Junk Food Essay

Basically, it’s anything that is high in calories but lacking in nutrition. Hamburgers, chips, chocolate bars and hot dogs fall in this category. Pizzas, although they can have vegetable and cheese toppings, are also included as they contain a lot of fat. Obviously, a diet of junk food is not the best thing for your health, particularly as it is highly saturated fat. In 1993, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reported this type of fat to be associated with greater risk of cancer. Apart from the risk of cancer, another side effect of consuming highly fattening junk food is that you are likely to gain weight. This is especially true because you tend to eat more, as junk food is less satisfying and lower in vital nutrients than healthier food. The best advice, then, for those who cannot live without their hamburgers or chocolate bars, is to limit the amount of junk food they eat. Another alarming thing about people’s lifestyle today is that while the amount of junk food we eat has increased, the amount of exercise we do has actually decreased. Exercise plays an important part in keeping the body fit and healthy; it helps to control our weight and, if taken regularly, can also decrease our chances of having a heart attack in later life. What is more, you don’t have to exercise much to gain visible benefits. Twenty minutes three times a week is all that is necessary. Even though people nowadays are actually far more aware of the importance of exercise and a healthy diet then they were a few years ago. The new unhealthy way of life is surprisingly popular. Recent research has shown that young French people, who prefer burgers and chips to rich gourmet dishes, tend to become overweight. Weight gained in adolescence is extremely hard to lose in later life, so researchers are predicting that the new French generations are not going to be admired for their slim figures as the French have traditionally been. Researchers suggest that the new generation will be much more likely to suffer from heart and liver disease. What can’t be emphasized enough is the fact that a balanced diet and regular exercise bring significant health benefits. You can gain anything from glowing skin to an all-round feeling of good health. One way or another, the vast majority of people seem to be missing out on this, due mainly to the pressures of modern life. Ironically, if they were to make time to exercise and improve their eating habits, they would probably find that they were far better equipped to deal with their stressful lifestyles than they are now.

Summary of ‘Villa for Sale’

A  for sale is a drama written by Sacha Guitry. In this drama Juliette puts up her villa for sale. some customers come to see the villa but they do not buy it. after almost a month, Juliette gets a call saying a lady will come to buy it. a french couple Gaston and Jeanne come to take a look at the villa. while waiting for the owner of the villa, gaston indicater that he has no intention of buying a villa. Juliette enters and gives a complete discription of the villa. after much bargaining Juliette reduces the price from 2,50,000 francks to 2,00,000 francks. aston doesn ‘t agree and is about to leave when Jeanne wants to have a look around the villa. Jeanne wants to see the upper floor Gaton doesn ‘t joins them. Mrs al Smith arrives to look at the villa. she mistakes Gaston as the owner of the villa. She buys the villa for 3,00,000 francks. When Jeanne returns after looking at the top floor,she indicates that she has lost the idea of buying the villa but Gaston desires t o buy the villa for 2,00,000 francks. Juliette is still unaware that Gaston has sold the villa to mrs al smith. Gaston ‘s ingenuitnity is later discovered by Jeanne. Villa for sale is nothing but just about a woman( Juliette) who sells her house to a couple in hastiness,and Mr. Gatson who buys the house sells it to another american who assumes Gatson to be the husband of juliette when his wife Jeanne and Juliette go to inspect the top floor of the house. it is all about the tricky minded Gatson. ] n my point of view – the whole drama itself is a satire (wrote with one intention, to ridicule a person in the form of a poem or a play). Here Gaston is a witty character and throughout the drama he does not agree with Jeanne thinking that this villa is impossible. His words are short but very thoughtful. He is extremely witty and clever in his replies. â€Å"On the principle of people who like children and haven't any can always go live near a school† As the summary we can conclude that the use of a character like Gaston enhanced the thoughts of the writer thus helping the reader visualize what the real story is about. By another post I have described all the the characters of Villa For Sale. Because I haven't putt it in here I thought it is boring read a such long post at once.

Recommendations and strategic message Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Recommendations and strategic message - Essay Example Goldenberg (103) says that the service process in the service organization revolves around the customers. The process commences when the customer interacts with the system and is completed when the customer exists the system. The Service processes at the Straits begins with the customer entering the restaurant, the customer is then led to the dining table, before he reviews the menu. After reviewing the menu, the customer should place the order, the meal is then prepared before it is served to the customer. The customer is finally expected to pay the bill after eating the meal and before exiting the restaurant. In the process of serving the guest, the servers and the hostess at the restaurant should give the customers personalized attention though warm reception, provision of enough utensils, serving guest with beverages and water besides being attentive to any other needs of the guests. It is worth noting that the customer should experience satisfaction as he is taken through each of these stages of service process at the restaurant (Goldenberg 102). The satisfaction will be experienced through personalized attention from the servers and the hosts who are expected to be welcoming, attentive, and responding fast to the demands of the customers. a) The issue: the major issue at straits is that the hostess are not at the podium at all times to greet the guest besides acting unprofessionally. The primary data shows that the hostess were not available to greet the guests 60% of the time. c) Reasons for service improvement recommendations: 1). the customers have a bad attitude about Straits-most guest said that the hostess were unprofessional in the way they serve guest 2). Poor division of labor-for instance, some hostess were serving guests yet that is the role of servers, 3). Slow action- for instance the hostess have to reminded several times to attend to the guests. d) Recommendations: the objective of the recommendations is to

Arizona Real Estate Market Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Arizona Real Estate Market - Research Paper Example The U.S. is still struggling to recover from this crisis to date. Despite the crash, Arizona is reported to have had one of the best recoveries from the crash throughout the U.S. This paper analyzes the causes of Arizona’s real estate market crash. It will also describe why Arizona is having one of the best recoveries of the real estate market in the U.S. The crash of Arizona’s real estate market was caused by a number of factors according to a study. Firstly, economists argue that the crash was caused by poor lending practices that the adopted by lenders just before the crash. In this regard, banks are reported to have lent a lot of money to mortgagers without taking into account their ability to repay the loans. As a result, when the economy of the country started declining, many mortgage owners began experiencing difficulties repaying the loans and the mortgage interests resulting in default. Consequently, since there were no enough homebuyers in the market, prices of homes in Arizona dropped to an all time low leading to the crash (Vannutini Par. 3). The crash was also caused by speculative buying rather than sheltering. A research conducted by the National association of Realtors found out that about 23 percent of homebuyers only do so for investment purposes while about 13 percent of those surveyed identified their buying for vacation, which in itself signifies speculation. A research indicated that a majority of homebuyers from Arizona real estate market bought their houses at low interest adjustable rates with the intention of keeping their costs as low as possible then sold them at higher prices for profit. With speculation, buyers kept off the market when prices are high and making purchases when prices are low. The more the speculation continued the more the market prices declined leading to crash of the market (DeGrace Par.5). Low interest rate is also cited as the leading cause of the Arizona real

English 305 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

English 305 - Assignment Example In such a way, the following analysis will seek to analyze to articles upon the topic of global warming (Kunzig 21). The first of these articles takes the viewpoint the global warming is very much caused by human activity and can only be slowed by a definitive and corrective process of engagement on the part of nearly each and every societal stakeholder. Conversely, the second article takes the standpoint that global warming is a natural process, one that is ultimately contingent upon the sun, not human activity, and will necessarily run its course and give way to a cooler era in the near future. The first article, entitled â€Å"Collective Action and Citizen Responses to Global Warming†, discusses the way in which global warming threatens to have drastic impacts upon the way in which individuals live their lives, raise their families, and plan for discernible future (Lubell 399). As such, impacts upon factors such as increased temperatures leading to reduced crop yields, the effects of decreased oxygen in the atmosphere and the possibility for plaintiff and other compliments of the global food chain to be reduced, and the way in which decreased water supplies in some of the more arid regions of the world could easily lead to global conflict. Naturally, none of these determinants is especially hopeful and the reader is left with the take away that unless global warming is stopped, the repercussions of it will create a less than enticing environment in the very near future. By contrast, the article entitled, â€Å"Global Warming: The Hoax of the Century† takes a greatly different stance. Although it is mostly rhetorical in its analysis, this particular article focuses upon the fact that the scientific models and means of analytics that are being referenced to prove global warming are ultimately flawed. Moreover, the author points to the fact that the winds of politics at impacted upon the way in which individuals view the issue, and indeed the way in which scientists are representing it to the general populace (Mardell 15). Most importantly, the article itself puts forward its own set of scientific factors and discusses the manner in which the sun, the entity responsible for warming our planet and keeping the crust of planet Earth from being frozen, as is the case with so many of the other neighboring planets, is ultimately responsible for any fluctuations in global temperature that had been referenced lately. Naturally, the common sense approach that this particular article puts forward allows the individual to come to something of a realization for the fact that global warming, although potentially a serious problem, might not have the human causation that so many individuals and scientists have doggedly been pointing to the past several decades. From the complete and thorough analysis of both of these articles, a more nuanced understanding of what causes global warming and how it is reference within the current dialogue wa s understood. Ultimately, with the available evidence that exists, it is clear to discern that humans are having a negative impact upon their plan. Regardless of whether an individual is an extreme

