Buzz Out Loud Podcast

The Lenovo Yoga isn't a Netbook; it's a ripoff of the HP Jornada. It also apparently fits in a pocket, but it's a little long for all our pockets, even Jason's. We also cover iPhone 3.0 rumors and the truth about battery life lies.

EPISODE 931

iPhone 3.0 to have copy and paste, Pre-like features — but no background apps
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/15/iphone-3-0-to-have-copy-and-paste-pre-like-features-but-no-b/

Lenovo Pocket Yoga
http://i.gizmodo.com/5170542/shots-leak-of-lenovo-pocket-yoga-netbook-looks-like-it-actually-fits-in-a-pocket

AMD comes clean about battery stats
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/16/1447218
http://blogs.amd.com/nigeldessau/2009/03/12/objects-in-the-toolbar-may-be-further-away-than-they-seem/

Facebook traffic more than doubles
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/reporting/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=215900415

Samsung: Solid state will match hard drive price
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10196422-64.html

AT&T drops the ball on iPhone service at SXSW
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10196573-52.html

Juror’s Twitter posts cited in motion for mistrial
http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/03/jurors-twitter-posts-cited-in-motion-for-mistrial.ars

SciFi changing name to SyFy
http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tvbizwire/2009/03/sci_fi_goes_for_cool_as_syfy.php

New Yahoo original programming for mommies
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/technology/internet/16yahoo.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Seattle P-I to publish last edition Tuesday
http://www.seattlepi.com/business/403793_piclosure17.html

Surprise! Google Earth used for robbery
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10196830-71.html

Pentagon inks deal on portable milli-wave raygun tech
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/15/raytheon_lightweight_raygun_tech_deal/

VOICEMAIL
Tim
my vote for movies on Wii

E-MAIL
Is it a Netbook? Subnote? Laptop
Finally a flowchart… now you know when it is and isn't a Netbook!
http://www.liliputing.com/2009/03/how-to-tell-what-kind-of-little-laptop-you-have.html

Love the show!
Aaron

**********

“TV stations must alert viewers if their new digital signals don’t reach areas covered by their soon-to-be-defunct analog broadcasts, the Federal Communications Commission has ruled.
The stations must also inform viewers if they might need new antennas to tune in digital stations, the commission said Friday.

The new rules were prompted by lessons learned after Feb. 17, when about a quarter of U.S. TV stations turned off their analog signals. The remaining stations are scheduled to cut their transmissions on June 12….”

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96V6LLG0&show_article=1&catnum=7

Chris the commuter

**********

BOL Crew;

On Saturday’s show, you wondered, “why use Twitter hashtags when you can just use search?” For a very specialized term like SXSW, there’s probably no difference. But searching for #Lost gets me tweets about the show, searching just the term “lost” also gets me tweets about all the people who lost their car keys, for example.

So the hashtags do help to separate the specific from the generic.

Love the show,
Jeff from Huntsville AL

Episode 875

Personalized spam rising sharply, study finds
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F18%2F1417232

Cable to temporarily pause digital switch
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10126105-93.html

What does Andy Samberg’s YouTube hit say about NBC sites?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10125961-93.html

Toshiba launches 512GB SSD using 43nm MLC NAND
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/12/18/toshiba-launches-512gb-ssd-using-43nm-mlc-nand/

Mac OS X Netbook Compatibility Chart
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/12/17/osx-netbook-compatib.html

Texting ‘is a sign of recovery’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7787768.stm

iPhone thief thwarted by MobileMe sync
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/17/iphone-thief-thwarted-by-mobileme-sync/

Linux-ignorant teacher spat with Helios resolved (Thanks Amanda!)
http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2008/12/character-assasinations-aint-us.html

BlackBerry Storm buyers returning phones en masse?
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/blackberry-storm-returns

…or maybe not?
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/verizon-blackberry-storm-return-rates-lowest-of-any-smartphone

Why the BlackBerry Storm needs Wi-Fi: iPhone owners love theirs
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/blackberry-storm-wifi

Researchers test whether sharks enjoy Christmas songs
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F17%2F1622228
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/05/15/funny-pictures-sumfing-brushed-my-leg/

Voice mail
Shalin - time to buy a Shuttle

David in Colorado - About the billboard that watches you

E-mail
In these troubled economic times the outtakes should not be equal in length to the show. In fact, it wouldn't bother me if you lose the outtakes altogether. If Molly wasn't involved she would probably be ranting about it.

