Hoax Museum Blog: Technology

Apple Promotes Ancient Greek — Here's an odd hoax, brought to my attention by Patrick Georges who lives up the road from me in Carlsbad. It appears that a message has been circulating amongst the Greek community, suggesting that Apple Computer has created a program to teach Ancient Greek online. This program will be hosted by CNN on a page titled Hellenic Quest. The text of this message can be read at the GrecoReport website. The supposed logic behind this move is that learning Ancient Greek promotes creativity and Apple is all about promoting creativity because creative people use Apple Computers. Might be true. I took a couple years of Ancient Greek in high school, and here I am, years later, using an Apple Computer. I never thought the two were related, but now I see that they must be.

Primate Programming — From the company's website: "Primate Programming Inc. is dedicated to the advancement and gainful employment of non-human great apes within the United States information technology sector."

Beta-7 and Sega ESPN NFL Football — I don't have much time to examine this fully, but a visitor (Rocketboy_X) just alerted me to a possible hoax involving a guy named 'Beta-7' who claims to have been a beta tester for one of Sega's new video games, ESPN NFL Football, until he began to experience blackouts during which he would engage in unpredictable behavior (such as randomly tackling people). On his website (or rather, a website devoted to publicizing his claims), Beta-7 claims that the game (which was just released a few weeks ago) causes this reaction in a small percentage of people, and that Sega knows about this and is trying to cover it up. Of course, this all smells like it's a controversy engineered by Sega itself for publicity. Here's another website that explores the entire controversy and the various theories people have about it.

Free Electricity — Power from the Phone Company: Plug your electrical appliances into the phonejack

Holotouch.com — A visitor sent me a question about holotouch.com:// "Dont think this is for real. Check it out. Seems too simple a site to claim what they have achieved."
Actually, although the technology sounds like something out of Star Trek: the Next Generation, it is real. The links they have to articles about themselves written by the New York Times and others all check out. Plus, I've read about similar technologies before. As for the simplicity of the site, I assume that the company just doesn't have a lot of cash to spend on a flashy website. That's often the case with startup companies.

The Phantom Game Console — Recently a company called Infinium Labs announced that it would soon be coming out with a high-powered game console called 'Phantom' that it promises will revolutionize the gaming industry. You can check out their very slick website to find out more about the console. But rumors have began to spread suggesting that there is no Phantom Game Console, that the whole thing is a hoax. The rumors started when someone paid a visit to the company's headquarters and discovered that the headquarters consisted of nothing more than a "100ft x 100ft room with a desk and two phones." Why would anyone perpetrate a hoax like this? One theory is that it's all a publicity stunt put together by Advanced Studios, LLC, the graphic design company that put together Infinium's really slick website. Of course, Infinium is loudly insisting that the Phantom Game Console is real, and a few journalists claim to have seen working prototypes of the console. So we'll have to stay tuned to see how this plays out.

Fake Friendsters — There's been not one, but two articles in the past few days about the phenomenon of Fake Friendsters. Apparently many people using the new online service Friendster — a service that allows you to meet new people by making connections with the friends of your friends — have been creating fake identities, identities such as God, Giant Squid, or Jackalope. Friendster is fighting back by trying to delete all the fakes. Of course, this is like fighting the tide. Just ask any postmodernist and they'll tell you that the concept of identity is itself inherently illusory. So to insist that only 'real' identities are allowed on the service is absurd. Personally, if I were to create an account on Friendster, I'd want all of my friends to be fake.

Defacers Challenge — I haven't yet heard of any websites being defaced as part of today's Defacers' Challenge. Perhaps it was a hoax after all.

The Hacker Challenge — A hacker website (defacers-challenge.com... it no longer appeares to be active) announces a contest to see who can deface the most websites this Sunday, July 6. Authorities suspect the whole thing may be a hoax.

Powergen Italia — Over the past two weeks a lot of attention has been paid to a website whose name could be read in two ways: http://www.powergenitalia.com. Think about it. Powergen Italia, or... Anyway, I didn't link to it here at first, believing it was a legitimate company that didn't realize how its name could be misread. Turns out I was wrong. According to an article in The Register, the site is a spoof. The real company named Powergen denies having an Italian division named Powergen Italia. Someone must have created the site for a laugh. Perhaps a disgruntled Powergen employee. Some other website names that can be read in two ways are WhoRepresents.com (Whore Presents) and IPanywhere.com. (via Vowe.net)

Usability Limited — Is this a hoax website? — Usability Limited: The user interface design specialists. (vis Bifurcated Rivets)

Mainline Airways — Mainline Airways was attracting lots of customers by offering super-low fares to Hawaii. But it turns out there was no Mainline Airways. Only a website created by a teenager.

P4 Laptop — Apple introduces the P4 Laptop in order to compete with Microsoft's iLoo.

iLoo Not a Hoax — Oops! Microsoft now says that the iLoo was not a hoax, just a bad idea. But why should we believe this latest version of the story? Personally I think they'd have been better off leaving it as a hoax.

Microsoft iLoo Diagram — Here's a diagram of the iLoo.

Microsoft iLoo — Microsoft says that the iLoo (the internet toilet) was just a hoax.

Kevin Mitnick — Red Herring reviews Kevin Mitnick's new book, The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security, in which he details the art of the con during the internet era.

RIAA Hacked — Yesterday the website of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was hacked and temporarily replaced by a hoax website designed to look like the official one, but actually featuring various subversive links such as "Where can I find information on giant monkeys?" and "Piracy can be beneficial to the music industry." It also offered a free download of Linkin Park's album Reanimation, was headlined "RIAA against music sharing? Not Anymore!" and apologized for the "heavy-handed manner" in which the RIAA had earlier tried to shut down Listen4ever.com.

Ayleeorgnet — Hoax Website: www.ayleeorgnet.com. It looks like the homepage of a web design corporation, but it's not. A reader explains what it is:

This is a hoax site related to the comic strip at www.sluggy.com. There was an evil web design corporation in the strips for the last few months of this name. There's never been an actual link to the site, but they've mentioned it in the strip several times, and the website is set up just like it would be in the strip. The photo of the receptionist looks just like Gwynn, the cartoon character who was the receptionist. The other title page picture of a ferret is another allusion to the strip, where a ferret is a main character. The joke of the strip is that Aylee, an alien (long story) who runs the webdesign company tends to eat people. You can find various jokes about that on the website as well.

Aug 2002: Top computer hoaxes — The top ten computer viruses and hoaxes reported to Sophos in July.