Buzz Out Loud Podcast

Supposedly, we will get finalization on the 802.11N wireless standard in September. Of course, we've been waiting for that for years now, so we're not too confident. We also almost forget we're talking about the new Yahoo home page, and only I am impressed by Microsoft contributing to the Linux Kernel. But, I still think it's cool!

EPISODE 1023

Yahoo launching front page open to others' content

Microsoft aims at VM market with Linux kernel code offering

Barnes and Noble launches new eBook store with PlasticLogic

UAE Blackberry update was spyware

BlackBerry for Mac

Maine about to test tech to tax your miles, not your gasoline

U.S. agency blocked cellphone while driving safety study

802.11N should be finalized by September

Leaks lead to new Hadron Collider delay

Coming soon: Downloaded 3D movies at home

We get tricked into supporting Robot teams we don't know anything about, plus we talk about Pluto's pimps, also known as the Illinois Assembly. And speaking of pimps, Cook County Sheriff's are trying to get Craigslist to stop helping prostitutes. Thank goodness Veronica was here to set them straight.

EPISODE 925

Sheriff files lawsuit over Craigslist’s red-light district (Updated)
http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/03/sheriff-sues-craigslist-over-mass-levels-of-prostitution.ars

Seattle paper may shift to online-only: reports
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2009/03/reuters_us_hearst_pi

Palm investor: Pre will trump iPhone
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=13994

Alternate iPhone app stores being launched
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123629876097346481.html

Portland nonresidents rejoice: Clearwire’s WiMAX service to expand to major markets this year
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/06/portland-non-residents-rejoice-clearwires-wimax-service-to-exp/

Fox to strip extras from rental DVDs
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10189988-1.html

Hulu content returns to Boxee in a different form
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10190493-2.html

Google, Universal in talks to create MTV Music competitor
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/03/google-in-talks-with-universal-for-music-video-spinoff-site.ars

Blackout Ireland rallies support against P2P disconnections
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/03/blackout-ireland-rallies-support-against-p2p-disconnections.ars

Al Gore backs environmental top-level domain
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10190119-38.html?

Illinois declares Pluto a planet
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/06/0436206

VOICEMAIL
Anonymous
Questions about Zillion TV

Ernie from East Bay
One more detail about Intel and TSMC

E-MAIL
Hey guys - Obama said he still plans to hire a CTO and that the forthcoming CTO will work with Kundra, the federal CIO. The CIO will work more on operations (infrastructure and personnel) and the CTO will focus on strategy and policy. For more on the difference between the roles of CIO and CTO, take a look here:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=853

So Padmasree Warrior is still alive for CTO! (I’m rooting for her, too) - Jason Hiner

**********

Hey,
You’ve probably heard about a town in France called “Eu” that wants to change it’s name because it doesn’t show up in search results.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article5799368.ece
What I really find interesting is what happened after this story hit the web: http://www.google.com/search?q=eu+town
Cheers,
Adrian, the student from Romania

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,
I’m a relatively new listener (only a hundred episodes or so) and I’m not sure if you’ve covered this already, but there is a great program that I am part of called FIRST Robotics. Basically its a program for high school students where we build robots and collaborate with engineer mentors. (FIRST=For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)
Here’s the site http://usfirst.org/
Also, if you read this email, I just want to say…GO TEAM RUSH 27! Good luck at Kettering!
Insert ‘Love the show’ here,
Patrick the robotics dude

**********

T.V. Raman and Charles Chen are two Google employees who are working on solutions which allow blind persons to use Android devices including new touch screen input and speech/tactile output methods. This makes eyes-free phone usage possible. This link will take you to a page where you can find some links, including one to a New York Times article that discusses this topic.

http://blind.wikia.com/wiki/Open_Letter_Initiative#Android_Accessibility

Keep up the great work.

