Electronics & Computers Deals here!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.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
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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:
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
Listen now: Download today's podcast
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EPISODE 715 |
iTunes Store gets same-day DVD releases
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/
20080501-apple-itunes-store-now-gets-films-for-purchase-same-day-as-dvd.html
HP reports big advance in memory chip design
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7377063.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/technology/01chip.html?
em&ex=1209787200&en=c4345e5bcda95925&ei=5087%0A
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9932054-7.html
Microsoft raises yahoo offer to $32-$33 through WSJ; YHOO Wants $37*
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/4/microsoft_offers_price_increase_
of_32_33_for_yahoo_through_wsj_board_voting_now
New Sezmi set-top blows away the TV
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2289653,00.asp
Microsoft’s new PC initiatives
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7375286.stm
Canadian bank hands out free Eee PCs
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/01/
canadian-bank-hands-out-free-eee-pcs/
Analyst: HD DVD demise hasn’t meant scramble for Blu-ray
http://ap.google.com/article/
ALeqM5g61RdIeGOIc6yBHUXuHJ7vtaEm2gD90CEK4O3
Pidgin controversy triggers fork
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/30/1822237
VOICE MAIL
Dave Durham
Here’s why Blu-ray is having problems.
FORUMS
Elections, parliment, candidates, Wikia, .org - confusion.
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?
forumID=97&threadID=293280
BOL Mayor job voting question
I guess I am a little confused about this whole BOL mayor thing.
We have a diplomat who likes to restate things in a more polite fashion, and interjects new topics into the conversation. (Tom) We have a sheriff, (Molly) who talks tough, calls it like she see it, and is rumored to carry a shotgun.
And then we have Jason, who acts more like a city administrator, pushing buttons, playing recordings, and publishing the podcast, all without much credit.
We even have a cranky old guy next door who loves cats and hates europeans, (Raife) as well as a house full of kids across the street who talk funny, play loud music all the time, and hold parties on the lawn. (The 404 podcast)
but this mayor thing confuses me, who chooses, who votes, and how? Is this like Chicago, can I vote more than once?
Keep up the good work,
--David
Living in the 4th ward of Buzztown, down by the bacon plant.
P.S. Who do I talk to about getting a key to the city?
Yahoo toolbar strikes again
Hello Jamoto,
The other day I bought components to build me a new PC and one thing I noticed in the motherboard software (it was gigabyte’s ep35c ds3r) that it included the Yahoo toolbar on the driver install list, it was at the very end of the driver installer. After the USB, chipset, SATA controller and LAN drivers.
Just a warning to everyone installing gigabyte drivers from their CDs.
I wonder how much Yahoo is paying those companies to push the toolbar.
And why don’t they just pay me, the customer, directly instead 
--Khaled
The Bot Project
Hi
Just thought I’d flag this up with you--http://www.thebotproject.com
To save you clicking the link, it’s basically an open source, community driven bot tracking initiative. Today is very much day one so there’s really not much of a community yet.
Anyway, there it is. If it’s of interest, take a look.
Cheers
--Dan
P.S. Sorry for the unsolicited e-mail…. and love the show.
P.P.S. Molly--you were soooo serious on Twit.tv that I thought you’d been body snatched!
Its not giant, its colossal
Molly--you referred to the currently defrosting/dissecting squid as a ‘Giant Squid’. In fact it’s a ‘Colossal Squid’.
I guess that’s what happens when you name your squids with superlatives… let’s hope they don’t find a bigger one. For linguistic reasons alone.
I actually would like to see a bigger squid, Maybe they could call it the ‘Bigger Squid’.
This is starting to sound like an Andy Rooney segment. I should stop now.
LTS KUTGW
--Keith
GTA IV
Hello,
I just heard you mention the GTA IV issues. I bought a Collectors Edition and had to return the disc as my Xbox 360 failed to read the disc properly. The replacement disc that I got from the original retailer worked fine and so far no problems, unless you count jaw pains from repeated droppage at the awesomeness. Love the show, and come to Boston!!!!!
Respectfully,
--Charles W. Moore, Jr.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
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EPISODE 701 |
Mike
Please keep doing the show.
Windows is ‘collapsing,’ Gartner analysts warn
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9916717-56.html
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1870375122;fp;;fpid;;pf;1
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8428
Europe rejects plan to criminalize file-sharing
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/10/
Europe-rejects-plan-to-criminalize-file-sharing_1.html
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/
419-eu-parliament-warns-against-isp-monitoring-in-music-piracy-fight/
Network Solutions advertises on your subdomain
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/04/11/1326235.shtml
Satellite to be junked because lunar flyby is patented
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/11/satellite-to-be-junk.html
Attention Flickr video haters: Try a free doughnut
http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9916624-39.html
Amazon, Wal-Mart jump on the HD DVD rebate bandwagon
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/
20080410-amazon-wal-mart-pile-on-the-hd-dvd-rebate-bandwagon.html
Army brings armed robots home from Iraq over control issues
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/10/
army-brings-armed-robots-home-from-iraq-over-control-issues/
The PS3 Laptop: From Ben Heck to Engadget with love
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/10/
the-ps3-laptop-from-ben-heck-to-engadget-with-love/
Datacenter used to heat swimming pool (Thanks Russ960!)
http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=11940
GoogleDrive
http://www.phatfusion.net/googledrive/
Best font ever!!!
http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/
the_best_font_ever_9432.asp
VOICE MAIL
Rafa
Well actually…. to myself!
A.C. South Korea
I care about the 3G iPhone
Hello there. I have been listening for about a month now and noticed that just about every (or perhaps every) listener message played ends with a “love the show” — many of which are fairly awkward/misplaced. For example, “I can’t believe you guys feel this way, what are you morons? My 6-year-old son has more common sense than you! Love the show.” I am thinking that your listeners think their message will not be played unless they say “love the show”. If that is the case, there are probably some really good messages that are not being aired. To solve this, I have created a “love the show”
MP3 for you that you can append to all messages that you wouldn’t normally play on air because of the sans “love the show”. Enjoy.
p.s. Love the show
Bo
Surfing the Internet on my Nokia N800 during a tornado--yes, seriously…
On Thursday morning there was some local, intense cyclonic activity that passed by my front door. I heard the siren went to my apartment’s “weather protection fortress” (aka my half-bathroom) with a comforter, pillow, and my Nokia N800 which I tuned to the local FM station to get the emergency notice. While the wind and hail was passing my front door, I was just listening to the radio and surfing the Web over Wi-Fi. I checked the Woot.com featured items and the BOL forum.
