Yet about half the spam that gets through my system comes from HotMail and GMail. You mean appears to come from HotMail and GMail. There are lots of gateways out there that are still open, and will willingly bounce messages from anyone purporting to be Buddha, God, and Allah. Trust me, I know. I get a ton of "message rejected" notices on my domain from email that does not originate from me, but is somehow scheduled for delivery anyway. And that's just the ones that don't get through. Domain hijacking for spam purposes doesn't require hacking DNS, just forge your "from" address.
Of course, very little stops spammers from also opening a ton of "legitimate" free accounts and spamming using those, but they can (sometimes) get tracked and shut down...
My biggest problem with your entire comment may seem minor. But it's a major issue in mindset at the top of most every company now, and it's spread to the populace by the corporate-owned news media. That problem is the use of the word "consumer". A consumer, in the MBA mindset, is someone who will use your product no matter what. You can charge whatever you want and your "consumers" will always be there to eat the cost. "Customers" on the other hand, are people that do not *have* to use or consume your product. You must win them, and you must listen to them if you want their business. This distinction seems to have been lost in the MBA farms, and has been pushed on the rest of the world. What's bad in my mind is that everyone seems to buy into the change, without even realizing it.
The difference here is that *they* have control of the changes. The ISP is being paid by the customer for connectivity. There is (in most cases today) an expectation that any data sent across an ISP's links will be unaltered. By running adblock, greasemonkey, or similar packages on the local machine, the end user is explicitly changing the data. But that does not happen without the end user knowing about it.
Also, if my ISP is doing this to generate ad revenue, I would be up in arms and demand a cut of the revenue stream. Otherwise, I can just take my packets elsewhere thank you. I don't need to pay a company to sell my eyeballs.
No.
That's it I've had it. I'm just gonna start answering every rhetorical question asked by Slashdot.
I fully expect your keyboard to explode in a shower of blood and gore in the near future as your smoking stumps scream in agony from typing "No" after every post:)
One thing I havn't seen in all this discussion is that quite a few of the CAPTCHA systems out there also generate a short sound bite for people with disabilities that's only a quick link away. It's a lot easier to use speech recognition routines on the.wav file than bother with the image.
Here's the crux of the problem. All the current legislation and regulatory requirements specify the existing infrastucture. Specifically, the copper. Disabling this allows Verizon to do anything they want with that customer's connection, and there isn't a thing (legally) that the customer can do about it. It's bringing back the bad old days of "we own your wire(fiber). We can do whatever we want". Oh, yeah, the physical stuff will still be there. But how long until they cut out maintenance of the old unused equipment, and there's no longer the option of going back? Betcha it'll be sooner rather than later.
What market is that? Microsoft is all over the US smartphone market.
And 5.6% marketshare is "all over" the market? Methinks with that logic, Apple has a monopoly on the PC laptop market, with their latest marketshare figures. Consider that in the same article Ballmer is talking about trying for 60-80% marketshare. Think that'll work when they've got the iPhone for competition? I think I'll work about as well as the Zune has so far...
Seriously, if the iPhone is ONLY really good on WiFi networks, why the iPhone?
Well, Apple is taking this as an opportunity to push the US wireless carriers to upgrade their networks. And, they get to put an Apple device into a market that MS hasn't been able to penetrate very well (yet). On top of that, they get to use the iPod capabilities to continue their dominance of the online music market.
Just a thought - how long do you think it will take for Apple to add a full iTunes store on the iPhone? Download whole songs over the wireless network, sync back to your PC for backup, etc? Given the piss-poor bandwidth at the average cell site backend, this idea has got to have AT&T shitting themselves over the coming data wave. They've probably not included it yet for the very reason that AT&T needs to upgrade every cell site in the country.
The next release of the iPhone in 18 months or so will probably include 4G capability (skipping over 3G) and the iTunes store. If they've got to touch every cell site, why not do a full upgrade to 4G? And that will push everyone else to do the same, or be left behind. Maybe Steve is pushing this to be the backdoor to increased high-speed bandwidth for the country?
