Hmmm... If you do a search without a hyphen in "e-mail" you get a better search: more expensive clicks for the spammers. (Top price, $4.66. Yowza!) Goto Bulk Email Advertisers
All I can say is, "Great Oogly Moogly". Thanks a lot Microsoft.
What kind of bone-headed thought processes allow a web-browser to have
full control over an operating system. Is it just me, or is that
REALLY STUPID? I'm no programming Einstein, but doesn't someone at
Microsoft have a clue that this is cross-the-streams bad? This isn't
the first time that IE has had this sort of problem: What about the
infamous "IE 5.5 Cross Frame security vulnerability" from a few months
ago which essentially lets someone read any files on your computer.
There's been at least a half-dozen more, I'm sure.
Mark my words, the virus writers are acting right now to take
advantage of this vulnerability. In two months, when they release
their virus, it will spread like wildfire. If you thought LoveLetter
and Melissa were bad, this one will be much worse!
What gets me is MS's nonchalance towards the issue. After all, it's
just same-old, same-old to them. Another month, another *serious*
vulnerability.
Well, shee-oot. My Mozilla was working just fine until I upgraded the stupid thing today. Working just fine, I tell you! Now I get a splash screen and . . . nada!
Pbbbtt!
Thanks for letting me rant. I feel much better now.
Firstly, IANAL, but my wife worked in a law office several years ago. Does that count?:-)
As long as you're telling the truth, I don't think you should have a problem. If you're telling lies about the company, then you could be sued for libel. However, if that was the case, the burden of proof would be on the accuser (that's them). Of course, if the company has spare lawyers to throw at you, they could try to intimidate you, but I doubt it would ever come to that. It would be a lose-lose situation for them to pursue it.
If you have evidence or witnesses backing up your claims against the company, so much the better for you. But if you're telling the truth, not to worry, buddy.
One final thing: please, let us know who you worked for, so we don't make a mistake and try interviewing there, eh?:-)
-ygp Yekrats
Site advertises "Powerful Applications!"
on
Cheap Linux PDAs
·
· Score: 1
From their site, on the page describing their powerful applications...
Personal
Expenses
Sketch
Stock Trader
Entertainment:
Mines
Tic Tac Toe
Other Applications
Large Formate Calculator
Sci Calculator
Tic Tac Toe? Say no more! Sold! I'm getting my wallet!
Shriners are the fez-wearers. Although they are associated with Fremasonry, it's a different group. (I think you have to be a FM to be a member of the Shrine.)
Now, during meetings, the ceremonial leader wears a hat to identify himself as such to others at the meeting. I guess it's a token of respect and office. Sometimes, I've seen people wear a fez-like hat in that position, but I've also seen people wearing their hat from the closet.
Some AC said,
I imagine as a fundamentalist Christian, he might be a little appalled to find his life's work being perverted by being associated with a product named after a secular humanist anti-God, power-mad secret society. True, the ways of Satan are slippery and slimey, but I'm not loading any patches contributed by Adam Hauptman
I apologize in advance for off-topicness and responding to a troll.
Perhaps you're confusing masonry with Freemasonry. The product is called "Mason." Masons build structures from stone. Freemasonry is a society that seeks to build an ethical and spiritual foundation for men.
Being a Freemason myself, I promised not get into arguments with folks outside the order. However, I can say this: Freemasonry is not a secret society. If most people know about it, and they meet in public places, have public bank rolls and public charters, then they are not secret! They are a society that has secrets, but that's different.
Fremasonry is a spiritual organization, steeped in metaphor. We allow men of any spiritual bent to join, as long as he believes in a Supreme Being. Freemasonry is also a great benefactor towards many charitable causes.
I hope this information helps to calm your fears.
[I apologize in advance about the off-topicness of this post.]
I believe very strongly that people should be able to speak and use whatever language they want in their private lives. However, I feel that the government's business should be conducted in English, or perhaps English and a simple-to-learn middleware language like Esperanto. It's not cost-effective to do otherwise.
Right now, the USA spends scads of money translating its forms and rules into other languages to cater to non-English speaking groups. Right now, Spanish and English get special treatment with the IRS. What about all the Japanese, Chinese, German, French, Russian, and Brazilian immigrants that must pay taxes? Is it fair to translate *just* to Spanish, and not offer the same documentation in other languages? When does it stop?
It's simply not cost effective to cater to every language, and it's not fair to single out one or two non-English languages above others. So, I see the best solution is for the USA to conduct business in English and an alternate neutral simple-to-learn language. Besides, Esperanto is all about preserving people's native language, and using Esperanto as a common second language.
