I don't believe that using laws to control spammers is the equivalent of alchohol prohivition
well, good. but the current state of spam laws is heading that way! we are attemtping to outlaw the act itself (spam, booze) not the crimes that result from the act (bandwidth theft, drunk driving).
be careful! apparently rumsfeld met with some notorious spammers back in '83 and knew full well about their stockpiles of "weapons of mailserver destruction" and said and did nothing.
wouldn't want that to come out in a trial, now would we...
suing spammers, though, is probably the best course of action open to ms, though. they have has some notorious security flaws that have allowed spammers to set up open relays on ms boxes. their popular email reader has in the past also had some dramatic bugs that have contributed to virus transmission traffic (in the public eye, all nuisance email can get lumped together whether it's "i love you" or "buy viagra").
for ms to make a serious contribution to fighting spam they would either a) have to plug current and potential holes that help propogate "bad" email (malmail?) b) do something else.
while there is the new "security committment" thang going on in redmond and it is probably a good start, doing something in the "something else" category (ie suing spammers) is a lot faster and easier.
which is why it's going to burst. apple makes money in the long run off hardware sales, but all the "me toos" showing up won't have that second revenue stream - hence failure.
of course, near-certain doom isn't never enough to stop thousands of get-rich-quickers, people with a low common-sense-to-money ratio and general greedheads from fighting over the steering wheel fo this bandwagon. it's gonna be ugly.
apple created a whole new business model. microsoft will turn it into a bubble... sigh.
I pay $50 a month for satellite and I cant even record any TV.
oh, you'll be able to record... i mean, there are guys in the parking lot of the mall trying to sell me satelite decoders out of white vans every weekend. it'll only be a matter of time (measured in days) before the white van gang have the "satelite recorder" boxes.
Apparently "unlimited" has been redefined w/o our knowledge.
read your t&c's. chances are there's a clause in there about the conditions being subject to change without notice... my isp is a little less draconian than that. from my t&c's:
TELUS reserves the right to change a customer's e-mail ID or make other changes to this Agreement or any aspect of the telus.net service as service, network or policy issues require. TELUS will exercise reasonable efforts to inform you prior to making any changes.
so, basically, my isp (and yours too) can change the agreement unilaterally and they will make a "reasonably effort" to tell you about it... but that's about it.
a "few vials" wouldn't really count as "mass" destruction though, would it? take a look at the amount of chemical weapons the united states stores. there's a nice map available here:
these repositories range from 2,000 to 13,000 tonnes each. and there are nine of them.
that's a lot more than just a "few vials"
(nb: i am not sure how old this map is, but the us is not committed to destroying chem weapons until 2007... the purpose is to demonstrate that wmds are have "mass")
the difference is where the sense of "obligation" lies:
corporateware: the users feel the company is obliged to provide the featues, support, bugfixes and documentation regardless of the sticker price for the ware. once a company takes money and issues a eula, they accept responsibility.
fs/oss: the user understands that s/he is obliged to contribute in some manner, even if they choose not to. since most users don't contribute to any given fs/oss ware, there is a certain degree of guilt from the sense of unfulfilled obligation that makes them more appreciative of the ware.
actually, heinlein, while imo a mediocre author did give the english language a valuable gift: the word grok
grok:
1. To understand, usually in a global sense. Connotes
intimate and exhaustive knowledge.
2. Used of programs, may connote merely sufficient
understanding. "Almost all C compilers grok the "void" type
these days."
this is not content they are talking about putting on this sharing network. it is advertising - don't get the two confused!
the last ten years have seen the entertainment industry working very hard to blur the line between content and ads. people regard movie trailers as content, some in the movie industry are starting to regard the movies themselves as advertising (for merchandise like action figures and lunch boxes, which is where the big money is).
