Buzz Out Loud Podcast

It's all girls and me today, which leads to hilarious consequences including an outbreak of Simlish. We also figure out the solution to the world's water problems. Molly hates on AT&T some more. And Veronica promises to drink her own pee.

EPISODE 994

Facebook to open up personalized URLs
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029471,49302580,00.htm?s_cid=33

Hackers make progress towards pwning Palm Pre
http://www.precentral.net/pre-developer-rom-uncovered-could-lead-hackingcustomization
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/06/10/124241/Palms-webOS-Root-Image-Leaks-Out

And first homebrew Pre app says Hello World!
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/10/webos-homebrew-community-says-hello-world-to-palm-pre/

Clues in the source code to Pre’s successor?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/10/palm-pixie-eos-confirmed-via-webos-rom-leak/

Craigslist revenue flirting with $100 million, report says
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10261593-71.html

That’s a small percentage of newspaper ads – so Craigslist not entirely to blame
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-report-craigslist-09-revenue-to-hit-100-mill-but-is-it-really-a-newspap/

Lawyers plan class-action to reclaim “$100M+” RIAA “stole”
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/lawyers-plan-class-action-to-reclaim-100m-riaa-stole.ars

Sims 3 sets franchise sales record
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10261044-235.html

BART punks out, pulls cheeky doubleTwist ad near Apple store
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/09/bart-punks-out-pulls.html

Penguin USB drive is infinitely cute, hilarious
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/10/penguin-usb-drive-is-infinitely-cute-hilarious/

Simlish dictionary
http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?&openItemID=item.2,item.43,item.61,item.41,item.23&threadID=8d04f2582c30dca38b0a2d07d28fb420&directoryID=2&startRow=1#5b3c9c18c3808d99f1e04c01fdb828ea

Frank Herbert’s moisture traps may be a reality
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/06/09/2058241/Frank-Herberts-Moisture-Traps-May-Be-a-Reality?from=rss

Comedy Central confirms 26 new "Futurama" episodes
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/09/06/10/1331258/Comedy-Central-Confirms-26-New-Futurama-Episodes?from=rss
http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?&openItemID=item.2,item.43,item.61,item.41,item.23&threadID=8d04f2582c30dca38b0a2d07d28fb420&directoryID=2&startRow=1#5b3c9c18c3808d99f1e04c01fdb828ea

VOICEMAIL

Jason from California about maps

E-MAIL

Hey Buzz People,

Hurray, the French Three Strikes Law is no more!… Almost.

Here’s the skinny: the constitutional council is an assembly of 11 old people charged with putting the “constitutional” stamp on our new laws. They basically shot down the three strikes law on the grounds that a governmental body cannot make the decision to cut off someone’s internet access. Such a decision would have to be made by a judge or a court. At last some common sense in this whole mess!
So the governmental body could still “inform” people that a judge has been notified, but that’s it (you might get a “you’re a bad person, ruling pending” sort of notice). I guess it it makes the whole concept’s effectiveness questionable, since the whole point was to expedite the punishment, which has now it been slowed down to the speed of the judicial process. And French judicial process at that. I mean, it takes 35 minutes to get served a coffee here, imagine how long it takes to get a judgement on that guy who downloaded the latest Transformers movie because, allegedly: “Dude, Megan Fox looks hawt!”

But I digress. I’m sorry that I don’t have an english link for this story because it just broke in France, so here is a Google translation of an article from “Le Monde” (a notable French newspaper). It’s really just for kicks, because automated translation apparently still sucks. Which is infuriating too: I mean, it’s the 21st century already, give me my android translators, damnit!

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=fr&js=n&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemonde.fr%2Ftechnologies%2Farticle%2F2009%2F06%2F10%2Fhadopi-le-conseil-constitutionnel-censure-la-riposte-graduee_1205290_651865.html&sl=fr&tl=en&history_state0=

–
Patrick Beja
http://frenchspin.com
http://twitter.com/notpatrick

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=fr&js=n&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemonde.fr%2Ftechnologies%2Farticle%2F2009%2F06%2F10%2Fhadopi-le-conseil-constitutionnel-censure-la-riposte-graduee_1205290_651865.html&sl=fr&tl=en&history_state0=

——————————————————
Hey Buzz Crew,

I used 2 gigabites last month on my AT&T iPhone plan and 1.8GB two
months ago. Is this excessive? I do a lot of Pandora / last.fm /
Flycast Internet streaming and wonder what the hidden unlimited cap is
before they cut me off…

- Bob, the Nuclear Engineer

——————————————————
Hello BOL crew,

While visiting San Francisco for WWDC, I begin to understand Molly’s
frustration with AT&T via the iPhone. The network in SF stinks. Data
connections drop or are very slow and text messages could be hours
delayed, even though I have 5 bars of 3G.

