Buzz Out Loud Podcast

While Yahoo and Microsoft are flirting again and video game sales are plummeting, it doesn't matter. We are all going to be eaten soon by the blob of organic material floating by Alaska. It ate a bird, people! Get with it! Seattle is next. Oh and we can film our demise with the first 3-D webcam. So that will comfort us during our demise.

EPISODE 1021

Yahoo, Microsoft finally near deal
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10289209-56.html

Video game sales revenue plummets 31 percent
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10289207-235.html

Games Industry Suffers From Recession, Finally
http://technologizer.com/2009/07/16/games-industry-suffers-from-recession-finally/

Blu-ray celebrates 91 percent sales increase for first half of 2009
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/16/blu-ray-celebrates-91-percent-sales-increase-for-first-half-of-2/

Possible Twitter lawsuit would dive into murky blog waters
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135606/Possible_Twitter_lawsuit_would_dive_into_murky_blog_waters

Cosmetic surgery co. gets slapped for fake online reviews
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/cosmetic-surgery-co-gets-slapped-for-fake-online-reviews.ars

World’s First 3D Webcam Tested
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/07/16/2213224/Worlds-First-3D-Webcam-Tested

New Air Force BACN system ends incompatibilities between comm systems
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/07/air-forces-universal-translator-has-everybody-talking/

New DVDs For 1,000-Year Digital Storage
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/07/17/1213203/New-DVDs-For-1000-Year-Digital-Storage

Huge Unidentified Organic Blob Floating Around Alaska
http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/07/16/1421255/Huge-Unidentified-Organic-Blob-Floating-Around-Alaska

Without Rafe and Brian Cooley on the show, we felt it was safe to have French tech podcaster Patrick Beja on the show to talk tech. Don't worry, he speaks in English for this show. We talk about the iPhone phenomena, the poor penetration of broadband in the US, and how HD-DVD is still beating Blu-ray.

EPISODE 1,002

T-Mobile announces second Google phone
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10269459-94.html

Google to cut China porn results
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8112971.stm

Steve Jobs had liver transplant
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10269685-37.html

Apple’s Biggest iPhone launch ever: More than 1 million sold
http://www.businessinsider.com/apples-biggest-iphone-launch-ever-more-than-1-million-sold-2009-6
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10269991-37.html

Apple’s $30 apology for iPhone activation delays?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10269855-37.html

Pwnage Tool for iPhone OS 3.0 now live, ultrasn0w still on standby
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/20/pwnage-tool-for-iphone-os-3-0-now-live-ultrasn0w-still-on-stand/

US 20th in broadband penetration, trails S. Korea, Estonia
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/us-20th-in-broadband-penetration-trails-s-korea-estonia.ars

LG Electronics adopts ARM processors in TVs--to help with Web 2.0 features
http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/06/22/lg-electronics-adopts-arm-processors-as-digital-tvs-move-toward-web-20-features/

Blu-ray Adoption Soft, More Still Own HD DVD
http://slashdot.org/story/09/06/22/1339213/Blu-ray-Adoption-Soft-More-Still-Own-HD-DVD

Report: FTC to go after blogger freebies
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10269962-38.html

Patrick Beja’s projects
http://frenchspin.com/en/

VOICEMAIL
Randy in Hawaii about Sprint

EMAIL
Heya BuzzCrew- (I have to go back to this default since I no longer know which day folks are on…)

So just reading thru twitter and found a very interesting blog post:

http://is.gd/18Y3w

The first post seemed a VERY bad thing, major unknown DRM on the Kindle. “Luckily” there is a 2nd post--that seems to try and clear up the original DRM problem, but has found that Amazon is just as confused and may not be ready for the forthcoming storm of download problems…

Cheers from Oxford (where we still aren’t allowed to buy even the first Kindle yet)!
Tom Merritt the Doppelganger

**********

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8109267.stm

This is a very interesting news story about the British top 40
singles, which has for many years only been based on record sales but
now they're thinking about including last.fm streams in their stats.
This is very good as it all those sites are really popular here.

What is more interesting is the stats halfway through the story about
single sales, that have gone up in the UK from 30 million in 2003 to
over 115 million in 2008. That is a fivefold increase. How dare the music
labels say they are losing money when this is the case. If anything
it shows that people are more interested than ever in music.

