Yamaha Home TheaterI don't know. It must be the low blood sugar but I called us the podcast of indeterminate lake. But we still were able to talk sensibly about the Twitter DoS targeted at one specific person. We also cheer on the FCC as they hold ISPs feet to the fire. And Adobe is the new Microsoft. We'll tell you why.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
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Subscribe with RSS (video)
EPISODE 1037
Twitter, Facebook attack targeted one user
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10305200-245.html
FCC wants real answers from ISPs on broadband investment
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/08/fcc-wants-real-answers-from-isps-on-broadband-investment.ars
Is Adobe the next (pre-2002) Microsoft?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10304455-245.html
On demand in command; 51% of young ‘Net users view TV online
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/08/half-of-all-young-internet-users-now-watch-tv-online.ars
Crowdsourcing the semantics of numbers with True #
http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/08/using-the-web-to-embed-meaning-in-numbers.ars
Fox joins Universal’s war on Redbox DVD rental kiosks
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/08/fox-joins-universals-war-on-redboxs-dvd-rental-kiosks.ars
CERN’s collider to get ’safe’ start in November
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10305480-76.html
Tech gives humans animal senses
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8188070.stm
Prototype OpenOffice.org gets ribboned
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10305160-2.html
Steam car on course for record
http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/news/steam-car-on-course-for-record-27792.aspx
VOICEMAIL
Jason in Georgia on a solution for coffee shops
http://briantong.blogspot.com/2009/07/treating-customers-with-respect.html
Steven in Las Vegas with an idea for show balance
EMAIL
Why doesn’t somebody come out with an unlocked GSM compatible e-book reader? This way the device cost will be lower then a Kindle (since you’re not paying for the “whisper net” overhead and you could just pop in your SIM card (given you subscribe to a GSM cellular carrier with data coverage) and after you download your content you just pop the SIM card out and put it back into your cell phone. Or, better yet, make a bluetooth tetherable e-book reader and use your cell phone as the data connection. Unfortunately, AT&T doesn't let you tether unless you have a smartphone with a special data plan.... Bummer...
Jonathan, from Cleveland, OH
**********
Hey Buzz Crew,
I just listened to episode 1035 and your discussion of how Radio Shack/”The Shack” needs to really try harder if it’s going to compete on the same level with Best Buy…
Well, it just so happens that Radio Shack tried to compete on the level of Best Buy once before and failed miserably at it.
Back in the 1990s, Radio Shack — then known as Tandy Corporation — opened up a chain of computer stores across the country known as Computer City. These were positioned as a direct competitor to the now-defunct CompUSA computer store chain, which at that time was just starting to dominate the retail computer market. During most of that decade, Tandy Corporation invested heavily in expanding this chain of stores, to the point where they were putting stores sometimes literally within arms reach of every CompUSA in the country.
Unfortunately, their rapid expansion (which resulted in the inevitable over saturation of the market), combined with poor management of the chain, eventually led Tandy Corporation into financially troubled waters, causing them to ultimately sell the entire Computer City chain to the very company they were trying to compete with.
Combine this with their badly-planned Incredible Universe chain (which could have been a legitimate competitor to Best Buy if they had actually put those stores anywhere other than in the middle of nowhere), and Tandy was forced to restructure, which eventually led them to rename the corporation as a whole — choosing the name of the chain of stores that represented their core competency: Radio Shack.
Love the show. Keep up the excellent work.
Regards,
Brian Cunningham
**********
Hey Buzz Gang,
Have a 'well actually' for you...well actually it's for fellow Saint John resident Ryan Floyd. I'd just like to reveal that Ryan is not the only listener from Saint John, NB, Canada. I also live in SJ and regularly listen to your fine show. I'm glad Ryan thought he was the only one however, as now I get to say hello and thank you guys for all the tech news/laughs that have very much become part of my routine.
I feel I should contribute something, so here is a link to a TechCrunch article on an interesting panoramic video technology:
And the awesomely ridiculous web address:
http://www.yellowbirdsdonthavewingsbuttheyflytomakeyouexperiencea3dreality.com
When trying out the embedded video on TechCrunch, I (quietly) exclaimed something inappropriate for the workplace....
Mr. Rooney
The only listener on Germain Street, Saint John, NB, Canada.
**********
Hello Buzz Crew,
I am responsible for 7×24 support of the internet infrastructure for a very large company. Between all of the web, Java application, and EAI servers my team supports, we have numerous automatic monitors on our systems that sends text messages to our oncall phone in the event there are problems. (In the old days it was an actual pager. For the young-ens out there, that is a box that only receives text messages and you can’t speak into it).
With the talk of outlawing “texting while driving” does this mean I will have to tell my employer that by law I will have to ignore any system alerts I get during my 2 hours on the road commuting every day?
Pulling over isn’t always an option as by law you are only suppose to pull over on the highway in an “emergency”. I’m not sure the highway patrol will consider high thread utilization on a Java appserver an “emergency.”
Love the show.
Jeff – The Senior Internet Architect from Kansas City
To avoid a trademark problem should we call it gnetbook, pnetbook or knetbook? Cooley thinks all the ideas are pretty. Google wants to mind your power for you, but if they treat that data like they do your posts on blogger you may find your dryer deleted without notice.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
 |
EPISODE 908 |
Sony INT-W250 WebTV High-Speed Linkup
http://www.theonion.com/
You have until the end of the day to download Windows 7
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10160285-56.html
Google PowerMeter
http://www.google.org/powermeter/howitworks.html
Google deleting blog posts without warning
http://www.laweekly.com/2009-02-05/music/google-39-s-new-killer-app-why-are-music-bloggers-39-posts-disappearing-and-who-is-deleting-them/all
Cracking down on Conficker: Kaspersky, OpenDNS join forces
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2009/02/cracking-down-on-conficker-kaspersky-opendns-join-forces.ars
Intel still wants to manufacture in the US
http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/02/10/Intel_to_invest_7_billion_in_US_plants_1.html
Acer Aspire One same price, more features--Ackerman got exclusive
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10159263-1.html
Archos to release Android phone / tablet
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/09/archos-to-release-android-phone-tablet/
Dell multitouch Latitude XD2
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/pressoffice/en/2009/2009_02_10_rr_001
Kindle 2 doesn’t ship with protective cover, memory expansion slot
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10159832-1.html
New Honda Insight. Cooley’s driven it before it hits showrooms this spring and has some notes
http://automobiles.honda.com/insight-hybrid/
Large Hadron Collider delayed until September
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10159984-76.html
Marvel comics coming to iTunes
http://www.tuaw.com/2009/02/10/marvel-comics-coming-to-itunes/
VOICEMAIL
Dude from Turkey
Google Sync!
Anonymous
Government site requiring install
E-MAIL
Hey Janato,
Patrick from France here, sharing an idea about what Twitter should do next to help their users, save themselves, and stop global warming in the process. Ok maybe not that last one.
The plan: take hashtags to the next level by making them the second arm of the service.
How it works: users can follow #topics the same way they follow @people, creating a separate feed for all the messages that contain these hashtags.
Undeniable benefits:
1) Topical conversations would be great but Twitter NEEDS (notice the caps) to stay simple and efficient. This does that.
2) Enhanced user experience: you get interesting and relevant info even from people you’re not following.
3) Ads! I don’t think we’d mind an ad an hour in the conversation feed (as long as the regular feed stays clean). They would be extremely targeted, companies would pay solid gold for these spots.
There you go Twitter, problem solved. You’re welcome.
Keep buzzing,
–
Patrick Beja
http://www.frenchspin.com
PS: I have more details along with ways to tackle the issues that would arise from this on my blog: http://www.patrickbeja.com/2009/02/what-twitter-needs-now/
**********
Long time listener…
Wanted to give you a real world example of how bandwidth caps are a problem today…. After moving from Boston to Charlotte last year I signed up for MLB.com so that I can stream Red Sox games. My only cable option is AOL Time Warner who offers a trimmed down MLB package for cable TV for twice the price as buying directly from MLB.com. This year MLB.com is offering HD streams. Considering that each game is 3+ hrs x 18 games/month if AOL moves bandwidth caps to Charlotte this will be a direct example of AOL-TW using their bandwidth control to prevent you from accessing content which they also sell for a marked up price. Is this legal?
Love the show.
Jay
**********
I can’t believe you’ve not thought of who the “powerful backers” of Psystar are, well could be.
Dude you’re getting a Dell!
Think about it; it was just 2 years ago that Michael Dell said “We would offer MacOS,” he wrote, “if customers wanted it and Apple would license it on reasonable terms…It’s Apple’s decision.”
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/19/technology/fastforward_parallels.fortune/index.htm
Dell is really trying to find new ways to profit, and this would be HUGE. I would buy a Dell MacOS laptop in an instant. The number one reason… accidental protection. Apple doesn’t offer it, Dell does. I think a partnership between Dell and Apple would be beneficial to all.
TRM
**********
Hello Buzz Crew,
Thought you might like to report on the fact that Google maps has a real time map on the natural disaster that is currently occurring in my home state of Victoria, Australia. A massive firestorm hit our bush and wiped out entire towns.
Just another way Google apps can be put to use - There are official sites that travellers can use to check on any dangerous destinations in Victoria but I think they were buckling under load.
Thanks,
Cenzo.
I bet you think this podcast is about you. Don't you? Don't you!? On today's show, we learn how easy it is to spot a narcissist on Facebook (stay away!), terrible ideas that will criminalize professional eBay sellers and kill eBay even faster than it's killing itself, and how video games might be the only thing that can survive a recession.
Listen now:
Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 816 |
Bill would give retailers power to halt online auctions
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080924-bill-would-give-retailers-power-to-halt-online-auctions.html
Users fail to spot fake pop-ups
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7633402.stm
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080923-study-confirms-users-are-idiots.html
T-Mobile soft capping 3G data at 1GB per month
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/23/t-mobile-soft-capping-3g-data-at-1gb-per-month/
Other G1 flaws
http://gizmodo.com/5053747/android-and-t+mobile-g1s-five-most-obnoxious-flaws
Games are recession-proof earners?
