Buzz Out Loud Podcast

The monarchy comes to Twitter, but of course the Queen doesn't sully her fingers on the keyboard, she has a royal twitterer do that. We also discuss whether the new Universal Music Group deal with TuneCore will change the landscape of music. We also absolve North Korea of the botnet.

EPISODE 1016

Universal/TuneCore deal opens major doors for indie artists
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/07/universaltunecore-deal-opens-major-doors-for-indie-artists.ars
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10283224-27.html

Korean DDoS Bots To Self-Destruct
http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/10/0452256/Korean-DDoS-Bots-To-Self-Destruct
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/07/pcs_used_in_korean_ddos_attack.html

Looks like it's not DPRK either
http://intelfusion.net/wordpress/?p=593

Google's Schmidt initially opposed to Chrome, says Microsoft is welcome to port Internet Explorer on over
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/10/googles-schmidt-initially-opposed-to-chrome-says-microsoft-is/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10283555-250.html

Report: 20% of online video fans watch less TV
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/07/report-20-of-online-video-fans-watch-less-tv.ars

New York Times Considers $5 Monthly Web-Access Fee
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a8GofbbtFf8w

Google image search gets usage rights filtering
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10283315-2.html

Clippy stars in new Office 2010 promo video
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10282944-56.html

Royal household turns to Twitter
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8144381.stm

But there will be no twittering from the end-zone
http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/The_Trenches/entry/view/28161/no_fun_league_bans_in-game_twittering

VOICEMAIL
Joe from Baton Rouge has a mulitfunction device issue of his own

RogueTess has good news for recent Kindle purchases

EMAIL
sup Buzz Crew

Regarding Pandora and the 40 hours per month cap; couldn't anyone just create an additional account, therefore getting 40 hours per account per month for free?

Granted 99 cents a month isn't a lot of money to spend, but in these troubled times -DRINK- , it could be a relatively simple alternative for any frugal music listener.

Stay awesome,
Terrence the Fraud Analyst from Madison, WI

**********

Hey, Buzz-keteers:

I know there's only about one day of voting left - and you've already received a couple of kickin' campaign videos for Molly's effort to become President of the Internets - but I had some extra time last night when it turned out I couldn't sleep. So I thought I'd whip up a little website to go along with everything else that's been done to-date.

It's not much, but it helped me pass a couple of hours. And maybe it can be used as an information portal or something when our new benevolent overlord takes office in the fall. Pardon the strange URL, but - hey, whaddya want for work done at 3 AM: http://www.wix.com/pbrentwilliams/mollywood

Good luck, Miss Molly! Love the show!
http://www.wix.com/pbrentwilliams/mollywood

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,

Regarding your discussion of lithium polymer batteries (lipos for
short) in episode 1015, they are not immune to exploding.

Lipos are a common power source in electric powered radio controlled
models, particularly RC helicopters, due to their high energy-to-
weight ratio. If they are compromised, they can spontaneously combust.

Also, if the cells are overcharged, they can outgas, causing a
condition called puffing, and can explode if charging is taken to an
extreme. Special cell-balancing chargers are typically used to avoid
overcharging battery packs consisting of series-connected cells.

This doesn't instill my confidence in lipos as a power source in cars,
particularly if you're in a crash.

Love the show.

Alan in McKinney, TX

Tonight the land rush begins for Facebook usernames and URLs. We'll tell you all about that. Also, Microsoft gets petulant and removes all browsers from its European versions of Windows, which makes Opera mad. And Macs get more worms and trojans.

EPISODE 996

Today is end of analog TV in U.S.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10262022-94.html

Microsoft to sell Windows 7 without IE in Europe: Odd and unnecessary
http://mashable.com/2009/06/12/microsoft-windows-7-internt-explorer-europe/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10262630-56.html

Opera lashes out over Microsoft’s browser removal
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10262913-56.html

Your Facebook business name: Already reserved?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10263324-2.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10263034-36.html

Twitter launches verified accounts
http://mashable.com/2009/06/11/twitter-verified-accounts-2/

Two new Mac attacks surface
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10263002-83.html

Free anonymous BitTorrent becomes reality with BitBlinder
http://torrentfreak.com/free-anonymous-bittorrent-becomes-reality-with-bitblinder-090611/

Gaming hardware, software sees slump in May
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/06/gaming-hardware-software-sees-slump-in-may.ars

