Hey everybody!  We’re back for another exciting episode of HPProgs! We don’t have much to talk about this week.  It’s October which means we have to announce the winner of our September Beedle the Bard YouTube contest.  And we do, in the podcast.  So take a listen!  Also, we were at the New York City Wizard Rock Festival (which, after typing that out, I now know why everyone referred to as NYCWRF).  It was awesome, we got to hear lots of amazing bands, and meet lots of amazing people.  If you were there, let us know what you thought of it! And that’s about it!  Stay tuned we’ve got some good stuff coming in the next few weeks.  And make sure to check out HPProgs on YouTube, and enter the Beedle the Bard YouTube contest, if you haven’t alraedy (or even if you have, enter again!).  You could win a copy of the deluxe edition of the new Beedle the Bard book coming out in December. This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com . Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp . You can listen to the podcast with the player below, or download it directly as an mp3. Less

This is a music video for those who voted for us and emailed their names for the Yahoo! contest. It’s also a thank you to all of the fans who’ve been so supportive of the show and have been a key part of its success. Thank you - on the real side! Distributed by Tubemogul. Less

Escape From Berkeley (By Any Non-Petroleum Means Necessary) is an alternative-fueled road rally that starts October 10th and ends October 13th. The rally begins in Berkeley, California, and finishes in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Sahara. Contestants are required to use any fuel other than petroleum, and using only those fuels scavenged “for free” along the way. Fuel cannot be purchased. Judges will present awards for both artistic and technical achievements. If you want to get in on the action, there are a number of ways to participate, from registering your vehicle to volunteering for the event or even sponsoring the route “by the mile” or by landmark. [via Laughing Squid]        Less

We recently team up with our friends of BillMeLater.com They are having a contest to win your own Man Cave full of amazing gadgets including a Total Blender. Check out Tom's Man Cave. Less

The interview: Talk Social News Episode 5 - length 33:39 download or click to play: Download audio file (TalkSocialNews-005-Yammer.mp3) Subscribe to podcast in iTunes: You can follow Yammer on twitter as : @Yammer_Team - http://twitter.com/yammer_team This week, Kipp and Wayne interview Yammer CEO David Sacks, a quick review of Google’s Andriod OS phone with T-Mobile the G1 and we review how the government could use social media to communicate with the public to inform us on what is in the bailout bill. Also we discuss how the state of the economy will effect startups, what Jason Calacanis calls the Startup Depression. Yammer ScreenCast Yammer on twitter Reminder if you listen to Talk Social News, we’re looking for some “postive reviews” on iTunes (iTunes link), be one of the first 2 or 3, to write a review of the podcast and let us know in the comments and we’ll have something special for you. Check out Ripple6 our sponsor and thanks for listening. If you’re interested in becoming sponsor of Talk Social News see the Become A Sponsor page. September 15, 2008 — Talk Social News Episode 3: Kipp and Wayne Talk TechCrunch 50 and Interview Geoff Livingston September 22, 2008 — Talk Social News Episode 4: Kipp and Wayne Talk With A Co-Founder of Qik.com About The Future of Mobile Video September 8, 2008 — Talk Social News debuts with Brightkite CTO interview On Location Based Applications Share and Enjoy: Less

The interview: Talk Social News Episode 5 - length 33:39 download or click to play: Download audio file (TalkSocialNews-005-Yammer.mp3) Subscribe to podcast in iTunes: You can follow Yammer on twitter as : @Yammer_Team - http://twitter.com/yammer_team This week, Kipp and Wayne interview Yammer CEO David Sacks, a quick review of Google’s Andriod OS phone with T-Mobile the G1 and we review how the government could use social media to communicate with the public to inform us on what is in the bailout bill. Also we discuss how the state of the economy will effect startups, what Jason Calacanis calls the Startup Depression. Yammer ScreenCast Yammer on twitter Reminder if you listen to Talk Social News, we’re looking for some “postive reviews” on iTunes (iTunes link), be one of the first 2 or 3, to write a review of the podcast and let us know in the comments and we’ll have something special for you. Check out Ripple6 our sponsor and thanks for listening. If you’re interested in becoming sponsor of Talk Social News see the Become A Sponsor page. September 15, 2008 — Talk Social News Episode 3: Kipp and Wayne Talk TechCrunch 50 and Interview Geoff Livingston September 22, 2008 — Talk Social News Episode 4: Kipp and Wayne Talk With A Co-Founder of Qik.com About The Future of Mobile Video September 8, 2008 — Talk Social News debuts with Brightkite CTO interview On Location Based Applications Share and Enjoy: Less

