Hello there! Did you enjoy your fleeting moment of time travel? No? Well, that’s sort of the idea, because a good April Fool’s Day prank should be at least a little bit annoying.
Now that you’re here, feel free to plot my slow painful demise chat about your weekend plans or whatever you want.
Update: The normal home page is restored to its proper place, but if you want to see the prank page, here is the full version and here is a “lite” version without the modem intro.
Laughing Cat, by DrPete, licensed under CC BY 2.0
Loved, loved, loved it NMTOMNET! I felt instantly younger and girlier even though I was well into my thirties back in ’99 (Ho-Hum adulthood!) Great prank.
What a great way to start my day! NTMTOM, you’ve really outdone yourself!
Back in the 21st century, I am putting together task sheets for my graduating students’ final exam (you know, the ones who did the mannequin challenge here: https://cutetropolis.com/2017/01/30/amazing-mannequin-challenge/). I need to have 48 of them (tasks, not students) digitized by Monday noon. I have 31 (not yet digitized) and have 53 hours to go. The sticking point? My computer doesn’t run the Excel file form I need, so I’ll have to spend Sunday at work… I think I’d prefer 1999 this weekend!
First response: horrid. Sorry. Glad to know it was a prank.
Wait! Who are you? You’re using a single-eyed version of my name? Please desist.
Annoyed? Me? Nah. Okay, but just for a moment. A loooooong moment. Then I noticed the date and I cracked up laughing. Excellent prank!!!
Does Y2K seem like 100 years ago or is it just me? ๐
Oh, and the old AOL type dial-up sounds were extremely scary to hear again. Truly seems like a gazillion years ago.
Me, too. I manage websites for a living, but the fact that I remember the days when the Internet looked like that made me feel like a pedestrian on the freeway. I am so glad we got rid of that dial-up nonsense.
All I saw was a screen of very large font text (that did not look like a normal error message) reading: “Oops! Thereโs supposed to be an April Foolโs Day joke here, but it wonโt look correct on your device. If possible, view this page on a desktop or laptop computer. In the meantime, tap below to visit the normal Cutetropolis website. Sorry about that.” I’m ON a desktop computer. So, was that the joke? If so, I don’t get it AT ALL. What does this have to do with ’99 or Y2K or dial-up? (I came here to the comments to try to figure out what was going on, but they’re not much help.) But if that’s NOT the joke, where did “probably not a real error message” error message come from? I’m baffled. I feel like maybe this is a Silicon Valley inside joke that I’m simply not computer savvy enough to understand.
I tried to edit the above highly-flawed post but it timed out on me (actually, I swear I clicked Save 2 seconds before the countdown ended, but it didn’t save) so here’s the edited version:
All I saw was a screen of very-large-font text (that did not look like a normal error message) reading: โOops! Thereโs supposed to be an April Foolโs Day joke here, but it wonโt look correct on your device. If possible, view this page on a desktop or laptop computer. In the meantime, tap below to visit the normal Cutetropolis website. Sorry about that.โ Iโm ON a desktop computer. So, was the error message the joke? If so, I donโt get it AT ALL. I came here to the comments to try to figure out what was going on, but theyโre not much help. What does that error message have to do with โ99 or Y2K or dial-up? But if the error message is NOT the joke, where did it come from (considering it’s probably not a real error message)? Did NTMTOM experiment and realize the actual joke would not display under some circumstances (like on a phone, tablet, or 12 year old computer running XP, that last being the category I fall into) and add the error message himself? If so, how did he get the error message to display under the circumstances where the actual joke would not (why didn’t I just get a REAL error message or nothing at all?)? Iโm baffled. I feel like maybe this is a Silicon Valley inside joke that Iโm simply not computer savvy enough to understand.
My apologies; the “error message” was composed by me and was intended to appear when the screen was too narrow to display the joke correctly. (That’s how I made my best guess as to screen width.) The joke page will be preserved so maybe you can view it later.
