Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

• Great Costumes from SDCC 2011 (btm)
  • Careful, some are a little saucy.

• Batman: The Last Laugh
  • Fan Film Done Right

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!!!
• Go check out both apps, TIGH  and TIMH, now available on both Android and iPhone
• Now As Seen on Wired.com!!

Natali’s Etsy!!!

• Need your noms????
• @UberDorkGirlie’s etsy is the way to go
• Whether it’s Woookie Cookies, Happy Pandas, or Unicorn Treats, 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 Release

• New DVD Movie Releases
  • Rio, Rio 3-D BR
  • Conan the Barbarian (International Cut) – Conan the Destroyer, BR
  • Braveheart / Gladiator BR
  • Eastbound & Down S1 + 2 (think KSwiss)

Entertainment Geekly (new feature)

• Die Hard 5 Rumors
  • Yipee – Kai –  Why???
  • possibly directed by  Noam Murro (300 prequel, Xerxes)
  • Set largely in Russia w/ his Son, blah blah blah

• Cowboys & Aliens
  • Released and achieved #1 in the US (barely beat out the Smurfs)
  • What have yall heard and do yall plan to see?
  • Harrison Ford is looking rough

Geek Speak

• SDCC Talk (Kristin, etc)
  • New Movies (Spiderman, Ghostrider, etc)
  • Costumes
  • After-parties

• Video Graphics x 100,000, Real or Fantasy (sm)
  • A company claims to have moved from Polygons to pixel/atoms
  • “Improves the quality of computer graphics infinitely”
  • In todays technology, times a 100,000
  • explain polygons
  • Changing from polygons to atoms

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

• Apple Antics
  • Apple has more money than America? (btm)
    • Latest news from the US Treasury is that the United States has an operating balance of $73.7 Billion
    • Apple’s most recent financial reports shows it’s reserves at $76.4 Billion
    • The US is spending approximately $200 Billion more than it takes in every month.
    • Apple, meanwhile, is raking in cash with it’s latest quarter showing 125% more income than this time last year.
    • What’s Apple planning to do with this extra cash?
      • Industry watchers think they are building a war chest to be used for later acquisitions for other businesses and technology patents.
      • Barnes and Noble bookstores and Netflix have both been identified as possible targets.
    • There’s also this really cool house on Pennsylvania Avenue they might be interested in. it’s white and we all know how much Apple likes white products.
  • Skype gets posted for iPad then promptly pulled
    • for a long time, no approved Skype app optimized for IPad
    • Presto, inadvertent publish and then a prompt pull by Skype itself
    • Hopefully means it will be released shortly
  • Apple blocks Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia
    • Claims 10 patent infringement including slide tab to unlock
    • Australia actually honored the injunction, Korean company has to respond
    • This after newest Galaxy Tab compares favorably with IPad 2

• Nintendo President Takes 50% Pay Cut to Reduce 3DS Price (btm)
  • The slow selling 3DS is cutting it’s price from $249 to $169
  • This means Nintendo will be losing money on each sale.
  • To help with the loss company president Satoru Iwata told shareholders that he and other executives will be taking a significant paycut.
  • He will be taking a 50% cut while directors close to the project are giving up 30% and other executives will be losing 20%

• Internet Enabled TVs Interfaces just got better (SM)
  • Ever get frustrated with your TV’s interface?
  • Most TV’s are internet connected nowadays but are a pain to setup and maneuver
  • Heck, if you own cable, you have plenty of on-demand but GL getting to it
  • Poor Interface design makes users not want to use your products
  • Insignia (owned by BB) recently has gone to the TiVo interface to solve that problem
  • Still no DVR included out of the box or over-the-air program guide
  • Wait-and-see but its a step in the right direction

• Blizzard Makes Diablo III Require An Internet Connection (udg)
  • Remember how Ubisoft has managed to upset just about every gamer on the planet by requiring an always-connected machine to play its PC games? Well, Blizzard is doing the exact same thing with Diablo III. That’s right Diablo fans, if you want to play you need a solid internet connection. Offline play is just not an option.
  • If you want a reason as to why this decision has been made, Blizzard is happy to provide you with two. The first is of course piracy, which they believe an always-connected game will limit. The second is down to providing a fair game on Battle.net.
  • Blizzard is not allowing any mods in Diablo III and doesn’t want any cheats being used either. The developer states the only way to control this is with a game they can guarantee isn’t running any such additional software. Keeping you online during play apparently solves that problem and means whatever level your character is, is a true representation of the time you have spent in the game, not some mod or cheat working overtime in the background.
  • The final bit of news that has appeared about the game is that buying it might not be the end of your spending. The auction house included in the game will accept real money for buying items as well as allowing you to sell them. Blizzard’s reason for including this is for those gamers who have, “more money than time.”
  • Has Blizzard just made three huge mistakes, or is this what needs to happen for PC gaming to survive? I can imagine a few pre-orders have been cancelled already, and have to question the logic behind what Blizzard is doing here.
  • Diablo has a massive following, yet removing mods, requiring a connection, and introducing cash to the game to get ahead all seem like steps that will turn fans off rather than building excitement for the release.

• Et tu Adobe? (udg)
  • So, along with everyone else ::cough Apple cough:: Adobe is abandoning Flash as well. Their new tool, Edge, still encourages all the “flashy” loveliness, except that if Edge does it- it’ll be CSS, Javascript or HTML5. NOT Flash.
  • Don’t start calling it the “Flash-killer,” Edge is not intended to put Flash out of its misery or even to encourage developers to switch over to HTML5, but rather open up a new development path while Flash development presumably hits a wall.
  • As of right now, Flash can do some things better than HTML5. So it’s still an important part of the web and not going to up and disappear any time soon. . Still, Adobe seems to be well aware that developers will eventually abandon Flash for HTML5 and while they don’t intend to expedite that process, they are doing what they can to grab a piece of the new pie.
  • At the moment, Edge is available, for free, to anyone who wants to see what it can do. The 1.0 version proper will probably launch sometime next year. While Edge is obviously still a very new tool, it holds promise for developers who are looking to move beyond the messy, messy world of Flash and users who are getting tired of not being able to view .swfs on their mobile devices because no one wants to deal with the messy, messy world of Flash. Even though Adobe is allowing Flash to continue kicking around, it’s good to see them with a horse in the HTML5 race. Here’s to hoping Edge can “cut” it, and Flash can slowly saunter off to pasture where it probably belongs.

• Japan Brings Us One Step Closer to Cylons (as usual) (btm)
  • Japanese researchers are working on a robot that reacts to situations by making educated guesses based on past experiences
  • Robot was built on a learning mechanism called Self-Organizing Incremental Neural Network (SOINN) which processes information and lets the robot estimate future patterns and networks.
  • Future applications are both endless and a little scary as SOINN allows robots to learn from the Internet and other robots.

• Paypal Strikes Back at Anonymous (udg)
  • I’m sure we all remember Anonymous’ attack on Paypal last year after they bloced the Wikileaks accounts transactions. Well, now they’ve come up with enough evidence to strike back at Anonymous with a lil help from the FBI. In fact they’ve got a list of over 1,000 IP addresses left behind when Anon attacked. (Remember my DOS lecture before?? Yup!)
  • These IP Addresses were left behind from the DDoS attacks which were targeted at PayPal. Those IP Addresses could prove both useful or useless to the FBI as they start their investigation. The DDoS attacks are usually performed on computers that have been infected with viruses so the owner of the machine might not even know they are playing part in the attack. However the FBI may be able to perform forensics on those computers to find out where the infection originated from.
  • I am sure this story will heat up as time progresses, stay tuned for more details.

Intarweb Goldmine

• Castles Made Out Of Human Hair (udg)

• • What goes well with the cultured human hair necklace? A castle made entirely out of human hair, of course! Artist Augustina Woodgate created 3,000 bricks of human hair and built two castle sculptures as part of a series called “I Want To Be A Princess.” One of the two sculptures, called Tower, reaches about four and a half feet off of the ground, and the different colored bricks are simply different colors of hair — the yellowish window framing is made of bricks of blonde hair.
  • Woodgate’s second sculpture, Sandcastle, sports molded tops — similar to how one molds parts of a sandcastle with buckets — that sit atop a chaotic pile of hair, simulating a crumbling base. Woodgate’s hair castles will be debuting at Spinello Gallery in Miami.

• Lithuanian Mayor Says Tanks for Illegally Parking (btm)
  • Arturas Zuoukas, mayor of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius is fed up with illegal parkers.
  • Decided to send a message by driving a Russian tank over illegally parked cars
  • Saying, “People with big and expensive cars can’t park wherever they feel like and ignore the rights of pedestrians and bike riders”
  • The shocked owner of the first Mercedes was photographed exiting a shop to find his car crushed by the smartly dressed civic leader.
  • The car was later re-crushed at a local junk yard.

• A Hallow Leg of a Different Kind (udg)
  • A South Carolina trooper says he found a kilogram of cocaine in a suspect’s prosthetic leg, after he pulled over a vehicle for driving slow in the fast lane.
  • The Anderson Independent-Mail reports trooper Brad Davis testified at a preliminary hearing Friday that he felt an odd bulge when he patted down Glodualdo Moreno Lojan. Davis says a plastic bag was stuffed between Lojan’s leg and his prosthesis.
  • Lojan and two others in the car face cocaine trafficking charges.
  • Davis says he pulled over the car with Texas plates in July for traveling 50 mph in the left lane on Interstate 85.
  • Lojan’s attorney, Kurt Tavernier, says the car should not have been stopped, since 50 mph is over the minimum highway speed.
  • The three remain in jail without bond.

• Computer Conducts Wedding
  • Guy in Houston couldn’t find a friend to officiate his wedding so he writes a program to do it for him
  • Called it Rev. Bit
  • he programmed Rev. Bit to declare at that most poignant moment during the ceremony when last objections may be raised: “If anyone here has anything to say that might change their minds or has any objections, they do not want to hear it and I will not recognize your objections since Miguel has programmed me to only recognize his commands.”
  • Get this, met his wife on “Sweet on Geeks”

Extra Links

• Square handling 4 million in payments daily

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

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

We are LIVE on Ustream.  This week we talk R2D2 XBox360, Chinese going too far, and even a bit of Ant-Man the movie… WHAT??? Seriously?? blech

Intro Natali

Items of Interest

• R2D2 XBox360 (SM)
  • Kinect version
  • Total R2D2 paint job
  • Gold 3PO controller
  • Star Wars Kinect Game
  • Star Wars for system sounds…
  • Must.Buy.Immediately.In.NOVEMBER!!! NOOOOO!~

• Not as Cool as R2 But Dad Hacks Wall-E Toy To Make Real Robot

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!!!
• Go check out both apps, TIGH  and TIMH, now available on both Android and iPhone
• Now As Seen on Wired.com!!

Natali’s Etsy!!!

• Need your noms????
• @UberDorkGirlie’s etsy is the way to go
• Whether it’s Woookie Cookies, Happy Pandas, or Unicorn Treats, 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 Release

• New Released DVD’s / BR
  • Source Code – Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Action thriller where a guy gets amnesia and has to uncover his identity and a bomb plot at the same time
  • Red Planet – More realistic, gritty portrayal of space travel.. might be worth some of your time
  • Blues Brothers / Animal House – RIP Jon Belushi

Entertainment Geekly (new feature)

• FX Picks up Superhero movies left and right
  • Recently acquired Captn America (the one in theatres)
  • Already had TF: Dark of the Moon, Green Lantern, X-Men: First Class, Thor, Tron: Legacy, Kung Fu Panda 2, The Green Hornet
  • Maybe they should rename themselves “TSN: The SuperHero Network
  • Most of these came from an epic 2008 deal with Marvel, before the Disney acquisition

• Ant-Man: the Film???
  • Ant-Man is the superhero persona of Hank Pym
  • Recently came to the forefront with the Avengers cartoon being so popular
  • Can shrink and enlarge at will, Super-Genius, Pacifist
  • Has pretty side-kick “The Wasp” (Janet Van Dyne)
  • Really worth a full featured film though???

• Wanna See What We’re Not Missing W/ WW?? (udg)
  • io9.com “We’ve seen the unaired Wonder Woman pilot, and it’s actually kind of worse than we expected. It’s bad in the ways that we were all expecting, but it’s also bad in other, more fundamental, ways.”
• Comic Con Trailers (udg)
  • Features- The Amazing Spider Man, Haywire, Sherlock Holmes 2, Dark Knight Rises Teaser

Geek Speak

• SDCC! – Tease it for next week, Everyone has hangovers, we’ll bring on some heavy hitters and have a good round-table

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

• The Chinese Have Now Gone TOO FAR! (udg)
  • Cuz selling fake iTunes cards and really cheap Apple knockoffs on their sites weren’t enough, last week five supposed Apple stores were operating in China. Only they weren’t actually official Apple stores!
  • To make it worse, they were nearly flawless copies of the official stores. To the point that the employees thought they were working for Apple!
  • Two of those five have since closed. But, not for them being complete fakes. Nope, the only reason they are closed is because neither had a business license in the first place.
  • The iFakes hit the major media and were brought to light last week when blogger  BirdAbroad visited one and spoke to staff. The store she located and visited was in the southwestern city of Kumming, and is not one of the two that have been shutdown. There’s a video of how Apple Store-like the store is in our show notes.
  • What’s going to happen to the other 3 stores is unclear at the moment. Chinese law does deem the stores illegal, but it’s the Chinese. If they’re able to cough up a business license, there’s no guarantee they’ll get shut down.
  • One thing is certain- Apple is definitely going to be talking to Chinese officials and this could get interesting.

• Hacker Caught, 10 years in jail (SM)
  • Rogelio Hackett Jr. 25, of lithiuania, plead guilty to stealing 635,000 credit cards
  • Instead of light slap: Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200
  • Must pay $100,000 fine and serve 10 years in a jail
  • Guy had been hacking since 2002, and trafficing in purchased accts
  • Before you go all boo-hoo, the CC companies found that he bamboozled over $36 million dollars over the years
  • Yeah, I’m personally glad they threw the book at him

• Google’s Print Mag (udg)
  • Because you know they haven’t launched enough new stuff over the last few weeks, Google has now released the first US edition of its marketing mag Think Quarterly.
  • Actual print copies of the mag will be sent to a select and limited and are all kinds of lux with a magnetic cover, heat-sensitive end paper and a pretty blue ribbon fastener. Don’t fret though, us little people get to at least check out the online version.
  • The magazine is essentially a very pretty advertisement for how wonderful Google is, with a feature story highlighting the positive work done at Google. In addition to several pages dominated by advertising executives, the magazine also has several essays on the future of the Internet and society. I actually kinda dug it.
  • The UK version of Think Quarterly launched in March 2011, under the clear distinction that it is not intended to be a consumer magazine. Through Think Quarterly, Google may be taking steps to change its image from a familiar search engine to a group of innovative thinkers and strategists who have a real impact on the world.
  • But change their image with who? Well, potential advertisers of course. They are the people getting the snazzy print version, after all. The rest of us Googlers are just left with our Intarwebs.

• Samsung passes Apple in Smartphone Sales (SM)
  • Samsung passed Nokia for new sales in the last quarter
  • According to bloomberg, 18-21 million handsets were sold in the last quarter
  • Thats in comparison to the 20 million sold by Apple
  • Nokia has been sliding from their dominance for awhile now
  • M$ partnership has not helped them.
  • Lets be real, Everyone is waiting on the IPhone 5…

• Data Furnaces (udg)
  • Servers are energy hogs. Not just to run, but they get so bloomin hot you have to use more energy for the air conditioning that keeps the waste heat at by. This problem with inefficiency is only going to compound as the hoopla about the cloud continues.
  • Seems Microsoft has come up with a wacky-in-a-way-that-just-may-work solution: Distribute cloud servers to businesses and homes for use as heaters.
  • “Data Furnaces” as Microsoft dubbed them in a research paper on the subject would provide exhaust that, while too cool for energy regeneration (104-122 °F), is just right for space heating. Not only does this reduce waste, but it could increase the overall efficiency of the cloud servers involved by making it far more practical to locate specific servers near the areas they serve.
  • That’s a lot of win right there.
  • Obviously with issues like size, the fact heating systems are complicated, security, reliability, you get the point- this is something for way off in the future. But, it’s definitely got my interest piqued.

• Netflix Up, Blockbuster Wooing (SM)
  • Netflix made a profit, just not as much as investors had hoped.
  • To blame? The price hike announcement for September
  • Not all doom and gloom, their subscriptions are up 70% for streaming
  • Netflix talks with Dreamworks (Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar)
  • Blockbuster is looking to capitalize w/ a $9.99 1-disc out plan
  • (still no streaming from BB)
• Fox Gets Stupid (udg)
  • In what is probably one of the lamest ideas I’ve heard in a very long time, Fox has just announced that it will only allow approved cable or satellite consumers free next-day access to its popular TV shows. Fans could previously catch shows the next day on Fox.com or Hulu.com for free.
  • Don’t have cable or want to pay for Hulu? Well then you’ll have to wait until 8 days after they’ve aired to watch it.
  • Got DISH? No worries!
  • “DISH Network is proud to be the first pay-TV provider in America to give customers the opportunity to take full advantage of the new Fox.com viewing experience — at no additional cost,” according to a Fox press release.
  • Hulu Plus customers will also still have access to Fox shows, according to a tweet from New York Times reporter Brian Stelter. Fox hopes to add more cable and satellite partners in the coming months.

Intarweb Goldmine

• What Ya Get For Being A Sound Sleeper In South Africa(udg)
  • A 50-year-old South African man woke up inside a mortuary over the weekend and screamed to be let out – scaring away attendants who thought he was a ghost.
  • His family presumed he was dead when they could not wake him on Saturday night and contacted a private morgue in a rural village in the Eastern Cape.
  • He spent almost 24 hours inside the morgue, the region’s health department spokesman told the Sapa news agency.
  • The two attendants later returned and called for an ambulance.
  • The man – whose identity has been withheld – was treated in hospital for dehydration.
  • The man woke up at 1700 local time (1500 GMT) on Sunday, demanding to be let out of the chilly morgue in Libode village, frightening the attendants on duty.
  • “At first the men ran for their lives,” said Mr Kupelo.
  • Officials have urged the public to contact doctors or the emergency services so they can they can pronounce someone dead before calling an undertaker.
  • “You begin to ask yourself how many other people have died like that in a morgue,” said Mr Kupelo.
  • “We need to [get] the message across to all South Africans that it is very wrong for them to conclude on their own that a person has died,” he said.

• Jaws Jumps into boat… Literally (SM)
  • Have a front row seat to Discovery’s shark week? Not as close as these guys
  • 6 researchers off the coast of africa got the scare of their life
  • After an hour of shark activity, 10 foot great white breached the water and jumped halfway on the boat
  • In a panic and apparently trying to eat a crew member, he thrashed all the way on board and then became stuck
  • Despite the danger to their lives, the scientists eventually rescued the shark after being towed to port, letting it go, being beached, pulling it back out, and finally getting it out to sea

• Mystery Prisoner (udg)
  • A mystery man arrested on minor charges more than three weeks ago remains behind bars in Utah while law enforcement officials try to determine his true identity, which he refuses to reveal.
  • “This is really a strange case,” said Lt. Dennis Harris with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office. “He just doesn’t want to be found.” The unidentified man, who has graying hair, a light beard and is believed to be in his 60′s, was arrested on July 1 for trespassing in a parking garage.
  • He was booked into jail on three misdemeanor charges and has thwarted any chance of release, with or without bail, by refusing to identify himself.
  • “I’ve been trying to think from A to Z why he would want to stay here … why he wouldn’t give us any information,” Harris said.
  • “He either has to be wanted by some other state or he could be on some other registry or database that has not shown up,” he added.
  • Law enforcement officials say the man is “fairly well spoken and educated,” but very guarded about his identity.
  • As a result of several short conversations with him, officers believe he may not be from Utah.
  • Officials gave the man a telephone calling card so he might contact friends or relatives, but he has not used it.
  • “He was very aware of what we were trying to do and he would not give us the slightest bit of information indicating where he was from or anything relating to his family situation,” said Harris.
  • “We’ve had a lot of people call in but nothing has panned out. Nothing,” he added.
  • Officials say in three weeks of jail the mystery man has shown a pleasant demeanor and has communicated that he is being treated well.
  • “He said the food has been great,” Harris said.
  • “I realize that sometimes people want to go to jail because they are homeless, have nothing, they are destitute. I’ve seen that over the years. I just don’t get the impression that’s the reason. He just doesn’t want to be discovered by somebody.”
  • Now in his fourth week of incarceration, the man added another twist to the story recently by hinting he had business of some kind outside prison that he would need to attend to.
  • “He said there was a point at some time that he would need to get out of jail,” Harris said. “That’s the closest I can find of what he wants to do. And that makes no sense to me whatsoever.”
  • I’m surprised I don’t know the guy. I seem to attract people like this.

• RDJ New Hazards: Exploding manholes
  • Imagine if you will, walking down the street
  • A rumble and a roar shake the ground and all the manhole covers explode into the air
  • This isn’t hollywood, welcome to Rio De Janeiro
  • Recently a manhole cover blew up into the air, injured 2 ppl, smashed into a nearby window, and ended in a parked car
  • This was the 130 of these in April alone…
  • Sparks from old transformers igniting “gasses” (read human methane) causing the random explosions around the city
  • Talk about some dangerous crap….

Extra Links

• Navy testing more lasers
• Q&A With The Man Behind The Lego LOTR Tower (udg)

We are LIVE on Ustream. Tonight we talk E3, The new Wii Controller, Some Apple Stuffs, New movie releases, and even the surprise average age of gamers…

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

• Instructables (udg)
  • It occurred to me today that I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned one of my absolute favorite sites on here. I have mentioned Etsy and it’s crack-like ability to suck me in for hours. Well, Instructables is it’s counter-part. It is THE site for anyone that’s ever wanted how to make…. well anything. I’m not kidding! From a PC Case out of a mannequin to cupcakes and every possible thing in between, there’s an instructables for that.

• Bring Me the Head of Green Lantern (btm)
  • Made by Schell Sculpture Studio
  • They design concept art for TV and Movies
  • Creating a Hal Jordan bust based on the DC Comics character

Open Source Flashlight (SM)

• Started by
• 500 Lumen bulb (high end) 350 lumen at the low end
• Fully Open source (you can change how bright, blink, modes, from your computer)
• top end is USB chargeable (about time, most tac lights take expensive batteries)
• On a kickstarter but already exceeded their goal by more than double
• I totally bought the ultra bright one

• The World of Mistrunner (udg)
  • With 28 days to go, I really wanted to mention this awesome kickstarter from our loyal chat room member and friend Naked Hobo again.
  • What is Mistrunner? In the creator’s words it’s a RPG set in world of high fantasy, steampunk and a bit of post apocalyptic action thrown in as well. What I see is an amazing game, ney world, he has crafted out of obvious love. One of the things that makes me most proud to be a gnork is the support that we all give each other. Bound together by the very things that set us apart. Please help us support this project. Times are tough and that’s understandable. If you can give $1, that’s awesome and it will get you listed in the book as a Patron. If you can’t, that’s okay too. What you can do it blog about it, tweet about it, FB it, carrier pigeon it, get it out to everyone you know and help make this dream a reality.