After the weather passed, I went back to bed and realized that I was freakin’ surfin’ the Interwebz while I was waiting out a tornado…WOW!
Have a good weekend,
Shalin
Bandwidth “crisis”
BOLers,
Companies sell a service to customers then complain that there is a bandwidth usage problem. Nearly every network access method is sold based on oversubscription. Companies do this to maximize profits. When they are forced to spend more on infrastructure, it cuts into profits. They don’t raise costs (they cut them and still try to entice new customers on to their networks), they don’t light the No Vacancy sign, they don’t re-engineer--they call in the lawyers and lobbyists to get protection for their bad business model.
I think it is important that this particular tech issue be stripped down to it’s essence of “maximizing shareholder return” (read as: “corporate greed”) instead of a streaming, peer-to-peer, [insert technology or Web site here] story. Their failure to run the business properly and attempts to make others pay for it is the big story that is underreported in the tech sector.
Can we get a good Molly Rant on the subsidization of the network build out and the failure to deliver what was promised soon?
Michael Baker
Columbus, Ohio
Strong Bad video game!
Telltale is creating a Strong Bad video game: Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/ 83100-Sam-Max-Developer-Announces-New-Episodic-Game
Kacee
Digital switch-over
Hi BUZZ, you know how TV stations will scroll that white text along the top of your TV usually about impending bad weather without stopping the show you are currently watching? Well I was watching TV last night and the scroll-y text starts going by and explaining the digital switch over in 2009 and where to call to get addition information. Pretty smart, that channel is one of CT’s over the air analog stations. They ran the message once during Jeopardy & once during Wheel of Fortune. Targeted demographic? Absolutely.
Dion in CT
p.s. - I’m not that demographic.
Ten thousand cents
I happened across this site today and its really interesting. http://www.tenthousandcents.com/index.html It looks like these artists used Amazon’s mechanical turk program and had hundreds of people draw 10,000 frames of a $100 bill. When you load the page you see the entire image being simultaneously drawn. They have something in there about how the money they are earning from selling it is going to go toward the OLPC program, however, Google has apparently frozen their account. Not a whole lot of information, but the animation itself is worth checking out.
Charles in SF.
Meetup
OK,
So, you guys went out for a few pints tonight, excellent. Montreal won their game vs. Boston in the Stanley Cup play-offs. I ask that you guys go drinking every night Montreal plays until some time in June (hopefully). As we all know, correlation is causation…
Go Habs Go
Dave (the psychologist and Habs fan)
Being nice
HEY
You guys were so nice at the end of Episode 699! Thank You! 
Seriously, that was great, thanks for playing me!
As usual, love you guys, I promise my next call or e-mail will be more helpful, less whiny!
Have a great day.
Elam Noor
Arden Hills, Minn.
--Tom
Listen now: Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 684 |
Amazon’s right on Vista SP1
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9897191-56.html
FCC Ends 700 MHz Auction
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9897722-7.html
Dell refutes solid state drive failure claims (Thanks Russ960!)
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13924_1-9897828-64.html
Apple could split device sales with music labels
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9897871-7.html
Adobe CEO says Flash apps coming to iPhone
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9897861-1.html
The reality of the RDF: how Apple motivates us to creativity
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/
20080319-brands-as-personality-why-apple-motivates-us-to-creativity.html
Toshiba losing money in HD DVD business
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080319/
ap_on_hi_te/japan_toshiba
Google Spreadsheets Adds Gadgets, a Directory of Features
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/
google-spreadsheets-adds-gadgets.html
Beatles Edition of Guitar Hero Could Be Coming
http://www.dbtechno.com/gaming/2008/03/19/
beatles-edition-of-guitar-hero-could-be-coming/
The US Postal Service wants your useless junk (Thanks Shalin!)
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/
the-us-postal-service-wants-your-useless-junk /
Sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke is dead
http://www.news.com/8301-13772_3-9897329-52.html
VOICE MAIL
Loren
I’m cable TV free!!!
Chris
More Cablecard info.
–Jason Cincy also corroborated it with TimeWarner where he lives.
Lauren Saskatchewan
When listeners collide
Robo dog
Hey guys,
That robo dog you mentioned yesterday, has been around for a while. I saw a video about this maybe 6-8 months ago. This isn’t a well actually. . .really it brings up a interesting issue with blogging (since you were discussing the validity of bloggers; the problem is that buzz reported on this as though it is news, as in new, and it is not literally new. There are so many blogs that things are missed and then recycled and then misrepresented. just an issue I was thinking about.
Eric
Omaha
*******************************
One console future???
I personally love that there are 3 consoles to choose from. It’s like the computer industry in the 1980’s. However is this the beginning of the end?
First we heard EA talking about how they wanted a one console future:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3163813
Then Dennis Dyack became a very vocal supporter of the one console future:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/denis-dyack/one-console-future-is-inevitable-313840.php
Even David Jaffe supported a one console future:
http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=156328
Then at this years GDC the PC Gaming Alliance was announced. It’s purpose was to save PC gaming. One of it’s members is Activision the largest publisher of video games today. Another member is Acer:
http://kotaku.com/358436/pc-gaming-alliance-officially-announced-here-to-save-the-day
This week there are rumblings that Acer wants to produce an “open standard” PC based GAMES CONSOLE!!!
http://kotaku.com/368460/pc-makers-acer-to-enter-games-market
All of this might not amount to anything. HOWEVER, the pieces are there and this industry could be changing. I think Nintendo has opened a lot of eyes this generation that there is HUGE money to be made with casual gaming and many companies have realized that the video gaming pie isn’t as hard to get a slice of as previously believed.
King of All Asia
************************************
Piracy precedents
It seems the American government has a long history of working with Pirates…
- In 1812 the US declares war against England over a dispute about access to and control of Louisiana
- At the end of 1814 General Andrew Jackson reaches an agreement with the pirate Jean Lafitte leading him and his men to fight for the US in the conflict.
- On January 8 1815 The British invaded and Lafitte and his men were considered a major reason the undermanned US forces were successful in repelling the British.
- On February 6 1815 President James Madison granted Lafitte and his men a full pardon for their previous crimes.
Info taken from “The Most Evil Pirates In History” by Shelley Klein pages 153 - 156.
What lesson do modern day pirates learn from this?
