Archive Category: Blog & Internet
10 Internet Rules and Laws
The laws of the internet were never legislated, but passed into law by being evident over and over again. I was familiar with most of these laws, but some I didn’t know had names or documented origins.
4. Skitt’s Law: Expressed as “any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself” or “the likelihood of an error in a post is directly proportional to the embarrassment it will cause the poster.”
It is an online version of the proofreading truism Muphry’s Law, also known as Hartman’s Law of Prescriptivist Retaliation: “any article or statement about correct grammar, punctuation, or spelling is bound to contain at least one eror”.
That’s nice to know. Link -via Digg
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Weird Images of Yore: Black and WTF

Image from Foxtongue [Flickr]
The next time you get a bunch of WTF pictures on a viral email, remember this: human’s propensity for making weird (and weirdly wonderful) pictures predates the InterWeb. Take a look at these strangely compelling black and white images of yore over at Black and WTF tumblr blog: Link – Thanks Matt!
PostSecret Interview Follow-Up: Winners of the PostSecret Book
A
couple of weeks ago, we posted an interview
with Frank Warren of PostSecret,
where we asked Neatoramanauts to submit their own questions.
Here are the four questions and a comment that were picked - these people will get a free autographed copy of the PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God:
1. Reflecting upon all the Post Secrets you’ve received, and the contents therein, what would you say is the underlying – yet unifying – character(istic) of humankind? (Asked by Sanyu)
Frank : All the secrets I have seen, almost half-a-million, have revealed a hidden landscape that we all recognize but don' talk about. They have made me aware of our rich inner lives and the stories of heroism, human frailty and humor happening in people's lives. Those stories and secrets allow me to feel more empathy toward others and greater self-acceptance. They make me feel more connected to strangers. They make riding the subway more interesting.
2. How do you tell a fake secret submission from a genuine one? Or does it matter to you if they’re genuine confessions from the person who sent them or not if they might resonate with someone who might read them? (Asked by Melissa)
Frank: I think of the postcards as works of art that may have several layers of truth. Perhaps the secret we think is true becomes false when we share it. Maybe the secret you "make-up" actually reveals a kernel of truth that you are hiding from yourself.
3. What is the most commonly sent ’secret’ to Postsecret? (Asked by Mowog)
Frank: The most common secret I get is, "I pee in the shower". The most common kind of secret I get are the ones describing that condition I think we all can relate to; our search for that one person who we can tell all our secrets to. The journey toward greater intimacy with others and understanding of ourselves.
4. Have you ever received a secret you didn’t think you should publish? (Asked by Jenny)
Frank: A year ago I received a call from the FBI about a secret. It was about a secret I did not publish. Maybe someday I can post it.
5. Comment that won the book:
Oh my goodness… The last postcard up here “Rationally, I think the idea of God makes no sense, but I cannot get rid of my faith no matter how hard I try” has tears streaming down my face. I have been reading PostSecret for the last 3 or so years and this hasn’t happened yet. Funny that it’s on Neatorama and not PostSecret though, but i digress.
I have felt this way my whole life and it has caused a huge number of conflicts for my spiritual self. I have such a hard time praying and praying after telling people I’m an atheist or that I don’t believe in God, but I still always say stuff like that. I’m so happy there is someone else who is having the same conflict. (Comment by Paula R)
Congratulations to everyone who won the book (you'll get an email from me soon)! My apologies to those whose questions didn't get picked - they're all great questions, but time limitations did not permit every single one of them to be answered. Thank you to Frank and all you Neatoramanauts who participated ;)
Balloon Boy Halloween Costume

