Think you've seen the worst of the global financial collapse? Well, you haven't. Microsoft's dipping its toe into sub-prime software lending, otherwise known as providing free software to startups making less than $1 million. We'd call it the "crack dealer" model, but it doesn't have the same current events gravitas. Also today: we can now officially project that Yahoo is the biggest loser of them all. Sigh.
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Download today's podcast
EPISODE 846
No more GooHoo: Google pulls out of ad deal with Yahoo
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/ending-our-agreement-with-yahoo.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10082800-93.html
Yahoo's React: Disappointed Google Withdrew, But The Deal Was Only 'Incremental' Anyway
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-yahoos-react-the-deal-was-only-incremental/
CNN’s human hologram on election night
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10082802-76.html
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/11/04/cnns-election-night.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thOxW19vsTg
http://gizmodo.com/5076663/how-the-cnn-holographic-interview-system-works
FCC opens up wireless 'white spaces;' Assessing winners, losers and wild-cards
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10688
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/fcc-approves-wi-fi-on-steroids-good-news-for-consumers-bad-news-for-telcos
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7709775.stm
Sprint Clearwire merger approved
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081105-wimax-combo-gets-fcc-blessing-as-does-verizonalltel-union.html
FCC launches probe into possible cable pricing shenanigans
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081105-fcc-launches-probe-into-possible-cable-pricing-shenanigans.html
Microsoft to give free software to startups
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Microsoft-Launches-Effort-to-Spark-Startups/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10082506-56.html
The end of an era - Windows 3.x
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7707016.stm
EA Recommends Hilarious Work-Around For RA3 CD-key
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/05/143240
VOICEMAIL
Mark from Florida: what’s up with that CNN wizardry?
http://www.osnews.com/story/19730/Perceptive_Pixel_s_Magic_Wall_Finds_New_Niche
EMAIL
About 3 years ago I did some research for an ISP on P2P indexing and
re-directing (before it was called P4P) because 80% of the traffic on
the ISP was P2P. In the end I advised the ISP NOT to use the
technology. Here’s why:
1 - You need a big ISP for P4P to work. (ours was under 100K subs)
otherwise there’s not enough people to seed it.I guess thats ok for
most U.S. based ISPs though.
2 - Edge networks are expensive and peer traffic prices were in
freefall. It was easier to manage increasing peering costs rather than
balancing edge network costs and fair bandwidth utilisation.
3 - P2P protocols are a moving target.
The biggest problem though was taking the hands-on approach to an
architechture often used for transferring illegal content. The
unknowns there were HUGE and would have been a big risk for bad
publicity, manpower dealing with police requests etc etc.
I really dont expect many ISPs to have much long-term success with P4P.
Love the show.
Steve.
UMPCPortal.
Oh, P.S. THe Dell Mini 12 doesnt use the Intel netbook architechture -
interestingly enough it uses a processor and chipset designed for
MIDs. Could it get more confusing!
Cheers!
Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine
**********
TMJX,
I answered the call and volunteered at my local polling place. I helped setup the voting machines, and then signed people in to vote for 12 hours! At the end of the night the pole watchers came in for the final tally. Our polling place allowed electronic or paper ballot. Paper ballots were scanned as soon as they were filled out, and at the end of the night the lady in charge printed the detail report for the votes. The “detail report” didn’t contain any details! It mearly printed the total amount of ballots. It did not break down how many votes came in for the candidates. We are required to post those results outside the door of the polling place. The pole watchers went off like molly at Spectacle Fest when she found out that wifii wasn’t free. . . they threatened to call CNN and were making allegations of voter fraud. The lady in charge was crying and saying that she’ll never work the polls again. I calmly called the elections office and asked to speak with IT and in no time was able to print a tally report that had the vote tally on it. Everyone was happy. Go Buzz Brigade! Love the show.
Ron Hudson Jr.
Associate Pastor
Calvary Baptist Church
**********
Now your done encouraging Americans to vote, could you please
put a call out for any New Zealand buzz listeners to vote. The NZ
election is this Saturday, Nov 8th.
Mark - the long distance voter.
London.
**********
I haven’t listened to today’s show, yet, but I suspect you’ll be talking about white space spectrum again.
A couple years back, IEEE Spectrum had an article on “smart radio” and using “white space.” This is *my* understanding of a “white space radio.”
The radio samples the spectrum in its current location at the current time. If someone is using this slice of spectrum, move to another. It’s not using space “between” TV channels, it’s using the TV channels that are not active in the current location (city, town, county, valley, whatever).
White space radios cannot interfere with an *active* wireless mike. The radio will perceive that part of the spectrum occupied and look for another chunk. That said, if the white space radio is already operating and you *then* turn on a wireless mike, you may get some interference until the white space radio samples the spectrum and decides to move somewhere else in frequency.
I use the term “radio” to identify an arbitrary wireless communication link. It could be carrying analog signals or various digital modulation schemes on top of which, the designer might implement TCP/IP or other network protocols.
Like the others, LTS (love the show)
Charlie
Today's BOL ushers in the dawn of ... a new drinking game! Whenever you hear us say "definitely" on today's show -- and it's going to be often -- take a swig. Also, we Monday-morning quarterback the Super Bowl ads and explore the many reasons people don't want to buy an iPad. Oh, and my Droid is definitely crashy (drink!). -- Molly
Just to throw out one more idea for memorable passwords. This method was suggested by our corporate security team. Rather than use a dictionary word and then l33t sp33k it, use a memorable phrase and use the first characters then alter it. It is also good practice to mix cases and at least 1 number and punctuation character.
So the phrase “BOL Cnet’s Podcast of Indeterminate Length” becomes the password b0lCp!l (zero replaces o and ! replaces i). It is easy to remember and reproduce and not subject to a dictionary attack. Using this as a base it could be customized for different accounts.
-Jason in Chicago
——
you know what makes a perfect password??
you’re license plates
I have two cars and combine the plates.
A single plate backwards combined with your regular password would work well too.
