The Global Geek Podcast #79 :: Invaded by the UK
Welcome to the GGP for this week. Pressing on with one short – hope that Cait is getting better!
In Tech this week; JotSpot returns (just don’t call it a wiki), Buzz that has none, laying cable, AIR launch and another use for the PS3 and it is very cool.
Applications are great this week with one sent in from Terry to cut up files, fixing that auto run menu options and a customization app for your logon screen.
We found some awesome sites this week including some lifestreaming options and a quite well done blog directory plus heaps more.
The GGP Mac Lab Rat, Firefox extensions and the mail bag that saw us invaded. Stick around as we trial a new segment towards the end of the show. It would be great to hear what you think about it, please send us some feedback!
The Global Geek Podcast #79 (MP3 – 1:19:23 – 27.27MB)
[audio:http://globalgeek.thepodcastnetwork.com/audio/tpn_theglobalgeekpodcast_20080301_079.mp3]
Be sure to send us feedback, you can do that via email or leave us a voicemail. But if all that is too hard then a comment is tops!
Show Notes
Welcome
Technology News
- Google Re-launches JotSpot
- uStream and Veoh team up
- Hotmail busted
- Google’s CAPTCHA cracked
- Social Network Reliability
- Yahoo! Buzz
- iTunes now Number 2
- Google and Cable
- Network Solutions got what was coming
- Adobe AIR
- Turning a PS3 into a Super Computer
Promo Spot – The Father Bob Show
Applications
- Audiobook Cutter: Cut up those long audio books and podcasts into smaller chunks
- ShellRunas: A GUI to easily swap users for specific apps
- CleanHandlers: Whip that auto run menu into shape
- Res-o-matic: Automagically change your resolution and other display options on launch for a specific app
- LogonStudio: Mod the logon screen for Windows
- Alt Tab Mouse: An alternative to the Alt Tab in windows using the mouse (Now has a version that works with XP!)
Firefox Extensions
- Panic: Boss coming? Hit this = no panic, keep job
GGP Mac Lab Rat
Sites and Services
- Phrasr: Turn your words into pictures
- Second Brain: Yet another lifestreaming option
- LinkBlip: Get notified when your sent link is clicked
- blogged: A very well done blog directory
- GraphicAudio: Graphic Novels as audio books
- .htaccess Editor: Create a .htaccess file with this very useful web based GUI
Updates
Feedback
New Segment: You got a name? Let us know!
Farewell
- Dave’s Blog (Second Life: Rooster Rubble)
- Keith’s Blog (Second Life: Maezik Darwin)
Featured Music
Visitors
“Tonight” (mp3)
from “Secrets”
(Talking Taco Music)
Buy at Amazon
Buy at GroupieTunes
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Feeddemon/Newsgator have failed again to pick up your RSS feed (up to 3 March 8.20pm Aust Eastern Standard Summer Time)- looks like it’s back to Google Reader for a while until things are sorted out.
I tried out the Audio Book Cutter because I always cut up my podcasts into 15-20 minute bits. I do this because sometimes I will switch between the radio and MP3 files – saves me having to scroll for ages to get back to where I left off.
ABC is a bit slower than the program that I have been using – Mega MP3 Splitter 1.1 (http://www.megax.it/) but it does allow you to automatically pick how big each segment is to be (have to do this manually in Mega).
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:43 pm
@Matt if it is any consolation I have had FD open all day and not yet got the podcast through on it. It is usually delayed a bit, but I’ll let you know when it comes through.
So which cutter did you settle on then?
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Is my calendar wrong or is the GGP out on a Monday?
Will listen and comment later:D
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:09 pm
@Doug smartarse
March 4th, 2008 at 2:35 am
I’m not done listening to this episode yet, but as for the Captcha validation you were talking about this is a very interesting project by Microsoft.
http://research.microsoft.com/asirra/
This is a way to recognise humans by asking them to select only certain type of animal among 20 different images. That’s better than jumbled fonts I guess.
If you’re a developer like me and are reading this, check it out! It’s not only for C# but Python and other languages as this is a web service.
