DIARY

April 4, 2003

Post-it notes, breadcrumbs and other signs

Maybe there were a few hints early on that the Honest Thief file-sharing venture was a hoax.

Company name: The Honest Thief

Software coming out in Q2
The first day of Q2 is April Fools’ Day.

Software name
The software is called ThankYou. The version to be released was ThankYou 2.0.

Dutch Pirates
A thumbnail to an empty site called Dutch Pirates. This thumbnail was the first one in the list and was up in the first days that the site was online and one day in March. One of the more famous stories about Dutch pirates has a lot to do with April Fools’ Day. On April 1, 1572 duke Alva lost the Dutch city now called Brielle, at that time is was called Den Briel, to the Watergeuzen. This was a small battle in Dutch history. In more recent history, when people in Holland refer to an April Fools' Day joke, without actually openly stating that it is a joke, they use this. It is a little rhyme. When someone says "when did (the duke of) Alva lose his bril" the answer has to be "1 april." (Bril is glasses, Den Briel became bril over time / "1 April" is April 1st which is April Fools' Day. In Holland we don't say April Fools' Day but "1 April.")
It rhymes. It is part of the Dutch culture. Even if you don't know about the history, a little rhyme about a duke losing his glasses and someone answering with "1 April" (April Fools' Day) is kind of funny.

The Watergeuzen were pirates! They did a lot of plundering, not just ships but also villages and cities that could be reached by ship. Later on the Watergeuzen helped prince "Willem van Oranje" (Willem of Orange) against the Spaniards. Willem of Oranje was a nobleman and "city holder" of three provinces in Holland. One day, due to unfavorable winds, the fleet of the Watergeuzen happened to end up close to the coast of Den Briel. They were immediately met by the ferryman of Den Briel, Jan Pietersz Koppelstok. Jan Pietersz told Lumey, the admiral of the fleet, that the Spaniards had just left Den Briel to fight an uprising somewhere else. What an opportunity! Lumey told Jan Pietersz to go the city government and tell that the Watergeuzen, some 5,000, were here. Jan Pietersz didn't actually know if there were 5,000 of them. The city government believed it and wanted to negotiate with Lumey.

Lumey was already at the north gate of the city with some 1,100 men and claimed the city in name of the prince of Orange. There was a panic. A lot of people fled and left through the South Gate. When Lumey discovered this, he had some of his "soldiers" close down the South Gate. At the same time he burned down the north gate. His men used a mast to ram the gate and they entered the city. They took the Spanish flag down and put the flag of the prince of Orange up. Den Briel was the first city in the Netherlands that declared that it was against King Filips II. After that more cities followed.

Where does duke Alva come in? In 1567 duke Alva was sent to the Netherlands by king Filips II to take over control. At that time there was an uprising of a religious nature. The majority of the people in Holland at that time were Protestants. The king wanted to convert them to the Catholic faith. This sparked the fight against the king. Many people fled out to sea and joined the Watergeuzen.

The book
There is information about the book on the file-sharing site plus a link to the site where one can find the complete text of the book. The image of the book cover plus the text itself might indicate that there is a fun element in there somewhere.