Buzz Out Loud Podcast

Rafe Needleman and I get in a fight over Windows 7's loose activation policy. Brian Tong suggests we hug it out. Rafe and I seem to prefer stabbing it out. We also take Flickr to task for censoring images and wonder why the Internet addiction center is so expensive.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Windows 7 runs free without activation for 120 days with simple command
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/21/windows-7-runs-free-without-activation-for-120-days-with-simple/

Yahoo deletes anti-Obama image from Flickr
http://www.businessinsider.com/yahoo-deletes-anti-obama-image-from-flickr-2009-8

Twitter to roll out commercial accounts this year
http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/08/20/twitter-to-roll-out-commercial-accounts-this-year-co-founder-stone-says/

Facebook launches a Twitter app
http://mashable.com/2009/08/20/facebook-twitter-app/

WordPress gets own URL shortener
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10314587-250.html
Vb.ly – “sex positive url shortener”
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10313617-250.html

Coalition to challenge Google Books settlement
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10314586-93.html

Microsoft retail stores are hiring
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/08/microsoft-retail-stores-are-hiring.ars

First American Internet Addiction Treatment Center
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/08/20/1833202/First-American-Internet-Addiction-Treatment-Center

ACP, one of the oldest open source apps
http://slashdot.org/story/09/08/21/1121202/ACP-One-of-the-Oldest-Open-Source-Apps

DARPA 3D reasoning engine to identify urban threats
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13639_3-10314619-42.html

Vote for Buzz Out Loud at SXSW 2010
http://www.cnet.com/8301-19709_1-10311505-10.html

Voice mail
Anonymous on how easy it is to install a program in Linux

Patrick in New Hampshire does a word count

E-mail
Hey Buzz Crew!

I was thinking (dangerous, I know), the other day you guys were
talking about URL-Shortening on twitter and how you can’t just allow
links to go on forever because then people would go around that by
putting all the stuff they need in to an http://blahblahblah

So what if…

You had endless links but the actual link text you see is just
“link” ?! Crazy right? That way all links become 4 characters! Yes
yes, there’ll be security issues, but it won’t be worse than bit.ly
already is I suppose

For you html gurus out there, I guess it would look something like:

Here’s the tweet, and here’s the link and the rest of the tweet

TADA, problem solved. No more apocalypse from url shorteners dying XD.
not from twitter at least

Cheers,
Qiming

(Pronounced Ki-Ming)

Love the show

**********

All the URL shortening talk and twitter’s 140 character limit nonsense
got me thinking: Do you think the wireless carriers will ever
officially ditch the 160 limit on SMS, or do they make too much on
suckers like me with VZW Blackberries that don’t use EMS and make you
send multiple messages if you exceed 160 characters?

Wishfully thinking,

Luke the Pastor

**********

Hey Buzz Crew i just wanted to throw my hat into the ring about the
slim. Only the older PS3 Models feature Backwards compatibility. The
current models (80gm, 160gb) DO NOT feature the ability to play PS2
Games. Only the launch Models (60gb and 20gb) have the ability.

~Paul

NASA may have found the lost moon tapes and our best hope is for some kind of remix. Also, Molly tells us all to beware the sticky death roller if we use the dead-fly-powered alarm clock. We also still don't have a sponsor. In case you were curious.

EPISODE 1007

Steve Jobs returns to work as Apple CEO after medical leave (thanks, Nate Lanxon on Twitter!)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aSy0WezEGvvY

Sony considers adding phone to PSP
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10274415-1.html?

Sony begins shipping PCs with Green Dam software installed
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218101773

Google mistook Jackson searches for Net attack
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/06/29/003214/Google-Mistook-Jackson-Searches-For-Net-Attack

Amazon cuts off North Carolina affiliates
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/06/26/172248/Amazon-Cuts-Off-North-Carolina-Affiliates

Keeping news of kidnapping off Wikipedia
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/technology/internet/29wiki.html

Reading machine to snoop on Web
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13639_3-10274435-42.html

Universal phone charger deal done in Europe
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_8124000/8124293.stm

Lenovo expanding Del and Esc keys, nuking Caps Lock
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/28/lenovo-expanding-del.html

Has NASA Found the Lost Moon Tapes?
http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/06/28/186245/Has-NASA-Found-the-Lost-Moon-Tapes

