ThePowerGeeks.com » sony http://thepowergeeks.com The Power Geeks Radio Show Wed, 03 Aug 2011 03:25:22 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 For Geeks, By Geeks. We update every week to bring you the latest in everything geek. Tech, gaming, movies, and general nerdery. Get you geek on Neeenjas! Steven Molen clean Steven Molen darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com (Steven Molen) The Power Geeks Radio Show ThePowerGeeks.com » sony http://thepowergeeks.com/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/power_symbol_square.jpg http://thepowergeeks.com The Power Geeks #104 http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/06/the-power-geeks-104/ http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/06/the-power-geeks-104/#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 04:31:32 +0000 DarthMolen http://thepowergeeks.com/?p=16693

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.

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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
  • 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 :D
        • 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!”

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]]> http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/06/the-power-geeks-104/feed/ 1 android,Apple,China,comics,E3,gaming,Geek,ipad,IPhone,Microsoft,pc,ps3 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) - 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, Steven Molen clean 1:40:14 The Power Geeks #102 http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/05/the-power-geeks-102/ http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/05/the-power-geeks-102/#comments Thu, 26 May 2011 05:12:55 +0000 DarthMolen http://thepowergeeks.com/?p=16687 We are LIVE on Ustream . Happy International Geek Pride, Star Wars week, and Towel day folks. We talk Peoples in deep space, Brain cells in a petri dish, and we have a special guest this week Barrett Brown to talk to all of us

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

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?
  • 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

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)

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.
  • 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.

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]]> http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/05/the-power-geeks-102/feed/ 1 android,Anonymous,Apple,Barrett Brown,China,facebook,gaming,Geek,Microsoft,MW2,MW3,pc We are LIVE on Ustream . Happy International Geek Pride, Star Wars week, and Towel day folks. We talk Peoples in deep space, Brain cells in a petri dish, and we have a special guest this week Barrett Brown to talk to all of us - Intro Natali We are LIVE on Ustream . Happy International Geek Pride, Star Wars week, and Towel day folks. We talk Peoples in deep space, Brain cells in a petri dish, and we have a special guest this week Barrett Brown to talk to all of us 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? 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 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 Steven Molen clean 1:40:11 The Power Geeks #101 http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/05/the-power-geeks-101/ http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/05/the-power-geeks-101/#comments Thu, 19 May 2011 03:59:35 +0000 DarthMolen http://thepowergeeks.com/?p=16684 We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we …
Intro Natali
Intro Ben

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.

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.
  • 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

  • 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.”

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]]> http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/05/the-power-geeks-101/feed/ 0 android,Apple,China,facebook,games,gaming,Geek,google,internet,ipad,IPhone,Microsoft We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we ... Intro Natali Intro Ben - 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, We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we ... Intro Natali Intro Ben 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, ... Steven Molen clean 1:25:35 The Power Geeks #99 http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/05/the-power-geeks-99/ http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/05/the-power-geeks-99/#comments Thu, 05 May 2011 04:03:49 +0000 DarthMolen http://thepowergeeks.com/?p=16676

We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk Bin Laden (who hasn’t), Star Wars Day, Plenty of gaming news, and even a Dr. Horrible sequel, this and much more!

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

  • Super Mario All Stars (udg)
    • It’s the 26th anniversary of Mario and what better way to celebrate than with shoes? Not just ANY shoes though- Chuck Taylor Converse All-stars. And holy adorable. There’s lil Marios all over them, the Super Mario Bros’ logo on the tongue and Starman has replaced their usual star logo. These will be hitting the stores in July and I’m guessing only for a limited time, so grab a pair when you can.
  • Han Shot First Petition (udg)
    • One thing I think we can all agree about when it comes to the 3D redo and release of the Star Wars movies is this- George has the opportunity to right the wrong. Han shot first damnit! And this guy agrees! Check out his video petition to Lucas. :)
  • May the Fourth be with You (btm)
    • Happy Star Wars Day!
    • Official site had had a countdown timer for weeks promising, “All will be revealed” and counting down to 9AM EDT Star Wars Day.
    • And the revelation was? The Complete Saga on Blu-Ray
    • Interesting marketing ploy, when you visit the site a video begins showing you behind the scenes shots and production art, but only for a few seconds, want to see more? Then you have to share the link via your Twitter or Facebook
    • So now you get to see more? Nope. Now you sit and wait for more people to share the link and when some imaginary threshold is met, more of the video will be revealed.
    • Honestly I’m finished buying the movies. I have two sets of VHS tapes, a set of DVDs and I’m done. But if you want the Complete Saga on Blu Ray, it will be available September of this year. And don’t forget the upcoming re-releases in 3D starting next year. I’m sure there will be yet another release at that time.
  • THE POWER GEEK’S 100TH EPISODE (we really need to start hyping this up and nailing out an exact plan for next week)
    • I was told there would be punch and pie. If not, I won’t be appearing. (btm)
  • Cheers Ben (SM)
    • Well, if I’m nothing else, I’m a man of my word. I guess I’ll be there (btm)

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Deals of the Week / New Releases

  • New Movie Releases
    • GREEN HORNET!
    • What Dreams May Come
    • TAPS
    • Hannah Barbara’s – Valley of the Dinosaurs
  • Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday May 7 (btm)
    • Comic Book Shops across the country will be sponsoring events and giving away free or discounted comics.
    • Comic companies will be providing “sampler” issues of many of their titles
    • Be sure to drop by your favorite comic shop and wear a costume. Many have bonuses for that as well.
      • The girls are soooooo psyched!!! (udg)
      • I’m putting together my Power Girl outfit right now (btm)
  • Sweet XB360 Amazon Deal
    • $50 Amazon Gift Card
    • 1600 Microsoft points ($20)
    • 4 GB and 250 GB Bundles (also same size Kinect Bundles)
  • Black Ops “Escalation” DLC
    • 5 new maps
    • Call of the Dead – Features Sarah Michelle Gellar, Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), Danny Trejo (Machete), and Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead)
  • EA Week on Steam
    • Check back each day for a different deal
    • (SM) I missed the Dragon Age deals :(

Movie Minute (new feature)

  • Dr. Horrible Sequel!! (udg)
    • With the upcoming Avengers movie and staying all kinds of involved with the Buffy and Angel comics at Dark Horse, Joss Whedon is a busy, busy guy. Thankfully not too busy to sit down with the NY Times “Art Beat” column and let it slip that a sequel to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is coming.
    • “We’ve got several songs near completion and we’ve got a very specific structure.” Whedon said. Doing a continuation of his cult webseries is definitely something he “has his heart into,” but it’s all a matter of having enough time:  ”We’ve just all got jobs. And it’s not like Neil, Nathan and Felicia ain’t busy either. We get together at Christmas and family occasions, and then play each other our partial songs and go, “Yup, that’s still exactly as it was the last time we played it. We’re great.” It’s bad.”
    • He  also joked that the title of the Dr. Horrible sequel would be called “Dr. Horrible and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” silly silly Joss.

Geek Speak

  • The Internet’s New Alternate Reality: It’s Positive and Negative affect on historical events.
    • We are quickly approaching our 100th episode. In that time, we’ve talked a great deal about the affect that the Internet and sites such as Twitter and Facebook have had as an impact on our lives. We’ve talked about how technology has allowed events that would have taken hours to make it’s way around the world now does it in seconds. How with one click of a cell phone camera, the contents of that click attached and tweeted- worlds can be witnessed like never before.
    • Tonight we talk about the impact that the Internet has had and will have on history.
    • Until very recently, if every professional news organization in the nation examined a charge and found it baseless, it was — for all intents and purposes — dropped. Today, the growth of the Internet has drained the noun “news” of its former authority. If you don’t like the facts presented on the sites of established news organizations, you simply keep clicking until you find one whose “facts” accord with your beliefs.
      • “There are no more arbiters of truth,” former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told the Politico website. “So whatever you can prove factually, somebody else can find something else and point to it with enough ferocity to get people to believe it. We’ve crossed some Rubicon into the unknown.
  • The main point of topic: The internet’s Positive and Negative affect on historical events. The ease at which a rumor that appears to be completely true (i.e. the now clearly photoshopped photo of a supposed dead Osama believed to be released by the Persian Media that major news organizations ran with as truth) and quite the opposite- 9/11- google it, search it on YouTube and there are thousands of conspiracy sites and videos everywhere that actually appear legit enough to make people think.  The very documents leaked by WikiLeaks last week are being speculated as lighting the match that made the decisions made by President Obama have to occur this past weekend. The saying “don’t like the answer? Keep googling” is so true. How will all of this affect world history for our future generations? What will the definitive source be now? Our high schoolers can now quote Wikipedia – a user edited site and Twitter in papers.

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

  • The Science Behind “That’s What She Said” (udg)
    • We’ve all probably said it once or twice. Steven loves to whip it out whenever he can. I personally kinda suck at it, despite my best efforts. So, ever wonder what exactly makes a good “That’s What She Said”? Well, thanks to research done by Chloé Kiddon and Yuriy Brun of the University of Washington, it turns out it’s all about noun sexiness.
    • Kiddon and Brun, who cite television show The Office as the prime cause behind the repopularization of TWSS, are actually serious, bona fide computer science researchers. Their paper, which will be presented in June at a computer linguistics conference, details their work at improving the parsing and understanding of TWSS jokes, which are a specific subset of the more maturely named double entendre. Mmmm I do love a good double entendre.
    • The intellectually stimulating duo dubbed their method at parsing humor: the DEviaNT approach. They took 1.5 mil sentences from textfiles.com/sex/EROTICA corpus, and 57 thousand non-erotic sentences from the Brown corpus — and then measures how closely-related “a noun, an adjective, and a verb phrase are to the erotica domain.” The end result, if we’re being entirely scientific about it, is a bunch of nouns, verbs, and adjectives with a “sexiness rating.”
    • Because DEviaNT is a learning algorithm, the researchers had to feed it some data so that it could actually learn what a TWSS looks like, and more importantly what a TWSS doesn’t look like. Their choice was positive examples from twssstories.com, and false examples from textsfromlastnight.com, fmylife.com, and wikiquote.org. Then, with sexiness ratings and an accurate linguistic model of what makes up a TWSS, the researchers started feeding sentences into DEviaNT to see whether it could detect TWSSes.
    • The end result, rather surprisingly, was the accurate detection of That’s What She Said double entendres 71% of the time. Qualitatively, DEviaNT was most capable at identifying noun euphemisms like “don’t you think these buns are a little too big for this meat?” and weaker with ambiguous phrases like “yes give me all the cream and he’s gone.”
    • You know this whole article mixes grammar, scientific algorithms and wraps it with a bow of humor on top. It doesn’t get much more perfect than that for me. Hmm…that may account for why DEviaNT is far more successful at kicking out a better That’s What She Said than I am.
  • Twitter knew about Osama Raid Before We Did (sm)
    • Obama wasn’t the only person to announce the happenings in Pakistan
    • Twitter user, Sohaib Athar, unwittingly micro-blogged the event on the social network site
    • He tweeted about helicopters noises, explosions, plus crashes
    • even his worries of “something worse going down” and faulty “spy copters”
    • All before Obama’s speech came on.
  • Cybercriminals using bin Laden death to spread malware (btm)
    • As with most major news stories criminals are ready with malware
    • Links show up in Twitter and Facebook that lead to malicious sites where you are asked to install a codec to watch a video at which point malware is installed on your computer.
  • Osama’s last attack? Your social news networks (SM)
    • CNN Mobile New site crashed because of the load
    • Most news sites were taking 6x as long to process requests
    • Tweets reached 4,000 p/ second
    • Keith Urbahn, “Former Secretary of Defense Chief of Staff”,  tweeted before Obama’s speech “So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot Damn”
    • Facebook had 200,000 likes of one fan page “Osama Bin Laden is DEAD”
    • How are YOU getting your news nowadays?? The landscape is changing
  • AT&T Broadband Usage Caps Go Into Effect (udg)
    • We’ve covered cell data usage caps on here before. Now it’s coming to your home. If you use AT&T as your ISP beware- the data use cap has begun.
    • America’s largest ISP has now become the 2nd broadband carrier after Comcast to start limiting broadband usage to its customers.
    • DSL users will be capped at 150 GB per month. U-verse users will be capped at 250 per month.  Those that go over the limit more than 3 times in 3 separate months will have to fork over $10 for each 50 GB over the limit.
    • AT&T estimates that, with the average customer ringing in at about 18 GB per month in use, only around 2% of their high-speed Internet customers will be affected. However, rising cloud technologies that sync files with remote servers in the background, customers could face data usage issues under such a plan.
    • Some advocates see the move as a potential hindrance to the growth of the Internet and online innovation. Representative Ed Markey criticized AT&T for undermining national broadband goals and making it more difficult for new adopters to access high-speed Internet.
  • Superman renounces US citizenship (btm)
    • MSM (esp. Fox News) reacted all weekend
    • Commenters on Fox News site goes bat#%&! crazy
    • Several think this “globalization” is to increase overseas sales for upcoming movies
    • (SM)Next thing you know, Thor is going to renounce his citizenship of Asgard because, well, Norse legends are out of style nowadays anyways
  • The App That Turns Your iPhone Into a 3D Scanner (udg)
    • With over 350,000 apps out there, it would seem that every possible idea for the iPhone 4 has been thought up. Georgia Tech researcher Grant Schnidler has proven otherwise. He uses it to create 3D models and now you can too.
    • Schindler’s app, called Trimensional, works by shining light on a person’s face from four directions, and recording the results. These are compiled into a single image that (if you’re using the advanced version of the software) you can export to a 3D printer and create a model of your face, or whatever you’ve scanned. Cleverly, Trimensional does not require any additional equipment to perform the scan, such as a light kit. Instead, it uses the iPhone’s screen as a light source, and records the images with the front-facing camera.
    • Schindler describes the scanning process as answering a series of questions. From the Georgia Tech Digital Lounge:
      • “If I take a scan of my face, the app asks ‘what does the image look like if I shine the light from the left side, what does it look like from the right side,’ and so on. There’s one three-dimensional answer per pixel, and combining all those answers results in the full 3-D model.”
    • I see a wide variety of uses for this app and encourage you to check out the link in the show notes to watch a video of it in action.
  • Artists and writers start anti-bullying Kickstarter drive for comic (btm)
    • Original comic produced at a 24 Hour Comic Day event by Charles “Zan” Christensen and Mark Brill.
    • Inspired by last year’s rash of gay teen suicides
    • Art being reworked and cleaned up for a more polished look and to include new bonus pages by Dan Parent, Gail Simone, Phil Jimenez, Carla Speed McNeil, Andy Mangels and Donna Barr.
  • Home Gaming Consoles in Apple’s Future ? (udg)
    • For years rumors have flown about an Apple Gaming Console. And for years we all pretty much laughed at them. But, a good look at the A5 processor that the new iPad 2 is sporting may have us at least stop laughing for a bit.
    • Most have dismissed the revised hardware on the iPad 2 as accomplished, but fairly underwhelming. However, underneath the hood of that A5 shows an unprecedented leap in mobile games-playing power.
    • The article I stumbled upon for this item goes into some pretty incredible detail on the iPad 2 as an actual soft core gaming device and is a pretty good read. It gets into the details of things such as fill rates and frames per second.
    • It’s clear this is a hardware design that is about so much more than just a revised form factor and a bunch of cameras. Add to it that Apple also recently added Nintendo’s ex-head of communications Rob Saunders and Activision’s UK PR director, Nick Grange to their UK operations and they could possibly be laying the groundwork for the future of its gaming business.
    • What is that future? Do I personally see Apple coming out with a Gaming Console? While they plead a good case in the article, I don’t see it. What I do see is Apple doing what Apple does. Seeing a way to get in on the booming mobile gaming industry, while integrating it into their already useful products. In short- they see the future potential, it already fits into their product line, now they’re going to bump it up a notch.