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/23/games-are-recessionp.html
China to run out of IPv4 addresses in 830 days
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/09/24/1254235.shtml
Narcissists easy to spot on Facebook--if you know how
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080923-narcissists-easy-to-spot-on-facebookif-you-know-how.html
Google gets political with quotation tool
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10049591-36.html
Two ways to get Comcast to increase the data cap
http://gigaom.com/2008/09/24/two-ways-to-get-comcast-to-ditch-the-data-cap/
LHC shut down until early spring
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10049188-76.html
Phone that works as car key
http://www.nttdocomo.com/pr/2008/001415.html
VOICE MAIL
Daniel: a phone is a phone
E-MAIL
After listening to Molly and Brian rant on about the SanDisk microSD thing, I started to think about the issues you all raised:
The cards are too small to see album art or album titles
The cards are easy to loose
And also the email that a listener sent in about storing his entire music collection in a Velvetta box when the LHC forces us all underground.
So I started to think...
Wouldn't it be cool if you had a case for all of your microSD albums (so it could hold a whole bunch of them), so you wouldn't lose them. And wouldn't it be cool if this case had a color screen on it, so you could cycle through all of your cards and see the album covers? And wouldn't it be cool if this case could also play the songs on your microSD albums?
Oh yeah, isn't that an iPOD? Store all of your albums in flash memory, be able to see album covers, and listen to your music.
LTS,
Jamie
Hi JaMoTo
Regarding Gregory’s comments (BOL #815) about MP3-CDs, it would seem the BBC have experimented with the format, although not with music. The soundtracks for ‘deleted’ Doctor Who episodes have been released on MP3-CD — for example you can get almost 5 hours worth of classic ‘Troughton’ on one disc (see below). Given that many CD players seem to recognise the format (at least here in Europe) I wonder why it isn’t used more widely? Possibly the licensing costs for a year’s worth of music would be a nightmare?!
Still, works great as an audio book format.
LtS,
Simon
(PS. It just occurred to me: why is the snowman “abominable”? I mean what did he ever do to deserve such a title? He just keeps to himself, and never bothers anyone. Clearly he’s been the subject of some kind of slander. Should we start a campaign to clear his name?
I blame Bigfoot! Grrr!! )
Hey Buzzites,
i just heard the discussion about possibly selling MP3 cd’s and how the quality wouldn’t be as good as normal cd audio.
Even though i’m not one of the people that really notices the difference between lossless and high bit rate MP3’s, I agree with Brian C in that i’d rather have the full quality audio than not. But I couldn’t help but think your missing one real option.
Surely you could around get the same amount of lossless audio on a dvd as you could get compressed audio on a cd.
John B off of England.
I laughed when I read “funnerer”. It is a PERFECT way to ridicule Apple’s “Oh, we’re so smart that we can bend grammar rules and it makes us cooler because everyone knows that we are so smart).
It’s only derivative because Chunky chocolate bar pushed that it’s “thickerer” back in the 70’s.
Dana
Exchange on the android is going to take a while. Android may be open, but Exchange is not. Someone (T-Mobile, Google) will have to make a deal with Microsoft to get the specifications of Exchange, and implement it in a /Close sourced/ application. Alternatively, someone can reverse engineer the Exchange protocol, and implement it. There are actually already reverse engineered versions of the protocol out there, but none of them are complete. Enterprises would never release an application like this, so it would probably be a small 2-man shop, and no enterprise would accept an app from such a small shop.
Sargun
While the idea of another physical media for music might seem dumb in the US.. other countries, such as Canada where I live, don’t have access to a wide array of un-DRM online music stores (Amazon.ca sucks!). Canada and other countries probably have more restrictive distribution rules around media, or the online companies just might not have bothered yet (ahem.. Amazon?). So this might be a way to get digital music to those markets, rather than us being force to get it by other.. less legal means. Dumb yes. Completly pointless… maybe not.
LTS
Jamie
On today's show, we get schooled about how cell phone 911 works, we school the music industry on its consistently terrible ideas regarding physical formats (seriously? Albums on micro SD cards? Are you kidding us with this?), Obama cools his pro Net neutrality stance, and Japan gets to work on the space elevator. Jason already volunteered to go. He's so brave. We'll miss him.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 814 |
SanDisk, record labels announce new music format
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10047311-93.html
http://www.crn.com/retail/210602962
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/22/music-on-microsd-i-cant-believe-the-labels-fell-for-this/
Obama significantly revises technology positions
http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/09/22/0526237.shtml
http://versionista.com/diff/JAS9LMr5qU7q8BSroV8KzQ/
Verizon offers no-contract cell service
http://sprintconnection.kansascity.com/?q=node/802
WordPress ransom?
http://theideasblog.com/2008/09/19/wordpress-ransom/
CERN: Damage to new collider forces 2-month halt
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10047185-76.html
Apple recalling iPhone 3G power adapters
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10046749-37.html
Another useful tool banned from the iPhone App Store
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10047301-1.html
MIT wheelchair steers clear with Wi-Fi
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17912_3-10047399-72.html
Electric Mini spied in Munich
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09/22/bmw_leccy_mini/
Japan hopes to turn sci-fi into reality with elevator to the stars
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4799369.ece
VOICEMAIL
RogueTess: The Goggle Rig
Hi Buzz Crew,
In Episode 813, Jason asked how you could punish pirates, instead of subjecting actual customers to a ridiculous DRM. Well, the answer come from the Super Nintendo of all places: HAL laboratories (the people who made the Super Smash Bros. games) and Nintendo-published Earthbound (Mother 2 in Japan). This game is a cult classic now, and the beginning days of emulation revealed their antipiracy methods. If they detected you were playing a pirated copy of the game, they would display screens telling you that piracy was a crime and cause random enemies to spawn more often. The coup de grace was that, halfway through the final boss fight, the game would freeze and erase all of your save data.