Terry Anslow, chief investigator for the
European Leisure
Software Association (Elspa), the body which
protects and enforces software copyright,
said: "It is a criminal act to copy these games
from the internet.
"By emulating a computer system or game, you
are effectively reproducing a trademark and,
without permission, that is an infringement of
intellectual property rights."
(IANAL, duh.) By copying old ROMs, you're not reproducing trademarks! You might be breaching copyright laws, but not trademarks. Whadduh ideeot.
Ironically, in a few days, the Sixth Annual Interactive Fiction competition will begin. This year, there are over 80 (!) people who have declared plans to enter the competition.
Interactive Fiction (text adventures) might be dead from a lucrative standpoint, but it continues to have an audience. And from the games of my youth that I cherish the most, it's always the Text Adventures that stand out over the arcade games.
Check out the Interactive Fiction archive for literally hundreds of text adventures available for free. Some of them are even good!
I am not a lawyer, but a writer, so I know a thing or two about copyright law. Lawyer types can correct me if I'm wrong.
Every web page on the 'net is copyrighted as soon as it is 'published' on the web. You achieve copyright when a work is placed into a "fixed medium", which includes writing it down, scrawling it on the bathroom wall, or putting a web-page up on the web. You don't necessarily even need a "Copyright 2000" notice, but it may scare away potential code-looters.
I looked over the two web sites. How much of the site was really used? I could tell that the site had the same "look and feel" of Linux.com, but how similar is it? "Look and feel" is not copyrightable, and ideas are not copyrightable. Just text and original artwork. One can come incredibly close to another piece of artwork (writing, webpage, whatever...) and still be completely legal. I think it was Picasso that said, "Good artists borrow; great artists steal." Of course, he was a loony.
Now, Linux.com would possibly have a case if the offenders borrowed original Linux.com images or substantial amounts of text/code. Also, Linux.com would have to prove to a judge that they did indeed lift this stuff verbatim.
If you're really gung-ho about stopping that site, one option might be to get a lawyer to draft a "cease and desist" letter. Of course, this will make you look like a bunch of draconian pricks, and they might call your bluff and ignore you. Either way, it's a PR problem, and you'll make some enemies for life.
Of course, my recommendation is "Don't worry about it." Is this a battle Linux.com really wants to fight? Linux is all about sharing code and building off of each other. Don't tell me Linux.com built everything from the ground up. Did you steal even a little-eety-beety bit of code from someone else?
I'm blessed that English is my native language. It took me more than 20-years to get some of the fundamentals down. I tried several years of studying French, but found it had as many exceptions as English. I about gave up on learning a foreign language with any competance. Then I found Esperanto while randomly browsing the web one day. I've found Esperanto to be a viable tool for communicating internationally.
I was able to pick up the fundamentals of Esperanto within a few weeks using a free correspondance course I found (search for "Free Esperanto Course" in your favorite search engine. Also www.esperanto.org has some good resources.) Esperanto is a handshake language, where both parties must exert a little bit of effort, but they are both on equal terms.
Recently, I promised myself to start recreating my personal web-pages in Esperanto, and new web-pages will be created in Esperanto first, then English.
Personal rant coming. I apologize in advance.
This country spends scads of money translating signs, instructions, and labels into Spanish and French in addition to English. My idea of a good time is not sorting through a thick polyglotal manual with 3/4 unnecessary gibberish. Yearly, the IRS spends extra dinero publishing many documents in Spanish now. Why not versions in Chinese, French, Japanese, and German?
No, no. We should stick with English and start publishing instructions and manuals in Esperanto. English has its labyrinthine grammar and spelling rules. However, Esperanto actually makes sense here and there. Everyone should be at least bilingual: their own native language and Esperanto.
My prediction: As the world's economy turns more global, monoglots are going to be left behind. You heard it here, folks. I think you're a fool if English is your only language.
So, dear geek-friends, do yourself a favor and learn a second language.
In most of the old infocom games, there weren't any "Do this in five seconds" puzzles (with the exception of "Border Zone" (?) which I've not played.) One could sit at that flashing ">" prompt for hours, contemplating the next move.
Although, I must admit, playing on a cell phone key pad would be awkward. But I probably wouldn't mind it so much if I was bored and stranded, and it sure beats lugging around my old Apple ][. Now, that's awkward!:-)
You say "Nothing has ever come of it..." I don't think so.
Your idea about sending a fake bill to spammers is a very BAD idea. By sending them email, you verify your existence. Once your address is verified as "legit", what happens? You get more spam. For the same reason, never click on their "click here to opt out" links!
