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'Treegonometry' uses math for perfect Xmas tree

Let's say you just bought a 6-foot Christmas tree and want to decorate it just so. According to a quick treegonometric calculation, you should use approximately 30 feet of tinsel. (I got that number, incidentally, by multiplying pi by 13, dividing that number by 8, and then multiplying that figure by the tree's height in centimeters.)

Didn't study treegonometry in high school? That's because it just got invented by members of the University of Sheffield's SUMS math society. Two students at the U.K. school set out to calculate the amount of baubles, tinsel, and lights needed to give a tree just the right amount of decorative zing.

Their math might not add up to anything worthy of complex analysis, but it's a festive and amusing idea. "The formulas took us about two hours to complete," 20-year-old student Nicole Wrightham said in a release. "We hope the formulas will play a part in making Christmas that little bit easier for everyone." … Read more

Dalek tree could exterminate Christmas if it wanted to

If you thought the Grinch was bad news, you haven't yet met the Dalek Christmas tree, an alien entity so evil it wants to not only wipe out Christmas, but all of humanity as well. That's one chimney Santa Claus is going to regret sliding down.

Doctor Who's most famous villain has appeared in the abode of Dain Sandoval, a network admin in California. There have been no reports of casualties... yet.… Read more

The 404 Yuletide Mini-sode Two: Where we get our Grinch on

There's twelve days of Christmas, eight days of Hanukah and for the first time ever, five days of Yuletide 404 Mini-sodes. Installment Two invites you to come hate "the most wonderful time of year" with us! We've saved up all our bitterness for this one mini-sode. Christmas music? Bah. Pine trees? Feh! The film - A Christmas Story? Horrendous! Claymation? Sucks!!! Bah-Humbug!

Yuletide Mini-sode Two Download today's podcast … Read more

Not your average batch of Christmas cookies

This year in my holiday care package from my mom, I'm expecting to get a batch of her staple Christmas cookies. Free from fancy ingredients, these cookies have the potential to bore those with the taste for more exotic ingredients, but some of my fondest holiday memories are centered around the afternoons when we got to hang around the house in our pajamas and decorate sugar cookies with red and green sprinkles. Gadgets like this Christmas tree cookie kit allow for a new interpretation of this holiday standard.

The set isn't technologically complicated, but looking at it inspires … Read more

The 'ETree': Holiday display for aliens

It's a curse of life in the 'burbs: Every year you swear your holiday lights will outshine the rest of the neighborhood, and every year the Joneses humiliate you with something new. No more.

We guarantee that they won't find anything like the "ETree" at Wal-Mart, K-mart, or any other mart in the United States. This bizarre floor lamp, created by designers of U.K.-based Nimble Critters, features 10 branches that can be contorted into whatever shape you wish, according to Technabob.

You'll pay a hefty price for originality, however, as a lamp like … Read more

Snoopy does the iPod

We admit it: We're suckers for Peanuts. Especially around the holidays, when we get to hear the Vince Guaraldi Trio everywhere. It's one of the few childhood memories we have that doesn't involve getting beaten up by our older brothers.

That's why we were happy to see Snoopy on this iPod Nano, rather than yet another gadget adorned by the evil Hello Kitty. Japan's Run-At, which makes various products for Disney as well, has released 1,000 of the limited-edition iPods for the second year in a row with the famed beagle wearing headphones etched … Read more

MP3 player or tree ornament?

Looking for a new music player but tired of the same old same old? This one definitely doesn't look like your standard fare.

Soundwave has come up with an MP3 ball less than 2 inches in diameter, complete with a tiny display and 1GB memory (in pink, of course) for about $77. And if it doesn't work as billed, you can always hang it on the Chrismas tree next to your eyeball-shape Webcam.

Christmas tree as a supercomputer

This is just sick. If you're this much into computers, you shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a Christmas tree.

Newlaunches has posted photos of a 17-foot-tall tree decorated with 2,000 processors in the Akihabara District of Tokyo, the electronics capital of Japan. The gawdy display is sponsored by Intel, so it naturally features some of the latest Core 2 Duo chips. We just hope no one tries to overclock this beast.