I normally use my iPhone south of LA in Orange County, where the
network is pretty good, so I was wondering what Molly was ranting
about. On the one hand the network isn’t bad in the whole country,
but on the other hand Molly is right that AT&T must fix their SF
coverage.

Love the show,
Dean

Physicist
Huntington Beach, CA

——————————————————
Hi Buzz Crew,

Since WWDC is still going on I wondered if you could help me find an
answer to this question. As a Unix sysadmin I was really excited to
hear that among the promised features for Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Server was the addition of ZFS, a very powerful open source file
system. I’ve used this system with Solaris and I really like it, but I
was hoping to have the option of using it with Mac OS Server. If you
Google zfs “snow leopard” and you look before you click you will see
mention of ZFS in the description, and if you click on the cached
version and scroll down you can see the ZFS being touted as a feature.
However when you click the link to the live page, all mention of ZFS
is gone. When you go even deeper (Click Technology and then File
System) it mentions the venerable UFS (which Solaris admins are
running from to get to ZFS) and HFS+. What gives, Buzz Crew?

Love the show and early congrats on 1K shows!

Kendall the Sysadmin from Alabama

——————————————————

1000th episode coming Thursday June 18th. Want to be on the episode? Post a video of yourself. MUST be less than 30 seconds long. And send a link. No attachments. Got them from Dwight and Mandeep. 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

Send us buzz at buzz@cnet.com or call us at 1-800-616-CNET (2638)

Microsoft just got a patent for disabling your operating system until you pay an "agreed-on sum of money." Also we find out that the Palm Pre is going to sell out, which means Sprint can save a load on advertising. And Moblin is out for beta testing, even if you think the name is dumb.

EPISODE 978

Palm Pre to run $549 off-contract
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/19/palm-pre-to-run-549-off-contract/

Sprint's CEO thinks there will be a Pre shortage, decides not to take advantage
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/05/20/sprints-ceo-thinks-there-will-be-a-pre-shortage-decides-not-to-take-advantage/

Microsoft wins patent for crippling your computer until you pay up
http://gizmodo.com/5261677/microsoft-wins-patent-for-crippling-your-computer-until-you-pay-up

Microsoft expands Netflix ties; will Window Media Center appeal to the masses?
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-microsoft-expands-netflix-relationship-with-windows-media-center-deal/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10245258-93.html

Craigslist sues SC AG for declaratory relief
http://blog.craigslist.org/2009/05/cl-sues-sc-ag-for-declaratory-relief/

Mac OS X users vulnerable to major Java flaw
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/19/2344239

Intel brings rich UI to Moblin Linux platform
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/reviews/2009/05/hands-on-intel-brings-rich-ui-to-moblin-linux-platform.ars

Virgin Airlines goes fleet-wide with WiFi service
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10245381-94.html

All your movies on a single DVD
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,25515035-1702,00.html

Robot Warriors will get a guide to ethics
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/19/2151227

Monster by Mail’s summer of supervillains
http://www.monsterbymail.com

If you like funny things and smart things, you will like this
http://www.myextralife.com/

One-thousandth 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 thousandth episode, as well as post them in the Wiki.

Also, Photoshop contest! Design the Thousandth Episode podcast artwork! Rules: Use the BOL logo in some capacity, and go nuts! Submissions should be 300×300 JPEG. E-mail the image to buzz@cnet.com

VOICEMAIL
Paul starts a suport group for BOL listeners.

Dwight the Key Grip loves compasses in phones

Don has even more reasons to love the compass in the phone. And schools us.

E-MAIL
The reason the Russians, China and the EU developed or are developing their own Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is because they don't want to rely only on the US military for positioning data. Should the US decide, they could scramble the signal tomorrow and then accuracies would go from 1 meter to 100 meters (Selective Availability). As to why would anyone need more than one: at any given time the most GPS only satellites you will see at any given time is 12 and that many is rare. Compare that to the 18 satellites that I was tracking yesterday morning when combining the GPS and Glonass constellations. And when Galileo comes online, that number will increase to an average of 24 satellites at a time for multi-constellation capable receivers. All these satellites won't be that beneficial to in-car nav units, but high precision centimeter grade accuracy units used in Land Surveying, Construction, Agriculture and Aeronautical applications will be greatly enhanced. More is better.

Take care,
Daniel
GPS Specialist

**********

Buzz!

You were half right Tom-

Ricky Gervais switched from Podcast to “Audiobooks” that are about an hour long (and Hi-Lar-i-ous) each. He’s actually tried a few different models including “free for a while” where if you downloaded the podcast with in the first week or two you’d have it for free, but if you wanted it from the back catalog it’s a couple of bucks. Seems pretty fair in the sense that you did have a chance at getting it for free at one point.

