O’Reilly’s Emerging Technology conference is often ground zero for useful and meaningful tech stuff and the geeks who invent them. In 2004, Flickr debuted here. In 2008, many DIY projects bloom, such as Socialbomb, aerial drones, binary LED watches, modular programmable open source gadgets and cheap open source robots. We talk to a few of their inventors, capture a brief moment with Nikita Chrusov of Soviet Unterzoegersdorf and close on a serious note as former AT&T technician Mark Klein accepts the EFF’s 2008 Pioneer Award.

Episode links: ETech 2008, Socialbomb, Nate True, Bre Pettis, Soviet Unterzoegersdorf, monochrom, IPRE, Bug Labs, EFF Pioneer Awards, Mark Klein

We’re still at the LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco. What do virgins, big stacks, spam and burning man have in common? We’re not sure either but Irina asks the tough questions.

Episode links: LinuxWorld Expo, OpenDNS, Linux Format, Barracuda Networks, Open Planing Project, Plone, Burning Man, MadMax1, MadMax2, EFF

GETV was present for the fancy & contentious EFF sponsored debate & fundraiser over the future of email. In the ring we have Danny O’Brien, EFF’s Activist Coordinator duking it out with Esther Dyson, internet luminary and editor of Release 1.0. This verbal smackdown is moderated by Mitch Kapor, EFF co-founder and well known supplier of the 80’s warez scene with its reddest meat, Lotus 1-2-3. We can’t reveal who walked away the winner, but Irina does get the scoop in her post-debate interviews with the players. Episode links: email: should the sender pay?, eff, mitch kapor, danny o’brien, esther dyson, soul of the internet, betsy, trish

Jason Schultz, Staff Attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, explains to Irina how EFF is going to pwn Sony BMG for their little rootkit mischief. For you production value nazis, you’ll be glad to know that the mic actually works in this one. episode links: eff, father boris, girl with braces