Welcome to the first of our listener tribute shows. All the articles and content for this show has been contributed by the awesome AGP community, thanks guys!

So that we can include your suggestions in the next tribute show please tag your ideas with the tag “aussiegeeks” in delicious! We are always on the lookout for new contributors!

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t forget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Welcome

• Dave’s Trip to Sydney and Meet-Up on the 10th of July! DETAILS HERE!

Tech News

• Robot Designs [via Herne]
• Big Mess O Wires [via Herne]
• Twitter: Land of Sheep [via Tom125]
• 30 Years of GUI’s [TechAndLife]
• 13 Year Old Entrepreneur [via Herne]
• Be Careful with Those Happy Snaps [via Tom125]
• Nokia Contest for Developers [via EricSeale]
• Ultimate Curved Screen [via CableTie]
• Copyright 101 [via Herne]

The Break

Promo for the PhotoNetCast

Applications

• Image Resizer Powertoy Clone [via Matt88]: Open Source image cloning software that has been re-written to include 64 bit systems
• Locale [via EricSeale]: Android application that adjusts phone settings based on location
• Object Dock [via DavidMFyfe]: Dock that mimics a Mac (somewhat) great looks and functional
• Moovida Media Player [via EricSeale]: Great looking media player with awesome options for plug ins and web based content

Geek Project

• The Wall Mounted Mac [via Herne]

Sites and Services

• ToodleDo [via DavidMFyfe]: GTD solution with more options than you could ever need
• Montastic [via TechAndLife]: Website monitoring service with good options at a good price

Feedback

• Sneeze [via CableTie] oink! oink!

Farewell

• Write us a review in iTunes
• Follow us on twitter
• Join the AGP Forum
• Remember the delicious tag is #aussiegeeks

Featured Music

She Stole My Beer
“Twisted Vehicle” (mp3)
from “Mule”
(Curve Music)

Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
More On This Album

Welcome to the Aussie Geek Podcast News Edition! We had a great time recording the show and we are stoked at this new format. From the feedback it looks like you guys are liking it as well. Still tweaking the format and the running sheet. Getting closer to a desirable time and the stress is less.

Thanks for the support and remember that next week is the Listener Tribute Show! Listen for the details!

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Show Notes

Welcome

• Big Hello to Cait! *wave*

News

• EPIC Tech Fails
• The Duke is Slow at Dying
• Hubble Gets Harpooned by Canada
• Twitter in Space
• EeePC Range Update
• Firefox Release Status Update
• Blip.fm on Watch

The Break

• Twitter Screws Up… again
• Stupid iTunes Rejections
• Gmail Import Feature
• Intel Fined
• Windows 7 Update
• Norway Tests Tests

Feedback

Farewell

• Write us a review in iTunes
• Follow us on twitter
• Join the AGP Forum
• Remember the delicious tag is #aussiegeeks

Featured Music

The Buoys
“Borderline” (mp3)
from “Blue Sky”
(ItsAboutMusic.com)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Napster
More On This Album

Welcome to the 2nd show of our new format. This episode is devoted to applications, sites and services or A.S.S. for short until we can think of a better name!

Thank you for all the great feedback that you have sent in regarding the new format and the continued support - much appreciated and valued.

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Welcome

News

Applications

• TrueCrypt: Powerful whole or patition or thumb drive on the fly encryption.
• KeePassX: Cross platform password generation and management tool.
• Filelight: Drive visualization tool for Linux
• OverDisk: Drive visualization tool for Windows

Firefox Extensions

• IETab: View IE only websites in Firefox
• Automatic Save Folder: Save specific downloads and types to specific places on your harddrive

iPhone App

• CameraBag: Apply old style effects to your images
• Chase Jarvis’ tips on using your iPhone camera, make sure you check out the portfolio
• iPhone Apps Round 4 on the AGP Forum
• Aussie Rules Live: Follow the AFL with great stats and realtime updates

Blackberry App

• HockeyNews: keep track of NHL games and teams, especially useful for playoffs!

Sites and Services

• AlternativeTo: Awesome software comparrison site for both paid and free software

Two Username Taken Sites Compared

• Knowem
• Namechk

URL Shortening Services Compared

• is.gd
• bit.ly
• tinyarro.ws
• lnk.by
• ow.ly

Twitter Flavoured Site

• Visible Tweets: One of the best tweet visualization services that we have seen, we love this one. Give it a try and you’ll see what we mean!

Feedback

• Team Cal and their new blog The Server Room

Farewell

• Write us a review in iTunes
• Follow us on twitter
• Join the AGP Forum

• Remember the delicious tag is #aussiegeeks

Featured Music

Truth Movement
“Disconnected” (mp3)
from “Technology Analogy”
(Ci Fi Records)

Buy at coreyscorner
Buy at myspacemusic
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Puretracks
Buy at mTraks
More On This Album

Just want to have a small gloat that we have achieved the AGP Holy Grail! Yes I too found it hard to believe. Sure it is a fraction over the hour mark but blame Herne for that, it is his music…

That aside, this is a massive week for the AGP as this show marks the biggest change to the AGP since before it was the AGP. So, want your feedback and suggestions! But listen closely for how things are going to work and we will be following up later in the week with a post about the proposed changes.

