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The 404: Ep. 1291: Where we paddle out to North Brother island

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37:07 /

A tiny abandoned island nestled in the middle of New York beckons us to explore its forgotten shores, an ArsTechnica writers endeavors to install every "free" program offered online, and a magic spray that repels water is now on the market.

-Hey. This is Debbie from Brooklyn and you're listening to The 404 with Jeff Bakalar, Justin Yu and Ariel NuÃ±ez. Some pretty smooth detail. -It's Tuesday, June 25th, 2013. This is The 404 Show, streaming live from CNET.com. I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Ariel NuÃ±ez. -I like what's happening with these callbacks. -Yeah. -We didn't even ask for it. Did we? I guess maybe we did. But they're back and they're in full effect and we got like three already. -And they're all very complimentary too. -Which is nice. -They don't have to be. They could just be, "Hey. I'm Justin Yu from New York. I'm listening to The 404." -Yeah. -That's it. -And you could just be like, "Butterfly kisses." -Yeah. -And just hang up. But no, they're keeping it going. -All the smooth. -We've got voicemails to get to and a few first time callers stuff. That's gonna be fund as well. Quick programming note: Jill Schlesinger's supposed to be on today, she'd be on tomorrow. -Okay. -She'll be in the studio. Hopefully she just has like a suitcase of money for us because that's really what it's coming down to these days. All right. Hope everyone is having a great day so far. -Uh-hmm. -Got a few stories that will hopefully brighten up your day, dude. -Yeah. -Brighten up your day, bro. -All right. What do we got, man? -That was almost a Bill impression, almost. -Catch you later, Bill and Jay. -Speaking of reminiscing, we have been reminiscing a lot lately even with Alex Winters on the show last Friday, right? -Do you guys remember in the 90s, there was this time in web browsing history, when it was-- it's kinda safe. It's kinda safe to surf the internet. All right. Like you don't have to worry about viruses all the time. Like there were definitely like Landmines but there was no iLivids of the world. You know what I mean? Like you know, your searches are a lot more G-rated so you probably weren't downloading that many infections. You know, you're always looking for like Winamps skins. -Yeah. -Or like screensavers or something like that. -Right, right. -Right. -I mean, if you-- -Icons for your AIM chat. -It's funny because all those little trinkets that you would look for back then, -Yeah. -now are ware that all of us hides. -Right. Exactly. -You know? -Yeah. -Like all the gulchy virus stuff-- -Yeah. -is there now. -Right. Like you want free games, you're gonna have to download Safari's-- -Yeah. There's a price to pay. -Yeah. It's not free. There's no such thing as a free game. -Yeah. -For sure. -Well, you know, somehow we always knew like what to click on and stuff and we're pretty good at navigating that minefield but not everybody is and it's way worse now, right? -Uh-hmm. -And so, I actually found this article in Ars Technica about a guy that's sort of undertaking a test of the internet. A test to see that if he went online and looked up free games, free music, free screensavers, what would happen if you clicked on every single offer to install every program that popped up from those searches? -How long did he last, is what I wanna know. -Yeah. How long it take for his computer to blow up? -Yeah. -And so, he was sort of inspired by that movie Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock. -Right, right. -So, he would go online and he started with a clean install. This writer is named Conor Myhrvold. To check this out, he did his own version of Super Size Me. He calls it Download Me. And he starts with a clean operating system install. He actually use Mac OS re-virtualized on a Windows PC. Right? And he starts with a clean OS install with some searches for them, some of the most dangerous key word searches that you could find on the internet like officially the most dangerous according to McAfee. So, he did a list of things like e-cards, like free e-cards, he searched that. He searched for free game cheats, free lyrics which I didn't realize were hotbeds for viruses. -Free lyrics are a breeding ground. -Yeah. I never realized that. -Man, oh, man. You just-- you can't look at-- well, think about it. CD booklets are gone. -Right -That's a hot commodity-- -Yeah, that we needed -Yeah. -Free music downloads, free screensavers and free wallpapers and after each test for these free turns, he would then revert back to the clean operating system to see exactly how bad each search term was infected. So, let's take a look at some of the results. Yeah. -[unk]. -This is the best thing though, is that, this is what he starts off with. So, check it out. This is his desktop, right? Which is a simple Ars Technica background and 3 icons, right? Just for the Recycle Bin, the other ones is Computer and then it downloads folder and he cleared his toolbar too. He uses FireFox for the web browser and there's like two other icons there. It's a very neat desktop. And then here's his web browser, just a simple Internet Explorer, oh