A former co-worker of mine told me of another example from the early BBS days.
I, too, had one of these. If a user paged me and I didn't answer, the bot would answer in place of me. While I was away one day, apparently "I" had a very long (in excess of half an hour) conversation with my girlfriend, during which "I" completely pissed her off and she broke up with me.
No shit. I never did tell her that it wasn't me. I was better off without that girl, anyway...
Reading the logs that day was the funniest thing you could imagine. I wish I would have had the foresight to save them.
What I'd really like to see is a cheap hardware card that you could throw into that old P 90 you have laying around that would give you remote control capability.
Execept, I almost gaurantee that a p90, mainboard, 8MB RAM, network card, ir port, remote control, and soundcard with digital output is going to set you back at least the same amount of money
I think you're missing the point. Most of us have old computers laying around. I have no less than 2 dozen old P166's stacked up in a closet. 32MB with >2 gig hard drives, PCI network cards, some have CD-ROMs... In this case, it's only a matter of spending a little time. Heck, even if you have to build something from scratch, you can pickup old Pentiums with most everything you need already inside for under $100 just about anywhere.
Here's your future: Millions of people will refuse to adopt these bullshit standards. They'll figure out a way to write a college thesis in Word without paying Microsoft by the character. They'll listen to their rightfully purchased CDs without paying the RIAA by the hour. And the US Government will throw huge numbers of these non-violent "terrorists" (read: you & me) in jail at huge expense.
You can use our current drug policies as a guide to the future of DRM...
That I have no evidence directly disputing any chocolate milk moon river claims
There is plenty of evidence directly disputing chocolate milk moon river claims. You didn't follow the Apollo missions? Now, if you were talking underground rivers, you'd have a point...
Start small. Make a few of 'em by hand, make sure they all work, and sell them on EBay. Create a nice business oriented web site and link to it in your EBay listings. Research traditional marketing priciples and apply them. A catchy domain name helps, too.
This is something you could start now for very little $$. Trying to find someone to manufacture these things en masse would be a pain in the ass and likely require a huge investment. I say, make them all by hand for a couple of years until you are so flooded with orders that you just can't keep up. Then take it to the next step.
I know. That's what I was talking about. My original post was about Audrey. Someone replied to that post, saying how excited they were that "this" product was being released. Since it was a direct reply to my Audrey post, I assumed they were excited about Audrey and based my response on that.
This is great news. It's going to be an awesome product!
Huh? It flopped. They sold them for a few months but nobody was willing to pay $600 a pop so they canceled it. Most retailers cleared out remaining inventories for a fraction of the original selling price.
And finally, Hotmail does use MAPS if you enable it.
However, Hotmail does not force you to use it, which was my whole point: You have options. Nobody is being forced to use MAPS. Even people stuck with a MAPS subscribing ISP can get a free email account that is not subject to MAPS filtering.
What if I were to sign up for a newsletter, and then later send it in to SpamCop? Are you telling me that the SpamCop script has some type of intelligent filter to know whether or not my complaint is legitimate or that I did/did-not sign up?
Of course not. The software must assume the user is reporting spam. You can't expect it to be able to tell whether or not the user is lying. Therefore, the burden of proof lies not on Spamcop, but on the user claiming to have received the spam. Spamcop shouldn't even enter into the equation.
Any business that has a problem with users mistaking actual subscriptions for spam needs to rethink their policies. While it does happen that someone will sign up for a mailing list and then later report it as spam, it's a rare occurance unless something is inherently wrong with the way the list is being run. Mailing lists should have a two step opt-in process, with the second step being a reply emailed from the user. A simple form on a web page with no confirmation from the email address submitted invites trouble. Secondly, removal instructions should be proudly displayed on every piece of email sent to the subscribers, and they should be simple. The easiest way is to provide a URL where users can unsubscribe themselves.
If your company has problems with opt-in users accusing you of spamming them, that problem lies not with Spamcop nor with your users, but rather with your policies and methods used in operating your distribution lists. Take responsibility for this, fix the problem at it's source and the spam reports will go away.
Yes, I know that sysadmins choose to use MAPS, but all their users don't. The collateral damage is substantial.
If you don't like the policies of your ISP, complain to them, or find a new one. Or setup your own server, get a dedicated IP and don't enable MAPS. Or get a free email address from Hotmail, Lord knows they don't care about blocking spam. You have plenty of options here; quit bitching and exercise them.
However, if a company wants to use single opt-in, that's their right. If the company maintains subscription lists, IP addresses and/or message headers of the people that subscribed (as we do), to prove WHO subscribed an e-mail address, that should be enough.
And if I and 100,000 other sysadmins want to blackhole your ass into oblivion, that's our right as well. As for suing Spamcop: Spamcop doesn't accuse you; users do. You DO know that actual people are submitting the spam to Spamcop, don't you? Or did you think they just have a script running that harasses people at random?
