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We are LIVE on Ustream!!! This week we talk Stan Lee vs. the Supreme Court, Tokyo game show recap, possible facebook phone?, and a couple IPhone apps that might interest you… this and much more

Intro Natali, Queen of Junkpunch,
Intro Queen of Jerkfaces, Kristin

Items of Interest

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!!

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.
• *ThinkGeek Wampa Rug Giveaway!!!

• 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

• Cheap Xbox Live & Free Halo Reach Goodie Promotion (udg)

• • Cheap 12 Month Xbox LIVE Gold + Free Halo Reach Noble 6 Avatar Helmet Promotion Has Kicked Off!

• • Microsoft is currently offering new and existing Xbox LIVE Gold customers the option to add 12 months of Xbox LIVE for $29.99.  This is 50% off the rate of $59.99 per year, which is set to start in early November 2010!
  • In addition to the $29.99 deal, Microsoft is throwing in a free Halo Reach Noble 6 avatar helmet with this offer.
  • Just simply fire up your Xbox 360, and this offer will be available on the blades…
  • Finally, Microsoft is having a free Xbox LIVE Gold weekend.  This free weekend offer will run from September 17 – 20th…

• HUGE SQUEE!! DEXTER IS BACK! THIS SUNDAY!! (udg)

• • Yeah, my man Dexter is back, starting this Sunday night. Tune in and become addicted like the rest of us. After last season’s finale I can’t wait to find out how they handle this season!

• Watch Clone Wars Online
  • What if you don’t have cable or the Cartoon Network???
  • You can watch each episode of all the seasons online!!!

Geek Speak

What if? “Warning labels for Relationships”

• What if everyone had an RFID, a scanner, and a piece of software that could read the possible future relationship of the person that you scan?
• “Sex would be great but you will eventually hate her love of her cats and leave her” (UDG)
• Corrolary:  ”sex will be great but you’ll eventually get freaked out because the cats like to watch” (SM) -Theres nothing wrong with loving cats!! (iKDR)
• “Sex will start out bad, but get better. He lies when he’s nervous, but you will know because they are obvious and harmful. You will eventually leave him for his best friend.” (iKdr)
• “Run. Run far and run fast” (UDG)
• “she is a big flirt but horrible in bed and neighs like a donkey, but she makes great lasagna” (SM)
• “Her screechy voice will drive you to drink but your children will be cute” (SM)
• “He says he loves you, but he’s secretly dating 10 different women all over the place. “ (UDG)
• “She says she loves Star Wars but later on you find out that she is a trekkie in disguise sent to infiltrate the 501, in the which you are a member”

• Mature Games To Minors Supreme Court Case Has A New Defender: Stan Lee (udg)

• • The date has been set, November 2nd may be a day that lives in infamy, for gamers at least. On November 2nd the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear California’s appeal to keep their 2005 video game law related to selling video games to minors.
  • According to the Supreme Court of the United States Blog, the case is dubbed Schwarzenegger vs. Entertainment Merchants Association and will be heard on November 2nd. The Supreme Court will be looking at the ECA’s (Entertainment Consumers Association) argument for why they believe the law is unconstitutional, due to it being poorly written and leaving the chance of it threatening American’s right to free speech, which ultimately harms the gaming industry.
  • In an open letter published on the Video Game Voter’s Network website, Stan Lee has thrown his support behind the game merchants of this infamous case which will give a federal ruling on whether it is constitutional to prohibit minors from purchasing violent games.
  • Lee makes very appropriate comparisons between the current mainstream worry about children playing violent games and the same fears about crime and horror comics in the nineteen fifties.  Hopefully the public’s fears of video gaming can be resolved without a restrictive self-imposed system of censorship that artistically hobbled the industry for a decade and a half.
  • In encourage you to read all of Stan’s letter for yourself.
  • “Why does this matter? Because if you restrict sales of video games, you’re chipping away at our First Amendment rights to free speech.”– Stan Lee
  • Dear Supreme Court, if Stan Bad Motha Trucka Lee says it, it is so.
  • (SM)…They do so despite the fact that the industry has a remarkable rating system in place already and all new consoles have parental controls — both of which help parents ensure parents are in control of what their children play. But you can help fight the battle against politicians.

