Any automated reply system (i.e. lazy) gives the spammers the power to cause trouble. And if it's too much effort, people aren't going to keep it up, so we don't want everyone to have to go through their spam and figure out a counter attack for each piece.
What we need is something like a "daily spam revenge" website - which daily takes a few examples of spam and creates a link for us all to click on to generate an email or bring up a web page or fill in a web form with credible nonsense.
It would only hit those spammers that the website chooses - but it'd be easy and effective.
It couldn't be a single website, since that invites DOS attacks, but maybe if the idea catches on, every website that wants to generate traffic would start including a "Bomb the Spammer" link. And of course, it gives the website owner the added satisfaction of hitting the spammers that hit them.
Maybe this could be merged into blogs - every blogger could daily put up a fresh set of anti-spam bombs. Bloggers who don't want to go to the effort of doing their own might go to a "daily spam bomb source" website - one that doesn't provide the links itself, but does provide the bit of web-code needed for others to stick on their sites.
I have thought that it might be interesting to make a multi-level, multi-side game. One level, you play it like a real-time strategy game - dispatching troops, building things, etc. On another level, you play first person as a hero - nominally under the command of one of the RTS players, who will pass along instructions that he thinks will best use you to help him win the game. With maybe 4-6 RTS players and about 20-30 FP heroes, this could be unending fun. Maybe put it in the context of a 3rd level - world level strategic gaming, where all the RTS players jointly strive to take over the world for their civilization.
I think it's easy to underestimate how hard it would be to get an all science channel adopted by any significant number of cable operators. In their minds, they've got that market covered with "Discovery". The idea of putting anything deeper (read "more boring") than that in one of their valuable slots would give them no more than a brief passing chuckle.
So, instead, how about creating the first Virtual cable channel, using the internet and PVR software?
It would get started by providing local listings of 'real' science programming, feeding directly into PVR software if the user likes, to capture the "channel" from PBS, CSPAN, Discovery, and any other channel carrying worthwhile science TV.
Then, they could provide web-page "background" for "their" programs, to quickly bring viewers up to speed so that even the most detailed science discussions are comprehensible. They could target High school science classes, for example to get some grant funding.
Then they could start producing their own content, delivering it in whatever time slots on whatever channel the cable operator can schedule for them. Again, the PVR makes it possible to do this.
By the time they get that far along, PVRs will be rolling out to more and more cable customers in set-top boxes, and they'll have to convince the operators to implement their virtual channel through that system. Operators may see it as an interesting experiment - an approach to even finer market segmentation using their new PVR capabilities.
- Absurdly broad patents, that should have been denied as "obvious".
- Innovative and reasonably specific patents - which big corporations collect as trading chips so they can't sue each other but can keep smaller companies from getting into the business; or which they look at merely in order to find ways to get around them.
So what great value, really, does the patent system provide society? Seems to me that society would have gotten better value from a simple "invention registry", where the inventor only gets the ego satisfaction of having his name recorded as the official inventor - but anyone can use his ideas.
Nice as it would be if you were correct, you are not. That provision doesn't mean I'm immune to local sales taxes just because I'm from out of state and intend to take my purchases home with me. I have to pay the same taxes as local residents. I'm only safe from ADDITIONAL taxes that apply just because I'm from out of state.
That provision is just to prevent anyone from erecting tax barriers to trade between states.
So long as the tax is applied to in-state as well as out-of-state buyers, I don't believe it runs afoul of that provision.
You can argue that the words seem to mean something else, but ultimately you're wrong in what it was meant to say, and in how it'll be interpreted by the courts. Sorry.
This tax is unlikely to be set up in a fashion simple enough for small businesses to easily deal with it. There should not be 7500 different sets of rules for 7500 different taxing regions.
If it must be done, then online retailers should be required to register with one state, and that state would collect a tax from the retailer based on a nationwide rate.
Tax revenues should be pooled and aportioned amongst the states based on population. States should then be required to further divide the revenues among all taxing regions, again based on population.
The best argument for governments to require use of open source appears to be that open source software can (in theory) be obtained and used by any citizen, without requiring any citizen to pay for a commercial product.
