Buzz Out Loud Podcast

Bill Gates is part of a team that has patented a new beer keg. Sure it could be used for other things. But the point was we're pretty sure he came up with the idea when drinking warm beer in Africa. We also talk about porn on the iPhone and new Windows pricing.

EPISODE 1005

Microsoft Windows 7 pricing revealed: pre-orders kick off June 26th
http://www.slashgear.com/microsoft-windows-7-pricing-revealed-pre-orders-kick-off-june-26th-2547957/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10272703-56.html

AT&T’s 3G upgrades to improve iPhone service
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10271450-94.html

WSJ publisher calls Google 'digital vampire'
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090624/FREE/906249985

Porn comes to the iPhone
http://macenstein.com/default/archives/4693
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/25/apple-pulls-adult-content-app-from-app-store-anyone-surprised/

Web filters to censor video games
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/web-filters-to-censor-video-games-20090625-cxrx.html

China throttles Google, U.S. ratchets up trade war over Green Dam
http://government.zdnet.com/?p=5026

MetroPCS $5 unlimited international calling
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE55N59U20090624

Bill Gates on beer keg patent application
http://gizmodo.com/5302082/bill-gates-applies-for-patent-on-high-tech-keg
http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/Bill_Gates_wants_a_better_beer_keg48998721.html

15-Year-Old Invents Algae-Powered Energy System
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/06/24/2223245/15-Year-Old-Invents-Algae-Powered-Energy-System

VOICEMAIL
Helen has something…er… for Cooley

Sean from Boulder on Windows

EMAIL
This will be my first “well actually” but as a mechanical engineer I
thought it worth pointing out that converting between units on a
complicated platform like the space shuttle is probably a bit more
complex than entering a few searches in google. Unfortunately, you
can’t just replace every 1/4″-20 x 1″ socket head cap screw with a
M6.35-1.27 x 25.4 screw. For one, the hardware doesn’t exist, and two,
the nomenclatures are different. You would actually have to reengineer
quite a bit to make a functioning system using only metric units.

It may be the bane of every freshman engineering student in the US,
but mixed units are the current reality.

Chris the LabVIEW Guy

***********

Hey Buzzcrew,

Just wanted to pass along a thank you. In large part to your constant harping about the DMCA takedown procedure’s lack of consideration for fair use, I decided to tackle the issue as the topic of my paper topic in my Copyright seminar this past semester. I got an A in the class and sumbitted it to a copyright writing competition. I won the competition at the local level and will move on to the national competition. I got $600 from ASCAP for winning at the local level, so it turns out the ASCAP is actually good for something.

If you have any interest in reading the paper, you can find it here (warning- it’s long).

-Will the lawyer in Milwaukee

***********

Hey All,

So Tom, from episode 1003, you had a 1977 Maverick? Tell us about it.
I had a 1969 and a 1977 Maverick at the same time.
Bought the ‘77 new, my 1st new car ever. Loved the ‘69 and cussed the
‘77 most of the time.
The 1977 had a 302 engine and by the time all the pollution crap was
hung on it I think it had less
power than the 1969 did with it’s straight 6 (170 c.i.d. I think). ‘69
was fast and had great fuel mileage.
Did you have a CB too or was that just a Midwest thing? Would that
qualify as the original form of Twitter?
What’s your 10-20 good buddy? I bet Cooley had a CB, am I right?

Anyway, The good old days, huh.
kenwarf02

p.s. Note of pride, that login was my first for the BOL Chat room of
episode 1000,
so I figure I probably won something for getting you to 1,000 in the
chat room.
http://www.lovefords.org/galleries/images/77_maverick_orange.jpg
http://www.ehuggydesigns.com/ford-maverick.jpg

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.

In today's show, featuring co-host Dan Ackerman, we discuss the benefits of being an independent musician (Dan says it's a great time!), the increasingly furious-yet-futile fight between the MPAA and RealDVD, Delta preemptively filtering porn on planes, and Kid Rock finding a home on the Web, regardless of whether we want him there.