Thanks for the hint; knowing I’d received the error message based on screen width, I opened the saved prank link, saw the error message again, closed my sidebar, and instantly saw the dial-up graphic (I never did hear a dial-up tone, though). I didn’t realize you could sense how wide (in pixels) my screen was. I also don’t understand why that dial-up graphic NEEDED a wide screen, since the graphic itself was very narrow and the rest of the screen was blank. But I’m not a coder, so I don’t need to know. It seemed like the “loading” graphic would never change to anything else — in fact, I decided that was all there was to the joke, till I looked at the post more carefully, realized there HAD to be more to it, and clicked the “lite” link to see the actual main joke. I’d reopened my sidebar by then, and the actual joke page displayed FINE on that width of screen. It was ONLY the dial-up graphic that needed a wider screen despite its narrow size. Weird. Anyway, I guess I experienced it all (except the dial-up tone, and believe me, I can remember those without help), so thank you for the hint.
And, yes, excellent, scary-good job remembering the garish design conventions of some sites back then. Do you remember the customized cursor arrows that left a trail behind them? Wow was that confusing and distracting. I hadn’t thought about any of that in 15 years. We just gradually got used to newer fashions and I forgot all about how things used to typically look. A trip down memory lane.
I loved it! Of course that was only after one terrifying moment of thinking I’d been hacked, then trying again, only this time taking the time to notice the NTMTOM.net. Ah! Then I sat back to see what was going to happen next. Just brilliant!
Loved the old dial up tone! Brought me back to the wee Scottish island i grew up on where it took even longer to connect, it made me want to get up and make a wee cup of tea while i waited again!
Yes, dial up was terrible but the future did not turn out so well. The April Fool’s was very well done and funny but it made me nostalgic.
I wanted to let you guys know the latest news about my husband’s condition, you have all been so kind.
He saw the surgeon yesterday and he said that they will do the operation by laparoscopy, so a small incision and faster recovery. The doctor also said that they will be able to get all of the tumour and he won’t need chemo or radio therapy. and that the chances that the cancer comes back is about 2% so ??????.
Now I have only one problem, how to get my husband to rest for the 4 weeks of recovery time, maybe I’ll tie him to the bed … ? ?
As for the April’s Fool joke, OMG that sound!! LOL!! Thanks for the trip down memory lane NTMTOM and not to be mean but it also made me think a little bit of the old ranch ?
That’s wonderful news! I don’t have any advice on keeping your husband still, unfortunately. Laziness just naturally to me. I’ll try and send some lazy-vibes his way. Maybe that will help…?
As for the April Fools joke, I fell for it hook, line and sinker. I was worried that Mike had gotten hacked. All was revealed when I went to the Facebook page. Great joke, Mike! I, too, remember the days of dial-up and garish web pages. Dark times, those days. Let’s hope we never see their like again.
That sounds like pretty good news. Congratulations to you and your husband.
I am so glad to see your good news, Gigi! As for keeping the patient resting, if you ever figure it out, let me know. I have no problem resting when told to, but I have a certain person in mind who drives me up the wall in that regard. (No, it’s not Ricky; it’s a human person.)
Again, truly happy for you!
Gigi – great news! Phew! Very glad to hear it!
Gigi, that’s great news! I’m so glad to hear it.
Terrific news, Cat Lady! Yes, tie him down!
I am so completely baffled by the “joke” – I don’t get it at all. I think it was so visually confusing – and I did see it after the laughing cat bit, which is what appeared first when I opened Mike’s post. Oh, well, not a problem. Now, if you’d said something like Cutetropolis was stopping altogether I might have gone into shock – and that wouldn’t really be a joke, would it?????
The prank is a simulation of what Cutetropolis might have looked like in 1999, during the early days of the Web when many websites looked garish.
Don’t you hate it when you have to explain a joke to an ignoramus??? Hee, hee, sorry, Mike!
Hey, I’m the one who should be apologizing, it’s my prank! ๐ Hope you have a great weekend!
As I was reading Murray’s comment I was saying to myself “Don’t you hate it when you have to explain the joke?”. Thank god Murray got that too. That was an inspired prank and I loved it! Thanks for the laugh, Mike.
That’s great news, GiGi!!!
That is wonderful news, Gigi! hooray!
OMG so glad for the great news! SO NICE to hear something positive when these are the circumstances!! Yay. ??
