The new desktop ... who will step up?

The desktop needs an overhall. Who will step up? GNOME? KDE? The answer is probably none of the above. The Beta's of the above show great advances in technology. Havoc Pennington has some great stuff but, I need some inovation. I read a blog post about using the corners of the desktop to control it. Decent idea. I am eagerly awaiting stable code from e-17 -- they are close -- . http://www.enlightenment.org/
I think the current product shows great potential. Thanks rasterman and crew...

Virus classes are on!

Dr. John Aycock is the professor that teaches the infamous "Computer Viruses and Malware" at the University of Calgary. He was gracious enough to answer a quick email interview about the class.

> Does U of C still offer the virus writing class?

Hi, . Yes, we do. In fact, next year it'll be getting a "real"
calendar entry.

> Did you have students create new viruses or just reverse engineer existing
> ones?

As a CIS student, you can appreciate that as soon as you change a single
bit in a virus, you'd have a new virus from a technical point of view.
Students do write their own viruses as well as anti-virus software.

> Did the backlash from the internet community deter you in any way?

I have a pretty thick skin :-)

> Would you like to see the course taught at other colleges?

*If* appropriate safeguards are taken, then I think it could be
beneficial. We've tried a couple of decades with it not being
taught; maybe it's time for a change.

> What is the main programming language you teach for virus writing?

It doesn't really matter, since you can write viruses in lots of
languages. Ideally a language (or languages) the students know
that can be used easily for low-level system programming.

I would like to thank Dr. Aycock for taking time to answer my questions.
I hope my college offers a similar course in the future. I myself have no intention of ever writing a virus but I do enjoy event driven programming and I believe that virus code may give a new outlook on methods of execution.