I have a simple script that takes all the JPGs in the directory the script is run from and makes thumbnails out of them. It also generates the "code" which is just the array containing all the file names and thumbnail names. I plug that into an inc file, link it up, change a few variables to match the collection and I have an easy to browse photo album. Page numbers are automatically generated and X pictures can be viewed on one page.
Meta data in files is incomplete and pointless. It's trivial to whip up an HTML page and create a page to describe all the pictures linked up by it. There's more to pictures than just a date and names.
You don't need a web-server to make a photo album web-site. Straight HTML does everything you need and you can just load it locally.
Google's image search works by looking at file names, directories and the text surrounding the picture. There's no way around it. If you want to have a digital photo album you have to spend time putting it together in an intelligent fashion so you can find things later.
There's also already software out there for creating albums.
Just because He established rules that the *universe* is bound by doesn't mean that He is bound by them. He is only bound by the rules He decides He's bound by. Math is simply God's design pattern that we're forced to follow since we were designed based on it.
We're not supposed to kill but he has no moral dillema when He does.
That's what makes him God. He can choose which rules to be bound by. We have a very very limited ability in that area.
If God wants to run off a cliff naked and not fall down He doesn't have to. If you run off a cliff naked you have no choice in whether or not you fall.
And that whole walking on water bit. The only reason we can make choices is because God withholds his ability to force us to do His will.
Ohhh look another "best idea on the internet" that's the same old "charge them" idea that many others have had that's still stupid.
Basically this idea annoys everyone and solves nothing. There would be a lot of rich people who simply spend all day signing up on lists and then collecting the "fine" when they get e-mails.
The way to stop spam that doesn't require messing with STMP is to use web-forms. The web-form on my mail server is written in PHP and is basically a custom e-mail client. It connects to the mail server and sends to exactly one address that's hard coded in the script. Giving it random letters and numbers would prevent spammers from guessing it and users wouldn't care because they don't have to remember it. My particular PHP script only sends text only e-mails as well.
If you use a non-generic web-form with a unique filename and unique variables, it makes it quite impossible for spammers to make bots to whore their spam automatically.
What would be really clever if you want to prevent bots entirely you just have an array of images. And an array of questions, one for each picture. And the user has to answer the question like "what color is the apple?"
No amount of image scanning by a bot is going to figure that out.
Then instead of telling people an e-mail address you just give them your domain. It's still SMTP so you can contact people out side the script if you want.
The other method I use on the server side is filtering domains that spammers use to host their product pages or images. I've gotten hundreds of e-mail attempts according to RinetD's logs and only a couple spams with domains I hadn't added to the filter yet have gotten through. Since the PHP script goes through the mail server and doesn't actually send the e-mails itself, all the spam prevention is also applied to the web-form. And since no legitimate e-mails use those domains, I've had 0% collateral damage.
I get virtually no spam and have yet to break SMTP or charge anyone anything just to send me an e-mail. It's really not that hard.
Arizona State requires one semester of digital design (with the final project being to build a simple 4 bit programmable computer in LogicWorks) and then x86 or 6800 assembly before moving on to higher languages.
I was able to build a 4 bit random number generator in LogicWorks (that has a non repeating sequence of hundreds of 4 bit numbers) along with an 8x8 programmable LED display and other parts required to put together a Tamagochi.
OpenTama project complete with all the schemetics for all the parts I've assembled down to the gate level. The only thing missing I can think of off the top of my head is the state machine to drive it all.
The final project in Assembly is a "stop watch."
I highly doubt ASU is the only university to start off the Computer Science degree with how to build a computer before learning how to program it.
And I'm ranked just above WinDrivers.com on the first page.
I didn't pay for that. I just have a massive collection of drivers. My site consumes an 80GB harddrive and about 50% of that is drivers.
WinDrivers.com used to charge $50 a year for access to their collection which I remember because I thought it was so outragous. Now they charge $29.95 a year. Which is 5 cents less than I charge. However they still charge $5 for a day pass where I charge $1.
If you're looking for a specific file that Windows told you're missing and you type it in Google, my site will be top ranked if I have it. Sites like WinDrivers.com tend to ZIP up their files. I let them all hang out.
I'm also highly ranked on DirectX related things because I have practically every version of the SDK. And likewise, all the files are available indiviually. So looking for a specific file will result in my site comming up.
It's content that gets a site ranked high as well as the domain name, file name, and directory name.
I'm currently in the process of revamping the site which will probably kill me on Google for a bit as it reindexes everything but that doesn't take long.
