Wednesday, June 10, 2009

"Bing" goes the sound of Microsoft

Click here to listen to the official audio show

Mark and Wes at the Back Forty Texas BBQ in Pleasant Hill, CA .

Sites of Interest:

  • When we recorded this show, the Palm Pre had not yet been released and we were going by rumors and pre-release reviews. The Pre is now out and available in Sprint stores. Mark played with one and liked it a lot more than he thought he would.

  • Same story with the new iPhone: our show was going on rumors, but the iPhone 3G S has now been announced and should be available for purchase on June 19.

  • If Mark decides to get the new iPhone 3G S, his old 3G should get better than normal value on eBay because he has been careful to maintain compatibility with Yellowsn0w so his phone can be unlocked to work with foreign SIM cards.

  • iPhone OS 3.0 is supposed to have Parental Controls to restrict which tier of apps can run, and therefore Apple may relax their restrictions on types of apps in the App Store.

  • History of the Xerox Corporation and how xerography works.

  • Ditto machines were a very cheap way to make multiple copies of a master. You can still buy one!

  • Muscular Men Have More Sex Partners, but Poorer Health.

  • Gummi bear surgery. WARNING: This Instructable contains graphic images of Gummi Bears being cut open.

  • Wes likes squarespace for setting up blogs and other websites.

  • Actor David Carridine was found dead in Bangkok, Thailand under strange circumstances.

  • Literal Video Versions of music videos. Watch that one, and there are plenty more from that producer and the Related Videos.

  • Windows 7 is expected to be shipped on 10/22/09.

  • The first phone-company operated mobile phone call was made in June, 1946.

  • Ham radio operators can make phone calls via an autopatch device installed in a repeater.

  • The CarterFone device (click that link, then scroll down to that section) let businesses build their own radio phones.

  • Adobe Design Catalyst is a new interaction design tool for rapidly creating user interfaces without coding.

  • San Francisco is the first city to take city services requests via twitter.

  • Gary McKinnon, aka SOLO, is a Scottish hacker facing extradition to the United States to face charges of perpetrating what has been described by one prosecutor as the "biggest military computer hack of all time."
  • Microsoft introduced a new search engine to compete with google: Bing. To further compete with google, the Bing 411 service is like GOOG-411, and seems to be the Tellme service that Microsoft bought.

  • Bill Gates owns the image management company Corbis.

  • Samba and WebDAV are alternative methods of accessing files on remote machines.

Wes' iPhone Application of the week:

  • Flight Control game- Air traffic control is the world's most stressful job, but not for you. You don't need heading angles, flight rules or meteorological reports, you're a natural! A prodigy! A born controller! Just touch and drag the planes to their runway.

Mark's iPhone Applications of the week:

  • Alien Composite Sketch - Have you had a close encounter with Aliens. Perhaps you’ve been abducted and no one believes you? Well now you can give the authorities an accurate description of their identities.

  • Meat Clock -Now iPhone and iPod touch owners can proudly display the current time in meat! Includes animated seconds t-bone.

  • The Moron Test - Are you a complete idiot? What about your friends, coworkers, and family? Buy The Moron Test and find out!

  • Arcade Bowling - In the tradition of Skeeball, everyone’s favorite Boardwalk bowling game, use your fingers and steady aim to flick “laser” balls down the alley and up the ramp into the scoring holes.

  • QuickOffice Mobile Office Suite - Enterprise-grade Microsoft Word and Excel Office functionality with leading-edge innovation and unparalleled ease-of-use.