TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL (06/22/91)
For one, I wouldn't touch this offer with a ten foot pole -- it sounds like the perfect scenario for introducing and propagating a virus: a) the program sounds too good to be true, and b) the author refuses to supply source. I do hope that anyone foolish enough to grab a copy of it never thereafter downloads any other software to the net -- the fact that everything seems OK for you doesn't mean there hasn't been something subtly planted that will show up a few generations later.
bill@braille.uwo.ca (Bill Carss) (06/22/91)
TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL writes: >For one, I wouldn't touch this offer with a ten foot pole -- it sounds >like the perfect scenario for introducing and propagating a virus: a) >the program sounds too good to be true, and b) the author refuses to >supply source. I do hope that anyone foolish enough to grab a copy of >it never thereafter downloads any other software to the net -- the fact >that everything seems OK for you doesn't mean there hasn't been >something subtly planted that will show up a few generations later. If you don't have the brains to take a few simple precautions you are probably right not to try the new software that creative people are generating. Sureley (and I will have to call you that because I don't know your first name) your aren't suggesting that everyone out there in the big wide world is sitting at home trying to come up with a way of infecting your (or our) machines at the first possible chance. I have been corresponding with the author of HEATSEAKER for a while now and (as they say) know how to get hold of him. If he intended to spread some virus around it would be a silly thing to do because others besides myself know who and where he is. In addition, if you had read the posts, you would have read that sourse will be available in the future - just not at the moment while the program is beign beta tested (actually alpha tested at his home first and then beta tested by others). I agree that some awareness of virus infection is a good idea, but to pan something out of hand, before it has been looked at is DOWN RIGHT STUPID AND SOUNDS TO ME LIKE SOUR GRAPES BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T THINK TO WRITE SUCH A PROGRAM YOURSELF!1 OR MAYBE YOU WERE PLANNING TO SPREAD SOME VIRUS WITH A UTILITY PROGRAM OF YOUR OWN AND HEATSEAKER IS STEALING YOUR THUNDER!!! Get a life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- Bill Carss bill@braille.uwo.ca
JWANKERL@UTCVM.BITNET ("Josef W. Wankerl") (06/22/91)
On Fri, 21 Jun 1991 14:42:00 EDT <TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL> said: >For one, I wouldn't touch this offer with a ten foot pole -- it sounds >like the perfect scenario for introducing and propagating a virus... Can we say the word paranoid? I, for one, would not advertise a program that I wrote and purposfully put a virus in. That would be silly. -- ===> Josef W. Wankerl, Technical Editor for GS+ Magazine BITNET: JWANKERL@UTCVM.BITNET | America Online: JWankerl ProLine: jwankerl@pro-gsplus |-------------------------------- Internet: jwankerl@pro-gsplus.cts.com | "I am a Viking" -Y. Malmsteen
curtis@achilles.ctd.anl.gov (Jeffrey Curtis ) (06/22/91)
In article <910621184230.584787@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL> TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL writes: >For one, I wouldn't touch this offer with a ten foot pole -- it sounds >like the perfect scenario for introducing and propagating a virus: a) >the program sounds too good to be true, and b) the author refuses to >supply source. I do hope that anyone foolish enough to grab a copy of >it never thereafter downloads any other software to the net -- the fact >that everything seems OK for you doesn't mean there hasn't been >something subtly planted that will show up a few generations later. Dear TMPLee- I am utterly shocked at your audacity. I have spent almost two years of my life painstakingly putting this software together for the good of the Apple // community. If I had stocked a virus in Heatseeker, it would be easy to identify the source - myself - and to track me down. Anyone who reads articles here knows my full name, where I work, and my telephone number. If they have the right software, they can even find out my home address and pay me a visit. I refuse to supply source code because any programmer who does so on such a good piece of software is nothing but an idiot. Supplying source code in a program distribution violates every Trade Secret law in existence in each of the states of the Union. If I supplied source, and someone from, say, Central Point saw it - and passed it on to the Copy //+ programming team - and I sued for obvious damages - my arguments would be pointless. Source given out to anyone - even if you show it to your secretary - removes EVERY protection you have under Copyright Laws. I am no such fool. So the program