Announcement: http://lumiaconversations.microsoft.com/2015/04/01/microsoft...

Product page: http://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/ms-dos/

Edit: Even an app http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/ms-dos-mobile/85...

Wow, the app is really well done. SPOILERS: Can cd into a programs folder, and launch programs like sms.exe, where I get a blue DOS-style window asking for input. Can use "phone <nr>" to call someone, send e-mails. If i launch "internet" it plays an old modem sound before launching the stock OS browser.

CDing into C:\GAMES\RPS and launching RPS.exe first gives you a question about using "PC Speaker" or "Sound Blaster", and then how many colors you would like. Then the game crashes with "Error! Not enough memory, RPS needs 641KB conventional memory (...)" and then a quote "---Cortana: That's odd, 640 K ought to be enough for anyone", haha. After that, it guides you through using mem and loadhigh to get the game to run. And of course, RPS is Rock-Paper-Scissors in 8-bit glory.

The camera is an ASCII-camera, using letters with only a few colors, or CGA mode. Here are two selfies I took http://imgur.com/a/deajM

The command help gives all useable command: CD, CLS, COLOR, DATE, DIR, ECHO, EDIT (edit autoxec.bat for instance), EXIT, FORMAT, HELP, LOADHIGH, MEM, PATH, TIME, TYPE, VER.

    SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T2

Conversely, the feeling when I changed something incorrectly (without backups of the original file, of course) and the system error'd out during boot - sheer panic.

Had so much with my friends while in high-school trying to figure out what kind of weird graphics mode this cool game called "Scorched Earth" used... It wasn't 320x200 :)

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ralf/

univbe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UniVBE

oh my!

  cd games
  cd rps
  rps.exe

  [1]: https://wiki.debian.org/fakechroot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-8IufkbuD0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-l1iGKvcog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Zd3HYKCRE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgSJxZZfIA4

  wolf3d -goobers

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objecti...

The "April Fools' Day special" promised a new BMW to the first person who took their car and the front-page coupon to the dealership.

Ms Marsh was first at the Newmarket car dealership this morning, arriving in her 15-year-old Nissan Avenir.

She was swiftly rewarded with a new BMW 1 Series worth almost $50,000 in exchange for the old station wagon.

http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2015/04/cern-researche...

> With the research ongoing, many at CERN are already predicting that the Force will awaken later this year.

It's just a game of "we have money therefor shut up." combined with "The world revolves around the USA"

People here give way too much importance to TLDs.

test-service-1.zeus.barrera.io dummy-server.zeus.barrera.i

Etc. No need to create new (possible conflicting, definitely not future proof) TLDs.

    my-test-thing-a.dev 127.0.0.1
    my-test-thing-b.dev 127.0.0.1
    my-test-thing-c.dev 127.0.0.1

http://icannwiki.com/.foo

Also, The USA invented the Internet.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/websearch/R5A...

http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/customer-service/faq...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/02/us-dealtalk-nortel...

"At the auction for Nortel Networks' wireless patents this week, Google's bids were mystifying, such as $1,902,160,540 and $2,614,972,128.

Math whizzes might recognize these numbers as Brun's constant and Meissel-Mertens constant, but it puzzled many of the people involved in the auction, according to three people with direct knowledge of the situation on Friday.

...

'It became clear that they were bidding with the distance between the earth and the sun. One was the sum of a famous mathematical constant, and then when it got to $3 billion, they bid pi,' the source said, adding the bid was $3.14159 billion.

'Either they were supremely confident or they were bored.'"

Those usually go hand in hand.

>

> 1. Purpose of TLD

>

> It would be funny.

In a few years, it will probably the standard domain for big corps. iphone.apple, macbook.apple, etc. It looks weird now (or an intranet address at best), but once people get used to it, it will be recognisable as a domain just as any.com is now.

Not to mention, an explosion of TLDs for reselling (.futbol .enterprise etc) means people will just equate . on billboards etc with a domain.

    ICANN: Hey, has anyone noticed that our wallets aren't
           very heavy?
    Google: We have a bucketload of money just laying around
           that will fill your wallets, and wouldn't mind
           our own gTLD. It'd be cute.
    ICANN: You had us at 'bucketload of money'

Google isn't going to abandon their perfectly good domains.

