yooRyoo.com

…a social-media satire site featuring the newest and bestest in Web 2.0 technologies
Subscribe

Miracle at St. Obama - reality based video game

November 19, 2008 By: zenboy Category: Video Games 1 Comment →

Reality based video games are nothing new. Some examples are the Sims, as well as such titles as Guitar Hero and even the games such as Grand Theft Auto.


There’s now a new video game called “Miracle at St. Obama” – a reality based game where the “Mission Impossible” is to get us out of a war, prevent a recession/depression, prevent Russian encroachment on the eastern front, gain support for universal healthcare, and start the long road to an economic recovery.

Is Obama our miracle worker?


Instead of the typical male teen mindset of “let’s blow sh– up!’ this is a new concept in reality based gaming modelled on the toughest job in the world in one of the toughest of times - right here, right now. In this game you play America’s first black president. Hopes are high that you are able to accomplish such miracles as prevent the fall of our nation’s auto industry, fight two wars, gain the respect and cooperation of the opposing political party, unite your own liberal base, among all the other myriad problems or, as Obama would say “Opportunities for Change” with a capital “C.”


The game has options for other “Fantasy presidents” such as a McCain or Hilary Clinton presidency, and even a Sarah Palin Presidency based on the untimely death of a fantasy McCain President, and how she deals with incursions into the Georgian territory, “Well, we’ll just send our troops to the south, you betcha!” is one canned response.


Real time updates add realism to the game as the game is updated on a nightly schedule to make the game coincide with actual events in the world happening today.


There are even “hidden levels” that reveal an Arnold Schwartzenegger presidency (just need to remove the requirement of a candidate being from this country!), and “what if” scenarios such as “What if aliens landed!”


The game is guaranteed to provide hours of fun, otherwise there is a full 4 years no questions asked return policy to a period of worldwide disapprobation, war and economic turmoil.

Related posts

Is It Real #6: Hoffspace - social networking around David Hasselhoff

August 17, 2008 By: cboyer Category: Is It Real 5 Comments →

Is It Real? - a test of your Web 2.0 savvy

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:

————————>

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.

Is "Hoffspace" really a social networking site, centered on David Hasselhoff?

  • Yes, Hoffspace must be real - I love David Hasselhoff (and I am not even German) - Hoffspace is not only real, but it's much needed (46%, 17 Votes)
  • No way can Hoffspace be real - and if it is, I'll gouge my eyes out and never look at the internet again! (38%, 14 Votes)
  • Maybe Hoffspace is real - I mean, I liked David Hasselhoff in Knight Rider and Baywatch, but is he still on TV? (16%, 6 Votes)

Total Voters: 37

Loading ... Loading ...

Related posts

Celebritech News: Roll Ricking - the new internet meme

August 13, 2008 By: cboyer Category: Celebritech, Uncategorized 1 Comment →

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.

Ricky - you have some splaining to do!

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.

Things that Rick will not do

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.

Related posts

Is It Real #5: “I Tend to Fart in Public” - a Facebook group

August 10, 2008 By: cboyer Category: Is It Real, Uncategorized No Comments →

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…
So, yooRyoo readers, we ask: Is “I Tend to Fart in Public” real? Vote below!

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

Loading ... Loading ...

Related posts

MyBot - automated cuteness on the social web!

August 06, 2008 By: Dave Category: Uncategorized 3 Comments →

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.

New Furby robomonster

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!).

Furbies scare me

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!!!

No really, furbies scare meThey want to make me scream

Related posts

Crapulous - the newest Facebook game application from Hasbro

August 05, 2008 By: cboyer Category: Computer Gaming No Comments →

crapulous - it\'s better than Scrabulous

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.

wargames - take that WOPR

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

Related posts

Canaanite 2.0: McCainonites Untie on the Iraq/Pakistan border!!

August 04, 2008 By: zenboy Category: Political No Comments →

canaanite 2.0 - McCain revised

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.

Related posts

Is It Real #4: “Twannabe” - be a poseur on Twitter!

August 03, 2008 By: cboyer Category: Is It Real 2 Comments →

Is It Real? - a test of your Web 2.0 savvyIt’s time for the weekly installment of Is It Real? - where a Web 2.0 company or technology is presented, along with a brief description of what the product actually does and then we ask the yooRyoo readers: is it a real company or not? Here’s the catch - you can’t use the web in anyway to help you with your guess!

