Tech Talk

August 4th, 2007- A bit of a punchy episode, especially once Pete starts talking about the robot uprising. We discuss the latest tech news, including the 700MHz auction, the GTA4 delay, The mod-chip crackdown, and more. Be sure to check out our great weekly picks. - Show Notes - Coming Soon Direct MP3 Download iTunes Subscription RSS Feed

July 28th, 2007- The Tech Talk crew is back in the flesh. Kevin tells of his woes concerning travel on Northwest airlines, and Pete has a major harddrive failure at work. This episode has it all: Tech News, Listener Questions, Weekly Spots, and even a wee bit of Astrology. (For the official record, The Tech Talk crew does not believe that good old Mercury had anything to do with any recent catastrophes...) - Show Notes - Coming Soon Direct MP3 Download iTunes Subscription RSS Feed

July 15th, 2007- Another pre-recorded show as Kevin is going to be out of town again. Kevin rants about our current web host and how he is looking for alternatives to 1&1 hosting. Pete is ready to buy new wheels for his car. We cover plenty of news topics and bash more on our favorite whipping company: Sony. - Show Notes - Coming Soon Direct MP3 Download iTunes Subscription RSS Feed

July 14th, 2007- Jeff is MIA for the first half of this show, but Pete and Kevin manage to hold down the fort. We talk multiple listener calls this week and cover a few news stories. We are pre-recording next week's show. If you would like to ask a question for the pre-recorded show, leave a message at 206-888-2728. - Show Notes - Coming Soon Direct MP3 Download iTunes Subscription RSS Feed

July 7th, 2007- I'm not one to believe in superstitions, but this show occurred on 7/7/07 and it was our 13th show. Apparently 13 is more unlucky than 777 is lucky because a technical glitch resulted in the loss of the first few minutes of our show. However, the rest of the show is full of technology news and our take on all things tech. - Show Notes - Coming Soon Direct MP3 Download iTunes Subscription RSS Feed

June 30th, 2007- The iPhone came out the day before this show, and it's been all over the news, so of course we have to talk about it. We share some interesting stories we've heard about sales. There are lots of news stories to cover in this show as we didn't have a live show last week. We also share a funny audio clip from a video on sarcasticgamer.com. - Show Notes - Coming Soon Direct MP3 Download iTunes Subscription RSS Feed

June 23rd, 2007- This was a pre-recorded show, and as a result we were unable to answer any call-in questions on the air. However, we took this opportunity to catch up on the multitude of current technology news stories. So, pull up a chair and enjoy Show #11. - Show Notes - Coming Soon Direct MP3 Download iTunes Subscription RSS Feed

June 16th, 2007- Show 10 is available for consumption. We discuss Apple's World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) and what interesting information came out of there. There is no time to cover any other news stories because we take lots of calls in this show. Don't worry, though, we'll cover all the tech news in next week's show. - Show Notes - Support Calls: Catherine from Chandler called in with a problem concerning her computer locking up randomly due to high explorer.exe usage. We recommended verify that she has no spyware using Spybot Search and Destroy. Unfortunately if that doesn't fix the problem she'll be looking at a Windows re-install. Peter in Phoenix calls to spread his love for Apple's Mac OS X and his wish that they would release a version for non-Apple hardware. He found a program online that allowed him to intall OS X on any computer, but realizing this is illegal did not keep it. Apple will likely never release a boxed version of their operating system that will run on any computer

June 9th, 2007- Another show bites the dust. Lots of good stories this week. We talk about patent reform, RIAA, Google, and Vietnam fiber. We also take multiple listener calls with both comments and questions. Our show in two weeks is going to be pre-recorded. However, you can still give us a call at 206-666-4689 to leave a question that we'll answer on our pre-recorded show. - Show Notes - Support Calls: Joe from Gilbert calls to discuss the patent reform story. He postulates that the new reform could make it difficult for the "little guy" to file patents. However, as long as the reform is handled as discussed in the article we covered, this shouldn't be an issue. He also provides advice for would-be inventors. Paul in Scottsdale had some questions about the functionality of WebTV. We do some quick sleuthing online to answer his questions. Carrie from Scottsdale calls to discuss Google book search and wants to know how they are getting around the fact the most books have a copyright disclaimer.