That didn’t take long. You can get your very own Balloon Boy Halloween Costume Kit from Plantraco Microflight. Includes balloon (some assembly required). Link -via the Presurfer
A Lesson in eCommerce from The World of Goo
The World of Goo is a physics-based puzzle game released in October of 2008. It was favorably received by the gaming community, receiving many awards.
On the one-year anniversary of the product’s release, the developers decided to undertake an e-commerce experiment. They offered to sell the game (previously retailing at $20) to anyone for whatever price the customer was willing to pay: “…one cent, a million dollars, the usual twenty, or any creative number they let you type into the text field.”
In the week that followed, 57,000 additional people purchased the game; the graph above shows what prices they opted to pay. About 17,000 people paid $0.01, but another 16,000 paid $1.00-$1.99, and several hundred paid the full $20.00 original price. Total sales = over $100,000 for the week. And still rising, because they have announced that they are continuing the offer until October 25.
The developers discussion at their website includes their impressions of why people paid different amounts, and notes that they made no money when people paid less than $0.30 because of Paypal transaction costs. For further discussion of this odd marketing strategy, see Rock, Paper Shotgun.
Via Metafilter.
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A Teacher's Blog: The Cuban Missile Crisis
This week marks the 47th anniversary of The Cuban Missile Crisis, an event that spanned thirteen days and brought the world close to total nuclear war. It was also a valuable lesson in Presidential powers, and global negotiations.
NYC teacher Mr. D. decided to have his students re-enact the crisis, with surprising results.
I laid out a dossier of the facts of the case: missiles were discovered in Cuba by an American spy plane. The United States is under pressure from the Soviet Union to withdraw missiles from Turkey. The Russians are not saying for certain that there are missiles. The United States is prepared to escalate with possible military action.
I had the class divide into groups, take the facts and create a course of action. Amazingly, their plans mirrored the plans created by Kennedy’s cabinet and Pentagon officials in 1962. One group favored a military option, a direct strike on the Cuban missiles. Another group favored a covert operation to disable the missiles. Still another favored a unilateral pullout from Turkey as a sign of goodwill.
What was most astonishing was my last group. They actually said, “Maybe we should get other countries on our side by showing them what we have.” By doing so, they figured, it would make the Soviets look like the bad guy, the aggressor. I was floored. These were barely teenagers and they tackled delicate foreign policy like a pro.
Link with embedded video clips of Adlai Stevenson’s triumph at the U.N. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
From Blogs to Books - A History of the Web in Print
Most people I encounter in my offline life do not surf the internet, and I think about all the rich content they are missing. The people I encounter on the internet work hard to spread interesting content, and are rarely rewarded for their efforts. But in the last few years, quite a few interesting ideas that broke on the web are now breaking through to “meatspace” through book publishing, which is where the real money is -for the lucky ones. This has led to blogs that are started for the express purpose of landing an eventual book deal. Urlesque has compiled a list of blogs that have turned into books, which may be useful in Christmas shopping for your relatives who would enjoy such things but won’t spend time online. Link -via the Presurfer
Blog Action Day: Is Climate Change / Global Warming Real?

Today is Blog Action Day, an annual event in which participating bloggers post about a particular issue to raise awareness and trigger global discussion that will – hopefully – bring about positive change. This year’s topic is climate change – which, shall we say, is a wee bit controversial.
We’ll get to some Neatorama-worthy posts on the blog today, but first I’d like to ask YOU what you think about global warming/climate change. Do you believe that it is happening? Or is it just a passing hysteria, much like the concern over global cooling in the 1950s to 1970s?
It’s an open mike – let’s hear your opinion.
Be Careful Who You Poke
In yet another case of blurring between the lines of virtual and reality, a woman broke the law for poking via Facebook! Shannon Jackson of Tennessee broke the law when she poked a contact on her Facebook list, by violating a restraining order.
The order specifically prohibits either telephoning, contacting, or otherwise communicating with the petitioner. Violation of a restraining order in Tennessee is a class A misdemeanor, punishable up to 11 months and 29 days in jail, as well as a fine up to $2500.
This does leave one big question on the table, however—if the plaintiff here felt so threatened by the defendant, why didn’t she block (a little-known option in the privacy settings) or at least de-friend her on Facebook? From what I can see, you can only poke friends (or possibly people on your network with public profiles). Yes, the accused is responsible and shouldn’t have poked her, but shouldn’t the plaintiff have taken steps to avoid contact if she was distressed enough by their interactions to get a restraining order?
What do you think? Should the perp here have known her poke counted as contact? Was she naive or hoping to subvert the court order?
From the Upcoming
ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.
Robots + Monsters

Raise money for charity and support indie artists? What can be better than that? Joe Alterio has relaunched his website Robots + Monsters, where you can order a very cool custom drawings – the ones above are our very own Neatorama monster and robot.
Your drawing will be made either by Joe himself or one of the site’s contributors: John Martz, Travis Pitts, and Adam "Apelad" Koford. Portion of the proceeds will go to support a charity (right now it’s Water.org which provides safe water and sanitation to communities in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America) and to help support the artist.
Here’s how to get yours: Link
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Post Secret: New Book Interview with Frank Warren

Forget the CIA, Frank Warren is probably the world's best keeper of secrets.
In 2004, Frank started a project called PostSecret, in which he printed 3,000 blank postcards inviting people to mail him their secrets anonymously. He handed out the postcards to strangers, left them between book pages in bookstores and libraries, and even left some on park benches. He got 100 back and posted the secrets on his blog.
Apparently, that struck a nerve: PostSecret went viral and since he started it, Frank has received nearly half a million postcards in his mailbox and over a quarter billion visitor to www.postsecret.com. The website spawned various exhibitions, events and PostSecret books, as well as various parodies (a true measure of one's popularity in today's world, I'm afraid).

