Buzz Out Loud Podcast

The Lenovo Yoga isn't a Netbook; it's a ripoff of the HP Jornada. It also apparently fits in a pocket, but it's a little long for all our pockets, even Jason's. We also cover iPhone 3.0 rumors and the truth about battery life lies.

EPISODE 931

iPhone 3.0 to have copy and paste, Pre-like features — but no background apps
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/15/iphone-3-0-to-have-copy-and-paste-pre-like-features-but-no-b/

Lenovo Pocket Yoga
http://i.gizmodo.com/5170542/shots-leak-of-lenovo-pocket-yoga-netbook-looks-like-it-actually-fits-in-a-pocket

AMD comes clean about battery stats
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/16/1447218
http://blogs.amd.com/nigeldessau/2009/03/12/objects-in-the-toolbar-may-be-further-away-than-they-seem/

Facebook traffic more than doubles
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/reporting/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=215900415

Samsung: Solid state will match hard drive price
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10196422-64.html

AT&T drops the ball on iPhone service at SXSW
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10196573-52.html

Juror’s Twitter posts cited in motion for mistrial
http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/03/jurors-twitter-posts-cited-in-motion-for-mistrial.ars

SciFi changing name to SyFy
http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tvbizwire/2009/03/sci_fi_goes_for_cool_as_syfy.php

New Yahoo original programming for mommies
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/technology/internet/16yahoo.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Seattle P-I to publish last edition Tuesday
http://www.seattlepi.com/business/403793_piclosure17.html

Surprise! Google Earth used for robbery
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10196830-71.html

Pentagon inks deal on portable milli-wave raygun tech
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/15/raytheon_lightweight_raygun_tech_deal/

VOICEMAIL
Tim
my vote for movies on Wii

E-MAIL
Is it a Netbook? Subnote? Laptop
Finally a flowchart… now you know when it is and isn't a Netbook!
http://www.liliputing.com/2009/03/how-to-tell-what-kind-of-little-laptop-you-have.html

Love the show!
Aaron

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“TV stations must alert viewers if their new digital signals don’t reach areas covered by their soon-to-be-defunct analog broadcasts, the Federal Communications Commission has ruled.
The stations must also inform viewers if they might need new antennas to tune in digital stations, the commission said Friday.

The new rules were prompted by lessons learned after Feb. 17, when about a quarter of U.S. TV stations turned off their analog signals. The remaining stations are scheduled to cut their transmissions on June 12….”

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96V6LLG0&show_article=1&catnum=7

Chris the commuter

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BOL Crew;

On Saturday’s show, you wondered, “why use Twitter hashtags when you can just use search?” For a very specialized term like SXSW, there’s probably no difference. But searching for #Lost gets me tweets about the show, searching just the term “lost” also gets me tweets about all the people who lost their car keys, for example.

So the hashtags do help to separate the specific from the generic.

Love the show,
Jeff from Huntsville AL

We learn that, among other things, Rafe is trained in psychology and yearns to order mice. But we also kick around the meaning of security in Google Earth and Windows 7 and take up the cause of the wireless ISP in your neighborhood.

EPISODE 906

All CNET podcasts have superfast Download speeds
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10152_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=328828&messageID=2971225

CNET Podcast Central redesigned
http://podcast.cnet.com

Facebook steps into OpenID Foundation
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10157980-2.html

Apple banning Facebook in stores
http://i.gizmodo.com/5148064/attention-apple-store-web-freeloaders-facebook-is-now-banned

Microsoft to tweak Windows 7 settings
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10157978-56.html

Google Earth 5.0 silently changes update policy
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/06/1510228

Gmail multiple inboxes
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10158168-2.html

WISPS mean cable and DSL aren’t the only choices
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/06/0158225

http://www.bbwexchange.com/wisps/

Time Warner to expand Internet caps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=64509

Cap mania spreads to Charter: 100GB/month for 15Mbps tier
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/02/charter-modifies-acceptable-use-policy-to-add-caps.ars

Just 10 registrars responsible for 83 percent of all spam
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2009/02/data-shows-83-percent-of-spam-flows-from-just-ten-registrars.ars

Nine-year-old writes iPhone code
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7874291.stm

Trojan PS2 made of wood earns store credit for craftsman, shame for retailer
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/06/trojan-ps2-made-of-wood-earns-store-credit-for-craftsman-shame/

Electric motorcycle promises 150 mph
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/02/mission-motors.html

Everything is better with bacon
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10158313-36.html

VOICEMAIL
Scott the Milkman
Ideas for google Health

Dan from Indianapolis
Mosquitoes

E-MAIL
Tom,

Just so you know in episode 904 you said that ASUS has been building the Nuvi's this is incorrect up until the G60 we have manufactured all of our own product. ASUS is only going to make the G60.

