Buzz Out Loud 828: Things change, suck it!

Financial markets will collapse, venture capitalists will cause a run on start-ups that will lead to even more financial collapses, companies that try to disable their DRM servers will inevitably reverse that bad decision, and Web redesigns will happen and you can't opt out of them. Live with it. We're jerks today. It's Friday.
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EPISODE 828

An ignoble but much needed end to Web 2.0, marked by a party in Cyprus
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/10/an-ignoble-but-much-needed-end-to-web-20/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10063178-93.html

Sequoia Capital's 56 slide presentation of doom
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/10/sequoia-capitals-56-slide-powerpoint-presentation-of-doom/

11 troubled Web companies: The next Kozmos?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10063020-2.html

Bank turmoil fuels phishing boom
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7663055.stm

Wal-Mart reverses policy on DRM?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10063168-93.html

Verizon Wireless to charge content vendors 3-cent fee for text messages
http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20081009/WIRELESS/810091609/0/all/verizon-wireless-to-charge-content-vendors-3-cent-fee-for-text

http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2008/10/us_aggregators_stunned_at_verizons_003_mt_transaction_fees_increase.html

US telco: ‘Public broadband is illegal’
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/10/minnesota_public_broadband_ruling/

Guinea pigs squeal over Yahoo home page test
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10062224-93.html

Web Therapy: Lisa Kudrow’s smart new Web comedy series
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/10/09/web-therapy-lisa-kud.html

Robotic suit for rent in Japan
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/10/0034205

Voice mail
Whiny McWhinerson
WHYYYYYYmax

Hmmmm
Hmmm, text message

Josh from Denver
YouTube audio comments.

E-mail

Hi Buzz crew,

Happy birthday cellphone! Apparently, it was 25 years ago today that
people made the first regular-service cellphone call. The differences
really put things in perspective: at the time, you were lucky to have
30 minutes of call time and had to carry around a phone so big you
could probably kill a bear with it. That puts things in perspective
when you realize that many phones now are more like little
supercomputers compared to what you had in 1983. More here:

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/10/10/25th.anniv.of.cellphones/

Cheers,

Jon
Ottawa, Canada

**********

Hello,

Wanted to alleviate some of the fear that may be surrounding the GeoEye satellite used by Google.

The .41m (or .50 for Google) resolution is only for black and white photos, and since Google probably isn’t going to use those on Google maps, then they are stuck with 1.65m resolution for the color.

Even if they were coloring the .50m resolution photos you still wouldn’t be able to really identify the small stuff, as each pixel represents .50m.

I guess what it boils down to, is you don’t need to use the “private” shopping feature on your browser if you are concerned the satellite is going to catch you.

Hope this helps.

Kyle from Bakersfield.

**********

Hi JaMaTo plus one

I have just been driving on my way home from work listening to episode 827 when I felt compelled to stop and write this email, as I think I may at last have something worthy of being read oh on the show.

Whilst you were discussing Zune bashing on the show, Natalie said that she was very suprised that we had not yet seen a Zune phone. Well actually, I was at the Microsoft event in London last week where Steve Ballmer gave away his tidbits about the cloud OS and he specifically answered a question about Microsoft direction and consumer products. Here he confirmed their intentions to make the Zune software availble for other mobile Microsoft platforms, including phones.

I would try and look for the Cnet story that I saw mentioned this and include the link, but as I am on my iPhone and didn’t think of that at the start and have no copy and paste! I can’t..

Love the show and have been listening since the 1st century

Martin the VMware guy from the uk.

**********

After putting it off multipile times I could not procrastinate or take it
any longer…

After listening to ep 827’s content about how Microsoft should have
expected to be made fun of over calling the transferring of Data between
zunes “Squirting” I could stand it no more.

The term is the correct term and Microsoft had nothing to do with it. for
example I found this article about the 1.0 spec for Bluetooth and how it
compares to IrDA specs written in June of 1999: http://awurl.com/oxjZsoIfw

The official term for the IrDA spec is called “Point and Squirt” because
you have to point to the other device creating a PAN (Personal Area
Network). “Squirting” has become the term for point to point PANs
(narrowcasting not broadcasting). Bluetooth syncs with other devices and
narrowcasts between them so the term applies.

There is even a Linux app called e-Squirt that handles both IR and
Bluetooth.

Robert Clark
Prince Albert, SK, Canada

**********

Hi favourite podcasters,

Fancy giving a shout out to my contribution to the BOL wiki -
http://buzzoutloud.wikia.com/wiki/European_benchmarks

I’d like to offer some European data, as you sometimes make mistakes
and sometimes moan about things in the US that frankly any of us over
here would be jealous of.

Simon

**********

Hey JaMoTo +…ooh let me guess here….um…Rafe! (If I go that wrong…sorry!)

Sorry I didn’t get back to you about your call for the Patent Office. Sitting over in the Trademark Office (Madison East building-Represent!) with a wicked Sinus Infection I could barely make sense of BOL this week. I figured one of the Patent guys would straighten you out though.

I did look at the DMCA suggestion box and have been sifting through some ideas about what would be the best language for an exception. I’m going to start a thread in the forums and would appreciate suggestions but as of right now I figure an exception to “circumvent copy protection to perform any act recognized as an exception to copyright protection or as an act of fair use” is a good place to start. Ultimately that’s what the problem is, isn’t it? That we as users can’t use the work in a way we normally could because of the violation of the DMCA. If we have permission to circumvent based on recognized exceptions already then copyright holders still have the extra cause of action in the case of pirates and other infringers while law abiding citizens can use the works for entirely legal purposes. Short of “get rid of the DMCA” all together, it seems the fairest compromise. Perhaps if we work on it in the forums and then have the Buzz Brigade send the suggestion en masse to the Office it would help?

Also-a quick shout out to my other DC area buzzers. Let’s do a Happy Hour, yes? I’ll make a forum thread for that too.

–
Frank L.