TV with DVR & Internet: $89.90/moBOL 1040: i4i wants tooth for tooth from Microsoft
The i4i Chairman Loudon Owen joins us to talk about why his company is suing Microsoft to prevent selling Word as it is currently. Sounds like i4i wouldn't mind cash. Also Tr.im is back. And Molly takes them to task for being babies. And Vance gets a Corvette for $14 a month. Or would. If GM honored it's bad math.
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EPISODE 1040
i4i Chairman Loudon Owen
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/August2009/12/c4382.html
Judge: Microsoft can’t sell Word anymore
http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/176223.asp
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10308013-75.html
Microsoft, Nokia plan mobile Office deal
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10307378-56.html
RealNetworks loses critical ruling in RealDVD case
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10307921-93.html
Zune HD’s packaging, release date leaked: September 15
http://gizmodo.com/5335353/zune-hds-packaging-release-date-leaked-september-15th
Xbox gaming platform may soon span Web, console, mobile
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/08/xbox-gaming-platform-may-soon-span-web-console-mobile.ars
Tr.im gets a stay of execution
http://technologizer.com/2009/08/11/tr-im-lives/
http://blog.tr.im/post/160697842/tr-im-resurrected
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-10307615-248.html
FriendFeed purchase and Twitter DDoS have some calling for distributed open source versions
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/08/11/twitpocalypse-open-s.html
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_a_perfect_storm_forming_for_distributed_social_networking.php
North Americans pay more for cell phone service
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10307726-94.html
MS--Dropping IE6 support “not an option”
http://slashdot.org/story/09/08/11/1756248/MS-mdash-Dropping-IE6-Support-Not-an-Option
VOICE MAIL
Vance points out GM’s math issues
Anonymous – doesn’t write checks
E-MAIL
Hey Guys,
Molly was talking yesterday (Monday) about if someone could go through all of the old BOL blogs and find out the most commonly used words. I did just that, I wrote a program that would go through your 1,000’s of blog postings and get all of the written data. Then from that data I analyzed it and posted a real time count on my site. Go check it out: http://www.smithprogramming.com
Also I would like to say I am sorry to your server administrators who probably were going crazy trying to figure out why there was so much traffic on your blogs, it was me fine tuning the machine so I could just run it and leave it alone. If your stats are skewed you know why.
I defined what words I wanted it to look for, and if you guys think of any you want me to add just say the word and I’ll get it in.
Great show and keep up the good work,
Chad Smith
Indiana, PA
**********
In Episode 1039 Tom mentioned that on Facebook you can choose what you
share with other people, but the problem is what my friends share with
me. I’m tired of all the notices from quizzes, gifts, games, etc. I
can block each each app individually, but there are hundreds of them
and they keep coming. Feels like bopping gophers.
–Charlene
Houston, TX
**********
Hey Buzzers,
Man! You guys are crazy! WiFi mesh networks with implanted pacemakers… of course you guys would go there!
I have to rain on your parade a little bit, though. I work at a Cardiac Rhythm Management (Pacemakers, Defibrillators, etc.) company and I can tell you these devices are definitely not WiFi. They use medical specific RF frequencies (Such as the ISM or MICS telemetry bands in the US or the SRD band in Europe). I have worked on both the implanted device and on the home ‘base station’ that uploads the data to the web, so I can give you more information if you’d like.
Please rest assured that these devices and frequencies are highly regulated and there’s a lot of security and encryption that goes into these things.
One thing I’m kind of blown away about is that this story has been reported all over the net like it’s something that’s never been done before. I believe this is St Jude’s first wireless device, but other companies have had this technology on the market for 5+ years (I was working on bringing our US based home monitoring system to several European countries over a year ago).
Sorry to be such a downer, I hope I let you down easy. I’m happy to have had a chance to finally be one of the knowledgeable audience members.
Love the show,
-kevmo the software engineer from St Paul
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. 
2. If its a valid and defensible patent, he could have answered the question about what products (if any) actually use the technology.
3. If its a valid and defensible patent, they would have started suing BEFORE they knew the patent was going to be issued, not after. That right there, stinks of a patent troll.
4. i4i has no product to show for the patent and have failed to demonstrate that they even plan to.
Lets not sit around and pretend that software patents are actually "valid" in any sense of the word. The system is broken and is destroying the software industry. Companies are being punished for being successful. Small companies can abuse i4i's patent far worse than Microsoft ever will and i4i will never bat an eyelash their way.
Its an abomination of the system and the judge that laid the ruling should be removed from their seat and i4i sued for tax dollars spent on this mess. I still hold out hope that at some point we will be able, as the American people, place class action lawsuits against patent trolls wasting our tax dollars in court.
For example, the Pacific time zone is UTC-8 when it's PST, and UTC-7 when it's PDT.
In any case, sounds like it might be one of Rafe's last BOLs -- here's hoping.
it's a failure
i4i is a money-grubbing bug like so many others, seeking to leech money from companies that are actually good at business
It sounds to me that Microsoft is trying to do to i4i as they tried to do to Sun 10 or so years ago. Then it was to take an open source language like XML and make it propitary. They got their hand smacked then and again now.
Well, that's my two cents!
It's the same problem with internet, I paid $50-$60 for my internet connection with Comcast (without TV and phone). While in France for example, internet (faster than Comcast), phone (free and illimited on landline phone on most countries) and television is only $43 per months.
That's actually a very strange situation where you have way more competition in countries some americans would call "socialist".
Just listened to BOL 1040: i4i wants tooth for tooth from Microsoft and was really disappointed with the i4i piece. This is a good example where the subject matter is beyond the understanding of this panel of technology journalists. Remember, it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
P.S. Rafe you're a tech journalist, not a tech consultant, I would expect that means you report on stories not give bad IT advice.
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by robby818
August 13, 2009 12:03 PM PDT
- I really didn't like that "interview" with the i4i Chairman. The i4i guy came off looking like the professional and you three looked like amateurs. Ugh, embarrassing.
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