We cover Amazon's capitulation to another publisher, and Google's book deal comes under assault from the Department of Justice. Jeff Zucker appears to lie to Congress and Sling implies AT&T lied about their app. And the $9.99 eBook is declared dead by Gizmodo and Rafe declares eInk dead. Just another day on the Internet.
I was listening to episode 1158 and the discussion about secure passwords. The impression I got was that secure and memorable passwords have to be mutually exclusive. Not true, the trick is to use things that you have already memorized. So work with me on this, so let’s say that you like “cherry” as a password, terrible right, well let’s add the last 3 digits of our SSN to the end “cherry659″ ok still not the best but then let’s do some substitution and we sill come up with something great “cH3rr4659″ so now that is a lot more secure, ok, but we don’t want to use the same password at every site, well simple solution for that, give your password a prefix or postfix that is related to the site, again with this you will want to make it non obvious, like “W1tcH3rr4659″ for twitter “t3NccH3rr4659″ for cnet and so on, so then you have broken down your password into parts, some of which you have already memorized which would be hard for someone else to guess or hack. Hope this helps everyone have more secure passwords love the show
We discover that the Internet is just as dangerous as outside, which means you need to wear clean underwear. Natali also invents the IPADBJÃ?RN for all you iPad-wanters who need to use it hands-free. And we declare Donald Bell Emperor Pimp of portable entertainment devices.
Wednesday you talked about how negligent certain enterprises are to
continue using IE6. Well my current employer makes me use IE6 and
will not let me upgrade. It’s so frustrating, espectially since
dozens of websites — including facebook and twitter and youtube –
remind me right at the top that I “may want to upgrade my browser.”
I may want to, but I cannot.
J.R. in Philly
——
Tom,
You posed somewhat of a question in yesterday’s BOL episode about who still
uses Netscape. If Netscape Messenger is considered part of Netscape the
Browser, then look no further than your friendly neighborhood National
Security Enterprise (formerly known as Nuclear Weapons Complex) facility.
Just a few months ago, we were still using Netscape to process classified
emails. We finally switched to Lotus Notes. Now we’re waiting to get
upgraded from IE6 and Office 2003.
You probably received a few emails about this already, BUT, according to the LA Times, Apple didn’t request Stanza to remove the USB syncing due to ebook competition, but apparently due to an API violation:
Basically, there are no public APIs that allow for USB syncing. Stanza was using a private API in violation of the agreement.
And come to think of it, I was actually quite surprised to hear that Stanza had a USB syncing app in the first place — I’ve heard of apps that are forced to use the WiFi syncing route because USB syncing isn’t allowed. Whether or not Apple will change this stance remains to be seen..
Anyway, FYI.
Nicole (Lee, our own)
======
Hi buzz crew, CreateSpace gets them halfway there!
Is it too late to make a prediction for 2010?
If not…
I predict that Amazon will start their own publishing company, Amazon Publishing Co. Ltd. (copyright and registered trademark, David Yamasaki 2010). They will recruit as yet unpublished authors or authors that are not satisfied with the current business model (no longer under contract) and create Kindle only versions which they could heavily publicize on their own site Kindle Publishing Co. Ltd. also copyright and registered trademark, David Yamasaki 2010).
They could charge whatever they want and give writers a larger percentage of the sale price because there’s no middle man.
PS I would also like Amazon to have an orbiting space distribution center so that they could just launch everything I buy from orbit and it could just crash on my lawn. How do you like that, Cooley?
I'm looking at Adobe's own blog about iPad excluding Flash, the user comments are downright venomous against Adobe's product quality, CPU consumption, and closed code. Several posts even express hope that the iPad will move people to HTML5 more quickly, and nail the coffin on Flash altogether. Many of the posts are actually from Flash developers who are welcoming the opportunity to move away from Adobe altogether, and blaming them directly for poor implementation and support of their products on the apple platform as a whole. Maybe this controversy over the lack of Flash be a flash in the pan. (Pun intended...).
On the Internet, the only thing harder to fight than frivolous copyright infringement accusations is comment trolls. Nevertheless, we're all going to give it our best shots. In other news, Woz hacks its Prius, the Internet comes up with wishful-thinking rumors to turn the iPad into the thing we all wanted it to be, and we just cannot get excited about the Nexus One on AT&T. Or the JooJoo tablet. --Molly
Email
Hi JaMoTo (glad that I can use that abbreviation again):
I ran across this story on paidContent.org that suggests that Amazon might be the winner in their battle with Macmillan. Basically, the article suggests that because Amazon was losing money on Kindle books, they’ll now stop losing money on Macmillan books (and on books from any other publisher that adopts the agency model). In the end, the prices will naturally go down, but Amazon will no longer be taking a loss on Kindle books. If this is true, then Amazon just lured all of the publishers into a trap.
Still, I don’t buy every argument made in the article. (The author suggests that if e-book prices go up, piracy won’t increase. I disagree with that statement). I seriously think that $9.99 is the sweet spot for new e-books. At prices higher than that, customers will buy the physical copy instead. Only at under $10 does is it appealing to me, at least, to give up my right to loan or sell the book when I’m done with it.
The article presents an interesting theory, and I can’t wait to see how this all turns out.
I’m a big fan of Stanza, I love the ability to share any document no matter what format onto my iPhone, which is perfect for my job. However it looks like Apple has made the devs take away features from the app. An update hit yesterday and all it does is remove the ability to share books from your pc to the iPhone app via USB. This is pretty darn suspicious as Apple just announcement their own iBook platform for the iPad. On the Stanza forums the devs explained that if they don’t remove the feature they risk being booted from the App Store !
On today's show, Amazon gets called out on price-fixing, even though Macmillan wants to charge too much for e-books. AT&T redefines "unlimited," and Microsoft is redefining the bar code, Apple got the fake Flash out of its iPad ads, and big news! Jason had his baby, and Molly's coming back to Buzz Out Loud full time as of next week. Yeah, you read that right. Not a punk. See you Wednesday! -- Molly
Dude,
You guys totally missed why samsung beat out hp in sales last year.
Kinda low tech but so true!
