GeekNights with Rym + Scott

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss data centers. Once as positive thing, they have become a blight on the Earth in the ever-growing wake of the AI bubble. Rym and Emily are back from Cedar Point and will have a couple of special episodes about it in the near future, and also have a secret VR project that's slightly less secret than it was before. In the news, the AI slop factory wants help flagging AI slop, and ZGM is an open source gaming mouse firmware.

Related LinksForum Thread* Scams

Things of the Day* Rym - Nothing's Working Out - Waluigi * Scott - Puzzmo

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the the idea of remote access. In the news, here's a list of all the tech layoffs so far in 2023, and Twitch changes its simulcasting guidelines.

Related LinksForum Thread* Remote Access

Things of the Day* Rym - Star Trek + Design * Scott - Homeward

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Tonight on GeekNights we are back with a new web site! In the news, there is tragic war in Israel and Palestine, the House is paralyzed by Republican incompetence, Twitter has destroyed itself in a way that requires us to invoke the "Jack Thompson Rule," and Apple makes a minor change to podcast downloads.

Related LinksForum Thread* GeekNights Thursday - Back with a New Web Site

Things of the Day* Rym - Bohemian Rhapsody in 9 different scales * Scott - Castlevania Speedrunners Discover Nuclear Fusion

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the Warwick Applefest. If we can review a concert or a convention, we can review a small town apple festival. In the news, America has yet another political crisis as Republicans oust their own Speaker of the House while engaging in extreme pettiness, and there is a "crisis" in ticket reselling arbitrage after people aren't that interested in seeing Travis Scott live for some reason.Related LinksForum Thread* The Warwick Applefest

Things of the Day* Rym - Speed Racers VEHICLE of VIOLENCE * Scott - Classic Video Poker

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Counter-Strike 2. We have been playing some form of Counter-Strike since 2000... We reviewed Counter-Strike in 2006 and Counter-Strike GO in 2012. In news that is as little as it is late, Unity backs down on much of their new monetization model, Epic lays off 16% of its staff, and Scott GeekBites Heretic's Fork.Related LinksForum Thread* Counter-Strike 2

Things of the Day* Rym - oo ee oo * Scott - One Revolution Per Minute

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review The Janelle Monáe Age of Pleasure Tour which we saw at Radio City Music Hall. It's a hell of a show and you must go to it if you can. In the news, "Detroit Pizza Kitchen" is a lie, the Nikon Z f cometh, the WGA lifts its strike with a huge victory, and the evil companies lose their bid to block a minimum wage for delivery workers in New York.Related LinksThings of the Day* Rym - What That Famous Gorilla Suit Study Didn’t See * Scott - Paulie B

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the current state of search engines and why Google increasingly doesn't work anymore. In the news, iOS has multiple zero-day zero-interaction vulnerabilities (update your devices immediately) and Reddit is trying to embrace the worst parts of phpBB. 12 years ago we gave two short talks about how game mechanics (and UX design) literally make the communities that use them.Related LinksForum Thread* Search Engines (suck now)

Things of the Day* Rym - Imaginary Numbers Are Real * Scott - The best hockey goal in the history of Australia

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review and discuss PAX West 2023. The new venue is fantastic and it felt a lot like PAXes from the golden age of PAX. In the news, Scott suffered Airport Adventures yet made it to Chicaco, Steam (and our Steam accounts) are 20 years old, and the Unity game engine destroys itself with an actively hostile monetization model that is somehow worse than we expected from their 2022 merger with evil.

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Tonight on GeekNights, in light of Twitter's dying husk removing the ability to block people, we consider the concept of "blocking" in social platforms. The root problem is, as always, the twin evils of advertising and capitalism. In the news, the inability to warn the residents of Maui to the rapidly escalating wildfires requires significant government technology investment, and Dolby Atmos FlexConnect might prove interesting for home theatre setups.

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Tonight on GeekNights, having somehow never talked about Quake (except for Quake Live in 2009, we discuss Quake 2 and the Quake 2 Remaster. In the news, the Atari 7800 is back legit, Charles Martinet is moving on, and Marvel Snap is paying people to watch Twitch streams with .pngs in their app.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the concept of Halls of Fame. In the news, the ravages of climate change have caused an ongoing crisis in Hawaii, and the fascists lost an election in Ohio,

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review PitchCar (1995). It's a flicking game. It's a sport. It's pretty fun. In the news, a livestreamer guy caused a riot in New York for which he is facing charges, Gen Con continues to live up to its reputation with a disaster over unmanaged Lorcana lines (remember Lorcana is the subject of a lawsuit from Upper Deck) and some extremely identifiable nerds who stole $300k worth of collectible cards from the floor.

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Tonight on the GeekNights Book Club, we discuss This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. It's short and worth a read, but it's not going to blow your mind like some people on the Internet are saying (unless you haven't read much science fiction). A little Singularity, a little Instrumentality, and a story told partially as an epistolary.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss when, how, and if you should upgrade your technology. From phones to cameras to TVs to skis, it comes mostly down to what problem you're trying to solve. In the news, Web Environment Integrity is a potentially worrying but not yet apocalyptic threat to the World Wide Web, the BBC has launched its own journalism Mastodon, and the US has a new nuclear reactor.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review two games by the legendary Sid Sackson: Can't Stop (1980) and All My Diamonds (1969). They're both worth playing, but for different reasons. In the news, Overwatch League is in deep trouble along with much of the global esports ecosystem.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the surprising challenges of throttling and rate limiting. In the news, Twitter rate-limiting reading twitter and broke Tweetdeck while also blocking non-logged-in views , Norway has 100 years of phosphate rock deposits, and the US Supreme Court is wholly illegitimate.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss worker placement as a game mechanic. We intend to turn this into a series of shows and panels following on from Mastering Game Mechanics as presented at PAX East 2013. In the news, Marvel Snap's Conquest mode is fantastic, and Valve is dropping Battle Passes for Dota 2 because "nobody buys them."

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the food that is served on airplanes and in airports. You're trapped there, and they know it. In the news, Donald Trump is arrested again, and the Boomers are dying out but somehow Henry Kissinger is still alive.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. It might be the best cinematic animation ever made. It's the longest animated film every produced by an American studio at 140 minutes. It's a classic for all time. Everyone should watch it immediately. You will never see Rym and Scott this giddy about anything. That aberration alone warrants that you must watch this film as soon as possible.In the news, the American northeast is a dangerous hellscape currently, Hayao Miyazaki's "How Do You Live" hits theaters July 14th and there will be no trailer, and Image Comics leaves Diamond Distributors.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we briefly consider when and why to adopt a new technology. In the news, Apple WWDC 2023 brings a $3,500 AR/VR headset in 2024 (we've talked about AR (Augmented Reality) before), and Reddit is pulling a Twitter and possibly destroying the best third party app it has.

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Tonight on the GeekNights Book Club, we discuss Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. Steeped in allegory and endlessly interpreted, it is a fantastic book that is well worth your read.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It's one of the best pieces of entertainment software ever made. 11/10. S-Tier. A case study in good game design. Just go play it if you aren't already. In the news, Overwatch 2 is banning 5,000 cheaters a week, Street Fighter 6's control modes are looking pretty good, and Wizards of the Coast called the Pinkertons on a youtuber.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Makoto Shinkai's 2022 film Suzume (すずめの戸締まり). It's a road trip movie about shared and distant trauma. And a chair. In the news, The Owl House stuck the landing and Shin Kamen Rider is screening in the US!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we talk about the noise that computers make. It used to be a lot worse, but most of you are probably too young to have experienced this era. In the news, Rym went to a Star Trek convention, Google supports passkeys, actually read this article and not just the headline, and Rym is running in the New York Marathon in November!

