Buzz Out Loud Podcast

We learn that not only is a botnet using Twitter to store some of its data but that botnet follow Veronica. Who is a bot herself. We also ponder why leaked pictures of the Dell smartphone are so blurry. And bad news folks. Looks like no tablet for the Apple announcement, but it sounds like it will be in September.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Dell’s first phone spied on web
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/08/14/dell_smartphone_pictures/

Apple planning September event?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10309110-37.html

Sources confirm no Apple tablet at Sept. event, coming in 2010
http://www.loopinsight.com/2009/08/13/sources-confirm-no-apple-tablet-at-sept-event-coming-in-2010/

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20090813/here-it-comes-but-what-is-it-exactly-apple-plans-keynote-event-for-september/

Apple and AT&T targeted by iPhone MMS lawsuit
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10309783-233.html

New games at used prices: Best Buy’s Utah plan starts a feud
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/08/best-buys-new-games-at-used-prices-promotion-starts-feud.ars
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/08/nintendo-hardware-slips-software-dominates-in-july-sales.ars

Google Books partners with Creative Commons
http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2009/08/bringing-power-of-creative-commons-to.html

Open Textbooks Win Over Publishers In CA
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/13/1450220/Open-Textbooks-Win-Over-Publishers-In-CA?from=rss

Twitter-based Botnet Command Channel
http://asert.arbornetworks.com/2009/08/twitter-based-botnet-command-channel/

AP to create landing pages to aggregate news like Wikipedia
http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/08/how-the-associated-press-will-try-to-rival-wikipedia-in-search-results/

US Tests System To Evade Foreign Web Censorship
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/14/0426247/US-Tests-System-To-Evade-Foreign-Web-Censorship?from=rss

Take Back the Beep: AT&T promises to make some changes, T-Mobile and Verizon slow on the uptake
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/14/take-back-the-beep-atandt-promises-to-make-some-changes-t-mobile/

YouTube to show Sony’s “Ghostbusters” this week for film’s 25th anniversary
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/08/youtube-to-show-ghostbusters-tonight-for-films-25th-anniversary.html

VOICEMAIL

Bill from Ohio about Linux netbooks

EMAIL
Hey BuzzCrew,
This story popped up on Thursday, and I was really surprised you didn’t talk about it, but given the hatred for Entourage, I think it’s a decent story that Mac users are finally getting a native version of Outlook.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/08/next-office-for-mac-coming-in-late-2010-with-outlook-for-mac.ars

Love the show!

Dave,
Melbourne, Australia
aka DaveBinM

**********

Hi Guys,
I just wanted to show you guys my Buzz Out Loud OS X Dashboard Widget. It’s simple, but it’s great for listening to BOL streaming without opening [another] tab or iTunes. It’s called BOL Dash (Buzz Out Loud For OS X Dashboard… obvious). It comes in two versions, BOL Dash and my personal favorite, BOL Dash Mini which is the same as BOL Dash but it takes up less space on your dashboard. You can find them here: http://dashbol.weebly.com/ I know it’s not a great site but I made it fast to host the widgets. They are completely free so I’d love it if you would mention them on your show or better yet, put it on the BOL blog page.
Thanks,
Alex aka alexthekid from the chat, although I’m not in it as often anymore:-(

**********

Hey JaMoTo and company,

You’re probably (and hopefully) getting multiple emails with this link, but I figured I’d do my part to help make sure this makes it onto tomorrow’s show:

http://lifehacker.com/5336382/digsby-joins-the-dark-side-uses-your-pc-to-make-money

Now I know exactly why Trend Micro has been freaking out every time I’ve started Digsby in the past several weeks. I’m glad I gave the beta of Trillian Astra a try — I’ll be staying with it.

Mike

**********

Dear Buzz crew:
This is Siavash from Iran, remember my updates from Iran? Here is a new one and a very hot one.
Yesterday, my cousins phone rang and there was a private number, she picked it up and a man said, you have been updating your Facebook and sending emails about what was going on inside Iran, mentioning her name, her husband and her children, he said if you don't stop sending emails and Facebook updates and pictures about Iran's political and election issues we will arrest you and your husband and your child.

