This week: Justin wants you to know that what you pay attention to matters, because it ends up determining who you are. James and Dave discuss the things they’re paying attention to, but we want to hear from you. Let us know using Facebook or Twitter the things that matter most to you in life, and how you keep up with them. Does technology help or distract?

And, as always, the headlines.

• Holland passes net neutrality law, making it only the second nation to do so after Chile.
• A trojan pretending to be the cops is asking for money. Don’t fall for this one, guys.
• Google’s self-driving car is now legal in Nevada, but all three hosts wish they could get one right now.
• A Kiwi ISP bypassed geo-IP restrictions out of the box, but of course The Man has since shut this down. Sorry New Zealand!
• “Game of Thrones” is on its way to becoming the most pirated series of all time. James talks about the shockingly high cost of watching Game of Thrones legally in England, and Justin reads his open letter to big media companies.
• Facebook is rolling out their own app store. Oh goody.

And, the gaming news.

• FPS shooter classic ‘Wolfenstein 3d’ was released as browser game for free.
• Dave watches 20 minutes of Borderland 2 gameplay footage and decides he’s going to get the game.
• It looks like Internet Explorer may finally be coming to Xbox 360. Seems a little late, but James declares he will never use it anyway.

Finally, Justin loves Evernote and also uses Evernote Clearly to read the web free of clutter. James doesn’t use anything that might make him productive.

This week: Dave is having a ton of fun playing with his new Playstation Vita. James is outsourcing the creation of his amazing ideas using odesk.com, a great place to find freelance programmers and more. And Justin, being cheap, uses Sidepon to find coupons while shopping online. James wishes this were a browser plugin instead of a web site.

And, as always, the headlines:

• ISPs in the UK are starting to block The Pirate Bay, a move that provided the pirate bay with lots of publicity. Now no one in the UK pirates anything, ever.
• UK bouncers checking Facebook on phone to confirm identity, which is stupid.
• FBI wants a backdoor added to Facebook, Skype and other social networks as fewer criminals use the phone to communicate.
• The US government suggested people ste up a social media will on their blog. Justin, James and Dave get depressed whilst contemplating their mortality.
• Microsoft buys 17.6 percent of Barnes and Noble’s Nook division. Microsoft is getting in on the ebook market, but are they too late?
• James laments Media Center and DVD playback from Windows 8 – to be available as a separate optional upgrade.
• Harvard and MIT working together on free online classes. Take some classes and stretch your mind!
• Apple and Samsung grab 99% of all smartphone industry profits. Apple alone has 73%.

Also: gaming news!

• Elder Scrolls is releasing a massively multiplayer online game. Dave can’t wait to play; James refuses to.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was announced last week. The game is set in 2025, with an abundance of drones, mechanized warfare; fighting over rare earth elements.
• Microsoft launches a Kinect console bundle priced $99 … and a 2 year $15/month contract. Protip: this is a bad deal.

Music credit: intro tune by Roger McGuinn, from Free Music Archive

This week, James lets you know why your website needs the Jetpack suite of WordPress tweaks. Justin uses Virtualboxes to download and test open source operating systems. And Dave likes the UFC app for Xbox, and thinks every Xbox-owning UFC fan should check it out. James and Justin won’t.

The headlines:

• The Forth Ammendment Doesn’t Matter If You’re Online, apparently. Justin rants; James responds.
• Google Drive is here, and none of us have tried it yet.
• The TV premiere of Google Glass was disappointing. Perhaps this will be cool later.
• Some guy used Amazon Turk to power a camera that spits out descriptions, not pictures. Pretty eccentric use of an all-around awesome technology.
• The Kindle Fire makes up over half the Android Tablet Market. James says “told you so”; Justin says “did anyone ever disagree with your premise?”
• Microsoft Sells 70% of its AOL patents to Facebook. It seems Microsoft mainly didn’t want Google to have them.
• Nintendo posts first ever loss of $800 million. Ouch.

This week: James uses we7.com to listen to music, and the owner is apparently one of his drinking buddies. Justin lets you know how to make an em (—) or en (–) dashes on your computer, whatever operating system you use. He also thinks you should be watching a show by ze frank. And Dave talks about the social radio app Soundrop, which drives Justin to drink.

And, as always, the headlines:

• Netflix CEO calls out comcast on net neutrality. James thinks he’s complaining about a free service; Justin and Dave think James doesn’t know what net neutrality is.
• The technology behind TuPac’s resurrection is old school: it Dates Back to the 1800′s. James says that’s not technically correct; Dave would totally go to a hologram TuPac concert.
• Reading all the privacy policies you agree to would take a month. James never reads any, because he assumes he has no privacy.
• Australian Court: ISPs not responsible for stopping piracy
• Hunter Moore, Scumbag of the Internet, takes down his site. We’re all thankful, especially after hearing this interview from December.
• Good Guy Of The Internet Does AMA. Yishan Wong had this to say about using ads to make money online: “If you have a million people living in a city, no one says, ‘Hey, we have two million eyeballs, let’s monetize by plastering every city surface with ads!’”

