ie8 fix

jeff

Note to NBC's boss: Dude, try watching your own channel sometime

On a day when IBM's reportedly mulling a buyout of Sun Microsystems, Uncle Ben Bernanke decides to print another $300 billion or so, and Congress gets a chance to throw spitballs at the weasels at AIG, there are better things to do than mock NBC's Jeff Zucker as an empty suit.

But after reading the synopsis of Zucker's remarks Wednesday criticizing Jon Stewart for eviscerating the goofs who predominate on CNBC, it's not even fair. How can one resist?

I don't want to prejudice you (just yet) so here's how BusinessWeek reported the story:… Read more

The 404 301: Where we defect to Canada with Debbie from Toronto

debbiefromtoronto from the chat room joins The 404 today all the way from Canada. Of course, she brings her special Canadian goodies, like ketchup potato chips and Smarties, on to the show. Justin falls in love with her when he finds out that she has a bachelor's degree in printing! And she reveals that she was the one who actually coined the phrase "ear douching."

On today's show, we touch on the iPhone OS 3.0 news. Mostly, Jeff takes credit for the shake-to-shuffle feature. While Wilson flips out over the new dock input/output features. We also speculate on the new iPhone revision this summer. Also, a really bad Chinese iPhone joke: Ping Guo i-Dian Hua San-Ge. Ask your Chinese friends what that means.

In other phone news, we get a little excited over Google Voice. Wilson was previously a Grand Central user, but may pick it back up now that Google Voice forwards SMS messages as well. Justin thinks about signing up for an account to call Debbie when she goes home to Canada.

Finally, a man gets shot while wearing a Joker costume. He was holding a shotgun. He wasn't shot for his lack of creativity. And in other shooting-related news, Sega breaks the record for most f-bombs in a video game for House of the Dead: Overkill. Apparently there are a 189 f-bombs.

EPISODE 301 Download today's podcastRead more

The 404 300: Where Dr. Michael Breus puts us to sleep with 300 green beers

Dr. Michael Breus, the Sleep Doctor, joins us today for what is quite possibly the most informative show we've ever done. No iPhone OS 3.0 news here today. We've got something so much better. It's our 300th episode, and we're still not canceled! *Fingers crossed.*

That's right, we're still amazed. 300!

If you've ever listened to the show, you know we push the limit of acceptable behavior--even on the Interwebs. Justin has his poop jokes. Wilson has his stuffed peppers. And Jeff has his general hatred of humanity and happiness. Thank you, our listeners, for keeping us alive and giving us a reason to come into work every day. Go out and celebrate St. Patrick's Day with your friends, call The 404, and let us know why you listen to the show. 1-866-404-CNET (2638).

We couldn't think of any better way to celebrate than to have Dr. Michael Breus on the show. Why would an Internet culture show have a sleep doctor on? Because boy do we love sleep, and we promise you won't be disappointed. He talks about how long you should sleep. What you should eat before you go to bed. Whether clear liquor or dark liquors will give you a hang over. We cover it all. Thank you so much for your questions. He's got a great blog too.

Celebrating episode 301 tomorrow, we've got debbiefromtoronoto coming on the show. She's going to bring a big bag of goodies. We can't wait to get a hold of those ketchup potato chips. And for 302, we've got Jonathan Coulton, musician and generally cool dude. Be prepared for more awesomeness.

EPISODE 300 Download today's podcastRead more

The 404 299: Where I was into it more back in college

Back from the weekend, Justin watches "Watchmen" again, Wilson catches "Coraline" in 3D, and Jeff tries to kill himself when his parents and soon-to-be parents-in-law spend the weekend picking a place to get married and the font of the invitation envelopes.

Speaking of "Caroline" in 3D, it gave Wilson a massive headache. The film was incredibly imaginative and creative yet the story was a bit lacking. Reminds Wilson of "Alice in Wonderland."

