
Originally Posted by
CoolSt
That sounds great, but how do I know its not a Virus?
Ok, let me explain this to you instead of just telling you:
A virus is a piece of code that is capable of copying itself and typically has a negative affect.
A virus is code, ok? A code needs to be executed, turned on, opened, whatever you want to call it. Sure, he can send you a virus in a text file if he wanted to, but it would not affect you because you have the code for the virus, not actually having your computer execute/use the code. Sure, I could give you this code:
osascript -e 'tell app "loginwindow" to «event aevtrsdn»'
That will make your computer(MAC) shutdown if you execute it. Let's say you copy it down in a document file, Apple's program is called Pages, I believe.
So you type it into the document and click "save". Nothing happens because it's just a bunch of letters.
Long story short, a virus cannot be harmful in a text file, if there is one in there, well, you now own a virus.
Having a virus on your computer is different from your computer being INFECTED by a virus.