Pose this as a security question to a sysadmin and see what you get. What security clearance would you get if you worked for the Marketing department, but actually reported to Finance? Would you get Admin access, since you don't really belong to either department fully? I would hope your local security maven would deck you for even asking. This is why Cheney should be kicked in the teeth and fired - you don't get free reign by claiming that you are "not really" part of either branch of government. Logic would dictate that you follow the most restrictive regulations, not ignore them all entirely. Of course, this requires following logic, not grubbing for all the power you can get (which seems to be the modus operandi of the Bush camp since day 1).
Anyway, to get back on topic. There seems to be *way* too much acceptance of the mythical "market". And on top of that, the "market" doesn't exist in telecom - the barrier to entry is way too high from a physical plant perspective. So, you are piggy-backing off someone's wires.
This is the same for the deregulated electric markets that have popped up. Except that I havn't seen any state that deregulated electric without forcing the physical distribution to be a separate company from the power generation. Imagine if that wasn't the case... Electric rates would skyrocket because the wire providers would push their own power plants, and lock the other providers out of their wires. Sound familiar?
I think we need to rethink the whole phone/communications system. Physical plant (wire or fiber) should be completely separate from services. The only way to do that is go IP everywhere, and force all phone (wire or fiber) companies to adopt VoIP (which most of them have already done on their backbones). They want the physical plant? Fine, they don't get the service money. They want the profits that come with services? Fine, drop your chokehold on the physical plant. Of course, that would require a lot more backbone from the regulators, who are taking in *way* too much in bribes - um, payola - um, lobbying money from the very industry that they are supposed to be regulating.
Oh, come on. If you're going to bash the iPhone, do it right.
Today, it was announced that the iPhone is the cause of Global Warming, and will also bring about the end of the world. Leading scientists researching the causes of Global Warming stated that the amount of hot air generated discussing Apple's latest product had increased average temeratures by half a degree. The latest warnings over Corporate IT's lack of support for the device have only accelerated the changes. Also, due to the device using both cellular and Wi-Fi wireless networks, wildlife has been noted to be avoiding the iPhones by moving out of the continent. This includes bees and birds, without whom all pollenation will cease, leading to global crop failure and massive famine on a scale never before seen.
Ok, am I the first to remember this? Palm was for *years* derided by IT departments everywhere. Same for Blackberry, and the MS phones. "They'll never work with our systems", "They're not secure enough", etc. But what happened as soon as the corner office got one? It was no longer "keep it out", it was "make it work and keep your job". All this is hot air and IT's resistance to change until their job is on the line. You'll see a lot of quite accptance then...
And here's the crux of the problem. Where is an ordinary law-abiding citizen supposed to send the check for taxes on fuel that he makes? The last time I tried to talk to the tax folks, they shipped me all over the state trying to figure out what department to talk to. Oh, and you're not in the fuel-SELLING business, and would be paying less that $1000 a month? Good luck getting anyone on the phone. Of course, this would not vacate the fine - just because you tried to pay it and nobody would accept it, doesn't mean they still won't charge you for tax evasion. Oh, and all you Brits out there - Good luck handling the paperwork to prove you produce less than the quota amount. I'll be willing to bet they assume you'll have sales receipts (which you won't have, if you're making it yourself)....
Here's the thing about Safari as of today. You now have the same browser platform on three different classes of devices: Windows machines, Macs, and iPhones. You want to make a website for your customers where they get a consistent experience? Pick Safari. One development cycle, one browser config to support. (yeah, i know that it'll never happen, but that's the business case anyway)
Anyone wanna bet that the "develop once browse anywhere" is going to get the attention of certain PHBs? Especially ones who all are slavering over the iPhones?
The trend for printing is color managed RGB content in PDF/X format.
