Celebrating April Fools' Day, Slashdot Wears Hacker News' Attire
April 1, 2017 11:10 AM Subscribe
To Celebrate April Fools' Day, Slashdot Wears Hacker News' Attire Slashdot parodied Hacker News today, turning their site Hacker News-orange and converting the front page into nothing but uber-geeky headlines. The stories include "There's A New New JavaScript Framework", as well as "Someone on Medium Just Said C++ Was Better Than C". And this morning they also posted "OS/2-Based 'Arcanos 5.0' Has Finally Been Releas -- Oh Wait, No It Wasn't. Never Mind".
The stories include "There's A New New JavaScript Framework"
It's funny because it's true.
posted by wildblueyonder at 11:15 AM on April 1, 2017 [17 favorites]
It's funny because it's true.
posted by wildblueyonder at 11:15 AM on April 1, 2017 [17 favorites]
Reminds me a bit of when MetaFilter merged with Kuro5hin to form Met4Filter back in, oh hell, what year was that?
2002?! *weeps*.
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:20 AM on April 1, 2017 [13 favorites]
2002?! *weeps*.
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:20 AM on April 1, 2017 [13 favorites]
Slashdot still exists!
posted by rhizome at 11:22 AM on April 1, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 11:22 AM on April 1, 2017 [14 favorites]
My ./ login still works and apparently I last commented in 2006. Sometime in the early 2000s, I remember Metafilter being described as "like Slashdot but for stuff other than computers".
posted by octothorpe at 11:35 AM on April 1, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 11:35 AM on April 1, 2017 [6 favorites]
My favorate HN parody is the weekly N-Gate. The language is so foul but so hilarious.
Yes, I'm guilty of bad taste. Hope me!
posted by runcifex at 11:35 AM on April 1, 2017 [12 favorites]
Yes, I'm guilty of bad taste. Hope me!
posted by runcifex at 11:35 AM on April 1, 2017 [12 favorites]
I was under the impression that Netcraft confirmed that Slashdot was dying?
posted by tocts at 11:35 AM on April 1, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by tocts at 11:35 AM on April 1, 2017 [7 favorites]
Meanwhile Netflix had Netflix Live, which is Will Arnett free associative rambling over random scenes. Strangely hypnotic.
posted by zabuni at 11:38 AM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by zabuni at 11:38 AM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
The stories include "There's A New New JavaScript Framework"
I remember when Slashdot would have posts about Linux kernel point releases. And now they're making fun of extra-nerdy nerdiness? Hmph. Lost their soul.
posted by clawsoon at 11:46 AM on April 1, 2017 [5 favorites]
I remember when Slashdot would have posts about Linux kernel point releases. And now they're making fun of extra-nerdy nerdiness? Hmph. Lost their soul.
posted by clawsoon at 11:46 AM on April 1, 2017 [5 favorites]
It's funny because it's true.
Everything with real value is true.
posted by srboisvert at 12:02 PM on April 1, 2017 [6 favorites]
Everything with real value is true.
posted by srboisvert at 12:02 PM on April 1, 2017 [6 favorites]
Small differences and all, but JavaScript frameworks are such a different flavor of nerd from Linux kernels.
posted by Dr Dracator at 12:04 PM on April 1, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Dr Dracator at 12:04 PM on April 1, 2017 [7 favorites]
Washington Post: An updated (and depressing) list of all the April Fools’ pranks on the Internet
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:14 PM on April 1, 2017
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:14 PM on April 1, 2017
Small differences and all, but JavaScript frameworks are such a different flavor of nerd from Linux kernels.
Fair point. I just read How it feels to learn Javascript in 2016, which was entertaining. And not an April Fool's joke, though it reads like one.
posted by clawsoon at 12:21 PM on April 1, 2017 [5 favorites]
Fair point. I just read How it feels to learn Javascript in 2016, which was entertaining. And not an April Fool's joke, though it reads like one.
posted by clawsoon at 12:21 PM on April 1, 2017 [5 favorites]
Since we're doing April Fools here, please enjoy Math Professor Fixes Projector Screen, in which a math professor creates an incredibly elaborate situation in response to "accidentally" drawing on the projection screen with a dry erase pen.
posted by zachlipton at 12:46 PM on April 1, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 12:46 PM on April 1, 2017 [6 favorites]
It's funny because it's true.
Everything with real value is true.
Everything with real value is also funny.
posted by chavenet at 12:48 PM on April 1, 2017
Everything with real value is true.
