March 2008 Archives

A group of eminent natural sciantists from some of the worlds best know instituations (like Harvard, the Smithsonian and the Natural History Museum) have gotten together to launch an ambitious project to build a catalog of the 1.8 Million known species on earth. The Encyclopedia of Life wants to build a dedicated web site for each species within the encyclopedia, each being a base link to as much information on that species that can be found.

So far they have launched with 30,000 species already populated to some degree. With this only covering less than 2% of the total they are now signing up scientists from around the world to take on specific species (or genus, family, order etc) to curate. This will obviously take a long time to get to completion but promises to be an absolutely fantastic research and information source to students, scientists, and just those interested in biology.

The possibilities for future enhancements is exciting as well. I can imagine the paleontologists putting together their own data on past species and linking these into the EOL database showing a timeline of how life developed to today and allowing people to follow chains of evolution forward and backwards through time.

Some more information on The Daily Green.

Zoho has really done a lot with their online office suite over the past year and they continue to add to their productive suites, they currently have 18 tools. Their online suite of products allow you to do many of the things you do today with popular software suites.

If you want more information on Zoho and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "Zoho" or visit www.zoho.com

Flir Systems is now offering consumer products that allows people to protect their homes with Infrared technology. They have products for Mariners as well so that people with boats that allow them to navigate safely in the dark. Flir Systems is bringing military technology to the consumers with solutions for homes,boats, and those with BMW's can get a Flir imaging system as a option for their car.

If you want more information on Flir and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "Flir" or visit www.flirsystems.com

Microsoft had Microsoft Surfaces on display at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show and was drawing quite a crown. The table was quite amazing and they had a very cool product demonstration.

If you want more information on Surface and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "SURFACE" or visit www.microsoft.com/surface

Download Link

Everyone that is looking to upgrade their home should be thinking about what will be the hottest technology to put inside to raise the value and quite simply have some of the coolest gadgets money can buy. Well settle back as we take a exclusive walk through the next generation home

If you want more information on Next Generation Home and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "NEXTGEN" or visit www.nextgenhome.com

There is a post today asking how Wordpress is going to make money. The primary question being asked, is with the pageviews they are getting why are they not put advertising on all of those free blog accounts.

I think I know the answer, and share some of the same sentiments that Matt Mullenweg does. He is not real found of banner advertising. How this relates to what my company does is somewhat similar.

My team decided early on to not put advertising on all of the pages at Blubrry.com, because we felt that the content creators needed to be allowed have their shows be the focal point on the website. We did not want to clutter up their pages with advertising, and we also based our business model on other revenue streams.

I think way to many sites “bet the farm” that they will be able to sustain themselves through banner advertising. A site like our at Blubrry.com has moderate traffic levels, yet we understand that their is more value in bringing unique services to those that are part of our communities that will generate revenue.  While we do have a big advertising component, it is within the produced content where amazing listener engagement takes place.

It is obvious that Matt and the crew over at Automatic only received the money they did with a monetization plan that made sense to the investors. But one thing that he will be up against is to make sure that the monetization plan tracks as presented, because the second it doesn't we will likely see banner ads on all wordpress sites. Mark Evans

While I will never leave that banner advertising option off the table as well, one thing for sure is that it would be on a new site where the goal was massive pageviews.

While we may seem meek and mild mannered, nerds can be feisty when roused. Kyle Newman made a film called Fanboys which documents a group of Star Wars fans trying to get a view of Episode 1 before release for a dying friend. The project has for some reason been given over to the Weinstein company to recut. I don't know how people know this but supposedly the new cut displays the heroes of the film in a less heroic light and may step into making fun of them.

The idea that the new film may make fun of Star Wars fans as a group has angered many and caused them to send a threat of boycott to the Weinstein Company if they do not think carefully about what they do with this film. Personally I like my documentary raw and without a solid conclusion. Having seen nothing of either version of the film I cannot offer personal comment but the sentiment in the letter seems genuine.

