thirteen

The 404 432: Where we'd rather have C than P before BS

Now, don't get any wrong ideas, the show title might sound dirty, but it's actually just a reference to our parent company, the wonderful Columbia Broadcast System, or CBS. Unfortunately, Dan the Former Mantern is no longer with us, but we're happy that he just moved laterally to PBS and WNET.org's Thirteen. In fact, he joins us on today's show to help promote a local documentary he's working on featuring yours truly! It's a spotlight on New Yorkers whose lives were changed after visiting one of America's National Parks, and what a coincidence--I just got back from a trip to Yosemite!

Dan and I collaborated on this project, which will air on Thirteen this Sunday, September 27, at 10 p.m. EDT. Everyone else can catch the special on the Thirteen Web site, which we'll also link to after the premiere.

Dan sticks around after this shameless self-promotion to help us discuss a few stories from around the Internet, including a horribly offensive Ching-Chong iPhone App. The cheesy little game produces the same ambiguous messages you find in fortune cookies, but the catch is that the app actually reads the message outloud in a voice that bears a disturbing similarity to Verbose Asian Guy. Of course, Jeff, Dan, and even Wilson (shame on you, Wilson) practically force him out of retirement, and we even get a glimpse of Jeff's priceless Woody Allen impression...TONS of laughs in today's show!

After we play the second Caribbean Call From the Public, we run through Rotten Tomatoes' Top 25 Worst Movies of the Decade. We're not surprised to see most that most of the titles are straight to DVD movies, so we take it upon ourselves to name off a few of our own picks, including "Gigli," "Jersey Girl," "Kangaroo Jack," "Cool World," and more. Let us know in the comments what your top picks are, or call us at 1-855-404-CNET and leave a voice-mail for Monday's Jeff-less show. Have a great weekend!

EPISODE 432 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Pondering the future of virtual worlds

On Wednesday at Siggraph, I attended an interesting panel (details here) on the subject of "The Potential of End-User-Programmable Worlds."

In addition to the two organizers, the panelists included Paul Hemp of Harvard Business Review, Asi Lang of Linden Labs (the company that runs Second Life), and Vernor Vinge. Vinge is a faculty alumnus of San Diego State University, but better known as the author of "9 or 10 science-fiction novels," as he says. (I asked about that uncertainty; he said it's more about the definition of a novel than his ability to remember what he's written.)

You may have seen some of the recent news about Second Life. Last week, Linden Labs shut down… Read more

No spoilers here-- just a few book reviews

I read a lot. Well, as much as I can, anyway, usually six to ten books a month. It's a welcome distraction from work and a useful source of inspiration for my own writing-- and work. One never knows when a PowerPoint slide might benefit from a clever turn of phrase...

I got hooked on… Read more

Nostalgia: A desktop app for Flickr

While I was in the Vloggies booth at SXSW, I peered over Robert Scoble's shoulder as he was shooting a video with the guys from Thirteen23. The people at this design-and-coding company have made Nostalgia, a very cool application that acts as a front end to Flickr. I can't wait for Scoble's video to post, so here's my take. And yes, I'm a bad person for stealing Scoble's scoop--even though he said it was OK.

If you're a Mac user, stop reading now.

The Nostalgia player is a slick desktop client for the … Read more