You pay a tax because if you don't, somebody with a gun comes and points it at you. AOL doesn't have the ability to do that. At most they could prohibit you from using their server. Remember "My server, my rules?"
It's not even a user fee, because you can still send mail to AOL without paying it. What you're paying for if you buy CertifiedEmail services is the ability to send unfiltered email. You have to pay Goodmail Systems to check out your reputation, and you have to pay them per email. This ensures that you will only send good email, cuz you're sending it on your nickle.
Well, yeah, AOL somehow gave out the idea that they were phasing out the whitelist and enhanced whitelist, and that CertifiedEmail would be required. As they say, rumors travel around the world before the truth even has its boots on.
I have already started adding it to signup forms on my site (forums that require email activation for example). There is no way I'm paying to send emails to new users.
What are you? Some kind of moron? Did AOL tell you that you had to pay to send email? Of course they didn't. I run several mailing lists, and AOL has never blocked the recipients of those lists. Even if they did, my mailing list manager would notice that their email is bouncing, and would take them off the list. No need for me to do anything. Maybe you need a better mailing list manager? -russ
Doesn't work. Because of all the zombie machines that spammers control, they have access to more CPU cycles than anyone else (except perhaps the NSA, of course). -russ
The problem is that Moveon has such a lousy reputation that they can't get on AOL's whitelist. They don't process unsubscribes reliably, they cross permission boundaries, they don't handle bounces properly.
I hate to tell HP this, but the touch-screen pocket-sized computer will always be with us, as long as hand sizes remain the same, and as long as pockets still exist. Maybe we won't call them a PDA. Maybe we'll call them an Internet Tablet?
Thanks, Zack, for having done them for so long. I did the kernel change summaries for a year and a half, and it's a HUGE amount of work. I appreciate what you've done perhaps more than anyone. -russ
moveon.org has a bad reputation in the antispam community. They don't process unsubscription requests or bounce messages reliably. They have no one but themselves to blame for this situation. Even if they were to pay Goodmail Systems to send to AOL, complaints would just get them banned from Goodmail Systems. If you send bulk emails, you MUST respect unsubscribes and bounces, or you WILL get banned. RFCs aren't just *Requests* For Comments. They're more like demands.
You are assuming that AOL will be allowing spam-for-pay. Your assumption is incorrect. This is instead one company (Goodmail Systems) asserting to AOL "This email is good. As evidence I have charged the sender, and as evidence I am paying you per email a fee sufficient to cover your cost for verifying my evidence."
Disclaimer: I have consulted for Goodmail Systems, and have PROFITED from their EVIL plan to TAKE OVER the world, Pinky!
AOL is trying to cover the costs of bandwidth waste...
No. In this particular case, AOL is trying to cover the costs of creating and maintaining the infrastructure which treats some emails specially. If you go to AOL and say "Hey, I want to be able to bypass your spam filters and save you bandwidth by running a server at your colocation" they'll laugh in your face. If, on the other hand, you say the same thing and add "Oh, and I'll pay you for each email AND I'll pre-vet senders AND monitor spam complaints (using AOL's scomp) AND shut down abusing senders." then you'll be able to get AOL's attention.
Disclaimer: I consulted for Goodmail Systems and while I have a better understanding how this works than nearly ANYBODY commenting, I am basing my comments on publicly disclosed information on GMS's website.
Argh. People are being annoyingly stupid about this. More stupid than usual, actually. Here is the problem: people who are sending *desired* *opt-in* email have to bear the cost of constructing their emails so they don't look like spam and don't get caught in AOL's filters. AOL, on the other hand, doesn't benefit from these emails particularly and has no strong incentive to cooperate with senders of legitimate email. It's just another cost to them. If, however, the sender can indicate that their email is legitimate, and AOL can be compensated for checking with Goodmail Systems on that legitimacy, then everybody wins. Users get the email they want, senders reduce their costs, and AOL hasn't lost any money on the deal.
If you don't want to pay the "tax", don't! And then see what penalty you have to pay. The penalty is that your email has to be filtered for spam -- which is exactly what is happening now. So why is the "tax" a bad thing? -russ
Whatever happened to the MBONE? I see that a book on the subject is now posted to the web and freely copyable because it's gone out of print. The MBONE FAQ dates from 1993. That's like (/me whips out his HP-41C calculator) 13 years old. Apparently the IETF has a group for MBONE Deployment, but it hasn't been updated since last September, and even then it was a year late for its final milestone.
