Buzz Out Loud Podcast

Natali opens with some rage against Verizon Fios over a billing problem after she canceled the service. She feels somehow, well...Jason explains it best in the show. We also get a Molly rant over Ireland's new content filtering on the Internet and TechCrunch's reporting that Last.FM was giving data to the RIAA. Which it was not.

EPISODE 916

Microsoft asks for severance back from laid off employees
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10169119-75.html

Workers ’stealing company data’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7902989.stm

Xbox Live denial of service attacks
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/02/microsoft-responds-to-xbox-live-denial-of-service-attack.ars

Wisconsin digital-download tax
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/40012437.html
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/21/1724230
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gfQBey_1cAAmZx3lArC6B8aNmfnA

New Zealand delays copyright amendment
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/New-Zealand-delays-copyright-amendment/0,130061791,339295130,00.htm

Ireland blocks music-sharing sites
http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=NEWS-qqqs=news-qqqid=39782-qqqx=1.asp

Stolen Microsoft device remotely wiped
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/02/23/stolen-windows-mobile-65-htc-diamond-wiped-remotely/

Palm Pre handled, handed out to celebrities?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/23/palm-pre-handled-handed-out-to-celebrities/

Pirate Bay says 80 percent of torrents are legal
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/pirate-bay-survey-says-that-80-of-our-torrents-are-legal.ars

CBS says it did not hand over user info to the RIAA
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/feb/23/digitalmusic-piracy

We are all from Twitteronia
http://sesquipedalis.blogspot.com/2009/02/finally-use-for-twitter.html

UFO Hotspots mapped
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/02/22/ufo-hotspots-mapped/

VOICEMAIL
Anonymous
About the military robots

Zan
I propose a new holiday

E-MAIL
Hey BOL
I work for the Forest Service and we just got a few new re-imaged computers back and as i was poking around in the new image i found there is a bittorrent client install and configured to fetch updates from an internal RSS feed and download, distribute, and delete automatically… pretty cool stuff and very useful for our slightly limited bandwidth… Love the show!

Eric *not a ranger* Forest Service guy

**********

On Friday you had a caller mention that Sprint has changed its Pre informational website so that tethering wasn't available, however in looking at the actual palm.com/pre website you’ll notice that “phone as laptop modem” is still a feature that's listed…here’s a direct link: http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/#tab2
If that link doesn’t work, you can go to http://www.palm.com/pre and click on “details.” Not sure what to make of this..
Kinda sorta love the show…. Just kiddin’
Stephen
Charlotte, North Carolina, United States of America

**********

Hey Buzzcrew,

I was listening to episode 914 on my way to class, and I found the part about the woman e-mailing in her sleep quite interesting. My girlfriend has at times text me in her sleep, and I am not talking of just a couple random sentences, it was a full blown paragraph, grammatically correct, but that did not seem to make much sense. When I met up with her later that day and asked her about it, she was shocked. I showed her the message, she first though I had somehow gone to some lengths to fabricate the message on my phone, so I told her to open up her phone to check her outbox, and sure enough there it was. Although not a very common occurrence, I have gotten a few laughs from the few other random sleep texts she has sent. Love the show.

Jerry
(The Rocket Scientist in Training)
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana

**********

Mo god bebo is awesome.
This new direction they’re taking is great, AOL FTW.
Now they can pull your info from youtube, twitter, myspace, facebook, del.ico.us (i know it’s delicious now, but i MUCH preffered del.ico.us ) and flickr!

I mean one social network pulling all your stuff from all the other social networks? that’s genius!

Xadacka.

**********

Hey, mea culpa for not getting back to you sooner, but I've been elbow-deep in autopsies all week!

For the record, we docs use regular old Wikipedia ALL THE TIME. Yea it's crowd-sourced info, but we use it as a refresher, not as a primary learning source.

Also, oxytocin does a lot of things, what they teach you in med school is that stimulates milk production after you give birth. So, actually, excessive social networking is more likely to make you lactate, not get cancer... a way more comical outcome IMHO. LOL.

-dr. karl

PS: Natalie, you are only pregnant if the purple on your feet is in the shape of a plus sign. Also, if I *cuddle* with my *netbook* does that make me less of man? What if I spoon with my macbook? jk.

EPISODE 860

Cooley debriefs:
- Just drove in in the new 370Z with SynchroMatch transmission.
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10102550-48.html

- From iPhone to Bold: how it's going, why I did it.

