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

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

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

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

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

Gold Sponsors:

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

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

Natali’s Etsy!!!

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

Deals of the Week / New Releases

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

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

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

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

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

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

Movie Minute (new feature)

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

Geek Speak

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

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Intarweb Goldmine

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

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

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

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

• Rules of Golfing During A German Bombing (udg)

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

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

Extra Links

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

• The original flying car for sale (btm)

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

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

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

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

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

Sponsors

Shiny Lines

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

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

Intro Natali
Intro Ben

Items of Interest

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gold Sponsors:

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

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

Natali’s Etsy!!!

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

Deals of the Week / New Releases

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Movie Minute (new feature)

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

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

Geek Speak

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

Tech, Gaming, and Geek News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Intarweb Goldmine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Extra Links

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

How To Reach Us on the IntarWebs

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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

• Star Wars Home Theatre
  • Working R2 and C3PO units at the front
  • Blue accent lighting out the wazoo (almost looks tronish)
  • Working Star Ceiling
  • 120” projector
  • Working blast windows

• Star Wars School
  • It would appear that the monkeys and I need to move to Chlie. Why? Well, they’ve opened a Star Wars School where pint-sized Padawans can now attend an actual Jedi Temple.
  • Lucky geeklings between the ages of 6 and 12 years old can learn yoga and Taekwondo, combined with the teachings of Jedi values like wisdom and nobility. The lucky apprentices even get their own light sabers, because the school’s creator, William Berrueta, believes in crafting a fully immersive environment that is educational and entertaining.
  • Berrueta was inspired to offer the unique classes after ‘Star Wars: The Exhibition’ made its way to Chile in 2009. It was apparently the first time the country was able to check out the props from the film series in person. Over 200 items from the Lucasfilm archives were on display, including life-size starships and Darth Vader’s costume.
  • May the force be with you, lil ones, and may you not lose an eye during the light saber drills.
• custom arcade cabinets with over 250 preloaded games… think Mame, but polished (JP)
• Check out this Pepsi Display

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• Convention Schedule
  • C2E2 – March 18-20

Big Exciting News… We are very close (depending on Apple) to being able to test and release our first iPhone app!!! (@JebsApps) it’ll be Movie History… with lots of new features (that we can’t make androids do… yet) but both will be getting a huge update to the Database!!! and right on the heels of that will be Geek History with a bigger update to the Database!!! So… More Geekiness… = More GeekyGoodness!!
Get yours today if you have an Android for only $0.99 to keep up with facts like:
Today in MovieHistory 3/23/1910
Legendary Japanese Filmmaker (Seven Samurai) Akira Kurosawa is born in Tokyo, Japan

Deals of the Week / New Release

• Zombie Chuck Comic (JP – Steven to discuss)
  • fyffo.com for all things Zombie Chuck…
  • In my opinion… Lil is someone I would pick for my zombie defense league… Did you see her shoe throwing arm?? Straight to the skull! (JP)
  • (SM) I thought the style was kind of interesting but there wasn’t much meat there
  • (SM)The big zombie boss was really cool

Geek Speak

• C2E2 Panels and Hijinx
  • Thor Panel
    • (SM) Chris Hemsworth totally won me over with his charm. I was on the borderline for the movie, but now I’m going to make it a point to see it
  • The Walking Dead
    • (SM)Jon Bernthal (Shane) is the absolutely most hilarious guy IRL
    • (SM)Laurie Holden (Andrea) plays a really good straight person
    • (SM)Best.unplanned.Monologue.evar!
  • Battlefield 3
    • Jeremy and I actually argued whether the demo video was cut scenes or actual gameplay footage
    • Confirmed by EA that the video was PC gameplay
      • Jeremy happily admits he was wrong on this one… this is what we’ve been wanting from Companies for a looooong time, and was ecstatic that this was not cut scenes!
  • Boy Wonder?
    • (SM) I personally thought it was a powerful movie… definitely evoked conversations
    • Very Dark, Action Drama, About a kid trying to figure things out about his past
    • Are we talking about this one ? I was hoping we would… we’ll just have to be careful not to blow anyhting about it

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Netflix woes, and gains (SM)
  • Netflix went down hardcore Tuesday
  • “We are sorry, the Netflix website and the ability to instantly watch movies are both temporarily unavailable.
  • Our engineers are working hard to bring the site and ability to watch instantly back up as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience and, again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
  • Service has been restored as of Today
  • Big Bombshell: there will be an original TV series airing on Netflix by Kevin Spacey
  • Billed as a Political  drama “House of Cards” (Based on book and BBC series)
  • Will probably preclude from seeing the stuffs from Showtime and HBO on the streaming service in any kind of a timely manner

• Microsoft sues B&N over Nook Color (JP)
  • M$ is going after Barnes and Nobles for using certain techs without paying a licensing fee
  • Range of functions cited that deal with the user experience
  • M$ is also heading in after the makers of the pared down Android Tablet
  • Microsoft says it’s tried to no avail to reach licensing agreements with Barnes & Noble and its hardware partners. “Their refusals to take licenses leave us no choice but to bring legal action to defend our innovations and fulfill our responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year to bring great software products and services to market,”
  • While I am not a big supporter of suing…. nor of  M$ I do support the right to protect your IP… so if they own it… license it!

• “Wife said no.” Apple monitors iPad 2 returns (udg)
  • With over 1/2 million units sold the first day, 70% of those to new customers, the launch of the iPad2 was a total success. Apple being Apple, they monitor any returns to find out how many are coming back and, most importantly, why they are. If there was a major issue, they want to take action right away.
  • I’m sure Apple has seen faulty units come back repeatedly. Though one return specifically caught the attention of the staff and upper management. One fully-functional iPad 2 was returned by a man with a Post-It note attached to the display that simply read “Wife said no.”
  • Well, two Apple VPs learned of the return, found it amusing and decided to do something about it.  The man got his iPad 2 back with a new note attached to the screen. It said, “Apple said yes.”
  • Now, I’m guessing this is pretty much a one time shot. But, it’s an awesome story and I’m willing to be the wife is now an Apple fan now too.

• Quick Game hits (SM)
  • EA Sports goes green, eliminates manuals
    • Fight night champion is the last game with a manual
    • Plan to include the instructions in the game itself
  • Black Ops First Strike coming to PC (finally)
    • Should be called 3rd strike (PS3 and XB360 were first)
    • New maps and a zombie mode
  • The Old Republic Delayed, Blizzard rooting for competition
    • Probably until the second half of 2011
    • Blizzard co-founder “Frank Pearce” wants it to succeed as a successful Sci-Fi entity to help expand the user base
    • There are plenty of sci-fi MMO’s out there already so kinda funny
    • (SM)I just think he’s pissed that SW Galaxies sucked so bad

• Duke Nukem FINALLY.  And now with bonus smack a woman feature. (udg)
  • The await for Duke Nukem Forever has been a long one and as all the details of the game breed excitement, one of the latest ones has caused more than a little eyebrow raising.
  • Now, I know Duke Nukem games have always treated women as objects to lust over, and the most interaction you had with women in prior games consisted of paying them to strip for you. We get it. That’s just how he is. But this new feature seems just a bit too far.
  • A new mulitplayer mode will play like Capture the Flag. Only this time, the flags are women. Okay, so far, par for the course. Well, the mode will also allow you to slap captured “babe” if she “freaks out.” Yeah.
  • Official Xbox Magazine were first to unveil the mode in their April issue and also detailed four multiplayer modes which will support up to eight players each: Dukematch, Team Dukematch, Capture the Babe and Hail to the King.
  • Since this story has broken, Gearbox CEO, Randy Ptichford, has clarified it jus a bit. His tweet “Get it right, folks! In the DNF MP game “Capture the Babe”, Duke can give the girl a love smack on the booty – not face!” Oh well if that’s it…  Yes, booty over face is less offensive. My question is this- what’s the point?
  • We’ve discussed this point before on the show- games being geared toward men and ignoring the huge numbers of us girls that game. We expect big boobs, we expect the occasional stripper or hooker, we expect you to shoot a female zombie in the face if she’s coming at you. Hitting a button to “gently give” one a “reassuring slap” is pointless and crossing the line in my opinion.
  • Duke Nukem Forever is due for release May 3, 2011.

• AT&T to buy T-Mobile (JP)
  • Deutsche Telecom has officially sold T-Mobile USA to AT&T
  • 39 Beeellion dollars in cash and stocks was the going price
  • Experts predict a full year before the acquisition is final
  • If deal doesn’t go through, AT&T still on hook for 3 billion
  • This leaves 3 major carriers in US: Sprint, Verizon, AT&T
  • T-mobile to AT&T (funny press release after banging on AT&T’s network as a marketing ploy) – “Just Kidding, we love your network…”

• Sprint Integrates Fully with Google Voice (SM)
  • First major carrier to fully integrate service across its handset line-up
  • Available on smartphones AND its standard headset
  • Will natively use the google voice # for outgoing calls and text msgs
  • Free calls, text messages, call routing, voicemail management
  • Feature to be gradually rolled out to its customers

• Amazon Launches Android App Store (udg)
  • One day after being sued by Apple for their App Store trademark, Amazon has moved ahead and launched their impressive Amazon Appstore for Android anyway.
  • Why so impressive? For starters, it blew the Widows Phone 7 app market out of the water with launching 3,800 apps out of the gate, including (for the first day only) a free download of Angry Birds. But that’s hardly all. The best part? Free trials. That’s right- you don’t have to pay a thing to try out any app you like. Amazon has developed a way to embed an Android emulator into the browser so you can play around with the app for 30 min. If you like it, one click will buy it.
  • What gives them an even bigger edge over Google’s own Android Market is their personal recommendation. They are not getting into censorship, but they are maknig sure that they have a tight rein on quality control. So, if you download an Android app from them, you can be sure it’s not going to be a waste of $10 or blow up your phone.
  • When Amazon first announced their Appstore, most just rolled their eyes. It looks like they may be a major player now for Android apps and Google, embarrassingly enough, is going to have to step it up.
  • I should mention, AT&T Droid owners should refrain from getting to excited here. As of right now, they do not have access to the Amazon Appstore. According to Amazon, the company is working on enabling purchases from the Amazon Appstore in the near future though.

• Venture Brothers Fans Can Celebrate! (udg)
  • This past Christmas Venture Bros fans got a lil present- the announcement of a season five. What could be better than that? Well Season Six! Accourding to Jackson Publick’s blog, the real live Team Venture has signed a new contract with Adult Swim for not only 2 more seasons of the show, but some extra goodies as well. There will be a long-form (60-90 min) Venture Brothers special (platform of which whether TV or direct-to-DVD not yet determined) along with an 11 minute special they’ll be animating and producing entirely in-house.
  • Will 21 finally embrace his good guy destiny? Is Molotov really gone? Will Hank and Dean embrace their seemingly mapped-out fate in which they grow up to be the new Brock and Rusty? Will we all still miss 24? How many more times will they say “sphinx?” Thankfully, we’ll have at least two more years and a couple of specials to find out.

• “The Hobbit” finally starts shooting (SM)
  • production has finally begun after a long struggle
  • (change of director from del toro to peter jackson, strikes, contract disputes, legal actions,  etc)
  • Looks like production is still in NZ
  • The cast will star Martin Freeman (Bilbo) and Ian McKellan will reprise gandalf, Cate Blanchett was galadriel, Andy Serkis as Gollum, and Elijah wood as Frodo
  • Shot natively in digital 3D
  • 2 movies instead of 1
    • And there was GREAT rejoicing from within the G33K community!
    • ( I Loved the pics from set of Jackson sitting in what appears to be Bilbo’s house!) (JP)

• Well, Here’s the New Wonder Woman Costume. Begin Rant (udg)
  • It’s official. A take on the new Jim Lee designed costume used in Wonder Woman #600 will be the outfit of choice for the TV series. They dropped the lame spurs, horrible updated bracelets and her dumbass little jacket in this image, but that’s about it. And guess what? It looks just as ridiculous personified.
  • I’m staying away from the crazy heels,  tammy faye make-up job and dear lord those boobs. As an amply bosomed gal, yeah, one of those puppies is popping out. Last I checked my Wonder Woman didn’t need a wardrobe malfunction to distract a bad guy so she could catch him.
  • Kelley has been stating that it will not be a campy reboot. He wants something to showcase how complex she is. Really? And making her look like a spandex coated hooker/bad cos player is going to accomplish this how? Newsflash- when guys are complaining about a hot chick in spandex, you know you’re going something wrong. Click here to check out the Bleeding Cool post with some artist’s/fan’s responses to the new train wreck and their suggestions for changes.
  • P.S. The monkeys are mortified and eldest wrote a complaint letter stating “I know Wonder Woman. She is awesome. This cheap Walmart knock off is not.”