Data Mining and Big Data Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Data Mining and Big Data - Assignment Example It is very essential to note that a deep scrutiny of real world commercial implementation of data, makes the International Business Machines (IBM) come out as one of organizations with a high quality ‘Big data’ hub. At this company’s ‘Big data’ hub, large volumes of information are handled, which are actually very hard to process in a traditional database. The data hub is composed is of data mining engines integrated to aid in easy handling of data. The integration of data mining in IBM has made very easy and fast for the company to manage and process data in its globally placed (using cloud technology) immense data warehouses. Thus, this makes it clear that although the data is large, it is realistically the simplest and easily tolerable data volumes in data mining. In this sense, I hereby agree that the term ‘Big data’ is actually an over-hyped buzzword for data mining. Microsoft Incorporation is one of the most successful software companies globally. Due to the large data volumes handled at the company, the subject of ‘Big data’ in the company has also been a subject of concern. At this company, issues related to ‘Big data’ have usually been experienced in scenarios where the organization’s traditional database system is exhausted with the ever-increasing data volumes. This includes operating system files, cache files, customer data and management information system data. However, through the adoption of data mining engines, Microsoft Incorporation has smoothly been handling all the large amounts of data that it shares globally with clients and partners. Therefore, this case study further makes me agree with the statement. Thirdly, Facebook Incorporation is a social network website that manages online communication for over a billion global users a month. These users share messages, photos, poking, placing status and storing personal data. In essence, the company handles very immense and

Analytical Methods in Economics and Finance Assignment

Analytical Methods in Economics and Finance - Assignment Example this basis establishes similarity in life satisfaction among males and females. Consistency in other values such as standard deviation that was 1.67 for males and 1.71 for females, skewdness that was -1.31 for males and -1.27 for females, and range, minimum, and maximum values that were all similar for males and females supports the position that life satisfaction for both males and females assume the same trend. The following table summarizes descriptive statistics for life satisfaction based on gender (Weiers 2011, p. 58- 66). People with in income category 6 offered a higher mean life satisfaction score, 7.84, as compared to people in income category 1 whose mean score was 7.79. The mean and the mode for the two categories was however at score eight to suggest similarity in distribution. With a standard deviation of 1.59 for category 1 and 1.53 for category 2, together with difference in minimum satisfaction value, 0 for category 1 and 3 for category 3, the mean appears the best estimator to suggest that people in income category 6 have higher life satisfaction score than people in category 1 (Healey 2009, p. 85- 125). The high significance value of F, 0.79, relative to the test level of significance of 0.05, means that the null hypothesis is not rejected. This means that no significant relationship exists between life satisfaction, gender, and males and females are equivalently satisfied. The computed value is however higher and this means that the null hypothesis is not rejected. The regression coefficient is therefore zero and this shows that life satisfaction does not depend on gender and confirms the observation that the distribution of life satisfaction score, by gender is the same. The p-value is however greater and the null hypothesis is not rejected. This means that there is no significant relationship between money (income

Foster Care for Children Speech or Presentation

Foster Care for Children - Speech or Presentation Example A5.Independent former foster youth between the ages 18 and 21 are eligible to receive certain medical benefits to which they are legally entitled and desperately need. Research has shown that independent former foster youth have acute health care needs. I strongly feel that given these health care needs, it is appropriate that under current law, these youth are eligible for Medi-Cal by virtue of their status as former foster youth. Despite their eligibility, however, these former foster youth are required to fill out Medi-Cal eligibility forms as a prerequisite to getting the health care services to which they are entitled. It does not make moral or fiscal sense for the state to spend scarce dollars and staff hours making these former foster youth fill out Medi-Cal paperwork since they cannot, by law, be refused eligibility. As a result of this current practice, these foster youth risk losing their medical care when they incorrectly fill out their forms, forms are sent to the wrong a ddresses, or where there are other paperwork delays. A6. According to the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care, courts are responsible for the safety and well-being of children who have been removed from their homes as a result of abuse or neglect. In 2007, there were nearly 80,000 children in foster care, more than 75 percent of whom entered placement as a result of neglect. Half of the children entering foster care in California are age five or under. Domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental illness are factors that contribute to the removal of children from their homes. Q7. What is the cultural background of the majority of the children under foster care What percentage of the children in the State belongs to this category A.7. African-American children constitute seven percent of the state's child population but are more than 30 percent of the children in foster care. Native American children are 0.84 percent of the state's child population but represent 1.41 percent of the children in foster care. Youth who "age out" of foster care often leave the system ill-prepared to live as adults, and face a significantly increased risk of unemployment, homelessness, mental illness, and involvement with the criminal justice system. Q8. Why would the former foster children have special medical needs A 8. While the children are moved out of their own homes to avoid exposure to unpleasant conditions, there is

Federal Reserve and the Great Recession Research Paper

Federal Reserve and the Great Recession - Research Paper Example One of the major causes of the Great Recession was the bursting of the housing bubble. Being a regulator of the monetary system, the Federal Reserve could have seen a crisis coming. The major cause of the housing bubble bursting was that the Fed opted to expand their monetary policy; though the regulation was effectively done, this policy was a contributor to the problem. The Federal Reserve might have bowed to the pressure from the government to have the implementation of the housing policy be implemented. It happened that the dot-com crash was followed by a substantial increase in the printing press that resulted in an increase in the monetary base. Additionally, there was a great cut in the federal funds by Greenspan (from 5.6% in 2001 to 1% in 2003). These factors contributed to an increase in the housing among other investments that utilize huge amounts of capital. The Fed could have intervened at this point and develop a regulatory mechanism to prevent the situation from escala ting to the financial crisis and ultimately the Great Recession. The Federal Reserve failed to develop adequate measures that would deal with the insolvency. Two institutions at the center of the Great Recession, Lehman Brothers, and Washington Mutual became insolvent resulting in their collapse. The Fed made a miscalculated attempt to go ahead and support these institutions instead of giving them a chance to fail, the outcome would have been an increase in the amount of savings as well as investments.

Integrating different perspectives Essay Example for Free

Integrating different perspectives Essay School violence is a growing concern in our schools at present, and it is a reality that we must deal with if we are ever to find solutions for these situations and how to prevent it form happening again. The world was shocked when the recent killings in Virginia Tech occurred last month and somehow it seemed irrational and illogical for an academically excellent student to have committed. But as the images of horror and violence flashed through the millions of television sets across the world, one asks what may have caused the person to commit such acts and what may explain his behavior. Violence is a form of aggression and it is often an outward or overt expression of anger and hostility which is a product of a perceived emotional affront or sense of persecution (Armistead, 1996). There are several psychological perspectives that have looked into the issue of school violence and it has been observed that most if not all of those that have occurred are extremely violent, with the use of weapons and guns and have resulted to the death of one or more individuals in school. There are also other forms of violence which may have gone unnoticed and unreported to school officials but nonetheless have probably involved bullying in its many forms; from physical, emotional, psychological, racial or even technology based. The cognitive psychology perspective says that violence is the end result of mental distortions and cognitive dissonance that an individual may have experienced in relation to his/her relationships and interactions in class and in school. For example, the Korean student who killed 30 people in Virginia Tech said in his video that he was seeking retribution or revenge from the rich kids in school, because he has suffered much from them. The sense of being insulted and humiliated may be imagined but to the student, it is his reality. He may have experienced or witnessed an incidence where a poor student was bullied and he had identified with the person so much that he claimed the action as targeting him. This mental distortion of what is real and not, of the building paranoia causes the person to behave in ways that may lead to violence. When the individual believes that he has nothing left, or that he has suffered so much that it is time to avenge himself in order to stop the mental anguish thus move the person to violent acts like shooting those he perceives as enemies, to burn the school that he feels have been unfair to him or to poison a class who have ridiculed him (Lowry, Sleet, Duncan, Powell Kolbe, 1995). Another perspective that explains school violence and violence per se is the biological and evolutionary psychology perspective. This approach says that there is a biological basis for violence, and that a child who has been violent early in life and who has parents who have violent streaks will likely become violent. The perspective argues that aggression is coded into the brain of the person and that it is a normal reaction that lesser animals have continued to exhibit as a means of protecting themselves from predators, and since we share the same instinctual drives. Violence is a behavior triggered by survival instincts, for example, a student who has been flunked by every teacher in his school may certainly lose the opportunity to graduate from high school or got to college. Now the school is the world of the student, it is where he/she builds relationships, accomplishes something, learns and thrived on. If the student is flunked, then he may cease his existence in the school, or is in danger of falling out from the group and losing his sense of belongingness (Menhard, 2000). This naturally is a threat to his survival in the school and thus would be moved to protect his existence in the school system; he may come to school and kill those who will prevent him from reaching his goals. Lastly, the social learning perspective says that school violence occurs because it is now becoming a social reality and that each child is exposed to so much aggression and hostility that it has now become a social construct that is almost an accepted aspect of the American educational system (Newman, 2005). Social learning theory argues that a child learns a behavior if it is rewarded and reinforced, it is also learned if it is shared and accepted by significant others in the child life. For example, if a child grew up in a family where violence is a normal occurrence, it may lead the child to believe that there is nothing wrong with violence. Moreover, if after hurting someone, the child is able to get what he/she wants, then the behavior in reinforced, if the child is praised for hitting the next door bully, then he would learn that hitting is not wrong. Media influence if not depicts and glamorizes violence perpetuate its perception as a normal aspect of human behavior. The peer group and the school is the most influential group in a student’s life, if the student is thwarted, punished and humiliated by either his peers or the school in general, his only recourse is to become violent in order to redeem his self because it is what people do when they are oppressed. School violence is painful, it is jolting, it is irrational and sometimes quite baffling, but what is common to all of the perspectives is that school violence is only a result, an end product that is brought about only by certain events and experiences and from which more effective means of preventing school violence can be developed. References Armistead, L. (1996).What to do before the violence happens: Designing the crisis communication plan. NASP Bulletin, 80, p. 31-37. Lowry, R. , Sleet, D. , Duncan, C. , Powell, K. Kolbe, L. (1995). Adolescents at risk for violence. Educational Psychology Review, 7, 7-39. Menhard, F. (2000). School Violence: Deadly Lessons. New York: Enslow Publishers. Newman, K. (2005). Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings. New York: Basic Books.

