Hi, I'm Molly Wood, and welcome to the Buzz Report. This week, the Gadget of the
Week is pretty obvious?check me out! I?m here via hologram! Yeah, we rented the
CNN hologram-creation machine that they used in this week?s election results
coverage. So, I?m just relaxing at home right now, hologramming it in! It?s pretty
amazing technology. There are 35 high-def cameras shooting all these angles, with
20 computers crunching visual and infrared data to make it?
OK, we?ve got to shut this thing down.
What? I thought?
Yeah, time?s up, times up. Hurry up.
Hey, nooo?
You got to come in and get your butt to work.
Wow, yeah. Turns out the hologram machine is really expensive. We could only
afford it for like, a minute. Anyway. It?s pretty cool. Now for the news.
In the big news of the week, the huge search advertising deal between Google and
Yahoo is off. Google called it off after it became obvious that being under the
Department of Justice?s antitrust microscope for the next few years probably wasn?t
worth it. For its part, Yahoo said it was ?disappointed? that the 800 million dollar-a-
year deal was now dead. And then Yahoo collapsed into hysterical sobbing,
shrieking, ?WHAT HAVE WE DONE!? WE ARE FINISHED!!!!!?
Meanwhile, Microsoft stood in the corner, going like this.
Apple has acknowledged that some users have problems with the all-glass trackpad
on its new MacBooks and MacBook Pros. The problem is that the trackpad, which is
also a giant mouse button, doesn?t always click. You know what usually does click?
ACTUAL mouse buttons.
In other MacBook news, it seems that the new machines are running a version of
iTunes that will not recognize a jailbroken iPhone. And it was reported this week
that Apple has delayed delivery of the new entry-level MacBook Air, so the only one
you can get shipped before Thanksgiving is the one that costs 25-hundred dollars.
After carefully studying these issues, I went ahead and voted NO on the new
MacBooks.
Speaking of voting, I was absolutely fascinated to hear that two U.S. astronauts voted
this week from the International Space Station. Yeah! A bill passed in Texas in 1997
lets astronauts cast absentee ballots. First, the County Clerk?s office in Houston
relays secure electronic ballots to Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center. And
then Mission Control sends the ballots to the space station, the astronauts fill them
out, and they?re beamed back to Mission Control and then over to the County Clerk?s
office. OK, and how much do you want to be the person at the County Clerk?s office
who gets to handle the space ballots, right?
But this raises a lot of questions for me, actually. Such as?do they also have to, like,
pay their taxes while they?re in space? And?how much does all that ballot beaming
COST? Because couldn?t they just?mail in an absentee ballot before they leave? Oh,
who cares. It?s awesome. Space voting.
And finally, before I go, it has come to my attention that my father and several
others thought it was not very nice to say mean things last week about Dolly Parton,
who although she has had way too much plastic surgery, is a national legend and a
country and bluegrass music pioneer. So, Dolly, I apologize. OK? You happy now,
dad? Sheesh.
AND that's the Buzz Report for this week, everybody! I'm Molly Wood and thanks
for watching.