Danke.
Howard

**********

I'm so happy you guys included some extra chit chat after the podcast on episode 874. I love that stuff. Sometimes your 35-40 minute shows just aren’t enough to get me through the hell that is work. I think you should record everything from the time you guys get in the studio until you leave and just have that edition available as a download on the blog (so as not to create too much extra work for Jason, unless he really wants to create an extra iTunes feed for it). Love the show!

Have a Merry Christmas,

Daniel

**********

I agree with Kaadi, you guys are wrong and your insubstantiated rumours
are driving my feet into the ground!
I haven’t bought a pair of shoes in TWO YEARS! When are my fabled Steve
Jobs shoes coming? You led me astray BOL! Shame on you!

-ANkh, the computer engineering student in Dublin, Ireland.

Oh and tell Coolie to try Symbian.

**********

Hey guys. I just had a quick one. I am creating some policy rules in a device and have to use a web form to do it, and I am wondering something. Why the hell does Firefox on the Mac skip over drop down list boxes? Its a pretty big pain in the butt to be going along line by line (tab-tab-tab-tab-tab——mouse over to drop down click —–tab-tab-tab). I figured since Molly ranted so much about the Flash bug in FF, she’s want this one. As far as I know it has been this way for ever, and Safari doesn’t do it.

Love the show,
Jason in Cincinnati

**********

Dudes,

Regarding Monster and the whole company name controversy, the Linux
shampoo is one thing, but remember that video about the window wash I
found called ‘Vista — for windows’?

My argument still stands: that would still be a hilarious lawsuit. For
us, that is. Less funny for the company that makes the product (which
was called ‘Merrit’, in case you’d forgotten).

Nate

In today's show, we find out that the demise of humanity is imminent (or that all of our robot mythology is fundamentally rooted in self-hatred), the RIM BlackBerry Storm takes the world by drizzle, and Microsoft hopes that actually giving you songs will convince you to buy a Zune. Oh, and we don't care about Yahoo Glue. In case you were wondering.

EPISODE 857

RIM BlackBerry Storm arrives
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/rim-blackberry-storm-verizon/4505-6452_7-33311850.html

Meet the first multitouch consumer laptop: HP’s TouchSmart tx2
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10102285-1.html

Mozilla revenue $75 million in 2007, up 12 percent
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081119-mozilla-revenue-75-million-in-2007-up-12-percent.html
http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-10102627-12.html

Microsoft, labels try to revive subscriptions
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10102846-56.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10103777-49.html

Sources: Apple, music labels talk DRM-free songs
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10102414-93.html

Web debut for Guns N’ Roses album
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7739133.stm

Yahoo brings its Glue to the U.S.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10103776-93.html

Hey, remember Lively, Google’s Second Life, yeah, me neither. It’s gone.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/lively-no-more.html

Samsung launches 256GB solid-state drive
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10103645-64.html

IBM gets DARPA cognitive computing contract
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10103355-52.html

VOICEMAIL
Lee the exhaust guy: swarming with e-books

Daniel: MMS on the iPhone
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/20/mobispines-iphone-mms-application-for-the-entire-universe/
Mobispine press release: http://www2.mobispine.com/press/readpress.dot?inode=4568

E-MAIL

Hello Buzz crew. Like many others, I downloaded the Xbox New
Experience update last night, wasted about 20 minutes tweaking my
avatar so I don’t look like a punk kid, upgraded to LIVE Gold, and
made a beeline for the Netflix player. Microsoft and Neflix have
provided an amazing service to Netflix subscribers. It’s a little
disappointing that you can only browse titles in your Instant Queue,
but the interface is slick and easy to use. I selected an episode from
the (otherwise disappointing) current season of Heroes. Within
seconds, I was watching the smooth playback in high definition. You
can scan forward and backward through the video using a coverflow-like
view that shows thumbnails from the show.

