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Geekadelpia Podcast: Episode 4, Operation Nice

On this month’s episode of the Geekadelphia Podcast Jo and Dan sit down with Melissa from Operation Nice to explore her pursuit for niceness everywhere. We also talk about some up coming events in Philadelphia, and how we’re excited for this year’s Geek Awards.

You can also right click and save as the file, here. Listen to it on the go, while you’re jogging, whatever. Enjoy!

Operation Nice
www.operationnice.com

Follow Jo Pincushion @JoPincushion
Follow Dan Tabor @danthefan

Smartphone App Makes It Easier To Locate Liquor In PA

As most Pennsylvania residents know, the Liquor Control Board has executed firm ownership over the state’s alcohol dissemination ever since the end of Prohibition – a time period from which the Board often seems a relic. But, last month, the LCB made a concerted effort to modernize and join the digital age by getting onboard with a popular new technology: the smartphone app.

That’s right – a new free application, titled Fine Wine & Good Spirits, was released by the LCB at the end of February. The app provides searchable databases of alcohol and alcohol stores, a feature that allows people to search out nearby locales, shop for wines online, and get more information about a beverage in which they have interest. There are currently about 40,000 products included in the application.

When accessing the app a user is provided with four options. He can either (1) shop online, (2) locate the nearest LCB store, (3) scan a bottle in his possession and get more information, or (4) browse items that are currently on sale. While there are several other apps that provide alcohol-locating features, none offer Pennsylvania residents with the same breadth of information.

There are a couple great uses for this app. First, let’s say you’re out on a date and your significant other has enjoyed a bottle of wine that the two of you have just consumed. At this point you can whip out your smartphone, scan the empty bottle, and then immediately learn where the closest store has that item on sale. You can also learn more about the wine in case you decide instead to try something new but similar while still at the restaurant.

Secondly, the app can also be useful in a more professional setting. Assume, for example, that you are conference calling with a client using something along the lines of MegaPath VoIP services. If the client is coming to town and needs a recommendation, gets upset and requires a bottle of wine to patch things over, or simply aggravates you to the point that you’re going to need some self-medication, you can simply glance down momentarily from the hosted pbx and insure that a bottle will shortly be arriving at your door – or at the door of your client. It’s almost too easy.

Fine Wine & Good Spirits can be downloaded free from the Apple and Android app stores, as well as at FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com.

Geekadelphia Podcast: Meet Tony Trov & Johnny Zito of South Fellini

On this month’s episode of the Geekadelphia Podcast Jo and Dan tackle some Oscar nominations, and sit down with Tony Trov and Johnny Zito of South Fellini.

For a direct download of the podcast, right click and save as this file.

The 2012 Oscars:
oscar.go.com

South Fellini:
www.southfellini.com
www.twitter.com/SOUTHfellini
alphagirlsmovie.tumblr.com

Reel 9 Productions:
www.reel9productions.com

Theme Music by Chipocrite:
www.chipocrite.com

Follow Jo Pincushion: @jopincushion
Follow Dan: @danthefan

Geekadelphia Podcast: Episode 1

Episode 1 launches the Podcast with a bang. Dan and Jo tell you what the podcast is all about and break down some of their favorite things about 2011. They also sit down with Geekadelphia founder Eric Smith to get to know how the blog got started and what he’s up to outside the world of Geekadelphia.

You can listen to the podcast episode over at Libsyn, here. And for a direct download, click here.

Theme music was written by Chipocrite. Check out his website at www.chipocrite.com.

Students & Their Belonging: Gadgets & Contents Insurance

Students love gadgets, however gadgets come at a price and, if you don’t take out cover to protect these belongings, you may find them difficult to replace if anything were to happen to them.

That is why getting good contents insurance is a must and shouldn’t be bypassed at any cost, as otherwise you will have to foot the bill for any stolen or damaged goods.

Many think that insuring their contents is an expense they (more…)

Q&A w/ Azita Ghanizada, Star of the New Syfy Series ALPHAS

Guest Post by Chris Braak

I sat down with Azita Ghanizada, to talk to her about her upcoming television show Alphas–premiering on SyFy this Summer.

Tell me about the new project.

Alphas is a new series created by Zak Penn and Michael Karnow. Zak was one of the writers on a couple of the X-Men movies, on The Incredible Hulk and The Avengers. The show basically follows a band of ordinary individuals with extraordinary abilities, who use their abilities to solve X-files type crimes, and the group is overseen by a non-alpha, who is played by David Strathairn who is a tremendous actor.

Can you tell me a little about your character?

Rachel is a young girl who has the ability to hyperintensify all of her senses and she has the ability to delineate them. So, she goes into these kind of trances and if she needs to use her super-sonic sound, she can sharpen that one sense and sort of loses touch with her other senses.

