A few years ago I got so fed up with spam that I altered the ruleset for my (nags.org) spam filter, so that it now rejects as spam any email from anyone that isn't on my known-good list.
I know, it sounds like a draconian measure. Hell, it is. But it keeps ALL of the spam the hell OUT of my private email, and I keep a separate Yahoo account for correspondence with anyone I don't want to add to the good list.
Now, if I could just find a way to do all that in zero bandwidth and zero CPU cycles...
I only wish someone else other than RMS had spoken up about this. People automatically dismiss RMS because they percieve him as being too rigid, which he is, but he has good points as well.
In fact, a number of people have commented on this.
ESR also commented on the subject in his FAQ, How to ask questions the smart way (see the section titled "Send questions in formats that are easy to understand")
Still, it is good to see RMS adding his USD$0.02 to the discussion.
In the office, I'd have to agree that these are sysadmin tasks. At home, though, who's the sysadmin? In most houses, it's the user.
Believe it or not, most people who aren't professional sysadmins also don't want to hire a professional sysadmin for their home computers.
Here are a few things that have worked well for me. YMMV, of course:)
Get the power strips off of the floor. Currently I have mine attached to the cubicle desk supports with cable ties. Bolting them to the underside of the desk works well too. The same (naturally) applies to your personal network [hub|switch].
Cable ties are your friends. It's amazing how much better things look when the rats nest is sorted out and tied up nicely out of the way. Velcro strips or wire twist ties (the kind that come with plastic garbage bags) work well too, when you need something less permanent.
See if you can't get a nice KVM switch. Getting rid of the extra two or three monitors, keyboards and mice makes a huge difference:)
My current switchbox only does KV, so I still have three mice on my desktop, but still...
Bookshelves are a nice addition to any cubicle. The little 3- or 4-foot ones from Shopko (or WalMart or Target, if you prefer) work well and don't cost much. Milk crates or file crates can be helpful, too, if you use them right.
A couple of hooks on the wall for headphones and such like things do wonders, too.
YMMV, but I find it useful (and better for my poor aching back) to set part of my work surface about 4 feet high, and stand up while I work. With the typical three-section L-shaped cubicle desk, I generally put the corner and one long section up high, and leave the other one at the usual height with all of the drawers underneath it. This has the side effect of giving me lots of space under the desk for my extra computers, etc., and could theoretically do away with my chair altogether. (In practice I keep the chair, but most of the time it's under the desk in the corner of the cube, where it's out of the way.)
My current laptop is a Compaq 18XL380, mainly because when I bought it, it had the best price for the features I wanted (15 inch screen, HD >= 20 GB, RAM >= 128 MB)
(Ironically?) when I bought this computer, it was much easier to install Red Hat 7 (worked immediately) than Windows 2000 ("Oh, no, we don't support that. You should immediately reinstall Windows Millenium since that is what we shipped with the computer.") I have since gotten both working, though, naturally without any support from Compaq.
I've tried doing the recipient filtering thing. In fact, I've been doing it for a long time now, using the NAGS filter (www.nags.org, no longer maintained but still available for download last I looked).
Trouble is, the spammers keep changing emails so often, it's virtually impossible for an individual to keep an up-to-date filter list.
I did finally hit upon a solution that works for me, although most people couldn't use it, and I'm sure Gilmore and others like him would hate the notion: I added the regular expression,.* , to the beginning of the spam_sites file (the NAGS filter's bad list). This effectively means that ALL incoming mail is assumed to be spam unless I have specifically added the sender to the from_exceptions (good list) file.
I'm sure it becomes quickly obvious why most people wouldn't want to use a "deny from all, allow only from known good" email policy, but it works pretty well for me...
Not long after they let me out, my university did essentially the same thing: they switched the introductory CS classes to Java. (Way back when I took the intro classes, they were in Pascal under DOS. I understand they have passed through C++ since, mostly while I was busy with the upper division material.)
So far, it looks as though most of the upper division courses are still using C[++], with of course a few unusual ones thrown into the mix that use SQL, Scheme,...
