Buzz Out Loud 774: The feel-good episode of the year Video

Buzz Out Loud 774: The feel-good episode of the year Video Transcript

[ Music ]

>> It's Friday July 25th, 2008.

>> I'm Molly Wood.

>> I'm Tom Merritt.

>> I'm Jason Howell.

>> Welcome to Buzz Out Loud. CNET's podcast of indeterminate length. That's Episode 774.

>> Are you guys okay?

>> It's our special video version and we've just got in trouble for not closing the door. [ Laughter ]

>> We're getting counted into the video version and we hear, "Can you guys close the door?" [ Laughter ]

>> What are you, boarding a barn?

>> 'Cause we're screaming from the studio.

>> Most people probably won't hear that though, there'll be loud music going over the [unintelligible].

>> There will be loud music. So, you won't even know what we're talking about but it was hilarious for us. [ Simultaneous Talking ] [ Laughter ]

>> And it's kind of an inappropriate way to lead into our top story but we sort to have to get right into it.

>> Yeah, the top story is very sad, you know, we were having a little fun with the Spam King's escape yesterday, and then by the time our podcast was published, it turned very not funny.

>> Yeah.

>> Actually, pretty late in the day. It seemed like about 4 o'clock the news broke.

>> Yeah. So, the news you probably know by now was that Eddie Davidson, the Spam King, who had escaped from prison was found dead along with his wife and 3-year-old daughter.

>> Wow.

>> Also a teenage girl and another [unintelligible].

>> A neighbor was injured.

>> A baby.

>> A baby was found on a car seat uninjured.

>> Right.

>> A teenage girl was shot on the neck and is in the hospital. So --

>> Yeah.

>> Nothing funny about that story anymore.

>> Obviously not, you know, we didn't know that when we talked about it, and no one, I mean the guy was in minimum security prison, there was certainly no reason for anyone to think that he was capable of violent crime but apparently he was and that's a really, really terrible ending.

>> So, yes.

>> Very sad ending. But we had to acknowledge it.

>> Yes.

>> Unto something that has not anymore fun which is the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute Dr. Ronald Herberman --

>> The show is like --

>> Well, we'll get better. It will get better.

>> It's got to go -- it's all up from here, I swear.

>> Yeah. The fun stuff's coming at the end, but Dr. Herberman had said, that based on unpublished researched that he has reviewed, he is going to issue a 10-point advisory or has issued 10-point advisory on how to responsively use phones because he believes there is a long term risk for cancer from cell phone use.

>> Yeah. And the internet has been a buzz with this basically because it so -- its kind -- it's very surprising for someone this prominent, you know, the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. And in the face of so many studies which have not found any definitive link between cell phones to cancer to say like, "You know what? I've looked at enough --

>> Yeah.

>> And I've seen unpublished material and I'm telling you, you need be careful at least."

>> You know, what he is saying is not to put down your cell phones right now or you need to wrap your head in tin foil or anything like that. He is basically recommending the children not use cell phones if it all possible or at least use them minimally. He's not even saying children should never use them, just use them minimally.

>> Right.

>> And he says for others who use cell phones, try to use them on speakerphone or with a headset. And minimize the use next to the phone. He also recommends trying to find a phone with a low specific absorption rate. We have radiation charts at cnet.com that are pretty good in helping you identify what the specific absorption rates are --

>> Yeah.

>> For the different phones.

>> That's an interesting chart.

>> And he takes that those guidelines should help minimize the risk.

>> He even says and I find this kind of surprising 'cause this is -- I do this, I charge my phone on my bedside table every night --

>> Uhmm --hmm.

>> And he said, "No". Stay -- keep it away from you, charge it somewhere else --

>> Yeah.

>> Particularly if you're pregnant and or you can, he said, put in flight or offline mode which stops sort of the transmissions.

>> Now, are the blue tooth headsets -- are they much better than using a cell phone up to your ear, I mean --

>> Yeah.

>> You're still putting something that's transmitting like --

>> Right. [ Simultaneous Talking ]

>> But it's true that you get very low level bluetooth signal instead of the high-power radio -- [ Simultaneous Talking ]

>> Everything.

>> In fact I was looking at the --

>> It's less than 1/100 he said of the electromagnetic emission of a normal cell phone.

>> Oh, okay.

>> I was looking at the radiation charts and the 3G phones seemed to have a much higher specific absorption rate 'cause they need that more powerful radio --

>> Yeah.

>> To handle EDGE, so --

>> That was so surprising. I've looked over Tom shoulder. But that was a surprising finding I thought and kind of deserving like the iPhone 3G could chain the HTC Touch -- like pretty high.

>> It says here, the highest is Motorola V195s.

