WEBVTT - Famous April Fool's Tech Pranks 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.760 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.879 tech Stuff from how stuff Works dot Com. Join Josh 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.280 and Chuck, the guys who bring you Stuff you Should Know, 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:17.680 as they take a trip around the world to help 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.720 you get smarter in a topsy turv economy. Check out 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.400 the all new super Stuff Guide to the Economy from 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.240 how Stuff Works dot Com, available now exclusively on iTunes. 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:32.800 Hi there, everybody, welcome to tech Stuff. My name is 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:35.560 Chris Palette. I'm an editor here at how stuff works 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.160 dot Com. Sitting next to me, as usual, is senior 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:41.920 writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, and uh, we have some 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:44.680 sad news to announce that they're going to cancel tech 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:47.519 Stuff and replace it with old episodes of Stuff you 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:51.159 Should Know. Yeah, apparently we just don't have the appeal 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.680 of Josh and Chuck. So we tried to hire Ira 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:57.760 Glass to do uh this how stuff Works dot Com life, 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:00.520 but wasn't available. And we really want to see if 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.360 someone out there would draw a comic strip of us, 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.720 just like Josh and Chuck got. But um, yeah, since 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:10.680 I'm animated and not actually a real person. That was 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:13.360 a problem. So I guess now we can just take 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:16.039 the rest of this time to um to bad mouth 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:18.720 everybody else, and then we can leave in a huff. 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:25.760 Except that this is actually an April Fools joke. Yeah, 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:29.520 they're actual. I hope you weren't taking that seriously, UM, 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:34.520 if you were, got you so anyway, April Fools. April 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:37.039 Fools has been really big in the tech sector for 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:40.120 a really long time, and there are some tech journalists 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:44.800 who absolutely despise April first with all their heart. Can't 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:47.320 imagine why, Yes, with a hatred that burns brighter than 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:52.760 a thousand exploding suns. But yeah, and it's because this 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.240 is the day when a lot of people think they're 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.160 really clever and they make goofy jokes across the Internet, 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:00.320 and some of them are really funny. So of them 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.760 aren't so funny, and some of them are convincing enough 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.760 to send the nation into a tizzy every year around 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:09.400 this time. Truthfully, I think UM on the web it's 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.919 gotten to be sort of a a situation where everybody 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:16.840 goes looking for the funky websites. Yeah, they're actually websites 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.320 out there that just all they do is aggregate all 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.680 the different April Fools jokes that that people notice as 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.680 the day goes on, they'll they'll submit say, it's almost 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:29.080 like a dig, except it's specifically for April Fools pranks. 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:31.959 And uh, I think snopes dot Com sometimes does it, 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.120 and some other sites probably do as well. So yeah, 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:36.800 you can just keep your eyes open for that. But 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:41.280 there's certain, um, well, there's certain websites out there that 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:46.280 have made a reputation out of creating funny little April 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:48.840 Fools gags that we can talk about. I've got too. 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:50.799 In particular, I was thinking of that we could chat 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.600 about for just a second. One of those would be 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:58.680 Think Geek. I Think Geek, the website that offers various 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.880 toys and gadgets for the geek you know and love, 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:08.360 the mountain dew swelling cubicle dweller who works on tech stuff. Yeah, 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:10.919 actually we should um go ahead. And you know, that's 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.320 a good way of pointing out that a lot of 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:17.360 the gag gifts, the April Fools gifts that Think Geek 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:19.400 has come out with over the years, have to do 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:24.000 with caffeine and Geek's fascination with caffeine, so they're they're 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:26.560 they sell caffeinated soap and that's not a joke, No, 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.239 that really is a product they actually sell, so you 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:33.000 would that that of course makes these other caffeinated products 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:37.360 semi believable, so you might actually fall for them. For example, 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:40.960 the first year they ever did in the April Fools stuff, 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:46.320 one of the products they offered was caffeinated meatloaf. Yeah, 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.920 I'm sure you would. They also have offered things like, uh, 