Internet bugs and real-life ones travel in similar patterns, according to a pair of professors at the University of Windsor, in Ontario.
The professors have used "network theory"—a science that studies the dissemination of computer viruses and other information on the Internet—to predict how the spiny water flea will spread through Canada’s lakes. Their forecast: Like most viruses, which attack widely-used e-mail programs and computer networks, the fleas will disperse through the lakes most traveled by fishing boats.
15 Responses to Computer Viruses Imitate Life
Brian Baresch - November 13, 2011 at 5:56 pm
rouses?
Mary Davenport Davis - November 13, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Regarding “See above” or “see below”: I am relieved to hear that someone else thinks that a well-constructed argument shouldn’t require constant reminders of what has been or will be said.
carolsaller - November 13, 2011 at 7:20 pm
Thanks, Brian (you were being kind, right?). Typo corrected.
mbelvadi - November 14, 2011 at 9:11 am
Can you say a little more about “scare” quotes? Are those the same as what I think of as “so-called/sarcasm” quotes, like around “reform” in: “The Republicans want to ‘reform’ Social Security by destroying it.” ?
Or are they something else?
carolsaller - November 14, 2011 at 9:39 am
Yes, Mbelvadi, that’s exactly what they are. Although scare quotes are useful as shorthand, or for humor, they can also obscure and mislead. An abundance of them indicates a lack of control on the part of the writer; only clued-in readers will be able to follow their meaning.
dottyeyes - November 14, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Encountering a last name with no gloss is a great editorial fear of mine. I came to the editing world through degrees in science, but now I edit mostly nontechnical material. So when I get to a last name, I fear I’ll show my literary ignorance with a query like “Author: Add first name to Socrates, and mention his or her college or profession?” Thankfully, I’ve never had an author be offended if I ask if the readers would appreciate a gloss, and thankfully, I’ve never been as ignorant as in my example query. But then, how would I know for sure?
Carol Saller - November 14, 2011 at 1:44 pm
Dottyeyes, you just have to learn to fudge! Something like “AU: Gloss here for the uninitated?” gives the impression that you’re not among them, but just looking out for them.
Anne R Fanning - November 14, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Every writer needs an editor. Doesn’t the same hold true for every blogger?
Arlene Prunkl - November 14, 2011 at 6:15 pm
SUV’s? I’m not calling you on a typo so much as wondering if Chicago’s rules on possessive/plural apostrophes have changed. Since when would a usually possessive apostrophe be added to an acronym like SUV to indicate plural?
hlandecker - November 14, 2011 at 7:10 pm
Hi Ms. Prunkl: I’m Carol’s editor, and I added the “apostrophe ess” to make SUV plural. That is Chronicle style (we follow New York Times style) because newspapers sometimes need to use all-cap headlines, both in print and online, and many plural abbreviations would be unreadable in all caps if we made their plurals any other way. SUV’S, CV’S, Ph.D.’S, and the like are clearer in such headlines than SUVS, CVS, Ph.D.S. Editors don’t have control over where or how a headline will appear, so we need one style, and we certainly don’t want a different style for the story and the headline. However, I do think that particular newspaper style is probably responsible for people’s confusion over apostrophes. Sadly, we don’t have a better solution.
Arlene Prunkl - November 14, 2011 at 7:25 pm
Thanks for your reply. I understand your argument, but I wish there were a better solution too. Most people have endless trouble with possessive/plural apostrophes, and this certainly doesn’t help. And actually, I believe this isn’t the first time Ms. Saller’s style (Chicago style, that is) is at odds with this new blog’s stye. Poor Carol.
carolsaller - November 15, 2011 at 12:01 am
Don’t feel sorry for me–I have a good editor!
dank48 - November 15, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Along with scare quotes, may I mention a deadly combo, the overuse of italics and the exclamation point? They aren’t abused by many, but those who do do them to death. A certain thriller writer who has a gift for plot, action, and all that, imo renders his prose simply unreadable by bludgeoning the reader with superfluous italics and bangs. In one book, in which our hero is trying to escape an ice cave in a jet airplane that’s embedded in ice (yes, I know; it’s not Arnold Bennett). He starts the plane up, the engines get going, and we are informed, “The
exhaust melted the ice!”If the jet exhaust had frozen some water, that would have been worth the italics and exclamation point. As it is, the style and punctuation simply insult the reader. I’ll put up with a certain amount of this from an author, but there are more considerate writers to read.
profdave - November 16, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Similarly, I prefer storytelling (on screen particularly) that does not include repeated zooming in on something in a scene to make sure that I noticed it – like the partially hidden pitchfork upon which somebody is about to be impaled. I suppose complaining that it insults my intelligence might be unpersuasive after admitting to watching movies that involve pitchforks and impalement…
hapaxlegomena - December 2, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Never global-search-and-replace anything! Or else you’ll end up with an embarrassing footnote about that one episode of Three’s Company where Joyce DeWittgenstein was especially funny.
Seriously, though, Witt is a pretty common last name (I think I cited two Witts in my dissertation), which is easy to overlook if you’re in a “just deal with it later” mode and which will take immense amounts of work to undo. If you must G-S-R, at the very least use a placeholder that cannot be a word or a name; for your example I would recommend Wittt or WWitt. But even that’s risky, IM(admittedlyparanoid)O. Some people make a special autocorrect entry (so Witt automatically expands to Wittgenstein). But honestly, I think you should just type the damn name.