All the technical detail: http://www.starmen.net/mother2/gameinfo/antipiracy/
-Scotty
**********
I just wanted to let you know that I launched an eBay auction this morning and one of the options was to provide your Skype ID in addition to e-mail. I don’t know what they ever planned to do with StumbleUpon, but at least they’re doing something marginally useful with Skype.
Adam (Centreville, Va.)
**********
JAMOTONA (hopefully),
On Episode 813 you wondered aloud as to how 911 service works on cell phones. Well hopefully I can enlighten you since I work in the E911 department of a major cell phone provider. 911 calls are routed based on what SECTOR of a cell tower they are being made from. So any call made from a cell phone SHOULD be routed to the county that the cell sector they are on is covering. Not all providers manage their 911 as well as they should, however, so this doesn’t always work like it should. We have a staff of about 100 people that work on the 911 system and it’s not an easy thing to manage, but our company is much better than most of our competition, especially when it comes to locating the cell phone making the call using the phones GPS chip (my specialty).
In conclusion, land lines will always be better for calling 911 because they are associated to an address and they don’t move.
Hope I cleared things up.
Ldub
Listen now: Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 813 |
New Microsoft Commercials Are Live
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/18/new-microsoft-ads-are-live/
EA Relaxes Rules on Installing ‘Spore’
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178384121054773.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10046288-16.html
Zuckerberg: ‘Change can be difficult,’ but the redesign stays
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10045887-36.html
PlayStation 3 gets weather, Google News, and other Web goodies
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10045886-1.html
Study claims cell phones can affect sperm quality
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/105897
Large Hadron Collider downed by faulty transformer
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10046156-76.html
Social engineering cracked Palin’s e-mail account
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10045969-83.html
Report: Voting problems in several swing states
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/18/voting.problems/index.html
eBay looking to unload StumbleUpon?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cnet/20080919/tc_cnet/8301100131004628992
Voice Mail
Trish: Land lines and emergencies
Hey, guys,
After listening to you talking about what you have as your homepage, I just thought I'd make a suggestion. A site called Alltop.com which is the only homepage you will ever need! It summarizes every story of the day about one of the topics you choose on one page. For example if your interested in the iphone, go to iphone.alltop.com and it summarizes all recent stories/ articles about the iphone from sites like macrumours.com
Hope that helps...Jason!
Thanks
Jake
**********
Dear B.O.L. crew,
I could not believe my ears last night when I was listening to you talk about what you use for a home page. I personally use Symbaloo.com for mine. This site lets you create a custom page that links to your most common sites. And Jason, it even lets you read RSS feeds on the page to. I could not believe you guys hadn’t heard of this thing. I have been using it for 2 years and love it.
Loving B.O.L,
Josh from Indiana
**********
Hey, I thought of a solution for the Google Streetview privacy issue…
The Google Streetview vehicle should drive slowly and play music like the ice cream truck so people could run out and wave or dive into the bushes.
Love the show
Anthony
**********
FYI, BOL crew -
Just got this e-mail.
Looks like Chrome will not be adopted by large companies for the time being.
—
From:
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 4:29 PM
Subject: URGENT: Google Chrome Browser Vulnerabilities - Serious Security Risk
Importance: High
To TXU Energy and CGE Personnel with Google Chrome Browser Installed:
In early September, Google release the beta version of its new browser named Chrome. The CGE Data Security group has requested a Group Policy block of the install or execution of Google’s Chrome browser due to serious vulnerabilities that exist in this product (see links below). These vulnerabilities allow both denial of service attacks and remote control, and the exploit code for the remote control vulnerability is already available on the internet. The CGE DSM Team agrees with the Data Security team's recommendation that this is a serious security risk.
29 EFH Network Users already have Google Chrome installed, and you have been identified as one of these users. If you have a legitimate business reason for testing with this new browser please send both myself and Jeff Westerheide (See cc list for e-mail link) your business justification for review. CGE Websense is currently blocking the download site from Google. CGE Change Record CHMN00004653718 has been submitted for implementing the Group Policy block, and that change is scheduled for Friday, Sept 26, 2008, at 9 AM. That allows you one week to respond to this e-mail.
Google Chrome vulnerabilities starting to pile up
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1858
More Google Chrome Vulnerabilities emerge
http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/11/more-google-chrome-vulnerabilities-emerge/
In the meantime, IT Security is requesting that you uninstall the Google Chrome browser from your workstation to protect you and the EFH network from existing malware threats.
If you have trouble uninstalling Chrome due to a message about that function being prohibited by the Administrator, run the following EXE to accomplish the uninstall. Let me know if this fails to work for you for any reason:
\\eptxudsl001\ClientApps\Chrome_Uninstall.exe
Manager, CARE System Operations
**********
Hi there, JaMoTo (and special guest)
I just have a really dumb question for the Twitter engineers. Why are they spending time and resources on a redesign of Twitter when IM and Tracking still don’t work? Seriously, that’s just dumb. Fix your features, then change your image if you’d like. Don’t add features, don’t redesign, don’t do anything until you fix the bugs you have.