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:53.480 the caffe drm patch, so it'd be sort of like 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:58.680 a nicotine patch, um, a caffeine inhaler where you could 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:02.520 just in hail you're caffeine directly and get that blast 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:07.440 as soon as possible. They also what about spas Troid's 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:12.560 the caffeinated cereal, So yeah, caffeine is big over it, 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:16.240 I think geek. Yeah, they probably make fun of, you know, 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.920 make up some caffeinated mints, except they sell those two. Yes, 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.320 they do. And they have plenty of other jokes that 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:27.360 they have put on all of us throughout the years, 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.520 and some of them have backfired. But we'll get to 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.560 the backfired one. That's the that's the I knew you're 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.560 going to go there. The piece to resistance is my 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.520 my uncle would say. But some of the other things 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.599 they've said that they were going to offer on April 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:46.520 one include remnants of the Mere space station UM and 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:50.120 Atari twenty system. They offered that for a brand new 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:55.760 ad on April one, um Wheaton X, which was an 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:59.360 operating system created by Will Wheaton. Actually, I bet he'd 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:01.279 get a real kick. I'm sure I'm sure that he 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:03.880 did get a real kick out of that. They offered 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:08.400 Duke Nuken forever. I noticed that the it was Nuken, 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:13.480 not Newcomb. So they had a PC easy bake oven 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:18.520 that would attach via USB's real not at the time 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:22.200 that they offered be Now they also a USB fonduce 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:26.560 at USB Tanning Center. Uh they were. They're big on 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.600 the USB devices, um so everyone else, which is why 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:33.400 it makes him believable exactly. My favorite, my favorite until 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.839 we get to the backfire one anyway, is the Beta 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:39.920 Max to h D DVD converter, so you can convert 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:42.320 all those Beta Max videos to h D DVD. That 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:44.080 was awesome. Now, of course we all know that's a 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:48.000 lie because HD DVD doesn't exist anymore. It's gone the 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:51.760 way of Beta Max. I think more people are using 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:56.720 Beta Max now professionals still use it probably, but the 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.599 one that backfired on them was last year two thousand 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:03.919 and eight, they introduced the soundtrack t shirt, a shirt 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:07.760 with a speaker in it that would play prerecorded sounds 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:10.600 and I think they even had a slot for a 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:12.760 card so you can insert your own music if you 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.000 wanted to. And they had this goofy video of a 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.000 guy going through all these different scenarios, and every scenario 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:20.200 he had the perfect music to play in the background 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.160 so that it would be the right mood. So like 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:26.120 in the chase scene he had chase music, and in 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:27.960 the fight scene it was a showdown music, and in 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:30.920 the love scene it was that wonderful seventies walking to 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.320 a wow music. Um. Well, there were so many people 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:36.200 who wrote in and said this is a great idea. 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:41.920 They said, why don't we do this? And so they did, 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.480 and now you can actually buy a soundtrack T shirt 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:51.479 on think geek, which before was just a joke. Well, 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:54.159 you know what, I'm willing to bet, having been a 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.960 think geek customer for for several years, that they would 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.000 love if they could do that every year and have 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.560 one product. It took off so well, and it's fakeness 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:04.719 that they wanted to actually make it a real thing. 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:07.000 I bet they would do that. Yeah, it would be 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:08.800 happy with it. I don't think that would have been 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:14.040 a burden to them, at least. Another website that's known 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:18.640 for doing lots and lots of jokes Google So not 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.760 only are they taking all your information and putting it 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.080 up on the web for you, they are making light 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:27.000 of it as well. So here's some of the Google 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:28.880 jokes that have happened over the years. There was the 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:32.640 Google Mental Plex that was a device that you were 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.560 supposed to just stare at and think about what you 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:37.760 wanted to search for and then click on it and 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.600 your search results would come up. And if you did this, 