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Slashback: Blockage, Stripes, Upswings 84

Posted by timothy from the destination-08540 dept.
If you seek updates this evening, you're in luck. Below, we have some additional information for you on: the state of the dot-com-economy; more information (and a link to a very neat site) about your private bar-coding adventures; more about the bad things that can result from farming out your spam prevention; and the threads being plucked ungently from the fabric of the Matrix sequels. Enjoy.

Wait -- I thought we were already on the new, new, old, new, old new economy. davecb writes: "To compliment Jon's essay on the Myth of the Tech Slump, have a look at last month's cover article in The Atlantic, where computer technology is quietly changing the old-economy companies of the rust belt into something rather different: the new old economy.

The author asks (and answers) 'The great question about the surge in American productivity since 1996 is, Will it last, or is it simply a brief, blessed pop that will disappear forever when the next recession comes? That is essentially another way of asking whether the New Economy and the New Old Economy are real, or are just the Old Economy on adrenaline.'

He and I suspect it's the very opposite of a slump."

Mommy, where is my new baby brother's barcode? raincrow writes: "One of the only good things that came out of the CueCat fiasco (for me, anyway, besides the free barcode scanner and accompanying shiny coaster), was the discover of ReaderWare, which has made the management of my personal library so much better. The ReaderWare newsletter, in turn, has a lot of good tips on bar code scanners, and turned me on to Qode (http://www.qode.com/), which is a shopping system that uses a personal barcode scanner to let you set up your own shopping lists and other goodies (ReaderWare folks just like it because it can store barcodes untethered from the PC and therefore keeps you from having to lug all your books to the computer). What's interesting is that Qode.com makes a really big deal about being *anonymous*. Quoting from the site 'Note that we said anonymity, not privacy. Qode has been working to solve the problems of consumer privacy by designing a system that does not require any personal or identifying information. Qode matches promotions specifically to the products entered into the system by its anonymous users. It is impossible to connect this information to any individual. We then deliver the promotion to your private, custom web site ? not your e-mail.' Any experiences out there? I'm still looking for the holes, but that's a niftly little gadget for $50.00."

Lose mail free with Not-so-Hotmail! Just when you thought the confluence of spam (note to Hormel -- the bad kind, not your tasty meat product, which is uppercased) and email had exerted all the evil it could, the opposite proves true. Read this account on ZDnet about what happens when your mail doesn't get sent on hotmail due to hyperactive, automatic spam-prevention bots. (The "your" of course referring to people with Hotmail accounts.)

Don't they make video cards or something? Johnathon Walls writes "It seems that the sequels to The Matrix are in even more trouble as Carrie Moss ends up on crutches for six weeks due to a knee injury. This is added trouble to the previous holdups reported by Slashdot. Jet Li has also pulled out (though I'm uncertain how new this bit is)."

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Slashback: Eins, Zwei, Drei More

Slashback: Eins, Zwei, Drei

Comments Filter:
  • The whole damn thing (1st article, or all who called the article) was about oil drilling! Yet somehow everyone is talking about MS and other tings. Not even ONE comment about the oil? Let's see you folks run anything on MS "coal-producer".

    "of course, I don't live in california"
  • I had softhome. They started sending you "marketing e-mail" from them direct to you. At least it wasn't spam...

    Anyway, for all you Linux users, check out www.linuxfreemail.com [linuxfreemail.com]. I've had nothing but good experiences with them.

    My karma's bigger than yours!

  • This does explain a lot, though, about why a certain listserver a guy up in Dallas administers had to migrate its whole list to eGroups because Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL were almost always IP blocking, or rejecting messages over a certain recipient per hour quota, or any number of other forms of useless bullshit.

    Of course, eGroups is now Yahoo! eGroups, so the fun can begin again once they decide the advertising isn't making them enough money :)
  • MAPS blocks the entire address range of the spamer network not the domain. They don't do anything with domain names (except use the reverse dns system).

    If you don't like what MAPS has done to your isp change providers because I like what they do and will continue to use their service.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Yeun Woo Ping works with Jet Li on most of his films, and they have a great relationship going. He also co-ordinated fights on the first Matrix, Black Mask, Romeo Must Die, etc.. He is one of the most talented wire-fu directors out there. It's too bad he or Jet didn't stay on, but that means Jet Li is now free to do another HK movie, which I'm always up for. I bought RMD sight-unseen because I knew it would kick ass, just as I would any Jackie Chan movie!
  • >Taking away our rights to speak and be heard in order to 'protect' us from spam is a complete violation of the first amendment.

    make a law that outlaws spam, and both the RBS and MAPS will die a quick death. Both are just reactions to bring a modicum of rules to the internet. rules certain governments refuse to make. This is self-regulation at its finest.

