TechTalk on WRLR 98.3 FM

 

 Simon Haynes on Halloween [64:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (11)

TOPIC:  Though there’s no Dave “Spooky” Saganaki this time, “Malicious” Mike Kastler has a blast doing an interview of his favorite author from down under – Simon Haynes!  Not only does Simon talk to us about his Hal Spacejock books – and Clunk, Hal’s robot sidekick – but also shares his take on new technology, programming vs. authorship, and a ton of other great stuff!

We’re always in the mood for Jay “Ghoulish” Garmon’s geek trivia (check out http://jaygarmon.net for more), and Mike rambles about current happenings in the tech world today.

Now, normally we’d have some cool sites to share – but with how interesting the talk was with Simon (and how unrestrained the time was without Dave), we just didn’t get a chance.  However … early on in the show Mike brings up an oldie but a goodie:

• Sharepod – Ever have a machine blow up on you and the only record of your music collection is on that iPod, but if you link it to a new machine you know it’ll only bring over the stuff you bought in the iTunes store and you’ll lose everything else and you’re really freaking out because that’s, like, your TUNES man, and omg what the heck is wrong with those Apple guys anyways that they won’t let you get your music off?  I mean, it’s YOUR music, right?  And you can’t get it off your iPod?  Well, calm down, stop freaking out, and just go get Sharepod – you may never go back to iTunes again!

Had to have some Halloween fun this week, so we started the show off with a little Ministry, and then tried to end with Johnathon Coulton’s RE: Your Brains!

 

 jay garmon on social media [61:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (48)

TOPIC:  You’d think twittering, facebook, myspace, and other internet “timewasters” would have no place in the business world – well, you might be right!  Jay Garmon sticks around for an extended Geek Trivia talk to discuss his recent presentations in Louisville and tells you the hits – and misses – on the road to awesomeness in your quest for business popularity on the social media scene!

That’s in addition to awesome new geek trivia (check out http://jaygarmon.net for more) Dave and Mike babbling about random news stories and the usual inanity you’ve come to associate with us weekly.

Wouldn’t really be a show without some great cool sites of the week either!

• Using Google Voice to call from your cell phone for FREE – We love free stuff, and though this might not be a free website per se, it tells you exactly how to enable Google Voice to make free phone calls all day and all night using the ‘fave 5′ and ‘friends and family’ options that most carriers have.  If you’re looking to shave a few bucks off your cell bill this is the way!  Via our good friends at lifehacker.com
• Microsoft SharedView – Like the idea of ‘GoToMeeting’ but don’t like the sky high cost?  Believe it or not, Microsoft has a perfectly serviceable (up to 15 attendees) and even more perfectly FREE option called SharedView.  Like netmeeting but on steroids. Free steroids, that is!

Feeling a little down and slow this week, so we capped it all off with Rufus Wainright’s “Going to a Town” from his album Release The Stars.

 

 the return of sparky [58:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (62)

TOPIC:  Dave comes back!  Thanks to all the emails, calls, and letters (OK, OK make that “thanks to all the email – singular – and a call”) Dave hops back into the saddle for at least a week to hang with Mike and Jay as we swap stories, talk tech, get geeky about trivia, and just generally have a great time!

Plus, Mike shows off his shiny new TechTalk Google Voice number: 847-984-0847.  Call us, leave a message, get heard on air!  If we do use your voice on air and you’ve given us enough info to figure out who you are (say, an email address or something) you may get some TechTalk tchotchke’s too … or even a book!

With all the excitement going on, Dave being back on the show, and Jay Garmon’s awesome new geek trivia and personal website (http://jaygarmon.net natch), it would have been no shame to miss the cool sites of the week.  But instead, we bring you two fantastic coolsites this week – check ‘em out:

• TextHog – Looking for an easy, quick way to track your cash expenses?  TextHog may be the (free) answer for you!  You don’t have to load in a bunch of personal data, just an email address and then start texting every expense – tagged however you like – off to texthog and you’ll get all the charts, graphs, and trends you could want.   And you wont’ be taking money out of your pocket to do it!
• GroovyPost – No, this isn’t about where to score the most rad concert info on the Dead man.  It’s all about some groovy tech tips and tricks, how-to’s and makes for a ton of stuff!  Wondering how to get Google Voice on your iPhone?  Add some internet calendars to Outlook?  Click on over to GroovyPost!