Dan

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,
I’ve got a little bit of a rant to get off my chest. In episode #923 one of you implied that dsl is slower than cable, thus streaming would be worse. This drives me nuts!! It may be true that in larger cities, cable options are much faster than dsl options, but I live in a small city in a more rual area, and the dsl speeds avalible are faster than cable speeds! Not only that, but they are quite a bit cheaper too! I have a 7.1 mb dsl connection, and the default cable connection is 6 mb. Just something to think on.

Derek the small town IT Pro

A new medical wiki will tell you why you shouldn't have painted your sister's toes purple, but apparently all online medical advice pages tell Natali she's pregnant. She's not. Facebook also backed down on its terms of service and Telstra is in trouble with Microsoft.

EPISODE 913

Facebook backs down
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=54746167130

Grand Theft Auto IV adds episodic content
http://www.cnet.com/8301-18603_1-10165231-73.html

Telstra boss Sol Trujillo’s mobile phone loaded with top-secret software stolen by pickpocket
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25076154-5014239,00.html

TI’s OMAP 4 bringing 1080p support to smartphones and MIDs
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/17/tis-omap-4-bringing-1080p-support-to-smartphones-and-mids/

Europe to delay LTE rollouts; full speed ahead for U.S.
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/02/europe-to-delay-lte-rollouts-full-speed-ahead-for-us.ars
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/18/wimax-equipped-samsung-swd-m100d-mid-spotted-at-mwc/

Sidekick 2009 caught strutting its stuff in the wild
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/17/sidekick-2009-caught-strutting-its-stuff-in-the-wild/

Sprint’s Simply Everything plan now includes mobile broadband
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10165899-1.html

If traffic growth slows, do ISPs lose a reason to throttle?
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/if-traffic-growth-slows-do-isps-lose-a-reason-to-throttle.ars

Apple nixes ‘potentially offensive’ South Park app
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10165736-37.html

Hulu's content no longer available on CBS-owned TV.com; what about other partners?
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-hulu-pulls-its-content-from-cbs-owned-tv.com/

Apparatus for allowing your cat to agree to EULAs
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/17/apparatus-for-allowi.html

VOICEMAIL
Ian from Colorado
Universal phone charger

E-MAIL
Hello Buz Crew,

In episode 912 you discussed about cellphone chargers.
Here in Japan, at least one cellphone carrier, NTT docomo, is selling
their standardized charger separately from their phones. (I’m not sure
about other two.)
Last year I went to a docomo store with my parents to buy cellphones
because my mother’s was more than 3 years old, and my father didn’t
have a cellphone until then.
My mother bought Fujitsu cellphone and Father bought Sharp one, and
the sales person asked us “how many chargers do you need?”
He explained that they stopped attaching a charger to a phone and now
they are selling separately because most of their customer has one
charger or more in their house already, so it will be wasteful to
attach.
My parents bought the two cellphones and only one standard charger
with them, which can be used for the both cellphones.

It was pleasant surprise for me because it means docomo could believe
that their customers would understand and accept that their paying for
a charger separately is a good thing.
Some people might think it is pure greed, and can be pure greed
exploiting so-called Green.
But I think it will really reduce waste chargers in this cellphone
fanatic country.
Although it might be an unusual case which possibly only happens in
Japan because cellphone carriers here is so strong over manufacturers
that they can force manufacturers anything they want, but I hope this
become standard practice as cellphone become commodity all over the
world.
By the way, where the those cellphones goes after every Japanese
people replaced their cellphones every year?

