Buzz Out Loud

Buzz Out Loud 773: Spam on the lam

Molly Wood — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:42:00 GMT

UPDATE: We just learned that the escaped Eddie Davidson, the "spam king," was found dead after having apparently murdered his family. Obviously, we did not know this at the time we recorded our podcast, and we apologize for any insensitivity that could be inferred from our remarks. We will definitely address this horrible turn of events in tomorrow's show.

The recently imprisoned "Spam King" goes straight-up mint jelly and escapes from federal prison (check your barns and garages, Coloradoans), Yahoo Music makes the MSN Music mistake with the benefit of hindsight, and Walt Mossberg slams Mobile Me. You know, that service from Apple? Yeah. Really. What's wrong with the world today? Oh, and P.S. We're coming for you, Podfather!

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 773

DNS exploit code is in the wild
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-9998406-83.html

U.K.'s ISPS agree to deal with music industry
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7522334.stm

Yahoo Music to stop issuing keys September 30
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9998504-93.html

Studies: Banking Web sites, corporate computers are insecure
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-9998106-83.html

Prosecutor: Admin rigged city network for ‘failure’
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/prosecutor-admi.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-9997871-83.html

Merger of XM and Sirius a step closer to approval
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/business/media/25radio.html
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-xm-and-sirius-confirm-talks-to-resolve-enforcement-issues/

Google’s Wikipedia rival, Knol, opens to public
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9997426-93.html

Apple’s MobileMe is far too flawed to be reliable
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121685869764279343.html

Sony opens e-book reader to outside publishers
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9998525-93.html

Networks lose patience; sue RedLasso over online clips
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-networks-lose-patience-sue-redlasso-over-online-clips/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121685168249978821.html?mod=2_1567_leftbox

'Spam King' escapes from federal prison
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1543

VOICEMAIL

Jason Pennsylvania
First look at SlyDial.

E-MAIL

Hey BOL crew,

I received this e-mail yesterday about the the Yahoo! Music store closing and along with it the discontinuing of support for retrieval of license keys. The e-mail suggests I burn the approximately 500 songs I have purchased from Yahoo! Music to cds, so I do not lose the ability to play them.

I am so glad some time ago I set aside my qualms about the legality of using MuvAudio to record my purchased drm’d wmas to drm free mp3s. I am also thrilled to now be purchasing drm-free music from Amazon.com. I will never buy another drm’d song!

Randy
Boise, Idaho

**********

Hi! Great show. Just wanted to point to a peculiar use of Twitter. This guy is doing his autobiography on Twitter. Each Twitt is a year. For example Twitter 1978 is what happened to him that year.
Interesting. Here is the digg.
http://digg.com/people/Anibal_Freytes_Bio
And the twitter
http://twitter.com/afreytes

**********

(SPAM)

Research has established that on-line pornography plays an accessory role in negative social issues, such as child abuse, violence against women, rape, inequality, relationship and family breakdown, youth crime, promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases. Parents today have a legitimate concern about what their children will be exposed to and the damage online pornography can do.

Statistics reveal that Pedophiles (adults engaged in sexual crimes against children) have easy access to children through the Internet.

Child molesters are using the electronic superhighway to look for victims.
The Internet is the pedophiles’ playground, because it affords them
anonymity, and they can use newsgroups, chat rooms, and e-mail to
exchange information about child pornography and interact with children.
There are computer bulletin boards set up specifically for the seduction of children. They lure kids in with games and establish relationships with them on-line.
Then they arrange to meet face-to-face. Chat rooms and instant/private
messages are two main tools pedophiles use to contact children on-line.
Pedophiles use the Internet to share “trade secrets,”
i.e. how to change identities, forge passports, and smuggle children.

Pedophiles use the Internet for “virtual validation”
of their activities within their circles of fellow pedophiles, so they feel accepted
and consider their sexual interest in children normal.

**********

In episode #772, you mention the additional problems with not having
other people with access to the admin password for a network. To be
the devil’s advocate, I have been in many situations where there
really was nobody competent enough to trust with the password
(especially in small organizations). However, that brings up problems
[such as], should I get hit by the proverbial bus (or get thrown into jail)?

My solution was to (surprise, surprise) use software to avoid the
problem. I set up a script which e-mails me every week, with a link
embedded in the message. If I click the link and enter the password,
everything stays normal. However, if I haven’t clicked the link and
confirmed my existence after 2 days, it will e-mail the password out to
high-level individuals (like a mayor) who could turn it over to the
new hire replacing me. Now all I need to make it do is send e-mails
from the grave!

Love the show,
Morgante

**********

At this point in time BOL is running neck-and-neck with the Podfather
himself! The Daily Source Code (which isn’t quite daily) is at 777. In
only a week or two, BOL will take the lead and become

* The most prolific podcast of all time.*

Congrats BOL crew!

Alan
Saskatoon, SK, Canada

Buzz Out Loud 772: Tom's 3D house of terror

Molly Wood — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:50:00 GMT

We debunk yesterday's story about how the studios are going to develop new 3D standards. That is, we like the standards idea, but we know there are glasses in there somewhere. Also, the San Francisco mayor makes a secret, underground visit to imprisoned IT martyr Terry Childs and get's the city's network passwords out of him. It's so very Jack Bauer. Oh, and Google might buy Digg. Call us when it happens.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 772

Episode 772

SF mayor gets codes to hijacked city network
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-9997177-83.html

Lawyer says client was protecting city’s code
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/22/BAGF11T91U.DTL&tsp=1

Report: Google in acquisition talks with Digg
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9997070-93.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

Cuomo strong-arms Comcast over Usenet
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9997051-38.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.0

MySpace signs up to OpenID scheme
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7521002.stm

Esquire first publication to use electronic ink
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/ebusiness/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209400613

Vimeo bans video game clips for lack of ‘creative expression’
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9996743-2.html

Call someone--without having to talk to them
http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/22/1558236&from=rss

Cassette tapes are big business in prison
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/22/cassette-tapes-are-b.html

VOICEMAIL

Tom didn't empty the mailbox. So no.