This argument is like requiring that all government offices be in walking distance of all citizens - since otherwise poverty stricken citizens would have to buy a car to get to the office in question. People can use a PC in a library, use a friend's PC, rent a PC by the hour in some stores, etc - it just isn't a significant burden.
Regretable as it may seem, the fact is that Windows and most Microsoft products are far more commonly available IN PRACTICE than Linux and open source products.
In fact, the most likely outcome of government requiring use of applications that run on Linux is that those applications will all quickly be ported to Windows if they have not already, so that they can be used by everyone, not just those adept enough to set up a Linux system.
So while I consider the law somewhat silly, I find this group's fretting equally ridiculous.
From the context, he meant $600 for 6 systems, at $100 a system. And even the $100/system was probably just a toss-off number.
One legal way around that would be Remote Desktop - install on one system, run from any system. With shared root directories, you can edit stuff on the system you're doing the access from.
Couldn't one of the distributed P2P services be designed to automatically post available files to a web page for Google to index? Maybe list each users' webpage in a central directory for Google to index through - no content references in the central index to cause copyright issues.
A little app would use the Google libraries/API to search the Google index for the file you want to download. Auto-open pages and check for the P2P index format (i.e. not a mistaken hit). Parse out the lines pertaining to the search and display them to the user to select from. When they pick one, use the P2P connection info from that webpage to send a file transfer request or requests.
Since Google doesn't instantly index newly posted content, you could also list "interests" on the webpages - so if you want a newly released file, you could fall back to searching for file-share pages of users who share your interests, and then send search requests directly to their fileshare software.
One big thing they might do to make things a lot safer for crews, would be to make the craft have sufficient fuel in reserve to blow off most of it's velocity before re-entry. The extra fuel the shuttle might carry would barely reduce the shuttle's velocity 10%. So a lighter craft will be necessary.
Assuming one switches to a non-reusable launch rocket with about the same lift capacity as the shuttle, you could probably create a craft with an empty weight around 20000kg, carrying about 80000kg of fuel, which ought to be adequate to shed most of the ~7km/sec orbital velocity. Assuming about half of the 20000kg is in the fuel tank and engine section, that leaves 10000kg for the crew capsule. I believe that should be adequate for a four or even eight person capsule.
The main debate after that is whether to put mass into wings and wheels, or do a capsule and parachute approach. Though I've heard good arguments for the former, I think the latter is likely safer overall.
In order to make a parachute as safe and effective as possible, have the crew capsule separate from the fuel tank and engine section after the de-orbit burn. I also think the Russians are smart to go for a dry landing rather than a splashdown. Simplifies and speeds recovering the crew, which can be important if any of the crew needs medical attention. (I've heard the latter as an argument for wings and wheels, allowing the craft to fly to a landing strip - but why can't an emergency team fly to the projected landing site just about as fast?)
Are those 2 million US jobs? Or 2M jobs that are already or soon to be moved overseas?
It's too bad we had to come to this point. They brought it on themselves by not targetting customers more carefully when it became a widespread complaint. E.g. if I bought tires from Sears 2-3 years ago, I probably wouldn't mind if they called to ask if I'm interested in a big tire sale they're having.
If something is to be widely used (as opposed to something like a bread making machine - great gift, used only once by most recipients) it needs to fill a frequent need.
A much better idea would be a rapid general purpose delivery service - at least on par with pizza delivery - for anything you buy from home but don't want to run out and fetch. Efficient manufacturing (whether in a huge factory on the other side of the globe or in a local store using a matter printer) combined with reasonably fast delivery from a local source.
Home matter printers will probably be limited to hobbyists and maybe frequently-used/high-variety items like food and clothing. (Imagine not ever having to do or fold laundry again - just toss your dirty clothes into the decompiler...)
The weak link here is the multitude of passport offices. A terrorist need only bribe or blackmail or extort or otherwise convince the relevant official to create falsified passports for them.
> Obviously children require a creative attitude towards, so maybe they become the focus of the creative genius
No, I don't think so. If your creative genius doesn't normally run toward interpersonal relationships (if so, why are you reading Slashdot?), marriage and kids can be major distractions and energy sinks if not handled properly.
