Now, you may think that the people above are not internet savvy, and do not know how to search. But if you think about it, one is an Engineering student at a respected university, and the other is a "Doctor" (whether a physician or a Ph.D.). They both chose the internet as a medium of choice to get the information they wanted, instead of just calling the library or the school. They did not bother to read enough of the pages presented to them to know that this is neither the Library of Alexandria, nor the E.G.C. A friend of mine, Raouf, likened my web site to an unintentional honeypot because its design looks good (thanks Raouf!), but the victims are clueless people.

Another case of mistaken identity:

From: Someone Subject: Feedback: The information of PPP for Linux Developer To whom it may concern This is Someone. We are developing a kind of modem facilities. But now we face with a problem. Developing with the Dubai environment, Using PPP internet connection was working finely on our linux based hardware platform. But we are staying in Damman to test the PPP conection in using our modem facilities. It fails. Could you please help us to find the solution to this problem? Or If you have any contact point. Please let us know on my email address "someone@somewhere"? Thank you I look forward to hearing from you soon. Best regards

I got this email the other day:

From: <secretary@somecompany>Sir,Please send us the details of subscription rates of DSL for 64 KB, 128KB and 256KB. Our company is located behind King Saud University in Malaz. Please mention in your reply whether your service is availablein this area.Immediate response for this enquiry will be highly appreciated.Thanking you.Faithfully yours,

This guy has visited the very old pages on ISPs in Saudi Arabia that I have written years ago, and are no longer updated. He confused me for an ISP or the Saudi Telecom company.

Some articles I write are about Canada, the weather, ...etc. This attracts some web traffic via search engines. Someone from Pakistan who manufactures gloves, searched Google for "Canada Ice Skates Gloves". He ends up on an article that I wrote on winter fun in Canada.

Best Quality Gloves of all KindsDear Sir/Madam,We are pleased to inform you as we are main Exporter/Manufacturer of all kinds of gloves. All exporting our products various countries of Europe Australia South Africa and many other countries etc. We have good reputation in the world marketof all kinds of gloves. Due to our fine uality and highly competitiveprices. We have decided to expand the business in your country and looking forward trust worthy buyer. We hope, you would show good response in future and like to cheek our samples. Do not hesitate you check our samples. Because our products are very durable and fancy. Please allow us that we write some lines of our products which are very rare and best quality products in the world. we are making Batting Gloves, Cycling Gloves, Boxing Gloves, weight Lifting Gloves, Base Ball Gloves, Gardening Gloves, Working Gloves, Welding Gloves, HockeyGloves, Ice and skating, Leather Gloves, Leather Belt etc. If you have any question for us do not hesitate. You call or mail us in this regards and we shall best response for your mail or call inbetter way. Proprietor: Ahmed

I received the following email a few days ago:

thank you for your site.i want to aske you about companies ( manufacturers ) in egypt produce (stone crusher ) pumice material that used for lightweight concerte construction.thanks.

This is in reference to my article about the origin of some pumice deposits on the South East Mediterranea shore. That article is mainly about childhood memories and scientific curiosity. After I reply that I have no idea on that, a few days pass, then I get a similar query from the same person:

An Italian business woman confused my web site for El Gezira Hotel Tower. She searched Google for "hotel gezira tower cairo", and my site was the third hit. She views this page on El Gezira Tower (not the hotel, but the monument). She immediately goes to the feedback page, and sends me an email saying:

my reservation nr. zzzzz- executive-room

I will arrive at Cairo airport tomorrow with flight number zzzz ZZ zzz at zz:zz local time. Does my reservation foresee also you pick-up from the airport. Waiting for your quick answer, I remain with best regards

 

Here is the email:

inshallah for the school year 2006-2007 i will have 3 children that i
would like to enroll. beacuse right now i am New jersey but my husband
is egyptian.
and i am american. I also teach at the school my children go to . we
would like to know what would be the requirements for them being that
they are coming from america. My son inshallah would be going into 7th
grade and my 2 daughters one in 2nd grade ande the ohter in 3rd. iwould
appreciate it if you can email me back as soon as possible.

Sincerly,
Karen ... 

I got this email recently. Again my site was confused for the E.G.C. school.

Subject: transfere from usa to alex egypt    From: ola dear sir madam i have 3 kids 13 11 and 8 all of them are boys we have just moved to egypt alexandria comming from usa we are all egyptian please let me know how do i apply for them and how much would i pay knowing that they speak english and no arabic language knowledge thank you best regards \ ola

I got the following email the other day. It reads as follows:

From: Dr. D, Alexandria, Egypt
DEAR M/S
KINDLY YOU 'R REQUESTED TO INFORM US WHEN THE RESULTS OF
JUNIOR 2 WILL BE ISSUED ?
THANKS W/ REGARDS
DR. ...

In this case, you have a "Doctor" who thought that my web site is the official web site of the E.G.C. school in Alexandria, and is asking when the mid-term exam results are to be announced!

Not only that, but the "Doctor" also searched my web site for those results, even using the Latin character transliteration of the Arabic term النتيجة !

Here is an another example. A university student from the Far East studying in England send me this.

Apparently s/he was searching for "Toby Huff" in Google, landing on this site, then searched on "Toby Huff contact details". She then mistook me for Oxford University!

Actually, I do not agree with Huff's views, and published Dr. George Saliba's rebuttal of Toby Huff!

Subject: Dr Toby Huff/Rise of Early Modern Science/White Supremacy Agenda

I write in reference to Toby Huff outlining of the early modern science in your course text books on Macolm Oster book on the history of science