Just my 2 cents, as a Web designer and programmer. As an aside, this is what happens with the Agile Development Paradigm if you aren’t careful. It’s all about moving changes out the door. I’ve signed the Agile Manifesto, and I believe in Agile Development, but it’s not the end all and be all of programming. No paradigm is. You shouldn’t move on until the bugs are fixed.
Joe AKA dOgBOi
Don Reisinger joins the cast today for a rousing discussion that goes something like this: "Best Buy bought Napster." "Really?" "Yeah, I know, right? Weird." "Huh. Yeah. Wonder why they did that." "Dunno." It's a great show. You'll love it. (No, seriously! Don rants more than I do!)
Listen now: Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 809 |
Best Buy nabs Napster for $121 million
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10041431-93.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080915-best-buy-eyes-apple-microsoft-with-napster-purchase.html
In-flight Internet: Web sites, but not phone calls
http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=353
American Airlines flight crews want online porn banned
http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200838/2026/American-Airlines-flight-crews-want-online-porn-banned
AT&T will 'temporarily reduce' speeds for U-verse customers
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080915-att-will-temporarily-reduce-speeds-for-u-verse-customers.html
Employers admit checking Facebook before hiring
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/151044/employers_admit_checking_facebook_before_hiring.html
Hackers break into Large Hadron Collider computer
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10040525-83.html
Survey: Plans to buy a Mac hit an all-time high
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/09/15/survey-plans-to-buy-a-mac-hit-an-all-time-high/
iPhone: Big trouble in the App Store (thanks, Philip!)
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/09/14/iphone-big-trouble-in-the-app-store/
Report: HP trying for ‘end-run’ around Windows
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10040719-92.html
Google search finds seafaring solution
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article4753389.ece
VOICE MAIL
Dale the physics teacher
the ultimate textbook
Tom
New Buzz forces name is …
Greetings, JaMoTo + 1 guest
It’s worth mentioning that games without DRM can be successful, an example is “Sins of a Solar Empire”, a real time strategy game .. in SPAAACE…
The game sold over 500,000 copies, 100,000 via digital downloads. The game disc came with no DRM or copy protection.
http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2008/09/05/solar-empire-moves-500-000-units
Let’s hope EA learns Stardock (the publisher of Sins of a Solar Empire).
Best regards…
Khaled A.
Hey JaMoTo! I just was wondering if Adam was willing to release Podcaster as a jailbroken application. I know that I personally have been dying for An application like this ever since I had to stop using mobilecast with the 2.0 update. I don’t really mind jailbreaking my phone, if it means incredibly useful applications like Podcaster or Intelliscreen, which Apple has apparently decided are not okay.
Taylor (from Canada)
Buzzcrew + guest,
My prayers have been answered.
I am a field computer tech so I spend a lot of time traveling from customer to customer. There has been an occasion on two that I forget to sync up my iPhone before I leave for work. So I am left in my car without my newest BOL.
I though how great would it be to have an application that could download some of my favorite podcasts. I was excited when Alex S. had sent in an email about his podcaster, not so excited when I heard Apple rejected it. So I was searching through the free apps on the iTunes store and I noticed this application called FlyCast. I read the description and thought it sounded interesting. I downloaded it and installed it. When you launch the program it gives you several option: city guide, radio with 3G/Wi-Fi, radio on Edge, AccuRadio, and something called On-Demand Audio. I clicked the on demand and then clicked on Technology. Lo and behold, what’s on TOP! Buzz Out Loud! It buffered for a while and then played. It was awesome. One cool feature is that it buffered a couple of minutes of audio in case of network problems. I wanted to pass this along to other listeners. Thanks for a great show!
Love the show,
Phillippe (computer tech from Iowa)
Hi Tom, Molly and Jason,
You have been talking a lot about Spore and how the DRM is terrible, so I thought I would bring this to your attention. According to TorrentFreak, Spore is the most pirated game ever, thanks to DRM! Here is a link to the full story, http://torrentfreak.com/spore-most-pirated-game-ever-thanks-to-drm-080913/
Love the show!
Simon
How do I save Podcaster? A Buzz soldier awaits your orders.
Thermonuclear Tom
Listen now: Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 806 |
CERN’s big collider now in action
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10037565-76.html
Flipping out: RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 debuts
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-10036487-7.html
Congress questions high cost of texting
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10037221-38.html
Apple yields to NBC Universal on price, packaging
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10036785-93.html
New Marillion album free to share
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7606029.stm
Microsoft’s BlueTrack mice are here — laser bids a tearful goodbye
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/09/microsofts-bluetrack-mice-are-here-laser-bids-a-tearful-good/
Open source seeks U.S. Congressional approval
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10037544-16.html
Space-based solar power breakthrough to be announced (thanks Shalin!)
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=26383
MP risks arrest for Segway use
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10037672-76.html
Why e-mail has become dangerous
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/09/10/1244215.shtml
VOICEMAIL
Anonymous
The real scoop on Steve Jobs health.
Tammy SC
iTunes hurt me.
Downloaded iTunes 8 this afternoon to check it out, and it turns out Apple had a little treat in store for me. Every time I tried to sync my iPod after that I would receive the lovely and ever popular blue screen of death, (by the way, I'm running Vista Ultimate on a Dell XPS M1330). Every time I'd plug in my iPod touch, crash. So then I got to spend an hour and a half trying to get rid of iTunes 8 and getting back to 7.7.whatever, (which--knock on wood--seems to have solved the problem). Apparently I'm not the only one: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8046500 . Just wondering if anyone else in Buzztown got this little bundle of joy as well.
