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Really Bad Evil Virus Warning!!!!

Sep 29, 2001, 3:52pm
The Pluperfect Virus
By Cybersatirist Bob Hirschfeld of bobsfridge.com
(This column originally appeared in The Washington Post's Outlook section )

A new computer virus is spreading throughout the Internet, and it is far
more insidious than last week's Chernobyl menace. Named Strunkenwhite after
the authors of a classic guide to good writing, it returns e-mail messages
that have grammatical or spelling errors. It is deadly accurate in its
detection abilities, unlike the dubious spell checkers that come with word
processing programs.


The virus is causing something akin to panic throughout corporate America,
which has become used to the typos, misspellings, missing words and mangled
syntax so acceptable in cyberspace. The CEO of LoseItAll.com, an Internet
startup, said the virus has rendered him helpless. "Each time I tried to
send one particular e-mail this morning, I got back this error message:
'Your dependent clause preceding your independent clause must be set off by
commas, but one must not precede the conjunction.' I threw my laptop across
the room."

A top executive at a telecommunications and long-distance company,
10-10-10-10-10-10-123, said: "This morning, the same damned e-mail kept
coming back to me with a pesky notation claiming I needed to use a pronoun's
possessive case before a gerund. With the number of e-mails I crank out each
day, who has time for proper grammar? Whoever created this virus should have
their programming fingers broken."

A broker at Begg, Barow and Steel said he couldn't return to the "bad, old"
days when he had to send paper memos in proper English. He speculated that
the hacker who created Strunkenwhite was a "disgruntled English major who
couldn't make it on a trading floor. When you're buying and selling on
margin, I don't think it's anybody's business if I write that 'i meetinged
through the morning, then cinched the deal on the cel phone while bareling
down the xway.' "

If Strunkenwhite makes e-mailing impossible, it could mean the end to a
communication revolution once hailed as a significant timesaver. A study of
1,254 office workers in Leonia, N.J., found that e-mail increased employees'
productivity by 1.8 hours a day because they took less time to formulate
their thoughts. (The same study also found that they lost 2.2 hours of
productivity because they were e-mailing so many jokes to their spouses,
parents and stockbrokers.)

Strunkenwhite is particularly difficult to detect because it doesn't come as
an e-mail attachment (which requires the recipient to open it before it
becomes
active). Instead, it is disguised within the text of an e-mail entitled
"Congratulations on your pay raise." The message asks the recipient to
"click here to find out about how your raise effects your pension." The use
of "effects" rather than the grammatically correct "affects" appears to be
an inside joke from Strunkenwhite's mischievous creator.

The virus also has left government e-mail systems in disarray. Officials at
the Office of Management and Budget can no longer transmit electronic
versions of federal regulations because their highly technical language
seems to run afoul of Strunkenwhite's dictum that "vigorous writing is
concise." The White House speechwriting office reported that it had received
the same message, along with a caution to avoid phrases such as "the truth
is. . ." and "in fact. . . ."

Home computer users also are reporting snafus, although an e-mailer who used
the word "snafu" said she had come to regret it.

The virus can have an even more devastating impact if it infects an entire
network. A cable news operation was forced to shut down its computer system
for several hours when it discovered that Strunkenwhite had somehow
infiltrated its TelePrompTer software, delaying newscasts and leaving news
anchors nearly tongue-tied as they wrestled with proper sentence structure.

There is concern among law enforcement officials that Strunkenwhite is a
harbinger of the increasingly sophisticated methods hackers are using to
exploit the vulnerability of business's reliance on computers. "This is one
of the most complex and invasive examples of computer code we have ever
encountered. We just can't imagine what kind of devious mind would want to
tamper with e-mails to create this burden on communications," said an FBI
agent who insisted on speaking via the telephone out of concern that trying
to e-mail his comments could leave him tied up for hours.

Meanwhile, bookstores and online booksellers reported a surge in orders for
Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style."

Aw is becoming more and more messed up every day...

Oct 4, 2001, 4:13pm
Well said!!! Thanks,
Andras

[View Quote]

Just something id like to point out

Oct 12, 2001, 8:01pm
Don't feed the trolls!

