Historically Significant: Oldest ‘Lolcat’ Found

Written on 1st December 2008                                                                                                              16 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

I Can Has Cheeseburger, home of the biggest collection of Lolcat images in the world reports that they have found the oldest known Lolcat in the world.

So, it should only be a matter of time before someone will come up with a Rembrandt featuring a much older Lolcat, only to be surpassed soon by an Egyptian Lolcat. How far back will we go?

Well, for now we just go back to 1905. From iCanHasCheeseburger:

This captioned cat picture postcard was found by Tracy Angulo in a Seattle antique store. Tracy tells us that the photograph is from 1905, which would make this officially the oldest cat picture with a caption, AKA lolcat, that we’ve seen.

The differences are clear. Proper grammar and a more formal tone was in vogue back then. But the similarities to modern-day kitten struggles and lolcats are amazing. ALL CAPS is still cool, but most importantly,she also no can has cheezburger. More than a hundred years later, all that’s changed is the spelling.

Let us know if you find older Lolcats. Or don’t.

history, humor, LOLcat

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We Own Internet History: The ROFLaptop!

Written on 3rd September 2008                                                                                                              2 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

A few months ago, during ROFLcon 08, an uncorporation called breadpig got together with OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) and persuaded almost every speaker to sign a brand new OLPC. Then they put the item on eBay and promised to donate 100% of the profits from the auction to OLPC.

As you might know the OLPC foundation aims to put these cute little green laptops in the hands of children all across the developing world. The list of people who signed the laptop is impressive:

Jay Maynard, Tron Guy, Kyle Macdonald, Paperclip to House Guy, Martin Grondin, LOLCat Bible, Ryan North, Dinosaur Comics, The Brothers Chaps, Homestar Runner, Ryan and Arija, LOLSecretz, Stephen Granades, LOLTrek, David Lloyd, OCRemix, Randall Munroe, Xkcd, Adam Lindsay, LOLCode, Drew Curtis, Fark.com, Rob, Kris, Matt, and Dave, Cyanide and Happiness/Explosm.net , Matt Harding, Where the Hell is Matt?, moot, 4chan , Ian Spector, Chuck Norris Facts , Joe Mathlete, Marmaduke Explained, Brad Neely, Creased Comics and Super Deluxe, “Cheezburger,” I Can Haz Cheezburger, Matt Haughey, MetaFilter, Joe Peacock, Mentally Incontinent, Justine Ezarik, iJustine/300-page iPhone Bill, Leeroy Jenkins, Andy Ochiltree, JibJab , Christian Lander, Stuff White People Like, Alex Tew, The Million Dollar Homepage, Brooke Brodack , The Firefox.

I bid a few hundred dollars during the auction and then forgot about the whole thing. Until it turned out I actually won! Today the laptop finally arrived and now I am the proud owner of a piece of internet history.

Here is a video by Scott Beale from LaughingSquid (who also signed the XO Laptop) showing the whole signing process:

Chcuk Norris facts, Cheezbuger, Fark.com, iJustine, Jobjab, LOLcat, OLPC, red paperclip, ROLFcon, The Firefox, The Million Dollar Homepage, Tron Guy

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