Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 17:15:07 -0500
Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Sender: The Internet TourBus - A virtual tour of cyberspace
Comments: Resent-From: crispen@netsquirrel.com
Comments: Originally-From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
Subject: TOURBUS -- 14 OCTOBER 1999 -- ONE LAST UL/MS EXTREME/PANDORA'S BOX
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
[ Tip: Use a monospace font like Courier when reading this message ]
_________ ____________ ________ __________ _____________ ___ _
/ | / | | / | \
| **** Is Windows STILL too boring? **** / | \
|__________|__________/__________|__________|___________/ | \
/ /______|----\
| Spice up your desktop with Tahni DeskMate. The latest | |
| interactive character for your Windows 95/98/NT desktop. | |
| | |
| !!FREE!! DOWNLOAD NOW !!FREE!! | |
| | |
| Click | |
\_______________________________________________________________|____|
/ \ / \ / \
\___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/
Free Subscription Info and Archives at http://www.TOURBUS.com
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S):
One Last UL / Microsoft Extreme / Microsoft Pandora's Box
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESS(ES):
http://urbanlegends.about.com/
http://www.snopes.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/extreme/
http://www.microsoft.com/Extreme/Products/
http://www.microsoft.com/games/pandorasbox/tech.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/games/pandorasbox/downloads.htm
Howdy, y'all, greetings from the beautiful city of Tuscaloosa,
Alabama, home of the West Alabama State Fair. Your fearless bus
driver just spent the past couple of hours eating nutritious fair food
and riding whiplash-inducing carnival rides. Before I curl up into a
ball and fall into a deep-fat/sugar/multiple-G-induced coma, I want to
thank the folks at "Tahni DeskMate," "handtech.com," and "Flying
Noodle" for making today's post possible. As always, please visit our
wonderful sponsors and thank them for keeping the bus rolling!
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Earn from the advice you've been giving out for free!
Join handtech.com and show people in your community how to use
the Internet. With your personalized Internet portal, earn from
affiliate links and your technology storefront. Join us today!
http://www.joinhandtech.com/asp/jtr/default.asp?m2k=wj10312
mailto:join@corp.handtech.com
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
+-------------[ FLYING NOODLE PASTA OF THE MONTH CLUB ]--------------+
$27.50 includes shipping - 2 Gourmet PASTAS, 2 SAUCES
and recipes. A great gift or a small indulgence for yourself.
+-------------[ http://www.FlyingNoodle.com/tourbus ]----------------+
On with the show ...
----------------------------
Fun With Pattern Recognition
----------------------------
Before we begin today's tour, there is an entire family of urban
legends I want to squish in one fell swoop. Please listen to
this carefully: NO ONE IS EVER GOING TO GIVE YOU *ANYTHING* FOR
FORWARDING AN EMAIL MESSAGE TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS. PERIOD. I don't
care what you might have heard from other people. YOU CAN'T GET
SOMETHING FOR NOTHING, and you certainly can't get something for
simply forwarding an email to all of your friends.
With that said, you'd be surprised at how many people still believe
that these silly "forward an email to all of your friends and
something great will happen" hoaxes are true. What follows is the truth
about many of the 'email forwarding' hoaxes I have received over
the past couple of weeks. Play close attention to these -- you'll
notice a distinct pattern:
- Honda is *NOT* going to give you a free car for forwarding an
email message to all of your friends.
- The newly merged Microsoft and AOL is *NOT* going to give you
money for forwarding an email message to all of your friends
[and, even sillier, not only have Microsoft and AOL *NOT*
merged -- US antitrust laws would prohibit such a merger -- but
Microsoft and AOL are BITTER ENEMIES!]
- No one is actually going to "hop on the Bus" if you forward
this email message to three of your friends. :P
- Old Navy is *NOT* going to give you a free $25 gift card for
forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- M&M's is *NOT* going to give you a free case of M&Ms for
forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- Abercrombie & Fitch is *NOT* going to give you a free gift
certificate for forwarding an email message to all of your
friends.
- The Gap is *NOT* going to give you free cargo pants and
Hawaiian shirts for forwarding an email message to all of your
friends. [This one is my favorite!]
