[-empyre-] on viruses

[Mark Marino]

Hi, All,

My name is Mark Marino.  I've been working on critical interpretations of
source code.  On of my recent investigations has been into worms and virii
or viruses -- the other has been into Zach Blas' transCoder.  So Zach
invited me to join this discussion.

2 observations related to Zach's recent comment.

1) I just spent 3 hours in line to get an H1N1 vaccine for my children.
2) the worms I've been studying, and perhaps all worms, take advantages of
vulnerabilities in the system.

Ah, perhaps all viruses take advantage of such vulnerabilities.

In the cases of the worms I've been studying, those vulnerabilities were
built into the system to allow software to access certain operations in the
operating system.   In other words, one worm's vulnerabilities were
previously the systems' opportunities. Or, put another way, a virus
operationalizes a vulnerability.

In case of the 3 hour line, H1N1 may be an opportunistic virus, but the meme
of panic about the virus is much more contagious.  The mass communication
channels amplified both information about the virus (and its effects) and
message about the scarcity of the vaccine.

I wouldn't go so far as to say we are plagued by the monsters we create -->
But that the act of building networked systems, out of whatever kind of
actors, the act of building the sinew, the bridge, the sewer channel, calls
forth the viral.

Happy Flu Season,
Mark Marino
USC
ELO






-- 
Writing Program
University of Southern California
http://WriterResponseTheory.org
http://CriticalCodeStudies.com
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