Buzz Out Loud Podcast

Turns out those terahertz scanners in the airports are mostly safe, but they do a little unzipping of your DNA. Derek says it's nothing to worry about; you won't grow a third arm in the airport--even if it would be handy for carrying baggage. We also find out e-mail isn't private. Did we need the courts to tell us that? And Facebook gets $711 million it will never see.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Federal judge says e-mail not protected by Fourth Amendment
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/10/29/2257209/Federal-Judge-Says-E-mail-Not-Protected-By-4th-Amendment
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/10/29/on-gmail-and-the-constitution/

Facebook awarded $711 million in spam lawsuit
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10387021-93.html

Internet regulator Icann approves Web addresses in multiple languages
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/30/icann-approves-idn-web-addresses-language
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10387139-93.html

Epix launches premium movie channel for TV and the Web
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/epixhd_premium_movie_channel_for_the_tv_and_internet_invites.php
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/10/studios-launch-epix-high-def-on-demand-movies-site-and-we-have-invites.ars

Google Wave to be opened for federation today! Yes, for you to host.
http://thenextweb.com/appetite/2009/10/30/breaking-google-wave-opened-federation-today-host/

Software that fixes itself
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/23821/

Microsoft’s Mission Viejo store opens
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/microsoft-store-viejo-2628335-mission-first

Let’s kill the OS upgrade disc
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10386856-250.html

How terahertz waves tear apart DNA
http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/10/30/1216230/How-Terahertz-Waves-Tear-Apart-DNA

ReoCities: Because GeoCities is gone, but not forgotten
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/10/29/reocities-because-geocities-is-gone-but-not-forgotten/

VOICE MAIL
Jason in Marietta calls out a bridge comment

Tony on Net Neutrality

Joe with a way to get around Amazon’s scheme

E-MAIL
Hey crue’de’buzz, I think SoCal or Stanford has an open source 3D printer that only costs around 2K. Aside from the fact that you can swap out the printing medium with cake icing, the coolest part is their goal of making the entire printer printable. If one of the parts is about to break, print a new one! If you’re annoyed with all your friends boggarting your printer, print them one. I think they have about 30% of the parts printable already, and they’re currently trying to replace the few metal parts with printable plastic. Now all we have to do is eagerly await the monopolization of the “periodic feed.”
John Smolik
Austin, Tx.

**********

Hey BOL crew,

Just responding to the email in episode 1095 about using the twitter
peek to stay in contact with your kids.
While I love the idea of a device with “lifetime” service and no
contracts, I’m not a fan of single purpose devices.
However, I can see where this person is coming from as my son is at
the age where a simple text device would be handy and I hardly ever
use the phone myself when I can avoid it, so why bother with another
cellular plan?

So I did a little looking around and found a company called Qwert (qwertcorp.com
) that sells very inexpensive text only plans, no contract, and does
not require you to buy a device, they mail you a sim card!

Considering my (jailbroken) Gen 1 iPhone is getting on in years and I
have been contemplating an upgrade for a while, I decided to pass it
on to my son with service from Qwert.
It works great and he sure appreciates the “extra” features of playing
music and games.

James in Milwaukee

NASA is sending a rocket into the moon Friday morning to study the composition of lunar material. But really, you stopped listening when you heard "blow up the Moon." And so did Cooley. For one small second, that made him love space. We also talk about the world's largest phishing sting and Windows 8. Yep, 8.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Operation “Phish Phry” nabs largest number of phishers ever.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8295945.stm

Wife bans FBI head from online banking
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10370164-245.html

Study: Windows 7 doesn’t boot faster
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10370369-56.html

Walt falls in love with Windows 7
http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20091007/a-windows-to-help-you-forget/

Microsoft mulling 128-bit versions of Windows 8, Windows 9
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/10/microsoft-mulling-128-bit-versions-of-windows-8-windows-9.ars

Intel’s Light Peak optical links could arrive in 2010
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-10370349-264.html?

