April 1, 2002

April 1, 2002 was an April Fool's Day falling on a Monday. Hoaxes for this year included:

* The Register: [http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/24652.html reported] AOL buying up weblogs (AOL actually later bought Weblogs, Inc.)
* The Open Directory Project [http://www.atomicwidget.com/April-01-2002_GOD_PR.html re-brands] itself as the 'Microsoft Directory Project' ( [http://www.pandia.com/graphics/articles/god.gifscreen shot] )
* Kuro5hin [http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/1/05035/09001 acquired] MetaFilter, renaming it to met4filter.org
* Slashdot [http://slashdot.org/articles/02/04/01/1452256.shtml?tid=124 announced] that it would start posting advertiser-sponsored news stories, and disable anonymous posting.
* Electronic Gaming Monthly said Sonic and Tails were playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Sonic is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the sequel to SSBM.
* Google [http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html described] its PigeonRank system.
* The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4385266,00.html profiled] Harmony Cousins
* CPAN [http://www.cpan.org/ renamed] itself the 'Comprehensive Java Archive Network'
* The annual spoof Linus Torvalds post on the Linux kernel mailing list [http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/linux/linux-kernel/2002-13/0063.html announced] his resignation from the Linux effort
* IETF published April Fools' Day RFCs RFC3251 (Distribution of electricity over IP) and RFC3252 (Encapsulating IP in XML).
* MIT [http://www.mit.edu changed] its home page to a spoof of the Google home page.
* a spoof Yahoo News story was [http://news.yahoo.com:PK%20Interactive%20Receives%20Funding%20from%20idealab@216.150.6.36/Yahoo!%20News%20-%20PK%20Interactive%20receives%20funding%20from%20idealab.htm circulated] stating that PK Interactive had received funding from idealab! [http://www.idealab.com/] (note: check the URL above closely)
* The TidBITS newsletter [http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-623.html offered] a spoof issue
* The Tom's Hardware website [http://www.tomshardware.com/column/02q2/020401/index.html reported] that AMD and nVIDIA were to merge. In 2006, AMD merged with nVIDIA's closest rival, ATI.
* The BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1905000/1905790.stm reported] more April Fools' pranks including the announced 'floatation' of Harrods.
* 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.noMention
*Blizzard Entertainment, the computer game company that produced Warcraft III, [http://www.battle.net/war3/pandaren/ announced] they would be adding a fifth playable race to the game: the Pandaren, a race of bamboo-eating, sword-wielding warriors (later, one Pandaren character was actually added).
*Anime Boston [http://2003.animeboston.com/guests/april1.html announced] that Samuel Adams and Paul Revere would be guests at Anime Boston 2003.