Buzz Out Loud Podcast

NASA may have found the lost moon tapes and our best hope is for some kind of remix. Also, Molly tells us all to beware the sticky death roller if we use the dead-fly-powered alarm clock. We also still don't have a sponsor. In case you were curious.

EPISODE 1007

Steve Jobs returns to work as Apple CEO after medical leave (thanks, Nate Lanxon on Twitter!)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aSy0WezEGvvY

Sony considers adding phone to PSP
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10274415-1.html?

Sony begins shipping PCs with Green Dam software installed
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218101773

Google mistook Jackson searches for Net attack
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/06/29/003214/Google-Mistook-Jackson-Searches-For-Net-Attack

Amazon cuts off North Carolina affiliates
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/06/26/172248/Amazon-Cuts-Off-North-Carolina-Affiliates

Keeping news of kidnapping off Wikipedia
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/technology/internet/29wiki.html

Reading machine to snoop on Web
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13639_3-10274435-42.html

Universal phone charger deal done in Europe
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_8124000/8124293.stm

Lenovo expanding Del and Esc keys, nuking Caps Lock
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/28/lenovo-expanding-del.html

Has NASA Found the Lost Moon Tapes?
http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/06/28/186245/Has-NASA-Found-the-Lost-Moon-Tapes

VOICEMAIL
Dance in Boulder on Windows 7

E-MAIL
Dear Buzz Crew:

This is Siavash, alive and yet fighting.
You think airing trilogy of Lord of the Rings is a big thing? The channel 3 is going to AIR the whole Prison Break series, ha? What you have to say about that? I've heard it is 3 episode a day.
This is really stupid, let me tell you something, in Iran we have 7 channels over the air, analog and digital with standard definition, in Tehran less that 50% of people watch the Iranian TV and they mostly watch satellite TV. And most of the people have watched these movies and series on DVD, so who cares that they are aired on TV?
And there are some people like me that never watch Iranian TV. I don't have a antenna for Iran's TV , and I only watch satellite TV.( who chooses watching Mullahs instead of watching MTV?)
My source of movies and series are satellite TV and torrent download (sorry, but no copyright law here and I really love to watch the latest series and movies).
Series like Prison break, Lost, Heroes, Office, Friends, CSI , 90210 , 24 and etc are big hits and everyone watches them in DVD or downloaded Divx.

So, all I'm trying to say is that it does not matter if they air Lord of the Rings or Prison Break, because at least in Tehran no one cares and more than 60% percent or more don't watch any Iranian TV. We can buy a copied DVD for 2$ or an original one for 15$, now I buy BlueRay disks for 30$, why should we care what is one the TV when we can watch it with better quality and no censor?
They are doing anything they can to keep people off the streets but they can't, even one day marathon of Angelina Jolie movies can't do it.

Best Regards

Siavash

**********

It’s not enough that humans gave robots a place to congregate to plan our demise, now we’ve adapted them with the ability to extract fuel from the very nectar of life. All that innocent experimentation with fuel cells that run on blood has led to this, a flesh-eating clock. This prototype time-piece from UK-based designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau traps insects on flypaper stretched across its roller system before depositing them into a vat of bacteria. The ensuing chemical reaction, or “digestion,” is transformed into power that keeps the rollers rollin’ and the LCD clock ablaze. The pair offers an alternative design fueled by mice, another contraption whose robotic arm plucks insect-fuel from spider webs with the help of a video camera, and a lamp powered by insects lured to their deaths with ultraviolet LEDs. Man, this is so wrong it has to be right.

Michael

**********

The crew at BOL:

You had a round of derision for english units on the replacement for the
space shuttle. I’m glad to hear that you will be reporting the weight
of netbooks in grams, not pounds. The screen sizes will no longer be in
inches. Your CD’s and DVD’s will no longer be 5 1/2 inches. You won’t
be reporting how many pounds you lost on your last diet, and you will
report that the iPhone masses 0.135 kg instead of weighing 4.8 ounces.

As a practicing engineer (29 years), I have an intuitive understanding
of my designs in inches. I can convert to metric easily when needed,
but I have a storehouse of experience in English units. Unfortunately,
I’m passing that on to newly minted engineers, as well.

Charlie

Yes, as a matter of fact, it IS rocket science.

**********

I know one can’t predict the exact date of any given episode due to holidays, special episodes and what have you, but based on the average number of podcasts per month over year in the 2006 – 2008 period, I believe I can make at least a rough projection. I am greatly anticipating Buzz Out Loud’s Millionth Episode in October of 6120, give or take a decade.

Love the show.
-Mark, the person.

EPISODE 678

It's Official: Hulu Opens Up on Wednesday
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/10/ its-official-hulu-opens-up-on-wednesday/

Ars: Buzzkill
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080311-restrictions-distribution-rifts-may-hamstring-hulus-launch.html

Kentucky lawmaker wants to make anonymous Internet posting illegal (thanks, Jim!)
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080310-lawmakers-attempt-to-criminalize-anonymous-posting-doomed.html
http://www.wtvq.com/content/midatlantic/tvq/ video.apx.-content-articles-TVQ-2008-03-05-0011.html

Michael Jackson’s company denies Beatles coming to iTunes
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9890124-7.html

Lionsgate adding iTunes digital copy to some DVDs
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/03/11/ lionsgate-adding-itunes-digital-copy-to-some-dvds

EU clears Google-DoubleClick’s $3.1 billion merger
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080311-eu-clears-googledoubleclicks-3-1-merger.html

Cable firms join forces to attract focused ads
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/business/media/10cable.html

Sprint phone gets speed boost with EVDO Rev. A--It’s about time
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006625.html

Wal-Mart ends test of Linux in stores
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080310/ap_on_hi_te/wal_mart_linux_computer
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/03/middle-america.html

VOICE MAIL
Sterling: Cable company: busted!

