The MacJury podcast episodes ( Part 1 and Part 2) were loads of fun thanks Chuck Joiner’s ability to throw together just the right mix of people to ensure an, um, eclectic mix of gift ideas. I was lucky enough to get to rub virtual elbows with author Joe Kissell, Jean MacDonald from SmileOnMyMac, TUAW’s Steve Sande, Pat Fauquet from MacMouseCalls, Julio Ojeda-Zapata from the Pioneer Press, and TMO’s own Nancy Gravley.

The holiday gift guide over at TMO includes staff picks for the Mac, iPod and iPhone lover in your life — and it’s only part 1, so there’s more to come.

Even if you don’t celebrate any gift giving holidays, the lists still include some fun ideas for tech stuff you can pick up for yourself. And if anyone is keeping track, I don’t have a TARDIS USB hub of my own yet. *Cough*

The PTE Charles gave me is actually a photographic table, which adds the extra coolness of being able to see the elements instead of just referencing their properties. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that elements like Rutherfordium, Meitnerium and Einsteinium actually look like real people. Amazing!

You can pick up your own photographic PTE at periodictable.com. It’s available as posters, 3D lenticular posters, place mats, and decks of playing cards.

Stephen’s map visualizes the distance between McDonald’s restaurants for the continental United States with glowing orange lights. The brighter the lights, the closer the restaurants are.

While the sheer density of McDonald’s locations in the U.S. is staggering, I was equally impressed with the technology that went into whipping up this map. Stephen was able to get ahold of the raw data from AggData, massage a CSV file with some coding magic, and build a map that shows there are plenty of places all over the country for people that think they really do deserve a break today.

That said, there’s a frakking ass-load of McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. I can only imaging what the map would look like if it also included all the Burger King, Wendy’s, Chik-Fil-A and KFC joints, too.

Holy crap. I think my arteries are clogging just thinking about it.

You can check out everything I mentioned during my presentation over at The Mac Observer, complete with prices and iTunes Store links. Just trying to make your life a little easier.

If you weren’t at the event, sorry I missed you. It was a kick in the pants and there were plenty of really cool people to hang out with. Also, I totally scored an Atomic Love Bombs CD. Life is good.

I’m going to show how to protect your personal information, share stuff with friends online, and show you which apps can help keep your life organized. There’s some fun apps for artists on my list, and I’ll show iPod touch owners how to turn their handheld into an Internet phone.

Interested in making your own music? Cool, because I have some tips on using your iPhone or iPod touch as a musical instrument, too.

As if that isn’t enough, The Mac Observer is exhibiting at the event, so I’ll be hanging on the expo floor with Bryan Chaffin, too. If you aren’t familiar with Bryan, you should be. He’s part of the foundation of TMO and writes some amazingly insightful industry analysis pieces. He’s also part of the uber-cool rock band, The Atomic Love Bombs.

Be sure to stop by our booth and say “Hi.” Of course, we’ll give you a little extra incentive to drop by in the form of some kick ass prizes we’ll be giving away throughout the day.

Clear your schedule for Saturday, October 3, because the expo runs from 10AM to 5PM pacific time. It’s at the Petaluma Community Center in Petaluma, California. You can find out more at the North Coast Mac User Group Web site.

Oh yeah… Here’s a shameless plug for The Atomic Love Bombs: They rock, and you should really support independent bands. You can buy their album at the iTunes Store, or at their Web site. Hop to it.

I’m lucky enough to work in an industry that’s loaded with talent, and I had the chance to talk about Apple’s announcements with a crazy-long list of pros that includes Chris Breen, Michael Johnston, Chuck Joiner, John F. Braun, Terry White, and Bryan Chaffin. We talked about the good and bad with the new iPhone, gave AT&T the smack-down for fumbling on MMS and tethering, and got all worked up in anticipation of Mac OS X 10.6.

It was a true uber geek-fest, and a great reminder that I really do have the best job in the world.

Behind the scenes true fact: I was completely hopped up on Codeine when I did the iPhone Alley podcast thanks to a nasty little gum infection. End result… I’m not that different when I’m drugged or sober. Go figure.

The ever-exciting Jay Nelson, CoMUG’s amazing leader, is out of town this week, so I’m going to be filling his shoes as host for the evening, too. That’s just in case you can’t get enough of me online.

The meeting is on June 11 at 7PM at the NCAR facility in Boulder. And don’t forget: The CoMUG crew also hangs out at Ihop in Boulder after the meetings. Pancakes, tech and free Wi-Fi. What more could you ask for?

The evening lineup along with directions is available at the CoMUG Web site.

