Destinations: An April Foolsâ€™ bag of clicks

Monday, July 19th 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

The Web is a wonder for April Foolsâ€™ Day. E-commerce, lists of shared pranks and high-technology foolishness all come together for massive childish behavior that could never be crammed into a single book. But then the Internet is chock full of jokers who would never restrict their activities to a single day. For those who need reminding, however, we chased down a few sites to get the creative juices flowing.

Pointless Clicking
members.aol.com/elctrfying

After about five clicks here, visitors get the point - or the lack thereof - of this site. Unfortunately, there are still 85 or so clicks left before this one-sided string of pop-up messages is finished with first-timers. Within those clicks, users are teased to what seems like no end. Nothing short of rebooting can stop the program. But all in good fun. Joshua Courtney wrote and published this irritating little gem, so should you cross his path in the future, you know whom to thank. Of course, to get the maximum effect, we recommend that you forward this link to people who have absolutely no patience.

The Dialectizer
rinkworks.com/dialect

Since this is a time to pull pranks on each other, we thought it was proper to mention this well-known standard that translates English - plain, typed text or an entire home page - into seven distinct dialects: Redneck, Jive, Cockney, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Moron and Pig Latin. Samuel Stoddard says his creation doesnâ€™t aim to offend a single gender, ethnic or cultural group, but that the program only mines humor found when English is put into certain dialects. Our unofficial recommended use policy for this page would involve translating the bossâ€™s latest interoffice memo into Moron or Elmer Fudd for distribution.

The Room
www.umbra.com

After an initial tour through this elegantly designed site, we hesitated including it in a collection of foolishness. Then a cynical colleague suggested that any site that offers to reveal visitorsâ€™ personalities by their interior decorating choices would make a good camouflaged prank. Pick the view outside your roomâ€™s window, the mood music, the art and clock that adorn the walls, and the type of garbage can to find out what kind of person you really are. The worst-case scenario is that your "mark" will be angry for wasting the five minutes it takes for the analysis. You can only hope they fall for the whole thing and bring it up sometime in conversation.

HeyIdiot.com
www.heyidiot.com

This site either involves a tongue-!in-cheek look at the "silicon-lined gravy train" of soaring high-tech stocks or we have stumbled into the Security and Exchange Commissionâ€™s next big investigation. Just kidding. If the title page doesnâ€™t spell it out for you, then you get whatâ€™s coming - or you should pass it along to a clueless friend. HeyIdiot has hatched what it calls an elegant idea that blends great software, e-commerce and online trading into an easy-to-use site that exists only to sell its own mercurial stock. Buyers donâ€™t need in-depth research to calm their fears. The only rule of HeyIdiotâ€™s savvy investing is that "each new purchase must be executed at a successively higher price."

April Fools Day
www.web-holidays.com/fools

Mercifully, there are sites like this one that let kids in on Saturdayâ€™s tomfoolery without throwing in a lot of adult foolishness such as vulgarity or downright nastiness. This page gives a short background on the history of April Foolsâ€™ Day, A Foolâ€™s Dictionary, crafts and ideas for general silliness - all part of a much larger domain that helps folks out on holidays and special occasions. The siteâ€™s greeting card link wasnâ€™t working well when we last visited, but its Links section made up for that by sending us to a good collection of related sites on free stunts and pranks that donâ€™t have chapters in the Penal Code.

Snipehunterâ€™s Association of America
www.snipehunter.com

Without question, snipe hunting is a popular event whose season begins April 1 and continues through summer camping trips. One of our editors discovered this site, which is possibly the first Web page to feature an online snipe hunting simulator to train people for the upcoming expeditions. Hunting methods and a history of the sport are included here. Be sure to check the Snipe Files, the official notebook of identification charts for the more elusive subspecies of this tricky fowl, including the Eastern Spitting Snipe and the Dairy Snipe. Location maps, unfortunately, are limited to Minnesota.