When I say it was a great success, I mean that it was successfully uploaded and at least three people were able to download and listen to it. I make no statements about the actual quality of the content (though those 3 people who admit to hearing it seemed to enjoy it (which reminds me, your payments will be sent . . . → Read More: TIDBABSH the second, part the first]]> Last month’s podcast was such a great success that I decided to do another one.

When I say it was a great success, I mean that it was successfully uploaded and at least three people were able to download and listen to it. I make no statements about the actual quality of the content (though those 3 people who admit to hearing it seemed to enjoy it (which reminds me, your payments will be sent shortly)).

With such a wave of accomplishment and adoring fans to bolster me, how could I not do another? It just wouldn’t be fair to all of you to deprive you of that which you have come to hold so dear. Or possibly, that which you have tolerated heroically.

This time around I left my wife to deal with the kids while I waxed (and waned) philosophic with Australia’s favorite son: Lee Sargent.

Well, he’s from Australia, anyway.

Lee is slowly taking over the internet, appearing on podcasts all over the world while simultaneously co-hosting his own podcast at Lee and Dan’s Midnight Movie Club and keeping his take on the world of pop-culture front and center (of the far left, rear facing department of the underside of the internet – which is a more prominent position than it sounds) on his blog, Quit Your Day Job. Take some time to visit his sites. They’re better than this one.

So, Lee and I attacked this month’s topics with a vengeance. I had a lot of fun in this conversation. We got so involved in some of these topics that we actually ended up with enough material to cover two podcasts. And yet, this month’s podcast is shorter than last month’s! Well, that’s because you’re only going to get the first half of the discussion today. We’ll get to Part 2 later.

This month, strap yourself in for some rambling on the following topics (following a rambling introduction that covers a surprising amount of surprising information about Australia):

1. Worlds Oldest Man dies at 114.
2. Author crashes and burns in responding to a book review (and related link)
3. http://www.khanacademy.org/
4. Crime-fighting sunglasses!
5. Free software to create flash flippable book
6. Free Geneology software

Doesn’t look like much, does it?

You’ll be amazed at some of the places those links take us.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of my discussion with Lee, where we take on some more of popular culture, including our thoughts on a mess of upcoming movies and TV shows that have released trailers lately, some movie news and rumors, the portrayal of women (wonderful and otherwise) in superhero roles, gender neutrality in the X-Men, and more.

Go forth and listen!

On the upside, you do get to hear my wife talking about this stuff as well, so you got that going for you. Which is nice.

Of course throughout the entire . . . → Read More: Grand opening…]]> … and then nothing but disappointment. That pretty much describes this podcast. Really there is some interesting stuff discussed somewhere in there, but to get to it, you have to listen to me talking. Sorry about that, but it is the way of things.

On the upside, you do get to hear my wife talking about this stuff as well, so you got that going for you. Which is nice.

Of course throughout the entire podcast I never introduce her properly, (and in fact, I don’t even use her name once) so let me get this out of the way: World, say hello to Pam. Pam, this is the world.

So what’s this thing about, you ask? Ah, you didn’t read my earlier post on this did you? Well, perhaps you can be excused for that… it’s been almost a month since I posted it after all. (“Soon” is a relative term, you know.) I got busy, sorry. I also got frustrated, hungry, and tired during that time, but none of that is relevant, really. The point is it took a while to get this up, and if I got your hopes up that there would be any quality involved here, sorry about that.

In fact, when I posted my “Coming Soon” post, a friend of mine wrote back: “And that’s when Caddickisms jumped the shark.” He may be right, but I got back at him. I did it anyway.

The specific topics in the podcast this time are varied. Here’s a list of the topics we covered, so you can go and do more research on your own:

• Free Room/Garden/etc layout tool
• Free Internet Parental Controls methods
• EO DAS jet fighter defense systems for the F-35
• Star Wars uber-fanboy story
• Doctor Who: everything you need to know in one poster
• George the Evil Black Suit (also known as Venom) forced to do good… for now
• Spider-man’s new costume for movie reboot
• Highlander reboot
• Nathan Fillion will NOT bring back Firefly (but you can send me money anyway)
• We talked about The Cape and The Event, too.
• Bar Karma – community-developed TV
• Tron: Uprising trailer
• Some talk about Stargate: Universe
• Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D gets 2012 release date
• Sixth Sense vs. Unbreakable and random M. Night Shyamalan comments

You may notice that this podcast starts with some music. Anyone who can tell me the television show it originally comes from (i.e., for which it was written) will be entered into a drawing for a prize. You must leave a comment on the blog, and I’ll pick a name at random from all correct entries. The prize will be something completely mundane, but hey… free stuff, right?

[UPDATE: Ack! I just realized I broke my own contest rules by revealing the answer with the first correct guess and not waiting until we could have a drawing! Sorry to all of you who also knew the answer but haven't commented yet.

So to extend the contest a bit I'll ask this question: list at least two shows/films that we discussed in the podcast that are not listed in the bullet list above. Then I'll do a drawing from that list.]

So, with no further delay… check out the podcast!

I have been looking for a utility that will let me rearrange those stupid Windows Taskbar buttons. I like to keep my email client as the first program on my taskbar. Sometimes it crashes (these things happen) and I have to reopen it, but to get it back to the beginning of the line again, I had to . . . → Read More: Rearrange your Taskbar buttons, and more!]]> Gizmo’s – Drag, Click & Snap Windows and Taskbar Buttons into Position | Gizmo’s Tech Support Alert

I have been looking for a utility that will let me rearrange those stupid Windows Taskbar buttons. I like to keep my email client as the first program on my taskbar. Sometimes it crashes (these things happen) and I have to reopen it, but to get it back to the beginning of the line again, I had to close all my other programs and then reopen them in the order I wanted. If I’m running a couple of browsers with 18+ tabs each (not that unusual), that’s a huge pain in the neck.

Finally, Taskbar Shuffle comes to the rescue! My thanks to the contributor over at Gizmo’s site, who listed that software and three other Taskbar and Windows management tools.