Buzz Out Loud Podcast

A bat hitched a ride on the space shuttle Discovery and I think it's going to be a long long time till touchdown brings it down again. Of course, IBM apparently wants to buy Sun too. We also cover the hot new features in the latest software update for the Nokia 5800. Oh, and the iPhone too.

EPISODE 933

IBM to buy Sun?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/technology/companies/19sun.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10198901-92.html

iPhone OS 3.0: What you need to know
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10198292-37.html

What iPhone OS 3.0 promises users and developers
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10198525-37.html

Nokia 5800 NAM gets v20.2.014 major update
http://symbianworld.org/1357-nokia-5800-nam-gets-v202014-major-update/

Amazon’s Kindle targeted by patent infringement suit
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/03/amazons-kindle-targeted-by-patent-infringement-suit.ars
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13512_3-10198880-23.html

Steam gets into micropayments with in-game DLC
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10198392-2.html

House of Dead says f-word more than any other video game
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10198183-62.html

Xbox Live has family games from Hasbro for free
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/mar09/03-17FamilyGameNightPR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases

Psystar releases new $599 Mac clone
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/03/18/psystar-releases-new-599-mac-clone/

Computer science enrollment up
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=14861

Did bat hitch a ride to space on Discovery?
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/18/1232233

Voice mail
Anonymous
Play more voicemails

Gatlin
Happy Birthday Windows 3.1

E-mail
Hi guys (”love the show?”)

Generally, I’m against “paid premium content” though I’ve subscribed to ESPN insider and NY Times Select (or whatever it’s called), but I thought this was a great way for the Rocky News staff to keep providing service to the Denver community:

http://indenvertimes.com/

THE DEAL IS SIMPLE.

You pledge to pay as little as $4.99 a month, and if we reach our goal of
50,000 pledges by April 23 we will go live with our site to revive a tradition of distinguished reporting and editing with 21st-century electronic delivery.

It's an investment, one worth $4.99 a month to encourage a bold, creative effort to continue a vision based on a 150-year Denver tradition.

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Hey B.O.L.,

Windows Mobile revamps their entire ui, gives you flash to go along with a new mobile browser, a free backup solution, and some great devices that will come with it and you guys get all worked up over cut&paste and mms on the iphone? Really? Tell me why? I propose that each host should own a phone from a different os to level out this iphone lovefest. Tom can use a windows phone, natalie a blackberry, and jason an iphone.

Loving the show just a smidge less,
Emiliano the Mechanical Engineer

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Hello BOL.

The problem with maps is the licensing, the maps that google use are not licensed for routing and navigation, as presented in this ( http://code.google.com/apis/maps/terms.html ) terms of using the google maps api:
Scroll down to restrictions: you must not use the Service or Content with any products, systems, or applications for or in connection with real time navigation or route guidance, including but not limited to turn-by-turn route guidance that is synchronized to the position of a user’s sensor-enabled device.

Google licenses the maps from TeleAtlas/Navteq and I am sure both companies would prefer that you pay them for their maps. again … and again … and again. for each GPS enabled device that you own.
Now we will worry about map DRM …

Thanks!

Best regards…

Khaled A.

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Dear Buzz Crew:
I just wanted to say congratulations and Happy New Year to all Persians around the world (those who listen to this Podcast), this Friday would be the end of winter and start of the spring which is the start of our new year, we call it "Norouz" (translated: the new day).
So Happy Norouz to all Persian BOL Fans around the world.
Love the Show,
Siavash From Iran.

Brian Cooley aptly describes YouTube as hot and junky video today. And that, my friends, is why the president has moved his video off YouTube and is hosting the player himself. Meanwhile, we get a few more jabs in at the Authors Guild/Kindle controversy, and Cooley rants about space. Parking space.

