Aussie Geek Podcast #004 :: Rock Snot
Welcome to Episode 4 of the AGP, thanks for listening. Huge show this week. Dave is still in the middle of house extensions so Keith is editing the show once again and this time we think we got the levels right so your ears are safe!
Please send us your feedback either via email or by leaving your comment right here. You can send us an email 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
Show Notes
Welcome
Technology News
- Skype Turns 5
- Comcast Caps Broadband
- McAfee Sued Over “Spyware” Tag
- The ISS has an Infection
- Jaiku Opens Up and Moves to Google Infrastructure
- YouTube do Captions
- Google Suggest Phased In
- Mozilla Extends Google Deal for another 5 Years
- Veoh Copyright Case Dropped
- How Google Earth Helped Win Gold
- Apple Rumor
- Kiwi’s have a Problem with “Rock Snot” See the Pictures Here
The Break
- Geek Vacuum Cleaners
Appications
- Start Killer: Who needs a “START” button?
- Photocopier: Turn your scanner and printer into one
- Grand Perspective (Mac): Visualise your hard drive
- Dual Level (iPhone App): Turn your iPhone into a spirit level (not the ghost ones either)
Firefox Extension
- Send to Google Docs: Send web based docs to Google Docs, supports: PDF, MS and Open Office Formats
A Word From the Wise *cough*
Sites and Services
- Tweetrush: Nice looking stats for twitter
- Quarkbase: Get stats on domains
- YouGetSignal: We take a look at the Reverse IP Lookup feature (and more)
Feedback
Farewell
Featured Music
A Moment’s WorthThe Eternal Optimist (mp3)
"I Want To Be a Celebrity"
Buy at 
First
I just got here and here it is, a great way to start my day.
Cheers!
DAMMIT !
Oops… didn’t comment on PodCast 3… sorry, I did listen but have been busy busy. Great editing Keith! Love the bloopers too - hope you keep including them!
I did an iTunes review yonks ago, after episode 000… but it’s STILL not showing. Do you guys moderate them or does Apple?
Knightwise’s rant was great. Got some very funny looks from the other commuters as I couldn’t stop laughing. So true about the US-centric nature of a lot of the interwebz.
I’m off to the Mac Store in Sydney tomorrow so I’ll be sure to change a few homepages to the AGP blog!
Right, bored now - off to peruse some of those sites hosted on your server.
PS - if you’re after a video of the week, this one is pretty funny in a geeky sort of way:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1823766
fourth!
no no not the language. loading up my E51 now. have I mentioned how much I love my E51. So hey KDM, your two CDMA operators took their heads out $*@)(#*# $#) and are going to collaborate on a HSDPA network? That’s great! Probably LTE as well eh? How ab00t that?
I’ll be listening Friday night in the car so no note taking in QuickOffice this week.
Pulling a Herne and commenting while listening. Just wanted to comment on the Comcast limits. The 250g limit is pretty generous and actually greater than some other cable service providers in the States are proposing (some < 100g). What upset alot of people about this originally in the states was Comcast for a while was denying they were limiting high-bandwidth users full access to sites when confronted until the govt. stepped in.
In defense of this Comcast users share nodes so one household’s excessive consumption can impact everyone in that neighborhood. Comcast’s line is they are really looking out for all their customers. The way cities are split between Cable companies Comcast is the only high speed option in many areas.
Not in the Comcast area just MHO.
Dave
@knightwise I listened to you criticize the Americans for being self-centered. First of all, the Americans talk about their stuff because they are the only people they know anything about. The Internet however you slice it is mostly americanized. The biggest web services and companies like YouTube, Google search, Twitter, Yahoo!, Techcrunch, Technorati, O’Reilly Media, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle come from the US and were financed there. You don’t see the IT people flooding Europe because we have the best soil for the Internet business, they do! Just listen to Cameron Reilly talk about venture capital there and the ‘angels’. Name one web service that is as big as YouTube but isn’t available in English? What foreign language must an American learn to not miss on anything? People around the world speak English not because they would like to visit London in the summer :). They do because of the US. Choosing a wrong president of the US can cause real world consequences ( Iraq, hello?!? ) but electing the government of Belgium a bit late is not really that important, now is it?
Why do you listen to so many American podcasts? There should be quite a lot in Dutch which cover the same topics by as equally knowledgeable people are they are. My guess is that there isn’t many at all. Why do they bother and most of the Europeans don’t? Especially not in their language (mostly in English if at all)? Because the Americans are the people that are mostly up-to-date with things like podcasting, web services and twittering. They come up with this stuff!
