animation

Natali Del Conte fills Justin's diminutive shoes today, and boy it could not be more appropriate with today's stories. Big news of the day is daytime talk show goddess Oprah Winfrey's plans to end "The Oprah Winfrey Show," and we're hoping our very own Natali Del Conte will take over.

According to WholeFitness.com, staring at breasts for 10 minutes will prolong a man's life by 5 years. Yes, this could possibly be the greatest piece of health care news ever, and we're hoping they incorporate it into the current legislation.

After some really awesome voicemails, we finally get into some tech talk with high-definition primetime entertainment. The majority of shows have switched over to high-definition broadcasts, but we're particularly disappointed that "Family Guy" and "American Dad" aren't available in high definition yet. Jeff gets really disappointed to learn that almost all cartoons are animated in South Korea. Guess that makes "American Dad" even more ironic. Included in the same list is "America's Top Model." Wilson is particularly disappointed.

Jeff will be out next week, so hopefully it won't be Wilson alone curled up in a snuggie talking about Apple and washing machines. In the meantime, be sure to keep sending in those voicemails as we prep for Thanksgiving. If you're in the New York metropolitan area, be sure to check out Ms. Del Conte on WCBS as she hosts the local news for Black Friday.

We like the idea behind Magic Whiteboard; networked users can draw collaboratively on the same image from different computers. Unfortunately, the program's execution leaves a lot to be desired.

The program's interface is cute, with the drawing area framed by a border featuring cartoon animals and gnomes. The actual drawing features are lacking, and will be disappointing to kids who are already familiar with programs like Microsoft Paint. There's a pencil feature whose width can be adjusted on a scale from 1 to 18, and an eraser, but that's it. The really awful thing about this … Read more

Electric Sheep is a free screensaver that lets your computer join a global network of computers processing "electric sheep"--striking, ever-changing, abstract fractal animations generated with a genetic algorithm (taking their name from the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick).

Your computer downloads and displays sheep from the current "flock" as your screensaver, while running in the background, your CPU contributes to the parallel computation and mutation of new sheep, joining thousands of other computers around the world. You can also vote on sheep with your up and down … Read more

The days of cats amusing themselves with bits of string and dogs spending hours playing with their own, er, equipment are long gone. Sophisticated modern pets demand the latest high-tech gadgets to keep them stimulated, satisfied, and in 24-hour digital contact with their owners. We reveal what today's plugged-in pets are barking for.

Read more of "The best pet gadgets ever made" at Crave UK.

Children can have fun coloring cyber style with this computer-based coloring book. Coloring Book 10: Baby Animals includes a selection of baby animal drawings that children fill in by clicking on colors in preloaded palettes. Parents can help their children print their finished artwork with a few simple clicks.

Coloring Book 10: Baby Animals features a colorful, easy-to-use interface that children of all ages should be able to navigate. The program's drawings are simple, so older children may not find them challenging enough. Each drawing is "colored" by selecting colors from the palettes that ring the edges … Read more

Five Little Monkeys is a colorful sing-along app designed for toddlers and preschoolers, with three different versions--country, rock, and pop--of the popular simian head-injury song ("Five little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and bumped his head..." etc.). Kids can select which version they want to hear using a visual menu, and then they watch the ever-dwindling squad of monkeys bouncing on said bed, as karaoke-style subtitles run below. You touch a monkey to trigger the next line of the song, at which point an owl--apparently a doctor, with a white coat and a head mirror--breaks … Read more

Bird flu, swine flu, anthrax; and now add Hendra--a lethal virus that resides in bat urine and horse spit--to the ever increasing list of barnyard threats.

The U.S. and other countries are investing in Hendra virus research because they fear it may be used in biological warfare, Dr. Peter Reid told horse owners and "bat carers" at the Queensland Horse Council Hendra virus conference last week. And Dr. Reid should know--he was the veterinarian involved in the first known Hendra outbreak, which killed prominent Queensland horse trainer Vic Rail and 14 of his horses in 1994.… Read more

AutoRun is the handy Windows feature that automatically starts a program when, for example, you insert a CD-ROM in your PC's drive. Whether you're a network administrator or a newbie, an installation program that starts right up with a professional-looking interface is a reassuring sight. Good installation programs don't design themselves, though. Someone put it all together and put it on disk. You can, too, with AutoRun Pro Enterprise II from Longtion. It's designed to let anyone create interactive front ends for downloads, CD-ROMs, and other such applications, regardless of skill level. It lets you bring … Read more

It's a dog. It's a porcupine. It's a dog dressed as a porcupine (Martha Stewart's dog Francesca, no less). Yes, it looks like Francesca will be dressing up as another animal species this Halloween, and she no doubt will suffer a serious identity crisis in the process.

The very creative Alison Lewis, editor of the technology life and style blog Switch, went on Martha's show Monday to demonstrate how to make the illuminated porcupine dog costume.

Required materials include fiber optic strands, electrical tape, a 5-millimeter LED light, AAA batteries, silver reflective paper, a craft … Read more