Why ad-blockers, ad-skippers, and other user-control technologies are legal
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/07/why-ad-blockers-ad-s.html
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/10/its-my-browser-and-ill-auto-click-if-i-want

Handheld FLO TV due for this holiday season
http://www.twice.com/article/356972-Handheld_FLO_TV_Due_For_Holidays.php?nid=2402&source=title&rid=5090547

Nissan’s Land Glider concept car leans like a motorcycle, looks like a squashed GT-R
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/08/nissans-land-glider-concept-car-leans-like-a-motorcycle-looks/

IBM’s ultra-cheap DNA Transistor dream could lead to personalized medicines, confusion
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/08/ibms-ultra-cheap-dna-transistor-dream-could-lead-to-personalize/

New report warns of dangers of trashy avatars
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10370382-36.html

How to watch the moon bombing in real time
http://gizmodo.com/5376774/how-to-watch-the-moon-bombing-in-real-time

VOICE MAIL
Jose from Jackson on passwords

Anonymous has more to say on passwords

E-MAIL
BOL Team,

SOX compliance is much more reliant on the processes and requirements you place on yourself and then audit against. Ultimately a Google Docs implementation might be non-compliant in one organization and compliant in another. You can be compliant with SOX regulations while using cloud environments.

Russell Johnson
Austin, TX

**********

Hey Buzz-Crew,

Did a personal un-boxing of my Windows 7 party pack. If you wanted to check out some pictures of the items included here is a link:

Please don’t post the site in the show notes, not sure I have the bandwidth to support the hits.

A bit lower quality than I had hoped, but can’t argue with free. Napkins are bland, balloons are plain, not even Windows 7 branded, somewhat surprising.

-ShaneB in the chatroom

**********

I listen to BOL every day on my BlackBerry Bold….

Show some respect to the still #1 smartphone on the market.

Ryan from Vancouver

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,

I just wanted to point out that the new international Kindle 2 would be launched in over 100 countries. So pretty much everywhere except Canada. Honestly, are we really that hard to deal with? Or is it just that Amazon Canada seems to be permanently caged into it’s infant stage? Either way, if you live in Burundi in Africa, you can have a kindle. If you live in Cambodia, have a Kindle. Canada? No Kindle for you. If Sony wasn’t the evil empire, I would have a Sony Reader by now.

Cheers,
Dion from Vancouver BC

Palm's adding more apps to a commercialized app store. It's calling it the app catalog, which got us thinking about all the different names we could have for app stores. We also get a little excited about the new Sony PS3 slim. Does it herald in the resurgence of the PS3? Probably not. Will it help Blu-ray? Maybe a little.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Sony unveils slimmer PS3
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/18/sony-debuts-slimmer-ps3/
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/18/live-from-sonys-gamescom-press-conference/

iTunes accounts for 25 percent of all music sold
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10311907-37.html

Facebook sued in CA for “disseminating private information to third parties”
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10311625-93.html
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/17/new-privacy-lawsuit-throws-the-kitchen-sink-at-facebook/

US man ’stole 130 million card numbers’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8206305.stm

Palm plans commercial AppStore
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE57H3HR20090818

Swine Flu, the game
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2009-08-17-swine-flu-game_N.htm?csp=34

Scientists learn to fabricate DNA evidence
http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/08/18/0043212/Scientists-Learn-To-Fabricate-DNA-Evidence

IBM scientists build computer chips from DNA
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/08/17/1938243/IBM-Scientists-Build-Computer-Chips-From-DNA

Vote for Buzz Out Loud at SXSW 2010
http://www.cnet.com/8301-19709_1-10311505-10.html

VOICE MAIL
James points out an issue with electric cars in cold weather

Hosco from Sydney on how to make the TomTom cheaper

E-MAIL
Hey BOLers!

2 quick notes! Has anyone tried to dial the number 1 when reaching someone’s voicemail???
I do it all the time, and can confirm it works on Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T. You get the beep right away, and I hang up when finished. Whoo-hoo!

I’m really surprised you guys haven’t experimented! Quite shocked actually.
I have also found it to work on some company phone systems as well.

And to Natali regarding the Safari search bar change…..why GLIMS of course.
http://www.machangout.com /

Thanks so much for what you do everyone!! =-)
LOVE – THE – SHOW -

J from Dayton.

***********

Hi Buzz Out Louders,

In our latest episode of the Geek Actually podcast, we have a special
“Natali Del Conte Retro Review” of Alien to help her decide if she
wants to see it. Speaking for all geeks out there, Natali must watch
this film as it is a masterpiece of sci-fi horror.

