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>> Thursday, March 26, 2009.
>> I'm Natalie Delcontie. [phonetic]
>> I'm Tom Merrit. [phonetic]
>> I'm Brian Tong.
>> And I'm Jason Howell. [phonetic]
>> Natalie Delcontie: Welcome to Buzz Out Loud, CNET's podcast of indeterminate length. This is episode 939.
>> And Twitter has finally decided to announce how they're gonna make money.
>> Natalie Delcontie: So we are gonna talk about Twitter again.
>> It's about time.
>> Natalie Delcontie: We'll do it quickly.
>> Yeah, but this about business plans. This is real news. This isn't, oh, how many followers do I have. This is like, they're gonna make some revenue. And, and they
>> Natalie Delcontie: We think. We don't know.
>> Bizz, yo, Bizz stone has put it down, told the Wall Street Journal that he's hired a product manager to help develop new paid accounts, but doesn't specify what the extra features will be.
>> Natalie Delcontie: So it'll be a freemium, [phonetic] a freemium model.
>> That's what they call it.
>> Natalie Delcontie: So basic Twitter functions will still be free, but there'll be things that you can pay for. Kind of like Flicker, but most of it seems like it's conceptual at this point. And it also seems like its metrics. And you can all ready, all ready do Twitter metrics. So it better be something pretty compelling to get me to fork out any cash for Twitter.
>> It'd have to be for businesses, right?
>> Yeah.
>> Like to get some kind of analytics, or, or, kind of inside baseball processing of all of the tags, and maybe instant notifications when people mention you, and stuff like that.
>> All the, all the people they kind of proposed as potential customers, they were just naming business names. You know, as people that would be interested in these potential
>> Right.
>> Premium services that we don't know what they are yet.
>> Trends. Things like Google Trends.
>> Yeah.
>> Business Insider asked their, their readers what they, they would be willing to pay extra for, and they got these six things. Slightly longer messages, like 160 characters instead of 140. Unlimited or prioritized access to the API. Because I don't know if you've run into this, but if you're using Twirl or a phone app, sometimes if you log in too many times you get cut off, because there's a limit to how many times a third party can access the Twitter API. Auto deleting deadbeat followers, who haven't logged in within a month. I don't know why that bothers people. It doesn't bother me at all.
>> It just reduces your number of followers.
>> Yeah. I'm, and you know, it's like, I guess if you're really wanting a more accurate number.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Who cares?
>> More reliable service. Yeah.
>> Yeah. That's.
>> Natalie Delcontie: No I still wouldn't pay for that through.
>> Maybe they give you like server priority, gave you priority so that when the service goes down of those freebies you're still locked in.
>> There's like a priority lane, fail wail free lane. Link, click, analytics. Free already if you use Bitley, [phonetic] though it has some limitations. So, but, but when you put in your links, find out how many people clicked on them and who clicked on them, stuff like that, and guaranteeing that their old tweets are available forever and easier to sift through. That's becoming a thing. I, we gotta, we've gotta couple of questions in the Real Deal and CNET Live, people like, how can I save all of my Twitter posts?
>> Yeah.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Yeah that's a interesting thing
>> Put them into folders and stuff.
>> Natalie Delcontie: because Jason and I when we were at South by Southwest we're joking about how we were using Twitter as reminders. Twitter something and then we go back to find it, because we've found some bands that we like, or some web applications we wanted to try. So you can't really search through your own Twitters quite as efficiently, and I would like a nice search engine.
>> Yeah. And it, it actually took me a long time to figure out that all of those old posts that I thought I was throwing up there that I'd have instant access to somewhere down the line later to be able to point back to, it's really hard to find [inaudible].
>> Next to impossible.
>> No?
>> No. Because I think at a cert, yeah, I don't, at a certain point I don't think it's contained within search. I don't know, because I've done searches for old tweets and not been able to find them, even though I knew exactly, like, some of the words that were in there.
>> Well it used to be you could just go into your archive of your updates. But now they've got this more thing at the bottom, so you don't actually get a real URL. It's just; it's just a Java Script thing. So I'm not even sure how to, how to hard link into the old archives any more without just making a huge long page.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Gadzooks [phonetic] in the chat room asked, Can I pay for more followers? Which I think is funny. You can pay for people to [inaudible].
>> You can pay me to be your follower.
>> Maybe yeah, Twitter would set up a thing where, you know, Circuit City, well not them, but, yeah, some sort of business that hasn't gone bankrupt could, could, you know, buy followers.
>> Yeah.
>> Subscription followers.
>> Natalie Delcontie: That's funny. But that, you, you can't force anyone to follow you. That would get me off Twitter if I had to follow someone.
>> No, but if you're paying me.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Paying me to follow you.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
>> Yeah. I would.
>> Yeah. I, I give you, you know, $10 a year to stay following me.
>> That's a legitimate business model.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Hum.
>> That's, some, some how like protection money.
>> Natalie Delcontie: I don't think that's gonna happen.
>> Another thing that's not gonna happen is AT&T is not gonna cut off your internet service, because of an RIAA take down notice.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Well we talked about this yesterday, because we had confirmation that AT&T was in fact working with the RIAA to help stop piracy. And then later in the day CNETNews.com had another story up that said that Cox and Comcast we're both in on it as well. AT&T said, we're not kicking anyone off the Internet, we issue take down notices. We don't kick anyone off the Internet without a federal court order.