The worst side effect of this is the punishment of the not guilty.
it's like putting a tax on balaclavas and giving the tax money to banks that had been robbed. i agree. however, there are other bad things about this. consider:
who gets this money? the blank cd levy is distributed via socan, the same people who cut songwriters cheques for airplay. all fine except that only canadian artists can be registered with socan - and, uh, "copyright theft knows no nation". you get the picture. of course i'm not opposed to canadian musicians getting a bit of cash, but this is a harsh mechanism.
the chances of the levy actually being collected effectively are slim. maybe this is a good thing, but it leads to beurocratic fat. with the cd levy, if a retail outlet demonstrates that they sell cd's for "data only" purposes they are exempt from the levy. essentially, if they're a computer shop, they don't have to pay - this is why there are still supercheap cd's available in canada.
is this whole thing contrary to the wto anyway? i know that "cultural" subsidies are exempt from most trade agreements (notably in the ftaa so that the crtc can keep on setting cancon quotas), but this is getting into a grey area when things like hard drives wind up on the list. i mean, will sheila copps (or whoever the hell the minister of culture is these days) decide to put a levy on bandwidth next?
as a side note - and this is important for all you canucks out there - the blank cd levy means that canadians can legally copy sound recordings for personal use. the details are here. please go easy on my server.
that the virginia state gov't can put this guy away for twenty years for this. twenty years! isn't this a bit drastic? hell, draconian?
sure, we all hate spam but, really, it's just a minor annoyance (and don't give me this bandwidth-usage argument... all the spam you receive in a year doesn't equal the divx of return of the king your boosting of kazaa right now) and 20 years is a bit of an over reaction.
ever read the warranty that comes with yr lawnmower? about how it's only valid if the mower is used "reasonably and correctly"? if you run over rocks or now nine foot wet grass, the warranty won't cover damage. most software is like that.
testing is done for "reasonable" use and the software shop regards "unreasonable" use as being either a) uncovered or b) a violation of the eula.
actually, it helps them. there are millions of administrative assistants and other corporate flunkies who have been happily using win 98 for years.
now that end of life is officially declared, the it deaprtmnt will probably force upgrades on all those people - and, of course, pay the necessary licensing fees to redmond.
microsoft: taking a bad ruling and turning it into a cash cow. again.
atually, the vinyl industry is a good lead to follow. remember the home taping "debacle" of the late 70's/early 80's ("home taping is killing the recording industry!"). the labels responded with lots of added features to get you to buy the platter:
coloured vinyl. god i love coloured vinyl
gatefold sleeves
bonus flexi discs
free "fan club" memberships with proof of purchase
poster wraps. the idea was blatantly ripped off from a british band crass (who were definitely anti-record industry)
free pony-sized four colour 8-page magazines
infinity groove out tracks. good for parties or, uh, acid trips
of course you cant to most of that with cd's... but the labels at least have to try.
bingo. steve jobs actually said it back in the 80's "consumers only care about the applications". the oeprating system is just lifesupport for the dohickeys mom-n-pop want to run on top of it...
and mom-n-pop will be pissed when they find out that their favourite bridge program and recipie categorizer doesn't run on their new machine.
this sums it up. when you ask people what operating system they're running and they say "i don't know" they mean "windows me".
Slashdot Mirror
just drink coffee.
sheesh.
of course, you should be aware of the bad side effects of everyone's favourite beverage and purchase your beans accordingly
well, good. but the current state of spam laws is heading that way! we are attemtping to outlaw the act itself (spam, booze) not the crimes that result from the act (bandwidth theft, drunk driving).
wouldn't want that to come out in a trial, now would we...
of course not :)
suing spammers, though, is probably the best course of action open to ms, though. they have has some notorious security flaws that have allowed spammers to set up open relays on ms boxes. their popular email reader has in the past also had some dramatic bugs that have contributed to virus transmission traffic (in the public eye, all nuisance email can get lumped together whether it's "i love you" or "buy viagra").
for ms to make a serious contribution to fighting spam they would either a) have to plug current and potential holes that help propogate "bad" email (malmail?) b) do something else.
while there is the new "security committment" thang going on in redmond and it is probably a good start, doing something in the "something else" category (ie suing spammers) is a lot faster and easier.
of course, near-certain doom isn't never enough to stop thousands of get-rich-quickers, people with a low common-sense-to-money ratio and general greedheads from fighting over the steering wheel fo this bandwagon. it's gonna be ugly.
apple created a whole new business model. microsoft will turn it into a bubble... sigh.
