The Brain Virus

virusThe common story is that two brothers from Pakistan analyzed the boot sector of a floppy disk and developed a method of infecting it with a virus dubbed “Brain” (the origin is generally accepted but not absolutely). Because it spread widely on the popular MS-DOS PC system this is typically called the first computer virus; even though it was predated by Cohen’s experiments and the Apple II virus. That same year the first PC-based Trojan was released in the form of the popular shareware program PC-Write. Some reports say Virdem was also found this year; it is often called the first file virus.

Basit and Amjaad Farooq Alvi owned a computer store in Pakistan, and wrote the virus to leave their contact information on computers. It soon spread and was relatively harmless although it infected PCs worldwide. The brothers claimed they had done it to study software piracy in Pakistan, ostensibly because they were software vendors. The brothers are still in business today in Pakistan as internet service provider Brain Limited.

The First Worm (Morris Worm)

virusThe first computer worm, dubbed the “Morris worm” after it’s creator Robert Morris Jr., appeared in the winter of 1988. It was not written to cause damage, but to spread. Morris originally had benign reasons for creating it, claiming it was to gauge the size of the internet. A Cornell University graduate student, he released the worm from MIT on Nov. 2nd, 1988. What he didn’t know is the worm’s code had a bug, and it quickly infected computers by the thousands.

The worm worked by exploiting vulnerabilities in the Unix operating system along with sendmail, fingerd, and other packages. It only infected DEC VAX machines running 4 BSD and Sun 3. It was programmed to reproduce itself and other files, and filter through the networks. The size of the reproduced files eventually filled a computer’s memory due to the unintended bug, effectively disabling them.

Morris was eventually arrested and became the first person tried under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986. He was sentenced to three years of probation, 400 hours of community service, and a fine of $10,050. The worm also prompted the creation of the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), and has also been called “The Great Worm” because of it’s disastrous effect. Morris was also the son of the chief scientist at the National Computer Security Center, part of the National Security Agency.

Renderman

From Pixar Studios‘, What Is Renderman?

Leading digital effects houses and computer graphics specialists use Pixar’s Renderman® because it is the highest quality renderer available anywhere and has been production tested through successful use in feature films for over ten years. Pixar’s Renderman is stable, fast, and efficient for handling complex surface appearances and images.

RenderMan’s powerful shading language and anti-aliased motion blur allow designers to believably integrate stunning synthetic effects with live-action footage. In addition, Renderman is backed by Pixar’s technical staff, who know the challenges of creating digital effects.

Renderman is also an industry standard interface specification for photorealistic renderers.

Pixar

pixarPixar Animation Studios combines creative and technical artistry to create original stories in the medium of computer animation. In partnership with Disney, Pixar has created four of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time: Academy Award®-winning Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), Golden Globe-winner Toy Story 2 (1999) and Monsters, Inc. (2001). Pixar’s four films have earned more than $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office to date. Pixar is located in Emeryville, California, and has over 600 employees. It’s recent films have included Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.

Pixar recently became embroiled in a dispute with Walt Disney over it’s film contract with the company. They will release Cars, it’s final contractually obligated movie for Disney, in 2006.