Good thing icann just increased the available domain-space from "limited" to "unlimited" then. That sounds good for almost everyone, or at least icann.

If anything this might be step back in the right direction. Whereas I cannot tell anything about the nature or origin of a site based on the fact that it has a .net or .ly tld, I will be able to tell something about nature and origin of a site if it has a .google or .apple tld.

More generally, as part of ICANN's gTLD approval process, if the gTLD being applied for is a trademark, then it can't go to anyone else besides the trademark holder. So there's actually a lot more assurances that you are dealing with who you expect to be dealing with with gTLDs versus random domain names on .com.

Wow. Such nostalgia.

- NSA announcing they were dropping all illegal activities,

- Water allowed on board of planes,

- ISIS converting to Christianity,

- Apple patenting the patent,

- Snapchat releasing a payment system

Note that April Fools is on December 28th in Spannish culture. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day#Comparable...

I was thinking of something more along the lines of "NSA brings suit against NSA after it learns that tailored operations group was secretly spying on other divisions of the NSA".

Doesn't seem to matter if the bottles are visible or inside your bag.

Tested in: Canada, Ireland, USA, UK, mainland Europe.

Its actually a very smart topic :D

December 28th traditionally received little to no attention in Argentina, and April 1st is gradually picking up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp10_PygJ4o

https://cloud.google.com/actual-cloud/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9137909

One has to be careful with editing HN comments as well. ;).

I felt dumb.

Where does the joke end?

It wouldn't let me see it because I'm actually already on the trial.

I am in dire need to clean the code up, but I will put it on github sooner or later. It grew top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top without meeting in the middle :(

Or I can spend 3 hours writing something that I don't have to think about ever again.

Having very recently had the, uhm, pleasure of installing MS DOS 6.22 on an old PC using floppy disks (3.5" disks, actually, which aren't all that floppy), and thus having a clear memory of how hard it was to find just three freaking disks at our company, I recoil in horror at the thought of having to juggle hundreds of disks. Or finding a recent computer with a floppy drive.

The idea is hilarious, though.

    https://www.smore.com/clippy-js

    I then uploaded the result to the gh-pages branch of a Git Repo
    as I felt this would trick the average user into thinking that
    the code was a genuine GitHub Project.

    Happy April the 1st :)

 -->

I was thinking GitHub and Microsoft did a collaboration in their April Fools prank because how else could Clippy popup when you click a link.

At least there's floppy.js

Also, spoofing GitHub.com might piss them off.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/smartbox-by-inbox-mai...

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/04/gmail-paper-print-y... https://www.gmail.com/mail/help/paper/

Well done!

https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/3/31/994

Jeremy Clarkson joins campaign for fossil fuel divestment

Practically true.

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/die-digital-d...

The other content to be blocked are 'theses concerning the future of journalism' ...

Not April Fools though :-/

SIGBOVIK2015 paper: https://github.com/mikeizbicki/parsed/raw/master/sigbovik201...

github repo: https://github.com/mikeizbicki/parsed

https://mojang.com/2015/04/minecraft-snapshot-15w14a-the-lov...

"We’ve thought long and hard about this, but we finally feel happy to announce that we are now changing the general direction of the game Minecraft. Starting from the next update we will be focusing on the things that make life worth living, promoting healthy relationships with the environment and its inhabitants."

Today eeryone's comments are being auto-edited to include conspiracy theory claptrap (added to end of whatever they wrote), and they've got an illuminati theme

SRD is "banned".

(c) https://twitter.com/teslamotors/status/583339439759310848

http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-egg/

I presume these would only show up if using relative paths or positions in your CSS.

http://tinderforuber.com/

*I'm praying this is a joke

"their"

And 'losing', 'April', missing 'fools' (or 'first of').

Because it gets them attention.

Personally I find it irritating.

/Buzz Killington

http://www.sciencealert.com/you-can-play-pac-man-in-google-m...

An Australian and UK study has reported that increasing temperatures will result in an explosion of fire-breathing dragons around the world.

http://www.ausbt.com.au/australia-s-best-april-fools-day-avi...

