It was Microsoft who followed through with their threat to make spamming unprofitable. I think you are swinging a bit wild with that axe you have to grind.
You don't know that it is not profitable for the spammer. As you said, they have been in court for 2 years. What do you think they have been doing since then? Making money. If spamming wasn't profitable, the spammers wouldn't exist. They are only in it for the money. Richter is still in business, even after *SETTLING* for $7 mil. It wasn't a court judgement against spammers.
From a legal standpoint, this is a nice victory for Microsoft. I hope they achieve their deterrent effect by making the financial incentives to spam more dubious.
1. This was not a legal victory at all, it was a settlement. From TFA:
Richter, who was not immediately available for comment, said in the joint statement with Microsoft that he denied Microsoft's allegations.
Microsoft knows that game very well. Settling out of court really doesn't do anything legally.
And how financially painful was it for Richter to pay that $7 mil? If he made 20, then that isn't much of a deterrant at all. Microsoft knows this game very well also.
All in all, I think the whole thing reeks. Especially since $7 mil is couch-cusion money to them. They basically bought themselves a PR story with the lawsuit (look at Microsoft, they are anti-spam!). All this story tells me is that spamming pays if he can afford to pay $7 mil and still be in business, and that those who have the means to sue will benefit from everyone else's pain.
My first laptop I got for my senior year of high school. I didn't have parents who just went out and bought me expensive computer equipment, of course, and that's why I'm kind of laughing at this article.
The only way for the kid to really grasp the value of his new laptop is if he works his ass off all summer to earn the money to buy it himself.
Damn, Slashdot makes me feel old sometimes.
I agree with your post though. In high school, a couple of my friends had computers, but I didn't get one. I didn't quite know yet that it was what I wanted to do. I used them in high-school programming classes though.
Then college rolled around, and I started looking into getting my own. I saved the money I earned from my jobs, and researched what I thought I would need to get. It ended up costing me $2200, but it was a pretty slick system and I used it throughout college. It was great to be able to program at home instead of having to go into the computer lab. (even though that was where I worked) I remember going to coffee shops and diners with my engineering friends to study, and it was hard writing computer labs without a computer. But I will say that writing code on paper was a good experience. It taught me to design stuff and write in pseudo-code as opposed to just diving into code.
My computer was a great asset during my college years, and I imagine that today a laptop could be the same. Oh, and the computers we used in high-school were TRS-80s and eventually 286s. In college, I bought a 386-DX33 with 2 MB ram, and 80 MB hard drive, and BOTH floppy drives. Back then, you had to bust your ass to pirate software. It took up about 15-20 floppies for programs like Borland Turbo Pascal. And a laptop would have seemed like magic.:)
I am starting to think that I want these laws passed. I want the DMCA, I want the Patriot Act, I want record companies to be able to send people to jail for years. I want all this. Because slow change is NOT happening. Our rights are continuously being violated, our governments have over the years been taken over by those in power who can afford to purchase laws.
I think the only way it will stop is that they go too far, and there is some kind of revolution. Let's get on with it...
If you lower the bar far enough, and make most everyone criminal, You can pretty much take away everyone's rights.
Once you are 'assumed' to be a criminal, just because you breathe,then its easier to take things from you ( such as money ) and redistribute t to the 'victims'.
As well as destroy other rights you had, such as privacy.
Or wait a few months and get a Nintendo Revolution. Which should be cheaper.
Or wait a few months and get an Xbox 360. Which should be cheaper by then.
I just REALLY don't understand the whole "have to have it NOW" mentality. Camping out in line for a movie on opening night? Staying up until midnight to buy a game? Paying premium prices for the latest-and-greatest video card? I just really think that people who do this are complete suckers. Why are you so easily manipulated? Why do you let marketers suck you in? Have you ever asked yourself and really thought about why you do this? I have yet to hear a good explaination of these things. Perhaps if something is a limited edition and they might run out, it might be worth it. But do you think they are going to run out of Xbox 360s? Are they going to go away? As long as people continue to perpetuate this, companies will take advantage of it. Please don't feed the hype.
the world revolves around money and if its not there it ain't gonna happen.
How hard is it to make an operating system where someone can double-click instead of going through a myriad of steps to install a basic friggin program?
I think you answered your question with your comment. Unless someone is paying for this to happen, it won't. There are Linux apps with good installers, OpenOffice and Firefox come to mind.
The sad thing is Linux is doing this to itself and until things change it's going to continue to be the ever-striving underdog who will never compete against Windows as an alternative OS for the majority.