Intarweb Goldmine

  • Jersey Town Limits Conjugal Visits (udg)
    • A New Jersey town is cock blocking both literally and figuratively. Hopewell Township has adopted an ordinance that regulates when chickens and roosters can hook up in backyard henhouses.
    • Roosters must show they’re disease-free and they better not crow about their conquests.
    • Hopewell Township residents can have up to a half-dozen hens on half-acre lots. Roosters would be allowed only 10 days a year for fertilization purposes.
    • Mature roosters are not allowed because they’re too noisy. Any roosters that crow too long can be banned from the property for two years.
    • Mayor Jim Burd told The Times of Trenton the ordinance is a compromise between today’s lifestyle and the township’s agricultural history.
  • Washington Man Shaves Beard (btm)
    • Has had beard since the 9/11 attacks
    • Vowed not to shave until bin Laden was captured or proven to be dead
    • Middle School teacher in East Wenatchee, WA. used the beard to tell students about the attacks
    • Once story was confirmed he says he wasted no time getting rid of the beard
      • Both he and his wife had wanted rid of it for years, but “a vow is a vow”.
    • His three daughters were in Middle School when he started growing the beard. They are now college age.
  • Words Every Bride Dreams Of- “Would You Like Fries With That?” (udg)
    • It may not be a royal wedding, but a typical Hong Kong marriage ceremony is epic in scope.
    • It involves a team of handlers, photo sessions, multiple banquets, ancestor worship, more photo sessions, countless costume changes, red packets of money, numerology and a suckling pig.
    • McDonald’s, of all places, has a better offer — and, yes, it comes with fries.
    • Beginning in January, the U.S. fast food chain’s Hong Kong operation responded to what it called strong customer demand and began offering wedding party packages at three of its 225 locations. The “Warm and Sweet Wedding Package” pares the wedding process down to the bare essentials.
    • For less than $1,300, a couple gets a venue and decorations, invitation cards, audio equipment, McDonaldland figurines for each guest, an emcee and $385 worth of McDonald’s food.
    • In addition, the bride and groom can choose among wedding gifts that include a crystal McDonald’s house and a pair of balloon wedding rings inscribed with the iconic golden arches.
    • The themed wedding far from a new concept in Hong Kong but McDonald’s is the first fast food restaurant to enter the arena.
  • Robotic French Kiss Peripheral (SM)
    • Guy builds a “mouth communication” device to “mimic” french kissing
    • Records how you move a metal tube on one peripheral and it replicates it to another peripheral.. even over the Internet
    • According to inventor, “It could be a good way for celebrities to interact with their fans” (more like gain stalkers)
    • Not very sophisticated now but plans to also mimic breathing taste, and saliva in the future…
  • Sword Wielding + Skateboard Riding is Bound to = Tasering (udg)
    • Poor Deandre Irby! Dude was just trying to enjoy the day like any young person would—hanging out at the outdoor mall, skating around with his backpack on, maybe think about getting a pretzel and oh, swinging his ‘fantasy sword’ with a 26-inch blade around. What the hell?
    • That’s how the police describe the sword Irby was carrying around. They said that when arrived on scene, Irby tried to flee and hide his sword in the dumpster but couldn’t do it in time. When caught, he refused to cooperate with them and “attempted to grab his sword”, which resulted it him getting tased. Ouch. Unfortunately, Irby didn’t have a concealed weapons permit to carry his sword (which begs the question, who the hell has a concealed weapons permit for a sword?) so he’s been charged with that. Next time, you may wanna leave the sword at home hon.

Extra Links

  • Smart Kids Grow up to be Heavy Drinkers? (btm)
    • Two long term studies (1 British, 1 American) have shown that children with higher than average intelligence grow up to consume alcohol more heavily and more frequently.
    • Theories as to why range from evolution to making up for boring childhoods or my favorite, drinking may be the only way to deal with morons.

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]]> http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/05/the-power-geeks-99/feed/ 0 android,Apple,bin laden,China,games,gaming,Geek,google,IPhone,Microsoft,MW2,nintendo We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk Bin Laden (who hasn’t), Star Wars Day, Plenty of gaming news, and even a Dr. Horrible sequel, this and much more! - Intro Natali Intro Ben - Items of Interest Super Mario All Stars (udg) - We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk Bin Laden (who hasn’t), Star Wars Day, Plenty of gaming news, and even a Dr. Horrible sequel, this and much more! Intro Natali Intro Ben Items of Interest Super Mario All Stars (udg) It’s the 26th anniversary of Mario and what better way to celebrate than with shoes? Not just ANY shoes though- Chuck Taylor Converse All-stars. And holy adorable. There’s lil Marios all over them, the Super Mario Bros’ logo on the tongue and Starman has replaced their usual star logo. These will be hitting the stores in July and I’m guessing only for a limited time, so grab a pair when you can. Han Shot First Petition (udg) One thing I think we can all agree about when it comes to the 3D redo and release of the Star Wars movies is this- George has the opportunity to right the wrong. Han shot first damnit! And this guy agrees! Check out his video petition to Lucas. :) May the Fourth be with You (btm) Happy Star Wars Day! Official site had had a countdown timer for weeks promising, “All will be revealed” and counting down to 9AM EDT Star Wars Day. And the revelation was? The Complete Saga on Blu-Ray Interesting marketing ploy, when you visit the site a video begins showing you behind the scenes shots and production art, but only for a few seconds, want to see more? Then you have to share the link via your Twitter or Facebook So now you get to see more? Nope. Now you sit and wait for more people to share the link and when some imaginary threshold is met, more of the video will be revealed. Honestly I’m finished buying the movies. I have two sets of VHS tapes, a set of DVDs and I’m done. But if you want the Complete Saga on Blu Ray, it will be available September of this year. And don’t forget the upcoming re-releases in 3D starting next year. I’m sure there will be yet another release at that time. THE POWER GEEK’S 100TH EPISODE (we really need to start hyping this up and nailing out an exact plan for next week) I was told there would be punch and pie. If not, I won’t be appearing. (btm) Cheers Ben (SM) Well, if I’m nothing else, I’m a man of my word. I guess I’ll be there (btm) Don’t forget Cinco de Mayo is this week & don’t forget the Pepto for the day after (btm) Continuing it’s massive marketing overhaul Pepto Bismol has released a series of Piñata smashing videos on its YouTube channel to celebrate the day. Recently Peto Bismol shifting it’s marketing focus from traditional media to digital media making use of a Facebook page, YouTube videos, and a Twitter feed. 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 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 GREEN HORNET! What Dreams May Come TAPS Hannah Barbara’s - Valley of the Dinosaurs Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday May 7 (btm) Comic Book Shops across the country will be sponsoring events and giving away free or discounted comics. Comic companies will be providing “sampler” issues of many of their titles Be sure to drop by your favorite comic shop and wear a costume. Many have bonuses for that as well. The girls are soooooo psyched!!! (udg) Steven Molen clean 1:23:02 The Power Geeks #96 http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/04/the-power-geeks-96/ http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/04/the-power-geeks-96/#comments Thu, 14 Apr 2011 04:50:01 +0000 DarthMolen http://thepowergeeks.com/?p=16664 We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk robotics, Wonder Woman Faux Paux’s, Real live LAZERS, and your weekly dose of Chinese conspiracy theories

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

  • Zombies are People too! (SM)
    • Page up in arms about the inhumane treatment of Zombies
    • They only keep their zombies in the safest of cages
    • Fed only a daily brain substitute made from textured soy protein and placed in a mannequin
    • They don’t beat their zombies
    • And they extract the zombie blood with as little mangling as possible for you to drink
    • Due to several incidents, tours are no longer given of their zombie lab or related research facilities. On a related note, we recently acquired more zombies to bleed.
    • Their motto? if a zombie bites you, its bad, if you bite a zombie, its delicious
  • Kill Shakespeare #10 out.. and I dig this series
    • Graphic Novels from IDW
    • Take all Shakespeare’s constructs and put them in a world
    • Reswizzle, add some snazzy illustrations, and a great storyline
    • You get Kill Shakespeare…
    • I LOVE this series!

Gold Sponsors:

Natali’s Etsy!!!

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

Deals of the Week / New Release

  • Can’t afford Photoshop? Adobe has released an upgrade for Creative Suite, ver. 5.5 that supposedly works better with touch-based tablets and smart phones, butnow you can rent individual programs for a monthly or yearly fee. Photoshop starts at $35/month, the entire Master Collection will be $129/month.  You can still buy Photoshop for $699 or Creative Suite Master Collection for $2599 up front. (btm I wonder if other software companies will join in on the “rental software” idea?)

