Subject:      April Fools' Day (Long)
From:         vegasmj <mj29@vegas.infi.net>
Date:         1997/04/01
Message-Id:   <3340C50B.42FC@vegas.infi.net>
Newsgroups:   alt.penpals.forty-plus-yrs


April Fools� Day, 1999 - Did anyone else reading the comic strips with 
their coffee get a smile out of some of the characters being in other 
strips? 

No one knows where the traditions originated but, from Britain�s April
Fool�s Day to the French custom of pinning April fish to the sleeves of 
the most gullible victims, the first day of  the month of April is a 
worldwide festival of trickery. No one agrees on whether it is April 
Fools� Day or April Fool�s Day but Fools� seems to be the most used.

Some blame it on the French when they adopted a reformed calendar in
1564 that moved the New Year up from April 1 to January 1. Those who
didn�t get the word in time (no email then) became known as April fools.

Others sources believe it�s a descendent of May Day or the Roman
Saturnalia - a period of unrestrained, orgiastic revelry - now 
celebrated by American college students under the name spring break. 

The follow are the 1997 April Fools� Day messages I found in my search
this a.m. They are all a JOKE. (shouting intended) Happened to find them 
and thought you might find one in your mailbox so wanted everyone to be 
aware these gags are around. If these are there, must be others. My 
first Fool�s or Fools� Day on the Net might be interesting. :-0

April Fool's system notice for 1997. 

[ 4-01-97] UNIX Mail to be replaced by DEC Workstation. 

Due to almost daily performance and security problems with email, UNIX
email will be removed this weekend. Email will then be handled by a DEC
workstation running Open VMS. Users will need to login to
vms.engr.utk.edu to read and send mail. Users who use POP mail servers
should set the POP server to vmspop.engr.utk.edu. 

[ 4-01-97] Disaster planned for this weekend. 

As part of emergency planning, an unplanned disaster has been scheduled
for this Saturday morning at 8:00. The disaster will last for eight 
hours. During the disaster, servers will be unavailable, mail will be 
misdelivered, and user files will be lost. Following the disaster, 
machines will be rebooted randomly. 

A committee has been formed to examine the staffs' response to the
disaster. At this point, there are no plans to recover lost email or 
files. However, this may be changed during the next scheduled unplanned
disaster. 

[ 4-01-97] Increase in Student Technology Fee. 

The student technology fee will be increased from $100 per semester to
$150 per semester. The reason for the increase is to provide reliable 
and quiet air conditioning for the computer labs. 

[ 4-01-97] Netscape, Mosaic, Lynx, and College Web Server to be removed. 

In an effort to reduce the load on our network, Network Services has 
asked that all software associated with the World Wide Web be removed 
from our systems. As very little of the web is useful for educational or 
research needs, the impact of this service removal is thought to be 
minimal. After network upgrades, Network Services will decide if Web 
services should be allowed back on the network. 

Any users installing these programs within their home directories will 
have their accounts terminated. 

Reminder, the messages are jokes. Use at your own risk. ;-)

mj

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