Intarweb Goldmine

• Billy Dee Williams Keeps Ewok Head in Box (SM)
  • Guy recognizes where his bread is buttered and is always glad to meet his cosplayers
  • One of the weirdest things given to him? An Ewok head in a box (creepy)

• Man Charged With Polygamy After He Defriends First Wife on Facebook (JP – ‘ll take this one)
  • This is one of those headlines I had to …. well… re read… a couple of times!
  • This guy 34 yrs old… married a woman he met online from Rhode Island… then got taken back to Michigan and imprisoned for outstanding warrants…
  • This is a story of judgement in my humble opinion… about how you should know who you’re marrying…
  • or at least monitor their internet activity more closely!! hahhahaa
• Yeah, Don’t Steal Computers from Peoples That Know How to Use Them (udg)
  • First off, if you don’t follow 18 year old entrepreneur Mark Bao on Twitter yet, you really need too. We’ve been following each other for awhile now and just when I thought he couldn’t get more awesome he proved me wrong.
  • So, Mark’s MacBook Air was stolen from a college dorm lounge a few weeks back. Did he just sit back and whine about it? Nope. He hunted down who did it and publicly shamed the guy who tole it by posting a video up on YouTube of the thief thinking he was all slick dancing to Rubber Man.
  • How’d he do it. Well, Mark had installed an online cloud back-up program on his laptop called BackBlaze. He logged into the service this weekend for the first time in a few months and realized that his stolen computer was still being backed up.
  • “I looked around the files and found that the thief a) didn’t remove the backup service and b) created his own user account on the system,” says Bao.
  • So, he could see the dumbass’s Safari browsing history. He’d visited a webmail site that contained his email address in the site’s url, which revealed his name. When Bao looked the name up on Facebook, he discovered they had mutual friends at Bentley U. Mark reported the friend-of-a-friend to the police, but also decided to have a little fun. He was able to get access to the photos and videos on the computer, including a video of the thief breaking out some completely lame moves and posted that to YouTube with the title, ““Don’t steal computers belonging to people who know how to use computers.” It was soon picked up at Reddit and racked up over 20,000 views. Within hours of the Reddit posting, the outed thief had returned the laptop to campus police and sent Mark a Facebook message with an apology and a plea that he take down the YouTube video. Yeah. The video remains up. You really need to go watch it, it’s hilarious.
  • Mark plans to sell the returned Apple and donate the proceeds to the Red Cross Japan fund. The new owner would be wise to wipe BackBlaze from the system.

Extra Links

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

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Intro Jeremy
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Tweet up Friday night 3/18/2011 at Dave N Busters Addison, IL starting at 8pm CST

1155 N Swift Road Addison, IL Items of Interest

• Geeks With Heart Japan Response (udg)
  • If you are listening to this podcast, odds are something that has come out of Japan has touched or even changed your life at some point. Technology, games, movies, anime, ramen, the list of things that have become a part of our daily lives that started there is huge.
  • And right now they need a whole lot of love sent back to them. That’s why my item of the week is the Geeks With Heart Japan Response. Geek Girls Network has once again teamed up with the good people at Mercy Corp to help us send some of that love on over. Mercy Corps, with their longstanding partner, Peace Winds will use the donations to meet the immediate and longer-term needs of the survivors of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that has leveled and paralyzed this county.
  • I know times are tough her for a lot of people. Every little bit helps. Skip that Starbuck’s for a day and send it their way. Rent a movie instead of going out. Skip ordering pizza and have ramen. One little change for one week could make a difference. If you can, please click the link and show you’re a geek with heart.
• Batman Sex Cave (SM)
  • Eden Erotic motel in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan
  • $50 for 3 hours and the Decor is spankin’
• What if Chewie were a sexy chick??? (JP)
  • The sexiest SciFi costumes you’ll see…

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 3/16/1971
Alan Tudyk is born in El Paso, Texas, and went on to play Wash in Serenity  & Alpha on Dollhouse

Deals of the Week / New Release

• Walking Dead Plushies Giveaway! (udg)
  • No one knows how to dangle freebies for us geeks like the folks at Geek Chic Daily. This week’s, as usual, is the awesome!  They are teaming up with their friends at Robert Kirkmans’ Skybound Entertainment that just opened up a brand spankin’ new store spreading zombie gore all over the world. What better way to do that than by giving away 13 Walking Dead Zombie Plushies.
  • Don’t miss your chance to win a zombie of your very own you can hug and squeeze and hell even call George.  Oh and don’t worry if his head pops off, it’s meant to do that. So, head on over to their site and then snag a bonus entry on their Facebook page.

• • (list of new games released this week)
  • (list of new dvd’s released this week)

• The Fighter – Christian Bale
• Gamera vs. Zigra!!!

• Paul Opens In Theaters This Week (udg)
  • If you don’t know who Simon Pegg & Nick Frost are, you really need to learn. Trust me on this. They are brilliant. In fact, you have an assignment from me- go rent Shaun of the Dead. Now. T
  • They have given us so many epic moments whether its their own movies or Robot Chicken or even the voice of Reepicheep in Narnia. And now they are about to give us so very many more.
  • This week, their newest film, Paul hits the theaters. The dynamic duo play British buddies who decide to end their first voyage to SDCC with a road trip through the southwest. Being the hardcore sci-fi fanboys that they are- they are on a pilgrimage to see the likes of Area 51 and Roswell. All good movies have a one dark night. Well on this one, the two of them stumble onto a real life alien, Paul, who is voiced by Seth Rogen. Paul’s been stranded on Earth for decades after crashing his spaceship back in 1947 and now he wants out. He’s engineered an escape but he needs these two to help him pull it off.
  • Paul is being declared “a movie about nerds, written by nerds, made for nerds, in which the word “nerd” appears in the dialogue at least a dozen times.” And this is one nerd who can’t wait to see it!
  • Oh!!! I should probably mention- leave the nerdlings at home for this one, it’s rated R.

Geek Speak

With C2E2 kicking off the major Con season for this year, we thought it was important to give you our How To for Con Surival.  Hello,  my name is Natali and I’ll be your Fairy Con Mother

• #1- SURVIVAL FIRST! You will need a COMFORTABLE bag of choice (backpack, messenger) A. for the haul of freebies, B. for the stuff you’re gonna buy there 3. for your survival kit.
• Survival Kit:
  • 1. WATER (plastic bottles only) You need to stay hydrated peeps
  • 2. Energy boosts!  The fun doesn’t end when the doors close and that doesn’t usually happen until at least 9pm. With parties, tweet ups, you name it-  sleep is for the weak during the epic 4 day weekend. Whether it’s energy shots, craisins, Steven’s cases of NOS, you’re gonna wanna have a stash in your bag to keep you going.
  • 3. Camera- Don’t be proud. Yes you have an iPhone. That iPhone has a battery life peeps.
  • 4. Chargers!!!! – Be it battery for cams, phone, laptop, you need it! Do yourself

a favor, match up all your chargers to your toys and pack them together.

• • 5. Tiny Power Strip- For realz, you snag an open outlet, you best charge all your stuffs. I’ve seen hair pulled and blood shed people, it’s not pretty. Recommend: Monster
  • 6. Sketch Pad & Pens- if you’re hoping of any autograph, artist’s work, jot notes, snag a booth  babe’s number- you’re gonna need this.
  • 7. For Summer Cons- Sunscreen- Seriously. The lines for some of the halls run outside. W/ no shade.
  • 8. COMFORTABLE SHOES This is not the time to try to sport some new kicks. If you’re cos playing, again don’t be proud, giant blisters and limping is not sexy. Sport the shoes that go with your outfit for a bit, but make sure you’ve got back up comfies in your bag.
  • 9. Meds, Inhaler, etc. Passing out in front of Eliza Dushku doesn’t mean she’ll  give you mo 2 mo. Don’t be proud, whip out the inhaler if you need it. (There goes my super plan for next year… I’m out! JP) (if I see yvonne S. from Chuck… I may still try this trick…)
  • 10. ANTIBACTERIAL GEL!! CON CRUD EXISTS AND IT IS EVIL!! I’ve been there people- load up. I’ve got a bottle and a purse spray of it already in my backpack after the curse of Anime Milwaukee. USE IT LIBERALLY AND OFTEN. You’ll hug me for this later when your friend is couched up and praying for death for a good 3-5 days because they were a nonbeliever.

• #2 A Plan

• • Plot out the panels you really want to see. Rule out seeing a panel right before it if it’s not in the same hall. For the biggies a 3 hour line wait is not unheard of. All of the big Cons have an app now, dl it to your phone, it may be a BIG help.
  • If you’re staying at a hotel-don’t forget your shuttle or schedule or the number to a cab service!! Schedules for events change daily! Make sure you pick up the flyer they have all over w/ changes on them
  • How are you getting your loot home?? Make sure you have a plan in advance whether it is extra luggage or plotting out the closest shipping center to the con. Some cons, like SDCC, actually have shipping services located within them.

• #3 Hygiene Even if you’re not facing summer heat, 140,000 people + cos players that wear the same outfit the whole 4 days can = O M Stinky G (x it by hangovers from partying the night before = yeah…. ) SHOWER & be kind, toss a stick of travel size deodorant in your survival kit! And Febreeze, Axe and all kinds of girly sprays all come in tiny lil travel sizes #justsayin. And I know I mentioned it before- but ANTIBACTERIAL GEL!! Please note, it is NOT a substitute for a shower.

• #4 The Sign The day you check into your hotel, on the back of the door- “HEY DUMBASS DO NOT FORGET YOUR BADGE” Trust me, this isn’t just for n00bs. I’ve seen many a veteran con goer get all the way to the convention center and have to turn their self around and go back and get their badge.

• #5 The Realization There are three major things you need to realize before you start this adventure to mecca:

• • • 1. There will be an INSANE amount of people (if you’re crowd phobic) and you need to stand in line for hours w/ them.
    • 2. You will NOT, I repeat NOT see everything on your list. It’s impossible.
    • 3. Your main mission: Snag the fun badge. That’s it.

(JP ) come up with a treasure hunt list of things for you and your friends… IE Pic with Felicia Day, Pic with Wil Weaton, Photo with @GEEKGIRL at her Panel, etc… be creative

• #6 The Moment My assignment to you- I don’t care if you have to set a reminder on your phone to accomplish it, whatever works. But, take one moment to stop, take a deep breath, look around and realize the sheer awesomeness that you are surrounded by. You made it, it is awesome. YOU are awesome. Now go back to having fun.

• Talk about C2E2
  • Presentation to celebrate the life of Jim Henson
  • New Graphic novel, “A Tale of Sand” – Lost Screenplay by the master himself
  • Boy Wonder Preview

• Super Debuts at SXSW – The Review
  • everybody put their expectations here
  • (SM) everybody is saying that the movie delivers but fails in the ending… maybe thats the point? Still looking forward to this movie

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Play Katamari Damacy on Any Web Page (UDG)
  • If you have ever owned a PS2, odds are you’ve played or own one of the Katamari. Never heard of Katamari? For shame! It’s a puzzled-action game Namco put out that sees the player rolling an adhesive ball all around a landscape picking up as many objects as possible. The goal is to get it large enough to become a star.
  • Katamari and its sequels were super popular on Sony’s hardware and all you need now is a web browser to play a version of it.  Alex Leone, David Nufer and David Troung created what they call Katamari Hack which allows any web page to become a play area for the game. Obviously it doesn’t look as good as the Namco games, but the mechanics are the same.
  • Using a bookmarklet for activation, a JavaScript file is loaded into your page of choice and splits all the text and image into separate blocks. A ball is then added to the page which is controlled via the mouse and by holding down the right mouse button. When this is done the ball rolls towards your mouse pointer collecting and text and images as it goes.
  • The end result is a highly playable game of Katamari. There’s also options such as whether to play background music or not, controlling the maximum number of objects that can attach to the ball, and the speed of the ball growth. You can even toggle realistic pickups on or off. We also found you can click the bookmarklet multiple times to get more Katamari balls active at once.
  • To give it a go yourself just visit the Katamari Hack website and drag the bookmarklet to your Bookmarks/Bookmarks Toolbar. Then load a page of your choice and click the bookmarklet. This will bring up the options box and allow you to start playing.
  • (SM) How about URL Hunter? a game that is played on the location bar

• Happy 40th anniversary Computer Virus (SM)
  • This year marks the 40th anniversary of “Creeper”
  • Name some of the most prominent viruses out there
    • Creeper (1971) – ARPANET based, hopped from comp to comp and displayed image “Catch me if you can”
    • Elk Cloner (1982) – Apple II computer, spread by floppy, 15 yr old writer, displayed a poem as an ode to the virus
    • Jerusalem (1987) – Every year on Friday the 13th, deleted every file on the computer
    • Melissa – One of the first HUGE email viruses, propogated via infected Word docs mailed through outlook. 20 mths in jail $5000 fine, named after a stripper
    • 2000 – I Love You, attached virus w/ I love you in subject, then emailed all your contact list
    • 2001 – Code Red – 400,000 IIS web server, Hacked by the Chinese
    • Stuxnet –  Gov’t created virus that exploited windows and eventually destroyed a targetted system (probably a nuclear power plant in Iran)
    • CIH, also known as Chernobyl It is one of the most damaging viruses, overwriting critical information on infected system drives, and more importantly, in some cases corrupting the system BIOS. (JP) I actually got hit with this by Yamaha… I had a CDR400 and the firmware update shipped with it infected… Thanks Yamaha!!!
  • Mind Blowing statistics:
    • 1,300 in 1990
    • 50,000 in 2000
    • over 200 million in 2010
  • From geeky prank to malicious nuisance to business savvy criminalsk, These pieces of code are our bane, Happy B-day the Virus

• Valve Teaches Kid a Lesson When He Tries to Sell His Steam Account (JP)
  • Kid tries to sell his acct that has over $1700 worth of games on it
  • Posts on Reddit, apparently somebody at Valve read the post (pun intended)
  • Its a violation of TOS to sell your acct or lease your acct to others
  • Ban hammer comes out, no more playing games for the kid
  • Kiddo has since been re-instated

• Blizzard Teases Diablo III For Consoles Yet Again (udg)
  • Could one of the biggest fanboy PC games of all time could be coming to major video game consoles by the end of 2011? Blizzard Entertainment, producer of Diablo III, recently posted an online job listing for ‘Senior Producer, Console’. This can only mean one thing, right? The Diablo franchise is finally set on making the transition to next-gen consoles. Right?
  • Yeah, not so fast.
  • “We are looking for a couple of console developers, yes,” Blizzard CEO and first-rate tease Mike Morhaime told video game trade journal MCV. “At this stage though, it’s basically an investigation to see if it makes sense for Diablo to be a console game as well as a PC game. “We haven’t made any decisions yet, but a lot us feel that if ever there was a Blizzard franchise that could play well as a console game, then that’s probably it.”
  • Mike, I’m gonna bust out a phrase my grandma used to love to use “Honey, you need to shit or get off the pot.”

