“RIAA and Universal accused of extortion”

Posted by on

A friend and I were discussing this kind of thing recently. As Mr. Doctorow says, “about time.”

Of course, the case has almost zero chance of ever getting to court. The RIAA has a history of settling such counter-suits (as well as any lawsuit they bring, if it looks like they might not win) long before they can get that far, and ensuring that the settlements can never be revealed. If even one person actually wins against them, it would all but destroy them overnight — they wouldn’t be able to convince anyone to go along with their racket anymore.

Speaking of Scientific Improbabilities…

Posted by on

…the flap over the recent film of a shadowy possibly-living-thing in Loch Ness is more interesting for what it says about people than the possible existence of the Loch Ness Monster.

Like Bigfoot and captured aliens from Roswell, the Loch Ness Monster may actually exist — after all, scientists didn’t think that rogue waves really existed until they were proven in 1995, despite dozens of documented encounters with them throughout history. But some people will hear a story and, with little or no further evidence, simply believe it. And not just the it’s-probably-true belief either — they’ll have an unshakable and completely irrational belief in it. They’ll believe it so thoroughly that even if you could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it doesn’t exist, they’ll assume that you or your methods are wrong, or that the thing could turn invisible or something, rather than admit that it might not.

Anyone who claims that people are rational needs to have his head examined.

The Roomba

Posted by on

Friday evening, I gave in to geek temptation (and a sale at Costco) and bought a Roomba. (That’s a robotic vacuum cleaner, for those who’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few years.) I set it up to charge last night, and let it loose in our living room this afternoon.

I don’t know how long it worked (I didn’t think to time it), but it seemed like a long time. We’d just vacuumed in there a few days before, so I didn’t expect it to pick up much. But when I went to empty it, after it was finally satisfied that the floor was clean — the bin was full! Cat fur filled the entire thing, sitting on a carpet of dust that was packed more than a sixteenth of an inch thick! I knew our cheap little upright vacuum cleaner wasn’t the best in the world, but I was still shocked at seeing what the Roomba had picked up.

We turned it loose in the dining room/kitchen area next, but it decided that it needed a rest before it was even halfway through, and returned to it’s charger. Even in that small amount of time, it again filled the bin, though less thoroughly than in the living room.

Ah, the wonders of technology. 🙂

“Roswell plans UFO theme park”…

Posted by on

…which just goes to show that you can turn anything mildly interesting into a cash cow.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to believe that Earth has been visited by extraterrestrial intelligences in the recent past, and I like a good conspiracy theory as much as anyone. But the preponderance of evidence suggests that this one is nothing but wishful thinking, and I refuse to believe something solely because I want to believe it. That way lies madness.

Credit Card Telemarketing

Posted by on

Near-daily credit card offers by junk mail apparently aren’t enough. Now these credit-card pushers are having people cold-call us to try to get us hooked on debt. And they’re apparently off-shoring that too, because I could barely understand a word this woman mumbled through the extremely heavy accent.

At least this one didn’t try to argue with me when I said I wasn’t interested.

“Man described as a top spammer arrested”

Posted by on

Internet users rejoice: one of the world’s top spammers has been indicted! Only another ten billion to go.

No, there aren’t ten billion spammers at present, despite the evidence of your in-box. From what I’ve heard, there are only about 200 large spam operations at any one time. But that makes little difference when, like the mythical hydra, two more spring up for every one you cut down. If there’s money to be had by doing something, there will be people doing it, regardless of laws. And since the Internet is world-wide, and laws are limited to (at most) a single region, there’s zero chance that laws will ever stop (or even noticeably slow down) spammers.

The real solution to the spam problem is technical. Bayesian filters, spam-fighting organizations, block-lists, securing systems against spam-zombies, unforgeable identification systems for senders… none of it is perfect, but it all contributes to making spamming less effective, hitting the spammers where it hurts: in their pocketbooks.

That’s the only way to stop spamming, or any financially-motivated crime: remove the financial motivation.