People like us. Really.

Just to let you guys know. This show is now a part of The Insomnia Radio Network. Check it out.

nerdcast #4 part 2: And we bring you the rest!

A more no show notes type of show. Brian shows up and we tell him about all the things we already talked about, and we go more indepth about some of the topics. We talk about more video games, Davis' burning podcasting question, porn on your iPod video or PSP, drinking, RSS feeds for beer, girls on meth, and more. I tried to cut this cast down to 30minutes, but there is just too much good shit in this one. Word? Host: Runtime: 51:52 Download: nerdcast004part2.mp3

nerdcast #4 Part 1 : The Most Epic Podcast EVAR!

You know what happens when you get two drunk guys, another guy who is square, and one who is late for the recording? A podcast show of epic proportions! The final recording clocked in at an hour and a half, so we figured that we would release this show... IN TWO PARTS! This show is flying without show notes, and it breaks the format that the first three shows used. Basically, we talk about the iPod nano and video, the real story of how Mike and Mike really met. Quake 4, Lost, the GameBoy micro, Serenity, how the PSP is better than the new iPod (when it comes it porn), Adventures of a Geek Squad employee checking out high school girls, porn in the Best Buy bathroom, beer coasters of the future, We want sexbots, World of Warcraft, and online girlfriends. You'll have to excuse the random AIM and computer sounds that I couldn't edit out. Also, Dewey was a bit late to the recording, but he will be in part 2! Hosts : Runtime: 34:16 Download: nerdcast004part1.mp3

God hates me and this is proof.

A month or so ago, I announced that I would be attending the Portable Media and Podcasting Expo held in Ontario California this November with Brian. It was going to be great fun for all. I was going to get in for free. I was going to hang out with the great people over at AMP. I was going to hang out in L.A. I was going to see some of the who's who in tech news and tech in general. I was in the final process of setting my arrangements in stone. I could taste the plane tickets. Then, something came up that prevented me from going. Shortly after, Brian scores a press pass to the event. And, Leo Laporte had to post this on his website.

Our next live TWiT will be at the Podcast Expo in Ontario, California, November 12. (I'll also be doing my KFI radio show there on Saturday.)

If you're into computers and podcasting, you'll know that TWiT is like the biggest podcast EVAR. You would also know that Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, and Kevin Rose use to host the TechTV show The Screensavers, and they will all be there in Ontario. :(

Open call for BETA testers!

Oh, that must mean we're developing something. You're so effin' right, then. We're making a nerdcast/De-Fi Radio widget for konfabulator. We have a few ideas of this widget that we'd like to test out. Right now, we basically took the code for another widget, added our RSS feed, changed the background image, and about section. We'd like to release it to a few people to see what your thoughts are and what neat features you'd like to see. We're also working on developing this widget from scratch, but we had to start somewhere. Interested? contact us nerdcast @ gmail.com

New iPod, iTunes, and revised iMac announced.

Apple is launching new products today that include...

• a slimmer iMac with a faster processor and a built in iSight and remote device called Front Row that lets you can control your photos, music, and videos from your couch..

• The iPod. An iPod that has a wider screen and plays videos. Has TV/video out. 150 hours of video.

• iTunes 6. We spent three years at version 4 and one month at version 5. WTF? You can buy music videos and Desperate Housewives at the updated online store. People should realize that this thing should play other videos such as episodes of CommandN, Systm, and nerdcast. Will there be a vidcast directory soon?

Photos You can watch the Apple Event where these were unveiled online at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/specialeventoct05/. We suggest you watch it, however, you will need a broadband connection to do so.

Note from Brian: Front Row looks like Apple's "answer" to Windows Media Center Edition PCs. I like the idea, however I didn't see any television let alone PVR (think TiVo) functionality. Other than that, I'm in love. The remote for Front Row has only 6 buttons as compared to the 40+ on a Media Center remote. To be fair, Media Center PCs do allow for recording and watching television, channel changing and all that so of course more buttons will be needed. But i do agree that 40+ is a little much.

