Buzz Out Loud Podcast

As AT&T tries to accuse Google of violating Net neutrality, Molly wonders if they really just want to be seen as a villain. Also while you should never call anything unhackable, the Netbooks being given to students in Australia are pretty tight. Physical-layer BIOS protection is unusual in an educational situation like that. And we also get a little frustrated at people who don't listen. So please. Listen. Thanks.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Orange U.K. gets iPhone 3GS, O2 loses exclusivity
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/09/28/orange.uk.to.carry.iphones.in.2009/

Apple's Apps flying off the virtual shelves: 6.6 million downloads per day
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20090928/apples-apps-flying-off-the-virtual-shelves-6-6-million-downloads-per-day/

Apple behind Intel’s USB competitor?
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/09/27/1427241/Apple-Behind-Intels-USB-Competitor

Critics: AT&T griping over Google Voice a “red herring”
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/google-critics-slam-att-on-google-voice.ars

Yahoo's new TV ad: Count the 'yous'
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-yahoos-new-tv-ad-count-the-yous/

Music player noise limit planned
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8279348.stm

A.U. government to build “unhackable” Netbooks
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/09/27/0252235/AU-Government-To-Build-Unhackable-Netbooks

Ignoring RIAA lawsuits cheaper than going to trial
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/ignoring-riaa-lawsuits-cheaper-than-going-to-trial.ars

Porn row pizza workers strike
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/porn-row-pizza-workers-strike-14502739.html

Send in your questions for Steve Ballmer
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30966_3-10362159-262.html

VOICE MAIL
RogueTess
Extra security for PayPal

Jack
Stealing thunder from Microsoft

E-MAIL
BOL,

They should have either (1) an application/PDF document that you can
store on your mobile phone or (2) a URL printed inside the glove
compartment that you can enter on your phone to view the manual. The
latter would be better in general (because who remembers to download
the documentation *before* you have problems), but the former would be
better for areas with poor or no cell phone access, like the San
Francisco area.

Todd

**********

Props to Nick the biochem grad student for the helpful link regarding Windows 7 for students. I checked it out and all you need is a valid .edu address and $29.99. It’s pre-order right now and they’re allowing downloads on October 22. Now that some of my textbooks cost upwards of $160 (I’m a nursing student) saving $90 on an OS that’ll hopefully save me from the hell I’ve been living in called Vista is quite the boon. Thanks Nick and thanks Microsoft, though I doubt I’ll be having any kind of cuddle party there might be some kind of ritual involving lighter fluid and my Vista disc…

–
Derin from Scottsdale

**********

A few episodes ago, you guys talked about wanted AM radio on the Zune HD, and I would agree. I was looking at the teardown of the Zune HD on iFixit, and noticed something interesting. In Step 8, they reveal that the Zune HD has a SiPORT HD Radio chip which just so happens to support AM radio. All Microsoft has to do is turn it on.

Thanks for the great work.

Andrew
Bangor, ME
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft-Zune-HD/1170/1

**********

BOL

I have tried a few times now to locate the bonus material for the show, and have been totally unsuccessful. Could you please clarify where this is located, or put it in the iTunes feed?

aaren

On the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, we sadly report on the state of the broken toilet in the International Space Station. It means astronauts have to split up which toilets they use in order to load balance. No. Seriously. Plus we touch on the Amazon 1984 ironic mistake of the year.

EPISODE 1022

Amazon remotely deletes all copies of George Orwell books

Amazon says it won't repeat Kindle book recall

Kazaa to return as subscription service

Meanwhile RIAA notices DRM is dead

Toshiba will sell Blu-ray player this year

Digg redirects short URLs to Digg

Could Apple really dictate iPhone terms to Verizon Wireless?

Apple's iPhone "wrecking" the cell industry

Kingston unveils 256GB thumb drive for well-heeled memory fiends

Parajet SkyCar flying vehicle evolves, now ready for pre-orders

New space station toilet "out of order"

Alaskan blob is an algae bloom

French Spin

VOICEMAIL
Eric from Maryland about 1000 year DVDs

Chris from Portland with Prius response.

E-MAIL
Hey Buzz Crew,

Interesting article on today's New York Times talking about why Japanese smartphones haven't gone global:

Despite their great technological advance (the article cites e-mail capabilities in 1999, camera phones in 2000, third-generation networks in 2001, full music downloads in 2002, electronic payments in 2004 and digital TV in 2005), Japanese phones suffer from "Galapagos syndrome", meaning that they "are like the endemic species that Darwin encountered on the Galápagos Islands -- fantastically evolved and divergent from their mainland cousins" (citing a professor from Tokyo's Keio University).

