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“Make Money Fast” was uttered for the first time on a Usenet in 1989. The message had the name “Dave Rhodes” attached, but it was suspected to be a pseudonym. The words “Make Money Fast” and “Scam” become synonymous.

This week we also talk about the Windows/IBM announcements, the first use of the WWW, Atari STacy and so much more.

Other Posts of Interest:

• Week In Tech History - Nov 17th - 20th - Pentium 4 Debuts
• WITH p2 - 101008 - Tom Cruise and Pac Man Fever

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I - S.U.N. (Straight Up News)
Apple hires IBM Guy
iPod CEO Steps
i7 on Nov.17th
Firefox hits 20%
iPhone Bug
Sony Battery Recall
OASIS forms ODF
OpenBSD 4.4 Released
WDTV
New MP3 Logo
THQ Staff Cuts

II
Comcast & P4P?
Bye Circuit City
Bye Yugo Live

TCT Podcast - Snowball Launcher and Heated Gloves
TechTweak - BlackBerry Call Forwarding

III
My Take on Windows 7
AT&T Caps
MakeUseOf Hacked

Edward Jones

IV
Apple Lineup
French Ban
How Secure is Your Phone

Apple - get an iMac

Listeners’ Notes:
Your Own Spacesuit
Electric Pacer

YouTubin
Tech of Blue Man Group

Twitter - Pownce - Plurk - Myspace - Facebook Group - FriendFeed - Digg the Podcast

Other Posts of Interest:

• Podcast Ep 60 - 11-19-08 - Yahoo CEO Edition
• Episode 46 - 8-13-08 - Call and Win

Firstly, we are changing the name of the show to Week in Tech History, or WITH.On the Weekend edition of WITH, we got two interesting events. First of all, it’s Pac Man Fever and It’s driving me crazy! 1979, Pac Man was introduced in Japan and in 1980 was introduced in the US. Of course, Pac Man was created by Namco, has over 30 spinoff games and even has a board game version.

There are a lot of other cool items in the weekend edition like IBM releases, XP SP1 and it’s officially Tom Cruise day.

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Other Posts of Interest:

• This week in Tech History- 3-31-08 - WOZ buys Apple
• Ep. #50 - 9-10-08 - Lots of news and info on forums

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The Economy is in Danger. Banks and Institutions are in a financial pickle. With the fall of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because of bad business decisions and a Blind eye to investors building more homes than Americans need, financial institutions could collapse upon themselves. To protect their money, they could make it harder for Businesses to get loans.

I am building a business in Geekazine. I have been working hard in putting together a Business Plan for investors. Now I might find myself in a position where I possibly cannot find the investors and loans simply because any proposition can become a risky one. The 700 billion of taxpayers’ money to bail out these companies that the Government is proposing is set to keep things going for a while, but we are far from an answer. So what could be that answer – Maybe Technology?

Ten Years ago yesterday, Ebay put their company up for Public offering. They started at $18 a share. Currently they are at $22 a share and they employ thousands. Google employs over 10 thousand. These are companies that show us you can take nothing and turn it into something.

Could you imagine what could have happened if these companies didn’t get their financial backing? What would have happened if Microsoft or IBM didn’t get the funding to build their facilities? We wouldn’t be seeing 22 nm chips and 64 bit Operating Systems.

Businesszone.co.uk held a conference in May and within, the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies stated the number of startups in 2008 is 50 thousand less than in 2007. They believe it will pick up toward the end, however with the threat of financial companies possibly making it harder to lend money, we may just see startups plateau for now.

CIO.com asked back in January if Technology can bring us out of a recession. They talked about Green Technology and upgrading Infrastructure. MIT researchers posted ideas from their faculty to help. They believe that Bioengineering, Fusion, Robots and Sustainable Cities might help with the answer. This is all well and good, but are these items that can turn our current economy around?

Of course those articles came out a couple months before the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Wall Street was still in a stable position. So Now, we need to find ways to get Wall Street and Financial Institutions back on their feet. That is where technology comes in. What can technology do to contribute to bringing Wall Street back to stability?

In turning things around, though, we will have to keep an eagle eye on  those who will try to capitalize and throw us off track. Wrong thinkers and people willing to deceive the average American to make their own dollar. Crime does go up in times like these.