The winner of the Password Hashing Contest was announced to be, LM Hash!

https://twitter.com/veorq/status/583175725206892544

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.security.phc/2658

libsodium added ROT13, fast, keyless, powerful cipher

https://github.com/jedisct1/libsodium/commit/23f1c90c682484f...

And made resistent to timming attacks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VK_%28social_networking_website...

"Russian-speaking users can choose between the standard Russian version and two extras: a Soviet version and a Pre-Revolutionary version. Other than language tweaks (e.g. telegrams for messages and comrades for friends) these versions contain other easter eggs. For example, all private messages in the Soviet version have a stamp saying 'passed server censorship'. The pre-revolutionary version uses old-style Russian orthography. Both extra versions are also ad-free."

Amazon is naturally much bigger, but VK is not a small fry either.

Amazon has been pretty conservative with their UI changes over the years, which could be because their users react poorly to them.

You're right, it's a little known fact that the cause for downfall of the Roman empire was the ability to order personal hygiene products using a button placed in people's home!

> Note: You may need to increase your iPhone volume, since Dash Button uses ultrasonic tones to sync with your iPhone during setup. If prompted, drag the volume slider to the recommended level, at or above where it says Best.

Ultrasonic tone sync?

I think it probably is real, it just shouldn't be. :-/

[1] http://www.thewire.com/technology/2013/07/what-is-clinkle/66...

Sign me up.

They could just automatically include the device in some shipments.

"Hey, have you seen the Amazon.com homepage today?" - someone in every office everywhere today.

https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/310j26/...

https://www.digitalocean.com/company/blog/announcing-atlanti...

https://www.google.co.jp/ime/___o/

The "executive suite - productivity edition"

http://executivesuite2016.tumblr.com/post/115074577715/tumbl...

http://i.imgur.com/4KI0vRT.png

https://github.com/dabeaz/me-al

> If the above command fails with an ImportError, you're probably using a Mac. That's an unfortunate choice as you can't really expect a toy machine like that to be used for serious tasks.

Glad I already switched to Python 3 for new projects, so I could evade that one!

- Sent from my toy machine

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/richard-iii-t...

http://www.redditblog.com/2015/04/the-button.html

LucID : Lucid dream analyser wrist band http://www.amazon.in/b/ref=amb_link_187322727_2/278-8747141-...

Silicon Styler : Electronic Moustache Styler http://www.amazon.in/b/ref=amb_link_187323127_2?ie=UTF8&node...

Biovap Mark III : Bio-waste disintegrator. Processes kitchen waste to scented vapour as air-freshner http://www.amazon.in/b/ref=amb_link_187322547_2?ie=UTF8&node...

QuickClean : Electronic dry cleaner for 'dry-clean only' fabric http://www.amazon.in/b/ref=amb_link_187322867_2?ie=UTF8&node...

Exotic Amazon : Exotic pets from Madagascar/wildlife. Pair of two species wit heach purchase. http://www.amazon.in/b/ref=amb_link_187322987_2?ie=UTF8&node...

https://databricks.com/blog/2015/04/01/spark-2-rearchitectin...

This is probably among the most technical, nerdy April fool's.

Got me thinking: "wait, what if two guys bought these on the same work-site?" (admittedly i was pre-caffeine at the time)

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/hamburger-menu-vs-pizza/

http://habrahabr.ru/company/reactos/blog/254579/

As the saying goes, there would be a blessing ...

Some time ago, in the ReactOS Foundation, it was decided to exercise their right to protect their means of individualization, namely the registered trademark, trademark and logo (the wording depends on the jurisdiction of law enforcement). We were inspired by the successful experience of the project Gnome, which is to protect their brand from the encroachments of Groupon.

Recently, the lawyers hired by the Fund, sent to Facebook Ireland Limited warning about trademark infringement ReactOS. The fact that Facebook is developing a project ReactJS, whose logo resembles the logo ReactOS confusingly. Since over the long term has not followed any response letter, nor any appropriate action on the part of Facebook, lawyers fund full steam preparing a lawsuit against the social network. Suddenly came very late response to the complaint letter ... and what!

Facebook ReactOS Foundation offered to give up claims to ReactJS out of court in exchange for investments in the project of our operating system.

