Buzz Out Loud Podcast

We've got a host of Black Friday news today, like Apple retail stores matching online promotions; Sony still refuses to lower the price on the PS3, but they will let you get a PlayStation credit card and a $150 discount (along with whopping interest rates, of course, so pay that sucker off right away, mmkay?); and Nintendo has a couple of new DS Lite bundles on offer instead of the DSi. At least one of them comes in ICE BLUE.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 861

Apple retail stores will match reseller prices
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10107987-37.html

Use the new PlayStation Visa, get $150 off purchase of PS3
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/11/25/use-the-new-playstation-visa-get-150-off-purchase-of-ps3/

Nintendo hunkers down for Black Friday
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/9294-nintendo-hunkers-down-for-black-friday/

Sling opens up its Hulu competitor to the public
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/25/sling-opens-up-its-hulu-competitor-to-the-public/

U.K. agency bans ‘really fast’ iPhone ad
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10108679-37.html

Digital sales surpass CDs at Atlantic
http://news.cnet.com/Digital-sales-surpass-CDs-at-Atlantic/2100-1027_3-6248057.html

Gmail ‘vulnerability’ turns out to be phishing scam
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10108529-83.html

Google admits breaking App Store rules
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10108348-37.html

Microsoft ranked fifth worst spam service ISP
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10108283-83.html

90 percent of gaming-addiction patients not addicted
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7746471.stm

VOICE MAIL
Dave from New Jersey: BlackBerry Friday

Anon: PeekYou

E-MAIL
Leave it to the Swedes:

http://royal.pingdom.com/2008/11/14/the-worlds-most-super-designed-data-center-fit-for-a-james-bond-villain/

Keith

**********

Hey JaMoTo+1,

This is Kumar from Hong Kong. I’m just writing in about Episode 859 where you mentioned that Felicia Day’s show The Guild was paid show. In fact, the first season of The Guild is available for free on YouTube, and the first episode of the second season was just released, and is now available at MSN Video (and Xbox Live/Zune Whatever-it’s-called, obviously). You can get all the links at watchtheguild.com.

Also, someone asked why it wasn’t available as a podcast. While it isn’t officially a podcast, there is a website (www.rsshandler.com) that converts YouTube channels to video podcast feeds. Pretty nifty, huh? It’s come in handy for me many times (I use it for Season 1 of the Guild, the official Monty Python channel, the official PotterCast channel, and more).

Cheers,
Kumar

P.S.: Is there a way to send you guys voicemail through Skype or something of the sort? Or how about sending an mp3 through email? The US telephone number isn’t of much use down here in Hong Kong.

**********

Hey Buzzers,

I vote for the immediate establishment of the Association for Creation of Reliable Obfuscated Naming for Your Meaningless Subcommittee aka ACRONYMS

I wonder if I can get hold of the acronyms.gov? I'll let you know how that goes

Dave the Software Engineer
Ireland

**********

The government department charged with creating names like “SAFER”, “PATRIOT”, “CANSPAM”, etc. is the “American Central Research Office
(for) Names Yielding Mnemonics.”

Simon

**********

Dear Buzz Crew, or JaMoTo as the case may be : )

I’m writing you concerning the verdict in the Amero Case. I’m the Technology Coordinator / IT Admin for the Clarendon Public School District in Clarendon, AR. I am absolutely disgusted and in shock that this case was even brought to court in the first place. The ones who should be paying fines, and more appropriately being tossed out on their collective asses, are the police computer “expert” and the school tech guy. They lied in court and proceeded to make several errors and mistakes when talking about internet technology. Stories like this make me want to be like the old South Western Bell Telephone: Reach out and “touch” someone. And by touch, I mean slap the holy crap out of. I feel really bad for this poor woman. I know her health is not good, but I’d find me a good lawyer who understands the tech and sue the living pants off of the idiot cop, the tech guy, and the district.

