...I never said I wanted to kill this spammer. I said I wanted to punch him in the face, and shoot the monitor I read this article about. Seriously, it sometimes helps to get things off your chest by going out into the woods and shooting inanimate objects (shaken-up cans of Diet Coke are wonderful with a 30-06...the things explode like you wouldn't believe).
Anyway, this spammer, if he would do what he was planning on doing, would shove advertisements into our own home further than they've been pushed before. My car has a little "Oldsmobile" logo on the back that I see every day as I leave for work. Before I leave for work, I see logos all over my kitchen cabinet advertising what I eat. The morning paper I read is littered with them. But I take it all in because I'm paying for all these conveniences. I pay for the internet to, filled with all its advertisements that have formed over the years, but I have remained tolerant to them. Why? Because ALL THE INFORMATION that I have received on the internet has been more resourceful than anyone could ever dream of thirty years ago.
But if you had someone who waltzed right through your front door and into your living room to try and sell you something, I would hope that you'd be pissed. This guy is dreaming of the same thing, only through a computer. And he ISN'T PAYING anybody other than his own ISP a dime for all the services he needs to use to get his advertising into my face, bypassing every single checkpoint along the way.
My own ISP could do this, and I'd either have to accept it or get another ISP. But he has no right to abuse my computer, my ISP's server, and every other electronic gateway across the world just to live a happy life. Oh, and by the way...
I may be wrong, but I'm 90% sure in my own mind that our trigger happy friend hasn't done much to prevent the hated "spam" he claims to be victimized by.
I forward as much spam as I can to CAUCE. I've spoken out about it on campus, plus I've let a local legislator know about it (believe me, they get a ton of it themselves...their email addresses are publically available...all their caseworkers and interns have to sort it out). The last bill that even considered limiting spam in my state got shot down.
There are legal measures to take if anyone (organization, individual, etc.) repeatedly and consistantly harrasses you against your consent. Take them.
As I said, my state has no legal measures. Even though I could make the clame of interstate commerce, the US also has no laws against spam. I cannot even directly link any spam I get to this guy since it bounces around between at least five servers both here and overseas before it gets to me. He hides his business just so he can claim to be making an "honest buck?" He is harassing me against my consent (assuming some of his spam has been sent to me), and I can't touch the guy.
If you see an advertisement that appears fraudulent, file a report with the local police, and ask them to check it out.
Excuse me, who's the guy who hasn't tried any "legal measures?" If I walked into a police station and said, "Some guy's sending me false advertisements via email," they'd tell me to delete it and forget it.
Spam is just like floor of a movie theatre. It's full of sticky-pop and stale popcorn, but so many people come for the movie that they just ignore the mess and wipe their shoes on the carpet as the leave. The only problem is that no one's cleaned the floor since the theatre was built, and the mess is about chest-high now.
So excuse me. I'm pissed, and I'm not afraid to say so.
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.
"Isn't technology great?"
Okay. I swear, if I was interviewing this guy when he said that, he would have gotten punched in the face. I am one step away from pulling out my 357 and blowing the computer screen to pieces after reading that. For anyone who thinks that this guy should still be allowed to stay in business for complete invasion of someone elses privacy just so that he can have a $750,000 house and live a life of luxury needs to stop huffin' gasoline and prevent our private lives from being invaded further.
Let me lay down the facts: Spamers steal from other businesses in order to deliver messages cheap. I've said this argument before, and I'll say it again. If you pay the Post Office to deliver a package, between the time it is given to the Post Office and the time it is delivered, it is in the possession of the Post Office 100%. Their handling of it, their processing of it, their delivering of it, is all being paid for by the Post Office. When you pay postage to deliver mail / packages, it is because the Post Office is compensated for all the time it takes to deliver the package.
Spammers do not do this. They do not pay for the bandwidth that they use up. They do not pay for the storage space on servers that their spam waits on. They do not pay for delivery of the messages beyond what leaves their servers. They STEAL. This guy, and every other single person who thinks that they can make a mint off invading the privacy of one's own home should be thrown in jail.
This is an outright exploitation of what the internet was set up to be. Stoic advertisements are one thing, because the webpage that a web surfer views is there for free, so the owner of the website is trying to compensate himself for the services he offers. But Spam, as well as this hell-born Son-of-Satan spinoff that our featured spammer friend concocted, is an outright solicitation. Send it all back from which it came, and jail these people who think that this level of exploitation is legal.
Needs to do a little research when it comes to civil court.
There is a big difference between consequential damages (aka liability) and potential damages. In your analogy, you give a great example of product liability...car company is neglegent in constructing their vehicle -- faulty car leads to accident -- accident leads to deaths -- deaths lead to liability lawsuit -- lawyers get rich. Ford and Firestone have already experienced it first hand.
But, the case here is completely different. The "job offer" presented to this independent worker is not set in stone! It is merely an "offer" which she could "apply" for. The fact that she lost the opportunity to apply for the job does not AT ALL equate to $65,000 worth of damages. The difference between this case and a liability case:
She has not lost anything but an opportunity.
Money was not taken away from her. Her significant other / child's / family member's life was not taken from her. Nothing was taken away from her but an opportunity to earn money. I can't sue my roommate for keeping the phone busy when a radio show randomly picked my phone number to award me $1,000. All I did was lose an opportunity to earn money. Civil courts can not and do not put a price value on lost opportunity. It's outrageous that she even thinks that she's entitled to a full $65,000 when, if she was awarded the contract, she would have had to work to earn the money.
Bottom line: she should be awarded three months of ISP fees for the ISP neglecting her the services they were holding hostage, plus a possible $1,000 in punitive damages. Nothing more.
I think Don Marti was also the one who thought the geeks should do this by moving en masse to North Dakota.
