We are LIVE on Ustream.  This week we talk Spotify, finally in the US, Batman vs. Cptn. Kirk in the ultimate cage match, and YES, it is officially confirmed, the Gods want more cowbell.

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

Just cuz it’s still making me giggle –

• Finally a Good Use For 3D Printers (btm)
• Millenium Falcon Bass Guitar (udg)
• INSANELY AWESOME FInal Fantasy Stop Motion (udg)

• Kid Finds a Piece of History and Gets to View History Up Close (btm)
  • After a 2006 Hurricane struck the North Carolina coast a Durham teen, Kevin Schanze found a piece of metal on the beach from the first stage of Apollo 16.
  • NASA confirmed it was authentic
  • The sheet of metal made a 30 year journey from the Florida coast to an inlet of the Outer Banks and floated into the Pamlico Sound.
  • NASA showed there gratitude by inviting him to see final Shuttle launch last week.
  • He was taken on an all-access tour of the Kennedy Space Center including the top of the Atlantis launch pad and the Atlantis cockpit.

• Turn your IPad into a Trek Pad… (SM)

Gold Sponsors:

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

• Want to wow all your friends with off-the-wall Movie Trivia?
• Want to know more about Geek History and share them with your friends?
• Today in Geek History and Today in Movie History are for you
• Both have been out on the Android Marketplace for awhile now
• After a long vetting period, Today in Movie History is now available on iTunes!!!
• Go check out both apps, TIGH  and TIMH, now available on both Android and iPhone
• Now As Seen on Wired.com!!

Natali’s Etsy!!!

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

Deals of the Week / New Release

• Mtv Geek’s Guide to Manga on the Cheap (udg)
  • Even full price, most people consider manga a pretty good bang for your buck. But, it can be a really pricey habit- especially if you start a long-running series like One Piece.  But, thanks to the folks over at MTV Geeks,  here are their suggestions for 6 ways to get your manga fix for half price or less…
    • Your local library. Yup! Try the YA section as that’s where it’s usually shelved. Popular ones are usually checked out so don’t limit yourself just to your local branch. Most libraries have a swap system of some sort.  If you are looking for a specific volume, try plugging it into WorldCat, which is a mega-library catalog that will locate the copy closest to you.
    • Online swap clubs:  The most popular one seems to be Paperback Swap. It’s pretty easy to use: You upload a list of books you are willing to part with (it’s all done by ISBN so the information goes in automatically) and send out the books to people who request them. That means you pay the postage (usually less than $2.50 for a single volume), but in return, you get a credit to request a book from someone else. Paperback Swap is a general-book site, but you can set your defaults so the newest manga and graphic novel offerings are always displayed on the home page. The selection leans toward older series, but a number of book reviewers use the site, so newer volumes pop up as well, and you can ask to be notified if a particular book becomes available.
    • Freecycle: I belong to my local freecycle and never cease to be amazed by the range of items offered and found through here! Visit their site, find your local group then post a message saying you’re looking for manga and you may connect with someone who is cleaning out their collection.
    • Used book sales: It’s rummage sale time people! Get on out there. Also keep an eye out for libraries cleaning house.
    • Online shopping: Amazon and Barnes & Noble also offer used manga at astonishingly low prices, but watch out for shipping costs. You can find a lot priced at one cent on Amazon, but keep in mind that shipping is $3.99, so you’re actually paying four bucks out of pocket. Given that you can ship a volume of manga for less than $2.50 via media mail, Paperback Swap is a better deal. Ebay is a good bet if you’re looking for multiple volumes of a series, as shipping a number of items isn’t much more expensive than shipping one (and many sellers just charge the mailing cost, not an inflated shipping cost).
    • Digital: Digital manga can be a good way to go if you have a device to read it on, and if you watch out for special promotions. If you have an iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone, check out the Viz app, which offers single volumes for $4.99, and stay tuned to the manga blogs, because they have a lot of sales.

• So there you go, six different ways to get your manga fix without resorting to piracy or robbing a bank. And don’t forget that most of these channels are good ways to pass on the volumes you are done with as well—recoup a bit of the cost by selling them online, trade up via Paperback Swap, or just get a bit of good karma by donating them to your local library.

• Google Releases own eBook Reader (SM)
  • Iriver – Fully integrated with the google book store
  • eInk display by LG that XGA resolution
  • Faster page turns due to beefier processor
  • full querty keyboard
  • Built in Wi-Fi, 6 weeks battery life
  • chromed buttons on the bottom for nav
  • $139.99 (Target and Target.com)
  • Too little to late?

• Capcom Lists Res Evil 15th Anniversary Collection (udg)
  • Capcom has listed for preorder on its Japanese e-shop a Resident Evil 15th Anniversary box, including the first four games in the survival horror franchise plus Code: Veronica, soundtrack CDs, and extra trinkets.
  • The full listing is as follows:

• Resident Evil Directors Cut
• Resident Evil 2
• Resident Evil 3 Last Escape
• Resident Evil Revival Selection [contains Resident Evil 4 and Code: Veronica]
• Resident Evil Code: Veronica soundtrack
• Resident Evil 4 soundtrack
• A number of Pins & Stickers
  • The first three games are the original PlayStation versions, which run on the old hardware, but the image above shows that the discs’ appearances have been redesigned for the bundle. The early games appear to have received some updated packaging as well.
  • Revival Selection for the PS3 contains HD versions of Code: Veronica and RE4, but it’s up to the player to complete the series collection with their own copy of Resident Evil 5. Thankfully Capcom has left a spacer in the box for you to do this.
  • The package will go on sale exclusively on Capcom’s e-Capcom online store (Japanese link) on September 8th for a price of 7,800 yen ($96 at current exchange rates, but the exchange rate is extraordinarily high lately).
  • There’s no word yet on an American release, but since there’s an equivalent online store for the US market (the Capcom Store) known for selling cool and rare stuff, it’s very possible that this one will cross the pond.

• Video New Releases (SM)
  • Rango – a lizard in the Wild West (first full animated film from ILM)
  • Robot Chicken – Star Wars III
  • Battle Beyond the Stars – If you crave total cheese, cell matted laser bolts, epicly cleavaged ships, and blatant rip-offs of Star Wars and Seven Samurai, this is the show for you
  • Damnation Alley – Get your Post Apocalyptic fix here…  w/ Burt Reynolds

Entertainment Geekly (new feature)

• Do Gods Love Cowbell?? (udg)
  • Gods Behaving Badly is a Fables/Fruits Basket sort of story with just a dash of American Gods‘ theme of washed up deities: The ancient Greek gods are alive and managing in a New York city brownstone, much to the surprise of their neighbors.
  • But then the actual casting is the aweseome!
  • The gods are: Aphrodite — Sharon Stone, Apollo — Oliver Platt, Artemis — Edie Falco, Demeter — Phylicia Rashad, Dionysus — Nelsan Ellis, Eros — Gideon Glick, Hades — John Turturro, Hermes — Henry Zebrowski, Persephone — Rosie Perez and Zeus — Christopher Walken.
  • Christopher Walken as the patriarch of an incestuous, petty brood played by some of the best character actors in the business? That’s worth paying attention to. And who knows- maybe there’ll be some cowbell.

• Boba Fett Movie? Possible? (btm)
  • In a recent interview ‘Captain America’ Director, Joe Johnston was asked if his former boss and mentor, George Lucas, had already seen the movie.
  • His surprising response was:
    • “You know if he wants to see it, I would show it to him. I’m trying to get George to make a feature based on Boba Fett.”
  • Says he would like to direct the Boba Fett movie and thinks it would be a lot of fun
  • Began his career as a storyboard artist for George Lucas and created designs for some of fandom’s favorite characters and vehicles including, Yoda, the Ewoks, The Millennium Falcon, the X-Wing and Y-Wing fighters, Imperial Snow Walkers, Imperial Star Destroyers and of course, Boba Fett.
  • One wonders if Lucas ever decided to hand over the reigns of the franchise to someone else why wouldn’t it be to one of the original trilogies original creators?

