Encyclopedia of Humor

Bill Gates wanted to look good and impress everyone with his success. He decided to measure the accomplishments of Microsoft against General Motors.

The comparison went like this:

If automotive technology had kept pace with computer technology over the past few decades, you would now be driving a V-32 instead of a V-8, and it would have a top speed of 10,000 miles per hour. Or you could have an economy car that weighs 30 pounds and gets a thousand miles to a gallon of gas. In either case the sticker price of a new car would be less than $50.

In response to all this goading, GM responds:

“Yes, but would you really want to drive a car that crashes twice a day?”

* Tech Support calls “You” for help.
* Someone at work tells you a joke and you say LOL.
* You watch TV with the closed captioning turned on.
* You have called out someone’s screen name while making love to your significant other.
* You keep begging your friends to get an account “so we can hang out.”
* Three words: Carpal tunnel syndrome.
* You want to meet a girl/guy and your first impulse is to turn on your computer.
* you’ve ever gotten onto an airplane just to meet some folks face to face.
* you have to get a second phone line just so you can call Domino’s.
* You have ever joined “Si habla Espanol” (Spanish chat room) “just to work on my Spanish.”
* you’ve ever typed “drinking on AOL is better than drinking alone.”
* you go into labor and you stop to type a special e-mail message letting everyone know you’re going to be away.
* you have a vanity car tag with your screen name on it (oops thats me twice!).
* you no longer type with proper punctuation, capitalization, or complete sentences.
* you have met over 100 AOLers.
* you begin to say heh heh heh instead of laughing.
* when someone says “What did you say?” you reply “Scroll up!”
* you find yourself sneaking away to the computer in the middle of the night when your spouse is asleep.
* you turn down the lights and close the blinds so people won’t know you are online again.
* you know more about your AOL friends’ daily routines than you do your own spouse’s.
* you find yourself lying to others about your time on-line and when they complain that your phone was busy you claim it was off the hook
* you have an identity crisis if someone else is using an s/n close to your own
* you would rather tell people your bloodshot eyes are from partying too much instead of the truth (all night online).
* you change s/n’s so much that you have to get your profile to see who you are (identity crisis here).
* you’re broke, your modem burns out and you go out onto the streets to sell your body to get a new one.
* you open your home to 15 strangers for a week merely because they have computers and cool s/n’s.
* your kids are standing at your side saying “mommy, please come cook dinner” and you would rather type another “LOL”
* you marry your cyberboyfriend/cybergirlfriend and you both sit at your own computers and chat to each other every night from across the room.
* you type messages to people while you are on the phone with them at the same time.
* you won’t work at a job that doesn’t have a modem involved.
* your dog leaves you.
* you have to ask what year it is.
* you are doing things more and more that you swore you would never, ever do when you first found chat.
* you write a letter like this…”dear tom, hiyas! how r u doin well i gotta go bbl!”
* you name your pets after people with whom you talk online.
* you smile sideways.
* you sign on and immediately get 10 messages from people who have you on their buddy lists (::cringe::).
* you have a map on the wall with red thumbtacks to mark where people you have met are.
* you look at an annoying person off-line and wish you had your ignore button handy.
* you bring a bag lunch and a cooler to the computer.
* your significant other kisses your neck while you are chatting and you think “uh oh, cybersex pervo.”
* you have withdrawal symptoms if you are away from the puter for more than a few hours.
* you use AOL lingo in everyday life (if you still have one… hehehe).
* you take a speed reading course to keep up with the scrolling.
* your buddy list has over 100 people on it.
* you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is get online before you have your first cup of coffee.
* you have to inject No-Doz into your butt to keep it awake.
* you have your computer set up so that it goes directly into AOL’s welcome screen.
* you wait 6 hours online for a certain “special” person to come home from work.
* you don’t know where the time has gone.
* you end sentences with three (or more) periods while writing letters in pen/pencil.
* your relationship online has gone farther than any real one you have had.
* you get up at 2 am to go the bathroom but go turn on your computer instead.
* you spell things out loud instead of actually saying the word.
* you don’t even notice anymore when someone has a typo.
* when you enter a room and 23 people greet you with {{{Hugs}}} or ***Kisses***
* you stop typing whole words and use things like ppl, dunno and lemme
* your voicemail/answering machine message is “BRB, leave your s/n and I will TTYL.”
* you type faster than you think.
* you got your psychiatrist addicted to AOL, too, and are now undergoing therapy in private rooms instead of at his office.
* you want to be buried with your computer when it dies…or vice versa
* you actually enjoy the fact that you are addicted.
* you can actually read and follow all the names of the cast that scrolls up your tv screen at the end of a movie.
* people say, if it weren’t for your super reflexes in your eyes and fingers, you would have long been classified as a vegetable.
* you dream in text.
* being called a newbie is a *MAJOR* insult.
* there is absolutely no interesting chat any room and you are really bored….yet you don’t want to leave in case you miss something.
* you double click your tv remote.
* you can now type at more than 70 wpm.
* you think about starting a 12-step recovery group for AOL junkies.
* you are on the phone for a minute and need to do something else you say “BRB” or “BBL”
* you check your e-mail and forget you have real mail aka snail mail
* you go into withdrawals during dinner
* you spend at least 30 minutes making sure you say goodbye to everyone in a room
* you stop speaking in full sentences
* you have gone into an unstaffed tech support room and ended up “giving” tech support to other AOLers
* you have to be pried from your computer with the Jaws-of-Life
* your last sexual experience was really just a “textual” experience
* you set your kitchen on fire while cooking dinner because you wanted to “check your mail” and while you were there you “just wanted to see who’s on”
* you meet people from AOL in public and have no idea what their real name is, so you call them by their s/n.