E-MAIL

I was thinking about this whole hijacking of the SF network (ep. 770)
and how there is only one person who knows all the passwords and network
data. It’s unfortunate that he’s in jail and not giving up the
passwords, but what if he was in a car accident? It was a poor choice
by those working with him to let him be the only one with the
information. If he died, was injured or in a coma then it would cost the
city a huge amount of money that they could have saved by just having
him tell someone else the data. Hopefully if any company is doing this
out there this will be a sign that it is a BAD IDEA.

Thanks. Love the show.

Ryan

—

Hi Tom, Molly, Jason, Guest Host TBA and/or Guest Producer TBA.

I tried to leave this on the BOL voicemail but it was full.

In (yesterday’s) Episode 771, you discussed the TiVo/Amazon team-up and
suggested that beyond featured products (books, CDs, whatever), it might
eventually extend to product placement items — a sort of “buy it now”
option for products appearing on screen. Hopefully everyone thinks this
is a horrible idea.

Above and beyond the distraction factor and sheer crassness of the
concept, can you imagine the truth-in-advertising issues they’d run
into? You’ll have people buying the new Nokia N-whatever because the
one Jack Bauer was using got a five-bar signal when he was 500 feet
underground. And hey, that new MacBook Air can crank out a DNA analysis
in three minutes, so just think what it could do with your vacation
photos? And that shirt you just bought is totally going to fit you the
way it fits Sawyer, even though you’re built more like Hurley.

The result? The time you save by being able to skip over commercials
will be paid back tenfold when you have to scroll through ten
unskippable pages of disclaimer every time someone hits the “Buy it Now”
button (conveniently located right where the “30 second skip” button
used to be on the TiVo remote). Awesome.

Liking the show a lot but unwilling to say “love the show” in case it
gets canceled and I have to spend the rest of my life brusquely
dismissing every podcast that vies for my affections for fear of the
same thing happening again,

George

—

WarGames will be back in the theaters for one night only for the 25 year anniversary.

http://www.fathomevents.com/news/default.aspx?newsid=135

Great geek movie!

—

This is G-Dog from Grand Rapids, writing about the 3D movies at home. Have you ever seen these before?

http://edimensional.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=39

—

Hey guys,
Regarding your claims that PC gaming is too expensive, I completely disagree. Yes, having a top-of-the-line computer is quite expensive (up to between $2,000 and $4,000) but having a computer that can play any game (even Crysis) is not expensive. Numerous forum discussions have concluded that you can build a great gaming PC for as little as $800.

http://boards.1up.com/zd/board/message?board.id=hometheaterstuff&thread.id=10504&jump=true

Here’s a link to a pretty good (though dated, which means you can probably get it for much less) setup that costs $900 (could be as little as $600 now).
That’s not including a monitor, but overall it’ll still be cheaper than the $1,000 or so that you’ll spend on an HDTV, even though most monitors do have better resolutions than HDTVs for much cheaper($150-$250). You should find that a good PC gaming setup will cost less than a good console gaming setup.

Also, it’s not too expensive to keep up with the current generation of games, since all you need to do is to buy a good video card(assuming you have an OK computer), and those are getting cheaper now.

Love the show,
Victor from British Columbia, Canada

—

Buzz Out Loud 771: A Monster episode of Iron butt proportions

Tom Merritt — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Oh man. Molly is out for one day and look what happens. Well the Monster story comes form the cable makers attempting to sue the makers of a deer salt lick. Seriously. And Iron Butt refers to a character from X-Men after we got schooled on Magneto by Craig from Omaha. And we talked about porn too.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 771

Episode 771

TiVo and Amazon team up
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/technology/22tivo.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

What is Apple’s mystery product?
http://blogs.eweek.com/applewatch/content/rumors/what_is_apples_mystery_product.html

First hints of Microsoft's 'fight back' ads appear
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=499

Sandisk: Windows Vista not optimized for solid-state drives
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-9996317-64.html

Has Halvar figured out super-secret DNS vulnerability?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1520
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-9996316-83.html

Movie industry eyeing 3D movies for the home theater
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080722-movie-industry-eyeing-3d-movies-for-the-home-theater.html

Turns out porn isn’t recession-proof
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/07/turns-out-por-1.html

A Monster dispute is licked
http://www.startribune.com/business/25638124.html

Global warming stopped by adding lime to sea
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/21/1515229&from=rss

Floating cities on Venus
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/22/0040202&from=rss

VOICE MAIL

Anonymous Physician
How to cool things to (close to) absolute zero.

Todd from Canada
Old-timey copy protection.

Jim the Unix Admin
What about selling things from within games?

E-MAIL

In Episode 770 you guys were the death of PC gaming to piracy, I wanted to let you know just how wrong you are. I’ve been a hardcore gamer for years and I haven’t paid for a PC game since 2005. This isn’t due to piracy, but the crazy amount of money I’m expected to invest into a gaming PC every year.