And yes Mike good job on the totally horrid and annoying site!!
That’s wonderful news, Gigi! I’m so glad for both of you. But I have no input on keeping your husband quiet. Perhaps audio books? I got my husband hooked on them recently (so he leaves me alone so I can work in peace!). Or would he be interested in a jigsaw puzzle? Or.model-building? I got my husband a really great model of the Sydney Opera House, and that also keeps him busy. Anyway, just a few ideas for you. I hope you find some ways to keep him quiet and happy. I understand how challenging it can be!
I was up late working, kind of, and saw the joke page before I turned in. I didn’t have my headphones on so I missed the sound, but I’m just fine with that! I laughed and laughed over the busy page, although I’d forgotten how annoying it is trying to read through all the crazy moving crap! You did an amazing job on it, I must say, Mike! 13-year-old girls everywhere thank you. ?
I’m going to be working hard for a few days. The firm I sub a lot for has a new client, a well-known person with the most inclusive nondisclosure agreement I have ever seen, so all I can say is that it’s starting off easy and interesting. I’m also working with one of my favorite coworkers on it, which is nice. It’s a nice change from the usual boring stuff, too.
Then next weekend we head to New Orleans for French Quarter Festival. Yay! A week of wonderful music. And wonderful food. And then more music. And more food. I’m sure you get the iฤea! Yum! I can hardly wait! I miss that crazy city; we lived there for several years just pre-Katrina.
Everybody have a good week!
Great news! You must be luxuriating in your relief.
Thrilled for you and hubby. Best news ever!
Yay for the great news, Gigi!
Gigi, that is such great news! I hope your husband will be a good boy and follow doctor’s orders!
And Mike, well-played, sir! ๐
So happy to hear your good news, Gigi. Teach hubby to knit, maybe?
It;s a shame that this so-called joke, whatever it was, can’t be seen on my ipad where I do all of my casual surfing. I would have liked to see it. All I got was the “oops” message. Oh well. Happy Saturday everyone!
Sorry about that! I’ve simplified the prank page so that now it appears on all devices (but it may look terrible on some of them).
I will preserve the page after today so that people can enjoy it later.
Thanks for preserving the page, NTMTOM! In my third form, we’ve been discussing how much the Internet has advanced in the past 20 years. This is a great tutorial for them!
Me too, on my iPad. It sounds like folks had a lot of fun (or not!).
I have to report that Missy-Moo the sheepie is in the bad books this morning, she was a little too excited to get her grain and headbutted my behind! She’s never done that before and it’s a lot of sheep to be headbutted by when you’re only wee, i was almost impaled onto a sticky out post that will be removed shortly!
Yikes! Commence post-removal stat!
Bad sheepsie! No treats for you. Even if you are fluffy and adorable… Hope you’re feeling better after your sheep assault, Caz.
That’s exactly what i said to her lol, think she was just wanting me to join in her excited morning prance ๐
So glad u were not impaled. I can’t look away when that happens on a fictional tv show or an er show. I’m weird that way. But in real life I worry about spiked fences, poles etc. remove any you have.
Yikes! I hope she is feeling suitably…sheepish!
Ha!
NTMTOM, as soon as I saw it was NTMTOM.net, I knew something was going on that you had designed. So I wasn’t too worried, but dearie me, that endless, endless dial-up tone took me back to a tech-time I’m happy to have left behind. Boy, is that sound ever irritating.
Excellent design of the entire thing, though. I salute you!
I have no idea what all of this is about – this is the first communique I’ve had from Cutetropolis, so it would seem I missed the joke.???????????????????????
Murray, click here to see what how I’ve temporarily changed the site’s home page.
Thanks, Mike – I did see in the header that I could click – I get no sound – which, judging from some of the comments, is a blessing. I guess I’m too un-techie to get this. I think around the time this was the vogue I had just started using a computer with any regularity if at all.
I disabled the sound effect, but yeah, you’re better off. ๐
Aw darn. I had my sound off so I only got the graphic! I was convinced there was going to be an explanation about how NTMTOM had to reroute his web page to help us protect our internet browsing activities due to the repeal of those protections this week. ๐ But duh, April Fools! Love the retro-site. ๐ We’ve come along way haven’t we!?