Well done on 1,000 shows.
Love the show

Jon the computer network manangement and design student from Portsmouth

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,

I was driving around town today, doing errands and listening to Buzz Out Loud. When I heard about Bozeman job services requesting applicants to provide username and passwords for social networking sites, I was totally in denial. Molly, Tom and Jason talking about Bozeman, MT? How could this be? Afterall, Bozeman is no Silicon Valley.

As a current resident of Bozeman, I am glad to hear about my town on BOL, but the story does not put Bozeman in the best possible light. Good thing that they rescinded this policy. Please make sure the Buzz town is aware of this and this can somehow clear Bozeman’s name a bit. Bozeman is a great little town (hmm, the smallest city I’ve ever lived in, but the fifth largest city in MT) with great nature resources all around it and hope you all have a chance to come and visit this area. It is beautiful out here!

Any other BOL listeners in Bozeman?

Sandra

**********

When is episode 2000? Approximately Thursday, June 13th, 2013. [It's the second Thursday of June - gonna have to bump it back a bit]

So how’d I get that? First, I wrote a little script that would go through the months and count the number of weekdays for me. This gave me a nice estimate of how many BOLs there’d be. But it didn’t take into consideration the holidays. So I Googled a holiday list and came up with http://www.opm.gov/Operating_Status_Schedules/fedhol/2009.asp and added those to the spreadsheet, too. I had the spreadsheet do the math for me to remove them and then run a count for me.

I did the last bit by hand, knowing that the last episode of May 2013 would be #1991, I counted into 2000 by hand.

A few other notable or neat episode numbers:
1194 – Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 – BOL’s 10th Anniversary.
1234 – Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
1250 – Thursday, June 17th, 2010 [A third Thursday!]
1337 – Thursday, October 21st, 2010 [A third Thursday!]
1500 – Thursday, June 16th, ts on 1[A third Thursday!]
1750 – Thursday, June 14th, 2012 [A second Thursday - booo]

All of these dates are obviously approximate – Days off for things like CES travel and such aren’t included, nor are double-episode days.

You can see the spreadsheet at http://bit.ly/bol2000math.

Love the show, and ‘grats on 1k!

Tommy in Kingston

We actually talk about Jennifer Aniston's relationship problems today, because she allegedly blamed them on Twitter. I think Twitter has officially arrived, if it hadn't already. Plus, the Asus Eee is getting voice recognition. And Nissan is bringing it with the all-electric vehicle. But for how much?

EPISODE 937

OnLive to replace game console with online availability of games
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10202688-235.html

Zeebo gaming console
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10202898-235.html

Warner Archive site offers DVD burn-to-order
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid={A5B4D522-4BE5-4FF5-8022-CBA1A19158B7}&siteid=rss

Dell is working on mobile device?
http://www.gearlog.com/2009/03/michael_dell_were_working_on_a.php

Mobile app store customers to quadruple in next 5 years
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090324005655&newsLang=en

Asus to get voice recognition
http://i.gizmodo.com/5181923/asus-eees-getting-voice-recognition-this-year

Twitter advertising Twitter services
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/23/twitter-opens-the-revenue-faucet-starts-serving-ads/

Nissan turns up the heat on EV’s - U.S. consumer market by next year?
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090323/ANA02/303239909/-1

Google makes changes to search
http://mashable.com/2009/03/24/google-semantic-tweak-search/
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/two-new-improvements-to-google-results.html

Penguin-free Linux 2.6.29 kernel released
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/24/linux_2_6_29_kernel_released/

Twitter breaks Jen Aniston’s heart
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/twitter/5038203/Jennifer-Aniston-ended-relationship-with-John-Mayer-because-of-his-Twitter-obsession.html

Colbert wins space station name contest
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/23/2128257

VOICE MAIL
James from Irvine
Xbox gives out free demos

William in Las Vegas
IE8 adoption rate.

Matt from Florida
Navteq trucks?

E-MAIL
Hi Buzz Town,
I actually made my Sony Clie PEG-T415 from over 5 years ago a univeral remote where I could control multiple devices. I am surprised it took this long for SmartPhones to be remote devices.

Love the show,

Zach Schneider

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,

Ann Arbor Michigan is losing its only daily paper. While not a city the size of Seattle (or Detroit for that matter), Ann Arbor is the home to the University of Michigan, and a decent sized city itself.

