Mar 05
Douglas BellOn the Web
Okay, I couldn’t let Josh have free reign on this blog forever without chiming in. And what better opportunity to actually have time to blog then now, the start of Spring Break? 
Even so, one of the sites that I’ve been following for awhile is a site called MacHeist. It’s actually a very interesting site that first launched in late 2006: it started by providing challenges to Mac users whereby a “Directorate” would provide details to agents (users) of some crime or task that would have to be completed, and would generally involve users going across the web to different participating sites whereby they would have to use logic, code deciphering, and all kinds of weird tricks to solve the heist–with the prize being free Mac shareware licenses. During the three MacHeist events that they’ve done since then (November 2006, January 2008, and February-March 2009), community members have gathered together on their site and collectively worked together to crack the code.
Well that’s been the fund part of MacHeist (and word is they’ve got MacHeist 4 coming up soon…), but the other side to their site has been the marketing of big, heavily-discounted software bundles that also serve as fundraisers for many different charities. Imagine: getting a bundle of awesome Mac software that you wouldn’t have thought to try anyway at over a 90% discount, and then 25% of your purchase goes to charity! In fact, the various large bundles and nanobundles have cumulatively raised nearly $2 million so far; this bundle along is about to hit $150,000 as I write this blog post.
The current nanobundle is only on sale until Wednesday, but it packs a punch: seven awesome shareware apps for only $19.95 (with three more for free on top of that if you tweet about it). Normally, I’m only excited about a few apps in a bundle, but this time around I’m actually excited about a majority of the apps here, most notably RipIt, Clips, CoverScout, and Flow. (Okay, Flow is for me because I’m a geek who develops websites.) And the other apps there are none too shabby either.
MacHeist isn’t the only site that does these bundles, but in my opinion they’ve had some of the best. And the great things to note about these bundles are a) all of the apps in the bundle are 100% full, valid, paid-for licenses of the apps you get, updates included; b) even though the sites claim that some of the apps won’t be unlocked until a certain number of bundles are purchased, every app always manages to become unlocked, and often additional apps are added to these bundles mid-stream; and c) yes, the developers do actually get paid for the software purchased through the bundle, though the details of how that works generally isn’t made public. MacHeist is also the only bundle site that does contribute 25% of all purchases to charity, going to the purchaser’s choice of Action Against Hunger, AIDS Research Alliance, Save The Children, Direct Relief International, Humane Society International, Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Alliance for Climate Protection, Save Darfur, Prevent Cancer Foundation, or the World Wildlife Fund. Or the purchaser can choose to split the donation between all ten.
I just like these bundles because they’re a great way of introducing me to some really cool Mac shareware apps that I would never have known about otherwise (nor would I have bothered to purchase), whether or not I decide to buy them. But this week’s nanoBundle looks pretty good, and you might want to check it out.
Mar 05
JoshIt's Not TV It's... Something
While you wait patiently for another episode of Tech tAUk, allow me to satiate your appetite with some good old-fashioned Chatroulette comedy.
On last night’s “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart gave a satirical take on the creepy site and how newspeople are going on it to find stories. He then went on Chatroulette and found, among others, all three of the big-name network news anchors. (Brian Williams, Katie Couric, and Diane Sawyer, FYI)
But before I give you the link, check out this screengrab.
“Tech-Talch”? That suspiciously resembles “Tech tAUk.” You’ve got some ’splaining to do!
Click here to view the segment.
Mar 03
JoshIt's Not TV It's... Something, On the Web
I’ve mentioned the whole Tonight Show fiasco on the show a few times, but in all this there is nothing that “tech”-worthy about this thing, with the exception of many hilarious viral videos.
Well, we’ve finally found something. You may have heard about this thing called “Chatroulette.” Douglas and I did a segment on it during the show we taped this past Saturday (once again, Final Cut Pro aims to destroy us all). You can go on the site and chat with anyone, literally anyone. Well, this social networking site is just what the lazy writers at “The Tonight Show” are looking for. Behold this actual Chatroulette conversation.
Okay. Indulge me if you will while I recreate that conversation with some commentary.
“Hello from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno! This is not a joke.”
Oh, okay. For a minute there I was about to laugh riotously at the thought that the most venerated late night talk show program in broadcasting history was resorting to talent scouting Chatroulette, but okay. This is not a joke. Continue.
“Show us your special talent.”
Um… are these people aware of what Chatroulette is mostly used for?
“Keep it clean…this is taped for national TV!”
Well, when you put it like that, of COURSE people are going to want to keep it clean!
“Your participation implies consent for us to use your image and likeness on our program, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, including promotional segments.”
Wait. So these videos could be used to PROMOTE the show? As in, for commercials? Oh dear Lord.
“Programs will be aired next week, March 2-5 on NBC. Go to www.nbc.com for more information.”
So it’s this and World’s Tightest Pants. Is that what they got?
“Hi! Where are you from?”
Starts out the conversation nicely.
“hawaii”
Cowabunga, dude!
“Oh! Hawaii! You are the only state not covered in 2 feet of snow right now!”
Ha ha ha ha ha! Wow, I’m laughing so hard right now! What an astute observation from someone working on a comedy program that several islands located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean are not covered in snow! Hi-larious! What a topical joke for a state that was in the news recently trying to prepare for a tsunami! Ha!
“What is your first name?”
“daniel”
“you?”
“Hi Daniel! I’m Andrea with The Tonight Show!”
Oh good. Because if this was a man, it would be MUCH CREEPIER.
“Do you have any special talents?”
Given that Daniel doesn’t respond right away, I’m sure he’s busy laughing his ass off at how pathetic this seems. Not getting it, Andrea presses on.
“Any dance moves to show us?”
AHA! So this is what the people on “The Tonight Show” are looking for! Random people online dancing in front of a webcam! They might as well bring on the Numa Numa guy.
“thanks”
“maybe”
“FUCK JAY LENO! CONAN O’BRIEN FOR LIFE!”
And now we say Amen.
Mar 03
JoshOn the Web
“You are now entering Google, Kansas.”
You think I’m kidding about this? Nope. Enjoy…
The city of Topeka wants so badly to be picked for Google’s broadband experiment, it changed its name for the next month to Google, Kansas.
Did you catch that last part? “For the next month.” So Topeka will ONLY be known as “Google” in March. That sounds almost as dumb as New Mexico passing a resolution declaring Pluto is a planet in their state. Oh, wait. They did?
Never mind.
Anyway, Topeka. You were beginning to explain yourself?
It all started with Jared Starkey, a 26-year-old who runs Lamp Development, a small web-design business in Topeka.
Starkey came up with the idea to change the city’s name to Google, and it caught the eye of a local TV-station manager, Jim Ogle, who brought it to the mayor’s attention.
“So, I just issued a proclamation,” Topeka — er, Google — Mayor Bill Bunten explained, crediting Starkey with the idea. “If we were chosen, we would have it and others wouldn’t, and that would be a positive for us. … It’s another way to let people know what we’re doing here,” Bunten said.
So is there something about the wireless service in Topeka you would like to tell us about, Mayor?
Essentially Topeka is a guinea pig for Google’s test run of a broadband system that is much faster than what we all use now. But to be fair, this isn’t the first time a city has renamed itself because they wanted to suck up to a giant corporation. A city in Texas formerly known as Clark was renamed “DISH, Texas” in 2005 after the satellite TV provider. (Which meant that all 55 of the houses in the town got satellite TV.)
I’m just worried. The last time Kansas tried to rebrand itself they ended up with Munchkins and Wicked Witches everywhere.
Mar 02
JoshA More Transparent Union?
On our last released episode (we apologize for the delay), I brought up the craziness that was Carly Fiorina’s “demon sheep” ad. To recap, she accused her Republican primary opponent of not being a true fiscal conservative by portraying him as a literal wolf in sheep’s clothing. Hilarious.
But lo! The plot thickens…
California state Rep. Chuck DeVore, a candidate for the Republican nomination for Senate, has a fun online activity going on today: Asking visitors to go a special Web site and hunt the demon sheep!
Yes, there is a third sheep in the pack. Only he insists that the person who accused the other person of being a demon sheep is ALSO a demon sheep! And he is the only true sheep in the pack. But what’s this of “hunting” I hear?
DeVore’s Demon Sheep hunt invited visitors to put their names down as hunting the two moderates in the race — Campbell and Fiorina, as the DeVore campaign sees it. People can sign up as having killed a Demon Sheep, while posting a comment on the race and selecting from a “method of takedown” list: squish, shear, crisp (as in burning to a crisp), and mock. The sheep-killing is then cross-posted to the user’s Twitter of [sic] Facebook account.
Oh. So you can fictionally kill a sheep on a website created by the campaign of a man running for the Senate in California, thereby affirming your dedication to the conservative movement.
Geez, that last sentence looks like a Mad Lib.
Well, maybe the DeVore campaign will be able to wring some good out of this after all. After all, this is a great way to get young people interested in your campaign, and then utilize that youth power to collect donations.
It doesn’t appear that this is any kind of fundraiser. There is no button to donate money, nor any direct request for money. Instead, it appears to simply be an opportunity make fun of Carly Fiorina. Of the four choices of Demon Sheep takedown, “mock” would appear to be the most relevant option.
So, according to the site TalkingPointsMemo, “there is no button to donate money, nor any direct request for money.” So should I assume the following picture I snapped directly from the Demon Sheep site isn’t real?