The article also makes an interesting point about how much Japanese manufacturers are focused on developing hardware and gave little or no attention to software, unlike western manufacturers (like Apple, with iTunes and the App Store)...which could be one of the reasons why Japanese manufacturers aren't successful internationally.

Thought you would like to read it.

Love the show.

Henrique from Brazil

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to let you hear from someone who appreciates
ComcastBonnie. When I had my Comcast service installed, the tech
didn't bring cablecards like requested. I twittered my frustration and
within five minutes Bonnie replied asking if she could help. By the
time we finished, she had the tech's supervisor call about the problem
and offered to have someone drive the 20 miles to my house with
cablecards on a Friday evening. She even called a few hours later to
check up on the situation.

So unless you are a total d-bag, she seems to do everything that she
can to help.

LTS,

Tom the Sign Guy

I just received a phone call from Comcast's Executive PR Department this morning regarding my blog and Twitter posts. After a year of calling and begging for a technician I will now have a special "PR Repair Technician" come out first thing tomorrow morning and fix the lines. I now also have my own personal PR Liaison to call if I ever have any trouble again.

Yes milking the situation was totally a douchey thing to do, but sometimes its the only way to get a giant company to actually listen to you. Cindy Wood, my liaison, did not even ask me to take my blog post down. Instead she wanted my input on to how they can make their Twitter support my effective since social media is a brave new world for them and they're learning as they go along. Even though I still hate Comcast, I like to give credit where its due and give them a shoutout for handling the situation in a classy manner.

I'm writing this from my phone since they managed to accidentally cut off my Internet access completely until tomorrow, so please excuse any typos :)

Best,
The Rocco

Natali has some tips for secure password hints that involve her armpits. You'll just have to listen. We also give our thoughts on Office 2010 and what kids these days are doing on the Internet. That includes Brian Tong.

EPISODE 1017

First Take: Microsoft Office 2010 technical preview
http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10284013-12.html

Monday's Office 2010 preview leaks to BitTorrent
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135454/Monday_s_Office_2010_preview_leaks_to_BitTorrent?taxonomyId=1

Ericsson to run Sprint's wireless network, but how?
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/ericssons-rx-for-us-broadband.ars

Collapse in illegal sharing and boom in streaming brings music to executives' ears
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jul/12/music-industry-illegal-downloading-streaming

Note by 'teenage scribbler' causes sensation
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/035e83fe-6f18-11de-9109-00144feabdc0.html

Six in 10 companies plan to skip Windows 7: Survey
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE56C0NC20090713

Re-Rumor: Apple tablet coming in October, priced at $800
http://gizmodo.com/5313266/re+rumor-apple-tablet-coming-in-october-priced-at-800
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/13/apples-9-7-inch-netbook-to-debut-in-october-for-800/

How to use electrical outlets and cheap lasers to steal data
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/070909-electrical-data-theft.html

Strong passwords not as good as you think
http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/13/1336235/Strong-Passwords-Not-as-Good-as-You-Think

iPhone in China without Wi-Fi
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10285137-37.html

Apollo 11 moon mission to be recreated on the Web
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/13/apollo-11-moon-mission-to-be-recreated-on-the-web/

Mario Marathon
http://www.mariomarathon.com/

VOICEMAIL
Crowdsourcing player movements is a bad idea

Tech support call

E-MAIL
I was shopping at a local Wal Mart this weekend when I came across $98.00 Blu Ray players. Alot of them, shelves FULL! Everyone was just walking by I didn't see anyone buying them or even giving them a second look.

Seems to me the interest is fading. Sony may have really screwed up on this format, just like every other format they've come up with.

Regards

Robert King
Eau Claire WI

***********

Dear Buzz Crew,

I have to comment on the gaze-tracking privacy software discussed in
Wednesday's episode 1014. Tom was absolutely correct that it shows
normal text to the authorized user and gibberish to everyone else.
(At least for the high-end product Chameleon; the consumer product
PrivateEye just obscures the whole screen.) I guess not everyone has
taken a visual perception class, so I'll try to explain.