• Space Invaders Coming to a Theater Near You? (udg)
  • Space Invaders, the classic ’80s videogame, may be coming to a theater near you.
  • Producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Gigi Pritzker have optioned the rights to develop the project, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The two are looking for a writer.
  • For the uninitiated, Space Invaders was introduced in 1978 and became a pop culture phenomenon during the next decade when it was made available for the Atari 2600. The title is the top arcade game of all time, according to the Guinness World Records.
  • Given that brand equity and the track record for other films based on ’80s properties, like Transformers, the idea of a Space Invaders movie has been around for a while. Last March, the L.A. Times reported that Warner Bros. was negotiating with Space Invaders owner Taito about a movie.
  • Additionally, di Bonaventura has brought toy properties to the big screen. He is one of the producers of the Transformers films as well as G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra.
  • Meanwhile, a slew of movies based on videogames are in various stages of production. That list includes an Asteroids movie, a Missile Command flick and one based on Angry Birds. In the case of Space Invaders, though, the cult TV show Futurama seems to have beaten di Bonaventura and Pritzker to the punch with an episode based on the game.

• Wanna Be In The Dark Knight Rises? (udg)
  • The movie is looking for fans to fill a stadium in the Pittsburgh area on Saturday, August 6,” which would seem to indicate Heinz Field as the location.
  • The stadium scene calls for energetic football fans to cheer the Gotham Rogues in a game against the Rapid City Monuments. There will be door prizes, gift cards and autographed items. Go to beinamovie.com for full details.

• Speaking of the Dark Knight, WB has released a teaser trailer (btm)
  • Premiered with the Harry Potter movie
  • Now on Facebook page.
  • Mostly clips from the previous two movies but there’s some added footage from the new movie showing Batman preparing to do battle with Bane.

• Batman: Year One Coming to Video (btm)
  • Based on one of my all time favorite comic story arcs written by Frank Miller and illustrated by David Mazzucchelli in 1987
  • Clips indicate they’ve stayed very true to the original source material
  • Story recounts the beginning of Bruce Wayne’s career as Batman and James Gordons’s in the Gotham Police Department.

Geek Speak

• Twitter Turns 5 (SM)
  • Happy B-day, you text streaming social service
  • How has this little service affected the world
  • Iran Voting Conflict, Japan earthquake, major sporting events, etc.
  • Lets talk about our experiences
  • Outline some of the challenges for this free social cloud

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

• Spotify in the U.S. (SM)
  • music streaming service that has free and premium subscriptions
  • VERY popular over in the UK and Europe
  • Just barely opened for business in the US
  • How is it different than Internet Radio? You can actually stream selected tracks
  • Most devices supported with players
  • Premium services start around $4.99
  • Is it worth it?? .mp3 (you own) vs. Streaming (you get to listen but don’t own)

• Secret Service onto the Apple Store Spy Cam Artist (btm)
  • 25 year old Brooklyn artist Kyle McDonald installed software on computers in a NYC Apple Store
  • Software would take pictures every minute and capture the faces of Apple Store shoppers as they stared at the monitors of MacBooks.
  • Software would then send the images back to the artist where he was working on using them as part of a project.
  • Woke up to four Secret Service agents who took his two computers, his iPod and two flash drives.
  • Not sure what or if he will be charged with.

• Dear Anon- Pick a Direction and Stick With It. (udg)
  • Hacker group Anonymous has been booted off of Google+. However, the hacker collective is responding by creating its own social network called AnonPlus that won’t put up with “being shut down, censored or oppressed.” Google apparently kicked “Your Anon News” off of the social network because it apparently violated Google’s Community Standards. Google also pulled their Gmail account.
  • So, if  you can’t join em, beat em. As of right now, the only thing you’ll find at AnonPlus.com is a splash page, and there’s not a whole lot of information there. You can’t register, or even click any links for that matter. The only clickable link on the page is to the dev forum at the bottom of the page. The site is in “Revision: 0.5 Alpha” at the moment.
  • AnonPlus’s message on the front page says the site is to be a “new social network where there is no fear…of censorship…of blackout…nor of holding back.” The site is for everyone, and not just for members of Anonymous. Anonymous says the site will go up soon, but it can’t happen overnight.
  • The hacktivist group said in a post on a subsidiary site that activists being banned from sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube is the result of “walk(ing) to a different beat of the drum.” The hacker group said on AnonPlus that “the sheep era is over. The interwebz are no longer your prison.”
  • Anonymous isn’t the only one who was kicked off of Google+. William Shatner was also banned after Google believed his profiled to be a fake. Perhaps Shatner will join AnonPlus?
  • Then you’ve got the was supposedly disbanned now back part of Anon Lulzsec out hacking The Sun and redirecting it to a fake Murdock death story.
  • Last week Anon took credit for leaking 90,000 U.S. military email addresses stolen from servers owned by Booz Allen Hamilton. (Which honestly made me PISSED)
  • They need to stop chuggin the dew and snorting the pixie stix and pick a direction. I suggest one that continues to follow the Hacker’s Manifesto. Keep straying from that and you’re going to end up being made an example of.

• Your Next Job May Depend on Your Facebook History (btm)
  • It’s often said what you post online can never truly be deleted.
  • Several new companies are apparently trying to help that be true
  • Recently the FTC gave the company Social Intelligence the go ahead to run background checks on your Internet and Social Media history.
  • While the company doesn’t store 7 years of your history, it looks at 7 years of your online life and makes this available for potential employers
  • Looks for aggressive or violent tendencies or illegal activity, discriminatory activity, and sexually explicit activity.
  • While it redacts any identifiable images of the subject and ignores benign tomfoolery it’s still kinda creepy considering how much information many of us put online and forget about.

• Google’s + Button Already More Widespread Than Twitter’s (udg)

• • They’ve only been out for around a month and Google’s +1 buttons are more common on major web sites than the tweet button.
  • BrightEdge, an enterprise SEO platform provider, analyzed the 10,000 largest sites on the web and found a 33% surge in placement for Google’s +1 button during the past few weeks. The company found that +1 buttons are now on 4.4% of those sites, up from 3.6% in June. Meanwhile, Twitter’s plug-ins are displayed on 3.4% of the sites.
  • Both Google and Twitter trail far behind Facebook though, whose  “Like” button, is on about 20% of the sites’ front pages.
  • Plus runs out of disk space (SM)
    • Their notification system went on the fritz and was spamming ppl
    • Ran out of disk space for 80 mins
  • Already the Contact Export Wars Begin (SM)
    • Facebook has already swung the ban hammer on a company
    • They were exporting first and last names from FB and matching them to contacts on your local machine and on linkedin
    • You then had a free-and-clear contact list
    • Wasn’t much different than you going “Account->Account Settings->Download Your Information” to get a friends.html

• Amazon to rent textbooks (SM)
  • 30 day rentals with 1 day extensions
  • Ability to store annotations in the amazon cloud past rental period
  • Not all roses though
  • Cognitive process “where the information is” broken
  • Some of the illustrations are illegible (who looks at those anyways)
  • No chump change by selling books mommy and daddy paid for
  • John Wiley & Sons, Elsevier, Taylor & Francis and Oxford University Press.
    • Half Price Books is now selling Textbooks (actual paper ones) online now too.

• Netflix Raising Prices by 60% (btm)
  • Starting September 1st Netflix will no longer offer a $9.99 package of DVD-by-mail and unlimited streaming
  • 23 million subscribers will now pay $15.98/month or $7.99 for just one of the two
  • Netflix feels their streaming content is now robust enough that many people don’t want both options.
  • “Given the long life we thing DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2.00 add-on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs,” said Netflix in its press release.