- Promo: EOH today discussing car tech seen at the L.A. Auto Show (open now)

Amazon Kindle 2 Slated For "Early Q1″
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/25/amazon-kindle-2-slated-for-early-q1/

Flurry of online video stuff:
- Blockbuster launches a box
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10107437-1.html

- YouTube goes wide screen
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10107536-93.html

- TiVo goes mobile for everyone
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10107464-1.html

The Guild Coming to Xbox Live Marketplace
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/11/the-guild-comin.html

Teacher in porn pop-up case dodges jail but loses creds
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081124-teacher-in-porn-popup-case-dodges-jail-loses-creds.html

Senate: When analog TV goes dark, leave a light on
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081124-senate-when-analog-tv-goes-dark-leave-a-light-on.html

Web and mobile increasing TV viewership
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Research_25/TV_s_new_best_friends_Web_and_mobile.asp

New study crowns Google’s Chrome king of speed
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10107591-16.html

Nanotech clothing fabric ‘never gets wet’
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16126-nanotech-clothing-fabric-never-gets-wet.html

Voice mail
“Hey:” Star Trek reminiscences

Bob the patent lawyer: “close enough for nuclear war”

EMAIL

Jamoto,

On Buzz-Out-Loud #859 Daniel in Hell e-mailed about the EULA for the iPhone which restricted the use of the phone for, “the development design manufacture or production of various kinds of weapons”. I believe that this is due to the fact that it contains a GPS unit, which could at least theoretically be used for a targeting or timing system. I would guess that this would be a standard EULA feature of other GPS devices, but maybe just the iPhone since it can run apps and would be easier to configure for the task. I guess the option of using the phone to record and replay a Molly rant is still an unrestricted pleasure. Love the show, keep up the good work.

Thomas the Professional Nuclear Engineer
“It ain’t rocket science - its Nuclear Engineering”

**********

Orbital Speed and Buzz Out Loud
http://blog.dotphys.net/2008/11/orbital-speed-and-buzz-out-loud/

Rhett Allain

**********

Emmanuel

What’s Up Buzz Crew!

Who better to help with Obama with his FCC Transition than a Level 70 Shaman! Last week President Elect Obama appointed Kevin Werbach as a Co-Chair to the transition team. Level 70 ain’t nothing to sneeze at. I’m also sure this is why Obama wants a laptop in the Oval… I mean with all that down time, I’m sure Werbach will have Obama hooked on World of Warcrack in no time!

http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/11/20/obamas-fcc-transition-co-chair-is-a-wow-player/

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/gigaom/big-tech/2008_11_18_obamas_fcc_transition_team_co_chair_a_wow_player.html

**********

What’s this I hear? You need another host for Friday? I’m not doing anything over Thanksgiving - flights home from Vegas to Portland for both Thanksgiving are too expensive, (in these troubled times,
*drink*) but I can fly to SFO for cheap! $150 on Virgin America round-trip! You can pay me back later.

I’ve even written the intro in advance:

(Camera 1) Merritt: “Coming up on CNET Live: it’s that time of year again, time for 10 STRAIGHT hours of CNET Live’s Holiday Help Desk, when we ease the pains of your holiday tech shopping. Lots of reviews, lots of questions, lots of answers!”

(Camera 2) Cooley: “Plus, I’ll teach you how to roast a turkey with the Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries from a new Ford Escape hybrid! And Cars! Cars! CARS!”

(Camera 3) Me: “And I made a cape from my CNET sweatshirt! CNET Live starts now! EXCELSIOR!”

(I unfurl my cape and fly stage-left Al Gore-style. Animated exclamation points dancing on screen. Play intro sequence.)

Perfect opportunity for my Al Gore impression. You can have that for free. Unfortunately I’m not very patient with verbose callers, comfortable in front of cameras, or altogether functional before noon, but that also means I’m totally nerdcore, so feel free to give me a call. Like Cooley said, nobody’s gonna be watching this anyway, right? (Just let me know before Wednesday, because the price doubles on Thursday.)

