PrezKennedy's Soapbox
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Lycos Accidentally Nukes some Spammers
Lycos Europe has been making the headlines lately with its controversial screensaver that had pounds spammer websites when a user's computer is not being used. It has been so effective that it has downed two spammer sites, and crippled another. I can't even pretend to be sad about it... spammers deserve a taste of their own medicine, and if it puts them out of business... even better!
On one side, people are cheering this effort to cripple spammers, while others are saying this type of vigilantism could set a nasty precedent of attacks and counter-attacks across the network. My take on the matter? The Internet is the last frontier left on Earth, almost like the United States' wild west of the 1800's. Back then it was sometimes necessary to take matters into your own hands because either no one else would, or because there wasn't a Sheriff to do it. The Internet is like that; for the most part it's unregulated. Vigilantes, while not the most desirable answer to the problem, are an answer.
If you want to support Lycos' effort against spammers, be sure to download the screensaver at their website (which happens to be down right now). As I said before, spammers are only getting a taste of their own medicine... so don't feel bad for them. The constant penis enhancement and Viagra rip-offs certainly remind me of that. ¶ 6:20 PM 0 comments
Lycos Europe has been making the headlines lately with its controversial screensaver that had pounds spammer websites when a user's computer is not being used. It has been so effective that it has downed two spammer sites, and crippled another. I can't even pretend to be sad about it... spammers deserve a taste of their own medicine, and if it puts them out of business... even better!
On one side, people are cheering this effort to cripple spammers, while others are saying this type of vigilantism could set a nasty precedent of attacks and counter-attacks across the network. My take on the matter? The Internet is the last frontier left on Earth, almost like the United States' wild west of the 1800's. Back then it was sometimes necessary to take matters into your own hands because either no one else would, or because there wasn't a Sheriff to do it. The Internet is like that; for the most part it's unregulated. Vigilantes, while not the most desirable answer to the problem, are an answer.
If you want to support Lycos' effort against spammers, be sure to download the screensaver at their website (which happens to be down right now). As I said before, spammers are only getting a taste of their own medicine... so don't feel bad for them. The constant penis enhancement and Viagra rip-offs certainly remind me of that. ¶ 6:20 PM 0 comments
Pyramid Schemes - That iPod Ain't so Free
It's amazing how quickly these "promotions" like the free iPods, flat screens, G5's, PC's, and Photo iPods are spreading around the Internet as somewhat gullible people try and cash in on them. I'm afraid I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you're really just being played in a classic pyramid scheme, and unless you were one of the first people to finish it, it's highly unlikely you'll ever fulfill the requirements to get your iPod. I'd like to quote a small part of Wikipedia's entry on pyramid schemes for this article.
Quote:
The key identifiers of a pyramid scheme are:
Three of those are italicized for a reason. They sound quite a bit like those "marketing promotion" programs operated by [color=CC0000]Gratis Internet[/color] (the people who run many of these free promotions) don't they? Sure, the early adopters have gotten their iPods, but at what price? Well, now we have to endure quite a few people on the Internet who want one too, so they're advertising and spamming like crazy trying to get 'em. Those who adopt too late will be unable to satisfy their necessary quota because everyone else will have already signed up. This type of stuff was outlawed back in the 1970's because it was innundating the mail system with worthless garbage, and plus quite a few people got ripped off too because they didn't understand what was happening.
It's just like the classic tale of the king rewarding one of his subjects by offering them anything they wanted. The subject requested that corn kernels be placed on a chess board, starting at one and doubling every square after. To make a long story short, all the corn in the world wouldn't be enough to satisfy the demand because just at square 24, 8,388,608 kernels would be needed. At square 64, a whopping 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 would be needed!!! The equation to see this is 2^x. With these free iPod schemes, the equation is more like 5^x. Obviously, it grows even faster.
That's the type of scam you're being suckered into, and they're counting on you not being able to find enough people to win your "free iPod", otherwise they would lose money and go out of business. As the saying goes, "there's no such thing as a free lunch".
