1. 1942
What 80s and early 90s corner café worth its salt did not have a copy of this arcade game, which sees a ‘Super Ace’ fighter plane from World War 2 mowing down enemy planes and doing loop-the-loops? The one near my house did, I’ll tell you that much, and my step-father and I must have wasted thousands of rands worth of coins in our attempts to clock the last level (he did, in the end. I didn’t). In a huge triumph of money-making skills over sentimentality, despite the fact that the game was manufactured by the Japanese, the goal was to destroy the Japanese air fleet in World War 2.

2. Arkanoid
Perhaps the most addictive game I have ever played, 1986’s Arkanoid was based on Breakout, one of the original Atari games of the 70s. The concept was simple, the player controlling a little horizontal line somewhere between a space ship and a paddle, which bounces a ball towards various bricks, causing them to disappear. If the paddle/ship missed the ball, it would disappear into the abyss below, the player losing a life. Once all the bricks, some of which release power-up capsules that give your paddle/ship special powers, have disappeared, one would progress to the next level. I will never forget the game’s opening monologue, badly translated from Japanese, “THE TIME AND ERA OF THIS STORY IS UNKNOWN. AFTER THE MOTHERSHIP “ARKANOID” WAS DESTROYED, A SPACECRAFT “VAUS” SCRAMBLED AWAY FROM IT. BUT ONLY TO BE TRAPPED IN SPACE WARPED BY SOMEONE……..” Confirming its legendary status, various updates of the game have been released, and Arkanoid Plus recently became available on WiiWare.

3. Civilisation
While it may seem a bit silly now, this historical strategic simulation game was the first of its time – and a host of today’s best strategic games, including Rise of Nations, Age of Empires, Rome Total War, arguably even World of Warcraft, would not exist without it. A single-player turn-based game, it involved building an empire after choosing a civilization to represent, each one led by an historical figure – Stalin representing the Russians, Gandhi the Indians, Shaka Zulu the Africans, etc. It was this feature that led to much unintentional humour in the game – the civilization you chose to play with did not change the action of the game, leading to some strange and wonderful turns of events such as “Shaka Zulu has just invented space travel” and “Gandhi and his troops have launched an attack against you”.

4. Shinobi
Possibly the most legendary platform game of all, this 1987 release was from back in the days when the arcade was the only place to enjoy such technologically advanced gaming. In it, one gets to be a ninja, trying to stop a criminal organization. The game had five levels, each one with it’s own colourful ‘boss baddy’, including Black Turtle and Lobster. On the way, one needed to rescue hostages and fight countless hoardes of rogue ninjas, using an unlimited supply of throwing stars (as well as ninja magic and bullets if one knew how to find them). What made it so good at the time was its difficulty level – it was far harder than most other games (meaning that many parents ended up near-bankrupt after their kid’s trip to the arcade), and also boasted an outrageous level of violence compared to its peers. The game lives on, as one of the games in many of the arcade emulators you get nowadays, and it is available on the Wii’s Virtual Console.

5. Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
One of many similar Quest games of the mid Eighties, Leisure Suit Larry stands out in my mind as watching my older brother play it provided me with some formative sex education – proof that even before the internet, PCs were warping young minds. Sure, I knew about the whole ‘a man lies on top of a woman to make babies’ thing, but Larry depicted a more sordid world, and sex with prostitutes, condoms and cruising singles bars were all brand new concepts to my tender young mind. For those of you who never played it, it was about a 40 year old loser trying to get laid. One of the best parts was when he got killed – he would be taken to a factory and reassembled. I still have vivid memories of that.

6. Donkey Kong
This game is literally as old as I am (and that’s old), having first been released in 1981. A rudimentary platform-ish game, which sees Mario dodge barrels thrown by the mighty gorilla Kong (the Donkey reference, while there are various theories, remains a mystery), is what led to Nintendo’s huge success, and broke it in the American market for the first time. It’s also the first game ever to have a narrative, and it has even inspired it’s own saying ‘Its on like…” you know the rest. And, it’s the first time we meet a character called Mario, who, as we all know, went on to achieve greater fame and fortune than his giant simian nemesis. The game lives on in Seth Gordon’s 2007 documentary King of Kong, which is better than any film about this obscure and ancient game has any right to be. If you haven’t seen it, I advise that you do.

