Daily Archives: January 22, 2006

A grim anniversary

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Timely reminder from BBC Online.

The 20th anniversary of the first PC virus falls this month.

It was during the opening weeks of 1986 that the first PC virus, called Brain, was discovered in the wild.

Though it achieved fame because it was the first of its type, the virus was not widespread as it could only travel by hitching a ride on floppy disks swapped between users.

Now 20 years after they first appeared there are more than 150,000 malicious programs in existence.

That’s why my colleagues and I created our online course, Vandalism in Cyberspace: understanding and combatting malicious software.

Quote of the day

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“About two thousand kilometres.”

Lieut-General Dan Halutz, Israel’s Chief of Staff, on being asked how far Israel would go to stop Iran’s nuclear programme.

Source: Economist, 21 January, 2006, page 53.

Intel inside, but where next?

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This morning’s Observer column about the implications of Apple’s new processor. Excerpt:

More troubling for Apple is the prospect that its operating system and applications software can now run natively on (much cheaper) PC hardware. The company is set against this, but already programmers have hacked it and it is difficult to see how Apple could stop the practice. If it catches on, Apple might see sales of its computers decline as those who admire Apple software but dislike its hardware prices get the best of both worlds.

If Apple is ambivalent about the future, you should see Intel’s smouldering fury as the implications of the launch dawned on it. Not only did Jobs decline to go along with the ‘Intel inside’ mantra embossed on most Windows machines, he authorised a television ad that left the company’s executives speechless.

‘The Intel chip’, it burbles. ‘For years, it’s been trapped inside PCs, inside dull little boxes, dutifully performing dull little tasks, when it could have been doing so much more. Starting today, the Intel chip will be set free and get to live life inside a Mac. Imagine the possibilities.’

How do you spell ‘chutzpah’ again?