• Court OK’s Posting pics w/out Permission on Facebook (SM)
  • Mother lost custody due to a facebook pic showing her drinking
  • Appeals saying that the prosecution improperly used the photo
  • Court  promptly rejects assertion that Facebook is inadmissible
  • Published from the court “[t]here is nothing within the law that requires [one's] permission when someone takes a picture and posts it on a Facebook page. There is nothing that requires [one's] permission when she [is] “tagged” or identified as a person in those pictures.”
  • Before everybody gets panties in a wad: there might be issues with ppl who use tagging to harrass
  • You do something stupid in your personal life and post it in public, you can get in trouble and it just might stick

• Facebook Rolls Out Anti-Bullying Tools (udg)
  • Faceebook has announced two new safety features in conjunction with a White House summit on bullying.
  • A new reporting will now allow all users to privately report troubling content, not just to the site itself but to parents, teachers and others in their support system.
  • Facebook said the “social reporting” feature is intended to get reports of bullying to the people with the best chance of stopping it.
  • Under the new system, a user could identify a photo, status update or other item as bullying them, then privately send a message to someone in their friend network about it.
  • “Safety and child psychology experts tell us that online issues are frequently a reflection of what is happening offline,” Facebook wrote. “By encouraging people to seek help from friends, we hope that many of these situations can be resolved face to face.”
  • The second feature is an improved Safety Center, due out in the next few weeks. It will provide educational videos, articles and other content created by bullying experts to help adults address the problem and will constantly be updated with new information and tools.

• • • Bonus link to what happens to when a bully has enough

• Microsoft Launches IE9 at SXSW (JP)

• From SXSW: How to Raise Digital Native Children (SM)
  • Has your kids been bugging you for a facebook account? Twitter? The Latest Iphone? starting at age 8?
  • Dan Sinker and John Bracken led  discussion at SXSW about this very thing
  • We’re all plugged in and our kids are even MORE plugged in
  • Some issues brought up at the discussion include:
    • When do you start registering online identities
    • Monitor Internet usage
    • Let your kids on Facebook / Twitter / etc
    • Teach them programming languages
  • One person mentioned that they teach 2 languages in the home, English and C++
  • Example: Bracken won’t let his daughter watch TV but will let her watch Netflix, etc.
  • Where do we draw the line on what content is allowed into the home

• Etsy Reveals Users Real Name and Purchases (udg)
  • I firmly stand by my statement that Etsy is like crack. Okay, so I’ve never done crack, but holy addictive batman. And I know there are other addicts out there. So, if you have an Etsy account and have ever ordered anything with it, you may want to listen up because what you bought may be showing up now in Google search results for your real name.
  • People Search, Etsy’s newest feature rolled out last week. It seems to be an attempt to add more of a social network feel to it by allowing users to connect to each other and create “Circles”, which then allow users to see which products their friends have favorited or purchase on Etsy. To accomplish that, it now allows people to search but real name in addition to username and links both of those to purchase history.
  • Unfortunately, Etsy didn’t announce this chance to any one except sellers and they took a page out of Facebook’s play book by automatically opting all of its current users into the program. Once all that wonderful search able info was available, it starting popping up all over Google search results. Think that doesn’t sound all that bad?
    • Etsy sells ALL KINDS of things. A privacy concerned poster in a forum was looking up research for a reporter. There on the first page of the person she was looking for, right under her resume, was her Etsy purchase. Let’s just say that person now knows the color and curvature choice of a very personal item.
    • Another forum goer found it was possible to start with an item, see who was interested in it, and eventually make your way to their Facebook page.
  • So, if you do have an Etsy account, here’s, thanks to Etsy Bitch,  how to opt out of People Search:
    • Log in to Etsy (you’ll have to do this for each store you have)
    • Click “Settings” on the left top sidebar
    • Choose the “Privacy” tab
    • You have three decisions to make (who can see your favorites, who can see your purchases, and can people search for your email). Be sure to click the update button on the bottom.
    • To change your ‘real name’ on file, click “Profile” in the left sidebar while logged in to your account.

• Before and Afters of the Japanese Earthquake (SM)
  • Web 2.0 at work
  • The pictures here are mind blowing
  • Before and after shots using google earth/ with a manual wipe bar
  • Dare you to try it and not feel your jaw drop

• Apple Comes to the Aid of Japan(udg)
  • I know you mock my love of Apple, Steven, but this is one of the many reasons I will always be loyal.
  • The world watched last week as Japan was devastated by a giant earthquake and Tsunami that followed. With that power cuts and communication links are going down. My friend in Japan that was close enough to have been shaken but safe enough to be okay continues to talk of scheduled power outages there.
  • We have seen people and companies band together over there and Apple is no exception, in fact it may be setting the example for everyone else to follow.
  • Kevin Rose, founder of Digg and a tech angel investor, has posted on his blog detailing how Apple Stores and their staff in Japan have come to the aid of those caught up in the disaster currently being experienced in the country.
  • He has a friend in Japan who works at an Apple Store. When the earthquake hit all the staff led customers to safety outside his store. As it is a more modern building, it withstood the shaking and remained structurally sound. That’s when the store and other Apple locations like it took on a different purpose.
  • With the backup power still on, and the hardware and networks still operational, people flooded in with their mobile devices to get a signal and check on friends and family. Others huddled around the MacBooks on display to catch up on the news using UStream, Twitter, Facebook, news sites, and through e-mails.
  • As well as offering a way to find out what’s happening, the staff also brought out adapters and power cables so people could charge their devices, they even left the wireless connection active after closing at night to allow anyone passing by outside the chance to get a usable signal.
  • For Apple employees the company went even further. As transport links were down it was agreed that any Apple staff, be it retail or corporate, should use the Apple stores nearest to them to sleep, and family members were welcome too. Senior managers also went and got food and drink supplies to ensure everyone had access to them at the stores. Anyone wanting to try and journey home was told that all their food, drink, and transport costs would be reimbursed. Employees attempting this and getting stuck were also having their hotel costs reimbursed as well.
  • This aid is set to continue for as long as Japan remains in a state of emergency. Apple’s quick decision to forget about everything except the welfare of its employees and people in general has seen it turn into a much needed port in the storm, and the company should be commended for deciding to take on that role. It has surely made all the difference to a lot of people desperate to get in touch with loved ones and who have nowhere else to go right now.

• Mortal Kombat Demo Out on PSN (JP)

Intarweb Goldmine

• What’s Almost as Awesome as Ninja Monkeys? Pirate Monkeys! (udg)
  • Louisiana wildlife officials confiscated four monkeys in pirate costumes from an autistic woman visiting New Orleans for Carnival.
  • Joan Newberger, 66, and her caretaker, James Poole, said they and the four monkeys were dressed as pirates on Bourbon Street when police and wildlife agents approached them and seized the small primates, WWLT-TV, New Orleans, reported.
  • Newberger said the seizure was illegal because the primates are registered as her “service monkeys” with a group in Texas. However, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said the monkeys do not meet the Americans with Disabilities Act’s definition of service animals.
  • Possession of primates has been illegal in Louisiana since 2006.
  • Newberger is scheduled to appear in the Orleans Parish Municipal Court in July to attempt to get her monkeys back.
  • “This isn’t some wild animal that we snatched out of the swamp in New Orleans and we’re running around making money on it,” Poole said.
  • Seriously? Giver Joan her monkeys back dbags!!!
• He REALLY likes Julia Roberts (JP)
  • Most movie fans would settle for an autograph, but when it comes to celebrity ink, Miljenko Bukovic draws his own lines.
  • He’s a Mexican-born newspaper vendor who has spent roughly $4,000 over the past 10 years tattooing his body with sketches of his favorite American actress, Julia Roberts, according to The Sun.
  • Why? you might ask. “Because she’s beautiful,” he says.
  • All of Bukovic’s tattoos draw on scenes from Roberts’ 2000 classic “Erin Brockovich,” which he readily admits is his favorite movie. And with 82 tats and counting, he plans to continue building the body art collection as long as there’s still space on his skin and cash in his pocket.
  • Don’t bother searching his torso for scenes from “Pretty Woman,” though. Bukovic says he doesn’t approve of his Hollywood heartthrob playing a prostitute.

• Best Employee Termination EVER (udg)
  • In honor of Pi Day and thanks to Tim Hunt!

• • If you can remember Pi to the 46th digit, hallucinogens or not, you are way too overqualified to work at Domino’s.

• Car Crash Victim Sues Paramedic That Stole His Foot (JP)
  • She stole his foot — and now she might have to foot the bill.
  • A former Florida paramedic who snatched a man’s severed foot from the scene of a car crash is being sued by the victim.
  • Cynthia Economou — a former St.Lucie County Fire District firefighter and paramedic — admitted that she took Karl Lambert’s mangled foot in hopes of using the limb to help train her cadaver-sniffing dog after a wreck on I-95 on Sept. 19, 2008.
  • She pleaded no contest to petty theft charges and was sentenced to six months’ probation. But now Lambert is taking her to court in a civil case, seeking unspecified damages, according to TCPalm.com.
  • During sentencing in 2009, Economou said she only took the mangled appendage for her dog because she didn’t think it could be reattached to the victim.
  • “It was an unrecognizable mass of flesh,” she said. “It wasn’t a clean cut. You couldn’t even recognize it as a foot. … If I had thought it was somehow reattachable and usable, I would have gone to my commander.”

Extra Links

• One in Five Brits Believe Light Sabers Exist
• Unique IPad Cover Breakdown
• From SXSW: Guide to Geek Sex

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 . Tonight we talk all things IPhone, Government oversight issues, new DVDS, and idiots in the intarweb goldmine

Intro Jeremy
Natali is out due to technical difficulties

Items of Interest

• DIY Star Wars Valentines
• Star Wars Job Chart
• Awesome PC Mods

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

Big Exciting News… We are very close (depending on Apple) to being able to test and release our first iPhone app!!! (@JebsApps) it’ll be Movie History… with lots of new features (that we can’t make androids do… yet) but both will be getting a huge update to the Database!!! and right on the heels of that will be Geek History with a bigger update to the Database!!! So… More Geekiness… = More GeekyGoodness!!
Get yours today if you have an Android for only $0.99 to keep up with facts like:
Today in MovieHistory 2/9/2001
Saving Silverman starring Jason Biggs, Jack Black, Steve Zahn, Neil Diamond and Amanda Peet is released  (I love that movie! Hilarious!!)

Deals of the Week / New Release

• Choose Your Own Doom (JP by way of UDG)
  • This is a new take on the Choose your own adventure books we loved as kids… and I for one, am super stoked…
  • This is a Choose your own adventure Zombie Apocalypse story!!!
• DVDs
  • Paranormal Activity 2 - Supposedly creepier than the original but I have yet to see the movie
  • Uncle Buck (blu-ray) – CLASSIC!!! Instant buy if you love John Candy or comedies in general
  • Thelma and Louise (Blu-ray) – One of Scott Ridleys most compelling stories. Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are PERFECT together. 20th anniversary and I plan to see this again soon

  • I Spit on Your Grave DVD

  • This is a remake of one of favorite classic horror flicks… Interested in seeing this one

• Doctor Who: The Movie DVD

• I haven’t seen this one yet… but it’s Dr. Who… so it’s a must pick up!
• and one last I had to mention…

• Alice in Murderland

  • It’s a direct to DVD horror flick… but it does come with the tag line… through the looking glass and straight to hell!!!
• so it actually made my list!