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Welcome

Tech News

• Apple less Secure in 2007 (research)
• Yahoo! Slams the Door on an Internet Relic
• Various twitter News and Happenings
• Some Apple WIN and some Apple FAIL
• Samsung Makes It’s Latest HD Offerings
• Birthday for an Old Handheld Legend
• Ubuntu News and Release of 9.04
• One Very Expensive Movie

Application

• BumpTop: Turn your digital desktop into something that may look like your real desktop. Make sure that you take the time to watch the video.

Firefox Extension

• Shareaholic: We have covered this before, but this week saw a major update and significant enough to warrant another mention and review. This is one of the best sharing extenions you can get and well worth the inclusion in your list of must have extensions.
• Keith gives us an update on WEAVE that he has been using for the last week

Site of the Week

• twitter Kama: See on one page who you are following and if they are following back and take action either way in bulk.

Feedback

Farewell

• Write us a review in iTunes
• Follow us on twitter
• Join the AGP Forum

• Remember the delicious tag is #aussiegeeks

Featured Music

Jeff Narell
“Up In the Air” (mp3)
from “Callaloo”
(Lost Tribe Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Napster
Buy at Puretracks
Buy at mTraks
More On This Album

Welcome to the AGP, finally! The gods were against me this week as I tried to post produce the show. But I finally made it, I was starting to wonder if I would. Please enjoy the episode and we welcome any and all feedback through the usual channels.

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Tech News

• Travel by PUMA, safe as houses, yeah right!
• Apple ditches Windows, not sure if this is sad or funny…
• twitter Won’t Sell, For any Price
• Google’s Server Tech
• Skype News
• Firefox on Top in Europe
• bit.ly Valuation
• Western Digital gets serious about Solid State
• Google Adds Easy Attachment of Images

Applications

• Shouttr: Have your tweets read to you
• GMinder: Desktop alerts for GCal Events
• Portable Ubuntu: Runs from your thumb drive in Windows
• Video Monkey (Mac): Video conversion app gets a new lease on life

Firefox Extension

• TV-Fox: Watch TV from your browser from channels around the world (Even Belgium)

iPhone App

• Remote: Control iTunes from your “i” device

Sites and Services

• Follow Fridays: A twitter meme now has a home
• Huge URL: Pointless from Herne, make small URL’s generally useless
• Periodic Table of Typefaces: interesting image, like to see someone do something with it
• QRBox: Generate QR Codes from the browser by one of our listeners: John McClumpha

Feedback

• USB Finger Images on Flickr (Thanks Pål)

Farewell

• Write us a review in iTunes
• Follow us on twitter
• Join the AGP Forum

Featured Music

Lisa Weyerhaeuser
“Your Love is Greater Than” (mp3)
from “Life On Earth”
(Gambit Music Group)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic
Buy at Napster
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

For the first time ever, in 110 podcast episodes, Dave’s not here. Cait and Keith have put together a piece of AGP history. We had quite a bit of fun messing with Dave’s carefully crafted show… and we’re looking forward to having him back for the next episode.

This week’s show is brought to you by contributors to the AGP Delicious feed.  As always, if you find great items and want to submit them to us for inclusion in the show, tag them with the tag “aussiegeeks” in delicious.  Enjoy!

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Tech News

• AdMob Metrics show huge iPhone trend
• Norway to Ban Gasoline by 2015
• Foreign GPS Banned in China
• Last.fm kills off third-party mobile apps
• Twitter gets you fired in 140 characters or less
• Google releases a half-million books for Sony eReader
• Fujitsu Colour eBook reader challenges Kindle
• Volvo City Safety makes cars smarter
• Australia’s Internet Filter ruled by a single bureaucrat

Geek Project

• Wall-mounted PC

Sites and Services

• Old Version: Find old or obsolete versions of classic apps
• Top Twitter Friends: Visualize your Twitter Network
• Sumo Paint: Photoshopping on the Web

Feedback

Farewell

• Write us a review in iTunes
• Follow us on twitter
• Join the AGP Forum

Featured Music

Cruisebox - “On a Podcast”

Download at Mevio

Hi guys, just a quick site update, I’ve disabled the AGP Wall.

Since the addition of the Forums the AGP Wall has fallen into a mixture of disarray and sheer drunken lazyness, I gathered together all the other pages and had an intervention for the AGP Wall, its now on a 12-step program to a better place…

If you really loved the AGP Wall and you would prefer it still be around, I’ll pull it out of rehab to its former glory, but for the time being I think its run its course.

That said, if anyone hasn’t yet…

SUBSCRIBE TO THE AGP FORUM!

Don’t worry the intro is not 4 minutes! But to hear the back story to that one you will have to listen to the very end.

Welcome to the geek for this week. Keith and I recorded a fantastic show this week, we had a great time and the result is an awesome podcast. Enjoy!

