Episode 1010

On today's show, we discover that Microsoft is a fine American company that thinks nothing of shafting its highest-paying users or subjecting the entire Internet to multiple episodes of projectile vomiting. And Apple shouldn't be forced by some pissy little upstart to change its perfectly legitimate EULA. And don't even get Cooley STARTED on sending self-replicating nanobots to Mars. Good times all around. Plus: Metrologists!
==Stories Covered==
Microsoft to offer Family Pack for Windows 7 Home Premium
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1145
Some Vista users say they’re getting the Ultimate shaft
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10277506-56.html
Psystar out of chapter 11 with new Xeon-based models
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/02/psystar-bounces-back-from-chapter-11-intros-new-high-end-hardwa/
Bing expands its piece of the search market pie in June
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/07/bing-grabs-a-larger-piece-of-the-search-market-pie-in-june.ars
Microsoft chucks vomit ad
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10278063-71.html
Traffic rockets to Twitter site
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_8129000/8129340.stm
Can Twitter trademark “tweet”?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/07/will-trademarkhungry-twitter-beat-tweet-to-genericide.html
Firefox 3.5 downloaded 5 million times in first 24 hours
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/07/firefox-35-downloaded-5-million-times-in-first-24-hours.ars
And it’s the third-fastest browser in the world.
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029471,49302846,00.htm
But Chrome is getting extensions
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10277385-2.html
NASA Suggests Nano Robots To Explore Mars
http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/07/02/138237/NASA-Suggests-Nano-Robots-To-Explore-Mars
==Voicemail==
Jason in Marietta on Natali’s tax idea.
Poor Anthony
==Emails==
Tom
Hi Buzz Crew,
I smiled as I listened to your discussion on measurements in episode
1008.
Being a metrologist [met-rol-o-gist] or measurement scientist (not
meteorologist, that is weather) it always amazes me that most people
take the measurements that support every facet of their lives for
granted.
Without all the metrologists that go about their jobs each day,
measuring and calibrating everything in the background, in mostly
unseen laboratories, you wouldn’t even be able to get out of bed in
the morning.
Who has the time standards used to set your alarm clock, metrologists.
Who calibrates the scales that were used to make and package your
food, metrologists.
Who calibrates the measurement systems used to generate and monitor
your electric power, metrologists.
Who calibrates the temperature systems for your weather reports,
metrologists.
Who calibrates the liquid flow systems used to measure the gas
(petrol), diesel etc. into your car, Cooley?, metrologists do.
Who calibrates the measurement systems used to make medicines,
metrologists.
I could go on but I think you will see what I am getting at.
While it may sound like a boring job and definitely not a high profile
glamourous job like a podcast host, it is one of those things that
goes on in the background helping to make your day go smoother.
I love my job and while metrologists are only a small group of people
in the scheme of things, I find it tremendously satisfying to know
that what my colleagues and I do, ensures that we all live better lives.
Love the show.
Mark (the metrologist)
PS: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrology if you want to know
more about metrology.
==After The Credits==