Smart Phones @ Best Buy.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
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
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
Listen now: Download today's podcast
|
EPISODE 696 |
Craigslist to fan blog: We want your domain, please
http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9911446-36.html
Finally: Craigslist launches a blog of their own
http://www.craigslistblog.org/2008/04/03/
finally-craigslist-launches-a-blog-of-their-own/
Study: More couch potatoes parked in front of PC to watch TV
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/
20080404-study-more-couch-potatoes-parked-in-front-of-pc-to-watch-tv.html
Verizon’s spectrum plans: Speedier wireless broadband
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9911450-7.html
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9911202-7.html
RIAA: N.Y. judge’s ‘making available’ ruling was no setback
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9910636-38.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/
20080403-judge-kills-riaa-subpoena-making-available-not-infringement.html
Policing Internet ‘not ISP’s job’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7329801.stm
MySpace Music leaves creators cold
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/04/myspace_music_coup/
Backhaul woes put Xohm launch on ice for a couple of months
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/
20080404-backhaul-woes-put-xohm-launch-on-ice-for-a-couple-of-months.html
Madonna ’sleeps with Blackberry’ (Thanks Charles!)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7327084.stm
Matrix-style virtual worlds ‘a few years away’
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/
dn13585-matrixstyle-virtual-worlds-a-few-years-away.html
New Dune movie confirmed
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/entertainment/
08/04/04/1422253.shtml
VOICE MAIL
Tom Nuclear Engineer Virginia
How kids see parents work
Anish New York
You know what tomorrow is? (sent Thursday)
Ankh in Ireland
I know who’s the most gamingest.
Most gaming country ever
Hey Buzz Buds,
I'm fairly new to Buzz Town, I don't own a house here yet, but I rent a timeshare. So I'm not really superknowledgeable about tons of random things like a lot of your listeners, but I was thrilled when you brought up an issue I knew the answer too! In episode 695 you talked about which country was the most gamingest country in the world. That country would no doubt be South Korea, in which not only do tons of people play video games but they also have a professional circuit in which players achieve fame comparable to Kobe Bryant or Tom Brady. I found a couple of articles that kind of talk about it but ABC just did a report on the issue two weeks ago. Peace out Crew!
P.S. I HATE COMCAST@!&@^#!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/
12/18/GAMERS.TMP
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/
mar2007/gb20070326_937184.htm
Endy Mageto
Galactica 4.1 at 9am today?
Hey guys!
AICN reports that SciFi will debut Galacitca 4.1 @ 9 am PDT (12 noon
EDT) today online at scifi.com!
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/36268
So say we all!
Roberto Suarez
Portland, Ore.
Comcast speed
Hi Buzz crew,
From what I’ve read in the past, Comcast’s DOCSIS 3.0 implementation right now is an early one, which is why the upload speeds aren’t that hot. They can do channel bonding for downloads, but I don’t believe they’ve managed that for uploads yet. And in fact, Comcast also promised that it would have 100Mbps speeds by the end of 2008, so it may be much more worthwhile by the time it gets to the Bay Area…which is probably sometime in 2009.
Also, Molly will be happy to know that the company is bumping the upload speeds for its regular tiers--they're talking about 1Mbps uploads for the regular 6Mbps tier, and 2Mbps uploads for the 8Mbps tier. See, they want you to switch! They really do!
Thanks for all the good work,
Jon
Ottawa, Canada
Comcast again?
Hi Molly, Tom, and Jason,
This e-mail is in reference to episode No. 695, and pretty much every episode for the past year or so. Is BOL a podcast or a Comcast-cast? Every time you bring up a Comcast story, I zone right out. I live in upstate N.Y., I’ve had Time Warner cable my whole life. I never even heard of Comcast before I started listening to your show back in the mid-200s. So, here’s my question: Is Time Warner too “east coast” to cover? Or are they such an awesome company that they never generate any negative press? I tend to doubt the latter, since when I upgraded to their DVR package last year, it took four trips to the local office for me to get one that worked. Anyway, time for Madlibs! Love the ______! Keep up the good _______!
Joe from Saratoga Springs, NY
Torrents without software
Hi Buzz Crew,
Imageshack, an image hosting service found at http://imageshack.us, has a service in Beta that allows you to use their server to download bit torrents, and then you can download the file from their server to your machine, thus eliminating the need for any client side torrent software.
When I first saw this, I thought for sure it was an April Fool’s Day Joke, but I have an Imageshack account, so I decided to test it. I grabbed the torrent file for Librivox’s audio copy of Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” (I chose this because it’s 100% legal and one of my favorite books) and then uploaded it to the Imageshack torrent beta site. Sure enough, I was able to then download the file from Imageshack.
My one problem with this: It’s for leechers only. If you don’t have client software, you can’t share, thus defeating the entire purpose of torrents. Still, for an occasional torrenter, this might be a good option. Stick with the legal torrents people! (I can just imagine how easy it would be for the RIAA or MPAA to track people on this thing.
All it would take is one subpoena and *bam* there’s a process server at your door.)
Instructions are here:
http://aravindjose.com/blog/2008/03/30/
how-to-download-torrents-online-and-get-direct-links-for-it/
Joe
aka dOgBOi
P.S. As soon as I finished typing this out, I tried to open the zip file I downloaded and it was corrupt. Not sure if that’s because of Imageshack or because of the torrent itself. If anyone gets this working, I’d certainly like to know.
Safari auto install
Hi Buzz crew
I’ve been catching up on old episodes after being away on business and finally made it through to episode 695 this morning.
Once again there was a mention of the whole “Safari auto-selected for install in the updater” controversy, and how apple is the only one doing this.
Well, actually--every time I get an update for Java--the installer wants to add Google Toolbar to my system, and it’s selected by default.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned this, there have been several Java updates over the past year, and all of them tried to get me to install Google Toolbar.
So there you go 
I’m not trying to defend Apple (although I do like my iMac and iPod Touch ;-) ) - but just wanted to set the record straight.
Love the show!
Peter The Dane
--Molly
Listen now: Download today's podcast
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Tom Merritt appears on
CNET TV, specializing in help and how-to and the ever popular Top 5
lists. He also co-hosts CNET's The Real Deal podcast. 
Jason Howell can
often be found producing Buzz Out Loud from the audio studios at CNET,
updating XML feeds from the comfort of his cubicle, and saying "uh-oh"
from time to time. 
