Ep. 941: Urine nation

[ music ] ^m00:00:04 >> Today is Monday March 30, 2009. >> I'm Natalie del Conte. >> I'm Tom Merritt. >> I'm Molly Wood. >> I'm Jason Howell. >> Welcome to Buzz Out Loud, CNET's podcast of indeterminate length. This is episode 941, and also the 4 year anniversary of Buzz Out Loud. >> Can you believe it? >> Yeah. >> No. >> It's like a Monday coincidence that I'm here for. >> I know it's cool. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, we didn't... >> 4 years people. >> I kept thinking it was March 31, but it's March 30. >> Yeah, 30th, the first episode of Buzz Out Loud, 2005 >> When we did them weekly and they were 10 minutes long. >> Boy, the summary on the Buzz Out Loud wiki at Buzz Out Loud at wiki.com. Everyone should go check it out if you haven't seen it, is hilarious. Like the summary of the show is just so funny, like Molly talks about toilets in Japan, which I'm pretty sure I've talked about almost everytime I'm on the show still. >> I had just written one of my first, one of like the first 3 or 4 columns for the Real Deal, when I tried to get a free iPod. >> Yep. Tom has not yet discovered his ability to segway from story to story, but his interaction with Molly is very similar to the most recent episode. Some things don't change. >> Is COMDEX dead? >> Is COMDEX dead? Answer: yes. >> Yeah, way dead. >> We now know. >> In only 9 minutes and 20 seconds we were able to figure out that COMDEX was going nowhere. >> I know right? We were good. >> And we talk about Sony not being able to sell that Playstation 2 with the 4 speed back controllers. You know they just dropped the price of the Playstation 2 to 99 bucks. >> Are you serious? >> Wow. >> Dude I might buy one. >> That's pretty cheap. >> See now that's what I'm talking about. How hard would it be? Sony just dropped the price of the X, dude I'm gonna buy it. Just try it out with the PS3. Just see. >> Yeah. You can drop it like 2 dollars, everybody would go crazy. They'd be like... oh my gosh! It's so much cheaper now! >> It would feel like a Goodwill thing, and people would be just like, I'll take it. Okay, off topic. >> We want to believe Sony. >> We want to believe Sony, exactly. >> Yesterday, or yeah, yesterday? No Saturday. Saturday night I was at the Streamy Awards in Los Angeles, the International Academy of Web Television, is an attempt to... it's one of the 5th or 6th attempts to be the awards for web video. And this time they did mean it. I mean it was pretty huge. They had a red carpet, there were press there, there were paparazzi. It was a big theatre, the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles near a VA hospital, kind of strange location but... but it was a nice theatre and they had it set up professionally and they had a professional director come out and warm up the crowd and tell people how to accept their awards, and they had real awards and... >> And Josh Whedon came. >> Josh Whedon showed up and accepted his award for best director of Dr. Horrible sing-a-long blog, won for that. Neal Patrick Harris was there, who also came up on stage and insulted Nathan Fillion when he accepted his award. Felicia Day was like on stage every other minute, because when she wasn't winning as part of the Dr. Horrible, she was winning for the Guild. The Guild took a ton of awards, and she is both the creator and star. And she actually had the moment of the night, about halfway through during one of her acceptances she said I want to thank all the casting directors and directors and producers who rejected me horribly, and never hired me, and didn't like the way I looked, because without them beating me down into the ground and making me depressed, I never would have picked up the pen and written my own thing and did it, and then gone around the system. >> Right on sista. >> They left out the quote here that I'm reading from in New TV.com, but she also said they didn't like her because she was nerdy. And she got like the big thunderous applause of the night. And there was a lot of talk afterwards, there was an after party and people... some of the OG bloggers were a little bit critical of how Hollywood it was. It was not full of a lot of video bloggers. >> Most of the other awards went to Battlestar Galactica webisodes. >> Right, and there was Alive in Baghdad won for best news. There was Alex Albrecht winning for project lore, but yeah when you look down the list it's Dr. Horrible, The Guild, Battlestar Galactica. There's big stuff in there as well. But I think it did what it attempted to do, which was give awards for the best video on the web, no matter who made it. And so you had Lisa Kudrow come up and do a presentation at one point, but you also had Irina Slutsky from Geek Entertainment Television. And you had Zadi Diaz up there as a presentor... and she won for Epic FU, exactly. So you know it's one of those 'you can't please everyone' situations. But it was a really interesting thing. The only thing I'm disappointed with, I was very impressed by the presentation. It had all the hallmarks of a good award show, it went too long... there were prompter failures and people messing up jokes because they weren't reading the prompter very well, there were people in very strange dresses. It had all of those hallmarks but then no press. Nobody really is talking about it. >> Well and the funny thing is I had not heard of it at all, until about a month before. Basically until I saw Felicia Day start tweeting about voting for things in the