7. Duke Nukem
Mention the name o’ Nukem and every little whippersnapper in the room will pipe up about how much they love the game. The problem is, they’re talking about the more recent 3D shoot-em up. The original – a side-scrolling platform game released in 1991, totally pwed for its time, with faster gameplay than any of its predecessors, as well as the ability to blow up scenery, which back then was a novelty. Hilariously, the original game was set in the ‘future’ – 1997.

8. California games
Boy did I play the hell out of this game in my youth. As a land-locked Gautenger, there was something beautiful about the opportunity to escape to the sunny beaches of California, where one could play a range of different games simulating seaside sports including surfing, skating, biking and jet-skying. One does, however, have to wonder who gave the go-ahead to include ‘footbag’, which is basically hackey sack, a testament to the peril of hiring hippies to help develop games.

9. Wolfenstein 3D
Before Quake and Doom there was Wolfenstein. It is the first person shooter upon which every subsequent one was modeled. Itself an update of a primitive 80s game called Castle Wolfenstein, the game had a World War II theme, the decision to make the hero a US ally and the villains Nazi Germans presumably a ploy to allow one to mow down hoards of enemy soldiers without guilt. In the process of playing, one aquires different guns (the gattling being the one that stands out in my mind the most), kills a heroic number of soldiers and eventually even gets the chance to face a nasty, half-Adolf Hitler, half-robot creature in the finale. Eventually, Doom would blow Wolfenstein out the water, particularly because it introduced the concept of networking. But, for a while, Wolfenstein was the greatest game of all time.

10. Jones in the fast lane
Ok, I acknowledge that you are probably scratching your head over this one. I seem to be the only person in the world ever to play it, but it left an indelible impression on me as a kid. Somewhere between a board game and The Sims, it entailed playing against an opponent as the character Jones, who basically just lives life. The idea was to accumulate as much, happiness, wealth, education and status, in an attempt to out-do your opponent, in the process working, shopping, going to college, basically living a pretty mundane existence. As I type this, I realise that the concept itself explains why the game was not a commercial success. But surely someone other than me remembers it. Anyone?

It occurs to me that these are the games that I happened to play growing up, and that anyone else’s list would be completely different. If there is one that stands out for you please comment below, I’d love to re-live some of the games I left out. And if you want to read someone else’s version (including era-defining games I left out, such as Pong and Bubble Bobble), click here.

1. 1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d  – tee shirt

2. Microsoft: “You’ve got questions. We’ve got dancing paperclips.”  – Unknown

3. My pokemon brings all the nerds to the yard, and they’re like you wanna trade cards? Darn right, I wanna trade cards, I’ll trade this but not my charizard.  – Unknown

4. There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.  - Unknown

5. If at first you don’t succeed; call it version 1.0  - T-Shirt

6. I’m not anti-social; I’m just not user friendly  – T-Shirt

7. When Life Gives You Questions, Google has Answers  - AJ Carpio

8. Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.  - Unknown

9. The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it’s twice as big as it needs to be.  - Unknown

10. I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code   - Unknown

10. Roll-up keyboard

9. The wrist keyboard
This one might be useful if you’re in the need to type stuff while doing practical work in tough climates, like Macguyver  – but if you would wear this keyboard at the office, you might be considered a bit geeky.

8. Maltron 3D Ergonomic Keyboard
Things are starting to get a bit more weird, eh? Getting used to this keyboard isn’t something you’ll do in 10 minutes or so – it will take a while for sure. But if you have medical problems with your hands, this might be a good choice since it’s a very ergonomic keyboard. Or you might consider calling your doctor to fix your wrists instead.

