Home > April 1, 2002

• The Register: reported AOL buying up weblogs
• The Open Directory re-branded itself as the 'Microsoft Directory Project'
• Kuro5hin acquired MetaFilter, renaming it to met4filter.org
• Slashdot announced that is will start posting advertiser-sponsored news stories, and disable anonymous posting.
• Google described its PigeonRank system.
• The Guardian profiled Harmony Cousins
• CPAN renamed itself the 'Comprehensive Java Archive Network'
• The annual spoof Linus Torvalds post on the Linux kernel mailing list announced his resignation from the Linux effort
• IETF published April 1st RFCEvery April 1st since 1989, the Internet Engineering Task Force has published one or more humorous RFC documents, following in the path blazed by the June 1973 RFC titled ARPAWOCKY . List RFC 527 ARPAWOCKY R. Merryman, UCSD; 22 June 1973; a Lewis Carrolls RFC3251 (Distribution of electricity over IP) and RFC3252 (Encapsulating IP in XML).
• MIT changed its home page to a spoof of the Google home page.
• a spoof Yahoo News story was circulated stating that PK Interactive had received funding from idealab! [1] (note: check the URL above closely)
• The TidBITS newsletter offered a spoof issue
• The Tom's Hardware website reported that AMDFor other possible meanings of AMD see AMD (disambiguation Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD ( NYSE:AMD) is a manufacturer of integrated circuits based in Sunnyvale, California. It is the second-largest supplier of x86 compatible processors, and a leading and nVIDIA were to merge.
• The BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation BBC is primarily a national publicly-funded broadcaster based in the United Kingdom, which also has some international services. Some of the international services (such as BBC cable TV in America, Canada and elsewhere reported more April Fools' pranks including the announced 'flotation' of HarrodsHarrods is best known as an upmarket department store in Knightsbridge, London. Apart from the store, the Harrods Group of companies includes Harrods Bank, Harrods Estate and Harrods Air. The Harrods motto is Omnia Omnibus Ubique All Things, For All Peopl.
• CNN reported that two Montreal disk jockeys managed to phone Bill Gates on the pretext that one of them was Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien wanting to set up a meeting with Gates. What CNN didn't mention is that these two have a reputation for their audacious prank calls. Previous recipients of their attention have included Queen Elizabeth II and Pope John Paul II.
• Blizzard Entertainment, the computer game company that produced Warcraft III, announced they would be adding a fifth playable race to the game: the Pandaren, a race of bamboo-eating, sword-wielding warriors.