Streamy's. It's sort of, there are so many, it's weird because there are so many awards now and so many of them are web related. It's almost hard to tell what's important, and it seems like even though this was a big Hollywood one, everybody is like well the one I've heard of is the Webby's; even though the Webby's are just a sham... >> This was specifically for web video, which I don't know if that makes a difference, but... >> But the Webby's have a web video category, but the Webby's also don't feel like they're about the web, they feel like they're about advertising on the web. If you go there it's like, I don't know any of these companies and they're all about just kind of search engine optimization, and ad revenue, and it's not really fun. >> Yeah, it's exciting that this is about content. Maybe it'll pick up. Was it the first year? >> It is the first year, yeah, and they did a really good job for a first year I felt like. It was very professionally put on. >> Certainly given the caliber of the content awards, it seems like this is likely to catch on. >> But there were technical problems with the stream that people had when it first went on, and then they haven't put up the official list of winners on their site yet. I would like to see it on demand immediately so that you could watch it again. That hasn't been done yet. So there's some kinks in the system, but... >> Also the name is stupid. >> Yeah, you know, like the name Streamy. >> It sounds like urination.^m00:06:20 [ laughter ] ^m00:06:25 >> I honestly thought you said your-a-nation, and I was like what nation... oh, oh. >> And it sounds like it doesn't really take itself seriously too. Calling it the Streamy's. I don't know. >> I thought it was okay until the urination thing... now they're definitely going to have to change the name. >> But also curious, anybody send us emails at Buzz at CNET.com, or voicemails or whatever. If you even care. Like does it even need to happen? I don't know. I do, I think it does, but... >> You know the Webby's offered us an exclusive on the Early Show, and they said oh we can be the place where you'll announce the official Webby nominees on the Early Show, kind of like the Oscars get the exclusive Oscars, and the Early Show producers were like... no we don't care about this, not even a little bit. So I don't know how much... tech media obviously doesn't care that much about the Streamy's, but the mainstream media doesn't care a hoot. >> Well I think maybe the problem is that there are too many awards. Like the awards fan is over saturated. In fact just as we were preparing for today's podcast, we went to Engadget and there at the top is like, the Engadget Awards. It's like alright, you know, seriously giving... what it starts to feel like is that the web can be such a weird little click and it's all become the sort of self congratulatory circle of everybody giving everybody else an award, and it just feels like a giant kind of inbred blog roll, and it gets kind of boring. >> Yeah, although giving is good. Giving away things is good. Giving away free music is even better, and that's what Google is doing in China. ^m00:07:55 >> That's right. Google bought Top CN, or Top 100.CN last year because they're trying to compete with Buy-do, and now they launched their free music engine today. And it gives free downloads from Sony, Warner, EMI, Universal, where you just go click the name and download it for free. >> Apparently this is an effort to catch up with Buy-do.com, which is the leading search engine in China, and Google's trying to get in front of them. And Buy-do's been giving away music for a long time based on advertising. The reason they have this program in place at any search engine is because piracy is so rampant, at least according to the Reuter's story, that the company's feel like this is the only way to compete with it, is to do an advertising based revenue model. So the lesson I'm learning here is... pirate all your music and eventually the music industry will give it to you for free. >> Yeah, that's... actually I think China is just accelerating the path. It's possible though. ^m00:08:53 >> It's a signal for the future. >> In the U. S. at least we'll probably eventually be forced to pay some sort of internet tax, and it'll be like... we'll pay for it a little bit. ^m00:09:04 >> Well Google tried to get Buy-do not arrested, but in a lot of legal trouble for providing links to all of these free music downloads, and when they were semi successful with that, then they said but by the way we're gonna do it legally, and this is their big push because they still are not the number one search engine in China. Buy-do still holds the lead. >> Absolutely. >> I read that book Silicon Dragon, that's why I know about this. >> Yeah I know, that's what Google has been trying anything basically to take down Buy-do, because that's their one bug-a-boo, they can't seem to break all the way to the top in China. >> Meanwhile, gettin video into people's hands is another place where folks are trying to figure out how to make money. Disney and You Tube are close to a content deal, and also Disney and Hulu are reportedly close to a content deal, or at least renegotiating one. >> Well we talked about this on Friday, that Disney might be providing ESPN and other content to Hulu, and now we have more proof that that's actually going in that direction. >> And I have heard from someone, off the record, that the Hulu thing and Disney thing is definitely hot. Like that's not