Hey, North Dakota's got such a low population right now, we'd be happy to have more people move here!
The Free State Project is a plan in which 20,000 or more liberty-oriented people will move to a single state of the U.S. to secure there a free society.
Let's see here, in our last election, Bush got 60% of the vote, so with a population of about 600,000 people, that means that roughly 400,000 of them are conservative. So, even if we have 20,000 liberals move here, that still won't change our conservative state!
Come to North Dakota!:) But I'm afraid that we won't let you make your own "free society." If you want to do that, move to Montana.
This article seems to suggest Microsoft is now considering charging for security.
In other news...
California convicts in correctional facilities around the state will now be running a daycare service for parents.
Lumberjacks from the state of Michigan will be opening up a private hospital neighboring their lumbermill. They advertise that amputations are their specialty.
And finally, George W. Bush announced that he will be dedicating himself to balancing the budget and eliminating the national debt within 10 years.
Case in point: If you don't have the skills, don't sell the services.
Perhaps no crimes are committed in the production or installation of them.
Say I go buy a used '89 Chevy pickup from a used car dealership. Perfectly legal.
There's a company in town called Classic Roadsters. They've produced a modded body for the '89 line of Chevy pickups that is very similar looking to a Hummer. Perfectly legal (the body shape doesn't breach any size requirements stipulated by the DOT).
but consider that most users would utilize their modchip to play copied games or ROMs or Linux, etc.
Now, say I took that modded truck, dressed myself into some army get-up, and drove onto the local army base, pretending to belong to the armed services (I don't). Now I'm doing something illegial.
My point is this: the XBox is a piece of physical hardware. It can be patented. It cannot be licensed. Once I purchase an XBox (if I ever do), I will OWN it 100%. Nothing that Microsoft ever says or does can change that. If I want to take the bloody thing apart and turn it into a toaster oven, Microsoft can't do a thing about it.
People have outfitted their cars for over 60 years now making them better. Say I had a beat-up Ford pickup that didn't work anymore, so I put in an engine from a Dodge pickup so I could get the Ford working again (please don't tell me if this is possible or not... I don't know, but it's all for the sake of argument). I don't think Dodge or Ford would complain. I'm sure you know someone who put a new stereo system into their car. They didn't have to buy a whole new car to get that stereo system they wanted. They put one into their own car so they could have better sound. People soup up their cars all the time specifically so that they don't have to buy a new car just to get the same features. It's perfectly legal to do so. It should be perfectly legal to do the same with consoles.
Xbox is sold at a loss.Microsoft needs to sell games for the xbox in order to recoup the losses it incurs for every unit sold.
Tough shit. Do you see Lincoln selling their Towncar at $9,999 brand new missing an air conditioner, and then selling air conditioners for $20,000 more? And on top of it all, making the Towncar so that no other AC would work in it except for Lincoln's own AC? Of course not! But this is what Microsoft is doing! Don't blame the customer for finding a better deal which is less profitable to Microsoft.
Yes, I was surprised when I saw that it was modded to Funny, because I was being downright serious. Anyway...
I think the best speech you can give fits the same guidelines. Be serious, though with a humorous overtone. Remember, though...Slashdot has always been about free speech, because America is suppose to be founded on the same principles. Rosa Parks wasn't upholding the "American rights of the 1950's" when she got on that bus. She redefined them. Don't be afraid to do the same thing.
Of which are you more afraid: of what you say in public or of death from above while you're just minding your own business?
If you chose the former, you probably don't live in NYC.
Let me put it this way: If I choose the latter, I may as well be dead. I would be sacrificing one of the fundamental rights that this country was founded on: the pursuit of happiness. I absolutely refuse to live a day of my life where I am paranoid about dying from sunrise to sunset. No terrorist will make me fear my life. They cannot take that away from me.
My problem is when my own country tries to take the same principle away from me when that is the foundation of the country. A country that tears itself apart so that others may not have the pleasure of doing so is no country at all.
I am curious to hear about some specific examples of how this legislation has personally or professionally affected the everyday lives of Slashdot readers."
I'm sorry, but we've done too much to "commemorate" September 11. What's done is done, and let the dead bury the dead. We should not brand Arabs as guilty and evil. Bush did a poor job handling 9/11. He has killed too many innocent lives in Afghanistan. Iraq should not be an American target. Why don't we just...
*** Knock *** Knock *** Knock ***
"Hello? Yes, how can I help you? Yes, I am loyal to my country. What? Hey! Where are you taking me?!?"
---
How has it affected me? I'm worried about what I say in public; that's how it's affected me.
Is anyone else having a serious time trying to load this page into their web browser? I've tried both Mozilla 1.0 and Netscape 4.08, and both crash after trying to render the page!
This show has equipment far more elaborate than the original series. The consoles on the original show were dials and knobs.
So, you're saying that because a ST series set in the 23rd century that was based on 20th century technology, 20th century technology should take presidence over 21st century technology to create the setting of a 22nd century ST series?
(All jest aside, I do think that the creators of the ship could have included at least a little more technology into the Enterprise...for example, why do the crewmembers need to push buttons to open doors? I mean, automatic door openers are a product of the 20th century...)
He also talks about the character of Doctor Phlox possibly falling into the 'Neelix Trap' and says he wishes the series would kill more people off like the original Star Trek!
I can see it now...Star Trek: Enterprise, Season Two:
Star Trek meets South Park!
Captain Archer: "Oh my God! They killed Dr. Phlox!" "You Bastards!"
Ensign Mayweather: "But he's the most popular person on the Enterprise! How will we ever replace him?"
Commander Tucker: "No need to worry captain! We have a copy of his atomic signature in the cache of the data resequencer in the transporter! We'll be able to generate an exact copy of him, as if he never left!"