sounds too good to be true. So what? You refuse to believe that I'm daring enough to use technology that no one else in the Apple // community has the guts to use? The Apple environment DESERVES the best that they can get from their machines, and the current disk utility selection for the Apple // offers NOTHING by way of performance. The monopoly of companies such as Central Point who have enormous financial backing to control and corner the utility market leave no room for small-time programmers like myself. Why else would I be offering something that is the best for FREE? If you care to continue this discussion, I would be happy to in email or over the phone. I can be reached at (708)972-8585, or, if that line is busy, call me at (708)972-4082. If you want to continue this discussion here, where you can hide, that is fine as well. However, in the future, I sincerely hope you think before you act and keep such thoughtless opinions to yourself unless they have any basis in fact. Jeffrey S. Curtis Programmer and Defender of the Apple // Faith
gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) (06/22/91)
In article <1991Jun22.023810.26366@mcs.anl.gov> curtis@achilles.ctd.anl.gov (Jeffrey Curtis ) writes: >In article <910621184230.584787@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL> TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL writes: >>For one, I wouldn't touch this offer with a ten foot pole -- it sounds >>like the perfect scenario for introducing and propagating a virus: ... I have to say that the same thought occurred to me upon reading the offer. It is nice to hear attestations that your utility program is not a means of spreading a "virus"; however, the blurb for it did exhibit many of the characteristics that one has come to associate with software that spreads such viruses. TMPLee may be more sensitive to this than most, given that he has an account on one of NCSC's computers. He has reason to be wary. >I refuse to supply source code because any programmer who does so >on such a good piece of software is nothing but an idiot. Supplying source >code in a program distribution violates every Trade Secret law in existence No, it wouldn't violate any law. I would, however, preclude you from successfully claiming trade secret status for the code, unless you had made it available only under appropriate licensing. >So the program sounds too good to be true. So what? So one should exhibit due caution. The offer might be legitimate or it might not; there may be a "virus" or there might not. Without additional information, one would have to assess the risk as higher than usual for Apple II software, given the nature of the program and its "too good to be true" advertising. >You refuse to believe that I'm daring enough to use technology that no >one else in the Apple // community has the guts to use? That is quite a claim. Why does it take "guts" to use that technology? Having a better idea is one thing; having more courage is something else. >The monopoly of companies such as Central Point who have enormous financial >backing to control and corner the utility market leave no room for small-time >programmers like myself. Why else would I be offering something that is the >best for FREE? Guessing your motivations would be fruitless. Central Point Software, however, has no monopoly on the Apple II utility market. (They don't even seem to do much maintenance for their existing Copy II+ product.) There are several other Apple II disk utilities, or varying quality. What CPS does have an advantage in is their marketing ability. Note that "shareware" has been remarkably unsuccessful economically.
stephens@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Philip J Stephens) (06/22/91)
>For one, I wouldn't touch this offer with a ten foot pole -- it sounds >like the perfect scenario for introducing and propagating a virus: a) >the program sounds too good to be true, and b) the author refuses to >supply source. I think you might be jumping the gun here. Because: a) Copy ][+ is nowhere near the faster disk utility around. Heatseeker sounds more along the lines of Locksmith, which is damn fast. b) The note about not supplying source just sounded like exagerated pride to me. The truth is, even a 5 1/4 " floppy drive can read a disk sequentially in 8 seconds flat, so with a bit of inginuity (sp?) I'm sure someone could have written something like Heatseaker. (Although I probably should look at the figures given again to see how close they are to the practical limits of the drive). <\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/><\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\> < Philip J. Stephens >< "Many views yield the truth." > < Hons. student, Computer Science >< "Therefore, be not alone." > < La Trobe University, Melbourne >< - Prime Song of the viggies, from > < AUSTRALIA >< THE ENGIMA SCORE by Sheri S Tepper > </\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\></\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/>