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Tonight on GeekNights we talk about GeekNights. Particularly, GeekNights Wednesdays. It's the odd duck of the show, focused not just entirely on the passive consumption of media, but constrained to specific types of media. A meta show! In the news, the Venture Brothers Movie is coming, the original Ken Sugimori Pokemon artwork is on the Internet, Makoto Shinkai's Suzume is in theaters, and there is some important meta information about this movie.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Magic and illusions. In the news, Rangers, and America's openly fascist "news" network FOX admits they lied about voter fraud.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider lore in games. You know, all that text you didn't read in the tooltips of the inventory. Or what characters told you in Half Life while you tried to clip out of the room. In the news, the Rangers begin their first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is a real game, SGDQ 2023 is imminent, and Ingress is getting a Monster Hunter skin.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider computer fonts. In the news, the world lost a legend with the passing of Al Jaffee, why "trucks" have taken over America, and Mac sales are down 40%.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Colosseums, Stadiums, and Arenas. In the news, the NHL Playoffs are imminent, Republicans in the state of Tennessee are going mask-off fascist in the (breaking) expulsion of Democrats from the chamber. Rep. Pearson had poignant words that you should watch and listen to.

In at least some lighter news, there are actually a lot of good movies coming up. Some that we might even go see.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Muneyuki Yokouchi's fantastic Cat in the Box. This is an S-tier trick taking game. A must-own. It takes about two minutes to teach (three if the player is unfamiliar with trick taking games) and we've had a blast with it so far.

In the news, the world is safer today as Finland formally joins NATO, a Florida man is indicted for fraud, Klaus Teuber, the designer of the timeless classic Settlers of Catan, has passed away at age 70, and the new D&D movie might be good.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the immense challenge of archiving the Internet. This is a critical era of human history, and historians centuries from now will be desperate to know things we all think are "common knowledge" today. In the news, the Internet Archive flew too close to the sun, the emerging geopolitical blocs will likely end TikTok in America, and Nvidia (correctly) says cryptocurrencies do not "bring anything useful for society"

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Stacklands (2022). In the news, Counter-Strike 2 is likely coming, Disco Elysium gets a collage mode, and DPReview falls victim to Amazon layoffs and capitalism.

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Tonight on GeekNights we review the 2023 animated series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. The animation and style are fantastic, and if you have or know kids this is a show for them! In the news, Rym bought a new wallet, don't watch any more Made in Abyss, the NHL did a cool telemetry-driven hockey broadcast, and Ghibli Fest 2023 is on!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider what to do about E-Waste and worthless old technology. Old cables, old smartphones, 500MB hard drives, and the like. It's OK to get rid of it (and you probably should), but don't just throw it in the garbage unless you're a bad person. In the news, new open gangway subway cars debut on the A train in New York, and Silicon Valley Bank collapsed.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the technology and ramifications of Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3) and autoregressive language models in general. We further explore other similar machine learning tools and their short and long-term ramifications for humans. In the news, Discord Stages have low bitrate limits, the US Department of Energy concludes with low confidence that COVID-19 emerged from a lab leak in China, the UK wasn't content with ruining its economy with Brexit and is also considering ruining its technology with the Online Safety Bill, and a terrifying toxic new Dust Bowl is descending on Utah.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss gamer furniture of the non-chair variety. In the news, Nintendo adds Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games to Switch Online, Microsoft adds Call of Duty to Nintendo, and Magic: The Gathering adds Lord of the Rings. We also streamed this show live on the Discord Stage in the official GeekNights Discord!

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Tonight on the GeekNights Book Club, we discuss G. Willow Wilson's Alif the Unseen. A magical realism cyberpunk thriller set in the Middle East, it'd definitely worth your read! We enjoyed it, and there's significant interesting allegory about what it means to see (or not see) things, places, and people.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss games that are not fully dead, but are mostly dead. Dance Dance Revolution (at home), the resurrected Netrunner, The Realm, Steel Battalion, and whatever game you're mad we didn't include in this short list just now. In the news, The Last Rockstars have debuted, Rym has a high opinion of the L-TEK EX PRO 2 DDR pad, the Nintendo Direct is tomorrow, and the Nintendo Switch is the third best-selling console of all time.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the 1993 anime movie Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama. It's long, and there are fighter jets. YMMV on this one, but if you enjoy Dynasty Warriors it might be for you. Also Hanuman is OP. In the news, the live-action sequel to Whisper of the Heart will be in theaters February 3. Shin Ultraman is exactly what you'd expect.

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Tonight on GeekNights, Rym is back from his ski trip, so we resume our regularly scheduled shows with a review of online advertising and adtech. In the news, the Department of Justice is seeking to break up Google in some trust busting over online advertising and tech layoffs foretell difficult times ahead.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review BRZRKR from Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt, Ron Garney, and Bill Crabtree. It might hit you like a truck. Also Reaves is really into Wolverine. In the news, the United States House of Representatives is frozen as the Republicans repeatedly fail to elect a Speaker (something so unthinkable it literally hasn't happened in a century), Eurobeat is confirmed for MF Ghost, and Cartoon Saloon is moving forward with Julián!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we talk about everybody's favorite operating system: Microsoft Windows. In the news, Youtube contracts NFL Sunday Ticket, America is subsidizing a road at $1 Billion per mile, and it's 2023.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider animated Christmas specials and special Christmas episodes of animated shows. From Frosty the Snowman to The He-Man & She-Ra special to Claymation Christmas to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, nevermind the classic-for-all-time Charlie Brown Christmas. In the news, the legendary Ichiro Mizuki has passed away, and the new season of the Dragon Prince is... uneven at best. (I hope you like farting elves).

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss the concept of Zero Trust Security. It's a pain, and it's not necessary in all environments, but it's something you should understand. In the news, a company is suing to put profits over preventing harm to children, disgraced former president Donald Trump has been referred for criminal prosecution over his coup attempt, Apple introduces Advanced Data Protection, and Google introduces client-side encryption to paid gmail.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Hanukkah. We've previously talked about Christmas. You're lucky we did a show at all since the Rangers game is about to start. Send your show ideas to the GeekNights Forum. In the news, Rym bought a new devil carriage, Rym cried watching Ted Lasso, and Fusion Power has reached a critical milestone.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider teams. Playing on teams, forming teams, team sports, team games. All that team stuff. In the news, Dwarf Fortress with graphics is here (recall we interviewed Tarn Adams on GeekNights back in 2008), the FTC sues to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Blizzard will need someone new to offer World of Warcraft in China in a story that keeps evolving, and we hope Diablo 4 will let us click until we kill satan.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the 2022 anime TV series Spy×Family. It's a solid regular anime with all the crowdpleasers you could want from an anime club screening circa 2003. In the news, we are back from PAX Unplugged, Saga volume 10 continues the... saga (which we reviewed the beginning of back in 2013), Funimation's acquisition of Crunchyroll continues with SKU changes, Makoto Shinkai's Suzume will be in American theaters April 14th one night only, and Shin Ultraman is in theaters soon!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss Federated Architecture in light of the collapse of Twitter. Federation is how most of the Internet works, and you should understand the ramifications of it before you dive into platforms like Mastodon. From XMPP (formerly Jabber) to ActivityPub, even the nature of an email address, federation is how the Internet was intended to be used. In the news, the FCC has a more accurate broadband map, and the rail unions are (rightly) threatening to strike over intolerable working conditions.

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Tonight on GeekNights, similar to our episode on Indian food, we consider Chinese food including American Chinese food. We're big fans, but we are not experts, so don't expect to learn anything from two white guys in New York. In the news, snow's a-comin', Democrats defied history, and Ticketmaster is as evil now as it was in the 90s.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss comms in games. Text chat, voice chat, open versus restricted, and the like. In the news, Pentiment is available, and Rym is obsessed with Disco Elysium.

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Tonight on GeekNights, in the shadow of Twitter's collapse at the hands of a narcissistic failure of a man, we discuss the best way to protect yourself from the inevitable collapse of every platform: the POSSE model. Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Beetlejuice. The timeless classic movie from 1988, the bizarre animated series, even the musical, loom large (with the possible exception of the latter) in cinema history, and luckily we've never talked about it on GeekNights until now. In the news, late capitalist dystopia attacks the city skyline, late capitalist dystopia attacks the concept of color (making a lot of Adobe users rightfully angry), and Scott's Chair finally broke.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the surprisingly elegant Marvel Snap. Released this year on phones and PCs, it's essentially a flavor of Knizia's Battle Line (2000), itself in a narrow class of similar games of a shared lineage.In the news, Ross Chastain changed the meta in NASCAR with "Some Video Game Shit," Embracer rebranded Square Enix Montréal as Onoma before immediately shutting Onoma down, Dwarf Fotress with Graphics is coming in December, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 disabled Steam Family Sharing, a feature you should probably be using.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we reveal the secrets of How to Not Suck at Smartphone Security. There is a lot of drama that can arise from mishandling your smartphone. Tonight we'll walk you through a simple set of rules that, if you follow them, will nearly guarantee such drama does not befall you.

