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Report: Daft Punk to score 'Tron 2.0'

For a certain kind of geek, there's no more important film than Disney's 1982 cult hit "Tron."

The story about a man trapped inside a computer who must continually fight for his life by riding light-bikes across a digital playground didn't do so well at the box office but gained a massive following in the years since.

Now, Disney is working on "Tron 2.0," a sequel to the original, and word is that the studio has chosen Daft Punk, the French electronica duo that is itself a cult favorite, to write the … Read more

The 404 291: Where there are some who call me Tim

Tim Geisenheimer joins the show today along with our favorite former intern, Mark Licea. We talk about Tim's new Kindle 2 and how Amazon decided to release a free iPhone app. That's $359 down the drain for Tim. Along the way, we discuss the Red Ring of Death for the Xbox 360 and a surprise guest appearance by Justin Yu himself, who reveals he's been suffering from multiple outbreaks of yet-to-be-classified STDs.

The Geisenblogger himself shares a little bit about his online persona in the form of his Tumblr, Wordpress blog, and Twitter. "Thriller" has got to be one of the best albums ever made, but Michael Jackson apparently has a stash of songs he won't release to the public until after his death. While we're not too excited about that after the failure of his "Invincible" album, we are excited that he is trying to make right with Sir Paul McCartney for supposedly bequeathing the Beatles collection to him after his death. Take this all with a grain of salt as this is coming from the Internet and The 404.

A woman in Florida gets more than she bargained for when she calls 911 three times to report that McDonald is not giving Chicken McNuggets to her. It sounds crazy until you realize that McDonald's tried to offer her a cheeseburger called the "McDouble" instead of a refund. Finally, if you're a Sprint customer, the company is offering $100 in the form of a Visa gift card if you refer a new Sprint customer. For those of you who managed to sneak in the SERO plan, here's a way to get three months of free service.… Read more

The 404 290: Where both Natali and Justin are suspiciously absent

Dr. Michael Breus, the Sleep Doctor, gets snowed out of New York today, and Justin Yu and Natali Del Conte are both suspiciously absent. We thought they were joking about the whole getting married thing. We didn't actually think they would hook up. Anyway, Heavy fills in today and does an admirable job of explaining why people get migraines. Essentially, Justin needs to take some Midol.

So what the hell is this Facebook ad suppose to mean? Jeff can't figure it out, but Heavy is heavy on the case. As usual, Jeff has a hater opinion on the … Read more

The 404 290: Where both Natali and Justin are suspiciously absent

Dr. Michael Breus, the Sleep Doctor, gets snowed out of New York today, and Justin Yu and Natali Del Conte are both suspiciously absent. We thought they were joking about the whole getting married thing. We didn't actually think they would hook up. Anyway, Heavy fills in today and does an admirable job of explaining why people get migraines. Essentially, Justin needs to take some Midol.

So what the hell is this Facebook ad supposed to mean? Jeff can't figure it out, but Heavy is heavy on the case. As usual, Jeff has a hater opinion on the … Read more

The 404 289: Where we should of had a snow day

Mark Licea AKA MTI fills in for Justin Yu's diminutive shoes on this beautiful snow day, who's out with a genital warps outbreak. (Mwuahaha... Wilson would like to thank Justin for giving him the power to write the blog post/show description.) Mark gives us his one word review of Street Fighter IV for the PlayStation 3: "Yeah". Also, Jeff can't wait to catch Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-li, which seriously got a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. The only reason why Wilson wants to see it is because Kristin Kreuk is in it. (Volume off, of course).

We find out today that Judd Apatow will be taking over the production of Ghostbusters 3, the long awaited sequel. We're just worried that Seth Rogen will be in it smoking a doobie the whole time, while the original Ghostbusters try to break out of a nursing home instead of a mental hospital. Plus, we don't think that New York City can take any more monsters, even if it is Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Some one please let J.J. Abrams know that because apparently he has an idea for the next Cloverfield movie. This time with more vomit-inducing camera shake. Finally, Nokia phones can take a beating but don't survive the fryer.

