Buzz Out Loud Podcast

On today's show, we discover that "scareware" is a thing (that never should have been) and that you can tell a bad business idea by the bad name. Also, PlayStation Home comes out (in beta) after a year and a half in development, and it seems kind of lame, and we talk about the few folks making money in TTT (These Troubled Times).

EPISODE 870

PlayStation Home opens its doors
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7777122.stm
http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_SONY_PLAYSTATION_VIRTUAL_WORLD?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-12-11-07-55-27

Reselling MP3s: The music industry’s new battleground?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10120951-93.html

Verizon ups ante on LTE deployment: 2009
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081210-verizon-says-early-lte-deployment-in-2009.html

U.S. district court puts scareware on ice
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081211-us-district-court-puts-scareware-on-ice.html

Report: Tumblr rolls into new financing round
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10121055-93.html

YouTube videos pull in real money
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/business/media/11youtube.html

iPhone copy and paste now working between Safari and Mail
http://gizmodo.com/5107138/iphone-copy-and-paste-now-working-between-safari-and-mail
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10121068-37.html

Apple and AT&T bring back iPhone home activation
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/11/apple-and-atandt-bring-back-iphone-home-activation/

Google doubles Street View coverage in U.S.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10120351-2.html

VOICEMAIL
Jason from Georgia: gimme that song

Jomo? the Janitor: riding robots, yippee!

Roy: Spare a thought for the Kiwis
http://roythekid.tumblr.com/post/63980981/my-voicemail

E-MAIL
Hi Guys,

Just listening to Tuesdays show and wanted to chime in, myself a being Java developer by profession. The promise of write once, deploy anywhere actually did pan out, but only on the server side. Java is still the number one most used programming language and many of the most popular web applications are powered by a Java back-end.

Now, to the point you made in the show, it did fail as a client/presentation layer for a few reasons. Firstly, the overhead of downloading the entire JVM and the fact that the browser would block while loading an applet made it obnoxious to load an applet based page, especially for those with slower machines/connections. One major reason why Flash took off was because the plugin was small in size and the overhead of install and running were/are negligible. It is unfortunate, because there are a ton of people with proficieny in the Java language, which is arguably superior to Flash and definitely has a much richer developer toolset.

GNC may take off if it can avoid the pitfalls of client Java while giving a more familiar programming environment than Flash does, but it should be noted that a huge part of the upcomming Java release is focused on browser performance. The new version of the JVM will give the ability to download components on an”as need” basis, and the applet initialization will now be non-blocking. This could be a huge step forward for Java in the browser, though I fear the bad reputation is already ingrained in the minds of the average web user, and it may be too little too late.

Love the show!
Nick the Software Engineer from Boston

Nicholas Bonatsakis
Software Engineer

**********

hi guys,

The google list was “fastest *rising* google searches” right? The Yahoo list was just plain old “most searched” terms. Maybe Google gets 10 000 000 brittney searches last year and only 1000 more than that number this year, meaning it didn’t make the “fastest rising” list. Perhaps Yahoo’s gets a consistent 90 000 000 and that would qualify brittney for the list cus their list isn’t about rising searches.

Adel

**********

Hi Tom, Molly and Jason +1,

I was listening to the BBC World Service this morning and came across a story that would tie in very well with Jason’s idea of having the holograms in your car, from a few episodes ago. Although, this seems like a scary slippery slope to head towards. Scientists in Japan claim the can “read images from the human brain.”

Here is the link:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20081211TDY01306.htm

I, for one, am not entirely sure I’d want to “see” what’s going on in someone else’s brain, but I can only imagine where that might go…(I’ll keep those thoughts to myself).

Anyway, thought you BOL chieftans might enjoy the story and run away with it (and please do).

Always love the show and keep up the great work.

Nuno, nthsquare in the chat and forums.

**********

Okay, okay, okay

That dude by the trian called in about the singing captcha, but I’ve got a better idea- RAPTCHA! A couple lines pop up from a popluar hip-hop song and it uses the built-in mic to validate what you rap! Amazing! Surely that would fool the phishbots. LOL

(T&C’s): warning, may cause immediate removal from current location and user may be relocated to a place with pearly gates.