The only downside was that I had to switch to my TiVo to order pizza.
If the Xbox Netflix viewer is anything like what we can expect to see
from TiVo, then bring it on. Can you imagine Pizza AND Netflix in one
UI? Now THAT’s a great user experience.

- Richard
Washington, D.C.

**********

Hey JaMoTo and the extra crew member!

Looks like we’re not immune from the big media companies as much as you are in the States. According to The Age…

The Australian film and television industry has launched a major legal action against one of Australia’s largest Internet service providers for allegedly allowing its users to download pirated movies and TV shows.

The action against iiNet was filed in the Federal Court today by Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Disney and the Seven Network.

(Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/biztech/film-pirates-put-iinet-in-the-dock/2008/11/20/1226770617457.html)

The interesting thing is, the Seven Network is in this suite. For those who don’t know, we have 3 major commercial television networks, namely the Seven Network, Nine Network and Network Ten. The last 2, offer Australians on-demand downloading of their shows on their website, and the Nine Network themselves have locally produced shows on the iTunes store. So why is the Seven Network resorting to suing when they could just easily join the other two networks by providing Australians more legal alternatives to the torrents? This goes for the other companies in the suit. If they really want to kerb illegal downloading, why don’t they open some US-exclusive options like Hulu to the Australian audience? You guys (maybe it was The 404, I can’t remember, haha!) said yourself that Hulu’s catching up to YouTube in terms of revenue.

It’s great to be an iiNet customer at this stage too. First the trial of the internet filter, now this from the entertainment industry. I’m with iiNet myself, so it’ll be interesting what’s to come.

Love the show guys!

Cheers!

**********

Mark

For the teacher and others who are having problems with HDCP issues there
are HD Strippers that are adapters or boxes that they themselves are HDCP
compliant and then pass through the signal without the HDCP DRM. a famous
example is the HDFury:

http://www.hdfury.com/

Robert Clark
Prince Albert,SK

**********

A hobo is a traveling homeless person who takes work when they can get
it. A tramp is a traveling homeless person who does not work.

Hobos are also governed by a code of ethics, have a duly appointed hobo
king, and a rich hobo-only written language based on a series of
pictographic symbols and codes which they used to communicate things
such as marking a good place to sleep, where you can find someone
willing to give you food, and what towns have cops that will beat the
crap out of you.

So I think Tom will be doing a decent service by launching a hobo social
site. I would give it a square missing it’s top line.

–Keith from New York, not a hobo

**********

JaMoTo,

I just wanted to take a quick moment to ask that you recognize the BOL chat room moderators on the show as they do an absolutely fantastic job of making the chat extremely user friendly and pleasant.

I’m sure you guys are generally too busy either getting ready for, or actually executing, the show to really notice how hard they work at helping new users along and just generally making everyone feel comfortable within the community.

I’d list them all by name but I fear that I would forget someone and feel terrible about that - suffice it to say that if someone has a gold star next to their name they are nothing short of awesome personified.

Not as anonymous as I used to be,
Snit

EPISODE 733

$20 Million Dollar Experiment to See if You’ll Rent a Song for 10 Cents
http://michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute_id=265

Microsoft unveils multitouch technology for Windows 7
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/ operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208400573
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9953361-7.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13953_3-9953055-80.html

Fraud ruling against Dell validates years of gripes
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13554_3-9953318-33.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/146371

Sony to build ‘Tru2way’ Interactive TVs
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2309865,00.asp
http://newteevee.com/2008/05/27/sony-tru2way- no-more-set-top-boxes/

Viacom ups ante in YouTube copyright spat: Google more than a mere enabler
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/ 2008/05/27/AR2008052702870.html