>> They have been passing along notices from the RIAA in the past. This is common practice. I don't think we made that clear yesterday. What's new is that they're writing their own cover letter on top of it saying that you could face termination, having some more threatening language in there. And it's coming directly from your ISP. But they have said categorically that they will not cut anyone's Internet service off without a court order. Which is, I, I, I, just, so it just makes me wonder why they're bothering with all of this charade anyway. Are they just humoring the RIAA?
>> Natalie Delcontie: Due dill. [phonetic]
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Natalie Delcontie: [inaudible]
>> They don't want to, they don't want to be liable for anything. so they're like, yeah, okay we'll pass along the note. We'll make it clear that you could get your service cut off in case it does go to court and the court orders it to get cut off, you can't claim nobody ever told ya.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Right. Here's something else we haven't told you before, which is that a BBC article talks about the touch capabilities of Windows 7. And way at the bottom of the article it says that a release candidate is due at the end of May. We didn't know that. It also says Windows 7 is expected to release at these start of 2010. So if we were holding out for it to come out anytime this year, officially, it doesn't look like that's gonna happen.
>> They don't source it, so I don't know where they're getting this. Most of the stuff I'd seen up till now said that the release candidate would be coming in April. But this, this is a longer story about, not only the touch aspect of it, but also the logoing. So you'll have Windows 7 capable logs. You know, you know, you buy new computers now and they have the Intel Logo and the Invivia [phonetic] Logo, and the Windows Logo. So they're talking a little bit about they'll be a Windows 7 Touch Logo now for the touch capable Windows 7 computers. And then, yeah, they just sort of that throw away line about May at the end. So I don't know where they got that.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Well, we'll keep our eye out for it.
>> Well also keep your eye out for the conflicker worm,
>> Look out.
>> Because if you haven't read about this already, April 1st it is set to do something, and nobody knows what. The panic!
>> Natalie Delcontie: The big fat April Fools joke. Maybe this article is an early April Fools joke.
>> The C release of the conflicker worm came out this past month, which just updated all the existing conflicker worms with new code. And hidden in the code was something that implied that April 1st it would be doing something. Now we don't know what. We don't know if it'll take over the world, set up a dark Google syndicate, target millions of new machines, or just be available for rental to bad people.
>> Natalie Delcontie: So don't panic. We're not trying to be fear mongers or anything, but maybe
>> I am. Panic!
>> Natalie Delcontie: Well what are you gonna do if you panic?
>> Well you know what you ought to do is
>> Natalie Delcontie: There's nothing to do.
>> You make sure you don't have conflicker on your machine. Make sure you're patched.
>> Get rid of it. There are ways to get rid of it, right?
>> Yeah. Download anti virus; get rid of it. But, but, really, seriously, I mean, this just causing hysteria. This is one of those stories that the mainstream media often latches onto, because it makes a good story. Right?
>> It does.
>> April 1st could be doomsday. Tune in at 11 for details.
>> I was watching the news last night and they made it, like you may, they were talking to people on the street and they're like, I had no idea. I mean just, just fear mongering.
>> I had no idea until you came up and asked, pushed this mic in my face and asked me about it.
>> Did you know about the conflicker virus that could take your computer down on April 1st?
>> I do now.
>> Are you scared?
>> Natalie Delcontie: I'm very afraid.
>> Are you frightened?
>> Thank you for frightening me.
>> You should be.
>> I think 60 Minutes, actually, is going to have a piece on that this weekend as well. So.
>> Good. Hopefully monger some more fear.
>> [inaudible] that way.
>> Yeah. Exactly.
>> Natalie Delcontie: And hopefully the NCAA does not go over my 60 Minutes this weekend. I hate that. That's one thing I do not like about living on the
>> Ah, if you're a basketball fan that's all right.
>> March Madness, baby, it's paying your salary.
>> Natalie Delcontie: I do not think that's all right.
>> It is. March Madness is
>> Natalie Delcontie: 60 Minutes also pays my salary.
>> Yeah. But they, I'll be the CPM's aren't as much.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Yeah. I would love to see Andy Rooney explain the conflicker. I had a whole debate with him over war the other day about this book I was reading in the elevator. And I was like, wasn't this your point. So any way, I don't know why I'm tangent right now. But let's
>> Ask him about the conflicker worm next time you see
>> Natalie Delcontie: I will ask him about conflicker.
>> Hey Rooney, what's up?
>> Natalie Delcontie: He is a Windows, in his; in his office they use Windows.
>> Have you ever wondered if you have the conflicker worm Andy?
>> It's in his hair.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Oh, stop it.
>> What ever that is [inaudible]
>> Natalie Delcontie: Stop it.
>> What do you mean stop it?
>> That's mean.
>> What's mean? I'm always locked down.
>> You're one to talk about hair blondie?
>> Natalie Delcontie: Yeah right.
>> It's got a birds nest up on here.
