Geeks, meet your voice! While I don’t consider myself a hip-hop or rap fanatic, I love this guy - and his new album will be out in a few weeks.

• Artist Name: ytcracker
• Album Title: nerd life
• Music Genre: Nerdcore
• Record Label: Nerdy South Records
• Album Producers: dj snyder, tanner4105, redcat/bbear, robby atoms, sark 2.0, silent john
• Album Availability: 12/17/06
• Pre-orders Available: Immediately (with autograph)
• Rating: FIVE STARS!

• Track List:
  1. the beginning
  2. shouts
  3. still dg (tanner4105 mix)
  4. reintroduction
  5. slope
  6. padillac shouts
  7. shineback
  8. game theory
  9. shouts
  10. everyone knows
  11. nerdy swagger
  12. social engineering
  13. downloadupload
  14. untouchable
  15. shouts
  16. random toxicity
  17. nerd life

Every red-blooded boy and girl geek needs to buy this album. I first heard about ytcracker on Adult Swim, and I’ve been a fan ever since. He throws nerd jargon around like it’s nobody’s business. Much like Derek, ytcracker is a geek music legend in his own time.

I just got word (through Tom Merrit on the TechTV Alumni discussion list) about this. Your help would be greatly appreciated:

CNET editor and former Fresh Gear contributor and Lab analyst James Kim has been missing since Saturday. ANY word, especially from people in the Oregon area is appreciated. The information is all below from the official investigation by the SFPD.

Missing Family Includes: James, Kati, Penelope (age 4.5) and Sabine (6 months). Last name is Kim.

Overview: The Kim Family left San Francisco on November 17th on a road trip to the Pacific Northwest. They had thanksgiving in Seattle with family and then drove to Portland. They were last seen by their friends in Portland who they had brunch with on Saturday, November 25. According to their friends, their plans were to drive out to the town of Gold Beach on the Oregon Coast and then make their way back to San Francisco. James was expected back at work on Tuesday, November 28th. When no one had heard from him by Wednesday morning employees at the Kims’ two stores and his colleagues at CNET began to make phone calls to his family and friends to inquire of his whereabouts. Presently, the SFPD is investigating the case.

If you know anything about James’ whereabouts, you can contact the SFPD by calling 415-558-5508 during normal business hours and 415-553-1071 after hours.

The last known contact from James was at around 5:45 PM on Saturday. A hotel clerk at the Tu Tu Tun lodge in Gold Beach, Oregon took a call from James. He said he was about five hours away. The hotel clerk said she would leave the keys out for them as the lobby would be closed after 10. The keys were still in the same place the next morning. The clerk believes James referred to being near Salem, Oregon at the time.

Call it a streaming data battle royale, a video network smackdown of epic proportions - whatever. What does one do to top multimedia madness? Set the stage for Soapbox vs. YouTube vs. Break.com vs. Vimeo. vs. Jumpcut vs. Blip.tv vs. Metacafe vs. Revver vs. iFilm. That’s nine different video networks: all at once. Of course, if I was arguing with myself again, it wouldn’t be anything new. Instead - I decided to get into the holiday spirit and Jingle Bell your socks off. This time around, however, I hired a couple of assistants to help me achieve the effect I so desired.

Rinse and repeat.

If this page brings your computer to its knees, perhaps you need to upgrade to the new AMD Quad FX Platform?

MySpace just got a little bit weirder for me:

don’t ask me why…but i wrote a song about you…i didn’t even know you were real… it’s just that some blogger was ranting about you and i thought it was funny. I hope you don’t mind, but when I saw you on myspace i had to at least say Hi. so “Hi” - steve aka sisthek

At first, I figured it was another piece of MySpace spam. I asked where the song was sitting, not bothering to check sisthek’s own MySpace profile:

Hey Chris, the song is on my page. it’s been creatively named chris pirillo.

It’s surreal - to have a song written about you, posted to MySpace, and knowing that the artist thought you were a completely fictional character. I’m going to see if I can get him to send me an MP3 in exchange a bit of promotional consideration. Are there any other songs about me that I don’t know of yet?!

