Alli (aka Heavy from the old days) joins us on today's show and as usual, she brings up the wackiest topics. Today's tangents include Halloween costume ideas, time travel, and super powers...oh, and some stories from the Internet, too!

We always love having Alli on the show because she always brings up the weirdest topics of discussion. Case in point: Halloween costumes...it's the end of August! It's going to be hard to top last year's costumes but Alli has a great idea for a DOUBLE costume: Jon & Kate Plus 8--it's the perfect costume for us, aside from the fact that we'd have to stand next to each other all night and somehow abduct eight babies. This might be our last Halloween.

Next, we move onto a rundown of 10 joke technologies that sort of became real, but we actually only get into the invisibility cloak before getting sidetracked into our most desired super power. Jeff wishes he had the power to tan, I go with the ability to morph into a potted plant, and Alli just wishes she could get out of The 404 studio.

Plenty of more stories to get to, but don't just read about them here, listen to the show! We've got Bob Dylan voicing a GPS system (replete with our awful impersonations), the UK's disturbingly graphic "texting while driving" PSA, and Microsoft's tasteless Photoshop incident. You don't want to miss this episode!.

After debuting the final chapter in our 404 Superhero series (thanks Hayato!), we break into chats about the next-gen air-con, an Xbox autographed by Palin, cell phone crackdowns, and a Nintendo inflatable cushion that raises questions of hygiene...yikes!

THE FOUR-OH-FORCE!

(Credit: Hayato Shimizu)

Thanks again to Hayato Shimizu for making the image you see above, which features all three of The 404 hosts as their respective superheroes in the Four-Oh-Force! You can always depend on us to save you from a bad day! Well...except for Sundays, you're on your own there.

Lots of stories to get into today, like this Nissan car with a built-in revolutionary air-conditioner that blocks "unpleasant smells" from entering your car. Having driven with Jeff and Wilson before, I can say without hyperbole that I'm more worried about the smells coming from inside the car, but I'm sure that invention is in development as well.

We also talk about San Francisco cracking down on cell phones in the car and a Sarah Palin autographed Xbox 360 fetching 1.1 MILLION DOLLARS on eBay, but the weirdest story of the day comes from Nintendo, who is developing an inflatable cushion for the Wii used to simulate riding on the back of an animal or being in the driver's seat of a vehicle. There are a million and one jokes to be made here, and we get to about 4,297 of them in the second half of the show, so be sure to check that out. Nintendo has officially lost its marbles.

A big apology goes out to everyone who couldn't leave a voice mail last night--we've since cleared it all out, so please call us back at 1-866-404-CNET and leave another message!

We always try our best to keep a positive mental attitude on The 404, so it makes sense that we've chosen The Hold Steady's latest album, "Stay Positive," as today's Audio Draft Pick. We also run through the accidental video game archive, shame the Guinness World Records, and warn our listeners about open manholes, literally.

Today's "Best Web site you've never seen" award goes to Derek Yu's Accidental Video Game Porn Archive that showcases sexual innuendos found in your favorite video games. It's an easy way to waste a few hours at work. They're all hilarious, but this Menage a Kong has got to be one of my favorites, with this Star Fox violation in a close second. I also like that Derek and I share the same last name--this Web site is totally something a Yu would do. Nice job, cuz!

We don't wag our fingers as much, but we have to scold the Guinness World Records for this record-breaking fail. One of the entries on its Web site awards the "Most Individuals Killed in a Terrorist Act" to the terrorists behind the attack on the World Trade Center towers and even invites viewers to "break this record."

Instead of immediately taking down the award, Guinness World Records compounded the fail by threatening legal action on the ICanHaz network for posting a screengrab that features the Guinness World Record logo without proper authorization. If that isn't a case of corporate cowardly B.S., I don't know what is. Daps to Fail Blog for their hilarious response complete with a Rick Roll at the end!

The Hold Steady's "Stay Positive".

(Credit: Last.FM/The Hold Steady)

Jeff's pick for today's "Audio Draft," sponsored by Beck's Beer in conjunction with Last.FM, is Brooklyn local band The Hold Steady. In our own words, these guys sound like the aural lovechild of Bruce Springsteen, Social Distortion, Joe Strummer, and Billy Joel. The music combines various instruments (banjos, organ, piano, theremin) to produce a jamming rock theme, and then adds gruff vocals with epic storytelling lyrics to complete the circle.

The band's latest album, "Stay Positive," keeps the party going with a steady balance of hilarious stories from the road ("Sequestered in Memphis") and heartbreaking admissions of love lost, but not forgotten ("Lord, I'm Discouraged"). Check out the entire discography and let us know what you think in the comments!