The latest book, PostSecret:
Confessions on Life, Death, and God
was inspired by a collection of more than 300 postcards that were part
of the "All Faiths Beautiful" exhibit at the American Visionary
Art Museum. The book contains never-before-seen secrets that, as Frank
so eloquently wrote, "expose the common landscape of our private
lives - from our embarrassing desires to our hidden acts of kindness;
from the private prayers of atheists to the voiceless doubt of believers."
Frank, a Neatoramanaut himself (that's him wearing one of our T-shirts),
has kindly agreed to sit down for a virtual interview with us. You are
invited to submit comments and questions for Frank - we'll pick 5 of the
best comments/questions to get a free autographed PostSecret:
Confessions on Life, Death, and God
book.
Neatorama: Congratulations on the new book (it's fantastic, by the way, I was engrossed reading it for a couple of hours) - did you ever think that PostSecret would be as popular as it is today when you started it?
Frank Warren: No, I have been shocked. In addition to the five PostSecret books, the website has had over 250,000,000 hits.
I knew that if I could earn people's trust and build a collection of creative and authentic secrets it would be very special for me. It's great to know so many others appreciate these extraordinary confessions too.
Neatorama: Why do you think it has been so successful?
Frank: I think people find some of the funny and sexual postcards amusing but eventually you come across a secret that you might recognize as one of your own. One you might be hiding from yourself. I think it is those moments of epiphany and empathy that have allowed the PostSecret community to grow.
Neatorama: Your latest book focuses on life, death, and God. Can you tell us a little bit about the reasoning behind the topic?
Frank: PostSecret started as a lark, maybe even a prank, but over the years the secrets have become more meaningful to me. This new book, like all the books have never-before-seen secrets that touch on sexual taboos and some outlandish humor, but more than the other books, the new book has postcards that share some our deepest and most private feelings about the greatest mysteries of life. The parts that are always there beneath the surface but we sometimes forget about during our everyday lives.
Neatorama: What are some of your favorite PostSecret secrets?




Neatorama: It's been five years since you started PostSecret - how has it changed your life?
Frank: Knowing all these secret stories that are happening in so many of our lives makes life, people, and riding the subway more interesting.
Neatorama: What's next for you and PostSecret?
Frank: My favorite part of the project now is traveling to college campuses and sharing the stories behind the secrets at live events where audience members can share their own secrets - without anonymity, but sometimes with great emotion.
__________
Frank's message on YouTube
__________
From PostSecret Confessions on Life, Death and God:





Frank has kindly offered 5 free autographed copies of the book for a giveaway. Got any questions for Frank? 5 lucky commenters with the most interesting questions and/or comments will win a copy of the book (I'll post Frank's replies as an update).
Links: Post Secret Book official website (with bonus secrets) | Post Secret website | Post Secret Community | Post Secret Book on Amazon (affiliate link, here's the clean non-affiliate link if you'd like)
Disapproving Rabbits

Bunnies make great pets, but there’s something about them that’s just so condescending. For those of you who need a few more snarky rabbits in your life, try DisapprovingRabbits.com.
Link Image Via Disapproving Rabbits
Using Facebook to Measure "Gross National Happiness"

Image: Facebook
Jason Kinkaid writes at Tech Crunch that Facebook has developed a new application that aggregates the published emotional states of users over time. The relative contentment that users express constitutes “Gross National Happiness”:
Data is collected from “public and semi-public forums” on Facebook, which is all anonymized before its analyzed. To determine if a particular status message is happy or sad (or neither), the app searches for popular phrases and words that the engineers have associated with each sentiment.
You can adjust the graph by sliding the bar at the bottom of the screen. You can also adjust the zoom by dragging the handlebars on the slider, and can actually watch happiness jump hour-to-hour, though it’s a bit difficult to navigate when you’re zoomed in that far. It’s fun to play around with, but you aren’t going to find many surprises: happiness generally hits a low on Mondays, then gradually grows up through the weekend when it drops again as the work-week begins. Peaks are all found around holidays, with Thanksgiving drawing the most happiness. Also worth nothing: this year there was an abrupt drop in happiness in late June, which is likely associated with the tragic death of Michael Jackson.
Link via Fast Company
Rick Rolls

