The April Fool Archive

Y2K solved    (April Fool's Day - 1999)

The Singapore Straits Times reported that a 17-year-old student from Singapore called Jack Hon Si Yue had created a small computer program that could solve the Y2K problem (caused by the inability of older computers to distinguish between 1900 and 2000). The teenager, described as being camera-shy and a C student, was said to have worked out the Y2K solution in 29 minutes while solving an algebra problem for his homework. Jack showed the solution to his father who, in turn, presented it to a technology consulting group known as Gardner. The student's family and the Gardner group then formed a joint venture called Polo Flair to commercialize the solution. Revenues from the joint venture were expected to top $50 million by September, 1999. The Straits Times received numerous calls from journalists and computer specialists seeking more information about the story. One television journalist wanted to know if Jack Hon Si Yue could be persuaded to go on TV, despite the fact that he was camera-shy. Clues that the article was a joke included the name of the joint venture, Polo Flair (an anagram for April Fool) and Jack's name, Si Yue, which means "April" in Chinese.

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Comments

Why do people always think April Fools Jokes will be obvious because a name in it is an anagram of 'April Fools'? I suck at anagrams! I never spot them!
Posted by Michelle  on  Mon Feb 19, 2007  at  06:01 AM
usually the big tipoff is a ridiculous name in a news story on or related to the first of April.
Posted by your mother  on  Mon Apr 02, 2007  at  12:22 PM