Geek Speak

• Should Gov’ts be given veto power over top level domain names? (Please Read)

  • Gov’t wants capability to set up international power that allows countries to veto any new top level domains
  • 1 vote against would deep six the name
  • some upcoming suffixes? .car, .health, .nyc, .movie, .web
  • ICANN, a U.S. based company currently oversees the process
  • Trade Commission statement: “has merit as it diminishes the potential for blocking of top level domain strings considered objectionable by governments. This type of blocking harms the architecture of the DNS and undermines the goal of universal resolvability (i.e., a single global Internet that facilitates the free flow of goods and services and freedom of expression).”
  • Also a possible block to other international countries protesting that its a US based company that is overseeing the procedures
  • Discuss

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Look Into Our Eyes and We’ll Tell You What You Want to Eat
  • Riddle me this: A device at the supermarket scans your face and tells you what you might like to eat tonight. Now or Future? (closer than you think)
  • Kraft is planning such a device to be installed at the store
  • Scans your face and determines, gender, age, race, etc and then selects a probably recipe that you might like
  • Obviously face recognition can’t tell food allergies, special needs, etc
  • Combine that with online Kraft iFood Assistant account and favorites from KraftRecipes.com and you can start to see an actual product
  • The whole thing is powered by two Intel Apps that enable face recognition
  • No identifying information stored, all done real time

• HTC invests 40 million in OnLive (JP)
  • On its Web site, HTC said that it had invested into Saffron Digital, a London-based video delivery service that has optimized its services for mobile devices. The company will remain in its London headquarters and the management team will be unchanged, it said.
    • So why do we care? They also do OnLive the streaming video game service… and this could mean…
    • A potential HTC investment could imply that OnLive gaming is headed for tablets.

• AOL Buys Huffington Post
  • Online Newspaper that uses old school reporting in a new medium
  • Purchased by the AOL conglomerate for $300 million in cash and $15 million in stock
  • (SM) Smart ppl to ask for all cash from a shrinking company
  • Arriana Huffington, co-founder of news site, is the new president editor-in-chief of all AOL online content
  • Obviously with purchases of TechCrunch, Endgadget, Mapquest, and now Huffington, AOL is trying to position themselves as an online media provider
  • Claim to reach 250 million ppl worldwide with their content

• Charity Trying to buy Used Satellite (JP)
  • We take Internet access for granted here in the U.S. and in other places
  • 3rd world countries still don’t have a large penetration due to lack of infrastructure and technology
  • AHumanRight.org is trying to raise funds to purchase satellites and make a free network that spans the globe
  • First plans to station satellites over 3rd world countries as a first step in placing infrastructure to enable free Internet access
  • Needs $150k to start all the legal and lay the groundwork
  • Targeting Terrestar-1 which was owned by said company before they filed for bankruptcy
  • Another similar satellite sold for $23 million (5 billion to build and launch)
  • “Re-inventing the wheel isn’t something we would wish upon anyone, but William Kamkwamba’s story provides an example of the information disparity slowing down progress for the brightest minds,” said Grammatis. “William couldn’t afford the US$80 per year it cost to attend school so he spent his time at the library instead … over the span of four years he re-invented the windmill to provide himself with electricity. He shared his first Google experience with journalists: ‘He said, Do you know Google? and I said, What animal is a Google? And when I Googled windmill I found there was millions of applications! I said, Where was this Google all this time?!’”

• Verizon breaks record with IPhone pre-sales
  • Sold out in the first day, most coming in first 2 hours
  • Largest and fastest sale in company history
  • These were all sales to current customers
  • Sales to new customers start Feb. 10
  • Walmart Set to sell Verizon IPhone
    • Feb. 10, same as anyone else
    • 600 stores initially
  • Wanna switch? Ebay willing to pay for your IPhone
    • Next 2 weeks paying cash for used smartphones (feb 22)
    • $200 for IPhone 3GS, Droid X, Galaxy S, HTC Evo 4G
    • $500 for pristine IPhone 4
  • Devils in the Details for the Verizon IPhone
    • Verizon is installing a network throttling service on their whole network (called optimization by them)
    • Means, they could slow down everyone’s connection if too much data is being shoved through (Jp – and according to side by side tests… it’s already slower than and AT&T iPhone 4)
    • New data usage agreement: any extraordinary use of data will see a slow down in their data-transfer speed for remainder of month AND next billing cycle
    • So are these really “unlimited”??? Advertise what you sell folks
    • Termination fee from Verizon was raised to $350 from $175 ($325 by AT&T)
    • No more “stay loyal” discount
  • Verizon IPhone found with Universal Chip
    • recent breakdown of Verizon IPhone shows new silicone
    • Same chip as Droid Pro, allows both GSM (t-mobile,etc) and CDMA
    • Lacks the crucial SIM card slot however to differentiate between carriers
    • Still, its a building block towards a singular IPhone model
      • (also still lacking dual antennaes needed to use both sides of the chip in question) but just like a camera in the ipad… I bet it’s coming in the next version (JP)

• Hackers hack NASDAQ (JP)
  • Hackers have repeatedly penetrated the computer network of the company that runs the Nasdaq Stock Market during the past year, and federal investigators are trying to identify the perpetrators and their purpose, according to people familiar with the matter.
  • The exchange’s trading platform—the part of the system that executes trades—wasn’t compromised, these people said. However, it couldn’t be determined which other parts of Nasdaq’s computer network were accessed.
  • Anyone who understands the affect the markets have on the economy should be worried at least a little… remember the small crash a couple years ago and the recession it sent us into…
    • just imagine that on a much larger scale… They need to get this locked down better and quickly.

• IPad 2 in Production??? (SM)
  • WSJ is reporting that the new IPad is in production
  • Faster Processor, front-facing camera for video conferencing
  • Thinner and lighter, same resolution
  • Only available through Verizon and AT&T at first
  • Since debut last april, sold 14.8 million units
  • Experts plan for Apple to sell 28 million of device
  • Already their market share has decreased, further reductions to only 50% predicted by 2013

• RockBand sold, MTV Games out of business (JP)
  • MTV games has ceased publishing operations according to sources…
    • Label behind Rock Band officially out of the publishing game, but “has not been completely dissolved,” according to reps.
    • The cessation of publishing effectively marks the end of MTV Games’ four-and-a-half-year experiment with the gaming industry. It began in September 2006, when MTV parent Viacom bought Harmonix for $175 million dollars plus a generous bonus structure. However, initial success gave way to unprofitability by 2009.
    • No mention was made of the MTV Games “incubation” substudio created in collaboration with prolific film producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean).

• Play Music, Smack your Friends (SM)
  • You no longer need 15 bikini models to make a human orchestra (done with conductive paint on models dancing around and closing circuits by “touching”)
  • Takara Tomy plans to release a toy that when you and your friend touch, if you touch each other, sounds will commence
  • (SM) You can see where this is going right? Slap party = instant orchestra!
  • Basically when touching someone, you close a circuit triggering a note
  • Only bummer? notes don’t get louder the harder you hit

(JP – imagine this same story if he shot the vids with 15 of his geeky dorky guy friends instead… think anyone would have picked it up and ran with the story… he’s a good marketer if nothing else… )

Intarweb Goldmine

• Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned… and knows google
  • Guy breaks up with girl, girl gets back at him
  • Girl gets mad and posts Meme’s all over google search
  • When you searched his name, a pic w/ captions would come up
  • Like a Virgin, Every man’s Prison Dream, Mulan, To be or not to be, loljk I can’t read
  • They’ve been trying for weeks to get them out of the search, to no avail
  • Lesson? Don’t piss a geek girl off that knows how to manipulate google

• Only 39% admit they curse out their computers
  • In a recent survey by Avira security, 61% of computer users out there have deluded themselves into thinking they don’t cuss at their troubling pc
  • 39% of them were honest and said that they did…
  • I want to know how many of our listeners would lie and say they don’t cuss out their computers…

• Rocket Found, Turned into Police Station
  • Imagine this, you’re strolling along in the park and you see a metal cylinder on the ground, curious you stroll up to it, only to find out it looks very similar to the MW2 RPG round head…
  • Here’s your options: Do you back away slowly, calliing 911 and get a bomb disposal unit, B) do you pick it up, sling it in the back of your truck bed, and then bring it to the pow-lice station to show them
  • Yeah, the genius in Lake City, FLA did just that, turning it into a police station after finding it in a park
  • Prior military police officer identified it as a live, high-explosive military round (M427 rocket w/ 2.3 lbs of composition B, a mixture of TNT and semtex)
  • U.S. Navy bomb disposal had to come pick it up after closing off main street for proper disposal

• Lady dies after Butt Implant
  • Lady flies all the way from the UK after finding a killer deal on Butt implants
  • This is where you inject silicone directly into you to enlarge the gluteous maximus region
  • Strolls into a hotel room for the procedure and then later dies after being transported to the hospital
  • First off, A HOTEL ROOM SHOULD BE YOUR FIRST INDICATOR OF TROUBLE
  • second off, PLASTIC SURGERY IS NEVER CHEAP
  • third off, IF YOU HAVE A HOOKER IN THE NEXT ROOM TURNING TRICKS, YOU PROBABLY WANT TO TURN AROUND AND GO BACK
  • It was a killer deal all right :s

Extra Links

• Costumes based on Anime Figures
• Superman Classic

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 Verizon Iphone, Government conspiracies, Chinese devils 4 real, and HAN SOLO in Firefly!!! It’s real, believe it…

Intro JPuent
Intro Natali

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

Items of Interest

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

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

Gold Sponsors:

Natali’s Etsy!!!

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

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

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

Deals of the Week / New Release

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

Geek Speak

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

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

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Intarweb Goldmine

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

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

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

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

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

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

Extra Links

• Microsoft investigating Win 7 Mo Phantom Data Usage

Contact Info

• On Twitter: Steven is @DarthMolen, Jeremy is @jpuent, Natali is @UberDorkGirlie
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We are LIVE on Ustream . This week we talk family tech support disasters, Star wars christmas, some online backlash funniness, and much more…

No Jeremy this week or next
Intro Natali

Items of Interest

• Playmobil’s TSA Action Set for Kids (udg) (SM- BUAHAHAHAH!)
  • Complete with sweater around the neck wearing hipster.
  • It would seem this is an older toy that has been discontinued but given the current talk of the TSA grope downs I find it hilarious. Want one of your own? Well there’s only one for sale on Amazon and it’ll set ya back $225 and some change.
  • There are some hilarious reviews on Amazon:
    • “Educational and Fun!, February 27, 2008
    • By Zampano
    • Durability:
    • This review is from: Playmobil Security Check Point (Toy)
    • Thank you Playmobil for allowing me to teach my 5-year old the importance of recognizing what a failing bureaucracy in a ever growing fascist state looks like. Sometimes it’s a hard lesson for kids to learn because not all pigs carry billy clubs and wear body armor. I applaud the people who created this toy for finally being hip to our changing times. Little children need to be aware that not all smiling faces and uniforms are friendly. I noticed that my child is now more interested in current events. Just the other day he asked me why we had to forfeit so much of our liberties and personal freedoms and I had to answer “well, it’s because the terrorists have already won”. Yes, they have won.
    • I also highly recommend the Playmobil “farm fencing” so you can take your escorted airline passenger away and fence him behind bars as if he were in Guantanamo Bay.Great lesson for the kids!, September 9, 2005
    • By loosenut
    • This review is from: Playmobil Security Check Point (Toy)
    • I was a little disappointed when I first bought this item, because the functionality is limited. My 5 year old son pointed out that the passenger’s shoes cannot be removed. Then, we placed a deadly fingernail file underneath the passenger’s scarf, and neither the detector doorway nor the security wand picked it up. My son said “that’s the worst security ever!”. But it turned out to be okay, because when the passenger got on the Playmobil B757 and tried to hijack it, she was mobbed by a couple of other heroic passengers, who only sustained minor injuries in the scuffle, which were treated at the Playmobil Hospital.
    • The best thing about this product is that it teaches kids about the realities of living in a high-surveillence society. My son said he wants the Playmobil Neighborhood Surveillence System set for Christmas. I’ve heard that the CC TV cameras on that thing are pretty worthless in terms of quality and motion detection, so I think I’ll get him the Playmobil Abu-Gharib Interogation Set instead (it comes with a cute little memo from George Bush).

• Merry Hothmas
• Merry Christmas Star Wars Dub!!! (features my ex near the end)

Vader & a tauntaun decorated the tree.
A tiny AT-AT smiled with glee.
The war was far, far away.
It was time to celebrate.
Happy Hothdays!

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• Today in Geek History
  • JebsApps (owned by our own Jeremy Puent) released their latest app, Today in Geek History
  • Gives you factoids based upon date, spanning all sorts of geekiness
  • For example, did you know on 12/15/1970  In a boon to canned meats everywhere, Monty Python airs the ‘Spam’ sketch on BBC One.
  • This app is available for Android in a Lite version for free or a paid version, all on the Marketplace
  • Check out the lite version, but the paid version for .99
  • Also, Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices
    • Golden Pic has some huge updates released this past Sunday Bookmarking locations, mapping to those locations (driving or walking)
    • The Lite version gained the ability to change location via two methods as well.
    • Plus we put it on sale again for the holidays!!! only $1.79 USD through new Years! Get it now!
    • Follow @Jebsapps or @GeekHistory (and @MovieHistory) for a peek at Friday’s big news!