>> Uhmm --

>> With 1.6.

>> Yeah.

>> What's that -- we don't care what the highest -- what's the lowest. That's going on pretty -- [ Simultaneous Talking ] [ Laughter ]

>> I know totally.

>> That's the one to stay away from on T-Mobile.

>> I know definitely.

>> It's look like --

>> I think, you know, and it's interesting I don't think this is like you said it's not that controversial --

>> No.

>> It's controversial to the extent that there's no proof.

>> Right.

>> But it's perfectly reasonable.

>> He's not coming out with his own study, he is in his reviewed study. So, you could quibble with him.

>> Sure.

>> Like where's the proof --

>> But you could also say -- it makes sense to be careful.

>> But he's also not saying every body go stop selling cell phones.

>> Sure.

>> Yeah.

>> He saying, "Here are some good guidelines to minimize the risk".

>> And Tom, I --

>> Yeah. I think that's absolutely fair.

>> I know you got rid of your RAZR but it happens to be the lowest. So --

>> No. I didn't get rid of it. [ Simultaneous Talking ] [ Laughter ]

>> I put it in house, so --

>> And actually this is the RAZR V3.

>> Oh, I got the older one.

>> So, this is version one.

>> Which is, you know, number 5 on the lowest, so --

>> All right.

>> You might want to trash your iPhone.

>> Okay. [ Laughter ]

>> This time, I'll go home and blend it.

>> Yes. As soon I get home.

>> It's really -- it is very interesting to see some of the response in the comments. I urge you to read the comments on the story. Because the people are -- some people are very angry about this.

>> Yeah.

>> And talking about how it's pseudoscience and how, you know, and it's just like really, really --

>> Maybe, it is.

>> Its just a precautionary tale, maybe it is.

>> But it doesn't seem that way to be, right?

>> No, I mean there's enough smoke, right?

>> Yup.

>> And that's what I've been saying for a long time. There's enough smoke that it is reasonable to assume there might be at least a tiny bit of fire. And so, shouldn't you just be reasonable about how you use your phone?

>> When will the CTIA going to respond?

>> Well, maybe they have, maybe they are the commentaries.

>> Yeah, as you [simultaneous talking] blog comments. [ Laughter ]

>> Yeah, they have an official response though.

>> They will, yeah.

>> That will be interesting to watch because unlike some studies that come out with any -- without any kind of recommendations in the past saying that they thought there might be a long term risk to cancer and the CTIA has just kind of pounded on those --

>> I know.

>> And said that there are plenty of other evidences that say there isn't. This is not a study. This is a doctor saying, "Here's some behaviors to follow", not even saying, "Don't use cell phones or don't buy cell phones".

>> Right.

>> Right.

>> So.

>> Well, and how, how [unintelligible] are you starting to look, if you're the CTIA and you come out and you go like, "No --

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> Always put your phone right here and let your baby use it." You know like, come on guys this is not a big deal.

>> You could almost, if you were a conspiracy theorist, you can almost accuse the doctor of being a cahoots because he is not saying, "Don't use cell phones". He is saying, "Use cell phones this way." You know if you want to really want to put on your tin foil hat --

>> Wow!

>> And say like --

>> That's far our field.

>> They're paying him to encourage the use, by saying use headsets and then they sell more bluetooth headsets, you know, what I'm saying.

>> Well, yeah.

>> Somebody is going to take it that way.

>> I already have those thoughts about our nanny saying bluetooth laughs. [ Laughter ] wireless headset loss.

>> Our next study doesn't -- our next story doesn't get us into fun land yet. No, not at all. AOL is shopping themselves up in advance of what many think will be a sale. We've been talking about the possibility of AOL being sold by Time Warner. They are closing AOL pictures, Bluestring, a site that shares video, music, and photos, Xdrive --

>> Xdrive.

>> Which is used by people to back up their data.

>> Yeah.

>> They are giving a transition period then they have to shut it off.

>> Right.

>> But yeah, if you relied on Xdrive or paid for Xdrive in order to be your backup method, you're not going to have to find another backup method.

>> Yeah, hello S3. They're also going to close MyMobile which repackages various AOLs services for use on mobile devices, and then apparently paring back some of the blogs that it hosts. The DIYLife blog is being shutd own and then bloggers there, and this is interesting, at the Unofficial Apple Weblog and DownloadSquad who are paid by the post, have been told to stop posting until July 31st to cut costs.

>> Yeah, and that's unclear from the PaidContent posting.

>> Yeah.

>> Whether this means there will be no posts on those blogs for a week or if that's just the paid blog, the paid by the post bloggers will not be blogging anymore --

>> Do they have salary blog?