Raf
March 4th, 2008 at 9:38 am
@Raf yeah this is what I was saying on the show – this system will see changes and I think that they are around the corner – bots will break CAPTCHA and this incident last week shows that spammers are nearly there. Looks like MS are thinking ahead on this one and it is not too bad at all – be interesting to see how a computer goes against it in time. I have seen others similar – choosing multiple images etc – but this is a reflection of where this is going. Nice one.
March 4th, 2008 at 9:44 am
@Matt – just use iTunes, mate!
I found another CAPTCHA.
http://hotcaptcha.com – this is even more fun!
Choose hot girls not the animals :].
Neon Tango looks great! Thx!
Linkblip is sold by some designer at http://0at.org. He should be using his .org domain if not the linkblip one. I agree. A little bit unprofessional for somebody working on the net.
As for the google adword. I think people will be clicking less and less as they have realised by now that the links are not part of the website. And usualy the author doesn’t recommend them. They just pop up at you go along. I believe google should make them less apparent. I haven’t tried that yet, but to what extent can you customise the looks of them? As far as I guess, not much. Just the background, really.
Keith – have you ever heard of am iTunes plug-in or a separate application to play audio files on the Mac but with a higher speed? A friend recommended a portable mp3 player with a speedy listen option. People on the podcasts sound like chipmunks but you can listen to half as much in the same time. He covers a lot of podcasts every week at work this way. I believe people with sight impairments speed the screen readers as well and this works nice for them. Why can’t we do the same with podcasts?
Cheers,
Raf (also the UK)
March 4th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Love it! lol.
Yeah good point on the podcast listening – you can do that with WMP as well – not sure about the iPod though or any portable device for that matter…
March 4th, 2008 at 10:35 am
The thing is, it would be good to have it in iTunes.
He uses Zen mp3 player or something and it has this speed option built in. Apple probably think people would be scared if the iPod stared talking too fast and dropped it. Lots of n00bs at Apple stores reporting a failure instead of a feature.
I’ve stopped using WMP as soon I ditched Vista for the iMac. I still need to use VMware to develop for ASP.NET, though.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I believe my Cowon players have speed options. I really need to visit South Korea. btw – piclens is beautiful!
March 5th, 2008 at 2:04 am
Heard your review of Google Sites. This is meant to integrate with Google Apps domain email service. Its obvious that this is not meant to be a standalone website creator, but rather an intranet style collaboration tool that leverages Google mail, docs and calendar.
They aren’t going after WordPress or anything like that. They are going after things like intranets.com. I use Google Apps for my family domain so I checked it out and built a sample site. The tool struck me as very business oriented.
Also, you don’t need to change DNS to use the service. You can make a DNS change if you want to create easy domains. A standard apps account would have a calendar at http://calendar.google.com/a/yourdomain.com. If you add a CName record at your host you could replace that with http://calendar.yourdomain.com.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Podcast #79 still hasn’t shown up on FD.
I’m not going to go for iTunes – Google Reader is doing the job without having to install more software.
Dave Gray – I saw your post in Newsgator Forum – still no response from anyone
March 5th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Turned up on monday in FD for me.
Cheers
March 5th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
@Rob thanks for the info mate! Nice work there and also for clearing up the Google Sites issue. And yeah the whole thing seems marketed at a different user base, I agree.
@Matt Glad that George let us know that, but I have to say I have not got it yet either! I am going to unsubscribe then subscribe again and see if that makes a difference. Yeah, weird no response – usually doesn’t take that long… I’ll let you know when I do.
@Everyone I would like some more feedback on the new trial segment that we did this week – I have had a few emails but I would like some more feedback to make the best decision about continuing it. Or do you want a poll? (Feedback is better though!!)
Cheers guys and keep the comments rolling
March 6th, 2008 at 2:05 am
To be honest, I could not grasp one solid topic of the new section at the end. If you hadn’t told me, I would have listened to the end thinking that it was just some random chat and not a new section.
The name could be something like ‘Tech buzz & blogs’, but I’m sure you come up with a better name :].
To me, the more you add to the show the better. I am too lazy to go through the news and you always keep me up-to-date. I could even do with over 2 hours per episode. I always listen in one go.