Keep up the great show, listen every day.

Regards,

David McVay
The Geek Actually Podcast
geekactually.com

***********

Also waybacmac claims Alien is a remake of the 1958 B-Movie – IT! The terror from beyond space

Hey Buzz crew, in case you didn’t know, when the Zombies attack we lose unless we get ourselves organized. The BBC has reported on a Mathematical modeling of an Outbreak of a Zombie infection from researchers in Canada and the result, unless we act quickly and aggressively we lose, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8206280.stm and here is the original pdf of the study http://www.mathstat.uottawa.ca/~rsmith/Zombies.pdf. So my conclusion buy the classic and latest zombie movies study them and buy the latest Resident Evil game. Its time to start training people. Luv the show

Marlon “guyfromTrinidad”

***********

When discussing the TomTom app on the iPhone, Molly said. “Four words. ‘Open Source Mapping Project.’” I’m not sure if this is a well-actually. I’ll leave it up to you.

Floss Weekly Ep. 81 covered a project called OpenStreetmap. I could not believe it when Leo Laporte said he’d never heard of this project, but, apparently, it is still a little known wonder. I first heard about it a few years back when the project was hadn’t really taken hold in the States. It’s quite mature now, and worth covering. This is even more true because the more people who become involved, the more useful this project becomes. Please, take a look (or another look, Tom) and tell the bol audience about it.

#2: In Floss 82 [2], Randal Schwartz spoke about his new found favorite iPhone app, Roadee . Apparently Roadee uses OpenSteetMap data to do spoken turn by turn directions on the iPhone…. and it costs $2.

In closing, suck it, TomTom.

Ben,
The SysAdmin in Minneapolis, guy who listens to too many security Podcasts, Linux hippie, and Open Source fanatic.

***********

Tom Merritt,

I called the Best Buy here in West Jordan and spoke to the person in
the video games department. After they spoke with their manager, they
said that they stopped the Gamestop used game price promotion last
Saturday, at the end of that week. The sales person said that they
received so much publicity from the Internet that their corporate
office contacted them and told them to discontinue the sale. The clerk
also said that the corporate office would evaluate the results of the
promotion and determine if this sale is something the company wants to
do in all of its stores, instead of just at the one in West Jordan, UT.

Love The Show,

Patrick Cassell
(The Computer Science Student)

***********

gas stabilizer… from personal experience (2 decades plus!) sta-bil gas stabilizer works. call any of your local motorcycle shops, they’ll verify that. you put it in the gas when you store your bike, mower, generator, boat, etc. and you won’t get “bad” gas when you try to restart it. no reason the same thing wouldn’t apply to an auto, just a bigger internal combustion engine. yes, gas evaporates and gets gummy, plus water also contaminates it over time… but I’ve seen it breakdown/separate. i bet that engineer has never rebuilt a carb that had gas left in it for several years. –alan

EPISODE 853

Microsoft launches online store: Is there deeper meaning here?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10849
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10097239-75.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/153874/microsoft_opens_online_store_im_not_impressed.html

PSP outsells PS3 and Nintendo (Wii and DS) outsell anything you can think of
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081114-october-npd-sales-the-console-market-is-all-about-pricing.html

Nintendo’s Wii Speak a new front in war against used games
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081113-nintendos-wii-speak-a-new-front-in-war-against-used-games.html

Google brings speech recognition to phones
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/technology/internet/14voice.html
http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/11/14/google-iphone-app-already-lists-voice-function-but-its-not-there/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10092525-2.html?tag=mncol;title

Universal Music Group: We're still selling tunes, amazingly
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20081114/universal-music-group-were-still-selling-tunes-amazingly/

Obama to deliver weekly address via YouTube
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10097321-38.html

Lawmaker plans bill on Web neutrality
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE4AC7SU20081114
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081114-is-government-regulation-needed-to-ensure-net-neutrality.html

GirlInYourShirt: $75 buys your start-up marketing for a day
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/13/girlinyourshirt-75-buys-your-startup-marketing-for-a-day/

DNA strands modified into tiny fiber-optic cables
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/14/135213

Purified urine to be astronauts’ drinking water
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4AD3MB20081114#

Voice mail
Eric from Michigan: Wii Fit!