    //rdj

  • Re:The hotmail thing... (Score:3)

    by seebs ( 15766 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @05:48PM (#497484) Homepage
    Care to document this? Find us an example of a system that is being blacklisted but has no spam problems. Media3 certainly ain't it; last I saw, they were hosting spammers, and as long as the spam wasn't sent over their network, they didn't care.

    You seem to be unable to comprehend how this works. Your email wasn't spam. *SOME* email, that *WAS* spam, was being sent by your ISP, or was being sent by a spammer your ISP was hosting. As soon as your ISP stops hosting spammers, *poof*, you're off the list.

    No, MAPS won't "get rid of spam". Not completely. What they will do is remind spam-friendly ISP's that this is a cooperative network.

    BTW, you have shown yourself to be a *FUCKING MORON*. Anyone who has ever used the RBL can prove to you that they don't block domains, they block IP's. Hint: I use it, and the only thing I ever look up is an IP. It doesn't matter how many domains use that IP, or how many IP's a given domain uses; MAPS lists IP's.

    Yes, Harris dropped their suit. They dropped it because they knew damn well they'd lose, because there were plenty of well-documented cases where they were, get this, spamming.

    If you knew what you were talking about, if you didn't make gross technical errors, and if you could distinguish between cause and effect, you might be able to have a point. As is, you're not even close enough to reality to be "wrong"; you're just delusional.

  • This is absurd! (Score:3)

    by spoonboy42 ( 146048 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @05:54PM (#497485)
    This comment is too revolting to qualify for troll status. Let me expound just why this AC has made my top 5 morons of all time list.

    1. OK, Keanu Reeves isn't a fantastic actor. If you want to criticize him, either comment on his lack of talent, or make a clever joke. Don't throw out some made-up tripe about his sexual orientation.

    2. What is your problem with homosexuals, anyway? Homosexuals are not some untouchable, evil class. They are human beings who were born with a unique trait which does not affect you in any way. Prejudice against gays is no better than racism.

    3. Aids can not be spread by skin contact. The virus does not enter saliva, perspiration, or urine. There is no reason to avoid casually touching a person infected by HIV. Your comment is particularly hurtful to those who did not contrive AIDS by any choice of their own. You are mearly hiding your bigotry in a thin veil of psuedo-pathogenic nonsense.

    4. Not all homosexuals have AIDS. Likewise, not all persons who suffer from AIDS are homosexual. The disease has absolutely no preference for sexual orientation. You are just as likely, if not moreso, to encounter a heterosexual person with AIDS as a homosexual one. Of course, this point doesn't really matter (see #3, above).
  • hell, a matrix movie with jet li AND michelle yeoh with choreography by yeun woo ping would be worth seeing. but we'll probably get keanu and john woo instead. too bad.

    eudas
  • Cuecat isn't so bad once you get it hacked.

    I wrote a set of decoder Java Classes that you can use if you want. They are designed to be incorporated into other programs, but they work standalone, too. Check out:

    http://www.popbeads.org/Software/CCScan [popbeads.org]
  • Most of the spam I get originates from hotmail.com, so anything Microsoft do to help prevent it is a Good Thing.
    However, it would have been nice if the originator of the dropped emails were warned of what had happened and why (lameness filter, anyone?)

    As to the I-can't-get-free-email whiners, very very simple. Find someone with a cable modem, set up a mail server of your own and use some kind of DNS alias (like maybe dyndns.org). Sorted.
  • You don't even need a cue cat! You just need a PS2 extension cable, a laser-based mouse, a piece of metal, and some tape. Hanging the mouse from the door, and any full screen app that accepts mouse messages would do the trick! {This post is a joke, but I guess it would work}. Joe

  • Oh yeah. (Score:3)

    by mindstrm ( 20013 ) on Friday January 19, 2001 @04:17AM (#497490)
    Hotmail scrwing up is a violation of your right to free speech.

    It's a FREE email service... it's FREE, so you don't have the right to expect ANYTHING.
    Hotmail can decide to stop service tomorrow and nobody can do ANYTHING about it....

  • Hotmail Spam Double Talk (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Hotmail's inbox protector states

    "It is from a use in hotmail.com or msn.com domain. All of these users have agreed not to send unsolicited bulk e-mail as a condition of maintaining an account with these services"

    When I was frustrated a few days ago, I sent in to MS's "abuse@hotmail.com" a copy of a spam (not that good meat) from an msn.com account and received the following:

    "I appreciate your bringing this unsolicited e-mail message to our attention, but I can't take action against this person because the mail was sent from an outside source, not Hotmail."

    Typical double talk.

  • Hotmail wont allow majordomo access. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Ah, so this is why Hotmail users cant subscribe to my Majordomo lists.
  • It all depends on when you signed up for an account. If you signed up recently (for some value of recent) then you automatically get subscribed to several lists, which is how you get spammed.

    As far as I know, it's not obvious how to get off the lists. So if MSN considers spam to be unsolicited email other than the mailing lists you got auto-subscribed to, then they're probably not lying.