Linux doesn't have the goal of unseating Windows as an alternative OS for the majority. Linux is not a company. However, there are companies that would like to see that happen, and they are trying to make Linux more "majority" friendly. Will they succeed? Personally, I don't care. Part of me doesn't want it to become an OS for the masses, because rarely do things maintain their beauty and integrity when the masses get ahold of them.:) If Linux remains an enthusiast OS, I will still use it and be happy. And I'll probably keep a version of Windows around for when I want to play games.
Do you read assembly language, Brad? There's a few lines of Code I've got memorized
Dang, this was nice. Gotta forward that along.
But I have to be pedantic, and point out that in that scene, Jules was talking to Ringo in the diner, not Brad. And to get worse, the character's name wasn't Brad, but Brett. It was a mix-up when he said "Look at the big brain on Brad", when earlier he said his name was Brett.
I was going to mod it funny. I think that the only way for Microsoft to kill or drag something down into the dregs is to get involved with it. Maybe MS just knows that inherently, whatever they touch turns to anti-innovative technology goo.
I agree it's not a game for kids, but it's rated M. For 17+
Since when is 17 a kid? In a couple months, they can vote, marry, serve in the military, smoke, buy guns and fuck legally. Like they not doing the latter already.
Right, I totally agree. By saying I didn't think kids should play it, I was referring to this. I couldn't tell if by your post, you thought that I thought it was a game for kids or not. I just meant that it was rated M, leave it at that. Why try and ban it all of a sudden now that there is a sex scene in it? ESPECIALLY since the sex scene causes a bigger uproar than the violence.
heh, sure, those kids are really spending all that time doing homework and not nearly as much as becoming more aggressive playing after-school sports or killing, fucking, and carjacking!
To be fair, there was a backlash for the violence in the game. And honestly, I don't think kids should be playing it. I am by no means conservative, but I think the game is just in bad taste for impressionable youth. But whatever. The game was given a rating, I don't think it should be outlawed.
What pisses me off is that all the recent uproar is because there was sex in there. You can beat a cop to death, but for Jebus' sake don't show animated boobs! Oh the humanity! Violence is OK, but sex, something natural and essential to our very existence of the human race, is taboo. Superbowl? OK. Boob at the Superbowl? Congressional hearings. Unjustified War? Hmm, OK. The F word is uttered in public? the decline of our moral civilization.
Right-click on the panel, select "Configure Panel...", change the size from normal to small or tiny, and click OK.
I used to think that the zooming icons were annoying, until I set my taskbar to be tiny. Then it was usable. And if you need that taskbar to be anything smaller than tiny, then you must have incredible eyesight.:)
just so long as we can yell and scream and blame every problem in the country on Bush and Judge Roberts, why would you want to fill our kids' heads with crap like science?
You mean our Jesus-freak President? Who sold our children's and grandchildren's futures to fund a personal-vendetta war that he has NEVER been able to justify? We will be able to blame the Bush administration for the state of things for a long long time. He has had that huge of a negative impact on our society. We haven't even begun to feel the reprocussions of this misguided fool.
Not that he can be blamed for everything, our society has been trained to be ignorant by the religious right for a while now. Video game that allows you to beat up and kill people? Hmm, OK. Wait, what!? There is a SEX scene in it?!!! AHHHHHHH! RECALL IT! Won't someone think of the children!!!
American education isn't bad because it's run by the government. It's bad because people don't give a crap about fixing it.
Well, to be accurate, they just give more of a crap about everything else, like funding an unjustified war. Or taking care of big business. Or any of other 1000 things that the government wastes OUR money on. Everyone gives lip service to bettering education, yet they love to say ignorant things like "well, at least teachers get the summer off".
If it bothers you, don't play games that use this service, there are plenty that don't. For that matter, there are plenty of games that are offline, they never even try to contact anything on the Internet.
1. As long as they make people CLEARLY aware that this is happening. Which they wouldn't, since most people would then avoid it. There's a reason we had to resort to a do-not-call list in the country, and a reason that advertisers are trying to get rid of it.
2. My concern is not that people will realize how this is an invasion and avoid these games. It is that people won't care and support it anyway, proving it is a valid form of advertisement. I don't worry about people who hate this kind of crap, I worry about the ones who don't hate it. The ones who respond to spam, the ones who click on popups, the ones who give away personal info for a shiny new pen. Those are the people who are aiding in the proliferation of this crap.
My first thought was the people who would get bored, run towards the add, wait 15 seconds, run away from the add, repeat.... That ought to drive up the cost/benefit ratio far enough to make it worthless...
If there was ever a task for a bot in a game, this is it.