An article from the Ann Arbor Chronicle (online only news source)
http://annarborchronicle.com/2009/03/23/farewell-ann-arbor-news/

And two from the News’s site on mlive.com
http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2009/03/ann_arbor_news_to_close_in_jul.html
http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2009/03/letter_from_ann_arbor_news_pub.html

The tech angle here is that the Ann Arbor News is going to a primarily on-line business model via a site launching in July called AnnArbor.com . There will still be two "print editions" on Thursday and Sunday. Should be an interesting venture to watch. I'll keep you posted.

-Matt
Ann Arbor, MI

**********

I always cringe whenever you (and other podcasters) talk about “Sarbanes Oxley”, so I figured I’d try to summarize the basics for you on the mechanics of GAAP and SOX.

GAAP, generally accepted accounting principles, are the set of rules that must be used to account for financial transactions in the US.

Generally, when non-financial people talk about Sarbanes Oxley, they are only referring to a single section, Section 404. The essence of this section is that a public company must have documented and tested procedures (called internal controls) over the it’s financial reporting. One aspect of this is that you must have controls that ensure that you adhere to GAAP.

In a nutshell: GAAP is the rules. SOX makes you have procedures to follow the rules.

The discussion on why accounting rules would affect the ability to charge or not charge for software upgrades is a topic for another time. Why it can’t be one cent versus $10, is probably a judgement call to make the amount “significant” enough in the accounting sense. IMHO it could be less, but c’mon, they are in the business of making money.

Hope this helps.

–Doug the CPA

Within 15 years, cars will be made of seaweed, but will they be edible? That's your next task, auto industry. We also make book recommendations, give medical advice, and generally just try to help. Oh, and we talk about exploding donut factories.

EPISODE 918

Court upholds AP “quasi-property” rights on hot news
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/24/2229205

Conan copyright trolls censor fan-readings of public-domain stories
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/25/conan-copyright-trol.html

SMiShing’ fishes for personal data over cell phone
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10171241-83.html

Flexible touch screen debuts
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=PT0K4QBYDW122QSNDLSCKHA?articleID=214502697

Spotify could become the best music service ever
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10171362-27.html

U.K. government backs open source
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7910110.stm

doubleTwist cross-gadget media library from DVD Jon debuts
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/02/doubletwist-cross-gadget-media-library-from-dvd-jon-debuts.ars

PlayStation 3 price drop finally in the offing? ("PC World")
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20090225/tc_pcworld/playstation3pricedropfinallyintheoffing

Toyota wants to build car from seaweed
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/02/toyota-makes-pl.html

Study confirms TXT SPK doesn’t hurt kids’ language skills
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/02/study-confirms-txt-spk-doesnt-hurt-kids-language-skills.ars

Meet us at SXSW
http://sxsw.com/interactive/talks/panels?action=show&id=IAP0901416

VOICEMAIL
Remy
Kindle questions and complaints

Doug
TV’s don’t explode

E-MAIL
On the iPhone so this will be brief (and possibly mispelled).

Just heard Tuesday’s show and the talk of slim apps in Snow Leopard
and had to mention the likely cause that did not come up. As far as I
know (still need to do my homework on this) Snow Leopard will be the
first release with intel only code, sans universal binaries and ppc
code. This seems likely because you can currently do this and save a
similar amount of space on an intel mac now with an app called
xslimmer. The space saved is similar and yes you can even cut some
ppc fat from itunes!

Love the show

James in Milwaukee

***********

Hey Buzzcrew

I have been trying to find something to contribute to BOL, for a while I found ONE!

Well actually iTunes in Snow Leopard is smaller, at least compared to the iTunes installed on my mac iTunes on my computer currently takes up 144.8 MB And according to the screenshot found on http://images.worldofapple.com/snowleopard_10a261_010.png it is 50 MB which is dramatically lower which if roughly calculated is 94.8 MB smaller which is pretty good, But remember this is a screenshot of an unfinished product so it may be much more when finished, but at least we can hope.

***********

So I wrote this the other day

http://thesoftlounge.com/blog/?p=1392

And then the restaurant refugee put together this based (in part) on my post:

http://restaurantrefugee.com/2009/02/25/the-google-economic-index/

I thought it was pretty funny (and techy).

Frank L

***********

Hey jaynato,
This is a couple of days old - I forgot to send this when it was fresh - but DragonflyBSD has released version 2.2.
I thought I would pass this along because I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about *BSD-releases. Many listeners may not
be familiar with Dragonfly BSD, it’s a free open-source Unix-like operating system created as a fork of FreeBSD version 4.8.

