conan

I don't know who decided that when it comes to the time for a brandy and toke, every American TV should feature a middle-age man with difficult hair sitting behind a desk.

Perhaps it was a middle-aged man with difficult hair who spends his whole day sitting behind a desk.

However, Conan O'Brien, he who made so many feel sad that he was being given a lot of money not to work, seems to have decided that he will become America's most future-focused, Web-aware middle-aged man who sits behind a desk.

Conan first wafted onto Twitter in February … Read more

Today's BOL happened before a live studio audience at SXSW in Austin, TX. Cali Lewis and Nicole Lee joined us on stage to discuss the state of SXSW Interactive, the on-going Google/China kerfuffle, and pharmaceutical companies' struggles to fit the risks of drugs into a Twitter-friendly 140 characters. Also, Cali Lewis nearly loses a toe.... um, sorry?

Digg 2.0 unveiled at SXSW: “faster,” “instant” http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20000411-52.html

AT&T’s network up to SXSW iPhone … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Did you hear that Conan O'Brien, fresh off his ugly divorce with NBC, is joining Internet TV network Revision3, home to the mega-hit Diggnation?

That was the hot word blasting across Twitter Saturday night, with 426 tweets posted with the hashtag #omgconan in just four hours. The first tweet with the news, from @jimraymonds, hit just after 8 p.m. local time: "Holy [cow] Conan is on Revision3."

And the flood picked up from there: "Wow, Conan is actually joining Revision3!" wrote @tuckerman just seconds later. And then, quickly, "Conan O'brien just … Read more

Fair warning: reading the title of today's show should be an easy goal to achieve, but this morning's 404 podcast preshow had us all so shaken up we skipped the entire intro altogether. Three grown men squealing about creepy crawlers is a pathetic sight to see, but luckily Mark Licea hops into the studio and gently ushers us back into adulthood. And while we're on the subject of adults, don't fast-forward through our story about a surprisingly coherent drunk e-mail we received from Molly Wood last night. Got a funny drunk text story? Leave us a voicemail at 1-866-404-CNET and tell us about it!

One week ago, Sarah Killen's life painted a picture of the typical Twitter user: a couple of mundane posts a day about morning coffee, Oscar commentary, and her love for peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs. All that changed last Friday when she became the first person to get "followed" by former "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien. Conan has more than a half million followers but never followed anyone back; so how did the Lovely Button catch his eye? And how many gummy dinosaurs do we have to eat before we get some love?

We've all eaten our fair share of trashy food, but swallowing a whole USB key might be a little challenging. Florin Necula got into some trouble with the Secret Service, who suspected him of using card readers to steal money from ATM machines. When confronted about the crimes, Florin had no choice but to consume his Kingston USB flash drive that contained incriminating evidence against him. Even more miraculous is that the feds were able to extract the key from his body, intact and still readable! We have our suggestions for what he should have done with the stick, but maybe we'll save that for Thursday.

Plenty of owl-related voice mails as well as a quick discussion on the future of 3D in the home on today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast. Thanks for listening!

The smoke has risen from the chimney of the one-bedroom cave in which Conan O'Brien now lives.

For what seemed like an ungodly eternity, the former host of "The Tonight Show" was following no one on his Twitter account. While untold hordes hung on his every spare word, not one human or cat was offered the merest gaze of the ginger one's interest.

With one tweet, all has changed. For O'Brien tweeted Friday that he has decided to follow one random human and change that person's life.

The fortunate recipient of O'Brien's … Read more

It was a fantasy trip on Buzz Out Loud today, wherein fairy dust and unicorns are the new power generators of the future (Bloom Box), Mothra wants to eat your children ("looming spectrum crisis"), and we've got to save the beer-foam-measurement blogs (Web archiving policies in the UK). We've got a way with dry news. --Molly

Top Stories

Secret Microsoft legal compliance doc leaked, site taken down offNet http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/02/secret-microsoft-doc-leaks-dmca-notice-fails-to-contain-it.ars http://www.geekosystem.com/cryptome-leaks-microsofts-online-surveillance-guide-ms-demands-takedown/ … Read more

The 404 is complete once again, forming flying Vs and throwing knuckle pucks that would make Gordon Bombay proud. The first story to mention is the return of The Red Kid (not that one, Jeff), but this time to Twitter! It's about time, Conan, but you know you're a little late to the Twitter game when you get beaten by His Holiness the Dalai Lama himself. It's good to have Conan back, and he might even be coming to a city near you!