I'd advise using Spamcop (spamcop.net) The free part of SpamCop un-obfuscates the email header information, then allows you to automagically send a letter of complaint to the appropriate authorities. Personally, I've seen several accounts (email and website) disappear after I've used Spamcop against them. It's quite satisfying. Spamcop also has a fee-service for filtering email (which I haven't tried yet).
Esperanto is not intended to replace anyone's language, but instead to act as a simply-learned second language. It has regular rules for spelling and grammar. Even better, there are no irregular verbs. Personally, after taking a free 10-lesson course over the net (with about 10~ hours of study) my level of expertise in Esperanto surpassed my ability in French, which I had studied for about three years. Since then, I've communicated with friendly folks from Germany, Korea, and Brazil, without having to take the time to learn German, Korean, and Portugese. Nor did they have to use broken non-native English. We met on equal terms using a simple (not simplistic) third language. It's estimated that Esperanto has 2-million speakers, and the Internet seems to have increased its popularity.
Esperanto is a powerful language with an "object-oriented" feel. There are many instances that I come across a simple concept in Eo that cannot be translated simply into English. An example: for the adverb form of "friend" (amike), the closest English translation I can make is "in a friendly manner." Plus, Eo was designed from the start with rules for adding new words to the language, and it has no lack of computer terminology.
Esperantist Sylvan Zaft has a great novel about Esperanto published on the web which (IMO) addresses Esperanto intelligently and fairly, addressing both positives and negatives. It's definately worth a read: Esperanto: Language for the Global Village
I don't propose everyone to learn Esperanto, and I don't propose it to replace anyone's language. OTOH, translating your pages into Esperanto is good karma, and all that jazz...
Hi folks, this is my first reply ever to/., so please forgive any improprieties.
A point and a counterpoint on this issue:
We can be responsible to police ourselves. Our local library has a really novel low-tech method of preventing people from accessing inappropriate sites. A sign is posted next to each computer, advising people not to access pornography or anything illegal. The average (and subaverage) library patron is considered self-policing and responsible, and allowed free rein of the internet, within the bounds of good taste. As far as I know, the policy has been in place for over two years, and I have never heard of an incident... (which doesn't necessarily mean anything, but hey.)
Trusting people to be responsible for their own actions? Wow.
Some sites cross the line. There are internet sites out there that are set like a trap, waiting to be sprung on the unsuspecting surfer. It's true that a simple typo can yield embarrassing and awkward results.
Months ago, while at work (not necessarily the job I have now) I typed in the first five characters of a popular search engine and saw the IE4 dropdown box pop-up. Instead of typing "[Tab] [Enter]" to select the proper URL, I just hit "[Enter]" and was in for a rude awakening. (I'm at least blaming part of this on Microsoft!:-)
The site had (I don't know about now!:-) a mechanism in place that kept throwing up pornography on my screen. It was like a devilish game of whack-a-mole: Whenever I closed one window full 'o flesh, one or two more popped up, er, so to speak. I couldn't get them to go away! After clicking literally dozens of close-boxes, finally the hydra died.
Remember, this didn't occur in the privacy of my home, but at my place of employment. I could have lost my job for "viewing" such material. To make matters worse, there was at least one witness, who quietly walked away, and later (fortunately) claimed that he saw nothing. Regardless, it was embarrassing.
I consider myself somewhat savvy when it comes to fiddling around on the web, and I'm not necessarily a prude or a religious nut and certainly not an advocate of censorship. But with this situation, I found myself at a loss. Can anything be done about "sticky websites" like this? Should I have done anything to protect myself against such an "attack"? I know what you're thinking: "The dolt mistyped. It's his own darned fault." But did I deserve that!? Jeesh!
I don't care if people look at these sites. And in general I think new windows popping up are gauche, annoying, and bad form. This was the pop-up window annoyance carried n-degrees farther. I am also offended by these sites hiding behind an innocent-seeming URL: the infamous "whitehouse.com" comes to mind, but there are likely many more. I'm sure most of you would agree that the workplace is not the greatest of places for viewing such material. I would have been *happy* for some sort of censoring software there!
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks for this link! You just made my day! :-)
All I can say is, "Great Oogly Moogly". Thanks a lot Microsoft.
What kind of bone-headed thought processes allow a web-browser to have full control over an operating system. Is it just me, or is that REALLY STUPID? I'm no programming Einstein, but doesn't someone at Microsoft have a clue that this is cross-the-streams bad? This isn't the first time that IE has had this sort of problem: What about the infamous "IE 5.5 Cross Frame security vulnerability" from a few months ago which essentially lets someone read any files on your computer. There's been at least a half-dozen more, I'm sure.
