Buzz Out Loud Podcast

Episode 871

Chrome breaks outta beta
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10120965-2.html

Nintendo Wii outsells Xbox 360 more than two-to-one
http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/peripherals/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212500018&subSection=All+Stories

Sony’s PS3 A sinking ship: Sales plummet (SNE)
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/sonys-ps3-a-sinking-ship-sales-plummet-sne

Acer Aspire One goes official on AT&T’s 3G network
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/11/acer-aspire-one-goes-official-on-atandts-3g-network/
http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/12/acers-99-netboo.html

Android susceptible to apps that turn on roaming
http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F12%2F149242
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/11/g1_roaming/

Cellphone jammer crammed into key fob, ends texting / talking while driving (thanks, Greg and Michael and Jordan et al)
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/12/cellphone-jammer-crammed-into-key-fob-ends-texting-talking-wh/

FCC Commissioner blames World of Warcraft addiction for huge college dropout rate
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/fcc-blames-college-dropout-rate-on-world-of-warcraft-addiction

Five PC power myths debunked
http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2008/12/pc_power_manage_1.html

NFL launches “Game Rewind”, every game on-demand in HD with no commercials
http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2008/12/nfl-launches-game-rewind-every-game-ondemand-in-hd-with-no-commercials.html

Russian hopes to cash in on
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7778767.stm

Puppy Cam: Viewed 15 million times, for 773 years
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/puppy-cam-viewed-15-million-times-for-773-years

E-mail
Hello Buzz crew,

Since you talk about it SO MUCH, yesterday I finally signed up for Twitter . And looking for CNET celebrities to follow, I went to see who does Rafe Needleman follow. Guess who. Yahoo’s top search term for 2008. That’s right, Rafe Needleman follows Britney Spears on Twitter. I just can’t imagine Rafe listening to "Baby One More Time," so, may I ask why?

Love the show.

Regards,
Bernardo

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Have you all been following the USPS outages? I am 2 episodes behind (been to cold and rainy to walk my dog), so apologize if you've mentioned.

http://www.usps.com/homearea/onlinesysteminterruptions.htm

Seems it is affecting small business, too:

http://cbs3.com/local/Loca.l.Business.2.884808.html

LTS,

/John in Fairfax

AAAAAND its fixed.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10121982-38.html

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Hey JaMoTo / buzz crew +1,

I think the whole ‘In The Wild’ bingo game is great, and I’m just
waiting for someone to run up and snap a picture of me, being that I
bring my Kindle everywhere and I am a ‘Kindle in the wild’.

Anyhow, after yesterday’s show where Molly mentioned a Retro Edition
of BOL Bingo would be fun, I decided she shouldn’t be denied and I
made one up and attached it below. I’ve also uploaded it to my Flickr
account so it can be shared with the citizens of Buzz Town. It can be
found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98865482@N00/3102895508/
I hope you enjoy it. Love the show!

-Aaron the Delorean driver (and Kindle in the wild)
New York

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Hi guys!

In the last show, Molly made a comment about how the ustream
video-page “isn’t an RSS-feed”. Well, now it is! I used Yahoo! Pipes
to create an RSS-feed of your live video shows. I wrote it up in the
forums, at:

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10152_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=320004&messageID=2926270&tag=forums06;forum-threads

Hope you like it!

–Oskar

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Ahoy Buzz Brigade,
Regarding episode 870 on LTE, y’all made a few missteps about the facts.

First off, the commonly held misconception is that LTE has anything to do with GSM. This is similar to the misconception that WCDMA, more commonly known as the tech behind UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA and HSPA+, has anything to do with GSM. While the tech that preceded GSM for AT&T, TDMA, was the technical precursor to the speaker-buzzing wonder iPhone fans know and love, HSPA (the 3G in the iPhone 3G, etc.) is only GSM’s successor because that was the preferred upgrade path of most GSM carriers. LTE is OFDM-based (as is 802.11g WiFi and…gasp…WiMAX in higher-speed modulations), and is thus another completely different underlying technology with no built-in backward compatibility to either GSM or HSPA. However, the majority of GSM carriers across the world, plus many CDMA carriers (Verizon being one of them) have chosen LTE as their upgrade path. It’s like saying that Mac OS X is a technical upgrade to OS 9…while the same company is going with the precedent as the successor, OS X is based on BSD/Unix while OS 9 is based on some witch’s brew Apple cooked up eons ago.

