Today's episode of The 404 is especially passionate, maybe because we know it's the last one of the week. No show tomorrow, but look out for two special throwback episodes coming your way Friday and Sunday. Anyway, onto today's stories. As the title states, we're taking a trip back to our childhood and remembering some of our favorite Smashing Pumpkins songs and music videos. They've had so many hits that it's hard to pick just one, but I'll always love the video for 1979, and judging by the 5,298 five-star rating, I'm not alone, but who says it has to end? Pumpkins lead singer Billy Corgan recently announced plans for a new album! "Teargarden by Kaleidyscope" will include 44 songs and will be available for free!
Of course, if you want hard copies and album art, you can also get limited edition EPs with collectors art and high quality audio. The album won't be finished for awhile, but Billy says the music will sound more like the Pumpkins' first few albums: "psychedelic, atmospheric, melodic, heavy, and pretty." We can't wait!
Next, we run through a slideshow of the eight technologies to thank the 1980s for. The list includes the Walkman, the Personal Computer, the CD, and more--mostly these things just give us an opportunity to make fun of how excited everyone was to run a 4.77MHz processor with TWO floppy disk drives.
In any case, the list leads us to the strangest hypothetical situation we've ever posed to each other: if you had to choose between using a COMPUTER or a WASHING MACHINE for the rest of your life, which one would it be? The catch is that you will be banned from using whichever product you don't pick for the rest your life. The rest of the world would go on as normal, so only you are are making the decision. Listen to the show to hear our choices (I think you'll be surprised) and leave a comment on this blog telling us you think.
We finally have another contest for all the gamers out there! Jeff got his mitts on two copies of EA NHL 10, which improves on the NHL 009 gameplay with a new "board play" feature that allows skaters to pin opponents against the boards and kick the puck. If you want to win the game, you're going to have to work for it. Here's what you do: take a picture of yourself standing on the ice of a hockey rink with your most creative 404 sign! Best sign on the ice gets to choose between the XBox 360 or PS3 version, and don't even think about using Photoshop or Jeff will hunt you down.
Since there's no show tomorrow, you have plenty of time to call 1-866-404-CNET and leave a funny/bummer/impression/hate/idea/question voice mail, and if you can manage to produce a coherent thought, we'll play it on the air! Have a great weekend everyone, we'll miss you! :)
Episode 427
Listen now: Download today's podcastSubscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video
Image Credit: Smashing Pumpkins and EA Sports ... Read more
Boo! This episode is all about the scariest of scary gadgetry. Listen, if you dare!
Listen now: Download today's podcast
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EPISODE 112 |
Bomb baby stroller ensures your baby grows up strong and warlike
Look at the legs on that: Walking house looks like giant metal beetle
Netflix streaming comes to TiVo
Dubai’s newest insane skyscraper to house a restaurant in a glass pod at 2,150 feet
Scariest jack-o’-lantern of 2008 - The stock-market pumpkin
Pink Watch
These belong in Hell: Half Croc, half Ugg (thanks, phatemokid!)
Why didn’t I think of that?!
Caps Lock Key Trainer Key HAS GIGANTIC SPIKES (ow)
Gender Gap
Feel the throbbing with the shocking 'Thumbwars' game
Hot Asian Gadget
Tuttuki Bako
Tool Time
iPod Blazer from Park Avenue
Halloween is the one day of the year when it's OK to go all-out on a geeky costume. CNET News.com reporter Caroline McCarthy gave us 10 suggestions for techie Halloween costumes this year.
While we editors didn't see any dancing Mark Cubans or software pirates (believe us, we kept our eyes peeled), we did see a pair of LOLCats, a Nintendo Wii avatar, and...Facebook. Brace yourself for our techie Halloween slide show, and start your planning for next year.
(Credit:
Haunted Bay)
Making a Cylon Jack-o-Lantern will be a piece of cake--er, pie--with the Pumpkin Gutter, a $12 drill attachment that lets you zip through the sticky pumpkin prep stage and get right to carving. All you have to do is cut a hole in the top of the pumpkin, use the dishwasher-safe Pumpkin Gutter to loosen the strings and thin out the walls, and then dump the guts out. The tool even leaves the seeds intact for those who like to turn them into snacks.