Wall Street & Technology has the best Headline though: Transform Intelligence into Action. Data is what drives us and Data is what can take us out of this. Trends in the Market, educated patterns and preemptive solutions will turn things around. Programs that can better project and warn us if something like a Government funded housing project is going to turn on us.

I wish I could tell you what technology could turn the market around. I bet if the programming minds out on Wall Street got together, someone can come up with a usable device or software. But if we can’t, you might want to stock up on rations.

Funny. We just shut down the Large Hadron Collider for a malfunction and reality is, we already have a big black hole sucking us in.

Other Posts of Interest:

• Do We Need Comcast to Cap Bandwidth Usage?
• Is Comcast Trying to Be the Next AOL?

No Ouside show  - Mic Cable - Donate old iPhone - PC reload news - Batman Poster - Call and Win!

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I - S.U.N. (Straight Up News)
USPS Gets New Bar Codes - GCN
VIA quits Motherboard Business - Ubergizmo
ATI Radeon HD 4870 x2 - Gizmodo
Top 15 Cell Phones - Infosync
Best Buy Vending - Chicago Tribune
iPhone 3G Chip Problems? - GigaOm
AVS Forums Crash - Engadget
NVidia QuadroPlex D2 - Engadget
Hubble Hits 100,000 - Ars Technica
PSP Camera is a Fire Hazard - Gizmodo
Lenovo with WACOM - Dvice

AccessoryGeeks.com

II
IBM Virtualization - InfoWorld
Microsoft Free World - LinuxInsider
64 bit Windows Gaining - CNet
Zune Wants You - Ars Technica

TCT Podcast - $37 USD at Sourcingmap.com
Email

Ten Year Watch
Maya

III
iPhone Kill Switch - Engadget
Chinas Green City - Slashdot
Particle Supercollider - GCN
CA No-Compete - Slashdot

IV
Anitvirus in the Cloud - ArsTechnica
GMails ‘I’m Sorry’ Blog
Sprint Airave - Bizjournals
-Do they Work? - TechFAQ

Apple - get an iMac

Listeners’ Notes:
Rotatable iPod Alarm Clock
Anime Eyes
In Car Microwave
Diving for Antiques
Gamers Table
What to do with that old iPhone
400 Photoshop Actions

YouTubin
Uniteds Newest Commercial

Twitter - Pownce - Plurk - Myspace - Facebook Group - FriendFeed - Digg the Podcast

Other Posts of Interest:

• Ep. #51 9-17-08 - No Illness will bring the show down.
• Ep. #50 - 9-10-08 - Lots of news and info on forums

It was a Commodore Vic 20. We were up North at our Grandma’s house for Christmas in 1981. Our cousins had a Vic20 and we played some cool games. When we got home at the end of the week, we opened our presents and low and behold, we had a Vic 20. I swear I got up early every day of Winter break to play on this new machine. I did have to fight for use with the rest of my family, but I think I got some good time on it.

The Vic20 was released in January 1980. It sold for $299. It had a 1 mHz, MOS 6502 chip and 5 K of RAM. You connected this machine up to a standard TV using a RF modulator. Gorf, Snackman, Raid on Fort Knox and any game that came from COMPUTE! Magazine that we spent the time to type into the machine and save on the Tape drive. Those were the days….

My next computer was a Commodore 128 in 1986. It was backwards compatible with the Commodore 64 and had 128KB RAM with a 4 mHz processor. I got into Sprite editing. I made a Balloon fly across the screen. It was pretty cool.

While in school, I worked on the gamut: Apple II, IBM PC jr (the chicklet key one), Atari 800XL where I created my first musical composition: The Beatles ‘Hey Jude’.  We were also avid players of Ultima II, III and IV.

Then Apple showed up in full force. Apple Macintosh was the greatest new machines and Apple refitted our computer lab. 24 machines were connected via Appletalk. We connected a Video camera up to it and took digital snapshots of the students, worked on music and even built small robots and a pinball machine.

In the background, there was one 286 machine. It ran Windows 2.0 and had some great programs like a music composition program and a graphic design program.

I ditched the 128 for an IBM 286 PS/2 machine in College. I used that at home while using Macintosh in the lab for Music Composition using FINALE! In 1994, I started working in IT as a Tester for Biomedical equipment. I was given an old 386 board to work on in my spare time, but quickly ditched it for a 486DX2. I bought 8 SIMM chips for $40 a chip.