• Facebook Introduces Vending Machines for Computer Accessories(udg)
  • How many times have you been there? At work, some part of your computer goes kaput? Maybe the mouse is fried, power cable goes bad, you name it. Well, getting a replacement is usually a pain in the tush. I’ve had to write a request, submit to department head who then submitted to IT who then checked stock, and then.. you get the point.
  • Well it seems FB had cut out all the middle people and I can’t honestly think of any easier way than what they’ve done-  After some initial tests with a swipe card system and a cabinet, the social network went ahead and had some custom vending machines made. Each contain all the common accessories that regularly need replacing.
  • All a FB employee has to do to get a replacement is swipe their ID card and ket in the accessory they need. The employee gets quick access to the accessory and can continue working. Facebook gets a record of which employee took what device, and alerts can be put in place when a machine needs restocking. There’s also going to be the option to pull up a summary of employees and the number of accessories they get through in any given time period.
  • According to Tim Campos, CIO at Facebook, the vending machines have cut the cost of replacing such devices by 25%. There’s also going to be another cost saving in both time and money gained from each Facebook employee not having to wait for a replacement device.

• Google+ App finally released for iOS (btm)
  • While the Android app has been available from day one the iOS app took a little longer to get through the Apple approval system.
  • The much anticipated iOS app was released today providing many mobile features to iPhone users.
  • Several iOS users were a little upset that it doesn’t support iPad or iPod Touch devices.

• Family Time Now With Zombies (udg)
  • In The Walking Dead Board game, only the strong survive. The weak turn into walkers, and then turn against their former friends! Fight your way through zombie-infested Atlanta with your fellow survivors. Grab some weapons to clear a path. Visit destinations like the department store, old folk’s home, and the CDC. Find the tools you’ll need to live another day. Take on the role of Rick, Andrea, or one of the other hapless survivors and scrounge for sweet weapons like a Shotgun or Crossbow. Keep your eyes open for new allies, but watch your back! When supplies start running low, it’s every man for himself. If you can make it back to camp with enough gear to defend yourself and those you still care for, you win!
  • Should you fall to the hungry horde of walkers, the game doesn’t end. When a player dies and becomes a walker, they leave the world of the living behind and seek out the remaining survivors. Spring surprise attacks on the living, cause the walkers to frenzy, or contaminate the survivor’s supplies. Put the bite on your former friends and they’ll join you in your pursuit of the living.
  • The fate of the human race is in your hands, either as a survivor or a walker. Join us this September 2011 with Cryptozoic Entertainment’s The Walking Dead Board Game.

Intarweb Goldmine

• No Equal Rights for Monkeys (udg)
  • It was a wedding that thousands waited eagerly for since the engagement was announced. Invitations were sent, the details were meticulously labored over, and finally, to the almost-hysteric joy of the crowds, the big day arrived.
  • In the small village of Talwas, Rajasthan, Raju, a well-known cigarette smoking monkey, and his bride Chinki were married.
  • Raju had become a local celebrity after Ramesh Saini, a rickshaw driver, adopted him three years ago when he found the monkey unconscious.
  • He’s been a surrogate son to the childless Ramesh ever since.
  • “I want to enjoy the feelings of a son’s marriage through Raju’s wedding.” Ramesh told the publication. “We will welcome the bride in our house … after the wedding with all rituals.” Raju’s bethrothed Chinki lived with a priest in a nearby village.
  • More than 2,000 guests were expected to attend the pre-wedding feast and to watch Raju ride atop a horse in a procession, Stuff reported. The wedding was planned in accordance with traditional Hindi customs, including sacred fires and fragrant incense.
  • Monkeys are revered by many Hindus, because the deity Hanuman appeared in primate form.
  • But the carefully made preparations were thrown into havoc by government officials who cracked down on the animal nuptials, because monkeys are technically government property. So marrying a monkey, even to another monkey, is illegal
  • Two hundred guards from the forest department flooded Talwas on the wedding day after warning that all guests would be arrested. Hundreds of attendees showed up despite the threats, but Raju, Chinki and their owners had fled.
  • In a final twist, the owners announced that the monkeys married in a secret ceremony deep in the woods. Forest rangers captured the newlyweds, but Ramesh told Stuff that he is confident they will return.
  • “I know my son Raju, with his wife Chinki, will come back home,” Ramesh said. “I will have a big reception for them.”

• JellyFish shut down Nuclear reactor (SM)
  • Japanese reactor has to shut down.. for earthquake? for natural disaster? nope, for JELLY FISH
  • Thats right, the lil buggers swarmed around the coolant intake, gumming it up and forcing them to shut down a thermonuclear device
  • Who says Mother Nature 2 – humans 0
  • There is an upside to this… Free sushi for the whole country for at least 2 months, well nuked
  • This actually happens a lot, A couple other plants have shut down because of this same phenomena

• Who says Chihuahua can’t be guard dogs? (udg)
  • Don’t mess with the little guy with the big bark at the Ace Smoke Shop in Altadena, Calif.
  • The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office released some amazing surveillance video on Monday, showing what happened when armed robbers stormed into the shop on July 7.
  • They left with some money, but less than “they could’ve gotten,”as the Los Angeles Times reports, because of the owner’s Chihuahua. His “ferocious barking” and lunges at the bad guy’s legs look to have convinced the robbers to clear out quickly. No one was hurt.
  • According to LA Weekly’s The Informer blog, the real tough guy in this tale is named Paco and he weighs about 15 pounds.
  • The robbers are still at large.

• Jet Pack Fail (SM)
  • Fox 5 thought it would be awesome if they had a guy fly via jetpack on the start of their show..
  • So the show starts and the guy jumps to fly… and falls flat in the water
  • What do the anchors do??? roll on the floor in disbelief
  • Guy recovers and flies out of the water

• I don’t know what’s better, this story or the guy’s name (udg)
  • It’s tough finding even an odd job these days.
  • That’s why Utah-area resident Mork Encino, who swears this is his real name, created the oddest job for himself.
  • Encino, 28, on his website, advertises he’ll be human prey for marksmen with $10,000 to spare. It’ll cost you an extra $2k to hunt him in the nude.
  • He says he’s “generally unskilled” and hasn’t had a job in years. In the past, he’s worked in construction, landscaping and cleaned out storage sheds.
  • His greatest skill may be self-promotion: He’s appeared on radio programs and been written up by quite a few websites.
  • Since hunting people is highly illegal, valid hunting offers have been few and far between.
  • “I’ve had a variety of offers, none of which I’ve been comfortable accepting. As I’ve said, this is not my dream job. There’s obviously no longterm in it. This is just something I’ve resorted to in order to make others aware of my situation. It’s a job application, man. And a damn good one if I may say so,” Encino said via email.

• Tune In and Tune Out, i-Dosing with your iPod (btm)
  • Get your bonfires ready America!
  • Kids are downloading MP3s and getting high!
  • According to an Oklahoma news channel reporting on a new trend called i-dosing
  • Kids are putting on their headphones and listening to music which consists of a droning noise and promises to get you high.
  • Local schools have already sent home letters to parents warning of the new threat.
  • Sites are selling guides to how to properly get high on the MP3s
  • How will society react to this new menace?
  • Will politicians be asked if they’ve ever i-Dosed?
  • “I i-dosed, but I had it on mute”?

• Captain Kirk gets booted off Google+ (btm)
  • Joining in the Google+ craze, actor William Shatner accepted an invitation and joined
  • Shortly after making his first post Google took down his account for “violating standards”
  • He had only made one post saying “Hello”
  • This could be related to Google+ trying to prevent fake accounts and pseudonym use.
  • Posted on his twitter account, “ “My Google+ account was flagged for violating standards. Saying hello to everyone apparently is against the rules maybe I should say goodbye?”
  • Shatner was returned to Google+ Monday with the following post, ““I am back plusers! I still do not know what happened but I will refrain from saying hello again for a while just in case. My best, Bill.”
  • Currently there seems to be no verification system for Google+ accounts, unlike Twitter with their check mark and “verified” accounts.
  • Google reps could not be contacted for comment.