>> At least I still have some.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Something else that's kind of mean, I'm transitioning you guys. Pipe down over there. Something else that's kind of mean is returning your apps to the app store if you're an iPhone user. Tech crunch is posting a clause in the developers contract that says that if your app is returned by a customer, you can not, you would not only be responsible for returning the money that you made on the app, but also returning the money that Apple made on that app. So they share revenue 30 to 70. So Apple makes 30% of everything that you sell on the app store. And this article is saying that you would have to pay back your 70% to the customer, and then also pay back part of Apples 30%, which you never saw.
>> I, I thought at first this must be a poorly written user agreement. But then the last line in the, the section that's quoted here on the CNET story, Apple will have the right to retain its commission on the sale of that licensed application, not withstanding the refund of the price to the end user.
>> Yeah.
>> So they, they specifically say, oh no, we're gonna take our cut, and we have the right to not give it back.
>> So here's the thing that I'm thinking about. This, this policy, or this language has probably been in here since day one. It's not like it's a brand new license agreement. This, it seems like one of these developers just recently brought it to light, because they actually decided to read it in depth. And the thing is that I don't know if you're purchased an iPhone app, but if I could return every .99 cent app that I thought was useless, most people don't return their apps.
>> I, and, that was the first thing I thought when I read this, is like, I can return apps?
>> Yeah. Exactly.
>> Like 90 days?
>> Yeah. There's, there's
>> 90 day?
>> There's no button to return a function.
>> Like 90 days to return an app?
>> Yeah.
>> I'm totally doing that. I'm gonna turn in all my apps that I bought in the last 90 days.
>> Even, even when they had that whole, I am rich app, remember that I am rich app.
>> Yeah.
>> It was like thousands of dollars. That because it, you know, they said, okay it wasn't a, it was a deceiving app, they did refund the people. But I wonder, no one ever talked about them giving all the money back to Apple.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Did they?
>> The developers. Oh, Apple refunded them, but there was never word about
>> Did the Apple keep it's cut.
>> Yeah. Exactly. No one talked about that.
>> Yeah.
>> Because you never knew you could return apps in the first place.
>> Natalie Delcontie: How do you even do that in, in, in [inaudible]?
>> You can't. You, I think you have to complain to iTunes.
>> I imagine you'd have to call support and say, hey, you know what? This app doesn't work for me. Or, you know, I tried it and I don't like it, I want to delete it. Can you deauthorize it? That is the advantage of DRM is they can just deauthorize it and prevent you from using it, and then give you your money back. You can return it in essence.
>> Yeah. I'm gonna start returning my .99 cent apps.
>> I think it's horrible that they don't give the money back to the develop
>> That, that makes no sense at all.
>> They make the developer cover the cut?
>> I would, yeah, I would guess though if that actually happened, maybe it's in the language. But if that actually happened to a developer we would have heard about this earlier.
>> Yeah, it, it
>> Natalie Delcontie: Yeah. I would, I would suspect that's the same. But also just calling Apple seems like it's not worth my time for .99 cents.
>> Well that's why they're, yeah, that's, that's why they have such a liberal policy. Because there's a speed bump there to keep you from going and doing it for every .99 cent app you buy. And they probably give you a long run around, like, well are you sure you're not gonna use it anymore?
>> It's only a buck.
>> Okay, I'll do it limited for this one time only, but I'm not gonna do it again.
>> Natalie Delcontie: And then you go back and buy it just to drive them crazy.
>> Yeah.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Do it again.
>> It shows here in the records that you have purchased it
>> Natalie Delcontie: We're like we're not doing this for you again.
>> About 6 times now Miss. Delconte. [phonetic]
>> Natalie Delcontie: Your deal on iFart where you're falling.
>> Yeah, you could do that to companies you don't like. You just keep buying their apps and returning them, so that they keep getting charged by Apple.
>> If you're a disgruntled former employee.
>> So they are loosing money.
>> Yeah. Let's move on to the president. Obama is doing an Internet event that's sort of interesting. It's called the Internet Era Town Hall at the White House taking email questions. Is it email questions? Is that right?
>> Yeah. I believe they said he had accumulated
>> What does this electronic mail?
>> Natalie Delcontie: Well its sort of a dig clone is what it's being called online right now. Is that people are submitting questions, and then you can vote on those questions, and he will respond to the most popular questions. You can submit questions and then vote on other questions.
>> And of course at this point it's already over. After a brief opening statement Obama held a microphone, walked the floor in the ornate East Room, reading here from the AP, gesturing as he answered, boy they're so flowery with their language, as he answered questions in an event reminiscent of town hall. But was he alone? He was just walking around talking to himself? Or were there people in the room with him?
>> Natalie Delcontie: I didn't watch it.
>> Yeah.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Seems like it was
>> We were preparing for the show.
>> Wouldn't he just be at a desk just hanging out looking at the camera?
>> No it says he's, says he was walking around. He had a microphone and was walking around like it was a town hall. But, you know, I, I think it's interesting that, sort of, reaching out, government reaching out and making more use of the Internet to, to get questions. But aren't these things always so filtered and so staged that
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> That no politician is gonna ask, answer a question that they didn't want to answer.
>> Yeah, that's true. But at the same time, I mean, just giving people that visual idea of being at least a little more accessible to the public. That's what, that's what I like the most.