You don't need to pay $5000 to get highly ranked. You just need some sense and a well designed web-site with stuff people would be looking for.
Slashdot isn't bad advertising either. Recycled Russian Brides was probably the most effective sig ad. I had a front page story once and a number of times I've written articles which have been posted on a major game development web-site. Free advertising in exchange for making something useful.
The less and ad sounds like an ad the more effective it is.
The reason Baysian filters worked at all in the first place is because spammers can't write intelligent ads.
All they have to do is lose the random words and create advertisments that sound more like something you'd say to friends. Use common words and put the product in a believable situation.
If the more spam looks like a casual e-mail the less effective baysian filtering is.
The only thing keeping spammers from going this route is lack of talent. A real test (instead of trying to find random words that make it through) is trying to create a spam with an intelligently written ad that makes it through. Or at least causes the filter to start flagging legitimate e-mails.
In the middle of all that crap there's still a perfectly visible link to a spam domain that the user is expected to click on. Or that an image is being hosted at.
Pulling out links from e-mails and adding them to the filter rule file is quite trivial and quite effective.
Government's not giving away enough free money so I should rob a liquor store?
Wait what? A *liquor* store?
Hey dumbass, let me get this straight. You're broke, you alledegly can't work, but you can get the energy up to go rob a *liquor* store.
"My kids are starving, that's why they're crying"
Hey genious, that *liquor* isn't going to feed your kids.
Maybe you should get a clue and go "rob" a soup kitchen. I'm sure your kids would be nice enough to bring you something back if you couldn't go yourself. I know the soup kitchen I helped at had plenty of bread they were giving away for people to take with them when they left.
Or if you're really up to robbing something, why not rob a super market so you can at least pretend it okay since it was so you could feed your kids.
That song might have a valid point if they author in any way shape or form was indicating how dedicated he was to at least attempting to help himself and his family.
As it is, it just demonstrates how lazy and thoughtless he is. He doesn't even have the sense to rob something that would benefit his kids.
It's amazing how many places are out there looking to help people but people like that demand it from the government.
Sorry, progress isn't going to stop because you've failed at life and refuse to act intelligently to make an attempt to rectify the situation.
There will always be poor. Better for government to spend the money on things that move society forward and let society (not the government) decide how much it wants to give out of its pockets to help those who need it.
Robbing a liquor store and bitching about starving kids in the same song. I've never read anything so pathetic.
with two rovers taking plenty of super high quality photos and camera crews heading to Sedona, AZ the US government will have footage just in time showing astronauts on Mars beating out any opposition.
When I worked at Peter Piper Pizza it was quickly learned you could exit the program handling orders to get to a prompt. You could then swipe any magnetic card through the CC reader in the keyboard to see what was on it. You just had to swipe it at the right speed to get everything.
That doesn't block the senders e-mail address but rather the links that spammers use. Spammers use countless IPs and countless forged e-mail addresses to send spams that all point to the same domain so it's a highly effective means to block large amounts of spam. You also can't obfuscate a link thanks to HTML standards. And since only spammers use those domains there's 0% collateral damage. Unless someone is foolish enough to buy one of the blocked domains that doesn't intend to use it for spam.
The other benefit is that a new IP is free from the ISP or from that open proxy. Domains cost money. By filtering out those domains I've basically cost spammers a thousand bucks or so because all those domains are now useless to advertise to my e-mail accounts. The more domains they buy to try to spam me with the more money they waste.
I also have a simple catch-all written in VB to bait spam with on my home connection which saves me money on bandwidth since I can preemptively filter domains on my real server.
to create a market for subcription based/free e-mail.
Fine MS and Yahoo and whoever else, be retarded. I'm not going to dump Mercury Mail just so I can micropayment people to death. I'll happily take your pissed off customers and I'm sure most other e-mail servers will do the same.
There are already dozens of free ways to communicate with people over the internet. If your "solution" involves invading my privacy or my pocket book, you need to remove your head from between your legs and see if you can come with an actual solution now that oxygen is reaching your brain.
Everyone, including the spammers are going to flock to the easiest and cheapest ways to communicate. You need to deal with the problem not just try to hide it under a pile of money and/or regulations.
It's pathetic how many people think sacrificing liberty for safty is a bad idea but when it comes to sacrificing privacy and money over spam, that's somehow a good idea.
I'm perfectly content with the current system as I'm keeping spam down to a dull roar without caring about who sent the spam or charging senders.