- IBM is *NOT* going to give you a free computer for forwarding
an email message to all of your friends.
- Microsoft is *NOT* going to give you free money for forwarding
an email message to all of your friends.
- Microsoft is also *NOT* going to give you a free copy of
Windows 98 for forwarding an email message to all of your
friends.
- Microsoft and Disney are *NOT* going to give you a free trip to
Disney World for forwarding an email message to all of your
friends.
- Nike is *NOT* going to give you free shoes for forwarding an
email message to all of your friends.
- The Guinness Book of World Records is *NOT* going to add your
name to their book for forwarding an email message to all of
your friends.
- Some billionaire is *NOT* going to make a donation to a dying
child in return for your forwarding an email message to all of
your friends.
- Some cancer or disease society is *NOT* going to make a
donation to a dying child in return for your forwarding an
email message to all of your friends. [In fact, every one of
the Net's "dying kid" stories is an outright hoax ... NOT ONE
has been true.]
- Some stranger is not going to magically cause a really neat
movie to pop-up on your screen in return for your forwarding an
email message to all of your friends.
Did you notice an underlying theme in all of these? FOLKS, NO ONE IS
EVER GOING TO GIVE YOU *ANYTHING* FOR SIMPLY FORWARDING AN EMAIL
MESSAGE TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS! (Gee, where did we hear THAT before?)
:P
What should you do if you receive an "email forwarding" message that
doesn't appear on our list? Should you forward the message to all of
your friends on the off chance that it just might be true? Of course
not. Regardless of how the message is written, it is still a hoax.
And, unfortunately, one of the prices of Net citizenship is vigilance
-- you have to be constantly watching for old hoaxes and urban legends
masquerading as new.
One way to keep up with Net hoaxes and urban legends, especially the
myriad of email forwarding hoaxes, is to bookmark and frequently visit
both
http://urbanlegends.about.com/
and
http://www.snopes.com/ .
The other way to keep up with Net hoaxes and urban legends is to start
looking for patterns in these hoaxes. All email virus warning hoaxes
follow the same pattern. All "forward an email to all of your friends
and something great will happen" hoaxes also follow a pattern, as do
all of the "dying kid" hoaxes. Train yourself to recognize these
patterns and you will become a valuable Net asset, able to protect
yourself from future hoaxes and, more importantly, able to share your
Net-hoax-busting knowledge with your friends, family, and co-workers.
-------------------------------------
Coming Soon To A Theatre Near You ...
-------------------------------------
Our friends in Redmond have a bunch of new software they are about to
unleash upon the world. So, on November 6th, Microsoft will be
presenting something called "Microsoft eXtreme," a free, 2 hour show
broadcast to 31 movie theatres across the United States! According to
Microsoft, the folks who attend Microsoft eXtreme will get
the inside scoop on the future of Windows for consumers - plus
Microsoft product managers will give live demonstrations of all-
new 2000-version products for the home.
To find out more about Microsoft eXtreme, including the location of a
participating movie theatre near you, point your Web browser to
http://www.microsoft.com/extreme/ .
Microsoft eXtreme costs nothing to attend, but seating is limited so
you must register to attend.
For those of you who cannot attend you can still see the products that
Microsoft will be demonstrating. Just point your Web browser to
http://www.microsoft.com/Extreme/Products/ .
--------------------------
A Quick (Unsolicited) Plug
--------------------------
TOURBUS rarely reviews software. But, after the recent school
shootings in Colorado and Georgia, several TOURBUS riders (especially
parents) asked me to recommend a computer game that is entertaining,
engaging, and doesn't require you to shoot everything in sight. My
first recommendation was (and still is) Hasbro Interactive's
"Rollercoaster Tycoon." You can read more about Rollercoaster Tycoon
in my 1 June 1999 TOURBUS post at
http://listserv.aol.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9906A&L=tourbus&P=R2 .
Microsoft's eXtreme site reminded me that there is another excellent,
non-violent computer game out there that you might want to add to your
holiday shopping list: Microsoft Pandora's Box.
What makes Pandora's Box so special? Do you remember the classic
arcade and Nintendo game "Tetris?" Tetris was created by Alexey
Pajitnov, a computer programmer in the Soviet Union. After the fall
of the Soviet Union, Pajitnov emigrated to the US and started working
for a small software company by the name of "Microsoft."