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Tech News

• 17 Year old dirty with Apple
• ISS Crew have a Close call with Junk
• GrandCentral and Google
• Battery Evolution
• Microsoft do Apps
• New iPod Shuffle
• Google Ads
• YouTube in the UK
• 100% Market Share for Firefox
• Possibly One of the Best YouTube Music Videos we have Ever Seen
  • Check Out the Album

The Break

• The toilet Conversation

Applications

• Last.FM Downloader: Download tracks form Last.FM database based on URL, tag information
• SharePod: Add, remove, back-up and manipulate music and videos on your iPod without iTunes
• Multiplex (Mac Only): Keep track of those music files in style
• Update FoxIt Reader

Firefox Extension

• Multirow Bookmarks Toolbar: The name speaks for it’s self we think

Sites and Services

• twendz: Track over all twitter user setiment on your brand
• KAYWA: Create QR codes form a web based service (Thanks Chris)
• OpenWith.org: Finds free programs to open your file based on the extension type (Pick of the week!)
• ioj.com: File uploader + windows shell extension to quickly share files

Feedback

Farewell

• Write us a review in iTunes
• Follow us on twitter
• Join the AGP Forum

Featured Music

The Dirty T’s
“I Just Want to Watch You Want to See Me Naked” (mp3)
from “Dirty, Dirtier, Dirtiest”
(Hindoo Kow Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Napster
Buy at mTraks
More On This Album

Image from Laughing Squid on Flickr

Are you missing the New Facebook? Wondering what all the fuss is about? Wondering why you don’t have it and some of your friends do? Annoyed your friends are all talking about how much they love and/or hate it and you can’t even see it? You’re not alone.

Facebook has done what is known as a blind staggered rollout deployment, so some people randomly get the new version before other people. Most blind rollouts are not based on what users want or who they are, but on things like dataset size or database location of dataset.

It’s not you, it’s Facebook. Yes, you’ll get the new one soon and yes, some of it looks a bit like Twitter, no it’s still not as good as Twitter.

It’s good IT manners to notify your application/service users of the following when planning a deployment:

Deployment Manners 101

Who

• Who will be impacted?
• Who will not be impacted?

What

• What’s going to happen?
• Will functions change or move or look different?

Where

• Where are the changes documented for users to view in advance?
• Where are these impacted users located (ie. desk, floor, building, state, country, etc)?
• Where is the roadmap for future changes?

How

• How will this deployment happen?
• How will the users experience it?
• How do users get help if they need it?
• How will users be impacted?
• How will I know who has the new deployment and who hasn’t?
• How should large user groups plan important events during this deployment period?
• How can I be more involved before the next deployment, so I can ensure my views are included during planning?

Why

• Why is this deployment happening?
• Why can’t everything stay the way it is now?
• Why is the new stuff better than the old stuff?
• Why was some of the old stuff better than the new stuff is going to be? (there are always flaws or downgraded features, don’t pretend there aren’t, it makes people hate you)
• Why didn’t you ask me about this before you did it?
• Why can’t you put it back the way I liked it before?

Need some help with the new-new-new-bloody-stop-it-Facebook?

The official Facebook Tour: New Facebook Home Page

The crappy Facebook announcement Welcome to your New Home Page

Laurel Papworth has created this to help you out New Facebook Features: Filter Stream Publisher.

Welcome to the latest installment of the AGP! We are happy to report that Cait is back and with us this week. Trust that you enjoy the show!

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Tech News

• Give it Up for Lent
• Google Earth and Others Censored
• What Google Thinks of Twitter
• Skype Giving away SILK
• Apple’s Latest Offerings
• Social Networking to the Rescue
• Flickr Video for All
• Windows 7 News

Promo Spot

• Two Schooners

Applications

• M3: Make your mouse do tricks with multiple monitors
• iCandy: Create and read QR Codes
• LDD: AutoCad for LEGO
• MultiXFinder: Window manager extension for OS X

Firefox Extension

• Power Twitter: Adds a huge feature set to the web interface for twitter

Symbian/WinMobile App

• SkyFire: Mobile web browser featuring the full web including videos

Geek Project

• DIY NAS Box

Sites and Services

• Plinky: Blogging service that gives you inspiration for blogging
• Jam Legend: Guitar Hero in your browser (10 bucks for anyone that submits a video…)
• Qwitter: Track your following quitters
• TinyArro.ws: Create some of the smallest urls on earth with this service

Feedback

• Thanks Travis. The Mountain Bike Show
• Thanks Herne. Link to Herne’s Blog Post

Farewell

• Write us a review in iTunes
• Follow us on twitter
• Join the AGP Forum
• Podcasters’ Emporium

Featured Music

A Night in Hollywood
“A Shotgun Wedding” (mp3)
from “Darling, This Is Just the Beginning”
(Pure Noise Ent.)

More On This Album

Better here than not and here is this weeks show! Yes we made it, the planets were kind to us this week.

