Skip to Content

Submit your nominations for the Luxist Awards' Best in Decor
AOL Tech

boing boing posts

Filed under: Fun, Games, Blogging, Web, Humor

Alice and Kev - a Sims 3 virtual soap opera

Alice and KevWhat could be more compelling than documenting the lives of characters from the video game The Sims? Okay, it doesn't sound all that compelling, and there are many examples on the web of it being done poorly. But once in awhile someone comes along and does something that seems like a bad idea in such spectacular fashion that it truly becomes noteworthy.

Alice and Kev is a blog by Robin Burkinshaw that documents the lives of two characters he created in The Sims 3, the latest iteration of Electronic Arts' blockbuster game franchise. The two characters are a father and daughter, and Burkinshaw decided that to make things interesting he would give his characters some real challenges, such as homelessness and in the case of the father, Kev, insanity.

The resulting story is somehow both heart-rending and hilarious. Burkinshaw's blogging style is almost entirely graphical, with occasional pithy comments thrown in. The few comments he includes give the story life, and the characters really do feel all too real.

Reading the comments for each update is almost as entertaining as the posts themselves; Alice and Kev have a huge following, and an average post results in 100 or more comments by people who seem to genuinely care about this duo, and the other characters they are involved with.

It's an inspired bit of storytelling, a bit of a surprise given the usual fare when it comes to Sims blogging.

[via Boing Boing]

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services

What if Web 2.0 concepts applied to everything in life?

Boing Boing posted a link to an amusing little video called Supermarket 2.0. The acting's nothing too special, and I can't help but wonder how this supermarket stays open with just 3 customers. But the concept is pure geek comedy gold. The store is completely web 2.0 compliant.



There are tags on all the products (H20, transparent, etc for water), RSS feeds for the eggs, and user comments on the milk. You can buy your products "Pandora-style." Just start with one object at the clerk will suggest other products you might want. Everything is free, but you have to accept a chocolate chip cookie for tracking purposes.

We'd make some point about whether we would actually put up with some of these practices in real life (such as allowing customers to examine your purchasing habits and buy items for you off your wishlist), but this is just a joke. Right?

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft

Vista error message random acts of vandalism

Vista error stickerWith every launch of a new Microsoft operating system comes two things:
  1. New error messages
  2. A new ubiquitous advertising campaign.
Apparently fed up with the new "Wow" advertising campaign that has hit the streets of Prague, Czech painter Jeremiah Palecek created a set of print-your-own Vista error message stickers. He's designed an easy to print sheet so that users can buy a pack of labels, run them through the printer, and then go out and retake the streets (not that he, or we here at Download Squad condone vandalism in any way).

The error message on the stickers? Windows Vista's most baffling communication: "Error: The operation completed successfully."

[via Boing Boing]

Filed under: Internet, News

EFF makes DMCA scamster swallow a bitter pill



We've been bemoaning the DMCA a lot around Download Squad lately, but here's a tale with a happy -- if schadenfreude -- ending. Michael Crook has become famous around the blog-o-sphere; As a thorn in the side of some high profile blogs.

It all started when Crook landed in the hotseat on the popular Fox News Channel's Hannity and Colmes for his hoax web campaign to reduce the pay of US Troops. Later, when Crook pulled another Internet hoax, scamming personals browsers on Craigslist, screen captures of his earlier appearance made the rounds on a slew of blogs. Crook sent DMCA takedown notices to ISPs hosting blogs which posted screen captures of his appearance; Pictures Crook didn't own the rights to. Nevertheless, he succeeded in using the DMCA to bully and harass bloggers, establishing himself a third time as a first rate Internet griefer. The Troll who would be King.

Sweet justice to see him apologize live before a camera as part of the court settlement. Now, if only we could get a few Viacom executives to do the same. Here's a deal; You bring the execs, I'll bring the camera, capiche?

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio