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Episode #4 - Virtual Availability

By Appsolute Tech Show Admin | January 3, 2008

Did somewhere really warm just freeze over? No, but a labor of love has to marinate a little sometimes. In this special edition of the Appsolute Tech Show, Dr. Apps keeps it to himself, his lonely self. I open up with a brief talk about the addictive quality of Super Mario Galaxy and it’s current hold on my brain.

This episode was recorded with my new Samson Zoom H2 Handy Recorder (crappy name), how about Zoom H2 Portable Personal Digital Recorder. O’Reilly Digital Media has an in-depth review here. This tiny, lightweight handheld recorder has four microphones and can record true surround-sound audio! How cool is that? Plus it sounds great and comes with a carrying case, stand, mic-stand adapter, headphones and an ac adapter. Two AA batteries can also power it for up to 8 hours. I love it so far, I just wish it was aluminum instead of plastic.

Hate proprietary single network instant messaging clients, like AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo Messenger? I do too. I briefly touch on two great free and open-source IM clients. Pidgin (formerly GAIM) is a free open-source multi-network IM client for Windows, Fedora, CentOS (and others) and Adium a multi-network IM client for the Mac. Nurse Apps listened to the raw recording of this episode and told me to add that all you have to do to start using Pidgin is type in your AOL IM (or Google Talk, Microsoft MSN/Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, etc) username and password and Pidgin will import your buddy lists so you don’t have to. Truly awesome examples of well-done free open-source software.

I also try my best to discuss the different types of software, like open-source vs. proprietary (or as I call it closed-source) and freeware, crippleware, shareware and commercial software.

If you are new to podcasts/netcasts I discuss some of my favorites, like Buzz-Out Loud, TWiT, Command N, LabRats and Tekzilla (and I forget to mention GeekBrief TV).

And finally, for 2008 the Apprentice and I agreed that we need theme music and decided that the show will be released on Sunday (still bi-weekly).

Thanks for listening and feel free to comment here or email us.

Dr. Apps / Host of the Appsolute Tech Show