Blocking port 25 is just going to result in people running their SMTP servers on another port. I already run mine on two ports. If 25 goes away, another will be standardized or RinetD's stock will go up as people will be forwarding as many ports as needed to keep the mail moving.
oh wait, MS is always guilty until proven innocent.
Ben
I understand the theory
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I just think it's pathetic when potential presidential candidates lie to our faces and tell us they aren't paying their fair share and democrates whine about tax breaks "for the wealthy"
You pay more, you get more back. Common sense.
"That's why it's fair to soak the rich. They can tolerate it."
Being able to tolerate it doesn't make it fair. If the rich weren't being ripped off under the current system of taxes everyone else would feel the pain real quick. So instead of pretending they deserve it, why not thank them instead for making your life easier by picking up the slack?
Being poor isn't an excuse to be an ungrateful prick.
"The number of jobs lost is astounding and the job creation pace is pitiful."
The dotcom boom created millions of jobs. The dotcom burst made all those frivilous jobs go away. It takes far more people to build a house than it does to maintain it.
"blame the President" is just mindless banter.
"Clinton was not handed a good economy."
What do you call the dotcom boom? Do you actually believe Al Gore invented the internet? Clinton borrows 800+ billion his first term, got reelected and then the dotcom boom handed him fistfuls of tax money so it wasn't necessary to borrow.
And now you expect us to believe that despite the piss poor economy that has nothing to do with Bush and everything to do with the flailing tech business sector and two wars going on which aren't cheap that Bush's contribution to the debt is just too much.
riiiiiight. It's a dumb hypocritical ad and there's no getting around it.
It may be a bit excessive but considering the circumstances it's hardly a selling point for the Democrates.
the "winning" ad is attempting to attack Bush for incurring more debt when Clinton got a second term with a worse record of increasing the debt.
So point stands.
It's a dumb (and blatently hypocritical) ad. And it's a good thing CBS didn't show it because it would hurt the Democratic party more than anything. MoveOn.org is aptly named if that's the kind of ad it's going to promote as it needs to move on itself. Only the "Hitler" ad could be considered more trollish.
It's right up there with Sharpton claiming the top 1% pays less than 5% of all taxes and that "fair" would be more than 15% when in fact they pay over 30%.
Clark is throwing out the same "fair" BS claiming that the rich need to pay more. Any credibility they had is gone.
When it comes to printers, the ink runs out and it's a recuring cost. With cameras, the media is reusable. So I'd rather not pay a couple hundred extra for a camera just to save 20 bucks on media.
$80 for 256MB MMC
and $60 for 256MB compact flash.
When I go on extended trips I bring the laptop and download as needed. Which you'd need to do with CF as well.
I prefer CF because it's more rugged but lower cost cameras use MMC which is also pretty standard.
Ben
If you can call 1.3 Trillion
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"some extent" Only GB senior managed to raise it more. And since 1940 only 6 years exist that the debt went down any amount. And Clinton had the dotcom boom to work with. GW has raised the national debt 265 Billion in a bad economy. Clinton raised it 317 Billion in a good economy in the dotcom era and over 800 Billion his first term.
Deficit goes to the Debt. Clinton tanked the National Debt to a level only George Bush senior managed to do. Who cares if you have "money left over" if the money left over pales in comparison to the amount you tanked the debt. And the facts are the National Debt hasn't be increased more than 100 Billion per year since Bush got into office.
So what if Bush spends 1 Trillion dollars? If it were a bad thing it would fall into the debt. It hasn't. Yes he's spending money, but obviously he has it covered. And as Clinton so wonderfully demonstrated and you've lapdogged at, having the illusion of a surplus is more important than paying off the debt. No president since 1940 has made a consistant effort to get it paid down. That should tell you something about government spending and the importance of avoiding deficits. The fact is, balancing the budget comes second to getting things done. And paying off the debt comes last. At the current trend the debt will stabalize in not too long.
"If your answer to those questions is no, then you have to ask yourself: does he deserve 100,000 times the wealth of the average American?"
No I don't. It's not a matter of deserving. Robinhood economics are for fairy tales. Which apparently the Democrates are fond of.
There's no getting around the fact that Bush is good for the economy no matter how many Democrates want to hide behind lies. Clinton was handed a good economy on a silver plater when the net went mainstream in a way never seen before in history and he SUCKED. For what Bush has had to work with he's been doing a spectacular job.
Balancing the budget means everything is accounted for. It doesn't mean the surplus is being applied to lower the debt or that the lack of funds is adding to the debt.
