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Retelling history, 140 characters at a time

Spoiler alert: The Cuban Missile Crisis ended without the United States and the Soviet Union launching even a single nuclear weapon, and the Allies won World War II.

You're no doubt well aware of those ultimate outcomes, but what if you don't remember, or never knew, the myriad individual moments, big and small, that led to those famous conclusions? There are plenty of thick history books you could pick up, but maybe you're someone who wants a more dramatic sense of what happened -- even, perhaps, to feel like you're right in the thick of the drama.

To be sure, there's no time machine that can take you back to London during The Blitz, or to the White House Situation Room as JFK stood firm against belligerent military leaders wanting to engage the Soviets over surreptitiously putting nukes in Cuba. But these days, in little 140-character snippets, many of those moments are being played out for the whole world to see. And if you close your eyes, you can almost imagine you're there. … Read more

Secure your Internet connection with Spotflux

Spotflux is a free encrypted VPN client that routes your Internet traffic through a series of secure servers that mask your actual IP and make it virtually impossible to trace the connection back to your computer. Unlike some VPN clients, Spotflux is easy enough for anyone to use.

Spotflux has a unique Setup wizard that offers more options than most installers, including extra software we declined to install. The first thing Spotflux did when it launched was to secure our Internet connection by changing our settings to conform to the secure network's servers. Our browser opened with our secure … Read more

Play it all with Media Player Classic-Home Cinema

Media Player Classic-Home Cinema (MPC-HC for short) is a true classic among media players. It can play nearly every media file format, both audio and video, and also plays DVD content. With its old-school interface and widespread customizability, it may not be the best choice if you're looking for a click-and-forget player for video and audio files. But those who require more control over their media playback will appreciate the extra options MPC-HC offers. Since this program is lightweight, it's compatible with nearly every Windows edition since 98 (which it still supports). Moving forward in time, MPC-HC is … Read more

Convert videos quickly and easily with 4Free Video Converter

Converting videos to play on your phone or tablet isn't as easy as it should be, unless you have 4Free Video Converter. With the easy-to-use Profile wizard, you just pick your device or file type and add your files, and 4Free Video Converter does the rest. It supports the most popular video formats, including HD and Flash, and a lot of less popular ones, too. It also merges files; extracts audio, video, and images; edits video files; and adds effects.

While 4Free Video Converter's user interface isn't exactly a crowd-stopper, it's cleanly and logically configured with … Read more

SpaceX still determining cause of Falcon 9 engine failure

SpaceX engineers are reviewing telemetry to figure out what caused a dramatic first stage engine failure Sunday night during launch of a commercially developed cargo ship on the company's first operational flight to the International Space Station, officials said today.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket's flight computer fired the remaining eight first-stage engines longer than planned to compensate for the failure of engine No. 1 and the Dragon cargo capsule was successfully boosted into the required orbit, setting up a rendezvous with the space station Wednesday morning as planned.

The SpaceX launch generated widespread interest because it was … Read more

SpaceX rocket engine shut down at launch

Monday's CNET Update finds a few problems:

Although it appeared to be a flawless launch, there was a problem with one of the engines of the SpaceX Falcon 9. About a minute after takeoff, one of the engines detected a drop in pressure and shut down. Video posted on YouTube shows debris falling off in what some have called an explosion. SpaceX said the engine did not explode, but rather the protective fairing for the engine ruptured due to the pressure change. The other engines compensated for the failed engine, as was designed to happen if there was a … Read more

The 404 1,145: Where we're on top of the world (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- New Captcha system uses empathy to distinguish humans from bots.

- Watch Pornhub to donate money to breast cancer research.

- Meet the man that invented the Escape key.… Read more

LG and T-Mobile team up on Optimus L9 with Android 4.0

The day before MobileCon kicks off in San Diego, T-Mobile and LG prime the mobile pump by unveiling the LG Optimus L9.

Running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the midrange handset also features a 4.5-inch qHD display made with Corning Gorilla Glass 2, a 1GHz dual-core processor, and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and 1080p HD video recording.

There's also a large 2,150mAh battery onboard, and LG's Quick Memo app. There's no pricing or availability information yet, but we're hoping to learn more when we (hopefully) see the phone tomorrow at MobileCon.… Read more

Microsoft's IE9 suffers vicious parody treatment

If you've been watching the occasional sporting event lately, you might have seen -- and even enjoyed -- the IE9 ad that seems to have been around for a little while.

You must know the one: willfully dynamic, pulsatingly powerful, it reveals all the wonderful reviews that this fine browser has enjoyed.

And yet you'd guess that someone would come along and, as they say in England, take the piss.

So here is a version of the IE9 ad, complete with the original music -- Alex Clare's "Too Close" -- that suggests the browser might cause a furrowed brow. … Read more

Play the Snake

With the era of the Gameboy over, Screen Snake is a game that brings that feeling back in a modern and original remake, right on the screen of a Mac computer running Snow Leopard or higher. While it won't help you with your productivity, its clean, intuitive interface will surely fill your time while you're waiting for an important email or the like.

Playing Screen Snake couldn't be easier: right after you launch the app, the snake will be available on the screen, as will its target, and it will crawl across until you press the Enter … Read more

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