Floppies (Part 2)

    After further thought, I decided to examine the floppy disk itself. Maybe there were clues that I didn’t notice, but looking into the disk’s properties revealed nothing of interest. For some reason, I decided to make a copy of the application itself, so at least I know I wasn’t imagining things (Not like I would imagine getting a floppy disk in the mail anyway).

    But as soon as I looked into the disk, the file was gone.  Great, there goes my one evidence that I wasn’t imaging an incredibly weird application that somehow despite the technical differences in an outdated version of Windows and the latest version of Mac OS, manages to send a message, despite the fact that the two computers aren’t even connected together.

    At this point, I’m too weirded out to determine my next course of action, but I hastily went back to my Mac, typed out the day’s events, along with a recollection of the program from memory, and took some snapshots of the package and floppy disk in question. Then, with no good leads available, I decided to go to some forums and ask them if they might have heard, or perhaps, encountered this.

My posts usually went something like this:

So I got a floppy disk in the mail, no return address. Weird, right? Well, that’s just the start of it. So I loaded that thing up on my old Windows 98 computer and there was this DOS app called “RUN ME”. And to add another layer to the weirdness cake, I checked the file properties and the company name was “longforgotten” and the Internal name was something like “justrunitalready.exe”

So I ran that thing, and the first thing that came out was asking me if I remember and how could I forget (Sheesh, come to think of it it sounds like my ex) and asked me the significance of 31^st July 2000 and 1^st August 1999 (Oh yeah, I found it at the file’s properties too, forgot to mention that) and then it told me I’ll remember, and then it flooded my computer and made a lot of beeping noises, so I turned it off.

Weird enough, right? Not really. So I went back to my Mac, and to add the icing to the weirdness cake, when I sat down there was this dialogue box that says I will remember and how forgetting is human nature and instead of “Cancel” and “Okay” it said “You Will” and “Hate Yourself”.

I mean, that’s pretty fucking weird if you consider the fact that the old Win 98 pc wasn’t even connected to my network. I use it mostly to play my old games like Diablo II and Quake, really. And I don’t have to tell you how different OS X is compared to Windows 98 for that fucking matter.

Oh, and to add a cherry on top of the weirdness cake?

When I booted that old computer there was this DOS prompt that said “One of many”, which I assumed that I’ll probably have more floppies sent my way. Oh yeah, when I tried to make a copy of the app it went missing as well, or I would’ve grabbed some screenshots or told you guys to run it in a VM or something.

So, yeah.  Anyone has any idea what’s going on?

Among the replies I received were:

FrankR

I have no idea what’s going on here, but now I’m craving cake.           

DejaEntendu

I really have no idea what to make out of this. Have you googled the name of the weird DOS application and see if anyone else got it or you just got an outdated virus? In that case I guess you better scan that computer as well.

Jr957

Alright, technical weirdness aside, I don’t think any of us have even heard of that thing. It could be someone mailing floppies of an old DOS app they made ages ago to random people for lulz.

DeltaLord

Dude, that’s a really weird story. Sure that’s not a bad batch of weed you just smoked?

CrazedCoder

Well, it have no idea how, but that kind of app did happen back in the heyday of DOS, so I assumed it’s something the guy whipped up in C++ for fun. But the Mac dialogue box thing was pretty weird. I mean, yeah you can make something like that in C++but the fact that:

    a)     The architecture of OS X and Windows are wildly different, like you’ve mentioned earlier.

    b)     And if, and this is a pretty big if, both computers are networked, there’s no way a DOS app somehow manage to find a Mac OS X machine and launch it. People usually make different versions of the same program for that.

    c)     Not to mention that OS X was launched when people where phasing out Win 98 for XP. It would’ve made more sense if it was a Windows exe file with a hidden script for other platforms, but I don’t think I’ve seen one so far, and the dates are too far, while they match a file you’d get during the Win 98 era, it doesn’t seem that way for OS X.

So my best assumption is that whoever sent you this somehow found vulnerability in your system (shocking, I know) and launched the script. Check your logs, you might find something. I think it might be related to that floppy you got, but I just don’t know how or what. I really have no idea.

As I was about to give up on my inquiries, I received a private message in one of the forums, and opened it. It read:

From: DWatts

Subject: You too?

You got that thing too? I got a floppy with the contents like you mentioned in your thread, only it was for my old System 8 Macintosh, not DOS, but the contents and events were similar. I even tried looking it up on Google, and nothing. I’m waiting for the second disk myself. I have no idea what’s going on, so I think we should keep in touch in case something happens.

So it seems that DWatts, whoever he is, is my best lead in this case. I then replied:

From: ZippoPinhead

Subject: You too?

That’s crazy, man. Did you get the same dates: 1^st August 1999 and 31^st July 2000? Does it have any significance for you?

And he replied:

From: DWatts

Subject: You too?

Yeah, I did but I don’t think they held any significance. It was pretty weird. I guess we better document the dates we received the floppies, and make a copy of it before running it, you know? Show everyone we’re not bullshitting them. That message thing was pretty weird though, I got the same thing, but I thought that application somehow found my main computer in the network, since my old Mac is connected to the network, and thankfully, no files on either computer were affected.

I replied back:

From: ZippoPinhead

Subject: You too?

Well, good to know. I wasn’t too worried; I used that old computer to play old games, really. I bet soon enough, someone will message either one of us and said they have the Windows or Linux version of the same thing. What are the odds, huh?

    I turned off the computer and lied down, wondering my next step. I noticed the floppy lying on the desk, and the old computer sitting in the corner. Deciding to save myself from any future grief, I moved   it next to my current computer, so if anything happens I can find a solution immediately, but as a precaution, this computer won’t be connected to the Internet as well. Next, I grabbed a pen from the desk, and scrawled today’s date, 6^th of August, 2014 at the bottom-left corner of the disk.

     That way, I could remember the order in which I received them. I hope DWatts does the same thing too.