done yet, but that they're trying to make it happen. It would be good to get more for Hulu, especially and for all of us really I guess, to have a way to put all of this video into one place. >> Yeah, I mean I think it would be wonderful if Hulu was like the source for most of the major network's intent, if not all. But what I also think is cool about this is that it would be Disney as a company breaking out of just the iTunes delivery model, because I think that's what has locked them in for a long... because ABC has been only available at ABC.com I think, for streaming. >> But their whole problem with Hulu is they don't want to give Hulu exclusivity over the video. They want to be able to go elsewhere with it. >> Yeah, which I'm for that too. I mean I understand that Hulu probably wants exclusivity, but I want these places.... >> If Hulu and Disney don't work something out for ABC video, is that the death nail for Hulu? >> Well I think and if ABC and Disney ends up on You Tube, then that combination I think is the death nail for Hulu. >> Well some of that content already is on You Tube, but what if ABC and Disney went to TV.com? ^m00:11:16 >> Yeah, there's that possibility too. Although CBS is... I mean that's so tricky... >> Yeah but NBC is Hulu, and so is FOX. >> NBC and FOX started Hulu. >> Right. >> So that's why they're exclusive but also... >> So why did they have rights ABC other... TV.com? >> Well they're trying to get those rights. >> Yeah, they haven't had any rights yet. Yeah, certainly ABC could say okay, screw you Hulu we're gonna go to TV.com, but TV.com is a CBS owned property. No, I see what you're saying. Like why would ABC go to an NBC and FOX owned property. >> Versus... >> I'm just saying either is likely but it looks like they're going to Hulu. >> Yeah. >> So far it does. ^m00:11:55 But I think this is attorney point for Hulu, which is if they get ABC, then they could go after CBS, they can try to be that destination for all the video. If they don't get ABC, there's talk of NBC and FOX even wanting to pull out. And if they lose ABC, that could further be an incentive for NBC and FOX to part ways with Hulu; at which point there's no future for them. >> It's make or break for Hulu right now, and I have to say that I personally am watching it very carefully, like more Comcast bills I pay since we switched, the more I am keeping my hot little eye on Hulu because boy, if ABC goes there that can be the end of cable for me. >> Now that's for streaming. For downloading you probably use the Pirate Bay. >> Absolutely. Who doesn't? ^m00:12:39 [ all talking at once ] ^m00:12:42 >> ... and open source software and podcasts, things like large video podcasts like Diggnation are distributed there. >> Public domain files and books and things like that. >> ...something to Facebook. >> Yeah. ^m00:12:57 >> The Pirate Bay being bold as brass, has basically put out a sharing app that is compatible with Facebook so that you can... there's like a little share this button or something, where you can share any media that you want on Facebook. And there was an interesting article by Eliot Van Buskirk on Wired about it, and he basically said well on the one hand this is great technology because it makes it super simple to share media that you don't have to host, so if you have created a music video or your own music, or some other sort of media that you want to share, then you can upload it to the Pirate Bay, they do all the hosting, and then you use the Facebook thing to share it. It becomes this like sort of Myspace type thing. >> Right, essentially you... in that application you say okay, I just downloaded XYZ file, and then your friends can click on that and it will start to download that file for them as well as long as they've got the torrent installed. ^m00:13:46 [ talking at once ] ^m00:13:50 >> Something like that. So depends on how this is used, because like you were saying in prep, if you've got a show or music that you've created or whatever, and you want a new interesting way to host it and not really have to worry about hosting the file itself but just kind of put it out there and let it distribute itself, this is great. However... >> That's what bit torrent is for. It's actually what it's for. Everybody oh, it's for piracy. No it's actually solving a problem of people wanting to deliver their own high bandwidth intensive applications and media to people without having to host it. >> Yep. ^m00:14:23 >> But if you are the crazy pirater person, that's posting this link to your Facebook - not very smart, right? Because I mean then you've got this direct tie between you, your public persona, and this illegal torrent. >> But you're not hosting it? >> No, you're not hosting it. I guess it always goes back to that right? But still... >> It's so devilish... >> That you are admitting that you already downloaded it. >> Are you? >> Yes, I guess you are. >> Yeah, yeah, you kind of are. There's no getting around that. ^m00:14:55 So that's no good. >> But you... because Facebook is saying I did this, now I'm sharing it with others.^m00:15:03 >> The Pirate Bay's just so brazen. >> They are. >> That's why they're like the anti hero. They're like a funny little Robin Hood character, because they're just so like... >> It's actually a fantastic sharing idea from the worst possible place for making it appear legal. >> Because really anything that you... it's not so much even if you post links, but as soon as the Facebook world sees that you've got the app installed. That alone...