“Mainsheet” Matt
Ann Arbor, MI
**************************************
Story suggestion
I’m catching up on podcasts and I’m about 3 eps behind….but this is a good NEWS story.
http://www.renesys.com/blog/2008/03/you_cant_get_there_from_here_1.shtml
I work for a international backbone provider and I can also state that Turkey pulled a near Pakistan for almost a week :-0 …not to worry, was fixed today. But there was a Turkish court order to block Youtube that resulted in all traffic was dying on it’s way out of the country.
Seems they only broke it for their major carriers…not all…so not talked about so much.
Evidence: China, Pakistan and Turkey are all blocking Youtube, so it must in fact, be the root of all evil.
Cheers,
Emmett (In Italy)
***************************************
Check your Directv bill- PPV 24 hrs only
Message:
http://directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPage.jsp?assetId=P4540022
Effective April 15, 2008, DVR recordings of PPV movies will be available for 24 hours of unlimited viewing after purchase. Major movie studios have required that satellite and cable providers alike may no longer allow their customers to view these recordings for longer than 24 hours. During the 24 hour viewing period, you will continue to enjoy all of your DVR features such as pause and rewind.
JSRoman
--Molly
Listen now: Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 675 |
Apple SDK announcement
http://www.news.com/one-more-thing/
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/06/live-from-apples-iphone-press-conference/
The Vista Capable mess: Intel pushes, Microsoft bends
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/
20080305-the-vista-capable-debacle-intel-pushes-microsoft-bends.html
Internet Explorer 8: Crash, Restart, Crash
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Internet_Explorer_8_Crash_Restart_Crash_14848.html
Acid3 Test unleashed, murders every current browser
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=10975
Whistle-blower: Feds Have a high-speed backdoor into wireless carrier
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/whistleblower-f.html
Piracy caused by poor choice
http://torrentfreak.com/piracy-is-caused-by-poor-choice-080305/
MIPI ISP filter conflict (Thanks Luke from Melbourne!)
http://steve.blogs.exetel.com.au/index.php?/archives/79-MIPI.html
What piracy crisis? MPAA touts record box office for 2007
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/
20080305-for-movie-biz-tales-of-piracy-and-record-profits.html
Circuit City trading in HD DVD for Blu-ray players
http://gizmodo.com/363974/
circuit-city-trading-in-hd-dvd-for-blu+ray-players-says-employee
Gates dethroned as world’s richest man
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9887197-7.html
Ask.com says they don’t want to become women’s site
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-03-06-n40.html
Microsoft to switch Yahoo bid to all cash?
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9887527-7.html
Swiss bank in Wikileaks case abruptly abandons lawsuit
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9886855-38.html
VOICE MAIL
Someone
Analogy for packet inspection.
A. J. Alameda
Do things just keep getting more ridiculous?
Robert Edinburgh
I got a letter from Paramount.
Dear Sir or Madam,
We have received a complaint regarding an allegation of Copyright Infringement.
We were supplied an IP address of the system that was sharing the alleged copyrighted material, which we traced to your PIPEX ADSL account.
As I am sure you are aware, this breaches our Acceptable Use Policy, (http://www.pipex.net/legal/aup/ ) and many copyright laws, namely the Berne Convention.
Please reply to this email within 7 days stating that your PIPEX account will not be used for copyright infringement or any breaches of the law or the PIPEX Acceptable Use Policy.
Failure to respond or further infringements will cause your account to be temporarily suspended,and could also result in your account being terminated.
We have included the original complaint for you to view
iPod related crimes
Hello BuzzTown,
This is Rodrigo from Brazil, now in Toronto!
So the number one video on YouTube is a videoclip from the Brazilian band Cansei de Ser Sexy, also known as CSS an indie eletronic/pop band a little bit popular outside of Brazil. Even though I like the band and Veronica also mentioned this band on BOL a while ago, they are NOT that famous to be number. They are not that famous outside of Brazil and they are even less famous inside of Brazil. I can assure you that the 89 million views that video got is indeed a hack!
And regarding the crimes related to iPod, I just want to share this “funny” story. I went back to Brazil last december and I brought an iPod Touch to a friend, two weeks ago he was stopped while walking to the bus stop. A guy pointed a gun to him and said “Give me your wallet and your iPod”. My friend was not showing the iPod but he was wearing the white earphones. He said to the thief that he didn’t have a wallet and took the iPod touch out of his pocket to give to the bad guy. Here comes the “funny” on all this. They criminal stares at the iPod Touch and said, “What’s that? Where’s the iPod?”, so my friend realizes that this guy doesn’t even know what is an iPod Touch so my friend tells him “I’m sorry this is all I have”… The guy got angry but went away and didn’t steal anything from my friend.
So yes, if you are facing a stupid south american criminal you might be safe caring an iPhone or iPod Touch.
Best
Rodrigo
Memory debate
Hey Buzz Crew,
You brought up the debate about whether Google and other resources are making us “dumber” because we no longer have to remember anything.
Since when does memory equal intelligence? I could memorize every US President and recite it back to someone, and most likely that person would later say, “boy, he was really smart.” Yet, I might only know their names, which does not really make me smart, just good at memorization. A piece of paper could do this, and with more reliable accuracy. On the other hand, if I could put that information in context to tell you interesting facts about certain presidents, or make connections between presidents that others haven’t before, that would be something worthwhile.
There is a famous quote by Einstein, “Never memorize what you can look up in books.”
Apparently, the story behind this is that someone asked Einstein to recite some “well-known” scientific formula, and he couldn’t do it, and people were shocked. He explained that he saw no reason to clutter up his brain with a fact like that, when he knew exactly where to look it up when he needed it. He wanted to spend his time on more important things than memorizing facts that are easily found on paper, rather than memorizing things just to make himself seem “smart”.
Freeing up the brain from memorization creates room for creativity and other useful tasks.
I don’t think the real question is whether removing the need to memorize makes us dumber. The real question is, if we stopped forcing children to do useless memorization in school that they will never actually use, what would be left? Especially in college, we’re forced to memorize books and books worth of facts that we won’t remember even months later, only so that we can do well on tests.
Just some food for thought.
Love the show,
Steve from Nashville
Denver airport’s free Wi-Fi
Hey Tom, Molly, and Jason
I just have a quick comment on episode 674 concerning censorship in Denver Airport's free Wi-Fi.
