geekosystem

No antivirus software is without quirks and faults. Even so, having the piece of code that's meant to be protecting your computer from malicious outside forces start going haywire doesn't exactly build confidence in its ability to actually perform as intended. That's exactly what the antivirus products of Sophos did yesterday. Specifically, said products decided that they themselves were malware and carried out the rest of their duties.

Turtles aren't known for their dexterity or speed. Given that turtles are slow creatures, adding roller skates to the equation only makes sense. Doing so for a giant turtle mascot, however, is just plain silly. That's apparently what French humorist Rémi Gaillard was going for, though, in his latest video. Hit the jump to watch a bewildered man guard his produce.

With all the variation that has sprung up around internet memes, there was bound to come a time when someone would finally organize them into one, easy-to-use chart. Now, the creation of deviantArt user OohLaLa423 doesn't cover every possible permutation, nor every trend, but it is big. Really big. It's also conveniently organized, showing the progression on the vertical axis, and when possible, grouping them by type. At least, I think that's what's going on.

Essayist and author Ben Greenman claims to not like charts, which is perhaps why he has created a slew of wonderful absurdist charts like the one above. The original goal of the chart-making that Greenman undertook was to understand the fictional character he was creating, who has the dubious job of being a "chart artist" or "chartist." He writes:

For this new book and the chart artist in it, I started to make charts. The first one I thought of, though not the first one I made, was “How Well You Understand This Graph Over Time.” It seemed like the perfect self-annihilating thing, capable of both making people laugh and making them furious. This is the graph that started it all, in a sense. I have had it in my head for years. The character in my book has made this graph at some point, and it gets him thinking about what graphs really are. I think this graph has a tremendous amount to teach us, and also nothing to say.

Read on after the break for more of Greenman's chartart, which include vital information such as the letter distribution in The Great Gatsby, and how many pennies are hidden behind a particular bar graph.

Microsoft has turned its problem-solving prowess towards solving that most vexing of engineering problems: How to be funny. Microsoft's education competency guide to humor points out what we already know: That humor is appropriate at some times, but not at others. That "Misers, bad drivers, and absent-minded people" are considered near-universally humorous. That there are four levels of humor competence, and that whereas level 1 ("basic") deployers of humor merely use humor in a generally positive way, level 3 ("advanced") deployers of humor know "exactly when and where a joke or story will be effective" and level 4 ("expert") deployers of humor "can see humor in almost everything."

And there's a lot more: