The Nobel Prize for physics is the award in question, and it was actually split between two winners this year.

The first, Charles K. Kao, is the man most responsible for making fiber optic communication the force it is today. Whenever you fire up FiOS next, give thanks to Kao.

The second winner is actually two people: Willard Boyle and George Smith. These two chaps invented the CCD. No, not the Catholic classes your parents forced you to go to when you were a child, the CCD device that's used in countless thousands of digital cameras and other similar gadgets.

Of course if you combine the two breakthroughs you get digital porn, for which, as far as I know, there is no Nobel category. Regardless, lots to be thankful for today. [DPRReview via CrunchGear]

The two front-running teams, distressingly named Team Pragmatic Theory and Team Bellkor in Chaos, joined forces and have submitted an algorithm that is 10.05% more accurate than Netflix's. Now, the other contestants (it's a field of thousands) have 30 days to beat that score, and if nobody can (and no rules have been broken), Netflix will award the superteam a cool million.

This is a smart move for Netflix—improving their algorithm by that much would have been incredibly expensive anyway, and Netflix has said that the $1 million prize is actually a great bargain. Plus, it'll net them tons of press. Like the press I'm giving them, right now. Maybe in return, you guys can stop recommending 28 Days Later because I liked The Royal Tenenbaums. [Wired]

Zune is throwing an epic party for our Snowmodo event on Saturday April 4th at Northstar. They've lined up Grammy nominated Morgan Page to play some music and there will also be food and drinks available for all of our attendees. Zune has also made custom Snowmodo Zunes just for our event , which we'll be giving out as prizes in our raffle!

Zune Party Details
Where: TC's Pub in Northstar's Village. The pub is located right next our event room. For location details please refer to Northstar's site. [LINK]
When: Party starts at 3 pm with Morgan Page starting his set around 3:30 pm.
How To Get In: Only Snowmodo attendees who have Snowmodo wristbands will be allowed in. That means you'll have to stop by our event room at-least once during the day to pay the $5 admission fee and receive a wristband and raffle tickets.

On a music related note, Giz's own musicphile Adrian Covert has compiled an Official Snowmodo Soundtrack filled with three different playlists of riding music. Most of these songs will be pre-loaded on the demo Zunes available at our event. So if you don't want to load up our playlists on your own player, stop by the Zune table at Snowmodo, grab a demo Zune and go hit the mountain. I personally suggest Pheonix - 1901, need I say more...

Night Runs - Uptempo - Hip Hop

• Black Star - Respiration [amazon] [zune]
• Camp Lo - Luchini (This Is It) [amazon] [zune]
• Clipse - Keys Open Doors [amazon] [zune]
• Busy Signal - These Are The Days [amazon] [zune]
• Benga and Coki - Night [amazon] [zune]
• The Bug - Poison Dart [amazon] [zune]
• Souls of Mischief - 93 til Infinity [amazon] [zune]
• Wu-Tang Clan - C.R.E.A.M. [amazon] [zune]
• Outkast - B.O.B. [amazon] [zune]
• The Knux - F!re [amazon] [zune]
• J Dilla - Two Can Win [amazon] [zune]
• The Cool Kids - One Two [amazon] [zune
• The Streets - Blinded By The Lights [amazon] [zune]
• Madvillain - America's Most Blunted [amazon] [zune]
• Cypress Hill - I ain't goin out like that [amazon] [zune]
• JayLib - Raw Shit [amazon] [zune] [zune]
• Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says [amazon] [zune
• El-P - Delorean [amazon] [zune
• Company Flow - Lune TNS [amazon] [zune
• Beastie Boys - Sabotage [amazon] [zune] [zune]
• Cannibal Ox - Iron Galaxy [amazon] {zune]
• Zion I - Critical [amazon] [zune]
• Dilated Peoples - Worst Comes to Worst [amazon] [zune]
• Talib Kweli - The Blast [amazon] [zune
• Ghostface Killah - Run [amazon] [zune