Appliances! Have you looked at refridgerators latley? Samsung has
great reliability and style. I’m lusting after a jet black fridge by
them with dual compressors, led back lights and a computer controlled
quad climate system plus, a touch screen. All this for the low price
of $1100.00
My 13 year old daughter has beat her samsung phone to hell and back
with no problems. A company that can bear the abuse that a 13 year old
compulsive texter can put out, (4000 a month average!) probably knows
how to make a reliable icemaker too.
Been listining for two years,
Love the show (most of the time)
The other Josh from Denver.
——
Buzz Crew,
Love the show!
There is a problem to polarized contact lenses (ep. 1155) beyond the cold of Maine. Polarized lenses must be oriented in order to be effective as sunglasses (decreasing sun glare off the ground or other horizontal surfaces), and one lens must be oriented 90° different than that for use in 3-D viewing. Yet contact lenses tend to slip around, losing their orientation.
Possible solution: Magnets? But you’d have to have some electromagnetic field on your eyes, generated by something nearby. Temple implants? I’m not sure it’s sellable.
Keep up the good work!
Scotty
Mechanical Engineer
Cupertino, Ca
Brian Tong
Dear BOL … ?
Dear Bollers?
Dear Bowlers?
Dude..
Okay.
Has a replacement for the JaMoTo name ever been agreed upon?
While every woman on Earth universally thinks the name iPad is stupid, Fujitsu still wants to own it. We'll tell you about the Fujitsu iPad which has existed since 2002 and why Apple thinks they can still own the name anyway. We also look at the MSI tablet which may be much better than iPad. But will you buy it? And we hear from a man who is drunk and frozen in Maine.
Hey Buzz Crew,
I just finished listening to your coverage on the Apple iPad and found myself thinking Apple is taking its fan base and popularity for granted by not innovating, even when technology is readily available. My brother is a CMOS image sensor designer, and was the senior engineer on the project that created the first credit card sized digital camera. The sensor had also been employed for rear facing cameras in many newer automobiles an is a proven viable technology. About two years ago he had a meeting with some VP at Apple regarding including a forward facing camera on the iPhone. The idea was to have a low powered, lower resolution video feed to use for streaming video calls at lower bandwidths. My brother didn’t partner with Apple on the project, opting to go with imaging DNA sequences instead, but it confuses me that Apple hasn’t found and implemented this solution yet. Maybe they need to readjust their spending away from bashing Windows constantly and start innovating again.
Love the Show,
Chad the Professional Ballroom Dancer in Portland
**********
Hello Buzzers…
I think the most interesting thing about the iPad and iBooks
announcement is the fact that they will be using the ePub format. If
publishers start making textbooks in ePub format, then the accessibility
issue may be wiped away by the recent announcement at the ATIA
conference. At ATIA the makers of the Victor Reader Stream announced
compatibility with ePub books so if blind users can use iTunes to buy
books and import to the Stream then issue resolved. The Victor Reader is
an iPod like device for reading books and playing other audio formats.
These developments could be a huge move in the right direction, until
publishers figure out a way to screw it up with permissions or such.
Love the show!
Rodney http://techaccessweekly.com
“A podcast of unspecified length concerning news and events
in accessible technology.”
Yes of course we rehash the Apple iPad. We find out how to pronounce it properly in Boston. And we determine that it is the fundamental problem with democracy. But there is other news, including a class-action suit against Microsoft over its points system on Xbox and Zune. And President Obama wants to kill the moon program for now.
VOICE MAIL
Pete from Boston clears up the whole New England iPad pronunciation question.
Jefferson (Jeff) from Sydney has an iPad question
Orad the physics student has an answer
E-MAIL
Tom,
Just wanted to comment on Wednesday’s caller about me. The account wasn’t “stolen” by any definition but in an attempt to protect the person responsible for the account I used, I purposefully kept that information light. And, as you suggested, I did indicate several times in the piece that I was not under an NDA and that I was operating with OnLive’s consent.
Just don’t want you guys to think I was acting inappropriately regarding the issue or anything like that but the other criticisms are indeed fair.
Have a good one!
Ryan
**********
Hi everyone,
I heard there was going to be a protest outside the Apple event yesterday by the Defective by Design people (I read about it here http://www.defectivebydesign.org/) over the locked down nature of the device. Did anyone at the event run into this to your knowledge? What are your thoughts on the implications of Apple bringing this locked down infrastructure of the iPhone/iPod Touch into the typically open world of home computing? It probably wasn’t a huge group though I do agree with them on a number of points.
Love the show,
Josh Miller
Grad student (though not for much longer)
We recorded right after Steve Jobs finished his 90-minute announcement of the Apple iPad, Apple's new tablet computer. It's variably impressive depending on who you are, but will anyone buy it? We discuss. Also, it's over for the Mars rover Spirit. At least the roving part is over, but it's still alive and doing science.
VOICE MAIL
Anonymous takes us to task for not being hard on PC Perspective
E-MAIL
Hey Buzz Crew,
Just listened to episode 1511 where Miles from Texas describes the Pixel Qi (pronounced “chee”) display.
Many people don’t realize that Pixel Qi’s technology is already used in over a million devices: the XO Laptop from Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop per Child. I got an XO in 2007 from the first Give 1 Get 1 program, and while the display isn’t perfect — the colors aren’t as rich as an LCD, and the black-and-white mode isn’t as reflective as e-ink — it’s certainly impressive. I’m sure this proven technology has advanced quite a bit over the years, and am excited to see commercial success branching from the innovative OLPC project.
Love the show!
Adam from Chicago
PS: the XO is also widely regarded as spurring the netbook trend in low-cost, internet-connected laptops.
The FAA has asked Boeing to prove it's new connected airplane isn't so connected it can connect hackers. We also discuss why folks think women aren't as good at math when all the women we know are great at math. And we hash over some Apple tablet rumors. I mean how could we not. We also have special guest host Clayton Morris from Fox News, AND Ryan Shrout from PC Perspective.
