The medium and the message (was: on viruses)

[Celso Alvarez Cáccamo]

Dear all,

I apologize if my previous message about viruses and useful software was 
inappropriate. It was not based just on personal likings, but on 
considerations about the vulnerability of written words and about our role 
as software consumers. My apologies again if someone doesn't like this 
message, but I will continue.

I personally find it quite impolite when someone (whether through a list or 
individual) sends an unsolicited attachment with a document susceptible of 
carrying viruses or worms. I am not sure now if DISCOURS allows 
attachments, but, if so, I would find it inappropriate for a list, 
particularly when often attached documents are nothing but short pieces of 
text which could perfectly be copy-pasted as text-only inside the message 
itself. The waste of resources by sending irresponsibly formatted 
attachments (hundreds of KB's for strings of ANSI characters, or hundreds 
of KB's for unsolicited worms) is incommensurable.

Since another message warned that DISCOURS was disseminating viruses, I 
thought my tips could be useful to minimize the risk. The risk of 
viruses/worms can indeed be very serious for one's work. I believe the 
computer-user community is not taking this risk seriously enough. With more 
and more computers directly linked to the Internet permanently through 
wide-band connections, all sorts or worms and spyware may be collecting and 
sending data. For example, the amount of junk mail we receive is directly 
proportional to the easiness with which we accept "cookies" and other 
pieces of code that send information about our respective computers, IP's, 
etc. This is no paranoia, but provable fact, and we're only starting to see 
the tip of the iceberg of this daily intrusion in our electronic file 
cabinets, be it by businesses, governments, or computer-savvy individuals. 
It would not be difficult for groups, governments or individuals to carry 
out "selective attacks" against particular individuals' computers. You 
leave your office computer on -- connected to the Internet -- while you go 
fetch a cup of bad machine coffee, and when you return, all your files are 
gone, or copied somewhere without your consent. Again, this is not 
paranoia, but a very real possibility, and do not hope that certain groups, 
governments or individuals are not already exploring it (or practicing it). 
One way to minimize this risk is to install a personal "firewall" program.

So, my message was simply intended to warn (or, at least, to state my 
opinion) that we, as final, computer-semi-literate (only semi-) users, are 
at the mercy of economic interests and empires that, while facilitating our 
work, also hinder it by imposing needs and practices which we 
unreflectively accept.

Fortunately, most backdoor worms are quite harmless yet. But, just as a 
worm can slow down a computer's performance and play funny tricks on the 
screen, etc., the same type of worm distributed through e-mail could simply 
erase one's hard disk in a few seconds. It's that simple. Since a 
distribution list is a haven for worms that gather email addresses, I just 
don't want my work to be infected because thousands of people irresponsibly 
use as-of-today faulty, vulnerable software such as, yes, Microsoft Outlook 
or Microsoft Word imposed upon us by, yes, multibillionare William Gates.

Just as I (together with thousands of people) have a personal and political 
stand against certain products and companies because of their commercial 
policies, let me assure you that, if I humanly could in terms of time 
resources and knowledge, I would not use Microsoft products. I only know 
that I have NEVER distributed a worm or a virus in almost 20 years using 
e-mail and the Internet, though I've caught several.

My apologies to all who consider this off-topic. To me, it's not -- it's 
also about discourse, or rather, about The Discourse. I thought the medium 
was also (a part of) the message.

Regards,
-celso
Celso Alvarez Cáccamo
lxalvarz at udc.es

At 22:48 2002-01-29 -0600, you wrote:
>Dear all,
>
>The last thing I would like to see on a respectable list like the
>Discourse Studies List is a discussion on which operating systems and
>software to use. I haven't argued that one system is better than the
>other (I could, but not on this list). The only thing I have argued for
>is that IF you use a computer (and particularly if you use Outlook or
>Outlook Express), make sure that you have updated anti-virus software.
>Not only for yourself, but also for others.
>
>Regards,
>Max.
>
>________________________________________
>  Dr. Max Louwerse
>  Department of Psychology
>  University of Memphis
>  Psychology Building
>  Memphis TN 38152
>  USA
>
>  phone: (901) 678-2143
>  fax:   (901) 678-2579
>
>  email: mlouwers at memphis.edu / max at mail.psyc.memphis.edu
>
>  http://www.psyc.memphis.edu/faculty/louwerse
>________________________________________