[Spambayes] OT: pedantism (was: Bayesian virus detection?)

[Neale Pickett]

Matt Sergeant <msergeant at startechgroup.co.uk> writes:

> On Friday, Jan 31, 2003, at 16:44 Europe/London, Neale Pickett wrote:
>
>> PS: Klez and its ilk are properly called worms, not viruses.  Not that
>>     anyone would fail to understand what you meant if you said virus, I
>>     guess.
>
> Worms are viruses.  As are Trojans and a whole bunch of other
> things. Virus is the generic term for a program that spreads itself by
> one means or another. The more specific term (e.g. worm) indicates the
> means with which it spreads.

Hmm, not according to my dictionary:

  http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/entry/virus.html

Although it does appear that I was incorrect in characterising Klez as a
worm--it would be, according to esr, a virus.

Every report I've seen on Klez calls it a "worm".  So maybe the larger
point is that there's no longer a clear consensus on what is a worm and
what is a virus, and I should go back to merging mboxtrain and
hammiebulk.  ;)

Neale