Edit: As an interesting sidenote, some of the sites ask you for your zip code to see if they're recruiting in your area. It doesn't really matter what number you put in there... 000000000 will return a message saying they're accepting new recruits. Obviously they just want your personal info so they can spam you with other "get free stuff" schemes since you've already been suckered once. ¶ 3:16 PM 0 comments
It's amazing how quickly these "promotions" like the free iPods, flat screens, G5's, PC's, and Photo iPods are spreading around the Internet as somewhat gullible people try and cash in on them. I'm afraid I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you're really just being played in a classic pyramid scheme, and unless you were one of the first people to finish it, it's highly unlikely you'll ever fulfill the requirements to get your iPod. I'd like to quote a small part of Wikipedia's entry on pyramid schemes for this article.
Quote:
The key identifiers of a pyramid scheme are:
- A highly excited sales pitch
- Vaguely phrased promises of limitless income potential
- No product, or a product being sold at a price ridiculously in excess of its real market value.
- An income stream that chiefly depends on the commissions earned by enrolling new members or the purchase by members of products for their own use rather than sales to customers who are not participants in the scheme.
- A tendency for only the early investors/joiners to make any real income.
Three of those are italicized for a reason. They sound quite a bit like those "marketing promotion" programs operated by [color=CC0000]Gratis Internet[/color] (the people who run many of these free promotions) don't they? Sure, the early adopters have gotten their iPods, but at what price? Well, now we have to endure quite a few people on the Internet who want one too, so they're advertising and spamming like crazy trying to get 'em. Those who adopt too late will be unable to satisfy their necessary quota because everyone else will have already signed up. This type of stuff was outlawed back in the 1970's because it was innundating the mail system with worthless garbage, and plus quite a few people got ripped off too because they didn't understand what was happening.
It's just like the classic tale of the king rewarding one of his subjects by offering them anything they wanted. The subject requested that corn kernels be placed on a chess board, starting at one and doubling every square after. To make a long story short, all the corn in the world wouldn't be enough to satisfy the demand because just at square 24, 8,388,608 kernels would be needed. At square 64, a whopping 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 would be needed!!! The equation to see this is 2^x. With these free iPod schemes, the equation is more like 5^x. Obviously, it grows even faster.
That's the type of scam you're being suckered into, and they're counting on you not being able to find enough people to win your "free iPod", otherwise they would lose money and go out of business. As the saying goes, "there's no such thing as a free lunch".
Edit: As an interesting sidenote, some of the sites ask you for your zip code to see if they're recruiting in your area. It doesn't really matter what number you put in there... 000000000 will return a message saying they're accepting new recruits. Obviously they just want your personal info so they can spam you with other "get free stuff" schemes since you've already been suckered once. ¶ 3:16 PM 0 comments
Microsoft's "MSN Spaces"
I saw something on Slashdot about a new service that Microsoft is hosting. It's called MSN Spaces, and it's designed so anyone can start their own blog, even your 90 year old grandmother! The upside is obviously that the technically elite won't have any difficulty getting into it... the downside of course is that the Internet will be swamped with even more blogs of people who can barely write and have nothing really interesting to say (Yeah, I know that's pretty ironic coming from me).
I signed up for MSN Spaces, and gave it a bit of a whirl. It kind of reminds me of phpNuke, minus all the other cool stuff... and hopefully minus all the security flaws. The templates are all really generic, and right now the place is overloaded with new people from Slashdot checking it out. I made my own test blog, Computer's Aren't My Thing, just to try it out. A fitting name since the site is so slow, and parts of it don't really work. One last bad thing about it... while it does have a nice upload system in place, image upload and blog space are both limited to 10 megabytes. Not nearly enough for me I'm afraid.
