A Whole Lotta Nothing

Spam, spam, spam

After living with 100s of emails per day that got around spamassassin and blacklists (they tend to have subjects and text that l00k l!ke th!s), I finally gave up and followed everyone else's lead to Knowspam. The weirdest part about it, now that it is in place, is getting 4 or 5 emails when I woke up today, instead of having to wade through 150 (mostly bogus) messages every morning.

I never wanted to retreat to a whitelist situation, but it seems to work too good already and I'm sticking with it.

A sure-handed performer, indeed

My combination time machine/exercise machine is finally working out. I made the Tribune All-Area high school football team for my wide receiving acumen.

I wonder if style.org's backend uses python?

Best use of infographics and math ever: Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow

(also, a damn fine mapping project)

It's like the broadcast flag... in your pants!

"Does Madonna have the right to tell you how to dispose of your jeans? From the way Time Warner, the Gap stores, and eBay are acting, you'd think she does."

-- from the strange tale of not being allowed to sell a CD the Gap gave away to you.

AIM to SMS

I have no idea why this is possible, but I just used the trick to send a text message to everyone I know with a SMS-capable phone via iChat. [thanks mike]

When stainless steel attacks

Stainless steel is a recent design trend in households and the Industrial House site takes it to new levels: $14k tub, $3k toilet, and a $600 bench. I wonder if market for these items goes beyond Kraftwerk trying to get on MTV Cribs.

Sound geeks take note

I know Victor from fourstones.net from the remixes he's done of MetaFilter musicians and from all the great remixes he submitted to the Creative Commons CD.

He recently launched Virtual Turntable, a blog centered on what he does best: make music on a computer. It looks great and has a lot of technical news and reviews of music software and I can tell all my record-at-home geek friends are going to love it.

Mark it 8, dude

Pretty much everything I want for xmas is on this page.

Cracking wise

A couple kids hacked into a Lowes store database and grabbed a bunch of credit card numbers. They did it wirelessly from the parking lot no less and frankly I'm surprised it was even possible. When I ordered a custom item a couple weeks ago, I noticed that Lowes' internal systems are all tied into open source programs. Custom ordering terminals are running what looked like Redhat, and my order was entered into a mozilla browser (with the URL address bar hidden), running a web app with basic web forms for all data entry.

I suspect these dorks in the parking lot sniffed the traffic and got in. Hopefully Lowes starts using ssh tunnels and https for all communication on the wire, and puts a more robust wireless security system in place. It'd be nice if they released their software somewhere or left it open to public review, so the open source community could find these gaping holes and fix them before they become a problem.

The lovable little scamp

On the news that Kucinich Posts Excerpts from Diebold Memos, I have yet another reason to love that crazy little bastard. I know he's got a Nader's chance in hell of winning the presidency, but it's great to see someone out there saying and doing provocative things in the era of middle-roadness (witness the democratic backpedalling from any talk of gay marriage). Everyone wants that center vote so bad they come off about as interesting as unflavored, unsweetened ice milk (*cough* Gore *cough*) and guys like Kucinich come off like a scoop of triple rasberry death-by-chocolate surprise.

It's not even his politics really, as I disagree with some of his positions, but I'll openly admit my first presidential vote in 1992 went to Ross Perot, for much of the same reason: I was tired of the same old politics and preferred to vote for someone with a fire under their ass.

It's a walking city after all

I don't know why I started doing it, but for one reason or another I set about recording my feet walking through Vancouver when I was up there last week. I assembled a bunch of the clips and slapped a song I listened to a great deal on my way up there, Scott and Shannon's Nothing New. After editing the clips together in iMovie for about 30 minutes I've nearly gotten motion sickness, but hopefully you don't feel that way while watching it.

13 Mb mpeg-4 quicktime (right-click to save-as since my server doesn't recognize the mime-type)

All hail hypnoblog

I really like the Kottke.org reorganization. It's a lot of what I've tried to do here in one way or another, but in an easier to read format. Having an intermingled single area for posts is a much better idea than what I've got now, this unweildy portal of all sorts of junk.

