From: Sean O'Dell <sean@...>
Date: 2003-07-11T14:50:13+09:00
Subject: Re: My brief and torrid affair with Ruby.

"Daniel Carrera" <dcarrera@math.umd.edu> wrote in message
news:20030711041214.GB2239@math.umd.edu...
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> On Fri, Jul 11, 2003 at 12:49:13PM +0900, Sean O'Dell wrote:
>
> > Take a look at this: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=virus
> >
> > Search for "a virus cannot infect other computers without assistance" on
> > that page.  A virus, according to "The Free On-line Dictionary of
> > Computing," requires action on the part of the victim to work.  I would
say
> > that contradicts you view "that you can get them without your
[consent]."
>
> I have never agreed to be sick, but I have been sick many times.  The fact
> that a virus requires assistance is not the same as a virus requiring
> consent.
>
> Have you ever gotten sick without doing it in purpose?
>
>
>
> > If that's not convicing, then perhaps you could perhaps provide some
sort of
> > reference that shows that one defining property of a virus is that it
> > infects its host without consent,
>
> Perhaps we disagree on the word consent.  I have been sick many times
> without my consent.  Indeed, every single time I've been sick, it has been
> without my consent.
>
>
> > As a matter of personal opinion, I reject that a virus is only a virus
when
> > it can infect without consent, and further reject the notion that since
the
> > GPL requires action on the part of the developer in order to replicate
> > itself, it must not be a virus.
>
> The we disagree.  Since I claim that the fact the GPL can only replicate
> with conset disqualifies it from being a virus.

That's a good place to end this discussion, then.  You feel a virus is only
a virus when you can become infected against your will by it, and if
something *requires* action on your part to become infected, even if its
purpose is to attach permanently and replicate, it is not a virus.

I feel otherwise; I feel the term "virus" is a reference to its "attach and
replicate" nature, not to its "ability to infect without consent."

    Sean O'Dell