I can’t think of the last time I set any site as my default “start page” (other than my own, or a local document of collected links and search fields). I was checking referral logs for bLaugh and noticed that Protopage and Netvibes kept popping up. I had visited each of them a while ago, but never really bothered to return to either - portal sites aren’t really my thing.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that our daily comic was toggled as a default widget on the primary Protopage tab! So, not only is Protopage the best designed AJAX portal, but it also has the best sense of humor. Okay, so maybe I’m a bit biased with the second claim - but it’s still incredibly thrilling to see just how many people have picked up on bLaugh since its launch a few months ago. blaugh.com“>Technorati reports that we’ve moved up to 831 (3,919 links from 1,353 blogs), though Hugh has been around substantially longer and has a insanely better numbers (and rightfully so).

Comic impressions are different than text impressions and/or video plays - just like most Web images (read: banners) have always been better played for branding purposes. For instance, there’s virtually no way of telling how many people read bLaugh on a daily basis through mass aggregation services like Protopage, Google Reader, Bloglines, etc. I can tell you one thing: I certainly welcome the use of our feed and/or API by any third-party. Brad and I have already been profitable with our madcapped adventure - without having to resort to venture comical capital. GoDaddy seems equally as happy! Move over, United Feature Syndicate and King Features Syndicate!

For giggles (and scalability reasons), we set up a Media Temple (mt) “gs” account - setting up some of our sites on their new Grid Server service plan. This morning, it all went to hell. By the afternoon, I started to get antsy - and blitzed a request in their general direction. I received a response quickly, which pretty much said that I wasn’t the only user having issues on the Grid today. Then, in the early evening, I received this update - which I share with you now, in case you’re also a Media Temple gs customer:

This update is intended to summarize the many smaller micro-updates and progress that has been made with this issue since 4:25pm.

- Issues were discovered with the new firmware patch that was provided to (mt) Media Temple this afternoon. This new patch, which was designed to solve the stability issues with our storage segment, introduced new issues. The patch solved the crashing issues, yet introduced performance problems and possible incompatibilities with our GRID technology.

- BlueArc impressively has responded expediently throughout the issue and has escalated (mt)’s issue to the highest level within the company. Constant communication between engineering departments has remained all day.

- During the diagnostic phase (mt) Media Temple found techniques to dramatically reduce disk I/O load from the web segment. This improvement has been scheduled to roll into GRID Master Release (v.1.1). This action has restored the web segment to full performance while the root is issue is discovered.

- Performance issues in the email segment continue to come and go, currently exhaustive work is being done in this area.

- Commitment has been made by both teams to work continuously until permanent resolution is made.

I’m not quite sure what all of that means, but… I sure hope it doesn’t happen again. I mean, I don’t expect much for such a small amount of money, but Media Temple (in my mind) has one of the best Web hosting reputations on the planet - which is largely why we’re dipping our digital toes in their waters. Things seem okay again, although my Comcrap connection has made the Internets close to unbearable.

From the Seattlist (not to be confused with the Seattlest): “Bre Pettis & [Brady Forrest] are hosting a geek night next thursday (the 7th) at the LowerLevel in Seattle. Come if you can. Speak if you can. Sponsor if you can.”

RSVP at Upcoming. I’ll have family in town, and will likely be knee-deep in last-minute wedding planning. Sounds like I’ll miss quite the party. Although, like we do for a few other Seattle-based events, we’re throwing in a few bucks to help feed the geeks.

CHAC is home to three performance venues which cater to collaborative, innovative and community-powered events. Whether it’s food for the belly or food for the soul, CHAC has got it, all under one roof. Cozy up to a cup of coffee, an evening cocktail conversation or rent space for your next event. From live local music to Seattle’s best performances there’s always something brewing at CHAC! We also offer free wireless access in each of its public spaces.

Damn cool Seattle venue, too.

I can’t believe I’m looking out our front window and seeing snow on the ground. Usually, it falls and melts instantly - like it did yesterday. This evening, just as Ponzi and I were headed out to do a little offline shopping, snow started to fall in Seattle. We could barely see traffic on I-90, so I knew this wasn’t the time to venture out and brave the snowy roads (and likely inexperienced California kamikazes drivers).

I couldn’t help but run out and make snow angels in the middle of the street. Can you even remember the last time you made a snow angel?! It “never” snows in Seattle. The city simply isn’t equipped to handle the load. Of course, Wicket and Pixie had a total blast in the sky powder.

I think it’s going to be a White Christmas after all (which Robert Goulet happens to be singing right now on Music Choice channel 940)!

