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The site that lets you compete against Olympians

Which is better? Watching half-baked highlights of the Winter Olympics or competing against Michael Phelps?

The answer might not seem obvious to you. After all, perhaps you're not a terribly good swimmer and you're sure you'd embarrass yourself, your family and anyone who might be interested in you on a come-hither basis.

However, what if you competed against the great Olympic swimmer to see who was better at putting golf balls into a plastic cup? Surely you would have a chance. Phelps has terribly short legs and a long torso. This might encourage him to overbalance.

Are … Read more

The Valentine lovers' video game top 10

I feel sure you will find the appropriate way to express your love on Valentine's Day.

Maybe you will take your love to dinner. You will buy flowers. You might get a card or lingerie. Perhaps you will even seek out some revolutionary bondage gear. However, I feel sure that not many of you will choose to offer your love a video game experience.

It seems that not everyone is as sure as me--or, for that matter, the wise and wonderful bloggers at Deadspin, who received a most delightfully thoughtful communication from a PR company. This PR company, called … Read more

Bill Gates criticizes the iPad

Sometimes it's hard to let go of the past. And sometimes it's impossible.

While Microsoft toyed with the idea of tablets for a very long time, somehow, it never managed to find the right creative construction to make an impact on our brittle society.

So how, then, did Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates feel when he saw his longtime adversary, Steve Jobs, hype the hope for the iPad? It was as if he was wallowing in a bath of indifference, it seems.

In an interview with BNET blogger Brent Schlender, Gates seemed to believe that his original concept of … Read more

Yet again, NBC's Olympics strategy is a Web loser

In a world full of gall, NBC Sports deserves an asterisk.

Sporting events tend to be rather more fun when you can watch them live. You, indeed, might want to watch the Winter Olympics, which begin Thursday, live. Well, NBC Sports is the kind of host that will invite you for dinner and serve you cornflakes, coffee, and a dried croissant--in the restroom.

It seems only yesterday that NBC was annoying people, especially those on the West Coast, with its coverage of the Beijing Olympics. The peacock network takes pride in being able to censor your ability to watch Olympic … Read more

Man locks self in box for Justin.tv fame

It's how California wine became famous. So why shouldn't it work for somewhat minor U.K. TV personality Tim Shaw?

Shaw, you see, has decided to lock himself in a steel box for 30 days, in order to, well, be happy and famous and rich. Or something.

His Man in a Box escapade is, quite naturally, being screened live on Justin.tv. So you can watch in real time as Shaw attempts to live with himself, a camera, and one light, which is turned off for 12 hours a day.

The creators of this deeply human experiment understand … Read more

Google's 'Parisian Love' sparks crime fiction spoofs

All across America, people blew their noses over their nachos during the third quarter of the Super Bowl.

Google's foray into broadcast brand communication, "Parisian Love," a moving story of international angst and amour, moved some, perhaps, to consider finding meaning overseas.

It also moved some to consider that perhaps this extremely cheap-to-make movie should enjoy a little gentle mimicry and mockery. Actually, in some cases, the mockery wasn't all that gentle.

Some of it was even created before the Google ad, which originally ran on YouTube in November, entered football territory.

However, here are two … Read more

Did this MetroPCS ad make the tech world cringe?

Here are some deeply perceptive estimations brought to you in the new ad campaign from cell phone service provider MetroPCS: All Indian males work in the tech industry. Unless they are in Bollywood. And all Indian techies are terribly nerdy beings with the dress sense of a dead gardener in his coffin.

Perhaps, you, too, were mesmerized by one of these spots, featuring Ranjit and Chad, two Indian tech experts, during Sunday's Super Bowl. Or perhaps this was merely some kind of local buy, as the so-called "Tech and Talk" campaign has been plaguing my own television … Read more

Audi wins the Super Bowl

While the Saints lifted the trophy, a little necessary roughness directed at the sanctimonious showed that, gosh, brand advertising can still sprinkle a little holy water.

You, your family, or those frightfully wobbly people with you in the sports bar or king size hotel room, surely had your own views about which Super Bowl ads moved your internal dial.

I was esconsced on a cliff with cordon bleu guacamole prepared by a wickedly witty Texan and a flat screen with small but bracing speakers. From my vantage point, it seemed clear that Audi's "Green Police" spot would … Read more

Survey: Majority of people don't want an iPad

I know that so many of you have been a little undecided on this important subject, so this seriously significant information may be enough to sway you as to your own deeply conflicted feelings.

The majority of your fellow humans are not interested in owning an iPad.

No, I haven't been pounding the streets and screens of this world in order to ask everyone still living and breathing after the iPad launch announcement. Instead, I have lucked upon an article in Computerworld, which tells me of some survey work performed by online comparison shopping helper Retrevo.

Retrevo possibly performed … Read more

Obscene tweet gets Vodafone rep suspended

Working in customer service is never easy. People can be difficult, nay, impossible at times. But if there is one small rule, especially in this day of rampant networks with nothing better to do than be social, it's the one that says "don't insult the customer."

This rule seems not to have been followed by one customer service representative who works, at least for now, for U.K. wireless carrier Vodafone.

According to the Guardian, this individual posted a Friday tweet on Vodafone's official Twitter page that read: "VodafoneUK is fed up of dirty … Read more