Thanks,
Andras

Diplomacy

Oct 12, 2001, 8:02pm
[View Quote] You better do!!!! That is an 800+ KBytes d/l :(
Andras

Diplomacy

Oct 14, 2001, 5:09am
No, I'm not on a broadband. It is a fractional T1 where I pay for the traffic around 10 cents/megabytes. Do you see the difference?
Andras

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Diplomacy

Oct 14, 2001, 5:11am
I'm not flaming you:)
A little warning about it's size would be helpful for us who pay for the internet traffic by the transferred amount of data.

Thanks in advance,
Andras

[View Quote]

Requested: Pics of cats for world

Oct 16, 2001, 9:27am
[View Quote] http://www.moggies.co.uk/

Excellent source of cats (My cat's picture is there too)
Andras

Universe greeting in general

Nov 1, 2001, 12:32pm
I have to disagree slightly with you in this case.
The Universe message appears in any world in anytime when the operator changes it.
Andras

[View Quote]

Is the Uniserver down? <NT>

Nov 9, 2001, 4:01am

Is the Uniserver down? <NT>

Nov 9, 2001, 9:24am
[View Quote] Regarding to the network status page:


Friday, November 09, 2001

All servers are functioning normally.

Sincerely,
Activeworlds Corp.

hmmm - I wouldn't call that situation "normal"
Andras

Re: Hmmm...

Nov 21, 2001, 7:57am
[View Quote]

is anyone ealse having V scan problems?

Nov 22, 2001, 11:36am
[View Quote] Disagree! A misconfigured IIS web server or any (yet) unknown exploit can plant anything on your machine. Just remember CodeRed worm or the NIMDA . They are using a stack underflow technique to replace a return address from your browser into their program they already loaded through the exploit into the memory.
Alphabit Phalpha is totally right when she pointed the people interest to grc.com . Probably the best security related site around the web.

Practice safe hex:
Have your unused ports closed.
Keep your servers up to date: apply all security related patches as soon as you can.
Use a firewall (ZoneAlarm comes to my mind first but Tiny Personal Firewall is as good too). They are available free on the net.

HTH,
Andras

Daily Jokes?

Nov 23, 2001, 9:23am
Everyone is welcome to post jokes in news://andras.net/OffTopic.anythingelse group (where you can find several of them already).
To make the posting easy to spot - just add "C&C" to the subject line. C&C means Coffe and Cat: Put down your coffe and get the cat off from your lap before reading to avoid the consequences :))

Andras

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PC Refridgeration

Nov 29, 2001, 12:41pm
Some links:
<http://www.review-zone.com/editorial/hardware/a-z_of_overclocking/page1.shtml>
http://www.hardocp.com/articles.html
http://www4.tomshardware.com

Andras


[View Quote]

cable modem

Dec 17, 2001, 3:02pm
I have to correct on that one, sorry:
The signals to carry your digital datas throught the cable is on the 400 MHz range (download) and on the 50 MHz range (upload). THose frequencies carry your digital signals in a modulated FM signal which is demodulated by the head station and you cablemode depending on the direction. The cable modem is an EXACT analogue of the modems you use on the phone lines with the exception of the carrier frequency (the later uses the sound range for it)

HTH,
Andras

[View Quote]

cable modem

Dec 17, 2001, 8:01pm
[View Quote] To shed some light in this conversation:
With the POT (Plain old Telephoe) you transmit analogue signals to the nearest phone switch where your sounds are converted to digital signal and transmitted to the destination. If the destination has only an analogue phone, the signals are converted back to sounds so you can hear it. The evolution lead us to the ISDN where the conversion is moved from the phone switch station to your phone equipment saving tremendous amount of processing power (on the provider side). The talks are now transmitted from your phone digitally!
Who are the winner of this game? Unfortunately again the phone company!!! You pay more for the ISDN connection (freeing up the phone company's analogue/digital converter unit:) and the phone provider can get rid of the expensive analogue/digital and D/A converter units :(

Anyhow - that was only a sidetrack of the original discussin - sorry about to be off topic :)

Andras

Check this out!

Dec 17, 2001, 8:03pm
[View Quote] HELP!!! Can someone translate the above sentences to English please????