    -B

  • Not-spam. (Score:5)

    by MortimerK ( 22530 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @03:51PM (#497494)
    I was in the middle of a play-by-email game of Diplomacy when my e-mail hosting service decided to block any mail with 'diploma' in the subject. Of course they didn't notify users about the new spam filter, or the list of keywords, or provide any control over it, so it took me a while to realise. O how I laughed. My allies thought I had suddenly fallen cold with them and Turkey fell quicker than a really quick thing.
  • This is just another misunderstanding of how the RBL works. The description given in this article contradicts the description in the ZDNet article, and neither is particularly accurate.

    In the end, if you host spammers, and don't stop hosting them, you will eventually be blacklisted, and this will affect the connectivity of *all* of your customers. This is a feature. Don't like it? Switch to a network that isn't based on private funds and the assumption that, since I own this computer, I can decide what traffic it accepts, because until you get rid of that, there will always be blacklists.

    The solution, and it's painfully easy, is to stop actively endorsing and supporting spammers. Poof! No problem.

  • Re:HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA (Score:4)

    by Fluffy the Cat ( 29157 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @03:54PM (#497496) Homepage
    Hotmail addresses are recycled a short time after accounts are closed. Somebody else may have had the same account name before you and been less careful. Of course, it's also possible that one of your friends accidently put it on a web page somewhere, or mentioned it in a news posting, or half a dozen other things where address scrapers can pick it up.
  • I thought it was a cool idea until I tried to enter 0 as the number of qode keychains I wanted to buy.
  • "It's like killing a fly with a shotgun," he said. (from the MSN story

    More like killing an amoeba with a howitzer.

  • First web monitoring, then email sniffing now you can't even check a bar code without someone profiling your purchases. I can just see it, today you buy some ham tomorrow they send you a coupon for spam! I'd hate to get a que cat that can't read, imagine the coupons that would spawn! Now I'm afraid to even get a PVR!
  • Interesting... did you just do this using reflection or something? If I looked into it more I'm sure I could figure out exactly how I could do it, but, hey, I'm lazy, so how did you do it?
  • Is Keanu Reeves really worth $27million and 15% gross MORE than Jet Li? It's Keanu who needs more physical training; many (most?) of us think he needs more theatrical training as well. Yet still, according to the above article [canoe.ca], Li was offered a measly $3million -- no wonder he bailed! What were the producers thinking?

    --------
  • If you don't like MAPS, then don't subscribe to services which use it. Or is your problem that you want to spam people, and you don't like the fact that MAPS makes it a lot harder?
    -russ
  • Actually HIV does enter into saliva, it is not usually in high enough concentration to cause infection, no matter where you put it. (although if you had cuts or abbrasions in your mouth, and some *other* bodily fluid of someone else got in your mouth, that would be a different story)

    ---
  • So let's see... My company's headquarters are in a large office tower. The company on the floor below me decides not to pay their electric bill. The phone company, knowing that they might be next, asks the building owners to evict this company (who is paying their rent on time). When the owners refuses, the phone company turns off phone service to the entire building. Their response, and yours, is "You shouldn't do business with a company who allows their renters to not pay bills. Move to another complex if you don't like it!".

    MAPS was a good idea when they were blocking IP addresses of spammers. They crossed the line when they started blocking ISPs and affecting businesses which have done nothing wrong except "consort with known spam sympathisers". Are you now or have you ever been a spammer...

  • I've done this using an IR LED and reciever from "You've got questions, we've got blank stares" Radio Shack connected up thru a PIC to a serial port. But it would be interesting to see if someone just ripped the LEDs outta the cuecat, or if they actually used the keyboard interface on it in some way
  • Yup, that's how I get most of my hotmail spam. When I check the to: field on most of it, it will say basically stewart***@hotmail.com. The Bulk Mail filter works pretty well, but you've still got to blow away 30 odd spams a day. You can tell it to keep anything not directly address to you out (which gets about 95% of spam, plus the random mass-mail from my friends).

    Anyone have advice on setting up the block lists so I don't have to touch that junk?

    I had a feeling you were going to say that.
  • The joke is on you!
    I have had a hotmail account for over 3 years now that has never received any UCE!
    HaHAhahaHaHAhAha

  • That is a personal win for you, but does nothing to stop the abuse by spammy. All that did was get you on Spammy's no send list. Spammy will continue to spew his spoo avoiding his no send list and keep his accounts longer.

  • I'll tell you what happens... (Score:3)

    by kenthorvath ( 225950 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @03:02PM (#497509)
    what happens when your mail doesn't get sent on hotmail due to hyperactive, automatic spam-prevention bots?

    You get a free pop3/webmail account with www.softhome.net [softhome.net]. That's what!