DJs buy music on stolen cards’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_8094000/8094637.stm

Meteor bounces off German dweeb
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/space/5511619/14-year-old-hit-by-30000-mph-space-meteorite.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01422/meteorite_1422354i.jpg

N.Y. man sues dating Web site Match.com for deception
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0939287520090609

VOICEMAIL

Rod from Washington on MS Money

Mike in Toronto’s ingenius iPhone plan

E-MAIL
Hay Buzz team, how come you are not in HD? yea I know the pixels are right (1.77), but the encoding sucks. You shouldn’t let those other shows hog the bandwidth bucket, its time you stood up for yourself, I may start a petition.
I still love the show despite the video quality.
Congratulations on show 1000, perhaps CBS could give you a bandwidth cake.

Ian

**********

Dear Buzz Folk,

I still have my Calculus textbook, filled with notes, formulas,
graphs, and corrections. And while having an electronic version of
the text would be nice for reference, I think an electronic version
inhibits the learning process. In my calc book, I have tons of little
notes filling in the gaps in examples the authors left out (”It is
left to the reader” and “It can be easily be shown” are my two least
favorite textbook phrases). I can’t imagine taking an organic
chemistry course without the ability to sketch compounds in the
margin. Technology is just not available to do these sort of things
easily and in a country that is behind in math and science education,
cheaper is not always better.

Besides, the cost savings are minimal. “Applied Chemistry – A
Textbook for Engineers and Technologists” costs 107.51 in hardcover on
amazon.com (random example). The kindle version costs 96.76. And I
can’t sell it at the end of the semester for pizza money. I can’t let
a friend borrow it. Or own it after amazon stops producing the kindle
and my kindle dies. Or I could get a version for my laptop,
encumbered with DRM that doesn’t work on my linux/mac or after the DRM
server is shutdown. Yup, that 10.75 I saved was well worth it. Open
textbooks are a possible solution (thinking about writing a statistics
for biologists one myself, after I get tenure) but “usable in the
classroom” quality and open is not always possible.

P.S. Kinldle: The home of the $6,400 ebook.
http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Nuclear-Materials-Engineering-ebook/dp/B001QTVXAK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1244805281&sr=1-1

Mike the statistics professor

**********

Hey buzz crew,

With all the reports about the new iPhone you seemed to miss a ground
breaking event. Since the iPhone 3G S is the same size as the iPhone
3G that means all of your cases and add ons will work with the new
modle! I can’t believe apple forgot to stick it to us the customers
and force us to upgrade all the stuff we have already bought. Is this
the start of a new kinder apple or just an over sight of some project
manager?

Love the show!

Kathryn from Portland Oregon
( where AT&T coverage not that bad )

**********

Hey guys,

After hearing you wax poetic about Joss Whedon, I felt you guys would be helpful in getting the word out about Can’t Stop the Serenity 2009.

“Can't Stop the Serenity” is a global fundraising effort featuring charity screenings of Joss Whedon's 2005 film Serenity to benefit Equality Now.

This year, in addition to Serenity, many locations will also be hosting big screen showings of "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," Joss Whedon’s awardwinning Internet musical sensation.

Fans of Joss Whedon show Serenity on his birthday (June 23rd) to honor him and to raise money for his favorite charity, Equality Now. Equality Now (http://equalitynow.org/) works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world through the mobilization of public pressure.

There are over 47 cities hosting these events throughout the summer. For details about the closest city hosting an event go to http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com.

Thanx.

David Adams
New England Browncoats

http://www.thehey.com
http://www.newenglandbrowncoats.com
http://www.twitter.com/thehey
http://www.cstsboston.com

**********

1000th episode is next week, thanks for all your submissions. Don’t miss the big show Thursday June 18th at the normal time and in the normal feeds live at 10:30 AM Pacific http://www.cnet.com/live

We were really thinking about calling this episode something to do with prehistoric snake. Because Natali is very into the prehistoric snakes. Although she can't kill them. Instead we discuss Bill Gates releasing mosquitoes at TED, the Congress sort of delaying the DTV transition, and Google trying to steal your health information.

