A computer virus is a type of intellectual violence. A new book, "Memoirs of a Virus Programmer," examines the motives of a young disgruntled employee and his attempts to spear an elephant-sized compa
January 17, 2006 (Press Release) --
While Symantec and Norton spend large sums of money every year defusing viruses written by young programmers, and while the media vilifies the criminals as dark anomalies emanating from the technoculture, a subset of fiction and cinema has continued to celebrate the underground and find new ways in expressing the motives of virus writing pariahs.
In 1984, William Gibson's Neuromancer began the Cyberpunk genre, a movement that culminated with the Matrix in 1999, and continues on to this day with a new book of a different flavor, titled Memoirs of a Virus Programmer by Pete Flies, that puts satire and psychology in the pit together to examine the motives of a young disgruntled employee and his attempts to spear an elephant-sized company, as the main character, named Johnny Pepper, sets his virus execution to run "one week before the end of the third fiscal quarter, which happened to be the perfect time for a Dow stock to take a dive and rattle Wall Street."
Pepper feels that he has been driven or forced to write a virus to find a way to be creative, making his motive subtly different from Evan's attraction to writing viruses. The company's lack of ethics, such as the common practice of layoffs, the corporate attitude, and the overcharging of customers for billable hours, all niggle Pepper, along with the pontificating office-mate who continually reads the news out loud. However, it is his own isolation and emotional instability that ultimately allow him to write the virus.
The author, Flies (pronounced "Fleece"), indicates that Johnny Pepper is a different type of criminal. "If what you rage against is only an entity on paper, then what is physical violence? A virus is a type of intellectual violence."
"It is primarily a book about an era and an archetype, both of which I feel are to date unexplored in fiction and satire. The character begins like Candide, with absurd optimism, hoping for creativity in his career, but while he runs the gauntlet of modern life - from the suburbs, to the slums, to Christian revivalism, to the desperate housewife next door - his mood degrades into Dostoyevsky's nameless narrator from Notes from the Underground."
He describes the technical pieces of the virus in detail, including the methods used to lift a password off of his office-mate in order to log in as another user. He defends his goal by saying, "for the first time…my inflated title of 'software engineer' was applicable."
The ending of the book does not glorify the criminal act, as Pepper finds himself facing an ethical dilemma beyond his control. He comes of age in a harrowing manner, too late for his own redemption. But, on the other hand, he shows no pity for Symantec or Norton either.
In 1984, William Gibson's Neuromancer began the Cyberpunk genre, a movement that culminated with the Matrix in 1999, and continues on to this day with a new book of a different flavor, titled Memoirs of a Virus Programmer by Pete Flies, that puts satire and psychology in the pit together to examine the motives of a young disgruntled employee and his attempts to spear an elephant-sized company, as the main character, named Johnny Pepper, sets his virus execution to run "one week before the end of the third fiscal quarter, which happened to be the perfect time for a Dow stock to take a dive and rattle Wall Street."
Pepper feels that he has been driven or forced to write a virus to find a way to be creative, making his motive subtly different from Evan's attraction to writing viruses. The company's lack of ethics, such as the common practice of layoffs, the corporate attitude, and the overcharging of customers for billable hours, all niggle Pepper, along with the pontificating office-mate who continually reads the news out loud. However, it is his own isolation and emotional instability that ultimately allow him to write the virus.
The author, Flies (pronounced "Fleece"), indicates that Johnny Pepper is a different type of criminal. "If what you rage against is only an entity on paper, then what is physical violence? A virus is a type of intellectual violence."
"It is primarily a book about an era and an archetype, both of which I feel are to date unexplored in fiction and satire. The character begins like Candide, with absurd optimism, hoping for creativity in his career, but while he runs the gauntlet of modern life - from the suburbs, to the slums, to Christian revivalism, to the desperate housewife next door - his mood degrades into Dostoyevsky's nameless narrator from Notes from the Underground."
He describes the technical pieces of the virus in detail, including the methods used to lift a password off of his office-mate in order to log in as another user. He defends his goal by saying, "for the first time…my inflated title of 'software engineer' was applicable."
The ending of the book does not glorify the criminal act, as Pepper finds himself facing an ethical dilemma beyond his control. He comes of age in a harrowing manner, too late for his own redemption. But, on the other hand, he shows no pity for Symantec or Norton either.
Email
Print
SPAM