And a jumping old-school podcast only song of the week “Is This New” by The Fall!

 

 paul mcfedries windows 7 unleashed [60:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (48)

TOPIC:  Wondering about all this Windows 7 hype you’re hearing?  Not sure how you’ll figure all the new stuff out, or if it’s worth it?  Well, Paul McFedries joins us and provides answers from his 800+ page tome Windows 7; Unleashed!  We have a great time and get around to at least a few of those burning questions!

Jay Garmon does his usual Jay thing again, but we’re once again without Dave “Sparky” Saganaki.  If you’re missing Dave, send him some love at techtalk@wrlr.fm and see if we can’t beg, con, guilt or otherwise convince him to come back in the studio sometime soon!

We don’t have a huge amount of time for cool sites, but I did pick a real good one – with multiple areas – anyways:

• Aviary - With a whole host of online, free, and very cool products to check out you’ll definitely want to fly up to the aviary sometime soon.  I’ve played with the audio creator (named Myna), but you’ll have fun looking at everything if you’re more graphically inclined than me!  They’ve got flash image editors, fun color and vector editors, and more … this may be just one site, but it’s got tons of great stuff on it!

And finally, the podcast only song of the week is the totally rocking “Elvis” by These New Puritans!

 

 Mike and Jay stand alone [61:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (65)

TOPIC:  If it weren’t for Jay Garmon and his usual stand-up job with Geek Trivia, things might have been pretty quiet around the studio, as Mike is forced to do a stand-alone show! Fortunately, there’s a lot of ground to cover this week with the FCC getting involved in net neutrality, the Apple vs. Google voice debate, and things to watch out for security-wise on both Facebook and Twitter!

We finish up as usual with some awesome coolsites of the week:

• How to Use Prey – Heard stories about folks getting their iPhones and laptops back … and nailing the crooks in the process?  Now you can too (at least for your laptop or desktop), with this free and opensource product called ‘Prey!’  It’s a little confusing to set up for first-time users though, so I’m linking you to this awesome TechRepublic site how-to.
• SuperCook – The the name of this site is hyperbole?  Maybe not once you check it out!  Similar to RecipePuppy.com, SuperCook lets you list what’s in your pantry and come up with some great new recipes … that you know you’ve got the ingredients to make!

We finish it out with a song that’s a lot of fun to listen to, Fun for Me by Moloko!

The press release from Myine Electronics states “Myine’s Ira Wireless Internet Radio is designed to harness the universe of radio broadcasts available on the Internet and to allow user enjoyment anywhere a wireless internet connection, a speaker system and power sources are available.” And that pretty well sums it up – and it does a great job at it too!

The general point of the unit is to not only give you access to the world of internet streaming radio and podcasts, but to do it easily, quickly, and without having to know a whole lot about what’s going on with your network or connections. “There is a lack of good products available for people who are not tech savvy or just busy,” said Jake Sigal, Principal and Founder of Myine Electronics. “Ira doesn’t have any unnecessary bells and whistles, and sets up automatically right out of the box without a computer. We believe that with potentially confusing electronics, less is more.”

When you first break the Ira out of the box, Continue reading »

 

 Esteban Kim from Plextor [61:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (50)

TOPIC:  We may have missed them a few weeks ago, but Esteban Kim from Plextor definitely makes up for it when he joins us today!  He shares a view on where Plextor has been, what challenges storage and media device manufacturers face today, and what exciting trends to be watching for – and how Plextor will be there! You’ll also want to look at our review of the Plextor B310U on our blog here.

The inimitable Jay Garmon doesn’t disappoint us with Geek Trivia either, so it’s a great show (as usual, right?)!

