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Link correction: here

It's a pretty scary scenario painted, but one can hardly take a speech from 2001 as serious evidence these days

should read

It's a pretty scary scenario painted, but one can hardly take anything from John C Dvorak as serious evidence these days

This type of "buzz" on the street is a wonderful marketing tool and I see no way in which it harms your business.

Here are some good arguments why this may not be true:

http://daringfireball.net/2005/01/the_rumor_game

http://adzoox.com/otherendoftheroom.html

"I don't see a privacy policy on your site. Seems to me like you're violating Apple's terms of service. Naughty naughty."

It's there in the about section - but actually it is more clear on the adzoox section (which could be considered the parent because I am an authorized sales affiliate there.)

http://adzoox.com/ad/p3temp.html

"(Blog, incidentally, is not an acronym. Just so you know.)",/i>

Did I imply that?

This was released several months ago...

I had done a story on my website about it back in July.

I proposed that people use tampon boxes for their iPods too.

Eventhough mentioning the Bible doesn't go over well with the /. crowd - another cheap way to "protect" your valuables is to leave two BIbles on the front seat - one where they can plainly see the words Holy Bible - the other with the 8th commandment (Thou Shalt Not Steal) highlighted.

Even if they can't read or are not religios they know what a Bible is.

I have been doing a little tracking down of a Spammer myself from my state.

A few months back, when the free iPod craze started - a company in my state started sending out emails from:

Product Test Panel
Consumer Research Corporation
Subscriberbase.com

Saying, "Product Testers Wanted". They would go from hot product to hot product. Sometimes, not even released products - like the Nintendo DS was advertised almost 2 months ago - claiming immediate shipment.

I found that they were in my state by reading the actual email and seeing a location in my state and then by confirming it with whois information.

I then sent off an email to the contact. I got an email from a guy named Brian Benehaley. In typical fashion, all of my accusations were denied.

Turns out, if you Google this guy's name - he has written a well respected piece [respected amongst bulk emailers] about how the Can Spam Act will bring a new renaissance in email marketing.

I have since written the Better Business Bureau about him, found the record for the company is now in the 1000's of complaints

I have contacted my state attorney general which is conducting thorough investigation

I contacted the host ISP - Exodus - they have over 12000 complaints lodged against Subscriberbase.com

I have written a piece that has gotten into Google searches - that receives a few emails and comments each week.

More info about Product Test Panel

It has been quite fun to research this guy and put various internet tools to my disposal.

This was a good story to see what techniques Mr. Wendland used.

Google, Whois, MY BLOG, The BBB online, My attorney general all helped me ...

If you would like to see a summary of most of the posts here and a general discussion of what Konfabulator does and Arlo Rose's history and general discussion ... see a recent story I did on this on my jackwhispers website:

HERE IT IS

Titled: What A Kon!

For the purists:

I have A New Hope & Return Of The Jedi on VHS - asking $50 shipped to USA $60 shippped Internationally.

NTSC

Sleeves and movies are in 9.75 out of 10 condition

Empire is actually mostly unchanged or changed for the better, so this is why I never acquired it.

Remember, Laserdisc is fine but next to impossible to find a player. But for those that aren't interested in my VHS tapes:

Here's a few tips though if you need to find a LaserDisc player:

1) Pawn Shops
2) Thrift Stores in major metro areas
3) College town want ads
4) Borrowing from local educational institution

You can go here to get my email address.

I couldn't agree more - eventhough I'm a Mac person, I disagree with Jobs political affiliations and religious beliefs, but that has never superceded his amzing abilities as an idea man and leader and a very dedicated CEO of two VERY important media & technology companies.

He IS A FATHER and a relative and a friend to many. Shame on those that would mock his situation (eventhough they will do the same when he dies)

My front page to my websites is dedicated to him this week.

ADZOOX.COM

PayPal Ain't My Buddy

Has anyone ever heard of Jack Campbell and MacMice? This guy does the same thing. He says one thing in a forum, then says something completely different in another forum concerning his actions and his companies actions.

He's been caught on the internet several times misrepresenting an attorney, stealing patented products, and making claims about his products that are just insane.

If any of you are interested and like this kind of story. I've done two stories on my website about this kind of scammer.

