Re:Postage due.... Postage declined
on
Gates on Spam
·
· Score: 1
The problems related to charging for e-mail are enormous. Currently there is no infrastructure for these charges, and there is no way to force others to adhere to this. Sure, you can ignore e-mail from those who refuse to pay if you wish, but what if you can't afford to, ie: your business depends on sending e-mail to China, or Malaysia, or anywhere else...
This article goes a good way to explaining why the SPAM problem is so bad, and suggests that a pay-per-email solution is doomed to failure.
What he did wasn't criminal. The proper venue for this disagreement is civil court.
I really can't see how this can possibly be criminal extortion. Findlaw
defines extortion as requiring the use of violence, damage to reputation, vandalism, or unfavourable government action.
The proper owner of the website was the web designer. He said "Pay me, or I take it down", they didn't pay, he took it down. Since the website was his to take down or not, I don't see any element of extortion that can apply.
....at least not by the web designer. The Sherrif's dept. might not be so lucky.
What makes you think that being against bad law is anti-capitalist? Freedom isn't anti-capitalist, protectionism is. Using bad law to shore up weak enterprise weakens the capitalist experiment.
My eyes glazed over 1/3 of the way through that marketing drek. It's truly unfortunate that the Corporate World has forgotten how to speak in natural language. This shit's almost as bad as legalese.
SCO responded with (if I read the report correctly) 700 million packets, but there have been no numbers released about the number of packets they received.
The actual number of packets they were receiving could have been much higher.
Outlook and MSN Messenger "suffer" the same problem too.
Actually Outlook on Win2K doesn't suffer from this. I have Firebird set as my default browser and any link I click in Outlook happily opens up in Firebird, just like I want it to.
Disabling autorun via the use of the Shift key is pretty well known, isn't it?
I recall a post on/. pointing out that the use of the Shift key would probably disable this kind of copy "protection" when the story about this "system" was first posted.
I agree with the report authors that the monoculture of Microsoft is dangerous. Any one of us can see that, particularly after this exceedingly expensive summer, the MS monoculture we're enduring is costing us billions.
However, I cannot agree with the recommendations that require MS to do this, that, and the other thing. Recommendations such as releasing Office for other platforms at the same time as for Linux and MacOS for example. The only recommendations I could see supporting would be those that explicitly break up the company into OS and application divisions - in order to shatter their monopoly.
The recommendation that they must release their apps onto different platforms is, IMO, dangerous. It means that they will then unleash their "user friendly" nonsense on OSes such as Linux, and we'll end up with the absurdity of the Windows platform paradigm trying to seed its ugly crop of security problems in a new field instead.
For National Security purposes Governments should insist on only using applications that they can also purchase the source code to. They should insist on using applications that are proven to be secure, not just popular. And they should insist that software companies be held liable for flaws that cost them security.
Unfortunately those e-mails are probably not worth even that anymore. The From: headers are invariably spoofed. I was getting (with the SoBig.F variant) bounces informing me that I'd sent someone a virus as my address was being used in the From:
My favourite trick, done with the current Swen e-mail worm, was getting the Package portion of the virus (the fake bounce, the fake Update from M$, etc), with the payload removed and a handy notice from the sending ISP that a virus had been detected in the e-mail being sent to me!
I can't, for the life of me, think of a reason why I would possibly want that kind of notification. IMO they would be much better served to just trash the damn thing.
I hate Spam with a passion; in fact, I would happily spend my every waking hour beating the living shit out of spammers and the people that use them.
However, putting the burden of proof on the sender to prove that a given commercial e-mail is solicited will lead to abuse, and the fining of innocent parties. I would hate to see the internet get even more restrictive as large companies immediately start a chain of CYA manouevers to avoid getting fined in California.
While I'm for anti-spam legislation in my gut, I don't know how it can be safely and effectively implemented. As a community, concerned users on the internet need to find better ways. I think learning filters, blacklists, and other tactics are better steps in the right direction.
Generally speaking Governments implement "bans" on things poorly; particularly when the thing in question is something as hard to define as Spam.
Ideally nobody would buy anything from any company that used these bloodsuckers to "advertise" for them, but that ain't going to happen - Einstein's famous comment on the infinite nature of human stupidity ensures this.
Maybe these tools aren't "simple" but back when I did a heck of a lot more writing than I do now (term papers, software documentation, etc) I used Emacs and LaTeX exclusively.
I found that combination to be the easiest to use.
When I bought my first computer, I also made the mistake of buying an early version of MS Word (1.4, IIRC); I've hated that product ever since. Every iteration gets more and more "helpful" and less and less useful.
I think Mr. Miller at Lawmeme has it right: filesharing is more personal.
A user can watch people upload the files, and enjoy the feeling that others enjoy the same music as he does; he can see what other people are searching for (primarily pr0n from my own experience); he can add, modify, delete files on the fly - in short it's a much more personal experience to share files from your PC using P2P than it is to offer them up on a website. Particularly if the website, like most, is hosted by a computer that you don't directly control.
