Consulting firm, you say? Please ratchet up the clue lever a step or two -- Manpower is a *temp agency*. Calling a temp agency a consulting firm is like calling McDonald's cuisine.
I still have mine, because (thankfully!) my parents didn't return it during the recall. It's a big hit with the neighborhood kids when I haul it out, and it's great for scaring the starlings off of the bird feeder.
It's still just as loud now as it was when new... what I can hear of it through the tinnitus that's plagued me since 1966.
That's not how the real world works. Consider micro$oft -- they do not create the best, most useful, most stable software; they created the biggest marketing machine the world has ever seen. I do not recommend emulating micro$oft; I am merely using that famous example to illustrate my point.
On the real web, the one where I make my living building and promoting commerce sites, the truth is that no matter how aesthetically pleasing, no matter how well engineered for human use, no matter how informative your site is or how low your prices are, if your site is not easily located by the methods people actually use, it is worthless.
I don't waste my time doing search engine optimization -- I make very good use of my time doing search engine optimization. I don't use doorway pages, spamdexing, googlebaiting, or any such cheats, but I do build every site from the ground up with the primary focus being search engine spidering and indexing. That's why I'm still in business, and my clients are not only still in business but are spending right now on expansions and upgrades to their sites.
Your utopian vision would be fine if the real world would just consent to be ruled by it, but the real world is a fickle and contrary organism that defies such simplistic wishfulness.
I say "Go for it!" Steal something big, like nytimes.com -- and the very instant that it transfers, call the nearest television network affiliate's news department to explain that you've only done this to prove a point, have no intention of actually doing anything. As soon as the news starts to spread, call whomever it is whose domain you hijacked, and ask them to submit the necessary correction, which you'll gladly approve.
Just try to pick something large that belongs to someone unlikely to want to draw and quarter you!
In a case such as this, industry backing is only one side of the coin. On the other side there's me and everyone else who uses the internet for more than a distributed pay-per-use vending machine.
By the way, I make my living writing software for web commerce sites, so I am not opposed to commercial interests using the internet just as freely as geeks and academicians.
I use slashdot@artsackett.com for this very reason. It catches anywhere from a half dozen to about two dozen spams each day. The delivering IP address is automatically added to my local DNS blocklist without a human being ever being forced to delete the message.
I also use ORBS, spamhaus, and others, and on a typical day, I receive three or four spams, and block 74 to 76. My logs rolled seven hours ago, and already I've blocked 25, received two.
Only a fool will give two months of his life in exchange for a pretty rock.
In a decade or so, the woman who sells that rock to a pawn shop for 15% of what you paid for it will be known to your friends as "the bitch", and most of them will not even be able to recall her given name. You'll be known to her friends as "the asshole", and they'll know of flaws you never had.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against marriage, my current wife, or my ex-wives, or any of my as-yet unknown future ex-wives.
Still, a diamond meets none of a human being's basic needs, has no true utility, and loses much of its emotional value quickly.
There's nothing more romantic than putting her name on a mortgage.
In a past life, I was the service (manager, HMFIC, first geek, whatever) for Pacific Power Source Corporation, counting among our customers the Naval Air Development Center, the folks who brought us Naval Oceanographic Research Vessels. I've been aboard every NavOceano (Naval Oceanographic) vessel built prior to 1992, and every one of 'em used common conformal coat to keep their stuff happy.
Yep, every one of 'em.
This shit is easy. Just spray 'em in conformal coat, and be done with it. Just be sure that your components are appropriately rated... this ain't rocket science, boys.
Any customers unhappy with PPSC's quality of service oughta tell 'em, "Art would have handled this properly the first time!" and let it go at that. I don't want the job back, I just want to poke 'em in the ass a time or two.;-)
The thing that Zeldman's Disciples still have not figured out is that there are poor people who are or would be well-served by web access. Standards are great, but those of us who build web sites have to consider the fact that there are folks out there driving tired old corporate cast-off equipment, stuff that cannot handle a modern web browser.
They tell us that browsers are free for the downloading -- because they are not paying telephone charges by the minute.
They tell us that Browser X is a "light" download, but don't consider that it won't run on a tired old 80386 with four meg of RAM.
They tell us that supporting old, tired machines and the poor people who use them is "holding back progress" -- only because it holds back THEIR progress. They simply refuse to consider the little girl in South Africa whose progress we're supporting by not adopting the latest standards. Her father is proud to be able to provide her with that unreliable dial-up that tops out at 18kbps.
Not me, thanks. Until the older technology falls out of use, I'll continue to do the things that Zeldman's Disciples hate.
It's only accessibility if real people using real equipment can make use of the content.
You can still see the same ICANN-approved.com,.net,.org., et cetera, but with (the original) different.biz and.info, and with an additional thousand or so TLD's that the Open Root Server Confederation supports.
