Crave

I have always wanted to propose marriage to someone.

It's just that somehow the moment's never seemed right. Or, well, the lover in question leaves before the question can be popped.

So perhaps I might learn from this dashing, daring, and technically very correct man who found one of the more romantic ways to tell his girlfriend of five years he would like to spend at least the next five years with her.

He seems to be something of a geeky sort, so he reached for an editing program called Lunar Magic and inserted the deeply felt words "Lisa Will You Marry Me?" into a Super Mario World level.

Touchingly, the words were spelled out in gold coins.

The Super Mario suitor didn't reveal his name on YouTube, but the poster's identity is BradSmith182. So I know some of you might conclude his name is Brad Smith and he is a large aficionado of Blink 182.

The video does not start in a promising or loving way. Lisa somewhat rattily declares: "Why are we playing this?" as if, perhaps, there was some more cerebral game she had in mind.

But once she sees the magic words and BradSmith182 brings out the ring, she agrees somewhat shyly to be with him for better, for worse, and for Mario.

Polaroids for the masses!

(Credit: Flickr User: * luna *)

Today's episode of The 404 Podcast starts with a big change in the show title format. That's right, we're now announcing the date with the episode number and name. Can you feel the excitement! Well, if that didn't do the trick, check out this funny headline from the first story of the day: "Woman fired for eating boss' meatball." I don't even think that requires any further explanation, but you can read the whole story here

Now that you can invite friends to Google Voice, maybe Wilson will be generous and spread the love. Google Voice is great for users that want to consolidate several phone numbers into one. The service also transcribes voice mails, assign personalized greetings by caller, forward voice mails, and many more convenient features that help you screen your communication with the outside world. Do you have a Google Voice number already? Let us know what you think of the service, and share the wealth, will you!?

Models, high schoolers, and crime scene investigators will love this next story: Polaroids are making their triumphant comeback in 2010! A group called The Impossible Project is taking the reigns and collaborating with Polaroid to reproduce a limited edition of the Instant Film in mid 2010. If you can't wait that long, they've also partnered with Urban Outfitters and have the classic film and a special edition Polaroid camera kit available in stores now.

Finally, we definitely want to show our support to Drew Olanoff and Drew Carey for actually making philanthropic use of Twitter! Drew Carey will give away $1,000,000 to the LiveStrong foundation if his Twitter account receives a million followers by midnight on December 31, 2009. In the small chance that he doesn't get the million followers by that time, the amount will be prorated according to how many he ends up with. In other words, if he finishes with 600,000 followers, the LiveStrong foundation will receive $600,000. Right now he's at 92,017 followers--with The 404's help, we can get him closer to that million!

Oh yeah, do yourself a favor and go check out Loaded today to see Natali talking about the Love Vibes iPhone app that rates your lovemaking skill...or lack thereof.

(Credit: HBO)

Dong gets a quirky phone call from a guy--apparently doing his best Jeremy Piven impression--with an expensive proposition.

Dong then discusses a new way to share your wireless network without risking random strangers getting their grubby mitts on your most precious of personal files. Actually, I feel he only brought this up to take a cheap swipe at Apple, but that's just my opinion. This leads to our discussion of a new Forrester Research find that Apple is the "most lovable" PC maker. Of course, Dong has a little something to say about this.

We get an update on Dong's P90x experience and realize that he's still a moanaphobe (a fear of moaning).

A brief 'lil bit of WoW 3.1 business as Dong discusses his Death Knight, dual specs, and why having so many choices bores us.

Lastly, our first Photoshop contest winner is beyond bad ass. Keep 'em coming!

To subscribe to this podcast, visit us at our main page and click the link on the right. Don't forget to leave us a voice mail at 1-800-947-6399 or e-mail us at insidecnetlabs@cnet.com.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Dan the Mantern makes his triumphant return to The 404 to talk about his exploits as a newly single man. Yes, ladies, he is available. You can find him on J-Date. Today, we expound on weekend movies "I Love You, Man", "300," and "Revenge of the Nerds" and find out why Jeff Bakalar is going to prison.

Dan T. Allen: 22-year-old male seeking female.

(Credit: Wilson G. Tang/CNET)

Apparently, EA sent out packages of brass knuckles for the release of its video game version of "The Godfather II." Unbeknownst to them, it is a crime in most states to send brass knuckles, as they are in the same category of weapons as switchblades and gas guns. Also on today's show, we cover Vermont legalizing "sexting," a special eBay auction just in case you need to tell someone off, and Disney releasing a controversial animated movie featuring a black princess.

We've got a special treat for you today, as well. If you check your RSS or iTunes feed, you'll discover that we've officially pushed to you The 404 ringtones, including our main theme courtesy of Mr. Jamie Lewis and a Tom Merritt-inspired "Calls from the Public" ringtone. Also, if you have an iPhone, we've got special instructions on how to use our ringtones on your Jesus Phone. But wait, there's more! Yes, because of popular demand, we're pushing out acoustic versions of Jonathan Coulton's performances of "Codemonkey" and "Re: Your Brains" performed in our very own podcast studios. Don't you just love us?!?!

Remember to mark Thursday, April 16, as the day your life changes when Bore Out Loud and the Snore Oh Four battle to the death in a dance off (bring your tap shoes). Be sure to RSVP. We'll be partying hard at the whole upstairs floor of The Delancey in New York City at 7:30 p.m.