The fact is the deficit has been an american icon for decades. The last time we didn't have a debt was in the early 1900's.
What's very telling is that from 1992 to 1996 the national debt rose 1.3 TRILLION dollars. From 1996 to 2004 is rose that same amount.
So Clinton raises the debt 1.3 trillion in 4 years and another 500 billion in his second term. From 2000 to present the debt was raised another 500 billion dollars.
So where is the 1 Trillion that Bush is responsible for?
The ad is not only a big giant troll but is also accuses Bush of doing something CLINTON pulled off in his first term and yet he got reelected.
So is it an ad to point out how well Bush managed the debt?
Apparently, if you look at the facts.
"just please check facts before you start spouting off."
The very definition of irony.
Ben
How is child labor
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not offensive?
What's the ad saying? That little children are going to be forced to slave away to pay off this debt that's been inherited and growing since decades ago?
The "ad" is garbage. It's pretty telling that the "best" MoveOn could come up with is that the national debt is bad and no president has managed to do anything about it for a very long time.
I rate the ad -1 Troll
You'd think MoveOn.org would have the sense to use an ad about something GW is actually responsible for that isn't presented in such a troll like fashion.
The best Clark can do is that rich people aren't paying their fair share. Anyone interested can verify that the top 1% income earners pay 34% of the total taxes. I wonder what Clark's definition of "fair" is. And the other democrates also have this bizarro world view. Sharpton when interviewed claimed that the top 1% paid less than 5% and that fair was "more than 15%"
The top 5% pay well over 50% of the total taxes. And the government actually pays the poor.
And then Democrates whine that tax breaks favor the rich. No kidding sherlock. The Democratic policy of Robinhood Economics needs to be corrected and that's what the Bush tax cuts are doing.
I didn't vote for Bush the first time around because he's an idiot. Since we're comming up on another Dumb and Dumber election, I will be voting for him since he's demonstrated his ability to surround himself with intelligent people which makes up for his lacking in that area. I'd rather put up with Bush for four more years and wait for something better to come along than vote for a democrate who's either oblivious to the taxing situation, a liar or just simply failed basic economics.
Pay $60 for a LeadTek capture card and capture to the PC. I used a WinTV card from 1996 to record 10s of hours of video when the war first kicked off last year. It managed rather well with VirtualDub which get the peak performance out of it.
Then get a DVD dual format burner ($80 on a good day) and a decent DVD player if you care enough to save the stuff to watch on a real TV.
I have a $50 VCR that's about 6 years old and still works fine. Of course that's not taking into account that I consciously forgot I had it for most of that period. I always had it hooked up to my computer but I use it as a TV-tuner 99.999% of the time. It wasn't until a year or two ago I rediscovered I could tape shows with it.
Now I'm using the LeadTek to move the more important things from tape to digital so I'll probably forget about the record feature on it again.
Disney's claim to fame was being able to take classic stories an put them on the big screen in a very entertaining and good looking way. Or rehash said stories and slap them in a different setting.
I think they need to crack open Grimm's Fairy Tales again and get back to doing what they are (were) good at.
Pixar dominates Disney because they can pull off the fantastic visuals and they write entertaining stories.
If Disney doesn't get out of their rut and Pixar keeps being kid friendly while not rehashing the same themes over and over, I think they'll put Disney out of business.
One would think McAfee or Norton would take advantage of all this publicity to educate the mass market. Course then people would probably cry conspiracy.
---- Split screen, one user screaming about viruses. "My DOOOM?!!" The other user happily clicking away. "Guess which one has the latest anti-virus protection?"
McAfee Anti-Virus, available at local software retailers ----
I think you're confused. The Germans volunteered to change the names of things such as saurekraut (I'm only half German) to "Liberty Cabbage" during WWII because they were getting persecuted so much by (you guessed it) Americans. We Americans know that the French are too stuck up to stick it to themselves so we changed "their" things to names like "Freedom Toast." And I'm not old. I learned that "Liberty Cabbage" thing from Grandpa Simpson. I kid you not. Simpson's is edumacational.
And besides, even the govenment couldn't change the name to "Freedom Hosts" because even they are slaves to VeriSign. It'd be all wrapped up in too much irony. Even for this administration.
Slashdot Mirror
I have a simple script that takes all the JPGs in the directory the script is run from and makes thumbnails out of them. It also generates the "code" which is just the array containing all the file names and thumbnail names. I plug that into an inc file, link it up, change a few variables to match the collection and I have an easy to browse photo album. Page numbers are automatically generated and X pictures can be viewed on one page.
