Buzz Out Loud 829: No 55-year-old pervert, that's a robot!

On today's show, the world of anonymous chatting gets even more confusing, thanks to the increasing numbers of computers passing the Turing test. Is it a pervert? Is it a computer? Is it both? In other news, Chrome breaks Molly's heart, Sony breaks all the rules and keeps the PS3 prices high, and people keep preordering G1 Android phones. Who knew?

EPISODE 829

Test explores if robots can think
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/berkshire/7666246.stm
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/10/13/1450205.shtml

Sony rules out PS3 price cuts for holiday season
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0c6d283e-988a-11dd-ace3-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

1.5 million G1 Android phones preordered
http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-39701-118.html

Employees, not hackers, cause most corporate data loss
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081012-employees-not-it-responsible-for-most-corporate-data-loss.html

OpenOffice.org overwhelmed by demand for version 3.0
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/13/openoffice_org_download_website_dead/

Google’s Chrome declining in popularity
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/10/13/161238.shtml

FCC says Seattle tests back smutless, free broadband proposal
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081012-fcc-says-seattle-tests-back-smutless-free-broadband-proposal.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10063866-94.html

Microsoft launches PC Advisor Repair Utility. Going after Apple next?
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/microsoft_goes_after_apple_with_pc_advisor_utility

People prefer angry-faced cars
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/13/0631240

YouTube beams up ‘Star Trek’ for long-form video
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10063661-93.html

VOICE MAIL
Remy - Verizon isn’t sleazy.

E-MAIL
Hi Buzz Crew,

What do you guys think of this new way of clogging up those spam bot
servers:
http://www.auditmypc.com/freescan/antispam.html

It’s a different way of getting the spammers: instead of blocking e-mails, it clogs up their servers (as ant trap manufacturers would say, stopping it at the source). The description on the site is pretty good, but essentially it tricks spam bots into opening the Web page– full of useless, yet convincing e-mail addresses–and makes them regenerate it via the link at the bottom, thereby feeding them more useless e-mail addresses, and the cycle continues.

–Jonathan

Hey BuzzCrew (+1),
Just to let you know, if you select a Beatles track (I did Come Together), and ask iTunes to make a Genius playlist, it now does! I’ve been checking after iTunes updates my Genius every week, and after updating last night, it now creates the playlists. I guess it’s finally gathered enough data from users iTunes libraries to make Genius playlists. Either that, or The Beatles have come to iTunes.

Love the show!
Dave,
Melbourne, Australia
aka DaveBinM