Some suggestions: 0) Hold off getting married. Women will find you more attractive as you get more successful, as long as you stay half-way fit. Either exercise, or stick to a low-carb diet, or both. 1) Pick a dedicated career/professional woman to marry - and yes, you can pick, if you apply your genius to figuring out how to stack the odds in your favor. 2) Apply a bit of your genius to making the money you need for as little effort as possible. Don't cave into fear and take a "9-5" (life-eating) job just to cover expenses. See also (1) above - if you can't afford a housewife, don't marry one. 3) Hire a nanny as soon as you get kids. Schedule generous time with your kids - but schedule more time away from them. 4) Develop the habit of continuously updating a journal or notebook, so you don't lose your train of thought when you do get interrupted - and you will, if you're married with kids.
This is meaningless. Of the millions who use Windows, very few will read the EULA closely enough to realize that there are spy services running, let alone know how to disable them.
Nothing real will come of this until there is a real and major abuse by MS, and the story is picked up by the major media. Then there'll be congressional hearings and 'something will be done' - most likely something useless.
The human mind can only consider so much at once. Using black boxes ALLOWS one to view the larger picture.
In my experience, the single biggest factor keeping engineers from considering the bigger picture in their designs is management. The moment an engineer tries thinking outside the box that management has assigned them, management starts worrying about them upsetting the project schedules, or that thinks that the engineer is wasting time that could be better spent on their little black box. After all, they hire system analysts to worry about the overall picture - why would anyone working on a component have any real insight into the big picture?
Many cures for hiccups involve a contraction of the diaphragm and stomach muscles - scaring, drinking water, holding breath. As a kid, that led me to invent my own cure, which always works for me.
I theorized that, like blinking, sneezing or coughing, a hiccup was trying to clear some sort of irritating blockage. So I tried manually pressing in and slightly up just on and below the breastbone while trying to burp - basically adding a bit more strength and persistence to the action of the diaphragm. Now it may just be me - but when I've been hiccuping, this always causes a sort of foamy burp, and the hiccups end.
Now it could just be that the diaphragm gets stretched a bit and stops contracting (like stretching a cramping muscle). But my theory has always been that some foam has built up and feels like a blockage to the stomach. It wouldn't show up on any medical imaging, so it isn't surprising that it wouldn't have been detected. And since hiccups are commonly associated with eating or drinking too fast or drinking fizzy drinks - getting air into your stomach, it doesn't seem TOO improbable.
Anyhow - call it wacky if you want, but my hiccup cure has never failed me.
Re:Would have to agree.. -More-
on
Sim-Dud?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
From what I've read, they made a HUGE mistake - they eliminated the SIMs!
They should have kept a ratio of at least 3 simulated people per human player. Then instead of trying to get other people to come to your shop or whatever, the primary goal is to get SIMs to come into your place. Live visitors would just be icing on the cake. (And make it hard to be so dull that you lose ALL your sims - always have one SIM hang around, commenting on how dull and empty the place is...)
So you could play a nightclub owner, or run a successful for-simoleans fire department, or maybe sell appliances at CRAZY prices with ads on SIM-TV to pull in the crows.
Advertising should play a major role in the game, to attract SIMs and other players to your place. Real world products could be advertised and sold by players who purchase a franchise or contract to sell the product. (And naturally the SIMs will favor real-world products over fake ones - "Coke(tm)" over "Fizzi Pop".)
In addition to explicit advertising, the game should simulate "word of mouth" - the more sims enjoy your place (or use your services), the more sims will come - until it gets too crowded, or they get bored with it because you don't change it enough, or changed it from what they liked. The game masters would tweak the SIMs' interests - effectively implementing fads: one week they're into Country Western and trucks, the next they're into 50's retro and hotrods.
Instead of having lots of servers, most of it should have been simulated on the player's PC - the servers just directing SIMs to the PC and occasionally analyzing your place to determine how much they are enjoying it. And of course support players visiting each other's places or using each other's services - now motivated by 'spying' to see what is attracting SIMs.
