If you're already possessed by the Halloween spirit, you'll shriek with delight to find that Facebook's cauldron includes a measure of worthy apps.
Check 'em out.
Halloween Apps
HalloweenBuilder is one of those apps that you're unsure of beforehand. But once you start using it, you quickly become a fan.
The basic premise of HalloweenBuilder is simple: create the jack-o-lantern of your dreams. The app offers numerous designs for the eyes, nose, mouth, and other features. From there, simply pick the designs you want and arrange them how you see fit. The app automatically does the cutting for you.
I really enjoyed HalloweenBuilder. I made a few designs, and each was quite fun.
HalloweenBuilder lets you create your own pumpkin design.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)Halloween Pumpkins is another app that lets you carve a virtual pumpkin. The only difference between HalloweenBuilder and Halloween Pumpkins is that the latter requires you to carve your jack-o-lantern freehand. If you like your design, you can share it with other app users.
I enjoyed the app. Although its design wasn't overly impressive and the app did a great job of highlighting my lack of artistic ability, I had fun. And comparing my designs to those that were voted most popular by the users was interesting. Halloween Pumpkins is a great app to check out when you're bored.
My unique artistic ability.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)
Google's robots.txt file wards off brains-devouring zombies.
(Credit: CNET News)Google, whose servers constantly crawl the Web, doesn't have anything against spiders. But zombies, well, that's another matter.
Showing some timely techie humor, the search giant updated its robots.txt file for Halloween. For the uninitiated, search engines trying to index Web sites look for robots.txt files for instructions about whether they're permitted access to particular pages.
The Google robots.txt file on Friday begins with the following exclusion:
User-agent: zombies
Disallow: /brains
Most of the time when people do this sort of thing it's called an Easter egg. Is there such a thing as a Halloween egg?
(Via Matt Cutts.)
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly in his 2004 Halloween costume.
(Credit: Blog Southwest)A few years ago, it was trendy and "transparent" for CEOs to have their own blogs. But typically it didn't go this far--then again, Southwest Airlines chief Gary Kelly isn't your average CEO.
Kelly posted an entry on the Southwest blog on Tuesday asking readers to contribute to an annual poll he hosts: What should he dress up as for Halloween? Kelly has been known to go all-out, and provided photo evidence of past costumes that included Hairspray drag queen Edna Turnblad, Pirates of the Caribbean's Captain Jack Sparrow, and painted-up Kiss bassist Gene Simmons.
"It would be really nice if your suggestion doesn't involve short-term (and especially long-term!) body modifications like shaving my legs," Kelly wrote in the post, "although I will sacrifice for art--within reason."
It's certainly a quirky and humanizing move for the airline, which is one of only a few U.S. carriers that's not mired in economic woes.
So what have readers suggested so far? They seem to be looking toward the silver screen. There have been a couple of requests for the Joker from The Dark Knight, a few for Indiana Jones, and one for Harry Potter. Then there's one reader's bright idea that Kelly don a Speedo and go as Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. I wouldn't put my money on that one.
Halloween is the one day of the year when it's OK to go all-out on a geeky costume. CNET News.com reporter Caroline McCarthy gave us 10 suggestions for techie Halloween costumes this year.
While we editors didn't see any dancing Mark Cubans or software pirates (believe us, we kept our eyes peeled), we did see a pair of LOLCats, a Nintendo Wii avatar, and...Facebook. Brace yourself for our techie Halloween slide show, and start your planning for next year.
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