The volume and the specific conditions of the investment currently being discussed in the negotiations, but it is already clear that it is a sum equivalent to several million euros. For their part, representatives of Facebook made demands on what exactly should go money.

Is expected to develop client and server distributions based on ReactOS, a graphical shell which will be based on React.JS, then while all calculations and data processing will be carried out thanks to Node.js. It is obvious that Facebook is preparing to attack Google and Microsoft in the operating system market for tablets and handheld gadgets. It is worth noting that the social giant has long been known for its contribution to the opensource-motion: Apache Cassandra, Apache Hive, Apache Thrift, FQL, Hack, HipHop for PHP, Scribe, Open Compute Project.

Stay tuned for details of this epochal event will follow soon!

http://moduscreate.com/reangular-angular-react-merger/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hydLZJXG3Tk

http://www.audi.jp/gohan/

http://imgur.com/l6PV5x5

http://imgur.com/M9fRJpf

http://imgur.com/collab - collaborative post creation

http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/04/01/google-reader-rises-...

https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/4/1/118

Compelling argument why your app should use HTTP instead of HTTPS

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2015/04/a-major-...

http://lobste.rs

http://googleasiapacific.blogspot.com/2015/04/introducing-ne...

https://www.hoteltonight.com/2015/04/join-beta-hacktonight/

Hilarious!

https://www.humblebundle.com/ballyhoo

http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/115193038361/step-on-up-fo...

http://blog.imgix.com/post/115195342369/new-imgix-feature-ch...

Chester Face is a tool that will automatically detect any faces in your imagery and replace those faces with that of Chester.

(Chester is an engineer's cat, who happens to be photogenic and comes out of the box in the correct shade of orange for our branding)

https://www.humblebundle.com/ballyhoo

https://www.voxxed.com/blog/2015/04/chet-haase-forking-disru...

Unfortunately, the comments section is still not an April Fools joke.

"Please type your reply above this line" (http://blog.reamaze.com/2015/04/01/please-type-your-reply-ab...)

I just love the checkbox for "Yes! I want my organization to be full of CRAP™ developers!"

Being serious about dating requires having the ability to never drop the ball.

http://blog.pipedrive.com/2015/04/manage-your-dating-pipelin...

http://inhabitat.com/google-purchases-dubais-world-of-island...

http://raspi.tv/2015/raspberry-pi-model-c http://www.recantha.co.uk/blog/?p=12281

Economist reports that Poroshenko has suggested a winner takes all judo match with Putin to end the fighting in the Donbas.

http://www.tetongravity.com/story/ski/breaking-vail-resorts-...

Sunrise joining Microsoft, they just added Clippy to their calendar

https://twitter.com/Flipkart/status/583145516218720256

https://codepo8.github.io/redact.js/

http://container-solutions.com/2015/04/container-solutions-i...

That's because PS2 says they get cheaters from H1Z1, and viceversa.

- Power Wheels Desert Drifters

- Steam-powered Gaming Cabinet

- Voltron Cat Condo

- and more...

http://www.thinkgeek.com/

http://www.wired.com/2010/10/2001-a-space-odyssey-monolith-a...

(which they did end up selling due to demand)

"It's Full of Stars!"

"Zero Points of Articulation"

https://www.myappconverter.com/blog/senior-developer-wanted-...

$250,000 - $300,000 per annum + bonus + benefits

Join our new San Francisco office!

We’re looking for a Senior Developer to bring their talents to our brand new team. This opportunity is simply unmissable! Join the innovators in app conversion, and take your career to new heights.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Senior Developer to join our expanding team.

MyAppConverter is seeking a talented Senior Developer to sit back, relax and have all of their work done for them. A lazy mindset is essential, and someone with a passion for the latest revolution in app conversion is a must.

Developer skill / responsibilities:

- No previous experience necessary.

- Excellent Java skills (drinking coffee from a mug/cup/thermos).

- Thumb twiddling expertise.

- A passion for the latest revolution in app conversion.

- Watching in silent awe.

- Enjoys boredom.

https://blog.uber.com/nyc-uberlions-2015

https://docsend.com/dachshund

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Apple+Watch+Teardown/38659

https://www.ifixit.com/ifaxit

http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/galaxy-blade-edge-chefs-ed...

Also whats with curved phones?

