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Living Laguna Seca

It's difficult to describe the smell of boiling brake fluid and barbecued brake discs. Or the sound of a BMW M6 being flogged to within an inch of its life, squealing for mercy as it hangs on to traction by the skin of its Z-rated rubber. We just got back from a day of track testing at California's Laguna Seca raceway, courtesy of the Western Automotive Journalist association, and can report it was by far the most enjoyable day's work we've done for a long time.

Among the cars up for grabs were many of the … Read more

Tesla geek-out in Silicon Valley

The new Tesla Roadster is getting some buzz. Being built as an all-electric car, Tesla's engineering aims to minimize resource consumption per mile. CNET News.com reporter Stefanie Olsen watched a Tesla engineer answer questions from a roomful of Silicon Valley engineers. He said his Tesla will go 4,900 miles on 1 megawatt of energy while a hydrogen car would go about 1,800 miles because of the energy needed to produce the hydrogen.

The Tesla on display was the second engineering prototype. Last fall, CNET captured video of an earlier prototype.

Tesla has already sold 180 of … Read more

New show: Tech Snack!

I'm shooting a brand new show today, called Tech Snack! The premise is that I'm going to tell you about four bite-size morsels of Internet culture in each episode, from a bunch of different categories. For example, today we'll be talking about a seriously addictive blog, a tech-savvy politician, a fantastic Web comic, and more!

Sounds pretty tasty, right? Another aspect of the show is that I want to showcase some of your favorite things. I'll start posting the categories here on the CNET TV blog each week, and then you can name some of the … Read more

Tune in to CNET Live today

Hosts Tom Merritt and Brian Cooley have struck gold with their new Live streaming program on CNET TV. With a hot live guest every week and an opportunity for viewers to call in to get their personal tech queries answered, it's the best thing to do on a Thursday afternoon...since afternoon cartoons!

Past guests include Justin Kan of JustinTV and James Kao at Green Citizen, who shed some wisdom on earth-friendly tech. Last week, Biz Stone from Twitter.com joined CNET Live to talk about the future of mini-blogging. Tom and Brian also took a number of calls, … Read more

Green tech can save you money

Our CNET editors have pulled together useful information on green technologies. The emphasis is on things available to the consumer right now, and many can save you energy and money.

Our Living With Technology report has reviews of hybrid cars and energy-saving products for your home. Also there's a section on Earth-friendly downloads that can be useful. And editor Michael Kanellos produced a video to show some things you can do at home to save money on energy.

Nothing lasts forever, so we even have a guide on how get rid of tech gear when the time comes.

TV doesn't have to take a backseat this summer

To ensure that the kids don't miss too much screen time during this year's summer road-trip season, Disney is about to launch its dual-screen mobile DVD system. The system features two screens with a choice of Disney-inspired faceplate designs (including Pirates of the Caribbean and Tinker Bell) that strap onto the back of the front-seat headrests.

The screens come with built-in speakers and (mercifully) headphones, as well as a 12-volt power adapter for plugging into the car for powering. There's even a subscription-based option to filter out bad language from the programs that the kids are watching. … Read more

Say what? Americans and their God-given right to air conditioning

John Berger, chairman and CEO of Houston-based Standard Renewable Energy, knows that in selling Americans on energy efficiency and green technology, it doesn't pay to appeal to their guilt.

Instead, you've got to appeal to their pocketbook. They'll buy solar panels and new types of insulation or even biodiesel cars as long as they save money and don't have to curb their lifestyle.

"We believe Americans believe they have a God-given right to have their cake and eat it too," he said.

It will never happen, but that's the kind of quote I'… Read more

Harman Kardon turns drive time into play time--again

Harman Kardon is just about to unleash the successor to its Drive + Play iPod interface, and we got a sneak preview of the new system this week. Imaginatively called the Drive + Play 2, the stylish device offers tons more features than its predecessor did, including the ability to show album art, an alphabetic search function, and a unique means of refining playlists on the move. The DP2 will be hitting shelves next week with a price tag of around $400. Check out our Crave slide show for all the info as well as some beauty shots.

Shifting your way to cheaper gas bills

Many of us are more than willing to do our part to fight global warming, but not everyone is quite ready trade the family gas guzzler for a Prius or a diesel Honda. Yet you can still take a small step toward lessening your environmental guilt with a new shift knob designed to promote fuel efficiency.

The "Gaslock Indy Cater" has an LED indicator that reminds the driver what gear the car is in. Some might think it's about as useful as the "qStart"--the gadget that tells you which side of the road you'… Read more