firefly!!! It’s real, believe it…

Intro JPuent
Intro Natali

Take a moment to express our condolences for those lost this past weekend in Arizona, and thanks to those that stepped up to stop the mad man. Remind yourself that time in this life is short… be grateful for those that are important to you and take a moment to tell them.

Items of Interest

Your very own IPad Arcade
Very Special Thanks to @missClareJordan
She is an amazing Artist, A Geek Girl extraordinaire, Star Wars Geek… and awesome Tattooist…. if you’re out on the East Coast looking to get some work done… Visit her at No Regrets in Naugatauk, CT Follow her on twitter… and look for some big Geeky artsy things from her this summer…. Over the holidays she did this… to @JPuent
Ender’s Hand Prints Tatt’d by @MissClareJordan !!!!

• Han encased in Carbonite in every Firefly?
  • The way freakin’ awesome @Amy_Geek girl from the illustrious Geek With Curves has found one of the coolest things ever. Just when you thought Firefly could not achieve more awesomeness…it turns out there may be a Han encased in Carbonite in every episode.
  • And she’s hunting them down. Check out her post!

Gold Sponsors:

Natali’s Etsy!!!

• Need your noms????
• @UberDorkGirlie’s etsy is the way to go
• Whether it’s Woookie Cookies, Bark Maul, or Hothballs, every sweet tooth needs to try them out
• Need a present and don’t want to bake? then Natali’s Etsy store is the way to go

• Today in Geek History
  • JebsApps (owned by our own Jeremy Puent) released their latest app, Today in Geek History
  • Gives you factoids based upon date, spanning all sorts of geekiness
  • For example, did you know on 1/12/1997  HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) The HAL9000 became operational according to the 1992 Film 2010
  • This app is available for Android in a Lite version for free or a paid version, all on the Marketplace
  • Check out the lite version, but the paid version for .99
  • Or check out their new app Movie History

• Convention Schedule
  • Milwaukee Anime Con – Feb. 18-20
  • C2E2 – March 18-20

Deals of the Week / New Release

• DC You-niverse Goes Live (udg)
  • You know you’ve always wanted to slip into some Super Hero tights and strut around like your favorite one. Now, here’s your chance. Well kinda.
  • Say hello to the now live DC Universe Online. Start with an entry-level gig at Wayne Enterprises. Clock out of work for the day and on goes the costume  and off you go to beat up some bad guys. Maybe chat up a Wonder Twin at a kegger Sat night or chill on Sunday while you’re icing some plasma burns and paging through the latest edition of The Daily Planet.
  • At some point in all our lives we wished we could slip into a DC Comic, live in DC Universe.  And now we can. The backstory is a bit twisty. Geek Chic Daily says “think time travel, alien overlords and a dead Superman” But, the animation is awesome. You go hero or villain and you can completely create and customize your character. Then you get to pick an iconic DC Character (like Superman, Batman, Lex Luthor or the Joker ) who sends you on assignments and group missions. There are also alternate gaming options that let groups of players square off against each other or you can throw down as your fave DCer.
  • You have no idea how much I wish this was Mac compatible. *pout*
• Green Hornet Release – BRUCE LEE LIVES!!!
• New DVD/Blu-Ray Releases, 2nd week of January
  • The Social Network (Natali’s new heartthrob)
  • Dances With Wolves Blu-Ray -
  • For you Picard Lovers – MacBeth (with Patrick Stewart)
  • Rob-Roy on Blu-Ray – For the Ep. 1 lovers out there (liam neeson) all two of you

Geek Speak

• Big Red announces it will have the iPhone 4 starting Feb 10th
  • The good, the Bad and the Ugly of the announcement
  • No Data while Voice is in progress – What does this mean to you?
    • Guess we won’t see that ad touting iPhones ability to send emails or update reservations and check movie times while on the phone with a friend anymore…
    • 1st time Apple will manage a product with 2 different user experiences
      • This may prove to be a bigger deal than people expect… it may frustrate some customers and affect Apples stellar customer service experience. Part of the great service has been not having to sit through endless questions about what you’re using, service, etc…. as it has always been a known quantity… no longer the case.
  • Not an iPhone 5 as some had suspected
  • Hot Spot ability from day 1, unlimited data plan
  • no pricing announced yet
  • redesigned antennae so no repeat of Antennaegate
  • has facetime and retina display
• So who will this hurt? Who thinks AT$T (not JP) what about who thinks it’ll hurt Android on Verizon the most?
• App Devs are hoping this will mean a big boon to them.
• What other changes are/ have come to Verizon in preparation for getting the iPhone?
  • Elimination of New Every Two program and early upgrade allowances
  • it would seem they are about to become the new AT&T… hahahhaa

• Verizon iPhone- For Real This Time (udg)
  • It’s finally official. iPhone 4 will be available on Verizon starting next month.
  • The good: 16GB version will only cost $200 with a 2-year contract. The Verizon iPhone will offer a mobile hotspot to which up to 5 devices can be connected and rumor has it (via the WSJ) unlimited data will be FREE. Oh and they’ll have it in white.
  • The bad:  Your new shiny will NOT run on Verizon’s new ultra-fast 4G LTE network and (like all CDMA phones) you cannot use data while on a call. While Verizon’s Dan Dee swore otherwise during the press conference, many speculate that Verizon has the capacity to withstand the additional burden from millions of iPhone users.
  • Pre-orders start Feb 3rd, it launches live on the network Feb 10th.

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Gov’t doc to limit leaks, leaked (JP)
  • Ahhh, Irony of all Ironies, The document to get more security and prevent future leaks in the Gov’t was leaked to MSNBC…
  • After WikiLeaks debacle, its understandable that they wanna plug the leaky boat
  • In short, document wants the agencies to
    • audit their systems for compliance to classified laws
    • audit their system for leaks
    • audit possible changes to the system to fix problems,
    • acquire resources to complete said changes,
    • and hire psychiatrists and sociologists to determine who might be a probable leak problem

• Obama administration suggests online unique Internet ID (SM)
  • Obama is planning to hand authority to create over the ability to create an Internet ID for every online American
  • It’s “the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government” to centralize efforts toward creating an “identity ecosystem” for the Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said.
  • Announced at Stanford, the administration is drafting what they call the “National Strategy for Truested Identities in Cyberspace”
  • “We are not talking about a national ID card,” Locke said at the Stanford event. “We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy, and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities.”
  • Details still sketchy but the Gov’t wants the private sector to take the lead on the initiative
  • Emphasizing Voluntary and Competitive
  • Trying to say there would be no centralized storage, but how?
  • You always have to have a trust authority somewhere…
  • Thoughts??
    • This is just a half step away from putting chips and barcodes on us to track our every move and listen in to our conversations and thoughts…

• Chinese Auction Site Sells 50,000 Stolen iTunes Accounts (udg)
  • 50,000 of reportedly hacked iTunes accounts have been found on Chinese auction site Taobao, but the company claims it is unable to take action unless there are direct complaints, according to news reports.
  • The Global Times reported last week that as many as 50,000 illegally obtained iTunes accounts were sold on China’s biggest consumer auction site. The Beijing-based newspaper also interviewed a seller who admitted the accounts were hacked but did not reveal how they were obtained.
  • Taobao, however, said that to protect its users, it would not be taking action until it has received a formal request. In a statement carried by BBC, the company said: “We take all reasonable and necessary measures to protect the rights of consumers who use Taobao, of our sellers and of third-parties. Until we receive a valid takedown request, we cannot take action.”
  • Yesterday the accounts were finally taken down. It is not clear whether it was due to complaints from those that purchased them or from pressure from Apple to remove.

• 3DS could hurt childrens eyes??? (SM)
  • Nintendo recently announced on their website that the 3DS could hurt growth in kids eyes under 6 years of age…
  • HUH, WHA???
  • Their fix? There’s a 2D mode, and take hourly breaks for ppl over 6
  • the 3DS claims to allow 3D gameplay without glasses
  • They’re hoping the warning won’t hurt sales too much
  • Sales start Feb. 26 in Japan ($300) and continue in March for the US
  • (SM) Does anyone at Nintendo have a kid? When was the last time they did anything a parent asked them to do 100% of the time?

• Park Chan Wook debuts newest movie- shot solely on iPhone 4 (udg)
  • (sm) damn I saw this and was gonna post… beat me 2 it (that’s right punk!!! >;-) )
  • With titles behind him like I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Ok, Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Park Chan-Wook’s movies are used to making headlines.  This time it’s not for his flair for violence. The director has paved yet another new path in cinematography but solely using the iPhone 4 to shoot his newest project.
  • It’s a 30 minute short called Paranmanjang, which loosely translates into “a life of ups and downs.” Everything from finding shooting locations to auditions to the documentary on the making of the film was done via the iPhone 4.
  • Park’s younger brother told the International Business Times that iPhones allowed for more angles and edits in the film since more cameras could be used. Park himself added to AP that the lightweight portability of the camera made a difference.  He attached different lenses to the phone, adding it was just like making a regular movie.
  • The total project came in around $130,000 to make and will hit Korean theaters on January 27. The WSJ said that KT Corp, the wireless operator that distributes the iPhone in South Korea, paid for the production costs.
  • But, it’s Park, so he made sure that, though it was sponsored by a corporation, his vision was not censored in any way. So, if the synopsis of the film, which revolves around the Korean ideas of life and death, is correct the short keeps in line with Park’s eerie, yet poignant storytelling techniques.