Love the show!
Yasutada

**********

Hi BOLtron,

I wanted to pass along this news about a project my cousin Wendy is a
part of that just came out of beta. It’s a medical wiki that allows
authoized contributors to update and help advance medical knowledge as
well as let average people peruse. My first thought was, “Now I can
fact check all the House episodes.”

http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/02/hands-on-medpedia-delivers-esteemed-pleasant-medical-wiki.ars

Matt in Wisconsin
a.k.a. capeless in the chat

Episode 827

WiMAX launch
http://cnettv.cnet.com/9742-1_53-50004011.html

Apple notebook launch!
https://twitter.com/natalidelconte/statuses/952901666

It’s official: Apple to talk laptops on October 14
http://www.cnet.com/8301-18603_1-10062305-73.html

$800 Apple notebooks?
http://www.inquisitr.com/4834/exclusive-apple-to-launch-800-laptop/

Touchpanel EEE PCs to debut at CES 2009
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20081008PD229.html

Asus ships Eee Box PCs with malware--Tanks Steve!
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2016&tag=nl.e589

Microsoft preps external Blu-ray disc optical drive for Xbox 360.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20081008073445_Microsoft_Preps_External_Blu_Ray_Disc_Optical_Drive_for_Xbox_360.html

Unbreakable’ encryption unveiled
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7661311.stm

SlingCatcher finally sees light of day–and may get a boost from Sling.com
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10060898-1.html

EMI to launch its own music portal
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b76fa624-94d1-11dd-953e-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

Google’s Super Satellite Captures First Image
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/10/geoeye-1-super.html

Clickjacking threat!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10061358-83.html

Google engineer wants the world to name his baby
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10061920-71.html

Study: Reading online privacy policies could cost $365 billion a year
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081008-study-reading-online-privacy-policies-could-cost-365-billion-a-year.html

Voice Mail
Adam: Why all the Zune hate?

E-mail

Hey JaMoTo & (fill in guest host here),

I’m a little behind on the episodes thanks to silly law school homework, but in your discussions on entertainment offerings that have been victims of copyright licensing, I think there’s one glaring omission- The Wonder Years. For years, I’ve been reading that the reason that the show is not available on DVD is because the show’s producers never anticipated needing licenses for the music used on the show when the show was created in the late 80s. And since the music was such an essential element of the show, DVD of the show’s seasons have never been released because licenses would be too costly and the show wouldn’t be the same without the music.

Love the show,

-Will

**********

I pity da foo!!!! The voice mailer from BOL 826 is infringing on our business model for an airliner. As the spokesman of BA Airlines I can tell you our founder is more than a little upset. It was us that developed the drugging and flying the passengers to their destinations. We were first and I’m not going to let some ninja wannabe steal our idea. If he does not cease and desist in his operation, our founder BA Baracus will certainly want a word with the foo. Of course we’ll have to drug him and have Murdoch break out of the mental hospital to fly him. Just thought the Ninja should know who he was messing with.

Considered Ninja Airlines Warned,

The Dingo

**********

Hey Guys,

Just heard my e-mail on today's BOL, and was mortified to realise that I had in fact used the word 'bust' when in fact I meant to say busy. Its not some cool Irish jargon, just a regular old typo. Thats what I get for sending e-mail on my crippling iPhone keyboard.

Dave the publicly shamed software developer
Ireland

**********

Hi I am a patent examiner. It didn't take the office nine years to get to the application, it took nine years to issue. Which means the examiner probably thought it was not patentable as presented and was trying to protect the market from another overly restrictive patent, which kills competition. In the nine years, the claims were probably rewritten multiple times and the examiner's decision was probably appealed. If you want it to be streamlined, complain to the applicants who file overly broad applications who want to stifle competition. Regardless all the blame doesn't fall on the patent office. Love the show (even with all uspto hate).

-Tim from VA

**********

Greetings! In show you were quizzing over Cox phone technology and its
connection to the internet. Short story: Even though Cox phone service
does use VoIP technology, the actual phone packets are encrypted
between the residence and the headend, where it either interfaces with
incumbent phone service for non-Cox users, or goes on to other
locations through Cox’s backbone. Even on the last mile, the data
doesn’t really travel through the Internet, but actually alongside it.
Therefore, unlike other VoiP services like Vonage, Cox customers are
not subject to the various issues surrounding Internet carriage.