EPISODE 824

eBay buys Bill Me Later, lays off 1,000
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10058660-92.html

Judge temporarily halts sales of RealDVD in wake of lawsuit
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081005-judge-temporarily-halts-sale-of-realdvd-in-wake-of-lawsuit.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10058574-93.html

Ask.com, now with more answers
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10058007-2.html

“Iron Man” release brings down Paramount’s servers
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/04/2158212

Analyst: Half of ’social media campaigns’ will flop
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10058509-36.html

Delta to filter porn on planes
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10058786-94.html

Kid Rock comes to Rhapsody
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10057638-27.html

MySpace Music: 1 billion songs streamed
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10058708-36.html

Musicians band together for more control in digital age
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-musicians-band-together-for-more-control-in-digital-age/

Virtual fence could modernize the Old West
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/06/1253233

VOICE MAIL
Tami from SC: How could you forget the GameGear?

Joe in Sacramento: tip for Molly!

E-MAIL

Dear JoMoTo++,

I must begin with a confession: I am not a regular listener, but my boyfriend often tells me what you all are discussing, and yesterday I discovered something awful--something I had to tell someone--and I believe you would be most understanding of my distress. I am the proud owner of a “fat” iPod Nano and I’ve been waiting for the googleplexes of companies that make MP3 accessories to start making some for the new shape. Yesterday, I visited the Apple store and, to my dismay, saw the fourth generation Nano--back to the old shape, or a close approximation thereof. Now I’ll never get all my totally-don’t-need-them-but-so-much-guilty-fun gizmos and blinged-out cases! Am I the only one who feels this this way? Appreciators of the fat nano must unite!

I would bemoan my poor fat nano’s fate,
But Steve Jobs is impossible to move.
Alas, my cries of anguish are too late:
My cause is lost; there’s nothing left to prove.

Sincerely,
Melissa Marx

Hey Guys,
So i have noticed over the past few weeks how often Molly talks about her love for Hulu. So I decided to give it a try. I was watching one of my favorite childhood shows Married with Children when I came upon a shocking realization. The original theme song for the show had been replaced with this crappy knock off tune. At first i thought it was something just for that season or episode, but when I watched other episodes they all had the altered theme song. So I was wondering if you guys knew if TV theme songs had copyrights that could expire? Or any other alternate explanation for the altered song. Thanks

Show Love They I

Endy

Hey JaMoto,

I've been, err...conversing...with Comcast about the 250GB cap and after a few emails telling them how wrong they are to have a cap and not have any way to measure it, I got this interesting revelation from one of their customer support techs:

It's important to note our new threshold will not change our practice around excessive use. We will continue to call only the top users who consume the most data each month, which is usually well over 250GB, which is the same practice we've had in place for several years.

So, given that, it seems like they're not going to pull the plug on everyone who goes over 250GB, but only those they find to be the top (ab)users. I guess it's also important to keep in mind that this was just one support tech, probably just trying to get me off their back, but hey, it's an interesting development anyway.

Keith in Spokane.

Hi BOL,

After trying to use the Amazon music store and other DRM free stores without any luck since I reside on the other side of the pond I started thinking:

“What’s up with this ? They can’t get us DRM free music stores and decent none platform dependent streaming video services so they give us the bandwidth to pirate the whole shebang instead ?”

No seriously, I found a local alternative here in Sweden (and baltic countries) cdon.com, which since I last wisted them acutely have started with regular DRM free MP3:s instead of only the nasty WMA:s. Not everything but still, they have started!

But you can never guess what I found there, sure in WMA format but still, Kid Rocks "conceptual album" Rock N Roll Jesus, available for purchase, in single track format !! Not that I would even pirate his music but still, so much for "conceptual album".

Great show!

Sincerley
Bejron

I bet you think this podcast is about you. Don't you? Don't you!? On today's show, we learn how easy it is to spot a narcissist on Facebook (stay away!), terrible ideas that will criminalize professional eBay sellers and kill eBay even faster than it's killing itself, and how video games might be the only thing that can survive a recession.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 816

Bill would give retailers power to halt online auctions
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080924-bill-would-give-retailers-power-to-halt-online-auctions.html

Users fail to spot fake pop-ups
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7633402.stm

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080923-study-confirms-users-are-idiots.html

T-Mobile soft capping 3G data at 1GB per month
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/23/t-mobile-soft-capping-3g-data-at-1gb-per-month/

Other G1 flaws
http://gizmodo.com/5053747/android-and-t+mobile-g1s-five-most-obnoxious-flaws

Games are recession-proof earners?
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/23/games-are-recessionp.html

China to run out of IPv4 addresses in 830 days
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/09/24/1254235.shtml

Narcissists easy to spot on Facebook--if you know how
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080923-narcissists-easy-to-spot-on-facebookif-you-know-how.html