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Tech News

• New Storage Breakthrough
• Ubuntu 9.10
• twitter makes good on SMS for Canada
• Copyright, DRM and Music
• Bands Using iPhone Apps in iTunes
• The NZ “Blackout” :: Internet Blackout N.Z
• Microsoft Mobile Stolen
• Nokia Names It’s App Store
• Google Earth Discovery

Promo Spot

• Ben’s Tech Show

Applications

• Kid Key Lock: Keeps busy fingers safe from disaster
• Google Mobile App for Windows: For MS Mobiles
• BatteryBar: A better battery monitor

Firefox Extension

• Search Cloudlet: Inserts smart tag clouds into Google and Yahoo searches

iPhone Apps

• Conversion: Conversion app supporting many different units
• iShoot Lite: Free and similar to the retro “Scorched Earth”

Sites and Services

• SHUURL: Safer shortened URL’s incorporating WOT
• TinyChat: Slick quick AdHoc IRC web based chat. See if anyone is in the chatroom we created
• Free Fonts Generator: Make a font from your own handwriting
• Blip.fm: Listening and music discovery service

Feedback

Farewell

• Write us a review in iTunes
• Follow us on twitter
• Join the AGP Forum
• Podcasters’ Emporium

Featured Music

Swan Lee
“Love Will Keep You Warm” (mp3)
from “Swan Lee”
(Gogo Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album

Well we hit this year running and were going great. We even got people commenting that we were bringing them out faster than they could listen to episodes. Now we have hit a snag, a temporary one but a snag all the same and I wanted to fill in our valued listeners.

Last week we did not get a show out because I was working late both days that Keith and Cait were available. So last week was not even remotely possible.

This week we were all geared up to do a show and Keith was held up with prior commitments that he could not change. The time difference there adds a layer of complexity as well. In addition he is getting on a plane tomorrow and is going AWOL for the week. So that excluded a mid week recording time.

Cait has had unique demands on her related to her new job. The Victorian fires have also affected us here. I got an email from Cait 2 days ago in which she indicated that due to the fires her work was extremely busy and that she was going to be unavailable for a while. Well until things settle down, the “when” she does not know.

So between work, circumstances, timezones, disasters and life in general things have gone to pot. None of the above is anyone’s fault and I am not saying that it is. Yes, I am disappointed that I have been unable to get a show out for a few weeks. In many ways I feel like I am letting listeners down. I feel bad to say the least.

Rest assured that I have not let up in my efforts to get us all in sync and every host has felt the same. I would like to say that we can record next week but I am yet to touch base with everyone and hammer out a time.

I hope that everyone can appreciate the position that we are in and stays with us.

Even though all this is going on with the AGP I am still podcasting. 2Schooners on the LifeStyle PodNetwork is doing very well and James and I are having a blast doing it. In addition Episode 11 of Podcasters’ Emporium came out yesterday and I can honestly say that is gold for podcasters wanting to make their show better. I wish I had a show like that when I was starting out.

So I find myself once again saying I’m sorry. We will get there I am sure.

A few Episodes back Turtlez wrote in with an overheating problem. The hosts threw in all manner of opinions and possible causes and solutions.

Then last week or it might have been the week before Turtlez wrote back to give us an update, after try a few things like moving the PC thinking that ventilation might have been the cause. But the truth was revealed when he broke the box open.

We are pretty sure that this might have had something to do with the overheating problem:

Turtlez says that now after giving the gizzards of the PC a good going over that he is running 50 degrees at rest and 80 when gaming. Great news.

There is a lot to be said for opening up the box every now and then and giving the dust bunnies a blast with some canned compressed air. This type of situation can and does lead to a dead PC. Symptoms can be crashing, hanging, “black screens”, generalized slowness. At worse the whole party comes to a screeching halt with a fried CPU.

If you have your computer resting directly on the ground it becomes more of an issue as well. The dust created from foot traffic has an uncanny knack of ending up inside the box.

A regular inspection and quick clean is easy, takes no time and could save you a bag of cash. Compressed air will remove the start of the bunnies. Leaving them makes matters worse as the dust holds moisture. Corrosion is your next enemy and the fact that it takes a bit more elbow grease than just the can of air and then you run the risk of damaging components. The issue regarding moisture is emphasized in humid environments, like saunas and the tropics.

Thanks for the feedback, follow-up and the picture Turtlez. We are glad that your now back up and runing! But a good lesson for everyone.

One thing I was thinking writing this is what about laptops? Anyone know if this is as big a problem and how you go about maintaining them? They are a little more difficult to get into than a desktop and some of us could void our warranties.

Welcome to this weeks dose of geek. A fantastic show and full of great stuff. There is a bunch of exciting stuff happening around the place and we are having a fantastic year and we are pleased you could join us. As someone tweeted just tonight “It is great to be a part of the clan!”.

So welcome old and new listeners. As usual here are the contact details and the show notes.

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Show Notes

Welcome

Tech News

• OLPC Hits a few Snags
• Apple Dumps the All or Nothing Upgrades
• Adobe and Apple are Talking Flash
• Google to Support MLab
• WD Introduce New 2TB “Green Drives”
• Mozilla Supports Open Audio and Video Format
• IE8 RC1 Released
• Keith Covers Another Missing MP3 Player *snicker*
• Swiss Police Bust Weed Crop with Google

Applications

• TweetDeck: Adobe AIR Twitter Client
• HDHacker: Back up and restore a MBR (scroll down the page for this one)

Firefox Extensions

• Ghostery: One for the paronoid
• SearchLoad Options: Adds some nice functionality to search in Firefox

Sites and Services

• Domain Pidgeon: Get ideas and buy unique domain names
• YTPodcaster: Create feeds from YouTube (site down when we recorded)

Promo Spot

• Life in General

Feedback

Farewell

• Write us a review in iTunes
• Follow us on twitter
• Join the AGP Forum
• Podcasters’ Emporium

Featured Music

Field of Grey
“Disgraced” (mp3)
from “Warning”
(Spectra Records)

More On This Album

Just doing a search in Google and it appears that there is something afoot. Apparently anything and everything may harm your computer! This would include the following:

Google:

Microsoft:

Apple:

McAfee:

You Get the idea…

I think that one of the tech’s have spilt the coffee…

What it does mean is that you will not be able to access any site from a Google search, thanks to the added “security”. They better get someone onto that.