Short Runs - Agressive - Rock

Cursive - Red Handed Slight of Hand [amazon] [zune]
• K-Os - Born to Run [amazon] []
• RJD2 - The Horror [amazon] [zune]
• M83 - America [amazon] [zune]
• Bloc Party - Banquet [amazon] [zune
• Birdy Nam Nam - Trans Boulogne Express [amazon] [zune]
• Phoenix - 1901 [amazon] [zune]
• Peter, Bjorn and John - Lay It Down [amazon] [zune]
• Wavves - Beach Demon [amazon] [zune]
• The Walkmen - The Rat [amazon] []
• Digitalism - Pogo [amazon] [zune]
• Studio - Self Service [amazon] []
• The Faint - In Concert [amazon] []
• Black Flag - Rise Above [amazon] [zune]
• Bad Brains - Sacred Love [amazon] [zune]
• Sex Pistols - Holidays in the Sun [amazon] [zune
• DFA 1979 - 1979 [zune]
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give it Away/Under The Bridge [amazon1 amazon 2] [zune]
• Nirvana - In Bloom [amazon] [zune]
• TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me [amazon] [zune

Longer Runs - Mellow - Electronic

• Skream - Summer Dreams [amazon] [zune
• Daft Punk - Voyager [amazon] [zune]
• Burial - Raver [amazon] [zune]
• CFCF - Arctic [amazon] [zune]
• Kanye West - Coldest Winter [amazon] [zune]
• Junior Boys - Double Shadow [amazon] [zune]
• Dan Deacon - Of the Mountains [amazon] [zune]
• LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great [amazon] [zune]
• Cut Copy - Out There on the Ice [amazon] [zune]
• M83 - Run into Flowers [amazon] [zune]
• Royksopp - Eple [amazon] [zune
• Animal Collective - My Girls [amazon] [zune]
• The Zombies - Beechwood Park [amazon] [zune
• Boards of Canada - Roygbiv [amazon] [zune
• Ellen Allien and Apparat - Way Out [amazon] [zune
• Black Moth Super Rainbow - Don't You Wanna Be in a Cult? [amazon] [zune]
• Zomby - U Are My Fantasy (Street Fighter II Theme Remix) [amazon] [zune]
• Booka Shade - Night Moves [amazon] [zune
• The Avalanches - Since I Met You [amazon]

For complete Snowmodo event details please head over to our Snowmodo Event Information post.

This may sound strange unbelievable to you, but it is real and it is true.

Snowmodo Event Information Below!

Location:
Northstar's Basque Room. Located adjacent to TC's Pub and directly across the walk way from Earthly Delights. For exact location please refer to Northstar's Village map [LINK] and search Basque or refer to the blue image on the map below.
For driving directions to Northstar-at-Tahoe please refer Northstar's site. [LINK]

When:
Saturday April 4th. Event room opens to the public at 8:30 am and closes at 4 pm.

Zune Party:
Party will start at 4pm, all information will be available at the event.

Instructions:
Upon arriving at Northstar, please head over to our event room to pay the $5 attendance fee. In return for your $5 you will receive a wristband and a raffle ticket. You're wristband will not only show you paid the attendance fee but will also grant you discounted lift tickets at Northstar's Season Pass Office and Copper Lane Ticketing Office.

Raffle:
Upon paying the $5 attendance fee you will receive one raffle ticket, which will be valid for our event prize raffle held later in the day. More information regarding the raffle will be available at the event.
Once your attendance fee is paid you are eligible to buy more raffle tickets at $5 per additional ticket and there is no limit on the amount of tickets you can buy.

Product Demos:
The companies in attendance will be offering various product demos that you can take out on the mountain for testing. You will be required to leave some form of ID or Credit Card in return for a demoed product. More information regarding product demos will be available at the event.

Lift Tickets:
All Snowmodo attendees are eligible for discounted Northstar lift tickets. To receive these discounts you must first pay the $5 attendance fee at our event room to receive a wristband. Once you have a wristband you will be able to purchase a discounted lift ticket form Northstar's Season Pass Office and Copper Lane Ticketing Office. Ticket information will be available at the event.

