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Hi Anindya, A couple of points: a)There are lots of hoax emails out there. Ranging from the one about Microsoft paying out money if their email is forwarded to the most number of people, to the one about the Class 12 student in Haryana who developed an OS of his own (not to say it's not possible :-). It is possible to detect such hoaxes by checking on certain sites (one of which was posted by Indranil). One problem with hoaxes is that it floods the emails of people unnecessarily. For example, I have received emails on the MS money making scheme and the "O-Yes" OS :-) developed by the class 12 guy at least a dozen times. And every time I wish I hadn't received it, cause it takes my time. If a hoax is sent out on a mailing list of 1500+ people, then the annoyance value is amplified. If there is a way to verify a virus threat before sending it out, it ought to be done, it will save a lot of people a lot of inconvenience. I bet, sysadmins who receive virus threat emails would definitely want to verify whether it is true, and it takes up their time unnecessarily if it is a hoax. So, if you can save some time of people, it is considered good etiquette to do so. So, I would think that if such alarmist messages are received, especially ones that say "Please send it to everyone you know, and his brother", then verification of that email is a must! Hoaxes will almost always ask you to forward the email to the most no. of recipients bacause that's how they propagate. b)All said and done, this is a Linux list. And as you said the line between what is or is not Linux or whether something could be or could not be of interest to Linux users is a little blurred. And here is where your judgement comes in. Exercise it. Thanks, Prashant Verma On 9/8/05, Linux Lover <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >=20 > Thank you soumya for your explaination. I was not getting the > explaination from anybody else. You know very well that we can open a > power point presentation from Linux. Am I right? So, how it becomes a > off topic? Can anybody give a gurantee that the hoax will not convert to > a virus or a threat after a certain time period? Is it then be called as > hoax? Who can say the file will not contain some harmful codes. > Moreover, there are a lot of students and professionals who use MS > products also. What is the harm if they come to know of the fact via > this platform? Tell me clearly, who feels that it is a propaganda to use > MS products or like that? Is it so? So, how it becomes a off topic > thread when it can be opened using open source products? How it becomes > a off topic if the file may contain some harmful codes written in java > or in c++? How it becomes a off topic thread if the harmful codes are > targetted for linux boxes? Who can say it cannot harm your computer only > by corrupting your MBR? There are a lot of examples of such platform > independent codes which can go through a process to harm your computer. > So, what is wrong if I aware you not to open such files. Hope you have > looked my sturcture of sentenses and it was targetted for those who MAY > find it useful. If somebody do not find it useful, he may and he is free > to bypass the message. Is it at all useless? I got a reply from you who > find it as useful info. This is my intension regarding the message, so > that nobody of our friend circle do not fall in trouble created by some > bad codes. -- To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the body "unsubscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. FAQ: http://www.ilug-cal.org/node.php?id=3
