Hosts: David McVay, Josh Philpott and Shane Gregory

Geek Actually Tech is recorded live on Ustream with chat interaction.

The tech show by geeks for geeks and non-geeks. Accessible tech for everyone is the motto we live by. This weeks topic, Conan O’Brien and Leo Laporte’s Twitter stunts. Here are the show notes for the episode.

Follow Up To Last Week:

Webcamgate heats up with photos being turned over to police.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10465117-238.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

News

iPad gets a release date in the US
http://www.news.com.au/technology/apple-announces-sales-dates-for-new-ipad-but-australia-will-have-to-wait/story-e6frfro0-1225837583688

Sony developing new gadgets – PSP phone anyone
http://www.news.com.au/technology/sony-rumoured-to-be-working-on-psp-phone-handheld-devices-to-counter-apple/story-e6frfro0-1225837637268 and
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-10464636-260.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Atkinson backs the video game cancer group
http://www.news.com.au/technology/video-game-cancer-group-funded-by-atkinson/story-e6frfro0-1225837330811
and David addresses his inflammatory blog post about this – read it here

Please! Have the politicians forgotten what it is like to be a teenager?
http://www.news.com.au/technology/teens-who-send-sex-images-face-jail/story-e6frfro0-1225838476977

Internet surfing is a fundamental human right – right on…or not!
http://www.news.com.au/technology/four-in-five-believe-internet-access-is-a-basic-right/story-e6frfro0-1225838519896

iKey, kinda neat tech
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/03/08/0053237/Apples-iKey-Wants-To-Unlock-All-Doors?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Steam confirmed for Mac
http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/03/08/1924208/Valve-Confirms-Mac-Versions-of-Steam-Valve-Games?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Why does Google get to know everything about us but we don’t get to know about them?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10465492-261.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Opinion

Earlier this week Leo Laporte decided to challenge Conan O’Brien’s Twitter stunt. After telling his listeners to follow LisaTickledPink on Twitter, she got thousands of followers. She has become an overnight celebrity. It raises a couple of questions: How powerful are the geeks? and could this stunt somehow be a breach of her privacy? We discuss it out.

Conan O’Brien decides to change someone’s life on twitter
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10464923-71.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

and Leo Laporte copies him
http://petes2cents.posterous.com/lisatickledpink-meets-twits-leo-laporte

Meet LisaTickledPink
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rQo2Gs9UEM

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The Geek Actually Tech Podcast is recorded live on Ustream every Wednesday. We start at 8pmish Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time (UTC+11). Due to a technical issue, there is no video replay this week.

Hollie McKay - FoxNews.com

This week on The Geek Actually Podcast (episode 75) David McVay and Josh Philpott are joined in studio by special guests Mirren Lee (actress/dialect coach/writer/ex-actor’s agent) and Hollie McKay (entertainment reporter for foxnews.com).

This week we examine a little entertainment news and review Tim Burton’s new film “Alice in Wonderland”.

This week’s episode is going out an hour later to accommodate Hollie’s schedule, so if you do want to come watch live and join the chat room, got to http://geekactually.com/live at 1pm Saturday (13th of March) Australian Eastern Time. Why not ask us a question for the show: voice mail line 02 8011 3167

If you would like to know more about Hollie, her website is holliemckay.com or why not check out her work on foxnews.com or watch this video:

That portable Iron Man suit at the end is just awesome.

Click here to go to a page to see it in Hi-Def. It is worth the download.

To quote the news.com.au story:

A GROUP that says video games and violence are like smoking and lung cancer has received tens of thousands of dollars in funding from politician and outspoken R18+ game critic Michael Atkinson.

An expert from the Australian Council on Children and the Media this week told a TV news program the link between violent games and youth violence was stronger than tobacco and cancer.

“It’s much greater than the effect of smoking on lung cancer,” psychologist Dr Wayne Warburton said.

