What's New is Old

Mark and Wes in Pleasant Hill, CA at the Monsoon Masala restaurant.Sites of Interest:Office chair that measures farts and sends twitters. Brain-Twitter interface. There have been similar machines that read brainwaves as an input device to a video game.There are websites where you type commands and a virtual actor obeys them. E.g. Virtual Girlfriend.Long before twitter you could leave community messages on cards.The Community Memory system of public terminals.Optical signaling is an ancient method of long-distance communication.History of the Vocoder instrument, first demonstrated by AT&T at the 1939 World's Fair.The Legend Group turned into Lenovo and acquired IBM's Personal Computer Division.Version 9.04 of Ubuntu Linux was released.Nintendo Gameboy turns 20. You can play the old games on emulators.For several days, the Apple.com home page was taken over by a counter supposedely showing the number of app downloads as this approached one billion.Apple iTouch 3.0 firmware will unlock the Bluetooth capabili

Mark and Wes in Lafayette, CA at the Swad Indian restaurant. Sites of Interest:Amazon officially announced the Kindle 2.E-ink devices will soon be in color.Modern Flash Memory is like the ancient core memory in that they both retain their bits when power is removed.Wes mentioned an idea from the TED Conference, Homo Evolutus.Bill Gates released mosquitoes to an audience at Ted.Mark thought this Hello Kitty lineman's handset was for sale, but it's just a hand-made gift.History of the early day web browsers.The public first had access to the Internet via a Shell Account, which is character-mode access like a DOS or UNIX command line. Using TIA and other programs, people could do graphic web browsing on their cheap Shell Account.In 1999, the World's Smallest Web Server was the size of a box of matches.Basic Stamp and Arduino are popular systems for making prototype electronic and robotic projects.Today's Front Pages can also be viewed via a U.S. map.Years ago Mark and his cat wrote a daily email newsletter calle

Mark and Wes in Berkeley, CA at the Caffe Strada.Sites of Interest:Where are they now? 25 computer products that refuse to die.Wes mentioned the vaporware Peapod electric car, and Mark pointed out that the Electric Time mini cars are available today.The Nopopo Batteries from Japan will recharge with urine, blood, and even apple juice! But remember, liquids only, no po po!RIM removed an application from the Blackberry app store, Wattpad eReader.History of the Hewlett-Packard company, starting with the sale of oscillators to Disney.40th Anniversary of the Request For Comment method of developing Internet standards.Bill Gates and Paul Allen started their computer carreer with Traf-O-Data while they were in high school.Bill Gates rocks! (Starting at 4:23 into this video)The real portable Commodore 64, and Ben Heck's vision of what a Commodore 64 laptop would have looked like.How to turn the lit-up Apple logo on a MacBook into a second LCD monitor.Frequent IMs with your boss make you more productive.BumpTop remind

Mark and Wes in Moraga, CA at the Ranch House Cafe.Sites of Interest:Steve Jobs maintains grip on Apple.Some Safeway stores now have free Wi-Fi as part of a rebranding marketing effort.Remember ICQ?Tesla is working on an electric sedan.Mark sounds skeptical that Tesla will ever ship anything, but they claim they have already delivered 250 of their Roadster model. Video of a real owner showing off his Roadster.The idea of battery-powered cars is older than you think.Solar-powered birdhouse with perch that lights up at night to attract bugs for the birds to eat.Submit an image to TinEyeto find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions.iPhone firmware 3.0 has been jailbroken, but you probably shouldn't try it yet.There are lots of rumors that new iPhone models will be out this summer.Is this article accurate about Obama's gift of an iPod to the Queen of England? No? How about this one?President Obama gave Gordon Brown a box set of

Mark and Wes in Lafayette, CA at Pizza Antica.Sites of Interest:Medieval Tech Support for this new-fangled thing called "books" on "paper".IBM's history and a history in ad pictures of IBM typewriters, including the Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter (MT/ST).The Friden Flexowriter used paper tape to do very early word processing.The new mp3HD format and information about the various MPEG standards.Fingerprinting blank paper using commodity scanners.Statistics on iPhones and iPhone apps as of March, 2009.It's hard to believe, but Wes' stupid $400 Blackberry can't run any of these essential applications: Buzzbuka, Bikini Fart, iGoniometer, Drop It, or Dangerous Finger.StumbleUpon is a social application for sharing great web sites.TJ-2 was a very early computerized word processor.php and Microsoft's ASP are extensions to HTML that coordinate with processes running on web servers.Web developers can get free, unlimited IP address geolocation with MySQL.Alexander Bain invented the fax machine e