Chris from Austin: the girl and the netbook

E-mail

This is Kevin Yeaux from openSUSE again. We’re on our way to our first
release candidate for openSUSE 11.1 on November 27th, but there was some
other big news today: Banshee, the open-source music player sponsored by
openSUSE/Novell, just released it’s 1.4 version.

The biggest news in here is for owners of the T-Mobile G1 Android phone:
full support for the phone’s music playing capabilities. Full automatic
or manual synchronization, cover art, and the ability to import music
purchased on the Amazon MP3 store into your computer.

The other major news is that there is a beta release of Banshee 1.4 for
Mac OS X. Also included are many areas of UI polish and bugfixes.

Banshee is a Mono-based open-source media player that supports music,
movies, podcasts, features Last.fm integration, and more. Banshee is the
default music player for openSUSE.

For more info, see http://www.Banshee-Project.org and
http://abock.org/2008/11/13/banshee-14-hits-the-streets-packed-with-awesome/

Thanks, and *love* the show, ya’ll.
–
Kevin

**********

I think I can explain why RIM went with the suretype keyboard on the new BlackBerry Storm. I have the Pearl, which has the same double lettered keyboard.
I can type so much faster on this phone than I can on any other; even my friends with full QWERTY phones can’t nearly keep up with me. And I think I know why: You can just hit the general direction of the key you want, the area you are aiming for is twice the size of a normal key. The phone software does an excellent job of guessing what you mean, and it learns new words as you type. It also has the added bonus of doing punctuation for you! On a touchscreen, that would be even more usefful.

Good job!
Ryan from Fresno

**********

This is in response to the netbook email you guys received in episode 851. Upon hearing the email, I recalled a recent Kotaku.com article (http://kotaku.com/5083584/the-number-one-location-for-portable-gaming-is-home). I wouldn’t be surprised if people bought these netbooks and just used them around the house. I think Kotaku puts it best saying ” ‘portable’ can be defined as ‘will work on the toilet or in bed’ “.

Love the show! Not a long-time listener, but hope to be a… future long-time listener…?

-Alex M.
Berkley, MI

**********

In addition to having a trademark on a word (CBS ) or a logo (think about the CBS Eye) you can also protect what is called Trade Dress . Remember this branch of law is about protecting indicators of source-that is the mark by which consumers know your products from someone else’s. Pretty much anything that can be tied to a specific good or service, or a source of those goods and services, is protectable. That includes how that good or service looks/is packaged. Need easy examples?

Think about how all McDonalds look the same on the inside. Or how, even without the label, you’d know what a Coke bottl e looks like (or a Mrs. Butterworths for that matter.) These aren’t names or logos per se, but you’d know what the goods/services were anyway. This Trade Dress can apply to both the packaging of the goods, or the goods themselves. Usually the Office will not say something is inherently distinctive (and instantly protectable under TM law) but will require a showing of acquired distinctiveness (meaning you have to show that consumers have come to associate the trade dress with your products only).

Now I know what you’re thinking-isn’t it incredibly dangerous to grant Trademark protection to how a good is shaped etc? Isn’t there a possibility that the Office would be granting a Patent in perpetuity for a design or invention that should only be protected by Patent’s limited term? And you’re right-it is tricky business. This is why the good people at the USPTO get paid to do what they do. It is a very tricky job to separate those elements of packaging/the goods that are protectable to those that are functional or patentable etc-but this is what is done. It is incredibly complex at times and would bore the Buzz audience beyond repair to explain it in full detail-so go look it up if you want to know more.

So let’s get back to Lego-Apparently they were granted a EU Trademark for the design of their blocks (which is to say that the EU office originally thought that there was something about the Lego block in its appearance that made it distinct from other building blocks and that consumers would recognize it as a lego block based on its shape alone). Mega Block , which brought the cancellation suit, must have said something like “wait a minute! This a patent/functional thing and the EU should have never granted protection for this design. We should be able to make competing blocks and the protection is baring us from doing so.”

(For a point of reference think about how the coke bottle, while protected, doesn’t prevent Pepsi from putting soda in a bottle the way that the protection here might prevent Mega Block from making toys.)

What has happened is that that court has agreed and cancelled the protection for Lego. This will get appealed, clearly, and we’ll have to see what happens.

