Buzz Out Loud Podcast

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

Blasted XP didn't warn me that my hard drive was full! Therefore, half of the podcast didn't record. Thankfully, I was able to salvage yesterday's episode from the Ustream recording, so here it is! Special guests include ZDNet's Andrew Mager, SXSW Event Director Hugh Forrest, and Blogger's Rick Klau.

EPISODE 930

Happy Pi Day!
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/13/happy-pi-day.html

Facebook: It’s party time for the social Web…on the iPhone
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10196472-2.html

Facebook Adobe AIR application
http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=23723376453#/apps/application.php?id=23723376453

A touch-screen Bold?
http://i.gizmodo.com/5170004/touchscreen-trackball+less-blackberry-bold-leaked

Apple adds still more DRM to iPod Shuffle
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/03/apple-adds-still-more-drm-ipod-shuffle

Amazon invokes DMCA defense against non-Kindle books
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10196424-38.html

Report: Wii may stream movies
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10196100-93.html

MSNBC launches interactive-theater game
http://blogs.zdnet.com/weblife/?p=342

At SXSW, attendees confront Twitter saturation
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10196526-2.html

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube come to FiOS
http://newteevee.com/2009/03/14/twitter-facebook-youtube-coming-to-fios-tv/

Google Reader side bar
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10196233-2.html

Rocket scientists shoot mosquitoes with laser beams
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123680870885500701.html

Chat with Mager about SXSW
http://blogs.zdnet.com/weblife/

E-MAIL
Hi JaNaTo,

Blimps are back in style!

“Pentagon to Build $400 Million Spy Blimp”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4989425/Pentagon-to-build-400-million-spy-blimp.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/13/usa-air-force-airship

The thing will fly at 65,000 feet, so it will be out of the range of most fighter planes and missiles. Plus it will recharge hydrogen fuel cells using solar panels. Now if only I could get my car to do that! I mean the whole recharging thing…not the flying 12 miles in the air…although that would be cool too…and scary…

- lucky, from the watchBOL chatrooms

**********

This is how the theaters I patronized in Taiwan worked. You got an assigned seat, but there was no tiered pricing. Also, not really any way to tell them where you want to sit (or maybe that was just the result of my pitiful Mandarin). At least you don't have to stand in line for two hours and then rush the auditorium, diving with coats and various other artifacts to save seats for all your friends in the concession line.

One other curious thing about the Taiwanese movie theater: no candy at the concession stand. You can get a hot dog (on an oversized sub bun) and popcorn, but the only sweet option is, of all things, a CHURRO. Really. Go figure.

Love the show,

Jomichael

**********

The current space shuttles were put into service in 1984-1992, making them at most 25 years old. However, all of the shuttles were built to the original design. Construction of the original Enterprise test orbiter began in 1974, making the shuttle design more than 35 years old. Using the car analogy, the shuttles were from the 1977 model year, but build in the 1980s.

dfilpus

**********

Buzz Crew: The Neilsen report that says online networking is more popular than e-mail is only referring to web-based email (gmail, hotmail, yahoo etc.), not POP email sent through ISPs.

This was confirmed by several news sites investigating the report. Check out these links:

http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda/index.cfm?page_id=3&action=blog&subaction=viewPost&post_id=9671&blog_id=81

http://www.cbc.ca/news/blogwatch/2009/03/social_networks_blogs_bigger_t.html

I think a lot of reports missed this and made it sound like it was referring to all email. Nope.

bahead

Episode 889

Best of CES Awards
http://ces.cnet.com/best-of-ces/

Web site problems as Windows 7 beta hits
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10138449-56.html
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10139408-100.html
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx

Apple at CES? Unlikely
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10138499-37.html

Chrome gets Mac deadline, extensions foundation
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10138388-2.html

Nvidia 480-Core graphics card approaches 2 Teraflops
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F09%2F2022231

Palm Pre Touchstone eyes-on
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/palm-pre-touchstone-eyes-on/

Testing CrystalTalk
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10138219-100.html

Dell Adamo
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10138468-1.html
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/09/dell-adamo-hands-on/

Setting ioSafe’s Solo on fire: The hottest blog ever!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10138593-1.html

Trojan found at torrent sites insists “downloading is wrong”
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F10%2F0336243

The Air Force’s rules of engagement for blogging
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/09/the-air-forces-rules.html

E-mail
Hey JaMoTo +1.