no, I think that's Firefox. -So, this-- -That's before search one. -So, this is the before. -This is before search one, right? Also, another pre-course over this conversation is that he was kinda worried about using his home WiFi network because I guess if you click on too many of these things, you are actually red flagged as a more gullible user than others. -Oh, really? -And they'll direct you to more viruses. -Right, okay. -Then traps because they think that you're more susceptible-- -So-- -Isn't that crazy? -This is so ridiculous. -It's terrifying. -They're predators. -Yeah, they are. -They really are. -It's so predatory. -Yeah. On our parents because this is basically what happens when you give something older or not tech savvy. -Like think of-- right. Like think of the mentality of someone who's completely uninitiated. -Freeway. -Yeah. -They're just like, oh, well, isn't this a friendly environment? Of course. -Right. -Sure. -But I guess, the thing is these are-- and we'll go through this in a minute bu a lot of these websites are-- they're all innocent. He's cured clear porn, he's not on BitTorrent or anything like that and those are completely infected. Right? Like those have buttons that are designed to detour you. -Right. -They're like download here, there's like 15 download buttons on the website. But these are actually relatively simple. So, here they are. He was-- so, he was worried about using the home WiFi network, so he jumped on a public WiFi that will kinda mask his IP address. So, the first thing he went looking for was screensavers and immediately he was prompted to download iLivid ad ware and since he was on that Super Size Me model, anything offered to him, he would have to download. So, he clicked yes. Right. -Sure 'cause he's you know, he's so innocent-- -Yeah. Just like anyone. -and pure. -Do I want it? Sure do. It's free, right? -What's that? Okay. -Download it. Just on install of the iLivid ad ware, it basically renders his browser unusable. -No way. -Just once? -Just once and before I scroll down to this picture, I just wanna tell you, it added 30 icons to his desktops. -No. -With one iLivid download and two toolbars to his browser and here's what it looks like right afterwards. -Oh, my God. -So, you guys remember there are three vertically lined icons in his desktop before. -Right. That's it. Now, there's like 10 times. -Now, there's 5 columns, 10 items in each column. So, a group by 30, a little more than 30. -That's shocking. -Right. -Because usually, you're like, oh, you know, if I screw up once maybe I'll be able to get by. -Right. -Yeah. -This is total annihilation after one. Just for one screensaver program. And then this is his desktop browser. The Firefox browser now has 2 additional toolbars. -Oh, yeah. -Right? And then it also has, you know, we'll try to zoom into this so we can take a look. He-- it also added the Cloud Reader app, a Cloud Drive and a Cloud Player as well as the Amazon Instant Buy new bar. -This is just so absurd. This is so absurd. -It's painful, right? -It's just so funny because to anyone who doesn't know, this is how the internet works. -Yeah. -Right? -Yeah. -It's just like the internet is pretty much designed to take advantage of, -Right. -you know, [unk]. -Right. -And look at the screenshot too. There are 5, no I'm sorry, there are 4 hidden search toolbars here that you can actually click into and type something in and it'll do a search for you. But you know that if people use those magnifying glass search boxes, it's just gonna install way more viruses on to their computer. -This is so funny. -How are people supposed to know that this is the bad one and this is the good one? -Yeah. -The best is when they still use those fake dialog windows. Like there's a big-- there's a popular one now that says your Flash is out of date you must update. -All right. -And the pop-up looks just like a Flash install dialog box. -Right. -And I could-- I mean, like you know, that's like level 10 right there. that's tough to circumvent. -Right. -So, just imagine the people have no idea. -Yeah. -Oh, my goodness. They're in trouble. -Or sometimes you see the Java one too that looks like its system preferences window. -Yeah. -That would open up if you were on a window but you know, if you're on a Mac machine, obviously that's a virus. -Right. -But some people don't know that. -They don't know, first thing they-- -That's like terrible. -the X box, that's the best when you have like the X, the square with the X in there. -Right. -They close it out and you're on a Mac. -Right, right. -Yeah. -And people are like, oh, let me just click that. -And just click that and then 10 more popup. -I wish I had shot video of his screen while he was downloading this stuff, -Yeah. -because it's must have been a painful experience. Like anyone that clicks yes on those dialog windows, just like no. -Yeah, yeah. -You know, one click-- -Yeah. -and then you're two hours in, just remove it. -It's such a slippery slope. -Yeah. Anyway, so moving on to games, he went looking for the game Mahjong World and other game called Treasures of Montezuma 3. -Okay. -Those are both offered for free. -Yeah. The word Montezuma never associated with anything good. -Yeah. -So, you're going down a bad path here, brother. -Well, he