In actual stories today, we talk mostly about Twitter. Jason Calacanis wants to pay the company $250,000 so that he can be at the top of suggested followers list. While we think suggested followers is a halfway decent idea (especially if they personalize the list), we don't especially think we want to follow Calacanis all day long. Also, Twitter may have caused a mistrial in a case where a juror tweeted the jury's finding. Twitter! Haven't you caused enough damage to people's lives!?!?

Tomorrow, we have Dr. Michael Breus, the Sleep Doctor, on the show. So please call into the show with all your questions about sleep. While it may sounds like a "snoozer"--Ha, get it?!?!--we promise the Sleep Doctor has never failed to entertain. Also, on the show on Wednesday is debbiefromtoronto, probably the hottest Canandian blonde fan of The 404. And ending the week is the composer of "Still Alive" from The Orange Box, Jonathan Coulton. As usually, the number is 1-866-404-CNET (2638). We need callbacks for the show. You know the part where we go, "Hey this is Jeff Bakalar from Hoboken, New Jersey, and you're listening to The 404, the show where [INSERT WITTY COMMENT]."

EPISODE 299 Download today's podcastRead more

The 404 298: Where Erica Boeke teaches us how to watch sports like a girl

Erica Boeke is on the show today to talk about her new book "GameFace: The Kick-Ass Guide for Women Who Seriously Love Pro Sports." On the show, we talk about women and their fascination with watching hockey players kick each others' ass. And Justin reveals that he has never played baseball, basketball, football, or hell, even played catch in his life.

We don't talk too much technology today, but we promise: we have a good time with sports and our general ability to turn any seemingly benign topic into a sexual innuendo. After Justin talks about men playing hockey, you'll never think about it in an unerotic way again.

Briefly on the show, we mention the war going on between Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," and Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money." Jon Stewart pretty much destroys Jim Cramer and the entire financial news media. We've never almost seen a grown man crying on cable television.

As usual, keep the voice mails coming: 1-866-404-CNET (2638). We still haven't found the right motto yet, but boy do we have a good time sorting through them. Or if you just want to leave a message about how Erica Boeke looks like Helen Hunt, that's fine too. Everyone have a great weekend, and you'll hear us next week when Jeff asks the Sleep Doctor Michael Breus how to stop farting in his sleep.

Episode 298 Download today's podcastRead more

The 404 297: Where Caroline McCarthy is Asian for a day

Ace reporter Caroline McCarthy joins the show today to give us a little preview of South by Southwest, while we ream Justin Yu for totally being a pushover on our competing podcast "Bore Out Loud." Caroline says there isn't really much scheduled that will be ground-breaking this year, but that's because The 404 isn't there.

McCarthyism says that she's got the connection to get us on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." We think we can get on if Diggnation can get on. Letterman ain't having us after a week with U2.

Jeff and Caroline have a pale-off. It's pretty damn close, but we've got to say Jeff wins this one. He temporarily blinded Wilson yesterday when he sat underneath a light when shooting the brand new Nintendo DSi. Speaking of which, CNET gets an exclusive first look at the device, and we think Jeff is a believer now. It only took 100 million Nintendo DSs to get it done. Also, check out Jeff on Loaded today, where he gives his first impressions of the new Resident Evil 5.

Finally, we end the show on a classy note. A man has managed to get a USB flash drive installed on his prosthetic finger. The jokes ensue when Justin comments that he'd love to get a USB drive attached to a certain peripheral on his body. This is truly the home of the "Nerdy dirty."

Our contest is still going on. Send in your suggestions to the show. We love hearing them, especially the international ones. Much praise goes to brisebanelistener for quite possibly one of the funniest voice mails ever!

EPISODE 297 Download today's podcastRead more

The 404 296: Where the new iPod Shuffle looks like a suppository

Apple releases a new iPod Shuffle that looks curiously like something you would use to take care of constipation. It looks as if "SNL" wasn't that far off though when it suggested the iPod Peque?o. But hey, this one talks to you!