We're proud to announce the winners of the first Ask Palpatine contest: Design a Better Vader. Man, these designs were awesome. Less

Congratulations to [John Keppel] for his winning t-shirt design. He wins a Dash Express, an in-car navigation device with both cellular and WiFi data support. It’s running Linux on top of the Openmoko FreeRunner’s hardware platform; yes, [John], we do expect you to hack it. We’ll let all of you know when we plan on putting the shirt into production. Thank you to everyone that entered!        Less

The Trossen Robotics Blog has announced the winners of the “Crabfu challenge”. The challenge, issued by [Crabfu] was to make a robot that was full of character. It didn’t have to have a purpose or be autonomous, it just had to be full of character. The first place winner, pictured above, won us over when he “blinked” a few moments into his video. Strange how something so simple can add so much life. [via BotJunkie]        Less

If you’re a fan of the Harry Potter books and J.K. Rowling, and were alive during the month of April of 2008, you probably heard about a little law suit over a book called “The Harry Potter Lexicon.”  The author of that book, Steve Vander Ark, is also the creator and editor of the Harry Potter Lexicon website.  We got a chance to talk with Steve about the lawsuit, the fan reactions, his new book and, of course, we talked a bit about Harry Potter (you know, the books about this boy wizard…oh never mind).  It’s a fascinating interview, hope you enjoy it.  We here at HPProgs believe in hearing all points of view, and hope that you will feel free to voice your opinions in the comments, while remaining respectful and rational in the process. A big thanks to Steve for taking the time to talk with us. Check out Steve’s new book entitled In Search of Harry Potter. This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com . Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp . Don’t forget to get your entries in for the Harry Potter/Beedle the Bard/YouTube Contest!  You can win a free copy of the Deluxe edition of the new Beedle the Bard book (that’s the $100 fancy version). You can listen to the episode with the player below, or download it directly as an mp3. Less

The final day for entries in our Hack a Day T-Shirt Design Contest is today. Get your entries in by midnight Pacific time and you could win a Dash Express (or non-US prize). Less

The final day for entries in our Hack a Day T-Shirt Design Contest is September 15th. Get your entries in now and you could win a Dash Express (or non-US prize). Less

We had a lot of entries for our Fail contest; there can only be one winner though. We liked [Gordon LaPlante]’s entry pictured above most of all. It’s big, it’s broken, and it’s black and white; that certainly sounds like us. [Gordon] wins $100 worth of No Starch Press merchandise. There were plenty of other honorable entries. You can view them in the Hack a Day Flickr photo pool. We saw a couple themes emerge during the contest and have highlighted some of them after the break. Hamsters This caught us off guard. Our downtime message said, “we’re adding more hamsters to our server power plant” and people just ran away with it. [hohan] This one by [jetblackscreems] looks like it has lots of mascot potential, spelling be damned. Fail Whales These were natural given our Twitter inspiration. [oneamericankid] [Bjonnh] [reenigneesrever] [macetech] made probably the most Hack a Day appropriate rendition of the Twitter image. Error screens [jonathanrice78] [AdamsGrizzly] [dibbqwaz] made a fine ASCII 503 that should probably be in the previous category. [adamsih300u] Angry robots We’re sad this didn’t gain more traction. [enrique jimenez] [einsofayin] This was a really fun contest to hold and we’ll be having many more in the future. Check out our Hack a Day T-Shirt design contest, which ends this weekend. Less

