A READER sent me a piece of on-screen artwork in the form of an Internet chain 'letter'. I thought nothing of it. Then I received another electronic chain letter, this time from a teenage boy at King George V school in Kowloon Tong.
It said: 'This game has been played since 1877 [they've had the Internet for a long time at King George V]. You must send this letter to seven males within five days. On the 5th day 'she' will ask you out or say 'I love you'. This is not a joke. It has worked for many years. If you break the chain, you will have bad luck with girls forever.' The message was followed on to my screen by one from an Internet chain pursuer. This was getting almost exciting. Hot on the trail was teacher Sirdar Khan, head of computer studies at the school, who traced and beamed a message to all recipients of the previous communication.
It said: 'As computer teacher of KGV I must express that I do not support such activities as chain letters and other abuse of e-mail. It is a total waste of people's time, mail server space and Internet bandwidth . . . I sincerely hope that you were not disturbed by it and have the good sense to terminate any chain letters and expunge such articles out of your mail boxes.' Further enquiries revealed that serious chiphead nerds have an enormous fear of electronic chain letters, seeing them as a type of computer virus. They are scared that one could become as popular as the infamous 'Craig Shergold' chain letter, which his family have been trying to stop since 1989.
The latest copy of Bookcase, a Hong Kong book industry magazine, carries an advertisement urging readers to write to 'Grey Sherhold aged 17'. Don't.
Boffins fear such a chain could bring down the Internet on which king of the nerds Bill Gates (who is shortly to come to Hong Kong) will take control of the future.
Hey, maybe they're not such a bad thing after all.