Note from Ben who is > than Brian: Apple likes to phase their new features into their products. Look at the iPod. It's goes from strickly a music player with a few features, to a music player with a color screen that can display photos, to a music player that can display photos and video. They don't dive right into putting out a full featured iPod. They test the waters. The iPod photo was pretty succesful and that line of iPods was merged into the iPod line. I think that if it didn't sell well, and the market wasn't into it, they would of discontinued it. They also released the Airport Express last year. The main gripe people had was that they weren't able to control their iTunes library from their bathroom. Ok, that was mine, but look what we got. Front Row. Awesome. Thanks, Apple. <3 Now, I think they are going to phase new features into Front Row. Again, Apple is testing out the waters, and there is no better machine to test it on than the iMac. The iMac is marketed as the digital hub computer. Sure, you can throw it on the PowerMacs, but the people who buy PowerMacs are power users who freaken' compress large audio and movie files while chatting to their mom. The iMacs are more geared towards the, "I like to rip CDs, take photos of me and my 16 year old friends drinking beer LOL and chat OMG!" That's why I'm getting one. Ok, the main reason I want one is because they're pretty powerful all-in-one machines now. They use to be the crap Macs, but the Mac mini has taken that place. I see Apple adding Front Row into the Mac minis and laptop line sometime down the road. No duh. Apple will see that this thing is a hit, so they will add Media Center like features such as the ability to watch your TV shows, record your TV shows, and stream your TV shows to your TV. Or take them on the road with you. Also, since Apple has a sweet deal with ABC, who has the two top rated shows on TV, do you think other companies and buyers will want to stick with Microsoft's vision of the the media PC? Ben thinks NO!

nerdcast #3 : Attack of the Sleepy Host!

After getting off from a 14 hourish shift, I stayed awake to give you guys another nerdcast show. Since I was hella tired, I let Dewey steer this boring conversation. Ok, it's not really boring. It has some useful information in it. Give it a spin! HARDCORE HARDWARE!

-Gameboy micro is out. (Also a new Gameboy Advance SP with brighter screen is out $79)

• Size of iPod mini (RIP)
• Face plates (2 per box)
• smaller screen
• brighter screen
• light up buttons.
• $99
• Nintendo says its "for the style conscious gamer"

-Nintendo DS Wi-Fi to hit this November

• Nintendo is releasing a USB adapter that lets people who do not have a wireless network access to the DS net. You too can pwn middle school n00bs from your bathroom.

-Google Wi-Fi wants to cover 95% of San Francisco with 300kbps wireless Internet access... AT NO CHARGE! http://www.linuxpipeline.com/blog/archives/2005/10/google_in_the_a.html

• From search engine to portal to global domination
• Monopoly? Not really since you can pay to get a faster, better, more constant connection thus not putting the other businesses out of business
• How can this be free? Ben thinks that when you log on, your browser directs you to a Google type targeted ad page. Like the time I was in the Pensacola Airport trying to get onto one of the wireless networks, connected to a secure network that redirected my browser to a login screen.
• Brian thinks it uses a special targeted ad bar (think adwords but better)
• Sucks to be that 5%
• Ben moves to San Fran
• Brian looks for job in San Fran, plans to roomie with Ben

SOFTCORE SOFTWARE!

-Podbat and Odeo tools quick review. (Reminder. They are still in beta!)

-Spread Firefox Hacked!

The Spread Firefox Team became aware this week that the server hosting Spread Firefox, our community marketing site, has been accessed by unknown remote attackers who attempted to exploit a security vulnerability in TWiki software installed on the server. The TWiki software was disabled as soon as we were aware of the attempts to access SpreadFirefox.com.

VIDEOS THAT ARNT PORN!

-Channel 9 has some great and long videos on different things being developed at Microsoft. http://channel9.msdn.com/

• Development on Vista
• Development on the new Hotmail (called mail) with neat things. Includes AJAX (reading pane changes, not the rest of the page. Works like FRAMES but it's all on one page.), hides phishing e-mails from you, and a click or so unsubscribes you from mailing lists. Keyboard shortcuts. Works like Outlook. Boring video at the beginning. You don't see anything neat until 12min in.

