There's Nothing in the Air

January 19, 2008
There's Nothing in the Air

The Geeks discuss the week in tech news, including the further decline of HD DVD sales, the blackest black courtesy of new carbon nanotube material, an asteroid hitting Mars, a CIA report revealing the weaknesses of power grids to hackers, and commuting Hwy 17 by bus between Santa Cruz and San Jose with full connectivity. Also discussed are the benefits and the drawbacks of the new Apple MacBook Air notebook, with emphasis on the latter.

  [ Audio 24.8 MB mp3 ] [ Audio 29.4 MB ogg ]

GeekNews

Mars Attacked!

The odds of an asteroid hitting Mars has been increased. The odds are now as low as 1 in 75

The odds are now as low as 1 in 75

Blacker then Black

Scientists create the worlds's blackest material made with nano-technology.

HD DVD Sales Decline Even Further

According a Nielsen report covered in Home Media Magazine , HD DVD constituted only 15% of hi-def disc net sales during the second week of January, 2008. As an example, the top title released for HD DVD, The Kingdom, sold just 10% as many copies as the top Blu-ray Disc release, 3:10 to Yuma.

CIA Releases New Hacker Report

It seems that hackers have figured out how to compromised the US power grid as a new extortion tactic.

Wifi on the 17 Express

The Metro is installing Wifi into their 17 Express busses. Commuters going between San Jose and Santa Cruz can now compute while they commute. While it is certainly better than trying to use a computer while driving on Highway 17, it is definitely not recommended. (See page 68 of the Santa Cruz Metro Winter Headways publication for more information).

Links

  • Hitler explains the downfall of HD-DVD

  • Fast VNC for remote computer access.

  • Router Security using tor the Onion Router .

  • During the show, a caller asked about freeing up space on their Windows notebook. The Geeks recommend clearing out temporary files first. Do this by opening Windows Explorer (located in Start -> All Programs -> Accessories). To see a graphical representation of the files on your hard drive, the geeks recommend Windows Directory Statistics (WinDirStat) . You would be surprised how much data is on your drive that you don't need.