Both my gaming PC and Xbox 360 are from 2005, and my PC is no longer capable of playing the exact same games available on the Xbox. Have you ever tried playing Bioshock on an Nvidia 6800? It’s a pretty slide show, but not a game.

Guys (and that’s “guys” in the gender-neutral way, Molly/FemaleGuest),

I thought of an analogy to Universal’s argument that they had to issue take-down notices in cases of supposed fair use: imagine a city where the the police automatically gave all people in a public park (who walked through or sat down) tickets for loitering because they assumed that they were homeless or bums, and their defense is that we’ll let the judge determine who’s who. Common sense dictates that the police use discretion in determining who was there for a picnic (fair use) and who was using the park as a toilet (”infringement” & not clog up the courts--unless you live in San Francisco and then nobody gets ticketed for loitering; yeah, I’ve been.

FYI, ordered my iPhone last Monday from AT&T, said it would be 7-10 days, still no love from Apple--love the show!

Chris New
Ankeny, Iowa

Hello Buzz Crew,
In episode 767 Molly mentioned a PS3 price cut, Well technically it’s not really a price cut. All Sony is going to do is replace the 40GB hard drive with an 80GB hard drive.

So you will now have a 80GB PS3 that is not backward compatible and as full featured as the current 80GB model. This is really what I don’t like about Sony. How Many people are thinking this is a real price cut and are going to wait to buy an 80GB model, just to find out its not really the current 80GB model...just the 40GB PS3 with an 80GB hard drive

Here is a quote from the Venture Beat article.

Sony says they will continue selling the 40GB at $399 until they run out of the models. In September, they will start selling the PS 3 80GB models at the $399 price. Those models will have the features of the current 40GB model, not the features of the current 80GB model. That's a bit of a loss for consumers.

Here's the link.

http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/15/with-a-100-price-cut-the-sony-playstation-3-joins-the-console-war/

Him: “OK. I left my iPod at home and want to put my music from iTunes onto my wife’s iPod.”

Me (sternly): “Did you PAY money to iTunes so that you own those songs?”

Him: “Oh, absolutely!”

Me: “Fine. Then you can’t do it.”

Him: “I get punished for playing by the rules?”

Me: “Yup.”

Him: “What if….. I get a DVD and burn all the music files onto the DVD and then load them onto her computer so I can load them onto her iPod?”

Me: “Nope. What you can do, though, is go buy about 500 blank CD’s and make audio CDs with no track information or anything at all then rip those CDs onto your wife’s computer and individually label them all.”

Him: “I see. They have a poison pill in the files?”

Me: “From now on, please buy your music from Amazon.”

Him: “I’m going to go get a cocktail.”

Here’s me. Here’s the dead horse. I will flog and flog and flog.

DRM.

grrr.

Emily Page

[Molly, please read this in your geeky voice]

Regarding your comments on yesterday’s episode (in which you wondered if Magneto could harm Wolverine if his skeleton was covered in graphene), I couldn’t disagree with your assertions more. If Magneto is truly the “Master of Magnetism” (as he is often called), then that means that he also has control over the strong and weak nuclear forces that holds all matter together. That means if he really wanted to, he could dematerialize anyone or anything that gave him the stink-eye.

Also, Magneto has such a strong power mutation, he could in fact recover his powers after getting dosed with several antimutation serum injections, as seen in the cinematic masterpiece X-Men 3: The Last Stand.

[end geeky voice]

Love the show,
Craig from Omaha, Neb.

Buzz Out Loud 770: What's cooler than being cool? The Large Hadron Collider.

Molly Wood — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:56:00 GMT

Go ahead, tailor that song with awesomely geeky lyrics vis-a-vis the Large Hadron Collider and the Higgs Boson. Tom did. Actually, Tom won't stop. Let's move on. In other news of the day, Kevin Mitnick signed a book deal, so prepare to have your mind rocked by his awesome adventures; Ubisoft DRM reminds us that DRM sucks; and NBC decides to let Jimmy Fallon try out his late-night skills online before he does the real thing. Good idea.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 770

Podcast 770

In settlement, Icahn to join Yahoo board
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-9995440-92.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Amazon.com’s S3 experiences hours-long outage
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9995301-93.html?tag=nefd.top
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9995301-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
http://www.centernetworks.com/amazon-s3-down-july-2008

Hacker team releases iPhone 2.0 jailbreak
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9995290-1.html?tag=nefd.top

Uber-hacker Kevin Mitnick signs tell-all book deal
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/7/uber-hacker-kevin-mitnick-signs-tell-all-book-deal-

The inside story on the San Francisco network hijacking
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/18/2349242&from=rss

Ubisoft DRM snafu reminds us what’s wrong with PC gaming
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080720-ubisoft-drm-snafu-reminds-us-whats-wrong-with-pc-gaming.html

NBC figures out the Web: It’s a TV training ground
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/7/nbc-figures-out-the-web-it-s-a-tv-training-ground
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/arts/television/21fallon.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

Mom continues to chase Prince over ‘fair use’
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9994345-93.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080721-universal-fair-use-is-still-infringing.html

One of the coolest places in the universe
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/20/2241236&from=rss

Buzz Watch
http://theblogof.rosscbrown.co.uk/2008/07/buzzwatch-july-18th/#more-131

VOICEMAIL

Anonymous Scotsman
Apple got mental over MobileMe.

E-MAIL

If Wolverine’s bones were grafted with graphene instead of adamantium,
wouldn’t that mean he would no longer be vulnerable to Magneto’s
powers?

Good guys prevail!

