Buzz Out Loud Podcast

Teflon Don reveals that he is well, entirely coated in Teflon. But we still don't know if the iPhone 3GS is. So if you know, tell us. We also discuss how Twitter could improve its home page and why the AP just doesn't get it.

Episode 1026

Palm Pre WebOS 1.1.0 available, fixes iTunes sync

Microsoft's code contribution due to GPL violation

Twitter to revamp home page for the masses

AP cracks down on unpaid use of articles on Web

ISP cuts off suspected pirates without warning

Bezos apologizes for Kindle 1984 redaction

LongBox aims to be iTunes for comic books

Microsoft changes "Laptop Hunters" ad after Apple complains

Wireless power system shown off

$2 million NASA power beaming challenge heating up

Cambrionix 49-port USB hub for professional nerds (thanks virgilio corrado)

There is a lot about pants in today's episode. I mean, the French Parliament killed the Net piracy bill, Conficker started adding a key logger, and the AP does more stupid stuff. But really, it's all about pants. The new "Star Trek" movie was shown to a surprised group of Austin fans. Apparently, it melted one man's pants, it was so good. And there are also some robotic pants in today's show. But, the show is far from pants in the British sense. Just listen.

EPISODE 949

French parliament unexpectedly kills Net piracy bill
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10215937-38.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/09/u2s-manager-wants-to.html

Conficker wakes up, updates via P2P, drops payload
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10215678-83.html

NAND flash supply to tighten after Apple reportedly places large order
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20090409PD219.html

Google responds to AP
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7988561.stm

Associated Press threatens AP affiliate over YouTube channel
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/08/associated-press-thr.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10215703-93.html

BlackBerry Storm 2 with Wi-Fi, new screen?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10215106-94.html

Gmail time zone tracker
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/08/gmail-can-now-tell-which-of-your-contacts-are-awake/

Industry moves: Sims' creator Will Wright leaves EA
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-industry-moves-sims-creator-will-wright-leaves-ea/

Intel aims for 2-second boot time with Moblin Linux platform
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/04/intel-aims-for-2-second-boot-time-with-moblin-linux-platform.ars

CFLs causing utility woes
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/08/2125250

Is Shaq trying to seduce Mark Cuban via Twitter?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10215867-71.html

Spock gives fans 'Star Trek' treat
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7989146.stm

Monster Cable is still stupid
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/09/monster-cable-learns-nothing-sues-monster-transmission/

VOICEMAIL
Jimmy from California
Is Costco the cloud?

Anonymous Drinker
???

E-MAIL
Hey Buzz Crew,

On episode 945 you guys talked about taking breaks for internet at work and about how productive that might be. I laughed when Tom mentioned people working in a call center. I work in a large call center and most of our supervisors do not mind if we take a few minutes here or there to check well known sites such as CNN.com or other related news sites. They do not allow us to surf sites such as Twitter or Facebook because of security risks. I just thought I'd pass that along.

Matthew

**********

Hi Buzz crew.

I just finished listening to episode 948 where you followed up on the variable pricing from iTunes, Amazon etc. My first reaction was that, since I’m in Canada, my songs will still be 99 cents for a while longer. Nope. I just checked and, sure enough, all songs are now .69, .99 and 1.29 per song. Amazing! It took us over a year to get the iTunes store in Canada after it was launched in the US because of Licensing issues. Just as long to get T.V. shows and movie rentals for the same reason. We couldn’t get the iPhone untill the 2nd generation and when I checked over the weekend most of my purchased music still was not availible for the DRM free upgrade. But raise the price by 30 cents so the record labels can make more money and the Canadian music industry is instantly all over it. Capitalism. Gotta love it.

Speaking of love it. Love the show….Tom, your segues are rubbing off on me.

Take care,
Wayne, the Visual effects Artist, Quebec, Canada

PS: Natali, I hate FiOS because FiOS hates Natali.

**********

Perhaps for his next upgrade cycle, the eyeborg might consider one of
these:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/08/exmoveres-wearable-chariot-for-the-mild-mannered-cyborg/

If you ask me, it looks like the 21st century version of a centaur…
except instead of the lower half being a horse, it’s a Segway)

LOVE THE SHOW.
Donald, the (still) out of work software engineer

**********

Hi Buzz Out Loud
Yesterday you had a caller mention that Mutant Chronicles was on Video on Demand before theaters. Here is a second movie that I know is going to debut on VOD before hitting theaters. The movie is called Surveillance. It is directed by Jennifer Lynch and produced by David Lynch, two well known directors. It will be on VOD on May 29th and in theaters on June 6.