• Microsoft considering bringing Kinect to PC (SM)
  • Basically say “when time is right” i.e. when 360 sales peter off
  • Why should you care? Think of being able to control your set-top box with just hand gestures
  • Actual virtual keyboards anyone?
  • Well, somebody is going to beat M$ to the punch, namely the guys who designed it for them in the first place
  • The original designers already beat them to the punch
  • Primesense and Asus are partnering to bring this to your living room
  • Also developing a SDK for other developers to bring it to the desktop

• Orb BR Turns Any Networked Blu-Ray Player Into a Streaming Set Top Box (udg)
  • Got a network-connected Blu-Ray player? Got $20? Then, thanks to Orb, you can have yourself a streaming set-top box,
  • Orb’s latest product is a $19.99 disc that you pop in to your Blu-Ray player which will turn any network-connected player into an Orb station which can be controlled with the company’s free apps (yeah, like from your iPhone) or the Orb Caster software for the PC or Mac.
  • Once you’ve popped in the disc, you can access streaming content from the likes of Netflix, Hulu,YouTube, Comedy Central, Amazon Video On Demand and more… at either 720p or 1080p resolution, which officially makes this $20 disc better than the $99 Orb TV, which can’t do 1080p.
  • “The combined cost of a Blu-ray player and Orb BR software is less expensive than most of the other Internet TV solutions, like Boxee and Google TV, while providing more capabilities,” said Joe Costello, CEO of Orb Networks. “With more than eight million connected Blu-ray players and 40 million PS3 players already in homes, the market opportunity for Orb BR is huge.”
  • To help consumers easily find and watch their favorite shows, the Orb controller app features a powerful and easy-to-use global index of TV shows. Consumers can type in the name of the show they want and then Orb quickly finds the show, without requiring the user to specify its source (e.g. Hulu, ABC, CBS, etc).
  • The Orb BR is planned for a late February sale and will be available via orb.com

• Geek Squad Gets Halved (udg)
  • Best Buy is reportedly snipping the white ties of hundreds of agents, shutting down seven of its 16 Geek Squad service centers.
  • WEWS Ohio reports a Cleveland-area center, which has about 100 employees, is one of the seven affected, and will close down April 29. According to the story, 45 employees at the Cleveland-area facility will lose their jobs.
  • Citing an unnamed source, WEWS reports laid off employees will be allowed to apply for other job openings in the company, but have no guarantee of continued employment. Employees who will be laid off must stick around until April 8 to receive severance packages.
  • According to the source, company officials told workers on a conference call Friday morning the layoffs have nothing to do with money, but everything to do with consolidation and better work efficiency.
  • Friday evening, Best Buy’s public relations department released the following statement:
    • “Today we notified the 45 employees at our small service center in the Cleveland area of our plans to consolidate service centers and repairs operations. The changes in the volume and types of products handled through these facilities has forced us to consider ways to better streamline our operations and be more relevant to the needs our customers have today.
  • Personally, I can’t help but wonder if this has something to do with Best Buy’s sad attempt to finally jump aboard the Apple train. Geek Squad isn’t authorized to do any hands-on work on Macs. Or maybe it’s just because most American’s are becoming more tech savvy?

• Intel to pay NVidia 1.5 Beeellion dollars (JP)
  • Results of a lawsuit that was filed against each other in 2009
  • Intel claimed NVidia couldn’t build processors past Core 2 Duo (i3,i5,i7)
  • For example, 2nd gen Macbook air, used NVidia chip with an Intel Core 2 Duo
  • Nvidia still blocked, but now gets a huge chunk of change from Intel to use their patents
  • (in other Chip related news) AMD CEO resigns – Meyers had just taken over the job in 2008
    • Surprise to the whole industry
    • Prepare for the guessing games as to why he did this, since on one really knows what it means…

• Mac App Store Update (udg)
  • Last week I reported some doom and gloom in regards to the launch of the Mac App Store. I’m quite happy to say that all of that seems just silly now.
  • Prices- Firstly, the articles I’d read and cited listed really cheap prices for apps. Browsing the store, I see quite the contrary. There are so many apps I really want (both personally and professionally), but am going to have to hold off on because they are much more pricey than initially thought. But, all seem quite worth it!
  • Developers win! (Or as we like to call it “The Steam Principle rings true) In an article on MacDaddyNews.com, LittleFin Software stated “When the Mac App Store launched, I had high hopes. But nothing could have prepared me for what happened on January 6. Our home inventory App, Compartments, had been selling at a steady, average pace—we were selling between 6 and 10 copies a day, at $24.95 each. We decided to lower the price to $9.95, in hopes of attracting a larger audience at the start of the App Store. What happened next blew us away. Apple liked Compartments. They featured it as a Staff Pick, and listed it prominently on their Great Mac Apps page. The effect: On January 6, our little home inventory app went from a few sales a day to an astounding 1,500 sales on the first day of availability in the App Store. Through Saturday,it has maintained sales over 1,000 per day (Sunday stats haven’t been posted yet). Our other app, Chronicle, was not featured by Apple. Even with no promotion, Chronicle is still selling 80 to 100 copies a day—about 10 times its usual sales volume, and it’s on the way up. Of course, the price for Chronicle is half what it was before. But rather than hurting us, the lower price is helping us.”
  • 1 million apps sold in first 24 hours
  • Hacked Already (but don’t fear)
    • Surprisingly, one method that hackers discovered to play illegitimate Apps on the Mac was basically a cut and paste. Downloading a paid App from an illegal location, and then replacing the receipt and signature files with those from a free App sometimes allows the App to run. Apple recommended that App developers implement a measure to avoid this simple crack (which they gave them!), but some apparently haven’t been listening.
    • Cracking group Hackulous, known for breaking Apple’s iOS DRM, has also developed a more thorough Mac App Store crack called “KickBack,” but doesn’t want to release it just yet. The group says: “Most of the applications that go on the Mac App Store [in the first instance] will be decent, they’ll be pretty good. Apple isn’t going to put crap on the App Store as soon as it gets released. It’ll probably take months for the App Store to actually have a bunch of crappy applications and when we feel that it has a lot of crap in it, we’ll probably release Kickback.” Hackulous added that it doesn’t want to “devalue applications and frustrate developers” right away.
  • I’m really looking forward to the continued growth of options available on Mac Apps.

Intarweb Goldmine

• Man With Ace Bandage on Head Terrorizes Neighborhood as “Wandering Mummy” (udg)
  • Guy in Fairfield, Texas, got his jolliies wrapping himself up with an ace bandage and showing up at peoples windows.
  • When you answer the door, the mummy flees (that’s how you know it’s not a real mummy)
  • Mummy still at large
  • Fess up Steven, it’s you, isn’t it??? >;-)
  • (SM) I will fess up to wanting my mummy, but not to being one

• Don’t Drink and Backhoe Kiddies (JP)
  • DUI’s aren’t just for ppl who drink and then drive a car folks..
  • 11:50 pm on Sunday in California, police get a call of a single car accident
  • After response, guy drives up in a backhoe to pull out the ford mustang from ditch
  • Police get suspicious, guy blows hot, and gets arrested for 2 counts of driving under the influence  (oh yeah… and allegedly driving without a license on top of it)
  • Don’t drink and drive folks… and SERIOUSLY, leave the large construction equipment at home…
  • If you crash your car, imagine what crashing a backhoe would do!

• Pay Up, Or Fido Gets It- Really??? (SM)
  • Village in Switzerland, Pop, 2,245 human, 280 dogs
  • $50 yearly tax on owning a pet
  • How have they figured out to get ppl to pay their dog tax?
  • If you don’t pay, they’ll euthanize the dog….
  • Thats ONE way to get somebody’s attention
  • Authorities have received death threats over this

• The Devil Had Horns and Now So Do The Chinese (udg)
  • When you think about horned creatures, a few come to mind instantly: rhinos, bulls, unicorns, the devil. Now you can add at least a couple of Chinese people to that list.
  • China’s Huang Yuanfan, 84, says that over the past two years, a small bump on the back of his head has turned into a horn that’s nearly 3 inches long. “Doctors say they don’t know what caused it, but if they try to take it off it will just come back,” he told the press. “I try to hide it beneath a hat, but if it gets much longer it will be sticking out the top.”
  • Last year, Zhang Ruifang, a 101-year-old from China, made news when a second horn began emerging from her head. Her first horn had already grown 2 1/2 inches. Zhang embraced her new look and told reporters that she was eager for the second horn to match the first in size. She refused offers to remove the horns.
  • China has produced a number of other elderly horny folks in recent years. In 2007, 93-year-old Ma Zhong Nan flaunted a 4-inch horn growing atop his head. He paid little attention to it until it became itchy, at which point he sought help.
  • That same year, 95-year-old Xiou Ling made headlines for a 6 1/2-inch horn that jutted out of her forehead and curled downward over her face. It had been growing for four years.
  • And in 2006, Zhang Yuncai of China’s Xingyang county felt what he thought was a pimple on his head. Eventually that “pimple” got bigger and bigger until it developed into a 2-inch horn-shaped bump. Doctors removed the strange growth free of charge.

• NY: Bringing A New Meaning To “Flash Mob” (SM)
  • Yes, this is a total play on words
  • 10th anniversary of the breezy event
  • Here’s the 411, ppl board the subway, and then strip down to their colorful underwear and ride around
  • Organized by Improv Everywhere
  • Purpose: “incite scenes of joy and chaos in public environments”
  • Participants were asked not to stretch, pole dance, or do anything other than to take off their pants

• Why A Christmas Story Should Be Required Viewing (JP)
  • Woodward Fire dept was called out at 7:24 and found an 8 yr old boy with his tongue frozen to the pole of a stop sign
  • Why did he do it? because his “older brother dared him to”
  • My guess? His older brother was a fan of our favorite movie
  • A water bottle saved the kids tongue…
  • Apparently, there was another kid in that town with the same problem shortly thereafter
    • My guess… these kids came from the shallow end of the gene pool

Extra Links

• Microsoft investigating Win 7 Mo Phantom Data Usage

Contact Info

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Jeremy is @jpuent, Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
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• Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
• (We Do! They’re Geekalicious! but don’t eat them… they are SOAP!)

Intro Jeremy  (30 years ago, John Lennon died – listen to your favorite Beatles song for remembrance)
Intro Natali

Items of Interest

• Prison Break 2438- A Novel & An Awesome New Kickstarter Project (udg)
  • I’m a huge fan of Kickstarter and love supporting people in our community. So, when one of my tweoples announced this, I had to go take a peek and I think it looks pretty awesome.
  • What’s it about? This Post-apocalyptic Political Thriller is a book “about a man who lives in southern California in 2438 AD. His friend from way back gets taken to the world’s worst prison as a political prisoner. It’s his job to save his friend before he gets executed.”
  • Who’s involved? It’s an amazing collaboration between two brothers that started back in 2009 when one started chapter one, emailed it to the other and they went back and forth until the first rough draft was completed. They have been on a journey to complete a finalized draft since then. Oh and I should probably mention- who is illustrating this awesomeness?  That would be Dark Horse and DC Comics veteran Brian Ewing.
  • I got the chance to read an excerpt from the first chapter and I gotta admit, I’m hooked.
  • Stop by, show some love, tweet, share- post the link above, join the FB page here. Let’s help see this book become a reality.
• Portable North Pole (SM)
• Princess Bride + Lightsabers!!!!
• Princess Bride + LIghtsabers 2
• Twilight Spoof with Joker!

