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March Madness: 10 sites to feed your need

The NCAA Basketball Tournament is just days away. And now that the teams are ranked and ready to play, we have you covered. Not only can you join our Webware Bracket Challenge, but we've compiled a list of online services that will help you get the most out of the tournament. Whether it's creating brackets, researching players, or just watching the games online, it's all right here.

Stream, stream, stream

CBS (which owns CNET News and the Webware blog) is the television host of all the NCAA men's basketball games this year, so it shouldn't … Read more

The lessons of 'Mad Men' on Twitter

AUSTIN, Texas--For many fans of the hit TV series "Mad Men," one of the biggest events of 2008 was the sudden emergence of a number of the show's characters on Twitter.

At first, it seemed as though whoever was posting regular tweets from within the fictionalized 1960s world of the AMC network show was doing so on behalf of the producers. But as is well known now, they were a group of people who had taken on the task themselves, and who quickly found their project shut down. As is equally well known now, a public outcry … Read more

Join the Webware Bracket Challenge on CBS Sports

Are you getting ready for the most exciting season in NCAA Basketball? So are we. And that's why we've created a public bracket for Webware writers and readers to create their own brackets and see who stands above the rest as the best March Madness performer in our community.

If you want to sign up and compete, sign up for a free CBS Sports ID, and once complete, follow this link to get to the Webware invite page.

You'll be asked to input a password. Type webware into the password field, and you'll be able to … Read more

The 404 298: Where Erica Boeke teaches us how to watch sports like a girl

Erica Boeke is on the show today to talk about her new book "GameFace: The Kick-Ass Guide for Women Who Seriously Love Pro Sports." On the show, we talk about women and their fascination with watching hockey players kick each others' ass. And Justin reveals that he has never played baseball, basketball, football, or hell, even played catch in his life.

We don't talk too much technology today, but we promise: we have a good time with sports and our general ability to turn any seemingly benign topic into a sexual innuendo. After Justin talks about men playing hockey, you'll never think about it in an unerotic way again.

Briefly on the show, we mention the war going on between Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," and Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money." Jon Stewart pretty much destroys Jim Cramer and the entire financial news media. We've never almost seen a grown man crying on cable television.

As usual, keep the voice mails coming: 1-866-404-CNET (2638). We still haven't found the right motto yet, but boy do we have a good time sorting through them. Or if you just want to leave a message about how Erica Boeke looks like Helen Hunt, that's fine too. Everyone have a great weekend, and you'll hear us next week when Jeff asks the Sleep Doctor Michael Breus how to stop farting in his sleep.

Episode 298 Download today's podcastRead more

CBS Sports gets a March Madness iPhone app

On Thursday, CBS Sports Mobile released a March Madness On Demand application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Tracking the NCAA's college basketball tournament, March Madness, CBS Sports' iPhone app will stream videos of the games live over Wi-Fi, and will stream audio commentary if you've got a 3G or EDGE connection.

In addition to video or audio streaming, the March Madness On Demand app will show updated scores of ongoing games, news stories, bracket information, team stats, preview segments, and video recaps of past games in a screen dedicated to highlights.

The app's video and audio … Read more

The 404 295: Where we hide our junk in the cloud

Facebook loses your uploaded photos temporarily. Wilson knows this due to his vigilant Facebook stalking. We're still running our motto contest, and right now it's split between "The nerdy dirty" and "Full frontal nerdity." If you can come up with something better, please send a voice mail to 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Please! We're an audio show, e-mails only go so far.

More on today's show, we've got some news about the rise of pay-per-view porn on cable. We can't figure out why you don't just download it, but hey there's still a whole population out there that still watches movies from VHS. Speaking of watching stuff, our parent company CBS is going to be streaming March Madness online this year. Expect productivity to drop to nothing--as if the economy isn't bad enough.

Also, the economy has hit Google as well. They're announcing that they'll have to close two caf?s. They still get to keep their free laundry, massages, lunches, dinners, snacks, stock options, etc. I know it's rough being a Googler. We're worried they're going to take away our Flavia machine. Finally, did you know that you pay an average of $3 per minute with your cell phone plan? Yeah, shocker right there. Wilson had to give AT&T his first-born child when he went over.

Episode 295 Download today's podcastRead more

CNET's March Madness toolkit

(Updated 3/13/09 to add new iPhone app.)

Watching the Super Bowl is easy: one game on a Sunday. But March Madness stretches across three weeks and more than 60 games. Short of being unemployed in this recession (not recommended!) you're going to struggle to be in front of a TV for it all. Unless you apply a little technology.

March Madness' home on the Web is the NCAA's March Madness on Demand site. You'll find all 63 games streamed live, and if you install Microsoft's Silverlight technology you get higher-quality video augmented by integrated … Read more

Makers, book publisher reach 'bristlebots' accord

A kerfuffle that exploded online in the past few days over who created the concept of a "bristlebot," a small robot mashed up with a toothbrush, looks like it has a happy ending after an agreement between a New York publisher and two Silicon Valley "makers."

The controversy arose when a forthcoming book called "The Invasion of the Bristlebots" was discovered at the recent New York Toy Fair, raising the hackles of many who were deeply familiar with the concept of bristlebots, which had first been spread in late 2007 by the Silicon Valley … Read more

Controversy surrounds 'Bristlebots' book

When it comes to whimsy, there's no doubt that the concept of a "bristlebot," a combination robot and toothbrush, is dripping with it.

But there's little whimsy going on right now over a controversy that has arisen with the appearance at the recent Toy Fair in New York of a book from Klutz publishing called "Invasion of the Bristlebots."

That's because in December 2007, the inventors at Evil Mad Scientist posted a how-to entry on the Make blog about something they called "BristleBots," a combination of a robot and a toothbrush: … Read more

CES 2009: Gaming wrap-up

It's no secret that gaming's presence at CES can barely be felt, but we were lucky enough to find some diamonds in the rough, including a few that made us want to phone a lawyer.

While there was no new gaming software to be found, there was a respectable amount of gaming hardware and accessories that stole our attention. Nyko stood out with the company's Wand and Kama Charge Kit and Mad Catz showed off Street Fighter IV-branded FightPads and FightSticks. We were wowed by the Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision, but unfortunately getting it all set up … Read more