If you haven’t seen the commercials, just know it’s safe to turn your TV to G4TTV on New Years Day, especially if you’re a fan of XPlay; they’ll be showing selected episodes of X-Play all day long. They go back to some of the best themed shows of the year, and they’re pretty good ones, especially for a whole day full of just X-PLay. To read the full X-Day programming schedule, click here:
A hilarious session, no doubt. Evan (samureye), a member of the Long Live TechTV YahooGroup and tech writer in his own regard, had the opportunity to interview Joey “The Intern,” formerly of Unscrewed fame, which was recently canned by G4 management for reasons they leave vauge and see fit to let the fan community wonder about. Either way, the interview itself gives us a peek into G4’s management and staff, and what they wound up doing to our beloved Unscrewed before they up and canceled it, not to mention an up-close-and-personal chat with Joey himself! Great work Evan, thanks!
The interview:
[ http://tekstop.blogspot.com/2004/12/interview-with-joey-intern-part-1.html ]
Evan’s technology blog; TechStuff:
[ http://tekstop.blogspot.com/ ]
and his personal blog:
[ http://samureye.blogspot.com/ ]
Two people we desperately miss after The Fall are definitely Becky Worley and Roger Chang; and when we got word on the Long Live TechTV YahooGroup that the two of them would be making an appearance on Sacramento’s KMAX program “Good Day Sacramento,” we were thrilled! The program aired on Dec. 26th, and in Becky Worley’s own words:
Just wanted to let you know that Roger Chang and I are doing some computer segments on the morning of Sunday,
December 26th- It’s intended to be kinda like the old call-for-help-a-thon. We’re going to be on KMAX in Sacramento: “Good
Morning Sacramento.”
Sound completely random? you’re right! An old friend/producer from TechLive is now the E.P. at KMAX
(Brandon Mercer) and is desperate for some help and content on a slow news day. I figure it’s always good
to help someone in distress- cause then they owe you, FOR LIFE!”
Becky! Man, I miss seeing her on TV. You can watch the video of their day-after-Christmas TV appearance right here, look for “Becky Worley’s Tech Report.” Could this be a regular thing? We can only hope!
PCWorld’s columnist, Anush Yegyazarian, brings us an insightful look at the give and take involving cities and municipalities that are trying to establish free, city-wide wi-fi internet access and the telecomm companies and business groups on the other side of the argument that, fearing for their lives in the face of free government wi-fi, are pushing back at cities whose goal is to bring internet access to all of their citizens.
More and more the concept of wireless broadband internet access is looking easier and easier to impliment than a national fiber infrastructure, (although we should definitely go that direction as well) and cities and counties are looking at setting up regional wifi networks as a way to provide consistent and blanketing internet access to communities, schools, and provide subnets for emergency agencies like police and fire departments. But the business sector has their objections, and like big business does, they have an influence on state governments, and they’re trying to block the progress of such moves.
Yegyazarian gives us an in-depth look at the entire debate, and calls it like she sees it; business needs to relax a bit, realize this is no real challenge, and let the information flow like water to the schools and homes of our nation’s cities; only good can come of this-and personally, I agree with her.
The X-Play site was recently updated with a quick interview with everyone’s favorite gamer girl and co-host of X-Play (and of course, those of us who really know our stuff remember her from her blonde days on The Screen Savers), Morgan Webb!
It’s not much to get excited about, just a quick Q and A that gives fans a peek into the mind of the mysterious Morgan Webb, who only seems to update her blog every 9 months or so (what’s up with that, Morgan? Ah well, you probably have better things to do) and has spawned such fansites as I Heart Morgan Webb, and tha rampant posting of her photo shoots that appeared in Maxim and FHM everywhere on the net. Anyway, questions include her favorite X-Play ep, and why she loves Tokyo so much:
[ http://www.g4techtv.com/xplay/features/50650/Quickie_Morgan_Webb.html ]
A beautiful (albeit long) article in the New York Times about blogging and it’s effect on dating, relationships, social networks, and the lives of bloggers came to the rescue of this morning’s doldrums of reading about politics. The piece follows the cause and effect of blogging about relationships, how blogging has impacted several peoples’ lives. Additionally, you get a little history about blogging, what it is and how to get involved, and why blogging is so popular.