Here’s the release announcement:
http://www.dragonflybsd.org/release22/

Also, in case you missed this, the first full lecture from Marshall Kirk McKusicks FreeBSD Kernel Internals was posted on the bsdconferences channel on youtube a while ago, you can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbqBdghh6E. I thought you should pass this along to the other buzzers.

love-da-show <3

tobias from stockholm, sweden

***********

Hi Buzz Crew,
I’m a pediatrician on staff at one of the largest children’s hospitals in the United States and after listening to Episode 917, I felt compelled to write.

First, Natali is awesome but she’s mistaken about vaccines. Vaccines do not weaken the immune system. Rather, they bolster immunity by exposing the immune system to carefully selected antigens which elicit an antibody response from the body and creates immune memory to combat future infections.

Second, the risk of flu for otherwise healthy adults is admittedly small. But for the most vulnerable members of society (the elderly, the young and the chronically ill), it can be very serious and causes about 36, 000 deaths in the United States every year.

Third, for anyone looking for information about vaccines, I would be wary of Google search results. There is so much misinformation and pseudoscience floating around on the interwebs, I would suggest going directly to a reputable source like the CDC or the WHO (or the new medical wiki you talked about in a previous episode).

I know that as a group, we pediatricians can be nagging and excessively risk averse. But considering who our patients are, it’s hard not to beoverly protective.

Anyhow, thanks for putting on a great show and keep up the good work.

Jonathan the Pediatrician

***********

Hey BOL crew + guest,

So you are all talking about twitter and how its used for news before
it gets picked up by “real news website/TV”
Well today here in the Netherlands an airplane crashed near the
biggest airport of our country.
A mid sided air craft crashed with 135 people on board, at this point
in time about 5 people died and about 10/15 are badly injured sadly
.
Well before the news really took off an eyewitness reported about the
crash via twitter and then the Dutch media picked it up and then
started to send out reporters and camera crews etc.
So in these times of twitter and media 24/7, twitter becoming the on
the scene source for news. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7909683.stm

Well I’l keep you posted if needed but for now this is the story as I
it know for now.

Have a nice day and keep up the great podcast.

LOVE THE SHOW.

Peter
The Netherlands

So we talked about a lot of serious news today including the Justin.tv suicide, the new Google wiki search, and the unauthorized access of Barack Obama's Verizon calling records. But really, Rafe's description of Net-connected Deer is what I'll remember about this episode. How about you?

EPISODE 858

19-year-old Commits Suicide on Justin.tv
http://newteevee.com/2008/11/20/19-year-old-commits-suicide-on-justintv/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10104716-93.html

SearchWiki: Make search your own
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/searchwiki-make-search-your-own.html
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_to_turn_search_into_wik.php
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081120-roll-your-own-search-results-with-googles-new-searchwiki.html

Report: Obama’s cell records improperly accessed
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10104997-83.html

Apple releases the iPhone 2.2 update. It's a big one
http://venturebeat.com/2008/11/20/apple-releases-iphone-22-update-its-a-big-one/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10105145-37.html

Astronauts ‘drop’ space tool bag
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7737250.stm

Water ice glaciers spotted on Mars
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10104926-76.html

New Internet goes to space, comes back to Earth
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10102081-2.html

DVD sales down; Blu-ray's missing its mark: What's Hollywood to do?
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-dvd-sales-down-blu-rays-missing-its-mark-whats-hollywood-to-do/

Economy takes bite out of CES
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10104399-1.html

Online quiz tests phishing knowledge
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10105144-83.html

YouTube tests out high quality, stereo surround videos
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/11/youtube-tests-o.html
How to do it:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10104549-2.html?tag=mncol

Guitar Hero fake awesome video
http://kotaku.com/5095091/yes-bike-hero-was-viral-marketing

VOICE MAIL

Chace from Maryland - On the suicide story.

Steve from Cupertino - GSM BlackBerry

E-MAIL

Loved the Star Trek TNG / Data references in yesterday’s podcast. I just had to tell you, since you seem to enjoy about your listeners jobs so much, that I am a Data Production Specialist, which means my boss calls me Dr. Soongh.

(Actually, the company I work for does some pretty cool stuff with robotics, but not quite to the android level yet–check out the website.)