Cheers,
Jeremy The Atmospheric Chemist
**********
C’mon! Can we stop complaining about the iPod’s lack of FM. Seriously!
I bought an iPod to get away from crap radio played over and over and
annoying, screaming ads from car dealers. If you need to listen to the
radio go out and buy one!!!!!!!!! Just leave me my iPod with the music
selection I like and the Best Buy Ads that are mildly amusing.
Sheala, GA
P.S.--It’s was nice to hear Remy’s dulcet voice again.
**********
Molly was just mentioning on yesterday’s show (805) that she has been
tempted to call radio stations to figure out what songs they’re
playing. Molly, let me save you some time and introduce you to a
magical Web site called yes.com. I stumbled upon yes.com a few years
ago when I was typing in random URLs to see if they existed, and found
a diamond in the rough. Yes.com somehow tracks every song (and
commercial) played by *almost* every station across the country in
real time. I really don’t know what they are doing, but it works. You
can just type in the call letters or name of your station, and look at
their top 100 played songs, or better yet, if you remember about when
you heard your mystery tune, you can look up their logs. Just go to
Monday at 11 p.m., and you see all the songs played in that hour. They
even have links to buy said songs in iTunes and Amazon, and chat rooms
for each station. It’s amazing. I work in radio and I am baffled by
their magic because they even track stations that, as far as I know,
don’t encode the track info into their signal. Check it out.
Love the show,
Gabriel Jordan
Raleigh, NC
**********
Kind of breaking news here. When you install Google Chrome, it also
installs a plug-in into all other Web browsers on that machine.
The file npGoogleOneClick5.dll does what the file name suggests: It sends
all URLs you click (not visit) back to the Google mothership. So you can
type URLs and be fine. But if you click on any link on any Web page, it
sends the information to Google.
Kind of creepy.
The plug-in cannot be disabled nor removed without breaking the Google
Chrome installation; which on my computer went into the trash along with
all the other Google-spy services.
Daniel in Norway
If a robot has a firm handshake, does that mean its creator is a stand-up guy, or just that he programmed his robot to have a firm handshake? That and other serious technology topics are examined today, and we also give our official Buzz Out Loud reviews of the new Microsoft commercial with Jerry Seinfeld. Brian Cooley joins us for Friday goodness.
Listen now:
Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 803 |
LHC will not destroy the universe in 5 days
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/04/lhc-will-not-destroy.html
Microsoft begins big ad push
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10033375-56.html
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/9/seinfeld-s-first-microsoft-commercial-awkward-not-funny
Comcast appeals FCC traffic-blocking ruling
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10033376-38.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080904-martin-responds-to-comcast-lawsuit-we-still-want-answers.html
Blu-ray gone in five years, Samsung claims
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/04/1656212
Redesigned, bulkier Honda Insight to challenge Prius
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/09/05/0141244.shtml
Michael Moore plans Net-only film premiere
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10033561-93.html
Album leak welcomed by Metallica (Thanks Bernardo!)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7598617.stm
Robots Are Net’s future, says Vint Cerf
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/04/1751209
Adobe and NBC to provide live streaming of NFL games
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Stewart/?p=924
Columbia set to resurrect Ghostbusters
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/05/ghostbusters_3/
VOICE MAIL
Anonymous
Cybercommand update.
Dave
My friend's bad bandwidth.
FORUMS
Comcast bandwidth meter
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=307301
Preview of Seth McFarlane’s Google ad cartoons
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=97&threadID=307304
Hey Crew! Long time listener, first time e-mailer!
I was bugged by the whole Comcast putting a cap on my end of the tube. I would consider myself a moderate bandwidth user, and was curious as to how much I actually use. So I called Comcast on Saturday, got to the person I who would answer my question, and the lady said she’d have no problem telling me how much. After a minute or two, she said she’d have to talk to her manager who knew exatcally where to look, was gone for a few minutes, came back, typed a bunch, left again, came back, thanked me for being patient, kept looking…. She asked me why i was inquiring about how much I use, and I explained to her that I had no idea where I was compared with the 1%… she told me that it was only 1 percent who would get cut off, and I explained to her again that I didn’t know where I was to know how close I come to the 250GB, to which she said ‘well, you get 350GB not 250GB. I told her what the news said, and she said it was wrong. I was going to ask her for name and her extension for future reference, but my store got busy, so I had to go. It took about 20 minutes for her to find the bandwidth I used in the last 30 days, which was about 75GB.
I would think that the average customer would ask “where do I stand compared with the cap?”… The only answer I was getting was “well, only 1 percent will hit the cap”, which isn’t an answer. The average customer is not going to have any point of reference to gauge how much they use.
Thanks keep up the good work!
Todd,
Lynden, Wash.
Hay buzz crew,
Just writing in to say "Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!" Thanks to BOL my wife is now interested in tech stuff and I have a new outlet for my tech talk.
It all started as I slipped a copy of Buzz out loud on to her iPod and renamed it NY Times. Idea stolen from Microsoft Mohave Experiment.
Can you give her a shout out!
Now I only have to get her to play COD 4 & Gears of War Don't know how I am going to do that but wish me luck!
Thank You
Matthew
Hey Jamoto, Tobias from Sweden again.