>> And that they have staff that might still be blogging. I assume that's the way it's going to be.

>> I hope so. [ Laughter ] It can be pretty sad if those bloggers like "Uhmm"

>> But it's also pretty sad for those paid by the post bloggers.

>> Yeah.

>> Who now are basically told, "You won't get paid for the next week".

>> Your on vacation.

>> Yeah.

>> Yup. [ Laughter ]

>> You know, on paid vacation.

>> On paid vacation. And then the story goes on to note that the two obvious candidates for purchase are Yahoo and Microsoft.

>> Yeah.

>> There you go, I guess we'll see. I mean that's definitely -- that is definitely putting your self up for sale.

>> Yeah, that it is.

>> Prior sale behavior. A Nero report suggests that MySpace could be working on Amazon -- with Amazon on their new music service which is kind of interesting 'cause talking about a kick start for Amazon's sale music sales.

>> Yeah.

>> Right. It's not boggling to me but I am somewhat surprised when people don't know about the Amazon MP3 Music Store because it has all the major labels and it's on DRM. It's not the only one like that out there but its Amazon, you figure most people don't know about it.

>> I know. They really don't.

>> It hasn't had as big of an impact as you might have thought.

>>Well, 'cause maybe if Amazon could make like a tiny bit of room on their homepage, like just scoot the kindle picture over like 4 pixels and put a little link like a bigger notice, like "Hey, we sell bugillions of un-DRM music."

>> Yeah, they must be making more [unintelligible].

>> Yeah like, I find that super annoying.

>> So, anyway this would be a way to really boost that service for Amazon.

>> Yes.

>> By and a way for MySpace to bring back that cool -- we've got the music aspects.

>> The cache.

>> Yeah.

>> That they sort of -- they didn't lose it but with snowcap going away, they didn't have that way of delivering the music.

>> I know. That would be interesting. Also, still EMI is holding out. Did you know that?

>> EMI is holding out from --

>> From the DRM free, the unprotected MP3 downloads from MySpace. The service was ever offered to or expected to offer free streaming music.

>> From MySpace, they are not holding out from other places just from MySpace?

>> No. They're still holding out from MySpace. Anyway, can MySpace music become a welcome alternative to iTunes dependency?

>> It looks like they're shooting for a September 15th target launch date.

>> The heights of September.

>> Here it comes, whatever.

>> A new firmware update has been released to developers by Apple for the iPhone, iPhone 2.1. This is so that they can start making sure their apps run on the new firmware when it comes. No indications of exactly when it will come.

>> Right. Offer is for developers only.

>> But story on Wired indicates that iPhone 2.1 will support turn-by-turn GPS.

>> Yey!

>> That's sweet.

>> I know and then, there was apparently some speculations right before we came that it might add --

>> Copy-paste.

>> Copy-paste.

>> No. [ Simultaneous Talking ]

>> [Unintelligible] said a link to Mac Rumor, I believed it's Mac Rumors.

>> Yeah.

>> That's speculated on copy-paste being in 2.1. Won't we know when the developers start using it? I mean, that will leak out. Yeah.

>> I guess there was like what, okay. What -- how they were working on 2.0 for long time.

>> Yeah.

>> Like they announced it a long time ago. Why bother? Why take the public relation's risk of releasing a device that doesn't have turn-by-turn GPS, that doesn't have copy-paste, that doesn't have MMS, that doesn't have these basic things that people are like, "You are just being a stubborn ASS, if you don't give it." That you know like for not putting this in and then we're like, whoa a few weeks later it will be out on 2.1, like what -- why?

>> Less than a few weeks later. Don't forget this is just released to developers --

>> Yeah.

>> So the firmware won't come out for a while yet. I mean --

>> It's a very --

>> You want to answer?

>> I guess it's a very Microsoft approach, right?

>> Well, the answer is --

>> We're going to put that out [simultaneous talking]

>> That they wouldn't even be able to launch on time if they've done those, done those things as well everything else they did. And so, they prioritize this below all the other features they have in 2.0. So, your beef is why weren't these prioritized higher?

>> Yeah.

>> So, what would we have to lose from 2.0 to get copy-paste and turn-by-turn?

>> I don't know.

>> I, see, I don't even know what are those features --

>> I don't know 2.0 well enough to say, yeah. But really is copy-paste like so hard? [ Laughter ]

>> They said it was.

>> They said specifically that they wanted it to happen but it was lower on the priority list and they couldn't hit their launch date if they included it. So, they put it off to the next rev.

>> Yeah. I mean I guess that's always the thing, right? It was a pretty easy crowd pleaser like I would just -- or MMS that was like why wouldn't you prioritize the higher? It just feels a little bit out of touch, I guess.

