Shift Run Stop

It was only a matter of time before we had this Original Internet Celeb on the show. Danny O'Brien is of course Dave's former partner in crime from the world-famous geek newsletter NTK. He's been involved with the EFF, the ORG and loads of other stuff in recent years but has never forgotten his early internet roots. Now a long-term resident of California, we catch up with the digital Robin Hood on a brief visit to the UK.

Incidentally, when we emailed Danny to invite him on the show we told him we expect it to be like when Scotty showed up unexpectedly on Star Trek TNG. The experienced engineer has some ideas about how things should be run which caused a bit of friction down in Engineering, but Geordie eventually had to admit that the old man knew what he was doing and could even teach him a thing or two. Danny replied saying he thought it'd be more like when Jamie returned to Doctor Who wearing a kilt, and no one could remember who he was.

"They stole our revolution, now we're stealing it back." And now they're letting us rent it off them for 41 minutes. Vive la revolution!

Links: NTK | Snackspot | Danny on Wikipedia | The Committee to Protect Journalists | Buy this podcast on audio cassette | Donate!

Geeky fun beyond your, er, quite wild dreams this week as we chat with the utterly delightful Thom and Myk from the Thomyk podcast about comics, Lego, D&D, dice, and of course podcasting.

Snack seer Dave Green divines the most unexpected drinks of the summer, including at least one that's so unexpected, it's not even a drink.

Links: Thomyk podcast | Thom on Twitter | Myk on Twitter | Thom's Dick Cheney lego scene on Boing Boing | Dave's Snackspot | Buy this podcast on cassette or just donate to the cause.

If you like games you probably already know about games wizard Dan Hon, and even if you don't know him you're bound to have come across his work. Together with his brother Adrian, Dan co-founded Six to Start, the award-winning games company behind teen ARG Smokescreen and involved with loads of other fun stuff too, e.g Misfits, We Tell Stories and of course Wired (they're also in the mag's top 100). Roo gets the scoop on Dan's next move, and finds out what he really thinks about the term ARG in this geektastic chat.

While the boys hold their cleverness summit in Southampton, Leila attends the Vintage Computer Festival at the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park and returns armed with an interview, a heart that aches for Acorn, and at least 48K of evocative stings. Around the World in 80 Snacks continues with some mystifying US offerings courtesy of our jetsetting guest, and we cautiously unwrap - as ever - under the expert supervision of Dave.

Links: Six to Start | Dan's blog | Dan on Twitter | The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley | Leila's Vintage Computer Museum Video | Official site for R3play in Blackpool | Dave's site Snackspot | Buy a tape of this episode to support the SRS pension fund.

Your hosts catch up after a couple of weeks away from SRS Towers, in this chat-packed reunion episode. Learn how Roo coped with a physical illness at the risk of inducing a mental one by binge-eating a sci-fi box-set with his eye-mouth. Meanwhile, Leila finds a way of combining her new walkie talkies with her fridge to continue our audio spin-off of Roo's In The Fridge project.

And is your Dad a massive nerd? Of course he is! Sporting one of the best accents we've had on the show so far, Wired.co.uk's  Geek Dad contributor Chris Hinton shares some suggestions for Father's Day.

Plus Leila and Dave get wined, dined and strip-searched at Heathrow Terminal 5, and we all head to a park to sample snacks themed on the World Cup. Score!

Links: Geek Dad | Chris's site Geek Speak | Chris on Twitter | Caffeinated soap | Alien vs Predator Total Destruction box-set | In The Fridge (Flickr) | Dave's Snackspot site |  Heathrow airport | Buy this episode on audio cassette and create more work for us for your own sick amusement.

A summery episode this week, as a guitar-wielding Mark "MJ" Hibbett swings by to serenade us in the sunshine, and we snack on Southwold's finest seaside fare.

Mark is responsible for the world's first internet hit, the gloriously nostalgic vintage computing paean Hey Hey 16K ("What does that get you today?") plus loads of other brilliant songs AND a new rock musical about dinosaurs and robots called Dinosaur Planet.

Everything about that paragraph was good.

Poor Roo has been ill (watching the entire Alien/Predator franchise - more of which in the next episode), but Dave and Leila have been to a radio rally in Luton, where some old computer books and a few Spectrum tapes were picked up with you in mind, gentle SRS listener. Just write in and let us know which one you want along with your address, perhaps in the form of a short Spectrum BASIC program.