Is it just the regular five senses, or does she have, like, super-kinesthetic awareness, too?

Oh, no not like that. Not yet. Right now it’s just the regular five. At this stage were just kind of discovering the various basic abilities that these alphas have. Like one has the ability to push people, and one has this super fight or flight, like he can become super aggressive and move cars and throw people off of buildings.

So, how did they get these powers? How did they come about?

They’ve always had them. They were born with them. These people have just been burdened with these abilities, they’re just something that they’ve discovered at an early age. It’s affected them from an early age and it’s shaped who they are since childhood, and some of them suffer these extreme anxieties and depression, and that’s why this doctor is there to nurture both their superhuman and their human aspects.

Now. I must ask you a question about Philadelphia. So. What do you think about Philadelphia?

I spent every summer in Philadelphia when I was younger. My closest cousin grew up in Philadelphia at the time, and we would come and visit them for a few weeks in the summers, and they would come and visit us for a few weeks in the suburbs of Washington, DC. This was in the mid-80s, and my cousins were in North Philly, and there were a lot of fun neighborhoods, up around Aramingo Avenue. I definitely learned to play stickball and get Italian ice, so those are fondest memories of Philadelphia, Also seeing sneakers that they’ve thrown up on the wires.

Is that not a thing that happens in other cities?

No, in other cities they definitely do not rob you and throw your shoes over the power lines.

NBA 2K11: A Review in Real Life

Guest Post by Sean Blanda of Technically Philly

After receiving our copy of NBA 2K11, I arrived in my house to see my roommate, Chris Wink, jamming away at the controller.

“So, I ‘m pretty sure the X button is shoot,” he said.

And that’s about details our experience with basketball games. Aside from NBA Jam, neither of us are really into hoops games. I usually prefer the overpriced Madden, while Wink prefers reciting his basketball knowledge which was frozen in time in 1995.

So, consider us a clean slate.

Jordan

The funny thing about the 90′s was Michael Jordan had a habit of ruining basketball video games.

Thanks to a special listening deal during his playing days, Jordan was left out of basketball games, replaced by a generic fake-named player disappointing many a Super Nintendo-wielding teenager.

Which, from the jump, makes NBA2K11 one of the most authentic basketball games of all time due to the fact that they, you know, acknowledge the greatest player ever.

… just like in real life.

More after the jump!

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Kia Soul Collective: Sometimes We Dance

Guest Post & Photography by Alexis Lerro

Here at Geekadelphia we aren’t necessarily know for our dancing skills… well, unless you’re talking about DDR. Contrary to what you might think, some of us have been know to cut a rug and enjoy the occasional dance beat, which we did last night at the 23rd Street Armory thanks to Kia. In town for four days promoting their newest car the Soul, Kia hosted the jump off fete last night. We got to mingle, test drive the cars, get our photos taken with robots and hear some fantastic sets by DJ Paul Devro–all before Portland-based Yacht took the stage (and floor) to blow our minds with their performance-art-y / inspirational speaker-ish brand of electronic music for one of the best shows we’d seen.

In case you missed it, you have three more days to check out the event. There are more performances tonight, tomorrow and Sunday by the likes of Popo, Amanda Blank, The Drums, Francis and Lights and MGMT, plus deejay sets by Sammy Slice, Nick the V, Dirty South Joe, DJ Sega and Dave P.

Thanks to Kia for inviting us to this event, and letting us show Philly that even geeks know how to party. It was a blast.

Scope out some more photos from the event here, on Flickr.

Las Vegas Rehab on TruTV

TruTV is home to a handful of surprisingly decent reality shows. Black Gold, a show that centers around oil drilling crews in Texas, Worlds Wildest Vacation Videos, which features plenty of Shark-Week Worthy footage, and The Smoking Gun Presents, a video-commentary show that pokes fun a dumb criminals, thieves, wanna-be daredevils, and obnoxious party goers, are three particular highlights of the network’s programing.

And the network’s website, well, in many cases, the content there is just as good. With Top 10 lists galore that regularly find themselves on Digg, there’s always something interesting to read when you’re taking a quick break at work.

Another one of their programs, Rehab, recently debuted its second season earlier this month. The show takes you behind the scenes at Rehab, a party that claims to be the wildest bash in the city of Las Vegas. What makes this the hottest party in town? It probably has a lot to do with the celebrities, the insanely attractive women running around in skimpy bathing suits, and the alcohol that never seems to stop flowing. You can learn all about the party on their official website, or better yet, get an inside look at the program here.

Learn more about TruTV’s Rehab, and how to win a trip to Las Vegas, after the jump!

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