Love the show

Chris the Designer from Bristol, UK

**********

Bonjour Dame et Messieurs,
This is Katie Noor, Elam’s wife!
Yesterday you decided that you might have created/discovered a “love
connection” between Elam and Heather from Boston because of a comical
cut & paste error.
Just wanted to say that, in the future, I would appreciate it if you
would at least…consult me before trying to set my husband up with
random citizens of buzz town. I mean, I don’t even know this Heather
from Boston. I disapprove. Back off Heather, he’s taken!
Love you guys!
Katie

**********

Hi JaMoTo and Guest
I am sick of hearing about BOL Bingo. I cant contribute because there are a few products on the list that are unavailable here in OZ. So I made one for us. Presenting BOL Bingo Australia!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23696006@N08/3099539782/
Sam
Melbourne, Australia

**********

Hey Buzzards,

In regards to the no smiling policy for Indiana driver’s licenses, they will continue to allow facial hair right? Because my friend (photo attached), and every Hoosier who can grow one, should be entitled to the half-beard.
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/33/l90579e347fa2d74bb8136fob2.jpg
btw, i’m subscribed to the audio/video combo podcast through itunes but i never receive a video version… am i doing something wrong??

~dave (indianapolis, in)

**********

Buzz Out Loud Video (Past episodes!)
http://www.ustream.tv/cnetstudio/videos

EPISODE 801

Speed test: Google Chrome beats Firefox, IE, Safari
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10030888-92.html

Firefox counters Google’s browser-speed test
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10031278-92.html

Chrome suffers first security flaw
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10031250-83.html
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1843

P2P traffic drops as streaming video grows in popularity
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080902-p2p-traffic-drops-as-streaming-video-grows-in-popularity.html

DirecTV, TiVo Plan HD DVR
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2329340,00.asp

“Google satellite” to be launched this week
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/09/02/210233.shtml

Insert ‘Ghostbusters’ song reference here: PNY offers movie on USB
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10031329-1.html

Report: 58 percent of adults clueless about ‘social networking’
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/09/report-58-of-ad.html

Survey says: DVR could improve your relationships
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10030452-1.html

Service call gone awry leads to playwright’s arrest
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080901.whostage01/BNStory/Technology/
http://idle.slashdot.org/idle/08/09/02/1636205.shtml

VOICEMAIL

Mike Hoboken
What is JaMoTo?

Anonymous
Digital TV transition in Wilmington.

E-MAIL

I had to laugh about Chrome’s new “Omni Bar” supposedly being a rip-
off of the Awesome Bar. Maybe Google is just giving props to OmniWeb , which has had this feature for years.

Jen

**********

Hey Buzzards,
Not sure if you guys have heard about this yet, but Google's nifty new browser has the EULA from hell. Basically, by installing Chrome, you give all-inclusive rights for Google to do whatever they wish, and with whomever they choose, with the data that was transmitted using Chrome. So, uploading a pic to Facebook or even browsing your company's internal content-management system gives Google a license to that content. Either Google is being run by Dr. Evil, or somebody just copied and pasted the EULA from Google Docs without paying attention to the details.

=== From the EULA ===
11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

James

**********

Hey Tom, Molly, and Jason,
So, I was trying out the new Google Chrome (what a lame name BTW) when I ended up at lifehacker and tried to watch a YouTube video that only played for two seconds. At first I thought maybe they didn't embed it correctly, so I went to YouTube and CNET TV to find that this so called "sophisticated technology" has the same stupid Flash bug that Firefox has. Come on, Google. You built your browser on AppleWebKit, not Gecko; how can you import a Firefox problem to your browser?! And, Tom, please don't give me that beta crap. I mean, it's just Flash--it isn't that hard; even Microsoft gets it right. Also, it really irked me that there's almost as much press coverage both on the Web and TV as the iPhone for this piece of junk. I don't understand how they just talk about Microsoft and Google . Did those stupid TV News reporters forget about Firefox, Opera, Seamonkey and the rest of, like, 60 Web browsers out there? Oh wait, they don't know bull about the Internet. And, how on earth can they recommend their viewers to download a browser that is in beta to the public to newbie internet users? Stupid Chrome, stupid reporters...glad I uninstalled it.

Love the show,

Leo S.

**********

I could just put my eyes out.

I worked at a structural engineering firm (which shall remain nameless) for 3 years and the bulk of my work was in retail projects. I’ve worked on about 25 Apple stores.

My favorite part of BOL #800 was when everyone was saying “Why don’t they just build a store?”, and “Why can’t they just put a wall up?” You guys sounded like every design team meeting I had been to for Apple stores. The meetings that Apple wasn’t at, I mean. I can understand wanting to build a quality product--I try to do that in my work-- but it seemed to me that there would always have been a faster, cheaper, more efficient way of building those stores if Apple had only listened to and worked with their consultants.

