- [Narrator] This is a 2008
15-inch Unibody MacBook Pro running Mac OS X Leopard. And this is it infected
with the Newton virus. (upbeat music) Yes, what you are looking at is real. And in around 2008 to
2009 it was something that was not exactly
uncommon on Apple computers. Granted, it wasn't everywhere but you would probably
recognize it on the spot if you saw it for yourself. Troika's Newton Virus became
quite a big internet story. Hitting the featured page on YouTube just a week within being uploaded and making headlines across
several different news outlets. And there's probably one
question that is just burning in your head right now: What on earth is going on here? Seriously, this looks like
something out of a TV show. It doesn't even look real, but yet it is. And for a lot of people who
may not have known a lot about computers, it was quite scary. What is the story of the Newton Virus? A brief Macintosh phenomenon that has since seemed
to be lost to history. This is the computer virus
that fooled everyone. (keyboard typing) Troika is the name of a
contemporary art group formed in 2003. They have quite a diverse catalog located in several different exhibits, ranging from New York city to Hong Kong. Troika has a very interesting philosophy which is to further understand the ways the digital world directly
influences the physical one and how we as people use that to establish relationships
with each other. In other words, technology has a huge role in how we see and control
our real life surroundings and how we interact with both ourselves and people face-to-face. 2003 was the year in the
middle of a huge digital boom. So Troika found that it
was the perfect time to start investigating the how
and why this was the case. So naturally they created and distributed a computer program known as the Newton Virus,
which launched in 2005. But there's something
important to note here and something that would
probably only make sense if you knew about Troika's mission: This program is completely harmless. In fact, it wasn't even
a computer virus. At all. It was a social experiment and quite a brilliant one at that. The computer program's purpose was to play as a practical joke on control freaks and people who liked
things very organized. This was a target audience
that would absolutely be influenced by things
in the digital world. If they find things within
their digital environment to be just all over the place they are going to have
quite a stressful time. I like to be a very digitally
organized person myself and I can end up very overwhelmed if I let things get a little too crazy. The program was a tool for
further studying human behavior when interacting with computers
and something like this would be an organizer's worst nightmare. The program was also meant
to introduce the concept of gravity to your desktop hence where the name Newton comes from. And it pays homage to the early days of computer viruses when
they just mostly served as annoyances, rather than
actually causing direct harm to files or mass spreading itself. But what exactly is going on here? How does the Newton Virus work? Well, the way Troika programmed this piece of software is quite ingenious and what makes it work so well is the fact that it is just so harmlessly deceptive. The user never suspects anything. There are some things to keep in mind. The program seems to only work natively on OS 10 Tiger and Leopard. If you would like to use it on any other versions of
Mac OS beyond that point, you may either be out of luck
or have to make quite a bit of program and system configurations. It is also again, worth noting that the program will not mail itself to anyone in your contacts and will not cause any damage
to your system or your files. It is perfectly safe to use. The program will only work properly if it is run from a USB drive. You can either get a USB from
Troika specifically designed for the program or you
can just make your own, but you can not run it
directly off your computer. Once the program is activated the USB drive will digitally eject itself and the laptop will appear
completely untouched. The program is not
entirely time sensitive. It will run about 30 seconds after any activity on the
computer is initiated. The start time is spontaneous but it is roughly around the 30-second Mark. So if your friend went to go to the toilet and you decide to pull this
prank on their computer, you do not have to worry about it running before they get back. It will not start the
countdown until they return and resume their work. At that point is when all the fun happens. The program takes a
screenshot of the menu bar and all the icons on your desktop. If you use the preview app, you can see that you can take images of individual windows on your computer. I assume the program
uses a similar method. I haven't yet found a way
to do this with the icons, so I'm not exactly sure
how they do it with those but it does take screen
shots, lots of them. The program then uses these
images along with an image of your wallpaper to create
a facade of your desktop, minus the dock at the bottom. This is done through OpenGL
and it creates the illusion of initially looking
like an ordinary desktop. The program uses a software called Box2D to make the icon simulate
real life physics. And ta-da, you've now
have the Newton Virus. What is even more brilliant is that the program uses the motion
sensor of the MacBook to move the icons like
you would in real life. Any iMacs or Apple computers
predating these motion sensors allow for the icons to be
moved using your mouse. But aside from that, your