This game had really great potential - perhaps they can re-work it and save it yet...
These tags won't work in at least one way - most theft is by employees. They'll have plenty of opportunity to find and remove, disable or destroy tags. There are some tricks that a store owner could play (multiple tags, etc), but the employees will quickly figure out ways around them.
Let people run a tab - either on your website, or on a payment service. Then after they've enjoyed the service for a while and run up a small tab, you pop up:
"You've read 25 daily issues and your running tab has hit $4. Before buying today's issue, would you like to pay your tab?"
and if they keep saying no, eventually...
"You've enjoyed 30 daily issues of our website. If you'd like to read today's issue for just 16 cents, please pay your tab of $5.80 now. Or you can subscribe for the next two months for just $10 and we'll clear your tab!"
This works better (i.e. people are more likely to pay up) if it's a payment service that is used across thousands of popular sites that runs the tab.
People will pay for what they want if you make it feel Safe and Easy enough. (Pricing will take care of itself.)
EASY: 1-time signup for almost all web services. SAFE: Purchase terms kept simple. E.g. "Buy this article - 10 cents. OK?" EASY: To buy I just click "OK" SAFE: Only my payment service gets my name, credit card number, etc. SAFE: Unlikely I'll get cheated, insured against big losses.
There's a simpler answer that doesn't require micropayment accounting. Just bounce every un-authorized sender a message back, with a password that can only be read by a human, and optionally a request to be taken off of any automated mailings. (You can pre-authorize any mailing lists you want to get.) Once someone has a password, they can send email from the same account.
That immediately kills spam that doesn't have valid return addresses. It requires a human in the loop for those with valid addresses, which increases costs. If you included a request to be taken off of any automated mailing lists, having a human read it should clear up any question of whether the sender has been legally notified.
Slashdot Mirror
Any automated reply system (i.e. lazy) gives the spammers the power to cause trouble. And if it's too much effort, people aren't going to keep it up, so we don't want everyone to have to go through their spam and figure out a counter attack for each piece.
What we need is something like a "daily spam revenge" website - which daily takes a few examples of spam and creates a link for us all to click on to generate an email or bring up a web page or fill in a web form with credible nonsense.
It would only hit those spammers that the website chooses - but it'd be easy and effective.
It couldn't be a single website, since that invites DOS attacks, but maybe if the idea catches on, every website that wants to generate traffic would start including a "Bomb the Spammer" link. And of course, it gives the website owner the added satisfaction of hitting the spammers that hit them.
Maybe this could be merged into blogs - every blogger could daily put up a fresh set of anti-spam bombs. Bloggers who don't want to go to the effort of doing their own might go to a "daily spam bomb source" website - one that doesn't provide the links itself, but does provide the bit of web-code needed for others to stick on their sites.
I have thought that it might be interesting to make a multi-level, multi-side game. One level, you play it like a real-time strategy game - dispatching troops, building things, etc. On another level, you play first person as a hero - nominally under the command of one of the RTS players, who will pass along instructions that he thinks will best use you to help him win the game. With maybe 4-6 RTS players and about 20-30 FP heroes, this could be unending fun. Maybe put it in the context of a 3rd level - world level strategic gaming, where all the RTS players jointly strive to take over the world for their civilization.
I think it's easy to underestimate how hard it would be to get an all science channel adopted by any significant number of cable operators. In their minds, they've got that market covered with "Discovery". The idea of putting anything deeper (read "more boring") than that in one of their valuable slots would give them no more than a brief passing chuckle.
So, instead, how about creating the first Virtual cable channel, using the internet and PVR software?
It would get started by providing local listings of 'real' science programming, feeding directly into PVR software if the user likes, to capture the "channel" from PBS, CSPAN, Discovery, and any other channel carrying worthwhile science TV.
Then, they could provide web-page "background" for "their" programs, to quickly bring viewers up to speed so that even the most detailed science discussions are comprehensible. They could target High school science classes, for example to get some grant funding.
Then they could start producing their own content, delivering it in whatever time slots on whatever channel the cable operator can schedule for them. Again, the PVR makes it possible to do this.