got the game. -Yeah. -He got Treasures of Montezuma 3 ironically. -Nice. Yeah, you always get it. -Yeah. -You get it. It don't come out great but you get it. -Those earned him the Ask malware toolbar. -Nice. -The Weather Channel app both on his toolbar and as a dialog button and the install Q adware network. -This is among the funnier things I've ever seen [unk]. -So, then he restarted his computer, right? -Right. -He restarted his computer and then turned off the internet. He unplugged his Ethernet cable. -Didn't matter. -No, it mattered because look, these are the windows that pop up. -Right. -Right? Because adware, obviously, those are-- those live by you know, using internet to connect. -Right. -When you don't have internet, these are the error messages that all pop up. This is after 2 hours of restart time I'm sure. -That is so funny. -Isn't that crazy? -Right. -These are all like these things have stopped working. Check your internet connection. -Right. So, after it's all said and done, I'm sure this goes on and on and on. -Yeah, right, right. -After it's all said and done, was he able to restore it back to what it used to be? Like-- -Yeah, so that was a test. To then download at a bunch of like free malware detection programs-- -Like Spybot. -Yeah. Search &amp; Destroy, McAfee, all the free ones. Then in [unk]. -Yeah. Because a lot of them live on your web browser. -Right. -And unless you download one that lives as an extension, it's not gonna get rid of this stuff. -Malware is just like shrugging its shoulders, like-- -Yeah. -I mean, this is-- there's no-- -Yeah. -How did you even download me? -Yeah. -This is probably an accident. -You will pass the point of no return here, sir. It just shows you where the nearest recycle center for you. You can put-- -Yeah. -That's all it is. -The most flagrant out of all the search terms, what do you think that would be? What is the most dangerous thing to look up and click on if you were to click yes for every install prompt? -The word free. Like the word free. -The word free, yeah, but free what? Because we talked about free lyrics, we talked about free games, but what do you think is the most? -Free iPhone 5. -Free iPhone 5? That was good. -I just think it's-- I think porn, man. But it's not in-- -Yeah. -It's not anything nasty. -Yeah. -Yeah, it's free music downloads. Yeah. So, he actually successfully downloaded a few free musics, free songs. -Right. -But along with that came-- -But there was a cost. -That cost 800 infected files-- -Wow. -just by trying to find one successful MP3 download. -And it wasn't even a good song. -No, it wasn't. -Oh, it's so not worth it. -That's crazy. -Yeah, right. -It really is insane because what other planet, like what other environment aside from-- I don't know, like Chinatown Black Markets. Do you have to like carefully navigate-- -Yeah. -through like the web of deceit. -Yeah, seriously. -Right? -Yeah. -Like what-- you know what I mean? -Yeah. -Like where else in real life? -Yeah. -Do you have to worry about getting swindled? -Getting a virus. -You know. -Yeah. -Right. It's so crazy. -Yeah, I know. -It's really sad. That first one-- -And you know, I'm sure people that repair computers probably have their own horror stories, right? -Oh, yeah. -Like if you're a geek squad guy or whatever IT guy, these computers play pop up all the time and it must be the worst to have them go and fix it. -One of my uncles called me yesterday and he was saying he wants to get his daughter, my niece, not my niece, my cousin, a computer for her graduation. She just graduated high school. -Yeah. -She's going to college and he's like, what do I do? Do I get her a MacBook? Do I get her-- you know, and I was just like, "Well, you know, how-- you know, what she wanna use it for?" But then the conversation-- like that argument really doesn't make sense anymore? Because now, it's just like I-- he was just like I don't wanna have to pay $400 to fix this thing. -Right. -Because the other daughter like uses it for whatever she does and every two years, he's gotta spend 400 bucks to get it cleaned out. -Right. -Because she's just going around and [unk] like that. And in that environment, I think making the case for a MacBook is kind of the way to go, -Yeah. -just because you don't have-- you have these problems then they're getting more and more pervasive. -Uh-hmm. -But it's just not as bad as like the danger, I feel like to how susceptible windows machines. -And that's not even including all the bloat ware that comes pre-installed on Windows machine, right? -Right. -Well, not all of them but yeah, a lot of them. -A lot of them. You know, if you're gonna buy a new Windows laptop or computer, whatever, you might as well just wipe the entire thing clean right when you get it. You don't have to worry about the trial offer is expiring-- -Right. -and asking you to renew. -Yeah. -That's the most annoying thing. -So, all right. that's a good story, though, man. -Total installation in-- this is across 8 search terms. It installed 33 Firefox plugins. -That's over just 8. -Yeah. If you have done them all at the same time, I would have loved to see what that browser look like because the actual window for your browser-- -Yeah. -looks probably tiny and then the toolbars take