I was listening to episode 888 and I was wondering why everyone is drooling over the Palm Pre. Didn’t we do the same thing when the Blackberry Storm was announced? We gave it so much praise until the time came for release. It was a failure. Are we certain this will be Palm’s savior or will the hype rise above what will really happen? Will the Pre truly be the device that brings Palm back or will it be lost and forgotten just as the Storm was?

Chris from Florida

**********

Hey BOL team just wanted to pop in let you guys know orange julius has a brand spankin new drink called the blackberry storm haha included is a pic i took of the ad and a link to the nutrition facts on the 2nd page of the pdf 3rd flavor down of the blackberry storm. I wonder which is slower trying to use the BB storm’s accelerometer feature or trying to get the drink through a straw? haha keep up the good work love the show! Jason Trambley
http://www.orangejulius.com/downloads/OJNutritionalFacts.pdf
–
Jason T

**********

Listening to episode 886. You guys were alking about the sling player
app for iPhone and whether Apple might accept it into the App Store
because it’ll steam video over 3g. I recently started using Orb Live
from the app store. This app works with the Orb client on your pc with
tv tuner at home and you can then stream your tv and any other media
to the iPhone app. Works well. Video quality is good enough over 3g.
So, there’s precedent for it. Hope I’m not jinxing anything by
bringing attention to Orb. Love the show!

Peter on the train in Chicago

**********

Wow, it might not take long for Molly’s prediction to go true:

Seattle P-I up for sale; could go online-only
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008609677_webpi09m.html

I agree with Molly that her prediction is bound to happen. I didn’t think it was going to happen to my local paper though! J

– Jiunwei

What? What's wrong with you people? We're talking about Netbooks. Dell has a new "Mini" Note, but it's a 12-inch laptop. So, the question is: what is going on in the Netbook world these days? Also, the Internet makes you both smarter AND dumber, Google Earth shows up for iPhone, and Oprah gives out a Kindle discount. And Natali and Molly love Oprah. Deal with it.

EPISODE 839

Sling.com launch
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/26/slingcom-to-launch-on-november-10/

Google Earth for iPhone/Touch
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10075543-37.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10075860-37.html

iPhone most popular camera on Flickr
http://www.edibleapple.com/iphone-still-reigns-supreme-on-flickr/

Qik for BlackBerry
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/webware/~3/433186788/8301-17939_109-10075395-2.html

Dell Inspiron Mini 12-inch launch
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/pressoffice/en/2008/2008_10_26_rr_000?c=us&l=en&s=corp

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/10/dell-mini-inspi.html

Security flaw revealed in T-Mobile’s Google phone
http://news.cnet.com/Security-flaw-revealed-in-T-Mobiles-Google-phone/2100-1002_3-6247261.html

Netflix streams to Macs
http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/433102357/
http://www.macworld.com/article/136380/2008/10/netflix.html

The Internet makes you smarter but may give you ADD
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE49Q2YW20081027

Cable TV provider plans its own wireless network (thanks trails2hike!)
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/biztech/10/27/cox.wireless.ap/index.html

Want $50 off an Amazon Kindle? Thank Oprah
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2333338,00.asp

VOICEMAIL
Jason the Runner: get my wife off the Oprah

Michah: Can’t split the UVerse

E-MAIL
Thomas:

You mentioned on Friday about the Speed Date application taking over for Oregon Trail. That has already happened at least one time before. I had one of those "wall" programs e.g. Fun Wall, Wild Wall, whatever. The Wall program went away and I got an e-mail announcing it's now Speed Date. I didn't remove the application or anything but I would get these e-mails saying that I matched with someone and someone was wanting to contact me, etc. I clicked on one one day for the heck of it and it asked me to fill in my information like name, e-mail, etc. I am a married man so I decided not to do that! After getting a bunch of e-mails about people wanting to match, I uninstalled the application when I figured out how.

**********

Dear Buzz Crew,

The name ‘Minefield’ is used during all betas. And it uses the Firefox logo without the fox. So basically a globe. With a wick on it. So it looks like a field mine. Think of the mines as bugs. To be exploded and thus removed before the final release.

