The Global Geek Podcast #89 :: Messages
Massive week for all of us, so we made an exeutive decision to take it easy. This is a very casual Global Geek Podcast but far from boring.
Please let us know what you thought of the casual, take it easy show this week as we enjoyed the show and would like to know what you guys thought 
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
- Where’s Keith?
- Cait feel like crap
- Dave gears up for the new job
General
- Extension Update
- Car Rego, geek style
- New Toys
- Dell
- Vista
- IMAP (damnit)
- Gmail and IMAP: IMAP Behavior Chart
The Micro Blogging War
- identi.ca: Open Source twitter platform
- Dave’s FriendFeed
- Cait’s FriendFeed
- If Keith has one it should go here
- 62% of Dial up users like it slow and don’t know what they are missing
- Firefox Record
- California Mobile Fine
Community Service Announcment
GGP Mac Lab Rat
- iGTD: Get things done on your Mac
- Project Track: Project management tool for developers and others
- Menu-Eclipse: Hide your menu bar (click on Software then MenuEclipse)
Updates
Feedback
Farewell
Featured Music
ABC
“The Very First Time” (mp3)
from “Traffic”
(Borough Music)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Napster
More On This Album
July 9th, 2008 at 12:30 am
It’s 12:30am, I’m half asleep in bed and have listened to 20 minutes of this ep. I’m that horrified that I will type this rant up on my touch (been living on it for 3 days as I have no pc). Vista - good? Please say again, the line is cutting up! I will just comment now about dell. Love them, nearly ready to order a m1330 (xps) off them, until I read around. They have cooling issues with the GPU. Therefore can’t be used on lap(ridiculous as its meant for that!!) Now this would have had vista if I got it (but not for long). So that was a downside as well. So, I now fancy a mac. And hopefully within a few months I’ll have a new Macbook (with bootcamp for xp) I also visited the apple store in Sydney today. Bloody fantastic - the whole setup. Staff are awsome as well. Definantly made up my mind - mac it shall be. So back to the point, vista ( or shitsta) is that bad I’m now buying an overpriced (yet sleek and sexy) mac!! Btw Dave, dell are really nice (we use there monitors), just the m1330 series has issues. Now, to the rest of the show! (I need the word vista censored, my ears are bleeding)
July 9th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Cait must stop saying the things that I’m thinking… it’s really creepy.
I’ll make some real comments when I have time to listen to the show again and make notes, but right now I’m at work…
@KW I’ll get you yet!
July 9th, 2008 at 1:13 am
There are two option regarding using a phone in a car.
The first option would be to sell every car with a built-in bluetooth receiver or a similar system that takes over the phone and switches it to the loudspeakers *automatically*. That is the most important part. If you have a phone it should switch modes in a car. Sadly, that’s still a luxury and not a standard like with the airbags. You will sooner get a free auxiliary port with the cheapest version of a new car than something for your mobile. So I guess using an mp3 player is more important to the industry.
The second option would be to start selling every phone that loses signal inside a working car. Some signal distortion that would be a joint venture between the mobile manufacturers and car makers.
Or maybe both? No signal unless you switch to the loudspeakers.
But that’s a distant future. I’d better buy myself an iPod now and connect it to the built-in radio in my car!
Cheers for the episode!
July 9th, 2008 at 1:51 am
There’s just something I needed to add here because it’s brand new and really cool.
Apple has added new educational content to iTunes. Check out iTunes U.
You can see iTunes U via the iTunes Store link:
http://deimos3.apple.com/indigo/main/main.xml
Or the Apple website link:
http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu_mobilelearning/landing.html
July 9th, 2008 at 6:37 am
There’s already scientific evidence that hands free is just as dangerous. Divided attention on the road is not a good thing.
Signal blanking would be the best, for cars, the movies and petrol stations
July 9th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Touché KW… Touché.
I don’t suppose you actually FOUND an iPod? I’d gladly take all the abuse in the world if I could get it back.
July 9th, 2008 at 9:44 am
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-42985
“Hands free” policy in California, quite funny
July 9th, 2008 at 11:05 am
@Cait Doing anything other than driving while driving is just stupid. Have you ever tried to get any work done while someone talked to you on the phone? I don’t understand how people figure they can drive and talk on the phone. I’ve seen people with a phone in one hand, a coffee in the other and their kids in the back seat… you gotta shake your head.
@Keith I put an “owner” text file in my iPod, but what are the chances that anyone who actually finds an iPod would try to give it back? They’d keep it!
