OT: Re: Don't put the cart (light) before the (horse) concrete.

[Doug Yanega]

Now for something very much off-topic, but ripped from today's internet
headlines. Ken wrote:

>The power plants will be built regardless. As of one year ago, it was
>estimated that 13% of the US power output was being used to manufacture
>and operate computers and the information technology infrastructure. It's
>more than that now, and increasing rapidly. And turning off your computer
>won't help--it's the _servers_ that eat up the power, and there are over
>6 million of them today, linked to some 200 million PC-class units.

Ah, but this ignores the fact that e-mail, the main use of the internet
presently, will quite possibly die an untimely death within the next 10
years as bulk e-mail really takes off. When people log on only to find
their account contains 10,000 new advertisements concealed as private
messages (and thus bypass any filters except for a "whitelist") every
single day, people will mostly stop using e-mail. This may sound like
nonsense, but some of the biggest telecommunications outfits are laying the
groundwork for this even as we speak. Call it a hobby, but I keep track of
these things, and right now there's a movement brewing to cut AT&T and all
its customers off from the rest of the internet because of the following
leak which came out yesterday:
--------------
This fax (http://spamhaus.org/rokso/nevadahosting.jpg)
proves that AT&T knowingly does business with spammers, and
shows that AT&T makes 'pink' contracts with known spammers to not
terminate the spammers services knowing full well that the only way it
can provide this service is to either ignore or bin spam complaints on
such "bulk hosted" web sites. Here is an extract from the pink
contract which says this:

   "NevadaHosting wishes to operate Bulk Hosted Web Sites. Bulk
    Hosting is defined as hosting a web site that is Spammed from
    other gateways. NevadaHosting only hosts the web site that is
    advertized in the Spam.

    AT&T Agrees that it will not terminate the provision of services
    to NevadaHosting because of NevadaHosting's operation of Bulk
    Hosted Web Sites"
------------------
In other words, someone got their hands on a document which indicates that
AT&T has agreed to allow clients to set up and run bulk e-mail services
without any fear of being shut down. It may seem harmless, but most of you
don't realize how intense the war is (and has been) over keeping the
internet as free of bulk e-mail as possible. Mercifully, the majority of
ISPs have acted responsibly over the years, and those that didn't found
themselves sealed off, and quickly either went out of business or changed
their ways - but that tide has been changing as the potential profits of
"e-commerce" have driven more and more people to figure out ways to work
around this community policing. Hitting the delete button has always been a
vote for the spammers, because only complaints create anti-spam pressure,
and that pressure has been shrinking, as well. When a major company like
AT&T goes over to the proverbial dark side, then it starts to look like the
spammers may win, because it might not be *possible* to isolate AT&T from
the rest of the Net (and put appropriate pressure on them - a strategy that
has worked wonders in the past, with small ISPs that couldn't afford the
consequences of isolation). Just imagine what your e-mail inbox will look
like when every single internet-linked business in the world sends you ads
every single day. They've been trying to do it for years, claiming that
profits take precedence over privacy, but people have been stopping them
(with a few exceptions), and that will probably soon change.
Yeah, I know it's not our usual topic, and I am *NOT* trying to start a
public dialogue about it, but it's fresh on my mind, and Ken's post
reminded me about it. Besides, too many people take their ability to use
e-mail for granted, now you all have a little bit more insight into how
fragile it is.

Peace,


Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
           http://entmuseum9.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82



 
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