Download MP3 (right-click and select Save Target As to download) Duration: 60 min. Flare 4 was just released today by Madcap Software. In this podcast, I talk with Sharon Burton — product manager at Madcap Software — about all the main features of the Flare 4 release. Flare 4 topics we discuss include the following: Page layouts New outputs (PDF, XPS, XHTML, and Adobe Air) Enhanced reporting capability Built-in topic reviews Additional help guides Global project linking Image resizing Smart cross-references Mini-TOCs for print Although Flare 4 is the core focus of this podcast, Sharon also explains a little about Madcap’s other new releases, including Blaze, X-Edit, and Analyzer. As if releasing 4 new products (Flare 4, Blaze, Analyzer, and X-Edit) on one day wasn’t enough, Madcap also totally redesigned its website. If you have questions about Flare 4 or any other Madcap product, direct them to Sharon at sburton@madcapsoftware.com. You can also visit Sharon Burton’s blog at http://madcapsoftware.wordpress.com. You can visit Mike Hamilton’s blog at http://madcapsoftware2.wordpress.com. If you have feedback on the podcast, add your comment below the post or send me an email at tomjohnson1492@gmail.com. Contest Note: By the way, today is the last day to enter the Flare 4 giveaway. (If you missed the post about the Flare 4 contest, see “Flare 4 Giveaway — Enter to Win a Free Copy by Commenting on this Post“). In the contest deadlines, I said I would announce the winner on the day of the Flare 4 release. So Monday night (Sep at 9 p.m. MST, I will announce the winner. You can enter the contest up until that time. Less

I sat down in a local coffee shop, opened up my MacBook (since our mobile gear is missing), and had a chat with Mark Latham of Voter Media and the Vancouver Election Blog Contest. Mark explains a bit about his background, his passion, and his motivation for initiating Voter Media. Here are all of the blogs currently listed in the weekly contest: The Tyee State of Vancouver by Frances Bula David Eby Hummingbird604.com The Vancouver Observer Vancity Buzz In Support of Public Education Price Tags* Left eye on Vancouver Paul Hillsdon Stephen Rees The Vancouver Manifesto ursa minor: bear604 Bill Tieleman Walter Schultz Miss 604 Also mentioned is the UBC campaign, the UBC Insiders blog, and Sean Orr of Beyond Robson. You can also keep up to date on Voter Media through Mark’s blog. Less

I sat down in a local coffee shop, opened up my MacBook (since our mobile gear is missing), and had a chat with Mark Latham of Voter Media and the Vancouver Election Blog Contest. Mark explains a bit about his background, his passion, and his motivation for initiating Voter Media. Here are all of the blogs currently listed in the weekly contest: The Tyee State of Vancouver by Frances Bula David Eby Hummingbird604.com The Vancouver Observer Vancity Buzz In Support of Public Education Price Tags* Left eye on Vancouver Paul Hillsdon Stephen Rees The Vancouver Manifesto ursa minor: bear604 Bill Tieleman Walter Schultz Miss 604 Also mentioned is the UBC campaign, the UBC Insiders blog, and Sean Orr of Beyond Robson. You can also keep up to date on Voter Media through Mark’s blog. Less

Shownotes: The summer of prizes comes to a close. Very special thanks to Nyko technologies and TotalConsole for their great support and prizes to give away. Less

This is just a reminder that the "Design a Better Vader" contest closes on August 31, so you've only got a few days to submit your designs to http://forum.askpalpatine.com/, for the chance to win the new Star Wars game "The Force Unleashed!" Less

Shownotes: This week we dish about the new Godfather game that isn’t coming to the Wii, Nintendo’s shame at E3, and some new releases that look fantastic! The summer of prizes is coming to a close, make sure you get your entries in. Less

Vinecast Episode 8, for August 20, 2008. Today Viki and I are joined by Kymlee, Mykola (despite introducing himself as Celestina, who couldn’t make it), and of course the official trouble-maker (in a good way) of the Vinecast, winsomecowboy. Check http://tinyurl.com/5fylft for the full show notes and to discuss the podcast on Newsvine. Less