I wouldn't be surprised to find out Marcus is behind the writing of the article. He's stated in the past that his intention is to put the paid dating sites out of business.
I've made the same suggestion a few other times, and it still applies here.
The PC manufacturers can configure a start up sequence.
When a user starts their computer, a series of screens appear which demonstrate the various Internet evils and countermeasures. One can show information on spam, another on phishing, etc.
As each screen is displayed, the user must click on a "I understand" button before going to the next screen. Only after each screen is viewed will their PC fully boot.
How simple can it be for the PC manufacturers to do this? At least the user cannot say "I didn't know".
I just returned from a trip to Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama. I drove down I-65, and passed three convoys of National Guard heading south.
When I got to I-10, there were convoys of National Guard, tree services, electrical companies, various Sheriffs Departments, State Police, and tractor trailers with supplies going into the disaster area.
I both grew up and served in the US Army, and my sense tells me that when there are enough assets on the ground, there will be a combined local, state and Guard effort to go into New Orleans and clean out the criminals.
During the Watts riots of the '60's, it took 15,000 National Guard troops to cover a 50 square mile area. And that included the local and state law enforcement working with the Guard.
New Orleans is 180 square miles. To cover that area proportional to what was used in Watts, it will take 54000 National Guard and combined other law enforcement agencies. Granted, not all of the city will have to be covered. I doubt the Army will want to go in with anything less than what it will take to do the job right the first time.
The Army will not let New Orleans become our Mogadishu.
Jason, I know this is going to be modded off topic. We've had your site listed for some time, and would like to know if it is bringing visitors to your site.
Pete
The Yahoo! created chat rooms are still open, it was only the user created rooms that were closed. Have your mother log in as usual, and join one of the Yahoo! rooms. If her friends are on her buddy list, she can still message them individually, and have them join a particular Yahoo operated chat room.
The internet has matured from ten years ago, with a lot of privately held companies contributing to the present boom.
Take a look around, the Internet is everywhere. Hundreds of thousands of companies have an online presence. Instant messaging is commonplace, as is online gaming. Newspapers publish online, granted most of those are traded on the stock markets. Internet chat/discussion is more active, we've seen a steady increase over the past 7 years in pageviews to our site, indicitive of an increased usage of discussion forums. Online dating is another area that has come of age.
All of this helps to push stocks higher, and investors for the most part know how to spot the larger trends, not just todays hot picks. They look for longevity in a sector, and they are seeing it now with the tech stocks as their entry into the larger sector. Don't discount those of us with privately held companies that are boosting overall Internet usage, and helping to fuel the boom.
Checking the registration shows it is registered through Domains By Proxy, so no owner information is available.
On their web site, only viewable on IE as previously stated, there is no contact information, and to contact customer support, only a form and 800 number are listed.
You're right about ages reference usage. If I were to graph users of our site, I"d put the mean age at 23. The largest number of users are teens up to about 35. After 35 it declines rapidly, with very few users above 50.
A good check is on a site called Plentyoffish.com Do a search for users in age ranges, you'll see a better representation. Plenty of Fish is the only completely free dating site I know of that has a good user base for reference. I am not connected to it in any business sense, other than we list their forums in our "Romance-Flirting" chat listings.
Being 53 and in the business gets me the "geezer geek" title easily:)
Re:Microsoft has finally been forced to innovate
on
IE7 Details Emerge
·
· Score: 1
According to today's stats, IE is used by 83.1 % of our visitors to the site. Firefox is used by 6.9 %. (The rest spread out, using Mozilla/Netscape/Opera, etc.)
Considering that a good proportion of our site visitors are newbies, that tells me Microsoft has already lost those people. That's the threat, when new Internet users use Firefox rather than IE.
According to some folks, the only thing down here in Florida are spammers, which is not accurate.
While there are a small group of lowlife spammers in Florida, there are also many good Internet related companies, including us. And, we have front row seats for the Shuttle launches:)
I found an old firebox phone with rotary dial, earpiece on a cord, and microphone similar to those seen from the '20's. I set it up to operate on our regular telephone line, and now use it out back in the "Florida room".
