WebProNews » Halloween http://www.webpronews.com Breaking News in Tech, Search, Social, & Business Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:49:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 One More Day to Get Plants vs. Zombies For Free http://www.webpronews.com/one-more-day-to-get-plants-vs-zombies-for-free-2012-11 http://www.webpronews.com/one-more-day-to-get-plants-vs-zombies-for-free-2012-11#comments Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:51:07 +0000 Sean Patterson http://www.webpronews.com/?p=202135 Last month, PopCap Games, the makers of Plants vs. Zombies, teamed up with the American Dental Association to “stop zombie mouth.” The campaign distributed over 1 million Plants vs. Zombies trading cards and educated kids on the importance of dental hygiene. Along with the trading cards, PopCap was giving away copies of Plants vs. Zombies for free with a redeemable coupon code.

Evidently, giving away one of the most popular tower defense games of the past few years proved a success. Over 250,000 copies of the game were distributed, and PopCap has announced it is extending the deadline to redeem the coupon codes to November 13.

“The Stop Zombie campaign was a tremendous success using a unique platform to improve the oral health literacy of entire families,” said Dr. Jonathan Shenkin, ADA spokesperson on pediatric dentistry. “The American Dental Association looks forward to future innovative collaborations that enable us to realize the goal of reducing oral health disparities.”

The goal of the campaign was for adults to print out the coupons and give them out instead of candy on Halloween. As bad as that decision sounds, a PopCap survey shows that 93% of kids would take a free video game over candy on Halloween night. Of course, survey also shows that 89% of kids would still like Halloween if it were less about candy and more about “other types of fun.” Someone should explain to kids that other types of Halloween fun are for grownups, and that they should gorge on free candy play Plants vs. Zombies and brush their teeth while they can.

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/one-more-day-to-get-plants-vs-zombies-for-free-2012-11/feed 3 Parents Troll Their Kids by Pretending They Ate All of Their Halloween Candy [KIMMEL] http://www.webpronews.com/parents-troll-their-kids-by-pretending-they-ate-all-of-their-halloween-candy-kimmel-2012-11 http://www.webpronews.com/parents-troll-their-kids-by-pretending-they-ate-all-of-their-halloween-candy-kimmel-2012-11#comments Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:26:41 +0000 Josh Wolford http://www.webpronews.com/?p=200929 Jimmy Kimmel has been asking parents to unleash their inner troll for a couple of years now, and the product is always entertaining. For the second year in a row, the late night host made a simple request: tell your kids that you ate all of their Halloween candy, and film their reaction.

Mean? Absolutely. Hilarious? Absolutely. I, for one, think it’s good to teach your children how crushing disappointment feels at an early age. This way, they are better prepared for life’s curveballs. I know that’s cynical – but hey, it’s Monday.

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/parents-troll-their-kids-by-pretending-they-ate-all-of-their-halloween-candy-kimmel-2012-11/feed 3 The Agourdian Sends Off Halloween With A Song http://www.webpronews.com/the-agourdian-sends-off-halloween-with-a-song-2012-11 http://www.webpronews.com/the-agourdian-sends-off-halloween-with-a-song-2012-11#comments Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:30:13 +0000 Zach Walton http://www.webpronews.com/?p=200510 Halloween is over and we’ve had our fill of candy. Now we can all focus on Thanksgiving before the ruthless retail cycle shoves us into Christmas before we have a chance to catch our breath. Before all that though, let’s take one last look at Halloween with this amazing musical instrument made out of pumpkins.

Self-professed musician, electrical engineer and amateur designer Chet Gnegy has created what he calls the Agourdian. It’s a synthesizer that responds to hand movements and creates tones for a wide range of musical applications. What makes this invention so unique is that the technology has been built into a range of seven pumpkins that light up while they’re being played.

Gnegy explains how he did it in the video description:

Seven jack-o-lanterns are equipped with infrared proximity sensors and synchronized flameless candles. In response to a human player moving their hands in an almost percussive manner, the jack-o-lanterns light up and produce tones. The system uses 555 timers as tone generators that are then processed and filtered using analog circuitry. An Arduino microprocessor is used to control lighting and volume envelopes and to receive the signals from the IR sensors.

This year has proven to be amazing for pumpkin and Halloween related technical feats. First there was Pumpktris which recreated a playable form of Tetris inside of a pumkin. It was followed by an astounding stop motion animation that was created entirely with pumpkin carvings. Now this has topped it all of by proving that pumpkins can indeed be musical instruments.

I can’t wait to see what these guys and others cook up for Thanksgiving. It’s an underappreciated holiday that needs more amazing feats of technical wizardry.