We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk Naked body scan, Black Ops breaks records, paper space airplanes, spider man the musical?, and we even got a Natali chinese rant…. that and much more

Intro Natali
Intro Jeremy

Items of Interest

• (SM)N64 vs Wii Goldeneye

• Holy Star Wars Cuteness! (UDG)

• A TPG Public Service Announcement regarding your Children… (JP)
  • This PSA addresses when you should talk to your children about Star Wars…
  • The bottom line is it’s never too early… unless…
  • Unless their heart is full of fear and anger. We don’t need another Darth Vader
  • (SM) Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering!

Gold Sponsors:

UberDorkCafe

• Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
• What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
• Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
• Woookie Coookies – a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe
• first Piece revealed and accompanying t-shirt @hefnatron
• Ellen campaign!!
• NEW TOP-SECRET: There will be baskets of UDC goodies for X-mas
  • UberDorkCafe is planning to put together some special goodies in basket form for people that both want to support the cause AND give an awesome present to their loved one for christmas.
  • I heard something about wookie cookies among other super secret things

• Today in Geek History
  • JebsApps (owned by our own Jeremy Puent) released their latest app, Today in Geek History
  • Gives you factoids based upon date, spanning all sorts of geekiness
  • For example, did you know on 11/17/1937 Peter Cook, who played The Impressive Clergyman in The Princess Bride and Nigel in SuperGirl, was born in England
  • This app is available for Android in a Lite version for free or a paid version, all on the Marketplace
  • Check out the lite version, but the paid version for .99
  • Also, Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices
    • Golden Pic has some huge updates coming next week including Bookmarking locations, mapping to those locations (driving or walking)
    • The Lite version will gain the ability to change location via one method as well.

• Childs Play 2010 now open

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Baldur’s Gate 2 coming to GOG
  • Includes both the original game and “Throne of Bhaal”
  • Joins the pantheon of BG, MoO, NwN Diamond, and Icewind Dale 2 (go buy them all folks)
  • Totally DRM free

• Geek Chic Daily- “giant Smurfin’ cat-people Box Set” giveaway (udg)
  • The new Avatar DVD and Blu-ray sets feature the extended and theatrical cuts, plus a newer version that’s 8 minutes longer and 45 min of deleted scenes. Need more than that? The Blu-Ray set has even more features, from the original “scriptment” to a full-on English-Na’vi dictionary. So, sign up today to win yours.

• Free IPhone Tron App Gets Light Cycle game
  • Yep, there was already a free app out there, Disney just updated it with the original light cycle game.
  • How’s that for marketing? Is it time for the movie yet???

Google Is making the iphone now (UDG)

• • GI Joe the Complete Series DVD set for 50% off (JP)
  • That’s Right get your knowing on and do it for less… only $90.00
  • 

Geek Speak

• The Government Leaks Body Scans (udg)

• • I had the fortune of taking a trip out to DC this past September for Intervention. Specifically around 9/11. I expected heightened security. I did not expect needing a “Recombobulation area.” I went through the body scan because the long line was causing me to cut it close and yeah, I’m glad it was out of Milwaukee and not Florida.
  • At the heart of the controversy over these “body scanners” is a promise: The images of our naked bodies will never be public. However, U.S. Marshals in a Florida Federal courthouse saved 35,000 images on their scanner.
  • A Gizmodo investigation has revealed 100 of the photographs saved by the Gen 2 millimeter wave scanner from Brijot Imaging Systems, Inc., obtained by a FOIA request after it was recently revealed that U.S. Marshals operating the machine in the Orlando, Florida courthouse had improperly-perhaps illegally-saved images of the scans of public servants and private citizens.
  • Gizmodo states “The leaking of these photographs demonstrates the security limitations of not just this particular machine, but millimeter wave and x-ray backscatter body scanners operated by federal employees in our courthouses and by TSA officers in airports across the country. That we can see these images today almost guarantees that others will be seeing similar images in the future.”
  • The TSA and other government agencies have repeatedly touted the quality of “Advanced Imaging Technology” while simultaneously assuring customers that operators “cannot store, print, transmit or save the image, and the image.” According to the TSA—and of course other agencies—images from the scanners are “automatically deleted from the system after it is cleared by the remotely located security officer.” Whatever the stated policy, it’s clear that it is trivial for operators to save images and remove them for distribution if they choose not to follow guidelines or that other employees could remove images that are inappropriately if accidentally stored.
  • So, to sum up- 35,000 images have been saved by US Marshals in FLA and the guys at Gizmodo were able to get their hands on at least 100 of them and then chose to publish them.  Here I thought my big worry was to make sure my bra and underwear matched that day.

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Why Netflix slow to Android (SM)
  • Netflix app already on IOS
  • Although the Android has become prolific, Not a homogeneous OS
  • Each handset maker implements it differently
  • Extremely hard to get a unified DRM up on such a platform
  • Will work with individual handset makers to get that needed DRM
  • No DRM = No contracts for the best content out there
  • (SM) I am not adverse to DRM myself… as long as its unintrusive and a seamless experience

• Project Titan (udg)
  • In an unsurprising turn of events, Facebook unveiled its “modern messaging system”. As expected, Project Titan will indeed compete with Gmail and other e-mail providers with the option of an @facebook.com domain, but Facebook hopes it will eventually revolutionize the way people use the Internet to communicate – emphasis on eventually.
  • What Zuckerberg reiterated was that “this is not an e-mail killer.” When pressed specifically about the relationship between Facebook and Google, Zuckerberg mentioned some mild irritation with the media’s coverage of the companies’ public spat, and simply said, “I think Gmail’s a really good product…we just think that this simpler kind of message is how people will shift their communication.” In short, Facebook has no plans to beat Gmail at its own game…yet. It’s the long run effect the company is looking at.
  • The 3 principles the message system is built around are: Seamless Messaging, Conversation History and Social Inbox. Seamless messaging will combine all the various ways you communicate into one place – SMS, chat, e-mail, Facebook IM, etc. You can archive or completely delete these threads at any time. Conversation History will now be one thread – no multiple threads over different applications. This works to show you your conversation with each individual person over time. The Social Inbox works as a spam filter. It’s a tiered system, ranking message importance by the amount you interact with another Facebook user. Your list of priority contacts are automatically created.
  • So how will Facebook decide what type of message to send to a person? While it was difficult to get a concrete answer (other than that this is what it will test on its first users in the months to come), it seems like it will use whatever is quickest. So, if a user sends an e-mail to another, who happens to be on Facebook, he’ll receive a Facebook IM. Still, the service will recognize users’ messaging preferences and defer to those. This system is called the Policy Engine, and aims to “try and make it so people don’t have to think about this stuff,” so that all you need is a “message and a person.”
  • You@Facebook.com Yes, users will now have the option of a Facebook e-mail address. The interface is similar to many e-mail services, allowing attachments and displaying simple icons. What differs is the purposeful lack of a subject line and hitting “enter” will send your message.
  • Will it utilize this like Google uses Gmail for advertising? Zuckerberg claimed that advertising would remain the same as it is now – a bar on the right hand side of the screen. It will still be based around what you provide in your profile, but the content of your messages will not be used for marketing purposes.
  • He also stressed that this is a long-term project, because he believes this is eventually the way people will use online communication. “This is the way that the future should work…maybe [in the future] e-mail isn’t as important a part as it was before.”
  • Don’t expect to see any changes tomorrow. Facebook will slowly roll out its new messaging system, starting out as invite only and using feedback to finalize the project over the coming months.
• Black Ops Breaks UK Launch Record (JP)
  • Over 5 days, sold over 2 million units, $131.5 million
  • Perspective: That’s more than the whole of the rest of the industry last week over the last couple weeks
  • Other factors that helped make it the highest grossing week ever? Kinect (which has sold over a million units worldwide) was released and all it’s accompanying games
  • (Be sure to check out our link of hidden stuffs in the game) Black Ops Hidden Secrets

• Paper Airplane touches space (SM)
  • Next time your kid asks you to make a paper airplane, be grateful they don’t ask you to make a $13,000 paper airplane
  • Engineers from the UK (Steve Daniels, John Oates, Lester Haines) built a single wing plane from only paper
  • Lofted 90,000 feet on a helium balloon and then recorded the descent w/ camera and sound
  • Sponsored by a Newspaper, the Register (of course)
  • (sm) sorry son, I can’t make u a paper airplane anymore, too ashamed that mine won’t go to space…

• China hijacks 15% of the internet- including Military Data- I TOLD YOU SO!!! (udg)
  • For 18 minutes in April, China’s state-controlled telecommunications company hijacked 15% of the world’s Internet traffic, including data from U.S. military, civilian organizations and those of other U.S. allies. This massive redirection of data has received scant attention in the mainstream media because the mechanics of how the hijacking was carried out and the implications of the incident are difficult for those outside the cybersecurity community to grasp, said a top security expert at McAfee, the world’s largest dedicated Internet security company.
  • For a period of time last April China pulled targeted communications from U.S. sources and routed them through their servers…And we don’t know what happened to the data.
  • You see the data is supposed to just flow through unhindered, but there is the suspicion that China could have captured the data and stored it for analysis. Maybe they did it, just to see if people noticed—we didn’t—and the data kept going. The scary thing is that in all honesty, the same hijacking could be going on now and we wouldn’t know unless we happen to have a running trace route mapping all our connections.
  • Solutions? Solutions are scant. We could cut China off from the Internet, but that is rather harsh and excessive… Changing how the Internet is architected is…virtually impossible. Keeping a better eye on how traffic is flowing?
  • Yeah, that’s pretty much it. ISPs would have to look for unusual patterns in traffic and alert authorities. Beyond that…we’re screwed.

• Tweeter airport bomber loses appeal (SM)
  • Guy sends a joke tweet, “Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your s*** together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”
  • Gets arrested and charged with “sending by a public communications network a message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character contrary to Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.”
  • He’s convicted, and just recently lost his appeal. They’ve banned him from his laptop, home computer, and even his IPhone. He’s even been suspended from his job as a financial advisor.
  • When is it too much???? What about the 5000+ tweets that came afterwards pretty much saying the same thing in protest to the prosecution?