First of all if a service is provided for free, consumers should not have the right to complain about blocking certain content. This is the same reason why ABC, CBS, Fox, and other free over-the-air channels must comply with FCC censorship laws. Paid content like HBO, Cinemax, and satellite radio are not govern by the censorship law because they are paid content. So if you wanted to have unrestricted access to the internet you should pay for it.
Second of all if you want unrestricted internet access in any free Wi-Fi hot spot, all you have to do is use VPN for which the content filter software cannot determine what to block. The only thing I see is that they can block VPN traffic entirely but I doubt that is being done.
Love the show and keep up the good work.
Maynard
from New Jersey
Analogy dispute!
Hey TMJ,
As a law student currently writing a paper on online privacy, I have to take issue with Shobee’s(sp?) analogy correction.
We protect phone communications because of the privacy interest that exists in not having our communications intercepted, not because it isn’t where crime is happening.
If we are ok with saying that piracy is happening online and monitoring is the best way to stop it, then we may have to say that it’s ok to have police walk through our homes whenever they like, cause that’s where lots of crime is happening. Or perhaps since cars are used for smuggling, the police need to randomly stop our cars and search them. Not every person is going to be committing crimes in their homes or cars but, in Showbee’s words, if you want to catch who you need to catch, this is where you are going to find them.
The internet today handles so much private activity that any suggestion of tapping our connections must be taken very seriously. Piracy, in my opinion, simply isn’t a strong enough reason to head down the very slippery slope of internet monitoring.
love the podcast,
The Anonymous Canadian Law Student.
Illegal downloads in Iceland
Howdy Buzz Folks,
Thought you might find this interesting.
Hmmm, I guess I’ll be
Nine convicted for Illegal Downloads in Iceland
http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/
?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=302026
“Alexa” in the Azores…. (formerly in Iceland)
--Molly
Listen now: Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 667 |
Hungry for burgers.
What's with the huh?
Hey, just finished your last podcast about will iTunes refund those session pass.
I don't have the same experience; but I did get a refund from Apple after NBC pulled their stuff off iTunes. I also got 2 free episodes as extra. All these are unexpected to me; since I did not ask for question them on this at all. Here is the e- mail I got.
Future episodes of "Psych" will not be available on the iTunes Store. We realize that you purchased a season pass and regret that we will not be able to deliver these episodes to you. I have issued a pro-rated refund in the amount of $13.12 for the remaining episodes. You will see this credit in three to five business days. If Store Credit was used for this purchase, you should see the credit applied to your balance immediately.Take care,
I have also granted two free video credits to your account which you can use to purchase of any two TV episodes, music videos, or short films on the iTunes Store.
Your credit balance should display in the upper-right corner of iTunes next to your account name. If it does not, please sign out and sign back in to refresh. The sign out/sign in functions are found under the Store menu of iTunes. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for being an iTunes customer.
Sincerely,
Ray from Alameda
Hey Buzz crew,
This Roque (aka Rocky) from Guadalajara, Mexico, I have been planning in writing to you guys for some time, but finally got some time while I'm at school, in my boring class (Electronic design with integrated circuits, is not as cool as it sounds, and yeah I'm taking my degree as an Communications and electronics engineer) but anyways going to the point of the mail, I was listening to show 663 I think about the cable companies forcing customers to switch to digital, and well I can give you some information about Comcast, because I work as a Comcast account executive (yes that's right we are in Mexico) and don't hate us too much, we are not that evil, well at least in Comcast in the California market, you don't need to worry if you have Comcast, it won't make any change in the basic and standard analogue services, they will keep working at least for the next 5 years, but as you said in episode 664 there will be change, is obvious if over the air TV (free TV) is going digital why not cable?, satellite is digital, over the air TV is digital, only cable is missing... and well everything is going digital, as they tell us at school, all what we are learning will be old when I finish!
And now going to the other reason to my mail, I know you have lots of complains about Apple, but I can't help myself, let me tell you I'm in my second iPod, and yes is an iPod touch, and you know it works fine, love to have Wi-Fi in it that way I don't need to carry my laptop that much, but you know I bought I think 1 week before the damn iPod update in January, after sometime I decide OK I'll pay for the updates (I want the e-mail one) and guess what I can't! What's wrong with Apple why so much punish to people!, the truth I wanted to buy a zune, but well you know they don't sell them outside the states. so sad, and the last thing that is missing is able to download podcasts to the touch, most of the time I don't have a chance to plug it to my PC till late in the night so I'm always 1 show behind, if I could download the show while I'm school, I will be able to listen it on the way to work.
But anyways should go back to pay attention to my class or I'll be working for Comcast for a long time!
Great show keep the good work!
Rocky your Comcast account executive for today!
Tom, Molly, and Jason,
I am an intern at a senator's office and after receiving a lot of calls about the digital television transition. When these calls came in they were directed to me since I understood what I was talking about. My boss overheard me and called me into her office and after 30 min of one on one time she assigned me a project of putting together something for the senator to help his constituents with the switch. On previous shows there were a lot of calls about possible fraud from cable companies and electronics retailers, I would like to include these in my report. If you would be willing to put out the call it would be greatly appreciated, I have created a gmail account for this project but it forwards to my main account so fell free to give it out on the air. It would be a great help if you could help me out with this project, and keep up the good work because there are geeks getting into the government and we will fix the problems that need fixing but you need to keep us informed and united.
Thank you,
Zack
Hey Molly, Tom, and Jason,
I happened to be out this weekend with a few buddies who work over in Redmond. After a few (OK, a lot) of drinks I asked them how they felt about the death of HD DVD and the 360 add-on drive.
Don't worry, they all said, the Blu-ray add on will be available by June-ish. It's fully designed and ready to begin manufacture, as soon as a marketing plan is ready. According to my sources it will run somewhere in the range of $199 to $250, and will work and look exactly like the HD add-on. Probably to save costs since I'm sure they have tons of unused HD DVD shells laying around. From what I've learned in the from these guys in the past, and the quantities of booze in them, I'd give this a 80 percent chance of being accurate. Keep up the awesome work!
D in Seattle
Hey Buzz crew,
Love the show. I started a Facebook group to promote the usage of LOI over LOL. It's called "The LOI Movement". Mention it on the show. Hey, if we can buy Revver, we can destroy LOL.
P.S. Love the mullet, LOI.
Also feel free to mention my full name, just don't give out my any of my personal information listed in the signature below.
