Episode 382

==The truth is in this podcast==
We\'re so glad to be back! There\'s a lot of news that we need to go over today, but more importantly we want you to know that aliens may be among us. Not in that creepy invasion way yet, but we\'ll let you know if the situation escalates. Happy new year! 
===Stories Covered===
Run It Up the Flagpole and See If Anybody Salutes It Day (No Link)
FCC approves AT&T-BellSouth merger 
FCC to gut AT&T's "concessions"? 
And Cingular renaming to AT&T Wireless 
Wikipedia blocks all of Qatr... 
...accidentally...for only 12 hours 
AllofMP3.com sued for $1.65 trillion 
Cats sleep with dogs...and AOL-Yahoo merger possible 
HD DVD and Blu-ray AACS DRM cracked 
Microsoft sends nice laptops to bloggers; bribe is such an ugly word 
Millions miffed at poor quality from holiday HDTV purchase 
SETI has made ET contact 
UFO over Chicago airport 
Gmail vulnerable to contact list hijacking 
Labels clue in on podcasts? 
Lucas, Ford to start filming new Indiana Jones film 
===From The Phones===
*Jason in Cincinnati
Mailbox was full. Blockbuster online rental can be used for games.
*Mike
My Wii keeps glowing in the night.
*Q from Ottawa
My iPod is giving me electrical shocks.
===Email===
*Violent video games for Christmas--Eric
I got an Xbox 360 for Christmas, and two games that I've heard you guys talk about on your show--one a brutal, ugly gore fest that is terrifying in its casual depiction of violence (Viva Piýata), and the other a pretty straight-ahead game where you have friends with you that you help and watch out for (Gears of War). Guess which game I played with my kids? Do you know what it sounds like when two little girls see a tiny Piýata get attacked and eviscerated by a papier-mache fox? The pleading for me to "do something" while the murderous fox dines on the sweet entrails of the creature we named "Squirmel," and raised from an egg?
Daughter 1: "Daddeee! He's eating him! DO SOMETHING!"
Me: "I'll hit him, if I do it fast enough he won't feel it, get him out of his misery!"
Daughter 2: "DAAAAAD! Don't hit the worm!!"
Me: "Okay! I'll kill the fox with this jagged rusty shovel, just like in "Ring of Bright Water"!"
Daughter 1: "Noooo! Don't kill Foxy!"
Me: "Girls! I have to kill SOMEBODY here!"
Daughters: (tears) "I hate this game!"
Me: "Me too. Me too."
I should have known a game about a creature whose only purpose is to get beaten to death was going to be a rough ride--but since Veronica was into it I thought it would be, I don't know, sweeter. Sorta paints her in a different light.
*Buzz Out Loud saved Christmas--George
Well, sort of just wanted to share how you guys totally saved me from being bored to death on my holiday vacation. I was traveling from NY to Germany on Christmas Eve and well got caught in delays in London and had to spend 5 hours waiting for my connecting flight, luckily I had foreseen some sort of event like this and had not listened to the last week of shows and saved them all on my iPod for travel. Let's just say you guys made 5 hours fly by a lot better than just walking around the airport looking aimlessly. My one regret is that I did not know you would be taking a week off and didn't have any shows for the return trip, but hey, live and learn. Thanks for the show and for helping make a crappy layover on Christmas Eve a better one.
*Workaround for Zune tracks?--Reed
I was reading up on the Zune on cnet.com, and noticed it wasn't WMA 9 DRM compatible. I decided to look further into this and found that if you open the Xune media files in Windows Media Player, which does work, it can then be transferred to any play for sure device. I have done this only once though, with a cheap $40 samsung player. I found this interesting because it isn't just limited to tracks that you buy but also subscription tracks. Sorry if you have gotten many e-mails about this.
Shopping the iTunes Store from outside your country--Abram
Hello Buzz Crew,
This is Abram in, not marketing, not law, but sitting on a beach in Hawaii. Remember a while back when someone from Australia called in, wondering if there was any way he could make iTunes think he was American? Well I think I've found the solution. What you have to do is go to eBay, buy an iTunes gift certificate that was bought in the U.S., then with that card you can actually set up a U.S. iTunes account. You can even switch between your native account and the U.S. one. I haven't tried this myself, because luckily Hawaii is in the U.S., but I know of several people who have tried it and it has worked for them. Oh and yeah, this is probably illegal, so use at your own risk. Thought all the international listeners would enjoy this.
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