Also-this analysis involved a little guesswork because I”m not that familiar with how EU trademark law works-but it works roughly the same.

For the record-I didn’t find any trade-dress protection for the Lego block in the US.

-Anon.

EPISODE 747

Firefox Download Day To Start At 10 a.m. PT
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/06/17/1250229.shtml
http://www.cnet.com/firefox-3/

Survey: Young people happy to pay for music--on their terms
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080616-survey-young-adults-willing-to-pay-for-musicon-their-terms.html

Associated Press expects you to pay to license 5-word quotations (and reserves the right to terminate your license)
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/17/associated-press-exp.html

Ineligible AT&T customers need to pay full price for iPhone 3G
http://gizmodo.com/5016912/ineligible-att-customers-need-to-pay-full-price-for-iphone-3g

Apple settles suit over iPhone visual voice mail
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-9969909-37.html

Cease-and-desist notices sent to Internet DNA testing centers
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9970396-7.html

Support grows for universal power adapter (Thanks royterp!)
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/06/16/Support_grows_for_universal_power_adapter_1.html
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/147086/support_grows_for_universal_power_adapter.html

Spore Creature Creator goes live
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2320409,00.asp

Road rage linked to automobile bumper stickers
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/17/0148238

VOICE MAIL

Doug DMCA Canada
About the DMCA…. In Canada.

Jeremy
Flash problems… Solution?

E-MAIL

Hey JaMoTo,

Simon Phipps, Sun Microsystems open-source guy, took a picture of the Sydney Opera House. He then tried to enter his photo into his portfolio at istockphoto.com. However, his photo was rejected as the opera house claims all copyrights on all images of the building.

He is trying to bring attention to this issue by entering his photo into a contest. Go to his Flickr page for details, and a link to the contest if you want to vote.

Flickr Page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/webmink/480398424

Twitter Page:
http://twitter.com/webmink

–kevin

Hi Buzzers. I just listened to the joint rant on Ep. 746 about whether AT&T’s iPhone plans are unlimited, although they charge different rates for personal and business accounts. First, let me point out that they’ve done this with other smartphone users for some time. I don’t get my corporate e-mail on my personal BlackBerry because it’s not worth the extra $10 to me. Also, the entire crux of your objections is based on speculation that a personal user would be limited or forced into a business plan based on the amount of data that they use. Can you cite any document that AT&T plans to do this or point to any customers who have been forced to a business plan based on their data usage? The only “limit” that I’ve seen with these plans is not based on data usage but rather on using a specific application, Exchange. There is no evidence that the amount of data a personal user can consume is any more limited than a business user. Couldn’t part of that $10 difference be a licensing fee to Microsoft for providing Exchange connectivity or the cost of any additional infrastructure needed to support Exchange? Until someone can provide evidence that a personal plan user is allowed to consume less data than a business plan user, it is perfectly reasonable for both plans to be called “unlimited.” iPhone users, welcome to the world of us “average” smartphone users.

--Jeff, The Supercomputer Guy

Just threw together two quick Unmnemonic devices for the “new” plant list. Hope you like them. DOWN WITH PLUTOIDS!!!

#1)
Molly
Very
Excitedly
Mauled
Jason to
Steal the
Unused
Nokia N95

#2)
Microsoft
Vista
Executed
Malicous
Java
So
Um
Noooooooooooooooooooooooo

--Matt S
Baltimore, Md.

P.S. - [monotone voice] Love the show. [/monotone voice]

Hi Guys,

The U.K. military satellites known as Skynet that you discussed on ep. 745 is actually the fifth version of Skynet used by the U.K. military. The original Skynet was deployed in 1969, long before the Terminator. Maybe the guys who wrote the Terminator stole the name from the U.K. military and not the other way around.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(satellites)

Kind regards,

--Andrew.

You have talked about the upcoming Firefox 3 download event in a couple of previous episodes. But so far I haven’t heard anyone remind you that Microsoft came up with this idea years ago. I still have the T-shirt from Midnight Madness, August 13, 1996, when we waited by our computers until 12 a.m. to download Internet Explorer (some 1,000,000 downloads if I remember correctly). Now that makes me “really” old!
--Pauline
Phoenix, Ariz.