April Fool 2012 roundup
Things we learned on April 1 2012:
Telstra is bringing back the Gold Phone.
Bulletproof, which powers Mumbrella among many other sites, is offering a new off-planet backup service:
Bulletproof Networks to offer first off-planet Disaster Recovery service
Sydney, Australia, Sunday 1 April, 2012 – Australian Mission Critical Cloud Hosting provider Bulletproof Networks has launched a new service that it believes is a world first in Disaster Recovery. An extension to Bulletproof’s secondary Sydney data centre (well outside the 15km radius of Sydney’s CBD), the provider today launched a new Disaster Recovery offering to allow continuity of service in the event of the most severe disaster scenarios imaginable.
Named “New Dawn”, the service will provide for hosting of customers’ applications from computing facilities orbiting Earth, away from the planet’s surface. The service will use idle computing facilities inside the orbiting satellites of a number of commercially-failed communications networks, with a multi-hundred satellite footprint.
The service uses a number of internationally-hosted ‘Earth viability’ detection nodes, that can determine when a whole-of-earth disaster has struck that would render most earth-bound hosting facilities inoperable by watching key Internet traffic metrics. In this scenario, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite-borne hosting capabilities come online, making content available through a range of wireless communications standards that allow access without the need for networks back on Earth, and with low enough latencies to be quite usable.
“In the event that an extreme disaster event takes down most hosting facilities on Earth, companies will want to ensure that as life returns to normal, they are among the first-to-market with hosted capabilities that allow survivors to access their services, and to be the brands of a new beginning,” Anthony Woodward, Bulletproof’s CIO, said in a statement. “We also believe that this makes excellent use of idle compute capacity that is already in orbit, preventing the need to launch our own.”
The company also notes that, in addition to the vast majority of Bulletproof’s extensive list of existing brand-name customers, several leading global web sites have approached Bulletproof with a view to leveraging the service to ensure that personal profiles on blogging and social media sites are still visible to survivors allowing corporations to leverage this information to target their sales in post-apocalyptic products such as Geiger counters and building materials. Bulletproof expects that the service will have strong take-up later this year in preparation for events on December 22nd, per the Mayan Calendar.
Google is to supplement Street View, via Street Roo, by strapping cameras to kangaroos’ heads
“Over the next four weeks, more than a thousand Big Red kangaroos will be equipped with a 360-degree head camera that will automatically capture images when the marsupial is on the move during daylight hours.
“The cameras on our Street Roo collection team will be powered by solar panels stitched into the back pocket of custom-made roo jackets. Images will be wired to Google in real-time. A GPS tracker embedded into the jacket will match the location of the kangaroo to ensure the image is accurately uploaded onto the new Street View layer.
“To ensure a seamless experience – and to avoid motion sickness – we have also developed software that will smooth over the bouncing effect experienced with the raw data.”
Meanwhile, Google Maps is now available on eight bit cartridge:
And still with Google, Gmail is now available with a Morse Code keypad:
Update: Yet another one from Google – Adding interplanetary data from Google Analytics.
And another from YouTube – now available on DVD:
Kraft has announced a cherry flavour of Vegemite:
News Ltd’s Amanda Meade has taken to Twitter to reveal a new policy:
The Mini Countryman is now available for purchase one piece at a time:
(Hat-tip: Marketing Nabbed)
Richard Branson is to travel to the centre of the earth with Virgin Volcanic (hat-tip: Cathie Tranent)
And the Brisbane Times reports that Queensland is to change its regiatration plates slogan to “The can do state” in tribute to new premier Campbell Newman.
Meanwhile, Ikea has recalled its left handed allen keys (hat-tip: Gavin Bain)
ZDNet reported that Huawei was trying to buy the Sydney Harbour Bridge to use for parts in a transmitter.
And TV Tonight suggests that Kyle Sandilands is to host The Logies.
Publisher Lovatts is launching a crossword book for pets:
Meanwhile, Mumbrella reports that it is to start a recruitment agency.
- Mumbrella’s 2011 April Fool roundup
- Mumbrella’s 2010 April Fool roundup
- Mumbrella’s 2009 April Fool roundup
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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April Fool
Come on, they should bring back the Gold Phone… 🙂
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STA Travel are also offering cut price “Cargo” fares. Offering the ultimate no frills air travel experience, travelers will fly with no cabin crew, in flight entertainment or food service. Cost of travel based on weight and height.
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Virgin Volcanic is a biggie!!
http://www.virgin.com/travel/n.....n-volcanic
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One can only assume: http://mashable.com/2012/04/01.....re-as-ceo/
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Red Balloon Days sent me an amusing email with spoof stuff to send to mates.
Made me laugh.
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Adblocker replacing all web ads with pictures of cats for the April Fools win.
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/adblock
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@SC isn’t that what close to what Qantas do in economy these days?
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There is a really great overview of all the Google pranks from this year here (loads!): http://searchengineland.com/go.....012-117046
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New texture, flavor and aroma tags coming to HTML5:
http://www.sitepoint.com/html5.....-elements/
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@Groucho and @SC – spot on! Love this one the link for those that haven’t had a chance to look, (took me a while to find) http://www.statravel.com.au/cargo-class.htm had me planning my next trip!
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The best by far was Amanda Meade from The Australian. She was retweeted across the world and became a trending topic. Funny and with good topical context. Good work Meady!
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On a more serious note, has anyone tried this electronic lager? http://www.ecigarettedirect.co.....e-net.html
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Air New Zealand rocked with this one yesterday! http://promos.airnz.co.nz/gas/straightup/
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“Virgin Atlantic Announces On Board Pet Therapy”
I really, really want this one from Virgin Atlantic to be true but I have my suspicions.
http://blog.vtravelled.com/vir.....t-therapy/
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Hey thanks DD. I really enjoyed myself. April Fools always brings out the naughty child in me!
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