We’ll run the poll all week, and provide the answer next Friday. Think you’re up to the challenge? Let’s go:

Imagine this scenario: you got your Twitter account and found two dozen people to follow (and maybe half of those follow you), but you really don’t feel popular enough. But, some of the people you are following have hundreds - thousands - of people they follow. Surely there’s a reason for their popularity. So, how do you get as popular on Twitter?

No problem - Twannabe is here! Twannabe allows you to enter in the name of one of your “Twitter Heroes” and it automatically determines which of those thousands of contacts you should be following!!! Simply add those contacts to your “follow” list, and voila - Twitter popularity automated for all of us Twitter poseurs!

Note: this is limited to only 2000 contacts…sorry!

So, Is It Real? fans, it’s time to ask: Is Twannabe Real? Vote below!

Is Twannabe real?

  • Sure, Twannabe has to be real - and just in time, since I need to really up my Twitter stats! (50%, 2 Votes)
  • No way is Twannabe real - I got popular on Twitter on my very own, one follower at a time. That's the way it should be! (50%, 2 Votes)
  • Maybe Twannabe is real - but getting popular online can't be that easy... (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 4

Loading ... Loading ...

Related posts

Friday Fishwrap (8-1-08): “The Machine is Us/ing Us”

August 01, 2008 By: cboyer Category: Friday Fishwrap No Comments →

yooRyoo\'s Friday Fishwrap!

Happy August 1st, everyone! It’s Friday, and that means it’s time for the Friday Fishwrap, where we not only share an end-of-the-week video with you, we also reveal the answer to this week’s “Is It Real?“…

If you recall, last Sunday we featured a company called Ribbit:

Ribbit is an open platform for telephony innovation giving their developers unprecedented access to their technology through the Ribbit API and allowing them to innovate at will. Their business is built more like a software company than a phone company, counting on their developers to create the next generation communications solutions the world has been waiting for.

Then, we asked you to vote on how real this company is. Here are the poll results:

  • 66.7% of you said it was real
  • 22% said that it wasn’t real
  • 11% just weren’t sure

The answer: Ribbit is indeed real! Savvy readers could have discovered this by reading our comments - one of which came directly from a developer at Ribbit:

Well, as someone who has been on the team at Ribbit for most of this year, and have watched both their developer community and awesome innovations like Ribbit for Salesforce (letting you phone in CRM updates) and the AIR iPhone http://www.merhl.com/?p=29 gain popularity, I guess I can tell you without fear of croaking: yup. Ribbit’s real.

Thanks for those comments, Ellen Petry Leanse. I think it’s cool that Ribbit is available on the new iPhone!

Thanks for voting, and tune in this Sunday to vote for next week’s “Is It Real?” Until then, enjoy this Friday Fishwrap’s video: “The Machine is Us/ing Us”…

Related posts

Punksonomy - social tagging without the social niceties

July 29, 2008 By: cboyer Category: Uncategorized, social bookmarking 1 Comment →

Punksonomy - Tag This

A recent raid of an abandoned warehouse in downtown Los Angeles this past weekend revealed rough drafts of a new application that intersects Web 2.0 technology with anarchy. This so-dubbed “Punksonomy” relies heavily on social-bookmarking technologies (such as Digg or Deli.cio.us) but removes all aspects of social interaction.

Users of Punksonomy troll through various websites, and “Punk” them with tags that have no relation to the page’s content, and are usually filled with vulgarities, insults and drug references. “Punking” tags are then housed in a large, centralized database administered by the Organization for the Advancement of Anarchy and Social Unrest (OAASU).

Ashton Kutcher likes older womenThey are then disseminated to social misfits worlwide through a complex mobile phone system regulated by AT&T and Verizon. Thus, anarchy is delivered in small, uniform packets of information.

When approached Ashton Kutcher quickly stated “This has nothing to do with me - no comment.”

A gang of suspicious black-clothed, boot-wearing loiterers in the back alley were more open about the new technology:

  • “Yeah, I am a Punksonomist - what the f&^% are your gunna do ’bout it…” said one.
  • “Piss off, ya wanka - or I’ll tag you with this blade!” mentioned another.
  • “Utilizing Punksonomy, rather than creating a top-down taxonomy, we can create a rich heirarchically structured designed to align to informed governance and decision-making.” commented a third, just prior to downing the remainder of his malt liquor. “Urp, I just threw up in my mouth a little” he added.

Punk - like throwing up in your ears

Related posts