Meta data in files is incomplete and pointless. It's trivial to whip up an HTML page and create a page to describe all the pictures linked up by it. There's more to pictures than just a date and names.
You don't need a web-server to make a photo album web-site. Straight HTML does everything you need and you can just load it locally.
Google's image search works by looking at file names, directories and the text surrounding the picture. There's no way around it. If you want to have a digital photo album you have to spend time putting it together in an intelligent fashion so you can find things later.
There's also already software out there for creating albums.
Ben
Just because He established rules that the *universe* is bound by doesn't mean that He is bound by them. He is only bound by the rules He decides He's bound by. Math is simply God's design pattern that we're forced to follow since we were designed based on it.
We're not supposed to kill but he has no moral dillema when He does.
That's what makes him God. He can choose which rules to be bound by. We have a very very limited ability in that area.
If God wants to run off a cliff naked and not fall down He doesn't have to. If you run off a cliff naked you have no choice in whether or not you fall.
And that whole walking on water bit. The only reason we can make choices is because God withholds his ability to force us to do His will.
Ben
Ohhh look another "best idea on the internet" that's the same old "charge them" idea that many others have had that's still stupid.
Basically this idea annoys everyone and solves nothing. There would be a lot of rich people who simply spend all day signing up on lists and then collecting the "fine" when they get e-mails.
The way to stop spam that doesn't require messing with STMP is to use web-forms. The web-form on my mail server is written in PHP and is basically a custom e-mail client. It connects to the mail server and sends to exactly one address that's hard coded in the script. Giving it random letters and numbers would prevent spammers from guessing it and users wouldn't care because they don't have to remember it. My particular PHP script only sends text only e-mails as well.
If you use a non-generic web-form with a unique filename and unique variables, it makes it quite impossible for spammers to make bots to whore their spam automatically.
What would be really clever if you want to prevent bots entirely you just have an array of images. And an array of questions, one for each picture. And the user has to answer the question like "what color is the apple?"
No amount of image scanning by a bot is going to figure that out.
Then instead of telling people an e-mail address you just give them your domain. It's still SMTP so you can contact people out side the script if you want.
The other method I use on the server side is filtering domains that spammers use to host their product pages or images. I've gotten hundreds of e-mail attempts according to RinetD's logs and only a couple spams with domains I hadn't added to the filter yet have gotten through. Since the PHP script goes through the mail server and doesn't actually send the e-mails itself, all the spam prevention is also applied to the web-form. And since no legitimate e-mails use those domains, I've had 0% collateral damage.
I get virtually no spam and have yet to break SMTP or charge anyone anything just to send me an e-mail. It's really not that hard.
Ben
Arizona State requires one semester of digital design (with the final project being to build a simple 4 bit programmable computer in LogicWorks) and then x86 or 6800 assembly before moving on to higher languages.
I was able to build a 4 bit random number generator in LogicWorks (that has a non repeating sequence of hundreds of 4 bit numbers) along with an 8x8 programmable LED display and other parts required to put together a Tamagochi.
OpenTama project complete with all the schemetics for all the parts I've assembled down to the gate level. The only thing missing I can think of off the top of my head is the state machine to drive it all.
The final project in Assembly is a "stop watch."
I highly doubt ASU is the only university to start off the Computer Science degree with how to build a computer before learning how to program it.
Ben
And I'm ranked just above WinDrivers.com on the first page.
I didn't pay for that. I just have a massive collection of drivers. My site consumes an 80GB harddrive and about 50% of that is drivers.
WinDrivers.com used to charge $50 a year for access to their collection which I remember because I thought it was so outragous. Now they charge $29.95 a year. Which is 5 cents less than I charge. However they still charge $5 for a day pass where I charge $1.
If you're looking for a specific file that Windows told you're missing and you type it in Google, my site will be top ranked if I have it. Sites like WinDrivers.com tend to ZIP up their files. I let them all hang out.
I'm also highly ranked on DirectX related things because I have practically every version of the SDK. And likewise, all the files are available indiviually. So looking for a specific file will result in my site comming up.
It's content that gets a site ranked high as well as the domain name, file name, and directory name.
I'm currently in the process of revamping the site which will probably kill me on Google for a bit as it reindexes everything but that doesn't take long.
You don't need to pay $5000 to get highly ranked. You just need some sense and a well designed web-site with stuff people would be looking for.