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.160 the search results were all about April Fools, and you 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:45.920 got a message at the top saying there were too 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.040 many voices in your head and it couldn't get the 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.800 right search results. Uh. Then they had Pigeon Rank, which 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.560 is where they revealed the page ran right where where 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.400 they revealed the secret to their search engine results. Pages 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:00.200 were a battalion of pigeons that would type them up 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.320 in real time. Uh. There was the Google Gulp that 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:06.400 was a drink that would make you more intelligent and 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.560 make you better at searching on the internet. Uh, there 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:12.480 was Google Romance, where you could find your soul mate. 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.200 By searching certain terms, you would find other people who 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.679 are also searching for it. Supposedly there was a Gmail 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:22.840 paper where you could say that email. They would convert 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:27.320 your email to hard copy format in paper, complete with advertising, 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.680 and then deliver it to the person that you were 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.240 sending it to. So essentially it was a letter. Not great, 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:35.160 of course it again this is just a joke. And 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:39.400 then there was the Google Toilet Internet Service Provider, where 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:44.080 they were supposedly running uh internet cables through the sewer 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:47.280 system and you would thus have a toilet that was 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:49.160 hooked up to the Internet and would act as your 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:53.280 wireless router. And then of course there was Good Day 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:56.560 g d a Y, which was an Australian based web 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:00.680 search engine that could search for web page that hadn't 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.920 even been uploaded yet. They could search for web pages 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.280 twenty four hours before they came to exist, because of 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:11.480 course Australia is a day ahead of us. True, And 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:14.080 weren't they going to build an interstellar base too? Yes, 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:17.720 there was the Copernicus, which was a moon base. You 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:21.000 know you can find all those online still, so if 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:23.160 you are curious to read the whole thing. And and 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:26.080 some of them have some quite amusing illustrations too, right, 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.680 and there these are hardly long jokes and and it's 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:31.719 just it's not just like a long joke with a 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:35.960 punchline at the end, their punchlines throughout the whole thing. Yep. 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:39.400 So let's see, do you have any more sites? Now? 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:41.480 Those were the two big sites. I've got plenty of 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:43.440 other jokes. But I figured i'd give you a chance 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:46.760 to talk for a while so I can drink my tea. Well, 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:51.040 I started doing research, and I found a list of 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:56.800 some very famous ones at the Museum of Hoaxes UM. 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.520 And basically I just I found tons of them. And 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.960 course they're all kinds like the uh, the Taco bell buying, 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.680 the Liberty Bell and some of the other ones. But 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:07.800 I stuck with some of the tech stuff, and some 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.520 of them I had never even heard of. Um, you 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:17.040 know talking about you know, John C. Warreck and PC 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:20.200 Computing talking about the bill going through Congress and uh, 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:22.640 apparently it was going to make it illegal to surf 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:25.680 the Internet while you were drinking, right, because you can't drink, 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.480 drink and drive on the Internet super Highway. That's right. 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.880 Of course, nobody gets the fact that the bill's number 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:38.280 is zero four zero one wrote this in and the 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:40.280 contact for that, by the way, if you're interested, is 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:44.920 Lerpa sloof, which is April fool spelled backwards. Apparently, uh 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.600 said Senator Edward Kennedy's office had to field a lot 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.600 of phone calls because people said he was sponsoring this bill, 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:56.120 and so people were calling his office to complain that 0:10:56.720 --> 0:11:00.000 they didn't want This has gotten a lot crankier since. 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.760 But man, and that was way back in. Think about that. 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.600 The World Wide Web was essentially two years old at 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:12.760 that point. Well, um, okay, here's here's another one. Actually. Uh. 