-- Thank you for your time,
Ron Landreth
First--I am a 53-year-old grandmother who has listened to your podcast for about a year. I teach language arts and have used computer and Internet technology in my classroom for years. http://www.mrswieseman.org I just wanted you to know that just because I'm old doesn't mean I'm not interested in new technology. I do love my toys:) LOI
Secondly--I purchased a song on iTunes plus just yesterday, and there was a notice that for only $2.70 I could upgrade some already purchased songs. How did Jeff get the freebies?
Lastly--love the show, keep up the good work keeping semitech savvy old- timers like me informed.
Grandma Mary
Hi Buzz crew,
So the Zune offers gaming now? Is that a firmware upgrade? If so, where is the $20 charge for it? Shouldn't Microsoft and Apple have the same accounting rules? Or is Apple just making this up to get even more money from you? Just a thought.
Oliver
Hey Buzz crew,
JaMoTo nested again on the night of the 22nd (Friday). It is the very tail end of the leatherback sea turtle nesting season in Gabon and I expected that she would leave the area after nesting again, but it appears she is still lingering. This means she will probably nest again in another 9 or 10 days. She must be a very fertile turtle!
Bonus video! I have posted some video I took of JaMoTo on the beach and a couple of previously unposted photos on my blog to share with Buzztown.
Cheers,
Michael
Just to let you know. Google already launched balloons over Sao Paulo. They said it was a advertising for Google maps (a red balloon, like their red pin point in Google maps--got it?) but I thought it was bizarre. Sine when Google needs to advertise anything on the real world?
Or they were testing their new balloon Wi-Fi technology.
Some photos on an advertising blog here (Portuguese only, sorry). And here.
Alex, from Rio.
No, not the other Alex from Rio that runs while listening to BOL. But I can try to do mountain climbing listening to BOL, does that counts?
Molly, Jason, and Thomas,
It's Rick, the "balloon scientist" and amateur radio operator from Colorado.
:-) Hey everyone as to be the xyz occupation from somewhere right?
Allow me to drop a "well actually" or two on you folks. And in no way would I expect you to know any of this stuff without doing a fair amount of research so this isn't a rag on you guys just a friendly "well actually."
Balloons. Hmmm, at last something I know something about. This just goes to show, your audience can probably address just about any issue under the sun with some level of expertise, assuming they are sufficiently interested to respond. And, this time out apparently I was motivated to do so.
This e-mail is in response to the very brief mention you made in episode 665 where at the end you discuss Google's possible acquisition of Space Data's balloon borne cell system technology. Your discussion of this issue is probably dwarfed by my wordy response. But, I'm sure you say things like smurf and get 100 page diatribes all the time. It's the nature of a large audience right? Some of us have no common sense or word governors.
I tend to write voluminous tombs about inconsequential stuff so, here is the short version:
---------------------short---------------------
I know what I'm talking about (more or less).
$50 bucks for a balloon to fly these airborne cell towers...no way! The balloon has to be around $100 and the helium to fly it around the same.
Tom's idea that we should bomb the countryside with high velocity projectiles from the sky, well...possible but not a good idea and not necessary. The parachute will solve this problem.
Molly's worry about balloons going off on their own and disobeying the laws of atmospheric physics, I don't think so. But again, it is possible under some circumstances that generally won't crop up except infrequently.
Molly's concern about the polluting nature of balloon debris all over the place. Well again, as is true of much in life, yes and no. Yes, in the short term it can be a problem for wildlife. No, in the long term, latex balloons degrade to nothing and actually are eaten by the bacteria in soil. So, we're helping the little guys and should be applauded for our supporting the underdogs.
Jason's brief thoughts about tethering balloons, no way! But, Jason pretty much gave up on that idea almost before he finished the sentence he suggested it in. Never the less, I address it below.
Now, on to the ridiculously long version. I'm a lot less snotty and there are some good links that show neat photos, videos, and interesting information so if you have a few minutes ...
Rick von Glahn
Parker, Colorado
PS. If you ever have questions in this area (like that's ever going to happen), feel free to drop me a line.
--Molly
Listen now: Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 665 |
All about the bombs.
Love the show notes.
Here is the link to the fan art created by Chris from Pennsylvania. Not quite sure why it didn't make it into the notes yesterday, but it is worth adding in a day later so everyone can see it. Love it!
http://kobun04.deviantart.com/art/Indeterminate-Length-77497584
Hello Buzz crew,
This week I was trying to mess how many meters I am running (and walking) while listening to your podcast, but hey...today's podcast was shorter than 3 miles! I couldn't wait until my little research is done to start complaining...please keep it longer than 3 miles, or I won't get in shape!
Here are some little interesting data I have made up:
- Assuming that someone covers 5 miles while jogging in an hour, and that BOL has 663 episodes and the average length is 30 minutes, BOL has the exact length of 1,657 miles. That's not even going from west coast to east coast.
- Assuming you are driving while listening to BOL, and an average person drives at 65 miles per hour, you are 71 episodes short about completing a whole turn around the world!
- Assuming you are inside a Concorde traveling at twice the velocity of sound while listening to all BOL's episodes, you could reach the moon! Yeah baby!
Keep up the good length (about over 3 miles).
Alexandre from Brazil
Apple has, in fact, already produced an Apple shoe.
Of course, after seeing that, it is understandable why they just decided to partner with Nike these days to make the shoes for their iPods.
One other point about the salivary gland cancer. People have been talking on phones for 7 to 8 hours a day since the phone was created (operators, tech support agents, lonely people). If excessive talking on the phone (or even just excessive talking) were the cause of salivary gland cancer, I'm fairly certain that someone would have noticed this trend by now.
Matthew F. Theiss
Hey guys,
Just an update that OnStar will upgrade your equipment off of the dying analog network with a one-year service agreement. Not so bad after all.
Thanks,
Jason
Excerpt:
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is considering either a partnership or a full-on buyout of Space Data Corp--a company that provides balloon-based wireless networks. If you think that seems a little strange, consider this: the balloons can help bring wireless service to individuals in rural areas and they can be launched on the cheap--about $50 to launch the balloon, $1,500 for the receiver, and a $100 finder's fee for recovery after the balloon returns to earth.OK, it's not as dramatically cool as a fleet of airplanes, but still pretty neat. :)
Best,
Shalin
After hearing Molly joke that perhaps a radio-controlled shark was responsible for the Internet access cables in the Middle East being cut, I was inspired to create this.
Please keep in mind I did this very quickly this morning, at work, with GIMP, a program I'm not terribly proficient in (I use Photoshop at home).
