walkers

Stephanie Kaloi's 4-year-old son recently went through surgery and came home with his knees immobilized and a walker to help him get around. That's a big damper on the normally active life of any young kid. After sending out an Instagram of the walker, a friend suggested that it looked a bit like an AT-AT. Soon, a pint-sized "Star Wars" AT-AT Walker walker was born.

Comic artist Ben Dewey volunteered his skills to translate the movie machine into a form that would fit on the walker. The walker now has AT-AT legs and a head and a control panel featuring the leader of the Imperial forces, Darth Vader himself. I guess this makes the tyke a Sith Lord-in-training.… Read more

Fan-made AT-AT walker dog costumes have been around for years. George Lucas' minions have taken notice of the inordinate demand for dressing mutts up like heavily armored Imperial Army land vehicles.

That brings us to the officially licensed "Star Wars" AT-AT pet costume. It comes in two parts with a bodysuit and a headpiece. Sizes range from small (for Sith Shih Tzus) to extra large (for Wookie Wolfhounds).… Read more

They danced, and they barked, and they hitched rides on Roombas. But in the end, no amount of cat cuteness could match the emotional punch of "Henri 2, Paw de Deux," a searing documentary of a tortured feline that last night won the coveted people's choice award at the first Internet Cat Video Festival.

The black-and-white film brilliantly portrays the existential struggles of a black cat known as Henri Le Chat Noir, who spares nothing as he bravely invites the cameras into the dark corners of his soul.

"I am free to go, yet I remain," Henri shares in French voiceover, as the camera zooms in on him staring forlorn out a window. "The 15 hours a day I sleep have no effect. I wake to the same tedium." … Read more

No one can imagine what it's like to give birth to a child who will only live for 8 hours.

In Heather Walker's case, her son Grayson was born with Anecephaly, a condition that leaves part of the the skull exposed.

Hee died in February. Recently, Walker wanted to share pictures of him with her friends on Facebook. However, as WMC-TV reports, Facebook removed the photographs.

"They allow people to post almost nude pictures of themselves, profanity, and so many other things, but I'm not allowed to share a picture of God's beautiful creation," … Read more

You have marathoned all of the "Star Wars" movies (even the prequels) until your eyes fell out. Your dog is named Princess Leia and your cat is named Mr. Lucas. You own a double-telescoping Luke Skywalker action figure.

You have everything! Except an AT-AT Walker cat condo, that is. Reddit user BillyAppletini wins the "best friend in the galaxy" award for building his "Star Wars" fan buddy the CAT-AT, a massive Walker-shaped cat condo.… Read more

The fact that PDFs aren't easy to edit is both a blessing and a curse; they can protect content from unauthorized changes, but they can also be a pain when you have a legitimate need to edit something. Sure, you can copy and paste text from a PDF, but your formatting will pay the price. Walker Free PDF to Word Converter makes it easy to convert PDF files into easily edited Word documents, and for the most part it keeps your formatting intact as well.

The program's interface isn't going to win any beauty contests, but it'… Read more

A group of lawsuits filed yesterday by Priceline founder Walker Digital take aim at Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and more than 100 other companies for infringing on key parts of its patent portfolio.

The 15 lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court of Delaware, say these companies are infringing Walker Digital-owned patents covering things like e-commerce, private social-networking communications, online auctions, and a driving directions tool with visual cues.

"A number of great companies can trace their genesis to technology that was first developed at Walker Digital in the mid-to-late 1990s," Walker Digital's Chairman Jay Walker said … Read more

Activision Blizzard and social-gaming company Zynga are being sued for alleged patent infringement.

Walker Digital, an "invention" company started by Jay Walker, the founder of Priceline.com, filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Delaware earlier this week, alleging that the companies are violating its "Database driven online distributed tournament system" patent.

The patent was awarded to the company in 2002 and includes a "product and method of distributed electronic tournaments for a plurality of players that exchanges information with a central controller to influence game play while a player plays in the … Read more

CNET Audiophiliac Steve Guttenberg joins us for another Friday episode of The 404, and there's a lot to discuss, including a new trailer for the upcoming "Back to the Future" video game, Steve's encounters with John Lennon, Andy Warhol, and Warren Beatty in the 1970s, how to convert stereo into 3D sound, and more earbud advice for Wilson's freakishly small canals.

Steve tables his usual list of audio-related speaking points to tell us about his celebrity encounters while working at an East Village movie theater in the 1970s. He begins with a story about an awkward encounter with John Lennon and Yoko Ono just two years after the Beatles split, then tells us why he cussed out pop art star Andy Warhol, and finishes with a brutal rebuff from Warren Beatty! When's the book coming out, Steve?

We're going to record a special yuletide episode of The 404 entirely dedicated to the "Back to the Future" trilogy, but we can't wait any longer to show you the debut trailer for the upcoming "Back to the Future" video game!

It's a five-part game that picks up on the adventures of Marty and the Doc as voiced by Emmett Brown himself, Christopher Lloyd! The first part entitled It's About Time comes out this month, part two called Get Tannen! comes out in February 2011, and parts three and four--Citizen Brown and Double Visions, will drop in March and April, and the finale Outatime doesn't have a release date just yet. It's only available for download on PC/Mac, iPad, and PSN--sorry XBox fans!

I swear that today is the last you'll hear about Wilson's tiny ear canals, because I think we found a solution. I reviewed the Monster Jamz headphones for CNET last month and ran into similar fit issues, so the company sent me its SuperTips Sample Pack of gel and foam tips that comes with a variety of alternate shapes and sizes. With Steve Guttenberg's help, we'll finally solve this mystery!

Just after the break, Steve tells us about a professor at Princeton University who converts stereo into 3D sound! Edgar Choueiri is the director of the Engineering Physics Program and a rocket scientist, but he also happens to be an audiophiliac and set up a special 3D sound room using two closely spaced speakers and his revolutionary 3D Pure Stereo system. Check out the Audiophiliac blog for more details.

One last thing before we take off: Gknee is one of the valiant chatroom moderators for CNET TV and keeps the #CNETFans channel SFW (with the help of DAKlives).

She's celebrating a birthday on Monday, so happy birthday in advance Gknee, and a personal thanks from Jeff, Wilson, and me to all the CNETTV moderators who volunteer their work for the love of the game--we couldn't do it without you guys!