August 29, 2008 12:11 PM PDT

Buzz Out Loud 799: Pop a cap in your usage

by Molly Wood
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Comcast comes clean with its bandwidth cap: it's coming, it's coming in October, it's 250GB, and they won't give you any tools for monitoring their use, and if you exceed your cap twice, you get the boot for a year. So, we have a little fun with that. Also, a little fun with IE 8 Beta 2 bugs, the lack of Kindle this year, and the pseudo-alphabetical distribution of spam.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 799

Comcast puts a cap on Net usage
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/08/25/daily35.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10028506-2.html
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-comcast-to-roll-out-monthly-usage-cap/

Kaminsky DNS bug claimed fixed by 1-character patch
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/29/127210

Microsoft warns of IE8 lock-in with XP SP3
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9113739

No new Kindle this year
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007628.html

Yahoo kills their social network
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10028716-36.html

Psychologist invents new uber-wiki
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/29/mememoir_uber_wiki_announced/

Android developer challenge winners announced
http://code.google.com/android/adc_gallery/

Alphabet decides who gets most spam
http://www.pcworld.com/article/150464/alphabet_decides_who_gets_most_spam.html

Coca-Cola readying 100-flavor soda fountains
http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/29/coca-cola-readying-100-flavor-soda-fountains/

Voice mail

Camilla
Rant of the week.

Josh Denver
So… About the hydrogen…. Seriously.

RogueTess
Why water is different than OS X

E-mail

Hey Guys,

About the story in 798 - artists not selling their music on iTunes because of lack of an album only option - I disagree with the stance that this purely the record labels trying to exert more control. In the Ars Technica piece you will notice the it says Kid Rock decided to pull out of iTunes not his label. I’m assuming that this decision is because it’s a concept record, which is something of a lost art these days.

I work on three music projects in which I write, produce, and release all the music myself through Tunecore. While I love the service and it’s very convenient to release to iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody and others, I find it to be a rather frustrating process to figure how to release our music in that i write in terms of a concept album and to break it up is difficult decision to make because you feel like you are putting something out there that is out of context. What ultimately I decided to do is to use iTunes to release compilations containing songs from all three projects and use Amazon mp3 the sell them as an album only, as you failed to mention or you didn’t know Amazon does offer this option.

I leave you with this if Pink Floyd released the The Wall today would have gained as much acclaim, attention and influence on later bands as it did in 1980 when it was released or would be just about Another Brick in The Wall and Comfortably Numb.

Great show.

Eric - DC, Soon to be back in Austin :)

**********

Buzz clique,

It appears in episode 798 you have finally addressed one of the fundamental issues that have divided our two nations for decades. I thought I’d set you straight as to what the deal with ‘pants’ is.

There’s a reason why pants is a British adjective for something that is not good. This is because when we use the word pants we don’t think of a pair of well cut, nice fitting khakis from Gap, but rather a pair of sweaty, skid marked, discarded undercrackers.

The American use of pants in place of trousers has always bothered me slightly, but not as much as the over pronunciation of the letter I. I will not be going to EYEraq, taking antEYE-depressants or installing Norton AntEYE-virus. Pretty sure you guys aren’t guilty of this one though. Right on, and more power to you.

Love the show, and what the frack is a Kindle?

Greg, London

P.S. Caprica? WICKED!

**********

Buzz Fellows,

I simply cannot believe that the circumstances behind the situation of the Pants story (from episode 798) exist at all! Everyone knows (or, apperantly they don’t!) that you never, ever store customer’s actual (plain-text) passwords ANYWHERE.

The standard practice is to use a Hashing algorithm to create a unique and one-way translation of the user’s password into a key. This key cannot be reverse engineered to obtain the original password, but the same password will always generate the same key. So, when you store or check a user’s password, you hash whatever they enter and compare the key to the key you have in your database.

If you store plain-text passwords, as Lloyds TSB clearly does, then you run the HUGE security risk of providing a malicious attacker with thousands of users’ real passwords, which could be used immediately to log into their accounts. This is all a story within itself BEFORE we even get to the fact that someone felt the need to change a user’s password!

When I read “In these cases an advisor can read the full password.”, I nearly had a heart attack.

~EndangeredMassa

**********

hey buzz crew

i have been waiting to hear about a solution to the firefox flash video issue, as it affects me all the time!
i mostly have 15-20 tabs open when browsing.. maybe that does have something to do with it?

in the mean time, i’ve found that i can watch flash video in firefox ( 2 / 3 ) without the issues by using the ‘ietab’ extension

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419

So, everyone can use this while they wait for adobe and mozilla to work it out!

Cheers

Aladar

**********

I was the person who created the JaMoTo Analysts site. I don’t know if you noticed, but the logo I used was the NTT DoCoMo (The Japanese cell phone carrier) logo, I changed the logo around a little bit and added some effects, but the next day I got an email form DoCoMo asking from me to take down the logo! I don’t even know how they saw the page so fast! The email said that the DoCoMo logo is there property and that it should not be used or altered at all, and that if I don’t take down the logo it could lead to quote “LEGAL ACTION”! My first thought was to take down the logo, but should I? Do I have the right to use a heavly altered logo on the site. I have no intention of making money off the site, I am not selling a product or anything. I have no idea what to do!