Holy shit, this "christian" website is disgusting.
Just to clarify, this is not a "christian" web site. Christians don't pull this kind of shit. Don't let people like this allow you to believe the word "Christian" is synonymous with "Stupid evil fucks." It's not. Being a Christian is much more than just proclaiming, "I'm a Christian." You have to walk the walk.
However, they might rule that blacklisting isn't a protected activity, even though it involves speech.
But MAPS is not blacklisting anybody. Server administrators are, and I doubt anybody could sue over the right to communicate with your server. Just as I do not have to answer my phone, my server does not have to answer your request. Although I wouldn't be surprised if some asinine judge ruled otherwise.
All MAPS does is provide a list of known spammers. This SHOULD be a protected activity. Unfortunately, the bottom feeding lawyers have blurred everything to the point that none of our rights are certain anymore.
I think firearm manufacturers probably should pay society to cover for the lost lives.
That's a great idea. I think anyone who makes cutlery should also pay society to cover for lives lost due to stabbings. Baseball bat manufacturers, too. And automakers - look at how many people die in auto accidents. Better sue GM.
Now you'll claim that my examples are bad, that knives and baseball bats and cars have legitimate uses, while guns are only used to kill people. This is another typical bullshit argument from the anti-gun camp. Police departments all over the country spend billions on firearms not to kill people, but to protect them.
You don't sue the manufacturer because their product was used incorrectly. You sue the dumb fuck who misused it.
To give an economical perspective, a concert band or symphony orchestra employs up to 120 people (iirc, London Symphony Orchetsra), rarely if ever releases CD's, has huge overhead in musical instruments, and still turns a profit in the majority of large cities. Surely God a band of 4 people with mass produced musical equipment can fabricate a decent profit from live concerts.
Somebody mod this up. This is one of the most intelligent thoughts I've seen in a long time. If you're good enough, you can give away all of your music and develop a huge fan base. Then charge $20 a pop for concert tickets. At 20,000 people per concert (seems like a small concert to me), that's $400K. If only 1/4 of that is profit, $100K per concert times a couple dozen concerts a year equals a hell of a lot more money than most people make.
Except that, in today's economy, I bet most concert halls and places like Ticketmaster would refuse to deal with an unsigned artist due to RIAA agreements.
Afghanistan. Hell, anything's legal there (except women feeding their families). But I am CERTAIN they don't care if you make a copy of an N*Sync CD.
Actually, they'd probably kill you. Most music is illegal. Computers are illegal. The Internet is illegal. Anything Western (from the US) is illegal. Actually, in Afghanistan, anything that the Taliban police want to be illegal is illegal, even if it's not. They can arrest you and throw you in jail for walking down the street if they decide they don't like you.
They will have a tax placed on blank media and will then extend it to all hardware. They will buy laws that let them view all of your data traffic
And when millions of people start using illegal encryption, then what? Throw everyone in jail for a victimless crime? (Oops. They already do this. See current drug policy.)
As for slapping taxes on hardware, maybe then it will be time to start shoplifting. Hell, they already accuse us of being thieves, might as well live up to the name. (Note: I'm not advocating this. Just venting frustration.)
The "absent minded professor" type is pretty forgettful about getting the phone on the charger at night, and thus is prone to running out of power mid-conversation. Additionally, if you travel for business, a FC powered phone would also mean that you wouldn't have to carry a charger with you on trips.
Point #1: Anyone who can't be bothered or can't remember to plug their cellphone into a charger at night doesn't deserve to own one. Mine is tossed in a cradle on my dresser every night and doubles as my alarm clock. I've never run out of power; even if I don't plug it in, the damn thing will go a week on standby.
Point #2: This fuel cell isn't built into the cellphone. It's an extra device you have to carry around. Might as well carry a charger.
This is like those idiot cybersquatters. These morons patent a concept, do jack shit to develop it, then get mad when someone else does. There should be a clause in US Patent law that requires you to actually implement your ideas. Otherwise people just sit on it until someone else makes it work, then reap huge financial rewards for being the first to buy the piece of paper.
One wonders why they didn't do something a couple of years ago when Tivo first started selling these boxes...
Yeah, imagine how cool you'll look holding your cellular phone in front of your face so the other party can see you. As for that 300k+ connection, what good is it if the phone doesn't come with a 20GB hard drive and a copy of Morpheus? The masses will never accept this.
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A former co-worker of mine told me of another example from the early BBS days.
I, too, had one of these. If a user paged me and I didn't answer, the bot would answer in place of me. While I was away one day, apparently "I" had a very long (in excess of half an hour) conversation with my girlfriend, during which "I" completely pissed her off and she broke up with me.
