This is yet another Utopia, and like Thomas More's original, it doesn't exist. The difference is that More knew his Utopia was a fantasy. These guys evidently think you can make a perfect society with less than perfect human beings. Ain't happening.
As a direct result of this/. and other sites linking to SearchKing to run this story the page rank(tm) on goolge will fly up. (given that its based, in some way, on the number of sites that link to a page)
True -- temporarily. Getting a page slashdotted doesn't result in permanently raising its rank, though, unless people who find it via Slashdot are interested enough to keep going back. (Or, better, to link to from their own sites.)
To paraphrase a certain former U.S. President who shall remain nameless, "It's the repeat customers, stupid...."
SearchKing will then be able to say, "ha we complained and google fixed it!"
Boiler room types and sleazeballs have pulled tricks like this probably since the days of Gilgamesh. I daresay most of us have gotten rather good at spotting and ignoring con men. (Or laughing at them.);)
Anyone who has lived in a cave for the last two years and isn't aware of the Advance Fee Fraud scheme, which is run out of Nigeria, most other west African countries south of the Sahara, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, and the Netherlands as of the last time I checked my spamtrap, should check out the following URLs:
This is a bad argument. IT DOES COST YOU O RECEIVE FROM THE USPS. Just slightly indirectly. The USPS effectively subsidized junk mail with your 1st class postage. They basically piggyback spam into your normal mail.
Actually, as I understand it, junk mail slightly subsidizes first class. It is not subsidized by first class or any other class of mail.
The costs to receive junk postal mail are indirect, although real. In my case, it costs two dollars a month for a slightly larger rented mailbox, a little electricity to run my shredder for all the credit card offers (which cannot be safely thrown away unopened, as I do most junk mail), slightly higher rent to pay for an additional trashcan for the apartment complex to accomodate the extra trash....
And the real cost to me, which is the time wasted to deal with it.:/ It doesn't annoy me as much as telemarketing calls, and nowhere near as much as spam, but it is an issue.
Assuming they work through that he'll have to pay some sort of contempt of court fine (a few grand at most) but he can dodge the rest simply by declaring bankruptcy and reopening under a different name.
Last I heard, court judgements and fines of this type were non-dischargeable in bankruptcy proceedings. But otherwise, I agree that if he stays poor enough, never buys a house, and never gathers any significant amount of assets, there isn't much that the court can do.
That isn't how most people want to live, though.:)
What about international spammers? Is there any way to stop them?
There are good ways to slow them down considerably right now -- spam filters, blacklists, etc. These have made it significantly harder for spammers to get their email to their targets/victims, and reduced abysmally low response rates even further.
However, stopping spammers or any other kind of criminal entirely isn't possible. Despite the clear laws and effective enforcement, people still kill other people, steal their property, etc. What the laws and enforcement do is make it dangerous to commit crimes, and deter most people who might otherwise do so.
Before you can deter a spammer in, say, China, you've got to think of a way to make him/her think that spamming is too dangerous and not worth the trouble. That depends on, not just new laws, but a very different international legal environment. (That, or convincing the Chinese government that all spammers are members of Falun Gong.) <wry grin>
I applaud the US judical system for approving and using such laws in America, but the whole world isn't the USA. We need a world-trade law, perhaps mandated by the WTO, to prevent spammers from breeding.
It's been a long day -- I read this and had a mental picture of a law that required all spammers to use condoms....;)
On a more serious note, international law isn't up to dealing with spam and spammers yet, and I don't think it will be any time soon. It can't even deal with terrorism and terrorists effectively.:/
Of course, there's always relays.osirusoft [osirusoft.com] - a cross-referenced database of nearly all DNS blacklists.
Osirusoft is an excellent resource, but it doesn't contain anything even close to all of the available anti-spam blacklists. MAPS is pretty irrelevant these days, but don't forget the DSBL, Five-Ten-Sg, Monkeys.com, RFC-Ignorant, and Wirehub, all of which are publicly queryable and none of which are mirrored by Osirusoft.
There are a whole bunch of other blacklists out there, as well. Not all are well maintained and not all have consistent policies about which IP ranges or domains get listed and how a domain can be removed, though, so I stick to the established ones.
approximately the chances of passing my other favorite law -- a law forbidding Congress to make exceptions for itself in the laws it passes.
