Slashdot Mirror

I don't know if these links have been posted before.

The BBC mentions slashdot and its role in making Mr. Ralsky's life a junk mail hell.

A quote in the Detroit Free Press "These people are out of their minds. They're harassing me." The original article on the site is here.

So in case you were wondering, yes, you're reaching him.

Hey Mister CEO, how 'bout you invite me to your house?

When you guide me to the door at the end of my visit do you mind if I leave wireless web cams scattered thoughout your house? Like say in your living room and kitchen? Or how about your bedrooms and bathrooms? It would really help me to understand you better.

Honestly (and sarcasm aside now) - I would just like to know where these people come up with these ideas. Do they not realize it's invasive? Then again thay probably have the same undertsnading impairment of Mr. Ralsky

http://www.freep.com/money/tech/mwend13_20021213.h tm

Ralsky, who is one of the biggest senders of unsolicited bulk e-mail in the world, says anti-spammers have been harassing him for the past year. Lately, said Ralsky, anti-spammers started flooding him by snail mail with coupons, brochures and ads. "I just toss them right into the wastebasket," he said. "It doesn't bother me."

The immature thing to do here would be to take that as a challenge, or a suggestion that you're just not trying hard enough , or that you're not yet doing your part. But thankfully, we're all adults here, right?

Yes, there was an update:

Free Press article:

MIKE WENDLAND: Behind the scenes, spam's even uglier

December 13, 2002

Bloomfield Township spam artist Alan Ralsky is in the midst of yet another controversy, this time involving an anti-spam activist who says someone left him threatening telephone messages after he took photos of Ralsky's brand-new $740,000 house.

The activist, Rich Clark of Warren, said he's reported the threats -- which were left on his answering machine -- to police. He said it all started last weekend when he drove to Ralsky's neighborhood to snap some photos for an anti-spam Web site.

Clark said as he was taking his pictures from the street, someone left Ralsky's house, got into a black car and tried to block him from driving away. Clark said he maneuvered around the vehicle, but was followed.

The next day, the phone calls started.

"You don't know who the hell you were . . . with yesterday," began the first call. "You got the wrong guy. You don't even have the guy you think you do."

The caller then gave details about Clark's home, his driver's license number, even the bank his car was financed through.

A second call said: "I'm going to make your life so miserable you should watch every corner you go into, bro, every second."

The next day, there was still another message. "Just waiting for you," it said. "You haven't heard the beginning of what's going to happen to you yet. Keep your eyes open."

Clark provided me copies of the recordings. Are they from Ralsky? It was hard for me to tell. I asked Ralsky, and he said he knows nothing about it.

"Come on," said Ralsky, "That's ludicrous. I'm not that stupid."

He said he had no idea who was in the black car that Clark said left his driveway. "I don't have a black car," he said. "And I'm 57. I'm not about to go chasing anyone. But what was that guy doing taking pictures of my house for, anyway?"

Clark says he took the pictures to post on an anti-spam Web site (he hasn't decided which one). He now plans to add the audio files from the phone messages.

Warren police said Clark's report is on file, but there is no investigation in progress.

Ralsky, who is one of the biggest senders of unsolicited bulk e-mail in the world, says anti-spammers have been harassing him for the past year. Lately, said Ralsky, anti-spammers started flooding him by snail mail with coupons, brochures and ads. "I just toss them right into the wastebasket," he said. "It doesn't bother me."

You might also want to check the following Usenet thread in news.admin.net-abuse.email:

Google News

which includes links to mp3s of the threats left on his answering machine.

Quote from original story, from Dec. 6:

"They've signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is," he told me. "These people are out of their minds. They're harassing me." ... Ralsky is indeed annoyed. He says he's asked Bloomfield Hills attorney Robert Harrison to sue the anti-spammers.

Quote from new story, Dec. 13:

Ralsky, who is one of the biggest senders of unsolicited bulk e-mail in the world, says anti-spammers have been harassing him for the past year. Lately, said Ralsky, anti-spammers started flooding him by snail mail with coupons, brochures and ads. "I just toss them right into the wastebasket," he said. "It doesn't bother me."

Gee, Alan, it bothered you enough a week ago to whine about it to a lawyer. What happened?

He's become desensitized to the junk mail in a week-- time to redouble our efforts! Someone sign him up for the NAMBLA newsletter. Better yet, send him child pornography and tip off the cops when it arrives. :-)

~Philly

Quote from original story, from Dec. 6:

"They've signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is," he told me. "These people are out of their minds. They're harassing me." ... Ralsky is indeed annoyed. He says he's asked Bloomfield Hills attorney Robert Harrison to sue the anti-spammers.