The current Audiobooks come out once a month and are $2 each and I buy everyone one based on how great the previous podcasts are. They seemed to be selling well because I tend to see it at the top of the Audiobooks list in Itunes.

And, again, I highly suggest them.

Sorry I haven’t had much to say lately, I’ll work on that. Also, won’t be in Cali for 1000-but I’ll be listening!

Later,

Frank L.

**********

Hey Buzzcrew,

Not to drag this out longer than needed, but Tom should be able to name another successful (at least last I heard) paid podcast as he and his wife have been guests: Mac OS Ken Day 6. Additionally, this is an example of something going paid when it was free because it is only marginally more Apple-centric than Ken Ray’s previous radio show/free podcast Technocracy Radio. As you said, paid works alongside free as long as there is a value-add.

What I am more interested in is how successful the public-radio model works for podcasts and other new media. I know Leo Laporte gets a lot of funding from donations, but he also has more advertisers than anyone else in new media. People like Dan Carlin (Hardcore History, Common Sense) might offer a better gauge for the success of donations. I know BOL analysis specials/interviews are rare, but someone needs to do an in-depth on the state of new media.

-Brian in Fort Worth

P.S. Decided to reread Tom’s book Boiling Point — Not a good idea in a recession, especially while living in Texas when the governor talks about seceding in public remarks (see Tax-Day Tea Parties). For those unfamiliar, he just said that current spending policies will cause high taxes and could make some people want to secede.

Apparently cash is still king in Spain, according to one listener. And here I thought it was Juan Carlos. We also notice how Craigslist is getting CraigsPissed over the adult services issue. And Dell says Windows 7 may be great and all but it's also going to be expensive. And that's just not so much of a good idea in this economy.

EPISODE 976

South Carolina eyes ‘criminal investigation’ of Craigslist
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10242507-93.html

Napster relaunches with $5 a month subscription and free downloads
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/18/napster-relaunching-again-5-per-month-plus-five-to-download/
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10243101-49.html

Dell says Windows 7 price is possible barrier
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10242555-64.html

Mozilla preparing to scrap tabbed browsing?
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/18/1227247

Document-sharing site Scribd goes into eBook selling business
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/technology/start-ups/18download.html

Nokia N97 For North America arriving June 2
http://thenokiablog.com/2009/05/17/nokia-n97-for-north-america-arriving-june-2nd/

Danger Mouse releases blank CD-R to spite EMI
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8053471.stm

Fennec for WinMo
http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10242094-12.html

AMD taunts Intel, hoists EU flag
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10242372-64.html

J Allard’s ‘Magic Wand’ patent application for Microsoft puts Nintendo, sorcerers on notice
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/18/j-allards-magic-wand-patent-application-for-microsoft-puts-ni/

Letting time solve the online news dilemma
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/143206

Wolfram Alpha knows the secret of time travel
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/wolfram-alpha-knows-the-secret-of-time-travel/

1,000th episode June 18!
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 a.m. Thursday, June 18. We have a limited amount of seats.

Voice mail
RogueTess
In defense of knitting

Scott from Saskatoon
The importance of graphic calculators

E-mail
Chaps!

You might miss this deliciously eccentric nugget of Google news, as it’s all about UK footpaths. Rest assured, I wasn’t going to let it go unnoticed in the US.

Nate
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029552,49302292,00.htm

**********

Heya Buzz folks,

I just wanted to add a small clarification on the use of credit cards here in Europe. As you surely know, Europe is big – and credit card usage varies by country. While I’ve seen the Chip and PIN system used extensively in the UK and in Ireland, the RFID/PIN cloud of of complexity hasn’t yet spread over all of the continent. For example, here in Spain, cash is still king. People rarely use credit cards for their daily transactions and many small stores (of which there are many) do not even accept credit cards. Even in the local supermarket, I’ll commonly see venerable old women pull 20 and 50 euro bank notes out of their purses to pay for their groceries. If people do pay with a card, it’s the swipe card style and must (by law) be accompanied with some form of ID.

Saludos from Southern Spain,

Jonathan

**********

Hey BOL,

In episode 975, Beauty is in the eye of the Boholder 1000, Tom brought it up that Liz in the chat room said that all of the outlets in Europe have off switches on them. This is absolutely true, but it is not because of energy saving. This is much more of a safety feature. Countries in Europe, as well as others around the world such as Australia where I have traveled to have the switches on outlets because these countries use 230-240V electricity sources, unlike the 120V used here in the United States. You are suposed to turn off each outlet when not in use because the higher voltage makes the outlets much more dangerous if you are not careful. Obvioulsy this can be used in a “green” way, but it was not created soley as an energy saving technique.

