F-Secure reports that 8,976,038 computers are currently infected by Downadup… Every time I see absolute numbers like this, I consider whether I should view this as a big number or not…and the answer is: it depends.

Clearly, when a typical human sees that number it "feels" big right away. Anytime we use the word "million" it seems like a lot from a human-scale perspective. But from a computer scale, it isn't particularly large.

Considering that there are over a billion users/clients on the Internet (that number is probably larger these days), the 8.9 million (rounded up to 10 million) is only about 1% of the total population. Which is obviously provides a much different perspective.

It is a tricky proposition to decide whether to be awed by the number or consider it insignificant. It is certainly worth keeping in mind Spire's Fundamental Law of Internet Dynamics.