  • Spammers (Score:3)

    by Phr3n3tik ( 192379 ) <meNO@SPAMgavitron.com> on Thursday January 18, 2001 @03:04PM (#497510) Homepage
    And just today, I recieved the following, (After a beleagured discussion with their list manager):

    Hello. I have put you on our banned list which means that you (or anyone else) will not ever be able to subscribe you again. If by chance you do recieve an email from listmanager or Shagmail please email me and I will take it from there.

    Thank you for your patience in solving this matter. If you have any problems please feel free to email me.

    win one for the little guy...
  • Jet Li pulled out of the Matrix sequel a while ago. Michelle Yeoh was set to replace him, but now she has pulled out, too. Unlike Michelle Yeoh, Li's beef seems to have been the money. Yeun Woo Ping, the awesome Hong Kong kung fu choreographer who did the wire work for both the original Matrix, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, also might not be back for The Matrix II. Rumor has it that the American stars are sucking up all the money from the production, leaving Woo Ping out in the cold with Jet Li. If they want to get world class Hong Kong people, they should pay them what they're worth. Hell, The Matrix was really just an appropriation of the Hong Kong action movie, with a bigger budget and better special effects. First they rip of the concept, then they won't pay the originators of the idea what they are worth.

  • What Happened to Hollywood Magic? (Score:3)

    by the real jeezus ( 246969 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @03:12PM (#497512)
    Moss & Reeves are both out of commission due to lower limb injuries. Can't the movie company just paste their heads onto a someone else's bodies? Hell, I've seen plenty o' fake pr0n pics on the web done in the same fashion. Maybe they can find whoever pasted the extra-large penis onto the goatse.cx/giver guy to do the Photoshop work...


    I'd rather be a unix freak than a freaky eunuch
  • I am looking forward to The Matrix sequal more than ever now!! That's Two major injuries that are keeping actors from doing their job...and that is in TRAINING for the film! this is going to be one heckufan impressive film if the actors are getting injured just in training..there must be some pretty impressive stunts in this...Keanu breaking and ankle, and now Carrie Moss with a knee injury...I gotto say..I am looking forward to this movie even more now!

  • As for hotmail, yeah, it's kinda strange how they filter certain words, like "high", "credit", "teen", etc. It's like trying to grab all the spam in the supermarket so quick you end up with a cart full of canned ham. Wrong annoying meat.
    As for the cuecats, they're pretty fun. Haven't scanned one barcode yet but i rigged up a nice motion sensor for my room!

  • HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA (Score:4)

    by legLess ( 127550 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @03:10PM (#497515) Journal
    From the article:
    "MSN has been very aggressive and proactive in protecting our MSN Hotmail users from spam," Sarah Lefko, MSN product manager.
    I have literally *never* given my Hotmail address to anyone but personal friends (and of course, slightly obfuscated here on /.), and I just deleted 5 spams today. I've setup new Hotmail accounts with non-obvious addresses and had spam in less than 24 hours - the same shite every time: fake college diplomas, work from home, check out my pussy, etc.

    Microsoft has turned into a bunch of politicians: How can you tell they're lying? Their spokesdroid's lips move.


    question: is control controlled by its need to control?
    answer: yes
  • "MSN has been very aggressive and proactive in protecting our MSN Hotmail users from spam,"

    Business-speak translation: "We try to stop it sometimes, but we're really more pre-occupied with just keeping the service running."

    Common .com PR. Welcome to the business world. "Here's what we have to say; Your mileage may vary." Sometimes followed by: "These are forward looking statements...". =)

  • Wimps (Score:3)

    by drivers ( 45076 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @03:59PM (#497517)
    If Patrick Swayze can act in Dirty Dancing with a gimpy knee, surely these actors can make Matrix II with their injuries. :-)
  • First they rip of the concept, then they won't pay the originators of the idea what they are worth haha just like Bill Gates!

  • Re:HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I set up a Hotmail account, a few months back, simply to see how much spam I would get if I didn't use the email or give it out (having heard the stories).
    The only address I blocked myself was from the Hotmail admins.
    Total spam emails received: 0

    Either you're missing some tick boxes when you set up your accounts (if they even still have opt-in advertising), or I'm one of the luckiest people alive. (evidence for latter: even addresses I use for signing up for things never get spammed.)

  • Re:HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA (Score:5)

    by Apache ( 14188 ) <foonix@nospAm.yahoo.com> on Thursday January 18, 2001 @04:03PM (#497520)
    There's a spamming technique that allows spammers to find your email address even if you've NEVER given it to anyone. Basically you set up a script that vomits a bunch of spam to a domain with random user names and watch to see which ones DON'T bounce. I suspect a big name like hotmail would be an excellent target for such an attack. More users means better chance of finding unlisted "private" mail boxes. My mail server has been hit by many of these scans. Yeesh.

