1: You assume the spammer is using a valid (eg. "his") credit card. Other ISPs have successfully had spam-cleanup charges stick even after the spammer contested it. The ISP simply pointed to their online contract which stated "By clicking here you accept the following terms..." which included clauses about network abuse (spam) and cleanup charges.
2: If the spammer didn't use a valid credit card (eg. stolen number) then not paying the fee will be the least of the spammer's problems... Unlike spam, there are very clear laws against credit card fraud - most of which have nice long prison terms attached to them.
Just having the cleanup fee won't stop spam entirely. But I think it would act as a good deterant.
Eh, just turn the bills over to a bill collector, and let them "Deal" with it.
I agree, though. Getting money from a spammer is not an easy process - especially since most of them don't have any to begin with (hence all the get-rich-quick scams etc.)
I don't know about you, but I'm getting upwards of 40 spams a day.
Assuming it only takes me one second to decide a message is spam and hit the delete button, that's 40 seconds a day I'd be spending "hitting delete."
Say we do go to the 1400 spams/year number in 2006. That would mean that everyone would spend 1400 seconds, or about 23 minutes(!) a year just hitting delete.
At $60/hour (which is pretty cheap where I live) my company would be spending $23 *per employee* so they could just hit delete.
But wait, as the infomercials always say, there's more.
Until the employees hit delete, those spams sit in their message queue. And even before that, they had to have been transmitted down my wire and processed by my mailserver.
Left unchecked, the $23/employee/year figure is going to be pretty insignificant when you have to build larger servers and hire a whole other IT person ($100k/year) to deal with the added load/traffic all caused by *spam*.
Really? You have a hotmail account that hasn't already been bombarded into uselessness?
I've had friends who have signed up with Hotmail, and within hours have started getting spam in it.
Most likely what's happening is that account names are being re-used, and/or spammers are simply dictionary-attacking Hotmail trying things like john01..john99, etc.
As for your low spam numbers...want some of mine? I gots plenty in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean (yes, I can tell the difference), and more.
Yes, there are folks who keep rather detailed records of how much spam they receive.
Check google groups for news.admin.net-abuse.email for "spam stats" and you should find some information from various users. Of course, their amounts may be inflated, but the general trend is clear - the amount of spam is increasing quickly.
It is estimated that by this June, more spam will have been sent this year than ALL OF LAST YEAR. That's over 100% growth.
From what I'm seeing, this estimate is dead on target so far... I used to get ~10-20 a day. Now I'm getting 30-40+. Over half are blocked by my filters, but still, 20 spams at 10Kbyte each is a lot of email traffic that simply gets deleted.
So long as AOL is giving out those "Free hours!" CDs, spam will never be too expensive to send.
Until all ISPs start charging 'clean up' fees for spam offenses, there's really no big incentive to keep folks from ever spamming. Sure, they'll lose their account that sent the spam, but the damage has already been done.
I think the spammers realize this as well. I'm getting more and more spam that tells me to call a phone number or write to some physical address for more information. This way, even if they lose their mail account (and they WILL lose it) there's still a chance one or two suckers will contact them.
This means even if they only make $1 from a spam run, that's all profit. Is it any wonder there's so much spam?
That's why spammers need to be fined by their ISP for deleting their account. If nothing else, it'll raise the price of spamming.
That's normally why these shows cost money (usually several hundred dollars) to attend.
Besides, I somehow doubt that kids all over Germany and the rest of Europe are telling their buds "Dude, Sony's letting people play their games for free at CeBIT! Roadtrip!"
Unfortunatly, I don't call a 4" LCD panel "a good UI" for something like this.
This is intended to be a serious piece of AV equipment. It should be able to use your TV, period. A web interface would also be nice, but would be secondary to the TV interface.
Can you imagine trying to use a Tivo if all its interface was crammed onto a 4" LCD? It'd be a lot less attractive of a product - maybe even unusable.
It's overpriced - but not because you or I could build our own for less.
The purpose to buy this (or similar devices) is that all the work is done for, and it provides you with a complete, integrated product.