Google gets political with quotation tool
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10049591-36.html

Two ways to get Comcast to increase the data cap
http://gigaom.com/2008/09/24/two-ways-to-get-comcast-to-ditch-the-data-cap/

LHC shut down until early spring
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10049188-76.html

Phone that works as car key
http://www.nttdocomo.com/pr/2008/001415.html

VOICE MAIL
Daniel: a phone is a phone

E-MAIL
After listening to Molly and Brian rant on about the SanDisk microSD thing, I started to think about the issues you all raised:

The cards are too small to see album art or album titles
The cards are easy to loose

And also the email that a listener sent in about storing his entire music collection in a Velvetta box when the LHC forces us all underground.

So I started to think...

Wouldn't it be cool if you had a case for all of your microSD albums (so it could hold a whole bunch of them), so you wouldn't lose them. And wouldn't it be cool if this case had a color screen on it, so you could cycle through all of your cards and see the album covers? And wouldn't it be cool if this case could also play the songs on your microSD albums?

Oh yeah, isn't that an iPOD? Store all of your albums in flash memory, be able to see album covers, and listen to your music.

LTS,

Jamie

Hi JaMoTo

Regarding Gregory’s comments (BOL #815) about MP3-CDs, it would seem the BBC have experimented with the format, although not with music. The soundtracks for ‘deleted’ Doctor Who episodes have been released on MP3-CD — for example you can get almost 5 hours worth of classic ‘Troughton’ on one disc (see below). Given that many CD players seem to recognise the format (at least here in Europe) I wonder why it isn’t used more widely? Possibly the licensing costs for a year’s worth of music would be a nightmare?!

Still, works great as an audio book format.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Abominable-Snowman-Audio/dp/0563494182/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1222267428&sr=8-2

LtS,
Simon

(PS. It just occurred to me: why is the snowman “abominable”? I mean what did he ever do to deserve such a title? He just keeps to himself, and never bothers anyone. Clearly he’s been the subject of some kind of slander. Should we start a campaign to clear his name?
I blame Bigfoot! Grrr!! )

Hey Buzzites,

i just heard the discussion about possibly selling MP3 cd’s and how the quality wouldn’t be as good as normal cd audio.

Even though i’m not one of the people that really notices the difference between lossless and high bit rate MP3’s, I agree with Brian C in that i’d rather have the full quality audio than not. But I couldn’t help but think your missing one real option.

Surely you could around get the same amount of lossless audio on a dvd as you could get compressed audio on a cd.

John B off of England.

I laughed when I read “funnerer”. It is a PERFECT way to ridicule Apple’s “Oh, we’re so smart that we can bend grammar rules and it makes us cooler because everyone knows that we are so smart).

It’s only derivative because Chunky chocolate bar pushed that it’s “thickerer” back in the 70’s.
Dana

Exchange on the android is going to take a while. Android may be open, but Exchange is not. Someone (T-Mobile, Google) will have to make a deal with Microsoft to get the specifications of Exchange, and implement it in a /Close sourced/ application. Alternatively, someone can reverse engineer the Exchange protocol, and implement it. There are actually already reverse engineered versions of the protocol out there, but none of them are complete. Enterprises would never release an application like this, so it would probably be a small 2-man shop, and no enterprise would accept an app from such a small shop.
Sargun

While the idea of another physical media for music might seem dumb in the US.. other countries, such as Canada where I live, don’t have access to a wide array of un-DRM online music stores (Amazon.ca sucks!). Canada and other countries probably have more restrictive distribution rules around media, or the online companies just might not have bothered yet (ahem.. Amazon?). So this might be a way to get digital music to those markets, rather than us being force to get it by other.. less legal means. Dumb yes. Completly pointless… maybe not.