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/the-agourdian-sends-off-halloween-with-a-song-2012-11/feed 0 Facebook Gives Users Halloween Status Update Prompts http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-gives-users-halloween-status-update-prompts-2012-10 http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-gives-users-halloween-status-update-prompts-2012-10#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:29:07 +0000 Chris Crum http://www.webpronews.com/?p=200383 Facebook is showing some users Halloween-themed messages in their status update boxes, replacing the usual “What’s on your mind?”

Not everybody is seeing it, and it’s unclear why Facebook is not showing it to all users. It doesn’t really seem like the kind of thing where a gradual roll-out or a limited test would be appropriate. Anyway, here are the ones I’m seeing:

Halloween Status Update

Halloween Status

Halloween Status

Halloween Status

Halloween Status updates

Hat tip: Arielle Zuckerberg

Image: Mark Zuckerberg Halloween 2010

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-gives-users-halloween-status-update-prompts-2012-10/feed 0 Check Out Bing’s Halloween Haunted House Homepage http://www.webpronews.com/check-out-bings-halloween-haunted-house-homepage-2012-10 http://www.webpronews.com/check-out-bings-halloween-haunted-house-homepage-2012-10#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:10:11 +0000 Chris Crum http://www.webpronews.com/?p=200339 ]]> Google isn’t the only search engine celebrating Halloween on its homepage. Check out the animated haunted house homepage Bing has going on:

Bing homepage

It’s cooler if you actually go to the page. Watch for the ghosts that appear in different parts of the image.

As far as homepages go, I’m going to have to give the edge to Bing on this one.

Here’s what they did last year:

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/check-out-bings-halloween-haunted-house-homepage-2012-10/feed 0 Matt Cutts As “Matt Romney” (And Years Worth Of Other Matt Cutts Halloween Costumes) http://www.webpronews.com/matt-cutts-as-matt-romney-and-years-worth-of-other-matt-cutts-halloween-costumes-2012-10 http://www.webpronews.com/matt-cutts-as-matt-romney-and-years-worth-of-other-matt-cutts-halloween-costumes-2012-10#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:42:58 +0000 Chris Crum http://www.webpronews.com/?p=200302 Google’s Matt Cutts shared his halloween costume with readers of his personal blog. Behold “Matt Romney”:

Matt Romney

“This was a fun, easy, comfortable costume,” he says (after outlining his five-point plan for a Mitt Romney costume). “I practiced a few of Mitt Romney’s catchphrases and I think people really enjoyed seeing ‘Matt Romney’ around the Googleplex.”

He also notes that he will be handing out full-size candy bars for the first couple dozen kids who show up to his house.

Last year, Cutts was the blackhat stick man from the xkcd webcomic:

In 2010, he was a ninja:

Matt Cutts Ninja costume

In 2009, he went the see-through hole route:

Matt Cutts Hole

In 2008 it was Rick Astley:

Matt Cutts Rick Astley

In 2007 it was a LOLCat:

Matt Cutts LOL cat

In 2006 he was “Zombie Jeeves”:

Matt Cutts as zombie jeeves

He also tinkered around with the idea of Silent Bob:

Cutts as silent bob

In 2005, he was Inigo Montoya:

Matt Cutts Halloween 05

In 2003, he was “Punk Rock Matt”:

Punk Rock Matt

In either 2000 or 2001 he went as Google chef Charlie Ayers:

Matt Cutts As Charlie Ayers

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/matt-cutts-as-matt-romney-and-years-worth-of-other-matt-cutts-halloween-costumes-2012-10/feed 2 This Amazing Stop Motion Animation Was Made Entirely With Pumpkins http://www.webpronews.com/this-amazing-stop-motion-animation-was-made-entirely-with-pumpkins-2012-10 http://www.webpronews.com/this-amazing-stop-motion-animation-was-made-entirely-with-pumpkins-2012-10#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:32:35 +0000 Zach Walton http://www.webpronews.com/?p=200310 Stop motion animation and Halloween seemingly go hand-in-hand. Ever since Mad Monster Party from Rankin Bass in 1967, a number of Halloween (or macabre) films have been shot using stop motion animation. The most famous is arguably Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Burton recently released Frankenweenie just in time for Halloween.

All of the above films, except for maybe Mad Monster Party, exhibit finely detailed craft and puppets that move as if they were real. They are multi-million dollar productions that hundreds of people worked on to bring to life. That’s what makes the following short film all the more impressive. One man took numerous pumpkins to bring a short stop-motion film to life. It’s rather amazing, and is far more delightful than it has any right to be.

Incredible Pumpkin Stop Motion from Auke de Vries on Vimeo.

Stop motion is already a laborious process that requires the animators to take thousands of individual photos and string them together into a cohesive whole. The animator here also had to cut out each and every pumpkin individually for every shot. It’s only fair that he gets all the recognition in the world for pulling this off.

