BOL 1021: Bird-eating blob

While Yahoo and Microsoft are flirting again and video game sales are plummeting, it doesn't matter. We are all going to be eaten soon by the blob of organic material floating by Alaska. It ate a bird, people! Get with it! Seattle is next. Oh and we can film our demise with the first 3-D webcam. So that will comfort us during our demise.

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EPISODE 1021

Yahoo, Microsoft finally near deal
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10289209-56.html

Video game sales revenue plummets 31 percent
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10289207-235.html

Games Industry Suffers From Recession, Finally
http://technologizer.com/2009/07/16/games-industry-suffers-from-recession-finally/

Blu-ray celebrates 91 percent sales increase for first half of 2009
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/16/blu-ray-celebrates-91-percent-sales-increase-for-first-half-of-2/

Possible Twitter lawsuit would dive into murky blog waters
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135606/Possible_Twitter_lawsuit_would_dive_into_murky_blog_waters

Cosmetic surgery co. gets slapped for fake online reviews
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/cosmetic-surgery-co-gets-slapped-for-fake-online-reviews.ars

World’s First 3D Webcam Tested
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/07/16/2213224/Worlds-First-3D-Webcam-Tested

New Air Force BACN system ends incompatibilities between comm systems
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/07/air-forces-universal-translator-has-everybody-talking/

New DVDs For 1,000-Year Digital Storage
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/07/17/1213203/New-DVDs-For-1000-Year-Digital-Storage

Huge Unidentified Organic Blob Floating Around Alaska
http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/07/16/1421255/Huge-Unidentified-Organic-Blob-Floating-Around-Alaska

VOICEMAIL
Pastor Hudson with an idea for Twitter CS.

Don agrees with Cooley about hybrids

Elliott with question about the blue lights

EMAIL
Hi buzz team

I need to start paying more attention when listening to your show at
work. Sometimes I try to find the story you are talking about and I
get nsfw results. Yesterdays show got me when I absentmindedly searched
for “perfect silicon”. Yeah. Not a good idea. I got hit in the past
with “bingle” as well. Wonder if anyone else has come across this
problem while enjoying the show.

I’ll be more careful from now on.

Thanks and love the show.

Joey

**********

Hey Buzz Crew,

While listening to the BOL 1019 discussion of Natal I was struck by the thought of using Natal to extend the idea of a ‘waldo’ (you should know what that is Tom) or telefactoring arm. Natal combined with a good computer, the internet and some handy robot arms would allow all sorts of remote actions by location based experts, such as, surgery in Antarctica, working with radioactive material underground, dismantling a bomb on the battlefield in another country, or remotely performing a repair on the space station from Houston (Cooley ought to like that – in space but not in space – very zen). In fact, the younger generation using this type of technology provides a burgeoning class of gesturing tech savvy doctors and engineers who can change the world from wherever they are. Oops, sorry, got carried away. Love the show.

Bob from the Shenandoah Valley

Shimmering icons of wild fiery joy compose the psychedelic canvas of our lives!

**********

Hey Buzz Team

About “theRocco” and his twitter crusade:

I work on the web team here at DISH Network, but I’ve also been working with our Twitter team. We use Twitter for two purposes here: Promotions and Customer Support. Everyone tweets from the @dishnetwork account to avoid identity issues as much as possible. I think you covered most of the ins and outs of CS through Twitter on the show yesterday, but I thought I’d add that:

1) We’ve found that people complain on Twitter when they feel like they are frustrated to the point of needing a public outlet, and are generally pretty open and approachable once contacted. We’ve had a lot of success resolving people’s complaints through the service (and yes, anything more than just the initial contact should be done through DM or some other communications means). It’s also a little more laid back then talking to someone on the phone.

2) The CSRs on Twitter are from our escalations group, so they are higher level reps that have been with the company longer. They have more access and resources than your generic phone rep, and so personally I’d say that going through Twitter for customer support is sort of a secret back-door to better service, at least in our case. At least for now since we only have a couple hundred cases coming in through Twitter as opposed to the hundreds of thousands we get on the phone. (And the Twitter team is on Twitter because it is something they are interested in, rather than being mandated from above, so they really want to prove that it is a viable means of support)

Love the Show
- Derrick Bowen