--- BZZZ BZZZ ZIP! ---
Dr. Phlox: "Hello, captain! I'm back from helping out the Balaxians on Balax 7! I hope nothing happened while I was gone!"
Did the co-op ever encounter a point in the planning stage where they wanted to toss everything in the air and just say screw it? If so, what pulled you out of your misery and kept you moving towards your goal?
I had a hard time trusting Nintendo for its controllers. The PowerPad was a piece of trash... Nintendo tried to produce a pad that you could actually "run" on by jumping on its "foot" touch sensors. The problem was that the sensors did not work well with an 8-year-old 80 lb. kid. It worked for someone who was heavier, but then their foot actually would come in contact with more than one sensor (it was not really an adult-size power pad).
Another controller that was absolute trash was the wireless controller. It would only work if you pointed the thing point-blank at the IR sensor that would sit by the Nintendo. If you were about 2-5 feet away (and pointed the controller right at the sensor), it would work about 90% of the time (which, mind you, is not good to have, considering that the other 10% of the time always seemed to come right when you were right over a pitfall in Mario or right in front of the boss...I get really pissed when I die thanks to a controller that wouldn't work when I needed it the most). Anything beyond 5 feet would fade in and out too frequently to ever want to mess with it.
I never tried the PowerGlove, but knowing the history of other Nintendo controllers, I'm glad I never had the displeasure to work with it either.
Design Problem? Here's the design problem:
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· Score: 1, Flamebait
I don't understand these people who think you can build an elevator into space. Can't anybody understand that you cannot just "tie" a cable from Earth to something in orbit in space? For building an elevator into space, there are two problems that need to be accomplished:
1) Find a substance to build a cable that can support it's own weight (plus the weight of whatever it will "carry") in space. For a long time, this was impossible, until Carbon nanotubes came along. But even with this problem fixed, no one has even considered the second problem.
2) Any object in an orbital pattern with a celestial body (Earth) is subject to two forces: inertia and gravity. We know this as freefall. Astronauts in space are constantly falling (gravity), but never actually fall to earth because inertia keeps pushing them forward. If one of these forces is knocked out of balance, aka the orbital body slows down its forward velocity, it will fall to the Earth. So, what happens when we tie a cable to, say, the space station from the ground below?
IT WILL FALL TO THE EARTH!
The space station orbits the Earth once every what...couple hours? I don't know, but I do know that it's orbit is much faster than the time it takes for the Earth to spin once on its axis. If we attach an elevator cable from the ground to the space station, it will literally whip the station down upon the Earth, because the station moves much faster than the Earth. Since the forward motion is hampered by the cable, down it will come.
The only possibility of maintaining an actual elevator cable is if it is hooked onto something in geosyncronous orbit with the Earth. The only problem there is that the object would have to be 40,000 miles away from the Earth to maintain constant orbit with a fixed position on Earth. Good luck.
What makes me even more skeptical about this report is a statement they make on their webpage:
In its initial report, the company has found that a space elevator capable of lifting 5-ton payloads every day to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars or Venus could be operational in 15 years.
Mars? Venus? How in the universe are we able to tether a cable onto another planet?!? There isn't even a fixed distance in that senario!
Every fast food restaurant from Wendy's to McDonalds has been increasing the size of there portions based on demand.
Working for a major pop company, I can tell you right now that premix pop is downright cheap (premix is the syrup that's mixed with water and CO2 to get the pop that comes from the fountain). Since the pop companies don't have to worry about mixing it, packaging it, and labeling it in the bottling plant, they don't have to charge much for it.
Believe it or not, advertisements for "80oz. Fountain Drinks for $.99!!!" actually lure customers there. And they can do it because they don't lose money. So, when the fast food / convenience stores get cheap pop, they get more customers, they don't lose money, and the customer walks away happy.
The stores don't care about sugar levels or diabetes, and most customers don't understand that what they think is a "great deal" isn't doing much good for them, while it works great for the company.
Strangers accessing the network...
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· Score: 4, Interesting
2) Have a clipboard, 99% of companies and people in those companies will not query a suit with a clipboard. This gives you the ability to walk into any areas saying you are doing a "Time and motion" study for the new Quality Iniative. Or do an "assets" audit and take away servers for "verification" that aren't on the "official register".
At my local Walmart, the store's network backbone is located 20 feet from the door leading to the backstock room. There are no obtrusions (except for the occasional six-wheelers with merchandise), and the door's always open. Three-quarters of the time, there's no one in the room, and even if there is, it's typically a low-end manager (the high-end managers like to stick with their own offices) who don't know about how computers work. There's only a "regional" administrator...Walmart feels it's more efficient to let the machines work on their own and pay someone only when the machines don't work.
All you need to do is look young, wear kahki's and a polo shirt, and carry your "geek-bag-o-goodies", and no one will question you being there. As long as you look like you know what you're doing, no one will think otherwise. In fact, there was even one time where I walked in there completely unanounced just to use the telephone (I work for a vendor, not for Walmart). A manager saw me as he walked on by outside the room, and had no problems with me being in that room.
Now, realize that the computer network at Walmart controls everything...the lights, heating, TV / Radio / Announcement systems, the ATM network, evertything. Every Walmart has a satellite hookup to the mainframe (no idea where that is).
My point is that people are way to afraid that someone's going to get them by hacking into the computer, while no one's worried at all about someone walking in and getting them from the inside. There are some wide-open doors when it comes to internal network security (or lack-thereof), and it doesn't take a Hollywood actor to pull off a slip into the server room of almost any company.
I took an Econ class this summer for college. It was rather boring, but the one thing that I really got out of the class was this: the more expensive the lawyer, the better a chance you'll win when someone sues you.