All this from the company that said “Do no Evil” Pffffft!

This week Cait could not make it but we got a ring in at the last minute with a great story to tell.

This week was the week from hell for Dave and you can hear all about it in this weeks show. As you can see our efforts to get the show shorter have failed in a big way, but we hope that you like it anyway!

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Show Notes

Welcome

Tech News

• Internet Stats for 2008
• Apple Prints Money in 2008
• Microsoft Feels the Heat
• Twitter’s New Limits
• Two Contenders for this Years Darwin Award (Transformer Pic that we mentioned)

The Break

• Story about Tim’s Brush with legal action
• The Blog Post that Started it All: Tweet Tornado - DO NOT WANT

Applications

• Comodo Registry Cleaner: Clean up that messy registry and prolong a rebuild
• Cookie Monster (sorry used the wrong name in the show): Manage cookies from all browsers in one place
• Virtual Box: Cross platform Virtual Machine

We also mentioned PhotoRec data recovery software during the show this week

Firefox Extension

• TwitterEyes: Make that tweet as short as possible

iPhone App

• Twittelator Pro: Killer app for serious twitter addicts

Sites and Services

• CopyGator: Find out who or what is using your RSS feed for good or bad
• The Best Robots of 2008: Great post full videos of the best tin cans of 2008

Feedback

Farewell

• Write us a review in iTunes
• Follow us on twitter
• Join the AGP Forum

Featured Music

My Fiction
“Go” (mp3)
from “Your Tokyo”
(Sugar Rush - Sol Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Napster
Buy at mTraks
More On This Album

Once we all got our schedules worked out we set out on this week’s show and it was a good one. Thanks for joining us. I can also report that Dave had no issues with the Google Doc this week and he has no idea what was different…

Don’t forget the bloopers at the end of the show! This week it was phone calls and dropped calls on Skype.

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Show Notes

Welcome

• You should be following BreakingNewsOn on twitter
• Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
• Podcaster’s Emporium

Tech News

• The EU has A Problem with Microsoft
• Apple Without Jobs
• App Store Milestone
• Plane Crash and Social Media
• Google Makes Cuts
• twitter is Employing
• Thieves Lured by SMS, hot women and drugs
• Whopper Offer up in Flames

The Break

• Weird Sea Critters

Applications

• Portable Tor: Portable, Open Source easy to configure Tor browsing
• TweetSuite: WordPress Plugin to fully integrate your blog with twitter functionality
• File Check MD5: Check and store MD5 hashes

NOTE: This app is about to change it’s name to ExactFile available form the same link.

Firefox Extension

• The SEO Toolbar: Valuable tool for SEO analysis of any web page. Too many features to mention!

iPhone App

• Spawn: Diversion and great for the kids to “play” with

Sites and Services

• ExploraTree: Create and share thinking maps
• Video-Alerts: Create alerts for new videos on YouTube
• ScreenToaster: Web based screencasting service, simple but effective for certain applications

Feedback

Farewell

• Write us a review in iTunes
• Follow us on twitter
• Join the AGP Forum

Featured Music

Carlos Bertonatti
“The Little Things” (mp3)
from “Times Are Good”
(The Rosemine Group)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Napster
More On This Album

I know there are some of you out there that already use Tumblr. For those that don’t Tumblr gave you all a good reason to take a second or first look. The service was updated the other day to version 5 and this time it looks like they have concentrated on athetics, it has paid off in my opinion.

The back-end of your blog now has a much cleaner interface, not that it was by any means “dirty” before. There are also some really cool new features, I especially like the Radar page from which you can search the entire “Tumble-sphere”.

The other cool thing that caught my eye was the fact that they have leveraged the community skills in updating the available themes. This release makes the best community created themes available to every user with just one click.

Tumblr don’t usually have very quick development cycles, but this one was worth waiting for as it is one of the best looking refreshes of the service to date.

This blogging service is dead simple, so if you have ever thought of starting a blog but thought it would be too much hassle then try Tumblr; even your Mum could use it.

If you are interested in making it even more simple then also try out Tumbleweed. Tumbleweed is an AIR app that makes it possible to post to Tumblr without going to the site and logging in. There is also an iPhone app as well for blogging on the go.

Introducing: Tumblr v5 from David Karp on Vimeo.

I was over the moon this week when I received an email from the guys at The Podcast Bunker. Turns out that the Aussie Geek Podcast has been recognized for the quality of our audio and production standards.