And the second best part of the episode was learning about ifoapplestore.com. And, by second best part I mean the worst part. OMG. I could just put my own eyes out! I counted five of my former projects on the front page. Somebody does this in his/her free time? Really? Is it for funsies? Am I the only who thinks this is totally weird?

I’ve seen two Kindles and a Sony eReader in the wild, all on MUNI (maybe not important), and I love the show.

engnr_chik

**********

I have been watching the show for a few months now and I really enjoy
it on my drive to school. So, I just wanted to say thanks. Also you
could have a fourth person on BOL more often, like maybe once a week,
and it could be a different person each time. It would throw in
other perspectives and give us more rants.

-Mohammed Ilias

LOVE THE SHOW!!!

**********

One of Tom’s annual predictions is a major network Internet simulcast of
a regular show. (I recall sports didn’t count when NBC did the NHL All
Star game.) So, does precasting of regular, top-rated, serial-
television count?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10030797-93.html

PittCaleb

The rotten corpse of the Microsoft-Yahoo merger has apparently reanimated itself and is wandering down Wall Street, munching on the brains of News Corp. and Time Warner, recruiting them to its unholy cause. Sigh. In other news, Microsoft has a new Office subscription service, Blockbuster decided Circuit City just isn't worth it, and we debunk the Texas PC repair hysteria that's sweeping the blogosphere.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 758

Microsoft seeks partners for new run at Yahoo
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121496732802022117.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9982741-7.html

Office subscription service ready to go
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9982212-56.html

Blockbuster abandons Circuit City bid
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9982618-7.html

PINs stolen from Citibank ATMs
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9982500-7.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25495280/

Researchers: 637 million browser users at risk
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10789_3-9981954-57.html

Texas PC repair now requires PI license
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2324220,00.asp
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/06/27/0627computertech.html

Apple orders 50 million iPhone NAND chips from Samsung, rest of world put on hold?
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/02/apple-eats-first-at-samsungs-nand-table-rest-of-industry-starv/

TV Viewers’ average age hits 50 years old
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/01/2121233

AT&T says original iPhones can be inactivated and used as Wi-Fi iPods
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/07/02/att_says_original_iphones_can_be_inactivated_and_used_as_wifi_ipods.html

VOICE MAIL

Roberto Portland
About the Netflix profiles.

Lee Sacramento
Why I don't like indexable Flash.

E-MAIL

Hi Guys.
Just a quick reminder--what you guys call a degradable HTML version, I, as a nonphoton--dependent person (a blind person, for those not up on the latest PC lingo I'm trying to spread) call an accessible version. Molly's sigh of relief at the prospect of not having to put up this second page was a gasp of horror for me and those of my ilk.

Screen readers do a miserable job reading Flash based pages for the very reason it's hard to index them, and without an alternate degradable version I wouldn't be able to access an increasing amount of the Interweb.
Thanks.
--Bill

I still use Limewire for the quick one song downloads, and torrent my albums. Because of both the cost (free) and the higher bitrate/quality than iTunes.

Well that’s all changed now. Last night I used Amazon’s MP3 service because of its 256kb/s bitrate mp3’s mainly.

> I have a Mac so I downloaded and installed the Mac version of Amazon’s MP3 Downloader very easily. After that, and signing into my Amazon account, It’s literally a 1-click process.

You click Buy Album… less than a minute later the entire album is in my iTunes. Full of all the valid metadata and album artwork.

I will never obtain music via P2P again. Amazon’s MP3 service is cheap, reliable, high quality, and supereasy to use! Also, it comes with all the correct metadata and album art, which is important to me when I’m using my iPhone and Apple TV.

--Don

Buzz Crew!
I hate to be “that” guy, but since I have my degree in history, I though I’d let you know that Max from Fresno needs a friendly historical reminder. Lenin followed the Romanovs, not Stalin. So, the time line was as follows: Romanovs–>Lenin–>Stalin–>etc. What is really scary is the correlation to the tech world. Under this corrected time line, XP=Romanovs, Vista=Lenin, and Windows 7=Stalin? Lenin was terrible and offered no downgrade option, but Stalin exterminated over 50 million people…so Windows 7 is really the Apocalypse (or at least one of the horsemen).

Enjoy the tweets and the show,
--Shawn in Greeley, Colo.

Yesterday you were talking about WiMAX being deployed for the first time in the U.S. in some small town, but I received an interesting piece of junk snail mail on Saturday from AT&T proclaiming “There’s a new internet in town!” They advertise up to 2 megabits per second (not that fast, but a start) and charge $20 a month for 384kbps speed when bundled with phone service. The interesting thing is they are selling this service in Anchorage, Alaska, not exactly tech capital of the world (we don’t have AT&T 3G coverage anywhere in the state). Here is the link to their AT&T Alascom WiMAX service page. http://www.attalascom.com/home/anchorage.html
Love the Show
--Mark from Anchorage, Ala.