Image: planetwrite
Literally. Flickr user planetwrite of Ocala, FL used his laser engraver to draw Rick Astley’s image on dinner rolls. | Link via Urlesque
Winston Churchill Motivational Posters

The Art of Manliness blog has an excellent post turning the wits of Winston Churchill into stylish motivational posters.
I'd like to see Brett and Kate McKay of AoM Blog turn these favorite Churchill quotes of mine into a poster:
Bessie Braddock: Sir, you are drunk.
Churchill: And you, madam, are ugly. But in the morning, I shall be sober.
and
Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if I were your wife, I'd poison your tea.
Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it.
10 Most Useful Online Tools
The web is full of online tools, but I bet that you just use a handful of them every day. Indeed, the hardest thing about using online tools is finding them – sometimes you have to wade through a lot of mediocre tools to find the one that suits your need.
Well, here’s my list – a set of 10 online tools that I use daily (or almost daily) to blog. For example:

Ta-Da is a very useful, easy to use – and best of all, free – online to-do list by the folks at 37signals. I use it every day to jot down tasks and ideas. You can even share your list with other people or make it public.
Link: 10 Most Useful Online Tools Ever! over at Cluebert.
Draw A Photo Masterpiece With PhotoSketch
PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage from tao chen on Vimeo.
Designed by a team at the National University of Singapore, PhotoSketch is the latest and greatest in image creation systems. The full description of how it works can be found here, but the basic process is this:
Draw a basic object, name it and repeat this for any other objects you want in your picture, then name the background. PhotoSketch then searches the Internet for images that match the descriptions given, and after a bit of sorting out, you have all the elements necessary for seamless stitching. The possibilities seem endless. Check out the video!
This is getting so much buzz, the link is down as of 10/06/2009 1945 hrs EST.
Tanks A Lot

Businesses all over look for memorable names. Many go with puns, since a funny play on words will stick in your mind. Tanks A Lot is a blog full of punny business names, like restaurants named Beau Thai, Thai Ranosaurus, Thai Foon, or Tongue Thai’d (wonder what kind of food they serve?) or eyeglass stores named Specs Appeal or You and Eye. Link
Cluebert: New Website for Money and Time Saving Tips
Hello
everyone! I'm happy to announce that we've just launched Cluebert,
a new website about time and money-saving tips, useful news and practical
knowledge and hacks for everyday living.
We know that there are a lot of "how-to" websites and blogs on the Net. But we're confident that we can bring a unique and fun spin in this crowded field.
We'll be adding new posts daily to Cluebert - Please take a look at these:
- Unusual Uses For Lemons
- Stop A Baby From Crying ... Instantly!
- The No Sacrifice Money Saving Tips for Washer and Dryer
- Unusual Uses For Ketchup
- Using Your Hand as a Ruler
Links: Cluebert | Cluebert's RSS Feed | Cluebert on Twitter
American Gothic Parodies

Image: McGlinch
American Gothic Parodies is a compendium of images based on Grant Wood’s iconic painting “American Gothic.” It was assembled by an illustrator named McGlinch from his grandmother’s collection. That’s all of the information that I can find about him, other than that he is a contributor a blog called Bad Spock Drawings, which is also a hoot.
Link via J-Walk Blog | Collector’s Blog | About American Gothic
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Amusing Real Estate Listings

Lovely Listing is a collection of user-submitted finds in the the real estate world. Sometimes you just have to wonder what people were thinking, whether it be the agent’s choice of photo, the seller’s interior decor, or the builder themselves, as exemplified above:
Dude. Check it out. The weirdest thing ever is going on here. You see? You see it? So bizarre: the toilet paper is hung on the shower stall door. Crazy!
There might be something else wrong here, too.
(Photo: Netti Asunto)
Surprise Apartment Inspection
Personally, I can’t imagine signing a lease that would allow a landlord to conduct a surprise apartment inspection when the tenant is out. That’s what happened in this scenario from David Thorne, the writer who brought us the picture of a spider and the coffee cup cleaning chart.
Thankyou for the surprise inspection and invitation to participate in the next. I appreciate you underlining the text at the bottom of the page which I would otherwise have surely mistaken for part of the natural pattern in the paper. I was going to clean the apartment but had so many things on my ‘to do’ list that I decided to treat them all equally and draw pictures of sharks instead. I have attached one for your honest appraisal.
I have read through your list of chores and intend to rectify the situation by wrapping my entire body in eighteen rolls of super absorbent Thick’n'thirsty® paper towels, hosing down the apartment, then rolling around on the floor and rubbing myself up and down walls. I will cover the more stubborn marks with Liquid Paper. I will also get back to you in regards to the premises being inspected in another two weeks, my agreement to do so will depend on availability and not wanting to.
The string of correspondence between David and Peter the manager gets more surreal from this point. Link -via reddit
Art Inspired by Craigslist "Missed Connections"

