Slashdot Mirror
The True Story of Website Results
Henry V .009 writes: "Salon is running a story on a dot.com called Website Results. Maybe you've heard of them. Viral Spyware makers. My God, these people are sick. Interview question: 'Imagine there's a peasant somewhere halfway across the world. If you could push a button and kill the person without getting caught, would you do it for a million dollars?' 'For them, it was yes, in a heartbeat.'"
This is based off of memory, but I feel that I can sum up this story pretty well. A couple in financial straits is deciding what to do to pay the bills, when there is a knock at the door. In the doorway is a man with a box. On top of the box is a button. The man states that for a million dollars all they need do is press the button. The only hitch is that someone they don't know will die.
The man leaves them with the box stating he'll be back when they decide what to do. The couple struggle with the decision. They examine the box and see no wires, just a button. The money would solve all their problems, but can they take a chance that someone would die if they press the button. After spending several days thinking about it, the couple finally presses the button, the rationale being that since they really don't know the person and they can't be sure they will die it's okay.
Immediately, there's a knock at the door. The mysterious man is back with a briefcase of money. Inside, true to his word is a million dollars. As he takes the box back, the distressed couple asks if a person really died. Yes, he replied, but you have your million dollars.
But what about the box? What is to become of it? "Oh, don't worry. I'm just going to give it to someone you don't know," he remarks and leaves.
WRONG.
Have you ever done any research in this? I have.
At the last office we had a nice big red button on the wall. no labels, no "DO NOT PUSH" signs. just one big daunting red button... it was in the lobby so thousands passed it by daily.
the button actually did nothing. it was for an alarm system that had long been removed when the place was remodeled... yet the button remained. So I decided to start a research process... I wired it to a linux box with a webcam in the ceiling. to take a picture and log time/date when it was pushed.....
Except for me and my testing, IT WAS NEVER PUSHED.
I had pushed it several times over the course of that year to check if it was working as I was getting ZERO results.
People are not magically attracted to buttons.. Most looked at it, but they avoided pushing it.
granted this was over a year's time, I did not have a control group, and the population section was not a complete sampling... 90% of the humans that enter our lobby are a part of the upper 40% in IQ and stature. maybe the lower 60% has too little self control to avoid shiny red buttons...
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Look familiar?
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Flowgo is another one. I get loads of complaints from users who claim never to have opted-in to their junk lists.