Further P2P is new. It still has that "new car smell" about it.
It's also easier for the average user to install some software, fire it up, and click-and-share away. Most users are probably intimidated by HTML - even if they don't have to generate any, the idea of it will drive people away. They have the feeling that creating websites is hard, and that it's something they cannot do. They can, however, share files.
Pierre
To be fair Linux needs tons of patches too. I use Linux at home exclusively and I patch it every couple of days.
Now I happen to find Red Hat 9's up2date utility to be incredibly useful, and far better than Windows update, but I still apply patches on an almost daily basis.
I agree that using Windows on ATMs is a mistake. Something that is far more transparent to the ATM manufacturers would be preferrable. Security is everything with ATMs, but unfortunately banks aren't going to give a shit until they end up with a huge PR nightmare on their hands due to a security flaw in the ATM OS.
Really they should get together with the gaming machine operators in Vegas and learn how to build secure systems.
Pierre
True.
The mistakes I was referring to are mistakes in offering some of these governments (Saudi Arabia, Iraq) assistance in exchange for cooperation.
Pierre
There's nothing wrong with being left wing, but most of the crap on this "censored" list lacks even the remotest pretension to any kind of journalistic standard. It literally reads like an agenda for the "violent-protest-of-the-week" crowd.
Bush, Rumsfeld, and Co. are extremely interested in having Iraqi's run their own nation. If only for the reason that it would be the most profitable thing, both economically and politically, for them to do. They are well aware that installing yet-another-despot is a mistake; a mistake they made with Saddam, a mistake they are still suffering for with the Al-Saud clan, and a mistake they don't have much interest in making once more.
Yes, it's American self-interest, but it also just-so-happens to be Iraqi self interest as well, according to some reports they even have pr0n now - and that, my friend, is freedom in action.
As for WMD, I'm willing to bet it's there - somewhere. Nations are still digging up WMD that was buried in WWI and WWII. Hell, the US itself is still trying to find some WMD they buried themselves, in their own backyard. Germany is checking allegations that there are still hidden bunkers with live Nazi ordnance buried under the Munich airport.
It's fine to be left wing, but you can't buy in to every bullshit story some nutbar at IndyMedia dreams up.
Pierre
for "Whiny Liberal Bitches 101".
C'mon, couldn't there be something in there that's actual news as compared to made-up conspiracy crap that's being recycled here?
Pierre
Slashdot Mirror
The problems related to charging for e-mail are enormous. Currently there is no infrastructure for these charges, and there is no way to force others to adhere to this. Sure, you can ignore e-mail from those who refuse to pay if you wish, but what if you can't afford to, ie: your business depends on sending e-mail to China, or Malaysia, or anywhere else...
This article goes a good way to explaining why the SPAM problem is so bad, and suggests that a pay-per-email solution is doomed to failure.
Pierre
Overcharging is a far cry from extortion. He may be a terrible businessman, but that doesn't make him a criminal.
Pierre
What he did wasn't criminal. The proper venue for this disagreement is civil court.
I really can't see how this can possibly be criminal extortion. Findlaw defines extortion as requiring the use of violence, damage to reputation, vandalism, or unfavourable government action.
The proper owner of the website was the web designer. He said "Pay me, or I take it down", they didn't pay, he took it down. Since the website was his to take down or not, I don't see any element of extortion that can apply.
....at least not by the web designer. The Sherrif's dept. might not be so lucky.
Pierre
What makes you think that being against bad law is anti-capitalist? Freedom isn't anti-capitalist, protectionism is. Using bad law to shore up weak enterprise weakens the capitalist experiment.
Pierre
My eyes glazed over 1/3 of the way through that marketing drek. It's truly unfortunate that the Corporate World has forgotten how to speak in natural language. This shit's almost as bad as legalese.
Pierre
SCO responded with (if I read the report correctly) 700 million packets, but there have been no numbers released about the number of packets they received.
The actual number of packets they were receiving could have been much higher.
Pierre
Outlook and MSN Messenger "suffer" the same problem too.
Actually Outlook on Win2K doesn't suffer from this. I have Firebird set as my default browser and any link I click in Outlook happily opens up in Firebird, just like I want it to.
Pierre
Disabling autorun via the use of the Shift key is pretty well known, isn't it?
/. pointing out that the use of the Shift key would probably disable this kind of copy "protection" when the story about this "system" was first posted.
I recall a post on
Pierre
I agree with the report authors that the monoculture of Microsoft is dangerous. Any one of us can see that, particularly after this exceedingly expensive summer, the MS monoculture we're enduring is costing us billions.
However, I cannot agree with the recommendations that require MS to do this, that, and the other thing. Recommendations such as releasing Office for other platforms at the same time as for Linux and MacOS for example. The only recommendations I could see supporting would be those that explicitly break up the company into OS and application divisions - in order to shatter their monopoly.
The recommendation that they must release their apps onto different platforms is, IMO, dangerous. It means that they will then unleash their "user friendly" nonsense on OSes such as Linux, and we'll end up with the absurdity of the Windows platform paradigm trying to seed its ugly crop of security problems in a new field instead.
