Click here to play this episode. Gweek is Boing Boing's podcast about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff. My co-hosts for episode 52 are:
Maggie Koerth-Baker: BoingBoing’s science editor, journalist, and author of Before the Lights Go Out, a new book about electric infrastructure and the future of energy.
Michael Pusateri, a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney who blogs at cruftbox.com
and our special guest Andy Ihnatko, technology journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times, and host of The Ihnatko Almanac podcast on the 5by5 network.
Click here to play this episode. Gweek is Boing Boing's podcast about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff. My co-hosts for episode 51 are:
Michael Pusateri: a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney who blogs at cruftbox.com
Blair Butler: Writer, comedian, and G4's geek goddess and resident comic book expert. She hosts the "Fresh Ink" comic book segment on the G4 TV program, Attack of the Show!
Click here to play this episode. Gweek is Boing Boing's podcast about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff. My co-hosts for episode 50 are:
Maggie Koerth-Baker: Boing Boing’s science editor, journalist, and author of Before the Lights Go Out, a new book about electric infrastructure and the future of energy.
Dean Putney: Boing Boing’s software developer and an unapologetically snappy dresser.
Ruben Bolling: author of the weekly comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug, which premieres each week on Boing Boing. I signed up for his Inner Hive newsletter and if you like Gweek you will love this, too.
[Click here to play episode] Gweek is Boing Boing's podcast about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff. My co-hosts for episode 49 are Michael Pusateri, a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney who blogs at cruftbox.com, and Kevin Mack, an artist and visual effects supervisor.
Kevin discusses the origin of the phrase “Squa Tront! Spa Fon!" "I believe it is from the story 'The Aliens' in Weird Fantasy #17 January 1953. I have the original issue."
Gweek is Boing Boing's podcast about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff. My co-hosts for episode 48 are Michael Pusateri, a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney who blogs at cruftbox.com, Rob Beschizza, Boing Boing’s managing editor, and Peter Bebergal, the author of Too Much to Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood (Soft Skull Press) who writes frequently on the speculative and slightly fringe. He blogs at mysterytheater.blogspot.com.
Gweek is Boing Boing's podcast about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff. My co-hosts for episode 46 are Dean Putney, Boing Boing’s software wrangler and the Johnny Appleseed of weird awesomeness, and Glenn Fleishman, a long-time tech reporter, a hacky perl programmer, and one of the writers of the Economist.com’s Babbage blog on technology and culture.
Glenn initiates a discussion about Kickstarter, and his plans to kickstart a book about Kickstarter. "Having brought in $84 million in cash for 12,000 projects in 2011 and just having had its first three million-dollar-plus projects in rapid succession, how is Kickstarter changing funding for artists, filmmakers, and industrial designers?"
Glenn has been reading Suicide Squad’s New 52 reboot. "I’m not a fan of the whole DC thing, and haven’t been a solid comic reader in years. But I love Suicide Squad and I’m afraid that says something terrible about my psyche."
Dean liked Craig Thompson's massive, award-winning graphic novel, Blankets. Mark told Dean to read Thompson's most recent graphic novel, Habibi
Glenn says: "I’ve been watching (via UK feeds) BBC’s Dirk Gently, the three episode adaptation of Douglas Adam’s character. Remarkably good." How does Glenn get around the region-blocking technology that the BBC uses to lock out non UK viewers? Tunnelbear!
Dean's mind-blowing website of the week is Stratocam.
Dean explains the appeal of the iOS app, Draw Something.
Glenn talks about Pokemon: "My older son is learning the game, and I have some reflections on getting sucked into his madness."
Mark was impressed by The Fourth Dimension, an app that helps you visualize the fourth dimension.
Mark likes Snapheal, a simple OS X app that lets you easily remove unwanted objects from your photos.
Gweek is Boing Boing's podcast about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff. My co-hosts for episode 45 are Ruben Bolling, the celebrated cartoonist whose comic, Tom the Dancing Bug premieres weekly on Boing Boing; Michael Pusateri, a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney; and Matt Haughey, author, web designer and founder of MetaFilter.
In this episode:
Gweek is giving away a PlugBug! Listen to the podcast to learn how to enter.
Michael has been enjoying the alternate reality game for runners called Zombies, Run!. Matt's pick is a recipe app called Appetites, and Mark has been playing Match Panic.
Matt got a Nike+ Fuelband before they sold out. They are beautiful.
In Gweek episode 044, I interviewed Sarah Vowell about her book Unfamiliar Fishes. It's a history of Hawaii between the time of the arrival of the first Christian missionaries and its annexation to the United States in the late 1890s.
Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.