of-- gotta be 3 quarters of the screen. -It's just like the space under a door. That's how much browsing room you have there. -Yeah. Forty-three Firefox extensions and 81 programs total installed. -Wow. -It is insane. -Yeah but you know, that's the-- that is a very expensive lesson to learn. -Just don't download anything free. There's nothing free. -Right. -Right? -You just gotta know what you're doing and it's gotta be legal. -Yeah. -Yeah. -Legal. Mr. Winter would approve. Would he not? -Yeah. -All right. Can we-- I wanna-- if you guys wanna laugh again because this is something that just popped up through the chatroom and it's-- yeah, I think we're all gonna have a good life about this. -I'm hosting update today, tomorrow-- yesterday, today and tomorrow. -Uh-huh. -And you know how it works on YouTube and everything that gets shot on CNET makes its way to YouTube. -Sure. -Apparently, the chat room has alerted me to a series of comments that are popping up on my update video from yesterday. -Oh. These-- -And are they mean? -They're not mean. None of them are really mean. They're just saying something about me and you can decide whether or not this is me. -Okay. -So, basically, everyone thinks I'm high. -Yeah. -Every single person that commented on YouTube on this YouTube video says something like, why does this guy look high? -Yeah. -And that sort of thing. Now, for the record, I am not hot. -Yeah. -Okay? For example, Bonifacio Carmaco-- Carcamo says, this guy looks sleepy or high. Okay, fair enough. -Uh-huh. -Mecafrank. Why does this guy always look like he's half asleep or high? Okay. -Where is the hot chick? Sleeping. I like that one too. -High or stone? -Yeah. -Stone. -So, it's-- he looks high. -Yeah. -Now, look. I'm not high again. I wanna [unk] that. I wanna get that clear. But I've been known to sort of look like it just because my face looks-- it just-- my eyes are a little slitty. -Uh-huh. -Right? And I'm kind of upset and I don't know how to approach this. -This is not the first time. You've gotten this before. You have-- -It seems to be overwhelming. -all the time. -I have this look all the time, so I chat room to come up with some other comments here that you know, we're done 'cause there's like a couple dozen comments. Someone said I came for Bridget but I left disappointed. Okay. This one is pretty good. Pretty genius CNET, tricking us into watching this by not putting Jeff in the thumbnail. -Yeah. All right. -I like that. I like that. It's too bad Bridget couldn't come in for 3 minutes of work today. -Oh. -That's pretty damn good. That is pretty damn good. But, I mean, you know, look at the thumbs up opposed to the thumbs down. It's 262 to 20. -Yeah. -I'll take those numbers. -Nice. -I don't look that bad. Do I? -No. You look-- -You don't look bad. -You know, you have lights right on your face too. -Yeah. -I don't think people will realize that those lights are kind of brightening you. -Is this gonna be a problem for me moving on? -I have to get you [unk] these lights or wear sunglasses. -I mean, do you really just want me to like, look like this with my eyes open all day? -That's scary. -That's scary, yeah. -Hi. Welcome to CNET Update. -Patrick Bateman. -It's just crazy like this is not what I look like. I'm sorry. You know. -No. -I think people just want something to say. -Do you think that's what it is? -Yeah. -I mean, you-- Can I see what they're saying? -Yeah, that sort of look like me. -Yeah, I don't know. I just think it's funny. I think it's-- I just-- I-- this is fun to me, to see all the main comments, I like that. -Yeah. -I think it's funny. -It's not that your eyes are red, though. I mean, those are like the telltale signs of someone who's stoned. Like your eyes are red. You just have-- you look tired more than high. -Yeah. -Well, that's not good either. -Are you tired? You have like, you know, the darkness underneath your eye in there. -Yeah. -I think that might be one. -Well, someone's gonna do a better job with makeup then. -Yeah. -I gotta put some better makeup, other makeup then. -You need like the Clockwork Orange [unk] just hold your eyes like it's there. -I mean, God. I'm not the spring chicken anymore, I guess. -Yeah. -You know. The years are beating me up. Is that what people are trying to say? -Is that like the sub text right there? -I don't know. I mean, do you have a picture of yourself when you were younger? I think you look the same, yeah. -You mean happy? When I was happy? -Was that ever a time in life? -I don't know. You have to get some sort of-- -Baby photos. -I was gonna say some sort of freaking ultrasound. -Yeah. -When I was happy. Because that's the last time. I don't know. I thought I'd share that with everybody as well. -Because that's fun. All right. We'll see what the comments go like today. -A few people say you look dreamy or enlightened. -Well, someone said-- there was one really good comment where like, they're like, this guy is hot. And I was like, cool, I'll take that. -Nice. -Seeing CNET Update got 404, I guess it's only fair considering how often Bridget is on the 404 lately. A lot of people missing Bridget though and that's understandable. She's a lot prettier than I am. -Yeah. -That's fair. -I'd rather look at her myself. No offense. -Yeah. Believe