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:16.200 In four there was announcement going around that the Soviet 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:20.280 Union was going to join US. Net Um, here's another 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:22.320 one that backfired because it was it came from an 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:26.760 address from Turnienko at Krem vax Uh. For those of 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:29.240 you who are probably the majority of our audiences who 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:31.000 don't know what a vax is. It was a giant 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:36.800 mainframeish computer, uh, from Digital which later evolved into compact 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:40.480 and then hp UM and uh. You know these giant 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:42.559 computers were how you used to get on the Internet, 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:44.640 and everybody freaked out. They said, oh this is great, 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.719 you know, they want to join the Global Community. Well 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:49.680 it turned out it was a sort of a wishful 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:53.440 thinking hoax for for for a prank, but um in 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:58.360 when they actually came around, they chose krem Vas in 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.120 honor of that as there as there uh their host names. 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:03.240 So it gives you the warm fuzzies. That's kind of 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:05.240 a you know, all right, all right, you got us, 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:08.520 but uh, you know, but there's tons of those little 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:12.240 stuff like in BBC and they love their pranks too. 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.520 Said that Big Ben was going to go digital, yes, 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.640 which just makes me think of the Simpsons episode where 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:21.120 you see the shot of Big Ben and it's flashing 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.679 twelve over and over because no one's set the clock 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:27.800 after the power went out. Um well, how about in 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:31.360 nineteen seven there was a prank going around that said 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.280 the Internet would have to shut down for a full day. 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:36.480 I was that that was my next one. Yeah, okay, 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:37.920 well you go ahead and talk about that. Well no, 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:41.080 I mean you were supposed to turn off, turn off 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:42.960 your machines that were connected to the Internet because they 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:47.080 were going to clean out email, FTP and Gopher sites. Again, 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:50.679 this was and people were still using Gopher, and they 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.360 said between March thirty one and April two, you would 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:55.440 you should turn not only turn things off, but if 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.880 you could disconnect them so that they would not be 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:01.920 affected as the Internet was cleaned. And of course that's 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:04.199 just a joke, and that joke dates back. I mean 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:06.320 there were jokes that are similar to that that went 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:08.439 back to like the phone company. Well, they told you 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:10.120 used to have to place a bag over your phone, 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:12.680 so they blew the dirt out of the lines. You 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:14.520 don't want it to get all over your house. Well, 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.400 you know, it was coming from the Interconnected Network maintenance 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:22.840 staff from the main branch of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yeah. Actually, 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:26.000 it reminds me of another one where the m I 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:29.719 T announced that they were that they were selling out 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:33.160 to Disney for six point nine billion dollars and they 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:34.960 were gonna they were gonna move it to UH to 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:38.200 take apart the entire school and move it to Orlando. UH. 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.360 As a matter of fact, they accompanied that with a 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:42.880 picture of the famous dome on campus with mouse ears 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:45.880 on top of it. Um, you know, it was gonna 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:49.079 have the School of Imagineering and the Scrooge McDuck School 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:52.520 of Management and the Donald Duck Department of Linguistics. Turned 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:54.600 out the web page was hacked, it wasn't actually an 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:58.760 official M I T. So yeah, so that doesn't even 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.240 follow the real M I T hack philosophy, but well 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:05.760 it kind of does, but it kind of shows. I mean, 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:08.080 M I T wouldn't do anything that would cause damage, 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.720 and you could argue that by hacking a site you are, 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:15.520 in theory damaging somewhat. But um, I've got a couple 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:19.760 of cell phone related pranks. In two thousand four, Virgin 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:22.280 Mobile announced that it was creating a line of left 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:25.880 handed cell phones and all the digital number pads were 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:29.240 going to be reversed, and people were immediately excited and 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.440 thinking like, wow, that's really cool. Let me clue you in, folks, 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:35.960 I happen to be of the sinister persuasion, which means 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:39.960 I'm ghosh, which means I'm left handed. And while I 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.760 might be easier to dial that way, um I still 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:47.080 read numbers left to right like everybody else. I don't 