Welcome to the week They Don’t Want You To Know About. Chris and I risked almost certain doom (or at least an iPod failure) by bringing you this week’s episodes of TechStuff. We addressed two of the most-requested topics we receive from listener mail: hackintoshes and technology conspiracy theories.

I can hear some of you out there asking for the definition of hackintosh. A hackintosh is a non-Apple computer that runs the Macintosh operating system. Apple is very particular about the computers that can run Mac OS X. That’s because Apple works in a closed system — it produces the hardware and software for Mac computers.

Apple designed the Mac OS to work with a particular set of hardware and BIOS settings. To get the Mac OS to run smoothly on a PC, you’ll need a compatible set of components. You’ll also need to tweak your computer’s BIOS settings if you want the OS to operate as if it were on a Mac.

The main reason people try to get the Mac OS to run on other computers comes down to price. Mac computers are fairly expensive. If you want Mac functionality but don’t want to pay Apple’s asking price, your only other option is to try and force the OS onto a PC. Chris and I talk about how this is done in general and some of the challenges hackers face, particularly now that Apple has tweaked Snow Leopard so that it won’t work on PCs with Atom processors.

Now we come to technology conspiracy theories, the episode that has prompted more listener mail requests than any other. It’s also the longest episode of TechStuff to date, clocking in at just over 44 minutes. Still, we barely scratched the surface of the topic. We plan to do more episodes about tech conspiracy theories  in the future. We’ll also try to manage time more effectively.

Response to the episode has been mostly positive. We did have one listener complain that we didn’t include theories about particular gadgets or supercomputers. But here’s the problem: We can’t really talk about conspiracy theories that no one has proposed. There needs to be a theory before we can talk about it. I suppose we could invent some but that’s hardly responsible journalism.

If you’ve ever been curious if J.P. Morgan sabotaged Tesla’s work in wireless power transmission or if the oil companies are squashing attempts to build the perfect electric car, this is the episode for you. Just remember that this podcast will self-destruct in three days (editor’s note: No it won’t).

Find out more at HowStuffWorks.com:

How Hackers Work
How Conspiracy Theories Work
Top 10 Space Conspiracy Theories