It's important that we all remember that the internet is capitalist and cooperative -- we each pay our own way, and behave in a civilized manner to avoid gumming up the works. If enough of us opt to use the Open Root, then we can marginalize ICANN and take control for the public, the very same public that pays for the thing in the first place.
I like the Open Root Server Confederation because they don't want to rule the internet, but to simply place control of the DNS into the hands of someone who will have the public interest at heart.
I do a very similar thing, (local rbldns instead of postfix, ORDB instead of SpamCop, Debian instead of OS-X) and it works very well. I have also got a local address that I can bounce mail to for reporting and inclusion in my local (self-maintaining) blocklist. My system was more effective before ORBZ got Cindied, but it still catches 90% or more of the spam that would have been delivered here.
On average, I block 72 deliveries per day, and five or six spam messages get through; each of those five or six gets manually bounced to my local reporting address.
My slashdot@ address gets the stuffing spammed out of it -- it's a spamtrap address, also, feeding right into my local reporting system. Of all of my spamtrap addresses, it's the most effective. But of all of my in-house methods, the most effective, hands-down, is the blocking of all of Asia.
At least, in my experience, that's the case. I've got bot bait on my site that's been there for many months now, and it has yet to be crawled. I get lots of hits on robots.txt from agents I believe to be harvester bots, but none has yet ventured in. Most of the hits on the bait come from curious slashdotters.
Just to make sure it gets said: The email address that's listed here on/. is a spamtrap. Don't use it! My user name in my domain is the same as my user name here. I didn't intend for that address to become a spamtrap, but it was soaking up so much spam it seemed wise to put it to good use.
Seconded. I used FRII from 1995 through 1998, and was always very happy with their service. If they ever get a POP over here on the Western Slope, I'll certainly be recommending them here.
And if they offer DSL over here, I'll be switching over.
This is just too much. When ICANN finally gets one thing right, even if it's a simple little thing like this, it's news?
No wonder I like the Open Root Server Confederation so much. They get lots of things right, but can't get in the news to save their lives. They give me access to over a thousand top level domains (1105, right now), and if I wanted to play ubergeek and create my own TLD, as long as I could show that I know how to make sense of it all, they'd let me.
Even though I don't run a public root server (I run my own local root cache), and don't own a TLD, they listen when I offer up comments in their mailing lists. I'm only on the tech list, have had only a little bit to say, but dammit, they listened. When's the last time ICANN listened to anyone who wasn't a massive commercial entity?
ICANN makes a big deal about how hard it is to manage a handful of top level domains, how it costs millions of dollars a year and still they need more. What, are we buying Vint Cerf a new vacation home in every country the internet reaches? The Open Root Server Confederation handles 1105 TLD's, gets by on almost no dollars, and what little they're in need of is donated, not extorted. I can get behind that, without reservation.
It's time for ICANN to feel the pressure of the real world, to compete head to head with other folks on a level playing field, and let's see if ICANN can squeal like the pigs they are. Pay a visit to the Open Root Server Confederation, tweak your configuration to use their roots, and see the whole internet... and let's see how long ICANN remains relevant.
At least it's an inexensive boycott for me to break. I can afford to buy a few boxes of Kellogg's cereal.
Please do, and enjoy those delicious genetically modified products every morning until your colon grows eyeballs. Then you'll be able to comb your hair without need of a mirror.:D
An open relay is more like a syphilis-infected slut. She may be sleeping now, but when she's awakened, she's going to make someone regret being screwed by her. Asking for an STD test before hopping in the sack with someone is now considered an unfortunate but justifiable state of affairs, not an insult.
My personal boycott of Kellogg's products continues at least until they repay Ian for his legal expenses incurred as a result of the need to defend against the city's stupidity.
I understand that Kellogg's has nothing to do with the stupidity of the city, but they're the biggest taxpayer/employer in Battle Creek, and that's close enough for me. As an American, collateral damage means nothing to me!
The first time I rewrote an assignment clause was in 1987. They hired me anyway, after freaking out for about a half hour over the red ink on their pretty form. Every assignment clause I've seen since that didn't limit the assignment to work done on their nickel, I rewrote. And was never denied employment.
I gave up the hardware end of things in 1998, so any changes in the environment since then I'm unaware of. Now, I'm a self-employed internet applications developer, and I don't sign other people's contracts any more; they sign mine.
The Open Root Server Confederation is ready to accept those who'll likely be fleeing from ICANN's death grip in the not too distant future.
While ICANN haggles over how best to rape the internet users of the world by doling out TLDs in artificially limited numbers, stifling competition, the ORSC provides resolution of over a thousand top level domains. ORSC conducts its affairs openly, and listens to input even from non-members such as myself.