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:49.360 have to turn a book upside down or anything in 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:54.240 order to read it. So just a little Well, okay, 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:58.120 I don't have to is what I'm saying. I might 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.600 enjoy it, but I don't have to. Um. So yeah, 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:03.840 that was a joke. And if people have thought about 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.520 a little bit more, especially considering what day that announcement 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:08.880 came out, they might have figured it out. Another good 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:12.600 one though, all same year, two thousand four, a Swedish 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:15.080 newspaper and I'm not even gonna try and to pronounce 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:17.840 it because there's there's no hope, but a Swedish newspaper 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:20.720 announced that if you shook your old cell phone hard 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:23.880 enough and long enough, you would be able to access 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:26.880 the new three G network even though your phone is 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.760 on the old network. You just had to shake it. 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:34.200 So I'm I'm wondering how many customers lost their cell 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.800 phones in a frenzy of shaking and like flying. I 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.880 just see cellphones flying everywhere in Sweden on this day. 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:44.720 It's a beautiful site, although I'm sure it wasn't when 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:46.880 you had saw like all the batteries and stuff laying 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:52.840 on the ground. Oh great, you know. Um, there was 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:55.840 a press release about this company called web Node. They 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:58.720 had gotten this government contract, um, and it was for 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.360 the next generation Internet. UM. Basically you could buy a 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.000 node for about a hundred dollars or more than fifty 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:08.320 million of them, and basically the more traffic that came 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:13.360 through your node, the more valuable it would be. UM. Unfortunately, 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.400 business Wire this this press lease went out over Business Wire. 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.600 They didn't find it so funny. They actually filed suit 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.200 against the people pulling a prank for fraud, breach of contract, defamation, 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:28.560 and conspiracy. So uh, not really so funny. I got 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:30.680 a I got a couple of actually have a trio 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.920 of video game ones. Okay. The first one just comes 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:36.880 from someone being industrious and going out and registering a 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:41.200 domain name. Uh, and it was for g t A Chicago, 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.240 which would be Grand Theft Auto, which immediately made all 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:45.960 the fans of Grand Theft Autos think that there was 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:48.640 going to be a new entry into the series set 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.000 in the Windy City. Of course, I ended up just 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.280 being a joke. Another one, which I think is even better, 0:16:54.840 --> 0:17:01.400 Bungee has a long running gag, Pimps at Sea. They 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:03.800 announced this game years ago. I think maybe two thousand 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.680 one was when they first announced that Pimps at Sea 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.119 would come out. And not only not only were you 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.280 a Pimp at Sea, but it was supposed to have 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:16.879 the most comprehensive and deep economic system ever seen in 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.240 video games up to that point. It was supposed to 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:22.639 be incredibly realistic, and it was going to be a 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.520 real time strategy game. And over the years they have 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.320 occasionally brought Pimps at Seed back as a joke and 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:31.320 added more features. So now it's like the most incredible 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:34.719 video game that never existed. It's like at C plus 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.160 something like that. Very nice programming language jokes. So anyway, 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.399 the final one in this group is Monkey Island five 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:44.960 fans of the LucasArts Monkey Island series. I was a 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.119 huge fan. Now, in two thousand two, there was a 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:53.240 group called Mix and Mojo that managed to contact Dominic 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.600 our motto. Dominic was the voice for guy Brush three, 0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:00.159 would the main character in the Monkey Island games. They 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:04.320 got Dominic to record a bunch of fake uh sound files, 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.480 and then they uploaded the sound files on April one 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.679 and said that this might be evidence of a brand 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.480 new Monkey Island game. And the sound files are hysterical 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:15.040 and you can still find them on the on the 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:19.520 web at the International House of Mojo. Um or actually 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:21.480 uh if Yeah, if you go there, you can find 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:24.119 the sound files. They host them there. You listen to them. 