You're talking about the Labor Theory of Value, which says that all value is derived from somebody's labor; thus management provides no value beyond the labor they put it. Yes, it's a now-discredited economic idea promulgated by unions, socialists, and other communists. Economists have replaced it with the subjective theory of value -- which says "If you're selling something, it's only worth what someone else will pay for it." Or to put it in modern-day terms, "If you try to sell it on EBay, and you get no bidders, it's worth nothing; throw it out or keep it yourself." -russ
In this Open Source World, are we not allowed to express a wish for developers to do development we'd like to see, without being told "stop being so passive" "do it yourself"?
No. You don't have to like it, but you should expected to be told that. -russ
The original bullet-resistant vest was flexible. It was made of powdered glass, flexible until hit hard, at which point it would stiffen up and spread the force of the impact. -russ
Satan was surely responsible for RS-232, and he's getting his britches into USB 2.0. Ever seen how many USB connectors and cable combinations there are?? It's RS-232 all over again. Some speculate that life on Earth is already hell. It isn't. Hell has no hope. Purgatory, on the other hand, gives you hope. That's why we keep clutching to new standards, because surely THIS one will solve all the old one's problems. -russ
Instead of hoping and praying that Google will do what you want, why not look at NASA's World Wind and port it to Linux yourself? This is an Open Source world -- stop being so passive. -russ
The only way we have to know that the Bible was inspired by the holy spirit is because it says so. Similarly, this particular slashdot posting (but no other) is inspired by the holy spirit. How do you know? Because it's written in The Posting. -russ
Yup, it is. If you don't like that, then amend the Constitution. Hey, I recognize that there might be public good in restricting speech, so go ahead and amend the Constitution to take away people's right to free speech. I'm just saying that the Constitution is very clear on this point. "Congress shall pass no law". Not a big law, not a little law. NO law. -russ
Slashdot Mirror
Yep. That's what I did when I needed a tower. Worked great! Got my no-fear-of-heights friend to climb the tower and aim the antenna.
You pay a tax because if you don't, somebody with a gun comes and points it at you. AOL doesn't have the ability to do that. At most they could prohibit you from using their server. Remember "My server, my rules?"
It's not even a user fee, because you can still send mail to AOL without paying it. What you're paying for if you buy CertifiedEmail services is the ability to send unfiltered email. You have to pay Goodmail Systems to check out your reputation, and you have to pay them per email. This ensures that you will only send good email, cuz you're sending it on your nickle.
Well, yeah, AOL somehow gave out the idea that they were phasing out the whitelist and enhanced whitelist, and that CertifiedEmail would be required. As they say, rumors travel around the world before the truth even has its boots on.
STOP POSTING FACTS! This is slashdot! If you encourage informed opinion, people wouldn't be able to post ignorant balderdash!
I have already started adding it to signup forms on my site (forums that require email activation for example). There is no way I'm paying to send emails to new users.
What are you? Some kind of moron? Did AOL tell you that you had to pay to send email? Of course they didn't. I run several mailing lists, and AOL has never blocked the recipients of those lists. Even if they did, my mailing list manager would notice that their email is bouncing, and would take them off the list. No need for me to do anything. Maybe you need a better mailing list manager?
-russ
Doesn't work. Because of all the zombie machines that spammers control, they have access to more CPU cycles than anyone else (except perhaps the NSA, of course).
-russ
The problem is that Moveon has such a lousy reputation that they can't get on AOL's whitelist. They don't process unsubscribes reliably, they cross permission boundaries, they don't handle bounces properly.
I hate to tell HP this, but the touch-screen pocket-sized computer will always be with us, as long as hand sizes remain the same, and as long as pockets still exist. Maybe we won't call them a PDA. Maybe we'll call them an Internet Tablet?
Thanks, Zack, for having done them for so long. I did the kernel change summaries for a year and a half, and it's a HUGE amount of work. I appreciate what you've done perhaps more than anyone.
-russ
moveon.org has a bad reputation in the antispam community. They don't process unsubscription requests or bounce messages reliably. They have no one but themselves to blame for this situation. Even if they were to pay Goodmail Systems to send to AOL, complaints would just get them banned from Goodmail Systems. If you send bulk emails, you MUST respect unsubscribes and bounces, or you WILL get banned. RFCs aren't just *Requests* For Comments. They're more like demands.