So I searched so much to find out what is going one, and it seems they have been able to access passwords of those using Gmail, hotmail and Yahoo mail, so they could check their mails and ... , but they could not find any Facebook passwords and any other personal host and domain names like the mail address I use.

So, my question is, why? Why Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail are giving out passwords to Iran's government and department of security? They are not supposed to, passwords are very confidential information and they should not betray people who trust these services. There is nothing mentioned in terms of agreement when you want to open an email account on any of these site and they promise you to keep it safe and protected? Ouh REALLY?

PS: I'm a security geek and I'm sure they can not track my emails , so be sure, I'm safe.

Best Regards

Siavash

On today's episode, we invent a new word that we hope will show up on a show like "The Hills" sometime soon. Plus, we get fired up, make terrible jokes about monkeys controlling computers with their brains, and actually work in a tiny bit of news. For example, Apple's doing a tablet and music labels are trying to sell some new weird digital album thing. You might like the "fired up" part better.

EPISODE 1027

Apple partners with music labels for interactive content for new netbook -- Sept

Microsoft in new EU browser offer

Confusion at Best Buy over rumors of a $99 Palm Pre

Installing Pre homebrew apps: now even easier

Netflix Prize: And the $1 Million Winner Is...?

ATandT blocks 4chan

AT&T said to block 4chan; pranksters fight back

Wi-Fi on ordinary cell phones

Aussie Net filtering trial deemed a success despite problems

Nissan's Forest AC blows wild scents through your ride, keeps you alert

Monkeys and scientists develop persistent "plug and play" control over brain-to-computer interface

Pope Benedict XVI has embraced Facebook but it's just an app. So you can't write on the pope's wall or poke him. We also are excited for the queen to get her golden Wii. And we're still somewhat excited about the Palm Pre. We also discover the meaning of PORN: Private Online Retail Network.

Episode 980

No visual voice mail on Palm Pre
http://gizmodo.com/5264854/palm-pre-doesnt-have-visual-voicemail
Best Buy stores only getting four Palm Pres for launch day?
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/05/21/best-buy-stores-only-getting-4-palm-pres-for-launch-day/

New version of Chrome…still no love for Mac
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/21/2054230
http://chrome.blogspot.com/2009/05/speedier-google-chrome-for-all-users.html

More Americans play games than go to the movies
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/21/2221246

Her Majesty the Queen gets a gold-plated Wii
http://gizmodo.com/5264715/queen-elizabeth-is-getting-a-gold+plated-wii

Pope joins Facebook
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE54L3AS20090522

Apple rejects iPhone app over access to Kama Sutra
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10247565-37.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/22/apple-says-no-projec.html

California wants to reinstate ban on violent video games
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66714

Google StreetView in Germany
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66727

Energy Star standards are not as useful for servers
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/22/0714225
http://www.infoworld.com/d/green-it/energy-star-servers-merely-first-step-258

1,000th episode coming Thursday, June 18. Want to be on the episode? Post a video of yourself. MUST be less than 30 seconds long. And send a link. No attachments. Could be well-wishing, could be memories, epithets we don’t care. We’ll choose from all the messages we get and play a selection on the 1000th episode as well as post them in the Wiki.

Want to get involved in the production of the show? Find your favorite BOL moment, clip it out of the MP3, or video, and send us the moment. For video, please upload to a video hosting service and send us a link. Email either to buzz@cnet.com

VOICEMAIL
Garrett from Grand Rapids goes Cooley-spotting

E-MAIL
Hey Buzz,

I can really see the possibilities for Google’s new tracking/ad delivery idea: “Hello, we see that your parachute has not deployed. Would you like to buy a reserve?” Yes, Google has gold here. LTS.

–
Nathan Pilling

**********

Dear BOL,

In show #977 Brain Cooley mentioned the work with Dove prisms that invert and reverse the world. His statement included a bit of hyperbole.
I’m a behavioral optometrist and we use prisms in our work.
The brain researcher Karl Pribram did a good bit of this work and I had the chance to chat with him about this work.