Our coolsites of the week this week are perfect for any font geeks like Mike out there, and I just know there’s more than a few:

• Typedia – Billing itself as a ’shared encyclopedia of typefaces’ this site crowdsources information like a wiki to break down a huge amount of information about the various fonts, font foundries, and font families out there – as well as what they can best be used for and in many cases where to download them!
• FontCapture – Not happy with the fonts out there?  Think your own (or your kids) writing is the bomb?  Look no further; a couple of quick print-outs and then fill in your own handwriting to upload and make a downloadable font you can use anywhere here!  And of course, it’s totally free!

Sending some Ting Ting love out with their very cool ‘We Walk’ from the We Started Nothing album!

 

 urlesque stephen lentz [59:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (55)

TOPIC:  This week we talk to Stephen Lentz, editor-in-chief for the most  excellent website URLesque.com and find out why they hate cats so much (they don’t, really!).  Find out why they’re doing their best to give ‘em a break this Wednesday 9/9/09 and coordinating a web-wide No Cats Day!  We throw our hat in the ring and pledge to post no blogs about cats this Wednesday ourselves.  We’ve got Jay Garmon’s Geek Trivia on and the usual junk, including a great coolsite of the week:

• Virtual Gumshoe – Looking to find out some information on a prospective employee, contractor, boyfriend or boss?  Look no further, Virtual Gumshoe will connect you with all the best free sites on the web that offer public records, civil and court case info, arrest data and more!  And of course, most of this is verified 100% free!

We don’t have a podcast only song this week, because we got a radio edit version of Shock Horror by The View so everyone can enjoy!  Check it out and tune in next week too!

 

 Mike and Dave [61:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (67)

TOPIC:  We make good on our hype this week by providing you a solid hour of straight up news and views (we’ll leave the reviews and interviews for another week)!  Jay also treats us to a new and intriguing Geek Trivia that gets everyone thinking, whether your name is Customer Jones or just sounds like it …   You’ll have to tune in to hear what it is!

And what would a show with Dave and Mike be without some truly awesome cool sites of the week? Wait, you don’t have to answer that, because we include some really good ones for you right here:

• TED: Ideas Worth Sharing – Suggested by our longtime listener and good friend Greg, this site is like a YouTube for awesome tech, businessm and entertainment industry talks and conferences!  If you’re like me you’ll easily blow an hour or two thumbing through some of the more interesting ones …
• Rainmeter – Want to customize your desktop way beyond what Vista or Google sidebars will let you do?  Not much of a programmer?  You’ve heard us talk about Rainmeter and Samurize in the past, but with Rainmeter 1.0 you no longer have to have a degree in programming and hours of time to flip through config files!  If you haven’t seen it before, check it out now and you’ll be amazed at how much information you can add to that boring desktop – and how cool it will look when you’re done!

Finally, the podcast only song of the week is He’s Frank (Slight Return) by The BPA feat. Iggy Pop. Truly a podcast only bonus; remember if you’re not listening to us on the web, you are missing out!

Next week we’re looking forward to having URLEsque back on to celebrate a “Day Without (Web) Cats”!

 

 Mike and Dave [60:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (19)

TOPIC:  Although we promised you Plextor, you got something even better – a full hour of Dave and Mike!  OK, so maybe not so much.  How about if I told you we spent extra time with Jay Garmon discussing the missing three weeks of Geek Trivia?  And we got our tech on yakking about news like our upcoming trip to Oracle Open World 2009, Microsoft’s possible injunction against selling Word, and then we delve into the “grey” area of technology, hacking and video games!

Don’t worry though, we’re looking to get Plextor back in the near future.  Of course, no show would be complete without some of the coolest of the cool sites on the web:

• How to Crack a WEP key – Our good friends at Lifehacker.com give us the full breakdown on how to use the free software Backtrack to crack WEP keys for fun and profit!
• Password Checker – Not sure how secure that password is?  Microsoft provides a free and easy way to check it.

And the podcast only song of the week is the rather melancholy “Disney’s Ice Parade” by Ballboy.  Note that this has some adult themed lyrics.