Episode 922

Square Root Day revelers to party like it’s 3/3/09
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10186121-76.html

Apple tweaks desktops
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10186472-37.html
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/03/apple-releases-trio-of-long-awaited-desktops.ars

Roku box adds Amazon Video
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10185922-48.html

AMD, Nvidia play dueling graphics chip launches
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=13772

2009 will be the worst year for PC sales. Ever. By far. (And no, Netbooks won’t save the day.)
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/woe-is-pc-sales-to-fall-faster-than-ever-before/

Atom can’t feed fab monster; Intel outsources chips to TSMC
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/03/atom-cant-feed-rd-monster-intel-outsources-chips-to-tsmc.ars

Best Buy planning to sell motorcycles it has invested in?
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10185922-48.html

Time Warner to sell channels directly on Web?
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/jeff-bewkes-goes-over-the-top/

Finding star power in games: The odd case of Jimmy Fallon
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/03/finding-star-power-in-games-the-odd-case-of-jimmy-fallon.ars

White House ditches YouTube
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/02/2055212

(Google says this report is incorrect)
http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/03/white-house-videos-on-youtube.html

New start-up hopes to push open-source pharmaceuticals
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/02/190242&from=rss

Microscopic magnetic mimic of bacterial motor made
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/03/artificial-flagella.ars

Voice mail
Dodd
Some thoughts on Amazon Kindle and the Author’s Guild

E-mail
Several people wrote in askling if the Kindle menus are spoken. They’re not. But there is a petition that Mike from Serotek sent us if you want to push Amazon into making the Kindle more accessible. http://www.petitiononline.com/Kindle2/petition.html

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Hi guys from buzz out loud

Just found your show and loving it.
Was just Listening and heard your comments about the alert Message in Victoria.
the system that the goverment were talking about implementing appears not to work work as well as it was hoped regarding
messages to most people in Victoria.
I live and work in Melbourne and I got the message which is not close enough to be under attack from fire. this caused undue panic to some people.
worse still the message even missed people that are in the fire effected areas, it looks like the system will need more work before it will be effective.

Brendan
Melbourne Australia

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Is it really so surprising that a Sony exec said something stupid? He did almost get to a valid point, though. Sony made a choice. They chose a complex and novel architecture with very little developer support when it launched. The same was true of the PS2, though, and it’s STILL selling games. The PS3’s tools are vastly improved since launch though. If a developer can afford to put some long and expensive hours into redesigning code, or writing whole new engines, to take advantage of the novelties in the Cell, the results can be stunning. And Sony is gambling on a life-cycle like PS2 to win back their investment.

Now, I’ve written code for Cell, and it is definitely more challenging than most. And the tools have been very slow to roll out. But the problem isn’t that the Cell is hard, or that it might be a doomed architecture (it’s in the hands of Sony and IBM, after all), it’s that all multi-core is still very new. Turns out that all those tools developers take for granted didn’t just come out of thin air. They had to be built, and tuned to use the hardware. New design ideas like a 6-core x86 chip, a GPU, or the Cell are all way beyond what today’s tools can optimize for, without help. So someone has to do it. This is what makes programming fun.

-Mark, the supercomputer repairman

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You were talking about this on an earlier show, and heres an article from EcoGeek:

Cool Idea - Charge Your EV From Underneath

Eric

An app for Google Android is allegedly wiping SD cards clean, which has some folks shouting malware! Stephen Shankland points out it's probably not malware, just suckware. We also cheer on the House of Representatives for not delaying the digital-TV transition. And Gmail goes offline, which is good news for those with flaky internet connection.

EPISODE 899

Gmail offline
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-in-labs-offline-gmail.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10151096-2.html

House votes no on DTV bill
http://www.ktvu.com/digital-tv/18583035/detail.html?treets=fran&tml=fran_natlbreak&ts=T&tmi=fran_natlbreak_1_12090101282009#-

Sources: AT&T, Comcast may help RIAA foil piracy
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10151389-93.html

Report: Google leads in traffic, AOL visitors linger
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10150950-93.html

Newspaper Web sites are doing OK
http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2009-01-28-newspaper-websites_N.htm?csp=34

Telstra CEO dishes on superfast wireless
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10150938-94.html