To be clear, I’m not bashing LTE, though WiMAX is out in the field now whereas LTE has so far not ventured out of lab doors. But to say either technology is the technical successor to either GSM/HSPA or CDMA (which has a direct 3G upgrade, EvDO) would be flawed. Though the same standards board responsible for GSM and WCDMA also dreamed up LTE (3GPP)…

Second and finally, though tests confirm that LTE, at similar range to WiMAX it seems, can provide link speeds comparable to WiFi, you won’t see speeds like those in the wild for quite awhile. The reason is mostly that of backhaul. To provide 100 Mbps to a subscriber, LTE not only needs a liberal swatch of spectrum (something only ClearWire, the WiMax guys, has), but it needs a tower connected to some serious backhaul. To give you an idea of how serious this backhaul would need to be, think about your local cable company’s node, that serves a few hundred people. If your cable operator is Comcast and you just got a speed upgrade, they can offer a total of 114 Mbps over an entire node on the downstream, and 30 Mbps on the upstream. This would be enough for a single LTE customer to get full-speed access. Then again, AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOS have the infrastructure for LTE at the node level, but you’re still looking at more bandwidth than anybody is pushing over copper or cable right now. Of course, if Verizon rolls it out in FiOS areas (WiFiOS anyone?) it’ll work on the backhaul side, but…

…you have the problem of femtocells. Anyone using a femtocell for LTE has their internet connection as the bottleneck for service. You can’t get 100 Mbps over a 6 Mbit cable connection. Of course, if Verizon allowed femtocells to hook directly into customers’ FiOS installs, independent of the 10-50 mbps download and 2-20 mbps upload limits on users’ accounts, that’d work. But that’s about the only solution if they want to actually get the speeds they’re boasting about.

Hope this clears things up and love the show!

Ian (the Colorado college student, iansltx on Twitter)

EPISODE 737

Internet Week in New York
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9956754-36.html

Wikia Search launches the hackable search engine
http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9958036-2.html

Time Warner Cable ready to test metered Net use
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9958111-7.html

Starbucks offers new flavor: Free Wi-Fi
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/ 2008-06-02-starbucks-wifi_N.htm

Intel seeks wireless unification
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7425756.stm

Apple’s iPhone loses U.S. market share in Q1
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-9957776-37.html

New FYE kiosks load your iPod with MP3s
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080602-new-fye-kiosks-load-your-ipod-with-mp3s.html

Fantasy leagues win against MLB; Supreme Court refuses to hear appeal
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-fantasy-leagues- win-against-mlb-supreme-court-refuses-to-hear-appeal/

Acer aspires to lead low-cost laptop race
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9957706-7.html

95 percent of all returned gadgets still work; Americans don’t read manuals
http://www.engadget.com /2008/06/03/95-percent-of-all-returned-gadgets-still-work-americans-dont-r/

PS3 sucks down 5 times as much energy as a fridge
http://gizmodo.com/5012629/ps3-sucks-up-five-times-as-much-energy-as-a- fridge-ten-times-as-much-as-a-wii

Goosh: a retro Web app with cutting-edge interface
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9958211-7.html

VOICE MAIL

Tony
What’s the idea with the audio dropouts.

Ryan
Idea for DVDs for Netflix

Brendan
Blind people.

E-MAIL

Radiohead and Prince

Sorry, the first one I sent upon rereading, could have been clearer.
Hence, this one might be better to use. (I haven’t had coffee yet today-that’s why.)

First-there is no problem with Prince doing a Radiohead cover, or even recording and selling his version of their song. Sorry, Tom, but Radiohead could not just say “well, don’t cover our song then!” Per the compulsory mechanical license Prince cannot not only perform this song w/out their permission, but can in fact record it and put it out for sale. The only thing Radiohead is entitled to is money for the performance/recording of the song. If the two parties don’t agree to a rate, the mechanical license built into the Copyright Law kicks in to cover the recording. The law sets the rate kind of high to encourage parties to come to agreements about this kind of thing, but it is there as a safety net.

This is a holdover from back in the day where (from what I understand) there was a worry that a performer could have a “monopoly” on a great song. The idea was that performers should be able to compete on the level playing field of using the same songs, and not have to rely on inferior songs (or some such craziness.) So that’s why you can do a cover of anything you want, even if it is slavish in its imitation of the original. You could get the best Radiohead impersonators in the world to perform the song and do the song exactly the same--can’t stop them, just make them pay.

Also, with regards to the performance at the show--ASCAP or BMI has this covered. Prince’s public performance of the song was covered by the license that the venue most certainly had. The venue pays for the performance right licenses who then turn around pay Radiohead.

Lastly, regarding Prince’s wanting to pull the video off of YouTube and Radiohead saying leave it up…I don’t know. As this EFF article lays out… The DMCA doesn’t cover performances, just recordings. So if Prince was recording his version of the song, then he might have a legit takedown claim (based on the copyright claim that would come from his making that recording)--otherwise he doesn’t have an action under the DMCA. His legal action comes under the performance right and anti-bootlegging laws-which don’t trigger the DMCA (I don’t think) and so YouTube wouldn’t have to comply until some later time when a judge actually ruled on the issue.

But they did, because as we all know, everyone is scared silly of the DMCA.