>> Yeah, and if the turn-by-turn and copy-paste have granted, it's not going to sell the device ended up sale. But there are probably a lot of people that are holding out for it, they hear that it has got GPS, but that it doesn't do the turn-by turn.

>> Right.

>> And so they'll like, oh, then I guess they don't want it.

>> No, maybe -- [ Simultaneous Talking ]

>> So it's for those Apple to be like --

>> They just can't buy it.

>> That's true. [ Laughter ]

>> That's true. At this point there's a force hold out versus the like.

>> Right. Yes. Exactly.

>> I think some people --

>> You know, it gives some more reason to do it a few months later --

>> But, I think every time --

>> See we're improving. We're increasing the, you know, the functionality of the phone.

>> I think so. I just think for Apple every time people like me, like snarky analyst like me put up a list and cooly did the same thing. If the things that it doesn't have that every other phone kind of has, it was like it does create sort of a lingering negative impression in the marketplace.

>> Sure.

>> But are you ever going to --

>> I don't know if it's working.

>> Not have that list.

>> That's true.

>> Or, you know, if they're putting copy-paste but they'd left out something else.

>> Yeah, but.

>> And that's --

>> There probably always going to be stuff.

>> They would have left out something else but not it wouldn't have appeared so much like a list of things that my 4-year-old trio could do, you know like.

>> I honestly don't really run in to a copy-paste frustration all that often.

>> Really? Oh, my gosh. I use copy-paste a lot.

>> That well maybe 'cause I can't.

>> Maybe. [ Laughter ]

>> Right exactly. You can find a ways around.

>> Yeah, yeah. Exactly.

>> Yeah, totally.

>> Anyway.

>> But when you run into it, no doubt, it is frustrating when you do need it.

>> Yeah.

>> What is also frustrating, but we still don't have any fun stories yet?

>> No.

>> Well the turn-by-turn was sort of fun.

>> That was, yeah. Actually, it's true. I was the big downer there, but that is good news.

>> Yeah. I guess.

>> Good news.

>> However, Yahoo music as we mentioned is shutting itself up and turning off the validation servers for the DRM music they sold. So, they're encouraging everyone to go burn those songs to CD.

>> Which is that?

>> Go buy a bunch of CDs and burn them off before it goes off the air.

>> Are they encouraging people to break the encryption on their own DRM?

>> No, 'cause I think it's allowed to burn to a CD just a limited number of times.

>> But then are you allowed to rip it back?

>> No. Well I don't know. I don't know if there's any thing particular on that. And I don't know if this burn back that way.

>> No.

>> I assume they would but I've never tried it. Either way --

>> Anyway.

>> What they are saying is burn them to CDs so you don't lose them, right? So, you have them in case your computer hard drive dies or whatever. They're just encouraging back up, they are not encouraging piracy. However, the EFF does encourage them to go even further saying, "Look, you need to refund people's money for this if they don't work anymore.

>> Yeah.

>> Or upgrade them to DRM free MP3s".

>> That's right.

>> Which would avoid the whole piracy issue. You're not making people go get around the DRM --

>> You're saving them essentially --

>> Yeah.

>> What they are going to create for themselves any ways, just in a little bit better way of kind of shines, you know, what they're doing here in the switch. They even say down here, "We want to help people to make the transition now that's why we're not, you know, prolonging the pain for another three years".

>> And that's --

>> We're going to help them by forcing them.

>> And that was really interesting 'cause yesterday we said was Yahoo not paying attention all to the MSN Music Debacle and they said, "Yes, we were." And they made all the same points that Microsoft made which is your benefit from a better service and there aren't that many people being affected and they said Microsoft is delaying the inevitable and were ripping off the banding.

>> Yeah.

>> Like.

>> They are like, "No, we learn from it. We learn. We're going to go ahead and do it anyway."

>> Even though what Microsoft did what they did --

>> Are you really?

>> Everybody was like, "Bravo! You know, good for you Microsoft." You --

>> I know.

>> You know it's so weird.

>> I know.

>> Do you think that they could possibly are EFF is asking them to give everyone DRM free MP3s, do you think they can even do that?

>> No.

>> My nurse saying there's not that many people will be affected by this, of course.

>> Right.

>> So that implies that maybe it wouldn't be that hard but it seems like --

>> I don't think it's a money issue.

>> Well --

>> I think what do we talked about that with Microsoft --

>> Even if there was--

>> That was clearly a licensing issue.

>> Even if it wasn't a licensing issue, trying to push MP3s to everybody who's ever bought anything without the music.

>> And trying to validate the fact that, you know, people would say, "Oh, I bought this, this and this and trying to go --", I mean there you have DRM files, so it's not that hard to validate it boy the potential for fraud --

>> It's a refunded.