Tomorrow tune into the live stream a half hour early at 1PM Eastern/10AM Pacific for the extended pre-show. We’ll be discussing the Apple announcement as it happens. Follow along on the live blog and keep us open in the stream in another tab. We’ll be cutting through the hype, taking comments from the chat room and generally having a grand old pre-show time. Then as soon as the announcement is over, we’ll crank up the latest official episode of Buzz Out Loud. http://www.cnet.com/live/bol
VOICE MAIL
Joe has some problems with the Google profanity filters on Google Voice
E-MAIL
Hi Buzz Crew,
I have been trying to figure out why I need a tablet when I have an iPhone and a MacBook Pro. John Gruber posted an interesting theory about how the tablet will take over for a laptop. That was a nice idea but I still couldn’t see myself giving up my laptop for a tablet. Then I ran across this article from Slate:
I realized the problem was me. The Jesus Tablet is not a product aimed at techies, it’s a computer for people who find using computers frustrating. The more I think about it the more it makes sense to me. The sub $1000 price point, the iPhone OS, the rumor saying it’s a family computer, the tablet form factor – this will be the first true appliance computer.
Amid the news of China picking a fight with the U.S. over Google, and Jammie Thomas-Rasset getting her fine reduced, we've got a goldmine idea for NASA. Gene wrote in to explain that instead of selling off the shuttles, NASA can just leave them parked at the space station. And we took it further with some suggestions of how and where to park them and what to do with them afterward.
RE: Buzz Out Loud #1148 - NASA to dispose of space shuttles
My suggestion to NASA is to dock the remaining space shuttles at the international space station, then let the crews return to Earth via a conventional reentry vehicle (launched from a separate rocket.) So, by creating a parking lot in space, we don't have to worry about tile failures, etc. and the remaining shuttles would complement the future Orion program.
Are there any NASA employees in Buzz town? I hope they're listening.
Also, if NASA is looking for passengers, sign me up. Sorry Cooley.
Lovetheshow! – Gene
**********
Hi Buzz Crew -
I just read in USA Today that the international space station now has Internet Access. Astronaut TJ Creamer is now twittering to us from way up there. Please see the following link:
I am only half kidding when I say that this may be the screen to go in the Apple Tablet. Now, the article is really long to read on the show, so let me sum it up real quick. Mary Lou Jepsen has found a way to integrate a “mirror” into an led screen so that the back light can be turned off and it can be operated in a black and white mode that looks almost like a conventional e-ink screen, consuming 1/5th the power as when the back light is on. But flip the backlight back on, and you have a normal lcd screen! She says she is shipping into tablets(Apple?), net-books, and e-readers, and that the manufacturing costs won’t get higher because you can use pre-existing lcd factories. She also shows off a working screen right in the article!
Just a Thought,
Miles from Texas
P.S.
The article mentions a Qualcomm competitor(Mirasol) that creates pixels by moving tiny metal pieces in a display to change how light is reflected off them, Apple has used Qualcomm
The FCC is coming for the schools and churches just like that crazy guy on the corner told you! June 12th they'll require anybody using a wireless microphone that operators in the 700 MHZ spectrum, to stop using that mic. That's right. the purge is coming! For microphones!. Actually it'll affect Broadway shows too. Will the FCC be able to round up the ne'er-do-wells? Will Google ruin US-China relations? Well that's another story. Literally.
VOICE MAIL
Jeff from Arkansas has a name for the tablet
Anonymous question about selling gold
E-MAIL
I have been waiting to see if a company would be SO unseemly as to use the recent attack on US companies and Google taking a moral stance against China as a way to make financial hay. Well, this seals the deal. I am officially never buying another product from Motorola. If money's more important than the freedom of a billion people, then my money is better spent elsewhere. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=36805
Joey Yokubaitis
Chicago, IL
**********
While driving to work today, I realized I think I know the One More Thing for Apple’s Press Conference. While the Tablet/I-slate is a given, along with the introduction of streaming music and potentially a new iphone/iphone operating system, the real “One More Thing” will be… (cue drumroll) the announcement of the itunes store carrying the beatles complete anthology. {Lights will dim, and the Beatles music will fill the room, and cheers will rain from the rafters!}
Think about it; not only is this a perfect time, it would create such a hype and people would go crazy. The announcement is in physodelic colors kinda like the outfits on the sgt pepper’s lonely hearts club band album. Go ahead and cue your favorite beatles song as the title track.
We had the pleasure of chatting with Jared Cohen, Senior Adviser to Secretary Hillary Clinton today. He gave us some more insight into Secretary Clinton's speech about the freedom on the Internet, specifically relating to China. We also clarify that Verizon is not booting people off the Internet. But apparently Cox is. So take all that stuff we wrote yesterday about Verizon and just put Cox in there.
Gizmodo has this great open letter from the band OK Go, who made an incredible success on You Tube years ago. They are explaining what changed in the music industry and why they can’t allow the fans to embed their videos anymore. I think this is a good topic for BOL. The link is bellow.
The other day you were talking about the Rock Band authoring software that will allow 'anyone' to put their stuff on the Rock Band marketplace. A few months back my younger brother Dan (let's call him Dan the record producer…) and about 30 others were given a master class by Harmonix about authoring Rock Band songs. Dan was there from what I gather because of his knowledge of Pro Tools and doing digital editing etc. There were some computer guys there and some record producers/engineers. (As a side note, they still seem to call themselves record producers and engineers, even though they rarely make 'records' any more and they all use digital stuff, not tape). He said it was fun teaching computer guys about recording, and the computer guys liked teaching the recording guys about using the software and using game authoring tools.
It is not easy, according to Dan. He is a pretty good producer/engineer (he's currently recording the next album by the Cranberries and has produced a number of artists over the years, check out his wikipedia article, written by his brother….) and he said it was really draining. It is also quite precise, as far as what makes a track easy, medium or hard. Could someone with a bit of knowledge do it as you suggested. Probably, but there is a catch. It seems there is a peer review process. So just like when I submit an article to a journal and my peers look at it, any rockband track will have to be approved by an editorial board of sorts.
Anyway, thought you might find that interesting.
Dave (the psychologist, who is usually known as 'Dan's brother')
**********
Hey Buzz Crew!
