GeekNights 090928 - Tech News Roundup

Apreche

Tonight on GeekNights we cop out with a tech news roundup. We do a rant about people who refuse to use supposedly resource hogging applications. We also went to the Gizmodo Gallery.

• Reddit Hacked
• Stack Exchange
• E-mail shut down
• GPS in phone illegal
• Ubuntu 9.10 is coming
• PSP Go no go?
• Sidewiki

Captainbubby

Funnily enough, Australia is responsible for several things you mentioned on top of what you criticized. When I was visiting my parents a few months ago, I went over the meager 3 GB a month limit, (at around $70 USD a month) merely by checking e-mail and using MSN. Unfair bandwith metering if ever I saw it. Any extensive online gaming is out, and even were that not an issue, games are usually priced around the $90 USD mark. Heck, I felt more technologically liberated in rural North China than I ever did in Australia. At least in North China I had uncapped, fairly priced highspeed internet, and dare I say it, a less restrictive internet filter!

lackofcheese

You're exaggerating.
Sure, bandwidth metering sucks, but it seems to me like you picked the worst possible ISP. My current internet plan is 80GB per month for ~$43.70 USD. Basically, you're doing it wrong.
Online gaming is just fine, as long as you're not trying to play an FPS on a U.S. or European server or something silly like that.
The average price for a game is closer to $80 USD at current exchange rates, but you have to keep in mind that the U.S. dollar is weaksauce right now.
As for the filter, it's not in place yet, and I doubt it will ever be.

Captainbubby

Yes, In hindsight I realize that I am certainly not looking at it through purely unbiased glasses. It is just the contrast between Australia and Hong Kong, and I find myself rather frustrated with my my semi-technologically literate parents have to put up with. They certainly should get a better plan.
What I do give Australia the most flack for though, and I'm sure you'd agree with me, is the lack of an R-rating for PC games. Do you recall Duke Nukem 3D shipping with parental mode locked on?

George Patches

Totally agree with you on the RAM issue. Also, on Firefox seems to use a ton more RAM than Chrome.

EDIT: Just checked out GNOME 3. Very cool, looking forward to that.

Captainbubby

I tried Chrome, but stuck with Opera. Chrome definitely outdoes all other browsers when it comes to stability. I still find Opera to trump it with speed, however. I dare say Opera is the greatest RAM rapist of them all, but extremely fast with decent features.

Neito

I dare say Opera is the greatest RAM rapist of them all,

That's funny, because when I get in to these "Firefox vs. Opera" arguments on another board, which is rarely, one of the things they always bust out with is that Opera is SOOOOOO MUCH LIGHTER ON TEH RAMZ than Firefox.

Luke Burrage

Good episode guys! I like your tech roundups much better than the generic sunday twit show because you pick subjects where you have already formulated opinions, express those opinions, and then move on. Twit guests often don't know or care about the stories, so end up humming and harring for ages, and the listeners only get one or two insightful comments per show.

The only time I don't like my laptop using up all the resources is because something is really hot just under my left wrist.

Neito

Plus, Tech News Roundups don't have Jason Calicanus making orgasm noises to Audible ads.

Apreche

The only time I don't like my laptop using up all the resources is because something is really hot just under my left wrist

This is almost entirely due to CPU usage, not resource usage. Your RAM makes the same heat whether you are using 1% of it or 100% of it. CPU usage is what primarily heats up a laptop. So if you start playing a video, it's going to heat up. If you just do some Twittering, it will probably stay cool.

lackofcheese

Clock cycles are a resource too, or, at a baser level, energy is a resource.

Apreche

Clock cycles are a resource too, or, at a baser level, energy is a resource

This is true, but generally it isn't applications that take up CPU resources, but tasks.

Luke Burrage

Yeah, I guess I used the wrong terms. I have a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo in my macbook, and it gets a bit toasty. Otherwise it does everything I ask of it without too much bother. I really notice the heat when playing lots of flash video.

Luke Burrage

GPS in phone illegal

I wonder what the law would be in the case of Garmin making a mobile phone.

Churba

Do you recall Duke Nukem 3D shipping with parental mode locked on?

I also recall there being a text file on the disk that told you exactly how to take the Parental filter off.

ThirdWorldMan

I'm not sure that you guys will have to make the alternative to GameFAQs as I think Wiki sites are going to be doing that in the future. Sites like these two here: uno dos are ones that are already gaining alot of traction in that area.

VinceA

Cosmos was definitely responsible for some big thoughts on my part. Made sure that my kids were aware of it in book & DVD form. Sagan had a way about him to make the insanely complicated seem understandable.

Pegu

My favourite Sagan quote:
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

chaosof99

In two days there will be Carl Sagan's 75th Birthday. There are some festivities planned for a Carl Sagan day but apparently they'd celebrate it today. Not sure about this, maybe because of the weekend. Anyways, good to hear he's not been forgotten about, even though I haven't enjoyed him that much due to me being geographically impaired. Gotta check out one of his books some time soon though.

Sail

Dude, Jack White gave the guy who did the Carl Sagan autotune video a record deal. "A Glorious Dawn" is coming out soon on a 7" single xD