curtis@.uucp (Jeffrey Curtis ) (06/23/91)
Now that I've had a chance to calm down a bit, I'd like to make a brief, general statement regarding the product I'm offering. First, the software is quite virus-proof. As I have mentioned, and many other people have backed me up on (thank you B^) ), I would be committing a "Network suicide" of sorts if I tried such a stunt. It would be very obvious who the culprit was. And for that matter, in the documentation I'll be including, I'm going to recommend starting small when people receive the software - trying the commands on an isolated machine, with, if it would make them feel any more safe, their hard drives disconnected. That way, even if someone on the receiving end decides to redistribute the software with a virus attached, the users should be safe. Besides, it's been quite a while since I've seen an Apple // virus - perhaps I'm not looking hard enough. Second, the reference to how my original article sounded and the claims I made sounding like the "perfect excuse for a virus" (or whatever your exact wording was; I didn't want to include it all here), is understandable. As I wrote that, in the back of my mind, I was thinking, "Sheesh, I sound like a used car salesman." Unfortunately, that seems to be the only way to catch people's attention, though. I offered the software on "another" international Apple network about six months ago and received ZERO responses. So I was just trying a different approach, and it has proved highly successful. Third, why do you say that I couldn't claim trade secret status for the software? As far as my experience with the U.S. Copyright Laws has proven, indiscriminant distribution of object code shouldn't remove such status from the software. I have protected the source at every stage of development, though, and refuse to even tell my closest friends the "secrets" of the program. I believe I am eligible. Fourth, and this is to everyone who has sent me a request, I appreciate your patience and am pleased to say that alpha testing is 99% complete. One final run through and I should be done, and the instant that I am, copies will start being emailed out. Fifth, I say that I have "guts" because the technology is dangerous in many aspects from a programmer's perspective. But, of course, I can't go into detail here; I'd be removing my trade secret status. ;-) Jeffrey S. Curtis curtis@achilles.ctd.anl.gov
taob@micor.ocunix.on.ca (Brian Tao) (06/23/91)
curtis@.uucp (Jeffrey Curtis ) writes: > car salesman." Unfortunately, that seems to be the only way to catch people' > attention, though. I offered the software on "another" international Apple > network about six months ago and received ZERO responses. So I was just tryi > a different approach, and it has proved highly successful. If you're talking about the Apple conference on Fidonet, maybe you should try again. I would tone down your "used car salesman" approach a bit though... the moderator (Dennis) is really jumpy these days because of some illegal activity on the net. Don't think he'd appreciate anything that even hints of "virus". :-/ > Fifth, I say that I have "guts" because the technology is dangerous in > many aspects from a programmer's perspective. But, of course, I can't go int > detail here; I'd be removing my trade secret status. ;-) If you are doing low-level block read/writes (Copy II Plus does that when locking and unlocking large batches of files), I hope you will be around when/if the directory structure of ProDOS changes. Wouldn't be very nice if Heatseeker accidentally trashed my ProDOS 8 v3.0 disks a couple years down the road...
stug@pro-palmtree.cts.com (Stu Graves) (06/24/91)
In-Reply-To: message from curtis@achilles.ctd.anl.gov CS-ID: #650.apple/comp.sys.apple2@pro-palmtree, 3327 chars Date: 22 Jun 91 02:38:10 GMT From: curtis@achilles.ctd.anl.gov (Jeffrey Curtis ) Subject: Re: Heatseeker In article <910621184230.584787@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL> TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL writes: >For one, I wouldn't touch this offer with a ten foot pole -- it sounds >like the perfect scenario for introducing and propagating a virus: a) >the program sounds too good to be true, and b) the author refuses to >supply source. I do hope that anyone foolish enough to grab a copy of >it never thereafter downloads any other software to the net -- the fact >that everything seems OK for you doesn't mean there hasn't been >something subtly planted that will show up a few generations later. Dear TMPLee- I am utterly shocked at your audacity. I have spent almost two years of my life painstakingly putting this software together for the good of the Apple // community. If I had stocked a virus in Heatseeker, it would be easy to identify the source - myself - and to track me down. Anyone who reads articles here knows my full name, where I work, and my telephone number. If they have the right software, they can