This might seem a bit trivial to people that don’t know so I’ll fill you in on The Bunker. The website itself is a podcast directory but ther is a big difference to most if not all other directories out there. Their motto is:

“We only List the Very Best Podcasts”

They have been doing so since 2004. Every single podcast that is listed on the site is hand picked for quality and content. Each podcast is listened to and reviewed for inclusion on what they call “The Big List“. Proud to say that we are on the list, as we are with excellent company.

To say that The Podcast Bunker is very picky is understated. Every single podcast listed there is a winner. But fail at your audio or your content and you miss out being listed. When I first discovered podcasts this was one stop I made to find great content that oozed quality. Just to be listed on the site is great news for the show and we all appreciate the recognition.

So you get the idea, the list is a very cool list to be on. But this week we got a nice suprise in the AGP inbox. Bruce Chandley wrote to us congratulating us on the audio quality of the Aussie Geek Podcast and attaching an award for us to put on the site. I was blown away.

As regular listeners would be aware we all put a lot of effort into making the AGP a great show, but not only that we put a great deal of effort into post production so your ears don’t bleed. It is great to be recognized for that effort from a directory that has very high standards.

We have been listed on The Podcast Bunker for a while now, although I can’t remember finding out about it! We highly recommend that if your looking for great podcasts with high production values then I can garantee that you will find more than one in the bunker.

I would also like to thank and congratulate Keith as up until recently he had produced more AGP episodes than I had! Great job Keith and thanks to the whole team or are as dedicated to making the podcast “sound” as good as it can. They put up with me complaining about mic technique and levels and everything else that impacts our quality. Thank you too Bruce and the whole team at The Podcast Bunker for the award:

Anybody have any ideas where the badge should go? Suggestions in the comments!

Welcome back to the AGP for 2009, we trust that your break was as good as ours. Thanks for making 2008 one of the best years yet for the show, now help us make 2009 better!

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Show Notes

Welcome

• Link to Sea World

Tech News

• New Eee PC
• Another Grab for Yahoo!
• Palm Introduces the Pre
• Mac World Apple KeyNote
• Picasa Plays Nice with Mac
• Twitter Growth
• NASA’s Rovers
• UK’s New Police Powers
• Sacrifice 10 Friends
• Windows 7
• Jing Goes Pro
• Crayon Physics

The Break

• Life in General
• 10 of the Best “Out of Office” Auto Responses

Applications

• WebHopper: GUI traceroute
• Transmute: Convert your bookmarks for any browser

Firefox Extension

• TooManyTabs: Make more than 1 row for your open tabs and more

iPhone App

• Mobile Fotos: Killer app for flickr on the iPhone

Sites and Services

• allvoices: News site combining citizen media and mainstream sources
• Mr Tweet: Get a report on who you should be following and stats
• ReminderFeed: Create a reminder feed for your feed reader
• Playericious: Play back websites saved in delicious based on tag and/or username

Feedback

Farewell

• Write us a review in iTunes
• Follow us on twitter
• Join the AGP Forum

Featured Music

The Screaming Jets
“Supersize” (mp3)
from “Do Ya”
(StockXChange Music)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
Buy at Puretracks
Buy at mTraks
More On This Album

I know there are a number of our listeners that are into photography so when I found this site I thought of you guys. But that said this is a really fun online web tool/application to play with. It is called TiltShift maker.

What the site does is manipulates an image so that iot looks like a phtograph of a minature scene. The results are very, very good. Plus it is a lot of fun.

The site allows you to both upload an image from your computer or use an online image. Both great options, so go and scour your flickr page for something cool to use. The site gives you some tips about what images to use. Generally ones that encompas a scene or a landscape as opposed to a single subject. Don’t worry if you don’t have anything because they give you some sample images to have a play with.

The process is dead simple and fun and the results are great.

Image Credit: arnet

The thing that I like is the fact that they are encouraging a community of users from the site to post their images to flickr and add them to the TiltShiftMaker group. The group look pretty active and there are a bunch of images to take a look at. I think that it is a great that a community is spawning out of a web service that really just offers a tool to make cool images. The approach makes the tool more valuable and builds the brand and the motivation of the developers to make it better. Nice work.

While I am not sure that I have any images right now that would make a great TiltShift Image I am going to be actively on the lookout for an opportunity to get some images that I can run through the service. I will post them both on the flickr group and I might throw some on the forum.

Rather than take away from the community on flickr I would encourage people to post their images to the service inspired flickr group and drop a link here in the comments or on the AGP Forums to the image.

Great fun service and I am looking forward to creating some of these with my own work.

Well it looks like Google are at it again, first their change of the classic favicon to the solitary G now this, personally I’m a little hesitant about the way it looks.

I know its supposed to match the colours present in the Chrome logo:

But its almost looking a little too much like this:

Tell us what you think about it in the comments or on the forum!

Now as everyone knows I switched to a Mac in the middle of last year, and for a reason.

The reason I switched is because I didn’t see a clear future in the Windows operating system given that it served nothing but marketing hype and propaganda to the media in order to create an air around a product that frankly became yet another dent in Microsoft’s armor.

Vista is atrocious, it handles badly, it doesn’t play nice with some devices, it requires a massive upgrade to run and even then still performs poorly.