Extra Links

• Best Google+ Tips & Tricks (udg)
• Google Declares Nuclear war on Malware
• QR Tattoo spawns animation (SM)

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

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

The Power Geeks #107

We are LIVE on Ustream.  Lulzsec disbands, Google unveils how they plan to social network, and Ding, Dong, a Star Wars product is dead

Intro Ben
Intro Natali

Items of Interest

• Ever Want To Be On Your Own Trading Card? (udg)
  • The awesome folks over at Meet Meme reached out to me recently and OMG I am LOVING the cards they made me!!!
• ShouldIChangeMyPassword.com (udg)
  • With all the hacks going on lately, wouldn’t it be nice if you had one place to go to see if your information has been compromised? Well, we do! It’s ShouldIChangeMyPassword.com and it works by making use of a number of databases that have been released to the public by Hackers. No passwords are stored by the site and it is strictly being made available as a public service.

• Boutonnieres from a Galaxy Far, Far Away (udg)

• Super Mario Beatbox (udg)
  • Trust me- it’s hella awesome and once again proof of the zillion reasons I love the Japanese.

• Ready for Transformers: Bark at the Moon? How About Your Data? (btm)

• • From themed flash drive maker Mimoco
  • Optimus Prime and Megatron are available in 2, 4, 8 and 16GB models
  • Prices range from $20 to $60 depending on size.
  • Includes Screensavers, Comics, Icons and Images.
  • USB 2.0

• DC Relaunch, Hipster Style (btm)
  • As DC Comics remake and relaunch their comic universe lot’s of heroes are getting a new look
  • deviantArt user “CallMePro” has put together a catalog of his vision of the costume redesigns, Hipster style.

• Ditch your Remote (SM) (accessory not included)

• Hackintosh Mini for less than $600 (SM)

• USB Powered Butt Cooler (SM)

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

• Team Fortress 2 Now Free-To-Play Forevvvver! (udg)

• • Valve has decided to introduce the free-to-play model for its very popular team-based first-person shooter Team Fortress 2.
  • Right now, you can hop on your mac or PC, load up Steam, download the game and start playing free and the game play is exactly the same as the paid version. Free users will also receive all the updates and downloadable content, but there are some differences.
  • So what’s different? Free accounts get 50 slots in their backpack, standard items, limited blueprints, can receive items and gifts only. There’s a couple of unique extras too like a Proof of Purchase hat to wear and if you help out someone with a free account a lot and they upgrade to premium you get a free wearable item.
  • You can still update to a premium version. All you have to do is purchase something in-game at the Mann Co. store.

• The Real Muppets Trailer (SM)

• DVD Movie Releases (4th wk June)
  • LOTR: EE on BLU-RAY!!! (sm) ‘nuff said!
  • Sucker Punch: Director’s Cut
  • Max Manus: Man of War – Dutch Underground Pulp war movie

Entertainment Geekly (new feature)

• R.I.P.D Gets a Release Date (udg)
  • Looks like the comic book movies are going to keep coming for Ryan Reynolds. Universal Pictures has announced a June 28, 2013 release date for R.I.P.D., an adaptation of the Dark Horse Comics series and will star Reynolds along side Jeff Bridges. It follows dead police officer, Nick Cruz, (played by Reynolds) that joins the supernatural “Rest In Peace Department” in order to investigate his own murder. Bridges plays the role of Roy, a veteran on the undead police force.
  • So what does this mean for the other comic book movie that Reynolds is attached to start in- the “Deadpool” solo movies spinning out of his debut as the character in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”? I’m not sure, but I am glad to see Hollywood branching out more in the comic department without bastardizing the classics.

• Starz to Premier “Torchwood: Miracle Day” July 8, 2011 (btm)
  • Popular BBC One series, often called Doctor Who for grown-ups is coming to America.
  • Show’s original creator, writer/producer Russell T Davies will serve as Executive Producer.
  • 10 part series features original  Torchwood stars John Barrowman and Eve Myles along with Mekhi Phifer, Bill Pullman and Lauren Ambrose.
  • Story explores what happens when no one on Earth dies. They still age, get sick and get hurt, but no one dies.

• WW Movie Talk That Makes Me GIDDY!?! (udg)
  • Nicolas Refn, director of Bronson and Valhalla Rising, has spoken about his perfect Wonder Woman in the shape of Christina Hendricks. Interviewed at the premere of his latest film, Drive, Nicolas was adamant that if he is chosen to chair the Wonder Woman feature, currently in development at Warner Brothers, he’d pick the Mad Men actress.
  • Speaking about Christina – who Nicolas cast alongside Ryan Gosling in Drive – he told NY Magazine, “If I ever get to do it, she’s going to be it.” He also told the BBC last year that helming Wonder Woman was a lifelong ambition for him, “It’s probably something that, to me, would be not just a satisfaction, but almost a catharsis”, adding, “I was born to make it.”
  • As for Hendricks, the dream of playingWonder Woman has been on her mind for over a year now. Last year she told US chat show host Rachel Ray “I’ve been wanting to wear that outfit my whole life … I had Underoos. I had Wonder Woman Underoos!”
  • Of course nothing is even remotely set in stone in regards to WW making the leap to the big-screen but I absoeffinglutely LOVE this choice.

Geek Speak

• Are Fake Geeks Dooming Real Ones?
  • “In the wake of the Best Buy ‘geek’ trademarking and Miss USA calling herself ‘a huge history geek,’ writer (and self-proclaimed geek) Eryn Green has an interesting piece for Esquire on how so-called ‘geek chic’ is pervading the culture so much that no one appreciates an actual geek anymore. From the article: ‘The difference between brains and beauty is that you’re more or less born into good looks — entitled, if you will. Intelligence? That takes work. If the hallmark of real geekiness — of America — is determination, then we seem too determined to have an entitlement problem.’”

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

• JK Rowling Quoth Pottermore(udg)
  • Fans of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series waited expectantly for the announcement the best-selling author promised to make last Thursday.
  • The big announcement turned out to be Pottermore. She describes it as an online website for fans that will be “an online reading experience unlike any other.”
  • Rowling said this is her way of thanking her fans. “Harry’s fans remain as enthusiastic and inventive as ever,” she said in the video. “So I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you, because no author could ask for a more wonderful and diverse and loyal readership.”
  • According to Rowling, the “Harry Potter”story will be available on Pottermore, but it will be built and shaped by the readers. Rowling also said that she plans on sharing additional information that she has “been hoarding for years about the world of Harry Potter.” The website will also be the exclusive place to buy digital audio books and e-books of the “Harry Potter” series.
  • “The digital generation will be able to enjoy a safe, unique online reading experience built around the ‘Harry Potter’ books,” Rowling said in the video. The description of it all is very vague. I’m sure Potter fans will want to smack me but- wasn’t this series supposed to end? This skirts a dangerously fine line of supporting fans and continuing on so you can extract money from them long after you’ve “ended” your series.
  • The Pottermore website will not open officially until October, but Rowling said that a lucky few can enter the site early and help develop it. “Just follow the owl,” she said. Fans can return to the website on July 31 to find out how to enter the site early.

• HBO GO Showing Growth (SM)
  • HBO strikes another blow against Netflix
  • 3 million downloads strong (10% of the HBO userbase)
  • Not Hulu Plus, all HBO’s vault is available for watching
  • Soprano’s, The Wire, Rome, the Pacific, Band of Brothers, Deadwood, Entourage
  • Here’s the catch. You must have cable and subscribe to HBO
  • (SM) Boo!!

