Copyright © 2001, Joke A Day, Inc. -- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
News stories from around the world. (Very graphic intensive -- slow modems beware!) -- Last Updated January 7, 2002
Letters from real people who appreciated my style of humor. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
Letters from real people who have no business near a computer. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
About.COM's schizoid feelings about my little joke. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
The bastards at Symantec who should know better than to piss off a comedian. -- Last Updated July 20, 2001
Follow-up articles. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
AOL FAQ
On June 7, 2001 I received a very nice letter from Rob Rosenberger of
Virus Myths, the world's leading virus myths website at vmyths.com:
I'd like to interview you about the AOL.EXE virus joke. It seems to have
taken a life of its own... Please call me collect at the number below.
Thanks!
I called Rob and had a very pleasant chat with him for a few minutes. It seems
several folks who'd received my AOL.EXE warning passed it along. Some of 'em
did it as a joke, some of 'em did it out of pure panic when they discovered
they had AOL.EXE on their system. In turn, folks forwarded it on to Rob and
he found it quite funny. In fact, he wrote an entire article about it (which
you can read here:
http://www.vmyths.com/hoax.cfm?id=259&page=3.
Rob told me it'd be good free publicity and what joke list moderator would turn that down?
Not two hours after Rob's article hit his site, I got this nice letter from
CNET / ZDNET.COM:
Just in case your little AOL virus joke takes off as a full-fledged virus hoax
phenomenom, can you send me your phone number?
I may call you in the morning, as I have a feeling by tomorrow this may become news.
-R
PS: Can you include a copy of the joke? Thanks.
Robert Lemos
Senior writer -- Security, Privacy and e-Crime
ZDNet News/CNet News.com
So, we'll see what happens when the "big boys" get ahold of the story.
I'll be keeping this page updated through however long "it lasts."
Enjoy!
Ray Owens
Joke A Day
jokeaday@jokeaday.com
June 8, 2001
CNET News.com publishes the following:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6229168.html?tag=mn_hd
June 9, 2001
Lockergnome publishes
a rehash of the
Vmyths article:
DSL Reports starts a forum on
the subject:
Geeknews.net did a quick blurb.
Reader Michael Krebs in Germany sent me a link to the German computer magazine Heise Online.
Michael translates:
"Obviously, the AOL members are clever, too. From what we hear, they didn't
allow being filmed by an Irish jokester, who advised them - in a virus
warning sent by him - to delete the dangerous AOL.exe . ."
"Let's stick with this warning for a moment. Sender is a certain Ray Owens,
kind of Irish Bornemann [a German author], which provides amongst others a
joke web site a là "There's a man coming to the doctor..." .
To fool as many AOL users as possible, he invented an email with a really
dirty Fama, linking it to a solid threat: those who don't delete, will pay!
Disobedience is being punished by AOL by a monthly surcharge of 2,90$. There
are about 700 subscribers that should have asked for the validity of this
mail at AOL, which really isn't much for such a good idea."
Mike also forwarded another article.
Mike translates:
Webmaster fools AOL members with false warning
Dublin. An irish webmaster fooled AOL members with a false virus warning.
Ray Owens sent a warning with the command to remove the file AOL.exe from
the computer to his subscribers. According to the warning 30 mill. computers
were infected. AOL has 30 mio. customers."
The remainder of the text quotes your web page etc. nothing spectacular.
"It's just a local paper, but, well, even a local paper :)
The article is signed by "rpo", that's the abbrev of their online
publication. It does not refer the a press agency or another source.
"Okay, I did some more research: other local papers also reported, and they
referred to the dpa, the German Press Agency. The articles are identical
with the one quoted above.
"That's it for the moment. Congratulations, you made the international press!"
June 10, 2001
Again, reader Michael Krebs finds another international reference, but this time, it's the
mothership itself: AOL. Germany's AOL site.
Here's a curious thing and it explains why the previous international postings thought I was Irish.