Stuff mentioned quickly! Wrietly, the online word processor that lets you work on documents with friends. That podcast directory that is like Odeo is called podOmatic. Songlist for the show! Chad VanGaalen - Clinically Dead The Changes - When I Wake (yes, again) easter egg song! what is it? Voxtrot - The Start of Something The following songs are free downloads off of the artist's or label's website. Click on the links above to download these awesome tracks. Coming Soon! Mike Davis and Mike Droz will sit in on the next show. We'll talk about our hands on experiences with the iPod nano, projects they are working on, and how they love to drink and play video games. Hosts: Runtime: 25:07 Download: nerdcast003.mp3

There goes Odeo.

Well, not really, but Yahoo! did launch a podcast directory and media program to subscribe and download your favorite podshows . I really, really like this directory that Yahoo! has thrown at us. Honestly, I use to think Yahoo! had crappy services, but they've been turning around lately. You know, putting my old foot into my mouth. Like Odeo, once you submit a podcast show you can, "tag," it by associating certain keywords to a show that make it easy to search and find what they are looking for. For instance, I tagged nerdcast with a lot of keywords, the word technology being one of them, and if one were to search for shows tagged with the word TECHNOLOGY, nerdcast will pop up somewhere in that results page. I bet it's lost in the vastness of Yahoo! The great thing about the Yahoo! service is you don't have to download the Yahoo! Music Engine to subscribe and download podshows. I mean, if you want to you can, or you can use iTunes. This shocked me for a bit. Once you hit the SUBSCRIBE button for a show, you will download a little file that contains information about that podshow. You can open this file in Yahoo! Music Engine or iTunes 5.0. I think it's a good move on Yahoo!'s part because it does not require the user to download yet another program to subscribe to podshows. Do I smell a konfabulator widget that will tie into this service?

Get Konfabulator NOW!

I'm just going to come out and say that I'm not a big fan of Yahoo! I haven't used their search bot in years, and I've always found their services to be lacking. Their chat program looks nicer, their update to mail looks ace, and buying out Flickr and Konfabulator was a great move indeed. Konfabulator is anything you want it to be. It's a Windows and Mac OS X program that runs in the background, which displays widgets that provide you with information that you want to see. These widgets can sit on your desktop, or you can set it up so that they're hidden until you hit the magic button that calls them all to the screen. (Think Mac OS X's Dashboard, but they don't zip-zoom in and it came out years after Konfabulator did.) Now, there are a lot of usful widgets out there, and there are a lot of widgets that are the same but with a different color scheme. I mean, come on, how many seperate RSS readers do you need? So, I've made a little list of the widgets that I use. Wunder Radar - shows current radar with images from www.wunderground.com TachClock - displays the time with a tachometer look Sun Clock - shows which part of the world is in light or darkness Dictionary CPU Meter People Finder Showtime - displays showtimes from MovieTickets.com I hope you have a big monitor!

I will sex The Changes

I featured the title track off of their demo album in epsiode 2 of nerdcast, and the song When I Wake just wasn't enough. I needed more. I love pirates, and I use to be a big music pirate back in the glory days of Napster, and it did carry over to Kazza, but with my legit flow of cash, and gift certificates from Best Buy I started doing the right thing by buying music. I mean, I could of found ways to obtain more for free, but I bought The Changes demo album because I think the band is just that good. Now, I'm not going to write up some boring, long review of this album, write about how it might of changed my life, or how I lost 5lbs everytime I gave it a spin. All I can say is that if this band from Chicago (4hrs down to road. ROAD TRIP?! OMG I WILL BE GROUPIE!) gets signed, they'll go places and make a lot of cash. And has sex with a lot of midgets. (I had to throw a midget joke in there. Sorry if it's lame. It was a last second addition.) The Changes : Self Titled EP Website: http://www.the-changes.com/ MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/thechanges Buy The Album: http://www.awarestore.com/index.php?op=view_item&item_id=12132 Tracklist: 01. When I Wake 02. If I Tried 03. When I Sleep 04. The Machine 05. No One Needs To Know 06. Her, You, And I 07. You Want It