Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 16:26:26 -0800 Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Sender: The Internet TourBus - A virtual tour of cyberspace Comments: Resent-From: Patrick Douglas Crispen Comments: Originally-From: Patrick Douglas Crispen From: Patrick Douglas Crispen Subject: TOURBUS -- 6 FEBRUARY 1997 -- MORE INTERNET HOAXES/WEB COLOR/LOVE CALCULATOR Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" /~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~|~~\ | LIVE FUGEES WEBCAST AT WWW.MEDIADOME.COM / | \ |__________|__________/___________|__________|__________/ | \ / /______|-----\ | Come to Mediadome(sm) on Thursday, Feb. 6 for a |//////| | | live webcast with Grammy-nominated trio The Fugees. |//////| | | While you're at the site, make your own custom |//////| | | hip hop music mix and 3D music video with Herbie |//////| | | Hancock. Webcast will begin at 3:00 PST/6:00 EST |//////| | | For details, go to http://www.mediadome.com |//////| | ~~~/~~~\~~/~~~\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~\~~~~~ \___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/ TODAY'S STOP: MORE INTERNET HOAXES/WEB COLOR/LOVE CALCULATOR TODAY'S ADDRESSES: http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html http://www.kumite.com/myths/ http://www.adobe.com/newsfeatures/palette/main.html http://www.xs4all.nl/~kink/love Today's tour is going to be a little different. Instead of focusing on one major site or tool on the Net, today we are going to focus on three smaller (although equally cool) sites. Before we do that, however, your fearless bus driver would like to give a special thanks to the folks at Mass Music for making today's TOURBUS post possible: *--------------------------- MASS MUSIC -----------------------------* More Music For Your Money! Over 185,000 Titles Just A Click Away. FREE Weekly Music Zine - Buy 7 Get 1 FREE Everyday - Treasure Hunt! TOURBUS Rider Discount code: SAVENOW! use it and save 5% *------------------( http://www.Mass-Music.com )-------------------* Make sure you drop by Mass Music's web page and thank them for keeping our little bus of Internet happiness on the road for another week! :) EVEN *MORE* URBAN LEGENDS AND VIRUS HOAXES ------------------------------------------ Our first stop is the U.S. Department of Energy's "Computer Incident Advisory Capability" Internet Hoaxes homepage at http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html The nice folks at the Department of Energy created the Internet Hoaxes homepage because they were "spending much more time de-bunking hoaxes than handling real virus incidents." What makes this page cool is that the Department of Energy tells you some of the history of hoaxes on the Internet, how to identify a new hoax warning, how to identify a validated warning, and what to do if you think a message is a hoax. You may also remember that we visited a similar virus hoax site on December 5th: the Computer Virus Myths page at http://www.kumite.com/myths/ Both the Internet Hoaxes page and the Computer Virus Myths page are updated frequently -- the former was last updated on February 3rd, the latter on the 4th (and I am writing this post on February 5th) -- so make sure that you check these sites OFTEN for the *latest* news from the virus hoax front. :) By the way, while most virus hoaxes -- Deeyenda, Penpal Greetings, Good Times, etc. -- are downright annoying, I recently received an absolutely hysterical virus hoax message that I thought that you'd enjoy: There is a computer virus that is being sent across the Internet. If you receive an e-mail message with the subject line "Free Money," DO NOT read the message. DELETE it immediately, UNPLUG your computer, then BURN IT to ASHES in a government-approved toxic waste disposal INCINERATOR. Once a computer is infected, it will be TOO LATE. Your computer will begin to emit a vile ODOR. Then it will secrete a foul, milky DISCHARGE. Verily, it shall SCREECH with the tortured, monitor-shattering SCREAM of 1,000 hell-scorched souls, drawing unwanted attention to your cubicle from co-workers and supervisors alike. After violently ripping itself from the wall, your computer will punch through your office window as it STREAKS into the night, HOWLING like a BANSHEE. Once free, it will spend the rest of its days TORTURING household PETS and MOCKING the POPE. Some filthy, disgusting miscreant ... some no-good, low-down, good-for-nothing DIRTY SNAKE, in twisted pursuit of her own sadistic dreams, is sending this virus across the Net via an e- mail entitled "Free Money." What is so terrifying about this virus is that you do not even to have to open the e-mail for it to activate. In fact, you do not even need to RECEIVE the e- mail. You do not even need to OWN a