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The 404 539: Where we're jaked on green beers (podcast)
Wilson's made a fully recovery and is back on today's show, just in time to help us celebrate St. Patrick's Day! We're celebrating the best way we know how without actually drinking alcohol on the show--anyone else notice that Jeff looks eerily Irish today?
As usual, the episode collects the most random tech-related stories from the Internets, starting with a glimpse into the future of monitoring workday productivity. KDDI R&D Laboratory in Japan is testing a technology that lets managers check up on their drones using the accelerometer in corporate cell phones. The hardware tracks day-to-day movement and interactions and, in conjunction with desktop software, matches subsequent acceleration patterns and notifies managers if workers deviate from their regular tasks. Employers will also receive a notification e-mail if works attempt to skirt the system by "forgetting" their phones at home. We highly doubt that this will take off in the U.S., but I'm buying our IT guy a beer tomorrow just in case.
You'll notice watching today's video that none of us are wearing green, and that's partly because we're not 10 years old, and also because being green makes you mean! A new study suggests that eco-friendly consumers are more likely to cheat and lie, based on the idea that people have a "limited stock of goodwill" and that "being virtuous in one part of life leads to meanness in another." We all know a few entitled greenhorns, but what do you think? Do you buy this idea of "compensatory ethics?" Let us know in the comments below!
New Jersey might be the home of Jeff's favorite hockey team (and thanks to Che for the sticka pitcha you see over there <---), but it's also the home of Donna Simpson, a 600-pound woman attempting to break the record for world's fattest mother! We should note that she already holds the title but plans to reach 1,000 pounds with the support of her 150-pound husband.
Currently, her $750-per-week grocery bill is paid for by her Web site, where people pay to watch her eat via Webcam. This story has us all seriously questioning whether NDC and I should actually go through with this hot sauce competition.
We also have plenty of 404 stickers left, so send us a SASE and don't forget to send us a picture of where you stick them; there's a good chance I'll use it on a blog post! Unique, high-quality pictures in landscape are ideal. Send to the404(at)cnet[dot]com.
Happy St. Patty's Day, everyone! Be safe tonight, and don't drink and drive, dummy.
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