Last week, I attended W00tstock 1.1. What is a W00tstock you might ask? Well, if you had clicked the convenient link I added you’d already know but since you asked here’s the description direct from Paul and Storm’s site:

For decades, geeks were ostracized, picked on, laughed at and punished by the sun’s harmful UV rays. But there is only so long that a people can be kept down before they rise up against their oppressors; and, indeed, the dawn of the 21st century has seen the ascendancy of geeks and geek culture.

We now celebrate that rise to power–and let’s face it, nerds pretty much run everything now–with w00tstock, a special event for geeks of every stripe. Television host/special-effects artist Adam Savage (”MythBusters”), actor/author/blogger Wil Wheaton (”Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Stand By Me”) and music-comedy duo Paul and Storm (hey; that’s us!) present a night of songs, readings, comedy, demonstrations, short films, special guests, and other clever widgets born from and dedicated to the enthusiasms, obsessions, trials and joys of geek pride.

It was the brainchild of Paul and Storm, who wanted to do some west coast shows but weren’t sure they’d draw a big enough crowd on their own. So they got Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage to join them and planned three initial shows; two in San Fransico and one in LA. Each one had special guests, in LA it was: Hard and Phirm, Molly Lewis, Felicia Day, Jeff Lewis, and Sandeep Parikh. There was also a hilarious video from RiffTraxs and a few short “Moment with Wil” skits.

It was a great time. For me the real highlights were Wil’s reading of “The Trade” from his book Just a Geek with musical accompaniment by Paul and Storm; the acoustic performance of “Do you Want to Date my Avatar” and The finale of Paul and Storm’s pirate song which was a free for all of geeky pirate jokes.

There were a few ‘technical difficulties’ along the way including mic stands all over the place, broken mics, crooked projectors but they did detract from the show. If anything it made it more entertaining, you could tell it wasn’t something they had rehearsed hundreds of times and were regurgitating.  Everyone was having fun even the performers.

Lucky for you, there will be more W00tstock in the future, there’s not official dates or cities yet but if you demand it, they might, possibly, maybe come. Also, should you be so inclined w00tstock 1.1 live at the Largo available online here. (Thanks to @Jules_Party934 for the link). I highly recommend it.

View all w00tstock tour dates

Today, the Zune HD was unleashed upon the world. It’s a slick device with a 3.3 inch touchscreen, a nVidia Tegra powered CPU/GPU, HD radio, 720p video output, Wi-Fi, a web browser, and app support.

The Zune HD, pretty ain't it?

Most importantly, it also adds smart DJ which is an auto generated playlists that can be created based on a song, an artist or multiple artists. The neat thing about smart DJ is that if you also subscribe to a Zune pass it will download similar artists and include them in the playlists. Apple did something similar with Genius playlists and they’re only part of iTunes I like. Enough that despite it’s many many flaws iTunes is my mp3 software of choice in OSX.

Ever since I picked up my refurb Zune 30 off woot.com two years ago, I’ve been a huge fan. Sure, the hardware is bulky, and it lacks a fancy scroll wheel but the UI is awesome and the software just keeps getting better and better. Microsoft has done an amazing job releasing updates and new features over the past two years. Sadly, with the release of the Zune HD that Zune 8, 30, and 120 support is at an end but Microsoft seems set to provide the same stellar support for the Zune HD and it’s future siblings.

Curious, when I went over to Best Buy this afternoon to pick up Scribblenauts (which was sold out) I took a look at Zune HD. The demo units weren’t fully functional, they didn’t have any music loaded and it looked as if they hadn’t fully set them up yet. Comparisons to the iPod touch are inevitable and the Zune HD is a smaller more focused device. There’s app support but it’s clearly a secondary feature and kept in a submenu off the main screen. The hardware has vastly improved and the device is much smaller than I expected. The UI is the same sweetness that I love in my current Zune but more touchy. The animations were quick and multi-touch seems to work just as well as the iPod Touch. After seeing it I’ve got total gadget lust, if there were physical control buttons on the device I probably would have bought it on the spot.

Really the Zune HD has just about everything I could ask for in an mp3 player except buttons. I’ve got an iPhone and it’s an amazing multipurpose device, okay phone and a crappy mp3 player. My normal usage phone and internet tends to drain the battery in a day. Adding in two or three hours of mp3 usage on a plane is only going to make that worse. Also, the lack of physical buttons means I constantly have to be looking at the screen to play/pause and switch songs. While it’s only slightly annoying at work, it’s a huge a pain in the ass when I’m driving on the highway.

As it stands right now, I’m on the fence. On the one hand, my trusty Zune is starting to show some wear and the Zune HD is a wicked device and a superb evolution on the design. On the other hand, the idea do fumbling around with it in a car isn’t appealing especially based on my previous experience with the iPhone.

via @mc_frontalot

For the second time now, Hulu has admitted that they are blocking third party applications from accessing the service because the content holders told them too. Previously it was Boxee, this time it’s the PS3.

There’s a lot of backlash from various people on the internet. Many of them with some really well thought out comments on the subject like “Hulu should grow a pair”.  Now I do understand the point they’re trying to make, however ineloquently, but I can’t completely agree with it.

On the one hand, Boxee and the PS3 aren’t doing anything wrong. They’re just making the Hulu experience better for users. The same users who made Hulu so popular in the first place. These users win because they get more convenient access to an already great service. Even, Hulu seem to benefit because it gets to serve more ads to more people, making them more money.

Of course, even a great service like Hulu isn’t going to be very useful if it hasn’t got any content. Sure, right now, Hulu is my go to source for watching television. (Except for LOST on ABC, which should be rectified before this coming season.) But, if the people who own all those TV shows that make Hulu so popular disappear then they’re losing the users, including me. Basically, Hulu is forced to say “How high?” when the content owners say jump. Hulu can’t survive without them and while it’s in the best interest of the content owners to support Hulu they can get by without them.

That’s what happened to Joost. I signed up for the beta checked it out, realized it was a sweet piece of software and had tons of potential. Then never used it again because there weren’t enough shows worth watching. I don’t care how well the technology works if they don’t have anything worth watching I’m not going to use it.

So sure, the user complaints are justified but Hulu really doesn’t have a choice in the matter. Who knows maybe all the complaining will convince the content holders that people actually want to watch their shows. The they’ll change their evil ways and everyone, on any system, can have their brains turned into goo.