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/m/#!topic/bli...

https://console.online.net/en/server/selfie/Al5dpTp6Awp3

http://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2015/4/1/8320117/dirk-nowitzki-...

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fliptheweb/jfdmnek...

(inspired by com.google)

Pick up a Car Shop catalog on your next Uber trip and discover world class products from the comfort of the backseat.

http://issuu.com/ubermo/docs/ubercarshop

http://techcrunch.com/gallery/april-fools-2015-the-mega-roun...

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/01/world/april-fools-day-pranks/

http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/1/8327379/april-fools-roundup

http://blog.applause.com/2015/04/01/bob-loblaws-applause-blo...

http://miz-mooz.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw72zFX2rsk

http://www.thenordicweb.com/blog/spotify-ceo-to-launch-rap-c...

http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/3121lh/functor_is_n...

Same as last year:

http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/1bfojn/functor_is_n...

And I fell for it again... Hmpf.

CFWheels.org - https://github.com/cfwheels/cfwheels

and no, this isn't a joke. Full disclosure: I worked on and LOVE this project.

http://blog.dato.com/dato-on-ms-dos

http://lhorie.github.io/mithril/archive/v0.1.34/

It was picked up as fact by several Rusian media outlets: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KJbT4Xw...

https://youtu.be/d_vit8ZRHx8

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...

http://moduscreate.com/reangular-angular-react-merger/

Page: http://www.applewatchdesign.co/

http://www.reddit.com/r/InternetIsBeautiful/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYIKDcMwreY

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/46342399/list/houzzlenz-the-n...

"If you can swipe your face, you can update your place."

http://www.thinkful.com/mentors

https://www.blinkist.com/page19/introducing-blink-ku-the-wor...

The summary of Tim Ferriss's The 4-Hour Workweek is hilarious:

So Much Depends Upon a 40-Hour Lie

So much depends upon

a forty hour lie when

all you need is an out of office responder

and a bunch of virtual assistants

A plane that use lunar energy.

http://www.avocarrot.com/blog/how-avocarrot-replaced-targeti...

Announcing HERO, the Human-Enabled Relevancy Optimizer, to address one of the hardest challenges we faced yet.

http://www.hodor-lang.org/

http://blog.memeoirs.com/2015/04/making-spam-matter-memeoirs...

Announcement: http://www.nearform.com/nodecrunch/micromonitor-reaping-huge...

The featured article, picture, and various highlights on the frontpage are always delightful. And true and educational! Check it out.

Also whoa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_cake

https://www.odesk.com/blog/2015/04/announcing-new-name-new-s...

Uber's trademark innovation and convenience have revolutionized the way you move. Starting today, we're revolutionizing the way you shop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bECYvHkDrMo&feature=youtu.be

http://www.army.mil/article/54202/Stetson_hat_to_be_new_Army...

http://www.embracepetinsurance.com/about-us/press/direwolf-c...

Disclaimer: I work there.

http://blog.tumult.com/2015/04/01/introducing-tumult-hype-ed...

Light theme, Dark theme, and now the Gold theme!

http://formlabs.com/company/blog/2015/04/01/introducing-glit...

Created by OkHi, a tech startup in Kenya that has a mission to give a physical address to the 4B people in the world who don't have one.

http://daily.koalasafe.com/

Got picked up by a few places in Australia.

Tempo Vision is hardware that enhances the way teams experience their environment in Tempo and JIRA.

http://www.tempoplugin.com/tempo-vision/

http://nycda.com/classes/web-development-for-dogs/

http://www.techdigest.tv/2015/04/hailo-introduces-the-piggyb...

Scented Wi-Fi that lets you know if a connection is secure or not. If it smells bad, don't connect.

The best thing is... It's not an April Fools!

http://chrome.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/introducing-chromeselfi...

https://twitter.com/AsthmaMD/status/583333806469337088

Accouncement: https://blog.asana.com/2015/04/breathe-some-fire-into-your-t...

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2015/03/chrome-selfie-share...

http://www.startupvitamins.com/products/startup-condoms-trip...

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/happyhatchery

https://www.meundies.com/videos/reundies

http://blog.tablelist.com/tablelist-april-fools-2015-champra...

http://moz.com/blog/snapchat-support

https://vimeo.com/123800794

https://www.gangsofspace.com/en

You have to restore an old version of some files to play ...