Best Buy Customer Disservice

I've determined that Best Buy is the Clear Channel of electronics superstores. Much like how the megaopoly of Clear Channel stations means no real local radio DJs, today I found out you can no longer actually call a Best Buy store.

About a month ago, I called a local best buy using their listed number, talked to someone in appliances and bought a washer. Well, it turns out that after a couple weeks I noticed it doesn't exactly spray much water on clothes, not at all like the demo video that came with it. More like dribbling a few ounces of water instead of the robust sprayers shown in the company-provided instruction tape.

So today I call the same number to request a return. They first ask for my home phone number and name, which I find odd when I just want to talk to someone in the store, and when I relay the problem I find out that I need to go into the store to talk to someone in appliances. I tell the person that I just called my local store number to do just that -- to see if I should come in and discuss a replacement or exchange. Then we begin a tango of words.

"So, you're telling me that if I want to talk to someone in my local store, I need to go to the store, because calling the local number doesn't actually reach the store"

"That is correct"

"So why even have local numbers anymore? Why not just tell everyone to call 1-800-best-buy to speak to the call center?"

"Well, sir, our employees are very busy this time of year and can't answer phones"

"I called this number a month ago and spoke with someone on the floor"

"Well, that's not really fair to the people that walked into the store"

"I know, I was in the store waiting for an employee to get off the phone for ten minutes when I was shopping there."

"We're very sorry sir"

"So, here's my problem. I don't want to drive 45 minutes to my local store to find out I missed something, or I can't get a return, or that they could have scheduled it with me remotely."

"Your best bet is to go into your local store"

"Right, but a month ago I called ahead to make sure they had it in stock before I drove. I just want to talk to someone there before I drive there so I won't waste a couple hours on a pointless trip."

"I'm sorry sir, this is a call center, only best buy employees may speak directly to stores now. Please visit your local store. Thanks."

Best Buy has acheived a new low of cost-cutting superstore antics, to remove the entire ability to contact any local store while at the same time posing as if they are local. Their savings on customer service just cost them this customer, as I'm going to buy from my local Lowes or Sears from now on.

Virtual Book Tour: Urban Tribes

For this stop on the Virtual Book Tour for Ethan Watters' new book, Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family, and Commitment, I asked Ethan a few questions that sprang to mind as I started skimming the book and reading reviews.

While I haven't finished reading your book yet, I've read a handful of reviews and your recent interview on Christine's site, and the first thought that came to mind was that tribes could have parallels with the blogging world.

Would you say that there's a resemblance between a tight knit group of friends that meet weekly and a tight knit group of people blogging, linking to each other, and commenting on each others' sites?

As I see it (and I'm just beginning to understand it) the blogging world is made dynamic by the second and third degree of connectivity. The blogs that are least interesting are those that are only for those people you directly know. As a generation we have become more and more interested in the strength of our "weak ties") -- witness friendster and tribe.net. I think the blogging world is more about our interest in the power of larger networks of people than it is a close knit community.

At MetaFilter, I'm constantly running into problems with the sheer size of an audience. It seems that things work great with a small group and then at some threshold group-related problems start to become the norm. I see that you discussed issues in your own weekly tribe, about how you have brought people in and kicked some people out. Have you found there is a magic size or limit to how big a useful tribe can grow to before becoming problematic?

Robin Dunbar has theorized the maximum size of groups. His belief is that human groups max out at 150. This is the maximum number of a group in which everybody can know everybody else at least by sight, if not by interaction. These are groups in which an individual can have some personal and coherent relationship with all the other individuals over a period of time. Put another way, he theorized that 150 was the maximum size at which a group might maintain adherence to its rules solely through the use of peer pressure. After 150 you have to begin imposing rules or laws and have a mechanism to punish or ostracize the person who transcends them. Of course, urban tribes seldom approach anywhere near that number. They tend to run best at around two dozen. These are more the size of what anthropologists called "night tribes." These were often hunting parties -- large enough to give the members a sense of safety but small enough to be mobile.