Love the show,

Renee

I reply about you commenting on MMS yesterday. I am getting an iPhone around Christmas this year and I did know about the lack of MMS but you just reminded me. Many of my friends are on a no data, or pre-paid plan for their phone. Now if I have an iPhone and want to send a picture to them they are kinda stuck! How can they check e-mail from their phone to see my picture? Is there some kind of redirecting service maybe? So it is pretty bad both ways. If someone sends me an MMS I have to go to weird page thing. And if I send them a picture over e-mail they have to find an internet connection somewhere.

Also, just to let you know that I created some icons for CNET and BOL users (like me) that I have uploaded here:
http://tinyurl.com/6b4ubd

Love the show.

Jono from Australia
(or skitterrusty in the forums)

I think you may have talked about this in the past. Baen books has several complete books available on-line for free at http://www.baen.com/library/. You can read them on line, or download a copy or load it on an e-book reader. The idea here is that you can read a book by an author you do not know, and will then be happy to pay for more books by This is the same benefit game companies get from used games. I think the software companies should learn from this and stop worrying about used games. Used book stores have not put book publishers out of business, and they have been around a lot longer then video games.

LTS
Darren
Columbus Oh

Hey jamoto + probably cooley,

I am in Nashville for a company annual meeting and, while chatting at
the hotel bar, I glanced over to a very professional looking gentleman
sitting and surfing on a Netbook. I’m not completely knowledgeable on
models, but it looked like dell’s new 11 inch model.

I guess they are emerging after all!

Love the show,

Damon the radiotherapy service engineer

Rick the Tennessee country lawyer here. Regarding the 2rd life divorce on 854. Internet marital misbehavior has become an all too common ground for divorce these days so the story is not surprising.

I have to say the Microsoft financing story made me think that Microsoft will have an “associate” named Gudio who will spend his time repoing software over the Internet . “first we will start with Power Point.”"Ya don’t pay then we will take your Exchange mailboxes”" One by one.”
Love the show.

EPISODE 821

Pandora, Webcasting see victory in Senate
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10055055-93.html

Studios Sue to Bar a DVD Copying Program
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/technology/01film.html

Would Apple really shutter iTunes? Unlikely
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10055021-93.html

Microsoft still paying people to search
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10053855-75.html

New Wii due by 2011
http://www.whattheyplay.com/blog/2008/09/30/new-wii-due-by-2011/

P2P growth slowing as infringement goes deeper undercover
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080930-p2p-growth-slowing-as-infringement-goes-deeper-undercover.html

Scientists develop incredible thinking cap
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10055309-71.html

Adobe exec confirms Flash for iPhone, says Apple will decide when
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10054749-1.html

New denial-of-service attack is a killer
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/01/0127245

Dell preloading Iron Man, world asks “Why?”
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/30/dell-pre-loading-iron-man-world-asks-why/

Starz gives Netflix fans a reason to stream
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/starz-gives-netflix-fans-a-reason-to-stream/

VOICEMAIL

Adam from Maple Valley
Some open source cloud examples

Joe from Westside
On the other side.

E-MAIL
Hi guys,

I’m catching up on last week’s episodes, and have been thinking about
this first sale doctrine mentioned re: Spore last week. Just to be
clear, I think the Spore DRM is lame… but in this day of digital
media, isn’t first sale outdated?

You can sell a CD you buy at the record store, but can't you sell music
bought online? Do you think someone would buy am unDRMed MP3 from the
Amazon store from you? In fact, are you even allowed to resell unDRMed
MP3 files?

How about iTunes purchased content--for example, movies or TV show
seasons? These actually are valuable.

– Nilay

**********

This topic may have been shared already, and it may not really be like Google’s carrier-less concept, but here in Southeast Asia, especially here in mobile savvy Philippines, a lot of local hackers offer dual-sim capabilities. In the days of Nokia 3310 (remember Space Impact or Picture Editor?!), buyers can opt for a modified back-plate cover that encases two sim slots that connect to the main sim slot, so your phone uses two carriers. Switching between carriers is seamless, but I’m not sure the extent of it’s capability, as I have not tried it.

We also have this phone called My Phone (check it at http://www.myphone.com.ph) that houses built in dual-sim slots and has advanced smartphone features to boot (albeit no Space Impact OR Picture Editor). Well, that’s it, what do you think?

Long time listener, great show!
Chris

**********

Hey Jamoto!

In response to episode 820, I think people should create their own clouds, everyone having their own miniserver. Companies could make money by releasing software to run your cloud. And then you’d only have to upgrade the hardware of the server, not your little eee PC accessing the server.