We have the intuitive impression that our eyes behave like cameras –
constantly reading in all the pixels, and smoothly panning around from
object to object. Not so at all! Half of your visual cortex is
devoted to the central two degrees of your visual field. That works
out to half an inch of good focus area at a standard reading distance
of 14 inches. Moreover, your eyes constantly jump around in
incredibly fast, involuntary movements called saccades, only pausing
for about 200 milliseconds at a time. During the saccades, visual
input is suppressed. With decent gaze-tracking equipment (such as
from you local college's cognitive psychology department), you can
flash up pictures of penguins during saccades, and the user won't
notice anything odd.

Here's a video showing someone's eye movements while reading Google
search results:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w29DrEEsqT4
And yes, your eyes still jump around even when you're reading a
structured text document. Chameleon just fills everything except the
tiny, fluctuating area you're looking at with random text.

Thanks for this and all the other cool stories!
–Amy in Pennsylvania

http://oculislabs.com/Products/ChameleonP.htm (mouse over “oculis in action”)

On today's Buzz Out Loud, Natali and Molly form a new Amazonian society in advance of the development of artificial sperm. But in much more important news, Google is finally building the thin-client, Netbook-friendly operating system that Molly predicted back in 2005. And poor Yahoo is stuck in 2005: it just announced Search Pad. Aw. Poor Yahoo.

EPISODE 1014

Introducing the Google Chrome OS
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10281744-2.html

Which Molly predicted in 2005!
http://www.cnet.com/4520-6033_1-5759958-1.html

Yahoo Search Pad
http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=394383

Michael Jackson memorial pushes Internet traffic to its limits
http://gigaom.com/2009/07/07/michael-jacksons-memorial-online-traffic-pushes-internets-limits/
http://mashable.com/2009/07/07/cnn-live-stream-michael-jackson/
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-jackson-memorial-stats-roughly-6000-facebook-status-updates-per-minute-/

Federal sites hacked
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/07/AR2009070703250.html
http://government.zdnet.com/?p=5093

RIAA/music streaming sites agreement
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/technology/internet/08radio.html
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/07/08/1339224/Pandora-Stabilizes-No-Longer-Completely-Free

LG Chocolate Phone: what is this aspect ratio??
http://gizmodo.com/5309204/new-lg-chocolates-secret-feature-is-an-800x345-resolution-219-cinema-widescreen-display

West Virginia sues Comcast over cable box tying
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/reviews/2009/07/west-virginia-sues-comcast-over-cable-box-tying.ars

Gaze-tracking software protects computer privacy
http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/07/1946217/Gaze-Tracking-Software-Protects-Computer-Privacy

British scientists can make sperm
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/07/08/3007405-british-scientists-claim-to-create-human-sperm

VOICE MAIL
President of the Internet

Dwight on Gmail

E-MAIL
Team Buzz

During your discussion of Google Chrome OS today, I am curious as to what impact, if any, GCOS might also have on older PCs. Since GCOS is already targeted at low-powered Netbooks, it stands to reason GCOS might also breathe some extra life into that 5-year-old laptop you were thinking of ditching. By moving a lot of the processing power from your lap to the cloud, could an unintended consequence be a reprieve on hardware's life cycle? Certainly Google wouldn't complain.

Mike in Dayton

************

Hello Buzz crew!
We are one month away from the coolest day/time, according to my friend, Saud:

On August 7, 2009
At 12hr 34 minutes and 56 seconds on the 7th of August this year, the time and date will be
12:34:56 07/08/09

Khaled from Saudi Arabia.

************

iTunes 5-star club
The Geek Master
zippyg
3thom
Norman from Novato
BryanBR
delmauriow
Vance M
ihatebillg
iFOREIGNi
jbpounders
Tommollijas
yoyojam55
legend2k
niatish
pmm217
johnnyg123
yokonative
ct06
shetbomb78
Club Debit
Nostra Thomas
Tiki Guy
vaso247
Sunder_r
poly915
mdr33
tav72
tecknodragon
greghutch
techgolf
cubanmike82
natePickard
Gildorluthien
Dingo42
pmm217
Kenwait
Big JT
BraveJHawk
mike e_p
drsid
HonestReviewer9000
Real_MrHappy
Polarfreeze
colintethys
michelleh45
mhanley
satguy (a little weird with the wal-mart tale there)
currently downloading
merrittgene
sandbox32
ewavemedia
Mareshalu
Jasc79
Mike798001
Gale the Third
macSK
BobMac
Matt1212

CrAzY Tom M.
Jesse Vazquez
KeatonTech
Dfaoj
Dr. Sanseveria
zypher.the.one
MiliaryLovesBOL
Ikcor
watchmesoar
slamshrk31
Jonathan55
njk828
SmittyRedcard
yourmomisanillegalimmigrant

As the new owners of the Pirate Bay take over they will have to eventually change things and sell out. So Rafe has dubbed them as Cruiseship Bay. We also discuss the pyrrhic victory of RIAA over Usenet.com and Rafe and Natali hate some more on Verizon.