By the time they get that far along, PVRs will be rolling out to more and more cable customers in set-top boxes, and they'll have to convince the operators to implement their virtual channel through that system. Operators may see it as an interesting experiment - an approach to even finer market segmentation using their new PVR capabilities.
There seem to be two main classes of patents:
- Absurdly broad patents, that should have been denied as "obvious".
- Innovative and reasonably specific patents - which big corporations collect as trading chips so they can't sue each other but can keep smaller companies from getting into the business; or which they look at merely in order to find ways to get around them.
So what great value, really, does the patent system provide society? Seems to me that society would have gotten better value from a simple "invention registry", where the inventor only gets the ego satisfaction of having his name recorded as the official inventor - but anyone can use his ideas.
Nice as it would be if you were correct, you are not. That provision doesn't mean I'm immune to local sales taxes just because I'm from out of state and intend to take my purchases home with me. I have to pay the same taxes as local residents. I'm only safe from ADDITIONAL taxes that apply just because I'm from out of state.
That provision is just to prevent anyone from erecting tax barriers to trade between states.
So long as the tax is applied to in-state as well as out-of-state buyers, I don't believe it runs afoul of that provision.
You can argue that the words seem to mean something else, but ultimately you're wrong in what it was meant to say, and in how it'll be interpreted by the courts. Sorry.
This tax is unlikely to be set up in a fashion simple enough for small businesses to easily deal with it. There should not be 7500 different sets of rules for 7500 different taxing regions.
If it must be done, then online retailers should be required to register with one state, and that state would collect a tax from the retailer based on a nationwide rate.
Tax revenues should be pooled and aportioned amongst the states based on population. States should then be required to further divide the revenues among all taxing regions, again based on population.
The best argument for governments to require use of open source appears to be that open source software can (in theory) be obtained and used by any citizen, without requiring any citizen to pay for a commercial product.
This argument is like requiring that all government offices be in walking distance of all citizens - since otherwise poverty stricken citizens would have to buy a car to get to the office in question. People can use a PC in a library, use a friend's PC, rent a PC by the hour in some stores, etc - it just isn't a significant burden.
Regretable as it may seem, the fact is that Windows and most Microsoft products are far more commonly available IN PRACTICE than Linux and open source products.
In fact, the most likely outcome of government requiring use of applications that run on Linux is that those applications will all quickly be ported to Windows if they have not already, so that they can be used by everyone, not just those adept enough to set up a Linux system.
So while I consider the law somewhat silly, I find this group's fretting equally ridiculous.
I belive peak hours for the overall electric grid are typically during the day, due to office buildings and air conditioning I suppose.
But peak hours for a home would likely be athe couple of hours after sunset, so either substantial storage or connection to a grid are required.
Yeah, and unlike CO2, it tends to condense and fall out of the air if you get too much of it. Duh!
From the context, he meant $600 for 6 systems, at $100 a system. And even the $100/system was probably just a toss-off number.
One legal way around that would be Remote Desktop - install on one system, run from any system. With shared root directories, you can edit stuff on the system you're doing the access from.
Couldn't one of the distributed P2P services be designed to automatically post available files to a web page for Google to index? Maybe list each users' webpage in a central directory for Google to index through - no content references in the central index to cause copyright issues.
A little app would use the Google libraries/API to search the Google index for the file you want to download. Auto-open pages and check for the P2P index format (i.e. not a mistaken hit). Parse out the lines pertaining to the search and display them to the user to select from. When they pick one, use the P2P connection info from that webpage to send a file transfer request or requests.
Since Google doesn't instantly index newly posted content, you could also list "interests" on the webpages - so if you want a newly released file, you could fall back to searching for file-share pages of users who share your interests, and then send search requests directly to their fileshare software.
One big thing they might do to make things a lot safer for crews, would be to make the craft have sufficient fuel in reserve to blow off most of it's velocity before re-entry. The extra fuel the shuttle might carry would barely reduce the shuttle's velocity 10%. So a lighter craft will be necessary.