For a full list of different Voltages around the world, and if they use the switches built into the outlets, check here:
http://www.kropla.com/electric2.htm

Love the show,

Greg from CT

**********

Previously on Buzz Out Loud – We learned iPhone is the chump in Italy (Blackberry for the win).
Assassins like pre-paid cell phones.
Molly ranted. Tom and Natali were brought back from stasis.
Wolfram Alpha is evil with a german accent.
Stupid is contagious, ask the French, Missouri and credit card makers.
The Pirate Bay has found a way to revenge themselves in thousands of
tiny little ways. Bring on the micro-payments!
The Twitteratti has an unmatched fury when you mess with the @ sign.
Sony has a bit of a bug, put it to bed, so it can feel better next year.
Soylent People is black holes!!!!
And L’Oreal was, for a shining moment, a tech topic.

Sheala, GA

On today's show, we have a lot to apologize for, but don't hold your breath because it ain't happening. (It's all just a desperate plea for more voicemail.) The short version is this: Kindle DX is ludicrously expensive, Blu-Ray is catching on but totally shouldn't be, and Craigslist is officially a pimp.

EPISODE 968

Kindle DX unveiled: 9.7-inch screen (2x area), $489, summer ‘09 delivery, integrated PDF, textbook emphasis, Times, Globe, and Post all “testing” it
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10234355-93.html
http://bit.ly/iyLfo

What to expect in Windows 7 Release Candidate
http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10234111-12.html

Some PC’s won’t be able to run Windows 7 in “XP Mode” — bad news for some legacy apps
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10234073-64.html

Windows 7 is backward compatible — with one of Explorer’s oldest flaws!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10234336-92.html

“Nothing but filth” - AG’s demand that Craigslist remove sex ads, period
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10234276-93.html

Apple adding 3G to Macbooks?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10233734-37.html

Wolfram Alpha shows data in a way Google can’t
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10233763-2.html

Blu-ray starting to catch on, says NPD
http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_090506.html

Nearly 800 commercial planes will have Wi-Fi by end of ‘09, reports In-Stat
http://www.in-stat.com/press.asp?ID=2519&sku=IN0904520WBB

Researchers build a plug-in Prius that's part of the grid--not just leeching off it
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/05/a-prius-that-gives-back-to-the-grid/

E-MAIL
I think this is an interesting conversation about kindle in college.
First, the resale value of text books is ONLY pennies on the dollar when you trade it into the bookstore. By selling them on amazon, you can drastically increase the resale value.

The real question is, do we need text books at all?
Most of the time, teachers put notes on line that are meant to supplement the text book, but usually they replace the textbook, because no one reads the book anyway. Also, because I am a compsci major, text books are usually out of date anyway. It would be really cool if teachers would create learning materials that replace a big expensive textbook, and send them right to your kindle. If you did this, wikipedia style, with information that you get from all over the internet, we wouldn’t even need textbooks at all..
- Mighty Matt

**********

OK, the idea of the new KindleDX is somewhat tempting. But $500? Seriously? Does that mean that I’ll have to shell out $1000 (plus whatever 2 subscriptions cost) so that my wife and I can share the Sunday paper? Until the price comes down to $99 - maybe $150, this will be a niche product for most consumers. I might be willing to sacrifice the 3G connectivity and live with WiFi if that would bring down the cost. That might also keep me from spending too much on impulse purchases.

Derik (in Columbus, Ohio)

**********

Regarding episode 966:

Microsoft has offered downgrades for every version of Windows since
(at least) Windows 98 - it’s right there in the license. With Vista,
computer manufacturers started advertising this option, but they put
it forward as something they were doing, not an option Microsoft had
always offered. The perception that the downgrade option from Vista to
XP is a new thing invented by Microsoft in response to the backlash
against Vista is wholly mistaken.

(insert robotic Love-The-Show voice here)

-Rabbi the Linguist, downloading the 7 RC as I type…

We speculate even more on the rumored large format Kindle, and get the announcement date wrong right from the start. What, we're supposed to read press releases? Also on the rumor front, we discuss Apple's interest in buying Twitter and Electronic Arts. Somethings just not sitting right about this one.

