roulette

Kill productivity with Harlem Shake Roulette

If you've got a lot to do today, you might want to click away now.

On the other hand, if you're always willing to sacrifice a little productivity for a few minutes (or hours) of awesomeness, I heartily endorse the latest collision of memes, Harlem Shake Roulette.

If the phrase "Harlem Shake" means nothing to you, you have likely not been on the Internet or a college campus this month. For a crash course, simply put the phrase in YouTube and away you go. You should find an innumerable amount of 30-second clips that start with a single soul among many getting a little jiggy to the beat in a mask or helmet, and then halfway through the scene changes to, well... something else. … Read more

The 404 1,196: Where we get locked up for unlocking (podcast)

Microsoft assumes you probably haven't used an Internet Explorer browser since the mid-1990s, and the company's latest commercial for IE10 takes us all back to those awkward times with a montage of '90s nostalgia that includes slap bracelets, Oregon Trail, LA Gear Lights, and Tamogotchis. We're not sure how any of those items are supposed to lure us away from Firefox or Chrome, but check it out anyway.

We knew it was only a matter of time before a 6-second clip of hardcore porn made its way to the Twitter Vine, but we never expected it to come from Twitter itself--a nasty clip was featured for a short time on Vine's "Editor's Choice" pick list. Granted, it's not the first instance of adult content on the new social video service.

With Vine's TOS giving users creative freedom to access its service, an unfiltered stream of dirty hashtags is already building out on VineRoulette. Then again, who the hell wants to watch porn for only six seconds?… Read more

VineRoulette weaves Vine videos into desktop visualization

Less than a week old, Vine, Twitter's 6-second looping video mishmash tool, has inspired third-party application makers to remix public content in their own unique ways. Take VineRoulette, a full-screen, desktop visualization that continuously loads Vines published around the world.

VineRoulette, built by TweetBeam creator Yousef El-Dardiry over the weekend, provides people with a window to Vines of all kinds. Sit back and watch a panoply of unfiltered Vines as they trickle in or search for something specific like dogs to check out cute puppy vides one after the other.

Don't worry, VineRoulette, as the name would suggest, … Read more

The 404 1,067: Where tweets look better from behind (podcast)

Years from now, when our children are grown, we'll tell them we were all online when a single Web site changed the way we use the Internet. Unfortunately, Chatroulette stumbled after racking up more than a million users thanks to a certain part of the male anatomy, but Napster co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning have teamed up again for a video-chat pivot called Airtime.

Though it's not ready for deployment yet, Airtime is already getting support from celebrities like Jim Carrey, Alicia Keys, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus who can't wait to start a random conversation with a Facebook user online. The service is different from Chatroulette in that it actually protects the eyeballs of its users from "vulgar behavior, sexually suggestive behavior, violence, and animal cruelty". In other words, nobody associated with The 404 will receive an beta invite.… Read more

The 404 891: Where we are total losers (podcast)

Writer Caprice Crane joins us in the studio today to tell us what it's like writing for shows like "90210" (2.0) and "Melrose Place." She also gets life-changing news halfway into today's preshow, so tune into Monday's show to find out how to win a copy of her book, "Little Luck."

Caprice also has a new Web site for self-deprecating stories called I'm A Total Loser, and she sticks around in the second half to give us her take on stories about social networking leading to drug abuse, a peer-to-peer alarm clock that smells like Chatroulette, and how social networking is blowing the cover of covert police officers.

The 404 Digest for Episode 891

Huffington Post named Caprice Crane the top 50 funniest on Twitter. I'm a Total Loser Newsflash: Social networking leads to drug abuse. Social media could render covert policing "impossible." National Lampoon names Caprice Crane " Twitter Queen." Follow Caprice Crane on Twitter.

Episode 891 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

The 404 855: Where it's just malarkey (podcast)

Today's 404 Podcast includes stories about a guy that's amassed every single PS2 game released in North America, a user-submitted show title generator, and Facebook's underwhelming new video chat plugin. We also have a bunch of quality video voicemails to show!

The 404 Digest for Episode 855

The Man Who Has Every PS2 Game In America. Facebook unveils video chatting, thanks to Skype. Dan's video voicemail from the top of Mt. Massive, Colorado. Kokesh's random show title generator.

Episode 855 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

15 minutes of fame

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

Google releases its 2010 Zeitgeist with the year's fastest growing and most popular search terms

YouTube will now allow a select group of users to upload video longer than 15 minutes, which used to be the maximum time limit allowed

Yahoo revamps Yahoo Local

A new Pew Research study shows that only 8 percent of online Americans are on Twitter

Howard Stern renews his contract with Sirius XM Satellite Radio and will now be available on Sirius mobile phone apps

The 404 651: Where the two youts are giving me agida (podcast)

I've never been afraid to write a blog post for The 404 Podcast before, but I'm expecting a world of pain after this morning's broadcast. Full disclosure: most of the first half is Jeff and Wilson getting mad at me for a long list of classic movies that I stubbornly refuse to watch. After the ammo runs out, we also talk about the new Google movie just announced, a clever viral marketing campaign for "The Last Exorcism" exploiting pervs on Chatroulette, a turtle skeleton in King Bowser's likeness discovered 3,000 years later, and … Read more

The 404 Podcast 495: Where we left a part of ourselves at CES 2010 in Las Vegas

Today is our first day back from CES 2010 in Las Vegas, and we're pretty lucky to return with our sanity (and organs) fully intact.

On today's episode of The 404 Podcast, we spend the first half wrapping up our coverage and giving you an impromptu slideshow of our experience broadcasting live from the CNET stage.

Of course, we have to spend some time thanking everyone involved with the back-end production, and of course, the dedicated listeners who showed up to watch the live show.

A special thanks goes out to Blake Stevenson for helping us design the very first The 404 stickers and Props Guy Jim for hooking us up with The 404 temporary tattoos!

We'll let you know how your mitts on that stuff very soon, so stay tuned!

The second half is all about Andrew WK, or at least the idea of him. AWK is under the media spotlight regarding a video confessional lecture in London last month, where the artist openly admitted that Andrew WK is simply a fabrication of a group of individuals in "the spirit of commerce."

Andrew claimed that "I'm not the guy you've seen from the I Get Wet album...I'm not that same person. I don't just mean that in a philosophical or conceptual way. It's not the same person at all."

He then goes on to tell us that he actually auditioned for the role of Andrew WK and gives little detail after that; watch the video here. We have so many questions about who actually wrote the album, when the current Andrew WK donned the mantle, and why this story sounds suspiciously reminiscent of The Dread Pirate Roberts from "The Princess Bride." We're going to try to get Andrew back on The 404 to chat with us about the controversy, but the bottom line is that Jeff and I support the music and the message behind it, regardless of who performs it.

It's good to be back! We'll go back to our normal format with a Calls From the Public segment tomorrow morning, so give us a call at 1-866-404-CNET and tell us what's on your mind!

EPISODE 495 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more