That is all.

Thanks for reading,
Dylan from KC

**********

Hi Buzz Town,

This is in response to the e-mailer from episode 838 who tried to return his Rock Band 2 video game to Wal-Mart. I worked as a supervisor for a major competitor to Wal-Mart (starts with a “T”) for almost seven years, and was frequently the one behind the counter having to turn away such returns. This is a policy that every retailer I know of that sells unopened media has. Every store has their own policy about how long you have to make the return, assuming that the software/video game/CD/DVD is unopened, but once the product is opened, the ONLY action they can take is to exchange it for the same product. At the time that I was working in this position, we not only could only exchange it for the product, but we actually had to OPEN the product before the customer left the store (for the obvious reason). As a matter of fact, all of the media we sold was supposed to have a little white sticker adhered to it stating this very policy.

While I am not a lawyer, and my education in any kind of law doesn’t stem beyond Business Law 101, I, along with my co-workers, all knew that the reason for this policy was due to copyright, even though our corporate policies never directly stated this. Even in the days of Game Boys and N64’s, this policy applied, I guess because it was assumed that somebody, somewhere, had the equipment to make illegal copies of these console games that you could not even place into your CD drive. In all of the years that I worked in this position, I almost never had a customer give me a difficult time regarding this policy. They all seemed to understand, and even if they did challenge us, we would always offer the excuse the federal copyright law prohibits us from taking back these open products, and they were welcome to go to our competitor to try to return the item, but they would be met with the same frustration. That’s one of the reasons for used video games stores!

A hint for the e-mailer: assuming there are no markings on the copy that you bought online that would identify it as a product from a certain retailer, and the UPC is the same, you can always take THAT copy back to Wal-Mart (assuming it’s unopened).

Love the show…
Stephanie in Atlanta

**********

Hi there, BOL crew (greatest-podcast-in-the-cloud), I was listening to episode 838, and you had an e-mail from someone that wasn’t able to return his Rock Band game he bought from Walmart because of “Federal Copyright Law”, which Molly said she had never heard of and you generally all passed of as BS from a Wal-Mart customer service rep.

Well, I would have been in the same mind frame until yesterday. I work at Best Buy’s Geek Squad, where a customer approached me wanting to return a game she had purchased along with her new $1,200 laptop the day prior because no one told her that it wasn’t compatible with Vista. Despite the fact she came to the wrong counter, since I am not a customer service rep, I was more than willing to see what we could do for her, since I felt it was a simple oversight, and it was only a $10 game. When I asked a customer service supervisor if we would be able to exchange it for a different game for her, I was told that we couldn’t because of “Federal copyright law”! I know our policy is that we normally don’t return open software unless its defective, and even then we can only exchange it for the SAME software, but I figured we could make an exception. It took me by surprise, because I had never heard anything about this law before, and then you at the BOL podcast reiterated it. We made an exception in her case since we didn’t want to come off as total jerks (at least I didn’t). It makes sense, though, that we normally wouldn’t not return it, since we cannot resell open software once its open, the store pretty much has to eat the price of the software, which is not a good business model. Also, if we returned open soft, it would be quite possible for a customer to not only copy software, but copy down activation codes for products such as antivirus, or certain video games, and screw over the next customer who would want to purchase.

In short, this “Federal Copyright Law” in regards to software is not just a Wal-Mart reps attempt to blow off a customer, but actually a policy that carries over to legitimate establishments like Best Buy.

~Wez (The-geek-squad-agent-who-doesn’t-want-to-hear-the-same-best-buy-ads-in-BOL-anymore)

**********

I liked that BitTorrent is used as the distribution method for their content but there is a larger issue at hand: Wikipedia used as a reference source in schools. Isn’t Wikipedia banned as a reference source in many areas of academia?

