nathan's

The great Twitter 'text-your-parents-you're-a-drug-dealer' experiment

Twitter might well be a repository for half-truths, halfwits, and even the half cut, but sometimes it has its uses.

One consists of trying to get your followers to provide some entertainment.

How can one not commend Nathan Fielder, star of Comedy Central's "Nathan For You," for creating art in action with the help merely of his followers, their phones, and their parents?

He took to Twitter and made a very simple request. He asked his followers to text their parents accidentally that they had drugs for sale and to screenshoot their reactions.

The text they were to send read: "Got 2 grams for $40." A price not to be sniffed at. They were then to offer an oopsie that the text had gone to the wrong recipient.… Read more

Tetris or treat! Playable pumpkin Tetris haunts Halloween

All right, kid, I'll give you three Snickers, four rolls of Smarties, and five bags of M&Ms if you can beat my pumpkin-Tetris high score. Hacker/squash carver Nathan Pryor has created something a little more elaborate than a candle inside a jack o' lantern. He has a playable pumpkin Tetris.

Pryor carved an impeccable grid into a good-size pumpkin and loaded it with 128 LEDs for the display. He named this glorious triumph of technology over fruit "Pumpktris." Say that five times fast.… Read more

This year, elect a video game president

Forget Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. This year, I'm voting for Link from Legend of Zelda.

Let's face it, during presidential-election seasons, the non-stop chatter about Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, plus all the drama, lies, and repetitious arguments, can get almost dizzying. To offer some relief, gaming Web site IGN created the 2012 Video Game Presidential Election featuring five candidates from iconic video game franchises. … Read more

'My iPhone 5 loves me,' Nathan Fillion tells Conan

Many people love their iPhones, but how many people can say their iPhones love them?

Chatting it up with Conan on Tuesday night, sci-fi fan favorite Nathan Fillion wasn't shy about expressing his feelings over his new iPhone 5. The professed gadget lover told Conan that his phone is so pretty. It's "tiny and light and smart," Fillion said. "And it loves me, it obviously loves me."

But the bond between Fillion and his phone wasn't always so lovable.

The actor confessed that he once had a "contentious relationship" with Siri. … Read more

Inside Intellectual Ventures, the most hated company in tech

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- To many in the high-tech business, a troll plots his schemes in a white office building on a hill in this leafy suburb of Seattle.

This is the home of Intellectual Ventures, which, depending on whom you ask, is either the biggest, most aggressive patent troll on the planet or a pioneering company that's helping inventors get their fair share.

The question of "whom you ask" is a big one, of course. Since it was founded in 2000 by Microsoft veterans Nathan Myhrvold and Edward Jung, Intellectual Ventures has -- through $5 billion in … Read more

Rumor Has It, Ep. 16: Whew! iPad 3 is coming! (podcast)

Rumor Has It gets the dubious honor of being the last show live on the CNET main stage of CES 2012, and we use it to cry, "The iPad 3 is coming! The iPad 3 is coming!"

After spending seven full days in the city of sin, covering a bazillion and two live blogs, running around the show floor looking for pretty objects, and editing the glut of content CNET produced from CES, we somehow slap on our fancy pants, shellac on some lipstick, and make this show happen.

This show is a record-breaker for many reasons; first … Read more

How Intel helps fund PC makers' marketing: Q&A

In the wake of a report this week that Intel is giving PC makers a $100 subsidy on ultrabooks--which Intel promptly denied--I asked longtime chip guru Nathan Brookwood how Intel's co-marketing works.

Brookwood is the principal analyst at Insight 64. Before becoming an analyst, he held marketing management positions at companies such as Micronics, Intergraph, and Digital Equipment Corporation.

Q: How does Intel's Market Development Fund work? Brookwood: When they do these MDF programs, it's not a cash subsidy. It's usually done in the form of some cooperative advertising and other promotions. It's … Read more

A third serving of Uncharted territory

The Uncharted series, which has quickly become the staple franchise of the PlayStation 3, has won over hard-core and casual gamers alike with its lighthearted action gameplay, witty characters, and amazing sense of adventure.

The third title in the series promises to up the ante even higher, so it's back to the jungle we go with our look at Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.

Jeff:Nathan Drake has got to have the best and worst luck in the history of video game characters. But that's why Uncharted games are such a thrill to play. Each sequential title in the franchise puts Drake in a bigger mess than before, tasking players to find new ways to save his life over and over again.

Maybe more so than any other game out there, Uncharted 3 plays much more like a Hollywood blockbuster than it does a conventional video game. It's the first title you'd want to show off to nongamers, with the hope they would then realize all the fun they're missing out on.

Veterans and newcomers to the Uncharted series will get sucked right in, as the early hours of gameplay are much more varied than what's been presented in the past. Naughty Dog has also again raised the bar on dictating compelling narrative, as Uncharted 3 makes the characters even more relatable and likable than ever before. Plus, I'm not sure there's a better musical score in all of games. … Read more

The 404 853: Where our bellies were sluggish with goat meat (podcast)

Happy belated Fourth! We're back from celebrating on Independence by blowing up a piece of it, and we spend the first half of today's episode recounting all the bbq we ate yesterday. We're also bringing you results of the annual Nathan's hog dog eating contest and breaking news about one of our favorite shows on Comedy Central--and of course we wouldn't let a Monday go by without Tanging that Tune!

The 404 Digest for Episode 853

Joey Chestnut wins 5th straight Nathan's hot dog eating competition. Jellyfish fireworks over the Hudson river in NYC.

Episode 853 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more