Mark and Wes in Orinda, CA at the Serika Japanese Restaurant.Sites of Interest:Compact Disc turns 30.Remember the first CD Burners?The longevity of optical media.Audacity - an open source cross-platform audio editor.Wavosaur - a free audio editor for Windows that supports VST plugins.The Mentalists use iPhones as instruments; and another cellphone orchastra based at Stanford University.The latest iTouch models can now be jailbroken.History of WYSWYG.The LOGO programming Language.The Forth programming language.The Pentium Chronicles.We have mentioned the Will It Blend site before, but now there's Will it Fart?Pastor Gas.Kid uses a fart machine during a City Council meeting.Google will shortly have free phone services, so sign up for the waiting list. (If you have a Grand Central number, you can keep it and Google has probably already converted it to the new system.)Tellme has free voice phone services for the public.Wes' iPhone Applications of the week:TextFree Unlimited - Buy this app and then send and receiv

Mark and Wes in Concord, CA at the Fry's Electronics Store. Sites of Interest:Legal stink over fart apps.Mark and Wes bought these Poqet PC devices back in the day, and still have them.Sony P Series tiny notebooks are still bigger than the Poqet.The technology behind the movie Coraline.Mark suspects the $1,000+ "power conditioners" at the Fry's store are just glorified $5 power strips and in the real world don't make any difference to audio and video quality.Mark guesses that this is the "store on Locust" with the $80,000 amplifier; but their website doesn't show anything like that.The Amazing Randi has a $1,000,000 challenge about audio cables, but Mark was wrong in the details.Startup.com, the movie.Big Blue's employees really, seriously, used to sing these IBM company songs.President Obama introduces RECOVERY.gov.If you have a U.S. GSM cell phone (AT&T or T-Mobile), the trapcall service will show you the caller-id of people who try to call you with their id blocked; plus other servi

Mark & Wes in Concord, CA at the Korean Bulgogi House.Sites of Interest:Scandal in the FartApp space: FartnBurp claims to be the first to have farts and burps in the same app, but we reviewed one last week which had that and more.The author of a great Rubik's Cube solver talks about marketing his product against fart apps.Some women should not be allowed to call them "Panties".How MapQuest Works.History of Microsoft on the Web, including IIS.Abacus Online Museum.Synth Pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey in a music video. Wes thought he was the creator of the Oramic, but that was Graham Wrench who built this for Daphne Oram.Mark found this 1-terrabyte hard drive for under $99.99. (That offer is sold out, but you can probably find others like it.) He said this was $1 per gigabyte, but it's actually $0.10 per gigabyte which is 10 times more amazing.Solid state "hard drives".Boobs And Booty Banned From The App Store -- but there are ways to cheat.How to re-program temporary road signs to say what

Mark & Wes in Oakland, CA at Sura Korean restaurant.Sites of Interest:Information about Carpal Tunnel syndrome. Article that claims mice are more the cause than keyboards. Catalog of weird types of keyboards for people who do have this.Mark bought this vibrating Wake UP alarm which alerts you if your head nods forward while driving or in a movie. He bought it from an English language website in Korea which took an American credit card and shipped the item quickly. There is no link directly to the item, so go here and in the Title box search on exactly this string, including the brackets: [ICONIC] Wake UpHistory of Unisys, a union of Burroughs and Sperry Rand. The old Univac computers are in that timeline, long before the merger.The Mojave Experiment: Microsoft punks users to show people like Vista.How to control your humpy thing.Mark liked the movie My Bloody Valentine 3D.Watch all the episodes of the cult classic TV show The Prisoner for freeeeeeee, and read about the remake.Download movies very cheaply

Mark & Wes, in Walnut Creek, CA at Nama Sushi & Teriyaki.Mark and Wes talk about Steve (you know which Steve) and his health and what he admitted. What went on at MacWorld? Where is the promised iPhone firmware with push notification? Apple NetBook? Newton? Why does Mark think that Steve needs a visit to McDonalds? Bits about Windows 7.Sites of Interest:We clown Steve Job because this quote shows he would be against our "What's New is Old" show format.The truth about iMeat. The "Whipple procedure" is sometimes used for patients with pancreatic cancer. If Steve had this, it might explain his weight problems.Sign up for the Windows 7 public beta test.The Windows Blinds product lets you "skin" a large number of visual elements of Windows and applications, including letting you make XP look much like Vista.Microsoft is extending the date for Windows XP.Joost doing better in the marketplace with it's new web-browser-based player.Fart Studio, your all in one flatulence solution