I've always been fond of the idea of a law that mildly penalizes any legislator who votes for a law that is later ruled unconstitutional. The penalties would be more severe on the person who actually sponsored the bill's introduction.
I like your idea, but I see a practical problem with it. The people who write the laws are often less qualified professionally to do so than the people who rule on their constitutionality are -- anyone can run for, and be elected to, Congress while judges must normally graduate from law school, pass the bar, and practice as lawyers for a while. In other words, republics and democracies by their very nature have at least a large proportion of amateurs writing the laws.
First, is it fair to hold an amateur to the same professional standards as a professional?
Second, is it realistic to require members of Congress to meet a higher standard of education and experience? Can we, under current conditions, expect to get candidates who can negotiate the political rapids of election to Congress to also meet the same basic qualifications as a judge?
Finally, how can we get a bunch of voters most of whom lack the ability to assess a candidate's professional qualifications to insist upon qualified candidates?:/
If you can figure out a way to do this, I'll vote for you for president.;>
D*mn. I looked for Arlington, Texas -- found Arlington, Virginia and one or two others, but no cute little town become overgrown suburb of Dallas. I looked for El Paso, Texas -- found El Paso, Illinois, but no West Texas town of country music fame and my childhood.... I guess someone doesn't like Texas. (Or maybe just can't stand Kinky Friedman?);>
It's a pretty common, and very sad, misconception about the US judicial system that the one with the most money always wins. The guys with the money only fight the battles they can win. If they don't think they can win, they very quietly settle out of court for enough money to keep it quiet, and you never hear about it.
This is one of the best arguments I've seen for restricting confidentiality clauses in arbitration or lawsuit settlements. Confidentiality is not always a bad thing, but IMHO confidentiality agreements are usually not in the public interest.
I wonder what the chances would be of passing a law requiring that such clauses be approved by a judge, or be deemed unenforceable? (Yeah, I know, approximately the chances of passing my other favorite law -- a law forbidding Congress to make exceptions for itself in the laws it passes.) <wry grin>
This has about as much chance as the US switching over to the metric system tomorrow.
<G> It has about as much chance of taking over all parts of the broadcast spectrum; the most massive/extreme implementation ain't happening any time soon.
But, as the author points out, "Open Spectrum" is already the status quo in the band occupied by 802.11*. More to the point, reserving large chunks of the broadcast/communication spectrum for the exclusive use of single radio or television stations is wasteful.
It reminds me of what Deutsche Telekom was doing in Germany in the early 1990s -- they allowed only 1200 kBD analog modems with acoustic couplers, and required that customers buy or lease them from Deutsche Telekom. Most of the Germans I knew who were online back then ignored DT and bought and installed (then) state-of-the-art 9600 kBD modems.
I know it's ethnic stereotyping to say this, but most Germans I know are a LOT less prone to ignore stupid and pointless rules than Americans are, especially American geeks.;>
My guess is that, if the technology is developed to allow users to share a spectrum without stepping on the exclusive/analog signal, people will start using it, with or without official approval.
If the U.S. government recognizes that the rules need to change to keep up with the state of technology, all will be fine and good. If, as I expect, the government refuses to change the rules in a timely fashion, I doubt that will change what people do. Washington has bigger concerns than arresting geeks who aren't interfering with anyone, and will catch up with the rest of us eventually.:>
> What can a skillful geek (electrical,
> electronical and software engineer, speaks
> three languages fluently) like me do to see
> the world. Volunteer ? Working for a
> multinational with exchange programs?
> Something with no connection at all to
> the tech world? Please share your
> experience.
I ended up doing the first -- volunteering -- and also took classes at the local university. I spent two years living in Europe and travelling through it and the then-current Soviet Union. I don't regret a minute of that time, although I didn't get started on a career or make much money.
You've got the right idea -- now is a great time to go.:)
First, if by "speak three languages fluently", you mean HUMAN languages and not Java or C++, you might want to pick a place where you speak the language. One reason I enjoyed my time in Europe so much is that I speak German and Russian. (Not fluently when I went -- fluently after two years, though.):>
Then, find some charity or NGO that's doing something you believe in and would like to contribute to. Poke around and see if they have an "internship" or could even offer to pay you enough to pay for your room and board.