Re Car Inspections: No, you have to take it to the garage here in Canada for inspections because they hook the car up to a bunch of machines and put it on a dynamo-thingie to check emissions and such.
Re Dell: I’ve looked at the Inspiron, but it would cost me about $1470 (+13% taxes) Canadian to outfit it.
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo @2.16GHz, Windows® Vista Ultimate Edition SP1, Anti-glare widescreen 17.0 in display, 4GB RAM, 250GB HD, 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT, CD/DVD, Wireless N Minicard, Bluetooth, Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy.
I could buy a helluva desktop for that kind of money…
I’m not sure why you want a TV card for your laptop though.
Re FedEx: I refuse to use FedEx or UPS because they charge “whatever we feel like” when they cross the US/Canada border and call it “brokerage fees.” I’ve received items from the US where the “brokerage fees” from UPS were the same or more than the cost of the item that I bought.
Gotta love those Aussie phrases, “Chucked a big wobbly!”
Re Cait’s comment on email: I had the exact same thoughts on email when I was first introduced to SMTP. I thought, “If it’s so easy for people to spoof email where email is coming from, then why doesn’t someone fix it?!” I could never figure out why we continued to use an email protocol that we KNEW was full of holes… It’s like driving a car with no floor in it, you KNOW it’s unsafe, but you keep using it because it’s convenient right now…
Re Plurk: I think I’m over it.
Re FriendFeed: I just signed up for it. Do I really need another “social sharing” website? At least I’ve reserved my name now.
Re Identi.ca: It’s pretty slow. Nothing special.
Re Knightwise: Note to self; record a long, ranty voicemail while on the bus or subway.
Re Dialup Users: I had dialup until just before Xmas when I moved into my own condo and decided to get a 7 Mbps download connection. I have a T3 at work and it’s lightning fast, so anytime I wanted to download a large file I just used to download it at work. Dialup WAS fine for the Internet because I didn’t really care about downloading video or music files. I could surf just fine using dialup until a couple of years ago when webpages started getting bigger and bigger. These days most webpages are just bandwidth pigs with all the extra crap and Flash and embedded music and video and all the other stupid crap people figure they need on their webpages. Whatever happened to “optimized” webpages that ran about 200k? Sheesh. Now I have 7 Mbps down and 512k up, and a 60 GB per month bandwidth cap, and I use on average about 5-6 GBs per month…
Re mobile phones: Once again Cait says what I’m thinking. Laws are a joke these days… They hand out fines and people just don’t bother paying them. They suspend people’s licenses and they keep driving anyway. They arrest people and put them in jail, but they let them out after a month because it took 2 yrs to get the stupid thing to court… It’s the law-abiding people that end up looking stupid.
The law should be that when you go to renew your license then you pay the tickets outstanding on your car. Don’t pay, no license. Get caught without a license? Impound the car. Still don’t pay what you owe? Crush the car and ban the person from buying another one.
Re Fake Name Generator: What’s wrong with me@private.com? I can see people getting in trouble with this using the “fake” credit card numbers.
Can I be; Finley A. O’Sullivan from 95 Isaac Road, Bronte Park TAS 7140?
I was trying to get it to give me one of those nifty Aussie place names like “WuggaWugga” …
July 9th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Dave. Stop comparing FriendFeed and Twitter. I’m with cait, FF is a different beast. FF is great but its about aggregation of discussion - underneath everything else Twitter is about ‘presence’.
Try using FriendFeed on a mobile device!
Dave
PS: Watch utterz.com
July 9th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Cait >> You should save some of the phone Rant for Knightwise who sounds like he is driving a car while he was leaving a message (complete with indicators at the end of the message).
As for the guy who was hit by the tram, he was pissed which probably was better for him because the dehydration from excess alchohol prob would have limited the swelling of his brain (Dave would be able to tell you more about this).
As for throwing him in jail since when has ANY footballer of any code been held responsible for their own actions ?
July 9th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Dave. Everything on delicious has rss - even your own for: tag.
http://del.icio.us/for/david_g_1972….look at the bottom
July 9th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
For the important dave the Apple Store is pretty awesome isn’t it. i went up there day after opening using the excuse of getting an ipod for mum’s birthday which she really liked. I went up last week with aguy from work who hadn’t been up there and again on Monday and used the genius bar.
After 3 weeks I can’t believe how crowded it still is at lunch. true most people are just in there using the mac’s or surfing and checking emails and other stuff but it is still very busy.