Jeff, Wilson, and Justin recover from their hangovers with ace reporter Caroline McCarthy. We chat about Wilson's drunken debauchery and Caroline's bacon tattoo.

(Credit: University of Wisconsin)

Some days on The 404, there isn't much news to report, so we do something we like to call "milking," and boy are we good at it! It's not for lacking of trying. We spend as much as 10 minutes every day looking for stuff on the Interwebs to riff on, and while we could talk about hackers taking apart Safari in seconds, it's really not that funny. And it's not 404-esque material. See how much text I've written, and really I haven't said anything!

In actual stories today, Caroline McCarthy tells us that there are bacon tattoos at SXSW. We think someone spammed our poll. President Obama makes a terrible, terrible 404-style joke about bowling and the Special Olympics. (We wish he would come on our show.) Google gives you an "Undo Send" feature in Gmail. We think it would be more effective if it had a five-hour, post-hangover undo-send feature. And we're really, really tired of Jason Seigel & Co. movies like "I Love You, Man." But it does bring up fond memories of Jennifer Love Hewitt in that teen classic "Can't Hardly Wait."

Erica Boeke is on the show today to talk about her new book "GameFace: The Kick-Ass Guide for Women Who Seriously Love Pro Sports." On the show, we talk about women and their fascination with watching hockey players kick each others' ass. And Justin reveals that he has never played baseball, basketball, football, or hell, even played catch in his life.

Ericka Boeke in a 404 sandwich.

(Credit: Matt Fitzgerald/CNET)

We don't talk too much technology today, but we promise: we have a good time with sports and our general ability to turn any seemingly benign topic into a sexual innuendo. After Justin talks about men playing hockey, you'll never think about it in an unerotic way again.

Briefly on the show, we mention the war going on between Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," and Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money." Jon Stewart pretty much destroys Jim Cramer and the entire financial news media. We've never almost seen a grown man crying on cable television.

As usual, keep the voice mails coming: 1-866-404-CNET (2638). We still haven't found the right motto yet, but boy do we have a good time sorting through them. Or if you just want to leave a message about how Erica Boeke looks like Helen Hunt, that's fine too. Everyone have a great weekend, and you'll hear us next week when Jeff asks the Sleep Doctor Michael Breus how to stop farting in his sleep.

We're a day late, but still piping hot!! Possibly even still steaming. So remember to blow on this episode before listening. Nope. No double entendres in that sentence...let's move on.

With Valentine's Day this week, we brought the love. Oodles of it. It's everywhere. I think I'm even sitting in it as I type this. Gross!

I doubt very much Dong was ever this adorable.

(Credit: Fox Searchlight)

In honor of this Hallmark-corporate holiday I tell a story of my favorite Valentine's Day and Dong, being the Scrooge McDuck that he is, regales us with his worst Valentine's Day.

Not long after that Dong attempts to redeem himself with a tale of innocence, arranged marriages, and young love. Listen. Then ask yourself if the story sounds vaguely familiar. Even though he hasn't seen Slumdog Millionaire I'm 94.55 percent (repeating, of course) sure that he stole this story from the movie. Either that, or I just wanted a Slumdog reference in here somewhere. It's one or the other. You pick.

All you fans of Dr. Orgy (Dong's dentist he spoke about last week) will be happy to hear he's back this episode with another tale from the sexual revolution! Seriously, I think we need to look into getting this guy on the show for a regular segment called "Tales from the Sexual Revolution," cause he's all kinds of awesome.

Also, this episode we find out whether Dong is 420-friendly; the difference between love and scoring (a difference I'm having trouble wrapping my head around); and more Firefly love. Even if you can't possibly take anymore.

For all you lazy bastidges who don't want to brave CNET's search tool for one of our contests, we've now sweetened the deal and added a new incentive to get more entries. You'll have to listen to find out more, but trust me. You'll want to win this.

To subscribe to this podcast, visit us at our main page and click the link on the right. Don't forget to leave us a voice mail at 1-800-947-6399 or e-mail us at insidecnetlabs@cnet.com.

I Love Katamari is the iPhone/iPod Touch version of the popular Katamari Damacy game.

(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)

'I Love Katamari' for the iPhone/iPod Touch

Last Monday, I Love Katamari for the iPhone and iPod Touch was released, and iPhone/iPod Touch owners everywhere rejoiced. OK, only Katamari Damacy fans would rejoice, but c'mon, who isn't a fan of a game where you can roll up pretty much anything and everything into a giant ball?

When I heard the news, I immediately went to the App Store and plunked down $7.99 of my own money for the game. I absolutely loved playing Katamari Damacy as well as its sequel, We Love Katamari on the PlayStation 2, and looked forward to see how the iPhone/iPod Touch version would fare.

As I expected, it's absolutely stunning, and the music is as addictive as ever ("NA-NAAAAAA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAAA The Katamari Damacy" is stuck in my head at the moment). The story part of Katamari is usually a fun little quirk of the game, and it's no different here. It starts out with the King of All Cosmos losing his memory of Earthly objects, and wants the Prince to roll them up so he can remember them. And as always, you're asked to roll the katamari ball over all sorts of objects of varying sizes, and as you roll up more things, your ball grows in size, making it possible to roll up larger objects--even animals and people.