Rico's rants: A day late, but still good

02 April 2011

A day late, but still good

David Pogue has a technology blog in The New York Times that reveals the best pranks on 1 April:

Ah, it’s April Fool’s Day. You’d think the Web world would run out of clever ideas for pranks after all these years, but no such worries; the 2011 assortment is hilarious:
YouTube has Top 5 Viral Pictures of 1911. The fake video includes grainy, black-and-white “films” from a hundred years ago. YouTube veterans will easily recognize that they’re parodies of the Bed Intruder Song, the Annoying Orange, and other modern-day viral videos.
Google is introducing Gmail Motion. “Now you can control Gmail with your body!” Mock videos round out the deal. (Also try Googling Helvetica.)
Hulu has gone back in time, too, hilariously. The home page, in fonts, layout, and video offerings, has mysteriously gone back to 1996. “No, it’s not just a bad dream. Banks could start charging fees on ATM withdrawals any day now,” says the Good Morning America episode description. Episodes available for viewing include NewsRadio, Chicago Hope, and Highlander.
LivingSocial.com (a rival to Groupon) has a truly eye-opening “deal” available: Spa-Lami, the “first meat-themed med-spa.” (Sample: “A prosciutto neck wrap and ground beef compress come next, followed by a soothing gravy-aroma therapy treatment (in beef or turkey) and Swedish meatball massage.”)ThinkGeek.com is “offering” some truly inspired bogus products, including the Apple Store Playmobil Set (you have to watch the video), Angry Birds Pork Rinds, and Star Wars Lightsaber Popsicles.
LinkedIn.com lists Albert Einstein, J.R.R. Tolkien, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, and other people you may know. Incredibly, you can actually click their names to read their profiles.
Whole Foods is even in on the April Fool’s action, featuring “Insects Raised With Compassion”, “Save Money with Refurbished Spices”, and a new option to “have your whole paycheck automatically converted to a Whole Foods Market gift card”. (Clearly, Whole Foods has heard that some of its customers refer to it as “Whole Paycheck”.)
Kodak’s web designers went into overdrive creating a website for a new fantasy service called Relationshiffft: Automated Person Purge. “An app to instantly remove that certain someone from all your photos and videos, no matter where they’re posted!” Hilarious.
Funnyordie.com has turned into “Friday or Die,” and is nothing but Rebecca Black videos. (Last year, its April Fool prank was all Justin Bieber, but Rebecca Black is even cheesier, and therefore funnier.) The segment from “Betwixt the Music” is screamingly funny.
WestJet’s site says that it’s introducing a “state-of-the-art money-saving feature: helium mixed in ventilation system lightens the load.”
Tumblr has a staff blog where they’re letting us know about an insidious threat: running out of blog-post ID’s. The solution? To put a little snowman character in front of each ID number, so the numeric sequence can begin again…
Ryanair, "the world’s favorite airline, announced that it will introduce ‘Child Free’ flights from October (winter schedule), after a Europe-wide survey of 1,000 passengers showed that half would pay higher fares to avoid other people’s children.”
Virgin’s getting in the act, too. Check out the press release: “Branson buys Pluto, reinstates as planet.”
Toshiba’s got an announcement to make, too: “Meet the world’s first 3D monocle.” (“You’ll experience one-eyed 3D so real, you’d think you were using both eyes!”)
Somebody on eBay is selling “nothing”. Starting bid is $1.
The Huffington Post has a parody of The Times’s new digital subscription plan; it's either hilarious or vicious, depending on whether or not you work for The Times. (“On HuffingtonPost.com you can view the first 6 letters of each word at no charge (including slideshows of adorable kittens). After six letters, we will ask you to become a digital subscriber.”)