A ‘much great effect than the effect of smoking on lung cancer’. Wow, I am speechless. Actually I am not. Michael Atkinson, shame on you. You have now poured a reported $33,000 in donations into a group called ‘Know Before You Go’, a service that offers parents advice on films even after the films have been rated. as an example, the film ‘Charlotte’s Web’ was rated G and deemed suitable for all audiences. Know Before You Go says the film should not be watched by under eights alone as it has disturbing scenes. This in of itself not a bad thing. The ratings on films are often vague and this will help a parent know if there is anything in particular to watch out for.

I do worry when you dig a little deeper and find out that Know Before You Go is project of The Australian Council on Children and the Media which is a non-profit organisation that also trades under the name ‘Young Media Australia’, a group that has received funding from the Federal Government in the past. The Council’s purpose is to advise parents and members of the government on the harmful effects of media on young children. This is starting to sound dangerously Orwellean to me, but it gets better.

The Council has another project going called ‘Choosing Fright-Free Fight-Free Viewing: An Intervention for Parents of Under Sevens’ (I kid you not) which actually warned parents about the show Bananas in Pyjamas because it contained slapstick comedy and that could be dangerous. Stop laughing, I’m being serious here. Let me let their own booklet explain, ‘Slapstick comedy can make them think that things don’t actually hurt when in real life they do.’ I said stop laughing, this is serious stuff. And a fine example of your tax dollars at work. Cue my usual call at this point, where the hell are the parents to to explain this to their kids. It is not a council or the government’s responsibility to raise and explain right and wrong behaviour to your kids. If you are incapable of telling your kids that hitting each other might hurt someone then you shouldn’t have had kids.

These people are being funded by the Federal Government and private donations from people like Michael Atkinson. It also seems that the original comment on video games (you know, the one about lung cancer that started this whole rant) seems to originated from the Australian Christian Lobby. Now what a surprise (note sarcasm here)!

Okay, at this point I am going to say to Michael Atkinson, John Howard, George W. Bush, Kevin Rudd, Stephen Conroy, Tony Abbott and any other politician out there who this applies too, there must be a separation of church and state. We pretend that there is but there is not.

The entire population is not Christian so stop shoving your theological crap down our throats. I am a good person, I try not to cause harm to others, I raise my child with a strong ideal of right and wrong and good manners, I am faithful to my wife. I am courteous to others and I don’t drink and I don’t cause fights. In fact I am a very gentle person who doesn’t believe that violence solves anything. However I am not Christian and I do play violent video games. I love a good hard R horror movie once in a while and I watch hardcore porn. I don’t want my internet filtered, not because I support child porn, but because I believe in freedom of speech and I like my internet fast. I support the R18+ rating on games, not because I want to show my 10 year old the RC games, but because I want to play the games that the government has blocked in the past and I don’t want my 10 year old son to be able to buy them. I support gay marriage because everyone deserves to be happy and no Christian has ever been able to answer one fundamental question, how does the union of two men or two women affect my heterosexual marriage? This is a question that has only one answer, it doesn’t.

In Australia we have mandatory scripture classes in public school. For one hour every week the children are segregated into their little groups and told about their various gods. My son goes with the non-scripture kids and watches a movie or plays a game or reads a book. For one hour each week we have unqualified people (that’s right, they are volunteers from the community, not qualified teachers) come into the school to teach our children about something that is suppose to be taught at home. This is a secular public school (remember the church and state thing) funded by tax payer dollars and once a week we get all the kids to look at each other and point out that they are different. You don’t think there is a problem with this? My son came out of non-scripture and a Catholic boy looked at him, saw that he came out of non-scripture and said “you’re going to hell because you don’t believe in god”. I believe that that is more harmful to a 10 year old than Bananas in Pyjamas. Scripture is a personal and family belief system. You go to church to learn about your god and practice at home, keep it out of the public school system. If you want scripture taught to your child, send them to a private religious school.

