Buzz Out Loud 803: Limp-wristed robot handshakes

If a robot has a firm handshake, does that mean its creator is a stand-up guy, or just that he programmed his robot to have a firm handshake? That and other serious technology topics are examined today, and we also give our official Buzz Out Loud reviews of the new Microsoft commercial with Jerry Seinfeld. Brian Cooley joins us for Friday goodness.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 803

LHC will not destroy the universe in 5 days
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/04/lhc-will-not-destroy.html

Microsoft begins big ad push
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10033375-56.html
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/9/seinfeld-s-first-microsoft-commercial-awkward-not-funny

Comcast appeals FCC traffic-blocking ruling
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10033376-38.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080904-martin-responds-to-comcast-lawsuit-we-still-want-answers.html

Blu-ray gone in five years, Samsung claims
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/04/1656212

Redesigned, bulkier Honda Insight to challenge Prius
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/09/05/0141244.shtml

Michael Moore plans Net-only film premiere
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10033561-93.html

Album leak welcomed by Metallica (Thanks Bernardo!)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7598617.stm

Robots Are Net’s future, says Vint Cerf
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/04/1751209

Adobe and NBC to provide live streaming of NFL games
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Stewart/?p=924

Columbia set to resurrect Ghostbusters
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/05/ghostbusters_3/

VOICE MAIL

Anonymous
Cybercommand update.

Dave
My friend's bad bandwidth.

FORUMS

Comcast bandwidth meter
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=307301

Preview of Seth McFarlane’s Google ad cartoons
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=307304

E-MAIL

Hey Crew! Long time listener, first time e-mailer!

I was bugged by the whole Comcast putting a cap on my end of the tube. I would consider myself a moderate bandwidth user, and was curious as to how much I actually use. So I called Comcast on Saturday, got to the person I who would answer my question, and the lady said she’d have no problem telling me how much. After a minute or two, she said she’d have to talk to her manager who knew exatcally where to look, was gone for a few minutes, came back, typed a bunch, left again, came back, thanked me for being patient, kept looking…. She asked me why i was inquiring about how much I use, and I explained to her that I had no idea where I was compared with the 1%… she told me that it was only 1 percent who would get cut off, and I explained to her again that I didn’t know where I was to know how close I come to the 250GB, to which she said ‘well, you get 350GB not 250GB. I told her what the news said, and she said it was wrong. I was going to ask her for name and her extension for future reference, but my store got busy, so I had to go. It took about 20 minutes for her to find the bandwidth I used in the last 30 days, which was about 75GB.

I would think that the average customer would ask “where do I stand compared with the cap?”… The only answer I was getting was “well, only 1 percent will hit the cap”, which isn’t an answer. The average customer is not going to have any point of reference to gauge how much they use.

Thanks keep up the good work!

Todd,

Lynden, Wash.

Hay buzz crew,

Just writing in to say "Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!" Thanks to BOL my wife is now interested in tech stuff and I have a new outlet for my tech talk.

It all started as I slipped a copy of Buzz out loud on to her iPod and renamed it NY Times. Idea stolen from Microsoft Mohave Experiment.

Can you give her a shout out!

Now I only have to get her to play COD 4 & Gears of War Don't know how I am going to do that but wish me luck!

Thank You

Matthew

Hey Jamoto, Tobias from Sweden again.
As I hope you remember, I e-mailed you yesterday about SPORE DRM-
license-server-thing that refuses to work. I’ve been trying for three days now, still no luck!

Sad to say I’m not the only one, just check out this thread (one of many):

http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/spore-technical-support/334745-mac-users-cannot-connect-license-server.html

So you remember us Mac-users can’t get into the game. Well worse, PC-users that bought Galactic Edition can’t seem to log in either, because for them, the game says that their serial code is invalid.
I’ve paid almost 90 bucks for the game, is it to much too ask for it only to work?

Worse yet, EA Support doesn’t know what to do. One I talk to didn’t even understand that I was on the Mac (he was trying to get me to run the EAReg.exe or whatever it is called on the PC). Another guy told me to register online. And everyone else told me to wait. Nothing helps!

I never actually cared about the whole DRM debate, but now I’m so pissed about it because it only hurts the honest average customer who just wants to play his or hers friggin’ game!

I appreciate you mentioned my e-mail on episode 802, and with this e-mail I’m hoping that you will take this further and discuss it. Maybe we can get a Molly rant on DRM?

Love the show, and have a great weekend

Tobias

Hello Buzz Crew,

Netbooks and laptops are already bundled by carriers outside U.S.

In Romania you can get when you subscribe to the mobile Internet services cheaper laptops and Netbooks.

Orange has Eee PC 901, Macbook Air, and other Dell and Asus bundle offers.

Allex from Romania

Dear Buzz Out Loud,

You can put an OEM copy of Windows on any machine you want. The catch is, once it is on one, that is the only computer you can put it on. Some places also require you to also buy some sort of hardware in order to buy an OEM copy. This doesn’t usually mean a complete system, unless you’re buying from places like HP or Dell; often you can buy one component such as RAM. It can be something else you might need (DVD-ROM, hard drive, etc.), but RAM is usually a good way to go seems how you’ll probably need more anyways. OEM software is always a good way to go if you’re building your own machine and want to keep costs down.

Brian, Ill.