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In today’s Is It Real?, we present another Web 2.0 technology/service, give a brief description of what it’s about, and then challenge you to decide (without the help of the web at all) if it is real. We reveal the real answer the following Friday (as part of our Friday Fishwrap feature). Now that we understand the rules, let’s get started:

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Today, we feature one of the most advanced, unique concepts I have seen in the last few months: a social networking application called “HoffSpace” - centered around David Hasselhoff. Here is an excerpt from David’s very own introduction:

“In my travels round the world I have always been surprised that no matter where I go people recognize and know me, from Europe, Australia and India to the Philippines and the Zulu Nation in South Africa…while two people from two entirely different countries and backgrounds may seem to have nothing in common, the only thing they might have in common is me… So I decided to start a network where people from across the world might come together and get a conversation started over me.”

Hence, he has launched HoffSpace - videos and photos of the adventures of his very own life (THAT NO ONE ELSE GETS TO SEE) and also from the lives of other members. He’ll also feature “Hoff TV” where (as he describes it): “I go live often.” There are chat features, the ability to create home pages with personal interests, music features, video and photo uploads…virtually everything one needs to create an online social community…all based around David Hasselhoff.

The byline of Hoffspace: “One man or woman CAN make a difference...”

So, readers of yooRyoo, I challenge you to vote below: is Hoffspace real? We’ll tally your votes all week long, and let you know the real answer on Friday.

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Happy Friday - it’s time for the Friday Fishwrap. Before our video, here are the results of last Sunday’s “Is It Real?” poll. We asked if the FaceBook group “I Tend to Fart in Public” is real…I mean, I know there are crazy FaceBook groups, but can this one actually exist?

• 67% of you thought it was indeed real (I worry about you people)
• 33% thought it was fake (like none of you have ever farted in public…)

The answer? “I Tend to Fart in Public” is indeed real! For those of you with FaceBook profiles, here’s the link (yes, it’s a private group - I wonder why). Tune in this Sunday for our next installment of “Is It Real?”

Until then, we leave you this Friday with a great, viral clip that features a well-known WWII figure struggling with his Twitter posts - enjoy!

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Isaac Asimov’s robots in his series of short stories (I, Robot) published in 1950 follow the three Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

 Some laws they should have considered are:

• A robot cannot sing or dance
• Robots should not be freaky
• A robot cannot compete in the Beijing Olympics in women’s gymnastics

 
Dancing Titan Robots

These menacing looking robots could be tearing people limb from limb, knock down buildings and tanks, and generally cause chaos. But they are reduced to bad jokes and lip syncing.

Freaky Robot

The thing that makes it freaky is that there are so many subtle nuances that make up the expressions of a human being, that when we see an ersatz version the eye immediately sees the robot as close to a human, except freaky, like Paris Hilton.

Paris Hilton was one of the first realistic looking and acting robots released to the cheers of psuedo-celebrity watchers and reality porn lovers.

 But the ultimate of robotics is on display in the women’s gymnastics in the form of Chinese gymnast Cheng Fei.

Cheng Fei, while a highly capable (and realistic) gymnastic robot, you can tell by her frozen facial expressions (and perfect gymnastic form), that she is pure robot.

iRobot, making robots freaky!
(The use of the term iRobot should not be confused with the company iRobot, maker of Roomba, the vaccum cleaning robot.)

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Poor Rick Astley never gets a break in this Web 2.0 world. After suddenly re-appearing on the pop scene last year due to a surge of “rick-rolling” on YouTube, Mr. Astley was rediscovered by millions of new listeners throughout the world. The demand for his techno-pop-synth sounds soared, so much so that he announced his plan to tour Japan and the Far East, digging up his 80’s pseudo-music catalog for newer, younger audiences.

Just when the money began rolling back to Rick Astley’s pockets, a newer internet craze surfaced on the web, a craze designed to humiliate this singer of such hits as “Never Gonna Give You Up” and “Together Forever”….Roll Ricking.

Roll Ricking is a malicious prank targeting Rick Astley directly - just as he takes to the stage and the opening strains of his Number 1 hits flow from the computer banks (doubling as his band), large screens drop from the ceilings, and different videos begin showing inane video clips such as:

• LOLcats montages
• videos of people inadvertently taking a hit to their crotch
• naked webcam girls that want to get freaky with you - FREE!
• clothed webcam girls that want to mildly suggest things to do with you - FREE!
• other people singing “Never Gonna Give You Up” in Karaoke

These video events are subsequently filmed and uploaded back to YouTube.