Growing up in the '50's, and when dad was with the Signal Corps, we got to see a lot of the old communications devices, and still have bits and pieces saved over the years. I still use our old Hallicrafters receiver to tune into shortwave.
Attempt to stifle public participation (SLAPP)
on
Spammers Sue Spamee
·
· Score: 4, Informative
From an op-ed on our site dated 19 September 2004
A recent lawsuit has been filed against Jay Stuler by Brian Haberstroh/aka/ Atriks Inc./aka/ Distributed Mail Corporation. According to a web site detailing the plight of Mr. Stuler, he is being sued by the company after he complained they had spammed him with unwanted advertisements. The company has filed a suit, alleging that Mr. Stuler has interfered with their normal business, causing them monetary and other harm.
Virtually every web hosting company posts an "Acceptable Use Policy", in which spamming is prohibited, and sites determined to be spamming can lose their hosting contract. In addition, hosting providers provide an email address to report spam and other violations, generally an abuse@ email address. Hosting providers invite the public to submit alleged spam for investigation.
Providers in general do not terminate clients for a few complaints, but act when a number of complaints are received. We know of no provider that would terminate a contract after receiving complaints from one person.
It may well be that Mr. Stuler was singled out from other complainants due to his public participation and comments within NANAE, the Usenet Group devoted to email spam and related issues. While his comments may not of been favorable to the plaintiff, he has every right to state his position regarding spam in general and any alleged spam company. Whether the comments he made falls into the category of slander is up to a court to determine, should the case come to trial.
The broader issue is whether we as Internet users have the right to file complaints regarding spam, and the right to publicly participate in online discussions regarding the growing spam problem.
Suits such as this are often times filed to dissuade people from participating in anti spam activities or posting within news groups or discussion forums. The general term is SLAPP, Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, and is not legal in most U.S. States. It would be up to the court to determine if this particular suit falls within the guidelines of a SLAPP.
As long as Internet web hosts provide an abuse email address, we encourage users to continue to complain about alleged spamming operations, and allow the hosting providers to determine whether a company violates their Acceptable Use Policy, and deal with the company in a timely manner. Public participation on discussion boards and news groups is a fundamental part of online life, and we are opposed to the attempts by some to stife discussions of the issues.
Just this morning I received an email newsletter, commenting on advertising moving into 'blogs.
From the newsletter:
Advertising has always been part of our society. Online it's no different, and the number of ad options seems to increase daily. The latest target of advertisers is Blogs/RSS.
This new type of advertising is still growing and evolving and the majority of ads being served are not graphical but text-based in nature. Advertising in Blogs and feeds has a slow growth area, as Blogs still have not reached the mainstream, primarily due to the fact that readers are not yet included within a browser's interface. In the future, browsers will come with this option built in. End of excerpt.
So, do away with "comment spam" and replace it with ads. Sneaky, but ads would make 'blog owners a few dollars. I understand that the moves to place a "nofollow" tag would not change the link in the 'blog itself, but it may slow down those that place links in order to gain pagerank. In the end, 'blogs would have more relevant links, and ads. And don't take me to task for the comment in the article about 'blog readers, apparently the author is using an older browser (not Firefox).
I know that Google says if you want to check an advertiser out that is showing on your site, or are interested in what that advertiser offers, hover your mouse over the link, then type it into a location bar, don't click the link directly. One interesting side note. The link does not show in Firefox, just IE.
It's useful to weed out ads that are direct competitors, or ads you would deem inappropriate for your site. Google then has the provision to "lock out" those ads by going into your account and add those sites into your Url filter.
Slashdot Mirror
I wouldn't be surprised to find out Marcus is behind the writing of the article. He's stated in the past that his intention is to put the paid dating sites out of business.
We used to refer to the CIA as "The Company"
Now, when saying "The Company", we'll be referring to Google.
How many times a day is the word "blog" used on TV, radio, and in newspapers? Sending your audience to the "competition" is not a good business model.
/action goes off to finish today's blog entry.
I've made the same suggestion a few other times, and it still applies here.