Quote from new story, Dec. 13:

Ralsky, who is one of the biggest senders of unsolicited bulk e-mail in the world, says anti-spammers have been harassing him for the past year. Lately, said Ralsky, anti-spammers started flooding him by snail mail with coupons, brochures and ads. "I just toss them right into the wastebasket," he said. "It doesn't bother me."

Gee, Alan, it bothered you enough a week ago to whine about it to a lawyer. What happened?

He's become desensitized to the junk mail in a week-- time to redouble our efforts! Someone sign him up for the NAMBLA newsletter. Better yet, send him child pornography and tip off the cops when it arrives. :-)

~Philly

Judge: Mr. Irvine, You are hereby sentenced to death for the brutal killing of Mike Wendland. Your dispicable attempt at an insanity plea on the grounds of hidden people on the internet telling you to do it makes me sick. You are allowed to choose the method with which you are executed. Which method do you choose?

Me: I choose windhexe-cution.

I like the current method to cut down spam:

1. Get an online publication to write an article in which a spammer brags about his expensive home
2. Tell thousands of geeksabout it and present a thinly veiled challenge to find the guy's address
3. ?????
4.Profit!!!!


Sorry, once I got to number three I couldn't resist :)

My dislike for McDonald's is largely personal - I just do not like their food. In addition, my stomach seems to have grown a dislike for the food, as well, and the few times I have eaten there in the past few years ends up with me sick to my stomach.

Wal-Mart, on the other hand, is another beast entirely.

I admit that a lot of the reasons I boycott Wal-Mart are out of personal choice. Wal-Mart is free to do most of the things it does, and I have the freedom to disagree with these and boycott them as a result.

Some reasons, however, actually do have grounding in some severe problems with the corporation.

My dislike for Wal-Mart began when I saw what they were doing to small towns in America. They were moving into these towns and then driving everyone else out of business. Well within their power, I know, but not something I liked to see.

Wal-Mart then began their push for Super Wal-Marts (bigger, and with grocery stores). Often these new stores were within visual sight of the old store. Here is an interesting thing - try leasing the old store. Wal-Mart will not let you, for fear of competition. Once again, something they can legally do, but not something I like.

Once they drive out competition in the small towns, selection falls. I have no evidence to show that Wal-Mart raises prices once competition are gone, but I think it at least possible they do not lower prices as much as they would in an area with competition. Selection, however, is an obvious thing to check out. If Wal-Mart does not carry something, it is impossible to get locally in a lot of small towns.

Wal-Mart's decision to carry things can, at times, amount to de facto censorship and market control. Investigating Wal-Mart's decisions concerning CDs and movies it considers "indecent" will bring up many examples of this. Once again, not illegal, but Microsoft has its head on a stick on Slashdot for a lot less.

Wal-Mart is very strongly anti-union. While I, myself, am not a big fan of unions, I believe there are times when they are still needed. Wal-Mart is a perfect example of this, and the reasons behind this are where Wal-Mart really starts skating on thin ice from a legal perspective.

Even Wal-Marts attempts to keep unions from its stores have been investigated more times than you or I could count.

Wal-Mart considers anyone who works 28 hours per week a full time employee.

There are over 250,000 uninsured workers employed by Wal-Mart, one of the largest groups without health care in the United States.

Wal-Mart moving into a small community does result in jobs, I agree. However, I would be very interested to see the numbers on jobs *lost* due to Wal-Mart (smaller stores and so on). In addition, there is a lot of evidence pointing to the fact that the people who lose their jobs and end up working at Wal-Mart generally (because of the 28 hour rule and lower pay rates) end up making *a lot* less than they were making before.

This article lists some of the complaints currently lodged against the corporation.

Remember the IP argument about leaked prices?

According to this, there's 12 tons of pig shite "near Halsted and Maple, in West Bloomfield, IL".

I doubt it's the fresh stuff, though. That'd be quality pig shite.

Imagine if everyone felt they had the right to take the law into their own hands and dispense justice as they saw fit our legal system would become unbalanced. Individuals would place differing penalties based on their own moral judgments, not based on a standard of law.

It's an operation still very much in business, despite last month's much-hyped settlement of a lawsuit against Ralsky by Verizon Internet Services. The suit used Virginia's tough anti-spam laws to get Ralsky to promise to stop using Verizon servers and pay an undisclosed fee for sending out millions of unsolicited e-mails to its customers.