I remember I started my first “blog” back in 1997; when I was in college and realized that I got free webspace and stayed up a couple of nights learning HTML and building what at the time was just a “personal homepage,” as people called it back then-the word “blog” didn’t exist. I just wrote on and off about what happened on a day by day basis, it was like an online diary for all who knew the address to see, and it was a cool way for people who knew you to stay in touch regardless of where they were, as long as they had an internet connection. Who knew that something that was such a leisurely pastime would grow into a digital phenomenon?
Anyway, the article discusses with prominent and popular bloggers the pros and cons of blogging about relationships and dating, not to mention address the privacy concerns of blogging what some people think is private information that somehow and suddenly becomes public on the web for all to read and interpret as they wish. Definitely a worthwhile read.
Many people have been sounding the death toll for the PDA for years now, claiming that they’ll be soon replaced by more versatile devices like smartphones and Blackberries that can stay online all the time, allow users to snag their email wirelessly, browse the web from anywhere using a cellular network, and talk on the phone when they see fit, but also stay used to the perks people on the go love about PDAs, calendars, contact keeping, a few games, and the like.
Personally, I love my Palm Tungsten T3 and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, especially not a smartphone, mostly because I have yet to see a smartphone that can perform the functions a PDA can as well as the functions a cellphone can and produce the web browsing capabilities that I crave WELL; sure smartphones can do them all, but they tend to do them all pretty poorly, and I think that’s the reason the PDA is hanging on, albeit by a thread. Until the technology takes a few more steps forward, I’ll consider adding a wireless card to my PDA and keeping my cellphone a separate device, but admittedly I might be in the minority, as more and more people look to carry one device that does everything they could possibly want in a palmtop system.
[ http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20041223_155104.html ]
If you got a shiny new desktop or laptop this holiday season, you might want to make sure it’s patched up and ready before you send it out onto the net; looks like the predators are right there waiting for your brand new, unpatched and unprepared PC to come online so they can attack it, even if your first destination is Windows Update to try and grab those necessary patches to make sure you’re safe and secure online. It’s a tough situation, but it’s the reality of the cyber world in which we live. Unfortunately I have yet to really see solid reccomendations for people with new computers to make sure they’re safe and secure before they go online; not everyone is an IT professional and makes a point to grab all the recent patches and security fixes and slap them on a CD to install offline before going online to get everything else.
Regardless, being aware and being informed is the first step to being safe, so read on:
[ http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=cp_tech_home&articleID=1802184 ]
Looks like more and more people are switching to broadband, and rightfully so. When I made the switch to broadband, I couldn’t imagine going back to dialup for anything-the difference between using dialup for even things as menial as retrieving email versus broadband were enormous and amazing; and this was before I started doing things like online gaming, downloading, and web developing.
Regardless, the United States is still lacking in people who use broadband internet access at home, and a lot of people still don’t have access to it or figure they don’t need access to it if they have access at work. No matter, I still look forward to the day when dial-up is a backup for a national broadband infrastructure and high-quality broadband internet access is ubiquitous.
[ http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/22/technology/broadband.reut/index.htm ]
In a Christmas Eve blog post, David Pouge sings the praises of Firefox, especially in the wake of yet another Internet Explorer vulnerability being found; this time related to exactly how easy it is for phishers to falsify web address information when a user is using IE. His suggestion for keeping safe and secure on the web? Well, switch to Firefox, for starters:
[ http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/24/technology/circuits/24pogues-posts.html ]
Happy Holidays everyone! From the TechTV Forever crew to you!