One story is similar to this one and is about eBay. (Titled: Scamming Scammers & The Scheming Scammers Who Scam Them Back)

The other is about Jack Campbell as mentioned above. (Titled: Catch Me If You Can Part II: The True Story Behind MacMice)

I think it's interesting to read stories like this and I wish more people read or were interested in them. If you can understand how pathological narcissitic people work - you can learn to avoid them.

Has anyone ever heard of Jack Campbell and MacMice? This guy does the same thing. He says one thing in a forum, then says something completely different in another forum concerning his actions and his companies actions.

He's been caught on the internet several times misrepresenting an attorney, stealing patented products, and making claims about his products that are just insane.

If any of you are interested and like this kind of story. I've done two stories on my website about this kind of scammer.

One story is similar to this one and is about eBay. (Titled: Scamming Scammers & The Scheming Scammers Who Scam Them Back)

The other is about Jack Campbell as mentioned above. (Titled: Catch Me If You Can Part II: The True Story Behind MacMice)

I think it's interesting to read stories like this and I wish more people read or were interested in them. If you can understand how pathological narcissitic people work - you can learn to avoid them.

as an addendum - if you got a chargeback from your credit card (which the majority do - even though Paypal says you can't) you don't qualify

There will be a lot of fraudulent claims where people will try to get double - they will have already been reimbursed but they will try to seek reimbursement from this settlement too.

I did a story on paypal payback fraud on my website.

Some people actually like Paypal. Maybe you'd like to accuse iPod lovers of astroturfing? Linksys / Cisco lovers? Or is astroturfing reserved for groups on slashdot whose opinion are a minority? There's a lot of brand loyalty on slashdot, despite the air of anti-corporatism.

This page raises some good possible issues about at least one anti-paypal site, and shows that some claims against paypal payments are also true of many other forms of payment:

Adzooks: Paypal ain't my buddy

I think it's very difficult to leave opinions about Spymac aside. Yes, I have problems with them being the iWalk source (the older ones here will remember) but what's really bad is the involvement with Jack Campbell.

I have always had my suspicions about SpyMac. It's just too much eyecandy to be perfect.

Compare SpyMac: It's like the shiniest used car in the used car parking lot - you know the one that's usually a lemon!

Am I reading the parent right? Someone harvested SpyMac email accounts?

I've done a few editorial articles on my website about this very thing. One on SpyMac problems and prediction that this kind of thing would happen and then another on how the SpyMac Community really latched on to a recent vigilante justice story concerning a PowerBook.

You've Not Mail

AND

Scamming Scammers & The Scheming Scammers Who Scam Them Back

Not tooting my own horn, but these articles give a clearerer picture of SpyMac and the problems it poses.

I have always had my suspicions about SpyMac. It's just too much eyecandy to be perfect.

Compare SpyMac: It's like the shiniest used car in the used car parking lot - you know the one that's usually a lemon!

Am I reading the parent right? Someone harvested SpyMac email accounts?

I've done a few editorial articles on my website about this very thing. One on SpyMac problems and prediction that this kind of thing would happen and then another on how the SpyMac Community really latched on to a recent vigilante justice story concerning a PowerBook.

You've Not Mail

AND

Scamming Scammers & The Scheming Scammers Who Scam Them Back

Not tooting my own horn, but these articles give a clearerer picture of SpyMac and the problems it poses.

Actually this exploit of IDS is a two edged sword for those that try to exploit it.

If you keep track of IP addresses and do a little research at netcraft - you can really expose someone for being a fraud.

On my website, I have followed such a person, and exposed that he was registering as different aliases and agreeing with his own posts pretending to be other people. In some cases, just so he would look like he wasn't the same person he would criticise his previous comments.

PayPalSucks.com is certainly a shady company. To find out why, go to adzoox.com/paypalsucks.html

Paypalsucks.com is sponsored by Paypal's competition. Anyone who disagrees with the moderator has their IP address blocked from entering the site. Most thos that post are spazz freaks who couldn't handle a normal transaction anyway.

An eye opener about PaypalSucks.com

Yeah, and if you follow the thread, you can totally tell when adzoox started posting as AC, trying to sound like other people. Read the time stamps. It's because he links to his slashdot comments on his website Adzoox and he doesn't want people to see that he is snooping their hard drives. Nice javascript errors by the way.

Paypalsucks.com is a scam as well.

Go to the site. Notice the banner ads? They are for competing services to paypal. PAYPAL'S COMPETITION sponsor the site!!

