Top 10 Strangest Things Sold On eBay

#10 Ad Space on Forehead – A man auctioned off 30 days of ad space on his forehead to be used as a billboard.

Andrew Fischer, from Omaha, Nebraska said: “The winner will be able to send me a tattoo or have me go to a tattoo parlour and get a temporary ink tattoo on my forehead and this will be something they choose, a company name or domain name, perhaps their logo”.

The auction reached $322.

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What was the First Image on the Internet? (WFOTD)

It is said that the first image ever published on the internet was a promotional photograph of Les Horribles Cernettes – a parody pop group, self-labelled “the one and only High Energy Rock Band”, which was founded by a secretary of the CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) when they attracted his attention by stepping on stage during the “CERN Hardronic Festival”, singing “Collider”.

Top 10 Funniest Google Search Suggestions

The Google Suggest tool is a great tool that shows you suggestions that Google thinks you are searching for, as you type. However, Google’s somewhat unusual sense of humor often comes out with the suggestions it comes up with. Here are the top 10 funniest Google search suggestions.

1. I like…

Yeh, me too. Personally, I think it’s the best way to impersonate a dinosaur.

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Spam Email (WFOTD)

Gary Thuerk was the world’s first e-mail spammer. He wrote the first ever spam email which was sent out on May 3, 1978 to a network of government and university computers.

In total, 600 unwilling people received his email, which was publicizing open houses in Los Angeles and San Mateo. The reaction from the net community to the email was fiercely negative, but Thuerk’s spam did generate some sales. In fact, Thuerk estimates it led to $12 million in sales.

Since then, spam emails have grown in numbers, with 90% of all e-mails sent today considered as spam. Estimates suggest that as many as 200 billion spam messages are sent daily, and it’s all thanks to Gary Thuerk.

Funeral Being Held For Internet Explorer 6 Today

More than 100 people, dressed in funeral attire, are expected to attend the funeral of Internet Explorer 6 today. The aging web browser’s offspring have taken over from their father in recent years, leaving ie6 a dead browser.

The funeral is meant to be a tongue-in-cheek event, hosted by Aten Design Group, a design firm in Denver, Colorado. Guests will gather round a coffin, carrying a ‘body’ with an Internet Explorer 6 logo as the head. They will then share remembrances.

Here’s what ‘Robert’ had to say about the browser:

“IE6, where do I begin? You were so trusting, sometimes to a fault. I’d tell you I’m going to miss all the hours we spent patching holes in your code, but I’d be lying. There is and was so much redeveloping to do because your younger counterparts are much less credulous. Do you remember your 0-day in January? I lied to you; I actually did want to spend the holidays with my family. I hope heaven is hacker free.

R.I.P my friend”

Will you miss Internet Explorer 6, or can it rot in hell? Let us know your experiences with the browser.

Link Via CNN

CodeOrgan Turns Websites Into Music

CodeOrgan is a very clever website that allows you to turn any website into music. You simply type the URL of any site you want and using a very complicated algorithm, CodeOrgan turns it to music. It’s a very cool website, although not totally accurate, as it didn’t play ‘I’m Too Sexy’ when I typed in pigjockey.com. Oh, well.

Anyway, here’s some more details on how it works:

Internet For Kidz!

Learn everything there is to know about the internet with this guide for kids. Oh man, that theme tune’s going to be in my head for days now.

The Biggest Threats To Our Youth

Photoshop + Image Recognition = PhotoSketch = Win

PhotoSketch has got to be the coolest program that I have ever come across. It’s a piece of software created by five Chinese Computer Science and Technology students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore, that uses Photoshop and image recognition technology to create a picture based on your sketch.

Here’s how it works:

“Step 1. Draw the outlines of the figures you want in your picture – anything from seagulls to a Mercedes, whatever tickles your fancy,

Step 2. Add labels for each of the items, as well as for the background.

Step 3. PhotoSketch will then find real-life images to match your doodles and put them together in a Photoshopped image that will make your jaw drop.”

Here’s an example in which a cheetah and a motorcyclist have been sketched with a desert background. PhotoSketch then gets to work and conjures up a mind-blowing picture.

Before:

After:

This video explains how it works.

Wow, just wow!

Via Mashable

Do You Know What A Web Browser Is?

While many of us may think we know what a web browser is, do we really have a clue? Google tries to explain what a web browser is and then sends an employee out to Times Square, New York, to find out if the general public know what they’re talking about when it comes to browsers. The results are astonishing!

Via Mashable

Wisconsin Tourism Federation Changes Name After Internet Jokes. WTF?!

The Wisconsin Tourism Federation has changed its name, after being made aware that it’s acronym WTF had become crude internet slang.

The federation, which was set up to attract more visitors to the state, will now be called the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin (TFW), in an attempt to put a stop to the jokes.

Unknowingly however, the Wisconsin Tourism Federation probably attracted more visitors due to it’s unfortunate acronym, than any other marketing strategy that they had in place. I say the TFW should forever been known as the WTF…even if it means it will be joked about on thousands of internet sites.

But seriously, I can’t believe they only just realized their name was one huge internet joke. I mean WTF?!!!

Link

“Did you know?” – Some Crazy Technology Facts You Probably Didn’t Know [VIDEO]

This Did You Know video focuses on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology.

‘Web-Bot Project’ Makes Prophecy of 2012 Apocalypse

There has been a lot of speculation as to a potential apocalypse on December 21, 2012, which is the day that the Mayan calendar ends, and now “web-bot” technology has moved apocalyptic prophecy into the internet age, predicting that the world will end on that very day.