Movie Minute (new feature)

  • KNEEL BEFORE ZOD Michael Shannon cast as General Zod in Zach Snyder’s Superman franchise reboot which has now been officially titled “Man of Steel”. Shannon will be joining the already cast Henry Cavill (Superman/Kent), Kevin Costner (Pa Kent) and Diane Lane (Ma Kent). Shannon known for his Academy Award® nominated role in “Revolutionary Road”. (btm)
    • Also gets official name “Man of Steel” (udg)
      • Like I said ;)  (btm)
      • I’m tarded and didn’t see that  :)
  • Dear WW Fans, Ne We Didn’t REALLY Listen to You(udg)
    • 3 costumes that will all be used. First trainwreck, second car accident and finally “shorty shorts” which they claim are like the ones in the original WW. Really? Shorty shorts????
    • (SM) Wow, just wow… how wrong can you go with a production that could have garnered some real attention and love from fans??
    • (btm) To be fair, what Lynda Carter wore in the original was short shorts over flesh-toned satin tights (just like it says in the song). 1970’s TV Censors wouldn’t let them by with less.
  • Producer of “I, Robot” and “Predator” taking on “Martian Chronicles” (udg)
    • All the 50s Sci-Fi fans, THROW YA HANDS UP!
    • It might be time for Sci-Fi legend Ray Bradbury to get the big budget cinema treatment he deserves.
    • The Hollywood Reporter said Tuesday that Paramount Pictures has picked up the rights to Bradbury’s 1950s collection of loosely-linked short stories, The Martian Chronicles,  and they want John Davis to produce the adaptation.
    • Davis has a lot of Sci-Fi street cred, to be sure. Despite a few missteps in his filmography (like Paycheck…ouch), Davis’ credits also include every film in the Predator franchise (including the AVP flicks), I, Robot and Waterworld, which by now we all have to admit is so bad that it’s good (Come on…Costner drinks his own pee in that movie! His own pee!).
    • The book is a collection of stories written by Bradbury in the 1940s, all focusing on the colonization of Mars by a group of humans fleeing a deteriorating Earth, only to find that the native Martians aren’t too happy to have them there. The story has already produced a TV miniseries released on NBC in 1980, but despite the presence of the late, great Rock Hudson, Bradbury himself dismissed the final product as boring. Mr. Blockbuster himself, Steven Spielberg, optioned the book in the late 90s and hired several writers to work on it, but nothing ever got off the ground, and now it’s in Paramount’s hands.
    • Ray Bradbury is 90 now. Maybe we can get a good movie out of this before he dies. Get your asses in gear, Paramount.
  • Rise of the Planet of the Apes is opening August 5th this year but during a LiveStream event on Facebook with WETA Digital, the people who did the SFX for Avatar and LOTR, it was announced that the first official trailer would be exclusively released on iTunes Movie Trailers starting Thursday April 14th. Currently there’s a 5 second clip on the Rise of the Planet of the Apes Facebook page. Andy Serkis, who provided the motion capture for Gollum and King Kong will be featured as the lead chimp, Caesar. (btm…segue to Hobbit? )
  • Hobbit Update (be sure to visit peter jackson’s fan page and like it)
    • They’re shooting at double the frame rate (48 frames per second) – allows smoothness, less jitters, and helps in the 3-D department
    • Did you know that they’ve been shooting films at 24 fps for 9 decades now?
    • Star Tours used 60 fps process
    • (SM) Very much akin to when Star Wars Ep. 1 came out. Sure ppl can argue the plot sucks but nobody argues how it looked (shot in full digital)

Craig Charles, who played Dave Lister, has announced on the official Red Dwarf blog that the British sci-fi cult classic has been picked up for 10th series (season). The show will begin shooting this year for a yet to be announced 2012 air date. (btm)

Geek Speak

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

  • 2011 Eisner Award Nominations for Best in Comics & Graphic Novels Announced (udg)
    • The Eisner Awards celebrate the best in Comic Books & Graphic Novels and the 2011 Nominations have been announced. We will find out the award winners at this years SDCC on July 22nd and this year’s really represents a wide range of from heartfelt autobiographical works to books aimed at kids and teens to deluxe hardcover archival editions. In fact, unlike in past years, superheroes are very much in the minority in this year’s selections.
    • This is the 23rd year for the Eisners, which is pretty much described as the Oscar’s of the comic industry.  So here are the biggies for this year.
    • Nabbing 5 nominations, including Best Publication for Teens, Best Graphic Novel-New, Best Writer, Best Artist and Best Publication Design- Jim McCann & Janet Lee’s Return of the Dapper Men is definitely leading all the nominees.
    • Just behind Dapper men,  four nominations were Two Comic of Doom Favorites- Morning Glories (Nick Spencer & Joe Eisma) and Locke & Key (Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez).
    • Also receiving multiple nominations was Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys,Chew from Image Comics, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, and Daniel Clowes‘ Wilson.
    • Among this year’s nontraditional “discoveries” by the judges are Seymour Chwast’s adaptation of Dante’s Divine Comedy (Bloomsbury), the “mocumentary” Finding Frank and His Friends by “Clarence ‘Otis’ Dooley” (Curio & Co.), the Native American anthology Trickster (Fulcrum), Lucidity Press’s The Anthology Project, and cartoonist Dave Kellett’s Literature: Unsuccessfully Competing Against TV Since 1953.  (btm.. the link I sent you guys for the review copy has now been posted on his public blog)
    • To check out the full list of nominees, check out Comic-Con’s official webpage here. The Eisner nomination list is always a good way to be exposed to great comics that you may not have heard of before. Tie it in with the “Expand your Comic Mind” contests that the awesome peeps over at Geek Girls Network, Guerrilla Geek and Nerds in Babeland are having to encourage everyone to expand your Comic Minds!
    • (Dapper Men Intro has me sold- “To anyone who ever fell down a rabbit hole, walked to the sidewalk’s end, danced a wild rumpus or followed the second star to the right, may you find adventure, wonder and a little something from which dreams are made in these pages.”-udg)
  • Boy Scouts get a “Robotics” Merit Badge (SM)
    • Finally, after everyone has been asking for years, the BSA is updating their curriculum
    • Robotics is a new merit badge, 1 of 31 STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) badges
    • Badge will teach how to handle actuators, sensors, programming, and a myriad of other requirements
    • more requirements: design, build, program, and test a robot; demonstrate the bot and share their engineering notes; attend a robotics competition or do research on robotics contests; and explain how robots are used today.
    • (SM) This is HUGE! the BSA curriculum has needed and update in FOREVER!
  • Warner Bros Denied Access to Superman Estates’ Documents (udg)
    • The clock is ticking for Warner Bros. and the rights to Superman. In 2013, if things go as planned, they will lose certain rights to the character to the estates of both Siegel and Shuster (the co-creators of Superman).
    • And it’s not looking so good for WB. Recently they were denied access to  a secret document. One that breaks down how the  estates of Joel Shuster and Jerry Siegel will handle the rights to Superman, including not doing deals with Warner Bros. studio. In fact, it also covers how they will split the proceeds on Superman once WB loses the rights.
    • So, on one side  you have DC and Warner Bros. creating new Superman stories for everyone to enjoy and reaping the benefits. On the other, the creators, Joel Shuster and Jerry Siegel, have been trying to sue DC for Superman for their fair share and have been living a poverty-stricken life. Joanne Siegel, wife of Jerry Siegel who inspired the character Lois Lane, died in her deathbed during a time when Warner Bros. execs continued to harass her. “We were just stubborn. It was a dream of Jerry’s, and we just took up the task.”
    • Superman fans will have to continue to watch as the fate of Superman’s future truly is yet to be determined.
  • Navy successfully tests LASER from ship (SM)
    • no this wasn’t one of those non-lethal weapons this was an actual destructive laser
    • Solid State High-energy Laser (HEL) was fired from  ship and disabled a small target vessel.
    • It was on the USS Paul Foster, powered from the ship, guided by radar, and defeated a target at range  (btm… target was a mile away in rough seas)
    • Still a long ways from completion and will never replace kinetic weapons in near future (btm… I had to call a few people to confirm, but I have to tread lightly on this subject as I am still under an NDA from when I did R&D work in Dahlgren with some of their weapon systems)
  • Free Software Makes Using a Mouse Easier for Those W Disabilities (udg)
    • Our entire world revolves around computers. When you have a motor disability, using a mouse can be incredibly frustrating. Well a University of Washington team has invented two mouse cursors that make clicking targets a whole lot easier. And neither requires additional computer hardware – just some free, downloadable software. The researchers hope that in exchange for the software, users offer feedback.
    • The Pointing Magnifier combines an area cursor with visual and motor magnification, reducing need for fine, precise pointing. The UW’s AIM Research Group, which invented the Pointing Magnifier, learned that users can much more easily acquire targets, even small ones, 23 percent faster with the Pointing Magnifier.
    • The magnifier runs on Windows-based computer systems. Software for the Pointing Magnifier includes a control panel that allows the user to adjust color, transparency level, magnification factor, and area cursor size. User preferences are saved when the application is closed. Keyboard shortcuts quickly enable or disable the Pointing Magnifier. The UW team is also making shortcuts customizable.
    • Another AIM technology, the Angle Mouse, similarly helps people with disabilities. Like the Pointing Magnifier, it may be downloaded, and two videos, one for general audiences and another for academic ones, are available as well.
    • When the Angle Mouse cursor initially blasts towards a target, the spread of movement angles, even for people with motor impairments, tends to be narrow, so the Angle Mouse keeps the cursor moving fast. However, when the cursor nears its target and the user tries to land, the angles formed by movements diverge sharply, so the Angle Mouse slows the cursor, enlarges motor space and makes the target easier to get into. The more trouble a user has, the larger the target will be made in motor space. (The target’s visual appearance will not change.)
    • Wobbrock compares the Angle Mouse to a race car. “On a straightaway, when the path is open, the car whips along, but in a tight corner, the car slows and makes a series of precise corrections, ensuring its accuracy.”
    • “Pointing is an essential part of using a computer, but it can be quite difficult and time consuming if dexterity is a problem,” Wobbrock said. “Even shaving one second off each time a person points may save hours over the course of a year.”
    • Wobbrock suggests that users try both the Pointing Magnifier and the Angle Mouse before deciding which they prefer.
    • “Our cursors make ubiquitous mice, touchpads, and trackballs more effective for people with motor impairments without requiring new, custom hardware,” Wobbrock said. “We’re achieving accessibility by improving devices that computer users already have. Making computers friendlier for everyone is the whole point of our work.”
  • Robotics Deployed in Japan Nuclear Disaster, Ranked with Chernobyl (SM)
    • A piece of sad news: The Fukishima disaster has been upgraded to Chernobyl status.
    • So while the country is expanding the evacuation zone to 12 miles
    • still trying to contain the disaster.
    • 900 workers are currently deployed to work the site
    • remote operated loaders and excavators are helping do the work around reactor 3
    • ROBOTS IN UNTENABLE GLOW IN THE DARK SITUATIONS! GENIUS!
    • More of these units are being evaluated that were shipped from US
    • Also using unmanned aerial units to provide monitoring and inspection
  • Apple Patents Hybrid E-Paper Displays for Phones & Tablets (udg)
    • One of the biggest iPad complaints by people who are loyal to their Kindles (or other e-readers) is that high contrast e-paper displays can be read in any light, even outdoors, without the glare and eyestrain of an LCD. They also brag about their battery life being longer than that of the LCD-based tablets.
    • Well, Apple has heard your complaints and a recently uncovered patent filing looks like a way to build a hybrid e-paper/LCD combo display. This could revolutionize mobile devices and tablets as we know it if it works well. The patent is named “Systems and Methods for Switching Between an Electronic Paper Display and a Video Display,” and behind the lingo is technology that could one day allow segments of, or an entire device’s screen to toggle between e-paper mode and LCD mode.
    • The system would work by putting a thin, nearly see-through electronic paper screen on top of the LCD display, but underneath the capacitive touch-sensitive panel. When the user wants to toggle the e-paper mode, the backlighting for the LCD, which is on the bottom, simply turns down or off, and the only thing on-screen that the users sees is the e-paper display. When the user wants to play a video or bring the screen back to color, toggling the LCD mode will stop current to the e-paper layer and bring up the LCD backlighting.
    • Putting the two displays into layers like this would likely mean slightly thicker devices, but not by much –compared to the battery, the displays themselves make up little of the depth of most mobile devices. What may be an issue however is battery life: even though e-paper displays use less power than traditional LCDs, the act of powering up and dimming the backlight for the LCD may impact the battery life of such devices.
    • Apple reportedly filed for the patent way back in 2009 and is just now making the filing public. That doesn’t mean there’s a new product ready to roll out. It just means Apple is letting us and its competitors know it’s working on the possibility. If this does become real, the iPad will definitely be harder to compete with.
  • Facebook Says Screw You China, We’re Coming Anyway, Or Are We? (udg)
    • So, earlier this week Chinese press reported that FB had reached a deal with Chinese search engine Baidy to build a joint social network in China. Yet FB is indirectly denying it to US press.
    • Yeah, which one is it folks?
    • Here’s what we know:
      • Three different sources say it’s a go. Two at  Chinese regulators that say they are reviewing the necessary joint venture application and one at Baidu.
      • FB isn’t exactly denying it on record. Their only comment is “Facebook is currently studying and learning about China, as part of evaluating any possible approaches that could benefit our users, developers and advertisers.”
      • Baidu isn’t commenting at all
    • So what the heck is going on? Well it’s possible that FB hasn’t signed off on all the legals yet, so it’s not set in stone. Chinese regulators would still be aware of the deal even if it was not completely signed yet. The two parties may be keeping it hush in the event the regulators decide to veto the whole thing to avoid either party being embarrassed.
    • On the other hand, we’re talking China here. As soon as the report made it to the US, Baidu’s stock jumped. This could have been planted to the Chinese press by traders to move the stock. Don’t look at me like that. Stuff like that happens in China all the time.
    • It’ll be interesting to see what the true story is. All I know is if anyone’s getting a social network into China, my money is on Zuckerberg. And Zynga.

