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From: mhw@wittsend.UUCP (Michael H. Warfield)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.sysadmin
Subject: Re: FCC?  U.S.Mail.? (Re: JJ's Revenge -- Part II)
Keywords: chain-letters
Message-ID: <5349@galbp.LBP.HARRIS.COM>
Date: 16 Jun 88 21:40:16 GMT
References: <33@uisc1.UUCP> <3132@edm.UUCP> <75@uisc1.UUCP> <273@clout.Jhereg.MN.ORG>
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Reply-To: mhw@wittsend.UUCP (Michael H. Warfield)
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Organization: Harris/Lanier Network Knitting Circle
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In article <273@clout.Jhereg.MN.ORG> mark@clout.Jhereg.MN.ORG (Mark H. Colburn) writes:
>If you think about the chain letter concept, it is possible for a
>chain letter to literally stop all mail from flowing through the
>system after only several inerations.  Remember that chain letters 
>multiply exponentially.  

	Yeah, that's exactly what happened to IBM last December with the little
Christmas tree message that brought their Email system down to it's knees.  The
article was in the Wall Street Journal sometime in December.  The self repli-
cating little monster was turned loose by someone who thought it was a cute way
to send EVERYBODY a little Christmas greeting. :-)  HE DID THAT ALRIGHT!  That
greeting quickly became the world's largest chain letter.  According to the
article, the message replicated itself to the point where traffic on IBM's
world-wide network slowed to a standstill and had to be shutdown while they
cleaned the beasty out of the individual mail systems by hand.

---
Michael H. Warfield  (The Mad Wizard)	| gatech.edu!galbp!wittsend!mhw
  (404)-329-8139			| mhw@wittsend.LBP.HARRIS.COM
An optimist believes we live in the best of all possible worlds.
A pessimist is sure of it!