I am excited about this and I hope this trend continues. Also the new tv series Southland premiered on Hulu a week before it was broadcast on tv.
Here is the link to the surveillance site where it shows the dates of release and a trailer, pretty cool.

http://magnetreleasing.com/surveillance/

Enjoy the show
Jimmie from KC

**********

Hey guys,

As stupid as it sounds, I know of at least two reasons why someone would downgrade from Vista or even Windows 7 to XP (not that they’re great reasons). First reason–I work for a company that edits patents for the government; and even though we’re a division of a major publishing company and can probably afford to upgrade our software, we have to use the programs that the government mandates, and some of these programs still rely on a command-line interface (apparently the government doesn’t trust us to make tables using a GUI-based program). Given how many bugs are in these programs anyway (and every time they tweak it things go wrong, like we can’t print in bold or something), I don’t think they’re working to update it and make it compatable with anything beyond XP. We’ve tried to convince our contracter (the USPTO) to let us use newer programs, but it’s no-go, so we’re stuck using XP for the forseeable future (and I do mean future).

The second reason? Just today my parents called to ask me if they can downgrade their brand new computer to XP because their old copies of programs like Lotus 1-2-3 aren’t compatable with Vista. Yeah, there are alternatives, but my stepfather is 85 still reminisces about punch cards (he worked for IBM until the mid-80s). I’m still trying to talk them out of it.

Anyway, those are two (annoying) reasons.

Mary Jones

The DS has a new add-on that includes a pedometer to help you measure your walking. We don't know if it will slim down the Mii that got fat ignoring Wii Fit. Australia is going on an all-fiber diet for their Internet needs, and the AP wants everyone to stop linking to them. OK! Careful what you wish for?

Episode 947

Healthcare records: Google gets pharmacies, MS hospitals
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10213205-92.html
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2009/04/healthcare-records-google-gets-pharmacies-ms-hospitals.ars

Australia to build a fiber network for all
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/technology/internet/08broadband.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

AP launches campaign against Internet “misappropriation”
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/ap-launches-campaign-against-internet-misappropriation.ars
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/07/newspapers-are-dumb.html

Google to publishers: We’re not evil or illegal
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10213903-2.html

XP reprieve, downgrade may continue after Win7
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/06/232225

Yahoo launches open music pages
http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=375712
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE53562820090406?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

Amazon may be gaining traction in the MP3 market
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-music-industry-amazon-itunes-npd-stats/

iTunes Store now infected with variable pricing, Amazon still $0.99
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/07/itunes-store-now-infected-with-variable-pricing-amazon-still-0/

Google tweaks local searching, guesses where you are
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/google-becomes-more-local.html

GM, Segway partner on two-wheel city vehicle
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10213863-54.html

Nintendo DSi pedometer
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/06/personal-trainer-walking-bringing-pedometers-to-nintendo-dsi/

Solar airplane
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/04/solar-plane-to.html

Voice mail
Anonymous Canadian
At least you’re not in Canada

Hemond from Ohio
Calling about TWiT

E-mail
Regarding MLB.com. I dare say, the video quality and user experience is worse than last year.

Nexdef is worse than last year's Silverlight. You CAN’T RESIZE THE VIDEO. You can’t watch full screen on one monitor and use your computer, it kicks the browser (all browsers) out of full screen.

And, I am appalled that they are calling this year's highest quality stream “HD”. The video resolution for HD starts at 720p (correct?). It’s nowhere near that. By my quick guess, I would say, it’s still in standard def and just a higher bitrate. When you put the video in full screen (when I say full screen, I mean a 19″ LCD, NOT big), it is still pixelated like CRAZY.

Do I have grounds for a class-action lawsuit claiming false advertising? For $109.99 a year, it’s kind of a rip-off….

And by the way, the Nexdef plugin is a CPU HOG. It consumes half the CPU power of my 2.4 GHZ 4GB RAM Macbook Pro. That’s faaaaaaar to much for a stupid web video.

****sigh****

My hopes were so high, and they let me down again.

/rant

Grant from Nashville

PS
Rafe,
You said something in effect of “you can watch all the games, not just the ones in your local area.” Correction…..you are blacked out of ALL games in your local area. The service is only available for out-of-market games.