No more Google Street View in Germany. Google has halted Street View photography in Germany for no apparent reason. Google received a court order that declared street photography to be legal in Germany so this decision has left many baffled. They will continue to use the Google Cars to collect data like street names and road signs to maintain their maps but no new photographs will be taken. (btm)

  • Kiip- Rewarding You for Your Angry Birds Addiction (udg)
    • I love the moments when I see something new and think “jinkies, that’s actually awesome.” Rarely does it happen when advertising or marketing are involved. And then I met Kiip.
    • Kiip, a mobile ads startup, has been around for 7 months but they finally came out of stealth mode to unveil an entirely new entirely new model for in-game advertising. You’ve all seen the “free” versions of apps that force you to tolerate lame ads. Now, you are about to experience one that actually offers you value.
    • The folks at Kiip know their gamers. They know when people reach an in-game achievement (you know upping a level, etc) we get happy. We pay attention to the app. They call that “the most user engagement”
    • Does Kiip go “Sweet! Good job! Here’s an ad?” Nope. They go “Sweet! Good Job! Here’s free stuffs!” Kiip has partnered up with big brands like Sephora, popchips, Homerun.com, Sony Dash, Vitamin Water, 1-800-Flowers, Dr Pepper, GNC, Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s to offer players actual in-game rewards like a voucher for six bags of popchips, a lipstick sample or a complimentary smoothie when they complete gaming milestones. Kiips is my kind of peeps.
    • “Achievements are the universal currency for accomplishment and every game in the world has achievements,”  says 19-year-old Kiip co-founder Brian Wong explaining what he calls the “Achievement Moment.” “The achievement itself isn’t the cool thing, it’s the moment. We realized that the moment was worth something. The natural evolution is to put something there that actually matches the achievement.”
    • Kiip Rewards Network will be rolling out rewards in over 15 games, reaching 12 million monthly active users. I was not able to find a specific list, but their intro video shows Angry Birds. Brands will pay up when a user signs up for a reward, from 25 cents to $3 per cost per engagement.
    • Wong says the team has got a lot more up its sleeve. I’m looking forward to see what that is.
  • Jerry Lawsen, inventor of the video game cartridge, passed away Saturday of unknown causes. He was among the earliest video game engineers. Developed the first video game cartridge (for the Fairchild Channel F system). Prior to this home game systems only played games that were built into the system. (btm… if you’ve every blown on a video game this man is why)

Intarweb Goldmine

  • What happens if you get sucked out of a plane
    • Brought to mind by the hole that was ripped in the ceiling of the SW airline
    • Everybody was fine on that flight but what happens at 30,000 feet?
    • Many Factors: Cut in half by hole, lack of oxygen, cold (-70 F), 500 mile winds
    • You’re dead way before you hit the ground
    • This has been your friendly neighborhood PSA announcement :)
  • Nude web coders wanted!
    • “Sex does not play a part in naturism – yes one is aware of differences in sex and size and shape and age of everyone, but the concern is on sales and technical ability, not availability”
  • 7 Year Old Missing? He may just be a hardcore gamer. (udg)
    • A mom in Rochester called police after her 7 year old son said he was going outside to ride bike around 2pm and was nowhere to be found an hour later.
    • Where was he? Well he was found around in the video game area at Walmart around 6pm. He told police he was there earlier in the day and wanted a video game.
  • Disco is Officially Dead. Meet the Man That Killed It. (udg)
    • California man who used a shotgun to blast the speaker on his son’s stereo will not be facing criminal charges, according to prosecutors. The man told cops that he destroyed the speaker because his 24-year-old son–an aspiring DJ–“was playing his ‘disco’ too loud.”
    • Stanislaw Jarmolowicz, 53, was arrested last week on suspicion of shooting at or into a building. Jarmolowicz spent about two days in the Yuba County jail before posting bail Wednesday.
    • After a review of the case, prosecutors opted not to prosecute Jarmolowicz, chiefly because criminal negligence could not be established since he did not intend to injure his son Anthony. The younger Jarmolowicz uses the handle “Baas” in connection with his DJ pursuits.

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]]> http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/04/the-power-geeks-96/feed/ 0 android,Apple,China,comics,facebook,games,Geek,google,internet,ipad,iPhone Apps,kill shakespeare We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk robotics, Wonder Woman Faux Paux’s, Real live LAZERS, and your weekly dose of Chinese conspiracy theories - Intro Natali Intro Ben - Items of Interest If you have an item that is epicly awesome that sho... We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk robotics, Wonder Woman Faux Paux’s, Real live LAZERS, and your weekly dose of Chinese conspiracy theories Intro Natali Intro Ben Items of Interest If you have an item that is epicly awesome that sho... Steven Molen clean 1:27:45 The Power Geeks #94 http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/03/the-power-geeks-94/ http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/03/the-power-geeks-94/#comments Thu, 31 Mar 2011 11:35:01 +0000 DarthMolen http://thepowergeeks.com/?p=16660 We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk famous Birthdays, Crappy Hollywood Remakes, Wonder Woman wardrobe malfunctions, and possible IPhone Delays

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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  • 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 :P )
    • 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)
    • 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

  • 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

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  • Why: Geeks, Nerds & Gamers alike deserve to shine at their very best, on and offline.
  • 10% off power rings
  • Who: @aDigitalAngel & fellow nerds at ShinyLines.com
]]> http://thepowergeeks.com/2011/03/the-power-geeks-94/feed/ 0 android,Apple,China,facebook,games,Geek,google,internet,ipad,IPhone,IPhone 5,iPhone Apps We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk famous Birthdays, Crappy Hollywood Remakes, Wonder Woman wardrobe malfunctions, and possible IPhone Delays - Intro Natali Intro Kristin - Items of Interest - We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk famous Birthdays, Crappy Hollywood Remakes, Wonder Woman wardrobe malfunctions, and possible IPhone Delays 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. Gold Sponsors: Steven Molen clean 1:16:56 The Power Geeks #79 http://thepowergeeks.com/2010/12/the-power-geeks-79/ http://thepowergeeks.com/2010/12/the-power-geeks-79/#comments Thu, 09 Dec 2010 05:53:15 +0000 DarthMolen http://thepowergeeks.com/?p=16586 We are LIVE on Ustream . Tonight we talk WoW: Catacalysm, China conspiracies, Barbie is the devil, and a quarter of a million Single Sign On pirated software and much..

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

Items of Interest

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

Gold Sponsors:

UberDorkCafe

  • Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
  • What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
  • Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
  • Woookie Coookies – a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe
  • THE AUCTIONS ARE HERE!!
  • Black Friday Launch of Gift Baskets!
  • Today in Geek History
    • JebsApps (owned by our own Jeremy Puent) released their latest app, Today in Geek History
    • Gives you factoids based upon date, spanning all sorts of geekiness
    • For example, did you know on 12/1/1959 Robert A. Heinlein’s novel Starship Troopers is published in hardcover.
    • This app is available for Android in a Lite version for free or a paid version, all on the Marketplace
    • Check out the lite version, but the paid version for .99
    • Also, Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices
      • Golden Pic has some huge updates released this past Sunday Bookmarking locations, mapping to those locations (driving or walking)
      • The Lite version gained the ability to change location via two methods as well.
      • Plus we put it on sale again for the holidays!!! only $1.79 USD through new Years! Get it now!

Deals of the Week / New Releases

  • Silent fright- Zombie Therapy for When the Holidays Get too Jolly (udg)
    • Run! Horrifying mobs are wandering the streets, mindlessly consuming mass quantities…the holiday season has begun.
    • How does one counter-balance all this holly jolly hubub?  For once, it’s zombies…to the rescue.
    • Anytime you start to feel a little too shiny/happy this yuletide, pop in and listen to We’re Alive, a tale of the zombie apocalypse that unfolds as a radio drama. Yup, just like the old timey days.
    • It follows a group of soldiers and civilians trying to survive in a zombie-besieged Los Angeles. And in true radio-drama form, there are sound effects galore: the creak of door hinges, the crack of gunfire and, of course, the hungry, hollow moans of the walking dead.
    • The audio-only medium is perfect for all those times when your ears want to listen to zombies, but your eyes are supposed to be doing more important things. Like frosting cookies. More than 12 hours of corpsified action have already been recorded, and a new 20-minute episode becomes available via free podcasts almost every Monday. That makes We’re Alive a perfect way to keep yourself grounded this holiday season. After all, as anyone being chased by zombies will tell you, the best gift you can ever get is just being alive.
  • Snag an iPhone 4 for $25 at Radio Shack?? (udg)
    • Back in April of last year, Radio Shack started a new trade-in program that would allow people to turn in their old electronics into credit toward new store purchases. It has since allowed people to turn in their old mobile phone equipment to subset the cost of a new mobile phone purchase. But, there is now a scenario that could have you walking off with a brand new shiny iPhone 4 for a mere $25.
    • Radio Shack has a sale going now which takes $50 off of all current iPhone models now through December 11th. So, you could get a 16GB or 32GB iPhone 4 for only $150 and $250. Where does the extra $125 discount come from? Well, bring in a working iPhone 3GS without a cracked screen to trade-ing. If it’s in good shape- there’s your $125 credit. Cough up the $25 and there ya go. Want the 32GB? That’ll cost ya $125.
    • Only have a 3G? That’ll still get ya a $75 credit. And if you’re only looking to upgrade to the 3GS then that’ll not only get it for free, you’ll walk off with a $25 gift card.
    • Super good deal. Just make sure you keep in mind taxes and activation fees. And you should probably make sure you qualify for upgrade pricing with AT&T just in case.
  • New Release movies / Blu-Ray
    • Shrek: The Whole Story (includes donkey’s christmas spectacular)  / Shrek Forever After
    • Alice in Wonderland 2D/3D
    • Inception
  • Cataclysm is here! (udg)
    • Since October WoW fans have been chomping at the bit for the release of the epic expansion and yesterday it hit stores and online for download.
    • Monday night marked the launch of Cataclysm, the third expansion for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. Cataclysm includes: two new races, both of which have their own starting zones; five new high-level zones that span the new 80-85 leveling content; seven new five-man dungeons (plus two heroic versions of classic dungeons); three end-game raids; a new profession; two new PvP battlegrounds; and one world PvP zone. In addition, Cataclysm features a revamp of Azeroth, the portion of the game world that went live when WoW originally launched in 2004, providing a much improved leveling experience for new players and alts. MMO-Champion posted a comprehensive collection of information about the new content. Of course, Cataclysm’s launch has brought the video game addiction debate back to the fore.
    • The MMORPG subscription-based game is on sale in stores throughout North America, Europe, Argentina, Chile, Russia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, and will be available beginning December 9 in Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. The expansion pack for Windows (all modern versions) and Mac comes in at an SRP of $39.99. However there is a special Collector’s Edition packed with bonus items for a SRP of $79.99. As mentioned above, you can get hold of a digital download version of the game which is available through their Battle.net account management system, it’s not any cheaper this way  ($39.99), but get the game a little quicker depending on your broadband speed.
    • According to Mike Morhaime, CEO and co founder of Blizzard Entertainment:
    • Cataclysm adds an incredible amount of new content for players to explore, revitalizing the game world and building on everything we’ve learned since World of Warcraft launched over six years ago. We thank all of our beta testers for helping make this our best expansion yet, and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone in the new Azeroth.
    • I am looking forward to trying this out eventually, but I’ll be waiting on it cuz it’s just not in my budget. What is going to be interesting is that when I log back in with my highest level lil noob blood elf, the place I rested at when I logged no longer exists.
      • How Fast Was Level 85 Reached?
        • Cataclysm  went live in North America at 3AM Eastern Tues morning, roughly two hours after European protection Paladin Forscience hit level 85.
        • European players got their hands on he Cataclysm expansion at 12:01AM Central European Time, nine hours ahead of the official North American release time of 12:01AM Pacific. Notorious power player Athene made good use of the head start, reaching the new level cap on his Paladin with the aid of friends in a ridiculously short amount of time. According to a YouTube recording of his guild’s Vent, the feat was completed in approximately six hours.
        • The character page on the World of Warcraft Armory (as of this writing) shows Forscience hitting level 85 11 hours ago, which would be set the time approximately two to three hours before the expansion launched in North America.