• Apple Awarded Patent for Multitouch (btm)
  • US Patent and Trademark Office recently awarded Apple U.S. Patent #7,966,578 for a “portable multifunction device, method and graphical user interface for translating and displaying content.”
  • Patent originally filed December of 2007
  • iPhone revolutionized smart-phone design and use with the first iPhone
  • Spawned many copycats since it’s launch
  • Critics say that the awarded patent is too broad in it’s scope and unless it is invalidated or made more narrow it will hamper innovation until 2027.
  • According to Patent Attorney Spyros J. Lazaris, “It could cover any mobile device with a screen capable of accessing the web and showing web pages, including tablet computers and smartphones.”
  • How Apple plans to implement this new patent remains to be seen but in the past Apple has aggressively protected patents of their interfaces.

• Star Wars Galaxies is Dead, Long Live the Old Republic (udg)
  • LucasArts and Sony ONline Entertainment has announced, effective Dec. 15th, they will shut down Star Wars Galaxies.
  • In a note on the game’s support forum, the companies stated “The shutdown of SWG is a very difficult decision, but SOE and LucasArts have mutually agreed that the end of 2011 is the appropriate time to end the game.” Besides the MMO, the closure will also affect the Trading Card Game.
  • “During the last week that SWG is available…we’re going to end with a bang and we want the final chapter of the galaxy to be written in part by the dedicated and passionate SWG community.  Details will be announced at a later date,” the companies said.
  • Meanwhile, SWG subscribers in good standing will be able to play several other SOE MMO PC Games at the subscriber level at no extra cost. Between Oct 15 & Dec 15th, those users will have access to Free Realms, Star Wars; Clone Wars Adventures, EverQuest, EverQuest II and DC Universe Online via the Star Wars Galaxies web site.
  • Effective June 24th though 3, 6 & 12 month subscription packs, as well as the TCG store were turned off. Sept 15 starts cease of the sale of the Trading Card game and the SWG MMO. Billing will be turned off Oct 15th and all free game trials will end Dec. 31st.

• Lulzsec Disbands (SM)
  • Lulzsec, group famous for hacking the CIA, Senate, Nintendo, Sony, and others
  • Surprisingly announced their disbanding after a short news garnering life
  • Claim that the plan was to only operate for 50 days
  • Wanted to bring back the AntiSec movement – anti-disclosure of exploits
  • (what attacking gov’t and corporate websites do for this cause, who knows)
  • As a parting shot,  AT&T, AOL, Disney, Universal, EMI and the FBI were all hacked
  • Anonymous claims they carry the torch, and hack some more

• US Navy Buys 59,000 Microchips with Chinese Backdoors (btm)
  • Last year the Navy bought 59k Microchips for use in everything from missiles to transponders.
  • Turns out the chips were counterfeits from China
  • Wired reported that not only were they fake chips, they had built-in back doors that would allow them to be remotely shutdown at anytime.
  • Trojan circuits that are built in during the production process are almost impossible to detect.
  • The danger is from US contractors attempting to save a buck by using cheaper, foreign made chips.
  • The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA) is now looking for methods to check chips for these Trojan circuits.

• Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D Game Saves Can NOT Be Deleted (udg)
  • As far as we know, the 3DS is the 1st Nintendo portable gaming unit to use region protection. Turns out it’s also the first machine to get a game with permanent save games on a cartridge.
  • Capcom has decided to make the save games on Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D permanent. In other words, as soon as you start playing, the cartridge is gonna fill up with your saves that can’t ever be deleted. Why the heck would they do this? Well, to stop you from selling it once you’ve beaten it or gotten bored with it.
  • Yeah, Capcom may think themselves clever- but it’s just going to piss off gamers. Selling it aside, eventually it’s going to run out of save game space which will render it useless. And let’s face it, selling your games is not pretty much a common thing and something retailers rely upon. This could be the start of a very slippery and frustrating slope. Hopefully Capcom will learn quick and no other developers will jump aboard this trend.

• Shareable Open-Source Internet in Afghanistan (SM)
  • Many postulate that corporate-controlled Internet will never be “free”
  • FabFi has put their money where their mouth is
  • Using common building materials and off-the-shelf electronics, they have built an open-source system to transmit wireless signals across MILES!
  • (SM)and here I have a problem with a few feet
  • Their longest link? 2.41 miles to Jalalabad in Afghanistan @ 11.5 Mbps (22 Mbps is normal)
  • Total cost for one single sharing node? $60 worth of material….

• FINALLY!!! Video Games Ruled Free Speech (udg)
  • Gamer and Gamerettes, the Supreme Court has FINALLY ruled 7-2 that video games are indeed a form of free speech and therefore protected by the first amendment. You may remember this whole mes started all the way back in 2005 when California passed a law prohibiting the sale of mature-rated video games to minors under penalty of a $1,000 fine. Protesting ensued and this worked it’s way all they way up to the Supreme Court.
  • To quote their decision: “Video games qualify for First Amendment protection. Like protected books, plays and movies, they communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium.  California’s claim that ‘interactive’ video games present special problems, in that the player participates in the violent action on screen and determines its out-come is unpersuasive.”
  • While this is certainly a symbolic victory for us gamers and geeks everywhere, you’re still going to have to show your ID before purchasing mature-rated games because restricting the sale to minors is both a legal and extremely pervasive store policy. But, it is now impossible for legislation involving video game bans to bubble up from the state-level since this decision is federal and overarching.
  • So, go forth and game. Game happily and game proudly.

• Google Unveils Google Plus (btm)
  • We all saw the “Google +1” buttons that started showing up a few weeks ago
  • Today Google unveiled it’s new Social Networking project “Google Plus”
  • So far only a lucky few have been invited to participate
  • And so far it looks pretty much like every other Facebook clone.
  • There’s an interactive tour available.
  • Tour highlights the many ways you’ll be able to interact with your friends
    • Circles, hangouts, instant uploads, sparks and huddle
    • Each grouping allows for different levels of access to information and levels of privacy.
  • Will the search giant be competition to Facebook?
  • By addressing sharing and privacy from the start will unhappy Facebook users make the switch?
  • Will Billy ever tell Cindy he knows about her affair with Josh? Wait, wrong show.

• Canadian Nerds Rejoice, Toronto is Getting a Star Trek Day (udg)
  • This past May the 4th, Toronto got it’s first Star Wars Day. It was organized by collective of local nerds and combined costume contests, trivia and a lot of sniping about the prequel trilogy.
  • And when you have a Star Wars Day, you know there will be Trekkies to rally for their own day too. So, Sally Christensen, a self-identified writer, crocheter and all-around nerd got together with other locals and organized a committee for Star Trek Day Toronto.
  • So, our dear Canadian friends- mark your calendars for October 2, 2011. Yeah, unlike the May the 4th be with you wit of Star Wars Day, there doesn’t seem to be any significance to the date. Well unless 10.2.11 was the stardate when dilithium was first discovered or something.
  • The group has assembled, Avengers-style, as Nerd Mafia, a name that is just way too awesome. Star Trek Day Toronto will be the first major event hosted by this mafia of Toronto’s dork elite. And it’s already shaping up to be far more expansive than Star Wars Day.
  • Christensen says that in addition to the usual cosplay and trivia games, Star Trek Day will also include some screenings. The films haven’t been picked, but she assured us that fan favorite and series highpoint Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan will almost certainly be one of them. And if that’s not enough to crank you up to Warp Six, the Nerd Mafia’s also plotting for live music and a Star Trek–themed burlesque show. Heck yeah!
  • So, there you have it. Toronto is getting a Star Trek Day. Want to stay up to date on the deets? Follow Star Trek Day on the Twitters at @StarTrekDayTO and Nerd Mafia at @TONerdMafia.