All this, and an answer to a fan question: “What is your opinion on DRM systems such as Steam?”. Send us your questions

Every week we talk about apps we’ve been using and the games we’ve been playing. This week: Justin really loves the beta version of Ubuntu, and thinks you should check it out. James is becoming a Redditor because of Blue Alien, a Reddit app for the iPad and iPhone that’s less ugly than Reddit’s web version. And Dave talks about Mass Effect’s multiplayer mode, something James and Justin are enthusiastically unexcited about.

Plus: a bonus feature section, wherein Justin outlines how to be completely unproductive online. Don’t miss these must-know slacking tips! And, as always, the headlines:

• Facebook Buys Instagram For One. Billion. Dollars. Seems like the deal was pretty much Mark Zuckerberg’s doing, too. We’re not sure what the point to this is, but man is a billion dollars a lot of money.
• Microsoft Buys The Rotting Remains Of Netscape for One. Billion. Dollars. The deal was for 800 different patents, some of which relate to the original Netscape browser.
• Iran to Build It’s Own “HalAl” Internet. This level of censorship makes the Communist Party of China seem benevolent.
• Apple, Publishers, Sued by US Government For Alleged eBook Price Fixing. Does this lawsuit basically hand the ebook market to Amazon?
• Canada Ditches The Penny, Is Working On A Digital Currency. Why doesn’t America get rid of the penny? It’s so worthless people use it for flooring.
• How One Chinese Activist Turned the Table On Surveillance.
• Half of the top 100 blogs use WordPress as a CMS. Justin and James explain why this is, before they realize the real reason: WordPress is so easy even Dave can use it.

All this, and your listener questions, in Technophilia’s sweet sixteen. Enjoy!

This week: Justin removes unnecessary crap from Google Reader using Google Reader Readable. James uses the magical TriDef drivers to play his favorite PC games in 3D on his 3D television. And Dave is playing through Mass Effect 3, which he’s enjoying. We briefly discuss the Mass Effect ending controversy; there may be spoilers.

And, as always, the headlines:

A Japanese court orders Google to remove words from autocomplete. Google ignored the order, because they’re rad. And not subject to Japanses law.

Windows Live Messenger Censors Links to the Pirate Bay. And to think: just last week James was trying to defend Microsoft…

British Parliament considering iPads for all members. Justin makes an ageist argument regarding why this won’t work.

Viruses…On My Mac? It’s more likely than you think. James blames it all on Microsoft and Oracle. He might be right.

French Law Cuts Piracy, Doesn’t Lead to More Music or Movie Sales. Not hard to figure out what we’ll think of this…

The Queen’s speech this year will announce an invasion of your privacy you can only dream of.

James explains how Google Glass is completely possible. Justin says it’s a bad idea. Dave says something stupid.

All this, and a surprisingly hard bonus gameshow: Dave and Justin try to guess whether a given name is for an Android handset or a condom.

This week: Dave enjoys playing Saints Row 3. You might too. Justin is really enjoying the YouTube show Crash Course In World History, and so will you. And James recommends you take a second look at Hotmail, because he saw a convincing presentation about Greymail. Apparently Hotmail’s pretty good at dealing with that now.

Additionally, James goes over the virtues of the iPad 3, but doesn’t want to try to get Justin and Dave to buy one. Coward.

And, as always, the headlines:

• The Encyclopedia Britannica is going online-only as demand for printed encyclopedias drop to near zero. Justin looks up “Britanica” on Wikipedia.
• Employers are demanding to see the Facebook password of potential employees; Facebook will press charges against companies who do.
• ISPs in the United States will start cutting off the Internet connection of pirates come July. Will they have customers left in August?
• Nanoscale 3D printing will probably change the world.
• Justin rants about Mike Daisy, who lied to This American Life about his adventures at the FoxxConn factory. Listen to the hour-long retraction here, or read how he lied to Adrian Chen.
• Former Google employee and evangelist wrote a letter explaining why he left the company. Basically: Google Plus is destroying innovation. Is this true?
• We also update you all about Rick Santorum’s Google problem.

This week: MakeUseOf staff writer Chris Hoffman joins us to talk about the Windows 8 developer preview. He also introduces us to Soluto, a program for remotely supporting computers for friends and family.Justin unsubscribes from crap email using Unsubscribr and thinks you should too. Dave listens to the news using Snackr for some reason. And James loves the new version of iMovie for iPhone. Scroll down to see it in chicken-related action!

All this, and experiences playing Skyrim, in this amazing episode, along with the headlines.

• Apple managed to use the global media as its personal PR department last week. Justin rants; the team tells him media outlets are just giving the people what they want. Journalism!
• Google combines the Android Market, Google Books, Google Music and Google Video into one service with a stupid name: Google Play. We make fun of the name and try to figure out what (if anything) Google is thinking.
• Bittorrent users are spoiled children. A new, non-Divx format is causing pirates to complain instead of thanking volunteers for providing free entertainment. How are media companies supposed to keep people happy if free isn’t good enough?

Oh, and James made an epic chicken trailer:

Coming soon to theatres near you.

This week: James tries out and loves Sublime Text, and recommends it for anyone who writes code. Justin tries out Androidx86, a complete port of Android for netbooks. Basically: he’s got Android on his netbook now. Dave hacks Siri to do even more things, though James and Justin aren’t convinced any of it is useful. Dave is mocked.

Also this week: James doesn’t like that Google Chat imported all contacts from Google Plus, so he’s angry. As usual. Dave is angry at AT&T for capping his “unlimited” data plan. It’s kind of his fault, though, because he uses Spotify for all his music, and James points out there is no such thing as unlimited in the UK. Justin is content with life.

And, of course, the headlines:

• The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is out, and you can download and try it out for free if you want to arrive at your own decision. Otherwise, you’re entitled to James’: Apple already won, and Windows 8 is crap. Big surprise, coming from an Apple fanboy.
• Makible is promising a $350 3D printer in a Kickstarter-style fundraising campaign. This could be cool, but we’re skeptical: there’s no working prototype yet.
• Lenovo stopped selling netbooks last week. James and Dave argue this is the end of the netbook. Justin argues “netbook” was only ever a word meaning small computer, and the MacBook Air is doing fine.
• Finally, on a classy note, a French man is suing Google for catching him relieving himself in front of Street View cameras. Our hard-hitting team ignores the privacy implications and asks the tough question: why was he peeing on his van?

This week: James uses the Star Walk app for iPad to explore the night sky, and to finally convince his visiting parents that iPads are actually kind of neat. Dave plays with “Magic, The Gathering” cards with help from this app. Nerd. And Justin plays with numbers thanks to Wolfram Alpha. Bigger nerd.

And as always, the week’s headlines:

• Apple is so big that the law of big numbers means it needs to slow down eventually. Justin calculates how big Apple will be in 2022 if it grows like it did in the past ten years.
• Order Of The Stick raised one million dollars on Kickstarter, a record for the site. The funds will put out-of-print comic books back into print, but James wants to know: why can’t Joss Whedon use Kickstarter to bring back Firefly?
• Ubuntu for Android turns you phone into a computer. All you need to do is plug in a monitor, mouse and keyboard and your phone is not a desktop system. Hopefully this will be for sale on a phone soon.
• Google hopes to release Android powered glasses this year. Text will overlay your reality, letting you know what’s going on. Look at a building; be told what’s in it.
• A particularly amazing episode of This American Life outlines what happens in Apple’s Foxconn factories. We briefly discuss it.

This week: James tries out Apple’s new Messages program for the desktop, letting him send free SMS messages from his computer. Justin plays with the latest XBMC beta, which is shaping up to be the ultimate media center software. And Dave likes to digitally beat people up, so he talks about UFC Undisputed 3.

And, of course, the headlines:

• Details about Apple’s upcoming operating system surfaced this week, and the order of the day seems to be making OS X more iOS-like. Is this the beginning of the end or a new revolution in computing?
• For the past three business quarters people between the age of 12 and 34, a coveted group for advertisers, have been watching less TV. Social networks, video games and online videos are carving into television’s precious profits.
• Did you know people still watch music videos? Us neither, but they do, and Vevo is a company that helps people watch them without pirating. But apparently they’re not above pirating football games…

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New youtube links – had to split them up into 3 separate videos.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

This week: James finally starts playing the latest Modern Warfare, a game Dave can’t seem to find anything good to say about. He does seem to like Assassain’s Creed Revelations, though. James also tries out Evi, a Siri-like assistant you can use on older iPhones and Android devices. Justin uses TextDropApp to edit text documents directly from his Dropbox.

And, as always, the headlines:

• Goodbye Start Button: in the latest beta of Windows 8, the last before the the consumer preview, the start button is gone.
• Imagine if your security camera became a webcam, viewable to anyone online. That’s what happened last week to over 50,000 security cameras sold by Trendnet, exposing at least one naked Dane doing pushups and more than a few sleeping children to the web. The company’s slogan: “Networks people trust.”
• Hackers affiliated with Anonymous released the source code to PC Anywhere and Norton Antivirus this week, after allegedly trying to hold the code hostage to an Symantec employee. The problem: the supposed employee was an undercover agent.
• Here’s a question: does porn promote scientific progress or constitute useful art? A court may need to decide this soon.
• Tunecore, a site that helps musicians distribute music on a variety of online platforms, paid $10,000 to musicians in two months with income completely from iTunes match service. It’s a start.
• This amazingly tone-deaf editorial proves that media representatives don’t understand the Internet.