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

Hi Buzz Crew,

Yesterday you talked about a story involving mlb.com and the streaming service that they offer. But you missed a huge nugget of information in the article. Third question from the bottom asks about streaming MLB games on the iPhone. The response given says that Apple is working on a technology that will allow for streaming the games. They go onto say that the service will come with the iPhone 3.0 software. Could this mean Flash may come to the iPhone in 3.0?

Link: http://www.businessinsider.com/baseball-crushing-everyone-at-web-video-2009-4

Love the show,
Brad in Ohio

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

While I´m browsing open-source news, I thought I’d send in something else that I saw on that blog. Qimo is a Linux distribution for kids ages 3 and up. Excellent if you want to get a really low-powered cheap machine for the kids to play with. I have a nephew that’s about 3 years old and I might suggest Qimo to his parents so he can learn how to do things on his own.

http://www.qimo4kids.com/post/Qimo-in-the-News.aspx

Kinda wish this was around when I was a kid. When I was an itty-bitty, our family had good old Windows 3.1, and my dad eventually got a coloring game especially for me, since I wanted a program to use myself (before that I had made lots and lots of kiddie art on MS Paint, stored on 3×5 floppy disks). Anyway, it looks interesting.

GAC in West Virginia

Within 15 years, cars will be made of seaweed, but will they be edible? That's your next task, auto industry. We also make book recommendations, give medical advice, and generally just try to help. Oh, and we talk about exploding donut factories.

EPISODE 918

Court upholds AP “quasi-property” rights on hot news
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/24/2229205

Conan copyright trolls censor fan-readings of public-domain stories
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/25/conan-copyright-trol.html

SMiShing’ fishes for personal data over cell phone
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10171241-83.html

Flexible touch screen debuts
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=PT0K4QBYDW122QSNDLSCKHA?articleID=214502697

Spotify could become the best music service ever
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10171362-27.html

U.K. government backs open source
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7910110.stm

doubleTwist cross-gadget media library from DVD Jon debuts
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/02/doubletwist-cross-gadget-media-library-from-dvd-jon-debuts.ars

PlayStation 3 price drop finally in the offing? ("PC World")
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20090225/tc_pcworld/playstation3pricedropfinallyintheoffing

Toyota wants to build car from seaweed
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/02/toyota-makes-pl.html

Study confirms TXT SPK doesn’t hurt kids’ language skills
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/02/study-confirms-txt-spk-doesnt-hurt-kids-language-skills.ars

Meet us at SXSW
http://sxsw.com/interactive/talks/panels?action=show&id=IAP0901416

VOICEMAIL
Remy
Kindle questions and complaints

Doug
TV’s don’t explode

E-MAIL
On the iPhone so this will be brief (and possibly mispelled).

Just heard Tuesday’s show and the talk of slim apps in Snow Leopard
and had to mention the likely cause that did not come up. As far as I
know (still need to do my homework on this) Snow Leopard will be the
first release with intel only code, sans universal binaries and ppc
code. This seems likely because you can currently do this and save a
similar amount of space on an intel mac now with an app called
xslimmer. The space saved is similar and yes you can even cut some
ppc fat from itunes!

Love the show

James in Milwaukee

***********

Hey Buzzcrew

I have been trying to find something to contribute to BOL, for a while I found ONE!

Well actually iTunes in Snow Leopard is smaller, at least compared to the iTunes installed on my mac iTunes on my computer currently takes up 144.8 MB And according to the screenshot found on http://images.worldofapple.com/snowleopard_10a261_010.png it is 50 MB which is dramatically lower which if roughly calculated is 94.8 MB smaller which is pretty good, But remember this is a screenshot of an unfinished product so it may be much more when finished, but at least we can hope.

***********

So I wrote this the other day

http://thesoftlounge.com/blog/?p=1392

And then the restaurant refugee put together this based (in part) on my post:

http://restaurantrefugee.com/2009/02/25/the-google-economic-index/

I thought it was pretty funny (and techy).

Frank L

***********

Hey jaynato,
This is a couple of days old - I forgot to send this when it was fresh - but DragonflyBSD has released version 2.2.
I thought I would pass this along because I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about *BSD-releases. Many listeners may not
be familiar with Dragonfly BSD, it’s a free open-source Unix-like operating system created as a fork of FreeBSD version 4.8.

