SATURDAY SHOW EDITION

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE INTERNET!
(hat tip daily rotation)
35 Years ago, the Internet was born in a computer lab at UCLA where scientists connected a computer with one at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park. The plan was for UCLA to send the letters "L-O-G" and for SRI to answer back with "I-N." The system crashed with the message reading just "L-O."

Talk about blowing out the candles!

DO YOU YAHOO? - DSL NOW CHEAPER THAN DIALUP
(hat tip techdirt)
SBC/Yahoo DSL has lowered it's DSL price (when you order additional services) down to $20! That's right. It's cheaper than dialup (which we all know sucks). It's only a matter of time before others jump on board.

NEW DOS OUT
(hat tip linkfilter)
Believe it or not, you can still get DOS. Version 7.1 is the latest version and you can get it here.

TV 2 ME: WATCHING YOUR TELEVISION ONLINE
(hat tip techdirt)
An inventor spends $6500 to be able to watch his TV over the interet. And it could change everything.


TOSSING COOKIES AND ASTRONAUTS: THE VOMIT COMET RETIRES.
(hat tip google news)

BUILD YOUR OWN TRON COSTUME FOR HALLOWEEN
(hat tip thescreensavers)
Then pop some popcorn, tune into the flick and battle the MCP!

Then you'll finally understand the term "end of line."

FIND YOUR POLLING PLACE ON NOVEMBER 2ND


WE INTERRUPT THIS BROADCAST ...
This Halloween, celebrate by listening to the classic 1938 broadcast of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS by ORSON WELLES and the Mercury Theater on the Air. The original broadcast was dubbed the "Night that panicked America" since people actually believed the world was being invaded by Martians!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

MUSIC INDUSTRY JIHAD CONTINUES
(hat tip cnet)

Hungry for more tuition money, the RIAA has filed 750 more lawsuits - the majority this time, against college students.

The RIAA feels justified, saying that its lawsuits are helping to lay the foundation for the growth of authorized music services like iTunes, Napster, and others.

Trouble is, that's not what the data reveals. Accoding to a recent study, peer-to-peer file sharing has either remained constant of risen in 2004, even though P2P services like Kazaa have dropped in use, but services like BIT TORRENT have become more popular.

The latest round of RIAA suits brings the total number of people sued to 6,191. That's a lot of college books.

DOWNLOAD OF THE DAY: DESKTOP RULER
(hat tip daily rotation)
Utility that creates a virtual ruler on your desktop. Programmers may use it as a help or check tool with object positioning. Optional scale provides information on the size of pictures, either on screen or printed in desired resolution.
Users can purchase an advanced version with company logos and hyperlinks to a company website.

WHY LAWYERS NEED A GEEK ON THEIR RESEARCH STAFF
(hat tip tech dirt)

XM RADIO GOES PORTABLE
(hat tip beta news)
XM Satellite Radio has developed a portable version of it's satellite radio technology. It's called the DELPHI XM MYFI. So, if you're like this guy, you can run across the country and still get your favorite MoTown station.

XBOX OWNER SUES REDMOND OVER DEFECTIVE HARD DRIVE
(hat tip slashdot)
XBOX GAME PLATFORM - $149
60 GIG REPLACEMENT HARD DRIVE - $69.00
PAYING A LAWYER $300 AN HOUR TO SUE BILL GATES INSTEAD OF JUST BUYING A PLAYSTATION: PRICLESS.

(remember these days?)

TIVO GOES TO THE DARK SIDE
(hat tip slashdot)

TIVO recenstly announced that the PVR service will now AUTO-delete Pay-per-view and Video-on-demand movies AND will not allow viewing of NFL games outside the specified market area. I'd kinda like to know how TIVO will spin that considering NFL Sunday Ticket by DirecTV allows people to watch EVERY GAME available.

It's okay. You can say it. TIVO SUCKS.

Time to try the other guys.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. GATES
(hat tip linkfilter)

Bad Japanese Inventions

In America, we call them "Rube Goldberg Devices." In the Land of the Rising Sun, it's an art form named Chindogu.

