Buzz Out Loud Podcast

Hey, here's a thought: a free, open-source video codec that could be universally portable and playable. I'd vote for that, wouldn't you? In other news of the day, Dash stops making hardware to focus on software, Apple brings in an IBM guy to run the iPod division (other than Steve Jobs), and BlackBerry sneaks the Bold into stores today. Yeah, today. There's got to be something wrong with that thing.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 845

Apple’s iPod chief to step down
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10082065-37.html

Dash Navigation pulls the plug on hardware. Whoops.
http://venturebeat.com/2008/11/03/dash-navigation-layoffs-innovation-loses-commodity-gps-wins/

AT&T will gamble with monthly bandwidth caps in Nevada
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081103-att-will-gamble-with-monthly-bandwidth-caps-in-nevada.html

Comcastic P4P trial shows 80 percent speed boost for P2P downloads
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081103-comcastic-p4p-trial-shows-80-speed-boost-for-p2p-downloads.html

Could Theora solve the video codec confusion?
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/04/136220

This holiday season good time to cut a deal on an HDTV?
http://www.displaysearch.com/cps/rde/xchg/displaysearch/hs.xsl/Sneak_Preview_of_Holiday_Shopping_Season_200810.asp

How to watch Election Day live online
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/how-to-watch-election-day-live-online
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10081981-38.html
http://www.mahalo.com/Election_Exit_Polls_2008

Update: E-voting problems reported early in battleground states
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9118983

FCC Election Day vote could revolutionize wireless
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10081864-94.html

BlackBerry Bold on sale in U.S. today
http://www.betanews.com/article/BlackBerry_Bold_on_sale_in_US_today/1225810411

VOICE MAIL
Jason in Cincinnati: the joke’s on you (?)

E-MAIL

Hey Buzz crew:

http://news.opensuse.org/2008/11/03/development-release-opensuse-111-beta-4-now-available/

We’ve just released openSUSE 11.1 Beta 4, the newest prerelease version of what will become openSUSE 11.1 on it’s planned public release date of December 18, 2008.

Most of the things in this beta are simply bug fixes from the past beta. For more information on the release of openSUSE 11.1, keep in touch with that openSUSE News Web site above.

BTW, on the screenshots, the desktop wallpaper on the right is the actual wallpaper, the other wallpaper is an old testing wallpaper ;-).

Thanks and I love the show and hope to hear more desktop Linux coverage on BOL.

Kevin “Yeaux” Dupuy - openSUSE Member

Hey, Jimoto,
I have Verizon DSL at my home in Baltimore, and pay $44 month for there service. I just received an email (see below) informing me that I “will soon begin seeing advertisements in your Verizon Yahoo! Mail service. Advertising allows us to deliver new and innovative services and helps us keep prices competitive.” To make things clear, Verizon web mail interface is provided by yahoo.

I went to my (non-Verizon) yahoo account, and I do not pay for had no such message. So now I get to pay $44 for DSL and ads in my e-mail. Thankfully I use gmail as my main account, and my Verizon as my spam dump.

Love the show

Aaron R.
Baltimore, MD

I went to vote this morning and was shocked by how long the line was.
As I was walking to the back of the line I was saying hello to the
people I knew but was shocked and impressed that one of my fellow
voters was passing the time with a Kindle. It was smaller than I was
expecting. Of course with the big O’s endorcement of the Kindle I’m
tempted to get one for my wife for Christmas.

Love the Show.

Tim (from Detroit)

hello and happy voting day tmj + 1:

Responding to Tom’s skepticism about yesterday’s email. China doesn’t
purge everything that is banned. A censor’s zeal are on a par with
level of the threat. China won’t actively seek out torrents of New
York Times or The Daily Show. But they will religiously kill anything
about the Tibetan riot.

So Yes, packets are easy to kill. But the Internet and the billion
dollar piracy industry did alter the government’s attitude. As long
as people leave the communist party alone(and stay in power) they will
let you do almost anything.

love the show
J.Chen, the immigrant

Ok, guys. I have to call you to task on this one. Your reporting of the decision yesterday was patently (pun intended) erroneous. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) DID NOT get rid of patent protection for software, nor did it get rid of patent protection for business methods. Quoting, “:We further reject calls for categorical exclusions… We rejected those exclusions in State Street.” They reaffirmed their conclusion in State Street, the decision that emphatically said that business methods could be protected by a patent. What happened in Bilski, though nuanced legally, is basically the CAFC going back to an earlier standard for determining if you have patentable subject matter. The Court did not rule on whether Bilski was obvious (it is, in my opinion), they just ruled whether Bilski should pass the first test, is it patentable subject matter. The new tests are really a restatement of old tests from the Supreme Court, set down in the BFD triumvirate (yes, patent lawyers have a sense of humor).