EPISODE 967

Thanks, all: CNET TV wins People’s Voice Webby
http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?media_id=97&season=13#film_tech_vid

New photos, details on the Gigundle
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10233431-1.html

Windows 7 RC has arrived this morning
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10233399-56.html
http://download.cnet.com/Windows-7/3000-18513_4-10906772.html

Apple in “late stage” talks to buy Twitter, announce at WWDC; Google got told to walk?
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2009/05/05/apple-to-buy-twitter-and-electronic-arts
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/05/twitter-mania-google-got-shut-down-apple-rumors-heat-up/

Report: FTC eyes Apple, Google board relationship
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10233187-37.html

When does a Netbook cease being one? Asus rolls out one just shy of the 12″ mark (missed this one yesterday)
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/04/asus-goes-big-ger-with-11-6-inch-eee-pc-coming-this-month/

Craigslist, seven AGs hold sex ad summit today in NYC
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10233256-93.html

RIM CEO confirms Storm 2
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0439320520090504

…and it will soon have native LogMeIn
http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10233320-12.html

Navigon exits GPS PND business: the Big 3, recession, and nontraditional nav systems are flattening the industry’s structure
http://www.gpsbusinessnews.com/NAVIGON-stops-PND-business-in-North-America_a1497.html

Hacker purports to be holding VA prescription records hostage for $10M
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10233348-83.html

VOICEMAIL
Electric cars are worth it

Apple iPhone tablet prediction

Curve vs iPhone

E-MAIL
Hey everyone,
I’ve been reading more about the new Amazon Kindle widescreen and it’s starting to sound like this is being aimed at college students more than the savior of newspapers. Even though this device hasn’t been released yet, and as a college student myself, here a couple of items I have before I drop down money for this device.

1. Many textbooks manufactures are making personalize editions for the university and are not available to buy online. This semester I had three of my four classes that had a personalize edition for the university so students had to buy the textbook at the bookstore and not at amazon.com.

2. Rumor has it that the new widescreen kindle will support PDFs. What would be great is if the new kindle will support powerpoint since many classes are taught on powerpoint and the professors put the ppts available for download.

3. Many college students will not get the kindle as the university bookstore will probably not buyback the downloaded textbooks at the end of the semester. Although, if all of my textbooks that were available for the kindle were $80 - $100 instead of $500 for textbooks, the difference in savings will pay for itself.

Gregory Schultz
Mass Communication major
Louisiana State University

Guys (and gals),

**********

For years, I have been a Sprint…er…Nextel…whatever. Anyway, I see two things that Sprint can offer that will save them, if they so choose. First, you have the iDen PTT service. It is vastly superior to anyone else. Let’s face it, if you want PTT, Nextel is it! Yet Sprint has let this feature sit stagnant for years. Why else would they buy Nextel? Start throwing that feature in as many phones as you can, it has a loyal following!

Second, and probably more importantly to the masses, they have really great speeds (in some places, or so I hear). When they launch the Pre, they should allow 10 gigs of data and tethering. Offering a better deal, rather than a much /cooler/ product (iPhone) could save them.
Sadly, with the eminent release of a GSM Pre, it looks like Palm is doing the wise thing and NOT doubling down on Sprint.

By the way, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is pretty much an idiot.

Respectfully submitted,

Clayton

**********

BOL Crew,

Just wanted to pass this along (although I’m sure you’ve already seen this). The guy behind NoScript makes his money from ads displayed on his own page, which appears automatically (by default) every time there’s a new update to NoScript. However, he has admitted and apologized for making his NoScript extension break functionality in the extension AdBlock, specifically to not block ads on his own domains. He has since apologized, but it’s very interesting.
http://hackademix.net/2009/05/04/dear-adblock-plus-and-noscript-users-dear-mozilla-community/
Love The Show!

-Greg (emptythevoid)

We get a call from a person in Chicago directly affected by the idea of Craigslist shutting down the erotic section of its service. We also have a rousing discussion about the quality of digital music and Rafe comes close to telling a Bris joke. But he doesn't.

EPISODE 926

Compact Disc turns 30
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/compact-disc-turns-30-mp3-doesnt-bother-to-send-a-gift/

Survey shows increasing preference for MP3 by youngsters, audiophiles weep
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/survey-shows-increasing-preference-for-mp3-by-youngsters-audiop/

Wolfram promises computing that answers questions
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/08/2155216
http://www.twine.com/item/122mz8lz9-4c/wolfram-alpha-is-coming-and-it-could-be-as-important-as-google
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13953_3-10191304-80.html

Audio watermarks could pinpoint film pirates by seat
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/07/2114208

Big music will surrender, but not until at least 2011
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/08/big-music-will-surrender-but-not-until-at-least-2011/

More free on-demand audio with Muziic
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10191262-27.html

Chess match: Hulu blocks Boxee once again
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10191007-93.html

Wintek to supply touch panels for Apple Netbook, says paper
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20090309PB204.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10191526-1.html

Kepler starts mission to detect other Earths
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10191272-76.html

Olympus: 12 megapixels is enough
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-276512.html

Intel envisions shape-shifting smartphones
http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/09/1312200

Craigslist to sheriff: Federal law protects site
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10191150-93.html

VOICEMAIL
Anonymous Stripper
About Craigslist erotic services

Lorenzo
Goodbye Circuit City

E-MAIL
Regarding your Eircom discussion on show 925.