There is a great article in the New York Times today talking about how many techno addicts are so connected to that the only time they are free of their electronic Internet leash is when the sleep.

I know very well what it is to be on that leash! I am definitely a techno addict my livelihood though depends on that leash, but I found out back in 2001 how it would be to loose that leash for 72 days.

As many of you know I am retired military, and due to the events of 9–11 I was deployed to a location where their simply was no Internet connectivity. While I was very busy doing the job I was tasked in doing, not having connectivity for those 72 days was the most painful yet beneficial exercises I have had to endure. I am talking No Internet, No Phone, No Land Line nothing!

I learned that life can continue without connectivity of any kind. While I had connectivity to things that my job required it was not on the public Internet.

I literally was off the net and am going to say it was not easy, mentally and I think I really went through Internet Withdrawals. When I did get Internet connectivity I was able to delete thousands of email's and shrug it off as a ohh well.

So the next time you panic about being disconnected from the Internet for 24hrs, think about me and my 72 days without Internet access. In a way stepping away from the Internet and “all” connectivity for a few days a month is good for the soul and your life. New York Times

IZ3D 3d Gaming Monitor which uses some unique technology that uses what they term passive 3D which allows gamers to play in 3d mode for a long time.

If you want more information on IZ3D and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "IZ3D" or visit www.iz3d.com

Download Link

If you are a ebay seller or a manufacture of small products and want to obtain a professional image of your product. Ortery is introducing a very nice series of mini photo studios for anyone that is looking for a controlled photo shooting environment of small items

If you want more information on PhotoSimile and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "PHOTOSIMILE" or visit www.ortery.com

Clarion has always been known for high quality car and boating electronics. You will want to check out some of the new great products being offered by Clarion

If you want more information on Clarion and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "CLARION" or visit www.clarion.com

Rob Greenlee Podcast Marketing Manger at Zune talks to us about the Zune Media Player along with some of the features of the new players . We also talk about how Zune has made podcasting support a integral part of the player.

If you want more information on Zune and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "ZUNE" or visit www.zune.net

We all knew it, and now the Virginia Supreme Court has confirmed that spam does not count as protected free speech. Jeremy Jaynes, a prolific spammer sentenced to 9 years prison had appealed on constitutional grounds claiming that denying him the right to spam violated his 1st amendment rights. If this appeal had been granted it would have forced states to rethink their anti-spam laws.

Not that this will really mean much for the volume of spam on the Internet. The advent of the laws in the US simply meant the portion of spam that was being produced by American 'business men' moved to former Soviet and Asian countries. At least the control of the spam has. The origins of the actual messages are wherever there are people with bots on their systems. The dispersal of these closely matched to distribution of Internet users, unsurprisingly.

Great pics of an avalance on Mars. A satelite got lucky to pick this one up.

Check out the article on MSNBC and the original pics can be found here.

Lots of science related stuff on the show tonight. Very late recording here and a healthy dose of tech news and information

Sponsors:
[Try GoToMeeting free for 30 days at GoToMeeting.com/techpodcasts. No credit card needed.]
Special Promotion code 20% off on 1 Year Shared Hosting Plans use Godaddy Code Todd20
[Save 10% off on any order at GoDaddy.com!] Use Code Todd

Twitter Me http://www.twitter.com/geeknews
My Facebook Profile
Comments to 619-342-7365 e-mail to geeknews@gmail.com

Full Show Notes Click Here

Many of you have probably been sitting on the fence over HD Radio and I had many of the same questions you have. In fact I really wanted to know if it would be worth it and would the programming be different on HD radio. If you are on the fence or want more info on HD Radio check out this Video

If you want more information on HD Radio and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "HDRADIO" or visit www.hdradio.com