(Last.fm is a part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes CNET News and Reviews.)

We love having guests on the show, but it's always good to get back to our bread and butter: making fun of silly tech news! Today we cover several stories that've slipped through the cracks, including the new "Alice in Wonderland" movie, a new autotune iPhone application in the works, a new Queen of Text Messaging, and a huge Calls from the Public.

Johnny Depp as a ginger Mad Hatter.

(Credit: Disney)

I hadn't heard about this, but Jeff shells out some news about the upcoming "Alice in Wonderland" remake, directed by 404-favorite Tim Burton. Check out the video below to see the pictures and hear our comments, but so far we're pretty impressed with the CGI and makeup used on Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, and Matt Lucas. Wilson, film buff extraordinaire, has a healthy dose of skepticism based on Burton's recent disasters, but we'll have to wait until March 2010 like everyone else to see how it all pans out.

We also have more news to report about Autotune. Turns out T-Pain is in the process of developing his own Autotune application for the iPhone. Expect the usual dose of hatred from Beff Jakalar, but I'm personally a huge fan of autotuning no matter how much it's overdone. How can you listen to this and not want to get up and dance?

Thanks to everyone that's been leaving us voicemails. Rest assured that although we've had a long string of guests, we'll play all of them in the coming weeks. If you want to hear yourself on the radio, give us a call at 1-866-404-CNET and tell us how much you love/hate the show. You can also e-mail us at the404{at}cnet(dot)com. Check us out on Twitter and Facebook as well!

Some Blues Traveler and a box of Glazed Pop'ems warm us up for another fantastic show. Just the three of us today. Justin is still trying to recover from his night out with the Jasmine France.

(Credit: Paramount)

On today's show, we geek out a little bit when we discuss the new "Star Trek" movie by director JJ Abrams. Caroline McCarthy got a sneak peak at it last night, and makes Wilson, the only Trekkie on the show, jealous. Justin gets into the finer points of things when he argues which is better: "Battlestar Galactica," "Star Wars," or "Star Trek". Wilson thinks this is a no-brainer.

Also on today's show, find out why Kevin Smith got "Wayne Gretzky-ed" off NHL.com's blog. Google makes it a little easier to build a custom search profile. Unfortunately, they can't take those drunken, nude pics of you off the Web. And two dudes get a $26,000 bill from T-Mobile after they send each other over 217,000 text messages. That's true bromance. The box to send the bill alone cost $27.55.

We honestly can't think of worse app for the iPhone than the apparent baby-shaking app! We can't even pretend to make a joke about this one. We're just surprised that it made it passed Apple's strict vetting.

Finally, Wilson's subway stalker calls The 404 and tells us about her upcoming surgery. He's shaking in a corner about it. Send us your voice mails at 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Stalkers welcomed.

Wilson's still at the car show, so Jeff and I play twosies under the table. We start off with a very important announcement that involves us literally showing up at your door with mace and a large, blunt object. We also reveal more details about our Meetup, apologize for yesterday's spoiler, and discuss some seriously screwed up stories!

www.meetup.com/The404

(Credit: Meetup.com)

Okay, so let's get a few business items out of the way while I have you here. FYI, we do have a ringtone in the works thanks to our buddy Jamie Lewis, check back here tomorrow for a download link. Also, be sure to keep sending in your adventure/prison/survival stories to win a copy of Tom Avery's book, "To the End of the Earth." Leave us an e-mail (the404 [at] cnet [dot] com) or call in at 866-404-CNET to submit an entry!

Finally, bust out your digital/analog calendar and mark this down: 404 MEETUP on April 16th (next Thursday) @ The Delancey. We plan on getting there around 7:30 and staying until whenever our legs give out. So here's what you have to do:

• Go here.
• Sign up for a Meetup account and join "The 404 Podcast Meetup Group"
• RSVP for the Meetup on April 16th

Make sure you join our group even if you live somewhere else and can't make it to this one, it will still serve as a good barometer for future travels and meetups--we'll use this group to organize and plan all future events, so don't sleep on signing up and we'll see you next Thursday!

Now back to today's episode: who knew that you could get Viagra, the popular ED drug, in an aerosol can? In Europe, scientists are playing around with a spray-on version. We personally DO NOT have any experience in this field, nor do we suffer from any of those kinds of ailments, but Jeff just happens to have a "friend" that's used it for recreation and speaks good things. By the time this comes to the United States, it'll probably just be a laser point that you just aim at the little tadpole to awaken the bullfrog.