I feel MUCH safer with Paypal than I do with my bank. eBay depends greatly on good press. The days where "bad press" news items come out about eBay - the stock usually takes a 2-3 point hit. Paypal/ebay have stockholder's to please and analysts to appease with tight security. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than average? A resounding: YES!

Read this article on my website about Paypal and PayPalSucks.com where I corresponded with the webmaster.

What is most ironic - is that scammers use paypalsucks.com as a way to say they aren't a scammer! Saying:

"I don't use Paypal - see this website for why"

Downhill Battle should definitely be questioned for their motives too. They are sleazy and quite arrogant in the way they handle "their objectives and causes" Remember, this is the same company that started Tunesrecycler - send in your Pepsi iTunes caps codes and we won't use them - thereby sending a message to Apple that artists hate iTunes DRM and prices. mmmm yeah right. I wrote a story on my website about this. I sent the link to them and got a very arrogant response.

One of the points I make is that Mac users were actually hit by the Sobig and Modoom virus(s) because they were email propogation worms - Macs get email .... so.... email was FAR exceeding normal SPAM the few days of propogation.

I also said that mac lovers bragging about no mac viruses may be asking for it to happen ... even prompting it.

My article

Happy Halloween ... I'll start of with a little humor...

Look at this cartoon at HomeStarRunner.com. When Steve Jobs introduced Jaguar he pronounced it "JagWire" - seems he needs to take a lesson from the HomeStar gang.

So, if I were CEO of Apple or if my job was in product development here's what I would be developing/releasing:

A bluetooth "one/two" button scroll mouse - I say "one/two" because the scroll button could be the 2nd button - this would satisfy Steve's simplicity rule (and his ongoing contract not to make fancy mice with Logitech) - this would also satisfy those that finally want two buttons. The scroll wheel should be like the scroller found on new Microsoft mice that can move from side to side as well as up & down a page. Scrolling is overdue on Apple mice. I really don't think Apple should innovate beyond this, but I am aware of a very interesting mouse that's in development that will combine a Griffin PowerMate and a mouse - sounds odd, but it will be interesting to see.

Along the same lines, Apple needs to put this same scroller on PowerBooks - an up & down and side to side scroller

Here's the big one - a TV tuner in everything except the iBook - all 15" & 17" PowerBooks, the high end 15" & 17" iMacs, the high end G5's, and the high end eMac should all have TV Tuners - a TV/FM/AM tuner would be awesome. Make the svideo port on the back an i/o rather than just output. This would make macs not just computers but entertainment centers as well. This is Steve's vision isn't it? Mac Users would go APES to have a Mac TV in their bedrooms - and it would be an immense value to the consumer as 17" LCD TVs are premium priced at $799 - a TV integration should cost no more than $30 in volume production. Sell a bluetooth remote, get a company like Griffin, Macally, XtremeMac in on the idea, ask them if they want to produce a premium remote. One that could say control an iPod OR the TV. Now get this - here's a side advantage - have a retractable antenna that can act as a 802.11g signal booster OR an over the air antenna!!! Apple could already have something similar to this if they'd just integrate a PCMCIA slot into iMacs & G5s. But still, I'd rather it be Apple's total solution, integrated and slick.

Next: The iSight needs a line in - this would cost pennies to integrate - the back should just screw off or a little popout svideo port would be cool - a $149 camera/firewire digitizer would SHAKE that entire market - the current firewire/analog converters are VERY expensive.

Next Up: The iPod - it needs to be this. Apple could have the iMovie store - what about Movies in Mp4 for $1.99 !! Burn once to DVD capable, authorized on 3 computers or the iPod. Think of it!!. Truthfully, I'd rather my car passengers have something like a video iPod than one of those integrated DVD/TVs that are popping up in minivans now. I saw an accident happen on the highway the other day because the driver behind a minivan with a TV was watching the TV and not the road/car in front of him. (The guy behind the minivan was actually watching the TV!!) Photo & video sharing, iPhoto integration, wow. Then, somebody with better design thinking than Belkin ("what the hell" was my reaction when I saw this) could make a media dock that could transfer photos to a Mac OR to the iPod. The media reader Belkin made was VERY short sighted. They should have made it firewire, then ALL Mac users might have been interested as well as some PC

Happy Halloween ... I'll start of with a little humor...

