The cost of spam

I have 141 messages in my spam folder.

Most of those messages are less than 24 hours old.

So, if I spent just 5 seconds reading the sender and title of each message, that is 11 minutes and 45 seconds per day to make sure that I don't lose an important message in the deluge of spam.

Now expand this. 11.75 * 5 days a week * 52 weeks a year. That's 3055 minutes, or 51 hours.

At the last desk job I worked at, I made $25 an hour. That's a cost of $1,275 to my employer for one year of spam.

There were over 200 employees in my company.

That's a cost of $255,000 PER YEAR. In one company. It only takes 5 companies the size of the one I worked for, and this cost is well over a million dollars. 5000 companies, and we're talking over a billion dollars a year in lost productivity because of spam.

Free speech was never meant to apply to advertising. That's why we can't sell cigarettes on TV and why we can't show naked women on billboards. People certainly shouldn't be allowed to advertise porn, drugs, and pirated software by e-mail, where kids might read them, and where it costs employers billions of dollars anually.

It's high time to fix this problem, once and for all, both on the legal front (simply outlaw unsolicited e-mail, period. None of this opt-out stuff. If you don't explicitly ask for it, it's spam.) and on the technology front: SMTP and POP3 need to be seriously revamped. We need new ways to handle the conversation to ensure that the message is legit.

I propose:

1. ISP's do not allow any outbound e-mail except through their servers. This will stop spambots.

2. Services like GMail and Yahoo Mail provide some sort of validation system that uniquely identifies the sender. Use a credit card, use a cell phone, or use snail mail. I don't care, as long as the ID is somewhat reliable.

3. Any ISP that facilitates spam be cut off from the Internet. Period.

We're losing billions of dollars to this problem. Let's fix it once and for all!

Zlob

So I had a run in with Zlob tonight. Someone sends me a link to one of those "you gotta see this" videos, and when I click the link, I get a web page with a Media Player window that says "Media Player can't play this file." and the info bar comes up asking me to download the Video ActiveX Plugin.

Stupid me. I clicked it. Windows Defender pops up the "you moron" alert. Of course, it hijacks my browser and can apparently be used to download other software. This version of Zlob doesn't match the info I've been finding, so I have to work from scratch.

Now to get rid of this thing. I tried GiPo's Move on Delete, but it can apparently only move one file at a time, and Zlob uses two different executables, one of which launches the other. That way, if you kill one, the other one kicks off anohter process.

The other problem is that my PC was recording a TV show, so I didn't want to reboot.

So the solution: change permissions on the executable files. I opened the Program Files directory and hit Properties on the Video ActiveX folder. I click the Security tab, then Advanced, then Edit. I un-check "Include inheritable permissions from this object's parent" (they sure did bury this one deep).

After clicking OK, I am asked whether to copy or remove the permissions. Since I want no-permission files, I click Remove.

Now I kill both tasks in task manager. Surprise! They don't come back! Finally, Windows security works for me instead of against me.

Now to add the permissions back in and remove the files for good.

The irony? This malware program hijacks your browser, pointing to a page that sells malware protection. In other words, "Pay us to remove this program!"

Sounds like extortion to me.

Ahh, Wikipedia

I created an account and started contributing to some articles. It's a very interesting process, and while I have some misgivings about certain policies, I like the idea of a community-edited encyclopedia.

http://www.wikipedia.org

Evil Inc, review

Have you ever wondered what really goes on in the life of your favorite big corporation?

In the comic strip Evil Inc., Brad Guigar lifts the veil of corporate secrecy and shows us all what really happens behind those closed doors. The esteemed founder of Evil Inc, Evil Atom, discovered the perfect way to "do more evil" and do it legally!

Yes, those things you love to hate: telemarketers, credit card ripoffs, high-interest home loans (that then get foreclosed on when you can't pay the bill), and every other sort of corporate evil are abundant at Evil Inc. Not only are they trying to conquer the world, but they're doing it legally. (Did I mention that already?)

Lightning Lady, the crossover character from the famous Greystone Inn, reveals a world filled with fascinating characters, brilliant artwork, and funny storylines. Somehow, and don't ask me how he did it, Brad Guigar created a world of supervillians that you can't help but love. (Apparently, Captain Heroic can't help but love villians, too. He married the beautiful Miss Match.)

Go check out Evil, Inc for yourself. You'll be glad you did.

Sattelite Radio

For those of you who haven't tried XM Or Sirius lately, you're really missing out.

That is, if you like commercial-free music (of pretty much any genre), radio theater, news (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and a few other stations in your car), or sports (football, baseball, hockey, and basketball).

XM has more channels and is a little more family oriented (several "family" and Christian channels). Sirius has Howard Stern and NFL. Both sound better than FM radio and can get reception anywhere in the United States and Canada. Most of the stations are also available on-line as well, so you don't have to have a radio to listen at work or in the house (provided that you're listening to one of the on-line stations. Not all of XM's channels are available on-line).

Yes, it's $13 a month, but now that I've gotten hooked on it, I'm never going back to the "old" way of listening to the radio again. In fact, I even sprung for a second radio that connects directly to my computer. I'm also working on a new controller program, partly to sharpen my skills, and partly just because this is fun!

Check out the free trial of XM's on-line service. I don't think you'll be dissapointed.

Christmas

At what point did Christmas become this big thing where you have to spend money you can't afford on presents for everyone you know?

I got one person a gift I thought they'd like, then I have to look at the gift I got another person and make sure I'm not letting him down... pretty soon, I've spent way more money than I should on everyone on my list.

And I still haven't gotten my mom anything. I hate buying presents, because I can never seem to figure out what the people I know would like.

Then there's someone who I didn't expect to get a gift from who sent me something. I feel like I should send something back, but I'm at a complete loss... and I hate doing gift certificates.

Ugh. Why can't Christmas just be about eating too much and looking at the pretty lights?

Computer ethics

I thought I'd post a quick blurb about something that's bothered me for a while.

I'm a computer programmer. This also places me in the category of software developer, software engineer, and whatever other terms you want to come up with for "some guy who makes programs".

Whenever we, as programmers, create a software application, we expect the users of our programs to trust us. In fact, the people who use our programs put a lot of trust in us: any program that you download or buy could perform any of a number acts which could destroy data, violate your privacy, or steal your personal or financial information.

So it's vital that programmers act not just in good conscience, but that we be above reproach. Fortunes have been made and lost on simple rumor - even the false ones have been enough to ruin lives. When the product we make comes entirely from our brain, it's vital that the product not only work and be secure, but that people have confidence in that security and safety.

I've been thinking a lot lately on exactly what this means, and how to assure people that they're getting safe software. Microsoft gave me the idea with their "Made for Windows 95" program. Essentially, a company has to prove to Microsoft that a program works properly with Windows 95.

Why not create a similar system for the community at large? The idea would not be to certify technical aspects of a program but to certify the operational and ethical aspects: does the program generally do what it says? Does it hijack your keystrokes and send your credit card number to an e-mail address in China?

Is there some sort of "certified safe" program out there? If there is, I'd love to know about it.