Culture

Buzz Out Loud 775: EverCuil

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.

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Molly Wood

July 28, 2008 12:12 p.m. PT

4 min read

On today's show, we learn how we, too, can purchase an extreme cooling machine, we test out the new Cuil search engine, which is apparently already doomed by its incomprehensible name and the unreasonable hatred of our chat room. Also, Steve Jobs calls to clear the air regarding his health (if you can call it clearing the air, that is), and I go on a rant that includes the term "earwax wiggle."
Listen now:

Download today's podcast

EPISODE 775

‘Hijacked’ SF passwords made public (Thanks Russ960!)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10000342-83.html

Hammer drops at last: FCC opposes Comcast P2P throttling
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080725-hammer-drops-at-last-fcc-opposes-comcast-p2p-throttling.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121720316961088595.html

Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone - CNET
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10000379-2.html

AT&T threatens WiMax joint venture
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10000105-94.html

MPAA planning site to offer legit movie links
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080727-mpaa-planning-site-to-offer-legit-movie-links.html

Jobs entrusts a New York Times columnist with the truth about his health, even before he tells Apple shareholders
http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/28/jobs-entrusts-nyt-columnist-with-truth-about-his-health-before-apple-shareholders/
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/business/26nocera.html

FCC approves Sirius-XM satellite radio merger
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10000241-94.html

VOICE MAIL

Anonymous
RIAA's nefarious plan.

Stewart
Why iPhone dock has changed.

E-MAIL
Hey Molly,

With your dislike of the iPhone’s missing features, and being a previous Treo user. What cell phone are you using? Just curious.

Dave
Rochester, N.Y.

I had my first run-in with the law regarding the hands free law that went into effect in California on July 1. I was driving in the afternoon last Thursday to pick up my wife from work. I had both my cell phone and Bluetooth headset. I was about 2 miles from my destination when I decided to call my wife to tell her that I was getting close. I brought my right hand to my ear to initiate the call through my Bluetooth headset when I changed my mind, figuring that 2 miles is a little too far to call her and that 1.5 miles would be better. The moment that I put my hand down from my ear, a police officer pulled me over. Evidently, the shear act of placing your hand to your ear is enough evidence to pull you over for possibly breaking the hands-free law.

Thanks for the great podcast!

Alfred

I’m sorry Buzz Crew, although I appreciate the podcast for it’s entertainment and it’s source of tech news, you guys completely botched this story.

Well actually,

What you guys forgot to mention was that he was making claims without reliable evidence, which means anything he says should be completely ignored, regardless of how many initials are in his name. Notice how he says that there is a risk, but all the evidence is conveniently unpublished (aka nonexistant). This guy is an alarmist quack.

If there is evidence that cell phones cause cancer, someone would be winning a Nobel Prize, because microwaves are non-ionizing and can’t break tissue according to our excellent understanding of electromagnetic radiation.

Considering that we talking about 2 watts or less (almost always less) of microwave radiation, there would have to be a library of bullproof, peer-reviewed, controlled studies before this idea is anywhere near scientific legitimacy.

Tony

You’ve talked now a few times about Terry Childs, the network tech who kept the admin passwords to himself and allegidly “boobytraped” his network so that it would fail during a planned power outage. With Cisco network gear, you can have different configs in “running” mode and in “start-up” mode. Running mode is what the router is currently using, while start-up mode is what the router will load and run after a reboot. Even with UPS backups, we all know power fails unexpectedly. Choosing to have configurations in running mode while not in start-up mode on purpose is only for nefarious intent.

Then, to add a dollop of creepy to this guy’s story, here’s a clip from Info Week : “Childs’ troubles with the technology department started to snowball June 20 when he followed and took photographs of the agency’s new head of security after she began an audit of who had password access to the system, authorities said.” (http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209600496)

By any standard, this guy should not be considered a “good” sysadmin.

Signed,
Michael the Intel Project Manager

I'm a physicist who has worked in two different labs specializing in low temperature solid-state physics research. In both cases we had a piece of equipment that could reach 1.9K with ease, and you can have one too! It's available from Quantum Design, a company in San Diego, starting at a little less than $100,000. You'll probably have to spend a bit more to get the necessary options added on, but I wouldn't expect it to cost more than about $150,000. In fact, in the first lab I worked in, we were able to reach 0.35K using one of their add-ons. Anyway, I thought that Buzz Town might be interested in purchasing one...for what reason I'm not sure. You can find out more at http://www.qdusa.com/products/ppms.html

Enjoy!
Nathan
Murfreesboro, Tenn. (near Nashville)