If you aren’t familiar with the RSA Conference, it’s an annual event for information and technology security. I’ll be speaking on the “Responding to the Ignored Threat – Macs in the Enterprise” panel with Jon Allen from Baylor University, Stan Gatewood from University Systems of Georgia, and John Dasher from PGP. That’s on Tuesday, April 21 at 1:30PM pacific time at the Moscone Center.

On Wednesday, I’ll be in Las Vegas for NAB, which is an insanely huge conference for the broadcasting world. There’s going to be tons of uber-cool stuff for me to check out, and yes, I’ll be reporting on what I find, so be sure to check out TMO for my event coverage.

Since I can’t seem to keep my big mouth shut, I’ll be tweeting about both events throughout the week, so you can follow along in real time. You know, I just love technology.

I know what you’re thinking: “Jeff, this whole digital TV thing totally snuck up on everyone. It was so frakking sneaky that it could have slit our throats in our sleep! We’re lucky to still be alive!”

Indeed you are lucky, my little TV-loving friends, because it’s been next to impossible to get ready for the big digital transition with only about 12 years warning. Here’s how the timeline played out:

In 1996, Congress agreed that a switch from analog to digital over-the-air TV made sense because TV stations could offer higher quality images, run multiple programs at the same time on a single channel, and it would free up all kinds of radio frequencies for public safety. They set the target cut off date at December 31, 2006, but left it to a future Congress to actually mandate the switchover date. Eventually, Congress set the official cut off date at the end of the day on February 16, 2009.

For good measure, the government also decided that TVs manufactured after February 2007 had to support digital TV signals, and also set up a subsidy program to help people that didn’t have digital-compatible TVs and couldn’t afford the $60-ish price tag for a converter box buy what they need. They even set up a Web site with all of the gory details.

Now let’s fast forward to late January, 2009. TV stations have been hard at work preparing for the mandated switch over, and many have been simulcasting in analog and digital for some time. Congress, however, is all freaked out that no one is ready for the change that’s only a couple of weeks away, so they pass legislation that pushed the transition date out to June 12.

This is where it gets confusing for consumers because some full-power stations could still drop their analog broadcasts on February 17, and then other stations can do the same after March 14. That means people that procrastinated will still lose their favorite TV stations, but now they won’t know when. It also means that stations that weren’t included in the February switch over group have to budget in the substantial expense of maintaining their analog transmission system — and in the end, the same people that procrastinated for over 12 years will probably still be unprepared when June 12 rolls around.

Now that Congress has established that it’s capable of legislating for procrastination, I’m thinking this is a prime opportunity to fix some other problems we have. We’ll start with moving the beginning of the work week back to Wednesday so that students can finish their weekend homework, and business types can finish up their Monday presentations before heading in to work. Gift-giving holidays can be moved back a few days, too, so that there’s time to go out and buy presents.

So the DTV transition has been delayed, people won’t know when the stations they watch are cutting over to only digital signals, and TV stations get to shoulder unexpected expenses. Sweet.

And why blog about the digital TV several days after February 17 instead of right after Congress moved the date? I just wanted to see how this procrastination thing would work out for me, too.

Crap. There goes my Saturday afternoon.

Aside from the brain-scrubbing videos, YouTube rocks. It’s packed tight with entertainment, training, video blogs, promotional videos and more. You can’t ask for a better deal as a viewer: YouTube rocks.

For the people providing all that tasty content, YouTube’s ultra easy-ness means that you don’t need a rocket science degree to figure out how to get your message, entertainment, or drunk videos out to the world. So what’s not to love?

It’s the branding. Every time someone views a video you upload, they see the YouTube logo — great branding for YouTube, but not so much for you because your content is branded as YouTube and not just you. That’s not a big deal to everyone, but if controlling your brand, even if it’s a video podcast, is important to you, then it’s time to pay attention to your branding. Viewers should remember your logo, and not YouTube’s logo.

If I’m going to steer the brand conscious away from YouTube, the least I can do is offer some alternatives. How about Vimeo or Viddler. I especially like Viddler because they make it easy to embed your own logo in your videos, but both offer simple ways to add video content to your own site.

Here’s a great example of controlling your brand: Don McAllister’s ScreenCastsOnline. I don’t know who hosts his videos, and it doesn’t matter. Everything carries the ScreenCastsOnline brand, and there’s never any doubt who is in charge of the content.

Of course, there’s always a trade off because life sucks that way. In this case, the trade off is that while you have more control over your own branding, you’ll probably have to work harder to get people to find your work. YouTube is pretty much ubiquitous, so that’s where everyone goes first when they want to find a video. Yeah, I do it, too.

Think about who gets the branding benefit from your hard work. It might be YouTube, but it could be you.

And now I’m heading over to YouTube for some 2 Hot Girls in the Shower time. No, it’s not what you’re thinking. Get your mind out of the gutter.