>> Natalie Delcontie: It does seem a little bit gimmicky. Like when CNN did the YouTube debates two years ago, and where they said, this is, we're taking questions from YouTube. I'm like, big deal; you still are filtering out the questions.
>> Yeah. You know.
>> I still like the format.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Just cause I can see someone in their stained T-shirt sitting on their couch does not make me feel like it's more authentic.
>> Well there's always, no matter, in every show their questions are gonna be filtered coming through.
>> Have to check and make sure my shirt isn't stained.
>> So,
>> You're that guy?
>> Natalie Delcontie: I'm not making fun of Middle America. I'm just saying that it felt like there was some kind of staging for authenticity. Like a dude with guns in the back of his, of his house, and, you know, someone else wearing some kind of funky hat, or whatever. But it's still them choosing the questions that they want.
>> It always, its media. It always is.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Right.
>> Yeah it's always
>> Natalie Delcontie: What do you mean media is not authentic?
>> Hell no.
>> Depends on what you watch.
>> Google is bringing in a new nifty little thing into their docks called, Insert Drawing.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Yeah, it's not a very fancy name. But this came out of the purchase of Tonic [phonetic] Systems, which they bought in 2007. And basically it lets you insert drawings, and also edit the drawings, make the drawings in spreadsheets, presentation, and documents. So now when we do our Buzz Out Loud line up I can draw you little smiley faces next to the stories and emails that I like.
>> Ooo, I like to do drawings.
>> What do you want me to do draw you a map? Okay!
>> Natalie Delcontie: I will do that.
>> There you go. Put a line here
>> Natalie Delcontie: Flow charts and all of that kind of stuff.
>> Draw me a picture. Google Voice Search also coming to BlackBerry owners. Delivering on its promise, Google has released a new mobile application for voice search that expands on the iPhone and android based T-Mobile G1.
>> Natalie Delcontie: You can get it a M.google.com from your BlackBerry browser. And this is the same thing that launched on the iPhone about, what was it about 3 months ago? 4 months ago?
>> Yep. Yep.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Where you just speak in the search term and then you get it delivered. Although I've never really had it be all accurate before.
>> I, I used it when it first came out for the iPhone and then stopped using it.
>> Yeah.
>> Natalie Delcontie: I, I remember that it exists. Normally I just; it doesn't work. I, I had a meeting at The Early Show a couple of weeks ago and four of us had iPhone and all of us tried it. We just tried to search The Early Show, and only the guy with the Australian accent had it work. No one else. It didn't work for anyone else. So.
>> That's odd.
>> That is very odd.
>> Natalie Delcontie: It, it' is odd.
>> Flash is also coming to the G1. Thanks to the folks at BSQUARE who announced they're porting Adobe Flash to Google Android. Apparently according to a gadget on behalf of a global tier 1 carrier. So we don't know if that'll be tied to that particular carrier and what that particular carrier is.
>> Is.
>> But essentially you'll be getting Flash and Android. So thanks BSQUARE.
>> Natalie Delcontie: That's nice. Mobile Video. Not on the iPhone, but
>> See how long that batter lasts.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Yeah, good point. Good point.
>> Spoken like a true Apple fan boy.
>> No! No! I'm the phone boy, not a fan boy.
>> Phone not fan. The game developers conference is going on quietly in the Bay area right now.
>> Natalie Delcontie: It does seem kind of quite.
>> Yeah. I mean. You, you, Brian, you pointed out a good point in our, our, our prep for this, which is the GDC is never really a big announcement platform. Although I think a lot more attention has been focused on it as E3, like, made itself smaller.
>> Small, yeah.
>> Over the past couple of years. But E3's getting big again.
>> It's coming back again.
>> So maybe that's why we're not seeing much. Nintendo had a, a keynote opening the GDC, really didn't have that much to say. I mean, you're gonna be able to put games on SD cards to store them when you download game, when you download Wii ware. They talked about some new Wii ware titles, like a virtual rock climbing title.
>> Natalie Delcontie: They also previewed a new, a new Zelda for the DSI.
>> New Zelda for the DSI.
>> Yeah.
>> So, you know, I mean, this, not earth shattering.
>> Yeah, this announcement I mean just having to be a, the capability to store games on any storage method for the Wii, people were hoping to hear something like this at E3 last year. So, you know, and the fact that it's on these little SD cards, yippee! They're not major games. They're just kind of these more arcade, you know,
>> We'll it's nice, because you don't have a lot of storage on the
>> You don't.
>> On the Wii. So it's nice to be able to, you know, for people who download a lot of them to, you know, pull them off and keep them
>> Yeah.
>> Without having to delete them.
>> I think it would just be nice if everyone at least, my feeling, sentiment at E3 last time was, they were hoping for more than just, oh, you can save your games on an SD card.
>> Yeah.
>> And 6 months later it's, Oh, you can just save games on your SD card.
>> Hey guess what? That's all you get.
>> That's all. That's all.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Now Brian didn't you go last year? I thought I watched videos
>> Yes. You did.
>> Natalie Delcontie: From you last year.
>> You do recall right, yes.
>> Natalie Delcontie: And the, but the big news last year, it was big last year. It was about
>> Well there's.
>> Movie, movie rental on XBox, right?
