Buzz Out Loud Podcast

A caller wonders what happens to the Chevy Volt if you have the gas in there too long. Does the gas go bad? Well, it could get gummy. And nobody wants gummy gas. or gummi gas either. Not tasty. We also take the SEC conference to task for trying to ban Twitter and photos during their football games. Seriously? Also China got a Dell phone. But will they want it?

Listen now: Download today's podcast

For SEC, tech-savvy fans might be biggest threats to media exclusivity
http://www.tampabay.com/news/article1027680.ece

Dell Mini 3i smartphone gets official outing in China
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/17/dell-mini-3i-smartphone-gets-official-outing-in-china/

Verizon completes initial 4G wireless test
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10310232-94.html

TomTom navigation for iPhone 3G and 3GS arrives
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10310838-1.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/170299/TomTom_For_iPhone_Spells_An_End_To_Standalone_GPS.html

Gmail passes AOL mail to become number 3 email provider
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/14/gmail-nudges-past-aol-email-in-the-us-to-take-no-3-spot/

Domain tasting scam ended by ICANN
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/08/15/domain-tasting-scam.html

88% of Electronics Exports Reused, Not Dumped
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/16/2151223/88-of-Electronics-Exports-Reused-Not-Dumped

Open Source GSM Network At Dutch Hacker Convention
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/09/08/17/0014235/Open-Source-GSM-Network-At-Dutch-Hacker-Convention?from=rss

VOICEMAIL
Photo Detroit on an unforeseen problem with Chevy Volt

Anonymous about leaking false info

EMAIL
Hey guys –

Just in case it’s been a slow news weekend, this press release from Purdue discusses the development of the world’s smallest laser called a “spaser”. This spaser, unlike current lasers, is small enough to be embedded in an electronic chip. In terms of future gadgetry spawning from this development, scientists hinted at consumer electronics using light, instead of electrons, to pass on information as well as “hyperlenses” capable of seeing DNA. On the other side of the spectrum, I imagine we could expect more powerful sensors in digital cameras to take better pictures of Aunt Myrtle too.

Mike in Dayton

***********

Hey Guys,

I know it’s been a while since you last talked about this, but today gizmodo posted a British anti-texting while driving ad to be shown around the country, especially in schools. Though gruesome and horrifying, I think it’s the only effective way to show the prevalence of this phenomena and the ease with which people can lose their lives and threaten the lives of others. What do you think about it ?

Here is the link to the full story :

http://gizmodo.com/5338475/texting-while-driving-psa-delivers-bloody-bone+crunching-message

Love the show and keep up the great work.

Paul

***********

Hi Buzz Crew,

On yesterday's show (BOL 1041) you were talking about the total flex fuel and I can guarantee that this is an excellent option. Here in Brazil the sugarcane biofuel cars exits since the 80's and my father had one whem I was a kid. Now I have a 2007 Volkswagen Gol that is total flex (using gasoline and biofuel) and I only used gas two times since it's buying. The car works great, the biofuel price is lower than gas and great car companies like Ford, Renault, GM and Honda sell total flex cars here. I don't understand why it is so difficult for this technology to get in the US.

Just sharing the way things are going here. Love the show

Dmitry Rocha
Salvador - Bahia – Brazil

p.s: The Zune HD looks great. I want one even if it is brown

Natali brings our discussion of the MEMS-based accelerometer technology to a screeching halt when she suggests it be used in bed. This is a clear demonstration of how much more mature Natali is than Rafe or myself. In other news, we discover the true meaning of Bing and ponder the sanity of a new Mac-clone maker.

EPISODE895

U.S. to set out cyber security plan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8073654.stm
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10251898-38.html

Hackers breached U.S. army servers
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/28/1952214&from=rss

Hands-on: Much to like in Hulu Desktop
http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2009/05/hulu-desktop-breaks-streaming-tv-shows-out-of-the-browser.ars
http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10251658-12.html?

