Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Happy April Fool's!

I love April Fool's Day. After catching my wife in the ages-old rubber-band-around-the-kitchen-sink-sprayer trick yet again this morning, and helping my 7-year-old son create a fake broken arm for school, I came to work poised to receive the amusing feedback from my computer lab users about the curious random pop-up messages they would be receiving today (I wonder how they got there!) and expectantly looking up the best April Fool's joke websites.

Because I found quite a few I enjoyed, I'm posting them here so everyone can enjoy them!

Let's start with Google, which never disappoints: Following up on the announcement of CADIE (Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity) and her personal blog, Google announced many new CADIE-enhanced technologies: Gmail AutopilotGoogle Chrome with 3D, Picasa with Auto Red-Eye Addition, Docs on Demand, Image Search, CADIE's favorite places (Google Maps), CADIE recommended books, and unearthly intelligence in Google Earth. (For a more nerdy perspective, CADIE's also in the Google Code Blog.)

YouTube has a unique perspective today, as well. (Click on any video to see.)

My favorite so far is the Whole Foods web site. Other notable whole-website pranks are HowStuffWorks, and Fark's New Fark Experience (a parody of the new Facebook experience). Gizmodo's articles are all re-worded as spam emails. Also see Cyclone Dairy, which sells milk only from cloned cows.

The preeminent UK newspaper The Guardian announced today it will cease all paper publications and will publish only on Twitter. NASA gets in on the action with a report of an astronaut upgrading her own head during a spacewalk.

Traveling? You can book an Expedia flight to Mars (with their No Interplanetary Booking Fees special), 

In web browser news, IE6 needs your help, Opera has developed a new Face Gestures technology after the success of mouse gestures, and Firefox has no prank this year, disappointingly.

In other technology, Toshiba has debuted the PetBook K9, a new laptop for dogs. I really like Crane, "the web's first paper-based image editor". (Makes me think of this.) Packed3D takes an existing flash game and turns it into a 3D game! Amazong Web Services announced a new cloud-computing service hosted on blimps. The truly nerdy will enjoy this interview with the author of "Mastering Cat". And finally, for those who love the TinyURL, there's now a Freaking Huge URL Generator.

That's all I've got. Add your own in comments if you like!

3 comments:

  1. Very funny stuff! Especially Whole Foods. And I've gotta remember to try the rubberband-on-the-sprayer trick.

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