Harry Chen Thinks Aloud

April 1st is the one day in the whole year that you can make jokes, sometimes cruel jokes, and can still be forgiven by your co-workers, friends and families.

April Fools’ Day:

The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools’ errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible.

Given that many of us practically live on the Web, April Fools’ Day has gradually become a special occasion for people to spread fake advertisements to attract Web readers and communicate fake personal stories to trick friends and families.

I Got Fooled.

This morning I got fooled by GMail’s announcement of a new feature called “Custom Time“. Supposedly this feature allows users to custom the time when they want their email to be sent. Without noticing this is a hoax, I was looking for a clickable link to “Custom Time” in my GMail account. After 5 minutes, still unable to find the link, I realized that it was an April Fools’ joke.

April Fools’ on Facebook.

A friend of mine and his girlfriend announced that they are engaged and the girlfriend is pregnant. They changed their Facebook profile information and status the night before. Also, they published few photos of an engagement ring etc. Not too surprised. Friends on the network called them and inquired whether the news is for real.

Wii Got Fooled.

My wife called me this morning and told me that she saw Best Buy selling Wii Fit, and asked whether she should go wait in line for a Wii Fit. Without a second thought, I say “Yes! Go Now”. Moments later, I discovered that she had tricked me. I should have remembered that Wii Fit is not available until later this year. I got fooled again!

More April Fools’ Hoaxes.

• USB Pregnancy Test
• Wii Pii Pii Brothers
• Google buys the US Government for $2 billion

To all married men, here is a philosophical question that your wife or your mom may ask: “if both us (i.e., your wife and your mom) fall into water at the same time, who do you rescue first?”

This is a tricky question. If your wife asks this question, and your answer is “my mom”, then you’re doomed to sleep alone in the basement for days. If your mom asks this question, and your answer is “my wife”, then you may receive a long lecture about how much your mom has sacrificed in order to raise you and why it is important for you to care about her even after your heart now belongs to someone else.

Read the rest of this entry »

Adding password security is one way to prevent your neighbors from stealing your WiFi connection. But that’s no fun. Why not try this prank on your neighbors.

Once you have your network configured, this is what your neighbors will see in their browsers.

Spotted on lawgeek.

From Google Earth Blog: Cheney Shooting in Google Earth,

Someone at the Google Earth Community who calls himself ‘DickCheney’ took the time to create a rather graphic 3D model of Vice President Dick Cheney shooting his friend in a hunting accident which happened a little over a week ago. I’m not sure if you call this political commentary, or crime scene investigation. But, it’s interesting to see Google Earth used in this way.

It’s amazing to see open software systems such as Google Earth can have usages that are beyond the wildest imagination of their original developers.

To Google Earth developers: well done!