GIF beat out words like YOLO, second-screening, and superstorm for this year’s crown. In the Oxford English Dictionary, GIF is an acronym for Graphics Interchange Format and is defined as “a lossless format for compressing image files,” while the verb usage is “to create a GIF file of (an image or video sequence, especially relating to an event).”

The UK’s word of the year, omnishambles, is a term that was coined by the writers of the British comedy show The Thick of It, and it’s defined as “a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations.” You may remember when the word was playfully changed to “Romneyshambles” when 2012 US presidential candidate Mitt Romney questioned England’s preparations for the London Olympics, which obviously upset a lot of UK residents and officials.

Oxford’s head of the US dictionaries program, Katherine Martin, said that “GIF celebrated a lexical milestone in 2012, gaining traction as a verb, not just a noun.” She also noted that the GIF is “a tool with serious applications including research and journalism, and its lexical identity is transforming to keep pace.”

[via Oxford University Press]

Rickrolling, as everyone already knows, involves getting someone to click on a link that takes them to a video of Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up instead of the destination they were expecting. It was extremely popular a few years back, but these days, we don’t see people getting Rickrolled all that often. Perhaps Apple thought it was time to return to the trolling methods of the past?

Truth is, Apple likes to stay serious most of the time, so even though Rickrolling has been dead and buried for quite some time now, it probably didn’t know that. Indeed, it’s rare to see Apple relax and crack a few jokes, so sadly, it seems that the company was behind the times and no one bothered to point that out. In other news, we had forgotten how much we hate that song before we inevitably encountered it while writing this post, but now that burning hatred is running fierce once again. Thanks for that Apple!

Still, it is good to see Apple kick back and embrace its silly side, even if that silly side is starting to show its age. Maybe we’ll see Apple relax the serious side more often now? One can only hope, but admittedly such a change seems doubtful.

[via The Los Angeles Times]

Chambers took to the High Court in London to put an end to the issue once and for all, with the Court finally ruling that the tweet was indeed intended as a joke, saying, “If the person or persons who receive or read it, [the message] or may reasonably be expected to receive, or read it, would brush it aside as a silly joke, or a joke in bad taste, or empty bombastic or ridiculous banter, then it would be a contradiction in terms to describe it as a message of a menacing character.”

The appeal to overturn the conviction gathered momentum as various celebrities, most notably Stephen Fry, took up the cause and pointed out the general absurdity. After the High Court overturned the conviction, Chambers said: “I am relieved, vindicated – it is ridiculous it ever got this far. I want to thank everyone who has helped, including everyone on Twitter.” It seems that common sense has finally prevailed in the UK, and jokes on Twitter can finally be seen as just that.

[via BBC]

Apparently at least one of the people that has access to the White House twitter account has a sense of humor and the testicular fortitude to openly mock another twitter user according to TheNextWeb. As the story goes, a correspondent dude named David Wiggs was covering the correspondent briefing when he sent the tweet out that lead to his Rickrolling.

Wiggs tweeted that the correspondent brief wasn’t nearly as entertaining as the one the day before. It didn’t take long for someone from the White House to hop on twitter and respond with something a bit more entertaining. The tweet and the Rickroll video that it led to are shown in the photo above.

[via TheNextWeb]

The incident started when some kids reported an alligator lying in a pond. Apparently, one of the city conservation agents gave the go ahead to take the cold-blooded reptile out if it looked dangerous. The cops upon seeing the alligator deemed the beast dangerous and started shooting. I for one do not blame them. At least they didn’t scramble a helicopter like the police in Hampshire.

The cops soon realized their error when the bullets were bouncing off the alligator, which turned out to be concrete. I hope the police left the bullet ridden concrete carcass lying in the pond as an example to other concrete animals around the city that might scare folks. I’d like to know who though putting a concrete alligator in the pond was a good idea.

[via Gizmodo]

We have talked about kits that let you get your mess on with these two snacks before. Back in 2007 a kit surfaced that kept the Mentos out of the soda until you (and your face) were at a safe distance. That was how to do it right. A couple guys have just uploaded a video to YouTube that shows how to do it wrong, funny as hell, but wrong.

