Is it Real or a Hoax?

Grok Headline matches for Is it Real or a Hoax?

"Where is Raed" Iraq bl0g: hoax? real?

"Where is Raed" Iraq bl0g: hoax? real? 03/20/2003 04:23 PM
Interesting blog post by Paul Boutin regarding whether the much-talked-about "Where is Raed?" blog is a hoax or not:

Speculation continues that Dear Raed, the weblog of a young man in Baghdad who posts under the name Salam Pax, is a hoax, perhaps even a disinformation campaign by the CIA or Mossad. A month after Computerworld published a story quoting a "terrorist" who turned out to be a one of their former writers pranking them, it would be foolish not to wonder.

Rather than guess, I emailed Salam and asked for proof of his location just before the first attack on Baghdad this morning. "how can i do that?" he emailed back. "you don't expect me to run out in the street and take a picture near something you'll recognize." Actually, I pointed out, a +964 phone number where I could reach him would do. Dialing into Iraq from here is tough right now, but not impossible, and rerouting a phone number would be much tougher than posting a blog from outside the country. Salam hasn't given me one, but that's understandable.

Instead, I mixed what I learned as a Unix sysadmin in the 80s with what I learned as a daily reporter in the 90s. A barrage of late-night phone calls and emails to bloggers, Google, and network engineers produced the following evidence...

Link, Discuss

REAL Software Announces REAL World 2005
Conference Dates and Location

REAL Software Announces REAL World 2005
Conference Dates and Location 08/27/2004 02:00 PM
AUSTIN, Texas (August 26, 2004) - REAL Software, Inc. announced today that REAL World 2005, The REALbasic User Conference, will be held March 23-25, 2005 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. Noted REALbasic authors and experts and REAL Software engineers will be presenting sessions at REAL World 2005.

"REAL World is the perfect opportunity for REALbasic users, both expert and novice alike, to get together to share ideas, information and techniques. Attendees gain critical content that helps make them better, more informed REALbasic developers," offered Geoff Perlman, president and CEO of REAL Software.

Virtual Real Estate Boom Draws Real
Dollars (Reuters)

Virtual Real Estate Boom Draws Real
Dollars (Reuters) 06/02/2004 03:30 PM
Reuters - Rising interest rates have yet to cool white-hot real estate prices. Perhaps that's why the concept of virtual home ownership has captured the imagination of a growing number of online gamers, who are plunking down real cash for their own slice of the digital frontier.

Virtual computing offers real benefits,
real challenges

Virtual computing offers real benefits,
real challenges 04/29/2004 10:42 AM
ZDNet UK Apr 29 2004 1:50PM GMT

Virtual Real Estate Boom Draws Real
Dollars

Virtual Real Estate Boom Draws Real
Dollars 06/03/2004 03:29 PM

This is a Hoax - or is it?

This is a Hoax - or is it? 08/17/2004 01:37 AM

Direct and Related Links for 'This is a Hoax - or is it?'

“The Museum of Hoaxes was established in 1997 in order to promote knowledge about the phenomenon of hoaxes. Why do we (the staff at the museum) care about hoaxes, and why do we think other people should care also? One reason is that we live in an era in which reality and unreality are becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish, and the only reliable way to sort out what is real from what is unreal is…

hot abercrombie hoax

hot abercrombie hoax 04/19/2004 01:56 PM
cam exposes the truth. i categorically deny that i'm responsible.

PREVIEW: Is It a Hoax?

PREVIEW: Is It a Hoax? 09/10/2004 03:09 PM

Another Net Hoax for the Ages

Another Net Hoax for the Ages 06/28/2004 10:06 AM

Mercury News: `Pla in Layne' and Odin Soli: an Internet hoax. Now the person behind Layne has come forward and admitted that it was all an elaborate hoax. Odin Soli -- a 35-year-old male entrepreneur and writer, married with two children and living near St. Paul, Minn. -- said he created Layne as an experiment in ``interactive fiction.''

Remember the Kaycee Nicole story. This one has a weirdly familiar ring. One lesson: Don't believe everything you read, especially when you can't confirm the identity of the writer.

How the Microsoft Hoax Took Off

How the Microsoft Hoax Took Off 06/29/2004 05:45 AM
Is Bill Gates offering big bucks to track your e-mail? Jonathon Keats from Wired magazine is on the trail of the most forwarded hoax in Internet history.

Toothing was a hoax!