• Wanna iPad laptop? (btm)
  • Nifty device from Crux
  • The Crux Loaded features a clamshell keyboard case, Bluetooth trackpad and external battery to turn your iPad into a more laptop-like device.
  • Available this fall.

• Star Wars Rubber Duckies (udg)
  • Rubber duckies are kind of awesome. Now you can haz Star Wars themed rubber duckies complete with 45 battery life LED lights in them. A rubber ducky you can be proud to bring in the tub or pool this summer.

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!!!
• Go check out both apps, TIGH  and TIMH, now available on both Android and iPhone
• Now As Seen on Wired.com!!

Natali’s Etsy!!!

• Need your noms????
• @UberDorkGirlie’s etsy is the way to go
• Whether it’s Woookie Cookies, Happy Pandas, or Unicorn Treats, 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

• Subway Goes All Out for Green Lantern (udg)
  • Subway has launched a new promo that could have you unlocking awards like free Green Lantern movie tickets and other stuff.  Want in?
    • Download the SCVNGR app for your iPhone or droid.
    • Complete easy challenges
    • Win prizes and rewards.
  • Pretty simple. Oh and grand prize? Tickets to the Green Lantern Premiere in LA.

• New Movie Releases for 1st Week June
  • (SM) Epic Westerns Alert:
    • The Outlaw Jose Waley (clint eastwood) – I <3 The Good, The Bad, The Ugly hardcore, I gotta see this. Characterized as the “Best Mythic Western Ever”
    • the Long Riders – James and the Gang – Best Western Period
    • True Grit – Remake by Coen
  • Superman: The Anthology (1978 – 2006) – Holy Crap…
    • everything you could want including
    • 2 versions of Superman and Superman 2
    • All the 1950’s Superman cartoons
    • Outtakes from the Brian Singer Superman Returns
    • 8 full Blu-Ray Discs – Much Much more… all for under $100
  • The Man Who Would Be King – Sean Connery, Michael Caine, when men were men
  • Burial Ground – Italian Zombies
  • The Stuntman – Real Men, Doing Real Stunts, On real movies back in the day

Entertainment Geekly (new feature) (SM- Awesome Title Natali!)

• Eliza to Star in Torchwood Spinoff (udg)
  • Eliza Dushku has officially signed on to star in a new Torchwood animated spinoff web-series. It’s an animated motion comics series called Torchwood: Web of Lies, and it’s based on Starz upcoming series Torchwood: Miracle Day. The animated series will also include voice appearances by Torchwood stars John Barrowman as Capt. Jack Harkness and Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper.
  • The new series is being written by Jane Espenson, who worked with Dushku on Dollhouse and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She’s also worked on Battlestar Galactica and Torchwood. Ryan Scott is also a co-writer on the series.
  • The series will consist of 10 three-minute videos, and will be released before the Torchwood premiere on July 8th. The plan is to release a new episode online after each new Miracle Day episode.Miracle Day episode.

• Penny Arcade Strip Inspires a Movie (udg)
  • It started as a comic but Penny Arcade has expanded into video games, a charity, merchandise, conventions and now…. the film.
  • According to the Hollywood Reporter, Paramount is producing an animated movie based on Penny Arcade’s “The New Kid” comic strip. The comic was published this past October and focuses on a young boy who is constantly switching schools because his father’s job takes him to different planets.
  • Gary Whitta, the former editor-in-chief of PC Gamer magazine and writer of The Book of Eli and a number of games (including Gears of War), will write the movie’s script.
  • (SM) when are they going to do “Automata” already?
  • (SM) FYI, they’re doing a boardgame based upon “The Lookouts” – Think Boy Scouts meets D&D

• There Will Be a Full Season 7 for Doctor Who (btm)
  • Kasterborous site reported over the weekend that BBC Wales (producers of the popular Doctor Who series) was planning a truncated 7th season consisting of only 4 or 5 “specials”.
  • BBC officials were upset as this would leave gaping holes in their programming.
  • After watching fans react over the weekend BBC and Doctor Who producers calmed everyone’s nerves by announcing Tuesday that the 7th season would be a full, 13 episode season and current Doctor Matt Smith would be appearing in them.
  • Showrunner Steven Moffat tweeted:
    • “14 eps + Matt DEFINITELY. I’ve got a plan and I’m NOT TELLING YOU WHAT IT IS. Now hush or River shoots you with her Spoiler Gun.”
  • Nerds throughout the Commonwealth sighed in audible relief.

Geek Speak

PSA: CEA trying to sell off free over-the-air HDTV Bandwidth (SM)

• They want to let the “free market” soak up all the bandwidth you could be using for free
• Cite low number who actually use the service.
• (SM) HANDS OUT OF MY COOKIE JAR

• E3 Coverage
  • New XBox Kinect?
    • Youtube coming to xbox live
    • hulu plus
    • Powered by Bing?
    • Minecraft for Kinect
    • Halo 4
    • live streaming TV to boot for international customers

• • Sony Vita Unveiled
    • The world goes meh
    • Plenty of content announced:
    • Mother of all trailers for the new games
    • Fully portable and cloud-ready
    • Specs:

• dual analog controller,
• front and rear camera,
• OLED touch screen type,
• touchpad on the back.

• V4-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU and a
• 200 MHz SGX543MP4+ GPU.

• • Playstation 3D TV
    • Non-split screen mode where both can play on the full screen
    • 24” 3D TV
    • Good glasses for $4.99

• • New Nintendo Console
    • Wii U, Wii U (btm.. like an amblance)
    • 480i to 1080p, HDMI output
    • Flash based memory + sd card slot + usb for external storage
    • Awesome controller that is
      • touch capable
      • a cross between a ds and a dreamcast controller
      • (think mini-tablet w/ 6 inch screen and motion controls)
      • can play games independent of Wii
      • Interact with games on the screen
      • (SM) I actually want one of these
      • This has SUCH amazing potential it’s unbelievable. I’m seeing people either geeked to get theirs or declaring it the beginning of the end of Nintendo. I am definitely leaning much more toward the geeked side. (udg)

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

• EA’s Origin Takes on Steam and Games for Windows (udg)
  • Electronic Arts announced some pretty big news with the launch of the Origin game store and social network, a direct-download game marketplace and social service for gamers who play EA titles. It is available now and came out the gate with over 150 EA titles. In the future they will be publishing all their new games, including Battlefield 3, FIFA 12, and games from partner studios in the Origin store.
  • Sound a bit familiar? Add to that an application on your system that will manage installations, licensing, updates, and new purchases for you electronically and keep track of your achievements, let you connect with other people who play the same games, and share what you’re playing with friends. Yeah, I’m guessing right about now Steam and Games for Windows are popping in your head.
  • Back when Steam first launched, the took a huge chance. It was untested and both gamers and publishers were clueless as to whether digital distribution would even really work. Steam is a HUGE success, Microsoft can’t really claim that with their Games for Windows.
  • There is one area Origin is taking gamers that Steam and Games isn’t and that is onto mobile devices. EA plans to give gamers a way to connect with Origin, find their friends, and play multiplayer games with them. They even tipped there’ll be a mobile version of Battlefield 3 that will be playable using Origin. They’re also plannig exclusive content, game releases, downloads, and easy purchasing through the Origin store.
  • The big question that goes unanswered with all of this news however is whether or not EA will pull its game library from other digital download stores because they’re launching their own. Many gamers already have both Steam and Games for Windows on their systems, and Mac users have adopted Steam wholeheartedly. We’ll have to see if EA moves to force people who want their games to install Origin to buy and download them.

• Poor Sony, Still free game (sm)
  • Sony Music Brazil, Russia, and their Internal network were all hacked
  • a subversion repository was released on the Internet
  • a group called “lulzec” has essentially declared war against Sony
  • “We\’ve recently bought a copy of this great new game called \”Hackers vs Sony\”, but we\’re unable to play it online due to PSN being obliterated. So we decided to play offline mode for a while and got quite a few trophies. Our latest goal is \”Hack Sony 5 Times\”, so please find enclosed our 5th Sony hack. Enjoy this 54MB collection of SVN Sony Developer source code. That\’s hackers 16, Sony 0. Your move!”
  • Still no idea what Sony did to become such a target for hackers….
  • Their stock has fallen like 29%

• Steve Jobs Wants to Build Giant Spaceship-Shaped Headquarters (btm)
  • Jobs presented his plans for the new 150 acre property at the televised Cupertino City Council meeting on Tuesday.
  • Currently Apple employees are scattered throughout the city in rented buildings and office space
  • The new campus would place 12,000 or 13,000 employees into one giant 4 story oval shaped complex.
  • Moving parking underground allows for 80% of the campus to be landscaped and filled with 6,000 trees.
  • Company plans to build its own “energy center” to power the complex
  • Jobs reminded the Council that Apple pays more taxes than any other company in the city, and while they would love to remain in Cupertino, it would be a shame if they had to move somewhere else like Mountain View in order to build their complex.
  • Is it just me or is this starting to sound like a Bond Villain’s lair?

• Apple Paying Up to $150 Mil to Music Labels for iCloud (udg)
  • With Universal Music now along for the ride, Apple has officially signed the last of 4 deals with 4 major music labels and will now be able to launch its iCloud streaming and storage service. And they’ve ponied up a healthy sum in return for permission to access their content in the cloud.
  • According to the NY Post, Apple is paying between $100- $150 million UPFRONT to the labels. Business Insider stated “Apple has $66 billion in cash and long-term and short-term securities.” So, basically, spending up to $150 million to avoid any future lawsuits from these music labels is really not a big deal for Apple.” When you phrase it that way, yeah it’s really not.
  • Both Amazon and Google, however, launched their own cloud music services without any sort of contract from any of the labels. Amazon claimed it didn’t need any licenses to store music since its service works pretty much like an external hard drive. A user has to upload each song one by one to be able to access their content in the cloud.
  • Apple defines the iCloud as “iCloud is so much more than a hard drive in the sky. It’s the effortless way to access just about everything on all your devices. iCloud stores your content so it’s always accessible from your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, or PC. It gives you instant access to your music, apps, latest photos, and more. And it keeps your email, contacts, and calendars up to date across all your devices. No syncing required. No management required. In fact, no anything required. iCloud does it all for you.”
  • Pricing seems to be up in the air a bit. We know that the first 5gb is free. We know that they’ve talked about a $25 yearly fee. What we don’t know exactly how much storage that $25 will get you.
  • According to Apple’s site, Free Gets You A Lot. When you sign up for iCloud, you automatically get 5GB of free storage. And that’s plenty of room, because of the way iCloud stores your content. Your purchased music, apps, and books, as well as your Photo Stream, don’t count against your free storage. That leaves your mail, documents, Camera Roll, account information, settings, and other app data. And since those things don’t use as much space, you’ll find that 5GB goes a long way.
  • Apple is said to be taking 30 percent of iCloud revenue, whereas the labels will be getting 58 percent. The New York Post said Apple has finalized deals with the necessary music publishers, who will be getting 12 percent of the revenue.
  • Now, I’ve been pretty open about my skepticism about the almighty cloud and I can hear Steven ITCHING to blurt out some “worship at the alter of Apple” comment. But, I’m on the fence. On the one hand, if anyone is going to protect my stuff, it’s gonna be Apple. On the other hand, this is a hacker’s wet dream. In the end, I honestly trust that if this bad boy wasn’t a zillion per cent locked down and safe, it wouldn’t be launched this Fall. Bottom line? I’ll do what I do when it comes to EVERY Apple item- I never jump aboard right out the gate. With this I’ll give it a few weeks for the kinks to get worked out and the hackers to give it their best. When all has died down, then I’ll give it a go.

• MacOS X “Lion” Unveiled at WWDC (btm)
  • Scheduled for a July release.
  • It will be a Mac App Store exclusive download for $29
  • Begins to incorporate some of the better elements of iOS to MacOS
    • Multi-touch gestures
    • Full screen applications
    • Mission Control
    • Auto-Save and versioning
    • Redesigned Apple Mail
    • Better Search features
  • 4GB download

• China Warns Google (udg)
  • Dear Google, I heart you. So, according to an official Beijing newspaper Monday, Google has become a “political tool” vilifying the Chinese Government. In fact they flat out warned that the Internet giant’s statements about hacking attacks traced to China could hurt its business. Of course this all appeared in the leading newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party.
  • Why exactly does China have it’s cha in a bunch? (btw thank you google translate) Last week Google came forward with news it had broken up yet another effort to steal the passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including Chinese human rights advocates and journalists and oh US GOVT OFFICIALS. And that these attacks seemed to come from China.
  • Of course the Chinese Foreign Ministry rejected those accusations, and then whipped out the warning to Google about  playing a risky political game. On the front page no less. According to the paper, by saying that Chinese human rights activists were among the targets of the hacking, Google was “deliberately pandering to negative Western perceptions of China, and strongly hinting that the hacking attacks were the work of the Chinese government.”
  • “Google’s accusations aimed at China are spurious, have ulterior motives, and bear malign intentions,” said the commentary, written by an editor at the paper.
  • “Google should not become overly embroiled in international political struggle, playing the role of a tool for political contention,” the paper added. For when the international winds shift direction, it may become sacrificed to politics and will be spurned by the marketplace,” it said, without specifying how Google’s business could be hurt.
  • A Google spokeswoman said the U.S. firm had no comment on the remarks. If I were that spokeswoman, you know I’d have had some comments.
  • Why is China REALLY upset? Google said last week that the hacking attacks appeared to come from Jinan, the capital of China’s eastern Shandong province and home to an intelligence unit of the People’s Liberation Army.
  • U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates over the weekend warned that Washington was prepared to use force against cyber-attacks it considered acts of war.  Hacking a major US company to obtain passwords to US Govt Official’s passwords could very well fall under that category. And to think I joked about hacking Google probably not being considered and act of war. Thank you China for proving me wrong. And eff you if you think your silly threats will actually have a negative effect on Google.

• France Bans “Facebook” and “Twitter From the Media (btm)
  • Ban goes back to a 1992 French law that prohibits mentioning the services due to it being a form of advertising and preferential treatment.
  • Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (organization responsible for regulating French electronic media) says,
  • “Why give preference to Facebook, which is worth billions of dollars, when there are many other social networks that are struggling for recognition?”
  • To get around the rules French broadcasters will start saying “Find us on social networking sites” or hope they will find links to their Facebook and Twitter pages via their web site links.

• Average Gamer Age Surprising!! (SM)
  • Guess the Age (SM- I know, I know!!)
  • Average Game Buyer? 41 yrs old
  • FTC Undercover Shopper program:
  • only 17% of ppl over 17 were able to buy M-rated games
  • contract: 38% under 18 were allowed to buy R-Rated movies
  • All published by the ESA (they regulate the ratings on games)
  • 25 billion dollars spent on games in the last yr / 5 billion online

• Droid 3 Videos Leaked (udg)
  • In case you haven’t heard, a trio of training videos complete with some basic how-to instructions for the upcoming Motorola Droid 3 were posted to YouTube this weekend by “Phonepads.” Not surprisingly, Motorola has had them yanked. Of course, it’s the intarwebs so a number of other YouTube and Vimeo users have re-posted them.
  • So what can we learn from them? Well they give us a a pretty decent tour of the yet-unreleased Droid 3 complete with where all the buttons and ports will all be. Just like the original Droid and #2, the keypad will slide-out but it’s going to have a 5th row of # keys up top so you so’t have to hit Alt and then the combo letter/number key anymore.
  • While the video makes it pretty clear that what you see may not be the final product, it looks like it’s going to come with Gingerbread pre-installed, sport an 8 megapixel cam with LED flash on the back of 1080p video and probably sport a dual-core processor.
  • Some other notable stuffs- they added an HDMI port on the side, the power button is on the center top of the phone now and the screen looks bigger, but they don’t say how large it is.
  • No leak is thorough it seems so there are still some unanswered questions out there. I think one of the biggest is whether this will be a 4G LTE phone or not. Others maybe storage or processor speed.
  • I’m on the side of those that feel Motorola pulled the “controlled leak” card with this (especially with it being on the heels of the big Apple’s big annual WW Developers Conference) so expect to hear more soon.

• DC Comics Resets to #1 (once again) and Announces Day & Date Delivery (btm)
  • Last week’s big news in the comic world was thought to be the renumbering of DC Comics to #1 and a total restructuring and sometimes redesign of characters in the DC Universe.
  • The “real” big news was the announcement of Day & Date Digital Delivery
  • JLA #1 will be released in print and digital formats the same day and this is the first of many.
  • Many are concerned this will hurt comic book retailers as comic readers will now be able to get their fix digitally instead of driving to the stores.
  • Expect Marvel to follow suit later in the summer.

Intarweb Goldmine

• Friendly PSA For Our FL Listeners (udg)
  • On May 21, 2011, a bronze statue of three dolphins was taken in at Allied Recycling located 3770 Veronica Shoemaker Boulevard Fort Myers, Florida. Allied Recycling contacted Law Enforcement believing the statue was connected to Lee County Sheriff’s Office burglary investigation from North Fort Myers, Florida. Unfortunately this did not belong to that particular victim.
  • Local Law Enforcement believes that this statue belongs to a victim who may not have reported it stolen. If you or someone you know had a 300lbs bronze dolphin statue stolen, please call the Cape Coral Police Department at 239-574-3223.
  • Okay, seriously who the HELL steals a 300lb statue!?!? Of dolphins.

• “Thanks For Taking My Money, A–hole!” (btm)
  • Austin area movie theater has a strict “no talking, no texting policy”
  • Recently they ask a theater patron to leave
  • The upset patron called the theater’s customer service line and left an empassioned, expletive laced message expressing her displeasure at being asked to leave.
  • Theater now plays the uncut message as their “Don’t Talk or Text” PSA before R-rated movies.

• Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (udg)
  • Now, there’s nothing wrong with driving with the top down. Driving with YOUR top down, a whole other story. Especially when you’re drunk and carrying marijuana in your purse.
  • Florida police pulled Keila De Oliveria Leite over for driving erratically, on the wrong side of the road, 20 miles below the speed limit and oh passing a Martin County deputy who tried to stop her.
  • When they did finally get her to stop, Keila was naked from the waist up and had weed sticking out of her purse. A search of her car found a pot pipe too. To top it all off, this classy chick got all kinds of feisty about putting her shirt back on. They did manage to get one on her for her mug shot. Yeah, she failed several sobriety tests and has been charged with  driving under the influence and possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Guess they must have been feeling kind, or appreciative, because no indecent exposure charges were made.

• 51 yr old Lady Charged with Pushing Garbage Full of Body Parts (SM)
  • Police in California strolled up on an older lady pushing garbage
  • Guess what was inside? A fully dismembered decomposing Human
  • Yeah, they’re not sure where he came from
  • Either homicide or disenterment are the two theories
  • The lady ain’t commenting on who her victim in the 30 gallon garbage is
  • (sm) My thoughts? Not only Zombies love brainzzzz

• These Ain’t No Crop Circles (udg)
  • One of the sheer joys of Google Maps is the photos it manages to catch. Some are downright hilarious, well unless you’re the folks at Fairfield College in the North Island town of Hamilton.  Seems while looking for a home in the area, Kiwi David McQuoid spotted a photo from the campus featuring several cartoon-like phalluses in various sizes- some several meters across.
  • The school’s acting principal said it was hard enough to deal with it when it happened back in 2009.
  • It happened over a weekend but it wasn’t until the grass died off bit by bit that phallic symbols started to pop up around the school grounds. Every week another crude image revealed itself, much to the dismay of staff. “There’s not really much we could do about it,” he told a newspaper. “The caretaker took some more weedkiller and tried to camouflage it a bit.”
  • The culprits were never caught and the prank probably would have passed into schoolboy folklore had it not been captured by Google Maps.
  • The red-faced principal said he would be contacting Google to plead for the image’s removal but an internet privacy specialist said it was difficult to get such satellite photographs changed or blurred.
  • Kiwis however, thought the prank was hilarious, with 70 adding mostly encouraging comments to the online story, like “Freakin brilliant!!! Love it!!! Classic piece of adolescent artwork.”
  • One gave the artists an A+, top marks for cunning, planning, chemistry and geometry, while another said their anatomy detailing left a lot to be desired.
  • “I totally reckon it was actually girls,” they wrote. See, if they were made THAT big, yeah it wasn’t girls.
  • Then came a confession: “HAHAHA!!! we did this as our 7th form prank, now it lives on! how awesome!”

Extra Links

• 12 Geekiest Wedding Proposals (udg)

• Apple Releases iOS5 Beta to Developers Monday, Jailbroken by Tuesday. (btm)
  • iOS5 Set For Public Release in the Fall.

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Ben is @realityamuck , Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
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• And Become a Fan

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We are LIVE on Ustream. Tonight we talk fuzzy unicorns, some trouble in game land, Pentagon declares war on the Internet, and Macintosh finally gets malware

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

• Retro DC and Marvel T-Shirts (btm)

• Sushi Notepads (btm)

• Doom Ported to Web (udg)
  • Play here

• The Bodyguard (udg)
  • The BodyGuard, designed by cameraman David Brown, is an armored glove equipped with a high voltage stun gun, laser pointer for aiming, video camera and flashlight. The glove weighs less than three pounds, is made of breathable material and has a hard, protective shell that extends up the arm. The stun is generated by four electrodes on the wrist-area of the glove, prepped by a pull pin, and is activated by a button on the palm, with similar buttons activating the laser pointer, flashlight and video camera.
  • Brown developed the prototype for the BodyGuard in 48 hours, by using a medical arm brace as a base, attaching a stun gun and a fire-alarm button from Home Depot. It took Brown seven years and thirty prototypes to finish his final demo model.

• Mr. Toots Unlocked in  Red Faction: Armageddon (SM)
  • More Mr. Toots! ahahah
  • Its a plush unicorn, your character holds backwards, that craps rainbows and blows things up

• George Lucas Shot First

Gold Sponsors:

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Deals of the Week / New Releases

• New Green Lantern Game (release June 7) might not suck (btm)
  • First game to star the Green Lantern ties in with the upcoming movie
  • Available for Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3 (PS3) and Xbox 360
  • Game will feature 3D graphics on the 3DS and also the PS3  and Xbox 360
  • PS3 and Xbox 360 will achieve 3D through anaglyphic 3D with the included 3D glasses or stereoscopic 3D on native 3DTVs.
  • Gameplay screenshots and videos look impressive, but we’ve all been fooled by movie tie-in games in the past.

• New Release Movies

Movie Minute (new feature)

• Peter Jackson confirms Orlando Bloom is returning for The Hobbit (btm)
  • Saying via his Facebook page, “Ten years ago, Orlando Bloom created an iconic character with his portrayal of Legolas. I’m excited to announce today that we’ll be revisiting Middle Earth with him once more. I’m thrilled to be working with Orlando again. Funny thing is, I look older — and he doesn’t! I guess that’s why he makes such a wonderful elf.”

