Idlewild's Xomblurbs

Here's a link to a video clip from CNET.com's correspondent at the 2007 Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. It covers things like facial recognition, the new PlayStation Home, and lots of games. The clip is only one minute, but on the page you'll find other video clips on things like Nintendo's gaming guru explaining the company's secrets to success, a closed-networking site where families can connect, and more on the PlayStation Home.

Who says college grads have no practical skills?

A recent Duke University graduate has invented a refrigerator that can toss up to 10 cans of cold beer across a room. Yes, it does sound like something from a Bud Light beer commercial, but this is for real.

The inventive grad built the remote-controlled contraption by modifying a common dorm-size fridge. It'll hold and toss 10 cold beers before it needs to be reloaded.

The article includes a link to a video of the beer-tossing wonder in action.

Here's one of several stories I've seen suggesting that News Corp., the owner of MySpace, is getting ready to start "MySpace News," rumored to be a competitor to Digg.com. This article suggests that it will be an integrated news service that will include social bookmarking and the ability to post, promote, rank, and discuss content.

News Corp. last year bought a news aggregator service called Newroo, and tech Web sites have speculated that Newroo will be a part of the MySpace News effort.

Informative, concise, and hip, Slashdot is one of the best Web sites out there for info on technology, computing, games, and the Web. Articles often have hundreds of comments by tech fans and pros, so you can often get great insight into technology, tools, and trends.

There are sections for Games, Developers, Hardware, Interviews, IT, Apple, Linux, and even Science and Politics. And the site includes book reviews, job listings, and even fun polls.

The NCAA brackets have been announced, but if you want tickets to this year's Final Four, you're out of luck. The winners were drawn in a lottery months ago.

The good news is that now is the time to get your application in for next year's Final Four in San Antonio, which will take place April 5th and 7th.

The application period runs from March 11 to May 31, 2007 and the winners will be drawn in July. Applications are available online only at the Web site above; the link is at the top of the page.

Plan ahead and be part of the action next year. Good luck!

GeoGreeting lets you create unique greetings for people--the letters are made up of aerial images of building tops from around the world.

Just type in your greeting and the letters appear. GeoGreeting even tells you where in the world each building is located. When done with your message, click on a buttonto email it to friends. A sample greeting appears here.

GeoGreeting calls itself "how geeks show they care." It's a unique way to send a greeting to anyone, especially a computer-geek friend or someone who's into Google Maps.

There are lots of newfangled ways to play the old NCAA basketball tournament office pool, but this is one of the most modern, and most lucrative.

The fantasy sports site PicksPal has come out with a March Maddness game that lets you make picks with an Ajax interface, invite friends to join, and create a widget to place your picks on a social networking site. You can also set up private leagues so different groups of friends or colleagues can compete.

Prizes are being given away to winners each round, from iPods and PS3 and Nintendo DS players to 37" TVs and two Mini Coopers.

A man in Germany took matters into his own hands, literally, in his impending divorce: he chainsawe a family home in two and carted his half away in a forklift truck.

The 43-year-old German is a trained mason, police said, and measured the one-story summer house before sawing through the wooden roof and walls.

"The man said he was just taking his due," said a police spokesman. "But I don't think his wife was too pleased."

He drove his half of the house to his brother's home, where he has since been staying.

With so many podcasts out there, Podcast411 performs a great service by providing advice and how-to's on how to be a successful podcaster. But it's also a good source of information and fun for podcast listeners.

The man behind Podcast411 has interviewed many of the most popular podcasters, and you can find these on the site. Besides giving listeners a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into a podcast, these interviews are full of insight and knowledge for anyone who is a podcaster or is interested in becoming one.

If you're a man and you want to have children, you might want to pass on that relaxing soak in the hot tub.

"Male fertility plunges with frequent dips into the hot tub but may recover when men stay away from long hot soaks," recent research suggests. The study involved men who regularly used a hot tub, heated Jacuzzi or hot bath for at least 30 minutes per week. The men's semen quality improved when they stopped using hot tubs, etc.