Mark — Florida

Natali says she giggles when she sees guys using the tiny little Eee PC. But she doesn't question their manliness. Engnr_Chik thinks Netbooks are for everyone. Plus we speculate on the rush to release a prebeta of Windows 7, demand Wal-Mart do something about their forlorn DRM music tracks, and I'm possibly moving to Japan. Or New York. Or space.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 819

Japan to get 1Gbps home fiber connections
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/27/1757211

SpaceX orbits success with Falcon 1
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10053326-76.html

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/space-x-did-it.html

Windows 7 to finally go public in late October
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080929-windows-7-to-finally-go-public-in-late-october.html

Wal-Mart shutting off DRM servers, turning over a new leaf
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/28/walmart-shutting-off-drm-servers-turning-over-a-new-leaf/

Alcatel’s $1.5 billion MP3 patent payout denied on appeal
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080928-court-denies-alcatels-appeal-to-reinstate-1-5-billion-judgment-against-microsoft.html

AT&T drops Dish for DirecTV
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10052944-94.html

TiVo's software launches on a PC
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-tivos-software-launches-on-a-pc/

New TiVo UI (thanks tales!!!)
http://www.slashgear.com/tivo-new-user-interface-in-testing-features-picture-in-guide-at-last-2917609/

Sprint goes live with XOHM WiMax service in downtown Baltimore
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/29/sprint-goes-live-with-xohm-wimax-service-in-downtown-baltimore/

New Zune music from Fania
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/sep08/09-29FaniaRecordsPR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases

War crimes video games
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7638581.stm

VOICE MAIL

Chris from Portland
What about Indies in the cloud?

Librarian Cat
Little Brother review

E-MAIL

Hey Jamoto + 1,

I have to agree with RogueTess and Molly from Episode 818 - smallish Netbooks are great. I bought a 20GB 901 eee PC in July and I love it. It came with a Linux distribution, but I installed XP on it.

A big reason why I bought the Eee is its compact size. I just got back from 2 weeks on the island of Hawaii and I brought the Eee with me. Although we spent the first four nights in a little cottage in the middle of nowhere, the rest of the trip was spent in a B&B and a condo that both had Wi-Fi, so we were able to research our day excursions like horseback riding through the Waipio Valley (vy-pee-oh), find restaurant Web sites for phone numbers and menus, check e-mail confirmations, and most importantly keep on top of my NFL Pick-em group, which you can ask Jason about. Ask him who’s in first place, go ahead ask him.

Plus, even though it lacks a DVD drive, I was able to rent a couple of movies from Amazon to watch on the plane.

Also, the Netbook is not just for chicks. A dude I used to work with bought the 1000h Eee because he takes frequent trips on his motorcycle and it packs nicely in his road trip bags.

Love the show,
engnr_chik from the chat room.

I found the location of the Russian “happy face” on Google maps from
episode 817

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IeJHb-2CVGM/SNUFiyTlEHI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/shQMNh5h89o/s1600-h/smiley-1000.jpg

here it is on google maps

http://maps.google.com/maps?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=s&hl=en&q=russland%2C%20Oblast%20Tscheljabinsk%20Tscheljabinsk&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

Note the Identical traffic around the square, parked cars and shadows etc.
I was very sad about discovering this, because:

1. I felt happy that hundreds of Russian folks had such a sense of
community that they could get together and build a happy face.

2. A kinder, gentler graffiti has not made it big on the interwebs
after all.

3. …and worst of all, this means there really was no Vodka garden.

Spasiba for nothing, slashdot.

Aaron, Chico, Calif.

Sorry, I got behind on my podcasts and just heard Jason volunteer to go up on the space elevator.

Not going to happen.

The elevator is for freight only. Humans will still go up in launch vehicles. The reason is that the trip up will take days and the radiation would kill anything alive. The point of the elevator is to take cargo up.

