Find tech advice for business hereBOL 1096: Unzipping your genes
Turns out those terahertz scanners in the airports are mostly safe, but they do a little unzipping of your DNA. Derek says it's nothing to worry about; you won't grow a third arm in the airport--even if it would be handy for carrying baggage. We also find out e-mail isn't private. Did we need the courts to tell us that? And Facebook gets $711 million it will never see.
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EPISODE 1096
Federal judge says e-mail not protected by Fourth Amendment
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/10/29/2257209/Federal-Judge-Says-E-mail-Not-Protected-By-4th-Amendment
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/10/29/on-gmail-and-the-constitution/
Facebook awarded $711 million in spam lawsuit
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10387021-93.html
Internet regulator Icann approves Web addresses in multiple languages
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/30/icann-approves-idn-web-addresses-language
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10387139-93.html
Epix launches premium movie channel for TV and the Web
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/epixhd_premium_movie_channel_for_the_tv_and_internet_invites.php
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/10/studios-launch-epix-high-def-on-demand-movies-site-and-we-have-invites.ars
Google Wave to be opened for federation today! Yes, for you to host.
http://thenextweb.com/appetite/2009/10/30/breaking-google-wave-opened-federation-today-host/
Software that fixes itself
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/23821/
Microsoft’s Mission Viejo store opens
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/microsoft-store-viejo-2628335-mission-first
Let’s kill the OS upgrade disc
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10386856-250.html
How terahertz waves tear apart DNA
http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/10/30/1216230/How-Terahertz-Waves-Tear-Apart-DNA
ReoCities: Because GeoCities is gone, but not forgotten
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/10/29/reocities-because-geocities-is-gone-but-not-forgotten/
VOICE MAIL
Jason in Marietta calls out a bridge comment
Tony on Net Neutrality
Joe with a way to get around Amazon’s scheme
E-MAIL
Hey crue’de’buzz, I think SoCal or Stanford has an open source 3D printer that only costs around 2K. Aside from the fact that you can swap out the printing medium with cake icing, the coolest part is their goal of making the entire printer printable. If one of the parts is about to break, print a new one! If you’re annoyed with all your friends boggarting your printer, print them one. I think they have about 30% of the parts printable already, and they’re currently trying to replace the few metal parts with printable plastic. Now all we have to do is eagerly await the monopolization of the “periodic feed.”
John Smolik
Austin, Tx.
**********
Hey BOL crew,
Just responding to the email in episode 1095 about using the twitter
peek to stay in contact with your kids.
While I love the idea of a device with “lifetime” service and no
contracts, I’m not a fan of single purpose devices.
However, I can see where this person is coming from as my son is at
the age where a simple text device would be handy and I hardly ever
use the phone myself when I can avoid it, so why bother with another
cellular plan?
So I did a little looking around and found a company called Qwert (qwertcorp.com
) that sells very inexpensive text only plans, no contract, and does
not require you to buy a device, they mail you a sim card!
Considering my (jailbroken) Gen 1
iPhone is getting on in years and I
have been contemplating an upgrade for a while, I decided to pass it
on to my son with service from Qwert.
It works great and he sure appreciates the “extra” features of playing
music and games.
James in Milwaukee
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 don't want to pay for Vista. It sucks. If Microsoft won't produce a compelling product, I'm not going to pay them for the right to upgrade to it.
The current OS model is how we keep Microsoft accountable for producing a compelling improvement in their operating system. If we all subscribed, MS would have less incentive to improve their product, because most people won't stop paying them as long as they keep us marginally satisfied.
I'm not saying my solution is perfect, but I do believe that market forces (that is, the existence of Apple) apply to MS no matter the payment model.
Apple's NEW OSes are a joke and are basically service packs that are tested on users with many flaws.
You reward them every time you upgrade up to 700 bucks since OSX.
Seriously does math elude you?!
http://archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Geocities
I'm assuming you are the same who wrote the "Let's kill the OS upgrade disc" article I saw on CNN. Congratulations, you managed to label yourself as "computer savvy." That term applies to anyone competent enough to use the basic functions, but does not understand anything about the specifics of how a computer works.
You started off complaining about being confused regarding the Upgrade vs. Full versions. Anyone with half a brain can figure out within 2 minutes that the disks are exactly the same, and the only difference is the license you buy.
Then, you start ******** about the, "Poor me, I suffered through Vista. I paid my dues." No one forced you to use Vista or buy a computer with Vista on it. It's like complaining about buying a car, then demanding a free newer model two years later. No, you bought it, you own it. Deal with it.
"That OS was patched and upgraded numerous times while I was running it, at no cost to me. Windows 7, while a better experience, is still clearly Vista with problems fixed and an improved interface." This proved you have no clue what you are talking about. The entire kernel was modified, as well as significant changes to tools, multi-core processing abilities, and driver handling. Upgrades are one thing; this is called an entire REDESIGN.
Sure, it looks like Vista because they kept the Aero theme, and kept most of the stuff organized the same. If that's all you see, then don't write a review.
You are not qualified.
-Syn
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by
November 3, 2009 11:23 PM PST
- Rafe...
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by
November 3, 2009 11:35 PM PST
- ***oops.. Office isn't subscription based, but should be. The point is, I should have an option to opt out of it if I wanted to. With OS subscription, I'm stuck!!!
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Like this
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(8 Comments)Why would anyone want to pay a subscription to run hardware? I already paid for my laptop 6yrs ago with XP and it's perfectly fine they way it is. With your plan of paying a subscription for OS, I would still be paying for that laptop! I saved $$ by not upgrading to Vista, but under your subscription plan, I would have been forced to have "bought" Vista. Just think all those people who didnt buy new computers or upgraded to Vista the past few years... didn't those actions force Microsoft to fix Vista with 7? You really don't have buy the next os just because it's new. You can wait until it's worth it, which 7 is.
Subscription vs. Pay up front? I love the fact that I paid for the lifetime option for my tivo instead of paying the subscription. It's something that I don't feel every month. Subscriptions are great for software that I can live without, such as Office, Zune Pass, or XboxLive. I could stop anyone of these services at anytime, and I can still run my pc, zune, and Xbox. Could you imagine having to buy an xbox 360 and pay each month for it to run???? What a dumb idea....
Love the show...
fed