Netflix sees subscribers opting for streaming over mailing
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/28/netflix-sees-subscribers-opting-for-streaming-over-mailing-glob/

Movie channel to go live on Web before TV debut
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10151506-93.html

V-Cast gets ABC and Disney
http://www.appscout.com/2009/01/verizon_wireless_adds_fullleng_1.php

Acer getting into phones--for sure now--on February 16
http://i.gizmodo.com/5140831/acer-joining-the-smartphone-wars-on-february-16th

Android app uproar sparks debate over open app store model
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/01/an-android-market-application-has.ars

Quake gets ported to the BUG, controlled by Rock Band guitar
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/27/quake-gets-ported-to-the-bug-controlled-by-rock-band-guitar/

Love trainer by Sega
http://i.gizmodo.com/5140820/lovetrainer-headset-coaches-you-in-the-art-of-love-is-predictably-hilarious

VOICEMAIL

R from Florida
New person for the digital TV transition

Tom Minneapolis
Solve the hybrid car situation

RogueTess
Gdrive? I smell lawsuit

E-MAIL

Hi Buzz Crew,

While you were discussing how silly the idea of adding a sound to cell phone cameras when taking a picture would be in the US I couldn’t agree with you more. What you may not know is that this law already exists in Japan, pervert capital of the world, so all phone manufacurers that sell in Japan (including the iPhone) with a distinctive audible camera click. Natalie you can still snap shots of whale tail in the wild but you will face the wrath of shamoo.

On an unrelated note, with fiber to my apartment for years I have to chuckle every time you talk about bandwidth limitations.

Jordan from Tokyo

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Здраствуйте!

Though you’d get a kick out of this: http://carcino.gen.nz/images/image.phpi/7fe6c8ad/ruslinux.jpg?cb=1115204527

On a more serious note, Russia already has OS that is used on computers stationed throughout the mighty military complex, and it is in fact Linux. I believe the plan is to take that OS and distribute it to civilian computers. Now, history of my country has shown that it’s 100% adoption, or else (insert NKVD, KGB, or now FSB here) hauls you off to GULAG. So Russia has an opportunity to become the first governments-owned bot net. That is awesomely scary.

Maksim from Fresno
(of the “Vista, it’s not Stalin” fame)

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Hey Buzzards,

I just had a thought that made me giggle, it’s illegal in many states now to talk on a cell phone without a handsfree device while driving. I wonder if someone could get pulled over for holding a banana up to their face and talking into it. It’s not a cell phone, and no ones talking back (thus no distraction), so would it get someone pulled over? I’d love to see a video of something like that!

Love the show,

-Kassandra

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There is no Starcraft class at UC Berkeley
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/28/109240

Undoubtedly, someone will send you this link. I will save you the 5 minutes of googling required to discover it is bogus.

1) Syllabus for alleged class is not on a UC Berkeley website
2) Search of online class schedule for instructors FENG, ALAN return no classes for Spring 09

3) google search for ” Alan Feng UC Berkeley” returns only references to the bogus syllabus, or hits for different spellings.

Buzz on,
engnr_chik from the chat room

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Hardwired and stunt BOLers,

Really? You’re impressed with the kilowatt class lasers?

That’s not a laser. THIS is a laser…a megawatt class chemical oxygen iodine laser, contained within a 747-400F, built to whack boost phase ballistic missiles.

http://www.mda.mil/mdalink/pdf/08news0089.pdf

Sorry for the linked PDF. That’s how MDA rolls.

One of my picts here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/telegraham/1407621446/in/set-72157604168564668/

Love the show!