• Bogus Study on Violent Video Games
  • In that same corrolary, there are studies like the following:
  • Here’s the whole study: Young men were asked to play a violent video game and think about it constantly for 24 hours straight had a tendency to think more violently (duh)
  • The other duh? if you didn’t reminisce, you didn’t experience more violence…
  • more minutes of play = greater aggression? or does the aggression last longer than 24 hours if you constantly think about it

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Tokyo Game Show Recap (udg)

• • Attracting record attendances of over 200,000, this year’s Tokyo Game Show proves to those doom-mongers who insist that the games industry is dying in Japan that it’s not. But it is having to evolve in order to serve the contemporary global audience – an audience that hasn’t been brought up in arcades playing the giant Sega, Namco, Capcom and Konami coin-ops. So what did this year reveal?  Here are my top 3 picks!
  • The return of Radiant Silvergun! Once heralded as one of the finest games for the Saturn system, it never received an official western release – we had to wait for its successor, Ikaruga. Until now. Radiant will be coming to Xbox Live next year, complete with enhanced visuals and online co-op.
  • Mikami + Suda 51 = Shadows of the Damned! It’s long been known that Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami has been collaborating with Grasshopper Manufacture, the crazed developer behind Killer 7 and No more Heroes, now we know what they’ve been up to. Due to be published by EA next year, Shadows of the Damned is described as a psychological action thriller, follow hard-bitten, motorbike-riding demon hunter Garcia as he rides into Hell to save his lover. Okay, so it sounds a little like Devil May Cry meets Ghost Rider, but with Mikami and Suda 51 at the helm, we can at least expect stylised visuals, weird ideas and gore aplenty. Plus, revered Silent Hill scorer Akira Yamaoka is providing the soundtrack.
  • The thing about Yakuza and zombies…Fans of Sega’s Yakuza series didn’t know what to do with themselves when the publisher announced the latest iteration in the series, subtitled ‘Of The End’. Instead of a contemporary drama of gangland strife, it’ll be set in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, infested with zombies. The game still stars orphanage-owning hard nut Kazuma and will feature the trademark mini-games… but now they’re mini-games with zombies. How freakin awesome is that??

• DX 10/11 for Linux (SM)
  • up until recently, you played games on linux through a windows emulater called wine
  • Wine used a DX translator that turned instructions into OpenGL, it was slow, it was clunky
  • Wine currently only has access to DX 10
  • Enter Gallium3D (currently written by VMWare), they are committing to supporting DX 10/11 on Linux through their drivers… which is a HUGE deal
  • All of this support will be Open Source
  • 26,000 lines of code were involved in the making of this miracle

• ‘No Reservations’ Host Anthony Bourdain Writing Graphic Novel For DC Comics (iKDR)
  • Anthony Bourdain – acclaimed chef, food author, world traveler and television personality best known for “No Reservations,” his globe-trotting Travel Channel series that shines the spotlight on the world’s greatest culinary treats.
  • Robot 6 discovered a pair of interviews in which Bourdain revealed that he’s in the midst of working on a graphic novel for DC Comics tentatively titled “Get Gyro,” a story that takes his obvious passion for food and sets it within a high octane comic book world.
  • “It’s about ultraviolent food nerds.”
  • “It’s a gourmet slaughterfest, sort of like ‘Fistful of Dollars’ meets ‘Eat Drink Man Woman.’”
  • Could be out as early as next year

• T Mobile Blocking Selected Text Messages?? (udg)

• • EZ Texting claimed Friday it would go out of business unless a federal judge orders T-Mobile to stop blocking its text-messaging service, the first case testing whether wireless providers can block text messages they don’t like.
  • They claim T-Mobile blocked the company from sending text messages for all of its clients after learning that legalmarijuanadispensary.com, an EZ Texting client, was using its service to send texts about legal medical marijuana dispensaries in California. “T-Mobile subjectively did not approve of one of the thousands of lawful businesses and non-profits served by EZ Texting,” according to New York federal lawsuit.
  • Comes as the company just announced it was raising its texting prices & amid a fierce debate surrounding net neutrality, with net giant Google claiming that wireless carriers should not be bound by the same rules as wireline carriers.
  • Even the New York-based texting service acknowledges that the case raises novel issues. “At the very least, EZ Texting has raised serious questions about the legal ability of a wireless service provider, T-Mobile, to block its customers from exchanging text messages with EZ Texting’s customers,” according to the suit.
  • EZ Texting offers a short code service, which works like this: A church could send its schedule to a cell phone user who texted “CHURCH” to 313131. Mobile phone users only receive text messages from EZ Texting’s customers upon request. Each of its clients gets their own special word. A party supplier might get “PARTY.”
  • Wait, so these are even people that have OPTED IN to receive these texts? Jinkies!!