7. The SafeType keyboard
Just take a look at this one. Do you understand how to use it? The idea is that your hands and arms shall be in a more relaxed position while working with the SafeType compared to a traditional keyboard. While doing research for this article I ran across this review of the safetype:

“However, if you have a low tolerance for frustration (and learning to type in a new manner can be frustrating) then your best bet is to stay flat and stick with a keyboard that’s a little more “common” Erm…yeah.
6. Virtual Laser Keyboard
This is more cool than weird though. This laser gadget projects a virtual keyboard on a table or other suitable material, and then interpret your finger movement and pass them on to your PDA or whatever you have it connected to. Cool.

5. The frogpad
The frogpad is a tiny, tiny keyboard – or it would be more suitable to call it a keypad actually. The manufacturer say that you can get up to 40 words per minute if you practice between 6 to 10 hours with it. Any idea why they are calling it a frogpad?

4. The Twiddler 2
What do you say about the Twiddler 2? It looks to be quite painful to use, or what do you think? According to the testimonials at their site, it will take you ‘a weekend’ to learn typing 30 words per minute, so the frogpad wins that round. The Twiddler actually reminds me of those guitar classes I took when I was young…

3. The Orbitouch
This one could be a leftover from Area 51, or a prop from the set of any science fiction movie. Wonder how it works? Here’s what the manufacturer say: “The orbiTouch creates a keystroke when you slide the two domes into one of their eight respective positions. You type the different characters by sliding the domes to create letters and numbers. The orbiTouch also has an integrated mouse, so moving the domes gives you full mouse and keyboard capability!”

The target group for this keyboard is of course people who have limited or no motion in their fingers or hands, and that’s a very good thing – but anyway,.. weird.

2. The Datahand
This product is aimed at people who get pain in their hands from typing with a traditional keyboard – and that’s a good thing. It’s still looks like a very strange keyboard. Everytime I see this one I think of the movie Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger, don’t know why. I love this one – the keyboard, not the movie.

1. The Tidy Tippist
Isn’t this one lovely? The keyboard is hidden inside a decorative, washable tablecloth. The electronic is woven into a fabric, which finds itself between layers of water resistant felt as sandwich material. The soft felt surface makes it a pleasure for fingers to tip – a cosy keyboard. Awesome, hehe.

Honorable mention
Here’s my favorite keyboard of all times – the rubber keyboard (chiclet keyboard) of the ZX Spectrum. I still have one at home…love it.

9. Moody Houseplants
As you wander through your home gadget tour, you feel you’re being watched – not by paintings on the walls with eyes but by houseplants. One plant to your left smiles at you and bats its eyelashes, another glares, and a third begs for water.
The Pet Plant, designed by Junyi Heo, makes knowing when to water your plant as easy as knowing when your dog is hungry. Optical sensors in the planter measure the soil temperature, moisture levels and light levels, and then the device displays a digital facial expression based on the plant’s needs.
How is your plant feeling today? Is it angry at you for neglect? Is it feeling happy? Is it about to die? Now you’ll know, just by looking at the digital face.
The pot connects to a USB cable that can download your plant’s statistics – soil moisture levels, light levels, temperature and near-death experiences – into your computer, which helps you to keep track of its progress. Not only that, but it can tell when you’ve watered too much and siphons the extra water into a standby dish. Overall, the Digital Pot is a recipe not only for happy, healthy plants, but also friendly home décor (well…as long as you water the plants) [source: Yanko Designs].

8. Fold-out Balcony
Next on your home tour, your tech-savvy neighbour stops at a window, pushes it open and prepares to step outside. Before you can shout “Don’t jump!” you notice that with the push of a button, the window has folded into a balcony. The balcony comfortably holds a small furniture set as well as both of you. As you sip drinks and watch the world go by, your neighbour explains that, in Sweden, historical building ordinances prevent landlords from putting balconies into their apartments. The invention of the fold-out balcony gives homeowners the luxury of a balcony without breaking city ordinance.
The balcony is a heavy-duty window frame made of steel and aluminium and installed into a window space. A motorised leverage system lowers the balcony in a controlled manner with the help of reinforced steel bars. The award-winning Bloomframe folding balcony was set to begin production in early 2008. It can be customized to most windows and is available in a range of colours [source: Hofman Dujardin Architecten].

