New iPods - for the zuspar in you

Recently, I've found Macedonian phrases creeping into my language. (My boss is Macedonian). One such is "Ke ce bear!" which I gather means "How's it going, mate" or something similar.

Another is "zuspar" (not sure how to spell it). It means "someone who lives in a world of their own". Some people came into the shop yesterday to look for dishwashers that have a "rock salt dispenser", to turn "hard water" into "soft water". Apparently "all European dishwashers have it". The reason why European dishwashers have it is due to their water being "hard", and we don't need it because the water here is "soft". Why did these zuspars need it? No reply.

So that's what a zuspar is.

Now I'm here to tell you that if you buy one of the new iPods, you're a zuspar.

Sure, anyone who buys iPods more than once is a zuspar anyway; before the iPod came around I never knew that people could have such brand loyalty to a product that is unreliable and has a history of problems. But this new iPod is a worse beast; it runs Mac OS X and has a wi-fi connection that can access the Internet.

Dumb, dumb, dumb. The iPhone has already been hacked, but it's unlikely that there will be viruses for it simply because IT WON'T TAKE OFF. But this new iPod will be very popular, just because of the name. With an insecure (but complete) operating system like Mac OS X, combined with a wi-fi connection, it will be such an easy target for crackers.

Criminals will be able to write viruses and push them onto other people's iPods through wi-fi. Let's face it, Mac OS X for ARM will have enough security flaws to drive a fleet of road trains through. Once the viruses get onto the iPods, they will be able to use the Wi-fi connections to access local wireless networks and commit DoS attacks through the internet or, more frighteningly, directly into WEP or unprotected networks. A criminal could even harvest information from secured networks, where one of the network's users is an iPod owner. Outgoing firewall? Not a problem, as the virus could store the information until it is able to establish an outgoing connection through someone else's network.

I place dibbs on the naming rights for the first wireless iPod virus / worm.  I want it called "Zuspar". Named after all the people who will buy one without considering the consequences.