I think you contradict yourself a bit as well in terms of your personal approach. If you want to show the Americans that there is more to life than the USA, why don’t you record half of the Knightcast in Dutch? That would send them a message that there are different languages than English in the world of the Internet. You are criticizing the Americans in their own language on a medium that originated in their country…
I know that if the US chose German as their leading language many years ago, you would be recording ‘Wilkommen zu der Knightcast. Ich will über viele interessante Sachen heute sprechen” and I would understand every other sentence, tops! Or probably I would be speaking German as well, just to be able to develop with Microsoft .NET.
Unless Europe becomes less tax-burdened and more imaginative, the self-centered Americans are right in their doing IMO. I don’t see an alternative to Skype being developed in France right now, for example.
Cheers,
Raf
Do Flemish wear baby blue berets? I seem to recall old dudes in blue hats talking to me when I was on the train once. I mean literally I was on the train once, or twice. Rode from the Airport to Centraaaaal. The next week I went the wrong direction. Man it’s tough being illiterate. I recall the carriages looked much better in Germany. Oh yea, my question. I forgot kw’s real name. Is he a Waloooon or does he wear a little blue hat? Lets not talk about the pink hat/mask.
Just wondering.
I should probably listen before I post two comments. Friday.
- Eric in Cupertino
ps - Maybe the EU can become VC?
I think Wired must have been listening to you as they’ve got 5 applications for the iPhone which replace tools like the spirit level. I think some of you might enjoy the final one!
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/five-iphone-app.html
@boonyboy Don’t be pulling on TheHerne!
I have a 60GB cap with my ISP… I think the most I’ve used in a month has been 10GB. I don’t imagine I’d ever go over 20GB unless I started downloading movies or something, which is very doubtful.
More comments on the show when I get a chance to listen to it for a second time and make notes.
@Dave Re “Geez, get a blog Herne!” … Working on it!
@Herne how you doing with that?
@Raf keep an eye on the Japanese and Chinese social networking scene which is set to explode. Some say that they will decimate sites MySpace and Facebook. Time will tell. But your right the US is certainly the VC capital of the universe and where most of the development is coming from.
@Tom Nice find mate. Yup we are used to our content getting stolen! But looks like some of those are pretty cool
Hi Guys,
I can’t get that Firefox extension to work for me? It loads up and adds the send to Google Docs option to the right click menu, but when I press it nothing happens. Shame, because it could be really useful.
Colin
@Colin check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbYAQOUocDo
might help. Also check out Amit’s support page. I have spoken with Amit in the past so if you like I can see if he wants to answer you directly if you don’t have any luck.
http://www.labnol.org/software/open-web-documents-in-google-docs/4275/
Let us know how you get on.
A Windows program similar to Grand perspective (graphical HDD usage display for Macs) is SpaceMonger. Below is a link to a free version of it.
http://www.werkema.com/software/spacemonger.html
This month I changed ISPs and went from 15GB to 40GB. In 2 weeks we have used 22GB. I’ve been like a kid in a lolly shop. My son went crazy with game downloads before I told him to use the ISP server for uncounted usage.
@Matt I have noticed that many aussie isps (not sure about OS ones) have pretty good mirrors for free or unmetered downloads. Internode have a great selection of software including updates and applications.
Funny though despite the fact that I get around on the net - I don’t use a lot of bandwidth. I think it is because I mostly read rss, blogs and the odd video and not many high bandwidth activities like gaming and such. So on my plan I have a 25GIG limit but don’t go anywhere near it most months. I think over time this will change for many reasons. I have kids as well so I am guessing that I’ll be in your boat in time!
Great job on the charts. I trust that is the Australian ITunes store? Pretty good variety of podcasts your up against over there.
@KW You think the Podcasts are annoying regarding the election, try watching television without being inundated w/ads and we also get tons of phone calls.
@KDM Another great job on the editing, loved the bloopers at the end.
Is there anyway to vote on iTunes without the itunes software?
I refuse to put that crap on my computer, particularly after the Safari “Critical Update” fiasco.
@Matt Afraid not mate. But we won’t ask people to put software on their PC that they don’t want to
@boonyboy thanks mate! Yup there is some pretty stiff competition there that we are beating and yes that is the Australian iTunes store. We would love to climb higher though and you guys are helping buckets!