Hope you get a laugh out of it, or at the very least an LOI. ;)
Marc Johnson
aka TNVWBOY
Nashville, Tennessee
P.S. Love the show and listen every day.
Hi BOL,
I was an engineer at NASA down at the cape for a while, and they taught us everything about hydrazine. It's simply a fuel that the orbiter and solid rocket boosters use for maneuvering. What I found most interested (or terrifying) is that it's supposed to smell like ammonia, but we were told that if you could smell it, you've already received a lethal dose. They had alarms just for hydrazine exposure all over the place-- indoors and out. Pretty nasty stuff.
Love the show!
Mike (the electrical engineer in Florida)
--Molly
Listen now: Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 664 |
Apple's reaction to DoubleTwist.
Steve Jobs shoe.
Help for Rush.
Interesting take on saliva cancer.
Hey Buzz crew,
See this thread for a whole-buncha information on the wayward satellite, chances of hitting Earth, info on the anti-satellite missile, controversy surrounding the shoot-down, etc.: http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10152_102-0.html? forumID=97&threadID=281569&messageID=2690146
*Disclaimer: Shalin is not a missile expert, Shalin is not a satellite expert, Shalin is not an anti-satellite missile expert either. But Shalin does know some aerospace stuff that maybe helpful to understand regarding the shoot-down of the wayward satellite.
Anti-Satellite weapons are not new.
Although they haven't had as much use or testing as conventional weapons, anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons are not new--they've been around for decades. The last known tests the U.S. performed were in the 80s. ASAT weapons were basically conceived as strategic solutions to threats (use of space as a battleground) during the Cold War.
As far as why three are being fired--one as a first shot and two "second chances" seems the likely logic to me. Guidance systems are more sophisticated these days, so I would actually expect the first shot to be successful.
I don't think they'll be fired all at once. If they don't hit the target, they'll likely be directed back through the atmosphere to burn up, self destruct, or both.
More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-135_ASAT
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/asat/overview.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegis_Ballistic_Missile_Defense_System
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/aegis.htm
It's disappointing to me that this shoot-down is going forward 'cause it'll just create more debris up there that isn't really helpful.
Best,
Shalin
Hey Tom and Molly,
I've been a long-time listener, but quiet responder, of the show and after listening to Ep. No. 663 regarding the falling satellite and Molly's fears. Well, you guys managed to bring out a "well actually" funny-bone reaction. So here goes:
This message could be kinda long, so I won't be miffed if it doesn't make it onto the podcast. ;-)
I work for an aerospace company in Exton, Pennsylvania called Analytical Graphics (www.agi.com) that makes software that's used by engineers for just this sort of situation. It's called, appropriately enough, Satellite Tool Kit and outputs amongst other things a great 3D immersive view of what's going on so you can get that really cool "Dr. Strangelove" effect of riding the satellite all the way down to impact. Think Google Earth with lots more math and science.
Predicting the impact for these types of events is tricky, and involves equal parts of science and mystic voodoo, and a healthy dose of luck. While many things can affect where the object will eventually come down, there is, however, a property of the orbit of the vehicle, called it's Inclination, that can pretty much tell us that it won' likely come down on either the North or South Poles, ensuring that Santa and a whole bunch of penguins won't have to evacuate. Christmas and Bumble Happyfeet are safe for another year.
To further complicate the issue, the military intends to shoot the thing down (similar to what the Chinese did about a year ago), voicing a variety of reasons:
There is a distinct chance that the propellant tanks filled with Hydrazine (nasty, nasty stuff) would survive reentry, spilling their contents onto the house of some unsuspecting HD DVD owner, further compounding his already mounting sense of misery. These tanks are built Ford-tough and have a better chance of reentering intact than Apple has of releasing Beatles songs on iTunes by the end of the Year. (Wanna take that bet, Molly?)
Despite the 70 percent chance that the thing would come down in an Ocean, the remaining 30 percent land mass happens to be fairly well populated, raising the eyebrows of plenty of people--tax-paying people, who've played more remote odds on the Super-bowl and won !!! 'Nuff said.
Just my personal opinion here: It's an election year, and people are getting bored of the same-old-same-old. There's no doubt that our exiting administration would like to do so with a little panache, and since the Chinese did something similar about a year ago, no doubt bruising some egos in the process, what better way to leave the stage than with a good ol' shoot-em-down demonstration of where your tax money has gone into the Missile Defense System. To Molly's fear of what happens if they miss: I'd be more concerned about not getting your money's worth on the guidance system of the missiles.
So, the decision of our fine military minds is to shoot the thing down with a barrage of SM-3 missiles from a Navy ship floating off somewhere in the 70 percent impact-area. All in the interest of public safety of course. But since this is a newer, Joint-Forces, military, they'll probably have to do it something along these lines:
The Navy will shoot the missiles from one of its ships. Recruitment will go up: "Join the U.S. Navy & shoot down stuff the US Air Force sent into orbit" A Marine will push the button. OOrah !! Semper-Fi !! Keep'n it simple with a big boom result !! The Air Force will point to the right target. "Second star to the left and straight on 'til morning". Thanks, Tink!! Or: No!! Not that one!! The one on your right!! NOOoooo!! Your other right!!
The Coast Guard will clean up the pieces--again. (Those guys never get to do the fun stuff)
You'll notice that the Army was left out of the deal, probably because those poor guys get enough target practice on a daily basis and have better things to do than take pot shots at falling space junk.
One final serious note:
The comparison between the Chinese missile launch on their own satellite about a year ago and what's gonna happen here is a natural one to make. The big difference is one of altitude. They hit their bird high enough that pieces from that explosion still continue to remain in orbit and will continue pose a hazard to other (expensive) hardware probably for decades to come. This shot will drop most of the debris within the first 90 minutes, with most of the remaining stuff to come down a few days later.
So if you want to put an Al Gore "green" spin on this, what the military is doing is "better" for the environment by "releasing" the Hydrazine safely at a high altitude in a cacophony of explosive delight. The pieces will produce a nice oooooh-ahhhhhh effect for hours to come, and we'll have proven that Missile Defense works!! Everybody happy!!
You can see some animations we produced on the Web site: http://www.agi.com/corporate/mediaCenter/topStories/display.cfm?id=202 There's a media link at the bottom in case you want a snap, or the video.
Love the show and sorry for the run-along e-mail !!!