How to write a job application

How to write a job application After completing your studies, when you decide to take up a job in a particular industry depending on your skills and qualifications, the first thing that you will be required to do is to write an application for a job. But getting a job that suits you would take more than sending out a few application letters. First of all, you need to find out what skills you have to offer and what your expectations are from your work. Then on the basis of this, you can identify the employers that may be in search of a person with skills that you possess and that also fit the job profile that you are looking for. The letter of application is also called the letter of transmittal. It is written when you get to know of a specific job opening and you want to apply for it directly. It is always accompanied by a resume/CV. Thus, the letter of job application can be divided into two parts: a) Covering Letter and b) Resume/Curriculum Vitae (i.e. CV). The cover letter should introduce you and should give further details about certain qualifications and skills that may not be apparent from your resume. So ideally, a resume should always be sent along with a covering letter. Remember, you should mention only the qualifications, skills and experience that are relevant to the job that your are applying for. DRAFTING AN APPLICATION LETTER A letter of application is your very first communication with the prospective employer. He will form his first impression about you from your application letter. That is why it is very essential that your application letter should be neat, well-structured and should provide all the necessary information at a glance. What you basically set out to do in your application letter is to sell your skills and services. Thus, your application letter is a form of advertising. And the key feature of effective advertising is that it should be persuasive. An application letter therefore is also some kind of a sales letter. It should project your skills keeping in mind the employers and a particular jobs requirement. This kind of job analysis and self-appraisal will help you to identify which jobs suit you and where you should not apply. For example, if it is specifically mentioned in the advertisement for the post of schoolteachers that the school requires someone with minimum three years of teac hing experience and you have just graduated, then there is no point in applying for this post as you will be found ineligible. Again, if a company requires a smart, young receptionist with good communication and people skills and you are someone who is of reserved and laidback nature, then you should not apply for it. Before drafting an application letter, you must ask yourself these questions- 1. What sort of qualifications and experience are needed for this particular job? 2. Do I have the required skills and experience? 3. Am I suitable for this job? How? Once you have answered these questions, the next step is to narrow down your focus on the qualities and skills that the employer is looking for and to highlight those in your application letter. This does not mean that you make exaggerated claims. You should be honest, sincere and modest. If you possess the required qualifications, skills and experience, then only you should apply for a particular job. And you should provide necessary documents for verification of your declarations. Job application letter is an interesting blend of the features of a personal letter and a sales letter. Therefore, it should reflect your creativity and also your personal style. So as an applicant/writer, just be yourself and also a little businesslike in your approach. The main object of an application letter is to get you an interview. Therefore, it is essential that your letter should stimulate the employers interest in your skills and accomplishments and it should give him a clear idea about how you can satisfy the organisations needs. You should project your skills with confidence and this is possible only when you believe in yourself and your capabilities. TYPES OF APPLICATION LETTERS There are two types of application letters: a) solicited application letters and b) unsolicited application letters. Solicited application letters are those that are sent in response to job advertisements, whereas unsolicited application letters (also known as prospecting letters) are written at the applicants initiative. This is the fundamental theoretical difference between the two. In the first one, you write directly for the post advertised. In the latter one, you acquaint the prospective employer with the qualifications and skills that you possess and leave it to him to identify whether your profile is suitable for any of the positions in his organization and whether he should consider you for the same. But in practice, there is hardly any difference between the structure and the content of both these types of letters. Whether writing a solicited or an unsolicited application letter, the applicant has to mention his personal details, qualifications, skills and experience that ar e relevant to the job. Besides, the letters of application can also be framed in two different ways: All the information about the applicants qualifications, experience and personal details can be included in one comprehensive letter. OR The application letter can be divided into two parts. The first part is the covering letter which refers to the advertisement in response to which you are applying and in it you also highlight your most relevant and significant skills and qualifications for the advertised post. The second part is the resume which lists all the necessary personal and educational information in an easy-to-read format. The layout b) is the widely preferred and the most effective format as it gives the applicant an opportunity to display his skills and personality in an attention-grabbing and succinct manner thus generating the employers interest in his resume and getting him to read it in the first place. ESSENTIALS OF A GOOD COVERING LETTER The covering letter has one purpose- to attract the attention and sustain the interest of your prospective employer in your resume and thus get him to call you for a job interview. Therefore, your covering letter is not just a simple note that forwards an enclosure i.e. your resume and other relevant documents. Rather, it is a selling-piece. It should have the qualities of an effective sales letter. Besides, in your job application letter, you must focus on- The job requirements as specified by the employer- qualifications, skills, experience The special qualities you possess that will make you stand out from the rest (for an announced job opening, you will have to compete with hundreds of other job seekers) Your knowledge about the organization Your communication skills, problem-solving ability, people skills, etc. An effective covering letter should have the following features: It should be informative and to the point. The tone of the letter should be friendly but avoid being too casual or informal. Keep the covering letter to a single page, three paragraphs is ideal. Do not use the same covering letter while applying at different places. The style and layout is very important. Avoid grammatical and spelling errors. Use good quality paper and printing. Take care not to crumple the edges or stain the paper. Your letter should not appear overloaded with information. Leave enough white space, so that it looks appealing to the eye. The covering letter is a kind of persuasive, goodwill message. Show genuine interest in the organization and a keen interest in the position that you are seeking. Omit personal information that is not relevant to the job. Edit the letter carefully to make sure that there are no errors. FORMAT AND CONTENTS OF AN APPLICATION LETTER An application letter may be written in two formats: the complete block format (the latest and better preferred American format) or the semi-block format (the traditional British format). In the complete block format (also known as the full block format), every line is left-aligned i.e. it starts at the left margin. And nothing is indented. Whereas, in the semi-block format, the senders address, date and the complimentary close are indented. Even the paragraphs may be indented. An application letter has the following parts: The Senders Address and the Date In the semi-block format, these are written at the top right corner of the letter. Whereas, in the complete block format, the senders address and date are written at the top left corner of the letter. The date should be written in the American format (mm/dd/yy i.e. July 30, 2010) if you are writing in the complete block style and in the British format (dd/mm/yy i.e. 30 July, 2010) if you are using the semi-block layout. Leave one space between the address and the date. Also, the applicants address and date should be written in open punctuation (i.e. no punctuation). Example: Closed Punctuation Open Punctuation Divya Shah(,) Divya Shah 305, Clover Garden Society(,) 305, Clover Garden Society Alkapuri(,) Alkapuri Vadodara(.) Vadodara July 30, 2010(.) July 30, 2010 (Or) (Or) 30 July, 2010(.) 30 July, 2010 The Inside Address The inside address or the receivers/employers address should also be written in open punctuation. It should be one or two spaces below the date. It should always be left-aligned. If it is a solicited application, the inside address will begin with the designation and not the name of the person to whom it is to be addressed. Example: (To) (To) The Manager The Personnel Manager Aditya Birla Group OR Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd New Delhi Baroda If the name of the person to whom the application is to be addressed or the identification of the advertiser is not disclosed in the job advertisement and if only the post box or a newspaper box number to which the application is to be sent is given, then the inside address will be written as: (To) (To) The Advertiser The Advertiser Post Box No. 2509 OR Box No. 2203 Vadodara- 390004 The Times of India Ahmedabad- 380001 If it is an unsolicited application, then the letter should be addressed to the concerned person/officer. Example- The Employment Officer/ The Accounts Officer/ The Manager/ The Dean/ The Principal etc. Subject and Reference Leave one or two spaces after the inside address and state in one line the purpose of the application letter (i.e. the Subject). Leave one more space and write the Reference i.e. if someone has referred you for the post, then you may mention his/her name and designation. Writing the reference is optional. The Salutation Dear Sir is the most common salutation used in application letters. But you may try some of the following ways to open a letter depending on the context in which you are communicating. However, you should be careful in selecting an appropriate salutation. Context Salutation 1. Addressing someone in a company Dear Sir/Madam 2. Addressing a man whose name Dear Sir you do not know 3. Addressing a woman whose name Dear Madam you do not know 4. Informal way of addressing a man Dear Mr. Parekh 5. Informal way of addressing a woman Dear Ms. Dixit Remember, it is inappropriate and impolite to use the first name of a person in the salutation. For instance, Dear Ms. Deepa. Also, first names are never preceded by a title (Mr. Siddharth or Ms. Nirmita). The Body of the Letter It is often divided into three parts: The Opening/Introductory Paragraph It gives details about why you are writing the application letter and which position or type of work you are seeking. It also makes clear whether it is a solicited application or an unsolicited one. The opening paragraph should catch the readers attention and create interest in your resume. In a solicited letter, you may use a simple opening as you have been invited to apply and your focus therefore is not so much on capturing the readers attention. You may open your letter in one of the following ways: Summary opening- Mention your most relevant qualifications and/or experience and explain how it can benefit the organization. Example: With my three years experience as the Assistant Advertising Manager at Mudra Communication Pvt. Ltd., I feel confident that I can ably perform the duties of an Advertising Manager, the post announced by you in The Hindustan Times datedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Name opening- Mention the name of the person (if he is known to the reader) who has suggested that you apply for the job. Example: Professor Kulkarni informed me of a job opening for the post of Assistant Professor in your institution. My qualifications and experience suit the eligibility criteria and I would be glad if you find my profile suitable for the post and consider me for the same. I would indeed be very fortunate if I get an opportunity to be associated with your reputed college. Source opening- Make a reference to the newspaper in which the job advertisement was published. Briefly explain how you possess the necessary skills, qualifications and experience that suit the requirements of the target position. Example: With reference to your advertisement in The Times of India dated 25 July, 2010, I hereby apply for the post of Sales Executive. Or I wish to apply for the post of Marketing Manager advertised by you in The Hindu of 27 February, 2010. Or I request you to consider favourably my qualifications for the position of Legal Adviser in your firm advertised in The Indian Express dated Question opening- Begin with an attention-seeking question that targets the organisations problem, need or goal and describe how you can help in fulfilling it. News opening- Mention some organizational achievement, goal, etc. which was made public and express your desire to work for the organization because of it and for it. Personalized opening- Mention your relevant interests or previous experiences or your present position or profile and start discussing why you are eager to work with the organization. The Middle Paragraph It gives specific examples of why you are perfect for the job. With an effective introductory paragraph, half the work is done as you will have already succeeded in exciting the employers interest. The next step is to show how you are the one that he is looking for. For this, you should explain in detail the important points that you mentioned in the opening paragraph. Give evidence in support of your claims of ability. Avoid exaggerating. Take care not to repeat the points already mentioned in the opening paragraph or the resume. Include relevant details that could not be accommodated in the resume. The middle paragraph/s of the application letter should focus mainly on convincing the reader that you are the best choice for the post advertised. You can do this not by listing the academic degrees that you have earned but by highlighting how your education has equipped you for the work that you seek. Show how you are updated not only about your area of specialization but are also aware of the latest in the other allied areas. If you have handled different job profiles while working part-time, explain what you have learnt from it and how it has made you capable at adapting to different work environments. Also, mention the various job-related activities, interests and qualities that you possess. Sum up by referring the reader to the enclosed resume for further details. The Closing/Concluding Paragraph In the last paragraph, make a subtle suggestion to your prospective employer to act i.e. to grant you an interview. Do not demand it. Do not use sloppy words to gain the readers sympathy. Avoid closing lines like- Given an opportunity to serve in your esteemed company, I assure you the best of my servicesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Please be kind enough to give me an opportunity to serve in your reputed institutionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Be simple and direct in asking for an interview. Heres how you can do it effectively- I hope to hear from you soon. I will be glad/grateful if my application for the said post is considered favourably. I hope that my qualifications would merit your consideration. Looking forward to a favourable response. May I look forward to an interview with you at your convenience? Close the letter by stating your phone number and specify the best time to reach you. You may also include your email address on which you may be contacted. The Complimentary Close and the Signature Line The complimentary close is placed two spaces below the last line of the body of the letter. Some of the most commonly used complimentary closes include Thank you, Yours faithfully, Sincerely, Best regards, Respectfully, Best wishes, Yours truly, Warm regards, Sincerely yours, With many thanks, etc. The complimentary close begins with a capital letter and ends with a comma. Leave four spaces between the complimentary close and the Signature Line (i.e. the writers name) for a signature. The writers title or designation should be typed directly below the name. The signature should ideally be in blue or black ink. Example: Yours sincerely, (Sign here) Ramakanta Das Managing Director Saint Gobain Industries Hyderabad Enclosures List the number and nature of the documents that you are sending along with the letter of application. If the list is too long, attach a separate sheet. Leave two or three spaces after the signature line and write- Encl. See list attached.

