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To fight world panic, Google doodles Douglas Adams

I know several people who believe that Douglas Adams left a zero off the end of his answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

The man who gave meaning to 42 would have been 61 today, had he not died of a heart attack aged 49.

Google's fine and whimsical doodlers decided to commemorate his birthday with a doodle that whispers to the world: "Don't Panic."

In his 49 years, Adams certainly had a life. He not only wrote books, among them the very famous "The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy" (which started as a radio series), but he also penned three episodes of "Dr. Who." … Read more

The 404 1,205: Where we paint by numbers (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Hacker exposes George Bush's family photos, portraits.

Wait, so PS4 won't have better graphics?

- J.J. Abrams may direct a Portal and/or Half-Life movie!

- Snow panic has driven Weather.com completely insane.

- Patent troll says he owns "podcasting," sues Adam Corolla, HowStuffWorks.… Read more

Verizon CEO: We had our best fourth quarter ever

LAS VEGAS -- In a prelude to his keynote at CES here, Verizon chief executive Lowell McAdam told investors that the company's fourth quarter was its best quarter ever. Verizon added 2.1 million net subscribers during the quarter, a historic high for the company, he said.

"Thirty percent of our net adds are new to Verizon," McAdam said.

McAdam, who made the remarks at the 2013 Citi Global Internet, Media & Communications Conference that's also taking place in Las Vegas, stated that Verizon's base of LTE devices grew from 16 percent to 23 percent … Read more

New smartphone chip to help owners identify smells, tastes

iPhone users wondering whether their wine or breath have gone bad may soon have help from a chip designed to identify nearby aromas and flavors.

Adamant Technologies has created a processor for iPhones that "can take the sense of smell and taste and digitize them," Adamant founder and CEO Sam Khamis tells Business Insider. Khamis says his company's product is fairly sophisticated, employing roughly 2,000 sensors to identify smells compared with the about 400 sensors in the average human nose.

The San Francisco startup, which is backed by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, has begun producing chips … Read more

Redbox Instant's full launch won't be until spring 2013

It looks like the rumor mill was a little off this time -- Verizon's Redbox Instant won't be launching this month, as was previously speculated but rather in 2013. However, its public beta should be good to go within the next few weeks.

Verizon chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam announced today at an investor conference that after public beta testing the commercial launch of the video streaming and DVD rental service should kick off either at the end of 2013's first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"We are … Read more

Verizon CEO on rising competition: Bring it on

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam isn't afraid of his competitors' efforts to raise their game; he welcomes the moves.

"My view is, bring that stuff on," he said during an investor conference today. "I mean, we have got a great network, and I think it will be good for consumers and so it is good for the industry."

McAdam touted the large lead Verizon enjoys when it comes to its 4G LTE deployment, which he credits for the wireless business scooping up market share when it comes to lucrative contract customers. He believes the other national … Read more

Lockheed's ADAM enters the laser weapons stakes

Someday, somebody will bring an actual laser weapon to combat operations where it'll count. Until then, watch for more puttering about with the occasional field test of this or that prototype.

The latest manifestation of the eternal desire by the defense establishment for directed-energy weapons comes from Lockheed Martin, which yesterday brought word of its Area Defense Anti-Munitions (ADAM) system. ADAM's business end is a 10-kilowatt fiber laser that since August has been taking target practice against "representative" airborne threats.

The tally, it must be said, seems rather slight. Lockheed said that in the tests ADAM … Read more

Anyone can be a MythBuster at Explosive Exhibition

SAN JOSE, Calif.--If you've ever wanted a chance to bust a myth like a real MythBuster, your time has come.

Starting tomorrow, MythBusters fans can try their hand at a number of myths and see some of the artifacts behind a number of the hit Discovery Channel show's greatest hits at MythBusters: The Explosive Exhibition at the Tech Museum here.

From testing whether you're more likely to get wet by running or walking in the rain to whether it's really possible to pull a tablecloth off a table without destroying everything on it to a … Read more

Steve Jobs -- The untold tales

Steve Jobs left strong impressions on the people he knew, and some of them have shared those impressions in the latest issue of Forbes.

Stories about meetings and encounters with Jobs are always intriguing owing to the multifaceted personality of the man.

This Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the death of the Apple leader, prompting the magazine to publish some of the "untold" tales about Jobs as related by friends and colleagues.

Web browser guru and now venture capitalist Marc Andreessen related a story in which Jobs showed him a prototype of the first iPhone in 2006. … Read more

Man + machine: Joaquin Phoenix falls for computer in 'Her'

Do you spend more time with a computer, smartphone, or tablet than your significant other? Your life serves as the elementary premise for a futuristic love story, "Her," in which the film's star, Joaquin Phoenix, falls in love with an interactive operating system.

The movie, directed by Spike Jonze and made in collaboration with Annapurna Pictures, also stars it girls Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, and Olivia Wilde. … Read more