Word: wormed
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This week's column is about the Code Red worm. First, however, I'd like to talk about microbes...
...world of heck did the Code Red worm cause such consternation? Not only did it utterly fail to bring the Internet crashing to a halt as some media sources were claiming, but it never really had the power to do so. Sure, the worm was relatively smart. It could replicate itself across thousands of servers - usually because the owners were never aware that Microsoft software had turned their computer into a server in the first place - and then coordinate what is known as a denial of service attack on a chosen website on a given day at a given time...
...dais with the Justice Department -which is rather like Stalin vowing eternal friendship with Roosevelt to counter the Nazi menace - but they also had their name inextricably linked with the well-being of the Internet itself. This quote from Tuesday's Wall Street Journal is typical: "the Code Red worm may disrupt the Internet on a global scale ? the FBI urged owners of business-type servers to install a patch from Microsoft's website." When the world's in trouble, in other words, Bill Gates comes riding to the rescue...
...example is his big red-cedar-and-pine piece, Plenty's Boast, 1994-95. As the title suggests, it could be a cornucopia. But it also evokes a slew of other things: the flaring mouth suggests an old gramophone horn, or perhaps a flower, or a weird sucking worm; the "tail" has a distinctly sinister look, as though it carried a sting, while the fitting and fairing of the wooden staves of which it is made are impeccable...
...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...