Robert the Soviet

The evil power of Dr. M is even greater than we thought...strong enough, in fact, to tarnish the shining reputation of the long-awaited Spore. Also in the news today, DVD ripping goes legit, a little too late, thanks to RealDVD, but we determine it's probably not worth getting sued over. And we put gurus against geniuses in a battle to the tech support death.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 804

Happy Birthday Google - 10
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9930
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2008-09-06-google-ten-years_N.htm

DVD ripping goes legit with RealDVD
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10034540-1.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/technology/08dvd.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Gamers fight back against lackluster Spore gameplay, bad DRM
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080908-gamers-fight-back-against-lackluster-spore-gameplay-bad-drm.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/07/amazon-reviewers-clo.html

4,000 Anti-Scientology Videos Yanked From YouTube
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/09/08/0256208.shtml

Apple admits iPod is from 1970s U.K.
http://slashdot.org/articles/08/09/08/1343248.shtml
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/09/08/ipodlike-gadget-from.html

Microsoft “Gurus” coming to a store near you
http://www.dailytech.com/Microsoft+Gurus+Coming+to+a+Store+Near+You/article12887.htm

McAfee brings nearly instant malicious software updates
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10034741-83.html

New e-newspaper reader echoes look of the paper
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/technology/08ink.html
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-the-dream-lives-on-plasticlogics-e-newspaper-reader-esquires-e-ink-cove/
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/09/08/new-epaper-tech-to-b.html

Creating a ‘Facebook for spies’
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10034509-93.html

VOICE MAIL

Joel Chandler
Demolition Man is here.

Remy
On the guest hosts.

Sgt. Wagner
ON Chrome's password storage.

E-MAIL

Hello, Buzz Crew!

I’ve been listening to the speculation about how hard it might be for Comcast to provide users with a bandwidth usage number and though I’d comment on a few realities. The idea that “they already have this data in a database with your account number because they assign your IP address” is just plain silly. Your IP address is irrelevant to the process. Carrier-class routers are amazingly powerful computers, but… the Comcast device that’s in a position to meter your usage is a fast but cheap and none-too-smart Layer 2 aggregating neighborhood switch modem that has a port physically connected to the cable that goes to your house. It knows your port number and not much else--even your IP address is assigned at a higher level by another device. The neighborhood switch isn’t primarily built for accounting--fast and cheap, remember?--and asking it to report very much info in real-time will blow its tiny mind.

Those port-level traffic counts have to be passed up to an accounting computer in batches--and not too often or for too many ports at once. Otherwise Comcast starts using up too much network bandwidth and router processing power for accounting, reducing what’s available to users.

And then the accounting computer has to correlate the neighborhood and port ID and traffic count data with the billing records to account for network changes, port reassignment and customer movement in the middle of the accounting period, and all that other boring real-world stuff. I’d guess that the only way it’s practical to do this for millions of users is an overnight mainframe batch run--and maybe not every night.

How many years did it take cell phone companies to get geared up to do a similar job and tell you *approximate usage as of a day or two ago? They don’t ever seem to tell you EXACTLY when the cutoff for the online > total is, and they never guarantee it will correlate 100 percent with your bill, do they?.

Certainly Comcast has an obligation to provide me with a usage meter if they’re going to cap my usage. No doubt they will--once they get their IT and Billing departments to catch up with the Grand Concept their executives decided was appropriate for the FCC. But give them a little time and recognize that it just might not be QUIE as simple as it looks.

Carl
Spokane, Wash.

Hey buzz-crew, long time listener Bob (from Michigan) here. I had an interesting experience today with Micro$oft and thought it deserved a rant. I sold my Xbox 360 via Craigslist, but forgot to delete my credit card information off of the console. I get billed $25 the next day from Microsoft. I rush to Microsoft’s Xbox Web site to cancel my account, but I can’t. I can’t even remove my credit card information! After wrestling my way through the tangled Webs of their customer service site, I ended up getting their 800 number. I immediately gave it a call and was put on hold. I talk to a girl after a few minutes and she transfers me to her supervisor. Ten minutes into this hold, I get charged again for $12.50 from Microsoft. That sunuvagun is still using my card! I finally get the supervisor, and after another long hold, she tells me she cannot refund any of the funds. Not even the funds that were charged during the ridiculous 45 minutes of waiting I did! To add insult to injury, she said she could only put a “hold” on the account and that my card could not be removed from the system for a billing cycle! GRRR, Molly, please back me up on this one.

ps. I’m happy I switched to Sony for my gaming needs.

