There are many senses that a wayward geek can stimulate in order to further their enjoyment of the culture that surrounds them. Obviously, visual stimulation is one of the many that anyone reading this is employing. Kinetic stimulation can be satisfied with movement, as anyone trying to sell you motion controls is liable to pitch. However, one particular sense is rarely utilized in a manner befitting the subject. But thanks to an influx in quality podcasts over the fast couple years, we geeks no longer have to worry about leaving those auditory urges unsatisfied. Better yet, these podcasts span the gap between the various disciplines of geekdom in such a manner that allows them to sometimes “cross the streams,” as it were, without disastrous consequences.

So, here they are, some of the best geek podcasts that the ‘net has to offer.

There are an absolute plethora of webcomics out there. Some have lasted for years while others are only just now starting out. Some are known for their humor, their brevity, their wit, their unique style or really any combination of these and many more. Some follow strict linear plots while others are just a jumbled mass of comics with a sort of tangible reality stretched to cover them.

So, the chances are good that there’s at least one that will strike your incredibly niche fancy. Due to the ways in which the geeky demographics mix, if you’re reading this list on this site, chances are even better for at least one if not a whole bunch to be spot on. In fact, you might already know and love XKCD and Dinosaur Comics.

But the world of webcomics is far larger than just those two or even three if you count Achewood. So, for those of you out there just dying for a new webcomic to follow, Geekosystem proudly presents a number of geeky webcomics that deserve more attention than they have received.

Hacking seems to be on the mind of all those who utilize the Internet these days. It’s kind of a foregone conclusion that when you open something up to the vast legions of the web that it’s going to get wrecked by someone at some point. That hasn’t stopped folks from being incredibly lax about security, but this is a problem that stems from people who know little to nothing about the details making decisions in opposition to the advice they’re given from specialists.

So the high-profile hacks of late were really inevitable.

Nintendo’s press conferences remind me of the movie Signs. Keep in mind that Signs was made prior to last year’s The Last Airbender and long before the novelty of the twist ending wore off. Specifically, I’m reminded of the scene where Joaquin Phoenix’s character is revealed to hold both a home run and strikeout record. No matter what the coaches told him that he should do, he insisted on swinging as hard as he possibly could.

And that’s where I associate Phoenix’s character with Nintendo. He’s being mocked in the movie by another member of the town for his penchant for always trying to hit it out of the park. As the scene comes to a close, he utters a line that feels completely in line with Nintendo’s current design philosophy, it “felt wrong not to swing.”

When you die and potentially go wherever it is that people go when they’re dead — be it in the ground or some type of heaven or whatever — chances are you won’t be pleased with everyone that has been given a pass. Some people just rub folks the wrong way; it’s a fact of life. There is one bright side to this, however: If you’re going to this theorized place, it’s safe to assume that people similar to you are going to be going there as well. That means that all those geeky actors will be chatting it up in the geek afterlife, hopefully. But where do they draw the line?

Clearly, some are more worthy than others. Some actors have been in multiple works that were seminal in their own right. So, here it is, finally, a list of the actors that are most worthy of being admitted to the geek equivalent of heaven.

The world of comics is an ever-expanding one. With each new title comes a bevy of new superheroes, villains and general populace that then must be worked with when dealing with the greater continuity. Sometimes, this can lead to interesting developments like The Avengers or one of their various incarnations or can even lead to massive crossover events.

Regardless, continuity marches on and things become convoluted, complex and downright difficult to work around. It should come as no surprise, then, that DC Comics has decided to go ahead and “relaunch” their universe with all new #1s in September. It’s not as if this is setting precedent either. This is following in a long tradition of reboots, relaunches and general simplifications.

These types of events are sometimes met with frustration on the part of fans, such as the M-Day aftermath in the Marvel multiverse, or with genuine enthusiasm, like the previous Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline in DC Comics. More often than not, these stories herald the death of many different versions of superheroes and others that fans have come to know and love. (Though it likely deserves to be mentioned here, the Spider-Man: One More Day saga is just too painful to talk about.)

So, it’s with cautious optimism that I look forward to the coming “relaunch,” which you can brush up on over at The Mary Sue.

Anybody that has played Portal — or at this point, heard someone espousing the virtues of Portal — has likely come across the musician Jonathan Coulton. His song from the ending credits, “Still Alive,” has reached near mythical status in the realm of geekdom and potentially beyond.

But Mr. Coulton is far from the only geeky musician out there. There are some obvious inclusions in a list of geeky musicians, such as mc chris, Freezepop and, of course, Weird Al. There are also, however, a number of musicians, bands and groups that exist just far enough out to the side of what might be considered mainstream that they deserve to be spotlighted.

This is by no means comprehensive. For more artists, check out Nerdapalooza or Penny Arcade Expo. The first is a nerdy music festival while the second typically has concerts at night featuring many of these artists and more.

For better or worse, it seems like the PlayStation Network is slowly recovering from its unannounced demise at the hands of some rogue hackers that may or may not be associated with the Anonymous hacker group. Barring some leftover exploitation of the computer’s password reset page, there’s been little to report in the way of horrible things happening to Sony as of late. That’s because they’re preparing to completely re-launch it all.

Who knows what’s going to happen during the Sony presser at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in just less than two weeks. But we do know they are not just ignoring the crisis they, as a company, endured either.  Through a special Welcome Back promotion, they’re going to be offering two free downloads of a small list of popular games to show some kind of appreciation to their returning customers. In addition, they will be offering a month of PlayStation Plus access.

That’s all supposed to happen at some nebulous point after the store comes back online. As of writing this, that has yet to happen. The store is still, as they put it, “undergoing maintenance” until further notice. Even so, the list includes some impressive titles. LittleBigPlanet and inFAMOUS are two major contenders for the absolute best of what’s being offered. Those are two titles that, regardless of other circumstances, one should probably be pleased with adding to one’s collection of well-crafted games.

But that’s part of the problem.

The newest release in the long-winded Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise is now in theatres. I’m sure, somewhere, somebody is rejoicing that fact. It’s probably worth mentioning that my despair didn’t stop said movie from raking in boatloads of cash. Literal boatloads. Okay, not really. But still, a lot of money was made.  My despair also had nothing to do with Roger Ebert giving the most recent iteration fewer stars than Mel Gibson’s latest outing, The Beaver. Yes, the one where he wears a beaver puppet on his hand throughout the film. That is what scored more favorably.

This turn of events brought to mind other movie franchises that managed the trifecta but couldn’t quite pull off the fourth. Also, just to get it out of the way, I am fairly positive The Matrix would be included here were it not for the remarkably sane decision to stop at three.

Call of Duty, as a franchise, has never really been my cup of tea. It probably has something to do with my love for the PC for FPS gaming of any kind. But that hasn’t stopped me from playing and loving the stuffing out of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the Xbox 360 or even from playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to completion. It also isn’t like I didn’t play its obvious predecessors; Medal of Honor was my FPS franchise of choice for a long time. Something just never clicked with me after the transition to Activision.

Which is why the fact that I admit that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was a milestone for the genre is all the more impressive. It wasn’t that the game is (or was at the time of release) overly exceptional. It’s the fact that it pushed boundaries and challenged some very specific conventions that really made it stand out head and shoulders above the video games being published at Activision’s main competitors. Well, that and it was just well-crafted in general.