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Justin plays with Walk Score, a tool that lets you know how easy it is to live without a car at a given address. We compare our neighborhoods and agree that where Dave lives kind of sucks.

Dave continues to hack his iPhone 4S. James accuses him of Android envy; Justin falls asleep.

And, of course, the headlines:

• British teenagers denied entry to America because of their tweets. We try get James blocked too.
• PCIPA: Worse Than SOPA. Cops won’t need a warrant to see your internet activity if this bill passes.
• Bulgaria stops ACTA from passing in Europe.
• What do Neil Young and Angry Birds have in common? And why doesn’t James know who Neil Young is?
• Anonymous leaks a conversation between the FBI and Scotland Yard. Justin wonders why this was recorded and emailed in the first place…

Dave, in his never-ending quest to finally find a friend, hacks Siri to add a conversation mode. Find how how he did this, and how he added Tweeting and various other features to Apple’s famous phone AI. He even makes her swear for you, because he cares about his listeners (and because James told him to.)

James, our corporate sell out, drank Microsoft’s champagne and proceeds to promote Skydrive to our dozen of listeners. Is Microsoft’s cloud service worth checking out for an Apple fanboy?

Justin uses BlockedInChina.net and finds out his rarely-updated personal blog is blocked in the People’s Republic. Why?

And, of course, no podcast is complete without the week’s headlines.

Top story this week: MEGANEWS. Infamous file sharing site Megaupload was taken down two weeks ago, and James thinks he knows the real reason. Hint: it involves a previously-upcoming music service that gave a generous cut to artists and nothing to record labels.

ACTA, SOPA and other acronyms out to destroy the Internet. James points out that the Anti-Coutnerfeiting Trade Agreement is in many ways worse than SOPA, but isn’t attracting anywhere near the same press. What’s going on?

Coming To The Pirate Bay: Real Stuff. Will we be downloading and printing pirated versions of sneakers in the future? The Pirate Bay thinks so. Naturally, we take the opportunity to talk about using Star Trek’s replicator to make whiskey.

Twitter Announces a Cool New Feature: Censorship! The famously free-flowing social network will block particular tweets and users in selected countries. Could $300 million in Saudi investment have anything to do with this? Probably not, but implying so gets your attention.

And, finally, Nintendo is thinking of changing the name of the Wii U. This story is supposed to be brief, but Justin is so excited to talk about video games he knows that that it ends up taking too long. Dave helps; James gets angry.

• James harps on about how good Netflix is (and how it combats piracy)
• Dave introduce another useless app in the form of Ski Tracks
• Justin has your back with Redo Backup and Restore live-cd

Note: I’m wrong apparently. We have lobbying in the UK too, but things are changing to make it more transparent. It’s still the most ridiculous legalised form of corruption ever.

In the news section this week: Google adds nonsense to it’s search results; the government hires people to check twitter; Netflix comes to the UK, but James isn’t too sure about it yet; and Microsoft is being a dick by disallowing any other OS on ARM based Windows 8 tablets.

As ever, links can be followed by clicking the embedded artwork in the iTunes feed.

Enjoy~

James and Dave spend a good portion of the show talking about Skyrim while Justin sits sadly in the corner and plays with his Wii. Of course, we dabble in some useful applications and discuss the latest weird news from the tech world.

Check out some of the Apps we talk about on the show:

Google Music

Surfon

Vidque

Skyrim

Check out some links to the news stories we talk about:

Also, now that we officially legit, whatever that means, please please support us and help our listener base grow in any way you can – those little share buttons on the bottom of the blog posts would be a great start.

Technophilia Episode 2

Note: This is NOT an official makeuseof.com podcast – it just happens that we’re all writers there. Though we may refer to our own and others MakeUseOf articles, the views and opinions expressed within this podcast are in no way representative of MakeUseOf AT ALL

THERE IS SOME NSFW LANGUAGE USED IN THE PODCAST. Please don’t listen if adult words are likely to offend you.

You can subscribe to the podcast using iTunes.

We would very much appreciate feedback on this, but please remember it’s our first ever attempt at podcasting (for some of us anyway – Dave is quite famous already apparently, but you wouldn’t think it to look at him…)

Who are we?

James Bruce – the quiet British one. Looks after the MakeUseOf website everday

Dave LeClair – the one who talks a lot.

Justin Pot – the voice of reason.