On the plus side, I totally feel comfortable posting the video I took of the Radiohead show in St. Louis…wait did I just type that?

Frank J. M. Lattuca, Esq.

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Radiohead, Prince and GPL

Hello, everyone.

I think I may have solved the issue of Radiohead vs. Prince. It is surprisingly simple. Radiohead should license all their music under the GPL. With the GPL’s inclusive conditions it would force any performance to also be covered under the same terms. This would mean Prince would be forced to release his rendition of any Radiohead songs.

LTS.

Tim.

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North Oaks

Hi, Buzzards, Elam from Minnesota Here!
Just to answer a few of your thoughts on North Oaks. I live in Arden Hills, which is just about 5 miles from North Oaks, and I have several friends and family living there. It is not technically a gated community, in that there are no gates, however for all intents and purposes, the city is completely “private” There is no public space inside the city. All homeowners own property extended half way into the road, concurrently the owner on the other side owns that half of the road. It is kind of a creepy Stepford Wife community, though, and they have awkward community projects like “Operation ClearView” the project to get everyone to trim the trees over their roads, and Operation W.A.V.E.(Walker And Vehicle Encounters) an endeavor to protect walkers from moving vehicles. They also have a section of their site devoted to coexisting with coyote in North Oaks!
There is also this strange rumor that the homeowners of North Oaks don’t actually OWN the land their house is on, but lease it from the city for a period of 99 years at a time…I should find out about it!
There are many strange things about this city, but if we are being honest, it is a really nice town! It is like a nature preserve with homes weaved in and out.
Just thought I’d give some info, I hope you were able to open all the links!
Elam Noor

PS: OMG they have a North Oaks Singles Network!!

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Indiana Jones watermarking

Hey, Buzz Crew,

It’s Sperling, the product manager from DTS Digital Cinema. On episode
735 you mentioned that some of the theatres showing “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” were warning customers about sound dropouts during the film which were meant to prevent piracy. I can shed a little light on the issue, especially since DTS is one of the leading technologies enabling movie theaters to play 5.1 surround sound.

Paramount Pictures and several other studios strike their prints at a specific lab, which should probably remain nameless if I want to protect my job. This lab uses a version of “audio watermarking” that causes the dropouts as a form of identification for each print. That’s right, every single print that’s made has its own unique series of dropouts.
The idea here is that when authorities or a studio obtain a pirated copy of a film that was made at a theater with a camcorder, they can bring it back to the lab and determine the origin of the pirating. Law enforcement can then visit the theater in question and wait for the pirates to show up with their video cameras. (Somehow I doubt it’s ever that easy, though).

None of the companies that provide surround-sound technology, nor the theatres that pay for it, are big fans of this particular type of watermarking because it makes it appear as if the audio equipment is broken or the print is damaged. Filmmakers particularly despise it, since it ruins their pristine sound mix. Another well-known lab used by studios employs a form of audio watermarking which does not cause sound dropouts, but instead places identifying sounds that can supposedly only be picked up by special equipment.

You should also know this is not the only form of watermarking being placed on motion pictures today, whether projected digitally or on celluloid. Visual watermarking is also done. If you pay close attention to a film that is being projected traditionally you will spot a watermarking pattern of random red dots that appear for less than a second, usually once per reel. This pattern can be decoded on a pirated copy of the film by the lab which originally struck the print and once again, the location of the theater in which the pirating is taking place can be identified. Law enforcement officials can then race to said location and spend hours watching all the latest releases while they wait for the perpetrators to turn up again with their camcorders.
(OK, fine, I’m sure that’s not what actually happens, but even so. .
.).

While I have yet to see any research that proves these watermarking methods deter or prevent piracy, the content owners (i.e. studios) must have some evidence that they work because despite the protests of many in the industry, they have fallen in love with them.

Insert witty line about the show being great and keeping up the good work.

Regards,
Sperling

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Infrared copy protection idea

Hey, Buzz Crew,

Michael’s idea for flooding movie screens with infrared light in episode
736 was very interesting to me, as I’ve spent the past several weeks at my summer internship designing a research system which uses infrared light extensively. However, while I think the idea is clever and I’m in favor of anything that will stop pirates without bothering viewers, I don’t think this method would be very effective. Pirates could easily prevent their camera from detecting light outside the visible spectrum (like infrared) with a fairly inexpensive camera filter (or just use a camera that has such a filter built in). Also, it would be pretty expensive for theaters to install IR sources to cover all their screens.

As for people complaining that they can see the IR light, Tom, I don’t think that would be an issue, since it is widely accepted that people can’t physically see IR light. The typical human eye can see light in a range from 380 to 750 nanometers, and although some estimates place that number a little closer to 800 nanometers, infrared light would still be outside the human viewing boundary.

Love the show!

James from Texas (But California for the summer)