In the news, KakaoTalk loses millions of users after a massive outage not only cuts people off from their primary means of communication but reveals sensitive personal information related to multiple profiles. This is on the heels of Google taking their cut and has now led to calls for a monopoly probe. Also Leica has a new camera for a lot of money and Scott has written about it in the forum.

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Tonight on the GeekNights Book Club, we review and discuss Binti. Because it was short and also extremely good, we ended up reading and will be discussing the complete trilogy. Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

The first in Nnedi Okorafor's trilogy, it won the Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novella. You know if there's one thing GeekNights is into, it's space universities.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Unknown Worlds' Moonbreaker (2022). It's a turn-based digital miniatures game that shares a lot of lineage with Hearthstone, Magic, and possibly Neuroshima Hex (at least in terms of the net effect of some of its mechanics). It's all right, but it has a lot of issues and remains in early access.In the news, Discord's Watch Together shows you ads and is broken by adblock (and also doesn't actually work very well), Discord launches a cheaper Nitro Basic, Rym is playing a lot of Overwatch 2 which itself is struggling with its new free-to-play model that you can ignore if you just pay for the game, and GUNDAM Evolution is terrible.

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Tonight on GeekNights we review Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island and Star Trek Prodigy. Scott hasn't watched the latter and Rym hasn't watched the former. In the news, Cartoon Network celebrates its 30th anniversary, Cartoon Network is kind of screwed, and there's somehow a bunch of anime worth watching this season!

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Tonight on GeekNights, after a surprisingly long hiatus between Rym going to Europe for work and Rym & Emily biking 480 miles across the state of New York, we talk a bunch about IPv6 woes with Intel NICs, and happenings in the street before we get to the news that companies shouldn't spy on their employees, and the GTX 4090 is coming. Eventually, we talk a bit about web scraping and why it is noble and just.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss the history and current state of online game servers. Rising primarily out of competitive FPSs like Quake and Counter Strike back in the day, they were often the only way to play with a reliable community of people. There weren't matchmaking or friend lists or anything like that. In the news, Rym and Emily are back from PAX where they did a panel on losing, Scott is back from Costco, the Nintendo Direct had a bunch of things to talk about, and GeekNights will have a roughly three week hiatus between Rym and Emily biking 500 miles and Rym going on a business trip.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider single player tabletop games. Distinct from Solitaire and Simple Games or Solitaire Puzzles, expanding on our discussion of The Number of Players, we look at what it takes to have a regular old tabletop game for one. We cite Why No One Will Game With You in the course of this, but there are plenty of great single player experiences (so long as they are official rules and the game was designed with a solo mode in mind).

In the news, Blades in the Dark continues to be fantastic, Cult of the Lamb is moderately disappointing to Rym, Moonbreaker holds promise, the fake Amazon-buys-EA story was debunked before we even saw the bunk, and Disney is throwing the weight of its intellectual property around with a high-production TCG: Lorcana.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the feature films of Hayao Miyazaki. They are instantly recognizable and every one of them is worth seeing. In the news, Joe Biden has cancelled a huge amount of student debt (more than you probably realize), the nightmare that was the attempt at a 90s American live-action Sailor Moon has been found in its full glory, the new Beavis and Butthead is fantastic, the novel Paprika was based on is getting a live-action series, the AMC meme-stock is doubling down on this nonsense, and Evangelion Voice Actor Motomu Kiyokawa has passed away at 87.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider how to not suck at buying a new smartphone. Android or Apple, you actually do have a choice, and there are some basic things to think about. In the news, you can't park there, this program is illegally packaged in 14 distributions, BeReal is pretty cool, this is why schools are banning smartphones, and the lack of transparency in algorithmic CSAM detection is causing harm.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider casino games like Roulette, Poker, Craps, Blackjack, and Slot Machines. In the news, Unity is having significant woes, Cult of the Lamb looks cute, MultiVersus is something we will review in the future, Nintendo is just like every other games company, Gen Con struggles with the evil government of Indiana, and TwitchCon again requires masks.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Masaaki Yuasa's Inu-Oh (2021). (trailer). Per William Bibbiani in The Wrap it is best described as a "feudal-Japanese hair-metal-demonic-curse serial-killer-political-tragedy rock-opera" anime movie. Go see it. Don't wait. In the news, Daisuke Jigen Voice Actor Kiyoshi Kobayashi Passes Away at 89, Crunchyroll buys Right Stuf in the continued consolidation of all media industries, and Natasha Allegri's new Bee and Puppycat has a new trailer!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the humble vacuum cleaner.You definitely don't want to be in a situation where a shop vac would be the solution to your problem and you do not have a shop vac. Also these are "not a scam." In the news, necrobotic spiders are a thing, Amazon continues to rush toward being a full-on dystopian megacorb, and Netflix has 90 seconds to get your attention.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Vending Machines. In the news, HBO Max is being destroyed, two of the worst airlines in America are merging, noted fascist propagandist Alex Jones is going down in the trial over his harassment of the parents of mass shooting victims, and Girls' Generation is BACK!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Sonic X (2003). An anime TV series based on Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog video game series, adapted poorly by 4kids, it's not too bad. In the news, convention "leaks" are always funny, retroactive editing is becoming more and more common, someone leaked the entire 87 minute animatic of the (sadly) canceled Genndy Tartakovsky Popeye feature, and Anime Matsuri remains one of the worst anime cons in the world, and it's spinning off a "dubbing studio" with a known sex pest.

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Tonight on GeekNights we discuss Software as a Service (SaaS). This is one of the most lucrative, important, and enduring ways software is created and sold. In the news, a chess robot attacked a kid, Amazon buys One Medical as we edge ever closer to cyber-capitalist dystopia, Minecraft (rightly) bans blockchain (and nothing of value was lost), and warming rivers due to human-caused climate change threaten the nuclear power that is crucial to transition us off of fossil fuels.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Zoos. In the news, Rym finally ran out of razor blades, climate change is destroying the world, and we're loving this purported Fake IPL Scam.

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Tonight on the GeekNights Book Club, we review and discuss Yoon Ha Lee's Ninefox Gambit. Far future calendar-fueled space battles abound, and we had a good time with it. It's book one of the Machineries of Empire series, and Rym is already well into the rest of it. We also announce that the next book club book will be Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider streaming games. Not to Twitch, but to devices. From Google Stadia to Steam Link to Steam Remote Play to adjacent game library services like Xbox Game Pass it's a space that continues to evolve. In the news, blue states in America are trying to save lives, Scott geekbites Nobody Saves the World, Asmodee sells Keyforge, Ubisoft kills 15 multiplayer games, Counter-Strike is still the #1 game on Steam by a wide margin, Pokemon cards are now easy to get, and video cards are now easy to get.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider refrigeration. In the news, the illegitimate Supreme Court of the United States has taken away basic human rights, Google Hangouts is shutting down, and Google is merging Meet and Duo.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider save games. Saving games, game states, save scumming, permadeath, passwords, batteries, statefulness, and more. In the news, The Stanley Cup finals are spicier than anticipated, PAX West badges are live (and not sold out), Street Fighter 6 is trying something interesting, and a strange attempt to take over Hasbro has failed.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the cartoons of Cartoon Cartoons (1995-2003). Dexter's Lab, Johnny Bravo, The Powerpuff Girls, and all the rest. In the news, Made in Abyss is returning July 6, Inu-Oh is coming August 12 and has an English trailer, and Scott geekbites Osamu Tezuka's W3 (Wonder 3).

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss the Google engineer who thinks the AI has come to life. It's a LaMDA, and one Blake Lemoine has made some extraordinary claims. In the news, the Rangers had a good run, Meet Web Push for Safari, New York wins a right to repair, and everybody is having fun with DALL E.