What does this have to do with software? Well, a cheap lawyer will tell you this:
Software is covered under copyright, and copyright grants your work protection by default. We don't need a shrinkwrap on a book to note that copying it is illegal; the same should remain true of software.
An expensive lawyer will laugh at that response and will tell you that you need to set up every possible legal defense if you don't want to get sued for millions of dollars. And the best line of defense: be the first to state the rules of the game. If the other team has to play by your rules, you have much better odds of winning.
So, when it comes to software, be it commercial or open source, it's always safer for the publisher to present the license (which goes far beyond the limits of ordinary copyright), because it gives them the advantage in court. Whether or not the license is legal under Copyright Law doesn't matter, because (the other thing I learned in Econ) the first line of defense in court is not the law, it is FUD. If you have the more expensive lawyer, the bigger contract, and the Italian-quality suits, you stand a better chance at frightening the other party into submission.
Sure, so one could turn on and off any light switch in the house, but think about trying to control a toaster on the network...
Will the network actually put toast INTO the toaster? Or will I still have to walk 20 feet to the kitchen just to put the toast in myself, only to walk back to my computer to tell the toaster to turn on?
Besides, we'll have to invent a new lightbulb joke about computer geeks forgetting how to change a lightbulb...they only know how to turn it on and off.
...for Western Digital to rethink their webserver strategies.
Here's what filled my web window in my attempt to view the specs of this 200GB hard drive:
Active Server Pages error 'ASP 0113'
Script timed out/products/products.asp
The maximum amount of time for a script to execute was exceeded. You can change this limit by specifying a new value for the property Server.ScriptTimeout or by changing the value in the IIS administration tools.
I mean, I really didn't think that a company as big as Western Digital could actually be/.ed, but I guess they can!
(For those of you complaining about how 200GB hard drive is not any worthy news, there certainly was enough people interested to still bring the server to a standstill.)
You don't even need to be a government to take this place out...and *anyone* with sufficiant knowledge and motivation could do it.
Yes, but why pay $20,000 for some Black Market C4 explosives when I can just "plant" some convincing evidence into their systems that link them to some Terrorist organization?
As soon as GW finds out that this "nation" is a center for terrorist activity, he'll bomb that place so bad that the only land that country still has to its name will be at the bottom of the sea!
Yes, but the Passport account is "free"...so Amazon or other sites would simply coerce users to sign up for their "free" passport accounts.
I wish I could speak for everybody, but I can't, so I'll just speak for myself.
I hate websites that say you need to "establish" an account on their website. It doesn't carry the Microsoft logo now, and even if it does soon, it still won't get my business. I know that if I make an "account," my name, address, phone number, credit card information, and other private information is stored in a place that puts its privacy at risk, either by being hacked or by (more likely) it being sold to other parties. If I absolutely have to buy what I need from that website, I always call their sales line and demand that if they want my business, they won't save the information I give them. Though I cannot honestly say that they stick to their promise on the phone, I trust them if they say that they'll honor my request.
The same thing goes for PayPal. I will not touch their service, because I absolutely refuse to have my credit card number in the hands of a third-party company that, according to its contract, has the authority to manipulate it as they wish. Sorry, but I am not about to be put in a position where someone has a hold of me by the balls. If Microsoft says that they need my credit card number if I am to purchase items online, I'll tell them (as well as Amazon / eBay / NewEgg / etc) that they just lost business.
For those people who think that Microsoft is going to coerce "everyone" to using Passport, you're downright blind. Websites don't limit their customers to paying with only one company's credit card, and they certainly don't offer only one method of payment period. Even if Microsoft does take over the online payment industry, there's one payment that won't go away: Money Order and Snail Mail. And I promise you, I'd rather wait an extra 7 days for a package rather than know that my credit card information is unsafe.
1) Sue Squaresoft / Nintendo / ID / Insert your favorite video game manufacturer here for the pain and suffering I experienced in high school for a lack of social skills (I didn't see no warning label)!
2) Sue any employer for refusing to hire me on the grounds on a lack of social skills. I can now call it a handicap.
So in other words to find most individual users they will have to invest time+money, yeah this'll fly for an association thats primary concern is profit!!
If they carry out this plan, they'll find it incredibly not worth their time. The people I know who are storing cash houses of MP3s are your 18-26 year old male who has a crappy job and spends most of their time at home in front of the computer. They own very little property.
I would presume that the RIAA would try to plaster some kind of $10 million lawsuit. So, let's figure out all that they need to do to do so. Subpoena the ISP, watch the data traffic on the individual's computer, get the feds involved, confiscate the computer equipment, and spend hours digging through the thousands of files on the computer. So, not only does the RIAA have to spend a ton of time and money doing things by the book, but they also will have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. All to make some college kid go bankrupt and fork over all his assets, somewhere in the realm of $2,000 - $8,000 in property and computer equipment.
Go ahead, RIAA. Sue away. If you think you're losing enough money by lowered sales, just wait until you go on this legal binge!
---"If Qwest sees that they are losing customers because they provide internet access to you, they have a fiduciary duty to terminate their business relationship with you."
Does the same analogy hold true for the snail mail industry? NO. The spam idiots pay for the media, and pay for postage to my house. I just toss it away. Some are crafty and make it look like legit-like bills. Some promise prizes. It all goes to the shredder. My point is, if they pay through the nose for constand bandwidth, give them what they asked.
Mail advertisers pay the US Postal Service to send ads. While being sent, the advertisement is in the hands of the USPS 100%. Every medium that that advertisement travels through is owned by the USPS. The USPS is adequately compensated for thier work.
This spammer only pays for his connection to Qwest. All the other countless ISPs and Telcos that have to carry his mail traffic don't see a penny.
He's living in a five-bedroom mansion while he leaches off other people's resources.
