Prisoner of the Web

(A fictional, somewhat autobiographical, story based on an exercise generated by WriteThis - 8/7/02 10:46:50 AM)

I was trapped. I had logged into the Internet again, for the fifteenth time. I knew I was keeping our single phone line busy by doing this, but I was obsessed. Now I was experiencing the repercussions of my whimsical decision.

I had surfed over to "AllYouCanEat.com" because a friend recommended it to me. To my chagrin, I was instantly bombarded with a series of popup windows. Not only that, but somehow the website was able to discern information about me.

This of course troubled me because I usually don't offer that information. But there it was, staring me in the face. Not only my name and user name, but other, more personal information, flashed on the screen. If these people, had access to my information, then who else could get access? I wondered.

One by one I tried to close the popup windows. But, whenever I closed one popup window, another one opened up, with even more personal information about me! In addition, a ticker started to scroll across the bottom of my screen. I saw the text:
"Congratulations, my young friend! You are now a host to my computer virus AU9iS. Any attempts to leave this web site will be thwarted."

What was I going to do? I couldn't just let some maniacal web programmer keep me prisoner! I pressed Ctrl+Alt+Delete... nothing happened. Not even a task window... I pressed the On/Off button on the computer... no response.

Finally I disconnected the telephone and the computer. I hooked them all back and double-checked. I was free!

I then telephoned the police to inform them of the incident. Only problem was, their line was busy, and I somehow received a message that they, too were logged into AllYouCanEat.com...

Disclaimer: This story is not meant to discredit any website that currently has or will have the domain name AllYouCanEat.com. ...But you knew that already, didn't you?