mcdonalds

The 404 291: Where there are some who call me Tim

Tim Geisenheimer joins the show today along with our favorite former intern, Mark Licea. We talk about Tim's new Kindle 2 and how Amazon decided to release a free iPhone app. That's $359 down the drain for Tim. Along the way, we discuss the Red Ring of Death for the Xbox 360 and a surprise guest appearance by Justin Yu himself, who reveals he's been suffering from multiple outbreaks of yet-to-be-classified STDs.

The Geisenblogger himself shares a little bit about his online persona in the form of his Tumblr, Wordpress blog, and Twitter. "Thriller" has got to be one of the best albums ever made, but Michael Jackson apparently has a stash of songs he won't release to the public until after his death. While we're not too excited about that after the failure of his "Invincible" album, we are excited that he is trying to make right with Sir Paul McCartney for supposedly bequeathing the Beatles collection to him after his death. Take this all with a grain of salt as this is coming from the Internet and The 404.

A woman in Florida gets more than she bargained for when she calls 911 three times to report that McDonald is not giving Chicken McNuggets to her. It sounds crazy until you realize that McDonald's tried to offer her a cheeseburger called the "McDouble" instead of a refund. Finally, if you're a Sprint customer, the company is offering $100 in the form of a Visa gift card if you refer a new Sprint customer. For those of you who managed to sneak in the SERO plan, here's a way to get three months of free service.… Read more

The 404 265: Where there's a gateway out that's not too rough

Sun leen fai lok! For all you non-Chinese speakers out there, that's "Happy New Year" in Chinese--go hug something yellow. We kick off the Year of the Ox with a ban on Jeff's Engrish impressions and cruise through a few No Duh stories from the Internet. Turns out alcohol has a hand in unwanted sex and gamers are antisocial!? Whodathunk?

To celebrate the Chinese lunar Year of the Ox, Wilson and I pull Jeff through another show. Ohhhhh. Just kidding, we give Jeff a hall pass and explain a few things about the new year customs. … Read more

The 404 241: Where Brian Tong is not Filipino or the white balance is off

Assault with a deadly burger, bar bathroom toiletries, perfect strokes, black balls and boba straws, and Asian gangstas are just a few of the topics brought up by today's guest, Mr. Brian Tong from CNET TV! He usually keeps it clean on his show, the Apple Byte, but The 404 is all about letting loose, and trust us--he does. This might be the most perverted, nasty, NSFW, and all around hilarious show EVAR- OMGBBQ!

I don't even know where to begin. Brian Tong, star of CNET TV's The Apple Byte joins us today for what be our … Read more

Ad agency in 'virgin' controversy

It's not exactly the Pepsi Challenge.

A new teaser site, whoppervirgins.com, created by Crispin Porter Bogusky, claims to be the home of the world's "purest taste test."

Created on behalf of Crispin client Burger King, the site looks like it fell off the back of a National Geographic camel. It features people from remote Thai villages, deeper, darker Transylvania, and even the icy tundra of Greeenland.

These places were, apparently, chosen because burgers have never been seen or eaten there. In some cases, the people don't even know the word "burger." So, … Read more

Worm uses familiar brands to lure people

On Tuesday security vendor WebSense issued an alert warning that holiday coupon e-mails from familiar companies may be malicious code in disguise, in this case a mass-mailing e-mail worm.

The warning cites one spoofed McDonald's e-mail that claims to present their latest discount menu, and asks the recipient to print out the attached coupon. A similar mailing pretending to be from Coca-Cola asks recipients to print out details about their new online game, and also offers recipients a chance to win Coca-Cola drinks for life. Websense says the attached zip file contains files named either coupon.exe or promotion.… Read more

The 404 239: Where we stop eating sesame cake

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, stealing the Empire State Building, and pirates make their appearance. As usual, it's a weird show today. We discover the classic line from the movie Congo from 1995, starring Tim Curry. Let's just say "Stop eating sesame cake" has become a new catchphrase for The 404. Yes, we're alienating more and more new listeners. Please, for the love of God, tell your friends about this show!

Jeff hates on the possibility that there will be a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. It looks like Joss Whedon is attached to the flick, but sadly no Sarah Michelle Gellar. Also, we discover new and easy ways to pirate content off of Amazon.com...not that we ever would. We don't even know what pirating is. Honest to God. Speaking of stealing stuff, the New York Daily News manages to steal the Empire State Building. Makes us feel really safe here in New York City. We talk about the life lessons that Trey Parker and Matt Stone have taught us through South Park. An idiot guy gets his cell phone stolen at a McDonald's with nude pictures of his wife. Rather than suing McDonald's for $3 million, we think his wife should sue him for divorce. And for the love of all things that are holy, please STOP making those Scary Movie or Saw flicks!

Episode 239 Download today's podcast … Read more

Two years later, McDonald's sandwich patent can't hold back Domino's

For centuries people have enjoyed sandwiches, and many businesses have made them without the "critical" protection of patents to ensure a short-term monopoly.

Indeed, here in the United States, Domino's Pizza is making a furious push to up-end Subway's sandwich dominance.

!%!%!%!% pirates!

Have they forgotten that McDonald's filed for a patent on sandwich-making two years ago? The U.K.'s Guardian covered this momentous patent two years ago, but it apparently hasn't struck fear into these would-be sandwich maestros.

Of course, McDonald's was not simply trying to patent the sandwich. It was trying … Read more

The 404 226: Where Jason Howell is directly responsible for the content of The 404

Jason Howell, Buzz Out Loud producer and podcast guru, joins the show today, so you can complain to him about anything we say that offends you. As per our m.o., we bring out the worst in Jason, taking him for a tour of the magical land of NSFW. In today's headlines, McDonald's sales are up despite the economic crisis while they serve up Japanese burgers in a "no logo" storefront. Also, the iPhone wants to charge you for tethering, Turkey sues Christopher Nolan and, as always, tons of calls from the public.

Dan the Mantern here. Something you might have missed on the show today: The 404 got a big shout-out from everyone's hyper-liberal political blog, The Huffington Post. Justin, no surprise, was searching the site for mentions of the podcast on Twitter and happened to come across a Huffington Post tweet plugging the show. We severely doubt that Arianna herself tunes in, but we would appreciate if the phantom Twitter-er/404 fan would identify him or herself! As I'm writing this post, the Twitter search function is down, so no jpeg proving this claim, but I swear, I saw it with my own two eyes!

EPISODE 226 Download today's podcast … Read more

Zune users get free Wi-Fi access at McDonald's

Most of the news about today's release of the Zune 3.0 software and devices leaked last week, but one piece of interesting news remained under wraps.

Microsoft signed a deal with public Wi-Fi provider Wayport and McDonald's restaurants that will give Zune users free access, no password or Web page log-in required, to hot spots in more than 9,800 McDonald's. This addresses a potential "gotcha" with the Zune's download-from-Wi-Fi feature--the fact that users can't access any hot spot that requires a browser redirect (either to enter a password or accept terms). … Read more