Up until last week I lived in Dublin Ohio. But everything is believing I live in
Dublin Ireland.
Guess I'll have to start signing my name all the time the way I do it on St. Patrick's Day: O'Wens.
Translation:
Webmaster fools AOL members with false virus warning
Dublin (dpa) - An Irish webmaster has fooled AOL members with a false virus
warning.
Ray Owens sent a warning with the demand to remove the file AOL.exe on the
computer immediately to the subscribers of his internet joke service
"Joke-A-Day". AOL.exe is the start file for the online service's access
software. In his email owens claims that 30 million computers already would
be infected - AOL has about 30 million customers. If the file was not
deleted by June 8th, it would cost the user would an extra $2.90 per month.
"If somebody is stupid enough to believe that an internet joke site would
distribute a serious virus warning, then I consider it to be just fair to
pull his leg", Owens justifies himself, who in the internet is extensively
making fun of AOL users and their alleged unexperience with computers. 700
subscribers had enquired if this was a joke, just a few fell for the joke,
Owens reports. These, however, had forwarded the warning. But, to his
knowledge, only four or five people really had deleted the file on their
computers.
Just 10 days ago a so-called email hoax has become known, which obviously
was an example for Owens. The email warned of the alleged virus sulfnbk.exe,
which could delete the content of the harddisk. In reality sulfbnk.exe is a
windows system program, which recovers long file names.
Reader De Leider in The Netherlands sent me The Dutch Website De Telegraaf
Translation:
Amsterdam - In response to the recent hoax to which computer users were told
to erase the sulfndk.exe file from their computer, the webmaster of joke-a-day
thought of another joke. On his website he told people to delete the dangerous
file AOL.EXE.
To the suprise of webmaster Ray Owens, a lot of people fell for it. Worse:
they sent the warning per email to all their friends. Owens received more then
700 emails. Although a few people congratulated him with the prank, most
replies were from people wanting to know if the warning was real. A few people
thanked him for the warning and admitted to really have erased AOL.EXE from
their system.
Only 1 person from AOL got in contact with Owens. "Maybe the rest of them
couldn't get online anymore" Owens keeps the joke going.
Reader Alexandre Bougakov in Russia sent me Compulenta in Russia
Translation:
Virus hoax #2: now aol.exe is "infected"
09.06.2001 03:58
Recent virus-hoax - a letter with the recommendation to delete
sulfnbk.exe, one of Windows system components blamed to be a virus,
has inspired Ray Owens, an author of "Joke A Day" humour website for a
new fine joke: he wrote and distributed among 324 thousands of his
subscribers similar warning, in which aol.exe was named as a virus.
But the most funniest began when Ray received more than 700 responses:
in some of them people called his joke perfect, but the majority of
them (85% of them were sent by AOL users) were containing a question,
was it really a joke or not, or were letting know that such jokes, in
their authors' opinion, were inaccepable.
By the way, some subscribers believed to Ray's warning and have really
removed aol.exe from their computers; now they are left without any
client program to connect to the Web.
Reader Tina in New Zealand sent Cruel Site Of The Day
June 11, 2001
Reader Amanda Richardson sent me Plastic Humor:
Reader Terra Roth sent me Shortnews.com. I noticed the AOL.EXE virus
has completely fucked the world's media and "reports". Notice they don't
even have the right name of the website responsible for the thing. They've
got some third rate schlock site mentioned. Tsk tsk tsk.
I wrote the author of the piece and she corrected the name of the site on
June 12, 2001.
Reader Jay Sales told me ZDNetNews picked it up. And started a rather lengthy
discussion board about it, too.
Reader Eric Landrieu said Infoworld had mentioned a thing or two about it.
Here's the full story:
From Sam Costello, June 11, 2001, 10:19 am PT
PERHAPS THE GREATEST thrill for any prankster is to have a hoax taken as truth. Such a thing happened to Ray Owens, who runs a Web site called Joke A Day.
