Surprise!

March 31, 2009 6:15 PM

April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 274 days remaining until the end of the year. April 1 is most notable in the Western world for being April Fools' Day.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot ... Skynet becomes aware on April 1.

posted by jbickers (42 comments total)

Double.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 6:21 PM on March 31

Previously
posted by DU at 6:24 PM on March 31

Oh and just in case conficker somehow turns out to be a hoax...I totally knew.
posted by DU at 6:25 PM on March 31

April 1 is also The Entire Internet Just Became Useless Day, because instead of playing April Fools jokes, lame people just make up some kind of falsehood to put online, and call it a day.

Consequently, going online on April 1 often amounts to just wading through BS. :-/
posted by -harlequin- at 6:31 PM on March 31

This was a good prank.
posted by stavrogin at 6:36 PM on March 31

Metafilter: lame people just make up some kind of falsehood to put online, and call it a day.

Consequently, going online on April 1 often amounts to just wading through BS.
posted by Urban Hermit at 6:37 PM on March 31 [3 favorites has favorites]

I hereby declare that Urban Hermit has Fixed That For Me.
posted by -harlequin- at 6:41 PM on March 31 [4 favorites has favorites]

My favorite was the Met4filter "bought by kuro5hin" gag, which was much more believable when well lots of stuff was different.
posted by localroger at 6:42 PM on March 31

April Fools day is fun chiefly because it's the seed for so many false news stories that New Limited papers will pick up throughout the year ands report ad verbatim.
posted by mattoxic at 6:49 PM on March 31

What should be done to ensure Conflicker isn't on a computer?
posted by LSK at 6:51 PM on March 31

Darn it, Urban Hermit, you beat me to both of the lame, predictable jokes I was going to make.
posted by musicinmybrain at 6:58 PM on March 31

Try navigating to microsoft.com or any antivirus or tech-help site. I belive Conficker is programmed to block them, to try to stop any attempts at detecting or removing it.
posted by Rhaomi at 7:00 PM on March 31

What should be done to ensure Conflicker isn't on a computer?

1) Make sure no computers exist.
posted by DU at 7:01 PM on March 31 [2 favorites has favorites]

I noticed today that mathowie twittered that he hadn't had time to do anything for April Fool's Day on Mefi, so there would be no gag. But now I can't stop wondering if he's already fooling, and that there WILL be something on the site tomorrow (EST). Or maybe he's telling the truth. I CAN'T TELL AND THE WAITING IS DRIVING ME NUTS.
posted by olinerd at 7:02 PM on March 31 [1 favorite has favorites]

The bug exploited by Conficker was fixed a long time ago (October 2008), so if you've been keeping your machine up-to-date there isn't much to worry about, at least directly (what they do with all the machines that are compromised --- well, we'll see).
posted by wildcrdj at 7:13 PM on March 31 [1 favorite has favorites]

Pandemonium breaks out at Taipei Zoo -- Zookeepers became suspicious of the resident giant pandas’ true pedigree after Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan began acting strangely
posted by Abiezer at 7:22 PM on March 31

RABBIT!!!
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:39 PM on March 31

dammit, now the colors are changing. make it stop!
posted by lysdexic at 7:52 PM on March 31

By tomorrow, everyone should be finished signing up for Hunch just in time to realize they've been suckered into submitting a boatload of personal info to a large marketing company.
posted by gman at 7:53 PM on March 31

Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink
posted by neroli at 8:01 PM on March 31

"In an effort to create a better online experience for our visitors we now require all users to register in order use the bugmenot service."
posted by milkrate at 8:04 PM on March 31 [4 favorites has favorites]

And damn, Warner Bros have just acquired the Pirate Bay
posted by mattoxic at 8:07 PM on March 31

Taiwanese zookeepers did 9/11?
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 8:08 PM on March 31

Darn it, Urban Hermit, you beat me to both of the lame, predictable jokes I was going to make.

Thus even in commonplace humour we find the tragedy of the commons.
posted by Urban Hermit at 8:28 PM on March 31 [1 favorite has favorites]

But next year, March will have 32 days!
posted by not_on_display at 8:36 PM on March 31

Inspired by the SNL "Indoor Gardening Tips" sketch (which is about the funniest thing in the world for my 8-year-old daughter) my wife and I went around the house sticking googly eyes to stuff after my daughter went to bed. Should be a fun morning.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:36 PM on March 31 [1 favorite has favorites]

April 1 is also known as "Feel Smug About Your Choice in OS Day". I know I'll be celebrating. And even if the worm can hose my system, I have a back-up plan:

The program could delete all of the files on a person's computer, use zombie PCs -- those controlled by a master -- to overwhelm and shut down Web sites or monitor a person's keyboard strokes to collect private information like passwords or bank account information, experts said.

More likely, though, said DeBolt, the virus may try to get computer users to buy fake software or spend money on other phony products.

Joke's on you, Conficker - I'm broke!
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 8:50 PM on March 31

See peoples webcams as they view your site!
posted by lilkeith07 at 8:56 PM on March 31

And of course Google's GBall
posted by mattoxic at 8:57 PM on March 31

ZenMasterThis: RABBIT!!!

'Rabbit, rabbit.'
posted by ericb at 9:03 PM on March 31

olinerd: I noticed today that mathowie twittered that he hadn't had time to do anything for April Fool's Day on Mefi, so there would be no gag. But now I can't stop wondering if he's already fooling, and that there WILL be something on the site tomorrow (EST). Or maybe he's telling the truth. I CAN'T TELL AND THE WAITING IS DRIVING ME NUTS.

Well, if that's true, you could always relive past experiences.
posted by flatluigi at 9:17 PM on March 31

April fool's is more popularly known for being the first day of the old millennium back in 1785 B.C. Steven Spielsburg was also born on this day in 1956.
posted by iamays at 9:38 PM on March 31

Google creates self-aware AI, CADIE. Its blog.
posted by GuyZero at 10:06 PM on March 31

In honor of April 1 -- Conficker Day -- Threat Level offers this kid-friendly interactive explanation of how a simple buffer overflow attack operates.
posted by homunculus at 10:09 PM on March 31 [1 favorite has favorites]

Adult Swim have been showing a movie based on a throw-away Eric and Tim sketch - a real two hour movie with real actors and a real script.
Except the movie is pure Lifetime material.
So - the folks at Adult Swim win the cable TV April Fools I think.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:55 PM on March 31

A complicated football April fool has been playing out in Burnley, Lancashire, over the past few months. Unless Alistair Campbell's description of it is itself an April Fool. The Torygraph rounds up this morning's hoax stories on Fleet Street.
posted by athenian at 12:02 AM on April 1

the adult swim movie is The Room. i got really confused because I was watching it on my computer 24 hours ago.
posted by headless at 12:53 AM on April 1

Yeah, April Fool's is pretty disorienting. You should do like me and just chill to some music for today -- I recommend Jack Johnson, for starters.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:05 AM on April 1

I love the local paper even more for their sweetly by-the-numbers April Fool's story.

The most fun about today is picking real news stories and deciding they must be the joke. Ambassador denies FGM risk in Nigeria is the special for today, chez carbide. WHO who, amirite?
posted by carbide at 2:13 AM on April 1

I hope more comments in this thread can make it to the front page.
posted by gman at 3:43 AM on April 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

....
nothing happened
posted by Baby_Balrog at 9:46 PM on April 1

FWIW, I've had a really bad tech week: My laptop died, my XBox died (runs all my media via XBMC), my projector half-died, and my iPhone bricked until I remembered how to hard-reset it. There definitely was a point at which I was wondering.... Conficker???
posted by LordSludge at 2:05 PM on April 2