Image: Sophie Blackall
Sophie Blackall is a Brooklyn-based artist who is fascinated by the Missed Connections postings on Craigslist. She finds them to be bite-sized insights into the human experience. Jenna Wortham writes in The New York Times:
Currently, Ms. Blackall is only putting her spin on listings from New York City, where she says “people are colliding with each other constantly, criss-crossing paths all day, every day and yet the interactions are so fleeting and transient. It’s really just an un-choreographed mess of colliding stories.” Eventually, she says, she might branch out to other cities. “It would be interesting to see how the listings differ in California, for example.”
Link via Fast Company | Artist’s Etsy Shop | New York Times Post
Twitter User Served Writ...By Tweet!
A lot of Twitter users are impersonating celebrities, using the social networking service to send bogus tweets on behalf of someone else. That is against the site’s policies, and a ostensibly a crime. Now, for the first time, Britain’s High Court is setting precedent by ordering one anonymous perpetrator to cease and desist. They simply sent him a tweet.
Andre Walker at Griffin Law said the anonymous Tweeter targeted by the writ will get a message from the High Court the next time they open their online account.
“Whoever they are, they will be told to stop posting, to remove previous posts and to identify themselves to the High Court via a web link form,” he said.
Magic Dots

Make your own fractals with just a mouseover on these magic dots. Other interactive toys on the same site are just as fascinating, or should I say, addicting. Link -via Gorilla Mask
What's Worse: Windows or the Cult of Mac?
The argument of Mac vs PC (or more accurately, Mac vs Windows) is as old as time itself – that is, if time started in 1984, the year that the Mac was introduced.
Sure Windows is bad. Awfully bad (I’m looking at you, Vista) but according to Charlie Brooker of The Guardian, there is something worse than Microsoft’s operating system: the cult of Mac worshippers!
Consequently, nothing pleases them more than watching a PC owner struggle with a slab of non-Mac machinery. It validates their spiritual choice. Recently I sat in a room trying to write something on a Sony Vaio PC laptop which seemed to be running a special slow-motion edition of Windows Vista specifically designed to infuriate human beings as much as possible. Trying to get it to do anything was like issuing instructions to a depressed employee over a sluggish satellite feed. When I clicked on an application it spent a small eternity contemplating the philosophical implications of opening it, begrudgingly complying with my request several months later. It drove me up the wall. I called it a bastard and worse. At one point I punched a table.
This drew the attention of two nearby Mac owners. They hovered over and stood beside me, like placid monks.
"Ah: the delights of Vista," said one.
"It really is time you got a Mac," said the other.
"They’re just better," sang monk number one.
"You won’t regret it," whispered the second.
But never fear, dear Mac lovers, Microsoft is trying to brew its own cult by using Windows 7 Launch Parties propaganda: Link
BookFail: A Gallery of Bizarre Books

Image: Book Fail
Inspired by the now famous FAIL Blog, BookFail is a gallery of book covers of strange, absurd, and improbable books. It’s somewhat similar to the Judge a Book by its Cover blog, except that you can submit your own suggestions. Above is the The Zen of Farting by Reepah Gud Wan.
Klosterman on Facebook/Twitter
Do you use Twitter or Facebook?
I really get the most out of Twitter when events like the Iranian elections went down. (the only reason to like Twitter, aside from this).
Chuck Klosterman has a seriously cool interpretation. Enjoy.
I’m more of a Facebook type that just shares links. Have a nice weekend.
Hit Play or go to You Tube
Cake Wrecks: Interview with Jen Yates

