Microsoft's inherently-ironic Songsmith software is such a goldmine. Here, some jokester has turned those stock market frowns upside-down by setting them to Songsmith's relentlessly upbeat Casiotone beats.

If this doesn't put a smile on your face, you're probably not closing your eyes shut enough. [YouTube, thanks Hendrik!]

Earlier this week, we asked you what snacks you're indulgingin this Super Bowl Sunday, and now we're back with a few of our favorite gridiron recipes of the bunch.

Snack Food Stadium

It's by far the most decadent snack option suggested, but the weblog Holy Taco's Snack Food Stadium—made from ingridients including guacamole, sausages, twinkies, cheese, and chips (and pictured here)—was recommended by both Patrick Stephens and ZimraanAgraulus. Amazing.

Sugar and Spice Glazed Pecans

SuperTuna suggests some Sugar and Spice Glazed Pecans:

8 oz. pecans (halves or pieces)
4 tbsp. margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Melt margarine in bowl in microwave. Stir in sugar and cinnamon and microwave on high 1 1/2 minutes. Stir pecans into mixture and microwave on high for 3 minutes, stirring once or twice. Spread pecans on waxed paper. Serve warm or cold. Store in jar with tight fitting lid.

Armadillo Eggs

FrankBurns' Armadillo Eggs are a greasy spoon lovers' dream:

Taco meat and cheese stuffed into a jalapeno, coated with corn bread batter and deep fried.

Served with dipping sauce of your choice. I prefer cilantro infused ranch.

If you make this, do not use store bought Jalapenos. They are wax coated and the batter will not stick. You gotta get them from a farmers market or someone who grows them themselves.

Pigskins

Reader hewhoroams says:

My favorite and most popular super bowl snack has been something I've called pigskins.

It's basically a cross between a deviled egg and a baked potato.
You take 1-2 dozen egg sized potatos, and boil til soft.
Cut them all in half and use a melon baller to scoop out the middle of each. take all the potato guts you scooped out and mix it in a bowl with some cooked beef, sour cream, and chives. I used salt, pepper, and some cumin to taste. I also added crumbled bacon, but it works better on top.
Take this mix and plop it back into your potatoes. It helps to slice off the bottom of the potato halves so they stay standing up.
It's not a bad idea to give them a bit of time in the over after, or to put bacon or cheese on top.
Voila, you've got a delicious and not terrible for you finger snack.

Healthy Chicken Wings

NICU makes these healthy chicken wings from Men's Health.

Olive Balls

ross howard's olive balls look like a tasty Sunday treat:

Olive Balls
5oz jar Old English Cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
50 or so green olives

Instructions:
- Place olives on paper towel.
- Mix cheese, butter, flour and cut it in with a pastry blender/pastry cutter.
- Roll a small amount in hands to make a ball
- Press thumb into ball to make a indention
- add one olive and roll the cheese around the olive, covering it entirely (you don't need much cheese per olive).

Bake @ 450 for 8-10 minutes

---

We've just cherry-picked a few of our favorites, but be sure to head to the original post for a closer look at other suggestions, like cream cheese chocolate chip dip, spicy meat pies, artichoke cheese dip, homemade buffalo chicken pizza, and chipotle barbecue chicken wings.

The Colorsonic MP3 player concept displays colors around its ring-shaped body, which can be matched up with a certain mood of music, like an old-school mood ring. Read on to see what it's all about.

This MP3 player is designed to match user-created playlists with mood-appropriate colors. Users would then choose music by selecting the color closest to their mood at the time, rather than by so-called "normal" and "intuitive" methods like Artist or Album. Exactly how this works, I don't know; but according to Yanko, "it’s got special software." Hmm, ok. [Yanko via Wired]

Beauty dishes are great flash modifiers for portrait photographs, but even a cheap model will set you back at least $100. Skip it—a surprisingly effective DIY beauty dish costs less than $20.

The F-Stops Here photography blog posts a project by David Tejada that combines a plastic salad bowl, en empty CD spindle, a plastic downspout attachment for a gutter, and a $3 convex mirror from an automotive store. The result is a thrifty beauty dish with incredibly polished looks. While he built his specifically for his Nikon SB-800 flash, his design would work well with any large flash and can be easily modified for smaller rigs. If you're unfamiliar with the benefits of a beauty dish, take a look at the sample portraits at right that he took of himself with and without the dish attached to his flash. If you build the dish and want more flexibility with flash placement, research how to extend your flash cord using Ethernet to give yourself more creative room.

Many of you have probably already seen this since it was featured on the Ellen Degeneres Show, but for those of you who haven't -- Cheers To You! Hit the jump for the much better metal-remix.

