Introduction
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  Welcome to VLAD issue number Seven which is slightly late mainly due to
  the release of the joke VLAD April Fools edition (vladaf.zip).

  A few groups have died recently.  The biggest death was Phalcon/Skism who
  are now officially dead from what I hear.  NuKE likewise (thankfully).
  SVL decided to break-up due to law changes in Slovakia, but will be
  continuing as individual members.  DC split up after producing two
  magazines, which is why undernet #virus is now empty again.

  Immortal Riot have merged with the unproductive Genesis to form a new
  super-virusgroup called IR/G.  A certain Australian member of IR has
  a new type of virus ready for release, and you'll probably hear about
  it on TV sometime in the future.  The co-leaders of IR/G are
  The Unforgiven (Sweden) and Rajaat (UK). They are both currently inactive,
  so Sepultura (Australia) is now the defacto leader.

  Now comes some sad news for all the avid VLAD readers.  I (Qark) have
  decided to retire from viruses, and Quantum has decided to join me.  This
  is probably the end for VLAD, although I am unsure what Darkman is doing,
  as he will hold the rights to the VLAD name as soon as the VLAD#7 ZIPfile
  is ready.  I've decided to leave because I haven't got the time or
  inclination to write viruses "full time" any longer.  I still like mucking
  around with them, that's still fun, but churning out endless reams of virus
  texts and code wears you out after a while.  I might still release the
  occasional virus with the [Qark/VLAD] logo inside it but I won't be
  committing myself to anything.

  Since it's unlikely I'll be doing any -DOS- viruses in the future I'll just
  leave you with a small idea I've been mulling over for a while.  As an
  interesting trick for polymorphism you might consider setting the DS to
  segment F000 and doing random writes to it.  Since F000+ is ROM, none of
  the writes will have any effect, but would look great as garbage
  instructions.  Every poly engine has random reads, but none have random
  writes (that I can think of).  All heuristic scanners ignore reads (unless
  they are within the limits of the virus body) but they always take note
  of writes.  Just remember you'd have to use CS: to do all your real writes.
  You might want to make sure the writes also point within the virus (even
  though they aren't actually writing there) to bluff the scanner into
  thinking they're real.  Anyway have a go, and see how you do.

  Words from Quantum: I haven't written anything in so long I honestly don't
  know why people still see me as being in vlad.  Either way, I aint
  disappearing like all the other ex-virus niggas out there.  I'll be there
  every day doing absolutely nothing like usual.  The only thing I've infected
  in this mag is linux which I've been spending 90% of my time on.  On the
  other hand, I am still doing something, just not viruses - well, not viable
  viruses.  You get that.  See ya round the irc sewing circle.

  Words from Metabolis: Not sure why I'm writing something here besides the
  fact that I might as well not have bothered quitting, but now I can be at
  rest.  It is very likely Darkman will continue the vlad name and I look
  forward to see what he does with it.  Anyway, it was fun.
  Back to qark:

  As always, something comes along to fill the void, this time it is BIG.
  STEALTH - A group with over fifty members from the Ukraine and Russia has
  come along with truckloads of quality code and viruses.  They actually have
  grades in the group going from Beginner (just joined) all the way up to
  Master (Can do anything).  They recently released "Infected Voice" their
  first english language magazine (the rest were in russian) which had some
  good new ideas in it.  They are responsible for the viruses: Maverick,
  Tchechen and the world's second OBJ infector.  It's good to see
  enthusiastic new talent on the scene.  Hopefully they won't discover IRC
  and will spend their time coding instead of wasting it talking crap like
  the rest of us did/still do.

  I've run out of things to say now, so goodbye everyone.. you've all been
  nice to me mostly and given me some good memories, and I hope I've
  contributed something in return.

  Qark