Rejected Limited Edition iPods
(hat tip method shop)

Some of my favorites:

Ashlee Simpson iPod:
Special vocal equalizer plays a random voice track each and every song. Also comes with free SNL tickets and a $50 gift certificate for "acid reflux" medicine.

The jloPod:
Extra large rear battery attachment.

The iMSFT:
Preloaded with viruses, sloppy code, and vaporware. Includes a special BSOD function.

HOLY BATMOBILE!
(hat tip superhero hype)
This Month's Rolling Stone has a feature on the new Batmobile, which cost the film's producer 1.4 MILLION to make and gets up to 220MPH thanks to it's JET ENGINE.

It's uglier than a hummer, but in a cool - kick you a$$ kind of way, doncha think?

Robin : Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed.
Batman : Roger. Ready to move out.

Hacking Windows XP: Speeding Disk Access

Cue cute jingle.

SEGWAYS ARE BEING USED AS A CAMPAIGN TOOL
(hat tip engadget/CNN)
Since voters don't care for sweaty candidates, more and more are using the Segway to canvass neighborhoods for votes.

TODAY'S HACK: Minty MP3
(hat tip linkfilter)

Make your own MP3 Player with an Altoids can! Total cost: $50. Toss a hard drive in it and you could have a homemade iPod.

CHECK FLOATING TO SINK LIKE THE TITANIC
Ready for Faster Check Cashing?
(hat tip metafilter/abcnews)
Beginning October 28th, The Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act or Check 21, goes into law. It will allow banks to process checks without any lag time.

And that means more NSF fees, people. TWO BILLION DOLLARS WORTH.

And banks like those.

YAHOO's TECH TUESDAY: ZOMBIE PCs (Don't fall victim to troublemaking hackers)


HOW STUFF WORKS: How Cable Modems Work


PREDICTIONS ABOUND: A photo iPod in the making?
(hat tip engadget)
Merrill Lynch is predicting both a photo iPod and a flash-based ipod (the later with a $149 price point and up to 1 gig storage).

A photo iPod? (update: IT'S OFFICIAL) Isn't that like coming out with new 8track technology instead of improving CDs? Seriously, Steve, we need movement. We need a VPOD (video). And we need it now!

AND THE LORD GOD SPAKE UNTO .... STEVE JOBS?
Well, not quite, but with BiblePlayer, He might speak to you through your iPod!
(hat tip craigslist)


ANOTHER IPOD KILLER?
(hat tip linkfilter)
It's got 100GB/3500 HOURS of storage, a 20-hour battery charge, and USB 2.0. Is the DMC xClef the iPod Killer PC fans have waited for? At $449, hardly.

ROOMBA GOES TO WAR
(hat tip slashdot)
iRobot, the creators of the ROOMBA VACUUM CLEANER is teaming up with John Deere to create a robotic battlefield vehicle.

THE $100 PC?: Steve Balmer Thinks so.
(hat tip slashdot)

Redmond's Steve Balmer wants a $100 PC. Slashdot is rising to the challenge.

HACK OF THE DAY
(hat tip junkmachine.com)
Build your own Nintendo NES PC!

THE NIGHT THAT PANICKED AMERICA
(hat tip linkfilter)
Remember Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater? Their 1938 broadcast of HG WELLS WAR OF THE WORLDS redefined Halloween and taught us something about how real drama can get. Listen to it here.


BTW - a Buddy of mine in L.A. is performing TWOTW live. Tickets are $10. Happy Halloween!

DIGITAL vs. ANALOG
Which is better?
(hat tip kuro5hin)

TWICE THE COVERAGE, TWICE THE DROPPED CALLs
Cingular merges with AT&T Wireless
(hat tip engadget)

WIERD SCIENCE
Bad science in Sci-Fi
(hat tip gravity lens)

HOLY MA-BELL, BATMAN
Build your own BATPHONE!
(hat tip geek press)

NETFLICKS LOWERS PRICES
(hat tip LinkFilter)
Netflix announces it has lowered it's monthly rental fees to $17.99. That's better than a subscription to HBO.


MACH TWO WITH YOUR HAIR ON FIRE
This Top Gun is being retired. F-14s are are being replaced by F18 Super Hornets ... and pilots are happy about it.
(hat tip metafilter)