I was expecting the bald dude messing with the bottle to take the brunt of the explosion. I did think it was funny that while baldy was laughing it up the cameraperson is on the ground moaning. Check out the video below. Fess up in the comments if you flinched or not.

[via BuzzFeed]

One time I watched Ace of Cakes or whatever. I didn’t really pay much attention, there was a lot of yelling and then they put this big cake in the back of a car and almost crashed it and stuff. I guess those shows have created an explosion of creative cakery nationwide! Liz jumped on this tidal wave of awesome sweetness and started making all sorts of confectionary delights. I really could go on for way too long about all of the different things she makes. She makes cakes like car engines, cakes with Mario, Domo-kun, or Banjo-monstar as I first knew him. She makes cakes that are tall and cakes that are short. She makes a lot of cakes. You should just go look at her company’s page here.

Now this is the neat part, she recently had some requests to make some cake toppers out of the visage of those rage filled avians. She’ll let you know exactly how she did it on this Instructable. Or if you break down into tears at anything resembling modeling clay because of terrible childhood memories, you can browse on over to her etsy where you will find a terrifying array of wrathful fowl available for sale. Don’t worry, they ship well.

[via Instructables]

This Zuckerburg bobble-headed-looking doll comes with a number of amusing odds and ends. The Like it button can be replaced with a Poke button if you’re feeling a little punchy, or pokey as the case may be. The kit also comes included with customizable speech bubbles that stick into the back of his big head. Make him say something Johnny!

[via M.I.C. Gadget]

There is a video clip of the Today Show from 1994 discussing the hot topic called the “internet”. Its pretty funny looking back at how clueless most people were as to what the internet was, especially because the internet has become such an integral part of people’s lives today. Imagine not having the internet for a whole week.

While it’s funny to look back and see them call the internet “computer billboard” and not reading the “dot” in e-mail addresses, the clip really shows what most people knew about the internet at the time. So watch the clip and think back to a time when floppy disks CD-ROMs were new and floppy disks were 8-inch squares that were actually floppy.

[Via Hot Hardware]

A dude has taken a washing machine and Tim Allened it with a massive motor type thing out back to get more power. Apparently, one brick is already in the thing and then a second is introduced. This video is funny as hell.

Let’s face it, most of us have probably wondered what would happen if we tossed something crazy in the washing machine. I sense a new Will it Blend style video series called Will it Wash in the works. Check out the video of the washing machine dying and taking someone’s flowers with it below.

Apparently, so many customers emailed ThinkGeek that they’re seriously considering making this sleeping bag. How cool would that be? The only stipulation is that they have no idea if they’ll be able to get a license from Lucasfilm. But still, it’s awesome that they’re going to try.

I hope if the real thing is made, it looks exactly like the mocked up photo: furry Tauntaun body outside, Tauntaun guts inside and light saber zipper. Now you can recreate the famous scene from The Empire Strikes Back without the Tauntaun carcass smell.

[via OhGizmo!]

I mean, this thing is the perfect gadget for your favorite pet. It features a bone-shaped track pad, a web cam and SlobberGuard, so as to ensure the laptop can stand up to the standard doggie wear and tear.

The rawhide casing makes for a tasty treat and the bark2txt software makes it easy for your pup to jot down his thoughts. It’s truly a must-have for pet lovers everywhere. Or, you know, for the extremely gullible.

[via Ubergizmo]

Launching from CADIE, Google’s AI project, Autopilot will make the perfect response to each email you receive so you don’t have to waste time typing out your email replies ever again. By altering the preferences, you can customize how your automatic emails will look.

Some of these preferences include controls for emoticon use, typos, capitalization and more. After scanning through about a hundred of your emails, it should have a good idea of how you respond to messages. Supposedly, Autopilot can be used on GMail Chat as well. Check out one of the sample responses below. And of course, happy April Fool’s Day.

So it seems these guys have attached a bunch of LEDs to a bunch of sheep and then performed some serious maneuvers, or “extreme shepherding” as it is called in the video. Then, the video was sped up and we get the appearance of choreographed moving images. 

So, if you’ve ever wanted to see glowing sheep play Pong or burst into an array of fireworks or form the Mona Lisa, you’re in for a treat. Just check out the video below. Who knows if it’s 100% real or not. All I know, is that it’s pretty cool.

