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Omar L. Gallaga writes about technology culture for the Austin American-Statesman. He's worked for more than nine years at the Austin American-Statesman and edited Technopolis, the newspaper's personal tech section, and ¡ahora sí!, Austin's Spanish-language newspaper. He's been a writer and performer with Austin's award-winning Latino Comedy Project and is a contributing writer for Television Without Pity, MSNBC.com's books section and The Almost Late Show with Bobby Bones. He writes a comic strip, "Space Monkeys!" with his brother, Pablo, and lives in New Braunfels with his wife and three technologically savvy cats.

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The entry titled "Friday mind expansion: fill your brain."

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The New York Times Magazine is running a Sunday piece about Internet trolls. I’ve had a few people who have already read the story express shock and amazement, and it will shock and amaze you, most likely. But if you really spend a lot of time online (and especially on video game and tech forums), none of the revelations about bad behavior online will be much of a surprise. Trolls are a fact of Internet life.
Have you heard of Slydial? It’s a service that allows you to call someone and go straight to their voicemail without having to talk to them. Want to engage in a sneaky breakup? Got some awkward news to share after going to see your doctor? The applications are endless! The phone number is 267-SLYDIAL (267-759-3425) and the voice prompts will guide you. The press release I got says you can use SLYDIAL to “Create the illusion of communication.” Well, that’s novel. I’m sure you’re not sneaky enough to use it, but it’s nice to have the option to be a reprobate in the future.
Richard Garriott wants to shoot your DNA into space. Find out how at Operation Immortality
“Video Games Live,” the orchestral show of video game music I reviewed at The Long Center recently is coming back in March. Yay!
Dish Network has announced the first 1080p programming over a satellite TV network. The so-called “TurboHD” service launched today, in addition to 17 more national HD channels. The movie “I Am Legend” (which I saw this week and hated) will be offered at 1080p quality over Dish’s video-on-demand service at a discounted price. DirectTV is also planning to offer some 1080p content later this year. 1080p sounds great, but as this blog item points out, it’s not all about resolution: compression is a huge factor, too. For now, don’t expect Blu-ray-level quality.
I am currently playing “Geometry Wars 2” on Xbox Live and loving it. Definitely worth the $10 price. Also checking out “American McGee’s Grimm,” which I hope to tell you about next week.
It appears someone has figured out a way to turn an iPhone into a wireless modem to give your laptop a way to get online when out of a Wi-Fi area. It’s a $10 app.
Speaking of the iPhone, the game “ReelDeal Texas Hold ‘Em” has dropped in price to 99 cents for the next week.
And, lastly on the iPhone front, this video was made in Austin. Not sure if that’s a wonderful thing or a matter of grave concern: