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Inside CNET Labs Podcast 63: Why yes, I am a Ninja!

This week Dong regales us with the trials and tribulations of being a nice guy and all the sickening adulation that accompanies it.

Then we talk ninjas. Korean pop star (and arch-nemesis of Stephen Colbert), Rain is playing one in the upcoming movie "Ninja Assassin," and Dong cannot contain his excitement. Also, Eric encounters a real-life ninja!

For technology we talk Netbooks: what they are and why you probably don't need one.

Lastly, we get an interesting hypothetical from one of our readers about "scoring" as he puts it and "making out." Find … Read more

The 404 428: Where we prune the hedges of many small villages

What happens when one extremely popular tech TV show with an attractive female host blatantly takes the slogan of a much lesser known Internet radio show with three mildly humorous, if not a bit awkward, post-pubescent manboys? You're about to find out on today's episode of The 404, where Attack of the Show's GadgetPr0n stole our tagline, "High Tech, Low Brow." Now, I'm a little unwilling to compromise my relationship with Olivia Munn, the , but Jeff and Wilson are heated and propose an all-out battle for the right to the slogan!

The new simulated reality video game DJ Hero keeps on adding musicians to the growing list of special guests- this time, they just recently announced a collaboration with Daft Punk. The game will come out on October 30th, but we're pretty psyched to mash-up tracks from those French Robots. Well, Jeff and I are- Wilson is still confused about how the game works and why people listen to music in the first place.

Which brings us to a huge Calls From the Public- we got so many voicemails over our three-day weekend that we have to take the entire second half of the show just to play them all. Of course, we have to re-visit the dreadful washing machine/computer hypothetical that got drummed up on Thursday's show. In a world where humans are enslaved by free-thinking computers, the man atop the washing machine reigns supreme King. This fall, look out for Wilson G. Tang break-out role in...THE CLEANER.

EPISODE 428 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS VideoRead more

Bad Ass American Rides Pt. 5: Racing with the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am!

With the July 4 holiday upon us, the citizens of the United States will be celebrating American traditions such as freedom, family and barbecue. Well, I can think of a couple of other American traditions worth celebrating such as muscle cars and the thrill of a race. And in today's video we get both traditions as we celebrate racing with the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.

This fun vid is almost like a mini-movie. First, we get an evolutionary slideshow of some the beautiful birds from the past, set to the theme from WWE's Undertaker (ooh, scary!). Then we … Read more

Aggies rethinking truck freight with electric train

A group of Texas researchers would like to resurrect the train as chief freight mover in the U.S.

The Universal Freight Shuttle is the brainchild of Stephen Roop, assistant director Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), a branch of Texas A&M University's system chain.

The automated train, which is designed to accommodate standard shipping containers and trailers, would move forward along a track by linear induction motors powered with electricity.

Roop and others at TTI have been working on the concept and design for eight years, keeping in mind not just the technology, but how such an infrastructure … Read more

The Humvee bids the Hummer bye bye

Amid recent developments of General Motors' chapter 11 bankruptcy and its decision to sell the all-mighty Hummer brand to a Chinese company, there's a silver lining. And it's a big one.

The U.S. Army wanted to make it crystal clear Thursday that the HMMWV (widely known as "Humvee")--the original High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle that inspired the creation of the Hummer--will continue to be made in the United States, by an American-owned company.

According to Lt. Col. Martin Downie, the U.S. Army's spokesman, though the Army's Humvee and the civilian Hummer … Read more

The 404 285: Where Tuesday is not fat; it's big-boned

Jeff Bakalar makes his return on Fat Tuesday--how appropriate. Justin reveals to the world that he loves Alvin & the Chipmunks, on top of his fascination with Disney music. Disney we can forgive, but really? An Alvin & the Chipmunks cover of "Uptown Girl?" And we figure out that Alvin wears a giant "A" because he's committed adultery.

On today's show, Justin learns some new racial slurs from Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino." Jeff tells us to check out Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler"and reveals to us that he once was a professional wrestler known as "The Flying Daisy." In actual news, newspapers are asking the federal government for a bailout. Get with it! Newspapers are going the way of the dodo. On top of that, it's National Pancake Day, so head on over to your local IHOP! Let Fat Tuesday's debauchery begin in earnest.… Read more

IBM teams up with universities on cloud project

IBM on Monday announced that it has partnered with three universities to develop one of the first cloud-computing platforms in the Middle East.

Big Blue, along with Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar University, and Texas A&M University in Qatar, plans to use the Qatar Cloud Computing Center to handle advanced research for search, data mining, scientific modeling and simulation, computational biology, and financial modeling.

"This will help us realize our vision of developing, evaluating, and extending a cloud-computing infrastructure in Qatar, to target regional applications and projects to help advance research," Majd F. Sakr, an associate professor … Read more

Analyst: 'big 'bang' to hit PC and handset industry

A clash is brewing as PC and cell phone chip suppliers vie for new designs that fall outside traditional product categories, an analyst said in a research note Wednesday.

Doug Freedman, a chip analyst at AmTech Research, said the "line between cell phones and PCs is clearly blurring" and that consequently "PC and cell phone food chains will battle for market share in these new classes of devices." He calls this the "big bang between PCs and handsets."

This will happen as more tweener products emerge. "New product categories such as Netbooks, MIDs (… Read more