Blocking ads
Heya Buzz Crew,

If sites are so concerned that people are blocking their ads, it seems there would be a simple solution to simply ask them what product is being advertised before allowing them to continue.

I think this is a bad idea and I feel like a horrible person for suggesting it, but sites these days seem to have no problem inconveniencing their readers with pop-all-overs. But this would guarantee your visitors notice your ads.

Just a thought!

Mike the Architect

Advertising
Hi Buzz Gang,

If there is a social contract between ad-supported media such as TV and Web sites, we need to renegotiate. The media companies try to annoy us into watching their ads. Do they really expect us to watch all 16 minutes of advertisements every hour on TV, and is it reasonable to have some flickering banner ad right next to the text you're trying to read? DVRs and ad blockers are nature's way of saying "enough is enough."

Iljitsch

Popups - Popups - Popups
Why is everybody getting all hissy over blocking other ads?

You shove an ad in my face and there are a million other sites I can go visit! What they gonna do next? Take away the X in the top right of the window so I HAVE to look at the damn ads?

Love you guys--take care and keep doing what you do so well. Buzzing!

:)

Brian from the U.K.

Silicon on the moon
Regarding Brandt's question about silicon on the moon...I think the best people to answer the question would be a planetary scientist (some geologist for the Earth's moon), a chemist, and a manufacturing engineer.

I'm not certain much mining needs to be done to find silicon on the moon either, that's where the lunar geologist would come in. However, the silicon on the moon would likely be used to make useful things for lunar habitation. I don't know what particular things...but useful things I'm sure. This "in situ resource utilization" approach of using immediately available resources to build up a camp or even permanent community in a particular geographic area is a successful approach of many, many exploration ventures in the past thousands of years.

Unless the silicon is of extraordinary quality, I don't see a compelling reason it should be shipped back to Earth. As for Helium3--yeah, the science on that is a bit dubious...I wouldn't put much stock in the immediate usefulness of it.

The bottom line as I see it is that the moon is going to be a pit stop to the rest of the universe for Earth humans...and it'd be a smart idea to make use of its useful minerals. Since it seems to take a looooooooong time to develop space-rated systems, ya gotta start somewhere...and soon.

Best,
Shalin

Missing the end of Chuck
BOL Gang,

Reference episode 563 and Molly's inability to watch the end of the premier of Chuck due to a premature arrival, I happen to be an airline pilot for a major airline and may be able to shed a little light on your incident. We as crewmembers do, indeed, have the capability of manipulating the en route flight time as well as the start time and selection of the video entertainment. Of course, at our airline we would only use those capabilities to enhance your travel experience. (I'm not at liberty to say who I work for, but we are a major AMERICAN carrier). I can only assume that United is part of a greater conspiracy and no doubt in cahoots with the RIAA and other anti-freedom-of-enjoyment groups whose major designs are to hook you on content and force you to pay for it on the back end. I'm sorry you had a disappointing flight and let me assure you that if any of you are ever on my airplane, your experience will be delightful. Just stick your head up front and ask for me.

Respectfully,
Vic
The Pilot/ Rancher/ Net Neutrality Advocate from Blanket, Texas

P.S.
I know I ragged on you about the baby talk, but I kinda miss it.

Deja vu all over again
Let's see, OJ's in (and out of?) trouble, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is breaking new ground, Steve Fossett is in the news, optical storage discs are a hot topic, and Microsoft's newly released version of Windows is under attack by the same freakin' virus!

Should we party like it's 1995? Should Steve Mitnick be looking over his shoulder? Inquiring minds...

Dennis O.
Powell, Ohio

Havok, Intel, and Ageia news
Hi T-M-J,

I work for a small start-up in the same building as Havok. The office building is an open plan with a series of small incubator units. Havok, being one of the larger companies here, has an entire floor all to themselves.

On Monday morning, I went to grab a coffee from our shared kitchen and on the way back to my desk I overheard two people discussing putting physics API's on chips. Interesting, I thought, since I had imagined that Havok had taken a different approach from Ageia (a competitor that already has a hardware physics solution). Havok had opted to use the GPUs in high-end graphics cards to help offload some of their processing. Upon returning to my desk, I checked the register and saw the news that Havok had been sold to Intel and it all made sense. I just mentioned my coffee tale to a coworker, who said he'd seen printouts describing plans to move some of the Havok APIs from software to hardware.

So I'd say that with the purchase of Havok, Intel has really bought their APIs and game developer tie-ins. By moving the API implementation from software to hardware they will be able to produce chip sets aimed specifically at the gaming market. With the existing links to developers and big budget titles already using Havok, Intel will have the leverage to persuade the big names to write for their new platform. Intel already has a graphics division, but hasn't been able to pull the big-name games companies into working with them. Is this integrated hardware game "stack" of graphics, processing, and physics Intel reacting to the purchase of ATI by AMD?

And what future for Ageia?

Oh yeah, best not to mention my name--just in case.

Vodafone on the iPhone
Hi Buzz Crew,

Just listened to the above show and heard your remark about Vodafone being in a hidden carrier list on the iPhone. Could it not just be for roaming? The iPhone will be able to sign on to roaming networks when away from home? Vodafone can accept unlocked phones for sure. It is rather uncommon to lock a phone to a network in Europe even when bought from the provider with a subsidy. Prepaid phones are generally locked--since the provider can't assure your business otherwise.

Greetings from Frankfurt, Germany,
Oliver

P.S. Typed on my N73 while listening to your show. Next phone will definitely be N95 8GB. No iPhone for me.

U.K. correspondent
Hey Buzz,

Judging from Episode 563, it seems like you guys need the U.K. perspective on the iPhone announcement.

First, 02 is not part of Orange, they are indeed rival companies. Second, Carphone Warehouse is not a trashy little store, but is the biggest mobile retailer in the U.K. with LOADS of stores dotted all around the country (as apposed to Apple stores which are pretty seldom). In terms of 02 stores, there are more stores than the Apple Store, waaaaay less than Carphone Warehouse. Third, the annoucement was in a tiny room (the Regent Street store), which is one of the reasons it was invite-only and they had to close the store down despite a new product not being relased for sale (bit grumpy about that since i couldn't get in).

And finally, no 3G and a still-recessed headphone jack is internationally suckish!

Loving extra the long podcasts and wondering how long it'll be till BOL hits the big 60-minute mark.

Chris F.