Episode 874

On a very special Buzz Out Loud, we discover that we, much to our surprise and chagrin, are the cause for the ongoing economic crisis in this country. Who knew? Also, of course, we dissect at length the news that Apple is pulling out of future Macworld Expo conferences after this year, and the even bigger news that Steve Jobs won't be giving this last keynote. Heartbreak ensues.
==Stories Covered==
Without Macworld, how will Apple create the buzz?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10124956-37.html
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/12/16macworld.html
What went wrong?
http://www.macworld.com/article/137596/2008/12/apple_kills_expo_reax.html
Microsoft plans quick fix for IE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7787445.stm
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212500756&subSection=Vulnerabilities+and+threats
Suit: Microsoft knew Xbox could damage discs
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/156941.asp
Report: Palm to battle iPhone, BlackBerry with new OS at CES
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081215-report-palm-to-battle-iphone-blackberry-with-new-os-at-ces.html
Yahoo updates privacy controls on search, pageviews
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-yahoo-updates-privacy-controls-on-search-pageviews/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10125132-83.html
Nvidia targets Netbooks, Intel with 9400M chip
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10125087-64.html
Clearwire’s $150 dual-mode WiMAX / Sprint CDMA modem launches Sunday
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/clearwires-150-dual-mode-wimax-sprint-cdma-modem-launches-su/
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/12/double-impact-s.html
MySpace quietly begins encouraging users to use their real names
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/17/myspace-quietly-begins-encouraging-users-to-use-their-real-names/
World’s first computer rebuilt, rebooted after 2,000 years
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/12/2000-year-old-a.html
==Voicemail==
Hayden from BC: Steve is leaving!
==Emails==
Hey guys,
I thought this article about the emotional reaction to the end of the Phoenix Mars Lander was rather interesting. This article talks about how Twitter was used to anthropomorphize the Phoenix Lander, and, thus, cause the mission to gain alot more interest.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1270/1
Perhaps this technique can be used to humanize other things, like Brian Cooley.
Chris the Commuter
-----
It won’t be ready until at least 2012, but Los Alamos National Lab is demonstrating an MRI-based liquid identification machine for airport security. The press release is here
http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/15343
And a local news segment on the machine at the Albuquerque airport
http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/15343
2 interesting bits:
1) There’s a Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency now? And you thought DARPA was weird.
B) If you can quickly identify liquid chemistry in a shampoo bottle, what other things can you identify? Could be lots of medical or industrial uses beyond saving you $4 for a bottle of water at the airport.
Love the show,
-Mark the supercomputer repairman
-----
Hello Buzz Crew!
I thought this would be a good time to drop you a mail, as it is clear to me that you do not realize your contribution to the economic crisis.
Every time you give credit to a stupid rumor about a nonexisting product (Apple tablet, some cool new iPhone killer smartphone) you are directly influencing the economic slowdown of your country. Consumers are already reluctant when it comes to buying useless/redundant gadgets, but when they hear that maybe, someday, somehow a better/cooler/sexier product will come out they will hold out and save their money for that nonexisting product, which may never even make it to the drawing board. You should urge buyers to just go out and buy the best of what is out there.
by the way, do you actually realize how stupid is to give credit and report unfunded rumors? A 12 year old “analyst” can come up with random ideas for products, put it on a blog and a large media outlet will bring it as “industry inside information”.
example:
HTC is going to launch a touch phone based on x86 microprocessor architecture that runs a componentized version of Windows XP with multi touch interface. It will come out in Q3/09.
Dell will sell a netbook based on the dual core Intel Atom processor starting february 2009.
Apple is going to make toasters and coffee makers with bluetooth connectivity. The devices will connect to the iPhone and make you breakfast in the morning.
Guess which one is fake?
PS: when you say the word ANALyst in the context of an unfunded/undocumented report, imagine the place the “information” was pulled out of. But of course you can always mask false reporting by making up reverse report, like “Intel decided to put on hold plans for launching 24 core desktop processors in 2009 as market research shows low demand for the segment”.
Kaadi (Romania)
-----
Hey Molly Tom and Jason and Cooley or whatever other people join in,
I saw this story on Massively and found it interesting, apparently employers are saying thanks but no thanks to anyone they find that plays World of Warcraft, The story mentions a recruiter was told by companies to out right avoid anyone that is found to be a player of WoW. I guess this is because most anyone who plays WoW gets no sleep, gets angry easily when someone messes up something important (raids), and is likely to shout the name of Leeroy Jenkins before single handedly screwing up whatever project is underway.
http://www.massively.com/2008/12/16/employers-screening-wow-players-during-recruitment/
For the record I play Lineage 2 and many other games, and steer clear of WoW because I can’t stand Blizzard’s art style and the endless quests and raids which I so often hear about from friends who play it for months only to finally quit saying it was a mistake and cursing it endlessly.
Love the show :) Oh and a suggestion for the live stream, maybe Jason could find an image relating to each story, and put it in the empty corner where the BOL logo usually is, and change it as you go along. Not sure what use that would have but I like images, not that Molly isn’t pretty enough :)
Byebye!
-Kassandra
==After The Credits==