Tom your suggestion for people to boycott Eircom is pretty good in theory. It would probably work well in the US where actual consumer choice exists. In Ireland, however, Eircom have a monopoly on landline installations. You have the option to switch over to another provider once you’ve paid Eircom to have your phone line installed but most people are too lazy to shop around for another provider or simply just don’t care.

Additionally, internet by cable is unavailable to most of the country. I live in downtown Dublin and I don’t even have access to the one internet cable provider NTL. By default, therefore, most people stick with Eircom. Eircom already has a bad reputation in Ireland, so most principled consumers (like myself) have already been boycotting them for years. Considering the EU is usually so good at breaking monopolies and abusive behaviour by companies it’s incredible Eircom is still in business. Where are you EU?

Thanks

Tim from Montreal in Dublin.

***********

Buzz Crew,

After downloading the Kindle app, I tried to download my first book using just my iPhone. Can’t do it from the Kindle app. Can’t do it from Amazon app. Can’t do from the mobile version of the Amazon website. Only by using the URL amazon.com/kindlestore can you order and it is as difficult as using the onscreen keyboard to type this e-mail. I think something got rushed out the door.

My FIRST team is 247 “DaBears” of Berkley High, winners of the Traverse City tourney.

Todd the teacher from Detroit

***********

In episode #925 you mentioned that brick-and-mortar DVD rental stores
were becoming scarce. Here you can still find Hollywood Video and
Blockbuster as well as mom-and-pop places. What’s becoming
increasingly popular are the dollar-a-day rental kiosks. They’re
everywhere — Kroger, Walgreens, McDonald’s, etc. — and often have
lines. It appears that DVD rentals will be around for a while longer.

–Charlene
Houston, TX

***********

Hey Buzz Crew,

I don’t know if you read about the brazilian subtitles website called legendas.tv that was taken down by our RIAA (called APCM) in accusation of copyright infrigement. The site only had portuguese subtitles (made by fans) for TV shows and movies that either will take too long to get here or won’t never show up on our screens. There wasn’t one single video file up there, but it was taken down anyway by the power of your beloved DMCA takedown notice. A supposed revenge was to take down APCM’s website, which was lame, but it never got proved that any legendas.tv admin was involved with that attack. You can read more about it here: http://torrentfreak.com/hackers-hit-anti-pirates-to-avenge-sub-site-takedown-090205/.

Anyway, long story short, another fansub site called InSubs started a campaign to show to the APCM (and hopefully some of those bone-heads at RIAA) that people who download subtitles and watch the TV shows and movies are actually avid consumers, buying their DVD’s and blu-ray discs. It’s called We Want Culture (Queremos Cultura in portuguese) and the group basically asks for people to send them photos of their original DVD collections so they can post it to their page on flickr. By the time I’m writing this email, there’s more than 500 photos so far: http://www.flickr.com/photos/insubs/ and I didn’t even sent mine yet (25 Movies and the box of the 1st season of heroes).

So although APCM says the fansubbing hurts their business, there’s at least half a thousand proofs that it doesn’t. And hopefully that number will just increase.

Love the show, keep it up!

Rafa

***********

G’day Buzz Crew,

David from Sydney Australia here. Just thought I’d let know some interesting local news about how our local commuter rail operator in Sydney (known as CityRail - http://www.cityrail.info/ which is operated by the state-government owned RailCorp - http://www.railcorp.info/ ) has requested at least four developers pull their iPhone apps of the market, citing copyright ownership of the timetable information and inaccuracies.

This is despite having given one developer previous written permission.

The NSW Premier, Mr Nathan Rees, has now been drawn into the debate on Twitter.

The story appears in the Sydney Morning Herald here:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/digital-life/mobiles–handhelds/articles/cityrail-puts-brakes-on-iphone-app/2009/03/05/1235842537210.html

and a followup story here, including the Premier’s debate on Twitter:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/03/06/1235842625754.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

It appears once again the commuters of Sydney are left in the dark ages thanks to empire-building by irrelevant bureaucrats at a time when government money is better directed in other directions (e.g. like running the actual trains - which they can’t seem to get right here).

Thanks - love the show.

David

We get tricked into supporting Robot teams we don't know anything about, plus we talk about Pluto's pimps, also known as the Illinois Assembly. And speaking of pimps, Cook County Sheriff's are trying to get Craigslist to stop helping prostitutes. Thank goodness Veronica was here to set them straight.

