bmw posts - Buzz Out Loud Podcast

February 3, 2009 12:20 PM PST

Buzz Out Loud 903: Moons over my HAM radio

by Tom Merritt

1 comment

While we inadvertently promote a chain restaurant's free luncheon, we also talk a lot about space. Which annoys Brian Cooley to no end. We talk about Google Mars, and contacting the ISS and the NASA-sponsored Singularity university. But he gets his revenge when he announces the retirement of the inventor of the BMW-butt.

Listen now:

Download today's podcast

EPISODE 903

Google Earth adds Mars roving
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10154741-52.html

Google privacy counsel facing criminal charges
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F02%2F02%2F2337207
https://www.privacyassociation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1745&Itemid=228

VMWare virtual desktop on any device including mobile
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10155486-92.html

Amazon moves into casual gaming in a very big way
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/02/amazon-moves-into-casual-gaming-in-a-very-big-way.ars

NASA-sponsored Singularity University offers grad courses in accelerating technological change
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/03/nasasponsored-singul.html

Students call space station with home-built radio
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090202.wcollegeradio0202/BNStory/Technology/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20090202.wcollegeradio0202

New paper offers additional reasoning for Fermi’s Paradox
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F02%2F02%2F1719236

Retrevo sets up DTV coupon swap site — seems like the govt coulda’/shoulda’ thought of this.
http://retrevo.com/dtv

Chris Bangle, the guy who made BMWs ugly, quits the auto business
http://www.motorauthority.com/bmw-design-chief-chris-bangle-quits-auto-industry.html

GM working to make San Francisco, D.C. the showcase launch cities for the Chevy Volt.
http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/General+Motors+Outlines+Roadmap+for+Cities+to+Plug+Into+the+Chevrolet+Volt+Electric+Vehicle/4352330.html

Mobiles connect across the waves
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7867091.stm

Nearly half of consumers think an Internet tablet could replace their cell phone
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/abi-research-survey-nearly-half/story.aspx?guid=%7BD7D6EF92-92BE-4D7B-A3CA-5195FA49A31F%7D&dist=msr_2

Garbage-powered garbage truck now making its way across merry England
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/garbage-powered-garbage-truck-now-making-its-way-across-merry-en/

VOICEMAIL
Arsha from Illinois
Windows 7 UAC

Joe
Why I’m against delaying DTV transition

Jeremy Denver
What’s with the using the bandwidth limit faster?

E-MAIL
Hi Buzz Crew, this is Josh from American Fork, Utah.

I was pleased to hear that the developer of Podcaster, which failed Apple’s approval process, was able to get Rss Player into the App Store. But as he mentioned, the app dosen’t currently have a podcast directory. The only way to subscribe is to input the URL of the RSS feed, but since the iPhone dosen’t have copy/paste, this can get quite difficult, since most podcasts (including CNET’s) don’t have an easy to remember URL. I got an idea, however, from the app itself on how to simplify this process.

On Rss Player, there is a screen where you enter the address of the feed. Under the location box, the developer explains how to enter the URL of a feed. And just in case you don’t know where to start, the developer suggestts you try his favorite podcast by entering http://tinyurl.com/ourfav. This address redirects to the Buzz Out Loud .xml file, and is a lot simpler to type than the direct URL (which is http://feeds2.feedburner.com/cnet/buzzoutloud?format=xml)

So I took his idea, and simplified the URL’s of some other CNET podcasts using TinyURL.com. Here’s what I have:

http://tinyurl.com/cnetAppleByte
http://tinyurl.com/cnetBuzzReport
http://tinyurl.com/cnetCnetLive
http://tinyurl.com/cnetTop5
http://tinyurl.com/cnetInsiderSecrets
http://tinyurl.com/cnetMailbag
http://tinyurl.com/cnetQuicktips

Josh Davis

– Editors Note: All RSS feeds at podcast.cnet.com have friendly URLs. Check ‘em out! -Jason

**********

Not sure if have gotten to this or not.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/hd-nvd-is-chinas-home-grown-answer-to-blu-ray-but-does-it-have/

Not this is going to make a difference against the far too expensive blu-ray, but if the Chinese could get it together (not gonna happen though) and get some support for English language studios, this could actually be a threat to blu-ray, why? Price for the units and the disc’s.

Even if they could not get that, they ought to promote this format heavily to places like India, Middle East, Africa etc.

Jack

**********

Hi, Buzz Crew.

Tom — I’m ready to do my part to fund alternative energy. You
mentioned that a few distillers are going to start generating energy
from whisky by-products. Of those, only the Macallan made the cut
onto your list of “Tom-approved” whiskies. So now I’m curious: which
other distillers do you wish were moving to this green energy source?
Of course, this is simply a roundabout way of asking for a whisky
recommendation.