OK. I'll bite.
Working in the graphics design field, specifically color management and retouching, this is subject to a *huge* debate right now. In theory, you are correct. The problem is that it's just a theory. As long as everyone is using the same color management software (without bugs no less), using the correct settings and profiles, everything would work just as you describe.
Now walk into any press shop. See what tools they use for color management, RIPing, etc. Somehow, I doubt you'll see many shops that have consistency in everything. Now walk into press shop #2. Think they match?
In my experience, you're better off going with CMYK if you want to have the best chance of what you hand the press guys to look like you expect. At least until that best case world shows up. Anyone want to take bets on when that'll happen?
The output is the web, broadcast, mobile gadgets, digital printing. Most likely in that order.
Depends on the shop you're in. I work for a catalog retailer - all our images are for press first as that is our primary customer vehicle, then copies are made for the web. We're working in CMYK, then converting back to RGB (and tweaking as needed). Not ideal from a quality (color gamut) standpoint, but it works much better in our workflow and results in a much more stable set of images.
Print shops that stick to CMYK for everything and can not import PDF's properly but ask for Quark files are doomed anyway.
Two different animals here. First, I would hope that my print shop *does* stick to CMYK, as that is what is going to be printing on press. If they are not familiar with that process, they shouldn't be in business.
As for Quark, you are correct. The biggest growth area right now is Adobe InDesign vs. Quark. I wouldn't hire any shop that can't take Quark, InDesign, and PDFs. If they're stuck on Quark-only, they are not work dealing with at this point. That's kind of like saying "we only take WorkPerfect files".
As for the original question, I'd love to evaluate some free/cheaper tools than Adobe. But I don't know of any out there that would be acceptable to the press folks. As long as the output is a verifiable PDF/X variant than things should in theory be ok (what did we just discuss about theory?). Of course, most press shops will gladly take whatever you give them - for a price. They'll charge you *big* bucks to "fix" your files so that can use them.
Oh, and one problem with PDF/X by the way - the standard compression is JPEG. All the files I send use ZIP compression for quality reasons. So yeah, I may be out of PDF/X spec, but the printers don't care - I'm getting them a better quality file. And it's not like some of them don't recommend that change due to JPEG compression artifacts occasionally showing up in certain areas.
I've been through a similar situation recently (company got bought out and my office got closed down). The only thin I'd add to your comments is that I have to continue my old health insurance (COBRA), basically because if I ever want to get health insurance again in the US due to "previously existing condition" language in the insurance docs. Oh, and guess how much that costs? Approximately 75% of my unemployment benefits. So, I'm supposed to pay rent and live how? oh well, at least I've got insurance once I get hypothermia or something for sleeping outside...
And how much does the BOD and former upper management at my old company get? Let's just say they're not looking at sleeping on the streets.
That being said, I have no problem with a Google search (or Yahoo! or Ask.com, etc) being run on myself or any prospective or current employee. It's a search tool on currently available *public* information. It gives an idea of the type of things that person may be doing in their spare time, and sometimes identifies areas of concern (i.e., embellished resume?) If it's going to be used in court, or as the only source for hire/fire material, a follow-up offline search should be required in my mind (either by interviewing, or asking directly).
That's what P2P is for - and you think that the downloads on P2P networks aren't already *faster* than buying legit? This'll just kill the online guys.
Better, Faster, Cheaper. Pick any two - except when you throw this much bandwidth at the P2P networks:) Bring it on!
>You're being coerced into low-level law-breaking,
Low-level? $150K per violation plus jail time (not to mention attorneys fees) is not my idea of low-level. You can bring that up next time you have a meeting with this ass - and make sure that *his* boss (or the owner if possible) is in the room when you say that. They do realize that the *company* is the one who typically gets hit with huge settlement fees, right? (and if it's a public company, that typically costs the CEO their job) Oh, and if you choose to quit, you might want to thank them for the $200K reward the BSA is offering right now for reporting them.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, very little stops spammers from also opening a ton of "legitimate" free accounts and spamming using those, but they can (sometimes) get tracked and shut down...
