I answer Webmaster e-mail for Velocitus Internet Services and I typically receive about 150-200 SirCam virus e-mails every day.
As SirCam virus e-mails average 250kb per message, each month we pass over a gigabyte of bandwidth on this crap.
I wonder if its possible to approximate how many dollars worth of bandwidth and lost productivity have been lost to these kinds of worms. I don't see why the authors shouldn't be prosecuted more harshly. This is just large-scale vandalism that raises the prices for everyone else to make up for it.
Nowadays people get Windows PCs mainly for internet access and gaming. Close to all new computers are sold with modems and often 6-12 months of internet access. Look at all the companies that have been giving 'discounts' for signing up for three years of MSN access.
For a large percentage of Windows users, the internet is the only reason they purchased the computer in the first place.
Do you honestly think that more than 5% of new Windows PCs are not online within the first month?
I agree. In this case however, Craig Williams was running for one of the two Idaho seats in the US House of Representatives. He could have actually done something (of course, Idaho votes 75% Republican, so it was a losing battle anyway)...
In October 2000 I started getting e-mails from the Idaho Democratic Party about electing Craig Williams to the Idaho's 2nd district of U.S. House of Representatives.
I had no idea how they got my name or address so I sent them a fairly nasty e-mail about how that I felt like voting against them because they spammed me.
Later that day, Craig Williams e-mailed me back personally and explained that one of my friends (and gave me her name) had provided my information because I may be interested in their platform. He went on to explain how he felt that it is wrong to buy e-mail addresses for that purpose.
I replied and asked some questions about his platform and beliefs. He replied with a lengthy personally-typed e-mail that specifically answered my concerns.
Because of the personal and timely responses I received from Mr. Williams I chose to vote for him in the election. Some politicians seem to care more than others when it comes to their constituants.
Consider the types of people who are actively going out of their way to block banner ads and cookies... Do you honestly think these people would *ever* click on one of these ads on purpose?
I would be willing to bet that less than 1% of internet users know enough to actually use serious blocking software. The technology in this article is basically targeting power users who would never click a banner ad anyway.
Why don't the ad houses accept this and save bandwidth for the people who actually click on the "Your internet connection is not optimized!" windows?
I work for a mid-sized ISP that has been affected greatly by recent ISP transitions. Micron.net/HostPro.net recently sold all its dial-up customers to Earthlink and several thousand of them have switched to my ISP. Most of them said they did not want to switch to such a bloated problematic ISP like Earthlink.
(Honestly, I think many of them decided to switch after waiting on hold for over an hour for technical support -- our average hold time is under three minutes...)
While many of our customers are still coming from AOL and are not ready for a normal internet connection, it actually seems that computer users are beginning to understand why large ISPs are getting such a bad name. Today, the average dial-up customer is much more likely to switch ISPs because of poor service than in the past.
Hopefully this trend continues. If I wanted to be an MSN customer I would have signed up with them...
(Despite my e-mail address, Qwest is no longer my ISP)
I think that the FAQ is intended to show what MSN will support. Qwest DSL uses the Intel 2100/2200/3200 DSL internal 'modems' and the Cisco 675/678 almost exclusively.
For customers with the Intel modems, you never could connect with non-MS operating systems anyway (correct me if I'm wrong, however). With the Cisco modems you could connect fine with just about any operating system. I had no problems getting Suse to run DHCP with my Cisco 675.
I can't imagine Microsoft forcing the the established DSL customers to buy new equipment. For existing Qwest.net customers with Cisco routers, I'd imagine you would still be able to connect as you were before.
I have been running the Junkbuster proxy for a couple weeks and successfully block 99% of the ads I come across.
It's free, completely open-source, and works great. I highly recommend trying it out if you are sick of downloading advertisements you will never click on.
For the goatse.cx paranoid, the URL is http://www.junkbuster.com.
A Republic is a more convenient, less democratic version of democracy.
In a true democracy, every citizen votes on every issue. Every stupid little issue that most people don't really care about that affects very few people.
