Trent Reznor, front man for Nine Inch Nails, is no stranger to cool tech, incredibly in-depth viral and ARG marketing campaigns, and new ways to entertain his fans live in concert. During their current Lights in the Sky tour, they let Wired writer Brian Gardiner and photographer Jon Snyder record and catalog basically everything that goes on behind the scenes to make things tick. That includes a system run entirely by Linux; hundreds of LED lights, lasers; intentional BSoD's, and "Stealth Screens"—huge, interactive marvels of tech and engineering that Reznor and his band mates can pass through and control in real time as the concert unfolds. "I'm not really a purist," Reznor told Wired. "If I'm in the studio working on an album, I try to only please myself. But when it's a tour, it feels a bit more like I have a responsibility to some degree to entertain people." No shit. [Wired]

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Apple's posted the solution for Vista users getting smacked in the face by a BSoD when they connect an iPod to iTunes 8: Uninstall iTunes and Mobile Device Support, restart, and then re-download. Wha? It looks like a crappy driver is to blame, so they've silently replaced it with an older version from iTunes 7.7 that won't kill your system. Try it, let us know if it works. [ZDNet]

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BSODs have been plaguing NIN on their current tour. In fact, one has been popping up on the giant display behind them at just about every concert. So what's the deal? Will Trent be forced to fire his tech guy? Hardly. The truth is that it is all part of the act. The BSOD pops up for a split second near the end of the song The Great Destroyer, and there are videos after the break from two separate concerts to prove it. We all know Trent is a Mac man—so this is obviously a subliminal jab at Windows. I'm sure the nerds in the audience get a kick out of it.

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Looks like iTunes 8 is really not playing so well with Windows. Users of both 32-bit and 64-bit Vista are reporting getting the blue screen of death whenever they plug in an iPod or iPhone. Downgrading back down to 7.7 appears to solve the problem, but not without some weird, but easily fixable, app-erasing hijinks.

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What exactly constitutes madness? Craziness? Being a complete nutball? Is it a lack of control of mental function? Or the inability to interact with society at a level considered "normal" by society? Or is it just the term you would use to describe anyone who actively wants to create the dreaded BSOD on their Windows machine?

If you take the latter definition, then the guys at ZDnet AU are a textbook example of the crazy. Not only have they discovered a way of manually creating the BSOD, they're actually sharing instructions on how to do it on their site.

The hack involves a little bit of registry editing, but is fairly easy to follow should you be equally insane.

Of course, there is a method behind the madness at ZDNet - apparently they use it as a way of trialling remote recovery software. But I know better - these guys really just want to watch the world burn in an ocean of blue computer monitors...

[ZDNet AU]

Call it juvenile, but a good Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) cracks me up every time. And when it's presented with so much pride by an unsuspecting Mrs. Potato Head...all the better. Snapped at Disney World, one reader couldn't resist sharing the experience.

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Imagine walking down the strip in Vegas and seeing this giant BSOD. Sure, it may not be the biggest we have ever seen, but it comes in at a respectable second position. The images were captured by Christopher Kimbell as he was going about his holiday fun in Las Vegas. Even though Christopher was most likely inebriated, cashless and newly married, he still managed to grab these great pictures from the Paris hotel's display stand. In thanks, we'll forget his devious ways in Vegas and not mention any of the naughty things he got up to. We do have our suspicions that this may be a great PS work, but if it is, what the heck, it still looks crazy cool. Jump for a shot from the next morning, showing the mother of all Explorer bars.

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At one of Toronto's locations of The Bay department store, four giant screens have suffered from the infamous Blue Screen of Death for days. You'd think that someone would, I dunno, turn off the freakin' screens. Or, at minimum, there's gotta be some 2.4gHz nanny cam feed they could leech for at least a few days before anyone complained. Because after the first 24 hours or so of BSOD, we begin to think that they like the aesthetic. [freshdaily]

We're not sure what's worse; the Zune guy getting three Zune tattoos, or this painful-as-hell Microsoft blue screen of death (BSOD) tattoo up this guy's entire right arm. We're guessing this guy is a Windows fan, because nobody hates Windows THAT MUCH to endure hours of pain just for the constant reminder that Windows occasionally crashes when you install the wrong driver. [ModBlog via Crunchgear]