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Why Virus Writers are Useful
man_of_mr_e writes "Security site Zone-h.org has an interview with Professor Samuel D. Forrester, one of the worlds leading immunologists. In this interview he asserts that immunity is built by infection, and without it you would have a much weaker ecosystem. "
...this guy is implying that people learn from virus attacks?
lol!
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Whatever doesn't crash you makes you stronger.
Who took my tinfoil hat?
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AR
Database robustness is built by the /. effect, and without it you would have a much weaker ecosystem.
No, wait...
Holy crap, that must mean the Windows "eco-system" is stronger than say the BSD or Linux eco-system. I must switch back!
So if that's the case, that viruses make operating systems strong, Windows is the best operating system in the world!
Hmmm...
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It never gets infected, so how can it build up immunity?!?
An infection destroys the weaklings and the unlucky, leaving the robust and lucky still standing.
If an infection destroys too many of the unlucky, or if the weaklings were the only ones carrying the genetics (or protein rings) required for defense against the next big infection, well... it's the Telephone Sanitisers and The "B" Ark all over again. Be a good lad and throw me my rubber duck, will you? (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Target practice.
I wouldn't say I'm a bad gambler but the last time I went to Vegas I even lost a buck on the soda machine.
-- Insert your favorite "The Matrix" quote here --
"That which doesn't kill Windows only makes it stronger."
If there were no worms of vira, why would we have to secure it agains it.:)
And if a server boots in the forest, does it beep?
The USSR did huge studies on this, varying the flourine levels and getting statistics.
Mod the parent down. I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
"In other news, breathing is good for you."
If you were a professor you too could get a large federal grant to research that.
That aside, I have knew someone that lived on a farm with high levels of some diarhhea inducing organism in their well water. They were essentially immune to it, but they found they had to keep a few gallons of bottled water on hand for guests who always got sick.
Ahh, I see you've been to Mexico also.
"...we dont care about the economics; we just want to be able to hack great stuff."
- Registry has multiple activex keys mangled (unknown reason)
- Network DLL's are replaced with trojan porn dialer ones (x-gf laughed and said well he won't be staying in my apartment when I go to work anymore)
- Linux was installed over the entire xp partition (2 months of papers lost, she does back up though and the guy even managed to forget the password)
- Firewall disabled and FTP server found running, taking up all bandwidth
- Guy created new admin account and set hers up as limited for "Security" reasons. We break the password in a day (it was love, heh) and find a mature porn archive.
I love when certain people call me for tech support, it affirms qualities in myself that I seldom recognize like being discreet in your pr0n activities.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Ok, so every virus writer on the planet has left your machine alone. It's running fine and has never been patched. You surf all day long with no more than a pop-up ad. Then comes the horde of flying saucers who tap into the internet and take over all of the PCs using the RPC flaw, thus using our own global network against us. Your PC is but the first to fall.
Meanwhile, everyone else has patched their systems, and is now joining in on the offensive. I, for one, Welcome our new alien overlords, but you will be one of the slaves building the giant statue of Kang.
One of the weaknesses of a group mind - they never wrote any software viruses, so they never learned to build anti-virus software. If they had A/V software, we never would have been able to send them that virus to drop their shields.
"I've been thinking about how wonderful it would be if all people renounced violence forever."
"That's a beautiful thought, Dogbert."
"If nobody else was violent, I could conquer the whole stupid planet with just a butter knife."
~ Dogbert and Dilbert, Dilbert by: Scott Adams
Not having computer viruses does not obviate the need to or the ability to understand them. Just as I can understand how to perform an amputation without actually having to perform one. And I don't have to have an amputation to know that I don't want one.
And frankly (stay with me here, there are a lot of negatives coming up), I don't think anybody would mind not appreciating the absence of computer viruses. Regardless of whether you think the "good lacks definition" in this case.
Get rid of all the viruses and virus writers and bam! you don't have viruses or virus writers anymore! No need to deal with viruses or virus writers! WooHoo! now we can all move on to more important things than updating our anti-virus software... fun things like taking out the trash.
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Annotateit at Annotateit.com
I run CP/M, and has had no problems with viruses etc. Time for you guys to migrate to a secure OS!