>> Well, at the E3. E3's where all the, you know, announcements come out of. But are you referring to Nintendo's announcements last year? Because those were a let down.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Or no, just any, any announcements. I thought that there were bigger announcements last year?
>> Oh yeah, I mean, Sony and XBox had bigger announcements. Nintendo's announcements out of all of them were kind of the weakest last year at E3. So. I'll be heading out in June of this year. And so, I'm pretty excited, because they're ramping it up. I think they're really saving some things coming out, you know, for this, this years E3. Instead of just dropping them at GDC.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Right. And also at, at the Game Developers Conference this year, EA said that they're gonna be releasing more titles for iPhone and iPod Touch, such as Madden.
>> Yeah, some of their big titles will be ported over in versions. Not, not, obviously the full version, but
>> Yeah.
>> Sort of an iPhonished version. Throw the ball. Flick.
>> And Shake.
>> Also Arts Technique has an article on the new MP3 Format. MP3 HD. Jason you, you're an audio guy.
>> Yeah well I mean
>> Is this a bunch of crap? Is any; is it a bunch of crap?
>> Well the, let me set up the idea here. Which is, MP3 HD is a backwards compatible lossless format. So if you like lossless audio you want to get the full file, you get MP3 HD, it'll still play on a player that plays MP3's. And it, which a lossless format might not. But if you have a player that supports the MP3 HD format it'll play a lossless version,
>> Right.
>> Rather than the regular MP3 version.
>> Which is very convenient. Because if you've, you know, if you have multiple types of, of quality, that's multiple files currently in the MP3 world and the FLAC world and all that. There's not one file format that kind of, you know, consumes them all. But what you also get with that is the larger file size. I mean, if you've got one file that contains both, you know, the high quality MP3 version as well as the high quality lossless version, I mean that's, that's even more than just your regular lossless formats now.
>> May
>> Natalie Delcontie: How big, how big are we talking? How big are these files?
>> They're, they don't really specify in this article exactly how large those files are going to be. But, I mean, you compare it against current lossless format like FLAC and whatever, and those are all already, kind of, pushing the boundaries of how small of a file size you can get while still actually calling it lossless. So, I mean, tack onto that another 320K MP3 file included within that file size and it just means more, more size. And it doesn't really do a whole lot now. Like, we don't have players that have, you know, 300 gigs or 500 gigs of space on them. And that's kind of what you need. You need higher capacity in order for these lossless files to take hold. But, I mean, it's gonna happen eventually. I have to imagine that, these, the, the file sizes are gonna start, you know, increasing, and the costs are gonna come down. And I'm all for it, because I want better quality.
>> And we have seen that. Even in iTune and Amazon [inaudible], the bit rates of the files as time has gone has increased. The file size has become a little larger, and you've been getting larger, better audio quality. So what you're talking about is the storage thing that, that's where it's at.
>> Am I just being a negative Nelly, or is this
>> Yes.
>> Seem to be a fault format that if you have an older player will allow you to have many fewer songs on your player, because it's huge.
>> Right.
>> Or if you have a newer player, won't play lossless, because no damn music player out there supports MP3 HD right now?
>> Right.
>> Yeah. It's almost like it's too early for this particular file format.
>> I mean that's unfair, because eventually if it caught on
>> Exactly.
>> Players would support it. But I just don't get what the big advantage, why don't you just go to FLAC or AUG [phonetic] or something like that?
>> I mean I guess, you know, part, part of this is probably that Thompson, [phonetic] one of the companies that brought you the MP3 format is backing this as well. So maybe it's the type of thing where, hey, they brought you the old one, here's the new and improved version. And maybe that will be more of an incentive for people to catch onto the standard, eventually. But right now it doesn't really do you a whole lot of good. The backwards compatibility does. But like you said, it's still a huge file. So you load that onto your iPod, your 8 gig, you know, your 8 gig Nano or something like that. I mean, it's gonna hog up a bunch of space for no benefit.
>> And we had that story a while back about how users prefer the tinny sound MP3 anyway now,
>> Seriously?
>> Because they're used to it.
>> Natalie Delcontie: That's right.
>> Well let's, let's lighten up from that discussion and talk about some hardcore physics.
>> Whoa.
>> Cool.
>> A graphine chip being developed by MIT could hit 1 terahertz. 1,000 gigahertz. You thought you're cool, I said it was pretty cool didn't you?
>> Natalie Delcontie: Yeah. Pretty crazy.
>> I totally did.
>> Morris. [phonetic]
>> Natalie Delcontie: Now this is not for sale anywhere. It's just being developed by MIT. And, yes, Tom speaks correctly. It could have anywhere between 500 to 1,000 gigahertz range. What would you do with all of that?
>> I'd just enjoy the picture. It looks like a piece of tinfoil and two pieces of paper on the lake.
>> Well yeah, graphine is that, that thin one atomic, well it's one atom thick layer of, what is it? Buckyballs or, or something like that?
>> Buckyballs?
>> Yeah.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Carbon nanotubes graphine
>> And, and, and, so it's, it's a really fruitful area of research. It's a form of pure carbon. That's what it is. Graphine. You can actually get graphine by taking a bit of tape onto a pencil that's actually made of graphite and just rip it off. You'll get a one atom layer of graphine on there. Not really useful, because you can't get it off, but without special equipment.