Conspiracy theorists on the web have claimed that the bots accurately predicted the September 11 attacks and the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, and that they say a cataclysm of some sort will devastate the planet on 21 December, 2012.

The software, similar to the “spiders” that search engines use to index web pages, were originally developed in the 1990s to predict stock market movements.

The bots crawl through relevant web pages, noting keywords and examining the text around them. The theory is that this gives an insight into the “wisdom of crowds”, as the thoughts of thousands of people are aggregated.

Its latest and most sweeping prediction is that 21 December 2012 signals the end of the world, possibly through a “polar shift” – when the polarity of the Earth’s magnetic field is reversed. Believers claim that as well as the bots, the 2012 apocalypse is predicted by the ancient Mayan calendar, the Book of Revelations, and the Chinese text I Ching.

Link

Hilarious Kimbo Slice vs Caterpillar Norton Internet Security Commercial

This Norton Internet Security 2010 commercial really made me laugh. Get Norton 2010 – don’t let Kimbo hurt your caterpillar!

Imagine UFC fighter Kimbo Slice is a cyber criminal who picks on innocent caterpillars. Now imagine that unsuspecting caterpillar is your identity. Give your caterpillar the PC security tools it needs to take out Kimbo.

If You Printed The Internet…

Here are some interesting facts about printing the internet. For the sake of trees and your sanity, I recommend you don’t try it.

Link

Carrier Pigeon ‘Faster’ Than Internet Broadband

Broadband has been a revolution in the transfer of data and communication, however a carrier pigeon in South Africa has proved to be faster.

A South African information technology company on Wednesday claimed it was quicker for them to transmit data with the pigeon than to send it using Telkom, the country’s leading internet service provider.

Internet speed and connectivity in Africa’s largest economy are poor because of a bandwidth shortage. It is also expensive.

The 11-month-old pigeon, Winston, took one hour and eight minutes to fly the 50 miles from Unlimited IT’s offices near Pietermaritzburg to the coastal city of Durban with a data card strapped to his leg.

Including downloading, the transfer took two hours, six minutes and 57 seconds – the time it took for only four per cent of the data to be transferred using a Telkom line

Link

50 Things That Are Being Killed By The Internet

The internet has been the revolution of our time, and it’s generally changed our lives for the better. I mean, we have an eternity of information at our fingertips, can communicate with others around the globe at the click of a button as well as being able to bank and shop from our homes, and that’s just the start. But the internet is not all good and it does have it’s downsides. Take a look at this really cool article entitled “50 Things That Are Being Killed By The Internet” from the “Telegraph”.

Here’s a brief extract:

1) The art of polite disagreement
While the inane spats of YouTube commencers may not be representative, the internet has certainly sharpened the tone of debate. The most raucous sections of the blogworld seem incapable of accepting sincerely held differences of opinion; all opponents must have “agendas”.

2) Fear that you are the only person unmoved by a celebrity’s death
Twitter has become a clearing-house for jokes about dead famous people. Tasteless, but an antidote to the “fans in mourning” mawkishness that otherwise predominates.

3) Listening to an album all the way through
The single is one of the unlikely beneficiaries of the internet – a development which can be looked at in two ways. There’s no longer any need to endure eight tracks of filler for a couple of decent tunes, but will “album albums” like Radiohead’s Amnesiac get the widespread hearing they deserve?

Click the link for the full 50.

Link

Will Cats Be Banished From The Internet On 9/9/09?

These days, cats are everywhere on the internet. It’s hard to open up a webpage, close down a pop-up, read an email or do anything mildly computer-related without seeing one. Well that could all be about to change.

Urlesque is organizing a ban on cat related coverage on the internet for one day only – 9/9/09, and proposing we all join them in their mission.

I’ll put it to you, people of the internet. Should cats be banned on September 9, or is a day without cats, a day without laughter?

Happy 40th Birthday Internet?

On September 2, 1969, scientists at the University of Los Angeles (UCLA), connected two computers with a 15ft grey cable that were able to communicate with each other.

The data these early computers exchanged was tiny and meaningless, but it was the breakthrough that eventually created the internet. However, with many other milestones in history, so when should we really celebrate the birth of the internet?

Oct 29, 1969 – The first time a message was sent between two distant ARPANET computers – from UCLA to a machine based at the Stanford Research Institute.

1971 – Computer engineer Ray Tomlinson sent the first email. It was simply a test message to himself.

Jan 1, 1983 – On this day all computers on the ARPANET network were required to adopt the TCP/IP protocol, the online communication standard that is still used today.

March 1989 – Twenty years after the earliest incarnations of the internet emerged, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web as an efficient system for posting and accessing information.

April 1993 – The launch of Mosaic, the first web browser to make a real effort at usability, helped popularise the internet.

Whilst many believe that September 2 should be regarded as the internet’s birthday, when do you think is the most appropriate anniversary?

Link

Twitter Releases New Homepage

Twitter has just released it’s new homepage. The new design focusses on search and popular topics. For those of you that use Twitter, I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s more sleek and pleasing to the eye than the previous homepage.

Twitter’s functionality is still the same, however it’s redesign makes it more accessible to new users and more interactive as well as putting more emphasis on Twitter trends.

This is another step forward for Twitter, in making it easy for businesses to make money from the micro-blogging site.