7. Interactive Coffee Table
Stepping back in from the balcony (as your neighbour folds it up), you notice yet another blue glow, this time coming from the coffee table. Your neighbour sets the drink tray on the coffee table, and the surface lights up, surrounding the tray with bright, twinkling white lights. As the tray is taken away, the lights fade to a dull blue and twinkle subtly. Then the cat jumps on the table, and everywhere the cat steps, the table lights up, following the creature’s every move.

The coffee table is called the Wave, and it uses LED lights to interact with whatever is placed on or near the table’s surface. LEDs, or light emitting diodes, are bright white lights that don’t use a filament (the little wire inside a bulb) like incandescent light bulbs. Instead, they have a phosphor coating that creates a white light. The coffee table lights up using circuitry and optical sensors that can read pressure and light changes when something is placed near them. The Wave is powered by a cord that is easily hidden and needs no programming or upkeep.
Not only is this coffee table attractive and responsive, it’s environmentally friendly. It uses sustainable, non-formaldehyde plywood from American Maple, is finished with a water-based lacquer and uses only 35 watts of energy when fully lighted. Most of the time it’s dormant, using even less energy. Depending on your table-top and shipping preferences, the coffee table can cost anywhere from $1,795 to $2,340. Erm, yeah, definitely for the design friendly mega-earners then…

6. The Swiss Army Bathroom
The refreshing balcony beverages have taken a toll, and you excuse yourself to the bathroom. But you’re in for no ordinary wee. This toilet reminds you of a giant Swiss Army knife that stands in for toilet, sink and shower. From the bottom, a sink swivels out, revealing the toilet beneath (which stays in place and empties into the connected plumbing). Storage bins slide out next, and two shower heads are revealed. The bathroom itself is one big tiled room with a drain in the centre, allowing you to swivel the showerhead into any position you prefer.
The Vertebrae bathroom unit was designed to fit into small urban apartments, maximising living space. Featured in the Sony House of Tomorrow in London, it’s for sale today. It comes in a wide range of colours and costs about $15,000 (again, a budget buy for those entrepreneurs turned multi-wahtever-illionaires). It can be put into a corner and takes up very little space, considering it includes so many bathroom fixtures [source: Design Odyssey].

5. Electronic Bidet
During your bathroom visit, the toilet lid rises to greet you. Nervously, you sit down. After you finish your business, a warm spray from behind surprises you and you think, “Is this France?” More surprisingly, however, the toilet then flushes itself and lowers its own lid. Bewildered, you take a closer look and notice that the toilet has a special seat attachment.
This toilet seat attachment is the Washlet S400. Designed by Toto, it only works with select Toto toilets (included here with the Vertebrae only for story-telling purposes). The Washlet is controlled by a wall-mounted remote control and can be set to work automatically. The innovative toilet raises and lowers the toilet lid (ending spats between you and your significant other), flushes automatically and acts as a bidet, spraying a warm stream of water onto the user for ultimate cleanliness. Toto products are not available online, but the Washlet can be found at retail stores in the States and Canada for about $1,890 [source: European Sink Atlanta].

4. Woofer Speaker System
As you leave the bathroom, you notice music is playing. In the living room, you find two white German shepherds – without their heads. “Ah, dogs without drool,” you think. They issue booming thuds synchronized with the bass notes over the speaker system.
These Woofer Speakers – pun intended – function as any other woofer speakers would, except their dog statue design is suited for a hunting lodge, rec room or pop art studio. Each order comes in sets of two in either black or white for $1,479.00. Designed by Sander Mulder, the Woofers are made from polyester and contain 180-watt speakers [source: Generate].