That machine lasted me 1 1/2 years. I updated the processor, then finally broke down and bought my first Pentium. It was a P90, but something was wrong with it, so I took it back and got a P166 at 66 mHz. I also bought a RealTek 14.4 modem / soundcard. It had software that could turn a computer into a multi-level voicemail system.

From there, it was a P200, PII 266, PIII 500, PIV 1.6 gHz and then a Dual Core 1.5gHz system, which I use to this day. I also have a Dell 2.8 gHz for the audio rig, a Athlon 3000 2.1 gHz for ustream and 2 laptops, 550 mHz Gateway Solo and 1.8 gHz Celeron Lenovo.

I did get another Mac a while back. It is a 800 mHz Power PC machine. Someday I will upgrade it, but it does what I need it to for now.

So why am I telling you this? Part to let you know my Computer background - Part for nostalgic reasons. It’s interesting how we went from Vic20’s to Multi Core PC’s. And all in a 30 year span.

It would be cool to actually get a Vic20 or a Classic Macintosh to play on. See if I can remember how to work it. Maybe build a simple game again. Connect a bread board and program an LED or something.

But then again, I like what I got now.

Other Posts of Interest:

• Fakes on the Internet
• Can your Laptop Battery Really Explode?

Items talked about this week:

ENIAC

Ruputer

Steve Ballmer Joins MS

Apple Lays off 1200

Jaques Cousteau

IBM is formed

Davy Jones Locker closed

Other Posts of Interest:

• This Week in Tech History 6-23-08
• This Week in Tech History - 06-02-08

This weeks’ show had some issues as I had some issues with the recording unit. Had to switch to a SM57 mic for the recording, then used a lot of VST effects to clean it up.

Nonetheless, here is your week in tech history. We highlight:

Apple goes Intel

Microsoft Antitrust

Maxis - shocking

CIH Computer Virus

First Spacewalk

Other Posts of Interest:

• This Week in Tech History 6-23-08
• This Week in Tech History - 6-09-08

Items Discussed:

IBM 701

Star Wars and more Star Wars (movie releases)

First Flights of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart

Atom Bombs

MySQL

ToySmart.com

Disney and Mickey Mouse

Other Posts of Interest:

• This Week in Tech History - 6-09-08
• Episode 46 - 8-13-08 - Call and Win

Items Discussed this week:

Printing Press
Albert Einstein
George Lucas
Apple
Microsoft
IEEE
AMD
CentOS
Nintendo

Other Posts of Interest:

• Someone is always Challenging Someone – Apple iPhone vs. Blackberry
• This Week in Tech History - 06-02-08

Items Discussed:

The Mouse was created
DNA Double Helix was discussed
IBM PC was introduced
Hubble was launched
The First Trojan Horse

Other Posts of Interest:

• WITH p2 - 101008 - Tom Cruise and Pac Man Fever
• This Week In Tech History p1 10-06-08 - The Apple Falls

The story of Exploding laptops is not a new one. The Lithium battery in your laptop expands to the point where it breaks the encasement. Dell, Sony and IBM ended up recalling a series of batteries to prevent computer loss.

Today scientists announced they had made a solid, non-flammable polymer to replace the liquid electrolyte that is used to make the batteries. The science is new, and wont see the light of the public eye for 3 to 5 years, mainly because the polymer needs work to hold a longer charge. However, will this help the laptop not explode?

A few years ago I dealt with an issue in desktops where they would either start acting quirky or stop working altogether. The result was what they called “Exploding Caps” - the Capacitors in the machines would expand due to faulty manufacturing. Capacitors are a vital part in most electronics because they store energy to push it out in the needed areas of the machine. They are in your desktop, laptop, Digital camera and most other electronics. Heck, there are even capacitors in your car.

Bottom line is that we take things for granted. We feel safe putting a device that pushes 19 Volts and holds many harmful chemicals on the lap. We put a potential grenade next to our eye. We even get into a large steel contraption and turn the key hoping it won’t go up in flames.