Here’s the release announcement:
http://www.dragonflybsd.org/release22/

Also, in case you missed this, the first full lecture from Marshall Kirk McKusicks FreeBSD Kernel Internals was posted on the bsdconferences channel on youtube a while ago, you can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbqBdghh6E. I thought you should pass this along to the other buzzers.

love-da-show <3

tobias from stockholm, sweden

***********

Hi Buzz Crew,
I’m a pediatrician on staff at one of the largest children’s hospitals in the United States and after listening to Episode 917, I felt compelled to write.

First, Natali is awesome but she’s mistaken about vaccines. Vaccines do not weaken the immune system. Rather, they bolster immunity by exposing the immune system to carefully selected antigens which elicit an antibody response from the body and creates immune memory to combat future infections.

Second, the risk of flu for otherwise healthy adults is admittedly small. But for the most vulnerable members of society (the elderly, the young and the chronically ill), it can be very serious and causes about 36, 000 deaths in the United States every year.

Third, for anyone looking for information about vaccines, I would be wary of Google search results. There is so much misinformation and pseudoscience floating around on the interwebs, I would suggest going directly to a reputable source like the CDC or the WHO (or the new medical wiki you talked about in a previous episode).

I know that as a group, we pediatricians can be nagging and excessively risk averse. But considering who our patients are, it’s hard not to beoverly protective.

Anyhow, thanks for putting on a great show and keep up the good work.

Jonathan the Pediatrician

***********

Hey BOL crew + guest,

So you are all talking about twitter and how its used for news before
it gets picked up by “real news website/TV”
Well today here in the Netherlands an airplane crashed near the
biggest airport of our country.
A mid sided air craft crashed with 135 people on board, at this point
in time about 5 people died and about 10/15 are badly injured sadly
.
Well before the news really took off an eyewitness reported about the
crash via twitter and then the Dutch media picked it up and then
started to send out reporters and camera crews etc.
So in these times of twitter and media 24/7, twitter becoming the on
the scene source for news. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7909683.stm

Well I’l keep you posted if needed but for now this is the story as I
it know for now.

Have a nice day and keep up the great podcast.

LOVE THE SHOW.

Peter
The Netherlands

We were really thinking about calling this episode something to do with prehistoric snake. Because Natali is very into the prehistoric snakes. Although she can't kill them. Instead we discuss Bill Gates releasing mosquitoes at TED, the Congress sort of delaying the DTV transition, and Google trying to steal your health information.

EPISODE 905

Bill Gates Unleashes Mosquitoes On Rich TED Conference Crowd
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009/2/bill-gates-unleashes-mosquitoes-on-rich-ted-crowd
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7871210.stm

DTV delay passes, 264-158
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/02/dtv-delay-passes-264-158.ars

AP suing over Obama picture
http://www.usatoday.com/life/2009-02-04-AP-obama_N.htm

Google can read your vital signs
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/04/google-ibm-healthcare-technology-internet_0205_google.html

Google books for iPhone and Android
http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2009/02/15-million-books-in-your-pocket.html

Google offline calendar
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/static.py?page=offline_faq.html&hl=en

In games, brains work differently when playing against a human
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/02/humans-think-different-when-told-theyre-playing-a-human.ars

Microsoft offers to just ‘Fix it’
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10157210-56.html

Yes! It’s the cardboard PC!
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/02/05/recompute/

Parking ticket leads to a virus
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7872299.stm

MIT researchers make ’sixth sense’ gadget
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.c3b86e67d015d664d720fa421d679c0f.311

Prehistoric monster-snake
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/02/05/giant.snake.colombia/index.html?eref=rss_tech

VOICE MAIL
Paul from Verizon Wireless
We have service on cruise ships

Nathan the physics teacher from Tennessee
OK Natali. I got words for you.

E-MAIL
Hi Janato,

Listening to episode 902 and Natali on the E Slick reader and her desire for it to be a little more like the Kindle, I was jumping up and down for somebody to mention this product I’d just written about on my blog. The as yet unreleased reader has it all but no word on price, hope you like it, I think it’s got real potential.

http://mygadgetlife.co.uk/start/?p=684

I did think about leaving a message but being from Yorkshire I’ve got an even more unfathomable accent than that guy from Liverpool, eh up sithe! (pronounced hey up sith-i thats hello and how are you - in translation)

Love the show (electronic voice style)

Phil

Hello Buzz Folk-

I was listening to BOL 904 on Tuesday and was a little surprised to hear
about your concern at the sale of some of Verizon’s spectrum to AT&T as
a condition of the Alltel acquisition. If Verizon has to sell off some
spectrum the conditions of these deals usually insist that a carrier not
own both of the primary A and B spectrum in any given market. This
usually refers to the 800 MHz cellular spectrum and is most strongly
enforced in rural areas without as many options for carriers. I haven’t
looked at the details but I assume that much of the spectrum is in
markets where Verizon formerly competed with Alltel. Remember that
spectrum is licensed by not only by frequency but also by geographic
area. As long as Verizon still has a nationwide license for spectrum
they will not be loosing coverage.

