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Written by: X686 < > |
Created
Mar 16 2000, modified Mar 16 2000
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Intro
Maybe you have heard of the
"for kids only" browser SurfMonkey. I heard of it
once while surfing the Internet.
The phrase "It Reads Your E-mail" caught my
eye. I asked for them to
send me one by snail-mail(the postal service). Within 2
weeks I got the CD-ROM.
Excited, I went up the stairs and installed it. I found
out the scam.
E-mail Service
SurfMonkey lets you have
an @surfmonkey.com e-mail adress, IF you are a
SurfMonkey Club member,
which I will be discussing later. Turns out, you can't
program it to read your
own POP3 or IMAP e-mail adress, and you can't swear
either. You can only send
e-mail to people at your parents approval. It has also
the option to block e-mail
from web-based e-mail services. If you make
SurfMonkey read it to you,
it will say each swear word as "number number number
number".
Lame Characters
Surfmonkey, the main character,
has a boring warped voice. Cybot, the robot that
catches you when you are
doing anything inapropiate, lacks originality.
SurfMonkey Club
SurfMonkey will sometimes(sometimes?
I mean, all the time!) remind you to
subscribe to SurfMonkey
Club, a service that will let you use the e-mail
service, chat, etc. It will
also let your parents decide what you can't or can
do. The price is outrageous.
SurfWatch in SurfMonkey
SurfMonkey has SurfWatch;
each time you visit a forbidden website an asshole
robot called Cybot shows
up and says some crap. It is hard to disable
SurfMonkey's Surfwatch,
the regular methods don't work. I have been poking
around the SurfMonkey directory
and found no reference to SurfWatch or any
files.
Lack of Features
Yes, many kids don't copy
the location of an image or want to see the source
code of a page, but there
are some computer nerds out there who are. I was mad I
couldn't open a HTML file
on my hard disk.
Chat
You can only chat(Micro$oft
Chat is used) if you are member of the club. 'Nuff
said. HOWEVER, you do not
need SurfMonkeySpanker to use Chat. Just access chat
from the start menu(bring
it up by pressing Control-Esc.
Sponsors
SurfMonkey has a sidebar
with a bunch of sponsor's logos. If you look around
closely in the SurfMonkey
folder(it's usually C:\Program Files\SurfMonkey) you
might be able to change
them by your own.
The SurfMonkey bar: pocket greed.
The SurfMonkey bar is a miniature
bar that does the usual: block inappropiate
language and block inappropiate
websites. You can also take snapshots of your
favorite websites, blah,
blah, blah. It is controlled by a password.
How to disable
SurfMonkey: If your
parents are going to force you to use this program to
browse the internet and
not Netscape or Micro$oft IE, then, my friend, I'm
sorry. However you can disable
it:
--None yet. If you have
found any method to disable SurfWatch in SurfMonkey,
tell Bill and he'll be glad
to post it here.--
MonkeyBar: I have tried to
download this file, but my computer always freezes in
the installation screen.
When I manage to install it, I'll post it here.
Links
http://kids.surfmonkey.com/free_trial/sub_free.asp
-visit if you are demented or
if you want to do a little
research with the software.