• Also in Hobbit News, Titles and Release Dates Announced (btm)
  • ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ opens December 14, 2012
  • ‘The Hobbit: There and Back Again’ opens December 13, 2013
  • Possibly following up with “The Hobbit: We Might Be Able to Squeeze One More Out” opening December 12, 2014

• X-Men Logo fills the LA Skies (btm)
  • People across Southern California have witnessed strange goings on in the skies overhead
  • In a unique advertising campaign for the new X-men movie, studios have hired sky writers to put the X-Man logo in the clouds.
  • Initial reports showed up in tweets and YouTube videos from Los Angeles but soon reports from San Diego and points in between started showing up.

• Star Wars Live Action Update
  • Canon re-release: Still 3D, Still Post Process, Nothing Ground Breaking
  • Live Action:
    • 50 hours on the shelf
    • not economic enough
    • Wants to make it like a feature film for a 10th of the cost
    • Hoping to revolutionize how feature films are budgeted (250 – 350 million turned to $50 million)

Geek Speak

• What summer blockbuster are you looking forward too?
  • Thor (already released)
  • Cowboys & Aliens
  • Green Lantern
  • Captain America
  • X-Men: First Class
  • Harry Potter
  • Rise of the Planet Apes
  • Super 8

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

• Iran Plans on Unplugging the Intarwebs (udg)
  • So, Iran has come up with a way to fully censor its internet. Yup, it’s going completely prevent access to the Intarwebs and create it’s own national Internet to take its place.  According to their telecommunications chief, in two years all Iranians will be “forced to use a state-censored, fully-internal Internet.” He suspects 60% Iran’s homes and businesses will switch sooner than the estimated 2 years. Iran believes this is a move toward “upholding Islamic moral values” but, with it taking very little to access it, can they actually block the Internet?
  • Google may has a sad too because the current 11% who do not have access to the Internet at all will be forced to use an alternative called “Ya Hagh” as well as a non-Mircosoft operating system.   So far, the plan is just that — a plan — but considering Iran has already created and implement their own alternative to Google, it would seem the more difficult obstacle to overcome would be to cut off rogue Internet users, rather than actually create their own national Internet.

• Macintosh Malware Gets Possibly Worser (btm)
  • For many years Macs users  have bragged about the lack of viruses and malware affecting them.
  • Recently a fake Anti-virus called MacDefender spread like wildfire in the Mac community
  • The malware hides in webpages. When activated it produces an animation declaring that viruses have been detected on your computer (old trick)
  • If you have “open safe files after downloading” option checked MacDefender begins installing automatically.
  • Tricks users into giving their credit card information to “purchase” fake software to remove the detected viruses (which don’t exist)
  • This week Apple finally released a security update to address the issue after denying it was a problem for weeks. (just over 2 MB)
  • Updates detects and deletes the malware which allegedly arrived on your computer via poisoned Google image files.
  • While this update addresses the current problem, experts are advising users to be alert as this may be the beginning of the end of Macintosh’s relative safety.

• Google Launching +1 service tomorrow (SM)
  • In a bit of “me 2”, Google unveils a button that works similar to “like”
  • Developers can place the +1 button to show their support for the site
  • Still unclear how this will get eyes on sites with no social network
  • Probably a “lateral move” with Bing! getting some elevation from facebook likes

• Chinese Prisoners Learn to Farm (udg)
  • I’m all for putting prisoners to work, but not exactly the way China seems to have in mind. Go figure. A Chinese man who goes by the pseudonym of Liu Dali had a little chat with The Guardian and revealed how he spent his time in a North-East China prison after being imprisoned for “illegally petitioning” the Chinese govt regarding Corruption in his hometown. Oh and Dali is an ex-prison guard himself.  Besides what you’d expect for prison labor- breaking rocks and “whittling chopsticks and toothpicks from planks of wood,” they got to do some gaming. Yup, the guards made him and other convicts play massively multiplayer gamesin 12 hour shifts in the interest of selling the gold online.
  • Dali alleges that between 300 prisoners working in tandem the guards bragged they could earn some 5,000-6,000 RMB (around $823) each day.
  • “If I couldn’t complete my work quota, they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things.”
  • While the Chinese govt banned the practice of gold farming in 2009 and Dali’s imprisonment took place before that, he is doubtful the process has stopped.  You know I’ll be the first to agree with him on that.

• Disney Withdraws Trademark application (btm)
  • Two days after Navy SEALs killed bin Laden the Disney Corp. filled a trademark application for the SEAL Team 6 name and logo.
  • The Navy, which already held the Trademark on “SEALs” filled their own trademark request for “SEAL Team and Navy SEALs”
  • Disney withdrew their request but says their original application was misunderstood.
  • They were considering a show about the elite squad similar to other military based shows like JAG or NCIS.
  • Studios have previously applied for trademarks on names like JAG and NCIS without much attention. It seems the timing on this one appeared to be in poor taste.

• Apple Releasing iCloud (SM)
  • Apple plans to put out a cloud service similar to amazon and google
  • Been rumored since Apple bought the icloud.com domain in April
  • Many are speculating on a streaming music service (which has been rumored awhile)
  • Some are wondering about drop box-like functionality (would go well with their IPads not having a lot of disc space or drives)
  • Films and TV still a possibility for the iCloud – Working on various TV and film possibilities.

• Pentagon Declares Cyber Attacks Constitute Act of War (udg)
  • If you tuned in last week, we talked about the reality of cyber warfare threats. In a move that put a very big smile on my face, the US Dept. of Defense has ruled that attacks on computer networks and sabotage of information systems that stem from other countries officially constitute an act of war and as such can be responded to with traditional military force.
  • The Pentagon’s decision provides a physical threat against nations in a world where virtual threats and attacks are becoming more and more common. It also gives the US military more options to retaliate against simply defending against information attacks and trying to wage our own.
  • Now, taking down Google is not likely going to lead to an attack, but any attempt to sabotage or shut down nuclear reactors or power grids are examples of things that will get your ass handed to you right quick.
  • The Pentagon’s report  is the first official document on cyber strategy and includes references to attacks on the Pentagon’s computer networks, as well as a reference to the Stuxnet computer worm that targeted nuclear power systems in Iran – a worm that many analysts believe is complicated and enough that only a nation would have had the resources to develop and inject it.
  • The report is also without controversy both inside and out the Military.  Some question whether or not the US can ever have an absolute certainty to where an attack originated, or even enough to start launching missiles. Other defense analysts have pointed to the concept of “equivalence,” meaning an attack should be met with equal but overwhelming force, as a way to determine how broad a retaliatory strike should be in response to a cyber attack.
  • Regardless, the Pentagon’s statement represents two major shifts in US military thinking when it comes to information warfare: first that the Pentagon recognizes they’ve been slow to build a comprehensive information security posture to protect American military and civilian networks, and second, that the Department of Defense is taking threats and attacks against American information security very seriously.
  • It’s about flipping time.

• TSA Not Just Happy With Their Hands in Your Shorts (btm)
  • Now they want to keep your data for 15 years!
  • New draft agreement between the US and EU allows the Department of Homeland security to keep the private data that passengers provide to airlines.
  • Credit card details, phone numbers, and home addresses would be kept for 15 years and analysed by automated data-mining and profiling programs.
  • Agreement is requesting that airlines provide this passenger information at least 96 hours in advance of flights so that names can be checked against terror watch lists.
  • European privacy advocates are up in arms about the agreement and say that “blanket retention of personal data for five or ten years is a huge infringement of data protection principles.”
  • Databases get hacked and personal data is stolen often.
  • Sony’s Playstation Network had no comment.

• SC2 XPack info released (Finally) (SM)
  • Will be called “Heart of the Swarm” and will be zerg based
  • Kerrigan makes her debut in the new franchise
  • player-played hero character throughout the campaign, with her own tech tree
  • Think in power proportions, she’ll be powerful enough to take on many,many units

• The shift is self-described at “Huge”. Think more defense of the ancients play-type than total RTS…

• • Wings of Liberty was more of a “multiplayer trainer” than a well executed single player experience
  • No releases on what units will make their way into multiplayer yet but they’re promised

• Call of Duty Elite (udg)
  • After rumors galore, Activision Blizzard has finally announced Call of Duty Elite- basically a social network for Call of Duty players. Beta will launch this summer with last November’s Call of Duty: Black Ops and the full service will be integrated with Call of Duty’s next installment, Modern Warfare 3. No price announced  yet, but Activision did mention they are projecting it to be less than “fees for comparable online entertainment services.”
  • What is that money going to get you?  Basic social networking features, the ability to make groups and clans, participate in tournaments, stat-tracking, and the ability to upload videos and screenshots and have users vote on which they feel are the best. Not exactly worth a monthly subscription fee? It also offers in-depth stat-tracking, such as heat maps detailing where the player gets shot, the ability to review the minute-by-minute progression of a match, as well as aggregate data, like which weapons were used to obtain the most kills on a certain map and where the most deaths occur on a map. It is also planned to allow subscribers access to free map packs that non-subscribers would have to purchase separately. So, still not exactly worth its monthly subscription fee, unless you take your yearly-iterated war gaming very seriously. Luckily for Call of Duty gamers who don’t exactly want to add a Call of Duty subscription to their monthly budget, Activision stated that the base game will still ship with regular multiplayer functionality that will not cost a monthly fee.
  • Check out the notes for the official trailer.

• Twitter buys TweetDeck? (btm)
  • Twitter has reportedly bought London based TweetDeck for $40 million.
  • TweetDeck is the popular application used to organise and more easily read your Tweet-Stream and Facebook updates among others.
  • The 15 employee start up will continue to work from London.
  • No major changes are expected in the short term for the application which is currently available for desktop computers and mobile devices.

• Interplay in doubt, Fallout MMO on the rocks (SM)
  • The company is ready to fall down go “BOOM”!
  • Preparing to file for bankruptcy
  • Has $3000 to their name and their credit got pulled
  • Own the rights to such games as Fallout and Earthworm Jim
  • Most popular? Probably Baldur’s Gate (written by Bioware)
  • One of their first games published? Battlechess

Intarweb Goldmine

• Billion Dollar Star Trek Resort, in Jordan? (btm)
  • Rubicon Group Holding will design and produce “The Red Sea Astrarium”
  • 184 acre themed  entertainment resort in Aqaba, Jordan
  • Will prominently feature an attraction inspired by the 2009 Star Trek movie.
  • Themed destination will serve as a model for “green energy” incorporating state of the art renewable technologies throughout the facility.
  • Could have something to do with fact that King Abdullah II is a big Star Trek fan and actually appeared on an episode of Star Trek: Voyager when he was still a Prince.

• She Makes Junkpunching Look Friendly (udg)
  • A man whose penis was cut off during an alleged rape attempt in southern Bangladesh has fled his hospital possibly to avoid being arrested, hospital officials said Tuesday.
  • The Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital released the suspect, undergoing treatment after his penis was severed, at his own request as there were no instructions from police, physician Jahangir Alam said, adding that he may have left in haste for fear of arrest.
  • Police said that a 40-year-old woman, a neighbour of the accused man, had filed a complaint alleging he attempted to rape her in her home in southern Jhalakathi district, 200 kilometers south of Dhaka.
  • Jhalakathi police officer Abul Khayer said the woman, a housewife and mother of three children, cut off Mozammel’s penis Saturday night, wrapped it in plastic and came strutting in to the police station with it  as evidence.

• Sleeping-In Could Cost You (btm)
  • Do you really want to sleep-in?
  • New alarm clock designed to shread bills the longer you take to get out of bed.
  • You load bills in clock the night before, set the alarm and go to sleep
  • If you don’t get up when alarm sounds, it begins to shred the money one bill at a time.
  • Just a word of advice, willfully destroying U.S. currency is still a federal crime.
  • So sleeping in could cost you money, make you late, and potentially leave you facing a $100 fine and 6 months in jail.
  • WAKE UP!

• Taking Tree Hugging to a Whole New Level (udg)
  • According to BBC Mundo, Swede Leona Johansson and Norwegian Tommy Hol Ellingsen have spent eleven years using sex and porn as a non-profit way of raising money to help save the environment.
  • Since the Scandinavian couple set out on their unique path towards environmental salvation with the creation of their org Fuck for Forest, or FFF, they have attracted up to 1,300 like-minded activists all over the world.
  • From Germany to Chile, members are sharing their sex-lives in a bid to save trees.
  • Since 2000, they have raised an impressive 345,000 dollars by selling pornographic material via their website: explicit photos and videos of themselves having sex, usually out in the open.
  • “Saving the planet is sexy,” they argue, “so why not get turned on for a good cause?”
  • Johansson and Ellingsen shot to fame in the latter’s native Norway in 2004 when they had live sex on stage alongside local group The Cumshots at the Quart Festival in Kristiansand
  • Despite receiving money from the Norwegian government to get themselves started, and their evident success at raising money for environmental causes, more established environmentalist groups continue aren’t so keen.
  • Even the World Wildlife Fund in their home country of Norway refuses to accept their money: “We said no thanks. We are in favour of love and nature, but not this version,”a WWF spokesperson said.

• Can You Fit a Million Dollars in a Microwave? (btm)
  • Yes you can
  • Responding to the “How Much is Inside a Million Dollars” website where a man took bill sized paper to approximate a million dollars the website has now used actual one dollar bills to approximate a million dollars.
  • A million dollars would consist of 10,000 bills
  • Pictures show the bags of bills fitting on a DVD rack, in the laundry and, yes, in the microwave.

• Suuuure…. Blame the Blackberry (udg)
  • Rookie PC candidate George Lepp says he’s embarrassed that a photo of his family jewels was posted on his campaign Twitter account for about 20 minutes before it was quickly unzipped.
  • Alan Sakach, communications director for the Ontario Conservatives, said the photo was inadvertently taken by Lepp’s BlackBerry when it was in his front pocket. The photo was posted after someone took it from the candidate for the riding of Niagara Falls, Ont., according to Sakach.
  • “He is pretty upset and embarrassed,” Sakach said of a photo that was posted on Lepp’s account Sunday. “It was removed as soon as it came to his attention.”
  • QMI Agency obtained grainy copies of the Twitter page images before they were removed.
  • The pictures – too graphic to reproduce – are of a man naked from the waist down, showing a close up of his penis and his crossed legs.
  • Sakach said the device was operating on camera mode in his front pant pocket when it went missing. He added that Lepp suspects it was taken as he was jostled by protestors outside the Dixon Rd. convention centre where the Tories met for the party’s weekend convention.
  • Sakash said he didn’t know if police were called about the stolen BlackBerry
  • “It was an unfortunate circumstance,” Sakach said Sunday. “This is pretty low and juvenile, and we don’t believe it is politically motivated.”
  • Lepp, a Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., farmer and businessman, put the boots last November to Sandy Annunziata, a former Fort Erie, Ont., town councillor and Canadian Football League all-star, in a battle to become the Tory candidate in the provincial riding of Niagara Falls for October’s election.
  • Sakach said the image was first noticed by Lepp’s son, who administers the Twitter account, and was immediately removed.
  • On Friday, he told followers, “1500 people meeting in Toronto to support Ontario working families to stop McGuintys tax and spend policy that is killing Ontario Jobs.”
  • Lepp is credited with helping restructure the sales and marketing of Ontario’s grape and tender fruit industry to provide a more stable livelihood for farmers.
  • The photo of a penis on Lepp’s Twitter account surfaced as Ontario Conservatives vowed in Toronto to force high-risk sex offenders and other dangerous criminals to wear GPS monitoring bracelets.
  • (btm… that was ballsy of him)

• Prepared to Cheat? Better think again…
  • 2 guys with a pinhole camera and telephones tried to cheat the medical entrance exam
  • Conned 3 others into thinking they were going to be tutors
  • The images seen weren’t test-questions, they were the real thing
  • Students got suspicious, searched for exams being given, figured out they were being scammed, gave him wrong answers til the cops got there
  • Guys are being accused of everything under the sun and the authorities are throwing the book at them
  • Never try to con smart kids… they’re in medical school for a reason.

Extra Links

• Australian News Helicopter Records Multiple Waterspouts (btm)
• Wonder Woman Without Pants, What Could Have Been (btm)
  • I’m hiding it here in the Extra Links to see if Natali notices it!
  • I guess I’m not the only one going pantsless tonight! (btm)
  • soooooooooooooo scared to click on that & I’m always pantsless (udg)

• Wet and Warm, That’s How We Like Our Planets (btm)
  • French researchers have confirmed through computer modeling that Gilese 581d has a stable atmosphere, comfortable temperatures and a surface covered with liquid water.
  • The planet is about twice the size of Earth with six times the mass.
  • Orbits a red dwarf star approximately 20 light years away.
  • Scientists say its heavy CO2 atmosphere would be ideal for the development of plant life and where there’s plants there may also be animals.
  • With current technology any probe we sent to check on the planet would just take a century or two.
• World Record Hot Wheels Jump (kinda) (btm)
  • Crowds at last Sunday’s Indy 500 were treated to a surprise.
  • A world record truck jump at turn 4 of the race track.
  • Stunt driver and Top Gear star Tanner Faust set a new jumping distance world record for a 4-wheeled vehicle.
  • As part of the “Fearless at the 500” promotion Faust  drove down a ramp made to look like a Hot Wheels V-Drop track launching his modified “Pro-2” truck 332 feet beating the previous record of 301 feet.
  • As part of the promotion Faust’s identity was kept secret until the day of the jump even though he has been practicing for months.
  • Previous promotional videos digitally masked Faust’s face.

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

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

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Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

• LEGO Gun Shoots LEGO Bricks (udg)
  • What’s cooler than building a gun out of LEGOs? Why building one that actually shoots LEGO bricks of course!!! Check it out! Yeah, I’m keeping this one away from the monkeys. We’ve seen A Christmas Story a million times, one would still shoot an eye out.
• Lego Technic Super-8 Projector (SM)
• Modern Warfare 3 (CustomPcMax brought this to my attention)
• Roll a D6

Geek Speak

• Special Guest Barrett Brown talks Anonymous & Project PM
  • Barrett Brown. Ex public face of Anonymous, Reporter, Author, and contributor to Vanity fair, The Guardian & Al Jezeera
  • Campaign to encourage ppl to participate in small online groups for activism reason
  • Crowd Sourcing
  • into Intelligence contracting industry

Gold Sponsors:

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

• Want to wow all your friends with off-the-wall Movie Trivia?
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• 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!!!
• Go check out both apps, TIGH  and TIMH, now available on both Android and iPhone
• Now As Seen on Wired.com!!

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

• New Movie Releases (SM)
  • The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin) GENIUS!!!
  • Platoon!
  • Tigerland (Joel Schumacher & Colin Farrell)
  • Papillon & Le Mans (Steve McQueen FTW)

• Barnes and Noble has Unveiled it’s New Touchsreen e-reader
  • The Simple Touch Reader is a replacement for the old black and white 1st Generation Nook
  • Has a 6 inch Pearl E Ink display and is 35% lighter than the original Nook
  • Sells for $139
  • Simple design utilizes touchscreen to make the device much more tablet-like than its predecessor.
  • Promises 2 months of battery life, but this is using the default industry standard of 1 hour of use per day.

• 2nd Release of Blizzcon 2011 tickets (SM)
  • Wednesday at 7 PM Pacific… get them before they sell out in seconds!
  • (more than likely, if you aren’t live then you missed this)

• Duke Nukem Forever Gone Gold? (SM)
  • anonymous reports are the game is finally on the CD cut phase
  • 15 years after they started development of course

Movie Minute (new feature)

• Stephen Fry joins the cast of The Hobbit.(btm)
  • Peter Jackson has announced via Facebook
  • Veteran Actor, Writer, and British National Treasure
  • Will Play “The Master of Laketown
• Are you getting stiffed at the theater? (SM)
  • 3D lenses on the new digital projectors make everything dark in 2D films
  • Probably around a 40% drop in light
  • Look up and if there’s 2 beams of light and your in a 2D film.. they probably have the wrong lens on.
  • Reason? Hard to change lenses between film types.Teenage minimum wage workers. nuff said

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

• NASA to Send Astronauts into Deep Space (btm)
  • NASA announced that it plans to build new spacecraft that will fly astronauts to nearby asteroids or Mars.
  • The Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is based on the design of the cancelled Orion vehicle, originally designed to take astronauts back to the moon.
  • New vehicle is to be built by Lockheed-Martin and will carry a crew of 4 astronauts on 21 day missions.
  • Design is said to be 10 times safer than current shuttles
  • Will have 316 cubic feet of habitable space and be able to land in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
  • Lockheed Martin is said to be making a version of the Orion vehicle for use as a “lifeboat” for the International Space Station. Once the shuttle fleet is permanently retired this will be a vital means of evacuating astronauts from the ISS in an emergency.

• CDC Finally Recognizes Zombies (udg)
  • After years in healthcare and a monkey in elementary school, I can tell you the Center for Disease Controls doesn’t mess around. Which is why I find great joy in them not only acknowledging Ali Kahn’s Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse but embracing it to market to the masses the importance of being prepared for emergencies. Whether you are over the zombie craze, still lovin’ the zombie or convinced the apocalypse could never happen, it can’t hurt to prepare for it. Like the CDC says, if you are ready for a zombie apocalypse, you’re ready for any emergency. Well, except maybe that whole giant earthquake rapture thing.
  • I’m going to skip past her intro to zombies. I think everyone listening knows what a zombie is. They nom on brains. Preferably yours. They get you, you nom on brains too or just get ripped to complete shreds. Either one is gonna ruin your weekend.
  • The most important part, and the one that the CDC is really passing on is what you’re going to want in your emergency kit.  (for a full list visit the CDC Emergency page) Here are some of the basics:

• Water (1 gallon per person per day)
• Food (stock up on non-perishable items that you eat regularly)
• Medications (this includes prescription and non-prescription meds)
• Tools and Supplies (utility knife, duct tape, battery powered radio, etc.)
• Sanitation and Hygiene (household bleach, soap, towels, etc.)
• Clothing and Bedding (a change of clothes for each family member and blankets)
• Important documents (copies of your driver’s license, passport, and birth certificate to name a few)
• First Aid supplies (although you’re a goner if a zombie bites you, you can use these supplies to treat basic cuts and lacerations that you might get during a tornado or hurricane)
  • Now that you’ve got your kit made- I(’m thinking rolling suitcase is gonna be needed at least. Remember- ziploc bags are your friends too. And DO NOT FORGET A CAN OPENER) you’re gonna wanna sit down with your fam and come up with an emergency plan. I’m not ashamed to say- I already know the ideal place to hunker down in the event zombies do attack. We definitely have a plan. For more info on how you can create a plan- CDC Site

• • Don’t fear says the CDC, they have a plan too! If zombies did start roaming the streets, CDC would conduct an investigation much like any other disease outbreak. They would provide technical assistance to cities, states, or international partners dealing with a zombie infestation. This assistance might include consultation, lab testing and analysis, patient management and care, tracking of contacts, and infection control (including isolation and quarantine). It’s likely that an investigation of this scenario would seek to accomplish several goals: determine the cause of the illness, the source of the infection/virus/toxin, learn how it is transmitted and how readily it is spread, how to break the cycle of transmission and thus prevent further cases, and how patients can best be treated. Not only would scientists be working to identify the cause and cure of the zombie outbreak, but CDC and other federal agencies would send medical teams and first responders to help those in affected areas.
  • So there ya have it. My best advice? Memorize Zombieland and do not forget the double tap.

