• Ep. 291 - Do Facts Have a Half-Life? Sam Arbesman Says "Yes!"

    TOPIC:  We have a great interview today with the author of the book "The Half-Life of Facts," Sam Arbesman!  It's a fascinating and deep book, and Sam does a wonderful job of explaining how all of the "facts" we know are constantly being overturned ... and that this is occurring at a mathematically definable rate.  If that scares you, don't worry, we also spend a lot of time talking about Popeye, astronomy, and who e...
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  • Episode 114 - Matt Richtel and Your Email Footprint

    TOPIC: August 16th, 2008 (A CLASSIC FROM OUR ARCHIVES) - This week's geek trivia winner receives a copy of Matt Richtel's "Hooked", and then we talk to the author himself about the craziness of a monkey-style brain trying to recreate it's arboreal roots via electronic stimulation. No, really. And yes, it does make sense! Of course we've got our awesome cool sites of the week - www.criminalsearches.com will expose...
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  • Ep. 296 - Singularity Rising Author James Miller

    TOPIC:  The coming AI singularity - that point when the growth of non-human intelligence surpasses our ability to control (even understand it) is coming.  Do you know how it will affect you, and what you can do about it?  This week we have a fantastic conversation with author James Miller about his new book Singularity Rising ... tune in to find out if you should be excited, afraid, or both! Jay Garmon hits us up ...
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  • Ep. 172 - Total Recall sans Arnie

    TOPIC:  Jim Gemmell scares the h-e-double hockey sticks out of Dave and our station manager when he talks about how the e-memory revolution, lifelogging, and cloud-based information storage is going to change your life!  He and Gordon Bell, both of Microsoft, have written a not-so-little book called "Total Recall," and we really get into the nitty-gritty of what the coming decade could mean to you - and how you can g...
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  • Ep. 247 - NYT Tech Writer Nick Bilton

    TOPIC:     Mike fights through a bad headcold to bring an excellent show to your ears - thanks mostly to his guests of course!  Lead technology writer for the New York Times and author of the book "I Live in the Future & Here's How it Works" Nick Bilton comes on for a solid half hour of cerebral social networking discussion, and we have Scott Andraschko, Director of IT for the Round Lake Area Schools as a spec...
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  • Ep. 194 - Tom Standage and The Economist's Technology Quarterly

    TOPIC:  The title of this one pretty much says it all, but doesn't give you a hint at what an awesome guest Tom was!  We don't have nearly the time needed to get into all the cool stories from the Economist's special Technology Quarterly insert (though we give it that old college try), but Tom's promised to come back next quarter and fill us in again! Jay Garmon does his usual great job at keeping us on our g...
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  • Ep. 235 - Matt Richtel's Idle Hands!

    TOPIC:  Pulitzer prize winning journalist and author Matt Richtel comes on-air to discuss his newest book and the fate of our brains, on tech!  Plus, Jay Garmon gives us another zinger with this geek trivia question: How many mommies and daddies did Dolly, the famous cloned sheep have? We would've like to spend more time with Matt and Jay, but don't mind getting one coolsite in anyways: Intel's Museum of Me - I...
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  • Ep. 217 - Facebook for Old Folks!

    TOPIC:  Dave and Mike have a GREAT time with return victim ... errm, guest that is, Mike Miller!  He talks to us about his new book Facebook for Grownups (or as I like to call it - "Facebook for Old Folks"). This wouldn't really be TechTalk without our good friend Jay Garmon as he asks us this toughy: What classic board game was used by the Allies to help rescue POW's during WWII? We wind up with just enough t...
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  • Ep. 300 - Alex Knapp of Forbes and Asteroid Contingency Planning

    TOPIC:  Wow! Episode 300 ... and what a great one it is too!  Oddly enough, our tricentennial goes unremarked, either through excessive humility or rampant obliviousness (long time listeners of the show will be placing their bets on obliviousness), but with Dave "Sparky" Saganaki, good friend Jay Garmon and new friend of the show Alex Knapp of Forbes magazine tech and blog fame, this is an outstanding reflection on t...
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  • Special Report - Who's Your GoDaddy!? Round 2

    I have some important follow-up to my last post about the GoDaddy issue. Back on Friday, July 17, I posted to the blog here the lack of responsiveness that we got regarding what seemed to be pretty clearly a configuration issue on GoDaddy's mail servers.  I'm including my written email to their support below, as well as the eventual written response that I got from their Office of the President as well. Late ...
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  • Episode 130 - Parry Aftab's Happy Safemas!

    TOPIC: December 20 - It's almost Christmas, everyone's shopping is at full gear, and Parry Aftab, the "angel of the Internet", is here to make sure you surf safely into the new year! Plus a great holiday-themed Geek Trivia from Jay Garmon, and a very special guest contributor - "The Fixer" - with some fixer-approved cool sites! Have a merry, blessed and SAFE Christmas this year! Oh, and don't forget our very...
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  • Ep. 314 - Talking Tesla!