I have seen a bit of the material from the Java-based intro classes recently (mainly because of my brother-in-law who is a beginning CS student at the same school), and I must say, I'm not impressed. Java may be perceived as having more "practical, real-world application" than Pascal (although as a Delphi/Kylix programmer I would disagree with that perception). Be that as it may, however, it doesn't go nearly as far to teach (OK, enforce) good programming practice. Some of the crap I have seen beginning Java programmers do is appalling.
I will admit, of course, that starting with VB would be much worse:)
You see, there are several different reasons why you might have back pain. It could be a vertebral subluxation, in which case a chiropractor can do wonders. It could be muscle tension, in which case a massage is great. It could be something that can be fixed with a better chair, or by standing up while you work. (I do that.) On the other hand, it could also be a disc problem, requiring physical therapy or even (as a last resort, mind you) surgery.
The first thing to do for whatever back pain you may have is to see a doctor, get an MRI and find out which kind it is. Once you know that, then the rest follows from there...
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. Most of what I know about back pain I learned as a patient... (I've done most of the aforementioned at one time or another, excluding the surgery part.)
I'm sure plenty of people have already commented on the DMCA, patent and copyright stupidities, and the hundred other ways that corporations do have political agendas.
Two key things to remember: First, corporations are not in business to protect the interests of the individual, even if the individual is their customer. They exist to make money. If they can make more money by screwing the consumer than by protecting him, as they often can, then the consumer gets screwed.
Second, corporations do not have a record of non-abuse. Quite the contrary. The tendency in the world seems to be that whoever has the power abuses it. Sometimes that's the government, sometimes it's the corporations. The worst of all cases seems to be when the government and the corporations are both powerful and opt to work together (rather than keeping each other in check). Unfortunately, the case cited here seems to point to the government and the corporations (or, at least, a corporation) working together, contrary to the interest of the public.
History is replete with examples of corporations abusing power. If the oft-cited, current examples of the RIAA, the MPAA, the DVDCCA, etc. aren't enough for you, then take a look at such historical examples as Standard Oil, or any of several others during and just prior to the Roosevelt (Teddy, not Franklin) administration. Or, look outside the United States. Be sure that you can find several examples (generally worse than any of the ones we Slashdotters tend to complain of) in Latin America. See, for instance, several of the banana companies, or the copper mining corporations in South America. Or, look at Nike. The examples are out there, and the record is clear if you bother to examine it.
This one actually came up a few years ago in a discussion about RSA and the ability to patent mathematical operations.
Addition: A mathematical function requiring two or more operands, which produces as its result the sum of the operands. Also, any algorithm for implementing such a function mechanically or electronically, such as with an abacus, an adding machine, or a computer. Also, any algorithm for implementing such a function by counting objects such as fingers, pebbles or beans.
Much as I hate to even appear to defend Microsoft, I can see how this whole fiasco likely came about. The scenario goes something like this:
Product Designer thinks up "change of address notification" as a useful feature. It gets included as a requirement, and built into the product. But, as with so many features in commercial software products, Corporate Policy demands that Marketing write the actual text of the message. (Marketing writes the actual text of most messages in commercial software.) Marketing, of course, can't possibly resist turning any message into an advertisement, so what Designer intended as a useful change of address notification gets subverted for Spam.
This same kind of thing happens in commercial software the world over, and will continue for as long as Product Development has to answer to Marketing. Which is to say, as long as there is commerical software.
One more reason to use the Free stuff, I suppose... As if we needed another reason.
Zone Alarm seemed like a good idea to me, too, but I have one question: Would Zone Alarm see the requesting application as Word, or would it see Internet Explorer (which, most likely, the user has already set as "allowed" to connect to the Internet)? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
The Junkbuster proxy is good on *NIX, but the NT version is way too slow and doesn't do well handling multiple simultaneous page requests. (I know, that's tantamount to admitting that I use NT , at least at work...)
Slashdot Mirror
A few years ago I got so fed up with spam that I altered the ruleset for my (nags.org) spam filter, so that it now rejects as spam any email from anyone that isn't on my known-good list.