me, I gotta [unk] think if you know I'm looking in the mirror? I'm just like, oh, I'm just-- -Why don't I look like Bridget Carey? Is that what you're thinking? -No. Whenever I look in the mirror I'm just like, it's me. -Yeah. -That guy. -So depressing. Terrible. All right. Let's get out of this self type [unk]. -Okay. -And move on. -So, this isn't really a tech related story but I wanted to talk to you guys about it anyway and it's really not concerning anyone else but doesn't live in New York. But since we're here, -Screw up, man. -and no one else is there, -Screw him. -it doesn't matter. -Yes. -Yeah. I'm gonna talk about it anyway. -And I'm sorry. I've talked to people who were like, you know, it's cool hearing about New York stuff. -Yeah. -It is. -Because if they live in like, you know, Dickville or wherever, -Right. -they wanna hear stories of this urban city of the future. -Right. -Right? You know, like-- -Citizens of Dickville have their own problems. -Yeah, yeah. -Or the Mayor of Dickville, -Right. -his name is Richard Smith. Richard-- -So, if you wanna take a really cheap, easy vacation. You don't have a passport, you live in New York City, then you can go here. This is really cool. It's an abandoned island in the middle of New York City but I think most New Yorkers don't even know about. -I know about this. -No, you don't. -Yes, I do. -You don't know about it. -I know about it but it's not-- it's in New York City but not Manhattan proper. -No, no. -All right. -How did you know about it? -I've lived here my whole life. -You've lived here all your life. Yeah. So, for people that are just visiting-- -It's kinda like a weird New York thing. -That is-- yeah, it's like a forgotten New York. -Right. -You read that blog. -I've never been to this place. I just know about it. -Well, of course because you don't own a canoe. -Right, nor any sort of maritime vehicle. -Right. -Right, yeah. Exactly. -But if you did, you could paddle out to this island. You could paddle out to North Brother Island. -It's funny. It's just the way you say, or you could just paddle out to [unk] Island. -Paddle way out to island. Yeah. -To North Brother Island. Yeah. So, Jeff is right. It's not on the Island of Manhattan. It's a tiny little one. It's nested right in the middle of New York. It's in the East River. -Right. -It's in between like the Bronx and Rikers Island. -And yeah, and Queens. -And Queens, right. So, this was originally designated as a bird sanctuary, right? And-- -We're just like, all right. Sure. -Now it is. -Yeah. -Now, it's typically a bird sanctuary. It's not open to the public but you know, if you somehow get out here, it's only 400 meters by 250 meters. -Super small. -That's North Brother. -Yeah. -But then there's also a smaller island. You could see on the bottom of the screen here, -Yeah. -called small-- South Brother. -Right. -Right? -I don't know why they didn't do Big Brother, Little Brother. -Right. That would have been the option. -It seems like I just don't get that. -Come on, you guys. -But hey, it was the 1800s. It was the crazy time back [unk]. -Yeah. -It was originally houses and hospital in 1850. -Which makes sense because I put all my hospitals at you know, in accessible line. -Get them out. -Right. -It actually does make sense though because it was used to treat smallpox. -Right. -Because they didn't wanna infect anyone else, -Right. -you know, whatever. So, also Typhoid Mary was confined there for over 2 decades. So, it's safe to go there now, though. -Right. -It's-- -You could go there not to worry about-- -I don't know, yeah. I still wouldn't go there. -[unk] stank all over the island. -It's really like an urban spelunking place now. -Right, yeah. It's really cool. How did you guys swim in [unk]? Are you good with swimming? -No. -I don't know. Not far. -I'm an okay swimmer. I'm not going to-- -Yeah. I guess we're not gonna see it. -How come there hasn't been a horror movie filmed here? Because it is terrifying. -I bet. -There-- here, I'll scroll through some of these photos while we're talking about it. So, it's completely abandoned now. It's overrun with bush and different plant. It's definitely a haunted though because-- -I love when you that, as a matter of fact, I mean, -Yeah. -it's definitely haunted. -Haunted. Well, I guess, in the late 60s after it was abandoned of typhoid fever and things like that, there was a horrible boat crash here that claimed the lives of over a thousand people. -What? -Yeah. Boat by-- -I didn't know that. -Boat by fire and people that were drowning that we're trying to get from the boat to the island. -Jesus. A thousand people? -That doesn't spell haunted plus the Typhoid Mary stuff, plus in the late 1950s, it was used to house adolescent drug addicts, many of which died of the island as a result of their addiction. -This is so cool. -A lot of whom were locked in a room and isolated until they were clean or they died whichever came first. They were held against their will and we know this because there's a lot of writing on the wall. There's a lot of graffiti on the wall written by the inmates that were housed in [unk]. -Lot of nail scratching. -Yeah. -Is that-- are we 100% sure that's true? -Yeah kind of. Yeah, that or like the teenagers in the 80s that write on the