So my final verdict? I'll definitely stick to PrezKennedy.org and Blogger for my needs. ¶ 11:15 AM 0 comments
I saw something on Slashdot about a new service that Microsoft is hosting. It's called MSN Spaces, and it's designed so anyone can start their own blog, even your 90 year old grandmother! The upside is obviously that the technically elite won't have any difficulty getting into it... the downside of course is that the Internet will be swamped with even more blogs of people who can barely write and have nothing really interesting to say (Yeah, I know that's pretty ironic coming from me).
I signed up for MSN Spaces, and gave it a bit of a whirl. It kind of reminds me of phpNuke, minus all the other cool stuff... and hopefully minus all the security flaws. The templates are all really generic, and right now the place is overloaded with new people from Slashdot checking it out. I made my own test blog, Computer's Aren't My Thing, just to try it out. A fitting name since the site is so slow, and parts of it don't really work. One last bad thing about it... while it does have a nice upload system in place, image upload and blog space are both limited to 10 megabytes. Not nearly enough for me I'm afraid.
So my final verdict? I'll definitely stick to PrezKennedy.org and Blogger for my needs. ¶ 11:15 AM 0 comments
Monday, November 29, 2004
WebDesign for Newbies
I've been checking out a lot of the blogs listed on BlogExplosion, and I have some helpful suggestions so that the next time I drop by (while I'm collecting my credits), I don't try to rip my eyes out and scream. These tips are just a little common sense that can go a long way to increasing the number of readers that are willing to bear with your crappy design. Everyone will thank you if you take these into consideration.
That list of things to think about should be helpful for the typical beginner. Please keep those in mind when you design your own blog or website, that way when an unfortunate visitor comes by, they won't run away screaming. If you wan't some more serious material, check out some books on good web design. Once again, your visitors will thank you... and your website will see an increase in traffic!
¶ 3:32 AM 2 comments
I've been checking out a lot of the blogs listed on BlogExplosion, and I have some helpful suggestions so that the next time I drop by (while I'm collecting my credits), I don't try to rip my eyes out and scream. These tips are just a little common sense that can go a long way to increasing the number of readers that are willing to bear with your crappy design. Everyone will thank you if you take these into consideration.
- For the love of God and all that is holy, please don't use a red or yellow background. Those just burn people's eyes out of their sockets. Use a more neutral color, a light blue, a very light red, gray, or white.
- If you absolutely must use dark colored backgrounds, please use light colored text, so that way people can actually read what you're trying to say. Not everyone runs their computer monitor at 800x600, so minor variations in the color are harder to see at higher resolution.
- Do not use massive pictures at the top of your blog. Massive pictures take a long time to load, and on slower webhosts, a lot of people will never even see your writing before they move on.
- We don't want to hear your crappy music, so set it so it doesn't automatically play. If we want to hear it, we'll play it ourselves!!
- Be smart, don't post pictures of your kids online. That's just asking for a lot of trouble.
- While you're at it, don't post mailing addresses and phone numbers unless you really know what you're getting yourself into. Soemone who is persistant will find you, and that could very well be a bad thing.
- Do us all a favor, make your design simple, so that way it actually works on everyone's Internet browser.
- Don't limit the size of your website in a browser. Some of us do have nice big monitors. I always hate seeing websites that use only about 1/4 or 1/2 the available space in the browser, and just leave the rest blank.
- Remember that whatever you say online can last longer than a lifetime. Think twice about what you might say... especially if it could have dire consequences in your real life.
- Please use decent grammar and spelling. If you don't, don't expect anyone to try and decipher what you're trying to say.
- If you resize my browser window, I'll kill you. While you're at it, why don't you just invite yourself into my house and change the thermostat settings.
- Don't use animated GIFs for anything but the smallest of icons. If you do, it just makes you look like a newbie... who hasn't been paying attention to what I've been saying.
That list of things to think about should be helpful for the typical beginner. Please keep those in mind when you design your own blog or website, that way when an unfortunate visitor comes by, they won't run away screaming. If you wan't some more serious material, check out some books on good web design. Once again, your visitors will thank you... and your website will see an increase in traffic!