Slashdot isn't bad advertising either. Recycled Russian Brides was probably the most effective sig ad. I had a front page story once and a number of times I've written articles which have been posted on a major game development web-site. Free advertising in exchange for making something useful.
Ben
The less and ad sounds like an ad the more effective it is.
The reason Baysian filters worked at all in the first place is because spammers can't write intelligent ads.
All they have to do is lose the random words and create advertisments that sound more like something you'd say to friends. Use common words and put the product in a believable situation.
If the more spam looks like a casual e-mail the less effective baysian filtering is.
The only thing keeping spammers from going this route is lack of talent. A real test (instead of trying to find random words that make it through) is trying to create a spam with an intelligently written ad that makes it through. Or at least causes the filter to start flagging legitimate e-mails.
Ben
In the middle of all that crap there's still a perfectly visible link to a spam domain that the user is expected to click on. Or that an image is being hosted at.
Pulling out links from e-mails and adding them to the filter rule file is quite trivial and quite effective.
Ben
Government's not giving away enough free money so I should rob a liquor store?
Wait what? A *liquor* store?
Hey dumbass, let me get this straight. You're broke, you alledegly can't work, but you can get the energy up to go rob a *liquor* store.
"My kids are starving, that's why they're crying"
Hey genious, that *liquor* isn't going to feed your kids.
Maybe you should get a clue and go "rob" a soup kitchen. I'm sure your kids would be nice enough to bring you something back if you couldn't go yourself. I know the soup kitchen I helped at had plenty of bread they were giving away for people to take with them when they left.
Or if you're really up to robbing something, why not rob a super market so you can at least pretend it okay since it was so you could feed your kids.
That song might have a valid point if they author in any way shape or form was indicating how dedicated he was to at least attempting to help himself and his family.
As it is, it just demonstrates how lazy and thoughtless he is. He doesn't even have the sense to rob something that would benefit his kids.
It's amazing how many places are out there looking to help people but people like that demand it from the government.
Sorry, progress isn't going to stop because you've failed at life and refuse to act intelligently to make an attempt to rectify the situation.
There will always be poor. Better for government to spend the money on things that move society forward and let society (not the government) decide how much it wants to give out of its pockets to help those who need it.
Robbing a liquor store and bitching about starving kids in the same song. I've never read anything so pathetic.
Ben
with two rovers taking plenty of super high quality photos and camera crews heading to Sedona, AZ the US government will have footage just in time showing astronauts on Mars beating out any opposition.
Ben
that's "Point of Sale"
When I worked at Peter Piper Pizza it was quickly learned you could exit the program handling orders to get to a prompt. You could then swipe any magnetic card through the CC reader in the keyboard to see what was on it. You just had to swipe it at the right speed to get everything.
Ben
in my Mecury Mail rule file.
That doesn't block the senders e-mail address but rather the links that spammers use. Spammers use countless IPs and countless forged e-mail addresses to send spams that all point to the same domain so it's a highly effective means to block large amounts of spam. You also can't obfuscate a link thanks to HTML standards. And since only spammers use those domains there's 0% collateral damage. Unless someone is foolish enough to buy one of the blocked domains that doesn't intend to use it for spam.
The other benefit is that a new IP is free from the ISP or from that open proxy. Domains cost money. By filtering out those domains I've basically cost spammers a thousand bucks or so because all those domains are now useless to advertise to my e-mail accounts. The more domains they buy to try to spam me with the more money they waste.
I also have a simple catch-all written in VB to bait spam with on my home connection which saves me money on bandwidth since I can preemptively filter domains on my real server.
Ben
to create a market for subcription based/free e-mail.
Fine MS and Yahoo and whoever else, be retarded. I'm not going to dump Mercury Mail just so I can micropayment people to death. I'll happily take your pissed off customers and I'm sure most other e-mail servers will do the same.
There are already dozens of free ways to communicate with people over the internet. If your "solution" involves invading my privacy or my pocket book, you need to remove your head from between your legs and see if you can come with an actual solution now that oxygen is reaching your brain.
Everyone, including the spammers are going to flock to the easiest and cheapest ways to communicate. You need to deal with the problem not just try to hide it under a pile of money and/or regulations.
It's pathetic how many people think sacrificing liberty for safty is a bad idea but when it comes to sacrificing privacy and money over spam, that's somehow a good idea.
I'm perfectly content with the current system as I'm keeping spam down to a dull roar without caring about who sent the spam or charging senders.
