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Items of Note: There are currently no items of note.

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Geek This Week:

Aaron:

Got rolled into the new Facebook layout. Interesting, though I feel like I’m missing a lot of updates from people. Every time I refresh, I get new posts that weren’t there a minute ago, and to answer your question: Yes I have my news feed set to ‘latest posts’.

Still rocking Drop7.

Gozer:

Bioshock 2. Just rented it today. Not too impressed so far. First games opening blew me away. You play as a big daddy now. Sophia Lamb and Big Sisters are now the enemy. Starts off before the fall of raptur then fast fowards 10 years after the first game. Dual Weilding and multiplayer.

Mass effect 2. About 12 hours in. Still have like 4 recruits left to get just got Jack ( girl) and Zaeed. Zaeed is from this cerberus card that came with the game, also a short mission reflecting on ME1. Recruiting Jack and negotiating with her. Making her a promise to have full access to info archives but bluffing.

Exploring the universe and different star systems and scanning planets ( which can get boring) but neccesary for creating new weapons, armor and ship enhancements.

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Tech and Gaming News:

Google’s social side hopes to catch some Buzz

Google is determined not to be left behind by the social-media revolution.
The company wants to take what it does best–organizing Web content by relevancy–and apply it to social media, perhaps the most disorganized segment of the Web. Google Buzz is its most ambitious attempt to do just that, marrying the Gmail Web interface with status updates and media-sharing technology in an attempt to convince the social media addicts of the world to spend more time on Google’s sites than on competitors like Facebook or Twitter; generating valuable data in the process.

Google is attempting to do this by taking Gmail, one of its more popular products, and integrating Buzz directly into the Gmail interface. Users can link their Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, and Google Reader accounts to their Buzz streams to see information produced by friends on those networks, as well as updates posted directly to the Buzz stream.

Google thinks it can build a competitive advantage in social media by focusing on relevancy and ranking within a social network. For example, Buzz users will be able to see all the content produced by those who they are following, but they’ll also be able to see content produced by people they aren’t following if their friends “liked” or commented on that content.

They’ll also be able to train that algorithm by clicking “Not interested” on these “recommended” status updates if they don’t wish to see that particular type of update again. Google thinks users might see an advantage if they can lower the ranking of oft-repeated types of content–such as the what-I-had-for-breakfast update–without having to banish that friend’s content from their feed.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10449662-265.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

Peter Moore wants to be convinced by OnLive, already a fan of Arc controller

By Vladislav Savov posted Feb 9th 2010 7:38AM

Peter Moore, formerly the big cheese in charge of Xbox, is now the head of EA Sports, but he’s lost none of theforthrightness that’s made him a popular man to interview in the past.

Peter expressed his admiration for the OnLive cloud gaming service, but also noted that he remains uncertain as to whether it will actually work when millions of people decide to play the same game at the same time. He did point out that the sort of readily accessible gaming OnLive represents was in his company’s plans, and would be expanded with more browser-based games.

Finally, as someone who’s seen the PlayStation 3 Arc controller in action Peter should be well qualified to assess it, and he describes it as a “great complement to what’s out there,” claiming that it brings a substantially different experience to Nintendo’s Wii

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/09/peter-moore-wants-to-be-convinced-by-onlive-already-a-fan-of-ar/

The Geek-Off Tournament: Showdown!

by William Goss Feb 4th 2010

Well, we’ve run the gamut from Rushmore to Revenge of the Nerds in this On-Screen Geek-Off Tournament of ours, and after your votes ruled out countless other endearing dweebs, dorks and dynamos, the final match-up seems as inevitable as it is personal.

And now, with no further ado or delay…

Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), Ghostbusters vs. George McFly (Crispin Glover), Back to the Future

http://www.cinematical.com/2010/02/04/the-geek-off-tournament-showdown/

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Test a Geek:

1) Q: What world changing technology ( and who was the inventor?) was sent out to be approved for a patent on Valentine’s Day in 1876? A:The telephone, Alexander Grahm Bell

2) Q: What are the 4 colors in the TiVo logo? A: Red, Green, Yellow and Blue

3) Q: In the world of Bioshock and Rapture what is the name of the unstable stem cells that everyone so eagerly desires? A: ADAM

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How To: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast

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Ask A Geek:
Valentine on Facebook asked: Ok can you tell me if there is a ebook reader that is simple something I could take ebooks from my computer (boughten and free) and just use on it. Not wireless as that isn’t possible here. Thanks, love the show you do well at not being to complicated for us older people.

Thanks for the question Valentine! When it comes to ebooks, it seems that you have two options. You can use an Amazon Kindle or a Sony Reader. Contrary to popular belief, the Kindle does support a USB connection in order to transfer books to it from a Mac or PC. The Kindle supports the following formats: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion. You can purchase your books from Amazon or any other place and copy them to your Kindle via USB.

For the Sony Reader, you can use this as well to get books to it via USB. The Reader also supports a number of books formats:

DRM Text : ePub (Adobe DRM protected), PDF (Adobe DRM protected), BBeB Book (PRS DRM protected)
Image : JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP
Unsecured Text : ePub, BBeB Book, PDF, TXT, RTF, Micrsoft® Word, (Conversion to the Reader requires Word installed on your PC

Either way, you cannot go wrong with a reader. Both work on Mac and PC and are fantastic readers.

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Open Source Software: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast

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Hack: This segment will return on a future episode of The Geekcast

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The Geek’s View: Xbox Live wireless N adapter

7x faster than ‘G’ adapters*
2x the range of ‘G’ adapters*
Compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n networks
Dual band performance
5GHz: 1×2 (802.11a & 802.11n)
2.4GHz: 2×2
2(Tx)x 2(Rx)
Supports WPA2 security protocol
2 external antennas and off-board placement capability with USB extension cable (sold separately)

This will work with your wireless g router

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