In 1992, while in the insurance business, he served a 50-day jail term for a charge arising out of the sale of unregistered securities. And in 1994, he was convicted of falsifying documents that defrauded financial institutions in Michigan and Ohio and ordered to pay $74,000 in restitution.

Indeed, not a short month or so ago the RIAA was proposing congress pass legislation which would enable them to hunt down and possibly destroy or disable a system they believe to be involved with infringing intellectual property.

Don't look now, but you're all about to get sued. I'd have e-mailed you, but most of your profiles don't have e-mail addresses with them. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. :-(

Here's what I just wrote up for a Slashdot story. It got rejected, but it ought to see the light of day somewhere. Hope posting in this thread doesn't make Ralsky take me to court ...

Deluged Spammer Threatens Suit Against Slashdotters

Spam king Alan Ralsky is now evidently receiving several tons of 'snail mail' spam per day thanks to an 'organized campaign' against him, according to Mike Wendland's column in today's Detroit Free Press. The story refers to Slashdot's previous articles and specifically quotes this comment by a Slashdot user. It also indicates that Ralsky has retained Michigan attorney Robert Harrison to bring suit against "the anti-spammers" responsible for his deluge, who he seems to think are the Slashdot users who commented in either of those threads.

[Got the news from Boing Boing.]

I really, really wish you were right.

Count me in, and read what the spammers have to say about this:

These days, [the response rate is] about one-quarter of 1 percent. "But you figure it out," said Ralsky. "When you're sending out 250 million e-mails, even a blind squirrel will find a nut."

Let me spell that again for you: Point-Two-Five Percent, not even three people in a thousand. And falling, I presume. Their strategy is clear: Spam more, much more.

Pardon me while I rant: DIE SPAMMER, DIE! A HORRIBLE AND PAINFUL DEATH!

Thank you.

Alex

Just take the basic information from the article, and you can locate him.

Oakland County Realestate listings and closings

Closing in Oakland County for '02

How can they get away with this?

Can you say class-action libel suit??

"A website cost time and money to run. Every time you visit a website you will cost the webmaster behind that website money as they have to pay for the bandwidth you use when downloading images, information etc."

Ok, and by popping up images, information, flash movies, etc., you're saving bandwidth *HOW*???

"If you start trying to block that income you will still cost the webmaster the same amount of money as before, but the webmaster won't earn any money from advertsing to cover the expence."

If you are going to call us theives, please at least spell expense correctly. Aside from nitpicking their spelling, do they honestly expect we all get *FREE* access to the internet? And that we all have extra time to read and close all the popups that? Our bandwidth costs us too, and our time is money too.

As I browse their site, I have closed at least 7 ads, AND a popup for that stupid Gator spyware.

Heh, they offer spam protection. But, if you follow their logic, blocking spam email is theft. Those spammers take all the time and effort (download list, slap into mass emailing program, hit enter, go read a Tom Clancy novel while the email zips off to inboxes unknown..) to email us with viagra offers, penis enlargers, and 19% credit cards. All that bandwidth they use, and the email lists they have to buy, and we're stealing by not reading their emails.

Heh, here's a blurb on cookies, "What cookies have to do with all this might be hard to understand at first, but blocking cookies can also cause major problems for webmasters. Many sponsors use cookies to track from which site a sale came from. E.g. if you visit a specific site, click an ad and chose to buy something the webmaster of the website you first came from obviously should earn some money from that. When blocking cookies that revenue could be lost..."

Sure, but they don't just want to track what website you came from, what you did at their site, and where you went to next afterwards... since they seem to be buddy-buddy with Gator, they want to know what you're doing on the web, at all times...

And, as seen in previous /. articles, spam is only going to get worse. As seen here, there is a new breed of spam/popup on the horizon.

"Ralsky, meanwhile, is looking at new technology. Recently he's been talking to two computer programmers in Romania who have developed what could be called stealth spam.

It is intricate computer software, said Ralsky, that can detect computers that are online and then be programmed to flash them a pop-up ad, much like the kind that display whenever a particular Web site is opened.

"This is even better," he said. "You don't have to be on a Web site at all. You can just have your computer on, connected to the Internet, reading e-mail or just idling and, bam, this program detects your presence and up pops the message on your screen, past firewalls, past anti-spam programs, past anything."