Michael

Episode 827

WiMAX launch
http://cnettv.cnet.com/9742-1_53-50004011.html

Apple notebook launch!
https://twitter.com/natalidelconte/statuses/952901666

It’s official: Apple to talk laptops on October 14
http://www.cnet.com/8301-18603_1-10062305-73.html

$800 Apple notebooks?
http://www.inquisitr.com/4834/exclusive-apple-to-launch-800-laptop/

Touchpanel EEE PCs to debut at CES 2009
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20081008PD229.html

Asus ships Eee Box PCs with malware--Tanks Steve!
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2016&tag=nl.e589

Microsoft preps external Blu-ray disc optical drive for Xbox 360.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20081008073445_Microsoft_Preps_External_Blu_Ray_Disc_Optical_Drive_for_Xbox_360.html

Unbreakable’ encryption unveiled
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7661311.stm

SlingCatcher finally sees light of day–and may get a boost from Sling.com
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10060898-1.html

EMI to launch its own music portal
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b76fa624-94d1-11dd-953e-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

Google’s Super Satellite Captures First Image
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/10/geoeye-1-super.html

Clickjacking threat!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10061358-83.html

Google engineer wants the world to name his baby
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10061920-71.html

Study: Reading online privacy policies could cost $365 billion a year
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081008-study-reading-online-privacy-policies-could-cost-365-billion-a-year.html

Voice Mail
Adam: Why all the Zune hate?

E-mail

Hey JaMoTo & (fill in guest host here),

I’m a little behind on the episodes thanks to silly law school homework, but in your discussions on entertainment offerings that have been victims of copyright licensing, I think there’s one glaring omission- The Wonder Years. For years, I’ve been reading that the reason that the show is not available on DVD is because the show’s producers never anticipated needing licenses for the music used on the show when the show was created in the late 80s. And since the music was such an essential element of the show, DVD of the show’s seasons have never been released because licenses would be too costly and the show wouldn’t be the same without the music.

Love the show,

-Will

**********

I pity da foo!!!! The voice mailer from BOL 826 is infringing on our business model for an airliner. As the spokesman of BA Airlines I can tell you our founder is more than a little upset. It was us that developed the drugging and flying the passengers to their destinations. We were first and I’m not going to let some ninja wannabe steal our idea. If he does not cease and desist in his operation, our founder BA Baracus will certainly want a word with the foo. Of course we’ll have to drug him and have Murdoch break out of the mental hospital to fly him. Just thought the Ninja should know who he was messing with.

Considered Ninja Airlines Warned,

The Dingo

**********

Hey Guys,

Just heard my e-mail on today's BOL, and was mortified to realise that I had in fact used the word 'bust' when in fact I meant to say busy. Its not some cool Irish jargon, just a regular old typo. Thats what I get for sending e-mail on my crippling iPhone keyboard.

Dave the publicly shamed software developer
Ireland

**********

Hi I am a patent examiner. It didn't take the office nine years to get to the application, it took nine years to issue. Which means the examiner probably thought it was not patentable as presented and was trying to protect the market from another overly restrictive patent, which kills competition. In the nine years, the claims were probably rewritten multiple times and the examiner's decision was probably appealed. If you want it to be streamlined, complain to the applicants who file overly broad applications who want to stifle competition. Regardless all the blame doesn't fall on the patent office. Love the show (even with all uspto hate).

-Tim from VA

**********

Greetings! In show you were quizzing over Cox phone technology and its
connection to the internet. Short story: Even though Cox phone service
does use VoIP technology, the actual phone packets are encrypted
between the residence and the headend, where it either interfaces with
incumbent phone service for non-Cox users, or goes on to other
locations through Cox’s backbone. Even on the last mile, the data
doesn’t really travel through the Internet, but actually alongside it.
Therefore, unlike other VoiP services like Vonage, Cox customers are
not subject to the various issues surrounding Internet carriage.

Mark — Florida

EPISODE 825

A.M.D. to split into two operations
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/technology/07chip.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10059766-92.html

Warner Bros. to release movies online before DVD in Korea
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081006-warner-bros-to-release-movies-online-before-dvd-in-korea.html

Hulu to stream presidential debates live
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10059756-93.html

EU to require user-replaceable batteries in CE?
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/10/06/new_eu_directive_pushes_toward_replaceable_iphone_batteries.html

EU battery rule may zap iPhone, blow away MacBook Air
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/07/eu_batter_directive_spells_trouble/

VoIP safe from Verizon patent assaults (too late for Vonage)
http://techdirt.com/articles/20081006/2246322473.shtml

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10059844-94.html

Ford to introduce restrictive car keys for parents
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/07/0011249

Google launches Mail Goggles to save you from yourself
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10059735-2.html

Lightbulbs could replace Wi-Fi hotpsots
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/33993.php

Polaroid film factory now “prints” solar panels
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20081007005342

Atrivo ISP shutdown sends ripples through the spam deluge
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081006-atrivo-isp-shutdown-sends-ripples-through-the-spam-deluge.html

VOICEMAIL
Hayden: Even Apple changes their tunes!