• Would Unlimited Movies at One Price Get You Back to Theaters? (btm)
  • San Francisco startup “MoviePass” is hoping it does
  • For $50 per month you’ll get to see unlimited movies in the theater
  • Currently in private beta in the San Francisco Bay Area
  • Hopes to use the Netflix model to get people back to theaters
  • Uses geo-aware HTML5 web app users buy tickets day of the show and app gives you a redemption code to get tickets from kiosk or counter.
  • Theater must be part of major online ticketing services.
  • Few rules
    • Limited to one movie per day
    • You can only see a movie one time
    • You can’t transfer tickets to someone else
    • 3D and IMAX movies will cost an additional $3

Intarweb Goldmine

• RageGage Allows You to Smack Facebook Friends (btm)
  • We all know about the Facebook Like button, but what do you do with all those annoying “friends” who constantly post junk as their status updates?
  • RageGage, LLC has the answer, the RageGage.
  • Connect via USB to your computer and select a friend to smack
  • The nearly unbreakable device then transfers your rage via the RageGage Connect application to Facebook and provides a virtual beatdown to your “friend”.
  • Also allows users to update their “Rage Level” on Facebook by smashing the RageGage and customize how their RageLevels appear on Facebook.

• How Far Would You Go To Avoid Jail? (udg)
  • Mexican prosecutors say Aaron Vera Morales, wanted for sealing $200,000 from the government changed his sex to avoid arrest. Yup, according to a statement form The Attorney General’s office he “Had plastic surgery in an effort to evade justice, to change his identity from a man to a woman.”
  • When finally caught, Morales was carrying identification that said he was a woman. Initially it was unknown whether he had undergone gender reassignment surgery or had just changed his appearance. Turns out, he went all the way on this one. This definitely takes going on the lam to a whole new level

• Sell Weed on Facebook! (btm)
  • As a tie-in to the popular Showtime series “Weeds” the “Weeds Social Club” launched in closed beta this week.
  • Players tasked with raising money to save their house by selling pot.
  • The game will not actually show you how to grow pot, but features a time clock tracking growing and selling.
  • Players will face run-ins with the police, organized crime and taxes
  • Other popular TV series have also featured Facebook games. Gossip Girl launched a game in January and Spartacus featured a game at it’s launch as well..

• Not Your Average “Construction Ahead” Sign (udg)
  • The zombie menace has once again found its way onto a highway sign.
  • After pranksters switched the message on an electronic road sign, motorists in northern Kentucky were warned this week to watch for zombies along the Interstate 71-75 corridor.
  • The usual message about upcoming roadwork was changed to: “Nightly lane closures, zombies ahead.”
  • Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spokeswoman Nancy Wood said the Transportation Cabinet learned about the new message midmorning Thursday and turned it off until it can be fixed. Wood said officials are not amused by the prank.
  • The gag was hardly original. There was a spate of such pranks in 2009 in Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois and Texas. Last March, someone posted a zombie warning on a highway sign in South Carolina. Original or not, it’ll definitely make you smile as you’re stuck in traffic.

• PETZ – People for the Ethical Treatment of Zombies (btm)
  • Have we already discussed this?
  • Encourages people to “Vote Yes on Z!” and show that California supports basic rights for the unnaturally born.
  • Describes proper Zombie care
  • Lists companies that test on Zombies

• Very, Very,Very Happy Bunnies (udg)
  • Police in Brandenburg who discovered a large plot of cannabis called on the neighbouring house only to find an 84-year-old woman who had been feeding her rabbits with the plants.
  • “The rabbits really like it,” the woman told officers who called on her in the village of Golzow near Belzig, according to Saturday’s Tagesspiegel.
  • A police officer had seen the healthy, metre-high plants from the road while on his way to work and told his colleagues, who visited the plot’s owner – the elderly woman.
  • She told them that she had not grown the plants herself, but that they had simply started growing there, and had proven to be excellent rabbit food. Not only did the rabbits love eating the plants, they grew back very quickly after she cut them down, she told the investigating officers.
  • A spokesman for the Brandenburg police said her explanation had sounded plausible, but the officers could not leave her with the plants, rather cut them all down and took them to the forensics laboratory for testing.
  • The three large plastic sacks of weed will now be tested to determine the level of THC – the psycho-active ingredient in cannabis – they contain. There was no official comment on what the elderly woman was expected to feed her rabbits with now.

• Extra Links

• Hackers School DEFCON Kids (udg)
• Good Robert Kirkman Q&A (udg)
• The Original AT-AT (udg)
• Pope Sends First Tweet (btm)

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

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

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

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

• Retro DC and Marvel T-Shirts (btm)

• Sushi Notepads (btm)

• Doom Ported to Web (udg)
  • Play here

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

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

• George Lucas Shot First

Gold Sponsors:

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• Both have been out on the Android Marketplace for awhile now
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• @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

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

• New Release Movies

Movie Minute (new feature)

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

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

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

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

Geek Speak

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

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Intarweb Goldmine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Extra Links

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

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

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

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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.

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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)

• New Fantastic Four Table for Console Pinball Machines
  • Features lots of ramps and goodies, looks really fun
  • For Pinball FX 2 (XB 360) and Marvel Pinball (PSN)
  • This game engine will be the reason I eventually get XB360
  • May 17 – $3

• EA Week on Steam
  • Check back each day for a different deal
  • (SM) I missed the Dragon Age deals

Movie Minute (new feature)

• Thor set to open this week (May 6) in the US (btm)
  • Already pulled in $93 million from international audiences.
  • Rated 95% Fresh by Rotten Tomatoes reviews.
  • As with all the recent Marvel Movies, be sure to stay till after the credits.

• 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.

• Square sets new record $2 Million processed in one day (btm)
  • One week after making deal to sell readers in Apple stores, lands “strategic” deal with Visa
  • The Visa deal has led to a redesign of the reader to meet “best practices” standards.
    • Visa wants the readers to encrypt user data
    • There’s no real security hole, redesign is to make Visa happy.
  • (Remember I was told 2-5 weeks to get it when I ordered it free on the Square site? Ordered it on a Monday, got it the same week on Thurs. -udg)

• 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.

• More PSN Fallout (sm)
  • Still! Services are down on the Sony network
  • Where oh Where did my 70 million CC’s go?
  • Sony Denies those were CC’s Stolen
  • Hackage has spread to other aspects of Sony (btm)
    • SOE shutdown their Facebook and MMO games
      • (glad I dropped my Everquest II account 6 yrs ago-btm)
    • (24.6 million SOE accounts have been  breached!!-udg)

• Microsoft Bing now the default engine for search and maps on RIM products (btm)
  • Blackberry phones and tablets will now ship with Bing set as default.
  • Carriers are still free to change the default to anything they want.
  • Microsoft trying hard to get Bing a bigger chunk of the market.

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.

• Cow Caper Nets 26 Gallons of Milk (SM)
  • man dons a cow suit and then crawled into a walmart store
  • Goes to the dairy aisle and steals 26 gallons of milk

• 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

• Sistine Chapel Recreated With Rubik’s Cubes (udg)
• Air Force looks for commercial spacecraft

• 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.

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Ben is @realityamuck , Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
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We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk content ownership, lots of new releases, plenty of apple news, and then a very special Chinese Conspiracy theory hour

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

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

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

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

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

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

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

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• Both have been out on the Android Marketplace for awhile now
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Deals of the Week / New Releases

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Movie Minute (new feature)

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

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

Geek Speak

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

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Intarweb Goldmine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Extra Links

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

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Intro Natali
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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
• I AM A GAMER Documentary (udg)
• The New & Improved But Retro-Gorgeous Commodore 64 (udg)

• 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!

• Garden Jawa FTW!!!

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Deals of the Week / New Release

• The Incredibles released on Blu Ray April 12
  • Other movies
  • Battle Beyond The Stars – Low budget sci-fi version of Seven Samurai
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (SM) Haven’t seen this yet
  • Cars Blu-Ray
  • H.R. Pufnstuff the complete series
  • Damnation Alley

• 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?)

• Mortal Kombat Remake otherwise known as 9
  • released April 19th

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.

• Sony Lawsuit against GeoHotz Dropped (SM)
  • GeoHotz cracks the hardware key that makes PS3 Secure
  • Sony sues him immediately

• 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.