So, taking Anti-leech's arguement to the logical extreme, blocking these invasions of privacy would be theft.

Ain't technology grand?

According to this which shows only one house that was sold for $740,000 in Oakland Count, MI this past month.

The address?

836 Mohegan St
Birmingham, MI 48009-5667

here?

Look for 740,00$ (the price listed in the article) -- It's the only one listed for the last month or so.

The same paper also has a list of real-estate transactions by address and price (no names) here.

Perhaps the $730,000 transaction in Bloomfield Hills (where his lawyer is from)?

4288 Stoneleigh Rd., $730,000

There are no $740,000 transactions listed..

>Is this really possible? If so how?

Why, Windows Messaging, of course.

But let's get to the heart of the matter. As much as you can hate this guy for what he's doing, the reason he's making money (and the same reason telemarketers stay in buisness) is because they're are idiots out there responding to spam with their wallets. If everyone would adhere to the minimum essential committment to never buy anything as a result of unsolicited commercial advertisements, commercial spam would not exist.

For those privacy advocates out there, do you REALLY care that the managers of a supermarket know you buy a pack of pringles every shopping trip?

The problem isn't that the manager knows. The problem is that any number of "trusted" employees will know. One or more of employees may be willing to resell (or just give away) your information. Heck, for the right amount of money I'm sure the store will happily sell the information. I for one purchase personal hygiene and pharmacy products at my local supermarket. If I'm a politician trying to appease a rigid Catholic demographic, I might prefer that my political opponents not be able to prove that I purchase of condoms or birth control pills. I'd rather my health insurance didn't have the opportunity to analyze my buying habits of aspirin and antacids to decide if I've become too risky. Or even if my health insurance decides I buy too much junk food, my auto insurance decides that I buy too much alcohol. Or perhaps my opponent for a county board seat will get the information and claim, "Bob sure buys alot of alcohol, are you sure you want someone who buys that much alcohol on the board?" A potential employer might make collecting such information part of their check on me before hiring me.

The probably isn't that the store knows. To the store I'm only interesting as a relatively anonymous consumer. The problem is that once the information is collected that it will become available to other people who may be interested in me personally. There is a serious risk of abuse. If government agents who have been specifically screened for security purposes occasionally decide to abuse the information (like Robert Hanseen, a few Michigan police, amoung other cases), why should I trust the night shift manager at my local supermarket who hates his job at my local supermarket?

I read this article about the EU stroing arming US companies to comply with EU privacy guidelines. I can't believe this wouldn't be the case for India as well.

A lot of US companies were upset about this, as was the federal government, but I think the US ended up enacting laws that mirror the EU to ease tensions. Anyone has info on this?

I believe AAA also sells an emergency cellphone which can contact police/911/AAA.

Actually, you can just use any old cell phone that isn't being used anymore. I think I read it first on slashdot, and in trying to find the article to link to found a couple other sources confirming that you can use any cell phone to call 911 even if you have no active service!

Now all they need to do is come up with a battery that doesn't require constant reconditioning and can be left in standby (or even off) for more than a week without needing a charge.

I'm just going to assume that the tracking comes from the possiblity of the merge with AT&T. The freep had a really good article yesterday about Comcast not being too happy with the bandwidth consupmtion from users.

"Comcast points out that it is not cheap to provide high-speed service to a million customers, as it does now. At its network operations center in Cherry Hill, N.J., workers electronically monitor more than 50,000 pieces of equipment throughout the company's broadband network."

It wouldn't be surprising if they were tracking "equipment" (users more like it) to see who the bandwidth "hogs" are.

Better take advantage of Usenet acess while it lasts!

Last year, the Detroit Free Press ran a two part story about police officers who abused a law enforcment data base, which is tied into the FBI's NCIC, for personal reasons.

http://www.freep.com/news/mich/lein31_20010731.htm

Cops tap database to harass, intimidate
July 31, 2001
First of two parts

BY M. L. ELRICK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Police throughout Michigan, entrusted with the personal and confidential information in a state law enforcement database, have used it to stalk women, threaten motorists and settle scores....

Police said they think the system, which is used to make about 3 million background checks each month, is more widely abused than anyone knows...

Despite rules limiting LEIN use to law enforcement purposes, police told the Free Press their colleagues use LEIN to check out attractive people they spot on the road.

"I'm not going to be so naive as to say an officer hasn't seen a pretty girl and run her plate," said Carey, who also was once chief in Troy.