E-MAIL

Hola.

Ummm...Even if you block streaming porn, you still aren't blocking porn on your HDD or on DVD. Which begs the question, how was this not a problem before Wi-Fi was on planes? I get that as much as I get why you'd watch freaking porn on a freaking airplane, YOU PERVERT.

Personally, I think people caught should be shamed in front of everyone by the captain over the in-flight speaker... "BING! Excuse me, passengers of flight 401. This is your captain speaking. We've reached a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet, annnnd I would just like to bring to your attention that the gentleman in seat 36A is watching porn. Yes, the gentleman with the greasy comb-over and gold-plated aviator glasses annnnd the porn appears to involve Swedish maids...Somebody's been a verrry dirrrty boy! Please feel free to scoff at him around the cabin. Thank you, and please enjoy the rest of your flight."

Problem solved.

LtS-KUtGW,
Dr. Karl

**********

At the risk of sounding like a “well actually” I have to give at least some props to Paramount for responding so quickly to resolve the Opt In/Opt Out issue on their recent release of Iron Man, which to my estimation was working on Thursday of last week. It seems like they are actually listening to the forums, which means they seem to actually care about us (at least as much as when there is widespread bad press for their product!).

While the potential of BD-Live hasn’t yet been realized, I think it must be a learning process for them.

We’ll see how this plays out, but I must say I’m cautiously optimistic.

Molly, feel free to tear me up if you feel like it.

LTS!

Cheers,

Anon from L.A.

**********

Seriously?! You talk about RC cows and nobody suggests mounting
freakin’ lasers on their heads! For shame. Then again, mounting a
laser on a mobile methane factory qualifies you for the cow evil
genius short school bus. Mini moo?

Anyway, isn’t one of the games on Wii Play an RC cow? I smell a lawsuit…

brian

**********

Hey Buzzites,

I just listened to show 824 and have to say I take issue with the comment that the musicians were all bands that no one cares about.

All the bands mentioned are huge over here (U.K.), and some of the others like Robbie Williams and Kaiser Chiefs are worldwide. It seems to be just America that doesn’t care but last I checked that's still a minority worldwide.

Sorry, rant over.

Love the show, John from the U.K.

PS. Tom, about my previous e-mail regarding the BBC, maybe there’s a market for a Web service that would allow me to send you recorded Doctor Who and Torchwood in exchange for recorded Heroes and Lost. That would be legal right?

**********

Hey Guys, Sean from Green Bay here. In show 824 you talked about how
ask.com is touting their ability to answer questions like they did
when they had jeeves. Tom said he tested with the question “What high
school did John McCain go to?”. Doesn’t this demonstrate that ask.com
is clearly a hacker tool meant to circumvent password recovery
mechanisms built in to many Web services? Ask.com must be taken down
immediately!

Sean

EPISODE 787

Intro (Thanks Vic the Texas Rancher Pilot!!)

Best Buy to sell iPhones in September
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/13/iphone_best_buy_deal/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10016087-37.html

Some iPhone 3G users find painful experience thanks to poor connections
http://www.dailytech.com/Some+iPhone+3G+Users+Find+Painful+Experience+Thanks+to+Poor+Connections/article12652.htm

Fire at Apple campus
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10183827

Home office measure gives public bodies access to personal e-mails and texts (Thanks, Adam)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/aug/13/privacy.civilliberties

Olympic gold medalist credits Wii with helping him mentally prepare
http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/13/olympic-gold-medalist-credits-wii-with-helping-him-mentally-prep/

Slashdot | Miyamoto ‘banned’ from talking about hobbies
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/13/1310240

Lucasarts embargoes Clone Wars reviews...it's getting bad pub already
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/entertainment/08/08/13/1222225.shtml