I have had a few cases where I’ve found porn on systems and porn on the browser cache, but they have all been linked to spyware that has infested the machine. The source is usually from software such as “free” screensavers that the teachers bring from home via thumb drives and install on their teacher computer. I also see a lot from botched installs of Limewire, Frostwire, Aires, Bear Share, etc. They can install all the major file sharing apps they want. My school side firewall and the DIS side filtering system won’t let them work. Simple, but effective.

I manage a Novell (Suse Enterprise Linux w/ Novell Open Enterprise Server) network and right at 300 computer systems. We have a hardware firewall at each campus, a site license with Grisoft for our AV, Firefox w/ Adblock as the default browser, and we are behind the AR Department of Information Systems 8E6 filtering system. I use several free tools to manage malware infections when they happen.

My point is this. Even with the very good protection that the state’s filter system, our firewall, and AVG provide for us, I still get porn pop-up and malware issues that happen. I do not care how much hardware and software protection you throw at it, if you have a large network, you will have issues. Period. End of Story. Add kids on computers to the mix and your risk goes way up. If you want to have and impervious system, I have a very simple solution. Unplug the network cable. Until you are ready for that day, at least hire some people with more than a brain stem to run your network.

I cannot guarantee that as of right now every machine on my network is updated with the latest patches and AV updates. But I can guarantee that none of our systems are more than two months behind. It boggles my mind to think of the problems that the Kelly Middle School faces now if the same idiots still run the network.

Sincerely,

Brent Cannon

**********

I’m a teacher.

Not only should Julie Amero go after the IT department in her former district. I think the whole commuity needs get up in arms about the huge waste of money persecuting this poor woman. They need to impeach/fire the DA, the head of the police department that arrested her. The cops and DA’s office should have laughed in the district officials faces - and if the district pushed it they should have been arrested for filing false charges.

I’m am disturbed by the fact she didn’t know how to turn off the monitor. I teach technology to students K - 5 all of them know how to turn off the monitor. SOP for hitting an inappropriate website is turn off monitor, tell an adult, the adult gets you out of the site and checks what you were doing just before. If the student was acting within the rules - a note goes home to the parents explaining that a site was accidentally accessed and has been turned into IT to be blocked. If the student acted outside the rules - well they don’t report the bad site unless they get caught (My classroom is set up so I can see all the screens easily). Those I find by checking histories on the computers.

In the last 4 years, I have had 2 or 3 kids a year accidentally access inappropriate sites usually while doing research on cancer, the Civil Rights Movement or the Civil War.

Love the show,
Kimberly a Texas Teacher

Stuck with a stinky new Mac Pro? Good news: it might be toxic! (No proof of toxicity has been determined.) Also, Tom Merritt reveals himself to be a ruthless murderer of Firefox downloads. And the state of Pennsylvania takes it upon itself to make the streets safer by making old people smarter. Love it!
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 822

Nintendo officially unveils Nintendo DSi and online store, coming Nov 1 in Japan for $180
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081002-nintendo-shows-off-new-dsi-with-camera-app-store.html
http://kotaku.com/5057870/nintendo-announce-new-ds-the-nintendo-dsi

Toxic fumes from Mac Pros?
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/02/1223203
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=962025&tstart=0
http://www.macworld.com/article/135835/2008/10/macpro_benzene.html

Microsoft will soon release ‘Windows Cloud’ OS, Ballmer says
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9115978

75 percent of all Firefox downloads go dead, reveals Mozilla
http://news.softpedia.com/news/75-of-All-Firefox-Downloads-Go-Dead-94681.shtml

… launches contest to get users to use it
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10056668-16.html

SlingMedia prepares to launch video portal at Sling.com
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/01/slingmedia-prepares-to-launch-their-video-portal-at-slingcom/

Hackers clone Elvis’ passport
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/02/0242214

Sysadmin steals almost 20,000 pieces of computer equipment
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/02/0246203

Drivers may get insurance breaks for playing computer games
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/10/01/older.drivers.videogames.ap/index.html

Daylight saving time shift to cause phone havoc Down Under
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/10/02/telstra_daylight_savings/

VOICE MAIL
Matt: Netflix took away my Heroes!