Joe

—

I am the co-founder of Open Tech Inc. I just wanted to alert you and
the media that we are a Open Source Computer company that is here to
beat Psystar and not make the mistake they did. We have two computers
that are open OS and are fully capable of running more than one OS.
Our Web site is in beta and our company will be shipping by early-to
mid-August.
Our Web site URL is: http://www.iopentech.tk

Elijah Samaroo
Vice President of Open Tech Inc.
President of Online Sales and PR
Elijah.Samaroo@iOpenTech.tk

—

Hey guys,

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4360937.ece

This is likely going to be a great day for Amazon Marketplace sellers, who now no longer need compete with Amazon’s own offerings of titles. Amazon’s really in a good position to make a move like this; it makes a complete profit from letting third parties sell through its Web site, plus its customers still get the books they want for good prices, and the security that buying through Amazon provides.

But it’s still an abuse of a dominant position. Supermarkets may get bigger discounts, but they only sell a small selection of titles and can only sell to people who come to do a weekly food shop. Amazon sells to anyone with a computer or mobile device, anywhere in the world.

If it was a CD issue then I’d be all for it. By all means cut off the major record companies and instead promote used CD sales — cutting off Hachette Group is like cutting off EMI, not like cutting off indie labels.

The major issue here, however, is that authors can’t make money from touring in lieu of CD sales (not that CDs make them heaps of cash anyway). And when was the last time you saw someone wear a Stephen King T-shirt?

What do you reckon?

Take care,

Nate

—

Can you believe this? Rogers--my ISP here in Canada-- is overriding my default search engine!

See screen shot here: http://s339.photobucket.com/albums/n444/hermanc28/?action=view&current=Picture1.jpg

Instead of getting my normal Google search result when I type in a bad URL, I’m now getting the Rogers’ “Supported Search Results” complete with all kinds of ads from Rogers!!

Why do I have to “op-out” of this when I’ve never even asked for it in the first place?

Although opting out is easy, I still have to “op-out” on every single browser on every single machine I use.

I happen to use 3 different browsers depending on what I’m doing and with 3 computers, I have to “op-out” 9 times! This is crazy!

Herman Cheung
Ottawa, ON, Canada

More screen shots here:

http://s339.photobucket.com/albums/n444/hermanc28/?action=view&current=Picture3.jpg
http://s339.photobucket.com/albums/n444/hermanc28/?action=view&current=Picture2.jpg

—

Molly,

I would not put too much stock in the rumors that mice will go away in 5 to 10 years. I lived through the great pen scare of the late 1980s early 1990s at a company called Momenta. We sold our first computer to Bill Gates and later sold the first Windows for Pen Computing computers. Pundits like John C. Dvorak, Esther Dyson and Geoffrey Moore were predicting the demise of both mouse and keyboard in something like 5 to10 years. So, this seems to be one of those things that is always 5 to 10 years away like flying cars.

Chris the podcaster

—

Hey,
The “Killer Asteroid” is actually going to pass by earth in 2029 (Friday the 13th), but should not hit earth. It’s going to be passing incredibly close to earth, and earth’s gravitational pull is supposed to alter the trajectory of the asteroid.
Nasa Web site: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/13may_2004mn4.htm

When it passes by earth, It will be so close that many scientists will be able to take very precise measurements on its trajectory. So, in just over 20 years we’ll know the probability of it hitting earth in 2036, but until then the asteroid is simply too far away for us to make precise enough measurements on it.

Love the show,

-Don

Buzz Out Loud 769: The strongest versus the hardest

Molly Wood — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:57:00 GMT

When graphene meets a diamond, what will happen? Ragnarok? We explore that and other matters of scientific interest, such as whether the Wii or the DS is technically the top-selling "console" in the U.S., on today's video version of Buzz Out Loud. Plus, Brian Tong is on, so we actually have a lot of fun.

--Molly

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Episode 769

Episode 769

NPD: Nintendo Wii the top-selling, current-gen console http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080718-npd-nintendo-wii-the-top-selling-current-gen-console.html

AT&T mistakenly announces free Wi-Fi for iPhone users...again http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-9994170-94.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0

Fighting For Its Life, Yahoo Uses Its Homepage To Battle Carl Icahn http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/18/fighting-for-its-life-yahoo-uses-its-homepage-to-battle-carl-icahn/

EU confirms additional antitrust charges against Intel http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-9993451-92.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

The Mobile Web: Its Not Just for Smartphones http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/the-mobile-web-its-not-just-for-smartphones/index.html?ref=technology

New worm transcodes MP3s to try to infect PCs http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/07/18/New_worm_transcodes_MP3s_to_try_to_infect_PCs_1.html

GPS Tracking Device Beats Radar Gun in Court http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/07/18/0318228.shtml

Strongest Material Ever Tested (Thanks Matt!) http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/21098/?a=f

Major EU P2P research project hopes to kill traditional TV http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080718-major-eu-p2p-research-project-hopes-to-kill-traditional-tv.html

Report: 81.5 percent of all e-mails sent in June were spam http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080717-report-81-5-percent-of-all-e-mails-sent-in-june-were-spam.html

New way to get kernel pushes attention (Thanks Matt!) http://lwn.net/Articles/290498/

VOICEMAIL

AJ Alameda Thought on why Halo got ignored.

Eric Ontario Watch Hulu in Canada.

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that the message length for text messaging was not arbitrarily set by wireless carriers.

