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Buzz Out Loud 734: Rev3 gets P2P poisoned

Revision3 goes down under a massive DDOS attack that apparently originated with a company that the entertainment industry hires to poison P2P wells. Nice.

Molly Wood Former Executive Editor
Molly Wood was an executive editor at CNET, author of the Molly Rants blog, and host of the tech show, Always On. When she's not enraging fanboys of all stripes, she can be found offering tech opinions on CBS and elsewhere, and offering opinions on everything else to anyone who will listen.
Molly Wood
5 min read
Revision3 goes down under a massive DDOS attack that apparently originated with a company that the entertainment industry hires to poison P2P wells. Nice. Good tactic, guys. Also, we have a good geeky little time talking about itty-bitty little flash devices and chips.
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EPISODE 734

Inside the Attack that Crippled Revision3
http://revision3.com/blog/2008/05/29/ inside-the-attack-that-crippled-revision3

Mozilla "Download Day" - Are you in or out? Mozilla "Download Day" - Are you in or out?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1965
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/05/29/0312233.shtml

Exclusive: Dell Mini Inspiron, Their First Mini Laptop
http://gizmodo.com/393815/ exclusive-dell-mini-inspiron-their-first-mini-laptop
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7425099.stm

VIA Introduces the Nano Processor
http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/08/05/29/1427204.shtml

Intel and Micron produce first sub-40nm NAND device
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/29/ intel-and-micron-produce-first-sub-40nm-nand-device/

Akamai State of the Internet
http://www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8946
http://www.centernetworks.com/akamai-state-internet

Bill Gates: Windows 95 Was ‘A High Point’
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/28/2214214

Private Donor Gives Fermilab $5 Million — Cho 2008
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/528/3

Main Page - Keep or Toss .org
http://www.keeportoss.org/

VOICE MAIL

Mike College Station
WiFi allergy solution.

Brian Albany, New York
Response to Tru2Way

E-MAIL

Lala clarification

Hey crew,

Just a clarification on how Lala track rental works.

From my ‘Michael’s Minute’ e-mail that I get from Michael Robertson now and then, here’s what I’ve gathered:

You can listen to any track once for free (registration required, of course). After that, you can only listen to a 30 second sample of the song unless you ‘Add’ it to your library. To add a song to your library costs you one credit (which cost $.10/each).

Once it’s in your library, you can listen as much as you want through the web player. But, you can only listen through the web player. You can’t shift this to anything portable, or hold it on your computer at all.

This is where the service fails. I don’t believe many people at all will consider a service like this if they can’t listen to their tracks on an iPod/Zune/etc.

Loving the show, and watching live, even when the UStream computer pukes.

Nathan

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New Mexico group tries to ban Wi-Fi

Hiya,

While I have no specific knowledge about how radio waves do or don’t affect human physiology, I was disappointed that you dismissed the notion out-of-hand as “luddite” and crackpot-ish. You cited the fact that radio has been around “forever” with no ill effects reported to your knowledge. You seem to forget that the parties who would be least interested in exploring that possibility are the same ones who have owned the mass media for the past 80 years or so. In other words, if there were such a study, would we know? I humbly submit that the burden is upon the broadcast-microwave-transmitting-wifi-enabling folks to demonstrate that their practices are safe, especially in light of their media outlets’ conflict of interest.

Think of it this way: we know that radio waves are a physical phenomenon that interact with the surrounding environment in a physical way. Much like the the drug companies have to prove the safety of substances they want people to ingest, why is it such a stretch to say that introducing something with real physical properties so completely into our environment should be subject to some kind of safety test?

I think you have fallen into the “it’s invisible and I love the technology so it must be ok” trap.

Again, I’m not saying I have any proof one way or the other — just saying that your dismissal of the possibility is, IMHO, naive.

Love the Show!
Bingo the Chimp

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Allergies to Wi-Fi

Hello Buzz Crew!

As a doctor (yes, a real one), I can categorically say that there is no such thing as an “allergy” to WiFi. Allergic reactions are caused by your immune system mistakenly reacting to something that is not harmful in and of itself. Pollen is not dangerous, but your body thinks it is. As you pointed out, we are bombarded by radio waves of many frequencies all of the time, and ridding the world of WiFi would do little to reduce that exposure.

Could this exposure cause harm? It is extremely difficult to prove, as adequate controls (people for whom all other factors are the same except for exposure to WiFi) are almost impossible to get. There have been numerous attempts to show that exposure to power lines, cell phones, and other electromagnetic fields causes harm, but there is little compelling evidence. For the originator of this silliness to suggest that this has all been covered-up since the 1920’s is a smoking gun for a conspiracy theorist of the highest order.

It is time to put on your tin-foil suits!

As an aside, my father was once riding in a train when the conductor told them they had entered New Mexico. The lady behind him happily commented: “New Mexico? I love pizza!” I suspect she is a member of this WiFi hating group.

LTS

LTL

Dr. Rob (still over 36 and nervous)

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Cha cha

Hey guys!
Just wanted to report something funny that happened today when I tried cha cha out. I asked what buzz out loud is and the response I got was ” that is, sadly, the new name for the international space station, where astronauts have a real problem to contend with.”, then a link for more info. This person must have googled buzz out loud and found yesterdays episode. Cha cha needs to train there staff that NASA would not name a space station anything like buzz out loud, and to use a little common sense. Allthough I wouldn’t have a problem if a space station got named after bol. That’d be awsome.

Love the show,
Adam from PA