Tao of Tech

A brief message from the Tao of Tech on Fathers day 2010

Episode 10 of the Tao of Tech is all about inexpensive fathers day gifts for the geeky dad in your life. Media card readers External unit - Transcend TS-RDP8K for $12.99. It's a USB powered external card reader. Supports 19 card types. http://bit.ly/bRH2iX Internal unit - Koutech IO-RCM621, which goes for $19.99 http://bit.ly/b2gHtK it supports more card types than the external card reader. fits into a 3.5” drive bay and provides you an extra USB 2.0 port in front of your PC. Extra cables are great to have lying around, so go somewhere like www.monoprice.com and pick up a few different types/lengths. You can pick up SATA cables, HDMI cables, or USB cables for around the same price. Wire Management - Jumbo Adhesive-Backed Clips (3-Pack) $1.99 at Radio Shack! http://bit.ly/9J2lUD Great for wiring your PC case! USB Drives – an 8 GB Patriot for $22.99 http://bit.ly/ciN9TS then go over to www.portableapps.com and install Portable Apps to the USB drive, supercharging it! LED Flashlight $14.00 http://amzn.to/bJPbdS Denali 3 pack of LED Flash lights (run on 3 AAA batteries) Swiss Army Knife http://amzn.to/aWTWvR $33.00 Victorinox Swiss Army Soldier Knife. I've had the same Swiss Army knife for almost 20 years - every geeky dad should have one too. Swedish FireSteel http://bit.ly/dxafj8 $15.99 You will want a fire to keep you warm in the upcoming zombie apocalypse - trust me. While your at www.thinkgeek.com check out their t-shirts too, they have some great gaming/unix/windows graphic t's. BOOKS Deamon – Daniel Suarez http://amzn.to/cELI2s Zombie Island (and 2 other books) David Wellington http://amzn.to/9H8g4R Dead Hunt – Kenn Crawford http://bit.ly/dcQOJC Tao of Pooh – Benjamin Hoff http://amzn.to/cN4IHl DVD – The IT Crowd http://amzn.to/9ptsZz

This week on the Tao of Tech it's all about the iPhone 4! Apple's WWDC conference kicked off on June 7th with Steve Jobs unveiling the iPhone 4 to the world. In this show I go over all of the major announcements made in the keynote address. Some handy links Full video of Steve Job's 2010 WWDC keynote address http://bit.ly/bk7ABk I watched the keynote address on the GDGT live blog http://bit.ly/di5roz Apple's iPhone 4 main page http://bit.ly/bTTReC Information on the iOS4 NetFlix app http://bit.ly/dq8gXD A more in depth look at the iPhone 4's Retina Display http://bit.ly/aGr3II Retina Display by the numbers http://bit.ly/99LVpP Apple's iAds page http://bit.ly/c6UxwU More info on iAds http://bit.ly/8YTB6i Apple FaceTime video's http://bit.ly/aAHUwF iPhone 4/iOS4 release information http://huff.to/9oMkH8

We're back to the tech talk this week on the Tao of Tech. I've titled the show Miscellaneous Tech Ramblings because I discus several different topics this week. First, I do a review of the Plantronics GameCon 777 Surround Sound Headset. I had to replace my old headset, and picked up the GameCon 777 as the replacement. Check them out here http://bit.ly/cRjT4j I had some hands on time with the 3G iPad recently, and I share my thoughts about the device this week. Was my original assessment correct, or was I blown away by he iPad? Listen and find out. Have you played Angry Birds for your iPod touch/iPad yet? If no, check out my assessment of the game. For more info and screen shots on Angry Birds, check out their website http://bit.ly/agI2F6 or do a search for Angry Birds in the Apple App store. Did you know that Australia can now search your electronic devices for Pornography upon entry into the country? Well they can, and do. More details can be found here http://bit.ly/bnR9vT As is the way of technology, Facebook has updated it's privacy settings to be "simpler" to use after I did a 30 minute show on adjusting your privacy settings. Are the new settings good or bad? You can decide for your self, but here is some food for thought on the topic http://bit.ly/cyGp2c In a very welcome update, the NetFlix app for the Roku player has been updated to allow for searching and adding of watch instant movies right from the player. Very nice. http://bit.ly/d8aFfL Find out why I'm so angry at Belkin and Linksys wifi routers @TRREED made a bitstrip about the Tao of Tech. Check it out here http://bit.ly/cPqetu Lastly, I hosted the Dead Hunt Q&A show last week. I interviewed Dead Hunt author Kenn Crawford and Renee Chambliss, who narrates Dead Hunt. We spent a good 50 minutes talking about Dead Hunt. I really enjoyed hosting the show, and I think you will all enjoy listening to the show. The Q&A show will be in the normal Dead Hunt feed