• Digital Humanities: Digital Keys for Unlocking the Humanities’ Riches (udg)
  • I love this in a HUGE way. Art + Science = Geek for reals!!
  • The next big idea in language, history and the arts? Data.
  • Members of a new generation of digitally savvy humanists argue it is time to stop looking for inspiration in the next political or philosophical “ism” and start exploring how technology is changing our understanding of the liberal arts. This latest frontier is about method, they say, using powerful technologies and vast stores of digitized materials that previous humanities scholars did not have.
  • These researchers are digitally mapping Civil Warbattlefields to understand what role topography played in victory, using databases of thousands of jam sessions to track how musical collaborations influenced jazz, searching through large numbers of scientific texts and books to track where concepts first appeared and how they spread, and combining animation, charts and primary documents about Thomas Jefferson’s travels to create new ways to teach history.
  • Digital humanities scholars also face a more practical test: What knowledge can they produce that their predecessors could not? Hoping to find this, the National Endowment for the Humanities teamed up with the National Science Foundation and institutions in Canada and Britain last year to create the Digging Into Data Challenge, a grant program designed to push research in new directions.
  • Digital humanities is so new that its practitioners are frequently surprised by what develops.
  • When the collected published works of Abraham Lincoln were posted online a few years ago, the director of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Daniel W. Stowell, said he expected historians to be the most frequent visitors to his project’s site. But he was surprised to discover that the heaviest users were connected to Oxford University Press; editors of the Oxford English Dictionary had been searching the papers to track down the first appearance of particular words.
  • “People will use this data in ways we can’t even imagine yet,” Mr. Stowell said, “and I think that is one of the most exciting developments in the humanities.”
  • This is an amazing article that goes on to note several amazing projects wherein geeks and creatives team up to open new doors of knowledge on a myriad of topics. I highly encourage you give it a read.

• War of the Green Lanterns Officially Announced (JP)
  • through Rebirth and all the way to Blackest night, the lanterns (hal jordan, guy gardner, john stewart, and Kyle Raynor) have stuck it out together
  • Well, apparently no more. In march, DC is going to ride their cash cow yet again as the different Lanterns fight each other…
  • Due out in March, should be interesting?

• Spider-Man: The Musical ? (SM)
  • HUH? WHA?
  • Apparently there’s a Spiderman musical titled: Turn off the Dark that’s slated to hit Broadway Nov. 28…
  • It’s had various labor delays due to stunts deemed “unsafe” but is now on track…
  • (SM)(its spiderman and if he ain’t swingin from the rafters, imma ask for a refund.
  • There are various pictures on the Vogue Site that showcase the breadth of costuming, but it looks pretty ridiculous
  • Singing? Really? roflmao

• Apple vs Beatles Decade Long Stalemate Finally Ends (udg)
  • After almost a decadestalemate, finally the Beatles release their full collection to ITunes
  • All 13 of their albums plus their box sets are now available by digital download
  • Single tracks are also available
  • $1.29 for singles, $12.99 for albums, $19.99 for doubles,  and $149 for everything
  • All 17 Albums in top 100
  • (SM) AC/DC, not so much

• Guilleromo Del Toro Starting Hulk TV Project (JP)
  • Director of Hellboy (and recent slated director for “The Hobbit” will be firing up a new TV series on ABC about the Hulk
  • David Eick, producer for BSG, will be writing the script, w/ Del Toro helping when available
  • Still early, not slated to come online until 2012, Thank you Disney acquisition of Marvel
  • Would you rather see a classic TV series Hulk or an animated Movie-like Hulk?

Intarweb Goldmine

• Assault with a deadly whaaaaa? (udg)
  • Gurnee police said a woman used a sex toy to threaten a police officer. Police said the 56-year-old left a Gurnee restaurant without paying. An officer eventually found her lying near a sidewalk, and she told him she had money for the bill at her apartment. The officer said she went in her room to get money, and came out with the sex toy, held over her head, threatening him. The officer managed to knock the device away and arrested the woman. She is charged with theft and aggravated assault
  • That musta been one hell of a toy!

• Buy a truck, get a free AK-47 (SM)
  • That’s right, if you buy a brand spanking new truck in Sanford, Florida, you’ll get a $300 voucher for a Klashnikov Automatika 47.
  • Now, before some people get their panties in a wad, you can take the $300 and apply it to your car
  • You still have to go to the shop and apply for the weapon through all the appropriate legal procedures..
  • So essentially, you’re only getting $300. For a pretty sweet weapon, I might add

• Wife + Three other women torture man (JP)
  • Three women who had affairs with a married man are accused of luring him to a motel where, joined by the man’s wife, they tied him up and applied Krazy Glue to his private parts.
  • Therese Ziemann invited the man to a motel on Thursday, tied him up, promised a massage and then sent text messages to the other women, according to Calumet County prosecutors.
  • Once all the women were there, they confronted him about his infidelity, police say. Ziemann punched him in the face and glued his penis to his stomach with Krazy Glue, according to the criminal complaint.
  • The AP has not named the Wife to protect the man’s Identity. The women are free on $200 bail….
  • (protecting this guys identity sounds like a joke to me… if his junk is crazy glued to his stomach… he’ll be the guy doing a handstand to pee!!!)

• thou shalt not facebook (SM)
  • Apparently, 20 couples ran into problems when they reconnected with their old flames on FB
  • Solution to the problem? Order 50 married church officials to quit the social networking site
  • That’ll show them…
  • First off, shouldn’t that be resolved in the marriage through open communication and counseling if needed? If you can’t trust your spouse, why are you with them in the first place?
  • But we all know that ppl can’t be the problem… blame the tool!

Extra Links

• Chinese building their own giant airplanes
• Check out Viseyes- the peeps redefining maps and charts online!
• Digging Into Data Challenge
• Activision Closes Bizarre Creations

Next Week

• Black Friday Special
• Best Buy Black Friday

Contact Info

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Jeremy is @jpuent, Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
• email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and jpuent@thepowergeeks.com and uberdorkgirlie@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
• And Become a Fan

Sponsors

Shiny Lines

• What: Shiny Geek Jewelry, clothing and other bits & bytes, made by Geeks for Geeks.
• Why: Geeks, Nerds & Gamers alike deserve to shine at their very best, on and offline.
• Who: @aDigitalAngel & fellow nerds at ShinyLines.com

Luxury Lane Soaps

http://luxurylanesoap.com, @KyleeLane, GORGEOUS, IMAGINATIVE, HANDCRAFTED, GEEKY Soap

• Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
• (We Do! They’re Geekalicious! but don’t eat them… they are SOAP!)

We are LIVE on Ustream!!! This week we talk IPhone Funerals, Betty White getting her own comic, Call of Duty news, and Microsoft grows some balls… Jeremy can’t be here tonight but our thoughts are with him…

Items of Interest

• ESB Lego Chess
• Pubic Hare

Gold Sponsors:

UberDorkCafe

• Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
• What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
• Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
• Woookie Coookies – a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe
• UberDorkCafe – Auction Sept. 11th – DC,Tampa Bay,Online
• first Piece revealed and accompanying t-shirt @hefnatron
• Ellen campaign – fill out the form!!
• Gnork Pride for Ellen Explanation

NYCC (iKdr)

• During the convention, we will all be busy waiting in lines, getting autographs, attending panels, waiting for bathrooms, and squeeeing over all that is awesome that time to meet those you have been friends with online and across the globe often takes a serious back seat. This Tweet-Up will be the perfect opportunity to hang out with friends you have made online and hopefully make some new friends.
• WHEN: Friday, October 8th @ 8:30 pm
• WHERE: Stitch Bar & Lounge 247 West 37th Street
• EPIC MUSIC: Kirby Krackle
• There is more to come so RSVP to the FB Events Page!
• GGN is looking for event sponsors. For more information on sponsoring this epic event, please email info@geekgirlsnetwork.com.

• Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices

• • Both are available in the Android Market for Android devices running 1.5 or later
  • Lite is a free version (ad supported) with slightly limited functionality
  • Full version is only $1.99 USD
  • Go Buy it! or try it, then buy it!

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• LOTR Online now “Free to Play”
  • Following DDO, LOTR Online is now free to play
  • Players can now DL the client from the website and get started zero cost
  • quest packs, etc, can be paid for and still premium memberships available
  • If you have the urge to play a hobbit, now is the time
  • Won Pax best of Show

• New Kick Ass DVD’s
  • LOTR: Trilogy, (Timecop,Bloodsport), The Black Cauldron, The Return of the Living Dead, Invasion of the Body Snatcher, Pirates of Penzance, Prince of Persia, Starcrash

• Limited time only Deal (iKDR)
  • Don’t piss me off, and I won’t punch you in the face ?

• Dream in Plastic Sales (iKDR)
  • super awesome store owned by equally awesome ladies
  • this week on sale: robot puzzle coasters, robot/bunny charm bracelet * garden gnomes candle set
• Hello, My Name Is….. Yup I Wanna Win These Swords! (udg)
  • Geek Chic Daily along with Factory Entertainment are giving away AWESOME replicas of the Dread Pirate Roberts’ and Inigo Montoya’s swords.
  • Don’t know who they are? Don’t enter!!! If ya do and know how kick ass it would be to win this $600 bundle of sweetness, follow the link in the shownotes to enter.

Geek Speak

• Intervention Con Report! (udg)

• Can games make you smarter?

• • Gamers make decisions faster, FACT
  • One study says that action games improve probabilistic inference markedly
  • probabilistic inference: ability to make informed decisions with missing or limited data
  • Lots of scientific mumbo-jumbo but here’s the skinny:
    • When you play action or FPS style games, you are presented with a lot of information VERY VERY quickly and forced to make decisions before you have all the facts, or your dead.
    • This trains the 2 parts of your brain that harvests and then processes that data so that it passes stuff to each other faster
  • What do you guys think? Can VG’s make you smarter and how?
  • (SM)I’ve seen cognitive and problem solving skills go up in my own son by using Legos, why not games?