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:26.840 They're really really funny, but one of them does give 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:29.160 away the fact that it is in fact an April 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:33.000 Fool's joke. All right, then you know, I got a 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:38.639 couple more British ones. The Guardian reported that British scientists 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:41.320 had created a machine that would let them control the weather. 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.200 You know. That means that they get long summers rain 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.000 it would only rain at night and but always snow 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:53.760 at Christmas time. You know, it might be nicely they yeah, 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:57.560 no kidding. And they also send whatever whatever else to 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:01.080 the rest of Europe Continental europe Um. And then in 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:04.080 this is going to ring a bell with a lot 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:07.199 of you probably when you hear it. BBC said that 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.600 they were going to introduce Smell, a vision where they 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.359 could do things on the screen and then you could 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:16.760 smell things and people called in. They cut onions on 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:19.520 on TV and brewed coffee and they said can't you 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:21.240 smell this? And people called in and they said they could. 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.679 It's amazing how psycho semitic stuff can take effect, Isn't that? 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:28.760 Isn't that nice? So in two thousand seven, Facebook introduced 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:32.520 a new feature, Live Poke. If you chose to live 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:34.760 poke one of your friends, then Facebook would send a 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:37.359 physical person to go out to that friend and poke them, 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:40.800 except not really because it was a joke. That's an 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:43.879 awesome joke, like live poke my buddy, and like just 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:46.879 thinking about this person, like al right, tracking that person 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.400 down and then running after them down the streets of wherever. 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:54.439 No I have to poke you. It's awesome. Uh. And 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.520 then here's another good one in two thousand eight. You 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:02.200 remember what happened in two thousand eight at YouTube, every 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:06.880 single featured video to Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up? 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:13.200 The YouTube Rick rolled the Internet completely blocked that. Thanks 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:16.040 for you, welcome, And then I have a trio of 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:20.359 iPod ones real quick. Yeah. So there was Gear four 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:23.919 and two thousand six unveiled the Iron, which was supposed 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:27.239 to be an iron iPod doc. You would dock your 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.720 iPod in the Iron and it would emit steam in uh, 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:34.000 in rhythm with the music you played. Then you had 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.479 pop Express in two thousand six and they announced the 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:41.200 ipop Bra, which was a bra that featured a pocket 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:45.399 for your iPod and controls in the fabric. So imagine 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:52.000 changing the volume on your iPod. Right, Okay, if only 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:54.639 you could have seen what I just did. Unfortunately I 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:56.480 did see what you just did. Way back in two 0:20:56.480 --> 0:21:01.119 thousand four, you had the I Shave application Systems. Heidelberg 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:05.040 announced it. It was an electric shaving attachment for iPods. 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:07.800 You would uh slide this into the top of your iPod. 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.800 It would turn into an electric razor. It sounds like 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:16.080 a cut above. Yeah. Yeah, um, let's see. You got 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:20.280 a couple more um uh. They came out with total 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:24.720 home Remote Electricity, where Atmar Industries of Switzerland was going 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:28.240 to let you beam electricity through your house. You didn't 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:31.960 have to have your uh you know, appliance as electronics 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:34.320 plugged in. You can even make toast on your roof. 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:39.040 Sounds very tesla esque. Yeah yep. And then uh, you know, 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:42.320 this reminds me of your your Google mentioned a minute ago. 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:49.520 Um Red Herring brought out the telepathic email um tidal 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:54.760 wave of communications. You're a Maldini said that the technology 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:59.560 for telepathic email was created from encrypted communications sent during 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:02.080 the Gulf War. And they asked him how big it 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:04.920 was going to be, and he just sat quietly and said, 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:07.240 I sent you an email when they got back and 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:14.200 said it's going to be huge, simply huge, and uh, 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:18.320 I've got one that's that's really dated. In fact, the 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:22.320 New York Graphic in eighteen seventy eight told people that 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:26.280 Edison had had created a food machine, uh that would 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:29.880 turn dirt into cereal and water into wine and other newspapers. 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:32.760