Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!sharkey!atanasoff!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!cveg!hcx!jms From: jms@hcx.uucp (Michael Stanley) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: Pkzip virus, NOT REAL Summary: I agree Message-ID: <2158@cveg.uucp> Date: 1 Apr 89 22:57:18 GMT References: <13505@sequent.UUCP> <1459@mtunb.ATT.COM> Sender: netnews@cveg.uucp Organization: College of Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Lines: 31 In article <1459@mtunb.ATT.COM>, dmt@mtunb.ATT.COM (Dave Tutelman) writes: > > Too many people cheapen the language by grabbing a stylish buzzword > and using it to mean ANYTHING! That has happened with "virus"! > > Since the news media picked up on the "Internet Virus" (which was not > quite a true software virus, but close) some people are using the > term "virus" for every program that behaves other than they expect. > Please stop. > Remember when this happened to the word 'hackers'. I can remember when the term hacker applied to anyone who like to write/tinker-with software as a hobby. Then the media picked up on those computer users who broke into other systems, but they didn't know what to call them. Somewhere they heard the term hacker (no doubt many of these computer mis-users actually WERE hackers, and the name began to take on a new meaning. At least this is my understanding of what happened. Its all part of how the news today has become more geared toward sensationalism and less geared to actually presenting important information on the world around us. The sad thing is that we can't do a lot about it. So I hope it doesn't happen, but the word virus MAY be corrupted also (who knows). You know? Its getting to the point where I only watch the MacNeil, Lehrer Newshour on public television these days (at least for news information). CNN doesn't seem to bad depending on the time of day and which programs they are showing. Oh well, thats the way things are, so we might as well get used to it. Michael Stanley (...!uunet!harris.cis.ksu.edu!jms@hcx)