Jeff misunderestimated yet another stupid person
Ok, now I finally found something to write about. Evidently I created an Internet phenomenon without ever trying.
After reading maererigan's request, I suggested BK Holiday and Elf Bowling to her over aim. However, in googling for the latter, I came across a Sophos Hoax notice for Elf Bowling in which the hoax email claims Elf Bowling was infected with a virus.
Ok, that's worthy of a note. Mainly because I feel responsible for creating the hoax. No, I didn't write it or encourage anyone to write it. Had I ever come across the hoax letter myself I would have deleted it (after blogging this) or if I had the chance, sufficiently throttled the would be sender with a clue-by-four to prevent it ever happening. No, it's way to late. Sofos has the hoax def online. I somehow inspire stupid people to greater fame from our misunderstandings than I'll ever achieve on my own terms. Reminds me of that white supremest I had the misfortune of dealing with ("...his name was 'Howie Sayar'...his name was 'Howie Sayar'...").
The story takes place during my co-op fall 1999. I worked at a control systems company in which I was a systems engineer. Ok, titles suck; I was a tester of some control systems they were developing. You know those big panels Homer Simpson used? Ya, I helped test new designs for them, only they were based on Windows (*wince*! X-P). They wanted to run a power plant on them??? Anyway back to the story, among the other correspondence I had there, there was one guy I met, who I will simply refer to as Dude. Well Dude seemed like an ok dude, a bit older (I'm a young whipper snapper and all), been there a while, so I kinda looked up to him. However, it came clear to me pretty fast that I was a bit more savvy on IT kinda stuff, so I got to help him out there.
One day before Christmas when everyone in the company seemed to have a copy of Elf Bowling on their work PC, I made the remark about how frivolous people seemed to be with PC sanitation and security. Very few ran anti-virus protection (there was only ONE, yes you heard me, ONE IT guy for an entire company of 400+), so seeing this rampant copying seemed to catch my eye. As I recall Napster was a new word for me at that time, so the whole "file sharing = BAD" equation still was not on anyone's lips, for a security or IP standpoint. My remark was how easy it was for a virus, particularly a crafty time bomb, could clean up shop by destroying all content on a hard disk around xmas piggy-backing on a simple game like Elf Bowling. Well, the IT guy let me have it for starting rumors like that. Honestly, I thought I could just have a frank discussion with Dude, but evidently, he wasn't the sharpest crayon in the pack. He was out on some major campaign to tell everyone in the company how their computer was about to be destroyed all due to Elf Bowling. I think I finally told him about how it was just an example and not really true, how I ran Elf Bowling through one of the few copies of anti-virus there was around and didn't find anything. I guess he wasn't satisfied.
So here I am, five years later, seeing yet another fantastic creation of urban myth plague us in the same sore spot as C1a|1s. I should have known something was awry at that company when the late night staff tried to convince me to stay away from Maryland due to all of the Blair witches down there.
Now, is it true that *I* was responsible for starting the Elf Bowling virus rumor? I know of no way of telling. It just seems way too creepily coincidental. I think I know a bit more how the guys who allegedly started the rocket-car rumor felt.
*In memory of my previous bumper sticker: "Beware of the Power of Stupid People in Large Groups"*
After reading maererigan's request, I suggested BK Holiday and Elf Bowling to her over aim. However, in googling for the latter, I came across a Sophos Hoax notice for Elf Bowling in which the hoax email claims Elf Bowling was infected with a virus.
Ok, that's worthy of a note. Mainly because I feel responsible for creating the hoax. No, I didn't write it or encourage anyone to write it. Had I ever come across the hoax letter myself I would have deleted it (after blogging this) or if I had the chance, sufficiently throttled the would be sender with a clue-by-four to prevent it ever happening. No, it's way to late. Sofos has the hoax def online. I somehow inspire stupid people to greater fame from our misunderstandings than I'll ever achieve on my own terms. Reminds me of that white supremest I had the misfortune of dealing with ("...his name was 'Howie Sayar'...his name was 'Howie Sayar'...").
The story takes place during my co-op fall 1999. I worked at a control systems company in which I was a systems engineer. Ok, titles suck; I was a tester of some control systems they were developing. You know those big panels Homer Simpson used? Ya, I helped test new designs for them, only they were based on Windows (*wince*! X-P). They wanted to run a power plant on them??? Anyway back to the story, among the other correspondence I had there, there was one guy I met, who I will simply refer to as Dude. Well Dude seemed like an ok dude, a bit older (I'm a young whipper snapper and all), been there a while, so I kinda looked up to him. However, it came clear to me pretty fast that I was a bit more savvy on IT kinda stuff, so I got to help him out there.
One day before Christmas when everyone in the company seemed to have a copy of Elf Bowling on their work PC, I made the remark about how frivolous people seemed to be with PC sanitation and security. Very few ran anti-virus protection (there was only ONE, yes you heard me, ONE IT guy for an entire company of 400+), so seeing this rampant copying seemed to catch my eye. As I recall Napster was a new word for me at that time, so the whole "file sharing = BAD" equation still was not on anyone's lips, for a security or IP standpoint. My remark was how easy it was for a virus, particularly a crafty time bomb, could clean up shop by destroying all content on a hard disk around xmas piggy-backing on a simple game like Elf Bowling. Well, the IT guy let me have it for starting rumors like that. Honestly, I thought I could just have a frank discussion with Dude, but evidently, he wasn't the sharpest crayon in the pack. He was out on some major campaign to tell everyone in the company how their computer was about to be destroyed all due to Elf Bowling. I think I finally told him about how it was just an example and not really true, how I ran Elf Bowling through one of the few copies of anti-virus there was around and didn't find anything. I guess he wasn't satisfied.
So here I am, five years later, seeing yet another fantastic creation of urban myth plague us in the same sore spot as C1a|1s. I should have known something was awry at that company when the late night staff tried to convince me to stay away from Maryland due to all of the Blair witches down there.
Now, is it true that *I* was responsible for starting the Elf Bowling virus rumor? I know of no way of telling. It just seems way too creepily coincidental. I think I know a bit more how the guys who allegedly started the rocket-car rumor felt.
*In memory of my previous bumper sticker: "Beware of the Power of Stupid People in Large Groups"*