Deals of the Week / New Release

• Epic Steam Holiday Sale(udg)
  • Incase you don’t know what Steam is- (besides being completely awesome) it’s basically a platform developed by Valve used to distribute games and related media online from everyone from small independent developers to the larger software houses. It’s also got some really great community features, automated game updates and in-game chat and voice capabilities.
  • And I would have to say that one of the single most kick ass things to happen in 2010 out of gaming was Steam coming to Mac. Right now they are having an INSANE sale going on. They’re damnear giving away games! Most are 75-80% off their normal price. Their normal price is cheap to begin with.
  • Some examples of what’s on sale today:
    • Day of defeat for $2.75 Yup, under $3.
    • Aliens vs Predator for $5.00
    • COD4 for $14.99
    • Assassin’s Creed II for $14.99 (If you already own I, it’s only $12.00)
  • Seriously, do yourself a favor and get on over there daily between now and January 2nd. There are new deals every day. Yesterday I finally bought Portal. For $3.75. Need last minute gift ideas?? Guess what- you can gift any game on there.
  • (SM) Just bought the bethesda pack based on your recommendation

• Microsoft Security Essential 2.0 Released (SM)
  • following 4 month beta program, 2nd iteration of free antivirus and anti-spyware is released
  • Was virus definition based, now adds heuristic checking and network inspection
  • Uses Vista and 7’s “Windows Filtering Platform” to be more actice, XP users won’t get some of the added benefits
  • One interesting feature, will work with IE (boo, maybe not huge) to stop scripts before they run. Before it had to hit cache before scanned.

• Laugh it Up Fuzzball: The Family Guy Star Wars Spoof Trilogy (udg)
• The Family Guy Trilogy (It’s A Trap / Something Something Something Dark Side / Blue Harvest) [Blu-ray] Through Amazon $22.99
  • Other Blu-Rays being released
    • SALT
    • Disney WOW (HD Hometheater how-to guide)
    • Futurama S5
    • Easy A

• Facebook News Feed Filters (SM)
  • Now all sorts of crazy options (links only, status only, pages only, close friends)

• Humble Bundle 2 Purchasers now get 1 (SM)
  • Ppl who already purchased will just see the games show up in STEAM
  • Ppl who purchase from now on just need to push the average. ($7.51)
  • Only available for another 3 days

Geek Speak

• Familial tech support nightmares….
  • (SM) I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard – “My hard drive cratered, can you re-do my whole OS” or “How do you do a wireless backup?” or “I lost x file… can you get it back for me”
  • Solution: TeachParentsTech.org

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Cell Phone Carriers Pondering Charging Per Service (udg)
  • Internet service providers Allot Communications and Openet, two companies that have some pretty esteemed clients in Verizon and AT&T, made a scary presentation at a web seminar, which showcased a PowerPoint presentation. It proposes a future where wireless providers monitor and charge people for using individual services, such as Facebook, Skype and YouTube.
  • Of course, the slide shown diagraming this was simply a musing and not an official proposal, but it’s scary to know that these kinds of things are being discussed and presented by suppliers to companies like Verizon and AT&T. This kind of idea isn’t exactly new, though, as it’s basically the backbone of premium television packages: Charging to use Facebook through one’s mobile phone isn’t very different from charging to watch NBA TV through one’s television.
  • I think it’s safe to say none of us want to see this happen and it would cause quite an uproar amongst consumers. My theory is that all major providers would have to work together and initiate this change all at once. No one is going to want to be the first to take that leap.

• Black Ops tops a BEEELLION dollars (SM)
  • Very popular game has surpassed 1 beeellion dollars in total worldwide
  • Took total of 6 weeks  to reach this milestone
  • MW2, it’s immediate predecessor hit that mileston in 2 months
  • $360 million (BO) vs. $310 million (MW2) in its first 24 hours

• Kinect No Can Haz Sex Game (udg)
  • It’s been less than two months since Kinect has been out and there’s already an adult company trying to produce a 30D sex game for the 360.
  • Kinect enables video game players to move characters through the use of real-life movements made possible by 3-D object scanning and manipulation. Kinect uses cameras and microphones to track movement and voice commands as a controller.
  • So the Web was buzzing earlier this week when ThriXXX, an Austria-based game company, posted a YouTube video featuring a graphic demo of a 3-D adult game using the controller for Xbox 360.
  • But when Microsoft, maker of Kinect and Xbox,  was asked about the prospects of the game actually making it to the video game console, a spokesperson said in a statement that yeah, it’s not gonna to happen.
  • (SM)Kinect has an open source driver *wink wink*

• Top 5 PC Games (SM)
  • Wow: Catakalysm
  • Dawn of War II: Chaos rising (Left 4 Dead 2)
  • MW: Black Ops
  • Civ V
  • Starcraft 2

• Google Extends Free Gmail Calling for all of 2011 (udg)
  • Last August, Google introduced the ability to make and receive phone calls from within Gmail. At that time, the company made all calls to the United States and Canada free for the rest of 2010. On Monday, Google announced that it’s extending the free calling offer throughout all of 2011.
  • As  usual, you can still place calls in Gmail to numbers outside the US and Canada, but those will cost you.

• Net Neutrality a “go” (SM)
  • A more complete breakdown
  • The proposal aims to prevent service providers from discriminating against websites and companies using their networks
  • Wireless exempt from the rules
  • Both sides screaming that is has either too much teeth or not enough teeth
  • (interesting fact) Netflix uses 20% of U.S. active bandwidth during peak hours
  • Estimates put it at only 3.5 million users or ? of all the Netflix subs
  • Do we really need regulation? (stagnation as new technology emerges)

• Kevin Smith’s Epic Twitter Monologue (udg)
  • One of the great things (or not so great depending on how you view it) about Twitter is that it allows famous or otherwise inaccessible people to communicate directly with their fans in interesting ways, and this is something that Kevin Smith is really good at. The other day he posted an epic monologue on Twitter that revealed the dark truth that studios fund projects because they make money, explained how filmmakers and other creative people could find fulfillment and success anyway, and, as a bonus, presented a theory of artistry that divides people into the categories of Hal Jordan, Superman, and Batman.
  • His monologue was 37 tweets long. And because it’s awesome and I adore him, I’m gonna read it all to you now. Kick back, grab some popcorn and feel free take some notes. I know Steven will be so he can go back and bleep.
  • Smith, responding to a fan’s question about a rumor about a “Miramax/Weinstein call about Clerks 3?”
  • No – but you raise an excellent point I’d like to address here.
  • When you read a story about this deal happening or this film being announced, the wheels of whatever it is tend to turn v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. And that’s fair: we are talking about millions of dollars being spent on some dopey, make-pretend bullshit. Point is, when you read the story about it online, that’s our information-currency culture feeding on theoretical news. The ink’s not dry on that deal yet. It’s all ideas at this point – the absolute BEST state of being in the movie biz.
  • Ideas cost NOTHING & require ZERO risk. And yet, oddly, the LEAST amount of time’s usually spent in the idea stage before a small fortune is dumped on a whimsy that’s still half-baked.
  • Case in point: Cop Out.
  • When I was brought in, there was talk of spending $70mil on a Will Ferrell/MarkyMark version of A COUPLE OF DICKS (the pre-COP title). Then WB didn’t wanna pay the actors’ full quotes, so off go they go to do the over-$70mil+ OTHER GUYS. WB then made WAY less expensive deals with Bruce & Tracy, I cut my salary by over 80%, and we were off to the races with what became a $32mil flick (which is why, hate on it all you must, but – as per two high-level studio sources & one of our producers – Cop Out turned a profit already; it did what it was designed to do). All of that came from Jeff Robinov’s idea stage. The idea that the movie could go on without Will & Mark resulted in Cop Out. And while some may harp about whether the flick was their cup of tea or not, the people who paid to have it made were content we all hadn’t wasted money.
  • The idea stage of the process has always been a years-out kinda thing. I’ll talk about a project that’ll sometimes take years to happen. That’s because the idea itself is WILLING the film into existence.
  • RedState was like that: I first talked to @JoeUtichi about it in London, over three years back. I knew then that it wasn’t gonna happen easily, so I “threw my hat over the wall”, so to speak, and FORCED myself to make it happen. Over 3 years to get to the point where the cheapest movie I’ve ever made since Chasing Amy became more than just chatter; it became a reality.
  • Sometimes, you gotta believe FOR everybody else – and sometimes, you do it by yourself for a long time. Then, if you’re lucky, someone like @TheJonGordon starts believing with you – first theoretically, then in practice.
  • And two people believing is the start of a congregation. You build a congregation of believers and you try to build a cathedral. Sometimes, it’s just a church. Sometimes, it’s a chapel. Folks who don’t build churches will try to tell you how you’re doing it wrong, even as your steeple breaks the clouds. Don’t listen.
  • But before all of that, you gotta start with the idea – and not just the idea for the story/movie/novel/installation/song/podcast/whatever. You gotta start with the idea that you can do this – something that’s not normally done by everybody else. Since it’s not second nature to take leaps of faith, you have to SMotivate yourself. Even invent language, if you have to. Embrace a reasonable amount of unreasonability.
  • But nobody else can believe in you if you don’t believe in what you’re doing. I’ve willed almost all the stuff I’ve done into existence, and ifI can do that, anybody can do that. So start your chatter: talk about what you’re going to do. Don’t pursue a role, LIVE that role. Like my sister told me, back when I confessed I wanted to be a filmmaker…
  • “Then BE a filmmaker,” she said.
  • “That’s what I’m saying: I wanna be.”
  • And that’s when she gave me the million dollar advice…
  • “No – BE a filmmaker. You say you wanna be; just BE a filmmaker. Think every thought AS a filmmaker. Don’t pine for it or pursue it; BE it. You ARE a filmmaker; you just haven’t made a film yet.”
  • And it sounded artsy-fartsy as fuck, but it was CRAZY useful advice. A slacker hit the sheets that night, but the CLERKS-guy got out of bed the following morning.
  • So plant the seeds early & take as much time as it requires to will your goals into existence. Keep a few going, you’ll never get bored. Expect moments of discouragement, but don’t wallow in them. Remember that if an ass-hat like Kevin Smith can succeed at something like film or life, then what the fuck is stopping YOU from doing the same? I was not ‘to the manor born’. This shit was not manifest, nor was it ever offered.
  • And just remember that, when you read about some deal or project, sometimes that’s just some bluffy motherfucker trying to change his or her game by willing some shit into existence.
  • Only guy I ever heard of who got an amazing life literally handed to him was Hal Jordan. Don’t wait for a dying alien to give you a magic ring: just do it yourself, Slappy. We can’t all be Superman, but we sure as shit can train hard, and with loads of practice, we can elevate our simple, non-Kryptonian selves to be the Batman. And who the fuck doesn’t wanna be Batman? Batman has an impeccable moral compass. He’s clever & mysterious. And when fucktards get sassy, he punches them in the face. Plus, that car.
  • Ideas cost nothing yet have the potential to yield inexplicably long careers & happy lives. So go ahead: dream a l’il dream. #SMonologueOff

• Best Buy ends (most) Restocking fees (SM)
  • There’s a dirty secret, any returns get a 15% restocking fee at BB
  • Most hated this practice for obvious reasons
  • The only stocking fee to survive is on special order at 25%
  • This coming after they posted weak earning Nov. 27th due to slow TV and game sales

• Bank of America Tries to Avoid Online Backlash (udg)
  • In preparation for being the subject of a future round of WikiLeaks, Bank of America has shoen an unprecidented display of pro-activeness. They have been buying up domain names that insult its CEO, Brian Moynihan. So far, URLs registered include BrianMoynihanBlows.com, BrianMoynihanSucks.com, BrianTMoynihanBlows.com, and BrianTMoynihanSucks.com, as well as .net and .org versions of the same. According to Domain Name Wire, BoA had registered “hundreds” of similar domain names on December 17th alone, through an intermediary. It’s not just Moynihan that’s getting the attention; domains were also purchased naming Chairman of the Board Charles Holliday, CFO Charles Noski and board member Charles Rossotti.
  • While I can see some point in trying to take such domains off the market, it strikes me that doing so ahead of time just creates increased demand for the numerous remaining variations out there. BrianMoynihanSucksAndBlowsAtTheSameTime.com, anyone?
  • Also, it does scream a bit of “Oh shit,  yeah we’ve got something to hide.”

• Ding, Dong office genuine advantage is dead (SM)
  • A resident program that would remind users to buy the real thing on pirated versions has quietly been retired.
  • Debuted in 2007, Microsoft would check to see if copy was counterfeit.
  • 2008 had a component added to nag users to buy a real copy
  • checks have riled users in the past, 2006 had M$ intro WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) as a high priority hot fix for everyone
  • Server outages later on, took the service down for a whole day.
  • Service dropped non-activated copies of software into limited functionality mode
  • That service is still operational..

Intarweb Goldmine

• Grandma Gets the Boot for Snapping Santa Without Paying (udg)
  • Even Santa has a mortgage to pay.
  • A South Florida grandma found that out the hard way when she was kicked out of a mall for taking a picture of her granddaughter on jolly St. Nick’s lap, instead of paying the greedy elves for their $22.99 photo.
  • Suzie McClinton was trying to take a picture of her 9-month old grandbaby when she was told, “You can’t take pictures,” by one of the employees at the “Santa Photo Experience” at Indian River Mall, reports TCPalm.com.
  • After McClinton refused to fork over the $22.99 for a mall-snapped photo, she was escorted out by three security guards.
  • Mall officials said the 51-year-old woman got a little feisty when she found out about the charge and used some language not appropriate for Santa’s little helpers. That’s when she was booted from the land of Yuletide cheer.
  • McClinton says the mall was just being a Scrooge
  • Personally I have HUGE issues with paying that kind of money for a picture of my children with Santa Clause. I’ve had many a mall “photographer” tell me I wasn’t allowed to take a picture. The conversation always goes a little something like this:
    • Them: You can’t do that. You can’t take your own picture. If you want a picture, you need to pay for it.
    • Me: Why?
    • Them: Well because that set is copyrighted.
    • Me: It is? Well then I’m sure you’ll be happy to show me proof of such.
    • Them: “Blank stare”
    • Me: Yup, that’s what I thought. *click* *smile* Merry Christmas!