Please Note: I don’t care who or how many people know I visit this site everyday. A LOT. ๐
Some April Fools pranks from elsewhere: Here’s the latest in backyard automation from Google:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNOllWX-2aE
That tickles โฆ ๐
…and here’s one from Rocketnews:
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2017/04/01/new-nara-deer-adoption-program-lets-you-take-home-your-own-pet-deer-help-with-overpopulation/
“trained in international business etiquette” ? ?
Yup, that one did it for me, too!
Great April-1 prank! Thankfully (?) the sound didn’t come through for me; I always hated that dial-up noise.
We had a couple of sun breaks this week and Lily LOVED it! So here’s some video clips that I took following her around with my phone:
And here’s an additional clip that I forgot to include in the compilation (quite possibly the best one too!).
I’m off to the pool for a swim, then taking my car in for it’s 5000 mile service. The fun just never ends around here!
Love Lily’s stalking behavior catching the bug AND her little spot on the end of her tail!!! mesmerizing!
I love Lily’s coloring. Especially her tail.
She is so beautiful! It is a pleasure to watch an animal so clearly enjoying a healthy and interesting life. Her fierce attention to everything around her in the yard is wonderful to see.
Lily is gorgeous.
Good one, Mike! When I saw the NTMTOMnet graphic, I thought “Geez, the domain name expired and someone bought it…?” Then I figured it’s probably your take on the Skynet logo (Terminator movies)…
Anyone else remember Dogpile, Askjeeves, or the Cuecat? (Cuecat was a sort of smart pen that you’d place over a printed web address, and it’d somehow connect you to a site for more info. It was shaped like a stylized cat).
I vaguely remember Dogpile and AskJeeves. Dogpile.com is still a search tool, in case anyone needs a Google alternative.
Yup, I used to use Dogpile a lot. Ask Jeeves didn’t get me very good results. Cuecat is new to me. Sounds like a pretty good idea!
I bet somewhere there’s a warehouse with a thousand crates of unused Cuecats, LOL. I wouldn’t mind having a few and retrofitting them – as styluses or garage-door remotes or something.
I wonder if this is the same thing repurposed.
https://www.librarything.com/more/store/cuecat
Wow, that’s it! Very cool.
If only I didn’t have so many books that pre-date barcodes, that would be a great idea for doing an inventory of my books. At that, it still might be worth it, if it works any better than the barcode scanner app on my phone, which is kind of a pain to use.
I remember both Dogpile and AskJeeves. I wasn’t a heavy user of either, though.
I have a CueCat but haven’t been able to use it, because the one I have doesn’t have the USB connection, only the older style connector. Someone gave it to me, and now I just have to figure out how to hack it and make it work.
When I do get it working, I’ll use it for scanning ISBNs and barcodes for my book and movie libraries.
I’m so surprised to learn that it’s still around and is (or will be) useful. That’s cool – I haven’t seen one in 20 years. Happy hacking!
(adding) Are you a librarian, or do you have personal collections?
Personal collection. Someone once asked me how many books I actually had, and I didn’t know, so I figured it would be a good idea to catalogue them.
I use software called Book Collector and Movie Collector to catalogue my collections. Although, according to the software I have 600 books??!? I didn’t think I had that many. I only have about 220 movies.
After many moves and apartment rearrangements, I got smart and started putting all my books in boxes. Paperbacks are in photo/shoeboxes, and hardcovers & trade paperbacks are in a larger/taller box. All the boxes are propped up on the shelves on their sides, so you can see the books, at least the front row. The boxes are numbered, so I can check the database for a title and book location and quickly find it.
I still haven’t catalogued all my books because some are scattered around the apartment. I need more large/tall boxes, but haven’t found the right size yet.
That’s some impressive organization!
I just go by subject – Lovecraft, Poe & the other gothic types are together; a bunch of 19th and early-20th century history; Oliver Sacks, lucid dreaming and PTSD all go together because they’re brain-related, etc. And of course Hello Kitty and Japanese pop culture stuff (mascots, bento, etc.).