For National Security purposes Governments should insist on only using applications that they can also purchase the source code to. They should insist on using applications that are proven to be secure, not just popular. And they should insist that software companies be held liable for flaws that cost them security.
Pierre
Unfortunately those e-mails are probably not worth even that anymore. The From: headers are invariably spoofed. I was getting (with the SoBig.F variant) bounces informing me that I'd sent someone a virus as my address was being used in the From:
Pierre
My favourite trick, done with the current Swen e-mail worm, was getting the Package portion of the virus (the fake bounce, the fake Update from M$, etc), with the payload removed and a handy notice from the sending ISP that a virus had been detected in the e-mail being sent to me!
I can't, for the life of me, think of a reason why I would possibly want that kind of notification. IMO they would be much better served to just trash the damn thing.
Pierre
I hate Spam with a passion; in fact, I would happily spend my every waking hour beating the living shit out of spammers and the people that use them.
However, putting the burden of proof on the sender to prove that a given commercial e-mail is solicited will lead to abuse, and the fining of innocent parties. I would hate to see the internet get even more restrictive as large companies immediately start a chain of CYA manouevers to avoid getting fined in California.
While I'm for anti-spam legislation in my gut, I don't know how it can be safely and effectively implemented. As a community, concerned users on the internet need to find better ways. I think learning filters, blacklists, and other tactics are better steps in the right direction.
Generally speaking Governments implement "bans" on things poorly; particularly when the thing in question is something as hard to define as Spam.
Ideally nobody would buy anything from any company that used these bloodsuckers to "advertise" for them, but that ain't going to happen - Einstein's famous comment on the infinite nature of human stupidity ensures this.
Pierre
Maybe these tools aren't "simple" but back when I did a heck of a lot more writing than I do now (term papers, software documentation, etc) I used Emacs and LaTeX exclusively.
I found that combination to be the easiest to use.
When I bought my first computer, I also made the mistake of buying an early version of MS Word (1.4, IIRC); I've hated that product ever since. Every iteration gets more and more "helpful" and less and less useful.
Pierre
I think Mr. Miller at Lawmeme has it right: filesharing is more personal. A user can watch people upload the files, and enjoy the feeling that others enjoy the same music as he does; he can see what other people are searching for (primarily pr0n from my own experience); he can add, modify, delete files on the fly - in short it's a much more personal experience to share files from your PC using P2P than it is to offer them up on a website. Particularly if the website, like most, is hosted by a computer that you don't directly control. Further P2P is new. It still has that "new car smell" about it. It's also easier for the average user to install some software, fire it up, and click-and-share away. Most users are probably intimidated by HTML - even if they don't have to generate any, the idea of it will drive people away. They have the feeling that creating websites is hard, and that it's something they cannot do. They can, however, share files. Pierre
To be fair Linux needs tons of patches too. I use Linux at home exclusively and I patch it every couple of days. Now I happen to find Red Hat 9's up2date utility to be incredibly useful, and far better than Windows update, but I still apply patches on an almost daily basis. I agree that using Windows on ATMs is a mistake. Something that is far more transparent to the ATM manufacturers would be preferrable. Security is everything with ATMs, but unfortunately banks aren't going to give a shit until they end up with a huge PR nightmare on their hands due to a security flaw in the ATM OS. Really they should get together with the gaming machine operators in Vegas and learn how to build secure systems. Pierre
I've received 10 or so of these too, including fake bounces (claiming to be from qmail). Plus a surprisingly late PayPal scam. Pierre
True. The mistakes I was referring to are mistakes in offering some of these governments (Saudi Arabia, Iraq) assistance in exchange for cooperation. Pierre
There's nothing wrong with being left wing, but most of the crap on this "censored" list lacks even the remotest pretension to any kind of journalistic standard. It literally reads like an agenda for the "violent-protest-of-the-week" crowd. Bush, Rumsfeld, and Co. are extremely interested in having Iraqi's run their own nation. If only for the reason that it would be the most profitable thing, both economically and politically, for them to do. They are well aware that installing yet-another-despot is a mistake; a mistake they made with Saddam, a mistake they are still suffering for with the Al-Saud clan, and a mistake they don't have much interest in making once more. Yes, it's American self-interest, but it also just-so-happens to be Iraqi self interest as well, according to some reports they even have pr0n now - and that, my friend, is freedom in action. As for WMD, I'm willing to bet it's there - somewhere. Nations are still digging up WMD that was buried in WWI and WWII. Hell, the US itself is still trying to find some WMD they buried themselves, in their own backyard. Germany is checking allegations that there are still hidden bunkers with live Nazi ordnance buried under the Munich airport. It's fine to be left wing, but you can't buy in to every bullshit story some nutbar at IndyMedia dreams up. Pierre
for "Whiny Liberal Bitches 101". C'mon, couldn't there be something in there that's actual news as compared to made-up conspiracy crap that's being recycled here? Pierre