ORIGINALLY AIRED: 1/28/2005
JibJab, Nerdy Cookbooks, Mobcasting
Episode #5016
| Narrow Vision: Do MGM’s widescreen DVDs give you the full picture? Maybe, maybe not. But the geeks at Slashdot have their panties in a wad.
Candid Camera: Witness strange moments captured in Amazon’s moblog-style Yellow Pages and tagged by Flickr. And while you’re at it, check out this collaborative Flickr Image at KrazyDad.com. Walking-Stick Fu: Learn Old Timey self-defense moves utilizing your handy walking stick. |
| JibJab.com became an instant household name during the 2004 election season when the website's cartoon “This Land” became a must-see online event. JibJab co-founders and brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis came by to talk about life after 80 million views.
“Our evil empire has doubled in size from 2 to 4!” Evan proudly declared. But “This Land” was certainly not the brothers’ first cartoon. (Greg writes, Evan animates.) In fact, they had been at it for quite a while before their overnight success. “We had been doing this since 1999, and we had 250,000 people on our newsletter,” said Greg. "When this land hit, we were surprised as anyone. We felt good about it but had no expectations whatsoever.” The JibJab.com servers “melted down” and they received about 30,000 emails when word of mouth spread news of "This Land." Since then, they’ve branched out into merchandise like DVDs, children’s books, and most recently a series of introductory shorts for the Sundance Film Festival. (Be sure to hit their blog to stay abreast of JibJab news.) The brothers also tackled politics again with their inauguration-timed “Second Term.” “We wanted people to know we were out there beyond the 2004 election, and the inaugural was a great topic for us – a second term agenda,” Greg said. For their next cartoon, they’ll “probably spread out into pop culture.” |
| Kevin P. demonstrated the ease of “mobcasting.” Mobcasting is a mobile Podcast – sending out an audible Podcast via your Web-enabled cell phone and a free account with Audlink.com.
So here's what you do: just call up Audlink.com, type in your account number, then the password, and start recording your mobcast entry at the sound of the beep. Audlink.com will take the message you leave and convert it into a low bit-rate MP3. Now that you've recorded something, all you have to do is browse to the Audlink website. Then pull up your personal folder, copy the MP3 link, and then post said URL to your blog. What if you don't have a smartphone with Web-browsing capability? Don't worry, there's a good chance Audlink can update your blog for you automatically! If you use Blogger, B2, Journal Space, Live Journal, Nucleus or even Moveable Type, you're in luck. Get step by step instructions at AndyCarvin.com. You can also hear Kevin P.’s mobcast by pasting in g4techtv.com/podcast.xml into your Podcast software. And don't forget about our User Created challenge and submit your own Podcast. |
| Chi-Lan dared to cook some of the recipes from her collection of weird cookbooks. Here’s what she prepared in our TSS kitchens:
“Cooking up crazy things got you excited? Well, if you’re interested in starting a cornucopia of culinary tomes, here are the ones I showed on the show. Many of them are out of print, but boy are they funny!” Star Trek Cookbook Dining On Babylon 5 Can You Take the Heat? The WF is Cooking! Really Rotten Recipes The Dracula Cookbook “What I love about Gagh (Klingon worms) is that it was food created as a prop, but since the actors had to eat it, the propmasters had to make it decently delectable. For the worms to squirm, the propguy made the noodles squirm using a wire coat hanger. Creep out your buddies with the recipes listed below.” From The Star Trek Cookbook: (Cooking times weren’t tested before writing, but the book is good anyhow. Enjoy!) Gagh Prepare the noodles per the package instructions, replacing one-half the water with the soy sauce. Chill. Then stir through quarter-cup soy sauce and sesame salad dressing. Add Karo syrup and stir through to satisfy your own sense of color and taste, and there you have it: gagh! Klingon Heart of Targ 1 loaf crusty Italian white bread Preheat oven to 350 degrees. After tomatoes have been sliced in half and laid out cut-side up on a flat, lightly oiled baking tray, mix the garlic cloves with the olive oil and stir. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes. Split the bread in half lengthwise. Spoon the olive oil-garlic mixture over the tomatoes (at least 1 tablespoon or more per tomato) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake the tomatoes on the upper oven shelf for 15-20 minutes, until they are completely roasted-almost unrecognizable as tomatoes-and have the consistency of jam. Then sprinkle them with chopped basil. At the same time bake the bread until it’s hot and toasted, but not brunt. Remove bread from oven, cut into bit-sized chunks, and serve alongside the tomatoes. Let your guest spread the jam-like roasted garlic tomato on individual pieces of bread and sprinkle with ground pepper. Serve with red Italian wine or Klingon bloodwine. Serves six. From Dining on Babylon 5: Orcha Juice |
| Brendan’s visit to Park City, Utah included a stop at the Slamdance Film Festival’s gaming segment, the Big C Bawls Independent Game Competition.
Here are the winners and finalists: Jury Award Winner: Finalists: |
| In tech topics… Bringing the War Home: The MPAA has released “Parent File Scan” software that parents will supposedly use to scan their children’s computers for illegal files or P2P software. Sell the Game, Do the Time: A New Zealand man has convicted for selling banned video games. Criminal Bad Taste: Volkswagen has filed charges against the creator of a fake online VW ad. |
| Joshua from Leominster, Mass. wanted to know how long it takes JibJab to produce a cartoon from start to finish?
Greg and Evan said it takes a couple of weeks of writing, and then about eight weeks of production. |
