The Mac virus that isn't

remember we're in post-modern.

where can i download this? your article just links to the site but they don't have a download link...

The reason they used a TiBook to show this video (it's not an application) is that an AluBook or MacBook Pro won't open very far.

On a half opened laptop the notion of Up and Down relative to the motion sensor becomes rather confusing. This is art, not science.

Unfortunately my Alubook opens almost as far now, but it has the side effect that it doesn't lock anymore since the hinges are deformed.

TiBooks don't have SMS.

However they are much better looking than Alu PB G4s or MBPs so I can understand why they used one for the image.

Seriously--where can we download this thing?? Anywhere?

i think people have forgotten what viruses are. back in the 80s and early 90s viruses were playful things that could make pigs fly on your computer screen or funny messages to pop-up. i remember me and my friends creating one that replaces the wallpaper from a floppy disk and the new wallpaper would be the old one with an error message "do you want to suicide. yes. no." viruses were jokes that everyone enjoyed and that was the definition of a virus. something that happens beyond the user's control. eventually viri (if that's how you spell it) became dangerous things and a security threat and the definition was changed. when these people say it's a mac virus they dont mean the kind you think they do. they're bringing back the old nostalgic feeling of viri (again, no clue on spelling :P) on macs.

as for the doubt as to how it happens, i think it works like the USB MSN hack on windows. an invisible non-changable-address hidden directory that overwrites something the computer has hidden (or copies it for the msn case) and then when the computer restarts and checks its files, it overrides it as an unknown, unneeded script - that's my smartest guess.

I'm still curious how this auto-download works, I'd really like this ability for non-malicious use just to make my life easier.

Makes me think of the old mitten-touch typing extension. It'd replace random characters when typing with one near on the keyboard.

I'm going to have to get a hold of this for April 1st.

So where can we get that USB drive (I couldn't care less about the "virus")

From some of the comments here I'm assuming that it's available for download somewhere?

Otherwise I see no reason to believe that it's necessarily anything more than a movie being played, or at most some clever programming. If they've found a way to really copy it from the USB stick without any user interaction that would be pretty big news.

As it is, it's a fun video that it bound to amuse anyone fairly computer literate and scare anyone who isn't. TUAW is right, though - there is a serious and genuine danger of misunderstanding and misinterpretation here.