I have just found an article with supposed pictures of the Apple tablet thing that will probably but maybe not be announced. Here is the link: http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/More-pictures-of-glass-screen-for-Apple-tablet-show-10-inch-screen-article-a_9021.html
They look kind of reasonable, but come one…would they really make it look that blatantly like an oversized iPhone. I Hp[e their “latest creation” is more creative than that. Well, love the show as always! George
Breaking news during the show has Verizon admitting to cutting off the Internet access of people accused of illegal downloading. But hey, they don't throttle,they say. Great! Except for cutting off people is really an extreme from of throttling. And also, Verizon isn't getting proof for this, just accusations. The problems with this policy are immeasurable and we discuss them. Oh and Bing may oust Google on the iPhone.
VOICE MAIL
Mark the actuary has his own sarcasm identification system
E-MAIL
Hey Buzzers,
This is Jon the amateur linguist from New York with my first well
actually! In episode 1147, you said that the SarcMark was the first mark
invented that could denote sarcasm. Actually, French poet Alcanter de
Brahm invented the “point d’ironie” (which looks like this: ؟) at the
end of the 19th century and it is actually part of Unicode (as character
U+2E2E).
Anyways,
Love the show and keep up the great work!
-Jon from New York
**********
Hey Buzz Crew,
I'm still trying to understand why cell phone companies charge for both a voice and a data plan considering they just convert your voice call to data anyway at the switch in the tower. Why don't they just come out and say they already do voice over IP and just charge it against our "unlimited" data plan?
Analog voice (data) => unlimited data plan
The same can be said about the cable companies charging us for our "cable TV" plan which is just "digital"... meaning "data". Why isn't that covered in our "unlimited" data plan?
Digital cable (data) => unlimited data plan
If it is all data on the wire, then just call it "data"! The communication industries are really milking this.
My inner "geek" LOVES the show!
Thank you,
Clint Huffman from Seattle
**********
Hey,
Apparently NASA is cutting the price on selling the space shuttles after they are retired. Now down to $28.8 million.
For Sale, used convertible flying RV, custom made, seating for 7, 1 toilet on board, lots of storage space in back, goes REALLY fast, white with black trim, YOU HAUL….
While Apple has officially announced an announcement, we don't know what it is. So we speculate anyway. Sue us. Will you pay $2 for a new character that indicates sarcasm? Most of us won't, either. We also discuss the meaning of privacy in search engines and Quicken hides it's online service behind Mint, which oddly makes Natali hungry.
VOICE MAIL
Marshall in Montreal talks about app stores
EMAIL
I just listened to Friday’s episode 1145, where you were (somewhat
justifiably) slamming Real Networks. You do realize that Rhapsody is
Real, right? Don’t get me wrong–I’m no fan of Real, nor certainly of
RealPlayer, but I think it’s fair to conclude that Real Networks is
not quite dead yet.
Richard Gunther
Washington, D.C.
***********
Hi BOL team.
I don’t know if this is on your radar, however, I’m sure you’re aware of Intuit’s acquisition of Mint.com. Well, as of Saturday morning, it appears that they flipped the switch, and QuickenOnline is no longer available (easily) from the homepage, you’re instead directed to the Mint.com site.
Unfortunately, with the the change, they did not follow through on their word to introduce functionality from QuickenOnline to Mint. Specifically, you can no longer enter payments or have any kind of recurring bills. For myself and I’m sure countless others, this is a HUGE problem, as we use this functionality to mke sure we pay our bills on time.
If this is the direction that Intuit/Mint is taking, they’re (IMHO) shotting themselves in the foot, by removing the whole POINT of finance software.
The Google-China drama continues as China makes a veiled response that only law-abiding companies are welcome in the People's Republic. More information came out indicating the Gmail hacking was done by the government in China. This isn't over folks. We'll keep on it. But there is other news. Apple lawyers strike back over tablet rumors, and app stores are all pretty much the same.
E-MAIL
One issue with Facebook’s idea about scanning your system for viruses before letting you back on after your account was hacked is that yes the pc you used to clear the virus lock on is clean. What about all the other systems you use. Your netbook, your friends' pc, the system at the library, the internet cafe, etc.
As always some protection is better then none I’m just worried the message from Facebook will say “You have no viruses welcome back” instead of “This machine currently has no viruses that we know about, proceed with caution.” (I'd say the house is white on this side but Tom may be the one who'd grok it.)
You also suggested having AV software have the capability of broadcasting that the system you’re on is clean. The problem with this idea is the first thing a maleware creator would do is spoof the clean system message.
Yes the protocol could include protection for this. But unless it was cheap or free and in some way open to companies, then what would happen to software like AVG, or the next AVG.
Love the show.
Ken the Lurker
**********
OK, so remember a few years back when I told you guys that one of my students was doing research on video game aggression? Well, this year one of them is doing cell phone distraction research.
Melissa (the psych honours student) is doing her thesis with me and she has designed a way cool study. (I wish I could take more credit, but she has designed most of this herself, I am just her supervisor).
People are going to be 'driving' (using a wheel and a PS3) and they will either talk to Melissa
live
on a cell phone
on a hands free cell phone
they won't talk, a control group.
Now that is pretty straightforward. The interesting twist is looking at the complexity of the conversation. Half of the participants will get a simple conversation and half will get a complex one. These 'conversations' will consist of Melissa firing either easy or hard arithmetic problems at the subjects. We expect there to be little effect with the simple conversation and a big effect with a complex one in both the phone and hands free group.
The Algoma University psychology department, where much of the research is inspired by BOL…
I will keep you posted. That is if you care…
Dave (the psychologist)
**********
Hey buzz crew
I am a long time listener to the show and have even had one of my e-mails read on your show. I live in Haiti. We suffered losses in the earthquake. The most important thing is that my family is ok. Cell phones are down and we are getting spotty internet. The wierd thing is that it is easier for me to talk (via skype) to friends and family abroad than it is to talk to my brother who lives just 1.5 miles from my house. We had to communicte via facebook, skype, and e-mail. Please ask your listeners fro their prayers and if they can to try to help. The smallest thing helps a lot. Go to whitehouse.gov to see how you can help. Thank you and even if I am not able to to listen to the show these days I still love the show.