Dan Chapman
Component Engineer
Garmin International

**********

Hey BOL,

I heard Tom mention the other day that he was going to talk about
Google Earth on CNET Live. I thought I would send along some Google
Earth goodness for JaMoTo the sea turtle. Hope it’s not too late! I’ve
posted some videos online here:
http://www.wildlifetracking.org/jamoto.shtml

This is an example of how marine biologists might use Googe Earth. The
time scrubbing features in particular are really nice for visualizing
how animals move relative to their environment and to each other.

I am also attaching a KML file of JaMoTo’s track for you guys to play
with in Google Earth. Feel free to use as you like and share with
Buzztown.

The last transmission we received from JaMoTo was on May 15th of 2008.
Her tag lasted about three months, which is a little below average for
our tracking program. This doesn’t mean that anything bad happened to
JaMoTo. More likely the tag fell off, was damaged, or there was a
technical problem. We have improved our attachment technique and are
tagging more turtles this year which you can see here:
http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/?project_id=340

cheers,

Michael
the sea turtle guy

**********

Hi guys

This ones a quikie.

On the Thursday show you were talking about the ocr on google books
mobile. If you tap on a paragraph it changes to an image of the
original.

Love the show
(Ps I’ve already made a cardboard pc
Hint: keep a fire extinguisher close)

Eoghan in Ireland

**********

Hey Janato-
Here is a story to go along with the monster-snake. Plus, Natali can use its DNA to get her own Mammoth.
http://cbs2.com/local/san.Diego.mammoth.2.927501.html

PS. Natali remember radiation is also used to treat cancer, it doesn't only give you cancer. J

Marc from Topeka / VWBubblehead

**********

Hey gaming research and brains, right up my alley!

There are a lot of data about sex differences in cognition, and empathy is among those differences. The brain areas mentioned are consistent with such results. Natali, sex hormones are one thing, brain chemistry is not just a function of those hormones. One should also keep in mind that a sex difference is not about individuals, but about groups. So you cannot say that Natali or Molly has more empathy than Tom or Jason, but you can (rather reliably) say that a random sample of women would have more empathy than a random sample of men. There is a big evolutionary explanation here, but that is another story.....

Don't get me started on confusing social constructionism and science....

Oh, BTW, I don't know if you can order mosquitoes online, but you can order fruit flies and rats. I have ordered rats on a number of occasions, and usually you buy 10 and get one free, seriously.

On and one more thinig, as a psychologist I can say clearly that Cooley has like no empathy...

Dave (the psychologist)

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

EPISODE 903

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VOICEMAIL
Arsha from Illinois
Windows 7 UAC

Joe
Why I’m against delaying DTV transition

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

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

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

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

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

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

Josh Davis

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

**********

Not sure if have gotten to this or not.

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

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

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

Jack

**********

Hi, Buzz Crew.

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

–Ian from Portland

We discover a fun new tautology on today's show (you know, competition...for the win?), have a fun time goofing off with Brian Tong, rail against Apple's decision to include HDCP restrictions in its new MacBooks, and rejoice at the arrival of Netflix streaming on the Xbox 360 (minus a few select Sony movies, ahem). Also: India takes on Google in the Earth-spying department. Yeah, India! Go, India!

EPISODE 856

Apple’s new MacBooks have built-in copy protection measures (thanks Mager!)
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/11/18/apples_new_macbooks_have_built_in_copy_protection_measures.html
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/11/17/apple-brings-hdcp-to-a-new-aluminum-macbook-near-you

Psystar antitrust claim against Apple dismissed
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10101581-37.html

Microsoft’s new Xbox experience launches, Netflix users go wild
http://www.pcworld.com/article/154163/microsofts_new_xbox_experience_launches_netflix_users_go_wild.html
http://venturebeat.com/2008/11/19/new-xbox-experience-launches-looks-great-netflix-integration-fails/

Netflix streaming on Xbox doesn’t include Sony Columbia Pictures movies (thanks, Anu!)
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/18/nxe-netflix-streaming-queues-suddenly-gimped/

Quality pays: Hulu trumping YouTube
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10102220-16.html
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20081117/when-will-hulu-catch-youtube-it-already-has/

Microsoft to offer free consumer security suite
http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-10101582-12.html

A drink backed by a sports (gaming) hero
http://news.cnet.com/A-drink-backed-by-a-sports-gaming-hero/2100-1043_3-6247818.html

PC Magazine goes out of print
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/pc-magazine-goes-out-of-print
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-ziff-davis-to-close-print-pcmag-focus-on-online-still-looking-for-optio/

Indian space agency, Isro, to roll out a rival to Google Earth (thanks, Phil!)
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article5182639.ece

Woman wants a cyborg eye! - BTONG contribution
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/267901/artist_wants_cyborg_webcam_eye

VOICE MAIL
Dwight the T-Grip: true Hollywood battery stories

Paul from Verizon: why the BlackBerry rocks!

