rlb@cs.odu.edu (Robert Lee Bailey) (04/22/89)
In article <975@cernvax.UUCP> emanuel@cernvax.UUCP (Emanuel T.M. Machado) writes: >Hello, world! > > Today, as I was browsing through the file system of a '386 computer >we're using here at CERN, a computer meant to be used by lots of people - >thus more exposed to AID... oops to a virus, I noticed a very strange thing: > >Between ^Q and ^S's in a normal 'dir' command, suddenly appeared on the >screen a colored image (I think the computer uses a VGA adaptor) during >something like 0.2 to 0.3 seconds, very short, then, but enough to catch >the eye. I'll try to describe the picture. > >It was a dark (black?) picture, representing a human being (man? woman? defi- >nitely not a child) in what seemed to be a dark costume (a la superman, I >think), while the background was pink (I think. Could be green...) > >It was not a repetitive happening (more sequences of ^S and ^Q didn't work), >and it was not (YET?) harmful. > >So, WHAT IS IT? > >Sorry for the "I think"'s in it, but if you're not expecting it, 0.2 to 0.3 >seconds is not a lot of time to capture a picture... It sounds like you've been exposed (pardon the pun) to the FLASHER! There is a TSR program that exists as a practical joke. Once it has been executed, it counts the number of keystrokes and when that number has been reached, displays a graphic image of a man in a long black cape. The man then whips open his cape and then immediately closes it again. This all happens in less than 1 second and then restores the screen back to its original display. If that's what you saw then it is a harmless joke. I first saw this on a PC that belongs to a female boss. Someone put it on her system in the autoexec.bat file. After every 100 or so keystrokes, she gets flashed. At first, she thought that she was seeing things (again, no pun intended!). Then she later found out that someone was playing a joke on her. It really is a hilarious little program. Bob Bailey
jeffery@jsheese.FIDONET.ORG (Jeff Sheese) (04/22/89)
In an article of <22 Apr 89 05:28:02 GMT>, rlb@cs.odu.edu (Robert Lee Bailey) writes: >It sounds like you've been exposed (pardon the pun) to the FLASHER! Any idea where I can get this? -- Jeff Sheese - via FidoNet node 1:109/116 UUCP: ...!netsys!jsheese!jeffery