MC Hammer is many things. Spoken-word poet. Interpretive dancer. Trendsetter. And now, at long last, Internet Empresario.

How does such a critical darling make the nigh-impossible transition from world-class entertainer to maverick visionary iPhone app maker? Let's run over the list of what this world-shaking app can do:

1. Watch the music video for "Pumps and a Bump."
2. Follow Hammer's latest exploits on Twitter, like: "My Wife better be ready when Daddy get home !!! Too Sexy Fo My.."
3. Read Hammer's blog, which in a feat of synergy is pretty much just his Twitter but with videos.

The HammerTime app is available for free from the iTunes store. [Thanks, Joel!]

That Motorola Inferno is looking more real than ever for a couple reasons: first, we've been able to confirm it with a trusted source of ours, and two, Boy Genius Report has it on good authority that it's about to start field trials this coming week. In keeping with the pyrotechnic theme pioneered by the Krave ZN4's "Blaze" codename, it seems the production device may now be called "Torch" -- and, somewhere along the course of its R&D evolution, may have lost the translucent cover. Ironically, we really liked the cover on the ZN4 -- the touch sensitivity is one of the more trick features we've seen on a handset in recent memory -- but, you know, we wouldn't want to question Moto's infinite wisdom.

Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola Krave ZN4's successor named Inferno, now moving to field trials? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Brian begged and pleaded but Verizon simply wouldn't tell him how much his DSL would cost after taxes and fees, unless he signed a one-year contract. The customer service representatives staffing Verizon's operation centers claimed that it was too difficult to figure out all that math nonsense for every jurisdiction. When Brian pushed and insisted that surely they had to know how much their service cost, he was told that "there wasn't anyone in Verizon that knew the answer."

Brian writes:

Hello, I'd like to describe a recent experience with Verizon to you.

I was looking into purchasing Verizon Direct DSL (this is their service that does not require a phone line). The price with a one year contract is listed as $29.99/month (Excluding taxes and governmental surcharges, if any).

I called the number listed on the Verizon web site to ask what the final price would be *after* the taxes and surcharges. The representative I spoke with said she did not have access to that information, because she could only activate new subscriptions. She gave me a different number to call, which she said was Verizon's operations center, and she said they would know the answer.

However, the woman I spoke with there did not know any more details. She explained that they take orders from lots of different states, and they don't know what the taxes are in each area. I asked who I could speak to that could help me with my question, and she said that there wasn't anyone in Verizon that knew the answer. I said that this obviously couldn't be the case, because Verizon generates thousands upon thousands of bills each month, so there has to be a way to know what taxes are applied in specific areas. The representative then reiterated that nobody could provide the information, and suggested I contact my county government for local tax information.

Next I used Verizon's online form to explain my request, with the hopes that someone who did not know the answer may be able to forward it up the chain to someone who does. In the past two weeks I have sent 3 requests this way, and have not received a response or even an acknowledgment of my question.

I find it to be astounding that Verizon cannot give me a specific quote on how much their service will cost each month. Yet, at the same time, they expect customers to agree to a one year contract.

Verizon doesn't want to talk to because the advertised rate and the true rate never match up. That doesn't mean you can't ask around. According to Broadband Reports, the average cost of Verizon's DSL service is $36.

All reviews of Verizon Online DSL [Broadband Reports]
RisibleGirl

Save the Words is a website dedicated to keeping underused English language words in the dictionary. Pick an underused word and pledge to save it from extinction.

Lexicographers analyze the frequency of word usage in popular culture and media to decide which new words will go into the dictionary, but they also track the falling popularity of words and opt to remove them. At Save the Words, an initiative of the Oxford English Dictionary, you can browse a wall of rare words, be given a random word, or search for a word to see if it's in danger of extinction. Once you find a word to your liking, you can pledge to use that word in common usage as often as you can:

"I hereby promise to use this word, in conversation and correspondence, as frequently as possible to the best of my ability."

Thanks to Save the Words I finally have a proper adjective for a co-worker I had named Shrub Head: frutescent. Need to find companion words for your new vocabulary buddy? Check out our compendium of the best online language tools for word nerds.

Earlier this morning, every single one of Google's search results came with a warning that the site "may harm your computer," including their own properties like Gmail and Google Maps. They've since explained what happened:

Google works with the non-profit StopBadware.org to create a list of potentially dangerous sites, which is updated periodically. One such update happened this morning, but somebody typed in "/" by mistake. That simple keystroke expands to every single URL, which is why Google was universally borked. Google engineers fixed the problem in about half an hour, and it's back to normal now.

Please don't play with our heads again, Google. We trust you. If you tell us the entire internet might infect our computers, we'll probably believe you. [Google]