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Global Geek News Podcast #79
Aug 31st
Here are the shownotes for episode #79 for the Global Geek News Podcast.
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Stories:
- Pirate Bay receives a notice to keep a torrent
- Blockbuster ready to die, plans bankruptcy for mid-September
- Google in talks with major studios to rent movies on YouTube
- Bing now powers Yahoo! search
- Xbox Live price increase coming November 1st
- Sony bans PS3 mod chip users from PSN
- AMD kills ATI brand
- Philly requiring bloggers to pay $300 for a business license
- Court: 4th amendment rights not violated if the police install a GPS device on your vehicle if it isn’t in your garage
- FTC upset over fake iPhone app reviews
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Host: Jeremy Bray & Wesley Faulkner
Tips of the Week #5
Aug 27th
Welcome to Tips of the Week #5! Without further delay, here are all of the great tips and tricks I have found across the internet over the past week. Browse the list and see if you find something interesting to you.
- Top 10 reasons to try Outlook 2010
- Quickly encrypt a file via Windows right click context menu
- Do It Again: Windows automation tool to repeat actions
- Document Press: Compress Microsoft Office Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access
- Beginners Guide: Crash Recovery & The Blue Screen of Death
- Beginners Guide: Hard drive data recovery
- Setting up an FTP server in Windows XP
- Installing Ubuntu 10.4 LTS on Windows Virtual PC in Windows 7
- Tripple boot your Mac
- XNA Windows Phone 7 getting started
- Free wireframing kits, UI design kits, PDFs and resources
- How to stop the government from tracking your location
- How to handle an employees controversial online behavior
- Checkmate automatically checks you in to Foursquare
- How to automatically upload pictures to the internet as you take them
- Use SMS Backup+ to auto-archive and read your text messages in Gmail
- Bopup Scanner scans LAN to resolve NetBIOS, MAC, IP addresses, HTTP servers
- Create synchronicity in tiny portable backup and sync utility
- How to keep your iTunes account safe and secure
- 7sDocs can quickly search documents based on text content
- How to find royalty free music for YouTube videos
- 25 Essential Blackberry tips and tricks
- How to build a hidden home theater PC inside your entertainment center
- How to create and deploy your own QR codes
- How to get Expose-style multitasking on your iPhone or iPad
- Extremetech Overclocking Guide 2010
- 119 iPad apps for admins, coders and geeks
- Build a $3.50 DIY Micro TV-B-Gone
We are always looks for new tips to share so if come across something good or perhaps wrote something Tip of the Week worthy, put the link with a description in the comments!
Blockbuster is about to die, bankruptcy coming next month
Aug 27th
- Image via Wikipedia
For a couple of years now, primarily on the podcast (Most recently, Global Geek News Podcast #72), I have been repeatedly predicting the death of Blockbuster and that prediction is about to come true.
According to The LA Times, Blockbuster plans for file Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the middle of September. They have reportedly been trying to plan this with the movie studios so that they can close between 500 and 800 unprofitable stores (out of 3,425 stores) and make more of a push to streaming content to try to compete with companies such as Netflix. It is also looking to restructure around $1 billion in debt.
Blockbuster has taken a major turn for the worse recently as it has lost over $1.1 billion since the start of 2008, has closed 1000 stores in the past year and was recently delisted from the NYSE. The once great company now has a market value of just $24 million.
I don’t think that closing 500-800 stores and trying yet another push into the streaming world is going to be enough. I think that it may help them get through the year but I still believe that Blockbuster will be nothing but a memory by the end of next year.
If you want to get all of the details about the pre-planned bankruptcy, check out the LA Times’ story about the upcoming death of Blockbuster
Sony: Mod chip in your PS3? No PSN for you! Banned!
Aug 23rd
- Image via Wikipedia
Did you get excited at the news that a $153 mod chip for the PS3 would let you back up your games? Sony has decided to burst your bubble.
While I am not going to risk my own console to confirm this, Sony is reportedly banning people for using the USB Mod chip to backup games. Apparently when the Playstation 3 logs into the Playstation Network, it is given the error 8002A227 and then banned from the PSN entirely.
This mod seems to be easily detectable by Sony and not worth having if you risk getting banned from the network ($153 seems a bit steep as well). Getting banned from the network isn’t the worst thing in the world (I don’t have access to it because I refuse to upgrade my firmware and lose my Linux install), but you will lose access to cool features like the Playstation Store, Playstation Home, and online multiplayer for your games.
No Global Geek News Podcast Tomorrow
Aug 23rd
Greetings fellow geeks! I come bearing some bad news. There will be no Global Geek News podcast released tomorrow like usual. I’ve been sick since Friday and still don’t feel up to doing the show. If I start feeling better, we might be able to get a show up later this week but my crystal ball is currently out of order so I don’t know what is going to happen.
However, I do know that next week is the 4th birthday of the show and I don’t care if I have to do a show from a hospital bed, we will have a show! I am still working on booking guests for the show so stay tuned to find out who the special guests will be for the event!