[via Coolbuzz]

I’m going to warn you before you even get a chance to click the play button – in my eyes, this ad is already an early contender for “Worst Ad of the Year” in 2009.  What you’re about to watch is so gosh-darn wholesome it’s borderline criminal.  It may make you very uncomfortable.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Songsmith is available now from Microsoftstore.com for $29.95.  If you can eventually wipe the memory away of the video you just watched, it might be a cool application to play with.

The cake took 18 hours to make and was a gift to Bobby Casey from his new bride.  Sure, it says Cingular on it, but that doesn’t take away from its awesomeness one bit.  It’s almost too beautiful to eat, but unfortunately, the cake was eaten.  At least they took pictures.

Bottom line: whoever made this thing has serious talent.  In fact, I wonder if she’d make us a Palm Pre cake for launch…  If you’re out there, get in touch!

Check out the on-set live action shots of Vincent in action after the cut

Nguyen, 38, has been a mainstay of the blogging community for many years, and his defection to the adult industry has been hailed as another casualty of the current recession. His first project is believed to be an exotic biopic loosely based around Apple and their erotic attempts to corner the luxury computing market, with Nguyen playing the part of an overly-amorous docking connector.

Thanks to everyone who has followed our Macworld and CES 2009 coverage this past week. We hope you’ve enjoyed our posts as much as we’ve enjoyed researching them; coverage should be back to normal next week.

Just watch Mae LaBorde, a 99-year old woman, try to make the switch. Let me just say, things do not go as planned for this lady.  

I love when she asks, “how many W’s?” I especially like the microwave part. Oh, good stuff. Now, I know it’s not nice to laugh at the elderly, but this is just too good. Check out Mae trying to figure this whole mess out below:

[via Neatorama]

But in all seriousness, the Teddy Bear Lamp is just like any other light fixture. It features a shade made from black fabric that sits on a teddy bear’s body. He’s soft and fuzzy but missing his head!

In its place is a light bulb to brighten up your room and cast an eerie glow over the decapitated bear. You can get this bear abomination for £59.99 or $84.75. Funny stuff, really but why do they always have to mutilate the teddy bear? Why not a fish or a giraffe or something?

[via Chip Chick]

These message plates are described as a “carry on” communication system. Made from metal, they display messages for the X-Ray to pick up when run through the scanning machine. All you have to do is place the plate in your bag and it is sure to attract some attention.

Now, of course, these are not something you can go buy and it’s probably not a good idea to do it in the first place. However, artist Evan Roth has developed this project and will soon be documenting it in real world situations. Pretty funny stuff and sure to make some sort of a statement, at the very least.

[via MAKE]

 
Okay, so the idea here is that when you drive over the road at a particular speed, it plays the William Tell Overture. Seriously. A bunch of grooves were cut into the road to create the differences in pitch as a part of a marketing campaign for the Honda Civic.

The problem, is that unless you’re driving a Honda Civic at a particular speed, all you’ll hear is a high-pitched drone. And even if you are driving at the right speed, it has all the musical quality of trying to play Jingle Bells on your phone’s keypad. It’s just not melodious and distracting, if anything. Enough drivers complained and now the stretch of highway is getting repaved.

[via CrunchGear]

Just as Li Ning was nearing the cauldron, one eagle-eyed attendant snapped this photo of the BSOD peaking out from behind the steel cross beams of the Bird’s Nest. How embarrassing! But of course, with the endless projection screens that surround the entire lip of the stadium, it’s inevitable one would fail.

Well, maybe not inevitable but everything else went off without a hitch. One mistake is forgivable. Besides, the BSOD can just remind us of how similar we all are. In the U.S. or China, we all get technological glitches at the most inopportune moments.

[via Gizmodo]

I have to say that in reading his blog, Jaffe actually makes a really good point. Nintendo was a geeky company that had geeky friends (customers), and now that they’ve put out the Wii, they’re making frineds with the popular crowd (traditional non-gamers) they’re forgetting about their old friends. With that recent statement about “geeks and otaku” they’ve essentially shit on our house, much the same way Ronald did in the movie. I don’t care if you do it literally or figuratively, you don’t shit on your friend’s house.

We can only hope that Nintendo wises up and finishes off the movie by going back to their geeky roots while still finding a way to get the girl. Wait, who is the girl in the equation? Maybe it’s this girl.

