Show notes

Our No. 404 fanboy Dee Wren takes time out of his busy filming schedule to bring some positivity to our Monday morning. After revealing some news about the upcoming Google Android release tomorrow, we talk about the weekend box office, touch on Facebook porn, and make an overall attempt to shade ourselves from Jeff's rays of hate (unsuccessfully). Happy Monday!

To make up for all the lives we've ruined with The 404, we invite our buddy Dee Wren into the studio to pimp his philanthropic project, From Us With Love. It's a nonprofit organization that supplies aid to children in South Africa and Dee is helping to shoot a documentary on their efforts to send a group of them to Australia for the Homeless World Cup. We'd love for you to contribute as much time, money, and resources as you can to their foundation. The best part of this endeavor is that For Us With Love is already corporate-sponsored, so the full 100 percent of your contribution will go directly into the project, no filters. It's a very noble cause, please check out the Web site and do what you can to help!

Poor, poor Jeff. He attended last night's PEPCOM event, a showcase of this holiday season's tech goodies, and left without snagging a free Jawbone headset. Not to rub it in, but I, Dan the Mantern, will be testing mine out this evening. It was a slow news week for The 404, but today's show gets a pick-me-up from B-Sox and Morning Moose, rock jocks for Lazer 103.3 FM in Des Moines, Iowa.

B-Sox and Moose, we love you guys, you're multitalented and witty, but you blew whatever shreds of decency were left at the 404. We know it felt great to be free from all those censorship rules and regulations on a "licensed" broadcast station (they can't even say "goddamn") but, come on, think of the children. All jokes aside, it was a hilarious show, the guys "went there," and we all had a good laugh. Have a great weekend. See you on Monday, if we're not canceled...

We finally get our hands on the much coveted Bonch aka Bonnie Cha, Senior Editor for CNET.com. No, we don't grill her on the latest cell phones at CTIA or the proper way to make a Superman cape. Instead, we try to guess Sarah Palin's e-mail password, run through a list of Jeff's mancrushes, do the Cha Cha on the air, and take a visit to the Sex Museum, aka Wilson's cellar.

Wow, did someone open up a tank of nitrous oxide in here? Today's show is literally 40 minutes of constant laughter, and we owe that to our special guest, Bonnie Cha! She's a Senior Editor of mobile phones at CNET and one of the first people I ever met at the San Francisco office. Please don't be operating heavy machinery while listening to today's show! We do taint, tarnish, and otherwise frack up Bonnie's "innocence" by explaining the science behind "Supermanning that ho," which goes over surprisingly well with her. We also debut a service called Cha Cha that allows you to text or call a 24/7 concierge service that will literally answer any inquiry, such as "Is the 404 going to be taken off the air tomorrow?" or "Why is Bonnie's nickname The Bonch?" Of course, all of these questions can be answered using another service; here in 2008 we call it Google. Furthermore,why would I use the Cha Cha when I know Wilson will always be within arm's length of a computer? The man is physically tethered to the Internet. Finally, we take a look at the NBC fall lineup and Bonnie asks the question that's on all of our minds: Jeff, how can you like Sex and the City and still urinate standing up?

Dr. Michael Breus aka "The Sleep Doctor" drops by the studio today to catch up on some Zzzs and give us a few tips to improve the quality of our sleep. The good doctor answers our pressing questions about sleep walking, energy drinks, and spooning, and dispels a few sleep-related myths.

We're all excited for Dr. Brues' appearance on our show. This is actually his second appearance on The 404, but we're happy to get him back in the studio to answer our pressing questions about sleep cycles, naps, sleep talking, snoring, and lucid dreaming. Personally, I have a big problem with sleep talking (or so I'm told--I've never actually heard myself). One time, I apparently jumped out of bed and yelled "THE VORTEX!" for absolutely no reason at all, then proceeded to fall back into a deep sleep. Another time, I answered a phone call, made plans to go out, and had a full on conversation with a friend all in my sleep. Am I clinically insane? Listen to the show to hear Dr. Brues' professional opinion!

CNET Tech Editor Matt Fitzgerald joins us on today's show to shoot the film with us on a flurry of random stories from around the Internet, including George Takeiiiiiii's marriage, the inevitable death of TRL, the new POS Dragonball Z movie, the final word in iPhone updates, and more!