[laughing] Although maybe some app is to just share this button. Anyway, whatever. >> Whatever it is, they've got the Pirate Bay on it so you're definitely picking the side there when you use it. Not even making a comment whether that's a bad thing or not. >> Yep, just FYI. >> You decide for yourself. >> Well here's one thing that may not be a bad thing, for Red Hat anyway. They're saying that the recession is actually good for their business. They released quarterly earnings late last week and found a 25 percent increase over the previous year. Subscriptions to Red Hat are up and they made 541 million dollars of revenue last year. >> I've seen a lot of stories along this line, that bad economy is good for open source. >> Yeah. >> That makes sense. >> Why wouldn't it be? In some ways it makes perfect sense. Although it's slightly counterintuitive, because sometimes during a bad economy people flee to stability, like blue chip stocks always do better right? There's no question that Microsoft is a blue chip stock in that sense, so in some ways it's a little bit surprising that people are switching horses for their infrastructure during a risky time. >> That's a really interesting point. Does that mean that Red Hat is then more... seen as reliable? >> Right. >> Because it's not necessarily that they're going to any operating system. In fact, in this Ars Technica story they talk about how some companies are issuing expensive support contracts, and turning to free community driven distro's like CentOS, but what you're bringing up explains why they would go to Red Hat anyway because they see that as reliable, but it's still cheaper than other options. >> Yeah, exactly. I mean to me Red Hat is the most trusted name in Linux, for sure. >> Right. Exactly, Red Hat is almost a household name. People recognize at least the logo, if not exactly what it does. In fact a Reuter's report recently said that Citi Group analysts are calling Red Hat a tempting acquisition target. So who knows? Someone like Oraco could come by and just swoop it up and that would be even better for their business. >> Or Microsoft. >> That's funny because MTtheboy just posted a link in the chat room about Oraco already saying we're not buying Red Hat. Which means they're probably gonna buy them. ^m00:17:36 >> So that's how it works these days. >> Right. No means yes, all the time... at least in acquisitions. [ laughter ] ^m00:17:44 >> News that did not surprise me at all, it turns out according to a new study, that playing action video games can actually improve your vision. Like it makes you see better, because... >> We're saying the violent ones. Not necessarily the violent ones, but the ones that move around. Playing the Sims is not... it was one they used as a control, and it did not give you the improvement in visual acuity. It's the contrast level. >> Right. >> That you become more sensitive to. It doesn't actually change anything in your eyes, but it trains the brain to see contrasts better, which improves your vision in a lot of ways, including night vision. Yeah. >> Well the last violent games have more simplistic graphics a lot of times, and so this nature neuroscience study said that because there's so much action and so much intensive graphics, your brain is learning to process that visual information quicker and quicker; whereas just Paperboy or whatever, where you're riding down the street and there's not a lot of graphics to process. You're not necessarily going to train your vision. >> It sounds like part of the training is actually the act of aiming. Like it's the point and shoot at something game. Like the worst... >> Duck Hunt for instance. >> Duck Hunt! >> Or Quake. >> It makes sense to me in some ways. I mean, certainly because playing a game like that, they do those simulations in police training or whatever just in terms of improving our peripheral vision and reaction. I didn't know it could do this whole contrast vision thing, but that's pretty interesting. >> They did say it was a small study showing a small effect, but they believe that it merits further investigation. Something to keep and eye on. ^m00:19:26 Get it? Something else we've been keeping an eye on is Skype for the iPhone. It's official, it's coming out tomorrow. Do we know actually... this is one question I had, if you're going to be able to use it just over Wi-Fi? >> Nope, no 3G. Wi-FI only. >> Wi-Fi only. And it's coming out for the Blackberry down the road as well right? >> Right. Both of them are coming out, and it's gonna be announced at this week's CTIA Wireless Conference, which starts this weekend in Vegas. So we're gonna likely have a lot of mobile phone news this week. >> We had a big collection of folks that use a, and I'm gonna forget it now, wish I would have written it down, telephone... >> Fring? >> No it's not Fring, it's from U. K. It's called like the 3 network or something, and they sell a Skype phone that allows you to use... we kind of mentioned it I think last week right? >> Right. That's... yeah you're right, it's 3 and Orange I think, works together to release the Skype phone where you can make calls over their 3G network. >> But you can only call people on Skype. You can't Skype out. So you can't use the Skype on 3 to actually call a telephone number. But you can use Skype over 3G on 3 to call your friends that are on your buddy list in Skype for free. >> I believe that actually also exists in Australia. We got some viewer responses about