>> Just, just, just a little FYI for everybody.
>> Oh yeah, you just want to do a little home experiment and say look, I've got graphine, it's the future. I'm gonna turn this into a 1 terahertz chip. Watch me.
>> Natalie Delcontie: I don't know where to get that in Manhattan.
>> A graphine, graphite pencil?
>> Natalie Delcontie: Huh? Yeah. No. Any, any
>> They don't have pencils in Manhattan?
>> Natalie Delcontie: No they do, I'm talking about buckyballs. I thought we were talking about buckyballs. I don't know where to go for that.
>> I think Alphabet City you go for that.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Maybe. But this article does say that this technology could be commercialized in a year or two. I'd expect it to be expensive. But, I don't know. That'll be cool.
>> That's a one atom thick honeycomb lattice of carbon. Think of it that way and it sounds tasty.
>> I, I was just gonna say, it sounds like the restaurant
>> It sounds like Cheerios or something.
>> I may [inaudible]
>> We've served it with a one atom thick honeycomb lattice of carbon, gracefully poured over your ice cream.
>> Delectable.
>> With a ponsu [phonetic] sauce.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Speaking of things that are still in conception, scientists in Europe have created a silicone chip designed to function like a human brain. It has 200,000 neuro, ner, neurons. I'm neurotic today.
>> Neurons. [phonetic]
>> Natalie Delcontie: And apparently it has the ability to learn things, even better than normal human beings.
>> That's sad.
>> Yeah, well no.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Yeah.
>> This is actually, no, no, no, it's not sad at all. This is a research project. And what they've done in the past is they use things like IBM's blue brain to simulate how the brain works to study it. This is actually building how the brain works to study it. So the idea isn't to replace our brains. The idea is to figure out how the brain works in parallel processing. And you can do much better parallel processing if you use this method of building the neuro connections. It's, it's not even, what a, it's not even near the 50 million synaptic connections, I'm sorry, not the 50 million; 50 million is what they got. It's not nearly the amount of synaptic connections that we have in our own brain, but it's a small portion of it. And it allows us to do better studies of how the brain works. In fact, it can do like a days worth of experience in a very short period of time, maybe a minute.
>> Natalie Delcontie: That's pretty crazy.
>> Wow.
>> It's good stuff man.
>> No, no, I know, you just gave us the education right there.
>> Natalie Delcontie: It's, it's not the first time this has happened, but
>> I did throw down a little knowledge. I hope that wasn't too much for you.
>> No, I think that was good.
>> Natalie Delcontie: No it's okay, because [inaudible] science chaser.
>> Because all of us were like, all of us were like whoa!
>> That is because I am a nerd. And our next caller will tell us the final word on what is a geek and what is a nerd.
>> Hey Buzz Crew, this is the Unknown Penguin in Hollywood regarding your discussion about nerd versus geek and what each of those two terms needs. The Reduced Shakespeare Company podcast in conjunction with the Word Nerds podcast once said a discussion on this very topic, I think about a year go. And they came to the conclusion is a nerd is someone with a lot of knowledge, usually useless knowledge, in a given field or area. And a geek is someone with a lot of toys from a given field. So for example, I would say I am a Star Trek nerd, because I have a lot of knowledge about Star Trek and I like watching it. But I'm not a geek, because I don't own any paraphernalia, except for some DVD's. However, I would say I am both a Doctor Who nerd and geek, because I not only have the DVD's, but I have a 12" dollick [phonetic] that my friend Sarah knitted for me for Christmas this year. And I've asked her for a Tom Bakers Scarf for my birthday. So I'll try to track down the podcast link and email it to you guys if I can. It's a really interesting discussion. Anyway, love the show. Bye.
>> Yeah, I pretty much, in fact, that fits with what I was thinking. Geeks are hardware and Nerds are software. Information versus physical objects.
>> Yeah. Oh yeah. Did you guys talk about dorks?
>> Natalie Delcontie: I still say they're interchangeable that. Dorks? Yeah, we did talk about dorks.
>> Yeah, that's the new. We're gonna try to [inaudible].
>> Well we didn't define dork.
>> Natalie Delcontie: You, of course.
>> Well, I, thank you.
>> We're going to, we're going to try to
>> I'm cooler than a big geek.
>> We're gonna try to seize the word dork the way geek and nerd has been seized and empowered.
>> Yeah. Yeah. So.
>> We're gonna try, we're gonna try and force it be over used over the course of the next 6 months. So then we'll have to find a new word.
>> Pretty much.
>> So start thinking.
>> Pretty much that's the idea. But no, I really like this definition.
>> Yeah.
>> That makes sense.
>> He did email us the link, although I, I didn't have it to, in time to put in the show notes, but maybe I'll try to dig it up. Let's move on to our next caller who is going to talk about Twitter. Hey, it's not our fault. He called, not us.
>> Hey Buzz Crew, Mark from Florida. Calling about the, the, the Twitter news. Kind of follow up to what Shack had done when he was in the restaurant, I think several weeks ago, when he was on Twitter. Last night I was, he's one of the people that I follow, and he actually left tickets, left one ticket at will call under the name of Twitter. The first person who got there, and you know, claimed the tickets under the name of Twitter would have, would have been able to go to a game for free. That is pretty darn cool. Love the show.