Updated Windows 7 and Vista downgrade rights leaked
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/29/updated-windows-7-and-vista-downgrade-rights-leaked/

LG puts 3D into displays, (purportedly) passes savings on
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10250946-1.html

Xbox to get live TV and massive VOD update http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/05/29/045233/Xbox-To-Get-Live-TV-and-Massive-VOD-Update?from=rss

New HDMI standard brings Internet to TV
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10249212-1.html
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/05/hdmi-spec-updated-to-14-adds-unwanted-complexity.ars

New Mac clone maker to open retail store in Calif.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10251943-37.html

Accelerometers on the rise, showing up in everything
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10251217-64.html

45-year-old modem used to surf the Web
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/05/28/1745203/45-Year-Old-Modem-Used-To-Surf-the-Web?from=rss

Wikipedia bans Church of Scientology
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/29/wikipedia_bans_scientology/

VOICEMAIL

Anonymous – How to reset AT&T network settings

Alexei – What about Wolfram?

E-MAIL
Hey guys,

I just finished listening to 984 and heard Chris asking about most
surprising stories (stories about significant tech you missed at the
time) and I have to give an “I told you so” on Facebook.

In March of 2007 I sent in a voicemail saying that the kids I work
with (I work with teenagers at a church) were shifting from Myspace
to Facebook, and that I thought it was going to blow up with
mainstream audiences. You guys weren’t buying it.

Granted, at the time it just moved away from being for-college-
students-only and they hadn’t released application support yet…but
still, there was I remember a time when you guys were Facebook doubters.

Love the show!

Josh
——–
Hey guys love the show!
I heard you talking about the blackberry syncing with itunes and did some googling. Turns out it is a third party party from blackberry that will sync playlists from itunes. In a word, LAME
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/media/mediasync.jsp#tab_tab_overview

Jon the Computer network management and design student from Portsmouth
–
Jonathan
———
Hey Buzz Crew,

So here I am, forward deployed to Kuwait with barely enough internet access to send you this email, thinking about how I wish there was a way for me to get BOL sent to me by some other means, when the thought occurred to me to have my family back home download all the BOL episodes I am missing and mail them to me via CD on a regular basis… Well, that led to my next thought (and the reason for this email): 1000th Episode Collector’s Edition of Buzz Out Loud. It would be a DVD (or perhaps multiple DVDs) of every episode of BOL, 1 – 1000. And, of course, you could use the winning entry of the 1000th Episode art work on the label(s). You could have audio and audio/video versions (though I don’t know if I’d pay the extra cash to see Tom and Jason on a regular basis, though Natali and Molly would make up for it!) and maybe pack in one of Molly’s favorite stickers and even a t-shirt.

I know, it’s just my dream to have easy access to the episodes I missed (I only started listening around episode 730, for shame), but if something like that ever comes to fruition, I’ll be first in line to buy it!

As a side note, I have seen a Kindle in the wild here…though it had broken in transport and was being used to prop up a netbook. So maybe they are useful…hehe.

Anthony from Louisiana, currently in Camp Buehring, Kuwait.
-ethancaine in the forums-
——–
1000th episode coming Thursday June 18th. Want to be on the episode? Post a video of yourself. MUST be less than 30 seconds long. And send a link. No attachments. Could be well-wishing, could be memories, epithets we don’t care. We’ll choose from all the messages we get and play a selection on the 1000th episode as well as post them in the Wiki.

Want to get involved in the production of the show? Find your favorite BOL moment, clip it out of the MP3, or video, and send us the moment. For video, please upload to a video hosting service and send us a link. Email either to buzz@cnet.com

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

EPISODE 967

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VOICEMAIL
Electric cars are worth it

Apple iPhone tablet prediction

Curve vs iPhone

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

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

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

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

Gregory Schultz
Mass Communication major
Louisiana State University

Guys (and gals),

**********

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

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

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

Respectfully submitted,

Clayton

**********

BOL Crew,

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

-Greg (emptythevoid)

EPISODE 798

IE 8 beta gives other browsers a run for their money
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10027345-83.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7585741.stm