EPISODE 925

Sheriff files lawsuit over Craigslist’s red-light district (Updated)
http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/03/sheriff-sues-craigslist-over-mass-levels-of-prostitution.ars

Seattle paper may shift to online-only: reports
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2009/03/reuters_us_hearst_pi

Palm investor: Pre will trump iPhone
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=13994

Alternate iPhone app stores being launched
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123629876097346481.html

Portland nonresidents rejoice: Clearwire’s WiMAX service to expand to major markets this year
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/06/portland-non-residents-rejoice-clearwires-wimax-service-to-exp/

Fox to strip extras from rental DVDs
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10189988-1.html

Hulu content returns to Boxee in a different form
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10190493-2.html

Google, Universal in talks to create MTV Music competitor
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/03/google-in-talks-with-universal-for-music-video-spinoff-site.ars

Blackout Ireland rallies support against P2P disconnections
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/03/blackout-ireland-rallies-support-against-p2p-disconnections.ars

Al Gore backs environmental top-level domain
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10190119-38.html?

Illinois declares Pluto a planet
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/06/0436206

VOICEMAIL
Anonymous
Questions about Zillion TV

Ernie from East Bay
One more detail about Intel and TSMC

E-MAIL
Hey guys - Obama said he still plans to hire a CTO and that the forthcoming CTO will work with Kundra, the federal CIO. The CIO will work more on operations (infrastructure and personnel) and the CTO will focus on strategy and policy. For more on the difference between the roles of CIO and CTO, take a look here:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=853

So Padmasree Warrior is still alive for CTO! (I’m rooting for her, too) - Jason Hiner

**********

Hey,
You’ve probably heard about a town in France called “Eu” that wants to change it’s name because it doesn’t show up in search results.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article5799368.ece
What I really find interesting is what happened after this story hit the web: http://www.google.com/search?q=eu+town
Cheers,
Adrian, the student from Romania

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,
I’m a relatively new listener (only a hundred episodes or so) and I’m not sure if you’ve covered this already, but there is a great program that I am part of called FIRST Robotics. Basically its a program for high school students where we build robots and collaborate with engineer mentors. (FIRST=For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)
Here’s the site http://usfirst.org/
Also, if you read this email, I just want to say…GO TEAM RUSH 27! Good luck at Kettering!
Insert ‘Love the show’ here,
Patrick the robotics dude

**********

T.V. Raman and Charles Chen are two Google employees who are working on solutions which allow blind persons to use Android devices including new touch screen input and speech/tactile output methods. This makes eyes-free phone usage possible. This link will take you to a page where you can find some links, including one to a New York Times article that discusses this topic.

http://blind.wikia.com/wiki/Open_Letter_Initiative#Android_Accessibility

Keep up the great work.

Dan

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,
I’ve got a little bit of a rant to get off my chest. In episode #923 one of you implied that dsl is slower than cable, thus streaming would be worse. This drives me nuts!! It may be true that in larger cities, cable options are much faster than dsl options, but I live in a small city in a more rual area, and the dsl speeds avalible are faster than cable speeds! Not only that, but they are quite a bit cheaper too! I have a 7.1 mb dsl connection, and the default cable connection is 6 mb. Just something to think on.

Derek the small town IT Pro

We're getting Windows 7 at the end of 2009! Although Microsoft won't make that official. We're getting USB 3.0! Though not until 2010. Songbird is almost out in a full version. But it's still just a release candidate. Microsoft is going open source! OK, they said they're interested in looking at Webkit. Prostitutes can advertise on Craigslist! But they have to give a phone number and credit card...

Man, nothing's quite what it seems today.

EPISODE 848

Ballmer rules out new bid for Yahoo
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10085104-75.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10085861-93.html

Microsoft ‘interested’ in open source browser: Ballmer
http://www.techworld.com.au/article/266449/microsoft_interested_open_source_browser_ballmer
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10085467-16.html

Microsoft aims Windows 7 for 2009 holiday season
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10084486-56.html

Change.gov you can believe in?
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081106-change-gov-you-can-believe-in.html

The real story on WPA’s flaw
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/07/1312246

Project turns GPS phones into traffic reporters
http://mobile.slashdot.org/mobile/08/11/07/0252224.shtml

Craigslist to crack down on ads for erotic services
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10084304-93.html

Songbird taxis to the runway http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10084567-2.html

Worldwide broadband prices drop 20 percent in less than a year
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081107-worldwide-broadband-prices-drop-20-in-less-than-a-year.html

Microsoft shows off USB 3.0 (thanks, Chris)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10083822-64.html

VOICEMAIL
Joe from Westside: How to get BOL regardless of 10MB cap!