Book Review of Slovenia 1945 Memories of Death and Survival after World

Slovenia 1945 is a well-crafted blend of personal memories, historiography, and eyewitness accounts. The result is moving narrative that avoids the turgidity and dryness historical studies may fall prey to, as well as the indulgent emotionalism of some memoirs. The starting point for the volume was the letters written by John Corsellis, a conscientious objector working in the Friends Ambulance Unit in Austrian Carinthia from 1945 to 1947. This material was fleshed out with several dozen interviews, a diary by camp survivor France Perni?ek, and the journalist Marcus Ferrar. Although Corsellis is a central participant in the story, his presence in the book is subtle and unobtrusive. Structurally, the book is attractive to both casual readers and serious researchers. In addition to the main text, there are fifteen photos, three maps, an outline of the chief characters, a four-page catalogue of other persons, a tightly packed six-page bibliography, and a five-page index of people, subjects, and places. A striking feature of the book is its impartiality?a goal that the authors explicitly state in the prologue (p. 2). Negative sides of all participants are depicted: Germans (slave labor, attacks on civilians, book burning), Italians (the Rab concentration camp, the myth of kind and romantic soldiers), Partisans (theft, murder, rape), Catholics (the Black Hand death squads), the western Allies (shooting at civilians, looting), and the Village Guards (burning prisoners to death). However, the book is much more than a catalogue of crimes; it also relates the human sides of all involved: individual acts of kindness by combatants and civilians on all sides. The narrative is replete with religious imagery?priests, ... ...jana: Modrian. Markovski, Venko. 1984. Goli Otok: The Island of Death. Boulder: Social Science Monographs. Mila?, Metod. 2002. Resistance, Imprisonment & Forced Labor. A Slovene Student in World War II [= Studies in Modern European History 47]. New York: Peter Lang. Reindl, Donald F. 2001. Mass Graves from the Communist Past Haunt Slovenia?s Present, RFE/RL Newsline 5.225 (29 November), available at http://www.rferl.org/ newsline/2001/11/5-not/not- 291101.asp Sirc, Ljubo. 1989. Between Hitler and Tito: Nazi Occupation and Communist Oppression. London: Andre Deutsch. Tolstoy, Nikolai. 1986. The Minister and the Massacres. London: Century Hutchinson. John Corsellis & Marcus Ferrar. Slovenia 1945: Memories of Death and Survival after World War II. London: I. B. Tauris & Co., 2005. xi + 276 pp., ï ¿ ½24.50 ($47.97) (cloth). ISBN: 1-85043-840-0.

Success Vs Ambition :: essays research papers fc

The two novels, which were read, demonstrated exemplary details of the ISU topics from which we were supposed to choose. The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancey, and Fatal Terrain, by Dale Brown were the two books being read and analyzed. These two novels are very similar in theme. Even though all of the given themes can be linked to, and have stunning similarities to one another, the themes which most protrude in these works, are success, and ambition. The ambition aspects in both of the books bear stunning resemblance to one another. In both cases, the kind of ambition illustrated among the characters is shown in a hands-on way. In both novels, new technology is invented, and new ways of succeeding are patented for use to have an edge over the competition. Because of the character's ambitious drive, they will achieve success. In Hunt for Red October, ambition plays a very large and important part of the plot of the novel. Basically, the entire plot of the novel revolves around the new technology invented in order to gain an edge over the competition. The new technology invented was a "Silent propulsion system..." (Clancey, 58) which "...Virtually eliminate cavitation sounds" (Clancey, 59). The system was invented and developed by a soviet submarine captain named Marco Ramius. He fabricated the system for use in his plan to defect to America, from Russia (to bring your sub from Russia to America so the Americans could use the technology). The propulsion system was used to eliminate the sound of the submarine's thrusters and engines, so as to not be detected by other radars. This way, no one would figure out his plans to defect. As a result of Ramius' ambitious drive and hard work, he made a change in technology, which would help him achieve his goals in the novel, and always be one step ahead of the competition. In Fatal Terrain, There was also the aspect of new technology being invented, in order to stay one step ahead of the game. The plot, this time, does not completely revolve around the new technology being manufactured, but it plays a large part in the beginning of the book, and carries right through to the end. In the novel, two men, named Patrick McLanahan, and Jon Masters are both adequately involved in warfare and the Army and Navy. Together, they have created a new plane.

Air Canada

A recent review of any business magazine will often reveal that the secret to the success of many companies lies in their ability to not only generate profit for their stockholders but also in being able to improve the lives of their employees.Over the years, more and more companies are investing in the development of their human resources departments in the hopes of taking advantage of this trend.There are some companies, however, who have long taken advantage of this by making sure that not only are their employees well motivated, driven and well compensated but that these factors show well in the customer service that is provided.   One of these companies is Air Canada.As Canada’s largest and oldest airline, this company has a rich history as both an outstanding employer and airline.   Founded in 1937, Air Canada has grown immensely since then is now the world’s 11th largest passenger airline in relation to fleet size (Milton 2005).The flag carrier for Canada, Ai r Canada, has consistently held the record for having the best service in the world and this was affirmed on January 19, 2007 when it received the award for Best Airline in North America (Milton 2005).This founding member of the Star Alliance has time and again prevailed over the challenges and tests that the growing aviation market has presented over the years (Milton 2005).   This is a testament to the good management practices and upstanding record that this company has developed in its 70 year history.Air Canada has always emphasized that Flight Attendants are ambassadors of the customer experience onboard each Air Canada flight (Milton 2005).Air Canada has also prided itself in the fact that the flight attendants of Air Canada play many roles such as safety professional, caregiver and service provider.   These are the qualities which set Air Canada flight attendants apart from any other flight attendants from other airlines (Milton 2005).The fact that they are considered as Ambassadors of the customer experience does more than just add a dignified label to flight attendants but rather emphasizes the fact that customer experience also comes first aboard any Air Canada flight.Perks and salary not included, Air Canada also differs from other airlines in that the employee advancement program offers a more stable future than others.Air Canada prides itself in improving the quality of all in its employ including Flight Attendants (Milton 2005).   These are the reasons why Air Canada is far superior to other airlines for anyone wanting to pursue a career as a flight attendant.On a personal level, I feel that I have developed the skills to become an Air Canada flight attendant because I am a hard working and driven individual.   All my past working experiences have equipped me to dealing with all sorts of people.   Being the frontline at a Pizza Hut is not exactly a dream job for most people.Yet for some reason I found that it was in this type of enviro nment that I was able to thrive and flourish.   The going gets tough when the people start coming in at rush hour.   To make matters worse, no other people in the world are more irritable than hungry people.   I also pay close attention to detail and make sure that I get things done.The job gets done faster and more efficiently as and when the objectives are clear, the strategies acceptable, and the resources are available such as in this company. My language proficiencies are also quite excellent as I am fluent in both English and Spanish.I am very methodical with my work.   I take charge and own up to my responsibilities.   With regard to co-workers and subordinates, I am very demanding, meticulous but I also believe that I am fair and considerate.   These character traits and abilities are the main reason why I believe that I have the necessary skills to become an Air Canada flight attendant.The rich history that Air Canada has had in the aviation industry is truly so mething to behold.   To be voted the best Airline in North America is no easy feat and I am quite sure that the outstanding performance of the flight attendants had much to do with that fact.As such, to be part of that elite core of flight attendants who have made a mark in the aviation industry, would constitute the fulfillment of one of my career goals.References:Milton, Robert (2005) Straight from the top; the truth about Air Canada Greystone Books, [c]2004 266 p.

