Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!mars.Berkeley.EDU!dean
From: dean@mars.Berkeley.EDU (R. Drew Dean)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: need help Erik desktop?
Message-ID: <8351@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 16 Dec 88 04:51:16 GMT
References: <111900026@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: dean@xcssun.Berkeley.EDU (R. Drew Dean)
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 36

In article <111900026@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> wwl90321@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>I was looking at different files on my HD and was looking in
>particular at file types and creators.  I noticed that my
>desktop is of creator ERIK and of type FNDR, I noticed
>that my other system stuff is MACS.  I thought that

I think we need to post a monthly article summarizing the state of Mac viruses
and what's normal and what's not.  For the record, creator ERIK and type FNDR
are the _correct_ types and creators for the desktop file.  They've been this
way ever since System 4.1 (to my personal knowledge, that's what my SE came
with), and as far as I know, have been this ever since System 1.0 from Jan.
1984....

Sorry if I sound a little rude, but this is the second false virus alarm in
a week.  Please people, viruses, while a threat, are _not_ all that common.
If you haven't acquired software from random places, you are not at a great
risk...I realize that one virus snuck into comp.binaries.mac, but that was
many months ago, before Vaccine.  It shouldn't be too hard to prevent infection:
if you aren't sure where a piece of software has been, run it from a locked
volume, preferably a floppy, with your hard disk NOT on-line (on an SE hold
down something like shift-command-option-delete [sorry, I forget exactly
which keys you need, I know delete is in there, and shift, I forget whether
or not you need option, and I'm not rebooting in the middle of typing this
to find out :-)] to prevent your internal hard disk from mounting.)

Please note that while I up/download software from public systems pretty
extensively (I average sending about 200K a week between here and UC Berkeley)
I have NEVER been infected, and I don't intend to become infected.  I do run
vaccine, and recommend it to all worried about viruses...No known (not to say
there isn't one) virus gets around vaccine.

Now back to the regular comp.sys.mac fair.....

Drew Dean
Internet: dean@xcssun.berkeley.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!xcssun!dean
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