Jim
USAF (Ret)
Formerly of the Airborne Laser Program, now Baltimore pharma

EPISODE 820

Stallman rejects cloud computing
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080930-why-stallman-is-wrong-when-he-calls-cloud-computing-stupid.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/29/cloud.computing.richard.stallman

House Web site overwhelmed by e-mails
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10054346-38.html

RealNetworks files suit against Hollywood over realDVD
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/30/realnetworks-files-suit-against-hollywood-over-realdvd/

http://www.download.com/1770-20_4-0.html?query=dvd%20ripper&searchtype=downloads&tag=mncol;rbxcdl.2.a.1

Meanwhile Amazon had some Adobe Flash problems and was giving away movies
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080929-adobe-amazon-point-fingers-over-video-ripping-exploit.html

U.K. spy agency looking for a few good Facebook users
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080929-uk-spy-agency-looking-for-a-few-good-facebook-users.html

MI6 terror photos, data accidentally sold on eBay
http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/slashdot/eqWf/~3/AM–AiheNPg/article.pl

AMD’s 45nm Shanghai enters production, next stops are Deneb, Istanbul
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/30/amds-45nm-shanghai-enters-production-next-stops-are-deneb-ist/

The 25 most influential people on the Web
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/09/0929_most_influential/1.htm
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10054281-36.html

VOICEMAIL
Doug in Culver City
Trick for burning without CDs

RogueTess
In defense of men using EeePCs

Anonymous
Zune is DRM-free (mostly)

E-MAIL

OK, two (three?) things.

About Spore, did you see: http://xkcd.com/480/, very funny. No need to buy Spore!

Secondly, the comments in various episodes about turning off the DRM servers...Games get patches, right? Well, when the game is 5 years old and people want to still play, just release a patch. Didn’t that happen with another game (also discussed on BOL previously) where the DRM was bunk and the developer actually released a community-created patch to strip the DRM? Few people will be playing it then and piracy wouldn’t be as rampant on a 5-10-year-old game.

For music, they just die because they are built into the files…but this could apply as well. Look at DRM-stripping programs for iTunes, etc. Walmart (from Ep. 819) could just release/e-mail a bit of software that looks in a folder and runs the program to strip the DRM and it’s done. If the labels are OK with them coming out and saying, "Hey burn to CD and re-rip," why not just allow them to strip?

Erick the Satellite Guy.

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Hi Buzz Crew -

I’d like to throw some ice water on the idea that a 250GB cap from Comcast should be enough for the average user. I just listened to the Real Deal episode on Bandwidth Caps (plug!) where the size of a “downloadable game these days” was guessed at 1GB.

I just purchased Call of Duty 4 over Steam and downloaded all 10 Gigabytes of it. 1/25th of my monthly stipend gone. Guess what? The install went awry and I had to redownload the game, which thankfully Steam easily allows you to do. 20GB later… BAM…. 1/12 of my monthly allotment gone. One-twelfth…. just downloading a game.

We’re doomed.

Love the show!
Fraggle

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JaMoTo & Guest

In Ep. 799 you talked about the 100-flavor Coca-cola soda fountain (http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/29/coca-cola-readying-100-flavor-soda-fountains/). Here are a few quick updates:
There a 100 flavor-cartridge bays--not 100 flavors.
The syrup is very unstable and must be kept at a specific temperature and must be agitated to keep from EXPLODING.
Carbon is added separately to the water, allowing for non-carbonated drinks such as Gatorade.
The image on Engadget is confirmed. The freestanding fountain features a touch screen.
The machine is so complex that the company making the inside of the device makes and designs medical equipment.

The project has just been completed and is now into production. Hopefully to be seen early 2009.
Sam
Melbourne, Australia

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Hi,
I kept laughing through Buzz Out Loud 818: The Zipless Squirt as you discussed “College bookstores turning to kiosks to stem e-textbook tide” and how they do not understand how to save themselves and all the things they should consider.
They are already history; they just do not know it yet.

My son just started his second year at UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County), which is a totally wireless zone with Internet everywhere.

Other than the first books that we purchased on the Internet for his first semester, he has not purchased books.

Since everything at the school is online, there is an online community for swapping books without going through the bookstore.

Two of his computer science teachers give the books they wrote away in PDF form--the professors figured they were paid to be there and present the material in a form needed/understood by the students.
In his current Java class, the teacher refered the students to sun’s JavaDocs and the Sun Tutorials at http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/. Their IDE is eclipse.
Similar story in his C class, GNU GCC complier and my 20-year-old copy of K&R C, the oldest copy in the class!

