NO! DON'T microwave your iPhone!

Walt hates to be the one to break the news to you, but not everything you read on the Internet is true. Not even the ads. Especially the ads! Take this example.

Writing on the "Mashable" website, beautiful Neha Prakash tells us that this authentic-looking ad is actually a hoax. The perps are some of the merry pranksters who hang out at 4chan, "a simple image-based bulletin board" where anyone can post comments and share images. That's the website where the stolen images of more than 100 nude celebrities (including Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst and Kate Upton) were first widely shared.

On Wednesday, some of the 4chan sleuths banded together to create this slick-looking ad, suggesting that Apple's new operating system, iOS8, was so advanced that you could "wave charge your device by placing it within a household microwave for a minute and a half." It also warns users not to "wave-charge" for more than 300 seconds.

The ad has been widely circulated on Twitter and Reddit, and, believe it or not, there are some people dumb enough to bite. Here's proof, as seen on Twitter.

Of course, this photo could be a fake. And that's the lesson to take away from today's Warning From Walt!

Note from Ed.: Walt doesn't mean you should disbelieve everything you see everywhere on the Net. You can believe what you see and read here on WWW. Well... mostly... most of the time.

In praise of Carnation

For those who miss seeing the Google ads in the sidebar, here is a little ode to Carnation condensed milk:

Carnation Milk, the farm wife's friend,
Carnation Milk, the best in the land;
No tits to pull, no hay to pitch,
Just punch a hole in the sunuvabitch!

AdSense Nonsense

You may be wondering what happened to the "Google Ads" in the sidebar. OK, you may not be wondering, but Walt is going to tell you anyway.

When you create a blog using Blogger, you're invited to "monetize" your blog by signing up for AdSense, which, like Blogger, is part of the Google empire. If you do, they'll post ads which they think have some connection with the content of your blog. Every time a reader clicks on an ad, you get a little money. So far Walt's blog has earned one whole green US dollar.

The trouble is, you have no control over what ads are going to appear. I was dismayed to see ads for "personal" sites and sites which seemed to be promoting religious cults.

I wouldn't want you to think that I endorse that kind of thing. So...the ads are gone. If you'd like me to bring them back, just let me know. I won't be holding my breath.