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The 404 884: Where there are no words (podcast)

If you've ever wondered what Playboy looks like in Braille, you'll want to check out this 404 podcast. Today, the Internet Archives is showing us how it's endeavoring to scan all books and magazines (including Playboy) for posterity.

Before we get to that story, however, we begin with Jalopnik's hunt for the hottest TV traffic reporter. It includes one of Jeff's childhood friends from summer camp who somehow ties into Justin's morning routine.

After that, we have a couple of tips on how to avoid in-person conversations with the help of your phone. Then we move onto a strange study that profiles the drinking, eating, and social habits of Android vs. iPhone users, a mysterious prototype MacBook Pro with 3G spotted on eBay, and a handful of Calls from the Public!

The 404 Digest for Episode 884

Android users versus iPhone users. What it's like to read Playboy in Braille. OMG, it's happening again: Prototype MacBook Pro with 3G spotted on eBay. Ever faked a cell phone call? You're not alone. Who's the hottest TV traffic reporter? Video voicemail from Marshall's dancing girlfriend.

Episode 884 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Millenniata M-Disk: The possibility of permanent data archival

You were born in a great family, had a fun childhood. Then you grew up, went to school, spent an exhilarating time at college, learned a whole bunch, and fell in love. Then you had a job that you loved, got married to a partner of your dreams, and continued to live a happy, exciting, stimulating, and healthy life.

Now, that's a great success story, but guess what? Then you died. And your story, the true details of it, might last a bit longer and would die, too. In a hundred years or so, nobody would have any real … Read more

Powerful zip tool

Archive utilities, zip tools, and other third-party apps that enhance the native capabilities of Windows have been popular for many years, and they remain popular even as Windows continues to incorporate more of their features, mostly by staying a step ahead of Microsoft by offering many more features and options than most Windows users require. PowerArchiver is a good example. It's a full-featured file compression and management utility that supports a wide range of compression types and file formats, with the ability to add more formats via plug-ins. PowerArchiver 2010 Free is free for personal use, with paid upgrades … Read more

Six ways to work faster in MS Outlook

Organizations large and small rely on Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations to get the job done. In some ways Outlook is the poor cousin of the three high-profile Office apps. But the true workhorse in Microsoft's ubiquitous suite is the unglamorous e-mail/contact manager/task scheduler.

These six tips for Outlook 2010, 2007, and 2003 will let you spend less time reopening archived messages, jog your memory about reminders, drag files to send them as attachments, add terms to the spell checker, clear space on the taskbar, and enhance your list of click-saving keyboard shortcuts for Outlook.… Read more

Port-a-zipper

IZArc is a freeware archive utility that can zip and unzip files in a wide range of formats. IZArc2Go is a fully portable version of IZArc. It does everything the installed version does, although you can't integrate it with right-click menus in Explorer or associate it with any archive file type.

We downloaded the program's installer, which extracted the executable file and other files to a folder in our Downloads directory by default. Since the program is portable, you can save these files anywhere, including a USB drive or other portable device. We clicked IZArc2Go's program file, … Read more

Friendly zip tool

We've been big fans of WinZip utilities for years, and that didn't change when Microsoft bundled a zip tool in Windows. They generally share some characteristics: they're free, for instance, and they integrate with context menus in Windows. They not only zip and unzip files but also handle other archive types, and they often have extra features such as the ability to split and merge files. We've tried them all, or thought we had until we encountered Hamster Free ZIP Archiver. It has an attractive, up-to-date look, and it can pack and unpack ZIP, 7Zip, GZIP, … Read more

Zip On The Go

For years, 7-Zip has been one of our favorite Windows utilities. We recently looked at 7-Zip Portable, a fully portable version of the freeware file zipper. Like the installed version, it can compress and decompress files and folders in a variety of ways as well as open other file types such as TAR and RAR files. The portable version is small enough to take along with you on a USB drive, iPod, or other portable device. The chief difference with the installed version is the portable version can't be integrated into context menus in Windows.

We installed 7-Zip Portable … Read more

Flaky film organizer

While the casual movie fan might be content to keep her or his movie collection on a shelf and pay little attention to it, true film buffs tend to be a bit more proactive when it comes to organization. GrieeX Movie Archive Program is a database that lets people keep track of the movies they own and import a variety of related information from the Internet, too. We like the premise of the program, but in practice, it leaves a lot to be desired.

The program's interface is plain and fairly easy to navigate, although some of its features … Read more

WinRAR is a winner

WinRAR is a lightweight, flexible, and easy-to-use archiving utility that can unpack most archive formats, as well as compress to both RAR and ZIP. Free to try for 40 days ($29 for single license), WinRAR is definitely top dog in the compression category.

WinRAR's interface is about as simple as it gets. Start creating (or add to) an archive by dragging and dropping your files into the interface or by browsing through the Folder Tree side panel (when enabled). From there, the most common functions are laid out in the form of colorful, mostly intuitive icons, which can all … Read more