ORIGINALLY AIRED: 12/1/2004

Star Trek Enterprise, TV-B-Gone, Konfabulator

Episode #2854

A New Reason to Live (and Die Repeatedly): Valve released Half-Life 2 Deathmatch at www.steampowered.com
 
You’ve Heard of the Word of the Day? Merriam-Webster's 2004 Word of the Year based on online lookups was: “Blog”

 
Now the Whole World Knows: Read the sad poems of a blogger who went through an ugly divorce at The Breakup.

Sam Brown’s www.explodingdog.com isn’t what you think – no pets are harmed in its production. Instead, Brown takes the one-line phrases sent in by visitors to the site and creates illustrations around them via a Wacom tablet and Adobe Photoshop. Thus, you’ll find things like: “you couldn’t have known,” “not in control,” or “just this” – among hundreds of others.

We invited Sam onto the show to take the suggestions of members in our IRC chat room to make some illustrations live on the air. Here's what he came up with...

Denial of Service

How's That Working Out for You

I Know Where You Live

This is So Much Quieter

Star Trek Enterprise, the latest iteration of the Star Trek franchise, took a new direction by making itself a prequel taking place 100 years before the original series’ timeframe. Applauded by some Trekkers and derided by others, it has nevertheless brought a renewed sense of action and adventure to the Trek formula. Sarah visited the Enterprise set and talked with the cast and crew about the show’s new season, and actor Connor Trinneer came by The Screen Savers studio for a chat.

His role as Trip, the NX-01’s engineer, wasn’t an easy job to land, he said – he underwent “five brutal auditions,” flubbing his first one. Once he got the part, he quickly became acclimated to the Star Trek universe and its fan conventions. “The first one I went to, I was greeted by two security guards dressed as Klingons and speaking only in Klingon,” he said. “If you’re going to one of these, you’re hardcore.”

Come back here tomorrow for our web-exclusive interview with Connor, or visit www.connortrinneer.com.

Bury Your Dead Cells: Scientists have devised a biodegradable phone that breaks down in soil, according to the Guardian.
 
Dual Sales: Nintendo sells 500,000 DS systems during Thanksgiving week, reports CNN/Money.

Damien from Miami wanted to know what would be the best camera phone for the money.

Chi-Lan likes Nokia’s 6630 1.3 MP camera phone. (That’s 1280 x 960 resolution!) She personally owns it and says it’s “awesome.” She also recommends the Samsung a600. Kevin P. said Damien should avoid the Treo 600 – “It’s a $400 cell phone with a camera that looks like a $20 throw-away.” The new Treo 650 should be better.

Kevin R. planned on airing some amusing footage of him using the TV-B-Gone device at a major appliance store. The $15 gadget can turn off any television set with a chip that holds every possible combination of TV codes. So he put it to the test at the aforementioned retailer by turning off its bank of TV sets. Unfortunately, he was kicked out of the store. “It sucks because I buy a lot of stuff there,” he said, sadly.

Nevertheless, he and able assistant David Prager tried it out at a local sports bar and turned off their TV sets during important football plays. Eureka! It works! You can learn more about TV-B-Gone at www.tvbgone.com.

5 Worst Places to Use TV-B-Gone

1. Pacemaker User Convention
2. A Super Bowl Party
3. Museum of TV and Radio
4. Hospital Emergency Room
5. E3

Lightning Bolt at www.milkandcookies.com.

Previously just for Mac OSX, Konfabulator has migrated to Windows, so now the masses can enjoy the benefits of a cool desktop widget. Get it at www.konfabulator.com