>> Natalie Delcontie: It's brilliant!
>> It is. It is.
>> Natalie Delcontie: I really like it a lot. It's cute.
>> When he was, yeah. Go ahead. Sorry Nat.
>> Natalie Delcontie: And I was talking about the possibility that I have so many gadgets in my office that I don't have to give back from TV segments that I've done, that I should start giving away stuff on Twitter too. That would be great.
>> Give it away.
>> Yeah, I've been doing give aways on top five, it's been fun.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Yeah.
>> I was doing give aways, yeah, on Cramen [phonetic] until I had to mail them all out. And that took a lot of time.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Yeah, where are you getting that stuff from top five like that puzzle?
>> This, this is just stuff that's been sitting around in my office.
>> For like years.
>> Seriously. Like. Yeah.
>> Natalie Delcontie: I'm like, who donated that puzzle [inaudible].
>> I, I've bought a lot of Star Wars toys on Ebay a one point and they've been just sitting, I use them as props occasionally. You'll see them crop up in videos.
>> I've seen them since the first day I came here to the office.
>> Yeah.
>> Tom finally figured out a creative way how to get rid, rid of them.
>> It's basically just my attempt to clean up the office.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Yeah. Is there any like legal issues that we have to, you can just give away whatever you want?
>> We'll talk after the show.
>> Can just do that?
>> Yeah. As long as, as long as the price stays under a certain amount of value it's, it's not a problem.
>> Natalie Delcontie: But I don't have to, but Twitter is my own personal thing, so I could give away whatever I wanted on Twitter, right?
>> I guess. I don't know.
>> If they became your personal affects, I guess.
>> I suppose so.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Okay. Interesting.
>> As long as you. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't want to get into the whole legal aspect of how to run a contest right now. As much as,
>> I think everyone just.
>> We'll spin that off into a separate podcast.
>> Yeah.
>> Let's move.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Well, I guess I'm just wondering if, if it's, I mean Shack had this ticket, he can do whatever he wants with it, right?
>> Oh yeah. I don't' know if Shack
>> There's no, there's no legality
>> Shack
>> Shack. [inaudible]
>> Contest rules. He can do whatever he wants. He's Shack. He's a big man.
>> Shack has tickets printing out of his shoes.
>> Let's a.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Here's someone else who thinks he can do whatever he wants, Steven Colbert. [phonetic] And Shaline [phonetic] called in and has an idea of how to make him worthy of the Space Station that's supposed to be named after him.
>> Hey guys this is Shaline calling. Yeah I got a little suggestion for NASA basically about the whole Colbert node name. You know, I, why not just let him, let him take a little quiz about space and kind of earn it? If he does well, then put the name on. If he doesn't, he can kind of exit gracefully and make it a little funny along the way. So what do you think? All right. Take care. Bye.
>> As long as they televise.
>> Yeah. Exactly.
>> Cause I want, I want to see him go through the space quiz. He is a very smart man.
>> Right. He is.
>> I mean, he just knows stuff. You watch, you watch his interviews and you know there's things he was not prepared for that he just comes up like biblical quotations, because he used to teach Sunday School. So I wonder how much he knows about space. That would be, that would be kind of cool.
>> They should put him though the test riggers of the whole space training, the G-force thing.
>> Oh yeah!
>> Natalie Delcontie: That would be funny.
>> [inaudible] Spies Like Us.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Let's have Cooley [phonetic] administer the test.
>> Let's go edit his Wikipedia article to say that he did. That would be a very Colbert move.
>> It really would.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Let's move onto the email. We have one from Jeremy from Indiana, formerly of Greenville, Illinois, also the home of the famous, or the hometown of the famous Tom Merrit. [phonetic]
>> Oh really, the famous one. Not just me.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Yeah, you. I'm talking about you.
>> Home of the Comets.
>> Natalie Delcontie: I guess your fame, yeah; I don't think it's debatable.
>> It's cool. It's cool dude. You're famous.
>> Natalie Delcontie: I'm gonna call you famous and go with that.
>> I'm so not famous.
>> Natalie Delcontie: The email from Jeremy says
>> What's the guys name that [inaudible]
>> Natalie Delcontie: The email from Jeremy was addressing when we asked yesterday if you could even buy dialup modems. He says, hey Tom I just wanted to let you know that I actually went to Best Buy about a month ago to buy a dialup modem. As I recall there was only one type of modem to choose. I had a friend that needed to replace his dialup modem, because it was fried when lightening struck his house. I talked to him about switching to high speed access, but in the end he just wanted to stay with his existing dialup service. So apparently, he was able to purchase the dialup modem.
>> All right.
>> Natalie Delcontie: There's the answer.
>> Well there you go. So I'm totally wrong. Thanks!
>> Natalie Delcontie: Well at least in Indiana you can purchase a dialup modem.
>> Yeah. I shouldn't be surprised. They, they, they still sell floppies in some computer stores.
>> I just want to know how long
>> Just because people still use them.
>> Yeah, exactly. And there are still ISP's offering dialup.
>> Yeah.
>> So there's gotta be a way to buy those modems.
>> There's gotta be a way to get a modem.
