Buzz Out Loud 870: Baba-boo! Scareware!

On today's show, we discover that "scareware" is a thing (that never should have been) and that you can tell a bad business idea by the bad name. Also, PlayStation Home comes out (in beta) after a year and a half in development, and it seems kind of lame, and we talk about the few folks making money in TTT (These Troubled Times).

EPISODE 870

PlayStation Home opens its doors
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7777122.stm
http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_SONY_PLAYSTATION_VIRTUAL_WORLD?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-12-11-07-55-27

Reselling MP3s: The music industry’s new battleground?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10120951-93.html

Verizon ups ante on LTE deployment: 2009
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081210-verizon-says-early-lte-deployment-in-2009.html

U.S. district court puts scareware on ice
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081211-us-district-court-puts-scareware-on-ice.html

Report: Tumblr rolls into new financing round
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10121055-93.html

YouTube videos pull in real money
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/business/media/11youtube.html

iPhone copy and paste now working between Safari and Mail
http://gizmodo.com/5107138/iphone-copy-and-paste-now-working-between-safari-and-mail
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10121068-37.html

Apple and AT&T bring back iPhone home activation
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/11/apple-and-atandt-bring-back-iphone-home-activation/

Google doubles Street View coverage in U.S.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10120351-2.html

VOICEMAIL
Jason from Georgia: gimme that song

Jomo? the Janitor: riding robots, yippee!

Roy: Spare a thought for the Kiwis
http://roythekid.tumblr.com/post/63980981/my-voicemail

E-MAIL
Hi Guys,

Just listening to Tuesdays show and wanted to chime in, myself a being Java developer by profession. The promise of write once, deploy anywhere actually did pan out, but only on the server side. Java is still the number one most used programming language and many of the most popular web applications are powered by a Java back-end.

Now, to the point you made in the show, it did fail as a client/presentation layer for a few reasons. Firstly, the overhead of downloading the entire JVM and the fact that the browser would block while loading an applet made it obnoxious to load an applet based page, especially for those with slower machines/connections. One major reason why Flash took off was because the plugin was small in size and the overhead of install and running were/are negligible. It is unfortunate, because there are a ton of people with proficieny in the Java language, which is arguably superior to Flash and definitely has a much richer developer toolset.

GNC may take off if it can avoid the pitfalls of client Java while giving a more familiar programming environment than Flash does, but it should be noted that a huge part of the upcomming Java release is focused on browser performance. The new version of the JVM will give the ability to download components on an”as need” basis, and the applet initialization will now be non-blocking. This could be a huge step forward for Java in the browser, though I fear the bad reputation is already ingrained in the minds of the average web user, and it may be too little too late.

Love the show!
Nick the Software Engineer from Boston

Nicholas Bonatsakis
Software Engineer

**********

hi guys,

The google list was “fastest *rising* google searches” right? The Yahoo list was just plain old “most searched” terms. Maybe Google gets 10 000 000 brittney searches last year and only 1000 more than that number this year, meaning it didn’t make the “fastest rising” list. Perhaps Yahoo’s gets a consistent 90 000 000 and that would qualify brittney for the list cus their list isn’t about rising searches.

Adel

**********

Hi Tom, Molly and Jason +1,

I was listening to the BBC World Service this morning and came across a story that would tie in very well with Jason’s idea of having the holograms in your car, from a few episodes ago. Although, this seems like a scary slippery slope to head towards. Scientists in Japan claim the can “read images from the human brain.”

Here is the link:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20081211TDY01306.htm

I, for one, am not entirely sure I’d want to “see” what’s going on in someone else’s brain, but I can only imagine where that might go…(I’ll keep those thoughts to myself).

Anyway, thought you BOL chieftans might enjoy the story and run away with it (and please do).

Always love the show and keep up the great work.

Nuno, nthsquare in the chat and forums.

**********

Okay, okay, okay

That dude by the trian called in about the singing captcha, but I’ve got a better idea- RAPTCHA! A couple lines pop up from a popluar hip-hop song and it uses the built-in mic to validate what you rap! Amazing! Surely that would fool the phishbots. LOL

(T&C’s): warning, may cause immediate removal from current location and user may be relocated to a place with pearly gates.

Love the show

Chris the Designer from Bristol, UK

**********

Bonjour Dame et Messieurs,
This is Katie Noor, Elam’s wife!
Yesterday you decided that you might have created/discovered a “love
connection” between Elam and Heather from Boston because of a comical
cut & paste error.
Just wanted to say that, in the future, I would appreciate it if you
would at least…consult me before trying to set my husband up with
random citizens of buzz town. I mean, I don’t even know this Heather
from Boston. I disapprove. Back off Heather, he’s taken!
Love you guys!
Katie

**********

Hi JaMoTo and Guest
I am sick of hearing about BOL Bingo. I cant contribute because there are a few products on the list that are unavailable here in OZ. So I made one for us. Presenting BOL Bingo Australia!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23696006@N08/3099539782/
Sam
Melbourne, Australia

**********

Hey Buzzards,

In regards to the no smiling policy for Indiana driver’s licenses, they will continue to allow facial hair right? Because my friend (photo attached), and every Hoosier who can grow one, should be entitled to the half-beard.
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/33/l90579e347fa2d74bb8136fob2.jpg
btw, i’m subscribed to the audio/video combo podcast through itunes but i never receive a video version… am i doing something wrong??

~dave (indianapolis, in)

**********

Buzz Out Loud Video (Past episodes!)
http://www.ustream.tv/cnetstudio/videos