• 25 abandoned Soviet Era Monuments that look like they’re from the future (btm)
  • Spomenik literally means monument.
  • commissioned by former Yugoslavian president Tito in the 1960s and 70s to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place.
  • After the Republic dissolved in early 1990s, they were completely abandoned, and their symbolic meanings were forever lost.

Extra Links

• Geek Girls Network & Nerds in Babeland interview Dapper Men’s Janet Lee (udg)
• Interactive Table Top Restaurant Menu- soooo cool!! (udg)
• Google Acquires “PushLife”
• Phone on Phone programming from M$
• Rob Granito gets a smackdown (comic fraud)

• The End of Content Ownership

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

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

Intro Jeremy
Intro Natali

Items of Interest

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

Gold Sponsors:

Natali’s Etsy!!!

• Need your noms????
• @UberDorkGirlie’s etsy is the way to go
• 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

• Convention Schedule
  • C2E2 – March 18-20

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

Deals of the Week / New Release

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

Geek Speak

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

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Intarweb Goldmine

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

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

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

Extra Links

• XBox and PS3 Sell More than Wii in Feb

Contact Info

• 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

Get Shinylines in Gold Sponsors

• ShinyLines Power Geek Rings!!!
  • I’m almost giggly with anticipation!!
  • Check out shop.shinylines.com for more product -OR-
  • Send darthmolen@gmail.com an email saying you want this ring. If there’s enough interest, we are going to make this available to the public

Luxury Lane Soaps

http://luxurylanesoap.com, @KyleeLane, GORGEOUS, IMAGINATIVE, HANDCRAFT ED, 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!)

Intro Natali

Items of Interest

• ROBOPLOW!! (udg)
  • ITS A ROBO-COFFIN with a plow on front!

• Awesomest Bookends Ever (udg)

We all know Han shot first! Well, now you can haz the scene recreated with these fabulous book ends. Only $499.95

• One of the MOST AWESOME THINGS I HAVE EVER SEEN (udg)
  • YES, Nikko actually has all the exclusive rights from Lucas Films and this will be purchasable. Cost- I can’t even imagine. But, I’d ponder trading a monkey for one. Okay, maybe not. But it does totally kick ass.
  • The dets:

• 80 inch LCoS powered Projection System
• Project on to ceilings or walls for an up to 80″ viewing area
• DVD Player
• iPod Docking Station
• Memory card slot & USB 2.0 connector
• Built-in 20 watt stereo speaker system
• Full motion wireless remote control
• Most popular R2-D2 sound effects
• FM Wireless Audio (channel 1 through channel 7)
• Millennium Falcon remote control (The remote comes with its own stand, and its Afterburner light will glow if you push the Sound button while it is in the base. The remote portion of the apparatus slides out, so if you are not using the Falcon, the keypad is hidden. )
• Built-in safety sensors (so he doesn’t fall down the stairs)
• Oh and did I mention you can hook up your PS3 or 360 to it? Yup. If I could get him to make proper ramen, I just may marry him.

• I read comics waaaay too much. I understand a lot of this….

Gold Sponsors:

Natali’s Etsy!!!

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

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

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

Deals of the Week / New Release

• StarWarsShop.com Deals
  • Star Wars Hoodie
  • Slave Leia Perfume or Eau de Lando

• “Limited edition Mandarin warmed with incense and lotus flower, exotic woods, dark violet and sensuous musk” Billy Dee be BIG Pimpin (with flowers and orange)

• • ESB IPhone Case
    • total buy if I had an IPhone
  • Lightsaber Room Light
    • LOVE- but with 5 AAA’s my kids would use it up asap.
  • Really Unique ESB T-Shirt – Kinda cartoony but looks nice
  • Costumes galore! (now would be the time to get yours => Adult Clone Trooper #23 not to be confused with Clone Trooper #21)

• Apple App Store Contest- (udg)
  • As of today, nearly 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks. Download the 10 billionth app, and you could win a US $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. Just visit the App Store, and download what could be your best app yet. Just under 9, 934,000,000 as of the start of show.

Geek Speak

• Jobs out for indeterminate time due to health
  • Jobs has taken another “leave of absence” due to unknown health reasons
  • In the meantime, the COO Tim Cook, will be running the ship
  • Tim is known for doing decent work and even received a huge bonus in 2009
  • Despite his day-to-day effectiveness, Investors still not convinced in anybody but Jobs for the long-term health of Apple
  • Can y’all name any other brand that is focused around one figurehead?

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Keyless entry is secure, Right??? (JP)
  • Turns out it may not be that secure at all…
  • a professor and a team recently tested a method of hacking the system on 10 vehicles of various makes and models
  • they were able to get into and drive off with all of them.
  • (Thug life- geekstyle udg)

• TechChrunch vs Engadget Smackdown (udg)
  • I don’t think anyone really expected Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch to mellow out after AOL acquired the blog.  Last week proved he just had new targets now: fellow AOL employees.
  • Arrington decided to start a 5 day online war of insults with Engadget, a sister blog at AOL, using online posts calling it “immensely unethical” and a “plasticized caricature of a real blog.”
  • Joshua Topolsky,  Engadget’s editor in chief, eventually had enough and returned fire.
  • “Explain what we’ve done to you,” he wrote in response in the comments of a post about the dispute on the blog Business Insider. “Explain anything that you’ve said beyond a personal vendetta. I haven’t heard a shred of substance behind your attacks — only the vitriol of a man-child who can’t control himself.”
  • Arrington is clearly no stranger to public brawls and his MO is to crank up the controversy a couple of notches right before TechCrunch’s public events. So, the fact that the Crunchies, an industry awards show, is taking place this week in SF may have been his true motive.
  • Since its over $25 million acquisition by AOL, TechCrunch has covered AOL extensively. The articles are usually dripping with ridicule though like the headline, “AOL e-mail goes down. No one notices.” But until now, it had kept its irreverent commentary within the loose norms of online news coverage.
  • Not surprisingly, Mr. Arrington, hasn’t responded to Mr. Topolsky’s demand for proof of ethical missteps.

• Teenager Builds Record breaking IPhone App
  • Bubble ball, Game built by 14 yr. old out-downloads angry birds
  • Robert Nay, from spanish forks utah, built it over a couple months while in 8th grade
  • Tried a bunch of toolsets but ended up using Corona tools from Ansca Mobile
  • Allowed him to publish both to Apple and Android
  • Showed up on app store on Dec. 29 and had a million d/ls by first week
  • Looks to sell more games in-app at a later time

• Bob’s Burger Animator Seed’s the Shows Torrent to Promote It (udg)
  • I rarely watch TV so it’s no surprise that I’ve not yet watched FOX’s new show Bob’s Burgers. But, this story makes me want to check it out.
  • According to Torrent Freak- one of the show’s animators is actively seeding torrents of the show on the private torrent site Demonoid.  The show had strong debut ratings, but it’s like the only show in FOX’s animated arsenal that ISN’T created by Seth McFarlane so it’s future success is hardly assured.
  • The anonymous animator wrote: “Nice to hear that people liked the show, I’m an animator on it so it’s nice to hear something positive from all the negative I’ve been hearing about! I’m going to keep seeding to support my show…There are 13 eps for the show coming out, they’ve been well received by the everyone at the studio so far so we’re hoping everything will turn out and it’ll gain more of an audience as it goes. “
  • Now, I’m guessing that FOX is not officially behind the alleged animator’s actions, but I think it’s a pretty awesome promotional strategy that has the potential to be really effective.