//
TSS Will Return On Thurs. 1/6 & Fir 1/7 Next Week
Mon 12/27/2004
Homebrewing Dark Tips, House, LAN Party — 12/16/2004 Show
Tues. 12/28/2004
Tony Pierce, Alan Tudyk, Slashdot Killers — 12/13/2004 Show
Wed. 12/29/2004
Zap-N-Trash, Overclocked Scrubber, DVD Tuesday — 12/14/2004 Show
Thurs. 12/30/2004
Drew Curtis, SLI PCs, Lit — 12/17/2004 Show
Fri. 12/31/2004 — New Year’s Eve
No Show — G4techTV Specials: Road To G-Phoria Vol. 4 &
Players 314 Pre-Phoria
—– TSS Weekend ———-
Sat. 1/1/05 — New Year’s Day 2005
No Show — X-Day — X Play Viewer’s Choice Shows
Sun. 1/2/05 — 4pm ET / 1pm PT
Drew Curtis, SLI PCs, Lit — 12/17/2004 Show
(schedule courtesy of nightone001)
As much as politicians talk big about wanting to preserve the environment and promote newer, less oil-reliant energy technologies, it looks like fuel-cells might actually be taking hold as a new automobile technology. It looks promising to those of us tired of paying high prices for gasoline or watching the money fly out of our wallets or the economy come screeching to a halt all over the price of oil. Wired News has the digs, check it out:
This tip was kindly posted by Jean, a member of the TechTV Forever and Long Live TechTV Yahoogroups! It’s a really good one, and anyone who’s done any IT work knows that sometimes the tipoff to what caused a specific problem or system failure has everything to do with what’s changed on the system recently. Jean gives us a way to track the changes we’ve made to our operating systems. She posts:
Have you ever been in the process of troubleshooting and needed to know what configuration changes the system has recently experienced? Knowing this kind of information can go a long way in helping track down the cause of the problem you’re investigating.
Windows XP’s System Information tool takes a daily snapshot of your system’s configuration, and it records all changes to key elements. In fact, System Information compiles and stores a month’s worth of data in its history file. As such, System Information provides a beneficial troubleshooting database.
You can easily investigate System Information’s configuration change history. Follow these steps:
1.. Open the System Information tool by typing Msinfo32.exe at the Run (Start | Run) prompt. (You can also access it by going to Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Information.)
2.. From the View menu, select System History.
3.. Select a category from the System Summary tree on the left.
4.. Select a date from the View Changes Since drop-down list.
When you do so, you’ll see a listing that displays the date and time of the change along with detailed information on the exact nature of the change.
If you know what you’re looking for, you can use the System Information tool’s Find feature to quickly scan through the listing.
Now this is pretty cool. A web surfing wireless device designed specifically for, well, web surfing. I could see this device getting popular easily, as people would love to check webmail or read their favorite websites on the go, and would prefer that those sites actually look something like the sites they’re used to seeing. It looks very promising, even if the device is roughly 200 bucks and can only be used for web browsing; it’s kind of like having a net terminal that you can connect to your cellphone wherever you might go. And for 10 bucks a month, that’s not a horrible thing. For people who can’t stand to be disconnected but don’t always need the bulkiness of a laptop around, this could be just the ticket.
However, if this device takes off, it makes me wonder about the PDA market-for example, bluetooth capable, high resolution PDAs are already on the market; so why not just make software for a Palm or a PocketPC that does this? Oh wait-it’s been done, but it’s not wildly popular. Hmm.
I know, I know, we all miss the old cast and crew of The Screen Savers, but now you can have them on your desktop! This one was passed along by a member of the Long Live TechTV Yahoogroup a while ago, and it’s only fitting to share! Now you can have Pat, Leo, Sarah, Yoshi, Megan, Morgan, Kevin, Jessica, or Martin on your desktop (or the entire crew) sitting right behind your windows reminding you that you too can solve those computer problems!
