Buzz Out Loud 833: Adobe, the mad wizards of Orthanc

Anything that nerdy had to come from Tom. And it did. Rafe Needleman joins the cast today to discuss waiting for Windows 7 (Steve Ballmer says it's OK), the fury over FireWire being omitted from the MacBooks reaches a fever pitch--so much so that Steve Jobs himself sends an e-mail in response. His response? A fairly typical, "Sorry, suckers. Upgrade."

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 833

Ballmer: It’s OK to wait for Windows 7
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10067641-92.html

Microsoft Considers “Instant On” Windows
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/16/1710207

Tool to allow ISPs to scan every file you transmit
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/16/2137258

Users rage over lack of MacBook FireWire
http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/08/10/17/1331229.shtml

Steve Jobs' e-mail response re: lack of FireWire on MacBooks
http://www.edibleapple.com/steve-jobs-email-response-re-lack-of-firewire-on-macbooks/

Tesla Motors shaken up, laying off
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/17/1218207

September NPD numbers: Star Wars trumps flagging U.S. economy
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081017-september-npd-numbers-star-wars-trumps-flagging-us-economy.html

FBI says DarkMarket sting netted 56 arrests
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/17/0549223

Discovery CEO: Web 'take-up rate is not that strong'
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-discovery-ceo-web-take-up-rate-is-not-that-strong/

Asus breaks sub-$300 price barrier with Eee PC 900A at Best Buy
http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/10/asus-breaks-sub.html

VOICEMAIL

Adam from Canberra: MacBooks fail

Bob from Jersey: iGoogle, how could you?

Anon: Missing Twitter girl found
http://www.wspa.com/spa/social_networking/blogs/amy_wood/article/missing_teen_kenzie_church/9809/

E-MAIL

Hey guys,
I too have been annoyed with Hulu’s odd tendencies to remove/add shows at seemingly random times. When I saw that House was being put up 8 days after initial airing, I had had too much… so I e-mailed them. Here’s what they said.

—–
Matt,

Thanks for writing. The re-air rights for the first 8 days for House were sold by the owner to another channel, like TBS or TNT or Bravo or something like that. So that’s why we only get it after 8 days. We’d of course love to get it day-after like all our other content, but that deal predates Hulu.

So the 8 day deal is not to try to force people to watch on TV, at least not on our part. The channel that paid for the first-week rerun rights did not want it streaming online.

But when that deal expires, we’ll definitely push for more immediate access since we agree with you.
—–

Eugene

**********

So, that discussion got a bit out of control. If I choose to use an open platform, then who administers the kill switch? I don’t think that Symbian will even have a kill switch.

And to extend the analogy of kill switches on PC’s, who should administer the kill switch? What if I’m using an open OS? I know no self-respecting Linux distro would dare put a kill switch on their OS.

It seems like the idea of using kill switches for viruses is a bad excuse. Kill switches are for programs that are downloaded the right way, and play by the rules. If these kill switches start trying to kill viruses, then it will become an arms race pretty quickly. How long before a virus writer thinks to crack the part of the OS (mobile or otherwise) that phones home in order to download blacklists?
Tony

**********

I just wanted to let you guys know that I was one of the lucky few that didn't had the annoying playback bug on Firefox, and when you mentioned it a couple of weeks back I thought to myself “bug…what bug?”
Then you guys (specially Molly) started talking about it EVERY FRIGGING EPISODE until my Firefox went “humm…I think I'm supposed to have that bug”. Now I can't listen to you guys from the page anymore because the friggin thing won't play unless I move the cursor over the player thingy. Luckily, I also listen to you guys from Winamp, which is kinda good, because often enough I close Firefox before realizing I'm listening to you guys on that window…Thank you…thank you very much…

Also,Tom: Mom thinks you are Howard Stern.

Oh, and love the show!

HimDRAncE

**********

You already have transit mode
It is the off button.

Sincerely,
C. Sullivan

P.S. Seriously!

**********

After having listened to episode 8, I have two things to say. First, I AM the customer Google is trying to hit with Goggle mail. I send stupid e-mail after drinking all the time (no intervention, please). Second, math problems as a barrier are just lame. There are multiple studies saying that people’s math skill don’t degrade as quickly as their physical skills. Requiring a path trace test would be much more relevant. Let’s make me solve a maze before I send mail!

When I was cave diving, I took a deep air class. One of the requirements was to do a series of math problems on the surface, then do the another set at depth, which represented an impairment of 2 drinks (theoretically, at least). I did the set at depth 30% faster than the set at the surface. Did that mean I wasn’t affected? No. It meant I could slow my brain down enough to concentrate on the problem at hand. That doesn’t make me nicer or cause me to regret my mail.

I’m drinking as I write this. I wonder if I’m going to feel bad about it later? If only I had math problems to stand in my way…

Sad trombone for no reason.
LTS
Tom, you make my son fall asleep every time I play the podcast on my Zune (Thanks!)