Toothing was a hoax! 04/04/2005 11:59 PM
David Pescovitz: Earlier today, Jim Hanas, co-creator of Boring Boring, published a post on his blog asking "What ever happened to Toothing?," last year's UK craze where commuters hooked up random sexual encounters via Bluetooth-enabled cellphones. (Wired News story here . Reuters article here. BBC article here.) Surprisingly, Toothy Toothing, the source for many of those original articles, responded to Jim's inquiry. Turns out, Toothy (aka Ste Curran) made the whole thing up. (Or so he claims!):

All we did was register a forum (which has now been taken down by the service provider, but we have a backup) and fill it with fictional posts by fictional Toothing ’sceners. A week later, we had what appeared to be a vibrant UK Toothing community all ready to roll, and I sent the link off to Gizmodo, a gadget blog. They reported it (you can see that first story here, with a credit at the end to ‘S’, my super-subtle pseudonym). Everyone else linked to / blogged / ripped off their story. Things started to roll, and we became a ludicrous, implausible meme. In turn, that brought Real People to our forum. Others created forums for their localities - Sweden, Denmark, Italy, whatever.

A few days later, the print media requests started coming. We kept a record at the start of where we were mentioned, but there were soon too many to record in full. There are hundreds of tiny anecdotes, though. I had to write Penthouse-letters-page style sexual adventure stories for a full page article and interview in The Telegraph.

Link

Attack of the Hoax Blogs

Attack of the Hoax Blogs 07/29/2004 09:55 AM
In today's NYT, my Wired News colleague Daniel Terdiman writes about the growing trend in blogs that purport to be real, but are in fact hoaxes (and yes, he knows they're "weblogs" or "blogs," not "Web Logs," but c'est la editorial policy, mon cher). Link

Tungsten T5 Pics Were a Hoax

Tungsten T5 Pics Were a Hoax 09/01/2004 08:04 AM

Apparently all that Tungsten T5 business over at 1src was a hoax, and the site's editor Joel (no relation) seems to be taking it a little hard. Buck up, camper. You got duped. It happens. We ain't mad at you.

In my opinion, it's more fun to run the images and have people tear them apart, anyway. It's like open-source reporting; a thousand eyes are going to be able to find the flaws in the fake images a lot better than one (laser accident).

Read - Editorial: The T5 Hoax [1SRC]

Related
PalmOne Tungsten T5 and E2 Rumors, Pics [Gizmodo]

Hoax --> Operation Take one for the
Country

Hoax --> Operation Take one for the
Country 04/29/2004 01:32 PM
Following up on this earlier BoingBoing post, BoingBoing reader buddha says:

Single Southern Guy calls out the Operation Take One For The Country crew, claiming the whole thing is a hoax. Why? The radio station, DJs, and broadcast company involved in the interview transcribed on the OTOFTC site don't exist.

Link

S.F. Man Says Beheading Video Is a Hoax
(AP)

S.F. Man Says Beheading Video Is a Hoax
(AP) 08/07/2004 08:44 AM
AP - A video aired Saturday that purportedly showed an American being decapitated in Iraq was a hoax.

MP3Concept: A Mac MP3 virus or hoax?

MP3Concept: A Mac MP3 virus or hoax? 04/09/2004 04:07 PM
MP3Concept: A Mac MP3 virus or hoax?

US beheading is an internet hoax

US beheading is an internet hoax 08/07/2004 12:11 PM
Al Jazeera Aug 7 2004 3:34PM GMT

overstated: hot abercrombie hoax

overstated: hot abercrombie hoax 04/20/2004 07:17 AM
"Hot Abercrombie Chick" hoax .. Blogdex is being gamed .. overstated

overstated.net/04/04/19-hot-abercrombie-hoax.asp
track this site | 7 links

Portis out? No. Just an Internet hoax

Portis out? No. Just an Internet hoax 09/11/2004 07:06 AM
Charlotte.com - Sat Sep 11, 10:11 am GMT

Y2K: Hoax, Or Averted Disaster?

Y2K: Hoax, Or Averted Disaster? 01/05/2005 08:43 AM

Four arrested over hoax photos

Four arrested over hoax photos 05/15/2004 09:54 AM
Four soldiers are arrested and questioned over the Iraq abuse picture scandal, the MoD reveals.

