Unless you're a store wanting to resell this in a 3rd world country
Third world? Only in the US or Japan are you going to find the kind of rich geeks who'd spend money on a bunch of obsolete toys... I mean "unique collectibles".
In fact in palces like India, China, Education is highly coveted and scholars are respected and honoured as against being picked on as Nerds.
How romantic; how untrue.
In modern China, businessmen are gods. University teachers have trouble pauying the rent, and are under constant suspicion from the government for not toeing the line.
I hate that phrase. We are ALL in "developing countries", Choose your euphemism:
the South;
Third World (or Fourth for places like Bangladesh);
Less developed...
Like racial terms, or words for the place where you shit, after a while every euphemism starts to seem pejorative and you have to come up with a new one.
Alteration can be done with software like the GIMP (afaik it has a PDF import filter), OOo, Koffice, and others. Also, alteration can be done by using software like pdf2ps and opening the ps file in an editor or something.
As I said "specialised graphic apps". Anyway, I suspect at least GIMP would render the PDF to a bitmap in the process.
Ok he might have helped ending the cold war by starting an arms race the Soviets couldn't keep up with.
I credit Gorbachev more than Reagan with the transformation of the USSR into post-Communism relatively peacefully. With a more doctrinaire and ruthless leader, like the Kims of North Korea or Castro, a Communist government can hang on indefinitely if they have the will.
The government may have wrote laws about copyright, but what makes you think the ISP should spend time and money looking into a copyright matter when the copyright problem is between the original poster and the copyright owner
Because, as I understand it, the ISP is liable if they don't take it down and it's found to be an infringement.
What about the U.S. government killing 2,000,000 Vietnamese? Where does that fit in?
Does killing your own people count? Then bump Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Kim Il Sung and his dad to the top of the list. Not that absolves any lesser murderers...
I also on a side note the writter of this story doesn't really under stand the meaning of censorship. Only a government can censor a person, a private company does not have this ability.
The author discussed this point. And anyway, the government is the censor in this case. The government(s) deliberately wrote laws allowing these actions, supported by the (government) courts.
>Nothing I can do about it, but I DO resent it. Fair enough, but there is something you can do about it: convince your ISP to do something
How would I go about convincing my ISP (the Sony corporation) to do anything? I can't get beyond the first level of customer support when I have a problem. The only other choice of broadband I have is PCCW; which has a much bigger spam problem, probably due to it being broke and understaffed.
>Perhaps you might care about the intended recipients of the legitimate email that you have deleted. Actually, not really
It's not clear to me whether you're talking about your personal email or for a company or ISP. If the former, block away, pull the plug. If the latter, it's a very cavalier attitude to take with someone else's communications.
Then it is your responsability to lobby your goverment to crack down on spam in your country
Most of the spam is from America and sent to Americans. Actually I get a lot of that too, though I couldn't buy the stuff advertised even if I wanted to (American mortgages, credit cards, cable decoders as well as the usual viagra etc). I assume you're American -- look at the Register of Known Spam Operations. 141 out of 180 are American. One is From Hong Kong. When you get the number of spammers down to the same, you come back and complain. Americans are the spammers. But you want the rest of the world to solve your problem, and/or suffer for it.
Dealing with spam is inconvenient, too. Get over it.
Okay, so I'm collateral damage in your War on Spam. When someone punishes me for the actions of another I have nor control over, I do resent it. Nothing I can do about it, but I DO resent it.
If 99.9% (say) of the mail I get from APNIC netblocks is spam, I don't care if I inconvenience the senders of the 0.1% a little bit.
Perhaps you might care about the intended recipients of the legitimate email that you have deleted.
as for banning korea etc. well, i have absolutely zero reason to receive email from anyone in korea nor do i read korean. so into the bin goes *.kr. how exactly does that hurt any koreans?
If you're filtering your personal email, use an Ouija board, whatever you like, it's your privilege. If you're adminning for a company or an ISP, it's excessive.
Perhaps you and the several million other legitimate internet users in HK should find the spammers and beat them to death.
