bedbugs

Look out bedbugs. Technology is out to get you--again. Decades ago, using chemical pesticides, humanity seemed to have conquered the scourge of little bugs that were nibbling away at us while we slept, sometimes even while we were having nightmares about them. Then, about 10 years ago, after we discovered that pesticides were doing more than just wiping out bedbugs, they started to come back with a vengeance, like a bygone sci-fi franchise re-emerging to produce some lackluster prequels.

But while the nasty pests were busily frolicking from hotel rooms in Denver to movie theaters in New York, inventor Chris Goggin was having none of it. He designed a handheld bedbug detector that essentially works likes a dog's nose to literally sniff out the notoriously tiny and hard-to-find insects and their eggs.

Bedbugs don't carry any scary diseases, but the very concept of little bugs in your bed is just plain creepy and the bites can be itchy and irritating and prone to infection if not properly cleaned or treated, just like any other bug bite. All the more onerous is the fact that the creeps can normally be tricky to track down because they tend to hide in cracks and crevices, but Goggin's gadget leaves them nowhere to hide, instantly detecting their scent so you can toss your sheets in the drier to fry the little critters--or move to another county. … Read more

You doubtless know the old maxim about necessity being the mother of invention. So it was that recent spate of reports of a bedbug breakout in many cities was incentive enough to convince a New York iPhone app developer to get coding.

"Everyone's biggest fear is now bedbugs. It seems to be everywhere you turn--Bloomingdales, the Waldorf--you're hearing about it," said Adam Kotkin, CEO of Apps Genius.

His 11-person company today is releasing an app that will let people go online and map out reports of the latest bug infestations in 10 major American cities. It … Read more

Happy belated Labor Day! Today's show title comes courtesy of 404 listener bitMorph3r, who spotted yours truly riding my bike through the background shot in an episode of Michio Kaku's Sci-Fi Science. Check out the video clip here, and thanks again to bitMorph3r's hawk eye for the shot!

On today's episode of The 404 Podcast we say goodbye to Craigslist Adult Services, revisit the Duke Nuken Forever saga, argue over the new iTunes logo, show you how to jailbreak a PS3 with a TI-84 graphing calculator, and get scratch silly over the bedbug infestation sweeping the Google office in New York City.

After much controversy, the Craigslist finally blocked access to its "adult services" section over the weekend. Head over to Craigslist.org and you'll now see an ugly black "CENSORED" bar covering the location of the original link.

Founder Craig Newmark is so far silent on the issue, and it's unclear at this point if the change is temporary or permanent, but Interpervs can still get their paid freak on using other Web services that you can research in Gawker's latest "Post-Craigslist Guide to Buying Sex Online."

Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced a new iTunes logo to go along with iTunes version 10, but not everyone is satisfied with the redesign. One user, Josh Kopac, decided to take it upon himself to e-mail Jobs and express his distaste, saying he "enjoyed the presentation today. But...this new iTunes logo really sucks..." to which Steve replied, "We disagree." Sometimes two words is all it takes to dead-end an argument!

After 14 years of painful waiting, Duke Nukem Forever might finally see the light of day after all. According to Jeff's report, 2K Games recently announced that Gearbox Software is taking the rights to its development, which is supposedly in the final stages. As usual, Jeff is skeptical that the game will come out before the end of the century, especially after all the controversy and drama surrounding its release. Check out this article in Wired for the full story.

All these stories coming your way on today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast! Enjoy!

New York has the highest bedbug infestation rates out of any city in the States, but the latest invasion at our sister CBS building here in New York City has us all feeling terribly itchy this morning.

Well, it's either that or all the McDonalds breakfast we consumed for our annual Eat-McDonalds-right-before-the-4th-of-July-3-day-weekend holiday. Check out this Youtube video of our trip that Wilson shot, edited, and uploaded all on his new iPhone 4!

Always the smart one on the show, Jeff went for the sausage, egg and cheese sandwich, while Wilson took two bites of his breakfast burrito and … Read more