Due to some Gmail attacks, Google has said it will remove its filters and possibly pull out of China altogether. There's definitely a lot more going on behind the scenes of this than we know, but we try to get to the heart of the matter as the nation of China negotiates with the nation of Google. We also discuss Facebook's requirement that you scan your hard drive to reactivate a hacked account, and we look forward to Martians coming this year. Yay for Martians!
VOICE MAIL
Anders from Copenhagen On the Google ads
E-MAIL
Hey gang.
I was listening to your podcast about Google maps selling ad space and I have two concerns about this. I’m a visual effects artist in feature films and both my concerns are based on past experience.
1: Google might get in trouble if they sell ads on a billboard if someone has purchased that same space in real life. Imagine if a sign has an Apple ad that you can see in street view. But the ad is old. So Google comes along and sells it to Coke. At the same time the real billboard has been bought buy Pepsi. This happened in a movie I worked on when the director ask to replace some of the signs in Times Square with fake ads. Legal came back and said we couldn’t because those signs are owned by someone else and we need their permission to do so.
2: Google street view is just a series of compressed, blurry images. To make it look authentic you would have to make the new ads blurry and compressed. If you don’t it will just look stupid and fake. But what company would pay for such poor quality ad space.
Just my input. One a side note, I’ve been listening to you guys since Ep. 148 and it never gets old.
Take care,
Wayne, The VFX artist, Montreal Canada
**********
Hey guys,
Regarding Google and their scanning of books in China, Tom made a point about not being sure whether it was actually wrong for Google to be making these scans for indexing purposes in the first place. Just wanted to make one point: Google purports to want to “organize the world’s information”. One of the ways they do this is by crawling through the Internet — in essence, “scanning” web pages — and indexing the information online. The thing is, if I don’t want to be a part of this service, I can modify my robots file and exclude my website from this service. If Google recognizes an author’s right to keep their web-based content out of their indexing service, why not the paper-based media as well?
Of course, I suppose that the robots file isn’t a Google creation and so is more something that they have to live with, rather than a conscious choice on their part, so the analogy breaks down a little there. Still, it seems a bit like a double-standard, doesn’t it?
Google apologized to China for miscommunication over their scanning of books. But that didn't stop them from scanning the books. Or even get them to apologize for scanning the books. Also Microsoft Word is no longer sold, at least for a brief period of time. And the Apple rumors are ramping up.
VOICE MAIL
Richard has an idea to hack your own brain for 3D
E-MAIL
Hi Buzz Crew,
I have a question and a suggestion regarding 3D technology in TV's. First, why do you need a 3D TV to watch 3D? What is the difference between a 3D and a non-3D TV? It seems that you wouldn't need special technology in the TV to display 3D, because all it is as far as I know is doing special kind of doubling of the image on the screen. Second, wouldn't you be able to put a huge piece of the polarized material in the 3d glasses on your TV so that it covers the whole TV? It seems that putting that material so that it covers the TV would allow you to have 3D without glasses. I appreciate any thoughts on my question and suggestion.
Ross from CT
**********
Hey Guys,
Good job covering CES and a well earned day off for Monday.
Just thought I’d pass along this, the so called unbreakable phone, broken by a BBC reporter.
We discuss the winners of this year's Best of CES awards, and make our very own picks as well. But the most important news of the day has to be the whole Facebook bra color meme. What... Is it something I said?
Personal Favorites
Molly: Lenovo IdeaPad Hybrid, Boxee Box, PicoWatt power plug
Jason: Eye-Fi Pro X2 is nifty/Boxee Box with Remote is pretty awesome.
Brian Tong: Tivit Mobile TV/ New TV remotes..NOT 3D/Monster dishing out $$$ for the celebs
Tom: IdeaPad U1, QUE, PopBox
Tom mentioned Windows on tablets came out in 2002, but Windows for Pen
Computing came out in 1992 during the great pen scare of the late
80s / early 90s.
It first launched on the Momenta M1 but shortly after on tablet boxes. – Chris the Podcaster
**********
I’m with Molly, why do these a-hole execs always say the people using
the bandwidth they pay for are hogs/a-holes/muppets etc.
Surely a much better way of saying it for them would be to say “If you
don’t use as much bandwidth as other people you shouldn’t have to pay
as much, you should get a discount.”
It says the the exact same thing but one is much nicer.
Note. I’m in Australia see we have data caps on everything. I’m on a
160 gigs a month. As long as its at a reasonable price I don’t mind
the system, sure I’d love unlimited. However I’d much prefer a faster
network where I know exactly how much I can use a month and not have
services throttled. If you are paying for the bandwidth an ISP has no
excuse for throttling your connection as you have already paid for the
service. – Adam
**********
I may just not be paying close enough attention, but it seems as though nobody at cnet is discussing the Adam tablet with the Pixel Qi display that is being shown at CES this week. In my opinion, this thing is probably one of the coolest devices on display, that actually brings the Pixel Qi out of the Vaporware category and into the light of day. Also, imagine if Apple announced a tablet (we’ll see) with this display that could do movies, games, music, AND read magazines and books with reflective light a-la Kindle. I really think this is huge news, and it doesn’t seem like anybody but engaget seems to care.
A new technology from Zyxio allows you to control your PC by breathing. Obviously this is good for accessibility, but it could also mean good and bad news for gamers. We'll discuss. We also rundown the latest news from CES, including the Intel keynote. And we talk with the winner of the Apps for Innovation contest about his Web site that makes it easy for you to find out what the government is about to do to you and gives you a chance to make a comment.
I was listening to Yesterday’s podcast (Thursday at CES) and Leo was
talking about how MS is a “Me Too” company. Then you all went on to
talk about Ford Sync and how awesome it was. None of you pointed out
who Ford Sync was by… It’s by the “Me Too” company Microsoft. Just
thought I’d point that out.
Rock on,
Josh from Indiana
**********
Hey Buzzos
Is it just me or was Tom Merrit flipping me off at 0:08 in his First Look video at the Samsung E-Reader from CES? Is he sending us some sort of subliminal message about Samsung or E-Readers? Why can’t he just use his pointer finger to point at it? I mean, it is called a POINTER finger.