EPISODE 1009

RIAA triumphs in Usenet copyright case
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10276607-93.html

Cash for Pirate Bay file-sharers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8128551.stm

Twitter reworks following lists, adds functionality
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13515_3-10276568-26.html

Obama adminisration lauches IT spending tracking site
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/technology/01dashboard.html?_r=1

Verizon says house shoppers crave high-fiber Internet diet
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/verizon-says-house-shoppers-crave-high-fiber-internet-diet.ars

New Click-Fraud Attack Is Stealthiest Yet
http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/06/30/2237256/New-Click-Fraud-Attack-Is-Stealthiest-Yet

Frustratingly long secret code enables totally useful landscape email on Pre
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/01/frustratingly-long-secret-code-enables-totally-useful-landscape/

GDGT launch
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10276755-2.html

Chicago ‘burb ditches red light cameras, no safety advantage
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/chicago-burb-ditches-red-light-cameras-no-safety-advantage.ars

Most Complete Topographical Map of Earth Complete
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/06/30/1650208/Most-Complete-Topographical-Map-of-Earth-Complete

VOICEMAIL
Nick wants to take over the world… or at least the Internet

EMAIL
in an effort to confirm Molly’s suspicion of AT&T as the worst 3G network, i present this link to PC World’s 3G test they ran in 13 U.S. cities

summary:
Verizon=fastest
Sprint=most reliable (by a small margin over verizon)
AT&T=blows (~20% less reliable than the other 2)

and a good note at the end that seems to be a recurring statement:
“Somewhat surprisingly, our testers also found that the “bars of service” readings on their phones were rarely an accurate predictor of the quality of the ensuing connection. In most places and with most wireless providers, the “bars” did little more than indicate whether the phone had access to some service or to no service.”

thanks for an entertaining show
corey
http://www.pcworld.com/article/167391/a_day_in_the_life_of_3g.html

**********

Hi Buzz crew,

Just a quick e-mail on the subject of the Amazon referral scheme and the
impact of local tax legislation here in Hawaii.
When the legislation went through state and house, very few locals
seemed aware of it, then all of a sudden one of the members of a major
local tech community site here, TechHui, caught wind of it and alerted
everyone:
http://www.techhui.com/profiles/blogs/urgent-help-stop-hb1405-the?id=1702911%3ABlogPost%3A44364
From there numerous letters and petitions to house representatives and
Governor Lingle went out explaining the significant financial impact it
was liable to have on local business and citizens, along with TV and
radio interviews; no doubt, though, a number of residents here not
members of techhui were surprised to receive e-mails telling them their
referal income was suddenly being stopped by numerous websites, not just
Amazon.

Today it was announced that Governor Lingle has decided to Veto the bill
(HB1405), amongst others:
http://www.hawaiisenatemajority.com/wp-content/upLoads/2009/06/govs-veto-list.pdf

That was one significant hurdle, now all that’s left is to persuade the
House not to override her veto. It’s an amazing tribute to what local
communities can do if they collaborate and put the pressure on.

Paul, the Brit in Hawaii.

**********

Two things..
I don't see any risk of microbes from earth infecting another local planet, since any microbes already on the planet are well adapted to local conditions and our microbes would be wimps in comparison.
Likewise microbes from space is not a real concern...do you have ANY idea about how many different microbes/viruses are already on this planet (check out Bergey's manual for a list of sorts..it is the bible of microbiology). The competition on this planet is extreme..
Have you not heard of Darwin?
From: Bob..Your tame microbiologist.

Your discussion about NASA was very interesting....it seems to support the concepts I've outlined at http://www.h2liftship.com , which has had no response to speak of since I put it up...such is the risk of being way forward thinking..

Thanks,
Bob Freeman

**********

Hey there buzz crew
This is Rohan from India.

It is my first time writing to you guys.

Regarding the whole debate over the caps lock key, how about adapting
the “double tap” of the shift key like the iphone/ipod touch to
regular keyboards. I too accidentally hit the damned caps lock key on
my macbook and just wish that they would get rid of it.

On other topics (just to fuel your anger towards your telecom
companies), we Indians only have to pay 1 paisa (the “cent” of Rupees)
for sending an SMS, and nothing for receiving. If you take the current
exchange rates, that would be just 0.00021 U.S. cents. Enjoy!

