My e-mail is sick!
Today's big web news is that another strain of the Sobig virus has leapt out into the wild. This virus preys on a flaw in Outlook for Win32, forges e-mail headers (including the sender) and mass-replicates itself to infected addresses on the host machine.
Luckily, most people have good virus protection, so when they get these infected e-mails, they're safe and don't spread it. Unluckily, most virus-checking e-mail apps helpfully send a reply back to the sender, telling them that they have sent an infected e-mail. Here's where the trouble starts. For the Sobig virus, the "from" field is forged (as is the case with most e-mail viruses). In practical terms, this means that I've been deluged with "helpful" e-mails telling me that I've sent out the Sobig virus today. Literally dozens upon dozens of emails have landed in my inbox today. (Insert rant about how "if everyone used Macs (or hell, a decent e-mail app), we wouldn't be in this mess" here.)
So here's a helpful tip for all those people writing e-mail virus checking apps - don't send out "you are infected" e-mails for viruses where the "from" field is known to be false. It just makes things worse.