Buzz Out Loud 760: 100 penny challenge
We've offered more than 99 pennies in reward money as a challenge to the first person who can make some e-salt that will stop the snail robots from taking over our planet. Of course, running would probably also work as they are snails.
We've offered more than 99 pennies in reward money as a challenge to the first person who can make some e-salt that will stop the snail robots from taking over our planet. Of course, running would probably also work as they are snails. Also Microsoft and Yahoo are fighting and we children don't like it. But Time Warner might. We also talk a little bit about some phone that's coming out this week. From Apple. I think it's called the over-hyped phone. Or iPhone. Or something.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
 | Episode 760 |
Microsoft letter backs Icahn, renews Yahoo focus
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9984466-7.html
Icahn letter outlines Microsoft’s support
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9984467-7.html
Yahoo statement in response to Carl Icahn’s latest open letter
http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?&ReleaseID=319847
Yahoo re-enters merger talks with Time Warner
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article4281977.ece
iPhone 3G: The waiting is getting old
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9984288-36.html
O2 starts 3G iPhone stampede, and runs away
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/07/o2_apple_3g_iphone_upgrade/
Pioneer fits 400Gb on Blu-ray with 16 layers… (Thanks Shalin!)
http://gizmodo.com/5022420/pioneer-pushes-blu+ray-discs-to-16-layers-400gb-capacity
Microwave ray gun controls crowds with noise
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14250-microwave-ray-gun-controls-crowds-with-noise.html
As price of fuel soars, so does a dirigible renaissance?
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/05/as-fuel-prices-soar.html
‘Scrabble’ on Facebook: Too little, too late
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9984477-36.html
Voice mail
Ali
What about the library stupid?
How many piece of tech do you all own? I’ve heard TM mention 10 different laptops between him and his wife. I’ve heard MW talk about so many different cell phones that I’ve lost track. Veronica B. used to talk about different MP3 players like they gave them out for coming to work. Do you all actually own this stuff or is it tech that you’ve test driven for CNET? HOW MANY DIFFERENT PIECES OF TECH DO YOU OWN?
Ok show I the love,
Jason in Marietta, GA
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Robots could “slime” themselves all around the world?…
http://gizmodo.com/5022353/mit-professor-studies-snail-slime-to-create-go+anywhere-anytime-robots-of-the-future
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Forget legs or treads or wheels, everyone, because tomorrow’s robots will traverse the earth on a thin film of slime, just like the humble snail.
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huh…so just in case, is anyone working on e-salt? ya know, just sayin’… 
Best,
Shalin
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Hello from Canada!
I’ve been quite surprised that BOL hasn’t mentioned the Canadian iPhone data plans (see them at http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/iphone_voice_data_packages ). As you can tell, they are outrageously high and have been the cause of a lot of rage among Apple fans in Canada (as well as people who just wanted an iPhone and now can’t afford the plan; without settling for being able to check email once or twice before reaching the data limit).
I’m sure you have heard of it, but the petition at http://ruinediphone.com/ has been circulating quickly (another online petition of probably no consequence). This morning I read an interesting blog post based on rumours about Rogers: http://smithereensblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/apple-flips-rogers-bird-week-before.html .
I was wondering if you had heard anything about this or could confirm the rumours are false/true?
Thanks - love the show!
Mila from Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia
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hi jamoto i was reading my favourite uk tech blog http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/blog/ when i came accross a link to this story and thought you might be interested
THOUSANDS of Scots telly viewers have had their programmes blacked out without warning.
Bosses at Freeview decided to bring in a new transmitter signal which doesn’t work on several types of set-top boxes.
But many Scots didn’t have a clue about the change - until their screens went blank.
It’s believed that around 16,000 Scots who get their telly through Freeview are now saddled with useless boxes. One of them, Campbell Bosanquet, 61, of Aberdeen, said: “I was flicking through the channels when my box just stopped working.
“I find it absolutely incredible that they can just change the signal without announcing it.”
love the show
rob from felixstowe uk
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hey bol crew, I was India for a vacation and was trying to get an internet connection and I stumbled across this, turns out we got WIMAX before you guys! the service isn’t great but better than what was going on in auzzie land because the ISP is using fullsized WIMAX recivers and turning that into wifi instead of using wimax through those tiny laptop things. Its pretty darn cheap ($1 = Rs. 42), a 1 mbps 4gb cap plan is abt $17 a month. But so for the reviews have been bad because they have not erected enough Wimax transmission towers.
Jatin the numb sandal man
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Hi Buzzcrew,
This is Duy, from Vietnam (if my email makes it into the show I’m interested to see how you pronounce that, people who don’t speak Vietnamese never get it right on first try)… Anyways, I’m a long time listener, but first time emailer. Been catching up with a few episodes from this week and this is a response to Episode 757, more specifically the Microsoft codename to the new Windows: Fiji… As far as I know, a lot of the codenames I’ve seen from manufacturers like Intel very often are references to places… Just to name a few: AMD’s Barcelona (formally the Opteron Quad-core), AMD’s Manchester (Athlon64 X2), AMD’s Paris (Sempron CPU), Intel’s Bearlake (the P35 family chipset), which is a lake in Utah, US, Intel’s Dothan (Pentium M) which is an ancient town in Israel, Intel’s Prescott (Pentium 4), is a town in Oregon. More codename references from AMD and Intel can be found on wikipedia… Even Microsoft’s own Windows 95 was codenamed Chicago, and the recent Windows 7 was originally codenamed Vienna.
So as far as I know, using places as reference to codename is nothing new in this field, and not just places… Even nVidia has the codename Bladerunner for its GeForce 2 Ultra cards… So I’m surprised that this time the codename raised such reactions… Why why why?
Oh and by the way, in response to all the WiMAX news, in Vietnam WiMAX has been rolled out since mid-2006 as an experimental program in some of the more remote provinces with harsh mountain areas that make it impossible to deploy cables… So far the program’s supposed to be successful with more deployments scheduled for big cities that will provide the necessary competition against DSL, so what’s the fuzz all about over there?
Anyways, love the show
Keep up the good work
Duy Nguyen.
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Hey JaMoTo,
A while back (episode 733) you had a story about Google not wanting to put a link to their privacy policy on their front page (original story ). Well, it seems that they finally caved . What I find interesting is that they actually count the number of words on the front page, and to add the privacy link, they changed “@2008 - Google” to “@2008 - Privacy” to keep the word count at 28.
I know it’s a good policy and I love the Google homepage (compare it to Yahoo or AOL), but the first impression I god when I read this was “obsessive-compulsive disorder ” 
Love the show,
Adrian the student from Europe
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Hi folks,
I am currently working on my PhD in Biostatistics, and during my two years of study thus far, I have never heard of the term "average" being interchangeable with "median" or "mode." The previous e-mailer's comment could possibly be due to a confusion of "average" as a technical term versus its use in speech; if we say "average" to mean "a typical value," then yes, the median, mode, or mean could suffice. The only way I have heard "average" used in a technical way is to specify the arithmetic mean we know and love. Even if the headline writers meant "average" to mean "a typical value," they should have chosen differently since it is bound to be confusing.
:o) Sylvia