In my personal professional opinion, this was a horrible decision and mucks about where Congress never intended the Courts to muck about. What the PTO should be doing is determining whether something is new and non-obvious, not trying to decipher whether Congress intended it to be patentable subject matter. we already have good exclusions regarding natural laws, algorithms per se and mental steps. What this decision just did was cost corporate America huge amounts of money to scramble to incorporate the language the CAFC said we should have. My personal prediction is that this will probably only knock out a small percentage of the patent portfolios. Computer software companies should be pretty ok. Business method companies are in a little more trouble, but not fatally so.

The decision was handed down on Thursday of last week, and I have yet to see a mainstream news site get it right. Perhaps because the decision is so nuanced when you really read it. Perhaps it is also because this will not be the final chapter. I believe that the Supreme Court should pick this up and again slap down the CAFC for writing bad law. Unfortunately, when the Supremes do that, they typically write equally bad law in its place.

Bob, “The Patent Lawyer”

P.S. Weather here is beautiful. Love my iPhone. Love the show. Miss Molly.

Hey buzz Crew -

I was just listening to episode 844 and heard your comment about 256 cores and laughing about a supercomputer, but the truth of it is, if Windows 7 does include GPU acceleration (http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/27/windows-7-to-feature-gpu-acceleration-just-like-os-x-snow-leopar/) then its very plausible that 256 cores may not even be enough. Think about nVidia’s GTX 280 that has 240 processing cores and ATI’s 4870X2 that has 1600 processing cores.

Just saying, if Windows 7 could use graphics card processing for everyday tasks, it could be a leap that would make Nehalem/Core i7 look like a joke.

Mike from Georgia Tech, member of Buzz Mafia

Episode 837

Comcast broadens reach of DOCSIS 3.0, 50Mbps connections
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4BqkB8tlV.s
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081022-comcast-broadens-reach-of-docsis-3-0-50mbps-connections.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10073404-2.html

Broadband users reach their limit
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7684322.stm

Study squashes myth of gamer as antisocial Comic Book Guy
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081022-study-squashes-myth-of-gamer-as-antisocial-comic-book-guy.html

20% of antenna users to let TV sets go dark in 2009
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081022-20-of-antenna-users-to-let-tv-sets-go-dark-in-2009.html

Forecast: Legal P2P uses growing 10x faster than illegal ones
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081022-forecast-legal-p2p-uses-growing-10x-faster-than-illegal-ones.html

Tech layoff spreadsheet
http://news.cnet.com/tech-layoffs/?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.0

Microsoft issues ‘critical’ patch outside normal cycle
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10073787-83.html

Netflix, Samsung partner on video streaming
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10073519-1.html

Scientists erase specific memories in mice
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/23/0315240

Researchers developing cancer-fighting beer
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/22/2230223

Voice mail
G-Dog: Xbox Live chatter

E-mail

Think about this the next Christmas while you are wrapping your presents...

[link: http://gizmodo.com/5067362/researchers-build-x+ray-machine-with-scotch-tape ]

"Russian scientists discovered that simple Scotch tape emits x-rays when peeled off glass. New research conducted by colleagues at UCLA has determined that the power that the tape generates is much higher than anyone could have imagined. In fact, they have constructed a machine that generates x-rays by peeling up Scotch tape in a vacuum at the rate of 3 centimeters per second. As you can see in the recent demo they did for the journal Nature, their device was able to successfully generate an x-ray of a finger."

When asked to comment on the safety aspect of scotch tape, the scientist responded with, "I will continue to use Scotch tape during my daily life, and I think it’s safe to do it in your office. No guarantees.”

Haha. Awesome. Youtube video proof at gizmodo too...

-dr. karl J

**********

I thought I would never get a topic on BOL that I could actually write into the show with some intelligence about. Regarding Episode 830 and 835 and the “dirty” environment that the MacBook is made in.

Several issues here from Brian Cooley’s rant, first, about the paint on the machines chipped off? Big chunks of metal moving around and you expect paint to stick to the equipment? Paint is not a maintenance issue, paint is cosmetic. Even if the paint would hold up to the constant hammering of thousands of pounds of aluminum banging against it daily, it also would have to hold up to the constant coolant spray. I am surprised there was ANY paint left.

Second, to his claim of seeing cleaner plants, especially Japanese automotive plants. I have been to American automotive plants, and I have been to Japanese plants in Japan. In any country, in any industry, what they show you on a ‘tour’ is what they want you to see. A clean pretty shop assembling pristine parts on a white floor. They will never show you the compressor room, the stamping plant, or anything dirty, loud, and greasy. They know what perception means. Even silicone wafer plants have a big tank of oil somewhere with a whole bunch of greasy equipment, even if you never see it.

Thanks,
Mike the Lubricant Guy

**********

So the other day I was walking through my local Target, and there sitting at the end of the aisle was a display of the Sony E-readers. OK so it wasn’t one owned by somebody but they had a freaking E-Reader on display at Target. So I stood there and played with it. My mom was just staring at me from across the aisle, thinking how strange I was for thinking this device was so rare and cool. I tried to explain to her what it was but she didn’t get the point. Oh well I guess only true geeks can understand the awesomeness of an E-Reader.