• New Privacy alert on Facebook
  • New basic privacy prompt also allows devs to access phone number and address
  • This wasn’t the case earlier, these two fields were only recently added
  • 2 options, Either disallow, or delete your # and address from FB
  • How-to opt-out of “tagging hell”
    • Deep in the preferences there’s a way to “opt-out” of ppl tagging you and it appearing on your profile
  • Yet another “opt-out” feature, FB is banking on the average joe not taking the time to set their privacy correctly to protect it
  • Reminiscent of mail-in rebates… *blech*

• All Networks Pass on WW TV Show (udg)
  • Some are calling it a curse. I’m calling it people don’t want to screw it up and risk the consequences.  Whatever you call it, after years of trying to bring Wonder Woman to the movies failing (including a script by Joss “the man” Whedon), the character’s latest bid for TV greatness has seemingly failed. No network wants to buy the show.
  • Deadline reports that David E. Kelley’s script for a WW pilot has now been passed on by  CW, Fox, NBC, CBS and ABC. The CW, which currently airs Smallville (based on DC’s Superman) and is developing a new series based on Raven from Teen Titans, was said to be interested but couldn’t afford the price being asked for by Warner Bros. TV, while NBC and CBS both claimed “internal reasons.”
  • FOX’s excuse was that the script just wasn’t a fit for their network. While ABC’s reasons are slightly more complicated. Not only does the network have superhuman soap No Ordinary Family already running, but as the sister company to Marvel Entertainment, it’s also got two series from Marvel TV in development and has to consider larger corporate interests.
  • Kelley’s Wonder Woman pilot isn’t officially dead just yet – There is talk about making another round of network presentations in the future – but for such a high profile project (WW being one of DC’s three best-known characters, and this being one of DC Entertainment’s first TV projects since the company’s high-profile re-organization), this is an embarrassing result.
  • Now, because I’m sure the high powers that be in DC land listen to this podcast, listen to me closely guys- DO NOT FUCK THIS UP!!! Wonder Woman is sacred. BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU CAST HER!! And I SWEAR TO YOU, IF YOU EVEN THINK OF CASTING OLIVIA MUNN TO PLAY HER, I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND YOU WILL WISH IT WAS JUST A JUNKPUNCH I WAS DELIVERING. *bats eyelashes*

• Kiosks outpace brick and Mortar Rentals
  • For the first time, Kiosks have outpaced brick and mortar (Blockbuster)
  • Kiosk sales grew 10% year over year
  • This after BB filed for bankruptcy 4 months ago
  • Numbers? Netflix = 41%, Kiosks = 31%, in-store 27%
  • The medium outpacing them all? Streaming
  • Netflix claims that more movies and content get delivered in streaming than disc

• Student Who Was Forcibly Committed After Suspecting Hidden Cameras Was Right (udg)
  • Chinemerem Eze was your average international honors student attending Brooklyn College in December 2008. Originally from Lago, Nigera, Eze wasn’t sure where to go for help when she heard “comments about her body” coming from a vent in her off-campus basement apartment in Flatlands and then found a hidden camera inside the space. She did the logical thing- went to the security department and asked them to come investigate.
  • The security guards response? To contact the school Psychiatrist, who then, after a series of questions had Eze  forcibly committed to a Kings County Psychiatric Hospital. Finally released after two weeks, Eze was then told by the University that she could not take her exams for that semester. She lost her scholarships and was consequently forced to leave the school.
  • While her claims that she suspected she was being defamed on the internet by her ex-roommates and that her landlord at the time had installed a hidden camera in her bedroom may have seemed slightly far-fetched in 2008, it surely wasn’t unbelievable to the point of having her committed. And in fact, the hidden camera was subsequently discovered in her bedroom.
  • Eze has settled with Kings County Psychiatric Hospital for holding her against her will for the two week period and she has now filed a suit in the state supreme court against Brooklyn College.  The college has yet to come forward with a statement.

• Anne Hathaway Confirmed As Catwoman (SM)
  • For awhile there, the rumors said Megan Fox was going to be the anti-heroine (blech)
  • Cristopher Nolan released the news that in fact it was going to be hotty Anne Hathaway instead!!!!
  • MEOW, her in a tight leather suit in a whip??? sign me up!
  • Oh, and Tom Hardy (eames from inception) will play Bane — Not the overbound muscly guy which is a weird choice for Bane.

Intarweb Goldmine

• Man Tunnels Into Gamestop (udg)
  • I’m sure you’ve already heard this story before, but just incase, it’s worth repeating.
  • So, 33 year old Steven Paul Archer from Tennessee thought he’d be slick by burrowing through a vacant building and into the GameStop next store. He managed to access the drywall and studs and cut through after hours then walk out with $288.55 in cash and $5,342 in merchandise and, for once, the wasn’t asked if he wanted to join that damned GameStop savings club nor did he have to accept a subscription to Game Informer that “pays for itself.”
  • So how was he caught? Well, the neighboring Walmart video cameras caught him getting into his GMC Jimmy painted “Passion Purple” and covered in decals. After the detective on the case got done reviewing the video the next day, he pulled out of the Wally World parking lot and there was the Passion Purple eyesore parked across the bypass. Way to go slick.
• Man Gets Shot By Fox That He Shot (udg)
  • A man in northern Belarus was recently outfoxed…by a fox.
  • According to Reuters, the hunter approached the fox after wounding it, basically planning on whacking it the head with his gun. Somehow the two got to tussling, and the fox managed to trigger the rifle, shooting the hunter in the leg.
  • A prosecutor from the Grodno region said, “The animal fiercely resisted and in the struggle accidentally pulled the trigger with its paw.”
  • The hunter is currently in the hospital with a leg wound, and the fox just happened to escape.
  • According to National Geographic, the fox’s resourcefulness is what earned it its reputation for being sly, intelligent and cunning. Though this incident of a fox shooting a hunter was only an accident, it certainly gives the fox another reason to be thought of as crafty.
  • This isn’t the first time an animal has shot a human, Aol News reports. At least three incidents involving dogs and cats unintentionally triggering guns have been reported in the last decade.

• Russian Prison Gets Tanning Beds for Its 240th Anniversary (sm)
• Holy Lint. Literally (udg)
  • A northern Michigan woman has put her own spin on Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” by making a replica out of laundry lint.
  • Laura Bell of Roscommon collected lint from her dryer and fashioned it into a 14-foot-long, 4-foot tall reproduction of the Italian Renaissance painter’s masterpiece.
  • Bell says she needed about 800 hours to do enough laundry to get the lint, and 200 hours to recreate the mural. She bought towels of the colors she wanted and laundered them separately to get the right shades of lint. Jinkies that’s a lot of work.
  • Her artwork has caught the eye of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! The company plans to put it on display at one of its museums. Ripley’s says it also has Last Supper replicas made from a grain of rice, a dime and burned toast.

• Monk Caught at Airport with Nun’s Skull (sm)
• Once, Twice, Three Times a Tasing (sm)

Extra Links

• New glass stronger than steel

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

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• Can I say any more superlatives? You will love her products.
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We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk Verizon Iphone, Government conspiracies, Chinese devils 4 real, and HAN SOLO in Firefly!!! It’s real, believe it…

Intro JPuent
Intro Natali

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

Items of Interest

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

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

Gold Sponsors:

Natali’s Etsy!!!

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

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

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

Deals of the Week / New Release

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

Geek Speak

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

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

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Intarweb Goldmine

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

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

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

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

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

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

Extra Links

• Microsoft investigating Win 7 Mo Phantom Data Usage

Contact Info

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

Get Shinylines in Gold Sponsors

• ShinyLines Power Geek Rings!!!
  • I’m almost giggly with anticipation!!
  • Check out shop.shinylines.com for more product -OR-
  • Send darthmolen@gmail.com an email saying you want this ring. If there’s enough interest, we are going to make this available to the public

Luxury Lane Soaps

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

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

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

Intro Natali
Intro Jeremy

Items of Interest

• (SM)N64 vs Wii Goldeneye

• Holy Star Wars Cuteness! (UDG)

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

Gold Sponsors:

UberDorkCafe

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

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

• Childs Play 2010 now open

Deals of the Week / New Releases

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

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

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

Google Is making the iphone now (UDG)

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

Geek Speak

• The Government Leaks Body Scans (udg)

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

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Intarweb Goldmine

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

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

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

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

Extra Links

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

Next Week

• Black Friday Special
• Best Buy Black Friday

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