Slashdot Mirror
...I never said I wanted to kill this spammer. I said I wanted to punch him in the face, and shoot the monitor I read this article about. Seriously, it sometimes helps to get things off your chest by going out into the woods and shooting inanimate objects (shaken-up cans of Diet Coke are wonderful with a 30-06...the things explode like you wouldn't believe).
Anyway, this spammer, if he would do what he was planning on doing, would shove advertisements into our own home further than they've been pushed before. My car has a little "Oldsmobile" logo on the back that I see every day as I leave for work. Before I leave for work, I see logos all over my kitchen cabinet advertising what I eat. The morning paper I read is littered with them. But I take it all in because I'm paying for all these conveniences. I pay for the internet to, filled with all its advertisements that have formed over the years, but I have remained tolerant to them. Why? Because ALL THE INFORMATION that I have received on the internet has been more resourceful than anyone could ever dream of thirty years ago.
But if you had someone who waltzed right through your front door and into your living room to try and sell you something, I would hope that you'd be pissed. This guy is dreaming of the same thing, only through a computer. And he ISN'T PAYING anybody other than his own ISP a dime for all the services he needs to use to get his advertising into my face, bypassing every single checkpoint along the way.
My own ISP could do this, and I'd either have to accept it or get another ISP. But he has no right to abuse my computer, my ISP's server, and every other electronic gateway across the world just to live a happy life. Oh, and by the way...
I may be wrong, but I'm 90% sure in my own mind that our trigger happy friend hasn't done much to prevent the hated "spam" he claims to be victimized by.
I forward as much spam as I can to CAUCE. I've spoken out about it on campus, plus I've let a local legislator know about it (believe me, they get a ton of it themselves...their email addresses are publically available...all their caseworkers and interns have to sort it out). The last bill that even considered limiting spam in my state got shot down.
There are legal measures to take if anyone (organization, individual, etc.) repeatedly and consistantly harrasses you against your consent. Take them.
As I said, my state has no legal measures. Even though I could make the clame of interstate commerce, the US also has no laws against spam. I cannot even directly link any spam I get to this guy since it bounces around between at least five servers both here and overseas before it gets to me. He hides his business just so he can claim to be making an "honest buck?" He is harassing me against my consent (assuming some of his spam has been sent to me), and I can't touch the guy.
If you see an advertisement that appears fraudulent, file a report with the local police, and ask them to check it out.
Excuse me, who's the guy who hasn't tried any "legal measures?" If I walked into a police station and said, "Some guy's sending me false advertisements via email," they'd tell me to delete it and forget it.
Spam is just like floor of a movie theatre. It's full of sticky-pop and stale popcorn, but so many people come for the movie that they just ignore the mess and wipe their shoes on the carpet as the leave. The only problem is that no one's cleaned the floor since the theatre was built, and the mess is about chest-high now.
So excuse me. I'm pissed, and I'm not afraid to say so.
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.
"Isn't technology great?"
Okay. I swear, if I was interviewing this guy when he said that, he would have gotten punched in the face. I am one step away from pulling out my 357 and blowing the computer screen to pieces after reading that. For anyone who thinks that this guy should still be allowed to stay in business for complete invasion of someone elses privacy just so that he can have a $750,000 house and live a life of luxury needs to stop huffin' gasoline and prevent our private lives from being invaded further.
Let me lay down the facts: Spamers steal from other businesses in order to deliver messages cheap. I've said this argument before, and I'll say it again. If you pay the Post Office to deliver a package, between the time it is given to the Post Office and the time it is delivered, it is in the possession of the Post Office 100%. Their handling of it, their processing of it, their delivering of it, is all being paid for by the Post Office. When you pay postage to deliver mail / packages, it is because the Post Office is compensated for all the time it takes to deliver the package.
Spammers do not do this. They do not pay for the bandwidth that they use up. They do not pay for the storage space on servers that their spam waits on. They do not pay for delivery of the messages beyond what leaves their servers. They STEAL. This guy, and every other single person who thinks that they can make a mint off invading the privacy of one's own home should be thrown in jail.
This is an outright exploitation of what the internet was set up to be. Stoic advertisements are one thing, because the webpage that a web surfer views is there for free, so the owner of the website is trying to compensate himself for the services he offers. But Spam, as well as this hell-born Son-of-Satan spinoff that our featured spammer friend concocted, is an outright solicitation. Send it all back from which it came, and jail these people who think that this level of exploitation is legal.
Needs to do a little research when it comes to civil court.
There is a big difference between consequential damages (aka liability) and potential damages. In your analogy, you give a great example of product liability...car company is neglegent in constructing their vehicle -- faulty car leads to accident -- accident leads to deaths -- deaths lead to liability lawsuit -- lawyers get rich. Ford and Firestone have already experienced it first hand.
But, the case here is completely different. The "job offer" presented to this independent worker is not set in stone! It is merely an "offer" which she could "apply" for. The fact that she lost the opportunity to apply for the job does not AT ALL equate to $65,000 worth of damages. The difference between this case and a liability case:
She has not lost anything but an opportunity.
Money was not taken away from her. Her significant other / child's / family member's life was not taken from her. Nothing was taken away from her but an opportunity to earn money. I can't sue my roommate for keeping the phone busy when a radio show randomly picked my phone number to award me $1,000. All I did was lose an opportunity to earn money. Civil courts can not and do not put a price value on lost opportunity. It's outrageous that she even thinks that she's entitled to a full $65,000 when, if she was awarded the contract, she would have had to work to earn the money.
Bottom line: she should be awarded three months of ISP fees for the ISP neglecting her the services they were holding hostage, plus a possible $1,000 in punitive damages. Nothing more.
Come to North Dakota!
:) But I'm afraid that we won't let you make your own "free society." If you want to do that, move to Montana.