Rick Astley caught on tape at a latest concert

Already humiliated at four concerts in Japan and Hong Kong, Rick Astley has been quoted as stating: “This is enough - there’s only so much this One (maybe Two) Hit Wonder of the 80’s can take - I’m quitting touring for good.” After blowing his nose, he added: “Besides, I just got offered a hosting job at VH-1 for their new reality/trivia/nostalgia program: “Growing up with Denise Richards in the I Love the 80’s Rock of Love game show.”

YouTube viewers, when reached for comment, left more than 4,000 smarmy responses on voicemail - maybe two or three of them relevant and/or funny.

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Wikipoetri 2.0 is a web-based interface utilizing wiki technology to allow users to contribute or modify poetry content. Wiki’s are often used to create collaborative and community websites. In fact, Wikipedia is one of the best know wikis in the world. Although Wikipedia is often ridiculed for its inaccuracies and contributor’s bias, the founders of Wikipoetry 2.0 say that the reason is that Wiki’s have not found their correct media for wikis to be applied.

Now they’ve found it: Poetry.

From Wikipedia:

Poetry (from the Greek poiesis, a “making” or “creating”) is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning.

What this means is that you can write poetry about anything and it doesn’t really have to mean anything. Shoot, it’s perfect for wiki’s!

Having a site like Wikipoetri 2.0 is like a freshmen creative writing class back in my undergrad, “ gushes fan Fran Lieptowicz, a fan of Wikipoetri 2.0. “I mean, you add a line onto a previous line, or even edit and delete lines of poetry written before. It’s constantly evolving.”

Other writers disagree:

It’s constantly revolting,” says Rachel Summer, PhD in Poetics from the Naropa Institute of Disembodied Poetics, Boulder, Colorado: “Imagine a morass of constantly changing lines, no coherent assonance, alliteration or rhythm, and symbolism that starts and then goes nowhere. It’s ridiculous. More so, it is shameful.”

A snippet of one of the Wikipoems (version 07/08/2008 07:53pm) is called “Nostalgia”:

The lucid dreaming of driving
the headlights burn tunnels, stare hole like Superman into the night
the Venturi effect inhales the car
the night closes behind like a tight sphincter
Eat My Exhaustion

Ms. Sumner responds, “I mean, come ON, ‘stare hole like Superman into the night’? ‘the night closes behind like a tight sphincter?’ I mean, what the fuck is that?”

The anonymous founders of Wikipoetri, going by the literary poet names of Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Olsen say that Ms. Sumner is missing the point.

Wikipoetri 2.0 breaks the boundaries of traditional poetry, much in the same way that spoken word poetry broke the bounds of what was traditionally known as poetry. Like Spokenword poetry, where anyone could get up on stage and read their writings, Wikipoetri 2.0 enables poetry writers to collaborate and attempt to write a great community written poem”

Professor Sumner shudders, “It’s spray paint over the Louvre, the great tradition of Poetry. If shit can be poetry, then poetry is shit. I simply can’t abide it,” at this point Ms. Summer stuck her head in an oven and turned the gas up.

Video of the poet Wang Zen performing the
wikipoem Nostalgia, version 07/08/2008 07:53pm

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Happy Sunday, yooRyoo followers. As you know, every Sunday we like to bring you a feature called “Is It Real?” - where we present a web 2.0 company or technology, give you a brief overview of the product, and then ask you to decide if it’s real or not. We reveal the answer to you on Friday, so you have a whole week to vote!

Here’s the catch: you can’t use the web in any way to determine if the company is real or not. You just have to guess, based on what’s presented of you. So, without any more ado, here is this Sunday’s “Is It Real?“…

As you know Facebook allows members to gather together under formal “groups” - thus, proclaiming your likeness with other denizens of this social network. To that end, Facebook users have created a group called “I Tend to Fart in Public” with the following description:

This is a group for sharing horror stories about farting in a socially unacceptable setting. it’s happened to all of us and we could all use a safe place to talk about it.

There are currently 23 members of this group, but once the word gets out, they expect an explosive rise in new members…

Is "I Tend to Fart in Public" a real Facebook group?

• Maybe - because when I fart in public, I let out silent ones...so no one knows it's me (67%, 2 Votes)
• Yes - since I tend to fart in public all the time, this must be a real group (33%, 1 Votes)
• No - I can't imagine ever farting in public...I always do it in the privacy of my office, home or car. (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 3

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Happy Friday, everyone. So glad the weekend is almost here! This Friday Fishwrap celebrated the start of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Bejing, as well as reveals to you the results of last Sunday’s “Is It Real?” Let’s get started…

Last Sunday in our “Is It Real?” feature, we presented to you a Twitter application that allows you to be an online poseur, automatically research the followers of your “Twitter hero” and recommending to you which ones you should be stalking…er, following. Then we asked if this application - Twannabe - is indeed real.

