A letter to NBC
Dear NBC, why are you making it so hard for me to watch Heroes on your Web site? Do you know there are other places I could go to watch it with no problems, but I am trying to do the right thing and you are make it difficult. So do me a favor and clean your Web site and add some more servers so that this can be a smooth process. Thanks, and by the way to the members of Buzz Town: Sarah Corvus says hi, and watch your back.

Peterjon

Excel 2007 multiplication bug
This is an awesome bug. Totally amazing:

via Slashdot by kdawson on 9/24/07

Tibbar66 writes with news of a serious multiplication bug in Excel 2007, which has been reported to the company. The example first that came to light is =850*77.1--which gives a result of 100,000 instead of the correct 65,535. It seems that any formula that should evaluate to 65,535 will act strangely. One poster in the forum noted these behaviors: "Suppose the formula is in A1. =A1+1 returns 100,001, which appears to show the formula is in fact 100,000... =A1*2 returns 131,070, as if A1 had 65,535 (which it should have been). =A1*1 keeps it at 100,000. =A1-1 returns 65,534. =A1/1 is still 100,000. =A1/2 returns 32767.5." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mike C.

Chicago: Segway cop chases down shooter
*****
Chicago Police Officer Thaddeus Martyka was patrolling and writing parking citations on his motorized scooter at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday in the 2100 block of South Michigan Avenue when he heard gunfire and saw two men sprinting west on 21st Street. "I heard a shot, so I proceeded to the corner, and then the chase was on," Martyka said while standing on his electric scooter later in the evening outside the Central District station. ...
Central District Cmdr. Kevin Ryan ... "These don't wear down. People do," he said.
*****

Some people joke that the perp was "scooted-down" because he couldn't mock and run at the same time...

Best,
Shalin

Chuck on United
My flight last Friday from Chicago to Minneapolis showed the entire pilot for Chuck, huge NBC conspiracy dashed.

Brent in Chicago

BOL taping in Ontario, California?
Hey Tom, Molly, and Jason,

In Episode 567 you said you guys might do an episode from the Podcast Expo in Ontario. Could you please give Buzz Town more info as to when and where we could sit in on the BOL taping?

Love the show, keep up the good work!
Mike from Riverside

Google Street View in Canada
Hi Molly, Tom, and Jason,

Here is a follow-up on the Google Street View launch in Canada. They announced a plan to do exactly as you recommended. They must be fans of the show. :)

Love the podcast,

Shawn from New Brunswick, Canada

-----
Google eyes Canada rollout of discreet Street View

"Google Inc is considering a Canadian launch of its Street View map feature, which offers street-level close-ups of city centers, but would blur people's faces and vehicle license plates to respect tougher Canadian privacy laws, the Web search firm said on Monday. Canada's privacy commissioner told Google in August that the feature--which offers a series of panoramic, 360-degree images of nine U.S. cities--could violate Canadian laws if it were introduced without alterations.

Some of the pictures feature people who can clearly be identified, which contravenes Canadian legislation on privacy."

Hah-vard's stupid copyright nonsense
Hey gang,

Sorry I wasn't right on this one, but I've had a busy week (end of the FY/Q and all). Here are my thoughts on "the Coop" if you still want to talk about that story. The link to my blog posting is here, as well as the pertinent part for your show. (You know, where I say Molly is right.)

Copyright requires an original expression in a fixed tangible medium. Writing something down gives it copyright protection, provided it is something of original creative content--i.e. not facts. As Molly Wood rightly pointed out on Buzz Out Loud last week, pricing is analogous to baseball statistics (IMHO). Even if a bookstore has the right to sell a book at a variety of prices (oftentimes that is set by the publisher), the price is still a function of whatever the free market dictates the price should be. If the phone company assigning phone numbers isn't protectable, neither should be pricing.

Further, even if pricing is protectable, the ISBN cannot be--as it is assigned by someone other than the bookstore. They did not come up with the number--in fact the very reason there is an ISBN number is so that people can keep track of the same book in different stores! If there was protection for the ISBN, it couldn't possibly belong to Harvard!

Lastly, could there be a better case for a Fair Use defense? The very idea that copyright law is used to protect the vendor, and not the creator of the work, is absurd--and frankly, slaps capitalism and the free market right in the face with one of those overpriced organic chemistry books.

Getting away from copyright all together: What would happen if students simply got the syllabus from the professor, and plugged the titles into Google? They would get:

a) the list price

b) the ISBN number

c) any discounted sales from other retailers.

They could then go into the Coop with that information, obtained elsewhere, and make informed purchasing decisions about what they are willing to buy--thus negating the entire stupid premise that Harvard owns its prices as information.

Or, they could just call the bookstore every day, asking "how much is that such and such book." That'll get old quick, won't it?

You know, they have a captive audience there at the school and rather than force them to buy from them on their terms, wouldn't Harvard's bookstore be much better off treating their students well, and with some dignity? Won't most people simply rather just walk over to the store and buy the book then go through the hassle of figuring all of this out? Doesn't a story like this just make you want to not shop there? I mean, even as a non-Harvard person, if I were to visit the school I wouldn't really want to buy a souvenir from the bookstore based on this story alone. Treating customers like jerks means you're a jerk, and I don't have time for you--and neither will the Harvard student body.

Frank J. M. Lattuca, Esq.

Order request
Hello, this is Mr. Ron
I will like to know if you do carry anchor in stock for sale? I will like to know the types, prices, and the method of payment you do accept? And also I will like to have your contact number for more information. Thank you--hope to hear from you.

Best regards,
Ron Micheal