As I hope you remember, I e-mailed you yesterday about SPORE DRM-
license-server-thing that refuses to work. I’ve been trying for three days now, still no luck!
Sad to say I’m not the only one, just check out this thread (one of many):
So you remember us Mac-users can’t get into the game. Well worse, PC-users that bought Galactic Edition can’t seem to log in either, because for them, the game says that their serial code is invalid.
I’ve paid almost 90 bucks for the game, is it to much too ask for it only to work?
Worse yet, EA Support doesn’t know what to do. One I talk to didn’t even understand that I was on the Mac (he was trying to get me to run the EAReg.exe or whatever it is called on the PC). Another guy told me to register online. And everyone else told me to wait. Nothing helps!
I never actually cared about the whole DRM debate, but now I’m so pissed about it because it only hurts the honest average customer who just wants to play his or hers friggin’ game!
I appreciate you mentioned my e-mail on episode 802, and with this e-mail I’m hoping that you will take this further and discuss it. Maybe we can get a Molly rant on DRM?
Love the show, and have a great weekend
Tobias
Hello Buzz Crew,
Netbooks and laptops are already bundled by carriers outside U.S.
In Romania you can get when you subscribe to the mobile Internet services cheaper laptops and Netbooks.
Orange has Eee PC 901, Macbook Air, and other Dell and Asus bundle offers.
Allex from Romania
Dear Buzz Out Loud,
You can put an OEM copy of Windows on any machine you want. The catch is, once it is on one, that is the only computer you can put it on. Some places also require you to also buy some sort of hardware in order to buy an OEM copy. This doesn’t usually mean a complete system, unless you’re buying from places like HP or Dell; often you can buy one component such as RAM. It can be something else you might need (DVD-ROM, hard drive, etc.), but RAM is usually a good way to go seems how you’ll probably need more anyways. OEM software is always a good way to go if you’re building your own machine and want to keep costs down.
Brian, Ill.
In the fine tradition of subject lines that tell you nothing about the show or clue you in to the fact that this is, in fact, a tech show. But sometimes, we also like to talk about cowboys. And dogs. And extra-malicious hackers at Black Hat, Vista security "rendered useless" by same, and the low, low interest in Blu-Ray.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 784 |
Times Online: 'Fakeproof' e-passport is cloned in minutes
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4467106.ece
How I got hacked at Black Hat
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/How-I-Got-Hacked-at-Black-Hat/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10011157-83.html
Black Hat expels reporters in network snooping
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10010989-83.html
Windows Vista security ‘rendered useless’ by researchers
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid14_gci1324395,00.html
Windows XP still outselling Windows Vista
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/07/1854242
Between a rock and YouTube, video execs see promise
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10011155-93.html
New study finds low interest in Blu-ray
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/07/1811259
Wall Street Beat: Time to put off buying LCD TVs, displays
http://www.pcworld.com/article/149567/
Report: HTC Android handset not coming until 2009
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10010550-94.html
Date set for operation of Large Hadron Collider
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/science/08physics.html
Report: Facebook tried to buy StudiVZ
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10011281-2.html
Eight people bought useless $1,000 iPhone application
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/08/eight-people-bo.html
VOICE MAIL
Scott Tucson
About the cows
Hey Buzzcrew,
Real quick. I wanted to help Molly with her hotspot@home (UMA) BlackBerry issue. If she goes into the “Manage Connection” dialog, selects “Mobile Network Options, and set the “Connection Preference” to Wi-Fi Preferred, that will prevent the Curve from switching to and from UMA. It will now maintain a solid connection when in range of your authorized Wi-Fi networks. Hope that helps
Love the show
Chris - Airplane Gasser Upper in Texas
Just some quick notes regarding the PTO and the Cloud Computing trademark:
-Molly just fyi-the “obviousness” standard is a Patent thing, not a Trademark thing
-The standard in Trademark is descriptiveness. If a mark is descriptive or generic it can be refused registration (there are options to get around this for descriptive marks, but generic marks are dead in the water). So the standard of descriptiveness is whether the potential consumer of the goods would view it as descriptive. So while “cloud” might a descriptive word w/r/t computers, its kind of technical. A lot of consumers are going to think “oh cloud! Fluffy! It must be a trade name!” instead of the actual type of networking. So I think there is some room here to be forgiving of the PTO.
-Also, while a search today of “cloud computing” would yield the descriptive meaning, take a look at the history of the wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cloud_computing&dir=prev&action=history
It looks like it was barely an entry in March of 2007 and not really updated until September. It could be that “cloud computing” wasn’t a very well known term at the time it was examined (which looks like June of that year) and so it was still a sufficiently unheard of/not descriptive term.
And ultimately-it looks like it was caught, which is a good thing. Heck, even if it wasn’t there are plenty of opportunities for other parties to file to cancel the mark so I’d have to say the system worked fairly well this time.
Anon.
Hey buzz crew,
This is the anonymous wardriver and I wanted to let you know that the H&R Block network did not let me join, but I don’t know whether that was a signal strength issue, or if they had some kind of MAC address filter enabled and I did not care to really figure it out as I had the coffee place who’s Internet worked better for me in the first place. The SSID was HRBlock.