MJ Hibbett (homepage) | MJ's Twitter | MJ's Wikipedia entry | Dinosaur Planet | Dunstable Downs Radio Club | Rob Manuel's animation for Hey Hey 16K on B3ta | Dave's site Snackspot | We have a taste for home taping - buy a hand-decorated tape of our podcast | Follow us on Twitter @shiftrunstop

A rough and ready little episode this week, as our Roo - the edit smarts - has been off on a well-earned holiday (though Roofans relax: his past self does grace this episode - before he left we discussed Red Dead Redemption).

And while he was drinking in the Spanish sunshine, Leila and Dave were drinking in the complimentary wine at the premier of the BCS's Information Pioneers campaign, which aims to highlight the trailblazers of the information age through a series of films and a public appeal to vote for your favourite. The films are presented by some familiar faces (and an enjoyably hyperactive Twitter account) and you'll hear us hobnob with Ortis Deley from the Gadget Show, Kate Russell and LJ Rich from Click as well as the charming writer and producer team behind the short films (which are online here.)

See also: Kate's lovely us-mentioning write-up of the night | Information Pioneers site | Bill Fontana's 'River Sounding' | Dave's Snackspot | Thoughts on Red Dead Redemption by former guest Naomi Alderman | Our keyring maker Sandy's Etsy shop | Remember to buy a tape to get a free datasette keyring!

(The pic at the top shows Dave and Leila talking to BCS Chief Ian Ryder, and comes from this gallery of photos from the event.)

Mellifluous-voiced Kathy reads the news on Radio 4, stars in Scott Mills' 'Posh Radio 4 Lady' segment, plays the 'uke', writes books, loves Twitter, and still finds time to tell you to turn around when possible on your Tom Tom. We had a great chat and she even played a few requests for us.

It was still hot outside when recorded this, so drink in the exotic holiday atmosphere, wintery futureboy, as we step outside to sample some sun-drenched refreshments with Dave Green from dormant cybervolcano NTK.

Links: Kathy (Wikipedia) | Kathy (Twitter) | Dave's Snackspot | Buy this podcast on cassette | Add us on Twitter and show you care.

Games games and more games. And breakfast cereal. In this week's episode we meet two heroes of British gaming at Game Camp, play some video game legends trump cards, eat a wide and frankly terrifying range of breakfast cereals and talk about iPhone games. Keep your datasette peeled for the secret 'datablast' at the end of the episode too.

Links: Games Workshop | Game Camp | G-Force The Game | Wet | Bioshock 2 | Video Game Legends trump cards | Dave's Snackspot | Buy this podcast on cassette | Add us on Twitter

Our guest this week has been keeping a watchful eye on the Large Hadron Collider since it booted up again in March, but luckily he's very well-qualified. In fact, Jon is a Professor of Physics at UCL and via the ATLAS experiment, pushes the boundaries of so-called science over at CERN on a regular basis. Well, we don't know much about science, but we know what we like, and it was a joy to learn about everything from the mystery of mass to the mystery of the LHC rap.

Over in parallel dimension, we review chocolates with unexpected mass and discuss the space-time implications of discussing the Time Traveler Convention on this podcast. And now we've just blogged about it, too. Oops.

LINKS: Jon (academic) | Jon (blog) | Jon (Twitter) | ATLAS | LHC rap | Time Traveler Convention | LHCsound.com | Jon at the Geek Pop festival | Dave's site Snackspot | Buy a tape of this episode | Donate to Shift Run Stop | Add us on Twitter

This week we catch up with games publisher James Wallis in the suitably recreational environs of a sunny London park. James is an ambassador for storytelling - his company Magnum Opus Press recently published The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Learn about that, the geography of World of Warcraft, and how to win a World Record for endurance D&D playing, in this geeky(-est? ever?) episode.

Back in the studio, our very own Sophie Dahl of snacks, Dave Green, has some refreshing drinks for summer (more of which on his site Snackspot) - and we offer James's books to give away! Buy a tape of this episode and win The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen; guess how many feet Roo is holding up to bag a copy of Magnum Opus's witty RPG manual Dragon Warriors. As ever, we can be emailed.

All this, plus the origins of branching narratives, Florence Nightingale facts, ambient birdsong, and oh, you know, the usual squabbles. Are you sitting comfortably? Good! Then let's begin.

Links: James Wallis's blog | Magnum Opus press | Magnum Opus on Drive-Through RPG | Baron Munchausen (Wikipedia) | Baron Munchausen (Amazon) | Dragon Warriors (Magnum Opus) | Slides of James's OuLiPo talk | Game Camp | Dave's site Snackspot | Buy a tape of this episode | Donate to Shift Run Stop | Add us on Twitter