Buzz Out Loud 802: Slaver, rinse, repeat

I thought I made up a word, but upon further review, slaver turns out to mean to smear as if with saliva. Ew. But we also talked further about listening to media in the shower and even got to some tech news. That involved the release of Spore, the recall of Sony laptops, and Amazon launching a new video streaming service.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 802

Spore (PC) game reviews
http://reviews.cnet.com/pc-games/spore-pc/4505-9696_7-31484467.html

Microsoft cuts Xbox 360 to $199 in throw down with Sony
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080903-microsoft-makes-play-for-second-place-360-price-cut-to-199.html

Sony recalls 440,000 Vaio laptops
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7598344.stm

Amazon flicks on its streaming-video service
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10032491-93.html

BBC to launch music download store
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/03/1937241

Sprint Touch Diamond reviewed
http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=3336

Dell plays defense with Mini 9 netbook
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10032134-1.html

Google on Chrome EULA controversy: Our bad, we’ll change it
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080903-google-on-chrome-eula-controversy-our-bad-well-change-it.html

What exaflood? ‘Net backbone shows no signs of osteoporosis
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080903-what-exaflood-net-backbone-shows-no-signs-of-osteoporosis.html

The 5 most laughable terms of service on the Net
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/03/2130233

VOICE MAIL

Anonymous
Mad PC gamer

FORUMS

Bandwidth metering software
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=306977&messageID=2847675

E-MAIL

I’m upset at my ISP. The wrote to me a few months ago with an amazing offer, to ‘upgrade me’ from my naked uncapped ADSL connection to a less expensive capped DSL connection with phone included. Now I’m a busy person so I didn’t write them back to tell them where to take their amazing offer.

Now some months later, the lovely people at my ISP have telephoned me 10 times in eight days offering to ‘upgrade’ me. I--again being busy--pretended not to be the account holder and told them to go away. But the really frustrating thing is that today, my Internet has been down since about 4 a.m. yet they still called me to tell me how I could get the great Internet connection I’m getting just now for less!

I don’t have the time to explain the the minimum wage employee on the end of the phone at 1) the deal is crap, you really expect me to give up an uncapped connection and my static IP address to save £5 a month and 2) that I have something called VoIP and that means I really don’t give a crap about their phone service.

So BOL, please send a nice big Buzz Off to Pipex in the U.K.. They annoy me with their phone calls and with their two instances of downtime, I’ve already exceeded the 5GB cap on my HSDPA account only four days into the month.

ross(cbrown)

Dear Jamoto,

I have been a long time listener and passively enjoying your show, but, I think I may be missing the point on the Psystar issue. I won’t go into some crazy analogy comparing Psystar with some middle earth subcreature or something. I just want someone to clear up how what apple does is so much different than the OEM license that Microsoft issues. Isn’t that copy of the operating system locked to a specific machine?

Someone help me out. Explain to me the difference. Feeling a little dense on this.

Steve

Have you guys wondered why the new 250GB bandwidth cap is not exposed as a meter customers can lookup?

If Comcast knows how much bandwidth a customer consumes in a months time, wouldn’t it simply be an number, adjacent to their account number in a giant database somewhere? How hard would that be to expose to customers via a password protected customer portal…

OR…

Perhaps, the don’t know how much bandwidth each customer uses. After all, its pretty difficult to track this on a shared loop network, like a cable broadband network.

Nilay

Hi Guys,

I loved the story about the waterproof TV because I have to admit I am a shower media junky. I recently upgraded to a smartphone and have loaded it with BOL and other tech podcasts. At home I put the phone on a ledge and play it over the speaker but have contemplated bringing a ziplock to the gym so I can play it in the shower there as well. I drive my wife crazy because I move around with the phone playing the podcasts as I get out of the shower, brush my teeth, and so on. Nothing gets my day off to the right start like a good Molly rant!

My only regret is that I heard this story while in the car, not the shower this time, which would have been really cool. Love the show!

Thanks,

Matt

Just thought you guys would like to know that while watching CNBC today (sadly a little after the live stream concluded) they had a segment on what the Apple announcements might be and one of their highlighted items was a possible Beatles deal. Looks like your rumor is spreading like wildfire. Keep up the good work.

Tommy in Atlanta