Rumor has it that there will be code details about OS X 10.6 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference next week. Bold prediction, considering it's a developer's conference. Geniuses. Now, what cat to name it after? Also, Bill Gates gives his last speech on the road to his nearly-full-time-job-retirement; Oklahoma City has a sweet Wi-Fi mesh network that you can't use (unless the password is "password"); and you can now get your Outlook e-mail on an LG enV(2).

Episode 738

Mac OS 10.6 debuting next week?
http://gizmodo.com/5012955/mac-os-106-debuting-next-week

Full-featured IE 8 coming in August
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0337111520080603

Microsoft reports security problem with Apple’s Safari
http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_reports_security_problem_with_Apples_Safari/1212510348

Firefox 3 is still a memory hog
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/firefox-3-is-still-a-memory-hog/

Bill Gates’s last speech
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/03/2038259

Verizon Wireless lets you get corporate e-mail without a smartphone
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9959167-1.html

Oklahoma City claims world’s largest municipal Wi-Fi mesh network, leaves public out
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/04/oklahoma-city-claims-worlds-largest-municipal-wifi-mesh-network/

‘Call of Duty 4′ hits 10 million units sold
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-9959146-52.html

Flip Video’s mighty Mino
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9958989-7.html

NASA toilet might force emergency evacuation
http://gizmodo.com/5012730/nasa-toilet-might-force-emergency-evacuation

Voice mail

John the Bomb Maker
Here's what I'll do with metered bandwidth.

Sean
Better idea for the movie studios

Lun
About those MP3 kiosks

E-mail

Metered bandwidth

Hey BuzzCrew,

On Episode 737, you were talking about metered bandwidth and not knowing
how much bandwidth you use, and 40GB not being good/large enough.

Now Tom, you were talking about having a PS3 or whatever, and using up
all your bandwidth. Now, in my house, we have 3 laptops, a PS3, a Wii,
and I have about 15 podcasts that I listen to. And we only have a 12GB
limit, which we rarely go over, I think once. Ever. (with
1.5MBps/512Kbps). I honestly would not know what I would do with 40GB.
Admittedly, I’m not a torrent user, nor do I download or stream a lot of
video, but I still think 40GB is heaps! Our ISP (and every other one
that I know of in Australia) has a page you can log in to and check your
usage, over 24 hours, weekly, and the overall month. Another thing is
that most ISPs will send you an e-mail when you’re approaching your
limit, so you have some kind of warning that you’re getting close. I
have to say, I think you’re all making a big deal out of something that
won’t make much of a difference to the average user.

Love the show!

Dave,
Melbourne, Australia
aka DaveBinM

***************

5GB cap?

MoJaTo,

Can you imagine what would happen if you installed an SP1 version of
Windows XP?! You’d blow half of your cap just getting your updates! I
predict this trial in Texas will be a colossal failure (unless they’re
not testing the cap size itself, but the metering method they’re using).

Ethan
Minneapolis

*****************

Meter this!

Hey Tom, Molly, and YOU (Jason!),

This whole issue of metering my bandwidth really doesn’t scare me. My
neighbors haven’t secured their wifi connections yet, and it’s not that
difficult to circumvent WEP security so if I hit my wall, I’ll start
hittin’ someone elses! God Bless you Comcast, you hot sexy waste of
time! Have a good day.

Sincerely,
Justin
Washington, DC

***************

Whoops! Eff article I used

Sorry about that, It’s in my blog post but it didn’t copy over to the
email…

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/06/prince-issues-one-takedown-too-many

if you haven’t sent out the show notes yet, or can edit them, that was
the one I was talking about.

…or dont’ worry about it.

Frank J. M. Lattuca, Esq.

**************

Tully’s has free Wifi - you get 24 hours

Yo Buzz Peeps!
Looonng time listener. Big time fan.
So in listening to BOL737 you talked about Starbucks giving you 2 hrs of
free wifi. But you have to use it all at once. And you also have to
get their spam in order to use it. Yea…
Well, here in Seattle, the Tully’s coffee shops offer free wifi all day
(24rh limit) with no sign up, no spam, and you don’t have to use the
hours all at once. All you have to do is agree to their terms upon
logging on to their network (standard stuff).
Besides, their coffees and teas are far superior to Starbuck’s. Plus
they use more fair trade coffees.
Keep on Buzzin’

Peace,
Vic the Video Game Artist

***************

BOL in a Yahoo crossword?