Why anyone would choose to even acknowledge ICANN is beyond me.
All it takes for the typical end-user to begin using the open root is a few minutes' engaged in some independent action. I can see a couple hundred TLD's -- ICANNot!
Slashdot Mirror
Whoa now. We want to know if the RIAA is behind an album we want, but we have to visit the evil Bezos' site to do it? WTFO?
Consulting firm, you say? Please ratchet up the clue lever a step or two -- Manpower is a *temp agency*. Calling a temp agency a consulting firm is like calling McDonald's cuisine.
I still have mine, because (thankfully!) my parents didn't return it during the recall. It's a big hit with the neighborhood kids when I haul it out, and it's great for scaring the starlings off of the bird feeder.
It's still just as loud now as it was when new... what I can hear of it through the tinnitus that's plagued me since 1966.
On the real web, the one where I make my living building and promoting commerce sites, the truth is that no matter how aesthetically pleasing, no matter how well engineered for human use, no matter how informative your site is or how low your prices are, if your site is not easily located by the methods people actually use, it is worthless.
I don't waste my time doing search engine optimization -- I make very good use of my time doing search engine optimization. I don't use doorway pages, spamdexing, googlebaiting, or any such cheats, but I do build every site from the ground up with the primary focus being search engine spidering and indexing. That's why I'm still in business, and my clients are not only still in business but are spending right now on expansions and upgrades to their sites.
Your utopian vision would be fine if the real world would just consent to be ruled by it, but the real world is a fickle and contrary organism that defies such simplistic wishfulness.
I say "Go for it!" Steal something big, like nytimes.com -- and the very instant that it transfers, call the nearest television network affiliate's news department to explain that you've only done this to prove a point, have no intention of actually doing anything. As soon as the news starts to spread, call whomever it is whose domain you hijacked, and ask them to submit the necessary correction, which you'll gladly approve.
Just try to pick something large that belongs to someone unlikely to want to draw and quarter you!
In a case such as this, industry backing is only one side of the coin. On the other side there's me and everyone else who uses the internet for more than a distributed pay-per-use vending machine.
By the way, I make my living writing software for web commerce sites, so I am not opposed to commercial interests using the internet just as freely as geeks and academicians.
I also use ORBS, spamhaus, and others, and on a typical day, I receive three or four spams, and block 74 to 76. My logs rolled seven hours ago, and already I've blocked 25, received two.
Only a fool will give two months of his life in exchange for a pretty rock.
In a decade or so, the woman who sells that rock to a pawn shop for 15% of what you paid for it will be known to your friends as "the bitch", and most of them will not even be able to recall her given name. You'll be known to her friends as "the asshole", and they'll know of flaws you never had.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against marriage, my current wife, or my ex-wives, or any of my as-yet unknown future ex-wives.
Still, a diamond meets none of a human being's basic needs, has no true utility, and loses much of its emotional value quickly.
There's nothing more romantic than putting her name on a mortgage.
In a past life, I was the service (manager, HMFIC, first geek, whatever) for Pacific Power Source Corporation, counting among our customers the Naval Air Development Center, the folks who brought us Naval Oceanographic Research Vessels. I've been aboard every NavOceano (Naval Oceanographic) vessel built prior to 1992, and every one of 'em used common conformal coat to keep their stuff happy.
;-)
Yep, every one of 'em.
This shit is easy. Just spray 'em in conformal coat, and be done with it. Just be sure that your components are appropriately rated... this ain't rocket science, boys.
Any customers unhappy with PPSC's quality of service oughta tell 'em, "Art would have handled this properly the first time!" and let it go at that. I don't want the job back, I just want to poke 'em in the ass a time or two.
The thing that Zeldman's Disciples still have not figured out is that there are poor people who are or would be well-served by web access. Standards are great, but those of us who build web sites have to consider the fact that there are folks out there driving tired old corporate cast-off equipment, stuff that cannot handle a modern web browser.
They tell us that browsers are free for the downloading -- because they are not paying telephone charges by the minute.
They tell us that Browser X is a "light" download, but don't consider that it won't run on a tired old 80386 with four meg of RAM.
They tell us that supporting old, tired machines and the poor people who use them is "holding back progress" -- only because it holds back THEIR progress. They simply refuse to consider the little girl in South Africa whose progress we're supporting by not adopting the latest standards. Her father is proud to be able to provide her with that unreliable dial-up that tops out at 18kbps.
Not me, thanks. Until the older technology falls out of use, I'll continue to do the things that Zeldman's Disciples hate.
It's only accessibility if real people using real equipment can make use of the content.
You can still see the same ICANN-approved .com, .net, .org., et cetera, but with (the original) different .biz and .info, and with an additional thousand or so TLD's that the Open Root Server Confederation supports.
