Episode 1108

No, no, fellow residents of southern Illinois, not tractor pulling--tracker pulling! The Pirate Bay has pulled out the trackers, but that doesn't mean you can't download anything. The site's still up for now using a different technology. Also, Google's book deal seems to have been changed, but not enough to satisfy its opponents. And Natali and I get into a philosophical argument.
==Stories Covered==
Google book settlement revised, criticized
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/11/google-offers-revised-book-settlement-but-critics-unappeased.ars
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10398995-93.html
AOL to spin off Dec. 9, begin trading Dec. 10
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10399445-93.html
Amazon to launch Kindle in Canada
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5AG38V20091117
The Pirate Bay tracker shuts down for good
http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-tracker-shuts-down-for-good-091117/
Swedish retailer pirates the Pirate Bay logo
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/piratebay-logo-registered/
Activision denies Modern Warfare 2 Russian ban
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/11/17/russia_mw2/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10399131-71.html
Twitter, Orange rock MMS in the U.K.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Web-Services-Web-20-and-SOA/Twitter-Orange-Rock-MMS-in-the-UK-814457/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10399475-2.html
NBC Launches all-in-one video player, VoIP and texting tool--and it's ad-supported
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-nbc-launches-all-in-one-video-player-voip-and-texting-tool-and-its-ad-s/
Times editor James Harding outlines plans for online charging
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/17/times-editor-james-harding-online-charging
MIT robot rides shotgun to make us happier drivers
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/11/mit-robot-rides-shotgun-to-make-us-happier-drivers/
==Voicemail==
Anonymous – tip for Xbox 360 isn’t true
==Emails==
How Google Voice forwards to Skype using Gizmo and no Skypein number is pretty easy. Once you set up your Gizmo account to work with your Google Voice account, you can then go to Gizmo, and by using the forwarding tab, you can enter a Skype ID which is the first option. Since this is a VOIP solution, I don’t even think funds are required such as forwarding to phone number.
I don’t see Gizmo or Google Voice killing this feature, but Skype may have a problem with it. However, in reality – I noticed that when it’s not a Skype – Skype communication, or if you are forwarding your Skype to a phone number, it seems to degrade the quality. Personally, I only use Skype for calls in the event that the cell phone doesn’t work, and use a SIP client for Gizmo based calls.
However, nonetheless, at least until Skype doesn’t like the fair competition, and may try to alienate users, this works just fine. A note of advise. While Google Voice accepts SMS from phone numbers, it doesn’t take Short Code numbers (such as Twitter’s 40404), so you couldn’t set your GV number to show in Skype’s CID info, so calls from Skype would still not show a number where you could be reached.
Hope this provides some enlightenment,
Frank
----
Our cable went out the other day so we had been waiting for HULU to put the latest episode of “V” online.
One thing we noticed while watching it was that it had the “WSB-TV Atlanta” logo branding in the lower left corner. Does everyone see this, or just people in the Atlanta area? Does this mean they have a HULU server in every market? We went to the abc website, and that branding was not there, just the plain abc logo branding.
I just thought this was odd.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Geoff Johnson
==After The Credits==