Blocking port 25 is just going to result in people running their SMTP servers on another port. I already run mine on two ports. If 25 goes away, another will be standardized or RinetD's stock will go up as people will be forwarding as many ports as needed to keep the mail moving.
Ben
oh wait, MS is always guilty until proven innocent.
Ben
I just think it's pathetic when potential presidential candidates lie to our faces and tell us they aren't paying their fair share and democrates whine about tax breaks "for the wealthy"
You pay more, you get more back. Common sense.
"That's why it's fair to soak the rich. They can tolerate it."
Being able to tolerate it doesn't make it fair. If the rich weren't being ripped off under the current system of taxes everyone else would feel the pain real quick. So instead of pretending they deserve it, why not thank them instead for making your life easier by picking up the slack?
Being poor isn't an excuse to be an ungrateful prick.
Ben
"The number of jobs lost is astounding and the job creation pace is pitiful."
The dotcom boom created millions of jobs. The dotcom burst made all those frivilous jobs go away. It takes far more people to build a house than it does to maintain it.
"blame the President" is just mindless banter.
"Clinton was not handed a good economy."
What do you call the dotcom boom? Do you actually believe Al Gore invented the internet? Clinton borrows 800+ billion his first term, got reelected and then the dotcom boom handed him fistfuls of tax money so it wasn't necessary to borrow.
And now you expect us to believe that despite the piss poor economy that has nothing to do with Bush and everything to do with the flailing tech business sector and two wars going on which aren't cheap that Bush's contribution to the debt is just too much.
riiiiiight. It's a dumb hypocritical ad and there's no getting around it.
It may be a bit excessive but considering the circumstances it's hardly a selling point for the Democrates.
Ben
the "winning" ad is attempting to attack Bush for incurring more debt when Clinton got a second term with a worse record of increasing the debt.
So point stands.
It's a dumb (and blatently hypocritical) ad. And it's a good thing CBS didn't show it because it would hurt the Democratic party more than anything. MoveOn.org is aptly named if that's the kind of ad it's going to promote as it needs to move on itself. Only the "Hitler" ad could be considered more trollish.
It's right up there with Sharpton claiming the top 1% pays less than 5% of all taxes and that "fair" would be more than 15% when in fact they pay over 30%.
Clark is throwing out the same "fair" BS claiming that the rich need to pay more. Any credibility they had is gone.
Ben
When it comes to printers, the ink runs out and it's a recuring cost. With cameras, the media is reusable. So I'd rather not pay a couple hundred extra for a camera just to save 20 bucks on media.
$80 for 256MB MMC
and
$60 for 256MB compact flash.
When I go on extended trips I bring the laptop and download as needed. Which you'd need to do with CF as well.
I prefer CF because it's more rugged but lower cost cameras use MMC which is also pretty standard.
Ben
"some extent" Only GB senior managed to raise it more. And since 1940 only 6 years exist that the debt went down any amount. And Clinton had the dotcom boom to work with. GW has raised the national debt 265 Billion in a bad economy. Clinton raised it 317 Billion in a good economy in the dotcom era and over 800 Billion his first term.
Deficit goes to the Debt. Clinton tanked the National Debt to a level only George Bush senior managed to do. Who cares if you have "money left over" if the money left over pales in comparison to the amount you tanked the debt. And the facts are the National Debt hasn't be increased more than 100 Billion per year since Bush got into office.
So what if Bush spends 1 Trillion dollars? If it were a bad thing it would fall into the debt. It hasn't. Yes he's spending money, but obviously he has it covered. And as Clinton so wonderfully demonstrated and you've lapdogged at, having the illusion of a surplus is more important than paying off the debt. No president since 1940 has made a consistant effort to get it paid down. That should tell you something about government spending and the importance of avoiding deficits. The fact is, balancing the budget comes second to getting things done. And paying off the debt comes last. At the current trend the debt will stabalize in not too long.
"If your answer to those questions is no, then you have to ask yourself: does he deserve 100,000 times the wealth of the average American?"
No I don't. It's not a matter of deserving. Robinhood economics are for fairy tales. Which apparently the Democrates are fond of.
There's no getting around the fact that Bush is good for the economy no matter how many Democrates want to hide behind lies. Clinton was handed a good economy on a silver plater when the net went mainstream in a way never seen before in history and he SUCKED. For what Bush has had to work with he's been doing a spectacular job.
