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(Credit: Twitter) Leaked from today's 404 episode: - Imagining "The Big Lebowski 2: The Dude Goes to Washington" - Honoring Nora Ephron: When moviemaking met a natural - A better take on self-driving cars: Ford Traffic Jam Assist. - Rock paper scissors robot has 100 percent confidence. Bathroom break video: Thomas Middleditch's Disgusting Dub Step Drop. Ep. 1083: Where we'll have what she's having Episode 1,083 Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video   Follow us on Twitter!The 404 Jeff Bakalar Justin Yu Add us on Facebook!The 404 Fan Page The 404 Group Justin Yu Jeff Bakalar

(Credit: Soft Tonic) Leaked from today's 404 episode: - Scumbag Facebook changes your e-mail address on the sly. - HBO teases Sorkin's 'Newsroom' pilot for free on YouTube. - Winamp history lesson of the day: how the greatest MP3 player undid itself. - Orbitz capitalizes on Mac users to boost online business. - A first look at the new Star Trek Communicator app! Ep. 1082: Where it's rude to point Episode 1,082 Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video   Follow us on Twitter!The 404 Jeff Bakalar Justin Yu Add us on Facebook!The 404 Fan Page The 404 Group Justin Yu Jeff Bakalar

(Credit: Girl Gone Geek) Leaked from today's 404 episode: -Facebook quietly adds creepy "Find Friends Nearby" feature. -Apple no longer claims immunity from viruses on its Web store. -New site "weknowhatyouredoing.com" tracks Twitter and posts incriminating patterns. -Hot Toys' Joker action figure is serious...ly amazing. -No one watches TV, Nielsen, and you know it. We're also giving away two copies (Xbox 360/Playstation 3) of Spec Ops: The Line! To enter, just comment on this video using #SOTL by Tuesday, June 26th at midnight. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, good luck! Ep. 1081: Where nobody's perfect Episode 1,081 Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video   Follow us on Twitter!The 404 Jeff Bakalar Justin Yu Add us on Facebook!The 404 Fan Page The 404 Group Justin Yu Jeff Bakalar

(Credit: Carlo Rossi Lifescapes) Leaked from today's 404 episode: - Ray Bradbury may soon be honored online with "451" error code for Internet censorship. - Time Warner Cable grabs patent to prevent DVRs from skipping commercials. - Twitter to grant Web sites extra characters with "expansive tweets." - Select audiences at Disney-Pixar's "Brave" will be treated to Dolby's new Atmos sound system. Ep. 1080: Where we paint the sixteenth chapel Episode 1,080 Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video   Follow us on Twitter!The 404 Jeff Bakalar Justin Yu Add us on Facebook!The 404 Fan Page The 404 Group Justin Yu Jeff Bakalar

On today's 404 episode, we'll solve the mystery of phantom cell phone vibrations and why we're so often tricked into thinking our phones have a mind of their own. One psychologist from the University of Sydney thinks that it has to do with electrical currents running through parts of the body surrounding the phone, while another professor of psychology believes it's in ours heads, that our addiction to technology has made us paranoid about e-notifications. (Credit: Lollibrary) Walking around New York in this heatwave is enough of a workout for anyone these days, but some gym-goers in Canada are so sick of skinny people making them look bad that they've issued a ban on anyone that can't be described as "plus size." According to the NY Daily News, Body Exchange gym in Vancouver claims to be a "safe haven" for overweight people that feel scrutinized when they work out next to those without an addiction to food. Unfortunately, we'll have to defer to Richard to comment on this story, as neither Jeff nor I have ever been inside a gym. Next we'll all complain for a few minutes about YouTube video ads reaching an all-time high, but we're still thankful that the service exists -- how else would the Internet find out about school bus injustices in Greece, New York? Two days ago, a Redditor posted a video showing a pack of teenagers bullying an innocent bus monitor. The video garnered so much sympathy for the woman that instead of issuing the community's typical brand of Web justice, readers actually set up a separate CALL TO ARMS thread to galvanize support. A redditor them established an Indiegogo account to collect donations for an early retirement/vacation, and so far the KAREN FUNDRAISER has amassed more than $196,000! Other stories leaked from today's rundown include the new Samsung Galaxy S III (S3) bursting into flames and melting its casing, a gym in Canada banning skinnies from working out, and a special CNET Exclusives for a pair of Outdoor Technology DJ Slims Bluetooth headphones! Quick order of business: we're starting to clip out and upload some of the best-of segments of each 404 episode to our 404 YouTube page. We're hoping that these shorter clips will be easier to share with friends and spread across the Web, so don't forget to check out our Facebook page for daily updates and subscribe to our YouTube channel! The first one features our response to a voice mail questioning what to wear when you see your favorite band. Enjoy! Bathroom break video: Sea otter pup shields eyes from the sun. Ep. 1079: Where we ban all the skinnies Episode 1,079 Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video   Follow us on Twitter!The 404 Jeff Bakalar Justin Yu Add us on Facebook!The 404 Fan Page The 404 Group Justin Yu Jeff Bakalar