even find out my home address and pay me a visit. I refuse to supply source code because any programmer who does so on such a good piece of software is nothing but an idiot. Supplying source code in a program distribution violates every Trade Secret law in existence in each of the states of the Union. If I supplied source, and someone from, say, Central Point saw it - and passed it on to the Copy //+ programming team - and I sued for obvious damages - my arguments would be pointless. Source given out to anyone - even if you show it to your secretary - removes EVERY protection you have under Copyright Laws. I am no such fool. So the program sounds too good to be true. So what? You refuse to believe that I'm daring enough to use technology that no one else in the Apple // community has the guts to use? The Apple environment DESERVES the best that they can get from their machines, and the current disk utility selection for the Apple // offers NOTHING by way of performance. The monopoly of companies such as Central Point who have enormous financial backing to control and corner the utility market leave no room for small-time programmers like myself. Why else would I be offering something that is the best for FREE? If you care to continue this discussion, I would be happy to in email or over the phone. I can be reached at (708)972-8585, or, if that line is busy, call me at (708)972-4082. If you want to continue this discussion here, where you can hide, that is fine as well. However, in the future, I sincerely hope you think before you act and keep such thoughtless opinions to yourself unless they have any basis in fact. Jeffrey S. Curtis Programmer and Defender of the Apple // Faith <---------------------- end of copied text ---------------> I for one believe what you say - although I haven't seen the program. I think that it's great that people are always trying to come up with innovative ideas for Apples. I do some amatuer programming of my own and can appreciate you wanting to sure you work with other Apple users. It also seems to be fairly obvious that you wouldn't be stupid enough to include a virus when we are on a system that doesn't allow handles normally and most people display their home numbers etc. I for one would be interested to see innovative new ideas. -- stug@pro-palmtree.cts.com -- The Palmtree BBS (213) 450-9394 300-9600 v.32/42bis, MNP 1-5 -- Santa Monica, California
andy@pro-palmtree.cts.com (Andy Stein) (06/24/91)
In-Reply-To: message from TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL
Maybe he just wants to get it beta-tested? Whenever someone comes out
with a new, innovative product, he is always shunned. This is true with
Pennasillin, the airplane, and NutraSweet. He might have a legitimate
program. He might not. But, let's give him the benefit of the doubt.
These programs can always be tested for known viruses or destructive calls
(although the latter would be much harder to detect, since a utility
program tends to make destructive calls, such as formatting, deleting,
copying, etc.). Why doesn't one person download this program from the
author, and see what happens with it. He could isolate the program by only
using it with floppy disk drives, and not with hard drives, and I'm sure
after a few weeks it would be known if there were anything unKosher with
it.andy@pro-palmtree.cts.com (Andy Stein) (06/24/91)
In-Reply-To: message from curtis@achilles.ctd.anl.gov
Have you considered doing an Apple IIGS version of your program, or
another utility program for the GS? The Apple IIGS is severly lacking a
fast utility program for copying disks, with parameters, sector editing,
hard disk installing of copy-protected programs, or at least a fast one. I
know it's easy to say "Do you want to do an Apple IIGS version of this
wondeful, fast program?", but I'm sure all we Apple IIGS people would
appreciate it. Maybe you could even get it marketed by Central Point
Software, or some other Apple II software company. I know you're not even
even done with this one, yet (and it might be a while with some people's
paranoia on this network), but I'd love to hear your response on this.curtis@achilles.ctd.anl.gov (Jeffrey Curtis ) (06/24/91)
In article <Bsg141w162w@micor.ocunix.on.ca> taob@micor.ocunix.on.ca (Brian Tao) writes: > If you're talking about the Apple conference on Fidonet, maybe you >should try again. I would tone down your "used car salesman" approach a bit >though... the moderator (Dennis) is really jumpy these days because of some >illegal activity on the net. Don't think he'd appreciate anything that even >hints of "virus". :-/ That's the one. Maybe I will repost it.. I'll consider it. > If you are doing low-level block read/writes (Copy II Plus does that >when locking and unlocking large batches of files), I hope you will be >around when/if the directory structure of ProDOS changes. Wouldn't be very >nice if Heatseeker accidentally trashed my ProDOS 8 v3.0 disks a couple >years down the road... Well, I don't think Apple is that stupid. If they changed the directory structure, there would be mass chaos with people crashing disks, erasing data, trying to convert old files, etc. etc. However, they're at least smart enough to provide version information in the global pages, so programmers can check the operating system and refuse access to the program if the version is too new... *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* + Jeffrey S. Curtis (708)972-8585 B41801 AT ANLVM curtis@achilles.ctd.anl.gov + * Computing and Telecommunications, Argonne National Laboratory * + "The opinions expressed above are mine only. Who else would want them?!" + *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