Everything with real value is also funny.
posted by chavenet at 12:48 PM on April 1, 2017
I was hoping Junis would have bought the site and administer it from his Amiga in the foothills of Afghanistan.
posted by dr_dank at 1:12 PM on April 1, 2017
posted by dr_dank at 1:12 PM on April 1, 2017
my Karma remains Excellent.
posted by mikelieman at 1:45 PM on April 1, 2017
posted by mikelieman at 1:45 PM on April 1, 2017
I thought FoxNews was the best parody of HackerNews. Or was it the other way around?
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:05 PM on April 1, 2017
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:05 PM on April 1, 2017
From my YT subscriptions: 331Erock (famous for his metal covers of everything) does John Cage's 4'33 for electric guitar, Barby from Geography Now! changes his subject matter.
posted by sukeban at 2:09 PM on April 1, 2017
posted by sukeban at 2:09 PM on April 1, 2017
This prompted me to log in to my old slashdot account. They still have a profile field for ICQ UIN.
... is slashdot less awful now? I'm kind of afraid to look
posted by phooky at 2:20 PM on April 1, 2017 [2 favorites]
... is slashdot less awful now? I'm kind of afraid to look
posted by phooky at 2:20 PM on April 1, 2017 [2 favorites]
... is slashdot less awful now? I'm kind of afraid to look
No clue, I haven't been able to use it since their big redesign like 10 years ago. They totally took my use-pattern and threw it in the trash and now I can't figure out how to make it display all the comments I want it to.
posted by rhizome at 2:22 PM on April 1, 2017
No clue, I haven't been able to use it since their big redesign like 10 years ago. They totally took my use-pattern and threw it in the trash and now I can't figure out how to make it display all the comments I want it to.
posted by rhizome at 2:22 PM on April 1, 2017
Ask SN: Seen Any Good April Fool's Pranks Today?
So has anyone seen any good April Fool's pranks today?
(There was an internal one at work that I found pretty funny, and Ms PAC-Maps is a clever hack, but otherwise it's been a bit meh, also a great Swedish actor/director/comedian died today so the world might have gotten a bit worse on average.)
(Well, ok, this paper is a good one. From the author of this paper.)
posted by effbot at 2:26 PM on April 1, 2017
So has anyone seen any good April Fool's pranks today?
(There was an internal one at work that I found pretty funny, and Ms PAC-Maps is a clever hack, but otherwise it's been a bit meh, also a great Swedish actor/director/comedian died today so the world might have gotten a bit worse on average.)
(Well, ok, this paper is a good one. From the author of this paper.)
posted by effbot at 2:26 PM on April 1, 2017
They still have a profile field for ICQ UIN.
I can think of another site that has that too.
posted by octothorpe at 3:30 PM on April 1, 2017 [3 favorites]
I can think of another site that has that too.
posted by octothorpe at 3:30 PM on April 1, 2017 [3 favorites]
is slashdot less awful now?
Unfortunately no, I took a look after the latest exchange of ownership, and the comments are still awful. Which is a shame, reading /. comments predicting the rise of dynamic HTML got me ahead of the curve in the early 2000s and that played a significant part of my success. But much of the current comments are a mob based race to the bottom.
posted by Candleman at 4:20 PM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Unfortunately no, I took a look after the latest exchange of ownership, and the comments are still awful. Which is a shame, reading /. comments predicting the rise of dynamic HTML got me ahead of the curve in the early 2000s and that played a significant part of my success. But much of the current comments are a mob based race to the bottom.
posted by Candleman at 4:20 PM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
I owe /. a debt for pushing my career toward Linux/Unix but yeah, the comments have always been terrible.
posted by octothorpe at 5:33 PM on April 1, 2017
posted by octothorpe at 5:33 PM on April 1, 2017
Emergency! Calling all tech heads!
My son is OBSESSED with Pac-Man. He learned months ago that sometimes Google lets people play Pac-Man on Google Maps on April Fools. He has anticipated today SO HARD. He got to play it today and of course he wants more. But now he's asleep, and presumably maps.google.com will coldheartedly shut down the Pac-Man option in the next few hours.
I think, OK, let's see if we can fire up the Chrome dev tools when the Pac-Man icon is displayed and see if we can infer what javascript is running to create the game, then try to capture that js (and concatenate the sources if necessary) to save as a bookmarklet. Voila! Pac-Man any day.