However, its price of $1500 doesn't justify its features or capabilities.
For $1500, I'd want:
* At least 100GB of space - definitely should be expandable
* Built in ethernet, USB2.0, firewire, homePNA, and maybe a modem (hey, not everyone is going to have a network at home.)
* Full interface that uses your TV, with maybe some optional software for visualization plugins (ala WinAmp) Composite video would be fine for this purpose.
* Able to use either a keyboard or the remote to name folders, tracks, etc.
* Able to read/write from attached device so long as it can be mounted (this would include external HDs, USBMemory Stick readers, your desktop(!) etc.)
* Able to be mounted by Linux/Windows/MacOS box over the network. Sorry, but while FTP is nice, the masses aren't going to think it's "easy." Network Neighborhood, on the other hand, is "easy." This could also be an alternative interface for importing and organizing your MP3s.
* Web interface would also be nice.
* STREAMING SUPPORT - both as a client and a server.
None of the things I've listed above should be very hard to do - especially since similar products already do one or two them. Someone just has to *squish* all the features together onto a single box.
When someone does that, then we can talk about spending $1000+ on this thing.
Until then, I agree with the other posters who say $500 is a fair price for this thing. At $1500, only the serious MP3 folks are going to be interested - and guess what? They've probably already built a PC.
Like being Asian somehow gives you automatic m4d |U|\|g |=U s||11z...
I guess it also never occured to you that in a *movie* things are going to be exaggerated for dramatic effects...such as making Bruce Lee (the hero) look better/stronger/more powerful than anyone else.
Re: the sweatdrop thing - check out Jackie Chan's "City Hunter", which was loosely based off the 'City Hunter' manga/anime.
As I recall, they basically took a cutout of a sweat drop and taped it to the actor's head. No, it didn't look very realistic...but then again, most of the stuff in the movie was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek anyways.
I find it odd that you acknowledge that there exists manga for all ages, but still think that anime is only for children...
Like manga, there's anime for kids, and there's anime for adults (not neccessarily porn, mind you...) Anime, like manga, is just a medium - not a genre.
As for being "weird"...
Since I'm not Japanese, I'm automatically considered "weird" by most Japanese people. I'm even "weirder" since I can speak, read and write Japanese with some proficiency (oftentimes my Japanese is better than their English.)
Heck, even some Americans think I'm weird for even learning another language, much less that I find it fun and interesting...
Eh, whatever. Like anyone here actually cares what the average person thinks of them? I doubt it.
My understanding is that Sony and Nintendo were working to create the next Nintendo platform which included a CDRom drive instead of a cartridge port.
When Nintendo decided to go cart-only with the N64, Sony took their half of their game console and created the Playstation.
Square had already started developing for this Nintendo-CDRom platform, and when it disappeared, it made sense for them to go with Sony. I'm sure there was some money involved as well, but hey, all console makers throw money at developers to get them to develop "exclusive" titles.
Yeah, channel 54 (KTEH) in San Jose CA ran Eva, and runs a lot of other anime series as well.
However, they're a PBS station, and aren't quite held to the same sort of standards the other networks are held to.
Second, they ran the show at 9 or 10pm, so it wasn't quite prime time.
And third, they do preface certain episodes with viewer discretion warnings.
That said, they know their audience. They got Eva because folks said they wanted Eva - and gave them money (it's PBS after all.) They got Eva subbed because that was what most of their pledging fans said they preferred.
There's also The International Channel, which has shown uncut anime - much of it subtitled. They were showing Slayers a while ago...don't know if they still are or not.
Well, then you can thank that 0.01% of your countrymen for making your country's TLD (.cn) the most hated in the world.
At this rate, by the time China DOES get a clue and starts dealing with its spam problem, they're going to need to get a new TLD and some new IP#s, since.cn and all its IP#s are blocked by untold numbers individual users and admins.
And if just 0.01% of the remaining 99.99% of China's population had tried to make their voices heard that they wanted to do something about educating their fellow internet users about why spam is bad, maybe we wouldn't be looking at the next great wall of China.