SMS is transmitted in the Mobile Application Part (MAP) of the SS7 signaling protocol which has a maximum length of 140 octets which equates to 160 7-bit characters. Initially developed by BELLCORE (AT&T Labs) to handle inter-switch call setup in wireline networks in the 70's, the SS7 protocol is now the foundation for almost all wireless services: SMS messaging, Mobility Management & Roaming, and Over-The-Air-Activation (OTA), voice communication, etc...

Jeffrey

Hey guys, Just so you know, on AT&T, IM is charged exactly the same as text messaging. It costs $0.20 per IM sent and received. This also means that with an unlimited data plan, IM is not covered and you still have to pay per message. This is total crap! Especially because unlimited text costs $20/month. Love the show! --Max from Portland

P.S. By the way, here's the page where I found that out: http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/messaging-internet/messaging/faq.jsp?locale=en_US#costs-im

Buzz Crew,

I've been a PocketPC^? user for some time, and currently have an ATT 8525 running Windows Mobile 6. I wouldn't call myself a fanboy, but I really like WM. There are tons of apps available for it, including today plugins, etc that can alter the interface to be more icon-based. I have a bluetooth GPS reciever and have software for turn-by-turn routing. I'm not a fan of the "stock" contacts app, but have found an alternative that works great. Compared to the locked down Iphone and other current alternatives for smartphones, WM phones seem to be much more customizable to my needs.. I'm just curious as to why you dislike it so much. I would certainly not call it "unusable". "Love the show."

Bryan Design Engineer Arkansas

Friday Buzz running later today

Tom Merritt — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:10:00 GMT

Due to Jason's absence and a few technical things, the Friday episode of Buzz Out Loud is running behind our normal posting schedule. But don't worry! We will have a new episode up today for you to enjoy over the weekend. Thanks!

Tom

Buzz Out Loud 768: Windows Mobile 7: Get fired up!

Tom Merritt — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:09:00 GMT

You never knew you had so many reasons to love Windows Mobile 7, but you'll find out a few of them today. Also, Amazon offers on-demand movie and TV streaming (on PCs and Macs both!), Microsoft explains the weird Halo no-show at E3...and the explanation is typical, baffling and infuriating. So, good work, Microsoft, as usual. Oh, and that asteroid that was going to kill us and then wasn't going to kill us? It's probably going to kill us, but we won't know for sure because we can't afford a subscription to New Scientist or a really big telescope.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 768

Episode 768

Amazon plans an online store for movies, TV shows
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/technology/17amazon.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007299.html

Microsoft explains Halo’s no-show at E3 game conference
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/07/halo-bungie-e3.html

Report: Lionsgate cranks open for YouTube
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9993159-93.html

YouTube on TiVo: It’s about time
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9993173-93.html

Unlocked iPhone 3G available for direct shipment from Hong Kong, no catch at all
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/17/unlocked-iphone-3g-available-for-direct-shipment-from-china-1/

Apple, Dell big winners as PC market shows healthy growth
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080716-apple-dell-big-winners-as-pc-market-shows-healthy-growth.html

Gmail reveals the names of all users
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/16/2220232&from=rss

Say goodbye to the computer mouse
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7508842.stm

Killer asteroid predictions ‘off by millions of miles’
http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg19926643.500-killer-asteroid-tracking-may-be-off-by-millions-of-miles.html

VOICE MAIL

Tommy Kingston
Why Sony might not be able to distribute movies in Canada.

Anonymous
However in Puerto Rico.

Emilio Mechanical Engineer
I got a mobile excitement for you.

E-MAIL

Hey Buzz Crew,
I figured you might like this, or maybe not. A local TV station in the DFW Metroplex will be shutting of their analog tv broadcast later this month. TXA21 will shut off analog for two hours on July 23 to help people figure out if they’re digital ready. This is a smart thing I guess to make people realize digital is for real and coming.

One more thing, did you happen to see the picture where Woz was sitting in the VIP section on the Price is Right?

Love the show guys

Chris - the DFW airport aircraft fueler

Hey Buzz Crew,

I was talking with a co-worker the other day about iPhone data plans in Canada vs. the U.S. and that led to text message rates, so I mentioned the point from one of the recent Buzz Out Loud podcasts about using AIM to get around paying for text messages.

He just sent me an e-mail saying that the cost per gigabyte on any data plan (even the worst Rogers plan) is a bargain compared with the cost per GB that text messaging equates to. Here’s an example using a couple of AT&T’s plans:

If you assume a generous 1,024 bytes per message (only 160 bytes of that is the actual message, but allow room for headers, and so on):
- The $5 for 200 messages plan works out to $24,414 per gigabyte
- The 20 cents per message (i.e. no plan) works out to $195,312 per gigabyte

It made us laugh…

Love the show,
Chris, from Vancouver.

P.S. As I finish typing this, I’m having deja-vu from somewhere in the last several hundred episodes that I may have heard you cover something along these lines before–if so, I’m sorry, but it still made me laugh all over again…

Hey Buzz crew.

I wrote a few weeks ago (episode 743) about our having to switch our corporate phones to AT&T’s Enterprise Data Plan because we used GoodLink, which was $5 more than the regular “unlimited” data plan.

What we’ve learned since then is that the extra $5 is actually a Good-imposed service fee for secure transport service:

http://www.good.com/corp/int_products.php?id=402

Secure Transport Service (STS) - STS fees must be paid for each Good Messaging enabled handheld. STS fees are included in Good Data Plans purchased through Good carrier resellers (currently AT&T, Verizon, Telstra in Australia, Bell Mobility in Canada, and Telefónica O2 in the U.K.). For all other carriers, users require a Direct Secure Transport Service plan which is purchased directly from Good or a Motorola authorized reseller partner.