Owens sent an e-mail to his 342,000 subscribers on June 5 (after an initial mailing on June 2 to another list) warning them of a new virus called aol.exe. Warning your customers of a virus seems like a nice thing to do, except that aol.exe is not a virus at all; it is the America Online application that provides Internet access to millions of people worldwide.
The "virus warning" is a riff on the sulfnbk.exe virus hoax that circulated at the end of May and warned users to delete the file sulfnbk.exe -- which is not a virus at all but a necessary Windows file, said Owens in a posting on his Web site. Owens chose aol.exe because "the absolute stupidest people [who write him letters] all proudly carry @aol.com [e-mail addresses]. ... The overwhelming majority of AOL people do not read instructions. They do not follow directions. They do not have any business near a computer whatsoever," he wrote.
The message his subscribers received warned them of a virus called aol.exe which would activate on June 8. The message instructed them how to remove the file from their computers.
The warning starts out innocently enough, saying that "deleting this file will fix a damaged 30MB area of your hard drive and restore it to full functionality."
Perhaps victims of the hoax deserve less sympathy if they still deleted the file after being told that "keeping this file on the system after June 8 will cost you $1.95 more per month! [AOL is raising its monthly rates in July]. Failure to remove this file will keep your 'upper memory management' module of your intelligence quotient [IQ over 85] blocked. Deleting aol.exe will free your IQ to go above 85!!! Deleting this file will allow you to spell correctly and use the English language properly."
The joke has caused a flurry of news stories worldwide and a flood of e-mails. Many users are angry at Owens, although some have praised his wit.
Perhaps this joke, like others before it, will cause people to look and think before they delete. Or maybe it will just mean that a few more AOL installation CDs will be in PCs this month.
Reader Michelle Maertz gave me the granddaddy of them all, I guess: MSNBC.COM.
As you can see from their graphic, I was the lead story in the Technology section. In fact, today, June 11, 2001, was the day they
put Timothy McVeigh to death in Indiana. For a short time, the "AOL.EXE" virus actually topped McVeigh's story. Amazing.
Local Columbus Ohio News Reporting
You'd think that with INTERNATIONAL exposure the local media would be interested in a "local" angle, wouldn't you?
WTVN Radio, supposedly the "news leader" here sent me a note and, to their credit, did want to talk to me. But, not
for a month. "Really? You've got something major going on now? We just pulled some records of webmasters in the
Central Ohio area and found out you lived here. Oh, no, we're not going to follow up on this 'hoax' story. We
might give it to the afternoon-drive guy. He might make a joke or two out of it."
WCHM Television. We'd called all of the local television stations in Columbus. But, when MSNBC.COM had
the story of the AOL.EXE "virus" ABOVE the Timothy McVeigh execution, I thought I'd try again to the local NBC
affiliate. I called 'em and told 'em that we were the lead story at the msNBC (emphasis mine) website and if
they'd like a local angle, I'd be happy to talk to 'em. They forwarded me to a voice mail. I left a message
and the reporter called me and left a message on my machine. Finally, I got back to her. Introduced myself.
First words out of her mouth, "I didn't understand your message."
So I explained the entire "spoof" thing of the sulfnbk.exe hoax that went 'round recently. She'd never heard
of it. In fact, I doubt seriously if she even understood the phrase "Windows Operating System." When I was
done with my 30 second synopsis of the story, she said, "Oh, yeah, we get these kinds of stories all the time about
virus hoaxes."
"Well, this wasn't a virus hoax. This was a *spoof* of a
virus hoax. Did ya hear about the recent *hoax* of the
sulfnbk.exe file?"
"No, I don't keep up with that stuff."
"Well, I wrote a spoof of that about the AOL.EXE file."
"Uh. Yeah. Ok. And?"
"And people took it seriously."
"That's just mean, isn't it?"