For more awesome pumpkins, check out Pumpktris. It’s a fully playable game of Tetris, but inside a pumpkin.

[h/t: John Nack]

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/this-amazing-stop-motion-animation-was-made-entirely-with-pumpkins-2012-10/feed 4 Mythbuster Adam Savage Built Patton Oswalt a Doc Ock Halloween Costume After a Desperate Twitter Plea http://www.webpronews.com/mythbuster-adam-savage-built-patton-oswalt-a-doc-ock-halloween-costume-after-a-desperate-twitter-plea-2012-10 http://www.webpronews.com/mythbuster-adam-savage-built-patton-oswalt-a-doc-ock-halloween-costume-after-a-desperate-twitter-plea-2012-10#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2012 14:38:07 +0000 Josh Wolford http://www.webpronews.com/?p=200202 Comedian Patton Oswalt’s daughter wanted to be Spider-Girl for Halloween, which is a reasonable request. Being awesome, Oswalt wanted to make her costume extra special (and also rock his own cool costume). So he decided that he wanted to be Marvel supervillian and great Spiderman foe Doctor Octopus.

The only wrench in this great father-daughter costume idea was that Oswalt didn’t have a Doc Ock costume at the ready, and he also didn’t have enough time to make one. Plus, his daughter was insisting. Dilemma.

So he did what anyone with access to nearly one million ears would do: tweet his problem. Luckily, Mythbuster Adam Savage saw the tweet and decided that he has enough free time to help.

And now, here’s the one-month story of how a Mythbuster helped Patton Oswalt give his daughter an awesome Halloween.

(Big hat tip to reddit user Guustaaf for giving me the timeline)

It started with this series of tweets on October 1st:

Later…

But wait! A day later, Savage responded:

A few days later, we see the idea progressing:

And just a few hours ago, success:

And we even have a video to document the creation:

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/mythbuster-adam-savage-built-patton-oswalt-a-doc-ock-halloween-costume-after-a-desperate-twitter-plea-2012-10/feed 1 Pumpktris Is The Best Pumpkin Carving You’ll See This Year http://www.webpronews.com/pumpktris-is-the-best-pumpkin-carving-youll-see-this-year-2012-10 http://www.webpronews.com/pumpktris-is-the-best-pumpkin-carving-youll-see-this-year-2012-10#comments Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:21:42 +0000 Zach Walton http://www.webpronews.com/?p=200012 Halloween is amazing for a number of reasons. One of which is the staggering amount of quality pumpkin carvings that grace the Internet every year. There’s always the intricately detailed carvings that depict famous characters from movies or video games, but the best carving you’ll see this year is an actual video game.

Nathan Pryor has created a fully working version of Tetris inside of a pumpkin for Halloween this year. It’s called Pumpktris and you play it by moving the stem like a joystick. The bricks are illuminated by LEDs inserted inside of the pumpkin. It may not really count as a “carving,” but I still think it counts for just how amazing it is.

Pumpktris is already cool enough, but Pryor saw fit to actually show everybody how he did it. The hardest part seems to have been the actual carving of the pumpkin. It looks simple, but Pryor had to be incredibly precise with his carvings so that everything would show up properly.

Now that Pumpktris is a thing, I fully expect other classic games to be recreated on gourds. Super Zuchini Bros. sounds like a good start. That may be a bit hard to create with an 8×8 LED grid though.

[h/t: Geekologie]

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/pumpktris-is-the-best-pumpkin-carving-youll-see-this-year-2012-10/feed 0 Happy Halloween! Google Celebrates with an Interactive Doodle http://www.webpronews.com/happy-halloween-google-celebrates-with-an-interactive-doodle-2012-10 http://www.webpronews.com/happy-halloween-google-celebrates-with-an-interactive-doodle-2012-10#comments Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:08:31 +0000 Josh Wolford http://www.webpronews.com/?p=199977 Google users in the U.S. are still stuck with the boring old Google logo, but users in places like Australia are being treated with Google’s new Halloween Doodle – an interactive experience complete with sound.

On this Doodle, users are greeted with a bunch of closed doors, which they must open with a click. There are five doors in all, each revealing a ghostly/monster depicting of the G-O-O-G-L-E. Once you open the doors to reveal the creatures, you can click on them again to interact.

There are a couple more clickable areas on the Doodle, but I’ll let you find them on your own. Here’s the Doodle pre-interaction:

And post-interaction:

Last year, Google celebrated Halloween with a special pumpkin carving doodle. They used six giant pumpkins for the doodle, some weighing in at over 1,000 pounds.

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/happy-halloween-google-celebrates-with-an-interactive-doodle-2012-10/feed 0