In the meantime, I'll continue to block all of China from my mailbox, as I've done for over a year now. I tried communicating with the admins in China, but all I ever got back in return was more spam.
I'm glad to hear China is slowly becoming aware of their on-going spam problem. Maybe in another 3 or 5 years I'll consider removing China from my email filters.
A number of Tivo's features rely on the schedule data it downloads. Without that internal data base, many of Tivo's features - the stuff that makes it a "Tivo" - won't work.
Sure, you can get a PVR card for your PC, and using TV Guide's website, or some packaged data, schedule your PC to record your programs.
However, that requires you to know both the time and channel of when something is on.
If you REALLY want a "PC-Tivo", you're going to have to recreate the ability for Tivo to simply record a show based on its title. Essentially, grepping through the schedule looking for all occurrences of that show, and scheduling.
So far, none of the PC solutions have this feature. They all essentially provide you with the familiar VCR paradigm in that you tell it to "record NBC, Tuesday, 8:00pm - 8:30pm". Tivo, on the other hand, allows you to say "Record Friends, new episodes only."
It also enables the main features of the Tivo - such as the season pass. Many of the features rely on the database built from the scheduling information. Otherwise, the Tivo is essentially just a VCR that uses a hard drive instead of video tape.
Meanwhile, the service fee allows me to: * Never worry about when a show is on. * Never see reruns (tell a season pass "new episodes only" and that's what you'll get.) * Record shows based on various keyword criteria (eg. tell it "James Bond" and it'll find any show or movie on any channel that contains those words.)
I rarely access the schedule directly...why bother? I've usually got plenty of "good stuff" already recorded. And if I hear about a new show or something I want recorded, it's easier to simply search by title, instead of channel/time, anyways.
The unique ID of the Tivo is not stored on the hard drives.
You can quite safely take a Tivo ISO image from the net, put it onto a fresh, store bought HD, plug it into your Tivo, and not affect your subscription status in the bit.
Also, if your Tivo does break down while under warranty, you can get your subscription transfered to your new unit. (not sure what happens if you were to buy one of those replacement policies from Best Buy or Circuit City... They claim they'll replace the box...but that won't inlcude your subscription...hmm...)
When I bought my Tivo, the lifetime subscription covered ~24 months of usage. I think my HDs will survive that. I also figure in ~24 months, Tivo will have a suitably advanced model that I might buy a whole new unit as an upgrade. The old Tivo will still be useful, and will probably make its way into a family member's house - just like any other old PC.
ReplayTV is also more expensive than Tivo (the hardware.) When you add in Tivo's service fee, their prices are sorta comparable...
So, no separate fee for ReplayTV - the service fee is built into the cost you pay in the store.
This is why I wish Tivo would just dump the fee altogether and roll it into the price you see in the store. Sure, it's going to be a bit scarier to see "Tivo - $550", but that's essentially what you're paying when you buy a standalone Tivo ($300) and then get the lifetime subscription ($250.)
With the monthly fee going to $13/mo for the Tivo, it makes even more sense to do the lifetime fee (which I suspect is part of the real reason they hiked the monthly fee - they WANT you to buy the lifetime - less hassle for them.)
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah and back then, there was *useful* information on that group.
But then the gates burst open, filling the whole hierarchy with porno ad spams.
And don't get me stared on the help-wanted groups...
Two responses:
1: You assume the spammer is using a valid (eg. "his") credit card. Other ISPs have successfully had spam-cleanup charges stick even after the spammer contested it. The ISP simply pointed to their online contract which stated "By clicking here you accept the following terms..." which included clauses about network abuse (spam) and cleanup charges.
2: If the spammer didn't use a valid credit card (eg. stolen number) then not paying the fee will be the least of the spammer's problems... Unlike spam, there are very clear laws against credit card fraud - most of which have nice long prison terms attached to them.
Just having the cleanup fee won't stop spam entirely. But I think it would act as a good deterant.
Eh, just turn the bills over to a bill collector, and let them "Deal" with it.
