Subject: No Virus Warnings Wanted.
From: Virus_Warner@
Sender: Virus_Warner@

			I append http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/std/virus.asc
Ref. the virus notification you copied to me;
Thanks, but No Thanks, not ever again !

Please do Not send me further virus warnings, as I'm immune to the 
viruses you are mailing me about ! Yes really !
	( & if you happen to have added me to any list for virus notification, 
	  please remove me again ! Thanks. )

Much as I appreciate your well intentioned mail, please note:
  - Although some virus warnings will be genuine, others are started by
    pranksters to waste as much Internet bandwidth as they can, with 
    friends of friends of friends [etc, ad infinitum] mailing each other
    warnings. (Note I make no comment as to whether the particular virus
    warning you sent me concerns a real virus or not).

I am immune to all the sort of viruses you will come across as:
  - I never run Microsoft binaries or other binaries that run on
    Microsoft type operating systems such as 
	MS-DOS & MS-Windows & MS-Win/Lose-95 & 97 & NT & OS/half.
  - Virus scanners can only tell you if you've already caught a virus,
    or if something has changed (perhaps innocuous, perhaps not),
    & they can only tell you about the viruses they already know about,
    & they are a favourite & natural target of viruses themselves.
    Publicly available sources are safer than unfathomable binaries.
  - I run Unix, with full sources, (& I don't even use an MS-Emulator).
  - Although it is possible to create Unix viruses, it's extremely rare,
    the Unix operating system is much better protected than the MS-* stuff,
    & it would be hard to disseminate due to the different hardware & OS
    platform variants involved.
  - I am on a special security alert list for my version of Unix (FreeBSD).
    They can inform me far quicker & in more detail than any Microsoft user
    could ever hope to achieve.
  - My system is self compiled from free source code,
    I don't run un-sourced binaries with unknown contents,
    in fact I run no executables I haven't compiled myself,
    I can look at the internals of my computer operating system, courtesy
    of that source code (think of looking at a car where the engine
    & all other components are made of translucent glass).
  - We (FreeBSD) have a source code control system on our master site,
    only authorised people can commit changes to those sources.
  - We have a validation system for updates.
  - Anyone who might want to put a virus replicator in our Unix sources
    would have to leave it in plain view for all of us to see & fix easily.
  - Volunteers regularly read our sources to enhance the functionality,
    they would discover viruses inactive in the source, much sooner than
    Dos users discover viruses actively corrupting their system.
  - Occasional source code reading snap check validations are done.
  - I'm aware of the security ramifications of OS independent tools such
    as Java applets etc.
  - If you want to know more about the Unix operating system I use,
    and its tens of thousands of packages packages 
    point your browser at		 http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/freebsd/packages/
    Else keep using your Microsoft based binaries, & offer a daily prayer
    to your favourite god(s), to keep you virus free :-)

Conclusion:	Thanks for your well intentioned virus warning,
		but please send me no more virus warnings ... Ever !
Pleased to hear from you about other things though, thanks for writing :-)