Mark & Wes, in Walnut Creek, CA at the Tokyo Lobby.Mark figures out a way to intercept Wes on the bus using a system called Nextbus in order to take BART to the east bay together. We're thinking about changing the name of our show from WNO, to simply "SlurpCast". In this show, we talk a bit about the in-ear headphones that Wes got at the Apple store and Mark ordered via the Apple website. Mark feels that these are not as good as other in-ear headphones, like the Shure model he used before. Wes thinks that the lack of good movies has something to do with the writers strike. The Day the Earth Stood Still was yucky, although Gran Torino was good. Fart applications for the iPhone outnumber the total available applications on the Samsung Instinct. Ever hear about Usenet? Wes talks a bit about this old valuable part of the internet, but both of us get interrupted by the background noise of some darn college students.Sites of Interest:The Nextbus system works with a few public transit systems around th

Mark, Wes, and guest Franky in Lafayette, CA at the Swad Indian restaurant.We have a guest this week: Franky, Al Bernay's disciple. Franky goes to Hollywood -- literally, that's where he lives; but for this week he was visiting in San Francisco. The audio quality in this show is excellent because we used a PZM microphone, however there is a lot of GSM noise because Mark's iPhone was too close to the recorder and Wes was more agressive than normal in editing this show to eliminate some of the noisiest spots. They talk about Myst Online, the new domain suffix .tel, the dBASE database management system, Radio Shack (ewwwwwww), CompuServe and Tymshare, and of course lots of iPhone stuff. Sites of Interest:Radio Shack's PZM microphone, which may or may not actually be PZM.Franky's Facebook page. Franky Goes to Hollywood, the movie. Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the music group.Franky's cell phone is a Samsung Instinct.Myst Online goes open source.The new .tel TLD and how it is very different from other domain suffixe

Mark & Wes, in Rockridge, CA at Pasta PomodoroOur intro audio sample comes from the movie WestWorld. Mark reminds us about the Gopher protocol, and how that works. Wes remembers the text web browser Lynx. Why is Symbian supporting Lotus Notes? Why do companies who purchase other software companies, screw up the software products? Mark gets a phone call from a reporter investigating 911 fraud. Ever notice that bus and train riders who use laptops seem not to be aware of the fact that anyone can see their private information? Dell is now offering professional designs on their netbook line for an extra $50. Should employees get paid to wait for their computer systems to boot up? Near the end of the show, Mark and Wes talk a bit about the tools we use here to create the RSS feed and issues around the rich text editors involved.Sites of Interest:New Apple In-Ear headphones with microphone and remote control.Griffin Clarifi iPhone case with macro lens.Craigs Crime List, a site where people can report crimes tha

Mark & Wes, in Orinda, CA at Yu Sushi.Wes isn't ready for the G1 phone yet, but is thinking about getting one once other carriers start offering their own Android phones. Mark doesn't think that the T-Mobile network is all that good, so holding off on the purchase of a G1 specifically may be wise. Was UNIX originally a public domain operating system from Bell Labs? Mark ponders the question of what device may have been made to emulate another, in the 1800's? Some guy hooks up electrodes to his face to move facial muscles based on the sound of music. Mark invented a device for a psychology lab to analyze thinking patterns. We end the show with an update on Al Bernay and the discoveries found at Al's place.Sites of Interest:Ancient Rome layeradded to Google Earth.Google G1 phone is gaining momentum?IBM 7090 - first computer to be used for animation.More on the history of early computer animation.Tron was pretty early, but not the first computer generated film.Blade Runner - the last analog sci-fi film.Dark

Mark & Wes, in Walnut Creek, CA at the Plearn Thai Restaurant.What's that Mark? Did you say Bag o' Crap? You still couldn't get one? Mark describes something called a woot-off, and tells all about what happens near the end of one of them. What does "MUD" stand for? Hmm.. Mark's friend has a hard disk issue that SpinRite fixed. The Android phone was released to a crowd of people in SF, but the experience was less than its competitor's waiting line. Mark and Wes discuss potential software for Android, and the T-Mobile plan for the G1 phone, which doesn't seem that much different than the iPhone AT&T plan.Sites of Interest:Woot, and their occasional Bag of Crap.WNO's Listener Pull for the week: Sparrow, who is a developer of the popular Nirvana MUD internet adventure game.What does "M.U.D." stand for? Wikipedia claims that Wes and Mark are both right.ChaCha.com: where any question gets answered, and YOU can make money helping to answer them.SpinRite is probably the best hard drive dat

