Technology

Ozone Nightmare

The Ozone Nightmare covers a wide range of subjects, from gaming to politics, comics to culture. We speak our minds, for better or worse, but we also try to keep the conversation approachable for everyone.

Latest Episodes:

Master Of The MUniverse Mar 24, 2007

Show notes

Well folks, the big interview is here, although it turned out to be far more than a simple interview. Benjamin Grundy, the mastermind behind the Mysterious Universe podcast, stopped in and the result is an absolutely dynamite show. This episode truly does cover it all, from the paranormal to Hong Kong action flicks. Ben was a fantastic guest, opinionated and outspoken. There are spooky stories, funny discussions and dynamic analysis about every aspect of our world and what lies beyond. Due to the length of the show, and the incredibly long process of editing it, this show will cover this week and next, cause I need a weekend off. In the meantime, hope you enjoy this show as much as we did! Opening Music: "Fire In The Sky" by Dave London Closing Music: "ET" by Peplab

Overshearing The Sheep Mar 19, 2007

Show notes

Leave it to NPR, the often parodied and dismissed non-profit organization of U.S. public radio stations, to take a stand against the bloated and greedy members of the RIAA. Recently, our fine government has decided to increase the fees that internet radio stations must pay the record labels for playing songs. Not only have the fees almost tripled, but they are retroactive. This ludicrous action means that many great online music sources face bills they simply can't pay. Pandora, a fantastic site we have covered before in our show, is just one small company that can't hope to survive the revised licensing costs but by no means does this action affect only small companies. This fee hike is hitting all online music broadcasters, including National Public Radio. NPR has decided to draw a line over this, and rightly so as they are now being asked to pay a vastly superior amount of royalty money for their online music use as opposed to their traditional radio cost, and for an audience that is a fraction of their radio count. This article on Medialoper has the full story. If you listen to NPR, Pandora, or anything else online than write to your Congressional representative and protest this action. Without hearing from us, our elected officials will no doubt let this go without any intervention or scrutiny. In relation to this story, I recently listened to an episode of This Week in Media, a fantastic podcast that often covers areas of copyright and new media. In it, they talked about the fact that the RIAA is in name a misnomer: there is not "one" RIAA, it is a conglomerate of large record companies. By calling it the RIAA, we take away the accountability of the companies that make it up. For example, most people would probably recognize that the RIAA sues people, but those same folks would probably not attribute those suits to, say, Warner Music Group, even though the company is a member of the RIAA. On that TWiM episode, they joked it would be a good idea to create a poster that made people aware that the RIAA is in fact the following companies: Warner Music Group, Sony BMG Music Group, EMI Group and Universal Music Group. I think it's a very important idea, and over the next week I'm going to try to hammer out a design for that very poster. In the meantime, the always great Consumerist has posted the names and contact info for the members of the RIAA. Make your displeasure known, folks, that's the only avenue of fighting these behemoths of greed.

Cinema Oscuro Mar 17, 2007

Show notes

After a week off for vacation, Lando and I are back with a lighter show, coming back to a world we love to visit: the movies. This week, we're taking a trip down the path less traveled, as we shed some light on 15 films we find to be left off the marquee. We're throwing in some personal favorites, and also some that we both agree on. Butter up the popcorn and take a load off, you're about to take a trip with us to the Cinema Oscuro. UPDATE: By request, here are the films in order of appearance: Ichi The Killer Electric Dragon 80,000v Alphaville Immortel Harley Davidson & The Marlboro Man The Big Blue Holy Smoke Delicatessen A Better Tomorrow 2 Pi The Fountain The Wages Of Fear The Princess & The Warrior Neo-Tokyo 3-Iron Opening Music: "Fire In The Sky" by Dave London Closing Music: "ET" by Peplab

Update-O-Bot Mar 16, 2007

Show notes

Hey all, just wanted to let you know there will be a show posted this weekend. Lando was out here to visit, so I wasn't wasting time with editing while my friend was around. So sit tight, a new show is just around the corner!

H2 : Portals To Porno Mar 04, 2007

Show notes

It's Show 34, and we're doing a sort of revisit on a theme we did way back, a look at news stories that have flown mostly under the radar. These are events that we feel need more attention than what they're currently getting, if any at all. Censorship, sinister government, injustice, crazy astronauts, and letting everyone be Keanu Reeves...we've got it all baby! Opening Music: "Fire In The Sky" by Dave London