Prism after effects of simple prisms that shift images side to side or up and down last about the same amount of time the prisms are actually worn.
Put on the prisms, reach for an object and miss to the side. In a few minutes we recalibrate the movement.
After 5 minutes of wearing the prisms, when you take them off your hand moves in the opposite direction.

A fallacy that is often promulgated about the Dove (inverting and reversing) prisms is that after a period of time the world looked normal to the wearer.
This is not true.
What happened is that the conscious perception never flipped but the motor patterns were rewired so that all movements were made accurately.
Normalization, when the prisms come off, then does happen but takes a while.

Pribram did say however that they never should have done this work with humans.
The new software remains in the brain and later in life, during emergency types of situations, such as may happen when driving, the person might use the wrong motor software.

Perhaps an overzealous researcher or grad student wore the Dove prisms too long and then made an error in judgment in just such a situation.
To my knowledge there was no suicide as Cooley mentioned.

IN DEEP BASS VOICE: LOVE THE SHOW

Paul – the behavioral optometrist

**********

I’ve thought Ben was the new Alex for a while, but….

Google search counts for names on the bol blog:

Ben: 249
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Freviews.cnet.com%2Fbuzz-out-loud-podcast%2F+ben

Paul: 399
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Freviews.cnet.com%2Fbuzz-out-loud-podcast%2F+paul

Alex: 378
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Freviews.cnet.com%2Fbuzz-out-loud-podcast%2F+alex

Fordo: 129 (by herself! But, tied with Remy?)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Freviews.cnet.com%2Fbuzz-out-loud-podcast%2F+fordo

Remy: 129
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Freviews.cnet.com%2Fbuzz-out-loud-podcast%2F+remi

Here’s the chart, that doesn’t always work.
http://sites.google.com/site/bolalexscale/

We discuss a computer algorithm that can determine if photos are pretty or not. I guess hot or not is going out of business. We also look at the causes of the Google error and speculate on how Wolfram Alpha will be used.

EPISODE 975

Networking error caused Google outage
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10241126-93.html

International Energy Agency says CE is gobbling up energy faster than green measures can save it
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE54C4K420090514?sp=true
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/05/power-hungry-gadgets-endanger-energy-efficiency-gains.ars
http://www.pge.com/mybusiness/energysavingsrebates/buyersguide/bce/index.shtml

Wolfram Alpha goes public today
http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/05/wolfram-alpha-set-for-launch-first-look-unveiled.ars

Nintendo DSi drives April gaming sales
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/05/nintendo-dsi-drives-april-gaming-sales.ars

eBikes come to Best Buy
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2347082,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121

MLB scores patent to black out streamed games
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10241356-93.html

N.Y. Tax on Games, DVDs, and junk food
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/14/1739258
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/05/14/new-york-bill-would-add-fat-tax-video-games-dvds-junk-food

Exclusive: First Look at the BlackBerry Storm 2!!
http://crackberry.com/exclusive-first-look-blackberry-storm-2

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/05/14/exclusive-blackberry-storm-2-shots/

Computers with opinions on visual aesthetics
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/15/0613204

1000th Episode June 18th!
Send email to buzz@cnet.com with the subject line 1000th Episode Invite, if you are serious about wanting to attend the recording at 10:30 AM Thursday June 18th. We have a limited amount of seats.

VOICEMAIL
Ben
Kids don’t use Twitter

E-MAIL
One note about Shop Safe … don’t use it when you have to show the card to pick up the item you purchased. This mostly applies to show/concert tickets, but it would be a bummer to have a lot of hassle in real life because you were being safe online.

Also, MBNA used to allow limits, almost like an allowance. I used to give myself a limit and an expiration date of a couple months for iTunes purchases. A little hassle, but it kept me on a budget.

Love the show!

