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Date: 30 Nov 1983 1517-PST From: Craig Milo Rogers <ROGERS at USC-ISIB> To: TCP-IP at SRI-NIC Re: Netmail Spreads Common Cold Marina del Rey, CA (IP) -- Public health officials reported a sharp upswing in common colds among computer scientists this year. The new cold strains originally appear in major computer centers, then spread throughout the country in a matter of hours. Researchers grappling with this issue have concluded that there is only one possible explanation for the sudden appearance and rapid dissemination of the colds: they are spread through electronic mail. It is a long established fact that colds and other diseases may be transmitted through the mail. Viruses and bacteria accumulate on a letter while it is being written. The viruses and bacteria are dormant while the letter is in transit. When the letter is opened, the viruses and bacteria are shaken into the air and inhaled by the recipient, who becomes infected. A lesser-known fact is that colds may be spread over the phone. This usually occures when an infected individual sneezes into a public phone. The next individual to use that same phone will often be infected by the viruses and bacteria on the phone's mouthpiece. However, what most people don't know is that when a person with a cold sneezes into a phone, the person at the other end may be infected if they were holding their phone close enough for the germs to enter their ear canal. It is now possible to demonstrate similar effects for Internet mail. If a person sneezes while sending a message in Hermes or MM, the recipient stands a fair chance of catching the same cold. Strangely enough, this effect has not occured with multimedia mail, perhaps because it currently uses UDP datagrams instead of TCP connections between the user terminals and the mail forwarders. Other electronic mail systems also spread diseases. For example, UUCP spreads Unix. Of particular concern are the electronic mailing lists. Each message sent to one of these lists is replicated and retransmitted to dozens or even hundreds of recipients. A single infected message can strike dozens of victims coast-to-coast within a matter of minutes. Public health officials are quite worried about MCI mail, which uses both printed and electronic delivery systems, thus threatening the health of the entire nation. Internet Header Health Inspectors will work closely with the Protocol Police in the next few months to develop methods of dealing with infected packets. Netmail may be delayed at Internet Gateways if the Innoculated-by: records are not current. The EGP Quarantine command will be used to isolate Autonomous Systems which are suspected of sending contaminated datagrams. A recently released DoD report suggests that part of the impetus behind the ARPANET/Milnet split and the current partitioned network research, is to minimize the possible effects of Internet Bacteriological Warfare. These problems are also being pursued by the International Standards Organization. The committee on Open Systems Innoculation (ISO/OSInnoc) recently released a draft report on a 7-layer cold encapsulation for use by the World Health Organization in Third World Nations. Date: 4 Dec 1983 11:32-PST From: CERF at USC-ISI To: ROGERS at USC-ISIB cc: TCP-IP at SRI-NIC Re: Netmail Spreads Common Cold Message-ID: <[USC-ISI] 4-Dec-83 11:32:23.CERF> In-Reply-To: Msg of 30 Nov 83 1517-PST from Craig Milo Rogers <ROGERS@USC-ISIB> CRAIG, MCI MAIL PASSES THROUGH THE X.25 FILTER BEFORE IT CAN GO ANYWHERE. AS A CONSEQUENCE, NO GERMS SURVIVE. HELL, THE PACKETS ALMOST DON'T SURVIVE GOING THROUGH X.25, LET ALONE SOME POOR BACTERIUM... VINT CERF