Geek culture

The 404 Yuletide Mini-sode: Where we love these movies (podcast)

Last year we talked about Back to the Future, Hackers, and the Fifth Element, but this year's batch of movies has a special place in the hearts of nerds everywhere.

To help us out today, Jeff and I invite our buddy Russ Frushtick aka The Fishstick into the studio to chat nostalgic about Jurassic Park, True Lies, and Ghostbusters!… Read more

Space post office postmarks letters from orbit

China's main Space Post Office is actually on the ground in Beijing, but they're happy to route letters through the galaxy's only true "satellite" branch in orbit so you can bag a one-of-a-kind postmark.

Yes, thanks to cuts to NASA's funding, it seems the Chinese have now rocketed ahead of us in the postal space gimmick department. The idea is for space nuts to send e-mails to a computer aboard the Chinese spacecraft Tiangong-1, currently in orbit, which routes the message back to the main Space Post Office to be printed out, stuffed into a commemorative envelope with a special postmark, and sent on to its addressee.

The orbital philatelic experiment is meant to boost business for China's postal service, which has been suffering as people move online. Makes you wonder why the U.S. Postal Service didn't set up shop at Cape Canaveral years ago.… Read more

Low Latency #02: Just in time for the holidays

Low Latency is a weekly comic on CNET's Crave blog written by CNET editor and podcast host Jeff Bakalar and illustrated by Blake Stevenson. Be sure to check Crave every Thursday at 8 a.m. PT for new panels!

Put a Moog synthesizer on your iPhone for 99 cents

When Robert Moog originally pioneered the modular voltage-controlled analog synthesizer in the 1950s and 1960s, I don't think he could have imagined the instrument's tremendous impact on music.

Moog's synthesizers continued to evolve, and his Minimoog became the most popular monophonic synthesizer of the 1970s; it was embraced by bands such as Yes and Tangerine Dream.

Robert Moog passed away in 2005, so I wonder what he would have thought of the Animoog, a fully featured synthesizer designed for the iPhone 4 and 4S. According to the Moog Web site, "The Animoog captures the vast sonic … Read more

Heavy metal: Japan working on 13-foot robot

"Voltron" and "Transformers" were two of my favorite cartoons when I was growing up, and it saddened me that I never had giant robot friends to hang out with in real life. But there's hope yet.

Hajime Sakamoto, president of the Hajime Research Institute in Osaka, Japan, is working on building a 13-foot robot with a built-in cockpit for humans. Though the project is already under way, Sakamoto is looking for additional contractors and sponsors to complete the giant task.

The Hajime Research Institute is no stranger to building large robots. Sakamoto and his team previously built a 7-foot humanoid (see the video below), and they're already looking ahead to creating 26- and 59-foot robots.

… Read more

Conan slams Amazon's Kindle Fire

The Kindle Fire apparently does not impress Conan O'Brien.

CoCo went after Amazon's inexpensive tablet on his late-night show, with the help of perhaps the worst Jeff Bezos impression ever. The brief skit features the bizarro Bezos pitching some "simple solutions" for a few of the widely reported complaints about the Kindle Fire.

That oddly placed power switch? Duct tape, naturally. I won't spoil any more--watch the clip below for yourself and let us know in the comments if you think the televised lambasting is deserved.… Read more

8-bit ninjas unbox Samsung Galaxy Nexus

How many ninjas does it take to change a lightbulb? No one knows--when the light comes back on we still can't see them. How many ninjas does it take to unbox the Samsung Galaxy Nexus? Find out in a mind-bogglingly fun 8-bit game on YouTube.

Clash of the Nexus Ninjas begins as a YouTube video introducing the Galaxy Nexus, in the now-traditional ninja unboxing for the latest Nexus flagship Android phone. Then it explodes into 8-bit kicky-punch action as you fight over who's going to be first to try out Ice Cream Sandwich.

You take the role of the red Nexus Ninja, battling off hordes of black and white Nexus Ninjas. Power up with Nexus power and become a powerhouse of kicks and punches, laying out swathes of enemies with each supercharged blow.

Read more of "Samsung Galaxy Nexus unboxing in 8-bit Clash of the Nexus Ninjas" at Crave UK. … Read more

The 404 Yuletide Mini-sode: Where we recap the year in tech (podcast)

Welcome to another Yuletide episode from The 404 Podcast! We'll be publishing these podcasts, videos, and rerun episodes until we return on January 10 for a block of live shows from CES in Las Vegas!

This time we're running through all the big tech news from this year, including the launch of the iPad 2, Facebook Timeline, and the death of Steve Jobs.… Read more

'Friday' tops 2011 YouTube most-watched list

I have to confess that I'm not among the nearly 200 million viewers who have indulged in YouTube's most-watched video of 2011: Rebecca Black's "Friday" music video.

Hold on a sec, I'm going to go check it out... OK, I'm back. Someone, please get it out of my head. It hurts.

According to YouTube's list of the most-watched videos of 2011, the runner-up for most-watched vid of belongs to a four-legged creature. "Ultimate Dog Tease" features a talking pooch being teased by an owner listing a variety of tantalizing meats. That one racked up almost 75 million views.… Read more