Episode 618

==Cranberry juice for copyright law==
Best metaphor yet for DRM sparks hilarious podcast title (if we don't say so ourselves). You'll see what we mean. Also, Facebook is really, really sorry and shows the world how to say so--they also let you turn off the Beacon ad program completely. Good call. And is a new House bill the end of free Wi-Fi hot spots? 
===Stories Covered===
Facebook caves in to Beacon criticism
Facebook came under withering criticism from its users and privacy advocates alike when a security researcher revealed that the ad system tracks user activities on third-party partner sites -- including the activities of people who never signed up with Facebook, who deactivated their accounts or who were not signed on to the site.
:http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9051119&intsrc=hm_ts_head
House vote on illegal images sweeps in Wi-Fi, Web sites
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings--or face fines of up to $300,000.
:http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9829759-38.html
AT&T claims completely open network, too -- "the most open," even! 
AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega's comments that "You can use any handset on our network you want... We don't prohibit it, or even police it. ... We are the most open wireless company in the industry." We think the headline "AT&T flings cellphone network wide open" kind of says it all.
:http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/atandt-claims-completely-open-network-too-the-most-open-eve/
Major copyright bill boosts penalties, creates new agency 
In the aftermath of the $222,000 jury verdict that the Recording Industry Association of America recently won against a Minnesota woman who shared 24 songs on Kazaa, the U.S. Congress is preparing to amend copyright law."
:http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9829826-38.html
Space shifting DVDs to cost extra? 
Depending on who you listen to Steve Jobs has supposedly been pitching the idea of selling "premium" DVDs that would include an extra fee for the privilege of transferring your legally-purchased DVD to a different device.
:http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/05/1542250
 Microsoft Wants To Give You A Rorschach 
"Microsoft has set up a website that uses inkblot images to help users create passwords. The site asks users view a series of inkblots and write down the first and last letters of whatever word they associate with each inkblot. Then they combine the letters to form a password. Microsoft claims it's a way to create passwords that are easy to remember but hard to crack. But a word of warning, the story notes that Microsoft is collecting and storing users' word associations."
:http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/05/1826208
Google will become Zabasearch" 
n an unsurprising but perhaps disturbing move, search giant Google is partnering with state governments to index public records. According to Associated Press, you can already find some online, but you have to go through each state's government Web sites to locate a particular piece of information.
:http://www.news.com/News.com-Extra/8301-9373_3-9829443-55.html
 Lenovo Announces ThinkPads Preloaded With XP 
Lenovo just announced new ThinkPad T61 models preloaded with Microsoft Windows XP. Ironically they're called ThinkPad T61 'TopSeller' models. Lenovo says they're aimed at small and medium-sized businesses.
:http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/06/157210
Spam Promoting Ron Paul Traced to Ukrainian Botnet 
A researcher at SecureWorks has traced the October flood of deceptive spam promoting Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul to a criminal botnet of compromised computers run out of Ukraine, which was rented for the three-day job
:http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/12/ron-paul-promot.html
Dell to sell PCs at Best Buy 
Beginning in the next few weeks, Dell notebooks and desktops will be for sale at Best Buy, the companies announced Thursday.
:http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9829935-1.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Crave
Microsoft grounds 'dirty' Santa 
Microsoft shut down the automated Santa Claus that it created for children to chat with on Windows Live Messenger, after an article from The Register reported that it had an objectionable chat with a reader's underage nieces. Microsoft said Santa's comment on oral sex was provoked by a person who could make the tool "do things it wasn't supposed to do." Santa ended the chat with a cheery, "dirty bastard."
:http://www.news.com/News.com-Extra/8301-9373_3-9829860-55.html?tag=head
Post office drawback cited in dark forecast for Netflix 
A research note issued by Citigroup on Tuesday said 70 percent of Netflix return mailers must be sorted by hand.
The New York Times
:http://www.news.com/Post-office-drawback-cited-in-dark-forecast-for-Netflix/2100-1038_3-6221659.html
===From The Phones===
*Arioch from Flagstaff Unified Client.?
*Andrew from New York Oh say it ain't so.
===Emails===
Windows apps on a Mac 
Hi Buzz crew,
Regarding the possibility of Windows applications running natively in Leopard as mentioned in episode #617. You seem to think this would be a boon for Macs. I disagree. Way back in the day there was a little company called IBM that had a little product called OS2. One of the big features that IBM touted with OS2 was that it was a better Windows than Windows. You could run all your Windows apps in it, and it actually did a better job managing multitasking and memory. The problem was that all the software companies recognized that there was no need to write native OS2 apps, because they could build them in Windows and still get the OS2 market. When the cross-licensing agreement between IBM and Microsoft expired, and new Windows apps would not run on OS2, the platform was left without any meaningful applications. This is, at least in part, why OS2 went the way of the dinosaur.
