meetings

The 404 308: Where Wilson is on nacation

If there's a more disturbing image than a naked Wilson Tang eating a stuffed pepper and doing his taxes, it's got to be a naked Tim Geisenheimer's sockless foot stuffed into a suede moccasin. We invite Tim into the studio anyway and he surprises us with some bad news: turns out the economy ain't doing so well.

Do not attempt to adjust the white balance on your monitor: Tim Geisenheimer's legs are actually that pale. I guess he and Michael Jackson share more in common than their tastes in footwear. Anyway, for some reason Wilson felt the need to stay at home today to do his taxes, which means being a good Chinese boy and writing off everything he possibly can. Why he decided to get nakee and do said taxes is another issue entirely, and one that teases my upchuck reflex anyway, so let's move on.

If you haven't figured it out yet, 'tis I, Justin Yu--on the poop deck, handling the blogging for the day. The first half of today's show is pretty random, since it's just Jeff and I riffing on a few stories, including one about Japanese space underwear.

I feel compelled to break out Space Beer guy, but mixing beer and underwear just doesn't feel right. Leave it up to the Japanese to reinvent the last thing you should worry about in space--forget the zero gravity, space debris, and Klingon warlords. Nah, nah, let's make a pair of underwear that you never have to take off.

Next story is about a Jewish Facebook group whose name suddenly changed from "I Heart Jews" to "Hitler: Great Modern Man of History." While we disagree with that statement, Jeff Bakalar (devoutly Jewish, FYI) gives the rest of us a free pass to laugh at the prank. Hey, at the end of the day, if Mel Brooks can laugh at Hitler, I think we're all safe.

After long calls from the public, we finally decide on a date for The 404 Meetup: APRIL 16. Everyone living in the Tri-State area should definitely clear their evening hour for a night of fun with The 404. We decided that two weeks is enough time for everyone to plan ahead, and it gives Jeff, Wilson, and I ample time to exercise our wrists and buy as many sharpies as possible. Riiight. Finally, check out some of the submissions below for our running contest. Can you write a funny caption for this photo of your humble 404 host? Here are some of our current favorites:

"Do these glasses make my eyes look less asian?" - Will Chan "The 404's Justin Yu was taken into custody shortly after molesting a lumberjack, a 90-year old woman, and robbing a Radio Shack in China Town last evening. Luckily there was no evidence of dicktopping at any of the crime scenes." - Andrew Teachout "What? I swear that printer was d**kto**ed before I got it!" - Jeff from Calgary

Send us your funniest caption to the404{at}cnet[dot]com and you could win a copy of Wheelman for XBox 360!

EPISODE 308 Download today's podcast |  Subscribe in iTunes |  Subscribe in RSS… Read more

Apple shareholder meeting, sans Jobs, dull affair

CUPERTINO, Calif.--Apple's first annual shareholder meeting in more than 10 years without founder and CEO Steve Jobs was largely uneventful, as COO Tim Cook and board members stepped in to handle questions regarding Apple's disclosure of Jobs' health.

Five shareholder proposals were considered, and only the one approving the re-election of Apple's eight existing board members was approved in preliminary voting. As in past years, the informal question-and-answer section was by far more interesting, although without Jobs' usual acerbic replies to institutional shareholders on soapboxes, a little duller.

For the record, Apple shareholders rejected proposals that … Read more

Apple's Jobs to skip annual shareholder meeting

Apple has confirmed that CEO Steve Jobs will miss Wednesday's annual shareholder meeting for the first time since he returned in 1997 to the company he co-founded, Bloomberg has reported.

Jobs is currently on a medical leave of absence until the end of June to deal with unspecified health issues that have caused him to lose a significant amount of weight over the last year, so his absence is not a total surprise.

Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook is running the show in Jobs' absence and will likely serve as master of ceremonies for the meeting Wednesday morning at … Read more

Apple awards raises to key executives

Apple awarded three key members of its executive team with $100,000 raises to kick off its 2009 fiscal year.

Chief operating officer Tim Cook, chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer, and senior vice president of Mac hardware engineering Bob Mansfield will have a little more cash in their pockets this year courtesy of Apple's board of directors, the company revealed in a proxy filing Wednesday. Cook now makes $800,000 a year, while Oppenheimer makes $700,000, and Mansfield makes $600,000.

This was the first raise for Cook and Oppenheimer since October 2005. Mansfield received a raise just … Read more

WebEx comes to the iPhone

Cisco has debuted an iPhone application that can make use of the company's popular WebEx collaboration tool. The new app, available free from the App Store, allows users click to join and actively collaborate in WebEx meetings. A company statement reads:

"The online meeting experience gives users the ability to take advantage of simultaneous web and audio conferencing capabilities from Cisco on both the 3G mobile and 802.11 wireless (Wi-Fi) networks. The solution supports multiple telephony configurations including SaaS-based telephony from Cisco WebEx Meeting Center, premises-based telephony from Cisco Unified MeetingPlace, or telephony from Cisco's service … Read more

Intel completes 32-nanometer chip development

Intel has completed the development phase of its next-generation manufacturing process that shrinks chip circuitry to 32 nanometers, the chipmaker said Tuesday night.

Intel processors are currently made on a 45nm process. Generally, smaller geometries result in faster and more power-efficient processors.

"The company is on track for production readiness of this future generation (of transistors)...in the fourth quarter of 2009," the chipmaker said in a statement.

Intel said it will provide technical details about the 32nm process technology at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) next week in San Francisco.

Finishing the development phase for 32nm … Read more

The 404 242: Where we turn the show into an unnecessary musical

Thanks to Dan the Mantern's two-week-long extended vacation, we're left helpless and alone. Luckily for us, the Intern Formerly Known as Mark (IFKM is a bad acronym) saves the day, helping us scrutinize stories like Microsoft entering the T-shirt market, the Knight Rider show cancellation, the first Vietnamese House Representative, and other kooky, borderline-tabloid stories we found on the World Wide Den of Filth.

In today's episode of What's Happening With Those Asians, we discuss an important milestone in Asian American history: Louisiana has elected the United States' very first Vietnamese-American House Representative. It's an … Read more

Microsoft hiring could be slow through 2010

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told shareholders Wednesday he expects the company's move to slow its hiring will continue beyond the middle of next year.

Headcount, he said, will experience "much, much slower growth for the remainder of this financial year and I suspect into next year." Microsoft's current fiscal year runs through June, with the coming fiscal year stretching until mid-2010.

His comments came at the company's annual shareholders meeting Wednesday in Bellevue, Wash., not far from the company's Redmond headquarters. Ballmer's address was also offered live via Webcast.

Microsoft has denied an all-out hiring freeze, … Read more

ShowDocument does simple live collaboration

If you're in need of a quick and simple way to share a document with a few other people at the same time, worth checking out is ShowDocument. It works with most major file types including PDFs, Word docs, PowerPoint presentations, and text files, and displays them in a simple Flash-based viewer and editor.

Once you've uploaded any file up to 2MB in size, you can mark it up with a pen and highlighter tool, along with a text box tool and eraser. There's also a small chat box to discuss changes, and everyone's cursor is … Read more