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Microsoft holds IPhone Funeral? (SM)
  • To announce Win Phone 7 RTM, M$ holds an IPhone Funeral
  • They paraded down the street with pall bearers and a giant machette of an IPhone
  • Probably should have held a funeral for Win Mobile 6.5
  • Best part? the Win team staged “Thriller” in the street

• PopCap and NCSoft Team Up for Korean Gaming Network (udg)

• • Seems PopCap isn’t happy just making casual online games that people seem to really love, they want their own social gaming network and are teaming up with the folks at NCSoft to make that happen in Korean. Yup, Korea where they LOVE their games.
  • The new venture will be called PopCap World and is being created at PopCap’s new Shanghai game studio. NCSoft will run the operation which will launch with 13 games including Bejewelled, Plants vs. Zombies, and Zuma. Korean gamers will also be getting their very own new multiplayer game called Super Zuma.
  • All the games on PopCap World will be free to play, but revenue will be generated from premium elements yet to be detailed. The site will obviously be Korean-language and should go live before the end of 2010.

• Yup, Betty White is cool enough for her own comic (iKDR)
  • Bluewater has announced that Betty will be spotlighted in a November comic for its “Female Force” line.
  • Bluewater honcho Darren G. Davis says”
    • So not only telling her biography, we really focus on what she has done with animal rights. She is a legend in the television world and now is taking the industry by storm.”
  • BWP is an independent production studio of comic books and graphic novels. Based in Vancouver, Washington –  publish biographical comics, adaptations from films and original titles with self-created characters in 10th Muse and The Legend of Isis.

• Cross a Tank and a skateboard… (SM)
  • 2 teen canadian engineers, Ben Gulak and Jason Morrow
  • previous creation, electric unicycle
  • Created a tank that you ride like a skateboard
  • Dual Track, control yoke, enough torque to tow an SUV, 40 degree inclines
  • Plans to market it to military-type personnel
  • The videos are IMPRESSIVE!

• Google’s Bounty Pays Off- 10 Bugs in New Chrome Release Fixed (udg)

• • It seems Google’s bug bounty program is paying some nice dividends, for both sides. Less than two weeks after releasing version 6.0 of its Chrome browser, Google has pushed out another Chrome release, which includes fixes for 10 security bugs, seven of which are rated either critical or high.
  • Google Chrome 6.0.472.59 comes out just 12 days after the last Chrome release, which fixed 14 security bugs. As part of its bug bounty program, Google paid out $4,000 in rewards to researchers who disclosed security flaws in the browser. Most of the security flaws fixed in the new release are in the Windows version of Chrome, but the most serious bug is only in Chrome for Mac.

• Star Wars just got a little cuddlier (iKDR)
  • In case you missed the squees yesterday on Twitter, Build-A-Bear has released a line of Star Wars costumes for your squishy friends:
    • Darth Vadar, Jedi, Clone Trooper
  • And to continue the nerdiness, there’s also a Batman costume

• COD: Black Ops will have dedicated servers (SM)
  • The biggest complaint about MW2 (besides the balance) was lack of dedicated servers
  • Treyarch plans to make up for that with the new release
  • Whats so great about Servers? Better stability. You aren’t so dependent on the client link to the pseudo-server
  • Only drawback, If you want a private server, you have to go through an exclusive vendor (gameservers.com)

• I told you Zynga was evil. (udg)

• • SF Weekly broke the news with the story aptly titled “FarmVillians”
  • In just 3  years, Zynga has gone from a “scrappy start up” to ruling FB & yup they are even on MySpace.
  • The company’s true earnings are unknown to outsiders. In May, social media analyst Lou Kerner estimated their total price tag at $4 BILLION
  • How have they accomplished that in such a short time?
  • One former senior employee sat and talked w/ SF weekly on the formula for success. (He wished to remain anonymous hmmm… zynga mafia for reals?)
  • He went in doe-eyed and eager to be a part of something and instead learned early on in a board meeting that it wasn’t all that it appeared.
  • The lesson was taught directly by Zynga CEO Mark Pincus. What was it? “”I don’t fucking want innovation,” the ex-employee recalls Pincus saying. “You’re not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers.”
  • Turns out interviews conducted by SF Weekly with several former Zynga workers indicate that the practice of stealing other companies’ game ideas — and then using Zynga’s market clout to crowd out the games’ originators — was business as usual.
  • Former employees describe a corporate ethos based in a predatory attitude toward rival companies and gamers. Unlike innovative and socially useful business enterprises such asTwitter or Google, Zynga sought to cash in quickly by repackaging, and then furiously peddling, the ideas of others.
  • The article goes on to layout the staggering blatant ethical mockery that is Zynga in fairly great detail and includes details on how Zynga gets people sucked into the “compulsion loop” then throws in the deviant ploy of online virtual extras for all of their games that come with huge price tags. Items you need to “win” or get ahead in the games they copy and spew out.
  • You all have heard my soapbox on their evils…. here’s a quote from our anonymous friend “Zynga’s motto is ‘Do Evil,’” he says. “I would venture to say it is one of the most evil places I’ve run into, from a culture perspective and in its business approach. I’ve tried my best to make sure that friends don’t let friends work at Zynga.”

• Robot skin knows the difference between a junk-punk and a kiss (iKDR)
  • Artificial electronic skins that can detect the gentlest of touches have been developed by two independent US research groups.
  • Skins could eventually be used in prosthetics, or in touch-sensitive robotic devices.
  • Both systems detect pressure changes of less than a kilopascal, the same as everyday pressures felt by our fingers when typing or picking up a pen.
  • However, fully working artificial skins will need to do more than detect pressure and bend. “The ultimate prosthetic skin should behave like our own skin,” says Stephanie Lacour, a materials scientist from the University of Cambridge, UK. That would mean the skin being able to detect sideways shear forces — such as those produced by scratching a twig down your leg — as well as pressure. “This is one of the most difficult things to implement,” she says.

• Microsoft Issues Free Licenses to Russian Non Profits (SM)
  • Russian politicos have been using copyright laws to shut down opposition voices
  • Racket: Org voices dissent, Russian cops raid org and confiscate computers, cops then use private copyright lawyers to keep everything in limbo
  • allegations are that raids or only happening when there is dissent
  • Microsoft has given a blanket free license to Non profit orgs in Russia to avoid this type of strong arming in “their” name
  • The unique thing, its retroactive and always present if you meet certain requirements

Intarweb Goldmine

• Worst Airline Seat EVAR (SM)
  • Looks like a saddle.
  • You’re half standing and the seat in front of you looks like its 3 inches away
  • Looks very similar to a roller coaster chair but with less room
  • What next? Cattle prods and rails with a bus bar to hold onto during turbulence?
  • (The uppity lady next to me on the flight back from DC Monday that dropped her salad all over my lap and screamed at the flight attendant for not having a fork for her would have gotten jacked if those were the seats we had- udg)

• Pregnant Nun Ad Found Offensive (udg)

• • An advert for Antonio Frederici brand ice cream showing a heavily-pregnant nun has been banned for “making a mockery” of Roman Catholic beliefs.
  • The ad showed the prego nun in a church with a tub of ice cream and a spoon with the text “immaculately conceived” and “ice cream is our religion.”

• Man Blows himself up…trying to kill a spider (iKDR)
  • listen, i hate the little creepers too, like alot, but come on!!\

• Zombie course in College (SM)
  • its a 3rd year english course
  • Students will watch 16 classic zombie films, read zombie comics, and generally dissect the context of zombiedom in general
  • An alternative to final research paper, write your own zombie script or draw storyboards for the ideal zombie flick!
  • Official course objective: “Get you ready for the zombie apocalypse
  • Not for the faint hearted, there will be blood and guts
  • Did you know I’m already a professor at Zombie University ? (iKDR)

Extra Links

• $35 Tablet?

• Awesome Super Hero Tattoos

• Boxxee vs. Apple TV

• Safeguard your digital Photos
• 44 Free retro fonts
• Pictures for Sad Children

Contact Info

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen and I am @JPuent Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
• email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and jpuent@thepowergeeks.com and uberdorkgirlie@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
• And Become a Fan

Sponsors

Prof. Mordarm’s “The Wandering Geek Con Journal”

• Kickstarter Project by Lorenzo R.(aka @Prof_Mordarm), create a useful medium to inform people of Geeky Cons across the U.S., both big and small.
• Series of physical journals that will be written in and by the geeks, the panelists, the cosplayers, the vendors, & the fans. Everyone & anyone at a Con can write in this journal Allowing good, bad, and geeky experiences to liv on
• When enough content is gathered, these experiences will be published into easy to read (online, PDF, & hardcopy) editions each year. It will be the Geek’s version of the Farmer’s Almanac, but for Geeky Cons!
• To help get your own TWGCJ and/or support or if you have questions, check out the Kickstarter @ http://kck.st/cNUADw & also follow the project creator on Twitter for updates.

http://luxurylanesoap.com, @KyleeLane, GORGEOUS, IMAGINATIVE, HANDCRAFTED, GEEKY Soap

• Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
• (We Do! They’re Geekalicious! but don’t eat them… they are SOAP!)

We are LIVE on Ustream!!! This week we talk Gamification, Twitter news, people getting sue-happy, and 1080p on your phone! that and much more

Items of Interest

• (JP) Big O Pc/ Xbox 360 console combined
  • Monster Pc with Built in XBox 360

• • Starting at $7,669, the Big O features a double-wide case with all the bells and whistles. base configuration, the CPU, both GPUs, and the motherboard all come liquid-cooled. Upgrade options include up to two six-core Intel Xeon X5680 CPUs, two 1,000-watt power supplies, and up to four graphics cards. All of that while impressive, is nothing compared to the bottom edge of the system, where Origin has built in a liquid-cooled Xbox 360 Slim.

• (SM) Infinite Adaptive Mario

Gold Sponsors:

UberDorkCafe

• Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
• What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
• Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
• Woookie Coookies – a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe
• UberDorkCafe – Auction Sept. 11th – DC,Tampa Bay,Online
• first Piece revealed and accompanying t-shirt @hefnatron
• Ellen campaign???

• Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices

• • Both are available in the Android Market for Android devices running 1.5 or later
  • Lite is a free version (ad supported) with slightly limited functionality
  • Full version is only $1.99 USD
  • Go Buy it! or try it, then buy it!

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Free Ringtone HEAVEN! (udg)

• • http://www.brinked.com
  • Account is free (hint: use fake phone # for security purposes. Retyping their example # works just fine)
  • Upload and edit your own songs
  • Import & edit YouTube clips! (Yes I made the “Junkpunch: YOU KNOW WHY!”)
  • Download tone, sync phone and you’re set. Jinkies it’s awesome!
  • Ok, SERIOUSLY, SERIOUSLY addicting
    • (JP) I use Audiko.net same thing, no account required!

