Technology Blog (UK), Hi-Tech Gadgets & Gaming - Zath! » Funnies

Hodge On The Run…For Charity! – Jan 2010 (Video)

Simon Barker — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:13:26 +0000

No we’re not talking about a Prison Break-style fugitive being on the run, no this is Dom “The Hodge” Hodgson who has set himself a challenge for the year 2010, other than working on his various projects such as organising Think Visibility 2010 and much like he set himself one for 2009 (which was to blog everyday on The Hodge blog). However, this year it’s more of a physical challenge, specifically he’ll be doing a series of runs during the course of the year and raising money for charity along the way.

Also, The Hodge isn’t “suiting up” in the normal running gear, oh no he’s going to be wearing fancy dress costumes with the choice of costume being auctioned off to the highest bidder/sponsor on eBay. He’s also using as much technology as he can lay his hands on to record (Flip Ultra HD) and track the events (iPod Touch, Mifi and Nike Plus), so it’s definitely going to be worth following!

You can take a look at the first of the “Hodge on the Run” videos below in which he’s dressed up as a pilot…errr chauffeur even! It looks like a lot of fun (to watch) and if you’d like to sponsor Dom, you can do that at his Hodge on the Run webpage!

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Hodge On The Run…For Charity! – Jan 2010 (Video)

Lost Season 6: Answers?!?! (Video)

Simon Barker — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:59:47 +0000

The final season of Lost is now almost finally upon us and you might have seen in our recent Lost season 6 preview, the re-cap video we showed in that just goes to illustrate all the different twists and turns that this mysterious TV show has taken it in 5 years.

However, the one thing that everyone is hoping for is that they continue to give us answers…and by answers, we mean the big answers to some of the fundamental questions and mysteries on the show that have been there since the beginning…what is the smoke monster and what significance have the numbers got?

Of course, that’s just two of the very many unanswered questions, although the producers of the show have already said that they will give the series a meaningful ending, ie. it’s not all just been a dream the dogs head! That said, they’ve also hinted that not everything will be returned to and neatly tied up – that could be rather annoying don’t you think?

Anyway, just to illustrate how annoying that could be, take a look at this parody music video that’s be made by the Benny & Rafi Fine, aka The Fine Brothers (who have made lots of cool Lost parody videos). This “Lost season 6 answers video” is a great reminder of just how much needs to be covered in the final 17 episodes of Lost…but I have a distinct feeling some of this stuff we’ll never get to know about, especially since JJ Abrams (who has a Mystery Box) is involved in the series, so the chances of there still being lots of mysteries at the end of the show is very likely in my opinion!

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Lost Season 6: Answers?!?! (Video)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Simon Barker — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:26:03 +0000

Just wanted to publish a quick post wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas from us all here at Zath, which is actually our third Christmas since I personally started blogging here at Zath.co.uk!

This year has really flown by, things have been really busy here in the last few months and moving in the right direction! We’ve got lots of exciting developments and plans for 2010, so we hope that you keep on coming back to the site, be sure that you’ve subscribed to our RSS feed, become a fan on Facebook and/or follow Zath on Twitter.

Anyway, we hope you all have a great time over Christmas and that Santa brings you all exactly what you’re hoping for, although let’s hope he isn’t too delayed by ~~Jack Bauer interrogating him~~…well I mean let’s hope Santa doesn’t lose track of time while helping Jack with his enquiries!

Via – Bett-zi

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Merry Christmas Everyone!

Windows 7 Goes On Sale…and…The House Party! (Videos)

Simon Barker — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:58:28 +0000

Over the last week here on Zath, you may have noticed that we’ve been running our Windows 7 review week and publishing a seven part review of the latest incarnation of everyone’s favourite operating system…well maybe it’s some people’s favourite anyway.

To accommodate the expected demand from the excited crowds of people all wanting to get their hands on “their precious” retail boxed copy of Windows 7, some stores here in the UK were even going to be open so those eager people who just couldn’t get to sleep until they’d managed to satisfy their Windows 7 hunger could actually buy it from midnight on the 22nd October 2009.

