wilson g. tang

Wilson's out slaving for CNETTV at the Amazon Kindle DX unveiling, leaving Jeff and I to man the show sans laughter...we'll let you judge the outcome. Today we veryveryvery briefly touch on the biggie Kindle, and also discuss the dangers of gaming to the death, Apple's new iPhone replacement policy, Oprah's free chicken giveaway, and more!

We'd first like to thank Randall Bennett, former host of The 404, for having us on his new show Tech VI--check us out!

One story from today comes from our brothers in the East, and by "… Read more

After yesterday's downer show, we're back and cheerier than ever. Even Jeff is in good spirits after the New Jersey Devils got stomped all over their home ice. We discover today that Wal-Mart really does rock, and not in a good way.

The lesson of today's show is DO NOT BUY ELECTRONICS FROM WAL-MART, unless you're a rock collector, in which case you'll be thrilled, because apparently the company is literally selling Nintendo DS boxes filled with sediment.

We need to get THE BONCH, aka Bonnie Cha back on our show to talk about the Palm Pre. Actually, Palm is offering preproduction review units to Average Joes (and Josephines) in hopes of receiving "true life" feedback on the smartphone. Wilson seems to think that most consumers will frown on the smaller screen size, but we all have high hopes for the brand since this is definitely a last ditch effort in the smartphone market.

In exciting movie news, Jeff is superstoked to hear about a "Drop Dead Fred" remake starring Russel Brand, that quirky English dude that played the hippy beauhunk in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." His brand of piratey humor should do well as a young girl's imaginary friend, right? Oh! We also reveal another popular movie sequel in the works, but you'll have to listen to the show to get the full scoop.

Finally, we touch on the bloated cost of higher education and how NYU students are getting questionable phone calls about their financial aid. Apparently NYU financial advisers are individually calling students receiving significant amounts of financial aid and questioning their decisions to accept the money and attend the university. If I were still in school and someone called me about this, I'd probably just tell them to put the check in the mail and stop telling me what to do all the time.

Today's CFTP is rather heartfelt. Thanks to everyone who called in, and we'd like to personally welcome James Christopher Maximus to the world! You were born today, dude! Hopefully you're reading this in the year 2021, when you're old enough to fully grasp our jokes. We love your dad for breeding future listeners of The 404!

Per usual, don't forget to check out our live VIDEOcast (man it feels good to write that) every morning at 11 a.m. ET. We have a ton of fun in the preshow and you get the inside scoop on how we prepare for the show. And please please please call and leave us a voicemail at 1-866-404-CNET (2638)!

Ace reporter Caroline McCarthy from CNET News joins the show today to bring us bacon chocolate from Foodzie. It's kind of like, Etsy but for food. Wilson doesn't partake in the bacon, but he munches down on the bourbon chocolate. Jeff's not a fan of swine cocoa, but Justin can't get enough of it.

However, Justin's not a fan of Apple's iPhone warranty policies. Apparently, he dropped his iPhone into a puddle of something. We're not exactly sure what, but we're pretty sure you can't drink it. Anyway, because of this whole ordeal, he's decided to become Justine.

Additionally, ESPN.com tries to be cool when it briefly enables the "Contra code" for its Web site. The hack lasted for about 45 minutes before it got shut down, but we give the site props for making unicorns and rainbows cool again.

It's Tuna Tuesday again, and we get a phone call from Tina. Finally, Twitter has become popular enough to ban at work. We get around it with this new Web app that fakes an Excel document with all your Twitters.

Be sure to check out Jeff Bakalar's appearance on Dan Levy's podcast "On the DL." He talks about tech and hockey. Lastly, a show about supercute kittens and puppies uses The 404 music loop. Didn't know the music could go both ways.

Maggie Reardon joins the show today. We talk about the impending world pandemic of swine flu. "Mean-Jeans Maggie" gives us the inside scoop from a NYU professor who thinks that the virus could be really bad in the fall. From now on, we're wearing face masks in the podcast studio.

Meanwhile, Amazon.com is trying to cash in on the fearmongering by offering a $25 dollar "Pandemic Swine Flu First Aid and Safety Kit." It's a couple of respirator masks, a pair of safety goggles, gloves, hand sanitizer, and booties. Yeah, you can pick up most of this stuff from your corner hardware or drug store for the cheap.

Also, a fan of the show turns Wilson into a "ce-web-rity" by adding him to a list of celebrities you can punch on Facebook. He cries in a corner today. Hopefully, you won't find Wilson on the roof of the CBS building any time soon.

Finally, we get in-depth about the possibility of the iPhone coming to the Verizon network. Neither Wilson nor Maggie thinks this will be a possibility in the near future. We think it's a ploy by Apple to get a better deal with AT&T. There is a chance the iPhone will appear on the Verizon network, when the company switches over to the LTE 4G standard.

