Postcards from the Bleeding Edge
Friday, May 14, 2004

  Hurtful spam

I hate spam. I hate people that take advantage of other people. I hate how some people are misusing the internet. I hate how all the sins in the real world have been transmorgified into the virtual one. I hate worm and virus writers with a passion born of a deep inner hurt.

We lack effective international agencies to track down the bad guys.

As a programmer I know how easy it is for an automated program to generate a letter like the following with a simple mail merge operation, and mail it to millions of people. Undoubtably a few percent are taken in, and respond. Undoubtably those that respond are further researched by the spammer, and selectively responded to.

I hate how some sell one thing short to people that need it - hope - yea, the last thing that escaped from pandora's box.

For a few moments, I was taken in by the following.

    Attn: Mike Taht

    Dear Sir,

    I must solicit your confidentiality and assure you that I am contacting you in good faith and this proposal will be of mutual benefit. I am Bello C. Biu. a lawyer and friend to late Pedro R. Taht, who was killed with his entire family in a fatal motor accident, sparing none of the occupants of the vehicle.

    Before his death I assisted him in the deposit of some funds in a security company.

    The Security Company has now issued a notice to me,unequivocally instructing me to produce the Next of Kin/Beneficiary to my client, or have the deposit confiscated and or returned to the treasury as unclaimed.

    Considering my lack of success in my bid to locate any of his relatives for over two years, I hereby solicit your consent to enable me present you as the Next of Kin to my deceased client, since you both bear the same last name. This process is possible because my client's last Will and Testament contains a residuary clause, giving me full authority to nominate the beneficiary to his residuary estate.The deposited funds were not mentioned in the Will;hence it devolves to the residuary estate of my client.

    I intend to present you to them as his next of kin, to enable us claim the funds as there is no known member of his family around to inherit the deposit. Once you have been established to the security company as the beneficiary, which will be my role, we shall then give them express instructions to transfer the funds to an account you will provide.

    The necessary documents to back up any claim we make will be legally obtained, and I will just require your understanding and cooperation to enable us achieve success within a legitimate arrangement. Your urgent response will be highly appreciated. My direct contacts have been provided; use it accordingly for effective communication.

    Thank you.

    Best Regards,
    Bello C Biu
    ab_wa2003@yahoo.com.au


Run you fucker. I've reported you to the appropriate resources...
 
Wednesday, May 12, 2004

  Free Wireless makes the papers in Santa Cruz

Thirdbreak made Metro Santa Cruz today.

"ThirdBreak is about the people taking back control of their information infrastructure," Cliff Skolnick says. "Mergers are making the network owners [think AOL/Time Warner] information owners, and it's a small step to where network providers start using their networks to control access. Information is the currency of democracy, as Thomas Jefferson said."

Cliff's as happy as I've ever seen him, Elf's hacking on pine, Claire's recruiting a drummer, and B's serving coffee... I'm catching up with an old long lost, long loved friend via email... There's a live jazz band playing....

Just another day at 120 Union, in the free state of Santa Cruz....




 
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

  Googlethrusting Chair Hanging Sex

I was, for two days, number one on google for the phrase: Chair Hanging Sex.

It came from one of the weirdest spams I'd ever received, telling me PostCards from the Bleeding Edge was number 43 for "Chair Hanging Sex". My spam filters are so good now that only the really interesting spams get through, and I spent days puzzling over how some misbehaving bot had identified me not only as a key resource for hammocks, chairs and sex, but then thrust it back into an automated database for tourism in the country of Columbia??? I couldn't figure it out, so I blogged about it sunday, bemusedly...

Only to wake up, on monday, to discover I'd catapulted from number 43 to numero UNO.

It was a dubious honor, especially wrapped as the story was around my Mother's day greeting to my mom. I'd much rather be number 1 on google for my last name, as the anti-zubrin or for beating the brand (still stuck at number 2). Sure, it's pretty good being number 1 for the other sex-related phrases that I dominate on search engines - like McPhallicism and the orgasmic happy meal - but Chair hanging Sex? Well, it beats trying it underwater...

I then amused myself greatly by going through google groups, images, and news for the phrase. Seems like Osama Bin-laden is also an expert. Uh-oh...

I oscillated back and forth on the matter. OK, if that is to be my lot, I'll go with it, I thought. Being the worlds foremost expert on Chair Hanging Sex struck me as a far more rewarding career than my pathetic attempts at being a novelist or uber-coder. Osama's too busy trying to create a bullet proof hammock to even think about having sex in one....