E-MAIL

MacBook Air and the buried lead

Seems to me the real story isn’t that the TSA staff were stumped by a MacBook Air, it’s that it took nearly two months for an Air to find it’s way through this particular security checkpoint. The guy doesn’t say which airport it was, but either it had to be somewhere far away from civilization, or the MacBook Air isn’t selling very well.

- Waldron in Boston

Beatles and Tom’s memory

Tom, tom, tom:
The Beatles' song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is on "Abbey Road", not "Sgt. Pepper's". How could a fellow Cardinal's fan make such a mistake?

Okay, the two aren't related, but I'm ready for baseball! Go Cards!

Mark Larson
Salt Lake City, UT

Student accused of cheating on Facebook faces expulsion

Hi JaMoTo

I have been listening for a couple of years now. Listening to you guys when I drive, commute, and run. For some reason I run faster when Molly gets her rant on.

I thought you might be interested in this. Frankly I am ready for a rant on this myself. Its disappointing and embarrassing. Now I have to start thinking that this is not the kind of university I want to send my kids if they have this backward attitude.

The opening paragraph said it all…….

“What is the difference between a group of students brainstorming chemistry problems around a table in a library or a coffee shop, and the same group brainstorming online via Facebook? The answer so far is if you do it on Facebook, you risk being accused of academic misconduct and being expelled from school, at least if you go to Ryerson University in Toronto.”

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/editorial/story.html?id=5d4b792c-f521-4954-8b39-b92af48ccfc1

BTW: I hate the show and never listen

loi

Lindsay

iPhone copy and paste?

http://www.biocow.com/iCopy/index.php

Jacob

Second generation iPhone

Hi guys, just thought id take a stab at guessing at when the new iPhone is coming out. I'd say, that since the SDK is being released in june/july (not quite sure) its probably safe to say that there will be a shiny new iPhone to accompany that shiny new SDK. You guys probably already picked up on this, but I haven't heard anyone say anything about it.

Regards,

Jake UK

70/30 iTunes split from Ep. 676

Hi buzz crew,
Just a bit of pushback about your “Isn’t that HIGH?!” remark when commenting about the iTunes 70/30 revenue split with record labels…..

Typically, the model for old fashioned physical music distribution (starting at the retail level) for labels looks like this:

1. MSRP (That’s your retails store selling…)--$13 (a GREAT price for a new release)
2. Price the store paid the distributor--60-65 percent of MSRP (roughly $7.80-$8.45 per copy)
3. Price the distributor paid the label--roughly $2.00-$2.50 below the the price sold to retail stores (depending on the distributor/label relationship)
4. Price the label “pays” their artists (by the way…the label only has about $5.30-$7.45 at best to divvy up at this point)--30-50 percent or roughly $1.59-$3.73

Here is the end result of the physical distribution chain of power…

Retail Outlet: Roughly $5.00
Distributor: Roughly $2.25
Label: Roughly $3.83
Artist: Roughly $2.55

Obviously, the biggest winner there is the Retail Outlet! That’s outrageous right?

Here’s how it works with digital distribution:

1. MSRP (iTunes album price)--$10
2. NO DISTRIBUTOR (The label usually acts as it’s own distributor)
3. Price the Label pays to iTunes--30 percent
4. Price the label “pays” their artists--same as physical typically, but not always (deals vary for digital distribution.)

Now how does that math break down you ask? I’m glad you asked!

iTunes: $3.00
Distributor: N/A
Label: $4.20
Artist: $2.80 (Often higher, depending on the deal with the label)

My point is…iTunes is far more fair than the old fashioned physical distribution chain, and I think that when Steve Jobs said that the iPhone application price is the same as the label price, he must have assumed everybody already knew how all this worked. So the real question is…

WHY WOULD ANYONE KNOW THAT STUFF, STEVE?

Now, just as a demonstration as to how good distribution to iTunes can be for indie label artists (like myself), here’s how my deal is broken down…

1. My album is $7.99 on iTunes (a price set by…you guessed it…ME, the ARTIST) 2. iTunes pays my (indie) label 4.79 per album.
3. My label keeps only 9 percent, so in the end, I receive $4.33 per album sold at $7.99. If I sold my album at $9.99, I would receive $6.37.

Never in history has the indie artist been able to put out a product to the masses that is so readily available, and receive so much return from it.

Now let me get this straight….iTunes is actually good for the indie artist? Wow, who woulda thunk it?

NOW GO BUY MY ALBUM ON ITUNES.

Love the show!

Grant Richard

Hello Buzzards,

I have a podcast at podwatch.org where I review other podcasts, and I was unable to find anything wrong with Buzz Out Loud, forcing me to give it my first 10/10 ever. I don’t like giving 10/10s, so if you could kindly give me a list of things wrong with Buzz, I’ll be happy to reduce the score

cheers,

Tom
Adelaide, South Australia

(Seriously, though, thank you for a great show, )