>> I appreciate that Jeremy took the time to send that email over a dialup. That must have taken a long time.
>> Not it's his friend.
>> Natalie Delcontie: He's not on dialup.
>> His friend has the dialup.
>> Natalie Delcontie: His friends on dialup.
>> Okay, I'll stop.
>> He didn't send it from his friend's service.
>> As far as we know. Patrick the Robotics dude writes in and says, Team Rush 27 update, hey guys.
>> Go Team Rush 27! Whoo.
>> Thank you so much for reading my email. It was cool to get some pross [phonetic] for the stuff we do from you guys. Anyways, an update. After two district competitions, Kettering and Lansing, we are now competing at the Michigan State Tournament at Ypsilanti [phonetic] in a little over a week. We have won the Chairman's Award, which is the highest award you can win, at the district level, and now we are going onto compete for it at the state level. So go Team Rush. And he says we don't have to fake enthusiasm for this one, but seriously, Go Team Rush!
>> Yes.
>> Yeah!
>> There is no faking.
>> Natalie Delcontie: That's not faking it. We don't do that.
>> We are behind you all the way.
>> I don't fake enthusiasm.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Me neither.
>> I mean your, your state just lost like a bunch of newspapers. Ann Arbor went down. Apparently somebody else wrote in and said Saginaw went down as well. So you, you need robots to replace newspapers.
>> Yeah.
>> They need Team Rush.
>> Yes. It's true. Ernie from the East Bay wrote in and said it just warms the cockles to discuss accounting. I assume that's the cockles of his heart. I don't know if there are cockles elsewhere in your body. He said time value of money is my real forte, but Apples accounting policies are fun too. I will have the complete email in our show notes at BOL.CNET.com. But the nub of it is right here in the last paragraphs. When Apple is charging you $10 for your iPod Touch software update, he says it's because you have to divvy up all of the revenues you receive over the entire time that you deliver a product. If you add functionality to a product, then you can be considered to still be delivering that product. Apple is being conservative as many companies do not consider firmware upgrades to be still delivering the product. But they're conservative approach isn't completely unreasonable. Apple could choose to defer recognizing revenue from the initial sale, but that would be messier to account for and would decrease the revenue they got to recognize immediately when an iPod Touch is sold. I guess you could say Apple gets to have their cake and eat it too. So that's what's going on, is, most, some companies look at firmware as not a continuation of the delivery of the product. But Apple is, and therefore they need to account for that, because of the generally accepted accounting principles required by Sarbanes-Oxley.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Right. But we had a call, or an email yesterday that said that it doesn't have to be $10. That it's still,
>> It, it could be anything.
>> Natalie Delcontie: It's still rather pricey.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Then, and, and it doesn't even have to be accounted for that way. They could, lots of companies account for it differently and say that's not continuing to, to ship the product.
>> It's just how Apple rolls.
>> They just want to charge you money is really what it comes down to.
>> Exactly. Exactly. Okay, next email. This is from Charles in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I shouldn't say it like that. That's really mean. Here we go.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Just read the email.
>> Palm has had eBooks since its beginning, while the Palm screen is more of an LCD than the iPhone, Palm predates a 2002 pan [phonetic] application. And this is in reference to the conversation you guys had about the iPhone getting sued for being an eBook reader. And Palm was totally out before
>> Prior art.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> I, I want to say, biachis. [phonetic]
>> Couldn't say it.
>> Because, because really seriously.
>> Yeah.
>> The Palm. I read books on my Palm back before 2002. I did, and not on my hand either. I'm talking about my, you know, hands prints visor Palm device.
>> Yeah, that's
>> So there is something with an LCD screen
>> Natalie Delcontie: But part of the patents yesterday had to do with also promoting themselves as an eBook reader. Did Palm ever do that before?
>> Now that's a good question. I know they did promote themselves as an eBook reader at some point, whether it was before or after 2002 I don't know. But yeah, I, I, come on. This has got to be prior R, right?
>> Yeah.
>> Right? I don't know much about patent law.
>> Right.
>> And what I know I've learned from the listeners of Buzz Out Loud. But one of them can tell me.
>> And will. Thank you.
>> Natalie Delcontie: And hopefully someone will tomorrow.
>> That's right.
>> Well if you're, if you're hurting for some podcasts to listen to you should check out a podcast called, Inside CNET Laughs. I just realized yesterday they have a tagline where tangents meet technology.
>> Oooh.
>> It's very apropos there. No?
>> Tangent never meets. It actually is a, you know, passes the
>> Okay, where tangents intersect with technology. That's not what they say.
>> Natalie Delcontie: No, but they
>> Way to kill their tag line man.
>> It doesn't intersect.
>> Tangent, that's the whole point of a tangent.
>> Okay. I didn't make it. It's not mine.
>> It's so grammatically incorrect.
>> Regardless you should listen and then scorn them for the horrible mistake they made with their tagline there. Podcast.CNET.com. You can find that as well as all other CNET podcasts.
>> And of course BOL.CNET.com is our blog where you can complain about what I just said about tangents being wrong, and find out other ways to, to tell us other things that were wrong.
>> All right, see ya'll later. Bye.
>> See ya.
>> Natalie Delcontie: Thanks for listening, see ya tomorrow.
^E00:38:16