• Draft Horses used to lay fiber optics in West Virginia (SM)
  • You would think this would be Intarwebz
  • How do you get huge spools of Fiber over and to remote locations such as mountains???
  • Wheeled vehicles can’t do it
  • Enter Desmarais and his 1200 lb draft horse “Fred”
  • West Virginia has promised broadband to every last mile by 2013 but how do you get vehicles and crews into unpassable dirt roads and swamps???
  • Fred, solves the problem by pulling the cables off the spools and not leaving a mark (unlike four wheelers)
  • He’s been working the job for 5 years now
  • On a good day? He string around 8,000 feet of cable and works a 70 hr work week

• Micro$oft Giving College Students Free X-Box with New Computers (btm)
  • For a limited time Microsoft is giving students a special offer
  • Buy a Windows 7 PC for over $699 and get a free Xbox 360
  • If you have a .edu email address you can make purchase online
  • otherwise you’ll need to bring proof of studentship to local participating retailer and make purchase there.
  • Deal only good through Sept. 9th or while supplies last.

• Zuckerberg Wants to Get Rid of Age Restrictions on FB (udg)
  • It’s not going to shock anyone I’m sure that there are many FB users under the required age of 13. But, it seems CEO Mark Zuckerberg is okay with that. He voiced his desire to allow younger users to use the world’s largest social networking platform at the California New Schools Summit. “That will be a fight we take on at some point,” Zuckerberg said. “My philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age. Because of the restrictions we haven’t even begun this learning process. If they’re lifted then we’d start to learn what works. We’d take a lot of precautions to make sure that they (younger kids) are safe.”
  • The minimum age of 13 is actually set by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection act, which is a federal law that was passed in 1998.  With many news stories highlighting online bullying, some ending very tragically, this makes for a very bold statement. Add in the fact FB continues to face some huge backlash over their handling of personal information and it’s very easy to dismiss Zuckerberg’s dream as simply an attempt to grow its user base.  Then again, he could be walking the line of a change in opinion. According to Fox News reports, the % of parents that feel comfortable with their child using social media has doubled over the past year. But, that’s only 17% of those polled.
  • WIth 7.5 million Facebook users under 13, and 5 million of those under 10, it would seem if kids can’t be stopped from using the service, then perhaps Zuckerberg is right and Facebook should be adapted to better suit them That is going to mean providing stronger content filters and parental notifications for starters. But, first Zuckerberg will have to head up a campaign to change the law, and deal with the angry mob of parents that want to keep their kids off FB and other users that agree with them. It’s going to be a hell of a ride I’m sure and one definitely worth a watch. I’ll bring the popcorn.

• Hacker War on Sony Continues
  • Sony Music Greece Falls to Hackers (SM)
    • Sony BMG greece website hacked and username/emails posted to the webz
    • Passwords are bogus however in the post, does not guarantee that a someone doesn’t have them
    • Defeated by SQL Injection attack
  • Sony Hack Cost Company $170 Million (SM)
    • So the financial report states that the company lost 170 million to the attack
    • that was for this last fiscal year alone
    • That on top of a 3.2 Billion dollar loss from earthquake
  • Needless to say, somebody has an axe to grind with Sony

• Blast Rips Through Chinese Apple Plant (btm)
  • (SM)wow, 500,000 iPads revealed with a bang!
  • Blast in Chengdu factory killed 3 and injured 15 employees
  • Caused by combustible dust in workshop that polishes iPads
  • Explosion isn’t expected to cause delays unless safety inspections exceed 2 or 3 weeks
  • Many are saying this is an example of the dangers of concentrating product production in one or two areas. One disaster has potential of causing major shortages.

• Automotive Black Boxes (udg)
  • Later this year, the National Highway Safety Administration is talking about proposing a requirement that all new vehicles contain a black box pretty much like the ones on aircrafts that will record vehicle inputs and provide a snapshot of the final moments before a crash.
  • Who would have access to it? Law enforcement, insurance companies, automakers and I’m guessing anyone that figures out how to hack it. You won’t be able to turn it off and i’m sure all you’ll know about it is the little legal disclosure in your owner’s manual. Sound way too big brother? Guess what- if you’re driving a car with airbags, odds are there’s already one of these devices under your hood.
  • Turns out Automakers have long installed electronic data recorders in their automobiles and ever since late 2006 the NHTSA has required them to tell consumers about the devices.  That federal rule also outlines what information is recorded and stipulates that it be used to increase vehicle safety.
  • This proposal would “Expand the availability and future utility of the EDR data” – so, in other words, all automobiles have the devices. The proposal is expected sometime this year and I’m guessing there is going to be A LOT of opposition to it.

• How fast is your Internet? (btm)
  • Researchers have set a new record sending data at 26 terabits per second
  • Equivalent of sending the contents of 1,000 HD DVDs in a second
  • Uses “fast Fourier transform” to unpick separate colors of light in laser beam, each encoded with its own data.

• Brain Cells Grown in a Lab (udg)
  • When it comes to brain cells, most people think of neurons. Well, the most common ones are actually astrocytes. They are small, star-shaped cells that actually act like little body guards for neurons. Because of that, they play an important role in diseases of the central nervous system like dementia. And now, we can grow them in a lab.
  • “Not a lot of attention has been paid to these cells because human astrocytes have been hard to get,”  said study researcher Su-Chun Zhang from UW-Madison. “But we can make billions or trillions of them from a single stem cell. Without the astrocyte, neurons can’t function,” Zhang went on to say “Astrocytes wrap around nerve cells to protect them and keep them healthy. They participate in virtually every function or disorder of the brain.”
  • These little bad boys also perform basic housekeeping functions, like regulating blood flow, cleaning up excess neurotransmitters and help control the blood-brain barrier, which keeps toxic substances out of the brain.
  • Zhang created the cells from both embryonic and adult stem cells by treating them with special proteins to get them to grow into astrocytes. These cells could also be useful as a transplant, to treat diseases like Lou Gehrig’s disease, in which the neurons are overworked. Transplanting healthy astrocytes could rescue the injured neurons. This really is a HUGE breakthrough.

• PSP Games Coming to PS3 (SM)
  • Plans to bridge between its handheld and its cadillac
  • PSP Remaster = most popular psp games ported to PS3
  • Given 3D support for good measure
  • Most games can be played on either the PSP or PS3 w/ saves transitioning through cloud
  • Only game announced? Monster Hunter Portable 3D HD
  • NGP already announced with 5” oled screen and dual thumb sticks
  • Already in turmoil, probably another attention grab to try and add sales
  • (SM) Will I have to buy the game twice???

• Netflix Ups Viacom Content (btm)
  • Over the weekend many folks online were concerned that Netflix was losing all Viacom content as it was all set to expire on May 22
  • Actually this was because new contracts between Netflix and Viacom were going into effect to provide even more Viacom content.
  • New content will include:
    • More episodes of “Jersey Shore” (god knows we need that)
    • More of “The Hills”
    • New shows from BET including “American Gangster”
    • Comedy Central shows like “The Sarah Silverman Program”
    • More episodes from Nickeloden of “Sponge Bob”
    • More unspecified content from VH1, Logo and Spike

Intarweb Goldmine

• Marriage Proposal via Movie Trailer (btm)
  • OMG this made me all kinds of tear up. The bastards. (udg)
  • An Atlanta man has made one of the coolest marriage proposals ever.
  • He worked with a wedding videographer to make a fake movie trailer that features him asking his girlfriend’s father’s blessing to marry her.
  • He then arranged for the trailer to be shown at their local theater prior to a showing of “Fast Five”
  • Made excuse that he “had to work” and sent her to theater with her brother.
  • Secretly filled the audience with family and loved ones.
  • After the trailer he enters the theater and proposes to her.

• So Wrong in So Many Ways (udg)
  • Justin Lawther staged a 1 man topless protest outside the RSPCA office in Burwood East and claims he’s going to return every day and is considering a hunger strike until he gets his Angus back in his arms.  Who is Angus? Oh the parrot he had seized from him after he filmed it clinging to a windshield wiper as he drove down the Eastern Freeway. Yup.
  • “I would die for him. He is my life,” he said. “I don’t tag him with ownership or call him my pet, because he’s my best mate.”
  • In March, Mr Lawther posted a video on YouTube of Angus’s ride, and another where the bird was thrown around by wipers.
  • Angry animal lovers set up a Save Angus the Eclectus Parrot page on Facebook.
  • On Friday, after a seven-week search and police intervention, the parrot was taken into custody.
  • Mr Lawther claims the bird was removed from his care without due process. “They didn’t even ask if he is on treatment or an exercise regimen, which he is,” he said. “It has been a rollercoaster and I’m not doing very well. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”
  • The RSPCA plans to file a court application to stop Angus being returned to Mr Lawther.

• Chinese Exploding Watermelons (btm)
  • 115 acres of melons have been ruined after bursting open
  • contributing factors may be from the chemical forchlorfenuron a fruit growth enhancer
  • Chinese health officials are saying heavy rains after a recent draught caused the melons to burst, but director of the US National Watermelon Association says that rainfall alone doesn’t cause melons to burst like this, only mildew and shallow surface cracking.

• Speaking of Watermelons- Don’t Toss This Guy’s Into the Ocean (udg)
  • It seems 68 year old Karl Ludwig Eichner takes his watermelon very seriously. Perhaps too seriously. In fact police arrested the Florida man at Lowdermilk Park after he harassed a woman with a pool noodle before punching her in the face.
  • According to the police report, the women noticed a watermelon that was carved into the shape of a head resting in the sand. The seemingly abandoned melon was attracting insects, so the woman picked it up and, thinking the melon would eventually disintegrate, disposed of it in the ocean.
  • Eichner, however, retrieved the watermelon and returned it to the beach, only to have the woman once again dispose of it in the ocean.
  • And that’s when Eichner stopped using his noodle, according to investigators.
  • “Eichner approached the woman with his swim noodle full of water and dumped the water on her as she was sitting on her towel,” according to the police report. “He then punched her in the cheek.”
  • Personally I make it a point to never mess with anyone that carves a watermelon into the shape of a head.
• Depression Era America, in Color (btm)
  • We’ve all seen the old black and white pictures from the Great Depression and World War II
  • Library of Congress has recently released about 1,700 new photos from the early 1940s and they’re in color.
  • These beautifully shot pictures show everyday life in America as the Great Depression grew close to an end and World War II was on the horizon.
• There Can Be Only One (udg)
  • A Louisville woman faces first-degree disorderly conduct and menacing charges after police said she took out a sword during an argument at a Pizza Hut.
  • According to an arrest report, Wynika Mason was causing trouble at the Pizza Hut on Seventh Street Road and police were called.
  • When police arrived, she began yelling at them, the report said.
  • Customers and employees were in the restaurant, and employees said they felt threatened by Mason’s behavior.
  • An employee told police Mason had a sword with her and began yelling and pulling it out of the scabbard, according to the police report. The report also stated Mason’s brother said he took the sword from her and put it in the car.
  • Officers were given consent to search the vehicle and found the sword on the driver’s seat.

• Only the Most Shocking Thing You’ll See Online This Week (btm)
  • Attendees of this year’s Maker Faire got a surprise treat
  • After guest speaker Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame) gave his scheduled talk he entered a Faraday cage and danced while ArcAttack performed the Doctor Who Theme using custom built “Singing Tesla Coils” and a lot of electricity

Extra Links

• Interview with Michael Scott, Apple’s First CEO (btm)
• Download CDC Zombie Badges (udg)

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

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

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Items of Interest

It’s a trap! (Furious Fanboys)

• Where’s The Tardis? Contest (udg)
  • The contest, designed to challenge Doctor Who fans to a DIY, TARDIS-building challenge, will earn the winner of the contest a private screening of Doctor Who with 50 guests of their choice, courtesy of BBC America. The contest is over now and there’s nothing left to do but judge the winners, but the entries are remarkable: there are birthday cakes, hand-carved TARDIS models, huge TARDIS replicas, and more –like this TARDIS Murphy Bed.

• Amazing Shuttle Launch Photos

• Star Tours Re-Opening in Disneyland
• Hyde N Geek Kids Need To Read Tweetathon (udg)
  • Awesome people raising money for kids to get books? HELLS YEAH! The awesomeness that is Hyde n Geek raised $2000 in 36 hours last year for Kids Need to Read and the 2011 event kicks off tomorrow!! Follow the link in the show notes for the dets and help support this kick ass cause!!!

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!!!
• Go check out both apps, TIGH  and TIMH, now available on both Android and iPhone
• Now As Seen on Wired.com!!

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

Contests- Winners??

Giving away 2 decks of Dabong! to whomever hears the cowbell (before the intarweb goldmine) and comment on our Facebook page on the time and why they love card games

• 2 – 5 players take turns laying down cards in a central pile. Instead of the basic suits found in a standard deck of cards, dabong! uses Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire.

• lays down a card is by matching the suit
• Also match the number of the card in the pile to a card in the player’s hand.
• additional options to play the players can play cards of the same suit that add up to the number in the middle. For example, if a 10 of Fire is in the central pile, a player could play a 2, a 3, and a 5 of Water all at the same time.
• A player wins when he/she has used all of his/her cards, or through a dabong! A dabong occurs when a players cards add up to the central card, regardless of suit.

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Nintendo and Best Buy team up (btm)
  • Starting in June Best Buy will offer free wireless Internet to 3DS users in stores
  • When connected to Best Buy network they can access movie trailers, gaming extras and exclusive content
  • Nintendo is hoping this will help increase the appeal of having a 3DS because while many people replying to polls say they want one, they also say now isn’t the time to buy it.

• Movie Releases
  • 5 Deadly Venoms (BR) – Chop Sockey, action, and puzzle oriented.
  • The Mechanic – Jason Statham. ‘nuff said
  • The Bionic Woman – Season 2 (BR) – Lindsay Wagner, Slo Mo, if that’s your thing
  • BEVERLY HILLS COP (BR) – Classic!!! Definite pick up!
  • Hanna Barbara – Chuck Norris “Karate Kommandos” – buahahahah! (insert jokes here ben )

• Steam Deals -
  • Worms Reloaded for 9.99 (until thursday)

Movie Minute (new feature)

• Say Goodbye To Wonder Woman Mr. Kelley (udg)
  • The train wreck that is David E Kelley’s  ”Wonder Woman”  has officially  been shelved by bosses at NBC.
  • Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt has spoken about his decision not to greenlight the series after watching Kelley’s pilot. He told EW.com, “They made a really fine pilot and Adrianne Palicki did a fantastic job. You look at what you have, what you need, and it just didn’t seem to fit in with what we were doing. We did what was best for the schedule.”
  • Now, I know there are some people out there taking the “shame on everyone that raised such a fuss over this and got it cancelled” stance.
  • Bite me.  It was clearly going to completely crap all over my childhood idol and I have every right to rant, rave and fuss my lil heart out over it.
  • Don’t believe me- listen to old Greenblatt himself  ”I was surprised there was such an uproar (about the promotional shots of Palicki in costume), but that didn’t have anything to do with whether the show got picked up. I love that it got so much attention. All that engagement from people, whether it was positive or negative, was good. And she did ultimately have these little hot pants.”
  • Those little hot pants. *le sigh* Thank you Greenboob for at least having the sense to slam the breaks on this before it aired. Somethings just can’t be unseen.

• Look Out Bedrock, Here Comes Seth MacFarlane (udg)
  • After years of super complicated negotiations between 20th Century Fox TV and Warner Bros. Television it looks like Seth MacFarlane is going to be able to realize one of his life’s ambitions after all- to reboot The Flinstones.
  • According to Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly, production on the animated series will begin production in Fall 2011 for a 2013 premiere on the Fox schedule. In a cross-studio collaboration, The Flintstones will be produced jointly by 20th Century Fox Television and Warner Bros Television. Dan Palladino (Gilmore Girls) and Kara Vallow (Family Guy) will serve as executive producers with Seth MacFarlane who says the very first cartoon character he drew at age 2 was Fred Flintstone. “So it’s appropriate that events have come full circle, allowing me to produce the newest incarnation of this great franchise. Plus, I think America is finally ready for an animated sitcom about a fat stupid guy with a wife who’s too good for him.”
  • In a video shown at the upfronts, MacFarlane shed some light on his plans for the remake: The characters will look the same but he’ll introduce new technology, like “What is the animal version of an iPad?” No doubt the rightholders are a lil bit concerned about how MacFarlane is going to interpret the classic series. It certainly can’t be worse than the horrible films they let Universal put out.
  • I’m interested to see what Seth comes up with.

Geek Speak

• Is a personalized web a bad thing? -
• We’ve lived with a lot of stuff being tailored for our wants on the Internet
• Cross-sell in shopping carts, Likes in Facebook influencing your news stream,  certain articles showing up based upon your interests in the past, Sidebar ads, etc
• now search engines take some of this other information and filters searches based upon what they perceive as your preferences (Dec. 4, 2009 – google opted in)
• Real time bidding in place for placed ads
• Finger printing of your computer (even when you opt out of cookies and tracking)
  • Some of the things that pop on on the Google ads while I’m reading my email make me giggle. I think it’s insane that any company thinks it can anticipate my needs, wants, desires based on previous anything. (udg)
  • (SM) I personally think its dangerous and allows a company too much power to influence the weak minded. Not like Obi-Wan, more like Vader. What will they do with that power? They’re corporate America
  • (SM) Do y’all think it stifles discovery and exploration?? How do you know you will like something until you actually see it?

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

• Network shows on Hulu safe for a few more years (btm)
  • Good news fellow hulu users, NBC, Fox and ABC are close to extend licensing agreements to continue providing programming
  • the site will continue to offer free, ad-supported programming along with its Hulu Premium subscription package.
  • Likely to change, however, is the window of time between when shows are on TV and when they are made available on hulu.
    • Networks want to increase this time so as to encourage viewers to watch shows when they air.
  • Networks may also negotiate a non-exclusive deal allowing them to stream programming on Amazon and Netflix.

• Facebook under attack from Spammers (SM)
  • Seen an uptake of “see who is browsing your profile” or “see xxx do yyy in this stupid video” lately? So have we
  • Facebook has noticed it too and beefed bp their antispam defense
  • Despite the work, the spammers are finding ways around it
  • It’s an arm race now to see who can trump whom.
  • Word to the wise folks… don’t click on things you don’t know about or are too good to be true, don’t paste thing into your location bar

• Dropbox Lies About Data Security (udg)
  • Online file storage service Dropbox has made my life easier and I’ve been a huge fan of it. Well, now I’m raising a little bit of an eyebrow. Last month it seems it changed its privacy policy to note that upon request, law enforcement agencies would be given access to a user’s Dropbox files. Then they came under fire again when it was uncovered that Dropbox employees had access to user directories. Over this last month Dropbox has quietly been making changes to its privacy agreement and terms of service to both respond and silently acknowledge that some of the privacy concerns uncovered by security researchers last month.
  • Hmmm…Not that I have anything to hide from the law in my box, but I certainly never got a notice that there was any sort of an update.  Seems I’m not the only one.
  • Shortly after some of the changes had been made, researcher and Ph.D candidate Christopher Soghoian (the same Soghoian who broke the story to the media that Facebook had hired a PR firm to smear Google) noticed that what Dropbox was saying in public versus what it’s employees have access to and what they don’t are very different things. He outlined his concerns in a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and accuses Dropbox of making deliberately misleading and deceiving its customers into thinking their data is more private than it is.
  • For example, Dropbox’s security policy once said that files stored on Dropbox servers were encrypted and were inaccessible without an account password. That statement was amended to say only that the files were encrypted, which quietly put Dropbox on the hook for having a way to access user files without the user’s password.
  • And their terms of service said that Dropbox employees “aren’t able to access user files.” Now it has been changed to “are prohibited from viewing the content of files.” This subtle change means that Dropbox employees shouldn’t access user files as a matter of policy, not that they’re unable to.
  • All the while, Soghoian says, Dropbox has been telling its customers that their data is safe and secure from prying eyes. Dropbox, for its part, says there’s nothing to the complaint, and that they’ve always been up front with their privacy policies. They say the changes in their policies have been a result of clarifying their policy  and that they’ve been very open with who has access to user files and under what circumstances.
  • The complaint demands that Dropbox clarify its terms of service and its website so exactly who can access user files and how is completely clear. It also demands that Dropbox notify its 25 million users to let them know their data is being stored in the clear and that employees are essentially on the honor system when it comes to not looking at it, and offer refunds to Pro users who may have subscribed under false pretenses of security and anonymity. Dropbox says there’s no merit to the claim, that it raises old issues they’ve already clarified, and will respond formally to the FTC.
  • Really Dropbox? Cuz I still haven’t seen any notice from you that changes have been made. Yup, this is me giving you the stinkeye.

• U.S. Navy launching online gaming (btm)
  • The Navy is adding a new weapon to its arsenal, Internet Gamers
  • The Office of Naval Research is rolling out the military’s first online war game open to the public.
  • Project: MMOWGLI (Massively Multiplayer Online Wargame Leveraging the Internet) is aiming to replicate traditional military strategy sessions.
  • Using virtual simulation and social media tools players will work together to respond to made-up geopolitical situations due to private ships being hijacked off the Somali coast.
  • 7000 people have already signed for the $450,000 pilot project.
  • Lacking high-tech graphics, the game provides video clips and storyboards and users are are prompted to envision scenarios.
  • Critics say sifting through the massive amount of junk data may prove to make the system unfeasible but ONR sources say they are aware of possible pitfalls and will be monitoring the game around the clock.

• PSN Network is back! (SM)
  • They did a rolling regional restart where you could check their website for your region
  • (SM) I saw my friends update, it wasn’t that long, prompted for a password reset
  • Japan isn’t too hot about it – they hadn’t “approved” the changes and weren’t sure that Sony went far enough to protect its user data.
  • PSN Outage Deals (NA)
  • Trying to entice users back. -
    • 30 days free access to Music unlimited (30 mr for already subscribed)
    • 30 days free access to PSN Plus (60 for current)
    • 100 items on playstation home
    • Free identity monitoring
    • Selection of videos to rent “on them” over a free weekend
    • 2 free Game downloads / PSP games: LBP, infamous, Wipeout HD, Super Stardust HD, Dead Nation || LBP, ModNation Racers, Pursuit Force, Killzone Liberation
  • Oops, spoke too soon, Password reset page hacked

• Got an Android? Make Sure You’re Running 2.3.4 (udg)
  • If you’re  an Android user with one of the 99% of Android phones running software version 2.3.3 or below, a new study shows you are vulnerable to a security attack that allows hackers to access your Google accounts- including your Contacts, Calendar and Picasa.
  • The way the attack works is that an evildoer would take advantage of a device which is connected to an unsecured Wi-Fi network and snatch up its authTokens — basically secret digital codes used to securely identify you and your device and tell a service that you have permission to access it.
  • Hackers are able to do this because authTokens are not only being stored on devices for up to two weeks, but also sent over unencrypted connections.
  • So what can someone do with your authTokens? He or she can pretend to be you — at least in the eyes of a service such as Twitter, Facebook, or Google — and access your accounts easily.
  • Scary, yes. But, don’t panic.  While nothing is fool-proof, there are steps you can take to protect yourself a little bit. The most important one of those steps: Avoid unprotected, shady, or unknown Wi-Fi networks.
  • One more time for EVERYONE-  avoid unprotected, shady, or unknown Wi-Fi networks.  If you absolutely must use one, at least “switch off automatic synchronization in the settings menu” of your device. Doing so won’t exactly keep you safe, but at least it’ll make a tiny difference.
  • You should also keep an eye out for Android 2.3.4 updates for your devices as those appear to patch up this particular vulnerability.