Jason in Boston

**********

Hey BuzzCrew-

As usual I seem to be a day late and a dollar short (’a pound short’ doesn’t sound nearly as nice, need that alliteration) on the podcast. But it was mentioned about having a keyboard on the credit card to make it more secure. Well Europe again is ahead of the US on security. So all cards over here have a chip in them- Most stores make you insert your card to a machine and you have to type in your pin to use it as a credit card/debit card (Know as chip & pin service). And most banks over here (Barclay’s for one) have a small device (looks like a calculator) to allow you to check your account online, where you have to insert your card into the device type in your pin and it gives you a 8 digit number that has to be typed in with a few minutes of trying to log on to view ANY of your account info. Separately if you choose to purchase online from many stores, Visa for example, send you to another page to verify your info by asking for random characters from your specialized password just for online for purchases.

Moving here it was a major change to get use to all of that, but now I quite prefer it. Only frustration is if you are on the go and forget to bring your card reader you can’t access your bank account anywhere but Holes in the Wall (ATMs) or in your own bank.

Cheers from Oxford!
Tom Merritt the Doppelganger

I know you hate links but this is to info about Barclay’s PinSentry [the card reader]: http://www.barclays.co.uk/audiopinsentry/reader.html

**********

Hello BOL,

BOL had a call out for evidence of TimeWarner Cable leveraging the
analog TV broadcast shutdown to scare people to their service. I did
get a print version here in Southern California, but it’s on their web
site too. I’ve attached a screenshot of the image saying “Don’t Let
Your TV Go Dark”. It’s also on this link:

http://www.timewarnercable.com/SoCal/?divhome=1

if you click the “DTV Transition” right tab. I think the casual
reader could get caught in a misimpression.

Love the Show,
Dean
Huntington Beach, CA

Brian Cooley aptly describes YouTube as hot and junky video today. And that, my friends, is why the president has moved his video off YouTube and is hosting the player himself. Meanwhile, we get a few more jabs in at the Authors Guild/Kindle controversy, and Cooley rants about space. Parking space.

Episode 922

Square Root Day revelers to party like it’s 3/3/09
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10186121-76.html

Apple tweaks desktops
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10186472-37.html
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/03/apple-releases-trio-of-long-awaited-desktops.ars

Roku box adds Amazon Video
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10185922-48.html

AMD, Nvidia play dueling graphics chip launches
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=13772

2009 will be the worst year for PC sales. Ever. By far. (And no, Netbooks won’t save the day.)
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/woe-is-pc-sales-to-fall-faster-than-ever-before/

Atom can’t feed fab monster; Intel outsources chips to TSMC
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/03/atom-cant-feed-rd-monster-intel-outsources-chips-to-tsmc.ars

Best Buy planning to sell motorcycles it has invested in?
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10185922-48.html

Time Warner to sell channels directly on Web?
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/jeff-bewkes-goes-over-the-top/

Finding star power in games: The odd case of Jimmy Fallon
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/03/finding-star-power-in-games-the-odd-case-of-jimmy-fallon.ars

White House ditches YouTube
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/02/2055212

(Google says this report is incorrect)
http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/03/white-house-videos-on-youtube.html

New start-up hopes to push open-source pharmaceuticals
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/02/190242&from=rss

Microscopic magnetic mimic of bacterial motor made
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/03/artificial-flagella.ars

Voice mail
Dodd
Some thoughts on Amazon Kindle and the Author’s Guild

E-mail
Several people wrote in askling if the Kindle menus are spoken. They’re not. But there is a petition that Mike from Serotek sent us if you want to push Amazon into making the Kindle more accessible. http://www.petitiononline.com/Kindle2/petition.html

**********

Hi guys from buzz out loud

Just found your show and loving it.
Was just Listening and heard your comments about the alert Message in Victoria.
the system that the goverment were talking about implementing appears not to work work as well as it was hoped regarding
messages to most people in Victoria.
I live and work in Melbourne and I got the message which is not close enough to be under attack from fire. this caused undue panic to some people.
worse still the message even missed people that are in the fire effected areas, it looks like the system will need more work before it will be effective.