Mark my words, the virus writers are acting right now to take advantage of this vulnerability. In two months, when they release their virus, it will spread like wildfire. If you thought LoveLetter and Melissa were bad, this one will be much worse!
What gets me is MS's nonchalance towards the issue. After all, it's just same-old, same-old to them. Another month, another *serious* vulnerability.
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. :-)
Pbbbtt!
Thanks for letting me rant. I feel much better now.
-- Yekrats
As long as you're telling the truth, I don't think you should have a problem. If you're telling lies about the company, then you could be sued for libel. However, if that was the case, the burden of proof would be on the accuser (that's them). Of course, if the company has spare lawyers to throw at you, they could try to intimidate you, but I doubt it would ever come to that. It would be a lose-lose situation for them to pursue it.
If you have evidence or witnesses backing up your claims against the company, so much the better for you. But if you're telling the truth, not to worry, buddy.
One final thing: please, let us know who you worked for, so we don't make a mistake and try interviewing there, eh? :-)
-ygp Yekrats
Personal
- Expenses
- Sketch
- Stock Trader
Entertainment:- Mines
- Tic Tac Toe
Other Applications- Large Formate Calculator
- Sci Calculator
Tic Tac Toe? Say no more! Sold! I'm getting my wallet!Shriners are the fez-wearers. Although they are associated with Fremasonry, it's a different group. (I think you have to be a FM to be a member of the Shrine.)
Now, during meetings, the ceremonial leader wears a hat to identify himself as such to others at the meeting. I guess it's a token of respect and office. Sometimes, I've seen people wear a fez-like hat in that position, but I've also seen people wearing their hat from the closet.
Yekrats, Freemason and Computer geek
I apologize in advance for off-topicness and responding to a troll.
Perhaps you're confusing masonry with Freemasonry. The product is called "Mason." Masons build structures from stone. Freemasonry is a society that seeks to build an ethical and spiritual foundation for men.
Being a Freemason myself, I promised not get into arguments with folks outside the order. However, I can say this: Freemasonry is not a secret society. If most people know about it, and they meet in public places, have public bank rolls and public charters, then they are not secret! They are a society that has secrets, but that's different.
Fremasonry is a spiritual organization, steeped in metaphor. We allow men of any spiritual bent to join, as long as he believes in a Supreme Being. Freemasonry is also a great benefactor towards many charitable causes. I hope this information helps to calm your fears.
Yekrats, Freemason and computer geek
I believe very strongly that people should be able to speak and use whatever language they want in their private lives. However, I feel that the government's business should be conducted in English, or perhaps English and a simple-to-learn middleware language like Esperanto. It's not cost-effective to do otherwise.
Right now, the USA spends scads of money translating its forms and rules into other languages to cater to non-English speaking groups. Right now, Spanish and English get special treatment with the IRS. What about all the Japanese, Chinese, German, French, Russian, and Brazilian immigrants that must pay taxes? Is it fair to translate *just* to Spanish, and not offer the same documentation in other languages? When does it stop?
It's simply not cost effective to cater to every language, and it's not fair to single out one or two non-English languages above others. So, I see the best solution is for the USA to conduct business in English and an alternate neutral simple-to-learn language. Besides, Esperanto is all about preserving people's native language, and using Esperanto as a common second language.
"By emulating a computer system or game, you are effectively reproducing a trademark and, without permission, that is an infringement of intellectual property rights."
(IANAL, duh.) By copying old ROMs, you're not reproducing trademarks! You might be breaching copyright laws, but not trademarks. Whadduh ideeot.
--Yekrats
Interactive Fiction (text adventures) might be dead from a lucrative standpoint, but it continues to have an audience. And from the games of my youth that I cherish the most, it's always the Text Adventures that stand out over the arcade games.
Check out the Interactive Fiction archive for literally hundreds of text adventures available for free. Some of them are even good!
Every web page on the 'net is copyrighted as soon as it is 'published' on the web. You achieve copyright when a work is placed into a "fixed medium", which includes writing it down, scrawling it on the bathroom wall, or putting a web-page up on the web. You don't necessarily even need a "Copyright 2000" notice, but it may scare away potential code-looters.
I looked over the two web sites. How much of the site was really used? I could tell that the site had the same "look and feel" of Linux.com, but how similar is it? "Look and feel" is not copyrightable, and ideas are not copyrightable. Just text and original artwork. One can come incredibly close to another piece of artwork (writing, webpage, whatever...) and still be completely legal. I think it was Picasso that said, "Good artists borrow; great artists steal." Of course, he was a loony.