Look at this cartoon at HomeStarRunner.com. When Steve Jobs introduced Jaguar he pronounced it "JagWire" - seems he needs to take a lesson from the HomeStar gang.

So, if I were CEO of Apple or if my job was in product development here's what I would be developing/releasing:

A bluetooth "one/two" button scroll mouse - I say "one/two" because the scroll button could be the 2nd button - this would satisfy Steve's simplicity rule (and his ongoing contract not to make fancy mice with Logitech) - this would also satisfy those that finally want two buttons. The scroll wheel should be like the scroller found on new Microsoft mice that can move from side to side as well as up & down a page. Scrolling is overdue on Apple mice. I really don't think Apple should innovate beyond this, but I am aware of a very interesting mouse that's in development that will combine a Griffin PowerMate and a mouse - sounds odd, but it will be interesting to see.

Along the same lines, Apple needs to put this same scroller on PowerBooks - an up & down and side to side scroller

Here's the big one - a TV tuner in everything except the iBook - all 15" & 17" PowerBooks, the high end 15" & 17" iMacs, the high end G5's, and the high end eMac should all have TV Tuners - a TV/FM/AM tuner would be awesome. Make the svideo port on the back an i/o rather than just output. This would make macs not just computers but entertainment centers as well. This is Steve's vision isn't it? Mac Users would go APES to have a Mac TV in their bedrooms - and it would be an immense value to the consumer as 17" LCD TVs are premium priced at $799 - a TV integration should cost no more than $30 in volume production. Sell a bluetooth remote, get a company like Griffin, Macally, XtremeMac in on the idea, ask them if they want to produce a premium remote. One that could say control an iPod OR the TV. Now get this - here's a side advantage - have a retractable antenna that can act as a 802.11g signal booster OR an over the air antenna!!! Apple could already have something similar to this if they'd just integrate a PCMCIA slot into iMacs & G5s. But still, I'd rather it be Apple's total solution, integrated and slick.

Next: The iSight needs a line in - this would cost pennies to integrate - the back should just screw off or a little popout svideo port would be cool - a $149 camera/firewire digitizer would SHAKE that entire market - the current firewire/analog converters are VERY expensive.

Next Up: The iPod - it needs to be this. Apple could have the iMovie store - what about Movies in Mp4 for $1.99 !! Burn once to DVD capable, authorized on 3 computers or the iPod. Think of it!!. Truthfully, I'd rather my car passengers have something like a video iPod than one of those integrated DVD/TVs that are popping up in minivans now. I saw an accident happen on the highway the other day because the driver behind a minivan with a TV was watching the TV and not the road/car in front of him. (The guy behind the minivan was actually watching the TV!!) Photo & video sharing, iPhoto integration, wow. Then, somebody with better design thinking than Belkin ("what the hell" was my reaction when I saw this) could make a media dock that could transfer photos to a Mac OR to the iPod. The media reader Belkin made was VERY short sighted. They should have made it firewire, then ALL Mac users might have been interested as well as some PC

Still, the Zaurus IMHO is now superceded by the Sony Clie NZ90. When the new Clies hit the street this summer (an NZ90 slimmer version with integrated 802.11b and 400Mhz Xscale) I'm a buyer.

About the only thing I think exciting about this model is its ability to possibly run a scaled down version of Mac On Linux or the Mac System 6 emulator that already exists. Using Photoshop and REAL Word on a PDA is pretty neat!

eBayMy about me page is a very good example. My eBay auction pages are simple with concise terms and instructions and ALWAYS a picture. I have nicely formatted paragraphs but not a fancy layout. I have my terms in diferent colors and not in some oversized font like I've been cheated a 1000 times. I accept common payment types and even uncoventional ones. It's my widespread "look and my "here for the long haul" look" that I think gets me biz.

I find places like Amazon very busy on their page, so I have a hard time buying from there, even if there's a good deal. Websites with a billion ads are a complete turnoff.

My home page ADZOOX while not perfect and being a work in progress is being layed out artiscally. I'm doing it all by hand (as I have my eBay ME page) - I think sites with a personal/photorealistic touch like also "get sales" just based on the professional look.

Anyone can program HTML and any good graphic artist can layout an illustration or magazine and a good writer can lay out a nice blog, it's the art of salesmanship (even if you're not selling product, but selling idea) that matters.