Hello Jamoto,

I’ve been a long time listener and have heard you refer to the listeners of BOL as the “buzz army”. Well….we already have an army…the twit army.

Therefore I move that we adopt “The Buzz Force” or “The Buzz Air Force” moniker. I’m an Air Force Communications Officer and believe that the sophistication of the BOL audience lends itself to an elite Air Force rather than the a ground pounding Army (just kidding Leo).

Just a thought, keep up the great work and LOVE THE SHOW..

Brian, in O’Fallon IL.

EPISODE 794

Orange Poland shops allegedly creating fake iPhone 3G queues
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/08/21/orange_poland_shops_allege
dly_creating_fake_iphone_3g_queues.html

Verizon, Google kiss and make up for search deal, but where’s Android?
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/verizon-google-kiss-and-make-up-for-s
earch-deal-but-where-s-android-

Verizon zapped: Must inspect every N.Y. FiOS installation for unsafe
Wiring
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/verizon-zapped-must-inspect-every-n-y
-fios-installation-for-unsafe-wiring

AT&T ConnecTech: we can out-geek-squad the Geek Squad
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080821-att-to-dispatch-its-own-sq
uad-of-geeks-through-connectech.html

ESPN-MLBAM: Skipper: ‘just needed a new deal’, Bowman: Local Live
steaming ‘when time Is Right’
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-espn-mlbam-skipper-just-needed-a-ne
w-deal-bowman-local-live-steaming-wh/

Baseball’s Web CEO: Sorry fans, no local streaming
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/baseball-s-web-ceo-sorry-fans-no-loca
l-streaming

Xbox and Rock the Vote partner to get gamers to the polls
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10021981-52.html

Diebold admits Ohio machines may lose votes
http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/08/22/136215.shtml

DVD will fail? Sounds a lot like Blu-ray
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10013891-1.html

Voice mail

Kevin
iPhone and e-wallet

Anonymous
Seinfeld is a traitor!

E-mail

How the MPAA ruined jury duty for me
Hey buzz crew -

This week I have the “honor” of serving my fellow citizens as supreme
judge and executioner of their fate.

In the past, while waiting to send someone to spend the rest of their
life in the loving hands of their cell mate Duke, we got to watch a DVD
brought in by one of our faithful civic employees.

This year apparently , the MPAA, required that they cease and desist
this practise. Can you believe that!!

So now instead of killing time watching “Muppets take Manhatten” I have
to sit idly, occaisionally reminding sir sits too close what personal
space means… Ugh

Love the show.
Stephen (Darthweef in the chat)

****************

Hey Buzz Crew,
In episode 793 you discussed Facebook’s new advertising system
and made a joke about how it doesn’t refer to wedding bells style
engagement. I must say, that joke hit almost uncomfortably close to
home. Many times, my amazing girlfriend of a year and a half has
received targeted Facbook ads for diamond rings, and she has mentioned
them to me upon occasion. While I’m not opposed to engagement, it’s not
in my immediate plans. I am starting to fear Facebook’s continued and
more specific targeting.

Erik, the former MBA student who needs a job (anybody have one for me?)

****************

Chris
Hey Buzz Crew,

I’m excited to have my first well actually. I know its Harry Potter
related and not really technologically based, but Molly is right. I
have a relative who has worked on all the previous Harry Potter films
and is in production on the newest movie. They had an emergency meeting
recently to discuss moving the next Harry Potter movie back to Summer
‘09. The reasoning is that because of the writer’s strike they had a
huge gap in content next summer, which will be filled by Harry Potter
(insert Equis jokes here).

Love the show!

******************

Hey Tom Molly Jason and maybe Albert or who evers there

On Episode 792 you guys talked about Muxtape being shutdown by the RIAA
because they didn’t pay royalty fees to allow users to upload music and
stream it to friends .So does this mean that the RIAA can also shutdown
Pownce because Pownce allows user to upload files like mp3’s; and in a
way stream them to friends. i don’t think Kevin Rose pays royalty
fees. I hope they don’t shutdown Pownce. Whats our take.

Example of Pownce mp3 upload

http://pownce.com/kevin/notes/3195440/

Love the Show

Leo S.

******************

Dear Tom ‘n Jolly (and Albert?),

Please import Wil Harris and make him a permanent part of the show.