Ben
Balancing the budget means everything is accounted for. It doesn't mean the surplus is being applied to lower the debt or that the lack of funds is adding to the debt.
x es /fed-debt.html
The fact is the deficit has been an american icon for decades. The last time we didn't have a debt was in the early 1900's.
http://www.ustreas.gov/education/fact-sheets/ta
What's very telling is that from 1992 to 1996 the national debt rose 1.3 TRILLION dollars. From 1996 to 2004 is rose that same amount.
So Clinton raises the debt 1.3 trillion in 4 years and another 500 billion in his second term. From 2000 to present the debt was raised another 500 billion dollars.
So where is the 1 Trillion that Bush is responsible for?
The ad is not only a big giant troll but is also accuses Bush of doing something CLINTON pulled off in his first term and yet he got reelected.
So is it an ad to point out how well Bush managed the debt?
Apparently, if you look at the facts.
"just please check facts before you start spouting off."
The very definition of irony.
Ben
not offensive?
What's the ad saying? That little children are going to be forced to slave away to pay off this debt that's been inherited and growing since decades ago?
The "ad" is garbage. It's pretty telling that the "best" MoveOn could come up with is that the national debt is bad and no president has managed to do anything about it for a very long time.
I rate the ad -1 Troll
You'd think MoveOn.org would have the sense to use an ad about something GW is actually responsible for that isn't presented in such a troll like fashion.
The best Clark can do is that rich people aren't paying their fair share. Anyone interested can verify that the top 1% income earners pay 34% of the total taxes. I wonder what Clark's definition of "fair" is. And the other democrates also have this bizarro world view. Sharpton when interviewed claimed that the top 1% paid less than 5% and that fair was "more than 15%"
The top 5% pay well over 50% of the total taxes. And the government actually pays the poor.
And then Democrates whine that tax breaks favor the rich. No kidding sherlock. The Democratic policy of Robinhood Economics needs to be corrected and that's what the Bush tax cuts are doing.
I didn't vote for Bush the first time around because he's an idiot. Since we're comming up on another Dumb and Dumber election, I will be voting for him since he's demonstrated his ability to surround himself with intelligent people which makes up for his lacking in that area. I'd rather put up with Bush for four more years and wait for something better to come along than vote for a democrate who's either oblivious to the taxing situation, a liar or just simply failed basic economics.
Ben
but they can hear the screams of anguish all to clear from those standing behind them
Ben
Lose the VCR.
Pay $60 for a LeadTek capture card and capture to the PC. I used a WinTV card from 1996 to record 10s of hours of video when the war first kicked off last year. It managed rather well with VirtualDub which get the peak performance out of it.
Then get a DVD dual format burner ($80 on a good day) and a decent DVD player if you care enough to save the stuff to watch on a real TV.
I have a $50 VCR that's about 6 years old and still works fine. Of course that's not taking into account that I consciously forgot I had it for most of that period. I always had it hooked up to my computer but I use it as a TV-tuner 99.999% of the time. It wasn't until a year or two ago I rediscovered I could tape shows with it.
Now I'm using the LeadTek to move the more important things from tape to digital so I'll probably forget about the record feature on it again.
Ben
Disney's claim to fame was being able to take classic stories an put them on the big screen in a very entertaining and good looking way. Or rehash said stories and slap them in a different setting.
I think they need to crack open Grimm's Fairy Tales again and get back to doing what they are (were) good at.
Pixar dominates Disney because they can pull off the fantastic visuals and they write entertaining stories.
If Disney doesn't get out of their rut and Pixar keeps being kid friendly while not rehashing the same themes over and over, I think they'll put Disney out of business.
Ben
Most things on Kazaa are infected with something.
One would think McAfee or Norton would take advantage of all this publicity to educate the mass market. Course then people would probably cry conspiracy.
----
Split screen, one user screaming about viruses. "My DOOOM?!!" The other user happily clicking away. "Guess which one has the latest anti-virus protection?"
McAfee Anti-Virus, available at local software retailers
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Ben
I think you're confused. The Germans volunteered to change the names of things such as saurekraut (I'm only half German) to "Liberty Cabbage" during WWII because they were getting persecuted so much by (you guessed it) Americans. We Americans know that the French are too stuck up to stick it to themselves so we changed "their" things to names like "Freedom Toast." And I'm not old. I learned that "Liberty Cabbage" thing from Grandpa Simpson. I kid you not. Simpson's is edumacational.
And besides, even the govenment couldn't change the name to "Freedom Hosts" because even they are slaves to VeriSign. It'd be all wrapped up in too much irony. Even for this administration.
Source
Ben