Here is my friend Dom “The Hodge” Hodgson going along to see what the queues were like at his local supermarket when Windows 7 goes on sale – you’ve got to hope that hoards of people don’t get carried away at these kinds of events, hopefully it’ll be a polite, good natured bunch of people queuing up!

Well after seeing that you may remember last week I wrote about part of the launch campaign and more specifically the whole Windows 7 house party initiative that Microsoft has been encouraging Windows users to hold for their friends to come along and see how great Windows 7 is in a home setting.

As we saw last week when Dom was unboxing his Windows 7 party pack, Microsoft do rather limit you to small numbers of their special Windows 7 napkins, party bags etc, so what happens when lots and lots of people turn up and you don’t have enough to give people – surely people will be leaving disappointed?

Well just take a look at how Dom’s Windows 7 house party (supposedly) turned out – it makes you wonder if Microsoft were being a little too hopeful with the whole house party marketing campaign?

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Windows 7 Goes On Sale…and…The House Party! (Videos)

Windows 7 House Party – Microsoft Trying To Be Apple?

Simon Barker — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:35:17 +0000

I think it’s fair to say that Microsoft haven’t always quite got what marketing should be in the past, be it their general failings in advertising in the last couple of decades or more recently the more bizarre and funny(?) Microsoft TV adverts with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. However, once they got that out of their system, they’ve perhaps finally been getting what advertising should be with their more recent efforts such as the fairly hip “I’m A PC” advert, the quirky Internet Explorer 8 adverts and rather clever Bing search engine advert – all of which actually put across a definite message in a certain style.

Now as part of the promotional efforts for the upcoming Windows 7 launch, Microsoft have teamed up with HouseParty.com to provide Windows fans with a way of celebrating the launch of this vatly improved operating system by hosting a party and showing your friends what Windows 7 is all about. Then for your trouble you get some Microsoft schwag to help you do it, including a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate to install ahead of the party. A friend of mine, Dom Hodgson is “seriously having a Windows 7 launch party” (I’m hoping to be in attendance myself) and he recently recorded an unboxing video of his party pack he’s received from Microsoft…

So as far as marketing goes for Microsoft this is most certainly different! In a way they are trying to get Windows users to become more like Apple users and become evangelists for their products (or like “monks of the Apple cult” as Charlie Brooker recently highlighted – a brilliant article by the way, be sure to read it!) – are Microsoft seriously trying to out-Apple the mighty Apple at their own game? Will it work? I’m not sure, but at least it’s refreshing to see Microsoft continuing to try new things to celebrate their new, improved operating system, especially after the rather flat reception that Windows Vista received!

Anyway take a look at this truly cringeworthy promotional video, you’ve just got to hope that this was intentionally made this way for viral marketing purposes and perhaps it’s worked as I’m writing about it and featuring here on Zath, perhaps the old catchphrase, “any publicity is good publicity” works in this case?

So what do you think to Microsoft’s Windows 7 house parties marketing campaign? Have you heard of them before this article? If so, then perhaps the marketing campaign is working? Do you know someone who is hosting a party? Are you going to a Windows 7 party? Or tell us what “fun activities” you think we should be enjoying at The Hodge’s Windows 7 party!

So in closing, I’ll just leave you this with a CNET Buzz Special Report which is a spoof analysis of the original “Hosting Your Windows 7 House Party” – do you agree with their findings?

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Windows 7 House Party – Microsoft Trying To Be Apple?

Facebook In Real Life?

Simon Barker — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:20:03 +0000

Facebook as a social networking tool can be like many things, either really useful or really bad, it just depends how you want to use it and whether you use it to do something worthwhile or not. So when you see a funny video that tries to show just how you would be using it if you did the same kind of things in real life – it does make you stop and think for a moment about what you do online, similar to the Twitter in Real Life video we showed not too long ago.