History of Computer Virus

THE HISTORY OF COMPUTER VIRUSES A Bit of Archeology There are lots and lots of opinions on the date of birth of the first computer virus. I know for sure just that there were no viruses on the Babbidge machine, but the Univac 1108 and IBM 360/370 already had them (â€Å"Pervading Animal† and â€Å"Christmas tree†). Therefore the first virus was born in the very beginning of 1970s or even in the end of 1960s, although nobody was calling it a virus then. And with that consider the topic of the extinct fossil species closed. Journey's Start Let's talk of the latest history: â€Å"Brain†, â€Å"Vienna†, â€Å"Cascade†, etc. Those who started using IBM PCs as far as in mid-80s might still remember the total epidemic of these viruses in 1987-1989. Letters were dropping from displays, crowds of users rushing towards monitor service people (unlike of these days, when hard disk drives die from old age but yet some unknown modern viruses are to blame). Their computers started playing a hymn called â€Å"Yankee Doodle†, but by then people were already clever, and nobody tried to fix their speakers – very soon it became clear that this problem wasn't with the hardware, it was a virus, and not even a single one, more like a dozen. And so viruses started infecting files. The â€Å"Brain† virus and bouncing ball of the â€Å"Ping-pong† virus marked the victory of viruses over the boot sector. IBM PC users of course didn't like all that at all. And so there appeared antidotes. Which was the first? I don't know, there were many of them. Only few of them are still alive, and all of these anti-viruses did grow from single project up to the major software companies playing big roles on the software market. There is also an notable difference in conquering different countries by viruses. The first vastly spread virus in the West was a bootable one called â€Å"Brain†, the â€Å"Vienna† and â€Å"Cascade† file viruses appeared later. Unlike that in East Europe and Russia file viruses came first followed by bootable ones a year later. Time went on, viruses multiplied. They all were all alike in a sense, tried to get to RAM, stuck to files and sectors, periodically killing files, diskettes and hard disks. One of the first â€Å"revelations† was the â€Å"Frodo. 4096† virus, which is far as I know was the first invisible virus (Stealth). This virus intercepted INT 21h, and during DOS calls to the infected files it changed the information so that the file appeared to the user uninfected. But this was just an overhead over MS-DOS. In less than a year electronic bugs attacked the DOS kernel (â€Å"Beast. 512† Stealth virus). The idea of in visibility continued to bear its fruits: in summer of 1991 there was a plague of â€Å"Dir_II†. â€Å"Yeah! â€Å", said everyone who dug into it. But it was pretty easy to fight the Stealth ones: once you clean RAM, you may stop worrying and just search for the beast and cure it to your hearts content. Other, self encrypting viruses, sometimes appearing in software collections, were more troublesome. This is because to identify and delete them it was necessary to write special subroutines, debug them. But then nobody paid attention to it, until †¦ Until the new generation of viruses came, those called polymorphic viruses. These viruses use another approach to invisibility: they encrypt themselves (in most cases), and to decrypt themselves later they use commands which may and may not be repeated in different infected files. Polymorphism – Viral Mutation The first polymorphic virus called â€Å"Chameleon† became known in the early '90s, but the problem with polymorphic viruses became really serious only a year after that, in April 1991, with the worldwide epidemic of the polymorphic virus â€Å"Tequila† (as far as I know Russia was untouched by the epidemic; the first epidemic in Russia, caused by a polymorphic virus, happened as late as in 1994, in three years, the virus was called â€Å"Phantom1†). The idea of self encrypting polymorphic viruses gained popularity and brought to life generators of polymorphic code – in early 1992 the famous â€Å"Dedicated† virus appears, based on the first known polymorphic generator MtE and the first in a series of MtE-viruses; shortly after that there appears the polymorphic generator itself. It is essentially an object module (OBJ file), and now to get a polymorphic mutant virus from a conventional non-encrypting virus it is sufficient to simply link their object modules together – the polymorphic OBJ file and the virus OBJ file. Now to create a real polymorphic virus one doesn't have to dwell on the code of his own encryptor/decryptor. He may now connect the polymorphic generator to his virus and call it from the code of the virus when desired. Luckily the first MtE-virus wasn't spread and did not cause epidemics. In their turn the anti-virus developers had sometime in store to prepare for the new attack. In just a year production of polymorphic viruses becomes a â€Å"trade†, followed by their â€Å"avalanche† in 1993. Among the viruses coming to my collection the volume of polymorphic viruses increases. It seems that one of the main directions in this uneasy job of creating new viruses becomes creation and debugging of polymorphic mechanism, the authors of viruses compete not in creating the toughest virus but the toughest polymorphic mechanism instead. This is a partial list of the viruses that can be called 100 percent polymorphic (late 1993): Bootache, CivilWar (four versions), Crusher, Dudley, Fly, Freddy, Ginger, Grog, Haifa, Moctezuma (two versions), MVF, Necros, Nukehard, PcFly (three versions), Predator, Satanbug, Sandra, Shoker, Todor, Tremor, Trigger, Uruguay (eight versions). These viruses require special methods of detection, including emulation of the viruses executable code, mathematical algorithms of restoring parts of the code and data in virus etc. Ten more new viruses may be considered non-100 percent polymorphic (that is they do encrypt themselves but in decryption routine there always exist some nonchanging bytes): Basilisk, Daemaen, Invisible (two versions), Mirea (several versions), Rasek (three versions), Sarov, Scoundrel, Seat, Silly, Simulation. However to detect them and to restore the infected objects code decrypting is still required, because the length of nonchanging code in the decryption outine of those viruses is too small. Polymorphic generators are also being developed together with polymorphic viruses. Several new ones appear utilizing more complex methods of generating polymorphic code. They become widely spread over the bulletin board systems as archives containing object modules, documentation and examples of use. By the end of 1993 there are seven known generators of polymorphic code. They are: MTE 0. 90 (Mutation Engine), TPE (Trident Polymorphic Engine), four versions NED (Nuke Encryption Device), DAME (Dark Angel's Multiple Encryptor) Since then every year brought several new polymorphic generators, so there is little sense in publishing the entire lists. Automating Production and Viral Construction Sets Laziness is the moving force of progress (to construct the wheel because that's too lazy to carry mammoths to the cave). This traditional wisdom needs no comments. But only in the middle of 1992 progress in the form of automating production touched the world of viruses. On the fifth of July 1992 the first viral code construction set for IBM PC compatibles called VCL (Virus Creation Laboratory) version 1. 00 is declared for production and shipping. This set allows to generate well commented source texts of viruses in the form or assembly language texts, object modules and infected files themselves. VCL uses standard windowed interface. With the help of a menu system one can choose virus type, objects to infect (COM or/and EXE), presence or absence of self encryption, measures of protection from debugging, inside text strings, optional 10 additional effects etc. Viruses can use standard method of infecting a file by adding their body to the end of file, or replace files with their body destroying the original content of a file, or become companion viruses. And then it became much easier to do wrong: if you want somebody to have some computer trouble just run VCL and within 10 to 15 minutes you have 30-40 different viruses you may then run on computers of your enemies. A virus to every computer! The further the better. On the 27th of July the first version of PS-MPC (Phalcon/Skism Mass-Produced Code Generator). This set does not have windowed interface, it uses configuration file to generate viral source code. This file contains description of the virus: the type of infected files (COM or EXE); resident capabilities (unlike VCL, PS-MPC can also produce resident viruses); method of installing the resident copy of the virus; self encryption capabilities; the ability to infect COMMAND. COM and lots of other useful information. Another construction set G2 (Phalcon/Skism's G2 0. 70 beta) has been created. It supported PS-MPC configuration files, however allowing much more options when coding the same functions. The version of G2 I have is dated the first of January 1993. Apparently the authors of G2 spent the New Year's Eve in front of their computers. They'd better have some champagne instead, this wouldn't hurt anyway. So in what way did the virus construction sets influence electronic wildlife? In my virus collection there are: †¢ several hundreds of VCL and G2 based viruses; †¢ over a thousand PS-MPC based viruses. So we have another tendency in development of computer viruses: the increasing number of â€Å"construction set† viruses; more unconcealably lazy people join the ranks of virus makers, downgrading a respectable and creative profession of creating viruses to a mundane rough trade. Outside DOS The year 1992 brought more than polymorphic viruses and virus construction sets. The end of the year saw the first virus for Windows, which thus opened a new page in the history of virus making. Being small (less than 1K in size) and absolutely harmless this non resident virus quite proficiently infected executables of new Windows format (NewEXE); a window into the world of Windows was opened with its appearance on the scene. After some time there appeared viruses for OS/2, and January 1996 brought the first Windows95 virus. Presently not a single week goes by without new viruses infecting non-DOS systems; possibly the problem of non-DOS viruses will soon become more important than the problem of DOS viruses. Most likely the process of changing priorities will resemble the process of DOS dying and new operating systems gaining strength together with their specific programs. As soon as all the existing software for DOS will be replaced by their Windows, Windows95 and OS/2 analogues, the problem of DOS viruses becomes nonexistent and purely theoretical for computer society. The first attempt to create a virus working in 386 protected mode was also made in 1993. It was a boot virus â€Å"PMBS† named after a text string in its body. After boot up from infected drive this virus switched to protected mode, made itself supervisor and then loaded DOS in virtual window mode V86. Luckily this virus was born dead – its second generation refused to