Worst Buy Feb 27, 2007

Show notes

I just happened to stumble across this article at the Consumerist detailing what is a sadly common experience for people who go to the Geek Squad (owned by Best Buy) for computer repair. As someone who worked for the Geek Squad in 2005, I can tell you that the quality of workmanship there can be sadly lacking, but there are circumstances beyond tech experience that can lead to these stories. Unfortunately, it's not that everyone there is a moron or that no one tries. Like anywhere else, there are good people who do their best and there are also complete wastes who are just there to occupy space for a few hours. What doesn't help, at least in the stores I had contact with, was the lack of management support for the workers. They would have techs take in 20, 25 computers in a day with only three people working and then expect one of those people to always be available to talk to people. That means two techs who can do steady work, and even then the managers would pull one if people were waiting too long to pick something up or pay. Wait times of 2 weeks or longer were common, and while many customers wouldn't like to hear it this was almost never the fault of the techs. There's no excuse for sloppy work, but equally there should not have been tolerance for managers who wanted to see profits from the repair shop and encouraged techs to trump up cost. What's worse, if you got a customer who was angry at coming back to pick up a machine and learning that the repair cost was $200+ for virus / spyware removal, the manager would basically blame the tech. The techs, by the way, were at no time even consulted on pricing or exceptions so they had no ability to help the customer and were made to look bad when the managers threw the blame on them. The prices were set for maximum profitability, and the guidelines of the store made it impossible to bend these rules. This means if someone dropped off a machine and it had a Weatherbug program running (a minor piece of trash programming), then it was an automatic $59 to remove it. Yes, $59 to go to the Control Panel and do a standard Add / Remove. Sometimes we could try to tell the customer to do it themselves, but it was a risk as management would threaten firing if they overheard anything like that. Instead, a customer might come in, see the inflated price for minimal work and demand to speak to a manager. That manager would come out, after the tech has repeated that the prices are set and there's nothing that can be done, and drop the price. That makes the tech look like a liar and a fool, but for the manager it avoids conflict. Sure, a store doesn't want to alienate customers and that's fine, but backstabbing your workers is cowardly and only encourages lackluster performance and resentment. It's really sad on both ends: the customer loses and the tech is made to look incompetent, which is sometimes true but often is just the image portrayed by a manager trying to avoid a hassle. What's even worse is that the Best Buy juggernaut never showed any interest in our input concerning these issues, in most cases at our store there would just be a rotation of management. Ah, corporate structure. How I love it.

Communism 2.0 Feb 24, 2007

Show notes

For Episode 33 Lando and I are discussing and debating the nature and future of the online community model, from gaming to forums. What is this volatile culture that has emerged from the dominance of the internet? How does it mirror (or differ from) our offline lives, and what will it's ultimate fate be? Lando and I certainly have our views, and we get some occasional sparks out of this show. Opening Music: "Fire In The Sky" by Dave London

Great News Feb 22, 2007

Show notes

Hey everyone, I've got some excellent news concerning our little show. Within the last few weeks I extended an invitation to fellow podcaster Benjamin Grundy to come on our show to do an interview, and he has graciously accepted! If you don't know who Ben is (and you should), he runs the Mysterious Universe podcast. MU is one of the better shows I've run across, from the consistently interesting topics to the high production quality. Ben covers the boggling spectrum of the things in this world beyond our understanding, from UFOs to the paranormal. Not only that, but he does so in an objective fashion by not preaching but instead reporting, which is a fine line to walk for the content he covers. He recently moved the show past simply a free version to include a premium edition that offers additional content for $5 a month, and for what you get that's a great deal. I have to say I'm quite excited for the interview, as Ben seems like a genuinely interesting fellow and surely he has some great stories to tell about his show. We're looking to cover a lot, including the journey Ben has traversed from the creation of MU, it's current evolution, and where it's going. In all honesty I'm hoping there's enough content to possibly fill two shows! As we move ahead in the process I'll post updates here to keep you all informed, but I hope this gives you something to look forward to in the coming weeks beyond the shows we normally put out.

Dead Terminals Feb 17, 2007

Show notes

Episode 32 finds us contemplating those modern technologies and changes that we probably never notice. Things like internet and cell phones seem commonplace, but the reality is that these are relatively new innovations that have very quickly become as integral to modern life as a vehicle. Is this invisible integration a bad thing? Is it significant, or simply a byproduct of a rapidly changing culture? Opening Music: "Fire In The Sky" by Dave London

Cod Of War Feb 13, 2007

Show notes

Hey guys, I'm just popping on to give a small update on things. Firstly: There was supposed to be a show posted for last weekend, but two events collided that have delayed it for this upcoming weekend. Originally I was just behind because of my birthday, but the true show stopper was the plumbing deciding to go completely bonkers. We had to call out a plumber on a Sunday (fun), then he broke a pipe underneath the house (more fun.) Due to all that, I didn't get the show finished on time. Sorry about that. The show will go up for this upcoming weekend, which is good because I'll be on vacation and probably would not have been able to record a new show. Secondly: I believe Boston has secured its place as the stupidest city in the country. In case you haven't heard, Boston flipped out over some advertising for the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. Apparently after pooling as much brain matter as possible to have their raggedy baseball team break the curse in 2004, they still haven't recovered that intelligence and feel that innovative means of promotion are a crime. Did people seriously think that these LED signs could be terrorist tools? Really, guys? No wonder they call it "Beantown": apparently beans are what people have in their skulls instead of brains in The City On A Hill. Thirdly: Anna Nicole Smith. Why does anyone care? This woman ranks just behind Princess Di as another famous person we shouldn't be mourning. It's a sad sign of our culture when we place those who are undeserving on pedestals of worship and keep the spotlight off truly important individuals to better light the worthless. Finally: Good news! The mighty, incomparable Kid Icarus was released on the Wii Virtual Console this week. Icarus is one of the titans of NES gaming, and also among the hardest games I've ever played (no save feature!). Guiding Pit through 3 punishing levels (the last level is so easy it's almost laughable) can drive you insane as thoroughly as it gives you a true sense of reward. The fact that it uses Greek myth as a starting point for atmosphere also earns it big marks with me. In relation, my current choice for greatest game of all time has got to be God Of War. A sequel is due early next month, and every indication and early review makes it sound equal (or superior) to the first game. Kratos, the faithful await your return as the Cod Of War!

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