Geek culture

'Real or Onion': Can you spot the satire?

"Congress Accidentally Approves Arts Funding."

Did that headline come from a serious news outlet or did you just get duped by The Onion? A new addition to the AppStore called Real or Onion challenges you to a game of spot the satire.

Gelf Magazine co-founder David Goldenberg came up with the idea after pausing for a second to question the sincerity of a Reuters headline ("Rap music glamorizes drug use - study").

The game is simple. You're presented with a headline and it's your job to determine the source. Based on your guess, you'll either be taken to a mainstream news site or to the original article on The Onion, along with results that compare your overall score with that of to other players.… Read more

The 404 961: Where we've got a Twitch in our eye (podcast)

There's plenty of live video broadcasting platforms to choose on the Web these days, but today we're chatting with one of the pioneers.

Justin Kan is one of the co-founders of Justin.TV, and he drops by our studio today for a full episode about the origins of life streaming and how the site paved the road to Justin's new project for live video gaming, TwitchTV.

We'll also talk to Justin about his participation in Y Combinator, a start-up incubator that helps green entrepreneurs through the first three months of genesis.

The boot camp gives founders the seed funding they need for general living expenses, allowing them to focus on the business idea. YC also guides them through the media pitching process and how to grab the attention of venture capitalists and seed investors.

Some of the headline-grabbing companies to grow from Y Combinator include Scribd, Loopt, Grubwithus, and Justin.TV itself.

Tune in to hear about how TwitchTV is bringing competitive gaming to a much larger audience, not to mention a few tips on what it takes to earn a spot in the next Y Combinator batch!… Read more

Five gifts for the wiseass in your life

There's always at least one person on your holiday shopping list you put off as long as possible because he or she is such a pain to find something for.

You know these kinds of people. The insufferable wiseacre who insists he's easy to shop for when he's constantly looking for weird movies no one has heard of (more accurately, ones no one wants to watch), or talks about how he needs to add to his collection of '70s and '80s TV commercials. They're like gift hipsters. It would be too easy to just get them something readily available.

These are the people for whom gift cards were created.

Ah, but it doesn't have to be that way. With a minimum of fuss, you can get something unusual for that precious snowflake in your life without having to leave the house. Here, in no particular order, are five Crave-worthy ideas that don't involve your online shopping history being inexorably linked to movies with titles like "Blood Freak" or "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies." … Read more

MagnetU drags social networking into real world

That scrabbling sound you're hearing is social networking clawing its way into the real world in the form of MagnetU, a social proximity gadget.

MagnetU is a tiny $24 device that travels along with you and seeks out other MagnetU users. If two social profiles are a good fit, it will notify users of each other's proximity.

Here's how it works. Load up the MagnetU application, create a set of "social desires," and hook it up with Facebook and Twitter. The gadget connects with your phone using Bluetooth.

Hit the bars or wander down the street. When social desires mesh, you get a message on your phone that ranks the match as "attractive," "hot," or "red-hot."

Clinking two MagnetU devices together links up your social profiles so you can stay connected with your new BFF after you've parted ways.… Read more

Larry's museum of dead technology

I paid Larry Marcus, of Walden Venture Capital, a visit recently to talk about social and mobile apps. But we ended up talking mostly about the collection of old technology that he's curating in his San Francisco office.

Click through to the slides to see a small sampling of what he's acquired, including his first-ever charcoal rubbing of Steve Jobs' signature from the inside of an original Macintosh.

Larry also tried to get me to part with an old, historic portable computer (guess which one) I have sitting in my closet. I'm glad I didn't tell … Read more

The 404 960: Where we tweet from our seats (podcast)

Leaked from 404 Podcast 960:

Facebook exploit exposes Mark Zuckerberg's private photos. Theaters set aside tweet seats for Twitter users. Finally: an app that can detect Photoshopping. Rumor: Apple to release 32-55 inch TVs next year.… Read more

Photographer exposes MMORPG gamers in the meatspace

Photographer Robbie Cooper explores the modern convergence of personal and social identities in a portrait series that pairs gamers with their virtual avatars.

Cooper traveled around the world for three years, visiting places like Korea, China, France, and Germany to capture the online and in-person lives of MMO participants.

His photo project evolved into a photo book called "Alter Ego" that further scrutinizes the role of absorbed fantasy in the gaming metaverse through interviews, biographies, and essays.

The book also paints a range of identities behind the avatars. It's not just a bunch of oily adolescents mashing keyboards in a basement; Cooper's subjects range from a gold farmer in China, a paraplegic in Texas, and even an octogenarian who all teach a valuable lesson to never judge a gamer by his or her avatar.

Plenty more pictures of gamers and their avatars after the page break.… Read more

Gotta tweet mid-play or ballet? Take a 'tweet seat'

"A Midsummer Night's Tweet"? "A Hashtag Named Desire"? "Jesus Christ Twitterstar"?

You can't help but wonder what sort of productions we'll begin seeing as more and more performance venues, theater companies, symphony orchestras, and the like begin experimenting with "tweet seats," sections reserved for audience members who just can't tear themselves away from their Twitter feeds.

As USA Today reported recently, though storied venues such as the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall still ask patrons to shut off their cell phones during shows, a growing number of performance spaces/companies are succumbing to the social-networking and smartphone crowd. They're providing special seating so patrons can send and receive tweets without their wiggling thumbs and glowing touch screens disturbing fellow event-goers.… Read more

Disguise your iPad as an Apple II

Just because your iPad is sleek and modern doesn't mean it has to stay that way. Nothing says "retro" quite like a charmingly chunky faux wood tablet stand.

The iStation from M.I.C Store comes with either a woodgrain or glossy pearl white finish over a plywood body.

Load up your iPad into the white iStation, squint, and pretend that you're using an Apple II. It also bears some resemblance to the blocky Apple III design that came out in 1980.

Choose the the wood finish and pretend you have an even more vintage Apple I, just like grandma used to compute with.… Read more