That was long and probably won’t be read but hope that clears some
things up.

-Ryan
Physics Teacher in Boston

Hey Buzz Crew, Brenton the computer Scientist here,

I have been an avid listener since around the 500’s and always enjoy listening to the show on the commute to work. How ever, when I am listening on my laptop I like to keep an eye on the show notes, and this is not always possible because of work etc. so i decided to create a widget for my Mac which contains the show notes of the latest episodes. So a little time later I have it working, and I have included the link for any Mac users among the army who have the same problem.

http://support.callaghan001.com/widgets/bolRSS/

Love the show, and I have seen a Kindle in the wild.

Brenton.

Buzz Clique,

First of all, bravo for mobilizing the Buzz Brigade to drink
themselves into oblivion. I’m sure whatever sinister plans you have
for this evil buzz datacenter will benefit us all. I - like a lemming
- will follow our overloads to wherever we need to be, even if that is
at the bottom of a whiskey bottle. Anyway, drinking gallons of whiskey
gave me something interesting to do whilst I was passing the time off
work due to the recent #uksnow you may have seen tweeted repeatedly.

I admire the quality of intellectual characters we have in Buzz Town,
however I noticed that all the mathmatical ability in the world
doesn’t equate to a high level of perception, leading to what I
believe to be what you guys call a ‘well actually’.

You see, cranky what’s-his-face and the other math dude have made a
fatal oversight to their whiskey powering calculations. The crux of
their figures is centred around how much energy is in whiskey. Luckily
the Scots had it figures out so they could still get mashed on the
whiskey while reaping the benefits of it’s BYPRODUCTS.

So I’m afraid our intrepid mathematicians will have to rethink their
figures based on leftovers rather than the actual whiskey itself.

Hopefully by some remarkable turn of events the byproduct is something
like dilithium crystals or the like. I’d rather be an alcoholic - in
spaaaaace.

Big up your shoes and socks and of course I’m affectionate towards
your show.

Greg The Garage Head from London town (That’s garage as in ga-ridge
not ga-raahhhshh. It rolls off the tongue better that way)

Hey BOL crew,

Steven the Biologist from Montréal here. In regards to your discussion of plugging in electric vehicles in Episode 903, a simple combination of technologies should easily solve the problem of where to plug in your vehicle when you’re on the road: take electric vehicles and combine them with wireless power (such as the eCoupled / PowerCast devices showcased at CES this year), add a sprinkle of RFID, and bake until done. Once the wireless power device are a bit more advanced, you could conceivably build them into the roads themselves as cities and businesses roll out new roadway infrastructure. Add in a unique identifier for each vehicle, like an RFID device, and your car could be identified as it charged off a particular surface. Paying for this service could go into the private or public sector or both as appropriate; it’s conceivable that you could pay your local utility for charging just like you pay for power at your house.

Sounds like a winning combination to me.

Cheers,
Steven.

EPISODE 750

One ton ‘Baby’ marks its birth
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7465115.stm

What's behind the stupid face spam scourge?
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/whats-behind-the-stupid-face-spam-scourge/index.html

Electronic transaction reporting slipped into Senate Bill
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/20/1234214

New eBay strategy angers small sellers
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/19/BU9K11C0KS.DTL

AP says Drudge Retort excerpt 'matter' closed; no official policy announced
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-ap-says-drudge-retort-excerpt-matter-closed-no-official-policy-announce/

One in three IT staff snoops on colleagues
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25263009/

Study: Social networks may subvert ‘digital divide’
http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9973558-2.html

Holograms on handsets by 2010
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1041-6242143.html

Free EA software release spawns ‘Sporn’
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25272162/

White patches on Mars are ice
http://news.cnet.com/White-patches-found-in-Mars-trench-are-ice%2C-scientists-say/2100-11397_3-6242126.html

HD for children!
http://www.nontoxicreviews.com/wordpress/?p=114

VOICE MAIL

Anonymous Statistician
I don't believe Netflix somewhat.

--Christiane
Can't Microsoft easily break Firefox record.

