Posts by Rich of Observationz
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According to this year's report from Barracuda Networks, nearly all email is now spam; ie: 90-95%.
Barracuda sell security software, so couldn't be called impartial - having one's marketing staff upgrade themselves to "security consultant" and produce press releases about the battle for computer security seems to be the fashion these days (hey, it works for Sophos). And that 95% figure (which doesn't match any of my experience) appears to be by message count - it's handling the *volume* that's expensive (most spam doesn't carry much in the way of attachments).
Most times your ISPs email service fails, it's because of spamload. It's an expense that's passed on in your bill even if you're not using those mail services.
I've never had Gmail fail on me. When my corporate email fails, it's mostly due to incompetence. If email service was a big component of ISP costs, surely you'd be able to buy IP-only service at a discount. AFAIK, you can't.
And then there are the false-positives you never receive or even know about
I scan my Gmail spam folder occasionally. The odd mailing list message gets canned, but I've never seen anything more than that get misidentified.The comments spam that means you have to make it harder for people to post comments on your site
Not illegal in NZ, I think. Nor is spamming Arsebook and the like (in fact, I think that's encouraged by the site owners as it boosts their stats).I don't think you can separate botnets and phishing from ordinary spam
The law does though. Botnets are computer misuse, phishing is fraud. Arguably both have been illegal since before the Internet was ever invented, in the same way as phone freakers used to be prosecuted for "theft of electricity".I'm not advocating for spammers here, I'm even open to convincing that anti-spam laws are useful as part of a global framework. But I'm not convinced that every minor nuisance requires new laws.
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I'm not entirely convinced that it's worth the trouble of passing a law (I've no idea what that costs - millions?) to catch a single person. Spam filtering technology seems to work (my Gmail is about 99% accurate). I'm sure it costs money, but isn't that a reasonable expense of doing business?
If somebody's using a botnet (giggle) they're breaking more serious laws than anti-spam in any case.
Having said that, the anti-spam law would be more useful if they'd outlawed fax spam and phonebanks at the same time. The former in particular is using an expensive resource (paper and toner) as well as just time. And the "Sensible" Sentencing Trust is an egregious offender - though with only $120k to spend all next year, that should clip their wings a bit.
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So, those saying "we'll just form a party" will need to go beyond that, and actually run candidates. otherwise, non-contsting parties are treated as third parties.
What happens if a party registers itself, etc. early in the year and then fails to get it's act together to actually field any candidates. (This did happen last time, didn't it?)
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anjum: that's what I think. The views of these people are portrayed as being "mainstream", "apolitical" and (worst of all) "common sense".
This is largely self-perpetuating, too. The publishers of the Herald don't instruct it to be right-wing (to judge from their other papers like the London Independent). What I assume happens is that the incumbent journalists hire like thinkers into their "profession", thus keeping things going.
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And for the record, the only way the EMPU is going to influence my vote is if Andrew Little agrees to role-play Mellors to my Constance Chatterly. Which would constitue a corrupt practice, just not in the sense intended by the Electoral Act
That slash is getting everywhere these days. Get a LiveJournal!
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My favourite wankiness is the advertising on George FM.
As in the AA advert that includes the lines "..for when you get a flat tyre on the way home from a manicure".
And a restaurant ad that coins the noun "delish". As in "..sample our delishes..".
The saving grace is that I think most of the perpetrators are being ironic.
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I'd like to see an actual random blog, with entries on such topics as even-toed ungulates, Berlin-Mitte, sludge metal, representation theory and Saskatchewan Highway 782 (selected courtesy of hitting the "Random article" link at Wikipedia).
A lot of livejournals come close.
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I could see that if I was a cashed-up American of a certain age with no need to earn a real living, then a crib in Southland might appeal as something to do with a spare $100k.
Mind you, land is cheap in the US itself. A person I know has acquired a full section (which in the western US is one square mile) on the Nevada/California border for a remarkably small amount of money.
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Maybe one day scientists will develop a spray that is instantly lethal to neurotic middle class hypochondriacs. If this happens, I think dousing every suburb with an average property price over $400k would be no bad idea.
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You'd have thought Jim's press secretary would know how parliament works.
"With the agreement of all parties, legislation can come before the House under urgency but if there isn't that agreement, certain legislation can be blocked," said Mrs Grant.
No, urgency just needs a majority of the House, not unanimity: http://www.parliament.nz/NR/rdonlyres/078D6043-9E03-4D87-93BA-A6BB84ACC063/6619/standingorders20095.pdf
Maybe the JAP should rename itself after a 19th century US political movement - the Jim Anderton Know Nothing Party.