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Buzz Out Loud 867: Of peanut butter and shotguns

It is a tale told down throughout the ages. Google's Internet access is a large jar of peanut butter, and As Natali reminds us, you don't kill bugs with a shotgun. Even if it is fun. If you take nothing else away from this show, at least remember that.

Tom Merritt Former CNET executive editor
4 min read
It is a tale told down throughout the ages. Google's Internet access is a large jar of peanut butter, and As Natali reminds us, you don't kill bugs with a shotgun. Even if it is fun. If you take nothing else away from this show, at least remember that.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

Episode 867

UK ISPs switch on mass Wikipedia censorship
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10009938o-2000331777b,00.htm
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10116543-93.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/07/how-the-great-firewa.html

Technology start-ups to be given £1B fund
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/07/nesta-plan-technology-startups

BlackBerry Storm firmware update
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10114383-1.html

WalMart: Wiis and iPhones
https://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE4B608520081207
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a4YIU21gLaSY

Google to sell truly open Android dev phone
http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/08/12/08/1324256.shtml

ViaSat satellite approved for broadband in 2011
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20081206/tc_pcworld/usbroadbandinternetsatellitescheduledforlaunchin2011

Spore most pirated game of 2008
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/12/06/spore-tops-list-2008039s-most-pirated-pc-games

EMI joins Tap Tap Revenge
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2336325,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121

Computer scientists find audio CAPTCHAs easy to crack
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081208-computer-scientists-find-audio-captchas-easy-to-crack.html

TiVo launches Netflix streaming for its Series3 DVRs
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10114609-1.html

Voice mail

Anon from NH - Facebook and eyeballs

Lee in Boston - Podcast guilt

E-mail

Tom, Molly, Jason and whatever other wayward employee you happen to snag
out of the office today,

I guess you have dramatically underestimated your audience with respect
to the difficulty level in the bingo card. Perhaps you should look at a
task you might have previously considered impossible. I think you
should require a picture of Steve Jobs in the wild using a Gphone.
Just a thought.

Love the show,
Vic the Texas Rancher Pilot

**********

Hi Guys,

This is Chris the Frapper Map guy.

Is it just me of you've missed to talk about the opening of Amazon MP3 Store in the UK ?
If I missed it please let me know which episode so I can go back and re-listen. If not, please do mention on your next talk, it's quite important for us here to know this. It's even got cheaper price compare to iTunes !
Here is my blog post talking about it : http://www.toogeektobetrue.com/2008/12/04/amazon-mp3-store-uk-launches-with-songs-cheaper-than-itunes-take-that-apple/

Cheers ! Love the Show !
Chris Prakoso

**********

I figured by Monday you'll be talking about the Consumer survey that claims that Google uses 21 times more bandwidth then it pays for, and I wanted to chime in.

First of all, the numbers are right. The costs are drastically different between what I pay and what Google pays for bandwidth, but Its comparing apples to oranges, consumers to business... of course the numbers are going to be dramatically different.

The company doesn't even get "Costco level" economics. You buy a jar of peanut butter at the grocery store you pay one price, but if you buy a two gallon jar at Costco, you get a much better cost per weight and comparatively Google buys jars as big as your house.

Their conclusion shows just how little this company understands their own numbers. Using the peanut butter example, they look at Google's massive jar and then their own and are shocked by the fact Google's rates are a lot better then theirs. Rather then put their blame on the ISP's for their apparent shafting, they point the finger at Google cause they buy in bulk and say they're not paying their fair share.

The fact is everyone is paying their fair share, its just that anyone who wants Google's rates will have to pay mortgage on their peanut jar. Ok... so the analogy is getting a little wonky here, but you get the point.

These 'facts' are being used in a net neutrality argument regarding infrastructure costs... but the problem is what it always has been... ISP's are bottle necked at the 'last mile' and Google's express lane to the still free flowing internet backbone has absolutely no effect on the problem the ISP's got themselves into by overselling and saturating their connections at the local level and now want someone else to foot the bill.

Ben @ Nova Scotia

**********

Hello Tom, Molly, Jason, & other,
This is Jerry, the US Navy Seabee serving in Italy. Please inform
CMDR Mark that if e-mailing him the show doesn't work out, I would be
willing to burn him a CD each week of that week's shows and mail it to
him. If he is being deployed to Europe or the Middle East I could
mail it for free and it should get to him fairly quickly. Just give
him my email allias, and we will give it a try.

As a "Dirt Sailor," I would be more than happy to help a shipmate
out. I know this method doesn't sound like the best but when I was
deployed to Iraq my wife would shoot video of her and our baby boy
each month and mail a DVD to me. The significance of those DVDs &
what the did to keep me going can not be overstated. Perhaps Buzz Out
Loud will not hold such a high significance for CMDR Mark but it would
be one more thing to look forward to and help to time fly by.

Keep up the great work,
Jerry