  • Another interesting little tidbit: Microsoft ran into a similar spam-related problem three years ago when it tried to block unwanted e-mails by filtering out incoming messages from Outlock 98 that contained certain phrases or grammar, such as a string of exclamation points or the words "for free." As a result, many people found that they never received messages from friends who were fond of multiple punctuation marks. Could have told them that wasn't going to work .. almost wish I could have gotten paid for a consulting report on that one. ;-) I have friends who when they get pissed off enough tend to string together lots of exclamation points, and other friends who would probably hit on keywords pretty frequently. Then again, we know from the ongoing censorware saga that filtering by content is worse than useless ..

    This does explain a lot, though, about why a certain listserver a guy up in Dallas administers had to migrate its whole list to eGroups because Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL were almost always IP blocking, or rejecting messages over a certain recipient per hour quota, or any number of other forms of useless bullshit. Before he gave up in disgust, he was getting complaints about 2-3x/day about posts either not getting to list members or not appearing on the list at all, and guess which providers *all* these members were from? Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL. Sigh ..

    OK, so now we *know* they're deliberately dropping stuff in the bit bucket because they don't like where it's going. What's next, filtering to /dev/null because of content they don't like?

  • I had a couple of Hotmail accounts. One was a normal length username (can't even remember what it was), and the other was 14 characters long, with underscores and the word "spam" in it. I never gave either out, and only sent three emails total, none of which would have circulated. Guess what? I never got a single piece of spam in the 14 character one, but there were 20 or so pieces a day in the normal length one.

    My conclusion is that

    1) spamers use incrementation to find usernames, and stop at a certain point
    and/or
    2) spamers don't send send mail to addresses with "spam" in them.

    Pretty obvious from the evidence, but I thought I'd share.

  • That's ridiculous. A monopoly on a product is totally different from originating an idea. Nobody's saying the Wachowskis aren't allowed to make an action movie. However, they owe a big debt to the Hong Kong action movie genre, and they should acknowledge it. And using Hong Kong movie actors is one way (Michelle Yeoh's Malaysian actually, but she's been in plenty of Hong Kong movies).
  • *4* for "Informative"? Well, you got 2 the last time you posted this [slashdot.org], but this time it should have been -1 for "redundant."

    -Legion

  • Thats funny.

    I got a Hotmail account a few months ago to receive a specific mailing list that I didn't want to invade my regular email. I didn't end up signing up for the ML and subsequently never used the hotmail account.

    Never sent to it, from it or even log into the account more than once to check it was working. After reading the article I thought I'd check it just to see what was there. Here's the subject list in the inbox:

    • Welcome New Hotmail User!
    • DO YOU LIKE HOT SEX?
    • ACNE CURE* & PENNY STOCK PICK!
    • DO YOU LIKE HOT SEX?
    • DO YOU LIKE HOT WOMEN?
    • ALERT - $50 FREE GROCERY COUPONS!
    • ARE YOU HORNY?
    • INC 500 Co. Seeks Mgrs. / High $$ Paid!
    • Holiday Specials for Hotmail Members
    • GET VIAGRA ONLINE NOW AT ROCK BOTTOM PRICES
    • DO YOU LIKE SEX?
    • STOP SMOKING IN 7 DAYS GUARANTEED
    • HORNY TONIGHT?
    • What's New from Hotmail and MSN in the New Ye...
    Now you tell me if hotmail "protects" it users from spam! I think not!
  • Spam is scummy, but cutting off blocks of the internet from email as championed by MAPS/ORBS/etc will accomplish nothing but restrict OUR rights to communicate and get the government involved in the Internet even further.

    Taking away our rights to speak and be heard in order to 'protect' us from spam is a complete violation of the first amendment.

    While the acts of spammers violate AUP's of internet providers and cost us money; the acts of anti-spammers and organizations who use their service violate our rights and are the real criminals.

  • I have had the problem.

    I created an account that had numbers and letters and an underscore. I never gave it out to anyone and I never used it for email. I did use it to sign up for MSN though to see if i could communicate with it and my jabber im.

    I started recieving a couple spams everyday from within a week of creating it.

  • Re:Matrix Sequels Rumors (Score:3)

    by Johnathon Walls ( 27265 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @08:29PM (#497528)
    From the Coming Attractions page ...

    Carrie-Anne Moss has suffered a sprained knee while training for the Matrix sequels.
    ...
    Keanu Reeves has sustained a serious injury to his left foot while training for the Matrix sequels.
    ...
    Our first alert came from a reader of yesterday's London Sun newspaper who read a story and saw a picture showing Reeves with his foot in plaster
    ...
    CA was told Reeves did complain about some "tenderness" that he felt around his ankle region, and at the time his ankle was wrapped and later examined by a doctor
    ...
    We were hoping to have some final answers today, but now we just more questions. Stay tuned for more as we uncover it.


    The website you referred to does mention Carrie Moss' injury (Jan 9th). It was a London reader that gave them their first tip, confirmed by a website reading a Swedish newspaper. Welcome to the power of the Internet. There are also 3 other photos of him with the cast at Coming Attractions. The publicist only denied that it was broken, and specifically mentioned that Keanu complained of tenderness, and that it was wrapped. It's entirely likely that, as the publicist said, it's not a serious injury, but that it was wrapped in that walking cast to prevent further injury.