Oh by the way, we converted to the Metric system in 1954 and just last
year have also planted our Flag on the moon. You can ask ISRO (Indian
Space Research Organization) to help you convert NASA’s Imperial
measurements.

love the show!

Rohan

Bozeman, Montana, has decided they need everyone's social network log-ins and passwords to conduct background checks on prospective employees. So cute. They call it Face Page. Plus we talk about the iPhone lines, and go to town on the need for copyright laws. Turns out we may not need them.

Episode 1001

Live blog: iPhone 3G S launch day
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10268140-37.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10268774-37.html

How to tether your iPhone running OS 3.0 without jailbreaking, for free
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/how-to-tether-your-iphone-running-os-3-0-without-jailbreaking/

Third-party game accessories coming to iPhone and iPod Touch
http://kotaku.com/5296694/apple-says-game-accessories-coming-to-iphone-touch

Court orders Jammie Thomas to pay RIAA $1.92 million
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10268199-93.html
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/06/record-labels-awarde

Researchers conclude piracy not stifling content creation
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/06/researchers-conclude-piracy-not-stifling-content-creation.ars

Intel rebrands again: Meet Core i3 and Core i7
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/06/intel-rebrands-again-meet-core-i3-and-core-i7.ars

City in Montana requires job applicants to hand over all social network log-ins and passwords for background checks
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/17/city-in-montana-requ.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10268282-38.html

Why hard disk is a better bargain than SSD
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/06/18/1333230/Why-Hard-Disk-Is-a-Better-Bargain-Than-SSD

Voice mail

Tim Michigan has a replacement from IRL

Joe Sacramento solution for long ep 1000

Larry wishes us happy 1000

E-mail
Dear buzz crew:
This is Siavash from Iran, I'm happy to report that in past few days the internet speed on ADSL lines is better and we can access the sites better, but our fight against the government still continues.
After Twitter support for Iran, today Facebook added Persian language to their languages and now Persian can use the Facebook in Persian. I know Google is going to do some changes in their service for Iran too.
I'm just amazed for the amount of support of American sites for Iranian users and their attention to Iran. And I just wanted to thank them all.
I want to add a BiG BiG thank you to all buzz town citizens that sent me mails and Facebook messages and you guys on Cnet for reading my mail and paying attention to what is going on here.

THANK YOU

PS: Natali, I'm still the only Persian listener in Tehran, I have found other Persian listeners around the world, but not in Tehran

Best Regards

Siavash Ghahremany

Website: http://www.ghahremany.com

**********

Hey Buzzheads,

I took a couple screengrabs when the chatroom went over 1000 users. One shows gknee smiling as we hit 1001, and the other is Molly conveniently toasting when we hit 1013. Both pics are in my flickr account. Here’s 1013 and here’s 1001. Hope you like them, and I love the show!

Joe in Glens Falls

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3607/3639334524_8b72328c12_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3360/3638524207_dddf24ae13_o.jpg

**********

Has anyone figured out what day Episode 2000 will occur? (assuming that
Buzz Out Loud makes it to episode 2000) – Mark

It's all girls and me today, which leads to hilarious consequences including an outbreak of Simlish. We also figure out the solution to the world's water problems. Molly hates on AT&T some more. And Veronica promises to drink her own pee.

EPISODE 994

Facebook to open up personalized URLs
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029471,49302580,00.htm?s_cid=33

Hackers make progress towards pwning Palm Pre
http://www.precentral.net/pre-developer-rom-uncovered-could-lead-hackingcustomization
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/06/10/124241/Palms-webOS-Root-Image-Leaks-Out

And first homebrew Pre app says Hello World!
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/10/webos-homebrew-community-says-hello-world-to-palm-pre/

Clues in the source code to Pre’s successor?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/10/palm-pixie-eos-confirmed-via-webos-rom-leak/

Craigslist revenue flirting with $100 million, report says
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10261593-71.html

That’s a small percentage of newspaper ads – so Craigslist not entirely to blame
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-report-craigslist-09-revenue-to-hit-100-mill-but-is-it-really-a-newspap/

Lawyers plan class-action to reclaim “$100M+” RIAA “stole”
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/lawyers-plan-class-action-to-reclaim-100m-riaa-stole.ars

Sims 3 sets franchise sales record
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10261044-235.html

BART punks out, pulls cheeky doubleTwist ad near Apple store
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/09/bart-punks-out-pulls.html

