Show Notes from the WHO Radio Wise Guys

The WHO Radio Wise Guys
Brian Gongol

The WHO Radio Wise Guys airs on WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa on 1040 AM or streaming online at WHORadio.com. The show airs from 1 to 2 pm Central Time on Saturday afternoons. A podcast of show highlights is also available. Leave comments and questions on the Wise Guys Facebook page or e-mail them to wiseguys@whoradio.com.

We tried an experiment using Google Talk to run our show today, with mixed results. Its video and audio chat services seem promising, but were only mixed for reliability during our test.

Somebody has been sending netbooks to the governors of some of the states. It could be an attempted security breach or just a weak attempt at a publicity stunt. Either way, we hope nobody has fallen for it -- all it would take for a huge security breach is for a computer preloaded with a well-crafted virus to be added to a secure network at a statehouse somewhere. That would actually be a literal execution of a Trojan horse attack.

This reminds us of a social experiment from some time ago in which people on the street were handed CDs preloaded with software to find out how many of them would install software they never asked for from a stranger. It turned out that a lot of people did.

A Microsoft ad in Poland apparently used a Photoshopped version of a similar ad from America - but with a white face pasted on a black person's body. It's hard to believe that in the age of Obama anyone -- even from a country like Poland, which is almost 100% white -- could think that such an editing job serves any useful purpose. It's not just offensive to American sensibilities, it's really just plain pointless.

According to a little bit of back-door research, hackers are unusually likely to use the Opera browser when surfing the Internet on their own. Why? Most likely to keep from getting hacked themselves. Opera isn't very widely used, so it isn't frequently targeted for attack. Hackers know this and use that knowledge to protect themselves.

The iPhone is coming to China and the French are claiming their iPhones are spontaneously combusting. And a New Yorker says his cell phone is turning on his oven. And to think, just a decade or two ago, a cell phone was practically a status symbol here in America.

Microsoft is now incentivizing app development for its Zune media player. Despite being more fully-featured than comparable iPods, Zunes just haven't been big winners in the media-player market. One thing we'd like to know is why Apple hasn't put a radio receiver in the iPod. Zunes and Sansas have them, even in the lowest ranges. But then again, we're biased.

Dan has an old-style engine diagnostic tool, but Brian really wants to get the newer electronic tool for engine diagnostics. It seems like that might give a person some leverage with the mechanic.