party

MyPunchbowl gets new look, snazzy invite designer

Web party invitation and management service MyPunchbowl on Tuesday relaunched with a new look. While mostly a new paint job, the big, new feature is the invitation designer, which has been renamed as a "studio."

Where the service's former system had users simply picking colors, pictures, and some ready-made templates, the results of using the new tool resembles a real life paper invitation. Users can still select things like the coloring and background, but there are new flourishes like colored ribbons, textured backgrounds, and various form factors that mimic proper card stock.

All of this amounts to … Read more

YouTube to host live-streamed event in SF

Google video site YouTube is planning to host on November 22 a San Francisco gathering its active users called YouTube Live--"part concert, part variety show, and part party."

The event is scheduled to take place in front of an audience at the Herbst Pavilion in Fort Mason Center and streamed live on the Web, as well as in the air, on the planes of sponsor Virgin America.

This is notable because YouTube doesn't offer live-streaming technology.

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen announced earlier this year that live video would be coming to YouTube later in 2008, but … Read more

The 404 gets down and dirty at the CNET Tiburon launch party

The 404 is proud to present our official podcast from the Tiburon Launch party. The event was held at the elegant 450 Club complete with hors d'oeuvres (vodka spritzer, anyone?), desserts, and of course, an open bar. After sitting down with a host of people and later sifting through a mountain of cuss words, deviant behavior, and otherwise inappropriate material, it's easy to see that people had a blast. The new CNET.com looks fantastic and we all worked hard to see it come to life, so a big thanks to everyone that came out, especially Jim Loughran … Read more

Canada: Land of maple syrup, Celine Dion, and open source

I laughed when I read on Savio Rodrigues' blog that Canada's Green Party has added open source to its official platform. Save the environment! (And save me a little open source while you're at it.)

Canada's Green Party, which has apparently struggled to be taken seriously as a major political force in Canada, has some serious aims for open source:

Ensure that all new software developed for or by government is based on open standards and encourage and support a nationwide transition to FLOSS [Free/Libre/Open-source software] in all critical government IT systems. This will make … Read more

Lacie USB speakers choose fashion over function

Testing out a set of PC speakers is practically begging for an interoffice dance party, so when Lacie's USB speakers arrived at the office, we couldn't wait to bust open the box and get it started. Unfortunately, the speakers don't sound nearly as good as they look, and the high price tag is the final nail in the coffin.

French designer Neil Poulton helped Lacie design this set of PC speakers that use USB connectivity alone for both power and audio. We're typically all for a product that lets us chuck another wire out of the … Read more

Digital invites suit up for black-tie affairs

Electronic wedding invitations aren't exactly Adam Lowe's cup of tea.

As host of the popular Modern Manners Guy podcast, Lowe attempts to marry--pun completely intended--the culture of traditional etiquette with a digital world that increasingly threatens to subvert its longstanding norms. And he admits up front that he thinks using the likes of Evite and MyPunchbowl for formal occasions is "a terrible idea" for the most part; except when difficult circumstances demand it, as was the case when he received a digital wedding invitation recently. There was an illness in the groom's family, and the … Read more

The 404 160: Where we're Ogg at heart

On the show today: Erica Ogg from CNET's Crave takes time out of her NY vacation to chat with us about the Olympics, hockey, Chinese smile deficiencies, Facebook spam, Barack Obama's twitters, Antivirus XP, and Batman spoilers!>

Even though the Montauk Monster has thrown New York into a typhoon, our buddy Erica Ogg still makes it to the studio to join us for today's show. And what a great change of pace from our normal Monday show, huh? This is just what The 404 needs to brighten up our day. Erica writes for Crave, CNET's … Read more

WiiWare and Virtual Console releases for this week

Virtual Console

Chase H.Q. (1992, TurboGrafx-16, 600 Wii points): You, Tony Gibson, and your partner, Raymond Broady, are of two cops from the NYPD's special "CHASE H.Q." unit. It's your mission to catch criminals by chasing them and ramming them off the road in your unmarked car--all in 16-bit graphics glory. Art of Fighting 2 (1994, NeoGeo, 900 Wii points): 12 characters compete in the toughest fighting contest of them all: King of Fighters. The game is notorious for having some of the most difficult opponent A.I. in the long history of fighting … Read more

Oracle amends SAP TomorrowNow suit

Oracle upped the ante in its lawsuit against rival SAP on Monday, claiming in an amended complaint that SAP's CEO and other top executives were aware of alleged illegal downloading of proprietary software and documents before, during, and after its acquisition of third-party support and maintenance company TomorrowNow.

The amended complaint broadens the allegations raised by Oracle in its initial lawsuit in March 2007. In that initial lawsuit, Oracle alleged that its enterprise software applications rival acquired TomorrowNow (TN) to not only woo away its PeopleSoft customers who needed maintenance and support, but to also use those customers' contracts … Read more