Either that or a few banana peels and a couple of cans o' beer.... meet Mr Fusion!
My biggest problem with your entire comment may seem minor. But it's a major issue in mindset at the top of most every company now, and it's spread to the populace by the corporate-owned news media. That problem is the use of the word "consumer". A consumer, in the MBA mindset, is someone who will use your product no matter what. You can charge whatever you want and your "consumers" will always be there to eat the cost. "Customers" on the other hand, are people that do not *have* to use or consume your product. You must win them, and you must listen to them if you want their business. This distinction seems to have been lost in the MBA farms, and has been pushed on the rest of the world. What's bad in my mind is that everyone seems to buy into the change, without even realizing it.
Not anymore! You blinded me you ***!
The difference here is that *they* have control of the changes. The ISP is being paid by the customer for connectivity. There is (in most cases today) an expectation that any data sent across an ISP's links will be unaltered. By running adblock, greasemonkey, or similar packages on the local machine, the end user is explicitly changing the data. But that does not happen without the end user knowing about it.
Also, if my ISP is doing this to generate ad revenue, I would be up in arms and demand a cut of the revenue stream. Otherwise, I can just take my packets elsewhere thank you. I don't need to pay a company to sell my eyeballs.
No.
:)
That's it I've had it. I'm just gonna start answering every rhetorical question asked by Slashdot.
I fully expect your keyboard to explode in a shower of blood and gore in the near future as your smoking stumps scream in agony from typing "No" after every post
Microsoft is reading this article and thinking "Heh, interesting side effect..." when later questioned their response will be "Yes, we meant that."
And M$'s lawyers are saying "Hell with eating our own dog food. Let's ban Vista from all managers' desktops!"
Anyone wanna try to order discovery on M$'s systems regarding settlement compliance?
One thing I havn't seen in all this discussion is that quite a few of the CAPTCHA systems out there also generate a short sound bite for people with disabilities that's only a quick link away. It's a lot easier to use speech recognition routines on the .wav file than bother with the image.
Here's the crux of the problem. All the current legislation and regulatory requirements specify the existing infrastucture. Specifically, the copper. Disabling this allows Verizon to do anything they want with that customer's connection, and there isn't a thing (legally) that the customer can do about it. It's bringing back the bad old days of "we own your wire(fiber). We can do whatever we want". Oh, yeah, the physical stuff will still be there. But how long until they cut out maintenance of the old unused equipment, and there's no longer the option of going back? Betcha it'll be sooner rather than later.
If Google opens its R&D center nearby and lures some programmers from MS, we'll see chairs flying over the border into Canada.
And then maybe we'll see Ballmer arrested for illegal exports. Or maybe China will ban all MS imports due to "failure to meet quality standards".
What market is that? Microsoft is all over the US smartphone market.
And 5.6% marketshare is "all over" the market? Methinks with that logic, Apple has a monopoly on the PC laptop market, with their latest marketshare figures. Consider that in the same article Ballmer is talking about trying for 60-80% marketshare. Think that'll work when they've got the iPhone for competition? I think I'll work about as well as the Zune has so far...
Seriously, if the iPhone is ONLY really good on WiFi networks, why the iPhone?
Well, Apple is taking this as an opportunity to push the US wireless carriers to upgrade their networks. And, they get to put an Apple device into a market that MS hasn't been able to penetrate very well (yet). On top of that, they get to use the iPod capabilities to continue their dominance of the online music market.
Just a thought - how long do you think it will take for Apple to add a full iTunes store on the iPhone? Download whole songs over the wireless network, sync back to your PC for backup, etc? Given the piss-poor bandwidth at the average cell site backend, this idea has got to have AT&T shitting themselves over the coming data wave. They've probably not included it yet for the very reason that AT&T needs to upgrade every cell site in the country.