I’m positive this is one of those things you’ll get a million emails
about (spam spam spam spam), but I was killing time before going into
work today and did a quick Yahoo crossword, and number 10 Down was “Buzz
Out Loud podcast producer”! Let’s see…four letters…MOL-E? TOM-M?
JY-SN? JMTO? No! CNET! Have you finally arrived in the mainstream of
social consciousness if you find yourself in a crossword?

Stewart
In North Hollywood

EPISODE 707

Skype offers unlimited long-distance plan
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN2141013920080421

Google tops Microsoft, Apple in brand power
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9924273-7.html

Britannica makes content free with widgets, publisher registration
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9923867-7.html

Hackers cancel attack on CNN
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144850/hackers_cancel_attack_on_cnn.html

Prediction: Microsoft will leapfrog Vista, release Windows 7 early, and change its OS business
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=664

Microsoft: Finding flaws on our Web site is OK
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/21/microsoft_oks_online_flaw_finding/

Xbox 360 burns house down
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/04/21/arkansas_xbox_360_fire/

Zune getting Audible
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/21/zune-getting-audible/

Twitter FAIL Day 3: Communications Breakdown
http://www.parislemon.com/2008/04/twitter-fail-day-3-communications.html

PayPal denies plan to block Safari
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144880/paypal_denies_plan_to_block_safari.html

Russia announces end to space tourism in 2010
http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/04/20/218214.shtml

VOICE MAIL

Ryan Colorado
How to get notifications about Twitter.

Barry Georgia
Why you can’t let the transmitters run after the cutoff date.

E-MAIL

Exactly how does Microsoft count their OSes?

Hi guys!

All this “Windows 7″ talk got me thinking: how was the number 7 arrived at? If Vista is “6″, then XP would be “5″. But wouldn’t that mean that 95, 98, ME, and 2000 were all “4″ since before 95 there was 3.1? Right? Or is it just that Bill Gates, like George Costanza, is a big Mickey Mantle fan? I’m confused so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

--Roy (Bethesda, Md.)

P.S. I’ve been listening since around November 2006, through all the downs and ups, and I can say that I truly do love your show. You guys really do need a big ol’ Webby Award. Is there a “For Your Consideration” campaign we can start for next year?

Old episodes

I just noticed that you changed your XML feed. Now I see that many of the older shows on the list, including all of those older than episode 586 (the first episode I listened to, we hate flash drives) are no longer available for regular download. Where can I find an archive of past shows?

--Tony

Cablevision lies to customers to get them to switch to digital service

Hey Buzz Crew,

Thought this would be worth a molly rant …

http://consumerist.com/379852/cablevision-blatantly-lies-to-subscribers-as-the-fcc-twiddles-its-thumbs

Cablevision has decided to send notice out to customers about them moving channels off of analog and moving them to digital and not informing the customer service so...they make random facts up from what they have heard is happening.

Patrick

EPISODE 706

PayPal plans to ban unsafe browsers
http://www.eweek.com/index2.php?option=content&task=view& amp;id=47667&pop=1&hide_ads=1&page=0&hide_js=1

Microsoft plans Office subscription service
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9921711-56.html

Blockbuster sued over role in Facebook’s Beacon ad program
http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9921496-36.html

Comcast, AT&T absent at FCC hearing on Net neutrality
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9921751-7.html

After complaints, Apple tweaks Software Update for Safari
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9922267-7.html

AT&T: Internet to hit full capacity by 2010
http://www.news.com/ATT-Internet-to-hit-full-capacity-by-2010/ 2100-1034_3-6237715.html

Gossip Girl streams pulled off CW's site due to, well, popularity; cannibalization fears
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/ 419-gossip-girl-streams-pulled-off-cws-site-due-to-well-popularity-cannibal/

Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony tout NPD numbers
http://www.news.com/8301-13772_3-9921783-52.html

Skeletons in the crimson closet: Facebook’s latest Harvard scuffle
http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9921374-36.html

RIP Edward Lorenz--Father of Chaos Theory
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/17/rip-father-of-chaos.html

BONUS: Fractal Magic!
http://www.crispdesign.net/fm/index.html

VOICE MAIL

Alex Miami Beach
A Twitter tale.

E-MAIL

Do Not Track registry

Tom, Molly,

Regarding your discussion in episode 704 about the do not track registry, I have a well actually for you. It looks like the deletion of cookies is not sufficient to avoid tracking these days. The Financial Post here in Canada published an article about ISPs using a service to perform deep packet inspection of your Web traffic to create targeted advertising.

