humor

There is never enough time in the day for fun. And hackers do like to have their fair share.

However, I am concerned that perhaps they are sometimes being too hasty and too thoughtless in their frolics around the Web.

You see, the rather popular Sh*tMyDadSays Twitter feed, which offers the real sayings of a slightly jaded former nuclear medicine worker, has been hacked. I suppose that when you have almost 2 million followers you become prey to this sort of thing, so perhaps no one should really be all that surprised.

Security expert Sophos explained that a post … Read more

"Sesame Street" exists so that children gain some subconscious understanding that their parents are somewhere on the spectrum between fallible and incompetent.

Who can, therefore, be surprised that the show decided to offer a little musical balance to the current and very popular idea that there exists a mobile app to solve any problem?

This song reflects quite beautifully man's excessive reliance on technology to alleviate the deficiencies of his own narcotically addled brain.

You will, I trust, enjoy some of the notional apps introduced in the skit--such as the one that will help you meet a … Read more

We've covered Improv Everywhere before. It's a loose-knit group of theater nerds who pull off hilarious yet elaborate pranks in public. They're always just this side of genius and a lot of fun to watch.

This week they had some fun in New York's subway system by re-creating the opening scene from "Star Wars" where Darth Vader boards Princess Leia's ship and takes her hostage. The group staged its latest "mission" several times, heading uptown as far as 125th Street, and then back down to Union Square.

It's not as … Read more

With the fail whale cropping up even more than usual, I think I have found a good backup for Twitter.

The folks at humorous paper products company Knock Knock have come up with an entirely analog variant of the microblogging service.

The company sells notepads billed as "Paper Tweets," where people can use pen and paper to jot down their witticisms of 140 characters or fewer. There are check boxes to indicate whether you are retweeting, replying, direct messaging, or just updating your status. And even a place to write in one of those silly hash tags. The … Read more

NEW YORK--Actor B.J. Novak, host of the 14th Annual Webby Awards on Monday night, was--much like his character on sitcom "The Office"--a little too smarmy for his own good.

"This year, The New York Times is a big winner!" Novak said of the storied media establishment in his opening monologue at the Webbys, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek presentation of Slinky-shaped trophies to both judge- and audience-selected winners in innumerable categories. "The New York Times, accepting an award from the Internet, the very thing that threatened to destroy it! Who knows, maybe next year the … Read more

Conan and Google have a lot in common. I want to like them both. But, frankly, I don't know what to think about either of them any more. Are they sweet, bright, innocent, lovely, amusing coves? Or are they narcissistic brands that want you to love them and want to tell you how precisely how that love will be?

I was more concerned than ever about Conan when he made his appearance on last week's "60 Minutes." I mean, he's no Roger Clemens. He's no Jose Andres. Did we really need to see his … Read more

Everywhere one turns nowadays it seems that Apple is being accused of being too touchy.

First, Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" ridicules Apple after police stormed the home of a Gizmodo editor who had acquired a lost iPhone prototype. Then Apple allegedly fires one of its engineers for showing an iPad before the device's official debut to the very threatening Steve Wozniak--one of Apple's three founders. Later, Wozniak chided Apple for not being nice enough.

Now, comedian Ellen DeGeneres says she received a scolding from Apple for her send-up of the company's iPhone … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--It would be very clear to an uninitiated bystander at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi) this week that the annual nerdstravaganza is full of people talking about a zillion location-based social-networking applications.

There are the various campaigns and tie-ins for rival check-in services Foursquare and Gowalla, the local-deals promo from iPhone app Whrrl, and the litany of "where is everyone?" mash-ups perhaps best personified by Vicarious.ly, an uber-aggregator of Foursquare and Gowalla check-ins from Austin as well as just about every other sort of social-media updates coming out of SXSWi. Developed by SimpleGeo, another … Read more

Remember the Simpsons coin-op arcade game? It's about to get the iPhone treatment.

EA Mobile is soon to release The Simpsons Arcade, which it calls "a throwback to the actual arcade game from the early 90s." How soon? EA swore us to secrecy for some reason, but let's just say you won't have long to wait.

Update: The game is now available in the App Store for $4.99.

The game casts you as Homer (woo-hoo!), who must race and battle his way through Springfield in his quest for, natch, a donut. (Mmmm...donut.) Oh, … Read more