• Your Stream May Soon be a Felony (btm)
  • Under current law reproducing and distributing copyrighted works is a felony and covers Peer-2-Peer transfers and web downloading.
  • Streaming has been treated as “public performances”
  • New Senate Bill (S. 978) would add streaming to the list of felonies when:
    • They show 10 or more “public performances” by electronic means in any 180-day period and
    • The total retail value of those performances tops $2,000 or the cost of licensing of such performances is greater than $5,000.
  • Offenders could face five years in prison and a $25,000 fine
  • Some critics of the bill are pointing out that having copyrighted material playing in the background during a UStream or Justin.tv broadcast could lead to felony charges against the net caster.

• Yet more content for Netflix, Miramax (SM)
  • The juggernaut keeps rolling
  • look for new content end of the month from Miramax!
  • several hundred in fact “Pulp Fiction”, “Shakespeare in Love”, “Good Will Hunting” some of the titles mentioned
  • There’s even a hint of Amazon and other services but still Netflix beat them all to the punch

• First Skype, now Nokia? (udg)
  • Microsoft has been on a buying spree lately, but this one would blow all the other ones clear outta the water.  According to a post on Twitter by Eldar Murtazin, the Russian technology blogger who’s managed to scoop the media before with his insider sources at Nokia, Microsoft is planning a bid for Nokia’s mobile division. The total cost: $30 billion.
  • Eldar isn’t just some blogger with wild ideas. His sources have been right in the past, and he was the first to break the story that Nokia was going to side with Microsoft over Google for Windows Phone 7 instead of Android. He was also the man who shocked the tech world with the assertion that only 674,000 Windows Phones were sold during the first quarter they were available, calling it a “total failure.”
  • If he is correct, Nokia would leave the mobile phone business entirely, and Microsoft would pick up its mobile unit and start manufacturing Windows Phones using Nokia hardware and technology. If you’re shocked or simply don’t believe it, you have good reason to be skeptical.
  • After all, Microsoft just shelled out $8.5 billion – the most it has for any single acquisition in its history – to buy Skype. They already have a partnership with Nokia worth over $1 billion to provide Windows Phone 7 to Nokia’s next generation of smartphones, when they’re announced. Even so, some people point to Microsoft’s failed bid for Yahoo! last year for $40 billion as proof they’re willing to shell out big bucks if the opportunity is right.
  • Additionally, new Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is largely seen by Nokia fans as a Microsoft “plant” of sorts, softening up the company and giving Microsoft more influence from the inside. Elop did indeed work for Microsoft at one point, but whether or not his loyalties are to his current or former employer are probably less important than the question of how well such a large deal would work in the long run.
  • Naturally, Microsoft and Nokia both refuse to comment on the matter at all.

• They Have the Technology, They Can Rebuild Him (btm)
  • 26 year-old Austrian man has voluntarily had his hand amputated so he can be fitted with a bionic limb.
  • He lost the use of his right hand after a serious motorcycle accident in 2001
  • He regained the use of his arm but not his hand.
  • After operations failed to restore use of his hand he was asked if he wanted to participate in this elective amputation
  • A previous patient who lost he use of his left hand after being electrocuted at work had a similar operation last year and is now able to open bottles and tie his own shoes.

• Anonymous Loses Its Public Face (udg)
  • It would seem the public feud that has broken out between different hacker factions within the infamous Anonymous has proven too much for Barrett Brown, the reporter that had become a media-friendly spokesperson for them.
  • Not only is Brown saying deuces, he told Threatpost that he and around two dozen Anonymous members are forming a splinter group to focus on efforts to root out what Brown has described as “criminality and corruption” within the U.S. Government, U.S. military, corporations and the media.
  • Brown, a journalist and author, has been the public face and chief apologist from the anarchic and leaderless group during recent controversies, including the hack of security firm HBGary. He said recent feuds between different Anonymous factions, culminating in the recent takeover of two IRC chat servers used by the group convinced him that the group had lost its way.
  • “I’m tired of the drama,” Brown told Threatpost in a phone interview  ”You’ve got kids fighting for control of an IRC channel. I’m a researcher. I’m into revolutionary stuff. But there are other people for whom its about exerting power,” he said.
  • Brown told Threatpost he is defecting with what he claims are around two dozen Anonymous members. He said he planned to focus on Project PM – an effort to create an umbrella group that will support other organizations that want to expose pro-government and pro-corporate bias in the media.
  • The parting of ways between Brown and the allegedly “leaderless” group comes at a perilous time. Recent months have seen defectors from the group publish potentially damaging information that could be used to identify active members. Anonymous observers, who asked to remain anonymous themselves, said there’s reason to believe that Brown is being cut off by core Anonymous members worried about having their identities exposed, or wary of Brown’s focus on government wrongdoing. Sources say that ongoing criminal investigations of Anonymous’s previous actions may soon produce indictments and that more than one longtime member has “gone dark” in recent weeks, especially after the group was mentioned as a possible source of the PlayStation Network breach.
  • I was incredibly intrigued by Brown’s new project. It reminds me a bit of Hackers for Charity, and you know that all kinds of screams Natali. So, I emailed him asking for more information and if he’d like to come on the show to discuss it. Guess what? He said yes! So, stay tuned for special guess Barrett Brown on an upcoming show!

Intarweb Goldmine

• Blame It On The Cheese (udg)
  • When Antonio Hernandez was pulled over, I’m guessing he wasn’t expecting to do 4 days in an Asheville jail. The Buncombe County deputy that pulled him over was stoked, thinking he had made a 91 pound cocaine bust when his portable kit changed colors indicating the mixture Hernandez was carrying was illegal drugs.
  • Yeah, it turns out that an enzyme found in cheese triggered false drug test results. Yup, cheese. Those 91 pounds of suspected coke was actually 91 pounds mix of cheese, shrimp and tortilla and tamale dough.  How the Hell that could be mistaken for nose candy is beyond me.
  • Sheriff Van Duncan told The Asheville Citizen-Times he didn’t know until this case that some foods, like cheese, can give false positives on field drug tests. He plans to have deputies talk to the company that makes the tests. I’d like to hear what he plans on doing to make up for the 4 days in jail Antonio spent.

• What Happens to Your Pets after the Rapture? (btm)
  • With the coming return of Christ scheduled for this Saturday a group is offering to take care of your pets once you have been called to God.
  • Dedicated group of animal lovers and confirmed athiests
  • Currently active in 26 states, employing 40 pet rescuers
  • For $135 they guarantee if the rapture occurs within 10 years of your payment one pet per residence will be rescued. ($20 for each additional pet)
  • Service limited to “dogs, cats, birds, rabbits and small caged mammals” at this time
  • Rescue for “horses, camels, llamas and donkeys in NH, VT, ID and MT”

• German Census Asks The Important Stuff (udg)
  • Seems a fake census form going around Germany has some Lederhosen in a bunch. The forms look like Germany’s current 2011 census forms — which just went out this week — and has questions like “Which drugs do you take?” with boxes marked with options like LSD or marijuana. Another question asks if the respondent has a breast or penis enlargement procedure. And how big your penis is.
  • The forms may look real, but those questions, intriguing as they may be, aren’t officially part of the census.
  • “These questions were all entirely fictitious, we wouldn’t ask anything like that,” said Klaus Voy, Census Project Manager at the Brandenburg-Berlin Office of Statistics.
  • Although the fake census looks identical to the real thing, unlike the real one, the forms are mysteriously delivered to mailboxes without an envelope.
  • Since the real German census has come under fire from privacy advocacy groups because some questions, such as immigration background and religion, are beyond EU requirements, officials fear the questions on the fake census might, at first glance, seem legit.

• SHIELD causes terror alert (btm)
  • Police in Ann Arbor, Michigan evacuated a bus terminal after a suspicious package was found across the street.
  • Michigan State Police Bomb Squad was called to the scene.
  • Turns out it was a promotional tie-in item from Acura advertising the new Thor movie. (in theatres now)

• Sleeping Bandit Strikes Bowling Green (udg)
  • When Bowling Green police caught up to an alleged sleeping bandit Saturday, in addition to drugs, they found all kinds of goodies in the man’s pockets  like several disposable razors, a bottle of Drakkar Noir cologne, a bottle of Adidas cologne, skin cleanser and two pickled sausages.
  • A man called police when he found an unknown, “extremely drunk” man in bed with his mother. The sleeping bandit was wearing blue jeans, a gray shirt and a brown hat. He was bloodied and left blood on the back door and on the woman’s bed sheets.
  • The resident and his mother escorted the man out of their home while he was claiming several times that he was inside “Woody’s house.” The resident called police.
  • Officers were unable to find the man until about two hours later, when he struck again about a block down the road. This time, cupcakes were involved.
  • BGPD officers responded to a home where they found Benjamin Williams, 37, asleep on a couch inside the home. Williams matched the description of the man seen at the other Kenton Street home.
  • Williams was wearing muddy pants that were wet in the front where he appeared to have urinated on himself. He also had black smears on his face and hands. Police determined that Williams had eaten the ashes out of a hooka pipe inside the residence. Police photographed Williams while he slept.
  • The resident showed police where a window screen had been broken. It also appeared that once Williams came inside the home, he helped himself to several cupcakes – valued at $3 – and ransacked the man’s refrigerator.
  • Williams is lodged in the Warren County Regional Jail with a $5,000 cash bond, according to court records. He is charged with second-degree burglary, possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia-buy/possess and possession of a controlled substance.
  • Pickled sausage, cupcakes, snorting hookah ashes, this guy has more of a wild night out sleeping than I do awake!

• Apple Gives You a Religious Experience (btm)
  • Team of UK neuroscientists scanned the brain of an Apple fan and found that Apple products stimulated the same parts of the brain as religious imagery does in people of faith.
  • They chose to investigate after passing a new Apple store and being reminded of “an evangelical prayer meeting.”
  • The research also discusses the popularity of Facebook, mobile phones and social networks.
  • “Like Apple, mobile phones and social networks offer an opportunity for us to express our basic human need to communicate.”

• Planking gone wrong (sm)
  • Internet weirdness, bunch of pictures of ppl lying on their stomachs flat surface all over the internet
  • Weird position, everywhere from top of fast food counters to top of a grille
  • Well, 20 yr old in Australia took it too far
  • Tried to lay flat on his stomach on the balcony rail and ended up falling and dying
  • When your friend jumps off that bridge, Don’t you do it too! See, your mom was right when you were younger

• “Go the F#$@ to Sleep” Tops Charts (btm)
  • New bedtime book for parents has already topped the Amazon bestseller charts a month before its release.
  • Written by novelest Adam Mansbach after his own daughter refused to go to sleep one night.
  • Book combines cute rhymes with expletive-ridden pleas.
  • Originally scheduled for release in October the release date was moved up to June after a pirated PDF of the book went viral.
  • Film rights have already been snatched up by Fox 2000
  • “It’s definitely not a book to read to your child”, said the publisher, “but it will resonate with anyone who has ever spent, 20 minutes, 40 minutes, four hours reading ‘just one more bedtime story’.”
    • “The cubs and lions are snoring.
      Wrapped in a big snuggly heap.
      How come you can do all this other great s****
      But you can’t lie the f*** down and sleep?”

Extra Links

• Bing adding Facebook likes to searches
• Gingerbread upgrade for Galaxy S
• Buy a car on ebay mobile
• Woman is Allergic to Electricity (btm)
• Only in Vegas – Batman Gets a Beatdown (btm)

• Pirates delay Sony(btm)
  • Earlier this week Vodaphone New Zealand reported that an entire shipment of Sony Ericsson Xperia Play devices was stolen saying via Twitter, “a major security breach” had occured and the launch of Xperia Play would be delayed.
  • Later Vodaphone released “security footage” that looked very questionable
  • Turns out the whole thing was fake
  • Possibly an attempt at viral marketing gone very, very wrong.
• Digital New York (btm)
  • Mayor Bloomberg released a new outline of plans for NYC to form partnerships with social media companies
  • Through partnerships with Twitter, Facebook and New York based Foursquare and Tumblr NYC wants to be the top digital city in America
  • Plans are to offer wireless Internet access in parks
  • Vast reserves of data available to programmers
  • Live chats with 311 agents
  • City will register the .nyc domain
  • @nycgov will be used to provide immediate updates on city news
  • How will the city afford all this? Mayor Bloomberg says “We are going to try to encourage people to make it available”
  • The mayor doesn’t personally update his existing Facebook page, “I’m very old-fashioned. I use email.”

• How to urn a tree (btm)

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Ben is @realityamuck , Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
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• And Become a Fan

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We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk content ownership, lots of new releases, plenty of apple news, and then a very special Chinese Conspiracy theory hour

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

• Ultimate Mashup: Angry Rebels & Imperial Pigs (udg)
  • A long time ago, on an app far, far away… The Imperial Pigs have stolen the Rebellion’s eggs, so the Rebellion struck back by stealing the plans for the Death Pig. Check out bite.ca for more of this great mashup. T shirts are even available.

• Rebecca Black Star Wars Parody (udg)
  • You’ve all seen the train wreck that is Friday. Most have seen the gazillion parodies running rampant. But, no matter how sick you are of it all, you have to watch this one last one. The words have all been changed and it is sheer awesomeness.

• World’s Biggest Pacman Game (udg)
  • Pac-man fan? Meet your new best friends Soap Creative. They’ve created The World’s Biggest Pac-Man game.  When I say World’s biggest- we’re talking it could take YEARS for one person to complete it. You see, it never stops growing. Users can create their own rooms for free and add them to the board.
  • Originally created to showcase the capabilities of Microsoft’s IE 9, you can choose to start in any room you want and hop over to other rooms even if you haven’t completed the room you are in. And the rooms so far range from simple to damnear impossible. Welcome to user-generated content.
  • Tallies are kept on a personal, regional and global level based on pellets and ghosts eaten and rooms cleared.

• For many April 19th marked the release of the much anticipated game, Portal 2, but for those of us who were fans of the canceled Sarah Conner Chronicles series we know it’s also the date that Skynet was brought online, meaning that April 21st will be Judgement Day. (btm)
  • Many gamer forums have already been asking if game developers chose the release date for this reason.
  • If you’re planning a Judgement Day party on Wednesday to celebrate the Skynet destruction of mankind, just remember, “The cake is a lie.”
    • (our local mall has a cell phone store called “Skynet” maybe I should make signs and protest our destruction?) (btm)
  • If you’re listening to the recorded version of this podcast after the 21st, find John Conner, he’s your only hope.

• Time Lapse Milky Way plus more!
  • Gorgeous video of the Milky way and the clouds over a large span of time
  • I’m such a space nut… the music is nice too

• Top 10 Zombie Music Videos
  • Nothing says loving like zombies, guts, blood, and good music
  • Grouper “Alien Observer” (lesbian zombies ‘nuff said), Kanye West “Monster” (hot zombies), Peaches and Iggy Pop “Kick it”, Aesop Rock “Coffee”

Gold Sponsors:

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• 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!!!
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• 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

• How to Get in On Gears of War 3 Beta (udg)
  • Last week the Epic Game’s latest chapter Gears of War saga, Gears of War 3 beta went live. The early access beta started this weekend and will run through April 24 when the full public beta opens and runs to May 15.
  • The web is rampant with official and unofficial ways to get access to the beta. We’re going to give you the real (and safest) way to get in on it. Most people playing the beta right now are players who got their beta codes with their purchase of Bulletstorm: Epic Edition, which will still get you a code if you can find a copy on the shelves.
  • You can also follow developer and Epic Games Design Director Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) and Epic Games Vice President and Co-Founder Mark Rein (@MarkRein) on Twitter: they both have been giving out codes to their followers all weekend, and show no signs of stopping. If you don’t get in on the beta before the 24th though, don’t worry: if you pre-order Gears of War 3, you’ll get a beta code that you can redeem on the 25th to join the fun.
  • So far, reviews on the beta has been impressive and it’s being considered a great update to an already well polished and established series.

• Celebrate Earth Day with Geeky Style. Several companies offering Solar Powered backpacks that charge your hand-held devices (btm)
  • 4 Watts of Solar Power from 1 hour in the sun = 3 hours of talk time,
  • 4-5 hours in the sun will fully charge a typical phone
  • Battery that offers up to 19 hours talk time or 48 hours music playback
  • Prices range from mid-$200 to well over $300

• Win a Copy of The Avengers: The Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Vol. 1 & 2 (udg)
  • Our friends over at Big Shiny Robot are giving away The Avengers: The Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Vol 1 & 2 on DVD.  The contest runs through Friday April 29th with winners being announced on Monday, May 2nd.
  • To enter, just shoot them an email over at editor at bigshinyrobot.com. Make sure you put “AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!” in the subject line.
  • Want some extra chances? Head over to their facebook page and invite all of your friends to like ‘em. Or you can ask your followers on twitter to follow us @BigShinyRobot. Just be sure to mention when you  email them that you’ve done it.

• Beastie Boys New Album: Hot Sauce Committee Part 2
  • May 3rd release date, so pumped
  • Digital pre-sales will be delivered the “day-of”

• Read Eisner nominee for Best Humor Publication, Aphrodisiac, for Free (udg)
  • The folks over at AdHouse were super excited to hear Aphrodisiac was nominated for an Eisner. Unfortunately, they are in between printing. They wanted to make sure that all voters had a chance to read it, so they put it online for free!

• New Movie Releases
  • IP MAN 2!!!!! – Watch this back-to-back with Ip Man #awesomekungfu
  • Goemon – Robin Hood with Ninjas and Kung Fu
  • Mortal Kombat BR
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers (Season 1)
  • Tokyo Gore Police – Yoshihiro Nishimura and “unbridled horror insanity + fetishism” (You can check it out on Netflix streaming now. udg)

• Irredeemable for $0.99 an Issue! (udg)
  • Now through tomorrow night at 11pm E, ComiXology has their critically acclaimed series Irredeemable for just $0.99 an issue.
  • Like to actually hold the paper? Their physical copy of Irredeemable: Vol 1 (issues 1-4) is on sale for $4.
  • Never heard of Irredeemable? It’s by Mark Waid & Peter Krause and basically about a Superman-like hero that spends a lifetime protecting earth. Until the day he snaps, decides humanity needs a good wake-up slap and begins taking out his former teammates who are the biggest.

Movie Minute (new feature)

• We Were All Wrong- New Dark Knight Rises Roles Revealed (udg)
  • We’ve known for a while now that Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotilliard were signed on to The Dark Knight Rises. Knowing that, we made our own lil assumptions about who they’d be playing. We figured Marion would be playing Talia al Ghul (daughter of Ra’s al GHul and Bruce Wayne love interest) and JGL would be Alberto Falcone AKA “The Holiday Killer.” Guess what happens when we assume? Yeah, we’re not so cleaver it seems.
  • After MONTHS and months of us assuming away, Warner Bros & Christopher Nolan have officially announced Joseph and Marion have joined that cast. They’ve also told us who they will be playing. Marion will be playing Miranda Tate, “a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father’s philanthropic endeavors for Gotham” and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play John Blake, “a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon”.

• Pride, Prejudiced & Zombies Gets a Director (udg)
  • If for some odd reason you haven’t heard of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, it’s a novel set in the same world as the classic Jane Austen novel, but the main characters Ms. Bennet and good ole Mr. Darcy are fighting off a Zombie infestation.
  • And it looks like it may finally be coming to a theater sometime soonish. Seems third time may be a charm, as Craig Gillespie (known for the new Fright Night) has been officially set in stone to direct the film.
  • “We are so excited to have Craig Gillespie on board this film. His sensibility spans from genre bending horror to elegant character driven comedy, which is perfect for this movie.” glows  Alli Shearmur, Lionsgate’s president of production
  • Hopefully he’s still excited after Criag let it slip in an EW interview that the script he’ll be using came from David O. Russell, that guy who just got a ton of acclaim for a little picture called The Fighter.
    • No, we have a really great script that we’re just going to do a polish on and then get going, really…. David Russell wrote the script off the book, and it has such a great mix of humor and horror.
  • It isn’t clear when production will begin on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, although with a director finally locked in, it seems they are ramping up to start filming soon.
• Full body shot of new Green Lantern CGI costume (btm)
  • This just confirms my fears about the CGI costume.
  • Put on some freaking boots!
    • (does anyone really need to see Ryan Reynolds toes?)
• Game of Thrones renewed already
  • Series adaptation of popular books by George R.R. Martin “A song of Ice and Fire”
  • First episode got strong critical acclaim
  • 4.2 million viewers on a PPV channel is WAAAY Strong
  • Already committed to a second season

Geek Speak

• The End of Content Ownership
  • the cloud is becoming more prominent as of late
  • Netflix, Zune, Amazon, everyone wants to push the “rent” model for content
  • New services, such as 24 symbols, will offer “streaming” books
  • Is the lack of ownership of for monetary outlay alarming or just par for the course?
  • (SM) Zune and Netflix ownership
  • (btm) What do we really “own” any more? A lot of software you buy seems to write their EULAs in a way that says you’re actually leasing the software vice owning it. Even if you buy the disk and have everything local on your machine it’s not really yours.
    • Blizzard recently banned players for cheating in Single Player Campaign mode in StarCraft II and disabled their CD keys.
      • (I’m totally behind banning cheaters online in Battle.net, but what gives you the right to do anything pertaining to what I do offline?)
    • Two years ago Amazon deleted copies of 1984 from Kindles
      • Big Brother much?
      • Kindle TOS says you’re entitled to keep a permanent digital copy of any digital content you purchase (section 3, paragraph 2)
        • (I guess it’s permanent until they change their minds)
    • What happens when you don’t or can’t pay your monthly cloud access fee?
      • Who controls access? Google and most other cloud providers will turn over your information upon receiving a warrant from the government. Don’t fall for the “If you’re not doing anything wrong you don’t have to worry” myth.

