The Computer Virus Turns 25 in July 194
bl8n8r writes "In July of 1982, an infected Apple II propogated the first computer virus onto a 5-1/4" floppy. The virus, which did little more than annoy the user, Elk Cloner, was authored in Pittsburgh by a 15-year-old high school student, Rich Skrenta. The virus replicated by monitoring floppy disk activity and writing itself to the floppy when it was accessed. Skrenta describes the virus as "It was a practical joke combined with a hack. A wonderful hack." Remember, he was a 9th grader when he did this."
Has this been done before? (Score:4, Funny)
Not a virus, just a prank but still
The reason why Macs are so much more secure... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Imagine his wealth... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Has this been done before? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Don't forget the Lehigh Virus (Score:1, Funny)
(Will be a senior in the Computer Science department this fall.)
Happy birthday! (Score:5, Funny)
Stealing thumder from the Mac users (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Has this been done before? (Score:5, Funny)
The guy was one of the types that always reminded you of his certifications. yet it took us telling him it was a screensaver to stop him from tearing apart his PC.
It was funnier than hell, he stopped chasing us with sharp objects about 4 days later.
Re:I doubt it. (Score:1, Funny)
Bullshit! (Score:5, Funny)
Really Really Not the oldest. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bullshit! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Has this been done before? (Score:4, Funny)
I miss that job!
Re:Answering my own question, sort of (Score:3, Funny)
VIRUS WARNING:
Attention: Computer Labs Inc., makers of Virucide antivirus software have identified a highly dangerous new Trojan worm, MONKEYPOO. It will usually appear in an e-mail with the subject, "Congratulations.You have won!" it will then prompt you to click a link to collect your cash prize. It can also freely spread across networks.
Monkeypoo will read your address book, and mail a copy of itself to every address it finds, and it will look like you sent it. It will then invoke the secret self-destruct command held over from the original IBM PC's 8086 command set. This short line of code will cause the processor, ram, hard drive and any floppy drives to spin out of control and overheat until key components melt together, and will most likely cause a fire.
James Winklee, a former IBM programmer had this to say. "We developed the self-destruct code so government agencies such as the FBI and CIA could quickly and completely destroy compromised computer systems before an enemy could get their hands on classified information. When we saw how violently a PC executing the command burst into flames, we decided not to publish its existence. It has been kept a secret successfully until now. If you get infected with the Monkeypoo Trojan worm, you may notice your computer going completely haywire. Physically unplug it from power as fast as you can, and send it in for repair. Only a professional can remove this one."
While Computer Labs Inc and other antivirus software makers are working on a solution, they haven't got one a home user could successfully run yet. "This is the worst kind of malicious code I have ever seen." said Marcus Polan of Computer labs Inc. Use extreme caution.
It is important that as many computer users as possible receive this warning, so send it out to as many people as you can. The entire Internet and every PC connected to it is at risk.
Re:The reason why Macs are so much more secure... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Pretty sad! (Score:5, Funny)
CS Graduates don't goto school. They instantiate a CSStudent (using a StudentFactory class). CSStudent implemnents a functor Notify callback as part of the abstract Student interface. Using the Observer pattern, they call the Attach method of the ConcreteSchool class which implements the School Interface. Then the ConcreteSchool class calls Notify and passes a Notification object containing a ConcreteClass object which the Student stores in a Dictionary class, Knowledge. In the examination Use Case, the Notify is called with a ExamNotification object containing a List of ExamQuestion objects. CSStudent intantiates an Iterator which iterates though the list and uses the Dictionary object's Lookup method to answer each question, calling before calling ExamNotification's Answer method.
After reception of a Graduation, ExamFailure or DrugsBust notification, the CSStudent destructor is called. This in turn calls the Knowledge destructor and the Knowledge Dictionary is deleted.
Re:Answering my own question, sort of (Score:4, Funny)
Re:There's an actual BSOD screensaver - By Microso (Score:3, Funny)
It took me a few reboots to think "wait a minute, the BSOD screensaver BSODs? Goddamnit"...
Re:I was writing viruses in 1976 (Score:3, Funny)
Happy Birthday to Computer Viruses! (Score:2, Funny)
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to viruses,
Hap...
Fatal Error: HappyBirthday.exe has been corrupted. Please contact your system administrator.
[OK]