Stern

Last night, IBM's "Watson" supercomputer competed against the top human competitors on "Jeopardy" to test Watson's ability to use artificial intelligence in the context of the English language.

Represented by a lighted blue avatar, Watson performed well against quiz game champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, finishing the first round with a tie against the latter at $5,000. It did this with the help of 10 racks of IBM Power 750 servers running Linux, although like everyone else we wonder if the speed at which Watson can "press" a buzzer is fair to the other contestants.

Either way, this sounds like the exposition for an unwritten Roland Emmerich movie starring Will Smith, so start loading up your ID4 viruses.

Howard Stern's "Private Parts" aired on HBO last weekend, and the King of All Media himself pulled a Tang and liveblogged behind-the-scenes commentary throughout the showing. In addition to answering questions from fans, Stern also talked about his co-stars, revealed details about specific shots, and even dished about adult film star Jenna Jameson's antics onset.

Stern's arrival on Twitter is an obvious move, although it took him a while to jump on the bandwagon--the star joined the Twitterverse on February 3, the same day he defended David Letterman's honor and galvanized his crew on "The Late Show."

Stern's incendiary approach to celebrity gossip and media makes Twitter an apt medium for speaking to his more than 270,000 followers. The Lord of Fart Manor can be found at @HowardStern.

Next on the show, we discuss Gawker and Facebook's recent site redesigns. The Internet is giving a cold shoulder to the Gawker network after it debuted an app-style blog layout last week.… Read more

We're signed! That's right, Tim Geisenheimer is now our agent, so we trust he'll have our and not CBS' best interests at heart. With that in mind, we're asking Tim to get New York City's first chief digital officer, Rachel Sterne.

Boy, did New York City luck out. Sterne, a 27-year-old Columbia University adjunct professor, now leads the efforts to bring Gotham City into the 21st century. Sterne will focus on how city government uses digital technology to better communicate with citizens. We're thinking she's going to be tweeting and Facebooking all day long. She'll also handle the city's Wi-Fi password, so DM her when you visit and you need Internet.

In more tech news, word has leaked that Sony will be releasing details of the next-generation PSP2 this Thursday. Rumors thus far point to a touch OLED screen and 3G connectivity. All this makes us wonder how different the PSP2 will be from the plethora of smartphones out there.

In more video game news, Duke Nukem Forever, the video game that has been in development since our grandparents were growing up, finally has a release date and trailer. Gearbox, the game's developer, says the game will be released on May 3 in the U.S. and May 6 worldwide. Personally, we think the trailer has a few laughs but disappoints when it comes to graphics.

Finally, we've got some media news. Angry Birds will reportedly get an animated series, according to its CEO. WikiLeaks and Google are also reported getting movies after the success of "The Social Network"! Julian Assange seems like a character, but I don't know if Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be all that entertaining to watch in the basement of their garages.

If you've got a free moment, leave us a voice mail at 1.866.404.CNET (2638). Apparently, Wilson G. Tang and Jeff Bakalar did a pretty good job, along with Scott Stein and Dan Ackerman, hosting Friday's Buzz Out Loud. We know... shocking.

After a high-profile search that began over six months ago, New York City has hired new media entrepreneur Rachel Sterne as its first "chief digital officer."

It's the latest major move made by the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, himself a billionaire entrepreneur, to shove the establishment-heavy Gotham into the 21st century.

Sterne's job won't involve wrangling the scores of small tech start-ups that have popped up like mushrooms in the city over the past few years. Rather, her focus will be to help the city government use digital technology to better communicate with residents, … Read more

Howard Stern will sign up for another five years with Sirius XM, and the move opens up a few app possibilities.

On his radio show today, Stern said Sirius is the best place for him. The move is likely to allay fears that the satellite radio company would lose a big chunk of subscribers if Stern left. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but are likely to wind up in a regulatory filing.

The more interesting wrinkle with the Stern deal is that his show will now be available on the Sirius XM app, which is available on various … Read more

Sirius XM is savoring a strong 2010, with a net gain of more than 334,000 subscribers in the third quarter and more than 1 million so far this year.

By contrast, the satellite radio company said today, it added 102,000 net subscribers in the third quarter of 2009 and suffered a net loss of 488,000 in the first three quarters last year.

Sirius XM now has 19.8 million subscribers.

A big chunk of Sirius XM's growth is coming through its Sirius operation. The company said that over 620,000 of its net subscribers this year … Read more

HD Radio is the best way to listen to broadcast radio. AM and FM HD Radio stations simultaneously broadcast analog and digital signals, and these stations can display the song title, artist, and other data. The first HD Radio stations went on the air in 2003. Too bad HD Radio is a secret.

Based in Columbia, Maryland,iBiquity Digital is the developer behind HD Radio. I recently spoke with Bob Struble, HD Radio's president and CEO, to catch up on what's new. Struble told me there are 2,000 stations broadcasting HD Radio in the U.S., and … Read more

Though we take great pride in the First Look product videos we shoot here at CNET, there's always room for some competition. The latest entrant in the technology journalism scrum may be a surprising one: it's longtime Howard Stern producer Gary Dell'Abate.

A longtime technology enthusiast, and occasional local news TV talking head on the subject, Stern listeners frequently hear about Gary's home theater setup and other tech topics. To further the cause he has apparently put aside his usual "Baba Booey" nickname for a new identity: Technobeaver.

To keep viewers interested while talking … Read more

In our struggling economy, it's nice to know that our commander-in-chief is doing his part to provide jobs to our country. Well, at least one: Barack Obama is hiring a new Social Networks Manager! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to "maintain the Democratic Party and Organizing for America accounts on all social networks (such as Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace accounts, etc." Who wouldn't want to be Barack Obama's Internet ambassador? It's time to beef up that resume, write an outstanding cover letter, channel your inner Gabriel, and fill out this application...no word yet on compensation.

Touch-screen smartphones are fun to use, but what happens when users don't want to remove their gloves in the freezing winter to send a text message or a play a game? We've seen some asinine iPhone accessories, but the latest trend in South Korea is too hilarious to ignore.

Clever citizens discovered that a certain brand of sausage can be used as a stylus in lieu of a human finger. CJ Corporation, the business behind the "Maekseubong" sausages, reported a record breaking 39 percent revenue increase over the last year thanks to the discovery. Check out this video of a guy playing a Taiko drumming game using two of the Maxbong (tiny sausage) snacks.

Lots of sticker pictures and voice-mails today, including an official 404 Olympic Update and a crazy story about how The 404 helped a listener through an automobile accident. Glad you're safe, Jersey from Pete!

When Sirius XM released its iPhone application last week, one of the conspicuous omissions was Howard Stern. After fielding a call from a fan on Monday, Stern discussed why his channels won't be featured on the iPhone app.

"It was a rights thing, a contractual-rights thing," Stern told listeners. "It was a rights issue and a whole entanglement thing. So, we're not on it. Maybe one day, we will be."

Stern sidekick Artie Lange chimed in, saying, "Apple shouldn't profit off Howard Stern."

After trying to find the words to answer … Read more