>> Would be huge.

>> Yeah.

>> I think refund is almost the only way to do it.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> That's hard enough but that can be done.

>> That can be done.

>> And probably they should.

>> Or credits, you know, some sort of credit issue.

>> I'm saying that they should do it.

>> Yeah.

>> Or credit, yeah. A credit is better than nothing. Just gives refund credit.

>> Refund though.

>> And the Yahoo shops.

>> That's what Google did, right?

>> That's interesting though.

>> Because it --

>> Google videos?

>> Yeah.

>> They give you a credit for Google checkout.

>> They give you a credit, right which is like, oh, never, but it was --

>> And if you did use it in Google checkout, you ended up getting cash.

>> Oh, really?

>> Yeah, eventually.

>> Oh, see if Google can do it, Yahoo can do it unless it's market place dominance and that's a whole different issue.

>> Yeah. It complete -- it completely negates though everything that they've done for a however many years, I don't know how long they've been doing this DRM tracks but it completely wipes out any of the progress or any other profits that they've done if they then have to give a refund. It's like, "Oh, what we've doing for the past three or four years, it didn't work, so, here have it all back", you know and it just --

>> Yeah.

>> It's an interesting glimpse into the problem with DRM in the sense that even when it worked for so long, eventually at that point to where it didn't work and now it's kind of bite you in the ass, you know it.

>> I know. That's true. What we told them. I'm just saying we told them not to take those deals in the first place. [ Laughter ]

>> They didn't know.

>> You dance with the devil, you're going to get burned.

>> That's true.

>> Slashdot has an anonymous posting pointing to a patent story on what it is patentlee.com?

>> Yeah.

>> Is that the name of the site here, Patently-O.

>> Patently-O.

>> Patentlyo.com about the Patent Trademark Office's recent decisions that say that you cannot patent software unless the software patent results in a physical transformation of an article or is tied to a particular machine.

>> Yeah, it's very --

>> Now, some people are going and saying like this will invalidate most software patents.

>> Right.

>> Because software can run on any machine but some people are saying, "No, running on a machine is enough to quality this".

>> Enough to satisfy, you know.

>> So, I'm not enough of an expert in patent law to guess what the implications of this will be, but it's definitely a change in the way they'll grant software patents and maybe some of our patent lawyer friends in the audience can help enlighten us on this.

>> Yeah, certainly. Well, the poster on Patently-O -- what is that even supposed to mean, Patently-O.

>> Patently-O.

>> Oh, a patent law blog.

>> I guess.

>> Anyway John Duffy posting on the patent law blog in question says, "The viewpoint that it would invalidate the bulk of patents on software is wrong." He says, "That the logic could certainly has always threatened to destabilize whole fields of patenting." But he said in this case if the test is followed then it probably will not result in this.

>> The absolute-- and it goes through a description of whether Google's PageRank would count because it's not tied to a particular machine.

>> Yeah.

>> It's running on the web. The second part of the PTO's proposed eligibility test is crucial unlike the patent claim which was not limited to machine implemented hedges, Google's PageRank patent exclaimed -- expressly states that it is computer implemented but the government's test does not merely require a connection to any machine. It requires tied to a particular machine.

>> Yeah.

>> So, it could be that something like PageRank or One-Click Shopping, perhaps, just guessing.

>> Why do they have to make --

>> I'm sick on that.

>> I'm just saying why would you poorly right such a thing? [ Laughter ]

>> Is it, well I don't even know--

>> Or is it --

>> Enough to say whether it's poor, yeah.

>> I don't -- I guess I don't know but it's like -- I don't know. It feels like those are the kinds of things that should be easy to interpret so that you don't find yourself.

>> You mean laws should be easy to interpret?

>> You know laws should be easy to understand. [ Simultaneous Talking ]

>> Yeah. So that one judge isn't like, "There are no valid tough or patents in the world", and then another judge is like, "Everyone of this is just as strong as there ever [unintelligible] ". And you know kind of disaster, this whole of thing.

>> That's called law.

>> Is that just job security for like judges?

>> I don't know. I don't know. That's a whole sociological doctor to be written yet which is the evolution of legal language and how it evolve that way because that, you know, yeah you could joke that it's job's security, maybe it's perpetuated now because of that. But I don't think it got there that way necessarily. I think it got there because of disputes where somebody is like, "Yeah, but the way you wrote it, it means this." And somebody is like, "Okay, great. Next time I write it, I'm going to be very careful and write it out". You know, and eventually it just grows and grows and grows.

>> Grows and grows and then becomes more unclear.

>> Yeah.