I agree, though. Getting money from a spammer is not an easy process - especially since most of them don't have any to begin with (hence all the get-rich-quick scams etc.)
The spam problem isn't technological. It's not because of SMTP - heck, how many times have you been "spammed" while using ICQ or IRC?
No, the spam problem is social.
Would you have all 7-11 stores shut down because they tend to be the target of robbers?
Maybe we should redesign the roads to prevent criminals from driving on them while we're at it.
I don't know about you, but I'm getting upwards of 40 spams a day.
Assuming it only takes me one second to decide a message is spam and hit the delete button, that's 40 seconds a day I'd be spending "hitting delete."
Say we do go to the 1400 spams/year number in 2006. That would mean that everyone would spend 1400 seconds, or about 23 minutes(!) a year just hitting delete.
At $60/hour (which is pretty cheap where I live) my company would be spending $23 *per employee* so they could just hit delete.
But wait, as the infomercials always say, there's more.
Until the employees hit delete, those spams sit in their message queue. And even before that, they had to have been transmitted down my wire and processed by my mailserver.
Left unchecked, the $23/employee/year figure is going to be pretty insignificant when you have to build larger servers and hire a whole other IT person ($100k/year) to deal with the added load/traffic all caused by *spam*.
Really? You have a hotmail account that hasn't already been bombarded into uselessness?
I've had friends who have signed up with Hotmail, and within hours have started getting spam in it.
Most likely what's happening is that account names are being re-used, and/or spammers are simply dictionary-attacking Hotmail trying things like john01..john99, etc.
As for your low spam numbers...want some of mine? I gots plenty in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean (yes, I can tell the difference), and more.
Yes, there are folks who keep rather detailed records of how much spam they receive.
Check google groups for news.admin.net-abuse.email for "spam stats" and you should find some information from various users. Of course, their amounts may be inflated, but the general trend is clear - the amount of spam is increasing quickly.
It is estimated that by this June, more spam will have been sent this year than ALL OF LAST YEAR. That's over 100% growth.
From what I'm seeing, this estimate is dead on target so far... I used to get ~10-20 a day. Now I'm getting 30-40+. Over half are blocked by my filters, but still, 20 spams at 10Kbyte each is a lot of email traffic that simply gets deleted.
So long as AOL is giving out those "Free hours!" CDs, spam will never be too expensive to send.
Until all ISPs start charging 'clean up' fees for spam offenses, there's really no big incentive to keep folks from ever spamming. Sure, they'll lose their account that sent the spam, but the damage has already been done.
I think the spammers realize this as well. I'm getting more and more spam that tells me to call a phone number or write to some physical address for more information. This way, even if they lose their mail account (and they WILL lose it) there's still a chance one or two suckers will contact them.
This means even if they only make $1 from a spam run, that's all profit. Is it any wonder there's so much spam?
That's why spammers need to be fined by their ISP for deleting their account. If nothing else, it'll raise the price of spamming.
That's normally why these shows cost money (usually several hundred dollars) to attend.
Besides, I somehow doubt that kids all over Germany and the rest of Europe are telling their buds "Dude, Sony's letting people play their games for free at CeBIT! Roadtrip!"
Yes, a good UI is an essential feature.
Unfortunatly, I don't call a 4" LCD panel "a good UI" for something like this.
This is intended to be a serious piece of AV equipment. It should be able to use your TV, period. A web interface would also be nice, but would be secondary to the TV interface.
Can you imagine trying to use a Tivo if all its interface was crammed onto a 4" LCD? It'd be a lot less attractive of a product - maybe even unusable.
It's overpriced - but not because you or I could build our own for less.
The purpose to buy this (or similar devices) is that all the work is done for, and it provides you with a complete, integrated product.
However, its price of $1500 doesn't justify its features or capabilities.
For $1500, I'd want:
* At least 100GB of space - definitely should be expandable
* Built in ethernet, USB2.0, firewire, homePNA, and maybe a modem (hey, not everyone is going to have a network at home.)