EPISODE 905

Bill Gates Unleashes Mosquitoes On Rich TED Conference Crowd
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009/2/bill-gates-unleashes-mosquitoes-on-rich-ted-crowd
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7871210.stm

DTV delay passes, 264-158
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/02/dtv-delay-passes-264-158.ars

AP suing over Obama picture
http://www.usatoday.com/life/2009-02-04-AP-obama_N.htm

Google can read your vital signs
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/04/google-ibm-healthcare-technology-internet_0205_google.html

Google books for iPhone and Android
http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2009/02/15-million-books-in-your-pocket.html

Google offline calendar
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/static.py?page=offline_faq.html&hl=en

In games, brains work differently when playing against a human
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/02/humans-think-different-when-told-theyre-playing-a-human.ars

Microsoft offers to just ‘Fix it’
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10157210-56.html

Yes! It’s the cardboard PC!
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/02/05/recompute/

Parking ticket leads to a virus
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7872299.stm

MIT researchers make ’sixth sense’ gadget
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.c3b86e67d015d664d720fa421d679c0f.311

Prehistoric monster-snake
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/02/05/giant.snake.colombia/index.html?eref=rss_tech

VOICE MAIL
Paul from Verizon Wireless
We have service on cruise ships

Nathan the physics teacher from Tennessee
OK Natali. I got words for you.

E-MAIL
Hi Janato,

Listening to episode 902 and Natali on the E Slick reader and her desire for it to be a little more like the Kindle, I was jumping up and down for somebody to mention this product I’d just written about on my blog. The as yet unreleased reader has it all but no word on price, hope you like it, I think it’s got real potential.

http://mygadgetlife.co.uk/start/?p=684

I did think about leaving a message but being from Yorkshire I’ve got an even more unfathomable accent than that guy from Liverpool, eh up sithe! (pronounced hey up sith-i thats hello and how are you - in translation)

Love the show (electronic voice style)

Phil

Hello Buzz Folk-

I was listening to BOL 904 on Tuesday and was a little surprised to hear
about your concern at the sale of some of Verizon’s spectrum to AT&T as
a condition of the Alltel acquisition. If Verizon has to sell off some
spectrum the conditions of these deals usually insist that a carrier not
own both of the primary A and B spectrum in any given market. This
usually refers to the 800 MHz cellular spectrum and is most strongly
enforced in rural areas without as many options for carriers. I haven’t
looked at the details but I assume that much of the spectrum is in
markets where Verizon formerly competed with Alltel. Remember that
spectrum is licensed by not only by frequency but also by geographic
area. As long as Verizon still has a nationwide license for spectrum
they will not be loosing coverage.

That was long and probably won’t be read but hope that clears some
things up.

-Ryan
Physics Teacher in Boston

Hey Buzz Crew, Brenton the computer Scientist here,

I have been an avid listener since around the 500’s and always enjoy listening to the show on the commute to work. How ever, when I am listening on my laptop I like to keep an eye on the show notes, and this is not always possible because of work etc. so i decided to create a widget for my Mac which contains the show notes of the latest episodes. So a little time later I have it working, and I have included the link for any Mac users among the army who have the same problem.

http://support.callaghan001.com/widgets/bolRSS/

Love the show, and I have seen a Kindle in the wild.

Brenton.

Buzz Clique,

First of all, bravo for mobilizing the Buzz Brigade to drink
themselves into oblivion. I’m sure whatever sinister plans you have
for this evil buzz datacenter will benefit us all. I - like a lemming
- will follow our overloads to wherever we need to be, even if that is
at the bottom of a whiskey bottle. Anyway, drinking gallons of whiskey
gave me something interesting to do whilst I was passing the time off
work due to the recent #uksnow you may have seen tweeted repeatedly.

I admire the quality of intellectual characters we have in Buzz Town,
however I noticed that all the mathmatical ability in the world
doesn’t equate to a high level of perception, leading to what I
believe to be what you guys call a ‘well actually’.

You see, cranky what’s-his-face and the other math dude have made a
fatal oversight to their whiskey powering calculations. The crux of
their figures is centred around how much energy is in whiskey. Luckily
the Scots had it figures out so they could still get mashed on the
whiskey while reaping the benefits of it’s BYPRODUCTS.

So I’m afraid our intrepid mathematicians will have to rethink their
figures based on leftovers rather than the actual whiskey itself.

Hopefully by some remarkable turn of events the byproduct is something
like dilithium crystals or the like. I’d rather be an alcoholic - in
spaaaaace.

Big up your shoes and socks and of course I’m affectionate towards
your show.

