Guest guest Posted March 13, 2001 Report Share Posted March 13, 2001 Just wanted to let ya'll know this is just another hoax virus. So far it's been around in 3 different versions. You can read all about it at: http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/virtualcard.html Whenever I get a virus alert, I go to www.google.com, type in the name of the virus, and usually there's info on if it's real or a hoax somewhere. Have no fear. Barg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 14, 2001 Report Share Posted March 14, 2001 Dear Barg, Back in the old days of DOS 2.3 my son who was then twelve wrote a fake virus. It was actually just a batch file program that he would put in somebody's autoexec.bat , like in my or my students 286's. Their computer would start up with a mysterious message that a virus had infected it, that hitting the "any" key or wacking it like that 'Donald Duck with a sledge hammer' would not help. That it was just best to grin and bear it and buy his virus checking program. If someone would hit any key anyway, or if you waited long enough, the light of the harddrive would come on and a message would flash on the screen saying "deleting deleting" and a rackety sound could be heard. The drive would churn and churn and eventually come to a halt. It would then show the message "40 megabytes free in 40,000 (or so) clusters". After that another message would appear announcing that it was all 'make belief' but to make sure to buy his virus checker anyways... One last message would then appear to tell you to just hit "control break." By that time I would see my students sweating and worried...."Control break" of course interrupted the batch file and the computer would be OK. I taught DOS (and Frameworks and dBase II and Lotus 123 and WordPerfect ) in those days, so it was a good lesson for the students. My son is still a computer wacko (24 now). With his nerdy classmates from those early days he set up a programming company and they are now directors of a rather large IT company... He is wacky enough to go on non-business trips to Malaysia, India, the Burning Man on a recumbant bicycle or auto-rickshaw, etc... He never got burned out or burned by the nerd virus himself. He paid his mother's trip to India where she was able to set up a sponsor program for teenager Tibetan monks. Emanuel (his name) discovered that he was enlightened when he was 17 with on a trip through Europe. Before he was born we saw his face.... hehe! A bodhisattva with digital smarts... neat eh?.. He always smiles when he is with people, so easily friendly. When he is by himself he is focussed and serious. He thinks and talks in algorithms... running virtual societies through his head when his brain is not occupied otherwise... he calls himself a humorous anarchist who loves the woods and rainforests. His company (with a slogan "Your failure is our success") just got a massive contract from IBM...he is a very constructive anarchist. Love, Wim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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