ITKE

Win an iPod shuffle — no joke!

Yesterday was April 1, better known in U.S. office culture as April Fool’s Day. Internet news pranks abounded, including the sighting of a Steve Jobs slime mold. On SearchNetworking.com, Michael Morisy revealed how Cisco was re-thinking Layer 8 networking with “green” components — in other words, replacing poorly functioning end users with efficient T-series robots. Check out what he says about Al Gore.

ThinkGeek.com, up to their usual tricks, (their 8-bit tie prank was such a hit that now it’s a real product!) launched a handful of what I can only assume are spurious products, including the Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt, which “features a working speaker on the front and can play background music and sound effects at your command,” including “exciting chase music” for walking your dog.

So maybe you can’t (yet) buy a T-shirt to provide a personal soundtrack. But you could get an iPod shuffle, upload all your favorite music, clip the iPod on your 8-bit tie, and head to work. In no time you could be plugging in cables to the Peter Gunn theme… sneaking through the server room with some pizzicato strings… opening up a malfunctioning server with P-Funk’s “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)”… tossing back a cold Red Bull to some Twisted Sister… Well, you get the picture.

Suppose you don’t want to shell out for the iPod. Well, then… Take a look at the IT Knowledge Exchange’s April iPod contest. They’ll enter you in a drawing to win an iPod shuffle just for linking to them (see full details in their blog). And that’s no joke!