Buzz Out Loud 912: Where's the sex in 'Highlander?'

That and other important questions are answered in today's show, where we're joined by John C. Dvorak in dissecting the new Facebook Terms of Service, the New Zealand blackout over copyright law, and the last-minute saving of SiriusXM. Also, give your boys the violent video games. They need them.

EPISODE 912

Day one of U.S. TV transition only 114 more to go
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

Facebook’s new terms of service: “we can do anything we want with your content. Forever.”
http://consumerist.com/5150175/facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-forever

Facebook terms of service compared
http://amandafrench.net/2009/02/16/facebook-terms-of-service-compared/

Facebook: Relax, we won’t sell your photos
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10165190-36.html

New Zealand blackout over copyright law
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/16/new-zealand-netizens.html

Swedish prosecutors drop some charges in The Pirate Bay trial
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10165604-38.html
http://torrentfreak.com/50-of-charges-against-pirate-bay-dropped-090217/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/159638/

SiriusXM takes investment from Liberty, not EchoStar
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-karmazin-gets-sirius-deal-done-with-liberty-not-ergen/

Flash 10 coming to most smartphones in 2010
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13970_7-10164745-78.html

Second ‘Google phone’ is unveiled
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7894516.stm

Microsoft, Nokia offer app stores
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7892863.stm

Windows Mobile 6.5...CRIPES! Are you kidding me?
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/02/16/windows-mobile-65-cripes-are-you-kidding-me/

EU commissioner calls for unified mobile-power-adapter standard
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/02/eu-commissioner-calls-for-unified-mobile-cable-standard.ars

Keeping violent media away from boys could be a bad idea
http://arstechnica.com/features/2009/02/keeping-violent-media-away-from-kids-could-be-a-bad-idea.ars

VOICEMAIL
Anonymous (Tony)
Pirate 3D movies

E-MAIL
The CRTC (our equivalent of your FCC) wants to put a levy on ISPs to pay for Canadian content production on the web. My take, umm, ok I produce like 6 podcasts, I want a truckload of money.... More seriously though, umm, CRTC, step away from my frakking internet.

http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090217.wcrtcliveblog0217/BNStory/Business/home

Dave (the psychologist)

**********

I was sitting in a waiting room recently and was bored, so I decided to pick up a magazine that was laying around. That is when it hit me that in 5 to 10 years from now there might not be any magazines/newspapers in waiting rooms anymore. If everything goes online what will we do to pass the time in a waiting room? I guess we will either need to remeber our Kindle or maybe waiting rooms in the future will have Kindles just laying around tethered to a desk that people can read while waiting.

P.S. On another note, I read my first version of PC Magazine online since they stopped producing paper copies and it just was not the same. My 1 year old kept wanting to touch the keyboard. It was so much easier with a paper copy that I could carry around and the kindle is to expensive for just one magazine.

Jeff

**********

All -

I’ve stridently resisted Twitter, but in ep 911 you discussed how disaster news might hit Twitter before professional news networks can release it. My mom was in that recent ice-storm mess in KY and for 5 days I didn’t know where she was or if she was alive. No land lines, no cell reception, no power, no email at home or work, regional/national news too vague. Through Twitter I might have been able to track down news about her neighborhood, or even someone who knew her and could check on her for me. I’m sold. Thanks.

Karen Roth
Scottsdale, AZ

**********

Hey Jaytona,

I don’t think you guys have mentioned this service yet, but just in case… Have you heard of Jinni, http://www.jinni.com? Lifehacker described it as Pandora for movies. Type what you’re in the mood to see and it gives you a whole host of results based on your initial preferences. Last night, my husband and I wanted to watch something with love, friendship and sci-fi (hey it was Valentine’s Day). It came up with Sliders, Wall-E, Starship Troopers, and Highlander to name a few. If you want to watch a movie, it links you to Amazon, Netflix, Blockbuster and other services. Now if only Audible would come up with a similar recommendation engine.

And uh, Sliders was surprisingly good.

<3 the show,

Cat

**********

Hey Buzz,
I’ve been catching up on BOL after living in a technological black hole for three weeks for a class for work. And when I say black hole, I’m not kidding. This was an Air Force class and we didn’t even have Internet access. I heard you talking about the Airborne Laser program on 29 Jan and thought I would throw in an interesting tidbit. One of my buddies who was in the class with me works on the ABL and told me that it should more appropriately be Airborne Lasers. The system sends out a laser microburst for range and then fires the actual laser using the atmosphere as a lens to more accurately focus the offensive laser. The first burst, calculations, and physical lens calibration all happens within 1/10,000th of a second. The program is still in a prototype phase, but this year they are supposed to deliver a working capability. This would mark a huge advancement as the military will be able to use this technology to make all over-the-air data transmissions more efficient by continuously recalculating the focal strength needed to make up for the losses from a changing atmosphere.
Love the show!
Noah, USAF