Switching gears back to the book's subject matter, do you think the "marriage delay" has an obvious end? I mean, there's a biological limit we're running up against, isn't there?

Women in my age group (I'm 39), who pioneered the marriage delay, are coming up against the end of their childbearing years. My guess is that their will be a rush to the alter in the next few years. The stories I've heard of these romances is that they go very fast. Engagements within a year of meeting the new love are common. This was the case with my marriage: one year to engagement, one year to marriage, one year to baby.

I think the average marrying age will max out at as it nears 30. It will swing back a bit but I doubt it will ever hover in the early 20s as it did for our parent's generation.

Do you see the later onset of marriage as something growing across the board, or is it limited to the post-college crowd? Do you think average age of marriage in the US may soon be bimodal, with a lot of people getting married at traditional ages in the early 20s, while a similar large percentage do it in their early 30s? (two humped curve as opposed to a normal bell curve distribution).

There has been something of a delay across the board but the most significant delay is definitely among the college-educated crowd. I recently went back to my 20th high school reunion and discovered that several of my class mates had children attending high school. Everyone but me had children to show for their two decades. I was only engaged to be married.

I do think there will be a split in the next generation but it won't fall just on a set of demographic criteria. There is a good portion of college graduates who are getting married quickly. There is another group that is looking ahead to their twenties and early thirties as a time of personal exploration. My generation of marriage delayers drifted into this period without any real understanding of its value or meaning. Now there is a group that is looking forward to it. Some of the people in this group have expressed exasperation at friends who have gotten married right out of college.

Thanks Ethan!

Guess what? Spam pays

You know that saying that crime doesn't pay? Every day it's becoming increasingly clear to me that spam does in fact pay.

As I delete comment spam after comment spam from PVRblog, I've noticed the products being sold are almost all over-the-counter or shady pharmacutical drugs that can be easily bought, sold, and shipped. Most of my email spam mirrors that as well.

It's a low-risk thing when you think about it. You buy a minimal amount of inventory, then broadcast your message from one of the hundreds of businesses setup to help you, or free spam cannon programs you can download. They say that some percentage of folks buy stuff in spam, and even if that's only 0.1% success, when you send out 5 million messages, you can make $5,000 if each sale gives you a profit of one dollar. If your profit is higher (and it should be), you can sell much less and still make that much money. Imagine it: one day of doing the devil's work and you've made as much as you will in a month of work at a $60k desk job.

Four to five years ago, I used to spend quite a bit of energy on combating spam. I read anti-spammer email lists and newsgroups, I used a spamcop account, and I sent messages daily to every abuse@hostingprovider address I could track down that hosted these bastards. I watched hundreds of other vigilante spam fighters do the same and as we shut down site after site and got person after person cut off from their service, I noticed they kept coming back, only multiplied. Eventually I grew weary of the work I put out that didn't seem to have much impact on the problem and started filtering my spam instead.

A few days ago I got some spam from a guy that has been sending me the same exact niche spam for 8 years. I know the guy that is doing it, I know where he lives, and I can tell you what dialup account he's using right now if I looked. I've reported him a dozen times and gotten him kicked off ISPs but all these years later he's still hawking his crappy products. Obviously, the guy never gave up and I'm convinced there's a financial reason for it. Spam pays, and it probably pays big.

All this is a long way of saying that I have no doubt that every word of Mark Pilgrim's post about the future of weblog spam is the gospel truth. I've seen it happen in email and usenet, and it's going to happen to weblogs as well, and as hard as we fight, it's not going to do a whole hell of a lot of good (Jason posted pretty much the same thing a week ago).

Even with my technical knowledge, a handful of custom filtering server-side and client-side programs, spam is getting through to me in such quantities that I wish I didn't have to rely on email so much. Weblog spam is making me rethink commenting on any movable type site I run. It's exhausting, pointless to fight, and I really wish we could come up with a magic bullet that removes the economic incentive to spam.

update: an Ask Slashdot post on attacking the spam business model

Signs you are busy

Paris Hilton must a very busy person. Personally, I'd let voicemail pickup.