They might be willing to do that in return for computer geek skills, but your English skills might prove to be more useful in many parts of the world. (I notice a bunch of people suggested teaching English -- that is definitely one way to do this.)
You have nine months. I'd start at the college Job Placement/Career counseling office, and also contact a bunch of charities of your choice and see what they might have available.
And keep us posted! (Us old fogies;> are all rooting for you, even if we are a bit jealous too.):>
Slashdot Mirror
This is yet another Utopia, and like Thomas More's original, it doesn't exist. The difference is that More knew his Utopia was a fantasy. These guys evidently think you can make a perfect society with less than perfect human beings. Ain't happening.
True -- temporarily. Getting a page slashdotted doesn't result in permanently raising its rank, though, unless people who find it via Slashdot are interested enough to keep going back. (Or, better, to link to from their own sites.)
To paraphrase a certain former U.S. President who shall remain nameless, "It's the repeat customers, stupid...."
Boiler room types and sleazeballs have pulled tricks like this probably since the days of Gilgamesh. I daresay most of us have gotten rather good at spotting and ignoring con men. (Or laughing at them.) ;)
<G>
Anyone who has lived in a cave for the last two years and isn't aware of the Advance Fee Fraud scheme, which is run out of Nigeria, most other west African countries south of the Sahara, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, and the Netherlands as of the last time I checked my spamtrap, should check out the following URLs:
Believe it or not, there have been billions lost to this scam, from people who should have been smarter. (And less greedy.)
Actually, as I understand it, junk mail slightly subsidizes first class. It is not subsidized by first class or any other class of mail.
The costs to receive junk postal mail are indirect, although real. In my case, it costs two dollars a month for a slightly larger rented mailbox, a little electricity to run my shredder for all the credit card offers (which cannot be safely thrown away unopened, as I do most junk mail), slightly higher rent to pay for an additional trashcan for the apartment complex to accomodate the extra trash....
And the real cost to me, which is the time wasted to deal with it. :/ It doesn't annoy me as much as telemarketing calls, and nowhere near as much as spam, but it is an issue.
Last I heard, court judgements and fines of this type were non-dischargeable in bankruptcy proceedings. But otherwise, I agree that if he stays poor enough, never buys a house, and never gathers any significant amount of assets, there isn't much that the court can do.
That isn't how most people want to live, though. :)
Neither can most techies -- I can program most Unix boxes in my sleep, but a VCR? No f*****g way.... (But, then, I don't own one either.) :)
There are good ways to slow them down considerably right now -- spam filters, blacklists, etc. These have made it significantly harder for spammers to get their email to their targets/victims, and reduced abysmally low response rates even further.
However, stopping spammers or any other kind of criminal entirely isn't possible. Despite the clear laws and effective enforcement, people still kill other people, steal their property, etc. What the laws and enforcement do is make it dangerous to commit crimes, and deter most people who might otherwise do so.
Before you can deter a spammer in, say, China, you've got to think of a way to make him/her think that spamming is too dangerous and not worth the trouble. That depends on, not just new laws, but a very different international legal environment. (That, or convincing the Chinese government that all spammers are members of Falun Gong.) <wry grin>
:-)) It won't -- remember Rule #3.*
*Rule 3: Spammers are stupid.
But I don't care. It feels SO GOOD! to see a boiler-room sleazeball loose $100K. :>
It's been a long day -- I read this and had a mental picture of a law that required all spammers to use condoms.... ;)
On a more serious note, international law isn't up to dealing with spam and spammers yet, and I don't think it will be any time soon. It can't even deal with terrorism and terrorists effectively. :/
Osirusoft is an excellent resource, but it doesn't contain anything even close to all of the available anti-spam blacklists. MAPS is pretty irrelevant these days, but don't forget the DSBL , Five-Ten-Sg , Monkeys.com , RFC-Ignorant , and Wirehub , all of which are publicly queryable and none of which are mirrored by Osirusoft.
There are a whole bunch of other blacklists out there, as well. Not all are well maintained and not all have consistent policies about which IP ranges or domains get listed and how a domain can be removed, though, so I stick to the established ones.