The PC manufacturers can configure a start up sequence. When a user starts their computer, a series of screens appear which demonstrate the various Internet evils and countermeasures. One can show information on spam, another on phishing, etc.
As each screen is displayed, the user must click on a "I understand" button before going to the next screen. Only after each screen is viewed will their PC fully boot.
How simple can it be for the PC manufacturers to do this? At least the user cannot say "I didn't know".
I just returned from a trip to Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama. I drove down I-65, and passed three convoys of National Guard heading south.
When I got to I-10, there were convoys of National Guard, tree services, electrical companies, various Sheriffs Departments, State Police, and tractor trailers with supplies going into the disaster area.
I both grew up and served in the US Army, and my sense tells me that when there are enough assets on the ground, there will be a combined local, state and Guard effort to go into New Orleans and clean out the criminals.
During the Watts riots of the '60's, it took 15,000 National Guard troops to cover a 50 square mile area. And that included the local and state law enforcement working with the Guard.
New Orleans is 180 square miles. To cover that area proportional to what was used in Watts, it will take 54000 National Guard and combined other law enforcement agencies. Granted, not all of the city will have to be covered. I doubt the Army will want to go in with anything less than what it will take to do the job right the first time.
The Army will not let New Orleans become our Mogadishu.
The emails were informative. I see nowhere in the article that they promoted a product or service.
If I get an email with no commercial link, or promoting a particular product, its not spam. Spam is UCE, unwanted commercial email.
Pickled Beets? Thats just child abuse.
Jason, I know this is going to be modded off topic. We've had your site listed for some time, and would like to know if it is bringing visitors to your site. Pete
The Yahoo! created chat rooms are still open, it was only the user created rooms that were closed. Have your mother log in as usual, and join one of the Yahoo! rooms. If her friends are on her buddy list, she can still message them individually, and have them join a particular Yahoo operated chat room.
The internet has matured from ten years ago, with a lot of privately held companies contributing to the present boom.
Take a look around, the Internet is everywhere. Hundreds of thousands of companies have an online presence. Instant messaging is commonplace, as is online gaming. Newspapers publish online, granted most of those are traded on the stock markets. Internet chat/discussion is more active, we've seen a steady increase over the past 7 years in pageviews to our site, indicitive of an increased usage of discussion forums. Online dating is another area that has come of age.
All of this helps to push stocks higher, and investors for the most part know how to spot the larger trends, not just todays hot picks. They look for longevity in a sector, and they are seeing it now with the tech stocks as their entry into the larger sector. Don't discount those of us with privately held companies that are boosting overall Internet usage, and helping to fuel the boom.
Checking the registration shows it is registered through Domains By Proxy, so no owner information is available.
On their web site, only viewable on IE as previously stated, there is no contact information, and to contact customer support, only a form and 800 number are listed.
That they do that to the Florida spammers, there is a hell of a difference between a spammer and a sex offender.
You're right about ages reference usage. If I were to graph users of our site, I"d put the mean age at 23. The largest number of users are teens up to about 35. After 35 it declines rapidly, with very few users above 50.
:)
A good check is on a site called Plentyoffish.com Do a search for users in age ranges, you'll see a better representation. Plenty of Fish is the only completely free dating site I know of that has a good user base for reference. I am not connected to it in any business sense, other than we list their forums in our "Romance-Flirting" chat listings.
Being 53 and in the business gets me the "geezer geek" title easily
According to today's stats, IE is used by 83.1 % of our visitors to the site. Firefox is used by 6.9 %. (The rest spread out, using Mozilla/Netscape/Opera, etc.)
Considering that a good proportion of our site visitors are newbies, that tells me Microsoft has already lost those people. That's the threat, when new Internet users use Firefox rather than IE.
Two months ago, Firefox users were around 5%.
All the hotel web sites have been slashdotted.
Create a section for Google related articles.
Use "The Brain" from "Pinky and the Brain" for the icon.
According to some folks, the only thing down here in Florida are spammers, which is not accurate.
:)
While there are a small group of lowlife spammers in Florida, there are also many good Internet related companies, including us. And, we have front row seats for the Shuttle launches
One of the last communities without telephone service, Mink, La. finally got hooked up.
