EIC Squared: Olympics, LinuxWorld, and Google cookies

On this week's EIC Squared podcast, ZDNet's Larry Dignan and I talk about the big story of this month--the Olympics. Microsoft and NBC are hoping that their servers and software can handle the load as the Silverlight code (Microsoft's competitor to Adobe's Flash) takes its maiden voyage at NBCOlympics.com. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security is advising that people traveling to the Olympics leave their phones, laptops, and other digital equipment at home. "Somebody with a wireless device in China should expect it to be compromised," said Joel Brenner, the U.S. national counterintelligence executive. The "somebody" includes cybercriminals and Chinese security forces. We also talk about LinuxWorld in San Francisco, which wasn't a big hit, and Google's new opt-out policy, which has merged its tracking efforts with DoubleClick's.

Click here for more stories on tech and the Beijing Olympics.

[henrodon]

I see that the NBC online Olympics videos aren't available unless you either have a Windows computer or a Mac with an intel processor. If you try with an older Mac (like the one I'm using at the moment) you get the message:

Video is currently supported on the following browsers:
Internet Explorer 6, 7 for Windows
(Vista, XP SP2 or greater and 2003)
Firefox 1.5, 2, 3 for Windows
(Vista, XP SP2 or greater and 2003)
Firefox 1.5, 2, 3 for Mac
(OS 10.4.8 or greater, Intel only)
Safari 2 & 3 for Mac
(OS 10.4.8 or greater, Intel only)

[dbaechtel]

ALL of the videos I try on www.nbcolympics.com do not play and say "The video you selected is not loading properly." This is very dissappointing. This is BAD for Microsoft and NBC.

[benjaminstraight]

Good podcast.

[Arthur Belle Dent]

Isnt it convenient?
Linux is everywhere so let's not talk about it.
Im sure its very, very convenient than to have 'tech' jounalists go out of their confort zone.

The utter silence of the netbook success (a fad it is called) says a lot more about what tech media will and wont cover than it does about the technology.

I'll remember your quote about how a product is ubiquitous and doesnt need coverage/publicity when you get up all in a lather for announcement from the mount.

.

[OziIan]

Uh uh ...
Opera browser isn't supported, either.