>> It's a constant part.

>> Because it's trying to guess it every argument that could possibly be made against it.

>> Right. So the more sort of weirdly specific you try to be in forcing the potential objections, the more holes you create.

>> I mean we experience that when we try to analyze stuff and then guess what well actually is we're going to get an e-mail.

>> I know. And self sensor and --

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> Absolutely. Speaking of censorship. Hasbro now that it has released or partnered with EA to release an official version of Scrabble has finally gotten around to suing Scrabolous, the makers of Scrabolous.

>> Probably suing them in a most consumer friendly way they could.

>> I guess so.

>> Yeah, for sure.

>> In a way.

>> Because they waited until, we'll all wondering like why haven't they screwed Scrabolous -- screwed. [ Laughter ] That too. Why haven't they sued Scrabolous out of existence yet. They were waiting until they launch their own version of it so that they could say --

>> Now, you have an alternative.

>> You've got an alternative.

>> Right.

>> And you know I have to say, you know me and you know I'm not a fan of this type of intellectual property law suit but it sounds like they did that there were talks with those creators of Scrabolous about a purchase.

>> Oh, really?

>> And that they wanted like billions of dollars that they kind of maybe dere-- I mean that was coming from the people who were opposing their use of their intellectual property. So, like it's a little suspect maybe but they were like, "This guy's got really greedy and we didn't want to pay that much so it actually. It was less expensive to rest and built an alternative and then "--

>> And then sue.

>> Sue. [ Laughter ]

>> Right.

>> Well, Facebook is kind of saying they're disappointed that they are getting drawn into it. They had hoped that it would be workout but I've read a couple of quotes from Facebook's folks, people saying, "You know, we didn't want to have -- we don't want to be dragged into this issue".

>> Right.

>> You should guys should figure it out.

>> Well, the DMCA take down notes.

>> Kind of, yeah, I mean --

>> Kind of probably what will happen, you know.

>> PaidContent is like, "We don't know how quickly it's going to happen but I hope you don't have too many unfinished games."

>> Yes.

>> Because they are. I mean there's no question this is a solid DMCA claim and the Facebook is like, it will be like, okay, flagpole.

>> Do you think they had to write their lawsuit using only with no proper nouns and -- [ Laughter ]

>> See, now that -- that would clean up legal language right there.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> Scrabble rules for lawyers.

>> Users can now automatically encrypt to Gmail traffic. It can be set to an encrypt communications e-mail by default, an option that make the e-mail's service harder to snoop on but also a little slower. So, instead of having to type in that HTTPs or bookmark it that way --

>> Yeah.

>> You can just set Gmail to automatically encrypt itself no matter how you get to it.

>> What a concept.

>> Yeah. Hey completely. [ Laughter ]

>> There you go. So, that's a little good news for that. Moving on -- the ongoing kind of congressional hearings about ISP Snooping. Well, they're ongoing. Regional Internet company Embarq told lawmakers this week that it notified 26,000 high-speed internet costumers in Kansas that it was going to conduct a targeted advertising test based on their anonymous Web-surfing behavior and it offer them the ability to opt out. The House Energy and Commerce Committee said, "Yeah, here's the deal. You've made them opt out. You went ahead with your sweeping data gathering." And then according to one article I read, I think on Ars Technica, it found that only they made it so hard to opt out by bearing the opt-out link in like a 5,000 words soft of legal disclosure that only 15, 1-5 of the 26,000 of them opted out.

>> No. Obviously everyone loved it, in that way there would be more who've had opted out.

>> That must be it.

>> If only 15 people opted out that just proves how popular our ad targeting system was.

>> Why did they have a problem with it?

>> 15 subscribers and the same thing came up. So, the hearing started kind of with NebuAd which is doing the same thing that Form is doing in the UK.

>> Say it again.

>> NebuAd. [ Laughter ]

>> NebuAd.

>> I'm sorry.

>> Nebu. I'm happy -- basically I kind of want to keep covering this 'cause I'm happy that there is a congressional hearing about why spread data gathering that forces you to opt out. I don't think that your high speed should be doing that even if the targeted advertising turns out to be relevant, you should be able to opt in.

>> Yeah.

>> Is it Sweden that just passed a law saying the ISP didn't snoop on everybody all the time or the government plan or something?

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah, we want to avoid that if possible.

>> Yeah, don't want that. So, you go Edward Markey. Wo!

>> Vint Cerf is hoping to help you send the e-mail to aliens, right? That's what the story means?

>> Definitely. [ Laughter ]

>> Intergalactic planetary e-mail.

>> Slashdot has the posting about Vint Cerf prepping the Interplanetary Internet Protocol. He's been working with NASA for a long time.