No shit. I never did tell her that it wasn't me. I was better off without that girl, anyway...
Reading the logs that day was the funniest thing you could imagine. I wish I would have had the foresight to save them.
What I'd really like to see is a cheap hardware card that you could throw into that old P 90 you have laying around that would give you remote control capability.
Here you go: http://www.evation.com/irman/
Execept, I almost gaurantee that a p90, mainboard, 8MB RAM, network card, ir port, remote control, and soundcard with digital output is going to set you back at least the same amount of money
I think you're missing the point. Most of us have old computers laying around. I have no less than 2 dozen old P166's stacked up in a closet. 32MB with >2 gig hard drives, PCI network cards, some have CD-ROMs... In this case, it's only a matter of spending a little time. Heck, even if you have to build something from scratch, you can pickup old Pentiums with most everything you need already inside for under $100 just about anywhere.
It can interact with the station walls and crew and supposedly has some light "mischief" programmed in as well (sneaking up on people, dancing).
Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of...
Oh, nevermind...
Here's your future: Millions of people will refuse to adopt these bullshit standards. They'll figure out a way to write a college thesis in Word without paying Microsoft by the character. They'll listen to their rightfully purchased CDs without paying the RIAA by the hour. And the US Government will throw huge numbers of these non-violent "terrorists" (read: you & me) in jail at huge expense.
You can use our current drug policies as a guide to the future of DRM...
It seems like there's more people out there that don't have a need for them
Who are you to determine whether someone has a need for a cellphone or not? And who defines "need"? Some of us just like staying in touch.
That I have no evidence directly disputing any chocolate milk moon river claims
There is plenty of evidence directly disputing chocolate milk moon river claims. You didn't follow the Apollo missions? Now, if you were talking underground rivers, you'd have a point...
Start small. Make a few of 'em by hand, make sure they all work, and sell them on EBay. Create a nice business oriented web site and link to it in your EBay listings. Research traditional marketing priciples and apply them. A catchy domain name helps, too.
This is something you could start now for very little $$. Trying to find someone to manufacture these things en masse would be a pain in the ass and likely require a huge investment. I say, make them all by hand for a couple of years until you are so flooded with orders that you just can't keep up. Then take it to the next step.
... it's never been done.
Not according to this guy.
Audrey was dropped, not this...
I know. That's what I was talking about. My original post was about Audrey. Someone replied to that post, saying how excited they were that "this" product was being released. Since it was a direct reply to my Audrey post, I assumed they were excited about Audrey and based my response on that.
This is great news. It's going to be an awesome product!
Huh? It flopped. They sold them for a few months but nobody was willing to pay $600 a pop so they canceled it. Most retailers cleared out remaining inventories for a fraction of the original selling price.
And finally, Hotmail does use MAPS if you enable it.
However, Hotmail does not force you to use it, which was my whole point: You have options. Nobody is being forced to use MAPS. Even people stuck with a MAPS subscribing ISP can get a free email account that is not subject to MAPS filtering.
For around $600, this looks like it might make a great living room terminal.
I would have thought anyone that wanted a living room terminal would have bought a 3COM Audrey a couple months ago when they were going for $100...
What if I were to sign up for a newsletter, and then later send it in to SpamCop? Are you telling me that the SpamCop script has some type of intelligent filter to know whether or not my complaint is legitimate or that I did/did-not sign up?
Of course not. The software must assume the user is reporting spam. You can't expect it to be able to tell whether or not the user is lying. Therefore, the burden of proof lies not on Spamcop, but on the user claiming to have received the spam. Spamcop shouldn't even enter into the equation.
Any business that has a problem with users mistaking actual subscriptions for spam needs to rethink their policies. While it does happen that someone will sign up for a mailing list and then later report it as spam, it's a rare occurance unless something is inherently wrong with the way the list is being run. Mailing lists should have a two step opt-in process, with the second step being a reply emailed from the user. A simple form on a web page with no confirmation from the email address submitted invites trouble. Secondly, removal instructions should be proudly displayed on every piece of email sent to the subscribers, and they should be simple. The easiest way is to provide a URL where users can unsubscribe themselves.
If your company has problems with opt-in users accusing you of spamming them, that problem lies not with Spamcop nor with your users, but rather with your policies and methods used in operating your distribution lists. Take responsibility for this, fix the problem at it's source and the spam reports will go away.
Yes, I know that sysadmins choose to use MAPS, but all their users don't. The collateral damage is substantial.
If you don't like the policies of your ISP, complain to them, or find a new one. Or setup your own server, get a dedicated IP and don't enable MAPS. Or get a free email address from Hotmail, Lord knows they don't care about blocking spam. You have plenty of options here; quit bitching and exercise them.
