crazy

One of the most enduring images of the '80s is also one of the decade's most notable gadgets: the DeLorean. Not just because Doc Brown turned one into an iconic time machine, but because there were some amazing and high-tech design elements throughout the machines, like the gull-wing doors, fiberglass and stainless steel construction, and Flux Capacitor.

All kidding aside, they're fantastic cars, yet still fairly expensive. One young man, due to the current recession, no doubt, had trouble paying for his DeLorean. So a team was sent to repossess it. Of course, a reality TV show crew … Read more

I just got back from a trip to California, where I got to be with almost my entire extended family. I'm 33 years old and single, so the whole time I had relatives telling me to hurry up and get married. The pressure was horrible. But now that I've seen, courtesy of talk2myShirt, this "husband hunting" bra concept from Japan, I'm a little relieved.

The bra, by Triumph International, has a built-in digital timer indicating how much time's left before the woman wearing it must get married. If she's not married by the … Read more

Thursday's launch of a games trade-in program by Amazon.com has already begun to make waves in the games resale business. Shortly after the program was announced, competitor GameStop's stock took a dive, dropping nearly 14 percent by end of day Thursday.

As a follow-up to the announcement, GameStop's CEO Don Matteo went on the record telling Edge Online he had no faith in Amazon's model based on his company's earlier attempt at a similar program. Matteo was, of course referring to sister site TradeStop. Back in 2005 the site featured a similar offering, where users could get cash for games which the company would then turn around and re-sell on GameStop.com. The service also let people send in DVD movies and music CDs. GameStop discontinued the program at the end of 2005.

Strengths Amazon is bringing something to the table that brick-and-mortar game resellers cannot easily match: Gamers who send in their used titles can spend their Amazon credit on things that aren't video games. For people who are selling games for a system they no longer have or use this is a clean break. It's also a chance for Amazon to make some extra cash when a user buys something that costs more than the credit they earned.

Another thing users may flock to is transparency. Amazon is showing users exactly what it will pay and has made this list able to be searched. Both GameStop and Game Crazy, two of the largest game resellers, offer no such feature on either of their sites. Instead you're limited to a list of hot games or promotional trade-in values, or you have to go into the store to find out the game values. Both companies will mail larger trade-in value lists, but the lack of an online system has led to users creating wikis to chronicle the ever-updating prices that can fluctuate by supply, demand, and retail price drops.

There's no special membership program. Both GameStop and Game Crazy have special memberships that its customers can join to get special discounts or receive a higher trade-in value for their games. Amazon doesn't offer this, which some may find appealing. Amazon pays everyone the same price in return for them logging-in with their Amazon.com account credentials. There's no annual fee, and the cost of shipping your games in is free.

There are no up-sells or pushy salespeople. You never have to talk to a human being in the entire exchange, which can be seen as a step up. Games retailers typically push paid membership programs, game pre-orders, and certain titles based on sales deals or events. For someone trying to offload their games and buy something new Amazon is letting you skip this.… Read more

I live in an earthquake-prone city. I live in this city in a very old building made out of unreinforced brick. This building is on the back of a steep hill over a freeway and then a lake. Thus, I'm likely to be crushed under tons of rubble and debris if a major earthquake hits Seattle.

If that does happen, it might take rescuers hours--or even days!--to get to me. And when they do, they'll have to get me to safety somehow.

Hopefully by that time they'll be using this amazing Japanese safety robot tank stretcher thing … Read more

There is usually a moment in each podcast that defines the title that is created for every episode of BOL. Get ready to hear them all, played in sequential order.

We love toast. And by we, I mean you. Everybody loves toast. Even if you say you don't love toast...you still do. It's a fact, an irrefutable fact. What's that you say? Don't put words in your mouth? Or toast either? You really don't love toast that much? It's just all right you say? Well, I have proof that you love toast.

Here we have the PC Toaster Bay from CrazyPC. (What's so crazy about it?) It fits into a standard 5.25-inch drive bay and makes, well, toast--toast from the comfort … Read more

I'm sure it's just a lucky coincidence, but one day after the brilliantly profane George Carlin passed away, Slate published an article on profane band names.

I haven't heard any of these bands--I tend to avoid bands that appear to have put too much time into their names, thinking that they're trying to cover up bad music--but Psychedelic Horse**** intrigues me, especially since I've seen so many bands whose music fits that description perfectly. (Note: I have no idea what CNET's policy on swear words is, but I don't want to create extra … Read more

Much like the career of Jennifer fricking Connelly, perhaps the best source of Apple-inspired humor on the Internet is going on hiatus.

John Moltz, the editor of Crazy Apple Rumors Site, announced Tuesday that come Friday, he'll be taking a break from the daily grind of satirizing everything there is to satirize in the Apple universe. Moltz confirmed in an e-mail that after six years of CARS, he realized it was time to pause, reflect, and scour the earth for signs that the Cyber Apocalypse is re-emerging.

CARS, for the uninitiated, is a combination of faux "rumors" … Read more

It's the notebook for neurotics.

Asus, the Taiwanese computer maker, will come out with a notebook that sports two 500GB hard drives from Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Combined, this will give a fully configured Asus M70 notebook a terabyte of storage.

Put another way, the notebook will be capable of storing 1,000 hours of video, or more than 350 feature length movies, or 250,000 four-minute songs. That will probably tide you over for even the worst airport layovers. A terabyte also holds about the same amount of data that could be stored on the paper from 50,… Read more