1. For about $400/pound (instead of the $10,000/pound it costs on a rocket)

2. On a regularly scheduled basis (unlike rockets that get delayed almost every time

For more information...
http://www.liftport.com
Al

JaMoTong:

You guys got it a bit wrong about Windows 7’s decoupling from Movie Maker, and so on. The Windows Live versions of these apps are *not* run from the cloud: they are actual desktop applications that you can currently install from http://get.live.com. A lot of these replace existing Vista applications (photo gallery, mail, what have you) and are quite frankly a lot better. While they do have functionality that makes them play nicely with online services (like automatic settings for Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo when you’re setting up an account in the mail client), fear not: they still save stuff to your computer, and they do not require any kind of internet connection to be rad.

Except Live Writer, the blogging application. I guess that wouldn’t be very rad without an Internet connection. Unless you just liked to pretend you were blogging for real.

-Jeff from Seattle

EPISODE 775

‘Hijacked’ SF passwords made public (Thanks Russ960!)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10000342-83.html

Hammer drops at last: FCC opposes Comcast P2P throttling
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080725-hammer-drops-at-last-fcc-opposes-comcast-p2p-throttling.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121720316961088595.html

Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone - CNET
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10000379-2.html

AT&T threatens WiMax joint venture
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10000105-94.html

MPAA planning site to offer legit movie links
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080727-mpaa-planning-site-to-offer-legit-movie-links.html

Jobs entrusts a New York Times columnist with the truth about his health, even before he tells Apple shareholders
http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/28/jobs-entrusts-nyt-columnist-with-truth-about-his-health-before-apple-shareholders/
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/business/26nocera.html

FCC approves Sirius-XM satellite radio merger
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10000241-94.html

VOICE MAIL

Anonymous
RIAA's nefarious plan.

Stewart
Why iPhone dock has changed.

E-MAIL
Hey Molly,

With your dislike of the iPhone’s missing features, and being a previous Treo user. What cell phone are you using? Just curious.

Dave
Rochester, N.Y.

I had my first run-in with the law regarding the hands free law that went into effect in California on July 1. I was driving in the afternoon last Thursday to pick up my wife from work. I had both my cell phone and Bluetooth headset. I was about 2 miles from my destination when I decided to call my wife to tell her that I was getting close. I brought my right hand to my ear to initiate the call through my Bluetooth headset when I changed my mind, figuring that 2 miles is a little too far to call her and that 1.5 miles would be better. The moment that I put my hand down from my ear, a police officer pulled me over. Evidently, the shear act of placing your hand to your ear is enough evidence to pull you over for possibly breaking the hands-free law.

Thanks for the great podcast!

Alfred

I’m sorry Buzz Crew, although I appreciate the podcast for it’s entertainment and it’s source of tech news, you guys completely botched this story.

Well actually,

What you guys forgot to mention was that he was making claims without reliable evidence, which means anything he says should be completely ignored, regardless of how many initials are in his name. Notice how he says that there is a risk, but all the evidence is conveniently unpublished (aka nonexistant). This guy is an alarmist quack.

If there is evidence that cell phones cause cancer, someone would be winning a Nobel Prize, because microwaves are non-ionizing and can’t break tissue according to our excellent understanding of electromagnetic radiation.

Considering that we talking about 2 watts or less (almost always less) of microwave radiation, there would have to be a library of bullproof, peer-reviewed, controlled studies before this idea is anywhere near scientific legitimacy.

Tony

You’ve talked now a few times about Terry Childs, the network tech who kept the admin passwords to himself and allegidly “boobytraped” his network so that it would fail during a planned power outage. With Cisco network gear, you can have different configs in “running” mode and in “start-up” mode. Running mode is what the router is currently using, while start-up mode is what the router will load and run after a reboot. Even with UPS backups, we all know power fails unexpectedly. Choosing to have configurations in running mode while not in start-up mode on purpose is only for nefarious intent.