-George B.
**********
Hey gang,
There's a hidden message behind ESPN 3D that many people aren't getting when the channel was announced.
1 - ESPN
2 - ESPN 2
3 - ESPN U
4 - ESPNews
5 - ESPN Classic
6 - ESPN Deportes
7 - ESPN Plus
8 - ESPN 3D
A new technology from Zyxio allows you to control your PC by breathing. Obviously this is good for accessibility, but it could also mean good and bad news for gamers. We'll discuss. We also rundown the latest news from CES, including the Intel keynote. And we talk with the winner of the Apps for Innovation contest about his Web site that makes it easy for you to find out what the government is about to do to you and gives you a chance to make a comment.
I was listening to Yesterday’s podcast (Thursday at CES) and Leo was
talking about how MS is a “Me Too” company. Then you all went on to
talk about Ford Sync and how awesome it was. None of you pointed out
who Ford Sync was by… It’s by the “Me Too” company Microsoft. Just
thought I’d point that out.
Rock on,
Josh from Indiana
**********
Hey Buzzos
Is it just me or was Tom Merrit flipping me off at 0:08 in his First Look video at the Samsung E-Reader from CES? Is he sending us some sort of subliminal message about Samsung or E-Readers? Why can’t he just use his pointer finger to point at it? I mean, it is called a POINTER finger.
-George B.
**********
Hey gang,
There's a hidden message behind ESPN 3D that many people aren't getting when the channel was announced.
1 - ESPN
2 - ESPN 2
3 - ESPN U
4 - ESPNews
5 - ESPN Classic
6 - ESPN Deportes
7 - ESPN Plus
8 - ESPN 3D
Though the conference opens for the public today, this is our second live show from CES 2010. Leo Laporte joins us on stage to discuss the impressive penetration of 3D at this year's show, Skype on your television, and the soon-to-be growing catalog of Netflix streaming titles.
“The immutable laws of bandwidth tell us we’re just a few years away from being able to download an entire season of ‘24′ in 24 seconds,”
he wrote.
Okay, so a season of 24 (non-BluRay) is roughly 6 Double Layer DVDs (probably about 30 or 40 GB). So in Bono’s “Brave New World” we get an Internet connection that can successfully pull down 2 gbps. News flash to Bono: Americans don’t have high speed Internet like that (mine can barely handle streaming BOL’s vcast). 40 GB is a lot of bandwidth. And even if your connection could pull something down that fast the server you’re downloading the file from would have to allow that speed as well.
Bono, we get that you’re a cool guy, who thinks very futuristically wearing sunglasses indoors and all, but I’m just not following your your immutable law of bandwidth. Do you really think that the ISPs are the ones who are stealing all the money from the music industry? Is monitoring the Internet like the Communists in China going to help you sell more records? Do you think people are stealing from you, even though your band is the richest on the planet?
The Curmudgeon
***********
Back in the days of Windows 98 I saw a “mental controller” for PCs in a compusa. It was a serial port device that looked like a fingerprint scanner.
I played with one in store and it worked, mostly, at least for their skiing game. Not sure if it was real neural impulse or biofeedback. It stuck with me because the inventor had a quadraplegic child.
They are still available on http://www.Other90.com and require adapters to work with Win2k or -gasp!- WinMe. No word on Vista or Win7 although based on the website design I think the company is trapped in the 90s.
That or they have a quadraplegic webmaster stick using Windows 95.
You'll know we're recording this episode from the stage before the show has actually begun because of the loud machinery crunching away in the background as vendors ready their booths. In the meantime, we cover Google's official introduction of the Nexus One, a 3D network arriving on your TV, and Microsoft's tablet computer. You heard me right: Microsoft.
I would like to throw in some information regarding the sour grapes comment that Bono of U2 made about digital rights management. U2 made the most money of any group in 2009 doing live tours. So in this light Bono’s statement seems even more ridiculous since obviously U2 is doing despite supposedly rampant piracy. Here is a link for verification http://www.nme.com/news/u2/49047,
James
Columbus ohio
**********
Hey bol,
A couple things I found interesting about the Dubai tower is that the architect in charge also built the twin towers of the world trade centre. The features to keep this one safer are mind boggling. For example, every 13 floors you have a safety floor where it’s fire proof and the windows open, and there are elevators along the corners there so they can function in a disaster. Also, there are 135 elevators all high speed, taking a matter of minutes to reach the top.
We are on our way to CES in Las Vegas so there will be no new episode today. Instead, here is an excerpt from episode 1131 where we preview the type of tech that is expected to be found in abundance at this year's CES.
So Bono has been listening to his manager and soaking up the ideas that the Internet needs to be locked down before it ruins the video industry. This self-less act of Cassandra-like prophesying involves talking about how great the US is at stopping child porn and the Chinese are at stopping anything they don't like. We point out a few holes in theory there. Also Google is doing everything. Seriously, if you even think fleetingly Google might do something apparently they are.
In the feed tomorrow our CES preview with me Molly and Brian Cooley and then starting Wednesday BOL live from CES at 9 AM Pacific and then at 1 PM Saturday our CES wrap-up BOL. A full schedule of live shows from CES can be found on CNET Live! http://www.cnet.com/live
VOICE MAIL
Allen in New York Happy New Year
E-MAIL
Hey Buzz Crew,
I'm a custom furniture maker in Bellingham, Washington, but also an avid technology geek. I'm working to put these two interests together to design and then create an ultimate technology desk for myself. Not something that looks like it's from IKEA or something your grandfather might have had!
Tech wise, it will have integrated power and cord management, a gadget storage and recharging section, as well as space for all the little tech accessories we all seem to collect.
I'm stuck on what other things, if any, I should consider, so I thought I'd ask the experts! I figure you guys have accumulated a good sense for what tech geeks like us like in our workspaces, so if any of you are so inclined to respond, what things would you like in a desk like this?
If you like, I'll let you know how it comes out
... and of course, love the show!