"Not to anyone who could tell it was a joke."
"Well, look, we have a morning meeting to talk about
stories, so we'll discuss this one and maybe we'll be
calling you."
"I'll hold my breath, thanks!"
CNet Radio
I got an email from Kelly Crowe who was a producer with the Early PM Drive show on CNet radio:
Hey Ray....
We were wondering if you could join our radio program this afternoon to tell our listeners more about
the sulfnbk.exe hoax, warning people of a virus named AOL.exe has some deleting the Internet
program from their computers. This is a great story! If you have time today at either 1245, 115 or
145pm PST....let us know. We are looking for a live 5 minute phoner.
I called Kelly back and said I'd love to do the show and thank you for asking. "But," I said, I don't
know anything about the sulfnbk.exe hoax."
Silence on her end of the phone. "Uhhhhh . . . but this story on our website says . . . uhhhh . . .
it says . . . "
"What it says is that I wrote a SPOOF of that hoax and it became a 'virus hoax' all on its own."
"Huh. I didn't know that. Well, what does this sulfnbk.exe program do?"
"It gives you long file names in Windows. But I didn't write it. Or the hoax."
"Oh." More silence. "Look, I'm going to let you off the hook, ok? If it turns out I need you, I'll
give you a call back." CLICK.
Lordy, but even the media has been tainted with the AOL.EXE virus.
Local Fox 28 News (WTTE TV)
A television station that we hadn't even thought about calling got a tip from their "sister"
ABC affiliate about us. (Why didn't WSYX, Channel 6, the "big sister" ABC affiliate call us?) Anyway, she
called and spoke with us for a good quarter hour. About five minutes into it, you could tell
right away that it wasn't going anywhere. The reporter got that "How FASCINATING" tone in her
voice where she was simply being polite to the local nutcase in order to let him tell his
"exciting story." She promised (I'm not making this up: she said, "I promise . . . ")
that she'd call us later that day or the next and let us know if they could use us.
To her credit, I told her that the story would be a tough one for television to tell, (what
are they going to do? Show me sitting my fat ass in front of the computer typing?) and she
said, "No, don't worry about that, how FASCINATING."
WMRH Radio in Waupun, Wisconsin
A couple of weeks ago they'd written me out of the blue and asked me to be a guest on their
morning show. When I spoke to them on Monday, June 18, they hadn't a clue about the AOL.EXE
"virus", but they were the nicest media folks I've talked to. They were sincerely interested
in entertaining their audience by telling them about Joke A Day. Good for them.
June 12, 2001
Reader Tom Moore sent me PC Computing:
Reader Deb Schofield sent me Silicon.com:
Reader Luc Vlaeminckx in Belgium sent me Vneunet.be, a tech news site in Belgium
My good friend Jim Rosenberg sent me USA Today
Jim writes:
So, there I am - the former Mr. Monologue - minding my own business reading
USA Today when I run across an article about none other than Ray Owens!
http//www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/zd/zd7.htm
Not only have you achieved the fame you so richly deserved, you did so
arising out of the very essence of your Rayness - AOL-hatred!
There once was a dude named Ray
Who spewed AOL bile every day
He ranted and raved
Till the fame that he craved
Was showered on JokeADay
Mazel Tov!
Reader Dianna Beckham wrote this email:
Thought you'd get a kick out of your story on our Dallas hot 100 radio
station this morning. KISS FM radio reported a large number of people
deleting their AOL.exe files due to your joke which was forwarded on by
unsuspecting to unsuspecting rubes. I know this radio station is syndicated
so you may get much interest in your site.
June 13, 2001
Reader and good friend Steve Loyala sent me Yahoo. He wrote:
Ray, you should hang it up now, you're never going to top this one. -)
Which pointed to where Yahoo got it from in the first place, The Standard.
Reader Kimberly Schilke wrote this email:
I live in Atlanta and was listening to a morning radio show on the way to
work. They mentioned joke a day and the morons that believed that the
executeable file for the AOL software was a virus.
