As a computer programmer, I find talks about viruses to be interesting. Not all of us write the virus that kills your pc or takes down a hard drive or two, but at the same time, most of us are the people who program your websites and programs that you use on a daily basis. Programmers are always looking for something new and exciting to do/accomplish (at least I am), hence the reason I chose programming; there's 9,000 ways to skin a cat and I'm not satisfied until I know all 9,000 ways. Now that's not to say I'll USE all 9,000 ways epecially if some are bad, but it's interesting to see other views of how to accomplish the same thing. Hackers are the same way; always looking for a new challenge and big companies like Microsoft, Google, etc. that lay-off/fire programmers have given them ammunition to hack their software. Some have grudges and others do it because they're hired to (yes that's right, big companies hire hackers to find exploits in their software so they can fix them).
I"m right there with you on the hate level when I get a virus but sometimes it's no fault of your own (ie. you have an unprotected wireless network that all your neighbors (unknowningly to both of you probably) use and accidentally transfer viruses that way.
