HTCBuzz Out Loud 950: Hackers brave bats and dragons
AT&T had an outage yesterday morning in the bay area due to fiber-optical cables being cut. This didn't just affect landlines, but cell phones as well. Rafe describes the dangers hackers would face in trying to cut those cables. We also estimate the distance to New York as 12 worms, and give a plus-five Holy Avenger sword salute to Dave Arneson.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
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EPISODE 950 |
AT&T was vandalized in the Bay Area?
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=26715
AT&T uses Twitter during service outage
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10216712-94.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10216939-94.html
Good Friday via Twitter
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10217075-36.html?tag=mncol;title
Yelp lets business owners respond now
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/technology/internet/10yelp.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10216382-2.html
Time Warner Cable lays out broadband capping plans, says $150 for “unlimited” use
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/10/time-warner-cable-lays-out-broadband-capping-plans-says-150-fo/
Amazon to sell
Xbox Live games
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/08/amazon-now-selling-xbox-live-arcade-games/
Bluetooth 3.0 prepped for launch on April 21
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/04/bluetooth-30-prepped-for-launch-on-april-21.ars
Virgin $50 unlimited plan, and new plan for the laid off
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2344760,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121
Cold, dead hand of Frank Herbert reaches up from grave, stabs Dune Second Life megafans in the back
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/09/cold-dead-hand-of-fr.html
Mixed answers to “Is it OK for a Library to lend a Kindle?”
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6649814.html&
Woman watches home burglarized on Netcam, vectors the cops in FTW!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30151019#30151019
Researchers build ‘flying’ micro-robot
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10216870-76.html
Researcher resurrects the first computer
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/10/1425220&from=rss
RIP Dave Arneson, 1947-2009
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/09/rip-dave-arneson-194.html
VOICEMAIL
Josh in Salt Lake City
Gigabit not Gigabyte
Bill
A question for the author’s guild
E-MAIL
Hello Buzzcrew +1,
I have a bit of a well actually for you. In episode 945 Rafe and Tom mentioned that monkeys and dogs can’t do calculus. Well actually, a math professor from a college near my hometown has published several papers about his corgi’s ability to perform calculus on the fly.
An article about the duo can be found here: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/7051/title/Calculating_Dogs
And if you really want details, one of the papers can be found here: http://www.maa.org/features/elvisdog.pdf
Love the show,
-Jake (the computer science student)
**********
http://www.snopes.com/science/lightbulb.asp
hi bol’rs - just wanted to pass this along for natalie - the oldest
working light bulb is in a firehouse in california and has been on
since 1901. - http://www.centennialbulb.org/index.htm
andy b
video geek & fountain of useless knowledge
http://www.rwvc.tv
**********
Tom, Natali, Jason and guest,
In episode 949 you read an email were the user said they would need to downgrade to Windows XP in order to run old programs. Windows Vista (and I expect Windows 7) support a compatibility mode for previous versions of Windows:
Right mouse click on the "exe" file for the program.
Select Properties.
Click on the "Compatibility" tab.
Check the box "Run this program in compatibility mode for:"
From the pull down menu select the Windows version you wish to run in. Options include:
Server 3003
XP
2000
NT 4.0
98/ME
Windows 95
Yes you can run in Windows Frakkin 95 mode. Does Apple offer this level of backwards compatibility, I doubt it. Byte me Apple.
Love the show,
RJ
**********
Hi BOL Crew(of the day),
I am happy to bring news of a game company that seems to finally have the right idea about DRM.
Stardock recently sent me an email/spam that was trying to sell me the stand alone expansion to Company of Heroes, called Tales of Valor.
They offer it through “Impulse” which is similar to “Steam” for downloading game titles instead of buying off of the shelf.
The BIG news is that they claim that their new technology will Only limit the game to the person and you can install it on any number of machines!
They call it Goo or Game Object Obfuscation technology. It will keep the game up to date and associates the game with the person rather than the machine!!!
Wow, if it actually works.. THEY GOT IT RIGHT!
I felt obligated to write this email to you because of the shared angst about game DRM that I share with you all.
Kudos To Stardock.
Love the Show.
Barry in Napa.
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. 
I was searching for Cnet stickers and came across an image of Tom, Molly and Veronica in American Gothic
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65089340@N00/371493809/
I was wondering now that we have a almost all new crew, how about letting us, the listeners, try it again? It would be nice to see what we come up with for you, Tom, Natali, Jason and special guest of the day
Love the show!
Keith from Michigan
http://www.unconfirmedsources.com/nucleus/media/4/20080823-Tom-Merrit.jpg
Hopefully, Amazon and Microsoft will work it out so you only have to click a link in the confirmation email. This should add the game to the download queue.
Just wanted to clarify a couple of things in regard to the cable cut in the SF Bay Area on Thursday.
First, there were several cables cut including AT&T, MCI and another that I think belonged to Qwest. The perp climbed into multiple manholes and cut individual cables in each of the manholes. At least this was the case with the South San Jose cut. I have no info regarding the details of the cut in Redwood City/San Carlos. Local police and the FBI are still investigating.
Second, the outage affected landline and cellular telephone usage from AT&T and Verizon as well as Verizon DSL service. I don't know about Sprint/Nextel though. My iPhone showed "No Service" until I got out of the house and then it only showed the "E" for Edge access, which didn't work anyway. Boy did that suck!
I agree with Rafe that this had to have been a coordinated effort. Another interesting tidbit of info is that AT&T technicians are in negotiations for a new contract. Coincidence? Shall we start a conspiracy theory of our own? I know how much Tom likes conspiracies.
Love the show!
Mike the South Bay Cop
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by merrybrown
April 11, 2009 1:46 PM PDT
- I find the cut cables very sinister. We like to make light of such things, but it is not just fun and games on the Internet. Hospitals connect to each other as well as internally. Emergency response can't know you have had a burglary if your alarm phone lines are down. On some hillsides, there are earthquake monitors in case of land slide, and the road closures that they can cause. Think of Devils slide in Pacifica. I am not sure if that if monitored by phone line but I am betting it is.
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Like this
Reply to this comment
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(6 Comments)I just wonder what other alert systems use phone lines.
Love the show,
Merry