Assuming one switches to a non-reusable launch rocket with about the same lift capacity as the shuttle, you could probably create a craft with an empty weight around 20000kg, carrying about 80000kg of fuel, which ought to be adequate to shed most of the ~7km/sec orbital velocity. Assuming about half of the 20000kg is in the fuel tank and engine section, that leaves 10000kg for the crew capsule. I believe that should be adequate for a four or even eight person capsule.
The main debate after that is whether to put mass into wings and wheels, or do a capsule and parachute approach. Though I've heard good arguments for the former, I think the latter is likely safer overall.
In order to make a parachute as safe and effective as possible, have the crew capsule separate from the fuel tank and engine section after the de-orbit burn. I also think the Russians are smart to go for a dry landing rather than a splashdown. Simplifies and speeds recovering the crew, which can be important if any of the crew needs medical attention. (I've heard the latter as an argument for wings and wheels, allowing the craft to fly to a landing strip - but why can't an emergency team fly to the projected landing site just about as fast?)
Are those 2 million US jobs? Or 2M jobs that are already or soon to be moved overseas?
It's too bad we had to come to this point. They brought it on themselves by not targetting customers more carefully when it became a widespread complaint. E.g. if I bought tires from Sears 2-3 years ago, I probably wouldn't mind if they called to ask if I'm interested in a big tire sale they're having.
I think you're more on track than the article.
If something is to be widely used (as opposed to something like a bread making machine - great gift, used only once by most recipients) it needs to fill a frequent need.
A much better idea would be a rapid general purpose delivery service - at least on par with pizza delivery - for anything you buy from home but don't want to run out and fetch. Efficient manufacturing (whether in a huge factory on the other side of the globe or in a local store using a matter printer) combined with reasonably fast delivery from a local source.
Home matter printers will probably be limited to hobbyists and maybe frequently-used/high-variety items like food and clothing. (Imagine not ever having to do or fold laundry again - just toss your dirty clothes into the decompiler...)
The weak link here is the multitude of passport offices. A terrorist need only bribe or blackmail or extort or otherwise convince the relevant official to create falsified passports for them.
> Obviously children require a creative attitude towards, so maybe they become the focus of the creative genius
No, I don't think so. If your creative genius doesn't normally run toward interpersonal relationships (if so, why are you reading Slashdot?), marriage and kids can be major distractions and energy sinks if not handled properly.
Some suggestions:
0) Hold off getting married. Women will find you more attractive as you get more successful, as long as you stay half-way fit. Either exercise, or stick to a low-carb diet, or both.
1) Pick a dedicated career/professional woman to marry - and yes, you can pick, if you apply your genius to figuring out how to stack the odds in your favor.
2) Apply a bit of your genius to making the money you need for as little effort as possible. Don't cave into fear and take a "9-5" (life-eating) job just to cover expenses. See also (1) above - if you can't afford a housewife, don't marry one.
3) Hire a nanny as soon as you get kids. Schedule generous time with your kids - but schedule more time away from them.
4) Develop the habit of continuously updating a journal or notebook, so you don't lose your train of thought when you do get interrupted - and you will, if you're married with kids.
This is meaningless. Of the millions who use Windows, very few will read the EULA closely enough to realize that there are spy services running, let alone know how to disable them.
Nothing real will come of this until there is a real and major abuse by MS, and the story is picked up by the major media. Then there'll be congressional hearings and 'something will be done' - most likely something useless.
The human mind can only consider so much at once. Using black boxes ALLOWS one to view the larger picture.
In my experience, the single biggest factor keeping engineers from considering the bigger picture in their designs is management. The moment an engineer tries thinking outside the box that management has assigned them, management starts worrying about them upsetting the project schedules, or that thinks that the engineer is wasting time that could be better spent on their little black box. After all, they hire system analysts to worry about the overall picture - why would anyone working on a component have any real insight into the big picture?
Many cures for hiccups involve a contraction of the diaphragm and stomach muscles - scaring, drinking water, holding breath. As a kid, that led me to invent my own cure, which always works for me.