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Tonight on GeekNights, it's a News Roundup! Specifically an Animation, Anime, Manga, and Comics News Roundup! The new Urusei Yatsura anime series has a trailer, TFAC has uninvited the NFT Lady after severe backlash from TCAF attendees and guests, Seven Seas' workers form a union that Seven Seas will not voluntarily recognize. Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds is a crypto scam, Flying Ghost Ship is getting a Blu-Ray release and a new dub from Discotek, Anime Boston had a delightful swap meet, Rym is continuing with The Owl House as new episodes drop, Saga returns after a long hiatus, and Bob's Burgers has a movie.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we talk about trains. (Not the X train). Critically important in the era of radically accelerating climate change, trains are our future. In the news, Republicans are now the leading cause of death for kids in the US, Republicans have filibustered the gun bill from the previous mass shooting, and Twitter was fined for stealing your phone number to target ads at you.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss how games monetize. How can you make money making games? We've done at least three panels around this topic: Monetizing Games and Game Design (PAX East 2012), Money Making Games (MAGFest 2012), and more recently The Real Harm of Games (PAX East 2019).

In the news, the Rangers are still in the playoffs, Sony's Playstation Plus upgrade isn't going well, Arcs is coming from Patrick Leder (though it's unfortunately on Kickstarter), Reggie Fils-Aime thinks the games industry needs to embrace unions, and Raven Software's QA team has unionized, despite Activision Blizzard's uncomfortable opposition.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss voice acting. In the news, anime voice actors' unionization efforts grow ever more important as they are forced back into non-remote work in Texas, Anime Central betrayed its attendees, and Inu-Oh is coming imminently,

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider scanners. Ancient devices used to convert paper documents and photos into files on computers, often using something called TWAIN. For many consumers, they have been replaced by "smart phones." In the news, NVIDIA releases open source GPU drivers, hell has frozen over, Russia appears to have lost custody of a relatively intact Krasukha-4.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider swimming, especially in swimming pools. Pool toys, diving boards, swimming lessons, the works. In the news, the COVID meat shortage was fake, AleXa wins the "American Song Contest", and Christopher Walken will play the Emperor in Dune 2. Also convention drama.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the fascinating art project x portable game console: Playdate. It's neat. In the news, the contest for Lord Stanley's Cup is underway, EA Sports loses FIFA, Bethesda finishes off their PC game launcher, Square Enix continues its long fall from grace by doubling down on a scam, Embracer is embracing a gaming empire, Overwatch 2 is very promising for competitive play thus far, and American fascists are destroying basic human rights in overturning Roe v Wade.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider tech debt. Where it comes from, what it means, and what you can do about it. Rym's made a career of owning and addressing the tech debt of legacy systems, and there aren't really "correct" answers here. In the news, Microsoft is offering an Edge VPN, Ukrainian drones are shockingly effective against the Russian Navy, and you should check your home to see if it has any of these strange old holes.

Also don't forget that the GeekNights Book Club is a thing!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the concept of handwriting. In the news, idiots are in trouble with the FAA, another unrelated idiot is in trouble with the FAA (weirdly echoing an episode of Bob's Burgers), and the Stanley Cup Playoffs are imminent.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Tatsuki Fujimoto's one-shot manga Goodbye, Eri. It's 200 pages long, and it's absolutely worth reading. Especially starting at page 18. In the news, the YAOI Paddle resurrection was thankfully short-lived, AnimeNEXT has to cancel for a very good reason, Anime Expo's twitter was hacked by NFT scammers, Delicious in Dungeon is getting an anime, and The Orbital Children is a fantastic hard sci-fi.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we talk about display cables. The standards can be confusing, S-Video was not that common, VGA was king for a long long time, and we grew up in the days of RF. In the news, web scraping is perfectly legal, the bad man is trying (and failing) to buy Twitter, and Rym got a 3080Ti.

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Tonight on the GeekNights Book Club, we review and discuss N.K. Jemisin's fantastic The City We Became. It's a book about New York. And about cities.

The City We Became is a 2020 urban fantasy novel by N. K. Jemisin. Taking place in New York City (a setting in which we are heavily invested), the City itself is in peril in a world where great cities become sentient through human avatars. After the avatar of New York falls into a supernatural coma and vanishes, a group of five new avatars representing the five boroughs come together to fight their common Enemy.

It's the first book in her ongoing The Great Cities series, but it is self-contained and well worth reading alone. We've discussed her work before in the book club with The Fifth Season (also 1000% worth reading)!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we revisit the topic of hosting we last covered in 2006. From simple web hosting to SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and even Iaas (Infrastructure as a Service), a lot has changed. Amazon EC2 didn't even exist when we did that first episode. In the news, Vimeo moves further into B2B, Twitch pauses its "porn on the front page" feature, Amazon is reportedly censoring interesting words like "union" in its new internal app.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider James Bond (in cinema). In the news, Rym is back from London, and New York has a lot of good options for connecting LGA to the rest of the city. Your regularly scheduled GeekNights should resume from this point forward!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Saint Patrick's Day (the holiday). We have a fraught history with it, frankly. In the news, Scott is trying out Obsidian, Daylight Saving Time is likely going to be permanent in the US (for the second time) much to the surprise of some of the senators who made it happen, and New York governor Hochul continues to be a mixed bag.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Offworld Trading Company. An RTS with a M.U.L.E. lineage, we're having fun with it and even playing some multiplayer. In the news, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are coming, and the Playdate has a nice dev kit.

In much more somber and tragic news, since the last episode we made, Russia has invaded Ukraine in what can only be described as a naked act of imperial aggression.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Mamoru Hosoda's Belle. A beautiful film that deals with the disconnect (or the lack thereof) between the online and the real, we have previously reviewed Hosoda's Mirai, The Boy and the Beast, Wolf Children, Summer Wars, and One Piece 6: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island.

In the news, Amazon has ruined Comixology, Hayao Miyazaki's Shuna's Journey is being released in the US, and legendary mecha sesigner Kazutaka Miyatake needs help after suffering a tragic loss. In breaking and dire news, the governor of Texas has criminalized Trans children in a move that can be described as nothing less than openly fascist.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we bring you the GeekNights Book Club: The Tale of Genji part 1. We have a lot to say, so we're splitting this one in two. The first episode covers our reactions to the work as fiction. This second episode covers the meta, structure, history, and anything else we had to say.

For those interested, the next book club book will be N. K. Jemisin's The City We Became.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the concept of lock-in in technology. From platforms to software, app stores to physical connectors, it's actually a fairly complex topic. In the news, reason 499 not to buy a Tesla, Facebook collapses in the manner we have always expected, and Facebook is in trouble in Europe.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we bring you the GeekNights Book Club: The Tale of Genji part 1. We have a lot to say, so we're splitting this one in two. This first episode covers our reactions to the work as fiction. We'll save some of the meta conversation for a followup episode to come. You can use this handy chart to follow along.

For those interested, the next book club book will be N. K. Jemisin's The City We Became.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider lifestyle games. You know the person who plays Magic and only Magic? Or the phase we both went through playing CounterStrike literally every day? Or Chess players? In the news, Sony acquires Bungie (completing the balance of power among the AAAs) and The New York Times acquires Wordle.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider anime music, particularly tv shows and OAVs. A good OST has more than just a rockin' opener or closer, it both enhances the show and stands alone. We cover some of the greatest, including Giant Robo, Initial D, Vision of Escaflowne, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Cowboy Bebop, and more. In the news, the under-appreciated and oddly prescient Dennou Coil comes to Netflix, and Scott has a geekbite on Ciguatera.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Greeting Cards and other cards of this ilk. In the news, the Doomsday Clock is 100 seconds to midnight, the handful of people "buying" NFTs are not that invested in them, and the Democrats in the US Senate forced a vote to protect voting rights that failed due to the undemocratic and broken nature of American Democracy.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Inscryption. It's worth the price of admission even if you don't know that it pulls a Frog Fractions. In the news, Rym beat Zelda II again for some reason, and Microsoft is acquiring Activision Blizzard for ~$70BB. Also remember to aggressively confront any company that even hints at supporting NFTs in any capacity. The pressure works. Poison that well.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Centaurworld. It's on Netflix, Rym loves it, and it's a musical. In the news, Initial D is getting a successor anime with MF Ghost. The Ghost is selling cars too, Mr. Boop is getting a deluxe hardcover book, and Rym has some thoughts on SK8 the Infinity.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we talk about package managers. We've covered Linux package management specifically in the ancient past. In the news, Rym's gonna do the Tunnel Run once it's safe to travel again, Europe has better vaccination policies than the US, Canon reminds you that the chips in their printer ink cartridges are unnecessary, Zynga was worth $12.7 BB, a nefarious developer set off a logic bomb in two popular NPM packages, and the James Webb Space Telescope is extremely important.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the science and the art of Sports Commentating. In the news, legendary sports commentator John Madden has died, The New York Times is buying The Athletic, a sports commentator made a terrible mistake that is somehow distantly related to this ridiculous nonsense, and United States President Joe Biden calls out the fascist coup attempt by Donald Trump and the American Republican Party directly.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Lost Ruins of Arnak (2020). It's an elegant worker placement deckbuilder. We like it. In the news, COVID-19 is again an extreme crisis (please don't go to MAGFest this coming weekend), Square Enix made a repugnant New Year's statement, Kickstarter is dead, and the fake high school was indeed fake.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review The Summit of the Gods (Le sommet des dieux). Directed by Patrick Imbert, it's a French adaptation of a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Jiro Taniguchi. A photojournalist's obsessive quest for the truth about the first expedition to Mt. Everest leads him to search for an esteemed climber who went missing. In the news, Naoki Urasawa is bringing several of his works to digital (in Japan only), Disney's Encanto (2021) is a fantastic musical, and Centaurworld is strangely compelling (and also a musical).

