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An Interview with 180 Solutions
Paperghost writes "Here's a great interview between Jimmy Daniels and an anonymous ex-employee of 180 Solutions, who portrays the company as being somewhere between turmoil and meltdown. There's so many notable quotables it's scary, but here's one that really sets the tone:
'Shutting down these rogue distributors turned out to be a lot more difficult than they expected though. When you lose them, your daily installs go down drastically and the revenue goes to hell. The layoff in September could be laid directly at the feet of this effort.'"
How can they have so many "rouge distributors" and not notice? It seems like someone had to say "Oh, this doesn't look right". I guess it's hard when you're a spyware company.
echo YOUR_OPINION >
How can they even exist without "rogue distributors"? I was under the impression that that was about 90% of their installs... I don't really know anyone that decides to install that on their own >_>
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
180 Solutions has forever ruined the free multimedia industry of the internet. Anytime I see a "free screensaver" or "free desktop wallpaper", they're usually somehow connected with spyware and adware.
And their popups/popunders.... ugh.
--
BMW Forums
You're not creating a content economy by making your advertising an anoyance. This 'blink tag' mentality doesn't work when everyone can provide content. How many of you, googling the capital of faroffistan, type 'wiki'? No ads, obnoxious loaders, browser crashing javascript.
Now that content is a two (multi?) way stream we have to go back to a pre-electronic mindset. Some of the greatest paintings of the 19th century were sold to hang in restaurants. Now that's good advertising.
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
Who sets up Vmware as a permanent use type of solution like this? Why not just install anti-spyware tools, use mozilla, and even toss on the tea-timer from spybot.
I guess its been so long since I've been that naive I forget what its like..
Which no sane company will ofcourse do. Especially considering that their entire business model depends on adware/spyware.
So all I can surmise is, they are trying to get at least some good PR value out of a bad quarter :p
They do need a more positive public perception of them, considering the recent cases against spyware makers/distributors.
I feel so bad for these guys...especially the guys that are surprised by the pink slips.
Poor malicious coders.
Wonder what they put on their resumes...probably would load it with spyware if the paper supported it.
AC
I had a run in with one of their people not too many months ago. I had been put on one of their spam mailing lists and I emailed their address to ask for my domain to be removed. Initially, I got a person who said that they wouldn't do it. When I replied and said that I would file a complaint with their upstream data provider, I found my email address mailbombed with additions to about 5000 mailing lists. Luckily these days most mailing lists ask for a confirmation and those that don't I weeding out pretty quick. The moron also didn't realize that most mailing lists confirm messages also include the IP of the subscriber. I replied again and included the draft letter to the upstream provider and a letter of the local police department's electronic crimes office for an attempted DoS attack, but this time someone else responded and apologized. Never heard from them again. Before the slashbots jump on me for replying to SPAM, I'd like to say that I've already paid the price.
I welcome the day when adware/spyware companies start going out of business. These companies should expect that these are not long term ventures, and most people are very irratated by their software no matter how they try to present it. Yes, a small economy surrounds the business of spyware, but it's business based on mass numbers (i.e. casualties) and not by innovation, or any sort of usefullness. Just like the old days of selling blind-link traffic and 404 traffic, except we knew it had its days numbered. Surfing the net for most people means easy access to information, it shouldn't be a blind pit of junk waiting for you to stumble upon the wrong link :)
There are 10 types of people in the world; those who can read binary, and those who can't.
You're not directly claiming this, but you might want to read up on the broken window fallacy. If you were not always fixing damage done by others, society could use your skills in a more productive manner.
You know, not everyone is a vendictive bastard.
Yes the representive of the firm did a bad thing, and yes the firm in itself is probably a bad thing. But two wrongs don't make a right unless you are going left - so calm down, smile and try to be polite even though people are pissing on you.
Look at this Wikipedia revision, creating an article on a 180 Solutions product. Look at the history tab, and you will note this revision was done by the IP address 206.169.156.2. The IP address corresponds with 180 SOLUTIONS HOOKED-2 when looked up in the American Registry for Internet Numbers.
The article was changed to give it a more neutral tone many times, but in all cases the IP address tried to revert to the original version. The article in its current form is located here, but with a sign that says that everything in this article but not be accurate, nor true. The IP address range for 180 Solutions is 206.169.156.0 - 206.169.156.255. See this American Registry for Internet Numbers entry for 180 Solution's physical address. The city can be confirmed by Wikipedia itself.
This was done in June 2005, around the same time the U.S. Congress staffers began editing Wikipedia, coincidentally. Again, using Wikipedia as a source, this company has less than 250 employees. Because this IP address came from the company, what are the odds that the editor created that article about that "instant messaging service" for love of the company alone? It reads like an advertisement.
They used Wikipedia to market their filth, and spyware company or not, that's something I'll always hold in contempt. (mod up)
Simple, they're usually MLMs or some other crap. The people on the other end of those sites are probably going to charge you a fee for participation -- they make money. You sign up for some silly scheme, you might make money, or you might just waste your time and the money you have now.
Classic money making scheme:
Send me $20, and I'll send you instructions on how to make a fortune. They send you $20, and you tell them to get people to send them $20 in exchange for secret money making secrets. For every person you sign up, I get a cut.
Somewhere in the maze, there might be one or two actual products -- there has to be, or it's a straight up fraud. But mostly it's comission structures and fluff that says if you can sign up other people or market to other suckers you'll make a fortune. The money is made by all sorts of intermediary comissions, not on the actual product -- unless you're the manufacturer. [ In the case of spam, the guys sending the messages are getting paid if you buy, so you annoy a million or so people with "g3t a big p3nis" crap ]
The people who have large amounts of people below them in the pyramid
Think referral programs. Think Amway. Think of 'affiliate' programs from the 90s. Think spammers, cold callers, or other creative ways of seling. Advertiser pays promoter for qualified hits/leads/sales/eyeballs. Promoter hires lots of little promoters to do the volume, then make their money of economies of scale.
Any time someone wants to get you to listen to a 'business opportunity', and won't tell you what it is up-front, is probably hawking one of these. Frequently, it's accompanied by trying to get you to come to a presentation, where hopefully they can fill your head with ideas of being rich, and have some more experienced shark button-hole you and sign you up. Run from these people -- very fast! They're very slick, and they generally over-represent your odds of actually making any money. [ You could make a fortune selling red smarties, and get your own supply of red smarties at wholesale prices. The real money is in finding other people who want to make a fortune selling red smarties ]
The guy who signs you up is hoping to make money from you. The guy who signed him up is hoping to make money from you, and so on. You're just grist for the mill. The more people they sign up at the bottom end, the more the guys at the top roll around in piles of money they no longer need to work for, because a large number of guys are schlepping the products they no longer remember anything about.
At best, most of these things are dubious. At worst, they can be quite cultish and downright scary (*cough* Amway *cough*) -- these people approach the whole 'free money' game with almost religious zeal. It's in their interest to convince you that your family and friends don't recognize a good business opportunity (and who needs 'em anyway), and that the snake-oil they're selling is really worth the money.
Make a fortune by working at home for 2 hours a day in your underwear? Yeah, right. They just prey on vulnerable people who are currently not making enough money and can't get a job that lets them. Or unscrupulous people who don't mind working in grey areas.
There is no free lunch.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
How can an interview with an ex-employee be regarded as "An Interview with 180 Solutions?"