The general wisdom is that, like the US, most of the spam appearing to come from local servers is from zombies. We have cheap broadband here, like Korea, and that brings its problems. It'd be nice if you guys could send a lynch mob to get these assholes and we'd all see less spam.
You personally? No problem. But if you're admin for a company or an ISP, it's a pretty obnoxious policy to impose. Especially if you just silently drop messages rather than bouncing them, leaving me no way to know if I got through to my contact.
Well, if they don't show some common 'net deceancy, it may be the only answer. This applies to ANY ISP
But people are banning entire countries, not ISPs. That leaves those who live there no reason to choose a "good" ISP over a spam haven; all are discriminated against. If you're going to be punished for living in the same country as spammers you might a well get the benefit from using a service subsidised by them.
Most appear not to have read even the summary here, let alone the article. Let me draw your attention to: "organised cirminal gangs in Russia are supplying U.S.- based spammers with details of compromised PCs"> Aside from the atrocious spelling, note that the spam relays are "compromised PCs", probably mostly in the US. So geographical blocks aren't going to stop them. One part of the problem that could and should be fixed is to prevent the "compromises". I suppose these are email "click me and see a movie star's tits" trojans, or maybe more devious direct probes into Windows. In both cases there are simple solutions. Though we'd like to say "DON'T USE WINDOWS YOU MORONS", it will take a while for that to come to pass. But otherwise, a basic firewall and anti-virus, both available free, will prevent almost all these attacks, regardless of patching the OS, and thus reduce the number of zombies.
I was recently talking with a friend from hong kong; he mentioned that virtually no one buys legitimate copies of software because it's more expensive and less readily available...users and companies using pirated software don't update it for fear of legal action--hence the huge number of zombies.
Not true any more (maybe 10 years ago). Now if you buy a PC in HK it almost invariably comes with a Windows OEM install. As for "less readily available" -- that's bullshit. Ther are lots more legal software places than bootleg now, the govt has shut most of the bootleg shops down (though they're easy to find if you want to), they're small stalls in temporary locations for the most part.
A lot of applications are pirated though, but the OSs are mostly legal. People don't update for the same reason Americans don't; they don't understand the need or care as long as it's still working.
The US is the largest spammer in the world. Russia and China would be the largest spam relays.
If Americans thought the same way about guns, they'd ban them. But they say "guns don't kill, people kill". Spam relays don't spam, people (most of them Americans) spam.
f I could tell my mail server to reject all but mail from my "usual" countries, I could avoid the Chinese mail bombs
Thanks. It's people like you that block my mail (I live in Hong Kong) and make me have to use devious inconvenient methods just to send a normal message.
Slashdot Mirror
Third world? Only in the US or Japan are you going to find the kind of rich geeks who'd spend money on a bunch of obsolete toys ... I mean "unique collectibles".
How romantic; how untrue.
In modern China, businessmen are gods. University teachers have trouble pauying the rent, and are under constant suspicion from the government for not toeing the line.
I hate that phrase. We are ALL in "developing countries",
Choose your euphemism:
the South;
Third World (or Fourth for places like Bangladesh);
Less developed...
Like racial terms, or words for the place where you shit, after a while every euphemism starts to seem pejorative and you have to come up with a new one.
If they want to booby trap it, they could pack one of the "drives" with C4. That would be a REAL Trojan Horse.
As I said "specialised graphic apps". Anyway, I suspect at least GIMP would render the PDF to a bitmap in the process.
I credit Gorbachev more than Reagan with the transformation of the USSR into post-Communism relatively peacefully. With a more doctrinaire and ruthless leader, like the Kims of North Korea or Castro, a Communist government can hang on indefinitely if they have the will.
Because, as I understand it, the ISP is liable if they don't take it down and it's found to be an infringement.
Does killing your own people count? Then bump Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Kim Il Sung and his dad to the top of the list. Not that absolves any lesser murderers...
a coop for linux.
coop A cage or pen for confining poultry
coup A notable or strikingly successful move.
Do you really think Tux belongs in a coop?
The author discussed this point. And anyway, the government is the censor in this case. The government(s) deliberately wrote laws allowing these actions, supported by the (government) courts.
