Geek culture

Meat vending machine curbs carnivore cravings

There's more than one right answer to the "Where's the beef?" question. If you happen to be in Odenville, Ala., the beef is in a vending machine at the Lil Mart convenience store.

A meat vending machine may sound like something you would come up with during a bacon-induced fever dream, but it's a very real pilot product from a startup called Smart Butcher.

According to a report in The Birmingham News, the machine accepts $1 or $5 bills as well as credit or debit cards. Pork steaks, sirloin, ribeye, sausages, and other meats are on offer. … Read more

Doctor Who gets naked for charity

While it's probably long been the fantasy of nerdy women everywhere, it took a charity to get the shirt off of The Doctor's back.

As part of this year's annual Children in Need Telethon in the U.K., Matt Smith of "Doctor Who" announced that the show will be auctioning off one of The Doctor's familiar tweed and bow-tie costumes, with all proceeds going to the children's charity. Smith announced the auction in character before unveiling a trailer for the "Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe."

While all sorts of bylaws make it difficult for Americans to tune in to BBC content online for licensing reasons, it would seem the good ole' limping dollar is good over at BBC headquarters. There's nothing in the auction rules that I can see preventing U.S. fans of The Doctor from bidding and buying the costume. Exchange rates would apply, and (with the pound running roughly double the dollar) an American fan would have to dig deep. But, it's a good cause.… Read more

Pin a 'Star Wars' droid to your chest, help kids in need

A little golden badge isn't much of a gadget in the great scheme of things. It doesn't get online. You can't text anybody with it. It doesn't come with so much as a 1 megapixel camera. But the Star Wars Gold Heart Pin should serve its particular function of benefiting needy children well enough. … Read more

The 404 950: Where we hang it on our dongle (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 Podcast Episode

Wolfram Alpha Travel Assistant app answers the question, " Where's that plane going?" Who knew Rotten Tomatoes is owned by Warner Brothers? Canada unveils new plastic $100 bills with high-tech security features: changing colors, hidden text, and backward numbers. Tomorrow the world will join Singapore to celebrate the 10th annual World Toilet Day, as decreed by the World Toilet Organization (WTO), the World Toilet Summit, and the World Toilet College.… Read more

World Toilet Day: Let's have a sanitation celebration!

We've already celebrated Pi Day, Tau Day, and Nigel Tufnel Day this year. Now it's time to commend the commode, show some love to the latrine, and praise the privy. Saturday, November 19 is World Toilet Day. Yippee!

The year in toilet tech It's been a busy year for toilet tech news. We met a toilet seat that can handle 1,000 pounds of humanity. Japanese toilet manufacturer Toto created a motorcycle that runs on the power of people poo.

We also found proof that connectedness is just as important in the loo as it is outside of it. Tablet owners (35 percent of them) fessed up to taking their devices to the toilet.

Tempted by toilet inventions? Urine luck! A creative maker fashioned a toilet paper dispenser that prints off Twitter feeds. Kohler unveiled a $6,400 toilet that already has a tablet to control its functions. You can still bring your iPad along for more entertainment options, though.… Read more

Tech toys for the holidays

It's not so easy to shop for "tech toys" anymore--not in the age of the iPhone and iPad, where convergence devices fill multiple needs and 99-cent apps substitute for impulse purchases. Still, there are a handful of amusing--and, in some cases, quite useful--ideas for the shopper who's stumped. … Read more

Friday Poll: Were old phones better?

Our counterparts across the pond at CNET UK raised an interesting question this week. Were old phones better? Gather around the geek watercooler and let's discuss.

A poll by MyVoucherCodes.co.uk found that 24 percent of respondents preferred their old phones to sparkling new smartphones with whiz-bang features. That's not an overwhelming number, but it's enough to get us to take notice.

We've gotten used to wave after wave of spec-monster smartphones like the Motorola Droid Razr with its 4.3-inch display, 8MP camera, and 1.2GHz dual-core processor. But is fancier really better? … Read more

Crowdsourcing the 'most challenging puzzle ever'

Love brainteasers? Brainiacs from a California university hope you can help decipher a mind-draining 10,000-piece puzzle through their collaborative Web site.

The DARPA Shredder Challenge aims to discover new ways the U.S. military can process and decode shredded documents confiscated in war zones, as well as test vulnerabilities in the shredding methods used by the U.S. national security community.

The Shredder Challenge is made up of five separate puzzles in which the number of documents, the documents' subject matter, and the shredding methods vary to present challenges of increasing difficulty. To complete each problem, participants must provide the answer to a puzzle embedded in the content of the reconstructed document.

Three out of the five puzzles are still available to be solved before the contest ends December 4 and DARPA awards $50,000 as the prize. Manuel Cebrian, a research scientist at the University of California at San Diego, and a team from UCSD have created a way to solve the remaining enigmas by "combining advanced computer vision methods with shared tasking and referral-based crowdsourcing," says the USCD Web site. … Read more

The 404 949: Where we drop the SOPA (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 Podcast episode:

Google Music takes on streaming services like Spotify, iTunes Match, and Amazon Cloud Drive with music encoding at 320Kbps, cross-integration with Google+, and an Artist Hub site for bands to promote their original content. Fans of Hootie and the Blowfish already denouncing the service for its lack of content from Warner Music Group. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus lands in the U.K., powered by Google's Ice Cream Sandwich software for Android phones. Cool upgrades in the OS include facial recognition, voice typing, and Android beam for contact exchange by NFC.… Read more