The desktops were done by Dan Heiss, who runs Venis Productions, [ http://www.venisproductions.com/ ] an art and production studio that has a ton of really good comics, games, music, and more on their site! When you snag your favorite desktop and wallpaper it, make sure to stick around the site and read some comic archives, kill some time watching movies, or even drop Dan a line to tell him how much you appreciate his keeping his work online. If you really like, he says he’s available for freelance art and design, so somebody hire him and pay him lots of moneyhats. Thanks Dan!
Before you head out for the holiday and make the trek to visit friends or family, check out PCWorld’s tips on how to make it through airport and train security checkpoints with all the neat toys you know you’ll need while you’re away (or that you want to show off to your family and friends) and make sure that you’ll keep your sanity and your toys won’t be dismantled or destroyed in the process.
From tips on where to get accurate travel information from the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) and some suggestions on keeping your items safe, hopefully this will help you get your goodies through the system. Happy holidays!
[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,119015,tk,dn122104X,00.asp ]
Mon. 12/20/04
Giant Robot, Gen Con, Dishwalla, Freaks and Geeks — 12/9/2004 Show
Tues. 12/21/04
TigerDirect.com Charity PC Race, The Sun — 12/10/2004 Show
Wed. 12/22/04
Giant Robot, Gen Con, Dishwalla, Freaks and Geeks — 12/9/2004 Show
Thurs. 12/23/04
TigerDirect.com Charity PC Race, The Sun — 12/10/2004 Show
Fri. 12/24/04
Joe Bauer, SeaScooter. Free Voicemail — 12/8/2004 Show
— TSS Weekend —
Sat. 12/25/04 — (Special Time)– 1am ET / 10pm PT
Giant Robot, Gen Con, Dishwalla, Freaks and Geeks — 12/9/2004 Show
Sun 12/26/04 — 4pm ET / 1pm PT
TigerDirect.com Charity PC Race, The Sun — 12/10/2004 Show
(schedule courtesy of nightone001)
But it obviously won’t be that easy. BitTorrent, the all-the-rage peer-to-peer file sharing technology is completely decentralized, and even harder to crack down on than more popularly targeted networks like KaZaA and Grokster. Hollywood is tired of people sharing movies, both new and old, and is following the music industry’s example by crying that such downloads are cutting into studio profits, DVD and video sales and rentals, and the salaries of actors, directors, and staff. But the larger question remains, while Hollywood is obviously serious about it, the music industry’s tactics haven’t stopped or even slowed down online file sharing, so why does the MPAA think they’ll fare any better?
Looks like they’re at it again. A couple of months ago, Real and Apple traded blows when Harmony, RealNetworks’ digital rights management technology essentially allowed their music to be protected as well as played on iPods, a tactic that Apple took offense to. Well, “take offense” is putting it lightly, Apple accused Real of “hacking” the iPod, and Apple’s own FairPlay digital rights management technology. Apple released an iPod update for the iPod photo that locks songs downloaded from RealNetworks’ online music store from being played on the iPod, and Real promises to retaliate. Read all about it:
Apple Locks Out RealNetworks With iPod Update
[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118967,tk,dn121604X,00.asp ]
RealNetworks Promises IPod Fix
[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118975,tk,dn121604X,00.asp ]
If you’re like me, you have way too many images that you’d love to make your wallpaper, but only one (or in my case, a few) screens to decorate with them. There are lots of wallpaper management applications out there, but Wallpaper Master seems to encompass the features of several of them. Wallpaper master will examine directories for recently added or removed images, allow you to create categories for your wallpapers, and more. Check it out:
“Wallpaper Master allows you to change your desktop wallpaper automatically every X minutes. You can create your own categories, using images on your computer, and cycle through one or multiple categories in random order, listed order or based on your personal ratings. The programs offers advanced auto-size options to make sure your images are displayed in with optimized size. You can also change the wallpaper instantly by simply clicking the tray icon. Additional features include customizable position and background color, directory monitoring and more.”