-Hayden

As host of the Buzz Report video series, Molly provides a fresh and funny perspective on the latest consumer electronic products to hit the market, as well as commentary on the stories and development that she thinks are truly buzz-worthy. She is also co-host of Buzz Out Loud, CNET's "podcast of indeterminate length," which entertains listeners with a funny and skeptical take on the day's technology news. Her other podcast, Gadgettes, is proof that girls can be geeks too.
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by stigmattaman August 29, 2008 1:42 PM PDT
I've been thinking about the whole iTunes - single/album approach and am torn. Sure, you get the tracks you want, but how many times in the past have you bought an album based on the radio-friendly songs and found multiple gems?
People talk about buying albums filled with filler, and my suggestion is to like better musicians because those who look at it as a craft normally have something good on almost every track.
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by deecee August 29, 2008 2:01 PM PDT
OK, Comcast putting a cap at 250GB/month, it's a bummer, theoretically I hate it as much as anyone, until you do some math.

250Gigabytes*8bitsperbyte/30days/3megbitspersecond ~= 22222 seconds per day or 6.2 hours of solidly non-stop download everyday of the month. Note, even streaming video (invstant view on Netflix) does not take full 3megbits persecond link speed. If you're browsing, the average link speed is no where near 3 megbits per second, so if the average speed on the link is 1meg per second, that per day limit goes to about 18 hours per day.

OK, I think there may be poeple out there who use this kind of bandwidth, but they really need to find a job and get out of the house!! Or buy a business class internet connection for the web server they're running at their house.
Reply to this comment
by ofmyony August 30, 2008 8:27 AM PDT
Some people are disabled and unable to work due to due to others or situations. So you are going to punish individuals with disabilities and cut off their service?

In the area of bandwidth caps this is more of a Social Issue and will surely be taken up with the government. Think smart providers, the Internet is becoming a necessary tool for a large section of the population and turning off their service for a year, because they use to much bandwidth is beyond reason.
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by wogus August 31, 2008 11:35 PM PDT
ok... so I ended up here after realizing that there weren't any NEW videos of BOL on Cnet TV being uploaded... I MISSED BOL FOR 2 WEEKS!!!!! I understand that it is really hard to put on make-up and all that good stuff... but I do miss Molly's expressions and Tom's "I am talking right now" face. (Anyone ever noticed how the camera targets Molly even while Jason and Tom talk?)

Lets get these three people on a daily video!!!! Please?
Reply to this comment
by NoelFromBrooklyn September 1, 2008 11:04 PM PDT
Hi Folks,
I am a long time listener and first time responder. First and foremost you guys have a great show. I have a few quick comments on episode 798 and 799.

Comcast?s 250 GB cap is plenty?for most people?for now. I checked the interface stats on my PIX firewall and I used 76GB in the last 2.5 weeks. This includes some Olympic viewing and multiple VPN connections to the office. There are 5 computers (my girlfriend and I are both in Tech) in the house that are almost always on. I am not a Comcast customer but I am worried. I was thinking of exchanging iTunes backups with my brother and sister. My current collections exceeds 250GB in size.

I feel I must disagree with your (sorry Molly) stand on Artists rights. Regardless of the prevailing presentation methods artist, given the freedom always reserve the right to present their product in any form they choose. This has always been true and should not change. This has no bearing on the quality of the work or the sanity of the decision. Once I purchase the work however I am free to enjoy the work in any form I choose without regard to the artists wishes.

Lastly ?again I must disagree. The iPhone is a product that comes with restrictions. If you disagree with those restriction then you should not purchase it. It?s Apple?s garden and they are free to make the rules without regard to the sanity of the rule. For the record there is a significant difference between a phone device and a standard computer. Unlike your personal computer, to perform its base function a cell phone must connect to a network. It is accepted that any instrument connecting to the phone network must be well behaved (whatever that means). We also accept(for now) that the instrument is restricted to a specific network. Thus nothing Apple is doing is out of the ordinary. I am pissed that Verizon has disabled the GPS on my Blackberry 8830. Had I known I would have switched providers. For the record I am 48yr old geek with no kids and a healthy share of geek toys. To date no iPhone?but I am intrigued.
Reply to this comment
by Daphoid September 2, 2008 12:24 AM PDT
I don't think a large majority of people, including geeks like us have much to worry about with the 250GB cap, in fact I'm *envious* of that cap. Up here in Ontario, Canada I'm limited to 95GB of bandwidth per month. We're a five person household with 8 computers, multiple gaming consoles, etc - and the only time we go near the cap is if I purposely queue up a huge download (say a very large, 20GB+ video torrent of a certain sci fi television series from the 90's). However if we're just doing the standard usage - downloading the odd television show, watching youtube, downloading game demos (1-2GB each), download 20 or so podcasts each week/day - we only use 30-50GB of that limit.

So I'm sure you users with you're 250GB limit will be just fine, if you go over that monthly, you really need to look at your download habits o.O
Reply to this comment
by DeeBrazzi September 3, 2008 9:05 AM PDT
Regarding the Lloyds TSB passwords issues - people Should read the original BBC story before digressing into password hashing etc - This was for PHONE BANKING not your online internet banking where the passwords have to be plain text where Call Centre Staff have to compare voice responses on the Telephone to differentiate between The Real Customer and Joe Smuckh pretending to be the real customer
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About Buzz Out Loud Podcast

Buzz Out Loud features Tom Merritt, producer Jason Howell, and a rotating roundtable of CNET's top tech experts reviewing the day's tech news. Each episode, five times a week, the crew analyzes, interprets, and argues about what all this technology means and what it's doing to us. Fans can join in the show by calling 1-800-616-2638, e-mailing at buzz@cnet.com, or commenting on the blog.


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Tom Merritt Tom Merritt appears on CNET TV, specializing in help and how-to and the ever popular Top 5 lists. He also co-hosts CNET's The Real Deal podcast. See profile
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