(Credit: Kipper Williams) Leaked from today's 404 show, featuring Aunt Jill Schlesinger, editor-at-large for CBS Moneywatch.com: Check out the latest episode of Jill's podcast, Jill on Money: this week's episode rounds up the European crisis, retirement, and Social Security. Euro crisis: The 10 things to do right now to prepare for a potential euro zone melt-down. Follow Aunt Jill on Twitter! Ep. 1078: Where Europe's heating up, but NY is even hotter Episode 1,078 Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video   Follow us on Twitter!The 404 Jeff Bakalar Justin Yu Add us on Facebook!The 404 Fan Page The 404 Group Justin Yu Jeff Bakalar

(Credit: Acoustic Monster) The mystery of the magic Microsoft device is finally solved, but what's with all the unanswered questions? In trying to add fuel to the Surface hype machine, Microsoft leaves too much to the industry's collective imagination as we all keep speculating about the tablets' battery life, release dates, prices, and UI experience. The competition among tablets is still presently in favor of the iPad, so we're hoping that Microsoft has more compelling announcements in the future that integrate some of the company's other inventions. Jeff and I always fight about which popular musician deserves credit for this generation's aural decay, but the Imperial College in London may have a solution to our problem: let computers compose the music! A team of researchers believe that digital music can move beyond human creation and evolve autonomously without a real composer. They've developed a learning computer algorithm that continuously creates and combines loops in a random sequence. The results are field-tested with human ears to separate the cacophonous sounds from the pleasing ones, then the whole process starts again for thousands of iterations before the computer spits out a refined piece that's statistically pleasing to "everyone." Of course, there's always going to be outliers in personal taste, but check out the evolution of the process and let us know what you think of the final song! Is this the future of generic pop music? Ep. 1067: Where we scrape the Surface Episode 1,077 Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video   Follow us on Twitter!The 404 Jeff Bakalar Justin Yu Add us on Facebook!The 404 Fan Page The 404 Group Justin Yu Jeff Bakalar

(Credit: The Vauxhall Civic Society) Hope you're sitting down for this: Jeff actually has positive words about a movie he saw this weekend! Without giving away the surprise, suffice it to say that Jeff's complaints about the lack of creativity in film and his disgust with the movie-going experience disappeared for two hours on Friday. In advance of Microsoft's mysterious press event today, we'll speculate what's in store for the software giant and how it could fit into the 56-page road map document that leaked over the weekend. Could your Web surfing habits warn you about early signs of depression? A study publishing soon in the IEEE Technology and Society Magazine found a correlation between depression and the amount of activity on one's social networking profiles, which suggests that FOMO may be more of a serious affliction than we previously assumed. Finally, CBS just commissioned a reality pilot for a new celebrity talk show based on the hugely successful OMGPOP game "Draw Something." Unfortunately, with hardly anyone still playing that game now, we have our reservations about its success. Ep. 1076: Where you don't know you're beautiful Episode 1,076 Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video   Follow us on Twitter!The 404 Jeff Bakalar Justin Yu Add us on Facebook!The 404 Fan Page The 404 Group Justin Yu Jeff Bakalar

(Credit: Likeneveralways) Today we're cracking open the Apple Store Employee Guidelines book to reveal some of the tactics that the company uses to implant themselves in the minds of shoppers. A clear example of this psychological influence is the precision angle of every MacBook Pro notebook on display in the store. Take a look next time you're in an Apple store and you'll notice that they're all measured to a very specific incline degree. At first glance, you might think that it's placed at the optimum viewing angle for passersby, but it's actually angled poorly to encourage customers to adjust the screen to their preferred position! The company hopes that the physical interaction with the device will show the generous viewing options and even encourage customers to explore further. On today's episode of The 404 show, we'll also get our stamp of approval to Vizio's latest line of Mac-ish PCs that include both desktops and laptops. The new systems flaunt a slim, sexy design with components that rival Mac's latest offerings, including HDMI inputs and outputs for the display, a remote control, separate trackpad inputs for Windows 8 , and solid-state drives to complement the platters that go along with it. If you're shopping for a new computer, I wouldn't discount Vizio's line as a viable alternative to that $3k+ MacBook Pro. Next in the rundown is a story about the South Korean government looking to ban virtual item trading within large-scale multiplayer video games. The gaming culture in South Korea is hitting a fever pitch with televised gaming tournaments pushing the eSport harder than ever. Unfortunately, there's a big issue of gaming addiction that also gets added the conversation. We've highlighted extreme stories in past 404 episodes about infants starving to death while their parents played MMORPGs, folks collapsing from organ failure after playing 50 hours straight, and governments passing so-called "Cinderella Laws" to prohibit younger gamers from playing in public arcades after midnight, and now the government is proposing a law that would outlaw virtual item trading and farming countrywide. The problem is newer games like Diablo 3 that actually require online trading of virtual goods if you want to be successful, or auction houses that let you trade virtual currency for real money. We'll spend some time exploring the symptoms, and imagining the outcome of this kind of legislature. Video voice mail: Dan from Colorado climbs Mt. Elbert, second tallest mountain in the country. Ep. 1075: Where we had a crush on you in high school Episode 1,075 Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video   Follow us on Twitter!The 404 Jeff Bakalar Justin Yu Add us on Facebook!The 404 Fan Page The 404 Group Justin Yu Jeff Bakalar

