More Computer Games

Oklahoma Republican Senator James Inhofe has declared global warming to be a hoax. I suggest that if the Senator wants to investigate hoaxes, he should start by investigating computer virus warnings. I've just been burned by such a hoax for the second time this year.

Earlier this year, I forwarded an e-mail I had received warning about a computer virus showing up as an e-mail in people's inboxes. I sent it as an omnibus e-mail to everyone I knew, including a friend with a private e-mail address that only two other people were privy to. I inadvertently sent it to that e-mail address, allowing everyone else who got the e-mail to see it. I almost lost this person - who has a Mac, which doesn't get viruses - as a friend that way. The warning turned out to be a hoax. A fellow from my writer's group, a computer expert, investigated it on Snopes.com.

Last night I got another e-mail in my inbox warning me of another killer virus and forwarded it to everyone I knew. My mother had forwarded it to me. I didn't send it to my friend with the Mac, or to anyone whom I suspected had one. While there was a virus like the one described, it had been around for years, and it doesn't do even half the damage it's supposed to cause, if in fact it's still around at all. The warning was supposed to have come from Snopes itself. Actually, it was more of a warning about the warning; it advised not to take the warning very seriously.

"I thought it sounded like a hoax," my mother said.

:-O

I'm the boy who cried wolf. I shouldn't be the boy who cries wolf. I'm a Volkswagen enthusiast; I should be the boy who cries Wolfsburg.

Anyway, a woman from my writer's group, another computer expert, told me about this being no big deal and added I should be very careful before sending out such warnings that needlessly scare everyone. I replied that it's better to be safe than sorry.

Well, everyone was safe, but the only one who turned out to be sorry was . . . me.

I'm afraid that what will happen is that I'll ignore the next "warning" I get and not tell anyone. Then it will turn out to be true and I'll get an infection that's more like a fatal disease.

So, Mr. Inhofe, maybe you'd like to look into these hoaxes and stop making it hard for Lisa Jackson to do her job over at the EPA?