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Posts tagged music
Ep. 290 – From Saganaki to Shatner, everything’s coming up cheese!
Nov 29th
TOPIC: Who’s that on the phone? Holy Cannoli it’s prodigal host Dave “Sparky” Saganaki! That’s right, Dave jumps in remote style and helps us share the news about rogue murdering anti-virus millionaires, why or why not you might want to give up that clunky iPad and look for the slightly smaller (and cheaper) iPad Mini, and more! Dave’s audio quality may be a bit choppy, but the show quality is raised immeasurably!
Jay Garmon helps bump that level even higher by giving us a tremendous amount of Thanksgiving geek to digest – plus we get this tech aperitif:
What percentage of employers have fired people for shopping at work on Cyber Monday?
We had WAY too much fun with Dave and Jay to get around to coolsites of the week this week, but there is a special TechTalk challenge: Can you make it through all 5’40″ of “Bohemian Rhapsody” as sung by …. William Shatner?! (my personal best is 3’07″)
Ep. 272 – Beachfest #75 is Music Happy Fun Day for TechTalk!
Jun 19th
TOPIC: It’s the 75th anniversary of the founding of Round Lake Beach, Illinois and WRLR (and by extension the TechTalk show) is there! On the corner of the fair, honking horns and all … plus no Internet means we deliver a decidedly different show for you, filled with short blips of news and commentary and a solid 1/2 dozen or so tunes handpicked by yours truly.
Listen at your own risk; this one was fun to cut but is definitely NOT your typical TechTalk. Congrats to Round Lake Beach, and ENJOY! :)
Ep. 268 – iPad, uPad, we all Pad!
May 10th
TOPIC: Except Dave, that is … that’s right Dave has declared a moratorium on tablet discussion! Unfortunately, he chose the week that Mike got an iPad from work, so good luck with that 
Other than waaaay too much talk about tablets for Dave’s liking, we have a lot of fun discussion Amazon book price fixing, the Beastie Boys loss of Adam Yauch (MCA) and then Jay Garmon comes in to talk Avengers, JJ Abrams and this awesome question:
What is the legal definition (from 1893) of whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable, and why?
Coolsites of the week are actually Mike and Dave’s first Coo Apps of the week, with some of the best apps we’ve found so far!
- Vevo (iOS) – MTV (or VH1 for you oldsters out there) comes into the 21st century on your iPad! Watch music videos all day, every day with this sweet (and free) app.
- Flipboard (iOS) – Just about the best and prettiest news app you’re likely to find, it also integrates your twitter and facebook feeds into the stream!
- AppyGeek (Android) – Get geek news in a nicely formatted interface!
- KhanAcademy (iOS) – As cool as the online version, a great way to get access to educational materials and videos, for free!
- PBS (iOS) – PBS has a ton of great apps, but NOVA Elements is my favorite!
- FedePlayer (Android) – Downloads pictures and album covers of the music you are listening to.
Send us your favorite apps too, both Dave and I would love to hear them (and will share on-air next week!).
The podcast only song of the week is “Pass the Mic” by The Beastie Boys.
Ep. 267 – Tonsil Hockey and Tongue Bowling!
May 4th
TOPIC: Quality Warning – the first 15 minutes have some crackle and pops, so don’t adjust your audio. They do go away after that!
Dave and Mike have a great time discussing Spotify apps, and then get back into that whole android vs. iPad discussion, which is particularly relevant to Mike as he anxiously awaits the arrival of his new iPad next week. The Hugo-adjacent Jay Garmon joins us for some intelligent repartee and asks the following question of the week:
What star is the reference for the apparent magnitude scale of celestial brightness?
Coolsites of the week include:
- YourLogicalFallacyIs – Wondering why that argument you’re having online seems to be going in circles? Need a quick way to tell someone exactly why they’re wrong? This is the site for you!
- SpotFlux – Protect your data by using spotflux whenever you’re in a non-protected wifi environment! Free VPN.
The podcast only song of the week is the pleasingly retro “On Board” by Friendly Fires.
Ep. 245 – Spotify Killed the Radio Star
Oct 4th
TOPIC: Mike and Dave miss our good buddy Jay Garmon, but have a lot of fun anyways debating Pandora vs. Slacker vs. iTunes and your personal music collection … and whatever you pick now it’s all shared on Facebook, for better or worse! We get into some browser wars, security and police, and then find a little time for coolsites of the week:
- Desmos Graphing Calculator – Quick and easy, great looking graphs from your functions and data points; almost enough to make even Mike look smart!
- Stickman – A great game for those of us whose drawing ability is stuck at about 2nd grade!
- Google Flights – Searching, planes, airlines, prices. Perfect!
- Hipmunk – Great mobile and web app for finding not just the cheapest, but the best flights!
The podcast only song of the week this week is “Hang Me Up to Dry” by The Cold War Kids!
Ep. 244 – A Vaccination for Late Fees?
Sep 27th
TOPIC: OK, maybe not, but Mike and Dave cover so much ground (and go so far off the rails) there’s no possible headline that could encompass it all! Between bemoaning the anti-vaccer movement to Kindle library books and Spotify on Facebook, we get a lot of great conversation in … and the occasional bit of tech too!
Jay Garmon comes to us with yet another great geek trivia question:
Since ratification in 1972, how many people have filed suit under the space liability convention?
We go for quality not quantity this week on the coolsites with:
- Mouse Without Borders (download link) – Straight from microsoft’s garage, this KVM killer will let you run multiple machines with a single mouse and keyboard!
- F.Lux – adjusts your screen color and brightness automagically based on the time of day and your location.
The podcast only song of the week this week is “Bomba” by Jesse Matador!
Ep. 237 – Your WiFi Hacking Neighbors from Hell!
Jul 20th
TOPIC: Dave and Mike get a little bit freaked out by the WiFi hacking neighbor from hell story, and a little more by the fact that Netflix is changing! Better yet, Spotify finally hits the US (if you want an invite, email Mike at techtalk@wrlr.fm).
Then there’s the always outstanding geek trivia from our good friend Jay Garmon:
Apollo 10 astronauts gave what unconventional call signs to their lunar and command modules, marking the last time astronauts were allowed to provide the names?
As if that wasn’t enough, we also get a couple of great coolsites of the week in with:
- DIYorNot? – Not sure if you should tackle that project on your own? Check this site out to know for sure!
- BetterPropoganda – Get your Indie fix on here, with stuff that’s new and cool and free to listen to and download!
The podcast only song of the week is “Migosa” by Amadou and Maryam. Enjoy!
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