Open Letter to FCC Chair Powell

I'd sure love to hear the FCC's response to Scott Raymond's excellent letter to Chairman Powell.

Approving the broadcast flag "in order to promote customer interests" is the biggest falsehood I've heard from Powell yet.

Beijing Opera

If you took one part circus clowns, one part chinese dance, one part rhythm gymnastics and mixed it with martial arts, you have Beijing Opera.

It's like classic theater mixed in with fight scenes straight out of The Matrix.

Umm, thanks Apple

My powerbook was running at 533Mhz instead of 866Mhz, apparently thanks to 10.2.28. I upgraded to panther last week and it seems to have stuck since then.

Read the instructions at Leonard's site to find out how to restore your former CPU power.

Fly the WiFi skies

While I'm guessing it could be difficult due to airport utilities restrictions and existing telecom contracts, I'd love to see one of the national airlines embrace wifi. Picture this: one airline being known for having free wireless near their gates at every major airport across the country. An airline that was wifi-friendly would be known by business people overnight as the airline to take (or at least the terminal to hang out nearby when you fly).

Washington Mutual is the only bank in the states that offers free ATM use for everyone, and it's pretty much ingrained in my family and friends that if someone needs to stop at an ATM to grab some cash, everyone prefers the Washington Mutual one. As a result of their kind gesture, I have explored getting a home loan and business accounts with them (I always do my personal banking at a credit union), solely because I regard them as generous for not charging people pointless electronic transaction fees.

The pro-wifi airline could gain similar publicity and word-of-mouth buzz by offering free, open wireless access points near their gates. It wouldn't cost that much to get a DSL drop near a gate and toss 2 or 3 $99 base stations into the ceiling. Annual operating costs for each airport could be as low as $1k a year, making a nationwide investment for every airport cost only a couple hundred grand (and I'm sure to make it cheaper, a company like Linksys or MS would donate the products if they got to plug them to users connecting). I imagine that whatever airline did it would be an instant hit with laptop users, and geeks would no longer need to search online for what airport offers wifi through whom and for how much. The last time I was in Denver, I noticed three different wifi vendors offering access in the terminal, all for different rates, while most airports I end up at don't offer any at all.

The airline industry is notoriously a cut-throat business and with decreased leisure travel, razor thin profit margins, and pricing wars, a good gimmick would go a long way. It's low cost, high utility, and would please a good deal of people that fly frequently. Eventually the same airline could outfit planes with wireless and be the business airline, but I can wait until that's more of a realistic possibility; for now putting wireless in all their terminals should be the goal.

What do you say American? Alaska, are you in? JetBlue, want to do something even better than TV in every seat? Southwest, you're known for keeping people sitting around your terminals, how about making them happy? United, you've been near bankruptcy for a couple years and we bailed you out, how about giving the people something back for all the money they gave you? Anyone?

(note: written while stranded wi-fi free in PDX, posted from my Vancouver hotel room which features open, free wireless. Canada knows how to party.)

Designer makes IE developer-friendly

A clever designer figured out how to run IE 5, 5.5, and 6 concurrently in windows XP. I'm going through it right now, installing the two old browsers so I can test on them, but the first thought that comes to mind after "woo hoo! finally!" is "why in the hell didn't MS and their developer network show anyone how to do this years ago?"

Why on earth would they not want you to be able to do this? Since the instructions are so simple, I'm going to assume someone, somewhere in the IE browser group (which I hear was disbanded sometime in 2002) knew all along this was possible. What possible explanation would keep them from releasing the simple info and making developers the world over happier to use MS products? And how many developers asked MS how they could do this (starting since IE 5 came out) that they ignored? [via sidesh0w]

update: worked like a charm, and uncovered several display bugs in some sites. I also remembered that there were at least two IE developers on a popular web design list I used to follow daily, and the requests for running IE 3, 4, 5, 5.5, and 6 on the same machine came in at least once a month, if not more often. Why did they sit on their hands about this?

another update: the bare minimum of files for each browser, ready to run once unzipped.

