rickrolling

Seven ways to punk noobs on April Fools' Day

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One of my favorite pastimes has to be pulling pranks around the office. The pranks may leave a sour taste in the mouth of the recipient for a few days, but in the end they often lead to some good laughs and classic memories.

April Fools' Day naturally lends itself to a flurry of random jokes and pranks, so I took the liberty of rounding up some tech-inspired pranks. I hope you find a way to put one, if not all of them, to use--heck, it doesn't even have to be on April 1!

Here, let me Google that for you Do you have a co-worker who refuses to look anything up on the Internet for himself? Do you often feel like your name should be "Google"? On April 1, send the lazy Web searcher a link to LMGTFY; perhaps he'll learn a thing or two.

To use LMGTFY, visit the site, type in a search query, and click on either search button. You will then be presented with a link to copy and send off to the unsuspecting recipient. The link you send will then open a Web page with an animation teaching the recipient how to use Google. After the site automatically fills in the search bar with the query and clicks on the search button, he will be redirected to the actual Google search results. … Read more

The 404 871: Where we're pleading the 14th (podcast)

Today is international System Admin Appreciation Day, so buy your friendly neighborhood IT guy a bag of Funyuns for another year of tech support! It's Jeff's last show before his vacation next week, and we're kicking off today's episode with a discussion about what science has determined to be the saddest movie scene of all time.

We're also looking back at Obama's rickrolling earlier this week, China banning booth babes from their online gaming show, and Apple writing a check to free the U.S. from debt.

The 404 Digest for Episode 871

The White House just Rickrolled a Twitter user. The saddest movie scene ever is pinpointed by science. Apple now has more money than the U.S. government. It's the 12th annual System Admin Appreciation Day!

Episode 871 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

'Rickroll' protection hits Firefox in add-on form

Are you the victim of frequent Rickrolls? The time-honored, and now passe trend of being tricked into thinking you were seeing one video and ending up seeing a rendition of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" instead?

Well then we have some good news for you: there's a new Firefox add-on called RickRemoval that solves this problem entirely. Install it, and it will do a quick check on the page, as it's loading, to spot Astley's video and keep it from playing. It's also nice enough to put up a little message … Read more

YouTube gives up on original 'Rickroll'

UPDATE (10:46 a.m. PT): The Rickroll is back. Scroll down for more details.

In what's either the saddest or most fantastic news of the week, the YouTube video for Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" has been deemed a copyright violation.

Yes, that means the cheesy '80s pop video with tens of millions of views--the center of the "Rickrolling" Internet phenomenon--is no more.

It's not quite clear when it was removed, but the blog Neowin noticed it early Wednesday. "Never Gonna Give You Up" comes from the Astley … Read more

Rickrolling iPhone worm is never gonna give you up

Well, this hacker has quite the sense of humor.

Reports started spreading this weekend that iPhone users in Australia had been falling victim to "ikee," a worm that replaces default wallpaper with a picture of Rick Astley, the British pop singer whose song "Never Gonna Give You Up" has gained eternal infamy thanks to the mainstreaming of the "Rickrolling" prank craze. The photo is accompanied by the message "ikee is never gonna give you up," and it's apparently quite difficult to remove. According to security firm Sophos, this is the first worm detected that targets the iPhone.… Read more

Author of Rickrolling song says Google 'exploited' him

The man who co-wrote "Never Gonna Give You Up," the 1980s song revitalized by the Rickrolling phenomenon on YouTube last year, is accusing Google of exploiting him.

The music video, featuring singer Rick Astley, has been viewed more than 150 million times on YouTube but Pete Waterman earned about $16, just enough money to buy a CD.

Waterman told U.K publication The Telegraph, that he earns more from local radio than YouTube. He also compared himself to the "exploitation of foreign workers in Dubai."

"I feel like one of those workers, because I earned … Read more

Thanksgiving parade gets a live 'Rickroll'

The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York got "Rickrolled" on Thursday.

If you weren't watching the parade live or on TV, you probably saw the mass influx of Twitter messages: '80s pop singer Rick Astley, whose cheesy song "Never Gonna Give You Up" became the center of a corny Internet meme called "Rickrolling,", gave a surprise performance. "Rickrolling" originally started as tricking someone into clicking on a link to the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video by claiming it was something else, like a highly … Read more

Rick Astley to perform at MTV Europe awards ceremony?

Pop singer Rick Astley had a huge hit with "Never Gonna Give You Up" 20 years ago. Now he's had a second wave of fame--and according to a fan site, it will culminate in a performance at MTV Europe's "EMA" ceremony, which takes place on November 6.

The campy, hip-wiggling video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" enjoyed newfound popularity when it became the center of the "Rickrolling" phenomenon--the sharing of a link that purported to be something else but was actually a link to the Astley video as hosted … Read more

The 404 155: Where the studio is still standing

On the show today: Wilson and Justin do karaoke, box office and various weekend exploits, unhappy subway customers get irate, convicted pedophile sues American Express, and men's tights are the new metrosexual trend!

Hope you guys had a great weekend! Wilson, Linda, A-Rod, and a few other friends got our karaoke on at a place in KoreaTown on Friday! We had a blast singing all the hits; Wilson's going to kill me for telling you guys this, but that fool totally sang "Two Become One!" Trust me, you haven't lived a complete life until you'… Read more