Posts tagged windows
Ep. 264 – Give it Up For Facebook?
Mar 27th
TOPIC: Do you need a job so badly that you’re willing to give potential employers the keys to your private life? That’s just one of the questions we attempt to answer this week, in addition to looking at the Windows 8 Metro interface, getting excited about Photoshop 6 being available for free (well, until mid-April or so anyways) and hearing another fabulous geek trivia question from Jay Garmon:
If we had kept all planets given that designation throughout history (e.g., Pluto, or the asteroid Pallas), how many planets would there be in the Solar System today?
We have some great coolsites of the week too, some you’ll have to listen to the show for but others right here:
- BPMinus – Be your own DJ! Allows you to change the tempo of music without altering pitch – perfect for budding musicians trying to get that speed metal riff just right too!
- Transparent Screen – Lets you see “through” your android device so you can safely (?) text and walk! Search for it in the Google Play app store.
- MiniLyrics – Automatically download and display lyrics to your favorite songs, pretty much no matter what you are using to listen with! Free and with a surprisingly large number of apps supported.
The podcast only song of the week is “Dead End” by The Whitest Boy Alive.
Ep. 192 – The Lost ‘cast … or … Mike and Dave Unplugged!
Jun 5th
TOPIC: The audio quality may be poor, but the content quality is up to our usual standards (about mediocre) in this “lost” episode – we were SURE the mic’s were off for this one, but thanks to one dedicated listener (that means YOU GeorgeAI from Denver – who’s getting a super cool TechTalk cap for his trouble!) this episode was captured for posterity!
We miss Jay Garmon this week – I guess if he’s not on tape he just can’t be bothered – though as always you should check out jaygarmon.net for any additional Jayness you might be missing!
We stack the deck with some way cool coolsites that I thought I’d get to use again, but you’ll catch them here first:
- Evil – Not really, just shows you some people who haven’t hidden their facebook phone numbers as well as they think they have!
- TripAdvisor.com – Find out info on all the places you are thinking of going, plus some great deals and recommendations. According to Dave, the blogs are the best!
- TripWolf.com – a slightly more social take on the TripAdvisor idea, where you can post pics and notes on your favorite places!
- Yapta.com – Already bought a ticket? Log it on Yapta to be notified if/when that price drops so you can renegotiate.
- SeatExpert.com – Never get your knees in your nose at the bulkhead again! Well, maybe they can’t promise that, but you will certainly get some great advice on the best (and worst) seats to pick from on most any flight you’ll be taking!
- KnockingLiveVideo.com – One-to-one video sharing between iPhones! Very cool way to share where you’re at and what you’re doing, live!
The podcast only song of the week this week is Chick Lit by We Are Scientists!
Ep. 186 – Here, There, Whatever!
Apr 16th
TOPIC: Mike blabs on and on about his jetsetter traveling lifestyle trying to impress us all with how fabulous it is going to conferences all the time. It doesn’t work, but Dave manages to squeeze some good news in here and there too!
After answering our burning questions about the Fringe reference to Back to the Future with Eric Stoltz, Jay Garmon comes through with another great geek trivia question:
Before Windows, before MS-DOS, what was the FIRST operating system released by Microsoft?
Then we’ve got a theme for our coolsites this week – web sites that will help you get all “churched up” for Easter … some great Christian and Bible reference sites:
Wouldn’t be a complete show without the podcast only song of the week, so this week we bring you “Kill Monsters in the Rain” by Steel Train!
Ep. 166 – Lance Ulanoff of PCMag.com talks Win7!
Nov 12th
TOPIC: Dave’s back in the saddle with us today as we have the priveledge of Lance Ulanoff, Editor-In-Chief for PCMag.com coming back on air with us! This time out, Lance gives us the skinny on Windows 7, what’s hot and what’s not about it and answers the burning question “should I dump XP and jump over Vista?”
Another great week of awesomeness comes your way as Jay “Geek Trivia” Garmon gives us what for and answers last week’s question.