Remy
I have a suggestion for the Firefox coverage.

E-MAIL

Hey JaMoTo

found these photos. thought they were funny:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/damianspain/sets/72157605643949010/

dunno why a cop stopped the Google street map car, though.

Love the show.

Buzz Out Loud Crew,
This is in regards to episode 749 about Netflix pulling there profile support. Not just family’s us this feature. My wife I an have three queues set up one for TV show one for Anime shows, and one for Movie. We allocate different amounts of dvds to each queue (6 total across all queues). This allows us to always get a good mixture of dvd types regardless of availability and order of dvd on the queues. With Netflixs pulling this feature organizing and creating a good mixture of dvd will become increasingly hard and more difficult for me. I also think there reason for changing this is weak and not offering an alternative seem like a slap in the face to user like me.

Love the show keep up the good work

--Alan Game Developer from Austin TX

I was watching CNN this morning, and they reported that ABC News just settled with their employees after receiving complaints that the constant use of crackberries outside work should qualify as overtime...so, maybe Natalie *should* start texting from her work phone, and that Polish bus driver would be a millionaire! LOL, obviously, the assumption is that the "crack-tivity" (ha!) is work-related, but I think that it does bring up a valid point...

Do you guys work outside of work? 'Cuz I know I do all the time, and I never get paid for it, lol. It's *assumed* as part of the job as far as I'm concerned. I'm not 100 percent sure how much work these ABC News folks were actually doing after 5 o'clock, but as a nonbusiness professional, it seems a little "waa-waa" to me.

(after an exhaustive search, I couldn't find the original CNN story, and I am sad to paste the following link (guh!): http://www.nypost.com/seven/06172008/news/regionalnews/abc_news_berrys_hatchet_with_staff_115903.htm )

Love,
Dr. Karl

Hey Buzz Crew,

The fact that Firefox doesn’t auto update 2.x to 3.0 is rather standard for all software, paid or not. That is, I think if Firefox or any other software automatically performed a major upgrade we would all be complaining about that, especially if it broke plug-ins.

Another Firefox specific reason is for web developers they would probably keep a copy of Firefox 2.x for testing and it would be terribly annoying if every time it started it prompted to upgrade to 3.0.

Keep up the great work,
--Jason

If AT&T does in fact require the business data plan for Exchange users, this is simply a ploy to get more money out of their customers, and does not reflect higher costs to the carrier in any way:

1) ActiveSync connections to Exchange are simply HTTPS connections to a Web server, on port 443 like any other Web server using SSL. Nothing special has to be done by the data carrier (ISP). If they claim otherwise they are just lying.

2) Because the connections are encrypted with SSL, the ISP shouldn't even be aware that a connection is to an Exchange server unless they specifically go sniffing around to see what is running on the computer being connected to. For AT&T to require that a user switch to a business data plan because they are using Exchange means they have been snooping around to see what is being hosted on the Exchange server (which would not even be on their network), specifically looking for an opportunity to bump customers to a higher rate plan.

3) The 'push' feature of Exchange is done by leaving the HTTPS connection open (though no data is transferred unless e-mail is being actively synchronized) and sending the email over that connection whenever it arrives (or changes) at the Exchange server. This method results in LESS data transfer than a PULL-ONLY type of connection like POP3 or IMAP which has to continually check for new or updated email. It is ludicrous to imply that ActiveSync connections use more data transfer than PULL email systems, because it just isn't true.

The fact is that T-Mobile is allowing Exchange ActiveSync e-mail synchronization to take place on their $5/mo data plan (I and many people I know are doing this now). For AT&T to suggest that they have to charge more for Exchange is just downright deceptive.

--DJ

EPISODE 747

Firefox Download Day To Start At 10 a.m. PT
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/06/17/1250229.shtml
http://www.cnet.com/firefox-3/

Survey: Young people happy to pay for music--on their terms
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080616-survey-young-adults-willing-to-pay-for-musicon-their-terms.html

Associated Press expects you to pay to license 5-word quotations (and reserves the right to terminate your license)
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/17/associated-press-exp.html

Ineligible AT&T customers need to pay full price for iPhone 3G
http://gizmodo.com/5016912/ineligible-att-customers-need-to-pay-full-price-for-iphone-3g

Apple settles suit over iPhone visual voice mail
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-9969909-37.html

Cease-and-desist notices sent to Internet DNA testing centers
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9970396-7.html

Support grows for universal power adapter (Thanks royterp!)
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/06/16/Support_grows_for_universal_power_adapter_1.html
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/147086/support_grows_for_universal_power_adapter.html

Spore Creature Creator goes live
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2320409,00.asp

Road rage linked to automobile bumper stickers
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/17/0148238

VOICE MAIL

Doug DMCA Canada
About the DMCA…. In Canada.