that. >> That's the way it should work. >> Yeah that's pretty cool. ^m00:20:44 >> Yeah but the mobile phone carriers are not gonna like that. >> They don't like it. >> Orange is okay with it. >> Well yeah, I don't know why? >> They're a lot more enlightened. >> Are they? It sure seems like it in this case. >> No, they have way bigger, more robust 3G networks. >> They've been up and running for a long time. >> If South by Southwest can bring down AT and T's regional 3G network, they are definitely not gonna start allowing Skype. They just don't have the infrastructure. >> Probably the mixed conference in Las Vegas also brought it down. >> Yeah. I mean it's pathetic you know? Also one quick note about... Skype on iPhone. People were asking about it in the chat room. You will also be able to use it on your iPod Touch, which is gonna be a big advantage for some people. You will need earphones with an embedded mic. >> Yeah, there's some attachments too where you can plug an attachment into the earphone jack and use it like a phone, hold it up to your ear if you want. >> But that to me, that is actually kind of the under noticed part of this announcement, which is that maybe you don't need to pay iPod monthly fee anymore. >> Depending on where you're using your phone. >> Depending on where you're using your phone, but you know... so you have Wi-Fi and no landline, could you get by with an iPod Touch as your phone? >> As your home phone? >> As your home phone. >> Your home phone would be your iPod Touch? >> Can you imagine? >> No, you'd have to leave that up all the time because it doesn't run in the background. So you've have to have... >> For calling out, who takes calls anymore? >> Oh right, yeah, that's true. >> That's true that no one can call you, but I never call. >> But maybe that's not such a bad thing. >> Or rather no one calls me, and when they do I don't usually answer. ^m00:22:06 [ laughter ] ^m00:22:10 >> Good to know. >> Yeah. >> You answer your Twitters though and it soon could be that you could Twitter from your car, because reports are surfacing that Onstar wants to add Twitter integration. And the way this would work is that you'd push some kind of Twitter button or tell Onstar that you want to Twitter, and it would use speech to text to send that out. >> Two companies in search of a business plan right here, General Motors and Twitter. >> Yeah. >> And what they're trying to do with Onstar is get people to keep the service after a year. So they're trying to come up with different ways to make it compelling. I'm not sure that I need this at all. >> Come on! >> I was on KFWB talking about this this morning. Phil, one of the guys that does the morning there, pointed out they actually are thinking about passing laws banning even the hands free headsets when you're driving. So would this even be allowed to be doing like talking back and posting Twitters while you drive? >> Also... can I just have a moment? Dude I get it, if you're gonna lower yourself to Twilight references, at least make sure that they're completely accurate because... >> What's the Twilight reference? >> We Twilight people are kind of crazy. That's all I'm gonna say about that. >> Well what's the reference? Now you gotta... the context. >> It says you're heading to Forks Washington and you asked your thousands of followers to name a good place to buy garlic. And Forks is the name of the town, which I'm pretty sure is actually in Oregon, not in Washington, and the vampire's in those books don't... So I'm just saying if you're gonna do it, then get it right! Because that's just obnoxious. >> Wow. >> Speaking of obnoxious. Mark Cuban got fined 25,000 dollars for slagging on the referees on Twitter. >> Yep. >> Because he posted his criticisms on Twitter, which really weren't that bad, they fined him 25,000 dollars; which to him I guess is like 10 bucks. >> Yeah this guy perpetually has his foot in his mouth, all the time. >> He is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, in case you're not familiar with that aspect of him. I'm sure you know who Mark Cuban is. >> I like how he Twittered... so he goes, he Twitters this and then he gets the fine and then he goes just found out I got fined 25K by the NBA, and then he goes can't say no one makes money from Twitter now; the NBA does. ^m00:24:10 [ laughter ] ^m00:24:14 >> And then they fined him another 10,000 dollars? >> Yeah right. >> Because they will fine you for a hang nail. >> We're actually getting fined by them right now. >> Being the giant tool that he is, like not only does he Twitter this and get a fine, then he blogs like are Tweet's copyrighted? Because ESPN can't use my Tweet. >> I believe they can't. And his comment section has gone up, they're like yes... it's a blog. >> Well he brought it up. >> They are copyrighted. I mean to be clear, they are copyrighted, unquestionably. >> But he brings up the answer to his own question. He is bringing it up as a question. He's like hey, is this copyrighted or is it fair use? I think 140 characters, fair use. I mean you can quote more than that in a news article. >> It doesn't even matter how many characters it is. Yeah, it's quoting. Like it's quoting you for news, like that's almost always... >> You can't quote someone's entire news story in your own, and claim fair use. >> Right. >> Right. But 140 characters, that's why I bring up 140 characters. If you're quoting somebody... you pretty much have to quote the whole post for it to be of any use fair or otherwise. >> Just