VOICEMAIL
Dance in Boulder on Windows 7

E-MAIL
Dear Buzz Crew:

This is Siavash, alive and yet fighting.
You think airing trilogy of Lord of the Rings is a big thing? The channel 3 is going to AIR the whole Prison Break series, ha? What you have to say about that? I've heard it is 3 episode a day.
This is really stupid, let me tell you something, in Iran we have 7 channels over the air, analog and digital with standard definition, in Tehran less that 50% of people watch the Iranian TV and they mostly watch satellite TV. And most of the people have watched these movies and series on DVD, so who cares that they are aired on TV?
And there are some people like me that never watch Iranian TV. I don't have a antenna for Iran's TV , and I only watch satellite TV.( who chooses watching Mullahs instead of watching MTV?)
My source of movies and series are satellite TV and torrent download (sorry, but no copyright law here and I really love to watch the latest series and movies).
Series like Prison break, Lost, Heroes, Office, Friends, CSI , 90210 , 24 and etc are big hits and everyone watches them in DVD or downloaded Divx.

So, all I'm trying to say is that it does not matter if they air Lord of the Rings or Prison Break, because at least in Tehran no one cares and more than 60% percent or more don't watch any Iranian TV. We can buy a copied DVD for 2$ or an original one for 15$, now I buy BlueRay disks for 30$, why should we care what is one the TV when we can watch it with better quality and no censor?
They are doing anything they can to keep people off the streets but they can't, even one day marathon of Angelina Jolie movies can't do it.

Best Regards

Siavash

**********

It’s not enough that humans gave robots a place to congregate to plan our demise, now we’ve adapted them with the ability to extract fuel from the very nectar of life. All that innocent experimentation with fuel cells that run on blood has led to this, a flesh-eating clock. This prototype time-piece from UK-based designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau traps insects on flypaper stretched across its roller system before depositing them into a vat of bacteria. The ensuing chemical reaction, or “digestion,” is transformed into power that keeps the rollers rollin’ and the LCD clock ablaze. The pair offers an alternative design fueled by mice, another contraption whose robotic arm plucks insect-fuel from spider webs with the help of a video camera, and a lamp powered by insects lured to their deaths with ultraviolet LEDs. Man, this is so wrong it has to be right.

Michael

**********

The crew at BOL:

You had a round of derision for english units on the replacement for the
space shuttle. I’m glad to hear that you will be reporting the weight
of netbooks in grams, not pounds. The screen sizes will no longer be in
inches. Your CD’s and DVD’s will no longer be 5 1/2 inches. You won’t
be reporting how many pounds you lost on your last diet, and you will
report that the iPhone masses 0.135 kg instead of weighing 4.8 ounces.

As a practicing engineer (29 years), I have an intuitive understanding
of my designs in inches. I can convert to metric easily when needed,
but I have a storehouse of experience in English units. Unfortunately,
I’m passing that on to newly minted engineers, as well.

Charlie

Yes, as a matter of fact, it IS rocket science.

**********

I know one can’t predict the exact date of any given episode due to holidays, special episodes and what have you, but based on the average number of podcasts per month over year in the 2006 – 2008 period, I believe I can make at least a rough projection. I am greatly anticipating Buzz Out Loud’s Millionth Episode in October of 6120, give or take a decade.

Love the show.
-Mark, the person.

Brian Cooley goes all Noel Coward on me when we ask if he wants to share viewing over the Xbox 360. We also talk about the Project Natal coolness and lost of other E3 stuff. And of course robots still plan to kill usall. The latest developments involve them building themselves.

EPISODE 987

Xbox Live gets 1080p Zune video store, Netflix browsing, Twitter and Facebook integration
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/01/xbox-live-gets-live-tv-streaming-netflix-browsing/

Microsoft announces “Project Natal” motion controller for Xbox 360!
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/01/microsoft-announces-motion-controller-for-xbox-360/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8077369.stm

Beatles come together for launch
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8078280.stm

Complete E3 coverage
http://reviews.cnet.com/e3/

Toshiba introduced facial rec for cars
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/06/facial-recognition/

NVIDIA unveils 12 Tegra devices
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/02/nvidia-unveils-12-tegra-powered-devices-claims-the-mobile-comp/

Intel launches new CPU’s for thin, low cost laptops.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10254094-64.html