However, if a company wants to use single opt-in, that's their right. If the company maintains subscription lists, IP addresses and/or message headers of the people that subscribed (as we do), to prove WHO subscribed an e-mail address, that should be enough.
And if I and 100,000 other sysadmins want to blackhole your ass into oblivion, that's our right as well. As for suing Spamcop: Spamcop doesn't accuse you; users do. You DO know that actual people are submitting the spam to Spamcop, don't you? Or did you think they just have a script running that harasses people at random?
Holy shit, this "christian" website is disgusting.
Just to clarify, this is not a "christian" web site. Christians don't pull this kind of shit. Don't let people like this allow you to believe the word "Christian" is synonymous with "Stupid evil fucks." It's not. Being a Christian is much more than just proclaiming, "I'm a Christian." You have to walk the walk.
However, they might rule that blacklisting isn't a protected activity, even though it involves speech.
But MAPS is not blacklisting anybody. Server administrators are, and I doubt anybody could sue over the right to communicate with your server. Just as I do not have to answer my phone, my server does not have to answer your request. Although I wouldn't be surprised if some asinine judge ruled otherwise.
All MAPS does is provide a list of known spammers. This SHOULD be a protected activity. Unfortunately, the bottom feeding lawyers have blurred everything to the point that none of our rights are certain anymore.
I think firearm manufacturers probably should pay society to cover for the lost lives.
That's a great idea. I think anyone who makes cutlery should also pay society to cover for lives lost due to stabbings. Baseball bat manufacturers, too. And automakers - look at how many people die in auto accidents. Better sue GM.
Now you'll claim that my examples are bad, that knives and baseball bats and cars have legitimate uses, while guns are only used to kill people. This is another typical bullshit argument from the anti-gun camp. Police departments all over the country spend billions on firearms not to kill people, but to protect them.
You don't sue the manufacturer because their product was used incorrectly. You sue the dumb fuck who misused it.
To give an economical perspective, a concert band or symphony orchestra employs up to 120 people (iirc, London Symphony Orchetsra), rarely if ever releases CD's, has huge overhead in musical instruments, and still turns a profit in the majority of large cities. Surely God a band of 4 people with mass produced musical equipment can fabricate a decent profit from live concerts.
Somebody mod this up. This is one of the most intelligent thoughts I've seen in a long time. If you're good enough, you can give away all of your music and develop a huge fan base. Then charge $20 a pop for concert tickets. At 20,000 people per concert (seems like a small concert to me), that's $400K. If only 1/4 of that is profit, $100K per concert times a couple dozen concerts a year equals a hell of a lot more money than most people make.
Except that, in today's economy, I bet most concert halls and places like Ticketmaster would refuse to deal with an unsigned artist due to RIAA agreements.
Afghanistan. Hell, anything's legal there (except women feeding their families). But I am CERTAIN they don't care if you make a copy of an N*Sync CD.
Actually, they'd probably kill you. Most music is illegal. Computers are illegal. The Internet is illegal. Anything Western (from the US) is illegal. Actually, in Afghanistan, anything that the Taliban police want to be illegal is illegal, even if it's not. They can arrest you and throw you in jail for walking down the street if they decide they don't like you.
They will have a tax placed on blank media and will then extend it to all hardware. They will buy laws that let them view all of your data traffic
And when millions of people start using illegal encryption, then what? Throw everyone in jail for a victimless crime? (Oops. They already do this. See current drug policy.)
As for slapping taxes on hardware, maybe then it will be time to start shoplifting. Hell, they already accuse us of being thieves, might as well live up to the name. (Note: I'm not advocating this. Just venting frustration.)
The "absent minded professor" type is pretty forgettful about getting the phone on the charger at night, and thus is prone to running out of power mid-conversation. Additionally, if you travel for business, a FC powered phone would also mean that you wouldn't have to carry a charger with you on trips.
Point #1: Anyone who can't be bothered or can't remember to plug their cellphone into a charger at night doesn't deserve to own one. Mine is tossed in a cradle on my dresser every night and doubles as my alarm clock. I've never run out of power; even if I don't plug it in, the damn thing will go a week on standby.
Point #2: This fuel cell isn't built into the cellphone. It's an extra device you have to carry around. Might as well carry a charger.
This is like those idiot cybersquatters. These morons patent a concept, do jack shit to develop it, then get mad when someone else does. There should be a clause in US Patent law that requires you to actually implement your ideas. Otherwise people just sit on it until someone else makes it work, then reap huge financial rewards for being the first to buy the piece of paper.
One wonders why they didn't do something a couple of years ago when Tivo first started selling these boxes...
Yeah, imagine how cool you'll look holding your cellular phone in front of your face so the other party can see you. As for that 300k+ connection, what good is it if the phone doesn't come with a 20GB hard drive and a copy of Morpheus? The masses will never accept this.