The idea here is that you have to press play on the following videos (in vertical order) so that they all stream to you at the same time. You may need to adjust the volume on each respective network, though. Press play on the top (YouTube) video, then immediately press play on the second (Google Video), and then press play on the third (Revver). Bam, bam, bam - and you should see ‘em playing back simultaneously.

And if you think this sounds crazy, you gotta see my Soapbox vs. YouTube vs. Break.com vs. Vimeo. vs. Jumpcut vs. Blip.tv vs. Metacafe vs. Revver vs. iFilm shootout after you’re done watching the following video brawl.

For now, on this page, make sure you scroll down far enough so that you can see all three videos on your screen at the same time, then press the play button for each video. This will only “work” if you play these videos on the same page together:

Because of inconsistent timing issues, each time you try this, you should see / hear slightly different results. My secondary interest lies in how many people view the video from the respective video hosting networks (though I believe that YouTube will draw the most eyeballs, Revver the most revenue, and Google the least everything). And if three videos isn’t enough for you, I’ve slapped nine video networks together, too.

To put this series of videos on your own blog or MySpace, copy and paste the following code into your page:

<center><object width="300" height="243"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CKuPe-tuKgY"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CKuPe-tuKgY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="300" height="243"></embed></object><br /><embed style="width:300px; height:243px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=6844487162803211688&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.swf" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" salign="TL" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="width=300&height=243&mediaId=107020&affiliateId=17304&javascriptContext=true&skinURL=http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/skins/Default_Raster.swf&skinImgURL=http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/skins/night_skin.png&actionBarSkinURL=http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/skins/DefaultNavBarSkin.swf&resizeVideo=True" wmode="transparent" height="243" width="300"></embed></center>

I love USB - it’s simple, sexy, and ubiquitous. I’m probably the only guy on the planet who would describe the Universal Serial Bus as “sexy,” but I still remember fiddling with RS-232 ports back in the day (very unsexy). If a device doesn’t accept a charge by USB, throw it back - it’s simply not worth the hassle, otherwise. And if you think that the world of USB has been relegated to storage devices and media players, think again:

• dialog05’s USB Tie
• USB Hamster Wheel
• USB Smokeless Ashtray
• USB Tag Pet ID
• USB Flower Pod Speaker

And there are thousands more USB devices that are equally as… strange. I’ve seen some serious doozies in my holiday shopping travels. If I could, I’d collect every strange USB gizmo on the planet. I was half hoping to find a few listed on pt’s open source gift guide.

What’s the weirdest USB device you’ve ever heard of?

One of the items in my personal gift guide is a homebrew arcade machine. I have a feeling that it’s going to be my “midlife crisis” acquisition (though I’m hoping midlife won’t hit me for another thirty years). I didn’t really grow up inside arcades, but arcades certainly grew up with and around me. I still remember walking into Happy Joe’s pizza parlour and begging Dad to let us play a few rounds of Donkey Kong.

So, while I was surfing around for the ultimate home arcade game cabinet, I stumbled across Starcade.tv. What a blast from the past! If you never watched the show, you can view a few of the episodes in this archive. Starcade was one of my favorite TV programs when I was a kid - right after G.I. Joe and The Transformers, of course. I wonder what happened to all those old Starcade contestants? Did they ever get proper haircuts? I remember watching them play Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace, thinking that video games couldn’t get any better than that.

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If I drink anything, it’s usually either soda water or coffee (but seldom simultaneously). I decided to exceed my palate’s comfort level and venture into the world of Jones Soda this evening. Mind you, I didn’t flip for their typical cola flavors - that wouldn’t be very interesting, would it?

Turkey and Gravy, Sweet Potato, Dinner Roll, Pea, and Antacid - all sodas in the Jones Soda Holiday 2006 pack. I’m still not sure what drove me to bring such an array of carbonated dissidents home with me, but the results were… well, you’ll just have to watch the video.

Video Formats: Flash | QuickTime | Google Video | YouTube

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Last year, someone told me that Jones Soda had released a liquid “Thanksgiving meal” of sorts. It’s a novelty food item that I knew I’d have to drink at some point. I always appreciate when a “normal” flavor is blended with a “normal” food to create a potential culinary abomination. Like wasabi ice cream, for instance - many foods are worth trying once. Sometimes twice!

This afternoon, I was given an opportunity to try the 2006 Holiday Pack. A local grocery store had ‘em in stock, although the items had been officially removed from shelves yesterday. I begged and pleaded with the store manager to kindly fetch me a case. He obliged, and the rest (as they say) is history. I decided to record my reactions on video - for posterity.