E-MAIL
Hey Buzz Crew,

I’ve been traveling so I missed a couple podcasts, but I don’t think there has been a mention of the re-start of the One Laptop Per Child Give One Get One program this past Monday (11/17). I’ve been wanting to get one of these laptops for a while mostly because I think they’re interesting and I want to help out the program. I know the OLPC folks got a lot of grief last time they offered this program because they didn’t really have the logistical infrastructure to handle the delivery of laptops to people who bought them quickly and some people had to wait months to get theirs. This time however, they’ve teamed up with Amazon.com and things look like they should work much more smoothly. I placed my order with Amazon and I should get mine by Friday.

I’m sure there are listeners that would like to get a new NetBook/E-reader. And I think the keyboard is waterproof so in can be a great conversation opener for chatting by the pool (Chris from Austin). So deploy the Buzz Brigades to help kids in developing countries get a great tool for education.

Julian (San Diego)

http://www.laptop.org

http://www.amazon.com/xo

Hey JaMoTo

I was listening to episode 853 and 854 Re: The Wii speak application and then again on to the subject of the software companies not liking pre-loved games.

If the companies don’t like the idea of pre-loved games why don’t they have their own way of buying back sold games. This would allow people to get the same value from their games as trading their old games to EB etc… But allow credits to the new games. This would kill 2 birds with one stone so to speak.

Plus with the idea of saving the planet. Think about the latest game being made out of our old games.

Love the show.

Jon “The Student”

Australia

Hey Buzz Gang,

Just wanted to tell how impressed I was with the new NetFlix add-on to the Xbox 360. The quality is very good, particularly on cartoons. I just hope they update it so you can add stuff to your queue without a computer. I would hate to think the Xbox is just as dumb as a TV tuner and can only passively show videos. That would be as stupid as having a super gaming computer that’s hooked to my TV and my network that can’t browse the web… oh wait… never mind.

Take Care,
Kelvington

I have to disagree that the ‘Remote Spy’ program is significantly different then EA’s DRM. Well, on a technical level at least.

Both should have EULA’s stating don’t use their program illegally.
Both are meant to be put onto a computer you have legitimate access to.
Both change how your computer works and that change can be percieved as negative.
An unauthorized user can install both of these programs without permission by owner of the computer.
Both have removal issues.
Both can have legitimate uses.

In the discussion the case was made for business sales of this product, but for private sales one completely legitimate reason for a spy program that quickly comes to mind is by parents monitoring their children’s computers. I’m sure there are other things people can think up, but that’s my strongest legitimate use point.

In the class action lawsuit (http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/09/23/Spore.pdf) it states that the irremovable DRM is not disclosed (properly/at all) in the EULA and even if you made a case that it didn’t inappropriately phone home, the fact that it can prevent legitimate hardware/software from working is malware like behavior that occurs after an uninstall of the game itself.

In both cases when looking from a certain perspective they are put in a good or bad light… but if the government goes after one they should be going after the other.

Ben @ Nova Scotia

What? What's wrong with you people? We're talking about Netbooks. Dell has a new "Mini" Note, but it's a 12-inch laptop. So, the question is: what is going on in the Netbook world these days? Also, the Internet makes you both smarter AND dumber, Google Earth shows up for iPhone, and Oprah gives out a Kindle discount. And Natali and Molly love Oprah. Deal with it.