After a minute or two (after tapping Start), it will jump-scare you with your friend's photo. You can then jump-scare your friends with your own photo.

It uses Facebook, but doesn't post anything (other than Game Request, which is user-initiated).

The game itself is still largely unfinished, but playable. Feedbacks welcome!

https://hubski.com

https://vimeo.com/123649095

http://joylent.eu

https://www.kernel.org/

https://pipedot.org/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/nationwide-blackout-...

http://szifon.com/2015/04/01/felvasarolja-az-apple-a-yosemit...

https://github.com/codysoyland/yoloimport

http://blog.superfeedr.com/

Flying 365 days per year!

Austrian paragliding manufacturers NOVA plan to convert a reservoir into an indoor paragliding centre

During a press conference in Terfens, Tyrol, local paragliding manufacturer NOVA has announced their intention to open an indoor flying centre. They plan to convert a reservoir into a so-called Para-Hall, in order to offer pilots from all over the world the opportunity to fly regardless of the weather conditions. At present they are in intense negotiations with hydroelectric companies and the state governments of the Tyrol and Salzburg. The project focuses on sustainability and will contribute to the long-term future of the Austrian tourism industry.

“Climate change cannot be ignored” says NOVA CEO Wolfgang Lechner, “glaciers in the Alps will melt sooner or later. Therefore, it is inevitable that some reservoirs and their hydroelectric plants will no longer be profitable. Our Para-Hall is a ground-breaking alternative.“

NOVA intends to empty, dredge, clean and cover a reservoir. Lechner explains that from a technical point of view, a reservoir with a hydroelectric plant is ideal for converting into a flying centre: “the turbines can be reversed and used to blow air into the Para-Hall. Add a few filaments and indoor thermals are possible. Our test pilots have already tried this in the indoor ski centre in Dubai. It worked fine!”

A highlight of the NOVA Para-Hall will be the Open Air Access, which is a huge retractable roof. With strong indoor thermals, it will be possible to take off inside and go through the roof. Alternatively, it can launch outside, for example in the Outdoor Hike & Fly Area in the mountains above the centre, and then land inside.

The Spectator Area will be situated at the front of the Para-Hall – with glazed viewing areas facing into the centre and down to the valley. Several levels will offer visitors the chance to have a variety of gastro-experiences: Tyrolean Stubn (inns) will offer locally produced local organic produce, an Ayurveda restaurant staffed by genuine Indian chefs, Schnitzel-World (a self-service restaurant with good cost-benefit ratio), on level three it is possible to fast, while next to the landing zone, pilots can avail themselves of the obligatory landing field beer. “The absolute highlight", according to Wolfi Lechner, "is the Silent Zone. This is situated in the Fresh Air Zone and offers complete relaxation. Here everyone can discover their inner apricot.”

NOVA plans to convert the current engine room into an Outdoor Experience Centre. Lechner explains: “We hope to install eco hotels with straw beds and Tyrolean pinewood interiors, a climbing wall, wellness centre, a spacious spa area with attached salt cave, an ice climbing wall, yoga retreat and a children's crèche with a mountain pasture experience - featuring real cows. Part of the drainage channel will be converted to a night club. Finally, there will be conferencing facilities. We’re thinking big and are focussing on the family - and all very sustainable!“ In co-operation with the ZAMG (Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics in Innsbruck) NOVA has commissioned research, which will pinpoint the optimal moment to start the building work. The project should commence no later than the 1st April 2020, probably earlier.

“At first glance, the concept may sound a bit crazy”, explains Lechner, “but the planning is in the advanced stages.” Currently the reservoir at the Moserboden in the Tauern area is favourite. The site offers the advantage of two dams. On one side the topography will enable soaring flights, the other will be developed as a thermalling paradise.

Lechner is convinced that the power generation companies will be enthusiastic about the concept and he is anticipating investment from ski resort operators. “Sooner or later they will no longer have a viable business. With our long-term sustainable concept we will be able to save the day. The Para-Hall we will mean we are all ready for the future. It will allow tourists to experience all facets of nature – without having to step outside!”

Find out more at www.nova.eu