For his reading assignments in English Literature, he found the books in text form at the Gutenburg project http://www.gutenberg.org or MP3s for his iPod also at the Gutenburg project.

As for teaming with Amazon, it has already happened. We purchased his first books through Abe Books (http://www.abebooks.com), “used”. They are now owned by Amazon, who has always had a very good used book market. Read http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/01/shelfari-and-librarything-awkward-bookends-to-abebooks-amazon-deal/

Now, I admit he is a programmer, as am I, and we tend to go to the Web before going to the store.
But where the geeks (and engineers) tread the world eventually follows.

luv the show,
Kent -> State of the Ark programmer -> 37 years of coding excellence!

In today's show, Rafe joins us for a discussion of useless video blobs, the implications of, uh, Internet "shopping," the NPD numbers that read Tom's mind, and the U.S. Senate's "enormous gift" to Big Content (per Ars Technica). Also, we rouse the Buzz Militia from their stupor to launch an attack on Apple's arbitrary and annoying App Store approval process. Save Podcaster!

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 808

Committee amends, approves 'enormous gift' to Big Content
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080911-committee-amends-approves-enormous-gift-to-big-content.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10039745-38.html

Apple rolls back problem driver in new iTunes 8 update
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=543
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10040273-37.html

MySpace Music adds user playlists, Amazon links
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/09/myspace-music-a.html

NPD numbers for game consoles
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080912-madden-09-owns-360-moves-back-in-front-of-ps3-in-sales.html

Video game industry shows signs of slowing
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10040111-52.html

Et Tu, Mozilla? Firefox 3 to get privacy mode
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/12/065230

iPhone Takes screenshots of everything you do
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/hacker-says-sec.html

100Mbps. 2010. Over the air. Don't be surprised.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10010

Japan tops world broadband study
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7610534.stm

Seinfeld and Gates hit the road for Vista
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10039646-56.html

VOICE MAIL

Gabriel
My guess on iTunes.

Bill Portland
A couple of iTunes announcements we missed.

Rob from Philly
I had to install Real Player.

E-MAIL

On yesterday’s show (807), you mentioned that TiVo should buy Sling. However, Sling is owned by Echostar (Dish Network), who has a dispute with TiVo over their DVR technology. A great idea would be for Dish to license TiVo’s DVR technology and TiVo to license Dish’s Sling technology.

Bennie Jr.

Hey Buzz people,

That’s right, Apple has rejected my application because it duplicates the functionality of the desktop iTunes application. What!

Here is the e-mail they sent

“Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.”

That just sucks. It really sucks. Maybe they should reject all calculator applications because they already have a calculator.

Anyway, just thought you would want to know as this is juicy news.

Keep up the good work.

Alex S.
from New Jersey

Hey there all powerful buzz crew.
Just wanted to let ya’ll know that the analog signal is being used to display a message with the hot line.
I know this because I took a day trip to the beach and in the morning my portable TV worked but after lunch every station had that notice.
By the way I thought it was cool that the FCC paid fire departments $15 per converter they helped install, I think I read it in the WSJ, but do a live.com search to be certain .
Love the show.
Stephen
Charlotte, N.C.

typing from my phone so forgive the lack of proper CAPS. Episode 807 10 mins 16 seconds in, Tracfone will not deduct credits for text messages received if they are not opened. However, you can look in the in-box and read the first 50 characters as they scroll by in the preview. Love the show.

Michael

On 806 you were talking text msg fees and on 807, no calls or e-mails about US Cellular having free incoming text messages and calls. They did follow the crowd up to the $0.20 for outgoing messages, so they are not all goody goody. I didn’t e-mail or call because you I was sure someone would. Oh, and I love my BlackBerry and haven’t thought once about switching to that other phone, what was it called…
http://www.uscc.com/uscellular/SilverStream/Pages/x_page.html?p=f_calltextpix

Thanks,

John, the bad speller (wish I was something cooler)
Peoria, Ill.