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Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sung Q. Kim who wrote (1302)	2/2/1998 5:27:00 AM
From: Bob Zacks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

AT&T and @Home still slowly working on a deal: "But executives close to the talks, who described themselves as being under "a serious gag order," said last week that AT&T's negotiations with TCI are not endangered -- just slowed by routine processes." multichannel.com

To: Sung Q. Kim who wrote (1302)	2/2/1998 5:31:00 PM
From: Sowbug	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

This is something that you should forward to everyone you know: If you ever receive an e-mail warning you not to open particular e-mails because of their subject line (Join The Crew, Good Times, Welcome, etc.), go ahead and open it, print it, spell-check it, or delete it. But whatever you do, do not forward it to anyone! These e-mails are a joke. The joke is that the e-mail itself IS the virus (though it's totally harmless), and the way it propagates is through well-meaning but misinformed people like Mr. Kim who send it to five of their friends, who each send it to five of their friends, and so on . . . always with a little note like "Hi Joe, here's something someone just sent me. This one sounds pretty scary. Be careful." I have to admit, whoever thought this one up (it originally appeared in 1994, referring to the nonexistent "Good Times" virus) was pretty clever because it's a total parody of computer viruses. It's actually more robust than real computer viruses -- no matter how many times and in how many different ways you tell a person that reading an e-mail cannot possibly harm a computer, a certain percentage will still forward the warning message to their friends and colleagues, thereby ensuring the survival of the "virus." It's true that you shouldn't run programs that people e-mail you, and that you should be careful if someone tries to e-mail you a Microsoft Word document (because of macro viruses), but the idea of an e-mail harming your computer is EXACTLY the same as saying that listening to a particular commercial on the radio can break your radio. Now the latest version has made it to SI.