June 2nd, 2007- Kevin forgets how to talk at the beginning of this show, but it gets better after that. We spend a lot of time discussing the IFPI's "Ten Inconvienient Truths About File-Swapping." In the end you'll either hate the IFPI or feel sorry for them. As always we answer listener's tech questions and cover more tech news stories. - Show Notes - Support Calls: Evan in North Carolina tuned into our show by accident and tells us all why copy protection and draconic laws irk him. He specifically talks about an article he read in The Source magazine concerning people being arrested for selling and distributing their own music. Leonard in Glendale called to discuss a few articles in The Atlantic magazine regarding how quickly music can "get around" on peer-to-peer networks and also how someone got back at a spammer. We suspect he was talking about Nigerian 419 scams and websites like 419baiter.com that string these scammers along. Ivy from Phoenix calls to ask how he can get back at spammers. He rep

May 19th, 2007- More Tech Talk goodness found within. All news and listener's calls this week. Lots of stories, and full of pirate talk, Arrr! - Show Notes - Pete bought new computer parts to upgrade his home computer. He also bought his wife a new MacBook. Kevin complains about Cox changing what channels they are re-broadcasting the local high definition TV shows on. BREAKING NEWS: Starcraft 2. Support Calls: Chris from Phoenix has a problem where one of his computers on his network is unable to talk to the rest of the computers on the same network. We suggested that his problem is probably security software on the one computer (most likely Norton Internet Security) and that disabling or uninstalling that software should fix his problem. We received an e-mail from Chris the next day confirming that our suggestion resolved his issue. After some difficulty connecting with Charlie in Phoenix he tells us of a problem he is having with a stretched image on his HDTV. He is tuning in a high definition ch

May 12th, 2007- Show number 5 was a blast. I think we're really starting to get comfortable with this "being on the radio" thing and letting loose a bit. I hope we didn't scare anyone away, though. Our main topic today was HD DVD and Blu-ray. We discuss the differences and make some recommendations on whether you should buy either one. Pete and Kevin take jabs at each other again. - Show Notes - We share what’s been going on in the last week. Pete doesn’t watch TV, and Jeff’s been watching Heroes. Kevin shares a crazy story about movie quotes popping into his head. Main Topic: Last week we talked about HDTV and the technology behind high definition television shows, and in this show we discussed HD DVD and Blu-ray. I said last week that 720p was the lowest resolution that is technically considered High Definition. The maximum resolution of a DVD is 480p. So, while it will look better on an HDTV, it isn’t quite high definition. People want to watch high definition movies on their high definition

May 5th, 2007 - We discuss technical news topics, and take listener's questions. The main topic of this show was HDTV and focused on what makes a show High Definition and explains the terms you may come across when buying an HDTV. We also discussed the differences between HDTV and Digital Broadcasting. Pete stands up for Windows. - Show Notes - Main Topic: High Definition Television – At the end of 2006 a little over a quarter of US households own HDTVs. It is predicted that by 2011 this percentage will increase to 70%. With everyone adopting this new technology, we wanted to clear up some of the terminology surrounding HDTV. DTV Vs HDTV – Digitial television is a method of broadcasting a television signal. In the past, all TV broadcasts have been analog. The FCC has mandated that by February 17, 2009 all TV broadcasts must be digital. They are doing this to free up bandwidth for other uses. An added benefit is that by changing over to digital broadcasting the broadcasters have come up with a new

April 28th, 2007 - Show number 3 was lots of fun. We talked about Copy Protection and why it helps no one. We also shared a bit about ourselves. - Show Notes - Main Topic: Copy Protection – Otherwise known as Digital Rights Management (DRM), Copy Protection prevents consumers from using media they purchased in ways many people feel they should. It also fails to stop pirates from stealing the content, so really the media corporations are only hurting their customers. Chris from Phoenix, AZ called us to add his thoughts on DRM and how he had to "work around" a problem when a CD he had purchased wouldn't import properly into iTunes. Suzanna in Mesa is a musician who called in to give the perspective of copy protection from a content creator. Her music was pirated in Europe, and while she was upset that people were stealing her music she realized that there was no way to prevent it and used it to her advantage by referring to her music as being so good that people were willing to steal it. Support Calls

April 21st, 2007 - We now have two shows under our belt and I still haven’t figured out how to end the show on time… Hopefully the third time will be the charm. - Show Notes - Controversial Topic: Violence and Video Games – We discussed how the recent VT shooting was inaccurately related to violent video games and widened the discussion to include how video games have become the media’s scapegoat for teen violence. Jack Thomson blames VT shootings on Counter Strike (also here) No strong link seen between violent video games and aggression Violence-Related Behaviors Among High School Students We also took a few calls from our audience about this issue. Larry from Phoenix, AZ points out that religion causes more violence than video games. Mathew from Bedford, TX is appalled by how the media handles these kinds of issues and focuses more on celebrity news. Allan from Scottsdale, AZ doesn’t agree with us based on his experiences, but was also unable to provide a good example of why he feels this way. Ne