It's important that we all remember that the internet is capitalist and cooperative -- we each pay our own way, and behave in a civilized manner to avoid gumming up the works. If enough of us opt to use the Open Root, then we can marginalize ICANN and take control for the public, the very same public that pays for the thing in the first place.
I like the Open Root Server Confederation because they don't want to rule the internet, but to simply place control of the DNS into the hands of someone who will have the public interest at heart.
I do a very similar thing, (local rbldns instead of postfix, ORDB instead of SpamCop, Debian instead of OS-X) and it works very well. I have also got a local address that I can bounce mail to for reporting and inclusion in my local (self-maintaining) blocklist. My system was more effective before ORBZ got Cindied, but it still catches 90% or more of the spam that would have been delivered here.
On average, I block 72 deliveries per day, and five or six spam messages get through; each of those five or six gets manually bounced to my local reporting address.
My slashdot@ address gets the stuffing spammed out of it -- it's a spamtrap address, also, feeding right into my local reporting system. Of all of my spamtrap addresses, it's the most effective. But of all of my in-house methods, the most effective, hands-down, is the blocking of all of Asia.
Just to make sure it gets said: The email address that's listed here on /. is a spamtrap. Don't use it! My user name in my domain is the same as my user name here. I didn't intend for that address to become a spamtrap, but it was soaking up so much spam it seemed wise to put it to good use.
And if they offer DSL over here, I'll be switching over.
Nuthin' to it but to do it!
No wonder I like the Open Root Server Confederation so much. They get lots of things right, but can't get in the news to save their lives. They give me access to over a thousand top level domains (1105, right now), and if I wanted to play ubergeek and create my own TLD, as long as I could show that I know how to make sense of it all, they'd let me.
Even though I don't run a public root server (I run my own local root cache), and don't own a TLD, they listen when I offer up comments in their mailing lists. I'm only on the tech list, have had only a little bit to say, but dammit, they listened. When's the last time ICANN listened to anyone who wasn't a massive commercial entity?
ICANN makes a big deal about how hard it is to manage a handful of top level domains, how it costs millions of dollars a year and still they need more. What, are we buying Vint Cerf a new vacation home in every country the internet reaches? The Open Root Server Confederation handles 1105 TLD's, gets by on almost no dollars, and what little they're in need of is donated, not extorted. I can get behind that, without reservation.
It's time for ICANN to feel the pressure of the real world, to compete head to head with other folks on a level playing field, and let's see if ICANN can squeal like the pigs they are. Pay a visit to the Open Root Server Confederation, tweak your configuration to use their roots, and see the whole internet... and let's see how long ICANN remains relevant.
Please do, and enjoy those delicious genetically modified products every morning until your colon grows eyeballs. Then you'll be able to comb your hair without need of a mirror. :D
Your analogy sucks, Russ.
An open relay is more like a syphilis-infected slut. She may be sleeping now, but when she's awakened, she's going to make someone regret being screwed by her. Asking for an STD test before hopping in the sack with someone is now considered an unfortunate but justifiable state of affairs, not an insult.
Was the test of the busticated Battle Creek server initiated for some reason other than an offensive email having been delivered by it?
My personal boycott of Kellogg's products continues at least until they repay Ian for his legal expenses incurred as a result of the need to defend against the city's stupidity.
I understand that Kellogg's has nothing to do with the stupidity of the city, but they're the biggest taxpayer/employer in Battle Creek, and that's close enough for me. As an American, collateral damage means nothing to me!
The first time I rewrote an assignment clause was in 1987. They hired me anyway, after freaking out for about a half hour over the red ink on their pretty form. Every assignment clause I've seen since that didn't limit the assignment to work done on their nickel, I rewrote. And was never denied employment.
I gave up the hardware end of things in 1998, so any changes in the environment since then I'm unaware of. Now, I'm a self-employed internet applications developer, and I don't sign other people's contracts any more; they sign mine.
While ICANN haggles over how best to rape the internet users of the world by doling out TLDs in artificially limited numbers, stifling competition, the ORSC provides resolution of over a thousand top level domains. ORSC conducts its affairs openly, and listens to input even from non-members such as myself.
Why anyone would choose to even acknowledge ICANN is beyond me.
You can keep your old junkbuster and just tell Mozilla to use HTTP/1.0, if you'd like. Just click the trail:
Edit -> Preferences -> Debug -> Networking
and put 1.0 into the HTTP Version text widget. Restart the browser, and you're done.
All it takes for the typical end-user to begin using the open root is a few minutes' engaged in some independent action. I can see a couple hundred TLD's -- ICANNot!
Many scrupled businesses are also able to measure search engine ranking on their bottom lines.