According to the company providing the hardware and services, it is all anonymous, secure, etc., but we all know how well companies secure data. Plus, that one (or more) times you Google you name means that someone will be able to figure out who is the person being tracked in the data.

Here is the link to the article:
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=443523

Matti (Toronto)

Psystar/Apple monopoly?

Hello TMJ,

This is Diane the architect, long time listener first time writer.
Writing in regards to episode 703, the Psystar/Apple monopoly (?). I believe the accurate term to describe Apple is proprietary. Their product is neither hardware nor software but rather the Apple experience. Users buy in knowingly to an integrated system, quality and design, but most importantly they’re buying the brand and the status that comes with that brand.

Take for example elevators (excuse the industry reference). Most elevator manufacturers in the industry are proprietary and have specific requirements that distinguish them from other manufacturers.

The operation software, machines, and parts are all proprietary components of their overall product. On top of which the maintenance servicing is restricted to their respective manufacturers, otherwise the warranty would be voided. There are some nonproprietary manufacturers that provide a product built of parts from other manufacturers, their system is open and can be serviced by anyone.

The proprietary manufacturer offers an integrated system that has a certain proven level of performance, where the nonproprietary product offers flexibility, not unlike Apple and Microsoft. Apple prices itself into a niche market and basically provides a proprietary version of a common product. Just because Apple doesn’t prefer to share like Microsoft or Linux doesn’t mean it’s a monopoly.

Anyway, love the show and keep up the good work!
--Diane.

How to vote on legislation

Hi Buzz Crew,

Long time listener and total BOL’r. In fact it was listening to your rants on technology legislation that inspired me to build Govit.com.

You can vote on all active legislation and have your vote sent instantly to your congressional representatives. It’s a super easy way to take meaningful political action.

Please vote on Net Neutrality
http://www.govit.com/H_R_5353/To_establish_broadband_policy_and_direct_the_Federal_Communi/

Lot’s of other cool things on the site too, such as tracking your votes compared with your representatives, seeing the bills sponsored by the presidential candidates, and quick easy access to your representatives 24-7.

I hope you like it. :)

--Taylor Norrish
BOL Fan and founder of Govit.com

Silent and possibly deadly

Hello BOL!
I thought I would send in a quick story regarding the Hybrid car silence issue. On June 30, 2007, I was walking home from work and was hit by a hybrid car. I did not have an iPod with me, and was not speaking on the phone. The driver made no attempt to make his presence known, and afterward, told the police that his excuse was that “you just can’t hear these hybrid cars.”

As a victim of the Silent and Possibly Deadly cars, my vote would definitely be to increase the noise these cars create. It could prevent anyone else from having to deal with the aftermath. Luckily, I had only a fractured bone in my heel and couldn’t walk for three months, but these accidents could be a lot worse.

Thanks for bringing such an awesome show to us every day!
--Lucas
Atlanta, Ga.

EPISODE 705

NASA statement on student asteroid calculations
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/apr/ HQ_08103_student_asteroid_calculations.html

Yahoo-Google deal advances
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9920997-7.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120839839184321833.html

Microsoft spoof video
http://www.news.com/8301-10787_3-9920713-60.html

Movies and TV shows coming to PS3?
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9920204-7.html

Psystar explains the move
http://www.psystar.com/updates.html

NBC to Apple: Build antipiracy into iTunes
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9920399-7.html

Safari update fixes serious security flaws
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/04/safari-311-upda.html

Some 12 percent of consumers 'borrow' unsecured Wi-Fi
http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/08/04/17/149201.shtml

Google tweaked search 450 times in 2007
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9921148-7.html

Pittsburgh museum plans 'largest national' robotics exhibition
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/17/ pittsburgh-museum-plans-largest-national-robotics-exhibition/

Asus M70 1TB laptop screams 'FIRST!!!'
http://gizmodo.com/380885/ asus-m70-one-terabyte-laptop-screams-first

We can farm the Moon!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7351437.stm

VOICE MAIL

Johan in Sweden
Wants an explanation.

Amanda Atlanta
My theory on how Twitter can make money.

E-MAIL

Twitter’s Biz

Hi. This is Toby the, uh, technology enthusiast in Amsterdam. Re: how will Twitter make money? Just by chance, I happened to ask Biz Stone of Twitter and Jyri Engestrom of Jaiku how they plan to make money while they were visiting here for a conference last summer. This was about 2 weeks before Google bought Jaiku.