So, it looks like you’ve still got an unlimited data plan for $40 and the extra $5 (or some portion of it) is being passed on to Good (Motorola) by AT&T.

Hope that clears it up … it did for us anyway.

Jeremy
St. Pete, FL

Just because it isn’t flipped on at the same time that the U.S. store is doesn’t mean it’s not coming to Canada.

From the story directly: “Although the video rental/purchase service will not initially be available in Canada, a spokesperson for Sony Computer Entertainment Canada confirms that it will be coming to Canada at some point.”

http://www.marketnews.ca/news_detail.asp?nid=3909

Ben @ Liverpool, Nova Scotia

Buzz Out Loud 767: Announcing: Snobble

Molly Wood — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Sad news for CNET: Rafe and I are about to quit and go start our new search engine, which filters results by snobbery. There's a market for everything out there. Also, Sony decides it wants to sell some consoles, and maybe some videos and TV shows, too. Good idea! iPhone's enterprise capabilities are under fire, the Dev Team claims to have unlocked it, but Google's blowing it bigger with some secret Android SDKs. D'oh.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

Episode 767

BOL Episode 767

With a $100 price cut, the Sony PlayStation 3 finally joins the console war
http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/15/with-a-100-price-cut-the-sony-playstation-3-joins-the-console-war/

Sony finally launches PlayStation 3 video download service
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/07/sony-finally-un.html

Apple apologizes for MobileMe launch, extends subscriptions
http://www.macworld.com/article/134530/2008/07/mobileme.html

iPhone 3G: Sold out in 23 states
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/07/15/iphone-3g-sold-out-in-21-states/?section=money_topstories

Apple’s iPhone configuration utility disappoints
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Apples-iPhone-Configuration-Utility-Disappoints/

Dev Team claims unlock
http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/07/15/dev-team-claims-iphone-3g-jailbreak-success-public-this-week/

Google’s Android platform: not so open after all
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080715-googles-android-platform-not-so-open-after-all.html

Delver launches open alpha of its social search engine
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9991378-2.html

San Francisco’s ‘rogue’ sysadmin still being paid while in jail
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/16/sf_sysadmin/

Apple demands recall of Psystar Mac clones
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/mac/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209100376

Bagel brownin’ Cylon toaster now frakkin’ available (Thanks, Joseph!)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/07/15/frakkin_cylon_toaster/

Voice mail:
Shane in Vegas
App store shocker!

E-mail

Hello, Buzz crew

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080715/tc_afp/lifestyleittelecomcompanyapplebrazil

I am proud to announce that the Brazilians have unblocked the iPhone.
Unfortunately, they charge you more than 250 dollars to unlock, so it
would be better to buy the “non carrier iPhone” from the stores. This
price is just as ridiculous as the iPhone’s price will be here; we are
by far the country with the highest iPod prices.

greetings from the funny prices land
Alexandre from Brazil

*****

So, as a Canadian, and an owner of all three gaming consoles (360 Elite,
PS3 and Wii), should I get more excited about the US-only 360 Netflix
add-on, or the US-only PlayStation video store? The PlayStation store is
particularly annoying, because they have a blank button where you COULD
press if I were ALLOWED to buy movies. And heck, it’s SONY, don’t you
OWN a movie company??

I’m an honest person, and would LOVE to buy digital content legally, but
there is virtually nowhere that will let me, as a Canadian, watch
streaming video, or buy digital movies. I currently have over 200 ripped
DVDs THAT I OWN on my HP Home Server, and watch them through my 360 via
Vista Media Centre. I would like to be able to buy current digital
movies and TV shows, is that too much to ask for? No Netflix or
Blockbuster Online, no Hulu, no ABC, NBC, CBS Web sites, and iTunes has
a very limited amount of TV shows, mainly crappy Canadian stuff that I
don’t watch for free anyways. Tivo up here is only the crappy version 2,
with no HD. ARGHHHH!!!!

Even NBC’s online Olympic coverage will be US-only, leaving Canadians in
the dark. Then the content providers have the nerve to complain that
Canada has high piracy rates? Though I do not do any illegal torrenting
(and my Internet is throttled if I wanted to anyways), I can understand
why basically honest people are turning to this. If there’s no legal way
to get what you want, short of waiting for a DVD to be released, what
alternative do you have?

And there endeth my latest “Molly Rant.”

Take care, love the show;

Paul

******

Heya, Buzz Crew,

I got this e-mail from the MobileMe people today:

We have recently completed the transition from .Mac to MobileMe.
Unfortunately, it was a lot rockier than we had hoped.

Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My Mac, and
Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had
lots of problems initially. Fortunately we have worked through those
problems and the Web apps are now up and running.

Another snag we have run into is our use of the word “push” in
describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all e-mail,
contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are
immediately synced to and from the MobileMe “cloud,” changes made on a
PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other
devices. So even though things are indeed instantly pushed to and from
your iPhone and the Web apps today, we are going to stop using the word
“push” until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too.

We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation
for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day
extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge. Your extension
will be reflected in your account settings within the next few weeks.

We hope you enjoy your new suite of web applications at me.com, in
addition to keeping your iPhone and iPod touch wirelessly in sync with
these new web applications and your Mac or PC.