E-MAIL
Just a short story Jason might find amusing. I’m currently 13 weeks pregnant and while we don’t yet know the gender of our little one, my husband and I were sitting and trying out some different names. We stopped at the name Jason and tried it out with our last name, Howell.

“Jason Howell, That sounds really nice together!”

We were both repeating it for a while before we connected the dots as to why this name sounds so familiar. We were laughing at ourselves after that. We haven’t completely abandoned the name yet so we may be creating a future Jason doppleganger.

Love the Show!

Jamie & Dodge Howell
from Michigan

**********

In show 844 you said you’d really like to know how all the digital-to-analog converter box manufacturers decided that they should setup the boxes to shutoff automatically after 4 hours. Well, they didn’t! The National Telecommunications and Information Administration decided for them.

In order to qualify for the government’s Converter Coupon Program, manufacturers have to meet the specifications listed in this Technical Appendix 1 of the “Final Rule, §301.5″:

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/dtvcoupon/DTVmanufacturers.pdf

Specifically, section 20, “Energy Standards”:

“…Eligible equipment shall provide the capability to automatically switch from the On state to the Sleep state after a period of time without user input. This capability shall be enabled at the factory as the default setting for the device. The default period of inactivity before the equipment automatically switches to the Sleep state shall be four hours…”

Now you know!

Keep up the great show,
Jeremy from Brooklyn

EPISODE 823

Steve Jobs heart attack… not
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10057521-37.html

Music publishers keep same download rate, Apple keeping iTunes open
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/10/music-publishers-keep-same-download-rate-apple-keeping-itunes-open-aapl-
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081002-royalty-rate-stays-same-for-itunes-other-download-services.html

Microsoft gives users 6 months longer to flee from Vista
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/03/windows_xp_recovery/

Cybercriminals syndicating Google Trends keywords to serve malware
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1995&tag=nl.e540

South Korea’s free computer-game business model hits the U.S.
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/02/2149239

Sega to launch PSP beater in 2009
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/10/03/sega_vision/

Linux rescues battery life on Vista notebooks from Dell
http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/03/057200

Hands on with Sony’s new PRS-700 digital reader
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10057331-1.html

Oops I’m Late’ phones ahead for you
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10057264-2.html

Bank robber hires decoys on Craigslist, fools cops
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10057472-36.html

VOICEMAIL
Mike: CDMA SIM cards

Dan from Ohio: How are they tracking these Firefox downloads?

FORUMS

Control music with your brain--need I say more?
by benofsky–2008 - 10/1/08 4:19 p.m.

Gizmodo in Australia has an interesting article about a company that is producing a type of headband/music-player which will read your brain waves and play music that is appropriate for your mood. Of course, currently they’re using an audio format (MXP4), which allows for multiple versions of the same song, such that they can shift the version of the song depending upon your mood. It doesn’t seem a far cry away to have such a player selecting music based upon your mood instead, however!

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/10/musinaut_music_player_djs_music_according_to_your_brainwaves-2.html

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=310684

E-MAIL
I became so enraged by Molly’s little rant about the removal of
streaming content on Netflix, that I signed on to leave them a nasty-
gram. But guess what? The missing seasons of both The Office and
Heroes are back for online streaming. Maybe they were just doing some
maintenance. Or…maybe they heard you, Molly!

Richard
Washington, D.C.

**********

Hey Jamoto +1,

About yesterday’s discussion about disappearing Netflix content: I had started season 1 of 30 Rock last weekend. It showed up in my queue with a note that said it was available until October 1. My guess is that it wasn’t a Netflix decision, it wasn’t related to the added content, and since the season premiere is at the end of the month, the suits in charge probably think scarcity will drive up sales on iTunes. *cough, torrent, cough*

[insert molly rant here]

love the show.
engnr_chik from the chat

**********

Hey Jamoto,

Thursday, after the story about Aussie’s phones having the wrong time,
Molly uttered the melodic universal mark of failure: Wah waah. Anybody
know the origin of that utterance? Perhaps a Vaudeville trombonist? I
ask because I occasionally use it myself, and my five-year-old son has
*hilariously* picked up on it.

“Dad, can I play the Wii?!”
“We’re about to leave. There’s no time.”
“Wah wah waah.”

While writing this e-mail, I’ve come up with a great name for it: The Fail Wail.

Joe

**********

Hey, a little well actually,

You guys had a little confusion about the resolution of the camera in the Nintendo DSi.

The DSi has two cameras, one on the outside that is 3 megapixels, as well as another inside on the hinge that is VGA, so 0.3 megapixels. (I thought of attaching an image, but i realize you guys could Google one faster than you could open an attachment…)

Anyways, love the show

Faiz