Jeremy
Flash problems… Solution?

E-MAIL

Hey JaMoTo,

Simon Phipps, Sun Microsystems open-source guy, took a picture of the Sydney Opera House. He then tried to enter his photo into his portfolio at istockphoto.com. However, his photo was rejected as the opera house claims all copyrights on all images of the building.

He is trying to bring attention to this issue by entering his photo into a contest. Go to his Flickr page for details, and a link to the contest if you want to vote.

Flickr Page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/webmink/480398424

Twitter Page:
http://twitter.com/webmink

–kevin

Hi Buzzers. I just listened to the joint rant on Ep. 746 about whether AT&T’s iPhone plans are unlimited, although they charge different rates for personal and business accounts. First, let me point out that they’ve done this with other smartphone users for some time. I don’t get my corporate e-mail on my personal BlackBerry because it’s not worth the extra $10 to me. Also, the entire crux of your objections is based on speculation that a personal user would be limited or forced into a business plan based on the amount of data that they use. Can you cite any document that AT&T plans to do this or point to any customers who have been forced to a business plan based on their data usage? The only “limit” that I’ve seen with these plans is not based on data usage but rather on using a specific application, Exchange. There is no evidence that the amount of data a personal user can consume is any more limited than a business user. Couldn’t part of that $10 difference be a licensing fee to Microsoft for providing Exchange connectivity or the cost of any additional infrastructure needed to support Exchange? Until someone can provide evidence that a personal plan user is allowed to consume less data than a business plan user, it is perfectly reasonable for both plans to be called “unlimited.” iPhone users, welcome to the world of us “average” smartphone users.

--Jeff, The Supercomputer Guy

Just threw together two quick Unmnemonic devices for the “new” plant list. Hope you like them. DOWN WITH PLUTOIDS!!!

#1)
Molly
Very
Excitedly
Mauled
Jason to
Steal the
Unused
Nokia N95

#2)
Microsoft
Vista
Executed
Malicous
Java
So
Um
Noooooooooooooooooooooooo

--Matt S
Baltimore, Md.

P.S. - [monotone voice] Love the show. [/monotone voice]

Hi Guys,

The U.K. military satellites known as Skynet that you discussed on ep. 745 is actually the fifth version of Skynet used by the U.K. military. The original Skynet was deployed in 1969, long before the Terminator. Maybe the guys who wrote the Terminator stole the name from the U.K. military and not the other way around.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(satellites)

Kind regards,

--Andrew.

You have talked about the upcoming Firefox 3 download event in a couple of previous episodes. But so far I haven’t heard anyone remind you that Microsoft came up with this idea years ago. I still have the T-shirt from Midnight Madness, August 13, 1996, when we waited by our computers until 12 a.m. to download Internet Explorer (some 1,000,000 downloads if I remember correctly). Now that makes me “really” old!
--Pauline
Phoenix, Ariz.

On today's episode, Molly issues a blanket un-curse to all who have suddenly discovered that Firefox has trouble with Flash. (But really, it's Firefox's fault.) Also, the Associated Press volunteers to tackle the thorny issue of defining fair use for all of us, and yet the blogosphere insists on painting it as some sort of heavy-handed attempt to lock down their own content and dictate rules that they have no legal authority to tackle. How rude.

EPISODE 746

Verizon blocks access to whole USENET hierarchy http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080616-alt-blocked-verizon-blocks-access-to-whole-usenet-hierarchy.html

Cash, not idealism, behind ISP embrace of music biz http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080616-cash-not-idealism-behind-isp-embrace-of-music-biz.html

The Associated Press to Set Guidelines for Using Its Articles in Blogs http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/business/media/16ap.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin http://news.cnet.com/8301-13953_3-9969375-80.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/16/heres-our-new-policy-on-ap-stories-theyre-banned/

Blogger arrests hit record high http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7456357.stm

Nintendo nobbles Nyko's Nunchuk http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2219148/nintendo-sues-wii-accessory-maker

Honda produces first commercial hydrogen cars http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9969263-54.html?tag=nefd.top

Heavy AT&T DSL users could see additional fees http://www.betanews.com/article/Heavy_ATT_DSL_users_could_see_additional_fees/1213387162

Google preps net neut dowser http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/google_network_management_tools/

T-Mobile to sell 3G iPhone from 1 euro in Germany http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSL1610580020080616

$15 to check a bag, but free to charge an iPod http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9969405-1.html

VOICEMAIL

Anthony Michigan Molly has cursed me.

