Microsoft to do for Usenet what it did for Email & The Web?

tjones2 writes "Seems like Microsoft isn't content with sad state of email these days. They now want to "make engaging with communities easier and friendlier". This means extending their reach into Usenet." Fortunately most of Usenet is such a cespool that really they can only make it better. And after cornering the market on email worms, imagine the benefits they can bring to NNTP!

Comments

Great - more e-mail addresses for spammers

[terminal.dk]

This is all an evil plot by Microsoft. They want more e-mail addresses in the hands of spammers, so they can sell their new upcoming anti-spam software.

Attn:Microsoft/Usenet: AI has been solved

[Mentifex]

Embrace and extend Usenet, Microsoft, because it will turn on you and destroy your monopolistic practices.

Here is a typical Usenet message that spreads the AI message -- against which Microsoft is ultimately powerless.

http://mind.sourceforge.net/acm.html is a Do-It-Yourself page
for artificial intelligence (DIY AI) that invites programmers
for any given "XYZ" language to commence coding "Mind.XYZ"
simply by coding the Main Program Loop (ALife) with stubbed-in
calls to six mind-module subroutines as found on AI4U p. 208:
Security; Sensorium; Emotion; Think; Volition; Motorium.

If would-be AI Mind coders for any language will please create
the main Alife loop for Mind.xyz and host it on the Web with
language to the effect that the code is in the public domain
and that anyone may re-post the code with changes or additions,
then we may witness a "pre-Cambrian" explosion of AI Minds.
We also want the pathways of AI evolution to split far apart.
We do not want the exact same AI to be re-coded as Mind.XYZ.
If each AI coder gives a little and takes a little, lim --> ***

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595654371/ "AI4U"
is a mixture on both coding and on how the AI Mind-1.1 works
in JavaScript (with full "jsaimind" listing) and in Forth.
The AI4U book description contains my plus and minus points:

+ It describes the rapidly evolving AI Minds on the Web.
- It quickly becomes obsolete as the AI hyper-evolves.
+ On-demand publishing (ODP) makes for quick updates.
- The Mentifex project is considered oddball on the 'Net.
+ You've got the first book about the first real AI Mind.
- There are other, better, more authoritative AI textbooks.
+ AI4U makes a good supplement for actually coding AI.
- Artificial intelligence is too hard to understand.
+ AI4U describes the AI while it is still easy to learn.
- "I would rather build robots than study AI programming."
+ If you want to build a smart robot, then AI4U is for you.
- "I'm only a high school student/teacher; what's the use?"
+ This book will challenge even the most gifted student.
- "I am not a programmer and so I can't code AI."
+ AI4U teaches you how to operate an AI, not just code it.
- "I just want to do Web design, not artificial intelligence."
+ AI4U provides an AI that you may install on your website.
- "I am more interested in neuroscience and/or psychology."
+ AI4U teaches a theory of how the brain works psychologically.

http://mind.sourceforge.net/vb.html is a Visual Basic AI Blog
that tries to coordinate between the AI Mind project and, e.g.,
http://www.virtualentity.com/mind/vb/ -- Mind.Forth to Mind.VB.

Re:Sounds like their ideas are OK, though

[lvdrproject]

Exactly: it's great, but only if you know where to look. Sounds as though Microsoft's ideas on this one are steps in the right direction. I'm a Usenet veteran, but still find it difficult to identify a group that's relevant to me when I first want to explore a new subject.

I really have no idea what you're talking about. I got into Usenet when i was 14 years old (i'm 16 now), and i was subscribed to all the groups i like within 2 or 3 minutes of downloading the groups from my server for the very first time. Of course, i only use Usenet for binaries, but i have taken part in discussion once or twice. It's not difficult at all.

How do you have to "know where to look" any more than you do when you're on the Web or on a peer-to-peer network? With any modern client, you just go to the groups list, you type in something you're looking for, like "movies" or "cartoons" or "microsoft" or "support" or "food", or whatever, and then it'll display a list of all the groups that match. You subscribe to them, you download the headers, and there's your messages. I fail to see how it's any more difficult than email or Google. :/

Really, i'm not sure i want Microsoft to mess with Usenet. Sure, it could be improved, but really most of the room for improvement is up to the clients. Grabit is extremely easy to use if you want binaries, and Outlook Express will work for most discussion-type uses (though there are better solutions, i'm sure). Having support for nesting would be nice, but i'm not really informed about the Usenet protocol, so i'm not sure how that would work. /me shrug

Also, even if Microsoft did make the experience more convenient or whatever, do we really want that? Didn't people have a huge problem when AOL made the Internet "more convenient" for people that didn't know what they were doing? If Microsoft makes Usenet easier for "n00bs" (and i use that word with much prejudice) to get onto, i wonder how decent the experience will actually turn out to be. I know i've never downloaded a fake file from Usenet, but i've done so from KaZaA a dozen times. And the rush of people that have no idea what they're doing has certainly degraded the quality of IRC, with people who have no idea about chat etiquette, or people who just can't plain read instructions. (It's particularly annoying when some 13-year-old joins a chat channel and sits there and tries to ' !list ' a couple times, for example.)

I just don't think it's a good idea. They're either going to try to ruin Usenet outright, or they're going to indirectly ruin it by flooding it with people who have no idea what they're doing.