Madden in the hizzouse
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10015356-1.html

Extended Digital rentals by Vudu…Love this! I hate the 24-hour viewing period and then it's done
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10016151-1.html
http://www.vudu.com/aboutus_extended_rentals.html

Air Force suspends Cyber Command Program
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/08/13/1436224.shtml

Voice mail:
Anonymous Privacy Guy
It’s not just the cookies …

E-mail

Hey JaMoTo,

It’s funny that you brought up not seeing the Kindle in the wild last episode. I had never seen one either…until last night. I was out at a restaurant and saw a teenager at a table with his parents reading his Kindle, while his little brother watched something on his iPod. My first thought was “Hey a Kindle, I didn’t realize people really used those”. My second thought was “Man is that thing UGLY!”. Love the show guys.

Ryan from Charlotte, NC

*********

Hello BOL Crew,

I just wanted to tell you how excited I felt when I saw that Gmail was down on monday.

Why was I excited?

Because I thought they were coming out of beta! I mean, is Gmail really still in beta? Or is it just that someone forgot to change the logo?

Love the show,
Bernardo

**********

Hi BOL,

Here is a question related to Yahoo allowing people to opt out; does one opt out of receiving targeted ads or does one opt out of being tracked?

Clearly very different things and one would hope that it’s the latter.

EricC
Dublin, Ireland

PS: love the show.

**********

Hi All,

Will you be posting info or mentioning on the podcast when/where the BOL livecast will be?

Thanks!

Jason in the OC

EPISODE 725

**NOTE: We are making a change to our podcast feed system on Monday, May 19. You do not need to subscribe to a new feed, however. 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 19-23.

CBS to buy CNET Networks
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9944882-7.html
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/ 419-breaking-cbs-acquiring-cnet-for-18-billion/

Yahoo faces struggle for control
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7401855.stm
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9944488-7.html

Air Force aims for ‘full control’ of ‘any and all’ computers
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/05/air-force-mater.html

Comcast goes social with Plaxo acquisition
http://www.news.com/8301-13953_3-9944352-80.html

AT&T’s 3G comes out on top in speed tests, will only get faster in 2009
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/15/ atandts-3g-comes-out-on-top-in-speed-tests-will-only-get-faster/

Nintendo ordered to pay $21 million to patent troll
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/15/ nintendo-ordered-to-pay-21-million-to-patent-troll/

Aliph Jawbone 2 (gold) printer-friendly version
http://reviews.cnet.com/headsets/aliph-jawbone-2-gold/ 4514-13831_7-33018887.html

Twit-out: A day-long worldwide Twitter boycott
http://jerseysuburbia.com/?p=30

Swiss man soars above Alps with jet-powered wing (Thanks Russ)
http://www.physorg.com/news130056672.html

Swarming ants destroy electronics in Texas
http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/05/15/129244.shtml

Voicemail

Bob, New Jersey
Semantic Web alternatives

Lori, Houston
XP SP3 breaking.

E-mail

I have an old computer at home that is not being used. Could I download the Air Force botnet virus and be part of the military Botnet reserve?

LTS

Darren
Columbus, Ohio

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

Hello, Michael the limnologist (and super geek) here. I like the idea of a USAF botnet. Well, sort of. I don’t necessarily trust the government to always do the right thing, but I would bet that if the USAF built this and offered citizens the ability to participate by sharing your computer, many people would do it. This could be a lot like SETI's distributed computing. I'd even contribute one of my computers, providing the system was truly idle when not activated and no personal data would have to be shared. Perhaps the citizen component could sit idle in a sandbox-like environment.
Think of it as national defense. The future of war will be electronic.

Michael

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

Boy - I get my first e-mail on the show and I am wrong. How sad is that....

As it turns out the Large Hadron Collider is not going live on May 15and the countdown clock had not been reset when the live date was changed.

On the countdown Web site:
The countdown timer was set to the May 15 because there was no definite time given for the actual activation, recent events show that CERN won't be dividing by zero until much later on in the year, so now the countdown timer will be reset again, and will be continually tweaked to go by the latest info that CERN are releasing.
So, sorry to disappoint you all, but you won't be dying tomorrow.
Sorry L

David A Zirpolo

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

Hey guys!