The only thing about the new section that surprised me is that it was very short.
I hope none of the usual segments get shorter once the new segment expands.
Hope this helps!
Raf
March 6th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Guys
Have not got to the end of the podcast, was interupted by a call of my mobile from Keith’s neck of the woods.
Feedback to follow tomorrow.
March 6th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
[...] The response to Google Sites has been lukewarm. Dan Farber of CNET wants to know, “What’s all the fuss?” Dennis Howlett wasn’t impressed. Ditto for The Global Geek Podcast. [...]
March 7th, 2008 at 8:15 am
There’s a jotspot appliance at work that gets some use from the “labs” folks. Seems OK. Not sure what the deal is with sites. Honestly if the search appliance supported more of google’s IP like Apps and blogspot I’m pretty sure my division would have one. Oh well. They cant miss the boat forever?
March 8th, 2008 at 11:12 am
This show finally showed up in FeedDemon. I’ll see what happens for next weeks show.
March 8th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
@Matt yup showed up in mine as well. It appeared after I did another post. Almost like the feed was “stuck” – why and how – who knows – but it might have snapped out of it – that is the first time it has ever happened.
March 10th, 2008 at 6:13 am
Yeah, so I’m writing out a long rant about Google docs and here in Toronto we were in the middle of a March blizzard and the silly power fails on me, so I lost the whole ruddy post. How annoying. We got hit with about 25 cm (10 inches) of snow in my area…in March for gawd’s sake.
Anyway, JotSpot–who cares. What can Google Sites do that a good blog can’t do? And some of the stuff they offer should be kept safely behind the company firewall on your company’s servers and password protected. Why would you want to give Google access to your company’s data anyway? I don’t put personal data “in the cloud.”
Re Google laying cable; How long before we have a two-tier Internet anyway?
Re Network Solutions sued; Huzzah!
Re Adobe Air; I haven’t tried it yet. I may have to check it out for a Twitter client, although Twitter is becoming very annoying.
Re the PS3 “Supercomputer”; You know they’re just playing Halo 3 over a huge LAN.
Re the new segment; Techmeme doesn’t really interest me. I do check in now and again to see if there’s anything interesting going on, but not everyday. I’m still trying to decide if I should blog and why I should blog and what the purpose of blogging is. As Kieth mentions “everyone and their dog” is setting up a blog, chucking Google Adsense on it and figuring they’re going to make hundreds of dollars a month. Do blogs really matter anymore? Does your blog have any value if you’re not a “Pro Blogger?” Isn’t it all just a popularity contest now with your Scobles and your Calacanises, etc? Do I really care what “Pro Bloggers” are thinking and doing anyway? I keep getting Twitters saying “Streaming live now, come watch” from ProBloggers, and I find out they’re streaming video of them talking to their dogs and somesuch nonsence. How entertaining…
Re Lifestreaming; No thanks, I’m opting out.
And as I continue to shop for a new computer, I see yet another story from the NY Times explaining how Windows Vista doesn’t perform properly, and this story quotes problems that actual Microsoft Execs are having with the OS. I also see that Microsoft has dropped the price on Vista in the hopes that more XP users will “upgrade.” Link: http://tinyurl.com/277zto
I also read an interesting article that asks the question, “What happens when mom or dad (or brother, or sister, or uncle, etc) asks to be a Facebook friend?” Do we really want our family members or parents to know what we’re doing on Facebook? If I friended say, my mother, she’d have access to all the other people I’ve friended as well… Thankfully, my mother is not computer-savy anyway, otherwise I’d be constantly over at her house fixing her computer problems. Link: http://tinyurl.com/37mj22
Oh, I should also mention that I just registered a couple new domains through GoDaddy and I used the TPN code to get a 10% discount. I also registered a dot-ca domain, but I had to use a Canadian registrar. I still haven’t found a host service I like yet though… And I should probably design a website so I have HTML to upload when I do find a hosting service.
March 10th, 2008 at 6:15 am
I spelled “nonsense” wrong! How annoying that I can’t preview my comments!