I theorized that, like blinking, sneezing or coughing, a hiccup was trying to clear some sort of irritating blockage. So I tried manually pressing in and slightly up just on and below the breastbone while trying to burp - basically adding a bit more strength and persistence to the action of the diaphragm. Now it may just be me - but when I've been hiccuping, this always causes a sort of foamy burp, and the hiccups end.
Now it could just be that the diaphragm gets stretched a bit and stops contracting (like stretching a cramping muscle). But my theory has always been that some foam has built up and feels like a blockage to the stomach. It wouldn't show up on any medical imaging, so it isn't surprising that it wouldn't have been detected. And since hiccups are commonly associated with eating or drinking too fast or drinking fizzy drinks - getting air into your stomach, it doesn't seem TOO improbable.
Anyhow - call it wacky if you want, but my hiccup cure has never failed me.
From what I've read, they made a HUGE mistake - they eliminated the SIMs!
They should have kept a ratio of at least 3 simulated people per human player. Then instead of trying to get other people to come to your shop or whatever, the primary goal is to get SIMs to come into your place. Live visitors would just be icing on the cake. (And make it hard to be so dull that you lose ALL your sims - always have one SIM hang around, commenting on how dull and empty the place is...)
So you could play a nightclub owner, or run a successful for-simoleans fire department, or maybe sell appliances at CRAZY prices with ads on SIM-TV to pull in the crows.
Advertising should play a major role in the game, to attract SIMs and other players to your place. Real world products could be advertised and sold by players who purchase a franchise or contract to sell the product. (And naturally the SIMs will favor real-world products over fake ones - "Coke(tm)" over "Fizzi Pop".)
In addition to explicit advertising, the game should simulate "word of mouth" - the more sims enjoy your place (or use your services), the more sims will come - until it gets too crowded, or they get bored with it because you don't change it enough, or changed it from what they liked. The game masters would tweak the SIMs' interests - effectively implementing fads: one week they're into Country Western and trucks, the next they're into 50's retro and hotrods.
Instead of having lots of servers, most of it should have been simulated on the player's PC - the servers just directing SIMs to the PC and occasionally analyzing your place to determine how much they are enjoying it. And of course support players visiting each other's places or using each other's services - now motivated by 'spying' to see what is attracting SIMs.
This game had really great potential - perhaps they can re-work it and save it yet...
These tags won't work in at least one way - most theft is by employees. They'll have plenty of opportunity to find and remove, disable or destroy tags. There are some tricks that a store owner could play (multiple tags, etc), but the employees will quickly figure out ways around them.
Let people run a tab - either on your website, or on a payment service. Then after they've enjoyed the service for a while and run up a small tab, you pop up:
"You've read 25 daily issues and your running tab has hit $4. Before buying today's issue, would you like to pay your tab?"
and if they keep saying no, eventually...
"You've enjoyed 30 daily issues of our website. If you'd like to read today's issue for just 16 cents, please pay your tab of $5.80 now. Or you can subscribe for the next two months for just $10 and we'll clear your tab!"
This works better (i.e. people are more likely to pay up) if it's a payment service that is used across thousands of popular sites that runs the tab.
People will pay for what they want if you make it feel Safe and Easy enough. (Pricing will take care of itself.)
EASY: 1-time signup for almost all web services.
SAFE: Purchase terms kept simple. E.g. "Buy this article - 10 cents. OK?"
EASY: To buy I just click "OK"
SAFE: Only my payment service gets my name, credit card number, etc.
SAFE: Unlikely I'll get cheated, insured against big losses.
There's a simpler answer that doesn't require micropayment accounting. Just bounce every un-authorized sender a message back, with a password that can only be read by a human, and optionally a request to be taken off of any automated mailings. (You can pre-authorize any mailing lists you want to get.) Once someone has a password, they can send email from the same account.
That immediately kills spam that doesn't have valid return addresses. It requires a human in the loop for those with valid addresses, which increases costs. If you included a request to be taken off of any automated mailing lists, having a human read it should clear up any question of whether the sender has been legally notified.
What we REALLY need is P2P software for slashdotters, to counter the slashdot effect.
It's practically the perfect application for P2P.