I like your idea, but I see a practical problem with it. The people who write the laws are often less qualified professionally to do so than the people who rule on their constitutionality are -- anyone can run for, and be elected to, Congress while judges must normally graduate from law school, pass the bar, and practice as lawyers for a while. In other words, republics and democracies by their very nature have at least a large proportion of amateurs writing the laws.
First, is it fair to hold an amateur to the same professional standards as a professional?
Second, is it realistic to require members of Congress to meet a higher standard of education and experience? Can we, under current conditions, expect to get candidates who can negotiate the political rapids of election to Congress to also meet the same basic qualifications as a judge?
Finally, how can we get a bunch of voters most of whom lack the ability to assess a candidate's professional qualifications to insist upon qualified candidates? :/
If you can figure out a way to do this, I'll vote for you for president. ;>
D*mn. I looked for Arlington, Texas -- found Arlington, Virginia and one or two others, but no cute little town become overgrown suburb of Dallas. I looked for El Paso, Texas -- found El Paso, Illinois, but no West Texas town of country music fame and my childhood.... I guess someone doesn't like Texas. (Or maybe just can't stand Kinky Friedman?) ;>
This is one of the best arguments I've seen for restricting confidentiality clauses in arbitration or lawsuit settlements. Confidentiality is not always a bad thing, but IMHO confidentiality agreements are usually not in the public interest.
I wonder what the chances would be of passing a law requiring that such clauses be approved by a judge, or be deemed unenforceable? (Yeah, I know, approximately the chances of passing my other favorite law -- a law forbidding Congress to make exceptions for itself in the laws it passes.) <wry grin>
<G> It has about as much chance of taking over all parts of the broadcast spectrum; the most massive/extreme implementation ain't happening any time soon.
But, as the author points out, "Open Spectrum" is already the status quo in the band occupied by 802.11*. More to the point, reserving large chunks of the broadcast/communication spectrum for the exclusive use of single radio or television stations is wasteful.
It reminds me of what Deutsche Telekom was doing in Germany in the early 1990s -- they allowed only 1200 kBD analog modems with acoustic couplers, and required that customers buy or lease them from Deutsche Telekom. Most of the Germans I knew who were online back then ignored DT and bought and installed (then) state-of-the-art 9600 kBD modems.
I know it's ethnic stereotyping to say this, but most Germans I know are a LOT less prone to ignore stupid and pointless rules than Americans are, especially American geeks. ;>
My guess is that, if the technology is developed to allow users to share a spectrum without stepping on the exclusive/analog signal, people will start using it, with or without official approval.
If the U.S. government recognizes that the rules need to change to keep up with the state of technology, all will be fine and good. If, as I expect, the government refuses to change the rules in a timely fashion, I doubt that will change what people do. Washington has bigger concerns than arresting geeks who aren't interfering with anyone, and will catch up with the rest of us eventually. :>
> What can a skillful geek (electrical,
:)
:>
;> are all rooting for you, even if we are a bit jealous too.) :>
> electronical and software engineer, speaks
> three languages fluently) like me do to see
> the world. Volunteer ? Working for a
> multinational with exchange programs?
> Something with no connection at all to
> the tech world? Please share your
> experience.
I ended up doing the first -- volunteering -- and also took classes at the local university. I spent two years living in Europe and travelling through it and the then-current Soviet Union. I don't regret a minute of that time, although I didn't get started on a career or make much money.
You've got the right idea -- now is a great time to go.
First, if by "speak three languages fluently", you mean HUMAN languages and not Java or C++, you might want to pick a place where you speak the language. One reason I enjoyed my time in Europe so much is that I speak German and Russian. (Not fluently when I went -- fluently after two years, though.)
Then, find some charity or NGO that's doing something you believe in and would like to contribute to. Poke around and see if they have an "internship" or could even offer to pay you enough to pay for your room and board.
They might be willing to do that in return for computer geek skills, but your English skills might prove to be more useful in many parts of the world. (I notice a bunch of people suggested teaching English -- that is definitely one way to do this.)
You have nine months. I'd start at the college Job Placement/Career counseling office, and also contact a bunch of charities of your choice and see what they might have available.
And keep us posted! (Us old fogies
While T3 Direct (those filthy spamming slimeballs) could appeal, and it ain't over til it's over, this was GOOD news. :)