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

• Rep Jesse Jackson Jr Blames iPad for US Job Loses(udg)
  • Illinois Congressman Jessie Jackson Jr went on an insane anti-technology rant on the floor of Congress on Friday. You see, he thinks “technology gadgets like the iPad” are the reason this country is losing jobs.
  • His rant:
    • “A few short weeks ago I came to the House floor after having purchased an iPad and said that I happened to believe, Mr. Speaker, that at some point in time this new device, which is now probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs. Now Borders is closing stores because, why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes & Noble? Buy an iPad, download your book, download your newspaper, download your magazine.”
      • Okay. Let’s stop right there for a moment. Dear Jessie- Yes, that iPad can download your books, newspapers, magazines, etc. But, do you REALLY think the $500 iPad is to blame? What about the oh $100 Kindle? Or B&N’s own Nook? Or the publishers that even format for mobile devices?  Just a thought. Let’s hear what else you got, oh wise one…

• “Chicago State University, in my congressional district, in freshman class, they are not being given textbooks any longer. They are all being given iPads as they enter school. President Wayne Watson hopes to have a textbook-less campus in four years, where at this state university they will no longer have textbooks.”
  • Oh Jessie. When is the last time you went to college? If I could carry one device that stored all of my textbooks in it, in a format I could highlight, copy and paste notes out of, etc., yeah, that would be the way I would go.  I’ll spare you the more economically and environmentally sound dance because you’re clearly not in the mindset to even remotely grasp that right now. And you’ll probably just add out of work lumberjacks to your next rant.
    • “Well, what becomes of publishing companies and publishing company jobs?”
      • Umm, Jessie, people still need to write, edit, format and distribute the books.

• • • “And what becomes of bookstores and librarians and all of the jobs associated with paper?”
      • Okay, I’ll give you a 1/2 a point there. I do fear the loss of libraries in this country. But, it’s not the iPad’s fault. The problem does not solely lie on the manufacturers of any of the devices.
    • “Well, in the not too distant future, such jobs simply will not exist. Steve Jobs is doing pretty well. He’s created the iPad. Certainly, it has made life more efficient for Americans, but the iPad is produced in China. It is not produced here in the United States. So, the Chinese get to take advantage of our First Amendment value — that is to provide freedom of speech through the iPad to the American people. But there is no protection for jobs here in America to ensure that the American people are being put to work.”
      • Jinkies. Look Jessie, 10 minutes with me and I’ll break it down to you how the Chinese are going to take over the entire world via the use of technology. But that craziness is too out there for even me.  Before you get your lil knickers in a bunch and decide to have a case of diarrhea of the mouth/constipation of the brain regarding technology and the Chinese, gimme a call. We’re neighbors. I’ll meet you for coffee and give ya a lil education. Don’t worry, I’ll leave my evil MacBook at home. Well, maybe.

• Adobe Relents, Adopts Apple Video Protocol (SM)
  • Remember how adobe moaned about using Apples video standard?
  • Flash currently uses RTSP (a proprietary format for file transmission)
  • Apple uses HTTP live streaming along with H.264 as its video format
  • It was at least submitted to standards body
  • M$ immediately added it to it’s venerable IIS platform so that when requesting video from iPad, they get that format
  • Adobe now has added it to their Flash media server in a “commitment to develop technologies that simplify broadcast workflows to make it simpler to reach a fragmented lineup of devices”.
  • I.E. They’re tired of trying to convince Apple to include Flash on their platform

• Apple suing Samsung for Patent Infringements (btm)
  • Filed suit last Friday
    • (reminds me of the Apple vs. Windows “look and feel” lawsuit WRT Windows 3 and the Macintosh OS.)
  • Claims Samsung’s Galaxy tablet and S phone are too similar to iPad and iPhone
    • “Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smartphone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products.”
  • If this law suit is successful, what does it mean for other smart phone and tablet makers?

• China’s Silent Cyber Takeover (udg)
  • The Chinese have this game galled Go. One of it’s proverbs is “Play on the Point of Symmetry.” Which means, when right and left have the same shape, there’s play in the center. And it looks like that’s a pretty good metaphor for how China and Russia (*cough Red Dawn *cough*) are leveraging US multinational corporations to accomplish strategic goals that are looking like they include covert technology transfer of intellectual property, access to source code for use in malware creation and backdoor access to critical infrastructure.
  • Let’s take a look at Chinese entity Huawei Symantec. Now Huawei has been reportedly blocked by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) in its attempt to acquire 3Leaf and AT&T was said to be officially discouraged from purchasing any equipment from them by the National Security Agency. Both of these events are based on security concerns. Huawei successfully formed a joint venture with Symantec in 2007 called Huawei Symantec Technologies Co. Ltd. (HS). Huawei is the majority partner with 51 percent ownership, with the entity being headquartered in Chengdu, China.
  • If you aren’t familiar with Symantec thereby not so sure what Huawei is, they’re the leading provider of network security and storage appliance solutions to enterprise customers worldwide. Yup, worldwide.
  • Add to this a 2008 corporate briefing of theirs that describes the history, capabilities, and business goals of HS, one of which is to ‘build China’s first laboratory of attack and defense for networks and applications.’
  • This equation pretty much means that Symantec, a major US information security company, is ‘assisting’ China’s cyber security research in computer network attack and defense — research that has high potential for abuse by state and non-state actors in China.
  • The plot thickens. In the last few months, HS has formed two new joint ventures with US companies — SYNNEX and Force10 Networks. Why? With SYNNEX, the goal is apparently to ‘distribute Huawei Symantec’s storage and security products to its resellers throughout North America.’
  • For Force10 Networks, Huawei Symantec said the firm ‘is pleased to establish this strategic partnership with Force10 Networks, and expects the relationship to further drive strong results for our existing North American customer base as well as tap into new business opportunities.’
  • The kicker- both SYNNEX and Force10 Networks currently sell to the US government.
  • Force10 Networks’ website says that they sell their products to ‘defense, intelligence and civilian agencies to advance the bandwidth needs and reliability demands of government IT infrastructure while ensuring the economics and performance of mission critical networks.’
  • Since Huawei’s growth strategy includes financial support from Chinese banks that enable it to offer very low cost bids on key contracts, and since many governments (including India and the United States) have legal provisions that require them to go with the lowest bidder, these partnerships provide an apparently winning strategy for SYNNEX and Force10 Networks to secure government sales thanks to Huawei Symantec’s low manufacturing costs – all without HS’s name likely ever having to appear on the contract.
  • So, even though Huawei is publicly blocked by US lawmakers from selling directly to the US government, they have played on the ‘point of symmetry’ and quietly secured access to US Defense Department and intelligence community customers through collaborative partnerships that no one has so far contested. With their boast of a 30% increase in profit over this last year, Huawai’s business has been really good.
  • It’s not just China that seems to be placing itself in an advantageous strategic position.
  • I highly encourage you to check out the link in the shownotes and read more on the Russians, Intel, a laboratory and how they eliminated the need for espionage.

• Armenia makes Chess mandadory in school (SM)
  • Little Tiny Armenia is making themselves into a Chess power house
  • How? They’re requiring the game as part of their school curriculum
  • Theory: “Fosters schoolchildren’s intellectual development and teaches to think flexibly and wisely”
  • Most chess players are treatest like super stars in the country
  • Already a powerhouse: They won gold in 2006 and 2008 in International competition
  • Levon Aronian is currently ranked number 3 in the world in the WCF

• President says White House Tech is “30 Years out of date” (btm)
  • We’ve all seen the super high-tech equipment the President uses in movies and on TV but apparently that’s all TV magic and special effects.
  • “You know the Oval Office always thought I was going to have like real cool phones and stuff,” Obama said last night, “You know, we can’t get our phones to work!  I’m like ‘come on guys, I’m the president of the United States.’  Where’s the fancy buttons and stuff, and the big screen comes up? It doesn’t happen.”
  • “I mean our IT and purchasing is horrible,” he added, “And this is true across the board. This is true at the Pentagon,  it’s true in the agencies, it’s true in the Department of Homeland security.”
  • (No fancy Jack Bauer phones I guess.)

• Match.Com Now to Check Users Against Sex Offender Database (udg)
  • Following a lawsuit filed against them last week, dating giant Match.com has decided that in the next 3 months, they will begin checking users against sex offender databases.
  • The suit was filed by a California woman that states she was attacked by a man she met on the site. According to her, the first date went fine and the man seemed charming. Second date, not so much. She alleges he forced her to have sex with him. The man has been convicted of sexual battery.
  • Mark Webb, the attorney for the woman, identified in the lawsuit only as “Jane Doe” stated that a check like the one Match.com will be implementing could have prevented his client’s attack.
  • Mandy Ginsberg, president of Match.com told The Associated Press in an email that the company had considered such screenings for years, but “their historical unreliability has always led us to conclude against it.”
  • Ginsberg said after talking to providers and advisers the last few days, company officials decided to make a change. He further warned
  • “We want to stress that while these checks may help in certain instances, they remain highly flawed, and it is critical that this effort does not provide a false sense of security to our members,” she said, adding that members should always plan for a first-meeting to be in public and should tell a friend where they’ll be.
  • I applaud Match.com for taking such an effort. In all honesty, I think that the woman’s case would fail to hold up in court. The fact the site chose to make the huge change rather than fight it is to be respected.

• Portal 2 Early Release Program, Genius or Crass? (SM)
  • Anybody remember the Humble Bundle 1 and 2 (pay as much or little)
  • Kickstarter for games: Creavures (game rewards for donating)
  • Pay $40 for an Indy Bundle (13 games), win a possibility to get early release of P2?
  • Buy and it adds to the processing for a faster reboot of GLaDOS, the original evil computer in the old game
  • Whats the point? Is that a worthy goal to spend double for a game that will come out anyways?
  • (btw, the promotion was a failure,

• Samsung developing a 2GHz, Dual Core Smartphone (btm)
  • “This product will have the data processing capabilities of a regular PC”
  • Considering separate sales of the CPU units to other companies (btm.. I’m guessing not Apple).

• Square Credit Card Reader Now Available Via Apple (udg)
  • Jack Dorsey is a busy guy. Not only has the Twitter co-founder returned to Twitter as its CEO, he still remains CEO of Square, his mobile payment company.
  • Square, in simplest terms, allows anyone with an Android or iPhone to process credit card transactions. No fees, no monthly contracts. Square keeps it simple with a 2.75% charge per transaction. It works through a free downloadable app and a small device, shaped like- you guessed it a square, that plugs into a smartphone’s audio jack and reads the credit cards. To put their fee in perspective, Paypal charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction up to $3,000 in month and then goes down from there.
  • As you can imagine, VeriFone, a company that offers businesses traditional credit card terminals, was none too thrilled with this. It accused Square of offering a free credit card reader that could easily be used by hackers to steal credit card info. Square responded by pointing out that the vulnerability was no different than someone simply writing down your credit card information on a piece of paper. Yet, even with that bit of bad press courtesy of VeriFone, Dorsey’s company got a huge boost recently thanks to a new partnership with Apple.
  • Apple is now offering Square’s credit card reader through its online and brick-and-mortar stores. Customers will pay $9.95 for the credit card reader which includes $10 of Square credit. While the credit card reader is available for free through Square’s website, the immediate availability of it through Apple retail stores and the notable placement of the reader on Apple’s online store is sure to spur adoption. Apple’s endorsement of Square also minimizes the security concerns VeriFone attempted to raise last month in its attempt to derail adoption of the service since it greatly threatens VeriFone’s current business model.
  • I can wait. So, I went to the site and ordered mine for free. And, it did require giving them quite a bit of hefty personal information to obtain. I’ve got the app downloaded and ready to go. The site said 2-5 weeks so as soon as I get it, I’ll make sure to review it.

• Next Mars Rover to use Rocket Crane to land (btm)
  • Mars Rover “Curiosity” lands via being lowered from flying platform
  • Set to launch late this year for arrival on Mars in August 2012
  • Equiped with laser for examining rock samples found on Mars.
  • (btm…once it lands it looks like it has a lot of interesting new tools, but getting it to land scares the crap out of me. There are so many possible points of failure that it seems to me that NASA has forgotten the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stupid)

Intarweb Goldmine

• Man Bursts Into Flames at Porn Store (udg)
  • For seven years, Roger Huang, a pastor who runs a rescue mission in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, has been trying to shut down the sex shops there. This week he may have seen a sign that his efforts are working
  • On Wednesday, a man burst into flames while inside one of those porn shops, police said.
  • Could this bizarre incident be attributed to a higher power?
  • “I believe so. I definitely believe so,” Huang told AOL News, adding that he hopes the unidentified man is recovering from the burns.
  • The police aren’t ruling anything out.
  • “We don’t know what caused it,” Lt. Troy Dangerfield of the San Francisco Police Department told AOL News. “It’s still under investigation.”
  • Witnesses reportedly saw the burning man running out of the Golden Gate Adult Superstore in the city’s South of Market neighborhood at about 6:20 p.m. Wednesday. The man ran past stunned onlookers and collapsed at the corner of Mission and Sixth streets, police said. A private ambulance crew happened  be driving by and extinguished the flames.
  • The man, whose name has not been released, was taken to the burn center at St. Francis Memorial Hospital, where he is being treated for first-, second- and third-degree burns that reportedly cover 90 percent of his body.
  • According to KTVU, an employee said the man had been watching a film in the back of the store when he suddenly ran out screaming and on fire.
  • San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy  Talmadge said a fire investigator is still looking into the case. Oddly, she said authorities have found “no damage to the inside of the building at all.”

• Social Security website releases new series of ‘spacey’ PSA messages (btm)
  • Series stars Patty Duke and George Takei
  • Intended to raise awareness and help aging Boomers feel more at ease when using socialsecurity.gov to file for claims & benefits
    • (I love that the website actually says, “These Social Security public service announcements (PSAs) are pre-recorded video messages that can be viewed online” sometimes it’s easy to forget that not everyone is as tech savvy as we are.) (btm)

• Not the Brightest Car Thief (SM)
  • Guy comes in for a free gas voucher from the police
  • Presents his paperwork for the car
  • Police run it and find out the car is stolen
  • This isn’t the only one, criminals are constantly nabbed for winning sweepstakes

• The National Institute of Standards and Technology needs your help (btm)
  • In its 110 years, NIST has made many innovations in the way we measure things, from basic quantities like the volt and nanometer to specialized questions like the purity of sugar.
  • Website shows images of many devices in their care
  • Many look almost SteamPunk in nature
  • For many, their original uses have been lost to the ages. Do you know what they were? (btm… my favorite is “wooden box with multiple terminals and dials”

• Put Your Hands in the Air and Back Away From the Potatoes (udg)
  • In Jacksonville, Fla., don’t try breaking into someone’s home with potatoes on the stove.
  • Eighty-one-year-old Bobby Smith said his caretaker came out of his home and informed him an intruder had broken into the home.
  • Smith said he entered his home and found a man with a gun in one hand and items he intended to steal in the other. The intruder than shoved Smith to the ground and took his wallet.
  • Not a good idea. Smith then got up and hit the man on the head with frying pan full of potatoes, The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union reported.
  • “I grabbed the frying pan and hit him upside the head,” the feisty octogenarian said. “I knocked his teeth out … and he went to the floor.” Then, for a bit of emphasis, “There was a pitchfork about 6 feet away … [and] I stuck him.”
  • Get down with your bad self Bobby Smith. And don’t ever, ever try to steal that man’s taters.

• YouTube Copyright School (btm)
  • Provides “Happy Tree Friends” video to educate users on copyright rules
  • Copyright violators required to watch video much like the old driving school videos for traffic violators.
  • Hopes that requiring copyright violators to watch video will help them to understand what they did was wrong and prevent future violations.

• Dammit! Swearing found to help increase pain tolerance (btm)
  • Keele University study shows swearing can produce painkilling effect
  • Volunteers placed hands in bucket of ice water while swearing repeatedly
  • Repeated the test but this time used non-swearing phrase to repeat
  • Volunteers were able to keep hands in ice water longer when swearing.
  • Study found that volunteers who normally didn’t swear were four times as likely to feel painkilling effect.
  • May be a reason why swearing developed and continues to today.

Extra Links

• Lucas’ New Sandcrawler Office (udg)
• Droid X WoW

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Ben is @realityamuck , Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
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Intro Natali
Intro Kristin

Items of Interest

• If you have an item that is epicly awesome that should be featured in this section, contact the show at darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and we’ll see about getting it on the air

• Welcome to Wookiee Week!!!

• Meet Pica Pic: One of the Coolest Sites Ever (udg)
  • Remember when every game had a handheld version too? They may be long gone but Pica Pic is bringing them back on your computer screen.
  • The folks at Hipopotam have recreated the look of the devices and emulate the games for you to play.
  • Each game maps the controls on the device to your keyboard and gives clear key mapping hints. Then you play the game as normal and have your highscore logged.
  • At the moment there are 17 playable games (some you’ve heard of, some you haven’t) but it looks like the site is set to expand with 3 other titles, including Zelda, listed as coming soon.
• GranataPet Billboard (udg)
  • Why on earth would a billboard for a German dog food company be an item of the week? Well, because it’s brilliant.
  • The best way to get people, or in this case our lil canine buddies, to buy a product is to give them a lil taste for free. GranataPet, whose foods are made around the use of pomegranates, are no strangers to thinking outside the box.
  • Their  newest campaign is a billboard that, when you check into it on Foursquare, shoots out a free sample of dog food into a bowl for your best friend to try. There’s a little black box that controls the food dispenser. It checks with the server once roughly every second to see if someone has checked in. When it the server returns a “yes” then the dispenser is triggered to release the sample. The technology is simple, the cost is minimal, the concept is genius.

• Happy 80th B-Day Leonard Nimoy!!!
  • Leonard Nimoy, the man who played Spock the space elf, turned 80 this week. 80!!!!
  • (SM)Despite being an avid Star Wars lover, ST and TNG were near to my heart
  • and also happy almost birthday to KatieDoyle!! (kdr)

• Can I talk Spiderman Turn off the WTF (musical) (kdr)
  • Most of us have seen Spiderman the movie, some have read the comics, and an unfortunate few have had to bear witness to the musical abomination that is Turn off the Dark.
  • Before I explain what this show is about, I thought long and hard about how this script must have been developed. And I can only imagine that a few writers and whatnots got together drank and smoked, watched bits and pieces of the movies, took a nap, drank some more and then wrote out a script on some bar napkins.
  • Okay here’s the breakdown…and i am so not making ANY of this up:
    • Peter Parker is a nerd and gets beat up in school, hearts mary jane, gets bit by a spider…blah blah blah
    • and while all this is going on…Arachne, the great mortal weaver from Greek mythology learns about Peter Parker and decides to become his guardian, and also want to jump his bones…and this is made REALLY REALLY apparent
    • then Peter decides he doesnt want to Spiderman anymore and Arachne is furious and plans to get him back into the red and blue by calling all her spider minors to create a city wide black out so they could steal all the shoes.
    • not.even.kidding.
    • then Arachne makes it to earth and delivers the most unforgettable line ever “I have descended from the astral planes with the help of humans shoes” I cant even facepalm hard enough
    • it gets kinda like someone put something in my drink after this scene, some fights, puppets and flying over the crowds, and then i guess everyone made it out okay. honestly, my head was so spinning from the redonkulous storyline, boring and drawn out dialogues and forgettable songs that i may have just blocked most of it out.

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• Need your noms????
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• Need a present and don’t want to bake? then Natali’s Etsy store is the way to go

Deals of the Week / New Release

• Amazon Cloud Drive
  • 5GB Free / Up to a 1000 GB paid
  • Allows you to stream music to any PC or android device from the files you store on their server
  • Good news? If you buy from Amazon, it doesn’t count against your quota

• Kindle subscription to the New York Times will net you free web access as well (kdr)
  • a subscription to the NYT will also grant users access to the paywall-protected NYTimes.com online portal. No complex rules or conditions, you’ll just be one of the insiders who get unfettered access to all the fine old school journalism practiced at Times towers.

• Dont Blink Tee (kdr) for fans of the doctor and one of the most memorable episodes, this tee is ready to be can has for only $25

• DVD Releases
  • SECRET OF NIMH!!! B/R
  • Sherlock Holmes: Complete Blu-Ray Collection – Old b/w, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce
  • Black Swan – Natali Portman, Dancing, ‘nuff Said
  • Tangled Blu-Ray (3/d,DVD,Digital D/L)
  • Soylent Green (charleston Heston at his finest)
  • Imax: Hubble
  • Scream 1,2,3 on Blu-Ray
  • Teen Wolf Blu-Ray!

Geek Speak

• All your remakes are belong to Hollywood
  • Tired of Hollywood’s moral bankruptcy and them stealing your childhood? So are we
  • (Talk Point) Name 1 already done remake that has and has not worked
    • karate kid – i didnt even see it, thats how bad it was (kdr)
  • (Talk Point) Name the remakes that you’ve heard are coming:
    • (SM) Heman, The Never Ending Story, Mortal Kombat, The Last Starfighter
    • (UDG) – Smurfs coming this summer, was scared but NPH is in it and yeah, I <3 NPH, WOLVERINES!! Red Dawn- My one complaint- FU for swapping the Chinese out for North Koreans cuz China pitched a fit. But after meeting Chris Hemsworth I’m less worried cuz I’d watch him in anything it also stars the new “wonder woman” hmm….. , Child’s Play- nope not a 4th movie, it’s a remake of original, Adventures in Babysitting and Jonah Hill is now playing Shue’s part WTF!?!?, Teen Wolf- now a shitacular MTV series, Fright Night starring Colin Farrell,Total Recall starring, yup, Colin Farrell. One I am excited about- A NEW Muppets movie done by Jason Segal slated to hit theaters Nov 23, 2011.
    • (KDR)Here’s the maddening list of remakes actually in the works:

• • • • • ARTHUR – now starring Russell Brand. fucking russell brand. i hate that guy
        • DROP DEAD FRED – my favorite movie of all time, starring russell fucking brand
        • PLAN 9 FROM OUTERSPACE – one of the best/worst scifi movies is being “re-imagined” and going straight to DVD
        • Live action AKIRA – The Hughes Brothers are negotiating with WB…somebody stop them  (Testuo is now Travis- WTF? Shooting is scheduled to start in August. Actors sent scripts for Tetsuo- Andrew Garfield, James McAvoy, and Robert Pattinson. Those sent scripts for Kaneda are Michael Fassbender, Garrett Hedlund, Joaquin Phoenix, Chris Pine, and Justin Timberlake.- udg)

• • • • • SHORT CIRCUIT – rumor: Dimension Films has signed Steve Carr to direct “Short Circuit,” the remake. Carr is coming off the Kevin James hit “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.” (LEAVE MY NUMBER JOHNNY FIVE ALONE!!!! UDG)
        • I’d like to take this moment to quote Patton Oswald in saying “Leave the stuff i love alone!“

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

• Ubisoft Looking to Hire a Fan to Help Write Assassin’s Creed Encyclopedia (udg)
  • Everyone’s second favorite Ubisoft franchise, Assasin’s creed is going to get an official encyclopedia. Yup, not a wiki, but an actual encyclopedia.
  • A posting on UbiWorkshop states that they are making an official job offer and “not some petty human crowdsourcing trick.” Beginner’s need not fear and can apply to the job as well, as Ubisoft says they “wouldn’t want to miss out on someone passionate and talented just because he or she doesn’t have a five-year experience,” further endearing them to fans across the world.
  • To apply, head on over to the UbiWorkshop posting, check out the job recommendations and duties, take the writing test they provide, and send your information to the email provided in the post. You probably shouldn’t mention if you have real-world assassination experience.