Anonymous Sad text messaging story.

Gabriel Spit vs. Spam

EMAIL

I saw an example this weekend of a lost packet with the pigeon protocol.

I was at a convention this weekend outside of Detroit and was lucky enough to have a seat by the window. I happened to see a hawk was chasing a pigeon. The pigeon flew right at the window beside me and wasn't able to pull up in time. It slammed against the window hard enough to leave some feather and scare the bejesus out of most of the people in the room. Then the hawk flew away.

Seems that these lost packets would be few and far between, but yet another obstacle for the ISP's to content with, HAWKS!

-Nick in Kalamazoo

Hi Guys,

In your discussion of Skynet in episode 475 I was reminded of a company that a friend of mine works at, Cyberdyne.

http://www.cyberdyne.jp/english/robotsuithal/index.html

In addition they make a HAL (Hybrid Assisting Living) thing. Basically it is a powered suit that will assist older people in getting around carrying out daily routines.

Love the show, Andrew Randles PhD^?

Sendai, Japan

- Kevin Virginia

Molly,

I just finished listening to Friday's show and wanted to politely disagree to your objection to the word unlimited. Here's why:

Pricing for any unlimited service is based on the cost the service provider bears to provide for the typical user. For example, if the average user requires $4.00 of data, the price would be set at five dollars and the service provider would make a profit, regardless of the fact that some may be above the average and other users below it. So, in the current scenario, if a typical business user uses $10.00 of data, compared to a regular user using $6.00 of data, it makes sense that the business user should pay more. However, this doesn't mean that you can't call both tiers of service (i.e. the business and the consumer tiers) unlimited because, while one does cost more than the other, any individual user of either tier can use however much data they want. The difference between the tiers isn't that the business tier is "more unlimited" than the other, but rather that a typical user of the business tier costs the provider more and must pay more as a result.

Love the show, Ethan

Hey, this is Remy.

In BOL 744, Shalin sent an email about Pluto's new status as a ... "plutoid" (genius name!). There was then some conversation amongst yourselves about the subsequent butchery of the mnemonic device; for the record, my very excellent mother just made us nine pizzas. Pizza is better than pie.

But this is not my point.

On February 27 of this year was this interesting article on CNN.com:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/27/planets.mnemonic.ap/index.html

...which I can't get to load right now. (By the way, CNN's site is total, unadulterated crap.) Here's a different link:

http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/2008/02/27/eight-planets/

Quoting from the story: "Her award-winning phrase is: My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants.

The 11 recognized planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Eris."

Anybody who's halfway interested in astronomy knows Ceres. I've even heard of other soon-to-be "dwarf planets" like Sedna and Quaoar. I personally hadn't heard of "Eris", but that's kind of beside the point.

Why should I learn a mnemonic device that includes an asteroid (Ceres) or an overblown chunk of ice (Pluto, Eris)? It is patently ridiculous.

Also, I don't care if the kid is only a 4th-grader -- or from Montana. That mnemonic device is just ... flat ... bad.

--Remy

Hi,

It's me again. I have resisted writing earlier, but I simply cannot take it anymore. It is just painful to see Tom be such a Google fanboy. No matter what the issue, there is always a pro-Google angle.

Please try to be a little more balanced in your views on Microsoft and Google and maybe I will have faith in your reporting. Until then I repeat, as I have said before, that Tom is simply a pro-Google, anti-Microsoft machine.

The last example - Microsoft surface is brushed away instead of talking about the fun stuff that can happen with it in Vegas ... whereas Google's ad deal with Yahoo gets some praise for its press release (besides spelling out the Google's official blog URL!!!!).

USC Trojan.

Warning: written while listening to last friday's show.

When you talked about the social networks and Molly said she thought the future is a way to post to multiple social networks at once...... I could not help shout "you can do that now!",

http://ping.fm is a service that does just that. It will post your "stuff" to various blogs/social networks/micro-blogs/twitter/etc....

The service is in beta right now, but anyone can join if they use the beta-code tastyping.

Cumprimentos e Obrigado, Miguel (from Portugal)