trying to get like more attention for his attention getting thing. >> I think he was just curious. >> Well perhaps if you set your tweets to private, then maybe they're not... not public? >> Yeah you can lock off and only allow people who you approve to follow you and see your tweets, and then they don't go in the public timeline. But that's still on the internet. >> It's still online. >> So you shouldn't fool yourself too much about that. But he doesn't do that. He has them public, so that's talking in public to me. >> Yep, I agree. >> It definitely is. >> And I will prove that in my master's thesis on social media when I attend the Bingham City University. >> Which I would read the story but apparently Google Chrome is concerned that the ad serving website... the Telegraph.co.uk is hosting malware. >> I know, I got that too! >> I know. >> I didn't get that. >> That's so interesting. So anyway the story... >> They're both using Chrome? >> I'm gonna proceed anyway, but now I probably have con-Flickr. ^m00:26:07 [ laughing ] >> The story is that there's now a 1 year course at Bingham City University which will consider social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, and you'll get an entire degree on them. >> I think that is hilarious. >> But this is a perfectly acceptable academic pursuit for a master's thesis. I think it belongs in a sociology or maybe even anthropology, but to actually make a specific degree in social media, I'm a little confused by. >> I feel like every teenager in the world already has this degree. >> Yeah, can you demonstrate it with previous work, and just cash it in? That's what they should do. Bingham City University will be rolling in money. >> I'm gonna petition to have my credits already count. >> Yeah. [ laughing ] That's what they should do, they should say 4,400 pounds for the MA. You can either come, do the 2 years of work, or whatever; or send us your Facebook profile and your Twitter line, we'll take a look, evaluate it, and give you the degree is you qualify. >> Oh my God, can you imagine some of these research projects? I'd rather kill myself than sit on Myspace all day and do field research. >> I think there's lots of valid field research here. I'm just not sure that it should be a degree of it's own. I got my degree in sociology and my work was how people communicate in various ways on social networks. >> Imagine you're an employer and someone hands you a resume with this degree, and you're like... get out of here. >> It's a master of the arts. >> By the way the chat room has informed me that Forks is in Washington. >> Okay. >> So Engadget got that much at least right. They filmed the movie in Oregon so that confused me. >> Oh, alright. Yeah, so you better get your... >> I'm sure all the people who paused and have already emailed me, like sorry. ^m00:27:51 >> Finishing up with a little bit of fud busting. The Hotelicopter.com is capturing a lot of attention today, and Gadget blogged about it but then pulled it down. We couldn't get to it anyway. I don't know if they actually pulled it down, we couldn't get to the story anymore. And several other blogs are saying they don't think it's real, but we kind of wish it was. >> Yeah. >> Because it is a helicopter featuring 18 luxuriously appointed rooms for adrenaline junkees seeking a truly unique and memorable travel experience. >> The Hotelicopter. >> I don't want anything to do with it. I took a flying class and my flying instructor was like, I won't even go in helicopters. They're dangerous. >> But the crew and staff make your security and safety their number one priority now. >> I don't know. I'm saying no. >> You could assume, given how much you'd probably pay, that this is at least as well maintained as like the President's helicopter? >> Or United Airplane. >> Those planes are busted. >> They're maintained. [ talking at once ] ^m00:28:47 >> It's not a function of how well helicopters are maintained, they're just a dangerous aircraft. So you guys fly in it if you want, I'll meet you there. >> I'm doing it. >> I'm flying with my dad. I'll meet you there. >> None of us are doing it because it's probably an early April fool's joke. >> It was really, really, if it is an early April fool's joke, then April fools you're dead to me. Like I'm already so over it. I'm kind of dreading it. >> Let's not make April fool's like President's Day where we just have it on Monday no matter what. >> Yeah don't be leaving us April fool's voicemails because it's not our first day on the internet, and we're onto you. >> And whatever you send we're just not gonna play. >> We swear we think this next voicemail's referring to something real, not an April fool's joke. ^m00:29:30 >> Hey Buzz crew, this is Shane in Las Vegas again. It's been awhile since our last call, but I felt I had to after I saw this really interesting article iPhone Hacks.com, basically showing a new application for a patent from Apple with jailbroken iPhone in the diagram. It's a patent for a biometric device of some sort in, I guess, a next generation iPhone, and it's showing jailbroken apps on some of these diagrams; and even custom springboard backgrounds on a jailbroken iPhone in some of these diagrams. I send along an email with the link. Love the show, bye. ^m00:30:06 >> This has been kicking around the internet, people making fun of this patent art where it shows definitely the installer from a jailbroken iPhone and a springboard module. So we're trying to figure out how this crept