In a Republic, the citizens vote on people who represent their interests and make decisions for them. This is your mayor, governor, congressmen, senators, and Dubya up on the very top.
The main problem with the Republic system is that the representative is elected by the majority (or the minority in the President's case) and may not support your views. Another problem with having a representative 'democracy' is that powerful corporations can buy the representatives with lobbyists and bribes. This would not be a problem if we had a true democracy... but do you really want to vote on issues several days a week?
This shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. What incentive do search engines have to provide unbiased results?
Search engines are not a free service, they are a business, even if their main revenue is from advertising. This is one of the main reasons why Deja News sold the newsgroup search engine to Google. They couldn't make money from indexing Usenet so they went to the ill-received ratings service. Not that many people are going to pay Google to promote their old posts.
I'd rather have a search engine that can afford to maintain its links and continually update their content. I'd rather have a working search engine that can provide useful relative links than garbage links that have been broken since 1996.
They already did it to Microsoft's.asf and.wma file formats. Even if you install the input plugins the diskwriter won't let you write to.wav.
You *can* get around this by uninstalling Winamp, and downloading/installing Winamp 2.22 from www.winampheaven.com. This version allows you to write as.wav.
The reason the RIAA can torment Napster is becasue Napster is in the United States. What if the central filename database existed in a country that does not honor copyright?
The July 2000 issue of Wired spotlighted Sealand, a sovereign 'country' created from an abandoned oil rig in the Atlantic. The idea is that it can be used as a file server without the burden of national laws. This sounds like an excellent way to get around the copyright laws Napster is currently facing.
What if Napster (or another company) decided to move the central database like this? Could it be stopped without going after individual users?
Actually, when they play several engagements in the same city, sometimes they have themes to the show.
For example, in November they played 5 shows at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, and had a different theme to each. One night they played an old-school show with just them and the drum machine. At another show they performed with a 9 piece big band, again another the performed their 1990 platinum CD, Flood, in its entirety. Viva variety!
If I could ask them a question I'd like to know when they plan on releasing the new albums (both the children's album and the rock album). Also, I'd like to know when they plan to tour the western US again.
Slashdot Mirror
Then all the better reason to be interested in an article about easy-to-remeber passwords. :)
Frequently-asked questions:
http://www.avsforum.com/hdtvfaq/HDTV-FAQ.htm
http://www.nwlink.com/~rxg/hdtv.html
Reviews, tips, tweaks, etc:
http://www.hometheaterspot.com
http://www.avsforum.com
http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv/index.htm
As SirCam virus e-mails average 250kb per message, each month we pass over a gigabyte of bandwidth on this crap.
I wonder if its possible to approximate how many dollars worth of bandwidth and lost productivity have been lost to these kinds of worms. I don't see why the authors shouldn't be prosecuted more harshly. This is just large-scale vandalism that raises the prices for everyone else to make up for it.
1. AOL Time Warner Network
2. MSN-Microsoft Sites
3. Yahoo
4. Terra Lycos
5. X10.COM
6. Vivendi-Universal Sites
7. About/Primedia
8. eBay
9. Walt Disney Internet Group
10. eUniverse Network
11. Amazon
12. Excite Network
13. CNET Networks
14. Google Sites
Nowadays people get Windows PCs mainly for internet access and gaming. Close to all new computers are sold with modems and often 6-12 months of internet access. Look at all the companies that have been giving 'discounts' for signing up for three years of MSN access.
For a large percentage of Windows users, the internet is the only reason they purchased the computer in the first place.
Do you honestly think that more than 5% of new Windows PCs are not online within the first month?
I agree. In this case however, Craig Williams was running for one of the two Idaho seats in the US House of Representatives. He could have actually done something (of course, Idaho votes 75% Republican, so it was a losing battle anyway)...
In October 2000 I started getting e-mails from the Idaho Democratic Party about electing Craig Williams to the Idaho's 2nd district of U.S. House of Representatives.