If Apple decided to run Windows apps natively in Leopard, why would anyone want to build native Mac apps? Software developers would write everything in Windows because it would serve both markets and reduce development costs. Ultimately Windows becomes the common denominator, and wouldn't Microsoft like that?
Love the show.
Kevin in Clandeboye 
Crossover Mac 
Good day Buzz crew,
It's Mat the Apple tech from NYC. There is already an app that will let you use Windows programs in OS X with out installing Parallels VM Ware etc. Its called "Crossover Mac" and its from Code weavers.
It is based off of the open-source wine project from Linux. Best of all game support is getting better!
Just thought I would let you know but if Apple does it even better.
Thank you,
Matthew Cox
Facebook Beacon 
Hey BOL,
I think there is an argument missing from the discussion about Facebook's Beacon program. While I am impressed by how thoroughly Facebook botched the entire roll-out of the program, and I have no idea what Facebook's Chief Privacy Officer does if he signed off on the whole deal; I don't think the issue is as clear as opt-in = good and opt-out = bad.
I remember when Facebook launched the mini-feed being initially annoyed that once I logged in I didn't go straight to my profile (to see my wall posts), but rather had to click past this annoying feed-thing page. I also remember the controversy as the mini-feed was also opt-out. But being the sometimes lazy user I am, I didn't bother to adjust my privacy settings to get out of the whole thing. I have since found that the mini- feed is my favorite part of Facebook because at a glance I can see what all my friends are up to.
In a way, I think the mini-feed was somewhat transformative as we (the online community) hadn't experienced something quite like it before. If it had initially been opt-in, I doubt I would have made the effort to opt-in because I wouldn't have understood the benefits of the experience. On the whole I think the opt-out on the mini-feed was a good thing. That's all to say that there is probably a space for opt-out programs that developers think will be positive for users but may be hard for users to appreciate (and opt-in to) without experiencing directly. Beacon may fit that category, it may not. I don't defend how horribly Facebook fumbled the Beacon roll-out, but the commentary on Beacon specifically, and web development generally, seems to over simplify to "all opt-outs are bad."
Thanks for the podcasts,
Julian
Barcelona
Digital switchover 
Tom, Molly, Jason (in no particular order),
It's Sperling, the digital cinema product manager from Los Angeles. In the last couple of episodes you discussed the digital switchover of television to occur in February of 2009 and I thought I'd chime in with an interesting tid-bit. Back in October, at the annual SMPTE conference, all of the engineers from broadcast outlets and television stations were bemoaning the time of year the FCC has chosen to complete the switchover.
Apparently, most, if not all, of the television transmission towers in the country will require some work to be done on them before they will be ready to serve up digital television signals. While some of these towers in major markets have already been outfitted for the digital switchover, a majority of them have not. One might think there would be enough time to convert all the towers before February 17, 2009, however the problem is these towers, many of which are 1,000 feet high and go as high as 2,063 feet, can not be climbed by just anyone. There are only about seven highly specialized crews in the U.S. that are capable of doing the work, mostly in warmer weather.
This has raised some serious concern among broadcast engineers about whether all of the towers can be converted in time, not to mention what will occur when the inevitable last-minute fixes need to happen in the middle of February. Getting a crew to climb a tower in the dead of winter is no easy task.
Just a little something to think about as you are racing out to get your brand new digital plasma or LCD television this holiday season.
Regards,
Sperling
Director of Product Development
DTS Digital Cinema
Get CNET e-mail on the iPhone 
Molly,
I am willing to bet my lifetime membership to Spectacle Fest that you can get your CNET e-mail on the iPhone. My office sent out on official e-mail saying that the iPhone can not receive office e-mails (due to repeated askings by employees), however after adding a new IMAP e-mail account and tinkering with the settings, I am now sending and receiving Microsoft Exchange e-mails beautifully. What server does CNET use?
Best regards
iPeter
Phone 2 imminent? 
Here you'll find conclusive proof that the iPhone 2 is due to be released very soon.
Happy to help. :)
karl
GPS 
Again, please withhold my name. (CONFIDENTIAL) In GPS data there are vehicle-based restrictions which can be put into the data. This technically wouldn't promote roads for trucks, but you'd have a better chance of going around. Also, you can have height-based restrictions, etc. For example, when there was the bridge collapse in Oakland, we just set two gates on each side, so we can't route through that point. I have no idea why TA doesn't just add these restrictions into that data, laziness?
Anonymous
===Quotes===
Coming Soon
===After The Credits===
*Shawn from Apple Vally Minnisota Controlling volume of commercial as well as other things.
618