Biz Stone’s answer:
“Crunching through the content of (millions of) 140 character messages is interesting. Some of our business models we’ve been working on in the wings--we’re not focusing all our attention on it until we think we’re worthy--some of it includes hired messaging. And more traffic is better for the business. So it ends up being for gain in the long run.

(me: was that higher or hired messaging? You mean charge your users for messages?) “Well, we don’t charge our users for messages, but as we become more popular around the world and start to generate a lot of traffic, the (telecom) operators want to get in touch with us because their business is generating more traffic. So suddenly our business interests are aligned. And that’s something we’re going to be doing more and more as time goes by is making more contact with telecom operators around the world to find how we can help each other.”

(me: Yeah. I don’t really understand that).

“Neither do we.”

Jyri Engstrom’s answer:

“Our plan is to keep the basic service free, but ad supported. Right now you’re not getting ads, but in the future, the most likely scenario is that there would be ads embedded in the stream of updates.”

Interesting that Google bought Jaiku instead of Twitter, despite Jaiku’s being smaller. I guess Twitter’s business model could be capitalizing on their database (by selling market research, for instance), inserting adverts in the stream, or being bought.

Love the show, but not in *that* way.

--Toby

3G iPhone

Hey Buzz Out Loud crew, have some news/rumors to share. I have a very close friend whom I hadn’t seen in several weeks, who just so happens to be an AT&T Signals Engineer. I ran into him last night downtown, and asked him where he had been lately, to which he responded “We’ve been working like crazy trying to get our 3G service ready for the new iPhone coming out next month”. That’s right, apparently the AT&T people are currently ramping up their network for what the employees are being told is a May release date for JesusPhone2.0. Perhaps just hearsay, perhaps just blowing smoke up my rear, perhaps honest truth. You be the judge.

--Matt from Pittsburgh

Solving the last mile problem

Dear Tom:

As you were talking about solving the last mile problem in episode 702, I have the solution to that!
Use PLC (power line communication) technology!

This is what we are going to do in Iran; the company that I work for an exclusive distributor of Corinex Company which is one of the leaders is this technology.

So there will be no cables involved anymore and your data and bandwidth is transferred via electric cable that you already have in your city, neighborhood and your house!

Now the max bandwidth that this technology supports is up to 200Mbps in physical layer and it will be up to 600Mbps in 2009.

We are planning to use this technology in wide range in Iran, and I think it should be used with big ISPs in USA too.

As an IT Manager, I think PLC is not the only way to solve the last mile problem, but it's one of the best alternatives.

By the way in episode 695, Molly read my e-mail about WiMax, I just wanted to point out the pronunciation of my name was correct! Of course Tom said the exact correct pronunciation.

Love the show

Best Regards

--Siavash Ghahremany

Svang

I just wanted to say, “Thank you” for introducing me to Svang, albeit indirectly. I just bought their CD off of iTunes and I’m loving the hell out of it.

BOL does tech news, yes, but from now on I’m listening solely to be introduced to new music.

--Barry

Blue-Jeans responds to Monster

This e-mail could alternately be titled “Kurt Denke, Buzztown Hero”

Hi JaMoTo,

Darque from watch.bol here. I just got finished reading Kurt Denke’s response to Monster in its entirety. I must say I was blown away. That was one of the most beautifully worded documents I have ever had the pleasure to read. It is always stirring to see the English language used at this artistic level of Legal snarkiness.

It is with that in mind I would like to ask for some official Buzztown recognition of Mr. Denke. Can we make up an award? We can even give it a cute nickname like, “Buzzy”.

I just think some semiofficial recognition would possibly encourage others to stand up to bigger corporations and be funny at the same time.

Thank you so much for bringing this letter to My attention.

--Jason
aka Darque

p.s. Please have Molly use her special grammar powers on this e-mail if it makes it into the shownotes.

Iron Man

Hello Buzz Crew,

In episode 703, the part of the interview at Comic Book Resources referenced by Slashdot was not about the Iron Man movie, but about writer Matt Fraction’s new comic book series The Invincible Iron Man.

What Matt was trying to say is that while Stark is an innovator, he’s become somewhat set in his ways and a lot of his company’s tech, especially the Iron Man armor, is proprietary as H-E-double hockey sticks. Zeke Stane (son of the Stane character that’s being used in the movie) on the other hand is in a lot a ways like Tony was in his younger days, and is out to destroy him, both financially and on the battlefield. Also any listeners of BOL that like comics should try to find a copy of Fraction’s Five Fists of Science, in which Mark Twain and Nicola Tesla work together to thwart the evil plans of JD Morgan and Thomas Edison. Love the show guys.

Mark from Covington, Ky.

Winner is…BOL!