I think Don Marti was also the one who thought the geeks should do this by moving en masse to North Dakota.
Hey, North Dakota's got such a low population right now, we'd be happy to have more people move here!
The Free State Project is a plan in which 20,000 or more liberty-oriented people will move to a single state of the U.S. to secure there a free society.
Let's see here, in our last election, Bush got 60% of the vote, so with a population of about 600,000 people, that means that roughly 400,000 of them are conservative. So, even if we have 20,000 liberals move here, that still won't change our conservative state!
Come to North Dakota!
This article seems to suggest Microsoft is now considering charging for security.
In other news...
California convicts in correctional facilities around the state will now be running a daycare service for parents.
Lumberjacks from the state of Michigan will be opening up a private hospital neighboring their lumbermill. They advertise that amputations are their specialty.
And finally, George W. Bush announced that he will be dedicating himself to balancing the budget and eliminating the national debt within 10 years.
Case in point: If you don't have the skills, don't sell the services.
Perhaps no crimes are committed in the production or installation of them.
Say I go buy a used '89 Chevy pickup from a used car dealership. Perfectly legal.
There's a company in town called Classic Roadsters. They've produced a modded body for the '89 line of Chevy pickups that is very similar looking to a Hummer. Perfectly legal (the body shape doesn't breach any size requirements stipulated by the DOT).
but consider that most users would utilize their modchip to play copied games or ROMs or Linux, etc.
Now, say I took that modded truck, dressed myself into some army get-up, and drove onto the local army base, pretending to belong to the armed services (I don't). Now I'm doing something illegial.
My point is this: the XBox is a piece of physical hardware. It can be patented. It cannot be licensed. Once I purchase an XBox (if I ever do), I will OWN it 100%. Nothing that Microsoft ever says or does can change that. If I want to take the bloody thing apart and turn it into a toaster oven, Microsoft can't do a thing about it.
People have outfitted their cars for over 60 years now making them better. Say I had a beat-up Ford pickup that didn't work anymore, so I put in an engine from a Dodge pickup so I could get the Ford working again (please don't tell me if this is possible or not... I don't know, but it's all for the sake of argument). I don't think Dodge or Ford would complain. I'm sure you know someone who put a new stereo system into their car. They didn't have to buy a whole new car to get that stereo system they wanted. They put one into their own car so they could have better sound. People soup up their cars all the time specifically so that they don't have to buy a new car just to get the same features. It's perfectly legal to do so. It should be perfectly legal to do the same with consoles.
Xbox is sold at a loss.Microsoft needs to sell games for the xbox in order to recoup the losses it incurs for every unit sold.
Tough shit. Do you see Lincoln selling their Towncar at $9,999 brand new missing an air conditioner, and then selling air conditioners for $20,000 more? And on top of it all, making the Towncar so that no other AC would work in it except for Lincoln's own AC? Of course not! But this is what Microsoft is doing! Don't blame the customer for finding a better deal which is less profitable to Microsoft.
Yes, I was surprised when I saw that it was modded to Funny, because I was being downright serious. Anyway...
I think the best speech you can give fits the same guidelines. Be serious, though with a humorous overtone. Remember, though...Slashdot has always been about free speech, because America is suppose to be founded on the same principles. Rosa Parks wasn't upholding the "American rights of the 1950's" when she got on that bus. She redefined them. Don't be afraid to do the same thing.
...and I don't live in NYC.
Of which are you more afraid: of what you say in public or of death from above while you're just minding your own business?
If you chose the former, you probably don't live in NYC.
Let me put it this way: If I choose the latter, I may as well be dead. I would be sacrificing one of the fundamental rights that this country was founded on: the pursuit of happiness. I absolutely refuse to live a day of my life where I am paranoid about dying from sunrise to sunset. No terrorist will make me fear my life. They cannot take that away from me.
My problem is when my own country tries to take the same principle away from me when that is the foundation of the country. A country that tears itself apart so that others may not have the pleasure of doing so is no country at all.
I am curious to hear about some specific examples of how this legislation has personally or professionally affected the everyday lives of Slashdot readers."
I'm sorry, but we've done too much to "commemorate" September 11. What's done is done, and let the dead bury the dead. We should not brand Arabs as guilty and evil. Bush did a poor job handling 9/11. He has killed too many innocent lives in Afghanistan. Iraq should not be an American target. Why don't we just...
*** Knock *** Knock *** Knock ***
"Hello? Yes, how can I help you? Yes, I am loyal to my country. What? Hey! Where are you taking me?!?"
---
How has it affected me? I'm worried about what I say in public; that's how it's affected me.
Is anyone else having a serious time trying to load this page into their web browser? I've tried both Mozilla 1.0 and Netscape 4.08, and both crash after trying to render the page!
This show has equipment far more elaborate than the original series. The consoles on the original show were dials and knobs.
So, you're saying that because a ST series set in the 23rd century that was based on 20th century technology, 20th century technology should take presidence over 21st century technology to create the setting of a 22nd century ST series?
(All jest aside, I do think that the creators of the ship could have included at least a little more technology into the Enterprise...for example, why do the crewmembers need to push buttons to open doors? I mean, automatic door openers are a product of the 20th century...)
He also talks about the character of Doctor Phlox possibly falling into the 'Neelix Trap' and says he wishes the series would kill more people off like the original Star Trek!
I can see it now...Star Trek: Enterprise, Season Two:
Star Trek meets South Park!
Captain Archer: "Oh my God! They killed Dr. Phlox!" "You Bastards!"
Ensign Mayweather: "But he's the most popular person on the Enterprise! How will we ever replace him?"
Commander Tucker: "No need to worry captain! We have a copy of his atomic signature in the cache of the data resequencer in the transporter! We'll be able to generate an exact copy of him, as if he never left!"