–Ian from Portland

Topics:: Buzz Out Loud

Tags:: google,; earth,; mars,; privacy,; vmware,; mobile,; amazon,; casual gaming,; nasa,; singularity,; ham,; space station,; fermi paradox,; bmw,; chevy,; volt,; garbage

Share:: Digg; Del.icio.us; Reddit; Facebook; Twitter

October 24, 2008 11:54 AM PDT

Buzz Out Loud 838: Hot troll-on-troll action

by Molly Wood

2 comments

On today's show, it appears that the person who caused Apple's stock to drop like a stone on reports of a Steve Jobs heart attack was just "doing it for the lulz." So, he didn't even short-sell the stock? Wow. Stupid trolls. Also, Oprah declares the Amazon Kindle her most favoritest gadget of all time. Wow. Kindle for President?

Listen now:

Download today's podcast

EPISODE 838

Report: Teen planted fake story about Steve Jobs
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10074401-37.html

Will the Kindle Get an Oprah Bump?
http://www.nytimes.com/external/gigaom/2008/10/24/24gigaom-will-the-kindle-get-an-oprah-bump-26376.html

Gmail adds emoticons, canned responses & updates mobile client
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10074527-2.html

BlackBerry Bold set for election day launch (thanks C McLeod!)
http://keith.jaseblog.com/BlogPostComments.asp?ditsop=1309

Dell PCs get preloaded with DRM-free UMG music
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10074001-1.html

Sprint releases availability dates for HTC Touch Pro
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10074602-1.html

BMW seeking partners for open-source car-software platform
http://www.motorauthority.com/bmw-seeking-partners-for-open-source-car-software-platform.html

ESA confirms new E3 dates, growth
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10072879-52.html

Cablevision’s high-tech way to avoid disgruntled pottymouths
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/10/cablevision-s-high-tech-way-to-ignore-disgruntled-customers-cvc-

Wikipedia DVD released on BitTorrent (Thanks, Nate!)
http://torrentfreak.com/wikipedia-dvd-released-on-bittorrent-081024/

Woman in jail over virtual murder (Thanks, Chase!)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7688091.stm

Oregon Trail Facebook app to be replaced with dating service
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10074004-2.html

VOICEMAIL
Tom in England: currency gloating

E-MAIL
Hey Buzz Crew,
I often hear you (especially Tom and Molly) discussing, as a group, households that have a second TV that is antenna-only. I’ve always wondered, but never bothered to ask--why? No, not why wouldn’t they subscribe to cable--I didn’t for the first 22 years of my life--but why, if you subscribe to cable, would you hook it up to one TV and not the other? I mean seriously, who doesn’t know how to use a splitter in 2008? I’m somewhat confused by the idea of a “back-room” TV in the first place, but if you have one, why not just use a splitter and run cable to both? I have a 13-inch TV purchased in 1992 in my bedroom, and without cable hooked up to it, the picture is completely unclear and not worth watching. I guess that’s my version of a “back-room” TV, but with cable I can clearly pick up about 90 percent of the cable channels to which I subscribe. Realizing that perhaps some people are afraid to deal with wires, I should note that my cable provider, which is absolutely awful, was willing to perform this service for me if I did not know how to do it myself! Therefore, I am confused. Why have cable on one TV and not on the other? Do any of you actually do this, or are you just assuming that people do this? Please let me know. Great show. Thanks.
-Mark

**********

Hey buzz brigade,

It's Scott, a listener from way back in the 790s. Just thought I would let you know about an experience I had today with Wal-Mart and the copyright laws we all know and love so very much.

I bought Rock Band 2 for the Playstation 3 from Wal-Mart on Tuesday. I then saw it for a lower price online, so, being the cheapskate I am, I ordered it online then tried to return the copy I got at Wal-Mart. I proceeded to find, when I went to return it, that because of “Federal Copyright law” they could not allow me to return it and get my money back. I could, however, exchange it for another copy or so that’s what the lady in “Customer Service” said. So, I just took the game back home with me and I’m thinking of an Ebay auction or stopping by Ebgames to see if I can get anything for it. I know Molly will say “Just cancel the online order!” Well, it's already shipped and unless I want to pay 15 percent restocking fee and return shipping cost I end up with two copies.

Now for a small rant. I can see this law affecting returns on PC games, but consoles? I mean, come on! Sure, you could rip a PC game with ease or at least install it, find a no CD crack. But a console?! Especially the PS3! I mean, there is no way I’m spending 300-plus dollars for a Blu-Ray drive, and even then there is no way (that I know of) for running it the copy or even an ISO off the hard drive!! GAH!! OK, that should be enough

Love the show. Keep it up.

By the way, Rock Band 2 is awesome.

Nothing found in the wild……….yet!

**********

Hey Sports Fans!
I don’t really like sports...but that is beyond the point!
I just watched a “sneak peak” of the entire first episode of season 3 of 30 Rock!
It doesn’t air on TV until the 30th. Does this happen often!?
Love you guys
Elam

**********

Hey Buzz Town,

I saw a story on news.com that was interesting to me. Mozilla has a new browser, called Minefield, which is really fast. It is not a final release product, but it is still pretty and seems to work well. Most of the add-ons that I have installed work well, but I have run into a few bugs. Still it is well worth the speed.

The Mozilla page is here: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/minefield

The news.com article http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10073252-16.html

Love the show,
Brad in Ohio