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Live from Expand: Ben Huh
The man behind Lolcats and Fail blog joins us for a lighthearted after-lunch discussion about everything that makes us laugh on the internet. November 10, 2013 1:55:00 PM EST Follow all of Engadget's Expand coverage live from New York City right here!
eMac becomes cat bed
This eMac-turned-cat bed is the product of a friend of mine here in LA named Colin Hughes. A little while back, he got a new computer to replace his old (though still working) eMac, and instead of junking it, he decided to clean out the hardware and turn the case into a makeshift kitty pad. He says it took about an hour, mostly because the inside of the case was full of dust, but after transferring all of his files off, cleaning it out and taking a screwdriver to the actual monitor, the case was ready for its feline tenants. The cat above is named Little Mama, and she shares the setup with Colin's other cat, Elvis. Cute stuff -- you can see a few more shots of the conversion in the gallery below. %Gallery-121420%
Breakfast Topic: We need more WoW lolcats
Lolcats are somewhat an internet tradition at this point. They've passed beyond the realm of mere meme. They've transcended that status. No, they've ascended from that status. Lolcats are something special; a viral imprint on our collective unconscious, communicating in a strange, instinct-driven pidgin that idealogically appeals to both the young and the old.They are the zeitgeist of the troll heavy internet, reaching out for a simpler, more pure time. Which makes it odd, to me, that we haven't seen more WoW lolcats. Sure. There's "Leeroy Cat." There's that awfully cute baby screaming "For the Horde!" He comes in both flesh color and in orc green color. (I've always kind of hoped his parents are okay with him being the iconic Hordebaby, because I think he's never going to live that down.) And I recall the one cat who talks about being in my account, sharding my purples. But that's about it for the iconic, WoW related lolcats. And that can't be right. I'm clearly wrong here. You folks know some good WoWcats, right? And, if there is, in fact, some black hole out there, sucking our WoWcats into its vortex with the life-sucking void of a goateed hipster on an emo bender, then we're going to do something about it. Right? Right? Because, it just doesn't seem right to me. Show me your WoWcats! We needs them, my precious!
The iPillow is cheaper than an iPhone, cuddles better, still no Flash
There's something about Apple's products that just makes people want to cuddle them -- we've talked about lots and lots (and lots) of Apple products turned into pillow form. Here's another: Drew Olanoff's (from Blame Drew's Cancer) mother made this iPhone pillow for him while he was recovering from chemotherapy. It's handmade and super cute -- I especially like the stylish icons, including the textPlus icon, which is Drew's own iPhone app. There's also a stitched Home button (which you can see in the full picture), and there's even a pocket on the side, sized just right for an actual iPhone of course. Awesome. [via Unpluggd]
Breakfast Topic: Inexplicable dislikes
Last Monday, we did a breakfast topic on things you like in WoW that other people don't understand. Today, let's talk about the opposite: things you hate that other people don't get, or that maybe don't make any sense at all. You know - that thing that just irks you for no apparent reason. As an example, I hate partially filling a talent, like going 3/5 in something. Can't stand it. I'm enough of a min/maxer that I'll still do it if I think it'll help my game appreciably, but when leveling (for instance) I'll go out of my way to avoid doing it. I don't like Blacksmithing or Engineering, for some reason. I've tried them on several characters, and always ended up dropping them for another gathering skill. And it bothers me to no end that when you log out via /camp there's no way to skip the 20-second "you're not in an inn" timer (even at level 80), but there is when you log out via /quit. So those are some of mine. What are you senselessly bothered by in WoW?
Stratics and Fallen Earth team up for beta giveaway
We know some of you out there are dying to get into the Fallen Earth beta, but it might not be as hard to get in as you think, provided you act before March 15th. Stratics is running a contest to win Fallen Earth beta keys. All you need to do to be in the running is email them at contest@irc.stratics.com and tell them what you think about Fallen Earth, and why you deserve a beta key (or at the very least, a Fallen Earth T-shirt.)Stratics will select winners randomly, and the contest runs through March 15, 2009. You can check out the details on the Fallen Earth forums and of course over at the Stratics Chat site.
The DS Life: Captionz needed
Even we were surprised to learn that, after a year of running this pictorial column every week, we've yet to cheaply resort to exploiting cat photos. Dogs and babies, however, are common fodder.Never one to let a good thing last, we've packed this week's edition of The DS Life with no less than nine kittens! The images all have two things in common, felines and DSes. It's your job to find that missing component -- lulz!
The lolcats have been lifted
It's now safe to go back to the forums -- the "lolcats," "lolwut"s, "lolz," and all of the other nonsense Blizzard put in players' posts have been deleted, finally. Blizzard hasn't given any hint why it took so long -- of course there's the chance that they just let the joke go on long enough (and trust me, you shouldn't be too angry at anyone who pushes an April Fool's Day joke longer than you think it should go), but it seems a little more likely that the folks in charge of the joke stumbled a little bit -- for a while there, it seemed like we might have "lolz" forever.But no, things are back to normal, and all of the "lol wut"s that you see on the forums are players' own fault.
A look at the Final Fantasy supporting cast
Sure, Final Fantasy might be primarily about Tidus, Cloud, Squall and other spiky-haired, androgynous protagonists who may or may not suffer from (false) memory loss, but let's not forget the colorful supporting cast of characters that flesh out your party. In honor of the upcoming multi-world brawler Final Fantasy Dissidia, PSP Fanboy has a gallery highlighting the best side characters in the series. Check it out here.
