UTD Researchers Create Frankenstein Computer Virus. Thanks a
Lot, Guys. There is undoubtedly a tale of heartbreak in their
past. Maybe Kevin Hamlen and Vishwath Mohan were disillusioned
when the world made them computer scientists at UTD instead of
pop stars. Maybe they were mad that their school's mascot being
a Comet named Temoc. Maybe they simply hate civilization as we
know it. Whatever the case may be, the researchers have created
a nasty-sounding computer virus. You saw what he did to that
little girl plucking daisy petals. What do you think he can do
to your computer? As New Scientist reports, their work was
funded by the U.S. Air Force and named after Frankenstein, as in
the freakish literary monster, sewn together from sundry and
disconnected parts, who serves as an ominous rebuke to man's
hubris. The virus works on an infected computer by taking
snippets of benign computer code from ordinary programs -- your
Internet browser or word processor, for instance -- and splicing
them together to create mal