Brendan
Melbourne Australia

**********

Is it really so surprising that a Sony exec said something stupid? He did almost get to a valid point, though. Sony made a choice. They chose a complex and novel architecture with very little developer support when it launched. The same was true of the PS2, though, and it’s STILL selling games. The PS3’s tools are vastly improved since launch though. If a developer can afford to put some long and expensive hours into redesigning code, or writing whole new engines, to take advantage of the novelties in the Cell, the results can be stunning. And Sony is gambling on a life-cycle like PS2 to win back their investment.

Now, I’ve written code for Cell, and it is definitely more challenging than most. And the tools have been very slow to roll out. But the problem isn’t that the Cell is hard, or that it might be a doomed architecture (it’s in the hands of Sony and IBM, after all), it’s that all multi-core is still very new. Turns out that all those tools developers take for granted didn’t just come out of thin air. They had to be built, and tuned to use the hardware. New design ideas like a 6-core x86 chip, a GPU, or the Cell are all way beyond what today’s tools can optimize for, without help. So someone has to do it. This is what makes programming fun.

-Mark, the supercomputer repairman

**********

You were talking about this on an earlier show, and heres an article from EcoGeek:

Cool Idea - Charge Your EV From Underneath

Eric

EPISODE 891

Apple: Jobs to Take Medical Leave of Absence
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/01/14/apple-jobs-to-take-medical-leave-of-absence/

Analysts: he probably won’t come back
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/01/why-jobs-isnt-c.html

In the interim, who’s leading Apple?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10143030-37.html

PC shipments up just 1.1 percent in fourth quarter: Gartner
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/technology/01/15/09/pc-shipments-just-11-percent-fourth-quarter-gartner

Collateral Damage as UK Censors Internet Archive
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F15%2F151223

Best Buy to be Palm Pre's exclusive retailer
http://www.webosarena.com/2009/01/15/best-buy-to-be-palm-pres-exclusive-retailer/

FCC’s McDowell says agency not ready for DTV day
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090115-fccs-mcdowell-says-agency-not-ready-for-dtv-day.html

Control your TiVo via text message with Kwiry
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10142424-1.html

Don’t touch the DVR: commercials help us enjoy the show more
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090114-dont-touch-the-dvr-commercials-help-us-enjoy-the-show-more.html

Bendy gadget future for graphene
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7827148.stm

Zork to be revived as browser MMO
http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2009/01/14/zork-to-be-revived-as-browser-mmo

VOICEMAIL
Anonymous Darwinist: YouTube’s easy audio upload fix

Emiliano (we think): Windows 7 tip for Jose!

Jose from Jacksonville: No, that won’t help

EMAIL
Making cables vanish isn’t that difficult for the typical DIY’er. Take
a pizza cutting wheel and cut a channel in the wallboard wide enough to
accommodate your bundle of cables. Dress the cables into the channel.
Cover the channel with wallboard tape, cover with ‘mud’, let dry, sand,
and repaint. Simple eh?

Cheers
Steve in Cupertino
(the other one)

**********

I think we should figure out how to make this Steve Jobs’ leave of
Absence into a gambling pool. We buy squares for $100 and pick the
dates for his return. We just need somebody to figure the payouts
and the time period for his return plus/minus a few days will create
the squares. What if he never returns or if he returns many years
later?

Kelly
California

**********

Hello all,

I teach a course on neuropharmacology and we talk a lot about caffeine.

Some interesting stats:

About 190 000 000 North Americans show withdrawal symptoms from caffeine,
showing they are caffeine dependent.

Adult humans are caffeine metabolizing machines, we are very efficient at
it, the half life of caffeine in an adult is oh maybe between 30 and 120 min
whereas in nonhuman animals and kids (toddlers) it is about 3.5 DAYS

A majority of workplace spats that end in firings happen between 9 and 9:30
am. There is speculation that much of this is driven by caffeine
withdrawal.

In most research a cup of coffee is defined as a teacup sized serving. Most
of us drink more than that per serving, and the coffee that is brewed for
such studies tends to be weaker than that which most people drink.

I have no idea if this is germane to yesterday’s discussion, as I have had
only 1 cup of coffee today….