[via MaxConsole]

The guys over at Cracked held a contest to see who could come up with the best Photoshop job that placed a video game power-up into a real-world situation.

The one below was the winner of the contest, while the other two were only runner-ups. You can see all 30 runner-up pics if you head over here.

[via Cracked]

For those rare few gamers out there that don’t know what I’m talking about, the Konami code is most famous for its use in the game Contra (which is impossible to beat without the code), where it gives you 30 extra lives. Just in case your memory is a bit rusty, the old code is up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A.

If you’ve successfully entered the code, you’ll be greeted by a ninja who says “Moshi moshi”, which I understand to be a Japanese telephone greeting. You’ll also find that all of your feeds are all marked as having 30 unread items, which we can only guess is related to the 30 extra lives in Contra.

[via DS Fanboy]

Sadly, JC over at Wii Fanboy has discovered that after placing his cat on the board, it is indeed a fatty and his vacuum is anorexic. He also discovered that you can measure someone as young as a two year old on the board, that is if you can get them to stand still.

Joystick Division has made 5 very hilarious illustrations as to what to do with your Balance Board after you tire of the Wii Fit. One example being to use it as a pool toy anchor when you want to make sure your kids don’t float off too far and you need a beer. Also, if you need a serving tray it works great for that as well.

If you’ve picked up a copy of Okami for the Wii, go grab the box and look closely at the cover. I’ll give you a hint, look just to the right of his mouth. What you will see is the watermark of IGN. How sad is it to see someone else’s watermark on your product?

You really have to wonder just how many people saw this art before it went off to be printed. I would hope that each and every one of them would be fired, as they clearly didn’t do their job and actually look at it.

[via NeoGAF]

First there was Guitar Hero (yes, I’m aware that there were music titles before Guitar Hero, however, the genre really took off with GH) which let you rock out on the guitar. Then came Rock Band which gave you the experience of jamming with a full band. There’s really only one direction left to go. You have to manage a band.

That’s exactly the idea behind this amusing gag by the Harmonix crew. You’ll get everything you need to manage a band, including a branded desk, chair, file cabinet, phone and two pens (for multiplayer fun).

[via CrunchGear]

People that have downloaded the ROM have noted that they are able to get the game running just as easily as any other, however, at intermittent times they are greeted with the above image on their screens. At which point the game ends and they have to start over from their last save point. This screen is similar (exactly the same) as what you would see in the demo version of the game, only it’s appearing in pirated versions of the full game.

It’s not known whether or not this is some plot from Nintendo and Square Enix to prevent piracy. However, evidence suggests that it may actually be an issue with the flash cards that are being used to pirate the game. Either way, it’s a bit amusing, and will likely result in some of the pirates getting fed up with the issues and actually purchasing the game.

[via DS Fanboy]

I really can’t blame anyone that fell for this, as the screenshots look pretty decent. Master Chief looks like he could really bust up some some bricks. Also looking at the popularity of Lego-themed games lately, why not make one based on Halo?

I short while of pondering would likely result in figuring out the obvious truth, that it was simply a rather elaborate hoax played by the EGM staff. I think what really gave it away for me was the quote in big bold print “We really feel like the Halo trilogy is as strong as Star Wars.” Seriously, no one talks that way about Star Wars with a straight face.

[via MaxConsole]

Apparently there was a good deal of effort put into arranging this debate. My mastery of the English language couldn’t possibly match the eloquence of Fake Samuel L. Jackson, so I’ll let him give you the skinny after the jump.

Dare? Hell yeah, you dare Sam Jack and you damn well better expect a response. NewsGroper took him up on that shit. We spent all day emailing him, responding to his emails, working out a system to get this debate on the road. And at the last minute-I bullshit you like I’d bullshit Christ Almighty-the motherfucker bailed like Bowser at the end of level three of Super Mario.

He emailed us this: you know, some people have died because of jerkballs like jackson and his spike tv vga award mentality, so I’ll take a pass. grow up

First of all, what the fuck? Why dare me to debate, spend all day organizing that debate, then insult me and pull out like the Purple fucking Pie-Man coming up against Strawberry Shortcake?

And then you call me a jerkball? What the fuck is a got-damn jerkball? Is that like a tribble with Parkinsons?