Thank you,

The MobileMe Team

So the MobileMe subscribers are getting 30 free days, and they won’t
advertise the Push anymore until ‘until it is near-instant on PCs and
Macs, too.’ What the hell? So what they're saying is, "Yeah we know it’s no
push, but we will call it Push when it's nearly instant sync, which isn’t
Push, but our users are too stupid to figure out that it isn’t push."

Have a nice day

Tales from the IRC

*****

Hi, Molly, Tom, and Jason,

This whole issue with Psystar and Apple isn’t being just about IP but
its also about customer image.

Let's just say I buy a Psystar and OSX crashes for no apparent reason.
The assumption is to call Psystar right? Not so...most people first
assume its the software giving them problems and not the hardware at
first. So they call Apple customer support. Which Apple will ask them
what machine they are running it on or a serial number, etc. The customer
would feel cheated by the fact that Apple will give them no support for
operating system issues on unsupported hardware. The same happened when
all the Mac clones came out in the time Steve Jobs left, which left a bad
taste in a lot of people's mouths after that, and also the reason why
that was stopped when Steve Jobs came back.

Just my 2 cents' worth
- Edward

*****

In Show 766 with the marvellous title of ‘Punch me in the face, Apple’,
one of your callers was lamenting the fact that she had to wait a whole
3 hours for iPhone activation. Oh, if only I were that lucky. I have
been waiting, along with many fellow UK iPhone fanboys, for over 120
hours and still have no activation. O2 (the UK cell
operator) says they are working on it.

Funny how they always manage to take your money right on time.

love the show

Ben

*****

Hi, it’s Kieran from Sydney, Australia.

I’ve been waiting over a year for the iPhone; I paid the online deposit
through the carrier I selected here (Optus) and waited in line from 6:30
a.m. for the 7 a.m. release.
Finally at around 9 a.m. after waiting in line for what seemed like hours I
got my beautiful shiny white iPhone….got it home and what’s what? IT’S
A DUD!…sooooo I take it back to Optus and instead of doing a simple
exchange due to lack of stock they had to send it back to
headquarters……6 days have passed and I only found out today it will
be approximately another 6 days before I get a working phone.
So I am paying handset repayments on a phone I don’t bloody have! (here
you just pay the plan you select a month and then a few extra bucks to
pay for the iPhone instead of having to pay a large amount upfront…so
I got a $59 plan, which includes enough data and calls and SMS for
me and then didn’t have to pay anything to get the phone itself)

It's Optus that I am angry with because obviously any manufacturer has a
small amount of products that are just faulty or DOA…but Optus should
have set some aside to account for this.

So yeah…12 hours? Stop whinging, lady

Oh, and to make matters worse, my boyfriend got one on a whim and his is
perfect…….grr.

*****

Buzz Out Loud 766: Punch me in the face, Apple

Molly Wood — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:21:00 GMT

This is the show where we learn, once and for all, what we always suspected. Apple can do anything it wants to you, and you'll sit there and take it and even say thank you. Sigh. In other news, Microsoft thrills Xbox Live Gold subscribers with Netflix streaming (and infuriates nonsubscribers, or at least one), Viacom backs off its threat to Hoover up all your personal information and come after you for watching pirated videos, and Apple finally gets around to suing Psystar. Oh, and Molly's back.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

Episode 766

E3 coverage
http://news.cnet.com/crave/?keyword=%22e3+2008%22

Microsoft confirms Xbox 360 price cut
http://www.twice.com/article/CA6578748.html?desc=topstory

Netflix goes streaming - read Stephen's e-mail
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/07/15/netflix-builds-its-field-of-dreams.aspx
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9990585-2.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Webware

Viacom decides it doesn’t need YouTube histories
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2325641,00.asp
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9985394-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7506948.stm

P2P not hurting DVD, Blu-ray sales as revenues up from 2007
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080714-p2p-not-hurting-dvd-blu-ray-sales-as-revenues-up-from-2007.html

EA Scrabble on Facebook launches
http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=cat&category1=Internet%20and%20Interactive&newsitem_no=23967

Apple sues Psystar, maker of clones
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9991572-56.html?tag=nefd.lede

Estimating the time-to-own of an unpatched Windows PC
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/15/0123245&from=rss
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/15/unpatched_pc_survival_drops/

Palm Treo 800w (Sprint) Smartphone reviews
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/palm-treo-800w-sprint/4505-6452_7-33142476.html

App developers grow impatient with lack of Android updates
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080714-app-developers-grow-impatient-with-lack-of-android-updates.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/14/android_developer_unrest/

Judge doesn’t give Tiffany a trademark silver spoon in eBay flap
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/judge-doesnt-gi.html

S.F. officials locked out of computer network
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/14/BAOS11P1M5.DTL

Fonolo lets you skip phone menu purgatory
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9990929-2.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Webware

VOICEMAIL

Julie
Apple troubles and Apple love.

E-mail

Hey, Buzz Crew,

I have a feeling the E3 announcement about Netflix being available on the Xbox 360 will be on your agenda for Tuesday. I just wanted to put in my two cents early. When I first read about that announcement along with the announcement that Final Fantasy XIII was coming to the 360, I pretty much decided I’d buy a 360. I had originally been considering the PS3 for the Blu-ray, and because the 40GB model wasn’t too far out of my price range. Then, I read about Netflix and Final Fantasy, and realized that I don’t have an HDTV anyway, so I might as well go for the 360. Oh, I had also been mulling over buying the Roku box, and figured I wouldn’t have to now.