Andy Tefft <ART100@psuvm.psu.edu> (06/25/91)
My initial worry regarding this program is not viruses (mostly because I no hard drive, keep pristine archive copies of almost everything I use, and have a hard time believing that anyone would distribute a virus in such a blatant manner) but rather how safely it performs its functions. We've all heard of the bugs that copy II+ has seen, and it has to be the most-used prodos 8 file utility program, and indeed prodos disks once in a while just get screwed up for no apparent reason (there is always *some* reason...). Now we have a program that apparently uses non-standard methods of accessing files (i.e. not the normal prodos mli calls, otherwise it would be as slow as any other program) which has not yet been thoroughly tested. This simple fact has made me a bit nervous, so I will not be using it for a while (in fact, probably not in its current form) for anything I consider "important," although I do plan to test it heavily. In fact, this is the ONE utility program i have been waiting for, ever since having to copy hundreds of 3-block files into subdirectories on 5.25" disks (which takes longer and longer and longer as the directory grows). By the way, it's rather irrelevant, but I was disappointed at the way the original post came across, i.e. blatant advertising. Probably a more humble approach would have caused less worry. Well, I guess bad press is still press...
stephens@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Philip J Stephens) (06/25/91)
Andy Tefft writes: >Now we have a program that apparently uses non-standard >methods of accessing files (i.e. not the normal prodos mli calls, otherwise >it would be as slow as any other program) which has not yet been thoroughly >tested. The program will be safe *provided* that it gets it's information about the directory and file structures by following the proper pointers and such from the volume directory on a ProDOS disk, as the MLI calls do. It's speed will probably come from optimizing the actual reading and writing of a file once the info has been gathered in the normal (safe) fashion. e.g. once it gets the list of blocks that the file occupies, it could reorder these in sequential order based on the fastest interleave and **WHAM**, read it all in as fast as the drive can take it, converting the "6-bit" disk bytes into normal bytes on the fly. Writing the blocks to the target disk would just be the reversed process (yes, I know something about disk drives too, after having disassembled the RWTS and Locksmith fast disk copy :-) I personally must congratulate the author of Heatseeker on taking the time to write such a utility as this; I'm sure that if he already understands what the fastest way of reading and writing to a disk is, he has probably spent the time to understand how a ProDOS disk is structured in order to make it compatible with current (and future) versions of the OS. Or the least he would do is ensure that it only works up to version X. <\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/><\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\> < Philip J. Stephens >< "Many views yield the truth." > < Hons. student, Computer Science >< "Therefore, be not alone." > < La Trobe University, Melbourne >< - Prime Song of the viggies, from > < AUSTRALIA >< THE ENGIMA SCORE by Sheri S Tepper > </\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\></\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/>
curtis@achilles.ctd.anl.gov (Jeffrey Curtis ) (06/26/91)