Former Memphis Police Chief Phillip Ludos said the practice is so common it is known simply as "Running a plate for a date."...


A few months ago, the Free Press did a follow-up, about how the Detroit police handled the offenders:

http://www.freep.com/news/mich/lein26_20020426.htm

Abusers' names to be wiped out
Officers who misused LEIN won't be traceable

April 26, 2002

by M.L. Elrick
Free Press Staff Writer

LANSING -- State officials made it harder Thursday for the public to learn who has abused the confidential Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN), a computer database containing driving records, criminal records and other personal information.

Reversing their practice of keeping the names of police and others who abuse the system, the Criminal Justice Information Systems Policy Council voted to delete the names after investigating each case.

The council, made up of prosecutors, police and state officials, made the change after state and local police officials expressed concerns that maintaining a database of abusers would violate labor contracts, which limit the amount of time a transgression can remain on an employee's record...

Last year, the Detroit Free Press ran a two part story about police officers who abused a law enforcment data base, which is tied into the FBI's NCIC, for personal reasons.

http://www.freep.com/news/mich/lein31_20010731.htm

Cops tap database to harass, intimidate
July 31, 2001
First of two parts

BY M. L. ELRICK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Police throughout Michigan, entrusted with the personal and confidential information in a state law enforcement database, have used it to stalk women, threaten motorists and settle scores....

Police said they think the system, which is used to make about 3 million background checks each month, is more widely abused than anyone knows...

Despite rules limiting LEIN use to law enforcement purposes, police told the Free Press their colleagues use LEIN to check out attractive people they spot on the road.

"I'm not going to be so naive as to say an officer hasn't seen a pretty girl and run her plate," said Carey, who also was once chief in Troy.

Former Memphis Police Chief Phillip Ludos said the practice is so common it is known simply as "Running a plate for a date."...


A few months ago, the Free Press did a follow-up, about how the Detroit police handled the offenders:

http://www.freep.com/news/mich/lein26_20020426.htm

Abusers' names to be wiped out
Officers who misused LEIN won't be traceable

April 26, 2002

by M.L. Elrick
Free Press Staff Writer

LANSING -- State officials made it harder Thursday for the public to learn who has abused the confidential Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN), a computer database containing driving records, criminal records and other personal information.

Reversing their practice of keeping the names of police and others who abuse the system, the Criminal Justice Information Systems Policy Council voted to delete the names after investigating each case.

The council, made up of prosecutors, police and state officials, made the change after state and local police officials expressed concerns that maintaining a database of abusers would violate labor contracts, which limit the amount of time a transgression can remain on an employee's record...

Id really like to know what brought this to MS's attention. It's puzzling that MS would have one of it's own doors closed (i.e. letting people play XBOX's...) in order to stop Sony.

Disclaimer: I have not decided one way or another on this issue.

Your question is actually right on the money, but not in the way I think you realize. Your protectors may be stalking you and/or your fellow citizens and it's not for anything as noble as public safety. Check out this link: Cops tap database to harass, intimidate

Our local and federal law enforcement agencies are made up of fallible human beings - and there are times that these people can be even more sinister than those from whom they are supposed to protect us. And with tools that would make surveillance so much easier, how many others will be tempted to use it illegally and immorally? For this reason alone, I oppose these types of measures.

The sad fact is videocameras on every street corner will not stop crime. Nothing will change, except instead of looking over my shoulder for criminals, I will also be looking out for the gestapo.

It's customer support dummy.

And I don't just mean people answering phones (though that is a problem too) It also has to do with actually getting the product to the household. I know way too many people who would be hungry to pick up broadband services - if it only reached out to their place. The next level of dissatisfied customers has to do with technical incompetence, technicians who are dispatched who know less than the customer, and telephone answering droids who know even less.

If we heard raving reviews from everyone who had it, and everyone could get it - we'd be wired to the gills. It would be like having telephone service where it's an emergency if you lose your connection.

Comcast is making a really bad first impression on Mediaone users in the Metro-Detroit area: They are only forwarding email from Mediaone accounts for three days to the forced new Comcast accounts. After that, nothing. All the contacts you've made, all the subscriptions to newsletters, all the customers or potential employers looking at your just a week old resumes or business cards or brochures will simply have to wonder where the heck you went. More details in the local Newspaper at Detroit Freepress Hope my access speed doesn't drop too much...

