Re: Nematodes: The Making of 'Beneficial' Network Worms

["Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rslade () sprint ca>]

Date sent:              Thu, 6 Oct 2005 15:34:09 -0700 (PDT)
From:                   Dave Dittrich <dittrich () u washington edu>


> Some folks at Xerox PARC tried that in 1980, to disasterous results.

Their original paper ("The `Worm' Programs") is better.

>    Originally coined in a 1982 paper by researchers John Shoch and Jon
>    Hupp of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, the term "worm" is
>    derived from "The Shockwave Rider,"

Not quite.  Shoch and Hupp defined their entity as a worm because it was 
distributed computing: a single package consisting of a bunch of segments (the 
segments running on various computers).  "The Shockwave Rider" reference seems 
to be just for interest.

>    "The embarrassing results were left for all to see: 100 dead
>    machines scattered about the building."

But, yes, the Xerox worm is definitely a salutary lesson for all those considering 
distributed computing of various types, and particularly the use of "good" viruses 
and worms.

======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade () vcn bc ca      slade () victoria tc ca      rslade () sun soci niu edu
Americans are a broad-minded people. They'll accept the fact that
a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater, and
even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn't drive there's something
wrong with him.                                       - Art Buchwald
http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev    or    http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade

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