I had no idea how they got my name or address so I sent them a fairly nasty e-mail about how that I felt like voting against them because they spammed me.
Later that day, Craig Williams e-mailed me back personally and explained that one of my friends (and gave me her name) had provided my information because I may be interested in their platform. He went on to explain how he felt that it is wrong to buy e-mail addresses for that purpose.
I replied and asked some questions about his platform and beliefs. He replied with a lengthy personally-typed e-mail that specifically answered my concerns.
Because of the personal and timely responses I received from Mr. Williams I chose to vote for him in the election. Some politicians seem to care more than others when it comes to their constituants.
I would be willing to bet that less than 1% of internet users know enough to actually use serious blocking software. The technology in this article is basically targeting power users who would never click a banner ad anyway.
Why don't the ad houses accept this and save bandwidth for the people who actually click on the "Your internet connection is not optimized!" windows?
...when you see on the "Always trust content from Microsoft Corporation" checkmark?
(Honestly, I think many of them decided to switch after waiting on hold for over an hour for technical support -- our average hold time is under three minutes...)
While many of our customers are still coming from AOL and are not ready for a normal internet connection, it actually seems that computer users are beginning to understand why large ISPs are getting such a bad name. Today, the average dial-up customer is much more likely to switch ISPs because of poor service than in the past.
Hopefully this trend continues. If I wanted to be an MSN customer I would have signed up with them...
(Despite my e-mail address, Qwest is no longer my ISP)
For customers with the Intel modems, you never could connect with non-MS operating systems anyway (correct me if I'm wrong, however). With the Cisco modems you could connect fine with just about any operating system. I had no problems getting Suse to run DHCP with my Cisco 675.
I can't imagine Microsoft forcing the the established DSL customers to buy new equipment. For existing Qwest.net customers with Cisco routers, I'd imagine you would still be able to connect as you were before.
It's free, completely open-source, and works great. I highly recommend trying it out if you are sick of downloading advertisements you will never click on.
For the goatse.cx paranoid, the URL is http://www.junkbuster.com.
In a true democracy, every citizen votes on every issue. Every stupid little issue that most people don't really care about that affects very few people.
In a Republic, the citizens vote on people who represent their interests and make decisions for them. This is your mayor, governor, congressmen, senators, and Dubya up on the very top.
The main problem with the Republic system is that the representative is elected by the majority (or the minority in the President's case) and may not support your views. Another problem with having a representative 'democracy' is that powerful corporations can buy the representatives with lobbyists and bribes. This would not be a problem if we had a true democracy... but do you really want to vote on issues several days a week?
Search engines are not a free service, they are a business, even if their main revenue is from advertising. This is one of the main reasons why Deja News sold the newsgroup search engine to Google. They couldn't make money from indexing Usenet so they went to the ill-received ratings service. Not that many people are going to pay Google to promote their old posts.
I'd rather have a search engine that can afford to maintain its links and continually update their content. I'd rather have a working search engine that can provide useful relative links than garbage links that have been broken since 1996.
You *can* get around this by uninstalling Winamp, and downloading/installing Winamp 2.22 from www.winampheaven.com. This version allows you to write as .wav.
The July 2000 issue of Wired spotlighted Sealand, a sovereign 'country' created from an abandoned oil rig in the Atlantic. The idea is that it can be used as a file server without the burden of national laws. This sounds like an excellent way to get around the copyright laws Napster is currently facing.
What if Napster (or another company) decided to move the central database like this? Could it be stopped without going after individual users?
Heh. Juno would probably force them to upgrade their system just to keep the service. Just wait.
For example, in November they played 5 shows at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, and had a different theme to each. One night they played an old-school show with just them and the drum machine. At another show they performed with a 9 piece big band, again another the performed their 1990 platinum CD, Flood, in its entirety. Viva variety!
If I could ask them a question I'd like to know when they plan on releasing the new albums (both the children's album and the rock album). Also, I'd like to know when they plan to tour the western US again.