Tips of the Week #4
Aug 23rd
Welcome to Tips of the Week #4! Sorry for not getting this post up on Friday but I have been sick and haven’t felt like doing anything. To make it up, there will be two Tips of the Week posts this week, one on Monday (this post) and one on Friday (The normal post). Without further delay, here are all of the great tips and tricks I have found across the internet over the past week. Browse the list and see if you find something interesting to you.
- How to disable facebook places
- 5 ways to download torrents anonymously
- Create a TOR button for Chrome for on-demand anonymous browsing
- NotScripts brings real script blocking to Chrome
- WindowShades adds colored overlay on screen for better viewing
- Firesay voice recognition controls Firefox with voice in Windows 7
- DNS Benchmark: Local and remote DNS nameserver performance benchmark
- Organize, tag and rename music files with TagScanner
- Use Ctrl+Mouse wheel to zoom and change view types in Explorer
- Chameleon Folder allows quick folder navigation from anywhere
- Turn a broken down laptop into a desktop PC inside a keyboard
- You password should be at least 12 random characters to be safe
- Set up SMS alerts for specific messages in Hotmail
- 100 high quality WordPress themes: 2010 edition
- 10 Useful iPhone keyboard shortcuts, tips and tricks
- Transform Windows 7 into Mac with Snow Transformation Pack
- Use multiple Google Calendars to balance your college life
- 50 Really useful Android tips and tricks
- Yadis! Backup: Real time backup with versioning and scheduling
- AirDropper requests files via email and saves to your Dropbox
- Shutdown Timer performs actions based on Windows system events
- Moo0 ConnectionWatcher displays all applications using network bandwidth
- FileMenu Tools brings advanced context menu features to Windows 7 64-bit
- Analyze, generate and manage passwords with Password tools bundle
- Keep your waiting for response emails visible so you don’t forget them
- How to install the tweet button on your squarespace website
- 199 iPad apps for admins, coders and geeks
Do you have a tip you would like us to include in the tips of the week? Put the tip in the comments!
Age of Empires Online announced! Videos included!
Aug 19th
I usually don’t report on game news but today is an exception and I will explain why in a moment.
Age of Empires Online has been announced! This is the newest game in the very popular RTS franchise, Age of Empires. The future of the franchise was cast into doubt after Microsoft closed Ensemble Studios, the company that had made all of the previous Age of Empire games, but things are back in full swing under a new development studio called Robot Entertainment. If you are worried that this game will be nothing like the old ones because it is done by a different company, there is no reason to worry. Supposedly 75% of the team that is working on the new game has worked on previous Age of Empires games. The game was announced at Gamescom in Germany this week and below are videos of the official trailer and then 13 minutes of explanation and gameplay that Gamespot recorded earlier this week.
And now for the video with some real details
NOTE: If you having trouble viewing the Gamespot video, go full screen or just go to their website.
Now why did I make this announcement an exception and post about it on Global Geek News? For more than a month now, I have been playing the game in the alpha and now the closed beta. While I am still under NDA and can’t say much of anything, I will say that you should not be fooled by the new artistic style, this is still Age of Empires and it is AWESOME! If you would like to sign up to be in the beta and give this game a test or just find out about the game, head to www.ageofempiresonline.com
Coming Soon: Duracell myGrid charger mat review
Aug 18th
Duracell myGrid. Image Source: iTech News Net
I have some exciting news to share with all of you! Yesterday, I was contacted by Duracell because they want to send me one of their interesting looking charger mat products called myGrid to review for all of you. For those unfamiliar with the product, it is one of those wireless charging mats that you set your gadgets on to charge such as the iPod Touch, Blackberries and more. Personally, I have always been a bit skeptical about wireless charging devices but now I have the chance to find out if they really live up to the hype. I hope it lives up to all the hype as wireless battery chargers would mean a smaller jungle of cords in my room.
I expect to have the review up in about two weeks, give or take. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you guys about this interesting looking product.
Podcast audio problem fixed
Aug 18th
Just a heads up, this morning I fixed the audio on this week’s podcast. It had the left right ear thing going on where I was in one ear and Wesley was in the other. Listeners that have been around for a while know this isn’t the first time this has happened but I always get it fixed as soon as I can.
If you have downloaded it and not listened yet, you might want to re-download the show, otherwise you probably won’t notice a difference since the fixed file is now up. Sorry for the audio problems, I goofed during editing.
Global Geek News Podcast #78
Aug 17th
Here are the shownotes for episode #78 for the Global Geek News Podcast.
Help support us with a $5/mo subscription!
Stories:
- Geek Squad sends cease & desist to God Squad
- Hulu considering an IPO
- George Lucas announces Star Wars on Blu-ray in 2011
- Justin Bieber tweets enemies phone number to 4.5 million people.
- Facebook launches live streaming channel
- Drunk driver mugshots featured on Facebook
- Study has 34% of iPhone users ready to jump to Verizon
- Researchers claim hackers could figure out your smartphone password with screen smudges
- Developer creates online Windows Phone 7 app generator
- 1 in 5 Americans still don’t use the internet
Check out the new Global Geek News Online Store!
Like Global Geek News on Facebook and follow it on Twitter!
Host: Jeremy Bray & Wesley Faulkner
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