jacking

Yesterday's show with guest host Alli went so well that we ask her to help us out again! Today we show off some beautiful fan artwork, run through outdated tech terminology, dispel "Batman 3" rumors about Megan Fox, and more!

We want to give a huge shout-out and thanks to Joe from Honolulu for sending us these two amazing woodcarvings of The 404! We're still blown away by the level of detail in the paintings and the ridiculous amount of time it probably took to make. Best of all, we love that it's a collaborative effort between two 404 fans: Blake Stevenson helped design our logo and Joe just took it to the next level. Cheers to both of you!

We're all a little worried about Chris Nolan's next "Batman" movie. We've been hearing a lot of rumors about the follow-up to last year's "Dark Knight," and even though we think Megan Fox is next level hot, we just can't imagine her as Catwoman. First of all, there are one thousand other characters in the Batman universe, why resurrect the same ones over and over? Let's see a Killer Croc! In other Megan Fox news, gamers will be excited to hear that she will be on Xbox Live on Saturday, August 29 @ 3 p.m. PT to play Gold Members in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen the Game. Cross your fingers and let us know if you actually play her!

Many more crazy stories from the Web in addition to an "Ask The 404" segment on today's show. Thanks for listening, all!

Welcome to the 411, my new Q&A column answering all your questions about cell phones and cell phone accessories. I receive plenty of questions about these subjects via e-mail, so I figured many of you might have the same questions, too. At times, I might solicit answers from readers if I'm stumped. Send your questions and comments to me at nicole.lee@cnet.com. If you prefer to remain anonymous, let me know in the e-mail.

Will you please explain to me the difference between 2G and 3G phones? Thank you ever so much in advance.--Michael, … Read more

Brutal Legend stars Jack Black as a rock 'n' roll roadie who must battle demons in hell. Also lending their voices to the project are Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy Kilmeister. Brutal Legend is set to melt faces on October 13 for Xbox 360 and PS3.

NEW YORK--Twitter executive Jack Dorsey says he's looking forward to the day when the world stops talking so much about the company he co-founded.

"I think Twitter's a success for us when people stop talking about it, when we stop doing these panels and people just use it as a utility, use it like electricity," said Dorsey, who was on a "Future of Media" panel here Wednesday as part of Internet Week New York. "It fades into the background, something that's just a part of communication. We put it on the same … Read more

While the Obama administration has expressed increasing hopes that wind power will play a key role in America's future energy system, one of the world's leading scientists is ruling out the technology.

Jack Steinberger, the 1968 Nobel Prize winner in physics and director of CERN's particle-physics laboratory, spoke at a conference of Nobel laureates at the 350-year-old Royal Society in London last week.

His conclusion: "Wind is not the future," according to the London Times.

Steinberger says Europe should cancel its big wind plans and that solar energy is the future.

Historical resources in the … Read more

Heh. I'm thinking of all the corny headlines I could use for this post, but I will spare you the cheesiness and just say that AT&T announced on Thursday the upcoming availability of its latest Windows Mobile smartphone, the Samsung Jack.

The Jack is the successor to the Samsung BlackJack II and will be in stores May 19 for a lovely price of $99.99 with a two-year contract. Like its predecessor, the Jack is a messaging-centric device, with its full QWERTY keyboard and support for multiple e-mail accounts, instant messaging, and of course, text and multimedia … Read more

I've spent much time this week thinking about Jack Sparrow, pirate of the Caribbean.

Channeling his inner Keith Richards, Sparrow is a good pirate. Ugly and drunk, but good.

The Swedish pirates from the Bay are supposed to be good pirates too. You know, the ones who, according to a local court, channel Richards, Mick Jagger, and a whole host of other musical acts in a not quite legal fashion.

But the whole concept of piracy is rather current and vexing. Think of those other fresh-faced pirates, the ones in Somalia. The ones who captured Indians, Filipinos, and Egyptians … Read more

Last week, an ad from the Change4Life Campaign was placed all over the U.K. depicting a young boy holding a video game controller with large text over his head reading: "Risk an early death. Just do nothing." Nowhere in that ad did it explicitly say video games could cause children to die early, but the message was there, and a handful of video game developers took offense.

Codemasters' CEO Rod Cousens said, "Governments have a unique ability to get it wrong." Sega Europe President and COO Mike Hayes said in an interview that he and the rest of the employees at his company were "very disappointed" with the ad. He went on to say that "it remains a deep frustration that video gaming is selected to present a negative image of the U.K.'s children, youth, consumer at large and the industry."

Atari issued a statement saying "at best, the campaign is misleading and at worst, damaging to the industry, its reputation and its potential." It followed that up by registering a formal complaint with the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority.

For its part, the U.K. Department of Health said in a statement that the ads are "not saying that children shouldn't play computer games or eat treats, but parents and children need to be aware of the benefits of a balanced diet and an active lifestyle."

This wasn't the government's first attack on the video game industry. The U.K. government, through this Change4Life campaign, earlier this year released a commercial showing a child playing a video game and then used the camera to zoom in to his body to show fat building up. He's later shown as an effigy of himself in the video game, with the phrase "Game Over" displayed on-screen.

Once again, the U.K. Department of Health said in a statement that it wasn't attacking video games, but it wanted to remind parents that an "unhealthy lifestyle, including poor diet or being inactive, can lead to health problems in later life."

Where's the outcry? Where are the major developers, like EA and Activision, speaking out against this? Why isn't the video game industry doing more to battle this Change4Life campaign? Sega and Atari, with their cryptic messages, won't do anything to change how video games are treated. More needs to be done.… Read more

Talk about an identity crisis--though there is something about the RuckJack's dual personality that appeals to the geek in us with its 2-in-1 ability to morph into a jacket or backpack. And it's all simply done with just one zip and two clips.

Fortunately, too, this doesn't follow the path of many hybrid offerings that end up being a Jack of all trades, master of none. The patent-pending RuckJack not only looks tough enough to brave the elements with its lightweight, all-weather material, it comes in a multitude of stylish colors. Of course, if you're using … Read more