Take cakes that are so bad they're good, mix in a great sense of humor and what do you get? A madly popular blog phenomenon, and now, a book as well! Jen Yates, the founder of Cake Wrecks, one of my all time favorite blogs, has graciously agreed to do an interview about cakes, the universe and everything.
But first: the book. As I'm sure you all probably already know or can
guess, Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong is obviously about cake carnage. It chronicles some of the weirdest,
silliest, creepiest and downright fugliest cakes ever made professionally
(in order to be featured in the book and blog, each cake has to be made
by a professional baker). There are over 150 cake wrecks included (3/4
of them never-before-seen material).
But there's something very subtle about the book that made me appreciate
Jen and Cake Wrecks even more. This is something I came to realize only
after I read the advance copy of the book (I know, I know, the perks of
being a famous blogger). Cake Wrecks is actually the celebration
of having a bad cake. It's an homage to Murphy's Law asserting itself
over flour, sugar, egg and shortening mixed together
and popped in the oven.
Think about it: how many birthday parties have you gone to and not remember a whit of what happened? Now, if you had one where the cake was horribly wrong (but still very yummy) - wouldn't that stick in your memory forever? (I can imagine the conversation - Q: "Hey, remember that party with the foot cake?" A: "Yeah ... good times!")
'Nuff said. Let's get on with the interview:
Neatorama: Before we talk about cakes, I'm curious about what you wrote for the "About the Author" portion of Cake Wrecks, and I quote "Jen has been a clown, a cash office accountant, a Jungle Cruise skipper, a business owner, a children's book inventory expeditor, and a house painter."
Now, if you don't mind - a clown? Really? What's that like? Did you come up with your own Jungle Cruise skipper jokes? And just what the heck is a children's book inventory expeditor? Sounds like a smuggling ops.
Jen Yates: Hah! Yes, I do have some interesting "work" experience. Ok, let's see...being a clown? That can be surprisingly difficult, on account of your not being allowed to retaliate while being kicked in the shins by a horde of candy-seeking 9-year-olds. Heheh. Other than that it was a blast, though. I learned to juggle, make balloon animals, and perform funny skits. This was during my teens, so that's also where I first learned public speaking skills, believe it or not. We visited hospitals, shelters, expos, churches, you name it.
Jungle Cruise was also fabulous, and yes, we got to ad lib a bit. That's where my love of puns truly blossomed. There's this crashed plane on the ride, and I made a game of fitting as many plane puns as possible into the few seconds we had before it passed out of sight. (I think I got up to 8 or 9.) I wasn't happy until the whole boat was groaning in agony.
My other jobs were less glamorous. The expeditor gig? That was me in a cubicle calling various national warehouses to see if their shipment had arrived yet. Lots of spreadsheets. :)
Neatorama: What's the very first cake that got you thinking of creating Cake Wrecks - the cake that started it all?
Jen: Yes, that cake really and truly DID start it all. My friend Abby e-mailed it to me, and the idea for Cake Wrecks just hit me. I think I started the blog that very night, just for fun.
Neatorama: What's your favorite cake wrecks?
Jen: My favorites are usually the ones with the communication breakdowns. The literal stuff like the Under Neat that cake, and then the garbled phone order ones.

Cake submitted by Elizabeth R.
Remember the flash drive cake? That's the one where the customer wanted a photo cake, and so brought in the picture they wanted on a portable thumb drive for the bakery to print out. Instead, the bakery drew an exact replica of the flash drive on the cake! Heh, I LOVE stories like that.
Neatorama: Let's see some geek cred - what are the geekiest cake wrecks you've ever gotten?
Jen: Game console cakes are really popular, especially for grooms cakes, and I've seen some doosies:

Cake submitted by Monique B.

Cake submitted by Diane B.
Here are a few more geeky Wrecks:

Cake submitted by Maggie G.

Cake submitted by Kelly J.
Cake
submitted by Gretchen W. (That's supposed to be Luigi, believe it or not)
And this one's not a Wreck, but I thought it was funny:

Cake submitted by Amy L.
I *think* that says happy birthday in binary. Am I right?
__________
Jen has kind enough to offer a free copy of the book for a giveaway - got any question for Jen? A lucky commenter with the most interesting question will win the book (I'll post Jen's reply as an update).
More wrecktastic blogger interviews with Jen Yates about her new book:
- Blogher with Julie Godar
- Serious Eats with Erin Zimmer
- The Pioneer Woman with Ree Drummond
- Geek Dad with Doug Cornelius
Links: Cake Wrecks | The
Book at Amazon: Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong
Update 10/3/09 – Jen has picked the question to answer. Find out more here: Link
Woofer: The Anti-Twitter

For those of us who simply don’t get Twitter or are tired of the Web’s fascination with the 140-character microblogging platform, here’s the anti-Twitter. Introducing macroblogging wonder Woofer, where each post has a minimum of 1,400 characters!
(And yes, the entire thing is a spoof/homage of Twitter, made by Join the Company)
Link – via InventorSpot and Rue The Day!
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