>From: "Melissa Bowen" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: "Susan A. Welsch" <[log in to unmask]>,
>        "Elizabeth K. Shuping" <[log in to unmask]>,
>        "Mark A. Roseveare" <[log in to unmask]>,
>        "Tara Richter" <[log in to unmask]>,
>        "Joanne Letendre" <[log in to unmask]>,
>        "Ellen Kahler" <[log in to unmask]>,
>        "Robin Morrison Hudson" <[log in to unmask]>,
>        "Henry H. Doss" <[log in to unmask]>,
>        "Carla J. Capps" <[log in to unmask]>,
>        "Robert E. Blazek" <[log in to unmask]>,
>        "David W. Babson" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: A Friend sent this one to me -- Knew you'd enjoy
>Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 22:07:57 -0400
>X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
>X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1
>X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Alecia Harper <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Wednesday, May 05, 1999 3:38 PM
>Subject: FW: Don't mess with this virus
>
>
>>And I normally don't send these on...
>>>>>
>>>>>[irritating  headers deleted]
>>>>>
>>>>>>>From this Sunday's Washington  Post:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Taking Liberties
>>>>>>The Pluperfect  Virus
>>>>>>
>>>>>>By Bob Hirschfeld
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Sunday, May 2, 1999; Page  B05
>>>>>>
>>>>>>A new computer virus is spreading throughout the  Internet,
>>>>>>and it is far more insidious than last week's Chernobyl  menace.
>>>>>>Named Strunkenwhite after the authors of a classic guide  to
>>>>>>good writing, it returns e-mail messages that have
>>>>>>grammatical  or spelling errors. It is deadly accurate in its
>>>>>>detection abilities,  unlike the dubious spell checkers that come
>>>>>>with word processing  programs.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>The virus is causing something akin to panic  throughout
>>>>>>corporate America, which has become used to the  typos,
>>>>>>misspellings, missing words and mangled syntax so  acceptable
>>>>>>in cyberspace. The CEO of LoseItAll.com, an Internet  startup,
>>>>>>said the virus has rendered him helpless. "Each time I tried  to
>>>>>>send one particular e-mail this morning, I got back this  error
>>>>>>message: 'Your dependent clause preceding your  independent
>>>>>>clause must be set off by commas, but one must not  precede
>>>>>>the conjunction.' I threw my laptop across the  room."
>>>>>>
>>>>>>A top executive at a telecommunications and  long-distance
>>>>>>company, 10-10-10-10-10-10-123, said: "This morning,  the
>>>>>>same damned e-mail kept coming back to me with a  pesky
>>>>>>notation claiming I needed to use a pronoun's possessive  case
>>>>>>before a gerund. With the number of e-mails I crank out  each
>>>>>>day, who has time for proper grammar? Whoever created  this
>>>>>>virus should have their programming fingers  broken."
>>>>>>
>>>>>>A broker at Begg, Barow and Steel said he couldn't  return to
>>>>>>the "bad, old" days when he had to send paper memos  in
>>>>>>proper English. He speculated that the hacker who  created
>>>>>>Strunkenwhite was a "disgruntled English major who  couldn't
>>>>>>make it on a trading floor. When you're buying and selling  on
>>>>>>margin, I don't think it's anybody's business if I write that  'i
>>>>>>meetinged through the morning, then cinched the deal on the
>>>>>>cel  phone while bareling down the xway.' "
>>>>>>
>>>>>>If Strunkenwhite makes  e-mailing impossible, it could mean
>>>>>>the end to a communication revolution  once hailed as a
>>>>>>significant timesaver. A study of 1,254 office workers  in
>>>>>>Leonia, N.J., found that e-mail increased  employees'
>>>>>>productivity by 1.8 hours a day because they took less time  to
>>>>>>formulate their thoughts. (The same study also found that
>>>>>>they  lost 2.2 hours of productivity because they were
>>>>>>e-mailing so many jokes  to their spouses, parents and
>>>>>>stockbrokers.)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Strunkenwhite  is particularly difficult to detect because it
>>>>>>doesn't come as an e-mail  attachment (which requires the
>>>>>>recipient to open it before it becomes  active). Instead, it is
>>>>>>disguised within the text of an e-mail entitled  "Congratulations
>>>>>>on your pay raise." The message asks the recipient to  "click
>>>>>>here to find out about how your raise effects your  pension."
>>>>>>The use of "effects" rather than the grammatically  correct
>>>>>>"affects" appears to be an inside joke from  Strunkenwhite's
>>>>>>mischievous creator.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>The virus also has  left government e-mail systems in disarray.
>>>>>>Officials at the Office of  Management and Budget can no longer
>>>>>>transmit electronic versions of  federal regulations because
>>>>>>their highly technical language seems to run  afoul of
>>>>>>Strunkenwhite's dictum that "vigorous writing is concise."  The
>>>>>>White House speechwriting office reported that it had  received
>>>>>>the same message, along with a caution to avoid phrases  such
>>>>>>as "the truth is. . ." and "in fact. . . ."
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Home  computer users also are reporting snafus, although an
>>>>>>e-mailer who used  the word "snafu" said she had come to
>>>>>>regret it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>The virus  can have an even more devastating impact if it
>>>>>>infects an entire network.  A cable news operation was forced
>>>>>>to shut down its computer system for  several hours when it
>>>>>>discovered that Strunkenwhite had somehow  infiltrated its
>>>>>>TelePrompTer software, delaying newscasts and leaving  news
>>>>>>anchors nearly tongue-tied as they wrestled with  proper
>>>>>>sentence structure.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>There is concern among law  enforcement officials that
>>>>>>Strunkenwhite is a harbinger of the  increasingly sophisticated
>>>>>>methods hackers are using to exploit the  vulnerability of
>>>>>>business's reliance on computers. "This is one of the  most
>>>>>>complex and invasive examples of computer code we have
>>>>>>ever  encountered. We just can't imagine what kind of devious
>>>>>>mind would want  to tamper with e-mails to create this burden
>>>>>>on communications," said an  FBI agent who insisted on
>>>>>>speaking via the telephone out of concern that  trying to e-mail
>>>>>>his comments could leave him tied up for  hours.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Meanwhile, bookstores and online booksellers reported a  surge
>>>>>>in orders for Strunk & White's "The Elements of  Style."
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Bob Hirschfeld, who enjoys receiving e-mails in plain  English,
>>>>>>lampoons the news at his Web site, bobsfridge.com.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
>>>
>>
>>
>
>