    Lastly, the article quoted above is Canadian, and it is sourcing the New York Daily News.

    The simplest explanation seems to be that Carrie Moss did suffer an injury, as reported, and that Keanu injured his foot but it wasn't as serious as originally stated.
  • We fund softhome with advertisements, which includes email.

    We do however try very hard to prevent spam from reaching softhome accounts.

    I'd love to hear alternative ways to fund a free email service.
  • From Qode's Terms of Use [qode.com]: "The Company may change the Rules and the scope of the Services in whole or in part, at any time without notice. Such changes will be posted on the Company's Site and such posting will constitute notice to you."

    So, in theory, they could later change their mind and decide to give your email (that you optionally submitted as a part of your account in case you forget your password) and you account info to companies later on and not even tell you. I hate it when companies say things like the above.
  • I'm sorry that you think it is a misrepresentation of the story. I'll admit it's very hard to accurately report what the combined news "scoops" on that site report, as there are at least 5 that deal with Keanu's injury, and most of them conflict. The best representation would be that Coming Attractions is confused about it.

    However, the quote I mentioned about Keanu having "tenderness" and "had his foot wrapped" is from the publicist. The difference between having a cast and having it wrapped is subtle.

    I agree it's odd that the publicist says that the photos are bogus. However, there are 3 photos that distinctly show his cast (or his wrap). While Photoshop kiddies are really good at what they do, I think it would be very hard to accurately alter 3 photos at 3 different angles. Here I'm counting only the photos I've seen, not the sixteen photos reported by Splash news [64.154.193.171] (search for Keanu), all at various angles.

    Lastly, why would the publicist lie? Well, Jet Li has pulled out. Michelle Yeoh has pulled out. Carrie Moss is injured. The SAG strike might delay the production. With all that surrounding the movie already, why wouldn't he lie, especially if it's something that was only wrapped (wearing the walking cast) for a few days, and didn't really slow him down? I don't think that either Keanu or his publicist want people watching The Matrix 2 and 3 trying to find the scenes where he's wearing a cast.

    The other possibility is that the photos aren't faked (that would be a major effort), but dated wrong. I'll admit I find it odd that Keanu has a beard while shooting The Matrix - I wouldn't have pegged Neo as a facial hair kind of guy.

    There's no "spin" involved here - it's all subjective interpretation as there are too fe (or too many) facts to go on. Your own interpretation of it is "spin" in it's own way - you dismiss it completely as a rumor, when there is no proof to that either.
  • Yuen Wo Ping is notorious for damaging his actors. Let's add up the damage he's done in the last year or so (and these are just the headliners).

    Carrie Ann Moss: Knee Injury

    Keanu Reeves: Broken Ankle

    Michelle Yeoh: Broken Leg

    Is anyone seeing a pattern here?

    You also have two of the most prominent Chinese film stars pulling out of the same movie: Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh (who pulled out of The Matrix sequels after her injury on Crouching Tiger.

    Add in Jet Li walking off the set of Crouching Tiger (not to mention the terrible back injury Jet Li sustained on Once Upon a Time in China II) and a things really get interesting.

    Sure I know this style of film making is dangerous, but Yuen Wo Ping is notorious for pushing too hard, working his actors past the point of dangerous fatigue, and getting big stars hurt with permanent and debilitating injuries.

  • Re:Value of actors in The Matrix sequels (Score:3)

    by schussat ( 33312 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @09:33PM (#497534) Journal
    Yeah, I got a kick out of that, too. I mean, come on, 11 months of his life has just -got- to be worth more than three million bucks. I'd balk too, if somebody made me an insulting offer like that.

    -schussat

  • when all that crap about "protecting hotmail users from unsolicited email" came in, i thought it was a great idea. months later, im just sick of not knowing if my mail has even arrived.
  • Nobody saw it the last time I posted it because it was number 250 or something. I thought it was a something that more people should see.
  • Keanu Reeves has sustained a serious injury to his left foot while training for the Matrix sequels.

    Good job at completely stripping all context! From Coming Attracitons:

    We've just spoken to a representative Keanu Reeves' publicity agency who debunked the
    Sun and Aftonbladet news reports, as well as the photographs that appeared with them.

    Again, we were told at no time did Keanu ever have a cast on his foot, nor was his diagnosed with a broken or injured ankle. As for the photos that popped up earlier this week in European papers, Reeves publicist says the photos showing him hobbling are "bogus."

    I missed the Carrie-Anne blurb, since it was really rather small. At the same time, I think it isn't anything major. But, mind you, I didn't say Carrie wasn't injured, I only said it wasn't mentioned (I was wrong, though). I was talking specifically about the submitter saying Keanu had a broken ankle.