There is a video on YouTube simulating an exploding laptop (basically put together with help so it could explode). The initial explosion might not hurt, but if you don’t take immediate action, major damage will ensue. Here is why: A laptop battery is comprised of “Cells”. Usually there are 3-4 cells in a battery. Once one cell causes a breech, The other cells will eventually follow.

Think of it like the scene in “Back to the future 3″. When 3^rd log ignited, it causes the fire to get so hot it incinerates the train’s engine. When that chain reaction happens, the laptop gets hotter and more dangerous. Fire can get up to 1000 degrees or more, simply because you are dealing with an electrical AND chemical fire.

Now imagine you using your laptop: Is it sitting on your lap right now? Are your hands resting right above the battery? The initial cell explosion would most likely burn, but you would have enough time to react and get away from the machine.

Will that change my mind on using a laptop? Not really. However, it will make me more aware of how I use the machine. I still find it funny how some people leave their laptops on 24/7. Some have it constantly plugged into the wall, which can cause undo strain on the battery and ultimately cause it to fail.

I also see people close the lid, unplug it, then put it in their bag so they can go home. All because they don’t want to turn it back on, so it spends twenty minutes or more in a bag during a commute. Not to mention the sidetracking you can do, like go to the store on the way home to pick up a gallon of milk and bread.

The reality is the average laptop will not explode. The battery would need to have a defect in it to begin with. But you never know. An aborigine could come out of the brush and shoot an arrow directly in the battery causing a breech and sending your laptop to computer heaven.

The only thing you can do IF your laptop heads into flames is be prepared to know what to do. Don’t throw water on it. Remember - this can create a fire hotter than a standard fire. A Class D fire extinguisher will help stop the fire. Try to use something to push it into a trash can or something non-flammable. Keep the laptop plugged into a surge strip - that way if the fire breaks out, the surge protector trips.

I have an older laptop and have had it on my lap approximately 60 percent of the time when I use it. I am not concerned about it exploding. I suppose there will be some time I go to turn it on and it wont respond. But that is just like any device - eventually it will fail.

BTW - if you want to feel conscious about the environment, then the laptop you want is a MacBook Air. It’s made with an all-aluminum case, BFR and PVC free circuit boards, arsenic free glass and a Mercury free  monitor.

Other Posts of Interest:

• The Computers in My Life
• Someone is always Challenging Someone – Apple iPhone vs. Blackberry

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Events covered:

First Blu-Ray Player
IBM 360
First SpaceShuttle Spacewalk
Atari Opens it’s doors
Synthetic Rubber

Other Posts of Interest:

• The Computers in My Life
• This Week In Tech History p1 10-06-08 - The Apple Falls

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Part I
April Fools hurting more than joking?
Bejing, Open the Internet - USAToday
Dell Closes site, lays off 900 - Register
IBM Contract Ban - Wired
iPWNED in 24 - Gizmodo
JavaScript Slows Internet? - ArsTechnica
 

Part II
3G iPhone in May - Yahoo
Nomophobia - DailyMail
New Microsoft Live Search - Cnet
Wii be Coming - Yahoo
iMac Sued on million colors - USAToday
 

30 Second Promo - Totally Cool Tech Podcast

Part III
Dude, Wheres my iPod?
11 year old NetAdmin - Network World
Bully Bosses - CIO
Sofware says your pretty - ZDNet
It’s still a Windows World - ZDNet
 

Part IV
Jobs on WaterMac - Boygeniousreport
This next article I found out later to be an April Fools joke. I am omiting the link.
iPod Portability - Makeuseof
Microchips on Bodyheat - Inhabitat
 

Of Note:
Jabra Dog Tag
Hummer made by Lottery Tickets
 

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Ustream Video Feed:

Other Posts of Interest:

• Podcast Ep 58 11-05-08 - Dirty Web Space.
• Someone is always Challenging Someone – Apple iPhone vs. Blackberry

Experimenting with the time for TWITH. Let me know if you like the longer version.

Some topics in History discussed

-When Steve Wozniak (aka WOZ) bought Apple…
-Coffee, twinkies and velcro
-IBM Portables
-First Video Game Death
-GMail
-Mozilla and Netscape.