This week I had the privilege to interview Jay Smith, the writer of the podcast audio-drama HG World. Jay and I discussed his writing, the inspiration for HG World, his favorite characters to write for, Mafia Wars, South Park, and the most memorable scene he has written for HG World. Once you finish listening to the interview, head over to the HG World website at www.goodmorningsurvivors.com and tell them the Tao of Tech sent ya! Stay tuned after the show and listen to the promo for Paul E Cooleys horror novella "Tattoo". Head over to Paul's website http://shadowpublications.com/ for more Feindmaster goodness, or to www.Amazon.com or www.smashwords.com to pick up your copy of "Tattoo".

This episode of the Tao of Tech is all about how to lock down your privacy settings in Facebook. After you listen to this episode, your Facebook account will be secure from the prying eyes of 3rd party web sites, Facebook's "instant connections" feature will be disabled, your friends will no longer be passing your information to applications and websites without your knowledge, and you will learn how to make "friend lists" to further your Facebook privacy. Check out this short video from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) to help you with disabling the Facebook instant connections feature: http://tinyurl.com/34ootok After you update your Facebook privacy settings, head over to http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/ and run their handy Facebook privacy evaluation tool. This will let you know if your revised privacy changes need to be fine tuned some more, or if your information is as private as it can be on Facebook. Don't forget to stay tuned after the show to listen to the promo for Jeremy Robinson's podcast novel "Beneath". Check it out on www.Podiobooks.com here: http://www.podiobooks.com/title/beneath/ or check out Jeremy Robinson's website http://www.jeremyrobinsononline.com/ for more information on "Beneath" and all the other great work he does.

This week on the Tao of Tech I interview podcast author Kenn Crawford, and discuss his book "Dead Hunt". It was a lot of fun to do the interview, so I hope you all enjoy listening to it as much as I did recording it. For more information on Kenn Crawford and the work he does, please visit his website at www.kenncrawford.com. You can follow Kenn on Twitter as well, just search for kenncrawford Besides being a podcast novel, Kenn's book is also available in paperback at www.lulu.com, or on www.smashwords.com. Please follow me on Twitter, I'm Twitter.com/markprestash Please e-mail me with comments at: taospotting@gmail.com

In episode 4 of the Tao of Tech, your host discusses 2 truly lust worthy tech products (the HTC Droid Incredible for Verizon http://phones.verizonwireless.com/htc/incredible/ and the Boxee Box http://www.boxee.tv/box), 2 tech products he's on the fence about (the Apple iPad http://www.apple.com/ipad/ and the Amazon Kindle/Barnes & Noble Nook, and 1 technology he hopes just goes away - forever (3D - TV). Also an ACTA update, and a promo for the audio podcast drama HG World www.goodmorningsurvivors.com

The promo for the Tao of Tech podcast

This weeks show is all about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA for short). I discuss the proposals of the treaty, what effects they would have on you, and how to stop this treaty!

Episode 2 of the Tao of Tech is all about software. After completing my taxes late one night/morning, I knew I would not be sleeping any time soon due to the large amounts of caffeine I had been drinking. Thinking to myself "What better time than now to try out some new software?" I began an epic journey that lasted until the wee hours of the morning. Software discussed on this episode includes: ZipGenius, 7-Zip, Revo-Uninstaller, Desktops, FireFox Portable, FavBackup, Open Office, Duplicate Cleaner, and CCleaner. Also I end the podcast explaining just what the heck Windows.Old files are, and why they're taking up so much space on your hard drive. Please feel free to e-mail me at: taospotting@gmail.com Follow me on twitter: twitter.com/markprestash

Due to an audio issue, I'm re-posting episode 1 of the Tao of Tech. In the premier episode your host discusses the podcasts he listens too, as they are the motivation for the creation of this podcast. How meta – a podcast about podcasts!