The morning starts off with a few crank calls (do I smell a new recurring segment?) that ends with us being forever banned from picking up a CNET telephone. Oh well, phones are overrated anyway. Anyway, I know we all bitch about iPhones incessantly on the show (especially Jeff "Hatin' on Fools" Bakalar), but most of our former qualms are solved by the newest firmware upgrade to end all firmware upgrades, version 2.1! If you have an iPhone, 3G or Edge, do yourself a favor and install the upgrade. Battery life is increased, phone crashes and dropped calls are nonexistent, and no more text lags! After three tries, Apple finally got it right. Now, if only they enabled cut/paste, SMS forwarding, and picture messaging....baby steps, Mr. Jobs, baby steps.

Be careful what you wish for--after asking listeners to drunk dial us over the weekend, we get a ton of calls from a very inebriated public. On today's show, we finally announce the winner of our Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09 contest! We also teach you how to recover a lost cellphone (or at least torture the thief), lament the new Iron Man 2 villain, and argue over who discovered Napster first.

My favorite story of the day is about getting mad AND getting even. A cell phone is becoming increasingly private. We use them to store personal photos, text message conversations, and voicemails; so how much does it suck to lose your phone? It's even worse when you know that someone is using your precious minutes to call their doofus friends out of country. Well, now you can get even. Maverick Mobile just released an application for your phone that lets you track and spy on the guy that's using your phone. You can listen in on their conversations and even send a piercing alarm to the phone that rings every time they try to invade your cell. Would-be phone thieves beware: we're watching you!

It smells funky in the studio today, and it isn't just Wilson eating ravioli for breakfast. John Funk of Winnipeg, Canada, one of our favorite 404 listeners, joins the show to talk about Frank's Red Hot, the Buzz Out Loud hijack and hockey. The eh's and aboots abound!

Dan the Mantern here. On today's show we discuss celebrity sex tapes. From Paris Hilton to Austin Powers star Verne Troyer, it seems like everyone who's anyone has made a naughty film. Apparently, a spyware program has been circulating a phony link to an NSFW video of Barack Obama. No offense, but does anyone really think that Obama would have a sex tape? I really pity the fool who clicks the link only to find their hard drive infected by a virus. Even if the video was real, do you really need to see that? We wonder if the world would be as keen to see a Sarah Palin video or, dare I say it, a John McCain sex tape. If there is a recording of McCain taking care of his "executive privileges," I'm sure it's on 8 millimeter and you'd need your own hand-cranked projector to view it.

With Justin's fellow socks-with-sandals-wearing San Franciscan Brian Tong on the show, things get more giggly than a New Kids on the Block reunion concert. B-Tong and the boys discuss their favorite ninja turtles, a number of fast food related stories and their resentment of Twitter.

Dan the Mantern here. It was a pleasure to sit back and watch the magic happen on today's show. The Tongster brought so much good karma to The 404, a bold decision has made. Uniting West Coast and East, combining Wilson's good looks, Justin's singing voice, Brian's hair and DJ Jeff Mackalar's fresh beats it's Tang Tong Yu - the boy band sensation. Look for their new album, The Love ConNEcTion, this fall, in the Wal-Mart bargain bin underneath a VHS copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. Cowabunga dude!!!

On today's show, we reveal our favorite fragrances, briefly touch on the new Apple offerings, disappear into e-Ink, rip into the Geek Squad and Microsoft's new "gurus," send text messages to inanimate household objects, and try to convince Wilson to take a shower in public in the name of animal rights.

Don't bust out that checkbook yet, my friends, contrary to popular belief, Natali Del Conte's hair is not on eBay...yet. We'll be the first ones to break that news, but until then you'll just have to listen to our show to get your NDC fix. Lots of news to talk about today, which we get to right after we guess each other's favorite eau de liquid smells. No surprise here, but Jeff's is the sweet scent of Natali's hair that he creepily compares to a cherry lollipop. Anyway, we also get the scoop on a few more tech-related gems, including a story about energy companies testing a program that will send you a text message on behalf of your thermostat if you forget to turn it off when you leave the house. Hey, I'm all for energy conversation, but are ya kidding me!? So now, on top of ignoring text messages from my close friends and family members, I have to deal with spam from my household appliances, too!? I guess I can see it being useful when I forget to turn off the oven, but I'd prefer to get the news by driving up to a burning apartment rather than getting a text from my oven that says "Hey, dummy--you forgot to turn me off, so now I'm spitting hot fire at all your physical possessions. See you at home!" No thanks, gas company, you can keep the service--I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.