April 4, 2000

7:19 PM

"It is already possible for an assassin to send someone an e-mail with an innocent-looking attachment connected to it. When the receiver downloads the attachment, the electrical current and molecular structure of the central processing unit is altered, causing it to blast apart like a large hand grenade."
posted by endquote (9 comments total)

I'd say the story is bull, but after all, I am but an average person, and cannot hope to imagine such technology.
posted by endquote at 7:22 PM on April 4, 2000

Yes, it's frightening, isn't it? Why, just the other day our web designer said that if we didn't give him a raise, he'd code our Web pages to slowly rot. What could we do? He said he knew "achteeemell," which I assume is some sort of web virus.
posted by tranquileye at 7:28 PM on April 4, 2000

The best line is this:

"Even people who are familiar with how computers work have trouble getting their minds around the terrible things that can be done."

Because (duh!) obviously only people who are *not* familiar with how computers work will be able to program this sort of thing.

Luckily, all of those people are busy working for Microsoft.
posted by sperare at 7:32 PM on April 4, 2000

I saw this type of thing over at arstechnica, they ran a discussion/talk back article and are now lampooning their readers posts. Rather low, in my opinion. Anyway, here's the link

In fact... Nanotechnology rumors and theories are everywhere and have been around for since the time we discovered atoms. The late night talk show host Art Bell has been discussing this for years.

I think there has been some truthful and interesting projects in miniturization, however this is a far cry from nanotechnology as it has been traditionally theorized.

Besides, if this were indeed true, why just blow up CPU's? Why not send signals to telephones, cell phones, TV's, cars, planes, etc. Wow, you thought Y2K was going to be a bitch?!?
posted by Dean_Paxton at 7:55 PM on April 4, 2000

Speaking of which - here is an embarassing story:

I was living in a really rotten apartment at the time. Above what passes for a punk rock bar here in Columbus, OH - and it was awful and had mice. Miserable time and all that (no heat even!).

So one night as I'm sleeping and this man comes on Art Bell's show (yes, I listen to bad talk radio to fall asleep). Gary North is basically this crazy man who thought y2k would kill us all, etc. you know the score here.

But it was late, and I was half asleep and I panicked. "I am going to die" I thought. I stayed up all night fretting about how I would save up the cash to get food for the y2k.

Of course, Gary North hasn't updated post-y2k. And of course the whole scare was all crap anyway.
posted by jbeaumont at 9:03 PM on April 4, 2000

Umm, am I the only one that read the "headlines" for other stories carried by this website?

My personal favourite was, of course, "Voodoo queen who died in 1881 helps Missouri mom win $2 million lottery!"


posted by Ms Snit at 5:25 AM on April 5, 2000

Dream interpretation by Anjelica:-
Dear Mixed up, Dreaming about being escorted by demons in a circus environment symbolizes unhappiness. It is also a warning against taking a risk in any automobile.
As if 'Mixed Up' wasn't mixed up enough already.
posted by Markb at 5:44 AM on April 5, 2000

IIRC, Gary North has been predicting the end of the world for decades, In the 70s, the commies were going to nuke us. In the 80s, I think it was AIDS or Ebola or some other super-virus that was going to kill us all. As soon as somebody invents the 2000's version of the Apocalypse, North will be all over it.
posted by harmful at 6:19 AM on April 5, 2000

Why hasn't Gary North already jumped all over Bill Joy's predictions?
posted by wendell at 10:03 AM on April 5, 2000