¶ 3:32 AM 2 comments
Total Annihilation Commander Pack
Looking for the Total Annihilation Commander's Pack? Well, this is one of the few ways you're going to get it. The game is almost impossible to find these days since Atari has stopped producing new copies of it. Good luck trying to find Core Contingency. You'll practically need a miracle for that one to happen.
If you still want the entire game, and weren't quick enough to pick it up back in 1999 when it was only $19.99 at nearly any Electronics Boutique, well... you're probably going to have to cough up more than $80. That's just life... I just want to say though, that I have the Commander Pack (I bought it back in 1999), and it was well worth the price then, and even at more than $80, it's still worth it. You will have true classic in your collection. I highly suggest that you burn copies of the disks and back them up so that way you don't lose the originals. They're worth that much money!
Total Annihilation is simply one of the best real time strategy games out there, and if you haven't played it yet and you enjoy large scale battles, you really have been missing out the past seven years. You better get it now!!
Oh, and if you happen to be a Mac user, you can pick up Total Annihilation Gold at a much, much cheaper price. It comes with Core Contingency and Battle Tactics, so you'll be all ready to play! And then there is still the Total Annihilation Community, where you can pick up user-created units, maps and other cool toys. Even Mac users can join in by visiting the Mac Forums on TAUniverse. You'll be ready to go in no time! ¶ 3:07 AM 0 comments
Looking for the Total Annihilation Commander's Pack? Well, this is one of the few ways you're going to get it. The game is almost impossible to find these days since Atari has stopped producing new copies of it. Good luck trying to find Core Contingency. You'll practically need a miracle for that one to happen.
If you still want the entire game, and weren't quick enough to pick it up back in 1999 when it was only $19.99 at nearly any Electronics Boutique, well... you're probably going to have to cough up more than $80. That's just life... I just want to say though, that I have the Commander Pack (I bought it back in 1999), and it was well worth the price then, and even at more than $80, it's still worth it. You will have true classic in your collection. I highly suggest that you burn copies of the disks and back them up so that way you don't lose the originals. They're worth that much money!
Total Annihilation is simply one of the best real time strategy games out there, and if you haven't played it yet and you enjoy large scale battles, you really have been missing out the past seven years. You better get it now!!
Oh, and if you happen to be a Mac user, you can pick up Total Annihilation Gold at a much, much cheaper price. It comes with Core Contingency and Battle Tactics, so you'll be all ready to play! And then there is still the Total Annihilation Community, where you can pick up user-created units, maps and other cool toys. Even Mac users can join in by visiting the Mac Forums on TAUniverse. You'll be ready to go in no time! ¶ 3:07 AM 0 comments
New Direction for my Blogspot WebSite
I've decided that I'm going to start trying to make a little extra change on the side so that way I can go out and buy the little things in life that make my computer better than it is. I've already started the Google Ads (of which I've made three cents in the past month), and I'm also going to be doing some commentary and thoughts on different hardware available on the market. Sure, I might not be able to afford it, but I'll definitely have an opinion as to whether I would or not. Call it a poor college guy's handbook to what's worth getting, and what isn't.
I'll also be discussing the latest games as well. I'll probably focus more on the ones I already have, and may introduce some of the content I've already written for PrezKennedy.org. Stay tuned for some major changes!! :) ¶ 2:26 AM 0 comments
I've decided that I'm going to start trying to make a little extra change on the side so that way I can go out and buy the little things in life that make my computer better than it is. I've already started the Google Ads (of which I've made three cents in the past month), and I'm also going to be doing some commentary and thoughts on different hardware available on the market. Sure, I might not be able to afford it, but I'll definitely have an opinion as to whether I would or not. Call it a poor college guy's handbook to what's worth getting, and what isn't.
I'll also be discussing the latest games as well. I'll probably focus more on the ones I already have, and may introduce some of the content I've already written for PrezKennedy.org. Stay tuned for some major changes!! :) ¶ 2:26 AM 0 comments