Now, Linux.com would possibly have a case if the offenders borrowed original Linux.com images or substantial amounts of text/code. Also, Linux.com would have to prove to a judge that they did indeed lift this stuff verbatim. If you're really gung-ho about stopping that site, one option might be to get a lawyer to draft a "cease and desist" letter. Of course, this will make you look like a bunch of draconian pricks, and they might call your bluff and ignore you. Either way, it's a PR problem, and you'll make some enemies for life.
Of course, my recommendation is "Don't worry about it." Is this a battle Linux.com really wants to fight? Linux is all about sharing code and building off of each other. Don't tell me Linux.com built everything from the ground up. Did you steal even a little-eety-beety bit of code from someone else?
My 2.5 cents worth. --Yekrats
I was able to pick up the fundamentals of Esperanto within a few weeks using a free correspondance course I found (search for "Free Esperanto Course" in your favorite search engine. Also www.esperanto.org has some good resources.) Esperanto is a handshake language, where both parties must exert a little bit of effort, but they are both on equal terms.
Recently, I promised myself to start recreating my personal web-pages in Esperanto, and new web-pages will be created in Esperanto first, then English.
Personal rant coming. I apologize in advance.
So, dear geek-friends, do yourself a favor and learn a second language.
Although, I must admit, playing on a cell phone key pad would be awkward. But I probably wouldn't mind it so much if I was bored and stranded, and it sure beats lugging around my old Apple ][. Now, that's awkward! :-)
Your idea about sending a fake bill to spammers is a very BAD idea. By sending them email, you verify your existence. Once your address is verified as "legit", what happens? You get more spam. For the same reason, never click on their "click here to opt out" links!
I'd advise using Spamcop (spamcop.net) The free part of SpamCop un-obfuscates the email header information, then allows you to automagically send a letter of complaint to the appropriate authorities. Personally, I've seen several accounts (email and website) disappear after I've used Spamcop against them. It's quite satisfying. Spamcop also has a fee-service for filtering email (which I haven't tried yet).
I hope this helps!
Esperanto is a powerful language with an "object-oriented" feel. There are many instances that I come across a simple concept in Eo that cannot be translated simply into English. An example: for the adverb form of "friend" (amike), the closest English translation I can make is "in a friendly manner." Plus, Eo was designed from the start with rules for adding new words to the language, and it has no lack of computer terminology.
Esperantist Sylvan Zaft has a great novel about Esperanto published on the web which (IMO) addresses Esperanto intelligently and fairly, addressing both positives and negatives. It's definately worth a read: Esperanto: Language for the Global Village
I don't propose everyone to learn Esperanto, and I don't propose it to replace anyone's language. OTOH, translating your pages into Esperanto is good karma, and all that jazz...
-- Scott S.
A point and a counterpoint on this issue:
Trusting people to be responsible for their own actions? Wow.
Months ago, while at work (not necessarily the job I have now) I typed in the first five characters of a popular search engine and saw the IE4 dropdown box pop-up. Instead of typing "[Tab] [Enter]" to select the proper URL, I just hit "[Enter]" and was in for a rude awakening. (I'm at least blaming part of this on Microsoft! :-)
The site had (I don't know about now! :-) a mechanism in place that kept throwing up pornography on my screen. It was like a devilish game of whack-a-mole: Whenever I closed one window full 'o flesh, one or two more popped up, er, so to speak. I couldn't get them to go away! After clicking literally dozens of close-boxes, finally the hydra died.
Remember, this didn't occur in the privacy of my home, but at my place of employment. I could have lost my job for "viewing" such material. To make matters worse, there was at least one witness, who quietly walked away, and later (fortunately) claimed that he saw nothing. Regardless, it was embarrassing.
I consider myself somewhat savvy when it comes to fiddling around on the web, and I'm not necessarily a prude or a religious nut and certainly not an advocate of censorship. But with this situation, I found myself at a loss. Can anything be done about "sticky websites" like this? Should I have done anything to protect myself against such an "attack"? I know what you're thinking: "The dolt mistyped. It's his own darned fault." But did I deserve that!? Jeesh!
I don't care if people look at these sites. And in general I think new windows popping up are gauche, annoying, and bad form. This was the pop-up window annoyance carried n-degrees farther. I am also offended by these sites hiding behind an innocent-seeming URL: the infamous "whitehouse.com" comes to mind, but there are likely many more. I'm sure most of you would agree that the workplace is not the greatest of places for viewing such material. I would have been *happy* for some sort of censoring software there!