

Ask Slashdot: Seen Any Good April Fool's Pranks Today? 106
An anonymous reader writes:
It's that special time of year where sites around the net celebrate April Fool's Day with parodies of their own product offerings. Google Home announces a new companion service for smart yards called Google Gnome. Stack Overflow announces Dance Dance Authentication. The Russian foreign ministry changed their voicemail to include new menu options like "Press 2 to use the services of Russian hackers," and "press 3 to request election interference." And in what's either a really good prank or a horrific piece of bad timing, Phrack.org announces that they've been seized by the FBI.
Has anybody else noticed anything funny today?
The internet has a long history of April Fool's Day pranks, and it looks like 2017 is no exception. So use the comments to share what you're seeing around the web today. Seen any good April Fool's Day pranks today?
Has anybody else noticed anything funny today?
The internet has a long history of April Fool's Day pranks, and it looks like 2017 is no exception. So use the comments to share what you're seeing around the web today. Seen any good April Fool's Day pranks today?
Re:Superbowl winning QB Tom Brady traded to Buffal (Score:5, Insightful)
This new Slashdot format better be a fucking prank.
Re: Superbowl winning QB Tom Brady traded to Buffa (Score:1)
And WTF is SN?
Re: Superbowl winning QB Tom Brady traded to Buff (Score:1, Informative)
Re: Superbowl winning QB Tom Brady traded to Buff (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Superbowl winning QB Tom Brady traded to Buff (Score:1)
Re:Superbowl winning QB Tom Brady traded to Buffal (Score:4, Interesting)
This new Slashdot format better be a fucking prank.
I just assumed it was. When I checked in here at some time around 23:30 last night the site was what I've come to expect. When I reloaded at about 00:30 I noticed the change. But on further thought I'm not so sure... First, it looks more like a Hallowe'en prank than April Fool's. Second, I'm in the Eastern time zone; so if it is a prank, then they've gone to some trouble to load the prank version of the site selectively according to the user's location.
Even if it is a prank, I'm afraid they might be using it to test the waters. I'm guessing they want to maintain the 'collapsed by default' format so they can shoehorn in still more of the advertising that's been getting increasingly obtrusive of late. And if stories remain collapsed by default, and I have to click on every single subject to read TFS, with no configuration option to change that, then I'm outta here.
New /. format (Score:2)
They do this every April 1.
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Yes, yes they do. But this year...this orange color scheme is...too loud. It's not a prank, it's violence.
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Ha ha, Orange Shock it is.
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They can't handle fancy quotes properly. When you return from a link it goes to the top of the page rather than the place you jumped off from.
You think that if they tried for one crore of years they could do the needful that you're suggesting?
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Some countroids have it on their flags. Wales, Portugal ...
Second thoughts, you're right. I don't want to look at taffs and dagoes or their bloody flags.
This (Score:5, Informative)
I absolutely loved this: Reg now behind invisible HTML5 Bitcoin paywall [theregister.co.uk]
Tender and kind. Just what the doctor prescribed.
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Research paper (Score:2)
arXiv:1703.08544 [arxiv.org], D. TRUMP: Data-mining Textual Responses to Uncover Misconception Patterns
Re: Research paper (Score:1)
I use this every year (Score:5, Informative)
All the Google stuff is great as usual. Lexus' one is pretty good too.
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> All the Google stuff is great as usual.
Well, last year's "drop the mic" from Gmail wasn't that great...
"Gmail's Mic Drop April Fool Backfires Horribly Costing People Their Jobs"
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
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They should sort out them what, cannot use commas.
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I know Germans do it. But it doesn't it any less infuriating in English make.
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But the oxford comma is optional in german, too.
Sorry for infuriating you
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Well, last year's "drop the mic" from Gmail wasn't that great...
"Gmail's Mic Drop April Fool Backfires Horribly Costing People Their Jobs"
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor [slashdot.org]... [slashdot.org]
Actually it was very great, and remember it cost idiots their jobs, not the pranksters.
Yes - this site (Score:1, Insightful)
The only one I've seen is this site. What a hideous fucking eyesore!
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Betteridge Law still holds (Score:1)
He's a guy who knows where his towel is.
April Fools is Over (Score:5, Interesting)
Waiting for April 1st for fake stories is no longer necessary.
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I think someone just forgot to turn off the April Fools machine last year.
Maybe they will remember to do it this year, and we will wake up tomorrow to discover that the entire Trump presidency was just an incredibly elaborate, year-long, April Fools joke.
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The very first comment I ever made on /. was around 2000... complaining about the stupid April Fool's garbage, which was painfully tiresome 17 years ago.
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Waiting for April 1st for fake stories is no longer necessary.
The only day a year that people actually think about if the news story is BS or not (and still mostly get that wrong).
Apr 1st is stay at home day (Score:4, Insightful)
There are two days in the year when I just stay at home and avoid interacting with other human beings - in real life or on the internet: April 1st - the most pathetically unfunny day of the year - and December 25th - the most depressing day of the year.
For some reason, this year I forgot today was April 1st and I visited Slashdot by mistake. I wish I hadn't...
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Or you haven't lost touch with your family but you wish you had.
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Ouch - and I thought I was a miserable git (Score:2)
Yup - those are days that can only be enjoyed with the right sort of friends. However finding the right sort of friends is HARD; I can't say I've really cracked after 5 decades on this planet.