Then, to add a dollop of creepy to this guy’s story, here’s a clip from Info Week : “Childs’ troubles with the technology department started to snowball June 20 when he followed and took photographs of the agency’s new head of security after she began an audit of who had password access to the system, authorities said.” (http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209600496)

By any standard, this guy should not be considered a “good” sysadmin.

Signed,
Michael the Intel Project Manager

I'm a physicist who has worked in two different labs specializing in low temperature solid-state physics research. In both cases we had a piece of equipment that could reach 1.9K with ease, and you can have one too! It's available from Quantum Design, a company in San Diego, starting at a little less than $100,000. You'll probably have to spend a bit more to get the necessary options added on, but I wouldn't expect it to cost more than about $150,000. In fact, in the first lab I worked in, we were able to reach 0.35K using one of their add-ons. Anyway, I thought that Buzz Town might be interested in purchasing one...for what reason I'm not sure. You can find out more at http://www.qdusa.com/products/ppms.html

Enjoy!
Nathan
Murfreesboro, Tenn. (near Nashville)

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.

EPISODE 719

Comcast mulling metered access, 250GB monthly bandwidth caps
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080507-comcast-mulling-metered-access-250gb-monthly-bandwidth-caps.html

It’s official: Sprint, ClearWire merging WiMax operations
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080507-sprint-clearwire-wimax-venture-sees-daylight.html
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9937513-7.html

AT&T: No vacation around the iPhone anniversary
http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9937632-37.html

Malware outbreak blamed on file-swapped MP3s, MPEGs
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9937818-7.html

Archbishop Desmond Tutu a fan of free music
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9937566-7.html

Europe PS3 sales ‘overtake 360′
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7386879.stm

Grand Theft Auto IV makes a killing in first week
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9937851-7.html

EA launches Steven Spielberg’s Boom Blox
http://www.news.com/8301-13772_3-9937525-52.html

Microsoft’s in-car software now in Hyundai and Kia cars
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006898.html

A yottabyte of storage per year by 2013
http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/08/05/07/1334246.shtml

VOICE MAIL

Anon:
You totally missed what’s going on with Apple.

Rory from Ohio
Microban on keyboards?

Forums:
Ellikelli:
http://www.bustedtees.com/Wikipedia

Every way to access us:
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html? forumID=97&threadID=293909

E-MAIL

Move to the U.K.

If you want to move to the U.K., Molly, you already know all our swearwords

;o)

Keith

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

FreeSat

Free Sat
1. BBC channels are not ad supported. They are TV licence supported. This ‘tax’ will cost you £135 this year. Probably more next year. If you don’t catch up with you, the BBC will write to you twice monthly until you ‘buy’ their tax or swear to them you don’t have a television (even then they’ll come out and check).

2. All other channels will carry adds like they do on Freeview (over-the-air, low-def TV).

3. BSkyB, the only other sat broadcaster, has been offering the same service for over a year, and their Website says it costs less, too. Sky also allow you to upgrade to Sky’s paid for sat TV service.

4. This is bad. ITV (broadcaster and partner in FreeSat) will use FreeSat to push its free HD services. However, they will be locked to FreeSat so cable and/or PaySat (i.e. the people who pay monthly for TV via sat) will have to buy into the FreeSat system.

If you ever need to do any U.K. fact checking, feel free to drop me an e-mail. I even know about Scotland!

$11k HDD Crusher
1. You own a large company. You need to destroy HDDs a lot because you are a bad company and need to hide the bad stuff frequently because you never know when the Feds are coming to raid your stuff. As a bad company you look at costs, hire a person. Let’s say $20K?? Buy a crushing thing and do it self-service style = £11k. I know which I’d go for…

NASA Phone vulnerability No.4
Your cell phone can track your location. Ahhh! Scary!

SF Geek Tours:
I’ll sell you geekmaps.com? I guess I could lease you sf.geekmaps.com if you are feeling poor.

That is all.

Ross (cbrown)

**********

Fast download!

