Ah. The Mac Observer actually moved on from the “Macs don’t get infected by computer viruses” and tried to figure out how many viruses actually exist for Macs. Out of 71000 known viruses, there are 553 Microsoft Word Macro viruses which could affect Mac users using Word, there are 26 that can hit Mac Classic operating systems, and there are zero known viruses that target OS X.
We’re like Superman. Impervious. Ha.
I'm Jill Walker Rettberg, an associate professor at the University of Bergen, and I do research on how people tell stories online. I'm affiliated with the Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies. I've been a research blogger since October 2000.
I'm usually best contacted by email.
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June 2008: Blogging, a book by Jill Walker Rettberg, published by Polity Press. (Table of Contents)
May 2008: Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader, co-edited by yours truly and Hilde G. Corneliussen, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.
Browse my other publications on electronic literature, electronic art and weblogs. I also enjoy speaking in public, for general and specialised audiences, and I've posted summaries of many of my talks and presentations to the blog.
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January 30th, 2004 at 17:22
Actually, not _that_ impervious. Unless they’re completely offline (and who nowadays is?) Mac and Linux users alike suffer from the effects of bad Windows security. At the moment I have a hard time downloading my mail, probably because the server is flooded with the latest MyDoom virus or whatever. Perhaps we should invent a separate Internet, restricted to users with proper firewalls and secure OSs? :-)
February 8th, 2004 at 22:05
I think that would bee a very nice idea. But the reason there is so few viruses for linux and mac is that there is more fun in taking down 100000000 windows machines, than taking down 20000 mac machines, or 15000 linux PC that is vunerable to exactly your virus. If the whole world used mac, (or linux platform) it would mean more viruses for mac and linux. So pherhaps just be greateful that somone else is taking the hit.
In my choice of platform, the risk of getting viruses did matter,now i don’t think i even got an anti-virus program around.
August 25th, 2004 at 13:50
“I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space.”