• Not Without My Hairdryer: Reality Show Uncovers Strange Addictions
  • as if we didn’t have enough reality shows
  • Now there’s one on “My Strange Addiction”
  • Showcases all sorts of weird fixations and fetishes
  • Ex: thumb sucking, hair dryer in bed to fall asleep, Tanorexia, silicon blow up doll love affairs
  • These are probably much better than some of the harsher stuff out there
  • (SM) I wonder if my ex is on here… probably is
  • Steven, if you try to call them about me and my coffee mug, a junkpunch will be the least of your worries.

• Sega’s New Gaming Device – Will It Help You Guys Aim Better?? (udg)
  • I may have mentioned this a time or ten on here but I absolutely love the Japanese. I love every quirky thing about them and this just cracked me up.
  • At a recent technology exhibition, Sega announced its new gaming device that aims to entertain you in your loo break. The game is in the form of a urinal with a target spot that needs to be hit when you go to the bathroom. In front of the urinal is a LCD screen that shows your score based on how much you urinated and your position on the scoreboard relative to other people’s ‘performance.’

• Sonic boom ignites crocodile sex drives
  • The noise and waves created by a jet going faster than sound apparently drives crocodiles wild
  • A farm in the “golan heights” is already claiming that the males are ushering their mating calls MONTHS early, due to Israeli jet fighter activity
  • Just because they’re calling, doesn’t mean they’re getting any… the procreation rate hasn’t increased significantly.

Extra Links

• Voyager 1 reaches edge of solar system

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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• 10% off power rings
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Get Shinylines in Gold Sponsors

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  • I’m almost giggly with anticipation!!
  • Check out shop.shinylines.com for more product -OR-
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Luxury Lane Soaps

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

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

We are LIVE on Ustream . Tonight, PSP rumors, Caprica getting cancelled????, horrible costumes, and yet more Chinese paranoia and this time they’re playing with Nukes! and much much more.

Items of Interest

• Best Geeky Costumes (udg)

• And some worst (udg)

• Jinkies!! I can please to haz my own Batmobile?!?!? (udg)

• • FiberglassFreaks creates officially licensed 1966 Batmobile replicas and they are FREAKIN HAWT! I think every kid that has seen the original episodes at one point thought “When I grow up I’m so gonna drive one of those!” Now, for a mere $150,000 you can.

• Speaking of famous geek cars (if you want to segue to it from Batmobile? btm)
  • James Bond’s 1964 Aston Martin DB5 from “Goldfinger” & “Thunderball”
  • Auctioned in London for 2.9 Million Pounds ($4.9 Million USD)
  • Many of the secret weapon gimmicks work
    • revolving number plates
    • twin machine guns (non-firing)
    • bullet-proof shield, etc.

Gold Sponsors:

UberDorkCafe

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

• Today in Geek History
  • JebApps (owned by our own Jeremy Puent) released their latest app, Today in Geek History
  • Gives you factoids based upon date, spanning all sorts of geekiness
  • For example, did you know on October 6th, 1967 – The Star Trek episode ‘Mirror, Mirror’ airs, introducing the Mirror Universe and the evil goatee.
  • This app is available for Android in a Lite version for free or a paid version, all on the Marketplace
  • Check out the lite version, but the paid version for .99
  • Also, Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Geek Chic Daily is at it again- this time for us gamers! (udg)

• • Hurry! Ends tomorrow night!
• PSP GO Price Reduced
• WALKING DEAD STARTS!!!! (udg)
  • Be sure to check out the videos of Walking Dead events around the world.
  • http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/10/26/zombies-take-manhattan/
  • http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/10/26/the-walking-dead-all-over-the-world/
  • http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/10/26/more-walking-dead-all-over-the-world/

• Fable 3 Released, Ginormous review
  • Apparently a little more funneled than the first
  • If you liked Albion in the first 2, you’ll love it in the third
  • Gun/melee/magic 1 button presses
• Force Unleashed 2 Released on Steam
  • and the rest of the world…
  • Continue as Starkiller, throw stormtroopers around,have great fun
• FINALLY- ebooks at a price I can hang with… FREE (udg)

• • Wowio is an eBook publisher after my own heart. The one catch with the free? You have to put up with ads. I can completely handle that! I do it with the mags I read all the time.

Geek Speak

• TV Wars: Internet Style
  • Remember when the networks blocked Boxee from pulling Hulu?
  • They’re doing it again, this time with Google TV
  • You can’t watch shows from abc.com, hulu, or any of the other network sites
  • So, you can watch all that content from you computer, just not the set top boxes
  • What are our current viewing habits?
  • Will we eventually end up paying for TV on the Internet?
  • How will streaming outside the normal channels effect regular TV streams?

• Natali’s quick Public Service announcement… Next week is voting time. Get your ass to the polls. I don’t care who you vote for, but the right is there… exercise it! If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem and if you don’t vote, you have no right to bitch about the state of anything.  That is all.

• Breaking news SyFy cancels Caprica. (btm)
  • Prequel to hugely popular BSG was slow to build audience
  • Caprica sequel/BSG prequel “BSG: Blood & Chrome” focusing on “Ensign” Adama still a go
  • (Continues tradition of canceling shows that I watch.)

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Firesheep: a brilliant lesson or phenomenally stupid? (udg)

• • A simple-to-use Firefox plugin presented this week has hit the security world with the realization that squabbles about Facebook’s changing privacy settings and various privacy breaches simply miss the point.
  • “When it comes to user privacy, SSL is the elephant in the room,” said Eric Butler, the developer of the extension in question, dubbed Firesheep.
  • By installing and running it, anyone can “sniff out” the unencrypted HTTP sessions currently allowing users on that network segment to access social networks, online services and other website requiring a login, and simply hijack them and impersonate the user.
  • Was this impossible to do before? Nope, but it did require skills and knowledge the average web surfer wouldn’t have had.
  • “Websites have a responsibility to protect the people who depend on their services. They’ve been ignoring this responsibility for too long, and it’s time for everyone to demand a more secure web. My hope is that Firesheep will help the users win,” says Butler.
  • Whether he will succeed in pointing out the need of full end-to-end encryption and spur websites into action, it remains to be seen. Among the websites whose cookies Firesheep can identify are Facebook, Flickr, Amazon.com, bit.ly, Google, Twitter, Yahoo, WordPress, and many others.
  • So, will this be another Twitter incident where a person tries to tell a major site something, the site ignores it, the person politely points it out but nasty people actually exploit it??? What will it take for these sites to take notice and make changes?
  • Steps to protect yourself
    • Use a browser with extensions: EFF, HTTPS Everywhere, Secure Sites, or Force TLS
    • These work by forcing you to use the HTTPS version of that site
    • Obvious problem? If a site doesn’t have SSL enabled, this won’t protect you, also not all browsers have extensions
    • Don’t use open networks (you never know who is watching)
    • If you’re really adventurous, use a tunneling protocol such as SSH. You can check out the instructions for Meerkat here
    • Use a VPN, such as Witopia

• Macs can’t get viruses, right? (might go with Filesheep story? btm)
  • Latest malware trojan targeting Macintosh uses Java to attack Mac OS X via Java (trojan.osx.boonana.a)
  • Growing trend of malware affecting Mac OS X
  • Users on social sites like Facebook click on link “Is this your video”
  • Runs Java applet that bypasses password verification and downloads files
  • Launches automatically on startup and communicates with its control servers
  • Uses your computer to spread itself as spam
  • Also affects Windows machines
  • MacSecure reports they have a fix, but the best protection is to not click shady links.

• IPod 9th B-Day, Sony Cassette Dinosaur Dies (SM)
  • IPod first unveiled Oct. 23, 2001
  • Mac-only, Firewire 400, 5 GB of space, $399, only 1000 songs in itunes
  • At the same, Sony killing Walkman cassette in Japan
  • Guess the release year of the Iconic Walkman?
  • Yes, still available in US for your 80’s costuming pleasure

• The PlayStation Phone Rumor is Legit (udg)

• • The rumor that surfaced back in August is getting ready to hit the market soon. It is likely boasting Android 3.0 (aka Gingerbread), along with a custom Sony Marketplace which will allow you to purchase and download games designed for the new platform.
  • It’s also sporting a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 (a chip similar to the one found in the G2, but 200MHz faster), 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, and the screen is in the range of 3.7 to 4.1 inches. The handset has a long touchpad in the center which is apparently multitouch, and it bears those familiar PlayStation shoulder buttons. For Sony buffs, you’ll be interested to know that there’s no Memory Stick slot here, but there is support for microSD cards.
  • The device could still be headed for a 2010 release- maybe in time for the holidays?  But 2011 is looking much more realistic.
  • (SM) Sony has been going this way since the released the discless PSP and there have been rumors since that release of a phone in the works
  • Also, don’t forget the PSP2 rumor

• No Apples pass these Gates (btm) (or “How do you like these Apples?”)
  • New York Times Q&A with Melinda Gates reveals no Apples in her house.
  • If you don’t subscribe to New Times online, read it here also.
  • Says she won’t allow her kids to have iPods
  • “You may have a Zune” (I’m guessing a brown one)

• Barnes & Nobles Announces a Color Nook (SM)
  • Based on Android and a 7” LCD color screen (not color e-ink or mirasol tech)
  • Meaning = brighter but less reading time (only 8 hrs continuous reading time)
  • 8 GB of memory w/ SD slot available, Almost a full pound, Wi-Fi (no 3g), $249
  • EPub, PDF, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint can all be read on this device
  • No android marketplace though
  • Being branded as a reader tablet

• Natali’s Weekly Paranoia Report (udg)
  • An engineering failure at F.E. Warren Air Force Base (the base that is a main locus of the United States’ strategic nuclear forces) in Wyoming that took 50 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), one-ninth of the U.S. missile stockpile, temporarily offline on Saturday.
  • According to the peeps briefed on the situation,a squadron of ICBMs suddenly dropped down into what’s known as “LF Down” status, meaning that the missileers in their bunkers could no longer communicate with the missiles themselves. LF Down status also means that various security protocols built into the missile delivery system, like intrusion alarms and warhead separation alarms, were offline.
  • “We’ve never had something as big as this happen,” a military officer who was briefed on the incident said. Occasionally, one or two might blink out, the officer said, and several warheads  are routinely out of service for maintenance. At an extreme, “[w]e can deal with maybe 5, 6, or 7 at a time, but we’ve never lost complete command and control and functionality of 50 ICBMs.”
  • The cause of the failure remains unknown, although it is suspected to be a breach of underground cables deep beneath the base, according to a senior military official.
  • It is next to impossible for these systems to be hacked, so the military does not believe the incident was caused by malicious actors. A half dozen individual silos were affected by Saturday’s failure.
  • An administration official said that “to make too much out of this would be to sensationalize it. It’s not that big of a deal. Everything worked as planned.”  (Yup, that’s what they ALWAYS say!!)
  • National Journal’s Megan Scully contacted a spokesperson for Sen. Jon Kyl, a top GOP critic of START, who said that “We don’t know what happened and why.”  The spokesperson refused to comment on “media reports.” Okay, I just wanted to say Scully

• Are six movies in a trilogy too many? How about nine? (btm) (see also: io9 report, primary link being hammered with traffic, (SM) but they are essentially quoting iesb, hmmmmm. We could intro this as a possible rumor and then talk about if we really want. Also, this is kind of suspect because they are still talking as if the live action is going to be filmed and Lucas has already put the nix on that production citing soaring production costs and wanting to wait until the tech is cheaper)
  • iesb.net is reporting based on reliable sources that after the 3D re-releases of the Star Wars saga Lucas is planning to release 3 new movies
  • story to be set long after the existing movies
  • will not involve Skywalker family
  • start date would be after the 2015-2016 completion of the 3D re-releases

• Man Prosecuted for jailbreaking XBox (SM)
  • It’s legal to jailbreak your IPhone, but not your gaming console?
  • Matthew Crippen is facing 3 yrs jail sentence for running a xbox mod company
  • His company was selling mods for $60 – $80
  • Got caught performing surgery on 2 undercover agents machines
  • Charged under the anti-circumvention provisions of DMCA
  • Andrew Huang, author of “Hacking the Xbox: An Intro to Reverse Engineering”, wants to testify showing how easy it is to mod (if its easy, anti-circumvent doesn’t apply)
  • He’ll probably be blocked because his demo is a bit superfluous.