So after listening to Wednesday's BOL (iPod is on other side of room; not going to go check the episode No. could use Web, but won't) and your caller's tip about the Canadian iPhone coming around the “end of this month, beginning of the next,” I found this story on MacRumors. If this rumor — which they themselves have taken with a large grain of salt — is to be believed, the iPhone will be launched in May to make room for the announcement of a brand new device at WWDC. That, of course, would sit with the whole “end of this month/beginning of next month” equivocalities if, in fact, a brand new something will be coming on June 9 @ WWDC.

Although I’m sure that the majority of the attendees of the sold-out WWDC will be less than thrilled to find that they won’t be witnessing the second coming, their anger may be mollified and assuaged if the new device is a more reasonably-priced Macbook Air thingamadoodly. Well, only if they stay out of Steve Jobs’ RealityDistortionField. Otherwise, they won’t care.

~ J-2 in Maryland ~

P.S. Yes, RealityDistortionField (RDF) is one word — in its self-produced alternate reality that is mysteriously auto-emanating…

P.P.S. Molly, I find myself saying “blah-de-blah” and “What the doodly-doo?” a lot now. Um, thanks?

Source:

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

Hi buzz out loud……
In Tuesdays podcast episode 723 you requested that people who had non-hp machine that experienced the endless reboot problem to let you know.
Well I am letiing you know right now.
I have a Sony Vaio PCG-GRT170 laptop that when ever XP SP3 is installed it goes into that endless reboot thing.
This has happen twice. Once when I downloaded it from a non- micrsoft site, and through windows update.
Just wanted to let you know. Thanks love that show, yada yada yada.
By the way, my laptop has a Intel pentium 4 CPU.
Brian, Royal Oak MI

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

Big potential problems of having your face on Street View:
? Abused wives hiding from their husbands. They may have had to leave town to get away, and if the guy is trying to stalk her, it might put her at risk if he knew where to look ? Witness protection program ? Any target of stalking ? Cheating b@$t@rds who don't want to get caught stepping out ? Closeted homosexuals

All of these groups might take exception to their faces appearing with a location on the interwebs. Just a thought.

LTS,

Jomichael

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

Hi guy,

The recent study that you mentioned is fascinating to me as it is in one of my areas of research.

On of my students (Rob the honours student… did his honours thesis with me this year comparing co operative play vs. deathmatch play in Doom 3 on the xbox. We added a new dimension, co operative talk vs. confrontational talk. So the design looked like this:

chat condition

co op confrontational

Co Op 10 people 10 people

game

deathmatch 10 people 10 people

So we had 10 subjects in each group (randomly assigned). The subjects were first year university students. Some were gamers, some were not. They were told that we were interested in their hand eye co ordination.

We found absolutely no difference between the four groups in aggression levels, measured right after 5 minutes of play. We measured aggression with an established situational aggression questionnaire.

Of course after the experiment Rob was sure to debrief people and tell them that he was being mean to them for a reason. (Rob is actually a really nice guy, and he cannot beat his thesis supervisor at NHL 08….)

Now I know this is with a different population (not kids but adults) but it is heartening. We will be presenting the data at FuturePlay, a video game conference that is held annually in Toronto.

Oh, and there was no difference between the gamers and the non gamers on their level of aggression. There were no sex differences either.

Dave (the psychologist)

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

So I guess this is good news (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24643793/) especially those with stock options… Just think of the possibilities: Molly on CSI, Katie on BuzzOutLoud, Tom could do a spinoff of Survivor - Tech Survivor, etc.

Frank,
Blacksburg, VA

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

Hey JaMoTo,

I don’t know if CBS buying CNET is good or bad news for you guys but I want you to know that I’ll remain loyal to you all as a good Buzztown citizen should be, even if it means watching Tom anchoring news on CBS News or Molly presenting showcases on The Price is Right or even Jason showing up on the camera from time to time behind the big sound console on the Late Show with David Letterman. I’ll stay true and faithful and no matter how hard it would be, I will not cheat on you by watching Jeff Probst trying to talk about the semantic Web, botnets, or Twitter. I will remain a BOLer forever!