State cannot force removal of SSNs from privacy advocate’s site
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/08/28/1536249.shtml

Music labels rethink iTunes, again; same old gripe of album vs singles
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-music-labels-rethink-itunes-again-same-old-gripe-of-album-vs-singles/

“Galactica” proves the ratings system is dead
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26396271/

Veoh defeats copyright infringement lawsuit
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10027926-93.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121989796262379185.html
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/a-victory-for-video-sites-court-grants-veoh-its-dmca-defense-in-copyright-case

YouTube finally figures out how to make money: Big ads on its home page
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/youtube-finally-figures-out-how-to-make-money-big-ads-on-its-homepage

Report: AT&T source explains exact technical details of iPhone 3G problems - Thanks Jay!
http://www.dailytech.com/Report+ATT+Source+Explains+Exact+Technical+Details+of+iPhone+3G+Probems/article12797.htm

Why can’t they fix the Flash/Firefox bug?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10027752-2.html

Aaron Sorkin creates Facebook page, writing Facebook movie
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/08/confirmed_aaron_sorkin_creates.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7585632.stm

Hackers prepare supermarket sweep
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7584258.stm

Man’s ‘pants’ password is changed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/shropshire/7585098.stm

Voice mail

Josh in Denver
Hydrogen-powered cars.

Anonymous Analyst
Made a site.

E-mail

Hey BOL Crew,
I think that Psystar’s counter-suit against Apple, saying that they
violated anti-trust laws, is completely bogus. It’s as if someone were
to sue Dasani saying that they are violating anti-trust laws by
packaging water in the specific Dasani bottle. Now, if the consumer
wants to put the water from the Dasani bottle into their own - they
can. Just like the OSx86 project. Now, if you were to sell Dasani
water in your own bottle, it’s obvious that you are ripping of Dasani.
It’s the same situation with Apple v Psystar. If Psystar wins, it’s
like allowing the common people to make Apple’s company decisions.

-John

**********

Hey Guys,

On 797, you briefly mentioned the use of the letter “Y” and how it
began with Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

I’m a little confused… Are you saying that shows didn’t commonly
exist prior to Buffy with “Y”s at the end, or that “Buffy” was
originally “Buff The Vampire Slayer,” but they added the “Y” to give
it the secret Whedon sauce of success?

It sounded like there was a reasoning behind the “Y” but you didn’t
really explain. Please do.

Tim
St. Louis, Mo.

P.S. Was Molly originally “Moll” before the “Y” craze?

**********

Hey hey TMJ,

I’m fully not expecting this to be on the podcast tomorrow, but wanted to share my fangirl love for you guys. At 3 different points in podcast 797 I was talking back to you guys while driving home from work!

1. Hey Tom, #800 won’t be on Monday, but on Tuesday, unless you guys are podcasting on Labor Day
2. Hey Molly, answering the phone in Japanese isn’t “konichiwa” (although that is technically “hello”), but “moshi moshi”. As a japanophile, I thought you’d know that one!
3. Hey Jason, when you asked “are you ready for some soft rock!” I was waiting for Johnathan Coulton’s “Soft Rocked by Me” from his Thing a Week collection: http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2006/06/02/thing-a-week-35-soft-rocked-by-me/

PS Jason, how’s your DirecTV?

Love you guys!
Amy in the East Bay

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,
I was just listening to episode #797 , and the near Molly rant about
Apple pulling apps form the App Store made me fire up the old
Powerbook, put the baby in the swing and give you my two cents. The
way I see it is that Apple built the sandbox, ordered the sand, and
even made sure the dumb truck did not wreck their yard. Now all they
are trying to do is get the cat poop out the it. I guess what I’m
trying to say is that I dont see any difference between Apple pulling
apps, for what ever reason, even for no reason at all. And those signs
you see that every mom and pop restaurant that state ” We reserve the
right refuse service to anyone”. Is Apple being a tool do doing this,
yes? But its still their sandbox.