Next, we get a little tangential discussing a new service called TinyChat that allows users to create online chat rooms on the fly, which of course opens up a whole discussion about the old days of chatting, with IRC and AOL chats. Jeff takes advantage of the intimate studio environment and reveals a little something about his college years, but so what? Institutes of higher learning are practicallybuilt to encourage experiemtation. We'll get behind you and your freak flag any day, Bakula! Well...maybe next to you.

Thanks to Dan the Mantern's two-week-long extended vacation, we're left helpless and alone. Luckily for us, the Intern Formerly Known as Mark (IFKM is a bad acronym) saves the day, helping us scrutinize stories like Microsoft entering the T-shirt market, the Knight Rider show cancellation, the first Vietnamese House Representative, and other kooky, borderline-tabloid stories we found on the World Wide Den of Filth.

In today's episode of What's Happening With Those Asians, we discuss an important milestone in Asian American history: Louisiana has elected the United States' very first Vietnamese-American House Representative. It's an uplifting story of triumph over adversity and the power of American democracy, as well as...wait, one second...there's a wall at the end of this tunnel. Two major factors contributed to Joseph Cao's victory in the election:

• His opponent, nine-term Democratic Rep. William Jefferson, is currently facing 16 criminal counts of racketeering, bribery, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, and an FBI raid of his house recently uncovered $90,000 in cash stashed in one of his freezers. So voters had to choos between a Vietnamese-American and an accused criminal. Can you say "lesser of two evils?"
• Cao actually admitted that a large part of his victory was due to a low voter turnout. "We were hoping for a low turnout, because it would provide us with the greater chance of winning...based on the demographics of the district, a high voter turnout would have gone to our disadvantage." Subtext: If more voters actually voted in the election, more Louisiana voters would choose a criminal over Cao.

Hmm, maybe this election isn't as much of a win as we, the Asian American community, had thought. Not that we're complaining; we need more Asians in places of political power. Yu/Tang 2012 anyone?!




EPISODE 242



Download today's podcast



Microsoft creates "Software," its new line of T-shirts...ultimate bummer


Knight Rider television show finally canceled mid-season


First Vietnamese-American elected to House of Representatives--Juk Mung Nam Mai!


Young woman accidentally details her first sexual experience through text message...TO HER FATHER


Ben Stiller teases Zoolander 2, Meet the Parents 3


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Our No. 404 fanboy Dee Wren takes time out of his busy filming schedule to bring some positivity to our Monday morning. After revealing some news about the upcoming Google Android release tomorrow, we talk about the weekend box office, touch on Facebook porn, and make an overall attempt to shade ourselves from Jeff's rays of hate (unsuccessfully). Happy Monday!

To make up for all the lives we've ruined with The 404, we invite our buddy Dee Wren into the studio to pimp his philanthropic project, From Us With Love. It's a nonprofit organization that supplies aid to children in South Africa and Dee is helping to shoot a documentary on their efforts to send a group of them to Australia for the Homeless World Cup. We'd love for you to contribute as much time, money, and resources as you can to their foundation. The best part of this endeavor is that For Us With Love is already corporate-sponsored, so the full 100 percent of your contribution will go directly into the project, no filters. It's a very noble cause, please check out the Web site and do what you can to help!

On today's show, we reveal our favorite fragrances, briefly touch on the new Apple offerings, disappear into e-Ink, rip into the Geek Squad and Microsoft's new "gurus," send text messages to inanimate household objects, and try to convince Wilson to take a shower in public in the name of animal rights.

Don't bust out that checkbook yet, my friends, contrary to popular belief, Natali Del Conte's hair is not on eBay...yet. We'll be the first ones to break that news, but until then you'll just have to listen to our show to get your NDC fix. Lots of news to talk about today, which we get to right after we guess each other's favorite eau de liquid smells. No surprise here, but Jeff's is the sweet scent of Natali's hair that he creepily compares to a cherry lollipop. Anyway, we also get the scoop on a few more tech-related gems, including a story about energy companies testing a program that will send you a text message on behalf of your thermostat if you forget to turn it off when you leave the house. Hey, I'm all for energy conversation, but are ya kidding me!? So now, on top of ignoring text messages from my close friends and family members, I have to deal with spam from my household appliances, too!? I guess I can see it being useful when I forget to turn off the oven, but I'd prefer to get the news by driving up to a burning apartment rather than getting a text from my oven that says "Hey, dummy--you forgot to turn me off, so now I'm spitting hot fire at all your physical possessions. See you at home!" No thanks, gas company, you can keep the service--I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.