walls. -It's not just you know, this urban legend. -Maybe. But it makes it more fun. -It does make it more fun. This is straight out of like an American horror story. -Yeah. -Season. -And there are still a lot of-- there's a lot of paintings on the walls and things and a lot of bathtubs and stuff and furniture that we still use. Looking at all these books that were there, I guess there was a library in the hospital and books were just left behind. -That's crazy. -North Brother. -I mean, it's super spooky. -Yeah. -I mean, how-- it's just crazy these-- -This are great photographs. There's a picture of a book that probably been open for 75 years. -Yeah, that book died 100 years ago. So, check out these toilets. -Yeah, cool toilets, man. -Yeah. -So, anyone can go there. You could just hop in a canoe and head over there. -Yeah. -I guess. -Yeah, if you can out there, I mean, it's illegal to be on the island. -It's right, trespassing. -Yeah, trespassing but if you can do it, there's no spikes or anything [unk]. -Why not just her net into something. -Yeah. -Yeah, right. -It seems to me like an island in the New York area here is probably cool. I wondered what happened during Sandy. Did it get flooded during Sandy? -Oh, I don't know. It's a good question. They should turn it into another prison, right? Making into like Rikers Island [unk]. -Or like-- yeah, or maybe some sort of crazy museum. -Yeah that'd be cool. I was thinking more of like an Alcatraz type of thing, like an inescapable island but-- -Yeah maybe. -It's crazy. -That's cool, man. -Yeah. Doesn't San Francisco have something like this? It's called like Fire Island or no, Treasure Island. -Treasure Island, there's Angel Island-- -Angel Island, yeah. -Where the hell is Alcatraz? -At San Francisco. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -That's in San Francisco. -Yeah. I think I saw that on my flight out. -Oh, did you? -Yeah. -There-- yeah, Angel Island. -Angel. -Yeah, it's a big inauguration one. -Uh-hmm. -But then there is-- what's the other island called? -Treasure Island. What island was the military one? -Yeah, yeah. -There's a military base on there and then there was the one Alcatraz [unk]. I don't remember that one. -Yes. -Azagora in the chat room says, they should do a Walking Dead retreat there. -That'd be cool. -Oh, man. -I wanna do like, I think Walking Dead, they should do like a paintball Walking Dead thing. -Oh, that would be cool. -Wouldn't that be cool? You have to shoot zombies with paintballs? -Uh-hmm. -Although this people would get hurt pretty bad. Like I'd just be like-- think-- -You shoot them right in the face. -I'm under the impression like these are real zombies. -Right. -Like it doesn't matter if you should point blank paintballs into their face. -Right. -Dude! -Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I'm really bleeding now. -That's crazy. -But part of the appeal of a place like this is seeing the overrun plants. Like did you ever watch that show called like-- it was like about what would happen if the earth was uninhabited? I forget what it was called though. -Oh, it was After Us. -After Us. Yeah, that's right. -Right. -Yeah, I never got to watch that but I imagine this is something that would appear on there. But look, like the beauty of it is all of the overrun stuff. -Yeah. That's awesome. -Yeah, I feel, you know, it's cool because you see all these like post apocalyptic movies like you were saying. -Uh-hmm. -And this is the basis of like how you design your art direction. -Yeah. -You just see what happen to this building and you just do and then you had-- then it's like the-- it's cool to have a natural, you know, overgrown sort of decaying environment. -Yeah, especially in New York where there's people everywhere. It's kinda refreshing. -Out of bullet markings on this door here that's-- -Yeah, crazy. -Scaring the hell out of me. -Yeah. -Just get that off the screen, I'll feel better about everything. I appreciate that, buddy. Thank you. -Yeah man. -All right. There's a totally, totally different direction here. You wanna talk about this Home Depot thing? -Yeah. -What is this about? This is like a spray that you can get to mix anything waterproof? -Yeah, that's exactly what it is. So, we started hearing about this story about two years ago when this video surfaced of a product called NeverWet and here, we can watch a part of this demonstration. It's kind of long but I'll explain it with a sound off. So, this is cool. It's basically a miracle spray that when you spray it on yourself, it renders whatever surface you put it on waterproof. That includes cloth, like leathers, plastic, metal, aluminum, anything you put it on will then become waterproof and they demonstrated it in this video that came out two years ago. Right? And so they coated this guy's t-shirt with this stuff NeverWet and then they just put a bunch of liquid crap on. -That's-- -Like this is Hershey's Syrup. -Amazing. -And it's just beating off and fallen on to the ground. They put it on his shirt, his pants and shoes and nothing sticks. Here's a bottle of a mustard that they just empty the whole thing right on top of him. -I mean-- -Here's a soda bottle. -How come this isn't in clothing? Is it like-- does it give you cancer or something? -That's