(Credit: The Meta Picture) The new Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display announced earlier this week just got an Editors' Choice review on CNET, but some die-hard tinkerers are upset about the lack of upgradeable components inside. According to iFixit.org, the latest MacBook Pro is the least reparable Apple laptop to date. For starters, users are locked into the amount of RAM they choose at the purchase date, as the memory is actually soldered to the logic board. The proprietary solid-state hard drive is staying put as well, and watch out for a couple of booby traps concealed underneath the lithium-polymer battery! The laptop certainly remains incomparable in terms of display, I/O ports, and chassis, but keep in mind that your upgrade options down the line are severely limited if you go with this model. Reddit's under the spotlight again for banning a long list of domains from getting links on the community site. The list is incomplete for now, but we do know that BusinessWeek.com, Phys.org, ScienceDaily.com, and The Atlantic are all facing bans to limit astroturfing and gamification. The accusations aren't exactly unfounded, either. Earlier this year, Reddit slammed a ban down on The Atlantic's social media editor when users started noticing an outpouring of links from an account that all led back to Atlantic Web sites. A quick search of the offender's Reddit handle on Google unearthed an OKCupid profile with the same name that also featured an undeniable picture of the editor in question, which resulted in his ban. Though Reddit's rules for posting one's own content for upvotes is a little nebulous, this is clearly a case of the site's more concerted effort to preserve its purity. In more exciting news, now you can 3D print your own burrito! Well, kind of. The BurritoB0t project is self-professed foodie Marko Manriquez's senior thesis at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications program. You may have thought that something called a "BurritoB0t" would actually output a real, edible burrito layer by layer, but it's not quite there yet. Instead, Marko used a Makerbot 3D printer and the Reprap.org community to come up with a machine that houses nozzles for various burrito condiments. Using a Web app interface or an iPhone app, Manriquez gives users the power to select exactly how much of each ingredient they want inside, but the process still requires a burrito artist to put it all together. Someday we're hoping to have a similar machine that can do it all, not unlike this scene in "The Fifth Element." Other stories in today's show: Australian company taxes users browsing with Internet Explorer 7. Meebo messenger going offline on July 11, librarians set off alarms. What is the year 2038 problem? Video voice mail: Poland from Jan has a problem with semantics. Ep. 1074: Where it's not you, it's us Episode 1,074 Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video   Follow us on Twitter!The 404 Jeff Bakalar Justin Yu Add us on Facebook!The 404 Fan Page The 404 Group Justin Yu Jeff Bakalar

A candied bacon ice cream sandwich (Credit: Susan Arendt) Piggybacking (waka waka) on Jeff's encounter with a candied bacon ice cream sandwich at the Sony E3 press conference last week, we can't help but indulge in Burger King's new bacon-topped sundae. And even if Jeff's dietitian won't let him have it, we can still stare longingly at the press shots and tell you about our own favorite encounters with the swine. Before we make ourselves too hungry, we'll move on and expose an especially nefarious tactic that record labels are using to catch bootleggers online. It turns out that they all employ an anti-piracy group called ProMedia to track online offenders, and the team includes a roster of 35 students who crawl social networks, forums, and blogs to nab filesharers. Once they're caught, the students are instructed to threaten offenders with lawsuits, essentially forcing out-of-court settlements to the tune of about 1,200 euros, or $1,500. Finally, we'll take a look at a photo forensics firm that keeps track of physically manipulated photos throughout history. And yes, we do mean "pre-Photoshop." Photos have been tampered with long before 1987 and as early as the 1900s. Whether politically motivated or just to insert teammates into championship photos, the methods were primitive and so much more obvious than today. Plenty of voice mails and listener questions to answer after the break, so check out today's episode and let us know what you think in the comments! Bathroom break video: Scared of technology. Ep 1073: Where it could use some more bacon Episode 1,073 Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video   Follow us on Twitter!The 404 Jeff Bakalar Justin Yu Add us on Facebook!The 404 Fan Page The 404 Group Justin Yu Jeff Bakalar