Google fights for the right to hide its privacy policy (Thanks, royterp!)
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/google-fights- for-the-right-to-hide-its-privacy-policy/

256GB Samsung SSD heading for MacBook Air?
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/27/256gb-samsung-ssd- heading-for-macbook-air/

New Mexico group tries to ban Wi-Fi
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2217507/ mexico-group-tries-ban-wi

Toilet aboard International Space Station is broken
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/05/28/ toilet-aboard-international-space-station-is-broken/
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/28/1213259

VOICE MAIL

Richard
Top Gear news for Molly

E-MAIL

Netflix box

It seems like Netflix should issue a disc for the PS3 and Xbox 360 to allow those to stream. They could sell the disc for 5 bucks and then market the service. The consoles are already in place in a lot of homes and have more capability than a TV box would have.

Mark P. Snyder, PE

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

Scientific imagers

Why are scientific images not color? It has nothing to do with bandwidth. Think about images from earthbound telescopes. They are also often black and white. The reason is that the imager is designed to provide informative images, not purdy pictures. For standard imaging, we sample red, green, and blue, but a scientist might not be interested in those specific colors. So a scientific imager is often a very high-quality black-and-white CCD in front of which a variety of filters can be placed, allowing for an image to be taken in a number of useful colors that might, for instance, sample emission-lines for a specific element. These images are much more informative than sampling just red, green, and blue. Plus, all of that weird pixel shifting and interpolation is avoided quite nicely. For a really good description, I recommend you check out episode 85 of Astronomycast about detectors (www.astronomycast.com). On that note, I should point out that I am not an imaging specialist, but that’s my understanding of the problem, so enjoy!

-Colin

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

ChaCha hourly rate

You were trying to figure out how long it takes to answer a question and how much a guide would make an hour. My average time to answer a question is about 3 minutes. So I make about 4 dollars an hour. And most of the time I get another question as soon as I finish my last one. So I don’t plan on getting rich.

just fyi.

Thurman

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

A great microbanking caper

I don’t know if you saw this, but it’s fantastic. This guy made over $50,000 by writing a script that opened tons and tons of brokerage accounts, then taking the tiny deposits they make into your bank account for verification. I love this; it’s even better than Superman III.

enjoy!

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/man-allegedly-b.html

casey

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

The Kindle update

Hello BOL.

My calendar just alerted me that today is “How good is the Kindle” and that I need to e-mail you guys about it… I guess it was some bet a few months ago … “how good is the kindle after x months” or something.

So, how good is the Kindle now? And how will they implement it in the rest of the world (the world that does not use EVDO).

Best regards…
Khaled A.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/28/bezos-second-kindle-is-not- that-near-amazon-to-launch-paid-v/

EPISODE 684

Amazon’s right on Vista SP1
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9897191-56.html

FCC Ends 700 MHz Auction
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9897722-7.html

Dell refutes solid state drive failure claims (Thanks Russ960!)
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13924_1-9897828-64.html

Apple could split device sales with music labels
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9897871-7.html

Adobe CEO says Flash apps coming to iPhone
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9897861-1.html

The reality of the RDF: how Apple motivates us to creativity
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080319-brands-as-personality-why-apple-motivates-us-to-creativity.html

Toshiba losing money in HD DVD business
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080319/ ap_on_hi_te/japan_toshiba

Google Spreadsheets Adds Gadgets, a Directory of Features
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/ google-spreadsheets-adds-gadgets.html

Beatles Edition of Guitar Hero Could Be Coming
http://www.dbtechno.com/gaming/2008/03/19/ beatles-edition-of-guitar-hero-could-be-coming/

The US Postal Service wants your useless junk (Thanks Shalin!)
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/ the-us-postal-service-wants-your-useless-junk /

Sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke is dead
http://www.news.com/8301-13772_3-9897329-52.html

VOICE MAIL

Loren
I’m cable TV free!!!

Chris
More Cablecard info.
–Jason Cincy also corroborated it with TimeWarner where he lives.