Geek Speak

  • TSA wants your social feed
    • Don’t like body scans, how about them scanning your social feeds?
    • “Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative,”
  • Wikileaks update (udg)

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

  • Barbie is the Devil (SM)
    • New barbie has a camera built into her chest
    • Takes stills or video, battery in leg, a real functioning barbie
    • It sounds like a neat deal, until you realize what could go wrong…
    • FBI however, has added it to the list of possible child pornography tools and opened an investigation
    • Let just say that a person who plies in that trade, can use toys to acquire their targets
    • Sherriffs have added it to their list of paraphernalia to look for at crime scenes
    • (I’ve never liked that bitch. -udg)
  • China’s Hoping That WikiLeaks Won’t Affect US Ties-Yeah I bet you are!!! (udg)
    • Among the leaked cables is one in which an unidentified Chinese contact alleged that the hacking of Google Inc, that led the Internet company briefly to pull out of China, was orchestrated by two members of China’s Politburo, the nation’s top ruling body.
    • “It is ridiculous and not worth mentioning,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular news conference. “We hope they will not affect bilateral ties with the United States.”
    • Citing the cables, the New York Times said China made repeated and often successful hacking attacks on the U.S. government, private enterprises and Western allies as far back as 2002.
    • Alan Eustace, Google’s senior vice president for engineering, declined to comment on the reports, when asked about it on Tuesday at a Google forum in Beijing.
    • “We have no first-hand knowledge of any of the information contained in any of those cables. I have nothing to add,” he said.
    • Google, the world’s top Internet search engine, closed its China-based search service in March, two months after it had said it would stop censoring search results in response to what it said was a sophisticated cyber attack that it traced to China and increasing limits on freedom of expression.
    • The dispute was resolved in July after Google tweaked the way it directs users to an unfiltered search engine.
    • WikiLeaks started publishing last weekend what it said were more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables, some of them about China.
    • According to one cable released this week, the man who is expected to be China’s next head of government, Li Keqiang, told a U.S. diplomat in 2007 China’s GDP figures were “man-made” and therefore unreliable.
    • I’m including a link to the full New York Times article detailing all the cables that involve China. So, yeah, someday you’ll all believe me. :)
  • WWNPHD? you say?
  • NPH to host Spike’s Video Game Awards (JP)
    • Cable network Spike TV announced Monday that actor Neil Patrick Harris will host its 2010 Video Game Awards (VGAs), set to air Dec. 11.
    • Casey Patterson, executive producer of the ceremony, said in a press release the “How I Met Your Mother” star is “a big gamer and a brilliant host.”
    • Me, Natali, average lil ole dork says he is just freakin’ awesome.
    • In 2009, Harris hosted both the 63rd annual Tony Awards and the 61st annual Primetime Emmy Awards. Earlier this year, he provided the voice for the titular web-slinger in the video game “Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.”
    • Presenters at this year’s VGAs will include comedian Dane Cook, former G4 TV host and “Daily Show” correspondent Olivia Munn, film director Guillermo del Toro and skateboarder Tony Hawk. Rock band My Chemical Romance is set to perform at the Los Angeles event.
    • Announcements of major new video games such as “Batman: Arkham City,” the next installment in the “Gears of War” franchise and a game created by del Toro are also planned for the broadcast.
  • Will they call the Pope? Single software licence shared 774,651 times (udg)
    • A single licence for Avast security software has been used by 774,651 people after it went viral on a file-sharing site, according to the company.
    • Avast noticed that a license for its paid-for security software, sold to a 14-user firm in Arizona, was being distributed online. Rather than shut down the piracy, they decided to see how far it would spread.
    • A year and a half later it has topped three-quarters of a million active users.
    • “We found our licence code at a number of warez sites around the globe,” said Vince Steckler, chief executive of Avast Software. “There is a paradox in computer users looking for ‘free’ antivirus programs at locations with a known reputation for spreading malware.”
    • The licence is being used in 200 countries – and has even been installed on two computers in the Vatican City, Avast added.
    • “It was quite interesting how fast it went, but at some time the party has to end,” Avast spokesman Lyle Frink told PC Pro.
    • The company is turning the piracy into a marketing opportunity, looking to flip users of the pirated version to genuine software by popping up a notice on machines with the illegally-shared edition offering a link to the free or paid-for versions.
    • While Frink had no data about exactly how many pirates had chosen to go legitimate, he said there had already been “some conversions”. He added: “It’s going according to plan.”
    • Steckler told PC Pro that the Arizona firm has had their license replaced. “We also reminded them to keep their licenses secure.”
  • Video Streaming Rumors Swirl (SM)
    • Yet another rumor of streaming competition for Netflix
    • first the M$ rumor on their XB360
    • Now TV maker Vizio and Onlive (the streaming gaming service 10 yrs too early) are rumored to be getting in the market
    • Makes sense for onlive, streaming gaming and streaming video are very similar techs
    • Can they bridge the partnership gaps that Netflix has been soooo good at.
    • Also, how would it compliment Vizio? They already carrry the netflix service on their TV sets
  • Users Sue YouPorn For Spying On Them (jp)
    • Youporn has been spying!
    • Get your porn, and get all your cookie’s tumbled (umm, did that sound right?)
    • Apparently they looked for purple links (already visited)
    • So, lesson of the day? You get what you pay for. Welcome to invasion of privacy as you invade somebodies intimate privacy :) (or something like that jeremy)
  • Apple and Magazine Big Shots at an Impasse (udg)
    • I know this may be hard to hear, Steven, but Apple does actually look out for it’s users.
    • Magazine publishers used to be excited over the iPad well now they’re running toward Goggle’s Android tablets instead. And why is that?
    • Apple and the publishing industry have not been able to come to terms over magazine app subscriptions. The reason being the publishers want the ability to either sell the subscriptions themselves, meaning not via iTunes or hang on to the subscribers’ personal data. And Steve Jobs won’t let them. The most he’s willing to give them is to offer an opt-in form for subsribers that would ask them for a limited amount of information- name, mailing address and email address.
    • This offer has been on the table for a couple of months and the real hang-up is lack of access to credit card data. It’s valuable to them for marketing, and without it they can’t offer print/digital bundles. So, they’re hoping they will get what they want from Google and Android.
  • Opera Android getting HTML5/Flash (JP)
    • The paid browser for the android OS was written in c++ and so has more freedom than the normal webkit browser
    • Their admission? Even though H5 aims to replace it, won’t anytime soon so makes sense to support flash
    • (SM) wonders when the IPhone will finally cave?
  • Android + Playstation Phone = Official Heaven? (SM)
    • Rumors have been around for months
    • Finally there was a leak on youtube of a video + Dec. 9 announcement
    • Once the leak hit, Sony fessed up and released the news early
    • flip phone w/ standard psp controls instead of a keyboard
    • Runs the PSP OS as well as “Gingerbread” a flavor of Android OS
    • (sm) FINALLY, a real gaming machine and a possible decent phone, sooo getting one

Intarweb Goldmine

  • Woman ordered to undergo mental evaluation after biting off husband’s tongue (udg)   — (Pretty sure I can handle that evaluation right now… She’s Whacked in the head!)JP (that’s a technical medical term I’m certain I heard somewhere)
    • A Wisconsin woman was arrested after she allegedly bit half of her 79-year-old husband’s tongue off during a kiss, according to reports.
    • The Sheboygan Press said the man telephoned police at about 11 p.m. Monday and struggled to tell them what had happened because of his condition.
    • Sheboygan Police told WTMJ that the couple had been singing Christmas carols Monday night and then decided to go to bed. The man went to kiss his wife goodnight and then she bit his tongue.
    • In a later written statement, he said the incident began when he went into the bathroom while his wife was on the toilet. When he leaned over to kiss her, she went into a “manic state,” grabbing his genitals and biting off his tongue.
    • The complaint filed yesterday said Karen Lueders was “still carrying a New Year’s horn in her hand and singing Christmas carols” outside her house as the first police officers arrived on scene. As officers asked what kind of help was needed, she blew the horn in the officer’s ear. She also threw a coffee cup at police.
    • The paper said the man had not wanted his wife to be arrested, but police took her into custody.
    • She now faces a rarely used felony – related to intentional disfigurement or mutilation – that carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison
    • Yay Wisconsin! \
  • Woman Tries to Cut Her Tattooed Name Off Boyfriend
    • a 30 yr old male and 19 yo female get in a fight
    • Do they yell at each other? Call each other names?
    • Well, the girl tried to take it 1 step further and cut her tattooed name off the guys neck….
    • Needless to say, it didn’t happen and there were only minor injuries.\
  • Criminals, they ain’t so bright :)
  • Man Breaks Into House To Rob It And Stops To Watch Porn
    • Guy breaks into an occupied house… does he get the goods and scram?
    • Nope, he stops at the computer and watches the porn… (priorities man)
    • The “noise” woke up the occupant who was then subsequently terrorized before the criminal left the premises.
    • Shoulda had Internet filters
  • Man Arrested for Feeding Pot to His Ducks
    • Farmer in France was arrested and then given $500 Euro fine for feeding his ducks cannabis
    • According to him, Its a great dewormer!
    • “This is for real, not one (duck) has worms and they’re all in excellent health,” claimed the farmer
    • (sm) talk about flying high!
      • (JP) I thought the ducks by pods here had huge appetites… can you imagine Ducks with the munchies?!?!?!?
  • Holiday Cheer, Intarweb style
    • Woman Calls Police Over Snowman Theft
      • Lady in UK finds snowman missing and what does she do?
      • Calls their 911 to report a missing person
      • “I haven’t been out to check on him for 5 hours but I went outside for a (cigarette) and he’s gone,”
      • When asked who he was, it was a snowman.. waa waa
        • (JP – How often do you need to check on a snowman??)
    • Nothing Says Merry Christmas Like A KKK Cloaked Snowman
      • World Peace? Good will towards men?
      • Nah, lets make a snowman shaped like one of the most hateful groups in the world…
      • Nothing much could be done but having to explain that hated symbol to your children instead of where Santa comes from? Priceless
    • Give the gift of Rats- There’s 1,000 up for adoption
      • Forget Fruitcakes…Give a rat for a present?
      • There’s a 1000 of them rescued from a house featured on the show “Hoarders” on A&E
      • How did this come about? 2 rats bought… and math ensued…

P.S. Dear Walmart, Get A Clue.
(SM) W.T.F.

Extra Links

Contact Info

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

Sponsors

Shiny Lines

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

Luxury Lane Soaps

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

  • Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
  • (We Do! They’re Geekalicious! but don’t eat them… they are SOAP!)
]]> http://thepowergeeks.com/2010/12/the-power-geeks-79/feed/ 0 android,Apple,China,facebook,games,Geek,ipad,IPhone,iPhone Apps,mac,Microsoft,nintendo We are LIVE on Ustream . Tonight we talk WoW: Catacalysm, China conspiracies, Barbie is the devil, and a quarter of a million Single Sign On pirated software and much.. - Intro Jeremy  (30 years ago, John Lennon died - listen to your favorite Beatles ... We are LIVE on Ustream . Tonight we talk WoW: Catacalysm, China conspiracies, Barbie is the devil, and a quarter of a million Single Sign On pirated software and much.. Intro Jeremy  (30 years ago, John Lennon died - listen to your favorite Beatles song for remembrance) Intro Natali Items of Interest Prison Break 2438- A Novel & An Awesome New Kickstarter Project (udg) I’m a huge fan of Kickstarter and love supporting people in our community. So, when one of my tweoples announced this, I had to go take a peek and I think it looks pretty awesome. :) What’s it about? This Post-apocalyptic Political Thriller is a book “about a man who lives in southern California in 2438 AD. His friend from way back gets taken to the world’s worst prison as a political prisoner. It’s his job to save his friend before he gets executed.” Who’s involved? It’s an amazing collaboration between two brothers that started back in 2009 when one started chapter one, emailed it to the other and they went back and forth until the first rough draft was completed. They have been on a journey to complete a finalized draft since then. Oh and I should probably mention- who is illustrating this awesomeness?  That would be Dark Horse and DC Comics veteran Brian Ewing. I got the chance to read an excerpt from the first chapter and I gotta admit, I’m hooked. :) Stop by, show some love, tweet, share- post the link above, join the FB page here. Let’s help see this book become a reality. Portable North Pole (SM) Princess Bride + Lightsabers!!!! Princess Bride + LIghtsabers 2 Twilight Spoof with Joker! SteamPunk Organ Desk!!! holy F’n Awesomenessnessest thing ever! Gold Sponsors: UberDorkCafe Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on Woookie Coookies - a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe THE AUCTIONS ARE HERE!! Black Friday Launch of Gift Baskets! Today in Geek History JebsApps (owned by our own Jeremy Puent) released their latest app, Today in Geek History Gives you factoids based upon date, spanning all sorts of geekiness For example, did you know on 12/1/1959 Robert A. Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers is published in hardcover. This app is available for Android in a Lite version for free or a paid version, all on the Marketplace Check out the lite version, but the paid version for .99 Also, Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices Golden Pic has some huge updates released this past Sunday Bookmarking locations, mapping to those locations (driving or walking) The Lite version gained the ability to change location via two methods as well. Plus we put it on sale again for the holidays!!! only $1.79 USD through new Years! Get it now! Childs Play 2010 now open Deals of the Week / New Releases Silent fright- Zombie Therapy for When the Holidays Get too Jolly (udg) Run! Horrifying mobs are wandering the streets, mindlessly consuming mass quantities...the holiday season has begun. How does one counter-balance all this holly jolly hubub?  For once, it's zombies...to the rescue. Anytime you start to feel a little too shiny/happy this yuletide, pop in and listen to We’re Alive, a tale of the zombie apocalypse that unfolds as a radio drama. Yup, just like the old timey days. It follows a group of soldiers and civilians trying to survive in a zombie-besieged Los Angeles. And in true radio-drama form, there are sound effects galore: the creak of door hinges, the crack of gunfire and, of course, the hungry, hollow moans of the walking dead. The audio-only medium is perfect for all those times when your ears want to listen to zombies, but your eyes are supposed to be doing more important things. Steven Molen clean 1:30:53 The Power Geeks #71 http://thepowergeeks.com/2010/10/the-power-geeks-71/ http://thepowergeeks.com/2010/10/the-power-geeks-71/#comments Thu, 14 Oct 2010 04:10:16 +0000 DarthMolen http://thepowergeeks.com/?p=16562

We are LIVE on Ustream!!!  This week, we talk Duke Nukem Forever, a bunch of cell phone news, rocket ships, free wi-fi, and even a good chunk of gaming.