insane, right? Like others [unk]. -Like it was just jumping out like relish on him. -Yeah. -What-- I feel like they can use this for so much good in the world. -Yeah. -Yeah and not just protecting iPhones for falling in the toilet either which was I think the reason why they wanted to invent it as a new case, you know. -You know what I wanna see? -What's up? -I wanna see the inside of a bottle coated with it and then you fill it up with water. -Oh, like will it happen? Yeah. -Oh, yeah. -Wouldn't that be cool? -Huh. -This really works really well. -So, is it a commercial product that you buy? -So, yeah. So, in the past two years, people have been wondering when you can buy it. It's now available in stores. They partnered up with Rust-Oleum and you can buy a bottle of this for 30 bucks at Home Depot. -What's the catch? What's the catch though? -I don't-- I mean, there's not enough information out there about it right now but supposedly it's okay for any kind of clothing. It's okay for children's clothing. I don't know if you could put on directly on your skin. That would be interesting. -And what about-- I wanna put it like on all my shoes. -Yeah. -I don't know. -That's what I wanna do. -Yeah, you could definitely do it for your shoes. Or what would happen if you just sprayed your entire body then jumped into a pool? Would the water then displace out of the floor? -Yeah. -Would there just be this like Moses Vortex [unk]? -Yeah. I don't know or like, isn't that crazy? -Better question for you. You put it on your clothing. What happens in the laundry? What happens in the wash? -Yeah. -Could you wash your clothing anymore? I don't know. -Could-- technically it would be impossible to wash. -Yeah. -Spray on condoms perhaps. -So, this guy just put-- he just, you know, put it all over an iPhone. -Yeah. -And submerged it in water and it seems to be totally okay. -Yeah. I saw another video that was really cool. They took a 12-pack of beer, you know, just in a cardboard case. -Yeah. -And they sprayed the cardboard with it and then filled that with ice and it basically became an impromptu cooler. The ice remained chilled inside of it, it didn't wet the cardboard. -Wow. -I don't understand this. -It's crazy. -It's like liquid magic. -Yeah. That's insane. I don't know how it works. -Can we get our hands on this? -Yeah. It's only 30 bucks. We can buy one ourselves. There's a Home Depot on 23rd Street. -It says 20 a year. It says retailing for $19.97. -Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah, even better $19.97-- -It's on sale. -at Home Depot. -Crazy. -I'm buying a case of it. -Let's go. -And I'll spray Marty with it and just let him go swimming. Let's see what happens. -Just walk on water. -This is really cool. -Yeah, it's awesome. -How come I've never seen anything this shockingly effective? -Yeah. Everything is gonna be coated in this. -Right? Like why wouldn't they put this on everything? -Yeah. Weird. -I don't know. All right. Cool. Great story, dude. -Yeah, dude. -All right. You wanna get to calls? -Yeah, really quick though. Let's talk about this iPad case-- -All right. Yeah. -Because it's not a long story but I think it's awesome. -Super great. Sure. -I can't believe it's never been invented before. This is an iPad case made to look like the original Grays Sports Almanac-- -Oh, nice. -in the Back to the Future movies. Okay. -How thick it's that? -It's great and it's a really good, you know, representation of it for sure. -Right. -We had a great recreation. Is this-- how is this okay though? Is this licensed? -I don't know. We don't ask questions like that. -No. We don't care about that. -Firebox probably got the thing. If not, you need to buy one right now because it's not gonna be on shelves very long. -Because it's gonna get sued. -Yeah. Here's my question, though. How come they didn't offer an ooh-la-la cover for the cover? -That's the special edition. -Yeah. That is sick. -And I'm sorry. Why is there not an actual Grays Sports Almanac? -What do you mean? -I want a real book from 1950 to 2000. It would just be like a cool little book of all these [unk]. -Because there would be a million pages. There's no way it would be a citizen magazine like it shows in the movie-- -No. But super-- -Fifty. Oh, if you have like maybe like futuristic paper. -And super tiny-- did you say futuristic paper? -Page or paper. Yeah. -What does that mean? -It's just a screen. -Paper that's thinner than paper now? -Yeah. -Or you use like the dictionary paper, the super thin paper. -Yeah. -And you print it up and you use like-- -Fifty years of sports [unk] for every sport you think it would fit, it would be like. -It [unk] any sense how tiny that book was. -An encyclopedia. -The book was super tiny. -Yeah. -It didn't make any-- it fit-- put it in his back pocket. -Right. Yeah. You put in his pocket. -Oh, 50 years s sports information right here. -Yeah. -No. It would have been a little thicker. It would have been like a Webster's dictionary, right? -Yeah. -Actually, I don't know about that, man. -I don't know. -Did someone have to do the-- -For every game from-- for 50 years, every game like it says, including baseball, football, boxing, horse racing and more. -Again, hockey gets jacked. -Well, there's a hockey player in the front. -Oh, yeah. That's