3. Musical Home Oxygen Bar
You finally find your neighbour – he’s relaxing in the master bedroom with his eyes closed. Soothing music is coming from somewhere, and you notice that your neighbour is breathing rather deeply from what looks like a microphone headset and is wearing a silly grin.
Remember the oxygen bar craze – people gathering together to breathe in oxygen? Well, now you can have that experience in the comfort of your own home. The Zadro Oxygen bar comes with built-in soothing sounds and allows you to add your own essential oils to enhance your aromatherapy oxygen experience. The oxygen comes from a small compressor (which doubles as a speaker) that can easily sit out of sight on the floor while you relax in a chair. It hooks up to an oxygen-emitting tube that sends the air up to your nostrils. Essential oils can be added to the oxygen filter to “flavour” the air for you. This product retails for about $299. Not to be used for medical purposes, the product has a silent motor that compresses the oxygen and removes extra moisture. Breathe deeply and enjoy the effects of clean, pure oxygen.

2. Pool PC
Your neighbour leads you out back to the pool, then jumps in the water, pulls onto a float, and declares it’s time to send out for pizza – via the Internet. The float is equipped with a personal computer.
The Pool PC was designed and invented by Barry Lai Yin Lock for the NextGen PC Design Competition. It’s not yet on the market, but this waterproof PC is feasible, made from low-density (floatable) waterproof plastics and solar-powered, which abolishes the need to plug in. While most computers need a fan to keep the processing unit cool, this PC uses the pool water it’s floating on to cool it, instead. The touchable user interface eliminates the need for a keyboard, which would create air pockets and places for water to seep in. It includes a GPS device (in case you get lost at sea), Bluetooth wireless and Internet access. Not only that, but it includes a stretchable attachment so that it can fit to any size of pool ring or inner tube.

1. Hovering Recliner
Your neighbour climbs out of the pool and gestures to a reclining lawn chair that looks like it belongs in the movie “The Matrix.” In other words, it levitates.
Shown at the Sony House of the Future in London, the Hoverit Recliner is no ordinary chair. Hand-built using clear plastics and powerful repelling magnets, the Hoverit Lounger chair floats from its base. The chair and the base incorporate magnets of opposing poles to push the chair upwards. Some people believe magnets have health benefits, like weight loss and muscle contouring, which gives this chair added value.
But beware. The chair comes with some standard warnings: Keep it away from computers, credit cards and other cards with magnetic strips, cell phones, and large metallic objects – you really don’t want the spatula and grill flying at you while you’re trying to relax. People with pacemakers should also steer clear of the chair in case of magnetic pulse interference. Televisions and other screens with cathode ray tubes may also be shorted out by the lounger.
That said, this chair may need its own clean-room. But who cares? You’re trying to relax, so abandon your cell phone. Not as soothing is the price. The chair will set you back $11,716, plus shipping. Only 2,000 loungers are in production, making it a collector’s item.

Welcome to the home of the weirdo future. Cool, huh?

For hundreds of years, humans have been playing elaborate tricks on each other, but the advent of social tools  from Usenet and email right on up to YouTube and Twitter  means that hoaxes are much more easily spread, and it can be difficult to separate the misinformation from the truth. Here’s a collection of the top 15 most unforgettable web hoaxes.

1. The Montauk Monster (2008)

Actually, the hoax status of this one still seems somewhat up-in-the-air. It started with a newspaper article from a local paper in Montauk, New York in July 2008. A creature had washed up on the beach; it was dead, and it was really strange  no one knew what it was. Thus, the “Montauk Monster” was born. 

Even today, no one really seems to know what it is. A raccoon? A rodent? A capybara? A boxer dog? A sea turtle without its shell? Whatever it is, the Montauk Monster was an instant Internet sensation, and it has sparked an almost unending debate over whether this is just another hoax or something that Mulder and Scully need to investigate.