In fairness to the people at TalkingPointsMemo, they were probably too busy laughing their asses off at the sheep to notice.
Mar 02
JoshVideo Games
Okay, so we’re still having Final Cut Pro problems. We’ve contacted Apple, and they’ve been unable to help us. Maybe they could ask one of the orphans working in their Chinese factories if they have any guesses…
Anyway.
In passing, I mentioned on our first show of the year that there were rumors floating around that legendary rocker Jimi Hendrix is getting his own Rock Band game. Well, rumor no longer…
Jimi Hendrix’s stepsister, Janie Hendrix, who controls the late guitar god’s estate, let it slip during an L.A. Times interview that a Hendrix edition of “Rock Band” will be coming before the end of the year.
The statement was made while discussing the impact of Sony Music’s licensing deal for the Hendrix master recordings last year. “At the time the deal was completed,” read the article. “Sony vowed to make his music ‘available through every type of media’ — including a new edition of ‘Rock Band’ that Janie Hendrix says should appear before the end of this year.”
There we go. Finally, some good news. Well, I feel truly happy today. So I’m going to just sit back, relax, and hope that nothing Harmonix says will deflate my good mood.
When contacted, Harmonix denied it, leading one to believe there was either an apparent miscommunication somewhere down the line.
“While we have not made any official announcements regarding Jimi Hendrix and Rock Band, but we are excited to say that we are in discussions to bring more of his music to our platform. Stay tuned,” the spokesperson told IGN.
This means that Hendrix music could land in the form of DLC or on Rock Band 3, which Dhani Harrison is reportedly helping with.
Motherf**ker.
Feb 28
Douglas BellShow Info
Final Cut Pro has declared war on ATV. Well, most of ATV–for some reason there are some shows that seem to be able to edit without problems. But for other shows–and for some reason Tech tAUk seems to be the most frequent victim here–Final Cut Pro is causing major problems with our episode’s audio, and so far no one at ATV, AU, or Apple itself has been able to figure out what is going on.
So for right now we have two episodes in the can, one that we filmed on February 20 and another on February 27, and we will do our best to get them released as soon as we possibly can. Hopefully by the time we get back from Spring Break we will be all caught up. Sorry for the continued waiting.
Feb 27
JoshOn the Web
Kudos to my friend Justin for linking this to me.
Garfield minus Garfield is a site that takes Garfield comic strips and erases Garfield from them.
Based on that premise, you might think there is very little humor in it, but it’s hilarious to see Jon essentially talking to no one. Here’s a taste:
I love this concept. We should try it with “American Idol.” Take out the singers and have Simon tell thin air that it’s complete rubbish.
Feb 26
JoshIt's Not TV It's... Something
Hip hip hooray! CNN’s Political Ticker is FINALLY on Facebook. Thank God, because I was starting to get worried that Rick Sanchez constantly on Twitter wasn’t enough social networking for CNN!
But here’s something I couldn’t help but notice. Check out when CNN Political Ticker put up its first FB post.
“February 18 at 3:02 pm”
Now check out when CNN announced this on CNN.com:
“February 26th, 2010 02:38 PM ET”
So CNN waited eight days to announce their new Facebook page. What were they doing, making sure the oil on their menorah would last long enough?
But the nice thing about CNN on Facebook is that their fans can post to their wall. And I’m sure no one will abuse the system…
(Click here to abuse the system.)
Feb 26
JoshA More Transparent Union?
For reasons I can’t quite remember, I’m a fan of Admiral Mike Mullen on Facebook. Not sure why, but I think this has something to do with it.
Anyway, today he (or whichever DoD intern he has running his FB page) posted a link to a Defense Department memorandum for the Responsible and Effective Use of Internet-base Capabilities. It essentially lays out the Department of Defense guidelines for using the internet and social networking sites, and how they’re going to crack down on abuses of the system.
This is such a fascinating document for a number of reasons. First, it’s a little surreal for the military to be using social networking. Admiral Mullen also has a Twitter feed, as does the entire Defense Department. For the rest, I have below two excerpts from the memorandum that really interested me.
Commanders at all levels and Heads of DoD Components shall continue to deny access to sites with prohibited content and to prohibit users from engaging in prohibited activity via social media sites (e.g., pornography, gambling, hate-crime related activities.
But they’ll still be allowed to play Farmville, right?
But this leads me to an important question: was this not happening before? See, I live by the principle that if a large government organization writes something down on a piece of paper, half the time it means they didn’t do it already, and the other half of the time it’s just redundant.
Next…
Wikis.
I know this lacks any context whatsoever, but the fact that the Department of Defense is utilizing Wikis should be enough for this little excerpt.
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