Just as an FYI, Jeremy was sucked in by the RL monster and Natali developed a nasty case of strep, so to accompany me on the show this week, we bring the host of Geek Tech Live, Chris Fa-fa-favero

Welcome @GeekTechLive

Items of Interest

Gold Sponsors:

UberDorkCafe

  • Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
  • What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
  • Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
  • Woookie Coookies – a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe
  • first Piece revealed and accompanying t-shirt @hefnatron
  • Ellen campaign!!
  • NEW TOP-SECRET: There will be baskets of UDC goodies for X-mas
    • UberDorkCafe is planning to put together some special goodies in basket form for people that both want to support the cause AND give an awesome present to their loved one for christmas.
    • I heard something about wookie cookies among other super secret things
  • Today in Geek History
    • JebApps (owned by our own Jeremy Puent) released their latest app, Today in Geek History
    • Gives you factoids based upon date, spanning all sorts of geekiness
    • For example, did you know on October 6th, 1967 – The Star Trek episode ‘Mirror, Mirror’ airs, introducing the Mirror Universe and the evil goatee.
    • This app is available for Android in a Lite version for free or a paid version, all on the Marketplace
    • Check out the lite version, but the paid version for .99
    • Also, Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices

Deals of the Week / New Releases

  • DVD/Blu-Rays for 2nd Week October
    • How to train a dragon (Blu-Ray) (yeah, its really good)
    • Wolverine and the X-Men: The Complete Series (Blu-Ray)
    • He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special (woo hoo!)
    • Jonah Hex (Blu-Ray) (Blech)

Reviews

  • Lego Universe beta review by Chris
    • Got beta key from Robert Welkner from Coin-op.tv
    • Played for about a day and half.
    • build your own world
    • create puzzles
    • customize your lego toon.
    • Full launch Oct. 26

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

    • Borderlands gives access to Duke Nukem Beta (SM)
      • So everyone has heard the news that gearbox bought the Duke
      • Well, now they’re giving away beta access to the un-released beta
      • GOTY purchasers and STEAM Borderland owners received the key
      • You redeem and they tell you that the beta isn’t here yet, wait for 2020, profit
      • some rumors are that it will be 3x the size of MW2
      • (SM) Heres a hint
    • XBL on Win 7 Phones (CF)
      • Better than Apples Game center.
      • See gamerscores on phone and XBL
      • Avatar creation and changes on phone
      • Need for Speed and Sims 3 at launch. More coming
      • Not fully implemented xbl mobile but very good start.
    • Starcraft balance patch forthcoming, Next game not for 18 months (SM)
      • Watching my bro play Starcraft, I always feel sorry for Zerg
      • According to Blizzard, balance is being addressed (health buff for zerg, ways to prevent blink, reaper rushes will be harder)
      • We won’t see “Heart of the Swarm” until 2012 sometime probably (revealed at a panel)
      • WoW Xpack Dec. 7 (Cataclysm)
      • Hopefully an announcement on D3 at Blizzcon???
      • U-Verse DVR on XBox (CF)
        • Feature promised nearly 4 years ago
        • Shown working on an Xbox 9 months ago
        • Now u can use an XB360 as a DVR for U-verse
        • Lots of catches:
        • Must already have a tv box in the house
        • $99 xbox kit for new subs (nobody knows contents yet)
        • $99 + $55 for old subs (installation fee)
        • getting a game invite while watching TV? priceless
        • Brought to you by @amy_geek
        • Her Universe is going to bring some awesome apparel from the SyFy network
        • Not just Star wars any more
        • Think Battlestar Galactica and Caprica…
        • One of the few places that includes clothing for all shapes and sizes
        • Free Wi-Fi in TV Whitespace (CF)
          • Rice has been offering free wi-fi for a working class neighborhood for 6 years now
          • They’ve built a whole infrastructure around it and it uses the 2.5 and 5ghz band
          • Problem? penetration. It’s hard to get the tight waves through objects
          • Now, after getting a grant, they plan to use unused TV bandwidth to deliver that wi-fi through walls
          • Everything will have to be custom (receivers and transmitter) and it really is a testbed, but wouldn’t it be great if that unused TV bandwidth becomes free wi-fi?
        • Another step towards private space flights (SM)
          • (SM) much belly aching has been done about the space program direction
          • Virgin recently ran their piloted glide test on the next version of their rocket (first one was space ship 1)
          • Will carry 6 passengers and 2 pilots into space on a sub-orbital up-and-down flight
          • They launched it from their mother ship (whiteknighttwo) and it glided to earth
          • Next step? Rocket powered test flights
          • Whats the name??? VSS Enterprise :)
          • Cellphone News
          • Amazon Building it’s own Android Marketplace (SM)
            • 30% piece of the pie, has anyone noticed their video store lately, oh and the kindle?
            • Marking a possible company direction change and maybe a transition from physical to digital distribution
            • Remains to be seen whether ppl will use
          • Amazon IPhone Barcode Scanner (CF)
            • Taking a page from the Android store bar scanner app
            • Impulse buying at a whole new level
            • Scan, its finds, then you can buy on the spot on your IPhone, no more lengthy checkout process
          • Android Sidewinder Loader Allows Skype Hack (SM)
            • Now you can use skype on 3g without being on verizon
            • Installs on a PC and basically allows installation of hacked software without voiding your warranty
            • Verizon’s NFL app, SprintTV, etc all able to install on any android
          • Yahoo Messenger to Allow Cross-Platform Video Chat (CF)
            • Apple has promised an API for 3rd party use around the front facing camera
            • Yahoo messenger is set to be able to allow video conferencing wherever you can install the client (PC,IPhone,Android,Mac,Linux)
          • Microsoft 7 release a non-event (SM)
            • widgets, zune, xbox, email integration, fb integration, no 3rd party, no news really

          Intarweb Goldmine

          • 2 Gorillas and a Chicken walk into a bar… (SM)
            • 3 guys, 2 dressed as gorillas and a chicken suit rob a guy of his bike
            • 1 gorilla clocks the man, the chicken jumps on and takes of
            • Both gorillas escape on foot
            • 100 bananas reward offered if caught
          • Talk about a crappy day (SM)
            • You thought your day was crappy?
            • guy gets unhooked from safety line and pushed down a 27” pipe for a mile before being rescued
            • Rushing sewer water was the culprit, Firefighters found him
            • The guy treated for hyperthermia and antibiotics for swallowing sewage (ew)
            • What a crappy way to go…

          Extra Links

          Contact Info

          • On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Chris is @GeekTechLive, Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
          • email us: darthmolen@thepowergeeks.com and jpuent@thepowergeeks.com and uberdorkgirlie@thepowergeeks.com (yay!)
          • And Become a Fan
          ]]>           http://thepowergeeks.com/2010/10/the-power-geeks-71/feed/ 0 android,Apple,China,facebook,gaming,Geek,google,ipad,IPhone,iPhone Apps,Microsoft,MW2 We are LIVE on Ustream!!!  This week, we talk Duke Nukem Forever, a bunch of cell phone news, rocket ships, free wi-fi, and even a good chunk of gaming. - Just as an FYI, Jeremy was sucked in by the RL monster and Natali developed a nasty case of strep, We are LIVE on Ustream!!!  This week, we talk Duke Nukem Forever, a bunch of cell phone news, rocket ships, free wi-fi, and even a good chunk of gaming. Just as an FYI, Jeremy was sucked in by the RL monster and Natali developed a nasty case of strep, so to accompany me on the show this week, we bring the host of Geek Tech Live, Chris Fa-fa-favero Welcome @GeekTechLive Items of Interest (SM) Medal of Honor Trailer (reviews have been bad though :( ) (CF) Aperture Watch from philosophersguild.com Gold Sponsors: UberDorkCafe Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on Woookie Coookies - a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe first Piece revealed and accompanying t-shirt @hefnatron Ellen campaign!! NEW TOP-SECRET: There will be baskets of UDC goodies for X-mas UberDorkCafe is planning to put together some special goodies in basket form for people that both want to support the cause AND give an awesome present to their loved one for christmas. I heard something about wookie cookies among other super secret things Today in Geek History JebApps (owned by our own Jeremy Puent) released their latest app, Today in Geek History Gives you factoids based upon date, spanning all sorts of geekiness For example, did you know on October 6th, 1967 - The Star Trek episode 'Mirror, Mirror' airs, introducing the Mirror Universe and the evil goatee. This app is available for Android in a Lite version for free or a paid version, all on the Marketplace Check out the lite version, but the paid version for .99 Also, Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices Deals of the Week / New Releases DVD/Blu-Rays for 2nd Week October How to train a dragon (Blu-Ray) (yeah, its really good) Wolverine and the X-Men: The Complete Series (Blu-Ray) He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special (woo hoo!) Jonah Hex (Blu-Ray) (Blech) Daft Punk Tron:legacy wallpaper hits Intarwebs 10 wks til Tron Legacy hits theatres Disney releasing something each week Daft punk wallpaper and 90 sec snippet on facebook Whole soundtrack done by Daft Punk GGN IPhone App Reviews Lego Universe beta review by Chris Got beta key from Robert Welkner from Coin-op.tv Played for about a day and half. build your own world create puzzles customize your lego toon. Full launch Oct. 26 Tech,Gaming, and Geek News Borderlands gives access to Duke Nukem Beta (SM) So everyone has heard the news that gearbox bought the Duke Well, now they’re giving away beta access to the un-released beta GOTY purchasers and STEAM Borderland owners received the key You redeem and they tell you that the beta isn’t here yet, wait for 2020, profit some rumors are that it will be 3x the size of MW2 (SM) Heres a hint XBL on Win 7 Phones (CF) Better than Apples Game center. See gamerscores on phone and XBL Avatar creation and changes on phone Need for Speed and Sims 3 at launch. More coming Not fully implemented xbl mobile but very good start. Starcraft balance patch forthcoming, Next game not for 18 months (SM) Watching my bro play Starcraft, I always feel sorry for Zerg According to Blizzard, balance is being addressed (health buff for zerg, ways to prevent blink, reaper rushes will be harder) We won’t see “Heart of the Swarm” until 2012 sometime probably (revealed at a panel) WoW Xpack Dec. 7 (Cataclysm) Hopefully an announcement on D3 at Blizzcon??? U-Verse DVR on XBox (CF) Feature promised nearly 4 years ago Shown working on an Xbox 9 months ago Now u can use an XB360 as a DVR for U-verse Lots of catches: Must already have a tv box in the house Steven Molen clean 1:01:24           The Power Geeks #64 http://thepowergeeks.com/2010/08/the-power-geeks-64/ http://thepowergeeks.com/2010/08/the-power-geeks-64/#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:49:13 +0000 DarthMolen http://thepowergeeks.com/?p=16531

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

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

          Jeremy brought it up, Prof. Mordarm made the pic

          Items of Interest

          • You’ve seen Steampunk…helloo MarvelPunk (udg)
            • 19 yo Zachariah Perry Cruse, a sculpture student of Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, Indiana has created an Xbox 360 mod Tony Stark would be proud of.
            • It started as a rusty, fat Falcon HDMI Xbox 360.
            • It has its own Arc Reactor that glows in cool white when the console is turned on, in addition to a ring of light around the Arc Reactor that looks like the console’s power button.
            • Available on ebay, the sexy beast comes with matching red controller and a 120g hard drive with “Stark Industries” label.
            • Looking to bid on this? Good luck- current top bid is $3,200.
              • I think Microswerve should hire this kid immediately… his consoles beat any of the custom faceplate models on the market to date (JP)
          • Walking Dead Official Trailer (SM)
            • (SM)I am officially in love with this series and its not even out yet
            • We saw pieces of this from SDCC
            • That they would keep Kirkman around speaks volumes towards how they want to get this right
            • Watch all the other stuff at that site… Zombie school? Count me in :)
              • (JP) So Glad Darabont is attached to this. He has done the best adaptations of Stephen King novels… He has a great way of handling horror/suspence subject matter. This should be amazing! now I have a new reason to look forward to Halloween!
          • Age of Empires Getting a new treatment for online linked to Xbox360 and Windows Games Live (JP)
            • Sign up for the Beta at the link in the show notes…
            • Under an NDA for now, but as soon as  I can talk about it… I will
            • I can say I have always love AoE games and am excited about this…

          Gold Sponsors:

          UberDorkCafe

          • Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out
          • What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek
          • Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on
          • Woookie Coookies – a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe
          • UberDorkCafe – Auction Sept. 11th – DC,Tampa Bay,Online
          • first Piece revealed and accompanying t-shirt
          • Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices
            • Both are available in the Android Market for Android devices running 1.5 or later
            • Lite is a free version (ad supported) with slightly limited functionality
            • Full version is only $1.99 USD
            • Go Buy it! or try it, then buy it!