A long, long, time ago
I can still remember when I dialed up their help desk lines.
And I knew if I had the chance
They could make my modem dance
with chats and GIFs and silly pick-up lines.
But Help Desk phone calls made me shiver
with every busy they’d deliver.
Bad news on the front page
A 19-hour outrage.
I can’t remember if I cried
When I realized that Steve Case had lied.
But something touched me deep inside
The day the service died.
So bye bye to Amer’ca Online
Drove my modem to a domain and it’s working just fine.
And good old geeks are cheering users offline
Saying this’ll be the day that they die.
This’ll be the day that they die.
Did you write the book of TOS
Will you send your password to PWD-BOSS
If an IM tells you so.
And will you believe the Motley Fool
When he tells you that the service rules
And can you teach me how to Web real slow?
Well I know you sold the service short
Cause I saw your quarterly report.
Steve Case sold off his stock
It fell just like a rock.
It was a crazy, costly high-tech play
As they slashed away at what subscribers pay
And half their users went away
the day the service died.
So bye bye…

Well for two days we’ve been on our own
And dial-ins click on a rolling phone
But that’s not how it used to be
When the mogul came to Virginia court
With an OS icon and a browser port
And a desktop that looked like Apple III.
And while Jim Clark was looking down
The mogul stole his thorny crown
The browser war was turned.
Mozilla…was spurned.
And while Steve left users out to bond
With hosts unable to respond
6 million newbies all were conned
the day the service died.
So bye bye…

Da Chronic ducked their software guards
And stole a million credit cards
To use accounts he’d gotten free.
And so Steve Case went to the FBI
and he told Boardwatch* a little lie
That hackers wanted child pornography *
But while Steve Case was looking down
The hackers pulled his e-mail down
They put it on the net.
He can’t be trusted yet!
And while user cynicism climbs
At sign-on ads and welcome rhymes
They scan their e-mail for “Good Times”
the day the service died.
So bye bye…

Helter-skelter billing needs a melter
The lawyers filed a class-action shelter
Eight million in lawyer’s fees.
But it looks like some attorney jibe
an hour if they resubscribe.
To a service marketed for free
Well I KNOW you’re raking in the bucks
Cause I’m reading alt.aol-sucks.
“Until we bless the suit
The settlement is moot.”
“If AOL treats you like the Borg
Then visit aolsucks.org
Before some router pulls the cord…”
the day the service died.
So bye bye…