EPISODE 839

Sling.com launch
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/26/slingcom-to-launch-on-november-10/

Google Earth for iPhone/Touch
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10075543-37.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10075860-37.html

iPhone most popular camera on Flickr
http://www.edibleapple.com/iphone-still-reigns-supreme-on-flickr/

Qik for BlackBerry
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/webware/~3/433186788/8301-17939_109-10075395-2.html

Dell Inspiron Mini 12-inch launch
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/pressoffice/en/2008/2008_10_26_rr_000?c=us&l=en&s=corp

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/10/dell-mini-inspi.html

Security flaw revealed in T-Mobile’s Google phone
http://news.cnet.com/Security-flaw-revealed-in-T-Mobiles-Google-phone/2100-1002_3-6247261.html

Netflix streams to Macs
http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/433102357/
http://www.macworld.com/article/136380/2008/10/netflix.html

The Internet makes you smarter but may give you ADD
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE49Q2YW20081027

Cable TV provider plans its own wireless network (thanks trails2hike!)
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/biztech/10/27/cox.wireless.ap/index.html

Want $50 off an Amazon Kindle? Thank Oprah
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2333338,00.asp

VOICEMAIL
Jason the Runner: get my wife off the Oprah

Michah: Can’t split the UVerse

E-MAIL
Thomas:

You mentioned on Friday about the Speed Date application taking over for Oregon Trail. That has already happened at least one time before. I had one of those "wall" programs e.g. Fun Wall, Wild Wall, whatever. The Wall program went away and I got an e-mail announcing it's now Speed Date. I didn't remove the application or anything but I would get these e-mails saying that I matched with someone and someone was wanting to contact me, etc. I clicked on one one day for the heck of it and it asked me to fill in my information like name, e-mail, etc. I am a married man so I decided not to do that! After getting a bunch of e-mails about people wanting to match, I uninstalled the application when I figured out how.

**********

Dear Buzz Crew,

The name ‘Minefield’ is used during all betas. And it uses the Firefox logo without the fox. So basically a globe. With a wick on it. So it looks like a field mine. Think of the mines as bugs. To be exploded and thus removed before the final release.

That is all.

Thanks for reading,
Dylan from KC

**********

Hi Buzz Town,

This is in response to the e-mailer from episode 838 who tried to return his Rock Band 2 video game to Wal-Mart. I worked as a supervisor for a major competitor to Wal-Mart (starts with a “T”) for almost seven years, and was frequently the one behind the counter having to turn away such returns. This is a policy that every retailer I know of that sells unopened media has. Every store has their own policy about how long you have to make the return, assuming that the software/video game/CD/DVD is unopened, but once the product is opened, the ONLY action they can take is to exchange it for the same product. At the time that I was working in this position, we not only could only exchange it for the product, but we actually had to OPEN the product before the customer left the store (for the obvious reason). As a matter of fact, all of the media we sold was supposed to have a little white sticker adhered to it stating this very policy.

While I am not a lawyer, and my education in any kind of law doesn’t stem beyond Business Law 101, I, along with my co-workers, all knew that the reason for this policy was due to copyright, even though our corporate policies never directly stated this. Even in the days of Game Boys and N64’s, this policy applied, I guess because it was assumed that somebody, somewhere, had the equipment to make illegal copies of these console games that you could not even place into your CD drive. In all of the years that I worked in this position, I almost never had a customer give me a difficult time regarding this policy. They all seemed to understand, and even if they did challenge us, we would always offer the excuse the federal copyright law prohibits us from taking back these open products, and they were welcome to go to our competitor to try to return the item, but they would be met with the same frustration. That’s one of the reasons for used video games stores!

A hint for the e-mailer: assuming there are no markings on the copy that you bought online that would identify it as a product from a certain retailer, and the UPC is the same, you can always take THAT copy back to Wal-Mart (assuming it’s unopened).

Love the show…
Stephanie in Atlanta

**********

Hi there, BOL crew (greatest-podcast-in-the-cloud), I was listening to episode 838, and you had an e-mail from someone that wasn’t able to return his Rock Band game he bought from Walmart because of “Federal Copyright Law”, which Molly said she had never heard of and you generally all passed of as BS from a Wal-Mart customer service rep.

Well, I would have been in the same mind frame until yesterday. I work at Best Buy’s Geek Squad, where a customer approached me wanting to return a game she had purchased along with her new $1,200 laptop the day prior because no one told her that it wasn’t compatible with Vista. Despite the fact she came to the wrong counter, since I am not a customer service rep, I was more than willing to see what we could do for her, since I felt it was a simple oversight, and it was only a $10 game. When I asked a customer service supervisor if we would be able to exchange it for a different game for her, I was told that we couldn’t because of “Federal copyright law”! I know our policy is that we normally don’t return open software unless its defective, and even then we can only exchange it for the SAME software, but I figured we could make an exception. It took me by surprise, because I had never heard anything about this law before, and then you at the BOL podcast reiterated it. We made an exception in her case since we didn’t want to come off as total jerks (at least I didn’t). It makes sense, though, that we normally wouldn’t not return it, since we cannot resell open software once its open, the store pretty much has to eat the price of the software, which is not a good business model. Also, if we returned open soft, it would be quite possible for a customer to not only copy software, but copy down activation codes for products such as antivirus, or certain video games, and screw over the next customer who would want to purchase.