LTS

Jamie

Yes, we talk about politicians, and we crack a couple of non-jokes about politics, but we're definitely not talking about politics. Because we want us all to get along. Natali Del Conte joins the Buzz crew today to bid a (fond?) farewell to the Gates-Seinfeld ads, talk about Mark Zuckerberg and all his money, and whether Windows 7 can save the day.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 812

Latest Microsoft Vista ad defends “I’m a PC” guy: Seinfeld out
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007763.html
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2639

Windows 7 said to hit milestone
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10044183-75.html

Testing, testing...a new Yahoo.com
http://ycorpblog.com/2008/09/17/testing-testing-a-new-yahoo-com/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10044541-93.html

Software spots the spin in political speeches
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/mg19926746.200-software-spots-the-spin-in-political-speeches.html

Palin’s Yahoo e-mail account plundered
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7622724.stm
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10045407-16.html

Amazon tees up content delivery service
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cnet/20080918/tc_cnet/8301102331004535093
http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2008/09/were-never-cont.html

Economic crunch spurs cord cutting
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10044510-94.html

Mark Zuckerberg becomes 321st richest American
http://www.allfacebook.com/2008/09/mark-zuckerberg-becomes-321st-richest-american/

VOICE MAIL
zakk from gilbert - street view and android

E-MAIL
AJ in Alameda has sent you a link to a post on Gizmodo:

Title: Blu-ray Association: Wallet-Slaying Prices Here to Stay Because You’re Not Buying Enough Blu-ray
http://gizmodo.com/5051502/blu+ray-association-wallet+slaying-prices-here-to-stay-because-youre-not-buying-enough-blu+ray

AJ in Alameda says: Blu-ray still expensive because consumers don’t buy blu-ray…wha?

**********

LISTEN HERE BUZZ ARMY TODAY WE ARE GOING TO CHANGE THE FACE OF MUSIC.
THE ENEMY, RIAA WE USE THEIR OWN POLICIES TO OUR ADVANTAGE.
ALPHA SQUAD, I WANT YOU FLANK THE ENEMY BY ASKING PERMISSION EVERY TIME YOU LISTEN TO A SONG IN EITHER PUBLIC OR WITH A GROUP OF PEOPLE TO MAKE SURE YOUR NOT HOLDING A CONCERT, DELTA TEAM, YOU WILL CALL WHEN YOU DECIDE TO RIP OR TRANSFER A SONG.
BRAVO FORCE, FINISH THE JOB WITH E- MAIL AND, IF IT COMES TO IT, SNAIL MAIL.
so now that I’m done yelling wouldn’t this be great if hundreds or thousands of people called daily. Do you think it would get anything accomplished, one can hope have a great day buzz army.

Jesse
Lake Tapps Washington State

P.S. I hope I get a promotion in the ranks

In today's show, Rafe joins us for a discussion of useless video blobs, the implications of, uh, Internet "shopping," the NPD numbers that read Tom's mind, and the U.S. Senate's "enormous gift" to Big Content (per Ars Technica). Also, we rouse the Buzz Militia from their stupor to launch an attack on Apple's arbitrary and annoying App Store approval process. Save Podcaster!

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 808

Committee amends, approves 'enormous gift' to Big Content
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080911-committee-amends-approves-enormous-gift-to-big-content.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10039745-38.html

Apple rolls back problem driver in new iTunes 8 update
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=543
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10040273-37.html

MySpace Music adds user playlists, Amazon links
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/09/myspace-music-a.html

NPD numbers for game consoles
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080912-madden-09-owns-360-moves-back-in-front-of-ps3-in-sales.html

Video game industry shows signs of slowing
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10040111-52.html

Et Tu, Mozilla? Firefox 3 to get privacy mode
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/12/065230

iPhone Takes screenshots of everything you do
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/hacker-says-sec.html

100Mbps. 2010. Over the air. Don't be surprised.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10010

Japan tops world broadband study
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7610534.stm

Seinfeld and Gates hit the road for Vista
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10039646-56.html

VOICE MAIL

Gabriel
My guess on iTunes.

Bill Portland
A couple of iTunes announcements we missed.

Rob from Philly
I had to install Real Player.

E-MAIL

On yesterday’s show (807), you mentioned that TiVo should buy Sling. However, Sling is owned by Echostar (Dish Network), who has a dispute with TiVo over their DVR technology. A great idea would be for Dish to license TiVo’s DVR technology and TiVo to license Dish’s Sling technology.

Bennie Jr.

Hey Buzz people,

That’s right, Apple has rejected my application because it duplicates the functionality of the desktop iTunes application. What!

Here is the e-mail they sent

“Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.”

That just sucks. It really sucks. Maybe they should reject all calculator applications because they already have a calculator.

Anyway, just thought you would want to know as this is juicy news.

Keep up the good work.