I will post more when I eventually listen to the show. I don’t think I have listened to last weeks show yet either
July 9th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Had a listen on my evening walk.
btw - http://ericseale.vox.com/library/post/friendfeed-again.html
Identica’s backend has to many dependencies.
So do the borg references mean you’re getting bought by Microsoft?
KW is pretty funny.
It sounds like twitter is a bad IRC with less users, but I enjoy it.
July 9th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
K listening now. UAC is terrible for computer literate people. I agree with cait that it maybe good for people who click things all the time but for normal users it sucks. it just dosen’t pop up on installing programs but at least for me it pops up whenever I want to run an installed program, and I mean every time. WHY??????
I run a progam and say yes continue it should save that setting and not ask me every other time I want to run the program. Fortunately you can turn it off which is a godsend.
I haven’t had many issues with Vista but then again I only ever use it if I am gaming and not for general everyday use so can’t comment too much but if I had a choice I would have gone with XP.
July 9th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Listened this morning while driving to work.
Some interesting points raised.
@ Cait
Have you noticed, that the more expensive the car, the more likely the person is to drive without a handsfree. BMW, Prado and Pajero drivers as an example. They own relatively expensive cars and think it is their right to ignore the law, FFS, its like a $10 attachment.
I don’t know about it being a jailable offence, but certainly if i see someone swerving from lane to lane on the highway, 90% of the time they are on the phone, the other 10% either bad drivers, or drunk, thankfully not much of the latter.
My wifes PC runs Vista, i don’t like it, nor do i hate it, i do however really dislike office 2007.
July 9th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I have managed to stay away from this ‘internet crack’ you call Twitter.
Life has too many distractions has it is without adding to them
speaking of which, I should get back to work
K
July 9th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Good show, when I saw the blog post pop up before listening to it I was worried “taking it easy” meant a short show, but not so - still 1hr 20 of podcast goodness!
I moved to NSW from the UK a few years ago and was equally impressed with the RTA’s online stuff. I didn’t even have to wait the half an hour for the CTP to get through.
I loved Dave’s enthusiasm for the Vista photo viewer thingy. If I was going to get up on my Apple Box I’d say something about iPhoto doing that for years.
Agree with Cait on the mobile phone thing, although I am guilty of answering calls through my bluetooth hands free thing built into the car’s audio system. It’s quite nifty but the UI is horrible so I never actually make calls, only press the “answer” button on the steering wheel if someone calls me!
And on the twitter equivalents… I’ll be loyal for life for the first one to let me register “Tom”. OK, perhaps not - I wouldn’t want people to think I was the MySpace Tom!
July 9th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
W0wz0rs! Just recieved a new toy (not mine, unfortunantly) and it’s running bloody awsome! Wanna know why???? It’s not running Vista!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Spec:
Asus P5E Mobo (2 x PCIE 16x Slots fo rthe 2 GFX cards)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.00Ghz
3GB DDR2 Ram
500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM
Asus 8500GT x 2
Asus DVD R/W
Asus Vento A8 Chassis
Running trusty old XP Home edition!
Just thought I’d let you know (i really need a blog..) as Dave got his awsome new Toys!!!
@Blogslut - The the Apple store is the new Web lounge in the city! It’s free and the staff don’t care. I was there on Tuesday morning and it was fairly quiet, went back at lunch and it was packed!!! (I saw a lot of hotmail screens!)
Now back to installing the drivers
July 9th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
@Doug oh yea I agree about the Apple store. maybe I should go up there at lunch so I can access the sites the net nazis at work have blocked.
Dave how is the app switcher you were talking about anything like spaces in OSX? It’s just like alt-tab always has been but with 3d like graphics.
I haven’t been on twitter much as of late. They blocked it at work along with all other social network sites, tho they haven’t caught up to friendfeed yet. I was using the website for posting and just refreshing but I have a few clients at home I use but really don’t use it that much anymore.
The fake ID creator would be good for sites that need you to sign up for stuff before you can access stuff, though usually just ignore those sites to be honest.
Hmmm well that is all for now.
July 9th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Isn’t using Hotmail in an Apple store like eating a Mickey D’s hamburger at Chez Nouveau?
Seems low class to me…
July 9th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
damn guys you have gone off in the comments. I’ll have to digest them all. Nice work!
Cool to see everyone getting new toys! Sweet
July 10th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Good show - I liked the casual style (was it different from the formal style?).
What was the application in Vista that Cait loved so much that she reckons that MS should advertise it? Don’t want to sift right through the podcast to find it.
