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Buzz Out Loud 850: Cooley hates space
We try to get all sentimental about the demise of the Mars Phoenix lander, but Brian Cooley ruins it with his outlandish assertions about the uselessness of space. Plus, he loses his mind about the crappiness of the BlackBerry Curve. In sum, a good time is had by all.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
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EPISODE 850 |
Mars Phoenix Lander completes its mission
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10092897-52.html
http://www.urbanhonking.com/universe/2008/11/interview_marsphoenix.html
http://gizmodo.com/5082385/this-is-my-farewell-transmission-from-mars
Flat-panel TV shipments begin their decline
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10093153-1.html
FCC OKs digital workaround for DTV signal range problems
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081111-fcc-oks-digital-workaround-for-dtv-signal-range-problems.html
AVG virus scanner removes critical Windows file
http://securityandthe.net/2008/11/10/avg-virus-scanner-removes-critical-windows-file/
Cooley Rant: How did RIM fool so many for so long with BlackBerry? It’s CRAP. Gimme’ that GD
iPhone!!!
http://www.pcworld.com/article/153666/apples_iphone_so_far_the_best_phone_ever.html
Mininuclear plant is safe, affordable, and purifies water (but doesn’t turn lead into gold)
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/11/mini-nuclear-plant-is-safe-affordable-and-purifies-water-but-d/
Best Buy’s holiday gift cards now double as speakers, still a lazy present
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/11/best-buys-holiday-gift-cards-now-double-as-speakers-still-a-la/
Largest Aussie ISP agrees to “ridiculous” Net-filter trial
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/11/1329222
Windows 7 benchmarks show little improvement on Vista
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/11/0110251
Texting bug hits the Google phone
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7722367.stm
VOICEMAIL
John the Bomb Builder: cheap Blu-Ray!
Anonymous Ad-hater
Hey Buzz crew-
Did you know most states have a public utility service commission? A
friend of mine was told by Bellsouth that it was too expensive to fix
the phone lines to her house and she could live with bad service or
find someone else to help. She called the Georgia Public Service
Commission and filed a complaint. The GPSC called Bellsouth and said
you fix it or you get fined. So they fixed it within two weeks.
Buzz Brigade you are having problems with your utilities Google public
service commission in your state and get some help sticking up for
yourself. And yes there is one in Oregon, so yesterday’s DSL caller
should look into it!
Sheala, GA
Ps- if I pay $3400 for a graphics card, it better be showing me the
future or something!
**********
From the Consumerist.
http://consumerist.com/5082090/timeline-how-circuit-city-came-undone
According to the chart it all starts in 2007 when they fired all employee’s that knew anything so that they could replace them with a team of monkey’s at a lower cost.
In the comments it is traced further back to 2003 when they converted all commissioned sales persons to hourly to lower costs (and pay) and the “good” people left. Of and they fired 4100 people at that time.
http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/sales-selling/6363203-1.html
The best comment is “Maybe Circuit City should fire all of their executives and hire lower-paid replacements.”
LTS
Brent
**********
The average life cycle of a game console, not including the ones that were colossal failures (I’m looking at you N-Gage), is five to six years. It is way too early for any of the big three to be releasing a new console. Updated versions of the current machines not included (Wii-HD anyone?).
Love the show,
Jonah Gregory
(Certainly not e-mailing from work)
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.
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. 
Jason Howell can
often be found producing Buzz Out Loud from the audio studios at CNET,
updating XML feeds from the comfort of his cubicle, and saying "uh-oh"
from time to time. 
"This is an Irish wake rather than a funeral," commented Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars exploration programme at Nasa Headquarters in Washington DC.
"We should celebrate what Phoenix and the Phoenix team has done and where it is going to take us in the future. [There were] a lot of lessons learned in this mission for us that will feed forward to future missions."
So lemme raise a whisky glass to ole Phoenix lander.
"When Martian eyes are smiling....
Before you lose your mind over a product, how about learning how to use it first? If you guys are worthy of a tech blog you would know how to use something called Shortcuts. If you notice when in the home screen of a BlackBerry you can hit O for options (then T for themes), F for Profiles, M for messages, etc.
It?s like using a Mouse to open Explorer when you can just hit Windows Key + E. The iPhone is great, but if you are a true power user and are savvy enough to use Shortcuts you will quickly the BlackBerry is the most efficient interface around.
And now I learn he "doesn't get Space." What an irritatingly myopic point of view he has, I didn't think I could like him less.
Like dselchow above I hope it's an very, very long time (read:never) before Cooley is asked back on.
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by eric323
November 13, 2008 4:59 AM PST
- I guess Cooley has spent little or no time with a Windows Mobile smart phone... My ATT 8525 (HTC Hermes 100) was a real pain compared to the Curve. I'll admit the Curve has its quirks but it works consistently, the shortcuts address many of his complaints, and it doesn't crash. I think Cooley gets lost in space at times...
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