Technology Bytes Radio » InfoShot

We’ll try the Digg style site for the InfoShot again. Let me know if this approach is useful and if you think you’d use a site like this for news updates during the week.

Coffee.geekradio.com

Waste a little time

admin — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 20:20:05 +0000

Someone has created a selection of Star Trek themed motivational posters. They are all pretty funny, so if you want to waste some time, go here

InfoShot 8/1/2006 – Experimental version

admin — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 23:50:27 +0000

I wanted to try out a Digg-style link system and there were a lot of links for tonight’s news, so I put them in a beta version of the software. Go to http://coffee.geekradio.com and check out the links. Also, let me know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing me at peter@geekradio.com.

Gauging Interest – Would site users like a Digg-style link system?

admin — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 15:40:16 +0000

With the growth of collaborative bookmarking sites like Digg, Del.icio.us and others, would those of you who visit this site regularly like and/or use a collaborative linking site focused on the areas of interest to the show? I use some of the collaborative sites, but they often have a broader focus than I am looking for so I don’t follow the vast majority of the links.

I have the software that we could use, but I wanted to be sure that this is a solution to something that people want/need before I do much work to implement it.

Use the comments to make your opinion known. I want to know if you would: 1) use a collaborative link site and 2) contribute links and comments to it. Ideally, it would be like getting an InfoShot every day…

InfoShot 7/26/2006 – Now with 4GB of Flash Cache

admin — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 00:37:31 +0000

Ruh-roh – MPAA sues the wrong guy… Nasa no longer protects the planet… Trojan piggybacks on FireFox… How long is your iPod supposed to last?… Now you can Ride the Lightning, Enter Sandman, And Justice for All on iTunes… Vista to benefit from 4 Gigs of Falsh Cache – for Speed!

Boing, Boing: The MPAA finally sues the wrong person

Though [30-year-old software developer Shawn Hogan] expects to incur more than $100,000 in legal fees, he thinks it’s a small price to pay to challenge the MPAA’s tactics. “They’re completely abusing the system,” Hogan says. “I would spend well into the millions on this.”

Oops – I guess the scan and sue software picked the wrong guy to F— with.

Boing, Boing: Earth left defenseless from greenhouse gases, aliens, robot invaders

NASA officials removed the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet” from their mission statement over political pressure from global warming naysayers,

So some political dumbass – my guess is the successor to the college dropout who was pushing creationist bullshit – decided that NASA should ignore global warming. IMO, global warming exists and is caused by humans – this will stay my opinion until there is solid, peer-reviewed science that disproves that hypothesis.

Cnet News: Trojan piggybacks on Firefox

The FormSpy spyware then gleans sensitive information, such as credit card and bank account numbers, from the user’s browser and forwards it to a malicious Web site.

This is a low impact trojan, but it also tries to steal your passwords for just about every web service you might touch.

iLounge: Apple: iPods designed to last four years

In a Chicago Tribune article on faulty iPods, an Apple spokeswoman said that failure rates for the device are low, and that an iPod is designed to last four years.

I wonder what kind of iPods will be available in another 3 years when my Nano gets old.

Cnet News: Metallica ends iTunes holdout

Metallica, one of the biggest acts yet to make its music available for sale via Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store, has ended its holdout.

Enter iTunes…

the Inquirer: Samsung offers 4GB flash drive for Microsoft Vista

What Ready Boost purports to do is to populate the flash drive with data by readying favourite apps and data in the background. A traditional HDD is limited to serving 100 to 200 requests a second, but Samsung claims its thing will manage to service 5,000 requests a second.

This one bears watching – it could speed up and secure more than just Vista boxes.

And that’s the news…

InfoShot: Cheaper Big Screen Edition

admin — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 00:51:57 +0000

This week’s InfoShot:

Lack of demand means cheaper big screen TVs… Toyota re-plugged… msPod more expensive, less space?… NBC takes next Fall’s shows to Netflix… Apple Rumors: iTunes to rent movies? Bigger nanos in the pipeline?…

Links and comments after the jump…

Yahoo News: Flat-panel TVs get less pricey faster

“A year ago, a 37-inch flat-panel model typically cost about $4,000. Now, some can be found for as little as $1,100, says television analyst Rosemary Abowd at Pacific Media Associates…

Expect prices to fall even more in coming months, Abowd says. TV makers generally offer discounts during the busy fall and winter shopping seasons.”

So bad news for TV manufacturers could be good news for you!

Marketwatch: Toyota mulls plug-in hybrids, ethanol cars for US

“[Toyota North America President Jim] Press did not elaborate in his remarks on the company’s exact plan related to plug-in hybrid vehicles, except to say the announcement of Toyota’s interest in such products has been “highly anticipated.” Ford (F) Chief Executive Bill Ford in May said his company is considering selling a plug-in hybrid vehicle, which can be plugged in when not in use in order to recharge batteries.”

The story also says Toyota wants to cut the price premium for Hybrids in half. A plugin hybrid with half the price premium could be a serious good deal for total cost compared to a regular car.

the Inquirer: Further msPod rumours emerge

“…the player will launch in November in the US and come with 30gb of storage with pricing similar to the 60gb iPod – approximately $399.

…The player will arrive in three different colours with a dual-tone effect on each, and a scroll wheel will sit beneath an oversize screen, and menu options will include “Music,” “Video,” “Pictures,” “Community,” “Extras,” and “Settings”.

…will be “incompatible with other Windows Media services,” forcing focus on one device, one jukebox and one music store, similar to the iPod/iTunes combination.”

I wonder who the genius is that thinks MS should have a smaller capacity at a high price. The features they list are not compelling enough to justify a high price. Without a serious change in price or features MS is lining up to be a loser. They might want to call Creative and learn from their experiences.

Gizmodo: Netflix To Offer Sneak Preview of Fall NBC Shows

Sounds like NBC is trying to harness the power of DVD to promote shows instead of waiting and selling DVDs after. Now they just need to make a deal with iTunes as well.

ThinkSecret: WWDC surprise: Apple to announce iTunes movie rentals

“Think Secret has learned exclusively that CEO Steve Jobs will use his keynote address to announce the debut of movie rentals through the iTunes Music Store.

…industry experts tell Think Secret that the software would likely either limit the number of playbacks or provide unlimited viewing for a period of time…”

I think the movie biz won the battle with Apple (forcing rental rather than ownership) but they will lose the war if they try to force Apple to sell iTunes resolution movies at the same price as DVDs.

ThinkSecret: Second-gen iPod nano on tap for August

“The new nano is said to be very similar to the company’s current offering but will feature increased capacity and be available in multiple colors, some of which will feature a metal alloy enclosure…

Exact capacities are not known, but reasonable speculation suggests the line will top out at 6GB or 8GB.”

More colors and higher capacity could be nice – it won’t make me want a new nano (I’ve got a black 4 gig) but the bigger capacity would be tempting if you needed it.