Love the show (and hope it doesn’t change… too much)

Giorgio
from Montreal, Canada

EPISODE 723

Note: We are making a change to our podcast feed system on Friday, May 16. 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.

Hacker posts personal information on 6 million people
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GadgetGuide/story?id=4841870

Microsoft blames PC makers for XP SP3 crashes
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/196905/ microsoft-blames-pc-makers-for-xp-sp3-crashes.html

Dell halts high-end XPS production
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006946.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121063491209086661.html

Apple iPhone sold out online
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/37402/145/

Apple signs on HBO for iTunes Store, giving in to variable pricing
http://www.betanews.com/article/ Apple_signs_on_HBO_for_iTunes_Store_giving_in_to_variable_pricing/1210689456

Harvard researchers: Violent video games OK for kids
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9942041-1.html

Charter to begin tracking users' searches, inserting targeted ads
http://consumerist.com/5008801/ charter-to-begin-tracking-users-searches-and-inserting-targeted-ads

Air Force colonel wants to build military botnet
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/air-force-col-w.html

Google extends online-video lead
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9941820-7.html

Welcome to the social mess?
http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9941984-2.html

Microsoft research launches WorldWide Telescope, Scoble cries
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13515_1-9942537-26.html

VOICE MAIL

Tony
When will we have on standard for wireless.

Ryan Colorado
A little bit about Back to my Mac.

E-MAIL

Genesis of the drug printer

In episode 722 you discussed the idea of printing drugs. I suggest chemical stability as a reason that such an idea could prove useful. The next wonder drug could, for example, lose its wonderful properties when exposed to oxygen (as oxygen is highly reactive). Perhaps this drug could be synthesized through the simple mixture of several, independently stable and innocuous chemicals. The mixture, however, could require a proficiency of titration not realized by the average afflicted individual. What is an inkjet printer other a highly accurate fluid dispersal and mixing device? (flash to lightbulb and corresponding Bing!).

I really do adore your shows. Keep up the terrificness.

--DS

Google does semantic search?

While listening to the show, you guys made mention of the natural language search tool, I think it was called Power Set Symantec Web. I went to Google.com and put in some natural language searches and got the same answers that you guys got when searching. The search queries were:

What is Buzz Out Loud?
Who was King Henry VIII first wife.

Both of those questions were answered correctly. Maybe I missed something, but I hope you guys can address it and clear it up for me. Love the show.

Long time listener, three time caller, first time e-mailer.

--Joseph

http://searchengineland.com/080512-000100.php

Spreading the fud

When I went to work yesterday in a call center for a telecom/Internet provider that rhymes with “horizon”, I found that copies of an article about Comcast’s proposed caps had been put on everyone’s desks, even though the middle paragraph did explain just how much content one truly gets for 250GB. I really don’t think that the majority of my co-workers really understand what they are selling on a technical level, since the training we got was really just aimed at how to sell it. All they’re going to take away from that article is “Well, ours is unlimited and theirs isn’t, so we’re better!” (Even if we can only give most of you 3Mb/768k service.)

Way to spread the FUD, “Horizon!”
--Anonymous

Obsolete words (or soon to be)

At the end of BOL 722, when Jason was talking about changing the subscription to make sure we download latest, Tom said if you don’t understand that, rewind.

Hmm, since the podcast is digital, how does one “rewind”? Wouldn’t that term have died with the cassette/VCR tapes? Open letter to mfg: please stop putting RWD on DVD remotes. My I propose fast backward, a technology neutral term (why is there only fast forward?)

Other somewhat obsolete terms I noticed lately: clockwise/counterclockwise (who owns an analog clocks when we have computers and cell phones), light bulbs (compact fluorescent lights are not really bulbs, just twisted tubes).

Sorry for random crap like this. The cough syrup is making me loopy.

--Dickson

Macbook Pro trackpad bubbles?

Hey Buzz out Crew,

Maybe that’s just me, but if you think that’s a lead worth investigating:
http://hervalicio.us/blog/2008/05/12/ breaking-news-the-new-macbook-pro-is-afraid-of-heights/

Found that problem on my MacBook Pro today and found that several other people are experiencing similar occurrences. Do I smell manufacturing issues…?

Love the show! Bye,

--Herval