shut

Barnes & Noble has quietly shuttered its how-to site Quamut. The site, which was launched back in late March 2008, was a mix of professionally produced how-to guides and user-created wikis, the latter of which are no longer available.

What remains are the 1,685 guides which will continue to be sold both at Barnes & Noble's online store as digital downloads, and at brick-and-mortar stores as laminated paper reference guides. These range anywhere from $2.95 to $5.95 depending on what format they're in.

There's no word yet on whether the company will continue to … Read more

Five-year-old start-up SplashCast Media will be shutting down in the next few weeks. Co-founder and CEO Michael Berkley put out a company blog post earlier this week detailing the various directions the company had taken, going from an enterprise content management tool, all the way to a video player that was integrated with social networks like Facebook and MySpace--none of which were enough to keep it afloat.

"At each turn, we moved from what ultimately proved to be a declining market opportunity to a larger opportunity," Berkley said. "We have a lot to be proud of. In … Read more

Microsoft has decided to close down Windows Live Events and will be focusing its development efforts on building event planning and management tools for Windows Live Calendar instead. Beginning next month, users of Windows Live Events will be unable to create new events. And sometime next year, the site will simply redirect to Live Calendar instead.

In the meantime, Microsoft is encouraging users to download any photos or documents they have stored in their events, either to their hard drives or to Windows Live SkyDrive. The service has also long had a way to export events to other services including … Read more

RebootEx offers users a simple, fast, and easy way to turn your machine off from anywhere and even log back on when it restarts. While the average user probably won't have a need for its remote shutdown capabilities, it works on a local PC as well.

This program has an interface that will look familiar to anyone who has used Windows. A small bar pops up on the desktop featuring the exact same icons as Windows for Shut Down, Restart, and Log Off. In addition, there is a button for Remote. Below these are a clock for scheduled restarts … Read more

It's just the three of us today, but that's when we have the best shows. Before we get into stories, please be sure to check out the preshow some time at the404.cnet.com or watchbol.com. During the weekdays, around 11 a.m. EST, Jeff, Justin, and Wilson spend about 20 minutes goofing off, and it becomes a riot.

Today's show is jam packed with stories. First, Pizza Hut is trying to hire an intern, who's only job is to Twitter for the company. We think they should have advertised this yesterday on 4/20. So-called "beer googles" don't really exist, according to scientists. We never believed they did either. We just think that it makes most guys say, "Why not?" Last story for the first half is the release of the new T-Mobile Sidekick LX. It's no longer a brick. Justin is still intent, though, on keeping his iPhone since Hulu announced it would release an app.

Second half of the show, we've got Tuna Tuesday again! This time from Amsterdam! Also, the press seems to hate "Sit Down, Shut Up." Jeff and Wilson aren't big fans of the pilot, either, from "Arrested Development" creator Mitchell Hurwitz. Further along, we find out there's a Lego Rock Band game and a DJ Hero game! Finally, vote for CNET TV for the People's Choice Award at the 2009 Webby Awards. Our jobs depend on it... not really, but it would be nice to play dress up.

Follow us on the Twitter at @the404, and send us your comments. We listen. We promise.

Back in the old days when TVs and radios had tubes, it took a couple of minutes for a set to warm up before you could watch or listen. But even then, you could turn it off instantly. That's not true with Windows PCs. Not only does it sometimes take seemingly forever for them to boot, but it can take several minutes for one to shut down. Even worse, if a program stops responding, you may or may not be able to shut it down. And even if it does terminate, it may take awhile.

And by the way, … Read more

If you're looking for an effective and efficient program to perform a timed shutdown of your computer, look no further.

MF Shutdown Manager Full Edition is a basic, no-frills program designed to offer an array of functions. Users can force their computers to shut down, restart, lock, hibernate, wake up, standby, and more. The user simply sets a timer in hours, minutes, and seconds, and then selects Start Timer. If the timer is not selected, a predetermined time can be chosen. Simply set the clock within the program for when you want to perform the operation, and then wait. … Read more

Don't let its name fool you; this little utility comes with a wide range of options for not only shutting down, but also for hibernating and restarting your computer at times specified by you.

Easy ShutDown has a very basic user interface. We were disappointed to find that it didn't include a Help feature, but we were able to navigate the program very easily. Using either the menu options or toolbar commands, you can add multiple shutdown actions. When adding a new action, you can opt to activate the action after a certain amount of time, at a … Read more

It claims to speed up your PC's shutdown process, but this program did no such thing when we put it to the test.

SpeedShut places four shortcut icons on your desktop--one for logging off your computer, one for shutting down, one for restarting, and one for aborting an initiated process. According to the publisher's description, the program includes some sort of shutdown configuration for a shutdown and restart delay, but it could not be found. Each shortcut icon that we clicked performed its function, but did not ask us for any kind of configuration. We also noticed that … Read more