Even with all the optimization you can do to Vista to make it “better”, it doesn’t cut the mustard.

One year later and 1,000,000,000 forum posts about Vista later, Microsoft has actually created what Vista should have created.

Windows 7.

Now the haters will cry “But its just Vista with a new coat of paint”, and the Tech writers will all clamor to point out the similarities to Vista then back Windows 7 or hate it for ever.

All I can do is stand up and give Windows 7 a standing ovation.

Finally Microsoft got it right.

Even though its just a beta, not the final product, it is already clear that Windows 7 will give XP a run for its money. The corporate world will find it hard to switch to, and its something I don’t expect most to do, XP is fantastic in a business environment and can be well supported by good IT.

But this is the leap from XP we were all waiting for.

Now I’m a Mac user, and yes I have a biased view going into another Microsoft OS without a feeling of much trepidation, I was so driven from Vista that its hard to win me back but if I hadn’t switched, I’d be overjoyed at this revelation.

Windows 7 is nimble, its amazingly quick to boot (well it is on my Aluminum 24″ iMac), much faster that Vista, its installation is a complete doddle, in fact I can comfortably say that my mother would be able to install and even better RE-install this OS without any fuss.

Smart features like PC network passwords to connect to shared resources, that’s right no more fiddling with IP addresses, the new taskbar layout, the intuitive start menu and especially all system information layed out in a simple to read and easy to comprehend fashion.

I’ve just installed it, and I’m fast becoming accustomed to its interface, in fact its like I never left XP, I actually feel happy using the OS.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made the switch, my choice is Apple not Microsoft any longer, but if I ever need to recommend a PC to anyone over a Mac, I’ll be making sure that it has Windows 7 on it.

Well done Microsoft, you’ve finally realised that its about the user experience, that UI design over features will always win a crowd, not that Windows 7 lacks features mind you.

Vista was a bad stepping stone on the way to Windows 7, we forgave them for Windows ME, I’m sure there is room to forgive them for Vista when Windows 7 finally becomes the next REAL upgrade.

Time will tell how Windows 7 fares, but if I had to put money on it being well accepted, I’d back it all the way home…

Found this great animated history of the Internet and thought it was worth sharing. Pretty well done and great to polish up on the facts of exactly where this thing came from.

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

Well here we are in 2009 welcome and I trust your break was as good as mine was, I am going to kick 2009 blog posts off with a rant.

I don’t use twitter “that” much. Although now with the iPhone I am starting to use it more. As many are aware twitter put limits on their API calls which I usually have no problem with. The limits are usually based on calls per hour from clients and services other than the web based service.

Late this morning I was using twitter from the iPhone, made a few tweets and replies and had a look at the timeline and not much else. Then a bit later I booted up the desktop PC to get ready to record 2Schooners with James Williams and fired up twhirl. Made a few tweets, and certainly fewer than the API call rate of about 45 an hour (Vaguely remember something like that). But regardless that I am sure that I had not exceeded the API calls my client “paused” saying that I had and that it would be paused for 5 minutes. This was about 1400hrs this afternoon.

It is now 2030hrs and my twhirl client is still looking like this:

Now I have had this happen in twhirl before, which I initially blamed for the screw up (sorry twhirl). So I tried the iPhone client twittelator Pro that I have started using and got the same thing. Tried twitterific and got the same thing as well. That only leaves one conclusion, twitter can’t count.

So as far as I am concerned twitter is borked and I can not use any client until it gets “unborked”. When that is, I have no idea. Pretty sure that after 6 hours I should not be still paused. I have no idea if this is happening to others but regardless this sucks the big one. twitter while not crashing every 5 minutes is limiting it’s use by being broken. This is not the first time this has heppened but it is the longest.

Get your act together twitter.

Just as I am preparing the screenshots for this post my twhirl client has decided to “unpause” itself, meaning that twitter has decided I have been punished enough. Based on the current API call rate of 50 per hour, over the last 6 hours I have been duped of 300 API calls. As I said twitter can’t count.

Welcome to this weeks podcast and it is a great show. We had a full house plus a ring in and we pulled a few of the people into the show that have helped us out this year.

In this show we give our hints and tips for the last minute geek to finalize that Christmas shopping. The good thing is that most of it you can do from the comfort of the monitor glow.

Please enjoy the show and Merry Christmas from the AGP Crew!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Show Notes

Welcome

Geek Gift Links

• Skype
• GoTalk
• Flickr
• Snapfish
• Amazon
• Audio Cubes
• Digital Dollars
• Portable Apps
  • Wikipedia
  • Firefox Portable
  • Thunderbird
  • FileZilla
  • Open Office
• Think Geek
• Great Pay Software
  • RoboForm
  • 1Password (Mac)
  • WireTap (Mac)
  • Snapz Pro X (Mac)
  • SnagIt
  • Camtasia Studio
  • PhotoShop Elements
• Magazine Subscriptions
  • Make Magazine
  • WIRED Magazine
  • MacWorld Magazine
  • Technology Review Magazine
  • New Scientist
  • F@st Company
  • Focus Magazine
  • National Geographic Magazine and Kids Version Here
  • Astronomy
  • Scientific American
• MagNation
• iStock Photo

The Break

Knightwise Christmas Greeting

Holiday Geek Projects

• Super Bright Bike
• Digital Picture Frame
• Star Wars Case Mod
• Glass White Board

Feedback

Farewell

Featured Music

Gentleman Auction House
“On The Rooftop” (mp3)
from “Christmas In Love”
(Emergency Umbrella)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Napster
More On This Album

Keith’s Winter Deck

Here at the AGP we’d like to say a big THANK YOU to all the listeners of the show, thanks for sticking by us when we made the big jump from the old podcast to the new and improved AGP.

