Episode 1036

So Twitter has had a hard time staying up today because of a denial of service attack. But we think we have the answer. And it's available in many spam emails for order. We also get in a big fat argument about whether News Corp. will win or lose by charging for all their news sites. But we can all agree on Whisky.
==Stories Covered==
Twitter DOS outage today is really becoming a big one.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10304633-36.htm
http://status.twitter.com/
News Corp. intends to charge for ALL sites
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Newspapers_24/News_Corp_We_re_walling_off_our_news.asp
Comcast adopts DNS hijacking, imposes irritating opt-out
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/08/comcasts-dns-redirect-service-goes-nationwide.ars
WiMax Versus WiMax In Texas Towns
http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/wifiwimax/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219100055
Nissan will sell you their new electric car early — but you have to agree to be monitored.
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20090806/CARNEWS/908069996
San Diego to test mobile electric car charger
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10304614-54.html
Sony unveils programmable camera stand
http://dvice.com/archives/2009/08/sony-unveils-au.php
Garmin Nuvifone still very ellusive with launch date
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/08/05/garmin-nuvifone-coming-in-q4-just-in-time-for-people-to-still-not-care/
No More Perks: Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124950421033208823.html
Ocean “Oyster” sits in seabed, creates hydroelectric power on shore. Odd.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10304576-54.html
==Voicemail==
Remy issues a challenge
==Emails==
Here is an interesting new thing happening, 911 texting, right here in Podunk!
Now you can send a text message to 911 emergency dispatch in Black Hawk County IOWA
There is 1 major catch, it is only available to iWireless customers (the local T Mobile carrier), the 2 other major area cell carriers are still working on it. (USCellular & Sprint)
The dispatchers were given booklets with common text messaging accronyms, it makes for some interesting reading (They are not giving out the booklet to the public yet, because it contains some dirty words in it). Links below for more info.
For the record, there are only three AT&T 3G towers in the state of Iowa, and none in the county.
Local news Story (TV)
Local News Story (TV)
Local Paper
Wikipedia background on cell carrier
David
in the 4th ward of Buzztown, (down by the bacon plant)
----
Hi Buzz Crew,
My 2 cents on the ON2 Acquisition by Google -
ON2 is already a component in Adobe Flash (you mentioned in the show
flash video as an alternative but actually Flash video supports ON2)
so it might be that Google is closing on Microsoft that also own their
proprietary video codecs.
Another thing is that ON2 is also used with Skype & ooVoo for video
conferencing (I actually selected this codec for ooVoo over H.264 when
I worked there) both use ON2’s technology as their video Codec – as it
is superior for video conferencing over the internet where low
latency, low complexity and high quality are strong requirement (this
is very different than a codec for store media where compression
doesn’t have to happen in real-time.
BTW: I wonder if this has to do with Google wanting to acquire skype?
didn’t you guys talk about there rumors about that a while ago? it
might also replace the use of the current technology video Codec
Google uses for their chat which is currently “Vidyo”.
Gal S from Newton, MA
----
Buzz crew,
I wanted to comment on the story about The United States Marine Corps
banning social networks. The ban is on accessing social networking
sites on government computers connected to the Marine Corps
Enterprise Network. The use of facebook, myspace, and even web based
email has been blocked for many years on the network. Government
computers and internet access are used for research and other
resources, but were never intended to be personal communication and
entertainment devices for individuals.
Marines can still use their personal computers and commercial
internet access in their residence. Services, such as the USO, offer
WiFi access and computers for service members to use in many areas
overseas. I can’t speak in any official capacity, but this
administrative message appears to be simply taking an action that we
already practice and making it policy.
I’ve been in the Marine Corps for 18 years, listened to Buzz Out Loud
since THE BEGINNING, and watched Natali’s shows since Textra. You are
all outstanding journalists and fine Americans. Thanks for my
favorite show.
Semper Fidelis,
“Top”
North Carolina
P.S. Brian, I appreciate the comments on Woodford Reserve. I tried it
and like it, but I prefer my Whisky without the “e.”
- oakie
----
Hey folks,
I imagine Dr. Karl is also weighing in, but here are my 2 cents (CAD which is almost 2 cents USD....) Growing new neurons to fix this pathway would be exceedingly difficult in the brain, as the brain is part of the central nervous system, and new neuronal growth is inhibited in the CNS by a chemical called NOGO (and about a zillion other processes).
If we could do this (and new CNS growth is not that far away to help spinal injury patients etc) we would have no guarantee that the new pathway would work like it would in a normal population (I am using the word 'normal' in a statistical sense here). You see, you need the nature and the nurture to interact. Indeed, the nature nurture argument is a very simplistic way to look at things. As Donald Hebb (one of the founders of cognitive neuroscience) said "trying to determine how much of a characteristic is due to genes and how much is due to the environment is like trying to determine how much of a field's area is due to its width and how much is due to its length".
Dave (the psychologist)
==After The Credits==