Sun Exec fooled by Photoshop image

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/computers/2004/12/hoax/

Don't Blame Us



BY TRACY SAELINGER
Images by Troels Eklund Andersen

Sponsored By:




Page 1 of 1


NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2004--Those co-workers who constantly clutter your inbox with e-mail forwards aren't the only ones who have fallen for a recent Internet hoax involving a fictitious 1954 POPULAR MECHANICS article. It appears two savvy software CEOs have also been taken in by the Photoshop handiwork of a Danish software designer.

A manipulated photo of a mock submarine console (above), passed off as a 1950s projection of the 2004 home computer, was used by Sun Microsystems Chief Executive Scott McNealy in his Oracle OpenWorld keynote speech yesterday in San Francisco to illustrate how rapidly technology improves. And this past fall, Lotus founder Mitch Kapor posted the image on his blog before later posting a correction.

Even we scratched our heads for a minute after first seeing the graphic. But after a closer look, everyone agreed that something wasn't quite right. More research revealed, much to our relief, that this was one prediction we did not make.

ORIGINAL PHOTO OF MOCK SUBMARINE CONTROL ROOM

We tracked down Troels Eklund Andersen, a Danish software company employee, who originally entered the image in an online photo-manipulation contest. He took a photograph of a mock submarine control room and added a 1950s-era Crosley Ridgewood TV, a 1970s Teletype, a hardware store owner from Ohio and a pseudoscientific caption. "I wasn't intending to create a believable fake," he says.

It was approximately midnight in Europe when Andersen heard about McNealy's blunder. "I was quite amazed [that people believed it], especially in such a so-called 'nerd arena'," Andersen said. "Of course I was amused by it."

Myth-busting Web site Snopes.com first uncovered the hoax in the fall. "Once it was circulated outside the context of a contest, it started looking like real news to people," says David Mikkelson, co-founder of the site.

As for the guy who attached PM's name to the image, our agents are still searching for him. Come on, now, we know you're out there.