>Nothing I can do about it, but I DO resent it.
Fair enough, but there is something you can do about it: convince your ISP to do something
How would I go about convincing my ISP (the Sony corporation) to do anything? I can't get beyond the first level of customer support when I have a problem. The only other choice of broadband I have is PCCW; which has a much bigger spam problem, probably due to it being broke and understaffed.
>Perhaps you might care about the intended recipients of the legitimate email that you have deleted.
Actually, not really
It's not clear to me whether you're talking about your personal email or for a company or ISP. If the former, block away, pull the plug. If the latter, it's a very cavalier attitude to take with someone else's communications.
Most of the spam is from America and sent to Americans. Actually I get a lot of that too, though I couldn't buy the stuff advertised even if I wanted to (American mortgages, credit cards, cable decoders as well as the usual viagra etc). I assume you're American -- look at the Register of Known Spam Operations. 141 out of 180 are American. One is From Hong Kong. When you get the number of spammers down to the same, you come back and complain. Americans are the spammers. But you want the rest of the world to solve your problem, and/or suffer for it.
Okay, so I'm collateral damage in your War on Spam. When someone punishes me for the actions of another I have nor control over, I do resent it. Nothing I can do about it, but I DO resent it.
If 99.9% (say) of the mail I get from APNIC netblocks is spam, I don't care if I inconvenience the senders of the 0.1% a little bit.
Perhaps you might care about the intended recipients of the legitimate email that you have deleted.
If you're filtering your personal email, use an Ouija board, whatever you like, it's your privilege. If you're adminning for a company or an ISP, it's excessive.
I'm not worthy.
Whether it is guns or spam, the root problem is the people, not the process.
That was my point.
The general wisdom is that, like the US, most of the spam appearing to come from local servers is from zombies. We have cheap broadband here, like Korea, and that brings its problems. It'd be nice if you guys could send a lynch mob to get these assholes and we'd all see less spam.
You personally? No problem. But if you're admin for a company or an ISP, it's a pretty obnoxious policy to impose. Especially if you just silently drop messages rather than bouncing them, leaving me no way to know if I got through to my contact.
I have. But it's inconvenient.
But people are banning entire countries, not ISPs. That leaves those who live there no reason to choose a "good" ISP over a spam haven; all are discriminated against. If you're going to be punished for living in the same country as spammers you might a well get the benefit from using a service subsidised by them.
Most appear not to have read even the summary here, let alone the article. Let me draw your attention to: "organised cirminal gangs in Russia are supplying U.S.- based spammers with details of compromised PCs"> Aside from the atrocious spelling, note that the spam relays are "compromised PCs", probably mostly in the US. So geographical blocks aren't going to stop them. One part of the problem that could and should be fixed is to prevent the "compromises". I suppose these are email "click me and see a movie star's tits" trojans, or maybe more devious direct probes into Windows. In both cases there are simple solutions. Though we'd like to say "DON'T USE WINDOWS YOU MORONS", it will take a while for that to come to pass. But otherwise, a basic firewall and anti-virus, both available free, will prevent almost all these attacks, regardless of patching the OS, and thus reduce the number of zombies.
It most certainly is illegal in Thailand. You will be severely punished if you can't afford a hefty bribe to the police and judge.
Not true any more (maybe 10 years ago). Now if you buy a PC in HK it almost invariably comes with a Windows OEM install. As for "less readily available" -- that's bullshit. Ther are lots more legal software places than bootleg now, the govt has shut most of the bootleg shops down (though they're easy to find if you want to), they're small stalls in temporary locations for the most part.
A lot of applications are pirated though, but the OSs are mostly legal. People don't update for the same reason Americans don't; they don't understand the need or care as long as it's still working.
I was referring to the common remedy advocated of banning China/Korea/Russia, etc.
If Americans thought the same way about guns, they'd ban them. But they say "guns don't kill, people kill". Spam relays don't spam, people (most of them Americans) spam.
Thanks. It's people like you that block my mail (I live in Hong Kong) and make me have to use devious inconvenient methods just to send a normal message.