Episode 680

Rafe Needleman joins us today for a rant on the MPAA, an explanation of basic economics, musings on mergers in the video game industry, and managing write times for solid-state hard drives. Jason and I sit back and bask. 
==Stories Covered==
*AOL buys social network Bebo for $850 million
*MPAA boss: Net neutrality would cramp our P2P snooping plans
*Report: Microsoft says no Blu-ray for Xbox 360
*Blu-ray players: Mighty pricey
:David in Vegas: Sony (and Movie Theater owners who charge me $6 for rubbery popcorn in a theater where you can’t (send in an usher to) keep people off their cell phones), go take a long walk off a short pier (because this is a family friendly podcast).
*Disney: $123 million From iTunes Since 2006
*EA’s Take-Two offer turns hostile
*Gibson: Activision’s ‘Guitar Hero’ violates patent
*DirecTV takes on video-on-demand
*Microsoft finally confirms Windows 7 for 2010 launch
==From The Phones==
Jason from Cincinnati: Dude, CNET hires awesome people!
Anish: Help? 
==Emails==
===Cold weather iPod issue===
Finally, we who reside in the chillier climes can control our iPod without having to take off our gloves or use our nose:
http://www.dotsgloves.com/
Keith Allison
===HDD versus SSD===
Hey Buzzards,
You guys were wondering about some of the differences between SSD and HDD, one of my PC Hardware professors was mentioning that although SSD are more durable, when/if they fail their data is permanently lost. With HDD, when the drive fails, if the data is important enough, the platters can be removed and placed in a functional HDD case.
Also, up/downside, once data has been written over on an SSD, it is permanently lost.No amount of forensics technology will be able to recover it. Many would be happy about this, police forces will certainly not be.
Thought I’d give my .1? :)
Elam Noor
Arden Hills, (St. Paul), MN
===Brain hacks, SSD and Hulu===
Hey Jamoto,
…Hulu is great but they make some weird decisions on content. So a few months ago, I wanted to check out "Chuck." They had the pilot and episodes 9-13. Well I didn't want to get hooked and be left hanging so I didn't watch. Then when Hulu moved out of beta this week I went back to see if they had updated their content. They had but not in a good way. Gone were the previous episodes. Currently you can only find episodes 3-6. Come on, if you want my eyeballs Hulu, then put up the content and quit playing musical chairs with it.
Sorry, I think I just channeled Molly on that last point. Have a great day and keep up the good work.
Scott Gottreu
Fort Worth, TX
===API===
You’ve probably already heard this from other listeners, but API is not “Application Platform Interface” - it’s “Application PROGRAMMING Interface”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/API
— Swashbuckler
===Bebo and AOL===
Hi Buzz Crew,
Just some random thoughts on the Bebo/AOL deal. AOL apparently has big plans. Integration of AIM with Bebo will make for a very enticing social networking platform. What better way to leverage that then to use Yahoo’s search, Buzz, and advertising to support the new AOL Bebo. Yahoo provides a way to monetize the newly combined service, plus it would add Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo Mail to the mix.
It’s an enticing idea. AOL would be a competitor again. So would Yahoo. Whether AOL would outright acquire Yahoo or do the sort of half merger that Yahoo was discussing with News Corp. is unclear. I would expect though, that AOL would acquire Yahoo simply because they’d want control over the e-mail and IM services.
The combined AOL/Yahoo would of course, be no match for Google in search advertising, especially with the approval of the Google/Doubleclick deal. But, with Bebo in the mix, it would certainly give Facebook and Myspace a run for their money (take that News Corp.)
Joe
===Free Vista===
Hi JaMoTo,
Remember when Microsoft was giving out free Windows Vista? Well, I suckered up to it and installed the spyware. Well, it was exactly three months from the day yesterday. Still nothing from Microsoft. Not an e-mail or a package in the mail. Just thought I’d give you guys a heads up on that. I will let you guys know if they ever do give me any information. I wonder if they were hoping I’d forget I installed it.
Love the show!!!
Chuma from San Jose
===Hack Gmail - BEWARE!!!===
Hey Buzz-tastics,
A friend passed this story on to me about a program available for download called G-Archiver, which apparently allows the user to input their Gmail credentials and then the program automatically downloads all their e-mails.
Per the story at the URL below, the software was programmed in such a way that each time someone downloaded their gmails, the user’s Gmail username and password was e-mailed to the software developer. Scary!
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001072.html
Thanks for the great show,
Dave in Detroit, MI
==Additional Notes==
*A new shorter version of the CNET TV bumper debuts on this episode.
==After The Credits==
*Unintelligble caller: Rafe Needleman must be destroyed!