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Acer's next-gen Aspire One Netbooks available now

We've already seen them previewed with the rest of Acer's upcoming lineup back in April, but the official release of the next generation of Aspire One Netbooks is finally here. Most notable is the inclusion of a new, bigger 11.6-inch model, the Aspire One AO751h; also new is a revamped 10.1-inch system, the Aspire One AOD250. (Confidential to Acer: we're available as product naming consultants for the low, low price of free).

Both new Netbooks are thinner than Acer's previous models, and the 11-inch AO751h has a full-size keyboard, along with a 16:9 … Read more

Quickly change file properties

File Property Changer offers users a quick, efficient way to change a variety of factors related to files. While this program proved to be effective, it may not appeal to everyday users.

This program provides a clear interface that users can grasp quickly. The left-hand side of the program is dominated by a file tree listing every usable folder and file on the hard drive. Once users have selected the file they wish to toy with, its statistics instantly appear on the right side. There you are shown its file name, what format the file is in, when it was … Read more

The 404 318: Where we feast on cupcakes and golden oreos

Caroline McCarthy and Tim Geisenheimer join The 404 today, while Jeff pretends to celebrate the Passover with his family. The ace reporter brings in cupcakes made with bacon cream-cheese frosting and beer. Sounds incredibly healthy. Here's the recipe.

On today's show, we cover the news that Yelp is finally letting businesses respond to negative reviews that users write. Did you know that The 404 has a Yelp page? Wilson discovers that you can actually write reviews for almost anything, including homeless people. In the same vein, feel free to write Yelp reviews for your favorite 404 hosts.

In more outrageous news today, PETA is holding an animal protest rally in World of Warcraft. WoW players are slaughtering baby seals in the "Howling Fjord." We think PETA should spend its time trying to stop Tim from killing baby seals on the weekends, rather than virtual seals. Also, a man in Texas got stabbed for farting in the room with his buddies. This happens on a daily basis in Wilson's office. More from Texas: a state legislator says that Asian American names are too confusing. And South of the border, Mexican drug dealers are sending blatant death threats on YouTube.

Thanks for sending in your survival stories. Keep them coming. E-mail them or call us at the usual number. And be sure to RSVP for the upcoming 404 meetup on April 16 next week. Here's the link. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Megan Fox will be there! (Not really, but Natali Del Conte will be.)

EPISODE 318 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes Subscribe in RSSRead more

Namechk scours 84 sites to find open usernames

Namechk is a new service launching on Wednesday that helps you find open usernames at 84 different Web sites. Like UsernameCheck, a service we covered last year that has since shut down, it takes only a few seconds to come up with the results and provides a link to the page for each user at the sites where it's taken.

What's really impressive about this service is the speed. In a few sample searches, it averaged about 8 seconds from start to finish. And you don't even have to wait to see all the results because they … Read more

Web site builder SynthaSite rebrands as Yola

SynthaSite, a San Francisco-based company that lets users build Web sites with minimal technical expertise required, has changed its name: it has ditched the corporate-sounding moniker for the more Web 2.0-ish Yola.

"The name SynthaSite has brought us to where we are today, but it won't take us where we want to go," CEO Vinny Lingham said in a release. "We're reaching a global market and need a name that is easy to say, resonates in any language, and captures the creativity and excitement that our users bring to their Web sites."

Yola, … Read more

Palm distances itself from investor's boasting

Roger McNamee is about to learn that nothing can ever be withdrawn from the Internet.

In an SEC filing for the ages, Palm attempted to do just that on Monday, distancing itself from comments made by Elevation Partners' McNamee--Palm's primary investor--regarding Palm's Pre smartphone and Apple's iPhone. Palm is expected to launch the Pre at some point before the end of the first half of the year, and while the company's financial backer is understandably excited, he seemed to lose all sense of perspective during an interview with Bloomberg last week.

In the interview, … Read more

DNS Security Extensions not a panacea

In 2003, the federal government released a report titled "The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace," offering numerous recommendations to improve overall security. One suggestion was to replace insecure Domain Name System (DNS) servers with DNS Security Extensions, or DNSSEC. Simply stated, standard DNS has a relatively open method for updating information, making it vulnerable to an attack. DNSSEC, on the other hand, marries DNS with a public key infrastructure (PKI) for authentication and digital signatures addressing this particular vulnerability.

Since the original call to arms in 2003, DNSSEC implementation remained on the backburner--that is until recently. Now federal … Read more

Uh-oh: Gossip site buys up moguls' dot-com names

In what's probably one part prank and one part ironic statement, New York society-pages site Cityfile announced Friday that over the past few months it has been quietly snapping up domain names corresponding to the people it covers.

You may not have heard of many of the people on the list: the obsessively name-dropping Cityfile's terrain is more focused on Gotham's business and media leaders than the likes of Britney and Paris. But among those on the list are Warner Music chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. (Cityfile now owns edgarbronfmanjr.com), Greycroft Partners' Alan Patricof, and Nerve.com … Read more