Motorola wants to be the wireless in everything CE
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10254063-94.html

Acer to sell Android netbook PCs in Q3
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSTP18980620090602
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10254258-1.html

Android goes Canadian: Rogers launches HTC Magic and Dream http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/02/android-goes-canadian-rogers-launches-htc-magic-and-dream/

Nokia N97 hitting 75 countries in June
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/02/nokia-n97-hitting-75-countries-in-june/

DARPA killer AI robots to ‘participate in own construction’ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/02/darpa_self_industry_day/

=====
VOICEMAIL

Kevin in Alabama about HD radio tagging on the Zune

Carl the Help Desk Czar has an idea for accelerometers

=====
EMAIL
Hey Buzz Crew,

I came across this article while doing some research at my job on social networking and Web 2.0 (Yes I’m getting paid for it!!). It is about the process of using the missed call log of cell phones to convey messages in a cheaper form then making calls or text messaging. Its a great summary of BOL goodness in preparation for the 1000th Episode, cheeting the phone company, full of acronyms to keep the squares confused, lack of voice mail in India, and some great retro HTML Coding. Hope you like it, see you in the live show today, @z1g1

raw URL http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/donner.html
–
Thank You,
Zack

=====
Palm Pre working with iTunes. Palm is promoting this precarious pairing, but perhaps people purchasing the Pre should prepare to be pissed-off presently; the iPod program probably won’t permit the provided product to perform properly post-patch, as previously pondered on the podcast: http://daringfireball.net/2009/06/webos_itunes_integration

-Andres

=====
Hey guy,

You knew I would write in on this one….

Indeed xbxo live achievements were developed by a psychologist (among
others). John Hopson, a Duke PhD in animal cognition (obviously a wise
young man) helped come up with achievements. We met at FuturePlay 2007
where he was giving a keynote, and I was speaking, blogging and podcasting.
We got to talking, and I mentioned how achievements were clearly “…simply
a Variable Interval…” and he interrupted me and said “reinforcement
schedule”. To learn more about reinforcement schedules just pick up a copy
of “Schedules of Reinforcement” by Ferrster and Skinner (1957). It is even
better than reading Conditioned Reflexes (Pavlov, 1927) for putting one to
sleep…

Oddly enough, we talked some more, and had I taken the job at Duke I was
offered in 1998 I would have been John’s PhD supervisor.

Dave (the Psychologist)

=====
1000th episode coming Thursday June 18th. Want to be on the episode? Post a video of yourself. MUST be less than 30 seconds long. And send a link. No attachments. Could be well-wishing, could be memories, epithets we don’t care. We’ll choose from all the messages we get and play a selection on the 1000th episode as well as post them in the Wiki.

Want to get involved in the production of the show? Find your favorite BOL moment, clip it out of the MP3, or video, and send us the moment. For video, please upload to a video hosting service and send us a link. Email either to buzz@cnet.com

In today's show, we find out that the demise of humanity is imminent (or that all of our robot mythology is fundamentally rooted in self-hatred), the RIM BlackBerry Storm takes the world by drizzle, and Microsoft hopes that actually giving you songs will convince you to buy a Zune. Oh, and we don't care about Yahoo Glue. In case you were wondering.

EPISODE 857

RIM BlackBerry Storm arrives
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/rim-blackberry-storm-verizon/4505-6452_7-33311850.html

Meet the first multitouch consumer laptop: HP’s TouchSmart tx2
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10102285-1.html

Mozilla revenue $75 million in 2007, up 12 percent
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081119-mozilla-revenue-75-million-in-2007-up-12-percent.html
http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-10102627-12.html

Microsoft, labels try to revive subscriptions
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10102846-56.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10103777-49.html

Sources: Apple, music labels talk DRM-free songs
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10102414-93.html

Web debut for Guns N’ Roses album
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7739133.stm

Yahoo brings its Glue to the U.S.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10103776-93.html

Hey, remember Lively, Google’s Second Life, yeah, me neither. It’s gone.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/lively-no-more.html

Samsung launches 256GB solid-state drive
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10103645-64.html

IBM gets DARPA cognitive computing contract
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10103355-52.html

VOICEMAIL
Lee the exhaust guy: swarming with e-books

Daniel: MMS on the iPhone
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/20/mobispines-iphone-mms-application-for-the-entire-universe/
Mobispine press release: http://www2.mobispine.com/press/readpress.dot?inode=4568