Hey,

I was pleasantly surprised today when BOL downloaded at 1.2MB/sec! Usually I download all my other podcasts for the day in about 5 seconds, and then I have to wait several minutes while BOL takes its sweet time.

Great job, guys! I hope this is a permanent change

Love the show.
David

EPISODE 694

Voicemail - Dark
Zombie Preparedness Day!

Judge to RIAA: You can’t sue over songs ‘made available’ via P2P
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9908353-38.html

eBay’s power sell: Skype to Google?
http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9908959-36.html

Amazon launches text-message shopping
http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9909076-2.html
http://ap.google.com/article/ ALeqM5iITmgbH6EWbqdm47W5ohOZc-tTdAD8VPGRHG1

Xbox 360 with Blu-ray to spark price war with Sony PS3?
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/02/ xbox-360-with-blu-ray-to-spark-price-war-with-sony-ps3/

Microsoft to give XP stay of execution--for budget laptops
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080401-microsoft-to-give-xp-stay-of-executionfor-budget-laptops.html

Google’s CIO leaves search giant for job at EMI
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9908312-7.html

New 20-inch iMac screens show 98 percent fewer colors
http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/08/04/01/1710221.shtml

Intel trots out wireless chips, discusses 8 cores at IDF
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9908654-7.html

eBay yanks sale of hacked Vista laptop
http://www.pcworld.com/article/ id,144021-c,auctionsites/article.html#

Germany says “Willkommen!” to TV on iTunes
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/04/02/ germany-says-willkommen-to-tv-on-itunes

Deutsche Telekom/T-Mobile demands Engadget Mobile discontinue using the color magenta
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/31/ deutsche-telekom-t-mobile-demands-engadget-mobile-discontinue/

Nokia unveils its first WiMax device in N810 tablet
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/ djf500/200804020726DOWJONESDJONLINE000508_FORTUNE5.htm

Voicemail

Robert D
An important message

Patrick New Hampshire
A key point you missed about RIAA.

Anonymous
April Fool’s joke

E-mail

Nova inferior

Tom:

I must say that I feel you spoke out of turn when saying that any new-fangled Volvo would make an American classic like the Chevy Nova inferior. I'd gladly pit my '71 Chevy Nova versus anything on the road today. The car survived three collisions (people hitting me) from "superior" modern cars that crumpled into an accordion, while my Nova's total damage out of all three collisions was one taillight and two marker lights. The crumpled plastic of those modern cars didn't even make a dent in the steel body of the Chevy Nova. American muscle all the way!

Love the show

-David the Graphic Designer

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

So say we all!

I am half a week behind in BOLs, so if this was brought up I apologize

Jason horrified me with his lack of Battlestar knowledge! Dude, where is your nerd cred!?!??!

In honor of the new season starting Friday, I thought it would either be really cool or a colossal waste of time to have citizens of Buzztown send in a MP3 (or whatever format) of them saying “So Say We All”. That way JoMoTo could say it, and all of use could say it back. I will even volunteer to splice them all together and send back a MP3 to play (I’ll set up a Gmail account to set it up). Let me know what you guys think!

Kevin from Michigan.

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

Notepad for iPhone

Dear CNET,

I have just released a beta of an application I like to call “GoOffice”. The features of this beta include the following extras:
Being able to save your notes as text, PDFs, XML code, HTML, and JavaScript.
Full intergration for images in all formats Online and Offline.

To use this application on your iPod Touch, iPhone, PC, or Mac just go to this URL in your Web browser:
http://69.36.229.120/website/

Final release coming soon.

Yours sincerely
Windowsmad / Jack O’Brien

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

Betamax to HD-DVD converter

Hey Buzz crew,

I haven’t listened to today’s (or yesterday’s, for that matter) podcast, so forgive me if this is a dupe, but I thought you’d enjoy this:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/betamaxhd.html

Undoubtedly April Fool’s, but fun anyway.

Eric in Shrewsbury, MA