Greatly appreciated,

Randy

At least in Taiwan, the Linux version of the Asus Eee PC is very popular among housewives and students. Meanwhile geeks want the Windows XP version. Also on the show today Microsoft finally declares war on Apple's advertisements, and an Xbox 360 price cut may be coming as early as Sunday. Oh and there was something about the iPhone. Apparently people are excited about it.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 762

Apparently, one third of us have been copying DVDs!
http://www.cnet.com/8301-17914_1-9985794-89.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080708-breaking-the-law-one-third-of-us-residents-rip-dvds.html

Xbox 360 price cut coming July 13
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9985383-7.html

Wal-Mart spreadsheet claims 40GB PS3 “will be replaced” in August
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/09/wal-mart-spreadsheet-claims-40gb-ps3-will-be-replaced-in-augus/

Microsoft admits Windows Vista mistakes, criticizes Apple ads
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208803153

Linux for housewives. XP for geeks.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=342

iPhone 3G reviews: It’s fast, hungry, and still pretty
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9986195-1.html

Belgian operator will sell iPhone simlock-free
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/09/belgium_will_sell_iphone_simlock_free/

iPhone wannabes or smart alternatives? You decide
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-9985925-94.html

Aussie device ‘could speed up Web 100 times’ (Thanks Wayne!)
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=594743

The travails of receiving digital TV broadcasts
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13556_3-9985562-61.html

Getty Images and Flickr announce exclusive partnership to offer new collection of creative imagery
http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=320377
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/great-photo-on-flickr-getty-images-might-pay-you-for-it/

Skooba’s TSA-approved bag — for real this time
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/08/skoobas-tsa-approved-bag-for-real-this-time/

VOICE MAIL

Braden
Putting that 7 cents a kilobyte in perspective.

Bill Portland
Question about TrueCrypt

E-MAIL

Hey almost BOL crew (minus the ranty one) I just came accross this story:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080709.wgtiphone0709/BNStory/Technology/home

Basically it says that Rogers is going to offer the 6GB(still not unlimited grr) plan for $30 instead of $100 from launch day until August 31. As of right now (12:30 ADT) there has been no update on the Rogers Web site or the infamous ruinediphone.com other that on the latter there is a link mentioning a video address later today. If this plan also includes the minutes included with the previously announced then this might be a pretty good deal. Still lame that it’s limited but a lot better….
Love the show
Justin the engineering student
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Tom, as much as i love the feature too, I gotta say the new feature in Gmail has a down side to it and it is the person who is in your Gmail account can log you off too. so while someone else is checking your mail and see that you sign in he/she can log you off. so maybe when the happens you need to be the faster person and log the other person off and change your password as quick as you can. Its going to be a war game between logging each other off. Yay Fun!

love the show
Manuel

Hey BOLers.

http://www.ubi.com/US/News/Info.aspx?nId=5336

This is Wayne the pixel fudger here in Quebec. I just thought I would share this with you. With this merger, there is going to be some serious realism infused into next-gen games. I worked at Hybride for 8 years on such projects as Sin City, 300, (and you favorite Tom & Molly….& Veronica) Snakes On A Plane. They do some very nice work there and with the emerging 3-D trend (insert groan here), Hybride is the logical choice for this kind of merger.

I know the owner of Hybride very well and I think with the extra cash from this deal, he’ll be able to afford Rogers’ iPhone price plan.

Heart the Show,

::Wayne B

Long time listener (via podcast), first time “caller.” I started my computer this morning to find that the Internet connection was unresponsive. As a loyal follower of the show, my first response was to blame Comcast, curse a little, and start to reset my cable connection. Eventually I traced the problem back to the Zonealarm firewall I have installed. It turns out that one of Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday updates crippled third party firewalls.

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2221138/microsoft-fix-kills-web
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/07/09/ms_dns_patch_zonealarm_woes/

It appears that MS was making a legit DNS protocol update, but that they failed to tell software vendors building to their old system that it was going down. I smell antitrust if this lasts longer than a day and the Europeans catch the scent… oh well, off to uninstall Zonealarm and enable Windows Firewall (hey, it’s bundled after all).

Love the show, keep up the great work. All the best,

Evan
Washington, DC

AT&T employee here and I just got an email asking me to wait a few days before buying an iPhone so customers could have the opportunity to get theirs first.

awwwwwwww,

Tracy