Other Posts of Interest:

• Ep. #50 - 9-10-08 - Lots of news and info on forums
• The Computers in My Life

Today in the Gym I was watching a report that Apple iPhone was challenging Blackberry for market share in the corporate world. I agreed with the report – Apple has a better user interface than the Blackberry, Blackberry is too expensive in their messaging systems and an iPhone looks a lot better than a Blackberry device.

But then I got to thinking about it. Is this really news? I mean, yeah – we’ve got one company trying for a niche that another company has. However what company hasn’t tried to emulate or compete with another company’s corner-hold before?

Apple has been the underdog for many years. iTunes and iPods are really what broke Apples’ shell and put them on the forefront of something. Even though iPhone is not there just yet, Apple really shows how cutting edge technology should look.

At one time or another, a company is an underdog. How many people remember when Microsoft came to power? What was the leading company before Cisco took the reins?  Google wasn’t the first #1 search engine: Google didn’t even start until 1998 whereas the web started in 1991. And no, it wasn’t Yahoo, either. WebCrawler, Lycos, Excite and Dogpile were a few of the favorites back then.

 If we look at the phone market, names like LG didn’t show up until later. In the earlier days, you most likely had a Nokia phone, or a Motorola phone.  Before Dell came on to the scene, you had IBM Compaq or Packard Bell computers. In 1996 Dell overtook Compaq in the Personal Computer market. And where is Compaq nowadays?

To be the “New kid on the block” is not a uncommon occurrence. To take over a market from another is once again, not a new occurrence. Keeping that status – well, that might be tougher to do.

So let’s go back to the iPhone/Blackberry issue. What can Apple do to really rival this product?

First of all, Apple needs to better integrate into Microsoft – for you are most likely going to connect to Microsoft servers. Blackberry’s biggest issue was that you had to purchase a Blackberry server – which up until a couple months ago was a real expensive acquisition.  IT Admins have enough to worry about. Another server to handle email should not be one of them.

Apple’s biggest issue is simply “3^rd Generation” – Otherwise known as “3G”. Even Steve Wozniak says an Apple iPhone missed the mark when they didn’t put this into the phone.

In a nutshell, 3G is to phones as Digital Cable is to TV. If you don’t have cable, then you have a set that could possibly get 100 channels, but only have 5-6. 2G would be like having Extended Basic Cable and 3G is the full blown Digital – 500 channels.

Steve Jobs answered why there was no 3G in Sept 2007 - It was a Power Hog. The iPhone has a 8 hour talk-time phone. 3G would suck that down to 2.5 to 3 hour range. Instead Apple took stock in making the phone with a powerful WiFi system.

AT&T says that a 3G iPhone is planned for sometime this year. That is, if 3G can curb its power appetite. However, Apple should really just bite the bullet if it doesn’t and make an iPhone with either a larger battery, or with a “3G switch”. Turn it on and off at will so if you need the ability, you have it.

The biggest thing would be to have the iPhone customizable. IT Admins like it when they can control the system. It’s not because they get pleasure in it – it’s because if they know what is on a system, then they can better troubleshoot if there is a problem – especially in mobile phones, for the problems don’t occur in the office, they occur out in the field.

 For instance – lets say you have a corporate computer at home and decide to install Webshots on it. Once installed, your computer starts acting slow. When you call your in house tech support, are you going to tell them you installed Webshots? Most likely not. Sometime because you just don’t think about it, other times because you don’t want to hear a lecture on how Webshots is not “Corporate software”.

Customizable interfaces mean tailoring to a company can really boost production. Some companies run their own specialized apps that shouldn’t get out to the public. These apps make corporations millions – if not billions of dollars.

When I worked at the Department of Revenue, we talked about making home assessments something an appraiser can do on a laptop. At that time the appraiser would write down the info, snap analog pictures and then come back to the office to input all the data. Imagine if they had an application that would work on an iPhone. The assessment would be done in the time they can walk through the building – including pictures. No need to go back to any office.

In today’s’ corporate world, we are always seeing one company go after another. It’s all about standing on top of the hill an pronouncing yourself king. However, some people miss the top because they are too concerned with mundane details that could  propel them. After all, the premise of “King of the Hill” is to expect that someone is trying to knock you off. And someone will do that eventually.

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Other Posts of Interest:

• Do We Need Comcast to Cap Bandwidth Usage?
• Weekly Roundup #1 - Will Android beat Godzilla and Mothra?