You are assuming that AOL will be allowing spam-for-pay. Your assumption is incorrect. This is instead one company (Goodmail Systems) asserting to AOL "This email is good. As evidence I have charged the sender, and as evidence I am paying you per email a fee sufficient to cover your cost for verifying my evidence."
Disclaimer: I have consulted for Goodmail Systems, and have PROFITED from their EVIL plan to TAKE OVER the world, Pinky!
AOL is trying to cover the costs of bandwidth waste...
No. In this particular case, AOL is trying to cover the costs of creating and maintaining the infrastructure which treats some emails specially. If you go to AOL and say "Hey, I want to be able to bypass your spam filters and save you bandwidth by running a server at your colocation" they'll laugh in your face. If, on the other hand, you say the same thing and add "Oh, and I'll pay you for each email AND I'll pre-vet senders AND monitor spam complaints (using AOL's scomp) AND shut down abusing senders." then you'll be able to get AOL's attention.
Disclaimer: I consulted for Goodmail Systems and while I have a better understanding how this works than nearly ANYBODY commenting, I am basing my comments on publicly disclosed information on GMS's website.
Argh. People are being annoyingly stupid about this. More stupid than usual, actually. Here is the problem: people who are sending *desired* *opt-in* email have to bear the cost of constructing their emails so they don't look like spam and don't get caught in AOL's filters. AOL, on the other hand, doesn't benefit from these emails particularly and has no strong incentive to cooperate with senders of legitimate email. It's just another cost to them. If, however, the sender can indicate that their email is legitimate, and AOL can be compensated for checking with Goodmail Systems on that legitimacy, then everybody wins. Users get the email they want, senders reduce their costs, and AOL hasn't lost any money on the deal.
That's all this is. Sheesh. Deal.
If you don't want to pay the "tax", don't! And then see what penalty you have to pay. The penalty is that your email has to be filtered for spam -- which is exactly what is happening now. So why is the "tax" a bad thing?
-russ
Whatever happened to the MBONE? I see that a book on the subject is now posted to the web and freely copyable because it's gone out of print. The MBONE FAQ dates from 1993. That's like (/me whips out his HP-41C calculator) 13 years old. Apparently the IETF has a group for MBONE Deployment, but it hasn't been updated since last September, and even then it was a year late for its final milestone.
You're talking about the Labor Theory of Value, which says that all value is derived from somebody's labor; thus management provides no value beyond the labor they put it. Yes, it's a now-discredited economic idea promulgated by unions, socialists, and other communists. Economists have replaced it with the subjective theory of value -- which says "If you're selling something, it's only worth what someone else will pay for it." Or to put it in modern-day terms, "If you try to sell it on EBay, and you get no bidders, it's worth nothing; throw it out or keep it yourself."
-russ
Seems like my FC2 version of mplayer is too antique to play these modern "movie" things. What else might be able to play them?
In this Open Source World, are we not allowed to express a wish for developers to do development we'd like to see, without being told "stop being so passive" "do it yourself"?
No. You don't have to like it, but you should expected to be told that.
-russ
The original bullet-resistant vest was flexible. It was made of powdered glass, flexible until hit hard, at which point it would stiffen up and spread the force of the impact.
-russ
Satan was surely responsible for RS-232, and he's getting his britches into USB 2.0. Ever seen how many USB connectors and cable combinations there are?? It's RS-232 all over again. Some speculate that life on Earth is already hell. It isn't. Hell has no hope. Purgatory, on the other hand, gives you hope. That's why we keep clutching to new standards, because surely THIS one will solve all the old one's problems.
-russ
As long as google doesn't do the same thing, we'll probably be okay.
One word: diBona.
Instead of hoping and praying that Google will do what you want, why not look at NASA's World Wind and port it to Linux yourself? This is an Open Source world -- stop being so passive.
-russ
Rediff's BOL (Hindi for "talk") has been doing this for ages and ages. When you go idle or offline, it automagically forwards IMs to your phone.
-russ
The only way we have to know that the Bible was inspired by the holy spirit is because it says so. Similarly, this particular slashdot posting (but no other) is inspired by the holy spirit. How do you know? Because it's written in The Posting.
-russ
Yup, it is. If you don't like that, then amend the Constitution. Hey, I recognize that there might be public good in restricting speech, so go ahead and amend the Constitution to take away people's right to free speech. I'm just saying that the Constitution is very clear on this point. "Congress shall pass no law". Not a big law, not a little law. NO law.
-russ