Infinite Solutions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy .
You may share your thoughts on the matter at this article's entry on the Articles for deletion page.
Please improve the article if possible, but the article must not be blanked, and this notice must not be removed, until the discussion is closed. For more information, particularly on merging or moving the article during the discussion, read the guide to deletion.

Steps to list an article for deletion: {{subst:afd}} • Preloaded debate OR {{subst:afd2|pg=Infinite Solutions|cat=|text=}} ~~~~ • {{subst:afd3|pg=Infinite Solutions}} log

Infinite Solutions is a set of online video hoaxes created by Mark Erickson with the help of Fatal Farm. The majority of the hoaxes seem to be aimed at annoying and/or harming "n00bs". The range of these hoaxes vary from simply trying to delete your minesweeper high scores to a DDoS attack on Google. Mark and Infinite Solutions is both hated, by those who fall for his hoaxes, or adored and found very amusing, by those who understand what most of his antics do.

The most prominent hoax of Infinite Solutions is GoogleTV.

1 List of Infinite Solutions videos
2 Google TV
- 2.1 Alleged access to Google TV
- 2.2 Proof of a hoax
3 External links
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] List of Infinite Solutions videos

How to Clean Up Your iTunes Library: Mark tells you to install a program that wipes your iTunes collection
How to Sign Up for GoogleTV Beta: See the GoogleTV section below.
How to Increase Your Wi-Fi Signal: In this one, Mark tries to convince you that by wrapping an Ethernet cable around your cellular phone will increase your wi-fi signal. This has no effect on your actual signal.
How to Unlock a Hidden Minesweeper Mode: Causes the user to wipe their own Minesweeper high scores.
How to YouTube Podcast: Mark tells his viewers that you can sync iTunes with their favorite youtube posters. However, what he really is doing is causing you to manually have to update you podcasts, which can easily be fixed by setting your settings back how they were before you changed them.
How to Recharge Batteries: Tells viewers to create a circuit around a battery which would eventually drain it, not recharge either of the other batteries, and possibly explode any three of the batteries.
How to Speed Your Mail Delivery:
How to Keep Your Produce Fresh: In this episode Mark tries to get people to believe leaving produce in a microwave will keep it fresher longer. He also tries to trick viewers into believing that by microwaving produce it will keep it even more fresh, but in reality will melt some such as his suggestion of microwaving a banana.
How to Prepare for Daylight Saving Time:
How to De-Fog Goggles: In this episode of infinite solutions Mark claims that by covering the inner rim of a pair of skiing goggles a person is able to stop the goggles from fogging. The reality of this is that the goggles would fog up even more, since the ventilation to the inside would be cut off.

[edit] Google TV

Google TV is a hoax perpetrated by American production company Fatal Farm with the help of Infinite Solutions. It purports to be an online television viewing service launched in January 2007 as a beta version by internet service company Google. The hoax was spread by a series of YouTube videos under the title Infinite Solutions.

[edit] Alleged access to Google TV

According to the video uploaded on YouTube, the following steps are taken to access Google TV:

Create a Gmail account.
Go to the Settings page in Gmail.
Go to the General tab in Settings.
Scroll to the bottom of the page.
In the line that says "Love Gmail" in bold, right-click the "Google Products" hyperlink and select Copy Shortcut.
Compose a new message in Gmail, pasting the link as the subject and body of the message; send it to yourself.
Open the message you sent yourself, star it, and archive it. (Many people forget this important tip)
Logout of Gmail.
Login to Gmail.
Move your mouse over the "M" of the Gmail logo to see if it changes from an envelope to a TV.
If it does not change, logout and login again, and check the logo again.
Continue this process until the TV appears.
When the TV appears, click it and refresh the page.
You will now have a message in your inbox from the Gmail team, congratulating you on finding Google TV, with further instructions included.^[1]

There was initially widespread disbelief that the service actually existed. This was to be expected as Google has a long-running tradition of internet hoaxes particularly around April Fools Day. Since it was not released near April Fools Day, some were tricked into believing that it was legitimate. However, this elaborate hoax did not originate from Google.

Google has allegedly signed up 3 of the 4 major TV networks in the US: Fox, NBC and CBS. ABC apparently refused to participate. This sounds believable in some ways since search results for online television and these networks actually have news clippings such as "Google Video & CBS Partnering for Google TV?". However, upon reading the articles, the only thing ever mentioned is Google Video, which suggests that this article is simply proposing the idea of a Google TV.^[2]

[edit] Proof of a hoax

The video clearly shows the "tv.google.com" domain in the address bar, but tv.google.com does not resolve.
In another video made by Mark, he claims to be able to get internet access by wrapping an ethernet cable around a cellphone.^[3] In his followup Google TV video, you can see this is how Mark is "connected" to the internet (the device is right above his keyboard).^[4]
Mark has made a series of other Infinite Solutions videos - all of them are hoaxes.
Gary Castle posted a "proof" video,^[5] but is also listed in Infinite Solutions's credits as Choreographer.
Images in the screenshots posted by YouTube users appear fuzzy, unlike in real screen captures, which suggests foul play.
One image contained an email from the Google team, but the TV section was not updated on the top of the page; the email was 2 minutes old, and the author commented that it no longer was working. However, if it was no longer working for him after just two minutes time, then what was the point in the first place?
Erickson's version says "more" beside the Google TV section instead of the newer version "all my services".
In the Welcome Email, there are typos.
One of the videos shows the Google TV email, but the bottom reads from the "Gmail team" as opposed to the "Google TV" team as you would expect given it was supposed to be a Google TV product.
By now, there should be much more information available about Google TV, and since there was a call for screenshots, there should be many more screenshots available than the ones that are. The conclusion to be reached from that is that the only ones uploading videos and screenshots are those working together with Mark Erickson and Gary Castle.
The next video in the series further scorned Mark's reputation as a hoaxer, as the video gave a how-to guide on recharging non-rechargable batteries, a process which is near impossible and very unsafe.
Google TV appears to be coming soon, but not under that name specifically. Instead, it is simply an extension to Google Video. Mark Erikson's videos were simply a hoax.