Buzz Out Loud Podcast

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.