Well, yeah, but it's for taxes. You don't pay the taxes or the trust fund portion of your taxes (you know, the part that gets removed from your check if you're a W2 employee), then every officer gets assessed a section 6672 trust fund recovery penalty equivalent to the amount that was not paid. So if M$ isn't paying their taxes, then Gates, Ballmer (?), and whomever else is on the BoD for Microsoft gets bludgeoned for the amount that Microsoft didn't pay the IRS on their 94x returns.
So if you really want to get Microsoft in trouble, throw a monkey wrench into their taxes and have the IRS look at it.
"Gripe gripe gripe! We still have to share our voice lines!"
Listen, SBC, the reason I use Speakeasy and not you guys for my internet is because you have crappy customer service. Either improve your CS or pick up your marbles and go home. Same goes for Verizon - ESPECIALLY Verizon - who has all the technical greatness of GTE and all the crappy service of Bell Atlantic.
And if you don't give me an option, I'll move off again.
For these guys?
1) Open yourself up as a spam relay
2)...
3) Lose network access!
Face it, people, $20/month will get you a shitload of ramen, but is it worth $20/mo to lose your gigabit network access?
Many states will not honor small claims suits if it can be determined that the venue is improper. In California, you can go after somebody if you have a REALLY good reason outside of state lines.
It's why that pet supplies guy can't legally sue somebody outside of his area. You file an improper venue plea and they effectively dismiss the case with prejudice.
Recently the ISP I use went to SMTP by authorization only for the user end. Do you think requiring this would cut down on spam if it were done from the back end as well (IE, recognized SMTP servers)?
I would concur with the lack of power lines eliminating the ambient 60 Hz tone. To demonstrate this, go out to a remote area where there are a lot of power lines and just listen. You'll hear it.
Corduroy is not in style. Wait a few years, and get the stuff that is more conducive to rennaisance faires. Don't worry, you don't have to wear tights.
Get a different pair of frames for your glasses. Plastic is OK, but see if you can twist Grandma's arm into getting those newfangled titanium alloy frames that Marchon is starting to make. Yeah, they're expensive, but you're not gonna break them.
That persistent cough you get every winter AND every summer? That's a result of a combination of allergies and cigarette smoke. Try and avoid smokers if possible. If you can't, have patience, they'll make smoking indoors illegal in a few years.
Don't get too heavy into learning Apple BASIC. It's gonna ruin your ability to code properly and you'll come out of it with some bad habits. You know, like not commenting your code when you learn this newfangled language called C. Forget wanting to learn Cobol or Fortran, there's no decent future in them.
Above all, you're not a nerd, you're a geek. Geeks will rule the world. Revel in that.
While there is no contingency at this time to deal with things, the support tech I spoke with did think there was nothing really to worry about. Of contingencies, we suggested that Speakeasy orients themselves to offer phone services. (Another user suggested this here as well, and noted that it didn't have to be cheap or all that great, just that it had to be phone service.)
Perhaps another idea is to contract with communities. I know that AOL/TW has a contract with the apartment complex I live in, but what if you don't want to be anywhere near AOL/TW? Maybe the user cooperatives would be a little better.
Why should they have to share? They invested all the money in laying down the lines. They spend all the money to keep them working and repair them if they get damaged.
And they're the ones who silently repairs the line when everybody's service (including their own customers) goes wonky.
One of the things about the shared lines is that you get shared problems. One kick with a fiber-seeking backhoe and it doesn't matter whose signal is trying to go through, packets don't travel over air if they come off of FO or copper without some sort of a radio/IR/whatever transceiver.
I think the only "real" solution would be to IDP the places that are known for being effective spamhausen. You know, failing to recognize them at the router level.
That there are mail servers bouncing mail from *.cn and *.br is a start, but think of it, what if the 'net at large just said that these people don't exist?
It's true that it blocks the innocent users as well, but think of the domino effect: innocent users on foobar.com.br can't read google, bitches at sysadmin, threatens attrition (or just simply votes with his feet and moves to foobaz.com.br). Management sees bottom line, asks why, sysadmins say people are moving off because they can't talk to the 'net through them. Management *theoretically* investigates why and determines the reason they are no longer on the 'net is because they let a spammer sign a pink contract with them and people gave him the Internet Death Penalty.
So yeah, it's a nasty way to go, but it closes another door and tells the rogue admins that we ain't gonna take it no more.
At one time, all of the now big ones - Compu$serve, Earthlink, Netcom - were very active in doing this. Mindspring was also, and I think I have a couple "we killed 'em" messages sitting around. Not anymore though - you're right, it's only canned replies as far as the eye can see.
These days if I get a response it's from Hotmail. Small ISP's also have the time for this, but small ISP's are small ISP's and tend to not require the manpower of the likes of Speakeasy, Earthlink, etc. for their basic operations - so accordingly when the occasional spammer buys usage on a small ISP, and they disuser him, they can respond to the complaints en masse and say "we got 'im, sorry 'bout that".
I think the biggest reason for this is owing to the fact that dealing with spam is unto itself a laborious task. I suppose you can set up a filter for the local abuse address to bounce around email pertaining to a specific case, but first you have to identify the case - a filter won't drop in place by itself. Then, when the problem is pinpointed to the user, you have to (in no particular order) eliminate the account (easy enough), kill the user's dialup session if necessary (why get the DSL or the T1 if you know it's going to be killed the second you start spamming?), and block his port 25 access so he can't send mail. Maybe send a little courtesy message saying "All your base are belong to us" to the spammer as you nuke his account, or set his account to download mail precisely once, and he promptly loses his connection after that. After all that's done, then you have to draft up a reply or send a canned message to the complainers.
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So if you really want to get Microsoft in trouble, throw a monkey wrench into their taxes and have the IRS look at it.