Mark & Wes, in Lafayette, CA at the Chow Restaurant.Tonight we find our two nerdy friends eating food at a small hidden away place underneath a heat lamp eating simple Italian meals. Mark doesn't get the joke on Melissa's myspace profile and goes on to describe the official definition of a 'myspace picture', and what it means to not understand camera usage. Mark speaks about perspective, and how the process of catching flying balls is, in reality, an easy algorithm. Microsoft is no longer supporting their old Spot Watch paging in the next version of MSN Messenger. Mark describes what bubble memory is and how time was involved. 4.13% of the HTML passes WC3 Validation? Also, what do Mark and Wes think of this new restaurant?Sites of Interest:What causes GSM cellphone noise?WNO's Listener Pull for the week: Melissa.Simple algorithm for how people and dogs can catch balls and frisbees.MSN is phasing out the ability to send pages to Spot watches.The IBM 5100 Portable Computer (Project Mercury)What Google searc

Mark & Wes, in Lafayette, CA at the Swad Restaurant.Mark and Wes console each other about their stock market losses. In our fantasy, our podcast is better than KenRadio. Use your phone to display membership cards? Of course you can, so long as the bar code is visible and the facility approves. What tools were available in the old days of computer game programming? Take for instance the Atari 2600? Woz used the 6502 processor for the Apple II, and used it because of the manufacturer handing out free processors at some conference he went to. Steve Jobs and Woz created Breakout for Atari. At what point in history were KeyPunch Operators highest in demand? Could YOU live off of unemployment? T-Mobile reports high numbers of pre-orders for the G1 Android Phone. Digsby is really one guy?BTW, instead of waiting to gain an audience, Mark and I are going to come and get you!Sites of Interest:KenRadio is one of the podcasts that inspired us to start our own.Scan membership cards and keep their images in your phone,

Mark & Wes, in Walnut Creek, CA at Stanfords Restaurant and Bar.Wes meets Wes, at Stanfords, where he and Mark discover what a 'butter burger' is. Mark discusses how to train a Cat by using a clicking device combined with treats and warm fuzzies. Apple drops the developer NDA for applications created for the iPhone, but what does this really mean? Wes complains the the Sarah Connor Chronicles will end of life soon, but then nothing good lasts forever. Mark bought the domain name RapKids.com for Wes' recording program in Byron County, and much of the music used on the WNO PodCast comes from his work with 360. If you followed Mark's advice and jailbroke your iPhone or iTouch, he has a slight warning for you, and describes what you must do NOW to protect your iPhone if it gets 'bricked'.BTW, instead of waiting to gain an audience, Mark and I are going to come and get you!Sites of Interest:The good lord willing and the crick don't rise.The cat training revolution.Apple drops the iPhone SDK NDA, possibly becau

Mark & Wes, in Orinda, CA at Baan Thai.Wes knows nothing about condoms. Mark jail breaks his iPhone 3g, which he then explains in more detail. They talk about how this hacking of the internal iPhone device started, and the discovery of the internal encryption key. Is it true that the jail broken iPhone runs applications better than the standard OS? The idea is that apps have more control over the device, than the standard Apple SDK allows. What is Mark to do with all the Esquire Digital Ink copies he owns? Wes thinks Apple watches the ideas that come out of the Jailbreak community to see what they might want to add to the standard firmware. Mark talks a bit about Android, and both discuss the positives and negatives regarding the HTC and T-Mobile introduction that should be more available next month. Is Municipal WiFi even a possibility? The Elvis Card.Sites of Interest:Jailbreak your iPhone from a Windows system with iTunes 8 and this link. This is the method Mark used so we know it works. The same websi

Mark & Wes, in Lafayette, CA at Pizza Antica.The show starts out with a story about the first integrated circuit on Sept 12th in 1958. Al Bernay secured his own circuits by using potting material. NASA MARS image anomalies are probably based on image scale. Mark has a theory about UFO's. Have you ever played the 'integrated circuits around you' game? Wes claims he has an integrated circuit... down there... Mark is now using another blue-tooth headset for his 3G iPhone. Can the 1st gen iTouch use the microphone imbedded in the headset for the 2nd gen iTouch? The heating lamp debacle ends up getting solved by upper management. Analog TV signal going digital, but if you live in the boonies, you may not get the new digital signal anyway... Did you even see the Esquire Digital Ink Cover Magazine?Sites of Interest:50th anniversary of the integrated circuit.NASA photographs of Mars that look like forests and trees, and something that looks like a piece of wood.People think they are abducted by flying saucers.The