          Deals of the Week / New Releases

          • Tactical Bacon - ‘Nuff said
            • Delicious bacon, canned, so it has a 10+ year shelf life.
            • Approx. 18 servings per can (1 serving = 3 slices of bacon).
            • Net Wt.: 9oz
            • a must have for every Zombipocalypse survival kit!
          Call of Duty Black Ops:Retailer Extends $20 Promo to Prestige and Hardened Edition (udg)

          • Activision announced the availability of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Prestige Edition and Hardened Edition for pre-order on the Xbox 360 and PS3.
          • Both versions are available for pre-order at Amazon and the retailer has extended their $20 video game credit promo to both the Prestige Edition and Hardened Edition.
          • Black Ops Hardened Edition Features:
            • Limited edition Black Ops Collector’s Medal w/display case
            • 4 extra playable co-op maps not in the standard edition
            • Exclusive Black Ops Xbox® Live® avatar outfit
            • Premium, special-edition SteelBook™ case
            • Call of Duty: Black Ops full game
            • Black Ops Prestige Edition Features:
              • Includes the full Call of Duty: Black Ops Hardened Edition w/ Collector’s Medal and 4 extra playable co-cop maps not in standard edition
              • RC-XD Video Surveillance Vehicle – Fully custom RC vehicle modeled after in-game RC-XD Killstreak Reward
              • Fully custom RC vehicle modeled after in-game RC-XD Killstreak Reward
              • Video camera to send wireless video to Transmitter
              • Microphone to send wireless audio to Transmitter
              • Digital proportional steering and throttle
              • Independent suspension
              • Display stand
              • RC-XD Transmitter – 2″ backlit TFT 220 x176 color screen to receive video from car
              • 2″ backlit TFT 220 x176 color screen to receive video from car
              • Integrated speaker to receive audio from car
              • Custom pistol grip style RC controller
              • High and low speed settings
              • Up to 200ft control range
            • Call of Duty: Black Ops is set to ship on November 9, 2010 on Xbox 360 and PS3.
            • Reg Edition = $59.99 + free $20 Credit
            • Hardened Edition= $74.99 + free $20 Credit
            • Prestige Edition= $149.99 + free $20 Credit

          Geek Speak

          • 7 Ways to Destroy Zombies
            • Natural Predators
            • No Heat
            • Cant handle the cold
            • Biting is a terrible way to spread disease
            • They cant heal
            • Landscape Zombie Proof
            • Lots of weapons

          Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

          • HDMI Cable Scam (SM)
            • Cable companies claiming 240/480 hz refresh rates through their cables.
            • No such thing! Thats all determined by the device
            • Only “High Speed” and regular def rated cables (need high speed for 1080p)
            • Companies are just trying to get consumers to spend more on cables
          • Rock Goes Lightening-Proof (udg)
            • Arc Attack’s MIDI guitar means just cuz it’s stormin doesn’t mean the rock needs to stop.
            • The fret board is 72 optically isolated switches. The fret board, instead of frets has 6 brass contacts per fret. When the string is pushed down to the contact, it makes a connection.
            • From there the signal is optically isolated, to protect from EMF and sent to a micro controller thats only job is to priority encode the fretboard, and keep tabs on which string is pushed down to each fret.
            • And that all means what? if you are playing the 6th string on the 12th fret, then the computer ignores if say the 11th and 10th frets are pressed on that string also, since the 12th fret needs to take priority – just like a real guitar.
            • To truly appreciate the awesomeness of this check out the video in the link in the show notes.
          • Apple News (JP)
            • IOS 4 fix for 3gs coming “soon”
              • Some are claiming slow-downs with 4 on 3gs and below
              • (SM – I personally have seen this on a guys phone)
              • “I’ve waited patiently through 4.0.1 and 4.0.2, looking for a fix that will make my phone work again. I’ve read the forums that advise me to jailbreak my phone or use some other method so I can downgrade back to a version of iPhone 3, however I’m not prepared to use a method that is not supported by Apple.”
              • Jobs reply: Software update coming soon (sent from my iphone)
            • Patent for limiting “jailbreaks”
              • describes measures to identify “particular activities that may indicate suspicious behavior,” so that “safety measures” can be taken to restrict the device’s functions. Those activities include the “hacking, jailbreaking, unlocking, or removal of a SIM card”
              • Systems that includes: activation of camera that could cap and geotag devices surroundings or users , recordings of voice, heartbeat monitor, and compare those against photo of real user
              • Big Brother anyone????? (JP – I was actually thinking this sounds more like HAL… I’m sorry Dave, I can’t allow you to do that)
              • SM- Hmm, we know that the remote activation of camera functionality is already there…
            • ITunes Hack or Phishing Scam?
              • Limited amt of users waking up to a bevy of charges to paypal from ITunes (one person $4600)
              • Apple spinning it as Phishing scam and gullible users
              • Paypal claiming that their system was not breached
              • Apple advice: change your password and cancel ur credit card. not our fault
                • (JP) My advice. Secure passwords you change semi regularly and use itunes gift cards, don’t link multiple accounts together.. IE iTunes and Paypal. Keep all online accounts separate, so if one is compromised you limit your liability
          • Green Police going Hi-Tech, Trashcans with RFID’s? (SM)
            • Cleveland Bins get RFID, if you don’t bring it out after a couple of weeks, they rifle through your garbage
            • more than 10% recyclable, then its $100 fine
            • Is it really wanting to save the earth? Nope, its all about economics
            • Cleveland pays $30 a ton for garbage dump, gets $26 a ton for recyclables
            • Have goal of 4000 tickets, paying 2.5 million for 25,000 tech bins, plans to roll to all 150,000
          • Be your own sell out? (udg)
            • Don’t care about privacy? Think your info is gonna be found and sold anyway so you may as well pocket the $ for it? Then Statz is for you.
            • According to their site “”Statz was founded on the simple premise that everyone should own, control, and benefit from their personal data. To enable that premise, the Statz web site is the first marketplace for consumers to securely and anonymously own, control, and sell all their personal and activity data. Every time a consumer’s data is sold, Statz will pay the consumer. That’s you — and it’s that simple.” “
            • You “own” all the data you upload, and choose what you’d like to “sell”. You can remove your data at any time, and it is gone from their servers for good–of course, if you “sold” it to a vendor already, that’s not coming back to you. Everything from cell-phone calling/texting history, eBay selling reports, to Skype usage is all available to be sold. No personally identifiable information is sent, and you can control specifically what is sold and given out.
            • So- are you willing to put your data up for grabs in exchange for a profit? Well, if you sign up for Statz and follow their instructions they’ll pay you 3x the prevailing rate for 1 year after we launch the Statz Marketplace on all sales of data uploaded during the alpha.
          • Icanstalku.com (SM)
            • Did you know that you could be stalked by your photos???
            • Some cameras and smart phones have geocoding enabled by default and they put this info where you can’t see it.
            • So, upload to public place like Twitpic and ppl can look at that information very easily and find out where you are at (or were at)
            • This website starkly shows that problem… it tells ppl where others are at based upon their pictures they uploaded
            • Disable it on your device if you don’t want this functionality or use a utility such as “GeoSetter”
            • Coca-Cola Village Joined W/ FB for a stalker’s wet dream
          • Halo Reach Leaked to the internet already (JP)
            • Word got round that Halo Reach was in the wild on Saturday after hackers managed to circumvent a block on Xbox.com, which was supposed to provide code for the full game to reviewers only.
            • Reach was Reach on two P2P sites monday morning. One uploader says:
              • ‘Game extracted from the leaked .xcp files then converted from god file to iso. Not sure if it will work on flashed consoles but its an iso so it should..confirmed to work on jtags too.’
            • Microsoft made it clear that it was dealing with and “aggressively investigating” the leak.
            • Halo: Reach is due for release on September 14, when you’ll be able to play it nice and legally.
            • Viral Marketing for Reach = Remote Control Robotic arm
          • Google Makes Chrome Developers Dig Into Their Pockets (udg)
            • Google announced last Thursday the new, one-time $5 registration for new Chrome developers.
            • This comes after proposed one-time registration fee for Android App developers.
            • Gregor Hochmuth, product manager, stated in a recent blog post “(The sign up fee) is intended to create better safeguards against fraudulent extensions in the gallery and limit the activity of malicious developer accounts.”
            • Will peeps looking to scam millions really care about a lousy $5? They will if whatever they use to pay that fee can be traced to them in a prosecutable way should they intend to scam away.
            • Payment must be made using Google Check out, which links payments to a credit card, which starts the paper trail to the developer.
            • The company also launched a preview of its Chrome Web Store to give developers a chance to experiment w the online mart before it goes public later this year.
            • Developers can use the store to give away or sell their browser extensions, themes and web apps.
            • Google has set the minimum price for an add-on, theme or Web app at $1.99 — though developers can continue to give away their work if they want — and it will take a 5% cut of the purchase price, along with a 30-cent transaction fee for each download and payment. So a developer who charges the minimum $1.99 for an extension would receive $1.59 per download.
          • Google Brings Google Voice to Gmail (SM)
            • If you are a Gmail user in the U.S., you can now make free Web-based phone calls to any phone in the U.S. and Canada right from the Gmail interface.
            • International calls start at 2 cents a minute
            • To use this new feature, you will have to install the Google Talk plugin, which is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
            • They are rolling this out over the next few days so it may be a bit before you see it pop up.
            • Not currently available for Google Apps accounts
            • If you are a Google voice user, your Google Voice number will appear as the outbound called ID number on calls made from Gmail. You can also opt to receive inbound Google Voice calls from inside the GMail interface.
            • Google is clearly trying to position Gmail as more than just an email client. With the launch of a better contacts manager earlier this month and the addition of these new telephony features, Gmail is now becoming more of a full-blown communications suite than just a place to manage email.
          • MMO for Neverwinter Nights announced (JP)
            • Atari and Cryptic Studios are teaming up to make a new DnD based RPG called Neverwinter Nights.
            • It’s planned to release Q4 2011
            • Gameplay will center on five-person groups that can include other players and/or AI allies, and there will be an extensive content generation system.
            • Action points have been changed to “boons” which allow you to use special boosts in certain situatons, healing surges (gain your HP back) are present, spells and abilities will closely match 4e, if you’ve played 4th edition before, you’ll be comfortable with the mechanics in the MMO
            • (udg- just wanna toss out there that my keen detective work called this in my GenCon recap)
          • Original Kermit Donated to Smithsonian (SM)
            • Trivia: What year did Sesame Street Start? (1969)
            • Trivia: How many years did “The Muppet Show” run? (4 – 1976 – 1980)
            • (JP) Jan 30th 1974 The Muppet Show Valentine’s special ran… some consider this to be the first pilot for The Muppet Show
            • Trivia: What show did Kermit the Frog originally appear?
            • Kermit was actually from Sam and Friends, a puppet show on Washington TV that ran from 1955-1961
            • Others on the cast? Pierre the French Rat, a voracious purple skull named Yorick, and a yellow monster called Mushmellon

          Intarweb Goldmine

          • North Korea wants YOU for a friend (JP)
            • This “Friendly” dictatorship is looking for you as a buddy.
            • First twitter and Youtube, now Facebook
            • Mostly propaganda about how great North Korea is
            • Definition of Irony? Internet access is blocked for everybody but the elite of the 24 million citizens in that country
          • Minneapolis pays $165,000 to zombies! (SM)
            • Yes, you heard it right, Zombies like blondes are more interested in your money than your brains, well these 7 at least :)
            • in 2006, 7 protested mindless consumerism by milling around in an intersection dressed like zombies, w/ amplified Ipod
            • Police arrested them and charged them with carrying eq that “simulated” a weapon of mass destruction
            • Now the courts are awarding these ppl for the wrongful arrests by making the city pay them money for their undead troubles.
            • Thats one way to get rid of zombies…  wonder if it works for them all?
            • (Legit link here)
            • Tuesday Aug 3rd around 12:30 pm police in West Nevada County, CA received a frantic call.
            • The 911 caller’s son was allegedly beaten by a group of bodybuildfers from Reno and was feared to be left for dead she told police.
            • Things then took another odd turn after a pack of “midgets” followed and tried to POISON the caller.
            • Undaunted, a bodybuilder and the “lead female midget,” who was described as “really violent,” formed a cooperative and have been driving the caller’s own truck.
            • Caller then requested a SWAT team be sent after the “midgets”
            • Word of advice for caller- they prefer little people. :)
            • It is not clear if the Sheriff’s department followed up on this call or not.