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss software libraries. Most of you are probably too old to remember DLL Hell, but you probably don't want to be proving how square roots are calculated just to calculate them in your program. In the news, Amazon has had multiple outages, the log4j zero-day is a nightmare, and VR is edging into the mainstream with its first real consumer maturity milestone.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we bring you our Holiday Animation and Comics Gift Giving Guide 2021! What should you buy for that animation, comics, anime, or manga fan friend of yours? Not Funkopops: they've released something that's just vile in a long line of vile things. Arcane is one of the best cartoons Rym's seen in a long time. Makoto Shinkai's next film will be Suzume no Tojimari, and it involves clouds, sky, and doors. George Pérez is tragically at the end of his life. Macross Plus was in theaters, introducing a younger generation of fans to its particular dystopian nightmare.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Metroid Dread on the Nintendo Switch. It's a solid 2D Metroid, with a few horror elements and a lot of polish. In the news, Amazon is down and it's wreaking low-key havoc, Discord is competing with Patreon and Onlyfans (and Twitch), and Ubisoft is absolutely a garbage company.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we present our 2021 GeekNights holiday technology gift guide! You can refer to our recent gaming gift guide as a companion to this. In the news, COVID vaccine boosters are fantastic, take heed as the Omicron variant poses a "very high" global risk, Streamlabs agrees to rename SLOBS after public outcry, we're running out of quarters, and we're running out of Twitter CEOs.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we bring you our 2021 Holiday Gaming Gift Guide. What should you buy for that gamer you know? Our list might surprise you. In the news, the Legend of Zelda Game & Watch is a huge step above the Mario one, Epic Games has acquired Harmonix, and don't cross the Wirecutter picket line.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider our final thoughts on the Rebuild of Evangelion. Spoilers. Just tons of spoilers. Be warned. If you have never seen Evangelion, check out our review and our final thoughts on the original Neon Genesis Evangelion, as well as our (no spoilers) review of Rebuild of Evangelion. There are no more Evangelions.

In the news, Anime NYC is happening, and there are mixed reviews of the live action Cowboy Bebop thus far.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Home HVAC: Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning. We've previously covered server room cooling, and the show is interrupted at the end by a classic. In the news, New York is taking some action on robocalls (though it's honestly too late at this point), people are upset that Microsoft is forcing Edge on Start Menu web search results, and Unity acquires Weta Digital.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the Alien franchise. While clearly the first two movies are the best the franchise will likely ever have to offer, much like Spiderman it is so iconic to be nearly universally recognized. In the news, Youtube is removing dislike counts, the economy isn't in great shape (in ways you might not even realize), and the Playdate is delayed.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review WarioWare: Get It Together! on the Nintendo Switch. The last time we talked about a WarioWare on GeekNights was back in 2007 when we reviewed the awful WarioWare Smooth Moves on the Wii. In the news, Konami lost the rights to some archival video they licensed, forcing them to take a number of Metal Gear Solid games down (contributing to the hellscape that is the intersection of copyright and gaming), and Unpacking is a pretty cool game.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the Jujutsu Kaisen manga. It's a shounen manga. In the news, Image Comics workers unionize forming the CBWU (Comic Book Workers United), Aggretsuko gets a fourth season, and Shoujou Kakumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena) is on Crunchyroll.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider documentation. Client documentation, user guides, service runbooks, developer notes, and the like. We've previously covered Documentation Systems, as well as in a game design lecture on game rules.

In the news, Rym finally dressed up as Zed from Zardoz, Facebook's name change to "Meta" isn't fooling anyone, a theoretical unicode-based attack on compilers is being patched, Roblox had a massive outage, and the LIRR is now able to run trains into Grand Central Terminal, a feat of engineering in the making since 1963.

This is also the 16th anniversary episode of GeekNights! We started on October 31 2005, and we made "beta" episodes well before that!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Denis Villeneuve's Dune (part 1). It's Dune. It's hard to imagine doing better at Duning on the big screen than this. Recall that we discussed Dune extensively on the GeekNights Book Club.

In the news, the Shiba Inu shitcoin is in the news due to a high volatility situation, you can buy 1/1000 of a Warhol for $250 after some clever people literally attempt to destroy its provenance, Facebook flees is toxic brand with a new name, Queens successfully opposed an upgraded fossil fuel power plant, and the NAACP is urging professional athletes to boycott Texas sports teams due to the extreme threat Texas has put American democracy under.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the portal-inspired multiplayer FPS Splitgate. It's free to play, not pay to win, and if you ignore the non-game-affecting skinz and lootz it's definitely worth trying. In the news, the Advance Wars remaster is delayed, BlizzCon is canceled to be re-imagined, and you don't need a rumble pack for your N64 Controller. Also, the OLED Switch doesn't appear to be selling well, but that's not actually a problem for Nintendo.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider upgrades of and migrations between Operating Systems. We may need to consider that the concept of an Operating System has changed and continues to evolve as computer technology matures. In the news, Apple Day told us about new MacBook Pros and AirPods (plus how people apparently aren't actually using Siri), and a kid accidentally shot himself immediately after assembling a 3D printed gun.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss aliens and UFOs and such. The 90s were a wild time with alien autopsies and The X-Files. Nevermind real alien topics like the Drake equation, the Rare Earth hypothesis, or the Great Filter. In the news, avoid using computers in Missouri, IATSE will strike on October 18th unless their (extremely reasonable) demands are met, Kellog's workers and John Deere workers also strike as a new labor movement comes alive in America.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider a game design topic in the number of players a game supports. For this exercise, we only consider orthogames. We've talked about two player games before. The reality is that one player, two player, and three+ player games are fundamentally and formally distinct. A game that supports more than one of these groups is actually multiple different games for all practical purposes.

In the news, NIBCARD Games wins the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming, the Diana Jones Award trophy is missing, the Actraiser remake is more than you probably expect, Metroid Dread is solid, and it's hard to imagine PAX South happening in Texas in January considering the state has now banned vaccine mandates in a manner that very likely includes events in the convention center.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Rebuild of Evangelion. The complement to Neon Genesis Evangelion (which we reviewed and gave final thoughts for back in 2007), it is an excellent and complete finale that somehow is neither a remake nor a sequel, but simply an addition.

In the news, Twitch experienced a massive leak and Ankama studio is soon to premiere Princesse Dragon

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the Leopard that is social media. It is difficult to summarize the myriad ways that social media has materially harmed society despite its great promise. From Orkut to Facebook to Twitter, it's been a destabilizing force. In the (possibly too on-the-nose) news, Facebook had a major global outage today (see our episode on outages), Facebook has a whistleblower revealing terrible revelations about the harm Facebook causes, a new tool can reveal who actually owns companies, and Europe is looking to (rightly) standardize on USB-C for charging electronic devices (much to Apple's discomfort).