Carl Flansbaum
"woodgeek"
**********
Dear Buzz Crew,
It seems I owe you an apology. Assuming that, like Wikipedia, the Buzz Out Loud wiki was policed by hawk-eyed moderators, as a joke I altered the entry for last year’s prediction show to suggest that Tom predicted a Google acquisition of a fried chicken franchise during 2009.
Much to my amusement and embarrassment, the pretend chicken prognostication came up on episode 1136. While such a partnership would be truly revolutionary, my apologies are owed to Tom for diluting his prediction accuracy and to Molly, who inexplicably suggested that she recalled Tom actually predicting Google Fried Chicken.
Please accept my humblest apologies, and keep up the great work. JP
XML is a syntax, an open way to structure data. Regarding the Microsoft Word case, I think the sticking point for the patent owners is that the “custom XML” is that they created a data structure, manifested in XML, for storing documents. Saying “all XML is customizable so it can’t be patented” is like saying “books are just a bunch of letters and words, you can’t copyright stories and novels.”
Tom’s Predictions for 2010:
Apple Tablet will come out in the summer and be $899
3DTV will be the big marketing push
Project Natal will launch but be overshadowed
Machine-to-machine connections will become a thing
Enterprise cloud services will be huge with companies like IBM and Oracle getting in to counter Google
More netbook-specific versions of software
Goodbye Palm
IBM will get back into hardware
HP will come out with a compelling IPTV box that includes cable.
Molly’s Predictions for 2010:
WiMax drools, LTE4 rules — WiMax rollouts will stall and LTE4 will take off like a rocket.
Google will blend Android and the Chrome OS into one offering
Microsoft will introduce a tablet.
Apple will not.
Palm will fold or be purchased.
Microsoft will make a Zune phone.
Congress or the FCC will force cell phone carriers to drop exclusivity agreements. (Har.)
Book publishers will boycott Amazon and the Kindle in force until Amazon agrees to higher prices for digital books.
Twitter will be purchased, probably by Facebook.
The “cloud” craze will slow after a MAJOR security incident, probably involving Google.
2010 will be the year of mobile security awareness.
Jason’s Predictions for 2010:
Vulnerability exploit of Android.
Google Wave will fizzle even further into obscurity and go the way of the dodo. FAIL.
No more than 3-4 total Microsoft retail stores will open by years end. Seen as a failure.
Android app store will pass 50,000 apps by years end.
E-book store in iTunes.
News will start to get out about the next generation Microsoft game system.
Embedded connectivity (ala Kindle and Nook) will become much more prevalent among other types of tech.
Google will extend its adwords to the mobile platform as a way to subsidize their phones for the public.
The iPhone actually doesn’t make it to Verizon before year’s end.
iTunes subscription music, streamed directly to the device.
Netflix and Twitter will be acquired.
Data plans are about to nosedive in the same way that cell phone minutes plans plummeted not too far back.
At the beginning of 2009, we made a whole bunch of predictions about the next year in the technology space. Turns out, we are really bad at predicting things.
Tom Merritt’s 2009 predictions:
One mass media company will push out an Internet-only or Internet-primary hit (webisode).
GPS will slowly disappear (except in-dash, Standalone GPS merge into phones).
Some sort of big, public security breach that will cause the change of fundamental internet protocol.
Android will outsell iPhone.
Yahoo will finally be purchased in 2009.
A mind control game peripheral will come out.
Twitter will get as big as facebook.
Google will buy a fried chicken franchise.
Bandwidth riots.
DTV transition will go off without a hitch. (Mostly be fine)
A real look of the next-gen console. (Prototype of next-gen console)
Molly Wood’s 2009 predictions:
There would be no copy and paste for the iPhone in 2009.
Molly will buy an Android phone by the end of the year. (Molly breaking up with the iPhone)
Steve Jobs will leave Apple in 2009. (Leave his current role, like Bill Gates)
The usefulness and price of netbooks will be severely compromised by features. (get more expensive and bigger)
Yahoo files for bankruptcy after failing or refusing to do a deal that could save them in 2009 only.
A major newspaper ('''LA Times''', NY Times, i.e. National newspaper) will go online.
Google will buy Twitter or Twitter dies.
Significant number of Americans will dump cable for internet-only television. Cable company have to change pricing model.
Symantec web will enable subscribing to any podcast in certain topic based on tagging.
Alien life will be discovered on Venus.
Jason Howell’s 2009 predictions:
Copy and paste will exist in the iPhone for 2009.
A major Mac exploit (wide-spread virus etc.).
Netbook sales will double in 2009.
LHC will not go online in 2009. (i.e. the world will not end)
iTunes will get an eBook section. Bonus: iPhone will get an eBook reader firmware upgrade.
Microsoft will attempt to buy a cellphone company in order to tie in with windows mobile.
Blu-ray will gain market share over DVD.
Fancy Android phone with solar panel will be announced.
A cloud services will be proven to have taken a considerable chunk out of software sales. (beginning of the end of software that we know it as.)
iTunes will go DRM-free.
Notes
Molly and Jason bet a two dollar bill on the copy and paste iPhone crisis.
Tom said that Molly is from Venus.
This year's best of show is made up entirely of clips sent to us by listeners. We selected and edited them to make a good-flowing show, but the hard work of collecting them was all on buzztown. Great job everybody! You sent some amazing clips. Stuff we would never have dug up on our own. The following people submitted clips to us by email. Thanks for all your hard work.
NOTE: The first release of this episode was incomplete. This is a repost with the additional content at the end. If you are automatically downloading this episode again, that is why.
SPECIAL NOTE: There is no video version of this episode.
Special thanks to all of our listeners who helped contribute to the creation of this episode. You absolutely rock the casbah:
Aaron Belcher
Berke Hitay
Bill the Admin from Cleveland
Dan Lueders
Dan Fejes
Darin Boots
Dustin Hollon
George from New Jersey
Inferno Falcon
J Rojas
Jane Kohner
Jeff in Wilmington, North Carolina
Joe in Glen Falls
Joshua Caleb
Nunzio the software engineer
Pete in san Jose
pilotmike in Kansas City
Randy
Reid of the Catskills
Sherman from Oakland, CA
Tony Wang
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