In the gaming world we have a word for this. Pwnd. Jack, if you’re reading (and I know you are) I’ll put this in layman’s terms for you. You just got your ass handed to you. You made a complete fool of yourself with your first post, and now you back out on the debate which you insisted upon in the first place. Sir, you really need to think before you speak. This isn’t Fox News, and we aren’t the uninformed audience that you seek to scare. Please do us all a favor and look around, no one’s following you on your witch-hunt.

Oh, and one last question. What the hell did (the real) Samuel L. Jackson do to you? Are you seriously trying to say that he, and people like him (whatever that’s supposed to mean) are killers? Does this mean that you’re going to end your crusade against the video game industry and start going after movies and actors?

[via Kotaku]

If you’re not a PS3 owner, then this won’t likely mean very much to you. However, PS3 fans know exactly what this means, which is that Sony is getting ready to unveil in-game XMB at the show. That or they’re just teasing, which would be horribly cruel.

In-game XMB is arguably the most-requested feature for the PS3, as users are forced to exit a game if they want to check on their friends, read messages or play music. Lets hope that this means Sony will announce a date for the feature this week.

[via PS3 Fanboy]

It has a blinking red light and your choice of buzzer or ringer when someone calls. There is no caller ID and no way to dial out so it would be great to put these all over your mansion so your victims, er friends, couldn’t call 911.

Then again, if you’re like me, you have more calls coming in than you do going out, so it would be great for that as well. Sadly these things aren’t cheap, which seems a little backwards considering how basic it is, but its $112 if you want one.

[via aquiremag]

But they did, in the end; I believe two men were charged with some dumbass charges because they somehow managed to declare the LED signs “hoax devices”. So, next time you have a company and you hire some people to do some advertising for you, might want to be careful, they might be considered terrorists.

Regardless, it will be a long time before I forget. So, just a reminder, this is the one year anniversary of that ever so tragic event.

[via boingboing]

Someone literally built a telephone into a turkey leg. You’d think that with today’s technology they could have at least made it wireless, but I guess not.

I don’t know what these Telco turkeys are going to do when they switch all the phones over to digital, analog just isn’t going to cut it for much longer. No word on price or availability as it appears it was a one-off custom job.

[via gadgettastic]

I have complained from the beginning that the guys get the hilarious fun dances and the chicks all look like pole dancers when they dance. Finally, this commercial is proof that all of the chicks, even the little gnomes dance like teeny hookers.

Keep in mind some readers might find this video slightly offensive, due to the fact it is about a night elf pimp. Hilariously enough the guy used his sister to play his hooker, which is just wrong.

[via wowinsider]

When we finally decided to bring the poor fellow to consciousness I told him he was lucky I didn’t have a Sharpie, he insisted that I was lucky I didn’t have a Sharpie as Indiana is a long walk. The Navy S.E.A.L.S. have “hell week”, we have CES, they are a good comparison largely because the SEALS take the best at what they do and make them feel impotent, CES largely does the same thing to a blogger, or anyone else from the press for that matter.

They all insisted at the beginning of the week that whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, I told them whatever happens in Vegas, I’m [expletive] telling everybody. And here I am, airing out the dirty laundry, I told you that you shouldn’t pass out, next time you’ll listen.

I am in no way innocent when it comes to returns, but I’m not this devious. I’ve done the simple stuff, like I lost the receipt so I bought another one and took the defective one back in the new one’s box. I even took a Zune back to a different store than it actually came from. Only to be greeted by the most pathetic tech guy ever. He asked me what a Zune was. However, I think even that guy would have caught this one.

It didn’t even have the cords for the Xbox, it was switched out with some printer cords. Currently no one out of the customer service department is vouching for the return. It just magically happened, weird.

Retailer gets punk’d [via crunchgear]

What is even worse is I didn’t even notice it was an iPhone. I’m usually on the lookout for product placement in tv shows and I still missed it. Its kind of like playing ‘Where’s Waldo?’, only much more geeky.

If you are going to use a phone that is as famous as the iPhone, at least use it properly because someone will notice. There are way too many iPhone fanatics for this one to slip by unnoticed.

Charlie Sheen holds his iPhone upside down [via techdigest]