>> And aliens too.

>> That's what they say, yes. [ Laughter ]

>> To figure out how to -- how to send the internet into space. Deal with the log time. Deal with the, you know, the problems of magnetism and what else?

>> Asteroids who went not.

>> I sort of lost my place.

>> Well, the cool thing about it is that scientists say that after years of working on these meteors.

>> Meteors.

>> He's like almost done. Like he's the plan is near in completion.

>> Did you already say that?

>> No.

>> Oh, yeah. The TCP/IP protocol could in fact be headed for outer space like you know now I wish. If the work succeeds, the astronauts on man-mission to Mars and other distant locations could keep in touch with researchers worldwide.

>> And get targeted ads.

>> And yey!

>> In space.

>> In space. [ Laughter ]

>> Deep space pocket inspection.

>> Oh, yeah. Nerd jokes.

>> Let us move on to the voice mails. Our number is 800-616-CNET.

>> Yeah, call us. [ Simultaneous Talking ]

>> If you buy to give us a call sometime.

>> Give us a call. We won't be able to take you live on the show right now.

>> No.

>> But, Monday --

>> Leave us some voice mails. For instance like this one from Steve.

>> Hey, Buzz crew, this is Steve and I'm from Hampton, Florida. I'm not calling in reference to an actually show but I did want to mention my -- I'm noticing that no one's really making light of the fact that the new 3G iPhone does not seem to be working within the existing accessory. [Unintelligible] Maybe 400 dollars worth of equipment that all has the most basic [unintelligible]. They're just charging my device -- my iPod but it works to my old phone, it does not work with the new phone. Really, it seems like no one even care, but that's a big deal for me. I don't know why I'm getting this message with every device I'm plugging in saying, "Hey, this isn't supported." But clearly, Apple is beginning to exercise their assumed right perhaps license accessories. I don't know but I'm not sure why people aren't screaming. What do think guys? Thanks. Bye.

>> Yeah I say they're not beginning.

>> I think because. [ Simultaneous Talking ]

>> Learned from Apple that this is what we want. We want to buy the whole new things of accessory, these whole new patches of accessory.

>> Well, yeah.

>> We want to spend more money on stupid dangles that take the gutted quarter --

>> Yeah.

>> The headphone that I can't even talk.

>> Exactly.

>> That's exact same thing that they did before but with the smaller connector.

>> Oh, yeah. And in different shape and like this and that and the other thing and then like you want to now pay a 30 dollars for an iPhone Dock that you got for free with the last one. You --

>> What we're trying to say is this is not atypical.

>> No and then it is.

>> We're kind of buzzing it every time and we've gotten used to it.

>> I know and that's kind of sad. You're right like people should be screaming about it because it is ridiculous but the fact is like they really do. They do this all the time. I mean every time when I bought my new iPod Nano then all of the accessories and the arm band, you know, this is not that I had for the -- many were totally useless. At least, I mean the one thing that they did do was keep the dock like they instituted at one point finally that sort of standard iPod Dock and they didn't really -- they hadn't really master that right.

>> Not in a while. Well, I don't think they have--

>> With it for a while.

>> iPods, I don't think so.

>> But then the iPod.

>> I don't know how that works for the iPhone. Are they the same connector in the iPhone?

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah. But then he's saying too that he's plugging things and then getting like not supported like there are reports that the new. We talked about this on CNET Live, the new iPhone isn't working with some iPod connectors in cars which is the next expensive after market accessory.

>> Yes. Right. It fits the connector but it doesn't talk.

>> Yeah. And some Steve, it's kind of one of those things like -- I don't know -- like government like we know its crap. We're just kind of used to it.

>> Unfortunately.

>> E-mails to Buzz at cnet.com, Scotto. Thanks for writing in. He says, "Sorry to burst your bubble Tommolly, but Richard Vobes has been doing daily podcasts from his beach hut in Worthing, UK since January 2005 and is currently up to show 1,009 as of July 25th. I don't know if Vobes is the most prolific but the bar is substantially higher to pass Curry's measly 777. That is a lot, you know, we're going to have to start doing. We can just.

>> Twice daily I think. Yeah, two a days.

>> Yeah. I mean we're going to catch the guys.

>> Really just to catch up, we've got to find the podcast through the released episodes.

>> We sure like that. [ Simultaneous Talking ]

>> Or like 2-minute episodes just to inflate our numbers.

>> I know.

>> Yeah. We'll do each story.

>> Interview each other. Yeah, we'll do each story from a normal podcast as a separate episode. [ Laughter ]

>> Here's our 15-part episode.

>> I like it, tech minutes.

>> Awesome.

>> Yeah.

