ICANN Announces Surprise Termination of Domain Name Expansion Program; Plans Own Dissolution

MARINA DEL REY, California (ZAP) -- In a stunning and unexpected announcement, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced the immediate termination of its controversial and much criticized plan for a vast expansion of generic top-level Internet domain names (gTLDs), and has set an aggressive timetable for the dissolution of ICANN itself. [more]

Thanks, Lauren Weinstein!

Google Nude View

Also reported by the EFF:

Google's New "Nude View" Program Raises Privacy Concerns

Privacy advocates are calling foul on a new partnership between Google and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that would index the backscatter x-ray images taken at airline security checkpoints. "This will help singles get a first look even before the first date," said a Google spokesman. "Google Nude View," as the program is called, represents the first major initiative for the company since it changed its venerable slogan from "Don't Be Evil" to "Mwahahaha!" 

Creativity Murder

The EFF reported on April 1, 2012:

MPAA Announces Kickstarter Campaign for Film Decrying Internet's Impact on Creative Works

In a statement posted on its Wordpress blog this week, the MPAA announced that it will respond to the Internet's "destructive" effect on creative works with a new PSA, to be funded on the crowd-funding platform Kickstarter. "Rampant content theft -- or as we call it, creativity murder -- makes it impossible to promote ideas online," according to a Tweet from MPAA chairman Chris Dodd. "For a pledge of $50, backers will receive an exclusive DVD copy of 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked' in 3D." 

Blog from the Afterlife

The BBC reports: The Earth has exploded, killing everyone.

Freenode to keep logs for 5 years

Freenode announces:

"In accordance with ACTA [...] All channels on the network will be logged and stored for a period of five (5) years. These logs will be made available to network staff and authorized governement [sic] officials [...] Beginning April 31st [...]"

Review of April Fool's Day Transactions

Kind of didn't get around to recording what went on in 2011, but I have just learned of the esteemed Review of April Fool's Day Transactions, which I heartily recommend ;) They have been publishing a review since 2006. I am hard put to decide which one I like best.

Online Shoppers Sold their Souls

From the Risk Archives:

A computer game retailer revealed that it legally owns the souls of
thousands of online shoppers, thanks to a clause in the terms and
conditions agreed to by online shoppers.
[Source; FOXNews.com, 15 Apr 2010; PGN-ed]
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/15/online-shoppers-unknowingly-sold-souls/

iCade

ThinkGeek is supposedly selling a cabinet that makes a retro arcade game out of an iPad.

New York Times on iPad

Awww. They didn't get the joke. TechCrunch reported that the newspaper of record, the NYT, would be offered on the iPad.

Actually, they reused an article from the NYT from 1996, replacing "WWW" with "iPad". And the article actually reads just like it might have come from a NYT newsdesk, even if people such as Martin Nisenholtz are now Senior VP for Digital Operations and no longer president of The New York Times Electronic Media Company. The NYT requested take-down, I wonder if they will be using the DCMA to get this blemish removed.

Apple includes new features on iPad

TÚAW (The unofficial Apple Weblog) thinks that there have been a few last-minute changes to the iPad, including a forward facing camera, an SD card slot and a Flash. Fuzzy pictures included.

Collection of pranks on Lifehacker

Lifehacker also has a collection of April Fool's pranks.

Texting on YouTube

YouTube announces a high-resolution text mode for its videos that has this Matrix-like feel to it.

Slashdot Discussion Roulette Chat

Slashdot announces that it is including a roulette chat in a a parody of Chatroulette. 

It's been a long time coming, but we're pleased to announce the latest updates to our discussion software. We've been paying a lot of attention to what other websites have been doing in the space, and as we are only too happy to steal good ideas, from now on all Slashdot stories will now be accompanied by a Roulette-style webcam video chat. In testing, we've discovered that Slashdot users are amazingly likely to engage in informative troll-free discussion when presented with the video image of one of their peers. This new addition to Slashdot nicely rounds out and improves the discussion experience for all users.

It is the same video loop that starts every time, but is well done - if you type something it pretends to have your random partner typing back. 

Google renames itself Topeka

And Topeka renamed itself Google.

In fact, Topeka Google Mayor Bill Bunten expressed it best: “Don’t be fooled. Even Google recognizes that all roads lead to Kansas, not just yellow brick ones.”

Internet has been turned off

The German national news tagesschau reports this morning that there are no IP numbers left because the Chinese have been sucking every available free address. No one has "returned" and numbers they are not using. So the Internet will be down for 24 hours while ICANN switches to IPv6.

The tagesschau reports that it will be increasing its videotext news and still has a teletype in the basement. There is also a fax service installed by which you can pay to have the home page of the news service faxed to you. And BTX will still be working.

They will be using the time without Internet to upgrade their systems. ROTFL.

Professors get revenge through RateYourStudents.com

The student-run newspaper of Concordia College in Moorhead, Montana, got an early start on silly season, publishing their April Fools edition in March:

"This article was published as part of an April Fool's Edition of The Concordian
Concordia students have voiced their true feelings about their professors for quite some time via the Web site RateMyProfessors.com. Many students turn to the Web site for guidance when selecting classes during registration. Now, Concordia professors are turning the tables. They have recently launched a RateYourStudents module on the faculty’s version of C-Port." Full article

Sumsing Turbo 3000: The ultimate in convergence.

Mobile phone with many surprising built-in functions. Must be seen to be believed.

WebCam spy feature for websites

Woopra, the world’s fastest growing Web Analytics provider, today announced that the next version of its wildly popular real-time Website monitoring application will allow users to remotely activate and view Website visitor’s built-in Webcams.

The company’s chief scientist, Dr. Lirpa Sloof, said, “Woopra already provides the most robust, feature rich and easy to use Web analytics available. Today we extend our market lead by integrating our latest patent-pending technology to give Webmasters more information about their visitors than ever before.”

PetBook K9

Playing fetch is so last year!

Microsoft asks feds for bailout

Microsoft requested on Tuesday some $20 billion in bailout funds from the federal government, claiming that as the company controlling an overwhelming share of the OS market, it is too big to fail. The company said low adoption rates for Windows Vista, the ensuing ad campaign trying to convince people that they really do like Vista, and the increased need for development resources to rush Windows 7 to market to make people forget about Vista have necessitated the bailout.

"We want to make it absolutely clear that this is not a crisis of mismanagement," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a prepared statement. "This is simply a crisis of dollars -- a crisis of not having enough dollars coming our way. And if Microsoft collapses, better than 80 percent of the OS market collapses with us. We are requesting these bailout funds to avoid that undesirable outcome by bridging the gap between now and Windows 7."