Send in your comments to the404 [at] cnet [dot] com. Call us at 1-866-404-CNET (2638). We'll try not to catch the swine flu, but it maybe can't be helped, as Justin loves licking subway poles.

Steve Guttenberg, the Audiophiliac, joins the show today to talk about the coming "singularity."

For those of you not from the future, the "singularity" is a concept from Raymond Kurzweil's book "The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology." According to him, human beings will eventually live forever because of nano-machines that will repair our bodies and miracle drugs. That's about as deep as the show gets today. Again, you don't really want us to be discussing the ever-increasing amounts of entropy in the universe.

Steve is generally disappointed with the quality of the sound systems at the New York auto show. You'd expect that a $200,000 Bentley would have pretty great speakers, but you'd be wrong.

Also on today's show, we've got more Twitter stories: 1) Justin is attempting to bring back the $5-dollar Italian BMT from Subway with the world's first Twitition (that's Twitter + petition); 2) Post Secret meets Twitter with SecretTweet.com. Honestly, it's one of the most depressing Web sites ever. Kind of like a not-funny fmylife.com.

Finally, it's the weekend, so we know you have the time. Be sure to send in your call backs! We need them!

Some Blues Traveler and a box of Glazed Pop'ems warm us up for another fantastic show. Just the three of us today. Justin is still trying to recover from his night out with the Jasmine France.

On today's show, we geek out a little bit when we discuss the new "Star Trek" movie by director JJ Abrams. Caroline McCarthy got a sneak peak at it last night, and makes Wilson, the only Trekkie on the show, jealous. Justin gets into the finer points of things when he argues which is better: "Battlestar Galactica," "Star Wars," or "Star Trek". Wilson thinks this is a no-brainer.

Also on today's show, find out why Kevin Smith got "Wayne Gretzky-ed" off NHL.com's blog. Google makes it a little easier to build a custom search profile. Unfortunately, they can't take those drunken, nude pics of you off the Web. And two dudes get a $26,000 bill from T-Mobile after they send each other over 217,000 text messages. That's true bromance. The box to send the bill alone cost $27.55.

We honestly can't think of worse app for the iPhone than the apparent baby-shaking app! We can't even pretend to make a joke about this one. We're just surprised that it made it passed Apple's strict vetting.

Finally, Wilson's subway stalker calls The 404 and tells us about her upcoming surgery. He's shaking in a corner about it. Send us your voice mails at 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Stalkers welcomed.

Jasmine France joins The 404 today. Just a little warning: she had just flown into New York City on the red-eye from San Francisco and is pretty loopy for part of the show. But she does give us the 411 on the best MP3 player and headphones to get.

Jasmine dishes the dirt on Justin as an intern years ago. Let's just say dry cleaning, coffee, foot rubs, and walking her dog were part of his daily routine. Oh, how far he has come.

We talk a bit about how popular "casual encounters" has become on Craigslist. It's even bigger than Match.com, eHarmony, or even Yahoo! Personals. Jasmine tells us about her "missed connections" story. It gets juicy. Find your subway crush here.

Also, we discuss a bit 'bout how piracy is ruining the PSP. Justin doesn't really care; Jeff gets upset; and Wilson's fourth cousin is selling pirated games back home in Zhong Guo. Speaking of China, for about five minutes too long, Wilson exposés on Jackie Chan's recent comments in the press. This is why we don't discuss anything with any seriousness.

Finally, it's "Earf Day"...we think that's how it's spelled. Anyway, as part of our effort to be friendly to the environment, CNET TV is launching The Green Show, starring Mark Licea. That's right! MTI has his own show now. Check it out and send us your comments at greenshow [at] cnet [dot] com.

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.

Sean Tice and Adam Bedient, directors of the online Web series "Streak to Win," join the show today to talk about college kids competitively streaking and the crazy antics they get into.

You can find the series online at streaktowin.com. On the Web site, you'll also find a guide to the best techniques of streaking. Most importantly, you have to be sure to tape down all appendages. Their words, not ours.

We also discuss a bit about how the Web is really opening up distribution for films that might get overlooked on the traditional festival circuit. These guys obviously didn't get too much love at Sundance when they pitched their film. And they share some interesting stories about getting arrested during the production of their Web series. Plus, plans for a follow-up featuring Ivy League streaking?

Also on the show today, we talk about a kid who mashed up Twitter, Twitpic, and the public arrest records of the Denton, Texas, Police Department. Kind of scary, but also pretty cool that there are more practical uses for Twitter than finding out that Ashton Kutcher just ate a sandwich. Just don't ever get pulled over for possession in Denton. These mug shots aren't pretty. As for Ashton Kutcher, we think this might be cheating a bit. There are starving people in the world, and someone donates money for this?

Be sure to send in your adventure stories and callbacks to 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Catch you all on the flip side.