Buzz Out Loud 746: Cast out the Flash demon

On today's episode, Molly issues a blanket un-curse to all who have suddenly discovered that Firefox has trouble with Flash. (But really, it's Firefox's fault.) Also, the Associated Press volunteers to tackle the thorny issue of defining fair use for all of us, and yet the blogosphere insists on painting it as some sort of heavy-handed attempt to lock down their own content and dictate rules that they have no legal authority to tackle. How rude.

EPISODE 746

Verizon blocks access to whole USENET hierarchy http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080616-alt-blocked-verizon-blocks-access-to-whole-usenet-hierarchy.html

Cash, not idealism, behind ISP embrace of music biz http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080616-cash-not-idealism-behind-isp-embrace-of-music-biz.html

The Associated Press to Set Guidelines for Using Its Articles in Blogs http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/business/media/16ap.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin http://news.cnet.com/8301-13953_3-9969375-80.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/16/heres-our-new-policy-on-ap-stories-theyre-banned/

Blogger arrests hit record high http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7456357.stm

Nintendo nobbles Nyko's Nunchuk http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2219148/nintendo-sues-wii-accessory-maker

Honda produces first commercial hydrogen cars http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9969263-54.html?tag=nefd.top

Heavy AT&T DSL users could see additional fees http://www.betanews.com/article/Heavy_ATT_DSL_users_could_see_additional_fees/1213387162

Google preps net neut dowser http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/google_network_management_tools/

T-Mobile to sell 3G iPhone from 1 euro in Germany https://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSL1610580020080616

$15 to check a bag, but free to charge an iPod http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9969405-1.html

VOICEMAIL

Anthony Michigan Molly has cursed me.

Anonymous Sad text messaging story.

Gabriel Spit vs. Spam

EMAIL

I saw an example this weekend of a lost packet with the pigeon protocol.

I was at a convention this weekend outside of Detroit and was lucky enough to have a seat by the window. I happened to see a hawk was chasing a pigeon. The pigeon flew right at the window beside me and wasn't able to pull up in time. It slammed against the window hard enough to leave some feather and scare the bejesus out of most of the people in the room. Then the hawk flew away.

Seems that these lost packets would be few and far between, but yet another obstacle for the ISP's to content with, HAWKS!

-Nick in Kalamazoo

Hi Guys,

In your discussion of Skynet in episode 475 I was reminded of a company that a friend of mine works at, Cyberdyne.

http://www.cyberdyne.jp/english/robotsuithal/index.html

In addition they make a HAL (Hybrid Assisting Living) thing. Basically it is a powered suit that will assist older people in getting around carrying out daily routines.

Love the show, Andrew Randles PhD^?

Sendai, Japan

- Kevin Virginia

Molly,

I just finished listening to Friday's show and wanted to politely disagree to your objection to the word unlimited. Here's why:

Pricing for any unlimited service is based on the cost the service provider bears to provide for the typical user. For example, if the average user requires $4.00 of data, the price would be set at five dollars and the service provider would make a profit, regardless of the fact that some may be above the average and other users below it. So, in the current scenario, if a typical business user uses $10.00 of data, compared to a regular user using $6.00 of data, it makes sense that the business user should pay more. However, this doesn't mean that you can't call both tiers of service (i.e. the business and the consumer tiers) unlimited because, while one does cost more than the other, any individual user of either tier can use however much data they want. The difference between the tiers isn't that the business tier is "more unlimited" than the other, but rather that a typical user of the business tier costs the provider more and must pay more as a result.

Love the show, Ethan

Hey, this is Remy.

In BOL 744, Shalin sent an email about Pluto's new status as a ... "plutoid" (genius name!). There was then some conversation amongst yourselves about the subsequent butchery of the mnemonic device; for the record, my very excellent mother just made us nine pizzas. Pizza is better than pie.

But this is not my point.

On February 27 of this year was this interesting article on CNN.com:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/27/planets.mnemonic.ap/index.html

...which I can't get to load right now. (By the way, CNN's site is total, unadulterated crap.) Here's a different link:

http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/2008/02/27/eight-planets/

Quoting from the story: "Her award-winning phrase is: My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants.

The 11 recognized planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Eris."

Anybody who's halfway interested in astronomy knows Ceres. I've even heard of other soon-to-be "dwarf planets" like Sedna and Quaoar. I personally hadn't heard of "Eris", but that's kind of beside the point.

Why should I learn a mnemonic device that includes an asteroid (Ceres) or an overblown chunk of ice (Pluto, Eris)? It is patently ridiculous.

Also, I don't care if the kid is only a 4th-grader -- or from Montana. That mnemonic device is just ... flat ... bad.

--Remy

Hi,

It's me again. I have resisted writing earlier, but I simply cannot take it anymore. It is just painful to see Tom be such a Google fanboy. No matter what the issue, there is always a pro-Google angle.

Please try to be a little more balanced in your views on Microsoft and Google and maybe I will have faith in your reporting. Until then I repeat, as I have said before, that Tom is simply a pro-Google, anti-Microsoft machine.

The last example - Microsoft surface is brushed away instead of talking about the fun stuff that can happen with it in Vegas ... whereas Google's ad deal with Yahoo gets some praise for its press release (besides spelling out the Google's official blog URL!!!!).

USC Trojan.

Warning: written while listening to last friday's show.

When you talked about the social networks and Molly said she thought the future is a way to post to multiple social networks at once...... I could not help shout "you can do that now!",

http://ping.fm is a service that does just that. It will post your "stuff" to various blogs/social networks/micro-blogs/twitter/etc....

The service is in beta right now, but anyone can join if they use the beta-code tastyping.

Cumprimentos e Obrigado, Miguel (from Portugal)