WoW Moviewatch: Lolwowcats
Voodooray has been a busy guy this week. Fresh off the success of Voyage comes lolwowcats, a condensed history of WoW ... illustrated with lolcats. I'm not much of a fan of captioned kittens, but I know that they have a devoted fanbase, so here you go![Via Warcraftmovies.com]Previously on Moviewatch ...
ZOMG MySpace vs iTunes
Ohai ZOMG. Realz! MySpace can has fab nu Music cheezburger. Wurks with iPod, all 4 awzom Muzik labels! Dayz wil haz MP3 for $$. "MySpaceMusic" so kyoot! Universal Music/MySpace fwends -- bai bai "copyright-infringement lawsuit" for realz. iTunes ftl. MySpace ftw. kthxbai.
Fear and Loathing + Link = Wii Fanboy love
Hey, our love may not be worth much, but it's got to be worth something. The above parody of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas includes Link and a lot of stuff gamers will recognize. Aside from including a cat screaming about this being bat country, we can't imagine this video being done any better than this. Kudos to 8-bit Cinema!See also: Typecasting in games, from a character's perspective
iLolcats on your iPhone
Looking for a cheezburger to go with your iPhone? You're in luck. The goofballs (and I say that with fondest affection) over at ICanHasCheezburger have created an official iPhone app so you can cart the cats around with you wherever you go. Just bookmark this on your phone's Safari browser and whenever you visit you'll be greeted by the 30 most recent lolcat pictures. It even updates every time there's a new post. Don't have an iPhone? To dream and drool, check out the demo page the creators put together (it's only viewable on a Mac). Now this site needs the same treatment.
Capcom's Ace Attorney lolcat contest brings the lulz
It's the last day of the weekend. You're no doubt dreading the events of the upcoming week wherein a curious blend of travel, food, and video game deals leaves us all drained, emotionally and financially. So we're trying to lighten that burden as best we can. First, take a peek at those funny video game anagrams, and then examine the entries in Capcom's Ace Attorney lolcat contest. The grand prize winner is pictured above, though we're partial to this one and, uh this one. Do you object? You can poke through the Flickr set of 175 entries yourself – or play with the embedded gallery below – and while away the few remaining waking hours of your weekend. [Via DSF]
Can Capcom's Ace Attorney contest has winnarz?
Capcom has announced the winners of their Ace Attorney LOLcat contest, and released all of the entries into the LOLcat's natural habitat, the Internet. There, they can roam free and pop up randomly as responses on message boards. There's a big old Flickr gallery of Ace Attorney art combined with popular Internet parlance to browse through. Lulz and objections abound. The winning image, from Kimberly Powell, is actually quite funny. Funny enough to earn a copy of Phoenix Wright 3 and some stuff signed by Minae Matsukawa. Any of you responsible for one of these entries? Confess to the crime of creativity![Via Capcom Blog]
Geometry Wars unveils a LOLAd campaign
We can't decide if this marks a clever nod from some kids at an advertising firm to Internet culture, or the precise moment that LOLcats stopped being cool or funny. We're feeling generous, so we think we're going to go with the former, seeing it as a refreshingly lo-fi, low-budget, punk-rock approach to game advertising. Also it made us laugh. If you can't tell (because the ad doesn't actually have the name of the game printed anywhere!) this cat is advertising Sierra's Geometry Wars Galaxies. The ad was found on IGN by NeoGAFfer John Harker, and we don't want to think about how much money we made for IGN when we tried to find it ourselves. We even reloaded the same Jackass PSP review found in the GAF screenshot to maximize our chances of having the same ad come up. It was only later that we discovered the actual website for these ads, which contains a load of 'em. Of course, those of you with excellent memories for Geometry Wars advertising will remember that this isn't the first time Sierra has used bizarre, nonsensical advertising techniques to promote this game. [Via NeoGAF]
Breakfast Topic: What does that mean?
The people who play WoW share a common set of experiences and they naturally tend to talk a lot about these things in shortened language, using terms that most everyone in the game learns pretty quickly. In addition, WoW players are denizens of this larger group of people who just use the Internet and have developed many special ways of talking about that as well.But we often forget that some people coming newly to the game (or even the Internet) may have no idea what we're talking about. Also a lot of us learn the meanings of words like "pwnage" and "noob" without ever actually learning where these words come from.Are there any specialized words in the WoW community that, to this day, don't make any sense to you? Are there some words that you think you understand a little but not very much? Which words do you understand completely but wonder about how they came to be used this way?
Forum post of the day: I can has WoW
Anyone who's spent way too much time on the internet has seen the phenomenon of lolcats -- pictures of cats doing funny things with leetspeak text underneath them. Fane of Tichondrius posted a challenge to WoW forumgoers to come up with their own, wow-related lolcats by using the lolcat generator. Most of the pictures are admittedly pretty meh, but there were a few gems, which I've hosted beneath the cut.
DS Daily: The best Nintendo-inspired photo manips
Nintendo's iconic characters and systems make excellent fodder for the funniest of the funny that this series of tubes can offer. O rly, you ask? Ya rly, we reply, let us show you them. From the head of Dr. Kawashima to the DS and its inherent money-printing abilities, Nintendo is a big part of the image macro canon. Even the execs don't escape unscathed. In this world, Iwata is a pimp, Reggie will beat you down, and Miyamoto? Well, he's just the man. Did you get your ass kicked and your name taken when a bom zal droppen? Not our problem.And then there are the Pokemans -- the personal power animals (after cats) of all Photoshop users, leading them all on a spiritual journey into lolz. Your favorites: show us them.
