Posted 01/15/10 at 06:26:36 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Do your online and phone contacts constantly fail to grasp the sarcasm in your emails, IMs and texts? Are you worried that such misunderstood attempts at sarcasm may strain your relationships with others? The SarcMarc will help you remain at your sarcastic best without the fear of coming across as impertinent or disdainful to your (fatheaded) acquaintances.

The $1.99 SarcMark is a new punctuation for giving adequate notice of the sarcasm that precedes it. It currently supports Windows, Mac and select Blackberry devices. Michigan-based Sarcasm Inc. is a very sarcastic company and its maiden product, the SarcMarc, is enough testament. The company now wants a patent for its “brilliant” contribution to digital discourse.

The asking price may seem trivial but it is important to remember that all you get is an unrecognized punctuation mark; a purchase that may make you the butt of all jokes among your friends for days.

Note: Quotes were used in the last line of the second para to emphasize the underlying sarcasm not because of their superiority over the SarcMarc but due the unavailability of the latter at this point. Also, please condone the woefully poor attempt at sarcasm.

PS: Eagerly waiting to read a review of the SarcMarc. 

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Posted 05/01/09 at 04:39:20 PM by Andy Salisbury

Google has recently announced yet another addon to their web-based Gmail platform, which allows you to add roughly 1,200 more emoticons to the selector tool.

Among the new emoticons are national flags, road signs, more animals and various animations. With a total of 13 categories (a huge boost on the two that come with vanilla Gmail) there’s a strong possibility that people will be able to carry out conversations without typing a single word. :\

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Posted 12/12/08 at 04:15:03 PM by Andy Salisbury

Straight out of the “really?” file, it looks like a Russian businessman that goes by the name of Oleg Teterin is claiming that he owns the trademark for the ;-) emoticon.

Mr. Teterin is looking to go after corporations that are using the emoticon for profit - or any others that resemble it, including :-), ;) or :). “Legal use will be possible after buying an annual license from us,” stated Mr. Teterin. “It won't cost that much - tens of thousands of dollars.”

Many critics doubt the legality of the trademark because the emoticon has been in the public domain for so many years. One opponent of the claimed trademark is the president of the Russian social networking site odnoklassniki.ru, Nikita Sherman. She’s been quoted as saying “You're not likely to find any retards in Russia who'll pay … for the use of emoticons.”

And it doesn’t help that Mr. Teterin isn’t the first Russian to lay claim to the emoticon. Sadly, he might end up :’(, instead of :-D.

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Posted 07/22/08 at 06:08:15 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Jealous of Dr. Evil's Mini-Me? Worried about running out of Hot Pockets if you had a miniaturized version of yourself? Stop worrying - you can now create your very own 2D "mini-me" for free with Minimise-Me.

To learn more about the process, and to find out how you can put your screen-sized 2D double to work, join us after the jump.

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