Penguin USB drive is infinitely cute, hilarious
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/10/penguin-usb-drive-is-infinitely-cute-hilarious/

Simlish dictionary
http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?&openItemID=item.2,item.43,item.61,item.41,item.23&threadID=8d04f2582c30dca38b0a2d07d28fb420&directoryID=2&startRow=1#5b3c9c18c3808d99f1e04c01fdb828ea

Frank Herbert’s moisture traps may be a reality
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/06/09/2058241/Frank-Herberts-Moisture-Traps-May-Be-a-Reality?from=rss

Comedy Central confirms 26 new "Futurama" episodes
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/09/06/10/1331258/Comedy-Central-Confirms-26-New-Futurama-Episodes?from=rss
http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?&openItemID=item.2,item.43,item.61,item.41,item.23&threadID=8d04f2582c30dca38b0a2d07d28fb420&directoryID=2&startRow=1#5b3c9c18c3808d99f1e04c01fdb828ea

VOICEMAIL

Jason from California about maps

E-MAIL

Hey Buzz People,

Hurray, the French Three Strikes Law is no more!… Almost.

Here’s the skinny: the constitutional council is an assembly of 11 old people charged with putting the “constitutional” stamp on our new laws. They basically shot down the three strikes law on the grounds that a governmental body cannot make the decision to cut off someone’s internet access. Such a decision would have to be made by a judge or a court. At last some common sense in this whole mess!
So the governmental body could still “inform” people that a judge has been notified, but that’s it (you might get a “you’re a bad person, ruling pending” sort of notice). I guess it it makes the whole concept’s effectiveness questionable, since the whole point was to expedite the punishment, which has now it been slowed down to the speed of the judicial process. And French judicial process at that. I mean, it takes 35 minutes to get served a coffee here, imagine how long it takes to get a judgement on that guy who downloaded the latest Transformers movie because, allegedly: “Dude, Megan Fox looks hawt!”

But I digress. I’m sorry that I don’t have an english link for this story because it just broke in France, so here is a Google translation of an article from “Le Monde” (a notable French newspaper). It’s really just for kicks, because automated translation apparently still sucks. Which is infuriating too: I mean, it’s the 21st century already, give me my android translators, damnit!

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=fr&js=n&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemonde.fr%2Ftechnologies%2Farticle%2F2009%2F06%2F10%2Fhadopi-le-conseil-constitutionnel-censure-la-riposte-graduee_1205290_651865.html&sl=fr&tl=en&history_state0=

–
Patrick Beja
http://frenchspin.com
http://twitter.com/notpatrick

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=fr&js=n&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemonde.fr%2Ftechnologies%2Farticle%2F2009%2F06%2F10%2Fhadopi-le-conseil-constitutionnel-censure-la-riposte-graduee_1205290_651865.html&sl=fr&tl=en&history_state0=

——————————————————
Hey Buzz Crew,

I used 2 gigabites last month on my AT&T iPhone plan and 1.8GB two
months ago. Is this excessive? I do a lot of Pandora / last.fm /
Flycast Internet streaming and wonder what the hidden unlimited cap is
before they cut me off…

- Bob, the Nuclear Engineer

——————————————————
Hello BOL crew,

While visiting San Francisco for WWDC, I begin to understand Molly’s
frustration with AT&T via the iPhone. The network in SF stinks. Data
connections drop or are very slow and text messages could be hours
delayed, even though I have 5 bars of 3G.

I normally use my iPhone south of LA in Orange County, where the
network is pretty good, so I was wondering what Molly was ranting
about. On the one hand the network isn’t bad in the whole country,
but on the other hand Molly is right that AT&T must fix their SF
coverage.

Love the show,
Dean

Physicist
Huntington Beach, CA

——————————————————
Hi Buzz Crew,

Since WWDC is still going on I wondered if you could help me find an
answer to this question. As a Unix sysadmin I was really excited to
hear that among the promised features for Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Server was the addition of ZFS, a very powerful open source file
system. I’ve used this system with Solaris and I really like it, but I
was hoping to have the option of using it with Mac OS Server. If you
Google zfs “snow leopard” and you look before you click you will see
mention of ZFS in the description, and if you click on the cached
version and scroll down you can see the ZFS being touted as a feature.
However when you click the link to the live page, all mention of ZFS
is gone. When you go even deeper (Click Technology and then File
System) it mentions the venerable UFS (which Solaris admins are
running from to get to ZFS) and HFS+. What gives, Buzz Crew?

Love the show and early congrats on 1K shows!