I spent half of monday thinking - Sure, Cliff, you might be number one on google in searches for "Apache Founders" and, you, Tim, might have beaten me out for CTO of the EFF - but me, I'm numero UNO for "Chair hanging sex" - and people throughout the world will beat a path to my door, asking questions like: "what height is optimal", "how to maintain that perfect swinging rhythm", and "what, exactly, to tell 911 when your naked partner is tangled up in a hammock underneath the collapsed eave of the porch."

I called up my good friend and biking buddy, Evan Hunt, and told him of my new mission in life. After he finished busting a gut laughing, he blogged about it... and the bastard now ranks number 2 for "Chair hanging sex", behind the electric chair. I seem to be no longer listed.

I'd like to think it was due to the google goo created by blogger breaking most of my backblog links... but maybe it was fate, destiny... naw, it was blogger screwing up... after this post I'm sure to be back on google. I can't let my new career path get unhinged so quickly.

Maybe, as co-experts in this new swinging paradigm, we'll get the lecture tours, the free cruise-ship rides, the invitations to visit hef at the playboy mansion...

Evan also pointed out Googlewacking, which is the process of coming up with a totally unique word or phrase on google. I loved the idea - I wanted desparately to coin another new word, and I started coming up with new words and phrases at a rapid clip.

I came up with a doozy. Googlethrusting - the act of fucking with google's search and indexing algorithms. Googlethruster - a program or person that fucks with google's search and indexing algorithms.

Just as "webmaster" was once a hallowed, rarified term worthy of pay rates not seen since the previous millenium, "Googlethruster" could be the next 6 figure salaried job description.

Because I kept thinking: Maybe, just maybe, I have a lever over the people paying 35 cents an impression on adwords for their hammocks and chairs. If they would just talk to me, a veteran googlethruster, I'd get them number 1 status on the informational side of google. Maybe I'd get a commission - Maybe I could get a couple hammocks and chairs to review - I'd love a hammock on my front porch.

Tuesday morning I thought: I would especially like to get the tantra chair for an extended in-house-evaluation and just as I cried out "BigBoote'! My Googlethruster will us get back to the 9th dimension!" I got an email from someone I've wanted to talk to again for nearly 20 years. I've been vibrating about that all day, but I have to admit that my first thought was: My god... did she find me by googling for "Chair hanging sex"?

I'll have to ask.




I figured 1/3s out how the bot found me, and put me in the country of "Columbia" - Sex In Politics (over there on the right side of this blog) and "On the Columbia" (also there). As the hanging part or the chair part - I have no clue... yet.

For the record, the one time I attempted sex in a hammock resulted in a call to 911. No, I'm not going to talk about it.
 
Sunday, May 09, 2004

  This is my mom:

And she's great.

I wish a pleasant day to everyone that's a Mom.
 
David Täht writes about politics, space, copyright, the internet, audio software, operating systems and surfing.


Resume,Songs,
My new blog, NeX-6, My facebook page
Orgs I like
The EFF - keeping free speech in the world
Musical stuff I like
Jeff, Rick, Ardour, Jack
Prior Rants - New song: Log Off Now Sharing your home network better in a time of covi... Designing for the disconnect Email lists going down the memory hole Instituting saner, professional source code manage... Wireless and Wifi in 2015 - not what I dreamed of Saving wifi! Fixing Bufferbloat! Fighting the vend... Virgin Media - Fixing the epidemic of bufferbloat ... 49... and trying to find my navel Wheels down on mars!
Best of the blog:
Uncle Bill's Helicopter - A speech I gave to ITT Tech - Chicken soup for engineers
Beating the Brand - A pathological exploration of how branding makes it hard to think straight
Inside the Internet Mind - trying to map the weather within the global supercomputer that consists of humans and google
Sex In Politics - If politicians spent more time pounding the flesh rather than pressing it, it would be a better world
Getting resources from space - An alternative to blowing money on mars using NEAs.
On the Columbia - Why I care about space
Authors I like:
Doc Searls
Where's Cherie?
UrbanAgora
Jerry Pournelle
The Cubic Dog
Evan Hunt
The Bay Area is talking
Brizzled
Zimnoiac Emanations
Eric Raymond
Unlocking The Air
Bob Mage
BroadBand & Me
SpaceCraft
Selenian Boondocks
My Pencil
Transterrestial Musings
Bear Waller Hollar
Callahans
Pajamas Media BlogRoll Member

If you really want to, you can poke through the below links as well.

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