Greg The Garage Head from London town (That’s garage as in ga-ridge
not ga-raahhhshh. It rolls off the tongue better that way)

Hey BOL crew,

Steven the Biologist from Montréal here. In regards to your discussion of plugging in electric vehicles in Episode 903, a simple combination of technologies should easily solve the problem of where to plug in your vehicle when you’re on the road: take electric vehicles and combine them with wireless power (such as the eCoupled / PowerCast devices showcased at CES this year), add a sprinkle of RFID, and bake until done. Once the wireless power device are a bit more advanced, you could conceivably build them into the roads themselves as cities and businesses roll out new roadway infrastructure. Add in a unique identifier for each vehicle, like an RFID device, and your car could be identified as it charged off a particular surface. Paying for this service could go into the private or public sector or both as appropriate; it’s conceivable that you could pay your local utility for charging just like you pay for power at your house.

Sounds like a winning combination to me.

Cheers,
Steven.

Scientists have redone the math and found that black holes created by the Large Hadron Collider might last a little longer than they thought. But they're still pretty sure the LHC won't kill us all. Maybe check that math once again folks, just to be sure. We also have lots of White House news around the BarackBerry and whether the tech of the President's house is really up to snuff. And Rafe will tell you about how in Russia the system operates you.

EPISODE 896

First e-mailing prez: Obama keeps his BlackBerry
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10148329-38.html

White House already well wired, Bush staffers say
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,481647,00.html

Obama is "Failure" at Google, "Miserable Failure" at Yahoo
http://searchengineland.com/yahoo-obama-is-a-miserable-failure-16286

Trojan hides in pirated copies of Apple iWork ‘09
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F23%2F0127253

Apple issues critical QuickTime security update
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10148926-37.html

Facebook now twice as big as MySpace? Oh boy
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10148855-2.html

Seagate says it now fixes 7200.11 drives for real
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10148231-1.html

Russia to develop a national operating system
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F23%2F1450224

Monty Python’s free Web video increased DVD sales by 23,000 percent
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/23/monty-pythons-free-w.html

Microsoft brings back DRM
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F22%2F1914201
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090123-microsoft-misses-memo-launches-drm-laden-mobile-music-store.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10148896-27.html

Pope to launch Vatican on YouTube
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7846446.stm

LHC-made black holes could last for minutes
http://arxivblog.com/?p=1136

VOICEMAIL
Bailey in Lawrenceville On webkit and gecko

E-MAIL
I left a vmail too, but thought I’d sent the link for you:

2000-2003 DVDs would have qualified: http://www.copyright.gov/1201/anticirc.html

But since 2003 this passage has applied:

2. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2006/11/new-dmca-exemptions-granted

So HD-DVD is a no go. Also note:

A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

Later!

Frank L.

**********

Buzzkins,

Some of us up here in the thermally challenged North will benefit from a delay in the DTV Transition, for a reason none of you mentioned. I went out in mid-December and purchased my coupon-assisted Converter Box. When I hooked it up to my Analog Adequate rooftop aerial, I was rewarded with a big Digital "NO SIGNAL". I live 28 miles from the big city transmitters, and not in flat country. Now I need to install an even bigger, amplified signal rooftop antenna. The big problem with this is that there is snow and ice covering my roof, and it will be there until Spring, or until Climate Change.

Bob the Geek

Canandaigua, NY

**********

Hi Buzz!

So I think Packet 8 VOIP just went out of business. I woke up with my
phone not working, their 800 number off and no more website. Ugh.
Since this is the second VOIP I’ve outlasted (sigh, Sunrocket), I’m
switching back to a landline. I still need that number for work, so I
just had a grueling phone session with ATnT. I think I would have
preferred an hour at the dentist.

Curse you Vonage for not having service in my area and long live the
land line!

Sheala, GA

**********

Hey Tom, Jason and Natali,

I have rebuilt Podcaster from the ground up. I took away the search directory and resubmitted it to the app store and it got accepted yesterday, 1/22/2009. You can download it at http://tinyurl.com/rssplayer (iTunes store link) or you can read more about it at http://rssplayer.blogspot.com. I stripped a lot of the features away and will be adding them back 1 by 1 in every updated. So that’s it. Just keeping you in the loop.

