YES folks, April Fool's Day is almost upon us again, that brief moment (well, till midday at least) when it's perfectly OK to play pranks, pull legs and do silly spoofs. The Internet has a long tradition of April Fools, from bogus press releases to "hacks" (trick programs), "Easter eggs" (hidden features and credits), fake email and now even fake customised Web pages.
For example, http://www.aprilfools.com is a web site where you are given the option to create a page for a friend, which inserts his or her name and various personal details into a spoof news story. You're then given a form to send the victim the address of this Web page by email - and to warn them of their fame! All good fun, from an easy to use, well designed service and it's free!
The more general spoofs sent to Usenet newsgroups are often about matters technical, such as the message which warns: "DO NOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET FROM 12:01 AM GMT ON FEB 29 TO 12:01 AM GMT, MARCH ..... . as many of you know, each leap year the Internet must be shut down for 24 hours in order to allow us to clean it.
One of the most infamous Usenet postings was a message in 1984 apparently from the President of the USSR, celebrating the first Internet link to the country. Such was the spoof's success that when the USSR finally did get connected to the Net, many people thought it was yet another prank.
Or what about the official looking RFC (Request for Comment) document #1149 which circulated in 1989. It outlined an experimental Internet standard for the encapsulation of IP - datagrams in avian (bird) carries "Avian carriers can provide high delay, low throughput, and low altitude service. The connection topology is limited to a single point to point path for each carrier, used with standard carriers, but many carriers can be used without significant interference with each other, outside of early spring. .." Think about it.
The technically minded will also like the "I'm very pleased to announce the creation of the Philip Zimmermann Travel Agency" posting, or the following one from "Computerworld":
"CREATORS ADMIT UNIX, C HOAX
"In an announcement that has stunned the computer industry, Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Brian Keinighan admitted that the Unix operating system and C programming language created by them is an elaborate April Fools prank kept alive for over 20 years.
Or what about "McDonalds and EUnet join to offer Global Internet in a Lunchbox'"?
Microsoft has been a frequent victim of Net spoofs, such as the 1991 press release that it had developed Microsoft Windows for the Macintosh. Or, better still, "Microsoft Bids To Buy Catholic Church: If the deal goes through, it will be the first time a computer software company has acquired a major world religion."
Microsoft also has many parody Web pages. One story from http://www.microsnot.com goes: "Microsnot is pleased to announce the acquisition of England (TM), a leading country. England will bring many competitive advantages to Microsnot, including the world's leading language, some prime real estate, and a strong military."
Apple has its fair share of spoof press releases too, such as the following: - "PentiumRotisserie Released
"Spurred by consumer demand for IBM PC compatibility and the increased popularity of rotisserie chicken in the United States fast-food market, Apple plans to release the Pentium Rotisserie Attachment for the Power Macintosh. It will allow the user to run popular PC applications such as X Wing and Wing Commander while he cooks his supper. We feel that the Pentium processor is ideal for tasks requiring a lot of heat, says Gil Bates, project manager at Apple. A similar peripheral device, the Pentium Space Heater, is reportedly under consideration and will probably be released in time for next winter.
Some computer companies take part in the fun themselves. Sun Microsystems, for example, has a long tradition of Net hoaxes (see http://www.sun.com/events/april1/).
Then there are hacks - unusual trick programs that really work: they can look incredibly dangerous to the unsuspecting but are really just for fun. For example on the Macintosh you could run NVwls - this removes all the vowels on your Mac; or SdrowkcaB, which reverses all the text in everything; or Sniff when it's run, your Mac (or someone else's) sniffs randomly every few minutes (check out http://www.cse.psu.edu/skovrins/ fools.html to download any of these Mac hacks).
Other trends on the Amiga computer have included melting screens, bugs crawling across the monitor, blood dripping from the top of the screen and so on.
One of the best hacks of all, though, is very DIY: take a screen shot of an unsuspecting friend's or colleague's computer while they aren't there. Then open the shot in a suitable viewing program and watch as they try to click on the picture's apparent "icons".