• It’s a video card throwdown, Put or Shut Up! (SM)
  • (I personally prefer Nut up or shut up! Zombieland FTW~ udg)
  • (Yeah yeah, you would know all about that )
  • For years, we have heard from AMD and NVidia that they each are the best and fastest
  • Usually, the impartial review sites actually have to do the competition
  • Now AMD is challenging NVidia directly, through a blog post no less by senior public relations manager Dave Erskine
  • He wants to pit the HD 6990 against the GTX 590 from NVidia
  • Both are lightning fast and can magically appear in my computer anytime…

• • • • iPhone 5 Delay Rumors: Will Apple Hold Out Until After WWDC? (kdr)
        • WWDC 2011 conference in June will be all about the future of iOS and Mac, and with the rumor mill in full swing, speculation suggests that the iPhone 5 is more likely to arrive some time this fall, or even in 2012 ??
        • Apple said the focus will be on software at WWDC, including the iOS5
        • But if Apple does not release or announce a new iPhone at WWDC (or shortly after), does that mean the iPhone 5 is delayed until fall, to arrive with iOS 5 preinstalled?
        • Somebody get me some answers!!!

• Amy Adams to play Lois Lane in New Superman (udg)
  • Well, the Daily Planet now has its ace reporter and Clark Kent his love interest. Zack Snyder has official cast Amy Adams as Lois Lane in his upcoming Superman reboot.
  • While he wouldn’t comment on the plot over the weekend, Snyder did imply that Lane would be important in the story:
  • “What’s important to us is making [Superman] relevant and real and making him empathetic to today’s audience so that we understand the decisions he makes. That applies to Lois as well. She has to be in the same universe as him [in tone and substance],” Snyder said.
  • Adams joins a cast that includes Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman, Diane Lane as Martha Kent and Kevin Costner as Pa Kent.  The Superman reboot will be produced by “Inception” and “Dark Knight” mastermind Christopher Nolan
  • Due out December of 2012 (you now if the world doesn’t end before that)

• Paramount in Netflix Canada (SM)

• • Well over 350 films are now on the service from that Studio
  • Includes “exclusive subscription television rights for first run films”. That’s before HBO, Showtime, etc.
  • U.S. has some of these through the EPIX deal, but not all of them
  • It’s messed up but movie rights are divided per region and have to be negotiated separately
  • They might lose some stuff too. Showtime is thinking on pulling Dexter after the deal expires in the Summer

• Showtime adapting the ultra-weird, super-gross comic book Chew for TV? (kdr)
  • Thank you showtime for always delivering bloods and guts
  • John Layman and Rob Guillory’s comic Chew is getting its own TV series.
  • “federal agent Tony Chu, a “cibopath” able to get psychic impression from the things he eats who is assigned to the most usual and bizarre crimes.”
  • Stephen Hopkins (24 and Californication’s) to direct the pilot episode

• Canadian ISP Rogers Throttling WoW (udg)
  • Canadian ISP Rogers Communications last week admitted that it is throttling activity on Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft” gaming platform due to a “problem” with its traffic management.
  • When are they planning on fixing that problem? Well not until June. I the mean time, they suggest turning off all peer-to-peer connections while WoWing.
  • Rogers said it made a change to its software to fix the problem, but a recent change to the game “created new problems” and a second software modification is necessary. That, Rogers said, “will not be ready until June.”
  • The admission from Rogers came after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission wrote the company in late Feb about complaints it’d received from WoW users.
  • Canada has open Internet regulations that prohibit ISPs from blocking specific applications. An ISP could slow down all of its traffic during peak times, for example, but could not discriminate against specific services or apps like World of Warcraft.
  • In one complaint received by the CRTC, customer Teresa Murphy said she had experienced slow downs since at least November, and was not connected to a P2P network while gaming.
  • “I’ve been affected by this (along with MANY other Rogers users) because Rogers’ filters are picking up several very low bandwidth-intensive games incorrectly as P2P activity,” Murphy wrote. “I don’t use P2P at ALL, and yet I’m still affected by this issue because Rogers sees my gaming traffic incorrectly as P2P.”
  • Blizzard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Java Founder Joins Google (SM)
  • James Gosling, a notable programmer who founded Java, has jumped ship to Google
  • His home at Sun Microsystems became untenable after Oracle purchased the company
  • Called CEO Larry Ellison, “Larry, Prince of Darkness”
  • Notable switch because the android OS basically on Dalvik, which is similar to Java
  • Yet again, Google getting some good mindshare

• STEVEN – please let me do the intro for this
• I dont care if it’s in the dictionary, if you say “LOL” outloud, I’m gonna punch you in the mouth (kdr)
  • The Oxford English Dictionary has announced the latest batch of words and phrases called initialisms including LOL and OMG and “heart”
  • I feel they should also add, WTF and #Facepalm at this point
  • “They help to say more in media where there is a limit to a number of characters one may use in a single message,” says principal editor Graeme Diamond on the dictionary’s website.
  • And this KILLS me, here’s Diamond’s eloquent reasoning: ““The intention is usually to signal an informal, gossipy mode of expression, and perhaps parody the level of unreflective enthusiasm or overstatement that can sometimes appear in online discourse, while at the same time marking oneself as an ‘insider’ au fait with the forms of expression associated with the latest technology.”

• Cheezburger Network Buys Know Your Meme (udg)
  • There’s money in hazzing cheezburgers and for buying other Internet meme sites it would seem.
  • The Cheezburger Network, home to hit sites like I can has Cheezburger, the Fail Blog, the Daily What, and many others, has bought Know Your Meme. The deal closed last Monday, Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh told CNET.
  • The deal was first reported by Tubefilter, which said that Know Your Meme, which was a spin-off from Rocketboom, is getting a low seven-figure payday.
  • Know Your Meme has become famous as a place where people can go to learn about the origins of some of the Internet’s most beloved time-wasters. And that’s exactly why Cheezburger bought it. “Right now, we’re an entertainment destination,” Huh said of the network’s many sites. “A lot of the stuff we show doesn’t have a lot of content…People require context, history, and origins [which] helps them understand why this is funny or why this isn’t funny. And Know Your Meme was probably doing the best job of that out there.”
  • The Cheezburger Network has grown rapidly in the last couple of years, and scored a $30 million round of funding in January that Huh said is intended to be used to “figure out how to grow the business.” And while he doesn’t know yet precisely what that means, it’s actually the point. “A lot of it is going to be wasted on failures,” he said, but “that’s what’s fun and great about this company, is that we can test” ideas.
  • Know Your Meme brings four employees to the Cheezburger stable, all of whom are in New York. That means, Huh said, that Cheezburger now has Cheezburger West–Seattle, where the company is based–and Cheezburger East. He also said that he intends to use some of the recent funding money to staff up the larger company in New York.

• Sprint Vows to Fight T-Mobile / AT&T acquisition (SM)
  • 3rd smallest company is dead set against the new acquisition possibility
  • claims it will “alter the structure of the communications industry (duh) and affect innovation”
  • The gauntlet was thrown down during a roundtable discussion at CTIA 2011, a wireless trade show, where the heads of verizon, t-mobile and AT&T were present
  • The deal would make AT&T the largest carrier at 130 million subscribers
  • Verizon, not so much concerned but they’re the other big player in the market
  • The two of them would own 80% of the market

• Wonder Woman Costume Update (udg)
  • So, it seems Kelley was bright enough to listen to how much his choice of costume for the new WW was hated. He’s made some changes. Pants are a darker matte blue and sans camel toe, the boots are now red and have a more “sensible” heel and the hookah make up is gone.  Guess what? I still can’t stand it. And her right nipple is seriously almost popping out while she’s running. Double Sided Duct Tape FTW I guess.

I actually like her Stunt Double, Shauna Duggins, more!

Intarweb Goldmine

• Pole Dancing for Jesus (udg)
  • In Old Town Spring, Texas there’s a group of pole dancers blurring the line between strippers and Scripture.
  • On the second Sunday of every month, former exotic dancer Crystal Deans leads a pole dancing course for church-goers dubbed “Pole Fitness for Jesus.” The class empowers women and helps them get in shape — all to the sounds of “upbeat contemporary Christian music,” Deans told Fox 26.
  • The instructor says she knew exotic dancing wasn’t for her, but realized she could use her experience performing to help other women connect with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
  • There’s no nudity, but there are high heels — shoes that Deans insists help tone the legs.
  • There’s a place here called Miss Pole I so want to take a class at, you know for the fitness and all, so I can totally hang with the concept. But, saying it’s for Jesus, heck even I know that’ll get ya cussed out.
• Sign Up for Dish, Get a Free Gun. Thanks Radio Shack (SM)
  • (SM) where do I sign up???
  • Montana Radioshack, Owner puts up a sign – “Protect yourself with dish network sign up now get free gun”
  • basically owner wanted to generate foot traffic and the offer of a gun is real
  • Ppl who sign up for dish have the choice between a 380 pistol and a 20 gauge shotgun
  • Those that don’t qualify for the gift certificate / get a $50 pizza hut gift card
  • Literally tripled his business, Next month it will be DirecTV

• Old Tattooed Biker Dude Makes Quilt Out of Ladies Panties (udg)
  • Picture a creepy old biker guy all tattooed up, long hair, wife beater bent over a quilt covered in woman’s underwear and that would be Louis Garret of Louisiana, Missouri.
  • Louis  told the Hannibal Courier-Post about his bizarre hobby, explaining that he only started quilting with unmentionables after he began dressing his mannequin collection in lingerie. Which of course makes perfect sense, right?
  • But don’t get the wrong idea about Garrett, whose nickname is “Shovelhead.” He’s a panty quilter with standards. He told the paper exactly what kind of underwear he’s looking for: “No polyester. I don’t want those cheap, dollar-store, not-sexy, farm-girl panties. I want classy — silk or nylon. You know, sexy. Victoria’s Secret.”
  • He added that he will never sell his kinky quilt because he has personal relationships with most of the women who give him their underwear. “That’s kind of a weird sentimental value right there.” Yeah, it sure is.
• Give the woman her Cupcake geeeez (kdr)
  • A woman in South Wales ravaged a bakery upon learning they were out of her favourite cupcakes
  • The woman reportedly ran around the counter, grabbed the owner by the hair, and proceeded to smash all the glass display units, causing more than in $600 damage
• Dont nom on the train (kdr)
  • Cant a woman just her her spaghetti on the subway in peace?
  • Apparently not – another woman on the train was so annoyed that she couldnt help her mouth diarrhea and spouted out fightin words like “What kind of animals eat on the train like that?”
  • The two women continued to share words, then eventunally knuckle sammiches, while the entire event was caught on tape.
  • And did our anonymous cameraman become the good samaritan and break up the fight? NOPE. he put that shit on youtube as soon as he got home!

Extra Links

• What Bill Gates Could Learn From Chris Rock (udg)
• How to Make $30 Pair of Headphones get $300+ Quality (udg)
• Marvel vs 30 Rock “Feud” (udg)
• 5 Important People That Were Screwed Out of History Books (udg)
• Nook Color approaching 3 million sales
• Disturbing Chinese KeyChains
• Homeless Man Builds Car Out of Scrap

• 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

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• Who: @aDigitalAngel & fellow nerds at ShinyLines.com

We are LIVE on Ustream . New movie formats, possible? maybe, Next Gen consoles, Wonder Woman Update, and the death of the shuttle program…

Intro Jeremy
Intro Natali

Items of Interest

• “SUPER” – coming to theatres April 1 – (trailer here)
• Nerdy Bedtime Stories FTW (udg)
  • After seeing an article for Five Sci-Fi Children’s Books on College Humor, Julia Yu decided to do a more fleshed out version of Goodnight Dune. While she thought the original parody art was amazing, she chose to stick closer to the Original Goodnight Moon and incorporated some stylistic elements from the David Lynch movie version of Dune.
• Backflip Studios releaseing Army of Darkness Game for iOS this summer! (JP)
  • Yup— you heard me right… all you Evil Dead fans! coming to your iPhone, iPad, iTouch device soon! Screenshot at the link in the show notes… check it out…
• Craigslist Scam (udg)
  • I had the joy of my TV breaking on Friday and decided to go through Craigslist to find a new one. I was surprised to find a fairly well-thought out scam. The TV was reasonably priced, photo from a home not stock, wording seemed legitimate. Responded. Got back an email that was, again, well written, didn’t seem autobot and ended with “Please visit: CL Phone Safe which will certify you wtih CL. I’ll call you as soon as done and give you my address to pick  it up.” Seemed reasonable. Go to the site, at first glance looks legit. But, I’m me. Googled the gmail addy it was sent from and yeah COMPLETE SCAM! So, remember- be careful when dealing on CL. Do NOT enter your number in on a site like that, mo matter how it looks, without first researching.

Gold Sponsors:

Natali’s Etsy!!!

• Need your noms????
• @UberDorkGirlie’s etsy is the way to go
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• Convention Schedule
  • C2E2 – March 18-20

Big Exciting News… We are very close (depending on Apple) to being able to test and release our first iPhone app!!! (@JebsApps) it’ll be Movie History… with lots of new features (that we can’t make androids do… yet) but both will be getting a huge update to the Database!!! and right on the heels of that will be Geek History with a bigger update to the Database!!! So… More Geekiness… = More GeekyGoodness!!
Get yours today if you have an Android for only $0.99 to keep up with facts like:
Today in MovieHistory 3/9/2007 2007
300 directed by Zack Snyder is released starring Gerard Butler and telling the tale of the battle of Thermopylae

Deals of the Week / New Release

• Dragon Age II released
• New DVD Releases
  • The Walking Dead Season 1
  • EXCALIBUR!!!!
  • Nausicaa – Myazaki – Both Dub and Japanese, Subtitle
  • The Man from Nowhere – John Woo and Ringo Lam. ‘nuff said

Geek Speak

• Movie Industry Backing new Video Cloud Standard (SM)
  • There’s a new video format in town “Ultra-Violet”
  • Cloud-Friendly – download on all your devices through the cloud by storing it on 3rd party servers
  • One big roadblock was HBO and Time Warner, which blocks certain programs when they go on their networks
  • Talks are progressing to relax that for the cloud based media
• Facebook To Take On Netflix? (udg)
  • ($3 for 48 hr rental??)
  • Meet your new media company: Facebook. Warner Bros just announced it will begin distributing movies for sale and rent via Facebook, beginning with “The Dark Night.” It will be available for rental for $3 or 30 Facebook credits. Hmm… I love the movie, so much so that I happily sprung the $1.99 to buy it at Target when it was on sale. I gotta say I’m not too impressed with the first selection or the price initially attached to it.
  • “The Dark Knight” isn’t a new release (2008), and Facebook appears to be getting the same terms as iTunes, which rents the film for $2.99 and sells it for $9.99. One thing Facebook (and Netflix) have that Apple doesn’t is a beachhead as an app on most internet-connected TVs.
  • Another way they’re similar: Facebook takes a 30% cut of credits transactions, just like iTunes. Still, if Facebook allows studios to sell their wares directly and set their terms, there’s no reason its catalog won’t expand quickly. Netflix shares opened nearly 3% lower on the Nasdaq the morning this deal was announced.
• Netflix kinda scares them
  • Insiders are saying that the movie industry is angry and scared of Netflix
  • Who wouldn’t be? More content, all you can eat. Fixed price. No more $20 to watch a movie once
• Are we still movie collectors or has that gone the way of the Dodo?

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• “Tweetviewer” virus spreading like wildfire (SM)
  • You see a tweet link from a friend – “I just viewed my TOP20 Profile STALKERS. I can’t believe my EX is still checking me every day –<<bit.ly Link Here>>”
  • You click, get the oauth, but instead of delivering an app, the hackers now have your un/pw
  • Its amazing how curious ppl are to see who is looking at their profiles
  • Hackers know this, targeting these ppl with the above phishing scheme
  • If you got targeted: Settings > Connections > Revoke Access.
  • ahhh, the dangers of short links

• Xbox 720 Here We Come (udg)
  • Back in 2006 when Sony unveiled the PS3 and stated they expected to be around for over a decade, it seemed absurd. And, 5 years later, it’s certainly showing no signs of being at the end of it’s lifespan. Heck, even the 11 year old PS2 is still outselling The PSP on occasion. The same longevity goes to the Xbox 360, which outages the PS3.
  • So, it seems Sony was right, this generation of consoles is looking at a decade long run. We can expect the same for the next generations as well. It just takes at least that long for game developers to figure out how to optimally leverage the technology of a console and get the most out of it.  When it starts to see like the console is starting to stagnate a bit, in comes some new life like the Kinect of Move.
  • Having said all that, don’t get too excited but Microsoft has just posted a slew of job openings that pretty much indicate they’re ramping up for a third generation Xbox.  Namely to join a team responsible for “defining and delivering next generation architectures.”  We probably won’t see the Xbox 720 until 2015 still it is encouraging to know they are looking for a design verificaion engineer, a graphics hardware architect and an audio/video hardware architect this far out. If it takes 10 years for developers to really get a current gen console to reach it’s full potential, five years to design the next generation seems about right.

• Best Buy Announces New Geek Squad Service (JP)
  • Best Buy hot off the heels of it’s new Buy Back program announcement is announcing more new ideas…
    • This time it’s unlimited Geek Squad Tech Support, that will allow computer and tablet purchasers to pay a flat fee for service from the Geeks, not just on the computer they purchased at Best Buy but on all computers that customer owns.
    • details about what is or is not included are sketchy at best at this point, but the tipster tells us it will cost around $200 for one year of GSTS coverage.
    • Are you willing to pay 200 bucks a year for support?

• Facebook Bans Adsense from Apps (SM)
  • Ad Providers for FB apps were finalized other day
  • Unsurprisingly, adsense (owned by google), was left off the list
  • FB is stating that any missing network has not met the TOS
  • Devs now have to severe relationships with “non-compliant” advertisers
  • The community manager has directed the devs to talk w/ their providers
  • Should be handling that directly with adsense

• Wonder Woman Update? As You Wish (udg)
  • The cast of NBC’s Wonder Woman pilot is starting to shape up with a couple of big announcements this week.
  • Cary Elwes, best known as Wesley from The Princess Bride, has been signed up to play Henry Detmer, the acting CEO of Themyscira Industries. Henry is thought to be “devoted” to Diana and could be a love interest for her later in the series.
  • Liz Hurley has confirmed that she has also joined the cast as Wonder Woman’s nemesis, adding: “I’ll be playing the evil villain. Can’t wait.”
  • The role of Diana’s personal assistant Etta has gone to Tracie Thoms, formerly on Cold Case and Pedro Pascal will play a police liaison who is a loyal ally of Wonder Woman’s alter ego Diana.
  • Caprica director Jeffrey Reiner is expected to helm the Wonder Woman pilot, which is under consideration for NBC’s 2011-12 television season.
  • Adrianne Palicki showed up at the premiere of her new movie Elektra Luxx with new, darker hair. I’m not sure I’m feeling the bangs and I don’t expect the big hair of our original gal, but a little bit of bounce wouldn’t hurt. Is it just me, or does she look like Xena? I know, I know, I’m trying not to be nit picky, really I am!

• • 
  • (jp – when I see Lucy Lawless nowadays I think of Spartacus on Showtime, not Xena)

• Shuttle Undocks for the last time from the ISS (SM)
  • The last official shuttle visit has left the ISS building on March 17th
  • This was the 13th visit to the space station for the retiring platform
  • The station disengaged at 7 AM to the sounds of the original “Star Trek”
  • Good ol’ William Shatner himself voiced a slightly different intro
  • “Space…the final frontier,” Shatner said as the music played. “These have been the voyages of the space shuttle Discovery. Her 30-year mission: to seek out new science, to build new outposts, to bring nations together on the final frontier, to boldly go and do what no spacecraft has done before.”
  • Upon undocking, the Shuttle did a 360 fly-around that lasted for a good hour
  • (sm)I will admit, I cried when reading this article
  • Oh well, who really cares about scientific endea

• Google Doodle Celebrates 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day (udg)
  • Yesterday Google’s homepage greeted visitors with a new Google doodle celebrating the 100th year of International Women’s Day. It didn’t just highlight women’s achievements over this last century, clicking on it too you to a page that explains more about IWD and its corresponding events that Google has a big part in.
  • They invited both men and women to take part in the “Join me on the Bridge” campaign, which encouraged supporters to gather on almost 300 bridges in 50 countries yesterday to celebrate women’s achievements, and to shine a spotlight on issues that effect women in developing countries and around the world.
  • According to Google,
    • We invite you to join tens of thousands of people coming together on bridges all over the world — from the Millennium Bridge in London, the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, to the Grand Barriere Bridge joining Rwanda and Congo — to show your support for women’s causes and celebrate women’s achievements.
  • Couldn’t make it to a participating bridge? You could also show support by “checking in virtually” using Street View. The Google Map showed events hosted by Google, by the Women for Women International organization, by hosted supporters, and by hosted online supporters.
  • Not only did Google change its logo for International Women’s Day, the “Pegman” icon found on Google Maps was also changed to a female version.
  • Below the map of events, they listed ways to support women’s causes. Each section listed places to donate, and information about each cause. Under the “empowerment” tab we learn that 75 percent of all women cannot get bank loans because they have unpaid or insecure jobs and lack property ownership rights. We see in the “economic security” section that women perform two-thirds of the world’s work and produce half the world’s food, but earn just 10 percent of the income and own 1 percent of the property. And in the “health section,” we learn that 99 percent of maternal deaths are preventable, but every minute a woman dies from pregnancy-related causes.
  • International Women’s Day also brought out the celebrities, including Geena Davis – whose gender-and–media institute was one of the affiliated causes—and Annie Lennox, who will help lead the London event.

• del Toro’s Lovecraft Adaptation Nixed (JP)
  • Guillermo Del Toro of Pan’s Labyrinth fame… who ‘left’ (or was fired depending on who’s story you believe) The Hobbit was set to make a $150 million live-action film of H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness.”
  • has been canned by the studio… This is very disappointing to myself and anyone else was looking forward to a well done telling of a Lovecraft story….
    • Lots have been done… none have been done justice…

• Hitting the Road to SXSW With Geek Entrepreneurs (udg)
  • So a couple dozen coders and geek entrepreneurs step off a shiny, high-tech bus at a barbecue joint in Texas.
  • Nope, it’s not a joke.  It’s the Startup Bus, which is, yes, a group of a couple dozen coders and geek entrepreneurs riding a shiny, high-tech bus through the Lone Star State from their hometowns to the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, part of the broader SXSW music and film festival.
  • This is not your standard road trip though, it’s a high-paced competition. Yesterday they boarded the bus, were broken up into small teams and have 48 hours to come up with the best, most viable, tech start-up.  And we’re not talking just one bus. 150 “busrepreneur” loaded their laptops and red bull in cities from New York, to Miami, Cleveland and Chicago to San Fran. In two sleepless days they will have to build a start-up from the ground up and the best team will take home the glory and possible future funding when everyone hits Austin.
  • This is the brainchild of Australian entrepreneur Elias Bizannes who created the Startup Bus and took his first group of buspreneurs to Austin last year.
  • “It’s about developing the people in a contained environment that mimics a real start-up situation with constraints,” Bizannes said, “to get people to focus on what’s important…For Startup Bus, we’re trying to develop the entrepreneurial potential of people by helping them develop their experience, network, skills, and confidence. What we are really trying to do is build a community where the Startup Bus experience is simply the initiation rite into that community…a closed community where job and partnership opportunities can be shared, co-founders can be met, and ideas can be shared–in an environment where everyone can be vetted, trusted, and accessible.”
  • Once the buses hit the pavement, a Startup Bus stock market game will begin. According to Bizannes “It’s a game where all the start-ups are listed on a stock market and their share price increases through a combination of milestones that the teams achieve and actions that players–i.e. people not on the bus–perform.
  • The  Startup Bus organizers have arranged to ensure that just about everything that happens onboard is posted online–be it a blog post by a team member, a tweet, a video, or a photo–and geotagged so that the viewing public can follow along more or less in real time.
  • I want to know that Bizannes is a scout for the Angel List and I think this is an awesome idea, but take issue with his whole “initiation rite” into a “closed community”

• Meth Dealer in Danger of losing 18,753 Comic Books
  • Guy gets caught for manufacturing meth
  • Gov’t claims that he was laundering money by buying rare comics
  • Personally, THIS IS GENIUS!!!, although I don’t support illegal drug habits
  • Whats to say the guy just didn’t love the medium? Maybe he just wanted an awesome collection?
  • Guy is still going to get his day in court.

