Entertainment

Here is why Guitar Hero III should change its name to Conrad I: because Conrad puts the rad in Conrad.

[Via Digg.]

LAST UPDATE: 3:54 p.m. PT--Those who predicted that Radiohead would see mass financial support after allowing fans to pay whatever they wanted for the band's latest album appear to have been a tad optimistic, according to a study released Monday.

Of those who downloaded Radiohead's digital album, In Rainbows last month, about 62 percent walked away with the music without paying a cent, reported ComScore, an Internet research company.

About 17 percent plunked down between a penny and $4, far below the $12 and $15 retail price of a CD. The next largest group (12 percent) … Read more

I'd been intrigued by Delicious Library software ever since I saw the program featured on David Pogue's video blog. This Macintosh cataloging program allows you to create a virtual library of all your books, movies, music and video games. Then you can browse or search your collection, and keep track of books you lend to others. Best of all, you have all your books visually represented together in one place, regardless of where they are physically located.

This was the breakthrough for me. As a writer, I have over 1000 books on shelves all over the house. Along with the advantages of working at home comes the clutter of the office, ported into my own dining room. With Delicious Library, I could box up books I don't need very often and put them out of sight, but not out of mind.

The genius of Delicious Library is that you can quickly, automatically catalog entries for your media by scanning the bar code on each project. Delicious Library connects to Amazon.com to import each item's information and cover art.

Delicious Library worked really well with the optional Flic Wireless Laser Barcode Scanner--which is a necessity for creating a large library--but although this was a virtual project, I still had to deal with the question of how to organize, lug, and store over a thousand books. More on the reality of the project after the jump.… Read more

The original 10 laughably bad tech ads got a great response, not to mention loads of suggestions for more. It seems that people get a huge amount of enjoyment from watching technology being sold in the most undignified and embarrassing ways.

The great news is the marketing men and women never rest: They won't give up until everyone is talking about their ad, and there's no better way to get people talking about your ad than by making it either very, very good, or a horrible train-wreck of strange themes and random celebrity endorsements.

Hopefully you'll enjoy … Read more

How deeply has YouTube seeped into our collective consciousness and commandeered our culture? Who better to answer that than Oprah Winfrey?

The talk show host on Tuesday is scheduled to interview YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, according to a story in Variety. The Hollywood trade publication reports that characters from popular YouTube videos will also be featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Sure, you techies understand YouTube's cultural significance, but there are still plenty of newbies in this country who need Oprah to boil it down.

Anybody that has ever seen Hurley or Chen speak in public … Read more

FREE BEER!!!!

That was the rallying cry for the Reddit party in New York's East Village on Saturday night, the latest stop on the social news site's "Drankkit World Tour 2007"--an event series that has made it to San Francisco and Boston so far, with Toronto, Chicago, D.C., and a few others still to come. The Gotham installment took place in a woefully undersized Alphabet City dive called The Hanger Bar, and was not-so-woefully under-publicized. Reddit had reason to keep the rabble out.

That's because the beer was free all night long. Guess … Read more

Webware's Josh Lowensohn spends his days reviewing Web sites, while the rest of us get to play with an endless stream of newfangled gadgets. While most of the Crave and CNET reviews team have become jaded to the perpetual parade of gizmos coursing through our office, Josh greets each rare tech toy bestowed on him as if it were handed down by Santa himself. So when an unsolicited pair of Learning Curve Battle Wheels RC samurai appeared on Josh's desk, there was no way to avoid a full-scale battle royale. Lucky for me, I had my camera on … Read more

TV and film writers will officially go on strike starting Monday at 12:01 PST, a spokeswoman for the Writers Guild of America said on Friday.

As the weekend may bring more negotiating between the guild and the group representing film and TV producers, one of the main sticking points is Internet revenue, according to a story published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.

The writers want a share of ad revenue generated by online broadcasts of TV shows. Producers insist that the Web is more of a promotional tool and hasn't brought in much money.

The dispute comes … Read more

WASHINGTON--Ever tried giving your mother a primer on cookies--the Web, not chocolate chip, variety, of course?

It's not easy, but a user-generated video contest chiefly bankrolled by Google wants to help.

The competition began accepting entries about a month ago from about two dozen filmmakers interested in helping to demystify the tiny, widely used text files for a general audience. It concluded here Friday, at the second day of a Federal Trade Commission workshop on behavioral advertising, with the announcement of the victor, who was set to receive a $5,000 grand prize. (Click here to view all the entries that made the final cut … Read more