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RatMaster is a fun and challenging puzzle game in which users reconfigure mazes to allow their rat to reach the cheese at the end, all while avoiding snakes and other potential dangers. The simple premise and sometimes difficult puzzles make this game easy to get hooked on.

The program's graphics and interface didn't totally blow us away, but they are definitely above average. The music and sound effects were appropriate and added to the game's experience, but they can be turned off if desired. Game play is intuitive, and a Help file explains the basic rules of … Read more

Mono was the one and only way to listen to music and movies for decades.

But it's not ancient history. Mono's on something of a comeback, and the upcoming remastered Beatles catalog will be offered in an all-mono box in September. You can listen to mono over just one speaker, or with two or more speakers. But mono at its purest is a single-speaker deal.

A fringe segment of the audiophile community still buys mono phono cartridges to get the best sound out of mono LPs. Over at BuyMeGetMe they're listening to an all out single speaker … Read more

BOULDER, Colo.--When President Obama said that he wanted to put 1 million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015, it sounded good to many people worried about the effects of fossil fuels.

But when you consider that there are currently about 230 million vehicles on the road in the United States alone, you realize that Obama's goal amounts to less than one half of 1 percent--hardly what's going to move the U.S. into a post-gas future.

Still, to the people at Project Get Ready, an initiative of the Rocky Mountain Institute, anything that can jump-start … Read more

With online education growing more popular, a recent survey has ranked the most affordable online business colleges.

Coming in No. 1 as most affordable was East Carolina University in North Carolina, according to the survey released Wednesday by GetEducated.com. Residents of the state can pay $11,880 for an online bachelor's degree in business, though out-of-state students pay a less modest $54,480 for the same degree.

The University of Wyoming came in second with its bachelor's in business administration program costing $16,080 for all online students, in or out of state.

GetEducated.com graded online … Read more

Artist and newly crowned TV show host ANDREW WK joins The 404 today in what might be the crowning moment of our careers. We run the gamut in our extra-long show--we chat about his music career, an upcoming album, his new show "Destroy Build Destroy," and Jeff and I actually reveal our two chance encounters with the man. IT'S TIME TO PARTY!

After pimping out his appearance on the show for the past two weeks, we're very, very excited to welcome Andrew WK to our humble studio. Unsurprisingly, Andrew's super posi vibe gels well with the group and we get right into the interview, beginning with a story about how Andrew got into the piano as a kid and how it shaped his music today.

If you haven't had a chance to see Andrew play live, do yourself a favor and check it out with The 404's highest recommendation for a guaranteed good time. Also be sure to listen for a very special clip from Andrew's newest sold-out record, "DAMN! The Mixtape Vol. 1", currently only available for download on iTunes or Amazon. We also pick Andrew's brain for his opinions on the current state of music, including the overuse of auto-tune and his newfound appreciation for Dave Matthews Band.

After the break, we launch right into a conversation about Andrew's newest endeavor, a brand new show debuting on the Cartoon Network this Saturday, 8:30 p.m. EDT called "Destroy Build Destroy." The premise is simple: two teams of teenagers (with plenty of guidance and safety measures) compete to destroy a large structure, build the remnants up into something else. The winner of the competition gets to obliterate the loser's! You had us at "destroy," Andrew, the premise sounds like a mix between Double Dare and Battle Bots.

AWK's all over the place! In addition to Santos Party House, his successful bar in downtown Manhattan, Andrew also talks about his next solo album entitled "55 Cadillac" that's a pretty wide departure from his normal rock and roll. Listen to a few clips on his MySpace, give him a call, and let him know how much you love it!

Click on the slideshow above for candid shots from our interview with Andrew WK, courtesy of Sara the Woah-mantern, and a big thanks goes out to Anna David for introducing us to AWK! Wait, is it time to party yet? Yeah, it's time...LET'S GET A PARTY STARTED!

Stress can be alleviated, say the gurus at TROG Bar, if we understand that it isn't the result of being too busy, but instead from trying to manage (and actively remember) all of our tasks all at once. With that in mind, the TROG Bar presents a flexible system to keep your tasks organized and offers you help getting the most from the program.

TROG Bar (which, by the way, is short for Total, Relaxed Organization Guru) integrates nicely with Microsoft Outlook and can work in conjunction with several popular task management systems such as Franklin Covey and Getting … Read more

For users who download a great deal of content, there are always headaches in the process. No matter how fast your computer runs, downloading seems to slow down and complicate matters. GetGo Download Manager proved to be worthy of the task of taming the download process.

This freeware program will not be immediately noticed, as it comes as a command button on your Internet browser. But even then, this program doesn't come alive until users attempt to download music, movies, pictures, or other forms of media. A box will open asking if the user wants to use GetGo to … Read more

So many of us use Yahoo 360 these days that it's become almost a mainstay of our daily culture--wait what? You don't use it? You've never even heard of it? OK, I'll be honest, I'd never heard of it either until we recorded this week's podcast. Apparently, it's huge in Vietnam though. Dong talks about how it's shutting down and I wonder why I should care.

If there's anything I'm good at, it's waxing nostalgia about my childhood. And by "good" I mean I can talk about … Read more

We start off with probably the weirdest opening ever. Where was I going with that? Your guess is as good as mine.

That opening sets the tone, though, since we jump right into Dong's promised dating advice from last week that's completely full of fail. Seriously, don't try this at home, or on the street.

There are bad segues and then there are bad segues. This one here is probably the worst ever, and we deliver it to you, unedited, raw, real. Real dumb.

From fail dating advice, to fail segues, to something that is potentially full … Read more