Technology
Maximum Geek Vol. 3 Ep. 2
Joy listened to us record this last night and said this was the geekiest episode of Max Geek we’ve ever done. Now she hasn’t listened to a lot of our early stuff but I will say we definitely set our geekitude to 11 in this one. Here’s what we cover.
- MGUWC Update
- NASA Finds Water on the Moon
link - Wouldn’t ya like to be a hamster too
link - Sezmi is cool
link - Modern Warfare
link
link - Microsoft hates mobile apps
link - I for one welcome our new droid overlords
link - Microsoft ripped off Apple?
link - Apple hates Netbooks
link
This cast comes in at 1 hour and 4 minutes so sit back and enjoy the show.
I’ve Seen the Future
Live Mesh proves that Microsoft gets it. It’s taken a long time for Microsoft to realize the importance of the cloud and cloud computing, but with Live Mesh we’ve seen a killer app that really gets it.
The concept of Live Mesh is pretty simple and not really new. Basically it’s a way to store your documents online. The real difference in Mesh is not just about online storage, it’s about syncing files. When you create a Live Mesh folder on the Live Mesh Desktop you can access it from anywhere. By that I mean any web browser, or any Windows, OSX or Windows Mobile device with the software installed. When you’re using the actual application it seamlessly keeps your local version of that folder in sync with the online version. Sounds simple and really it is.
It’s Not For You To Decide
Remember that Apple debacle with the software kill switch? The one that was hidden. The one that Apple claimed was to remove malicious software. Well Google just fessed up to having something similar in Android. Now even I cut Apple some slack because I could see it being used to remove malicious software. Google however is a little more vague about what they’re going to use it for. Here’s what Google said.
“Google may discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement … in such an instance, Google retains the right to remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion”
Wow, that sounds a lot more ominous. I mean this doesn’t sound like it’s about viruses. Frankly I don’t trust Googles agreements. Google is a big fan of quietly slipping in things that are consumer unfriendly in those agreements and while I haven’t read the agreement (not for lack of trying, all I could find was the SDK license agreement) it worries me. I’m sorry but the software I want to run on my device is my damn choice. This is one thing Microsoft gets right, they don’t forceably remove software, you don’t have to run the malicious software tool. I mean this is an open source OS, isn’t the point to be able to run whatever we want. I can understand Apple, but Google?
I should mention that Google has promised to attempt to recover your original purchase price from the developer. Actually that part worries me more than anything. I paid for software and they want to remove it? None of their damn business. If they want to check for viruses and social engineering scams great, give me the option to opt out of their interference. Frankly I don’t need their help and I don’t want it.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Google has abandoned their original mission statement, do no evil. Now their goal seems to be to do no evil as long as it’s convenient and doesn’t limit our control over everything. Google is rapidly becoming the new evil empire. While Microsoft is trying (although not always very successfully) to correct their past mistakes, Google has embraced their power we all know power corrupts.
Maximum Geek Vol. 2 Ep. 27
Alright, Jeff and I were trying something new, we were trying to be on topic and keep the cast under 45 minutes. We failed, miserably, horribly, terribly failed. This was an epic fail if ever I’ve seen one (and I’ve seen more than one). In fact we ran so long we had to cut our main discussion. Anyway, look for a discussion on whether Googles cloud based apps are going to make choice of OS a moot point. Here’s what we did cover.
- Windows 7 going on a diet.
- LHC
- VooDooPC shake up?
- Sony Vaio TT
- Warhammer Online
- EA eases up on Spore DRM
- New TV Shows – Fringe and 11th hour – can they stop shooting themselves in the foot?
- Mobile Minute
- Palm OS Nova delayed
- Windows Mobile 7 delayed
- Android
There you have it, another fine episode. Look for us next week, maybe we won’t double our target time.
Maximum Geek Vol. 2 Ep. 26
Alright, here it is, over a week after we recorded it. I’m really sorry but I fell into a depression the last part of last week and I was busy the first part. I’m maybe hopefully starting to pull out of it and maybe we’ll get a show up this week. Anyway, here’s what we cover.
- Google Chrome
- New CTIA devices
- New LOTRO stuffage
- SPORE, HUH, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?
The Spore portion of the show is a bit heated. Take a listen and as always feel free to tell us what you think. Of course if you’re wrong we’ll be more than willing to explain why ; )
Google, Game On?
So, the latest rumor on the interwebtubes is that Google will be purchasing Valve. For those of you who don’t know, Valve is the game design company behind the Half Life series of games. Now Valve did mention recently that they would be interested in talking acquisition. Does this rumor make any sense? Is there any reason for Google to do it? What could this mean for Half Life? Did John McCain invent the Blackberry? Is Jimmy Hoffa buried in Larry Page’s backyard?
Does this rumor even make any sense? I mean what could Google want with a game company? Especially a 3D first person shooter (FPS) game company. Googles traditional roles in the industry have been about information and advertising. This would be the first time they got into a strictly for profit software venture. I mean advertising is for profit, but that’s not what I mean. This would be the first time Google would straight up charge for their product. Unless of course they go free, which with a license like Half Life, sorry, it just isn’t happening. I mean I can see a 2D webbased game company being bought by Google to release totally free ad supported games. But with an FPS game, there’s too much overhead for that. So why?
Maximum Geek Vol. 2 Ep. 25
Well, this is something of an odd ball episode. This is the first episode (out of the 94 episodes we’ve done between vol 1 and 2) that Jeff isn’t in. Jeff took a mental health day, he’s trying to ween himself off politics. So Rick Cartwright joins me. Rick has been a friend of ours for quite a while and he’s guested on at least one prior episode of Max Geek (back in our trying to do live shows stage). Rick was originally set to join us as the moderate conservative view for our political discussion (which he does at the end). We got kind of carried away with what was supposed to be 15 or 20 minutes of tech talk, well at least half the show ended up being about tech.
There is another milestone, this is the first to be continued Max Geek. Rick and I just ran out of time and we were just getting started on politics. Next week sometime Rick and I will do a mini Max Geek Political cast to wrap things up. Without further ado I bring you the Max Geek 25 show notes.
- Does Google Chrome shine?
- XBox 360 price cuts, does this mean the XBox is ready to be replaced?
- Spore, it’s coming and it’s going to rock
- Politics
- National conventions, do we need them?
- Attack ads
- Palin, we start in on the discussion but have to stop halfway through.
So, stay tuned next week, we should have a regular episode and a mini episode on politics with me and Rick.
Does Chrome Shine?
Okay, not the most original title for an article about Chrome, Google’s new browser, but it’s early and sometimes I’m allowed to be lame. Let me start by saying two of the browsers I’ll talk about in this article are beta browsers. Both IE 8 and Chrome are still in the works and some of my complaints will most likely be addressed before they are “officially” released.
I have IE 8, Flock (a derivative of Firefox) and Chrome installed on my computer. I’ve been running head to head comparisons of the 3 since I downloaded Chrome yesterday and for a week before that I was comparing IE 8 and Flock trying to decide which would be my primary browser. It’s no secret that I’ve not been a Firefox fan, other than a brief flirtation when Firefox 2 came out, I’ve been an IE 7 guy. There are several features I like and Firefox 3 has had a recurring memory leak problem which pops up every couple of updates. So, it’s going to take quite a browser to convince me to change my ways. First let me start with the competition.
Forget What I Said.
OK, I’ve recently figured out that I was smoking some sort of crack, the two articles I read about Larrabee were misleading. Larrabee actually is a discrete graphics technology (which means a slew of different things). That’ll learn me to assume anything. Expect an indepth discussion on MG tonight and a new article later today hopefully.
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