What began as a ninth-grade prank, a way to trick already-suspicious friends who had fallen for his earlier practical jokes, has earned Rich Skrenta notoriety as <A HREF="http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=55048">the first person ever to let loose a personal computer virus.</A>

Although over the next 25 years, Skrenta started the online news business Topix, helped launch a collaborative Web directory now owned by Time Warner's Netscape and wrote countless other computer programs, he is still remembered most for unleashing the "Elk Cloner" virus on the world.