EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 54, Issue 09 This issue's topics: MIDI virus? (9 messages) Your EMUSIC-L Digest moderator is Joe McMahon . You may subscribe to EMUSIC-L by sending mail to listserv@american.edu with the line "SUB EMUSIC-L your name" as the text. The EMUSIC-L archive is a service of SunSite (sunsite.unc.edu) at the University of North Carolina. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1993 17:08:08 UTC+0100 From: gui Subject: MIDI virus? Hi people....... In the last issue of KEYBOARD's Spanish Edition I could read a little reference about a MIDI virus. It's called "Under 16" and attacks the RAM banks of your MIDI connected devices. Does anyone have further information about it? Thanx in advance Luis A. Fuente University of Valladolid Spain gui@cpd.uva.es ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1993 17:08:08 -0400 From: Joe McMahon Subject: Re: MIDI virus? > Hi people....... In the last issue of KEYBOARD's Spanish Edition I >could read a little reference about a MIDI virus. It's called "Under 16" and >attacks the RAM banks of your MIDI connected devices. > Does anyone have further information about it? Yes. This is doubtless an incorrect conclusion on the part of the person writing the article. Words fail me as to how incredibly heterogenous the processors and operating systems of currently-existing synthesizers and samplers are. Manufacturers can't even agree on sys-ex formats, let alone operating systems, disk formats, and realtime code; the thought that a virus could be written that could both break into the OS and possibly function on *any* keyboard whatsoever is is a concept approximately as ludicrous as imagining that John Cage will be broadcast on Top-40 radio. Many of these processors have all of their OS code in ROM. Needless to say, it would be difficult to break into such an OS without a PROM burner; being a physical device, most viruses do not possess access to one. The possibility certainly exists that there are data streams that can be sent to certain, selected synths that cause then to lock up and barf their RAM. Ask Nick about his experiences with the Wavestation and the VFX. However, to put this virus scare (and let me emphasize that it is just that, a scare) into a more reasonable perspective, this is like saying that there is a virus that infects any computer, no matter what processor or operating system it uses. Not. --- Joe M. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1993 11:14:00 EDT From: John Rossi III Subject: Re: MIDI virus? So let me get this straight, Joe. This MIDI virus is kinda like HIV in that it may exist but probably does nothing? John ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1993 10:39:21 -0500 From: "Mark A. Clark" Subject: Re: MIDI virus? MIDI viruses don't exist. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1993 11:46:00 EDT From: Mario Vergona Subject: Re: MIDI virus? MIDI vireses do exist, they are called Musicians. m ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1993 11:59:00 EDT From: John Rossi III Subject: Re: MIDI virus? Neither do AIDS-producing retroviruses, apparently. John ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1993 14:00:28 -0400 From: Joe McMahon Subject: Re: MIDI virus? >So let me get this straight, Joe. This MIDI virus is kinda like HIV in >that it may exist but probably does nothing? More in that it exists only as a virulently transmissible figment of the imagination. I categorically refuse to express any opinion about any other virus in this forum. --- Joe M. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1993 15:02:00 EDT From: John Rossi III Subject: Re: MIDI virus? Oops, sorry. Almost thought this was r.m.s. for a second. I'll be good in the future. No retro-virus stuff here not related to the fact that all od us analog junkies must have a real retro-virus. John ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 00:51:49 PDT From: metlay Subject: Re: MIDI virus? >Oops, sorry. Almost thought this was r.m.s. for a second. I'll be good in >the future. No retro-virus stuff here not related to the fact that >all of us analog junkies must have a real retro-virus. Oh, that explains why I get the shakes whenever I get near a Buchla for sale. -- mike metlay * atomic city * box 81175 pgh pa 15217-0675 * metlay@netcom.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Wow, now my hand's all sticky! Yum." (metlay's wife) ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************