Alex S.
from New Jersey

Hey there all powerful buzz crew.
Just wanted to let ya’ll know that the analog signal is being used to display a message with the hot line.
I know this because I took a day trip to the beach and in the morning my portable TV worked but after lunch every station had that notice.
By the way I thought it was cool that the FCC paid fire departments $15 per converter they helped install, I think I read it in the WSJ, but do a live.com search to be certain .
Love the show.
Stephen
Charlotte, N.C.

typing from my phone so forgive the lack of proper CAPS. Episode 807 10 mins 16 seconds in, Tracfone will not deduct credits for text messages received if they are not opened. However, you can look in the in-box and read the first 50 characters as they scroll by in the preview. Love the show.

Michael

On 806 you were talking text msg fees and on 807, no calls or e-mails about US Cellular having free incoming text messages and calls. They did follow the crowd up to the $0.20 for outgoing messages, so they are not all goody goody. I didn’t e-mail or call because you I was sure someone would. Oh, and I love my BlackBerry and haven’t thought once about switching to that other phone, what was it called…
http://www.uscc.com/uscellular/SilverStream/Pages/x_page.html?p=f_calltextpix

Thanks,

John, the bad speller (wish I was something cooler)
Peoria, Ill.

If a robot has a firm handshake, does that mean its creator is a stand-up guy, or just that he programmed his robot to have a firm handshake? That and other serious technology topics are examined today, and we also give our official Buzz Out Loud reviews of the new Microsoft commercial with Jerry Seinfeld. Brian Cooley joins us for Friday goodness.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 803

LHC will not destroy the universe in 5 days
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/04/lhc-will-not-destroy.html

Microsoft begins big ad push
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10033375-56.html
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/9/seinfeld-s-first-microsoft-commercial-awkward-not-funny

Comcast appeals FCC traffic-blocking ruling
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10033376-38.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080904-martin-responds-to-comcast-lawsuit-we-still-want-answers.html

Blu-ray gone in five years, Samsung claims
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/04/1656212

Redesigned, bulkier Honda Insight to challenge Prius
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/09/05/0141244.shtml

Michael Moore plans Net-only film premiere
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10033561-93.html

Album leak welcomed by Metallica (Thanks Bernardo!)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7598617.stm

Robots Are Net’s future, says Vint Cerf
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/04/1751209

Adobe and NBC to provide live streaming of NFL games
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Stewart/?p=924

Columbia set to resurrect Ghostbusters
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/05/ghostbusters_3/

VOICE MAIL

Anonymous
Cybercommand update.

Dave
My friend's bad bandwidth.

FORUMS

Comcast bandwidth meter
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=307301

Preview of Seth McFarlane’s Google ad cartoons
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=307304

E-MAIL

Hey Crew! Long time listener, first time e-mailer!

I was bugged by the whole Comcast putting a cap on my end of the tube. I would consider myself a moderate bandwidth user, and was curious as to how much I actually use. So I called Comcast on Saturday, got to the person I who would answer my question, and the lady said she’d have no problem telling me how much. After a minute or two, she said she’d have to talk to her manager who knew exatcally where to look, was gone for a few minutes, came back, typed a bunch, left again, came back, thanked me for being patient, kept looking…. She asked me why i was inquiring about how much I use, and I explained to her that I had no idea where I was compared with the 1%… she told me that it was only 1 percent who would get cut off, and I explained to her again that I didn’t know where I was to know how close I come to the 250GB, to which she said ‘well, you get 350GB not 250GB. I told her what the news said, and she said it was wrong. I was going to ask her for name and her extension for future reference, but my store got busy, so I had to go. It took about 20 minutes for her to find the bandwidth I used in the last 30 days, which was about 75GB.

I would think that the average customer would ask “where do I stand compared with the cap?”… The only answer I was getting was “well, only 1 percent will hit the cap”, which isn’t an answer. The average customer is not going to have any point of reference to gauge how much they use.

Thanks keep up the good work!

Todd,

Lynden, Wash.

Hay buzz crew,

Just writing in to say "Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!" Thanks to BOL my wife is now interested in tech stuff and I have a new outlet for my tech talk.

It all started as I slipped a copy of Buzz out loud on to her iPod and renamed it NY Times. Idea stolen from Microsoft Mohave Experiment.

Can you give her a shout out!

Now I only have to get her to play COD 4 & Gears of War Don't know how I am going to do that but wish me luck!

Thank You

Matthew

Hey Jamoto, Tobias from Sweden again.
As I hope you remember, I e-mailed you yesterday about SPORE DRM-
license-server-thing that refuses to work. I’ve been trying for three days now, still no luck!