Oh, and the stacks of books on the floor…! They’re pretty much just arranged by size so they don’t topple over.
I work in book distribution. A few years ago my former boss let me borrow a USB scanner that they use with a laptop for auditing counts in the warehouse and I scanned all the books I have at home (at least the ones with barcodes), then I sent the excel file to myself at work and pulled all the titles and other info from our title file. Cuz I am that kind of nerd. ๐
Hillarious,Mike! Altavista, lol. So funny that kids today have no idea how crapy it was.
Right now I am surfing the net in picturesque Lisbon, where a cat was promised in the tiny hostel, but sadly it was removed :(. So a kitty on my top is all I have got…
Since it’s early in my household (and I have a cat on my lap), my sound was not turned on. So I missed (didn’t miss?) the dial-up sound. Loved the screen page, NTMTOM ! I only had one moment of “omg, NTMTOM has lost his ever-lovin’ mind” before I remembered the date. Fun joke!
Well I usually get here through the new post email notification, so the laughing kitty kinda ruined it for me. When I read the text I went to chrome and opened the homepage, and thought I was having a geocities nightmare of some sort. ๐
———-
Happy Saturday! Glad for your hubby’s good news, Gigi!
The other day I went to the park after work for the first time since last fall, and encountered a woman walking her Siamese kitty on a leash. ๐
And last night I got an Amazon ad for this item:
Geocities. I haven’t seen anyone mention that for a while. Sadly, garish webpages were the hallmark of that hosting site.
Geocities was the big thing around when I graduated college!
lol. loved it. love this site. love you, ntmtom!!
I forgot it was April Fool day. I was wondering “What’s this about 1999? Where’s the feed?” As soon as I clicked the link I started to laugh.
Hehe! Even NASA’s getting in on the April Fools fun!
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170401.html
Oh, that’s a good one, too! Thank you!
Foolwatch 2017: Need a place to sleep? Rent a Redbox kiosk!
“Superbly abbreviated” Truly funny!
Ugh, I remember the days when we had dial up. I was there for AOL’s unlimited launch, and it took hours to sign in, because AOL’s equipment wasn’t good enough to handle the load. I was there for the obnoxious web page backgrounds because every ISP had member websites, anyone could create a page. “No! Don’t pick up the phone…darn it, you disconnected me! Now it’ll be hours before I can get back online.” I can’t say I miss it.
My weekend’s going to be a wet one, it’s rained all week, and it’s supposed to rain all weekend too. We need the rain, but does it all have to come in a week? A couple days of rain, a couple days of sunshine, is that too much to ask?
My husband came home from his daughter’s house (he has 3 daughters, all of them live in a small town 30 minutes from here). He said to me, “We are probably going to get another dog” I was like, “Nuh uh” He then told me his oldest daughter (who recently moved back to KS from CA) has 2 chihuahuas, one is an older one, the other a puppy, maybe 6 months old. She hates the puppy. Says it won’t listen to her. She had a shock collar on it, to stop it from barking. He was annoyed that she thought it was a good idea to shock the dog out of a bad habit. She wound up giving it to her sister (the one who gave me Sophie). I told him “Purebred dogs get adopted pretty quickly at our Animal Shelter”
I miss dial-up. Dial-up and computers that couldn’t multi-task. I’d start a download and then be forced to clean the kitchen or some other part of the apartment because I couldn’t do anything else on the computer.
Oh sure, I could have read a book or watched TV, but I did use that time for cleaning. Now, high-speed connections and multi-tasking computers are to blame for my messy apartment. ๐
I used a different search engine in the 90s, which sadly, I can’t remember anymore. There used to be a fantastic one that actually let you refine your searches. You put in your first search term and your next search term only searched your result set. I’ve never run across another search that does that. Now, some searches ignore the “-” option which is supposed to exclude words, especially when I try to exclude stupid pinterest hits from my search.
Lordy, lordy, I would love to exclude all Pinterest boards from Google image searches. Once upon a time, Google had a great image search feature, then they broke it. And then Pinterest broke it even further.
But I sure as heck don’t miss dial-up. Nor do I miss the endless coasters I used to receive from AOHell.