Dave (the psychologist)

We try to get all sentimental about the demise of the Mars Phoenix lander, but Brian Cooley ruins it with his outlandish assertions about the uselessness of space. Plus, he loses his mind about the crappiness of the BlackBerry Curve. In sum, a good time is had by all.

EPISODE 850

Mars Phoenix Lander completes its mission
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10092897-52.html
http://www.urbanhonking.com/universe/2008/11/interview_marsphoenix.html
http://gizmodo.com/5082385/this-is-my-farewell-transmission-from-mars

Flat-panel TV shipments begin their decline
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10093153-1.html

FCC OKs digital workaround for DTV signal range problems
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081111-fcc-oks-digital-workaround-for-dtv-signal-range-problems.html

AVG virus scanner removes critical Windows file
http://securityandthe.net/2008/11/10/avg-virus-scanner-removes-critical-windows-file/

Cooley Rant: How did RIM fool so many for so long with BlackBerry? It’s CRAP. Gimme’ that GD iPhone!!!
http://www.pcworld.com/article/153666/apples_iphone_so_far_the_best_phone_ever.html

Mininuclear plant is safe, affordable, and purifies water (but doesn’t turn lead into gold)
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/11/mini-nuclear-plant-is-safe-affordable-and-purifies-water-but-d/

Best Buy’s holiday gift cards now double as speakers, still a lazy present
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/11/best-buys-holiday-gift-cards-now-double-as-speakers-still-a-la/

Largest Aussie ISP agrees to “ridiculous” Net-filter trial
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/11/1329222

Windows 7 benchmarks show little improvement on Vista
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/11/0110251

Texting bug hits the Google phone
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7722367.stm

VOICEMAIL
John the Bomb Builder: cheap Blu-Ray!

Anonymous Ad-hater

E-MAIL

Hey Buzz crew-

Did you know most states have a public utility service commission? A
friend of mine was told by Bellsouth that it was too expensive to fix
the phone lines to her house and she could live with bad service or
find someone else to help. She called the Georgia Public Service
Commission and filed a complaint. The GPSC called Bellsouth and said
you fix it or you get fined. So they fixed it within two weeks.
Buzz Brigade you are having problems with your utilities Google public
service commission in your state and get some help sticking up for
yourself. And yes there is one in Oregon, so yesterday’s DSL caller
should look into it!

Sheala, GA

Ps- if I pay $3400 for a graphics card, it better be showing me the
future or something!

**********

From the Consumerist.

http://consumerist.com/5082090/timeline-how-circuit-city-came-undone

According to the chart it all starts in 2007 when they fired all employee’s that knew anything so that they could replace them with a team of monkey’s at a lower cost.

In the comments it is traced further back to 2003 when they converted all commissioned sales persons to hourly to lower costs (and pay) and the “good” people left. Of and they fired 4100 people at that time.
http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/sales-selling/6363203-1.html

The best comment is “Maybe Circuit City should fire all of their executives and hire lower-paid replacements.”

LTS

Brent

**********

The average life cycle of a game console, not including the ones that were colossal failures (I’m looking at you N-Gage), is five to six years. It is way too early for any of the big three to be releasing a new console. Updated versions of the current machines not included (Wii-HD anyone?).

Love the show,

Jonah Gregory
(Certainly not e-mailing from work)

Anything that nerdy had to come from Tom. And it did. Rafe Needleman joins the cast today to discuss waiting for Windows 7 (Steve Ballmer says it's OK), the fury over FireWire being omitted from the MacBooks reaches a fever pitch--so much so that Steve Jobs himself sends an e-mail in response. His response? A fairly typical, "Sorry, suckers. Upgrade."

