Buzz Out Loud 969: Poetry and warp drives

EPISODE 969

It’s 5/7/09. Why do numbers people like stuff like that so much?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/06/national/a195730D93.DTL&tsp=1

WiGig Alliance formed: Seeks to codify an in-room wireless spec that can handle HD video and everything else
http://www.twice.com/article/CA6656779.html?nid=2402

Phony Wikipedia entry used by worldwide press
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/06/2237244

FBController allows for hijacking of Facebook accounts
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10234720-83.html

Missile data found on hard drives
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8036324.stm

Twitter Search about to cast a wider net
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10235360-2.html

Twitter: Not for sale (read: the right offer hasn’t come in yet)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/164493/twitter_were_not_for_sale.html

Xerox ColorQube technology claims to blend the best of laser, inkjet, affordability, and environmental friendliness
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/05/xerox_draws_on_oregon_technolo.html

Sorry, no newspaper discounts on Kindle DX if you can get local delivery
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-amazon-kindle-dx-newspapers-to-offer-reduced-rates-for-two-year-subscri/

Kindle books now a shocking 35 percent of sales when Kindle version available
http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-kindle-sales-now-a-shocking-35-of-book-sales-when-kindle-version-available-2009-5

Duke Nukem developer goes belly up
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8037688.stm
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/05/duke-nukem-forever-was-the-glue-that-kept-us-together.ars

Star Trek Warp Drive not impossible, physicists say
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090506-tw-warp-drive.html

VOICEMAIL
Jason the runner
Wolphram “cheating” Alpha

John
high school Kindles

E-MAIL
I was curious about the cost of an NYTimes subscription on the new Kindle vs paper delivery, so I did a little math.

Kindle subscription: $13.99/month = $167.88/year
Paper subscription, NY metro area = $5.30/week = $275.60/year ($107.72 diff.) [aside: Dude, we save less than $2/week here? WTF?]
Paper subscription outside NYC = $6.70/week = $348.40/year ($180.52 diff.)

The cost of a Kindle DX is $489. Assuming you buy one and ONLY use it to read the NYT:

$489/107.72 = 4.5 years to pay for itself for a NYC native
$489/180.52 = 2.7 years to pay for itself in the rest of the country.

It’s still a lot of money, obviously, but a device that pays for itself in 3 years isn’t really so bad. And if other papers are priced comparably, that could go down quite a bit depending on how much you read. If you replace three newspapers with Kindle subscriptions, the big Kindle could pay for itself in a year or less.

On the other hand, my laptop reads NYTimes.com for free (in color!) AND is also a computer, and I already own it. So there’s that.

Anyway, just had to share my overthinking with someone!

Love the show,
Jessica in Brooklyn

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How about this for irony? I replaced my desktop PC and Dell laptop recently with a Mac Pro and a MacBook Pro. I use Windows frequently on both of these machines for work and such. Seems that the machines that I replaced did not have processors that would support XP mode on Windows 7, but both of my Macs do support it.

I can see the marketing campaign now: PC: I have a new version of Windows coming out; it's great. MAC: Well, I can run it better than you.

Love the show.

Regards,
–Thierry

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I was listening to Episode 968 when Brian Cooley stated that 1080p is only useful when trying to ‘impress yourself with how great your television is’. Molly then chimed in to add that Blu-Ray is only for ‘HD wankers’? I own both a PS3 and a 1080p television set, and I must say that you’re absolutely correct.

Ben, the HD wanker

PS: Love the show even if it’s not in High Def.