ORIGINALLY AIRED: 10/7/2004

HD Home Theater PC, Doggy Gadgets, Lauren Mayhew

Episode #2594

Yes, it’s Thursday, and as any TSS fan will tell you, that means it’s LAN Party time. As tradition dictates, Alex introduced today’s deathmatch participants – including actress Lauren Mayhew -- at the LAN Party room down the hall from Studio 3. Our more observant viewers will recall that Alex is often physically attacked on his return trip to the studio. Consequently, he decided to go armed this time – and in fact left a tide of bloodshed in his wake as the camera took on a familiar First Person Shooter viewpoint.

“Oh, that’s going to go on my karma…” he muttered as he downed a suspicious vending-machine user. But in all fairness, some of the staffers he eliminated were carrying handguns and, worse, looked like zombies.

Perhaps his FPS fervor was stoked by the news that Half-Life 2 is now sitting on the hard drives of Valve’s Steam subscribers – even if they can’t play it. The long-anticipated game is now fully loaded and awaiting its official release date. According to a Valve statement, “Those who purchase via Steam, will receive the final version of Counter-Strike: Source immediately. Half-Life 2 and other games in the Steam offerings will be made available to purchasers upon their release.”

“This is the first time you can play a mod of a game before the actual game itself,” said Alex.

Oh, the pain.


In even happier news, Kevin and Alex declared victory in the great Firefox Throwdown, having regained the download-referral lead from comers The Overclockers Club. Kevin praised their sophisticated network capabilities, noting that “They meet in tree forts and cardboard boxes.” Seriously, the spirited competition for a good cause was appreciated, and we urge everyone to check out the fine content at http://www.overclockersclub.com.

Call #1: Khalil from Long Beach, Calif. has a copy of DVD X Copy that he can’t use because its maker, 321 Studios, went out of business and he can’t activate it. What can he do?

The reason why 321 went out of business was because DVD X Copy broke the encryption found on DVDs, which is a no-no. But there are a couple of free programs that do essentially the same thing as the commercial DVD X Copy: DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter. Give ‘em a shot!

Call #2: Ilan from Miami is interested in getting high-definition satellite television service from DirecTV, but he’s afraid a tree might be standing in the way. What should he do?

Kevin and Alex noted that DirecTV’s satellite is south east in direction, so if the tree is standing in that direction in relation to his apartment, Ilan may have problems. Kevin suggested talking with his apartment’s management about having a dish professionally installed. If that doesn’t work, Kevin offered the fact that Stihl offers several gas-powered chainsaws that may help. “You might want to tie off the tree if it’s near a parking complex,” added Alex. (Just kidding, folks.)

Actress Lauren Mayhew, a co-star of the upcoming Hillary Duff movie Raise Your Voice, came by for our LAN Party and stayed to have Alex set up a moblog for her. Mayhew confessed to being technologically retarded, but she had just bought a cell phone with a built-in camera that will come in handy for a moblog.

“Can your boyfriend program a VCR?” Alex asked. “I can do that really well… if you ever need it done…”

Moblogs allow you to post pictures, video, and text to the web from your cell phone. You can set your own up for free at textamerica.com. Despite the technical difficulties of too many people hitting it at once, Alex managed to get it online even if they couldn’t show it. You can visit it here: http://laurenmayhew.textamerica.com/

Who says the digital revolution can’t be foisted upon your pet? Sure it can! We gathered several gadgets built especially for dogs and attempted to make them work on our lovely dog model, Lily Chanel. Here they are:

Digital Camera for Dogs

BowLingual Dog Translator

Dog-E-Tag

Doggles Sunglasses

Curious about the wonders of high-definition television but don’t want to spend $800 to $10,000 on an HD TV? Take a gander at high-def programming delivered over the air with your PC and a few hundred dollars worth of gadgets. AIT offers a card that adds digital TV reception to your PC, and even allows you to record it (though at around 3 megabytes per second, you better have a big hard drive). Read Robert Heron’s article for more info as well as links to HD programming guides.

Here’s a free download that’ll make your desktop dizzy with 3D windows. Read Sarah’s article for all the details.

Fix your tickets at parkingticket.com

Ryan wanted to know the program’s name that allows you to overhear AIM conversation: AIM Sniff. Sarah suggested that Ryan’s friends should get AIM Encrypt.

Robert wanted to know where that cool Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy T-shirt that Dan wore came from: jinx.com.

Michaels wants a program that will stream live video over a network: VideoLAN

ALSO: A hearty congratulations to the winner of Dice.com's “Cold Hard Cash Sweepstakes,” Edward from Austin, Texas. Spend that $4,000 on something cool!