• iOS 4.1 Released and now in the Wild
  • Game Center (not including 3g)
    • (JP) no games using it yet… even one update moments ago that claims to have it, doesn’t show up in Game Center yet
  • HDR Photography
    • Slick. I love HDR, so this will be a cool feature
  • Various fixes around bluetooth

• Atari Restickable wall decals!!! (JP)
  • Asteroid, Centipede, or PONG!!!
  • Plus… use code PONG for $10 off a $30 order, good through 9/10/10 at 11:59 PM ET.

Geek Speak

Companies Adopt Gamification

• Good games sell better.
• developer’s goal is to design a structure and system of rules in which players will a) enjoy the process or journey, and b) create a sense of added value.
• fun process coupled with a system for incentives or rewards for a job well done can become downright addictive. (WoW, zinga games, mini ipod games that status twitter or fb)
• Ppl are seeking to take RL lessons from games

• • Nike +
  • Mint.com
  • Foursquare
  • etc?

How do we gamify our lives?

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Gearbox buys Duke Nukem Rights (JP)
  • The story, and game, that just won’t buy gets a new chapter
  • Gearbox announced this bombshell at PAX proper
  • DNF is their first game, but more to come
  • Original creator, Alan Blum, now works for gearbox
  • Release date: xmas 2020

• Borderland raises their level cap by 8 (SM)
  • (another Gearbox)
  • There’s new DLC for one of our favorite post apoc FPRPG
  • “Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution”
  • What it won’t include is a new level cap raising and rebalancing
  • Good News? They’re giving those out for free
  • They plan an 8 lvl raise for all players, current cap is 61….

• New Parody RPG Fantasy University Aims to give Zynga a run (udg)

• • I’ve long stated FB game “addicts” have no right to call themselves “hardcore gamers.” The games just don’t qualify period. Until now?
  • Simutronics is hoping their new game Fantasy University will live up to the standards real gamers (yea I said it) look for.
  • It’s a parody-driven role playing game that mocks pop culture.
  • Players move around a game world, gathering quests and fighting beasties one whack at a time. But there’s more to the game than flavorless hack-and-slash. Fantasy University is funny, stylish and smart; in short, it’s no FarmVille.
  • With an art style created by Tracy Butler, the artist behind the web comic Lackadaisy, and a plot brimming with pop culture references, the game feels like Mad magazine’s take on the fantasy videogame.
  • Game is in beta test right now, which I have signed up for and from what I’ve seen looks pretty awesome.
  • Can it achieve it’s goal of drawing hardcore gamers into FB gameland? I think only time will tell. All I know is it’s not Zynga and that alone makes me root for them.

• Captive Freed by Twitter (SM)
  • Well, nobody knows if the twitter was what really aided in his release
  • Japanese journalist, not heard since Apr. 1, sends 2 tweets from prison.
  • i am still allive [sic], but in jail,” and “here is archi in kunduz. in the jail of commander lativ.”
  • Low lvl captor had an N70, wanted to use it to see Al Jazeera, journalist activated it for him, and then tweeted from it.
  • A days later he was free back in Japan
  • See? Twitter can save your life
  • Speaking of saving your life, this guys tweeted a live heart attack
  • Tommy Christopher, White house reporter for mediaite.com, suffered a major heart attack that was almost fatal
  • His response to the event? Live tweeting! “I gotta be me. Livetweeting my heart attack. beat that”

• Journalist Benched Over False Twitter Report (JP)
  • Mike Wise, Journalist at The Washington Post didn’t think Twitter was that big of deal
  • To emphasize his point, he posted a fake tweet on Ben Roethlisberger (Pitt QB)
  • Instead of making his point, he got suspended when readers did their own fact checking and called him on his false report
  • 1/4 of all posts contain a link, 190 million unique visitors monthly
  • definitely a valid source of news finding
  • recent scoops: (us airways hudson river, dominican republic earthquake, Iran elections, fort hood shootings)

• Comic God Mark Millar Starts His Own Kick-Ass Magazine (udg)

• • You’re one of the hottest comic book writers on the planet. Wanted and Kick-Ass were already turned into A-list Hollywood movies and Nemesis scored its movie rights being snatched up after only 2 issues, so what’s next?
  • A print magazine of course!
  • British stores will be stocked w/ CLiNT, Mark Millar’s new monthly mag for “dudes.”
  • Will only be available to us US peeps via subscription for now.  Excited? So was I until the $61.99 stopped me.
  • Millar’s new passion project is the quest to create the ultimate magazine for young guys.
  • Will feature articles on movies, music, tv, as well as serialized comics.
  • One of the most awesome things? One of those comics will be the debut of his Kick-Ass sequel- Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall.
  • Ok, umm so what’s up with the name? Well rumor has it when the name Clint was printed in comic books in the early 60’s poor print quality made it look like a certain other c-word.
  • Wanna read a breakdown/review of the first issue? Check out what Comics Alliance had to say here.

• Windows XP Dying Oct. 22, Dell rushes it to grave (SM)
  • Oct. 22 is the final moratorium on XP downgrades for PC Makers
  • Dell is retiring it a month early in preparation
  • Sales of XP in stores was first halted in 2008
  • 60% of the personal computer market is still XP
  • 30% is a combo of Vista and Win 7
  • Apple? Up to 6%

• PS3 Blocks Jailbreaking with firmware update (JP)
  • Surprise Surprise, PS3 Jailbreak USB stick no longer works w/ new update
  • Sony calls the update “minor” but doesn’t really say whether it was to stop jailbreaking just unspecified “security features”
  • Prediction: There’s gonna be a war over the PS3 because it is more open than the XBox 360

• Microsoft Co-Founder Sues Everyone and Their Mother (udg)

• • Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen has gone on quite the insane little patent lawsuit run
  • Whose on his hitlist? Only Google, Facebook, eBay, Apple, Yahoo, AOL (seriously do they have anything left???), Netflix, Office Depot, Office Max, Staples and YouTube (umm… doesn’t Google own it??)
  • The patents he’s citing describe tasks like:

• • • • “A site to offer suggestions to consumers for items related to what they’re currently viewing.”
      • “Enables ads, stock quotes, news updates or video images to flash on a computer screen peripherally to a user’s main activity.”

• • • • “allows readers of a news story to quickly locate stories related to a particular subject, among other things.”

• • There are sooo many things wrong with this on so many levels. Is the $18 BILLION he is currently worth not enough? Why now?? And how the Hell did AMAZON and a zillion other sites escape this mad spree?
  • Here’s a thought- let’s stop suing everyone and focus on making ummm… I dunno…. GOOD TECHNOLOGY PEOPLE CAN USE TO BETTER THEIR LIFE. Or a faster way to buy a new toaster. Either way, I’m calling bullshit on this one.

• 1080P in your Phone via Dual Core Processors (SM)
  • Already in the pipeline, should hit next year
  • 5x the graphics power, allows for both recording and playback @ 1080p
  • 2 x 1ghz arm processors, new graphics processor, faster memory (up to 64GB)
  • Dual Proc actually reduces the power consumption of more intense applications
  • Samsung, Tegra, and Quallcom all have announced different new processors
  • (SM) These will be SMOKIN!

Intarweb Goldmine

• Welcome back to school! Here’s your porn pen! (sm)

• • To sweeten their first day at primary school German children are normally given a cardboard cone filled with sweets, but schoolchildren in Essen this year opened their cones to find pens which project erotic images.
  • Who do the kids (and their screaming parents) have to thank? Why the Communists! No, seriously.
  • In a press release the German Communist Party stated that it had purchased the pens from a discount store, which had said the pens lit up at the push of a button. Oh something lights up alright, but it’s not the pen.
  • Don’t worry though, the Commies have offered to exchange the pens for something “more suitable for children.” And who says Communism is bad?

• Specially submitted by everyone’s favorite Geek Girl Kristin (JP)
  • Man calls 911 demands hugs and Hot cocoa and suprise, gets arrested
  • homeless man in Oregon was arrested for trespassing after sneaking into a local hot tub and calling 911 to request “a hug and a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows,”
  • Officers responding to the bizarre call arrived at the Beaverton, Ore., neighborhood pool to find Mark Eskelson sitting naked in a hot tub. According to statements made to police, he had been sitting in the water for around 10 hours and began to worry for his health when he realized he had no dry towels.

• Venezuelan Politician Offers A Bizarre Raffle Prize (udg)

• • For under $6 you could win the chance at a shiny new pair of…. breasts.
  • Gustavo Rojas, who is running as an alternate for the National Assembly in Sept. 26 elections is the genius behind this plan.
  • With over 30,000 implant surgeries a year in the image-conscious Venezuela, this costly procedure is in high demand.
  • Rojas admitted it’s a little unusual but followed it up with “it’s like raffling off a TV set or a telephone.”

• Frankenstein Cited For Monstrous Behavior in Ohio (jp)

• • Ohio police say a Toby Keith fan named Forrest Frankenstein threatened them and beat his head against a partition in their cruiser after his arrest.
  • When the judge asked 39 yo Frankenstein why he “went crazy” at the Aug. 27 concert in Cincinnati. Frankenstein replied that he had been drinking and didn’t really remember anything.
  • Frankenstein, of Hamilton, is being held on $80,000 bond on counts of menacing, disorderly conduct and vandalism.

Extra Links

• TI-84 to hack a PS3
• XBLA on Win 7
• Other info on M4R format

Contact Info

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen and I am @JPuent Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
• email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and jpuent@thepowergeeks.com and uberdorkgirlie@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
• And Become a Fan

Sponsors

Prof. Mordarm’s “The Wandering Geek Con Journal”

• Kickstarter Project by Lorenzo R.(aka @Prof_Mordarm), create a useful medium to inform people of Geeky Cons across the U.S., both big and small.
• Series of physical journals that will be written in and by the geeks, the panelists, the cosplayers, the vendors, & the fans. Everyone & anyone at a Con can write in this journal Allowing good, bad, and geeky experiences to liv on
• When enough content is gathered, these experiences will be published into easy to read (online, PDF, & hardcopy) editions each year. It will be the Geek’s version of the Farmer’s Almanac, but for Geeky Cons!
• To help get your own TWGCJ and/or support or if you have questions, check out the Kickstarter @ http://kck.st/cNUADw & also follow the project creator on Twitter for updates.

http://luxurylanesoap.com, @KyleeLane, GORGEOUS, IMAGINATIVE, HANDCRAFTED, GEEKY Soap

• Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
• (We Do! They’re Geekalicious! but don’t eat them… they are SOAP!)

