epan@jarthur.Claremont.edu (Eric C. Pan) (04/17/91)
I am getting tire of all the people whose hair stand on ends at the mentioning of viruses. I think April Fool's Day is a nice way to relax.... I believe some people are too easily paniced by any mentioning of virus. I am beginning to wonder if you will believe me if I claim that the human acquired immune deficiency syndrome, i.e. the HIV virus is spreading to computer. Gosh, I am tired of all the people who ask me to check their disks for viruses everytime they get a system error, or their drive makes a funny sound. Track Record so far? Out of 20 some people I helped, none of them have ANY VIRAL INFECTION. NONE! And yet everyday, someone would scream "Computer Virus" because they crashed their system, sometimes because they pushed their reset button. Is there someway we can stop this PARANOIA? I think sueing anyone who bring up virus as a joke is definitely not a solution.
CHGS02@vaxb.strath.ac.uk (A.M.MAIR) (04/19/91)
epan@jarthur.Claremont.edu (Eric C. Pan) writes: > I am getting tire of all the people whose hair stand on ends > at the mentioning of viruses. I think April Fool's Day is a nice way > to relax.... > I believe some people are too easily paniced by any mentioning > of virus. I am beginning to wonder if you will believe me if I claim > that the human acquired immune deficiency syndrome, i.e. the HIV virus > is spreading to computer. Gosh, I am tired of all the people who ask > me to check their disks for viruses everytime they get a system error, > or their drive makes a funny sound. > Track Record so far? Out of 20 some people I helped, none of > them have ANY VIRAL INFECTION. NONE! And yet everyday, someone would > scream "Computer Virus" because they crashed their system, sometimes > because they pushed their reset button. > Is there someway we can stop this PARANOIA? I think sueing > anyone who bring up virus as a joke is definitely not a solution. Consider yourself lucky not to be dealing with virus. We now *have* to scan publically used machines daily at this university. Personally, I find "ping" or "stoned" (now being reported as "stoned/swedish") being brought in on students' floppies. Ann
keir@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Rick Keir, MACC) (04/20/91)
Viruses are indeed a problem. We had our 100+ student open computer lab hit with Scores & nVIR several years ago, and we've had viruses here ever since. The PCs have had Brain, Joshi, Ping, and others. So the AF/91 joke didn't bother us at all. You HAVE to be vigilant because there are many REAL viruses out there. You don't have to be obsessive because someone announces one more virus (in an article that was clearly a joke for anything other than the extremely casual hasty reader; anyone who reads things that poorly should not operate computers in any case, as there are far more deadly surprises waiting for them than an April Fool's joke). Look, if someone announces a new sexually transmitted disease, and they turn out to be wrong, are you hurt by practicing safe sex? No - --- only a fool believes that things are safe now in any case.
epan@jarthur.Claremont.edu (Eric C. Pan) (04/20/91)
Allow me to comment further on this subject. You would be mistaken to think that I did not have to deal with viruses..... I can remember several incidents of major virus infection. One machine actually had 99% of its applications infected ( and it's 200Mb ) But what we have implemented at our school seems to be effective at stopping the spread of viri. I believe all of them have Virex init installed. While that may not be able to stop everything that comes along, you certainly would not have to scan your machine daily ( personally, I consider that a terrible waste of manpower, use programs to fight programs.... don't use people.!) Eric