questions

Web-based puzzle-inspired game now on the iPhone

Triple Entendre is based on puzzle games like notpr0n, godtower, and qwyzzle, unique games that use a regular Web browser to challenge you to solve riddles. This is one of those games that's hard to describe if you've never tried it, but the idea is: each screen gives you a clue of some kind and it is your job to look at the available information (checking search engines is encouraged) and then provide an answer in the box to move on to the next screen. These games are notoriously difficult, and sometimes it's not even the answer … Read more

The 404 849: Where we're taking a mulligan (podcast)

Did Shakespeare smoke the devil's lettuce? Joey Kaminski fills in for Wilson today to help us discuss this question and more, like should Jeff go to the world's first tickle spa? How would you evaluate Subway's $5 foot-long sandwich policy? And how do I get free Uncharted 3 and Call of Duty Black Ops (Annihilation)? We'll try our best to answer them all!

The 404 Digest for Episode 849

Capcom tries to kill used video game sales with the one-save game. Instead of pejazzling, Jeff should go to the world's first tickle spa. Twenty craziest job interview questions and the right answers. Crazies exhume Shakespeare's body to see if he smoked marijuana. Did you know that every episode of "Seinfeld" has a Superman reference? Whoa...dude!

Episode 849 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Facebook has answers

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

Google is reportedly testing Google Music internally

The New York Times launches a discount service

Starz Channel will delay the release of its shows to Netflix for 90 days

Netflix offers a 3 percent bill credit to customers affected by the Watch Instantly outage this week

Facebook updates its question-and-answer services

Walgreens buys Drugstore.com for $409 million

Duke Nukem Forever experiences yet another delay

Facebook fine-tunes its Questions product

Facebook announced today some notable updates to its Q&A product, Facebook Questions--updates that knit it tightly into the broader Facebook experience, making it far less of an isolated feature. More specifically, the new Facebook Questions facilitates short, poll-like answers in addition to long-form responses, and also links directly to relevant items in Facebook's directory of "fan pages." That's something that's very relevant if you're asking a question about, say, movie recommendations or a good restaurant to visit.

The new Facebook Questions will be available as a limited beta first, though interested users … Read more

The 404 Yuletide mini-sode: Where you ask, we answer (podcast)

If you've ever wanted to go behind the scenes at The 404 to see what it takes to get the show running every morning, this Yuletide episode has your answers. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions, and here are the ones we address today:

What happened to "Have Yu Seen It" segment?

How did we come come to work at CNET?

How did Jeff land such a "smokin' hottie?"

How did Justin feel coming into the show after 100 episodes?

How is the show regarded by the rest of the CNET office?

Do Jeff … Read more

MacFixIt answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed from our readers. This week we have questions on MacBook trackpads becoming very sensitive after using alternative pointing devices, desktop pictures not being oriented properly, and third-party menu extras not being removable from the system menu. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present a few here, we certainly welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

Question: Hypersensitive trackpad on MacBook Pro

MacFixIt reader "Terry" asks:

Since I purchased and installed a Magic Track Pad, my … Read more

Question marks in OS X and what to do about them

In several situations when running OS X you may encounter question marks. Of course there should definitely be one somewhere on your keyboard (likely next to the right Shift key), but there are other instances where question marks may appear in the system where there shouldn't be one. Usually these indicate an instance in which the system cannot locate a specified file, location, or other resource and in its confusion shows a question mark.

Start-up

When OS X boots, it will by default use the boot volume that is set in the PRAM, but if that setting is not … Read more

Meet Swingly, a Q&A tool powered by robots

While Facebook is busy amassing questions and answers from its 500 some million members, a new service called Swingly, which is coming out of stealth on Tuesday, is thinking a little bigger. Like the entire Internet bigger.

As described to me last week in a call with Swingly's managing partner Andrew Hickl, Swingly is a machine-generated answer engine that contains somewhere around 100 billion to 150 billion question and answer pairs. "It's the first one of its kind," Hickl said. "Our gimmick here is that Swingly uses our system and the Web."

What that … Read more

Fluther launches 'Federated': Q&A for any site

Questions-and-answers service Fluther is unveiling a new platform on Monday that lets companies integrate the Fluther community, and its real-time Q&A interface into their Web sites.

The platform, which is called Federated Fluther, can be skinned to match whatever site it's on, bringing the same feature set and functionality found on Fluther.com. Any questions that are asked on that site can then be answered both by its users, and those back over on Fluther. Likewise, the answers from either community end up in the same bucket--something that for sites with a smaller community can mean those … Read more