Lauren Saskatchewan
When listeners collide

E-MAIL

Robo dog

Hey guys,
That robo dog you mentioned yesterday, has been around for a while. I saw a video about this maybe 6-8 months ago. This isn’t a well actually. . .really it brings up a interesting issue with blogging (since you were discussing the validity of bloggers; the problem is that buzz reported on this as though it is news, as in new, and it is not literally new. There are so many blogs that things are missed and then recycled and then misrepresented. just an issue I was thinking about.

Eric
Omaha

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

One console future???

I personally love that there are 3 consoles to choose from. It’s like the computer industry in the 1980’s. However is this the beginning of the end?

First we heard EA talking about how they wanted a one console future:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3163813

Then Dennis Dyack became a very vocal supporter of the one console future:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/denis-dyack/one-console-future-is-inevitable-313840.php

Even David Jaffe supported a one console future:
http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=156328

Then at this years GDC the PC Gaming Alliance was announced. It’s purpose was to save PC gaming. One of it’s members is Activision the largest publisher of video games today. Another member is Acer:
http://kotaku.com/358436/pc-gaming-alliance-officially-announced-here-to-save-the-day

This week there are rumblings that Acer wants to produce an “open standard” PC based GAMES CONSOLE!!!
http://kotaku.com/368460/pc-makers-acer-to-enter-games-market

All of this might not amount to anything. HOWEVER, the pieces are there and this industry could be changing. I think Nintendo has opened a lot of eyes this generation that there is HUGE money to be made with casual gaming and many companies have realized that the video gaming pie isn’t as hard to get a slice of as previously believed.

King of All Asia

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

Piracy precedents

It seems the American government has a long history of working with Pirates…

- In 1812 the US declares war against England over a dispute about access to and control of Louisiana
- At the end of 1814 General Andrew Jackson reaches an agreement with the pirate Jean Lafitte leading him and his men to fight for the US in the conflict.
- On January 8 1815 The British invaded and Lafitte and his men were considered a major reason the undermanned US forces were successful in repelling the British.
- On February 6 1815 President James Madison granted Lafitte and his men a full pardon for their previous crimes.

Info taken from “The Most Evil Pirates In History” by Shelley Klein pages 153 - 156.

What lesson do modern day pirates learn from this?

“Mainsheet” Matt
Ann Arbor, MI

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

Story suggestion

I’m catching up on podcasts and I’m about 3 eps behind….but this is a good NEWS story.

http://www.renesys.com/blog/2008/03/you_cant_get_there_from_here_1.shtml

I work for a international backbone provider and I can also state that Turkey pulled a near Pakistan for almost a week :-0 …not to worry, was fixed today. But there was a Turkish court order to block Youtube that resulted in all traffic was dying on it’s way out of the country.
Seems they only broke it for their major carriers…not all…so not talked about so much.

Evidence: China, Pakistan and Turkey are all blocking Youtube, so it must in fact, be the root of all evil.

Cheers,
Emmett (In Italy)

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

Check your Directv bill- PPV 24 hrs only

Message:
http://directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPage.jsp?assetId=P4540022

Effective April 15, 2008, DVR recordings of PPV movies will be available for 24 hours of unlimited viewing after purchase. Major movie studios have required that satellite and cable providers alike may no longer allow their customers to view these recordings for longer than 24 hours. During the 24 hour viewing period, you will continue to enjoy all of your DVR features such as pause and rewind.

JSRoman

EPISODE 683

Apple snags 14 percent of U.S.-based PC retail sales in February
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/17/ apple_snags_14_percent_of_us_based_pc_retail_sales_in_february.html

Yahoo: We’ll double our cash flow
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9896609-7.html
http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/ releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=300145

Justices turn down Microsoft appeal
http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/S/ SCOTUS_MICROSOFT?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Amazon: Vista SP1 to ship Wednesday
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9896597-7.html

Online oligarchy: Old guard dominates Net news coverage
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080317-online-oligarchy-old-guard-dominates-net-news-coverage.html

Returns, technical problems high with flash-based notebooks
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9895986-7.html