But as soon as you open the dev tools, the Pac-Man icon disappears! If I actually click on the icon to start the game, then fire up the dev tools, the game goes away and I'm booted back to the vanilla map. I figure maybe Chrome has some built-in smarts to somehow block my attempt, so I fire up MS Edge. On click, Pac Man icon now says "sorry, gotta use Chrome for this". Ok, I tell Edge to use a user agent string that looks like Chrome. No dice, the "chrome required" message must rely on client-side feature detection.
TLDR: what can be done to access Pac-Man in Google Maps after the G Man stops the party? Asking for a precious boy who tried to bite a tortilla chip into the shape of his favorite video game character tonight and cried when it of course broke into pieces.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 6:39 PM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
My son is OBSESSED with Pac-Man. He learned months ago that sometimes Google lets people play Pac-Man on Google Maps on April Fools. He has anticipated today SO HARD. He got to play it today and of course he wants more. But now he's asleep, and presumably maps.google.com will coldheartedly shut down the Pac-Man option in the next few hours.
I think, OK, let's see if we can fire up the Chrome dev tools when the Pac-Man icon is displayed and see if we can infer what javascript is running to create the game, then try to capture that js (and concatenate the sources if necessary) to save as a bookmarklet. Voila! Pac-Man any day.
But as soon as you open the dev tools, the Pac-Man icon disappears! If I actually click on the icon to start the game, then fire up the dev tools, the game goes away and I'm booted back to the vanilla map. I figure maybe Chrome has some built-in smarts to somehow block my attempt, so I fire up MS Edge. On click, Pac Man icon now says "sorry, gotta use Chrome for this". Ok, I tell Edge to use a user agent string that looks like Chrome. No dice, the "chrome required" message must rely on client-side feature detection.
TLDR: what can be done to access Pac-Man in Google Maps after the G Man stops the party? Asking for a precious boy who tried to bite a tortilla chip into the shape of his favorite video game character tonight and cried when it of course broke into pieces.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 6:39 PM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Today for April Fools, I managed to convince my wife and two school-age children that our male cat is actually female.
posted by 4ster at 6:50 PM on April 1, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by 4ster at 6:50 PM on April 1, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't want to look at any tech AFD stuff today, because I don't want to see an "announcement" from Apple that they're finally updating the Mac mini, followed by my seeing my current mini protruding halfway out of the smoking ruins of my monitor.
I may be a bit bitter about this
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:10 PM on April 1, 2017
I may be a bit bitter about this
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:10 PM on April 1, 2017
The best April Fools joke I saw today was REI announcing a line of hiking gear for kittens, which was obviously just an excuse to post a picture of a kitten in hiking gear.
posted by wotsac at 9:16 PM on April 1, 2017
posted by wotsac at 9:16 PM on April 1, 2017
Metafilter: The plastic.com it's okay to like!
posted by Justinian at 3:36 AM on April 2, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 3:36 AM on April 2, 2017 [4 favorites]
presumably maps.google.com will coldheartedly shut down the Pac-Man option in the next few hours.
The official announcement I linked to earlier says it'll be around until April 4th.
posted by effbot at 3:48 AM on April 2, 2017
The official announcement I linked to earlier says it'll be around until April 4th.
posted by effbot at 3:48 AM on April 2, 2017
(...and I suspect the ms-pacman-in-maps code has way too many moving parts for it to be possible to just copy some javascript somewhere and still have things work. as emergency fallbacks, there's always the pac-man doodle and if the kid has access to a mobile device, Pac-Man 256 (Android, iOS) is great.)
posted by effbot at 4:31 AM on April 2, 2017
posted by effbot at 4:31 AM on April 2, 2017
> My favorate HN parody is the weekly N-Gate.
Accurate and succinct.
posted by postcommunism at 12:06 PM on April 2, 2017
Accurate and succinct.
posted by postcommunism at 12:06 PM on April 2, 2017
Math Professor Fixes Projector Screen - that was excellent. loved it.
posted by Artful Codger at 3:39 PM on April 2, 2017
posted by Artful Codger at 3:39 PM on April 2, 2017
Adult Swim singlehandedly saved April Fools' Day yesterday!
Wubba lubba dub dub!
posted by Sauce Trough at 8:40 PM on April 2, 2017
Wubba lubba dub dub!
posted by Sauce Trough at 8:40 PM on April 2, 2017
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posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:13 AM on April 1, 2017 [3 favorites]