in there? When patents are filed you draw, you make a drawing of what it is that you're trying to patent. So the drawing in this case shows an iPhone screen. They're not trying to patent jailbreaking, but they do have to draw in little icons just to demonstrate that that's the screen. I don't know, did they give the patent artist somebody's iPhone and happened to jailbroken and he had no idea? >> I think so. >> Or she. >> I think that's probably hilarious. They were just like here, use this phone to draw from. And then it becomes this little inciduous thing. [ evil laugh ] ^m00:30:54 >> Here's something else that's inciduous. The Family Guy, our next caller tells us that the Family Guy taught him how to handle the digital TV transition. ^m00:31:02 >> Hey Buzz crew, just wondering if you saw the latest episode of Family Guy? In it the family sees that a channel they like is converting to digital stream, and so they go out and get a high definition brand new TV. Thanks a lot, that really cleared up the mess for everyone Family Guy. Good job. ^m00:31:20 >> Because a lot of people, like say Family Guy's super seriously... >> Family Guy, your number one source for information. >> There's nothing satirical about that. >> Are we worried about the Family Guy providing a bad example? >> I think he is telling us that this is satirical. I don't think he really learned about digital TV. >> I think he thinks that there's a danger, that Family Guy's being irresponsible and like passing on this message that you have to do this instead of satirizing the fact that... >> The guy also passes on a lot of other messages that you shouldn't take seriously. >> Many, many messages. >> That dogs and babies talk. >> Don't you think though that Family Guy may be the right demographic to change that lesson to? People who watch Family Guy may be a bit more likely to have analogue TV's? >> What? The people who watch Family Guy might be more likely to have analogue TV's? >> I don't know, it's.... >> Girl, you want to watch it because those family people are crazy. >> No I like Family Guy, I'm talking about this sort of... never mind I get myself in trouble... I'm not gonna say anything. >> Don't get all demographic on our... >> In these troubled times, we need people to buy as many TV's as they can. So the Family Guy is actually doing their patriotic duty by tricking people into buying HD TV's. >> That's true. They're moving the economy along. Very smart of them. >> Good of them. Well done. >> Yes. >> Alright, let's do 'em. >> Vicente in San Diego writes in and says Molly mentioned the E74 error last week. That was our story about XBox 360's getting sort of a rebranded red ring of death that they're calling the E74. He said it turns out that I got that error. I called Microsoft and Apple after troubleshooting. ^m00:32:59 I called Microsoft and after troubleshooting I was told it was a hardware failure. I was informed that the console was out of warranty. I found that strange since I had heard they had a 3 year warranty and my box was manufactured less than 2 years ago. I was informed that the 3 years are only for the red ring of death problem. The console repair would cost 120 dollars, but I could save 20 dollars if I did it online. Unfortunately everytime I tried to do it online, I kept getting an internal server error, 500. I informed the CSR about my online problem and I got the discount after being escalated probably to the guy in the next cubicle. Nice way to stop bleeding money Microsoft. Change the way the error shows up and now they can make money on the deal. If it wasn't for my zombie shooting 10 year old, this would make a nice addition to my trash day collection. ^m00:33:37 >> Oh my goodness. >> Dude that's like everything that Joystick was speculating, is basically just that they changed the code for the red ring of death, and this... Oh Microsoft come on! Honor, okay if people are getting a general hardware failure that is similar to the red ring of death, just not the exact same code, you'd better freaking honor that red ring of death warranty. That is absolutely unacceptable. >> Well it's a different error. >> I can't believe they went through all these steps either. >> They're doing that freakin' and oh, really like you're gonna accounting about that after the harm to your goodwill that was suffered by the red ring of death? >> It's generally accepted accounting principles to do that, yes. >> That's just... oh God Microsoft, really. Do you just see your foot and go like, that's an attractive target. >> I'd like to eat that. >> That looks juicy, I'd like to shoot at it. ^m00:34:23 >> Aslan00CM writes in, that's catchy, says just dropping you a link to let you know that the sturdy Mars Rover are once again back in action. 