* Full interface that uses your TV, with maybe some optional software for visualization plugins (ala WinAmp) Composite video would be fine for this purpose.
* Able to use either a keyboard or the remote to name folders, tracks, etc.
* Able to read/write from attached device so long as it can be mounted (this would include external HDs, USBMemory Stick readers, your desktop(!) etc.)
* Able to be mounted by Linux/Windows/MacOS box over the network. Sorry, but while FTP is nice, the masses aren't going to think it's "easy." Network Neighborhood, on the other hand, is "easy." This could also be an alternative interface for importing and organizing your MP3s.
* Web interface would also be nice.
* STREAMING SUPPORT - both as a client and a server.
None of the things I've listed above should be very hard to do - especially since similar products already do one or two them. Someone just has to *squish* all the features together onto a single box.
When someone does that, then we can talk about spending $1000+ on this thing.
Until then, I agree with the other posters who say $500 is a fair price for this thing. At $1500, only the serious MP3 folks are going to be interested - and guess what? They've probably already built a PC.
Riiiight....
Like being Asian somehow gives you automatic m4d |U|\|g |=U s||11z...
I guess it also never occured to you that in a *movie* things are going to be exaggerated for dramatic effects...such as making Bruce Lee (the hero) look better/stronger/more powerful than anyone else.
Re: the sweatdrop thing - check out Jackie Chan's "City Hunter", which was loosely based off the 'City Hunter' manga/anime.
As I recall, they basically took a cutout of a sweat drop and taped it to the actor's head. No, it didn't look very realistic...but then again, most of the stuff in the movie was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek anyways.
I find it odd that you acknowledge that there exists manga for all ages, but still think that anime is only for children...
Like manga, there's anime for kids, and there's anime for adults (not neccessarily porn, mind you...) Anime, like manga, is just a medium - not a genre.
As for being "weird"...
Since I'm not Japanese, I'm automatically considered "weird" by most Japanese people. I'm even "weirder" since I can speak, read and write Japanese with some proficiency (oftentimes my Japanese is better than their English.)
Heck, even some Americans think I'm weird for even
learning another language, much less that I find it fun and interesting...
Eh, whatever. Like anyone here actually cares what the average person thinks of them? I doubt it.
Why would the actors need to be Asian?
None of the characters in Dragonball (Z) are. (remember, DB(Z) doesn't take place on Earth.)
My understanding is that Sony and Nintendo were working to create the next Nintendo platform which included a CDRom drive instead of a cartridge port.
When Nintendo decided to go cart-only with the N64, Sony took their half of their game console and created the Playstation.
Square had already started developing for this Nintendo-CDRom platform, and when it disappeared, it made sense for them to go with Sony. I'm sure there was some money involved as well, but hey, all console makers throw money at developers to get them to develop "exclusive" titles.
The remakes of FF7-9 for PS2 has all but fallen off the radar it seems.
:)
Not even Square is talking about those anymore...
Maybe when the economy (and Square's financial position in particular) improves we'll hear about these again...
Still, if it's older stuff they want to revamp, why not do a remake of Chrono Cross and Xenogears?
Yeah, channel 54 (KTEH) in San Jose CA ran Eva,
and runs a lot of other anime series as well.
However, they're a PBS station, and aren't quite held to the same sort of standards the other networks are held to.
Second, they ran the show at 9 or 10pm, so it wasn't quite prime time.
And third, they do preface certain episodes with viewer discretion warnings.
That said, they know their audience. They got Eva because folks said they wanted Eva - and gave them money (it's PBS after all.) They got Eva subbed because that was what most of their pledging fans said they preferred.
There's also The International Channel, which has shown uncut anime - much of it subtitled. They were showing Slayers a while ago...don't know if they still are or not.
Well, then you can thank that 0.01% of your countrymen for making your country's TLD (.cn) the most hated in the world.
.cn and all its IP#s are blocked by untold numbers individual users and admins.