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 833

Ballmer: It’s OK to wait for Windows 7
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10067641-92.html

Microsoft Considers “Instant On” Windows
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/16/1710207

Tool to allow ISPs to scan every file you transmit
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/16/2137258

Users rage over lack of MacBook FireWire
http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/08/10/17/1331229.shtml

Steve Jobs' e-mail response re: lack of FireWire on MacBooks
http://www.edibleapple.com/steve-jobs-email-response-re-lack-of-firewire-on-macbooks/

Tesla Motors shaken up, laying off
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/17/1218207

September NPD numbers: Star Wars trumps flagging U.S. economy
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081017-september-npd-numbers-star-wars-trumps-flagging-us-economy.html

FBI says DarkMarket sting netted 56 arrests
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/17/0549223

Discovery CEO: Web 'take-up rate is not that strong'
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-discovery-ceo-web-take-up-rate-is-not-that-strong/

Asus breaks sub-$300 price barrier with Eee PC 900A at Best Buy
http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/10/asus-breaks-sub.html

VOICEMAIL

Adam from Canberra: MacBooks fail

Bob from Jersey: iGoogle, how could you?

Anon: Missing Twitter girl found
http://www.wspa.com/spa/social_networking/blogs/amy_wood/article/missing_teen_kenzie_church/9809/

E-MAIL

Hey guys,
I too have been annoyed with Hulu’s odd tendencies to remove/add shows at seemingly random times. When I saw that House was being put up 8 days after initial airing, I had had too much… so I e-mailed them. Here’s what they said.

—–
Matt,

Thanks for writing. The re-air rights for the first 8 days for House were sold by the owner to another channel, like TBS or TNT or Bravo or something like that. So that’s why we only get it after 8 days. We’d of course love to get it day-after like all our other content, but that deal predates Hulu.

So the 8 day deal is not to try to force people to watch on TV, at least not on our part. The channel that paid for the first-week rerun rights did not want it streaming online.

But when that deal expires, we’ll definitely push for more immediate access since we agree with you.
—–

Eugene

**********

So, that discussion got a bit out of control. If I choose to use an open platform, then who administers the kill switch? I don’t think that Symbian will even have a kill switch.

And to extend the analogy of kill switches on PC’s, who should administer the kill switch? What if I’m using an open OS? I know no self-respecting Linux distro would dare put a kill switch on their OS.

It seems like the idea of using kill switches for viruses is a bad excuse. Kill switches are for programs that are downloaded the right way, and play by the rules. If these kill switches start trying to kill viruses, then it will become an arms race pretty quickly. How long before a virus writer thinks to crack the part of the OS (mobile or otherwise) that phones home in order to download blacklists?
Tony

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I just wanted to let you guys know that I was one of the lucky few that didn't had the annoying playback bug on Firefox, and when you mentioned it a couple of weeks back I thought to myself “bug…what bug?”
Then you guys (specially Molly) started talking about it EVERY FRIGGING EPISODE until my Firefox went “humm…I think I'm supposed to have that bug”. Now I can't listen to you guys from the page anymore because the friggin thing won't play unless I move the cursor over the player thingy. Luckily, I also listen to you guys from Winamp, which is kinda good, because often enough I close Firefox before realizing I'm listening to you guys on that window…Thank you…thank you very much…

Also,Tom: Mom thinks you are Howard Stern.

Oh, and love the show!

HimDRAncE

**********

You already have transit mode
It is the off button.

Sincerely,
C. Sullivan

P.S. Seriously!

**********

After having listened to episode 8, I have two things to say. First, I AM the customer Google is trying to hit with Goggle mail. I send stupid e-mail after drinking all the time (no intervention, please). Second, math problems as a barrier are just lame. There are multiple studies saying that people’s math skill don’t degrade as quickly as their physical skills. Requiring a path trace test would be much more relevant. Let’s make me solve a maze before I send mail!

When I was cave diving, I took a deep air class. One of the requirements was to do a series of math problems on the surface, then do the another set at depth, which represented an impairment of 2 drinks (theoretically, at least). I did the set at depth 30% faster than the set at the surface. Did that mean I wasn’t affected? No. It meant I could slow my brain down enough to concentrate on the problem at hand. That doesn’t make me nicer or cause me to regret my mail.

I’m drinking as I write this. I wonder if I’m going to feel bad about it later? If only I had math problems to stand in my way…

Sad trombone for no reason.
LTS
Tom, you make my son fall asleep every time I play the podcast on my Zune (Thanks!)

If both of them get you free Wi-Fi, which one would you rather have? Also in the news today, Google's Street View team doesn't care for a little turnabout, the patent process gets smarter thanks to the Web, and IMDB is now delivering movies and TV. Yeah, really. Maybe we're the only ones who thought it was weird. With special guest, Leo Laporte!

EPISODE 810

IMDb now serves full-length videos
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13515_3-10042280-26.html

Everyone but Apple joins new 'buy once, play anywhere' group
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080915-everyone-but-apple-joins-new-buy-once-play-anywhere-group.html

Google audio search graduates to lab project
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10042536-93.html

T-Mobile’s Google-based phone nears
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122150409898737579.html

Street View operatives object to being snapped
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/16/street_view_crew_privacy/

Zune 3.0 to debut with ‘extra value meal’
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10042174-75.html

Program brings Web’s collective wisdom to patent process
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/09/15/crowdsourcing.patents.ap/index.html

Porn passed over as Web users become social: author
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080916/wr_nm/internet_book_life_dc

VOICE MAIL
Lorenzo
What about Best Buy Digital Download service?

Kyle
Trapped in Facebook hell!

E-MAIL

Wally: I had a thought about why Podcaster was not allowed on the app store. I think the reason Podcaster was denied is not for the reason we think it is. When Apple said it was because “it duplicates iTunes Functionality”, I think they meant in a literal sense. If you think about this, the majority of podcasts are delivered as MP3’s. What format have the majority of online music stores been offering their music.. MP3.. All these online music stores would need to do to bypass the mobile iTunes store is give you a free RSS feed and a Web interface (either within Podcaster or their own modified variant). That’s exactly how Podcaster would duplicate mobile iTunes functionality.

Hey guys, I head you talking about Podcaster on the last episode and realized this was an application that I had to have in my collection. I knew it was asking for donation and figured I'd give it a whirl, see how well it worked, and maybe throw them $5 or $10. I went through the process of getting in the “Ad Hoc” network of the application and after receiving confirmation I was told I had to “donate” $10 before I could even try the application. I refuse to support developers who force donations down your throat to access their apps. I have donated multiple times to developers who just ask for it, as well as tried to donate to the iPhone Dev Team. In my humblest of opinions, forcing a “donation” out of your users is just as bad if not as worse as Apples literally shady confirmation process. Anyway, keep up the show, and I love the more regular occurrence of guest hosts.

~Jacob “The Under Appreciated Nerd” Tapp Phoenix, Ariz.

Hi JaMoTo (and appropriate suffix for whomever your additional co-host is),

In regards to Google’s plans to sail away from international law, I can understand how the idea that Google being above the law would be quite scary. They already have unprecedented control over our private data and although they currently do not have a remit to utilize it, this could change in the future.

However, for me there is one plus side to their potential untouchability. Being based in international waters would mean that the U.S. government would not be able to demand that Google hand over my (and your) private information under any counter-terrorist (or other) guise.

Is it wrong to trust Google more than the U.S. government? At least Google doesn’t care what I “shop privately” for.

Transatlantic love for the show,

Andrew the Medical Student from London

Hey Buzz people that are in studio today,

I’m writing in reference to episode 809 when you were talking about AT&T U-verse. U-Verse uses what is referred to as FTTN or “Fiber to the Node” in which, fiber is run to a node, and then from the node, users are connected by traditional copper cabling, thus limiting the potential throughput. Specifically, U-Verse isn’t really true fiber, its VDSL which stands for Very High Bitrate DSL.

This is completely different from Fios which offers FTTP, or “Fiber to the Premises”, which is a direct fiber line to your home. This is typically much faster and more reliable of a connection, and its what we think about when we think about fiber connections. The difference is, of course, that Fios or Fiber to the Premises, in general is extremely expensive in the “last mile”, and fiber to the node is relatively cheap in comparison, because the last mile is solved by traditional cabling that probably already exists or is much cheaper to roll out overall.

Also, the last statement Verizon made is that they do not plan on throttling or limiting Fios, so we’ll see how that works out, I hope they don’t. They really have no reason to, at least for a while. Their last mile problem is basically solved.

Hope that helps clear that up,

Love the show,

Max