propagate due to several errors in the code. Besides that the infected system â€Å"hanged† if some of the programs tried to reach outside the V86 mode, for example to determine the presence of extended memory. This unsuccessful attempt to create supervisor virus remained the only one up to spring of 1997, when one Moscow prodigy released â€Å"PM. Wanderer† – a quite successful implementation of a protected mode virus. It is unclear now whether those supervisor viruses might present a real problem for users and anti-virus program developers in the future. Most likely not because such viruses must â€Å"go to sleep† while new operating systems (Windows 3. xx, Windows95/NT, OS/2) are up and running, allowing for easy detection and killing of the virus. But a full-scale stealth supervisor virus may mean a lot of trouble for â€Å"pure† DOS users, because it is absolutely impossible to detect such a stealth virus under pure DOS. Macro Virus Epidemics August 1995. All the progressive humanity, The Microsoft and Bill Gates personally celebrate the release of a new operating system Windows95. With all that noise the message about a new virus using basically new methods of infection came virtually unnoticed. The virus infected Microsoft Word documents. Frankly it wasn't the first virus infecting Word documents. Earlier before anti-virus companies had the first experimental example of a virus on their hands, which copied itself from one document to another. However nobody paid serious attention to that not quite successful experiment. As a result virtually all the anti-virus companies appeared not ready to what came next – macro virus epidemics – and started to work out quick but inadequate steps in order to put an end to it. For example several companies almost simultaneously released documents- anti-viruses, acting along about the same lines as did the virus, but destroying it instead of propagation. By the way it became necessary to correct anti-virus literature in a hurry because earlier the question, â€Å"Is it possible to infect a computer by simply reading a file† had been answered by a definite â€Å"No way! with lengthy proofs of that. As for the virus which by that time got its name, â€Å"Concept†, continued its ride of victory over the planet. Having most probably been released in some division of Microsoft â€Å"Concept† ran over thousands if not millions of computers in no time it all. It's not unusual, because text exchange in the format of Microsoft Word became in fact one of the industry standards, and to get infected by the virus it is sufficient just to open the infected document, then all the documents edited by infected copy of Word became infected too. As a result having received an infected file over the Internet and opened it, the unsuspecting user became â€Å"infection peddler†, and if his correspondence was made with the help of MS Word, it also became infected! Therefore the possibility of infecting MS Word multiplied by the speed of Internet became one of the most serious problems in all the history of existence of computer viruses. In less than a year, sometime in summer of 1996, there appeared the â€Å"Laroux† virus, infecting Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. As it had been with â€Å"Concept†, these new virus was discovered almost simultaneously in several companies. The same 1996 witnessed the first macro virus construction sets, then in the beginning of 1997 came the first polymorphic macro viruses for MS Word and the first viruses for Microsoft Office97. The number of various macro viruses also increased steadily reaching several hundreds by the summer of 1997. Macro viruses, which have opened a new page in August 1995, using all the experience in virus making accumulated for almost 10 years of continuous work and enhancements, actually do present the biggest problem for modern virology. Chronology of Events It's time to give a more detailed description of events. Let's start from the very beginning. Late 1960s – early 1970s Periodically on the mainframes at that period of time there appeared programs called â€Å"the rabbit†. These programs cloned themselves, occupied system resources, thus lowering the productivity of the system. Most probably â€Å"rabbits† did not copy themselves from system to system and were strictly local phenomena – mistakes or pranks by system programmers servicing these computers. The first incident which may be well called an epidemic of â€Å"a computer virus†, happened on the Univax 1108 system. The virus called â€Å"Pervading Animal† merged itself to the end of executable files – virtually did the same thing as thousands of modern viruses do. The first half of 1970s â€Å"The Creeper† virus created under the Tenex operating system used global computer networks to spread itself. The virus was capable of entering a network by itself by modem and transfer a copy of itself to remote system. â€Å"The Reeper† anti-virus program was created to fight this virus, it was the first known anti-virus program. Early 1980s Computers become more and more popular. An increasing number of program appears written not by software companies but by private persons, moreover, these programs may be freely distributed and exchanged through general access servers – BBS. As a result there appears a huge number of miscellaneous â€Å"Trojan horses†, programs, doing some kind of harm to the system when started. 1981 â€Å"Elk Cloner† bootable virus epidemics started on Apple II computers. The virus attached itself to the boot sector of diskettes to which there were calls. It showed itself in many ways – turned over the display, made text displays blink and showed various messages. 1986 The first IBM PC virus â€Å"Brain† pandemic began. This virus infecting 360 KB diskettes became spread over the world almost momentarily. The secret of a â€Å"success† like this late probably in total unpreparedness of computer society to such a phenomenon as computer virus. The virus was created in Pakistan by brothers Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi. They left a text message inside the virus with their name, address and telephone number. According to the authors of the virus they were software vendors, and would like to know the extent of piracy in their country. Unfortunately their experiment left the borders of Pakistan. It is also interesting that the â€Å"Brain† virus was the first stealth virus, too – if there was an attempt to read the infected sector, the virus substituted it with a clean original one. Also in 1986 a programmer named Ralph Burger found out that a program can create copies of itself by adding its code to DOS executables. His first virus called â€Å"VirDem† was the demonstration of such a capability. This virus was announced in December 1986 at an underground computer forum, which consisted of hackers, specializing at that time on cracking VAX/VMS systems (Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg). 1987 â€Å"Vienna† virus appears. Ralph Burger, whom we already now, gets a copy of this virus, disassembles it, and publishes the result in his book â€Å"Computer Viruses: a High-tech Disease†. Burger's book made the idea of writing viruses popular, explained how to do it, and therefore stimulated creating up hundreds and in thousands of computer viruses, in which some of the ideas from his book were implemented. Some more IBM PC viruses are being written independently in the same year. They are: â€Å"Lehigh†, infecting the COMMAND. COM file only; â€Å"Suriv-1† a. k. a. â€Å"April1st†, infecting COM files; â€Å"Suriv-2†, infecting (for the first time ever) EXE files; and â€Å"Suriv-3†, infecting both COM and EXE files. There also appear several boot viruses (â€Å"Yale† in USA, â€Å"Stoned† in New Zealand, â€Å"PingPong† in Italy), and the first self encrypting file virus â€Å"Cascade†. Non-IBM computers are also not forgotten: several viruses for Apple Macintosh, Commodore Amiga and Atari ST have been detected. In December of 1987 there was the first total epidemics of a network virus called â€Å"Christmas Tree†, written in REXX language and spreading itself under the VM/CMS operating environments. On the ninth of December this virus was introduced into the Bitnet network in one of West German universities, then via gateway it got into the European Academic Research Network (EARN) and then into the IBM Vnet. In four days (Dec. 13) the virus paralyzed the network, which was overflowing with copies of it (see the desk clerk example several pages earlier). On start-up the virus output an image of the Christmas tree and then sent copies of itself to all the network users whose addresses were in the corresponding system files NAMES and NETLOG. 1988 On Friday the 13 1988 several companies and universities in many countries of the world â€Å"got acquainted† with the â€Å"Jerusalem† virus. On that day the virus was destroying files which were attempted to be run. Probably this is one of the first MS-DOS viruses which caused a real pandemic, there were news about infected computers from Europe, America and the Middle East. Incidentally the virus got its name after one of the places it stroke – the Jerusalem University. â€Å"Jerusalem† together with several other viruses (â€Å"Cascade†, â€Å"Stoned†, â€Å"Vienna†) infected thousands of computers still being unnoticed – anti-virus programs were not as common then as they are now, many users and even professionals did not believe in the existence of computer viruses. It is notable that in the same year the legendary computer guru Peter Norton announced that computer viruses did not exist. He declared them to be a myth of the same kind as alligators in New York sewers. Nevertheless this delusion did not prevent Symantec from starting its own anti-virus project Norton Anti-virus after some time. Notoriously false messages about new computer viruses started to appear, causing panic among the computer users. One of the first virus hoaxes of this kind belongs to a Mike RoChenle (pronounced very much like â€Å"Microchannel†), who uploaded a lot of messages to the BBS systems, describing the supposed virus copying itself from one BBS to another via modem using speed 2400 baud for that. Funny as it may seem many users gave up 2000 baud standard of that time and lowered the speed of their modems to 1200 baud. Similar hoaxes appeared even now. The most famous of them so far are GoodTimes and Aol4Free. November 1988: a total epidemic of a network virus of Morris (a. k. a. Internet Worm). This virus infected more than 6000 computer systems in USA (including NASA research Institute) and practically paralyzed their work. Because of erratic code of the virus it sent unlimited copies of itself to other network computers, like the â€Å"Christmas Tree† worm virus, and for that reason completely paralyzed all the network resources. Total losses caused by the Morris virus were estimated at 96 millions of dollars. This virus used errors in operating systems Unix for VAX and Sun Microsystems to propagate. Besides the errors in Unix the virus utilized several more original ideas, for example picking up user passwords. A more detailed story of this virus and the corresponding incidents may be found in a rather detailed and interesting articles. December 1988: the season of worm viruses continues this time in DECNet. Worm virus called HI. COM output and image of spruce and informed users that they should â€Å"stop computing and have a good time at home!!! There also appeared new anti-virus programs for example, Doctors Solomon's Anti-virus Toolkit, being one of the most powerful anti-virus software presently. 