I know, it sounds like a draconian measure. Hell, it is. But it keeps ALL of the spam the hell OUT of my private email, and I keep a separate Yahoo account for correspondence with anyone I don't want to add to the good list.
Now, if I could just find a way to do all that in zero bandwidth and zero CPU cycles...
Qwest's Privacy Plus service is OK, except for two things:
I much prefer a one-time purchase, like this one.
Disclaimer: I am not, nor have I ever been, an employee or other affiliate of callmenot.com. I just like their product :)
That's an interesting idea, but I think I prefer this one better :)
I only wish someone else other than RMS had spoken up about this. People automatically dismiss RMS because they percieve him as being too rigid, which he is, but he has good points as well.
In fact, a number of people have commented on this.
A couple of examples:
Still, it is good to see RMS adding his USD$0.02 to the discussion.
In the office, I'd have to agree that these are sysadmin tasks. At home, though, who's the sysadmin? In most houses, it's the user. Believe it or not, most people who aren't professional sysadmins also don't want to hire a professional sysadmin for their home computers.
Here are a few things that have worked well for me. YMMV, of course :)
Get the power strips off of the floor. Currently I have mine attached to the cubicle desk supports with cable ties. Bolting them to the underside of the desk works well too. The same (naturally) applies to your personal network [hub|switch].
Cable ties are your friends. It's amazing how much better things look when the rats nest is sorted out and tied up nicely out of the way. Velcro strips or wire twist ties (the kind that come with plastic garbage bags) work well too, when you need something less permanent.
See if you can't get a nice KVM switch. Getting rid of the extra two or three monitors, keyboards and mice makes a huge difference :)
My current switchbox only does KV, so I still have three mice on my desktop, but still...
Bookshelves are a nice addition to any cubicle. The little 3- or 4-foot ones from Shopko (or WalMart or Target, if you prefer) work well and don't cost much. Milk crates or file crates can be helpful, too, if you use them right.
A couple of hooks on the wall for headphones and such like things do wonders, too.
YMMV, but I find it useful (and better for my poor aching back) to set part of my work surface about 4 feet high, and stand up while I work. With the typical three-section L-shaped cubicle desk, I generally put the corner and one long section up high, and leave the other one at the usual height with all of the drawers underneath it. This has the side effect of giving me lots of space under the desk for my extra computers, etc., and could theoretically do away with my chair altogether. (In practice I keep the chair, but most of the time it's under the desk in the corner of the cube, where it's out of the way.)
My current laptop is a Compaq 18XL380, mainly because when I bought it, it had the best price for the features I wanted (15 inch screen, HD >= 20 GB, RAM >= 128 MB)
(Ironically?) when I bought this computer, it was much easier to install Red Hat 7 (worked immediately) than Windows 2000 ("Oh, no, we don't support that. You should immediately reinstall Windows Millenium since that is what we shipped with the computer.") I have since gotten both working, though, naturally without any support from Compaq.
An excellent list. Two more come to mind:
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
I've tried doing the recipient filtering thing. In fact, I've been doing it for a long time now, using the NAGS filter (www.nags.org, no longer maintained but still available for download last I looked).
Trouble is, the spammers keep changing emails so often, it's virtually impossible for an individual to keep an up-to-date filter list.
I did finally hit upon a solution that works for me, although most people couldn't use it, and I'm sure Gilmore and others like him would hate the notion: I added the regular expression, .* , to the beginning of the spam_sites file (the NAGS filter's bad list). This effectively means that ALL incoming mail is assumed to be spam unless I have specifically added the sender to the from_exceptions (good list) file.
I'm sure it becomes quickly obvious why most people wouldn't want to use a "deny from all, allow only from known good" email policy, but it works pretty well for me...
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Not long after they let me out, my university did essentially the same thing: they switched the introductory CS classes to Java. (Way back when I took the intro classes, they were in Pascal under DOS. I understand they have passed through C++ since, mostly while I was busy with the upper division material.)
So far, it looks as though most of the upper division courses are still using C[++], with of course a few unusual ones thrown into the mix that use SQL, Scheme, ...
