[iso1210]

I'd expect to see something in usenet archives, or at least some mention of it somewhere before this year, even if it's to someone complaining about the lack of evidence of it happening. Couldn't find anything.

The fact I've spent some time actually looking this up though makes this the best prank of the last few years. The video especially is a masterpiece of fakery.

[yosito]

Looks like the wayback machine's closest capture of the PC Week page that was screenshotted in the article is from December 96. The design is different, but there's an 8 month gap. https://web.archive.org/web/19961222040420/http://www.pcweek...

[kthejoker2]

I can't tell if this is related or not, seems in the same spirit but not directly related to the prank ... https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy/c/7J...

Like, maybe this inspired the prank somehow?