• Facebook working on a phone?? (SM)
  • Sources close: Working on software and contacting 3rd party to build hardware
  • Following in the the steps of google and even microsoft
  • Facebook wants access to your contact lists among other things
  • They’re in total denial but various signals point towards their entry:
    • Hardware manufacturers have been contacted
    • 2 employees are said to be working on the project
    • 1 dev who helped build firefox (Hewitt) and another who worked on chrome (Papakipos)
  • oped on possibility

• Star Wars: Vader Yourself: The Force is weak with this one (iKDR)
  • a Lucasfilm-licensed app that makes your spoken words sound like the big man’s–in theory, at least.
  • Modeled after the control panel on Vader’s chest
  • To make a recording, you tap the Record switch, provide a filename, then start speaking. You’re instructed to use a loud, menacing voice
  • When you’re done, you’ll hear Vader’s trademark heavy breathing, followed by a slowed, deepened version of your voice. The expectation: that you’ll sound like James Earl Jones. The reality: you don’t. There’s no metallic undertone, no computer-generated Dark Sidey-ness.

• Apple Approves VLC Video Player (SM)
  • Why are we reporting on yet another app to the millions in the app store?
  • This one supports a bunch of different video formats that the built in player does not support (divx and avi’s anyone?)
  • Based on the desktop version of VLC
  • File conversion can be hit or miss sometimes through itunes, its nice to be able to have something for free where you don’t have to convert
  • Making video viewing on the IPad easier could gives their rental service some competition, at least from the hardcores that DL their own stuff
  • Also what happens if 3rd party apps can use “AirPlay” a built-in service that allows other IOS devices stream to the AppleTV

• Dear Twitter, Next Time You May Wanna Listen (udg)

• • Hai, yeah Twitterz, when peoples tell you that your stuff is broke DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!
  • For a few hours yesterday morning, the homepage of popular microblogging service Twitter became one of the most dangerous places on the Internet, as a glitch in the way Twitter deals with Javascript code (specifically the onMouseover command) allowed  malicious users to hijack your Twitter account and your web browser just by mousing over a link in your timeline.
  • Twitter’s fixed the problem now, but you might be surprised that the bug was first reported to Twitter over a month ago by a Japanese developer called Masato Kinugwa, who discovered the XSS vulnerability on August 14th and then rediscovered it in the “new” Twitter when it was launched last Tuesday.
  • Since Kinugwa was not getting anywhere reaching out to Twitter itself, Kinugwa set up an account yesterday called RainbowTwtr which showed how the XSS weakness could be used to turn Tweets into different colors.
  • Quickly, though, Kinugwa’s idea was picked up by people who recognized the vulnerability could be used far more maliciously: Scandinavian developer Magnus Holm, who resigned the code so that it would retweet itself. At first, Holm didn’t think the worm would scale, but soon enough, it exploded exponentially… leading to the onMouseOver apocalypse users of Twitter’s homepage experienced yesterday.
  • So, I’m wondering who at Twitter got the flogging for this one.

• Shaq a Hacker ?? (iKDR)
  • NBA star Shaquille O’Neal is at the center of an explosive new lawsuit accusing him of computer hacking, destroying evidence and indicating that he attempted to frame an employee by planting child pornography on his computer
  • Shaq’s former employee Shawn Darling filed the suit for intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and civil R.I.C.O. (a racketeering charge) on August 3, in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

• Shaq hacked into the voicemails and phone systems of Darling and Vanessa Lopez, a mistress who is currently suing O’Neal. He deleted Lopez’s messages and changed her password.
• O’Neal used his law enforcement contacts, both active and retired, to obtain restricted information about one of his mistresses, Alexis Miller, while he was involved in a legal battle with her.
• Shaq threw a personal computer holding much of this evidence in the lake behind his home.
• Shaq conspired with active law enforcement as well as ex-members of law enforcement to frame Darling for a criminal offense and destroy any evidence that Darling might have against O’Neal.

