![july-26-1989-creator-of-first-internet-worm-sentenced-[geek-history] photo 1](http://tipsgeneral.com/images/no-images.jpg "July 26, 1989: Creator of First Internet Worm Sentenced [Geek History] photo 1")
This day in Geek History the creator of the first internet worm was the first person sentenced under the Computer Fraud Act.
In November of 1988 Robert Tappan Morris, a Cornell University graduate student, paid a visit to MIT in order to release an internet worm. His original intention was for the program to replicate itself across the internet, counting all the machines in the process. The execution was flawed, however, and the worm replicated itself so many times and across so many computers and connection that it had already visited that it caused networks and computers to crash.
July 26, 1989 he was sentenced to three years probation, 400 hours of community service, and fined $10,000. In an interesting twist, Morris went on to become an accomplished professor at MIT.
Morris Worm [Wikipedia via Wired]
Media streaming is all over the news lately as Congress grapples with what it means to stream content and how streaming affects copyright holders. While the current debate doesn’t directly concern people who stream from private collections for personal use we hardly have to tell you how quickly the
Even though Starcraft 2 has been out for a bit, having a great looking theme for your desktop is always a good thing. Today we are featuring a Starcraft 2 theme from the good folks at 7Tutorials that comes in five different r...
A thin client is a lightweight machine that offloads its processing and data handling tasks to a central machine. Under the thin client computing model, each thin client terminal the user interacts with is essentially just a front end that only handles rendering a local GUI for the user, while the
In the above video we see a block of glass go from an unrefined chunk that looks a lot like a hunk of ice to a highly manufactured glass lens destined for a television camera. It’s a detailed process that, as we hear at...
This week the Harry Potter movie saga reaches its’ climatic conclusion in the final battle of good versus evil. So set the mood and do a bit of desktop spell-casting of your own to celebrate with our Harry Potter Customization set.
If you’ve been using Linux for some time (and even OS X) you’ll probably have come across a “permissions” error. But what exactly are they, and why are they necessary or useful? Let’s take an inside look.
If you have a lot of time and information invested in Facebook, it’s not easy moving to a new social network. Here are a few tips on moving your information from your Facebook account to your shiny new Google+ account.
Every week we dip into our mailbag to answer your pressing tech questions. This week we’re finding your lost battery meter, repairing your broken VirtualBox install, and how and why you’d want to spin down your hard drives.
If you’re looking for a way to sync files from your network to your Android device without plugging in your sync cable, WiFi Syncr syncs to your network shares.
If you’re looking for a super simple way to create stop motion video Adobe Air-based JellyCam is a free and easy to use solution.
![july-26-1989-creator-of-first-internet-worm-sentenced-[geek-history] photo 1](http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/gg/up/sshot4e2edb97d11d1.jpg "July 26, 1989: Creator of First Internet Worm Sentenced [Geek History] photo 1")