Video Formats: Flash | QuickTime | Google Video | YouTube

Turkey and Gravy soda, Sweet Potato soda, Dinner Roll soda, Pea soda, Antacid Flavored soda - I tried ‘em all. What’s the weirdest food or drink that you’ve ever ingested - willingly? I wonder if Jones Soda will make a blog flavored soda next year?

First, some updates:

• I’ve been very busy - personally and professionally
• Was planning on moving to Los Angeles
• We’re moving across town next week, instead
• I’m getting married to Ponzi on December 9th, 2006
• Robert Scoble happens to be my best man
• Lockergnome.com has been retooled
• Possible dates for Gnomedex 7: August 9th - 11th, 2007
• UndoTV.com should be launching in January
• We’ve been retooling this show for UndoTV
• The Chris Pirillo Show is going to have video soon

Then, some beefy content:

Music/Tech Summit 06, hosted at the Experience Music Project’s JBL Theater and Learning Labs, is a daylong gathering that will focus on the intersection of music and technology with an emphasis on how the changing landscape can empower artists and further their careers.

I was on the “Get Your Music Out There: Pounding The Virtual Pavement” panel as the only person who wasn’t a vendor. The audio quality isn’t spectacular, but thanks to Derek for recording it!

I’ve worked my fingers off over the past day, updating my personal wish list with all the latest interesting gadgets and gizmos (not to mention a few stocking stuffers thrown in for good measure). Without further ado, I give you a semi-official and almost-complete wish list - which could be good for just about any ol’ geek:

1. Panasonic TH-42PX60U 42″ Plasma HDTV
2. Seagate 500GB eSATA External Hard Drive
3. SkyScout
4. Electronic Message Board
5. eSATA to USB Adapter
6. Firepod
7. Energizer Energi To Go Instant Cell Phone Charger, Mini USB
8. Panasonic Wireless 802.11 b/g Network Camera (BL-C30A)
9. Microsoft LifeCam NX-6000 Webcam
10. Logitech Harmony 1000 Advanced Universal Remote
11. Night Owl Explorer Pro 5x Night Vision Scope w/I/R Illuminator
12. SanDisk V-Mate Video Memory Card Recorder
13. Star Wars Astromech Droids Complete Set
14. Samsung BlackJack
15. GPS TrackStick
16. INVIS-ID
17. Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000
18. Solar Charger - USB charger - Mobile Device Charger
19. Xtreme X-500 Electric Scooter
20. Celestron CPC 1100XLT Computerized GPS SCT with StarBright XLT Coatings
21. Kotobukiya Star Wars Darth Vader Pre-Painted Soft Vinyl Model Kit
22. Wi-Spy Spectrum Analyzer
23. Pertelian External LCD Display v4
24. eStarling WiFi LCD Frame
25. Watt’s Up Pro
26. LED Name Badge II
27. LED Projection Night Light
28. Canon PowerShot SD800 IS
29. NY Times Deluxe Touch Screen Crossword Puzzle
30. Wireless Weather Forecaster
31. Westinghouse (WHI-4C) 4-Channel Wireless Intercom System
32. Uniden GMR1588-2CK 22-Channel 15-Mile Two-Way Radios (Pair)
33. DreamAuthentics Ultra Quad Arcade Package (MAME Arcade)
34. Dyson Root 6
35. Lentek Koolatron BV01G Bug Vacuum Pest Control with Recharger
36. HP LaserJet 3052
37. APC BR1500 UPS
38. Belkin F5U261 USB 2.0 4-Port Drive-Bay Hub
39. KAMARACK 3.5″ USB RACK
40. Mac Mini (SuperDrive)
41. Sony HDR-SR1 Handycam HD Camcorder
42. Ionic Breeze GP
43. Jump-Start DC Power Plus (AU400)
44. Ecosol Powerstick
45. Brando WorkShop 55 in 1 Card Reader
46. Xbox 360 HD-DVD External Drive
47. Communicator Grey C100S USB Speakerphone for Skype
48. The Optimus Keyboard
49. HP LP3065 30″ LCD Monitor
50. Slingbox Pro

BTW, if you order anything through OverStock.com before December 1st, you can save an additional 12% (saving as much as $125).

Did I leave anything out?