2. How to Charge an iPod with an Onion (2007)

The mostly-joke how-to site Household Hacker hit the big time with their viral video that purportedly demonstrated how to charge an iPod using nothing but an onion and a glass of Gatorade. The video was full of pseudo science that made it seem plausible, and it got a ton of press and frustrated a lot of people who plugged their electronics into vegetables. But as the Mythbusters would later say about this one: Busted!

3. The Derbyshire Fairy (2006)

As part of an elaborate April Fools Day prank, prop-maker Dan Baines of Derbyshire, England created what he told people was the corpse of a “fairy,” and put it up for sale on eBay and on his web site. His prop was perhaps a little too well made, and resulted in his site getting over 20,000 visits in one day. Even after he revealed the whole thing was a hoax, Baines still received emails from fairy believers accusing him of covering up the truth with his hoax story. 

“I’ve had all sorts of comments including people who say they’ve seen exactly the same things and one person who told me to return the remains to the grave site as soon as possible or face the consequences,” he told the BBC.

4. Lonelygirl15 (2006)

Lonelygirl15 appeared to be just an average, innocent video blog of a run-of-the-mill American teenager when it first appeared on YouTube in June 2006, but very quickly the vlog’s storyline shifted. Suddenly, rather than a girl complaining about normal teenage problems, Lonelygirl15 started giving out details of the bizarre cult that her family was involved in. A couple of months later it was apparent that the videos were scripted. 

By mid-September, the name of the actress was revealed. Yet even though Lonelygirl15 wasn’t the victim of some strange cult that kept her locked in her house, and even though the entire thing was just a hoax, the web series remained popular until it ended in 2008.

5. GoogleTV (2007)

Rumors of GoogleTV have been around for years. So it’s not surprising that when clever YouTuber Mark Erickson created a very well done how-to video demonstrating how to gain access to the service’s hidden beta, people bought it hook line and sinker. 

Of course, there is no GoogleTV  but we do now have Hulu, which is surprisingly similar to what Erickson was describing.

6. Bill Gates Wants to Give You Money (1997)

It’s true that Bill Gates does want to give some people money via his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. But it’s not true that you’ll ever get any money by forwarding a chain letter as part of the beta test for a new Microsoft-powered email tracking program. This persistent hoax has been circulating since 1997 in one form or another, and is still making the rounds today. 

The basic come on is that Microsoft or AOL (or both) is testing a new email forward tracking system, and if you forward the email, you’ll be paid based on how many times your email gets resent by your friends (their new software will keep track of it all, of course). Another variation of this hoax is that every forwarded email will raise money for some charitable cause.

7. Giant Camel Spiders in Iraq (2004)

An email started making the rounds in 2004 asking people to be sympathetic to troops in Iraq, not because they have to be away from their families or because war zones are dangerous, but because they have to deal with absolutely prehistoric spiders. The email repeated claims from the first Gulf War in 1993, that the spiders could run 25 miles per hour, could jump several feet in the air, and could grow 8-10 inches in length. 

These claims were made more believable because the email included a photo of US servicemen holding a spider that appears to be about a foot in length. However, even though camel spiders are pretty big and quite fast, they’re nowhere near as large as the photo makes it seem nor as fast as the email claims. The photo itself was just taken from an angle that makes the spider seem bigger than it really is.

8. Kidney Thieves in New Orleans (1997)

Shortly before Mardi Gras in 1997, a hoax email started making the rounds warning travelers that a ring of organ thieves was operating in the city, and revelers were likely to get their kidneys stolen. 

The organ harvesting urban legend had been spread in the past, but this particular email chain became so popular that it even prompted the New Orleans police to issue an official statement denying the hoax’s validity so that the city wouldn’t lose revenue from scared travelers canceling Mardi Gras plans.

9. Hercules the Dog (2007)

An email with what was purported to be a photo of the world’s largest dog started popping up in inboxes in 2007. Hercules, was supposedly a 282 pound English Mastiff who stood almost as tall as a horse, and the photo seemed to back it up.