Another difference between the two groups is that fish hunting orcas are always chattering amongst themselves, but mammal hunting orcas are very quiet, because their pray is smart enough or has ears enough to pick up on the yammering.
Why would the chattering bother the seals, if they know it is from fish eating orcas? Now REAL evolution would occur if the seal hunting orcas started chattering amongst themselves so that the seals would THINK that they are fish eating orcas. Why does this sound very Gary Larsonish?:)
Wave two pencils in front of a person, about 30cm apart. Then, have them cover one eye and step away slowly, while looking at one pencil tip, until they can't see other due to their blind spot.
Now, ask a squid to do the same thing.
I did. It just laid there and stared at me. What a crappy experiment.
his top goal is to increase Americans access to high-speed Internet
so that the FCC can attempt to regulate it into oblivion! All these clowns can do is chase their tails trying to censor people. They thought Janet Jackson was bad? Wait till they see what this internet thingy has to offer. "Hmm, look at this link, it must be to pictures of cute little pet goats..."
Slashdot Mirror
You don't know that it is not profitable for the spammer. As you said, they have been in court for 2 years. What do you think they have been doing since then? Making money. If spamming wasn't profitable, the spammers wouldn't exist. They are only in it for the money. Richter is still in business, even after *SETTLING* for $7 mil. It wasn't a court judgement against spammers.
So what did Microsoft accomplish?
1. This was not a legal victory at all, it was a settlement. From TFA:
Microsoft knows that game very well. Settling out of court really doesn't do anything legally.
And how financially painful was it for Richter to pay that $7 mil? If he made 20, then that isn't much of a deterrant at all. Microsoft knows this game very well also.
All in all, I think the whole thing reeks. Especially since $7 mil is couch-cusion money to them. They basically bought themselves a PR story with the lawsuit (look at Microsoft, they are anti-spam!). All this story tells me is that spamming pays if he can afford to pay $7 mil and still be in business, and that those who have the means to sue will benefit from everyone else's pain.
Damn, Slashdot makes me feel old sometimes.
I agree with your post though. In high school, a couple of my friends had computers, but I didn't get one. I didn't quite know yet that it was what I wanted to do. I used them in high-school programming classes though.
Then college rolled around, and I started looking into getting my own. I saved the money I earned from my jobs, and researched what I thought I would need to get. It ended up costing me $2200, but it was a pretty slick system and I used it throughout college. It was great to be able to program at home instead of having to go into the computer lab. (even though that was where I worked) I remember going to coffee shops and diners with my engineering friends to study, and it was hard writing computer labs without a computer. But I will say that writing code on paper was a good experience. It taught me to design stuff and write in pseudo-code as opposed to just diving into code.
My computer was a great asset during my college years, and I imagine that today a laptop could be the same. Oh, and the computers we used in high-school were TRS-80s and eventually 286s. In college, I bought a 386-DX33 with 2 MB ram, and 80 MB hard drive, and BOTH floppy drives. Back then, you had to bust your ass to pirate software. It took up about 15-20 floppies for programs like Borland Turbo Pascal. And a laptop would have seemed like magic. :)
I think the only way it will stop is that they go too far, and there is some kind of revolution. Let's get on with it...
Sounds like the makings of a revolution to me...
Can you post entries on Monster, HotJobs, Dice, etc.?
Or wait a few months and get an Xbox 360. Which should be cheaper by then.
I just REALLY don't understand the whole "have to have it NOW" mentality. Camping out in line for a movie on opening night? Staying up until midnight to buy a game? Paying premium prices for the latest-and-greatest video card? I just really think that people who do this are complete suckers. Why are you so easily manipulated? Why do you let marketers suck you in? Have you ever asked yourself and really thought about why you do this? I have yet to hear a good explaination of these things. Perhaps if something is a limited edition and they might run out, it might be worth it. But do you think they are going to run out of Xbox 360s? Are they going to go away? As long as people continue to perpetuate this, companies will take advantage of it. Please don't feed the hype.
How hard is it to make an operating system where someone can double-click instead of going through a myriad of steps to install a basic friggin program?
I think you answered your question with your comment. Unless someone is paying for this to happen, it won't. There are Linux apps with good installers, OpenOffice and Firefox come to mind.
The sad thing is Linux is doing this to itself and until things change it's going to continue to be the ever-striving underdog who will never compete against Windows as an alternative OS for the majority.
Linux doesn't have the goal of unseating Windows as an alternative OS for the majority. Linux is not a company. However, there are companies that would like to see that happen, and they are trying to make Linux more "majority" friendly. Will they succeed? Personally, I don't care. Part of me doesn't want it to become an OS for the masses, because rarely do things maintain their beauty and integrity when the masses get ahold of them. :) If Linux remains an enthusiast OS, I will still use it and be happy. And I'll probably keep a version of Windows around for when I want to play games.
