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Computer experts expressed bewilderment today at the apparent failure of the so-called "Billie Jean King" virus. The virus, a self-extracting Virtual Basic file which travels via e-mail and sends itself to every person listed in a user's Microsoft Outlook address book, disguises itself as a photograph of the 1960s and 70s tennis legend Billie Jean King. Thusfar, only spotty damage has been reported -- an Ani DiFranco webzine crashed after being flooded with over 500 of the King e-mails, and the Harley-Davidson corporate site reported a brief voluntary shutdown Tuesday afternoon to cleanse its system of the virus.
"It's safe to say that we're baffled," said Dr. Phillip Yeoh, professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Two viruses, the Billie Jean King and Anna Kournikova types, are released virtually simultaneously -- one spreads like mad, the other does nothing. This, as much as anything, shows how arbitrary the success of one virus over another can be." A representative of the U.S. Tennis Association commented further: "We have no explanation -- why people would seemingly prefer to see a photo of an up-and-coming tennis player who has yet to win a single tournament versus that of a tennis legend and Hall of Famer who has won numerous titles is beyond us."
Dr. Yeoh has said that he and his colleagues plan to file the Billy Jean King virus away in the unofficial "mysterious failures" department of the School of Computer Science. "Hopefully, we can learn methods of constraining viruses from Billie Jean King, and also the Bea Arthur virus of 1998. Obviously something accounts for their lack of success...Poor coding, other faulty methods. With any luck our analysis will turn something up."