COMPUTER. "Free Money" can infect even minor HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES. How it does this with straight ASCII code is, frankly, a matter of some debate ... but BELIEVE YOU US, if this weren't a SERIOUS situation, we wouldn't be discussing it in ALL CAPS. So for the LOVE OF GOD, forward this e-mail to all those you claim to care about, all those you purport to love. Don't do it later! Do it NOW! Now! Now! NOW! NOW! NOW! COLOR ON THE WEB ---------------- On to more serious stuff. Have you ever visited a Web page that looked absolutely incredible on a Macintosh, but when you went to view the page on a PC it looked downright awful? Why does this happen?! Well, if you want to find the answer to this often-asked question, or if you are planning on adding color pictures and other graphics to your own Web page sometime in the future, I *strongly* recommend that you read Adobe's article called "The Discriminating Color Palette" at http://www.adobe.com/newsfeatures/palette/main.html This article is pretty technical, and it is also (naturally) biased towards Photoshop (a program that Adobe sells), but its explanation of how computers define and display colors is the best I have seen anywhere, and is a must read for ANYONE considering creating their own Web graphics. If you have no idea what dithering is or why it happens, whether you should use the GIF or JPEG file formats, or what a color palette is, this article is for you! YEAH, BUT DO YOU LOVE ME IN BASE 8?! ------------------------------------ Finally, do you remember those paper origami finger thingies that you made in third grade that supposedly told you if you were compatible with someone? You remember -- you'd spell out the person's name and favorite color, and then lift a flap to find the message "you have cooties." Well, with Valentines Day (EEEK! The *V* word!) just around the corner, it is no surprise that someone has finally created a replacement for the paper origami thingy. If you have a JavaScript-enabled Web browser (like Netscape or Internet Explorer), you *have* to check out the Love Calculator at http://www.xs4all.nl/~kink/love If you type in the first and last names of two people, the Love Calculator will calculate the probability on a successful relationship (DOUBLE EEEK! The *R* word!) between those two people. For example, "Bob Rankin" and "Kermit the Frog" score and amazing 88% on the Love Calculator! The love calculator has absolutely no basis in scientific fact -- I personally believe that it, much like the que monitor in FTPmail, simply generates a random number -- but it is a neat way for you to kill a few minutes and use that fancy JavaScript-enabled Web browser of yours. :) That's it for this week! Have a safe and happy weekend! :) TODAY'S ADDRESSES: http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html http://www.kumite.com/myths/ http://www.adobe.com/newsfeatures/palette/main.html http://www.xs4all.nl/~kink/love -------------------------------- TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY -------------------------------- I told you that today's tour was going to be different ... anyway, today's Southern word is "vertigo." Here is the story behind the word: "I am an ear, nose and throat MD. A patient came to my office because of dizziness. My nurse asked him if he had vertigo. He said "No'm, I just live down the road." (A special thanks goes out to John Burson (MD) for today's word) YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE SOUTHERN WORD HOMEPAGE AT http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html ====================================================================== Join : Send SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS Your Name to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Leave : Send SIGNOFF TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Info : On the Web at http://www.worldvillage.com/tourbus.htm Advertising: E-mail BobRankin@MHV.net w/ Subject: SEND TBRATES =--------------------------------------------------------------------= For info on my new book "Atlas for the Information Superhighway" send an e-mail letter to LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU that says GET ATLAS INFO F=MAIL in the body of your e-mail letter ====================================================================== TOURBUS - (c) Copyright 1997, Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin All rights reserved. Redistribution is allowed only with permission. Send this copy to 3 friends and tell them to get on the Bus! (\__/) .~ ~. )) /O O ./ .' Patrick Douglas Crispen {O__, \ { The University of Alabama / . . ) \ crispen@campus.mci.net |-| '-' \ } http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/ .( _( )_.' '---.~_ _ _& Warning: squirrels.