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Buzz Out Loud 793: 19 and still single?

In today's episode, we learn that Facebook's targeted ad system was apparently devised sometime in 16th century London. Also, a new PS3 bundle brings the pain (with voucher) and Apple gets sued over its lousy 3G reception.

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
4 min read

In today's episode, we learn that Facebook's targeted ad system was apparently devised sometime in 16th century London. Also, a new PS3 bundle brings the pain (with voucher), Apple gets sued over its lousy 3G reception, and the FCC is still all over Comcast, and Comcast responds by announcing its plans to throttle (huh?). Also, we school some doctor on the deal with oxytocin. Boom.


Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 793

Episode 793

Judge: Copyright owners must consider ‘fair use’
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10021999-93.html?tag=nefd.lede
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/08/judge-copyright.html

FCC order scolds Comcast for changing story on P2P blocking
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080820-fcc-order-scolds-comcast-for-changing-story-on-p2p-blocking.html

Comcast to throttle some customers’ Web speeds
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10021654-93.html?tag=nefd.top
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-comcast-to-delay-speeds-for-heaviest-users-during-peak-time/

Apple sued over iPhone 3G reception issues
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10021885-37.html?tag=nefd.top

Seinfeld to host the Microsoft Makeover (Thanks royterp!)
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9760&tag=nl.e019
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10021915-75.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Facebook’s ‘engagement ads’ tests the waters
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10022000-36.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

Coming this fall: The 160GB PS3
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10021363-1.html?tag=bubbl_2

42% of Web users sneak onto other online accounts
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/20/2233221&from=rss

Voice mail

Dr. Rob
On oxytocin.

Ben UPS Driver
Why FCC is going to where they're going.

E-mail

Hi Molly, Tom & Crew...

I work at a Naval Engineering & Research Station. For various security reasons, no one here is allowed to have ad or personal cell phone with a camera.

So, as you can imagine, it's not easy finding a camera without this feature.

BTW…thanks for mentioning the Blackberry 8820 (GPS, sans camera)

Your Government is listening....and is a fan! J

Love the show,
Al

Hi Buzz folks,

Just in regards to Odin in 792 and his Vista AV problem, I have one comment: AAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Don’t you remember the fuss that Mcaffee and the other AV providers kicked up when Vista was released? They moaned and groaned, and sued their way around the kernel and memory protections that MS had originally installed, so being pretty court shy these days, Microsoft had to gimp some of the basic system protection features just to appease them. Now it turns out the AV makers have gone and screwed the pooch over this, and all I hear is “oooh, Vista is soooo crap” and the like. I can’t believe that I’m defending Microsoft these days, but I am getting so tired of the uninformed MS bashing that goes on all the time. There are plenty of good reasons to have a go at the boys from Redmond, but this is not one of them.

*Sigh*

Keep up the good work,

Jeff from London

Hey Tom, Molly and Super-Intern-Dude

1. Chinese Thing
I’m Pro-China so I’m going to say that the documents uncovered (the list, listing* names, sexes and dates of birth) includes a typo and the Chinese passport is the real deal. In other news, Governments are constantly issuing ‘fake’ passports. How do you think the CIA gets documents and Visa Credit Cards for agents traveling under alias?

2. Targeting Advertising
Sorry, Facebook have put me right off the idea. All I get on facebook are ads titled ‘19 and STILL single?’. Not only are they insulting and make me feel like crap - Facebook seems to let advertisers access whatever data the like - Facebook know my year of birth but it is not listed on my profile pages - yet advertisers have access to it. I’m unhappy. Way to go Facebook!

*A list has to list things, so really, stating the obvious is redundant. My bad!

Very truly yours,

r-c-brown

Firstly, you may have mentioned it before, but a great source for music lovers who hate the RIAA is http://www.RIAAradar.com. Like a new artist but don’t want any of your money going to the RIAA troglodytes? First check this website to see if the artist is affiliated with these thugs. If they aren’t, buy the music; if they are, contact the artist and tell them you won’t ever buy any of their music as they have allied themselves with an organization who treats every music listener as a criminal and potential extortion target.

Lastly, perhaps an effective campaign would be for everyone to email the RIAA, just to verify if we all still have the right to listen to our own legally purchased music - on a daily basis. Ask their permission; every… damn… day.

Love the Show,

Tim in Kansas

Hello Buzz Crew,

So I follow your advice and typed my name on cuil.com the answer is a bunch of CNET, Twitter and other geeks links (never my poor iRodrigo.com blog) always followed by Veronica’s picture.

Just wanted to say that:

1. I’m not a girl.
2. I’m not Veronica.
3. Dresses like that makes me look fat.

Rodrigo Hashimoto, from Toronto

—-
Dear T, M, and J.

You may be interested in talking about this:
http://www.nypl.org/press/releases/?article_id=108

Apologies if this is old news to you.

Best,
ThriftyTechie