...I was planning to have a post here, but that was before the [bleep]ing virii started propogating themselves through my computer system - and now I'm literally on my way out the door to The Chronicles of Riddick. So, to the two people that would know what the hell I'm talking about: don't worry, there'll be a post tonight. To everybody else... complain about people who make computer virii, or whether or not it should be 'viruses', or maybe the Riddick movie.
Be seeing you...
When I worked for IBM (which was so long ago that they were still poisonously bitter about Microsoft dumping them) the one topic absolutely forbidden on the virus discussion forum was whether the plural of virus was virii or viruses.
Some things never change.
Posted by: Jesurgislac | June 13, 2004 at 02:44 PM
First, it's definitely not virii. IMO the proper analogy is with status for which the English plural is statuses and the Latin is, if I am not mistaken, stata. Second declension neuter, something of a rarity although fourth declension is also a possibility. In that case the Latin plural of virus would be virus.
Second, what we're having problems with mostly these days are technically not viruses but Trojan horses and worms. Most Trojan horses and worms exploit defects of workmanship. IMO, the great contribution of Microsoft to computing is not the graphical user interface (invented by Xerox) or computers for the masses (many could take that credit) or certainly any strictly technical contribution. I would say that the great contribution of Microsoft to computing is the lowering of expectations for software to be error-free. Software with no more problems than Microsoft's drove at least one company out of business thirty years ago (Burroughs).
Posted by: Dave Schuler | June 13, 2004 at 03:21 PM
Up-to-date security patches
Installed and updated Anti-virus (I like Norton)
A firewall (I use a router)
A pop-up blocker (like the one built in with the Google toolbar)
Adaware (with AdWatch operative) updated
SpyBot 1.3 updated
Pest Patrol Updated
EZ Cleaner (by Toni Arts)
Reg Supreme
A copy of the latest McAfee "Stinger"
CW Shreder
Hijack This
and your set for almost anything the bastards can throw at you.
Most folks who get infected with any malware clicked on an attachment in an eamil or went to a questionalbe web location and clicked on something they shouldn't have clicked on.
The problem isn't in our stars...
Posted by: adaplant | June 13, 2004 at 04:08 PM
...it is in our proofreading (or lack thereof).
Posted by: adaplant | June 13, 2004 at 04:09 PM
Geez, adaplant, that seems like the Internet equivalent of donning a radiation suit whenever you leave the house. I think I'd rather risk the occasional infection than build my wall so damn high.
Posted by: kenB | June 13, 2004 at 05:52 PM
saw "Riddick" yesterday and was underwhelmed. I liked "Pitch Black" much more as it had suspense this one never had and also more character. Judy Dench slumming isn't pretty, from now on she should ask herself "what would kate hepburn do' before accepting a role. My money is on "I'm Not Scared" now playing around the US, an italian film with suspense and plot combined with a moral conundrum. Original and tasty.
Posted by: wilfred | June 13, 2004 at 06:19 PM
kenB: adaplant's probably going a little overboard, but there's plenty you can do that's easy and unobtrusive. Using a browser other than Internet Explorer, and using a mail client other than Outlook or Outlook Express, will go a long way. (I'd go beyond that and say that you really shouldn't be using an HTML-compliant mail client, either. HTML mail is evil.)
I've long since resigned myself to the fact that those two things are more than most people are willing to do, though. I don't understand it, but I've accepted it.
Posted by: Josh | June 13, 2004 at 09:10 PM
I get $65.00 per hour to clean up other folks' computers who don't "go overboard," so I'm happy there are many who don't.
I've never been infected myself, so ya pays ya money and ya takes ya chances.
Posted by: adaplant | June 13, 2004 at 10:02 PM
Read your mail in Thunderbird.
Browse the web in Firefox.
Run Kerio Personal Firewall.
All will be well.
Posted by: sidereal | June 13, 2004 at 11:03 PM
Kerio, Firefox, Thunderbird, a virus client as good as norton without the memory hogging (I recommend Command Anti-Virus or AVG), and if you have broadband, run your router in stealth mode.
Oh, and a healthy level of skepticism about mail and ads.
Posted by: Dave | June 15, 2004 at 12:42 PM
Dave S., as a matter of trivia, virus is doubly rare in Latin; not only is it fourth-declension (and thus its plural would normally be virus), but in Latin it has no plural form. It's a curious example of a mass noun (we have similar unitless nouns in English, like "air" - not that you can't apply units to air, but that any such units will be arbitrary, since air in and of itself doesn't come in convenient units like cookies or automobiles); either Romans measured in terms of "a little slime" versus "a lot of slime", or they didn't want to contemplate an event so awful that it took "poisons" to describe it accurately.
Strictly speaking, the plural of "virus" in English is "viruses". "Virii" is just an example of the sort of wordplay that Internet-folk engage in, much like "boxen" (plural of "box"); that it's so prevalent should say something either about the Internet or about memetics, but I'm not sure what.
Posted by: EDG | June 15, 2004 at 01:02 PM