Obviously this has all just been done for comedic value, but it does raise the fundamental question of whether you act different on the Internet to how you would in real life with people, does being behind a computer give you a certain amount more confidence, less manners or just more lack of respect?

Personally, I’ve recently changed how I use Facebook – to begin with I was friends with anyone and everyone (but set appropriate privacy levels obviously) that added me, for example, I ended up lots of other random bloggers round the world who I’d never actually communicated with and still didn’t once we were “Facebook Friends”. The outcomes of this were not only that your news feed get more background noise that doesn’t interest you (yes you can now filter it with the recent Facebook redesigns, but that doesn’t entirely solve the problem), but it also becomes generally less useful and something that for me at least in my head, it became just another job to check regularly and not a quick bit of fun to see what you real friends were up to.

It ultimately got to a point where I had to say no more, I had to have a purge and removed about half of the people who were “Facebook Friends”, I’m now much more selective about who I “befriend” on Facebook, but that now means that it’s become more useful to me again – like so many things in life, it is what you make of it and how you use it.

However, what I’ve also done is set up a separate fan page for Zath on Facebook, so if you’d like to stay up to date with the latest Zath happenings there, then please feel free to become a Fan of Zath on Facebook.

Do you use Facebook? If not, is there any particular reason why not? Do you do things differently on the Internet to how you would in real life?

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Facebook In Real Life?

Microsoft Office 2010: The Movie Trailer

Simon Barker — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:37:55 +0000

Microsoft have currently busy at work on Office 2010 adding a host of new features such as online web versions of the Office 2010 applications, but as part of their pre-launch strategy they’ve clearly come up with another innovative promotional tool for their upcoming product – yes indeed, who would have thought it, this company might actually be getting the hang of marketing what with this and their recent Microsoft TV adverts.

If you take a look at the video below, you’ll see that they’ve put together a pretty slick looking parody of a movie trailer (better than some real movie trailers) and even features an old friend (or not) in the form of Clippy – it looks to have a good production value and like The Hodge says, you want to see them make a full movie out of it!

If that Office 2010 movie trailer has got you in the mood wanting to know more about it then head on over to our Microsoft Office 2010 preview guide. What do you think to this? Are Microsoft getting better at marketing?

Alternatively check out some of our other sites - Gadgets For Men - Tech-Styling - Cheap Bargains - Zath TV

Microsoft Office 2010: The Movie Trailer

The Stig Revealed As Michael Schumacher On Top Gear

Simon Barker — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:29:43 +0000

Top Gear has finally revealed the White Stig’s identity for themselves in the opening show of their new series and who’d have thought it, it was Michael Schumacher all along!…well yeah…maybe!

Here at Zath, we’re big fans of Top Gear as are many of our readers and we’ve long wondered about who is The Stig for over two years now.

Anyway I must admit, it was a very good piece of television when they made that unmasking and it turned out to be former-F1 champion, Michael Schumacher – clearly they had to do something after the Stig was revealed as being Ben Collins back in January 2009, so rather than simply ignore it and everyone talk about his identity for ever more, give the public what they wanted…well in a manner of speaking at least!

Watching the unveiling and the subsequent interview was admittedly very entertaining and I especially liked Clarkson touching on the subject of winning at all costs and driving into Damon Hill to win his first title – he seemed to take it in good humour!

So it would certainly appear at this moment in time that the Black Stig won’t be returning afterall, clearly this return had not been an official publicity stunt – but funny to watch all the same!

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The Stig Revealed As Michael Schumacher On Top Gear

Facebook Vanity or Insanity URLs?