In short, this “Federal Copyright Law” in regards to software is not just a Wal-Mart reps attempt to blow off a customer, but actually a policy that carries over to legitimate establishments like Best Buy.

~Wez (The-geek-squad-agent-who-doesn’t-want-to-hear-the-same-best-buy-ads-in-BOL-anymore)

**********

I liked that BitTorrent is used as the distribution method for their content but there is a larger issue at hand: Wikipedia used as a reference source in schools. Isn’t Wikipedia banned as a reference source in many areas of academia?

Michael

EPISODE 749

Netflix To Eliminate Profiles Feature
http://www.netflix.com/Help?p_faqid=3962&nlid=20427.1001179.0.1.0.0&eid=T1dbO9MEwQ0c
http://blog.netflix.com/2008/06/profiles-feature-going-away.html
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/06/19/0337233.shtml
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/19/0337233

Microsoft does 180, will continue to support MSN Music DRM
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080618-microsoft-does-180-will-continue-to-support-msn-music-drm.html

Free music service Qtrax is back with… wait, no it isn’t
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080619-free-music-service-qtrax-is-back-with-wait-no-it-isnt.html

Mozilla Firefox 3 vulnerability
http://dvlabs.tippingpoint.com/blog/2008/06/18/vulnerability-in-mozilla-firefox-30

Yahoo Mail hopes to lure users with ‘ymail.com’
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9972349-7.html

Court limits employer access to worker messages
http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/E/ELECTRONIC_PRIVACY?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-06-19-08-12-28

Swedish parliament approves bugging bill, after delay
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/061808-swedish-parliament-approves-bugging-bill.html

Teens use technology to party in strangers’ pools
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/18/tech_aids_pool_crashing/

VOICE MAIL

Robert
About upgrading to new Firefox.

Doug
More T-Mobile iPhone rumors.

Tracy Atlanta
OR it could be this.

E-MAIL

Hi Tom, Molly, and Jason–

Sources of the 911 calls? We can attribute most of our emergency calls (Fire/EMS) via cell phone. And yes in our area, E911 does work.
(Background info: Our response district is a primarily a “economically challenged” area.)

*Regular 911 in a city goes to the respective city’s “dispatch center”. Not necessarily the exact city you are in. When they call, the number does not provide additional info like “big dog that bites” on the CAD system. This system is relatively out of date.

*Enhanced 911 is a regional type dispatch center (I think proper term is PSAP or Public Safety Access Point).
Most of the calls get automatically routed to the respective dispatch center-from the info attached to the E911 call.
Additionally, E911 does provide info to our responders like “big dog that bites”. Emergency Responders like this kind of report because it gives us more info and we can get to you faster without your dog biting us.
Note: E911 only works with systems that already have 911.

Regional centers with delay of calls? There are metropolitian areas in the US that have regional call centers (usually county run)--Assigned from Federal Governmnet funding (”Regionalization”). The delay is usually 30 seconds for them to manually route the call.
Again-most of the calls get automatically routed to the respective dispatch center-from the information attached to the E911 call.

Your major worries? In vehicle systems such as OnStar do delay the process because they ask questions like “Are you OK? We show an airbag deployment-Shall I call 911 for you?” Freaking idiots at Onstar. Just call 911 regardless. Obviously, OnStar folks have NEVER seen an airbag deployed…ever. (Note: Just my opinion).

Tom: Last figures I got? 911 service is available to 94% of the US.
But because of the publication of the “911″ emergency number, most of the country ASSUMES that 911 works everywhere.

If anyone has further questions on these issues, I suggest you call your local area Fire Department and they will be happy to help you out.

--Fire Chief Kevin
Buzztown Fire Department

P.S. I believe, since all residents of Buzztown are technologically sound, that we have an E911 or A911 service (Awesome 911)….

Hi JaMoTo. I’m a regular BOL listener and UserFriendly.org fan. I’ve heard you mention their Link of the Day before and wanted to let you know that my site made the cut today. Thought you might like to know one of your audience members got the call.

--Dan
The Pompous Ass Words Site
http://www.pompousasswords.com

The cake is a lie: IE team bakes a treat for Mozilla
via Digg / Technology on 6/18/08

In honor of today’s Firefox 3 release, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team gave a cake to Mozilla. The tasty treat, which prominently displays IE’s blue “e” icon, just arrived here at Mozilla headquarters in Mountain View.

--Daniel