Reader John Ling sent me CNN which, of course, is owned by AOL.
This was nothing more than Sam Costello's well balanced piece that had
been copied so many times. However, the end of this one was different:
I'd written Sam earlier in the week and thanked him for such a nice article.
He happened to write back about an hour after I read the CNN article and I asked him,
"I was curious, though, there's a part in there that wasn't in
your story -- about them contacting AOL and asking what
affect it's had. Was that in your original story? Just curious
they would "rewrite / add" to your story."
Sam's reply:
The reason the AOL comment was added in the CNN version of piece (by me)
was that CNN has a policy of not running any story that doesn't include comment from the affected parties (or at least that's
how I understand it. They've never told me that directly). They really wanted to
run the story (in fact were asking me about if all day yesterday), but wouldn't
without AOL comment and so asked me to call AOL and update the story (updates
being common for us, as a wire service).
Huh. CNN didn't contact me. Wouldn't I be an "affected party"?
Anyway, what's even more interesting than that is the quote from the AOL
Techno Weenie Nicolas Graham: "Volume on this particular hoax has been very, very low."
Kind of makes About.com's claim of "thousands of readers [erasing] it
and destroying their America Online software" even more a bald face lie than
ever before. How can you trust any of the information on About.com
when they've blatantly lied about this?
Reader Rick Rechowicz sent me notice about the SANS Newsbites.
They referred back to the CNET story.
The editor of the mailing list put a nice little note at the bottom of the link to the story:
[Editor's (Grefer) Note The URL of Owens' spoof provides an interesting
log of how a hoax (or rather, his spoof of a hoax) spreads.
Reader Thomas sent me Hardware News Net:
June 14, 2001
Several readers wrote me on Monday, June 11, and told me about Langa.com's
running of the piece. Unfortunately, it was uncredited, sigh -- as so many
things are on the 'net. They just get passed around. Hmmm, on the other hand,
that's how this got so wide spread, now ain't it? (Besides, it's not like *I've*
not done the exact same thing. I've been bit lots of times with sending / posting
things by other authors.)
Anyway, Mr. Langa is, of course, one of the classiest acts on the Internet:
June 18, 2001
Reader Alex Ames sent me Net.Worker News (from NW Fusion):
June 23, 2001
Reader Christy sent me KCGeek:
July 20, 2001
Sweet Mother of God.
Long time Reader CyndyKay obviously had nothing better to do today than to send me 42 separate
links where the Deadly AOL.EXE Virus appeared.
Interesting side note about CyndyKay. I've always promised that if anyone is able to tell me TEN jokes
that are (1) funny and (2) I can use to retell to Joke A Day's audience, they can have a free
Deluxe subscription. Remember, I only use a joke ONCE -- so it could be a funny joke, but if I've
already used it, I can't use it again. Do you know how HARD that is to do? To tell a joke moderator
a SINGLE joke that's funny that he's not heard? Almost impossible. That's why I've only given away
THREE of those free Deluxes in the four+ years I've been doing this. CyndyKay is one of those three
people.
Many of the links CyndyKay sent me were already represented amongst these pages, and many others simply
had a link to the story on CNN, ZDNet, MSNBC, and the like, but there were some new ones
that showed up on her list I'd not seen before.
At the end of her exhaustive list, CyndyKay wrote:
I need to do something constructive, like take a nap. Have fun! : )
CyndyKay, you're a SWEETHEART!
Globe Tech made the Deadly AOL.EXE Virus their "Virus Hoax Of The Week" for June 19, 2001. Their Article:
Ray Owens, of Dublin, Ohio, runs a Web site called Joke A Day, a daily joke service. On June 5, he
e-mailed his 342,000 subscribers his daily joke, but this one was in the form of a virus alert, warning
them of a new virus called AOL.EXE, and recommending people erase it from their system.