At this point I have lost many Christian readers and listeners to my podcast, and quite frankly I don’t care. But for those that are still around, I don’t care what your belief in god is, just keep it to yourself and don’t try to force your ideals or faith on me or society, we are not buying today thank you.

Let’s put the Christian moral hammer down now and approach the debates of the Internet Censorship Filter, The introduction of an R18+ rating for games and the re-introduction of the X18+ rating for movies with a logical and theological free mind. I think we might get more achieved if you keep your god out of it or we might have to bring up a few of your little mistakes like The Inquisition or those pesky Crusades.

I have my asbestos underwear on, let the flaming begin.

Josh Philpott, Nathan Lawrence and Joab Gilroy (with David ‘Beardy’ McVay).

Platforms is a gamers podcast by gamers. The podcast is recorded live on Ustream with chat interaction so come and join the fun as your host candidly discuss the latest in the gaming world. The podcast is uncensored, explicit, honest and very non ‘PC’. We kick off this week with the trailer for ‘Heavy Rain’, this week’s feature review. This week we are joined by Nathan Lawrence and Joab Gilroy, editor of Game Arena (gamearena.com.au)

News This Week: R18+ rating discussion paper update, ‘Portal 2′ news and awesome viral campaign, an update on the Infinity Ward fiasco, 2K Games makes delay announcements, a fake ‘Altered Beast’ picture fools Josh and we watch the trailer for ‘Battleblock Theater’.

Coming Soon Titles: This week: ‘Final Fantasy XIII’ and ‘Resident Evil 5′ Alternative Version. Coming Soon: ‘Pokemon Heart Gold / Soul Silver’ and ‘God of War 3′.

Review of the Week: This week, an in depth review for ‘Heavy Rain’. Not well received well by anyone. Bad control mechanics don’t help what is  essentially just an interactive movie.

Want to leave a voice mail? Call 02 8011 3167.

Quick shout outs to our friends at Game Pron and Oxcgn

A special shout out goes out to PALGN for their fantastic campaign for the R18+ rating for games. Got to www.everyoneplays.org.au for more information.

This episode carries an explicit tag due to frequent coarse language and adult themes.

Listen or download it here or subscribe to it on iTunes.

Platforms is brought to you by listeners, just like you. Thanks for your contributions. If you wish to make a contribution, go to the “Support Us” link above. Platforms swag can be purchased at cafepress.com.au/geekactually.

Send feedback for this show to platforms@geekactually.com or leave us a voice mail message to play on the show at +61 02 8011 3167. If you are an iTunes user, please leave a review as we are trying to get on the featured list and every review helps. Your comments (good or bad) help us improve the show. You can contact us here. Make sure you join our Facebook Page at facebook.com/PlatfromsLive (yes it is mis-spelt on purpose)

The Platforms Podcast is recorded live on Ustream every Monday Evening 8pm Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time (UTC+11). If you still just want to listen to the audio podcast, it will go out as normal on Tuesday. Unfortunately this week’s episode does not have a video replay due to technical issues at bloody Ustream.

We spent the day watching the live broadcast, now hear our opinions.

This episode carries an explicit tag due to infrequent coarse language.

Listen or download it here or subscribe to it on iTunes

Geek Actually is brought to you by listeners, just like you. Thanks for your contributions. If you wish to make a contribution, go to the “Support Us” link above.

Send feedback for this show to feedback@geekactually.com or leave us a voice mail message to play on the show at +61 02 8011 3167. If you are an iTunes user, please leave a review as we are trying to get on the featured list and every review helps. Your comments (good or bad) help us improve the show.

Join us on our Facebook Fan Page: facebook.com/GeekActually.

Take a look for yourself:

Geek Actually Tech Episode 4 – recorded March 3rd 2010

We try to record the live stream of the Geek Actually Podcasts while feeding it live to Ustream. Some weeks technical issues get in the way. We embed the past shows here so you can find them easily. You never know, you’re listening to that podcast and something visual happens, now you can simply find the show here and watch what happened. Enjoy.