gangs

Aunt Jill aka @JillonMoney from CBS's MoneyWatch.com is on the show today to explain the upcoming US debt ceiling deadline. With the zero-hour approaching next Tuesday, August 2, Jill eases our fears that the economy will collapse and offers helpful tips on what exactly to expect, and how to prepare for economic fallout.

What's lovely about the new methods of communication so beloved by today's youth is that they haven't caused people to lose their sense of propriety, their sense that there's a way to do things.

Yes, kids might prefer to text rather than talk these days, but that doesn't mean their texts don't convey true, heartfelt sensitivity toward that fellow human. So I know you will appreciate a story emerging from what I used to consider the rather sedate area of Huntington Beach, Calif. (Didn't Shaq used to live there?)

According to the Orange County Register, … Read more

There are certain things one expects from a Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game. Sure, there's the obvious: Violence, fast cars, and more violence, but what many GTA laymen don't know, is that GTA fans also expect (since Vice City at least) a rich, compelling story, with likable and (intentionally) unlikable characters. All told in a way only the best video games can.

After spending about two hours with Gameloft's GangStar I can safely say, they got the obvious right. Not so much the other stuff.

Gangstar is a GTA clone for the iPhone and iPod Touch where you play an ex-con named...honestly does it matter what his name is? Seriously, the main character and your sidekick are so similar in appearance I hardly ever know which is talking at any given time.

The game plays very close to GTA. Specifically GTA3. You run around, steal cars, mistakenly--thanks to the default and difficult to control accelerometer controls--run over pedestrians, and shoot and beat innocents to death.

There are also missions you can take by going to certain waypoints designated on your minimap. So far the missions have ranged from chauffeuring your boss around to following and killing groups of gang members. … Read more

Episode 46 of the Digital City, where we debate the merits of the PS3 Slim, show how to get your free Windows 7 upgrade, and discuss new games from Batman: Arkham Asylum to GangStar for the iPhone.

Related links: >>Skip the PS3 Slim and get one of these Blu-ray laptops >>Should I buy a new laptop now, or wait for Windows 7? >>Are gaming handhelds too expensive?

>>Watch the Digital City live every Friday at 3pm EST on CNET Live! >>Subscribe to Digital City on iTunes >>Join the Digital City Facebook fan page &… Read more

Justin feels blue before the show, but a group hug and a little well-placed bromance sets him right. It's a touching prelude to what is perhaps the 404's raunchiest show ever! In other news, NASA combats space depression with virtual therapy, the Army reads terrorist tweets, and a shocking number of sex addicts are women. Also, please don't trust your GPS navigator too much. Check out The 404's exclusive scoop on Mac's newest OS--it's tight and supports multitouch functionality!

Dan the Mantern here. On today's show we discuss a timeless question that doe-eyed youths have asked their parents for ages: "What happens when you fart in space?" Apparently, letting one loose in an infinite vacuum can have much more dire consequences than one might believe. Farting inside of a space suit can be dangerous, if you try to let the stank out while doing a space walk. Unfortunately, the likelihood of a well-time fart inside the space station becoming a source of DIY zero-gravity propulsion is low, according to one Canadian astronaut. Finally, check out this dramatic interpretation of a space fart from Disney's 1997 classic Rocket Man.

This week's Friday Gillmor Gang podcast featured Mark Lucovsky, currently head of Google's search APIs and formerly a top technologist at Microsoft (reportedly Steve Ballmer threw a chair across the room upon being informed that Lucovsky was getting hitched to Google).

Lucovsky talked about making Google's APIs available to developers. The APIs include high-speed access to Google search via Javascript and RESTful protocols, peer APIs about accessing APIs, language APIs for detecting languages and translations, and hosting of third-party open Javascript libraries, such as Mootools.

"We are opening up all of Google bit-by-bit programmatically," Lucovsky … Read more

Original post Gizmodo article

The Friday Gillmor Gang podcast featured special guests Paul Buchheit and Bret Taylor, the creators of FriendFeed. Along with Twitter, FriendFeed has become a poster child for the next wave of communications tools favored by the cybernauts.

Steve Gillmor seems to think that Twitter will become the predominant messaging backbone for the social Web. If the company behind Twitter can't make it happen, Gillmor suggested that FriendFeed should do it.

Buchheit, who was employee No. 23 at Google and suggested the now famous "Don't be evil" motto, said that FriendFeed wasn't designed to kill Twitter. &… Read more

On Friday's Gillmor Gang podcast, Google's point person on Friend Connect, David Glazer, took questions from the gang, which included Steve, Marc Canter, Robert Anderson, Mike Arrington, Dana Gardner, and myself.

Much of the conversation centered on Facebook's suspended participation in Google Friend Connect. Glazer said he expects Facebook and Google to make peace but didn't want to give a time frame for a resolution.

Regarding efforts by Google, Facebook, and MySpace to provide some element of data portability, Glazer said they are complementary, based on what is known about the APIs so far, which isn'… Read more