FORUMS

U.S. government can’t get e-mail
by buildakicker - 10/1/08 8:37 AM

I am a Web manager for the Forest Service. You are TOO right when you say they cannot handle the traffic. Just so you understand, I still do not have a database driven Web site. Everything I do is static or XML based. It’s crazy. They are in the 1990’s with this whole deal. They just don’t get it. Many people that aren’t into it, don’t get it.
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=310622

E-MAIL

OK guys, I am sick and tired of the ladies having to call in and defend me. I own a white Eee 701, with no hacks or modifications besides adding the full desktop version of the preinstalled OS. And guess what? I am manly enough to realize that it’s form factor is perfect for most casual Web surfing and e-mail. I have a quad-core desktop that rarely gets used, because sitting on the couch with a beer watching football is easier and more comfortable with a Netbook than any of my other computers.

I don’t often disagree with you guys, but seriously,
Netbooks are not the one-size-fits-all that you want it to be. It is a computer that specializes in Web based activities and is very portable--nothing more and nothing less.

Chris the attorney in DC

PS - the pearl white IS kinda girly…

With all the chatter around Real DVD… I thought I should point out another similar product, who has taken the Kaleidescape approach. Dull out of my skull I found Drive-in for Mac OS X 10.4+ for PPC and Intel and essentially does the full copy leaving the CSS in-place while adding a second encryption.

The FAQ states:
Is Drive-In legal?
Under license by the DVD CCA and DVD FLLC, Drive-in creates an image that is an exact duplicate of the information that is on the owner’s original DVD disc, thus preserving original content protection. In addition, Drive-in locks the software to the owner’s computer and locks the images to the software. Drive-in allows users to play movie images on computers that they own, but it does not allow users to share their images with others.

I do wonder why a small company was able acquire the relevant licenses while real was shut out. Oh one last thing… if you want to find the product on the interconnected tubs we call a web, just feel luck with google using the term “Drive-in”
Jason M.

Calling Real DVD “Steal DVD” is pretty humorous. In fact, it’s kind of like calling someone a name on the playground a name that rhymes with their name. You know like Jason the Mason or Molly the Trolley or Tom the Mom. I think the MPAA should change its name to the Mad Pirates Association of America.

Matt

Hey Buzz crew,

I just wanted to give you an update. Podcaster is now available via Cydia on jailbroken iPhones. Just as a side note, I jailbroke my iPhone for the first time and it took about 4 minutes. Left all my icons and preferences untouched and gave me 2 additional App Store alternatives. Why would you NOT want to do this. Now I have all the apps I ever wanted. Good job jailbreak community.

Alex S.
Podcaster Developer

Hey Buzz Crew, this is Gregg from Seattle

I’m responding to your comments about Live Search on episode 821.

The statements were made about whether Microsoft should even be in the search business, whether this is a battle they should actually pick …
because Google is the clear winner and a better search engine.

My question is this: What is the alternative? That Google become the only search engine? With all the flack I hear you give Google about privacy concerns, and jokes about Google’s “New World Order”, is that the world we want to live in?

And who is going to keep Google from being the big-brother, world-dominating, privacy-invading monster? Is it Yahoo? I certainly don’t hear you say good things about their business model and management acumen.

The way I see it is here you have a solid, player (Microsoft) with the resources and the ability to keep Google from becoming the only choice, with a solid product (Live Search). I've used Live Search for 2 years and I find it works great. It's a good product. Maybe it doesn't work as well in all places, but it has a lot of great features. And Microsoft is investing (a lot) into making it better.

So why are we razzing Microsoft about being a decent contender as an internet search provider. Isn't that what free market is all about.
Doesn't this competition mean better products for our customers? Isn't this all a good thing?

My take: "Go Microsoft! It just means better products for everyone!"

Love the show,

Gregg

on the Buzz Town Wiki, I have created, The Buzz Out Loud Dictionary, witch can be used to put in the words that are frequently used on Buzz Out Loud but are not dictionary words. The dictionary can be found here
http://buzzoutloud.wikia.com/wiki/The_Buzz_Out_Loud_Dictionary

Love the show

lightningboy7