‘Heroes’: ‘Heroes’ (and villains) of the Internet
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Not once, but twice, NBC flashed a URL for Primatech paper.com during episode 12 of ‘Heroes,’ which was a continuation of the show’s first season after a winter break.
The web address was conspicuously printed on the business card for Mr. Bennet’s front operation, a paper supply company. Mr. Bennet, a.k.a. ‘Horn-Rimmed Glasses, is the possibly evil dude who searches out the super-human ‘heroes’ and employs a mind-wiper and who is the apparently adoptive father of Claire, the highly saveable — yet magically indestructible! — cheerleader.
A quick check of the domain-registrar search service revealled that the registrant of the site is, unsurprisingly, the General Electric Company of Fairfield, CT. It was procured in October, 2006.
(Much like the excellent agent-locating website whoreepresents.com, the URL primatechpaper.com suffers from a confusion of where component words might start and stop. Primate Chpaper dot com? Is Ch’Paper that on which primates write whilst listening to mediocre 80’s English rock group T’Pau?)
Visitors to the website received the suggestion that they call a toll-free number or send a text message. Those who did so received a code that, when entered on the site, provided a job application form and an evaluative questionnaire. After submitting that information — including phone number, address, email, age, and cell provider — a text message confirmation was sent, with promises of future contact, in about a week.
And there the trail of this digital to-do, for now, went cold.
Back in November, Primatechpaper.org was purchased under the name ‘Clayburn Griffin.’ It contains a blog with two posts, a few pages, and some — sensible! — Google Ads. General Electric does not appear to be involved in ths is one.
Internet citizens also snapped up PrimetechPaper.com, a site that, on the night the NBC website was unveiled, hosted a chat interface quickly (and temporarily) filled with spam links that, when clicked, caused the viewer’s browser to go nuts and one’s computer to play a loud message that said ‘Hey everyone, I’m looking at gay porno!’
Later that night, that site changed to read ‘ Heroes? JUSTIN RADCLIFFE YAH HURD?’ and linked to yet another site where confused URL mistypers posted messages such as ‘how is primetechpaper.com related to this and to the show heroes?’
By Tuesday morning the site contained just an aereal view of Manhattan and a link the primatechpaper.com site.
Both the NBC.com and the ‘official/unofficial’ 9thwonders.com Heroes message boards were buzzing nicely. On the front page of their site, NBC promised they could deliver ‘Heroes’ ‘in a whole new way’ to satisfy viewers, whether they craved delivery online, mobile, or, for the television-owning old-fashioned types, ‘on-air.’
--Choire Sicha