Word: bug
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...wasn't as outraged as almost everyone else seemed to be over the case of James Turner, 44, who found himself the unwitting victim of a global-positioning-system (GPS) device implanted in a minivan he leased from Acme Rent-a-Car in New Haven, Conn. Turns out the bug recorded him speeding in three states at rates from 78 m.p.h. to 83 m.p.h. Each violation, digitally recorded, automatically added a $150 charge to his bill...
...fact, they were dimmer--as if the expansion was speeding up. "I kept running the numbers through the computer," recalls Adam Riess, a Space Telescope Science Institute astronomer analyzing the data from Schmidt's group, "and the answers made no sense. I was sure there was a bug in the program." Perlmutter's group, meanwhile, spent the better part of the year trying to figure out what could be producing its own crazy results...
...felt like the doctor in The Andromeda Strain; the clock was outracing me. I went to my e-mail program, clicked on File, then selected Work Offline. That, I assumed, would cordon me off from the Net and keep me from spreading the bug while I figured out how to get rid of it. Next I checked my Out box. Argh! Sixty-five messages were queued up, waiting to be sent to my friends. Each was from me. Each bore the subject line "Homepage." Each had a file attached, as doom-laden as a warhead...
...deleted the messages and emptied the Recycle Bin. Then I went to the Web for guidance. Cursing myself for not using an antivirus program on my home computer (I use McAfee.com's at work), I learned that the Homepage virus is the most common bug--technically, it's a "worm"--out there. It afflicts only PC users of Microsoft Outlook and would not damage my computer. But it would immediately mail itself to everyone in my address book--that is, everyone to whom I've ever sent a Reply message. The worm also resets your browser's home page...
...people I had e-mailed were newbies--subscribers who had e-mailed me for help in connection with this column. Most of these folks were kind; only one asked me to remove her name from my address book. A guy from the Philippines, birthplace of the dread Love Bug virus, wrote, "It is quite ironic that I got a worm from...