CONGRATULATIONS BOL!!!

You’re recording episode 705 today… There are now officially more episodes of Buzz Out Loud than episodes of Star Trek!!

(There are only 704 live-action episodes of Trek…

…This has nothing to do with anything… But its true!

Best,
--Brian from Los Angeles

EPISODE 702

Psystar’s OpenMac Apple clone is close to a cease and desist order
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/14/ psystars-openmac-clone-is-close-to-a-cease-and-desist-order/
http://www.macrumors.com/2008/04/14/ openmac-promises-399-headless-mac-but-not-from-apple/

Vista’s UAC security prompt was designed to annoy you
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080411-vistas-uac-security-prompt-was-designed-to-annoy-you.html

Virgin Media CEO Says Net Neutrality is 'a load of bollocks'
http://torrentfreak.com/ virgin-media-ceo-says-net-neutrality-is-a-load-of-bollocks-080413/

Keeping pace? Torrents of traffic and the Internet backbone
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/exaflood-not-happening.ars/1

Blockbuster wants to buy Circuit City
http://www.b2i.us/profiles/investor/ ResLibraryView.asp?BzID=553&ResLibraryID=24044&Category=1195
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8468

Will DVRs thwart rise of online TV shows?
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9917839-7.html

Retailers break vows on analog TV sales, get FCC wrist slap
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080413-retailers-break-vows-on-analog-tv-sales-get-fcc-wrist-slap.html

Microsoft considering its own retail stores
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2008/04/11.8.shtml

Man 'writes' 200,000 books
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/13/man-writes-200000-bo.html

Voicemail

Remy
Am I missing something?

Anonymous
Tools? Settings? I’m billing Apple.

Sam Parump, Nevada
I’ll bring up the Boy Scout thing!

E-mail

Bosses to snoop on e-mails

Bosses could be given the power to snoop on employees’ e-mails and monitor their Internet messaging under a new plan to avert a terrorist attack in Australia.

Federal Attorney General Robert McClelland has said the new measures, which could be in place as early as next year, would allow companies to intercept staff e-mails without the consent of workers.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/ 0,25642,23535224-5014108,00.html

Tim Gibbs

**********************

Are electric cars too quiet?

Hi buys,

This is Jeff in L.A. I personally have had a hybrid car come right up behind me in a parking lot without noticing it. For once, maybe Congress is on the right track!

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/04/that-blissfully.html

Love the show!

Jeff

************************

Trucking companies

Something to chew on….

Trucking companies can pay more than average for the roads, at least on a state by state basis...the Cliff Notes version:

Truckers must log their mileage traveled within a state. That mileage data is then combined with data about where a truck filled up with fuel. States monitor such data for a trucking company to ensure that a company’s trucks don’t fill up right across their border and then drive through their state without refilling. If a state determines your trucks are not buying enough fuel in their state for the number of miles your fleet runs in said state, you will get a bill for the difference.

Could this same model be applied to the Internet if the Internet was a public utility? Say YouTube has no physical presence in the state of Iowa. Then couldn’t the state of Iowa charge YouTube for the data they serve to Iowans on the premise that YouTube is using an Iowa utility without paying Iowa taxes?

Just a thought…

As always love the show!

Tom in Iowa

****************************

You lied to me!

Hey JaMoTo,

My name is Andrew from London, and I’m a reasonably long-time listener but first time e-mailer. I was listening to episode 701 today and got quite confused when you were discussing the Google Drive application, especially when Tom said he was on Waterloo Road… I didn’t see him, I was on Waterloo Road. Then he said meet by the roundabout by Stamford Street (the roundabout is actually an IMAX cinema hidden inside a roundabout and therefore almost complete inaccessible to pedestrians who don’t know about a series of tunnels interconnecting all the side of the roundabout)… but again, he wasn’t there. I live by that roundabout. I waited there all day and you guys never showed. If only I could Molly Rant here about your misleading comments (love the Molly Rants, by the way).

Anyway,

[insert bomessage here]

Andrew

************************

Sea cable update

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/ 516299-ship-impounded-crew-arrested-for-net-blackout
“Ship impounded, crew arrested for net blackout”

Dubai police have arrested two sailors found onboard the vessel, owned by an Iraqi company, and will refer them to Dubai Public Prosecution next week, UAE daily Khaleej Times reported on Saturday, citing a police source.

A second ship, thought to have been responsible for the cable damage as well, was also impounded, but has since been released after paying “huge” compensation to India’s Flag Telecom, owner of two of the four affected cables.

Best regards…

Khaled A.

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

E-MAIL

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.