Love the show,
Never seen a kindle in the wild,

Mark-o from Portland

On today's show, we discover that it's hard to stand out in an orgy, only about a quarter of things Molly says are words, and EA poops all over you. That's just the kind of show we have when Rafe Needleman fills in for Tom.

EPISODE 777/b>

Happy birthday, NASA!
http://science.slashdot.org/science/08/07/29/2120225.shtml

EA: Hack took Facebook Scrabble down
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10002363-36.html

Garmin delays Nuvifone
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121742654018296961.html

Dell tests player to renew iPod battle
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121738346889295815.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10002382-1.html

DNS hacker victim of his own creation
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/30/1242229
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/073008-dns-attack-writer-a-victim.html

‘Pentagon hacker’ loses extradition appeal
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/07/30/uk.hacker.ap/index.html
http://www.crn.com/security/209900321

IOC admits Internet censorship deal with China
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/07/30/1551211.shtml
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10002097-93.html

Apple says MobileMe is fixed! Seriously! Go try it!
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2326792,00.asp

Amazon unveils online payment service
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10002259-93.html

Face swapper software protects privacy
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/29/face-swapper-softwar.html

VOICE MAIL:
Anon:
Cops on cell phones!

E-MAIL:

Dear Buzzcrew,

Don’t you hate it when people make inaccurate statements like Sen.Stevens calling the Internet a series of tubes or like when you demonstrate you entire lack of political knowledge when you say he is the head of the Commerce Committee which he in point of fact hasn’t been since January 2007.

But then why let the truth stand in the way of a good story,

Thomas

Dear Buzz Crew

You mentioned on episode 776 the “Mojave experiment”, where Windows Vista was disguised as “Mojave” to make people see past the prejudice that vista faces, and how that doing this led to hugely increased customer satisfaction and popularity. This begs the question, why bother with the “Hey Look, Vista’s all right when it’s not called Vista” marketing campaign, and just not call it Vista. Just make up a cause for a new OS, and then release “Mojave”. Problem solved, and Mojave starts working for Microsoft and Vista is relegated to the nether land of Microsoft Bob and the infuriating paper clip.

Just a thought, keep up the great show

Techpriest

Hey guys,

I can’t believe you didn’t think of this but:

Search engines “help” you find something--a synonym for help is “aid”

Cuil-Aid!!!!

You’ll tell your friends to get some Cuil-Aid, and then have to explain that you don’t want them to grab a sugary drink, but that you want them to look something up.

Keep up the most excellent work!

Respectfully,

Chad

Dear Tom, Molly and Jason,

In your discussion of the new Cuil search engine there was one point you missed, namely its privacy policy. To quote from the site: “…our privacy policy is very simple: when you search with Cuil, we do not collect any personally identifiable information, period.”

As privacy is an increasingly important issue to web users, I’d suggest that this will be highly attractive to many people, especially given the concerns in this area that surround the current search imperator Google. Could Cuil’s privacy pledge be the wedge that prises apart Google’s search monopoly and frees us from the Black Iron Prison of cybersurveillance?

Your show is the tops for tech, and always entertaining. Keep up the consistently engaging (OK, I’ll say it, GOOD) work.

Best regards,

Andrew

Hello buzz crew,

I think the Olympics won’t be a problem for the IT department, because all the competitions will be at night in the U.S. So pretty much nobody will be working by that hour. If everyone gets to see the Olympics it would still be a problem, but for the HR department. People are supposed to sleep at night!

Here in Brazil, back in 2006 during the world cup, what i thought would be a joke worked pretty well: our major TV broadcaster streamed live all the world cup games in the Internet, and pretty much every place where I know there were computers, there were people watching that. There were no network problems because it was so popular, that usually people left one computer per room dedicated for streaming that video in full screen, which looked like as there was an actual television there. It was a total success in every office.