Cheers,
Frank
Hello Jamoto,
Purposely destroying a satellite using a missile already happened on September 13, 1985 when an ASM-135 ASAT air-launched missile carried by a F-15 Eagle fighter jet was aimed at the malfunctioning Solwind P78-1, a Satellite launched in 1979. ASAT stands for anti-satellite weapon.
On January 11 2007, China also destroyed a defunct orbiting weather satellite.
This time, the missile will be launched from the USS Lake Erie that will be located in somewhere in the Pacific ocean.
As per a CNN article, "The Pentagon said the U.S. Navy plans to try to shoot down a faulty spy satellite with a modified antimissile missile on Wednesday. It would be the first such maneuver in more than two decades-- and the first ever using sea-based missiles."
As you mentioned in Episode 663, the reason they're doing it is to prevent the the dispersion about 1,000 of hydrazine. The article says: "[...]the fuel tank probably would survive re-entry and could disperse harmful or even potentially deadly fumes over an area the size of two football fields. Hydrazine is similar to chlorine or ammonia in that it affects the lungs and breathing tissue."
They also say: "The satellite is about the size of a school bus and the missile will be aimed at its fuel tank, which is about 3 or 4 feet long."
At a cost of $40 million to $60 million for the whole destruction operation, I'm sure (read: hope) that they know what they're doing.
References:
Wikipedia articles:
- ASM-135 ASAT Missile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-135_ASAT
- Anti-Satellite Weapon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon
- USA 193 Sattelite (the one being destroyed): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_193
CNN Article:
- U.S. to shoot down satellite Wednesday, official says:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/19/satellite.shootdown/
Love the show,
Giorgio from Montreal
While I'm always glad to see anyone stand up to the evils of DRM, I am hesitant to recommend or support the method that doubleTwist is using. DRM protected AAC is already a lossy compression format. When you (or an application) plays that back and then re-encodes it to another lossy format (MP3), you are transcoding.
This results in a significant and noticeable loss in audio fidelity. In today's world of cheap storage and affordable audio gear, we should be moving towards maintaining higher quality.
That said, I applaud DVD Jon's efforts and hope this will only provide yet another chink in the armor of the evil Dr. M.
Matthew Kivett
I'm now listening to the Kojo Nnamdi show podcast from their "Tech Tuesday" brodcast where they talked about the digital TV transition:
http://wamu.org/programs/kn/08/02/19.php#19289
The expert on the show indicated that when the transition takes effect those currently having "basic" cable would need a converter box. My understanding is that this is not correct; that analog broadcasts would continue to work on cable for a while longer than the over-the-air transition. When even the "experts" give wrong information, how is a consumer supposed to deal with it?
Mike
Chris from Pennsylvania
Hi Buzz crew,
JaMoTo it is! I've updated the Web site with the new name. Just as a reminder, the turtle map is here:
http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/index.shtml?tag_id=80623
And you can find a photo of JaMoTo here:
http://www.seaturtle.org/cgi-bin/imagelib/index.pl?photo=3777
You can see the very small transmitter attached to her back (carapace) in the photo. Tom should enjoy this. The transmitter sends a signal every time it breaks the surface of the water, which is hopefully received by one of a number of satellite-based receivers orbiting overhead. The received messages are relayed to ground stations where her position is calculated using the doppler effect (slight shifts in the frequency of the transmission as the receiving satellite passes quickly overhead).
An update on her progress. JaMoTo has stayed close to the nesting beach since she last nested (and we tagged her) on February 13. This is a sign that she will return to the beach and lay eggs at least one more time this season. Leatherback sea turtles usually nest every 9 to 10 days, and will lay four to seven nests, during the nesting season. We expect that she will come ashore to nest again either tomorrow night or the night after (Thursday or Friday night in Gabon time).
That's all for now.
cheers,
Michael
--Molly
Listen now: Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 663 |
Is it not odd to shoot down a satellite?
How not to respond to text spam.
El Rushbo's Mac problem.
Apple TV baloney.
Hey Buzz crew,
Hey Tom, Jason, and Molly! This week I was in the Poconos without Internet access. After about three days, I needed my fix of tech news and really started to miss you guys.
I probably looked crazy, but I left the house and walked around the forest dodging sticks and piles of leaves looking for any Wi-Fi signal I could. I came upon a an SSID named "default" and no WEP key!
Standing out in 23-degree weather with just jeans, shoes, and a T-shirt, I started to download Buzz Out Loud. 17 minutes later I was finished. You guys probably don't realize how important you are to the Buzz town community. Love the show.
Sincerely, Jack
Hi,
I work at Sprint and heard Molly complaining about her mobile coverage on TWIT this morning. We have a Web portal called "Employees Helping Customers," and I would be happy to open a ticket for her.
I've had very good results using this tool in the past to resolve issues for some of our customers. For coverage issues, they will often send out an engineer to do a signal survey and troubleshoot possible solutions.
I can't promise that it will solve the problem, but sometimes the engineer can at least tell you when/if there will be a fix.
Blake Smith
Hello, Sean from Pittsburgh again.
I was wondering if Microsoft does buy Yahoo, how will that affect the iPhone because Yahoo gives the free push e-mail to iPhone users and they also provide the data for weather and stock widgets? Will Microsoft become a developer for the iPhone once the SDK launches and bring Office? Or will they just stay the same? Or, will they completely drop support for the iPhone in order to promote Windows Mobile/sidekick? I'm curious to hear your thoughts.
Thanks,
Sean
http://mashable.com/2008/02/16/ebay-seller-strike-week/
copyright1968
I purchased a track with iTunes yesterday, and while it was downloading, iTunes suddenly added about 30 tracks I had previously purchased. It was upgrading them to the iTunes plus format...for free! Apparently Apple no longer charges for the upgrade in format. This is a little late in coming in my opinion, considering that they dropped the price of the iTunes plus tracks several months ago, but it is quite welcome in my book.
One interesting note: I wasn't prompted--it just went ahead and did it on its own, as far as I can tell. It will be interesting if and when the other big labels get onboard and suddenly iTunes starts redownloading the 1,000 or so tracks I have left in the regular format.
Jeff, the eternal student
Hello Buzztown, ANkh in Ireland here. I wanted to drop you a line to say that a friend of mine is helping a friend of his launch his new album on 8-track! Check it out: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=13019884763 They bought an 8-track recorder and a bunch of tapes and are hoping to sell 15 tapes over the next five to 10 years to break even! So spread the news! Make sure every 8-track player owner hears!