Dang, this was nice. Gotta forward that along.
But I have to be pedantic, and point out that in that scene, Jules was talking to Ringo in the diner, not Brad. And to get worse, the character's name wasn't Brad, but Brett. It was a mix-up when he said "Look at the big brain on Brad", when earlier he said his name was Brett.
I was going to mod it funny. I think that the only way for Microsoft to kill or drag something down into the dregs is to get involved with it. Maybe MS just knows that inherently, whatever they touch turns to anti-innovative technology goo.
Since when is 17 a kid? In a couple months, they can vote, marry, serve in the military, smoke, buy guns and fuck legally. Like they not doing the latter already.
Right, I totally agree. By saying I didn't think kids should play it, I was referring to this. I couldn't tell if by your post, you thought that I thought it was a game for kids or not. I just meant that it was rated M, leave it at that. Why try and ban it all of a sudden now that there is a sex scene in it? ESPECIALLY since the sex scene causes a bigger uproar than the violence.
But I think we are on the same page with this.
To be fair, there was a backlash for the violence in the game. And honestly, I don't think kids should be playing it. I am by no means conservative, but I think the game is just in bad taste for impressionable youth. But whatever. The game was given a rating, I don't think it should be outlawed.
What pisses me off is that all the recent uproar is because there was sex in there. You can beat a cop to death, but for Jebus' sake don't show animated boobs! Oh the humanity! Violence is OK, but sex, something natural and essential to our very existence of the human race, is taboo. Superbowl? OK. Boob at the Superbowl? Congressional hearings. Unjustified War? Hmm, OK. The F word is uttered in public? the decline of our moral civilization.
I used to think that the zooming icons were annoying, until I set my taskbar to be tiny. Then it was usable. And if you need that taskbar to be anything smaller than tiny, then you must have incredible eyesight. :)
I was referring to the recent GTA scandal.
And it has to do with the religious right, which is tightly coupled to our president, who started the war in Iraq for no good reason.
You mean our Jesus-freak President? Who sold our children's and grandchildren's futures to fund a personal-vendetta war that he has NEVER been able to justify? We will be able to blame the Bush administration for the state of things for a long long time. He has had that huge of a negative impact on our society. We haven't even begun to feel the reprocussions of this misguided fool.
Not that he can be blamed for everything, our society has been trained to be ignorant by the religious right for a while now. Video game that allows you to beat up and kill people? Hmm, OK. Wait, what!? There is a SEX scene in it?!!! AHHHHHHH! RECALL IT! Won't someone think of the children!!!
Well, to be accurate, they just give more of a crap about everything else, like funding an unjustified war. Or taking care of big business. Or any of other 1000 things that the government wastes OUR money on. Everyone gives lip service to bettering education, yet they love to say ignorant things like "well, at least teachers get the summer off".
1. As long as they make people CLEARLY aware that this is happening. Which they wouldn't, since most people would then avoid it. There's a reason we had to resort to a do-not-call list in the country, and a reason that advertisers are trying to get rid of it.
2. My concern is not that people will realize how this is an invasion and avoid these games. It is that people won't care and support it anyway, proving it is a valid form of advertisement. I don't worry about people who hate this kind of crap, I worry about the ones who don't hate it. The ones who respond to spam, the ones who click on popups, the ones who give away personal info for a shiny new pen. Those are the people who are aiding in the proliferation of this crap.
If there was ever a task for a bot in a game, this is it.
Why would the chattering bother the seals, if they know it is from fish eating orcas? Now REAL evolution would occur if the seal hunting orcas started chattering amongst themselves so that the seals would THINK that they are fish eating orcas. Why does this sound very Gary Larsonish? :)
I did. It just laid there and stared at me. What a crappy experiment.
Hmm, I believe that Google is *the* big player in the search world.
It will also be difficult for him to operate in his current job without violating his non-disclosure.
Honestly, I believe the only thing violating his non-disclosure would produce would be chuckles and smiles from Google employees.
I have always thought : "If I haven't done anything wrong, leave me the F*CK alone!"
Every time I walk outside, I experience this.
Oh, wait. I just live in Phoenix.
badum tchhh
You should contact the RIAA and let them know that your company owns a huge collection of pirated music. ;)
so that the FCC can attempt to regulate it into oblivion! All these clowns can do is chase their tails trying to censor people. They thought Janet Jackson was bad? Wait till they see what this internet thingy has to offer. "Hmm, look at this link, it must be to pictures of cute little pet goats..."