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider gaming magazines. Notable mentions include Electronic Games, Nintendo Power, Dragon Magazine, Dungeon Magazine, Scrye (for those MTG prices), InQuest, GamePro, Game Informer, PC Gamer, Games Magazine, and more.

In the news, Asmodee is for sale for €2 BB, SEGA Genesis games are coming to the Switch (but you won't get the good controller in the US), Activision Blizzard is still in deep shit including an $18 MM settlement, and they released their Diablo 2 remake during all of this.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider anime and comic magazines, including relics from an ancient past such as Newtype USA, Wizard, Animerica, and the like. In the news, Rym is enjoying Star Trek: Lower Decks (and you may too if you have even a passing interest in Star Trek), the live action Cowboy Bebop might be OK, and the monkey's paw has given us a hockey anime with Puraore! Pride of Orange.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the archaic "computer magazine" that you may have heard old people talking about. From PC Gamer to Maximum PC to Computer Shopper, the pre-Internet was a wild time. In the news, Western Digital "My Book" users had all their data deleted in a convoluted story, Western Digital tried to trick people into buying inferior drives, Google's internal dysfunction led briefly to Google News failing for all Google Workspaces users, and Sir Clive Sinclair has passed away at 81. Also Rym was nearly attacked by a crazy driver biking from Poughkeepsie to Queens on Sunday.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the humble beverage. From soda to pop, orange juice to bourbon, milk to yilk, and even good old reliable "water" we consider the general concept of drinks. In the news, the IATSE is mobilizing for a possible strike, we encourage you to murder Spotted Lanternflies if you live in New York, and we encourage you to delete your Facebook account.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile. It's a solid legacy game that's worth taking a look at. In the news, Rym finally played West of Loathing and is sorting out if we'll play Aliens: Fireteam Elite, The CEO of Broken Token steps down (but still owns the company...) after abuse and harassment allegations, the CEO of Tripwire steps down due to his abhorrent statements on abortion rights, and Twitch sues two individuals over ongoing racist and bigoted harassment rampant on their platform.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Superman. The Superman. Supes. This character casts a long shadow on global popular culture and storytelling, a modern myth. In the news, the Harley Quinn show is great, Lupin III Part 6 has Mamoru Oshii as a guest writer, Adventure Time: Distant Lands concludes with Wizard City, Keiichi Arawi has a new manga coming, and (spoilers) Lex Luthor finally gets it.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider outerwear. Jackets and coats and such. In the news, Scott went to the US Open, America continues its spiral into ruin as abortion is banned in Texas, (we are boycotting Texas henceforth), and House Democrats are taking action to protect abortion rights.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Deathmatch games, particularly FPS deathmatches. Ostensibly beginning with Doom and Quake, the "genre" began already extremely refined, and frankly Quake 1 Deathmatch is literally worth playing today. In the news, Rym biked to Poughkeepsie again, Quake 1 got an update that makes multiplayer "just work" on modern PCs, China effectively bans minors playing online games, and tabletop game prices are going to skyrocket.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Apple, CSAM, and Privacy. Apple is under fire for its solution here, some have warned of its dangers, and other companies already do similar things. (It's worth noting that Apple is already doing this on iCloud Mail).

In the news, OnlyFans sells out its core user base, though the situation is more complex than it appears and other similar entities have complied with the rules that they ran afoul of. Meanwhile, Twitch is doing essentially nothing to curtail a massive wave of targeted attacks on minority and marginalized streamers, leaving them to use inadequate tools to solve a problem that Twitch is 100% responsible for. Join the boycott of Twitch on September 1st!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we talk about natural disasters. In the news, there's a reason we don't make much anime content anymore, cars are back to destroying the world, Cuomo is (rightly) out as New York's governor, and the US military will (rightly) require vaccination against COVID-19.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Pokémon UNITE: the Pokémon MOBA. It's actually pretty fun, and it's a shame that it's microtransactional pay-to-win garbage. Only play it if you can play with friends who agree to never spend money, never grind, and never use any items.

In the news, the NHL Expansion Draft has released the Kraken, Activision Blizzard is rightly sued by the state of California for sexual harassment and discrimination, we join other games media in a complete blackout of all reviews or coverage of their games of any kind, as well as support their employees striking tomorrow, and Valve has released the Game Gear 2 (which they promise will run "the entire Steam library" at 30+fps)

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the cartoons of Hanna-Barbera Productions, which were a staple of our 80s childhoods despite being largely from the 60s and 70s. From The Roman Holidays to Fantastic Max, they were a recycled staple of our youth. (Some, like The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound, are best forgotten entirely). In the news, Belle might be extremely good, Mamoru Hosoda has some thoughts on Miyazaki (and also worked on Utena credited as Katsuyo Hashimoto), and the official Popeye twitter account is fantastic. Also Scott didn't know there was a live action Popeye movie staring Robin Williams and Shelly Duvall.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider bootlegs and counterfeits. Illegitimate goods. In the news, Texas Democrats are risking a lot trying to defend American democracy, Bowling Balls can't be recycled, a doctor faked vaccine records to sell fake medicine, and Amazon sells a lot of dangerous goods. We'll also be live at PAX Online East 2021!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider collecting in games. Specifically, we consider "new in box" cartridges and people who like to tell you how many board games they own. In the news, Advance Wars 1 and 2 are coming to the Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch Pro is exactly what we expected rather than what people seemed to imagine, someone buys a new-in-box copy of Super Mario 64 for way too much money, and we will be live at PAX Online East this weekend!

If you want Rym's copy of Ogre, you can have second dibs on it. If no one takes it before Rym has an excuse to see a certain person, you'll miss your chance.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the phenomenal Odd Taxi anime. It's a psychological thriller and it's one of the best shows in recent memory. We're talking must-watch anime. in the news, the X-Men are X-Men again, MAPPA shows off the upcoming Chainsaw Man anime, MAPPA pays poverty wages for animation, SGDQ 2021 is underway, Godzilla Singular Point is OK, and The Owl House season 2 keeps on truckin'.

Also Scott offers second dibs on a Dell Ultrasharp U2410.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider when to bail, hit da bricks, or be "out" of something. In the news, loud pipes don't save lives, the new R211 subway cars were unveiled, and what happened in Florida was preventable.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we talk about DC's Batman. In the news, it was a big NYC election, PAX West is happening in-person (but we won't be there), Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway is coming, you can get started on Gundam right here, Tuca and Bertie season 2 is great so far, Uzumaki is coming, and Intern Annika has arrived.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider hotels and motels. We kind of miss them. In the news, Pokémon Unite is a MOBA, the US Supreme Court made one good decision and one abhorrent decision, and if you wondered why Batman was trending recently, well, now you know. Also we'll be live at PAX East Online!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the merchandise around cartoons, anime, comics, and manga. In the news, the fireworks are back in Queens, Glamdring the Foe-Hammer is back, a ton of cels are up for auction, the Sweet Tooth TV adaptation is pretty good so far, the El Hazard OAVs are getting a re-release, and Yoko Kanno is scoring the live action Cowboy Bebop. Also, we'll be live at PAX East online 2021 with Atari Game Design!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we accidentally do a June tech news roundup. So, in that news, US carries share vertical location data for 911 calls, Apple adds additional safety measures to AirTags (though there are still workarounds), Facetime is (sort of) coming to the web, and there's a ton of WWDC news.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we talk about skin. Yes, that kind of skin. In the news, Scott GeekBites Oxygen (2021), Rym GeekBites Walker (1987), maybe companies should be barred from bothering you after-hours, and AMC issues 11MM shares.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the New Pokemon Snap. It's Pokemon Snap. It's exactly what it looks like. And it's probably worth playing. In the news, 1846 gets an update, An Airport for Aliens Currently Run By Dogs is out, the 3080 Ti is coming, Nintendo took down a rom site (but the buried lede is that the proprietor went pro se in court), and while Moon Hunters was a delightful game this article describes what was wrong with its level design.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Spider-Man 2099. It's cyberpunk, and it's actually pretty good. Rym even plans to read the rest of it. In the news, Adventure Time: Distant Lands - Together Again was solid, but also possibly unnecessary, Panasonic has a new GH6 camera as well as an upgrade to the GH5, the new era of Lupin III continues with a sixth anime series for the 50th anniversary, and Funimation adds God Mazinger, Little Nemo, and Space Adventrure Cobra to their anime catalogue.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the video camera. In the news, there is drama at Freenode, Audacity won't gather telemetry data, Spotify is getting podcast transcription, and Samsung seems to have given up on upcycling.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we talk about a lot of things, from the content-seeking that comes from being a podcaster to beards, fart cars to the senate, and anything else on our minds. In the news, lotteries do seem to drive COVID vaccinations, and the newest Adventure Time installment apparently hits hard.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the humble remote control. We are some of the youngest people who remember having screens and other devices without remote controls, and they changed things in more ways than you might have expected. In the news, Apple is going after Itch.io in its ongoing fight with Epic, Steam rejects some games but not others without clear rules, Facebook rejects adaptive clothing ads, Microsoft changes its old icons, and a major US fuel pipeline was shut down by ransomware.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider learning languages, and touch ever-so-briefly on the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. In the news, vaccine research and production should be nationalized, Youtube "Shorts" compete with TikTok, Twitter adds tips and removes crops, and New York has its 2021 Michelin Stars.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES. It is hard to express how revolutionary this games was in 1988-1991 (depending on where you lived), and it holds up pretty well today. (Rym just beat it on a lark last week). In the news, Tom Wilson should be expelled from the NHL, Ravenloft gets a much better look, Twitch took action against 7.5MM fake accounts, the Epic Games store is not only losing money, but also doesn't lead to actual game sales.

