Buzz Out Loud 976: Cash, king of Spain

Apparently cash is still king in Spain, according to one listener. And here I thought it was Juan Carlos. We also notice how Craigslist is getting CraigsPissed over the adult services issue. And Dell says Windows 7 may be great and all but it's also going to be expensive. And that's just not so much of a good idea in this economy.

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EPISODE 976

South Carolina eyes ‘criminal investigation’ of Craigslist
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10242507-93.html

Napster relaunches with $5 a month subscription and free downloads
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/18/napster-relaunching-again-5-per-month-plus-five-to-download/
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10243101-49.html

Dell says Windows 7 price is possible barrier
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10242555-64.html

Mozilla preparing to scrap tabbed browsing?
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/18/1227247

Document-sharing site Scribd goes into eBook selling business
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/technology/start-ups/18download.html

Nokia N97 For North America arriving June 2
http://thenokiablog.com/2009/05/17/nokia-n97-for-north-america-arriving-june-2nd/

Danger Mouse releases blank CD-R to spite EMI
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8053471.stm

Fennec for WinMo
http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10242094-12.html

AMD taunts Intel, hoists EU flag
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10242372-64.html

J Allard’s ‘Magic Wand’ patent application for Microsoft puts Nintendo, sorcerers on notice
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/18/j-allards-magic-wand-patent-application-for-microsoft-puts-ni/

Letting time solve the online news dilemma
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/143206

Wolfram Alpha knows the secret of time travel
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/wolfram-alpha-knows-the-secret-of-time-travel/

1,000th episode June 18!
Send email to buzz@cnet.com with the subject line 1000th Episode Invite, if you are serious about wanting to attend the recording at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, June 18. We have a limited amount of seats.

Voice mail
RogueTess
In defense of knitting

Scott from Saskatoon
The importance of graphic calculators

E-mail
Chaps!

You might miss this deliciously eccentric nugget of Google news, as it’s all about UK footpaths. Rest assured, I wasn’t going to let it go unnoticed in the US.

Nate
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029552,49302292,00.htm

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Heya Buzz folks,

I just wanted to add a small clarification on the use of credit cards here in Europe. As you surely know, Europe is big – and credit card usage varies by country. While I’ve seen the Chip and PIN system used extensively in the UK and in Ireland, the RFID/PIN cloud of of complexity hasn’t yet spread over all of the continent. For example, here in Spain, cash is still king. People rarely use credit cards for their daily transactions and many small stores (of which there are many) do not even accept credit cards. Even in the local supermarket, I’ll commonly see venerable old women pull 20 and 50 euro bank notes out of their purses to pay for their groceries. If people do pay with a card, it’s the swipe card style and must (by law) be accompanied with some form of ID.

Saludos from Southern Spain,

Jonathan

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Hey BOL,

In episode 975, Beauty is in the eye of the Boholder 1000, Tom brought it up that Liz in the chat room said that all of the outlets in Europe have off switches on them. This is absolutely true, but it is not because of energy saving. This is much more of a safety feature. Countries in Europe, as well as others around the world such as Australia where I have traveled to have the switches on outlets because these countries use 230-240V electricity sources, unlike the 120V used here in the United States. You are suposed to turn off each outlet when not in use because the higher voltage makes the outlets much more dangerous if you are not careful. Obvioulsy this can be used in a “green” way, but it was not created soley as an energy saving technique.

For a full list of different Voltages around the world, and if they use the switches built into the outlets, check here:
http://www.kropla.com/electric2.htm

Love the show,

Greg from CT

**********

Previously on Buzz Out Loud – We learned iPhone is the chump in Italy (Blackberry for the win).
Assassins like pre-paid cell phones.
Molly ranted. Tom and Natali were brought back from stasis.
Wolfram Alpha is evil with a german accent.
Stupid is contagious, ask the French, Missouri and credit card makers.
The Pirate Bay has found a way to revenge themselves in thousands of
tiny little ways. Bring on the micro-payments!
The Twitteratti has an unmatched fury when you mess with the @ sign.
Sony has a bit of a bug, put it to bed, so it can feel better next year.
Soylent People is black holes!!!!
And L’Oreal was, for a shining moment, a tech topic.

Sheala, GA