I thought Neo was The One. Anyway, the movie is getting average ratings from papers across the globe. Here they are if you'd like a second opinion:

Chicago Tribune: 3 stars

Detroit Free Press: 1 star

E! Online: C-

Entertainment Weekly: C-

Did you know that the movie was originally going to star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson of WWF fame?

I'm afriad. I'm truly afraid of the things that the government will do in the name of 'National Security.' Look in the past what has happened when we write a blank check to our Government. Look in the 'red scare.' People were denied work, followed, wiretaped, ect. on the thought they may be communinists.

I want to be able to talk with my doctor, lawyer, and accountant without having the communications reviewed by nameless, faceless government organization who is never held responsible for anything (See FBI, CIA, local law enforcement, ect). We can't trust our local law enforcement with our license plate information (Here). How can we possibly trust a federal agency with an unlimited ability to wire tap for fourty eight hours without a court order?
Just think, how long is it until speaking out against the government in a private email to your wife or husband is a matter of 'National Secuirty?'

Since a lot of major news/network sites are down I'd suggest trying local newspapers. Both mine, the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press seem to be holding up okay. The free press is reporting that the Pentagon was hit, too.

Because LEIN machines are often left on and users are not assigned individual passwords to access the system, investigators frequently have trouble proving who violated the system....

Kathy Rector, executive director of the LEIN policy council, said individual passwords may soon be assigned to LEIN users to improve security by matching police to individual LEIN inquiries.

Too bad this didn't make the cut for the front page. It's exactly this kind of shit that makes massive databases so problematic.

FYI, this was a two part series. Part two can be found here.

I think it's also worthwhile to point out that this isn't just a problem with kids. There are plenty of adult bullies. And plenty of adults that "go postal" as a result. Where do you think the phrase came from? The best way to teach kids compassion is to demonstrate it in our own behaviour.

--brian

Have a peek at the Detroit Free Press for Doron Levin's article Music industry won a battle, not the war.

Have a peek at the Detroit Free Press for Doron Levin's article Music industry won a battle, not the war.

Breakfast Cereal Contamination Alert!
Read this if you or your kids eat General Mills breakfast cereal.

Breakfast Cereal Contamination Alert!
Read this if you or your kids eat General Mills breakfast cereal.

http://www.freep.com/news/locway/qbaby 15.htm

Short version: a busy professor leaves his baby in a hot car and it dies.

It's a big difference. Micros~1 is on the ropes, but they might still make a comeback. However, they and the financial community know that they have serious troubles. I mean, heck have you seen poor, sad Bill Gates' commercials trying to rebuild M$'s (and his own) image? Despite everything, having a judge rule against you in a very public, potentially very damaging case is a big public relations loss.

AOL, though, has done a lot of shady things, and yet their image is hunky-dory in the public eye. Some shady things AOL has done:

1. Exploited High School students by having them work as AOL volunteers.

2. Practiced Trojan Horse Marketing.

3. Disclosed confidential information about its members.

And, well, the list goes on. The only thing we should worry about AOL competing with M$ in is shady business practices. I don't care if they continue to produce their crummy Internet service as long as they do so honestly and ethically. Their past track record, however, does not give me much confidence of this.

Of course, I never underestimate Bill Gates, he might make a comeback and beat all his enemies, sort of like Francis Urquhart in that BBC series...

But why does it have to be a competition between AOL and Micros~1, can't I hate both companies? ;_;

(And despite his many infamous deeds, I still prefer Bill Gates to the Soap Salesman. I can at least picture Bill reading Heinlein or Asimov.... I don't even want to imagine what the Soap Salesman reads... probably stuff about synergy and marketing brochures.)

Some days, I do read the newspaper:
Detroit News
Detroit Free Press
'Nuff said.

Remember how a bunch of volunteer forum moderators sued AOL for labor-law violations? Sun wants to get rich off of institutionalized volunteer bug fixing with its SCSL program. Could a judge rule that Sun had to compensate those volunteers?

If you wanted to understand what makes other countries laugh at the United States, you have got to see this article.

Jeez, if I read one more post about 'how could Katz come down on the poor, downtrodden, unjustly treated (!!!) Mikey Milken' one more time I think I'll be nauseous.

As this article reminds us, Mikey got in trouble for the highly illegal practice of INSIDER TRADING, NOT because the 'big bad govt wanted to put down our oh so holy saint of blessed junk bonds'. As it also shows, he can't be bothered to obey the law even in recent times.

I guess in tomorrow's episode we'll be treated to the story of 'The Saintly, Mistreated Charlie Keating' and other fractured fairy tales...