The next release of the iPhone in 18 months or so will probably include 4G capability (skipping over 3G) and the iTunes store. If they've got to touch every cell site, why not do a full upgrade to 4G? And that will push everyone else to do the same, or be left behind. Maybe Steve is pushing this to be the backdoor to increased high-speed bandwidth for the country?
Anyway, to get back on topic. There seems to be *way* too much acceptance of the mythical "market". And on top of that, the "market" doesn't exist in telecom - the barrier to entry is way too high from a physical plant perspective. So, you are piggy-backing off someone's wires.
This is the same for the deregulated electric markets that have popped up. Except that I havn't seen any state that deregulated electric without forcing the physical distribution to be a separate company from the power generation. Imagine if that wasn't the case... Electric rates would skyrocket because the wire providers would push their own power plants, and lock the other providers out of their wires. Sound familiar?
I think we need to rethink the whole phone/communications system. Physical plant (wire or fiber) should be completely separate from services. The only way to do that is go IP everywhere, and force all phone (wire or fiber) companies to adopt VoIP (which most of them have already done on their backbones). They want the physical plant? Fine, they don't get the service money. They want the profits that come with services? Fine, drop your chokehold on the physical plant. Of course, that would require a lot more backbone from the regulators, who are taking in *way* too much in bribes - um, payola - um, lobbying money from the very industry that they are supposed to be regulating.
Oh, come on. If you're going to bash the iPhone, do it right.
Today, it was announced that the iPhone is the cause of Global Warming, and will also bring about the end of the world. Leading scientists researching the causes of Global Warming stated that the amount of hot air generated discussing Apple's latest product had increased average temeratures by half a degree. The latest warnings over Corporate IT's lack of support for the device have only accelerated the changes. Also, due to the device using both cellular and Wi-Fi wireless networks, wildlife has been noted to be avoiding the iPhones by moving out of the continent. This includes bees and birds, without whom all pollenation will cease, leading to global crop failure and massive famine on a scale never before seen.
Ok, am I the first to remember this? Palm was for *years* derided by IT departments everywhere. Same for Blackberry, and the MS phones. "They'll never work with our systems", "They're not secure enough", etc. But what happened as soon as the corner office got one? It was no longer "keep it out", it was "make it work and keep your job". All this is hot air and IT's resistance to change until their job is on the line. You'll see a lot of quite accptance then...
Go Safari!
And here's the crux of the problem. Where is an ordinary law-abiding citizen supposed to send the check for taxes on fuel that he makes? The last time I tried to talk to the tax folks, they shipped me all over the state trying to figure out what department to talk to. Oh, and you're not in the fuel-SELLING business, and would be paying less that $1000 a month? Good luck getting anyone on the phone. Of course, this would not vacate the fine - just because you tried to pay it and nobody would accept it, doesn't mean they still won't charge you for tax evasion. Oh, and all you Brits out there - Good luck handling the paperwork to prove you produce less than the quota amount. I'll be willing to bet they assume you'll have sales receipts (which you won't have, if you're making it yourself)....
It don't need killer apps. Just throw it hard enuf - It'll kill :)
Here's the thing about Safari as of today. You now have the same browser platform on three different classes of devices: Windows machines, Macs, and iPhones. You want to make a website for your customers where they get a consistent experience? Pick Safari. One development cycle, one browser config to support. (yeah, i know that it'll never happen, but that's the business case anyway)
Anyone wanna bet that the "develop once browse anywhere" is going to get the attention of certain PHBs? Especially ones who all are slavering over the iPhones?
If I recall correctly, there will be not future versions for Mac. They were focusing on Windows-only development I believe.
OK. I'll bite.
Working in the graphics design field, specifically color management and retouching, this is subject to a *huge* debate right now. In theory, you are correct. The problem is that it's just a theory. As long as everyone is using the same color management software (without bugs no less), using the correct settings and profiles, everything would work just as you describe.