State agency to destroy unauthorized USB drives
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/18/0518242

Intel moving to six-cores this year; What will you do with them?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8245

Wacky Apple patent application shows dual-screen ‘iPhone 2.0′?
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/18/ apple_clamshell_iphone_dual_touchscreen_patent/

FriendFeed is not the new Twitter, Is it?
http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9896535-2.html

One minute of science per five hours of cable news
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/18/0527235

All hail our robot overloads (Thanks Murray!)
http://gizmodo.com/368651/ new-video-of-bigdog-quadruped-robot-is-so-stunning-its-spooky

VOICE MAIL

Anon
Ausus Eee PC not so open.

Will You Marry Me?
I guess that explains it all.

Jared Philadelphia
Fixed costs.

FORUMS

Buzz Out Loud Lounge: How you make profit with volume on a unit that loses money.
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10152_102-0.html? forumID=97&threadID=288179&messageID=2731468

E-MAIL

Selling at a loss, but making it up in volume

Molly,

It’s a joke. Basically it is poking fun at companies that are obsessed with revenue at all costs. Usually it refers to a product you are selling at a negative marginal cost (every unit sells at less than it costs), hence the more you sell the more you lose. The internet bubble was a perfect example of a time when people would use the flawed logic that “we’re selling at a loss, but we’re making it up on volume!” The idea being that they would reach some sort of critical mass before they ran out of money and it didn’t matter that they were selling everything in the store at a loss. One reason this doesn’t work is that people begin to expect your lower price, and once you raise your prices to become profitable, people don’t shop at your store anymore.

The PS3 is a loss leader. You’re selling the PS3 at a loss in the hopes of selling other products later. Razors and razorblades is the classic economic example of this. You sell the razor cheap and sell the razorblades for a lot because while expensive the blades are still less than buying a whole new razor.

David Pollack

Wii and head tracking

Hi Jolly + whoever is there today,

In Monday’s episode you guys were talking about the Wii and how that Johnny kid was able to run around his room and get a 3D image. While I love my Wii and I think that Johnny kid was pretty clever, this technology in gaming is actually kinda old. There’s this device for the PC called Track-IR that is actually quite popular in the sim-gaming community. It works in a similar way, except instead of the Wii’s two points of light it uses three. This means that it can not only track the X,Y, and Z axes of your head, but also rotation. It’s a really cool effect when flying a plane- you can look around for enemy planes, you can peer over the edge of your cockpit, and you can even move your head closer in to look at your instruments. When I’m in a dive, its so much more realistic that I actually feel a bit of fear. Apparently it also works in a lot of driving and space-sim games as well. Only negative thing is that I used to think I kept crashing because I had poor visibility- now I know I’m just bad at flying planes. Anyway, it’s a bit expensive, but it’s my version of gaming nirvana.

Love the show!

Mike (electrical engineer in FL)

Hard drive death watch

On the question about solid state drives replacing hard drives, one of the arguments against it was that flash memory has a limited amount of rewrites. I looked this up on the internet, and according to several sites, the number of rewrites is between 10,000 and 100,000. Lets do the math using the lower number 10,000. If you were to completely rewrite your hard drive every day (10,000/365) that would be 27 years before the drive was used up. Granted there are power users who can use this much sooner. But for the average user, this is not a problem. Now compare this with a hard drive, again a quick internet search shows you can only expect about five years of live for a hard drive. Once the price of solid state drives drops to compare with hard drives, I can easily see HDs becoming extinct. So it seems to me that hard drive are the dinosaurs waiting for the comet. Add them to the death watch.

Darren
Columbus Oh

LOIcat

Hey guys,

I may be a bit behind on this, but I made you a Loicat. Just had to be done.

http://aycu14.webshots.com/image/47773/ 2001352156590297234_rs.jpg

Chrs,
Dav

Pi day

The nerd in me decided I must point out hat we missed the most perfect
pi moments, quite a long time ago… March 14th, 1592 6:53:58 AM/PM

Jim