Pandora's Box is Pajitnov's first game for Microsoft. :)
Pajitnov took high-quality, digital images from Corbis
(www.corbis.com) and converted them into 350 visual puzzles.
Describing the puzzles, however, is a little difficult. I think Bob
Mandel at The Adrenaline Vault describes Pandora's Box the best:
... all the puzzles are visual, involving constructing,
rearranging, or matching spatial relationships in pictures,
rather than non-pictorial word puzzles, number puzzles, or
logical puzzles. For this reason, each puzzle does not require
super-high intelligence to deduce a solution, but rather simply
poses an attractive diversion for fifteen minutes or so to foster
a sense of amusement or relaxation. Moreover, the kind of visual
puzzles implemented here utilize the special advantages of the
personal computer over classic pencil-and-paper versions.
There are ten different types of puzzles, and they get harder as
you progress through the play ... You would think that all types
of visual puzzles had been developed somewhere before, but of
these the only one that is a repeat of a typical form is
Interlock, which is just a standard tangram puzzle ... The amount
of raw creativity that went into the design of the puzzle types
is impressive.
You can read the rest of Mandel's review of Pandora's Box at
.
>http://www.adrenalinevault.com/reviews/review_temp.asp?game=pandb&page=1 .
Like Rollercoaster Tycoon, Microsoft Pandora's Box only works with
Microsoft Windows 95, 98, or NT. You can find a complete list of the
game's technical requirements at
http://www.microsoft.com/games/pandorasbox/tech.htm .
And, like Rollercoaster Tycoon, a full, free trial version of
Microsoft Pandora's Box is available for download. Just point your
Web browser to
http://www.microsoft.com/games/pandorasbox/downloads.htm .
The download file is HUGE (@16Mb), so patience is a virtue. But, if
you are looking for a fun, non-violent game that EVERYONE in your
family will enjoy, the download is worth the wait. :)
Best of all, since Pandora's Box is from Microsoft, every major
computer store on the planet either carries it or can order it for
you. Pandora's Box retails for US$34.95, but you can probably find it
cheaper at your local computer store or favorite online software
vendor (for example, buy.com is selling it for US$15.34, not including
shipping).
As I said earlier, TOURBUS rarely reviews software. In fact, it is
highly unlikely that neither Hasbro nor Microsoft even knows that
TOURBUS exists, let alone that we mentioned their games. Still, a lot
of our riders asked me to recommend a computer game that is
entertaining, engaging, and non-violent. My two recommendations?
Hasbro Interactive's Rollercoaster Tycoon and Microsoft Pandora's Box.
:)
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S):
One Last UL / Microsoft Extreme / Microsoft Pandora's Box
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESS(ES):
http://urbanlegends.about.com/
http://www.snopes.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/extreme/
http://www.microsoft.com/Extreme/Products/
http://www.microsoft.com/games/pandorasbox/tech.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/games/pandorasbox/downloads.htm
---------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE WEEK
---------------------------------
PLAARS (noun). A small pincers.
Usage: "Hand me the plaars, Bubba ... I havta tighten this nut."
[Special thanks to Edwin & Carolyn Monch for today's wurd]
You can find all of the old Southern Words of the day at
http://netsquirrel.com/crispen/word.html
=====================[ Tourbus Rider Information ]===================
The Internet Tourbus - U.S. Library of Congress ISSN #1094-2238
Copyright 1995-99, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved
Archives on the Web at http://www.TOURBUS.com
Do You Like Tourbus? Recommend It and You Could Win a Palm Pilot!
CLICK
Join: Send SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS Your Name to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Leave: Send SIGNOFF TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Send this copy to 3 friends and tell them to hop on the Bus!
=====================================================================
.~~~. ))
(\__/) .' ) )) Patrick Douglas Crispen
/o o \/ .~
{o_, \ { crispen@netsquirrel.com
/ , , ) \ http://www.netsquirrel.com/
`~ '-' \ } )) AOL Instant Messenger: Squirrel2K
_( ( )_.'
'---..{____} Warning: squirrels.
