Well just when you thought Seinfeld was
dead, a recent computer virus has ressurected talk about the show and one
of its most infamous characters, the Bubble boy. For a background
on the TV sitcom icon and the new virus, read on:
About
the Bubble boy:
The character is part of an episode of
the same name where Jerry, Elaine, George Castanza, and Susan go on a trip
to a cabin in the mountains. Jerry agrees to visit the bubble boy on the
way up after a request by the boy's father, Brian Doyle Murray. Unfortunately,
Jerry and Elaine get lost (because George was driving too fast and lost
them) and end up at a diner while George and Susan make it to the boy's
house. When they stop by, a game of Trivial Pursuit occurs and a fight
breaks out when George and the bubble boy debate over weather an answer
is Moops or Moors, with George arguing in favor of Moops. Afterwards the
boy's bubble pops, and the locals chase the gang out of town. Upon arriving
at the cabin, Kramer and Naomi had already arrived (uninvited) and managed
to catch the cabin on fire.
A video clip of the scene where the bubble
boy has George by the neck when his bubble pops can be viewed here.
The episode has been lauded as one of the
10 best ever in two polls, where it was voted as the 6th most popular episode
on KITV and 10th most popular episode on WNEW.
*Note: The correct answer to the question
was indeed Moors, the Trivial Pursuit game card was in error. The question
you ask? Who invaded Spain in the 8th century?
About
the BubbleBoy virus:
The BubbleBoy virus is the first of its
kind in the fact that an attachment is not necessary in order to activate
the virus. This is caused by a security flaw in Internet Explorer and the
fact that Microsoft Outlook automatically opens email messages in a lower
window in the program. The virus found so far by researchers though has
no features that would delete or harm existing files, but its expected
that
variations will soon come into play that will.
What does it do?
The virus will change your email settings
so that your name (registered owner) is set to BubbleBoy and the organization
is set to Vandelay Industries, the ficticious company that George used
in several episodes as job references. The body of the message says "The
BubbleBoy incident, pictures and sound" while the subject line is "BubbleBoy
is Back!". After viewing, the self replicating worm virus sends the same
email to everyone in the user's Outlook address book.
What can you do
to prevent it?
Microsoft has a security patch available
for the security flaw, as of August 31, that removes security vulnerabilities
with two Active X controls. The patch can be downloaded here.
Also the virus requires IE 5 with Windows Scripting Host installed, which
is the standard configuration for Windows 98 and Windows 2000, but won't
work on Windows NT or the default Windows 95 settings. Also, removing the
preview pane on Microsoft Outlook can allow you to delete the messages
before getting infected. All the major anti-virus vendors also have updates
to catch the virus before infection as well.
More news will
be posted as it becomes available...
|