Thanks for a great show
Alex

**********

Just thought I’d respond add to the discussion yesterday about “older
people” and the DTV changeover. According to an Ars Technica article, the
exact opposite is true and it is younger people who are unprepared.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090123-nielsen-6-million-households-still-not-ready-for-dtv-day.html
Quote: “One phenomenon that continues to hold steady is that young people
show much higher levels of complete unreadiness than the late middle aged
and elderly. 8.8 percent of households under 35 are totally unprepared, as
opposed to just 4 percent of those over 55.”

Love the show,
Luke in Connecticut

Episode 889

Best of CES Awards
http://ces.cnet.com/best-of-ces/

Web site problems as Windows 7 beta hits
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10138449-56.html
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10139408-100.html
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx

Apple at CES? Unlikely
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10138499-37.html

Chrome gets Mac deadline, extensions foundation
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10138388-2.html

Nvidia 480-Core graphics card approaches 2 Teraflops
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F09%2F2022231

Palm Pre Touchstone eyes-on
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/palm-pre-touchstone-eyes-on/

Testing CrystalTalk
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10138219-100.html

Dell Adamo
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10138468-1.html
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/09/dell-adamo-hands-on/

Setting ioSafe’s Solo on fire: The hottest blog ever!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10138593-1.html

Trojan found at torrent sites insists “downloading is wrong”
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F10%2F0336243

The Air Force’s rules of engagement for blogging
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/09/the-air-forces-rules.html

E-mail
Hey JaMoTo +1.

I was listening to episode 888 and I was wondering why everyone is drooling over the Palm Pre. Didn’t we do the same thing when the Blackberry Storm was announced? We gave it so much praise until the time came for release. It was a failure. Are we certain this will be Palm’s savior or will the hype rise above what will really happen? Will the Pre truly be the device that brings Palm back or will it be lost and forgotten just as the Storm was?

Chris from Florida

**********

Hey BOL team just wanted to pop in let you guys know orange julius has a brand spankin new drink called the blackberry storm haha included is a pic i took of the ad and a link to the nutrition facts on the 2nd page of the pdf 3rd flavor down of the blackberry storm. I wonder which is slower trying to use the BB storm’s accelerometer feature or trying to get the drink through a straw? haha keep up the good work love the show! Jason Trambley
http://www.orangejulius.com/downloads/OJNutritionalFacts.pdf
–
Jason T

**********

Listening to episode 886. You guys were alking about the sling player
app for iPhone and whether Apple might accept it into the App Store
because it’ll steam video over 3g. I recently started using Orb Live
from the app store. This app works with the Orb client on your pc with
tv tuner at home and you can then stream your tv and any other media
to the iPhone app. Works well. Video quality is good enough over 3g.
So, there’s precedent for it. Hope I’m not jinxing anything by
bringing attention to Orb. Love the show!

Peter on the train in Chicago

**********

Wow, it might not take long for Molly’s prediction to go true:

Seattle P-I up for sale; could go online-only
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008609677_webpi09m.html

I agree with Molly that her prediction is bound to happen. I didn’t think it was going to happen to my local paper though! J

– Jiunwei

Episode 866

Listener co-host details: E-mail buzz@cnet.com with your name, phone number, preferred time of day (with time zone). We are shooting for doing the interviews next Monday 3-4 p.m. PST and Wednesday 4-5 PST.

Facebook Connect opens up
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10113604-2.html

So does Google Friend Connect
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10113648-2.html

Koobface’ Virus Attacks Facebook
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/12/koobface-virus.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10113981-83.html

eBay holiday contest overrun by automated scripts, honest users disgruntled
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/04/ebay-holiday-contest-overrun-by-automated-scripts-honest-users-disgruntled/

First NFL game in 3-D fumbles, then recovers
http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/N/NFL_3D?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-12-05-07-43-16

Some Xbox owners see poor-quality Netflix streams
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10113937-93.html

Online reporters now the journalists most often jailed
http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/12/05/0532240.shtml

Martini Life launches as hub for affluent individuals
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10113329-2.html

Obama sports white earbuds, doesn’t rock Zune
http://www.macworld.com/article/137347/obama_ipod.html

Voice Mail
Daniel: beaten to the Netbook girl

E-mail
Hi Buzz Crew:

In episode 863, Jason brought up the notion of having holographic passengers. (For the sake of discussion, let’s ignore the fact we don’t actually have a viable holographic system.) My engineering side kicked in, and I started thinking about the equipment that would have to be added: computers, projectors, power conversion (since there’s no way this thing’s running on 12 V), etc. In short, this is one option that’s not going to fit in a Prius. Maybe an Escalade assuming you were not planning on using the back for anything else. The cost of this thing would be enormous. That said, if one or two holographic passengers qualifies me for the HOV lanes, I’m in.

