To anyone who has received a strange Instant Message from either of us in the past few days, asking you to click on a link to play a cool game or something along those lines:

If you are using Windows, and you clicked on the link, and installed and ran the game, then your computer is probably now infested with a virus-like adware. It doesn’t destroy any data on your computer, but what it does do is use your Instant Messaging application to send a link to the game out to everyone on your buddy list. This happens behind the scenes and without any warning to you – in fact, you won’t know it’s happening unless someone responds to the IM asking you what it is.

For more information on the viral game, and what to do about it, check out ***this entry on Bob Golding’s blog|http://bobgolding.blogspot.com/2004_02_08_bobgolding_archive.html#107656376248324548***.

If you are running Windows and didn’t click on the link, you’re probably ok.

If you are running something other than Windows, like Mac OS X, then you are definitely ok.