oh, you'll be able to record... i mean, there are guys in the parking lot of the mall trying to sell me satelite decoders out of white vans every weekend. it'll only be a matter of time (measured in days) before the white van gang have the "satelite recorder" boxes.
yes. but tbey deal with litigating and defending against litigation. they sell to both sides - kind of like the krupps.
companies that pursue litigation as a business model, however, only play one side: offense. there's no money to be made defending.
read your t&c's. chances are there's a clause in there about the conditions being subject to change without notice... my isp is a little less draconian than that. from my t&c's:
TELUS reserves the right to change a customer's e-mail ID or make other changes to this Agreement or any aspect of the telus.net service as service, network or policy issues require. TELUS will exercise reasonable efforts to inform you prior to making any changes.
so, basically, my isp (and yours too) can change the agreement unilaterally and they will make a "reasonably effort" to tell you about it... but that's about it.
don't you mean "keynote slideshow for dummies"?
vinyl! it's the people's medium!
a "few vials" wouldn't really count as "mass" destruction though, would it? take a look at the amount of chemical weapons the united states stores. there's a nice map available here:
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/cbw/cw.htm
these repositories range from 2,000 to 13,000 tonnes each. and there are nine of them.
that's a lot more than just a "few vials"
(nb: i am not sure how old this map is, but the us is not committed to destroying chem weapons until 2007... the purpose is to demonstrate that wmds are have "mass")
well, one out of four aint... good. even in the remedial stream 25% is still a failing grade.
corporateware: the users feel the company is obliged to provide the featues, support, bugfixes and documentation regardless of the sticker price for the ware. once a company takes money and issues a eula, they accept responsibility.
fs/oss: the user understands that s/he is obliged to contribute in some manner, even if they choose not to. since most users don't contribute to any given fs/oss ware, there is a certain degree of guilt from the sense of unfulfilled obligation that makes them more appreciative of the ware.
grok:
1. To understand, usually in a global sense. Connotes intimate and exhaustive knowledge.
2. Used of programs, may connote merely sufficient understanding. "Almost all C compilers grok the "void" type these days."
this is not content they are talking about putting on this sharing network. it is advertising - don't get the two confused!
the last ten years have seen the entertainment industry working very hard to blur the line between content and ads. people regard movie trailers as content, some in the movie industry are starting to regard the movies themselves as advertising (for merchandise like action figures and lunch boxes, which is where the big money is).
it's like putting a tax on balaclavas and giving the tax money to banks that had been robbed. i agree. however, there are other bad things about this. consider:
as a side note - and this is important for all you canucks out there - the blank cd levy means that canadians can legally copy sound recordings for personal use. the details are here. please go easy on my server.
that the virginia state gov't can put this guy away for twenty years for this. twenty years! isn't this a bit drastic? hell, draconian?
sure, we all hate spam but, really, it's just a minor annoyance (and don't give me this bandwidth-usage argument... all the spam you receive in a year doesn't equal the divx of return of the king your boosting of kazaa right now) and 20 years is a bit of an over reaction.
ever read the warranty that comes with yr lawnmower? about how it's only valid if the mower is used "reasonably and correctly"? if you run over rocks or now nine foot wet grass, the warranty won't cover damage. most software is like that.
testing is done for "reasonable" use and the software shop regards "unreasonable" use as being either a) uncovered or b) a violation of the eula.
actually, it helps them. there are millions of administrative assistants and other corporate flunkies who have been happily using win 98 for years.
now that end of life is officially declared, the it deaprtmnt will probably force upgrades on all those people - and, of course, pay the necessary licensing fees to redmond.
microsoft: taking a bad ruling and turning it into a cash cow. again.
the kicer though, wasn't even vinyl. throbbing gristles "24 hours" - 24 one hour casette tapes in an aluminum brief case.
of course you cant to most of that with cd's... but the labels at least have to try.
or something like that.
witness the popularity of prisons in the united states.
wait... was that flamebait?
worse! now i'm getting someone's kazaa traffic on my braces!
and mom-n-pop will be pissed when they find out that their favourite bridge program and recipie categorizer doesn't run on their new machine.
this sums it up. when you ask people what operating system they're running and they say "i don't know" they mean "windows me".