>> You choose the stories you want to listen to, see.

>> And I like when I was doing that. 'Cause dude we're not getting yet to 1000 folic a year.

>> No. You know what? And he was the only one ahead of Adam Curry. A lot of different people wrote with others that are in their high 700s as well. So --

>> Yeah.

>> All right fine. Si?

>> Si.

>> Si.

>> Yeah.

>> Wrote in and said, "Finally for once", [unintelligible] said, "For once the internet is being considered a utility. Wilson, North Carolina did what the telecoms wouldn't and installed fiber optic to all of the city. However, by opening that network up to different carriers and being a carrier themselves, they have solved several problems that plague the telecommunications industry. I hope other cities and towns and possibly telecoms will see what Wilson has done and follow their example. I salute Wilson for finding a better, cheaper, and faster way to connect its citizens to the Internet."

>> We salute you. Wilson, North Carolina marching in to the future. [ Laughter ]

>> That is pretty great.

>> No, that's pretty cool.

>> Yeah.

>> I know. And it's fast internet. It's fast media internet.

>> Maybe that town in Minnesota that's having problems could go get Wilson to help them out.

>> Call Wilson. They got tips.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> Jordan from Cincinnati wrote and said, "In response to episodes 722 to the whole 3D standard and 3D movies at home, Molly almost rant-ally says, 'What will it take to make the 3D glasses go away?' Well, guess what, the technology already exists. I was in Seattle at the Boeing Visitor Center about to get a tour of the biggest building in the world by volume, and in the lower level of the building they have displays and exhibits to look at current and future technology. There was an exhibit from engine manufacturer Pratt and Whitney talking about their engine for the new 787 Dreamliner. Around the exhibit were 3 plasma TVs with the images popping out at me with no glasses involved. You could walk to the right and left and see around the image. It was amazing. I had never seen anything like it, without glasses of course. I went home and looked it up based on the information I could get off the plasma TV's and it seems to be Philips WOWvx 3D Technology.

>> WOW.

>> Vx 3D technology.

>> Vx. WOW.

>> Vx.

>> WOW.

>> Vx 3D Technology.

>> This will be going for a while.

>> Yeah, better so.

>> It is cool.

>> Pretty cool, I like it.

>> I love it.

>> Although I think that like ThinkGeek or someone like that should just make and start selling a, you know, like cool, like south market black frame geek glasses that are 3D.

>> Oh, like the nerdy like hip.

>> Yeah, that's super like nerd sheik sound.

>> Glasses, but with red and blue.

>> But with red and blue, that's it.

>> Yeah, and then they'll be tripping on their text messaging.

>> That's absolutely true.

>> Those are great. Sorry, Wilson, I didn't laugh.

>> Maybe we'll get to that on Monday.

>> But yeah. Well, maybe. Aha. Polo wrote in with the link to his blog along post and said, "Here's some story for you", and it's basically his account of how, well, okay. "I'm a Windows, Mac and Linux user, flexible to which OS I use and I bought a laptop a couple of months ago and if I only had read the license terms of Windows Vista, I could have got my 699 Dell Inspiron laptop to be 499 if I got that refund." The story then on his blog is all of the customer service hoops that he jumped through to get his refund on Windows Vista because the license agreement says, "If you're not using it with that computer, then you're eligible for a refund".

>> Yeah, he had to read the license agreement to the representative. 'Cause it's like, well you just take the laptop back so I can only take the laptop back. I want to use the laptop. I still don't want Vista and so your charge before it. Now, I want the money back.

>> The phone calls are pretty awesome like he said that HP is bundled with the laptop and they cannot be separated. Let's see how many calls was it, 3. Definitely 3 calls. It looks like three customer service calls but they were pretty long.

>> That's not too bad.

>> Three calls from five different people from that.

>> Yeah.

>> You have to get elevated. [ Simultaneous Talking ]

>> But anyway, there you go. A lot about.

>> Another success story.

>> Yeah [ Laughter ]

>> Don't forget we have other podcast here at cnet.com, Dialed In if you're on the cell phones. You like the iPhone. You like the RAZR. You want to know not just what phones are out there but how to use them. Kent German, Bonnie Cha and Nicole Lee bring you Dialed In once a week. Go subscribe podcast.cnet.com.

>> For our phone number at which time gave out our leer, our e-mail address which is buzz@cnet.com. Our Forum address which is forums.cnet.com. You can get all that information if you didn't listen to the word I said at our blog bol.cnet.com. You'll also find the daily show notes, all the links to every story that we've talked about so you can go in fact check us.

>> Thanks for listening.

>> Yeah.

>> Bye. Happy weekends.

>> See you all later.

>> Bye! [ Music ]