Dean recommends so cool indie games he checked out at the Game Development Conference (Proteus, Uprok, Joust, and Chicken Bandit)
Veronica and her friends, Bonnie Burton, Felicia Day, and Kiala Kazebee, have a new monthly book club podcast about the latest in paranormal romance called Vaginal Fantasy Hangout
Veronica says her Kindle has been committing acts of violence lately
Veronica says that Mass Effect 3 is the first game to tear her away from Skyrim.
Mark shares Myshkin Ingawale's amazing TED Fellow presentation at TED2012.
Dean went to the Image Comics Expo in Oakland and said his two favorite discoveries were Reed Gunther and Street Comics.
Mike reports that the creators of the comic Atomic Robo (which was John Hodgman's pick when he was on Gweek a while ago) have a Kickstarter to produce a video short.
Veronica recommends the dramatic science fiction story, Another Earth.
Mark and Veronica talk a bit about Reamde (Veronica liked it, Mark liked it except for the end) and 1Q84 (Veronica said she "slogged through it" and Mark is probably not going to read it now).
Mark enjoyed the science fiction movie Chronicle, about three teenagers who gain the power of telekineses. It's like a A Simple Plan for high schoolers.
Dean invites you to click on omfgdogs.com at your peril, but if you don't visit cashcats.biz, you will miss out on something amazing.
Mark shares one on his longtime favorite music sites, Bedazzled.
Veronica likes an iPhone apps called CatPaint, which lets you add all kinds of cats to your photos.
Mike shares a useful and free shopper's price comparison and unit conversion calculator called Apples2Oranges.
Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.
I was at the TED2012 conference in Long Beach last week, so I didn’t have time to record a regular episode of Gweek with the other Boing Boing folks. So this week, I’m running an interview I recently did with Dave Asprey, a very interesting guy who has spent the last 15 years experimenting with ways to "hack his own biology." Dave experiments with supplements, sleep techniques, medical devices, fasting and dieting, and other things to improve his physical and mental health. You can find out more about him at bulletproofexec.com.
Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.
My co-hosts on episode 41 are Dean Putney, Boing Boing’s coding and development wizard, and Michael Pusateri, a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney. Visit his blog, cruftbox.com.
Below is a list of the things we talked about in Gweek episode 40. (Sure, you could just click on the links below to learn about them without listening to the podcast, but then you will miss out on our discussion about whether or not Tarzan shrank in Tarzan and the Ant Men or not.)
Mike talks about a new TV-to-any-device-you-want-service called Aeero.
Mark and his daughter Jane went to a at Arts ReFoundry in Los Angeles to make bronze mini-sculptures. Even if you don't live in LA, you can order a bronze buckle kit for $110, which includes pouring.
Mark announced the winner of the Gweek Secret contest. Congratulations, Eric Z. Goodnight!
Mark recommended Baby's in Black a graphic novel love story about photographer Astrid Kirchherr and Beatles bass player Stuart Sutcliffe in the early days of the band.
Mark also recommended the stunning new graphic novel by Tom Gauld, Goliath, the biblical tale told from the giant's perspective.
Mike scared me with a personal information search site called Melconcard.
Mark is enjoying the Kameoka Diaries, a webcomic about Lars Martinson's experiences teaching English to students in Japan.
Mark likes Timehop, a web service that sends you an email each morning with your Tweets, Facebook postings, Foursquare, and Instagram activity from a year ago today.
Dean has been enjoying Super Going, a site where your friends send you on fun missions.
Dean bought two "indispensable" low-priced accessories for his phone and computer: the Wrapster and Power Curl, both by Quirky.
Mike explains why One Good Earbud is a good idea for people who like to run or ride bikes and listen to music at the same time.
Mark enjoys play with the HDR and tilt-shift functions on his Canon S95 point-and-shoot camera.
Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.
My hosts on episode 40 are are cartoonist Ruben Bolling, whose comic, Tom the Dancing Bug premieres weekly on Boing Boing, and Dean Putney, Boing Boing’s coding and development wizard. Our guest this week is two-time Eisner Award winning cartoonist Derf Backderf, creator of the amazing comic The City, which has been running in alternative weekly newspapers for 22 years. He’s the author of the graphic novel Punk Rock and Trailer Parks, which was selected for The Best American Comics 2010. He’s got a new autobiographical graphic novel out about his high-school friendship with the infamous serial murder and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, called My Friend Dahmer. Robert Crumb, who rarely gives endorsements for anyone or anything, says My Friend Dahmer is a “well-told, powerful story. Backderf is quite skilled in using comics to tell this tale of a truly weird and sinister 1970s adolescent world.”