July 11th, 2008 at 12:44 am
@Herne that’s Wagga Wagga http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagga_Wagga
@Blogslut UAC goes off too often because of the “autoexecute” funcions built into earlier versions of Windows. Once DirectX and it’s ilk are killed off, it shouldn’t be needed.
@Matt the Snipping Tool! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipping_tool it’s small, simple and I’ve yet to find something I wish it does, that it doesn’t do.
July 11th, 2008 at 5:58 am
“Wagga Wagga” translates to “the place of many crows” in the Wiradjuri aboriginal language…
Who’da thought!?
July 11th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Snipping Tool!!! That’s it.
Thanks Cait - I only asked because I’ve just bought a laptop (are they called that anymore or Notebook?) for other members of my family and it came with Vista. Just wanted to explore it more fully.
The laptop has similar specs to Dave’s but it’s an ASUS. Still cleaning up some of the crap - around 70 processes running out of the box (my XP desktop only has about 28-30 running at any one time).
Message to TAI Doug - I hope the Saints win tonight (not that I barrack for them, it’s because I hate Carlton).
July 11th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
@ Matt….The saints? I have mentioned them before??? Anyway…may have got our codes mixed up….I go for the Saints (St.George Illawarra Dragons), but in the NRL, otherwise it’s swannies all the way!!
Anyone that listens to the GGP secured an iPhone 3G yet?? Im having a hard time sleeping at the moment, and I can’t get off mactalk.com.au!!
July 11th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
From CBC.ca website:
“Rogers iPhone 2nd most costly in the world” … Minimum cost of $2,176 US over mandatory 3yr contract.
When Rogers’ special pricing ends on Aug. 31, the company will take the most expensive spot with a total cost of $2,572 US…”
I think I’ll take a pass. People will sign a mandatory 3-yr contract and they’ll have a new phone in 6-8 months anyway.
Also; “The lowest total commitment will be enjoyed by Belgians, who will be on the hook for only $726 US”
Damn you, KW!
July 12th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
In Belgium and formerly Finland bundling devices and mobile service contracts is forbidden. Brilliant. Some of the deals in countries with 3 to 5 GSM operators and blankets of HSDPA at 2100Mhz is really incredible. Amazing what a bit of competition.
July 12th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Sorry Doug - it was your post on 2nd July “GO THE BLUES” http://globalgeek.thepodcastnetwork.com/2008/07/02/the-global-geek-podcast-88-fuzzy-firefox/#comments that made me think that you were a Carlton supporter (AFL).
The Swans are OK - particularly because they can’t win against Collingwood.
July 12th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
@Matt
I call it a laptop, I use it on my lap sometimes.
@the all important Doug
Duncan Riley filmed his unboxing if you want video http://www.inquisitr.com/1601/iphone-3g-unboxing/
July 14th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Yeah Right , and here in Belgium we get to buy the overpriced iphone at about 625 EURO’s and pay up 60 euro’s a month for a limited (1 gig bandcap) dataplan. Insane !
July 15th, 2008 at 6:25 am
@KW
It seems to be about 1 euro in the UK and 99 euro over on Swisscom.
Why would it cost so much in Belgium?
July 15th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Holy crap there was a lot of ranting on the show this week.
Made me want to punch things.
July 15th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Because we have a law that forbids the combined sale of a product to a service. That way the phone provider cannot “sponsor” your Iphone an lower the selling price. In addition they are riding the whole hype and charging insane amounts for the data plan you are buying. All this Iphone hype has just made it a “much sought after gadget ” and has resulted in very high prices for services (and products) no-one in their right mind would pay for if it where not for the almost “holy” iphone.
July 15th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Herne Says: “Wagga Wagga” translates to “the place of many cows”
Does that make your bedroom wagga wagga land ?
July 16th, 2008 at 12:34 am
Crows! It says crows.
Obviously English is not his first language, or perhaps even second.
The only crows in my bedroom are the ones circling over the slaughtered vestiges of my “love” lives…
July 16th, 2008 at 6:10 am
@KW
Well if I get the device here it’s 199$ + (24×70) which is roughly 1880 plus a ton of taxes and fees.
I think even at 650$ you can get it and a pre-pay orange SIM and pay less than me? I forgot what Orange is called in your land. Mobistar?
Oh well, now that you have an Ipod Touch from your international travels you can just install the new 2.0 FW and pretend it’s an Iphone.
Truphone is OK. I beta tested it on S60 last year.