Does anyone get a little nostalgic when it comes to bundled software?

In the 90s it meant getting 25,000 games packed onto a CD or a complete reference library from researchers you never heard of: Mayo Clinique? Not so much.

But last night at midnight when MacUpdate announced its $49.99 Mac OS X spring promo bundle, it meant being able to grab licenses for two local Macintosh development projects along with nine other professional applications on the cheap.

Like, a $470 discount.

Included in the package, alongside well-known apps like Parallels Desktop 4 and Tech Tool Pro 5, is Old City’s own Multiplex and RipIt applications. By themselves, the companion DVD applications cost $53.

Both products were born and raised in IndyHall, and one is a product of software incubator IndyHall Labs. As sweet a deal as it may seem for consumers, maybe the developers are the ones most hyped about the opportunity.

“It’s a massive vote of confidence for the quality of apps that Labs is producing,” IndyHall co-founder and Labs co-organizer Alex Hillman said in a telephone interview.

Still, that $470 is coming out of someone’s pocket, right?

As members of the two development teams (which borrow members from one another) passed a phone around the co-working facility answering questions – and as downloads skyrocketed on the bundle’s sales ticker – Multiplex’s Co-Lead Developer David Martorana hesitated on answering how his team can afford to offer such a deep discount.

“It is a promotional opportunity to get a large audience through an established institution,” he said after a long pause. “It all pans out as a great promotional opportunity for us. We all agreed to do it because we believe in the longevity of IndyHall Labs.”

A Twitter search for the promotion reveals 25 pages of conversation concerning the discount after 13 hours of being available. Since noon, 2,000 bundles sold.

Jason Allum, who leads development on RipIt and co-leads alongside Martorana on Multiplex said that though the decision to include the products in the bundle was mulled over, it was worth the risk.

“We’ve been getting crushed. [MacUpdate] did 25,000 units last year. It’s safe to say we’re going to blow that out this year,” he said.

If you have never seen Twistori in action, go look. Seriously, I’ll wait.

The popular Web site and screensaver scans Twitter for uses of a handful key phrases such as “I hate,” “I love” and “I wish” and displays the Tweets anonymously and in real time, offering a revealing look into the life of people you may never meet. The site arranges the Tweets into a beautiful cascade of bright colors on a dark background that could suck you in for hours.

Amy Hoy and Thomas Fuchs, the couple behind the mesmerizing service, have just just released a desktop version where users pick their own keywords to be displayed. The application was one of the first ads on Twitter, was featured on Apple.com and has been covered by ReadWriteWeb among many other outlets.

Hoy may reside in Austria, but you can’t tell the story of Twistori without mentioning Philadelphia.

The desktop application was released through IndyHall Labs with the help of the hosts of� Two Guys on Beer, Dave Martorana and Johnny Bilotta. Hoy has been to the city several times, and was even there the day IndyHall opened.

We chatted with the Maryland-native as she closed the business day in Vienna about the recent release of Twistori’s Desktop app and her thoughts about her recent appearance on the popular tech podcast This Week in Tech.

Where did the idea for Twistori come from?

I’ve been really interested in people since I first picked up a copy of The Naked Ape when I was a kid and I have been reading sociological & neuroscience-type texts ever since. I’m interested in what makes people tick. And Twitter is a freakin’ gold mine for anyone interested in people. I thought it was such a shame that nobody was doing anything interesting with that data, so I decided I would. I got my husband’s help and we shipped it that day.

What spurred the decision to do a desktop app?

Since we launched the original Twistori (web edition), we’ve gotten scores of emails and hundreds of tweets from people wishing for a Twistori they could customize. And we’ve been following our friend Dave Martorana’s progress on another Mac project, Multiplex, for some time. It seemed like a perfect fit: we love Dave, Dave loved the idea, and people have been really excited about being able to get the Twitter data they’re interested in.

PC users such myself are wondering… when is the PC version?

Weellll, we don’t have any plans for a Windows version. We’ve got a lot of things in the pipeline that rely heavily on the awesome Cocoa API stuff for which there’s no real Windows equivalent.

Nuts. Ok to switch gears a bit, I was listening to This Week in Tech and you were mentioned. Did you hear it? [Note: Listen to the segment below]

http://technicallyphilly.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/amyhoy.mp3

Yeah, I did, after a friend mentioned it.

Besides the terrible impersonation, did you have any reaction?

Well, there was the terrible impersonation, the random slagging on me, and the fact that they got half the facts wrong. Pretty much like the last time I was on TWiT, except for the slagging part. Both times, [Host Leo Laporte] was talking about something of mine, and the other person brought up something vaguely similar but not the same thing, and the conversation was totally confused after that. Last time, they confused Twistori with a never-revealed app that put your Tweets in calendar format. This time, they confused my husband’s missing AdSense revenue with that dude who wrote about suing Google. Totally different.

