GeekNights

Tonight on the GeekNights Book Club, we bring you our thoughts on Haruki Murakami's 1Q84. It's the book club, so we'll assume you've read the book. If not, then this won't make a whole lot of sense (though this bingo card might give you a hint of what happens). But before that, briefly, we consider Facebook's continued failure as an IPO, chained as it is to the sinking boulder of Zynga, Google's Fiber initiative in Kansas City, and announce that the next book in the GeekNights Book Club will be The Man Who Was Thursday.

Tonight on GeekNights, we review Takenoko. But first, we talk a bit about all the games we've bought (but not played) in the Steam Summer Sale like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Dragon Age Origins, Fallout 3: New Vegas, Oblivion, and Sim City 4. We also lament how everyone votes for Rym in the "vote who wins" game (and Carcassonne). Also, we'll be at PAX Prime and PAX Dev!

Tonight on GeekNights, we review The Incal in all its craziness (though we avoid any spoilers, as you really just have to read this thing to understand it). We've returned from ConnectiCon 2012, which was dangerously successful, only to find that there is a new Sailor Moon anime in the works, and Naoki Urasawa is an awesome convention guest!

Tonight on GeekNights, we fully review Pokemon Conquest: aka Nobunga's Poke-ambition (or Nobunaga's, if you can spell). It's an OK poke-battling game, but falls short in every other area. We also consider the ramifications of Stream Greenlight, and make predictions as to the eventual failure and disappointment from the somewhat ludicrous OUYA game console kickstarter. Back-of-the-curve hardware coupled with an app-store business model does not a console make. Also, ConnectiCon 2012 is this weekend, and there's a hugely full schedule of events. We're also happy to be able to announce our lecture at PAX Prime 2012: Short Subjects in Gaming. We'll be covering rhythm games, skill games, and ethics in games, among other things, in a format similar to our previous Triple Threat (which featured MMORPGs, Game Communities, and Dudebro).

Tonight on GeekNights, we consider all of the awful concerns around UEFI's SecureBoot, which is bad, but not as bad as the evils of the past, as well as Cisco's dubious command and control firmware updates and problems stemming from the leap second that gave us a long weekend. Google Plus also now has developer-facing functionality that is ripe for some low-hanging-fruit execution of ideas! Rym, after a week without a smartphone, is finally back in the cyber fold. ConnectiCon 2012 is coming NEXT WEEKEND, and you should be there if you live within a few hours drive of Hartford!

Tonight on GeekNights, we review Cards Against Humanity (a worthy successor to Apples to Apples, and then consider the ramifications of the Real Money Auction House (RMAH) and related systems on the gaming world at large. Diablo III, after all, is just the beginning of this. We also note that Pokemon Conquest is pretty fun so far, and don't forget ConnectiCon 2012 is fast approaching!

Tonight on GeekNights, we present some initial thoughts on three lovely anime: Polar Bear's Cafe, Kids on the Slope, and Folktales from Japan. While none are terribly prominent in the fan community, they're all definitely worth watching! Also, Rym GeekBites A Cat in Paris and Scott reminds us to both preorder The Underwater Welder and that Scott's Box will return at the turn of the tide.

Tonight on GeekNights, since we haven't addressed the topic in quite some time, we consider the state of laptops (as Rym moves toward upgrading his fairly old Lifebook). But first, we consider what "retina" really means in display technology and glucose-powered fuel cells.

Tonight on GeekNights, we consider hats. That, however, is mostly an afterthought as we GeekBite Prometheus, complain about GoPro's extra shoddy bicycle mount (three broke between us just recently), and the Department of Justice is finally going after the big cable companies over their monopolistic and anticompetitive practices.

Tonight on GeekNights, in light of many interesting revelations about Stuxnet and Flame, including having been signed by quasi-legitimate Microsoft certificates and being well beyond commodity security software vendors' capabilities, we consider government hackers and the future of this sort of "cyber" warfar (though there is actually quite a past as well). But first, a couple of extra satellites the US Government happened to have lying around, ICANN's ludicrous digital archery, the coming disaster of arbitrary TLDs like .lol, and Google having won the case that APIs are not copyrightable.

Tonight brings GeekNights' triumphant return, as Rym himself returns from Istanbul by way of Germany to resume the normal show schedule! We talk about that, but not before some discussion of Toonami's return and a GeekBite of The Avengers, nevermind ConnectiCon 2012 and the changes to our web site! We return. We live. We hunger.

Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the delightful Zendo. (The most efficient way to purchase it is via multiple copies of Ice Dice). But first, we ramble about clipless pedals, JeepAthon2k, Nintendo's woes, the Portal 2 Testing Initiative, Valve hiring hardware people and considering a "steam box", and even the opening to Eretzvaju. Also, this episode was recorded some time ago (as Rym is traveling to Istanbul), and at that time PAX Prime was not yet sold out. We must have been prescient.

Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the once massively popular anime of American fandom -- Ranma 1/2, Fushigi Yugi, You're Under Arrest, Kare Kano, to name a few -- and the reasons why they seem to have so rapidly fallen from awareness. In the news, the vestigial New York Anime Festival, like the appendix, lives on, Kids on the Slope is pretty fine so far, Media Blasters' woes illuminate the sad drama of the American anime industry (see posts by "blaster"), and you can wake up with Yoko Kanno (box optional).

Tonight on GeekNights, we talk a bit about web vulnerabilities (like injection attacks and cross site scripting). But first, Rym and Scott had some fun with the Five Boro Bike Tour, Google has possibly partially lost the Oracle/Java fiasco of a trial, Verizon is planning to offer 911 texts (about a decade too late), and Religion is more dangerous than Porn.

Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the precarious problem of purchasing or otherwise acquiring gifts for those of the geek or nerd persuasion. But first, there's some (overtime) hockey afoot, Taskrabbit is actually a useful way to get other people to do things for you, and people with shitty friends are angry that someone might pay said shitty friends to promote terrible products to them. Also, don't forget we'll be appearing at Zenkaikon 2012 next weekend, nevermind the upcoming Connecticon and PAX Prime (and Otakon, unless they still hate us).