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The 404 434: Where we don our Paper Raincoat

Today's guest on The 404 Podcast is The Paper Raincoat, a local band of the "experimental rock ambition" genre, as Jeff calls it. Amber Rubarth and Alex Wong have both garnered musical recognition for their individual acts, but only recently came together to form The Paper Raincoat. The release of their first EP, Safe in the Sound, ushered in an international fan following and an impressive list of accomplishments, including the iTunes Indie Artist Spotlight. We're very excited to have them in the studio with us today, and they come bearing instruments for a live acoustic show!

As we talk to more bands, we're starting to understand the long process of dreaming, writing, playing, and touring with your music in the current music business scene. With outlets like Facebook, Myspace, Last.FM, and many more, artists can easily cast a wide net over an audience that would normally require a major label contract to reach. We talk with The Paper Raincoat about the naming of the band, their recording process, their fantastic DIY album art, and their upcoming tour.

In case you haven't figured it out by now, there are a million places to stream their music live, but the best thing you can do to show your support is to preorder a CD. One-hundred percent of the preorder money will go to printing the record, and you can pick between three packages, the highest of which lands you a limited edition CD, two signed posters, a T-shirt, and a custom USB wristband drive with a personalized video "thank you" and exclusive video content from the band. In the meantime, you can also follow the band on Twitter, attend their CD release party at Joe's Pub in NYC, and download their brand new song, "Right Angles."

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CNET News Daily Podcast: Where we go paperless

We get CNET News editor Stephen Shankland in the studio to talk about the mammoth task of making your personal paper trail a digital affair. We also break down the latest headlines from the long holiday weekend. Listen in to find out what you missed.

Today's stories:

Orange, T-Mobile to unite in U.K. merger

Google makes concessions to European publishers

Dish ordered to pay TiVo $200 million

Intel's new Core i7, Core i5 desktop chips bring faster CPUs to the maintream

Windows 7, Vista zero-day flaw reported

To make better biofuels, researchers add hydrogen

Microsoft offers some Silverlight 4 detailsRead more

My so-called paperless life

I expected problems from my attempt to rid myself of the paper in my life. What I didn't expect was this complication from my wailing 4-year-old son, Levi:

"Daddy, why did you recycle all my pictures?"

Even though he raised that question in a half-asleep moment in the middle of the night last week, Levi's anxiety illustrated one big complication about the idea of going paperless.

In short, some physical objects have value that doesn't easily transfer to the bits of their electronic representation. There's a great divide between the physical and the virtual. … Read more

E-paper sales expected to hit $9.6 billion in '18

Electronic paper is stacking up to be a high-growth market, according to a new report.

Sales of e-paper displays are projected to soar from $431 million this year to $9.6 billion in 2018, market researcher DisplaySearch said Wednesday.

The number of units sold is forecast to grow 22 million this year to 1.8 billion in 2018.

E-books are currently the main use and sales driver for e-paper. Most e-book readers, such as the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader, use the electrophoretic display technology from E Ink. A few e-readers, such as Fujitsu's Flepia, use a different technology … Read more

Barnes & Noble shutters how-to site Quamut

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

The 404 405: Where really?! No more Saturday mail!?

We couldn't get enough of the Bonch on our 404th episode, so we invite her on today to hang out out with us and chat about the death of Saturday mail, Amy Winehouse, "District 9," and "Paper Heart." And stay tuned till the end for Bonnie's very special announcement! You heard it on The 404 first!

The CNET offices in New York just got a little more exciting, because Bonnie Cha is in The 404 studio to brighten up an otherwise sobering Monday morning! She's only here for one more day, but make sure you listen to the end of the show, because she has a very important announcement!

Our rundowneth overfloweth today with quick little news bytes. The first one is about the U.S. Post Office no longer delivering mail on Saturdays! Calm down, the proposition is still in the infancy stage, but we're wondering if this is a real concern for anyone, or if this could just be another point on the board for THE INTERNET. Nevertheless, we're still going to miss our friendly neighborhood mailpeople who face dogs, weather, fatigue, and a million other things to bring us our daily book of ValuePak coupons.

Next up is a little rumor we've heard from TechRadar about Sony releasing an emotion sensor at tomorrow's GamesCon media conference. We're not sure if this technology will ever actually materialize, but we do know Sony has already patented plans for a gaming console that can be controlled by touch, movement, and even emotions including laughter, boredom, sadness, excitement, and anger. Personally, I can do without a box reading my emotions and affecting my gameplay, but what do you think? Could you get into something like that?

We also talk about "District 9" cleaning up the weekend box office, cocaine content of U.S. currency, and watch as Amy Winehouse has a complete mental breakdown, all on today's snapshot episode!

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Form filling made easy

Form Pilot Home allows you to complete forms on the computer that normally have to be typed or handwritten. Although the program takes a bit of practice to master, it's a great alternative to filling out forms the old-fashioned way.

The program's interface is not incredibly intuitive, although the toolbars will look familiar to users of Microsoft Office. A visit to the program's built-in Help file will definitely help you make the most of this program. Once you figure out how the program works, completing forms couldn't be easier. Form Pilot Home provides two ways to … Read more

Useful form filling program

Form Pilot Pro lets users complete forms--both paper and electronic--without using a typewriter or doing it by hand. The program takes a bit of getting used to, but users with frequent form-filling needs will find it quite beneficial.

The program's interface is somewhat intuitive, and much of the toolbar will be familiar to users who are experienced with Word. Some of the important functions, however, are not readily apparent. Users will eventually find answers in the built-in Help file, although it could be better organized. We tested Form Pilot Pro with a PDF file from a government Web site. … Read more

Quick, before the boss gets back!

Paper Toss is an extremely simple but still fairly addictive game that simulates the time-honored office pastime of tossing crumpled pieces of paper into a trash can. In the game's interface, you hold your iPhone or iPod Touch vertically as you flick a wad of paper toward the target can, attempting to account for a blowing fan when you calculate your trajectory. The fan changes sides and speed for each shot, and Paper Toss features three levels of difficulty, with the trash can at varying distances.

Where this game really shines, though, is in its production values: the crisp … Read more

Sexy hybrid LCD/e-paper display seen in the wild

There's been some buzz this week around Pixel Qi's 3qi display technology, which integrates e-paper attributes with LCD to create a versatile and potentially very energy-efficient screen. The idea is that with a flip of a button you can go from a traditional high-resolution color LCD experience to a low-power black and white mode to an even more energy-efficient e-paper mode that allows you to easily view text in bright sunlight.

This week the technology was demonstrated at Computex in Taiwan, and it seems very impressive. If these types of displays can be produced cost-efficiently, they may revolutionize … Read more