April 21st, 2007 - We now have two shows under our belt and I still haven’t figured out how to end the show on time… Hopefully the third time will be the charm. - Show Notes - Controversial Topic: Violence and Video Games – We discussed how the recent VT shooting was inaccurately related to violent video games and widened the discussion to include how video games have become the media’s scapegoat for teen violence. Jack Thomson blames VT shootings on Counter Strike (also here) No strong link seen between violent video games and aggression Violence-Related Behaviors Among High School Students We also took a few calls from our audience about this issue. Larry from Phoenix, AZ points out that religion causes more violence than video games. Mathew from Bedford, TX is appalled by how the media handles these kinds of issues and focuses more on celebrity news. Allan from Scottsdale, AZ doesn’t agree with us based on his experiences, but was also unable to provide a good example of why he feels this way. News Stories: YouTube Obeys Fake Takedown Request From 15 Year Old Dell Resurrects Windows XP RIM offers explanation for massive outage Substitute Teacher Faces Jail Time Over Spyware Intel says new chips are 40% faster Sony admits, fixes problem with DVD DRM Support Calls: Charlie from Phoenix, AZ called about a question concerning whether data could be recovered off of a failed hard drive. He referenced our newsletter which you can find here. Brian in Phoenix, AZ stumped us with a question about a web camera for his Mac Pro. I have since researched his issue and came up with a few possible solutions. First, if he already owns a digital video recorder, he can set that up as a web camera over firewire. He can also try an open source driver for USB cameras called macam at Sourceforge. Otherwise, these two products may work for him: Unibrain Fire-i camera, and iMage USB webcam. Mike in Gilbert, AZ wanted to know the best way to fight spyware and viruses. We suggested Spybot Search and Destroy for removing spyware, Windows Defender for keeping it off, and AVG Antivirus for avoiding viruses. Also, make certain you are using Firefox to browse the internet. Weekly Website: Snopes Software Spotlight: OpenOffice.org Hardware Highlight: Logitech G5 Laser Mouse, and G15 Gaming Keyboard Direct MP3 Download iTunes Subscription RSS Feed