Buzz Out Loud 795: New Zealand judge misses entire point of Internet

In the news today, NBC fails to medal in its online streaming of the Olympics, but Google never fails to meddle (by driving up and down your private roads). OK, that was a Tom joke. Also, the Obama text dissected (but not in a political way), the Pentagon and its fake cat brains, and how to vote better.
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EPISODE 795

FCC outs HTC Dream’s dimensions: It’s smaller than the iPhone 3G
http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/25/fcc-outs-htc-dreams-dimensions-its-smaller-than-the-iphone-3g/

iPhone 3G reception just fine, say curious Swedes with engineering degrees
http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/25/iphone-3g-reception-just-fine-say-curious-swedes/
http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=444&a=440573

Google finds no privacy on private roads
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10024294-93.html

No matter how NBC spins it, Olympics Web strategy comes up a loser
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/25/no-matter-how-nbc-spins-it-olympics-web-strategy-comes-up-a-loser/

The Obama SMS: (Un-)gratifying instantification
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13641_3-10024350-44.html

NZ judge bans online publishing of accuseds’ names
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/25/0424230

Amazon may enter college textbook market with new Kindle
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080825-amazon-may-enter-college-textbook-market-with-new-kindle.html

Scrabulous users: Stunned, bemused, baffled
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/08/scrabulous_users_stunned_bemus.html

Pentagon begins fake cat brain project
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/darpa-fake-brai.html

Most sung-about body part? The eyes have it
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/08/most-sung-about.html

VOICEMAIL

Brent Ohio
Voting PSA for Ohioans and beyond.

Anonymous
Critique of new CNET design.

E-MAIL

Hey BoL,

I saw this on CNN last night and thought it was interesting. If you go to ObamaBiden.org you are sent directly to Ebay. That's a smart fella to get that domain. CNN also reported that the domain obamabiden2008.com was bought back in 2006. I think I’m going to have to do some political investigation for some 2012 names. Maybe a Merritt/Wood ticket, or Wood Merritt. Either way would be great. Hey, maybe even a Howell/Best Buy Guy ticket. Love the show.

Emmanuel from Madison, Wis.

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Hey Tom & Molly,

I’m catching up on episodes--in Episode 791, Mike in New Hampshire wrote in about the ban on cell phones for air traffic controllers in the U.S. The Federal Aviation Administration claims that this ban is a concern because of interference, but we never had any problems that I or my co-workers are aware of. Also, when dignitaries, visitors, or Secret Service agents are in the control room, they are not asked to check their phones at the door.

This was purely a smack-down move on the part of the FAA. I understand that we cannot be using our phones for personal calls while controlling aircraft, but I, too, have experienced situations where our personal cell phones have been instrumental in saving the day when FAA equipment failed.

I believe Tom mentioned the possibility of using Skype, but our computers are not considered secure until they are broken. I don’t mean the computers that are connected to the radar scopes, I mean just the Windows computers that have no tie-in to our operations. We can’t even download a PDF file or access a USB drive or a CD--Skype would be waaaayy beyond our realm of possibility.

On a side note, I have accidently taken my iPhone into the control room, and while I can hear the zzzt-zzzt sound from the GSM, the pilots don’t hear it (I asked a few).

As they say--love the show,
Molly in Albuquerque

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Hey Tom Molly and Jason,

It’s, oh, let’s say Chris former snowman hunter. Recently I got a bug up a certain bodily place to purchase the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers neo-Capraesque Hudsucker Proxy. Like a good Buzz listener, I checked out the DRM-free Amazon MP3 store first, but no joy. I checked iTunes to similar no joy results.

So I checked out Amazon CD sales. The price for said CD was $16.98. The price for the whole fracking movie on DVD, actors, story, music, and ALL was $9.99. Say what you want about the MPAA’s thug tactics recently, but they’ve got a ways to go before they’re fighting in the same weight class as the RIAA. How is the music for a movie on a CD more expensive the movie?! Under this logic, shouldn’t the RIAA be suing the MPAA for undercutting the market? I mean, every bar of the music on that CD is in the movie’s soundtrack.

I offer this to ask if there’s a clearer illustration of the hellish music scape the RIAA has cursed us to, I’d like to hear it.

Insert robotic LOVE THE SHOW here.

Chris

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Hey BOL Crew,

I was just listening to Episode 794 where you guys were talking about Verizon having to go back and inspect all its FIOS installations, and then comparing that to AT&T’s U-Verse and how that service has been blamed with starting a few fires, and I think this begs the questions: is this what these companies meant when they said we would get “Blazing” fast speeds? Should your fiber installation kit come with a fire warning? “Warning: blazing fast speeds may cause fire. Please surf responsibly”.

Love the show!

-Ryan from Boise, Idaho