5 years and not a red ring of death in sight. Can NASA take over making XBox 360's? >> They do not know each other... ^m00:34:39 [ talking at once ] ^m00:34:44 >> That is a link that I'll put in the show notes. >> Hilarious. >> I think I'm gonna buy a Mars Rover instead of an XBox next time around. >> Those things are stable. >> Yeah. >> Wally from Minnesota writes in. He says in the mid 70's the CB radio became an every man's way to connect to other people. With the CB you could find and talk to people you didn't know, get help, avoid speed traps, and find information of all sorts. You did all this while using a handle as a substitute for your actual name. The CB exploded in popularity. Hollywood jumped onboard and the CB was featured in the long list of now forgettable movies. Then as quickly as it appeared, the CB faded away. Will Twitter see the same rapid adoption, and slow fade? Breaker 19. ^m00:35:26 >> What's your 20 there TW Dickson? I want to see the Convoy movie version of Twitter. >> Yeah, that would be pretty awesome. >> Can we get a series of like... >> Except for how unbearable it would probably be. >> The movie's made based on Twitter? >> Because at least CB's they can have like action related to movies. >> Yeah, it's just a bunch of people in ironic t-shirts walking around looking at their iPhones, instead of truckers. ^m00:35:48 [ laughter ] ^m00:35:54 >> Don't you need a license? You need a license for a CB. >> No, no. No you don't need a license for a CB. You just buy the radio. You're thinking a Ham radio maybe? >> Oh yeah, okay. >> Wasn't Ham radio anti-licensed? >> That was a stupid question. >> I still think you need to take a test to do Ham radio. I could be wrong about that, I'm not a big Ham radio guy. But did you guys ever do CB radio? >> My dad had a CB in his truck that I later acquired when I got rid of the truck, but kept the CB. So I played around with it. >> Did you have a handle? >> No. I just kind of tuned into other conversations and said hello. I was pretty young. >> Molly, no? >> No, although... >> We have one on our boat still. >> Do you have a handle? >> No. >> What's your handle? >> Natalie del Conte. >> Oh it's just like, I wonder why? >> Yeah, Twitter handle. ^m00:36:45 >> By the way the chat room says you do need a license for Ham radio, particular depending on the outputs because of the high power radios. >> My CB handle was Big Brazier. ^m00:36:55 [ talking at once ] ^m00:37:00 >> I was 7 years old and I liked Dairy Queen hamburgers. >> It was what? >> Big Brazier. That's awesome. ^m00:37:06 [ laughing ] ^m00:37:10 >> Also I really want to go to Dairy Queen now. >> I know! >> So what is Big Brazier? We didn't have those in California. >> It was the name of a hamburger at the Dairy Queen Brazier stores. The ones that served food besides the icecream. >> David psychologist wrote in, said hey guys I love when you talk about stuff I know about. We were talking about the hardware model of human neurons. He said there are about, is that a trillion neurons in your brain? >> Just write a trillion Dave, don't make me look at all the 0's, it's hard, it's hurts the neurons in my brain. >> He says there are about a trillion neurons in your brain and some may have upward of 10,000 synapses. The human nervous system is massively parallel and hierarchical. This is called the Hughlings Jackson Principle. >> Also one of my favorite bands. I'd love to see them play out. >> Compare this to the lovely flatworm the nematode, it has 302 neurons and we know what every circuit in the nematode does. We know the whole fracking genome. So the nematode is used a lot as a model of learning at the synaptic level, whereas more complex processes are usually looked at with neuronetwork models. The models are usually just computer programs, indeed Dave says he learned to how to write such code in grad school where his foreign language was Turbo Pascal. >> And he says, no kidding. >> Yeah, no. >> That's awesome. >> He really got to have his foreign language be Turbo Pascal? >> It seems that the research project you were talking about combines the best of both worlds, because it is both computer and hardware. By the way, the synaptic process involved in learning is likely a phenomenon called Long Term Potentiation. This was first postulated by a Canadian neuropsychologist Donald Hebb. >> Oh you're such a Homer Dave. >> Dave also wants to know if he can count these emails to BOLS Publications on his curriculum vitae? My annual report to the dean is due soon. Yeah we can tell you how to cite. People have cited Buzz Out Loud before. >> That's right, they have. >> Amanda French can give you detailed instructions on proper citation. >> And it is peer reviewed because all 4 or us looked at your email. >> That's true, and... >> And decided to publish it. >> ... and were anything to be wrong, which it almost certainly is not in your email, there would be someone from Buzz Out Loud who would email us to let us know. >> Absolutely. >> It was not just peer reviewed, but what do they call it? Intensively peer reviewed. >> Yeah. >> Absolutely. So publish away! >> There you go. Hopefully you have one of those long essays, like 20 some odd pages. I had a professor in college once who's like, if you turn to page 27 of my vitae, like I wish I could say that. ^m00:39:30 [ laughter ] ^m00:39:33 >> You could just print it out one character per page. >> You could do that. >> Page by page like INXS style. Go to podcast.cnet.com. You can find podcasts such as Dialed In where in the current episode you can find out all about what to expect at this year's CTIA in Las Vegas. >> What to expect when you're expecting CTIA. >> That's right. Expect CTIA, that's number one. >> Expect CTIA. >> That's right. Check it out, podcast.cnet.com. >> And of course our blog has all the ways to contact us, links to the show notes. You could find a link to the Buzz Out Loud wiki where you can find out how to listen to the very first episode of Buzz Out Loud ever. >> That's right. >> And all of the episodes in between. >> Reward yourself on the fourth birthday of Buzz Out Loud by listening to the first episode. >> Go to BOL.CNET.com to get all those links. >> See y'all later! >> Bye! >> Bye! ^m00:40:29 [ music ]