• Akira Toriyama is back!! (udg)

• • Shueisha Publishing Company of Tokyo has convinced legendary manga creator Akira Toriyama to come back and restart the Dragon Ball comics franchise.
  • Since 1995, the creator has only returned to the well for comics once, for a one-off crossover with One Piece. His other works have been shorter, more personal pieces, though he has continues to oversee new animations, and his studio are working on a Dragon Ball Online MMORG for release soon.
  • Most speculate that it’s because of the game that Toriyama has been persuaded to return – to promote it. Whatever the reason, I look forward to seeing his return.

• Hobbit Who? (btm)
  • Sylvester McCoy to portray Radagast the Brown in upcoming Hobbit movie
  • made announcement to fans at Armageddon Expo in Auckland, NZ
  • no contract signed yet
  • rumors of David Tennant not verifiable, listed only as a “potential”
  • Cast List Here

• Adobe releases HTML 5 Video Player (SM)
  • In response to Apple blocking their flash player, Adobe now has a player that will run HTML 5 for systems that can support it and switch to flash when they can’t
  • Cross-browser, Cross-platform so works on IPhones, IPads, and other devices.
  • Other similar non first-party plugins available (brightcove and Vimeo) but first party trumps all
  • Built into the Dreamweaver Creative 5 suite
  • Not a user? u can use Adobe’s free Widget Browser app (air app)
  • This after Apple announces to officially ditch Flash pre-install on all Macs

• HP Releases Slate 500 A Year Late (SM)
  • It’s essentially a PC in a tablet form factor
  • Intel Atom (1.8ghz), 2GB RAM, 64GB Flash Drive, 1024 x 600 screen, SD Card slot, Integrate Wi-Fi, 2 cameras, and a measly 5 hrs runtime
  • Targeted for businesses, not the “user friendly” version touted a year ago
  • No easy video conf, e-reading, or anything, just straight Win 7 w/ touch support
  • (SM) Wonders how this will do better than a standard netbook

• Hide your kids, Hide your wife (btm) (I’ll intro this as a PSA and then let you take it Ben)
  • BeenVerified.com has released a new mobile app for iPhone and Android users that helps locate registered sex offenders in your area (just in time for Halloween).
  • uses the sex offender registry with geolocation and “augmented reality“
  • partnered with the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RANN) and Antoine Dodson (of the “Bed Intruder” video and song from YouTube) to promote awareness.
  • app is $1.99
  • run and tell that

Intarweb Goldmine

• Hey sexy, wanna peep my navel fluff collection? *blech* (udg)

• • An Australian man has made a habit of collecting his navel lint, earning him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
  • The Australian librarian started “harvesting” his fluff in 1984, at a youth hostel in Brisbane. After 26 years, the complete collection now weighs 22.1 grams, or .77 ounces.
  • “I became curious about how much navel fluff one person could generate (enough to stuff a cushion, maybe?), and the only way to find for sure was to collect it and see,” he wrote on his blog feargod.net.
  • Each day, the 45-year-old plucks the lint from his navel before he gets into the shower, and stores it in a clay pot. At the end of the year, he adds the harvest to his main collection, which is housed by color in glass jars and then labeled by date.
  • Barker sold three of his jars to a museum for an undisclosed sum and is a quarter of the way to filling a fourth, Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper reported. Despite his place in the record books, Barker plans to continue collecting his navel lint, and hopes to fill another five jars.
  • According to his site “I don’t just collect lint – there are also pages featuring my collections of Beard Clippings, Bogus Names, and Bakery Bags, amongst other things.”

• When hiccups turn deadly? (SM)
  • Girl has continuous hiccups in 2007 … up to 50 a minute
  • Shows up on NBC, Goes to doctors, Finally gets cured
  • FF to 2010 and this girl then lures a guy off a social site and then 2 accomplices rob and kill the guy
  • Mother’s quote? “Honestly, the best way I can describe it, is that they call it a case of the hiccups, but I call it the curse of the hiccups,” she told the newspaper. “It felt like a nightmare.”

• You’re supposed to spring your best friend from jail- right?

Extra Links

• Costume FAIL!

• IPhone passes RIM in market share
  • RIM = 16.1% , Apple = 18.3%
  • Just passed Q3 2010
  • Nokia still has a commanding lead at 34.4% (large presence in asia and europe)
  • Why is this important? news raised stock to $421 a share
  • Predictions? Iphone will continue to rise Win7Mo won’t go anywhere w/out strong app store, RIM will continue to fail and if IPhone ever goes enterprise, GG

Contact Info

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

Sponsors

Shiny Lines

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

Luxury Lane Soaps

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

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

We are LIVE on Ustream!!! This week we talk Wonder Woman Day!, The Hobbit finally coming to the movies, Facebook blund3rs, and Nobody expects the Chinese Inquisition!

Welcome @UberDorkGirlie
Welcome Geek With Curves and @amy_geek

Items of Interest

• Cross Section Cutaway Prints of Serenity (sm – credit to Amy though )

• Artoo Bathing Suit (Amy) – They also have a Vader suit!
  • (SM) Only thing better would be a Slave Leia bathing suit

• 10 AWESOME Star Wars Pumpkins!

• Jinkies!! Check out this Steampunk R2!

Gold Sponsors:

UberDorkCafe

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

• Today in Geek History
  • JebApps (owned by our own Jeremy Puent) released their latest app, Today in Geek History
  • Gives you factoids based upon date, spanning all sorts of geekiness
  • For example, did you know on October 6th, 1967 – The Star Trek episode ‘Mirror, Mirror’ airs, introducing the Mirror Universe and the evil goatee.
  • This app is available for Android in a Lite version for free or a paid version, all on the Marketplace
  • Check out the lite version, but the paid version for .99
  • Also, Golden Pic and Golden Pic Lite for Android devices

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Zombified Red Dead Redemption
  • No release date yet but we couldn’t resist zombies in the wild west
• See Paranormal 2 for Free This Week
• Fallout: New Vegas Released This week- Review
• DVD Releases:
  • Predators (reboot for the Predator series)
  • Apocalypse Now (Blu-Ray) (both classic and Redux version)
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Blu-Ray)
  • SEVEN SAMURAI (Blu-Ray) (SM) Fave samurai movie of all time!
  • Romeo + Juliet (blu-Ray)

Geek Speak

Nintendo NES Turns 25, Was your princess in another castle?

• The NES turned 25, October 18, 2010
• NES, 8 bit system, came out after the Atari slump and every1 thought home gaming done
• What games did you both grow up on with the NES?

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Wonder Woman Day, 10/24 (amy)
  • Wonder Woman Day is in its 5th and final year.
  • Event was created by Andy Mangels (he has a Wonder Woman Museum) and raises money for domestic violence awareness charities – in 4 years raised $89,000
  • Actual celebrations in Oregon and New Jersey, but you can bid on art online

• The Hobbit finally Green-Lit (SM)
  • New Line cinema, WB, and MGM will be the studios sponsoring
  • Jackson will be directing after all
  • Finances all ready, said to clock in around a half a billion dollars
  • Some speculation in 3D (plz no plz no plz no)
  • Still no decision on whether it will still be shot in New Zealand
  • Hobbit and an unnamed bridge film are in the works
  • Interesting factoid: Weta  was the big digital production company the first time around, they also did most of the work on Avatar in 3-D, and are working for spielberg on his TinTin move in 3-D

• iFaceBook? (udg)
  • Take $51 billion in cash, add Steve Jobs stating “he company’s in a “unique opportunity to take advantage of… very strategic opportunities”, top it with Steve and Mark Zuckerberg (you know the FaceBook guy) having dinner and the coffee clutching gossip hens come up with Apple is out to buy Facebook. Now, I will admit that it’s a bit odd for Steve to be so publicly vocal about looking to spend some money. So, let’s entertain this idea for a moment?
  • Reasons it would make sense:
    • Okay, he did have dinner with Zuckerberg (though let’s be fair- Apple has ALWAYS supported education and given Mark’s recent huge donation, it could actually have to do with that)
    • Every Facebook user would probably automatically have an iTunes Store account. FaceTime chat could be integrated into Facebook chat, potentially leading to increased sales of iOS devices. If Apple continues down the road of using not only phone numbers, but email addresses and eventually Facebook IDs as designated FaceTime “phone numbers,” then 500 million users would already have a FaceTime ID to use when all telephony goes VoIP. The pairing isn’t all that bizarre. Their child would not be ugly and let’s face it, FB has been having A LOT of issues.
    • If Facebook has the option of going public for between, say, $35 and $40 billion, next year, Apple could cover that. That would certainly qualify as a “strategic opportunity.” Just as Apple has struggled to compete with Google’s web services, Google has been trumped in social networking by Facebook.

• • Reasons it doesn’t make sense:
    • Apple’s purchases have historically been about absorbing skills, expertise, and patents, and then folding those into Apple’s various OSs. They pick up a company with experience in music streaming, and we all hope that iTunes.com is coming out soon. Apple could never absorb Facebook like that, it would have remain a separate entity, just owned by Apple. Yes, they both have a common foe in Google, but purchasing FB over it is a huge stretch.
    • Too much! It would simply take up too much of the giant pile of cash and too much time, energy and focus away from the current plans.

• • My thoughts? I’m not seeing it. It would be GREAT to see ping integrated into a teetering FB. Espcially cuz I can see Steve smacking the crap out of Zynga. I would love to see more Apple stuffs everywhere because they make good stuffs.
  • (SM) FYI, Microsoft owns a sizeable investment in FB

• Facebook still sharing your information and CNN’s Take (SM)
  • David Evans (Tech friend of Steven): “I have Facebook’s privacy settings locked down as tight as possible, but CNN still knows who I am through Facebook.”
  • Here’s what’s been happening, Facebook has inadvertently been sharing your Facebook ID, which is unique to you, with their 3rd party app devs
  • App Devs have been then selling those ID’s to data aggregators that then associate you with your email and all your friends and they then sell them to the highest bidder
  • “By not engaging with Facebook directly, they are not breaching any policies, which is sort of an artful dodge,” Wisniewski said of Rapleaf. “If you look at who they engaged with, I think it tells even more. They were working with companies like Zynga who have admitted to defrauding Facebook users publicly and said that it was part of their business model when they started their business.”
  • Yet another way Facebook has failed to keep our personal data safe.
  • Most of the grievances in the past has been small fries, now there are accusations against Zynga, among others..

• Verizon gets the IPad (AMY)
  • Not the 3G version
  • You will have to use their Mi-Fi mobile hotspot device to connect to their 3G network
  • Plans are generous though 3GB and 5GB for $35 and $50
  • Compared to AT&T 250MB And 2GB for $15 and $25
  • Wal-mart will also be getting the IPad by the end of the year

• Officer Bubbles takes on YouTube (udg)
  • Oh wait, I better call him by his real name “ Toronto Police Constable Adam Josephs.” If the name isn’t ringing a bell for you- he’s the bonehead officer that was caught on video telling a young woman protesting outside the G20 Summit over the summer who was blowing bubbles at him and another officer that she would be arrested for assault as soon as one of the bubbles hit him or his fellow mountie. Yup.
  • There’s a pretty common theory in life- if you act like a dbag, people will call you a dbag. If you do it on video, it’s gonna end up on YouTube. If it ends up on YouTube, peeps are gonna watch and respond. And because it’s YouTube, response will range from nasty comments to mocking videos. Officer Bubbles is no exception to this rule.
  • He’s now gotten his uniform in a wad and is now suing. The suit seeks the identity of YouTube user ThePMOCanada (who has created a cartoon response of someone named A Josephs arresting everyone from Santa to Obama and punching a photographer) — as well as those of 24 other commentators who Mr. Josephs contends defamed him —and $1.2 million in damages.
  • What makes this an interesting case vs another dbag lawsuit? It brings up the currently rising argument of people’s comments online being held to the same laws of defamation as if they were in a newspaper or other public realm. The comfort blanket of anonymity people like to run around in online gives them a set of balls they wouldn’t normally have. Cajones that give them the courage to say a slew of crap they wouldn’t have the sac to say otherwise. At what point do those comments get held to law? {***Insert your opinions here!***}
  • In this case Bubbles is most likely at a loss. He’s suing over a cartoon, an opinion. People are still allowed opinions and when they are based on actual facts, well good luck sugar, cuz I’m guessing you’re gonna lose this one. And because I’m in America and am allowed freedom of speech- I think you’re a douchebag. Seriously? Assault with bubbles??? Way to live out the stereotype of cops who take their power too far. Sorry, I forgot, you’re Canadian. Mounties that take their power too far. You’re almost worth the roadtrip and Dollar Tree giant jug of bubbles. Pull the billy club out, learn to laugh it off and please take this as a “Don’t be a douchebag” lesson.

• PS3 Gets discless Netflix, the world rejoices (SM)
  • XB360 has had this feature for a long time now
  • Now both PS3 and Wii have that feature rolled out to them
  • PS3 as part of their PSN network, Wii in their Shop Channel, both free (need membership)
  • Wii also gets the same treatment

• Nathan Fillion Campaigning to Play Nathan Drake (amy)
  • Fillion starts a Twitter campaign (recruited Browcoats) to get the role of Nathan Drake in the Uncharted film adaptation
  • David O Russell is the director (I Heart Huckabees, Three Kings), no comment on Fillion’s campaign
  • I haven’t played, but I read about Nathan Drake.  He’s a modern day treasure hunter and a sort of hero of pulp magazines type.  He has an everyman persona, but jokes and quips.  In other words, no one else but Nathan Fillion could play him.

