Since when did the word 'virus' mean 'I can't use the program'

In the early 90’s I wrote a POS program for a chain of muffler stores. After the program was deployed and adequately debugged, I would routinely receive phone calls that would always start with ’ I think that there is a virus in the system’. The conversation would follow similar lines;
ME: “Why do you think that there is a virus present”
CUSTOMER: “The screen is all black and nuthin is happening”
ME: “Is the computer turned on.”
CUSTOMER:" Yup"
ME: “Is the monitor turned on”
CUSTOMER: “That fixed it, everything is working now”
This is just one snippet of computer misuse that the user attributed to the ubiquitous and omnipresent virus. How did computing get to the point where every time something went wrong with a computer, everyone would just shout ‘virus’ or ‘Nortons’

Just tell them it’s the PEBKAC virus :slight_smile:

Must be a Canadian acronym that I am not familiar with. Elaborate if you dare.

_roblem _xists _etween _eyboard _nd _omputer

Sounds like an ID ten T virus.

I have been selling fonts for quite a while. Fonts have absolutely no executable code in them. Yet, I regularly get people telling me a font placed a virus in their computer.

Ignorance and stupidity have very little limits…

There’s a saying that when you finally build something idiot proof the world creates a better idiot
Natural selection at work

[quote=197542:@Michel Bujardet]I have been selling fonts for quite a while. Fonts have absolutely no executable code in them. Yet, I regularly get people telling me a font placed a virus in their computer.

Ignorance and stupidity have very little limits…[/quote]
That said, a corrupt font file can cause all kinds of issues on a computer.

Chair makes more sense.

On Windows at least they can. I have a few 2D barcode fonts that are essentially ActiveX libraries.

True. I am talking about fonts thoroughly tested and which I am absolutely sure they cannot be the issue. It costed me much more than the Xojo Pro license to acquire and use the best font tools available to make sure they comply with the standard. Plus these fonts have been around for some of them since the nineties and constantly maintained for the current platforms.

Barcode fonts cannot be used directly and do require logic to work. My own Barcode Wizard is a Xojo (RB in the past) program which takes care of the assembly of the Barcode Fonts. I went that route instead of using an ActiveX precisely because I did not want to part from the standard handling of fonts.

Another issue I had with so called viruses are in fact the spandrels who repackage evaluation packages in “installers” and use that vector to surreptitiously install all sorts of browser bars or system verifiers, hijack the start page or other niceties. These people are a disgrace.

almost
Problem exists between Keyboard and Chair

if it existed between keyboard and computer, just replace the wire :slight_smile:

oops… didn’t seet that Thom corrected it already :slight_smile:

I can remember an instance where one of the gals in my area went out to train a person in the use of some software that we had written. While she was doing the training she noticed a secretary in the corner of the room getting up every now and then and turning off the light. She would go back to her seat, do a little more and then get up and turn the light back on. When the gal was done with her training session her curiosity was tweaked so she went over to the secretaries desk and asked here why she was turning the light on and off. The secretary explained that she had recently been trained on the use of the computer and was told that she should never extract the floppy drive when the light was on. Our gal quickly explained to her what light they were talking about and left. We all had a good laugh when our gal got back.

You never know what’s in those pirated downloads. Sometimes karma is wonderful. :stuck_out_tongue:

Harrie… THANK YOU… THANK YOU … THANK YOU… I really needed a good laugh today… and that one brought tears to my eye

Dave - just as it did to us the day it happened, About the best I ever encountered

I realized that this is a hardware issue in a software forum, but back in the early 1970’s when I was working tech support in an audio/visual equipment firm I got a call from a field technician with about 20 years experience. He requested we send him some new fuses for the machine he was working on. When I informed him that there some spares in the packet in the back of the machine, he told me he had checked and they were all bad; they were all shorted out. So, puzzled, I asked him just how he believed fuses worked. (I swear that this is the honest truth!) He told me that they sit between the hot and cold sides of the power line so that if anything went wrong in the machine they would short out and prevent electricity from getting into the machine. Thankfully the phone had a mute button so he couldn’t hear me laughing. Once more in control of myself, I told him to just go ahead and put one in and, lo and behold, the machine worked again.

I loved working with the public - they were so entertaining.

I once asked a customer to send me a copy of their data and received a fax with two floppies on it…

I’ve heard of people photo-copying their floppies… but I’m going out on a limb here and ASSUMING you meant floppy disk :smiley:

1970’s and 80’s computer jargon was riddled with so much sexual innuendo. Floppy disks, Hard disks etc.