right. There is. That's cool. -Yeah, there's like equestrians, horse racing, yeah, there's a lot of sports here. -Okay. How many freaking horse races of importance are there a year? Apparently only 3. -And it's not just scores either. It actually details the place, right? That's how we knew that at the end he would make a fly ball. -No, no, no, no, no. He doesn't say stats. -He predicted it. -No, no. He said, "I bet you a billion dollars USC kicks the field goal to win it." -Yeah. -He just reminds that because there was 3 points difference. -Right. Okay. Right. -Maybe then, I don't know. We need to find someone with more sports knowledge just to figure this out for us. -I know this is crazy. -Yeah. It's very cool, though. -So cool. I wanna do it. I wanna get-- I want someone to do like a special-- that would be cool. -Yeah. -To me that's like a comic content. -All right. Here's some Back to the Future trivia for you. -Oh, please. -We'll do this all the time. -Please. -There's no way you're gonna [unk] this. -Please. Here we go. -You do this, I will get down on my knees. -Here we go. Here we go. The computer goes down a little bit. -And pray to you. -Yeah, you will. -I'm not gonna get it. You're going to ask me like what's Jeff's address? -Yeah. Even that would be easier to know that this. -Okay. -How much did the original Almanac cost retail? How much was the tax in that year? -I don't know. I don't know. -And what would that make the total be? -I don't know. -There's no way anyone-- -Was it feeling like it was-- -But it was in the movie. -Yeah. It was-- -It was listed. -Was it like $49.99? -No but close. You got the 9 right. It was 29 bucks. -Okay. -Which is pretty cheap-- -For the future, yeah. -for the future. Right. Like year 2000. -I mean that's like-- it was 2015. -Twenty fifteen. This is good. -Yeah. I guess a book-- -Plus $3.19 for tax. -Right. What's the percentage? -Thirty-two dollars and $19-- -What was the Hill Valley tax rate? -I don't know. -Someone figure that out, man. People. -Eight point something. -Yeah. All right. Cool, man. -Yeah there it is. -Still, released a book. Have Mattel do it. Have Mattel do a special edition actual Grays Sports Almanac-- -I would totally buy that. -with the information there. -And the bag, if it came in that silver bag. -Oh, my God. It would be sick. -Totally but-- -It would be so cool. I would love it and I do think you can get it packed in there. I don't think I would be the largest book ever. -That's like a memorabilia item from a movie that I wouldn't be embarrassed to just put on my bookshelf. -Right. -Right? Like when you wanna have to get a glass case to protect it from your children. -Right. I will still put it in some sort of protective environment, I would. -Yeah. That would be so-- -All right. Let's get the calls from the public. I think we only have one or two that we'll play right now. But let's hear what we got. -Time to show the love. -Call me. -866-404-CNET. -The 404 call. -Oh, that's right. So, we only have-- we only have one that we'll play today. We'll save one for tomorrow because it's about Jill. But-- oh, this is just one of those self congratulatory things but whatever, let's stroke our egos a little bit on this Tuesday. -Right. -Hey. This is Gabe from Philly. I've been listening for two, three, God knows. It's been a long time. This is the first half-- -Wait. Two, three, what? -Days. Hours. -Hours. -I'm actually even recalled in but you guys are awesome. You entertain me so much. You bring me so much information that I don't know. It's just straight. And that I appreciate you so much and keep doing what you're doing. There are people who probably never call in but I'm sure they would want to. I just wanna speak for you those people. Just keep doing what you're doing and I don't know. I'll keep listening. Have a good one. -I think the best part of this call is that it's his first time calling up. -Yeah. -Well, thank you, man. That means a lot. We love hearing that sort of stuff. We really appreciate it. -Uh-hmm. -So keep on coming. And he has another call that he left for us. I think he thinks Jill is my real aunt. She's not but that would be cool if she was. She'll be here tomorrow. So, if you do have any sort of financial inquiries that you'd like to pass along to Jill Schlesinger, you can tweet us @The404 or you can e-mail us, the404@cnet.com and we'll have a lot to talk about with Jill tomorrow. The number is 866-404-CNET. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and participate in the freaking subreddit. All right? Do yourself a favor and be a part of the program in that capacity. -Yeah. -We're almost at a thousand readers, man. We're almost there. We're like [unk] a little bit but if you've not yet subscribed our subreddit, please do and that's reddit.com/r/the404. That's it for us today. Back here with Jill Schlesinger tomorrow. Until then, I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Ariel NuÃ±ez. -This is The 404 Show. High tech, low brow. Have a great Tuesday and congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks for winning the Stanley Cup. I just wanna throw that out there. Yeah. -Yeah. -All right. Rock and roll. We'll see you guys tomorrow.

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