Bill Razzouk, the head-to-be
sold off his home in Tennessee
And headed for a 4-month end.
Was he sad or just incensed
when Case offered him his thirty cents.
Billing is the devil’s only friend.
But as I read him on the page
My hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No “Welcome” born in hell
could ring that chatroom bell.
And as chat freaks cried into the night
CompuServe read their last rites.
I saw Earthlink laughing with delight
the day the service died.
So bye bye…

I met a girl in Lobby 9
And I asked her if she’d stay on-line.
But she just frowned and looked away.
And I went back to the Member Lounge
To see what loyalty I could scrounge
But Room Host said the members went away…
And on the net the modems scream
At faster speeds and data streams.
And not a tear was spoken.
The hourly fees were broken.
And the three men that I hated most
Ted, and Steve, and Razzouk’s ghost
They couldn’t dial up the host
The day the service died.

Computer Song To be sung with the theme from the Beverly Hillbillys:

Come and listen to a story ’bout a man named Ted, A poor college kid, barely kept his family fed. But then one day he was talking to a recruiter who said, “they’ll pay big bucks if ya work on a computer”..

UNIX, that is….Windows 95….Workstations…C++…VB

Well, the first thing ya know ol’ Ted’s an engineer. The kinfolk said “Ted, move away from here”. They said “Arizona is the place you oughta be” so he bought some donuts and he moved to Ahwatukee…

Intel, that is….dry heat… no amusement parks…..

On his first day at work, they stuck him in a cube. Fed him lots of donuts and sat him at a tube. They said “your project’s late, but we know just what to do Instead of 40 hours, we’ll work you 52!”

OT, that is …unpaid…mandatory…..

The weeks rolled by and things were looking bad. Schedules started slipping and some managers were mad. They called another meeting and decided on a fix. the answer’s very simple…”we’ll work him sixty-six!”

Tired, that is.. stressed out.. no social life….

Months turned into years and his hair was turning gray. Ted worked very hard while his life just slipped away Waiting to retire when he turned 64, instead he got a call and escorted out the door.

Laid off, that is…de-briefed…unemployed.

Now the moral of the story is, do what you are told companies will use you and discard you when you’re old So gather up your friends and start your own firm, Beat the competition, watch old bosses squirm.

Millionaires that is…..Bill Gates…Steve Jobs…

Ya’ll come back now, ya hear.

There! Now get back to work!

Due to the recent merger of AOL and Time Warner, AOL members can soon expect the following changes:

* Time Magazine’s next “Man Of The Year” issue will feature Steve Case on the cover as the undisputed winner. This of course will strictly be a coincidence.

* The standard irritating AOL popups will be replaced by Warner Bros. cartoons. Now, Elmer Fudd will say, “You cwazy wabbit, you’ve been onwine for 5 minutes and that’s way-y-y too long… we’re going to boot you off!”

* When you try to access a web site that AOL blocks because they know that you are too stupid to think for yourself, Tweety Bird will say, “I tawt I taw a Puddy… I did, I did see a Puddy… ACCESS IS DENIED!”

* The next time that you hear Bugs Bunny say, “Eh, what’s up Doc?” he will be referring to your monthly AOL subscription charge.

* Now that AOL owns everything, there is no one left for them to sell your private and personal information to. Therefore, they will now use that information to obtain a mandatory AOL Visa card in your name and make purchases on your behalf and bill you whatever they want whether you like it or not.

* Now, when you turn off your TV set, AOL will automatically download television programs without your permission and delete the channels of competitors that they don’t want you to watch. Of course the next logical step will be popup ads on the screen while you’re trying to watch your favorite show, and the inevitable outcome will be… “You’ve been watching TV for too long, your connection has been terminated”… CLICK!

And this my friends… is just the beginning!