MyTheater Acoustic Panels is a product that allow you to outfit your home theater with Acoustic Panels. Those of you creating media may want to look at this product as well because there is nothing like getting the sound acoustics correct in your home studio. Many of you have spent thousands on the electronics but have terrible home acoustics. This is a solution that will have the wife stamp of approval

If you want more information on MyTheater and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "MyTheater" or visit www.unitedplasticscorp.com

Panasonic has some very cool new technology that allows people to watch YouTube and other news media content on a High Definition Television in HD. There is a variety of content that you can access via their Internet Connected TV Solution. Their line of products also work with Veralink to eliminate multiple remotes

If you want more information on Panasonic and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "PANASONIC" or visit www.panasonic.com

Asoka has introduced the most innovative Power Line products. If you have ever dealt with Power Line products you will understand how limiting they can be. Well the folks at Asoka have eliminated most of the issues people have with Power Line Ethernet Products.

If you want more information on ASOKA and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "ASOKA" or visit www.asokausa.com

One of Todd's listeners commented in the GNC podcast 351 about how the GoDaddy use of provocative women in their marketing turned her off the service. This sentiment was then echoed in podcast 352 by another listener. Both these comments came from women, and research would show that women are more than twice as likely to take offense to the demeaning nature of such advertising. There are a lot of men that are similarly turned away from this style of ad as well and marketers should beware when taking this approach as it could easily backfire on them.

Personally I find the suggestion that buying a particular product might help me "get lucky" insulting and that message is more likely to make me discount the product than buy it. If you need to use so base an instinct to sell your product, what is wrong with it? If you look at some of the results of using provocative images in advertising you can see why some advertisers would be tempted to use it if their target market is predominantly male.

This is the classic view of provocative advertising. This shows what people say about how advertising effects them. What this doesn't reveal though is that this type of campaign gets a lot of extra attention to the ad itself, but does not do much for the product you are trying to sell. If you use the primal urge in the ad, men will pay more attention to the ad and not very much at all to the product. In fact using s-x in an ad will actually halve the amount of men that will actually remember your product

At about this time the female readership is sniggering about men's lack of ability to focus on more than one thing, and justifiably so. The message is clear, using scantily clad models in your advertising will get a positive reaction from one set of men and a negative reation from other men and most women. Unfortunately for the advertiser, the negative group is the one that will remember your brand. In short, its not a good idea. GoDaddy has become a good example of this. They offer (in my non sponsored opinion) a great service, and I trust my entire Internet presence to them. They have also been really smart in their use of podcasting as an advertising medium. Using a couple of risque pictures has cost them at least two customers, when those pictures have little reflection on their abilities as a company.

This is the full article I used the graphs from

And here's a backup reference article.

Panasonic is introducing Wireless to a series of their Digital Cameras to allow people to upload photos anyplace their is a wireless connection to Picasa. They have also partnered with T-Mobile HotSpots. So what is really cool is the ability to offload the pictures wirelessly but they also can use the camera to view the pics online and then send a email to a number of friends.

If you want more information on Panasonic and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "PANASONIC" or visit www.panasonic.com

If you have always wanted to fly a real flight simulator you can now get a dreamflyer and experience a flight simulator that is as close as it is going to get to the real deal. You will want one of these I guarantee it. Simply the coolest flight sim I have ever seen, So effective yet simple, no hydraulics pumps or motors but yet a smooth ride.

If you want more information on DreaemFlyer and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "DreamFlyer" or visit www.mydreamflyer.com

Plantronics was not only the sponsor of the Blogger Lounge they also have a cool product called the Virtual Phone Booth that is one of the smallest and most effective headsets to use with Skype. The nice folks at Plantronics walk us around the booth and show us some of their very innovate products.

The virtual phone booth headset is perfect for the person on the go. I carry a set of these in a small pouch in my laptop bag. Very smart design.

If you want more information on Plantronics and info on future special offers please visit www.rawvoiceoffers.com and enter promo code "PLANTRONICS" or visit www.plantronics.com