E-MAIL

Hello Buzz crew. Like many others, I downloaded the Xbox New
Experience update last night, wasted about 20 minutes tweaking my
avatar so I don’t look like a punk kid, upgraded to LIVE Gold, and
made a beeline for the Netflix player. Microsoft and Neflix have
provided an amazing service to Netflix subscribers. It’s a little
disappointing that you can only browse titles in your Instant Queue,
but the interface is slick and easy to use. I selected an episode from
the (otherwise disappointing) current season of Heroes. Within
seconds, I was watching the smooth playback in high definition. You
can scan forward and backward through the video using a coverflow-like
view that shows thumbnails from the show.

The only downside was that I had to switch to my TiVo to order pizza.
If the Xbox Netflix viewer is anything like what we can expect to see
from TiVo, then bring it on. Can you imagine Pizza AND Netflix in one
UI? Now THAT’s a great user experience.

- Richard
Washington, D.C.

**********

Hey JaMoTo and the extra crew member!

Looks like we’re not immune from the big media companies as much as you are in the States. According to The Age…

The Australian film and television industry has launched a major legal action against one of Australia’s largest Internet service providers for allegedly allowing its users to download pirated movies and TV shows.

The action against iiNet was filed in the Federal Court today by Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Disney and the Seven Network.

(Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/biztech/film-pirates-put-iinet-in-the-dock/2008/11/20/1226770617457.html)

The interesting thing is, the Seven Network is in this suite. For those who don’t know, we have 3 major commercial television networks, namely the Seven Network, Nine Network and Network Ten. The last 2, offer Australians on-demand downloading of their shows on their website, and the Nine Network themselves have locally produced shows on the iTunes store. So why is the Seven Network resorting to suing when they could just easily join the other two networks by providing Australians more legal alternatives to the torrents? This goes for the other companies in the suit. If they really want to kerb illegal downloading, why don’t they open some US-exclusive options like Hulu to the Australian audience? You guys (maybe it was The 404, I can’t remember, haha!) said yourself that Hulu’s catching up to YouTube in terms of revenue.

It’s great to be an iiNet customer at this stage too. First the trial of the internet filter, now this from the entertainment industry. I’m with iiNet myself, so it’ll be interesting what’s to come.

Love the show guys!

Cheers!

**********

Mark

For the teacher and others who are having problems with HDCP issues there
are HD Strippers that are adapters or boxes that they themselves are HDCP
compliant and then pass through the signal without the HDCP DRM. a famous
example is the HDFury:

http://www.hdfury.com/

Robert Clark
Prince Albert,SK

**********

A hobo is a traveling homeless person who takes work when they can get
it. A tramp is a traveling homeless person who does not work.

Hobos are also governed by a code of ethics, have a duly appointed hobo
king, and a rich hobo-only written language based on a series of
pictographic symbols and codes which they used to communicate things
such as marking a good place to sleep, where you can find someone
willing to give you food, and what towns have cops that will beat the
crap out of you.

So I think Tom will be doing a decent service by launching a hobo social
site. I would give it a square missing it’s top line.

–Keith from New York, not a hobo

**********

JaMoTo,

I just wanted to take a quick moment to ask that you recognize the BOL chat room moderators on the show as they do an absolutely fantastic job of making the chat extremely user friendly and pleasant.

I’m sure you guys are generally too busy either getting ready for, or actually executing, the show to really notice how hard they work at helping new users along and just generally making everyone feel comfortable within the community.

I’d list them all by name but I fear that I would forget someone and feel terrible about that - suffice it to say that if someone has a gold star next to their name they are nothing short of awesome personified.

Not as anonymous as I used to be,
Snit

There's no way we'd bait the International Olympic Committee like that, knowing how notoriously aggressive they are about controlling their content. They hardly want anyone to see it. That's why all the digital content is Vista only this year. Rimshot! In other news of the day, Nokia bought Symbian, leading analysts to predict everything from global market takeover to complete and utter destruction.