The warning continued to say that keeping the file on their systems after June 8 "will cost you $1.95 more
per month!" Deleting the file "will fix a damaged 30-megabyte area of your hard drive and restore it to full functionality."
It continued: "Failure to remove this file will keep the 'upper memory management' module of your
intelligence quotient (IQ over 85) blocked," the warning continued. "Deleting AOL.EXE will free your IQ to go
above 85!!! "Deleting this file will allow you to spell correctly and use the English language properly."
The problem is, of course, that AOL.EXE is legitimate, the program used by many people to who have subscribed to
America Online as their Internet service provider. And it does, in fact, use up 30 MB on the hard disk to install.
The warning about costing an extra $1.98 (U.S.) per month was also correct: U.S. users of AOL were facing
a monthly fee hike of exactly that amount after June 8.
But the joke earned Mr. Owens global notoriety in the on-line press as well as 700 e-mail messages, many of
them furious, especially from AOL subscribers, some of whom actually took his advice and erased the file.
Why did he do it?
In a note posted on his Web site, Mr. Owens wrote: "My 'love' of AOL is legend. I believe the idea of AOL
is a wonderful idea. I am in awe of their tremendous marketing power. However, in the four+ years of running
Joke A Day I have grown to detest the exact kind of people AOL markets to: the clueless teeming millions
who have absolutely no business anywhere near a computer or on the Internet. … "The absolute stupidest
people all proudly carry @AOL.COM . . . The overwhelming majority of AOL people DO NOT read instructions.
They DO NOT follow directions. They DO NOT have any business near a computer whatsoever."
Moreover, he said, people who believed him had only themselves to blame. "If anyone was dumb enough to
believe a JOKE LIST would send out a valid virus warning, then I felt they were fair game to continue
to poke fun at," he said.
Mr. Owens is overwhelmed by all the attention, and has posted an enormous selection of the e-mail he
has received, both pro and con, along with his explanation.
Vneunet.net UK technology news, reviews, and downloads.
This is their radio / audio news.
"Radio Star" Julian Patterson reads a 7 minute news show including a bit about the AOL.EXE Virus.
Joke A Day is mentioned starting about 2 minutes and 19 seconds into the show. You'll need RealPlayer
to listen to the clip. (For those of you with American ears, you'll have to pay CLOSE attention to
what he's saying.)
Click here to listen.
The text of Mr. Patterson's bit on Joke A Day:
Another joker and another wave of panic.
This time the victims weren't gullible teenagers, but
AOL users, arguably an even more vulnerable group.
Ray Owens, the owner of humorous website JokeADay.com
mailed out a warning about the aol.exe virus which he
claimed had infected 30,000,000 mailboxes worldwide.
He added that users who left the virus on their systems
will be charged a monthly fee and will have their IQs
restricted to no more than 85. All pretty cruel stuff,
but it didn't stop several hundred AOL users from deleting
the offending virus, which is nothing of the sort, of course,
but it leads to the AOL browser. If I were Bill Gates, Heaven forbid,
I'd send Mr. Owens a big bunch of flowers.
ECS Technologies had the same article
that ZDNet's Robert Lemos wrote. But they also had the cutest little graphic accompanying the thing:
The Association of Personal Computer User Groups
Good God, they actually admit they have people stupid enough in their group to fall for something like this.
August 1, 2001
My good friend Olivier Travers sent me 01.net in France. He writes,
"This mail to let you know the AOL.exe news is now coming to backward countries like France."
Damn those third world nations, anyway.
Olivier translates:
AOL.exe, the good joke of the day
A prank made by an American humorist made believe that the file which
launches AOL's browser was a dangerous virus. The joke worked beyond
expectations... up to the point of not making laugh Symantec, an
anti-virus software vendor.
Last May, an e-mail moved around, inciting to destroy any file named
SULFNBK on your machine. It was in fact just a big prank since this file
was nothing but a Windows utility. However, this trick made a lot of
noise and many Internet users got caught.
