Buzz Out Loud 847: Don't stand behind the hologram

The U.S. Army prepares to test and deploy ghost soldiers in MMORPGS and possibly also the real world. They may be decoys, folks, but remember: they're still light-based projections that won't stop a bullet. Also, it appears Apple will finally activate over-the-air podcast downloads for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Which, yeah. Ya think? Geez.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 847

Hey Microsoft, Yahoo’s for sale--for real this time
http://www.crn.com/software/212000962

Obama, McCain campaigns both hacked, files compromised (thanks rpcaldiera)
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/05/221222

An Obama presidency: Good, bad news for technology
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10082672-38.html

Apple activates podcast downloads in 2.2 firmware
http://www.macrumors.com/2008/11/06/apple-activates-podcast-downloads-in-2-2-firmware/

Feature films coming to YouTube
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10083481-93.html

Video: Windows 7 promises faster boots and up to 15% better battery life
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/06/video-windows-7-promises-faster-boots-and-up-to-15-better-batt/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10083242-56.html
http://cnettv.cnet.com/2001-1_53-50004352.html

Warner Bros. to fight China movie piracy with 60¢ downloads
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081105-warner-bros-to-fight-china-movie-piracy-with-60-downloads.html

WPA cracked in 15 minutes or less, or your next router’s free
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/06/wpa-cracked-in-15-minutes-or-less-or-your-next-routers-free/

Intel names ‘Nehalem’ launch date
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/11/06/core_i7_launch_date_named/

Cancer genetic blueprint revealed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7706487.stm

U.S. Army to push X-files tech development, invade 'World of Warcraft'
http://gizmodo.com/5077240/us-army-to-push-x+files-tech-development-invade-world-of-warcraft

Voice mail
Anthony from Louisiana: Kindle in the Wild

E-mail

I was listening to episode 846 where you mentioned about EA’s hilarious work around for the CD key and I am sad to say that I was one of the those who received only 19 of the 20 digits. I thought about calling EA to find out how to resolved this but I figured that it would take to long and opt to simply guess the last digit. They allowed 3 tries before requiring you to re-enter all the digits again. I believe you can eliminate zero and O just because they look too similar reducing the number of possibilites to 34. I finially found the last digit on my 33th tried when I skipped Y and typed in Z. Safe to say EA has been nothing but trouble. Just wanted to get my story out on EA’s key cracking idea.

Also on another topic, I have seen two Sony E-Readers in the wild within the period of two month on the NYC train system. I thought seeing one was rare but two is really something. Funny thing is that I bought my girlfriend a Kindle for Christmas a months ago so by the time Christmas comes along there will be another Kindle in the wild.

Love the show,

– Johnnie

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Just be glad EA isn’t in Eastern Nigeria!

Hi BOL,
You guys were speaking of EA issueing a “workaround” for the missing CD key and noting that since they were alpha numeric keys, there were 36 options. I just thought you guys might like to know that in the Igbo language (Eastern Nigeria) there are actually 36 letters in the alphabet.

A B CH D E F G GB GH GW H I I J K KP KW L M N N NW NY O O P R S SH T U U V W Y Z

When a vowel appears twice, the second one has a dot on the bottom showing a longer sound and the second N has a not at the top for a different sound
Little International fact for you guys
Love the show,
Chuma

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The Soviets are killing us in the race to populate space with junk. Probably slowed downed recently though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race#Number_of_satellites_launched.2C_by_nation

Jim from Seattle

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Ref episode 844 and previous discussions about Google Chrome
advertising.

I just returned from a trip to Taipei; and Google is most definitely
promoting Chrome over there.

Walking along one of the main streets, I happened upon a wall-sized
billboard looking like a giant browser window, complete with embedded
“flash video” player. see picture here -> http://flickr.com/photos/monody/3008198330/

I guess Google is not a dominant player in Taiwan, or indeed much of
Asia. So it only makes sense to employ different advertising tactics.

LTS,

Vidar
from Norway