The former king of late night recently finalized plans to perform a live show in select cities that will employ ex-"Tonight Show" employees and bring back classic characters from the talk show. It's good to have you back, Mr. O'Brien--we knew you couldn't stay away for too long!

Next, Jeff tells us a truly terrifying story about things that go bump in the night....keep your mind out of the gutter while you listen, but it's about his fiancee's troubled-sleep woes. The scary part is she's not the only one in the studio with serious slumbering issues! Wrap yourself in a Snuggie, climb into a Tauntaun, and prepare yourself for a collection of night terror stories that will have you reaching for the phone, and who you gonna call? THE SLEEP DOCTOR MICHAEL BREUS! Look for another appearance from The Sultan of Sleep on a future episode of The 404, 'cause this is getting out of hand.

If you're just tuning in, we should warn you that the next story should not be heard during a meal or while in a state of anger, because you might do something crazy like send your nemesis a pile of poop. Poopsenders.com lets you send your friend/enemy/frenemy a steaming pile of cow, elephant, or gorilla dung, and you can even choose the amount! Can you hear the excitement in my written voice right now? With an ace of spades prank like this up our sleeves, we dare BOL to call us out again! Just kidding guys...;)

In typical 404 fashion, this morning's show started later than usual, mostly because we couldn't shut up about all the things that made the 1990s one of the best decades ever.

Some of the conversation leaks into the beginning of the episode, including a chat about the evolution of video games since the '90s. It's hard to imagine a time before you needed a toy chest to hold all the plastic instruments you need play a simple game!

You can get your 404 fix every day of the week (thanks to Nick for the image above!), but the most random stories always end up on Friday. Today is no different, with Wilson's first story about mysterious cookies that offer "natural supplemental endowment." Called the F Cup Cookie, the treat is quickly gaining popularity in Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore, because of their promise to increase bust size in three weeks or less! Rest assured, we've already ordered three boxes to test the claims ourselves.

Should the film industry provide heart health warnings prior to showing movies with heavy 3D imagery? It might be worth the discussion, especially after a 42-year-old Taiwanese man died after watching "Avatar" in 3D.

The man started to feel uneasy during the screening of "Avatar" in 3D and was quickly taken to a hospital where a scan showed a brain hemorrhage. Sadly, the man died 11 days later. Doctors reported that "the over-excitement from watching the movie triggered his symptoms," a claim that opens up our conversation about possible preshow warnings.

We've spent all week stuffing your SASEs full of 404 stickers, and if you already got yours in the mail it's YOUR turn to do some work for US! Take a picture of where you stuck your 404 sticker(s) and tattoo(s) and send it to us at the404(at)cnet(dot)com. If you do, there's a good chance we'll show it on the air! Take a cue from Cheryl, the Official 404 Grandmother who sent us a picture of her grandson fully covered in them! Nice work, Cheryl!

Jill Schlesinger joins the show today after a few months with her presence. A lot has changed since then, we got stickers, the U.S. Senate has 59 Democrats, and now ABC is doing promos for CNET.com. (The 404 Podcast and CNET are owned by CBS.)

Yep, you read that right. On the ABC show "Modern Family", Phil and Clair Dunphy argue about a new universal remote control, and in the course of talking about being a male cheerleader, Phil mentions that CNET gave the remote a smokin' hot "three and a half mice." Unfortunately, we switched from numbers to stars rather than mice. Jeff and Jill think it's the new "Arrested Development" on Fox plus "The Office" on NBC.

Speaking of NBC, Jill weighs in on the whole Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien debacle. She wishes she could get paid 40 million dollars not to work, but we're glad to see Conan sticking up for his staff.

Finally, Jill offers some good financial advice this year. It's tax season, and she recommends that you readjust your tax withholding because you're essentially giving the government an interest-free loan for a whole year. Otherwise, whip out a 1040EZ, a glass of scotch and just do your taxes. It ain't that hard.

… Read more