1989 New viruses â€Å"Datacrime†, â€Å"FuManchu† appear, as do the whole families like â€Å"Vacsina† and â€Å"Yankee†. The first one acted extremely dangerously – from October 13th to December 31st it formatted hard disks. This virus â€Å"broke freeà ¢â‚¬  and caused total hysteria in the mass media in Holland and Great Britain. September 1989: 1 more anti-virus program begins shipping – IBM Anti-virus. October 1989: one more epidemic in DECNet, this time it was worm virus called â€Å"WANK Worm†. December 1989: an incident with a â€Å"Trojan horse† called â€Å"AIDS†. 20,000 copies were shipped on diskettes marked as â€Å"AIDS Information Diskette Version 2. 0†. After 90 boot-ups the â€Å"Trojan† program encrypted all the filenames on the disk, making them invisible (setting a â€Å"hidden† attribute) and left only one file readable – bill for $189 payable to the address P. O. Box 7, Panama. The author of this program was apprehended and sent to jail. One should note that in 1989 there began total epidemics of computer viruses in Russia, caused by the same â€Å"Cascade†, â€Å"Jerusalem† and â€Å"Vienna†, which besieged the computers of Russian users. Luckily Russian programmers pretty quickly discovered the principles of their work, and virtually immediately there appeared several domestic anti-viruses, and AVP (named â€Å"-V†) those time, was one of them. My first acquaintance with viruses (this was the â€Å"Cascade† virus) replaced in the world 1989 when I found virus on my office computer. This particular fact influenced my decision to change careers and create anti-virus programs. In a month the second incident (â€Å"Vacsina† virus) was closed with a help of the first version of my anti-virus â€Å"-V† (minus-virus), several years later renamed to AVP – AntiViral Toolkit Pro. By the end of 1989 several dozens of viruses herded on Russian lands. They were in order of appearance: two versions of â€Å"Cascade†, several â€Å"Vacsina† and â€Å"Yankee† viruses, â€Å"Jerusalem†, â€Å"Vienna†, â€Å"Eddie†, â€Å"PingPong†. 1990 This year brought several notable events. The first one was the appearance of the first polymorphic viruses â€Å"Chameleon† (a. k. a. â€Å"V2P1†, â€Å"V2P2†, and â€Å"V2P6†). Until then the anti-virus programs used â€Å"masks† – fragments of virus code – to look for viruses. After â€Å"Chameleon†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœs appearance anti-virus program developers had to look for different methods of virus detection. The second event was the appearance of Bulgarian â€Å"virus production factory†: enormous amounts of new viruses were created in Bulgaria. Disease wears the entire families of viruses â€Å"Murphy†, â€Å"Nomenclatura†, â€Å"Beast† (or â€Å"512†, â€Å"Number-of-Beast†), the modifications of the â€Å"Eddie† virus etc. A certain Dark Avenger became extremely active, making several new viruses a year, utilizing fundamentally new algorithms of infecting and covering of the tracks in the system. It was also in Bulgaria that the first BBS opens, dedicated to exchange of virus code and information for virus makers. In July 1990 there was an incident with â€Å"PC Today† computer magazine (Great Britain). It contained a floppy disk infected with â€Å"DiskKiller† virus. More than 50,000 copies were sold. In the second half of 1990 there appeared two Stealth monsters – â€Å"Frodo† and â€Å"Whale†. Both viruses utilized extremely complicated stealth algorithms; on top of that the 9KB â€Å"Whale† used several levels of encrypting and anti-debugging techniques. 1991 Computer virus population grows continuously, reaching several hundreds now. Anti-viruses also show increasing activity: two software monsters at once (Symantec and Central Point) issue their own anti-virus programs – Norton Anti-virus and Central Point Anti-virus. They are followed by less known anti-viruses from Xtree and Fifth Generation. In April a full-scale epidemic broke out, caused by file and boot polymorphic virus called â€Å"Tequila†, and in September the same kind of story happened with â€Å"Amoeba† virus. Summer of 1991: â€Å"Dir_II† epidemic. It was a link virus using fundamentally new methods of infecting files. 1992 Non-IBM PC and non-MS-DOS viruses are virtually forgotten: â€Å"holes† in global access network are closed, errors corrected, and network worm viruses lost the ability to spread themselves. File-, boot- and file-boot viruses for the most widely spread operating system (MS-DOS) on the most popular computer model (IBM PC) are becoming more and more important. The number of viruses increases in geometrical to progression; various virus incidents happen almost every day. Miscellaneous anti-virus programs are being developed, dozens of books and several periodic magazines on anti-viruses are being printed. A few things stand out: Early 1992: the first polymorphic generator MtE, serving as a base for several polymorphic viruses which follow almost immediately. Mte was also the prototype for a few forthcoming polymorphic generators. March 1992: â€Å"Michelangelo† virus epidemics (a. k. a. â€Å"March6†) and the following hysteria took place. Probably this is the first known case when anti-virus companies made fuss about this virus not to protect users from any kind of danger, but attract attention to their product, that is to create profits. One American anti-virus company actually announced that on the 6th of March the information on over five million computers will be destroyed. As a result of the fuss after that the profits of different anti-virus companies jumped several times; in reality only about 10,000 computers suffered from that virus. July 1992: The first virus construction sets were made, VCL and PS-MPC. They made large flow of new viruses even larger. They also stimulated virus makers to create other, more powerful, construction sets, as it was done by MtE in its area. Late 1992: The first Windows virus appears, infecting this OS's executables, and starts a new page in virus making. 1993 Virus makers are starting to do some serious damage: besides hundreds of mundane viruses which are no different than their counterparts, besides the whole polymorphic generators and construction sets, besides new electronic editions of virus makers there appear more and more viruses, using highly unusual ways of infecting files, introducing themselves into the system etc. The main examples are: â€Å"PMBS†, wording in Intel 80386 protected mode. Strange† (or â€Å"Hmm†) – a â€Å"masterpiece† of Stealth technology, however fulfilled on the level of hardware interrupts INT 0Dh and INT 76h. â€Å"Shadowgard† and â€Å"Carbunkle†, which widened debt range of algorithms of companion viruses. â€Å"Emmie†, â€Å"Metallica†, â€Å"Bomber†, â€Å"Uruguay† and â€Å"Cruncher† – the us e of fundamentally new techniques of â€Å"hiding† of its own code inside the infected files. In spring of 1993 Microsoft made its own anti-virus MSAV, based on CPAV by Central Point. 1994 The problem of CD viruses is getting more important. Having quickly gained popularity CD disks became one of the main means of spreading viruses. There are several simultaneous cases when a virus got to the master disk when preparing the batch CDs. As a result of that a fairly large number (tens of thousands) of infected CDs hit the market. Of course they cannot be cured, they just have to be destroyed. Early in the year in Great Britain there popped out two extremely complicated polymorphic viruses, â€Å"SMEG. Pathogen† and â€Å"SMEG. Queeg† (even now not all the anti-virus programs are able to give 100% correct detection of these viruses). Their author placed infected files to a BBS, causing real panic and fear of epidemics in mass media. Another wave of panic was created by a message about a supposed virus called â€Å"GoodTimes†, spreading via the Internet and infecting a computer when receiving E-mail. No such virus really existed, but after some time there appeared a usual DOS virus containing text string â€Å"Good Times†. It was called â€Å"GT-Spoof†. Law enforcement increases its activities: in Summer of 1994 the author of SMEG was â€Å"sorted out† and arrested. Approximately at the same time also in Great Britain there was arrested an entire group of virus makers, who called themselves ARCV (Association for Really Cruel Viruses). Some time later one more author of viruses was arrested in Norway. There appear some new unusual enough viruses: January 1994: â€Å"Shifter† – the first virus infecting object modules (OBJ files). â€Å"Phantom1† – the cause of the first epidemic of polymorphic virus in Moscow. April 1994: â€Å"SrcVir† — the virus family infecting program source code (C and Pascal). June 1994: â€Å"OneHalf† – one of the most popular viruses in Russia so far starts a total epidemics. September 1994: â€Å"3APA3A† – a boot-file virus epidemic. This virus uses a highly unusual way of incorporating into MS-DOS. No anti-virus was ready to meet such kind of a monster. In 1994 (Spring) one of the anti-virus leaders of that time – Central Point – ceased to exist, acquired by Symantec, which by that time managed to â€Å"swallow† several minor companies, working on anti- viruses – Peter Norton Computing, Cetus International and Fifth Generation Systems. 1995 Nothing in particular among DOS viruses happens, although there appear several complicated enough monster viruses like â€Å"NightFall†, â€Å"Nostardamus†, â€Å"Nutcracker†, also some funny viruses like â€Å"bisexual† virus â€Å"RMNS† and BAT virus â€Å"Winstart†. The â€Å"ByWay† and â€Å"DieHard2† viruses become widespread, with news about infected computers coming from all over the world. February 1995: an incident with Microsoft: Windows95 demos disks are infected by â€Å"Form†. Copies of these disks were sent to beta testers by Microsoft; one of the testers was not that lazy and tested the disks for viruses. Spring 1995: two anti-virus companies – ESaSS (ThunderBYTE anti-virus) and Norman Data Defense (Norman Virus Control) announce their alliance. These companies, each making powerful enough anti- viruses, joined efforts and started working on a joint anti-virus system. August 1995: one of the turning points in the history of viruses and anti-viruses: there has actually appeared the first â€Å"alive† virus for Microsoft Word (â€Å"Concept†). In some month the virus â€Å"tripped around the world†, pesting the computers of the MS Word users and becoming a firm No. 1 in statistic research held by various computer titles. 