Kendall the Sysadmin from Alabama

——————————————————

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. Got them from Dwight and Mandeep. 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

Send us buzz at buzz@cnet.com or call us at 1-800-616-CNET (2638)

Well, actually, people are made of black holes. But I couldn't do a Soylent Green reference if I wrote that. We also talk about Natali's Lady Things and the fact that we all wear makeup. Oh, and Sony is broke. And Jammie Thomas is going back to court. So it's not all good news.

EPISODE 974

Sony Records First Full-Year Loss In 14 Years
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-earnings-sony-records-first-full-year-loss-in-14-years/

eBay wins L’Oreal suit
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ebay-wins-french-court-ruling-in-loreal-case

Not-so-shocking: Jammie Thomas, RIAA unable to settle
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/05/not-so-shocking-jammie-thomas-riaa-unable-to-settle.ars

Pirated music dominated by pop hits
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8049495.stm

Three strikes proposal for print
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/14/three-strikes-propos.html

AirTran Wi-Fi for ALL flights
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-biz-air-tran-wireless-internet-may12,0,5545703.story

Mulligan! Twitter backtracks on unpopular change
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10240163-36.html

YouTube on Google News
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10240709-93.html

Import Contacts
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/import-your-mail-and-contacts-from.html

Street View in Japan must reshoot
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10240459-71.html

Google asks personal health questions
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10240076-2.html

Kindle owners start to lose text-to-speech on purchased books — how do DRM-free Kindle books work?
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/14/kindle-owners-start.html

Kindle for all bloggers
http://gizmodo.com/5253808/amazon-opens-kindle-to-all-bloggers

Illusion Cloak Makes One Object Look Like Another
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/13/2215220

Could all particles be miniblack holes?
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23530/

Holy Moly iPhone app rejected by Apple
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=7575266&page=1

VOICE MAIL
Kim
A podcast entirely about Twitter

Ton
Why would anyone want to see @replies

E-MAIL
Hi Buzz Crew,

In episode 973 you talked about a credit card that displays a unique code for online purchases. I don't think adding more complexity to a credit card is a good idea. I use a Bank of America credit card with "ShopSafe" for online purchases. When I'm ready to purchase online I simply logon to BOA (Bank of America) and use ShopSafe to generate a one use credit card number. You can set the expiration date and credit limit for the credit card number. The number can only be used by one vendor so it's of no value to anyone if they steal it.

Link to BOA ShopSafe Service info:

http://www.bankofamerica.com/privacy/index.cfm?template=learn_about_shopsafe

Love the show,

RJ

Buzz crew,

I’m a few days behind, but I just listened to your bit about an iPhone or iPod Touch being required by a university. Here at the University of Minnesota (go Gophers!), the university will actually lend iPod Touch to students in some classes, particularly media classes. You keep the iPod Touch for the semester and turn it back in when your course is finished. It is a pretty good programme and seems quite fair.

Also, we use Moodle for our online classroom stuff. It’s an okay system, but I think the University likes it because its free and open source!

However, I also agree that requiring students to have some fancy tech gadget is ridiculous.

—–
Ethan Poole

Aloha Buzz crew,

http://www.pcper.com/#NewsID-7154

The first signs of Intel’s Larrabee processor has been spotted in the
wild at the opening ceremony for the Visual Computing Institute at
Saarland University in Germany. Larrabee is Intel’s attempt to break
into the (GP)GPU market, hoping to break Nvidia and AMD’s current
stranglehold. It’s a bit of an odd beast in comparison to the existing
offerings: Instead of creating a completely specialised chip they’re
using a chip that’s largely based on their existing speciality, the x86
CPU; though it means they’re paying AMD nice bits of licensing money per
GPU they crank out thanks to cross-licensing for stuff like the x86-64
support.

The guys at PC Perspective have taken a pretty close look at the picture
and seem to believe it contains 32 cores + 32 vector processing units,
which seems to validate more or less what a few sites were claiming all
the way back in June 2007.

Love the show,
Paul, the brit geek in Hawaii.

Hi Buzz Crew,

I just wanted to take a quick moment to respond to your comments in episode number 973 where you were wondering why cell phone salesmen always have the "inside scoop" on product releases.

