Tag Archives: Halloween

Bing does Halloween Right

Bing Halloween 2017

Everyone knows I am a big fan of Microsoft. I always have been, even when their products were of questionable quality; what can I say, I like the company. But now, their products are masterfully designed and fully capable, a pleasure to use. Never mind they come with pricing to match, something that was once the sole domain of Apple (as were those other qualities, ahem).

Even so, I am not here to extol the virtues of Microsoft’s products or even software. No, I am here to compliment their masterwork on one of their services that, sadly, is often targeted for derision: Bing. Fan I am of Microsoft, and user of Bing, the fact is it simply doesn’t provide strong results when I do a search. It will give me results that are ten years old, not relevant to what I’m asking, or just plain bizarre. I’m no fan of Google, but I will say they do search better. So you’ll understand my elation when I can finally give Bing high praise for easily blowing Google out of the water at something search related.

Well not search related per se, but more their search page. This year, for Halloween 2017, Bing absolutely nails what a Halloween page should be, and destroys Google’s feeble video in the process. Score one for Bing! Their (almost) fully interactive homepage shows living portraits hanging on a staircase wall, and most of them have, shall we say, a unique personality when you click on them. You can view the page at any time of year by following this link, however if for whatever valid reason you have an aversion to Bing, you can also see it in the video below. Well done Bing! The fact you do Halloween right makes up for all the ineffective searches I’ve done with you over the prior year.

(I tried to research how specifically this page was created but found nothing. Probably because I searched on Bing. Still, I love the page, and I’ll always be a fan, Microsoft!).

Scary Stuff for Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Here are some fun scary things to do online, or to download, or to have fun with or interact with or to wonder why.  It turns out the Internet can be scary, but in the fun way, not the stolen identity or I’ve-got-a-virus way. Who knew? And let’s be honest, everyone likes to be scared, right? We all love it.

With that in mind, here is a list of seven fun, scary, strange things to do online for Halloween. Oh who am I kidding – anytime.

1. Surprisingly fun and tense scary mobile game: Into the Dead

Into the Dead by TikTok

Into the Dead by TikTok

Does that screenshot look like things are going to end well? No. No it doesn’t. That’s a shot from Into the Dead, a surprisingly entertaining endless runner-type mobile title from PikPok that has you regaining consciousness after a helicopter crash to find yourself surrounded by zombies. You start running automatically, and you just have to tilt your device right or left to avoid running headfirst into something that considers you to be an entree. Occasionally you’ll have a gun. I’m not a big fan of mobile gaming, but this one is easy to control, moody, atmospheric, and tense. For iOS, Android, and Windows/Windows Phone platforms. Also available on Amazon.

Finally, technology put to good use

Halloween is coming soon, and as you can imagine props the you can by at the local Spirit Halloween store become more and more sophisticated every year. I have a few that decorate my house all year long, and as the holiday gets closer we’ll talk a little more about scary technology, both actually scary as well as the stuff used for entertainment.

I made my first pilgrimage to the Halloween store this weekend, and as usual there is a fun selection of animated and battery-powered props – everything from the pretty scary to the, well, not so much.

Although I thoroughly enjoy walking through there, I am mostly intrigued  by something they introduced last year; a series of DVDs that can be used in conjunction with a projector and a well-prepared window to project some Haunted Mansion-quality effects for visitors or decoration.

I took a 2-minute video of the display they had in the store (this particular store is in the Best Buy center at the intersection of Marks and Sunset), and surprisingly no one told me to stop. I guess they don’t care of you film or not. Here’s the video, and afterwards I’ll talk a little about data projectors and why you have to be sure to use an appropriate one if you want to try this at home.