Without your support we would not be where we are today, so once again thank you!

We’d like to take the time to wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS and hope you all have a safe, happy and healthy Christmas season.

So from Dave, Cait, Keith, Tim and Jeff, HAVE A GREAT XMAS!

And for all the people who get funky new gadgets on the big day, share your xmas gadget goodness experiences on the forums!

After a very hectic few weeks for the geeks we are slowing down. Please enjoy this weeks episode and hope that all your preparations for Christmas and the new year are going well.

Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. Or click the MyChingo link to leave us an audio comment that we can include in the show!

Subscribe to this Podcast for Free via iTunes and RSS

Don’t foget to also take a look at the Aussie Geek Podcast Forum!

Show Notes

Welcome

Tech News

• Aussies Fight the Filter: Do your bit where and how you can!
• GM’s Financial Collapse
• The Moon
• Google Updates: This Years Zeitgeist 2008
• Pocket Sized NAS Adapter
• WordPress 2.7
• Stupid Teachers

The Break

Applications

• Rohos Mini Drive: Create hidden, password protected, Encrypted partitions on flash drives
• RightLoad: Shell extension to quickly FTP files from the directory
• Empathy: Prevent applications running with a passwords

Sites and Services

• Daily Mug Shot: chronicle daily images of yourself
• ABC iView: One of the best online TV experiences we have ever seen
• Failing Hard Drive Sounds: Sounds of pending doom
• nicetranslator: It’s nice and it works
• Auditorium: Addictive, well designed game with a physics engine to boot

Feedback

• Special thanks to Herne who never fails to surprise us!

Farewell

• Follow us on twitter
• Join the Forum
• Check out Two Schooners with James Williams and Dave on The Lifestyle PodNetwork

Featured Music

Desoto Jones
“Nonfiction” (mp3)
from “Deep Elm Sampler No. 8 “Bonfire of Trust”"
(Deep Elm)

Buy at Deep Elm Records
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
More On This Album

Twitter has snapped up the IP behind a couple of popular Web 2.0 services.  I Want Sandy and Stikkit were both acquired by Twitter a few weeks ago.  The services were originally scheduled to go offline last week, but this window has been extended until the end of business (17:00 PT) this Friday, December 19th.

About Sandy is a service that helped to keep details of your life top of mind, so you could focus on getting things done.  By emailing “Sandy” with the details of upcoming tasks or events the service can contact you by email or by text message to alert you.

Stikkit is a service that uses email-based communication to track to-do list items.  Its unique ability to recognize and analyze the contents of an email message to determine its relevance (contact info, calendar info etc) is what makes this tool unique.  The system allows you to email the service and view/manage the information from the web.

It isn’t entirely clear at this stage what Twitter plans to do with the technology behind these two services.  What is clear is that they’re planning something.  They have hired the man behind the technology to work on their user-experience team.

If you’re a user of these two services you most likely know about the impending shut down, but just in case there is a link for each service that will allow you to export your data.

• I Want Sandy
• Stikkit

Stay tuned for more.

Thanks to Lumpycam over at The Daily Rider for the tip.

After a new topic came up on the AGP Forums (See it here) by Eric I had responded to the topic and Herne thought it was a great idea.

So I thought I’d share the idea in a post.

What I had explained in the forum was that QR Codes are great to add to your digital media as a means of copyright.

This method works on anything visual, images, video and even webpages.

QR Codes have been traditionally an easy way for people with mobile devices like digital cameras and cell phones to take a picture of the code and then be directed to a URL, create an SMS for competitions or to encode  text like coupon codes.

And it here is where the idea starts, by embedding your URL or some copyright text into a QR Code you can then add that to an image, or to the footer / sidebar of your blog to enforce your copyright on that item.

Although QR Codes seem complex, and they can be, to generate a code couldn’t be simpler with a couple of really good websites based around their generation.

http://invx.com has a simple interface, all you need to do is enter in some text to the text box and hit generate, the site will then generate a QR Code and a Datamatrix code (Datamatrix are similar to QR Codes). invix.com is great if you want to create a code to print up or post somewhere for people to snap and get your info.

http://winksite.com has an offering that is a little more advanced though, it allows you to specifiy the type of data encoded either URL, SMS, Phone number or Text. It also gives you a choice of sizes to use, which is much better for images to create something small to place in a corner. It is a bit of a hassle getting to the generator so here is a quick link: Winksite QR Code Generator

Here is an example of one way you can implement it into your images:

If anyone else has some good ideas about how to secure your copyright on your digital media then leave a comment!