• 50% of you thought it was real
• 50% thought it was fake

In reality, Twannabe is a REAL APPLICATION. Don’t believe me, check it out yourself: www.twannabe.com

Congratulations to those that guessed correctly. So, without further ado, here is today’s Olympic-themed Friday-Fishwrap video: Funny Olympic Videos…

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Idea submitted by Dave Moore

Do you have too many Facebook buddies and MySpace friends? Still clinging to the hope that people will sign up for Bebo? Don’t have time to keep up with the comments, wall posts and messages? Now you can spend time in SecondLife and not worry about keeping up with all your online friends.

From the makers of Furbies comes MyBot - a cute and cuddly stuffed toy with a USB2 connection that can easily integrate into all major social networking sites.

By using patented chat-room-webcam-girl technology (all rights reserved) that can be specially tuned to your needs via semantic search algorithms, MyBot will quickly compile an internal database of all your online personal preferences. Then, turn MyBot on, and it will automatically start accepting and/or rejecting friend requests, Twitter followers, respond to wall posts and comment in a tone determined by your current online mood or status (yes, it uses Toot!).

Plus, your My Bot device will occasionally make cute noises and purrs, just to remind you it’s still working!

For only $19.99 per month, a subscription to MyBot Pro extends to IM and email applications, with a simple API for gmail, MS Outlook, MSN, Jabber and others. Get your MyBot to answer all your emails for you. This service uses an intelligent search capability which learns from any previous email exchanges (similar to Xobni) to automatically generate responses in your personal conversational style to anyone on your MyBot list. Add your casual acquaintances, irritating work colleagues, your boss or even your mom - they’ll never suspect a thing!!!

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In a crazy move (on a triple-word play, no less), Hasbro games announced today the release of one of their newest online, Facebook game application - Crapulous!

Crapulous is an ASCII-based application available through the Facebook application interface, allowing users to clumsily play against a “computer-generated AI” player through command-line scripts.

“Loosely fashioned after such engaging games as Zork and that one the Matthew Broderick kid played in ‘Wargames,’ we’re convinced Crapulous will be as popular as ICQ,” commented Hasbro spokesperson, Crash Bandicoot.

Although early beta-tests revealed difficulty installing the command-line window interface on most computers, Crapulous has already gained a significant early install base, revealed Mr. Bandicoot. “We’re definitely excited by the usability testing on Windows NT machines, but only those with more than 256kb of RAM,” he added.

Nonplussed, the creators of Scrabulous have already released their replacement game, WordScraper, and have already tracked more than 8 billion installs.

Hasbro has already tentatively announced a complete roadmap of ASCII-based games for Facebook, through the remainder of 2008, including:

• BattleCrap - face off against another player, in this exciting, turn-by-turn script-based battle game
• CrappyLand - where kids and adults move simple emoticons through a flat, 2-dimensional land of fun
• Hungry Hungry Crappos - exciting turn-based action, where you compete to “eat” more “&” symbols than your computer based foes
• Oper-crap-tion - your skill at kernel commands is put to the test…fail, and you might hear the dulcit sound of an 8-bit alarm tone from your speakers

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Canaanite 2.0, aka “McCainonites,” are a modern version of the biblical Canaanites, who were smitten by the Israelis back when toilet paper was a novel idea. Canaanite 2.0 is a VC-funded technology, led by an unnamed elderly Angel-investor that happens to be running for a major political office. These “McCainonites” believe in the strength of old people, national defense, and smiting “non-believers” - and they do this via an AJAX-enabled interface offering news updates exclusively through AltaVista.

While in days of old Israelis destroyed the Canaanites, it seems that the “modern-day” (ha!) McCainonites are being undone by their own actions and poorly written code.

A list of faulty code found in McCainonite include:

• Replacing (in many news posts) the word “Iraq” when they clearly mean Afghanistan”
• Mistaking “Somalia” for “Sudan” in at least one news feed
• On their sports section, swapping out the “Green Bay Packers” tag for the “Pittsburgh Steelers”
• Often referring to Vladimir Putin of Russia — particularly following trips to Germany — as “President Putin of Germany”
• Interchanging the words “Sunnis” and “Shiiteheads” in all Iraq-centered updates
• Accidentally mistaking a dog for a cat
• Once trying to open a baby instead of an umbrella on a rainy day

<sarcasm>No, old age and outdated code really has nothing to do with it </sarcasm>

In response, two major news sites - Yo’Bama and Jo’Bama didn’t have to do anything - they just changed minor CSS items, and stood aside to watch the fiasco, and try not to make flubs about the US having 57 states.

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