leap second

The 404 1,086: Where we left our dreams in a cab (podcast)

Filling in for a Justin Yu who thinks his air conditioner got him sick is the wild card Joey Kaminksi, a man who can apparently talk about -- in painfully great detail -- tipping etiquette in and around New York City. We love Joey for his tangential speaking habits, but also because he lends us his unique skew on the important matters of the day -- that and the fact that he brought us a Google Nexus 7 tablet for us to play with.

Do you have a game plan if you ever left your phone behind in a cab? Our producer Ariel Nunez tells the tale of such a predicament. Does Ariel get the phone back? Or is he forced to plop down $500 on a new device in addition to non-defective shorts?

The 404 crew also dishes out the dirt that saw multiple Web sites and services go down over the weekend including enormous time-suckers Netflix, Instagram, and Pinterest. How did planet Earth go 45 minutes without commenting on a sepia-filtered photo of your dessert? Find out inside!

Make sure you start your holiday week on the right foot by listening to these stories and so much more on today's show! … Read more

'Leap second bug' causes site, software crashes

It only takes a single second to wreak havoc on the Internet.

The addition of a leap second to the Coordinated Universal Time at midnight Greenwich Mean Time last night appears to have caused site disruptions for a handful of popular Web sites and software platforms.

The adjustment, which was made by International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, was necessary to keep atomic clocks in line with the Earth's ever-changing speed of rotation. Dozens of leap seconds have been added since their introduction in 1972.

One of the sites affected by the bug was the popular link-sharing site … Read more

The 404 1,085: Where we know this much is true (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Durex Facebook app pairs couples with just the right song...The 404 recommends "True" by Spandau Ballet.

- Do yourself a favor and download Google Chrome for iOS right this second.

- SWAT team throws flashbangs, raids wrong home due to open WiFi network.

- Here's the Braun tape recorder that inspired Apple's new podcast app.

- Don't forget to set your clocks a second faster this weekend.

- Meet up with The 404 at Comic Con 2012 for happy hour (5PM) on Saturday, July 14th! It's … Read more

Leap second: June 30 to be longer than other days

Oh good, I can get one second more sleep the night of June 30. In an effort to keep our extremely accurate atomic clocks in line with the more arbitrary nature of the way the world wobbles, we're getting a leap second this weekend.

Sure, it's not as dramatic as what happens during a leap year, but it's still exciting for clock aficionados, science geeks, and time lords. The leap second will be added to Coordinated Universal Time at the end of the day on June 30.… Read more