Bogus iPod Virus

So it is basically a LINUX virus, (Debatable as it does not replicate its self, one necessary function for a computer virus or a real virus), that will also work on an Apple iPod should you have installed it (Linux), then told the ‘code’, (virus) to start.

A bit like installing Windows XP on a Intel based Macintosh, or on to a PPC based Macintosh via Virtual PC, not putting antivirus software on and then connecting to he internet. Sure way of getting a viruses, and you can truthfully say you Macintosh has viral infections. Not the same at the Macintosh or in the case of the iPod getting a virus!

Was it not an Apple rival that actually sold a batch of their music player with an actual virus on it?

Forgive me if my grammar is not the great, I’m from Scotland!


Oh by the way Feelgipe here in Scotland means: Feel – stupid, Gipe – acting foolishly.

Wow, you boys really know how to waste a Friday, huh?!

My 2c: if somebody is paid to write, they should write correctly - that's their job. The same thing doesn't apply to comments.

However, I never knew Macboys were so sensitive about this issue, its quite funny!

"Not sure whether its [sic] a lack of ability to write English..."
"No Ryan, its [sic] called incorrect grammar..."
"...and I and many others give credit where its due."
"...even if my comment were [sic] full of grammatical errors..."

"its [sic] interesting to see how a comment about incorrect grammar riles so many readers."

Biffo


Grammar Police! Pull over. Not usually one to be a dick, but if you're trying to be a pompous grammar nerd, you should pay extra attention to your own posts. Its vs it's is pretty simply, and you have consistently made this mistake.

Biffo:

"Nice try tundraboy, but that sentence is imperative not interrogative as you wrongly assume. So while I'm not childish enough to call someone I've never met an "ass", I have to say you appear to be moving in that direction."

'Could' is a modal auxilliary verb, and therefore - when used as a request - generally assumes an interrogative mood, thus requiring a question mark. Without the "could" you'd be correct.

Let's not forget your lack of apostrophe in "its" either.

Biffo,

Given the choice of being polite or grammatically correct, I would choose to be polite every single time. However, why not be both whenever possible? You could have made your very valid point without the profanity. But, that's just my opinion. I think the world needs a bit of class more than it needs grammatical correctness.

Also, could you please refer to the following link regarding usage of basic modals?
http://www.eslgold.com/grammar/basic_modals.html

Have a nice day! Bubba

I know I shouldn't reply to a troll, but...well, I'm feeling rather saucy today:

"And assuming you have the right to tell other people where and when to comment? Well, I'm afraid that's just snotty."

I'm pretty sure Simon wasn't trying to tell people what they can and cannot do, but instead to provide a helpful guideline for commenting. It makes sense to ME, at any rate.

Your initial comment was rude and pointless, biffo. When I see a grammatical error in an article, I either ignore it (99% of the time-I've got better things to do with my day), or I post a comment without verifying it. The comment will go to the poster, but since it wasn't verified it won't show up here. Either way, you come out ahead because you won't get flamed left, right and centre.

As condescending as Biffo is being, I absolutely agree with his point: the quality of writing on not only this blog, but many others (i.e. Engadget, DownloadSquad, etc.) is just not quite up to par. It's really not that hard to either double-check your own work to weed out mistakes, or get someone else to do the same for you.

As for superadam's post: at no point has anyone here suggested that TUAW's writers change their tone, only the *quality* of the English in their posts. If correct punctuation, capitalization and so on are all it takes to make an academic essay, I quake in my boots for the future of our respective education systems. English text can be written in a conversational tone without having grammatical mistakes; I hate to break it to you, but your own post (assuming "ok" is allowable in lowercase) is alarmingly lacking in errors, but is still written conversationally! :)

In other news, this is absolutely not a virus. It simply doesn't count. It takes more than malicious intent to make a virus for any platform; that's why adware, spyware and the like aren't called viruses, but rather lumped under the broader term of malware. Podloso is malware, but is absolutely not a virus.

Nice try tundraboy, but that sentence is imperative not interrogative as you wrongly assume. So while I'm not childish enough to call someone I've never met an "ass", I have to say you appear to be moving in that direction.

Your attempt at being smart would still have been irrelevant, even if my comment were full of grammatical errors, as I am not being paid to write for TUAW, nor do I make any contribution to the quality of the articles on the site.

Which, had you not been so distracted by your desperate need to appear clever, you would have realised was the whole point of this.

Looking at the bigger picture however, its interesting to see how a comment about incorrect grammar riles so many readers. I wonder if people like tundraboy ever stop to wonder why. (Hmmm, maybe there should be a question mark at the end of that last sentence - maybe tundraboy could enlighten us...)

Well said tundraboy..! :)

"In other words, it spreads through all these executables, like a biological virus spreading through tissue. How far it goes is, presumably, only dependant on how many .elf files there are there in a particular installation."

My understanding was that a virus infects the other files with a copy of itself, and possibly some other malicious code. The description sounds to me as if it patches every .elf it finds with a message, but not with a copy of the virus, meaning it wouldn't spread further.

If my definition is correct, then in order to be classified as a virus then it would have to be attached to another file that is executable, and then infect other files with a copy of itself in the same manner. I would think that Podloso could have been designed in this way and attack .elf's that the current user is allowed to modify, but it wasn't for some reason.

Whatever it is, it's lame. Besides, viruses are classified by the OS they run on, not the hardware. You don't hear about Dell Dimension viruses or x86 viruses, you hear about Windows viruses and unix viruses.