Loving the show,
Josh from Indiana

EPISODE 799

Comcast puts a cap on Net usage
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/08/25/daily35.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10028506-2.html
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-comcast-to-roll-out-monthly-usage-cap/

Kaminsky DNS bug claimed fixed by 1-character patch
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/29/127210

Microsoft warns of IE8 lock-in with XP SP3
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9113739

No new Kindle this year
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007628.html

Yahoo kills their social network
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10028716-36.html

Psychologist invents new uber-wiki
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/29/mememoir_uber_wiki_announced/

Android developer challenge winners announced
http://code.google.com/android/adc_gallery/

Alphabet decides who gets most spam
http://www.pcworld.com/article/150464/alphabet_decides_who_gets_most_spam.html

Coca-Cola readying 100-flavor soda fountains
http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/29/coca-cola-readying-100-flavor-soda-fountains/

Voice mail

Camilla
Rant of the week.

Josh Denver
So… About the hydrogen…. Seriously.

RogueTess
Why water is different than OS X

E-mail

Hey Guys,

About the story in 798 - artists not selling their music on iTunes because of lack of an album only option - I disagree with the stance that this purely the record labels trying to exert more control. In the Ars Technica piece you will notice the it says Kid Rock decided to pull out of iTunes not his label. I’m assuming that this decision is because it’s a concept record, which is something of a lost art these days.

I work on three music projects in which I write, produce, and release all the music myself through Tunecore. While I love the service and it’s very convenient to release to iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody and others, I find it to be a rather frustrating process to figure how to release our music in that i write in terms of a concept album and to break it up is difficult decision to make because you feel like you are putting something out there that is out of context. What ultimately I decided to do is to use iTunes to release compilations containing songs from all three projects and use Amazon mp3 the sell them as an album only, as you failed to mention or you didn’t know Amazon does offer this option.

I leave you with this if Pink Floyd released the The Wall today would have gained as much acclaim, attention and influence on later bands as it did in 1980 when it was released or would be just about Another Brick in The Wall and Comfortably Numb.

Great show.

Eric - DC, Soon to be back in Austin

**********

Buzz clique,

It appears in episode 798 you have finally addressed one of the fundamental issues that have divided our two nations for decades. I thought I’d set you straight as to what the deal with ‘pants’ is.

There’s a reason why pants is a British adjective for something that is not good. This is because when we use the word pants we don’t think of a pair of well cut, nice fitting khakis from Gap, but rather a pair of sweaty, skid marked, discarded undercrackers.

The American use of pants in place of trousers has always bothered me slightly, but not as much as the over pronunciation of the letter I. I will not be going to EYEraq, taking antEYE-depressants or installing Norton AntEYE-virus. Pretty sure you guys aren’t guilty of this one though. Right on, and more power to you.

Love the show, and what the frack is a Kindle?

Greg, London

P.S. Caprica? WICKED!

**********

Buzz Fellows,

I simply cannot believe that the circumstances behind the situation of the Pants story (from episode 798) exist at all! Everyone knows (or, apperantly they don’t!) that you never, ever store customer’s actual (plain-text) passwords ANYWHERE.

The standard practice is to use a Hashing algorithm to create a unique and one-way translation of the user’s password into a key. This key cannot be reverse engineered to obtain the original password, but the same password will always generate the same key. So, when you store or check a user’s password, you hash whatever they enter and compare the key to the key you have in your database.

If you store plain-text passwords, as Lloyds TSB clearly does, then you run the HUGE security risk of providing a malicious attacker with thousands of users’ real passwords, which could be used immediately to log into their accounts. This is all a story within itself BEFORE we even get to the fact that someone felt the need to change a user’s password!

When I read “In these cases an advisor can read the full password.”, I nearly had a heart attack.

~EndangeredMassa

**********

hey buzz crew

i have been waiting to hear about a solution to the firefox flash video issue, as it affects me all the time!
i mostly have 15-20 tabs open when browsing.. maybe that does have something to do with it?

in the mean time, i’ve found that i can watch flash video in firefox ( 2 / 3 ) without the issues by using the ‘ietab’ extension

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419

So, everyone can use this while they wait for adobe and mozilla to work it out!

Cheers

Aladar

**********

I was the person who created the JaMoTo Analysts site. I don’t know if you noticed, but the logo I used was the NTT DoCoMo (The Japanese cell phone carrier) logo, I changed the logo around a little bit and added some effects, but the next day I got an email form DoCoMo asking from me to take down the logo! I don’t even know how they saw the page so fast! The email said that the DoCoMo logo is there property and that it should not be used or altered at all, and that if I don’t take down the logo it could lead to quote “LEGAL ACTION”! My first thought was to take down the logo, but should I? Do I have the right to use a heavly altered logo on the site. I have no intention of making money off the site, I am not selling a product or anything. I have no idea what to do!

-Hayden