Here's hoping it gets easier for both of us in the future
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April 1st - the most pathetically unfunny day of the year
It's actually quite the opposite. April 1st is the day that people everywhere try and unleash funniness. The problem is the signal noise ration goes down. The good part is when sifting through it there's some genuinely good stuff out there.
But given your Dec25th story I'm going to suggest you're not the type of person who actually knows someone with a sense of humour.
This very site's new look... (Score:5, Insightful)
... is hopefully an April fools. I've been around for ~20 years, but if this is the site's new face then my eyes just can't take it.
Re:This very site's new look... (Score:4, Informative)
I guess you missed the OMG ponies theme? This is by far not the worst theme /. has had on April 1st.
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... is hopefully an April fools. I've been around for ~20 years, but if this is the site's new face then my eyes just can't take it.
Most 20-somethings have better eyesight than that.
Daily Telegraph roundup (Score:3)
From the big corporates
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new... [telegraph.co.uk]
FreeNAS Forums (Score:2)
FreeNAS Community - Friendship Is Magical!! https://forums.freenas.org/ind... [freenas.org]
This has to be a joke right? (Score:2)
Yeah on this very site: An embedded ad for a whitepaper on Visual Cobol being the next big thing for business.
Bill Waterson comes out of retirement to work on (Score:2)
I like this one:
http://www.berkeleybreathed.co... [berkeleybreathed.com]
According to the New York Times, comic-strip artist Bill Waterson has announced that he is coming out of retirement to work on a collaborative strip with Bloom County's Berke Breathed, the strip to be titled "Calvin County", and featuring characters from both strips, with political commentary.
The New York Times calls this the "Time Warner/AOL merger of the comic world".
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I came close...
(I pub sf ebooks... tedyyhunter: etc) on smashwords.
HALF of vol 6 got posted. (you obviously don;t know rough drafts. that's the one I'm currently attempting to write.)
on april 1st. Another bkgd contrib to gen cult.
you have to pay to me to watch the formal stuff.
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That would be pretty awesome.
I didn't compete this year (Score:2)
I was going to do “Democrats Revive House Un-American Activities Committee” but thought better of it.
Huh? (Score:1)
There are good April Fool's pranks?
Google's 'Project Moses' Tackles Gender Imbalance (Score:2)
Dissatisfied with earlier efforts [slashdot.org] to correct tech's gender imbalance, it appears Google may be getting ready to play hardball. On Saturday, news leaked of the search giant's soon-to-launch 'Project Moses,' which a Google spokesperson would only say will draw inspiration from the project's namesake [wikipedia.org] and utilize Google Maps' new 'Share Location' feature [staticflickr.com].
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I heard today that President Trump was resigning!
He won't joke about it because it won't be funny when he actually does resign. That, and he has no sense of humor any ways.
I liked NewEgg's Project Megga (Score:2)
https://promotions.newegg.com/... [newegg.com]
Quilted Northern - uSit wearable technology (Score:1)
Pornhub wins... (Score:5, Informative)
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Considering the site's name, I'll just bet it did!
Cancelled on Netflix (Score:2)
Netflix has a category "Cancelled By Netflix", containing one video: "Netflix Live Cancelled", which is Will Arnett maybe-improvising over a "live stream" of office equipment, including 3:30 of a burrito being microwaved. (Also, arm wrestling.) It's 48 minutes long, "available until April 2".
Slashdot's new look is one of them? (Score:3)
This new look Slashdot is just awful. I assume this is just an April Fool's prank and you'll be resuming normal transmission soon?
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I heard slashdot was going to support unicode... (Score:2)
Mother nature takes the cake. (Score:2)
Mother nature wins this year. She pulled the LARGE scale prank that people will never forget.
Colombia mudslide, flooding kill 254 in midnight deluge [reuters.com]
She's got such a funny sense of humor.
Thank you (Score:2)
... for not writing a bunch of dumb fake posts like you did that one year.
Easy - ThinkGeek! (Score:2)
Face it, every year ThinkGeek comes up with a dozen new prank products, at least one of which proves so popular that they're forced to actually make it! So it starts out as a prank, and people get disappointed to find out it isn't real, enough so they actually beg to get it produced, and ThinkGeek actually makes it.
That's how you know you got a good April Fool's prank.
That said, Kodi put up the FBI takedown/piracy notice earlier in the day (which also made for a convenient time to update their website).
Google Netherlands took the cake again (Score:2)
Hot on the heels of the self-driving bicycle from last year this year Google Netherlands is introducing Google Wind to control the weather.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Workplace games (Score:1)
I only care about doing games at work, so I sent out an email Friday morning letting everyone know that Friday was our observed April Fool's day.
I made wifi access points flash their LED's in some parts of the building. People who discovered which ones were flashing got a prize*
I put a scrambled word on everyone's desktops and told them to unscramble it and describe how it related to our company (we are in finance, so they were finance related words) to get a prize*
I used some fish line and ran it through t
Flat Earth Day: 4/1/2017 (Score:1)
Lots of new YouTube videos PROVING 1000% that the earth is Flat!!!!!
Oh wait, they make new ones every day, with the same old shit.
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That wasn't editors, that was just people sick of "this site sucks I don't know what I am doing here" posts. It adds nothing useful, so should be voted down.