Craig (in VA just outside DC)

**********

Hey JaMoTo (+1)

With all the talk lately about who watchs ads on the TiVo, I was happy to find a new article circling around the net lately. There is an affliction that is now dubbed “TiVo Guilt”.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/02/tivo.guilt/?iref=hpmostpop

Also on the TiVo viewers and how many commercials they watch, I have noticed a strange pattern in my boyfriend’s TiVo habits: When we are watching something live, he gets very indignant that he can’t fastforward the commercials, but when watching something pre-recorded, he promptly forgets we have a TiVo. We’ll make it halfway through the break and he’ll suddenly go “Oh yeah, TiVo!” and begin fastforwarding then, having just watched half the ads. This process will repeat for subsequent breaks. It’s an odd little phenomenon, no?

Love the show!
Amy in cold London, Ontario, Canada

**********

What’s goin’ down, BOL crew?

I know you talked about this a few days ago, but today, my cousin’s macbook-pro collapsed horrendously the other day due to a virus. I didn’t believe it at first because I’ve had an ibook g4 for over three years and I have never had a problem with it. He took it to the local apple store. They said that he should purchase more than one type of virus software, but they didn’t sell any at the apple store.
My cousin had to go to CompUSA to buy clunky and terrible virus protection software that completely harshes the mellow of his computer, increasing its boot time by a considerable amount.

I thought you all might like to hear about this.

Love the show,
Ian the high school student from Milton, Georgia

**********

Who hates Apple and has the money to fund Psystar? The answer should be obvious:

The Beatles.

Think about it.

-Jon
(a.k.a. “TenaciousWii”)

**********

Hi guys,
Go to the kogan website and order the international one. It costs about ?500 ($600). I knew it sounded too good to be true.

Love the show,
Eoghan (Owen) in Ireland.

We try to get all sentimental about the demise of the Mars Phoenix lander, but Brian Cooley ruins it with his outlandish assertions about the uselessness of space. Plus, he loses his mind about the crappiness of the BlackBerry Curve. In sum, a good time is had by all.

EPISODE 850

Mars Phoenix Lander completes its mission
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10092897-52.html
http://www.urbanhonking.com/universe/2008/11/interview_marsphoenix.html
http://gizmodo.com/5082385/this-is-my-farewell-transmission-from-mars

Flat-panel TV shipments begin their decline
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10093153-1.html

FCC OKs digital workaround for DTV signal range problems
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081111-fcc-oks-digital-workaround-for-dtv-signal-range-problems.html

AVG virus scanner removes critical Windows file
http://securityandthe.net/2008/11/10/avg-virus-scanner-removes-critical-windows-file/

Cooley Rant: How did RIM fool so many for so long with BlackBerry? It’s CRAP. Gimme’ that GD iPhone!!!
http://www.pcworld.com/article/153666/apples_iphone_so_far_the_best_phone_ever.html

Mininuclear plant is safe, affordable, and purifies water (but doesn’t turn lead into gold)
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/11/mini-nuclear-plant-is-safe-affordable-and-purifies-water-but-d/

Best Buy’s holiday gift cards now double as speakers, still a lazy present
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/11/best-buys-holiday-gift-cards-now-double-as-speakers-still-a-la/

Largest Aussie ISP agrees to “ridiculous” Net-filter trial
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/11/1329222

Windows 7 benchmarks show little improvement on Vista
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/11/0110251

Texting bug hits the Google phone
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7722367.stm

VOICEMAIL
John the Bomb Builder: cheap Blu-Ray!

Anonymous Ad-hater

E-MAIL

Hey Buzz crew-

Did you know most states have a public utility service commission? A
friend of mine was told by Bellsouth that it was too expensive to fix
the phone lines to her house and she could live with bad service or
find someone else to help. She called the Georgia Public Service
Commission and filed a complaint. The GPSC called Bellsouth and said
you fix it or you get fined. So they fixed it within two weeks.
Buzz Brigade you are having problems with your utilities Google public
service commission in your state and get some help sticking up for
yourself. And yes there is one in Oregon, so yesterday’s DSL caller
should look into it!