--- BZZZ BZZZ ZIP! ---
Dr. Phlox: "Hello, captain! I'm back from helping out the Balaxians on Balax 7! I hope nothing happened while I was gone!"
Did the co-op ever encounter a point in the planning stage where they wanted to toss everything in the air and just say screw it? If so, what pulled you out of your misery and kept you moving towards your goal?
I had a hard time trusting Nintendo for its controllers. The PowerPad was a piece of trash... Nintendo tried to produce a pad that you could actually "run" on by jumping on its "foot" touch sensors. The problem was that the sensors did not work well with an 8-year-old 80 lb. kid. It worked for someone who was heavier, but then their foot actually would come in contact with more than one sensor (it was not really an adult-size power pad).
Another controller that was absolute trash was the wireless controller. It would only work if you pointed the thing point-blank at the IR sensor that would sit by the Nintendo. If you were about 2-5 feet away (and pointed the controller right at the sensor), it would work about 90% of the time (which, mind you, is not good to have, considering that the other 10% of the time always seemed to come right when you were right over a pitfall in Mario or right in front of the boss...I get really pissed when I die thanks to a controller that wouldn't work when I needed it the most). Anything beyond 5 feet would fade in and out too frequently to ever want to mess with it.
I never tried the PowerGlove, but knowing the history of other Nintendo controllers, I'm glad I never had the displeasure to work with it either.
I don't understand these people who think you can build an elevator into space. Can't anybody understand that you cannot just "tie" a cable from Earth to something in orbit in space? For building an elevator into space, there are two problems that need to be accomplished:
1) Find a substance to build a cable that can support it's own weight (plus the weight of whatever it will "carry") in space. For a long time, this was impossible, until Carbon nanotubes came along. But even with this problem fixed, no one has even considered the second problem.
2) Any object in an orbital pattern with a celestial body (Earth) is subject to two forces: inertia and gravity. We know this as freefall. Astronauts in space are constantly falling (gravity), but never actually fall to earth because inertia keeps pushing them forward. If one of these forces is knocked out of balance, aka the orbital body slows down its forward velocity, it will fall to the Earth. So, what happens when we tie a cable to, say, the space station from the ground below?
IT WILL FALL TO THE EARTH!
The space station orbits the Earth once every what...couple hours? I don't know, but I do know that it's orbit is much faster than the time it takes for the Earth to spin once on its axis. If we attach an elevator cable from the ground to the space station, it will literally whip the station down upon the Earth, because the station moves much faster than the Earth. Since the forward motion is hampered by the cable, down it will come.
The only possibility of maintaining an actual elevator cable is if it is hooked onto something in geosyncronous orbit with the Earth. The only problem there is that the object would have to be 40,000 miles away from the Earth to maintain constant orbit with a fixed position on Earth. Good luck.
What makes me even more skeptical about this report is a statement they make on their webpage:
In its initial report, the company has found that a space elevator capable of lifting 5-ton payloads every day to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars or Venus could be operational in 15 years.
Mars? Venus? How in the universe are we able to tether a cable onto another planet?!? There isn't even a fixed distance in that senario!
Every fast food restaurant from Wendy's to McDonalds has been increasing the size of there portions based on demand.
Working for a major pop company, I can tell you right now that premix pop is downright cheap (premix is the syrup that's mixed with water and CO2 to get the pop that comes from the fountain). Since the pop companies don't have to worry about mixing it, packaging it, and labeling it in the bottling plant, they don't have to charge much for it.
Believe it or not, advertisements for "80oz. Fountain Drinks for $.99!!!" actually lure customers there. And they can do it because they don't lose money. So, when the fast food / convenience stores get cheap pop, they get more customers, they don't lose money, and the customer walks away happy.
The stores don't care about sugar levels or diabetes, and most customers don't understand that what they think is a "great deal" isn't doing much good for them, while it works great for the company.
2) Have a clipboard, 99% of companies and people in those companies will not query a suit with a clipboard. This gives you the ability to walk into any areas saying you are doing a "Time and motion" study for the new Quality Iniative. Or do an "assets" audit and take away servers for "verification" that aren't on the "official register".
At my local Walmart, the store's network backbone is located 20 feet from the door leading to the backstock room. There are no obtrusions (except for the occasional six-wheelers with merchandise), and the door's always open. Three-quarters of the time, there's no one in the room, and even if there is, it's typically a low-end manager (the high-end managers like to stick with their own offices) who don't know about how computers work. There's only a "regional" administrator...Walmart feels it's more efficient to let the machines work on their own and pay someone only when the machines don't work.
All you need to do is look young, wear kahki's and a polo shirt, and carry your "geek-bag-o-goodies", and no one will question you being there. As long as you look like you know what you're doing, no one will think otherwise. In fact, there was even one time where I walked in there completely unanounced just to use the telephone (I work for a vendor, not for Walmart). A manager saw me as he walked on by outside the room, and had no problems with me being in that room.
Now, realize that the computer network at Walmart controls everything...the lights, heating, TV / Radio / Announcement systems, the ATM network, evertything. Every Walmart has a satellite hookup to the mainframe (no idea where that is).
My point is that people are way to afraid that someone's going to get them by hacking into the computer, while no one's worried at all about someone walking in and getting them from the inside. There are some wide-open doors when it comes to internal network security (or lack-thereof), and it doesn't take a Hollywood actor to pull off a slip into the server room of almost any company.
I took an Econ class this summer for college. It was rather boring, but the one thing that I really got out of the class was this: the more expensive the lawyer, the better a chance you'll win when someone sues you.
What does this have to do with software? Well, a cheap lawyer will tell you this:
Software is covered under copyright, and copyright grants your work protection by default. We don't need a shrinkwrap on a book to note that copying it is illegal; the same should remain true of software.
