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Like carving Halloween pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns but don't want to get your hands all dirty with goopy pumpkin innards? This virtual pumpkin carving game won't only keep your hands clean, but it's fun too.

Play: Virtual Pumpkin Carving



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Labels: games, holiday

At one point, the art of Halloween pumpkin carving went extreme... these are the photos.




PICTS: Extreme Halloween Pumpkins

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Labels: holiday, pics

Whatever happened to 'good' old-fashioned anti-neighbor vandalism? You know, toilet papering trees, throwing eggs, taking all the parking spots, throwing your dog's poop under their fence, etc.

But cheese throwing!?

Isn't cheese a little expensive to be throwing around? What's next? Steak? Olives? Caviar?

Labels: offbeat, pics

Fresh off the heels of Apple's new product announcements this week, Microsoft released their new operating system, Windows 7 today.

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, even stopped by the American morning program, the TODAY Show, to show off the new OS to co-anchor Matt Lauer [video].

Ballmer took on some tough questions from Lauer including:

• Can consumers use the iPhone to satisfy all their computing needs?
• Will Windows 7 get the same lukewarm reaction to Microsoft's previous operating system, Vista?
• Is Ballmer envious of Apple's "cool" image?

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Labels: apple, software, tech news, video

Wow! Wall Street was obviously thrilled with Apple's new product announcements. Today Apple stock reached $208, it’s all time high.

A lot of people are probably wishing they bought Apple stock earlier this year. So how much would you have made from Apple stock if you bought it for $12 in 1997? Sayam from CultOfMac.com did the math.

"...$1,000 invested in Apple stock in 1997 is worth more than $70,000 now. And $10,000 - the kind of sum that professional investors typically put into company stock — is worth a cool $700,000 — almost enough money to buy a house in posh Palo Alto where Steve Jobs lives."

By the way, Steve Jobs personally owns 5.4 mil shares of AAPL. So how much did he make today? You can do that math yourself.


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Labels: apple, tech news

Have you been to http://store.apple.com/ yet today? It's down. Apple usually only takes their online store down when they're adding new products.

So what new stuff will Steve Jobs and Co. have ready for this holiday shopping season? There's a leaked list of new Apple product item numbers swirling around the tech blogs today. It looks like we might see redesigned plastic MacBooks, new powerful iMacs, a 3G SIM card compatible Airport Extreme, Mac mini updates (based on Mac OS X Server), a multi-touch "Magic Mouse", an 84 key keyboard and a multi-touch "trackpad gadget."

Here's the item list:

• MC207LL/A – K84 BEST BTR- USA
• MC238LL/A – MAC MINI 2.26/2×1GB/160/SD/AP/BT-USA
• MC239LL/A- MAC MINI 2.53/2×2GB/320GB/SD/AP/BT-USA
• MC340LL/A – AIRPORT EXTREME (SIM DUALBAND) – USA
• MC343LL/A – TIME CAPSULE 1TB (SIM DUALBAND) -USA
• MC344LL/A – TIME CAPSULE 2TB (SIM DUALBAND) – USA
• MC408LL/A – MAC MINI 2.53/2×2GB/1TB/NO ODD/AP-BT-USA
• MC413LL/A – IMAC 21.5″/3.06/2×2GB/1TB/4670-256MB-USA
• MC434LL/A – APPLE VESA MOUNT ADAPTER
• MC461LL/A – MACBOOK 60W MAGSAFE POWER ADAPTER – USA

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Labels: apple, gadgets, tech news

Here's video of a racecar colliding with "nature." It's a pretty intense video. Maybe there's a new show idea here for the Discovery Channel - "Man vs. Tree" [video].



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Labels: video

Forget Balloon Boy. Meet Train Baby! Police in Melbourne, Australia say a 6-month-old baby has miraculously survived a train hitting his stroller that had rolled onto the tracks [video].

CCTV security video footage released last Friday shows the mother looking away for a moment when the stroller suddenly rolls off the edge of a station platform just as a train is approaching.

The train pushed the stroller about 130 feet along the tracks before it stopped. The six-month-old baby suffered only a bump to his head.

Hopefully mom will keep a closer eye on the stroller for now on.


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Labels: video

How do you convince an increasingly overweight population to get a little more exercise by taking the stairs instead of the escalator? What if you make it fun?

The Fun Theory team chose a German metro staircase for their piano experiment. They connected pressure sensors to thin black and white colored decals and installed them on each step. The team then rigged each decal to play the corresponding piano sound each time someone stepped on one of the sensors [video].

From helping the environment to helping yourself, Volkswagen's clever "Fun Theory" viral ad campaign attempts to change people’s behavior for the better. We're not sure it will help them sell cars, but at least they are helping people while associating their brand with fun and innovation.




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Labels: advertising, video

What do you do with a giant record breaking pumpkin that weighs over 1,000 lbs!? Hollow it out and race it! Pumpkin Boat Racing first started gaining popularity a few years ago (the video above is from 2007). But the Germans have really taken a liking to the fringe sport.

According to spiegel.de, they plan on hosting a Pumpkin Boat Raging European Championship in 2010.