• Spiderman Postpones Opening (udg)
  • For those of you on the edges of your seats for the March 15th opening of “Spider-Man: Turn of the Dark” on Broadway, you may want to sit back and relax a bit. It seems the producers are planning a huge overhaul of the $65 million musical.
  • As of late Tuesday, the new opening night is also not clear. An official start in June wold mark the 6th delay to the opening of “Spider-Man” in the show’s long and troubled history which began in 2002 when Marvel first reached out to Broadway producer Tony Adams with the idea. It has since survived Mr. Adam’s death in 2005, almost bankrupted in 2009 and faced technical issues regarding its arial stunts this past Fall and Winter which lead to the injuries of 4 performers and numerous state and federal safety code violations. Not to mention it just completed its 99th preview performance on Tuesday night, more than any other show in history and it’s also twice as expensive as the next big-budget Broadway show, “Shrek the Musical.”
  • Bottom line-  fiercely negative reviews from most of the nation’s theater critics last month have led the producers to feel the show needs fresh eyes and have asked Julie Taymor, who is its director, one of its script writers, its mask designer and far and away its chief creative force to work with new collaborators or face another resolution, possibly even leaving.

Intarweb Goldmine

• Klepto Kitty (udg)
  • Dusty, a Siamese cat in Redwood City CA has redefined Cat Burglar. His owner, Jean Chu, recently displayed hundreds of items on tables in front of their home hoping the owners would come by and claim the goods.
  • The items included balls, towels, car wash mitts, gloves, shirts, bathing suits and other miscellaneous clothing. Chu estimates that Dusty — who has been dubbed “Klepto Kitty” — has stolen more than 500 items over the years.
  • Chu said Dusty leaves at night through a pet door that is left open for the family dogs. He retrieves items left on neighboring porches and in backyards — a favorite being bathing suits in the summer.
  • Neighbors claimed the clothing, but most of the towels remained. Chu is thinking of donating those to the Peninsula Humane Society, which rescued Dusty as a kitten.

• Everyone’s Gotta Have a Goal- World’s Youngest Grandma (SM)

• Girl Scout Cookie Crime At It Again (udg)
  • First there was a brawl over thin mints, now that’s not powdered sugar in that box of Girl Scout cookies.  A New Port Richey man was arrested after police found cocaine in a Girl Scout cookie box inside his car. Police say they pulled Stevenson Papin over because one headlight was out.
  • During the traffic stop, the officer noticed an empty box of Girl Scout cookies with a small plastic baggie inside. The box was next to Papin’s leg.
  • Police say the baggie had a white rock-like substance inside. A field test on the substance was positive for cocaine.
  • According to police, Papin said “I ain’t going to say it’s mine, but I ain’t gonna make your jobs harder. Take me to jail.”
  • Papin’s request was granted. He was taken to jail and charged with possession of cocaine.
    • (JP – now we know why those thin mints are so damn addictive!!!) (STEVEN… Hands off my joke!!!)
• Residents Evacuated to Dunkin Donuts, After it Was Just Robbed
• Intruder and Home Owner Call the Police on Each Other (JP) (If I may steal this one…)
  • Oregon police say both an intruder and a Portland homeowner phoned 911 to report the same thing: a strange man in a home.
  • Lt. Kelli Sheffer says the intruder told police he had just broken into a home Monday evening when the owner arrived — and the caller was worried the homeowner might have a gun.
  • Accompanied by his two German Shepherds, the homeowner found the intruder and asked what he was doing in the house. That’s when the stranger locked himself in a bathroom and phoned police.
  • The homeowner called police with his account.
  • Sheffer says 24-year-old Timothy James Chapek, of Portland, was booked into jail for investigation of first-degree criminal trespass.
  • Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/03/07/national/a220103S00.DTL#ixzz1GA59wsla

Extra Links

• XBox and PS3 Sell More than Wii in Feb

Contact Info

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We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we discuss the Mobile World Conference, Wonder Woman on NBC, Lots of gaming news, and even some SNAFU’s from the US government

Intro Jeremy
Intro Natali

Items of Interest

• Kid saves Family using moves he learned from WoW (JP)
  • One of my CoWorkers sent this to me to share on the show… so special thanks to Mike for this one…
  • Hans Jørgen Olsen, a 12-year-old Norwegian boy, saved himself and his sister from a moose attack
  • Skills used??? Taunting to draw the Moose away from his sister and after running in the opposite direction he then he feigned death the other skill he learned from the game till the moose lost interest. Then he ran home to tell his tale.
• Left 4 Dead Valentines
• Be my Portal Valentine?
• SuperHarmony (udg)
  • Are you lonely? Looking for someone special? Are you also okay with tights-wearing crime fighters or perhaps amoral megalomaniacs bent on world domination and/or life of crime?  Well dearies, than SuperHarmony is the dating site for you. Superheroes and villains need love too. Now SuperHarmony is bringing real happiness to some really super people. Why? Cuz love is super!

• MoSerious (udg)
  • Okay, so Michael Bolton from Office Space got nothin’ on me. I’ll blast my stuff and not roll up the window like a lil punk. Well today I had friend send me a clip of Mo Serious. Mo is awesome. He calls himself The SEO Rapper layin down rhymes that actually prove he knows his stuff. From design coding to page ranking, you definitely need to check him out!

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

Big Exciting News… We are very close (depending on Apple) to being able to test and release our first iPhone app!!! (@JebsApps) it’ll be Movie History… with lots of new features (that we can’t make androids do… yet) but both will be getting a huge update to the Database!!! and right on the heels of that will be Geek History with a bigger update to the Database!!! So… More Geekiness… = More GeekyGoodness!!
Get yours today if you have an Android for only $0.99 to keep up with facts like:
Today in MovieHistory 2/16/1957
LeVar Burton, Star Trek: TNG’s Geordie LaForge, is born.

Deals of the Week / New Release

• Cowboys & Aliens Comic Giveaway (udg)
  • Geekosystem is all about sharing the love and right now that love comes in the form of 5 copies of the Cowboys & Aliens comic book that inspired the movie. Want one of these awesome hardbacks? You’re going to have to fight for it, but the fighting is fun.
  • Here’s the dealio- head on over to their Facebook Page and tell them what improbable but awesome match up you want to see made into a movie. The possibilities are infinite: Zombie Nuns vs Vampire Samurai, Mega Shark and Giant Octopus vs Sharktopus, Teen Wolf vs Team Edward- you name it!
  • Give them your unnatural (or surprisingly natural) pairing and you could take home a copy of Cowboys and Aliens.
• Marvel vs Capcom 3 (udg)
  • It’s been more than a decade since Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes debuted in arcades, yup I said arcades. Yesterday the long awaited Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds arrived for Xbox and PS3. So, what can you expect?
  • First of all, I haz a HUGE sad I don’t have a 360 so it’ll be awhile before I can actually try this game out for myself. While it’s only been out for a day, all the reviews I found agree on two things- it’s fun and the graphics are awesome. What more could ya want?

• This week on Blu-Ray
  • Dr. Who, a christmas carol
  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  • Dungeons and Dragons 2 Movie Pack – (2000 original w/ jeremy irons and the direct to video Wrath of the Dragon God
  • Unstoppable (Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson – train out of control, blah blah blah)

Geek Speak

• Mobile World Congress
  • Nokia, Microsoft joining forces
    • Microsoft offers Billions to a deep partnership (vs. google)
    • Plan is to make a 3rd ecosystem (behind android and Iphone)
    • Will still support Symbian developers (all 3 of them)
    • Some aren’t too hip to the movement (9 investors speak out – Next up, 9 Apple investors want Jobs to stop wearing turtlenecks)
    • Verizon not too hip about relationship (they were burned by kin – now have Iphone – why need more)
    • Is it a good move? Where do they go but to M$? (RIM, Palm OS, everything else)
  • Rumor: IPhone to get smaller version
    • This now spans 3 publishers (U.K. Daily Mail, WSJ, Bloomberg)
    • $200 (without subsidy) is the rumored price point
    • ? the size of the current IPhone
    • Obviously a software rev would be needed (yet more fragmentation)
  • Next gen Galaxy Tab and Galaxy SII hit
    • Tab = honeycomb, faster 1ghz dual core (bringing it up to spec), 1.23 lbs, dual cameras (8/2),  no USB or HDMI
    • Galaxy S II =  2.3 gingerbread, 8.5 mm thick 4.3”” SAMOLED, NFC Support, etc, etc.
  • XPeria Play Phone Specs and Hands on (exclusively on Verizon)
    • Vroom! Pretty much a standard Android phone but w/ the Playstation suite
    • You will have to re-buy your PSN content on the Android Marketplace
    • Both digital and analog inputs
  • Using Cell Phone as wallet coming 2012
    • Huge push for the “NFC” chip, w/ T-mobile adopting 2012
    • It’s a chip that sends wirelessly over very short distances, “4-inches”
    • Wave it over a terminal and it makes a payment
    • Apples name was dropped
  • Google unveils video editor for Honeycomb
    • Trying to catch up w/ some of the Apple staples
    • Will be able to edit video, sound track, etc to make your videos more “social friendly”

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• 150million PS2’s sold (SM)
  • and 1.5 BILLION units of software sold over its liftetime
  • Whopping 10k+ library of games
  • First launched in 2000 to Japan (that short ago?)
  • Perspective: 2 per minute = 285 years to complete sales

• Batman: Arkham City No Can Haz Multiplayer (udg)
  • If you’re like me and heart Arkham Asylum, you’ve probably been looking forward to its upcoming sequel to it, Arkham City.  If you were hoping to play Robin the Boy Wonder alongside your friend’s Batman, you’re gonna haz a sad though cuz Rockstar has confirmed that it will NOT have multiplayer or coop play, contrary to the rumors that have been flying around.
  • Why? According to an interview with IGN their “Thought process behind this was fairly simple: when we investigated adding multiplayer we asked, ‘If we use all of the energy that is required to create multiplayer and instead focus this on the single player, would that deliver a better overall game?
  • “With the game now coming to the final stages, I can honestly say it would not have been possible to deliver Arkham City the way we wanted to if we’d have added multiplayer
  • “So it might not be the fashionable choice, it might not get us an extra tick on the box, but we are convinced, and we hope that gamers will agree when they get to play the finished game, that we have made the right decision.”
  • Which, I gotta say, sounds fair enough. I’m still gonna hope to see multiplayer brought in the mix with Arkham Asylum 3.

• Activision Bails Out of Guitar Hero, Cancels Games (JP)
  • Following in the footsteps of MTV Games, Activision Blizzard has closed its music-game division
  • Hundreds of employees are being laid off, all 2011 games are cancelled
  • Latest Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock only sold 86,000 units
  • Decline of Genre, soaring cost of licensing and producing games, cited for closure
  • True Crime: Hong Kong also hit
  • 500 employees (7% of the total are slated to be axed)
  • Plans to ramp back up around a secret MMO from Blizzard will put them back above 7000 employees near the end of the year

• Zynga worth $7-9 billion (SM)
  • This up from the 5.5 billion in October
  • Perspective: EA is worth around 6 billion dollars
  • The debil is trying to rais some chump change (250 million dollars)
  • Despite not needing it, ppl are jumping at chance, public trade is rumor
  • Beotch slap: Facebook is valued at around $50 billion

• Pokemon Goes Online (udg)
  • Since the creation of Pokemon, you’ve been able to play it via handheld Nintendo devices, the trading card games with friends, you’ve been able to watch the TV series or films as a kid. But, you’ve never been able to play it online… until now.
  • Enter Pokemon Trainer Challenge. It basically takes the Pokemon trading cards and makes them digital so you can play against friends from your computer. It’s set for a live launch in April and will initially offer 3 preconstructed trading card decks and 14 virtual players to challenge. Nintendo is smart though so there will be a set of physical trading cards coming out the support the game. The Pokemon Black and Pokemon White decks can be used to unlock the virtual deck versions in Trainer Challenge and will be out April 6.
  • The game will be available to play at PokemonCG.com.

• Apple offers deal to wary publishers (JP)
  • The promise of “magazines” and subscription content has been there since release
  • Nothing has really materialized as the publishers and Apple has squabbled over rights and percentages
  • Finally, Apple has made a decision. Any subs you bring to the table, you keep everything, any subs that Apple brings to the table through its services, they keep 30%
  • Here’s what some content producers aren’t digging,
    • No details about Apple customers get automatically sent to them (apple manages and keeps all that data)
    • Price has to stay the same between ITunes and their website
    • Google is giving more generous terms on their platform
  • Rhapsody already threatening legal and drop-out over 30% tax
  • Netflix, Hulu Plus, Time magazine, etc still havent’ brought what they think of the new deal to the table, only time will tell

• Civ IV Theme Wins a Grammy in Music (SM)
  • Won a grammy for “Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist”
  • First Video Game music to win such an award
  • Basically, its the opening theme song for Civ IV
  • Included in an album “Calling all Dawns” by Christopher Tin
  • Beautiful sweeping music accompanied by a Swahili vocal… gorgeous

• Don’t Mess With The Bieber (udg)
  • In case you missed the Grammys this weekend, Esperanza Spalding took home the win for best new artist. Which seems to have left some Bieber fans just a little bit pissed. One of them so much so that they decided to hack her Wikipedia page by adding “Quesadilla” to her name and then busting out the all caps for “JUSTIN BIEBER DESERVED IT GO DIE IN A HOLE. WHO THE HECK ARE YOU ANYWAY?” Okay, first of all Sunshine, punctuation is your friend and b. I know scrolling down is tough, but you are on Wikipedia so you could have actually read the answer to the question you seemed so interested in finding out.
  • Many of you listening probably have not heard of Esperanza. She’s now the first jazz musician to take home this award, is highly talented and rightfully earned the win.  So, pull your panties out of a wad Bieberites and expand your musical horizons just a bit, it’ll do ya good and for the love of all that is holy and sacred, stay away from Wikipedia unless you’re going to actually read and learn from it.

• Oops! US Gov Accidentally Shuts Down 84,000 Web Sites (JP)
  • In a HUGE effort to corral child pornography  ICE’s cybercrime center seized various domain that were purportedly involved in child pornography
  • They did manage to find a district judge to sign off on the warrant
  • However, they made a slight clerical error, mooo.com (from Freedns.com) was seized and it contained 84,000 sub domains of personal websites and small businesses
  • These were admittedly, not a planned part of the seizure
  • For 6 days these sites were redirected to a very scary page stating in legalese that these ppl were being investigated for child pornography
  • Eventually fixed
  • Recent homeland security press release mentions nothing of the error and there is no formal apology out there for the “inconvenience” of smirching their good names
    • Who smells a law suit or two thousand coming??

• Cool Tech: Hydrogen Powered Phone Recharger (SM)
  • Uses a disposable water fuel cell to produce Hydrogen energy
  • Being marketed as a hikers dream
  • Basically takes water and splits the hydrogen then runs it through fuel cell to make an electric current to charge a USB device or its own battery
  • Also see Hydrofill (shown at CES)

• Casting Sheet for WW Revealed (udg)
  • The casting sheet for the new Wonder Woman TV series is out and here are some key points:

• Wonder Woman is being cast older as Kelley has her in the script “late 20s to 30s.” No race is specified but there is a reference to black hair and blue eyes. She’s “a real woman who yearns to live a normal life.”
• Open ethnicity casting for Etta, Myndi and Steve Trevor
• Ed Indelicato, the cop from Boston (and he is still from Boston in the pilot) could possible have some romantic tension with Diana/Wonder Woman.
• Filming starts March 15 in LA

• [WONDER WOMAN / DIANA THEMYSCIRA / DIANA PRINCE] Female, late 20s to 30s. A kick-ass Superhero / Powerful C.E.O. / A vulnerable woman. Long flowing black hair, blue eyes. Amazon-like, muscular, an Olympian. The charismatic stage presence of a rock star. A crime fighter. Also, a real woman who yearns to live a normal life. She is accessible and appealing to all people, men and women alike…SERIES LEAD. ASP.
• [MYNDI MAYER] Female, open ethnicity, 30s. Publicist, Press Secretary and Wonder Woman’s confidant and nurturing best friend. Worldy and edgy. Sexy and persuasive, her appearance is part of her strength. She is beautiful and put together – dressed expensively in the latest fashions, plus she’s got a bit of bite, clever wit and sass. She’s the prodder of Diana’s social life…SERIES REGULAR. ASP.
• I like the fact that kick-ass is in there. The “rock star” part worries me just a  bit. The yearning to live a normal life part also sits a little off with me.
• WW = Princess Diana = Adrianne Palicki
  • Friday Night Lights star Adrianne Palicki has been chosen to embody Princess Diana in David E. Kelley’s Wonder Woman pilot on NBC.

• • Twenty-seven year old Palicki, who also starred in Supernatural and the filmLegion, stands a lofty 5?11? tall. The news came just late this evening courtesy of the Hollywood Reporter.

• • Oddly enough, Palicki had a brush with DC Comics before. She was in an episode of Smallville but was also cast as Siren in the Aquaman television pilot that was never picked up.
  • In high school, the actress played basketball and played track so it’s likely she’ll be able to keep up with the physicality of the role. Palicki can be seen next in the remake of Red Dawn with Thor star Chris Hemsworth

• Felicia Day Writing & Starring in Dragon Age Web Series (JP)
  • One of the fan-favorite geek girls out there is set to take on a new role
  • Felicia will be writing and starring in a 6 ep. web series based around a popular RPG “Dragon Age”, made by Bioware
  • Show has been dubbed Dragon Age: Redemption
  • another popular RPG out there (made by Bioware)
  • Previous credits include:
    • “The Guild” (wrote and starred – based on WoW)
    • Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (Co-star)
    • And frequent guest star for Joss Whedon

• Huge Rumor: AMD up for Sale, Dell might be interested (SM)
  • We reported back in january about CEO Dirk Meyer leaving
  • COO left last week (Robert Rivet)
  • There’s no management team really left
  • Current interim Thomas Seifert doesn’t want job
  • buzz is that company is up for sale, Dell is interested
  • This is the #2 chip maker IN THE WORLD!
  • Bigger than when AMD bought ATI (video chip maker)

Intarweb Goldmine

• Football and Porn – Kind of a No No (JP)
  • Imagine this: Biggest game of the year, you gather your family around the ol’ boob toob, chips, family, their kids, everyone watching the game
  • BLAM! Hardcore porn cuts in the middle and plays for 37 seconds
  • What do you do? A) Hoot and holler and make bets on who wins? B) run around screaming and telling your 3 year old that it was a nature clip of animals in the wild? B) Vote for it as better than 99% of the other commercials out there?
  • Well, one man Frank Gonzales, from Tuscon Arizona, made people choose, 80,000 of them to be exact, by slicing into the main feed and putting that stuff into the stream
  • Time Warner was so horrified, it gave each subscriber $10
  • Man, thats some expensive porn
• Alien Tumor Found in California Man (udg)
  • Like part of the storyline from the 1979 sci-fi classic “Alien,” a California man discovered he had a large,  alien-type tumor growing inside him complete with tenacles.
  • After Josh Abken, 36,  complained of back pains last year.  He thought he’d pulled a muscle, but the X-ray revealed something both frightening and bizarre. It was a soccer-ball-sized tumor that sprouted tentacles and had apparently been quietly growing inside him for almost a decade.
  • The tumor, dubbed “Gill,” began to apply pressure on Abken’s heart, moving his lungs out of normal position and causing his stomach to push downward. And it was partially calcified, or hard like a rock.
  • It took several hours of surgery, but thoracic surgeon Costanzo Di Perna successfully remove the cancerous tumor, giving Abken a new lease on life.
• The Fast and the Fantastically Stupid (SM)
  • Guy pegs out his car at 118 MPH, Tapes it for Youtube, Cop pulls him over
  • Claims to only have been doing 90-100 but this genius got real smart
  • He showed the cops the footage of the dashboard camera
  • Duh, it showed his speedometer needle pegged out
  • Guy gets charged with reckless driving and charged almost a $1000 for the incident
  • And they let geniuses like this drive every day
• Woman Calls 911 for Police Harassing Her At Her Door
• Grapes of Wrath (udg)
  • Sebastiano Russo, 75, seems to have just a lil bit of an anger issue. He and his ex-wife, Claire Russo, 71, live together as “a family unit” even though they divorced in 2003.
  • According to a witness Sebastiano arrived home drunk Tuesday around 11 p.m. and began an argument about bringing his new girlfriend to their mutual home, according to the Orlando Sentinel. He then threw a grape at his ex-wife’s face, then threatened to kill her and burn down the house reports the Orlando Sentinel.
  • Those “sour grape” actions landed the Orange City man a cot in the Volusia County Jail. He’s charged with aggravated battery on a person age 65 or older and a misdemeanor assault charge, according to Volusia County Sheriff’s Office records.
• In Honor of Tax Season: Silly Tax Hikes
  • own a vacation home in NY? Pay 1 million in taxes for being a year-round resident even though you don’t live there year round
  • 2.9 % sales tax on candy, soda, software, drect mail food items, and agricultural compounds like bull semen, and online sales
  • online
• Optimus Prime Gets a Parking Ticket
• Freed Chilean Miners Talk Drugs, Porn, Sex Dolls.. Wait, What? (udg)
  • The 33 men rescued from a Chilean mine were smuggled drugs and pornography during their time underground, but their request for inflatable sex dolls went unmet due to a shortage.
  • A new book disclosed that the men’s request for sex dolls was denied because their doctor was afraid jealousy could spread after only 10, rather than 33, dolls were found.
  • The bizarre details of the men’s lives down in the mine will be contained in a new book by journalist Jonathan Franklin, extracts of which were published in The (London) Sunday Times.

Extra Links

• 5 Amazing Things Invented By Donald Duck. Seriously.
• How to design MK Fatalities
• Zune Rebranding Rumored
• Google Street View Photography wins award

Contact Info

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Jeremy is @jpuent, Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
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