1996 January 1996: two notable events – the appearance of the first Windows95 virus (â€Å"Win95. Boza†) and the epidemics of the extremely complicated polymorphic virus â€Å"Zhengxi† in St. Petersburg (Russia). March 1996: the first Windows 3. virus epidemic. The name of the virus is â€Å"Win. Tentacle†. This virus infected a computer network a hospital and in several other institutions in France. This event is especially interesting because this was the FIRST Windows virus on a spree. Before that time (as far as I know) all the Windows viruses had been living only in collections a nd electronic magazines of virus makers, only boot viruses, DOS viruses and macro viruses were known to ride free. June 1996: â€Å"OS2. AEP† – the first virus for OS/2, correctly infecting EXE files of this operating system. Earlier under OS/2 there existed only the viruses writing themselves instead of file, destroying it or acting as companions. July 1996: â€Å"Laroux† – the first virus for Microsoft Excel caught live (originally at the same time in two oil making companies in Alaska and in southern African Republic). The idea of â€Å"Laroux†, like that of Microsoft Word viruses, was based on the presence of so-called macros (or Basic programs) in the files. Such programs can be included into both electronic spreadsheets of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word documents. As it turned out the Basic language built into Microsoft Excel also allows to create viruses. December 1996: â€Å"Win95. Punch† – the first â€Å"memory resident† virus for Windows95. It stays in the Windows memory as a VxD driver, hooks file access and infects Windows EXE files that are opened. In general the year 1996 is the start of widespread virus intervention into the Windows32 operating system (Windows95 and WindowsNT) and into the Microfoft Office applications. During this and the next year several dozens of Windows viruses and several hunsdreds of macro viruses appeared. Many of them used new technologies and methods of infection, including stealth and polymorphic abilities. That was the next round of virus evolution. During two years they repeated the way of improving similar to DOS viruses. Step by step they started to use the same features that DOS viruses did 10 years beforehand, but on next technological level. 1997 February 1997: â€Å"Linux. Bliss† – the first virus for Linux (a Unix clone). This way viruses occupied one more â€Å"biological† niche. February-April 1997: macro viruses migrated to Office97. The first of them turned out to be only â€Å"converted† to the format macro viruses for Microsoft Word 6/7, but also virtually immediately there appeared viruses aimed at Office97 documents exclusively. March 1997: â€Å"ShareFun† – macro-virus hitting Microsoft Word 6/7. It uses is not only standard features of Microsoft Word to propagate but also sends copies of itself via MS-Mail. April 1997: â€Å"Homer† – the first network worm virus, using File Transfer Protocol (FTP) for propagation. June 1997: There appears the first self encrypting virus for Windows95. This virus of Russian origin has been sent to several BBS is in Moscow which caused an epidemic. November 1997: The â€Å"Esperanto† virus. This is the first virus that intends to infect not only DOS and Windows32 executable files, but also spreads into the Mac OS (Macintosh). Fortunately, the virus is not able to spread cross the platforms because of bugs. December 1997: new virus type, the so-called â€Å"mIRC Worms†, came into being. The most popular Windows Internet Relay Chat (IRC) utility known as mIRC proved to be â€Å"hole† allowing virus scripts to transmit themselves along the IRC-channels. The next IRC version blocked the hole and the mIRC Worms vanished. The KAMI ltd. nti-virus department has braked away from the mother company constituting the independent one what, certainly, is considered the main event of 1997. Currently the company known as Kaspersky Labs and proved to be a recognized leader of the anti-virus industry. Since 1994 the AntiViral Toolkit Pro (AVP) anti-virus scanner, main product of the company, constantly shows high results wh ile being tested by various test laboratories of all world. Creation of an independent company gave the chance to the at first small group of developers to gain the lead on the domestic market and prominence on the world one. For short run versions for practically all popular platforms were developed and released, the new anti-virus solutions offered, the international distribution and the product support networks created. October 1997: the agreement on licensing of AVP technologies use in F-Secure Anti-Virus (FSAV) was signed. The F-Secure Anti-Virus (FSAV) package was the DataFellows (Finland) new anti-virus product. Before DataFellows was known as the F-PROT anti-virus package manufacturer. 1997 was also the year of several scandals between the anti-virus main manufacturers in US and Europe. At the year beginning McAfee has announced that its experts have detected a â€Å"feature† in the antivirus programs of Dr. Solomon, one of its main competitors. The McAfee testimony stated that if the Dr. Solomon's antivirus while scanning detects several virus-types the program switches to the advanced scanning mode. What means that while scanning some uninfected computer the Dr. Solomon's anti-virus operates in the usual mode and switches to the advanced mode – â€Å"cheat mode† according to McAfee – enabling the application to detect the invisible for the usual mode viruses while testing virus collections. Consequently the Dr. Solomon's anti-virus shows both good speed while scanning uninfected disks and good virus detection ability while scanning virus collections. A bit later Dr. Solomon stroked back accusing McAfee of the incorrect advertising campaign. The claims were raised to the text – â€Å"The Number One Choice Worldwide. No Wonder The Doctor's Left Town†. At the same time McAfee was in the court together with Trend Micro, another antivirus software manufacturer, concerning the Internet and e-mail data scanning technology patent violation. Symantec also turned out to be involved in the cause and accused McAfee of using the Symantec codes in the McAfee products. And etc. The year completion by one more noteworthy event related to McAfee-name was marked – McAfee Associates and Network General have declared consolidation into the new born Network Associates company and positioning of their services not only on the anti-virus protection software market, but also on the markets of computer safety universal systems, encryption and network administration. From this the virus and anti-virus history point McAfee would correspond to NAI. 998 The virus attack on MS Windows, MS Office and the network applications does not weaken. There arose new viruses employing still more complex strokes while infecting computers and advanced methods of network-to-computer penetration. Besides numerous the so-called Trojans, stealing Internet access passwords, and several kinds of the latent administration utilities came into the computer world. Several incidents with the infected CDs were revealed – Some computer media publishers distributed CIH and Marburg (the Windows viruses) through CDs attached to the covers of their issues, with infected. The year beginning: Epidemic of the â€Å"Win32. HLLP. DeTroie† virus family, not just infecting Windows32 executed files but also capable to transmit to the â€Å"owner† the information on the computer that was infected, shocked the computer world. As the viruses used specific libraries attached only to the French version of Windows, the epidemic has affected just the French speaking countries. February 1998: One more virus type infecting the Excel tables â€Å"Excel4. Paix† (aka â€Å"Formula. Paix) was detected. This type of a macro virus while rooting into the Excel tables does not employ the usual for the kind of viruses macro area but formulas that proved to be capable of the self-reproduction code accommodation. February – March 1998: â€Å"Win95. HPS† and â€Å"Win95. Marburg† – the first polymorphous Windows32-viruses were detected and furthermore they were â€Å"in-the-wild†. The anti-virus programs developers had nothing to do but rush to adjust the polymorphous viruses detecting technique, designed so far just for DOS-viruses, to the new conditions. March 1998: â€Å"AccessiV† – the first Microsoft Access virus was born. There was no any boom about that (as it was with â€Å"Word. Concept† and â€Å"Excel. Laroux† viruses) as the computer society already got used to that the MS Office applications go down thick and fast. March 1998: The â€Å"Cross† macro-virus, the first virus infecting two different MS Office applications – Access and Word, is detected. Hereupon several more viruses transferring their codes from one MS Office application to the other have emerged. May 1998 – The â€Å"RedTeam† virus infects Windows EXE-files and dispatches the infected files through Eudora e-mail. June 1998 – The â€Å"Win95. CIH† virus epidemic at the beginning was mass, then became global and then turned to a kind of computer holocaust – quantity of messages on computer networks and home personal computers infection came to the value of hundreds if not thousands pierces. The epidemic beginning was registered in Taiwan where some unknown hacker mailed the infected files to local Internet conferences. Therefrom virus has made the way to USA where through the staff oversight infected at once several popular Web servers that started to distribute infected game programs. Most likely these infected files on game servers brought about this computer holocaust that dominated the computer world all the year. According to the â€Å"popularity† ratings the virus pushed â€Å"Word. CAP† and â€Å"Excel. Laroux† to second cabin. One should also pay attention to the virus dangerous manifestation – depending on the current date the virus erased Flash BIOS what in some conditions could kill motherboard. August 1998: Nascence of the sensational â€Å"BackOrifice† (â€Å"Backdoor. BO†) – utility of latent (hacker's) management of remote computers and networks. After â€Å"BackOrifice† some other similar programs – â€Å"NetBus†, â€Å"Phase† and other – came into being. Also in August the first virus infecting the Java executed files – â€Å"Java. StangeBrew† – was born. The virus was not any danger to the Internet users as there was no way to employ critical for the virus replication functions on any remote computer. However it revealed that even the Web servers browsers could be attacked by viruses. November 1998: â€Å"VBScript. Rabbit† – The Internet expansion of computer parasites proceeded by three viruses infecting VisualBasic scripts (VBS files), which being actively used in Web pages development. As the logical consequence of VBScript-viruses the full value HTML-virus (â€Å"HTML. Internal†) was born to life. Virus-writers obviously turned their efforts to the network applications and to the creation of full value Network Worm-Virus that could employ the MS Windows and Office options, infect remote computers and Web-servers or/and could aggressively replicate itself through e-mail. The anti-virus manufacturers world was also considerably rearranged. In May 1998 Symantec and IBM announced the union of their forces on the anti-virus market. The collective product would be under the Norton Anti-Virus trade mark distributed and the IBM Anti-Virus (IBMAV) program is liquidated. Response of the main competitors, Dr. Solomon and NAI (former McAfee), followed immediately. They issued the press-releases offering the IBM product users to promotionally replace the dead anti-virus with their own products. Less then one month later Dr. Solomon â€Å"committed suicide†. The