Note: This column represents the opinions
of the writer and as such, is not purported as fact
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Back by popular demand -- it's Aardvark's weekly dose of levity and lunacy
from the backwaters of the web.
If you though defragging your hard drive was a difficult and potentially
dangerous operation then perhaps you haven't read the Data Docktor's
description of how to
Defraggle your motherdisc!
In a similar vein is
this little exposé
on how to cheat at the Counter-Strike
computer game.
Unless you're a long-distance runner you probably never knew there was a
demand for such esoteric products as
NipGuards(tm) did you?
Check Out The Aardvark PC-Based Digital
Entertainment Centre Project
And here's what happens when you don't use your
brain, you get cobwebs in your head.
What A Week
Well, what a week it's been and this on-again, off-again cold has slowed me
down significantly so it's time for a status report on some of the projects
in progress.
First up -- the final installment of the rural modem shootout will be online
early next week. You'll be able to read about the Dynalink option and how
it compares to the Maestro I reviewed a week or two ago.
Secondly -- the Aardvark Tivo-like PC-based PVR project is about to move into its
Linux phase so I'll be publishing an update that deals with the various
PVR software options I've evaluated for the Windows platform.
The nice guys at Hauppauge
in the USA have sent me (through their Australian reseller) a review sample of
the WinTV-PVR-250
Tuner/capture card. The main benefit of this card over the Pinnacle PCTV
unit is that it contains *hardware-based* MPEG encoding.
I'll be reviewing it and publishing the results in a week or so's time.
I notice that our friend "deathr0w" is back in business again -- this time
hosting
his little warez site
with a free webspace company who appear happy to endorse such activities.
I'm flattered that he was nice enough to mention me too!
He's learning though -- now he's promoting the site as a "DVD Review Site" but
it still carries that
same give-away disclaimer
and a new list of titles
including a few that are yet to be released on (legal) DVD.
You might want to read
Paul Brislen's take
on this story as well.
I had quite a bit of feedback on yesterday's suggestion that ISPs ought to
consider using TMDA as a method of protecting their customers from unwanted
spam.
A few suggested that the need for someone to confirm the first email they
sent to an account protected by TMDA could act as a disincentive where the
message might be a bonafide business enquiry. Well if that's a worry then
instead of publishing your email address, publish the URL of a "contact"
form on your company website as the first point of contact.
It's good practice to use a contact form in preference to
publishing an email address anyway because, within weeks (or even days) of
an email address appearing on the Web, chances are that a spammer's robots
will have spotted it and added it to their lists.
As people have probably noticed, I don't publish my email address (why should
I, it seems that Mr deathrOw is happy to do that for me ;-) preferring,
even in my usenet posts, to direct people to
this form. If they can't be bothered filling out
the form then their message can't have been too important -- or was probably
just spam.
Others suggested that spammers could circumvent TMDA simply by writing an
autoresponder that replied to the confirmation request.
Yes, that's true -- but then they'd have to use a bonafide email address in
the first place so it would become very easy to either shut them down by
complaining to their ISP/mail-provider, or complaining to their upstream supplier --
or you could simply filter all emails from the offending sender (or their entire
domain).
My real point was however, that if *every* ISP adopted this system, spammers
would be effectively put out of business. The extra email traffic generated
by the additional confirmation requests and acknowledgments would be far less
than that currently generated by spam and the huge number of bounces it produces.
Now it's time for me to go back to bed.
If you want to have your say on the contents
of today's column then please do so.
Only comments marked "For Publication" will (if I have time) be published in the
readers' comments section.
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