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We saw driverless cars crawl across the desert in 2005, then negotiate an urban environment earlier this year, and now BMW built one for the racetrack. This video shows a clip from last Sunday's Top Gear episode where presenter Jeremy Clarkson gets taken for a ride around the track in a BMW 330i that can drive itself. Although Clarkson sits in the driver's seat, the various camera angles make it clear he is not touching the pedals, shifter, or steering wheel. You can tell he wants to hit the brakes as the car approaches turns at speed, braking … Read more

Every few years, some new technology or application comes along that everyone's sure will miraculously conquer every obstacle in its path and, in some ludicrously short time period, make existing technology obsolete. And then, long after all the media hype fades away and investors' checkbooks disappear, well, nothing happens.

So what? Who cares? Why bother talking about our industry's bombs, the next big things that weren't? Well, for one thing, it's interesting to note how hungry we all are for news about new technology. It gets us excited. We complain about media hype, but love the hype.

It's also fascinating how existing technology has this way of hanging on by its fingernails way past the point of its predicted obsolescence. More importantly, we learn more from mistakes than we do from successes. That's part of the scientific method: hypothesis, test, learn, repeat until you get it right.

Lastly, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Those are all good enough reasons for me. So here are my top 10 technology flops. But first, some ground rules. I stuck to the last 50 years or so. And I avoided specific company products. We've heard enough about the IBM PCjr, Apple Newton, Microsoft Bob, and OS2 to last 10 lifetimes.… Read more

A year never goes by without someone inventing something hilariously useless. Many of these travesties tried to reinvent the wheel but were plagued by huge dollops of fail. And when companies get desperate, horrendous products hit the mass market and produce a true comedy of errors.

Over the next 10 pages, we'll take you on a guided tour of our picks of the bunch--not a definitive guide to technological idiocy. On each page is a piece of technology replete with oodles of fail. There's no excuse any more for wasting millions of dollars of development on products so … Read more

Now that Mac OS X Leopard has arrived, and Microsoft's Windows Vista slowly gains more acceptance, it's time for another battle of the heavyweight operating systems. Tom Merritt counts down the five biggest differences between Mac and Windows in another edition of CNET TV Top 5.

In the last 10 years, the off switch has seen something of a decline, being replaced by its trendier sibling, the standby button. But we miss good old offy--his sturdy construction and good humor were a welcome break from the monotony of day-to-day life.

There's good news though. With the environmentalists throwing a fit pretty much every couple of hours about how much carbon we're blowing out of our electronic bottoms, trendy standby is becoming a technological leper.

Does this mean we'll see the glorious return of our old friend? Whatever happens, it will be years before … Read more

The Internet is a weird place. It also has a weird way of making things wildly popular that would never have been famous before the copy-paste generation.

Over the last decade, we've seen a massive number of funny videos, odd art, daft catchphrases and quirky trends. These "memes," as they're generally known, spread like wildfire over the Web, sometimes reaching millions of people within hours, and millions more within days. They're known as "virals" for an excellent reason. Click here to see the list.

(Source: Crave UK)

We've all got hair, and most of us leave it sitting around on top of our heads, just flapping about in the wind. That's a great shame, because geeks can do some marvelous things with it, when they put their mighty minds to it.

All of the nerds in this list deserve credit because they've got first-rate dork hair. It's either naturally brilliant or, through clever styling and a judicious use of hair products, has become worthy of our adoration.

Of course, some of the geeks in our list have developed their excellent hair as a … Read more

For some people online flash games are a passing distraction to fill the hours between lunch and home time. For others online flash games are a passionate hobby that keeps them up until the early hours while they try and beat their last score.

Whatever your reason for playing them, we love them so much, we've put together a list of the top 10 best flash games ever, in no particular order. From very simple puzzles to complex plaformers, these should keep you entertained all day long. Click here and prepare to be distracted.

(Source: Crave UK)

The original 10 laughably bad tech ads got a great response, not to mention loads of suggestions for more. It seems that people get a huge amount of enjoyment from watching technology being sold in the most undignified and embarrassing ways.

The great news is the marketing men and women never rest: They won't give up until everyone is talking about their ad, and there's no better way to get people talking about your ad than by making it either very, very good, or a horrible train-wreck of strange themes and random celebrity endorsements.

Hopefully you'll enjoy … Read more