The Web Controlled Christmas Light Hoax

The Web Controlled Christmas Light Hoax 12/27/2004 07:35 PM
A few weeks ago, when we had our story about Christmas lights causing problems with broadband connections, apparently Alek Komarnitsky stopped by here at Techdirt to tell everyone in the comments that he had set up his 17,000 Christmas lights so they could be turned on and off via the web. I had forgotten about this until earlier this morning when a friend instant messaged me to tell me he's become addicted to the site and had been turning the lights on and off regularly. Well, it turns out my friend was taken in by a practical joke. The lights were real but the we b-cam and web-based control were a hoax that's now getting a bit of press attention. What's interesting, though, is that from the details it sounds like the hoax was more technically complicated than actually setting up a system to really do what he claimed it would do. Still, it's somewhat amazing that no one figured it out until now.

Designer: Christmas Lights on Web a Hoax
(AP)

Designer: Christmas Lights on Web a Hoax
(AP) 12/28/2004 01:11 PM
AP - A man who boasted to reporters around the world that his Web site allowed strangers to turn his outdoor Christmas lights off and on admitted Monday it was an elaborate hoax designed, he said, to spread holiday cheer.

London man charged for hoax e-mail

London man charged for hoax e-mail 01/03/2005 05:56 AM
The Star Online Jan 3 2005 8:42AM GMT

Arrest Over Cruel Tsunami Hoax

Arrest Over Cruel Tsunami Hoax 01/02/2005 01:56 PM
CBS News Jan 2 2005 5:06PM GMT

Ill. Mushroom Hunting Regulation a Hoax
(AP)

Ill. Mushroom Hunting Regulation a Hoax
(AP) 04/04/2005 10:17 AM
AP - Mushroom hunters can breathe easier. Despite the rumors, the state of Illinois isn't charging fees and regulating the hobby this spring.

Bloggers drive hoax probe

Bloggers drive hoax probe 09/11/2004 02:51 PM
acting quickly

news.zdnet.com/2102-3513_22-5362393.html?tag=printthis
track this site | 4 links

Man charged for hoax tsunami emails

Man charged for hoax tsunami emails 01/03/2005 03:05 AM
iafrica.com Jan 3 2005 6:32AM GMT

Christmas Light Switch A Web Hoax

Christmas Light Switch A Web Hoax 12/29/2004 08:07 AM
CBS News Dec 29 2004 11:34AM GMT

Hoax 'quake dead' e-mails sent

Hoax 'quake dead' e-mails sent 01/02/2005 04:26 AM
Police are investigating a series of hoax e-mails sent to those with loved ones missing after the Asian tsunami.

ABCNEWS.com : S.F. Man Says Beheading
Video Is a Hoax

ABCNEWS.com : S.F. Man Says Beheading
Video Is a Hoax 08/09/2004 08:21 PM
S.F. Man Says Beheading Video Is a Hoax .. hoax of him beingbeheaded

abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040807_1021.html
track this site | 2 links

Mother Says U.S. Beheading Video Is a
Hoax

Mother Says U.S. Beheading Video Is a
Hoax 08/07/2004 10:12 AM
Reuters via Wired News Aug 7 2004 1:44PM GMT

Man, 40, admits tsunami hoax emails

Man, 40, admits tsunami hoax emails 01/03/2005 08:23 AM
Death notices sent to relatives of missing people

Osama hoax a virus to take over
computers

Osama hoax a virus to take over
computers 07/24/2004 11:08 PM
thestar.com.my Jul 25 2004 2:49AM GMT

'Control Aibo by PSP' Was a Hoax

'Control Aibo by PSP' Was a Hoax 04/14/2005 01:25 PM

It looks like the big 'Control Aibo by PSP' story was just a hoax, perpetrated by Japan's famous gaming magazine, Famitsu.

Bl og post with Magazine Scan [LivedoorJP]

N.Y. Teacher Charged With Exam Hoax (AP)

N.Y. Teacher Charged With Exam Hoax (AP) 03/23/2005 04:09 PM
AP - A Bronx schoolteacher was charged with coercing a former homeless man into taking his state certification exam for him, authorities said.

Hoax caller sent lifeboat into gale

Hoax caller sent lifeboat into gale 07/13/2004 07:06 AM
A 58-year-old man pleads guilty to making three hoax calls to coastguards which led to lifeboats being launched during "atrocious weather".

Making The Case That Voynich Is A Hoax

Making The Case That Voynich Is A Hoax 12/31/2003 02:44 AM
DeadVulcan writes "The Voynich Manuscript, a mysterious book of uncertain age, is widely believed to be written either in an unknown language or a long-lost ...

Microsoft developer hoax backfires

Microsoft developer hoax backfires 07/19/2004 11:05 AM
The Register Jul 19 2004 3:35PM GMT
Grok Description matches for Is it Real or a Hoax?
GrokA matches for Is it Real or a Hoax?

Is it Real or a Hoax?

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