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Tonight GeekNights, we review The Great Pretender, an anime from Hiro Kaburagi and Ryota Kosawa that you can watch right now on Netflix. In the news, the Macross/Robotech saga has (for now) been (mostly) resolved, WarnerMedia consolidates Adult Swim and HBO Max's animation teams, you can check out the Cells at Work! COVID-19 Vaccine Chapter, the Sailor Moon Eternal films are coming to Netflix, and we got the order wrong on the post-finale Adventure Time episodes.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we bring you a technology news roundup for April 2021. Apple announces several things, Apple must face a lawsuit over whether or not people "buy" things, early results show promise for a new malaria vaccine, capitalism is keeping the COVID vaccines from widespread global use, Honda will stop selling combustion engines by 2040, Fujitsu software wrongly sent people to prison, Elon Musk's tunnel is worthless garbage, chip shortages are getting worse, Signal pwn3d Cellebrite, the University of Minnesota is now banned from contributing to the Linux kernel (their apology was not accepted), a driverless Tesla killed two people and burned so bardly firefighters couldn't put it out, Roku and Google are beefing (another reason why the HTPC is superior to all other streaming devices), this streaming device points a camera at you to literally spy on you, and lab-grown salmon meat is a real possibility!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider pets. In the news, France (rightly) bans flights that could be made by train, New York's water tunnel number 3 is almost complete, and Hank Azaria apologized for playing Apu on The Simpsons.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review PAC-MAN 99 on the Nintendo Switch. In the news, Derek Chauvin is (rightly) convicted on all three counts for the murder George Floyd, the European Super League collapses faster than anyone thought possible, Jeff Kaplan leaves Overwatch and Blizzard, Scrabble (rightly) bans racial slurs from the game, Sony backs off on shutting down the PS3 and Vita services, Nintendo is likely sunsetting the largely unsuccessful Labo, and Railroad Ink is coming to Steam.

Please consider donating to the Gianna Floyd fund, and keep protesting until there is justice. Black Lives Matter.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the current world of laptops and tablets. The world is changing, and laptops are increasingly becoming desktop replacements or niche devices. Don't take our advice from how to buy a laptop in 2008, and internalize how long ago 2012 was. (This was Rym's first laptop). In the news, Yahoo Answers shuts down forever, destroying a treasure trove, LG exits the smartphone business, and Nvidia unveils a server-room ARM CPU.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider scarcity. (NFTs are a scam). In the news, Rym had some Water in the Ceiling, Joe Biden moves to regulate guns (with a mass shooting the very same day), the Super Mario Bros. world record was beaten with a 4:54.948, and The Louvre Has Digitized 482,000 Artworks

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider JRPGs. The "genre" is broad, and many people ignore a number of Japanese Role Playing Games that they wouldn't necessarily consider a "JRPG." In the news, PAX East 2021 is (rightly) canceled due to COVID (though there will be another PAX Online), E3 (rightly) moves online due to COVID, PS Vita games are disappearing forever, and Magnus Carlsen uses the "bongcloud" opening against Hikaru Nakamura, and Luck be a Landlord is a roguelike deckbuilder slot machine.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider The Simpsons. It looms large in popular culture despite its trendline, and was a formative part of both our lives.

In the news, don't go to anime conventions in April, Bandai Namco Holdings consolidates its overseas subsidiaries, Ikuhara's Penguindrum gets a compilation film project, Keanu Reeves stars in BZRKR, Wookieepedia is (correctly) forced to stop deadnaming actors, Voltes V continues to go hard, The Great Pretender is not being talked about enough, and King of the Hill, unlike the topic of our show tonight, was canceled.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider how multi-factor authentication works. We've previously talked about single Signon, biometrics, the levels of security & privacy, and the like, but we've never actually talked about how TOTP and other multi-factor authentication schemes work.

In the news, the ship is no longer stuck, New York opens up vaccines to everybody, fake ai-generated and fake stolen-profile-photo twitter accounts are spreading Amazon's anti-union propaganda, and the Free Software Foundation has ruined its reputation by bringing Richard Stallman back on board, with many others joining the denouncement. Also note that there is a vulnerability in 2FA keys that allows cloning them.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider solitaire puzzles. Puzzle books, puzzles, etc... In the news, the Suez Canal is currently blocked, Brood X is coming and there will be billions of them, and New York joins the world of legal weed.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Golf. This includes mini golf. In the news, Microsoft is likely buying Discord, Xbox Live is dead, Emily is Away 3 brings us to the Facebook era, Shredder's Revenge brings us a solid-looking TMNT game, and Magic: Legends is now in open beta.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the classic and foundational 1977 anime Voltes V. In the news, Wolfwalkers deserves the Oscar, Discotek has several important licenses including Brother Dear Brother and Sgt. Frog, legendary animator Yasuo Otsuka has passed away, The Great Pretender is definitely worth watching, The Legend of Hei is definitely worth watching, and Raya and the Last Dragon is definitely worth watching!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider cable management. From inside your computer to... outside your computer. Rack & stack to mounting a TV, cable management is more important than you might realize. In the news, maybe we can end the terror of Daylight Saving Time, Twitter banned Memphis, there's malware in your browser extensions, and Apple pulls the plug on the HomePod. Also LG is putting ads directly into your television.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the seasons of life. Spring cleaning, gaming season, convention season, etc... In the news, Spotify and Kakao stop fighting (for now), there are a lot of vaccination jobs out there, the Democratic Party passed one of the most transformative pieces of legislation in modern American history (since the Affordable Care Act), and legendary establishment Jing Fong is another victim of COVID and Capitalism.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the surprising and unique Moon Hunters, from Kitfox Games. It's on sale on steam right now for $2.24! In the news, Luke Crane made a bad situation worse that has shaken the tabletop rpg world, 3 million new users joined Roll20 during the pandemic, and you should check out these five great tabletop rpg kickstarters that weren't canceled by their creators:

Our Traveling Home
Coyote & Crow
Zine Quest 2021: The Wizard's Grimoire
The Last Will and Testament of Gideon Blythe
A Mending

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the evils of cryptocurrencies. In the news, the worst social network on Earth got hacked, Fry's is no more, Twitter almost has a business model, and you can't get better at biking.

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Tonight on the GeekNights Lounge, we consider leftovers. Food left over from cooking and/or restaurants. In the news, the megathread around bullying accusations against K-Pop idols continues, the incremental cost of such things remains near zero, and the only unconfirmed element of Dyatlov Pass has been plausibly resolved,

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Inkle's 2019 game Heaven's Vault for Steam, Playstation, and Switch. It's unique, in a good way. In the news, Daft Punk ends, the Root Marauder Expansion is on Kickstarter, The Legend of Zelda is 35 years old, you've probably never actually heard the original Legend of Zelda theme, Civilization VI's barbarians just got a lot more interesting, and Zinequest is live.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider a number of upcoming animated movies and shows we're looking forward to (and in some cases looking forward to more of).