We are LIVE on Ustream!!! This week we talk InterventionCon, Apple Media Press Conference, Commodore 64 rising from the ashes and MUCH MORE!!!

Items of Interest

• Jack from Mass Effect 2 CosPlay !!!! (JP)
  • Super impressive costume! Must see!

• Historic Nasa Pictures come to Flickr “Commons” (SM)
  • Nasa posts free pictures on Flickr Commons of some of the most historic moments in its history
  • a GREAT trip down memory lane for any space nuts out there
  • Goddard, JFK, Von Braun, LBJ, John Glenn, Lots of rockets and xp planes
    • (JP – What an awesome collection of pics… Geeks and space geeks alike should dig this!)

Gold Sponsors:

UberDorkCafe

• Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
• What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
• Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
• Woookie Coookies – a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe
• UberDorkCafe – Auction Sept. 11th – DC,Tampa Bay,Online
• first Piece revealed and accompanying t-shirt @hefnatron
• Ellen campaign???

• Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices

• • Both are available in the Android Market for Android devices running 1.5 or later
  • Lite is a free version (ad supported) with slightly limited functionality
  • Full version is only $1.99 USD  (On Sale till Midnight Monday Central for only $0.99 for Labor Day Sale!)
  • Go Buy it! or try it, then buy it!

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Dragon Age: Origin Awakenings XPack now on Mac (JP)
  • Did you know one of the best RPG’s out there was on Mac? DAO = the win
  • Awakenings now available on their store, its the xpack that has been out for awhile now
  • (Research a bit about the story)

• Thriller- The Entire Series on DVD (UDG)

• • Originally aired 1960-62, hosted by Boris Karloff
  • Guests included Shatner, Richard Chamberlain and other soon to be stars
  • Many of the program’s writers, including such icons of the genre as Robert Bloch (“Psycho”) and Richard Matheson (“I Am Legend”)

• Pinball FX2 comes to XBLA (SM)
  • Pinball? In this day and age? Original Pinball FX was one of the most bought and downloaded games on XBLA
  • FX2 is a “platform” meaning, you get the engine for free, you can import all your original FX boards and then the new boards come as content that u can purchase
  • New Achievements for old tables, Multiplayer support over XBLA, Leaderboards
  • (sm) Pinball tip of the week – Every Chuckie’s i’ve been to has 1 pinball machine for 1 token plays, boot the kids off it and camp the sucker

• Mirror’s Edge, Puzzle Agent coming to IPhone (SM)
  • Already on the IPad, now moving to IPhone
  • $4.99 for the Parkour style Adventure game

Geek Speak

• InterventionCon

• Apple Event (JP)

  • New AppleTV delivers on $99 price point, streaming

  • a smaller form-factor that clocks in at 1/4th the size of its first-generation sibling.
  • power supply is built into the Apple TV along with HDMI (at 720p cap) and Ethernet connections, and onboard 802.11n WiFi support. It also includes an Apple remote.
  • The Catch for $99 bucks? All Rental model… no purchases.
  • Netflix and YouTube streaming is available, along with photo streaming from Flickr and MobileMe.
  • new AppleTV will also be able to stream content from an iPad using the just-announced AirPlay in iOS 4.2 that’s slated to come out in November.
• iTunes 10 (available for download starting today)
  • New logo, few interface tweaks
  • Most of the new release’s focus is on Ping, a social network for music. “It’s like Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes,” Jobs said

• • iOS 4.1 announced, available next week

• High Dynamic Range photos: The phone will take three photos in rapid succession — one at what the phone thinks is the normal image, one underexposed and the third overexposed. The image is then combined to create the high dynamic image. Mel Martin demonstrated the power of this type of program in July.
• Bug fixes including those relating to the proximity sensor, Bluetooth and the iPhone 3G.
• High-definition video upload over Wi-Fi.
• TV show rentals and purchase
• Game Center debut

New iPod Nano
It’s hip to be square. the newly introduced iPod nano finally dispenses with the wheel because now the control surface is the iPod touch. The new model is so small that like the newly announced iPod shuffle, it has a clip that allows it to be worn and has a 24-hour battery life.

What isn’t there: the video camera that was included in the last release of the nano a year ago.

Other features include:

• VoiceOver
• FM radio
• Nike+ and pedometer

It comes in six colors, two more than the shuffle. It will cost $149 for 8GB and $179 for 16GB.
New Shuffle
The new iPod shuffle is smaller than the 2nd generation device and brings back buttons!
The new shuffle has a click wheel
It will hold 15 hours of music, is available in 4 colors and sells for US$49.
4th Gen iPod Touch
FaceTime. It isn’t just for iPhone any more.
Apple has just introduced a new generation of iPod touch with an new chip (the same A4 that powers the iPad and the iPhone 4), a better display (the iPhone 4′s double-resolution Retina display), and a built-in, front-facing camera that introduces FaceTime video conferencing capabilities.
a hefty refresh for an already great device,
lots of new features that really expand the way you can use the device.
newest iPod touch units bring nearly all of the iPhone magic to a Wi-Fi only platform.

Preorders start today, and they’ll be shipping within a week
Prices start at $229 for the 8GB version.

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Intel a Busy bee (SM)
  • First, the purchase of Mcafee for $7.68 billion
  • Now, Infineon’s wireless unit for $1+ billion
  • Who is Infineon? make certain Iphone / IPad parts
  • Even intel sees writing on wall and is scrambling to be relevant

• HP writes a painful $55 Million check. (udg)

• • Have agreed to pay the US govt $55 million to settle charges that it paid kickbacks to tech partners for recommending their products to federal agencies
  • This final agreement, announced Mon, by the Dept of Justice follows a tentative settlement earlier in the month where HP agreed “in principal” to resolve the case.
  • “Contractors must deal fairly with the government when doing business with federal agencies,” Tony West, assistant attorney general for the civil division of the Department of Justice, said in the statement. “As this case demonstrates, we will take action against those who seek to taint the government procurement process with illegal kickbacks.”
  • The case stretches back to 2004 when two whistleblowers–Norman Rille, then a senior manager with Accenture, and Neal Roberts, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers–filed a civil complaint alleging that HP had doled out kickbacks. The suit, which also included Sun Microsystems and Accenture, was launched under provisions of the False Claims Act (PDF) in which private citizens can file actions regarding fraud on behalf of the U.S. and share in any money recovered.
  • In 2007, the DOJ joined the investigation and charged that the defendants used affiliate relationships “to enrich themselves through a kickback scheme.”
  • The settlement also resolves charges that a 2002 contract between HP and the GSA was falsely priced because HP failed to provide complete information during negotiations with the government.
  • HP’s response to the whole thing? “HP denies engaging in any illegal conduct in connection with these matters. We believe it is in the best interest of our stakeholders to resolve the matter and move beyond this issue.”

• Commodore 64 Rises from the Ashes (JP)
  • Commodore USA announced right to make branded computers 6 mos ago
  • Then promptly went back under that radar as a deal couldn’t be hammered out
  • Now popped back up with full blown computer hidden in a authentic commodore 64 shell, right down to the huge keys!
  • PC64, 4GB DDR3, SATA 1TB HDD, HDMI, Blu-Ray or DVD
  • Want more modern? Go w/ the Phoenix or Amigo
  • All OS’es (including Amiga emulation)
    • (JP – I want one!!!)

We are LIVE on Ustream!!! Tonight we break out the zombies, Lightning Rock’n’Roll, high tech garbage, and stalking gets easy, all this and more!

(JP) With gratitude and much respect, best birthday wishes to Mr. Declan MacManus aka Elvis Costello.

Jeremy brought it up, Prof. Mordarm made the pic

Items of Interest

• You’ve seen Steampunk…helloo MarvelPunk (udg)
• • 19 yo Zachariah Perry Cruse, a sculpture student of Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, Indiana has created an Xbox 360 mod Tony Stark would be proud of.
  • It started as a rusty, fat Falcon HDMI Xbox 360.
  • It has its own Arc Reactor that glows in cool white when the console is turned on, in addition to a ring of light around the Arc Reactor that looks like the console’s power button.
  • Available on ebay, the sexy beast comes with matching red controller and a 120g hard drive with “Stark Industries” label.
  • Looking to bid on this? Good luck- current top bid is $3,200.
    • I think Microswerve should hire this kid immediately… his consoles beat any of the custom faceplate models on the market to date (JP)

• Walking Dead Official Trailer (SM)
  • (SM)I am officially in love with this series and its not even out yet
  • We saw pieces of this from SDCC
  • That they would keep Kirkman around speaks volumes towards how they want to get this right
  • Watch all the other stuff at that site… Zombie school? Count me in
    • (JP) So Glad Darabont is attached to this. He has done the best adaptations of Stephen King novels… He has a great way of handling horror/suspence subject matter. This should be amazing! now I have a new reason to look forward to Halloween!
• Age of Empires Getting a new treatment for online linked to Xbox360 and Windows Games Live (JP)
  • Sign up for the Beta at the link in the show notes…
  • Under an NDA for now, but as soon as  I can talk about it… I will
  • I can say I have always love AoE games and am excited about this…

Gold Sponsors:

UberDorkCafe

• Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
• What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
• Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
• Woookie Coookies – a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe
• UberDorkCafe – Auction Sept. 11th – DC,Tampa Bay,Online
• first Piece revealed and accompanying t-shirt

• Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices
  • Both are available in the Android Market for Android devices running 1.5 or later
  • Lite is a free version (ad supported) with slightly limited functionality
  • Full version is only $1.99 USD
  • Go Buy it! or try it, then buy it!

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Tactical Bacon - ‘Nuff said
  • Delicious bacon, canned, so it has a 10+ year shelf life.
  • Approx. 18 servings per can (1 serving = 3 slices of bacon).
  • Net Wt.: 9oz
  • a must have for every Zombipocalypse survival kit!

