He didn't seem to realize or just wasn't letting on that all those folks who didn't think he was hiding out in someone's basement thought that's what happened to him -- that he got sick or hurt, then crawled off and died somewhere.
Exploiting the preview pane feature in Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program (which allows users to see a message in a small window before they open it) BubbleBoy can infect your PC even if you don't open the attachment it is hidingin.