One thing that will give us a boost is for people to drop a review on iTunes for the show. So if you use iTunes it would be much appreciated if you could find the time to do that.
Thanks guys - top work!
@Matt I meant to mention Space manager. Thanks for the link!
@Eric It think they’re talking about it, but I haven’t seen anything about an RFP or anything yet…
@Matt (again) for the record, you can un-check the Safari thing at install time, though I agree with you — that kind of distribution model is downright underhanded.
DO NOT BUY Dual level. There are many more free ones on the App store that do the same thing!!
Haha, Dave says “scanner” funny. Sounds like “scana”
And wtf is that rock snot…dirty!! Stay away from NSW please.
250GB usage limit..wow I wish. I thought 25GB was a lot!!
Keep climbing AGP, you can make top 10.
Anyone say Apple rumors?? I can’t wait, there’s so much speculation around. Looks like only iPods will be updated on the 9th…hopefully new Macbook’s soon though.
Wow, i hope you guys include the new vista ads in your next show. All I can say - WTF???????Maybe a rant on that form KW to? haha
Good show mates!
I cant mychingo. So regarding Brie. You can install Sun xVM for free and then install an Ubuntu 8.4.1 from the ISO. That is a good way to see if FIOS is the issue, which I doubt. You’ll see 8.4.x is beautiful.
Disclosure, I used to work for Sun [ fired twice ] and now I work for a company that builds stuff for most big networks.
Podcast comments later.
I think I have found next week’s featured video:
Microsoft Ad with Bill Gates & Jerry Seinfeld:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooI7bCe4hVA
You could call it “the riddle of the week”
But seriously, could someone tell me what they were planning to achieve with this thing?
Great show, as always. Knightwise just KILLS me! Even we here in the CENTER OF THE WORLD are SICK, SICK, SI@@@@K of hearing only US news - and ESPECIALLY the massive pre-election hype. You can’t believe most of what they say anyway! I have to go to BBC to get ANY international news.
@Raf , My point in the matter (that I forgot to mention in my rant) is that we Europeans AND Australians for that matter KNOW that there is a ‘rest of the world’ and IF we aim our podcasts towards that rest of the world, we are mindful NOT to make our podcasts home-country-centric. Where as for American podcasts , they also target a global audience, yet do not diverge from us-centric content. Its a case of “Knowing your world” I will bet you five dollars (us) that I know MORE about American culture then US citizens now about Belgian Culture. Why ? Because I am flooded with their culture. As a Belgian podcaster I don’t podcast in Flemish nor French nor German (I could if I wanted to) because I want to target an international audience. (Aussies , Brits, Canadians, US etc) and as a result I DONT my my show ‘Belgium Centric’ Thus : Reaching an audience as broad as possible with a cultural view that is equally broad. I feel for you guyz up there ( as Brie Said) being flooded with everything about the election and so forth. But more and more that election news is flooding into our media too. Perhaps who will be the next us president might be something important regarding the US and their foreign policies (or lack of). But the last time I looked : I cant vote for any of the guyz ( I can only vote for my OWN government) So I don’t really CARE about it.. There is nothing I can do about it anyway.
Oh : Btw : Flemish podcasts suck arse. I think i’m one of the few , if not the ONLY flemish podcaster that does it in English.
@Eric : I have no clue where you saw the blue barets. The only people who wear those are Belgian soldiers working for the UN , (was it light or dark blue) , if it was dark blue it MIGHT have been the Belgian “gendarmerie” (state police) but that was some time ago.
I’m “a Flem” (inhabitant of Flanders, and speak Flemish as my native tongue, a variant of DUTCH.) I can speak French and German too since i live close to both borders/
@Brie : I love you girlie ! I knew you would understand me
Btw : some of our providers (isp’s) have a bandwith cap of 25 gigabytes per month (it used to be TEN !)
What’s wrong with America being the Centre of the world? You go invent darpanet ok? Oh wait! We already did. Sorry, you missed the boat! Put down the truffles and get to work. If you want to set me up with a Dutch tutor I’d love to be a “refugee” in the land of double As or triple vowels. We also invented BSD and therefor NeXT for God’s sake. I’d love to see anyone top that. ps - my mum is a migrant from Asia. teeheehehe. Devil’s Advocate, it’s a full time job.