EPISODE 752

Nokia buys Symbian, turns software over to Symbian Foundation
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/24/nokia-buys-symbian/
http://news.cnet.com/Symbians-new-role-in-mobile-apps-drama/2009-1039_3-6242423.html
http://mashable.com/2008/06/24/nokia-acquires-symbian/

The high-tech job capital is the Big Apple?
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/the-high-tech-job-capital-isthe-big-apple/

Microsoft pledges Windows XP support through 2014
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208800494

NBC Olympics on-the-go download service is Vista only
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080623-nbc-olympics-on-the-go-download-service-is-vista-only.html

Radio digital switchover proposed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7470460.stm

Co-founder shares surprises, letdowns, morsels from early Microsoft days
http://news.cnet.com/2009-1014_3-6242276.html

T-Mobile to prorate cell phone termination fees
http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/business/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208800463

New brief on DARPA’s Vulcan engine
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9975240-7.html

Voice mail

Kent
Nerd for hire or absence of joke?

FORUMS

Microsoft’s biggest blunder: Not fighting back vs. Apple
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=298968

E-mail

In episode 751, you discussed the merits of ICANN allowing the registration of TLDs. That got me thinking about Apple’s recent decision to change the name of .Mac to MobileMe. I find it ironic that just as Apple drops .Mac (the name never made sense to me anyway), ICANN might allow Apple to create a top-level domain of .mac. One positive note: we are spared the web address “www.apple.mac.”

Am more entertained by your tweets than the show (just kidding),
Shawn in Greeley, CO

**********

Just to let you know, the Apple Cinema Displays do not include a built-
in iSight. This is why old iSight cameras go for high prices on eBay.
The show is awesome!

Trev from Oz.

**********

First for all the angry google browser syncers out there is Mozilla Weave:
https://services.mozilla.com/

It is still in experimental stages but works quite well. I’ve used it
for several months now since switching off of Firefox 2. It is more
like Google Browser Sync than Foxmarks because it syncs bookmarks,
history, saved forms, etc

Lastly I thought you might find this interesting. Our family was chosen
to be a Nielsen Ratings family. So we signed all the paperwork and
sometime later they came out to install the monitoring devices. When
the installer started going over my TV setup, he told us that we could
not participate because I had my computer hooked up to the TV. (as an
auxiliary input) He said this would cause their monitoring device to
report incorrectly.

So if you have an unsupported device then you can not participate in
Nielsen Ratings. While they support devices like DVDs players, VCRs,
and game consoles, it sounds like they don’t support much else. It
seems to me that they are missing a big demographic then. Sounds like
everyone who owns a Windows Media Center, Apple TV, or other computer
like device may be looked over. Sorry techies but it looks like all our
favorite shows are destined to have bad ratings.

Paul from Houston

EPISODE 726

Note: We are making a change to our podcast feed system on Monday, May 19. However, you do not need to subscribe to a new feed. One important thing to know: If you have your podcast catcher set to download "all unheard episodes" in a feed, you will probably find a bunch of already heard episodes in your feed on Friday as a result of the changes. To lighten the hit, set your podcast catcher to only download "the latest episode" for the week of May 19-to-23.

Cox, Comcast biggest BitTorrent blockers in the world
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080515-us-isps-biggest-bittorrent-blockers-in-the-world.html
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006967.html

Facebook Disconnects Google Friend Connect
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207800461
http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9945308-2.html

RIAA defendant Jammie Thomas may get new trial
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9945643-38.html

Microsoft, OLPC officially team up
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9945438-56.html

Details for Guitar Hero 4 released
http://games.slashdot.org/games/08/05/15/216205.shtml

Analyst: Amazon.com’s Kindle to generate $750 million by 2010
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9945112-1.html

TiVo extends lifetime subscription offer
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9944974-7.html

jDome offers unique experience to gamers
http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/05/15/ jdome_offers_unique_experience.html

50 Years of DARPA: 5 Good Inventions, 5 Lousy Ones
http://gizmodo.com/391157/ 50-years-of-darpa-5-good-inventions-5-lousy-ones

VOICE MAIL

Shalin
CBS idea.

Drew Phoenix
Battlestar Spoiler

E-MAIL

Semantic web searching

Not to harp on an old subject, I am behind a few days in my listening. Semantic Web searching caught my ear when you mentioned it in episode 722. I am one of those who thought Jeeves could answer my every question.

Last night my wife and I couldn’t figure out the answer to a factual question and didn’t want to hit the computer at the time. This morning I went to Powerset.com and asked it “What artist wrapped an island in pink?” Thinking a perfect semantic search engine would simply give me the answer. Powerset gave me a bunch of results, the musician Pink, the Pink Panther, but nothing about the artist who has wrapped islands and the German governmental buildings in pink fabric.