So, they’re 0 for 2 then.

Yeah, pretty much how it goes with big tech pundits, eh?

You mean those not based in Philly.

But of course!

How are Twistori’s sales doing?

We’re averaging about five copies a day (and trials will just begin to expire shortly). We haven’t done any marketing, and we haven’t unveiled the most exciting features yet, and most people aren’t up against the end of the trial … so I can only assume it will get even better.

What’s the upcoming feature that has you most excited?

It’s a secret! But it’s related to themes.

What makes you Technically Philly?

I’m a Philly resident at heart! I met Alex Hillman at [South by Southwest Interactive] when he was in the process of starting up IndyHall, but before it was a reality; I attended the IndyHall grand opening; I love all the IndyHall peeps and they don’t consider me completely annoying.

Every Friday, Technically Philly brings an interview with a leader or innovator in Philadelphia’s technology community. See others here.

Johnny Bilotta and David Martorana produce Two Guys On Beer on the cheap.

It ain’t a bad week to be a beer lover in Philadelphia. For Johnny Bilotta and David Martorana of the Old City-based Two Guys On Beer video podcast, Philly Beer Week is sure to be a busy one.

The show, which demands deliciousness from the brews it tests, is coming up on its 60th episode, which is no small feat for a low-to-no budget production released twice per week. According to the duo, the podcast has grown a steady national viewership of 700 to 2,000 viewers per episode, and they’ve been considering syndication models that could end up planting it on the face of news Web sites anywhere.

Now that we’re half through the city’s week-long hoppy, malty escape from all things mixed-drink, Technically Philly has a confession. Last week during an interview for Shop Talk, when we told the show’s co-host and co-producer Dave Martorona to take it easy on the suds, we didn’t mean a word of it. We’re expecting Two Guys to make it their day job. Fortunately, Martorona proved that the show can afford a break from worrying about the production back-end, when he shared with Technically Philly some tips for aspiring vid-casters.

Read their advice on production and distribution, and check out Two Guys’ shooting rig, which includes a steal of a deal from EBay, after the jump.

Two Guys' rig is gleefully simple. A Flip Mino digital video camera, a $35 boom mic from EBay, tripod, and mic stand is all it takes.

Martorana revealed that the pair has no experience producing and editing video�their first 15 episodes were shot with an old mini-DV camcorder set atop a step ladder. Two Guys on Beer decided to upgrade to a pocket-sized, inexpensive Flip Mino video camera, which Mortorana says performs better in low light situations than its big brother, the Flip Mino HD. And they now proudly prop their cam on a real, three-legged, gosh darn sturdy tripod.

But Bilotta and Martorana quickly found that their camera’s audio quality wasn’t meeting expectations. They wanted a boom mic to improve audio, but with the high-quality condenser microphones starting at $150 per pop, decent quality audio seemed beyond their out-of-pocket budget.

Two Guys decided to take a chance with EBay, settling on a no-name $35 boom mic straight from Hong Kong: the HTDZ HT-81 Super Uni-directional Electret Condenser Microphone. It was a gamble worth taking, says Martorana. “The boom mic was the best thing we ever got.”

They import the audio and video tracks into Final Cut Express, Apple’s cheapest professional-level video editing suite, and use two sync points to match-up the external audio. A few cuts later, the show is ready to make LCDs scream.

Martorana says that video distribution is a crux for the show, and their experimentation has led to a solid model that we’re sure others would be keen to borrow. Bilotta and Martorana rely on Viddler to power video on the show’s Web site but turned to Tube Mogul to reach as many video sharing outlets as possible. Mogul is a free service that allows sharers to upload content that is then automatically distributed to a dozen video platforms such as MySpace, YouTube, DailyMotion, and Revver. Users can then track video metrics across its aggregated sites.

Two Guys utilizes Blip.TV to aggregate iTunes and RSS feeds, which Martorona says handles the complicated video podcast submission process with ease. With the help of Viddler, Tube Mogul, and Blip.TV, the show has been able to chip away from the painstaking hours it once took to export in multiple video formats. Now, they cut just one final lock-and-load MP4 video.

Saving time means more to spend with their liquid inspiration. This week, the pair will be headed to Beer Week events all over the city, with plans to attend more than 20. They’ll be interviewing famous brewmasters whom they wouldn’t divulge, and probably tasting more beers each day than you’ve had in a lifetime of St. Patty’s Days. Be sure to check up on the Two Guys on Beer Web site, but don’t be concerned when checking their BAC. These guys are professionals.

Shop Talk is a weekly feature devoted to what goes on behind-the-scenes with tech throughout Philadelphia. It’s just like Dirty Jobs, except without Mike Rowe and with shiny electronics instead of dirt.