Sad to say I’m not the only one, just check out this thread (one of many):

http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/spore-technical-support/334745-mac-users-cannot-connect-license-server.html

So you remember us Mac-users can’t get into the game. Well worse, PC-users that bought Galactic Edition can’t seem to log in either, because for them, the game says that their serial code is invalid.
I’ve paid almost 90 bucks for the game, is it to much too ask for it only to work?

Worse yet, EA Support doesn’t know what to do. One I talk to didn’t even understand that I was on the Mac (he was trying to get me to run the EAReg.exe or whatever it is called on the PC). Another guy told me to register online. And everyone else told me to wait. Nothing helps!

I never actually cared about the whole DRM debate, but now I’m so pissed about it because it only hurts the honest average customer who just wants to play his or hers friggin’ game!

I appreciate you mentioned my e-mail on episode 802, and with this e-mail I’m hoping that you will take this further and discuss it. Maybe we can get a Molly rant on DRM?

Love the show, and have a great weekend

Tobias

Hello Buzz Crew,

Netbooks and laptops are already bundled by carriers outside U.S.

In Romania you can get when you subscribe to the mobile Internet services cheaper laptops and Netbooks.

Orange has Eee PC 901, Macbook Air, and other Dell and Asus bundle offers.

Allex from Romania

Dear Buzz Out Loud,

You can put an OEM copy of Windows on any machine you want. The catch is, once it is on one, that is the only computer you can put it on. Some places also require you to also buy some sort of hardware in order to buy an OEM copy. This doesn’t usually mean a complete system, unless you’re buying from places like HP or Dell; often you can buy one component such as RAM. It can be something else you might need (DVD-ROM, hard drive, etc.), but RAM is usually a good way to go seems how you’ll probably need more anyways. OEM software is always a good way to go if you’re building your own machine and want to keep costs down.

Brian, Ill.

EPISODE 755

For Bill Gates, the next phase begins
http://news.cnet.com/For-Bill-Gates%2C-the-next-phase-begins/2009-1014_3-6242476.html

Sony yet to sign PSN movie download deals
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11133&Itemid=2

Survey: 8 in 10 businesses now using Macs
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/26/8_in_10_businesses_now_using_Macs_1.html

Google enters the PC to TV arena
http://www.last100.com/2008/06/27/google-enters-the-pc-to-tv-arena/

Microsoft to buy semantic search engine Powerset for $100M plus
http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/26/microsoft-to-buy-semantic-search-engine-powerset-for-100m-plus/

Facebook ‘gender policy’ has grammar in mind
http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9978875-2.html

WTF? North Carolina offers to replace 10,000 license plates
http://idle.slashdot.org/idle/08/06/26/1730242.shtml

Dual-display e-book concept mimics reading, makes complete sense
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/26/dual-display-e-book-concept-mimicks-reading-makes-complete-sens/

Martian soil ‘could support life’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7477310.stm

ConnectU founders score spots on U.S. Olympic rowing team
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9978934-36.html

Scientific American: 5 3D printers
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/26/scientific-american.html

VOICE MAIL

Gabriel
Take that radio.

Ben
Tip for the Awesome bar.

E-MAIL

Molly, Tom, and Jason,
OK, business uses kill switch and turns off my cousin’s phone and he misses the phone call that says they have a heart for him.

Love the show,
--Kimberly

Hiya Buzz Crew,

Maybe it’s just me, but I often end up typing .ocm rather than .com when entering URLs into my browser. I can’t wait until someone actually sets up the .ocm tld and typo-squats the entire .com domain at once. Thanks, ICANN!

--Dan
Houston, Texas

The debate between us (the users) and institutions such as the RIAA, cell phone providers, software makers (ah, might as well add government surveillance to that list) is the struggle between freedom and control. They want us to behave a certain way--but we don't. So instead of listening and adapting their product or service to how we want to use it and what value place on something, they enact rules and barriers.

The dispute between users and such institutions on the use of technology is our generation's battlefield. Technology has exposed the fundamental differences in how we choose to live our lives, what ideas are supreme, and the tyranny we must fight. Throughout history, societies based on control do not survive. The restrictions on our freedom for a hypothetical good have put the U.S. on the path of becoming Rome.

Thank you for speaking out with outrage. Please urge your listeners to act.

--Kim
Annapolis, Md.

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