Figure though a little bit. If the source were actually released by M$, all you'd have to do is wait a month or so for all the bugs to be fixed.
Listen, SBC, the reason I use Speakeasy and not you guys for my internet is because you have crappy customer service. Either improve your CS or pick up your marbles and go home. Same goes for Verizon - ESPECIALLY Verizon - who has all the technical greatness of GTE and all the crappy service of Bell Atlantic.
And if you don't give me an option, I'll move off again.
For these guys? 1) Open yourself up as a spam relay 2) ...
3) Lose network access!
Face it, people, $20/month will get you a shitload of ramen, but is it worth $20/mo to lose your gigabit network access?
It is declared numerous times throughout the new testament that nobody knows when the world ends. A little ironic then that he was a devout believer.
Many states will not honor small claims suits if it can be determined that the venue is improper. In California, you can go after somebody if you have a REALLY good reason outside of state lines.
It's why that pet supplies guy can't legally sue somebody outside of his area. You file an improper venue plea and they effectively dismiss the case with prejudice.
Recently the ISP I use went to SMTP by authorization only for the user end. Do you think requiring this would cut down on spam if it were done from the back end as well (IE, recognized SMTP servers)?
Well, look at the bright side. If that happens, we have one spot where we can just take 'em all out.
Nerds picked on you? Pray, did you grow up in Soviet Russia?
Remember, bankruptcy does not mean the end.
I would concur with the lack of power lines eliminating the ambient 60 Hz tone. To demonstrate this, go out to a remote area where there are a lot of power lines and just listen. You'll hear it.
See? What could be sillier than an increasing s/n ratio killing the 'net?
These articles are almost as silly as the old argument that increasing S/N ratios on Usenet are killing the Internet.
Corduroy is not in style. Wait a few years, and get the stuff that is more conducive to rennaisance faires. Don't worry, you don't have to wear tights.
Get a different pair of frames for your glasses. Plastic is OK, but see if you can twist Grandma's arm into getting those newfangled titanium alloy frames that Marchon is starting to make. Yeah, they're expensive, but you're not gonna break them.
That persistent cough you get every winter AND every summer? That's a result of a combination of allergies and cigarette smoke. Try and avoid smokers if possible. If you can't, have patience, they'll make smoking indoors illegal in a few years.
Don't get too heavy into learning Apple BASIC. It's gonna ruin your ability to code properly and you'll come out of it with some bad habits. You know, like not commenting your code when you learn this newfangled language called C. Forget wanting to learn Cobol or Fortran, there's no decent future in them.
Above all, you're not a nerd, you're a geek. Geeks will rule the world. Revel in that.
A blizzard? You were lucky! Here in southern California, in 1978, we had to make do with a really nasty rain storm and flooding in Yorba Linda.
If you're on OS/2, 'e' works, but tedit is less overhead.
If you're on Windoze, Notepad.
But by far, you can always print the file. Unless you have the sun right overhead it's gonna save big time on eyestrain.
While there is no contingency at this time to deal with things, the support tech I spoke with did think there was nothing really to worry about. Of contingencies, we suggested that Speakeasy orients themselves to offer phone services. (Another user suggested this here as well, and noted that it didn't have to be cheap or all that great, just that it had to be phone service.)
Perhaps another idea is to contract with communities. I know that AOL/TW has a contract with the apartment complex I live in, but what if you don't want to be anywhere near AOL/TW? Maybe the user cooperatives would be a little better.
3) Profit!!!
ADSL chokes. That "A" means "asynchronous". SDSL has no such problems.
And they're the ones who silently repairs the line when everybody's service (including their own customers) goes wonky.
One of the things about the shared lines is that you get shared problems. One kick with a fiber-seeking backhoe and it doesn't matter whose signal is trying to go through, packets don't travel over air if they come off of FO or copper without some sort of a radio/IR/whatever transceiver.
That there are mail servers bouncing mail from *.cn and *.br is a start, but think of it, what if the 'net at large just said that these people don't exist? It's true that it blocks the innocent users as well, but think of the domino effect: innocent users on foobar.com.br can't read google, bitches at sysadmin, threatens attrition (or just simply votes with his feet and moves to foobaz.com.br). Management sees bottom line, asks why, sysadmins say people are moving off because they can't talk to the 'net through them. Management *theoretically* investigates why and determines the reason they are no longer on the 'net is because they let a spammer sign a pink contract with them and people gave him the Internet Death Penalty.
So yeah, it's a nasty way to go, but it closes another door and tells the rogue admins that we ain't gonna take it no more.
These days if I get a response it's from Hotmail. Small ISP's also have the time for this, but small ISP's are small ISP's and tend to not require the manpower of the likes of Speakeasy, Earthlink, etc. for their basic operations - so accordingly when the occasional spammer buys usage on a small ISP, and they disuser him, they can respond to the complaints en masse and say "we got 'im, sorry 'bout that".
I think the biggest reason for this is owing to the fact that dealing with spam is unto itself a laborious task. I suppose you can set up a filter for the local abuse address to bounce around email pertaining to a specific case, but first you have to identify the case - a filter won't drop in place by itself. Then, when the problem is pinpointed to the user, you have to (in no particular order) eliminate the account (easy enough), kill the user's dialup session if necessary (why get the DSL or the T1 if you know it's going to be killed the second you start spamming?), and block his port 25 access so he can't send mail. Maybe send a little courtesy message saying "All your base are belong to us" to the spammer as you nuke his account, or set his account to download mail precisely once, and he promptly loses his connection after that. After all that's done, then you have to draft up a reply or send a canned message to the complainers.
In short, you can't win, and it sucks royally.
All together now: "Imagine a beowulf cluster of those!"
"That's interesting!"
Well, it's certainly easier than swallowing your Palm.