Having worked for Verizon Wireless for about a year in college, I can tell you that these inside scoops are completely made up. You see, Tom, you were close when you mentioned that the salesmen are on commission and that should be a driving factor. It IS a driving factor because of how the commission works. The salesmen are paid commission for 3 things - new line, out of contract line, and accessory sales. Notice what is missing there? On contract sales! That's right; the representatives don't make a penny for replacing your broken, on contract phone. Actually, it hurts their numbers as the accessory sales ratio is tied to the number of handsets sold. At Verizon, we needed to sell 3 accessories for every handset that we sold. People who are replacing broken handsets never buy accessories because they already have them. To put it simply, the salesmen don't want to sell an on contract customer a handset because they get NO commission and it hurts their numbers.

Now you see why these salesmen know all of these magical release dates. It's to get the customer to go away and hurt someone else's numbers.

I'm not defending the salesmen as this is a terrible practice, but as long as phones are subsidized, the companies are not going to pay their employees for on contract sales, and the salesmen will keep coming up with dates.

In Japan, our phones are no longer subsidized, and the customer service has gotten so much better since they changed the practice. Also, our monthly bills have gone down (by almost 50%!!). On the flip side, I paid about $650 for my last phone. I don't think the USA is ready for that kind of sticker shock on phones, so I guess you will have to deal with the made up release dates and inflated charges for the time being.

Love the show!

Shawn

Don’t you think that Twitter is a bit pretentious? I mean you have
people that write usually one sentence about their everyday lives that
contains little or no valuable information. With the teenagers that
can’t spell, I’m surprised they don’t use all acronyms. This emphasis
on the self seems to be a theme with these websites (i.e. myspace,
ipod, youtube, justin.tv). Do people really think their lives are that
interesting that they need to be broadcast to the world? This is why I
recommend the book “The Dumbest Generation”. – Matt

The whole world was fooled into fearing a huge storm of worminess that never happened. Was it because we were prepared or because it really wasn't that big of a deal at all? We also avoid most of the April Foolery and talk some Nehalem processors and BlackBerry App World.

EPISODE 943

Want April Fool’s updates? Go watch Loaded.
http://cnettv.cnet.com/2001-1_53-50005651.html

Web 2.0 Expo
http://news.cnet.com/webware/

Live blog: Countdown to Conficker
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10208722-83.html
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/04/conficker-war-r.html

Yahoo Twitter AIR app
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=15576
http://sideline.yahoo.com/

Spam back up to 94percent of all e-mail
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/31/2012228

Wales giving up on Wikia Search
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10207896-2.html

BlackBerry App World has landed
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10208852-1.html

Computer exercises help stroke victims
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE52U7XH20090401

Nehalem Xeon’s touchdown: Could sweep current market
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/04/nehalem-xeons-touchdown-could-sweep-current-market.ars

SeeqPod bullied into bankruptcy by record industry
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/seeqpod-bullied-into-bankruptcy-by-record-industry.ars

Researchers develop braille for vibrating touch-screen devices
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/31/researchers-develop-braille-for-vibrating-touchscreen/

"Star Trek" sequel already planned
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/31/2116218

NASA in Colbert conundrum over space station
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/01/0041200

VOICEMAIL
Two callers
Skype calls from Windows Mobile

Rob in Phoenix
Howard Stern on Natali DelConte

Jonathan from NZ
I use a Mac

Anonymous
Cheer up Natali

E-MAIL
Hi Buzz Crew,

in Episode 942 you played a voice mail asking the question, why Buzz Out
Loud is so Apple/Mac Centric. You made comments on the voice mail but you
didn’t answer the question. Don’t you want to answer the question or don’t
you have a good answer to the question?

I have a theory why Buzz Out Loud and similiar podcasts are a little Apple
Centric, but I would like to hear you ideas on the point.

I would love to hear a little more Linux and Open Source News on the Show.

Love the show
Matthias (Mathew) from Germany

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,

Heard about what you said on yesterday’s show regarding the Skype
iPhone app in Canada.
I am a little perplexed. I (ex-Montrealer now in San Jose) was
chatting with my ex-boss (now friend) in Canada, yesterday, and we
decided to test the app. We both installed it on our iphones (he in
Montreal, me in San Jose) and we were both successful and enjoyed a
long free conversation.

It is available in Canada. At least it was to him.

Love you guys,

Christos Kalantzis
The MySQL Guy

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,

you mentioned on Ep. 942 that iPhone users in every country except
Canada would be able to have and use the Skype app. Well guess what,
T-Mobile is OF COURSE blocking it for German customers as well.

http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20090331-18359.html

I would say “bummer”, but I’m not an iPhone user, since the data plans
are way too expensive for me.

Love the show.

Niels (pronounced “Neil’s”) from Germany