Friday Night Drinks:
We have not yet decided on where or when we'll be sitting down for drinks on Friday night. We'll be announcing details on Friday, so please check back then.

Appreciation for investment will return high yield, just sending fully insured money order to vacation residence in Gabon. I hope to hear from you in no distant time through the email address below.
jjsos@amerivas.tur.br

Thanks to all the companies that are participating in Snowmodo we are able to offer all this stuff, and then some, to our readers who attend.

Want to see exactly what you could win, well here you go:

Zune: Zune Players.
AKG: AKG hooded sweaters. AKG earbuds and the demoed AKG headphones.
Nokia: Three Nokia N96s.
North Face: 10 Flyweight Rucksack packs. 10 Khumbu Jackets.
OtterBox: Five OtterBox Defender Series for iPhone 3G cases.
Vudu: VUDU box.
Ardica: Mountain Hardwear jacket with an Ardica Moshi system.
Nixon: Headphones.
Griffin: 25 AeroSport armband for Zune. 25 Streamline armband for iPhone. 20 AeroSport armband for iPod classic. 20 AeroSport armband for iPod nano.96 TuneBuds.
GoPro: 2 GoPro Helmet HERO Wide camera kits.
LibTech: Mystery Item.
Casio: EXILIM EX-FH20 Camera.

For more information regarding our Snowmodo event you can check here. If you're planning on attending and haven't already illed out the RSVP form below, please do. Thanks!

But more importantly, Alan's skills and imagination show one of the countless possible themes for our Go Miniman Go Challenge video contest.

In case you missed it, Gizmodo and Lego are celebrating the Go Miniman Go Challenge video contest to mark the 30th anniversary of the Lego minifig. By sending your short video centered around Lego's most famous icon you will be able to win a lot of prizes, including two priceless Lego vintage sets. And if you are into photography, remember that Brothers Brick is running a photography contest too.

Talking about which, we have got our first entry in the mail yesterday, so hurry up with yours. You can read the rules here. [Go Miniman Go]

And if those prizes weren't enough to run to get your camera out, we have asked the best Lego movie directors—Nathan Wells, David Pagano, and Nate Burr—to create three exclusive movies to inspire you. Even if you are not participating, you really have to watch these.

30 Years of Music, by Nathan Wells

Go Miniman Go, by David Pagano

Living in Meatspace, by Nate Burr

Nate, David, and Nathan will be the three judges in this contest along with Lego's director of Marketing Communications Keith Malone, and myself. Here are the rules for the contest:

Theme
The videos don't have to be about the 30th anniversary itself, like the two great odes to the minifig that David and Nathan have created. They just have to use the Lego minifig. Nate's, for example, is a good example of an alternative theme: just one funny skit, like the famous Death Star canteen short that uses Eddie Izzard's monologue.

One good line of work could be a 30-second fun short on any moment of technology history. Like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak making the original Apple in the garage, the first astronauts arriving to the moon, Bill Gates retiring, a scene from a tech movie like Tron or War Games, or some famous advertising.

But don't be constrained by that. The bottom line is that, as long as it is original, creative, and revolves around the Lego minifig, you are in.

Technique
Remember that your videos don't have to use stop-motion techniques—although obviously these give the best results to tell a story—and we all are partial to stop-motion because it's just cool. However, keep your mind open and explore other possibilities.

Duration
A 20- to 30-second short—the duration of a typical TV ad—will be the minimum to enter the contest.

Due date
October 31 will be the limit.

Format
No need to go High Definition. A 520-pixel-wide video in crystal-clear MPEG-4 format will be enough.

How to send it
To send your video, we recommend you to use the free delivery service YouSendIt.com. Address it to jesus at gizmodo.com

Prizes
• First and second place: Galaxy Explorer or the Yellow Castle. Whoever wins first place picks the set he or she wants. The remaining set will go to the second place winner.
• Third price: A special set designed by Lego owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.
• Runners-up: a ton of smaller vintage space and town sets, new vintage minifigure series, and newer sets.

Do you have any questions? Write them in the comments and we will answer them. Standard Gawker contest rules apply. [Go Miniman Go]