Germany staged its first ever pumpkin motor boat racing championship on Sunday. It was such a success that the country plans to host the European championship next year. A woman newcomer to the world of pumpkin racing won the 200-meter race.

Giant pumpkins don't make the best racing boats but they do have one advantage over wood and carbon-fiber-- they can be turned into gallons of soup.

Four contestants took part in Germany's first motor boat pumpkin race on Sunday in their outsized fruit vessels fitted with 3.5 horsepower outboard engines capable of reaching speeds of up to 10 kilometers an hour, said the Holiday Park Hassloch, an amusement park in southwestern Germany which hosted the race.

Related Articles:

• Virtual Pumpkin Carving [game]
• Funny Halloween Pumpkins [pics]

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Labels: holiday, video

Haven't upgraded to Mac OS X Snow Leopard yet? Congrats! Your procrastination might have saved your butt. The Apple Support forums are full of users who are reporting that all their user data has disappeared.

What's causing the bug? Apparently, all you have to do to accidentally erase all your data is to login into a 'guest' account. When you attempt to log back into your main user account, all your personal data will be gone.

If you are reading this now, and have Apple's latest operating system, OS X Snow Leopard installed, then disable the Guest account ASAP.


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Labels: apple, tech news

Back in college, my parents got me a sandwich maker for my dorm room. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was the perfect gift. My roommate and I used to steal ingredients from the dining hall and keep them in our mini fridge. The hours the dining halls were open didn't always mesh well with the typical college social schedule... and we were poor students and the dining hall food was free. So at any given hour we might be making anything from BBQ chicken and Swiss melts to peanut butter and M&Ms sandwiches (a late night favorite).

After freshman year I threw my sandwich maker away because it was so scratched up and dirty. It made great sandwiches but it was impossible to clean. I remember using a plastic knife and trying to scrape it clean in the common bathroom's sink. Yuck.

Ten years later, college is a fading memory, no one owns a beeper anymore, Sean Kelly's band The Samples have broken up and sandwich making science has reached new technical heights. The engineering geniuses at T-Fal made a sandwich/waffle maker with dishwasher safe interchangeable grilling plates that snap in and out.

Review: T-Fal Sandwich/Waffle Maker




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Labels: gadgets, review

Looks like the perverts from Mattel have been busy. Their latest creation is a vibrating Harry Potter broomstick that has teenage girls everywhere going wild.

Amazon was selling the vibrating Harry Potter Nimbus 2000 broomstick for only $19.99, but the sex shops in New York City sell it for double. After sending Amazon.com an email asking for a comment, they temporarily stopped selling the item. If you go to Amazon's page for the Nimbus now, you will see that not only did they delete all of the controversial reviews, but they no longer sell the product. Too bad, it would make a great Halloween costume.

You still might be able to find the Nimbus on eBay or through a third party seller, but regardless where you buy this thing, make sure you pick up some extra batteries and keep your teenage daughters away from it. Who knew Harry was such a stud?

Review: Harry Potter Nimbus 2000


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Labels: gadgets, holiday, review

When leaving the house for a few hours, this family always returned to a soaked pool deck and soggy backyard furniture. Were the neighborhood kids secretly using the pool while they were gone? That was the family's first guess but they could never catch them in the act. And if it was the kids, why didn't the dogs scare them off?

So one day the family decided to setup a hidden video camera before they left the house for the afternoon.

This is what they found on the camera when they got home. [video]


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Labels: offbeat, video

Microsoft Windows assigns drive letters to disk volumes to help tell them apart. For example, the default letter assigned to your computer’s hard drive is probably ‘c.’ Each time you dock the iPod to a PC, Windows will assign the iPod the next available drive letter, such as ‘f’ or ‘g.’ But isn’t the letter ‘i’ the most appropriate drive letter assignment for the iPod?




Here’s a simple tutorial on how to assign the drive letter ‘i’ to an iPod connected to a PC using Microsoft Windows.

Tutorial: Assign Your iPod to Microsoft Windows Drive Letter ‘i’


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Labels: gadgets, ipod, tutorial

Everyone likes cake, but not all cakes are funny. These cakes are funny.

PICS: 25 Hilarious Cakes


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Labels: pics

Michelle Childers is lucky to be alive after a tree branch went through her neck during a drive through the Montana countryside.

The incident occurred as Childers rode in the front passenger seat during a drive with her husband in a remote area along the Lochsa River. The couple rounded a blind curve too fast and a stray branch struck Michelle and pierced her through the neck. The couple then had to drive over an hour to a lodge to get medial attention.

In this video by Washington TV station KHQ, Childers describes an "explosion" of green and a "strange" pressure on her neck and shoulder, along with her confusion at her husband's sudden alarm.

WARNING: Some of the images in this video are graphic.



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Labels: internet, offbeat, video

Feel like using some slamming loops to create a nasty, floor shaking electronic/hip hop track for your next party or record? To get your groove on, just take out your iPhone, go to the App Store and get busy with GrooveMaker.

Review: Making Music on Your iPhone with GrooveMaker










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Labels: gadgets, iphone, music, review