And why people are willing to do this to the people they love and trust best in the world is beyond my understanding. If you had some kind of sexually transmitted virus, and you woke up in the morning dripping pus, I would hope that you would understand that there was some kind of moral need for immediate action. Even if it was kind of inconvenient and humiliating and personally degrading.

But if you’re running Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, it somehow seems kind of okay to spew Klez-H, Sircam, Klez-E, Magistr-B, Hydris-B, Magistr-A, BadTrans- B, Vavidad.E1, Yaha-A and MyLife-J.

And you’re not just infecting your girlfriend, boys. You can hit your mom, your grandmother, your maiden aunt, your ten-year-old daughter! “Gee, why didn’t you teach your ten year-old not to click on the attachments?” Because she’s ten years old, you moron!

—— Bruce Sterling

I’m getting all kinds of Outlook viruses turning up in my (luckily MS-free) mailbox this week, and judging from the forged “From” addresses — Susan Marie Groppi and Patrick Nielsen Hayden, among others I recognize — I’m pretty sure it’s somebody in the SF community that’s running the infected machine or machines. Probably I’m not lucky enough for it to be someone who reads this weblog, but just in case — for God’s sake, people, either check your machines, or don’t use Outlook.