In the news, Studio Ghibli's Earwig and the Witch came out to deeply scathing reviews despite no one talking about how low-budget of an affair it actually was, a bunch of shows are coming to Crunchyroll, Mamoru Hosoda's BELLE has a teaser trailer, and Disney is shutting down Blue Sky, killing the previously upcoming Nimona movie.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the concept of calendars. There was a time when people had physical ones made of paper. Weird right? In the news, Scott's sort of into Rubik's Cubes, you should honestly watch the impeachment of Donald Trump, hackers used TeamViewer to attempt the poisoning of an entire Florida town, Gina Carano is rightly dropped from Star Wars, and New York is killing people by allowing sports to have live audiences.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider asynchronous play in games. It's an underserved niche in games that is especially relevant during the quarantine times. In the news, Counter-Strike is over 20 years old, hackers attacked CD Projekt Red (but at least they had backups), Battleborn is dead and gone, and Gearbox was purchased in the ever-increasing consolidation of the games industry.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the anime movie Lupin III: The First. In the news, The Real Ghostbusters is back, Wandavision is a nice sendup to classic American television, and One Piece is bigger than any comic you're reading.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the Environmental Cost of Computing. In the news, Nintendo is replacing its multiplayer server, Sony appears to be reviving small Android phones, and Tesla has a recall problem.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider... unfinished business. In the news, Otakon may not survive COVID, and the NWHL has to deal with BrStl Sprts drama as their bubble starts to fall apart even as they were making a big move streaming their games on Twitch.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Hades. It's great, and exhibits a level of polish that is honestly rare. In the news, reddit nerds are gaming GameStop stock leading to interesting consequences, Microsoft continues to struggle with Xbox Gold vs Xbox Live, and the Internet sort of went down for a bit earlier today.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the delightful Chainsaw Man manga. In the news, Amanda Gorman gave a legendary reading at Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's inauguration, Hilda continues to impress with its second season, and Scott's been reading through his Oglaf books.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the latest (free-to-play) from Zachtronics with NERTS! Online. It's a live online implementation of the classic card game Nerts, and is worth your while. In the news, a Republican mob led by disgraced president Donald Trump stormed the capitol in an ongoing coup attempt. Twitch rightly removes the PogChamp emote after the person it's based on supported this coup. Twitch replaced the PogChamp with a very cool idea that also reminded us just how racist gamers are. Thankfully, the first new PogChamp is a champ. LucasArts is basically back with LucasFilm Games, and they have announced a nazi-fighting game that we're all excited about. We also have a trailer for Bowser's Fury.

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Tonight on GeekNights, apropos of nothing in particular, we talk about outages. In the news, Slack started the new year with a major outage, Google employees are unionizing, and Scott found Turbo Vision. Welcome to 2021!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the decade to date in games and gaming. Tabletop games, role playing games, video games, console games, PC games: we are living in an explosive and amazing era of gaming. In the news, the Star Wars Squadrons patch made the game significantly more fun, Graveyard Keeper is all right, and the Overwatch winter brawls are particularly good. Check out freeze tag with an eye to the game design going on there.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we celebrate the end of the year and the end of the decade and talk about the last 10 years of Comics and Animation (2010-2020). This is in many ways a golden age of animation, and we expect it to continue. Adventure Time kind of started it all, and ran for the entire decade! In the news, Sony buys Crunchyroll from AT&T, and superhero comics are a tiny fraction of comic sales.

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Tonight on GeekNights, at the end of the year they'll write songs about and the end of a decade, we consider what's changed in the last ten years. We'll be doing this for all four nights of GeekNights in the coming two weeks.In the news, GitHub removes that annoying cookie banner in the best way possible, and the supply-chain hack of SolarWinds is a historic mess.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the delightful Hypnospace Outlaw (2019). It's a true sendup to the early Internet, and is definitely worth playing. In the news, Cyberpunk 2077 had a rocky launch with, among other problems, egregious safety issues, worker exploitation, abysmal performance on previous-generation consoles, and more. A bunch of indie titles are coming to the Nintendo Switch, including Among Us, as well as a Funimation anime streaming app.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the longevity of technology. From computers to bikes, proper maintenance can greatly extend the life the right tool, though some more easily than others. We've talked about computer maintenance specifically before in 2006 and then in 2020.

In the news, Apple may be working on a 32-core processor, Pornhub runs into trouble with its payment processing, the Arecibo Telescope is sadly no more, and the devil cars sell their self-driving unit. Also don't forget to check out the Advent of Code this year! Scott's doing it!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider hair. We did a show once on shaving back in 2005, when we first switched to safety razors, but we never talked about head hair more generally. Yes, this is a Thursday. How could you tell? In the news, Scott's doing the Advent of Code, check out the Floppy Emu Model C, the movie industry just changed forever, and we found the rocket booster we lost in the 60s. Also, Joe Biden won the presidency by a historic and growing margin.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider what is likely now our favorite 18xx train game: 1817. If you have never played one of these before, you may want to check out our reviews of 1846: The Race for the Midwest or 1889: History of Shikoku Railways first. 1817 has short selling, acquisitions & mergers, and loans (with interest) that together serve to provide more player agency than other 18xx games we've played.In the news, Nintendo makes it easier to share screenshots from the Switch, and the Super Mario Maker levels will disappear like tears in the rain.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the second installment in Adventure Time: Distant Lands with Obsidian. In the news, Rym got his Index and finished Deca-Dence, The Art of Wolfwalkers is very good, Funimation adds many Gundams, Venture Brothers is cancelled (but also possibly un-canceled), and the publishing industry needs some antitrust action ASAP.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider displays. LCDs, OLEDs, "Smart" TVs, and the current state of the art. We haven't talked about this since 2006, and a lot has changed in 14 years!

In the news, we've migrated our 2-Factor Auth to NFC Yubikeys, Comcast is enforcing data caps nationally, the Apple M1 is revolutionary, Fleets are here I guess, and the GIMP is 25 years old and not much better than it was 20 years ago.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the hoodie. In the news, don't travel for the holidays, Scott has the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros., Rym is getting an Index, the new Unsolved Mysteries is a apparently not too bad.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the Ricochet Half-Life mod from twenty years ago. It's still playable! And we're playing it semi-regularly again. We talked about it briefly as part of an ensemble show about Tron games back in 2009.In the news, thank you all for helping raise $4,006 for the Democrats in the Senate Runoff in Georgia, Hearthstone players are mad, Twitch streamers are mad, the Asmodee empire expands, and the 2020 Video Game Accessibility Awards are announced.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the recent Deca-Dence anime. (Don't worry: no spoilers). Don't read anything about it until you watch it. It takes... a turn. We Judged that this show was probably OK, but wouldn't be in a rush to check it out unless people started talking about it. And talk they did.

In the news, Katsucon 2021 is cancelled, Beastars 2 is coming January 5th, Venus Wars is getting an English re-release, Discotek is releasing a 4k UHD Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro, the Suppose a Kid From the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town anime looks cute, and Adventure Time: Distant Lands - Obsidian dropped a trailer.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the ever-present Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Originating in the era of the World Wide Web as envisioned by Ted Nelson and Tim Berners-Lee, it is surprisingly simple. In the news, Slingbox is discontinued, and there is a better way to multiply.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Among Us. It's a social deduction game, but with intrinsic mechanics and surprising depth. In the news, there are unconfirmed reports (now officially debunked) that PAX South has delayed to February 19-21 (which would still be too early to safely attend any convention), and Twitch is trying to milk more money from advertising. Also, we have some early thoughts on 18MEX (which you can play at 18xx.games) and the Resident Evil remakes.

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Tonight, we review the hot new comic Isola. Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kerschl, with color by Msassyk and letters by Aditya Bidikar, it's a transhumanist tale of a queen trapped in the body of a tiger.

In the news, Netflix partners with a big chunk of the anime industry, and continues to bring big animated shows with The Way of the Househusband, the Gorillaz movie, the Pacific Rim anime, Blue Eye Samurai, Bee and Puppycat, and more. Also the Utena afterstory is out, and Deca-Dence is not what it appears to be.

GeekNights with Rym + Scott: Recent Episodes

Rym and Scott - The Front Row Crew