A 'Trojan Horse' application called Oompa-Loompa (OSX/Oomp-A or OSX/Leap-A) is making the rounds in the Macintosh universe. While this application is not a virus, it does have some virus- or worm-like properties and is probably the closest thing to affect the Mac platform since the launch of the Unix-based Mac OS X.

As in the past, some media outlets and companies will probably attempt to arouse concern of a major security threat against the Mac platform. But the Oompa-Loompa trojan can only activate when a user unpacks a tgz compressed file and double-clicks the application (which appears at a cursory glance to be an image file). The trojan then infects random applications and attempts to propagate via iChat (Apple's AIM program), but the receiving users again can only be infected if they intentionally decompress and run the application.

In other words, don't double-click strange files. This goes for users of all computer platforms. For more information on this trojan, Andrew's Post at the Ambrosia Software message board is the best source.

So we got a big snow last night -- between 11 and 12 inches, according to random measurements around the apartment. It's about 13 or 14 on cars (where it started accumulating first).

Needless to say, we're not making an appearance at church this morning -- although I did spend a few minutes clearing off 80% of the Honda. If my afternoon commitment ends up not canceling, it will be a lot less work to get moving. Clear off the last 20% of snow, do a little shoveling, and we're good to go.

Melissa took some pictures of me and the car (see below), and since I don't have much else to do this morning I'm doing the car survey posted elsewhere (also see below)....