However, even though a dog named Hercules was once recognized as the world’s largest, it’s not the one in the photo, and the photo is almost definitely a fake. 

10. Bigfoot’s Body (2008)

Last year, a pair of hoaxers (or con artists) pulled a fast one on the American media when they claimed to have found the body of Bigfoot. They held an elaborate press conference and even got coverage from mainstream news outlets like CNN. Due to how fast the photos of the Bigfoot body spread on the web, the hoax got massive coverage.

But it turned out to be just that  a hoax. A California Bigfoot enthusiast actually paid the two Georgia men $50,000 for the body, and later found that it was just a costume packed in ice. One of the men, who was a police officer, was fired as a result of perpetrating the hoax, and they both face legal action. 

11. Kremvax (1984)

In what might be one of the earliest Internet hoaxes, a member of Usenet in 1984 created quite a stir when he announced that the Soviet Union would be joining the network. The message, which appeared to be posted from Konstantin Chernenko (with the address chernenko@kremvax.UUCP), was shocking because most people assumed Cold War security issues and hostility between the USSR and the USA would prevent the Soviet Union from joining Usenet.

Of course, security concerns and hostilities really would prevent such a link-up from happening, and a couple of weeks later, after hundreds of responses had been posted, the message was revealed as a hoax.

12. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Of course, everyone knows now that The Blair Witch Project was a piece of fiction. But when the movie came out in 1999, a lot of people weren’t so sure. Due to a very clever Internet marketing campaign, in which the movie’s creators developed a network of background web sites about the movie’s mythology, many people believed that the film was actually a documentary created from found footage of kids who had disappeared in the woods.

The film’s marketing was designed to trick people into thinking it was a legit documentary. In addition to an elaborate web campaign, the distributors also put out a second fake documentary about the made up Blair Witch legend on the Sci-Fi channel in the run-up to the film’s release. 

13. Hurricane Lili Waterspouts (2002)

This photo, which flew around email inboxes in 2002, supposedly showed a trio of menacing water spouts approaching a container ship as Hurricane Lili rolled in. Of course, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. The National Weather Service of the US quickly debunked the photo and revealed it as the work of a Photoshop whiz.

Meteorologists were suspicious of the photo almost at once because it is very rare to see two waterspouts of that size so close together, let alone three. The original, undoctored photo actually shows a single impressive waterspout and was published in a shipping trade magazine called “Supply Lines” in 2001.

14. Steorn Free Energy (2006 / 2007)

In 2006, Irish company called Steorn Ltd announced that it had developed “free, clean, and constant energy,” in violation of known laws of physics (conservation of energy). Steorn said their technology was based on “time variant magnetic interactions,” and would revolutionize the world. They even invited a jury of scientists to test their claims.

The company’s credibility took a major blow in 2007, however, when at a well attended and well publicized press demonstration, their machine failed to work  they later blamed the heat from stage lights and a “greenhouse effect” within the plastic box that housed their contraption. But the damage was done. Their initial claims of finding a way to violate physical laws had already been met with skepticism, but after the botched demonstration, calls of “hoax” flew around the web.

In June 2009, the appointed jury of their scientific peers decided that Steorn’s technology just didn’t work, leading many to believe what they’d suspected all along: this is simply an elaborate hoax.

15. The Internet Drunk Surfing Bill (1994)

It began as an April Fools Day prank in PC Computing magazine by columnist John Dvorak, but it ended up causing quite a stir. Dvorak wrote in his hoax piece that the US Congress was considering a bill (numbered 040194  as in, 04/01/94) that would make it illegal to surf the web while drunk, or to discuss sexual matters over a public network.

Of course the bill would be passed, wrote Dvorak, because, “Who wants to come out and support drunkenness and computer sex?” The hoax worked a bit too well, though, and it generated so many angry calls to congress that Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts had to issue a statement denying rumors that he was a sponsor of the phony bill. 

Still, maybe it’s not such a bad idea