I went to Google and pasted in the exact same search criteria and the Artist Christo came up as the 2nd result from a New York Times article.

I went to Christo’s Wiki page, since Powerset only index those pages, and sure enough all my terms: island, wrap, pink, artist were on his Wiki page.

As with Jeeves, Powerset is not quite ready for prime time. Let me know the next time to check Semantic searching again.

P.S. Let’s Go Pens!

--PittCaleb

Cut off in traffic? Get their name and address via SMS

Hello,

For a bit over a year now I have been commuting from Lausanne to Geneva, and reading the free papers while listening to BOL on my iPod.

Today I came across a story that I found a little sinister, and thought you might find interesting. Here is the French version (for Molly to practice):

http://www.lematin.ch/fr/actu/suisse/ a-geneve-le-sms-permet-de-traquer-chauffard-et-belle-fille_9-156371

Here is the Google Translate version (which does an OK job):

http://translate.google.com/translate?u= http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lematin.ch%2Ffr%2Factu%2Fsuisse%2Fa-geneve-le-sms- permet-de-traquer-chauffard-et-belle-fille_9-156371& hl=fr&ie=UTF8&sl=fr&tl=en

Basically, you can SMS the local government a license plate number, and they will send you the name and address of the owner. I can’t even begin to list the reasons that I think is a terrible idea (full points though to one of the people that they vox pop’d in the paper version of the article, who suggested you that could get the address of someone driving an expensive car, and then go a burgle their place).

Of course, I am relatively smug since I don’t own a car, and am completely happy surviving on public transport (which is possible here, unlike most other places I have lived).

Cheers,

--Shaun
The Australian lawyer in Geneva

“Nobody solved it?” Not so fast, Leo

Dear BOL gang:

On BOL 725 when you and Leo Laporte were talking about all the outages of Twitter and similar sites, Leo mentioned offhand that scaling to massive usage is “a tough problem and nobody’s really solved it.” I agree that it’s a tough problem–but that’s why you need good engineers. I, for example, wrote the software behind Wikipedia in 2001 when it was having problems with its earlier software even though there were only a few thousand users then. I redesigned the database carefully, and gave serious thought to the trade-offs between performance and utility of every feature, solving the problem–and I was just a volunteer. Since then, other volunteers from the free software community and Wikipedia employees have scaled it up to its present level and built on to the software to the point that there’s hardly any of my code left–and they did all this while it was up and running.

If I may gloat a bit, this is not the first time the free software community has shown that it can outperform highly paid engineers in real-world applications.

--Lee Daniel Crocker

Fun while it lasted

Hey buzz team,

Just wanted to send my condolences in regards to the recent news of the acquisition. Quick question though, when will you be making the switch-over to the boring, dry news that only targets the elderly?

--Shane

Google Street View

Hey TMJ,

I was so excited yesterday when I drove past a Google Street View car on the highway. I made a few funny faces and gestures and thought that now I’d be forever immortalized as the funny guy with the Cardinals hat (Go Cards!). Then I got home and listened to episode 724 and heard that Google will be blurring faces as a measure to ward off privacy concerns.

Also, who knew that KC would be one of the next cities to be on Street View? It’s not like we’re a tech hub like SF or NYC, the previously available cities. Most of my co-workers don’t know the difference between a PC or Mac, or even which OS they are using. They just say that they use “the computer.” But, it’s still pretty cool.

Love the show!

--Dave the Engineer (or maybe Dave B. in KC, it rhymes after all)

Icahn has Yahoo-Microsoft merger?

Greetings!

I’ve always believed resistance is, in fact, futile, so I was compelled to not resist from making what I believe should be a candidate for best “lolhuman” to date, and no-one will appreciate a tech-related ‘lol’ as much as you.

http://www.lanxon.co.uk/index.php/2008/05/15/icahn-has-yahoo-merger/

In related news, maybe Icahn wanted the existing board to reject the Microsoft bid because he appreciated how much the deal would annoy shareholders, thus reducing share prices, thus making his purchase of millions of them less painful, and he’d get his way at the end of the day anyway. Smart dude, in my opinion.

Warmest,
--Nate