Andras

My Birthday :)

Dec 17, 2001, 8:04pm
[View Quote] Happy BDay!! I wish I can be your age again :)

Andras

I think Santa is a Woman

Dec 23, 2001, 5:53am
Why Women Would Love Being Santa Claus


1. You'd never be expected to make the coffee.
2. There'd be no more early morning decisions about what to wear to the

office.
3. You could grow a gut the size of Guam and consider it a job
requirement.
4. Buy one big black belt and you'd be accessorized for life.
5. There'd be no reason to have your colors done.
6. Everyone would be extremely nice to you, even if you weren't.
7. Should people suggest your belly jiggled...when you laughed...like a

bowlful of jelly, you could hit them with your purse.
8. You'd always work in sensible footwear.
9. There'd be no need to play office politics; a hearty ho-ho-ho would
remind everyone who's boss.
10. You wouldn't need to buy an expensive briefcase.
11. No one would dare ask for a ride to work.
12. You'd never again have to wear pantyhose or worry about your slip
showing.
13. No more trips to the vending machine...you'd just snack on milk and

cookies all day.
14. You'd never be asked to take an early retirement package.
15. Juggling work and family would be a breeze because your children
would
adore you; even your teen-agers would want to sit in your lap.
16. You'd be guaranteed the best chair in the office.
17. Age discrimination wouldn't be an issue.
18. You'd never grab the wrong coat on your way out the door.
19. No one would ask to see your job description.
20. Your co-workers would be on notice that they'd better not pout.

FREE NNTP Server Software?

Dec 27, 2001, 8:16pm
[View Quote] Windows 2000 server comes with the NNTP server.
Andras

FREE NNTP Server Software?

Dec 27, 2001, 9:16pm
[View Quote] I use DNews - not too bad but not cheap either. Of course you can set up a Linux box with INN on it <s> - just ask Steve G how does he likes it:)

Andras

The wallh*.rwx Series

Jan 12, 2002, 8:35pm
[View Quote] Nice bug in the polygon->triangle conversion :((
Andras

Ghost Objects in View Window

Jan 19, 2002, 8:47pm
[View Quote] I have the exact same problem with Dx8.1 and GeForce 3 <and I thought I am the only one, so I did not complain>:( I just use OpenGL which is about %50 faster than directx anyway!

Andras

5th Annual EggHunt in Storage!

Mar 23, 2002, 7:18pm
Hello friends and avid egg hunters!

Easter kind of snuck up on us this year but we caught it in time to plan
our 5th Easter Egg Hunt in Storage world for this coming weekend!!!!

Starting on March 30th at 1:01am VRT and ending on March 31st at 1:01 pm
VRT, Storage world will be overflowing with Easter eggs just waiting for
you to find!!! The persons that find the most eggs win the prizes being
offered... :o)

This year the prizes include:::
P30/5 (30 NSWE + 1 Cit)
P20/5 (20 NSWE, no cit account)
At least one Citizenship for a year (only tourists can win)
..... and hopefully, a few prizes offered by AW Corp such as a T-shirt and
cit extension...

Don't miss the fun of hunting Easter Eggs with your friends!!! It's a
BLAST!!! :o)

Read more at: www.imatowns.com/~yardsale/Easter2002.html

Daphne and Andras

P.S. Everyone is welcome regardless of age or gender!!!

HELPP

Mar 27, 2002, 9:15pm
[View Quote] Imagine Roland's mailbox then :) I don't wish you to be in the same seat!

Andras

Spyware?

Mar 30, 2002, 8:08am
[View Quote] Before all the rumours goes to the wild direction:
To assign unique ID for the browser is mandated to get over of the crackers and the "avproxy" guys :) It is a must to get rid of impersonation and to make the user password uncrackable (ok more or less!!).
The ID generation is based on a few random number within your puter (No - I won't tell what numbers are:). MAC address can't be used due to machines without Ethernet cards.
The created number doesn't carry any information about your computer - it used only locally for encripting and used only to generate another random number to assign to your browser session.

Conlusion: NO PERSONAL DATA can be recovered from that number!!!!

I hope it clears some misunderstanding,

Andras

Is It Posible

Apr 3, 2002, 2:35pm
[View Quote] Andras

The Numbers Crunch

Apr 4, 2002, 9:03pm
[View Quote] try this form:
<http://www.freeedgar.com/EdgarConstruct/Data/1125282/02-1102/b317467_10ksb40.txt>

That shouldn't wrap
Andras

24 7 Posts

May 5, 2002, 3:38pm
[View Quote] Well...... if you really need one, email to me and I'll write one for you.

Andras

24 7 Posts

May 5, 2002, 7:09pm
http://andras.net/tools/ftptimer.zip

Andras

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