• The Chinese Are Increasing My Irrational Conspiracy Theory Further (udg)
  • A nasty trade dispute appears to have prompted Chinese customs officials to block shipments of tech-crucial minerals to the U.S
  • China currently controls about 97% of rare earth production, and has the only facilities capable of processing rare earth minerals after they have been mined. Rare earth minerals are not exactly rare, but the mining and refining processes can be costly and time-consuming.
  • And this effects us how? Small but significant amounts of the minerals go into creating everything from PCs and cellphones to wind turbines and hybrid cars, as well as U.S. military technologies such as missile guidance systems.
  • U.S. rare earth companies have begun looking to reopen old mines and search for new deposits, but industry experts say that relaunching an independent U.S. supply chain could take 15 years. Finding is only part of the battle though. That goes the same with the mining. We must also then refine them ourselves as well.
  • The latest Chinese action follows a similar move last month, when China halted shipments to Japan during a political dispute over Japan’s arrest of Chinese fishermen. They, of course, openly deny blocking any shipments.
  • China has stated they were going to decrease exporting of the rare earth minerals to meet their own needs better. There is speculation they are keeping them to focus on exporting the finished items, rather than continue exporting the minerals. I, of course, see this as another step of them trying to take over the world.

• Steam growing Explosively (SM)
  • 6 million ppl use Steam daily, 3 million peak
  • year over year growth, 178%
  • on track to make its biggest year in its 6 yr history
  • Launched in 2003, now multi-platform, over 1,200 games
  • Yet another indicator that digital distribution is here to stay
  • (SM)I probably buy 3/4 of my gaming software through them now

• Starbucks Launches “The Starbucks Digital Network” (udg)
  • As a “complement” to their free WiFi, the network (which they have paired up with Yahoo for) offers a selection of premium news, entertainment and local online content.
  • So what exactly does that mean? It’s actually fairly cool- you get access the online subscriber version of the Wall Street Journal, get free iTunes downloads, enjoy sneak peeks from unreleased books and find out what’s going on in your neighborhood.
  • They claim to be coming out the gates strong for this and I agree it’s rather impressive. Right now they’ve got two songs and a video from Fistful of Mercy, an exclusive clip from the new movie Waiting for “Superman” and a first look at bestselling author Anita Shreve’s new novel, Rescue, that doesn’t hit shelves until November 30.
  • I am hoping to get into a Starbuck’s with my trusty MacBook Pro soon and check it out firsthand for myself

Intarweb Goldmine

• Thief steals laptop, Backs up data (SM)
  • Guy comes home to laundry, stuffs his laptop in a cubby
  • Comes back and its gone. All his data is POOF!
  • Well 2 weeks go buy and he gets a USB key in his mail
  • All his data was backed up and sent back to him by the person who stole his laptop
  • How sweet!

• Cat Lady-Armed & Dangerous (udg)
  • Standoff over cat ends when elderly lady falls asleep.
  • A woman who said she was upset over a pet cat was hospitalized after a standoff with police at a senior citizens housing complex off Peck Avenue in Muldoon, Anchorage police say.
  • Police said the woman, who at one point aimed a handgun at a neighbor, refused for several hours to come out of the Centennial Village residence.
  • The woman apparently showed up earlier at a neighbor’s door talking about a cat. She pointed the gun at the neighbor, then returned to her residence, police said. Police SWAT team and snipers responded to the scene and deployed outside the building.
  • Parker said the woman at one point during the standoff threatened to fire through the door. The woman has had mental health problems before, police said, and they were for a time uncertain if there was a real cat involved.
  • Residents of nearby living areas were evacuated and gathered in other buildings. Kathy Collins, who lives in the complex, said she was attending Bible studies when police entered and said they had to leave. They didn’t say why. “We were scared,” Collins said. “They offered us pizza. What’s a pizza? I want to go home.”

• World’s Biggest Enchilada (SM)
  • Mexico city brought the noms! World Record Style
  • This 230 ft long, 1 1/2 ton enchilada officially set the Guiness World’s record
  • Other feats in mexico city? Biggest number of ppl dancing like MJ and most number of ppl simultaneously kissing

Extra Links

• IPhone 4 Screen 82% more likely to break
• Chevy Volt get 127 MPG
• How the Facebook News Feed Algorithm Works (amy)
• No More Bad Dates: Introducing the Pillow Boyfriend. WTF? (udg)

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And now introducing a new section – Holy SteamPunk Batman

• Steampunk ‘Victorian Organ Control Desk’
• 8GB Steampunk USB drive is a functional art prodigy
• Artist Makes Steampunk Gizmos Out of Dead Animals

• 

  Is it powered by steam?

Geek Speak

• Pro’s of PC gaming
  • No real DEV hardware kit needed (this is extra cost)
  • No need to go through a third party to get to your customers
  • Pretty wide open how you publish and what kind of game you can write
  • Steam, facebook, popcap, Stardock, and even storefronts through traditional publishers
• Con’s
  • Very Niche because of cost of rigs for real high end gaming
  • Hard to write for hardware that is constantly changing, you kinda have to pick your lowest common denominator of hardware
  • Piracy is rampant because of the lack of control of the platform
  • No real standards to be able to target to control your development costs and QA costs
• Discuss!

• IPad Sells 300,000 on first day
  • Hollywood is digging it so we gotta dig it 2, right?
  • iBook vs. Kindle App, one reason I would buy into the IPad
  • This is a reminder that I need to check the IPhone OS 4 news Thursday
  • Penny Arcade gives a cogent and non-biased review of the IPad
  • Scott Kurtz IPad Breakdown
  • Also Just on it’s heels… iPhone OS 4.0 event Thursday April 8th… News to be had next week! Apple not resting on their laurels with just the iPad
  • Comic App (me wanties but are they really going to release their whole catalog….)

• Most companies block game sites
• Guess what sites I found open: ESPN.com, WSJ.com, USATODAY.com, mtv.com
• What do you consider the best solution, limited time to surf? There are companies that issue a certain amount of ‘free time’ to browse whatever you want
• some that block access to certain sites, some that monitor without telling you… and some (though few) that do nothing
  • This actually goes to one of my pet peeves… trying to get technology to enforce random rules instead of managers doing their jobs… (JP)

Deals of the Week / New Releases

• TPG Giveaway of ScrAPPbook for iPhone to someone who has a US account iTunes and an iPhone. Details here. (JP) You can go buy it in the App store for only 99 Pennies!!!

• Threadless is having a sale, tees starting at $9 !

• New to DVD:

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• T-Mobile Planning $350 rebate for IPhone Users?
  • Trade in any IPhone, and get a $350 in-store credit
  • Not available at all retailers but here’s how it works
  • Any working Iphone, turn it in and you could walk out with an HD2 w/ either a contract or no-contract for $100
  • HD2 is currently running WinMo6.5 but it’s been certified for WinMo7
  • Q: Is anyone crazy enough to trade in an IPhone?

• Ham Radio Operators 700,000 Strong
  • Why show this on a tech show? How u going to communicate during a Zombie Apocalypse?
  • ham radio’s aren’t quite as sexy as IPhones but they can be fun + THEY DON’T REQUIRE ANY INFRASTRUCTURE OTHER THAN AN ANTENNA AND A BASE UNIT
  • All you have to do to get certified is take a course and a test (they did away with the morse requirement recently)
  • The ultimate communication piece for your zombie kit!!!

• Net Neutrality Not Enforcable in Court
  • FCC came down hard on Comcast because they were slowing down P2P traffic on their routers
  • Sanctions imposed  in 2007 because Comcast was violating a 2005 “Internet Policy Statement” that included freedom from traffic discrimination
  • Comcast complained to the courts, the courts ruled that the statement was just a policy and not enforceable “aspirational, not operational”
  • Thoughts?
  • (SM) Congress needs to give the FCC teeth already against this type of stuff

• Privacy Ruling For Personal Email in Workplace
  • Most sane ppl can pretty much assume that everything done in the workplace is free game for IT to monitor
  • (JP) If you don’t you’re smokin something
  • A case came to the courts recently that was found in favor of the employee and their privacy
  • Supreme Court of New Jersey, Marina Stengart vs. Loving Care Agency (stengart was allegedly fired and then sued for discrimination)
  • Loving Care Agency happened to capture some emails that went out on their system through yahoo to her lawyer and used them as evidence
  • Not so fast, Courts found that she had a reasonable expectation of privacy because it was password protected and not saved on that computer\
  • Thoughts?
  • (SM)Call me cynical, but my employer already blocks all the webmail sites :s

• AOL Dumps Bebo after paying $850 mill
  • bought in 2008 for a colossal sum, $850 million, back when it was still AOL / Time Warner
  • It was a huge social networking site in the UK and Australia. AOL planned to use it to compete against Facebook
  • Never took hold in the US, AOL is going downhill anyways, so AOL is bailing, up for sale
  • Another tool for sale from the AOL portfolio? venerable ICQ (SM: my first IM client back in the day)

• HP Slate specs, price and video, they are doing it better than the iPad
  • Specs:
    • 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor
    • 8.9-inch 1024×600 capacitive multitouch display
    • 1GB RAM
    • Intel UMA graphics good for 1080p playback
    • and unlike the iPad, it has an SD card slot, SIM card tray for optional WWAN, USB 2.0 port, & inward-facing VGA webcam and an outward-facing 3MP camera
    • Weighing almost at par with the Wi-Fi iPad, the Slate will be priced at about $549 for the base 32GB flash memory storage version, and about $599 for the better 64GB version

• Someone Remind George Lucas that he’s NOT a comedian! (JP)
  • After the film prequels, the cartoon and the live musical experience it was only a matter of time before Star Wars was repackaged as a sitcom.
    (SM: Don’t forget the ever so forgettable “Christmas Special”
  • Producer, Jennifer Hill, said “With the team we’re establishing, Matt Senreich and Seth Green, it’s going to be really fun and funny to the public.”
  • Altho still in its early stages, Brendan Hay, who writes for The Daily Show, has been appointed to lead a team of up to ten writers.
  • Lucasfilm said in a statement that the series would “look at the saga’s characters with a playful and irreverent tone”.
  • i say – stop ruining the things i Love!!!!
  • SM: don’t forget that this will be animated… yeesh. Star Wars comedy can work, see Robot chicken and Family Guy

• Report: AT&T Helps Apple Fix iPhone Woes (SM)
  • with (long-standing) rumors that Apple may soon end exclusivity with AT&T and launch a Verzion version of its popular smartphone, AT&T is ramping to beef up its network in an effort to satisfy users.
  • As part of improving iPhone users’ experience, AT&T worked with Apple to reduce strain on its network, according to the WSJ.
  • AT&T reportedly flew its people to Apple’s California offices to give Apple designers a crash course in wireless networking, which ended up in regular meetings between the two parties.
  • As a result, the WSJ report says iPhones put less load on AT&T’s network when they need to find the closest cell tower or check for text messages.
  • Part of a so-called 100-day network improvement plan, AT&T added new network spectrum to help with traffic handling and repositioned antennas in many locations to aid reception in office towers.

• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Game Headed to the App Store (iKDR)
  • The 2009 mashup novel, which combines zombies with the classic novel Pride and Prejudice, has been turned into an iPhone and iPod Touch game and is set to be released on the App Store “by April 2010.”
  • here’s very little detail about the game outside of the screenshots; the press release describes the game as combining “exciting gameplay, 2.5D graphics

• Kid Breaks Asteroid High Score
  • Kid sat for 3 days straights

• Underachieveing AT-AT’s – a very funny comic (JP)

• Nintendo releasing Google Wars Game in Japan on Wii
  • Group of 4 guesses which search term is more popular on google
  • adaptation of “google fight” which returns number of hits…
  • Sound scintillating? I didn’t think so either. Good thing they don’t plan to port

• Top Mac Terminal Easter Eggs (JP)
  • In honor of Easter I thought I would point out some Easter Eggs of a more geeky nature
  • My two favorites are… Tetris and the Calendar of important Historical dates that includes some from middle earth
    • Although I just tried the calendar one again and the tolkein dates are gone… I wonder if they were taken away in the latest update of MAC OSX??
• Shibaura Institute of Technology shows off ‘robo-skateboard’ (iKDR)
  • Segway-like mechanism to let you ride it by simply pressing down on the front or back and turn by leaning left or right
  • tops out at a mere six miles per hour & is a whopping 33 pounds, which explains the retractable luggage-like handle for carrying it around
  • developers are trying to get the price down to about $1000 for its release in 2013

• Kid Racks Up $1400 Debt in FarmVille (iKDR)
  • Time to add FarmVille to the list of internet addiction scares after a 12-year-old UK boy has amassed £905 in FarmVille debt
  • The debt — which is equivalent to about $1400 USD — was racked up in all of about two weeks’ worth of gameplay
  • Moms bank didn’t see any red flag b/c the purchase was on Facebook, and not a “suspicious” like a gambling site

• 3D Sonar Image of Russian Sub
• A4 Processor Teardown (IPad processor)
• Diary Case for IPad
• Feudal Star Wars Art
• Geekcast Radio
• The USB Boys – Episode 7(Geek Girls)
• Smart Spending: Getting Rid of Old Gadgets

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