Below is a list of the things we talked about in Gweek episode 40. (Sure, you could just click on the links below to learn about them without listening to the podcast, but then you will miss out on our discussion about whether or not Terry Richardson owns more than one flannel shirt.)
Most of this episode of Gweek is a fascinating discussion with Derf about his high school pal Jeffrey Dahmer, and Derf's new graphic novel My Friend Dahmer.
Dean turned us on to Maddie on Things, a blog of photos of a coonhound named Maddie who likes to stand on things that dogs don't normally stand on. What will Maddie stand on next?
Mark likes Comic Viewer, an iPad app for reading digital comics.
And once you've installed Comic Viewer, head over to The Big Blog of Kids' Comics! and fill your iPad with mid-century four-color wonder.
Ruben likes Sugar & Spike comics so much that he's willing to pay $59.99 for this archive edition. But who can blame him? This is one of the best kids' comics of all time!
The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly is a massive anthology of old comic book stories for kids, and is a big hit around Mark's house. The oversize format and 350 pages make for a delightful reading experience.
I'm so happy that lots of old comic book stories that otherwise would have been forgotten are being reprinted in fat, inexpensive anthologies like this one: The Golden Treasury of Krazy Kool Klassic Kids' Komics, edited by Craig Yoe. My daughter and I are having a wonderful time reading these funny and deeply weird children's comic book stories from the 1940s and 1950s, featuring art by some of the tops names in the field: Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Carl Barks, Walt Kelly, Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, and other cartoon giants. At 304 pages, we'll get many nights of entertainment out of this collection.
Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.
My hosts on episode 38 are Dean Putney, Boing Boing’s coding and development wizard, Rob Beschizza, Boing Boing’s managing editor (who gets cut of because he had a crappy Skype connection), and Michael Pusateri, a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney. Visit his blog, cruftbox.com.
Below is a list of the things we talked about in Gweek episode 39. (Sure, you could just click on the links below to learn about them without listening to the podcast, but then you will miss out on our discussion of a foolproof method for winning big at the horse races.)
Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.
My hosts on episode 38 are Dean Putney, Boing Boing's coding and development wizard, Boing Boing alum Joel Johnson of Animal New York, and Dannel Jurado, a software engineer from Peru who's working at Etsy and, by Dean's description, "is deeply ingrained in 8 bit music, geek culture, craft and software."
Below is a list of the things we talked about in Gweek episode 38. (Sure, you could just click on the links below to learn about them without listening to the podcast, but then you will miss out on the mind-blowing insights we shared in the episode.)
Johann Sebastian Joust in Yerba Buena Gardens "basically like high-tech tag. Each person has a Playstation Move controller, and the object of the game is to jostle other people's controllers so that you're the last man standing."
Joel recommends Conan Doyle's The White Company (free on Gutenberg), "about archers from England who go to France to wage war and plunder ... it comes off like Jack Vance."
Joel saw two movies this week: A Dangerous Method (and Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and Sabina Spielrein, "the beautiful but disturbed young woman who comes between them") and The Rum Diary (based on Hunter S. Thompson's autobiographical novel).
Mark told Joel to read Gonzo: the Life of Hunter S. Thompson, which consists of anecdotes culled from interviews with 120 of Thompson's acquaintances, beginning with his childhood in Kentucky and ending with his death in 2005 in Woody Creek, Colorado.
Roots, by Danimal Cannon. Cannon wrote: "Every song on this album was composed using a Nintendo Gameboy DMG-01 running the homebrew software LSDJ. If you download the album I've also included the .sav files so feel free to learn my tricks, remix, or whatever!" Dannel also runs a cool music blog.
Joel gives his first impression Hero Academy, a free, turn-based RPG strategy game for iOS. He also excited about news of an X-Com revival.
Dannel recommends an iOS game called Puzzlejuice, which is a bit like Tetris with the added challenge of having to spell words using tiles with letters on them.
645 Pro, a camera app for iPhone.
Orbital, a one-thumb game for iPhone.
Hipmunk, a great comparative airline pricing site.
Battle of the X-Planes: Nova
Rachele Gilmore’s 100 MPH fastball
Coloraturas - Opera Arias
Young Men of a Certain Mind, a graphic novel ebook by Lars Martinson
Avengers: West Coast Avengers: Lost in Space and Time
Berkeley Science Review
Performing Flea, by P.G. Wodehouse
Nerd Nite magazine
Mystery in Space, science fiction comic book.
Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker, by Kevin Mitnick
Sound of My Voice
Character Model
The upcoming 
Blair Butler's comic book, 
Blair: Why the new 
Blair's comic picks: 
Mitch's excellent artwork. Pre-order his book 
Dean: 
Dean: 
Ruben: 
Maggie: 
Mark: 
Ruben: 
Ruben: 
Dean: 
Mark: 
Ruben: 
Maggie: Cool train car rental service - 
Dean: 
Mark: 
Mark: Stupid Fun Club Medallion - an encoded secret message (
Kevin Mack's art site.
Peter shares his story of a Johnson Smith catalog fail as a child.
Michael has good things to say about the comic book, 
Peter recommends 
Peter likes the new 
Mark goes on and on about the upcoming 
In music, Rob has several recommendations: 
Peter recommends the EP 
In movies, Michael recommends the 2006 movies 
Websites! Michael recommends the website 
In apps, Rob likes 
Peter recommends 
In tools, Michael likes the 
Peter talks about the joy of Analog synth kits, especially kits from 
Mark feels happy wearing his 
Dean was accidentally the first male guest on the 
Glenn initiates a discussion about 
Glenn has been reading 
Dean liked Craig Thompson's massive, award-winning graphic novel, 
Mark recommends Ryan Rigney's book, 
Glenn says: "I’ve been watching (via UK feeds) BBC’s 
Dean's mind-blowing website of the week is 
Dean explains the appeal of the iOS app, 
Glenn talks about 
Mark was impressed by 
Mark likes 
Dean raves about Luma Labs's 
Mark describes why he likes 
Gweek is giving away a 
Ruben and others filled in for Richard Thompson's comic strip 
Ruben reviews an extraordinary young adult novel called 
Mark reviews the new
John Carter has lost $200 million, but the Gweeksters like the movie. Matt likes the movie, 
Michael mentions his self published edition of 
Matt recommends two albums: Miike Snow's 
Michael talks about the funny website, 
Michael has been enjoying the alternate reality game for runners called 
Matt got a 
Dean recommends so cool indie games he checked out at the Game Development Conference (
Veronica and her friends, Bonnie Burton, Felicia Day, and Kiala Kazebee, have a new monthly book club podcast about the latest in paranormal romance called 
Veronica says her 
Veronica says that 
Mike's made his first batch of 
Mark shares 
Dean went to the Image Comics Expo in Oakland and said his two favorite discoveries were 
Mike reports that the creators of the comic 
Mark's Audible pick this week is the literary thriller, 
Veronica recommends the dramatic science fiction story, 
Mark and Veronica talk a bit about 
Mark enjoyed the science fiction movie 
Dean invites you to click on 
Veronica likes an iPhone apps called 
Mike shares a useful and free shopper's price comparison and unit conversion calculator called 
Dean says 
We have a discussion about the new 
Mike likes the functional bike stem caps at 
Mark explains why the 
Dean went to the 
Mike talks about a new TV-to-any-device-you-want-service called 
Mark and his daughter Jane went to a at 
Mark announced the winner of the Gweek Secret contest. Congratulations, 
Mike recommends 
Mark recommended 
Mark also recommended the stunning new graphic novel by Tom Gauld, 
Mike's soundtrack while he worked this week was Steve Reich's 
Dean likes 
Mike scared me with a personal information search site called 
Mark is enjoying the 
Mark likes 
Dean has been enjoying 
Dean bought two "indispensable" low-priced accessories for his phone and computer: the 
Mike explains why 
Mark enjoys play with the HDR and tilt-shift functions on his 
Most of this episode of Gweek is a fascinating discussion with Derf about his high school pal Jeffrey Dahmer, and Derf's new graphic novel 
Dean turned us on to 
Dean gives a thumbs up to fashion photographer 
Mark likes 
And once you've installed Comic Viewer, head over to 
Ruben likes 
I'm so happy that lots of old comic book stories that otherwise would have been forgotten are being reprinted in fat, inexpensive anthologies like this one: 
The 
A partially crowd funded sci-fi epic called 
Michael says 
Mike also recommends 
Mike explains why the new 
Dean's listening to 
Mark's listening to 
Say hi to 
Dean leads us down the sometime NSFW but always fascinating 
The 
Back when Bill Gates was an indie game developer, he co-wrote the thrilling 
It's easy to make your own moonshine with gear from 
Playing Dungeons and Dragons via Skype.
A new 
After doing all sorts of cool stuff for 
Joel reviews the book, 
Dean digs 
Joel recommends Conan Doyle's 
Mark reviews the graphic novel 
Joel saw two movies this week: A Dangerous Method (and Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and Sabina Spielrein, "the beautiful but disturbed young woman who comes between them") and The Rum Diary (based on Hunter S. Thompson's autobiographical novel).
Mark told Joel to read 
Joel gives his first impression 
Dannel recommends an iOS game called 
Dean loves his 