We're always wary of seasonal gadgets, which often turn out to be a waste of money. But according to this review on Haunted Bay, the total time from raw pumpkin to simple jack-o-lantern was about 10 minutes, making the Pumpkin Gutter especially handy if you're preparing multiple pumpkins this season.
For a pumpkin-carving tool that might see the light of day at other times of the year, check out Sur La Table's serrated pumpkin carving knife (on sale!), which looks like it would be handy for all manner of thick-skinned fruits and vegetables.
And if you prefer eating pumpkins to carving them, Apartment Therapy: Kitchen has a guide to splitting the smaller, edible pumpkin varieties with a chef's knife, while Star Chefs has articles on pumpkin-friendly wines as well as wine pairings for pumpkin seeds, candy corn, caramel apples, and other Halloween treats.
The cannon
The trebuchet
(Credit: Mike Yamamoto/CNET Networks)
The targets
PORTLAND, Ore.--Not all do-it-yourselfers were at the Maker Faire in Austin, Texas, this last week. About 2,000 miles away in the Pacific Northwest, a few makers were staying put to celebrate the autumnal festivities as only they can do--by flinging, shooting and catapulting pumpkins out of their homemade inventions.
At the Plumper Pumpkin Patch on Old Cornelius Road Pass, children observe the usual rites of fall with corn mazes, hay rides and pony caravans. But every 20 minutes or so, a boom can be heard around the grounds when a large, makeshift air cannon fires a medium-sized squash at its targets--a wooden pumpkin facade and an abandoned Chevy several hundred feet away. Those shots are usually preceded by another pumpkin lobbed by the trebuchet (which, as everyone knows, is a medieval catapult used to hurl rocks at the enemy).
And if you tire of being a spectator, there are rows of stationary slingshots that visitors can use for their own target practice. Take that, "FuBar."
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--There's always one guy who seems a little too good at mowing down players in a Quake 3 session. Intel thinks future PC gamers might be interested in technology that helps level the playing field.
Intel just caught Player 1 cheating at Quake 3.
(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET News.com)The company showed off a research project into "anti-cheat technology" during its Research@Intel Day at Intel headquarters. The idea is that Intel and the PC gaming industry would build technology into gaming rigs that could detect when common cheats--such as "aimbots" that handle targeting while the player just holds down the trigger--are used in an online gaming session, said Travis Schluessler, a researcher at Intel.
Cheats such as aimbots or "wall hacks" that expose players lying in wait send data to online gaming servers in unnatural patterns that could be detected by other PCs connected to the same server, Schluessler said. PCs equipped with this technology would notify a server that someone in the game is using a cheat, and then the game administrator could set a policy of kicking the cheat offline or some high-tech method of saying "nyeh, nyeh, cheater cheater," shaming the cheater and warning other gamers not to enter into sessions with that particular player.
Intel is still working out the details; don't expect to find this in a high-end gaming PC anytime soon. This also being Intel, there's more practical business-related implications for the technology as well, such as click-fraud detection. But with the amount of money that serious PC gamers spend on their rigs and software, there could be a market among those who don't want to see their investments ruined by cheaters.
Crave is an equal-opportunity blog, even when it comes to jack-o'-lanterns. So we feel obligated, after having featured a PC pumpkin the other day, to provide equal space for this step-by-step guide to create your own Mac-o-lantern. We're doing our best to find a Linux pumpkin next.
(Photo: The Joy of Tech)
There's something about Halloween that seems to raise the geek freak quotient more than any other day of the year.
A staple for the last few years has been the the PC pumpkin. And while the concept is hardly new, we're happy to report that the digital seasonal squashes seem to be getting more refined (if that's the word) with each October.
This year's featured pumpkin mod, for example, comes complete with an R.I.P. tombstone keyboard, skeleton mouse and a power plug integrated seamlessly into the stem. And it's wireless, of course, so you can IM your friends while trick-or-treating.
(Photo: Russ Caslis)
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