If you want to exclude a certain website from Google search results, add this to your query:
-site:pinterest.com
The “site:” prefix forces Google to search only in the specified domain, but the hyphen negates that and changes the meaning to “search every domain BUT pinterest.com.”
Thank you, Mike. I’ll try to remember that. I hope that works with all search engines, since I generally use a different search engine. I guess I’ll find out.
Oh, thank you, Mike! I’ve fallen way behind the techno-curve, I’m afraid. And yet there are still people who think I’m an expert. I will make a note of this trick. “-pinterest” didn’t seem to do the trick.
You have to use -site:pinterest.com — this tells Google that you don’t want to see results that are hosted on the site “pinterest.com.”
That’s a great tip! I use Google Images quite a bit. Handy to know.
When I worked in the bookstore we used to get AOL disks to keep on the counter for people to take. Whenever they brought new ones, there were always leftovers from the previous batch that we would toss. We used to use them as frisbees after we closed. ๐
They also make good garden ornaments and help keep away birds from things you don’t want them to eat.
I never used dial in internet. I did not even have a PC of my own in 1999.
I handed in all the university assignments typewritten. We did not even have a phone at home ๐ Then in November 1999 I started dating the guy who came to be my husband later. He came to visit me one day and I could see he was looking for something in my room and then he asked where I kept my computer. Computer? I don’t have such a thing. He was so shocked that he put one together for me from the spare parts he had at home, so I got my first PC from him in 2000. I got internet installed at home only in 2005.
I didn’t have my own computer until college, but we had one in the house, and I don’t remember having dial up at home. My dad worked for Bell Labs so we might have been a little more advanced than most people. He’s long retired but he still has several computers around to tinker with.
Foolwatch: The Washington Post collected many of the April Fools pranks this year.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2017/03/31/an-updated-and-depressing-list-of-all-the-april-fools-pranks-on-the-internet/
Puppy Mudder!!!
https://toughmudder.com/puppy-mudder
That’s awesome. I had to send that to a friend of mine who has done a few Tough Mudders in his day. (He’s a little nuts.)
Tentacuddler! I want one!
Tentacuddler
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/jtot/
Someone needs to make these happen.
Agrees:
CREEPY. Can this be a case of tentacle envy?
Foolwatch: The natural world of the meerkat is not what it seems at https://www.bing.com/
๐
I’m on the Design Team at my job (in addition to my actual job) and one thing we’ve been tasked with doing is identifying things we like on other websites as we work on re-designing our own. I just sent the April Fools page to the leader of the team. I guess we’ll see if I’m still on the Design Team come Monday. ๐
I don’t know who James Corden is, but as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, he’s hilarious!
Oh, I like him! He’s an English guy who hosts a late night TV show here in the U.S. (I think it’s “The Late, Late Show” but not sure). He also does the “carpool karaoke” segments where he and celebrities (Michelle Obama, Madonna, etc.) drive around and sing – I haven’t looked, but they’re probably on YouTube.
Yes the carpool karaoke are on YouTube, I love the one with Adele and the one with Lyn-Manuel Miranda the best!
Yes! The Michele Obama one was so great! He hosted one of the award shows, maybe the Grammies – he’s very cute and low key but antic.
This is hilarious, and pretty typical of what he tends to get up to. He’s on after Stephen Colbert and I don’t stay up that late these days.
You got me this morning Mike! But after exclaiming, ‘Whaattttt?’ I had a good massive grin. I didn’t get the dial-up experience though initially, it just went straight to 1999 webpage and gawd, the kitty and site under construction flipping sign?? Oh man! Dogpile?! shit! I went right back to office cubicle in 2004!
Gigi, I am glad to read that things are on the mend; I hope you and hubby have some fun with his bed rest. ๐ ๐
Here’s a link to some all time best April Fools– I am partial to the spaghetti trees. ๐
http://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/ultimate-april-fools-day-pranks
I remember seeing the story of the spaghetti harvest in a movie theater when I was a kid and I loved it. The little film afterward in this version, how they came up with the idea, is really enjoyable.
Oh ya, anyone see this, this week? It cracks me up. ๐