    My original conclusion stands, the publicist flatly denied that Keanu was ever injured and ever wore a cast or support on the leg (a wrap does not equal a support) and went on to say that those photos are fake. Still, a good job at completely misrepresenting and spinning the content on Coming Attractions. You ought to get into politics or law (and what's the difference).

  • I created a Hotmail account, just for shits and giggles, which was:

    isufdsuhyfiwuh@hotmail.com

    (Please note, three nonsequential characters were changed in what's above so my test doesn't get all shot to hell. The length of the address is the same.)

    In the last 30 days, I have sent no mail from the account, not listed/used it ANYWHERE, and thus obviously haven't received any email... other than THREE spams.

    If Hotmail isn't selling account data to spammers, I have absolutely no clue how I got those spams.

    --
  • What, don't you like plots?
  • I'm sorry that you think it is a misrepresentation of the story.

    I would characterize citing the initial sentence that was later thoroughly debunked by an official source as evidence that Keanu is injured as a misrepresentation of the story. It's true that Coming Attractions is confused, but I was relying more on their reporting of what the publicist had to say in addition to the fact that the story and pictures don't match up (I didn't think about the beard, but that's a great point) and some amateur psychoanalysis. I don't see that the movie is in trouble. Jet Li out, Michelle Yeoh opted out, Carrie has a sprained knee, and the SAG strike might hit in the middle of the production. But why would Keanu's publicist lie about an injury in the face of all of those things? If Carrie's injured (and she apparently is) and Keanu's not seriously hurt (and, if the pictures are real, he's got some constitution to walk on a seriously injured ankle) then why lie? It's not as if Keanu's non-serious injury will hold up the production more than Carrie's non-serious injury.

    ...you dismiss it completely as a rumor, when there is no proof to that either.

    I believe that the publicist flatly denying that Keanu's injured, pictures of dubious value, the lack of any press release, etc., makes it reasonable to label them as rumor. I wasn't dismissing it as rumor, only saying that I don't believe it and I don't think there's any reason to believe it (and, in fact, a lot of reason to seriously doubt it). Anyway, sorry if you took my reply personally, that wasn't my intent.

  • I have not had this problem (Score:3)

    by localroger ( 258128 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @03:19PM (#497541) Homepage
    I have 2 Hotmail accounts, and I have never received a spam to either of them that was not from a website I visited. I suspect your problem has to do either with your personal friends or your slighlty obfuscated version of it here.

  • Hmm. They could hurt their [ankle|knee] falling out of their trailer after a beer too many in the evening. The quality of the stunts can not be determined by the nature of injuries received during training.

    If anything, the stunts are more likely to be dull, because a-list movie stars don't want to lose 6 weeks of earnings recovering from an injury.

    ~Cederic wants to see the sequels anyway
  • All those injuries... that's why they should have cast Jackie Chan. I think we all know that he would take all the punishment and keep on filming! He's not afraid of pain!
  • Yeah.. this is true..

    I've never had the problem on yahoo.. and i never EVER received any spam at yahoo.I can track down all the mails i receive at my yahoo account to someplace that i've subscribed to or the other.

    And Unsolicited e-mail on yahoo.. No way..

    --
    No sig here...

  • I dig Crosswinds [crosswinds.net] the most. These seem to be similar services.
  • I believe this is part of the media disinformation about "freedom of speech." It annoys me.

    "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

    Where does the US Constitution guarentee everyone to say whatever they want? It guarntees that the government will not prevent the free excercise of speech, but corporations can do as they please.

  • Gotta agree. I've had a couple of accounts for a long time, and I've never gotten spam on either one.

    -Vercingetorix
  • Or just use Yahoo. Their webmail also has POP3 access. You have to sign up to receive spam, but if you don't tick any interests you don't get any spam.

    Or you could buy an account at Spamcop [spamcop.com] -- the best anti-spam spot on the planet.

  • Sigh (Score:2)

    by dubl-u ( 51156 )
    Taking away our rights to speak and be heard in order to 'protect' us from spam is a complete violation of the first amendment.

    Only the government is bound by the first amendment, as you'd know if you had bothered to actually read it. If the feds were mandating use of the RBL, it might possibly be illegal. But luckily the only people using it are private owners of mail servers. Don't like it? Don't use it on your mail server.

    [...] cutting off blocks of the internet from email as championed by MAPS/ORBS/etc will accomplish nothing [...]

    Actually, it accomplishes quite a lot as far as keeping spammers off the net.
  • Damn, you are some WICKED type of moron (regardless of how you feel towards homosexuality, this guy is way past anything even palatible).
  • They suck. I used to use hot mail and they lost my mail during several upgrades. Their reply was sorry. That was after M$ took over. Yahoo does upgrades and does not loos my mail, why should they. They also seem to know that much about mail anyway.

    Give upi your hotmail account and get a better account at mail.yahoo.com. And NO I'd don't work for yahoo, and this has nothing to do with hating M$. Yahoo mail is just better!