Tonight might also be the end of the world. A small asteroid will swing by our planet tonight, barely scrapping by at 40,000 miles from the earth's center. To keep that in perspective, the diameter of the planet is only 7926.28 miles. Who knows you might be able to catch the streak of light tonight? But we know one person who won't be sad today: James Mincey. He's a California DJ, who won "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection" for the Xbox 360. We'll be sending that his way soon. We've got more giveaways coming up, so please send in your calls and e-mails and keep on listening to the most irrelevant podcast on the Internet. Tomorrow, we've got Dr. Michael Breus on the show to explain to us how to stop our wet dreams.

EPISODE 289 Download today's podcastRead more

The 404 289: Where we should have had a snow day

Mark Licea, aka MTII, fills in for Justin Yu's diminutive shoes on this beautiful snow day, who's out with a genital warps outbreak. (Mwuahaha... Wilson would like to thank Justin for giving him the power to write the blog post/show description.) Mark gives us his one word review of Street Fighter IV for the PlayStation 3: "Yeah". Also, Jeff can't wait to catch Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-li, which seriously got a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. The only reason why Wilson wants to see it is because Kristin Kreuk is in it. (Volume … Read more

The power of the crowd, revisited

Almost three years after Jeff Howe coined the term in his seminal article "The Rise of Crowdsourcing," and, ironically, in the very week 1,300 handpicked scientists, entrepreneurs, artists, and other thinkers, movers, and shakers assembled at the TED conference in Long Beach, the term "crowdsourcing" yielded more than 1 million search results on Google.

That's quite an accomplishment. Crowdsourcing is no longer an exclusive noun for a few in the know, it has become a verb for the crowd. Mom-and pop shops, SME's, and large corporations, receptionists, interns, middle managers, and CEOs – everyone'… Read more

The 404 278: Where we stab ourselves to deaf with Knife Music

Today we get down and dirty with David Carnoy, Executive Editor and resident tech carnoysseur at CNET.com. As a self-published author (check out his book at KnifeMusicBook.com), he gives his unique take on the recent Amazon Kindle 2 announcement, iPhone eBook alternatives, and whether or not the Kindle can cordially coexist with tangible novels and newspapers.

We also ask him to stay for a few stories, including a study out of Europe that finally takes a logical stance on video game censorship. We also try to congratulate David on the recent birth of his twins, but get sidetracked … Read more

The 404 276: Where we prefer Pitas to PETA

Wilson's back on the show to prove that two Chinese men are always better than one. He brings back news of the Kindle 2, which leads us to a discussion about the books of Scholastic yore- like Goosebumps, Choose Your Own Adventure, Flowers in the Attic, Bunnicula, and the Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. Okay, I might be the only one who read that last one. We quickly move on to less awkward topics, like FarmersOnly.com--an online dating site catered to farmers looking for love...from other farmers, get your mind out of the gutter. … Read more

What's new about the Kindle 2? Not a whole lot

NEW YORK--Were there an anthology of gadget launch announcements, the unveiling of Amazon's Kindle 2 e-book reader would have one of the more anticlimactic storylines.

It started out like any other big press conference, with a line of reporters and photographers streaming out the door onto the chilly sidewalk outside the historic Morgan Library & Museum.

The Kindle 2's arrival had been preceded by the usual blog blitz of leaked photos, rumors, and breathless wish lists. (A color screen! Better PDF support! International versions of the Kindle store!) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took the stage, Steve Jobs-style, with a slide show recap of the original Kindle's success before making the big debut.

But the announcement itself was underwhelming. The price, $359, remains the same. The battery life's been improved by about 25 percent. The Kindle 2 is much skinnier than its predecessor, slimming down to 0.36 inches in thickness from 0.7, but it's only a tenth of an ounce lighter. The storage capacity has jumped from 256MB to 2GB, or about 200 to 1,500 books, and the electronic ink display has improved from a 4-shade to 16-shade grayscale.

The layout of some of the buttons has been restructured, and the new Kindle also has a text-to-speech reader. In short, the improvements seem worthwhile, but there was no real curveball to give the Kindle a mainstream appeal.… Read more