Web Cams and GeekNews

Nick Cuniffe from Logitech joins the geeks for a discussion of online video chat and web cameras. We give two web cameras away, and are actually impressed by their quality.

Google Monoculture and the Cloud

One wonders: If Google were to go down (or become essentially unusable — same thing) for, say, 72 hours or more, how disruptive would it be to the economy? Would online retailers see a slowdown in business? Would job-seekers remain out of work longer? Would the productivity of information workers (who supposedly spend a couple hours per day doing online searches) be seriously affected?

Google Latitude keeps tabs on friends' locations

The company plans to launch software called Latitude on Wednesday that lets mobile phone users share their location with close contacts. Google hopes it will help people find each other while out and about and to keep track of loved ones.

Extinct ibex is resurrected by cloning

Using DNA taken from these skin samples, the scientists were able to replace the genetic material in eggs from domestic goats, to clone a female Pyrenean ibex, or bucardo as they are known. It is the first time an extinct animal has been cloned.

9 Year Old Writes iPhone Application

Designed with his artistic younger sisters (aged 3 and 5) in mind, the app allows users to draw shapes in random colors and then clear their work with a shake of the phone. Since its launch two weeks ago, the freebie app has attracted over 4000 downloaders.

1800Shortcuts.net!

Gabe emailed the geeks with: “Hey Guys! I dont know that this would be ‘geeky’ enough for the show. First
off I am a total geek and not afraid to admit it! I have always loved
technology. Also, I really enjoy the show, i listen to it all the time, in
my office, at home.. anywhere i can! In my line of work (Real Estate) i have to call mortgage banks all the
time. I got very frustrated with automated menus and found that i was
spending a good portion of my time just navigating the menus before i could
actually talk to someone. Out of frustration i built this site.”

“Please understand that I’m maintaining the site on my spare time, I know
that a lot of extensions are out of date, but with just my own efforts, its
tough to update it all the time but i do my best! As a fellow geek l wanted to offer this site to you guys. I hope you find it useful!”

Parking tickets actually malware attacks in disguise

The last place anyone would expect to face a computer security attack is on the windshield of their car in the form of a parking ticket.

But that’s the latest — and intensely clever — way that hackers are attempting to goad people into visiting infected websites and willingly install malware on their machines.


! Our Guest

Nick Cuniffe, Product Marketing Manager for the Internet Communications Business unit at Logitech is our guest. After his Political Science degree from Berkly, Nick started focusing on user experience software and has been working at Logitech for the past three years.

To learn more about the Logitech and how to use a different video calling solutions – with how two videos, go ahead and visit the [Logitech’s QuickCam site|http://www.logitech.com/quickcam/] website.

! Trying out the Camera