Krog has landed

I've done work for Hazlitt before, he's a nice guy and I enjoyed working with him, but I always secretly loved his name. It reminds me of an opponent of Godzilla, or something you might call a rampaging robot hell-bent on destroying mankind.

He just won a City Board seat and I want to congratulate him, but half of me also wants to see giant newspaper headlines that say:

HAZLITT KROG INVADES MARIN

pssst, hey Dell, check this out...

How to determine Gateway's total online sales without really trying, or something I bet their competitors already do:

I ordered a Gateway networked DVD player the other day and in the confirmation email they sent me an order status URL. I put in my order number and it showed me a summary of what I ordered, how I paid for it, and when it would show up at my door. Then I noticed my order number was in the URL and copied to the form, so I changed it, and I could see the next person's order (not much beyond what they ordered and what they used to pay for it).

It's nice that Gateway doesn't have a difficult-to-use order tracking system, but even though the order status page doesn't reveal any personal details, I'm surprised Gateway leaves it wide open. Anyone could build a bot to quickly tally how much in sales they get on their website per day, what types of products are selling the most, what price points people buy at, what the average shipping time is, and what percentage of people pay for things on credit cards, on gateway credit, or other means, by simply feeding numbers into the form, then going to the "view order details" page to scrape the data for storage.

Receipt, please

Not to sound all Andy Rooney, but there's something that really bugs me and it keeps coming up again and again and it's just so stupid I can't take it anymore:

I am sick of having to save receipts and I'm sick of having to present paper receipts as proof of anything anymore.

We live in a mechanized, computerized society. Every purchase from my debit/credit card is a sophisticated, multi-step electronic shuffling of digital cash from my bank to a store, and everything I buy in a store is recorded in a database, backed up redundantly, and analyzed, but in the end, I'm given a pointless piece of paper that stands as my only proof of our transaction, despite the deep data trail formed between me and a store.

The other day I borrowed some fabric swatches from a Lowes store, and it required a $25 deposit that would be returned when I brought it back. A couple days of color matching and I was done with the samples and took them with me into Lowes for the return. I didn't have a receipt (they didn't mention it was required), but they had my name, address, and phone number both written down on a sheet of checked out fabric books, and in their store's database. I had my driver's license with me and presented it as well. There's virtually no chance I could have been posing as someone else given all those bits of identification, but no receipt, I could get no refund and I was given store credit instead of real money. It was stupid, but I figured I was there to spend a couple hundred dollars on tools and stuff so it didn't really matter.

But recently while shopping at BestBuy, I purchased a washer and dryer and actually sprang for their cheesy extra warranty (first time in my life -- I only gave into the scam because it was a new brand without a track record of reliability). I was told repeatedly that the warranty was null and void unless I kept a copy of a special extra receipt that printed out (and it was suggested I make copies if the first one happens to be destroyed or lost). Now obviously, BestBuy has my home address (they delivered the units days later), my purchase history, and my financial details in their customer database that allowed them to print out the receipt in the first place, but if I happen to lose this piece of paper in the next five years, my five year warranty doesn't exist. The record of our transaction will likely be recorded in their databases for 7 to 10 years, but it's up to me to prove that I bought something from them.

We've been moving to a paperless society for the past 20 years and increasingly I rely on programs on my computer or Google to store memories, details, and facts about my past. I take photographs that only exist as digital bits. Almost every important life detail is stored as a message somewhere in my 300Mb email archive. All these things help me externalize information but keep it at my fingertips until I need it. I suspect businesses and banks have much more robust data technology but it's probably just as electronic as mine.

And yet, in 2003, I have to save a piece of paper for five years if I ever want my washer fixed under the purchased warranty. It's as if all parties have agreed that despite our level of data sophistication, we'll instead act as if it's 75 years ago and everything that matters ends up in a big paper ledger somewhere, and unless it's in the big paper book, it never happened. Dumb, isn't it?

Weird

Reading about it being 71 degrees for the NYC Marathon, I was about to go running today (I did the LA marathon in 1997 and was hoping to do one next year) but was surprised to find the rain just turned to snow and is piling up on the roof and streets. New York? 70 and partly sunny. Oregon? snowing.