This story inspires humorist Ray Owens who's managing the site Joke a
day. He decides it's his turn to write a practical joke targeting AOL.
According to him, "the impressing marketing machine" deployed by the
American ISP attracts Internet users whom he doesn't hesitate to qualify
as "stupid".
The prank warns against a virus named AOL.exe - that would already have
hurt 30 million users (which is how many subscribers AOL has). He gives
the procedure to destroy what in fact is the program to launch AOL's
browser.
The e-mail warns users "Keeping this file after June 8 Will cost you
$2.90 per month!!! [...] Deleting this file will free your IQ to go
above 85."
On June the 5th, the 342,000 subscribers to his mailing list received
that message.
But the joke works beyond the hopes of Ray Owens, since his e-mail is
starting to spread and deceive many Internet users. The humorist
declares having received more than 3,000 messages - as many to insult
him as to praise him.
The phenomenon then picks up momentum and most antivirus vendors decide
to signal this prank on their site. Symantec doesn't escape this rule,
but "forgets" to mention where the prank is coming from.
Ray Owens, the insatiable joker, then gets in touch with Symantec. He
requires - for a laugh - a million dollars in small unmarked bills. And,
more seriously, he asks that his name be cited and a link to his site be
added.
But Symantec refuses, relying on the "fair use" principle (that can be
compared to the French law on private copy) that would allow according
to them to copy the prank in its entirety with no need to quote its
source.
The case is quickly relayed by numerous American sites, and noticeably
by vmyths, a site specialized in pranks. Eventually Symantec decides to
backtrack and accepts to quote the source, but still refuses to link to
the Joke a day site.
Since then, Ray Owens unleashed his forces against the vendor and even
proposes a parody of Symantec's site.
January 1, 2002
Reader David Craig forwarded me a CNN article entitled,
"2001: The technology year in quotes." Upon investigating,
it turns out this is a reprint of an IDG.NET / PCWorld.com article:
On the PCWorld.com page, my quote is under a heading called "Hackers
Attack." But there is no such heading on the CNN article. How could
CNN screw up a "cut and paste"? (The managed to get in all of the other
headings.) Are they using AOL's technology?
Also, in the CNN article, they have this line that the PCWorld article does not:
"AOL Time Warner is the parent company of CNN". Isn't having to mention AOL as
owning your dumb ass similar to having to bring your drooling, incontinent, and foul-mouthed Uncle Kermit
with you on a first date? "Hi, Carole, this is Kermit. He'll be watching everything we do and adding color commentary as he sees fit.
I've brought along a couple of towels. Just drape one over your shoulder so Kermit's drooling doesn't get your dress too wet. Oh, and
here's a clothespin. Uncle Kermit likes his beans -- he calls them 'the magical fruit'. About 8 or so, we'll have to jump in the back
and change Kerm's Depends, so keep that clothespin handy in case the velcro straps fail again."
Reader Jeffrey Ball wrote to say the same article showed up on the Australian PC World site, too.
January 7, 2002
My good friend Rob Rosenberger (who started this whole mess!) wrote me to tell me, "Joke-A-Day comes in at #9
for the "Top 10 Cyber Events of 2001," says a beltway bandit firm known as iDefense. See
Trumpet it to your mailing list! :-)
Rob goes on to say: "PS: Vmyths slams iDefense at http://vmyths.com/resource.cfm?id=65&page=1 if
interested..."
News stories from around the world. (Very graphic intensive -- slow modems beware!) -- Last Updated January 7, 2002
Letters from real people who appreciated my style of humor. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
Letters from real people who have no business near a computer. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
About.COM's schizoid feelings about my little joke. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
The bastards at Symantec who should know better than to piss off a comedian. -- Last Updated July 20, 2001
Follow-up articles. -- Last Updated July 16, 2001
AOL FAQ