LTS,

-Andrew

EPISODE 689

Approval for mobiles on aircraft
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7314362.stm

TiVo's take: It's a Comcast mistake
http://cultureofownership.org/?p=24

Comcast and Time Warner to bankroll WiMax joint venture
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9903411-7.html

Motorola to split into two, asexually
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9903426-7.html

AdWords Text Ads with Video on Google Homepage
http://www.labnol.org/internet/search/ screenshot-adwords-text-ads-with-video-on-google-homepage/2689/

Xbox Live taking action on Gamerscore tampering
http://www.news.com/8301-13772_3-9902810-52.html
http://www.dailytech.com/Microsoft+Marks+Xbox+360+Cheaters+ Resets+Gamerscores+to+Zero/article11248c.htm

XP Service Pack 3 remains in testing
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9903004-56.html

Vista-capable lawsuit paints picture of buggy NVIDIA drivers
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080325-vista-capable-lawsuit-paints-picture-of-buggy-nvidia-drivers.html

Asustek to roll out second-generation Eee PC with touchscreen panels and possibly GPS support in May or June
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20080325PD226.html

South Park to Offer All Episodes for Free Download
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/03/south-park-to-o.html

Japanese ads downplay URLs, encourage searches
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/25/japanese-ads-downpla.html

Suspended Animation In Mice Without Freezing
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/25/2136206

VOICE MAIL

Dnic NY
Can’t have cake and eat it too.

Anon
All you have to do to preview Tiny.URL

E-MAIL

Netflix issues 5% credit as mea culpa

Dear Zoe,

As you may have heard, our shipping system was unexpectedly down for most of Monday. We should have shipped you a DVD but were unable to.
Your DVD was shipped today, Tuesday, March 25th, instead.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. We will issue a 5% credit to your account in the next few days. You don’t need to do anything. The credit will be automatically applied to your next billing statement.

Again, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your understanding. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1
(888) 638-3549.

-The Netflix Team

Zoe

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

Bell crimps P2P file-sharing during peak hours

Bell Canada is slowing down access on its Sympatico internet servers for users who file share during prime time, so that other users will not be overly delayed

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/03/25/bell-throttling.html

Bill

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

Muni WiFi alternative

Hey Buzz Crew,
You guys discussed the possibility of using cars and busses to create a mesh network in an urban environment, but do you know what would even work better? People. Implant everybody in major cities with a wireless repeater and voila! Instant network. It would be so much better than using cars because it would spread out vertically too. As we all learned in The Matrix, humans are excellent power sources and could surely power a small wifi hub. This is the solution to municipal wifi.

Erik the MBA student from Tulsa

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

Well actually, fiber is analog

Hi JaMoTo!

In Episode 686 (with Veronica!) Tom said "I think Verizon doesn't have an analog version because it's FIOS, it's over fiber."

Veronica responded, "It's digital right?"

Well, Actually: fiber simply carries a light signal which may be either digital or analog. FIOS uses a Passive Optical Network (PON) with three different colored lasers. One carries internet traffic downstream, one carries internet traffic upstream and one carries the television signal. At the customer's home, a termination box separates the colors using filters. The TV signal (which is at Radio Frequencies) is simply amplified and dropped onto a coaxial cable to handle the last 50 feet to the television. Thus, it can work without a set-top box on a cable-ready TV. The individual channels can be analog, digital or a mix of the two just like over the air.

In fact, Comcast (my provider) has been using a Hybrid Fiber-Coax (HFC) network for more than a decade. It uses coax cable within each neighborhood and then converts to fiber for the longer-haul back to the cable headend. The big difference in FIOS versus cable is in its handing of internet and telephone. TV is pretty much the same except that FIOS converts from coax to fiber at the home where Comcast converts at the neighborhood.

So... presumably this means that Verizon does indeed intend to shut down existing analog channels (which they do carry). I'm not sure how the FCC requirement to extend analog transmissions will affect Verizon because they aren't a traditional cable company. Even if it does affect them my understanding is that the requirement only applies to local channels. Also, even though PON networks work with analog cable-ready TVs, I'll bet that the subscribers with this configuration are a tiny minority.

As my brother (an electrical engineer who helped design PON technology) says, "When the frequency is high enough, digital becomes analog."

Great show! And really fun to hear Veronica again!

Thanks,
Brandt in Provo

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

AJAX isn’t new

Javascript and CSS and HTML have been out for awhile, just thought I’d be 1/100,000,000 people who are probably letting you know.

Speaking of AJAX, know anyone hiring a web designer in San Francisco?
I need a job, and I’m super good.

I’m jobless/sad.

Love, Matt (the guy who beat Tetris many moons ago)