Serena Obhrai — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:09:07 +0000

Nothing pleases me more than stupidity. My feelings towards its existence, however, are weirdly balanced. I sit pleasantly between cackling like a witch at how much stupid people need to be charged Stupid Tax and feeling happy that there’s a portion of the human population that keeps us all entertained. They’re a necessary evil and I can tolerate their dumb behaviour… just about. There’s definitely an art to it and since everyone else has jumped on this bandwagon, I thought it only fair for me to do the same. Given that I am the intentional Queen of Silly, I’ve spent a little while collecting together the most ridiculous and unquestionably some of the most stupid Facebook (vanity) URLs that have been registered since its launch at 5am (BST) on Saturday 12th June 2009.

Here’s the list of the best/worst (depending on how you view it):

UPDATE: Please note some of the following vanity URLs have now been changed/deleted – clearly some people didn’t like their choices!

Facebook are the ultimate sillies for their ode to themselves. If you’re logged in, it redirects to you. If not, it takes you to the homepage.
Here’s a real cocker. Uh, I mean… corker.
Given the way she looks and the number of brain cells I am sure she’s lacking, this is pure genius.
My mate David Robert is well upset with these two.
But, Tom, Dick and ~~Harry~~ all woke each other up to mark their places in history.
When these guys break up with their beloveds, they’ll have their handy URLs to remind them of their love for him and her. Why not just get their names tattooed to your foreheads?
If all else fails and you’re not sure if she’s really a woman…
With that car, I sincerely doubt that you are.
Apparently, this n00b felt the need to advertise it.
When Eminem finds out, you’re a goner.
‘Twat’, ‘idiot’ and ‘dumbass’ are still available, but this guy nabbed ‘doofus’ before anyone else did. I’m sure that made his day.
Illness is not big and it’s not clever..
It’s probably not best to advertise that you were ~~lacking in the genital regions~~ nor able to produce the goods.
This ~~guy’s ego~~ is clearly making up for lost time. Either that or he really is competing with our four-legged mammal friends.
This guy can’t be that good if he has to tell people he is.
Look at me, I’m a dork!
~~Advertising~~ doesn’t work for gents, somebody should tell him.
Well, p*ss off then.
I have a strange feeling this person went for ~~this first~~ and was a little too late.
Really glad ~~these people~~ have grown up.
Took the words right out of my mouth.

And, here’s my ultimate favourite simply because it’s nice to know other people out there use this term also. Or, at least, this one other person does.

We could spend all week going into the ones that have not yet been taken, but alas there are just too many ways to say, iamabigfatidiotandnotafraidtoshowit. Feel free to leave some in the comments if you like, as they will no doubt make me smile. Or, do add ones you think I should’ve mentioned, but just didn’t.

Before I go, I’d like to take this opportunity to point out that I’m actually quite a genial lady, but for the sake of this piece a little attitude certainly didn’t go amiss and has filled my up tw*t-o-meter nicely.

P.S. I’m quite surprised there hasn’t been anyone who’s registered www.facebook.com/facebook.com.

Nanoo nanoo.

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Facebook Vanity or Insanity URLs?

Twitter In Real Life?

Simon Barker — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:42:29 +0000

By now most of us have at least heard about Twitter, if only in some reference from the mainstream media, if you’re still not entirely sure what it is then take a look at some of our previous Twitter-related articles here on Zath, but what if you want a quick and easy to understand explanation (or parody) which relates to real-life situations, then take a look at this video below!

….OK well it may not actually be that realistic, but I’m sure you’ll find some or all of it worth watching…for a laugh if nothing else, it does make you wonder if you’d do what you do on Twitter with people in real life – you’d perhaps get some funny looks and reactions if you did!

Anyway, if you’re still to be convinced by Twitter, I’d really suggest at least giving it a good go by signing up and following a few interesting people and I’d recommend using a Twitter client or application such as Tweetdeck as a means of organising your Twitter stream and making it easier to get the most from it. I’ve found that Twitter can give better results than Google sometimes!

If you’re not already following us on Twitter and are interested in finding out what we get up to at Zath, then feel free to follow @zathuk and @simonbarker.

Alternatively check out some of our other sites - Gadgets For Men - Tech-Styling - Cheap Bargains - Zath TV

Twitter In Real Life?