Sheala, GA

Ps- if I pay $3400 for a graphics card, it better be showing me the
future or something!

**********

From the Consumerist.

http://consumerist.com/5082090/timeline-how-circuit-city-came-undone

According to the chart it all starts in 2007 when they fired all employee’s that knew anything so that they could replace them with a team of monkey’s at a lower cost.

In the comments it is traced further back to 2003 when they converted all commissioned sales persons to hourly to lower costs (and pay) and the “good” people left. Of and they fired 4100 people at that time.
http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/sales-selling/6363203-1.html

The best comment is “Maybe Circuit City should fire all of their executives and hire lower-paid replacements.”

LTS

Brent

**********

The average life cycle of a game console, not including the ones that were colossal failures (I’m looking at you N-Gage), is five to six years. It is way too early for any of the big three to be releasing a new console. Updated versions of the current machines not included (Wii-HD anyone?).

Love the show,

Jonah Gregory
(Certainly not e-mailing from work)

Episode 843

National Novel Writing Month starts tomorrow
http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Trojan virus steals bank info
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7701227.stm
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10079593-83.html

Apple hires top IBM chip designer and blade server guru
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10079494-37.html

More on the Windows 7 UI: new taskbar will be mandatory
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081030-more-on-the-windows-7-ui-new-taskbar-will-be-mandatory.html

Fire fear sparks battery recall
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7701348.stm

OMG! Gmail Adds SMS Chat
http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/OMG!_Gmail_Adds_SMS_Chat
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10078997-2.html

Datz launches MP3 download deal
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_7699000/7699487.stm

Download full seasons of popular TV shows for $5 (well, sort of)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-10079171-58.html

Sprint cuts cogent off the Internet
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/31/0439245

Asus to phase out sub-10in Eee PCs, says CEO
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/10/31/asus_eee_focus_10in/

CueCat patent granted, finally
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/30/1712254

Phillies 1, Mitsubishi 0
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10079861-2.html

Voice mail

Daniel - Gaming not so recession proof
http://www.betanews.com/article/EA_loses_310_million_announces_layoffs/1225404415

Dale - DTV killed my Dad’s VCR

James in Irvine - Here’s what I meant about BitTorrent

E-mail

I bought Warhammer Online… online <.< and they had me download the
client via bittorent. It was 10GB and I was a littler nervous about
the speeds I might get, but I was maxing out my bandwidth at 2.5MB/s
the whole time. Only took me about 45 minutes to download the entire
client. I also see more and more Betas for MMOs or FPS’s being
delivered this way. Im pretty sure though with commercial bittorrent
that there probably is a dedicated seed with high bandwidth always
around to make sure the torrent doesn’t die, but it still probably
saves them a ton of money when things start getting active.

Jacob Tapp
Phoenix, AZ

**********

Wow, if only everyone put that much effort into their email subject lines. So, what do I or could I use Bittorrent for legally?

Open source audio books, especially Librivox
Independent music
Podcasts
Amateur porn (duh)
.iso’s for discs that have been lost, destroyed, or scratched up. This is a gray area, but if I, for example, have lost my Windows XP CD, I can download and burn an .iso. If the software isn’t cracked and doesn’t come with its own product key, then it’s functionally equivalent to the disc that I lost. And I supply my own product key, since I bought a legitimate copy of XP when I bought my computer.
Modified versions of other OS’s. This is another gray area, but it seems like I should be able to get a modified version of XP if I want to. And if I want to run OS10 on my computer? Well, assuming that I bought a copy of the software, it should be legal for me to download a version of OSX86 that has all the legwork done for me.

**********

Hey guys,

Sitting here in sunny Istanbul creating visual effects for a weird
Turkish feature, listening to episode 842.

I get all of my vfx training from fxphd.com (an amazing online source
of tuition) and it’s all distributed via bit torrent. Normally I have
a great broadband connection in Sweden but when I work in places like
Turkey bit torrent is really the only alternative for getting several
hours of tuition every week. I know that the school has a lot of
postgrads in parts of Asia that would never be able to get the
training if it wasn’t on bit torrent.

Love the show,

Patrick O’Casey
vfx artist

**********

In re: episode 842 and Tom’s request for legit uses of bit torrent - Mars
Hill Church in Seattle uses bit torrent for free distribution of video of
Pastor Mark Driscoll’s sermons. That’s not only legit, it’s holy.