At this rate, by the time China DOES get a clue and starts dealing with its spam problem, they're going to need to get a new TLD and some new IP#s, since
And if just 0.01% of the remaining 99.99% of China's population had tried to make their voices heard that they wanted to do something about educating their fellow internet users about why spam is bad, maybe we wouldn't be looking at the next great wall of China.
In the meantime, I'll continue to block all of China from my mailbox, as I've done for over a year now. I tried communicating with the admins in China, but all I ever got back in return was more spam.
I'm glad to hear China is slowly becoming aware of their on-going spam problem. Maybe in another 3 or 5 years I'll consider removing China from my email filters.
A number of Tivo's features rely on the schedule data it downloads. Without that internal data base, many of Tivo's features - the stuff that makes it a "Tivo" - won't work.
Sure, you can get a PVR card for your PC, and using TV Guide's website, or some packaged data, schedule your PC to record your programs.
However, that requires you to know both the time and channel of when something is on.
If you REALLY want a "PC-Tivo", you're going to have to recreate the ability for Tivo to simply record a show based on its title. Essentially, grepping through the schedule looking for all occurrences of that show, and scheduling.
So far, none of the PC solutions have this feature. They all essentially provide you with the familiar VCR paradigm in that you tell it to "record NBC, Tuesday, 8:00pm - 8:30pm". Tivo, on the other hand, allows you to say "Record Friends, new episodes only."
The service isn't just the TV guide data.
It also enables the main features of the Tivo - such as the season pass. Many of the features rely on the database built from the scheduling information. Otherwise, the Tivo is essentially just a VCR that uses a hard drive instead of video tape.
Meanwhile, the service fee allows me to:
* Never worry about when a show is on.
* Never see reruns (tell a season pass "new episodes only" and that's what you'll get.)
* Record shows based on various keyword criteria (eg. tell it "James Bond" and it'll find any show or movie on any channel that contains those words.)
I rarely access the schedule directly...why bother? I've usually got plenty of "good stuff" already recorded. And if I hear about a new show or something I want recorded, it's easier to simply search by title, instead of channel/time, anyways.
The unique ID of the Tivo is not stored on the hard drives.
You can quite safely take a Tivo ISO image from the net, put it onto a fresh, store bought HD, plug it into your Tivo, and not affect your subscription status in the bit.
Also, if your Tivo does break down while under warranty, you can get your subscription transfered to your new unit. (not sure what happens if you were to buy one of those replacement policies from Best Buy or Circuit City... They claim they'll replace the box...but that won't inlcude your subscription...hmm...)
When I bought my Tivo, the lifetime subscription covered ~24 months of usage. I think my HDs will survive that. I also figure in ~24 months, Tivo will have a suitably advanced model that I might buy a whole new unit as an upgrade. The old Tivo will still be useful, and will probably make its way into a family member's house - just like any other old PC.
Read the article next time (or at least the /. description...)
Tivo is raising the monthly fee from $9.95, to $12.95.
I don't see it as Tivo trying to milk more money from their users. I do, however, see people lacking math skills...
You've been paying the monthly fee ($10/mo) for two years, which means you've paid $240 in fees so far.
HOWEVER, if you had just gone with the one-time lifetime fee back then, you would have paid $200 once, and STILL be covered.
Even if you ditched your Tivo today, you would have saved $40.
IMHO, it seems to me Tivo is all but whacking people over the head screaming "Hey you! The lifetime fee is CHEAPER!"
ReplayTV is also more expensive than Tivo (the hardware.) When you add in Tivo's service fee, their prices are sorta comparable...
So, no separate fee for ReplayTV - the service fee is built into the cost you pay in the store.
This is why I wish Tivo would just dump the fee altogether and roll it into the price you see in the store. Sure, it's going to be a bit scarier to see "Tivo - $550", but that's essentially what you're paying when you buy a standalone Tivo ($300) and then get the lifetime subscription ($250.)
With the monthly fee going to $13/mo for the Tivo, it makes even more sense to do the lifetime fee (which I suspect is part of the real reason they hiked the monthly fee - they WANT you to buy the lifetime - less hassle for them.)