          Extra Links

          Contact Info

          Sponsors

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

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

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

          • Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
          • (We Do! They’re Geekalicious! but don’t eat them… they are SOAP!)
          ]]>           http://thepowergeeks.com/2010/08/the-power-geeks-64/feed/ 0 Apple,China,dork,dungeon and dragons,facebook,games,Geek,iPhone Apps,mac,Microsoft,pc,privacy We are LIVE on Ustream!!! Tonight we break out the zombies, Lightning Rock’n’Roll, high tech garbage, and stalking gets easy, all this and more! (JP) With gratitude and much respect, best birthday wishes to Mr. Declan MacManus aka Elvis Costello. - We are LIVE on Ustream!!! Tonight we break out the zombies, Lightning Rock’n’Roll, high tech garbage, and stalking gets easy, all this and more! (JP) With gratitude and much respect, best birthday wishes to Mr. Declan MacManus aka Elvis Costello. Items of Interest You’ve seen Steampunk...helloo MarvelPunk (udg) 19 yo Zachariah Perry Cruse, a sculpture student of Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, Indiana has created an Xbox 360 mod Tony Stark would be proud of. It started as a rusty, fat Falcon HDMI Xbox 360. It has its own Arc Reactor that glows in cool white when the console is turned on, in addition to a ring of light around the Arc Reactor that looks like the console’s power button. Available on ebay, the sexy beast comes with matching red controller and a 120g hard drive with “Stark Industries” label. Looking to bid on this? Good luck- current top bid is $3,200. I think Microswerve should hire this kid immediately... his consoles beat any of the custom faceplate models on the market to date (JP) Walking Dead Official Trailer (SM) (SM)I am officially in love with this series and its not even out yet We saw pieces of this from SDCC That they would keep Kirkman around speaks volumes towards how they want to get this right Watch all the other stuff at that site... Zombie school? Count me in :) (JP) So Glad Darabont is attached to this. He has done the best adaptations of Stephen King novels... He has a great way of handling horror/suspence subject matter. This should be amazing! now I have a new reason to look forward to Halloween! Age of Empires Getting a new treatment for online linked to Xbox360 and Windows Games Live (JP) Sign up for the Beta at the link in the show notes... Under an NDA for now, but as soon as  I can talk about it... I will I can say I have always love AoE games and am excited about this... Gold Sponsors: UberDorkCafe Will be THE place for Geeks to hang out What is UberDorkCafe? It is the brain child and DREAM of Natali, aka @UberDorkGirlie from twitter, and it blends art + science = geek Place to hang, eat, have awesome kid parties (if thats your thing), or to get your gaming on Woookie Coookies - a piece of UDC before there is even a physical cafe UberDorkCafe - Auction Sept. 11th - DC,Tampa Bay,Online first Piece revealed and accompanying t-shirt Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices Both are available in the Android Market for Android devices running 1.5 or later Lite is a free version (ad supported) with slightly limited functionality Full version is only $1.99 USD Go Buy it! or try it, then buy it! Deals of the Week / New Releases Tactical Bacon - ‘Nuff said Delicious bacon, canned, so it has a 10+ year shelf life. Approx. 18 servings per can (1 serving = 3 slices of bacon). Net Wt.: 9oz a must have for every Zombipocalypse survival kit! Call of Duty Black Ops:Retailer Extends $20 Promo to Prestige and Hardened Edition (udg) Activision announced the availability of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Prestige Edition and Hardened Edition for pre-order on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Both versions are available for pre-order at Amazon and the retailer has extended their $20 video game credit promo to both the Prestige Edition and Hardened Edition. Black Ops Hardened Edition Features: Limited edition Black Ops Collector’s Medal w/display case 4 extra playable co-op maps not in the standard edition Exclusive Black Ops Xbox® Live® avatar outfit Premium, special-edition SteelBook™ case Call of Duty: Black Ops full game Black Ops Prestige Edition Features: Includes the full Call of Duty: Black Ops Hardened Edition w/ Collector's Medal and 4 extra playable co-cop maps not in standard edition RC-XD Video Surveillance Vehicle - Fully custom RC vehicle modeled after in-game RC-XD Killstreak Reward Steven Molen clean 1:24:12           The Power Geeks #54 http://thepowergeeks.com/2010/06/the-power-geeks-54/ http://thepowergeeks.com/2010/06/the-power-geeks-54/#comments Thu, 17 Jun 2010 04:57:37 +0000 DarthMolen http://thepowergeeks.com/?p=16433

          (Live on UStream) This week its all about E3. The gaming mecca that none of us ever get invitations 2. Also, if you haven’t noticed, we’re back from the dead, like the zombies we are. Jeremy and Kristin were eaten by the Real Life monsters so WE BRINGING THE BACKUP!!!2 guest hosts Physicist Lisa, hows it going Lisa and Prof_Mordarm aka Lorenzo. Click Here to Download Ep. 54

          Gold Sponsors:

          UberDorkCafe

          • To help tell us about this new sponsor, we bring on Natali, aka UberDorkGirlie, the owner of this idea
          • Geek Refuge, Part Coffee shop, Part cafe, Part Game Room, Part Party place
          • 1 geek, Ginormous Dream
          • Art + Science = Geek
          • Donate small ($1 or $2 or Big! and get rewards)
          • Kickstarter site for UberDorkCafe

          Deals of the Week / New Releases

          Geek Speak

          E3 Talk

          Interactive Party games, 3D, and Motion Controllers seem to be the theme for this E3
          Overalls – Who did you like the best
          • COD: Black Ops
          • Activision signs exclusivity agreement w/ M$. All map packs for COD hits first on 360
          • Natal Renamed Kinect: Zune movies, handsfree entertainment control, Zune Music, + wii-type games (a Me2 for Wii)
          • Metal Gear Solid: Rising – Sword Action
          • Fable 3 (revolution)
          • Halo Reach LOOKS AWESOME
          • ESPN coming to xbox 360 for Gold Subscribers: 3,500 Live and pre-recorded events, Trivia, factoids, etc all available
          • New redesigned console: smaller, 250GB, PRE-N wireless built in

          Sony, Summary -

          • Fat Princess DLC + Pirates and Ninja classes (Cake for everyone!)
          • Sony pimping their 3D gaming tech, 20 titles native by Mar.2011 (Killzone 3 being their main title)
          • (SM) Do ppl really want 3D in games?
          • Move pushed by Sony heavily (Me2 for Wii) ($100)
          • Sorcery looks kinda cool. Use the Move wand like a magic wand
          • (LR) I was surprised to see Gabe Newell (from Valve) come out and support PS3 after his stances against the console.
          • Theme = old franchises return, Tech is just a tool
          • Golden Eye 007 is back!
          • New Zelda for Wii, Sword = wiimote, nunchuck = shield, SM – looks way funner than twilight princess
          • Disney Epic Mickey on Wii!

          PC

          Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

          • Remote WOW Auction House (SM)
            • Finally! People have been asking this for years.
            • $3.99 a month fee
            • Available for IPhone and Android Market
            • some ppl play wow just to screw around with the market economy
          • UFC 2010 Slow Sales Affect THQ (LR)
            • UFC 2009 Undisputed sold a million copies in its first week (2/3 to xbox, 1/3 to PS3)
            • No NPD numbers yet for the newer game, but THQ revised their quarter numbers by 4 million (193 million)
            • What will this do for a 2011 franchise? Will this be another Madden or just a mediocre performing non-descript sports game?
          • Actual Working Lightsaber (LM)
            • YEAH! Commercial ready no less
            • 1 watt laser – 1000 times more powerful on skin than the sun
            • ‘It will blind permanently and instantly and set fire quickly to skin and other body parts – use with extreme caution and only when using the included eye protection.’
            • Planes can see this laser from 72 KM away… :s
            • $200 pricetag makes this a basement bargain
          • New Mac Mini Unveiled (SM)
            • Unibody aluminum case, Built-in HDMI port and SD Card Slot
            • 2 options including a “leopard server” option w/ more memory (just screams apple tv or xbmc )
            • Double the graphics power (GForce 320M)
            • 2.4GHZ, 2GB RAM, 320 GB HD (only 5400 tho)
            • Starts at $699
          • AT&T Stops Taking IPhone 4 Orders (LR)
            • Website and phones were overwhelmed by pre-orders wednesday
            • AT&T had to call a halt to the madness
            • Expected ship date went from June 24 to July 2
            • Walmart still plans to sell in-store on June 24
            • Radio Shack Suspended their pre-order possibilities
            • Best Buy honoring their program (we talked about BB being in bed w/ Apple recently)
            • Some guess that over 600,000 phones were pre-ordered in less than a day
          • Gates funds project for Nuclear waste project (LM)
            • A new kind of reactor that’s been theorized since the 50′s but never built
            • Uses depleted uranium, so nuclear waste from standard reactors to power itself
            • Claim that they would only have to be fueled every 60-100 years
            • Use a very small amount of non-depleted material to start it and then the depleted materials is shuffled around into a “power zone”
            • Very interesting and has a lot of potential for fixing the main problem with nuclear power: waste.
          • Texting gone right in College (SM)
            • Students are going to text, why fight it?
            • Georgia State picks up a tech inspired from a Sports Jumbotron
            • Students text their questions to a certain number, scrolls across the bottom of the projector
            • 15 business classes using, $10,000 licensing
            • Education
          Intarweb Goldmine
          • Bigfoot Sighting (LM)
          • Bus Driver Steals Own Bus to See Girlfriend
            • Duane Snipes, 29, a Greyhound bus driver for 2 years, hijacks a $600,000 coach.
            • Later abandoned the bus, which caused a terror scare with local police.
            • When Duane was later caught, he made many excuses: Was giving $600 tours, picking up his daughter, and going for a joyride.
            • Later he said he did it for love; so he could meet his love in Mount Vernon. Problem: Family says that girlfrend lives in North Carolina.
          • Woman Shoot Herself To Get Medical Aid
            • Kathy Myers hurt her shoulder but could not afford health insurance.
            • Her solution: Shoot herself.
            • Says “no suicide wish” and “…I want to live”
            • DA is concidering charges for discharging weapon in city limits.
            • (LS) Seriously, she should be up for mental issues IMO.

          Contact Info

          Sponsors

          http://luxurylanesoap.com, @KyleeLane, GORGEOUS, IMAGINATIVE, HANDCRAFTED, GEEKY Soap
          • Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
          • (We Do! They’re Geekalicious! but don’t eat them… they are SOAP!)
          ]]>           http://thepowergeeks.com/2010/06/the-power-geeks-54/feed/ 0 E3,Sony,Microsoft,Apple,Iphone,Nintendo,Zelda,COD,Move,Kinect,Nuclear,Wow,Auction,xbox,360 (Live on UStream) This week its all about E3. The gaming mecca that none of us ever get invitations 2. Also, if you haven't noticed, we're back from the dead, like the zombies we are. Jeremy and Kristin were eaten by the Real Life monsters so WE BRINGI... (Live on UStream) This week its all about E3. The gaming mecca that none of us ever get invitations 2. Also, if you haven't noticed, we're back from the dead, like the zombies we are. Jeremy and Kristin were eaten by the Real Life monsters so WE BRINGING THE BACKUP!!!2 guest hosts Physicist Lisa, hows it going Lisa and Prof_Mordarm aka Lorenzo. Click Here to Download Ep. 54 Gold Sponsors: UberDorkCafe To help tell us about this new sponsor, we bring on Natali, aka UberDorkGirlie, the owner of this idea Geek Refuge, Part Coffee shop, Part cafe, Part Game Room, Part Party place 1 geek, Ginormous Dream Art + Science = Geek Donate small ($1 or $2 or Big! and get rewards) Kickstarter site for UberDorkCafe Deals of the Week / New Releases Microsoft Office 2010 Free for 60 Days (and Beyond) You can "rearm" Office up to five times (180 days) using this free (and legal) program. Geek Speak E3 Talk Interactive Party games, 3D, and Motion Controllers seem to be the theme for this E3 Overalls - Who did you like the best Microsoft Conference Video and Highlights COD: Black Ops Activision signs exclusivity agreement w/ M$. All map packs for COD hits first on 360 Natal Renamed Kinect: Zune movies, handsfree entertainment control, Zune Music, + wii-type games (a Me2 for Wii) Metal Gear Solid: Rising - Sword Action Fable 3 (revolution) Halo Reach LOOKS AWESOME ESPN coming to xbox 360 for Gold Subscribers: 3,500 Live and pre-recorded events, Trivia, factoids, etc all available New redesigned console: smaller, 250GB, PRE-N wireless built in Sony, Summary - Fat Princess DLC + Pirates and Ninja classes (Cake for everyone!) Sony pimping their 3D gaming tech, 20 titles native by Mar.2011 (Killzone 3 being their main title) (SM) Do ppl really want 3D in games? Move pushed by Sony heavily (Me2 for Wii) ($100) Sorcery looks kinda cool. Use the Move wand like a magic wand (LR) I was surprised to see Gabe Newell (from Valve) come out and support PS3 after his stances against the console. Nintendo, Summary - Theme = old franchises return, Tech is just a tool Golden Eye 007 is back! New Zelda for Wii, Sword = wiimote, nunchuck = shield, SM - looks way funner than twilight princess Disney Epic Mickey on Wii! PC The Old Republic Trailer Also just announced that players will be able to have and own ships! Holy Crap! I want the trailer as a movie... Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium Online Trailer Developed by Vigil, makers of Darksiders Slight glimpses of actual game-play but nothing real concrete yet. Portal 2 Trailer Tech,Gaming, and Geek News Remote WOW Auction House (SM) Finally! People have been asking this for years. $3.99 a month fee Available for IPhone and Android Market some ppl play wow just to screw around with the market economy UFC 2010 Slow Sales Affect THQ (LR) UFC 2009 Undisputed sold a million copies in its first week (2/3 to xbox, 1/3 to PS3) No NPD numbers yet for the newer game, but THQ revised their quarter numbers by 4 million (193 million) What will this do for a 2011 franchise? Will this be another Madden or just a mediocre performing non-descript sports game? Actual Working Lightsaber (LM) YEAH! Commercial ready no less 1 watt laser - 1000 times more powerful on skin than the sun ‘It will blind permanently and instantly and set fire quickly to skin and other body parts – use with extreme caution and only when using the included eye protection.’ Planes can see this laser from 72 KM away... :s $200 pricetag makes this a basement bargain New Mac Mini Unveiled (SM) Unibody aluminum case, Built-in HDMI port and SD Card Slot 2 options including a "leopard server" option w/ more memory (just screams apple tv or xbmc ) Double the graphics power (GForce 320M) 2.4GHZ, 2GB RAM, 320 GB HD (only 5400 tho) Starts at $699 The Power Geeks clean 1