I have seen a bit of the material from the Java-based intro classes recently (mainly because of my brother-in-law who is a beginning CS student at the same school), and I must say, I'm not impressed. Java may be perceived as having more "practical, real-world application" than Pascal (although as a Delphi/Kylix programmer I would disagree with that perception). Be that as it may, however, it doesn't go nearly as far to teach (OK, enforce) good programming practice. Some of the crap I have seen beginning Java programmers do is appalling.
I will admit, of course, that starting with VB would be much worse :)
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
First thing: GET TO A DOCTOR.
You see, there are several different reasons why you might have back pain. It could be a vertebral subluxation, in which case a chiropractor can do wonders. It could be muscle tension, in which case a massage is great. It could be something that can be fixed with a better chair, or by standing up while you work. (I do that.) On the other hand, it could also be a disc problem, requiring physical therapy or even (as a last resort, mind you) surgery.
The first thing to do for whatever back pain you may have is to see a doctor, get an MRI and find out which kind it is. Once you know that, then the rest follows from there...
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. Most of what I know about back pain I learned as a patient... (I've done most of the aforementioned at one time or another, excluding the surgery part.)
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
There are several problems here...
I'm sure plenty of people have already commented on the DMCA, patent and copyright stupidities, and the hundred other ways that corporations do have political agendas.
Two key things to remember: First, corporations are not in business to protect the interests of the individual, even if the individual is their customer. They exist to make money. If they can make more money by screwing the consumer than by protecting him, as they often can, then the consumer gets screwed.
Second, corporations do not have a record of non-abuse. Quite the contrary. The tendency in the world seems to be that whoever has the power abuses it. Sometimes that's the government, sometimes it's the corporations. The worst of all cases seems to be when the government and the corporations are both powerful and opt to work together (rather than keeping each other in check). Unfortunately, the case cited here seems to point to the government and the corporations (or, at least, a corporation) working together, contrary to the interest of the public.
History is replete with examples of corporations abusing power. If the oft-cited, current examples of the RIAA, the MPAA, the DVDCCA, etc. aren't enough for you, then take a look at such historical examples as Standard Oil, or any of several others during and just prior to the Roosevelt (Teddy, not Franklin) administration. Or, look outside the United States. Be sure that you can find several examples (generally worse than any of the ones we Slashdotters tend to complain of) in Latin America. See, for instance, several of the banana companies, or the copper mining corporations in South America. Or, look at Nike. The examples are out there, and the record is clear if you bother to examine it.
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
This one actually came up a few years ago in a discussion about RSA and the ability to patent mathematical operations.
Addition: A mathematical function requiring two or more operands, which produces as its result the sum of the operands. Also, any algorithm for implementing such a function mechanically or electronically, such as with an abacus, an adding machine, or a computer. Also, any algorithm for implementing such a function by counting objects such as fingers, pebbles or beans.
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Much as I hate to even appear to defend Microsoft, I can see how this whole fiasco likely came about. The scenario goes something like this:
Product Designer thinks up "change of address notification" as a useful feature. It gets included as a requirement, and built into the product. But, as with so many features in commercial software products, Corporate Policy demands that Marketing write the actual text of the message. (Marketing writes the actual text of most messages in commercial software.) Marketing, of course, can't possibly resist turning any message into an advertisement, so what Designer intended as a useful change of address notification gets subverted for Spam.
This same kind of thing happens in commercial software the world over, and will continue for as long as Product Development has to answer to Marketing. Which is to say, as long as there is commerical software.
One more reason to use the Free stuff, I suppose... As if we needed another reason.
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Zone Alarm seemed like a good idea to me, too, but I have one question: Would Zone Alarm see the requesting application as Word, or would it see Internet Explorer (which, most likely, the user has already set as "allowed" to connect to the Internet)?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
The Junkbuster proxy is good on *NIX, but the NT version is way too slow and doesn't do well handling multiple simultaneous page requests. (I know, that's tantamount to admitting that I use NT , at least at work...)
For Windows use, I find AdSubtract works better.
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?