Thanks, ANkh, the Irish computer engineering student
Hi guys,
I was able to listen to Friday's episode today. Good stuff! I've added some information and a photo of the Buzz turtle on the tracking site. Do let me know if you would like to give it a name.
Cheers,
Michael
Hope Molly gets better soon, here's an update on the sea cables.
11-Feb-08 - FLAG EUROPE ASIA (FEA) and FALCON Cable restored, traffic on the cable normalized.
Update on Submarine Cable Cut Repairs
Cut No. 1: FLAG EUROPE ASIA Cable restored between Alexandria (Egypt) and Palermo (Italy)
- The crew completed the repair on the FEA cable on February 9, 2008, at 18:00 GMT, a day ahead of the schedule.
- The cable cut was reported at 08:00 GMT on January 30, 2008, around 8.3 kilometers away from Alexandria cable landing station between Egypt-Italy segment.
Cut # 2: FALCON Cable restored between Dubai (UAE) and Al SEEB (Oman)
- The crew completed the repair on the FALCON cable on February 10, 2008, at 10:00 GMT.
- The cable cut was reported at 05:59 GMT on February 1, 2008, around 56 kilometers from Dubai, UAE on segment between UAE and Oman.
Best regards...
Khaled A.
--Tom
Listen now: Download today's podcast
Starting Monday, February 18, we will discontinue the Buzz Out Loud newsletter. If you are currently subscribed to the newsletter, keep your eyes on the Buzz Out Loud blog at http://bol.cnet.com for a post that will describe the many options you have to get the show notes e-mailed to your inbox using available online services.
|
EPISODE 662 |
Apple TV issues.
Halle Berry as Storm.
Hey Buzz crew,
First, I wanted to thank Tom for mentioning the CNET iPhone page. It's now in my iPhone bookmarks. Second, I've included a link about LOLing that sums up my thoughts on it perfectly. My suggestion to all the Buzzfans out there is that every time you type LOL and aren't actually LOLing, make your LOL a link to the video. It'll be sort of like Rickrolling people. Maybe we can call it LOLrolling. Anyway, love the show.
Sorensilk (the CoinStar hacker)
Austin, Texas
Hey you guys,
My friends and I use LOL when we are truly laughing out loud. We use COL when we are chuckling out loud. And we now use LOI thanks to Buzz Out Loud. I think COL is a very worthy addition to the LOL/LOI lexicon because there are a lot of times when one is not actually laughing out loud nor is one just laughing on the inside. I think that place in between those two worlds is well served by the ol' COL. Whaddaya think?
Merci,
Fordeaux (I am feeling international today so I've been using the French spelling of my name all day. It feels right.)
P.S. Molly, I have seen some good movies lately! Saw Juno the other day. L-o-v-e-d spells loved it! I think if we ever need to rent out our third bedroom, we could totally rent it out to Juno. Or Ellen Page. Either would be a worthy and welcome addition to our very fun and funny household. That cheeseburger phone of Juno's isn't really very techie but it's retro and cool so I think it can come to live with us too.
Hi guys,
Just for the record, I don't support the idea of you changing the name of the show to BOI--Buzz On the Inside. I for one frequently listen to the show on a hi-fi, and therefore out loud. While many people probably do hear Buzz "on the inside," this is only because of the nature of headphones, and I don't think it's a good enough reason to change the name of a show.
But with 'LOI' in mind, maybe we could consider changing ROFL to something a bit less misleading, since I don't believe anyone ever hears anything over IM that prompts them to get out of their chair, lay down on the floor and roll around like they're on fire. Anyone who does this shouldn't be allowed on the Internet anyway.
Nate
Just wondering what all the fuss is about with the 24-hour limit on the rentals. Comcast does the same thing on their movie rentals, a friend of mine says her online rental service has the same terms. Is it that people expect Apple to strike a better deal than everyone else, or are people just nit-picking because it's Apple? I don't own an Apple TV yet, and I don't rent movies from Comcast even though I have their digital cable. I prefer to buy the movies I like.
Robert
Vijay went to a concert last night at Madison Square Garden, and saw the future of music sales, and it was good. (Full disclosure: The concert was Matchbox Twenty. And Alanis Morissette opened. So, it felt like 1997.)
At the booth right where they sell t-shirts and such, there was a big sign that said something like "Take the concert home...tonight." It worked like this:
1) Pay $35 before the show, and get a ticket.
2) Watch the concert.
3) After the concert, redeem the ticket for a 256MB USB flash drive wristband. On the flash drive: the concert we had all just seen (Note: This was only available for the Matchbox Twenty part of the show.)
I (Vijay) decided to give it try. The only problem was that I had to wait in a big pushy mob for about 20 minutes before the first batches of wristbands emerged. But the key is this: There was a big pushy mob. People were willing to shell out a lot of cash ($35!) to get their content, direct from the artist.
And the kicker: it was un-DRM'd 128Kbps MP3 format. They even broke the songs into different tracks, making it dummy-proof. Heck, the concert is already on Vijay's iPod.
And for the crazy fan, you can go online and buy the official wristband for any of the tour's shows.
As far as we can tell, this is the first big-name band to do something like this. Judging from the crowd, it seemed successful. Soderburgh may have failed in his experiment with instant DVD gratification at the theater, but just-in-time concert albums make a lot of sense. And lots of people paid for un-DRM'd MP3s. And the label got no money. Take that, RIAA.
As always, keep on buzzing!
Vijay & Mo
The boys from Boston
Sorry about this. I tried to call in using a satellite phone right after attaching a satellite tag to a leatherback sea turtle in Gabon, but it did not seem to want to connect to your 1-800 number. So I recorded an audio message instead. Attached as a QuickTime movie file.
In short, I would like to name one of the turtles we tagged in honor of BOL helping to save me from utter boredom at a remote field camp. All of the turtles will be tracked live online at this site. Not much to see yet, but we will fill it out with information, pictures, and video and soon as we get back to broadband speeds in a few days.
And I've been twittering a bit of the trip.
cheers,
Michael
Tom Merritt appears on
CNET TV, specializing in help and how-to and the ever popular Top 5
lists. He also co-hosts CNET's The Real Deal podcast. 
Jason Howell can
often be found producing Buzz Out Loud from the audio studios at CNET,
updating XML feeds from the comfort of his cubicle, and saying "uh-oh"
from time to time. 
