You don't take that seriously?? Oh my! d;^] Regards from Bob -- the "Keyboard Cowboy", ,,,,,,,, Ô¿Ô¬ Cincinnati, Ohio - Scottsdale, Arizona ----------------------------------------------- Saturday, 4/2/2005, @ 11:12:09 AM EST ----------------------------------------------- It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test. -- Elbert Hubbard ==================|:o:|================== On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 20:17:43 -0800, milady wrote: | RIGHGHGHGHT... now let me go find that bottle of black peanut | butter that is so popular but you can only use on sweet pea | bread????...uh huh. ----- Original Message ----- From: "The | Keyboard Cowboy" <KBCowboy@xxxxxxxxx> To: "PCTechTalk - | Freelists" <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, April 01, | 2005 7:22 PM Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- New Virus Infection | | | Human Contact Spreads PC Viruses | By A.C. Feafunnoll | The federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National | Science Foundation (NSF) have issued a stunning joint | announcement: PC viruses, worms, and spyware can now be | transmitted via human contact. Researchers at St. Paul's College | in Virginia have isolated roughly 100 cases of systems infected | by human contact, the two agencies said at a press conference at | NSF headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The mode of | transmission? Each system's user had physical contact with | another user whose system was known to be infected. The level of | contact was found to be as brief as a handshake. One researcher, | Avril Hidokwon, said she documented a case where the Netsky.P | virus spread to 12 systems via a sneeze. | | Scientists have long held that electronic viruses could not | possibly spread unless there was some sort of digital (wired or | wireless) connection between the infected PC and the victim | systems (or the victim systems and servers). "What we did not | account for," explained Hidokwon at the hastily organized joint | press conference, "was nanotechnology." Apparently these PC | viruses, Trojan horses, and pieces of spyware are not simply | floating on air or clinging to people's hands; they're actually | being transported via "nanobots" tiny robots that may be no more | than a molecule in size and are capable of carrying out simple | instructions. There is already a cell- sized robot that can walk | on its own. But these virus bots are, according to the CDC's Earl | Leis, an accident. "We believe that the first infections | originated in California," Leis explained. According to a | statement handed out to journalists at the Arlington press | conference, two scientists in Southern California, Daniel Banner | and Petrona Parker, reported in January that about 140,000 | nanobots that had been developed to deliver insulin to diabetics | via the bloodstream had been lost in their lab. The NSF noted the | incident but did not report it to any other government body. "We | assumed," said the NSF's Charlene Crykit, "that the bots would | simply run out of power and die. That, obviously, never happened." | | The current theory holds that the bots affixed themselves to | biohazardous material that was disposed of by the lab. Then, | during California's recent rainstorms, the bots used the sewer | systems to spread and, possibly, propagate. | | The NSF and CDC, however, are at a loss to figure out how the | bots got from the sewers to computers. "One theory," said the | CDC's Leis, "is that some runoff made it to the California water- | filtration plants and eventually got into the drinking supply." | As for how the infected water made in into an infected PC, Leis | theorizes that "someone accidentally spilled drinking water on | his or her keyboard." | | "I'm not at all surprised," said PC industry watcher and longtime | PCMag.com columnist John C. Dvorak. "It was bound to happen. All | of our | systems are rife with spyware, and many, many of them have hidden | viruses." Dvorak even has a theory on how the infected nanobots | got back out of the infected system and onto the first human | carrier, "Some idiot burned a CD or DVD and then took it out of | the &&^%*&!-up system. The %#&*! bots then went directly from | the surface of the optical disk to some poor schlub's hands. | Most of these idiots don't even bother to wash their hands after | using the bathroom. He probably wiped his hand right across his | face and inhaled the suckers. The rest is history. Sheesh!" For | now, the CDC and NSF believe that the outbreak is confined to | Southern California, New Mexico, Utah, New York City, and | Delaware. They're asking computer users in those states and | municipalities to shut down all of their systems and servers for | 72 hours. Trapped in the systems without any light, moisture, or | electricity, the system-bots should die within 24 to 72 hours, | the agencies said. As for bodily contact, users in the afflicted | areas should bathe themselves, family members, and even pets in | kosher salt baths. That will make the bots gorge themselves on | diluted salt and die within 26 minutes, say the California | researchers who developed them. Companies in affected states | should close down their offices, contact a haz-mat team, and have | them sweep for infections. | | For instructions on how you can decontaminate yourself and your | PC and also avoid infection, go here: | | _http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1781206,00.asp_ | (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1781206,00.asp) | | | Regards from | | Bob -- the "Keyboard Cowboy", | ,,,,,,,, | Ô¿Ô¬ | Cincinnati, Ohio - Scottsdale, Arizona | ----------------------------------------------- | Friday, 4/1/2005, @ 10:17:34 PM EST | ----------------------------------------------- | A man who thinks too much about his ancestors is like a | potato?the best part of him is underground. | | | -- | <Please delete this line and everything below.> | | To unsub or change your email settings: | //www.freelists.org/webpage/pctechtalk | | To access our Archives: | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCTechTalk/messages/ | //www.freelists.org/archives/pctechtalk/ | | For more info: | //www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/list?list_id=pctechtalk | | | -- | <Please delete this line and everything below.> | | To unsub or change your email settings: | //www.freelists.org/webpage/pctechtalk | | To access our Archives: | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCTechTalk/messages/ | //www.freelists.org/archives/pctechtalk/ | | For more info: | //www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/list?list_id=pctechtalk -- <Please delete this line and everything below.> To unsub or change your email settings: //www.freelists.org/webpage/pctechtalk To access our Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCTechTalk/messages/ //www.freelists.org/archives/pctechtalk/ For more info: //www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/list?list_id=pctechtalk