The Continental Congress of 1776 With Twitter

Matt Silverman at Mashable came up with an amusing comic exploring what it would have been like if the founding fathers were using social media.

I thought it was funny.

How Twilight Works

Originally a comic by The Oatmeal, this has been turned into a YouTube video. Watch to see how Twilight works, and why the women in our lives go nuts over this cheesy fiction, featuring an immortal who has chosen to spend his immortality as a junior in high school, a fate worse than death.

 

Failblog: Date Win

I wonder if the people who put together this episode of The Simpsons expected to still be on the air when this happened.

Finally, Social Media Expert Defined

From Jason Dunn. I’d say this video sums it up nicely.

I need to find out what program is being used to create these things. 

Hitler on Copyright

Remember the hilarious parody video about Hitler getting upset over the iPod Touch not getting a camera?

Well, somebody retooled the clip to make it into a parody on copyrights. Apparently, Hitler posted some parody videos to YouTube, which were taken down illegally by large corporations. Same clip, different subtitles. I still don’t know where this scene is actually from.

There is language, at least in the English subtitles. I didn’t hear any of the German cuss words I know in the video.

Remembering the $1000 iPhone App “I Am Rich”

This is a classic. One of the first apps released for the iPhone’s OS 2, and one of the most expensive I’m aware of. I Am Rich originally sold for $999. It was bought by 8 people, two of which appealed. 6 people apparently were happy with their purchase. I Am Rich did little. It showed a picture of a red gem, and had a mantra which read:

I am rich
I deserv [sic] it
I am good,
healthy &
successful

Deserve was misspelled. But I guess if you’re rich, you don’t have to spell “deserve” right.

I had a freeware version of the app for Windows Mobile.

Would Liking This Be Morbid?

I noticed this on the right side of my Facebook page, where advertisements and friend suggestions are:

Just because I have a tendency to be a jerk, I was tempted to click “Like”.

Why Do My Weather Preferences Get People Upset?

This is curious. We recently got a ton of snow in the Delaware Valley region. I’m sure they’ve seen more in the past, but in the 11 years I’ve lived in New Jersey, it’s a record breaker.

And it didn’t bother me.

Sure, the shoveling was tough, but I got through it. I enjoyed having the snow around. It was a nice change of scenery.

What’s weird is talking to people about it. At work, when people are bitching complaining about all the snow, I mention that I’d rather have the snow than the heat in the middle of summer.

The reactions that I get are along the lines of “How could you, you, you… MONSTER!”

Maybe I’m exaggerating a tiny bit, but most people react very badly. Even at dinner tonight, Christina was talking about a weather forecast that includes about 5 days of solid rain. Ugh. Hate it. I said I’d rather have snow. Christina’s reaction was to ask me if I knew what that meant…

As if God is going to schedule the weather around my preferences.

Seriously, why do people get worked up when I mention that I wouldn’t mind it if the weather stayed cold longer? I like the cold. I don’t like to sweat. And I’d MUCH rather shovel snow than pay another $450 electric bill in the summer. Snow doesn’t cost me anything extra. Snow is cool to watch. Rain is just miserable. In any case, the weather doesn’t bend to my will. It would be about as effective as getting mad at me if I said I wouldn’t care if LOST got cancelled. They don’t make programming decisions based on my apathy.

Fun With Ghosts

In my last post, I wrote about a new iPhone app that allows you to superimpose ghosts onto pictures. Here are the first two I came up with. One is a “ghost” standing next to Caleb on the bed while he plays Lego Star Wars on the Wii. The other is a picture of the front of my house during a recent snowstorm.

I could have a lot of fun with this app. Yes, I promise not to test how gullible the Philadelphia Inquirer might be.

Take Pictures of Ghosts With an iPhone

I like the show Ghost Hunters, so I won't pick on them here. I assume it's safe to take the show at face value until I find a reason not to.

One of the things I like about TAPS is that they place the highest value on evidence. Personal experiences are interesting, but count for little to nothing. They only go by what they can demonstrate.

That's good, because I just found out a way to have fun with those who aren't as careful to only deal in verifiable evidence. Turns out, a UK tabloid published a photo with an apparent ghost in it. It looks real enough, right?

Not really. Turns out, the picture was a hoax. And as the cliche goes, there's an app for that. Introducing Ghost Capture, now live in the App Store (iPhone). Ghost capture is available in both free and $.99 versions. I'm downloading the free version.

Now if I can only hoax Christina before she reads this blog post…