In more Apple news, Chinese hackers figure out how to crack the iTunes gift card system. Apparently, it's just a key code generator, and for a mere $2.60, you can get yourself a $200 gift card. We don't know if it works, and even if it does, it won't be for long. If you do know, tell us by calling 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Along those same lines, we find out that "Full frontal nerdity" is already taken for a show motto. Please send in more suggestions.

In depressing news, grammar is apparently becoming horrible on Twitter. No surprise given the 140-character limit. Let's just hope @replies don't wind up in some kid's term paper. Also more depressing, "Star Wars" is coming back as a television show. If the new J.J. Abrams-directed "Star Trek" movie becomes a hit, they may make restart the television franchise.

We've got a whole slew of guests coming on the show in the coming days including Erica Boeke, Dr. Michael Breus, debbiefromtoronto, and Jonathan Coultan. And our very own Justin Yu makes an appearance on the "Bore Out Loud." Keep listening to "The 404!"

EPISODE 296 Download today's podcastRead more

The 404 295: Where we hide our junk in the cloud

Facebook loses your uploaded photos temporarily. Wilson knows this due to his vigilant Facebook stalking. We're still running our motto contest, and right now it's split between "The nerdy dirty" and "Full frontal nerdity." If you can come up with something better, please send a voice mail to 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Please! We're an audio show, e-mails only go so far.

More on today's show, we've got some news about the rise of pay-per-view porn on cable. We can't figure out why you don't just download it, but hey there's still a whole population out there that still watches movies from VHS. Speaking of watching stuff, our parent company CBS is going to be streaming March Madness online this year. Expect productivity to drop to nothing--as if the economy isn't bad enough.

Also, the economy has hit Google as well. They're announcing that they'll have to close two caf?s. They still get to keep their free laundry, massages, lunches, dinners, snacks, stock options, etc. I know it's rough being a Googler. We're worried they're going to take away our Flavia machine. Finally, did you know that you pay an average of $3 per minute with your cell phone plan? Yeah, shocker right there. Wilson had to give AT&T his first-born child when he went over.

Episode 295 Download today's podcastRead more

The 404 294: Where daylight-saving time is no friend of The 404

Daylight-saving time really messes with the guys of The 404. Today, we realize how old we are when compacts discs are 30 years old. Obviously, teens prefer MP3s over CDs; audiophiles die a little. Another teen creates Muziic, a program that lets you build a music library from YouTube. And finally, Walgreens starts to sell sex toys.

With music, pictures and now your documents living online, it's not going to be long before your pr0n collection moves there. Justin feels pretty compelled to write guidelines on how to do this. As a matter of fact, he's become quite the expert on how to do it in your \System32\ folder on your Windows partitioned, disguised as a temporary cache.

Congratulations to Elizabeth for winning a copy of House of the Dead: Overlord for the Nintendo Wii. Right now, "The Nerdy Dirty" is leading our contest for a 404 motto, but we're waiting to see what our community comes up with the phrase "Not found." As always, call in at 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Or send us an e-mail at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com. We've got more giveaways coming up--I know, it sounds like we're bribing you, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get those listeners.

EPISODE 294 Download today's podcastRead more

The 404 293: Where Dan Ackerman has a Mac Mini in his pants

Dan Ackerman joins us on today's show to talk about his not-critically-acclaimed album "Tales Out of Night School" and the technology world in general. Be sure to check out his podcast Digital City on iTunes. Also, he give his opinion on digital-music distribution and makes fun of our game of marry/boff/kill with Ms. Natali Del Conte.

On today's show, we talk about the release of the new "Watchmen" movie. The first reviews are mixed. Justin is still holding out hope that the film will be watchable. In other movie and television news, Showtime, a sister company of CNET, is releasing Emmy screeners on iPods. Amazon finally gets the sense to pull a video game featuring rape simulation. The cast of "Seinfeld" rejoins on "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Hopefully, Michael Richard won't drop any bombs on the show. Justin is disappointed that a sheriff in Cook County is finally starting to crack down on prostitution on Craigslist. And Matel releases a Barbie doll in China with a tattoo.… Read more