    TOPIC:  If you are interested in hearing the REAL story of one of the greatest innovators and inventors of our time, you'll want to queue this 'cast up in your playlist immediately!  We have a great time with W. Bernard Carlson as he joins us to discuss his new book "Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age."   Although he may have had some mental short circuits, Telsa fought against all resistance, and through a sho...
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  • Ep. 195 - Mark Frauenfelder's "Made by Hand"

    TOPIC:  You may have seen him on "The Colbert Show," but you'll actually get to listen to him on TechTalk!  We explore some of the deeper avenues of what it means to be DIY, why it's happening now, and what part Mark Frauenfelder, former engineer and founder of boingboing.net is playing in it today. It's a true "don't-miss" interview for the TechTalk guys, and Mark's newest book "Made by Hand: Searching for M...
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  • Ep. 310 - Talking Trek with Jeanne Wolf and the Saturday Evening Post!

    TOPIC: Whether you are a "Trekkie" or not ... wait a minute, what show are you listening to?  Of COURSE you're a Trekkie!  So in that case you'll definitely want to tune in this week as we have an in-depth and engaging discussion about Star Trek, old, recent, new and future with Jeanne Wolf, Hollywood journalist and media pundit.  We cover the gamut from Trek as a vanguard of racial integration on TV, Kirk as a me...
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  • Ep. 292 - Speaking Naturally with Nuance's Peter Mahoney!

    TOPIC:  Peter Mahoney of Nuance and Dragon Naturally Speaking fame comes on-air today to discuss the ins and outs of Voice Recognition software and technology, and gives listeners a phenomenal insight to not just the tech, but the business and history!  If you've ever wondered where those hidden Markov models went to, or then again, even if you hadn't, this is a great show to tune into! Even before Peter comes on...
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Archive for May, 2014

Ep 350 – Dave S. in Da House!

May 28th

Posted by TechTalk in mike and dave

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Dave in Da House! [ 58:28 | 53.53 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (261)

TOPIC:  That’s right, prodigal host Dave “Sparky” Saganaki brings his unique flavor of flaming cheesiness back in-studio as a very special (and surprise) visit!

So we talk about the morality of self-driving cars, which programmer gets to decide who gets killed in an accident, and more!  Jay Garmon joins us for a while and gives us this great trivia question:

What is the highest maximum level you can play in Pac Man, and what is the highest possible score?

Waaay too much fun talking to Dave to try and sneak any cool sites of the week in, but we do snag a podcast only song of the week especially for our resident evil scientist “Rob Shot First” host Rob Rigel! “When You’re Evil” by Voltaire.

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Ep 349 – Strikingly CEO David Chen!

May 15th

Posted by TechTalk in interview

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Strikingly David Chen [ 56:45 | 51.95 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (300)

TOPIC:  Are you one of the millions of people looking for a job, and not sure if your paper resume, LinkedIn profile and friendly cover letter are doing the trick? Join us today as we talk to David Chen from Strikingly! He tells us about the Strikingly service and how it  provides a beautiful online resume for you to share, or an easy way to create a full website without that cookie cutter look.

We dish on Beats, talk about sex offender apps, and more, but really most of that is just marking time until good friend Jay Garmon shows up to provide this awesome question of the week:

What was the first Internet browser that supported tabbed browsing?

Coolsites of the week are back and as awesome as ever!

  • FamilyWatchdog.us – Enter your address or city and get an interactive map so you can be forewarned!
  • Friend Verifier App for Facebook – This app will scan your facebook friends, compare them against a national database and let you know if any of them have been forced to register.
  • Strikingly – What we’re talking about!
  • Strikingly LinkedIn OneClick – Automagically pulls your LinkedIn profile and creates a beautiful, interactive and editable online resume for you!
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Ep. 348 – Artkick’s Stephen Kahn!

May 7th

Posted by TechTalk in interview

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Artkick Stephen Kahn [ 1:00:06 | 55.02 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (471)

artkickTOPIC:  Have you ever wanted to have more beauty and art in your house, but you don’t have the money (or time) to buy a new print every week, frame it, hang it, trade out the kids photos, yada yada yada? If so, you’ll definitely want to tune in this week when Dave and I talk to Stephen Kahn from Artkick! Stephen shares insight into the origin Artkick, what it is, what’s coming next, and how you can start showing literally billions of dollars of artwork in your home, today, for free!

Not only that, but Jay Garmon finally rewards your patience with an answer to last month’s geek trivia and a new one to be thinking about:

What famous horror film shared casting with the original Star Wars movie?

Coolsites of the week are back and as awesome as ever!

  • Artkick – Art for free, on your TV!
  • KeepAwake – Chrome app to keep your chromebook from hibernating or going to sleep.
  • TechSmith App/Extension – Screenshots, recording, and more, specifically for Chrome and Chromebooks!

And the podcast only song of the week this week is YACHT’s “Psychic City”

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