**********

Jeremy

Hi buzz crew,
CBC distributed the final episode of the reality show “Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister” on bittorrent. I remember you talked about it on a previous show. CBC was mad at Bell and Rogers for throttling their legitimate way of distributing a TV program. People outside Canada could download the show faster than the Canadian tax payers!

Love the show,
Jerome

**********

Yesterday you were talking about the Hot Topic Music Store, and someone asked why we need another music store when there are already so many DRM free stores. Think of it this way, Walmart sells CD’s, but when another store that sells CD’s opens you don’t say “Walmart sells CD’s, why do we need another CD store.” Safeway sells food, but when a Albertsons opens you don’t say “Safeway sells food, why do we need another food store”. Walgreens is a pharmacy, but when a CVS opens you don’t say “Walgreens is a pharmacy, why do you need another pharmacy.”

Competition helps business!

-Hayden

PS. When I was in the states I went to costco and walmart, where at both I saw Brain Cooley on about 50 different tvs. Also, target sells prepaid cell phones for like $12! How can you make a cell phone for $12. You guys are crazy.

Episode 753

Internet provider halts plan to track, sell users’ surfing data
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/24/AR2008062401033.html

RIAA declares that AM-FM radio is a ‘kind of piracy’ (thanks Mark!)
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/recording-indus.html

American Airlines’ Wi-Fi debuts tomorrow; Glenn Fleishman’s analysis
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/24/american-airlines-wi.html

BlackBerry Bold delayed on AT&T until at least mid-August!
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/06/25/blackberry-bold-delayed-on-att-until-at-least-mid-august/

Hackers crack London Tube’s ticketing system
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/06/hackers-crack-l.html

Two trojans For Mac OS X
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/25/0032226

Real-world Firefox 3 memory usage leads the field
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/24/2012204

No XP reprieve; Windows 7 release set
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/24/2358210

Clueless video game bill nears passage in New York
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080624-game-law.html

Twitter officially announces its funding; Jeff Bezos participates
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-twitter-officially-announces-its-funding-jeff-bezos-participates/

Vint Cerf: Video streaming to give way to downloading
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13953_3-9976895-80.html

Voice mail

Tom Cincy
Our pain makes him feel better

Joe Westside
Maybe we should just forget keyboards on smart phones
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/06/hackers-crack-l.html

E-mail

Hey Buzz Out Loud

In episode 752 I was a bit surprised by the mention regarding the
Lounge Forum discussion on Microsoft not fighting back against
Apple’s ads. It is a great discussion, but Microsoft is definitely
coming back at them with a vengeance, albeit very late in the game.
Check out the cover of Fast Company June 2008. They hired ad firm
Crispin Porter+Bogusky. For those that arent wise to the marketing
world, this is the agency responsible for the Subservient Chicken
site among other very notable campaigns. According to the article we
will start to see Microsofts response in July.

An interesting nugget from the article is that Crispin is outspoken
in not forcing the firm to convert to Windows. They will continue to
use Mac computers. From a marketing perspective, I would love to use
that in the next Apple commercial.

Lastly, show mercy. I have only been listening for about a month, but
Ive become quickly obsessed. What is the “pigeons” all about? Im clueless.

Dominic Pannone
Austin, TX

**********

Hey BOL crew I came across this link while browsing the web and thought you might get a kick out of it. The title really says it all, what if people bought cars like they did computers?

http://www.unixgirl.com/humor/cars.html

Thanks love the show,

Mark

**********

Hi JaMoTo. Speaking as a geeky blind guy, the only 2 platforms that
have speech software on phones that I know of are symbian and windows
mobile and I ask you, which would you rather run on? Nokia have stepped
up and handed us a goldmine of possability for adaptive tech on mobile
phones. The only suitable comment can be,
Woooooooooooooooooooooooooo Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
recurring! I’m slapping a wicked air bass solo to selibrate. Oops,
don’t want to spill the coffee on the laptop. Be still my beeting heart.

This almost takes away the feer that one day soon, all phones and
tablets will have vertual keyboards making them as expensive plastic
bricks to the blind. At least Until decent voice recognission finally
comes along that is which will probably be round the same time as the
singularity going on current vox functionality trends.

Danny the madly dancing down under blind bass teacher

Ps, sorry for the spelling. Thunderbird rocks but I can’t get the spell
check to work even though I need it like ISP’s need a kick in the but.

PPS,

love - the - show