It took over 30 years to hook up the phones, when they just could of gone Wifi and VOIP.
At the bottom of the Wired story, there is a Google ad, "Buy Dark Matter on eBay".
I just wonder if they throw in free shipping.
I would imagine if the ice keeps up, you'll need a steam powered generator :)
I spent many a night in ice storms, keep safe up there.
I found an old firebox phone with rotary dial, earpiece on a cord, and microphone similar to those seen from the '20's. I set it up to operate on our regular telephone line, and now use it out back in the "Florida room".
Growing up in the '50's, and when dad was with the Signal Corps, we got to see a lot of the old communications devices, and still have bits and pieces saved over the years. I still use our old Hallicrafters receiver to tune into shortwave.
From an op-ed on our site dated 19 September 2004
/aka/ Atriks Inc. /aka/ Distributed Mail Corporation. According to a web site detailing the plight of Mr. Stuler, he is being sued by the company after he complained they had spammed him with unwanted advertisements. The company has filed a suit, alleging that Mr. Stuler has interfered with their normal business, causing them monetary and other harm.
A recent lawsuit has been filed against Jay Stuler by Brian Haberstroh
Virtually every web hosting company posts an "Acceptable Use Policy", in which spamming is prohibited, and sites determined to be spamming can lose their hosting contract. In addition, hosting providers provide an email address to report spam and other violations, generally an abuse@ email address. Hosting providers invite the public to submit alleged spam for investigation.
Providers in general do not terminate clients for a few complaints, but act when a number of complaints are received. We know of no provider that would terminate a contract after receiving complaints from one person.
It may well be that Mr. Stuler was singled out from other complainants due to his public participation and comments within NANAE, the Usenet Group devoted to email spam and related issues. While his comments may not of been favorable to the plaintiff, he has every right to state his position regarding spam in general and any alleged spam company. Whether the comments he made falls into the category of slander is up to a court to determine, should the case come to trial.
The broader issue is whether we as Internet users have the right to file complaints regarding spam, and the right to publicly participate in online discussions regarding the growing spam problem.
Suits such as this are often times filed to dissuade people from participating in anti spam activities or posting within news groups or discussion forums. The general term is SLAPP, Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, and is not legal in most U.S. States. It would be up to the court to determine if this particular suit falls within the guidelines of a SLAPP.
As long as Internet web hosts provide an abuse email address, we encourage users to continue to complain about alleged spamming operations, and allow the hosting providers to determine whether a company violates their Acceptable Use Policy, and deal with the company in a timely manner. Public participation on discussion boards and news groups is a fundamental part of online life, and we are opposed to the attempts by some to stife discussions of the issues.
Just this morning I received an email newsletter, commenting on advertising moving into 'blogs.
From the newsletter:
Advertising has always been part of our society. Online it's no different, and the number of ad options seems to increase daily. The latest target of advertisers is Blogs/RSS.
This new type of advertising is still growing and evolving and the majority of ads being served are not graphical but text-based in nature. Advertising in Blogs and feeds has a slow growth area, as Blogs still have not reached the mainstream, primarily due to the fact that readers are not yet included within a browser's interface. In the future, browsers will come with this option built in. End of excerpt.
So, do away with "comment spam" and replace it with ads. Sneaky, but ads would make 'blog owners a few dollars. I understand that the moves to place a "nofollow" tag would not change the link in the 'blog itself, but it may slow down those that place links in order to gain pagerank. In the end, 'blogs would have more relevant links, and ads. And don't take me to task for the comment in the article about 'blog readers, apparently the author is using an older browser (not Firefox).
Google AdSense Policies
I know that Google says if you want to check an advertiser out that is showing on your site, or are interested in what that advertiser offers, hover your mouse over the link, then type it into a location bar, don't click the link directly. One interesting side note. The link does not show in Firefox, just IE.
It's useful to weed out ads that are direct competitors, or ads you would deem inappropriate for your site. Google then has the provision to "lock out" those ads by going into your account and add those sites into your Url filter.