We are LIVE on Ustream!!! This week we talk GENCON!!! UberDorkGirlie gives her rundown of the venerable geek conference, but no PICS of the famed slumber party, and much more…

(JP) Happy Birthday to WOZ!!! Steve turns 60 today! so we wish him a Power Geeky Birthday!

Gold Sponsors:
UberDorkCafe

• Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
• What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
• Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
• Kickstarter site for UberDorkCafe, these places just don’t build themselves
• Woookie Coookies – a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World hits theaters Friday. (udg)
  • Based on comic Scott Pilgrim by Brian Lee O’Malley
  • Looks like a whole lotta awesome that does the comic proud

• JP – Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices
  • Both are available in the Android Market for Android devices running 1.5 or later
  • Lite is a free version (ad supported) with slightly limited functionality
  • Full version is only $1.99 USD
  • Go Buy it! or try it, then buy it!

Geek Speak

• Gen Con- The best 4 days in Gaming

• • Indy this past weekend Aug 5-8 43rd year
  • I’ve not been to one since it left Milwaukee
  • Media Guests of Honor- Felicia Day, the cast of The Guild and Will Wheaton. Checked in to get my press pass, hit the goodie table, turned around – Felicia
  • )
  • Cos Play-
  • s
  • Tons of great artists, I’ll have to compile a list of all of them for ya for the site.
  • 

• • Jackass Chef there WHY? Hello stereotypes. I wanted to junkpunch.

Oh wait, there were games!

• Magic: The Gathering celebrated “Summer of Mulitplayer” with 5 multiplayer events each day
• True Adventures (producers of True dungeon live-action gaming event) raised $9,000 for the Gary Gygax memorial to be raised in Lake Geneva, Wi- the birthplace of Gen con.  (JP – I met Gary at GenCon in Indy like 20 something years ago… he introduced me to the 100 sided die! )
• Atari announced they are working on something new. Wouldn’t say what, but based on new domain names they recently registered, it points to a Neverwinter Nights MMO on the horizon.
• So… AWESOME weekend!!! And lots of hugs for everyone…

• • !
  • !

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Rubiks Cube Solvable in 20 Moves (SM)
  • Did you know that most human’s can solve a rubiks cube in about 40 moves?
  • What you are actually doing when you combine rubiks twists is called an algorithm
  • Well, the magic number for the fewest twists is called “God’s Number”
  • It only took 35 total years of google computer time to get to it

• 12 Core Mac Pro Now Commercially Available (JP) – The Sticky note of infamy was up on the Store page the other day… MAC refresh was there when the sticky was gone.
  • You’re gonna pay a cool $5k for the low end of this system
  • two 2.66GHz six-core Intel Xeon Westmere processors, 6GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and an ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card (up to 3 monitors, dx11 support)
  • 21.5” iMac
    • i3 processor, discreet graphics, 1080p
    • $1099, No blu-ray option (Steve says this isn’t coming to any MAC despite demand from user base)

• Cookie Headset- I can haz any cookie? (udg)
  • “Meta Cookie” is an “interactive gustatory display” by Takuji Narumi of the University of Tokyo
  • Helmet with goggles connected to a camera
  • Person chooses whatever cookie they want out of ones shown to them
  • Handed plain cookie. Airtubes attached to helmet pump smell of desired cookie into nose
  • Wrong… just plain wrong I tell you.
  • (SM) This is a perfect way for Vegetarians to try Woookiee Cookies!
  • Speaking of Wookie Cookies… I think the postman ate mine! JP

• Droid 2 to release on Verizon with Special Star Wars R2D2 Edition (JP)
  • the worst kept secret from Verizon the Droid 2 will be available for pre-order aug 12th and will ship with Android 2.2
  • Amusingly, Motorola and Verizon also announced that they will offer a special edition Star Wars version of the Motorola Droid 2 in September. The R2D2 Droid 2 will come with Stars Wars content and it will be made to look like R2D2 Astromech droid from the Star Wars film. Motorola didn’t share a picture of the R2D2 version of the Droid 2
    • (side note regarding 2.2 FroYo on current droids – 2 hrs ago )

• Netflix getting closer to streaming 1st run movies (SM)
  • Paramount, Lion’s Gate, MGM
  • It’ll cost Netflix nearly 1 billion to do so
  • The deal will commence Sept. 1.
  • Ted Sarandos, taking a “pile of money” from USPS, giving it to studios ($600 million)

• Facebook hacked, Names and photos revealed (udg)
  • A bug in FB’s login system allows attackers to match unknown email addresses with users’ first and last names, even if set to private
  • If the address belongs to any one of the 500 million active users the site will return the full name and picture associated with the account.
  • Facebook has been under repeated attack for revealing way too much private info about it’s users over the past couple of years.
  • Their response was giving users more control over who could see what.
  • The name-to-email address extraction bug proves that doesn’t really work.
  • We can expect to see a fix to this soon?

• Games responsible for 5 billion of US economy (JP)
  • A study commissioned by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) found that the video game industry added about $5 billion to the US economy in 2009.
  • Entitled “Video Games in the 21st Century: The 2010 Report” [PDF link], claims the industry directly employs about 32,000 people in the US and indirectly employs 120,000 (GameStop employees, video game media, manufacturing and distribution).
  • Average industry employee makes $89,781 a year. Obviously that’s not the GameStop employee, but that is the average of them all.  (Kiddies this means video game programming pays… testing… not so much!)
  • CA lays claim to 41% of the employees in the industrty
  • The annual growth rate of the industry exceeded 10% between 2005 & 2009

• Starcraft 2 Tourneys offer $500k total (SM)
  • We know how South Korean’s love their starcraft
  • One TV network locked down Blizzard broadcast rights in SK, GomTV
  • New league, Global Starcraft 2 League, hellbent on luring SC 1 players over to 2
  • Offering $125,000 PER TOURNAMENT, 64 player field, 1 a month for rest of 2010
  • Plans for grand finale in 2011, Nothing says progress like money
  • Scintillating Starcraft commentary

Intarweb Goldmine

• Prisoners thank Plants vs Zombies (udg)
  • Where? Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines
  • The guard actually left the keys lying around while he became engrossed in a round of Plants vs. Zombies,  DUH!! Hello Prison Guard 101
  • Four of the inmates were caught soon after the escape, but one still remains at large
  • interesting side note… the guard should no longer have access to his idevice since he’ll be rooming with some of his former wards!! hahahaha

• Guy wants a roomate in SoHo who isn’t a Mac Fanboy (JP)
  • An ad posted to Craigslist yesterday is from an open-minded sort of guy who wants a roommate for an apartment in Soho. Sounds typical, right? Here’s the catch: He insists that prospective roommates not have an iPhone or an iPad.
• The ad states that “I refuse to live with anyone that has sold their immortal soul to Steve Jobs.” He’s also looking for a guy with Starcraft II experience, and wants any potential live-ins to post a link to their battle.net profile and to prove to him that they don’t own an iPhone.
  • The New York Observer found the guy, Vince Thomas, and he said he currently lives with another fellow who is a Mac fan, and Vince says he “just can’t take it anymore.” Vince has a Droid phone from Motorola, and apparently he’d rather talk about that instead.
• Vince has a point. Some of us love our iPhones. In social situations I don’t bring it up unless someone asks. I’m even feeling a bit guilty about the ‘Sent from my iPhone’ tag on my mail. If I write Vince I’ll be sure to change it to ‘Sent from my wonderful Droid, which is so much better than the iPhone I ditched.’
  • (JP) my bet is… this guy is no picnic to live with either!
  • (udg) Are you sure this guy’s name wasn’t Steven????

• Woman driven mad by McDonalds
  • Woman in Ohio gets incensed because MiccyD’s is serving b-fast and can’t get nuggets
  • Reached through drive-thru and punches 2 employees then smashes Drive-thru window
  • Gets 60 days in jail
  • Proof that fast food and McDonalds CAN drive ppl nuts…

• Woman quits job in style
  • Was sexually harassed at work
  • revealed her quitting in 33 pictures
  • Kicker? Her boss installed a spy for monitoring web traffic
  • He himself played 19 hrs of Farmville a week
  • UDG- SORRY THIS IS A HOAX!!! (woulda been awesome though)

Extra Links

• Net Neutrality: Argument For
• Geek Love: Edgar Wright Talks Scott Pilgrim

Contact Info

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen and I am @JPuent Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
• email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and jpuent@thepowergeeks.com and uberdorkgirlie@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
• And Become a Fan

Sponsors

FanboyScouts.com

• Ever wanted to award your loved one for the Kessel Run?
• Ever braved a Danger Room and wanted to show your friends proudly?
• Now you can with merit badges from fanboyscouts.com! 11 collectible badges
• Get ‘em while they are hot, and limited

http://luxurylanesoap.com, @KyleeLane, GORGEOUS, IMAGINATIVE, HANDCRAFTED, GEEKY Soap

• Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
• (We Do! They’re Geekalicious! but don’t eat them… they are SOAP!)

Gold Sponsors:

• Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
• What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
• Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
• Kickstarter site for UberDorkCafe, these places just don’t build themselves

JP – Listener Rob wrote in and said he follows us on FB and wanted to know why my nickname is ‘Zoda’ most of you may know I used to not be as mild mannered as I am today (look at the hair, the goatee which had two blond streaks in it, and yes… if you look closely my fingernails are all different colors)… I am a former pro In-line Skater. here’s a picture of me from back in the day skating a 7’ deep oval bowl in Rockford IL at The PIT skatepark. and here’s the story of my Nickname.

Jeremy 'Zoda' Puent

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• AMC Cult Classics 6 Movie Set! (UDG)
  • Zombies, Pirates, Vincent Price, Dennis Hopper for under $5.00!
  • All original casts! Night of the Living Dead, House on Haunted Hill, Carnival of Souls, Night Tide, Bluebeard, Chamber of Horrors
• http://www.votebundle.com/ (JP)
  • a new Mac Bundle is in the works, this time you can vote for 10 of 20 apps, the top ten will be in the bundle.
• New out on DVD this week and JP wants to see them both
  • Cop Out the Kevin Smith flick with Bruce Willis and Tracey Morgan
  • The Losers  - After being betrayed and left for dead, members of a CIA black ops team root out those who targeted them for assassination
• One last Freebie for MAC users (JP)
  • App Wall ScreenSaver… Just Like WWDC
    • For Free!!! moving App icons, select top Paid, Top Free, etc… and sit back and enjoy!