Then I read the whole story. The Netflix service would only be available to Gold subscribers, which is a $50 annual fee? No thanks. I’ll just buy the Roku box, which doesn’t require any additional fees on top of the cost of the box. Nice going Microsoft, you just put me back in line to buy a PS3, since your killer app (for me, anyway) isn’t so killer afterall.

Stephen

—

Hello, Buzzcrew!

Thought you’d be interested to know that the CBS affiliate in town, WGFL, is making the switch to digital THIS FRIDAY! During most commercial breaks in the 6-9pm time slot (during Jeopardy and Rays games) they have been running ads stating that they have been granted permission by the FCC to switch early. They also give out phone numbers and URL for more information. Some messages even say they are having public meetings where community members can ask questions and get more info on obtaining boxes. Also, during many shows, they have a scrolling message across the bottom repeating the same information. I feel the station has done a thorough job of informing the public about the switch. Seems like we’ll be (partly) taking the digital plunge before Wilmington. I’ll report back any incidences of mass hysteria, riots, emotional fits, looting, etc.

Love the show.

Justin
Gainesville, FL
http://www.getjustin.com

P.S. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGFL
—
I have no doubt that you guys will be well aware of Joss Whedon's latest project, Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and how it has gone live today... what you may not know though, is that to view it free, you have to be in the US, because it uses Hulu, which of course doesn't work anywhere else but in the US! If I want to get it, I have to pay to get it from iTunes, despite the fact that according to all the press releases prior, you only had to pay after a certain time...

Another case of bad decision making and a US-centric approach to the Internet that is going to backfire one day...

Cheers,
Joshua S. Hill

—

Buzz Out Loud 765: Thank goodness for robot crabs

Tom Merritt — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:13:00 GMT

I'm so sick of saying the name of that darn phone, but the fact of the matter is, people want to hear about it. So we do one more day about the weekend issues and thank goodness for Microsoft and Yahoo giving us something else to talk about. And robot crabs. Thank goodness for robot crabs.
Listen now: Download today's podcast

Episode 765

Yahoo rejects joint-bid for search business by Icahn and Microsoft
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9989870-93.html

Microsoft' Latest Offer Detailed; Major Shareholder Legg Mason (Still) Unimpressed
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-microsoft-latest-offer-detailed-legg-mason-unimpressed/
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/13/1217220

Steve Wozniak out of line at iPhone store?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9989823-93.html

Apple: One million iPhones sold, 10 million App Store downloads in first weekend
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9990149-2.html

Apple 2.0 Piper Jaffray analyzes first weekend iPhone sales «
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/07/14/apple-sells-425000-iphone-3gs-in-three-days/

3G iPhone’s mediocre battery life still beats rivals
http://www.pcworld.com/article/148348/3g_iphones_mediocre_battery_life_still_beats_rivals.html

Did Apple set developers up for failure?
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/07/14/did-apple-set-developers-up-for-failure/

Tired of iPhone news? - This one's for you
http://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe&video=iphone3g

Tesla Roadsters now rolling off production line
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9990153-54.html

Smart parking spaces in San Francisco
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/13/0141252

Homer Simpson and the Kimya Botnet
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/12/1157244

Robot crabs coming to an office near you
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9990135-1.html

Voice mail

Daniel LA
Phoneless in Los Angeles

Isaac Minnepaolis
Save image works in iPhone now.

Anonymous
Here's who's using Windows for Workgroups

E-mail

Tom, Molly, and Jason,

Recently Comcast sent out a letter saying they will be dropping 7 analog channels on July 15 from their "Extended Basic" package and only offering these channels in their digital packages. The minimum digital package is their "Digital Started" package which cost an additional $3.95 a month plus the cost of a converter box for each device. Some of the channels they are dropping like MSNBC are already offered as a digital channel. Even though Comcast is offering fewer channels in their "Extended Basic" package they are not reducing the cost of this package. Most people in my area have several analog TV's and VCR's directly connected to cable without a converter box.

Love the show,

**********

My staff and I listen to your podcast every day and enjoy the light-hearted approach to the tech news.
I/we have one major bug bear though.

Why is it that you predominantly discuss Apple products and Google services over all else. Don't get me wrong, they have to be represented, but guys, all your show sounds like these days is an advertisement for Apple and Google.
If your show is paid for, or sponsored by the above then fair enough. As your intro suggests, you are not. So please guys, try to keep a balanced overview of the tech news, as we are sick to the back teeth of hearing APPLE, they are not THAT good and as far as I know, still a minority in the global user market.

Apart from that, we enjoy the show.. keep up the good work.

Keith Fielding

**********

Hi, Buzz Crew,
I was listening to Friday’s episode where Tom was trying to think of a business model where a small number of people pay while others get by for free. I have the perfect example. Craigslist. A small number of users pay to post job ads in select markets while everyone else can use the service for free.

On a different note, I might be old fashioned, but I really like the security of having a disc even though I transfer (my legally purchased) media to my computer/ipod. Having had two backup external hard drives fail in the last several months, I was very glad that I had a box in my closet full of old DVDs and CDs. I will probably continue to keep them around, at least until we have full cloud computing.

Love the show, keep up the good work!

-Jonathan in Philadelphia

PS: It was great having Veronica on the show again!

PPS: Natalie is great, too! Bring her back more!

**********

Hey, guys!

Just wanted to thank Evan from Washington, D.C. He saved our marriage! My wife and I got into a big fight when she couldn’t connect to the Internet. Listening to episode 762, and in particular, Evan’s email. I shutdown ZoneAlarm and connected to the net. Voila! It worked! Thanks, Evan. And thanks, BOL!

Tolerate the show.

David