reddit posts on CNET

Store charges $5 'showrooming' fee to looky-loos

Celiac Supplies, a Brisbane, Australia, store specializing in gluten-free groceries, has unveiled a shopping policy that has fired up the controversy around "showrooming," the act of checking out products in-person at a store and then going online to buy them for a lower price.

Celiac Supplies posted a sign notifying customers of a $5 fee for in-store browsing. That fee then would be deducted from the cost of any in-store purchase. As images of the store's sign spread on Reddit, so did consumer outrage. Reddit user SimplyGeek summed up the sentiments saying, "I would never walk into a store with this policy. It's so incredibly ignorant, self-defeating, and hostile to potential customers."… Read more

Trolls take on 9-year-old girl's Kickstarter project...and lose

My dear sweet Internet, you have been the light of my life for nearly two decades, so why must you choose now to impart so much darkness and sadness?

Last week, my editors spotted and passed on an adorable project on Kickstarter attempting to raise 800 bucks to send a 9-year-old girl to a weeklong camp where she would learn to design her own role-playing game. Backers who pledged $10 or more would get a copy of the game she produced. The heartwarming sentiment resonated, and the project quickly caught fire and has so far raised more than $20,000, or more than 20 times its target.

So we published a brief write-up of the campaign's success on Friday and began our weekend in good spirits, our faith in the world reaffirmed and visions of a new generation of empowered gamer girls dancing in our heads.

Then came the trolls.

The 404 1,230: Where there's nothing in the safe (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- 60,000 Redditors want to know what's in this safe.

- NYC looks to Facebook for the future of payphones.

- UD Replicas makes a replica of the most underrated accessory from "The Dark Knight."

- Samsung Galaxy Watch "definitely" coming, Samsung confirms.

- The Pebble smartwatch finally arrives on doorsteps to a chorus of approval.

- Pebble breakdown shows waterproofing makes repairs impossible.… Read more

Reddit's 'Explain Like I'm Five' videos star real 5-year-olds

Some subjects, like communism, zippers, and our long absence from the moon, can be a little hard to explain. That's when people turn to "Explain Like I'm Five," a Reddit group dedicated to breaking complex ideas down into understandable terms. While the group has been geared for adult readers, it has now morphed into a video series featuring real 5-year-olds.

The YouTube series kicks off with three entries. The topics covered are Syria, existentialism, and the stock market. If you can make a group of bored 5-year-olds understand these topics, you should be good to go for most adults, too.… Read more

Teacher projects student's antiteacher tweets in class

What's the point of communicating privately, when you can whine and humiliate publicly?

This seems to be the motto du jour of the socially networked classes.

It is simultaneously vacuous and powerful.

Consider, please, the case of a young gentleman who was rather cross at his high school teacher. He didn't tell the teacher why he was cross. No, he told Twitter.

"I hate you, Mr. Torrence," he screeched. "You said the test was in (sic) Wednesday, so give it to us on (sic) Wednesday, not Tuesday. #YouNeedACalendar #ScrewYou."

Mr. Torrence doesn't, apparently, follow every word of this lyrical student. Instead, as the Daily Dot reports, one of the student's own friends exposed him to the teacher. … Read more

The 404 1,218: Where we order off the secret menu (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- The mystery behind Chipotle's secret 1,500-calorie monstrosity.

- The ultimate In-N-Out secret menu survival guide.

- I used to smoke pot every time I played a video game. Here's why I stopped..

- SUNY adds a hip-hop anthem to its marketing set list.

- 404 listener Kulastar made this infographic comparing Bill Murray to Jim Carrey.… Read more

Bill Gates bullish on robots and speech, has WinFS regrets

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is doing his first-ever Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit today.

Gates started posting answers to questions promptly at 10:45 a.m. PT, as planned. From the introduction, it seemed clear Gates intended to focus the AMA on his job heading the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ("Many of you know me from my Microsoft days. The company remains very important to me and I'm still chairman. But today my full time work is with the foundation.")

But one of the first questions Gates answered was about Microsoft. Here's the exchange:… Read more

Bill Gates defends Bing and Windows 8

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told Reddit users today that Bing is a "better product" than Google and that Windows 8 is a "huge advance."

A Redditor asked the ridiculously wealthy philanthropist during a Reddit Q&A event, dubbed an an "ask me anything" session, "Do you guys really use Bing? I mean seriously..."

Gates referenced Bing's campaign to prove that it produces results faster than Google search: "Seriously Bing is the better product at this point. Try the challenge. I am biased but the work to make Bing better … Read more

Bill Gates to answer questions on Reddit

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is holding an "ask me anything" session on Reddit at 10:45 a.m. today.

To get a few things out of the way, he's posted a YouTube animation that answers three popular Reddit questions: How much money do you have in your wallet? Can I have a million dollars? And -- now this is the important one -- would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses, or one horse-sized duck.

Gate's answers? $100; only if you are a starving farmer or a poor child living without medicine; and a horse-sized duck. Duh. … Read more