Knotty Geeks

In this episode, we take a trip from the Chinese government, through the promise and peril of cloud computing, and finally find liberation through YouTube and a trip into Earth orbit.

List of URLs referenced in this episode:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081002-skype-security-flub-leads-to-discovery-of-chinese-monitoring.html - China monitoring Skype

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2008/09/avalanche.html - Author Charles Stross says it is getting harder to write near-future SF

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080930-why-stallman-is-wrong-when-he-calls-cloud-computing-stupid.html - Ars Technica dismisses Richard Stallman’s criticism of cloud computing

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU - An anthropologist reports on YouTube

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=_yxHKgQyGx0 - A brilliant mashup exploring copyright issues in a modern world

In this episode, we talk primarily about the release of Google’s Android phone. We compare it to the iPhone and contrast the different strategies and philosophies behind these platform’s respective application stores. Hey, how about an Amiga phone? We get into how two science fiction authors described the near future and how smart phones might enable this future--in Japan, of course, a new company is making this happen already!

List of URLs referenced in the show:

http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DinRMILwJa-U First Google Android phone released

http://www.geeknewscentral.com/archives/008249.html Apple bans podcasting application from the iPhone store

http://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1151.html Joy of Tech explains Apple’s process for approving iPhone apps

http://www.amazon.com/Halting-State-Charles-Stross/dp/0441014984 Halting States novel by Charles Stross

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbows_End Rainbow’s End novel by Vernor Vinge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgTwSXK_5dg Tonchidot augmented reality on iPhone video

http://www.myvu.com/Shades.html MyVu heads-up display glasses for iPods and iPhones

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/09/chrome-brand-ne.html Chrome loses some market share

We’re back! In this episode we start out with a shoutout to all our listeners of the last podcast! Individually! By name! We then move on to discussing this week’s tech news: Microsoft’s ads are awful, AmigaOS 4.1 is released, six-core Intel CPUs are out. Then we sidetrack into computing history and devolve into general silliness. Devolve?

Here is a list of the URLs that we talk about in the show:

http://www.lovenstein.org/tough/ - It’s Tough Being A Republican in 2008

http://www.sleazysoft.com/megaslz/holycrap.php - Terry says this is the same as the chances of Microsoft’s new ad campaign working! Yikes!

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you... - Stats on how third-world countries are modernizing

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_agin... - 150 to 1,000 year lifetimes? Could happen.

http://www.e-brighthorizons.com/repeat-after-me/ - Just be glad you don’t have this guy’s job!

http://web-hosting.tophostingcenter.com/?p=120 - Ebay buys, then tries to sell, Stumbleupon

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/31/mccain-oil-donations/ - John McCain gets zillions from oil lobbyists

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~kaltofen/words.html - What the same words mean in German and English

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/top-10-amazing.html - Top 10 Amazing Physics Videos for 2008

Links to things we mentioned in the show:

White Dwarf Books: http://www.deadwrite.com/wd.html

Warcraft FigurePrints: http://www.figureprints.com

Perception of Time Slows Down: http://www.livescience.com/health/071211-time-slow.html

More Time Slowing Down Stuff: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/archives/2008/06/adventures_in_p.php

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Dactyl Nightmare Arcade Game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(gaming)