Almost an April Fool?

The SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) spent the week prior to 1 April advertising a TV documentary called "The Dark Side of the Moon" - proof that the USA government had faked the pictures taken of the first moon walk. I just caught the last half of it, having been otherwise occupied. They had various experts comment on the background story - ex-security chiefs, the KGB, you name it. Very convincing stuff!

Until the credits rolled and a little bar scrolled across the screen "we trust that you have enjoyed this documentary on 1 April". And during the credits they had the "experts" going over their scripts, fumbling their words - yes, it was a gigantic April Fools hoax.

But just the kind of thing to get your conspiracy theory radar going! :)

A women's site had this report:

Clean up your PC!

Working in the world of the Internet as we do, we often get to hear about happenings in the cyber world way before it actually gets to the public. Luckily we can share the latest 'horror story' with you before it hits the street, so you can be well prepared.

The Scorpions elite crime-fighting unit has just released a statement to the press wherein they outline a brand new unit called the e-Scorpions - formed with the know-how and funds of Mr Microsoft himself, Bill Gates.

Says e-Scorpions spokesperson, Silima Sibhanxa, "Due to the increased need to protect women and children from crime, including Cyber Crime, we have spent the last six months in negotiations with Microsoft to form the e-Scorpions unit which is tasked with removing the mountains of illegal and immoral material South Africans are storing on their home computers, laptops, and even office PCs".

How are they going to do that, you may ask? Sibhanxa says they (Microsoft SA in conjunction with the Unit) have developed powerful search robots that enter users' personal computers (only Microsoft Windows 97 and higher) via selected high-traffic websites, and then start cleaning out images, stories and communication messages of an immoral or salacious nature, as well as copies of unlicenced software. Anything vaguely resembling pornography, (even pics of yourself posing in your undies at your kitchen tea) will be stripped, as will messages containing swear words or sexually suggestive words.

The robot then sets up a log report based on the computer owners' details - which is also harvested off the harddrive (invoices and formal letters, eg, are 'read' for this) as well as email accounts. The info is stored in huge databases at the HQ, and eventually matched to your ID. If there is any material the robots themselves can't remove, the PC owner's details are e-mailed to e-Scorpions staff, who then contact the person and arrange a time to come to your home to manually clean up your PC.

You'll agree this is a shocking invasion of privacy. While we're busy drawing up a petition to stop this madness, we have, being Internet rats and all, found a way for you to put a block on your harddrive to prevent the e-Scorpions robots from entering your PC and filtering through your private stuff. Click to read How to put a e-Scorpion robot block on your PC by our prolific writer, Annel Lategan. And remember to forward this newsletter to your dearest friends (not those you don't like any more) so they can do the same.

Did you get caught by any good ones???