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How much is that mastodon in the window? About $115,000, not including shipping.

Odd as it may sound, a Northern California couple has put a 3-million-year-old mastodon skeleton up for auction on eBay. A ranch hand on the Fiddler family's property, which is east of Mount Shasta, found a tooth from the animal in 1997, according to the eBay item listing. Roger Fiddler then had a paleontologist come out to identify the tooth, and a partial excavation revealed a nearly complete skeleton (The animal is missing its tusks).

The mastodon has taken an unusual path since then. It … Read more

Life has its ups and downs, the economy is cyclical (especially technology's boom and bust cycles), business is feast or famine, what goes around comes around. The older you get, the more you realize that everything about life is a roller-coaster.

This week began with a global market sell-off over fears of an economic recession hitting America. For the record, I don't agree that we're heading for recession. On the other hand, it's not reasonable to believe in a perpetual bull market. That's just not the way it is. What goes up must come down. Maybe not all the way down, but somewhat.

According to Wikipedia (so it must be right), the macroeconomic definition of recession is declining gross domestic product (GDP) for two successive quarters. But these days, the term recession is associated more with declining economic factors, like corporate earnings and employment, for at least a few months.… Read more

The editors here at CNET Download.com have bashed our heads together trying to sort through the bloody mess that was the past 12 months in software. The rise of webware sure changed the playing field, but we think we've found 10 Windows applications that are either new to the world or had such a major upgrade that they might as well be. We present these in no particular order, but please feel free to add your favorites in the comments below.

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There is no doubt whatsoever that 2007 was a impressive year for video games. Everyone has their own Top 10 list, but we hate the whole numbered list cliche. Instead, we've grouped the Top 10, in no particular order, giving each game its own due respect. These 10 games achieve a certain elite status that separate themselves from all the rest providing us with some of the most advanced digital entertainment available today. So without any further ado, please enjoy our picks for the Top 10 Games of 2007.

Every few years, some new technology or application comes along that everyone's sure will miraculously conquer every obstacle in its path and, in some ludicrously short time period, make existing technology obsolete. And then, long after all the media hype fades away and investors' checkbooks disappear, well, nothing happens.

So what? Who cares? Why bother talking about our industry's bombs, the next big things that weren't? Well, for one thing, it's interesting to note how hungry we all are for news about new technology. It gets us excited. We complain about media hype, but love the hype.

It's also fascinating how existing technology has this way of hanging on by its fingernails way past the point of its predicted obsolescence. More importantly, we learn more from mistakes than we do from successes. That's part of the scientific method: hypothesis, test, learn, repeat until you get it right.

Lastly, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Those are all good enough reasons for me. So here are my top 10 technology flops. But first, some ground rules. I stuck to the last 50 years or so. And I avoided specific company products. We've heard enough about the IBM PCjr, Apple Newton, Microsoft Bob, and OS2 to last 10 lifetimes.… Read more

NOTE: To commemorate the holidays, different Crave experts will be posting their top 10 gadget picks for the season. See what we crave, and maybe you'll get some ideas! Here's the latest installment.

In her free time, laptop expert Michelle Thatcher can often be found testing out the latest kitchen gadgets or hunting down new restaurants. She recently relocated from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which is not unlike moving to a foreign country.

1. Pioneer Kuro PDP-5080HD. It's long been a matter of embarrassment that I, a technology editor, still watch TV on a gigantic box … Read more

NOTE: To commemorate the holidays, different Crave experts will be posting their Top 10 gadget picks for the season. See what we crave, and maybe you'll get some ideas! Here's the latest installment.

Tim Moynihan is a features editor in the San Francisco office. He spends way too much time using the computer.

10. Dough-Nu-Matic About halfway through Thanksgiving dinner, I realized that there was no platter of miniature, freshly baked doughnuts on the table. It was almost enough for me to stop eating turkey and cry gently to myself. Almost. I sucked it up and finished the … Read more

NOTE: To commemorate the holidays, different Crave experts will be posting their top 10 gadget picks for the season. See what we crave, and maybe you'll get some ideas! Here's the latest installment.

When Caroline McCarthy isn't tracking Mark Zuckerberg's every move for CNET News.com, she enjoys reading great books (the paper kind, Amazon!) and finding fun new things to do in her home city of New York, which may or may not encompass karaoke and mechanical bulls. She believes that excessive glitter text on MySpace profiles is the root cause of global warming. Al … Read more