And guys, who are you fooling? People watch YouTube the whole day, and there has never been a problem before

Alexandre

--Molly
Listen now: Download today's podcast

Episode 710

Hacker testifies News Corp unit hired him
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080424/tc_nm/echostar_newscorp_dc_1

T-Mobile confirms Android phone by year’s end http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200804231045DOWJONES
DJONLINE000770_FORTUNE5.htm

FBI wants widespread monitoring of ‘illegal’ Internet activity http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9926899-7.html
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9927552-38.html?tag=ne.fd.mnbc

Ballmer: You want XP, we’ll keep XP
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9927721-7.html?tag=newsmap

Microsoft starts pushing out Vista SP1
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9927155-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Nintendo to produce 30 percent more Wiis
http://gizmodo.com/383504/nintendo-to-produce-30-more-wiis
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/04/nintendo-averag.html

Growing a Wii bit bored
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/entertainment/story.html?id=e35a2e4a-39e2-4daf
-99a9-f0ac7e2d9667

Samsung resignations spark rioting, photo burning
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/23/samsung-resignations-spark-rioting-photo-burning/

Science fiction inspires DARPA weapon
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/04/science-fiction-inspires-darpa-weapon.html

Time runs out on Microsoft’s SPOT watches http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9927213-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Drunk Darth Vader’s Jedi assault
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_west/7360871.stm

VOICE MAIL

Fordo Part 1
I have a question about Web sites.

Max Oakmass
Zune thoughts.

Larry
Just checking in. And I have an announcement!

Greg, London
About those captchas.

E-MAIL

Hey Buzz Crew!

I think I have the solution to the CAPTCHA problem for those with impaired vision.

Instead of a voice speaking out which letters and numbers need to be typed, the voice should read out a short story. At the end of the short story, there will be a question that asks the user about the story, such as the setting of the story or to describe the characters in the story.

Love the show,

--Kevin (the Software Engineering Student from Toronto) [totosquirt on the Forums]

Hey Buzz crew,

Just wanted to drop you a line to let you know that HD DVD is not completely dead to the world; it’s going the way of the dodo (or Beta?) is a good thing for companies trying to save some dough.

I work for a company that designs and manufacturers DVDs, Blu-ray Discs and (until recently) HD DVDs for the major studios, but we have continued a small niche of a business creating HD DVD discs for big box retailers, cable television companies, and the like so they can show off high definition content to prospective customers.

Since the players are so cheap (or they had already invested heavily in a large stock prior to the fall) HD DVD has become a specialty item.

Here’s hoping this could spark a Molly rant

[insert Love the Show recording]

--Cody, Los Angeles

Aloha from Hawaii, buzz crew. This is in response to BOL708 where Molly said she thought sending signals into space might not be such a good idea, because we may just as likely attract bad aliens as good ones.

As luck would have it, I just heard a report by NPR science reporter Robert Krulwich that asserted that humans are much less likely to be “heard” out there in space than we think. First of all, space is still echoing with the sound of the Big Bang, which is noisy enough to drown out stray radio signals before it gets out of our solar system.
Secondly, thanks to advancing technology, from digital signals to focused satellite relays to cable and fiber, Earth is actually making less noise today than it was in the 1970s.

So rest a little easier, Molly. We may very well be living on a speck on a clover in the jungle with no giant elephant to hear us.

--Ryan

Hello Buzztown,

On episode 709 You talked about Microsoft shutting down their old DRM servers.

The recent exemptions added to the DMCA should allow you to remove the DRM from your old music.
See item two here:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2006/11/new-dmca-exemptions-granted

Please keep my favorite podcast going.

--Henry C.
Troy Mich.

Regarding Michael from HK’s Fibre

Our slow Internet is no laughing matter, Michael. I am a student at UC Irvine and I live in an apartment where the Internet is slower than Microsoft’s realization that there’s something wrong with Vista.
Imagine trying to do any type of research at a reasonable rate. I takes me hours, I kid you not, HOURS to download this podcast sometimes. That’s why I stay on campus just an extra 10 minutes to download it there. Your 100MB fiber hurts my feelings too. I feel as if I’ve been slapped across the face with a fist full of fiber optic cable. Anyway, love the show and bring on the Verizon Fios.

--Lewis from UCI.