Geek culture

'Mad Men' game full of pixelated whiskey and cigarettes

"Mad Men" returned to television last night after an interminably long wait. Mad Men: The Game on YouTube should help tide you over until the next episode airs.

There are more than 40 different videos in the game, so you have quite a few paths to explore -- with plenty of hard liquor and 8-bit cigarette smoke along the way. The game comes from the Fine Brothers, the same guys who brought us the "Saved by the Bell" interactive YouTube game.… Read more

Student turns old turntables into drawing machine

Robert Howsare, a student from Ohio University, has built a rudimentary yet interesting drawing machine out of two old turntables and some wooden planks.

The home project, which cost a mere $50 to put together, is simply known as the "drawing apparatus." The drawings produced by the machine are surprisingly attractive, with random asymmetrical lines and patterns as shown in the below video. In fact, I personally found watching the rotating turntables and planks entertaining, and even therapeutic to some extent.

So before you throw out any outdated but still functional hi-fi components, you may want to consider the ways they could be repurposed first. … Read more

Draw something for Crave

If you're not playing Draw Something by now, at the very least, you probably know someone who is and can't stop raving about it. The addictive turn-based game, which is available for iOS and Android, lets you draw items of varying difficulty for your friends to guess and vice versa.

The game reached more than 20 million downloads in its first five weeks and tops the download charts for both free and paid apps. It also caught the eye of Zynga, as the social-networking-games company snatched up OMGPOP, the creator of Draw Something, for around $200 million this week. … Read more

The 404 1,017: Where Jeff has 30 problems (podcast)

Russ Frushtick is truly the Steve Martin of The 404 co-hosts, but we keep asking him back because well, someone has to talk about video games with Jeff, and it's not me. Speaking of, don't forget to wish Mubakalar a happy 30th birthday tomorrow, because this one's going to hurt.

There's lots to talk about with Russ, and first in the rundown is the ending to Mass Effect 3 and the secrets revealed this week about who signed off on it.

We'll also get Russ's take on ethics in gaming journalism and the future of the industry with regard to the new Apple iPad.… Read more

Friday Poll: Should BioWare change Mass Effect 3's ending?

No spoilers here, folks. You'll have to look elsewhere for those, but it's no secret that the gaming ranks are getting all hot and bothered by the controversial ending to BioWare's Mass Effect 3.

The ire over the space-bound role-playing game has raised the fan discussion to levels previously reserved for television shows like "Lost" and "The Sopranos." It's left many gamers asking if the conclusion lived up to the prerelease promises.

There are even reports that one disappointed gamer felt so let down that he lodged a false advertising complaint with the FTC.… Read more

The 404 1,016: Where we need a social network for our social network (podcast)

Leaked from 404 Podcast 1,016:

Thank you, Facebook: A way to demote annoying 'friends' on the sly. Want a vibrating tattoo that alerts you to a call? Nokia does. Three online dating sites agree to screen for predators. AT&T's vibrating steering wheel tells you when to turn, claims less distracting than visual cues. Miami judge says BitTorrent downloads are protected anonymous speech. Wait, nevermind. Bathroom break video : Wes Anderson's 'Made of Imagination' Sony TV commercial.

… Read more

Artist inspires another screwy do-it-yourself project

As part of Crave's ongoing effort to direct the inexhaustible creative energies of our readers into positive channels (and thus prevent said readers from becoming evil geniuses and vaporizing the planet with giant, home-made, 3D-printed death-ray cannons), we present to you, dear inexhaustibly creative reader, our latest proposal for a lazy weekend's worth of DIY fun.

Last time, you'll recall, we had you bang out a few simple drawings with a staple gun. Not only fun but also therapeutic. Today's project should be similarly rewarding. And like that last assignment, it involves relatively simple tools and shouldn't tax your mind or body too much.… Read more

Manual typewriter to world: 'I am not dead yet!'

I'm having flashbacks to high school typing class, caged in a room full of incessantly clacking keys. I was likely one of the last students to ever have to hunt and peck my way through "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy hen" on a typewriter.

If you stick around long enough, what's old becomes new again. Hammacher Schlemmer came up with a most-excellent press release headline: "Hammacher Schlemmer Introduces The Classic Manual Typewriter." It's as if the classic manual typewriter had never existed before. What crazy alternate universe is this?… Read more

Can you go 24 hours without any tech?

Not to sound like an old lady, but back in my day, when I wanted to hang out with friends, I'd call them up on a landline phone. Dinners out never involved a group of four or five people looking down at their phones or checking into a social network, and if I had a paper to write for school, I'd go to the library and do the research using -- gasp -- books!

Of course, today, that's all changed with the rise of the Internet and devices like smartphones and tablets. There's no doubt technology has enriched our lives in so many ways, but it's also created a culture in which we're often more consumed with our gadgets and the digital world than we are with real people and the outside world. So what would you do if you didn't have access to any of your gadgets? Care to find out? … Read more