An expensive lawyer will laugh at that response and will tell you that you need to set up every possible legal defense if you don't want to get sued for millions of dollars. And the best line of defense: be the first to state the rules of the game. If the other team has to play by your rules, you have much better odds of winning.
So, when it comes to software, be it commercial or open source, it's always safer for the publisher to present the license (which goes far beyond the limits of ordinary copyright), because it gives them the advantage in court. Whether or not the license is legal under Copyright Law doesn't matter, because (the other thing I learned in Econ) the first line of defense in court is not the law, it is FUD. If you have the more expensive lawyer, the bigger contract, and the Italian-quality suits, you stand a better chance at frightening the other party into submission.
Sure, so one could turn on and off any light switch in the house, but think about trying to control a toaster on the network...
Will the network actually put toast INTO the toaster? Or will I still have to walk 20 feet to the kitchen just to put the toast in myself, only to walk back to my computer to tell the toaster to turn on?
Besides, we'll have to invent a new lightbulb joke about computer geeks forgetting how to change a lightbulb...they only know how to turn it on and off.
...for Western Digital to rethink their webserver strategies.
/products/products.asp
/.ed, but I guess they can!
Here's what filled my web window in my attempt to view the specs of this 200GB hard drive:
Active Server Pages error 'ASP 0113'
Script timed out
The maximum amount of time for a script to execute was exceeded. You can change this limit by specifying a new value for the property Server.ScriptTimeout or by changing the value in the IIS administration tools.
I mean, I really didn't think that a company as big as Western Digital could actually be
(For those of you complaining about how 200GB hard drive is not any worthy news, there certainly was enough people interested to still bring the server to a standstill.)
You don't even need to be a government to take this place out...and *anyone* with sufficiant knowledge and motivation could do it.
Yes, but why pay $20,000 for some Black Market C4 explosives when I can just "plant" some convincing evidence into their systems that link them to some Terrorist organization?
As soon as GW finds out that this "nation" is a center for terrorist activity, he'll bomb that place so bad that the only land that country still has to its name will be at the bottom of the sea!
Yes, but the Passport account is "free"...so Amazon or other sites would simply coerce users to sign up for their "free" passport accounts.
I wish I could speak for everybody, but I can't, so I'll just speak for myself.
I hate websites that say you need to "establish" an account on their website. It doesn't carry the Microsoft logo now, and even if it does soon, it still won't get my business. I know that if I make an "account," my name, address, phone number, credit card information, and other private information is stored in a place that puts its privacy at risk, either by being hacked or by (more likely) it being sold to other parties. If I absolutely have to buy what I need from that website, I always call their sales line and demand that if they want my business, they won't save the information I give them. Though I cannot honestly say that they stick to their promise on the phone, I trust them if they say that they'll honor my request.
The same thing goes for PayPal. I will not touch their service, because I absolutely refuse to have my credit card number in the hands of a third-party company that, according to its contract, has the authority to manipulate it as they wish. Sorry, but I am not about to be put in a position where someone has a hold of me by the balls. If Microsoft says that they need my credit card number if I am to purchase items online, I'll tell them (as well as Amazon / eBay / NewEgg / etc) that they just lost business.
For those people who think that Microsoft is going to coerce "everyone" to using Passport, you're downright blind. Websites don't limit their customers to paying with only one company's credit card, and they certainly don't offer only one method of payment period. Even if Microsoft does take over the online payment industry, there's one payment that won't go away: Money Order and Snail Mail. And I promise you, I'd rather wait an extra 7 days for a package rather than know that my credit card information is unsafe.
Ways to capitalize on this situation:
1) Sue Squaresoft / Nintendo / ID / Insert your favorite video game manufacturer here for the pain and suffering I experienced in high school for a lack of social skills (I didn't see no warning label)!
2) Sue any employer for refusing to hire me on the grounds on a lack of social skills. I can now call it a handicap.
3) Workers Comp!
So in other words to find most individual users they will have to invest time+money, yeah this'll fly for an association thats primary concern is profit!!
If they carry out this plan, they'll find it incredibly not worth their time. The people I know who are storing cash houses of MP3s are your 18-26 year old male who has a crappy job and spends most of their time at home in front of the computer. They own very little property.
I would presume that the RIAA would try to plaster some kind of $10 million lawsuit. So, let's figure out all that they need to do to do so. Subpoena the ISP, watch the data traffic on the individual's computer, get the feds involved, confiscate the computer equipment, and spend hours digging through the thousands of files on the computer. So, not only does the RIAA have to spend a ton of time and money doing things by the book, but they also will have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. All to make some college kid go bankrupt and fork over all his assets, somewhere in the realm of $2,000 - $8,000 in property and computer equipment.
Go ahead, RIAA. Sue away. If you think you're losing enough money by lowered sales, just wait until you go on this legal binge!
---"If Qwest sees that they are losing customers because they provide internet access to you, they have a fiduciary duty to terminate their business relationship with you."
Does the same analogy hold true for the snail mail industry? NO. The spam idiots pay for the media, and pay for postage to my house. I just toss it away. Some are crafty and make it look like legit-like bills. Some promise prizes. It all goes to the shredder. My point is, if they pay through the nose for constand bandwidth, give them what they asked.
Mail advertisers pay the US Postal Service to send ads. While being sent, the advertisement is in the hands of the USPS 100%. Every medium that that advertisement travels through is owned by the USPS. The USPS is adequately compensated for thier work.
This spammer only pays for his connection to Qwest. All the other countless ISPs and Telcos that have to carry his mail traffic don't see a penny.
He's living in a five-bedroom mansion while he leaches off other people's resources.
I say tar-and-feather the loser.