Lets assume that it was MAC address filtered. Honestly, this would scare me more than wide open because MAC address filtering is so easily spoofed, that it is not even funny. And if the network is for a guest then MAC address filtering would be a bad way to go. Can you imagine, “Yep, you can log on to the wireless here, we just need you to tell us what your MAC address is?” So if someone went through the trouble of setting up filtering then that means they are trying to protect something, but are doing a crappy job of it. If there is no filtering and signal was my problem, then lets hope it is on its own internet connection, or a DMZ of the firewall.
Anonymous Wardriver
Hey BOL,
Just wanted to let you know that the Grill PC you made reference to yesterday was at this year’s QuakeCon that took place in Texas last weekend. You can look at other neato mods at this link: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1530/quakecon_2008_paint_glue_sponge_bob/index.html
Some really crazy-insane mods @ QuakeCon this year. Love the show!
Dustin Solis
Hey buzz crew,
On episode 783, the discussion was about Google , Microsoft, and Yahoo were tweaking results for the Olympics and Molly couldn’t find a reason to do this. Hopefully, this might be an idea for the reason.
If you search for a popular athlete, like Michael Phelps, you’ll get results. Trying searching for a non-popular athlete, like Austin Sperry, and the results will get mixed from his Linkedin account to Wikipedia to results from 2006 Bacardi Cup. His profile from the U.S. sailing team is the third result on Google.
Hope this will provide some input into tweaking the results.
Greg “mass comm student”
Baton Rouge, La.
P.S. If a lawyer suggests not going to college and several people have told me not to major in journalism, then what’s the point of going to college? I say, if your not majoring in Business or Science, don’t bother going.
Reference episode 782 you said that the ear around for cows wouldn’t make cowboys obsolete. I can tell you that for rounding up cows, cowboys are already obsolete. Out here at the ranch my hobby is raising and training working stock dogs and for my money a good working cowdog is worth five cowboys. First of all the dog actually listens to the boss and does the job the way the boss wants it done. If the dog does something different than the boss asked it’s probably because the boss was wrong. You put 5 cowboys on a herd and it will look like an episode of the Keystone Cops.
Don’t fear, however. The cowboy is still needed for manual labor and the rodeo stuff that gets all the publicity. Just leave the brain work to a border collie.
Vic the Texas pilot rancher
P.S. My collies prefer Linux
Come on tom, the iPhone is just a word processor? Don’t word processors have cut and paste?
-some random guy from north carolinaece
Listen now: Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 751 |
Why the LHC Won’t Destroy the World
http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/06/23/134251.shtml
Mac OS X Trojan reported in the wild
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10789_3-9973703-57.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/23/mac_trojan/
The race is on: Get your own Internet domain
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/22/business/net23.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7468855.stm
Atari goes after site after it posts negative, early review
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080623-atari-goes-after-site-after-it-posts-negative-early-review.html
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/22/1855204
Report: No Android until fourth quarter
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9974871-7.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121418837707895947.html
EFF attacks foundation of entire RIAA lawsuit campaign
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080622-eff-attacks-foundation-of-riaa-lawsuit-campaign.html
Obama, McCain debate via Twitter: How to follow along*
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/6/presidential_debates_come_to_twitter_how_to_follow_along
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9974634-7.html
ABC’s New video deal: Why Veoh and why now?
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/6/abc_s_new_video_deal_why_veoh_and_why_now_
Voice mail
Dave
Sync your bookmarks in Firefox 3.
Isaac
Not the bartender for Love Boat.
Hey, Buzz crew,
In episode 748 you had a discussion about VoIP 911. Depending on what area you are in, a VoIP call may route to a larger PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point), but usually they will route to the correct PSAP but may come in on an administrative line, not the normal emergency lines. Since they are administrative lines, they do not get the same priority as emergency lines. The other confusion was around E911, which enables the PSAP to view ANI/ALI (Automatic Number Identification/Automatic Location Information). Again, depending on the area and if you have a nomadic or static TN you may or may not get ALI information. All this means that VoIP is still not as good as a POTS line for 911 (wireless is not as good, either). However, as long as you can give them your location you would be OK. In a lot of areas you can still call 911 from a landline even if you do not have service. Of course, check with your telco before assuming this is true in your area. For wireless, you can always call 911 regardless if your service is active or not (so keep a phone with a car charger in your glove box).
One last note; it is perfectly reasonable for people to do a test call to make sure their ANI/ALI is displaying correctly regardless of what phone service you have. Try and do this when the PSAP is not busy (Sunday mornings are good). When they answer, tell them it’s not an emergency, that you are doing a test call.
Insert “love the show” computer voice.
~Mike in Colorado
**********
Hey, buzzers,
I saw this link on Delicious and thought to share with you guys: http://www.yahoorezinr.com/
Now everyone can resign from Yahoo more easily! Even the ones who happens to be not employed by that nearly dead company, like myself.
And what’s the best part? When you click submit, it uses the a href=mailto: link format to open a new message using your default e-mail client and puts ‘jerryyang@yahoo.com’ in the ‘To’ field. Awesome! There’s a few f-bombs in there, but hey, that’s part of the fun.
**********
Hey, Buzz Crew. Long time no talk.
I was signing up for mymilemarker.com (a service that helps you keep
track of your gas milage), and came across the shortest and clearest
User Agreement I’ve ever seen. Had to share.
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?6a2f1ebe3e.jpg
Love the show…etc., etc. 
–Jonathan in Knoxville
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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. 