In article <91175.213841ART100@psuvm.psu.edu> ART100@psuvm.psu.edu (Andy Tefft) writes: >My initial worry regarding this program is not viruses (mostly because I >no hard drive, keep pristine archive copies of almost everything I use, and >have a hard time believing that anyone would distribute a virus in such >a blatant manner) but rather how safely it performs its functions. >We've all heard of the bugs that copy II+ has seen, and it has to be >the most-used prodos 8 file utility program, and indeed prodos disks >once in a while just get screwed up for no apparent reason (there is always > [ Stuff deleted ] That's a perfectly understandable fear, and I admire the bravery of those who were willing to give it a shot. There are now, to date, about 80 people around the globe testing out the software, and I've only heard of two bugs - one was a minor one which I knew of but forgot to mention in the bug list (incorrect hard drive free space reporting) and the other was one which I found, which was that some files in subdirectories would show up as "cannot be undeleted" even though they could be - and a fix for this was provided within about 20 minutes of when I discovered the bug. >By the way, it's rather irrelevant, but I was disappointed at the way >the original post came across, i.e. blatant advertising. Probably >a more humble approach would have caused less worry. Well, I guess >bad press is still press... True. I agree with you, the post was about as cheesy as they get. But as I mentioned, I tried a very professional, straightforward offer on FidoNet several months ago and didn't receive a single response. I had to try something new. I hope that you'll be interested in trying future versions.. and anyone else that still wants a copy, they're free for the taking.. just leave me email so I can get you on my emailing list.. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* + Jeffrey S. Curtis (708)972-8585 B41801 AT ANLVM curtis@achilles.ctd.anl.gov + * Computing and Telecommunications, Argonne National Laboratory * + Want a free copy of Heatseeker, the Apple's fastest disk utility? Mail me! + *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
curtis@achilles.ctd.anl.gov (Jeffrey Curtis ) (06/26/91)
In article <1991Jun25.070239.9546@clark.edu> andy@pro-palmtree.cts.com (Andy Stein) writes: >In-Reply-To: message from curtis@achilles.ctd.anl.gov > > Have you considered doing an Apple IIGS version of your program, or >another utility program for the GS? The Apple IIGS is severly lacking a >fast utility program for copying disks, with parameters, sector editing, >hard disk installing of copy-protected programs, or at least a fast one. I >know it's easy to say "Do you want to do an Apple IIGS version of this >wondeful, fast program?", but I'm sure all we Apple IIGS people would >appreciate it. Maybe you could even get it marketed by Central Point >Software, or some other Apple II software company. I know you're not even >even done with this one, yet (and it might be a while with some people's >paranoia on this network), but I'd love to hear your response on this. To be quite honest, I doubt I would ever even attempt a GS version, except for including minor GS idiosyncracies into the software's compatability list (like resource forks). I've been using a //e for about 8 years now, and so I've gotten to know the hardware inside and out - to try and accomplish something of the magnitude of Heatseeker for the //gs would require, for me, years more of research. As for professional publishing, I may or may not try that approach with the 8-bit version. I've heard that Central Point is very particular about not accepting outside work... *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* + Jeffrey S. Curtis (708)972-8585 B41801 AT ANLVM curtis@achilles.ctd.anl.gov + * Computing and Telecommunications, Argonne National Laboratory * + Want a free copy of Heatseeker, the Apple's fastest disk utility? Mail me! + *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
scott@hsvaic.boeing.com (Scott Hinckley) (06/26/91)
In <910621184230.584787@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL> TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL writes: >For one, I wouldn't touch this offer with a ten foot pole -- it sounds >like the perfect scenario for introducing and propagating a virus: a) >the program sounds too good to be true, and b) the author refuses to >supply source. I do hope that anyone foolish enough to grab a copy of >it never thereafter downloads any other software to the net -- the fact >that everything seems OK for you doesn't mean there hasn't been >something subtly planted that will show up a few generations later. Ahhh.... but, I have only a 2 floppy drive apple with 128k. Any infections would be limited to the copied floppy. So, I asked for the program. Now, I will let you all know (when I find a way to move it to my apple) if it actually A) runs B) appears to do as it says C) SEEMS to trash anything -Scott -- <<<<<<<<<<<Scott Hinckley<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>VW&Apple][Forever!!!>>>>>>>>>> Internet:scott@hsvaic.boeing.com | UUCP:...!uw-beaver!bcsaic!hsvaic!scott DISCLAIMER: All contained herein are my opinions, they do not|+1 205 461 2073 represent the opinions or feelings of Boeing or its management| BTN:461-2073
gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) (06/27/91)
In article <340@hsvaic.boeing.com> scott@hsvaic.boeing.com writes: >Ahhh.... but, I have only a 2 floppy drive apple with 128k. Any >infections would be limited to the copied floppy. No, many "viruses" hide in main RAM and pounce on any disks inserted. The only reliable way to clear them is to off the power for a while.