This time around we don’t skimp on the cool sites of the week either! There’s still a bit of a MS theme, but some real gems you may not know about:
- Microsoft Technet: Server Quest II – Remember King’s Quest or Leisure Suit Larry? Well, this may not be quite as fun as those, but it’s pretty close, feels the same, is free, and focuses on your hapless tech support technician and how he learns to save the IT Department (and get the girl). By Microsoft, so naturally many of the answers to the puzzles start with ‘MS’…
- Microsoft’s Deploying Windows 7 Essential Guide – Pretty much exactly what it says, in PDF format you can load on your Kindle or simply view on-screen for some great tips!
- VistaSwitcher – No, it won’t help you switch from Vista to something else … but it does speed up the Vista Alt-Tab graphical wingding and make it much slicker! Since it’s free, if you’re stuck with Vista for a while longer you might want to check it out!
- Lake County Passage – If you live in Lake County, IL, where WRLR broadcasts out of, this will help you see the traffic before you get there! Even works on some of your smarter smart phones like the iPhone and Storm!
Got to tune it down with a little Iron and Wine and their single “Belated Promise Ring” – but I promise next week we’ll get a little more up-tempo!
Ep. 162 – Windows 7 Unleashed by Paul McFedries
Oct 11th
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!
Episode 146 – Speed it Up! with Mike Miller
May 7th
TOPIC: Author and musician Mike Miller comes back to the show to talk to us about making the most out of that ‘dying’ PC. If you’re debating whether you should upgrade to a newer piece of equipment or if it’s possible to squeeze some more useful life out of what you’ve got, you’ll want to listen in this week! His tips and insight are also good in general, and you’ll be sure to pick up something of value even if you don’t get his highly recommended book Speed it Up! A Non-Technical Guide for Speeding Up Slow Computers
We also spend a lot of time with our good friend Jay “Geek Trivia” Garmon, who informs us that WRLR now has an exclusive lock on the Geek Trivia output from Louisville!
In addition to all of that excitement, we’ve got our cool sites of the week:
- Panda Cloud Antivirus – Free, light, outstanding quality? Wow, how better to sum up what we look for in a cool site of the week! Get your hands on this necessary piece of software and protect your computer today …
- Windows Live SkyDrive – More very cool microsoft cloud stuff, this gives you 25GB of free online space. That’s right, that’s a capital G for giga and a lower-case f for free! You’ll need an office live account, but guess what? Those are free too!
Our podcast only song of the week this week is Kinky’s remake of Mexican Radio. And don’t forget to check out Mike Miller’s Speed it Up! or any of his other many excellent tomes!
Episode 144 – iolo Technologies’ Kraig Lane!
Apr 14th
TOPIC: March 28 – iolo Technologies’ Director of Product Business Management Kraig Lane joins us with a special podcast only sweet deal! Here’s what you do: First, listen to the show and hear about how you can crank up the speed on your PC, protect yourself from malicious attacks, enjoy “Stress Awareness Month” and Earth Day, and catch the answer (and new question) from the ubiquitous Jay Garmon!
Then, head on over to iolo.com and look at all the cool stuff they’ve got to offer. Between now and Saturday, April 25th, if you buy System Mechanic and enter the code “GreenPC” you will get 40% off the purchase price! Due to FCC restrictions, we couldn’t give you details over the air (or in the podcast) but since you’ve paid attention and found it here, have at it!
Topping that off, we bring you 3 coolsites of the week this week:
- FREE Amazon Indie music for download (and no DRM!)
- The Applian FREE audio/visual automatic web recording toolbar
- And now that you’ve got all this cool tunes to play, the Yahoo! media player to embed them on your website or myspace page!
Once you’re done checking that out, make sure and sign up for the newsletter – everyone on the mailing list is automatically included in the continuing GIVEAWAYS we’ve got going on! Over the next several months we’ll be giving away copies of Mike Miller’s book “Speed It Up!“, iFrogz DJ Headphones, and more … keep tuning us in to find out what!
Then you’ll definitely want to listen to our podcast only song of the week, which this week goes out to fallen hero Bob Weinger – he’s the son of one of Mike’s friends, and recently gave his life in Iraq. Listen to Bukky Leo’s rendition of “Why Can’t We Live Together.“




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