Buzz Out Loud 702: Design to annoy

Yes, Microsoft has come clean and admitted that it designs User Account Control, those little pop-ups that happen when you install software for instance, which were in fact designed to annoy you. They hoped it would make software better. We don't think it worked. Also, Rafe gets Blockblustery, and we take on Virgin Media's load of bollocks.
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EPISODE 702

Psystar’s OpenMac Apple clone is close to a cease and desist order
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/14/ psystars-openmac-clone-is-close-to-a-cease-and-desist-order/
http://www.macrumors.com/2008/04/14/ openmac-promises-399-headless-mac-but-not-from-apple/

Vista’s UAC security prompt was designed to annoy you
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080411-vistas-uac-security-prompt-was-designed-to-annoy-you.html

Virgin Media CEO Says Net Neutrality is 'a load of bollocks'
http://torrentfreak.com/ virgin-media-ceo-says-net-neutrality-is-a-load-of-bollocks-080413/

Keeping pace? Torrents of traffic and the Internet backbone
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/exaflood-not-happening.ars/1

Blockbuster wants to buy Circuit City
http://www.b2i.us/profiles/investor/ ResLibraryView.asp?BzID=553&ResLibraryID=24044&Category=1195
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8468

Will DVRs thwart rise of online TV shows?
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9917839-7.html

Retailers break vows on analog TV sales, get FCC wrist slap
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080413-retailers-break-vows-on-analog-tv-sales-get-fcc-wrist-slap.html

Microsoft considering its own retail stores
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2008/04/11.8.shtml

Man 'writes' 200,000 books
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/13/man-writes-200000-bo.html

Voicemail

Remy
Am I missing something?

Anonymous
Tools? Settings? I’m billing Apple.

Sam Parump, Nevada
I’ll bring up the Boy Scout thing!

E-mail

Bosses to snoop on e-mails

Bosses could be given the power to snoop on employees’ e-mails and monitor their Internet messaging under a new plan to avert a terrorist attack in Australia.

Federal Attorney General Robert McClelland has said the new measures, which could be in place as early as next year, would allow companies to intercept staff e-mails without the consent of workers.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/ 0,25642,23535224-5014108,00.html

Tim Gibbs

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Are electric cars too quiet?

Hi buys,

This is Jeff in L.A. I personally have had a hybrid car come right up behind me in a parking lot without noticing it. For once, maybe Congress is on the right track!

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/04/that-blissfully.html

Love the show!

Jeff

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Trucking companies

Something to chew on….

Trucking companies can pay more than average for the roads, at least on a state by state basis...the Cliff Notes version:

Truckers must log their mileage traveled within a state. That mileage data is then combined with data about where a truck filled up with fuel. States monitor such data for a trucking company to ensure that a company’s trucks don’t fill up right across their border and then drive through their state without refilling. If a state determines your trucks are not buying enough fuel in their state for the number of miles your fleet runs in said state, you will get a bill for the difference.

Could this same model be applied to the Internet if the Internet was a public utility? Say YouTube has no physical presence in the state of Iowa. Then couldn’t the state of Iowa charge YouTube for the data they serve to Iowans on the premise that YouTube is using an Iowa utility without paying Iowa taxes?

Just a thought…

As always love the show!

Tom in Iowa

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You lied to me!

Hey JaMoTo,

My name is Andrew from London, and I’m a reasonably long-time listener but first time e-mailer. I was listening to episode 701 today and got quite confused when you were discussing the Google Drive application, especially when Tom said he was on Waterloo Road… I didn’t see him, I was on Waterloo Road. Then he said meet by the roundabout by Stamford Street (the roundabout is actually an IMAX cinema hidden inside a roundabout and therefore almost complete inaccessible to pedestrians who don’t know about a series of tunnels interconnecting all the side of the roundabout)… but again, he wasn’t there. I live by that roundabout. I waited there all day and you guys never showed. If only I could Molly Rant here about your misleading comments (love the Molly Rants, by the way).

Anyway,

[insert bomessage here]

Andrew

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Sea cable update

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/ 516299-ship-impounded-crew-arrested-for-net-blackout
“Ship impounded, crew arrested for net blackout”

Dubai police have arrested two sailors found onboard the vessel, owned by an Iraqi company, and will refer them to Dubai Public Prosecution next week, UAE daily Khaleej Times reported on Saturday, citing a police source.

A second ship, thought to have been responsible for the cable damage as well, was also impounded, but has since been released after paying “huge” compensation to India’s Flag Telecom, owner of two of the four affected cables.

Best regards…

Khaled A.