mouse and keyboard are disabled so you can't leave the program. And after about a minute of madness everything returns back to normal and your computer is completely unscathed. The program won't run again unless you plug the USB drive back in and activate it once more. The Newton virus quickly
became quite a fun and easy way to play practical
jokes on your friends. It was a great way to incite
a minute of pure anxiety and mayhem without
actually causing any harm. The program saw moderate success and several articles about it followed. Many people who either were aware of how these programs work
or just read the headlines became a bit concerned to thinking that this was actually a real thing which is why so many people fell for it. As a result, downloads of the Newton Virus continued to grow. There were even versions that came out on iPhone but since this required jail breaking. it just wasn't worth the hassle and saw relatively no popularity. The limitations that
came with this would show that the Newton Virus was meeting its end. A huge reason for this
was the introduction of Mac OS X Snow Leopard in 2009. By moving all screensavers to 64-bit and having finder paint desktop icons using totally different techniques Newton Virus could not take and display screenshots
in the way that it did. As people began upgrading their systems Troika began working on a
version for Snow Leopard, but sadly was never released. Computers were quickly
becoming more and more advanced and the techniques for how they operate were rapidly changing. The Newton Virus was now history, a distant memory for Mac enthusiasts of the Steve Jobs era. Fortunately, Troika is still around. And the artwork that they
make is just incredible. I highly suggest you check them out. Whether a new version of
Newton Virus is in the works remains to be seen, but
one thing is certain Newton Virus's, intuitive
design allowed it to briefly become an internet legend. It may not have spread itself,
but it's spread awareness about the direction
computers were going in an arguably more dangerous one. This is what a virus used
to be, fun and silly, not like the ones now, which
cause loss and devastation. Newton Virus did exactly
what it wanted to. It gave many laughs and
succeeded in becoming the computer virus that wasn't. Though it's even more interesting than the tale of Newton
Virus's relatively short life is actually seeing it
for yourself in action. As we previously
mentioned, this computer is running Mac OS X, Leopard,
also known as 10.5. This program will only
work natively on this or the previous version
of OS X, Tiger 10.4. No newer, no older. Unless you are capable
of changing the program and system around, these two operating
systems are your best bet. In addition, this program
is nearly impossible to find nowadays. For legal reasons, I do
not suggest pirating it or downloading it from any
other source outside Troika. You never know if any changes
were made to the program before being uploaded that
could in fact be malicious. So as always, if you
make the choice to do so download it at your own risk. Please, know what you're doing first. With that said, let's begin, shall we? I will go ahead and plug in my USB device. This is a custom made one not a USB sent directly from Troika. Here's our program ready to be activated. As you can see, we get a little Window that pops up briefly
describing what the program is. That's kind of cool. And whenever we're ready we
can go ahead and activate it. And the USB drive will
digitally eject itself. Now, as we discussed, the program won't actually
start the countdown until activity resumes
after you press that button. This makes it perfect for pranking people who go to take a break while they are working on a computer. It will wait patiently. So right now, I am just casually changing up my YouTube channel working with some branding options and styles that I want to try out. I've also been working
on my next YouTube video. It is a journey through my finances. I decided to invest my life savings into this Bernie Madoff guy. He seems very promising- Oh! oh no all of my work is gone! What? I am clicking on my track pad and using my keyboard and
I can't even leave it. Everything is just cluttered
all over the place. As stated, if you are using a laptop you can move it around to move the icons. I will show this to you in real time. If you are on a desktop moving the mouse will do the same thing. You just can't click away from the program unless you find a way to
forcibly shut it down. If you look closely at the icons, you can see that they
are clearly snapshots. This is apparent by the
difference in resolution and the jagged outlines. The program really has fun with this by taking the photo of your
toolbar and snapping it in half. It is apparent that
the Box2D engine allows for things to run quite
smoothly and realistically. This is the main feature after all. After about a minute everything
will go back to normal. Never bothering your computer again until of course, you plug the USB back in and rerun the program. A fun little tool, which
effectively took advantage of Mac OS X's features to show just exactly what the
system was capable of doing. In the end, Troika was able
to create one of many projects which fulfill their philosophy. A digital prank can serve
as a meaningful way to establish high-spirited
friendships in the real world. Newton Virus: scare your friends. Thank you so much for watching. If you would like more videos please subscribe and click
the notification bell so that you never miss a future video. Also check out my Patreon to get access to exclusive content and
to watch videos early. (upbeat music)