    I don't want a lot, I just want it all!
    Flame away, I have a hose!

  • Right. Is it really only me who finds the idea of the "New Economy" and the "New Old Economy" solving all the woes of the economy for the raven's evermore not only Monty Pythian (New Old New Old New Old Old New Economy) but patently ridiculous?

    Why is using the computers and internet magically going to prevent the next recession? Certainly, the fact that there is another industrial revolution going, or at least a new bussiness tool developing, with the potential for high returns, may have helped. But if it wasn't this, it would have been something else. And at the end of the day, we will be left with the same old economic problems/question: how do we prevent the bust after the boom? (aka crash, crisis of oversupply, inflationary crisis (well, sortof), etc.) Economicists had seen these issues before the advent of hydroelectric power. They're a little more fundamental than the medium of my market...

    The computers, their development and installation certainly fuel the boom, but how are they going to stop the crash -- there have been technologies of equivalent economic impact in the past.

    The one argument I can see being interesting is that computers bring new liquidity to the information market. This approach has promise, and I'd be interested to see it (well) argued; but it runs against my observations. I've seen no argument or evidence so far that it should be a stabilizing influence. If anything, it seems to make the market more volatile, if slightly more responsive to its causative pressures. But if these pressures themselves remain unchanged, why should the market be any safer?

  • ...it would actually be a good sign if they had broken a body part in the process. That would show they'd been pushing themselves to the limit, ...

    I would personally take it as a sign that either there were some really freak accidents going on or the actors were out-of-shape coming into the training program (not that they need to enter training in superb shape, but they know the schedule, some working-out, etc., as preparation wouldn't kill them).

    Having said all this, ...

    Weaving was very good. Yuen and the designers and CGI guys were fantastic -- they made this movie work, IMHO. Hopefully, Yuen will stick around. Ray Park also wants in on the sequels and the TPM fight sequence made that movie, too. Seems like good stuff even without Yeoh and Jet Li.

  • Most of the spam I get originates from hotmail.com

    No it doesn't. hotmail.com is a popular forged domain for use in the From: header field.

    so anything Microsoft do to help prevent it is a Good Thing.

    The Hotmail interface is not exactly amenable to automated mass-mailing. This is all about blocking incoming spam to Hotmail users.

  • No it doesn't. hotmail.com is a popular forged domain for use in the From: header field.
    Hmmm, I suppose it's a reasonable explanation. I block it anyway.

  • Usual high class media reporting (Score:5)

    by Cederic ( 9623 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @03:27PM (#497557) Journal

    "If Microsoft, one of the largest technology companies, can say who we send e-mail to, that really puts constraints on freedom of speech in the U.S.," said Johnson, an information technology worker at a major Illinois hospital.

    ..or perhaps it's just a limitation on the free service that Microsoft have made available. And if you want free speech then you should buy a wooden crate to stand on (or switch to another email service provider).

    It depresses me that

    People this stupid exist

    News services repeat such bone-headed opinions without labelling them as such

    ~Cederic

  • Quantum Economy (Score:4)

    by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @03:32PM (#497558)
    This is tangential, but maybe you'll find it interesting that the Feb Scientific American claims that 30% of the US GNP is based on products that make use of the principles of quantum mechanics.[1]

    The high tech economy is here to stay; just don't confuse "high tech economy" with ill-conceived e-commerce scams^w schemes.

    (I'm sure e-commerce is here to stay too, but most of what exists now is based on hype rather than utility, and will be eroded away before the real e-economy settles in. Not to imply that you didn't already know that.)

    [1] Of course, all products use quantum mechanics at some level. The claim was refering to direct uses, such as lasers, transistors, superconduction, etc.

    --

  • Matrix Sequels Rumors (Score:3)

    by RoninM ( 105723 ) on Thursday January 18, 2001 @03:35PM (#497559) Journal
    These rumors about the trouble with the Matrix sequels are, just that, rumors. Keanu Reeve's publicist flatly denied that the actor has broken his ankle and that we was ever wearing a cast or support for the ankle. See the Matrix 2 page on Coming Attractions [corona.bc.ca] (http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/) for a more in-depth look at the state of the rumor. There's nothing about Carrie Moss's injury. My tendency is to chalk these up as 'net rumors. How would a Swedish newspaper scoop the entire world on Keanu Reeves breaking an ankle? Why does he have a cast but not crutches if he has a broken ankle? Why would a publicist deny his client is injured when the client is already has a starring role in a project that cannot reasonably be made without him? The simplest explanation seems to me to be that none of it's true, Keanu doesn't have a broken ankle and the pictures are either mis-dated or fake.
  • First they rip of the concept, then they won't pay the originators of the idea what they are worth.

    And this on Slashdot the home of anti business pratice patents etc...If it was MS doing something like this we could go nuts cause they are a monopoly...but this should be fair game for anyone else....I think that they shouldn't shaft the people who made the first film a success though

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