• The REAL Geek Mafia? Aka ANGELGATE (udg)

• • Why weren’t Kristin and I invited???  *You know why*!!
  • TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington dropped an enormous bombshell on the Internet last night: he alleges that a secret posse meets every month in San Francisco to collude and price-fix, and this lil mafia is comprised of “nearly 100%” of early-stage Silicon Valley investors.
  • According to Arrington — who apparently walked in on the group at a local wine bar — they discussed how to hold down the valuations that members assign to early stage companies and start-ups, as well as how to block venture capitalists from investing in companies that outgrow them, as well as how to undermine startup incubators.
  • Arrington says: “This isn’t minor league stuff. We’re talking about federal crimes and civil prosecutions if in fact that’s what they’re doing. I had a quick call with an attorney this morning, and he confirmed that these types of meetings are exactly what these [collusion and price fixing] laws were designed to prevent.”
  • I should note at this point that Michael Arrington, who is a former lawyer himself, is highly reputable. How he found out such information from a meeting he was ousted from though seems a bit suspect. He claims he was tipped off to a meeting of the group at the restaurant Bin 38 in San Francisco, barged in, was kicked out, and then later spoke to three attendees who detailed how the angels are colluding to combat the growing power of startup incubator Y Combinator. Given the seriousness of the charges being made, why would anyone talk?
  • One of the meetings’ attendees, well-known Valley investor Dave McLure, responded with a profanity-laden tirade in which he he called the charges “bullshit” and accused Arrington of sensationalism. “The agenda was drinks, good food, & shooting the shit,” McLure wrote. “It wasn’t to collude, to price fix, to put out a hit on [Y Combinator founder] Paul Graham, or generally bust a cap in any founder’s ass.” McClure did not return a request for comment.
  • Right now these charges are being made solely on hearsay, but if they can be proven, well I suspect McLure will be dropping A LOT more F bombs.

• Intel to charge $$$ to unlock processor features (SM – via Custompcmax)
  • Small pilot program that puts Intel’s age-old marketing at forefront
  • Users will get an option to turn on hyperthreading and upgrade the cache
  • How much? $50 – best buy or yourself can do the honors
  • DLC Hell for hardware? Its already there why not give it to me anyways
  • (SM) Intel has been doing this for years. They’ll make a processor and then deactivate features and call it something different

Intarweb Goldmine

• Luke, I am NOT your father (udg)

• • An alleged robber of the Get & Go Mini Mart wore a Darth Vader mask when he threatened the clerk with a butcher knife and demanded cash about 1:35 a.m. Sept. 13, according to Ferndale police.
  • That’s not what the suspect looked like when he walked in the front door, according to store videotape.
  • That’s right, Jamie Carlos Hernandez, 41, is a maroon. The video tapes show he entered the store WITHOUT sportin’ the Vader mask, then show him donning his way too cool for his goofy ass disguise, walking up to the counter and waving a knife at the clerk.
  • Yeah… Jamie… you are so not worthy.

• Pope Astronomer Willing to Baptize Alien
  • Guy Consolmagno Is willing to preach to any intelligent life we might find out there
  • “Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has- has a soul”
  • Would he baptize an alien? Only if they asked
  • (SM)What if they tried to eat him first?
  • Readily admits that the odds of this happening are very minute (ya think?)

• Cocaine stolen from trunk, so man calls 911, police say (iKDR)
  • When alleged drug dealer Steven Dragon found out that a half a kilo of cocaine had been stolen from the trunk of his car, he panicked: he dialed 911 to report the theft.
  • What he didn’t know was that police had taken the drugs themselves as part of an undercover sting targeting the Two-Six street gang,  according to a federal complaint.
  • A record of the 911 call he made says he told the dispatcher, “Somebody robbed my car when the police had me. . .they took my keys and everything.” He fled before police arrived but moments later, he called an alleged accomplice on a wiretapped phone and told him, “I just got f***ed, so hard,” according to the complaint.

• Swan Dancing Robot Moves People To Tears?
  • 3.2’ robot with 19 joints allows it to dance a “tear inducing” rendition to Tcaikovsky’s “Swan Lake”
  • Involves both fiery and gentle dance moves to a 4 minute coreographed piece
  • Who knew robots could dance?
  • We’ve talked about “robot partners”, “robot helpers” now why not robot dancers!

Extra Links

• Just Say No To Nerd Rage (udg)
• Shuttle hauled to launch pad for last time
• Star Wars Stuffies
• Twitter Bug Fixed

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
• Follow our guest host Kristin on the web geekgirlsnetwork.com and on twitter @geekgirls (yes yes, im in the plural)

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.

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