Now walk into any press shop. See what tools they use for color management, RIPing, etc. Somehow, I doubt you'll see many shops that have consistency in everything. Now walk into press shop #2. Think they match?
In my experience, you're better off going with CMYK if you want to have the best chance of what you hand the press guys to look like you expect. At least until that best case world shows up. Anyone want to take bets on when that'll happen?
The output is the web, broadcast, mobile gadgets, digital printing. Most likely in that order.
Depends on the shop you're in. I work for a catalog retailer - all our images are for press first as that is our primary customer vehicle, then copies are made for the web. We're working in CMYK, then converting back to RGB (and tweaking as needed). Not ideal from a quality (color gamut) standpoint, but it works much better in our workflow and results in a much more stable set of images.
Print shops that stick to CMYK for everything and can not import PDF's properly but ask for Quark files are doomed anyway.
Two different animals here. First, I would hope that my print shop *does* stick to CMYK, as that is what is going to be printing on press. If they are not familiar with that process, they shouldn't be in business.
As for Quark, you are correct. The biggest growth area right now is Adobe InDesign vs. Quark. I wouldn't hire any shop that can't take Quark, InDesign, and PDFs. If they're stuck on Quark-only, they are not work dealing with at this point. That's kind of like saying "we only take WorkPerfect files".
As for the original question, I'd love to evaluate some free/cheaper tools than Adobe. But I don't know of any out there that would be acceptable to the press folks. As long as the output is a verifiable PDF/X variant than things should in theory be ok (what did we just discuss about theory?). Of course, most press shops will gladly take whatever you give them - for a price. They'll charge you *big* bucks to "fix" your files so that can use them.
Oh, and one problem with PDF/X by the way - the standard compression is JPEG. All the files I send use ZIP compression for quality reasons. So yeah, I may be out of PDF/X spec, but the printers don't care - I'm getting them a better quality file. And it's not like some of them don't recommend that change due to JPEG compression artifacts occasionally showing up in certain areas.
I've been through a similar situation recently (company got bought out and my office got closed down). The only thin I'd add to your comments is that I have to continue my old health insurance (COBRA), basically because if I ever want to get health insurance again in the US due to "previously existing condition" language in the insurance docs. Oh, and guess how much that costs? Approximately 75% of my unemployment benefits. So, I'm supposed to pay rent and live how? oh well, at least I've got insurance once I get hypothermia or something for sleeping outside...
And how much does the BOD and former upper management at my old company get? Let's just say they're not looking at sleeping on the streets.
That being said, I have no problem with a Google search (or Yahoo! or Ask.com, etc) being run on myself or any prospective or current employee. It's a search tool on currently available *public* information. It gives an idea of the type of things that person may be doing in their spare time, and sometimes identifies areas of concern (i.e., embellished resume?) If it's going to be used in court, or as the only source for hire/fire material, a follow-up offline search should be required in my mind (either by interviewing, or asking directly).
too bad i dont have your address - oh, wait, maybe i do
:)
- dw -
*digs through the logs*
well, anyway, if you have any good ideas for a main page, let me know
That's what P2P is for - and you think that the downloads on P2P networks aren't already *faster* than buying legit? This'll just kill the online guys. Better, Faster, Cheaper. Pick any two - except when you throw this much bandwidth at the P2P networks :) Bring it on!
>You're being coerced into low-level law-breaking,
Low-level? $150K per violation plus jail time (not to mention attorneys fees) is not my idea of low-level. You can bring that up next time you have a meeting with this ass - and make sure that *his* boss (or the owner if possible) is in the room when you say that. They do realize that the *company* is the one who typically gets hit with huge settlement fees, right? (and if it's a public company, that typically costs the CEO their job) Oh, and if you choose to quit, you might want to thank them for the $200K reward the BSA is offering right now for reporting them.