Regarding Jaiku. I’m sure you can remember me harping on and on about them back when KW was on the podcast. I dont think they can recover from backburner’ing the S60 client. They did have IM support which I loved. I do data not SMS. If they can come back with WM, Android and S60 clients this year maybe they’ll get some people back. Otherwise, it’s Dodgeball 2.0.
I had a friend at DIVX’ stage six. Under the DMCA “Safe Harbor” provisions you should NEVER audit your own site.
RFP! I only hear that at “all hands”.
Regarding Algae. I eat it on a regular basis. But what I eat is cultivated in South Korea. Your rocksnot invasion, is that partially a symptom of mammal feces in the water? Just wondering.
The initial release Chrome is for G1 testing. That’s my opinion.
Hoping for a 99$ AppleTV on Tuesday.
Hoping for a HTC touch pro running Linux the following Tuesday.
I like the IDEA of data visualization tools. du -sh is your friend, but on my E51 I would /love/ a tool like that.
@knightwise Thanks. My point really was that if Belgium was a world super power, you guys would forget about the rest of the world as well. None of our countries is so we know there is someone else to look up to. The moment there is something more powerful and innovative than the US they will start noticing. Until then, it’s going to be one way street across the ocean.
Some time ago, I was driving near Antwerp and could listen to you guys speak on the radio. Your language is the most difficult for me to pronounce. I am amazed you don’t get tired with those throaty sounds
My ISP gives me 40 GBs during the day and up to 300GBs at night, which more than plenty
250GB is no cap at all. If you need more than 250GBs, you’d better order a dedicated line. I can’t image reaching 250GBs unless somebody is using torrents 247.
@Eric : I have several names for you : Robert Cailliau, ( Belgian inventor of HTTP )Another One , Adolph Sax , etc .. Not to mention that 90% of the artistic cultural heritage of the US has come from Europe, ( Frans Hals , Rubens, Breughel etc). And by the way , a lot of the Darpanet Research was done @ CERN in Switserland. (Btw : the core Kernell of Linux was also invented by the European : Linus Torvalds ? )
@Raf , the Guttural sounds are mostly in the French language we speak. We don’t get tired of it , but for most Belgians (and the French speaking ones in particular) the use of the ‘guteral sounds) make it very hard to learn English without having a horrible accent. And for those of you who think we speak like Klingons : Have you heard me ? Do I speak Klingon ?
@KW When I first heard you speak I was not sure where the heck you came from it is a mix of Yank, European of some description a dash of Pom and NZ for good measure.
You would make a good spy
@Dave Haha
A Dash of Porn ! True , I would make a very good spy.. Or a secret agent .. or a pink Superhero.
That would be a dash of Pom as in Pommy as in English… no Porn you dirty bastard
@Dave .. No porn ? But Cait LOVES porn !…
Nope no porn… sorry.
You’ll be right, you know where all the great hang outs are for perverts like yourself
I think it was Cait’s cats that liked porn… I could be wrong
Rock Snot is not from New Zealand! We are suffering because some careless bastard brought it here. According to research we got the stuff from North America, so I blame Keith. Probably came from his lost Ipod
“Biosecurity New Zealand had samples of didymo – an invasive freshwater alga known as rock snot – from outbreaks in the United States, Canada, Iceland, Britain and Europe compared with samples taken from South Island rivers.
“Phylogeographic analysis using didymo DNA samples from populations around the world indicates that a North American population is the most likely source of New Zealand’s introduction,” Biosecurity spokeswoman Judith Hamblyn said.”
@SighKo Don’t go pinning this on me. The damn stuff started taking over because of the holes in the ozone causing increased UV exposure and making the blooms go crazy. Probably the same reason that NZ is seeing blooms, the hole in the ozone layer shifts around the globe during each hemisphere’s summer…
And I’m pretty sure that the iPod I lost in the American mid-west didn’t make it’s way down to you, unless you’re the one that found it and took it home, in which case you’re probably the careless bastard!
My cats like Vista, which could be geek porn, or maybe cat porn.
@KnightWise - No list of famous belgians is complete without Tin Tin!
@tom Tintin isn’t a real Belgian. His creator “Hergé” is.
@cait : Do cats like Vista cause they can see the mouse on the screen ?
Spirit Levels are great on phones:
http://img.gsmarena.com/vv/pics/nokia/nokia-5140i-00.jpg
(top left on phone), called in Aus “The Tradie Phone”
Also good on tripods to get your horizon straight…
Good stuff
More cat shenanigans…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVjzd320gew